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 Kyle Larson in the #42 Target Chevrolet… A familiar face sits on top of the Sprint Cup point standings this week. Jeff Gordon leads the way heading into Darlington with 259 points after seven races. It is the first time Gordon has sat at the top of the Chase standing since the 2009 season. Matt Kenseth is trailing Gordon by 4 points followed by Carl Edwards (-12), Joey Logano (-24) and Kyle Busch (-28)… Dale Earnhardt Jr., apologized to his team and fans after wrecking at Texas Motor Speedway after only a few laps were run. “I’m ready to get to Darlington and get back to it”, Earnhardt said… Speaking of Earnhardt, he tested his #88 Chevrolet at Michigan this week. Earnhardt was among several drivers testing new tires at the track and was clocked at 215 mph… Several cars were damaged by jet dryers last week in Texas. Brad Keselowski’s car seemed to take the worst beating by the dryers as his hood needed to be banged and taped up prior to a restart early in the race. Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick and Jamie McMurray also suffered damage but theirs was minor compared to the #2 car of Keselowski… Matt Kenseth looks to repeat his winning performance from last season at Darlington. David Pearson leads all drivers with 10 victories at Darlington. Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with six victories… Miss South Carolina, Brooke Mosteller will perform the National Anthem prior to the running of the Bojangles Southern 500 on Saturday night… It appears NASCAR’s recent string of bad weather on race day may be over. The weather forecast for Saturday night calls for clear skies with temperatures at race time of around 70f (21c)…………… The Bojangles Southern 500 can be viewed on FOX starting at 630 p.m. and in Canada on TSN.
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