Rob Kauffman buys stake in Chip Ganassi Racing

Michael Waltrip Racing director Rob Kauffman has bought a stake in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. MWR currently fields the #15 and #55 Toyotas driven by Clint Bowyer and David Ragan, and CGR the #1 and #42 Chevrolets of Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson. There has been talk for more than a week that the Michael Waltrip cars could switch from Toyota to Chevrolet in 2016. MWR has been a Toyota team since Toyota's move up to NASCAR's top two series in 2007; that was also the year MWR started full-time competition. A new rumor has also arisen that the #15 car could become a CGR Chevy at the start of next season, or possibly even before the end of the current season, which would leave the fate of the #55 car at MWR unknown. This is likely due to at least one tweet reporting that a part of the MWR shop in Cornelius, North Carolina is for sale as a result of the Kauffman/CGR deal.

Hill, #98 Cup team penalized

The #98 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet Sprint Cup team of Timmy Hill has received a P3-level penalty following an incident at the start of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis on Sunday caused by a failure to properly attach a weight. Hill spent several laps in the garage shortly after the drop of the green flag trying to solve the problem; he went back on track many laps down and was ahead of only Jeff Gordon and Alex Bowman.

There's no doubt that Kyle Busch belongs in the Chase now

With four wins despite missing the first eleven races of the Sprint Cup season, virtually nobody is questioning Kyle Busch's eligibility to be in the Chase anymore. All he has to do now is crack the top 30 in points.

Kyle Busch wins Brickyard, third straight Cup race

Four the fourth time in the past five races, Kyle Busch cruised to victory in Sunday's Brickyard 400 in the Sprint Cup Series, keeping the #18 Skittles Toyota ahead of the #22 Ford of Joey Logano (this year's Daytona 500 winner, another major race) through several late cautions and a green-white-checkered finish. The race came down to fuel strategy almost from the beginning, as there were at least two separate pit cycles each consisting of roughly half the field. Busch and Logano were mostly on separate cycles throughout the day. Tony Stewart (#14) got caught off sequence multiple times. Many of the leaders were short on fuel until about lap 141.

Timmy Hill suffered an early engine at the drop of the green flag in his #98 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet. The first caution was for two yellow balloons on the track. A few laps later, Clint Bowyer spun his #15 Toyota and collected the #24 Chevrolet of Jeff Gordon, appearing in his 22nd and final Brickyard 400; he won the inaugural running in 1994 and also came into Sunday as the defending champion. The Fords of Aric Almirola (#43) and Trevor Bayne (#6) also had a couple of run-ins, and both drivers were angry following the race. Bayne caused the final caution which set up a green-white-checkered finish, during which Kevin Harvick (#4), the leader of 75 of 164 laps, got shuffled back several positions. A few laps before that, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had a couple of pit problems during the race, spun his #88 Chevrolet in turn 1.

The race, of course, ended with Kyle Busch in victory lane, followed by the ceremonial kissing of the bricks at the track's start/finish line complete with sponsor Skittles. Next week, the series heads to Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway for its second race of the season along with the Truck series.

Race Results:

1. (9) 18-Kyle Busch - Toyota - 164 laps, led 19 laps
2. (2) 22-Joey Logano - Ford - 164 laps, led 28 laps
3. (6) 4-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 164 laps, led 75 laps
4. (13) 78-Martin Truex Jr. - Chevrolet - 164 laps
5. (17) 11-Denny Hamlin - Toyota - 164 laps
6. (7) 15-Clint Bowyer - Toyota - 164 laps
7. (23) 20-Matt Kenseth - Toyota - 164 laps
8. (14) 41-Kurt Busch - Chevrolet - 164 laps
9. (5) 42-Kyle Larson - Chevrolet - 164 laps
10. (31) 2-Brad Keselowski - Ford - 164 laps, led 17 laps

