Saturday, Jun 03
Brett Winningham

Brett Winningham

Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.

Last Friday at the Phoenix International Raceway, the NASCAR world got to see the brand new qualifying system put in place. The old procedures was dual, boring, and was so un-television friendly, and also lacked so much action for those sitting in the grandstands at the track.

The old procedures was one car allowed on-track at one time for up to two laps. One advantage to the system was every driver was on equal game. The biggest disadvantage was the lack of action. Yeah, sometimes there would be action, like when it came to the track record stuff and following at home with television graphics, but at the track it would be dual without the lap trackers.

The new format brings a lot of flair to the mix with excitement both at the track, and watching on television. At tracks less than 1.25 mile in length, all cars will run on track for 30 minutes total. For round two, the fastest twelve drivers from the first session will have a shootout for the pole. At tracks 1.25 miles and bigger, all cars will make runs on the track for 25 minutes. Once the 25 minutes are up, NASCAR will reset the board and run those fastest cars once again for ten minutes. Once again, officials will reset the board and run a five minute timed session with the fastest twelve cars from the second session. The driver who posts the fastest time in this third session will earn the pole. There are much more disadvantages in this for the drivers but that’s what makes it exciting, right? This puts more pressure on the driver, which in turn, makes it more fun for the fans to watch!

Many race fans seemed to enjoy the new style of qualifying also. With the risk vs. reward format it brings much drama, which is what the fans want. FOX Sports seen a viewing increase of 14% over the 2013 season. It also ranked the No. 2 most watched program on the channel last week. So with that said, it is safe to say that this particular format will stay around for a very long time.

While FOX seen an increase of viewers under this new format, it might just have a decrease soon. During qualifying on Friday afternoon, many fans took to twitter to complain about the 10-15 minute delay between live action and the television feed. With this new format, it allows about a one hour time slot and then some to allow time for NASCAR to clean up from a wreck or two, and making it more television friendly, which was one of NASCAR’s goals. In my honest opinion, these huge delays are stupid under this new format. Yes, I know, the single car qualifying would start out live and get behind the further it ran. That’s not my point. My point is this was designed to fit the television window, yet FOX Sports still wants to delay it. Another thing that many was very upset with was the fact that under the logo in right hand corner it said live. They was not even close to live and FOX needs to remove that. When SPEED was still a thing, at least in the United States, it would show an event is live and when they started delaying it as the more they showed commercials, they would take the “live” indicator all of the television screen.

But besides the negative stuff about this, it is really a good format for NASCAR. It’ll only help bring much more excitement and attendance to qualifying at the tracks. NASCAR and its drivers are happy about this new system, except maybe for the team owners, but if it makes the fans happy, it should stay in place for a very long time.

Kevin Harvick captured his 24th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win this afternoon at the Phoenix International Speedway after having a very dominant car this afternoon. Harvick led the event four different times and led a total of 224 laps of the event, which was the most of any driver today.

“Man, this just solidifies so many things and so many decisions," said Harvick. "I’ve just got to thank all these guys at Stewart-Haas Racing and I’d like to thank Sprint and the fans; Jimmy John’s, Budweiser, Outback, Chevrolet, and everybody who makes this thing go ‘round. It’s been so much work with all the time and effort that these guys have put in, but what a race car.”

Finishing in the second position, was last weekend's Daytona 500 winner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Though he was not able to lead any laps, Earnhardt Jr., ran a very consistant race to stay nearly inside the top-10 all afternoon long. He still leaves Phoenix with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points lead after two races. He was just 0.489 seconds behind the race winner, Kevin Harvick.

“Yeah we had a great car.  (Kevin) Harvick was so fast all weekend, congratulations to him and his whole team.  They did an awesome job getting ready for this race and were just fast out of the gate," said Dale Earnhardt, Jr. "We got a little bit better; we leaned on our teammates and got the car a lot better.  Steve (Letarte) and those guys just keep getting better and better.  These cars I’m driving I think are the best in the garage.  Right at the end of the race I think we were a little bit quicker than Kevin (Harvick).  Just real, real happy with the cars, just hate to come home second, but that No. 4 car was quick all week.”

The pole sitter, Brad Keselowski, came home in the third place when the 312 lap event concluded. He led a total of only three laps, as his teammate Joey Logano, led the most laps of any driver with 71. When the green flag flew to begin the race, Logano took the lead, while Keselowski dropped back to the second spot and slipped away all from there. He later on re-took the lead for one lap for a restart, and then once again later on under the same circumstances.

