The best part of the day was watching Brad Keselowski hold off a charging Kyle Busch, who’s been more annoying than usual lately.   Busch’s JGR crew brought Busch in for two tires late in the race, but Tony Eury Sr. was calling the shots for Keselowski who kept the youngster out on the track.  Eury’s gamble paid off, and Brad drove hard in the end to hold of Busch.

Here are some highlights:

More NASCAR history was made in Nashville where Ron Hornaday posted his fifth straight victory.  The Harvick-owned truck squad is on fire, and are in a class of their own.  The win gave Ron his first Nasville Speedway guitar.    And no, he didn’t pull a Kyle Busch and slam the gorgeous Gibson guitar on the asphalt.  Nope.  Mr. Hornaday has something Kyle Busch doesn’t.  It’s called “class”.

And Logano did drive away from second-place Kyle Bush, posting his fastest laps of the day as the race came to a close on old tires.  It was an incredible driving performance and a testament to the driving talents of this kid, and the incredible car that the Joe Gibbs Racing team put together.

Logano was driving the same car that he won with at Kansas, a car that seems to have some “special sauce” in it for the 1-1/2″ cookie-cutter ovals.

Logano will try for the double tomorrow in the Cup race but will have his work cut out for him as he starts 24th, deep in the field.

Kyle Busch was less than ecstatic in self again in post race interviews, in fact, he looked as if someone had taken away his birthday. This guy doesn’t like to finish second, and seems to especially hate losing to “Sliced Bread”. Busch told ESPN, “I guess it’s a good *points* day for us” in an overly-sarcastic tone. I love Busch’s drive to win, but sometimes he needs to suck it up and show a bit of class when he loses. We get it, Kyle. You hate to lose.

Kansas City Star: Tire gamble pays off for Logano

Here’s the video:

FloridaToday.com:  Rain spoils Daytona qualifying

Tony very well could win this race from the pole, but due to the double-file restart rule that is now in effect, I think that just about *anyone* in the field could win this restrictor plate race.  Dale Earnhardt is due for a win, and a win for him would be a storybook comeback tonight.  But look out for Matt Kenseth, the fastest Ford (the only fast Ford) and the winner at Daytona earlier this year.

Clint Bowyer has the hot hand after winning the Nationwide race last night, but might not have the Cup car he needs

Top Picks:  Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., Mark Martin
Mark Martin might just snooker the whole field.  The veteran has been strong all year, and this race track owes him one.

Dark Horse Pick:  Juan Pablo Montoya
If JPM can get enough help, he could win this race.  He’s running inside the top 12 in the Chase standings, and is having a pretty goodyear.  Could this be a break-out win for JPM?

Long Shot Pick:  Brad Keselowski
Brad’s crazy win at ‘Dega was a huge boost to Brad’s career, and shows he’s a force to be reckoned with, especially at restrictor plate races.  He didn’t post good times on practice, but I still think I’ll keep an eye on this kid.

The Coke Zero 400 airs later tonite at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.

Everything went Logano’s way in an odd sort of way.  Logano had some early problems that put him out of sequence, a turn of events that may have assisted in his win.  Logano actually was the cause of the nine of eleven total caution periods in the race when he had a tire failure.  Ed Hinton of ESPN.com points out that Logano was the fortunate recipient of the Lucky Dog not once, but twice.    But the tire failure actually put the Home Depot team on an alternate strategy that played out perfectly under the conditions.

RACE NOTES

Jeff Gordon falls short
Gordon ran up front all day, and probably would have won the race had the rain held off for another five or six laps. Lady Luck didn’t shine down on Jeff today.

Tony Stewart’s strong run
The Stewart-Haas team really has the #14 car hooked up, and Tony was the fastest car on the track for a lot of the race. He ended up snake bitten by his former crew chief, but still a good day for Tony.

Dale Jr.’s strong run doesn’t show in the results
Dale Jr. didn’t look to have car to win, but he could have easily finished in the top 5 if the weather hadn’t broken up the party. Dale and the team have to figure out how to do better on restarts.

