by Jerry Tunney Racing Media PR
RACE 101, Presented by Howe Racing is an educational and consulting program for the auto racing industry. The program offers yearly scholarships for deserving up and coming race car drivers who are looking to learn and improve themselves and their racing programs. One of these drivers selected for the scholarship program is Jerry Tunney, a sophomore in high school who is barely old enough to drive on public roads. He has been racing since he was nine, most recently in a 500-plus horsepower late model at Mountain Speedway, an asphalt oval in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. We’ve asked Jerry to give some insight into the RACE 101 program he has been attending throughout 2011.

Tony Stewart celebrates with his No. 14 Office Depot Stewart-Haas Racing team after getting his third win in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)by Reid Spencer (Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
Tony Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps left in Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway and held off Johnson’s desperate bid for the win on the final lap.

The victory was Stewart’s third in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and vaulted him into second place in the standings, eight points behind leader Carl Edwards. Stewart won for the 42nd time in his career.

“He’d better be worried,” Stewart said of Edwards after the race, “that’s all I can say. He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”

Miraculously, after twice being lapped on the racetrack, Edwards salvaged a decent run and retained his lead in the Chase standings with a ninth-place finish, as his two closest pursuers entering the race, Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski, both experienced late trouble and finished 17th and 31st, respectively.

Jeff Gordon ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick, who climbed to third in the standings, 21 points behind Edwards. Denny Hamlin came home fifth, with Jeff Burton sixth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seventh.

After a wild first half of the race had settled into a 97-lap green-flag run after the midpoint, Hamlin squeezed past Gordon on Lap 320 and stayed out front in traffic until Burton’s spin caused the 10th caution of the race.

That started a spate of cautions that gave Harvick and Stewart a chance to move to the front with two-tire calls—and allowed Edwards to return to the lead lap under the 12th caution with a free pass for the highest-scored car one lap down.

Note: At the drivers’ meeting before the race, NASCAR announced that any driver intentionally causing a caution by stopping on the racetrack will be penalized three laps. The rule is in effect for at least the rest of the season, though the number of laps could vary according to the size of the racetrack.

Denny Hamlin celebrates grabbing his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. (John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)by Sporting News Wire Service
Making excellent use of a fresh set of tires, Denny Hamlin drove through the field after a pit stop on Lap 134 and won Saturday's Kroger 200 Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway in his only start this year.

Ron Hornaday Jr. ran second to make a small dent in the advantage on series points leader Austin Dillon, who finished third. Johnny Sauter ran fourth, followed by Joey Coulter and Kevin Harvick.

The victory was Hamlin's first in the series in 12 starts, adding the driver of the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota to the list those who have won at least one race in each of NASCAR's top three series.

Dillon passed Harvick for the lead on Lap 141 shortly after a restart that followed the sixth caution of the race, caused by contact between Germain Racing teammates Todd Bodine and Max Papis, who battled until Papis spun off Bodine's front bumper.

After Papis spun again to bring out the seventh caution, Dillon led the field to the green flag for a restart on Lap 160 and held the top spot until Ryan Sieg's spin on Lap 172 caused caution No. 8. Moments before the yellow flew, Hornaday passed Harvick for second, setting up a battle between a four-time champion (Hornaday) and a driver seeking his first title (Dillon).

When the field restarted on Lap 179, Dillon and Hornaday held the top two spots, chased by Hamlin and Sauter, both on fresher tires. One caution later, Hamlin powered beneath both Hornaday and Dillon on a Lap 187 restart and pulled away for the win.

by Kyle Luetters
It’s been said that the best way to protect a points lead is to win races. Jason Meyers did just that as he continued his winning ways by taking the checkers in the $50,000 to win National Open at Williams Grove Speedway. Meyers has now won the last three consecutive Outlaw races at the famed half mile oval near Mechanicsburg, Pa. and the past three races on the schedule.

