By Mark Armijo | Senior Correspondent
RacinToday.com
AVONDALE, Ariz. – Now that the Daytona 500 That Would Not End is finally in the rear-view mirror, it’s onto Phoenix International Raceway, where seemingly more tranquil racing awaits.
Yeah, right.
Although PIR is a smaller oval with lighter speeds and minus the bumper-to-bumper, white-knuckle pack racing that defined the action a [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
A lot of people have been of the opinion that recent developments at Penske Racing had showed that the team and car-maker Dodge were on the right track in their pursuit of a Sprint Cup championship.
Some said that driver Brad Keselowski’s quick rise to the status of contender, and the [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
NASCAR’s Penske Racing will switch from racing Dodges to Fords beginning with the 2013 season, Ford Racing and team owner Roger Penske announced today.
The main reason, team owner Roger Penske said during a teleconference on Thursday afternoon, was simple: To help his team’s quest to win a Sprint Cup championship. [...]

The 2012 Daytona 500 will forever be remembered for Juan Pablo Motoya’s No. 42 Chevrolet suffering a mechanical failure under caution and slamming into a jet dryer.
The resulting ball of fire and lengthy cleanup that followed dominated Tuesday morning’s headlines. The incident also overshadowed Matt Kenseth’s victory in the Great American Race.
I’ve followed NASCAR closely [...]

NASCAR has hit the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team of Jimmie Johnson with a series of major penalties.
Johnson, a five-time Sprint Cup champion, was docked 25 points Wednesday for illegal modifications to the No. 48 Chevrolet before qualifying for the season-opening Daytona 500.
NASCAR also suspended crew chief Chad Knaus and car chief Ron Malec for [...]

By John Sturbin | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
DALLAS – Fast as he is, Matt Kenseth hasn’t had time to sit back and review his victory in NASCAR’s rain-delayed and incident-marred Daytona 500. But the overnight TV numbers have stamped the 54th edition of “The Great American Race” as “boffo!”
Kenseth’s dramatic win over Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a [...]

By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
The Daytona 500 bender is over – soggy, bleary-eyed and smoke-smelly – and it’s time to fold the tents, round up the animals, roust the clowns and head down the road to the next stop.
By the time they get to Phoenix will anybody remember who won?
Mild-mannered Matt Kenseth captured the [...]

By Jonathan Ingram | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Some post-race observations at this year’s Daytona 500:
A Daytona 500 that failed to start on Sunday and ended on Tuesday is bound to be memorable. About the only thing missing from an unusual sequence of events was a victory by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who nevertheless ran [...]

Matt Kenseth survived floods, fire, a broken two-way radio and a green/white checkered restart to emerge victorious in the 54th running of the Daytona 500 on Monday night/Tuesday morning at Daytona International Speedway.
Kenseth, who led 50 of the 202 laps, became a two-time 500 winner with the result.
“It feels good,” he said. “We had a [...]

Juan Pablo Montoya has acquired a bit of a reputation as a driver who runs into things on a race track. On Monday night, he broke new ground when, under caution, he slammed into a jet dryer which was cleaning the track during the Daytona 500.
The jet dryer exploded in flames and the ensuing fire [...]