Kyle Busch wins Indy Xfinity race on last-lap pass

Kyle Busch took the #54 Toyota past the #22 Ford of Ryan Blaney on the final lap of the Lilly Diabetes 250 Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday. It was Busch's second win in the event, which had its fourth running on Saturday. Blaney had to settle for second, and was obviously disappointed about getting passed on the final lap. Busch's teammate, rookie Daniel Suarez in the #18 Toyota, who finished third appeared to have the dominant car early in the race, which featured a wreck involving the #8 Chevrolet of Blake Koch and the #44 Chevrolet of David Starr. Cup drivers Paul Menard (#33, the highest-finishing Chevy driver), Kevin Harvick (#88) and Kyle Larson (#42) had runs in the top-ten, as did Menard's full-time Xfinity teammates Brian Scott (#2) and Ty Dillon (#3). Points leader Chris Buescher finished 16th in the #60 Ford, while his teammate Elliott Sadler (#1) pulled off a fifth-place finish. Next week the series goes to Newton, Iowa for one of their standalone races.

Race Results:

1. (1) #54-Kyle Busch - Toyota - 100 laps, led 53 laps
2. (11) 22-Ryan Blaney - Ford - 100 laps, led 24 laps
3. (2) 18-Daniel Suarez - Toyota - 100 laps, led 3 laps
4. (5) 33-Paul Menard - Chevrolet - 100 laps, led 9 laps
5. (6) 1-Elliott Sadler - Ford - 100 laps
6. (16) 88-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 100 laps
7. (10) 42-Kyle Larson - Chevrolet - 100 laps, led 3 laps
8. (14) 7-Regan Smith - Chevrolet - 100 laps
9. (9) 3-Ty Dillon - Chevrolet - 100 laps, led 8 laps
10. (13) 9-Chase Elliott - Chevrolet - 100 laps

Windows 10 to sponsor upcoming Pocono Cup race

Windows 10, the upcoming successor to Microsoft's Windows 8.1, will sponsor the Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania on August 2, making it the Windows 10 400. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will bring back the Windows 10/Microsoft paint scheme on the #88 Chevrolet that he debuted on June 28 in Sonoma, California, near the home of several computer hardware and software companies (although Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington near Seattle).

Christopher Bell wins Eldora thriller

Christopher Bell dominated the third annual Mudsummer Classic in Wednesday evening at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, winning on the dirt track in just his third Camping World Truck Series start in the #54 Toyota. Bell held off the #63 Chevrolet of Bobby Pierce, who was making his series debut on Wednesday.

Could there be a mid-week Cup race in the future?

The annual Wednesday night dirt race at Ohio's Eldora Speedway for the Camping World Truck Series has raised questions about the possibility of a similar mid-week race in the Sprint Cup Series.

Remembering Jules Bianchi

Jules Bianchi, the French Formula 1 driver who crashed in October during the series' Japanese Grand Prix and fell into a coma, died on Friday at the age of 25 in his hometown of Nice, France. In the wake of the tragic day for the racing series, Formula 1 announced their intentions to retire Bianchi's number 17.

Kyle Busch wins for third time in four Cup races at New Hampshire

Kyle Busch, who returned to competition in his #18 Toyota in May after severely breaking his leg in a crash during the Xfinity Series race in February the day before the Daytona 500, won for the third time in the last four Sprint Cup races on Sunday, taking the checkered flag under caution in the 5-Hour Energy 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, just ahead of the dominant #2 Ford of Brad Keselowski. Busch is now even closer to moving into the top 30 in points and earning a spot on the Chase grid (despite missing the first 11 points races of 2015) along with the season's other ten winners so far plus the top-five non-winners who would get in if the Chase started next week at Indianapolis.

