Posted on by Staff Report

At home or on the go, keep tabs on the Cup, Nationwide and Truck races this weekend

This weekend brings the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to Charlotte Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Nationwide Series to Iowa Speedway. 

The Sprint Cup Series Sprint Showdown is Friday, May 16, at 7:15 p.m. ET with coverage on FOX Sports 1. The Showdown will be a format of two 20-lap segments.

The Sprint All-Star Race is Saturday, May 17, at 9 p.m. ET with coverage on FOX Sports 1. The All-Star Race format consists of four 20-lap segments, ending with a 10-lap run.

For more information about how the Sprint Showdown and All-Star Race are set up, see our breakdown of the formats. 

The Camping World Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 is Friday, May 16, at 8:30 p.m. ET with coverage on FOX Sports 1. 

The Nationwide Series Get to Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin-Williams is Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN.

For more information on track times, press conferences and GarageCam, you can check out this weekend’s schedule. For TV times check out this week’s TV schedule.

We know you may not have the time to watch the Sprint Cup and Truck Series action or Sunday’s Nationwide race without any interruptions, so if you’re on the go, here’s how to keep up at both Charlotte and Iowa.

NASCAR.com’s live Cup leaderboard, Nationwide leaderboard and Camping World Truck Series leaderboard update in real-time and offer constant text updates of lead changes, cautions, strategies, strong runs and everything in between. On the go? Download the NASCAR Mobile app to follow the leaderboards live from your device.

Lap-by-Lap will keep you caught up even if you can only take a peek here and there. Check in now and then to read back through all the laps you’ve missed, or keep an eye on the feed for real-time race updates.

We’ll also be sending race updates via Twitter through the official @NASCAR and @NASCARStats handles, as well as curating NASCAR tweets from the Twitter universe with a social timeline.

Haven’t tried RaceView yet? If you sign up, you’ll get virtualized video of cars on the track from various angles and hear what your favorite team is saying over the radio. Use it as a second screen or as your only screen. Just want to scan the radios? You can have that too with RaceView Audio. On a mobile device? Get RaceView Mobile here.

If you want to be more involved in the on-track action, you can manage your own fantasy team on NASCAR.com and follow your team’s performance in NASCAR Fantasy Live. Mobile users can also download NASCAR Connect, a game from OneUp Sports that allows users to play other fans with race predictions, for some off-track competition while drivers battle it out on the track.

Live Press Pass streams will keep the NASCAR action rolling even after the winner rolls in and out of Victory Lane. Catch interviews with the top finishers immediately following the checkered flag for the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck races, and stay tuned to NASCAR.com throughout the week for the latest news.

Posted on by Staff Report

Scott’s message to Bayne: ‘I think you race like an idiot’

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Brian Scott was direct with — and had a few choice words for — Trevor Bayne when the two NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers discussed the implications of a multicar wreck at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month.

Bayne, who initiated the wreck, accepted responsibility for it after driving too aggressively on Talladega’s famous high banks, an action which resulted in all Richard Childress Racing entries being collected.

FULL SERIES COVERAGE

"It’s unfortunate when you’re a victim of stupidity," Scott said after the race, and he followed up with similar words the next day. Both Scott and Bayne confirmed they talked Sunday following the driver’s meeting for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega.

"I’m a no bull(crap) kind of straightforward guy," Scott told the Cedar Rapids Gazette newspaper while in Newton, Iowa, to test at Iowa Speedway last week. "I don’t go around and say things behind people’s backs that I wouldn’t say right to them. So, when Trevor Bayne and I talked, I went right up to him and I said, ‘You know, I think you race like an idiot. And every time you’re around me you put us both in jeopardizing situations. … There’s no need for that.’ "

Cooler heads seem to have prevailed, though, and just in time for the series’ first stand-alone event of the year, the Get to Know Newton 250 scheduled for Sunday. The 0.875-mile Iowa track stands in stark contrast to the massive 2.66-mile oval at Talladega — and the short track fits the bill if Scott wanted to hand out a little retribution.

Bayne doesn’t expect that, though. In fact, the 23-year-old continues to own up to his mistake heading into the weekend.

