All-Star Race to start earlier next year?

Complaints from fans about Saturday night's 9:42 pm ET start for the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway has led NASCAR to consider moving up the start to an earlier time starting next year.

Chris Buescher wins Xfinity race at Iowa

Chris Buescher took advantage of a late-race caution during Sunday's Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway, taking his #60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford with fresh tires past the #9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of Chase Elliott as well as his teammate, the #16 Ford of Ryan Reed in a green-white-checkered finish to his second series win. Besides the dramatic finish, the race was also marked by a pair of incidents involving J.J. Yeley and Brennan Poole, which got Poole parked for his "revenge" on Yeley.

Race Results:

1. (4) 60-Chris Buescher - Ford - 259 laps, led 94 laps
2. (6) 9-Chase Elliott - Chevrolet - 259 laps, led 114 laps
3. (1) 20-Erik Jones - Toyota - 259 laps
4. (3) 2-Brian Scott - Chevrolet - 259 laps
5. (13) 22-Ryan Blaney - Ford - 259 laps, led 1 lap
6. (8) 6-Darrell Wallace Jr. - Ford - 259 laps
7. (14) 88-Ben Rhodes - Chevrolet - 259 laps
8. (5) 33-Brandon Jones - Chevrolet - 259 laps
9. (10) 1-Elliott Sadler - Ford - 259 laps
10. (11) 62-Brendan Gaughan - Chevrolet - 259 laps

Denny Hamlin wins All-Star Race, $1 million

Denny Hamlin took the #11 Toyota to his first win in the Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It was also the first All-Star win for his team, Joe Gibbs Racing as well as Toyota. He won from the pole, having turned the fastest laps during qualifying earlier in the evening, and got $1 million for his win, as is customary for the All-Star Race. Hamlin inherited the lead when Brad Keselowski, driving a throwback scheme on his #2 Team Penske Ford that resembled the 1997-2000 variation of Rusty Wallace's "Blue Deuce" Miller Lite machine in honor of the 25 years of the Miller-Penske partnership, was caught speeding on pit road during the last set of pit stops, along with Hamlin's teammate, Carl Edwards in the #19 Toyota.

Keselowski led the most laps in the 110-lap, five segment event, which also saw Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick out front for long stretches. Second-place starter Greg Biffle and defending race winner Jamie McMurray also led a couple of circuits around the 1.5-mile quad-oval. The first four segments consisted of 25 laps, with a final ten-lap sprint to the finish to close it out. After segment 1, all drivers made pit stops, with some drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., with a special Mountain Dew Baja Blast scheme on his #88 Chevrolet, opting for two tires instead of four, and consequently getting shuffled back several spots when the green flag came out for segment 2. Earnhardt's teammate Kahne led at the end of segment 1, Keselowski after segment 2 and 3, and Kurt Busch after segment 4. During segment 3, fan vote winner Danica Patrick lost power on her #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Mobil 1/Aspen Dental Chevrolet and lost 32 laps getting repairs in the garage. Early in the fourth segment, Joey Logano nearly spun the #22 Team Penske Ford and fell from sixth to 16th. There were no cautions during any of the 110 scheduled laps.

Next week, the Sprint Cup Series remains at Charlotte, where many of the sport's top teams are based, for the equally prestigious Coca-Cola 600, held the Sunday before Memorial Day, May 24 in the evening after IndyCar's Indianapolis 500. It is the longest race in any NASCAR series at any level and is considered a real test of skill and endurance, and just like the All-Star Race is not to be missed.

Race Results:

1. (1) 11-Denny Hamlin - Toyota - 110 laps, led 26 laps
2. (20) 4-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 110 laps
3. (16) 41-Kurt Busch - Chevrolet - 110 laps, led 24 laps
4. (9) 24-Jeff Gordon - Chevrolet - 110 laps
5. (17) 20-Matt Kenseth - Toyota - 110 laps
6. (19) 18-Kyle Busch - Toyota - 110 laps
7. (5) 5-Kasey Kahne - Chevrolet - 110 laps, led 11 laps
8. (11) 22-Joey Logano - Ford - 110 laps
9. (3) 2-Brad Keselowski - Ford - 110 laps, led 49 laps
10. (7) 88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Chevrolet - 110 laps
11. (13) 47-A.J. Allmendinger - Chevrolet - 110 laps
12. (4) 15-Clint Bowyer - Toyota - 110 laps
13. (2) 16-Greg Biffle - Ford - 110 laps
14. (8) 43-Aric Almirola - Ford - 110 laps
15. (12) 48-Jimmie Johnson - Chevrolet - 110 laps
16. (14) 1-Jamie McMurray - Chevrolet - 110 laps
17. (10) 19-Carl Edwards - Toyota - 110 laps
18. (18) 31-Ryan Newman - Chevrolet - 110 laps
19. (15) 14-Tony Stewart - Chevrolet - 110 laps
20. (6) 10-Danica Patrick - Chevrolet - 78 laps (32 laps down)

