By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C.—Needless to say, Carl Edwards loved the new qualifying format for Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race. Benefiting from a high-speed trip down pit road and a quick pit stop during the unique three-lap regimen in Friday’s time trials, Edwards won the pole for the 29th running of NASCAR’s [...]

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service Is winning Bruton Smith’s $1-million bonus a realistic possibility? CONCORD, N.C.— Kyle Busch calls it a 300-to-1 shot. Jimmie Johnson, on the other hand, doesn’t discount the prospect of winning Bruton’s Big Bonus nearly that much. Track owner Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., has offered a $1-million [...]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – History collides with the present, as names including Johnson, Gordon and Busch build upon a foundation laid by the likes of Waltrip, Yarborough and Earnhardt. This Saturday night, the most thrilling all-star exhibition in all of sports roars under the lights at the historic Charlotte Motor Speedway, with the 29th running of [...]

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C.—Want to know who’s a lock to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this year? I’ll give you six names: Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch. Typically, by the time the Cup series leaves Darlington, it’s relatively easy [...]

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C.—High speeds seem to suit Kurt Busch. A day after driving an IndyCar at 218 mph during rookie orientation at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Kurt Busch put his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet SS on the pole for Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway—and he did so [...]

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala.–Practice may not have made perfect for Carl Edwards, but it did make him a pole winner, after rain washed out Saturday’s time trials for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. Accordingly, the field was set by rainout rules, with the starting order [...]

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va.—I feel sorry for Juan Pablo Montoya—and that’s a hard thing to do. It’s hard to feel sorry for a guy who’s already won two of the world’s most prestigious races, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco. It’s hard to feel sorry for [...]