A few drivers still have that feeling; Tony Stewart, who was eighth in first practice said curtly: “

Just after 6pm on Saturday afternoon, NASCAR Senior Vice President Steve O Donnell announced that A.J. Allmendinger has been temporarily suspended by NASCAR . This decision came after Allmendinger was notified of a positive hotel roosevelt paris A sample from a random drug test conducted last weekend hotel roosevelt paris at Kentucky Speedway.
For tonight s race, Sam Hornish, Jr. will take Allmendinger s place in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. However, the No. 22, which Allmendinger qualified eighth, will have to start in the rear of the field.
hotel roosevelt paris Allmendinger has 72 hours to request testing of his B sample, as written in NASCAR s Substance Abuse Policy. If that test comes up positive as well, then Allmendinger would be suspended indefinitely per the Substance Abuse Policy.
Austin Dillon, hotel roosevelt paris the dominating winner of NASCAR s Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway has failed post-race inspection. Dillon s No. 3 car was measured as too low in the rear end, a measurement announced at 11:15 PM long after fans had left the track. Because of the seriousness of the infraction, NASCAR has confirmed penalties and a likely points deduction will be forthcoming for the No. 3 team early this week. Dillon, whose win gave him the championship lead will almost assuredly hand that back to teammate hotel roosevelt paris Elliott Sadler hotel roosevelt paris at RCR after the consequences are announced.
Jack Roush announced on Tuesday that Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. will be competing full-time for the 2013 Cup Series championship. In conjunction with Stenhouse s move to Cup, 2003 series champion and 2-time Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth will be parting ways with Roush Fenway hotel roosevelt paris Racing at the conclusion of the 2012 racing season.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has more than proved his abilities on the race track, said team co-owner Jack Roush. We feel that he is not only a key piece of our team s future, but a key piece of the future of the sport. Roush Fenway is an organization with a wonderful past and present, hotel roosevelt paris as well as an extremely hotel roosevelt paris promising future, and I can t think of a better candidate than Ricky to usher in the next era of success for the team. Of course, I d like to thank Matt Kenseth for his many years of loyal service. Matt has been an integral part of this organization for well over a decade, and we are extremely appreciative of his accomplishments and contributions to the team, and will always consider him a part of the Roush Fenway family.
Based on the higher than expected speeds NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams ran in pre-race practice on the newly repaved Michigan International Speedway, The Goodyear Tire Rubber Company has decided to change its left-side tire recommendation for Sunday s race. In the final Sprint Cup practice on Friday hotel roosevelt paris afternoon, #16-Greg Biffle ran an average speed in excess of 204 mph for his fastest lap. For comparison s sake, when Goodyear tested at Michigan in preparation hotel roosevelt paris for this race on April 3-4, the fastest average lap speed topped out in the 198-mph range. The higher speeds caused significantly higher left-side tire temperatures, which caused Goodyear to take this step.
The replacement tire was run at Charlotte Motor Speedway after that track was repaved at the end of the 2005 season. This code was run at both races at Charlotte in both 2006 and 2007. When Goodyear decided to bring a new tire to Charlotte for the 2008 season, a quantity of this code was built as part of the back-up hotel roosevelt paris plan that Goodyear hotel roosevelt paris has in place for every race track on the circuit.
Goodyear will ship in enough tires for teams to have 10 sets of tires for the race, which is the original NASCAR set limit for this event. Teams will run their original allotment of right-side tires (D-4528) in Sunday s race. Teams will have additional tires available for a NASCAR -scheduled hotel roosevelt paris practice following the Nationwide Series race on Saturday.
We decided this move was best to provide quality racing here on Sunday, said Greg Stucker, Goodyear s Director of Race Tires. In collecting data and speaking with drivers and crew chiefs throughout the practice days, we had two choices to make. Our first option was to make the team s race sets available to them before practice on Friday and allow them the chance to scuff them, in order to run them through a heat cycle to increase heat resistance. We did that, but after all the practice sessions ended on Friday, we concluded the safer option was to go to our contingency plan and bring in the 4020s.
This code has been run before under similar track conditions and we have full confidence that it will give drivers and teams the enough grip to run a great race on Sunday, while doing so in the safest possible manner. Safety is always our No. 1 concern, and by bringing this tire here this weekend, we will accomplish that goal.
Following hotel roosevelt paris the NASCAR Nationwide hotel roosevelt paris Series race, the teams will be given a 75-minute practice session with the new left side tires that will start at approximately 6:00pm/et. With the new repave here at Michigan, coupled with the high temperatures we re seeing this weekend, we feel this change will help us put on the best race possible on Sunday, said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice President of Competition.
