Nascar Race Today

Following series of unseemly events, NASCAR is facing an image problem.

Long priding itself as a family institution, NASCAR wanted to be seen as a slice of Americana where mom, dad and the kids could all be fans and not be concerned about the seediness that has consumed the stick-and-ball sports.

Unlike baseball, NASCAR hasn't seen performance enhancing drugs decimate what was once a storied record-book filled with magical numbers. Or had its moral compass called into question like the NFL, where the brutality that was long celebrated is now decried because of the stark realization of the consequences from repeated blows to the head.

"It's not good for our sport, for sure ... I'm sure there is a negative impact to a small degree."-Jimmie Johnson

NASCAR was supposed to be the wholesome alternative.

But recent events have begun to strip away that aura, giving NASCAR a proverbial black eye.

The most recent incident occurred Tuesday evening when Sprint Cup driver Travis Kvapil was arrested for misdemeanor assault and false imprisonment. The allegations are disturbing and include Kvapil dragging his wife by her hair into a bedroom and when she attempted to flee, the former Truck Series champion struck her with his hands and feet.

Kvapil was freed on bond Wednesday morning and one day later was at Charlotte Motor Speedway preparing for Saturday's Bank of America 500.

In a statement, NASCAR condemned Kvapil's alleged actions and said it was still gathering details, but in the meantime he would be permitted to compete at Charlotte.

The news of one of its drivers being arrested for domestic abuse is just the latest in what has become a rash of illicit behavior that has tarnished NASCAR's reputation.

A week ago, Nationwide Series driver Nelson Piquet was fined $10,000, placed on probation and ordered to seek sensitivity training after using a gay slur on social media. He was the second driver this season to be punished for using a derogatory word, though unlike Jeremy Clements, Piquet escaped a suspension.

Seemingly, a double standard now exists within NASCAR, where one word is deemed more inappropriate than another and thus not subject to suspension, despite both words being grossly offensive.

And then, of course, there was the largest cheating scandal in NASCAR history that took place last month in the regular season finale at Richmond International Raceway, of which the affects are still reverberating throughout the garage.

The aftermath has seen a high-profile sponsor in NAPA withdraw its support from Michael Waltrip Racing, and the company's future in NASCAR very much still in doubt. Another sponsor, 5-Hour Energy, has openly questioned the integrity of NASCAR officials.

Going back even further, there has been the continuous saga of Jeremy Mayfield, which includes him being indefinitely suspended after testing positive for methamphetamine along with his ongoing legal woes. And then there was the suspension of A.J. Allmendinger last summer after he failed a random NASCAR administered drug test.

At time when NASCAR's mainstream appeal is waning and sponsors are already leaving in droves, these incidents couldn't have come at a worse time.

"It's not good for our sport, for sure," Jimmie Johnson said Thursday at Charlotte. "I think that most realize that it's an individual situation and nothing to do with the team or the sponsor. It might shy a sponsor away from that particular organization or driver, but I would hope that it wouldn't impact any further than that.

"I guess there could be some repercussions there. ... It's not good press, so it can't be helpful by any means. And it is pretty rare. I think that's something that we all pride ourselves on that we don't have a lot of that drama in our sport. So, I'm sure there is a negative impact to a small degree."

This isn't a referendum on the decorum of drivers suggesting that NASCAR was once a sport filled with choir boys. After all, the origins of stock-car racing are vastly intertwined with bootlegging and men who fled from the federal officers during the week and then used those same cars to race on the local bullring on Sunday.

However, there is no denying that NASCAR's image is being rapidly tarnished, and that its efforts to be seen as apart from - and above - the scandal-plagued American sports scene are falling flat.

A sport that has long wanted to be considered on par with the NFL, NBA and other professional sports leagues has now done just that. Unfortunately, it's for all the wrong reasons.

