Jared Storer will be busy this race season as the Sunset Speedway champion has earned an opportunity to compete in the USAC NorCal Focus Midget series in California. Storer earned the chance for car owner Ron Sutton through an evaluation process that included turning laps on a paved surface for the first time in his career.

Spokane's Braeden Havens heads to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series in 2012 as he teams with veteran driver Brett Thompson and the Thompson Motorsports team.

The team will evaluate its options for the driver of the No. 22 Sprint Cup Series car in the future while Kurt Busch will seek new opportunities with another race team.

A couple of important things to remember about long shots is that first, in order to win, they must have very good aim, and second, they generally have to deal with the issue of low expectations. At times, it seemed that NASCAR fans, who have enjoyed watching Stewart excel for years, had more faith in him than he had in himself. But he has acquired his reputation for toughness legitimately, and when the going required it, he came through.

Tony Stewart’s quest for a third title was derailed early when contact with debris—of origin unknown—punched a hole in the grille of his No. 14 Chevrolet the size of a small saucer. Stewart fell to 40th in the running order, while his crew made repairs under caution on Lap 17.

Brad Keselowski held off a furious charge from new series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the final lap to secure his fifth victory of the season and the 17th of his career.

Speaking of good guys, I am thankful for Jimmie Johnson. His five-year consecutive reign will end on Nov. 20, but for the past half decade the articulate, urbane champion has helped NASCAR make tremendous strides in changing its public perception from also-ran to frontrunner. What a class act.

Austin Dillon is the first driver in series history to win the rookie of the year title in his first full season and the series championship the following year.

With his fourth victory in the Chase and the 43rd of his career, Tony Stewart put a dent in runner-up Carl Edwards’ series lead, scoring maximum points (48) to trim Edwards’ advantage from eight to three points with two races left in the season.

The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship is far from over as Tony Stewart win on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway closed the gap between himself and points leader Carl Edwards to a mere eight markers with three races left in the season.

Denny Hamlin’s first in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 12 starts, adding the driver of the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota to the list of drivers, now 23 in number, who have won at least one race in each of NASCAR’s top three series

The Cinderella story is one of the coolest experiences in sports, a moment in time when the team or athlete from which people expect very little goes out and kicks some tailpipe, advancing much further than anyone ever anticipated. In the 2011 Chase to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Brad Kewselowski is living it!

By now even casual sports fans have learned of the passing of two-time and reigning Indy 500 champion Dan Weldon. One day later the loss is still hard to put into words.

With one start at Spokane County Raceway under his belt on the series, Spokane's Braeden Havens is confident that his No. 09 Hilliard Enterprises Chevrolet has the speed in it to secure a starting position in Saturday night's NASCAR Toyota/NAPA Auto Parts 150 to be held at All-American Speedway just outside of Sacramento, California.

Austin Dillon scored his third career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory with a pit stop strategy that took two new tires while his competitors picked up four. From there the grandson of Richard Childress scooted around Johnny Sauter with less then 25 laps to go and sailed to the victory.

Greg Pursley is the hottest driver in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series after a win at his hometrack just outside of Los Angeles. Leading the championship standings, the victory added to his points total as the series heads to the Northwestern United States with stops in Monroe, Wash. (July 9), Portland, Ore. (July 24) and Kalispell, Mont. (Aug. 13).

David Ragan’s atonement for a Daytona 500 miscue couldn’t have come at a better time. In a contract year, with rumors swirling about a possible driver change in the No. 6 Ford and possible dissatisfaction on the part of sponsor UPS (also in a contract year), Ragan bulled his way into the mix for a position in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup while erasing some of the haunting memories from the 500.

Joey Logano took the checkered flag as many of the cars that had led into the final turn—including those of Danica Patrick, Aric Almirola, Tony Stewart and Elliott Sadler—wrecked behind him.