Darlington/Long Beach Recaps

NASCAR
After a wild Texas race in which Joey Logano won and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. crashed out and finished 43rd, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series traveled to Darlington Raceway for Saturday night's Southern 500.  From the drop of the green flag, it was clear-cut that Kevin Harvick would be the driver to beat, and that he was.  Harvick led 238 of the 374 laps (extended twice due to green-white-checkered) en route to his 2nd win this season, and 3rd win for Stewart-Haas Racing.  The race had a wild finish, first with Logano's crash with 8 laps to go and the leaders went down pit road for tire changes.  Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jr., and Matt Kenseth took 2 tires while Harvick and Kyle Busch took 4.  After green flag waved, another caution erupted thanks to debris and then another yellow took place due to Kurt Busch's wreck on the back-stretch.  Those cautions gave Harvick enough track position in which he was able to take the lead on Lap 373 for good and the victory.  Remember, this season, points do not count as much as wins, so with that, Harvick is now the points leader with 2 wins.  All 3 NASCAR series are off next weekend due to Easter, and the Cup & Nationwide series resumes action at Richmond International Raceway in 2 weeks.

INDYCAR
After an exciting St. Pete Grand Prix and an exciting F1 race in Bahrain last weekend, I couldn't wait for Long Beach.  The IndyCar series made the first standing start of the season at Long Beach and with James Hinchcliffe & Ryan Hunter-Reay on the front row, the latter goes on to lead 51 of 80 laps.  The turning point of the race happened 25 laps from the finish in which both drivers, as well as Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato & Helio Castroneves were involved in a multi-car wreck which changed the entire race.  Scott Dixon became leader, but he was low on fuel, forced to pit 3 laps from the finish.  With that result, Mike Conway, driving part-time for Ed Carpenter Racing, takes the checkered flag and the win for the small team and his 2nd at the track.  The IndyCar series is also off next weekend, resuming action in 2 weeks at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL.