This Week in Auto Racing October 14 - 16

This Week in Auto Racing October 14 - 16

Wed 13th, October 2010

Concord, NC (Sports Network) - Round five in the Chase for the Sprint Cup takes place in NASCAR's hub city of Charlotte. The Nationwide Series also will be at "home" this weekend.

Sprint Cup Series

Bank of America 500 -- Lowe's Motor Speedway -- Concord, NC

The championship Chase heads into the fifth round on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Right now, 107 points separate leader Jimmie Johnson from fifth-place Tony Stewart.

Last weekend in southern California, Stewart rebounded in the Chase with the win at Auto Club Speedway. He moved up five spots in the standings.

Johnson's top-five run at California allowed him to pad his lead to 36 points over Denny Hamlin, who finished eighth. During the 2009 Chase, Johnson won at California and then followed up with another victory at Charlotte, which helped pave the way for his unprecedented fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship.

Since his disappointing 25th-place run at New Hampshire, Johnson has won at Dover, finished second at Kansas and placed third at his hometrack in California. But Johnson is not thinking about a fifth-straight title just yet.

"There are only six races left, but that's a lot of racing," he said.

Johnson currently is tied with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for most victories at Charlotte with six.

After winning the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in May, Kurt Busch has an opportunity to become the first driver to win all three Cup races at Charlotte in the same season. It's the seventh time since the all- star race debuted in 1985 that a driver has the chance to hit the Charlotte trifecta.

"To have my shot at it here in 2010, we're definitely going to give it all we've got," Busch said. "The best part about it is, if we're able to do that and pull it off, that only helps us for our chances for the championship this season."

Waltrip (1985), Davey Allison (1991), Dale Earnhardt (1993), Gordon (1997), Johnson (2003) and Kasey Kahne (2008) have had an opportunity to sweep Charlotte's three races in the same year.

Busch presently is sixth in the standings, and trails Johnson by 140 points.

Kevin Harvick is third in points (-54). Harvick has yet to win a points race at Charlotte. His best finish here is second, which came in May 2001. He did win the all-star event in 2007.

"A top-10 finish would be like a win," he said. "That's our goal for the weekend is to run in the top 10 and have a solid day. Obviously, you want to win every weekend, but our history at Charlotte has not been good, so I think a goal of finishing in the top 10 is more realistic."

Jeff Gordon, who is fourth in points (-85), has five wins at Charlotte, including two in the fall race here. Gordon won at Charlotte in October 2007, but has scored only one victory since then -- April 2009 at Texas.

"Those wins are so vital right now," said Gordon, who currently has 82 career Cup victories. "We leave the track each weekend knowing that we did everything we possibly could, but we're not going to be satisfied until we win.

"We need those extra points, so we don't keep losing ground to those guys ahead of us who have wins either earlier in the season or now in the Chase."

Gordon is one victory away from tying Cale Yarborough for fifth on the series' all-time race winners list.

Fifty teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Bank of America 500. Qualifying at Charlotte is scheduled for Thursday night.

Nationwide Series

Dollar General 300 -- Lowe's Motor Speedway -- Concord, NC

Friday's Nationwide Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway could be Kyle Busch's "lucky" 13th win of the season. Last weekend at California, Busch extended his record for most Nationwide wins in a season to 12. The 2009 series champion is just six victories away from tying Mark Martin's all-time record of 48 wins in the series.

Busch has had tremendous success at Charlotte over the years. When the series raced here in May, Busch tied Martin for most Nationwide victories at this track with six. The 25-year-old driver has won four of the last five races here.

"I enjoy Charlotte," Busch said. "It's a neat place for me to go race at."

Charlotte will be the fourth and final race for the series' new car this year. It also will be the first time it runs on a 1.5-mile track.

The car made its debut in July at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway and then ran again in August at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway. Teams most recently used the car last month at the three-quarter- mile Richmond International Raceway.

Busch has yet to win in the new car. Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the checkered flag at Daytona. Brad Keselowski, the current points leader, won at his hometrack in Michigan, and Kevin Harvick scored the victory at Richmond.

"We got the new car coming up this week, and we seem to really have a lot of speed with it," said Keselowski, who holds a commanding 384-point lead. "I'm ready to get running it at Charlotte."

NASCAR allowed teams to get familiar with the car at Charlotte in a full-day of testing on Wednesday.

The new car is targeted for full integration beginning next year.

Danica Patrick will make her ninth series start this weekend. Last Saturday at California, Patrick was on pace for her career-best Nationwide run, but an accident with eight laps remaining relegated her to a 30th-place finish.

"I gained a lot of confidence at Auto Club Speedway," Patrick admitted. "The result obviously wasn't very good, but we had good moments.We are going to have a lot of confidence going into Charlotte this week."

Patrick's best Nationwide finish so far is 25th, which came in June at New Hampshire. She is expected to compete in the remaining five races this season.

Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Dollar General 300.