This Week in Auto Racing July 9 - 12

This Week in Auto Racing July 9 - 12

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - It's a busy weekend of racing as the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series head to Chicago, while the IndyCar Series takes to the streets of Toronto and Formula One returns to action in Germany.

Sprint Cup Series

LifeLock.com 400 - Chicagoland Speedway - Joliet, IL

Now that the fireworks have been cleared at Daytona, it's time for the Sprint Cup Series to kick off their second half of the season this weekend with the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland.

Tony Stewart widened his points lead to 180 after recording his second points victory of the season last Saturday at Daytona. Stewart survived a last-lap tangle with Kyle Busch to win the 400-mile event in a thrilling finish.

"This is the best start we've ever had to a season in the Cup Series," Stewart said. "I just know that I'm happy with the performance up to this point, and we just hope that what we've done up to this point, we can have that last ten- week stretch and have a shot at winning the championship."

Stewart has been atop the standings since Dover in May. He became the first driver/owner to win multiple races in a season since Ricky Rudd in 1997. His first points victory of the season came last month at Pocono.

In the past, Stewart has sizzled in the summertime. "Smoke" won five races during a seven-race span in the summer months of 2005. He went on to capture his second Cup championship that year. Stewart also won three events from July to August in 2007.

Stewart and Kevin Harvick are the only drivers with multiple victories at Chicagoland, with Stewart winning there in 2004 and '07 and Harvick taking the first two races at the one-and-a-half mile track from 2001-02.

With eight races remaining before the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship begins in September, Mark Martin sits outside of the top-12. Martin dropped from 11th to 13th in points after finishing 38th at Daytona. He was involved in an early race accident.

Martin has also finished 14th at New Hampshire and 35th at Sonoma, CA since his victory last month at Michigan.

"Some days we get more than we deserve and some days we don't get what we deserve," Martin said. "We just go out here and do our thing and hope it turns out well."

Martin, a three-time race winner so far this year, is currently 65 points behind 12th-place Kasey Kahne.

The Chase battle remains tight with 143 points separating seventh-place Ryan Newman from 14th-place David Reutimann.

Busch, who remained eighth in points after finishing 14th at Daytona, is looking to defend his title at Chicagoland. Busch passed Jimmie Johnson with less than two laps to go and drove on to his seventh victory of the 2008 season.

Greg Biffle is currently ninth in points. Last year at Chicagoland, Biffle led 43 laps in the early stages but dropped back in the field with an ill-handling car. He rebounded for a fourth-place finish.

"I love racing at mile-and-a-half tracks, and I really like Saturday night races," Biffle said. "We had a good car there last year, but we just had a little trouble on pit road because we were missing one of our regular guys."

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the LifeLock.com 400.

Nationwide Series

Dollar General 300 - Chicagoland Speedway - Joliet, IL

Kyle Busch continues to be red hot in the Nationwide Series after his second- place finish in last Friday's race at Daytona. Busch has finished first or second in the last five Nationwide events. His lead is now 172 points over Carl Edwards.

Busch won last year's Nationwide race at Chicagoland. He led 101 of the final 105 laps and easily held off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin for his fifth victory of the season. Brad Keselowski finished third.

After a sluggish start this season, Keselowski has been on a roll with 12 top-10 finishes in the last 13 races. His sixth-place run at Daytona snapped a string of five straight top-five finishes. He is currently third in points (-268).

"We've been able to put together solid finishes during this summer stretch, and I'm hopeful we can continue it this weekend at Chicago," Keselowski said.

Keselowski, who drives the No.88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, made his first start for team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2007 at Chicagoland. He finished 14th.

"Chicagoland is a pretty special track for me, because it's where I got my first shot driving for JR Motorsports two years ago," he said. "It's definitely been an eventful two years for me and to think it all got started on a three-race deal here at this track is kind of crazy. We were able to put together some consistent races, and it turned into a full schedule for 2008."

Chicagoland has produced several first-time race winners. Jimmie Johnson won the inaugural race there in 2001 for his only Nationwide victory so far. Casey Mears picked up his first victory in the series at Chicagoland in 2006.

Johnny Sauter (2002) and Justin Labonte (2004) also won for the first time there. Sauter is now a competitor in the Camping World Truck Series, while Labonte, the son of two-time Cup champion Terry Labonte, is running in the Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series in North Carolina.

Kevin Harvick is the only driver to win multiple times at Chicagoland, while Ryan Newman is the only one with multiple poles there. Both drivers are competing in this year's race.

