photo credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

Hornaday lead twice for a race high 129 of 200 laps.

“It’s just a great day,” Hornaday said. “Hopefully, it keeps everybody a little bit quiet. The guys were getting a little anxious. We know we’ve got a winning team. We just had to prove it to them.”

It’s a series leading fourth win at the .686 mile short track and the first for Hornaday since August 1st at Nashville Superspeedway where his streak of five consecutive race wins ended.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-aa_fl0bFM

“We couldn’t do it without (crew chief) Ernie Cope and all these guys on this Chevrolet (team),” Hornaday said. “They worked their guts out, changing the truck after last weekend. It’s just a great day. Hopefully it keeps a little bit quiet. It took Ernie to come over here and settle everybody down. The guys were getting a little anxious. We know we’ve got a winning team. We just had to prove it to them.”

This is Hornaday’s 46th career truck victory in 262 races.

Kyle Busch rode in the top-5 throughout the night, but failed to lead a lap. He crossed the finish line 2.095 seconds after Hornaday.

“We knew earlier in practice today that we didn’t have enough for the #33 (Hornaday), but man, when you’re that close and you’re fighting that hard for it you wish you could be there and banging a couple doors with him, but we just couldn’t get there in the finals laps,” Busch said. “We just didn’t have enough grip in the truck. I burned the right-front and the right-rear off it trying to keep up with him, so we just didn’t have anything left.”

Timothy Peters was the only other driver besides Hornaday to lead any laps during Friday night’s race. After starting from the pole, Peters lead the first sixty-two laps and jumped back in front before the conclusion for another nine.

“We started off really good and then when the night came, we just got too tight,” Peters said. “Everybody did a great job on our Toyota Tundra. It’s still a great night. We sat on the pole and came home with a top-10 finish. That’s what we needed to do. We’ll just go on to Pocono.” Peters finished 10th.

Matt Crafton came home third followed by Johnny Sauter, James Buescher, Austin Dillon, Todd Bodine, Brad Sweet, David Starr and Timothy Peters completing the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 3 lead changes among 2 drivers: T. Peters 1-62; R. Hornaday Jr. 63-143; T. Peters 144-152; R. Hornaday Jr. 153-200

Todd Bodine continues to lead in the standings by 177 points over 2nd place driver, Aric Almirola.

There’s no other way to put it. Champions do well on the historic 101-year old race track.

photo credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

A former, reigning or future champion has gone on to win fourteen races in NASCAR’s sixteen year history there. The winner of this race has gone on to win the championship during the same year eight times thus far.

Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner. He is the winner of the past two Brickyard races and three of the last four races there.

“I think any kid that races thinks of the Indianapolis 500 as an event they want to compete in, especially from the generation that I was in,” Johnson has been quoted as saying. “It may be a little different in today’s world where people think more of the Daytona 500. But in my generation it was the Indy 500. To have my career path lead me toward stock car racing I knew that I wouldn’t have a chance to race in the Indy 500. But with stock cars racing at the Brickyard it’s the next best thing.”

Between Johnson and Tony Stewart, they have the past five races at the Brickyard.

“It’s my home race, obviously,” Stewart said. “Growing up in Indiana and every year watching the Indy 500 and the whole month of May leading up to it, a race at the Brickyard is more than just a regular points race. It’s always been a big race to all of the Cup drivers, but then when you grow up in Indiana, it just makes it that much more important.”

Regardless of whether the race this Sunday is at the legendary Brickyard, it’s back to thinking of the points-picture after an off-week. This Sunday’s race marks the fourth one in “The Race to the Chase”, the 10-race stretch before “The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup” championship begins.

“What do we have to do to win more races before the Chase starts,” points leader Kevin Harvick explained as his team’s mindset. Harvick leads the standings by 103 points over 2nd place driver, Jeff Gordon. Harvick has a win at Indy under his belt coming in 2003. Actually, Harvick along with Ricky Rudd, the 1997 Brickyard winner, are the only two winners who’ve won a race at the Brickyard and have yet to win a championship.

