Weekend Recap: Texas, Rockingham

Weekend Recap: Texas and Rockingham

NASCAR returned from its first break of the year and once again, the weekend seemed more fulfilled. There was a full slate of action going on across all three of the top series so lets recap what happened in each.

Camping World Trucks: Rockingham Speedway

NASCAR racing returned to the historic "Rock" for the first time since the Sprint Cup last raced there in 2004 and its return was greatly welcomed by fans, drivers, and the media. Drivers on Twitter all week were pumped that the Rock was being used again, even ones who weren't even participating in the Truck race. 

As far as the race went, a Sprint Cup driver captured the win for the second time in three races this season after Kasey Kahne took the checkered flag. I honestly thought this was going to be a Sprint Cup  driver free race which is always awesome, but I then realized Brad Sweet was only at the track to qualify and practice the car for Kahne. Kahne followed Kevin Harvick's Martinsville victory two weeks ago, and that left John King as the only true Truck Series driver with a win this year, that coming at Daytona. King came into this race as the points leader, but that quickly disappeared when he wrecked on lap 4, causing him to fall 7 spots in the points. 

Nelson Piquet Jr. started on the pole and dominated the day over all leading 107 of the 200 laps. He was trailing only Timothy Peters towards the latter part of the race and was trying to beat Kahne off of pit road after the final stop when he was caught speeding. That dropped Piquet to 14th and he had to rally to finish 7th in the final 20 laps while Kahne pulled away for the win. 

Nationwide: Texas Motor Speedway

After a two week break for the Nationwide Series, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. picked right up where he left off, that being him continuing as arguably the best driver in the series right now. Stenhouse picked up his second victory of the season and also his second victory this year at a 1.5 mile track. Stenhouse was not particularly outstanding on these size tracks last year, which means he might just dominate even more this year as he tries to repeat as champion.

Stenhouse didn't have the best car most of the night by any means, that title went to Paul Menard who dominated most of the race. He was so dominant that he was at a loss for words in the post race interview, he wasn't quite sure how to explain how his car wasn't in victory lane after leading 100 laps. But truly, outside of these two drivers, no one else was much of a threat to win.

Sprint Cup: Texas Motor Speedway

After a crazy week of racing at Martinsville two weeks ago, it was actually sort of a relief to see some sane racing at Texas. There were only two cautions the entire race and there was not a hint of controversy to be found. Greg Biffle won the fast paced race after passing Jimmie Johnson with 30 laps to go, snapping his 49 race winless streak dating back to Kansas in 2010. 

Perhaps the only other major story of the weekend was that Hendrick Motorsports was once again denied taking home its 200th victory. Just a week after a prime opportunity was snatched from them when Jeff Gordon and Johnson got taken out running 1st and 2nd at Martinsville, Hendrick came up just short again. Johnson led a great deal of the race, but succumbed to Biffle at the end, and even a hard charging Gordon who started 34th and came all the way to 4th just didn't have enough time to get to the front. They pretty much have a good shot to win wherever they go anyway, so I'm assuming the 200th win will be soon.