This Week in Auto Racing June 3 - 6

This Week in Auto Racing June 3 - 6

Long Pond, PA (Sports Network) - All three of NASCAR's national touring series are scattered throughout the country this weekend. The Sprint Cup Series will run at Pocono, while the Nationwide Series will compete at Nashville for the second time this year. The Camping World Truck Series joins the IZOD IndyCar Series at Texas.

Sprint Cup Series

Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 - Pocono Raceway - Long Pond, PA

The Sprint Cup Series makes its first of two stops at Pocono within the next two months. Pocono is one of the most unique tracks on the schedule with its 2.5-mile triangular shape.

Denny Hamlin is one driver who has figured out "The Tricky Triangle" lately. Hamlin, currently fifth in points, is a three-time Pocono winner, including the most recent race there in August 2009. He also has recorded six top-10 finishes in eight starts there.

"It's a good track for us," Hamlin said. "We always are looking past Charlotte, because we want to get to Pocono."

Hamlin won both races at Pocono during his 2006 rookie-of-the-year season. He became just the second driver who swept a track in his first year of Cup competition. Jimmie Johnson won both events at Dover during his 2002 rookie season.

With three wins already this season, Hamlin has been considered as Johnson's biggest threat for the Sprint Cup championship. Johnson also has three victories for the year.

Last August at Pocono, Hamlin ended a 50-race winless streak in the series in what was an emotional victory for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Hamlin's win came three days after his grandmother, Thelma Clark, passed away in Tampa, FL at the age of 91.

"We definitely had some angels with us today," Hamlin said that day in Pocono's victory lane, as he broke down in tears.

During the past month, the Busch brothers have been on fire. Kurt and Kyle Busch have combined for four wins in the last five races. Kurt won the non- points all-star race and then the 600-mile event at Charlotte, while Kyle picked up victories at Richmond and Dover. Hamlin won at Darlington.

Kyle Busch, at age 25, is expected to become the youngest driver to make his 200th career Cup start this weekend at Pocono.

After winning the 600 at Charlotte, Kurt Busch moved up three positions to sixth in points. Busch said Sunday's race at Pocono is the first of the five most pivotal races of the season for his team.

"Starting with Pocono this weekend, we have a pretty diverse run of races with the intermediate tracks, road courses, one-mile flat tracks and restrictor- plate tracks all represented during that period, and it's important to get some consistency going," he said.

Michigan, Sonoma, CA, New Hampshire and Daytona are upcoming on the schedule.

Tony Stewart is the defending winner of the June Pocono race. Stewart earned the pole since qualifying at Pocono was rained out, but he had to start from the rear of the field in a backup car after wrecking his primary car in final practice.

After charging his way through the field, Stewart beat Carl Edwards out of the pits and captured the lead with 37 laps remaining. "Smoke" drove the final 102.5 miles without pitting and held off Edwards by two seconds to win a Cup race for the first time as both driver and owner.

"Last year, I knew it was big when we were there in victory lane, obviously," Stewart said. "Getting the first one at Charlotte [the non-points all-star race] was a huge accomplishment for the organization, but that first official points win was big too."

The June 2009 race at Pocono also marked the debut of NASCAR's new double-file restart rule. The revised format for restarts has since generated rave reviews from competitors and fans.

Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500.

Nationwide Series

Federated Auto Parts 300 - Nashville Superspeedway - Lebanon, TN

One thing will be for sure after Saturday's 300-mile Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski will remain the points leader. Keselowski leads 2009 series champion Kyle Busch by only one point, while Kevin Harvick is 94 points behind. But Busch and Harvick will not compete at Nashville, as the two drivers focus on their Sprint Cup Series efforts at Pocono.

Harvick is the current Sprint Cup points leader, with Busch second in points (-29).

Four drivers - Carl Edwards, Paul Menard, Michael McDowell and Keselowski - will attempt the Pocono-Nashville combo this weekend.

Edwards is a distant 257 points behind Keselowski in Nationwide points.

Busch confirmed last month in Dover that he will not run a full schedule in Nationwide this year. He leads the series with five victories, including wins in the last two races.

"I am really going to miss racing Kyle, because we bring out the best in each other and sometimes the worst, and that's part of what I love about this sport," Keselowski said.

Harvick announced last week at Charlotte that he will forgo He won the title in 2001 and '06.

Nashville, a 1-333-mile concrete-surfaced track, begins the summer stand-alone season in the series.

Joe Gibbs Racing will give two of its development drivers some seat time this month. Brad Coleman will drive the No.18 Toyota in place of Busch, while Matt DiBenedetto will take over driving duties of the No.20 Toyota. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin have shared the seat in Gibbs' No.20 car for the first 12 Nationwide races this season.

Mike Bliss will drive Harvick's No.33 Chevrolet at Nashville and next week at Kentucky. Bliss has competed in 11 Nationwide races for Key Motorsports this season, with his best finish of eighth coming at Bristol.

