Joey Logano Busch Series East Champ
Joey Logano finished second in the Sunoco 150 at Dover International Speedway Friday afternoon but became the NASCAR Busch East Series’ first rookie champion. Sean Caisse took the race lead from Logano with just eight laps to go, and then withstood a final charge by Logano to win by a car length. Pole winner Jeffrey Earnhardt gained new northern fans and turned heads with a contending run to finish third. It was the 18-year-old Earnhardt’s best finish of the season and his fourth top-five finish over the last six races of the season. Jesus Hernandez placed fourth, followed by Tim McCreadie.

By virtue of NASCAR’s lower age limit of 16 starting this year for its touring series, Logano is also the youngest champion of the series as well. Logano turned 17 on May 24. His base second-place prize money of $9,361 pushed his season race winnings to $100,786.

Logano, hired as a development driver by Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2007 season, revealed uncommon talent by leading the series point standings all but one week during the early season, and drove on to five wins and 10 top-five finishes in 13 races. That set a new record for races won by a rookie. The previous record was two-win seasons by three different rookie drivers. Logano praised his teammates in sharing the title.

“My crew chief Mike Sibley is one of the greatest out there. Everyone on the team has worked so hard, and it paid off. Every time we went to the race track we had a chance to win. But there are ten teams who could win every single week. The NASCAR Busch East Series has great competition.”

Chase Austin posted his rookie season’s best finish of sixth followed by Marc Davis, Steve Park, Peyton Sellers and Max Dumarey Chevrolet.

Earnhardt May Test With HMS
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Tony Eury Jr.'s decision to leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. for Hendrick Motorsports before the end of the current season was a difficult one but one he fully supported. Eury Jr. will move to Hendrick after the Talladega race on Oct. 7.

"I'd rather him have the chance to really build on our offseason preparation for next year and have as much time to understand that as he can," Earnhardt Jr. said Friday. "Knowing the two companies are vastly different on the inside, I think it'll be great for him to have that chance to be there as early as possible. But I'll definitely miss him on the box on Sundays."

Earnhardt Jr. will remain with DEI through the end of 2007, with Tony Gibson taking Eury Jr.'s place, but there is a possibility he'll test for Hendrick at Atlanta Motor Speedway in late November.

"I think it would be great for me to be able to test a Hendrick car at Atlanta," Earnhardt Jr. "Regan [Smith is] going to test my car with Tony as the crew chief. If DEI, which I'll still be under contract with, sees any problem with it, then I won't be able to do it. But if they don't have a problem with it, I may be running a car there to get some experience behind the wheel and the technology and the front-end geometry and everything that they've been using."(scenedaily.com)

NHIS Final Ratings Down
The final television rating for the Sylvania 300 last week at New Hampshire International Speedway was a lackluster 3.3 on ABC. Last year's race came in at 3.7, but was on cable network TNT (down 10.8 percent). As far as households, the ABC network telecast attracted 3,676,000 households, up from 3,389,000 last year.

The Saturday night race at Richmond a week earlier earned a 4.2 rating on ABC.

A network rating is a percentage of homes that are tuned into the event, while a cable rating is a percentage of homes equipped with cable that are tuned into an event - meaning that a lower network rating still can produce more households.(scenedaily.com)

Wood To Run Kansas Cup Race
Jon Wood is scheduled to return to the NASCAR Nextel Cup ranks for the Sept. 30 race at Kansas Speedway. Wood has been competing for the team in the Craftsman Truck Series, but will make his return to the Cup series for this event. Wood drove for the Wood Brothers in the No. 21 Cup Ford at Las Vegas earlier this season. He originally planned to run the full Busch Series schedule and compete in more races in the No. 21, but was sidelined with health issues before returning to the truck series.

"We're going to run two cars at Kansas. Jon will be in one with Sunbelt Snacks on it, and I'm guessing that Bill Elliott will be in the other with Little Debbie's," team co-owner Len Wood said. Gene Nead, who parted company with Robby Gordon Motorsports Monday, will be the crew chief for the car.

Nead started with the Wood Brothers team on Thursday. He and team co-owner Eddie Wood have known one another for a long time and had talked in the past about doing some work together in the Busch Series. Len Wood said that the team is also testing the car of tomorrow on Tuesday, and Nead will lead that effort.(scenedaily.com)

Hamlim Ill But Wins Anyway
Denny Hamlin nearly didn't start the RoadLoans.com 200 NASCAR Busch Series race on Saturday at Dover International Speedway. Hamlin was feeling ill and took some IV fluids from the infield care center before the race. Hamlin was ailing so bad that Kyle Busch, Hamlin's future Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, was standing by in case he couldn't start the race. But Hamlin, after getting some help just getting into the car, decided to give it a try. He did more than try, Hamlin easily dominated the race and although Busch wasn't needed, he stayed in Hamlin's pit box for the race.

The win was Hamlin's sixth trip to Victory Lane in 88 career races. "I need a nap," Hamlin said exiting his car. "I hated to stay in it and maybe risk tomorrow, but I don't think I did. When a car runs good, you feel better, so I think this is a step in the right direction for us. I felt a lot better early than I did late." The race was the slowest in Dover's Busch Series history with an average speed of just 85.198 mph, slowed by a record-tying 13 cautions for a record-setting total of 61 laps. "I was happy for the breaks," Hamlin said. "The longer the green flag went, the aches and pains started coming on. But when you have a car that's that good, you don't really think about it while you're in the race car. The cautions never really came when it was a bad time for us."

Martin Truex, Jr., who won the Nextel Cup race here in June, finished second. He said Hamlin simply had the better car. "Denny was better than us on new tires," Truex said. "The best we were was on old tires, on really long runs, and it just didn't play out today. We couldn't run with Denny for 20 or 25 laps at least on new tires. As we ran we evened out, and that's why we stayed out. But if we'd gotten tires we still would have finished second." Matt Kenseth finished third and Mike Bliss fourth. Rounding out the top ten were Reed Sorenson followed by points leader Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Jason Keller, Greg Biffle and David Reutimann. With his seventh place finish, Keselowski earned his third top-10 in 21 races this season and he took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fourth time this season. The Busch Series moves to Kansas Speedway next Saturday, September 29, 2007.

Kvapil Wins 'Vegas Truck Race
Travis Kvapil was the pole sitter of Saturday's Smith's Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and it didn't take long to see that he had the truck to beat. Kvapil ran in the top ten most of the night, stayed out of trouble and passed Jon Wood for the lead with 13 laps to go. Wood tried hard to get back past Kvapil and did get along-side him several times in the closing laps but wore his tires out in the effort. Johnny Benson then pulled past Wood and set out to catch Kvapil. He too put up a valiant fight for the lead but settled for second place. It was the fourth victory this year for Kvapil and the ninth of his 115 race career.

“Man, what an awesome finish. Our weekend in general, this is the truck we won a couple of races with earlier in the year. So, we knew it was fast at this type of race track," said Kvapil. "This was my first time here in this configuration. We were good in practice, just kept working on it. Everybody on the team just did a wonderful job staying with it. Qualified on the pole. In the race we were off a little bit. We were just a little too tight in the first half of the race. I was trying to run the bottom of the race track in one and two. My truck was just not set-up good enough to get through the bumps through one and two like I needed. So, I had to search around a little bit and it took me a little while to figure out how to carry speed through in turns one and two. I found just running the outside lane, going around the bumps, worked for me."