NASCAR was back at it this weekend with short track racin' at the "World's fastest half-mile oval." Bristol Motor Speeway was the sight of this weekend's events. This weekend was dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing, and Kyle Busch had no part in it. This weekend there were a couple of other famous athletes at the track. Former WWE Superstar and football player, Bill Goldberg was in attendance not only to watch the race but to introduce drivers in the pre-race ceremonies. Also, future NFL Hall of Famer and Super Bowl 50 champion, Peyton Manning was at the track cheering on his friend Dale Earnhardt Jr. Both of them are sponsored through Nationwide Insurance. Such a great weekend of racing, here is your recap.

 

Possibly one of the best Xfinity Series races I've seen in a while. First off I got to say watch out for Erik Jones! That kid has some talent! For the first time in Xfinity Series history, we saw heat racing to set the field. This comes from the new "Dash 4 Cash" in which drivers compete for $100,000.

 

Throughout the race it seemed as though Kyle Larson was the guy to beat. Erik Jones and Kyle Busch also looked bold throughout the day. After the last caution, the race came down to a 3-lap shootout to the finish. Erik Jones who restarted fourth made a pass on Daniel Suarez then around teammate Kyle Busch. Then fought, and I mean FOUGHT for the win against Kyle Larson. The two drivers were beating and banging each other. Larson had some damage and fell to third and Erik Jones drove off to become the $100,000 man at Bristol.

 

Erik Jones became the first Xfinity Series regular to win this season, and gives him a spot in the Xfinity Chase Grid later this year.

 

This race meant a lot to Erik and you can tell in victory lane. In the press conference he announced that his dad was diagnosed with cancer. Jones said, that he was talking to his mom in victory lane and the win was an emotional one.

 

Second place finisher Kyle Busch wasn't to happy with his performance on the restarts. "Both restarts I had today were absolutely horrendous," Busch said. "We'd go to the throttle and the thing would shut off, and those guys were gone by then." Busch led 43 out of 200 laps on Saturday.

 

Kyle Larson was leading before that final caution, and could not hold onto the lead on the restart. Larson and Jones made contact which dropped Larson to third place. "I didn't want to see that caution because we were tight on the short runs. I knew I gave that one away."

 

Erik Jones would capture the win, finishing 2nd was Kyle Busch, 3rd Kyle Larson, 4th was Austin Dillon, and 5th was Justin Allgaier. Other notables, in 6th was Daniel Suarez, 7th was Ty Dillon, finishing 11th was Brandon Jones, and 15th was Elliott Sadler.

Following Saturday's Race the Xfinity Series Points standings are as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Gibbs Racing's dominance began on Friday when Carl Edwards captured the pole for the Food City 500. The driver of the 19 Comcast Business Toyota Camry was in for a good weekend. He had the car to beat according to a lot of the drivers in the garage.

 

Carl Edwards had a MUCH better race than his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates on Sunday. Let's start with the driver who has been dominating NASCAR, Kyle Busch. ON lap 53 Busch blew a right-front tire and slammed into the outside wall. Kyle was running third and looking to win his third consecutive Sprint Cup Series race. Then on lap 116, Busch was spun around by the 34 of Chris Buescher after Busch attempted to slow down to avoid hitting his older brother Kurt Busch. Some how Kyle was able to stay on the lead lap again. Though on lap 260, Kyle Busch blew another right-front tire and hit the wall and suffered major damage which ended his day. This would be Busch's first DNF since June of last year. "I just kept getting tighter in the long run, not sure why that was," said Busch, "I guess it wasn't meant to be." The next Joe Gibbs driver to experience tire issues was Matt Kenseth who blew a right-front tire on lap 188. Matt had led 142 laps but the damage was enough to put him down 40 laps and he would finish 36^th. On lap 411, Daytona 500 Champ Denny Hamlin (the fourth Joe Gibbs driver), would have troubles of his own. Hamlin would struggle to get to the front and he would finish 20^th.

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second but it was no easy task. Dale Jr. had Super Bowl 50 Champion, Peyton Manning at the track to cheer him on, but on the start of the race Dale Jr. lost power and had to come to pit road to get his ECU fixed. This would put Dale two laps down. Dale would fight back to finish second to Carl Edwards. "We didn't have a good enough car to run in the top five today, but (crew chief) Greg (Ives) and those guys did a great job getting our laps back," Earnhardt said. "We were just lucky on those restarts as to where we lined up and that really helped us."

 

Carl Edwards was able to snag his first win of 2016 and do his celebratory back flip. Second was Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed by, Kurt Busch, rookie Chase Elliott, and Trevor Bayne. Other notables, finishing 6^th and career best finish was Matt DiBenedetto, 7^th was Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski finished 18^th, Jimmie Johnson finished 23^rd, Kyle Larson finished 35^th after breaking a trackbar, and Kyle Busch finished in 38^th.

 

 

After Sunday's Food City 500 here is a look at your standings:

 

 

 

This weekend the Formula One was in China for the Pirelli Chinese Grand Prix. It was pole sitter Nico Rosberg who took the checkered flag for Mercedes. His teammate Lewis Hamilton would finish seventh after starting from the back. Rosberg won by 30 seconds despite losing the lead on the start. After three races in the F1 season, Rosberg leads his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by 36 points. Sebastian Vettel from team Ferrari would finish second after crashing into teammate Kimi Raikkonen in the opening laps. Daniil Kvyat would go onto finish third, grabbing Red Bull's first podium of the season. Romain Grosjean who is racing for American-based team, Haas Racing finished 19^th. The Formula One will head to Russia for the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix on May 1^st.

 

The Verizon Indy Car Series is inching closer to the 100^th anniversary of the Indy 500. This weekend however, they stopped in Long Beach for the Long Beach Grand Prix. Simon Pagenaud was able to hold off a hard charging Scott Dixon to claim his first victory as a Penske driver. The margin of victory was .3 seconds which was the closest margin in Long Beach history. Though there was a lot of controversy at the finish after Pagenaud was corner-cutting on pit-exit. This would allow him to hold off Dixon for the win. A statement was released by Indy Car:

 

"Simon Pagenaud's actions during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach were deemed an infraction per Rule 7.10.1.1," read the statement. "The penalty for this infraction ranges from a warning (minimum), putting the driver to the back of the field (mid) and drive-through or stop and go/hold (maximum). INDYCAR race stewards determined his actions were not severe enough to warrant a harsher penalty than the warning that was issued."

 

This warning was pretty much a slap on the wrist for Simon. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. The INDYCAR Series will be in Birmingham, Alabama next Sunday for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.