Joey Logano wins the pole for the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway for the third consecutive time with a speed of 97.043 mph. Logano joins the elite group of Glen Wood, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin to win three consecutive poles at Martinsville. Logano was able to top the speed chart in all three rounds of qualifying.

“We figured out the qualifying part really well. We really want to be able to win this race. It’s something we’ve been so close too. We have a little extra motivation coming up here this week to be able to show what we are made out of. Its nice to be able to go up here and do what we know how to do, execute qualifying like we know how to at this racetrack. Ever since we unloaded this morning, it was at the top of the board. It’s a fast race car. We knew that, we just have to keep our heads in the game,” said Logano in his media availability after qualifying. 

Kasey Kahne showed to be strong in qualifying. He will start second in Sunday’s STP 500. This is his second time starting in the top-10 in 2016.

“It was really good to get quicker each round. Each round we gained speed, and that was the key. Coming up here today, my main goal was to qualify, and try to figure out how to get the best pit stall that we can. That means a lot on Sunday. In and out is a huge part in starting position, especially under the cautions.”

The threat of rain was a major factor in today’s qualifying session. Teams were constantly checking the radar to see when the best time will be to make a qualifying run. Luckily, qualifying was able to get in its entirety.

The First Round of qualifying still had the heat from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final practice. However, Joey Logano topped the board with a speed of 97.237 mph. In order to get a fast speed, drivers were taking up to five laps in their run. The “King of Martinsville”, as of late, Jimmie Johnson was barely able to advance to the second round.  Notable drivers who were unable to advance to the second round were Carl Edwards (25), Austin Dillon (29), and Danica Patrick (28). 39 drivers were able to take laps at Martinsville; however, Reed Sorenson did not make a lap, but will still make the race.

In between rounds, problems arose in the brakes for Chase Elliott. Chase told his team on the in-car radio that the brakes would not work until he was about halfway pressed down on the pedals.

The second round of qualifying was lead by Logano with a speed of 97.679 mph. In the last seconds of this round, Kahne was able to jump from position 13 to P4 to bump Ricky Stenhouse Jr. from advancing to the third round. Notables who were knocked out in this round include Martin Truex Jr. (16), Jimmie Johnson (24), Kevin Harvick (19), and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (21).

Jimmie Johnson led just 25 laps en route to his sixth career victory at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday following a late race restart that moved the race to overtime.  

In a car that was sponsored by the movie Superman, Johnson needed to use super powers in overtime while restarting in third, sitting behind Kevin Harvick on the bottom line with two laps to go. He pushed the No. 4 car passed leader Denny Hamlin and hooked the white line going into Turn 1 which allowed him to get the lead down the backstretch.

This was Johnson’s 77^th career victory, but without Kyle Busch getting into the wall after cutting a tire with two laps to go, he would have been stuck outside the top five.

 In the second to last stint of the race, the No. 48 car was on older tires, thus making him fall through the field after restarting as the race leader.

“I knew we had a great car and that caution fell at a bad time the run before,” Johnson said. “I just didn’t have the tires on the car to race with those guys. I got a great run off of 2 [Turn] and thought I had a shot at this thing that I didn’t expect to have. I cleared him and kind of got away.”

Harvick placed his Chevrolet second on Sunday after dominating the race, leading 142 laps. Coming off a victory at Phoenix, he had the best car on the short and long runs, something that the team worked on in practice on Saturday.

“It was the worst it had taken off on restarts,” Harvick said of the final run. “We weren’t good on restarts for four or five laps, unless we were all by ourselves. The 48 was able to hang with us and we just weren’t able to drive it in like I needed to and didn’t have the front tires turning.”

After leading on the green-white-checkered finish, Hamlin finished third. On the final pit stop the No. 11 pit crew gained four positions giving their driver the lead.

On the restart Joey Logano spun his tires, not allowing him to push Hamlin and race for the win. Hamlin led just two laps, not coming until after the scheduled 200^th lap.

Logano came home in fourth, while Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. rounded out the top five. Chase Elliott came home just outside the top five in sixth as the highest finishing rookie.

AJ Allmendinger picked up his first top 10 since Pocono last August. He started shotgun on the field and raced his way into the top 10 in the first quarter of the race, where he remained there the majority of the afternoon.

Flat tires and pit road penalties were the story of the race. There were just under 10 flat tires on the afternoon the last one being Busch’s, but the biggest one coming on Lap 48. Kyle Larson cut a tire going down the backstretch, losing control of his car and pounding the inside wall. All four tires came off the ground.

“We were struggling all day,” said Larson. “We were really bad. And just on that backstretch, my left rear tire got cut and spun me to the outside wall and then spun me back into the inside wall. By the time I could hit the brakes it must have ripped the brake line and I had no brakes.”

All four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas had to serve pit road penalties during the 400-mile event. Carl Edwards, whom rebounded to finish seventh, had one with 80 laps to go, but played strategy late in the race where he led at one point with 40 laps remaining.

