On Saturday, McClure was airlifted to University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center after his Toyota was turned in pack traffic and impacted the Turn 3 wall head-on. After the accident, he was alert and talking and spent two nights in the hospital for observation. He was released from a Birmingham, AL hospital on Tuesday. In this weekend at the Southern 500, Danica Patrick is ready to earn her stripes. For the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500, Patrick is back in the Sprint Cup series and she picked one of the circuit’s most treacherous tracks for her return in Darlington Raceway.

In Saturday night’s 500-mile race, she is guaranteed a starting position since her No. 10 Tommy Baldwin Racing team is currently 33rd in the owner point standings. Patrick made her series debut in February at Daytona International Speedway, driving her green-colored GoDaddy.com Chevrolet. On the second lap of the Daytona 500, she was involved in a multi-car crash. Last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, David Reutimann‘s 22nd-place finish helped keep the No. 10 team in the top-35 in points.

Darlington is one of the most challenging racetracks in NASCAR. It is a 1.366-mile oval track with its unique egg-shaped layout. Patrick will probably earn more than one Darlington stripe during the weekend and she will certainly have her hands full. Ryan Blaney will also make his second start in the series at Darlington. He is the -year-old son of NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney. In his debut at Richmond, he finished an impressive seventh.

The three drivers to eclipse the 189-mph mark around the 1.5-mile oval were Martin (189.427 mph), series points leader Greg Biffle (189.221) and Kevin Harvick (189.208). Cup teams have a 90-minute practice scheduled for Friday with qualifying Friday night in addition to the 2-hour practice session Thursday.

In the first practice, there were no accidents. The practice featured six different organizations in the top six with Martin for Michael Waltrip Racing; Biffle for Roush Fenway Racing; Harvick for Richard Childress Racing; followed by AJ Allmendinger for Penske Racing; Regan Smith for Furniture Row Racing and Marcos Ambrose for Richard Petty Motorsports.

Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose, Denny Hamlin and defending race winner Matt Kenseth completed the fastest ten of the session. On Friday afternoon, Sprint Cup drivers will practice again before qualifying to set the field for Saturday night’s seventh race of the season.

A dominant force at TMS is the Roush Fenway Racing. Kenseth has two Cup and two Nationwide series wins on the 1.5-mile track. He is the defending winner of the Samsung Mobile 500. His average finish of 8.7 at Texas is tops among all contenders.

Teammate Carl Edwards has five Texas trophies. The wins include three Cup races. It is the most by any competitor on the tour. He became the first driver to sweep the Cup events at TMS in the year 2008.

Points leader Greg Biffle finished among the top five in the last three races at the track. in his last seven Texas starts, he has not finished worse than 10th. Biffle posted the second quickest time in the first practice. He was 0.031-seconds off Mark Martin’s lap of 189. 427 mph. He won the spring Texas race in 2005.

At the famous TMS, 13 active drivers have won Cup races. Edwards has three wins, while Hamlin, Stewart, Burton and Kenseth have two each. Kurt Busch, Gordon, Kahne, Newman, Biffle, Earnhardt Jr., Johnson and Martin have one each. On Friday, at 3 (EST), teams will get a 90-minute practice session and qualify Friday evening at 6:40.

At this track, some drivers really excel, for various reasons. Kevin Harvick, defending Goody’s Fast Relief 500 winner will certainly have plenty of stiff challenges all day from a cadre of other hungry wolves, even though he will certainly be competitive as he seeks his first victory of the 2012 season.

Needless to say, Busch has his sights set on getting that long-awaited maiden victory at Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Martinsville. Busch has won at least once at 20 of those venues in at least one of NASCAR’s top three divisions, of the 23 venues that will host Sprint Cup events in 2012.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is another aspiring driver for a win. in 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a career-high six races and he mounted a decent challenge for the championship. He has not even come close to that year. he feels as good as he did eight years ago after five races into the season. Busch has plenty of reasons for optimism this weekend despite the lack of a Martinsville grandfather clock, considering how he has been able to pick up his game at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval ever since being paired with crew chief Dave Rogers.

Mired in a 134-race losing streak that dates back to 2008, goes Earnhardt into Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway. He wound up second to Kevin Harvick that left Earnhardt’s fans feeling a little flat even though he had a solid chance at getting back to Victory Lane a year ago at Martinsville. In his last 10 starts at Martinsville, he has seven top-10 finishes, and, over his last 20 starts, he has nine top-five finishes.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Outrights are Jimmie Johnson 6, Kyle Busch 13/2, Tony Stewart 13/2, Carl Edwards 7, Kevin Harvick7 and Dale Earnhardt Jr.12.