"I think it’s over and done with," Bayne said during last week’s test session. "I made a mistake at Talladega and just didn’t give us enough room and got into Brian’s left rear and turned him and, unfortunately, took out a lot of race cars. It’s not something we’re happy about. We talked, and he and I have a long history of racing each other hard, and you’ll have that when you’re racing for the same position.

"We just wanted to make sure we cleaned that up so (at) Iowa, there’s no grudge or anything like that. Especially with both of us being where we are in the points (in the top six), we don’t need any more mishaps. And you don’t want any enemies out there. You want to apologize quickly and not let it carry on week to week."

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Chastain will pilot the No. 55 Viva Motorsports Chevrolet in the History 300

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Ross Chastain is scheduled to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Viva Motorsports No. 55 Chevrolet, the team announced Thursday.

FULL SERIES COVERAGE

Chastain, 21, will drive a Watermelon.org-sponsored car for team owners Jimmy and Jamie Dick on May 24th in the History 300 (2:45 p.m. ET, ABC). He will become the team’s fifth driver this season, joining Todd Bodine, Jamie Dick, Caleb Roark and Jimmy Weller. Roark is scheduled to make his Nationwide debut this Sunday in the Get to Know Newton 250 (2 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Iowa Speedway. 

"I want to thank Jamie Dick and everyone at Viva Motorsports for giving me this opportunity," Chastain said in a statement released by the team. "I’m looking forward to working with Bill (Henderson) and the crew as I’ll be leaning on them a lot." 

Chastain has competed in two of the three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events this season for team owner Ricky Benton. He also participated in Preseason Thunder testing for ThorSport Racing at Daytona International Speedway.

The Alva, Fla., native enjoyed his greatest success in the Truck Series in 2013, when he won two pole positions and recorded a pair of runner-up finishes among his four top-five finishes in a part-time schedule for Brad Keselowski Racing.

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Second-year Truck Series driver looking to move up from ninth in the standings

CONCORD, N.C. — Darrell Wallace Jr. said Thursday that he’s thrilled to be at home for a weekend of racing. Why not, when a quiet evening in apparently means an all-nighter of "training" on the NASCAR ’14 video game while Ryan Blaney, FOX Sports broadcasters and a goat cavorting in your TV room.
 
The video that surfaced Wednesday shows the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver wearing a strand of purple feathers, which he was quick to insist was a prop and not a personal effect from his wardrobe.
 
"I didn’t even know it was called a boa," Wallace admitted. "I thought a boa was a snake."

FULL SERIES COVERAGE

• Latest news
• Standings
• Schedule

Having shed his party garb from the video, the 20-year-old driver was back to business Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway ahead of Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1). Mother Nature didn’t exactly cooperate, washing away Thursday’s two practice sessions.
 
The newly compressed Friday schedule means just one practice session, qualifying and the race all in the same day. His Kyle Busch Motorsports operation did not participate in a recent test session at the 1.5-mile track, but Wallace predicts his team is ready to make up for lost time.
 
"Limited track time is always tough especially when we race at night here and the next practice schedule if the rain keeps up would be (Friday) morning," Wallace said, just an hour before NASCAR officials canceled the Thursday schedule. "Everybody complains about how turn three and four is so different and one and two are pretty similar from night to day — maybe a little different, but three and four you can’t even get through during the day and then all of the sudden during the race it’s the fastest corner we go to. We’ll be all right — we have a good baseline of what we had last year."
 
Wallace indicated last week at Kansas Speedway that his No. 54 Toyota team was ripe for a streak of top-five finishes, a desire he reiterated Thursday at Charlotte. He attributed his "horrific" — his words — 15th-place result last week at Kansas to a swing and a miss on the setup with this year’s new rules package — gremlins he hopes are worked out come Friday night.
 
It’s still early in the 22-race season, but Wallace clearly has higher aspirations than his current ninth-place rank in the series standings. Friday’s slate offers Wallace a chance to make substantial gains, something more concrete than virtual video-game laps in a house party setting.
 
"Whenever we really get on track … that’s when we really have to show everybody what our program is about," Wallace said. "At Kansas we were OK — a little bit off, but that was a test session for us because we really didn’t know how our stuff would be on a mile-and-a-half (track) with all the new changes that came over the offseason. Now we have an idea of where we need to be and everybody wants to be first so, playing a little catch-up to get there.
 
