Tuesday, Dec 05
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.

Sam Hornish, Jr. captured the pole for tonight’s second annual Kentucky 300 at the Kentucky Speedway. He ran a fast lap of 30.128 seconds, 179.235 mph. Sam earned his fourth career NASCAR Nationwide Series pole in 93 Nationwide starts. Hornish will start off in tonight’s race with a lot of momentum to extend his points lead.

 

Ryan Blaney ran the second fastest lap in the afternoon of 30.310 seconds, 178.159 mph. He will make his second top-10 start of the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series. Blaney looks to capture his first career win in the series tonight at Kentucky. He was just 0.182 seconds off of the pole sitter.

Defending race winner Austin Dillon, will start in the third spot after running a fast time of 30.330 seconds, 178.042 mph. Austin will make his 22nd top-10 start this season after 27 total races. He is another one of those drivers that is still looking for their first win of the 2013 season.

Nelson Piquet, Jr. was the highest qualifying rookie who will start tonight’s race from the 16th spot. His fastest time of the two runs clocked in at 30.765 seconds, 175.524 mph.

Only one car failed to qualify for tonight’s race and that was Danny Efland.

Corey LaJoie once again captured the win this afternoon in the 12th Annual Z-LOOP 150 at the Kentucky Speedway. Corey earned his third career win in the ARCA Racing Series in only his fourth start. He led a total of 33 total laps of the 100 that made up today’s event. This was the first ARCA series race held at the Kentucky Speedway since the 2009 season.

Mason Mitchell ended up second when the checkered flag flown to score his fifth top-10 finish this season. Mitchell led a total of 20 laps that made up the distance before LaJoie passed him for the race win with 33 laps left. Mitchell lost the race at the line by just 2.564 seconds.

Spencer Gallagher finished in the third position after starting the race all the way from twelfth position. Gallagher captured his fifth career finish for the young driver from Las Vegas, Nevada. He goes into next weeks ARCA Season finale at Kansas Speedway looking for his first career series victory. He also will make his 40th start after running in ARCA the last three years.

Qualifying was washed out yesterday afternoon and the field was set by owner points in the series.

In a couple weeks, the ARCA Racing Series heads off to the Kansas Speedway for the season finale. It will be the 13th Annual Kansas Lottery 98.9 The Rock. Race coverage can be seen live at 8:30 p.m. Et. on Fox Sports 1. Alex Bowman is the defending race winner.=

Tonight's ARCA Racing Series event at the Kentucky Speedway has been postponed to tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Et. and will be televised at the conclusion of the modified event on Fox Sports 2. 

 
All tickets to the event will be accepted tomorrow to both ARCA and NASCAR Nationwide Series events, but fans with only Z-LOOP 150 tickets are asked to relocate to an unoccupied seat. 
 
ARCA final practice went on schedule today before the rains hit the area. Frank Kimmel and Garrett Smithly smacked the wall and had to go to the backup car. 
 

Qualifying for the event was washed out, and the field was set by owner points. Points leader Frank Kimmel, will start the race from the pole tomorrow afternoon.

Jeff Gordon comes into New Hampshire this weekend looking to build onto his strong run after last weekend at the Chicagoland Speedway. Gordon finished the race right where he started from in the sixth position. Gordon will look to improve on his standings in the points this weekend at New Hampshire as he currently sits in the seventh spot.

 
Gordon has a lot of success at this track with three wins, 16 top-fives, and 22 top-10 finishes in 37 races. With that said, he'll definitely be a strong favorite to win, given his past success at short tracks. Gordon said it's all about capitalizing on that opportunity and making the most out of a track your good at.
 
"I look at Martinsville very similar that it is also one of those tracks. It doesn't guarantee anything, doesn't make the job any less hard," said Gordon. "We are going to have to fight and claw just like we have all year long to make it in the Chase and to get the results that we've had."
 
Martinsville is one of those tracks like New Hampshire where Gordon has had a lot of success. In 41 starts, Gordon has earned seven wins, 26 top-fives, and 33 top-10s. He also has an average finish of 7.0. His last win at Martinsville came back in October of 2005 and finished third there back in April of this year.
 
Dover could also be one of those tracks that could shoot him up higher in the standings as he has a 11.8 average finish in 41 total starts. In those starts, he has captured four wins, 16 top-fives, and 23 top-10 finishes. His last win at Dover came back in the Spring of 2001.
 
Phoenix will be the second to the last race of the 2013 schedule. It is however, one of the very few short tracks where Gordon has had very little success at. In 29 starts, he has earned only two wins, 10 top-fives, and 20 top-10 finishes. Gordon's average finish currently sits at 11.4 with a 10.9 average starting position at Phoenix.