“That was everything we could do to get up there and get third. Nobody had anything for Kevin. We did the best we could and that was really all we had," said Keselowski. “He was good everywhere. I am not sure there wan anywhere he didn’t have an advantage.”

The next race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will be in seven days at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 9th. Coverage will begin live on FOX at 2:00 p.m. Et. Radio coverage will be provided by the Performance Racing Network. PRN broadcasts are avalible on many stations around the country, PRN app, or on GoPRN.com.

Kyle Busch captured his third consectutive win in a rain shortened event at the Phoenix International Raceway this weekend. After Busch won both events at the 1-mile oval in 2013, and Joey Logano scored the win for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012 in November, the racing team has scored the win in the last four Phoenix races. Busch led a total of 155 of the 168 laps ran today.

Kevin Harvick came home in the second position when the rain arrived at the track. Harvick, driving the No. 88 for Jr. Motorsports, led a total of only four laps today while the race leaders was making pit stops during the race. In 22 starts at this particular track, Harvick came home inside the top-10 for his 18th time.

Brad Keselowski had the second most strongest car today after starting on the pole for the event. Keselowski got off sequece from the race leader by being on a different pit stratagy. He was able to finally get onto the same cycle later on to drive his way to the third position when the rain came. Today, Keselowski scored his ninth top-10 finish in his last 15 races on the short track.

The next race will be at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Boyd Gaming 300. You can catch the 200 lap event live on ESPN2 at 3:15 p.m. Et. The Performance Racing Network will provide the live radio coverage portion. You can listen to PRN on many radio stations around the country or on the PRN mobile phone application.

Brad Keselowski sweeps both poles this weekend at the Phoenix International Raceway in the Sprint Cup and the Nationwide Series. Keselowski was the fastest in the second session with a fast time of 26.855 seconds, 134.053 mph. Today will be his 15th career NASCAR Nationwide Series pole in his 207th start. 
 
With just minutes remaining, Brian Scott posted the second fastest lap to nearly knock Keselowski off the top spot. Scott ran a 26.857 seconds, 134.043 mph. and was just 0.002 seconds off of the pole sitters time. Phoenix has been a good track for Scott and will try to score his first career win in the series. 
 
Kyle Busch rounds out the top-three starters for the Blue Jeans Go Green 200 after his fastest lap coming on his second of three laps in the session. Busch ran a fast time of 26.870 seconds, 133.978 mph. Busch will go for his third consecutive win at the Phoenix International Raceway and the fourth consecutive win for the Joe Gibbs Racing organization. He hopes today will be a better finish after coming home 17th in last weekend's DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona.
 
A total of 39 drivers attempted to qualify for the race later on today so no drivers will be going home. Three drivers did not even post a time under the new qualifying format with those being Daryl Harr, Carlos Contreras and Martin Roy. 
 
 
Daniel Suarez captures the victory tonight in the NASCAR Toyota Mexico Series after rebounding from a mid-race speeding penalty. Suarez started the evening off from the second spot, but led every lap of the race, until the speeding penalty that forced him to restart at the tail end. Suarez is also the first driver since Kyle Busch in 2009 to lead the points standings in two different NASCAR Series, but in this case, the NASCAR Toytota Mexico and the K&N Pro Series East. Suarez also continues his dominance tonight, as he won both the Battle at the Beach and the opener at New Smyrna in the NKNPSE division. 
 
Rodrigo Peralta came home in the second spot when the checkard flag flown tonight. Peralta started the night off after qualifying in the seventh position and drove a great race all evening long. He lost the race by just 0.098 seconds, but went on to score his seventh top-five of his career in the series.
 
Antonio Perez nearly was able to hang on for the race win but lost the lead with about two laps remaining in the race tonight. Perez nearly led the rest of the race after Suarez was caught speeding during pit stops. He finished in the third spot, which is right where he started, and captured his 17th top-10 of his career.
 
