Charlotte and Indy 500 weekend

Hey folks! Here's my take on the Charlotte and Indy 500 weekend. I don't cover non-NASCAR usually, but the Indy 500's a biggie and beside Kurt Busch was in it.


Saturday was the Nationwide race. Kyle Larson with 82 laps led won followed by Brad Keselowski with 22 laps led, Kyle Busch with 27 laps led, Kevin Harvick and Brian Scott. Rounding out the top-10 were Matt Kenseth with 67 laps led, Regan Smith, Trevor Bayne, rookies Chris Buescher and Ty Dillon. James Buescher, cousin of Chris Buescher finished 11th after leading 1 lap. Jeremy Clements led 1 lap before he finished 23rd.   Trevor Bayne's scheduled to move up to the Cup and AdvoCare, his sponsor will follow him to the Cup 6, which hasn't been used since '12 and then just part-time after its full-time sponsor in '11 didn't return. He's 4th in Nationwide points now.


Sunday was the Indy 500 in the afternoon and the Coca-Cola 600 at night.  Kurt Busch was in both races. In the afternoon, Ryan Hunter-Reay ended the American win drought at Indy, followed by Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, Carlos Munoz and Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya's a returnee to the series, as he raced Indy and F1 before his NASCAR stint. Rounding out the top were Kurt Busch, Sebastain Bourdais, Will Power, Sage Karam and J. R. Hildebrand.  Only Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon previously attempted the double.  Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch's Indy finishes when they doubled were equal, but Stewart had race it before, while Kurt Busch was an Indy rookie.  That night, at Charlotte, Jimmie Johnson won for the first time this season with 164 laps led, followed by Kevin Harvick with 100 laps led,  Matt Kenseth with 33 laps led, Carl Edwards with 4 laps led and Jamie McMurray with 34 laps led.  Rounding out the top-ten were Brian Vickers, Jeff Gordon with 8 laps led, Paul Menard, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski with 43 laps led.  Aric Almirola led 1 lap before he finished 11th. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. led 13 laps but was relegated to 19th with a little engine issue and vibration, which got better but didn't go away.  Gordon sat out the final practice due to back spasms. Trevor Bayne's move up next year means his current Cup team, the Wood Brothers is starting to look for a new driver. They may use a driver like one of Trevor's Nationwide teammates, Chris Buescher and Ryan Reed or perhaps an old guy looking to cut back to part-time.


I was camping over the weekend, but the friends we were with have a camper and the man's a race fan, so my dad and me were able to watch the Coca-Cola 600 as their TV in the camper could get Fox.  The other race was on ABC, so we would've been able to watch them at home We got home this afternoon and I looked up the ABC race info online.