After winning the second race of a two-day double-header at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, Kyle Busch had some opinions regarding the double-header event and visiting some tracks twice. 

“Doubleheaders? My personal opinion with as much as the schedule has kind of changed over the last couple years, what all has been going on with different racetracks and such, fans’ reception to coming and supporting some of those racetracks, we don’t need to go to any racetrack more than once,” said Busch after the race in the media center regarding the double-header event.

Kyle’s opinion is that NASCAR should spread the wealth across many tracks around the nation instead of visiting some tracks twice a year.

“You know what I mean? Spread the wealth. That’s my opinion.”

This season has featured the most change to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule since probably the early 2000s with Nashville, Circuit of The Americas, an additional Atlanta stop, and the addition of Road America. While these tracks were added, some notable tracks did not make the schedule in 2021, notably Chicagoland Speedway and Kentucky Speedway.

Busch loved the addition of Nashville while questioning why Chicagoland and Kentucky Speedway were left off while Atlanta gained a second date.

“I like how we’re able to take a date from Dover, go to Nashville. I don’t know why we don’t go to Chicago still. We go to Atlanta twice. That was dumb. I don’t know why we don’t go to Kentucky. Apparently that governor is pretty pissed off. That wasn’t a smart move.”

The circuit features some tracks twice but hold a different type of event such as Bristol Motor Speedway in the spring and Charlotte Motor Speedway in October. For the first time this past March for NASCAR, Bristol covered their 0.533-mile high-banked concrete oval with dirt. For the last few seasons, Charlotte has converted their 1.5-mile oval into a “Roval” road course. 

Busch is correct. And honestly, if the series wants to visit a certain track twice, at least put on a different type of event for one of those. These are the things NASCAR should focus on the most if they plan on visiting tracks twice. Another significant thing that NASCAR is looking / should look into is street course racing. 

Pairing with the IndyCar Series, owned by NASCAR team owner Roger Penske, will help further guide the sanctioning body to a street course or two should NASCAR decide to go in that direction.

The cup series veteran and winner of 220 NASCAR National Series events later re-emphasized that the series should only make one visit at each track to spread the wealth and offerings to fans.

“We should go to every place once, find a couple more places we can go to and spread the wealth.”

Kyle Busch persevered on Sunday to win the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday. Busch, battling a transmission issue with his No. 18 M&M’s Mini’s Toyota, took the lead when several leaders ran out of fuel in the closing laps. 

Busch took the lead from teammate Denny Hamlin with two laps remaining to score his second victory of the year. The driver from Las Vegas now has four victories at the “Tricky Triangle” in Pennsylvania. 

“Yeah, stuck in fourth gear. About out of gas (laughter),” said Busch after the race. “Just saving, just riding, playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us. It was awesome today.”

Denny Hamlin finished 14th. 

Busch goes into the inaugural event at Road America with eight top five and 12 top 10 finishes in 2021. 

“You know, I don’t know. You don’t know, you know? The biggest thing was trying to time the restart right,” Busch continued. “Leave pit road, come back around, be at full speed by the time the field takes the start/finish line. We were a little bit off on that. We were from here to pit road off on that. That’s about all we could do. That’s all you could think about doing in that situation, just thinking through any opportunity and obstacle that’s on you. That’s just what we did. Again, great job to my team. Thanks to Ben Beshore. Thanks to Matt the fuel guy for getting it full. That’s a big important one today. Really great to take home another checkered flag.”

Stage two winner William Byron, leading with three circuits remaining before also running out of fuel, finished 12th.

Looking to score his fifth victory of the year in the Cup Series, Kyle Larson finished 8.654 seconds behind race winner Kyle Busch.

Keselowski, finishing third, led the most laps of the 350-mile event of 31. Keselowski said after the race that they just didn’t have the fuel to land in victory lane.

“We ran a really good race but just didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the end like those other guys did,” said Keselowski. “They beat us on power and fuel mileage. We have a lot of work to do to keep up with those guys.”

Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five.

Ryan Blaney, Saturday’s winner Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano rounded out the top 10.

Stage one winner Martin Truex Jr. finished 11th on the leaderboard. 

Caution slowed the field twice for incidents involving Anthony Alfredo on the third lap of the race and debris from the 43 of Erik Jones on lap 94. The two additional yellows marked the end of the two scheduled stages at laps 35 and 90.

The series will shift focus to Road America for the Jockey Made in America 250 on Sunday. Coverage of the event will take place at 2:30 p.m. ET. live on NBC, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Ch. 90.

The Pocono Organics CBD 325 at Pocono Raceway on Saturday didn’t disappoint as Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson battled for the win late. Larson, chasing his fifth cup series victory of the year and looking to win four in a row, came short when the left front on his No. 5 Chevrolet went down after taking the white flag as the leader. 

“Yeah, I hate to win one that way, but hell; yeah, I’ll take it,” said Bowman. “Man, we kind of gave the lead away. We were on two tires and just got super tight. I tried to hold him off as long as I could.”

The tire going down allowed Larson’s teammate Alex Bowman to take the lead and sail to his third win of the year. The No. 48 Chevrolet led the field for 16 circuits while Larson led 15. Bowman apologized to his crew before misfortune struck the No. 5 team.

“Yeah, I don’t know what to think about that,” said Bowman. “‘Bad Luck Bowman’ had some luck there. I mean, the No. 5 beat us. Their misfortune, it happens. That’s part of the sport. I’ll take it.”

Bowman will go into the second race at Pocono, scheduled for Sunday afternoon, with five top five and nine top 10 finishes.

Kyle Busch, sitting 0.683 seconds behind Bowman at the checkered flag, led the most laps of the 325-mile event of 30. The driver from Las Vegas won stage one and finished ninth at the end of stage two. 

Busch has seven top fives and 11 top 10 finishes through 18 completed events. 

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron rounded out the top three finishers on Saturday at the “Tricky Triangle”.

Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.

Kurt Busch, winner of stage two, took home sixth. Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

The field slowed eight times for the caution flag throughout the day while nine drivers led laps with 14 different different leaders throughout the first of two races at Pocono this weekend.

The cup series will race following the NASCAR XFINITY Series event on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET. on NBCSN. The Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 will also air live on MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Ch. 90.

Kyle Larson continued his dominance in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. Winner of the last two previous cup races coming into the annual exhibition race, Larson led the field for 17 circuits to win his second career All-Star event.

“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” said winner Kyle Larson. “That second run there, we were really bad and I was like, ‘man, we’re in trouble’. I went backwards that round, so I was like we’ve got an uphill battle. I did not imagine seeing myself winning this race today. Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) and everybody works so hard on this thing and made some good adjustments throughout the first, second and third rounds and got us in position.”

The event featured a format of six rounds comprising random inverts, a pit crew challenge and more. It also featured an open race earlier in the day at Texas that allowed three opportunities for three drivers not locked into the All-Star Race to earn a starting spot into the race, plus a fan-vote winner.

Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola advanced their way into the All-Star race via winning a segment in the open race. Matt DiBendetto won the fan-vote making up the field of 21 drivers.

Brad Keselowski gave Larson chase in the last laps of the race, falling 0.206-seconds short of winning the $1,000,000 dollar payout. The driver from Michigan, leading just five circuits of the race, tied his previous best finish in the event by placing second. 

“It feels like running second to the Hendrick cars right now is an accomplishment. They are just stupid fast, said Keselowski after tying his 2016 finish. “I had him off turn 4 but they just have so much speed. He just motored right back by me, like damn! It feels like a first-in-class day with the Discount Tired Ford. The team did a great job of executing and getting us in position, we just didn’t have enough speed to make the most of it. It was good execution day though and I am proud of that.”

The final restart worked out exactly how Larson needed it with 10 laps to go.

