NASCAR News and Notes

Kyle Busch won the truck race on Friday night/Saturday morning. After a very long rain delay which made the race start at 11:00 pm, which was three hours later thn the original scheduled start time.

Kyle Busch had an odd overall night. To start it off, Austin Dillion — 20 years old and the grandson of Richard Childress — and Kyle Busch both had their rear wheels lug nuts loosened. NASCAR is checking into the matter, but neither driver or crew is thinking it was foul play.

Busch hit the wall early into the race, but recovered nicely to finish the race in first place. He didn’t have his main sponsor for the race because of a lack in funding.

“I know these guys are maybe a little leery or worried about what’s going to happen about next year,” Busch said of his team. “All we can do is work as hard as we can to win race and find sponsorship.”

Todd Bodine finished in second place, Ron Hornaday Jr finished in third place, James Buescher finished in fourth place and Elliott Sadler finished in fifth place.

The overall points leader coming into the race was Aric Amirola, who finished in seventh place and fell two points behind Todd Bodine, who finished in second.

Austin Dillion wrecked on lap 10, with his crew blaming it on the loose lug nuts that were found. His truck was parked right behind Busch’s truck before the race.

A very scary moment came when Brent Raymer’s number 85 truck just randomly burst into flames as he was driving it. He was able to get out of the truck safely despite the truck having flames inside the truck as well.

“I’m fine,” Raymer said after leaving the infield care center before expressing concern for his cash-strapped team after also crashing in practice. “Two trucks, a motor, it’s bad. That’s pretty much our whole fleet.”

In other news and notes, Kevin Harvick announced that he signed a multi-year extension with Richard Childress Racing. Harvick will be staying in the number 29 car, but the terms of the contract weren’t disclosed.

Kevin Harvick has 12 career victories in the Cup Series. He won the 2007 Daytona 500. His last win at Talladega snapped a 115-race winless streak.

Shell/Pennzoil announced they were leavng the number 29 car  — before the race began.

In NASCAR Hall of Fame news, the first class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame was elected today. Bill France Sr was the first person elected into the Hall. Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr, Bill France Jr and Junior Johnson joined him.

“If Dad were here today … he would be proud mostly for NASCAR,” Jim France said. “The NASCAR Hall of Fame in many ways is the ultimate tribute to my father, the hopes and dreams that he had for our sport.”

Dale Earnhardt Sr was represented by his widow, Theresa, and his four children who each shared memories of The Intimidator.

David Pearson said that if others who he deemed more worthy than himself weren’t elected into the Hall of Fame, he would take himself out of the running until those guys were elected into the Hall. One driver he mentioned was Raymond Parks.

Pearson never ran a full schedule, but raced for 27 years. He has 105 total victories, which is good for second, oly behind Richard Petty and his 200 total wins.

The second class elected into the Hall of Fame will be voted on in October.