Team Penske, the owner of the #2 and #22 Fords driven by Keselowski and Logano, swept New Hampshire's Cup races last year, with Keselowski winning in July and Logano in September in the second of ten Chase races. On Sunday, the Penske Fords combined to lead 113 of 301 laps. There was some action on lap 96 when the #7 Chevrolet driven by Alex Bowman caught on fire and laid down oil on the track. Bowman got out safely, and his crew made repairs, getting him back on the track 70 laps down. The #27 Chevrolet of Paul Menard stopped on the track on lap 200 to bring out a caution as well. Meanwhile, the #88 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who ran in the top-ten most of the day, had to go onto pit road for a repair around the same time, but fought his way back up to a fifth-place finish, passing the eventual race winner's teammate Matt Kenseth's #20 Toyota in the final laps. Earnhardt's teammate Jimmie Johnson (#48) was the first driver one lap down at the end in 23rd place. Jamie McMurray (#1) also reported that his Chevrolet was losing its engine toward the end of the race, but he decided to tough it out. Around the time of the final restart, Busch made a daring move around Keselowski and the #4 Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick to steal the lead.

The final caution came out after Busch had taken the white flag, and was for Bowman spinning on the opposite end of the start-finish line. Had NASCAR let the leaders race back, it is likely that Keselowski, who had led a third of the race and was steadily gaining on Busch, could have passed Busch, who led almost as many laps, to take the lead and become the third straight driver to lead the most laps and win. With the caution, Keselowski had to settle for second, but maintains a strong position on the Chase grid. It was a very hot day, and after the race was over, multiple drivers including Keselowski, A.J. Allmendinger and J.J. Yeley were treated for heat-related symptoms. NASCAR's top series next races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the famed Brickyard 400.

Race Results:

1. (4) 18-Kyle Busch - Toyota - 301 laps, led 95 laps
2. (10) 2-Brad Keselowski - Ford - 301 laps, led 101 laps
3. (12) 4-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 301 laps, led 59 laps
4. (2) 22-Joey Logano - Ford - 301 laps, led 12 laps
5. (19) 88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Chevrolet - 301 laps
6. (80 20-Matt Kenseth - Toyota - 301 laps
7. (1) 19-Carl Edwards - Toyota - 301 laps, led 19 laps
8. (24) 3-Austin Dillon - Chevrolet - 301 laps
9. (23) 24-Jeff Gordon - Chevrolet - 301 laps, led 2 laps
10. (6) 41-Kurt Busch - Chevrolet - 301 laps

Hamlin wins New Hampshire Xfinity race

Denny Hamlin took the #20 Toyota Camry to victory in Saturday's Xfinty Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but not without some controversy on the way. Hamlin started the 200-lap race on the pole, and on a restart following the first caution of the #0 Chevrolet of Harrison Rhodes getting into the wall, Hamlin got loose in front of his Joe Gibbs teammate's car, the #54 Toyota of Kyle Busch, and spun out in front of Busch. Hamlin and Busch scrambled to stay on the lead lap, and before the halfway point Hamlin had gotten by the other two leading Cup drivers in the field, Brad Keselowski (#22) and Austin Dillon (#33) as well as his other teammate, series rookie Daniel Suarez in the #18 Toyota, to retake the lead. Hamlin ultimately led all but 65 laps, and Busch also wound up leading 25 circuits.

After Ross Chastain (#4) and Mike Harmon (#74) brought out the third and fourth cautions, there was a long green flag run before another pair of yellows for debris/oil. The final restart allowed Austin Dillon to take his Chevrolet around Hamlin, but Hamlin went toward the bottom of the track in turn 3 and bumped Dillon out of the lead on lap 179. Hamlin scored his second Xfinity win of the year, frustrating Dillon, the 2013 series champion and an Xfinity winner four times so far in 2015. Hamlin previously had a dust-up with Dillon after a race in November of 2012 at Texas Motor Speedway in which he contended that Dillon wouldn't have a major NASCAR ride if not for his grandfather, legendary team owner Richard Childress. During Saturday's post-race conference, Hamlin said that Dillon wouldn't be mad, but instead "call him a winner".

