This Week in Auto Racing April 2 - 4

This Week in Auto Racing April 2 - 4
By Chris Symeon

While the Sprint Cup Series takes its traditional Easter weekend off, the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series head to "Music City USA" for racing at Nashville Superspeedway. Formula One also runs this weekend with the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Nationwide Series

Nashville 300 - Nashville Superspeedway - Lebanon, TN

The Nationwide Series will run its first "stand alone" race of the season on Saturday at Nashville. As part of its 10th anniversary of NASCAR national series racing, Nashville will host a Nationwide-Camping World Truck Series doubleheader for the first time.

Nashville also will be the first of four "Dash 4 Cash" races on the 2010 Nationwide schedule. Nationwide Insurance once again will sponsor the bonus program, with eligible drivers having an opportunity to collect an extra $25,000 if they win. Drivers who qualify include: full-time and part- time/limited schedule series-only regulars, as well as double-duty drivers who competed in every series event. If no one claims the bonus, then it rolls over to the next "Dash 4 Cash" race. Kentucky (June 12), Iowa (July 31) and Texas (November 6) are the other three tracks on the program.

Last year, the bonus rolled over to Iowa, with Brad Keselowski claiming an additional $75,000 for winning the 250-lap event there. Keselowski is eligible for the bonus this season since he is running a full-time Nationwide schedule in addition to his Sprint Cup Series duties.

Keselowski won his first Nationwide race in June 2008 at Nashville, driving for JR Motorsports.

"I feel extremely good about going to Nashville," said Keselowski, who will make his fifth Nationwide start for Penske Racing. "Victory Lane is just right around the corner, and Nashville would be a great place to do it. It's one of my favorite tracks, and I've been fortunate to run well there."

Keselowski is one of six Sprint Cup regulars spending his off-weekend at Nashville. Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Paul Menard also will compete in the 300-mile race.

Logano is the defending race winner. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver overcame alternator problems late in the race and then passed teammate Busch with 10 laps remaining for his second victory in the series.

When the series raced at Nashville last June, Busch didn't allow the victory to get away from him again. Busch led 173 of 225 laps, but had to hold off a late-race charge from Keselowski for his first win at the 1.333-mile track.

During his victory lane celebration, Busch smashed his Sam Bass-signature Gibson guitar prize into bits.

Carl Edwards currently holds a 26-point lead over Keselowski. Edwards earned the nickname "Concrete Carl" after winning six times on concrete-surfaced tracks (Nashville and Dover). He won three in a row at Nashville from 2006-07.

"Nashville is a beautiful place and one of my favorite places to race...I've got four of those guitars," Edwards said. "It's a great points battle right now among Brad, Justin [Allgaier] and myself and hopefully that continues. We're going there to win."

After winning his first Nationwide race two weeks ago at Bristol, Allgaier moved to within 31 points of Edwards. Allgaier, the 2009 rookie of the year in the series, held off Keselowski in the final laps for his first win in his 43rd start.

Allgaier has two starts at Nashville, with his best finish of 13th there last June.

"I've always found that when you go into the 'stand alone' races where there aren't as many Cup guys, the competition is really intense," Allgaier said.

Forty-seven teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Nashville 300.

Camping World Truck Series

Nashville 200 - Nashville Superspeedway - Lebanon, TN

For the first time this year, the Camping World Truck Series will run at Nashville twice in the same season. The series has run there in the summer each year since the track opened in 2001. However, Nashville picked up a second date when its owner, Dover Motorsports, announced last October the closure of its Memphis track.

With the Nationwide Series also running at Nashville this weekend, five drivers -- Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick Brad Keselowski, Steve Wallace and James Buescher -- will attempt double duty.

Harvick will try to win his fifth consecutive truck race that he has entered. He finished the 2009 season with victories at Phoenix and Homestead, and then won at Atlanta and Martinsville within the last month. Harvick did not compete in the February 12 season-opener at Daytona.

This will be the first time Harvick competes in a truck race at Nashville.

"I think running both races is going to help me, and we'll be able to take things back and forth between each vehicle," Harvick said. "I expect this weekend to be a lot of fun."

If Harvick wins Friday's 200-mile race, he will duplicate a feat achieved by his Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate Ron Hornaday Jr., who claimed his record fifth straight truck victory last August at Nashville. Hornaday went on to win his fourth series championship in '09.

"Nashville is a fun racetrack, and I love it," Hornaday said. "I would say we tire tested there, but when we went to the tire test, it snowed there. I ran 60 laps. I can actually say I raced in the snow now, because we got 30 laps on the old tires and 30 laps on the tires we want to run there. We are looking forward to it."

Matt Crafton and Rick Crawford are the only drivers who have competed in each of the nine truck races at Nashville. Both drivers have yet to win there.

After the first three races this season, Timothy Peters holds a 59-point lead over Aric Almirola. Peters started on the pole and finished fourth in last year's race at Nashville.

Thirty-eight teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Nashville 200.

FORMULA ONE

Malaysian Grand Prix - Sepang International Circuit - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Jenson Button gave his Formula One title defense campaign a huge boost last Sunday when he won the Australian Grand Prix. Button, in just his second start with McLaren, capitalized on an early-race tire strategy and then benefited from pole sitter Sebastian Vettel's mechanical problems midway through the event to win at Melbourne for the second year in a row.

"It was a tremendous achievement to score our first win of the season in Melbourne last week, and it's given every single member of the team even greater enthusiasm for this weekend," Button said.

Button will attempt to win his second consecutive Malaysian Grand Prix on the tricky 3.44-mile, 15-turn Sepang International Circuit, located near Kuala Lumpur.

"I think we travel to Sepang mindful that the characteristics of the circuit probably won't suit our car as well as it will suit some of the others, but I'm confident that we'll be fighting at or near the front," Button added.

Last year's Malaysian GP was shortened from its scheduled 56 laps to 32 due to torrential rain conditions. Race stewards red-flagged the event when lightning struck around the circuit and visibility deteriorated. Half of the regularly distributed points were awarded since less than 75 percent of the race was completed.

McLaren and Ferrari indeed are back on track with their programs, with Button winning in Melbourne and Fernando Alonso taking the season-opener in Bahrain in his debut with Ferrari.

After the first two rounds this season, Ferrari is atop the F1 constructors' point standings, as the Italian team holds a 70-54 lead over McLaren.

One surprise so far this season is the sluggish start for Red Bull Racing, which finished second to Brawn GP in last year's constructors' points. Vettel placed his Red Bull car on the pole in Bahrain and Australia, but reliability issues plagued the young German at the two circuits.

Vettel led two-thirds of the way in Bahrain, but lost power and gave up the top position to eventual winner Alonso. He managed to finish fourth. 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.

"We're working hard to get on top of the reliability issues, and we hope to have a solid race and see the checkered flag in Malaysia," Vettel said.

Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber, finished ninth in front of his home crowd in Australia. Webber and Lewis Hamilton from McLaren made contact twice.

In Bahrain, Webber's car had a plume of smoke come from his exhaust on the opening lap, but it was not a factor from there, as he finished eighth.