NASCAR At Kansas Speedway: Jimmie Johnson Returns To Victory Lane

Jeff Gordon suffered a rare engine failure at the worst time.

Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports engine expired with just two laps to go in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, relegating the driver to a 34th-place finish.

Denny Hamlin had some eyebrow-raising comments on Sunday after the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway (he finished 16th).

Here’s what he said, according to a transcript distributed by Toyota:

For much of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, it looked as if Carl Edwards was going to have not only his worst performance of the 2011 Chase, but one of his worst in any Chase.

Struggling with the handling of the car, Edwards was two laps down at one point to eventual race winner Jimmie Johnson. However, after making continual adjustments and catching the right breaks, Edwards was able to recover to score a fifth-place finish and take sole possession of the Chase points lead.

For those of us who expected Brad Keselowski to be mired in the back half of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup point standings by now, it’s time to accept reality: We were wrong.

Keselowski isn’t going anywhere. With yet another good finish on Sunday at Kansas Speedway – this time a third-place run – Keselowski moved up to fourth in the point standings and is just 11 points behind championship leader Carl Edwards.

For one run in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was Superman.

His Hendrick Motorsports team had fastened on a set of tires that felt so good, it was like Earnhardt Jr. was driving a perfect setup on iRacing.

Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards entered Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway tied for the points lead with Kevin Harvick and expecting a solid run in front of his home town crowd.

Struggling for most of the day, Edwards was able to climb back into contention late in the race and finished the day in the fifth. Finishing one spot ahead of Harvick, Edwards was able to open up a one-point lead atop the Chase standings with four races in the books.

Two races into the 2011 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup and Jimmie Johnson was all but written off as a championship contender. Sitting 10th in the standings, Johnson was the lowest he had ever been in the Chase.

Two weeks later, the five-time defending champion is back in the thick of things after dominating Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.

Brian France addressed the NASCAR media in a full question-and-answer session for the first time since May on Sunday at Kansas Speedway, telling reporters he was happy with how this season has unfolded so far.

France said NASCAR’s decision to implement a wild card and the new, simpler points system were positives and have had “a really big impact.”

A slow-moving system across western Kansas will move easy, but will not spread rain into eastern Kansas until Sunday evening. The sky will be partly to mostly cloudy, breezy (winds 10 to 20 mph) and warm (highs in the low 80s).

There is just a very small chance that some of these showers and storms could slip into the area in the late afternoon, but there is really nothing to worry about.

It’s NASCAR race day at Kansas Speedway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about today’s Chase race for you below.

What time does the race start today? The command to start engines will be given by an official from the company that owns race sponsor Hollywood Casino at 2:09 p.m. Eastern time. The green flag will then wave at 30 seconds past 2:17 p.m. Eastern. That’s an hour later than most of the Sunday races so far this season – so make sure you’re not sitting there an hour early for no reason. If you want to tune in for the actual race itself and skip the pre-race show, just tune in at 2:17.

Longtime NASCAR writer and Nationwide Series expert Lee Montgomery has responded to Brad Keselowski’s post-race comments in an editorial over at NNSRacing.com.

We won’t spoil it further except to say that if you’re a Nationwide Series fan, you must read Montgomery’s take on the current state of the series – and why Sprint Cup drivers shouldn’t be involved in it.

NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Aric Almirola and Brian Scott exchanged angry words and had to be separated by their crews following Saturday’s race at Kansas Speedway.

After Almirola finished 12th and Scott finished 17th, the drivers confronted one another on pit road and Scott could be heard vowing payback on Almirola. Their dispute dates back to an incident last month at Richmond, and it continued on Saturday with more hard racing.

Danica Patrick finished exactly where she started Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway: In 15th.

Patrick and her JR Motorsports team had an off-week, but she was heartened by the finish despite never getting the car right.

This wasn’t the plan.

Clint Bowyer was never supposed to leave Richard Childress Racing, his home ever since he came into NASCAR. Childress was the owner who had plucked Bowyer from obscurity and given him a shot in stock car racing’s major leagues.

The United States will be divided by a large area of high pressure to the east and an approaching trough to the west. These features will do battle over the western and central part of Kansas over the weekend, leaving the eastern counties, including Kansas Speedway, mostly dry but very windy.

I am going to leave showers out of the forecast for Sunday, but showers through western and eastern Kansas will still need to be watched as we go through the weekend. Temperatures will be warm, in the low- to mid-80s and it will be very windy. South winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts of 30 mph.

After months of speculation, Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltrip Racing have officially announced their partnership going forward. The three-year deal will put Bowyer behind the wheel of the No. 15 Toyota with sponsor 5-Hour Energy on board for 24 races in 2012.

Joining a new organization for the first time in Bowyer’s career, the move is a win-win situation for all parties involved.

After the first two races in the 2011 Chase, many were ready to write off five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson. Following his second-place run last weekend at Dover, Johnson is right back in the thick of the championship battle.

With the Chase so tight only three races in, Johnson said there is no guarantee they will continue their march to the front of the standings.

Leading the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup after three races, Kevin Harvick is not concerned with the competition around him.

“We have two battles right now,” Harvick said. “One is against ourselves and the other one is against the guy second in points. That’s the way we look at it.”

Three races into the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup and there is still no clear-cut favorite for the NASCAR championship as the series heads to Kansas Speedway this weekend for the Hollywood Casino 400.

Brad Keselowski, who sits sixth in points, went to Victory Lane at Kansas in June, using fuel mileage to earn his first of three victories of the season. Calling the victory a “catalyst” for his summer performance, Keselowski is eager to return after a disappointing result last weekend at Dover.