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Filed under: Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

The fresh asphalt laid at NASCAR's Mecca -- all 50,000 tons of it -- will get its first big workout next week.

At least 18 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers are scheduled to test the new surface of the high banks of the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway Dec. 15 and 16 as part of a Goodyear tire test, the track said Wednesday.

It will mark the first time NASCAR drivers will have driven on a new surface at the Florida superspeedway since the last time it was repaved in 1978.

"This place is going to have a totally new look to the drivers and the teams," two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart said in October. "We're going to fill every square inch of the race track because the surface is so even now."

Goodyear will utilize the test to develop appropriate tire compounds for the preseason Sprint Cup Series test to be held in the middle of January.

The track was faced with repaving after a pot hole opened up in turn two during this year's Daytona 500, forcing substantial, hours-long delays to the race. Essentially, the force of the cars began to tear an ever-widening gouge into the typically smooth surface.

 

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Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

He may have won the two races that dole out the least amount of recognition of the entire season, but Carl Edwards doesn't much care.

"For our team, to finish like this and to be on the upswing that we are, this is as good as it gets," Edwards said after winning Sunday at Homestead, his second in a row.

Of course, Edwards was overshadowed by an incredibly dramatic championship fight that he watched from the outside looking in Sunday, largely in his rear-view mirror.

Jimmie Johnson overcame Denny Hamlin and held off Kevin Harvick to win the 2010 title, and proceeded to spin through a burnout as Edwards celebrated with his traditional backflip.

"I tell you, it's a lot more frustrating to not be in victory lane and watching somebody out there doing their donuts and all that stuff," Edwards said.

 

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Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Crew Chiefs, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR

Hendrick Motorsports may have won its fifth-straight championship just last Sunday, but it took only a matter of days for the organization to make some of its biggest changes in years.

"This will improve us as an organization, across the board," team owner Rick Hendrick (right) said Tuesday.

Save for champion Jimmie Johnson, each of the three other drivers in the Hendrick stable will have new crew chiefs for the 2011 season.

Steve Letarte, the crew chief on Jeff Gordon's No. 24 since the end of the 2005 season, will now oversee Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 team. Meanwhile, Gordon will now have Alan Gustafson managing his team in Daytona.

Gustafson leaves the No. 5 team and driver Mark Martin, who will now have Lance McGrew in his ear for the 2011 season. McGrew has spent part of 2009 and all of 2010 as Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief.

 

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Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR Live Blogging, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

NASCAR's 36-race season culminates today at Homestead-Miami Speedway when Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick battle to take home the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

It's bound to be a thrilling finish of NASCAR's closest points battle in the Chase for the Championship era.

Join the FanHouse team as we keep you updated live on the race's progress. Don't miss out at 1 p.m./ET.

 

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Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

Denny Hamlin certainly had plenty of frustration boiling over after late-race strategy failed to work in his favor. So, he took a water bottle and threw it Sunday in Phoenix.

The temperament, however, may be unjustified: Hamlin heads into Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the proverbial driver's seat to win the 2010 crown.

Sure, the Virginia driver is sporting just a 15-point lead and could lose it by finishing second to Jimmie Johnson at Homestead.

But if that happens, Hamlin will be just the third driver in NASCAR's modern points system era to lose the championship in the season's final race. The first was 1979 when Richard Petty beat Darrell Waltrip and the second in 1992 when Alan Kulwicki topped Davey Allison.

Hamlin, however, clinches his fate by simply leading the most laps and finishing second or better. If Hamlin pulls that feat while Jimmie Johnson wins, the two will finish tied in the point standings.

 

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Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

A day after the Phoenix race, where Denny Hamlin tossed a water bottle at his car in disgust, Jimmie Johnson beamed as the most confident "underdog" ever and Kevin Harvick vowed his team wasn't done, Twitter on Monday helped to instigate another rise in championship drama.

When three-time Cup champion Darrell Waltrip insisted that Johnson, who is 15 points behind Hamlin second place, is the favorite for Sunday's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Harvick and Hamlin sounded off.

"Yea I guess (you're) right.. We shouldn't even show up if we are up against that!" Hamlin tweeted in response.

Harvick, never one to back down, personalized his shot.

 

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Filed under: Kyle Busch, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR

Don't blame the emotions of Kyle Busch for another year that saw the No. 18 Toyota fail to win the Sprint Cup championship.

That was the message the 25-year-old relayed Friday at Phoenix International Raceway, site of Sunday's second-to-last race of the 2010 season for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

"Whether or not (emotions are) the cause for me not being able to contend for a championship," Busch said, "I'd have to disagree 100 percent. I won a Nationwide Series championship last year as the same person I am."

The subject is timely for Busch. He was penalized two laps by NASCAR during last week's Sprint Cup race at Texas after displaying his middle finger towards a NASCAR official while he sat in the No. 18 on pit road. At the time, Busch was serving a one-lap penalty for speeding in the pits.

 

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Filed under: David Ragan, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR Fights, Sprint Cup, Joey Logano, NASCAR

NASCAR had itself a day of resurrection Sunday in the drama department at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch showed his, uh, displeasure with a NASCAR official. Jimmie Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus gave NASCAR's weekly talking heads a shot in the arm by abandoning his pit crew mid-race. Denny Hamlin became the first guy in five years not named Jimmie to be leading the Chase with two races left.

Lastly, the sport saw two of its veteran stars go toe-to-toe in a brief hockey-like moment in the Lone Star State. Yep, four-time champion Jeff Gordon took several unabashed lunges and swings at longtime series staple Jeff Burton.

Gordon didn't connect terribly well in all of his flailing, and Burton emerged unscathed -- though maybe a bit more emboldened to try Gordon in the boxing ring sometime in the future.

 

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Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

In a move akin to replacing a playoff team in the midst of their championship battle, Jimmie Johnson's pit crew was replaced by crew chief Chad Knaus in the middle of the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, leaving the future of his original pit crew in question with two races left.

Following teammate Jeff Gordon's crash -- and subsequent fight -- with Jeff Burton, Knaus opted to replace his No. 48 pit crew with Gordon's over-the-wall crew.

The Texas race is the third-to-last in NASCAR's Chase to the Sprint Cup championship. Johnson came into the race as the points leader and one of three drivers with a realistic chance to claim the championship. But the four-time defending champ finished ninth and lost that lead to race winner Denny Hamlin, who now has a 33-point edge.

Knaus made the call after the crew lost track position for Johnson in four of their first seven pit stops. On one stop, the front tire carrier had a split-second of trouble getting the tire onto the wheel. On another stop, some of the lug nuts came off the right front wheel and the tire changer had to take a couple of extra seconds to put them back on.

"Ultimately, its my decision, obviously," Knaus said in an interview on ESPN afterwards. "We needed to do something. This is a team; the 24/48 shop has always operated as a team and that's the way we see it."

 

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Filed under: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Roush Fenway Racing, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

A year ago, two drivers of the Roush-Fenway Racing team found their way to NASCAR's illustrious Chase for the Sprint Cup.

They finished rather unspectacularly.

Greg Biffle held the banner highest for the proud Ford operation, winding up seventh after the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last November. His teammate, Carl Edwards, finished eleventh.

Neither garnered a win during that 2009 campaign -- one that seemed to start in quite the fashion with Matt Kenseth's sweep of the season's first two races, including the Daytona 500.

Fortunes seemed to be in the organization's favor this season after all three of those drivers -- Biffle, Edwards and Kenseth -- made it into the top 12 at the Chase cutoff point in September.

 

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