Monday, September 29, 2008

Weekend Racing Recap

While the temperatures are starting to cool off here in the Midwest, things are still hot in the racing world as we saw this past weekend. Of course, for most race fans, the big event on the weekend docket was race 3 of the 10 to be contested in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. As has been the norm so far in "The Chase" this year it was a wild 400-mile affair with Jimmie Johnson, winner of the last two championships, beating Carl Edwards in an exciting final lap that saw Edwards bounce off of the turn four wall after just having passed Johnson for the lead.

Jimmie Johnson takes the win at Kansas Speedway

(AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

The victory gives Jimmie Johnson a ten-point lead as the series heads to Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday afternoon. Johnson has always been a strong second half performer and as the last two seasons have shown, once they get the lead, the 48 team is tough to beat.

Much closer to home than Kansas, the cars and stars of the USAC National Sprint Cars were a short trip down route 32 at the Winchester Speedway for their third and final visit to the famed high-banked, half-mile. With many of the legends of the sport looking on as part of "Oldtimers Weekend," 18-year old Brady Bacon of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma wrote his own chapter in the history of the old track when he steered his Kasey Kahne Racing machine into victory lane. Further back in the field, Jerry Coons Jr. finished eighth and, with two-time and defending series champion Levi Jones coming home twelfth, took over the points lead by two heading into the final five races out west in just over a month.

In other racing over the weekend, two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso took the historic first ever Formula One night race in Singapore. Denny Hamlin was the NASCAR Nationwide Series race winner Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway. Saturday night I was behind the microphone for the final UMRA TQ Midget race of the season at the Mount Lawn Speedway in New Castle. In an exciting 50-lapper Brent Turner finished his rookie season with his third win while Terry Goff won his thirteenth UMRA Championship.

Watch out for a preview of this coming weekend's racing events later in the week!

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