NASCAR at Charlotte 2012: Fuel-mileage throws twist into Bank of America 500

After the race, though, the driver didn’t seem to think his world was crumbling. He didn’t throw anything or storm away. He didn’t curse his crew chief for a miscalculation or take a shot at his equipment.

Instead, Keselowski smiled. It was all good, he indicated. These things happen.

Denny Hamlin’s track record in fuel mileage races is well-documented – and it’s not good.

Numerous times, fuel mileage has prevented the driver from winning races and even helped cost him a championship in 2010.

After AJ Allmendinger completed his first race since being reinstated from a substance abuse suspension, the driver seemed both rejuvenated and anxious to know when he’d be racing again.

Allmendinger finished 24th for Phoenix Racing in Saturday night’s NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway – not a bad result considering his three-month layoff.

After making his first start with Furniture Row Racing, Kurt Busch used an alphabetic scale to rate the progress with his new team.

“It was a good day in regards to note-taking and building depth as far as our chemistry and things,” Busch said. “I provided a lot of good information and I think we can use it to get faster, quicker. On a scale of A-Z, we got to about L tonight. We should be good at Kansas with one extra day to test and practice.”

Saving fuel over the final 56 laps of the closing green-flag run, Clint Bowyer snookered his Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup rivals by winning Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Bowyer, who won for the third time this season, beat Denny Hamlin to the finish line by .417 seconds. Jimmie Johnson, who like Hamlin and Bowyer was saving fuel over the final run, came home third. The top three finishers trimmed a significant portion off Brad Keselowski’s series lead.

Keselowski ran out of fuel before his final pit stop and finished 11th. Keselowski leads Johnson by seven points and third-place Hamlin by 15 at the midpoint of the Chase. Bowyer climbed to fourth in the standings, 28 points back.

Greg Biffle ran fourth, Kyle Busch fifth and Mark Martin sixth, as only six cars finished on the lead lap

Keselowski gained track position by pitting under the first caution on Lap 12 and then staying out when the rest of the lead-lap cars came to pit road under the third yellow on Lap 37. From Lap 42 through Lap 166, the race ran caution-free, and when NASCAR threw the fourth yellow for debris in Turn 1 on Lap 166, the caution restored all the lead-lap cars to the same tire cycle.

All except Johnson, that is. Curiously, Johnson was the only driver to take two tires (right sides) as opposed to four during pit stops on Lap 168. The No. 48 Chevrolet restarted the race in the lead on lap 173, but Johnson quickly lost six spots to cars with fresher rubber.

With a three-wide move to the outside on the restart, Biffle took the top spot, but his stint at the point was short-lived. Keselowski slipped past Biffle on lap 180, pulling Hamlin with him, and began logging laps at the front of the field.

A debris caution interrupted the proceedings on lap 223, but it didn’t deter Keselowski, who led the field to a restart on Lap 228 and began to pull away from Kyle Busch. Johnson and Hamlin came to pit road to top off their fuel cells under the caution - whereas Keselowski did not.

Ultimately, that cost the driver of the No. 2 Dodge, who ran one lap too many before his next stop and ran out of fuel before getting back to pit road on Lap 276. Keselowski’s car stalled in the pit box, and by the time he was back up to racing speed, he was 13th in the running order.

Johnson and Hamlin pitted on Laps 279 and 280, respectively, and were confident they could make it to the checkered flag without stopping again. They did - but so did Bowyer.

Regan Smith’s debut with Hendrick Motorsports lasted all of 65 laps, suffering an engine failure in his first race substituting for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Saturday night’s NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Smith had worked his way into the top 10 following a 26th-place starting position when smoke began pouring from the back of the No. 88 Chevrolet on lap 62. Smith circled the track a few more laps before ultimately taking it to the garage.

Here are some storylines to follow, notes and drivers to watch for during tonight’s running of the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway:

Keselowski leads, while Johnson and Hamlin remain in close pursuit

Cadence Smith was unpacking her campground Thursday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway when she received a text from her daughter.

“You do know your driver is not racing this weekend, right?” the text said.

There are no weather worries today or tonight for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. High pressure has moved in across the region and will provide sunny skies during the day and mostly clear skies tonight for the race.

Temperatures will be cooler today than they were Friday with highs in the mid-to-upper-60s, and the cool temperatures carry over into the evening where race temperatures will be in the mid-50s falling to the low-50s.

Elliott Sadler is closing in on his first NASCAR Nationwide Series championship. He finished third in Friday’s Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and extended his championship lead to 13 points over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who finished seventh.

Sadler and his crew chief, Luke Lambert, essentially had to choose between a risky go-for-the-win strategy or a more conservative approach in the closing laps of the race. With everyone nearly 10 laps short on fuel, the decision to splash-and-go or take two tires and fuel were the most popular options.

You can call him the dominator.