* Complete coverage of the 2013 Sprint Cup Chase

* Kyle Busch's season at crossroads

* Bristol NASCAR track to host college football game

* Travis Kvapil arrested on domestic abuse charges

* Longform: The good times and hard life of Dick Trickle

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway will be run in April next year after nearly a decade of racing on Mother's Day weekend.

Track President Chip Wile said Friday the Sprint Cup event would be held Saturday, April 12. The Nationwide race will be run Friday, April 11. Both those races are run under Darlington's lights.

It's the second time Darlington has shifted from a holiday weekend. The track "Too Tough To Tame" ran the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend for over half a century until shifting to larger California Speedway. Atlanta Motor Speedway currently holds a Labor Day weekend race.

"We all believe in Darlington's future," Wile told nascarracetoday.blogspot.com by phone.

Wile said Kansas Speedway would take over Mother's Day weekend. He said the rest of NASCAR's schedule would come out Tuesday.

Wile, named track president in late August, said the change was in the works before he arrived. Yet, he believes this enhances the 1.366-milie country's track's long-term future in NASCAR. Wile said track owner International Speedway Corp. and NASCAR drivers and teams are committed to Darlington's success. If they weren't, he said, they wouldn't work to improve the fan experience by moving up the date.

Wile said temperatures in mid-April are generally cooler than the second week in May. Shifting to April also lets Darlington tap into the region's college market to attract fans.

"Usually, they're in commencement or exams," Wile said. "This change will let them take part in the tailgate experience and the race."

Wile said he and his staff plan several campus visits to state schools like Francis Marion, Coastal Carolina and South Carolina.

Next year, Darlington will come the week before Easter, a traditional off week. Wile acknowledged that the race date may have to float around when Easter Sunday falls each year.

"I think this is our new date, moving forward," Wile said. "We want to have a consistent date that people can get their minds wrapped around."

Darlington's fate had been up in the air a decade ago because of falling attendance and crumbling facilities. It held two Sprint Cup races each year from 1960 through 2004 and was a staple of the sport. Upheaval came the following season when the raceway was given Mother's Day weekend, which was traditionally an off week for the sport.

But then track president Chris Browning and his staff had four straight sellouts and it turned into a modern NASCAR tradition, racer's moms joining then at driver introductions and giving a family friendly call to begin things of "Drivers and sons, start your engines."

Attendance suffered the past few events, however, despite major improvements to the track. ISC spent $10 million to repave the track and add a wide, modern infield access tunnel before the 2008 race. Still, Wile is confident Darlington won't disappear from NASCAR. He's spent his first few weeks meeting with state and local officials and found wide-ranging support for what Darlington means to South Carolina. He met with Gov. Nikki Haley earlier this month and is confident she want to do everything possible moving ahead.

"Mother's Day did work for us," Wile said. "But I think this will be better."

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

John Smeltzer, a Hendrick Motorsports engine tuner working in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports, was released by the race team after he was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for violations of its substance-abuse policy.

NASCAR announced the suspension late Tuesday afternoo. In his career, Smeltzer also had worked on the Cup side with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon.

MORE: NASCAR Power Rankings | MORE: 2013 Sprint Cup winners

Smeltzer will have to meet with a substance abuse professional, who will determine the appropriate steps for him to be reinstated through NASCAR's road to recovery program.

"Our organization respects and fully supports NASCAR's policies with regard to banned substances," Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement. "The individual in question is no longer employed by the company."

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- Pat Warren brought a chunk of asphalt into the media center at Kansas Speedway last year and dropped it onto a table with a thud that seemed to reverberate throughout the room.

It was compelling evidence of the need to repave the racetrack.

Speedway president understood that the side-by-side, multi-groove racing that had made Kansas a favorite among drivers would be jeopardized by replacing the decade-old asphalt with fresh stuff. But he also knew that the risk of having another softball-sized chunk of pavement coming up during a race, and maybe smashing into a car at 200 mph, wasn't worth it.