See below for the full race results:
PosNo.NameSponsorMakeLapsDiff
1 3 Daniel Suarez Samsung Telcel Tyt 120  
2 24 Rodrigo Peralta Alcatel Sanirent Unefon Tyt 120 0.098
3 1 Antonio Perez Telmex Infinitum Tyt 120 0.392
4 87 Luis Felipe Montano Aeropostale Tyt 120 0.794
5 15 Ruben Pardo Citizen Tyt 120 3.817
6 5 Jose Luis Ramirez Magana Fedex Telmex Chv 120 6.491
7 88 Ruben Garcia Jr. HDI Tyt 120 11.790
8 18 Rafael Martinez Canal Axalta Mzd 120 14.288
9 8 Freddy Tame La Costena Tyt 120 27.325
10 19 Mario Dominguez Canels Axalta Mzd 120 28.112
11 77 Enrique Contreras Torres Axtel Tyt 120 37.101
12 2 Abraham Calderon Telcel Silent Circle Dge 119 1 Lap
13 43 Oscar Ruiz De Azua Toyota El Dorado Tyt 119 1 Lap
14 20 Homero Richards Axtel Tyt 119 1 Lap
15 07 Hector Felix Logistica Aduanal Tyt 119 1 Lap
16 7 Carlos Peralta La Costena Tyt 119 1 Lap
17 69 Javier Fernandez Car Motion Karcher Tyt 119 1 Lap
18 9 Elliot Van Rankin Vonhaucke Tyt 119 1 Lap
19 0 Rafael Vallina Coca Cola Tyt 118 2 Laps
20 14 Patrick Goeters Ficrea Tyt 118 2 Laps
21 01 Israel Jaitovich Cortes Interjet Ficrea Tyt 118 2 Laps
22 30 Victor Barrales Apilub Tyt 118 2 Laps
23 36 Pepe Montano Chuchito Perez Tyt 111 9 Laps
24 51 Santiago Tovar Su Karne Dge 111 9 Laps
25 12 Jim Nides Volaris Tyt 86 34 Laps
26 6 Rogelio Lopez CTS Akron Tyt 57 63 Laps
27 00 Rodrigo Marban Net Click Tyt 45 75 Laps
28 83 Javier Razo Mikel's Tyt 29 91 Laps
29 4 Jorge Goeters Ficrea Tyt 26 94 Laps
30 11 Hugo Oliveras Monster Tyt 19 101 Laps
Via NASCAR Hometracks

Brad Keselowski captured the pole for Sunday's 10th annual The Profit on CNBC 500, presented by Small Business Fueling America. Keselowski posted a fast time in the second session, for his pole lap, with a 25.828 seconds, 139.384 mph. Keselowski knocked his teammate off the top spot with about five minutes remaining.

Joey Logano was in the second spot once qualifying ended with a 25.850 seconds, 139.265 mph. This weekend Logano will start inside the top-10 for his eighth time at the Phoenix International Raceway. He was just 0.022 seconds off the pole once the session ended.

Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-three with a fast time of 25.305 seconds, 138.969 mph. It'll be his first inside the top-10 start of the 2014 racing season as he started 22nd last week in the Daytona 500. McMurray hopes to leave Phoenix with a much more solid run this weekend after a bad 2013.

Three drivers will fail to qualify for this weekend's event at the Phoenix International Raceway. Those drivers are, Josh Wise, Landon Cassill, and Dave Blaney. Despite posting a slower lap, Morgan Shephard will race on Sunday in the No. 87 Toyota. Justin Allgaier was the only driver to have an incident in the session after slapping the wall about three minutes into qualifying. The HS Motorsports team will switch to their back-up car.

Cole Custer finally captures a win at the Phoenix International Speedway this evening in the Talking Stick Resort 75. In his last NASCAR K&N Pro Series start at Phoenix, Custer got turned off turn four as he was coming to the checkered flag by second place Gray Gaulding. Tonight, Gaulding finished last, of 29th, after an issue with the engine on the first lap of the race to bring out a caution. Custer was able to capture his third win of his NKNPSW career. Custer not only won the race, but also started on the pole after a lap of 23.565 seconds, 131.536 mph.

Brennan Newberry, driving the No. 24 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet, drove to his second top-five career finish tonight in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West at the Phoenix International Raceway. Newberry moved up to second after Brandon McReynolds had promblems with his car up-front late in the race, this caused him to slip back to fourth. Newberry came short of the win by 0.376 seconds.

Nick Drake finished in the third spot this evening and scoring his first top-five finish in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. Drake was driving the No. 55 for Bill McAnally Racing, who almost put all three cars in the top-three spots if it wasn't for McReynolds trobles late in the race, in his first ever West division race.