"I strongly believe we can get up there throughout the season. Just make smart choices on the track and be ahead of the ball each and every weekend when we unload."

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Posted on by Nascar

Two years removed from last competition, crews await next shot at spotlight

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It’s the week of the Sprint All-Star Race, hosted once again by the folks at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and for those of you keeping count, that’s 27 in a row and 28 of 29.

The race that "could be moved around to other facilities" hasn’t, at least not since 1986 in Atlanta.

But that’s OK. With the majority of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series teams housed nearby, allowing CMS to continue to host the non-points event works. It works from a scheduling standpoint and it works from a location standpoint.

So what’s wrong with the All-Star weekend?

FULL SERIES COVERAGE

• Latest news
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For the second consecutive year, there will be no pit crew competition leading up to Saturday night’s main event.

An eight-year run at Time Warner Cable Arena ended in 2012 when Sprint, which has sponsored the event, decided to move its dollars to Daytona in February for what is now known as the Sprint Unlimited.

Perhaps sponsoring the annual pit crew competition as well as the actual All-Star Race was a bit of overkill for the series’ sponsor. That’s understandable.

But for the event to go away entirely due to a lack of sponsorship does a great disservice to those who often spend their entire careers toiling away in the background.

The Sprint Pit Crew Challenge certainly wasn’t the first program to recognize the efforts of those that go over the wall each week. For more than three decades, a similar program was held at Rockingham (North Carolina) Speedway. That particular program went away when the track’s fall event was removed from the race schedule.

Those on the pit crews do their various jobs time after time, knowing their efforts will likely go unnoticed. But that’s OK, too. Great pit stop? No problem, now let’s get back to the race leader.

Except for those occasions when there is a problem, of course. Then it’s "what happened to those guys? Here, let’s take a look."

The race winner is interviewed after the race. The crew chief gets interviewed after the race. And in most cases, the team owner is interviewed after the race.

But the members of the winning pit crew? After a few brief photos in the winner’s circle, they likely can be found packing up equipment and heading off to the airport, out of sight and out of mind.

It’s the nature of the sport, and everyone accepts that.

That’s what made the pit crew competition, regardless of where it was held, special. It might have taken place only once a season, but it was a time that the crews could be recognized and applauded for their efforts, often in front of friends and family, while going head-to-head with their fellow crew members.

Sure, they do it every week, but so too do the drivers. This is All-Star week. No points, no pressure. It was competitive, yes, but it was also a lot of fun for those involved.

After Sprint shifted its sponsorship dollars away from the Pit Crew Competition, NASCAR officials said they hoped to secure funding for the program. A year later, they’re still searching.

There were rumors of a new group undertaking the program, and moving it to ZMax Dragway, which is located outside the speedway. Unfortunately, that project failed to get off the ground.

Throughout the course of a season, there are various opportunities for different groups to be recognized for their efforts, from those that build the engines to those that driver the transporters.

The pit crew competition was the perfect opportunity to recognize a special group of individuals that too often go unnoticed.

The shame of it is that they apparently weren’t special enough.

Here’s hoping that changes by the time the 2015 All-Star Race rolls around.

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Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR.com’s leaderboards will not be available for NNS Coors Light Qualifying

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With so much on-track action at both Charlotte Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway this weekend, NASCAR.com is unable to support access to the Nationwide Series leaderboard for Friday’s practice and Saturday’s qualifying. But NASCAR.com will still provide coverage of those events with live updates from our reporter at the track. You can find those updates here.

FULL SERIES COVERAGE

Plus, NASCAR.com will provide access to the live leaderboards during the Nationwide Series final practice on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET — and for the race, the Get to Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin-Williams on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET (TV coverage on ESPN). Saturday brings Nationwide Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying at 7:10 p.m. ET, with updates from NASCAR.com here. 

You can also follow @NASCAR_NNS on Twitter as they keep fans informed of on-track action and NASCAR.com content. 

