Today the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series took the track at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a four hour test session to see how the new configuration would hold up. Many teams chosen to stick with qualifying runs, race runs and a little bit of both.

Kevin Harvick posted the fastest lap this afternoon with a 28.399 seconds, 190.148 mph. He completed a total of 42 laps today and ran his fastest lap on his 42^nd lap. Harvick heads into this weekend with a lot of momentum after a win last weekend at the Phoenix International Raceway.

“I thought it went really well. We struggled in the beginning just to get the feel. It took us a couple of hours to kind of get everything situated and get the balance of the car right,” said Harvick. “Then we felt pretty good about it after that. Changed a lot of stuff and did a lot of different things to the car.  Felt like we made good head way in the end and hopefully we can progress on that tomorrow and make it even better.”

Second fastest today was Austin Dillon with a 28.490 seconds, 189.540 mph. Dillon turned a total of 56 laps in his No. 3 Cheerios Chevrolet with his best lap coming on his 55^th time around the track. He was just 0.091 seconds behind the session leader, Kevin Harvick.

Trevor Bayne led the session some this afternoon before Harvick took him off the top spot. His fastest lap came on his 34^th circuit around the speedway with a fast time of 28.629 seconds, 188.620 mph. Bayne turned a total of 38 laps during the four hour session.

There was two incidents this afternoon that brought out the caution. One was early on after Brian Vickers smacked the wall and suffered some cosmetic damage to the side of his No. 55 Aarons Toyota. That car was the team’s primary and will fix the car before tomorrow’s practice sessions. The second incident involved Dave Blaney off turn four towards the end of the test session where he spun. He did not hit anything.

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 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:

 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.

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.