Hamlin had to serve two penalties, one for speeding and one for pitting too soon on Lap 25. The other top Toyota team, Martin Truex, Jr. had to serve a penalty late in the race. He finished the race 32^nd after Logano put him in the wall late in the race. The No. 78 team was out front for 21 laps.

The other big incident came on Lap 120 as Kasey Kahne hooked Danica Patrick and sent her into the wall heading into Turn 1. Like Larson, the No. 10 car got airborne and she was not pleased with the driver of the No. 5 car.

The Cup Series will return to action on April 3, beating and banging on the half-mile paperclip, Martinsville Speedway.

In the two practice sessions on Saturday in preparation for the Auto Club 400 on Sunday, Joe Gibbs Racing looked to be the team to beat. In each of the two one-hour sessions, it was a JGR Toyota who set down a fast lap in the opening minutes that would not be beat.

Over the span of the two hours there were three separate incidents that would send two teams to backup cars.  

Practice One:

Carl Edwards paced the opening hour of practice at 187.906 mph. After qualifying fifth on Friday, the driver of the No. 19 car is looking to return to Victory Lane in Southern California for the first time since 2008. 

He was just ahead of another Toyota, Martin Truex, Jr. with Furniture Row Racing. The No. 78 team welcomed back crew chief, Cole Pearn, following his one-race suspension last week in Phoenix. He put down a lap at 187.632 mph. 

Third quick was Ryan Newman at 186.640 mph, more than two-tenths of a second off the fast time. Kyle Busch was fourth and pole-sitter Austin Dillon rounded out the top five at 186.587 mph. 

Just outside of the top five was Paul Menard in sixth, making all three Richard Childress Racing cars inside of the top six. The top rookie was Brian Scott in seventh. Two winners so far this season were mired down below 20th, Denny Hamlin 23rd and defending winner Brad Keselowski was just 24th fastest in the morning session.

The first incident of the day came when Aric Almirola slid into the wall off Turn 2, causing significant cosmetic damage. The team would repair the car and return to the track in the second session. The No. 43 car was 19th fastest.

The latter incident came when Kurt Busch pounded the wall right where Almirola did 20 minutes prior. The No. 41 car was not as lucky as the Stewart-Haas Racing team pulled out the backup car, something that Busch appreciated because he was not happy with his primary car on Saturday morning.  

Practice Two: 

In the first two minutes of Happy Hour, Matt Kenseth recorded a lap at 185.419 mph. This practice was in race condition as the Sprint Cup race on Sunday will start at the time that this practice ended. 

After being quickest in the first practice, Edwards was second fast, .015 seconds behind his JGR teammate. The No. 19 car was also one of the best on the long runs as were all of the Toyota teams. Toyota is looking for its third win in the last four races at the Auto Club Speedway, which is the backyard of TRD's headquarters. 

A trio of Fords filled the next three speeds, led by rookie Ryan Blaney at 185.161 mph. Joey Logano was fourth quickest and Almirola rounded out the top five after getting his car back on track following the incident in the opening session. 

Dillon finished the session the lowest he's been all week in sixth, just under a tenth of a second behind Kenseth. Keselowski made improvements to his car and finish Happy Hour 12th.

While the one-lap speed didn't show it, Kevin Harvick had the fastest car on the long run. He was only 27th on the speed chart, but had very little fall off in his tires compared to other teams. The California native is a two-time winner at his home track, the last win coming in 2011 with RCR. 

The biggest incident of the day came 32 minutes into final practice when Kyle Larson got loose getting into Turn 4, by the time he could correct it Greg Biffle drilled him in the rear and the tandem spun to the infield. The No. 16 car was on fresh tires, going approximately 20 mph faster than the No. 42 car at the time.

Larson would go to a backup car with a ton of cosmetic damage to the right rear of the car, while it looks like Biffle will remain in his primary car on Sunday. Before the incident the No. 42 team had the 26th fastest time, while the No. 16 team had the 15th fastest lap. 

The green flag will drop at 3:30 p.m. Sunday to start the Auto Club 400 where another driver will look to clinch their birth into the Chase. 

In what was one of the weirdest ranges of weather sequences in NASCAR history, Brad Keselowski left the field in the dust on his way to Victory Lane, picking up his first win of the season and 18^th of his career.

With five laps to go in the Kobalt 400 on Sunday, Brad Keselowski passed Kyle Busch in what was the eventual race winning pass. This is his second triumph in Las Vegas in the last three years.  

The No. 2 car was running third throughout the last stint of the race, but with roughly 10 laps to go was closing in on the lead and after passing his teammate Joey Logano then able to chase down Busch.

“This rules package, I love it,” Keselowski said. “You can be really fast at the start of the run or really fast at the end of the run and we had awesome speed at the end of every run. It seemed like we could just never put it all together with the way the cautions kept falling. At the end we got that big long run and couldn’t get going for the first few laps.”