“When I think about Indy, I think about a lot of tradition,” Harvick said. “Indy is one of those places where everybody wants to win.  Next to Daytona, it is kind of the second place where you check it off as one you want to win.  We’ve been fortunate to win there, and we know what that feels like.  I grew up as a fan of Indy cars, and I really wanted to race open wheel cars, so to be able to win there and just to compete there, is pretty cool.”

Jeff Gordon leads all drivers with four wins at the Brickyard. It places him second on the all-time win list at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears. Formula One driver Michael Schumacher is tops on the list with five wins.

“The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 — guys like Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser — all those guys were heroes of mine that I aspired to be,” Gordon said. “Living in Indiana, racing around Indiana, Indianapolis Raceway Park, the fairgrounds, Bloomington, all over the place, it was every short-track, open-wheel, Sprint Cup driver’s dream to race at Indianapolis one day. To be able to do that in the very first ever NASCAR stock-car race there in 1994, win it, then go on to win it three more times is something that I probably put up as the highest accomplishments of my career.”

Chip Ganassi could make history on Sunday as the only car owner to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 all in the same year. His drivers, Jamie McMurray and Dario Franchitti, won the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, respectively.

“So many times you have drivers who are good at a particular type of track,” Ganassi said. “Fortunately, our guys are good at the tracks that have the big races. Believe me, that’s a big help, and it’s no small thing.”

Jamie McMurray has posted one top-five and three top-10 finishes at the track in his seven starts there, but it’s Juan Pablo Montoya that came close to winning last year after leading 116 of 160 laps. Montoya was penalized for speeding on pit road with thirty-five laps remaining and could only notch an 11th place finish. He’s also a former Indianapolis 500 winner (2000).

TV coverage of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins at Noon on Sunday on ESPN.

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The Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series will also be in action from the Indianapolis area. Both races will take place about 20 minutes down the road and under the lights at the O’ Reilly Raceway Park, or ORP for short.

Ron Hornaday Jr is the defending race winner in the truck series. He leads the series with three wins there. He went on a tear last summer around the time of this win and won five consecutive truck races.

“It was really strange,” Hornaday said. “I knew when we won that race that we had done something incredible but the impact of it did not sink in really with any of the No. 33 team members until later. I think we were all riding the victory high. Then it ended after Nashville, but we went on to win the championship so we were content with that. Looking back on it this season I can’t believe we were ever in that position to begin with. The competition is so tough and it is any driver’s race week-in and week-out. (Mike) Skinner probably should have won that race last year but we pulled it out somehow. I just continue to be reminded how lucky I am to be with such a competitive team.”

It might be hard to believe Hornaday is on a 22-race losing streak for just the second time in his career.

Todd Bodine leads the standings now by 101 points. It might be hard to believe that he has never won at the famed short track.

“O’Reilly Raceway Park is a flat track that’s real easy to overdrive,” Bodine said. “The goal of practice is to be sure the Germain.com Tundra can turn good through the center of the corners and keep from getting loose off the corners. The goal for the driver in the race is to practice something no race car driver ever wants to practice, patience.”

TV coverage of the AAA Insurance 200 presented by J.D. Byrider at O’ Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis begins at 8 this Friday night on SPEED.

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Kyle Busch is one of six drivers planning to pull double duty at ORP. He has won a series leading seven Nationwide Series wins already this season even though he’s only running a partial schedule in the series. It’s bad news for the rest of the field this Saturday night, but he’ll be there to race.

“Obviously, ORP has been a great place for me,” said Busch. “I started my first ever NASCAR race there back in 2001 when I was just 16. I won there in a Hendrick car when I was a Nationwide Series rookie, when our crew chief made a great call to pit off sequence. In 2008, I think we led all but three laps and won in the Z-Line Designs Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s a fun track and I think we’ll be pretty strong there and I’d obviously like to get my Truck Series win at ORP. We’ve run well there in the past and hopefully we can put the Toyota Tundra in victory lane and get some owner points.”

