By: Toby Christie

NASCAR has come out today and announced Carl Edwards’ fate after his blatant crashing of Brad Keselowski in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500. NASCAR has placed Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, on probation for the next three series events for a rule violation he committed during the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7. Edwards’ probation will run until April 14 of this year.

Edwards was found to have violated Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing – aggressive driving) of the 2010 NASCAR rule book.

This is good and all, but does this punishment really fit the crime? Other drivers such as Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon have been suspended for a race by NASCAR in the past for similar infractions, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was even docked points after slipping an S-Bomb in victory lane once…

In the end it is NASCAR’s decision and I understand they are kind of in a box, considering they told the drivers to “have at it” in the offseason, but I was expecting at least a wrist slap… this penalty hardly even constitutes as a wrist slap. It will be interesting to see what happens next in this fued now considering NASCAR has proven that they are for the drivers taking care of these issues themselves.

By: Toby Christie

NASCAR going into this season said that they were going to loosen the reigns, and let the drivers police themselves, and settle confrontations however they see fit… I don’t think they imagined this.

Sunday Carl Edwards went too far. He let his emotions get the best of him, and he put the safety of his fellow drivers and the race fans in jeopardy.

On lap 323 of the race Carl Edwards was on the track for the one reason you are not supposed to be on the track. He didn’t have any position to lose or gain, he plain and simple went out for revenge for an incident earlier in the race on lap 40.

On lap 40 Brad Keselowski made contact with the back of Edwards’ car, which sent Carl into Joey Logano which basically ended any shot at the win for Edwards. Being upset is understandable, but after further review of the incident it seems that Edwards may have been more at fault than anyone in that lap 40 skirmish.

It was the latest incident in a saga that dates back to last year’s Aarons 499 at Talladega where the two made contact which sent Edwards into the catchfence while Keselowski basked in the joys of victory lane.

Lets fast forward back to lap 323 of Sunday’s race. Edwards found himself 156 laps down, and all over the Fourth place car of Brad Keselowski. Rattling Keseloski would have been one thing, but Edwards took the fued to the next level. Coming down the front straightaway Edwards tapped the back quarterpanel of the No. 12 Dodge, which sent it around immediately. From there all hell basically broke loose.

Keselowski’s car flew through the air, flipped upside down and landed on the outside retaining wall. The accident was extremely scary because the part of the car that impacted the retaining wall was the Driver’s cockpit area… Keselowski walked away, and the fans in the stands luckily weren’t injured at all, but this could have very easily been much much different.

Love or hate Keselowski, you can’t deny that he could have easily been killed, and race fans could have been injured and for what reason? So Edwards could settle a score? It was utterly uncalled for and NASCAR had to take immediate action.

NASCAR would call the no. 99 car back to the garage to be parked for the remainder of the event, but the damage was done. Edwards on this day took it too far, and gave a great example of why NASCAR began throwing out rules upon rules upon rules years ago.

No word yet on any further penalties for Edwards, but this will be an intriguing story to watch during the week. However in my opinion forcing Edwards to come to the garage when he was too far behind to gain any positions, is not penalty enough…

Kurt Busch with his NHRA 1970 Dodge Challenger. Photo Credit: DJ DeSpain, RubbingsRacing.com.

Kurt Busch announced today that he is going to race next weekend at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals in his rebuilt 1970 Dodge Challenger.

The bug captured Busch back in the early 1990’s, but made the decision to compete while at Concord’s zMAX Dragway in September of 2008.

The 1970 Dodge Challenger is powered by a stroked 6.1 liter Hemi and weighs 3000 pounds. Busch mentioned that they wanted to keep the weight down a bit, but regardless, this car that he plans to make “street legal” will run 8 sec. 1/4 mile runs. Very deceptive based on its purely stock look.

Busch said he purchased the car originally off of ebay for $15,000, and when I asked him how much he has put back into the car to get it into racing condition, his response was “I haven’t added all the receipts together yet.” He did come back and say he thought it was probably around the $100,000 mark and took a year and a half of time to complete the rebuild with one full time employee and then up to five volunteers at any time.

Busch is prepared to be knocked out in the first round, but is very excited about the opportunity to compete. He feels that reaction time and feel for the car is going to translate well into NASCAR and feels that it will help with his “A” job.

Joking Busch said “it may not be as big of an announcement as Danica coming to NASCAR, but Busch is going to NHRA!”

By: Toby Christie

Those who were in doubt that the No. 88 Amp Energy team had made improvements this season, have to at least admit that they have qualifying figured out. Earnhardt Jr., who has not been known as a strong qualifier in his career, qualified fourth last week in Vegas, and he topped that Friday by capturing the pole for Sunday at Atlanta.

This is Earnhardt’s first pole since he topped the speed charts at Texas in 2008, some 68-races ago.

