Kurt Busch’s car owner, Roger Penske, may have come short at the Indy 500 earlier in the day but Indy’s winningest car owner guided Busch’s team to a win in NASCAR’s longest race.

Jason Sides took the lead on the ninth lap on the bottom of the front straightaway and would lead the remainder of the 25-lap contest, holding off a couple of late charges by Steve Kinser to score his second win of the season and the sixth of his World of Outlaws career.

Dario  Franchitti had 1.6 gallons left after winning Sunday’s Indy 500. That equals about six miles or just over two laps on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway track but it was just enough to hold off Dan Wheldon.

The victory was Busch’s second of the season and the 22nd of his career. He is the seventh driver to win both Charlotte races during May speedweeks, and his victory prevented Ganassi from winning the IndyCar Series’ most prestigious race and NASCAR’s longest on the same day.

Five divisions of racing highlighted Ephrata Raceway Park’s Memorial Day weekend schedule led by Joe Smith and the 7-Up 360 Sprint Car class.

Donny Schatz had a spirited battle with Joey Saldana over the last five laps of the 30-lap contest with the pair trading the lead twice and running side-by-side a couple of times to score his third A-Feature win at the state-of-the-art four-tenths-mile and fourth overall triumph dating back to his debut at the track in 2000.

Kyle Busch continued his winning ways on the NASCAR Nationwide Series with a dominant victory over series points leader Brad Keselowski in Charlotte.

The 20th Annual Coors Light Montana 200 features a winner’s check of over $15,000 with incentives that could net the victorius driver a $20,000 payday.

In a rare Memorial Day event, the Rocky Mountain Challenge Series rolls into Salt Lake City for a 125-lap showdown at Rocky Mountain Raceways. With inverts that start the fastest cars in the back of the grid and pay off drivers based on overall points earned in a day, the series is a top draw for fans across the region.

Three days of regional karting actions takes place on the grounds of the Spokane County ORV complex. Organized by the Spokane Kart Race Association, the event draws over 150 competitors.

Officials with the Detroit Gold Cup and the H1 Unlimited Hydroplane Series have announced that this year’s race course will be a three-mile oval.

With the Charlotte area being one of the epicenters of the racing world over the Memorial Day Weekend, another huge crowd is expected on Friday night at the Dirt Track, including many fans, competitors, sponsors and industry insiders that will come over from the NASCAR events across the street at the big track.

Mark Owens, Bodie Morton and Wrango West cleared the spinning cars of Alex Lessor and Spokane’s David Garber on the last lap to claim the top-3 positions in the Lucas Oil Super Late Model Series season opening event on May 15. Those five and a solid group of racers are set to resume the action this weekend.

NASCAR’s top up-and-cming drivers invaded Iowa Speedway and when the dust settled Max Gresham defeated Ty Dillon for the victory.

Schumacher’s win was his third of the season and continues a trend in which the driver of the US Army Top Fueler nabs victory if he makes a final round in 2010.

The ICAR Late Model Series, based in Spokane, Wash., made its first trip outside thier home area with a 15-car field and Twin Main Event format. When the dust settled it was Dan Garber who came home victorious.

David Garber bested a 14-car field including Ephrata’s Amanda McDonald to win the 2010 INSSA opner for uper late model teams.

Kurt Busch recovered from two brushes with the outside wall to claim the 2010 NASCAR All-Star race. It was the Nevada native’s first win in the non-points event held in Charlotte, NC.

Jason Meyers lined up third and fell back to fourth at the start, before charging past Dean Jacobs to move back into third on the back straightaway. The native of Clovis, California then got around Donny Schatz for second on the ninth lap and then took over the lead on the 25^th circuit when Danny Lasoski lost a rear end while leading.

The victory was Busch’s second in five starts this season, his third at Charlotte and the 18th of his career. Busch has won three straight races in NASCAR’s top three touring series, having triumphed in last weekend’s Nationwide and Sprint Cup events at Dover.

Robert Hight, the 2009 Full Throttle Series Funny Car World Champion, continues his recent string of success as he grabbed the provisional No. 1 qualifying position with a run of 4.095-seconds at 308.21 mph.

You just can’t keep Earl Wham down. The former driver of the Atlas Van Lines Unlimited hydroplane and motor builder to Ed Sneva and others had a very special guest in his shops this week. A motor design that could lead to automobile powerplants in the big boats came to Wham’s Spokane Valley shop to the delight of the 80-year icon.

NASCAR Nationwide Series teams took their newly designed race car to Daytona International Speedway for an officials test of the revamped ‘Car of Tommorow.’

Larry Dixon continues to show the strong hand in the 2010 chase for the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series championship in the Top Fuel divison.

Kyle Busch, 25, a champion in waiting, and Jimmie Johnson, a proven one, waged quite a battle on the high-banked, 1-mile track, the lead see-sawing back and forth between the two each time the race resumed following five caution periods and assorted green-flag stops.

Portland’s Joey Tanner topped a 17-car late model field at Yakima Speedway for his first late model victory of 2010.

Jason Meyers started third and tracked down Joey Saldana on the eighth lap to move into second, before setting his sights on leader Jason Sides. Meyers took the lead from Sides on the high side of turn two on the 12^th lap of the 30-lapper and would lead the remainder of the distance to score his second career win at Virginia Motor Speedway.

