This past week the NASCAR silly season still had a full head of steam. The major announcement this week was from Richard Childress Racing. RCR announced that Jeff Burton would not return as the driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet. Burton cited the fact that, “…. There was a lot of funding that wasn’t in place.” Later that same day, the team announced that Caterpillar would return for the 2014 season, though the number of races for the sponsor was not announced.
Since the first season of NASCAR’s Chase format, the last race of the “regular season” has been and at the three-quarter mile short track at Richmond International Raceway. Richmond has provided several fantastic finishes that made some drivers’ seasons a success and left others licking their wounds as they came to the realization that they were not eligible for a series championship.
The first 58 laps of the NASCAR Camping World Truck race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park were fairly tame with a few spins and Coulter putting his truck in the fence being the biggest highlights.
Dale Jarrett this week suggested that the All-Star Race be moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Bristol. Stating that these drivers have all grown up on short tracks, I’m assuming he isn’t taking into account Danica Patrick or Juan Puablo Montoya, who both have not ever thought about driving short track or dirt track cars.
The Busch brothers have both been very successful at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kurt was always a threat during the early 2000’s. In recent years, Kyle has taken the reigns and been very dominate. In fact, with his dominating win Friday night in the Food City 250, Kyle became the winningest driver at Bristol in the three national series combined.
Kyle Busch is one step closer to sweeping the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. After having to come from behind and almost a lap down on Wednesday night in the Camping World Truck Series race, Busch dominated the Food City 250 on Friday night leading 228 lap of the 250 lap race.
Denny Hamlin, who has had a very troublesome season, finally had something to smile about. On Friday, he drove his No. 11 Fed-Ex Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the top spot in qualifying for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Hamlin turned a lap of 128.969 mph to secure the top spot. The pole was Hamlin’s fourth of the season, and 16th of his career.
