This Week in Auto Racing April 16 - 18

This Week in Auto Racing April 16 - 18

Fort Worth, TX (Sports Network) - NASCAR heads to the "Lone Star State" this weekend as the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series run at the high-speed Texas Motor Speedway. Meanwhile, the IZOD IndyCar Series heads west to Long Beach, CA, and Formula One is revving up the engines in Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Sprint Cup Series

Samsung Mobile 500 - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, TX

Sprint Cup Series teams will get a much better perspective of the new spoiler on the current cars under race conditions this weekend at the very fast 1.5- mile Texas Motor Speedway.

The spoiler has been used at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway and the one- mile Phoenix International Raceway, but the aerodynamics of the cars did not play a significant role at those respective tracks. Aero will be a key factor at Texas, where speeds can reach close to 200 m.p.h. Texas is very similar to Atlanta and Charlotte, which also produce fast speeds.

Before replacing the rear wing with the spoiler, NASCAR conducted spoiler tests for teams at Texas and Charlotte. Teams also tested it at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway, where the series runs next week.

"The real true test is going to be at these 1.5-mile tracks; Texas being the first one," said Jeff Gordon, who won last year's spring race at Texas. "I don't think it's going to change who's going to be fast and who's going to run good and how you're day is going to go.

"I think if we're well-prepared and we've got the car dialed in, then it'll be a typical challenging Texas for us that hopefully we can pull off a win. I feel as confident about it whether we have the spoiler or the wing."

Kevin Harvick thinks the spoiler will make things interesting at Texas, based on last Friday's practice sessions at Phoenix.

"[Texas] is the only place that is going to be really fast to get the true effect of how it's going to react around other cars, but I think everybody learned that they will spin out," Harvick said. "It's hard to spin them out with the wing, so we had a lot of spin outs [in practice]."

In addition to the spoiler, Sprint Cup cars at Texas will feature for the first time a rear deck fin that measures 3.5 inches tall. The fin can be the full length of the deck lid (25 inches), but must be a minimum of 17 inches starting at the front of the lid.

One year ago, Gordon ended a career-long 47-race winless streak with his victory at Texas. Gordon also scratched Texas off his list where he had yet to win a Cup race. Homestead is the only one of the 22 active tracks on the schedule where he has not scored a victory.

Gordon, whose most recent victory came at Texas, had opportunities to win the last two races.

At Phoenix, Ryan Newman passed Gordon for the lead with less than two laps remaining and then held it for the victory. Newman snapped his winless drought at 77 races.

Earlier this month at Martinsville, Gordon held the lead for a two-lap overtime finish, but Gordon and Matt Kenseth tangled on the second to last lap, allowing Denny Hamlin to grab the win in his home state.

Gordon's next victory will place him in a tie with Cale Yarborough for fifth on the series' all-time race winners list.

Newman's win at Phoenix was his first with Stewart-Haas Racing. His last victory had come in the 2008 Daytona 500 when he drove for Penske Racing.

"It was a long time coming for me personally, 77 races, but to see Tony [Stewart] win so many races last year and be so close but not get that victory, this is really awesome for us and our team," Newman said.

Newman won at Texas in 2003, the same year he led the series with eight victories and 11 poles.

Carl Edwards has the most victories at Texas with three. Jeff Burton is the only other driver with multiple wins there (two).

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Samsung Mobile 500.

Nationwide Series

O'Reilly 300 - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, TX

Reigning Nationwide Series champion Kyle Busch will attempt to add another NASCAR record to his resume on Saturday by becoming the first driver to win five consecutive races at Texas Motor Speedway. Last November, Busch joined Brendan Gaughan as the only drivers to win four NASCAR races in a row at Texas. Gaughan picked up four straight Truck Series victories there from 2002-03.

The last time NASCAR competed at Texas, Busch had the opportunity to win all three national touring series races on the same weekend. He won both the Camping World Truck and Nationwide events, but finished 11th in the Sprint Cup race, despite leading 232 of 334 laps.

"I had some wild races there early on in my career, and it wasn't one of my favorite places, for whatever reason," Busch said. "Obviously, the Nationwide Series wins the last couple of years and getting the win in the Truck Series last year have been real confidence boosters there. I have sort of learned how to drive it a little bit better, and I know what I need in my racecar to make it easier."

If Busch wins at Texas, he will share the Nationwide record with Dale Earnhardt and Jack Ingram for most consecutive victories at one track. Ingram won five straight at South Boston, VA, and Earnhardt recorded five in a row at Daytona.

Busch picked up his second victory this season last Friday at Phoenix.

Kevin Harvick perhaps is Busch's biggest threat at Texas. Harvick is a four- time race winner there as well.