Tonight's race will be televised on Friday, March 7th on FOX Sports 1 at 1:00 p.m. Et.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series will head off to the Irwindale Speedway. This will be the first time the series returns to that track since July of 2011.

See below for full race results:

PosNo.NameSponsorLapsDiff
1 00 Cole Custer NAPA Auto Parts/Haas Automation 80  
2 24 Brennan Newberry QORE24 80 0.376
3 55 Nick Drake * NAPA Auto Parts 80 0.808
4 26 Greg Pursley GPM/Star Nursery 80 1.270
5 81 D.J. Kennington Northern Provincial Pipelines 80 1.865
6 9 Dylan Lupton Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Eibach 80 2.212
7 12 Giles Thornton TTC Racing 80 2.535
8 16 Brandon McReynolds NAPA Auto Parts 80 2.660
9 61 Brett Thompson RTTI/61 Logisitics 80 2.767
10 42 Taylor Cuzick Freightliner of Arizona 80 2.953
11 74 Luis Tyrrell * Team Tyrrell/Eclipse Racing 80 3.159
12 51 Carlos Vieira 51 FIFTY Energy Drink/Allied Pkging 80 3.331
13 36 Jamie Krzysik * Krown-Pell Ventures 80 4.509
14 5 Thomas Martin Jack Sellers Racing 80 4.556
15 09 Jason Fraser * Nothern Provincial Pipelines 80 4.708
16 2 Carl Harr West World Computers 80 5.256
17 84 Rich DeLong III * Country Girl Saloon/Ron's Rear Ends 80 6.409
18 30 John  Wood Holleran's Performance/Wrap World 80 8.722
19 83 Kelly Admiraal * Swan Rentals 79 1 Lap
20 54 Anthony Giannone MGP Connecting/Sparco 78 2 Laps
21 18 Bill Kann * Interstate Batteries 76 4 Laps
22 14 Griffin Steinfeld * Our Military Kids 76 4 Laps
23 07 Greg Rayl GSR Racing 74 6 Laps
24 17 David Mayhew MMI Services/Ron's Rear Ends 74 6 Laps
25 6 James Bickford * Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Eibach 64 16 Laps
26 15 Jack Sellers Karl Chevrolet 57 23 Laps
27 38 Jack Chisholm * Holleran's Performance/Wrap World 51 29 Laps
28 71 Daryl Harr iWorld Connect 31 49 Laps
29 02 Gray Gaulding Krispy Kreme 1 79 Laps

 Source: NASCAR Home Tracks

This weekend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will make their first of two stops at the Phoenix International Raceway for the 10th annual The Profit on CNBC 500, presented by Small Business Fueling America.

A total of 46 drivers will attempt to qualify this weekend, but three will go home. Some of the drivers on the entry list this weekend includes, Travis Kvapil, Brian Scott, Blake Koch, Landon Cassill, Joe Nemechek, Dave Blaney, Morgan Shepherd and Michael McDowell.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. heads into this weekend with a lot of momentum after his Daytona 500 victory. Earnhardt Jr., has two wins at Phoenix coming back in 2003 and 2004, but hasn't been consistant. In 2013, he finished fifth and fourth at this track and hopes to get a much better finish this year at the 1-mile oval.

This weekend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will use the new qualifying proceedures put in place this last off-season. The new group qualifying will feature two rounds of action. The first round will last 30 minutes and consist of all drivers. After that time is up, NASCAR will take the top-12 drivers from the first 30 minutes, and put them on track for 10 minutes. This is NASCAR's attempt to make qualifying more enjoyable to the race fans.

Three drivers comes into their home track this weekend in hopes to having a solid finish. Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman and Danica Patrick goes into this weekend with pressure to do well. McDowell and Patrick hopes to have a better weekend as both drivers had some bad luck last weekend at Daytona.
 

You can catch the race this weekend live on FOX at 2:30 p.m. Et. The Motor Racing Network will handle the live radio broadcast of the race. You can listen on many radio stations around the country, TuneIn application, MRN.com or by dialing 1-832-999-1717 on your phone.

This weekend the NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to the Phoenix International Raceway for the 10th annual Blue Jeans Go Green 200. It will be the first of two stops during the 2014 season for the racing series at the 1-mile oval.