Race Results:

1. (1) 20-Denny Hamlin - Toyota - 200 laps, led 145 laps
2. (6) 33-Austin Dillon - Chevrolet - 200 laps, led 7 laps
3. (4) 22-Brad Keselowski - Ford - 200 laps, led 17 laps
4. (2) 54-Kyle Busch - Toyota - 200 laps, led 25 laps
5. (3) 18-Daniel Suarez - Toyota - 200 laps
6. (7) 3-Ty Dillon - Chevrolet - 200 laps
7. (8) 7-Regan Smith - Chevrolet - 200 laps
8. (11) 6-Darrell Wallace Jr. - Ford - 200 laps, led 1 lap
9. (9) 9-Chase Elliott - Chevrolet - 200 laps
10. (13) 42-Brennan Poole - Chevrolet - 200 laps

Indianapolis, Michigan to convert to single-car qualifying

Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway, two Sprint Cup venues coming up this summer, have revealed plans to switch to a modified version of NASCAR's past single-car qualifying format, the same one that the restrictor plate events at Daytona and Talladega switched to this spring after a disastrous pre-Budweiser Duel group qualifying session for the Daytona 500. Indianapolis is a 2.5-mile rectangle-like track, that has slower speeds than the similar-length Daytona and Talladega and about the same as the triangle-shaped Pocono Raceway, while Michigan is a two-mile tri-oval, for the most part the same shape as the plate tracks, as well as the basis for the identical Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

Kenny Wallace plans August Iowa Xfinity race to be his competitive finale

On August 1, longtime driver Kenny Wallace will climb into a car and race one final time when the Xfinity Series hits Iowa Speedway for its second of two annual trips. Wallace, the brother of 1989 Cup champion Rusty Wallace and fellow national series driver Mike Wallace, has driven in all three national series in a more than 25-year career. He has accumulated nine Xfinity Series wins, the most recent of which came at Rockingham, North Carolina in November of 2001. Wallace will drive Joe Gibbs' #20 Toyota Camry at Iowa. He has been an analyst and reporter on several NASCAR television programs in recent years while also driving part-time.

Sorenson, Hill to driver Premium Cup cars at New Hampshire

After the departures of Brendan Gaughan and Josh Wise from Premium Motorsports' Cup team, the team has picked drivers for Sunday's race in Loudon, New Hampshire. Reed Sorenson, who drove the #62 Chevrolet in place of Gaughan at Kentucky, will return to the car at New Hampshire. Timmy Hill, who drivers Premium's #94 Chevrolet in the Camping World Truck Series, will take over the #98 Chevrolet Cup car for Wise. Sorenson and Hill have both run for Rookie of the Year honors in the Sprint Cup Series in the past.

Brendan Gaughan, Josh Wise both out at Premium Motorsports

Brendan Gaughan and Josh Wise have both departed the #62 and #98 machines at Cup team Premium Motorsports, leaving the team with no permanent drivers. Gaughan, a full-time Xfinity Series drivers for Richard Childress Racing in the #62 Chevrolet, joined Premium in February with RCR support. The #62 Cup team was formed from the defunct #36 Chevrolet team of Tommy Baldwin Racing, whose #7 Chevrolet is still active and currently driven by Alex Bowman. Fellow RCR Xfinity driver Brian Scott attempted but failed to put the #62 car into the Daytona 500 in February. Reed Sorenson drove the car at Kentucky, where Gaughan parted ways with Premium the same weekend. Wise, famous for his occasional "Dogecoin" sponsorship, came on board with the #98 when Ford team Phil Parsons Racing ceased operations last month, and had competed in the last three Cup races.

Kyle Busch dominates, wins Kentucky Cup race

Kyle Busch led 163 of 267 laps in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday evening to score his second win in three races. Busch missed the first 11 points races of the season after suffering a compound leg fracture in a wreck late in the Xfinity Series race at Daytona in February. Since his return to competition at Charlotte in May, he has desperately been fighting his way toward the top 30 in the point standings so he can officially get onto the Chase grid. In the last laps on Saturday, during the first race with the previously announced new rules package, Busch was locked in a battle for the lead with Team Penske driver Joey Logano in the #22 Ford, with Busch and his faster #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota ultimately prevailing.

