By Jim Pedley
NASCAR Wire Service
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – It was with a sense of renewed hope that Dale Earnhardt Jr. began Sunday’s opening race of the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Kansas Speedway.
It was with a feeling of missed opportunity that he left Kansas after the Hollywood Casino 400.
Earnhardt – whose [...]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Joey Logano capitalized, first, on a fast car, and, second, on trouble by others with fast cars Sunday at Kansas Speedway to win the Hollywood Casino 400 Sprint Cup race.
The victory was the fifth of the season for Logano but better than that, it guaranteed that he and his Team Penske [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kyle Busch’s anger after crashing out of the Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway a year ago was understandable. The wreck ended hopes of capping an impressive four-victory, eight-podium finish season with his first series championship.
And it was understandable that he blamed not bad luck but [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kevin Harvick, a driver who at one time could not buy a decent qualifying run, won the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.
It was his eighth pole of the season and his third in a row at the 1.5-mile Kansas oval.
“For whatever [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. will turn 40 years old next Friday. This Friday, during a press conference at Kansas Speedway, he was asked about the birthday that many view as the beginning of the end, and of the 16 years he has spent as a Sprint [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Clint Bowyer stands ready and willing to take the baton pass from the Chiefs and Royals in this, the best week in professional sports that this area has experienced in decades.
But able?
Actually, he just might be. When his Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota’s are running this fall, [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
During a press conference on Monday, Tony Stewart was asked if he had considered retiring as a driver in the days since he was involved in an on-track incident in which 20-year-old competitor Kevin Ward Jr. was struck and killed by Stewart’s car.
People who know Stewart even just a little [...]

RacinToday.com
Team Penske announced Monday that it is adding Simon Pagenaud as a fourth driver to its IndyCar Series team.
The 30-year-old Pagenaud is a four-time race winner in the Series. He will join 2014 series champion Will Power, multiple Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and Indy 500 winner/former Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya at Penske.
Pagenaud [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
Jeff Gordon won his fourth race of the season Sunday when he beat the field to the checkered flag at Dover International Speedway. But even more relevant news broke further back in the field as the Chase playoff field was trimmed down from 16 to 12 drivers.
Ousted Sunday from the [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
There, two weeks ago, was Aric Almirola in one of those queaze-inducing interview sessions. His heart laying on the oily infield pavement at Chicagoland Speedway, a microphone pointed at his head and moronic questions about how he felt being fired point blank.
Then came the headlines about Almirola being the “big [...]