Kasey Kahne battles his way to truck victory

Kasey Kahne became the second straight driver to deny Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Erik Jones a win in the Camping World Truck Series on Friday, as he beat the #4 Toyota by five one-thousandths of a second in a green-white-checker finish to win the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday evening. Kahne was driving the #00 Chevrolet owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his first series start in nearly three years (also a win, in nearby Rockingham). It was Earnhardt's first win as a truck owner after just a handful of starts. Kahne and Jones, who were supposed to start on the front row, had to move to the rear of the field prior to the start of the race and raced their way back up front. In the last few laps, which featured two cautions prompted by Mason Mingus spinning in the #15 Chevrolet and then Daniel Hemric crashing to set up the overtime finish, Kahne and Jones, who had the dominant truck during much of the race, were battling side-by-side for the lead.

Biffle, Bowyer win Sprint Showdown segments; Patrick takes Fan Vote

The Sprint Showdown was held on Friday evening, a 40-lap last-chance race for drivers not already locked into Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race. Both events are at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and no championship points are involved. This year, a change in the format was introduced, namely the leader at the end of the first of two 20-lap segments automatically transferring into Saturday's main event. Paul Menard won the pole, which was determined by each driver taking three laps around the 1.5-mile quad-oval and making a pit stop with no speed limit on pit road.

Greg Biffle, driving the #16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, led after 20 laps and went to the garage while everyone else made pit stops under the competition caution and got ready for the second half of the race. After two laps of the second segment, J.J. Yeley spun his #23 Toyota and brought out a caution. Yellow flag laps did not count in the second segment, so after the restart there were still 18 green flag laps left. Martin Truex Jr. in the #78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet was the inital leader on both restarts after segment 1, but Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Kyle Larson soon joined him in a fierce battle for the lead. Bowyer eventually pulled away to take his #15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota to the main event from the Showdown for the second straight year. A few minutes later, Danica Patrick, driving the #10 Mobil 1/Aspen Dental Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, was announced as the winner of the Sprint Fan Vote for the second time in three seasons, Josh Wise having won in between driving a Dogecoin-sponored #98 Phil Parsons Ford. Biffle, Bowyer and Patrick will join 17 other drivers who have all won races or past All-Star Races in the 31st running of the Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday evening.

Leavine Family Racing moving into Penske shop following fire

Leavine Family Racing will temporarily move into the building which houses the shops of fellow Ford team Team Penske in Mooresville, North Carolina following a fire that caused significant damage to the Leavine shop, including the loss of four of the team's Sprint Cup Ford Fusions. Leavine's driver Michael McDowell and his crew were practicing at Kansas Speedway on Friday when the fire broke out. The team still competed in the Cup race on Saturday night and then returned to their Concord, North Carolina facility to assess the damage. Team Penske's building contains the shops of the #2 and #22 Ford Fusions driven by Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, as well as the famous Wood Brothers #21 car, currently driven part-time by Penske development driver Ryan Blaney. Leavine said they expect to return to their own shop eventually.

Kyle Busch to return at All-Star Race

Kyle Busch, who suffered a compound leg fracture in a hard hit to a wall without a SAFER barrier during February's Xfinity Series opener at Daytona, will make his racing return on Saturday evening at the non-points All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Busch himself announced the news through a short clip on Twitter. In Busch's absence, Matt Crafton, David Ragan and Erik Jones piloted the #18 M&M's Crispy Toyota, which is owned by Joe Gibbs. Jones, Denny Hamlin and Boris Said took turns driving Busch's Xfinity Series #54 Toyota during the same period.