Was the big wreck Kyle’s Bush’s fault?
Kyle Bush made another friend in Martin Truex Jr. today when contact between the two created a huge accident that took out multiple cars. The question is, “Was it Kyle’s fault?” Truex sure thought so. From my seat, it looked like a pretty dumb move on Kyle’s part to stick his nose in a hole between two cars just before the entrance of turn 1.

LINKS

ESPN: Logano scores unlikely win at Loudon

SI:  Rain gives teenager Joey Logano first Cup win

Kahne held off Tony Stewart to win a veritable crashfest on the natural terrain roadcourse.   A couple of drivers that were especially “crashy” on Sunday were Robby Gordon and Kyle Busch.  I lost track of exactly how many incidents these two were involved in, but it was more than a couple.

The win for Kahne is his first under the Petty Enterprises banner, and it was nice to see the King celebrating in Victory Lane again. 

USA Today has more:  Kahne, Petty brew up winning Sprint Cup combination

The media has called the finish “exciting”.

I’m not sure how exciting the racing was.  Michigan’s 400 miler is always a race to save fuel & Martin showed that he’s the Yoda of fuel saving.

Martin said, “I always come up short in these fuel-mileage races,” said Martin, whose victory was his third of the year. “But I saw the pace they wanted to run at the start and I began saving gas from the third lap.”

So from lap 3 to 200, Martin was saving fuel?   Can you feel the excitement?

The Detroit Free Press has more on the fuel saving festivities.

Freep.com: Mark Martin wins at MIS after leaders run out of gas

Here’s the AP Story at ESPN.com:

GM to pare support of NASCAR teams
Associated Press

BROOKLYN, Mich. — General Motors is planning to cut back on its support of NASCAR teams in all of the sanctioning body’s professional series.

Chevrolet spokesman Terry Rhadigan says GM, which is reorganizing through bankruptcy, is discussing what he described as incremental cutbacks in support. He says cuts will be made soon and that the discussions are “indeed NASCAR-wide.”

Read the rest of the AP article

Tom Jensen of Speed TV wrote today:

Every year since 2002, Roush-Fenway Racing has won at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the 2-mile MIS oval, with drivers Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards each posting two wins here during that period.

MIS is Roush’s home track and a place where his team is awfully tough to beat. In last year’s LifeLock 400, Roush placed four cars in the top 10, although the team lost a fuel-mileage race to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who hasn’t won since. In the August 2008 MIS event, Edwards won the race as Roush took a whopping four of the top five positions.

Read the rest of the article here.

With Kyle Bush, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Jimmy Johnson rounding out the top five, there were few suprises in the first few rows.   Junior starts deep in the field from the 27th spot.

It is exciting to In this 600 miler, the starting spot is not really of much importance.  Be sure to drink a lot of Coca-Cola to stay awake for all 400 laps (unless you are a Jeff Gordon or Junior fan and prefer to imbibe in a Pepsi or Amp energy drink).  But seriously, I want to see a show of hands: Who can watch all of this race without falling asleep at least once?  After drinking a sixer of Corona and eating way too much BBQ on Sunday afternoon, only the strongest survive.

————

Here’s a full report from GM Racing:

CHEVY PRESS NOTES - CHARLOTTE QUALIFYING
Concord, NC - Ryan Newman behind the wheel of his No. 39 U.S. Army Impala SS will lead the field to the green flag for the 50th running of the Coca Cola 600 Sunday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS).

The 28.651-second/188.475 m.p.h. lap landed Newman the 44th pole of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career and his eighth pole at LMS.

Five Team Chevy drivers captured four of the top-five and five of the top-10 starting spots for the season’s longest race. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, will roll off third in the 43-car field for the 400-lap/600-mile race.

Mark Martin, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Impala SS, will start fourth with Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS, starting fifth.

Juan Pablo Montoya, No., 42 Target Impala SS, scored the ninth starting spot.

RYAN NEWMAN, U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS — Pole Winner:

“It was a lot of fun tonight to drive the U.S. Army Chevrolet
for Stewart-Haas Racing. Thanks to Tony and Gene for the opportunity. Just a good lap. I really wasn’t totally satisfied with the lap. But obviously you don’t have to be when you have a fast race car. The guys did a good job. Just happy to be in the position and look forward to the rest of the weekend.