Earnhardt will lead the field to the green in the Kobalt Tools 500 after a blistering lap of 192.761 mph… much faster than I personally anticipated anyone to go with the aging track surface at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch will start second with a lap of 192.280 mph. Juan Pablo Montoya was a late qualifying scare, but he would come home third in the qualifying session. Montoya was the last of the cars to break 192 miles-per-hour.

Earnhardt’s Hendrick teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon will roll off the grid from fourth and fifth.

Jimmie Johnson who has won the last two Sprint Cup Series races of the season was only able to muster the 16th fastest time of the session, but expect him near the front Sunday.

The three cars that will be going home this week are Aric Almirola, Terry Cook, and Casey Mears. Mears still has not made a cup race yet this season.

By: DJ DeSpain

Rocket Man Ryan Newman has seven qualifying poles at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which ties him with Buddy Baker for the track record. For his 300^th career start, he hopes to beat that record this Friday on Qualifying Day at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

When asked about the comparison between him and Buddy Baker, Newman said “I think Buddy Baker is one of the 50 greatest NASCAR drivers in the history of our sport. If there was ever a record I could beat him or tie him in, that would be a big reward mentally for me.”

He goes on to say “If I live out the rest of my career tied with Buddy Baker, I’m still fine with that. But obviously I’d like to beat it, too.”

However well he qualifies in Atlanta, it has yet to result in a win in the Cup series. Newman acknowledges that while he hasn’t had much luck at Atlanta, it’s not really fair to equate poles to wins.

According to Ryan “it’s all about the entire package, just like it is for everybody else on any given weekend. I’ve always said it’s much easier to go out there and be the quickest car on one lap than it is to be the best car on average over 500 miles. The longer you’re doing something, the harder it is to maintain that level of excellence.”

Presently, Atlanta is considered to be one of the fastest non-restrictor plate race track on the NASCAR circuit. But can Newman tell the difference in speed as he goes around the track?

“I don’t think you necessarily feel the speed as much as you actually know the input you’ve given the race car to make it go faster. I’ve always said, you know, from 140 miles an hour on up, I don’t think that you actually feel speed until something happens to you or you hit something.”

Aside from hitting the wall or someone else, “When you’re running 200 miles an hour at Atlanta, I don’t think you necessarily feel that actual extra one or two or sometimes three miles an hour. What you feel is the input you give in the car to make it go faster, getting back to the throttle a little sooner, getting into the corner a little bit harder, and carrying a little more mid-corner speed. Those are the things that you feel that actually make you feel what you’ve done to pick up speed over a given mile-and-a-half.”

As the cars and drivers get better, the speeds get faster. Newman stated that “it’s just a matter of picking your game up a little bit everywhere to be able to get the grip out of a track and match that grip to your race car to get everything you can for a given lap.”

Let’s hope Rocket Man Ryan can find enough grip to cap his 300^th career start with his first Atlanta Motor Speedway Sprint Cup win along with breaking the AMS pole record.

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Be sure to follow DJ (@DJ_DeSpain) and Chris (@rubbings) on Twitter as they cover both the Camping World Truck Series and Sprint Cup Series races this weekend in Atlanta. In addition, be sure to check the Facebook page at facebook.rubbingsracing.com for continuous updates.

By: Toby Christie

Jimmie Johnson took his second straight victory of 2010 Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The winning move for Johnson was a pass on Jeff Gordon with 16 laps to go. The pass was setup by a call from Chad Knaus. Knaus decided to take four tires, while Jeff Gordon and Steve Letarte took two tires on the final pit stop… this gave Johnson just enough of an advantage to do what he has done best over the past four seasons.

Johnson continues his climb to the top of the standings again in his quest for a fifth consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship. This win marks Johnson’s 49th career victory.

“Jeff and I were racing so hard all day. I wasn’t sure if I would get away from him there.” Johnson said in victory lane.

Kevin Harvick quietly continued his great start to the season, by sneaking by Jeff Gordon late to take home a second-place finish.

Jeff Gordon didn’t win, but he was the driver that actually laid a whooping down on the entire field. Gordon, age 38, drove today like he did back in the late 1990’s when he was on top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but just couldn’t seal the deal.

At one point Gordon had lapped so many cars that only nine cars remained on the lead lap.

Gordon easily led the most laps in the race by leading 218 of the 267 laps today. It’s got to be frustrating for Gordon as he would fade to a third place finish down the stretch, but this finish does come at a great time for Gordon, as he was sitting all the way back in the 23rd position in the points standings before this race.

Mark Martin would give Hendrick motorsports their third top-five car of the race with a fourth-place finish.

Matt Kenseth would round out the top-five as he just held off Joey Logano for the fifth position in a photo finish.

Not everyone had a great day including Juan Montoya, who made the chase last season. Montoya has now had two straight races of finishing outside the top-30. Montoya was crashed by his teammate Jamie McMurray on lap 93 which resulted in a 37th-place finish, and Montoya vented in the garage area.