Fans can check out the Nationwide Series’ new looks at Iowa Speedway in this week’s Paint Scheme Preview and get information on tickets, track details, event results and more in the Race Center for the Get to Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin-Williams.

For a complete breakdown of this weekend’s events, visit the full weekend schedule.

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Posted on by Staff Report

2014 “Dash 4 Cash” Schedule:

  •        Daytona International Speedway (July 4) – “Dash 4 Cash” Qualifier

  •        New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 12) – “Dash 4 Cash” Race No. 1

  •        Chicagoland Speedway (July 19) – “Dash 4 Cash” Race No. 2

  •        Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 26) –  “Dash 4 Cash” Race No. 3

  •        Iowa Speedway (August 2) – “Dash 4 Cash” Race No. 4

 

Eligible Drivers:

  •        The top four highest-finishing NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers to receive championship driver points at Daytona will qualify for the first “Dash 4 Cash” event at New Hampshire.  

  •        The highest-finisher of the qualified drivers at New Hampshire will win the “Dash 4 Cash” award and automatically qualify for the next event at Chicagoland.  The three highest-finishing drivers to receive championship driver points also will qualify for the next event at Chicagoland.

  •        These rules carry into the remaining events at Indianapolis and Iowa.

Nationwide Insurance also will award additional bonus money ($600,000) to an eligible driver if he/she can win the three previous “Dash 4 Cash” awards and wins the race outright in the final “Dash 4 Cash” event at Iowa (potential $1,000,000 payout). 

Posted on by Brad Norman

Who can stop ‘Six-Time’ from making it a three-peat?

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Editor’s note: The following drivers are ranked according to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. Driver Reports includes the top 16 in the points standings and drivers currently in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field.

1. Jeff Gordon (No. 24)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet 

Standing: Gordon leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 394 points.
Past five races: 1st at Kansas, 39th at Talladega, 2nd at Richmond, 7th at Darlington, 2nd at Texas.
Season stats: 1 win, 5 top-fives, 8 top-10s.
Event history: Gordon’s average finish is 12.4 and his average running position is 8.8 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has three wins, six top-fives and nine top-10s in the event.
Quick hit: While Gordon hasn’t logged a top-10 in the Sprint All-Star Race since 2006, he ought to be considered among the favorites this year. The series points leader for five consecutive weeks, Gordon is coming off a win at a 1.5-mile track and has a runner-up showing at another mile-and-a-half (Texas) already this year.

2. Matt Kenseth (No. 20)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Standing: Kenseth is second in the standings with 379 points.
Past five races: 10th at Kansas, 37th at Talladega, 5th at Richmond, 4th at Darlington, 7th at Texas.
Season stats: 3 top-fives, 8 top-10s, 1 pole.
Event history: Kenseth’s average finish is 6.7 and his average running position is 8.7 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has one win, five top-fives, 10 top-10s and two poles in the event.
Quick hit: Kenseth’s All-Star Race consistency is among the best in the sport. He’s one of just three drivers with both an average running position and average finish of less than 10.0, and he has seven consecutive top-10s. This could be the race to jumpstart a No. 20 team that has been consistent, but not spectacular.

3. Kyle Busch (No. 18)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Standing: Busch is third in the standings with 373 points.
Past five races: 15th at Kansas, 12th at Talladega, 3rd at Richmond, 6th at Darlington, 3rd at Texas.
Season stats: 1 win, 3 top-fives, 5 top-10s, 1 pole.
Event history: Busch’s average finish is 11.3 and his average running position is 6.5 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has three top-fives, four top-10s and three poles in the event.
Quick hit: Busch seems due for his first All-Star win. He’s finished second, fourth and third over the past three years. Last year’s third-place run came after a dominant showing that enabled him to start first in the final segment. With an average running position that ranks first in the series in the loop data era, expect another race of Busch running up front.

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is fourth in the standings with 368 points.
Past five races: 5th at Kansas, 26th at Talladega, 7th at Richmond, 2nd at Darlington, 43rd at Texas.
Season stats: 1 win, 6 top-fives, 7 top-10s.
Event history: Earnhardt Jr.’s average finish is 9.3 and his average running position is 11.0 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has one win, four top-fives and 11 top-10s in the event.
Quick hit: The hometown driver is a crowd favorite every time he comes to Charlotte Motor Speedway, and nothing would delight the North Carolina crowd more than seeing Junior win the event 14 years after conquering it as a rookie. Junior’s recent success means the driver doesn’t have to compete in the Sprint Showdown for the second consecutive year, and he’s perhaps in a better position to challenge for a win than any time in the past five-plus years.

