A little behind due to work but I've been trying to keep up. After an exciting weekend of road racing at Road America and Sonoma, the top-3 NASCAR different series traveled to Sparta, Kentucky for a weekend of hard racing.
NASCAR CUP
Kyle Busch won the Truck race Thursday night, Kevin Harvick won the Nationwide race Friday night and Saturday night was a Penske team effort. Brad Keselowski started on pole and just dominated the race, leading 199 of the 267 laps en route to his 2nd victory of the season, and his performance Saturday night just showed how tough Penske Racing is going to be moving forward this season, especially since the fact that 5 of the 10 Chase races are run on 1.5 mile tracks. Joey Logano started 2nd, led 37 laps and finished 9th. Kyle Busch started in the top-10 and was the only other driver to lead a lap at Kentucky, led 31 total, finished 2nd. A strong weekend by Joe Gibbs Racing, even though Denny Hamlin crashed out early, finished 42nd which was last. Matt Kenseth had a pit-road speeding violation and ended up finishing 6th. Hendrick Motorsports also had a good showing with all 4 drivers once again finishing in the top-10. Within the last month, Hendrick drivers won 5 straight races and Penske Racing has been effective all season. Those 2 teams as well as Kevin Harvick w/ Stewart-Haas Racing I think are going to be the top drivers to watch the rest of the season. Keselowski, Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards & Joey Logano all have multiple wins this season. 10 drivers have won races and really have 6 more spots to fill in the chase. If we don't have 16 winners, then it will go to point standings in which highest drivers who haven't won will grab a Chase spot come Richmond, 10 races away. The series resumes action Saturday night in Daytona.
INDYCAR
After a 3-week absence, the Verizon IndyCar series resumed for a double-header at NRG Stadium Park in Houston. Saturday's race was shortened due to rain and ran on a 1 hour, 50 minute time limit (80 laps). With late drama thanks to Graham Rahal getting into the back of Tony Kanaan, the race ended under caution, rookie Carlos Huertas (in only his 9th race) wins Race 1 at Houston. Juan Pablo Montoya & Carlos Munoz rounded out the podium. This was the first time there was an all-Colombian podium. Sunday's race was dry and hot and nobody was able to stop Simon Pagenaud and Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports. Pagenaud and teammate Mikhail Aleshin finished 1-2 and also joined by rookie Jack Hawksworth on the podium. Well, after the 2 races, Will Power leads Helio Castroneves by 39 points, going into a high-points paying weekend next week at Pocono.
Off topic, I've been very impressed with all the rookies this year in the IndyCar series. All 4 rookies, including Munoz, were on the podium this weekend in Houston. These drivers are gonna be around for a while and I won't be surprised if another rookie takes the checkered flag in a future race this season.
FORMULA 1
After an exciting return to Red Bull Ring in Austria last weekend, the F1 series will resume action next weekend for the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, England.
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