NASCAR to New Hampshire for Spring Cup Series Sunday

Moon here, along with my buddy Blake Smith, all set for Sunday's second race in the Sprint Cup Series, the Sylvania 300. Here's Blake's analysis with a little from Fox News tossed in.

Following a somewhat controversial pass for the win during last weekend’s Geico 400, the drivers and teams on the Sprint Cup Series head northeast to Louden  for this weekend’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. This will be the tours second stop at the “magic mile” this season. Kasey Kahne and the #5 team scored their 2^nd victory of the season back in July.

The 47 drivers and teams entered for this weekend will take to the track today for their first practice session of the weekend. Expect all drivers to focus on qualifying setups during this practice session. Cars will take to the track this afternoon for Sprint Cup qualifying. A notable mention on this weekend’s entry list is Owensboro’s Jeff Green in the #19 entry. Green along with 12 other drivers will be trying to qualify their way in on speed.

Like last week, Brad Keselowski and crew chief, Paul Wolfe elected to bring a new chassis to this weekend’s race. While Kasey Kahne will be bringing the same chassis he won with back in July. Kahne, has led a career total of 273 laps at the track and has one win, two top-5 and seven top-10 finishes at the track. After a strong start to the chase with a third  place finish last week, my pick for this weekend is the Farmers Insurance Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne.

Clint Bowyer, racing for Michael Waltrip Racing, looks forward to Sunday. “I think we can win at New Hampshire and get things started off right” Clint told Fox News.  “I think if we can keep this buzz going at MWR, we can compete”.

Denny Hamlin is bringing the best car Joe Gibbs racing has to Louden. Denny says, “It’s the one track on my mind that we can win at it”. And, Greg Biffle says it depends on the time of year. “That’s a great track for us. Fall seems to be a better race for us”.

In NASCAR news: it was announced this week that NASCAR has reinstated A.J. Allmendinger after his successful completion of NASCAR’s Substance Abuse Policy Road to Recovery program. Allmendinger had been suspended indefinitely from the sport back in July after a failed drug test following the Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky. Allmendinger released a statement on his website thanking everyone for their support. “I want to thank everyone for their support through this entire process," said Allmendinger. "I appreciate that NASCAR created the Road to Recovery program, and am grateful for the opportunity to return to competition. The Road to Recovery program was really helpful to me in getting my priorities reset away from the race track. And, honestly, that helped me find my love of racing again and why I began racing in the first place. I'm looking forward to taking this experience and be better for it moving forward."

After a hard hit into the wall and a disappointing finish at Chicago, Jeff Gordon has shaved the “’stache”. The culprit for the accident was a struck throttle. Gordon said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that the throttle issue was the result of the way a bracket was mounted on the spring return designed especially for him with the new electronic fuel injection system implemented by NASCAR this season. "It's something that I'm surprised didn't happen sooner to us, just the way our bracket was mounted,'' Gordon said as he introduced a Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle paint scheme he will use in the October race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in conjunction with his "Drive To End Hunger'' campaign. Gordon sits 12^th in points, 47 points back from series leader, Brad Keselowski.

Tune into Sunday’s coverage of the Sylvania 300 beginning at 12PM on WBKR and WBKR.com. For a complete rundown of this weekend’s events in New Hampshire and Kentucky, tune into “NASCAR Live” with Eli Gold on Tuesday night followed by Race Talk from Show Me’s of Owensboro, beginning at 6PM.

- Blake Smith