5. Carl Edwards (No. 99)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Standing: Edwards is fifth in the standings with 367 points.
Past five races: 6th at Kansas, 30th at Talladega, 9th at Richmond, 13th at Darlington, 14th at Texas.
Season stats: 1 win, 2 top-fives, 6 top-10s.
Event history: Edwards’ average finish is 11.1 and his average running position is 10.4 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has one win, three top-fives, five top-10s and one pole in the event.
Quick hit: Edwards’ performance in the All-Star Race mimics his season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The driver won the 2011 All-Star Race and nearly won the Cup title that year — and his disappointing 2012 follow-up season came with a 23rd-place finish in the non-points event. So wherever Edwards finishes, it could tell the story of how the rest of his season plays out.

6. Joey Logano (No. 22)

Team Penske, Ford 

Standing: Logano is sixth in the standings with 346 points.
Past five races: 4th at Kansas, 32nd at Talladega, 1st at Richmond, 35th at Darlington, 1st at Texas.
Season stats: 2 wins, 6 top-fives, 6 top-10s, 1 pole.
Event history: Logano’s average finish is 4.3 and his average running position is 8.4 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has two top-fives and three top-10s in the event.
Quick hit: Want another favorite? Consider that Logano and Team Penske are hands-down the most dominant team on 1.5-mile tracks so far this year. Then add that in three All-Star Race appearances, Logano has finished eighth, third and second. He’s among the drivers who rises to the occasion under the lights and may be the biggest threat to Jimmie Johnson’s three-peat.

7. Jimmie Johnson (No. 48)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Standing: Johnson is seventh in the standings with 340 points.
Past five races: 9th at Kansas, 23rd at Talladega, 32nd at Richmond, 3rd at Darlington, 25th at Texas.
Season stats: 3 top-fives, 6 top-10s.
Event history: Johnson’s average finish is 5.7 and his average running position is 6.9 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has four wins, eight top-fives and eight top-10s and one pole in the event.
Quick hit: No one has ever won three consecutive All-Star Races, but Jimmie Johnson, who won this race in 2012 and 2013, has done things in NASCAR no one else has. With history at hand Saturday night, expect the No. 48 team to perform as it always does under pressure — with purpose.

8. Ryan Newman (No. 31)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet 

Standing: Newman is eighth in the standings with 332 points.
Past five races: 11th at Kansas, 18th at Talladega, 8th at Richmond, 10th at Darlington, 16th at Texas.
Season stats: 4 top-10s.
Event history: Newman’s average finish is 10.3 and his average running position is 9.5 over the past nine years. He has one win, three top-fives, seven top-10s and one pole in the event.
Quick hit: Newman has driven in 12 consecutive All-Star Races, a testament to his longevity. He is one of 10 former All-Star Race winners in the field, but it’s not likely Newman will be the seventh driver to win at least two All-Star Races — he hasn’t finished better than 10th since 2008.

9. Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford

Standing: Biffle is ninth in the standings with 328 points.
Past five races: 16th at Kansas, 2nd at Talladega, 15th at Richmond, 5th at Darlington, 6th at Texas.
Season stats: 2 top-fives, 4 top-10s.
Event history: Biffle’s average finish is 12.9 and his average running position is 10.5 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has two top-fives and three top-10s in the event.
Quick hit: Biffle has finished outside the top 10 in two consecutive events — 22nd in 2012 and 15th last year. If he pulls the upset and wins Saturday night, he would give team owner Jack Roush his fifth win in the event and become the fourth different driver to win the All-Star Race for Roush Fenway Racing.

