Clint Bowyer

I can remember talking to Clint Bowyer on the NASCAR media tour back in January. And, although he was saying all the right things about the upcoming season, I always kind of felt like he was a little unsure about this new chapter in his life. And who wouldn't be. Bowyer was walking away from one of the most successful organizations in NASCAR history, and joining a group that only had two career wins, and had never even made the chase for the Sprint Cup. In this crazy match game that is the Sprint Cup series, success is as much about good team chemistry, as is it horse power and aerodynamics.

There is always something comfortable and familiar about returning home. And although Clint Bowyer had never raced the Rolling Plains Speedway in Hays before Tuesday night, returning to the dirt tracks in his home state of Kansas, was still like a homecoming. "It's what we grew up doing," said Bowyer. "It's always fun to come back an revisit how you grew up, you know. It me I'm like a kid in a candy store. " Ken Schrader agrees. Though he is from Missouri, not from Kansas, he first visited RPM three years ago. And he jumped at the chance to return to his Midwestern dirt track roots.

As NASCAR moves to the Granite State, the talk should be about the Chase, who might be a title contender and the other things that are fodder during the dog days of summer. But instead, the only thing anyone is talking about outside the NASCAR inner circle, is the positive drug test of AJ Allmendinger. "That is not in A.J. Allmendinger's character so I don't know what is going on there," Daytona winner Tony Stewart told the media in New Hampshire. "It's unfortunate because he's a good guy and he's a really good race car driver so I mean I would say there is probably a logical explanation for it. " The real reason many drivers, media and fans are looking for a logical explanation, and were so surprised, is because when drivers go 500 miles at around 200 mph, everyone takes for granted that the guy in the next car is sober when they do it. "I think the drug testing policy is a great thing," Matt Kenseth told NASCAR.com.