''The general perception of drivers is not positive about repaves,'' Warren said. ''They worry about what the track is going to be like when they come back.''

It's a worry that proved valid in Sunday's Sprint Cup race.

Race winner Kevin Harvick said it was like driving on a ''razor blade.'' Runner-up Kurt Busch and third-place driver Jimmie Johnson called it ''treacherous.'' Chase contender Kyle Busch, who has crashed out of each Sprint Cup race at Kansas since last year's repave, may have been most harsh.

''The racetrack,'' he said, ''is the worst racetrack I've ever driven on.''

Roughly a dozen tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit have undergone repaves in the last decade, most out of necessity. Pavement tends to slip down the grade over time, resulting in seams in the corners, and big chunks like the one found at Kansas create safety hazards.

One of the most infamous issues was the gaping pothole that developed during the 2010 running of the Daytona 500, causing a delay in NASCAR's signature race.

The new surfaces solve that problem, but it also creates new ones.

There isn't enough abrasiveness on the new asphalt to lay down rubber, and that keeps cars from sticking in the corners. The result is a single-file parade rather than the passing that makes races exciting. The repaves also have produced higher speeds, and more heat in tires, and that's led to concerns about blistering and overall durability.

Goodyear has developed a ''multi-zone'' tread in part to deal with repaves. It has two distinct sections, one intended to provide grip and the other to provide durability. But finding that happy medium between traction and tire wear is proving to be a challenge.

''They continuously put the tire company and the competitors in a box with the type of asphalt they put on the track,'' Harvick said. ''Goodyear has done a fine job of putting together a tire with the cards they're dealt, but we still have a lot of issues.''

That was evidenced by a record 15 cautions in Sunday's race.

''Goodyear is doing the best they can, but these surfaces are too smooth,'' Jeff Gordon said. ''We don't want bumps - I'm not talking about bumps. I'm talking about the abrasiveness.''

Smooth is a good thing on highways and driveways, and welcomed by passenger cars. It's not such a good thing on racetracks, and doesn't work so well with racecars.

''To me, it's really the surface. We're paving the racetracks with what we pave new highways with, and it's not a highway,'' Gordon said. ''We had the same issue in Phoenix, at Darlington. We have had the same issue at every repave that we've had the last six or seven years.''

It's a catch-22, of course. Drivers want the rough, weathered surface that allows for side-by-side racing, but those same surfaces are usually on the brink of failure. Several drivers said that NASCAR needs to begin researching ways to improve the asphalt that is put down on tracks, rather than relying on Goodyear to provide a tire that works.

Such an endeavor would be costly and time-consuming - and may prove to be fruitless.

''We always hope we can have more grip and be able to race side by side and have a comfort level to reproduce a show where fans want to come out and we see sellouts, and we need to put on a better show on the track,'' Kurt Busch said. ''And for that to happen, we have to have Goodyear, the drivers, the teams, the tracks on the same page. Right now we're close, but I think we swung and we missed on tire combo this weekend.''

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Matt Kenseth may be favored to win this weekend, but Jimmie Johnson (pictured) still tops the Sprint Cup odds board.

LAS VEGAS - It's only fitting that since Matt Kenseth has won four of the eight races at 1.5-mile tracks this season that the LVH SuperBook installed him as the 4-to-1 favorite to win Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kenseth maintains a three-point lead in the Sprint Cup standings, but it's five-time champion Jimmie Johnson who is closing in fast and has become the 5-to-7 favorite to win the title with six races to go.

Even though Kenseth is the second choice to win the Sprint Cup at 5-to-4, perhaps he should be the favorite to take home the big trophy. Beginning this week at Charlotte, there are still three 1.5-mile tracks remaining on the Chase schedule. That's half the races on tracks where Kenseth has excelled. In contrast, Johnson and the No. 48 team have a real edge only at Martinsville.