Austin would be the first black driver to start an Indy Lights Race by qualifying for the Freedom 100, which runs two days before the Indianapolis 500.

On the eminent Brickyard oval, Austin, from Eudora, will pursue in the footsteps of two other black drivers who have competed there. George Mack raced in 2002, while Ribbs raced in the 1991, 1993 and 1994 Indianapolis 500s. In Indianapolis in 2007, Lewis Hamilton won the 2007 United States Grand Prix.

Austin said he was not overly worried, after concluding his last among the 18 Indy Lights drivers on the track Friday for open practice. Than the second-slowest driver, fellow rookie James Winslow, Austin’s top lap of 184.944 mph was evidently slower.

As of now, Austin is optimistic of a good finish, as it will gain him more exposure and sponsorship to fund more races this season. He has an accord with Willy T. Ribbs Racing for just one race.

Ribbs hopes there is a future for his team and Austin. Ribbs, in his 23 years of racing has made 47 IndyCar, 3 Sprint Cup and 23 Camping World Trucks series starts.

In the Sprint Cup Series, the driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries/M&Ms Toyota Camry also drives JGR’s #18 Z-Line Designs Toyota in the Nationwide Series. In the Camping World Truck Series, he runs his own team, Kyle Busch Motorsports. He drives the #18 Dollar General Toyota Tundra on a part-time basis.

Busch won one Cup Series race, four nationwide races, and one Truck Series race in the first quarter of the season. At Bristol Motor Speedway in March, he swept both weekend races Cup and Nationwide.

President of the Driver of the Year Foundation, Barry Schmoyer said that it would be an understatement to call Kyle Busch versatile. He added that to triumph on any given weekend, he certainly proved that he is a triple-threat. He said that he will not be astonished if he will be handing Busch in the years to come, the DRIVER OF THE YEAR trophy as he is just 25-years-old.

According to the DRIVER OF THE YEAR points system, in the voting Busch took nine first-place ballots and totaled 121 points. NASCAR drivers swept the virtual podium with Kevin Harvick also earning six first-place votes, 84 points and Carl Edwards garnering six first-place votes and 89 points.

Online picks in the NASCAR betting have Jimmie Johnson 5/2, Kyle Busch 9/2, Carl Edwards 9/2, Kevin Harvick 15/2, Tony Stewart 13.

To claim the American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award, the Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 team used timely adjustments and long green flag runs. The award is given to the driver who records the highest average speed on restarts and finishes the race on the lead lap. DIRECTV Crew Chief of the Race Award was claimed by the crew chief Jimmy Fennig. The award is presented to the crew chief of the driver who during the weekend exhibits the superlative qualifying and race effort based on finishing position. Based on qualifying, laps led and finishing position, Roush Yates Engines won the MAHLE Clevite Engine Builder of the Race Award.

With numerous Sprint Cup Series victories at Texas Motor Speedway, Kenseth turns out to be the fourth Sprint Cup Series driver with the win. He joins Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards, Hamlin and Jeff Burton. For most top-5 finishes at Texas, he also persists to hold the record with nine in 18 career starts.

For the 3-hour, 14-minute primetime live broadcast that began at 7 p.m. ET, the Samsung Mobile 500 attracted more than 4.6 million households and seven million viewers. In comparison to FOX’s opening night race of the 2010 season at Phoenix, the Samsung Mobile 500 displayed gains.

The next Sprint car race will be held at Talladega Superspeedway on April 17. The auto racing odds for the forthcoming race are Jimmie Johnson 3, Kyle Busch 4, Carl Edwards 9/2, Kevin Harvick 13/2 and Tony Stewart 12.

Track officials said the wide-ranging renovation and expansion that started in September is ahead of schedule, with less than four months to go before the July 9 race for NASCAR’s top series. Ticket sales have also surpassed expectations.

It is an $82 million project, which includes building of two, 19,000-seat towers that will augment grandstand seating to about 106,000. When Beshear was on tour, workers were mounting seats in one of the new towers. About 3,000 new camp sites are also added to the track. There are also plans for the garage area, like an update and perhaps move the same, even though until the fall, that will not take place at the earliest.

To give fans a better view of the action, the track is also moving pit road 200 feet closer to the grandstand. General manager Mark Simendinger said that during the Nationwide Series’ annual visit, bumpy surface has every now and then, produced an exciting product; therefore, he does not foresee making any alterations to the track, like repaving. Simendinger admitted that to produce a sellout when NASCAR’s top stars visit, there is a lot of pressure for the track. He added that if not all 117,000 seats are filled on the second Saturday night in July; he would be astonished, as he explained ticket sales as brisk.

For Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400, the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team and Kevin Harvick will travel to Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS) for a fresh off a fourth-place run at Phoenix International Raceway. Harvick has scored three top fives and four top-10 finishes, in 10 races at the 1.5-mile speedway. At the track since 2001, he has completed all but five of the 2,691 laps run in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) competition and has led 54 laps at LVMS. Last February, the Bakersfield, Calif., native earned his best finish of second.

This weekend at LVMS, Harvick will race chassis No. 325 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new in 2010, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, he drove this car to a third-place finish in the season finale. Driving the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI), Harvick will pull double duty this weekend at LVMS as he competes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race as well. At LVMS, the two-time NNS champion and team co-owner is the defending NNS race winner. In NNS competition at the 1.5-mile speedway, he holds two wins, six top five and seven top-10 finishes.

The various NASCAR betting odds for the Kobalt Tools 400 are Jimmie Johnson 9-2, Kyle Busch 6-1, Jeff Gordon 7-1, Carl Edwards 8-1, Denny Hamlin 10-1, Tony Stewart 10-1, Kevin Harvick 12-1, Kurt Busch 12-1, Greg Biffle 20-1, Matt Kenseth 25-1, Mark Martin 25-1, Kasey Kahne 30-1.

Today, the Army sponsors Ryan Newman at Stewart-Haas Racing; the Air Force sponsors A.J. Allmendinger at Richard Petty Motorsports, and the National Guard sponsors Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports and the Coast Guard also have been involved with NASCAR teams.

McCollum’s staff, Bill Harper does not believe in the argument that NASCAR racing is an effective recruiting tool. To fund the government through Sept. 30, the amendment is one of more than 400 that lawmakers want attached to Republican Paul Ryan’s spending bill.

In an effort to let the “House work its will”, lawmakers in both parties have been allowed by speaker John Boehner to offer amendments. From offbeat to uncompromising, is what the proposals have ranged. Unless for the breeding purposes, one would ban using federal funds to round-up wild horses. Environmental Protection Agency would be defunded by another. This week, proposals are scheduled for a vote and it is unclear which proposals will end up in the final bill.

In 2000, Congress directed the Army to explore motor sports sponsorships as a recruiting tool. Each branch of the military had a partnership with NASCAR racing, at some point last decade. Because of a smaller ad budget, the Marines axed their racing team and because there was no way to know if it actually boosted recruiting. Today, still to sponsor the race cars are the Army, Air Force and National Guards.

Although the current NASCAR sponsorship totals are unavailable, the U.S. Army paid $11.6 million to sponsor Newman’s car in 2009, which is quite small compared to the federal budget that is approaching $4 trillion. The size of the expense is not the issue for Harper.

Harper admitted that for this amendment to become a part of the law there is a long way to go. To fund the federal government through this fiscal year, Congress and the Senate are expected to pass separate bills and McCollum’s amendment is attached to the House bill.

Before sending, a measure to the president to sign, then a committee will merge those bills. It would be effective only through Sept. 30, the end of the government’s fiscal year, even if the amendment becomes a part of the law.

To make another run at the title, coming up short in 2010 also leaves Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing in prime position. For the Chase in 2010, Hamlin’s teammate, Kyle Busch was also qualified and he in his first season working with crew chief Dave Rogers won three races. This season, that duo should be stronger.

Joey Logano, in his sophomore season also made a lot of progress. During the final 10 races of the season, even though he did not win a race, he was running as well or better than more than half of the 12 participants. With 16th in points, he ended the year. However, in the Toyota camp, Hamlin should remain as the favorite to win the manufacturer’s first Cup title. In 2010, he and his No.11 team won a series-best eight races. Other than the qualifying part, Hamlin has begun to show very little weakness in any area.

Some in NASCAR nation view Hamlin loss, which defined the entire season, by allowing 33-point lead with two races to slip away, has made them believe that No. 11 team faded so badly under pressure that it will damage its cohesion and confidence in 2011. After finishing second in ’03 and ’04 and fifth in ’02 and ’05, his first four seasons, there were those who wondered if Johnson would ever win a title.

Hamlin said that he is ready to go and he feels as confident as he has ever been. He added that he is confident that his team can do it and they can win on all different types of racetracks. He said that he had everything in place and he will stick to all his key personnel and crew members, which he had last year.