Driving a second car does not keep Brad Keselowski in second place. Despite destroying his primary car in a practice round last week in Kentucky and yet he managed to drive the backup to victory, something that you very rarely see.
Not only did he win but he led the last 55 laps but he did it with a limited gas supply in earning his third victory of the season. Kyle Busch looked very strong early but a bump into the wall and the resulting damage ruined any chance he had of a win. The top five for the week was filled out by Kasey Kahne in second followed by Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon.
Next up- Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola
This week the teams are back at a place they are very familiar with, Daytona for the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola. Not much that can be sad about the track that fans do not already know. It is a 2.5 mile tri-oval and if my math is correct this race marks the half way point in the season. The leader board is very tight and we will probably expand it to the top ten next week.
I did catch an interesting piece over at ESPN about a proposal to include mandatory cautions in races to add excitement. Burton Smith, a billionaire track promoter said that the inclusion would make the races more exciting, something that he believes long stretches of green flag racing is not. NASCRA official seem very cold to the idea, at least right now.
Twitter– Instead of pointing to a number of Twitter addresses as we have in the past it seems to make much more sense just to send you to a site that appears to have consolidated a who’s who of racing twitter addresses instead. So head over here for a list.
Broadcast
July 7 6:30 ET TNT
Sprint Cup Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -11
3) Jimmie Johnson -23
4) Greg Biffle –25
5) Denny Hamlin -68
Nationwide Series
The Nationwide race last week was an up and down day for Austin Dillon. He was absolutely dominating in the race, winning his first Nationwide Series race by leading it for 192 out of 200 laps. The win enabled him to take over the leader board from Elliott Sadler, at least for a very short while.
A look below at the point’s leader shows that Dillon fell out of the points lead. The reason for this was a six point penalty because his car failed an inspection following the race last week for having a car that was too low. The top five of the race was filled out by Kurt Busch in second with Kevin Harvick, Michael Annett and Justin Allgaier filling out the remaining positions.
This Week: Subway Jalapeno 250 powered by Coca-Cola
Broadcast
July 6, 7 pm ET ESPN
Nationwide Series Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillon -4
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -31
5) Justin Allgaier -71