The reason Johnson is the favorite is because of perception. Everyone has seen Johnson close the deal in five of the past seven seasons while our greatest Chase memory of Kenseth may be his 2003 Cup winning season, in which he only won one race the entire year, that spurred NASCAR to create the Chase format.

The bottom line with the number favoring Johnson is about what the public thinks. Just about everyone loves Johnson in these spots, while we're not sure what Kenseth can do under pressure.

Johnson hasn't won on any 1.5-mile tracks this season which was always his bread and butter during his five championship runs. However, Kenseth hasn't won on the any of the Charlotte sister tracks, which are all faster and much higher-banked than the flatter 1.5-mile tracks Kenseth has been dominating. Kyle Busch won at Atlanta and Texas, while Kevin Harvick won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in late May.

Johnson is the second choice to win Saturday night at 5-to-1 odds. Kyle Busch is next at 6-to-1 and should be a driver to consider, not only because of Texas and Atlanta wins, but also because of his history of dominating at this track. He's yet to win in the Cup, but between the Nationwide and Truck series, Busch has 12 wins combined.

The big question with Busch this week is how he'll respond to adversity, something that hasn't been a strong suit on his Chase resume. Last week he wrecked in practice and also during the race at Kansas en route to a 34th-place finish. Busch is 35-points behind Kenseth in the standings, but at 15-to-1 odds to win the Sprint Cup, he is definitely an intriguing look and if he wins this weekend, don't expect a 15-to-1 price anymore.

Harvick comes in at 10-to-1 odds to win this week and 15-to-1 to win the championship. The Richard Childress cars have been super fast for the last 10 weeks and Harvick's dominating performance at Kansas last week puts him in select company that no other Chevy driver can claim. Harvick now has two wins on the 1.5-mile tracks this season, joining Toyota drivers Kenseth (four wins) and Busch (two wins).

The most interesting story of the race, besides Busch trying to win his first Charlotte Cup race, is how Johnson will fare. When the Charlotte track used to be called Lowe's Motor Speedway, which is Johnson's sponsor, he dominated like no other, winning five times in six races from 2003-05. Since then, he's only notched one win and has finished 22nd or worse in four of his last seven starts.

On the season, Johnson has only three top-5 finishes at 1.5-mile tracks, but two of them came during the four races within the Chase. It should also be noted that Johnson won the non-points All-Star race at Charlotte in May. In his attempt to capture his first win at a 1.5 mile track this season, Johnson will be driving his winning Dover chassis from two weeks ago. His winning All-Star chassis will serve as the back-up.

Here's a look at the complete list of LVH odds to win at Charlotte and their updated Sprint Cup prices:

MATT KENSETH 4-1

JIMMIE JOHNSON 5-1

KYLE BUSCH 6-1

KASEY KAHNE 7-1

JEFF GORDON 10-1

KEVIN HARVICK 10-1

JOEY LOGANO 10-1

KURT BUSCH 15-1

CARL EDWARDS 15-1

BRAD KESELOWSKI 18-1

CLINT BOWYER 18-1

DALE EARNHARDT JR 18-1

DENNY HAMLIN 25-1

MARTIN TRUEX JR 25-1

GREG BIFFLE 30-1

BRIAN VICKERS 35-1

RYAN NEWMAN 35-1

JAMIE McMURRAY 60-1

JEFF BURTON 75-1

JUAN MONTOYA 75-1

MARK MARTIN 100-1

PAUL MENARD 100-1

RICKY STENHOUSE JR 100-1

ARIC ALMIROLA 200-1

MARCOS AMBROSE 200-1

KYLE LARSON 300-1

DANICA PATRICK 1000-1

FIELD 300-1

JIMMIE JOHNSON 5-7

MATT KENSETH 5-4

KEVIN HARVICK 15-1

KYLE BUSCH 15-1

JEFF GORDON 18-1

DALE EARNHARDT JR 40-1

JOEY LOGANO 50-1

CLINT BOWYER 50-1

KURT BUSCH 50-1

GREG BIFFLE 50-1

CARL EDWARDS 50-1

RYAN NEWMAN 100-1

KASEY KAHNE 100-1

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Our panel of experts weighs in on four of the biggest questions in NASCAR this week:

