TV TIMES
By Lou Modestino (for 4/27-4/29/12)

Denny Hamlin scored his second win of the Sprint Cup season in the STP 400 at the Kansas Speedway. “It was a great day for the FedEx team. At the end we were where we needed to be, ” he said in Victory Lane. Runner-up Martin Truex, Jr., was disappointed that his bonzai effort at the end didn’t work. “The car was ‘bad’ loose. But we’re going to get a win soon,” he hoped. Jimmy Johnson, who placed third, thought, “Even though we didn’t do the pit stop, we still did OK.”

Fourth place driver Matt Kenseth said, “I’d give today a C. I wasn’t happy with my car even though we made changes all day long.” Rounding out the top five was Greg Biffle. “We were off a bit today, but we still managed to finish fifth.” Biff still leads the Sprint Cup points. The top two finishers were both in Toyotas.

One happy crew chief at Kansas was Darien Grubb who left his pit box to head for Victory Lane in order to congratulate his driver Hamlin on his 19th career win. Grubb left the employ of Tony Stewart at the end of last season and had to take some satisfaction in his efforts to get his driver Hamlin up to the next level of competition. In the anchor booth following the race, Mike Joy said, “The more you need to win, the tougher it gets.” There are a number of drivers in that category.

One of them was A.J. Almendinger who finished way back due to problems that occurred after he started from the pole. On the Kansas undercard, James Buescher took the Camping World Truck race. “Hats off to my crew for all of their hard work,” he said. Tim Peters leads the Truck Series points. Lots of engine problems at Kansas. According to techies, it was due to a new gear rule that allowed the engines to rev higher. The Sprint Cup circus heads for the short track at Richmond International Raceway this weekend.

Sabastian Vettle won the GP of Bahrain, and he was was the fourth different winner in a car that was the fourth different constructor team this early in the season.

International Motorsport Federation chief Jean Todt has insisted Formula One will not suffer any long-term damage to its brand following the Bahrain Grand Prix, while rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone has maintained that the event has a solid future. We beg to differ with Todt and Ecclestone because any sporting entity should never take sides in politics, especially in the Middle East where things are constantly in turmoil. We said it even though the talking heads that air F1 broadcasts on Speed two weeks ago just skirted around the subject.

On the AMA MotoX circuit, Ryan Vollopoto went down hard at Seattle while Ryan Dungey took home the win.

ESPN2′s live telecast of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night, April 13, earned a 1.2 household coverage rating, averaging 1,656,186 viewers, according to the Nielsen Company. The rating and viewership grew from last year’s event, which earned a 1.1 rating and averaged 1,466,234 viewers. Ratings for the NASCAR Nationwide Series are up five percent so far this year across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC compared to this point last year. Four of the six races have seen ratings and viewership increases over last year.

According to Nielsen Media Research, SPEED coverage of that Sunday’s inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race from Rockingham Speedway scored a .88 HH rating and peaked at a 1.09. Season-to-date, the NCWTS is pacing up 15-percent with HH (1.20 vs. 1.04) over 2011, up 24-percent with M35-54 (1.26 vs. 1.02) and up 60-percent among M18-49 (.72 vs. .45).

Tire Rack, America’s largest independent tire tester and consumer-direct source for tires, wheels and performance accessories, celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year as the title sponsor of the Tire Rack One Lap of America (www.onelapofamerica.com), a charitable street-legal road rally race started by the legendary auto writer, Brock Yates, 29-years-ago.

The 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America begins May 5 at Tire Rack’s state-of-the-art 11.7-acre test facility in South Bend, Indiana, and returns there for a final test eight days later on May 12. During that week, drivers will race at tracks like the Autobahn Country Club in Illinois; the High Plains Raceway in Colorado; the road course and drag strip in Brainerd, Minnesota; and two days at the world-famous Road America in Wisconsin. This year, more than 80 entrants will be covering over 3,500 miles during the eight day competition.

Action sports star and 17-time X Games medalist Travis Pastrana will make his long-awaited debut in the NASCAR Nationwide Series on Friday night, April 27 at Richmond International Raceway and ESPN2 will have a live telecast of the 250-lap race. NASCAR Countdown airs at 7 p.m. ET with the race’s green flag at 7:43 p.m. Also from Richmond, ESPN2 will air NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying earlier in the day at 4 p.m. All NASCAR programming on ESPN and ESPN2 is also available on computers, smartphones and tablets with the WatchESPN app and WatchESPN.com.

Check Jayski.com to see what else is happening in the world of motorsports this weekend.

Visit NERacingForum.Com for latest New England Racing community News and updates.

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