Mark Owens drove by the spinning duo of David Garber and Alex Lessor with Bodie Morton in tow for a wild finish in the Mike’s Hard Lemonade 100 at Montana Raceway Park.

Nevada’s Kyle Busch picked up his fourth NASCAR Nationwide Series victory of 2010, scoring a win in the Heluva Good 200 at Dover International Speedway.

Larry Dixon’s Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster made a pass of 3.822-seconds at 316.08 mph for his 42nd top qualifying award in his career.

For the Spokane resident David Garber, the allure of winning Montana Raceway Park’s prestigious late model title is one of many reasons to balance INSSA and the Montana events into one race season.

Casey Mears was needed in a pinch this weekend because Vickers, his friend and Red Bull Racing driver, is hospitalized with blood clots in his veins around his lungs and in his legs.

Aric Almirloa picked up the win at Dover International on Friday in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. It was the Florida natives first victory in one of NASCAR’s top-3 series for a driver once behind the wheel of a Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series ride.

Ashley Force Hood continued to have success at Atlanta Dragway, site of her milestone first career victory in 2008 and No. 1 qualifying effort and runner-up finish last year, by powering her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to a leading qualifying performance of 4.104 seconds at 304.60 mph.

The 27-year-old daughter of drag racing icon John Force is feeling really good about her return this week to a track on which, over the last four years, she has had more success than anyone else.

Chad Layton started on the pole and led the first 11 laps before Kraig Kinser got around him. He used a strong double file restart on the 19^th lap to get around Kinser as they came off turn four and drag raced down the front straightway.

Red Bull Racing’s Brian Vickers was hospitalized Wednesday with an undisclosed medical condition and Casey Mears will replace him this weekend at Dover International Speedway.

Jason Meyers won the inaugural World of Outlaws event at Virginia Motor Speedway in 2008 and enters the event this season with four wins on the season and is second in points.

Joe Kopp brought Lloyd Brothers Motorsports their first AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship victory at the Budweiser Arizona Mile.

Denny Hamlin is serving notice that the pre-season pick for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship may have been a good bet. The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota took his second NASCAR win in as a many nights on the track labeled “tough to tame.”

Idaho’s Steve Jones beat Utah’s Zan Sharp to the stripe for his first career victory on the CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series.

Paul McMahan used a strong restart on the 28^th lap after lining up on the low side of the track on the double file restart while running second. He used a masterful slide job in turn one to take the lead from Sammy Swindell.

Ron Stewart took the main event victory for Ephrata Raceway Park’s annual Spud Cup. Stewart, a veteran of the Northwest Outlaw Street Stock Series, also won the “A” Trophy Dash and “A” Heat Race.

For Joey Saldana, the win was his eighth with the World of Outlaws at Eldora In his career at the famed half-mile with the series he has nearly 50 Top-10 finishes.

If Denny Hamlin’s knee is bothering him, last night’s strong run to victory at Darlington may have provided great medicine.

ICAR officials have built their series to provide an outlet for drivers to get started in late models while working toward that upgrade in equipment and series if they choose that route.

Steve Jones is the points leader of the Rocky Mountain Challenge Series, which makes at stop at Stateline Speedway later this season. Jones and the RMCS are set to take their next green flag this weekend in Salt Lake City.

Coca-Cola sponsors this weekend’s racing action and is the official soft
drink company of Montana Raceway Park’s 20th Anniversary season.

Wednesday Night Fever rolled on with great racing in all divisions as Steve Nelson, Justin Lovitt and Joel Schrader were the big winners.

Steve Kinser leads all drivers at Eldora with nearly 40 World of Outlaws wins and over 50 total wins in his career at the half-mile. He has well over 100 Top-10 finishes with the series at the track. The 20-time series champion is in the midst of his first season driving for Tony Stewart Racing and heads to Eldora as the series most recent winner.

Historic Darlington Raceway is a special race track for NASCAR and for area resident and guest columnist Cathy Elliott.

Warren Johnson returned to the top spot at an NHRA National Event with his first Pro Stock win in four years as he raced to victory at Gateway International Raceway.

Austyn Anderson rallied for a run past pole winner Craig Deaver en route to the Cast Iron Winged Sprint Nationals which kicked off the 2010 season at Ephrata Raceway Park.

Steve Kinser used a strong restart on the 18^th lap to get under Joey Saldana in turns one and two and won a drag race down the back straightaway aboard the Bass Pro Shops Maxim, taking the lead as the pair hit turn three.

Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday Jr. thrilled Kansas NASCAR fans with a wild finish to the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway as both recovered from near spins after contact while fighting for the lead late in the race to run 1-2 at the checkers.

Kyle Busch delivered himself a birthday present one day early with a win at Richmond International Raceway on the NASCAR Sprint Car Series.

Cory McClenathan holds the top spot in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Top Fuel qualifying at Gateway International Raceway with Tony Schumacher grabbing the number two position. John Force, Mike Edwards and Hector Arana with the other top qualifying drivers for the event.

Brad Keselowski stormed through the field on a late race restart en route to his second NASCAR Nationwide Series victory in as many weeks.