“That last restart worked out exactly how I needed it to. I wanted Chase (Elliott) to not get a good run down the back,” said Larson on the final restart to begin Round 6. “Thankfully, I think the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney) got to his inside. I just shoved him down the back and he probably thought I was going to just follow him. I thought there had to be enough grip above where we’d been running for one corner. It was a little slick up there, but I was able to get it and hold him off from there.”

Chase Elliott, winner of the pit crew challenge and leader of 12 laps, placed third.

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five finishers.

Alex Bowman, William Byron, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch took home top 10 finishes.

Two yellow flags resulted in cautions throughout the 100-lap feature. Erik Jones brought out the yellow by spinning in turn two on the opening lap of the race. Jones continued on, later finishing 11th.

Ross Chastain and Ryan Newman tangled in turn two on lap 79. Like Jones, Newman and Chastain both continued. Newman later took his No. 6 Wyndham Rewards Ford to a 20th-place finish while Chastain finished 18th in his No. 42 Chevrolet.

The series will resume on June 20th for an inaugural event at Nashville Superspeedway. The event will take place at 3:30 p.m. ET. live on NBCSN.

Ty Gibbs led wire-to-wire at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, piloting the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Gibbs, making his 31st career ARCA Menards Series start and leading all 100-laps of the event, will leave the track with his second ARCA victory of the year.

Drew Dollar started the afternoon in fifth and sat there for pretty much the entire 150-mile event. Dollar battled Gibbs for the top spot on the restart with 30 to go but got loose. The driver from Atlanta took home his seventh career ARCA top five.

Gibbs, after starting on the pole, takes the checkered flag for the 10th time of his ARCA career.

Corey Heim rounded out the top three finishers. 

Jack Wood and Derek Griffith took home fourth and fifth.

Thad Moffitt, Greg Van Alst, Kyle Sieg, Nick Sanchez and Alex Clubb took home top 10 finishes.

The field was slowed for three yellows throughout the afternoon. The first involved Bret Holmes and Scott Melton on the opening lap when Holmes was racing three wide with Heim on the bottom and Wood on the top when his No. 23 Chevrolet got loose and looped around. Everyone in the field got around except for Melton as he t-boned Holmes in the driver side door. 

Both drivers walked away and were later released from the care center.

The field slowed on lap 51 for a scheduled competition yellow while the third yellow with 34 to go involved the No. 7 Ford of Eric Caudell. Caudell was done for the day as a result and finished 14th.

The next race for the ARCA Menards Series will be at Toledo Speedway on May 22nd.

Corey Heim scored the victory at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday piloting the No. 20 JBL Venturini Motorsports Toyota. Heim, leading just five laps of the General Tire 200, scored his third career ARCA Menards Series win. 

Bret Holmes, reigning series champion, was leading on the restart with one lap to go. In ARCA, overtime consists of the green / white flag followed by the checkered flag in a one-lap shootout. Holmes got stuck in the middle as Nick Sanchez and Corey Heim battled for the victory on the backstretch. Eventually, Heim cleared Sanchez and sailed to the victory. 

Holmes went on to finish fifth on the leaderboard while Sanchez took home third.

Dave Mader III, making just his 16th career ARCA Menards Series start since 1983, finished runner-up.

Drew Dollar, tying Holmes for the most laps led in the General Tire 200 on Saturday of 28 circuits, took home the fourth spot.

Taking home top 10 finishes were Thad Moffitt, Andy Jankowiak, Kyle Sieg, Eric Caudell and Scott Melton. 

Derrick Lancaster was running upfront until getting into an incident on lap 72 when his No. 29 machine pancaked the wall hard on the backstretch, causing his car to catch fire. Lancaster parked his car in the grass and climbed out of the damaged machine to lie on the ground.

The latest update is that he was transported to an area hospital for further evaluation.

Along with the incident involving Lancaster, the General Tire 200 featured four cautions with two red flag periods. 