Coleman Pressley will take the wheel of the No.88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, and Camping World Truck Series regular Tayler Malsam will make his debut in the No.10 Toyota for Braun Racing. Malsam accepted a ride with Braun after his Kyle Busch Motorsports team recently ceased operations in the Truck Series due to lack of sponsorship.

Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Federated Auto Parts 300.

Camping World Truck Series

WinStar World Casino 400k - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, TX

The Camping World Truck Series will run at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway for the 25th time on Friday. Todd Bodine has won a record five truck races at Texas.

One year ago, Bodine capitalized on a late-race pit strategy to win at Texas. Bodine elected not to pit for fuel during the last round of stops. He grabbed the lead with 43 laps remaining, and then easily held off Matt Crafton at the finish. Bodine became the first driver in the series to win five races at the same track.

The 2006 series champion has not won since last year's spring race at Texas.

"This Germain Racing team has been working hard," Bodine said. "At Dover, we didn't have a truck to win the race, but we still got a fifth. That's how you win points championships is to take a truck that can't win but still finish in the top-five. Then at Charlotte, we had a good truck and finished second."

Ten of Bodine's 17 career truck wins have come at 1.5-mile ovals, making him the series' winningest driver on intermediate tracks.

Bodine currently leads in the standings by just two points over Aric Almirola. It's the closest battle in series history after the first seven races.

"This is shaping up to be a close points battle," said Almirola, who won his first career truck race in May at Dover. "Todd and I are really close in the points now, but there are so many good teams in the Truck Series garage. Ron Hornaday Jr., Timothy Peters, Matt Crafton and Mike Skinner are all going to be there at the end."

Peters led the standings for the first five races this season, but now sits 86 points out of the lead. Hornaday, the four-time and defending series champion, is 103 points behind.

While Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick concentrate on their Sprint Cup Series duties at Pocono this weekend, Johnny Benson will drive Busch's No.18 Toyota, and Ken Schrader will be behind the wheel of Harvick's No.2 Chevrolet at Texas.

Brian Ickler originally was scheduled to drive the No.18 truck at Texas, but Ickler has been offered a partial schedule in the Nationwide Series with Roush Fenway Racing, including this Saturday's race at Nashville. He will drive the No.18 for Kyle Busch Motorsports in some truck races later this year.

Schrader drove Harvick's truck to a ninth-place finish one month ago at Kansas.

Thirty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the WinStar World Casino 400k.

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES

Firestone 550k - Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, TX

After winning the Indianapolis 500 in dominating fashion last Sunday, Dario Franchitti made a strong statement in his bid for a second straight IZOD IndyCar Series championship.

Franchitti led 155 of 200 laps to claim his second Indy 500 victory. His first win came in 2007.

"To win two of these things is pretty special," Franchitti said. "They showed me a list of two time winners. Those guys are legends. I said the other night, I'm just a driver, those guys are legends. I'm so lucky to be drive for Chip [Ganassi] and Team Target, getting in good cars, especially having gone away after we won in '07. To be invited back was pretty cool. To have won a championship and an Indy 500, I didn't expect any of this."

Franchitti collected nearly $2.8 million for his Indy 500 win.

"That's a lot of money in any currency," he said. "This race just gets better and better, and I think we're getting back to the glory days. I'm so proud to be back here and be a part of it. It's home for me."

Franchitti not only gave Ganassi his fourth Indy 500 victory as a team owner, but also helped Ganassi become the only owner to win the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500 in the same year. Jamie McMurray, in his first year with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, won the Daytona 500 in February.

With six of 17 races completed on the 2010 IndyCar schedule, Franchitti is just 11 points behind leader Will Power from Team Penske.

Franchitti has recorded 14 career IndyCar victories, but has yet to win at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway. His best finish in six starts at Texas is second, which came in 2004. He started on the pole there in '04 and last year.

Helio Castroneves is the defending race winner.

Castroneves' Penske teammate, Ryan Briscoe, dominated the race by leading 160 of 228 laps, but Castroneves beat Briscoe out of the pits during final round of stops and took the lead for good with 53 laps remaining. The Brazilian has not won a race since one year ago at Texas.

After sustaining multiple injuries during a hard crash in the closing laps of the Indy 500, Mike Conway will be out of the No.24 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing car for at least three months. The team has yet to name a driver for Saturday's race at Texas.

Conway had surgery to repair fractures to his lower left leg. He also has a soft tissue injury to his lower left leg and is expected to have another surgical procedure later this week. Conway also suffered a compression fracture of one of his thoracic vertebrae. He has been fitted for a back brace, which he will wear for the next few months.

Ryan Hunter-Reay also was involved in the late-race crash at Indy. Hunter-Reay had surgery on his left thumb and was fitted with a carbon fiber splint, which should allow him to participate at Texas.

Twenty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Firestone 550k.