NASCAR BLOG

Kasey Kahne is in the form of his life as he notched up yet another win at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway after clinching the All Star Race of NASCAR last week. The victory at Lowe gave Kahne his first points of the NASCAR season and brought to end a 52 race winless drought. Kasey Kahne won the Coco Cola 600 Sprint Cup series at Lowe’s last Sunday that took his career wins to eight and is only the sixth driver in the history of NASCAR to win both the Coco Cola 600 and All Star Race in a season. Kahne was really happy to be in the thick of things again and said that he is hoping to win more races this season.

Kasey Kahne grins happily in his red NASCAR uniform, a fitting picture as he was just crowned winner of the Coca Cola 600. His success was attributed to the fact that Tony Stewart, who was supposed to be in first place, suffered from a flat tyre three laps before the finishing line, giving Kahne the upper hand to have the chequered flag wave before his eyes. Along with obtaining his first victory this season, Kahne also garnered the title of the sixth NASCAR driver to have won both the All Star Race as well as the Coca Cola 600 on the Lowes Motorspeedway.

The President and General Manager of Lowe’s Motor Speedway Humpy Wheeler announced his retirement on Wednesday. He will step down from his 33 year old career after the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday. Wheeler was hired by the CEO of Speedway Motor Sports, Bruton Smith in 1975. Wheeler has employed different methods to attract viewers to his track like, brining magicians, re-enacting war scenes, back flipping dogs to the pre-race shows. Wheeler made the LMS the first speedway to erect lights and NASCAR Sprint All-Star race has made LMS as its permanent track. Wheeler is planning to host a television show and write a book after his retirement.

The $1 million prize money for the winner of the All Star Race went to Kasey Kahne who was technically not entitled to participate in the race. Kahne was able to compete in the Saturday’s night race not due his success on the race track, but by winning a popularity fan vote that permitted one driver to participate in the racing event and thereby became the first driver in the history of the race to win a race through fan vote. The 100 lap race was entirely dominated by the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle. A gamble in the final pit stop by Kahne put the other drivers racing before him behind.

Kyle Busch raced against all odds to win his third Sprint Cup series victory last Saturday night and said that the newly laid track at Darlington was a tough track to handle. Busch said that he lost count on the number of times he ramped into the side walls of the track and appreciated the efforts of the team for building his car as strong as it was the other night. The hatred that the NASCAR driver Busch had garnered during the last race at Richmond did not deter his determination of wining the Darlington race in spite of the crowd booing him for the entire length of the race.  

The newly re-laid race track at the Darlington Raceway has got the appreciation of the drivers as the track speed has increased more than 10 mph and it is the fastest ever race track at Darlington. Earnhardt Jr was the third fastest during the practice session with Kyle Busch clocking the fastest speed of 175 mph which is by far the fastest by any driver in Darlington. Busch and Earnhardt were of the opinion that the track has got pretty fast and grips well. Most of the NASCAR drivers are hopeful that the track holds well in race conditions.

Clint Bowyer made a surprise victory lap at the Richmond International Raceway as he stole the victory that was destined to be either for Denny Hamlin or Dale Earnhardt Jr. The wild ending by the three drivers helped Bowyer claim the trip down Victory lane and his boss Richard Childress was over the moon with this victory. Hamlin was on the leader board for 381 off the 400 lap race, but a front tire leak in his car meant that Earnhardt and Busch to race him.

There was a strong race battle between Busch and Earnhardt, but a collision between the two cars stripped Earnhardt from winning the race.  Bowyer, who saw an opening from behind, took advantage of the collision and suddenly from nowhere found himself leading the race. Thus Bowyer claimed his first Cup victory of the season and has two victories so far in his NASCAR racing career.

Fans of Denny Hamlin will be relieved to find out that NASCAR officials will not punish him further when he intentionally brought out a late caution when he raced at the Richmond International Raceway. Earlier at the race on Saturday, he has to race two additional laps as penalty when he halted on the track with a cut tire. During that time, he has less than ten laps remaining before the race ended. NASCAR translated that move as a way to allow Hamlin’s team mate Kyle Busch the upper hand to overtake Dale Earnhardt Jr.

In related news, Michael Waltrip will also not be punished for purposefully wrecking Casey Mears’ car.

Juan Pablo Montoya had an impressive run at the Talladega Speedway as he came in the second position at the Aaron’s 499 race last Sunday and showed the NASCAR world that he can race fairly well here also. Montoya has been racing at the NASCAR for the past 2 years and it is now that he is getting on the grips of this fairly racy racing sport. Montoya said that he loved restrictor plate racing and this is the first time that he has finished in a higher position at Talladega.

Montoya said that he absolutely enjoyed racing here and said that the track needs lots of concentration and dedication from the driver’s point of view as one has to clearly plan his strategy to pick up the right lane for racing. Montoya felt that his bumping on Busch’s car actually helped Kyle to win the race and felt this race as pretty interesting and exciting.