Keselowski’s victory didn’t come without adversity. He was caught speeding on pit road with 90 laps to go. But after a caution with 53 laps to go, the No. 2 team stayed out when others decided to pit. He was able to go the distance on fuel and solidify himself into the 2016 edition of the Chase.

 Logano came home second after a last lap pass on Busch. Leading 75 laps, the No. 22 team picked up its first top-five finish of the young season. However, he insisted that again, it is disappointing finishing second after so many second-place finishes in Daytona.  

Atlanta winner, Jimmie Johnson came home third after also passing Busch on the final lap. The No. 48 car was out front for 76 circuits, the most of all drivers.

Dominating the middle potion of the race was what the six-time champion did. But after getting off-sequence with the rest of the field he needed to overcome other teams that took two tires when he took four.

The aforementioned Busch finished fourth at his home racetrack. On a restart with 44 laps to go the No. 18 car restarted sixth and by Turn 3 of that lap had made his way to the lead for the first time on the afternoon.

He led the remainder of the race until five laps to go when Keselowski passed him. He believed that it was a vibration that kept him out of the winner circle.

“Huge vibration,” Busch said as to why he lost the race. “I had a vibration when we put the rights on and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. At the end I didn’t know if a tire was coming apart or what the deal was. I was giving it everything I had.”

Austin Dillon bounced back from a pit road speeding penalty on Lap 147 to a top-five finish. At one point of the race the No. 3 car was two laps down, after running in the top 10 all race long. On the same caution that Keselowski and Logano stayed out, so did Dillon for track position. This is his third career top-five finish.

Ryan Blaney was the highest finishing rookie on Sunday, finishing in sixth. Spending much of the day inside of the top 10, he needed to miss a wreck late in the race to come back to sixth.

That wreck with 43 laps to go came when one of the pre-race favorites Matt Kenseth slid up the track after getting loose where Chase Elliott rear-ended the No. 20 machine. Also caught up in the wreck were Carl Edwards and pole-sitter Kurt Busch.

Kenseth’s bad luck to start the season continued while getting caught up in that incident. After losing the Daytona 500 on the final lap, a pit road penalty in Atlanta, he was desperate for a good finish in Sin City. While leading nine laps, a 37^th-place effort doesn’t help his causes.

The pole-sitter came back to finish in ninth. Outside of the No. 18 team, Joe Gibbs Racing struggled with Edwards in 18^th the second-highest finisher out of that Toyota camp, Denny Hamlin was just behind in 19^th.

Kevin Harvick finished seventh and he extended his consecutive top 10 streak to start the season. He is one of two drivers to finish in the top 10 in all three races, the other being 2015 champion Busch.

Next Sunday the Cup Series heads to Phoenix in the second of three west coast races. Harvick is the defending winner of the spring race and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the fall event in the desert.

Kurt Busch looking for first win at hometown track.

After winning the pole on Friday at a speed of 196.328 mph, Busch has had one of the fastest cars all weekend long in Sin City. He has never won at his hometown track, posting a best finish of third in 2005 while driving for Roush Fenway Racing.

 The No. 41 car has been no lower than 10^th on the speed chart all weekend long, that coming on Saturday in the morning practice.

Team Penske rebounding from last weekend.

Atlanta was a disappointing weekend for Team Penske. Though Brad Keselowski came home with a top-10 finish, the team struggled throughout the weekend. Joey Logano started 26^th and failed to record a top 10 after a late race commitment cone penalty.

That race was the first with the new aerodynamic package. This weekend the two teammates have been atop or near the top of the leader board. The No. 2 car was fastest in opening practice on Friday with the No. 22 team in second. They qualified inside of the top five. But on Saturday the team struggled with only Keselowski inside of the top 10 on speed.

Kevin Harvick battling the flu.

The defending winner of this race has been sick all weekend long, thus causing the team to work harder than normal. It took Harvick three tries to advance out of the first round of qualifying. The car just kept getting faster, resulting in a sixth-place effort.

In the practices on Saturday Harvick was mired with 22^nd best time. Can he go back-to-back in Sin City and start the West Coast swing with a bang?

Carl Edwards coming from the back. 

The two-time Vegas winner crashed on Friday in the second round of qualifying. However, on Saturday the team rebounded, placing the car in first and second resptively in the two practice sessions. After struggling in the test session on Thursday and practice on Friday, Joe Gibbs Racing looks to be a threat for the win today. Matt Kenseth was fastest in Happy Hour.

Green flag racing.

In the first race with the new aerodynamic package at Atlanta, the first 210 laps stayed green. There was only one caution in the race until three laps to go when Ryan Newman cut a tire. In the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish there was pileup on the backstretch.

Normally, this race runs green for quite a while. The fewest number of cautions in a single race was two in 1998 and 2000. The most were in 2009 with 14. Just two years ago, won by Keselowski was the fastest race in track history at 154.633 mph.