Tonight will be the first time the ARCA Racing Series will take on Kentucky Speedway since 2009 at the 1.5-mile oval located in Sparta, Kentucky. Entry list currently features 32 unique drivers who will do all they can to win this weekend. It will mark the 12th annual Z-Loop 150. Parker Kligerman is the defending race winner.

The entry list features many different drivers including, Bobby Gerhart, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Corey LaJoie, Will Kimmel, Justin Boston, Christopher Brown, Mark Meunier, Taylor Ferns, Mason Mitchell, and Steven Mathews.

Storylines heading into tonight.

Frank Kimmel will be one of the huge threats going into tonight’s race at his favorite track. Kimmel has had a lot of success with three wins at Kentucky. He currently goes into this weekend with the points lead over Mason Mingus by 305 with only two races remaining of the 2013 season.

After nearly winning the ARCA race at the Chicagoland Speedway back in late July, rookie Justin Boston looks to have a great run tonight at the Kentucky Speedway. His primary sponsor, Z-Loop, will also be the title sponsor of the event, so he hopes to put the No. 25 in victory lane. In 19 starts, he has captured seven top-fives and 14 top-10s this season.

Corey LaJoie is one of the favorites tonight as he has two wins in only three starts this season. LaJoie goes into this weekend with lots of momentum after coming home with a 4th place finish in his last start at the Iowa Speedway. His two wins this season which came at Chicago and Pocono earlier this year.

You can catch the Z-Loop 150 tonight at 8:00 p.m. Et. live on Fox Sports 1. You can follow live timing and scoring of the event on arcaracing.com. See below for the weekend schedule. No radio coverage will be available.

1:00-3:00 p.m. ARCA RACING PRACTICE NO TV
5:15 p.m. MENARDS POLE QUALIFYING NO TV
8:00 p.m. Z-LOOP 150 RACE LIVE ON FS1

Kurt Busch has had many successes at Furniture Row Racing since he moved over last season driving the No. 78. Kurt has not earned the racing team a win yet for them, but is coming close real soon to grab that victory and snap a 69 race winless streak. 

Kurt Busch made NASCAR history couple weeks ago at the Richmond International Raceway after making Furniture Row Racing the first single car operation to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He has led the team to earn nine top-fives, 14 top-10s, and one pole earlier this year. Last season, he made six starts in the last six races where he earned the team three top-10 finishes the last three weeks of the season.

With a small team like Furniture Row Racing, parts may not be the best of quality as teams like Hendrick Motorsports, Roush-Fenway Racing or Penske Racing. At Chicagoland Speedway, half the other chase teams had problems after going back racing after the long delay with rain. Kurt gets through those difficult situations by making educated decisions on what’s going to happen next with his race car.

After Richmond, Kurt showed a lot of emotion during his ESPN interview after he got out of his race car. The emotion came from his girlfriend’s eight year old boy named Houston. He has full-filled his dreams of racing go carts, playing video games, camping, fishing, and all the other dreams 8-year-olds dream of doing. One of the things on that list he has not had a chance to do, and that is for Kurt to win the race and get to go to victory lane.

“You know, with this small team, it’s a big accomplishment, and for me It’s very satisfying to have bounced back and put this group in Chase contention. It’s like a top-five moment of my career, with a championship, and big wins, consistency over the years, making seven out of 10 Chases, this year was a significant top-five type moment.”

After this season, Kurt will move over to Stewart-Hass Racing where he will be accompanied by Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick. With no drivers as teammates this year, Kurt will receive help from his brother Kyle or future teammate Kevin Harvick.

With many of the controversies surrounding teammates, Kurt believes that they are to help you six out of seven days a week. On Sunday it should be every driver for themselves no matter what the situation may develop.

Kurt has made a total of 462 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In those starts, he has made the chase seven out of 10 times, one championship, 24 wins, 98 top-five, and 188 top-10 finishes. He is always one of the favorites to win going into every race this year.

Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America

Ross Chastain will start on the pole this afternoon at the Iowa Speedway after running a fast time and speed of 22.966 seconds, 137.147 mph. Chastain will join a list of five other drivers to win the 21 means 21 pole award. He will roll off with his fifth top-10 start this season, and with his first career NASCAR pole. Chastain will make his 36th career start later today for Brad Keselowski Racing.

 

Erik Jones will start in the second position today after posting a fast time and speed of 22.984 seconds, 137.052 mph. Jones was just 0.016 seconds off of pole sitter Ross Chastain's lap time. Erik Jones will be one of the favorites today as he will make his second top-10 start in two races at the Iowa Speedway. Last NCWTS race at this track, Jones finished in the second spot behind Timothy Peters.