"Texas is a track that I've found success at from the get go," Harvick said. "My first start there in the Nationwide car we had a top-10 finish and since then managed to pick up four wins. I always look forward to going back to Texas and competing for a win."

After finishing third at Phoenix, Brad Keselowski took the points lead for the first time in his Nationwide career. Keselowski holds only a four-point advantage over Carl Edwards. Busch is just 15 markers behind.

Jamie McMurray will replace Kelly Bires in the No.88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, starting with Texas. JRM released Bires from his driving duties with the team on Tuesday. McMurray has committed to at least nine races for JRM.

Forty-eight teams are on the preliminary entry list for the O'Reilly 300.

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach - Streets of Long Beach - Long Beach, CA

The IZOD IndyCar Series will run its fourth consecutive road/street course race of the season this weekend in Long Beach, CA. Team Penske has been perfect in the win column so far this year, with Will Power recording back-to- back victories in Brazil and St. Petersburg, FL, and Helio Castroneves claiming the win in Birmingham, AL.

Can Penske keep the momentum going?

"So far we keep going forward and working together," Castroneves said. "We've got a long way to go this season, but we're headed in the right direction."

Penske has shut out the mighty Target Chip Ganassi Racing teams of Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon so far this season. In 2009, Franchitti, the series champion, and Dixon, the 2008 titleholder, gave Ganassi a total of 10 wins in 17 races.

Penske notch five wins, with drivers Ryan Briscoe, Will Power and Castroneves.

Justin Wilson was the only driver not with Ganassi or Penske to win a race during the '09 season. Wilson gave team owner Dale Coyne his first-ever victory in open-wheel competition.

Franchitti is the defending winner of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He led 51 of 85 laps and benefited from two well-time pit stops to claim his first win since joining Ganassi's IndyCar team a the end of the 2008 season.

After finishing fifth in St. Petersburg and then third in Birmingham, Franchitti is looking forward to his return to Long Beach, where passing occurs more frequently than other road/street courses.

"That's the one thing about the Long Beach course, you can pass here if your car's good enough," Franchitti said. "Sometimes that's maybe not the case on a street course."

Power comes to Long Beach with a 32-point lead over teammate Castroneves, who moved from sixth to second in the standings after his Birmingham win.

Following his acquittal in a federal income tax evasion trial one year ago, Castroneves showed up in time for the second race of the season in Long Beach. Power drove Castroneves' car in the season-opener at St. Petersburg, but Power hopped into a third Penske entry and drove to an impressive second-place finish on the Southern California street circuit.

Power won the 2008 race at Long Beach, which marked the final race in Champ Car history. He put on a dominating performance, leading all but two of 83 laps. IndyCar and Champ Car unified at the start of the '08 season.

Long Beach originally held a Formula 5000 Series race in 1975, moved up to Formula One from 1976-83 and then hosted a CART/Champ Car event from 1984-2008.

FORMULA ONE

Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai International Circuit - Shanghai, China

Last week, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel stormed back into the Formula One world championship battle by winning the third round of the season -- the Malaysian Grand Prix. Vettel moved to within two points of leader Felipe Massa from Ferrari. Fernando Alonso also trails his teammate Massa by two markers.

Vettel surprisingly got off to a sluggish start this season, as reliability problems with the car plagued him at Bahrain and Australia. He led two-thirds of the way in Bahrain, but wound up with a fourth-place finish due to a loss of power. Vettel was not as fortunate in Australia, where he suffered faulty brakes and drove off into the gravel before retiring with a 17th-place finish.

One year ago, Vettel emerged as a championship contender when he won the Chinese Grand Prix. The young German overcame torrential rain conditions and put on a dominating performance in Shanghai to give Red Bull its first-ever F1 victory. Vettel went on to win three more grand prix and finished runner-up to champion Jenson Button in last year's points.

"Last year is last year, and this year is this year," Vettel said. "I think we are always looking ahead, but you can live in history or you can live in the future. I think the best thing is to live in the now and live the moment, so we have to focus on what is happening now."

Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber, crossed the line second to give Red Bull a 1-2 finish in last year's Chinese GP. Webber also finished second to Vettel in Malaysia.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton won in China during his 2008 championship season. The Chinese GP at that time was the penultimate round on the calendar.

"I'm really looking forward to an uninterrupted weekend in China, so we can focus on racing and competing with the other leading teams in the championship," Hamilton said. "I really enjoy driving here. I drove one of my best races here in 2008, winning from pole position."

Hamilton is currently sixth in points (-8).

The Shanghai International Circuit was designed as the race circuit for the new millennium. The modern track, with its stunning architecture, has been planned as China's gateway to the world of F1 competition. Not only is the course remarkable for its change of acceleration and deceleration in different winding turns, but also for its high-speed straights making high demands on the driver as well as the car.