10. Brian Vickers (No. 55)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota 

Standing: Vickers is 10th in the standings with 327 points.
Past five races: 14th at Kansas, 4th at Talladega, 12th at Richmond, 26th at Darlington, 4th at Texas.
Season stats: 2 top-fives, 4 top-10s.
Event history: Vickers’ average finish is 8.0 and his average running position is 11.1 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has one top-five and one top-10 in the event.
Quick hit: Vickers has three All-Star Race starts to his credit. He qualified for this year’s event based on his win last year as a part-time driver for Michael Waltrip Racing, a victory that he’s parlayed into a full-time opportunity and a strong start to this season.

11. Brad Keselowski (No. 2)

Team Penske, Ford 

Standing: Keselowski is 11th in the standings with 326 points.
Past five races: 13th at Kansas, 38th at Talladega, 4th at Richmond, 17th at Darlington, 15th at Texas.
Season stats: 1 win, 4 top-fives, 4 top-10s, 1 pole.
Event history: Keselowski’s average finish is 13.2 and his average running position is 15.3 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has one top-five and two top-10s in the event.
Quick hit: Keselowski logged just two laps last year before exiting the race with a busted transmission. That last-place finish bloats his averages a bit — he was runner-up in the event in 2012, and his average finish not counting last year’s debacle is 11.0. Given his strength on 1.5-mile tracks, count the 2012 series champion as a dark horse to win.

12. Denny Hamlin (No. 11)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Standing: Hamlin is 12th in the standings with 318 points.
Past five races: 18th at Kansas, 1st at Talladega, 22nd at Richmond, 19th at Darlington, 13th at Texas.
Season stats: 1 win, 2 top-fives, 3 top-10s, 1 pole.
Event history: Hamlin’s average finish is 11.6 and his average running position is 10.2 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has two top-fives and four top-10s in the event.
Quick hit: Hamlin finished sixth last season while in the midst of a slump, and he has four top-10s in the past five All-Star Races. The Joe Gibbs Racing program’s perplexing struggles on intermediate tracks, though, seems to indicate Hamlin won’t be near the front when the white flag falls.

13. Kyle Larson (No. 42)

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Chevrolet  

Standing: Larson is 13th in the standings with 318 points.
Past five races: 12th at Kansas, 9th at Talladega, 16th at Richmond, 8th at Darlington, 5th at Texas.
Season stats: 2 top-fives, 5 top-10s.
Event history: Larson has zero All-Star Races appearances.
Quick hit: Kyle Larson has two ways of making the big show Saturday night — win the Sprint Fan Vote, or finish in the top two of the Sprint Showdown — and it feels like he’ll be racing Saturday one way or the other. Given his success this year, he may be the favorite in Friday night’s primary.

14. Austin Dillon (No. 3)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet  

Standing: Dillon is 14th in the standings with 306 points.
Past five races: 19th at Kansas, 15th at Talladega, 27th at Richmond, 11th at Darlington, 21st at Texas.
Season stats: 1 top-10, 1 pole.
Event history: Dillon has zero All-Star Races appearances.
Quick hit: Would it really be shocking to have two Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders make the Sprint All-Star Race? Don’t be surprised if that happens, with Dillon joining fellow freshman Kyle Larson as a favorite in Friday night’s Sprint Showdown.

15. Kevin Harvick (No. 4)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Standing: Harvick is 15th in the standings with 302 points.
Past five races: 2nd at Kansas, 7th at Talladega, 11th at Richmond, 1st at Darlington, 42nd at Texas.
Season stats: 2 wins, 3 top-fives, 5 top-10s, 2 poles.
Event history: Harvick’s average finish is 8.8 and his average running position is 11.2 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has one win, two top-fives and seven top-10s in the event.
Quick hit: With two wins this season and one of the top crew chiefs in the garage, Harvick could very well get his second career All-Star victory — and oversized winner’s check. Should that happen, it’d be the first All-Star win for Tony Stewart as a team owner, as well.

16. Kasey Kahne (No. 5)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Standing: Kahne is 16th in the standings with 294 points.
Past five races: 3rd at Kansas, 8th at Talladega, 14th at Richmond, 37th at Darlington, 11th at Texas.
Season stats: 1 top-five, 4 top-10s.
Event history: Kahne’s average finish is 12.0 and his average running position is 10.9 over the past nine All-Star Races. He has one win, two top-fives, four top-10s and a pole in the event.
Quick hit: Kahne’s coming off his best finish of the year just in time for his best track. While his success at Charlotte hasn’t transferred into overwhelming All-Star success, Kahne does have a win in the event and two consecutive top-10s.