While Busch is a threat to win, it continues to be the Brad Keselowski vs. Carl Edwards show for the championship. Keselowski continues to lead the standings, while Edwards continues to be his closest competitor. This week, NASCAR penalized the two drivers for rough racing in last Saturday’s race which saw Edwards in victory lane while Keselowski wrecked after leading the most laps. This week, Keselowski leads the standings by 168 points after Edwards was also penalized 60 championship driver points.

“We’ve been strong on the short tracks this season,” Keselowski said. “I think ORP is a great place for us to regain some of the momentum we have lost over the last couple of races. We had a pretty big lead in the points heading into Chicago and we’ve seen that dwindle a bit. When you have two weeks like we’ve had it makes you thankful that you had a big lead. It would be different if we weren’t competitive over the last few weeks, but that’s not the case. Paul Wolfe and all the guys continue to give me fast Discount Tire Dodges. We’re definitely not in a slump, but we need to get back on track.”

By the way, Edwards is the defending race winner.

“To be coming back there Saturday night as the defending race winner means a lot to me,” he said. “Hopefully we can have a good run at what I think is one of the greatest race tracks in the country.”

TV coverage of the Kroger 200 benefiting Riley Hospital for Children at O’ Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis begins Saturday night at 7:30 on ESPN.

photo credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

Despite suffering severe neck pain and nearly 100-degree heat, nothing could slow Harvick down. He led a whopping 143 of 160 laps en route to his third truck win of the season. The margin of victory? 5.241 seconds.

“The longer I ran, I actually felt better,” Harvick said. “As the race went on, I got more and more relaxed.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVabG9DzsJA

Harvick didn’t have much time to enjoy the win before having to jump into his Nationwide car for the race immediately following.

Also pulling double-duty on Saturday, Brad Keselowski finished second.

“The only way we were going to win the race is if he made a mistake, and I felt like he did. He passed the pace car pitting and you’re not supposed to do that,” said Keselowski. “He got away with that one, so we didn’t catch that break.”

Johnny Sauter was third followed by Todd Bodine, Matt Crafton, Timothy Peters, Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Brian Ickler and Mike Skinner completed the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 5 cautions for 27 laps and 4 lead changes among 3 drivers: K. Harvick 1-16; R. Hornaday Jr. 17; K. Harvick 18-74; A. Almirola 75-90; K. Harvick 91-160

photo credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

“We struggled at the beginning of the race just being really tight,” Almirola said. “Dirty air was so bad today.  Clean air was so important and we got to the front and we got in clean air and it just was a different truck.  It drove great.  It was a little bit free where I had fought tight all day, but Richie Wauters (crew chief) and all the guys at Billy Ballew Motorsports – they work their tails off all week long and it shows man.  We had an awesome truck.  I want to thank Graceway Pharmaceuticals.  They stuck behind us and they’ve been a great supporter of ours.  I want to thank the fans. What a crowd today!  I was doing my burnout there and I seen them all cheering and waving and stuff so that’s cool.  That makes you feel good when you come and see a packed house like that.”

Almirola overtook Todd Bodine and Kyle Busch as they made it three wide for the lead with7 laps to go. Almirola just led those final seven laps, but we all know it’s the final lap that counts the most.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD0aIspgBTk

“We had a great Tundra today and our Germain Racing pit crew did a great job,” Todd Bodine said after posting a runner-up finish. “Aric (Almirola) was just good at the end when he needed it. We had a great race truck. Today was Camping World Truck Series racing at its finest. That’s what it’s about and that’s why people love to watch our races and come to the races. It’s hard-nosed, go get ‘em every lap racing and it’s a lot of fun.” Bodine led a race-high 33 of 100 laps.