“If we could sweep the weekend, that would be really awesome. We’ll just keep our chin up and keep doing what we are doing. It is a situation where you can’t be satisfied with your performance, you have to keep working on it. And we’ll do that.

“We had a good car in the All-Star race so we have a new car because we crashed that one. It is a very competitive race car, we proved that tonight.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS, QUALIFIED 5TH:

“We like to win everything we can including practice and qualifying. Maybe a little disappointed that we really didn’t put up a big number but still a very respectable lap, a lap that I am proud of. Oddly enough, this qualifying session we’ve learned some things. we had some issues in the All-Star Race that we couldn’t adjust around. It seems as if we have fixed them, so, we aren’t on the pole tonight, but I think there are some good things to come for the race.”

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG’S IMPALA SS, QUALIFIED 4TH:

“This day and age you have to get more than it wants to give and I don’t feel like I go more than car was giving. So, we are driving a fast race car, having a blast and will get ready to go racing on Sunday.”

MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS IMPALA SS QUALIFIED 12TH:

“It was a really good lap for our Bass Pro Chevy. We struggled a bit in practice and we couldn’t get a fast time, we struggled with the car so that was a huge pickup for us. Lots and lots of changes. I am optimistic going in to Saturday’s practice, because we really made some changes that made the car feel good. So we are going the right direction. That was a good lap for us from what we had in practice today.”

David Gilliland No. 71 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS — Qualified 29th:

“We were 39th in practice and struggled more with the car than we really have all year so far. We usually unload a little stronger than that off the trailer. It was tough. We changed a bunch of stuff for qualifying and I really didn’t know what to expect. First and foremost we wanted to get in the race and we are comfortably in the field. I am proud of all of the guys. We were not good in practice. No one lost focus. The team dug down and made the changes that helped to get us in the race. We have a direction to go now and Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) usually comes back the next day with a fix that makes us faster.

“I was loose in a tight off of the corners in qualifying. Not as bad as I was in practice. We made gains on it. We will take another shot at it in Saturday’s practice and be ready for the race on Sunday.”

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet Impala SS — Qualified 22nd

“That was a pretty solid lap for the Shell-Pennzoil team. That’s the first time in the last two weeks I didn’t chatter the tires in the corners. We didn’t practice well at all, but Gil (Martin) and the guys made a ton of changes after practice and I think we may have hit on something. It’s definitely a step in the right direction. We’ll work on it Saturday and hopefully have something to work with in the (Coke) 600.”

Source: GM Racing Press Release

STARTING GRID
Pos 		 Speed 		 Driver
1		188.475		Ryan Newman
2		188.258		Kyle Busch
3		188.193		Jeff Gordon
4		188.166		Mark Martin
5		187.82		Jimmie Johnson
6		187.493		Kasey Kahne
7		187.422		Mike Bliss
8		187.396		Brian Vickers
9		187.188		Juan Montoya
10		187.169		Bill Elliott
11		187.162		Joe Nemechek
12		186.916		Martin Truex Jr.
13		186.864		Denny Hamlin
14		186.832		Joey Logano*
15		186.825		Elliott Sadler
16		186.735		Greg Biffle
17		186.599		Kurt Busch
18		186.574		Scott Speed*
19		186.548		Carl Edwards
20		186.477		Bobby Labonte
21		186.368		David Reutimann
22		186.233		Kevin Harvick
23		186.22		Marcos Ambrose
24		186.181		Clint Bowyer
25		186.014		Dave Blaney
26		185.97		Sam Hornish Jr.
27		185.829		Dale Earnhardt Jr.
28		185.778		Tony Stewart
29		185.707		David Gilliland
30		185.605		Matt Kenseth
31		185.592		Paul Menard
32		185.433		Max Papis*
33		185.319		Jamie McMurray
34		185.173		David Ragan
35		185.096		David Stremme
36		184.704		Casey Mears
37		184.59		Robby Gordon
38		184.338		A.J. Allmendinger
39		183.949		Michael Waltrip
40		183.281		Jeff Burton
41		 		Tony Raines+
42		 		Reed Sorenson+
43		 		Scott Riggs