Bristol Motor Speedway was sold out for the 55th consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. (Photo Credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesBy Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

BRISTOL, Tenn.—Kyle Busch made a statement Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

So did polesitter Mark Martin, who pressured Busch to the finish line of the Sharpie 500 during a four-lap run to the checkered flag but couldn’t make the pass for the win.

Instead, Busch won for the fourth time this season and for the second time at Bristol in 2009.

Busch showed emphatically he is not out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series picture, and Martin strengthened his hold of a spot in NASCAR’s postseason. Busch moved up two positions to 13th, 34 points behind 12th-place Matt Kenseth.

by Candida Benson, NHRA.com
Antron Brown took over the top spot on the Top Fuel ladder during the single qualifying run Saturday at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. The other three classes remained unchanged with Ashley Force Hood (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock), and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle) staying in front. Interestingly, all four low qualifiers lead their fields in No. 1 starts this season (Brown, Force Hood, and Edwards hold that distinction on their own, while Arana is tied with Andrew Hines for the most).

Indy Car Driver Scott Sharp

Spring Valley, MN—August 18, 2009—Craig Dollansky has visited numerous tracks in his home state of Minnesota during his life, be it when he was growing up and watching his father Bill race and then when he climbed into a sprint car himself, but one track he has never been to is Deer Creek Speedway, located in Spring Valley, which is about two and a half hours from his home in Elk River.

Dollansky will get to see and compete at the state-of-the-art high-banked 3/8-mile for the first time on Wednesday, August 19 as the World of Outlaws make their debut at the track as part of the Sprint for a Cure Summer Clash.

“It’s always nice to get to race close to home and there are a lot of great fans there in Minnesota that come out to the World of Outlaws events,” said Dollansky. “I’ve never been to Deer Creek but I hear it’s a very nice facility. We’re really looking forward to going there for the first time.”

Spring Valley, MN—August 17, 2009—History will be made on Wednesday, August 19 as the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series visits Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minnesota for the first time in the 31-plus year history of the series for the Sprint for a Cure Summer Clash at the state-of-the-art high-banked 3/8-mile.

Deer Creek Speedway will be the sixth track that the World of Outlaws will have visited in the state of Minnesota dating back to 1979. Steve Kinser was victorious in that event 30 years ago in the Gopher State. Nine drivers have won A-Feature events with the World of Outlaws in Minnesota, with Donny Schatz taking the most recent checkered flag last season.

The event at Deer Creek Speedway will be the 19th overall A-Feature event contested by the World of Outlaws in the state of Minnesota. Drivers currently competing full-time with the series that have won in the state in addition to Kinser and Schatz include Minnesota native Craig Dollansky and Kraig Kinser, Steve’s son who was victorious in the series debut at North Central Speedway last year.

Concord, NC—August 17, 2009—Donny Schatz, the three-time and defending World of Outlaws champion, won his fourth consecutive Knoxville Nationals on Sunday night, passing Joey Saldana in lapped on the 35th lap of the 40-lap contest as the pair of World of Outlaws stars wound up finishing one-two. Schatz now joins 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser as the only two drivers in the 49-year history of the event to win four in a row.

Schatz began the week by posting the third-fastest lap in time trials on the opening night of the event and charged all the way from 21st to finish seventh that night on a track that was very fast and tough to pass on, to earn the most points of the first night qualifiers. A strong run in the A-Scramble on Friday night would place him sixth on the grid for the finale which was pushed back one night by rain. Schatz won earlier this season in World of Outlaws action at Knoxville.

by Phil Burgess, NHRA.com
Morgan Lucas and Hector Arana scored huge victories in Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle, respectively, at the event sponsored by their biggest supporters to lead the list of winners at the 28th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd Int'l Raceway in Minnesota. Tony Pedregon (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) also scored important and emotional wins.

The twin victories by Lucas, whose parents, Forrest and Charlotte, own Lucas Oil Products, and Arana, one of the first racers ever to receive sponsorship from the Lucases, somehow overshadowed the victory drama of Pedregon, who overcame the pre-race departure of his tuning braintrust, and Anderson, who ended one of the longest droughts of his Pro Stock career.

With his parents watching intently, Lucas, who lost the first five finals of his Top Fuel career, won his second straight by edging Larry Dixon in a thrilling 3.814 to 3.818 final round.The Top Fuel final paired the top two qualifiers, No. 1 Lucas and No. 2 Dixon, whose performances had mirrored one another throughout the day but Lucas collected his 12th career win with a career-best run.

by Phil Burgess, NHRA.com
Cory McClenathan, Bob Tasca III, Mike Edwards, and Karen Stoffer grabbed the qualifying leads after the first day of qualifying at the 28th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd Int'l Raceway in Minnesota. The event is the 16th of 18 events that make up the regular season of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

With just this event and two more remaining for drivers to make the 10-driver fields that will comprise the championship hopefuls for the six-race playoffs, teams were jockeying for positions and trying to learn all they can as the regular-season fight nears its completion at the Labor Day weekend Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.

McClenathan, who clinched his spot merely by making his first pass of the day in his Fram Tough Guard dragster, wasn't content to just enter the field that way, charging to the No. 1 spot with a 4.004 that he improved upon in the second session with a 3.910. McClenathan was the No. 1 qualifier earlier this year in Bristol.

WoO Champion Donny Schatz talks about adjusting to the grueling schedule on the tour before the Knoxville Nationals.

Concord, NC—August 12, 2009—The 2009 Gold Rush Tour kicks off for the World of Outlaws on Wednesday, August 19 at Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota. The Gold Rush tour will encompass 12 nights of racing at eight different tracks in five states and one Canadian province over a 25-day period with over $150,000 on the line to win those events from a total purse of well over a half a million dollars for the 12 races, with the highlights being the $50,000 to-win Gold Cup Raceway of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California and the $25,000 to-win the finale at Skagit Speedway in Washington.

The Sprint for a Cure Summer Clash at Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota on August 19 will serve as the series inaugural event at the state-of-the-art high-banked 3/8-mile. The World of Outlaws competed for the first time in the Land of 10,000 Lakes back in 1979 and have contested 19 A-Feature events in the state over the years, with Donny Schatz and Kraig Kinser picking up the two most recent checkered flags in the state last season.