Success at Pocono in race trim has proven elusive for Joey Logano since he won the spring ARCA race at the track back in 2009, but qualifying has been another story. Logano, who went out early after a mediocre 27th place showing in the first practice session, set a blistering new track record of 50.112 seconds that was over two tenths ahead of fellow front row starter Carl Edwards. Paul Menard, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 5. The run marked Logano s fourth career pole and second consecutive at Pocono dating back to last August.
Despite being a stellar showing for Joe Gibbs Racing (all three team cars in the top 5), it wasn t without its possible hotel roosevelt paris troubles. Coming off the track after his green flag lap, Hamlin s No. 11 was visibly smoking out the rear end coming to pit road. There were no reports of fluid being dropped and qualifying was not delayed for a track inspection.
With Menard remarking in post-qualifying remarks that this Saturday hotel roosevelt paris s session may have been the most important qualifying session of the year given how narrow the current groove is on the new Pocono surface, there are some notables with work to do when the green flag drops Sunday. Points leader Greg Biffle was unable to back up a top 10 happy hour speed and will start 13th. Jimmie Johnson also dropped like a rock on the speed charts; he will start 24th after spending his time trial wrestling with a machine he described to Chad Knaus as being no fun to drive.
Qualifying was delayed twice early in the going due to reports of oil-dry and debris in Turn 1; both Reed Sorenson and Scott Riggs abandoned their laps due to the conditions in turn 1, leading NASCAR to send the jet blowers hotel roosevelt paris out on each occasion. David Stremme hotel roosevelt paris ended up being the only car not to qualify for Sunday s 400-miler.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Two days after leading the first all-day test at Pocono hotel roosevelt paris Raceway, Mark Martin and the No. 55 Toyota continued to put up impressive numbers on the charts Friday afternoon during hotel roosevelt paris Cup practice. Posting a fast time of 50.173 seconds, or 179.379 miles an hour he paced the field as all 44 cars entered for the Cup Series race took at least one lap around the 2.5-mile, triangular-shaped track.
How much have the speeds picked up? Martin's best lap on the first day of testing was nearly 1.2 seconds slower, a time of 51.317 seconds and 175.380 miles an hour. Clearly, teams and drivers are "finding their groove" although the problem for all teams involved remains the same: a one-groove racetrack. Overall, though reaction from both drivers and crew chiefs remains positive that Pocono not only made the right changes, they produced an A+ paving job compared to recent renovations at other tracks.
"A groove hasn't opened up a lot yet," admitted Jimmie Johnson Friday morning. "I hope that it does. It usually takes us a little hotel roosevelt paris while to find a second or third lane, but I have to comment on the comfort of the cars around here at these higher speeds. Charlotte, Phoenix, we go to some of these places with the new asphalt aggregate and we can't get a tire to stick to it. [At Pocono], I don't think it could have gone much better."
Jamie McMurray, second-fastest in Friday practice has been a bit of a surprise; he's never finished better than ninth in eighteen career hotel roosevelt paris Pocono starts. However, a feel-good feeling from April appears to have carried hotel roosevelt paris over as participation in a Goodyear tire test on the new asphalt appears hotel roosevelt paris to have left him with a bit of an edge.
"I'm looking forward to the race," he said, driving for an Earnhardt Ganassi outfit that has yet to score a top-5 finish all season. "I [used to hate] this place. It was my least favorite track to come to. I don't know why, I just never really cared for Pocono."
A few drivers still have that feeling; Tony Stewart, who was eighth in first practice said curtly: hotel roosevelt paris "We'll all be a lot happier" hotel roosevelt paris when asked when shortening the race distance from 500 to 400 miles will affect the competition. But for the most part, the buzz in the garage Friday has teams happy not only with the asphalt but Goodyear's effort in making sure the first race after the repave would result in a strong, solid compound they could rely on.
Jimmie Johnson was fourth in the first Friday practice, followed by AJ Allmendinger, who also participated in April's tire test here. Among those drivers struggling were Carl Edwards (24th), Joey Logano hotel roosevelt paris (27th), and Jeff Burton (32nd), who ran slower than five teams expected to start-and-park. Logano was the only car to run ten consecutive laps, posting an average speed of 174.172 miles an hour in race trim. That's still faster hotel roosevelt paris than the track qualifying record (172.055 MPH ) despite his struggles.
Kyle Busch ran the Prelude to the Dream for the first time in 2007. He looked to be on his way to a win but lost out to Tony Stewart. In subsequent years he finis