“He (McMurray) runs straight into my (Expletive). He nearly ran me into the fence in (Turn) 2 as well. I don’t know. He’s not doing himself any favors. I’m sure (McMurray) is going to say ‘Oh, I didn’t mean that.’” Montoya said.

So the Earnhardt-Ganassi team that was looking like a well oiled machine after Daytona, and even after California, now has some issues to resolve between their two drivers.

By: Toby Christie

Some wondered whether we’d even see a lap of the Sam’s Club 300 today… well the race did get underway, and no it was not shortened by rain.

Kevin Harvick had the dominant car early, but was shuffled back multiple times due to pit crew miscues, and strategy mistakes. Harvick was very vocal over the radio calling his pitcrew “idiots” at one point. You almost can’t blame Harvick for being upset, it seems every week thus far pit errors have cost him the race.

There was a caution for rain that came out on lap 104, and many thought that would be the end of the race. Kyle Busch was leading at the time of the caution, but the rain would not last.

They would go back to green a few laps later on lap 109.

The field would race feverishly the rest of the way fearing that rain would stop the race at any time, and it would appeared it would be a battle between Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch until the inevitable. However the rain would somehow hold off the rest of the day. On the next caution on lap 145 several drivers including Denny Hamlin decided to take no tires or just two tires to move to the front.

This jumbled the lineup, and actually paid off for a while. Hamlin would pull out to a commanding lead until a caution on lap 165 that wiped his advantage away.

Hamlin was able to use late cautions to help conserve his tires, but he could not hold off Kevin Harvick who led the most laps on the day.

Harvick would overcome earlier misfortunes and would go on to win the Sam’s Town 300 in Las Vegas. Harvick led 83 of the 200 laps on the day.

Denny Hamlin would go on to finish second, Carl Edwards came home third, Brad Keselowski ended up fourth after starting on the pole, and Brian Vickers was fifth.

Kyle Busch was in contention until brushing the wall late in the race. The contact with the wall would affect Busch’s car and he would wind up finishing 16th.

Danica Patrick’s final Nationwide race for the next four months ended on lap 84. She collided with Michael McDowell in an accident where it was a case of both drivers looking for the same piece of real estate. Danica was quick to blame McDowell, but after watching the accident again I think it was just a racing accident. Michael McDowell did apologize to Danica after the accident saying, “it was 100-percent my fault”.

This was the first race that Danica actually looked somewhat comfortable so far. She was mixing it up all day, and kept moving forward throughout the day. At one point she was up to third using a different pit sequence from the leader. There are a lot of positives to take from this race for Patrick, however the fact that she failed to finish is still a concern.

By: Toby Christie

Well we knew it was gonna have to happen eventually, but the skies held off rain for approximately 50-minutes of Sprint Cup Series happy hour.

Clint Bowyer was the fastest in this session turning a lap of 183.530 mph. Bowyer was followed by Juan Montoya, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top-five fastest in happy hour.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a scare in the practice. He spun, over corrected almost went into the outside wall, but he was able to save the race car. This is extremely important because Earnhardt will be rolling off fourth on Sunday, and if he had to start in the back of the field that wouldn’t be a good start at all.

The question now is about the Nationwide Race. Will we get it in or will mother nature scratch it for today? We will find out shortly.

By: Toby Christie

Kyle Busch, who won this event last season, was fastest in the morning practice session today. Busch posted a fast time of 184.036 mph. This doesn’t bode well for the competition as every team was in race setup-mode unlike yesterday.

Greg Biffle turned the second quickest lap of the session at 183.855 mph. Polesetter Kurt Busch was third quickest in practice with a lap of 183.486 mph.

David Reutimann, who only was 17th quickest in qualifying laid down a lap worthy of fourth quickest. Reutimann’s average speed was 183.399 mph.

Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five fastest. Happy Hour is underway now, more updates as the day progresses.

By: Toby Christie

On a day where weather appears to be threatening and rain is in the forcast, the Nationwide Series has found a way to squeeze in qualifying for the Sam’s Town 300.

Brad Keselowski captured the pole for the Nationwide race that is scheduled for later today. Keselowski clocked a lap of 185.427 mph easily shattering Scott Speed’s previous track record of 181.708 mph. In fact eight cars in this session broke the old track record from last season.

Kevin Harvick, who has been great at every race thus far this season (Nationwide and Sprint Cup), will start second with a speed of 185.027 mph.

Carl Edwards, who welcomed a new baby into the world this week, will start third after he ran a lap of 184.496 mph.

Edwards is followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Hamlin had been struggling for a while with qualifying. He said after his run that he went to teammate Busch for advice, and apparently it paid off in a fourth place start for Hamlin.

Eight cars will be going home this week in the Nationwide Series. Those drivers are: Jason Keller, Johnny Chapman, Derrike Cope, Jeremy Clements, Stephen Leicht, Johnny Bourneman, Andy Ponstein, and Morgan Shepherd.

Danica Patrick qualified 37th in what will be her final Nationwide Race before her hiatus.