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Brad Keselowski Had a good showing at Nashville Superspeedway last weekend, posting a third place finish after starting 19th in the field, but quickly headed to the front of the line with a fast car and great pit stops during the entire day.

“Joey Logano and Kyle Busch were pretty much the class of the field,” Keselowski said. “I just couldn’t get to them on those last couple restarts. I’m really pleased with this third-place run though for sure. I’m even more proud of my guys and the work they did on pit road. Getting me those five spots early in the race was key to our success and I can’t thank them enough for their hard work week in and week out.”

FastCar Newsdesk for Texas Motor Speedway, week of 4/3/09
Another Bruton Smith special comes to fruition the week that he gets inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame (along with Bobby Labonte). NASCAR and the Las Vegas Convention and Vistiors Authority announced today that the Sprint Cup Series banquet, stationed in New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel since 1981, is moving from the Big Apple to Nevada’s largest city, beginning this year. Though announced, both sides still have to finalize some details of the agreement. The LVCVA reportedly will pay NASCAR an amount between $500,000 and $1 million per year to host the banquet.

Mark Martin had a great weekend going for him, in the top with practice speeds, winning the pole, and running up front during most of the race. Then, the unexpected happened, hurtling his car into turn one at the Atlanta Motor Speedway during the Kobalt Tools 500 race, his car took a slide into the outside retaining wall that left his car crippled from the damage sustained when he backed his car hard into it at top speed.

The Oyotas started the race with massive engine change-outs, but they had no problems during the race. The Roushketeers, on the other hand, seemed to have had a bad hair day.

Hey, fix the entrance to pit road and this would be a great track. Then all they’d have to do is change the start time to coincide with all of us unwashed fans on the East coast.

Confidence: On one hand you’ve got Saddleburns with a lack of it, and on the other hand you have SirMark with an overabundance of it. Both need an attitude adjustment. ‘burns needs to believe that (given the right equipment and setup) he can exceed all expectations, and the Markster needs to get a real dose of reality.

Matt Kenseth will try his hand at making history this weekend going for win number 3 in a row.

Drew Blickensderfer and the crew have been flawless so far, getting Kenseth out in a hurry and in the right place at the right time.

Kenseth is no stranger to great finishes at Las Vegas either. He won back to back races during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. He finished runner up in 2006.

Matt has the fourth best driver rating here of 107.8 with a high of 135.8 (2nd best). He has 5 top 10’s out of the last 6 races here.

FastCar Newsdesk for Las Vegas Motor Speedway, for week of 2/26/09
A sagging economy and a trip to Vegas keep money fresh in the minds of many on the NASCAR circuit. A flurry of teams around the Sprint Cup garage lack full sponsorship for the 2009 season, including Richard Petty Motorsports. Driver Reed Sorenson and the famed No. 43 team have sponsorship for the majority of races this year and have come closer to having a sponsor in each race, with the addition of Super 8 Motels as a primary sponsor for an undisclosed schedule of races this season. Super 8 may also sponsor the No. 44 of A.J. Allmendinger in some races; that team is not scheduled to run each race, unless sponsorship arises. Harrah’s colors will be on that entry this week in Las Vegas.

Here we go, it’s Vegas time and with two races down and three to go, some teams may need to step it up to stay in the top 35.

One driver that may be in trouble is the Joe Gibbs #20 car of Joey Logano. He had a rough Daytona race that ended with him finishing 43rd after being involved in an accident. California was a little better when he started the race 34th and finished in the 26th position.

But the fact remains, Logano is currently sitting in the 37th place in points and once again heading to another track that he has no experience in a Sprint Cup car; Las Vegas.

(above photo by MotorSportsNews[dot]Net(work) photographer Steve Langley)

My column, “Dear Brian…” got almost 1,000 hits during it’s first week. When Pipe Smoke came on the scene as an independent site, the first 1,000 hits took over a year.

Honk if you remember seeing Tim Richmond drive in a demo derby.

I miss the sound of an unmuffled small block in the morning.

That sound after a heavy bout with the bottle resulted in more than one instant hangover.

At one time I smuggled beer into the grandstands at Thompson Speedway. An old jacket with ripped out pockets would hold a six pack. the statute of limitations ran out on that one long ago. Besides, I think that the Honeig family has forgiven me for that one.