“It’s challenging. You’re all over the place trying to get back up in there, slicing, dicing and everything,” Kyle Busch said after finishing third. “I just didn’t have enough. Unfortunately they gave me a good truck and the driver didn’t get it done. I was trying to find some way to get around those guys but I couldn’t find it.” Busch led five times for a total of 25 laps.

Ron Hornaday Jr tried to get in the mix at the end, but settled for a 4th place finish.

Austin Dillon won his second consecutive pole earlier in the day. He led three times for 18 laps and was strong throughout the day. Dillon went home 5th.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There 5 cautions for 24 laps and 20 lead changes among 10 drivers. A. Dillon-pole, R. Hornaday Jr 1, M. Crafton 2, K. Busch 3-12, C. McCumbee 13, R. Sieg 14-18, K. Busch 19-20, A. Dillon 21-35, S. Compton 36-38, H. Sadler 39, A. Dillon 40-41, K. Busch 42-46, T. Bodine 47-55, K. Busch 56-62, T. Bodine 63-75, R. Hornaday Jr 76, A. Dillon 77, S. Compton 78-81, T. Bodine 82-92, K. Busch 93, A. Almirola 94-100

Todd Bodine hangs on to his lead in the standings by 55 points over 2nd place driver, Aric Almirola.

photo credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

“It’s awesome. It’s good to come to Texas every time,” Bodine said. “This truck was driving good and it was fast wide-open. It was fun to drive. It really was.”

Bodine led a race-high 106 of 169-laps. He spent much of the night fighting Ron Hornaday Jr. for the lead.

“I’m not usually that good on restarts, so I knew, especially with Ron outside me, I had to get a good one,” Bodine said. “That last one, I got a good one.” Hornaday, however, slipped back to finish ninth.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhkKT6HpnYA

Todd Bodine knows how to get around at the Texas track. It’s his series-leading 6th victory there. It’s the first win for the season for the series points leader, breaking a 24-race winless streak.

“You go there with a little kick in your step knowing that you’ve got the opportunity to win and that you can do it knowing that you’ve had the success in the past there,” Bodine said. “You can’t be cocky, you can’t be overconfident, because you’ve still got to go do it again, but just the fact we know we’ve been there, we can get around good, we’ve had good trucks, we feel like it’s our house and its ours to go win at.”

Johnny Sauter posted a runner-up finish. “On the last restart I knew with Todd and Ron being side by side, there was a good chance they would get together and wreck,” Sauter said. “I could have made it three wide and pushed it but I figured if they did get together we’d get by both of them without having to fight them for it. Somehow Hornaday got loose going into Turn 3 and we didn’t have to fight for second with him. It stinks to be that close to winning and not getting it done. We’re all pretty competitive and we’re here to win races, but it was a good points night.”

First time polesitter, Austin Dillon, led the first twenty laps and settled in to finish 3rd. It’s his best finish to date.

“What a phenomenal job,” said Dillon. “I started off really good and lost it in the middle, but at the end I raced hard and got us a good finish. I just had a little trouble on the restarts.”

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 6 cautions for 29 laps and 6 lead changes among 4 drivers: A. Dillon # 1-20; A. Almirola 21-31; T. Bodine 32-74; R. Hornaday Jr. 75-77; T. Bodine 78-101; R. Hornaday Jr. 102-130; T. Bodine 131-169

Todd Bodine leads the standings by 65 points over 2nd place driver, Aric Almirola.

photo credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images (Pocono June 7, 2009)

From Texas Motor Speedway to Nashville Superspeedway to Pocono Raceway, three uniquely different tracks are featured on the schedule for NASCAR’s top touring series this weekend.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series:

The Camping World Truck Series gear up for racin’ under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway for this Friday night’s WinStar World Casino 400.

Todd Bodine is the defending race winner. Bodine currently leads the series standings by just 2 points over 2nd place, Aric Almirola.

“We were in the points lead and then we came out of Martinsville with the one finish we’ve had this year outside the top five and that finish, 30th, cost us the points lead,” Bodine said. “This Germain Racing team has been working hard. Like at Dover, we didn’t have a truck to win the race, but we still got a fifth. That’s how you win points championships is to take a truck that can’t win but still finish in the top five. Then at Charlotte we had a good truck and finished second.”