Keselowski wins Kentucky Xfinity race as Jones comes up short again

Brad Keselowski drove the #22 Ford Mustang to his first Xfinity Series win of 2015 at Kentucky Speedway in Friday evening's 300-mile race at the track. Keselowski battled the #20 Toyota of Erik Jones in the final laps, passing Jones inside of ten laps to go and keeping the lead to score the victory. Kyle Busch in the #54 Toyota, once again a leader of many laps in this race, finished third. The third Joe Gibbs car, the #18 of Daniel Suarez, and the #33 RCR Chevrolet of Paul Menard had good runs throughout the race as well. Cautions during the race included spins by the #25 Chevrolet of John Wes Townley, whose car got stuck in the rain-soaked infield, and the #39 Chevrolet of Ryan Sieg, who spin trying to get onto pit road during green-flag stops, but was able to save his car. The #1 Ford of Elliott Sadler and the #7 and #88 Chevrolets driven by Regan Smith and Dale Earnhardt Jr. also flirted with the top ten from time to time.

Matt Crafton wins shortened Kentucky truck race

Matt Crafton took the #88 Toyota to his fourth win of the season, and ninth overall, in Thursday night's Camping World Truck Series race in Sparta, Kentucky. Crafton passed fellow Toyota driver Erik Jones in the #4 truck on a late-race restart after Spencer Gallagher hit the wall hard in the #23 Chevrolet. A few laps after that restart, Ben Kennedy in the #11 Toyota had a hard crash, getting airborne and hitting the catchfence, a wreck similar but less severe-looking than Austin Dillon's last-lap Daytona crash last Sunday. Due to the amount of time required to repair the catchfence, the race was called five laps early with Crafton out in front. One notable finish was the eighth-place #05 Chevrolet of John Wes Townley. The two Brad Keselowski Fords of Tyler Reddick (#19) and Ryan Blaney (#29) both had mixed luck throughout the race; Blaney had a loose wheel coming in for one pit stop, lost a lap but got a lucky dog to get back on the lead lap.

Reduced Cup practice times could show Saturday with new package

Rain at Kentucky Speedway cancelled the scheduled practice session for the Sprint Cup Series on Wednesday, leaving only the two sessions scheduled for Friday with qualifying in between. Saturday's Cup race at the track will be the first to feature a new, so-called exciting rules package for the cars, but with less time for the Cup drivers to practice for the race, they might encounter some issues with the new package during the race itself, especially if they are left with no time to fix anything that may come up before the race.

Buddy Baker battling lung cancer

Former NASCAR driver and television commentator on CBS, Buddy Baker has revealed his diagnosis of lung cancer a few months ago, and has left his position on the Motor Racing Network due to that. Fellow former driver, commentator and Daytona 500 winner Benny Parsons died of the same disease in January of 2007. Another recent cancer death has been that of Fox analyst Steve Byrnes, who died in April of head and neck cancer. As always, the NASCAR community has vowed to support Baker.

What more needs to be done to improve safety?

Austin Dillon's vicious wreck at Daytona, the same track where Kyle Busch was injured in the Xfinity Series race in February, has once again brought up questions about what more needs to be done to increase safety and prevent further major incidents, as has happened many time since and even before the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001 at that very track.

Dale Jr. dominates at Daytona; Austin Dillon has scary wreck

Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, which was rain-delayed to late Sunday night into early Monday morning, to score his second win of the year in the #88 Chevrolet. The end of the race featured a huge crash in which Austin Dillon flipped through the air, hitting the catchfence and landing on his roof. Dillon was uninjured, but several fans along the frontstretch did suffer minor injuries.