Joey Logano buried the field in the final run of Friday night’s Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and won his eighth Nationwide Series race of the season in 18 starts.

Logano beat Kevin Harvick to the finish line by 2.760 seconds to win for the first time at Charlotte and the 17th time in his career. Series leader Elliott Sadler ran third and extended his advantage to 13 points over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who came home seventh.

Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin completed the top five.

Brad Keselowski took the lead from Joey Logano at the midpoint of the race and quickly pulled away to a lead of more than one second. Stenhouse got by Logano for the second spot on Lap 116 but couldn’t make headway on the leader.

When Stenhouse’s car began to fade slightly as the run progressed, Logano retook second, but a caution for debris on Lap 131 gave the lead-lap cars a chance to pit for tires and fuel and bunched the field for the restart.

Sadler gained two positions to second on the exchange of stops, but Stenhouse fell seven spots to 10th with an uncharacteristically slow pit stop marked by indecision as to whether to straighten the right side of the rear spoiler. Stenhouse had bent the spoiler during a slight brush with the outside wall.

It was Logano who led the field to a restart on Lap 137, but Harvick tracked him down and passed the No. 20 Toyota in traffic on Lap 155. On Lap 162, however, both Logano and Keselowski shot past Harvick into the top two spots, after the handling of Harvick’s Chevrolet began to deteriorate.

After the Lap 137 restart, all drivers had to stop for fuel before the end of the race, which proved Keselowski’s undoing. His crew failed to engage the gas can and did not get fuel in the car on a splash-and-go with 10 laps left. That set up Logano for the decisive win.

AJ Allmendinger woke up at 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, ready for a day of golf and a visit to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage to shake some hands and say hello.

First, though, he went to work out – and left his phone at home in the process. After all, he figured, why would anyone call him so early in the morning?

NASCAR drivers Elliott Sadler and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are in a fierce battle for the Nationwide Series championship. The combatants are separated by a mere nine points with just five races remaining in the season.

And because Sadler and Stenhouse have swapped the points lead four times in 2012 and went head-to-head last year for the title, it’s easy to think there would be a natural rivalry between the two. But that is simply not the case, as the challengers hold one another in high regard.

It will be a nice and quiet weather weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. High pressure builds in across the region today, temperatures will be in the mid 70s during the day and 60s for the Nationwide race.

It will be cooler with a few more clouds during the day Saturday as highs get into the upper 60s for the afternoon. For the Sprint Cup race Saturday night it will be cool as race temperatures are in the upper to mid 50s.

Greg Biffle said he’s been down in the dumps lately with a disappointing start to the Chase.

A pole position for Saturday night’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway might lift his spirits a bit.

Jimmie Johnson sympathizes with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver now sidelined for at least the next two weeks due to a concussion.

“It’s something that athletes are faced with,” Johnson said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Whether it is hockey, football or any contact sport, you have to know if you’re right. And even if you are right, you have to know when to seek medical advice. ... The process after a crash is far more extensive in regards to safety attention than what it ever was in the past.”

Kurt Busch stepped out of Furniture Row Racing’s hauler and declared Thursday was a new day.

“For us, 2013 starts today,” Busch said at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the first at-track appearance with his new No. 78 team.

At 7 a.m. Thursday morning, Regan Smith was making coffee and preparing to go work out at a local gym when he saw a text message from an unknown number on his phone.

“This is Steve Letarte,” the text said. “Give me a call ASAP.”

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked during a tire test at Kansas Speedway, current NASCAR points leader Brad Keselowski was there that day and saw firsthand just how hard of an accident it was.

“I had heard it in my car when we were sitting in the garage when it (Earnhardt Jr.‘s wreck) happened,” Keselowski said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I looked up and could see the marks and could see that he hit really, really hard and that he probably was not going to be okay.”

There’s a code in NASCAR: Whatever the injury, no matter how painful, a driver will never get out of his car.

Auto racing is a tough-guy sport, where even the admission of an injury can be seen as weakness. Drivers will race with severe illnesses, torn knee ligaments, broken bones and, in Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s case, concussions.

For the first time since his reinstatement following a failed drug test, AJ Allmendinger will be starting a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Allmendinger will drive the No. 51 Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing in Saturday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Originally, Regan Smith was tabbed to drive the car after Kurt Busch, Phoenix’s previous driver, took Smith’s ride this week at Furniture Row Racing.

The news today that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss the next two NASCAR races due to a concussion sustained at Talladega left everyone wondering if they missed signs of a head injury after Sunday’s race.

It was a bit surprising to see Earnhardt Jr. wincing and rubbing his head so much after crashing at Talladega, but the driver twice said he was OK when reporters asked how he felt.

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. climbed from his car after crashing at Talladega Superspeedway, he kept rubbing his head. Though the driver said he was “fine,” it was clear he was in pain.

Now we know why.