28. Kurt Busch (No. 41)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet

Standing: Busch is 28th in the standings with 211 points.
Past five races: 29th at Kansas, 33rd at Talladega, 23rd at Richmond, 31st at Darlington, 39th at Texas.
Season stats: 1 win, 2 top-fives, 2 top-10s.
Event history: Busch’s average finish is 10.9 and his average running position is 8.7 over the past nine years. He has one win, five top-fives, seven top-10s and a pole in the event.
Quick hit: Busch nearly stole the show in last year’s race while driving for the one-car Furniture Row Racing team. You’d think he’d be in contention to top last year’s fifth-place showing with a more competitive car, but it’s been a tough year for ‘The Outlaw.’ He hasn’t logged a top-20 in nine of 11 races this season, and has five finishes of 30 or worse — something which suggests a systemic problem more than just a slump.

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Six-time series champion has strong history, track record at Charlotte

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Before he was the six-time NASCAR champion, he was the guy who wrecked at Watkins Glen. No one realized that more than Jimmie Johnson, who upon returning to the New York road course one year after he walked away from a frightening, out-of-control crash there in 2000, found someone selling blocks of the foam wall he had hit for $5 a chunk. Johnson bought two. Later he procured the race car, and had it restored.

"My 2000 year wasn’t all that stellar," he said with a laugh. "The real highlight in the year, the point in time I was recognized, was in that car stuffed into the foam."

How things change. While that 2000 crash continues to live on in video clips — and indeed, it’s still amazing to watch Johnson climb out, jump up on the roof, and hold both arms aloft in hey-I’m-alive triumph — the Hendrick Motorsports driver has since become known for much, much more. And perhaps the cornerstone of Johnson’s legacy sits at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he enjoyed a string of victories that preceded his championship runs, and where domination at one race track foretold dominance on a grander scale.

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Now, Johnson’s streak of invincibility at Charlotte — where he won four straight points races, and five out of six between 2003 and 2005 — seems almost as long ago as his crash at Watkins Glen. The track surface was repaved, the Sprint Cup Series car changed, and in the time since he’s managed just one more victory in a points event, that in the fall of 2009. And yet, he’ll always be associated with Charlotte, and his victories in the past two Sprint All-Star Races serve as a reminder that the confidence still exists there, even if the audacious win totals do not.

"Honestly, I’d say most tracks I carry that same expectation, swagger, whatever it is. We’ve been able to win at so many tracks, have been very successful for a long period of time, we’ve set the bar very high for ourselves," Johnson said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters.

"Charlotte has been so good to us. Even though our dominance was awhile ago, we’ve been able to win the All‑Star a few times since. We’ve definitely been in the money and have had a shot to win. I’m carrying good confidence in there."

Understandably so. Last year, Johnson became only the second driver — joining Davey Allison, in 1991-92 — to win back-to-back times in the All-Star exhibition, claiming an unprecedented fourth title in the process. Another victory Saturday night would make him the first to win three straight in the race. And then next weekend comes the Coca-Cola 600, where a victory would break a tie with Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison to make the six-time champion the all-time winner at a track founded in 1960.

These days, that’s not the guarantee it once seemed — Johnson hasn’t won the 600 since 2005, the final season of his dominant stretch at Charlotte. "I think more people have figured it out," he said of the track, specifically mentioning Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne. "The surface was so rough and abrasive, we hit on some stuff that just worked. I don’t know if you can find that dominance today, especially with the asphalt like it is. So I think there’s a larger group of guys racing for the win now than when I had that dominant streak."

Of course, any victory right now would be a momentum boost for Johnson, who is still searching for his first trip to Victory Lane this season. If that trend continues beyond the Coca-Cola 600 — being a non-points race, the All-Star event wouldn’t count — it would mark the deepest Johnson has ever gone into a season without a victory. In 2003, he went winless for the opening 11 races before claiming a 600 title that launched his untouchable streak at Charlotte.