Terry Blount, ESPN.com: Uncertain at best and not nearly as bright as it was a year ago. This shows how quickly things can change in Sprint Cup. MWR was riding high entering 2013 after Clint Bowyer finished as the runner-up to the championship in 2012. Waltrip had one of the most successful sponsor relationships in the sport with NAPA on Truex's car, one of the few full-season sponsorships left in the series. Now NAPA is gone and Truex probably is, as well. Bowyer will end the year under a cloud after the spin scandal at Richmond. Some major public-relations rebuilding is needed here.

Ed Hinton, ESPN.com: My crystal ball is still cloudy on that one, but one image I can see in there is Rob Kauffman, the real money man of the operation, who rescued MWR at another tenuous time and doesn't appear to be going away. Race personnel may come and go, but as long as Kauffman stays in the game, the team will find a way to keep on keeping on. You can bet that privately, Kauffman asked Waltrip, general manager Ty Norris, et al, some questions following the Richmond mess. But he's still there, through the fog currently surrounding MWR.

A record 15 cautions consumed 71 of 267 laps in Chase race No. 4 at Kansas Speedway. Was it the tire? The racing surface? Driver error? It's a fine line, writes Brant James. Monday Rundown

Ryan McGee, ESPN The Magazine: Better than it did before they knew that 5-Hour Energy wasn't going to bail, but still not great. I think we'll see other personnel bail if given the chance, and that includes Truex. The problem is that there are only so many jobs out there. If MWR has to contract to two cars -- and that's feeling more and more inevitable even if it manages to field three full-time cars in early 2014 -- then Truex will be the guy left without a chair when the music stops. Just unreal.

David Newton, ESPN.com: Bleak. But it's been bleak before and Waltrip has bounced back. Remember the jet-fuel controversy in the first race for the organization? The good news is Toyota needs MWR to be viable, so the manufacturer will continue to pour resources into making that team strong enough to contend for wins and spots in the Chase.

Blount: My goodness, this is a sad question. Neither one of them deserves that recognition because they win too many of those events with Cup drivers. It's time to step up and face facts here. There is no such thing as a Nationwide Series. It's nothing more than a practice race most weeks for Cup stars. Austin Dillon may win the title without winning a race, and I sincerely hope he does to show how ridiculous this is. Consider this stat: Of the 86 drivers who have earned points in a Nationwide event this season, only three have won a race, accounting for only four of 29 races. And NASCAR has the gall to call this a championship series. It's incredibly disingenuous. The last time a so-called championship-contending driver won a race was June 15 (16 races ago) at Michigan for Regan Smith. Cup drivers have won 13 of the past 15 events. It's a joke.

Hinton: You mean which juggernaut snatches candy from babies with a stronger grip? Does that really matter? If it does, then JGR has the edge because on the days when they do win, they don't just dominate, they overwhelm -- especially when Kyle Busch is in the seat. A lot of that is because JGR's background in Nationwide runs deeper and stronger for longer than Penske's.

Is the golden horseshoe back in the saddle? Ryan McGee believes so. That's why Jimmie Johnson is king again of our Sprint Cup Power Rankings. Rankings

McGee: It's really a push, but I give a small edge to Penske because they still have a real shot at the drivers' championship with Hornish. But this whole thing looks so idiotic on paper. If Austin Dillon wins the championship, people are going to rip him for not winning a race, but when Victory Lane is a Cup driver conga line, it's hard to blame him. The good news is that the big Cup organizations are willing to put money into the series. But even better news would be if they wouldn't fill those cars with Cup guys all the time. NASCAR has to put an entry limit on full-time Cup drivers.

Newton: I'm not going to dignify this with an answer because their collective dominance is not good for the series. They need to start putting young developmental drivers into their cars on a regular basis more than Cup drivers. Then I'll judge.

Blount: You have to give Kevin Harvick serious consideration as a favorite since he won there in May and is coming off a victory at Kansas. Harvick has won two of the past five points races at Charlotte. But if you're asking me to pick a winner, I'll pick Matt Kenseth.

Hinton: My hunch is, Charlotte is the right place at the right time for Matt Kenseth to pop another win. Without foreseeable tire or track-surface issues, he should be a real power again on a 1.5-mile track. Yet JJ's relative dry spell there doesn't mean a whole lot. Let's put this in restart language: Give Kenseth the preferred outside lane, but put Johnson alongside with only a marginal disadvantage.

McGee: No, he's not, though right now, I wouldn't exactly bet against JJ's team anywhere. I have my eyes on a Matt Kenseth rebound and also on the guy who is bringing Kansas momentum and also just happens to have won the May 26 Charlotte race: Kevin Harvick.

Newton: Nope. That honor has to go to Kevin Harvick. He's coming off the win at Kansas and he's won two of the past five races at Charlotte, including the 600 in May. Johnson has been outside the top 10 in five of the past seven at CMS, outside the top 20 in four of seven. Having said that, he'd be my pick after Harvick.

Blount: Heck, I'm all for it. Anything to shake things up and add a surprise element that the teams have to figure out. Run the cars clockwise if it will make things more interesting.

Hinton: Nobody called it a curveball at all at Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, when drivers were singing the praises of the whole multi-zone concept. They said it was long overdue, and necessary, to prevent a debacle some feared would rival the one at Indianapolis in 2008. And it was at Atlanta that teams were told the next appearance for the multi-zone likely would be at Kansas. So they knew. This wasn't so much a curve as a wild pitch. NASCAR and Goodyear knew they had to throw something different at Kansas than they'd thrown in the spring, and this pitch just got away from them. Look, these things happen. Tire engineering just HAS to evolve to meet changing needs, and sometimes the changes don't work out at first. Who can say whether, if Goodyear had stuck with the same compound as in April, the situation wouldn't have been worse, in different ways, than what happened Sunday?

Mark Garrow reports on Tony Stewart's third surgery on his broken right leg. The war appears to be back on between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch.

McGee: This really bugs me. First, I love the new tires. Or at least I love the idea behind the new tires. I think Goodyear is really stepping up and trying something other than that hard-as-Hades tire that everyone from the garage to the grandstands seems to dislike. But how in the world can you throw such a variable at teams in the middle of the Chase? I know that it's the same for everybody, but why do it now when every lap means to much to so many teams? The Cup is literally on the line! So, try the new stuff at Kansas in the spring or hold a tire test that isn't tied to a race weekend. Imagine if the Dodgers and Braves showed up for a playoff game and Major League Baseball said, "By the way, you have to use these shoes that have no cleats tonight." This is absolutely just like that.

Newton: I say get over it and move on. NASCAR and Goodyear tried a similar compound at Atlanta before the Chase and it worked just fine. Yes, the surface at Atlanta was old and worn, so that helped. Weather was a factor at Kansas, too. But NASCAR gave teams extra time to test the Kansas tire, so it was the same for everybody. The intent of the new tire is to improve the racing. Brad Keselowski said it would be huge for the sport moving forward. That is getting lost here.

2013 Power Rankings: Charlotte

Each week of the Sprint Cup season, ESPN The Magazine's Ryan McGee ranks the top 20 drivers in the series. Don't agree with McGee's list? Let him -- and the rest of the world -- know in the comments section at the bottom of the page. But remember, make your mama proud.

Biggest mover Kurt Busch jumps three spots from 10th to seventh.

Biggest loser Greg Biffle falls four spots from fourth to eighth.