Welcome to “Fuel It Up”! The racing world is chock full of intriguing stories, but sifting through them to get a good general sense of the landscape can be challenging. In Fuel It Up, I take the biggest, more interesting storylines and present them to you in a quick, compact 300-words-or-less format.
The winner of this week’s paint scheme award goes to Aric Almirola in the #43 STP Ford, the car Richard Petty made famous.…………… Speaking of “The King”, Petty’s wife Lynda passed away on Tuesday. She was 72 years old. Last Word on Sports would like to extend our condolences to the Petty family……………. There was more bad news in the sport of NASCAR this week. Former NASCAR driver, Shawna Robinson, announced this week that she is battling breast cancer. Robinson was the only woman driver to make a NASCAR Sprint Cup start from 1999 to 2011…………… More discussion between NASCAR, Goodyear and NASCAR teams and drivers have taken place this week after the tire problems seen at California last Sunday. Goodyear was quick to blame the car set-ups and tire pressures utilized by the NASCAR teams for the problem. Rick Hendrick wasn’t buying it. “I don’t think it was a set-up issue. It’s a combination of not having the right tire.”…………… Denny Hamlin, who missed last week’s Auto Club 400 (with what was believed at the time to be a sinus infection) had a small metal piece removed from his eye. He has been cleared to race on Sunday……………. Las Vegas odds makers have made Jimmie Johnson the favorite for the STP 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. The odds for Johnson are 2-1 followed by Jeff Gordon (5-1), Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski (8-1). Dale Earnhardt Jr. is at 18-1 and Danica Patrick is at 300-1…………… The 29th Army Band will perform the National Anthem for the STP 500 on Sunday. Richard Petty and Dale Inman will be the Grand Marshalls…………… The weather forecast for Martinsville, Virginia for Sunday calls for partly cloudy skies with high temperature of 61f (16c)…………… The STP 500 can be seen on FOX beginning at 1:00 pm. Canadian viewers can see the race on TSN2.
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