This Week in Auto Racing April 30 - May 2

This Week in Auto Racing April 30 - May 2

Richmond, VA (Sports Network) - It's a busy weekend of racing, with the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series running under the lights at Richmond International Raceway. The Camping World Truck Series will join the IZOD IndyCar Series at Kansas Speedway.

Sprint Cup Series

Crown Royal/Heath Calhoun 400 - Richmond International Raceway - Richmond, VA

After a wild and record-setting race at Talladega last Sunday, Sprint Cup Series teams switch gears and return to grassroots style of racing Saturday night at Richmond.

Don't expect another 88 lead changes among 29 drivers this weekend -- like we witnessed at Talladega -- but do anticipate Richmond to be another exciting affair, with plenty of beating and banging going on during the scheduled 400- lap race.

Richmond, 0.75 miles in distance, is one of three short tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule. Bristol and Martinsville are the other two. Richmond also is one of the most popular racetracks among the drivers and the fans.

"Richmond honestly is one of the best racetracks we go to from the perspective of what's the quality of the race," former Richmond winner and Virginia native Jeff Burton said. "The track is small enough to have good, close racing, and it's big enough to have racing that's not just a wreck-fest. I think it's the best mixture of size we go to all year long."

Kyle Busch won last year's spring race at Richmond on the same day he celebrated his 24th birthday. Just after a late-race restart, Busch made a daring four-wide pass on the outside to take the second spot from Carl Edwards and then moved around Jeff Gordon to grab the lead for good with 49 laps remaining. He became the second driver to win a Cup race on his birthday. Cale Yarborough won the spring event at Atlanta the same day he turned 43 years old on March 27, 1983.

Busch also won the Nationwide Series race at Richmond for a weekend sweep there.

"For me, the success that I've had there, I'm not sure why, but it's just been a good place for me to run," Busch said. "I'm excited about getting back there, and hopefully we can get another top-five run or try to go after another win."

Despite a fifth-place finish last September at Richmond -- the cutoff race for the championship chase -- Busch missed the playoffs by just eight points in 2009.

Busch, who turns 25-years-old on Sunday, has not won a Cup race since last August at Bristol.

Kevin Harvick has been another strong performer at Richmond lately, posting nine top-10 finishes in the last 10 races there. He finished 34th at Richmond one year ago, after being involved in late-race wreck.

"It's been a good track for us over the past couple of years," Harvick said. "It's the racetrack that kind of goes with everything that we do from my driving style, to the cars and to everything that goes with it."

Harvick snapped a 115-race winless streak in the series at Talladega. He made a perfectly timed maneuver on Jamie McMurray for the lead just before they approached the finish line. Harvick nipped McMurray by 0.011 seconds for his first win since the 2007 Daytona 500. He also moved to within 26 points of leader Jimmie Johnson, who finished 31st.

Speaking of Johnson, will Richmond be the next chapter in the on-going rivalry between Gordon and he?

Six days after they tangled at Texas, Gordon and Johnson bumped into each other before Gordon was caught up in a five-car pileup in the final laps at Talladega. Gordon, who finished 22nd, made it clear he was rather p.o.'d with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Crown Royal Presents The Heath Calhoun 400.

Heath Calhoun was chosen as the grand-prize winner in a contest held by Richmond race title sponsor Crown Royal. Calhoun, a retired member of the Army and Purple Heart recipient, is a former member of the 101st Airborne unit and a veteran of the Iraq war. He was severely injured when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his Humvee in 2003, resulting in the amputation of both his legs above the knee.

Calhoun also was honored with the George C. Lang Award for Courage.

Nationwide Series

Bubba Burger 250 - Richmond International Raceway - Richmond, VA

The Nationwide Series runs its second short-track race of the season on Friday night at Richmond.

With his win at Talladega, Brad Keselowski reclaimed the lead in the Nationwide point standings. Keselowski, in his first season with Penske Racing, currently holds a 60-point advantage over Kevin Harvick, who finished third.

"We have got our Nationwide Series program right where we want it to be," Keselowski said. "We're having fun, and we got our first win of the season with the new team. I am very proud for everyone on the team, especially [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], and being able to get him his first win."

Keselowski finished fourth in both Richmond races last year.

Kyle Busch, the 2009 series champion, captured the points lead for the first time this season after winning last week at Texas, but Busch fell to third in the rankings (-104) with a 34th-place finish at Talladega. He was involved in a seven-car accident in the closing laps.

Busch is the defending race winner at Richmond. He held off Carl Edwards in two late-race restarts for his third of nine Nationwide wins last year. Busch has recorded three victories so far this season.

Harvick is a four-time race winner at Richmond, which is one short of Mark Martin's record of five victories at the three-quarter-mile track.

Keselowski's Penske teammate, Justin Allgaier, heads to Richmond fourth in points (-153). Allgaier's maiden win in the series came in the first short- track race of the season at Bristol. He finished 38th at Richmond one year ago, but followed up with an eighth-place run when the series returned there in September.

"I feel that racing at Richmond is as good as it gets," Allgaier said. "It's a fun track. I wish there were more like it on the circuit, but I think that if someone tried to create a similar track, they'd have a hard time perfecting it the way that it's been done there. It truly is a unique racetrack and a lot of fun to drive."

Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Bubba Burger 250.

Camping World Truck Series

O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 - Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS

After taking a month off from the track, the Camping World Truck Series returns this weekend at Kansas. This race is the first of three in May and five over a seven-week period, stretching into mid-June. Kansas also will be the first truck event this season that no Sprint Cup regulars will be a part of the action. The Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series are running at Richmond this weekend.

Cup stars Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have combined for three wins in the first four races this season. Truck Series regular Timothy Peters won the season-opener at Daytona in February.

Ken Schrader is Harvick's replacement in the No.2 Chevrolet, while Brian Ickler will drive Busch's No.18 Toyota for the second time this season. Ickler drove the truck to an impressive third-place finish last month at Martinsville.

Peters is the current points leader, as he holds an 82-point advantage over Aric Almirola, also a series regular.

Last year, Mike Skinner became the ninth different winner in as many truck races at Kansas. Skinner also gave team owner and NFL All-Pro wide receiver Randy Moss his first victory in NASCAR competition.

"Last year's race meant so much for the entire Randy Moss Motorsports organization," said Skinner, who joined Moss' team in 2009. "For me, it was exciting to win with a new group of guys and to be in a position where we were capable of winning races after being at another organization for such a long time."

Skinner currently is 13th in points.

Ron Hornaday Jr., the defending series champion, and Todd Bodine are the only other drivers entered in this weekend's race that have won at Kansas. Hornaday won there two years ago.

"Kansas Speedway is a pretty new track for the Truck Series," said Hornaday, who is the only driver to win a truck race at Kansas from the pole. "Turn three at Kansas can be slippery if the sun is out and the track temperature is hot. One of the main things you have to do if you want a good run here is to get through turn three without any trouble."

Bodine's victory at Kansas came in 2005.

"We're ready to race after this long break," Bodine said. "We're going to Kansas Speedway this year with a little bit different setup, and we'll see how that works for the Germain.com Tundra."

Kansas' Sunday date is a rarity in the series. The last truck race on a Sunday occurred in May 2005 at Mansfield, OH, where Bobby Hamilton picked up the victory.

Forty teams are on the preliminary entry list for the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250.

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES

Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 - Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS

The IZOD IndyCar Series will run its first oval race of the year this weekend at Kansas. The season began with four consecutive road/street course events. Kansas begins a four-race stretch on ovals, with Indianapolis, Texas and Iowa forthcoming.

When the series last raced on April 18 at Long Beach, CA., Ryan Hunter-Reay picked up his second career victory. Hunter-Reay, who currently is running a limited schedule with Andretti Autosport, led 64 of 85 laps for his first win since July 2008 on the Watkins Glen, NY road course. He also gave team owner Michael Andretti his first win since Tony Kanaan captured the victory in June 2008 at Richmond -- 29 races ago.

Hunter-Reay, who sits third in the championship standings, hopes his momentum will carry over to the Kansas race, which preludes the May 30 Indianapolis 500.

"Kansas is a warm up to Indy," Hunter-Reay said. "It's not like Indy in any way, but at the same time, it is an oval race. You have to get your package sorted, get yourself comfortable back on a big superspeedway like that, back in packs.

Will Power, winner of the first two races this season, holds a 42-point lead over second-place and Penske teammate Helio Castroneves. Hunter-Reay is just a single point behind Castroneves.

Power ran a limited schedule for Penske before his practice crash at Sonoma, CA last August sidelined him for the remainder of the season. He competed in just two oval races last year, with a fifth-place finish at Indianapolis and a ninth-place run at Kentucky.

I'm looking forward to Kansas," Power said. "I'm sure we'll have a pretty good car, and I'm well aware I will be racing guys who have more experience that me in that race. I'll be disappointed if I'm not running at the front, and I expect to be. We'll see when we get there."

He finished 27th in his only start at Kansas in 2008.

Scott Dixon is the defending race winner. Dixon edged Castroneves by less than one second for his first win of the 2009 season. He entered the race 17th in points after disappointing finishes in the season's first two events -- St. Petersburg, FL and Long Beach. His win propelled him to fourth in points at the time.

"All-in-all for me, it was a pretty smooth race," Dixon said. "We had a great car. We jumped straight to second, then about ten laps later, we got Graham [Rahal] when he slid up the track a bit in [turns] three and four. We got out front and started saving fuel. The Target car was really good all day."

Dixon's win was the third in a row for a Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver at Kansas. Dan Wheldon won there from 2007-08 when he drove the Ganassi car now occupied by defending series champion Dario Franchitti.

Kansas will be the first of two races for John Andretti, who will drive a car fielded by his cousin, Michael Andretti, and seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty. Andretti is scheduled to compete in the Indy 500 as well.

Twenty-seven teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300.