Johnson is winless so far this season despite sitting seventh in Sprint Cup points and being in contention almost every week. He led 24 laps last Saturday night at Kansas before pitting late for fuel and finishing ninth. The new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format puts a premium on individual race victories, since those are what now qualify drivers for the playoff.

"I think some or many forget that, yes, we do have a lot of trophies and I’m very proud of them, but there have been plenty of slow starts, plenty of dry spells or stretches through a given season. But one thing that’s always constant about the 48 is, we’re going to work our guts out to figure it out. That’s what we’re in the middle of doing now. It isn’t fun, that’s for sure. It isn’t a fun experience to work so hard and not get the reward that you want. But that’s life. I love to work and I know my team does, so we’ll just keep plugging away," Johnson said.

"If we all had an easy button, I’m sure we’d push it multiple times a day just to make things better. But it builds character. In 13 years being the driver of the 48 car, we’ve had lots of ups and downs. I think it’s safe to say we’ve probably had more ups than downs with all the success we’ve had on the team. I take that into consideration, as well. We’re going to work right now. We’re trying to be a better race team. That’s all."

In that regard, the driver attempting to build a record-tying seventh championship campaign probably differs little from the one trying to build his career all those years ago in Watkins Glen. Even if the guy selling chunks of a primitive soft wall out of the back of his truck — with a sign that promoted it as foam from the Jimmie Johnson crash, no less — didn’t recognize the customer who had been the source of his business.  "I don’t know if he did," Johnson said. "I believe I would remember that."

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Previous history links two drivers together

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Kurt Busch will have Parker Kligerman on standby for the next two weekends at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the 2004 champion of NASCAR’s top series aims to become just the fourth driver to compete in both the Coca-Cola 600 and Indianapolis 500 on the same day.

Kligerman will be Busch’s standby driver for both Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race and next week’s Coca-Cola 600, Stewart-Haas Racing announced Wednesday. Kligerman will turn his first laps in the No. 41 car on Friday, when Busch will miss All-Star Race practice because of a conflict with practice in Indianapolis.

Kligerman competed for Swan Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series until that team was broken up last month. A former teammate to Busch’s at Team Penske — Kligerman competed in a handful of NASCAR Nationwide Series events for Penske while Busch was driving Sprint Cup cars for the organization — the 23-year-old has a career-best finish of 18th at NASCAR’s top level. He also has one national series victory, in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Talladega in 2012.

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"Parker and I were teammates a few years ago when we were together at Penske, and his feedback was always really good," Busch said in a statement. "Plus, we’re built about the same, and that’s really important as we don’t want to have to adjust seats or pedal positions inside the race car. I’m confident in Parker’s abilities and know that my Haas Automation Chevrolet is in good hands."

Busch’s attempt at the Memorial Day weekend double is the first by any driver in 10 years. In addition to the conflict Friday during All-Star Race practice, Kligerman could also be pressed into duty Saturday, when Indianapolis 500 qualifying ends only 70 minutes before All-Star qualifying is set to begin.

The Indianapolis 500 is scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. ET on May 25, with the Coca-Cola 600 set to get underway at 6 p.m. ET. The Indianapolis 500 should be completed at approximately 3:30 p.m., allowing Busch roughly two and a half hours to get from Indianapolis to Charlotte by airplane before the green flag waves for the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on the Sprint Cup schedule.

In the event Busch does not make it back to Charlotte on time, Kligerman will start the Coca-Cola 600. Upon Busch’s arrival, Kligerman will yield the seat of the No. 41 car to Busch, who will finish the race.

"I’m grateful for the opportunity and want to thank everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing for entrusting me with the Haas Automation Chevy," Kligerman said in a statement. "For these next two weeks, my sole focus is to help the No. 41 team compete at a high level, no matter how big or small my role might be."

Busch has something of a cushion thanks to his March 30 victory at Martinsville, which likely assures him a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He will become the fourth driver to attempt the double, after John Andretti, Robby Gordon, and Tony Stewart — the latter being his team co-owner, and the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles in the undertaking. Busch was second-fastest in Indy 500 practice Tuesday before the session was cut short by rain.

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