By Lee Montgomery
Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(April 23, 2011)

LEBANON, Tenn.—Carl Edwards returned to victory lane at Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2007, winning Saturday’s Nashville 300 Nationwide Series race.

The victory was Edwards’ second of the season and 31st of his career—tying him for fourth all time with NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Jack Ingram.

Edwards had won three Nationwide races in a row in 2006-07 but went six races at Nashville without winning again. His four Nashville victories are tops among all drivers at the 1.33-mile track.

“Was it 2007?” Edwards said. “That’s a long time to run poorly somewhere. Seemed like every time we came we won for a little while. Was it three in a row? Then all of a sudden, we came here and really struggled. That’s really trying on everybody.

“I have to give credit to (car owner) Jack Roush, to Ford, (engine builder) Doug Yates, (crew chief) Mike Beam, the guys at the shop. It looked like we were facing some insurmountable challenges, and they worked hard and got these cars better.”

Saturday, Edwards was the best, leading five times for 148 laps in beating Kyle Busch to the checkered flag by .521 seconds. Edwards surged past Busch as the two dueled for the lead with 35 laps to go.

Busch was gunning for a weekend sweep after his victory in Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race but came up short as his Toyota was “just not quite fast enough.”

Brad Keselowski finished third and Joey Logano fourth as Sprint Cup regulars swept the top four spots in the Nationwide Series’ first stand-alone race of the season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fifth for the best finish among Nationwide regulars and moved into a tie for the points lead with Justin Allgaier.

Edwards and Busch traded the lead three times and raced side by side for more than three laps not long after a restart with 44 laps to go.

“At the end of the race, I was pedaling for all I had,” Edwards said. “I was kind of excited at the beginning of the race. I thought, ‘Boy, we’re going to run off with this thing. It’s going to be easy.’ Then at the end, that was white-knuckle. I was driving as hard as I can drive, racing him and Brad.

“In the end, it’s better to have a race like that, but it was really nerve-wracking for me.”

Edwards led Lap 189 of 225, with Busch coming back to lead Lap 190. Edwards led Lap 191 and finally got clear of Busch, even as Keselowski was challenging from third.

“I didn’t quite finish that pass,” Busch said. “He had a really fast car. We could keep up with him momentarily but not for the whole run. It was a good show right there, a little bit of racing back and forth. … Brad was right behind us and kind of lurking in the distance there.”

In the end, both drivers agreed Edwards’ No. 60 was simply the better car.

“Our Ford was just slightly better than his car, just slightly,” Edwards said. “He’s savvy enough of a racer, he knew how to keep me behind him and how to force the issue. He made it really hard on me, but he also gave me plenty of room. You can race a bunch of different ways out there, but that was a very clean race. That was really good. It was fun. I was really having a blast out there.”

By Lee Montgomery
Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(April 17, 2011)

LEBANON, Tenn.—Kyle Busch had to work a little harder than he expected, but he still scored a dominant victory in the Bully Hill Vineyards 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck race Friday night at Nashville Superspeedway.

Ron Hornaday Jr. made things interesting, passing Busch shortly after a restart with eight laps remaining. After another caution, though, Busch returned the favor, slipping under Hornaday in Turn 3 with two laps to go to complete a pole/victory sweep for the second year in a row at Nashville.

“I felt like we had a dominant truck,” Busch said. “There with about 10 to go, the race really got started and got really interesting.”

Busch led to the green on a restart with nine laps to go, but Hornaday made a bold, sneaky move to get the top spot.

“Hornaday got a good restart and put enough drag on my spoiler that he kind of slowed me down on the frontstretch and stayed alongside me,” Busch said. “I cleared him through (Turns) 1 and 2 and pulled up in front of him, but he had a little bit of momentum on me and pulled back to my inside down the backstretch and made a bold move driving it so far into the corner.”

Hornaday’s truck slid a little through Turn 3, and he and Busch moved up the track, with Hornaday grabbing the lead.

The yellow waved again, giving Busch a chance to turn the tables.

“There on the last restart, I did the same thing,” Busch said. “Luckily we had that opportunity and got back to him and was able to win the thing. It would’ve really been a shame if we weren’t able to win this thing.”

In the process, Busch led his 20,000th lap across the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and truck series. In two truck races at Nashville, Busch has two wins, two poles and 271 of 300 laps led. The victory was Busch’s second of the season and 26th in the truck series.

“Kyle had the dominant truck all day, and he had clean air,” Hornaday said. “I had to wear my stuff out trying to stay with him. That restart, that’s the only opportunity I had to run with him. I just gave a show for the fans. That’s all I could do.”

With shot tires, Hornaday was also passed for position by rookie Nelson Piquet Jr. and Timothy Peters, who finished second and third, respectively.

“I drove it too hard and wore the tires off,” Hornaday said.

Hornaday was fourth, followed by James Buescher, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, David Starr, Craig Goess and Parker Kligerman.

Busch goes for the Nashville sweep in Saturday’s Nashville 300 Nationwide Series race.

Notes: Piquet’s first top five came in his 10th start. He moved up eight spots in the standings to 17th. … Sauter maintained the points lead, with Peters moving to second, three back. Crafton is third, Hornaday fourth and rookie Cole Whitt fifth. … Busch’s 26th win came in his 88th start. He is fourth on the all-time list, two wins behind Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague, who are tied for second. Hornaday is first with 47 wins.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 20, 2011) – NASCAR has announced dates and sites for its 2011 postseason championship celebrations. Riding the momentum of 2010’s highly successful awards shows, all of this year’s events will return to the same sites.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony will again be held at Wynn Las Vegas. This year, the ceremony is set for Friday, Dec. 2 and will feature the top 10 drivers in the final series standings. The event will culminate NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion’s Week in Las Vegas.

As in previous years, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony will be accompanied by a number of events designed with fans and media in mind – starting with the immensely popular “NASCAR Victory Lap,” an annual procession of the top 12 drivers in their race cars on Las Vegas Blvd., followed by NASCAR After The Lap, a Q&A event with the top 12 drivers; and the yearly NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon. Details for these events – as well as many others that will provide a lead-in to the ceremony – will be announced later this year.

In addition, the combined awards banquet for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will take place in South Florida at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel, one of the jewels of the South Beach area. The date is Nov. 21, the Monday following the season-ending Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

NASCAR’s celebration of the top short-track drivers from throughout North America will return to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. for a special week of activities concluding with the crowning of NASCAR’s developmental series champions.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards Banquet will be Friday, Dec. 9. The NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Awards Banquet – celebrating the champions of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series (East and West), the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series presented by Toyota – will be held the following day, Saturday, Dec. 10.

SHOW #153 – We recap Talladega and talk with The King, Richard Petty. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Paul Northrop.

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Get out your checkered flags Canada: Canadian Steve Meehan launches all-Canadian NASCAR team
-New team to kick off its run at this weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Nashville 300-

TORONTO, ON, April 19, 2011 – Today, Go Canada Racing, the newest all-Canadian NASCAR contender, officially starts its quest for NASCAR glory. Go Canada Racing is the only current NASCAR national series team with a Canadian owner, businessman Steve Meehan, and a Canadian driver, rising Canadian NASCAR star J.R. Fitzpatrick.
“Go Canada Racing brings together my two great passions: business and racing,” said Meehan. “My success in business has been built on seeing where the right opportunities are and creating a great team of people to do the job. When I saw the opportunity to start a team, I brought in the right people, like J.R., and with their help I believe I can have the same kind of success in the racing world as I had in the business world.”
Meehan’s goal for Go Canada Racing is for it to become the first fully-Canadian team to compete full-time on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tour – the preeminent series in North American motorsports. The team raced two weeks ago at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and will make its official debut this Saturday, April 24th, at Nashville Superspeedway.
“NASCAR has 7 million fans in Canada, many of whom watch the races every week on TV,” continued Meehan. “This team will give the millions of Canadian fans a ‘home team’ to rally around, and I believe it’s a great opportunity for Canadian companies to showcase their brand to this huge audience of Canadian race fans.”
The team name, Go Canada Racing, and car number, 67, were both chosen to give the team an all-Canadian feel. The name was inspired by the cheers of “Go Canada” that Canadians are accustomed to hearing at sporting events throughout the country. The car number, 67, corresponds to 1867, the year of Confederation in Canada. This number is very significant for Canadians, and Meehan believes it will help Canadian NASCAR fans identify with his team even more.
In the driver’s seat will be Canada’s rising NASCAR star, J.R. Fitzpatrick. At age 18, Fitzpatrick became the youngest driver to win the CASCAR Super Series championship, and last year he finished second in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship. Over the last three years he has raced in nine NASCAR Nationwide events, and drove to a career-high finish of seventh at Road America and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, both in 2010. The opportunity with Go Canada Racing is Fitzpatrick’s first chance at a full-time ride on one of the premier stock car racing circuits in North America, an opportunity he has worked towards for many years.
“I’ve been racing since I was 15 years old and it has always been my dream to step into one of these cars full-time,” said Fitzpatrick. “Steve has put together an outstanding team and given us the tools to succeed in this sport. We have a great crew, a great car, and a great team, and I’m looking forward to competing with some of NASCAR’s best, starting this weekend in Nashville.”
“We’re looking forward to the addition of Go Canada Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Racing Operations. “Canada is an important market for NASCAR, as demonstrated by our commitment to developing Canadian drivers in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. Now, the millions of NASCAR fans in Canada have a ‘home’ team to root for on NASCAR’s national level.”
About Go Canada Racing
Canadian businessman Steve Meehan founded Go Canada Racing in the spring of 2011. The result of Meehan’s desire to bring together his interest in racing with his talent for business, Go Canada Racing is an all-Canadian team with a goal to bring the NASCAR Sprint Cup title to Canada. Prior to owning Go Canada Racing, Meehan was the Co-founder and CEO of Canadian investment firm Investment Planning Counsel, which boasted $15 billion in assets under management and more than 1,000 financial planners across the country at the time of his departure. For more information about Go Canada Racing, visit www.gocanadaracing.com.