Bodine holds the best record at Texas with five truck wins there.

Austin Dillon won his first Camping World Truck Series pole award Thursday night.

For the WinStar World Casino 400 starting line-up, click here (nascar.com)

TV coverage begins at 8:30 on SPEED.

NASCAR Nationwide Series:

The Nationwide Series will hit the 1.333-mile D-shaped concrete oval of Nashville Superspeedway for this Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 300.

Joey Logano is the defending race winner. He isn’t entered in this Saturday night’s race at Nashville. Actually, that will be the theme for the evening. The 2nd and 3rd place drivers in the point standings, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, aren’t entered to race either. It’s great news for the series regulars as they won’t have to compete with many of the ‘moon-lighting’ Cup drivers, but they’ll still have to contend with series points leader, Brad Keselowski as well as Carl Edwards. The two rivals will be the two drivers to watch for. Keselowski scored his first Nationwide win at Nashville while Edwards won three consecutive races there from 2006-2007. Both run well at concrete tracks. Keselowski has won three times on a concrete surface to Edwards’ five wins. Edwards sits 4th in points, 257 points Keselowski.

For the complete entry list, click here (nascar.com)

For the Federated Auto Parts 300 starting line-up, click here (nascar.com)

TV coverage begins at 8 on ESPN2.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:

The “Tricky Triangle” is on the schedule for the Sprint Cup Series this Sunday. Momentum can mean everything in the sport and there’s no denying the fact Kurt Busch, his younger brother Kyle and Kyle’s teammate, Denny Hamlin have all been a hot streak. They’ve won the past five cup races and 5 of the last 6 points paying races.

Kurt Busch is a two-time winner at Pocono. His last win came for Penske Racing in 2007. Busch has scored 7 top-5 and 9 top-10 finishes in 18 tries. If momentum is king, Busch is coming off of two consecutive wins. Can he go three-in-a-row?

“I like our chances with the way that our team’s clicking,” Busch said. “For us, our game right now, this team’s clicking on all eight cylinders. We have to keep going, finding new things to make our Dodges faster. If I had to say who had the better chance, I love Pocono. Right now we’ve been doing good on tracks that I struggle on. I’m going to say I struggle on all the racetracks coming up so we don’t beat ourselves.”

Kurt Busch is currently 6th in the point standings.

Kyle Busch will reach a milestone after starting Sunday’s race. It’ll mark his 200th career Sprint Cup Series start. Out of the three mentioned drivers, Kyle’s stats at Pocono are the weakest. In his 10 races there, he has scored just 2 top-10 finishes. His best finish, 4th, was in the July 2005 race. He has also only lead 2 laps there.

“Kurt is a lot better at Pocono than I am,” Kyle said about his older brother. “I wish him the best of luck next weekend at being able to win that one. Hopefully we can get a solid run and get a top 10, if we can get one.”

Kyle Busch is currently 2nd in the standings.

We can’t forget about Denny Hamlin. He won the last cup race there in August, but his Pocono stats are impressive. In 8 races, Hamlin has won 3 times with 5 top-5 and 6 top-10 finishes. He has led a combined 391 laps and boasts the best average finish (9.5) of all the drivers in Sunday’s field at Pocono.

“Of course we like going to Pocono but there are no guarantees,” Hamlin said. “We expect to be competitive because we have some history there and I think as a team we are bringing really good cars to the race track every week – but we don’t expect anything these days.”

Denny Hamlin is 5th in the point standings.

Tony Stewart is the defending race winner. He won from the pole in this race last year. The two-time champion isn’t having the season we’ve typically seen from him. Stewart is 16th in the standings after the first-half of the “regular season”. The good news for Stewart is: he is just 27 points outside of the coveted top-12 that will get locked into the Chase for The Sprint Cup. A 27 point deficit can be eliminated with just one great race run.