Earnhardt won the race from the pole after qualifying was rained out and was set by first practice speeds. He led 96 of 161 laps in the race, and had plently of help from his teammate Jimmie Johnson in the #48 Chevrolet. Just a few laps into the race, a crash was triggered by the #38 Ford of David Gilliland and claimed other cars including the #22 Ford of Joey Logano, the #26 Toyota of rookie Jeb Burton and the #32 Ford of Bobby Labonte. Later, a pair of bigger wrecks took out drivers such as Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Brian Scott, J.J. Yeley, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Sam Hornish Jr. and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. A crash on lap 156 between McMurray and Hornish set up the green-white-checkered dash to the checkered flag, which was when the Dillon crash took place. This race also marked the last Daytona start for Jeff Gordon.

Race Results:

1. (1) 88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 96 laps
2. (12) 48-Jimmie Johnson - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 35 laps
3. (35) 11-Denny Hamlin - Toyota - 161 laps, led 10 laps
4. (34) 4-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 161 laps
5. (28) 41-Kurt Busch - Chevrolet - 161 laps
6. (23) 24-Jeff Gordon - Chevrolet - 161 laps
7. (2) 3-Austin Dillon - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 8 laps
8. (17) 31-Ryan Newman - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 1 lap
9. (5) 6-Trevor Bayne - Ford - 161 laps
10. (3) 15-Clint Bowyer - Toyota - 161 laps, led 1 lap

Austin Dillon wins Daytona Xfinity race after two big crashes

Austin Dillon took the #33 Chevrolet to the win in the 250-mile Xfinity Series race on Saturday evening after avoiding two big wrecks, including one that took out his teammate, the dominant #2 machine of Brian Scott. The first wreck collected Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Reed (the winner in February), Chris Buescher, Darrell Wallace Jr., points leader Ty Dillon and several others. The next crash was triggered when Scott, driving the #2 Chevrolet as a teammate to the Dillon brothers, was trying to block the #1 Ford of Elliott Sadler, but turned too close and spun himself, unable to save his car. Dillon then took the lead and went on to win, with the #18 Toyota of Daniel Suarez spinning into the infield just before the checkered flag. The crashes led to names like Dakoda Armstrong and Benny Gordon snagging top-ten finishes away from the series regular and the handful of Cup drivers in the field, such as the #88 Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne, who won this race in dramatic fashion last year over teammate Regan Smith in the #7 Chevrolet.

Race Results:

1. (7) 33-Austin Dillon - Chevrolet - 104 laps, led 9 laps
2. (10) 1-Elliott Sadler - Ford - 104 laps
3. (11) 9-Chase Elliott - Chevrolet - 104 laps
4. (21) 88-Kasey Kahne - Chevrolet - 104 laps
5. (20) 66-Benny Gordon - Toyota - 104 laps
6. (17) 43-Dakoda Armstrong - Ford - 104 laps
7. (3) 20-David Ragan - Toyota - 104 laps
8. (5) 54-Erik Jones - Toyota - 104 laps
9. (35) 0-Harrison Rhodes - Chevrolet - 104 laps
10. (34) 4-Ross Chastain - Chevrolet - 103 laps, led 1 lap

Which drivers realistically have a chance at Daytona?

The restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega provide a style of racing that makes it seem like any driver in the field, even the worst ones, can trip and fall into a win when all is said and done. But it's also true that there's a certain number of "restrictor plate specialists" with good car setups for this style of racing who really have the biggest chance to win. In other words, this weekend at Talladega won't exactly feature races that exactly every driver could win.

NBC gears up for Daytona with classic races

NBC has been preparing for its return to NASCAR with the Xfinity and Cup races at Daytona this weekend by airing old races on their sister channel NBC Sports Network from their original NASCAR broadcasting run from 2001 to 2006. This is in conjunction with their NASCAR news program NASCAR America and other special television events leading up to Sunday evening's Coke Zero 400.