 

James Buescher posted his fourth top-10 start at Iowa Speedway after a fast lap of 23.013 seconds, 136.789 mph. This will become his ninth top-10 start this season after 15 total series races. He goes into this weekend looking for win two of the season to get further closer to points leader Matt Crafton. His last win came back in Michigan about three weeks ago. In his last start at the Iowa Speedway, he brought home a third place finish.

 

Jeb Burton was the highest qualifying rookie as he posted a fast lap of 23.085 seconds, 136.452 mph. Burton goes into this weekend looking for his second series win of 2013. Last time at the Iowa Speedway didn't go so well for the young driver after finishing in the 22nd spot and one lap down.

 

Only 36 trucks showed up to race this weekend so no drivers went home following qualifying.

 

 

Series points leader Matt Crafton will start today's race from the 12th position.

  

 

With about three weeks since the launch of the new 24/7 sports network, already they have made a mistake covering NASCAR. Fox Sports One replaced the only American dedicated Motorsports channel back in mid August of last month.

Yesterday on Crowd Goes Wild, Fox Sports One made one of the biggest mistakes to ever happen on a sports television network. The network got Atlanta winner Kyle Busch mixed up with his brother Kurt Busch and actually had a valid story that Kurt won the race.

Many people last evening responded to me in shock after posting this picture that Gina Navarra (@OfficialGinaN) posted on Facebook of the mistake.

Photo: Gina Navarra (@OfficialGinaN)

The majority of the NASCAR events last weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway was televised on Fox Sports One’s secondary station and leaving many fans left to not watch practice and qualifying. Fox Sports 2 is available in about 40 million homes while Fox Sports One in available in 90 million households. 

Many fans have gone out in full-force tweeting their displeasures with Fox on taking away the speed channel. The weeks leading up to the channel switch, Fox said fans would not notice any differences in practice and qualifying coverage that it would stay the same.

By this lack of effort on the Fox Sports One network, many NASCAR fans are questioning if they really care about NASCAR coverage or more for football, baseball, or college football.

In my honest opinion, these new television contracts starting in 2015 could shift the NASCAR media industry in a very bad negative way. With less coverage already of the sport by newspapers, television shows, and magazines its already showing a negative impact.

Yesterday was a busy news day in the world of NASCAR for the remaining 2013 and the upcoming 2014 racing season. The list of drivers involved includes Mark Martin, Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip, Ty Dillon, Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch.

The news was broken late Sunday evening just before midnight that Stewart-Hass Racing possibly offered Sprint Cup Series driver a ride in the 2014 racing season as a fourth car. Kurt has yet to renew a contract for Furniture Row Motorsports for whom he currently drives for. Busch stated that he has had multiple offers but has yet to decide which one to take.

Yesterday, Stewart-Hass Racing announced that Mark Martin will drive the No. 14 Chevrolet in the twelve of the thirteen remaining NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. Martin has ran a part-time ride with Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 Toyota this year. Austin Dillon will run the No. 14 at Talladega in October. Tony Stewart will sit out for the rest of the season until testing in January at Daytona.

Brian Vickers will be taking over the No. 55 Toyota also for twelve of the thirteen remaining NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races to prepare for next season. Michael Waltrip will run the No. 55 at Talladega later in October. MWR announced last Tuesday that Brian will drive the No. 55 full-time in 2014.

Ty. Dillon will take over the No. 3 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2014. Dillon signed on an eight race sponsorship deal with Yuengling Light Lager. The team is expecting to sign additional partners with sponsors to fund the remaining races. It is expected that Austin Dillon will move to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next year, although, the team has not announced on Austin’s 2014 plans.

 

Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin had high expectations going into this season with high expectations for the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. The two drivers were two of the biggest fan favorites go into this racing season and with both drivers out of the running It’s going to change many things for the chase.
 
Denny Hamlin chances fell short after having to sit out for five races after being injured in a crash on the last lap at Auto Club Speedway. Denny was faced with a tough choice on returning or sitting out the full-season to heal his back further. Hamlin took a risky move to return to the race car as soon as he could. After missing five races, he fell all the way down to the 31st spot in the points standings going into the Talladega weekend for his return. Hamlin has really no chance at making the 2013 chase due to several recent bad finishes. He currently sits 25th in the standings going into this weekend.
 
Tony Stewart will most likely be out until around November or the rest of the year to fully heal from his broken leg sustained from a sprint car crash Monday evening. He will have to make a tough decision on when he will return to NASCAR’s top level. Tony’s chances of making the chase are gone however, the team currently is looking at going into the owners chase. The No. 14 Chevrolet currently sits 11th in the driver and owner points standings going into this weekend’s race. 
 
Drivers should be able to run as many races as they can during the week. No matter how safe the cars can be, they’ll always be injuries happening to the drivers. Safety will never be enough in a sport where cars are running at high speeds.
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