For the complete entry list, click here (nascar.com)

For the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 starting line-up, click here (nascar.com)

TV coverage of the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 presented by Target starts at Noon this Sunday on TNT.

photo credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

After a late race restart, Busch held off Todd Bodine to give Toyota their first truck series victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway! “The late race cautions add some drama to it, of course,” Busch said. “Makes it frustrating on our part.”

After starting from the pole, Busch went on to lead four times for a race-high 69 laps. “This team did a great job in preparing a great truck to come out here with,” said Busch. “Unfortunately, I tried to screw it up.”

40 laps into the 134 lap race, Busch hit the wall causing some damage to the front splitter. “I made it where I could drive it,” Busch said. “I knocked some tight into it. This team did a great job in preparing this truck to come here, and I tried to screw it up. I guess the driver owes the car owner a little something today.”

On lap 95, Busch passed Todd Bodine to take the lead for the final time and held on until the checkered flag.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_WLbrBH76k

It’s the second win for Busch in 5 truck starts. It’s his 18th series win and third at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch has now scored three consecutive wins across NASCAR’s top three national touring series after also winning last weekend’s Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races at Dover.

“Just couldn’t quite carry the momentum that Kyle could,” Bodine said after his runner-up finish. “In typical Kyle fashion, their truck was real loose and he just drove through it.”

Ron Hornaday finished third followed by James Buescher, Elliott Sadler, Mike Skinner, Aric Almirola, Jason White, David Starr and Timothy Peters rounded out the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

The race was delayed due to rain by about three hours. There were 7 cautions for 35 laps and 8 lead changes among 5 drivers. K. Busch 1-26, H. Sadler 27, E. Sadler 28-31, K. Busch 32-39, E. Sadler 40-66, K. Busch 67-84, T. Bodine 85-89, R. Hornaday Jr 90-117, K. Busch 118-134

Todd Bodine took over the lead in the series standings by 2 points over 2nd place driver, Aric Almirola.

photo credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Almirola came back from two laps down after blowing a tire early on in the race to overtake a dominate Kyle Busch for the win.

“It’s a dream come true,” Almirola said. “Track position is so tough here, you have to have a phenomenal truck to do what we did today. I’m not going to take any credit for that. It’s a lot of fun when you have a really good truck here. … We fought hard today, and it was a good day.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=60GyWl8qdw8

“What a truck! We had a good truck right off the trailer,” Almirola said. “To do it the way we did it, to come back from two laps down, blowing a right-front tire, not managing our truck. I just want to thank the fans. What a race!”

Almirola is credited for winning a Nationwide Series race in Milwaukee in the summer of  ’07. Almirola qualified and started the race for Denny Hamlin, who was late flying in to the track from Cup activities in Sonoma.

“Put it this way, that trophy’s not at my house on a mantle,” Almirola said. “This one will be…tonight!”

Almirola took advantage of Kyle Busch’s woes. After starting from the pole, Busch led a dominating race-high 172 laps. Busch ran out of gas as the race went into overtime and ran four miles over the scheduled 200 laps. Busch was credited with a 16th place finish with “fuel pump” cited as the reason. “Out of gas” is all Busch said as he left the speedway.

James Buescher grabbed a runner-up finish after dueling with Justin Lofton for the position over the final two laps. Ricky Carmichael scored his best finish to date going home 4th. Todd Bodine finished 5th followed by David Starr, Matt Crafton, Mike Skinner, Ryan Sieg and Johnny Benson rounding out the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 10 cautions for 42 laps and 8 lead changes among 6 drivers: K. Busch 1-59; R. Hornaday Jr. 60-61; K. Busch 62-87; T. Malsam 88-98; K. Busch 99-123; J. White 124-128; J. Benson 129-135; K. Busch 136-197; A. Almirola 198-204

Aric Almirola takes over the lead in the standings by 27 points over 2nd place driver, Todd Bodine.