Fifty-two teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Dollar General 300.

INDYCAR SERIES

Honda Indy Toronto - Streets of Toronto - Toronto, Canada

The IndyCar Series heads to Canada for this weekend's inaugural running of the Honda Indy Toronto on the streets of Toronto.

Earlier this week, the series ran the first of three consecutive street/road course events at Watkins Glen, NY. Edmonton follows Toronto on July 26.

Justin Wilson put on a dominating performance and easily held off Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon in the closing laps to win at Watkins Glen. Wilson recorded his second career IndyCar victory and gave Dale Coyne Racing its first win in open-wheel competition.

Wilson became the first non-Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske driver to win an IndyCar race since his victory at Detroit last August when he drove for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

Coyne, competing in his 25th year of open-wheel racing as a driver and owner, picked up his first win in his 558th start.

Wilson is looking to continue his street/road course success at Toronto.

"We're slowly picking things up, and we know where the next improvement is going to come from," Wilson said. "(At Toronto), you can be very close and still a long way off. So it's the fine details that make a difference. That first run you hit the track at Toronto you'll know whether you're really close or you have a few changes to make."

With his third-place finish, Dixon grabbed the lead in the championship standings. The Ganassi driver and defending series champion now holds a 19- point advantage over Briscoe and teammate Dario Franchitti, who finished 15th after falling one lap behind due to an early-race spin in the gravel.

Dixon also became a father on Sunday when his wife, Emma, gave birth to the couple's first child, a girl. He returned to Indianapolis in time for the delivery. No name has been released as of yet.

Toronto will hold a major open-wheel event for the first time since 2007 when CART/Champ Car ran there. The former open-wheel circuit made Toronto a regular stop on its schedule from 1986 to 2007. Bobby Rahal won the inaugural event. Michael Andretti owned the streets of Toronto, winning a record seven times there.

FORMULA ONE

German Grand Prix - Nurburgring - Nurburg, Germany

After a two-week break, Formula One resumes its season with the German Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel returns to his home country after a dominating performance in the June 21 British Grand Prix. Vettel started on the pole and relinquished the lead only when he pitted for the final time. He finished a whopping 15 seconds ahead of teammate Mark Webber to give Red Bull Racing a one-two finish and overpower the mighty Brawn GP for the second time this season.

The young German recorded his third career F1 victory but his first in dry conditions. His maiden win came in the rain-soaked Italian Grand Prix last September, as he set a new F1 record for youngest race winner -- at age 21. In April, he overcame rainy conditions to win the Chinese Grand Prix and give Red Bull its first victory.

Vettel, who celebrated his 22nd birthday last Friday, will run his first ever F1 event at the 3.2-mile, 16-turn Nurburgring.

"I'm looking forward to it, it's my home race," Vettel said. "I hope to continue and try to repeat what we did (in the British Grand Prix), which won't be easy but for sure, that's what we're aiming for."

The German GP will also be the "home" race for Timo Glock, Nick Heidfeld, Nico Rosberg and Adrian Sutil.

Vettel's victory in the British GP helped keep his F1 title hopes very much alive. Current championship leader Jenson Button from Brawn has accumulated 64 points so far this season, compared to 41 points for his teammate Rubens Barrichello and 39 for Vettel.

Button, winner of six of the first eight grand prix this year, finished a season-worst sixth in the British GP. He fell several positions behind on the opening lap and was never a factor from there.

"With the extra week's break, everyone at the factory and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines has been working extremely hard in preparation for the German Grand Prix to get the best package for the race, and we're looking forward to showing what the car can do at the Nurburgring after a disappointing weekend by our standards at the British Grand Prix," Button said.

The Nurburgring, known as "The Ring," will host the German GP for the first time since 1985. The event was held at the 2.842-mile, 13-turn Hockenheimring from 1986 to 2006, and again in 2008. Two years ago, organizers moved the German round of the F1 World Championship to the Nurburgring and renamed the event the European Grand Prix due to a disagreement over naming rights.

Defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton won last year's German GP at the Hockenheimring. The McLaren driver ran at the Nurburgring for the first time in F1 during his 2007 rookie season.

"The Nurburgring is a fantastic circuit, a little older than a lot of the current tracks we currently visit and with quite a different feel to what we're used to - it's fast and flowing with some good spots for overtaking," Hamilton said.

Hamilton's season woes continued with a 16th-place finish in the British GP. He has scored only nine points so far this year.