Micah Roberts’ Top-10 Rated NASCAR Drivers NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 9:00 pm (ET) Rating Driver Odds Atlanta* Las Vegas* Texas* Kansas* 1. Kyle Busch 6/1 3rd 4th 1st 1st No All-Star wins, but only driver with top-five finishes on all four 1.5-mile tracks in 2016. 2. Jimmie Johnson 11/2 1st 3rd 4th 17th Event record four-time winner (2003, 2006, 2012-13); Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon had three....

With the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, the Indy 500 on Sunday morning and the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night, race fans will be treated to non-stop action over a 24-hour period. The Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest running race, will feature classic intermediate drivers (Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick) matching up with youngsters who have had recent success (Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson). MORE: Watch the Coca-Cola 600 live with fuboTV (7-day free trial)...

The throwback theme will feature a modern twist, however, as NASCAR implements its low-downforce package for the second time this season. As was the case when Kyle Busch won at Kentucky in July, teams will use a 3.5-inch spoiler instead of a 6-inch one. The package also includes reduction in the radiator pan from 38 inches to 25 inches, and the splitter will have 1.75 inches less overhang. MORE: Classic Darlington photos | Hamlin a good bet this weekend | Track offering American flags for Confederate flags...

The 2.5-mile tri-oval produces serious speed and constant danger. Daytona is much more narrow than Talladega and can produce some big crashes at key moments. The race earlier this year featured a huge wreck which was a huge part of the finish as it took out nearly half the field. Last year’s second race at Daytona saw the same problem as a good portion of the drivers were taken out by a late wreck....

Austin Dillon took home the win in the first week of the season and the second of his career in February. He will attempt to win for the second time this year. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending champion in the summer, but Daytona has been a fickle beast in recent years as no driver has repeated either as a seasonal winner, or simply in back-to-back races since Jimmie Johnson did so when he won both runs in 2013....

But with about five laps to go, Almirola was involved in a major crash that also damaged Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski. That allowed Chase Elliott to claim victory despite leading just 11 laps. MORE: Watch NASCAR live and on-demand with fuboTV (7-day free trial) Joey Logano was the next-best playoff driver to finish, coming in third, while Kurt Busch slid into fifth spot. Bowman and Clint Bowyer had the worst runs among playoff contenders....

There was an 11-race stretch from 1997 to 2002 with 11 different winners, but since then the races have been won a by a select few. Johnson has his eight wins and Denny Hamlin has five wins. Jeff Gordon is now retired, but he won nine times at Martinsville during his career. With Gordon no longer driving, who will become that third driver to join Johnson and Hamlin as drivers to beat?...

Harvick has been runner-up in five of the past six races at Michigan and the only time he didn’t finish second over that span (this race last June), he led the most laps (63) before a flat tire relegated him to a 29th-place finish. He may have eventually erased the one lap deficit had rain not shortened the event by 62 laps, a race won by teammate Kurt Busch....

Blaney jumped to the front of the field on a late restart and never relinquished the lead on the way to his second win of the NASCAR Cup Series season. William Byron and Kyle Larson made a hard push down the stretch, but Blaney managed to take the checkered flag by a margin of 0.077 seconds. “We got a great push by [Kyle Busch] on the restart and was able to get clear there,” Blaney said during his postrace interview....

That’s mainly because Kyle Busch is the two-time defending champion at Pocono Raceway and he has three wins in his last four races there. But Harvick getting that first win is huge especially since it absolutely guarantees him a spot in the playoffs as the postseason creeps closer and closer. MORE: Watch the Gander RV 400 live with fuboTV (7-day free trial) Busch on the other hand has four wins already this year and is under no pressure to get a victory....

The heat was an issue for Austin Dillon as much as it was for everybody else Sunday, but the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevy battled it to earn his third career NASCAR Cup Series win. He beat his teammate Tyler Reddick to the line on a green-white-checkered restart, forming a 1-2 finish for RCR. Ryan Blaney, who won the first two stages Sunday, had the dominant car for the majority of the race....

Similar to last season, road-course master AJ Allmendinger needs a win to make the Chase. He got it last season at the 2.45-mile course, holding off Marcos Ambrose for his first Sprint Cup victor. His history at the upstate New York track shows he is a force to be reckoned with. In six career starts at Watkins Glen, Allmendinger boasts one win, two top fives and four top 10s. He claims the second-best average finish (7....

Before William Byron won last week’s Daytona night race to clinch a playoff spot in the regular-season finale, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick won the pair of doubleheader races at Dover the weekend prior. Those results marked Harvick’s seventh and Hamlin’s sixth win of the season, easily the two most in the Cup Series. MORE: Get the latest NASCAR odds from Sports Insider The COVID-19 pandemic forced NASCAR into a two-month hiatus in the spring, but the Cup Series season resumed in mid-May with a pair of previously unscheduled races at Darlington Raceway....

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season has been one of the most unpredictable one in recent memory. With 19 different racers nabbing the checkered flag, there has been as much parity in stock car racing’s top division as one could hope for. Now, the series is down to the final four. Chase Elliott and Joey Logano are past winners, having hoisted the trophy in 2020 and 2018, respectively. Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain are unexpected finalists....

NASCAR officials have altered the provisional starting guidelines for races during the Chase, effective immediately. The rules would lock a non-chartered team that qualified for the Chase into the field each week instead of forcing them to make the race through qualifying, as is the case now. MORE: Sonoma winners and losers | Complete Daytona schedule Ryan Blaney, who drives for the non-charter Wood Brothers Racing team, is currently one spot of out the top 16 in the standings, though Tony Stewart in 32nd has a win and will move into the Chase field if he is in the top 30 in the standings after the 26th race....

When the Chase for the Sprint Cup began the following week, however, Harvick had little to show for that lead. Instead, he trailed Keselowski and Kyle Busch — who each won four races to Harvick’s two — by six points after points were reset for the Chase. MORE: Ranking the remaining 12 Chase contenders Harvick was NASCAR’s most consistent driver through two-thirds of the season, building a solid point lead with a series-high 13 top five and 21 top 10 finishes, but, under a Chase system that rewards wins over consistency, his lead was wiped out and he got nothing for leading the standings at the end of the regular season....

Kennedy made contact with the trucks of David Gilliland and John Wes Townley, resulting in Kennedy’s truck being lifted to the top of the SAFER barrier and into the catch fence. His truck slid along the top of it for several hundred feet, as his truck was torn apart, before returning to the track and finally coming to a stop. MORE: NASCAR drivers by state | Daytona fan ’thought I was going to die’ during Dillon wreck...

Yeah, there’s a chance a thunderstorm or two might be a nuisance on Saturday, but Sunday’s race day should bring pretty nice weather to Brooklyn, Mich., and its environs. MORE: Michigan schedule NASCAR had to postpone last weekend’s race and stage a rare Monday running for its Sprint Cup Series. Kurt Busch didn’t mind, since he won for the first time this season. Trouble is, a day’s delay means a shorter turnaround time for teams....

Drivers’ starting positions for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, the third race of the Cup Series playoffs and the final race in the Round of 16 (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TSN5, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), were based on four factors: Driver’s finishing position from the previous race (25 percent) Car owner’s finishing position from the previous race (25 percent) Team owner points ranking (35 percent) Fastest lap from the previous race (15 percent)...

The day will be all about retro paint schemes on the cars, series legends returning to the track and a storied venue that’s ready to tear up some more sheet metal. The current drivers found out Saturday during qualifying how they’ll line up for the start of the race Sunday afternoon (3:42 p.m. ET green flag; FS1, TSN5, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Here’s a look at the pole winner and starting lineup for the 12th race on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule....