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Stewart Grabs Pole Tony Stewart grabbed the pole for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 on Friday with a little help from Mother Nature. The skies opened over New Hampshire Motor Speedway, forcing NASCAR to cancel both Nationwide Series final practice and Sprint Cup Qualifying. Stewart will, however race his backup …

While Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was being interviewed on 60 Minutes, he said that there’s a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or a Jeff Gordon on short tracks around the country. In sports--in the entertainment industry in general--there are thousands of talented people who toil away for the best years of their lives and never get noticed. And obviously, no one knows their names, or maybe they manage to make a splash for literally just a shade longer than 15 minutes and are then forgotten. Luck matters more than everything else in both show business and professional sports. All of the big name record companies rejected the Beatles. But with NASCAR’s two development series probably receiving more attention and relative coverage than in possibly any other sport, save for perhaps college football or basketball, the story of the driver who performs and does everything he is asked and yet is still not offered a legitimate shot at the big time is often there for everyone to see. Scott Wimmer is that ongoing story right now.

Race fans have a sometimes contentious relationship with the Magic Mile--the contention owing to a track that fans just don’t seem to know what to make of, less than stellar racing in the track’s past, and television networks’ seeming inability to show any racing that isn’t among the top five and occasionally Dale Junior. With Speedway Motorsports, Incorporated’s latest purchase of Kentucky Speedway, there are those fans who would like to see NHMS lose one of their two dates in favor of the 1.5-mile oval in Sparta. To this notion I say, “Wait just one minute!”

Reading an article about the old Langhorne Speedway recently took me back a lot of years. Langhorne, for those of you too young to remember, was a dirt track in Pennsylvania known as the “big left turn.” It was a mile circle. In its final year or so, it was paved and made into a D-shape, but that’s not the Langhorne I remember. It was a treacherous place, and some great drivers, most notably Jimmy Bryan, took their last ride at that place.

I certainly experienced something new in my Sprint Cup career this past weekend when I got way off track during my qualifying run in Sonoma. Basically what happened is that the wind pushed us off the track, which I wasn’t taking into consideration. It was the first time we ever had to deal with something like that with these heavy cars. Normally it doesn’t make that much of a difference, because the cars weigh so much. I went way off track though. The side of the car is so flat, which they do on purpose to gain as much side force as possible and it actually worked a little too well on Friday. That’s actually what happened. It’s not like I tried to go through the corner any faster on my qualifying lap. It wasn’t a little bit of wind either; it was a ton. As the day was going on, it was getting windier and windier.

As the Camping World Truck Series rolls into Memphis Motorsports Park for another weekend of great racing, I find myself looking back at the major rule change for the series this season. Prior to the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR announced major pit road rule changes that would affect every team and their race strategies. In an effort to help teams save money, NASCAR changed the number of crew members allowed over the wall during a pit stop. Only five crew members are allowed over the wall, and teams are not permitted to get fuel and tires on the same stop. In addition, the crew chief must choose only 12 active crew members to travel with the team.

Ron Fellows To Drive For JR Motorsports In Nationwide Road Races JR Motorsports announced on Thursday that road course ace Ron Fellows will be driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for the upcoming Nationwide races at Watkins Glen International and at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Fastenal will be the primary sponsor. Fellows …

Infineon Ratings Down From 2008 Kasey Kahne’s surprise victory in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway was watched by 7% fewer viewers than last year’s event. The TNT broadcast scored a 4.0 rating compared to 4.3 for last season. The race averaged 5.788 million viewers. TNT’s ratings for their …

Cody turned off the TV and tossed the remote to the foot of the bed. She stared at the heavy beige curtains, closed against the glare of a beautiful June morning. If she dared to pull the blinds back for a peek, the dude with muscles would appear in moments …

The Sprint Cup Series visits New England this weekend to attack the flat track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Lenox Industrial Tools 301 is the 17th race of the 2009 Sprint Cup season and will be broadcast live on Sunday, June 28th at 2:00 PM EST on TNT, with …