Author Archives: NASCAR.COM - Nationwide Series Headlines

NEWTON, Iowa -- Elliott Sadler has made the transition from forgettable finish to memorable start in one week.

NEWTON, Iowa -- Michael Annett doesn't mind the company. He welcomes it.

NEWTON, Iowa -- This has always been an important race weekend for Danica Patrick.

NEWTON, Iowa -- The path from obscurity to popularity requires an opportunity. And for Michael McDowell, Sunday's Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway is an "opportunity race."

For Starters

For the second consecutive weekend, Jeff Green will replace the injured Eric McClure in the No. 14 Toyota.

The first time Danica Patrick hit the wall was in her first run during Nationwide Series practice Friday morning, when she clipped it with the right-rear of her No. 7 car. In opening Sprint Cup practice, she hit it again entering Turn 3. Later, she scraped it in almost the same place in almost the same way. With minutes remaining in the session she hit it one more time, this time harder in between Turns 3 and 4, the impact leaving a long, white streak down the right side of her green automobile.

Joey Logano drove away from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin after a green-white-checkered restart and won Friday night's VFW Sport Clips 200 Nationwide Series event at Darlington Raceway.

The overriding emotion that Eric McClure felt before his crash last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway was excitement. He had a chance for his first top-10 finish of the season and liked his position as his No. 14 car approached the restart for a green-white-checkered finish. Then he saw smoke, and he mashed the brake pedal -- and it went straight to the floor.

Danica Patrick and Sam Hornish Jr. have been competing against one another since before they were teenagers, and occasionally with contentious results. Go all the way back to their go-kart days, and there's a race where the two crashed near the finish of an event at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the same facility where they'll both be competing in NASCAR in two weeks. Despite all of it, they've managed to remain on good terms.

Eric McClure will sit out Friday night's Nationwide Series event at Darlington Raceway as he recovers from injuries suffered in a crash last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

Nationwide Series driver Eric McClure suffered a concussion and internal bruising in a hard accident this past weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, but was released from a Birmingham, Ala., hospital on Monday, according to a team representative.

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Eric McClure remained under observation Sunday in a Birmingham hospital, recuperating from undisclosed injuries suffered in a serious accident late in Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

With a slingshot move past Sprint Cup teammate Kyle Busch five laps into overtime, Joey Logano won the Aaron's 312 on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.

Eric McClure was airlifted to UAB Medical Center after a wreck in the closing laps of the Aaron's 312 Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your place.

Danica Patrick proudly displayed a string of large beads hanging around her neck on Friday, traditionally a bawdy badge of honor for women who bare certain body parts for men at Talladega Superspeedway.

Plenty of intangibles tilt in Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s favor this weekend -- his history of success at Talladega Superspeedway and his father's legacy of domination of the track among them.

Rain on Thursday at Talladega Superspeedway forced the cancelation of two scheduled practices for the Nationwide Series and a revision of the Friday schedule in preparation for the Aaron's 312.

Steve Wallace's return to the Nationwide Series last weekend was roughly two months in the making. Shortly after the Daytona 500, his shutdown Rusty Wallace Racing team bought a car from Roush Fenway Racing. The shorthanded crew that remained at RWR -- essentially Steve Wallace, crew chief Blake Bainbridge and a few others -- took possession of the vehicle about the time the rest of the industry headed to Las Vegas. They spent the next seven weeks double-checking every part and retightening every bolt.