The entry list features 39 total drivers. Some of these include: Carlos Contreas, Ruben Garcia Mateos, Mike Wallace, Ryan Sieg, Josh Wise, Kyle Larson, Will Kimmel, Matt Dibenedetto, Derrike Cope, Mike Harmon, Tommy Joe Martins, Daryl Harr, Kevin Harvick, Martin Roy and Matthew Carter.

Joe Gibbs Racing has been the strongest team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at the Phoenix Raceway. This weekend they will shoot for their fourth consecutive victory. In November of 2012, Logano scored the win at the track to start off this streak before moving over to the Penske Racing organization. In 2013, Kyle Busch captured the victory in both Phoenix races in the No. 54 Toyota. Besides Busch this weekend, Joe Gibbs Racing will also have Elliott Sadler and Matt Kenseth in a car.

Two drivers will attempt to make their NASCAR Nationwide Series debuts this weekend. Those drivers include Tommy Joe Martins and Martin Roy. Martins made five starts, with four coming in 2009, and one in 2011, in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Martin Roy is a full-time NASCAR Canadian Tire Series driver and will come over to drive the No. 90 Chevrolet for Mario Gosselin's team. In 2013, the 39-year-old Canadian made one start in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He also made one start in the truck series last year at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

You can catch the NASCAR Nationwide Series race this weekend live on ABC. The Motor Racing Network will also have the live radio coverage for this event.

After a six-plus hour rain delay today at the Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR was finally able to get the race back going. Once the race started back up, it was all Dale Earnhardt Jr. chasing his second Daytona 500 victory. Tonight, Earnhardt Jr. scored his 20th win of his career and ending a winless drought since 2012. He joins a list of five drivers to have only scored two Daytona 500 wins in their racing career, with his last win in the event back in 2004. He heads into the Phoenix International Raceway with a five point lead.

“Yeah, I think so. Man, winning this race is the greatest feeling that you can feel in the sport, aside from obviously accepting the trophy for the championship. I didn’t know if I’d ever get a chance to feel that again and it feels just as good, if not better than the first because of how hard we tried year after year after year funning second all those years and wondering why and what we needed to do. I’ve got to get my head together," said Dale Earnhardt Jr. "This race car was awesome. We showed them there night long how good a car we had and it’s because of these guys right here putting it together in the shop. We could fight off battles after battles. We got a little help from Jeff (Gordon) to get away on that restart and tried to take care of it from there. This is amazing. I can’t believe this is happening. I’ll never take this for granted because this just doesn’t happen twice, let alone once. I’m so thankful."

Denny Hamlin fell just short of dominating all of Speedweeks this weekend. Hamlin came into tonight's race looking to be the first ever driver to have won the Sprint Unlimited, Duel and the Daytona 500 all in the same year. On the final lap, Hamlin lost the draft entering turn-three and didn't have help to push him to the front. Despite this, Hamlin had to settle for second and heads into one of his best tracks next weekend.

"“Well, it was intense for me.  I had no spotter.  Our radios weren’t working after we went back green after the rain so just had to wing it on my own really for the most part after we went back.  If I cut anyone off I’m sorry, just trying to do it out there on my own,” said Hamlin. “It was intense.  Everyone was content not to run the top line, which was good.  I thought for sure we’d wreck more cars, but still that was a great race for the fans.  It was a great race from my standpoint.  It was just so hard to pass -- similar to when we got out front.  You can block your way to a victory, and really Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) just played it perfectly once he got out front on that last fuel run -- everyone else is just side by side and you really can’t make any moves.”

Brad Keselowski came home third in the 56th annual Daytona 500 after being in the lead four different times tonight. When the field was frozen, with the caution off turn four coming to the finish, Keselowski just edged out in-front of Jeff Gordon for the position. He earned his third top-10 finish after 10 starts at Daytona and led a total of 13 laps this evening.

“We had a really fast Miller Lite Ford and just came up a little short there at the end. We had a good restart but didn’t get any help from behind. I was really proud of my car and team to be able to hold fourth with no help. Dale and his teammates were really fast and they did a good job executing at the end. Congratulations to him,” said Keselowski. “If I had maybe one or two cars behind me I think I could have maybe had a shot but I just didn’t get it.”

The next race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will be next weekend at the Phoenix International Raceway. You can catch The Profit on CNBC 500 live on FOX at 2:00 p.m. Et. Not near a TV? The Motor Racing Network will provide the live radio broadcast of the event.

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