“I’m not even sure where to begin,” said Meyers as he caught his breath in Victory Lane. “We wanted to win here for so long and now we’ve got three in a row. It’s a huge race to win, not only because of the prestige and the payday but because it’s in Charlie Garrett’s backyard. His shop is in Hanover (Pa.) and this is just a testament to just how strong his engines are. I knew I wasn’t going to get very many shots at Daryn (Pittman) and I didn’t want to see that late race single file restart but we made it work. We started fifth and won tonight which is very difficult to do here. Everybody on this DDNi/Media-Tile/GLR Investments/All-Star Performance team totally deserves this and I still can’t believe it.”

20 time champion Steve Kinser started from the pole position and led the first eleven circuits until Owasso, Okla. native Daryn Pittman but his #27 Leylands.com Maxim into the lead. Pittman would then blast away from the field until a series of late race cautions bunched the field up enough for Meyers to get within striking distance. On a double file restart, Meyers dove underneath Pittman in turns one and two but couldn’t hold the position. Doug Esh crashed hard into the wall moments later which set up a single file restart for the28 car field. Pittman looked to have the advantage initially but was reeled in by the 2010 Champion on lap 34 of 40.

“We just got beat tonight,” said Pittman, who won the spring World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event at Williams Grove.”Jason and his entire time are really great and there’s a reason why they are winning a lot of races. I thought I had him cleared but I just made some mistakes. It’s pretty hard to swallow the fact that we just lost the $50,000 but we did finish second. There are two types of seconds; the ones you feel good about and the ones you feel like the win got away. Tonight was certainly the latter.”

Kurt Busch burns down his Goodyear Eagle tires after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 on Sunday at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del. (Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)by Reid Spencer (Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
Thank you, Kurt Busch said, after screw-ups by Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards put Busch in position to win Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

While Busch celebrated his second victory of the season and the 24th of his career in victory lane at the Monster Mile, runner-up Johnson and third-place Edwards sat in the nearby media center castigating themselves in the postrace news conference.

Johnson stumbled on the last two restarts of the race, allowing Busch to take and retain a lead he held for the final 42 laps. Edwards trashed his own winning chances by speeding on pit road in a timed section he and crew chief Bob Osborne had discussed specifically before the race.

In a sense, though, all three drivers were winners. Busch, Johnson and Edwards took advantage of the struggles of Tony Stewart, who led the series after wins in the first two races of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Fighting the handling of his No. 14 Chevrolet throughout the afternoon, Stewart lost his advantage in the standings by finishing 25th, two laps down. That left Edwards and 10th-place finisher Kevin Harvick tied for the series lead, with Stewart and Busch each nine points back and Johnson alone in fifth, 13 points behind Harvick and Edwards.

Kasey Kahne ran fourth Sunday, followed by Chase drivers Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch. AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose and Harvick completed the top 10.

Carl Edwards celebrates winning the 26th Annual OneMain Financial 200 on Saturday at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del. It was his seventh NASCAR Nationwide Series win of the season and third at the Monster Mile. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images for NASCAR)by Reid Spencer (Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
Carl Edwards pulled away from Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer after a restart on Lap 168 of 200 to win Saturday’s OneMain Financial 200 Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway.

The victory was Edwards’ seventh of the year and the 36th of his career. Keselowski held off Bowyer in the closing laps to claim the runner-up position, with Bowyer running third.

Kasey Kahne finished fourth, one spot ahead of series leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who extended his margin to 22 points over polesitter Elliott Sadler, who ran 14th. There are five races left in the season.

Edwards led 179 laps en route to the victory. About the only thing that went wrong for the driver of the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford was his celebratory back flip on the banked concrete track.

“Everything went great, except my back flip, which was terrible—I was nervous about doing it on the banking,” Edwards said. “But it was just an awesome day.”

Bowyer and Keselowski were able to gain on Edwards at various stages of the race, but passing him was another matter.

“It didn’t matter who it was,” Bowyer said. “When you got up to ’em, you’d get in their wake, and it would take the air off your car, and you’d get really, really loose. I about turned it around with four or five (laps) to go right there behind Brad.