The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday for the second leg of the 10-race Chase For The Cup. The Sylvania 300 goes at 2 PM ET on ESPN, with the circuit’s consensus favorite, Jimmie Johnson, hoping to break out of his funk.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes to Charlotte on Sunday night for the Coca-Cola 600 at a track with a reputation for belonging to one driver, but a recent history that suggests otherwise.
“Charlotte is known as the home of Jimmy Johnson,” TheSportsNotebook’s resident NASCAR consultant Bill Flaherty (who doubles as the writer’s brother) told me. The Charlotte Motor Speedway is sponsored by Loew’s, the same hardware company that also sponsors Johnson, but JJ also won five of six races there in 2003-05. But just as the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry peaked from 2003-05, so did Johnson’s dominance in Carolina. Over the last five years, Charlotte has continued to host two races per year and we’ve had 10 different winners. Johnson’s one of them, but that’s parity that the NFL would smile upon.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes it games to Kansas City, KS this Sunday for a 12:30 PM ET race on Fox. Last week, Greg Biffle built on the lead he held in the overall standings by winning his first race of the season. “It was good to see him win,” said my brother Bill, the NASCAR junkie and consultant here at TheSportsNotebook. “He’s been very consistent. “ Indeed, with four other Top 10 finishes, and three additional Top 5 finishes to go with last Saturday’s win, Biffle’s steadiness is the story of this Sprint Cup season in its early phase and he holds a 21-point lead in the standings.