The next event for the ARCA Menards Series will be at Kansas Speedway on May 1. That event will air live on FS1 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

It was revealed Monday that driver Jennifer Jo Cobb has not been approved by NASCAR ahead of her announced Cup Series debut at Talladega this Sunday. The exact reasons are still unknown, but sources indicate it was determined prior to her run-in with competitor Norm Benning at Richmond this past weekend. Another factor according to sources is that she has only 11 lead-lap Truck Series finishes in 217 truck starts.

Rick Ware Racing released the following statement:

“We’ve been informed by the sanctioning body that Jennifer is not approved to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series event at Talladega SuperSpeedway...This is an unfortunate situation, but as a team, we support NASCAR’s decision to uphold the sanctioning body's rules & regulations.”

A new driver for the No. 15 ride has yet to be announced.

Cobb’s only top 10 Truck Series finish came in the season opener at Daytona in 2011, where she finished sixth. The Kansas City, Kansas native has 31 career XFINITY Series starts along with nine ARCA Menards Series starts.

The NWMT held their season opener at Martinsville Speedway on Thursday, marking the first event at the half-mile track known as the “Paper Clip” in 11-years. Ryan Preece won the pole for the event with Ryan Newman starting second. 

With eight laps complete, rain fell on the track resulting in a one-hour and 13-minute red flag period. Once track crews dried the track, Ryan Preece led the field over Tony Catalano, Ryan Newman, Kyle Ebersole, and Eric Goodale in the top five.

When the field saw the checkered flag, Eric Goodale scored his fourth career Whelen Modified Tour victory. Goodale, piloting the No. 58 GAF Roofing Chevrolet, started the event in third.

Pole sitter Ryan Preece, leading 110 of 200 laps, finished 12th in his No. 6 Riverhead Raceway Chevrolet.

Tyler Rypkema took home the second spot in just his 16th career Whelen Modified Tour start. Rypkema started the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 in 10th.

Justin Bonsignore led 52 of the 200 circuits in the No. 51 Chevrolet after starting the event at the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments. The No. 51 machine had a water leak following qualifying.

Max McLaughlin and Kyle Bonsignore rounded out the top five.

Taking home top 10s were Doug Coby, Tommy Catalano, Patrick Emerling, Woody Pitkat, and Jamie Tomaino.

Second-place starter Ryan Newman suffered problems with his No. 53 Curb Records Chevrolet and had to go to the garage on lap 48. The NASCAR Cup Series veteran wasn’t able to return and finished the race 29th. 

The event from Martinsville Speedway will air on NBCSN at 4:30 p.m. ET. on April 15th. 

The next race for the series will be at Stafford Springs on April 25th. You can catch the event live on NBC Sports Gold TrackPass.

NASCAR announced changes to Sunday’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday. The changes, stemming from tire issues discovered during the pair of Cup Series practices on Friday, include added competition cautions and adjusted stage lengths. 

The stages (previously 75 / 150 / 250) will now be 100 / 200 / 250, along with a pair of scheduled competition cautions at laps 50 and 150.

In addition, NASCAR and Goodyear will give race teams an additional set of tires for the event on dirt.

NASCAR announced penalties stemming from Phoenix Raceway on Tuesday. Five of the penalties impacted NASCAR Cup Series teams while another impacted a crew member in the Camping World Truck Series garage.

Crew Chief Jeremy Bullins, of the No. 2 team of Brad Keselowski, and Travis Mack, crew chief of the No. 99 team of Daniel Suarez, have been both fined $20,000 and suspended for the next Cup Series race for having two lug nuts not safe and secure.

Matt McCall, Ben Beshore, and Ryan Fugle, crew chiefs of the No. 1, 18 & 24 Cup Series teams, have all been fined $10,000 for having an unsecured lug nut.

Jonathan Stewart, an engineer on the No. 21 GMS Racing NCWTS entry, has been indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for violating the sanctioning bodies substance abuse policy.