Nascar

Kurt Busch and Penske Racing have parted ways after yet another embarrassing incident for the 2004 NASCAR champion. Penske Racing says in a Monday statement it is evaluating its options for the No. 22 Dodge. The split comes after six bumpy years for Busch and Penske. Although Busch won 10 races since joining the organization in 2006, his meltdowns on his team radio were notorious and two crew chiefs have left the team in the last three years. Busch also sparred this season with the media more than usual, and was fined $50,000 last month by NASCAR after he was caught on video by a fan being verbally abusive to an ESPN reporter.

There are really only two names you need to know when NASCAR heads to Martinsville: Hamlin and Johnson. The two drivers have dominated at the paperclip shaped track in Virginia. And no one is happier to see this track up next on the schedule then Denny Hamlin. He was the driver that took five time champ Jimmie Johnson down to the wire an nearly unseated him last season. But the 11 team could really use a do over to the '11 season. After a blown engine last week in California, they currently sit 21st in the points.

The Grand Marshal for Sunday's Pocono 400 presented by #NASCAR may have been Vanilla Ice. But while people on twitter were busy quoting "Ice, Ice Baby," I was having a hard time getting Sam Hagar out of my head. NASCAR was dishing out more speeding penalties than a small town police department at the end of the month. For whatever reason, drivers were having a hard time obeying NASCAR's 55 mph speed limit on pit road. "There is a segment where something is just not like it normally is," Jimmie Johnson, who got nailed twice by a speeding penalty told USA Today . "There is something wrong with the timing loop.

Leave all your left turn jokes behind this week, NASCAR is making right turns too this weekend. The course formally known as Sears Point, formally known as Infineon, will host the first road course race of the year. I feel like this course has had more name changes than Prince or P-Diddy. For now, it's Sonoma Raceway, but they are looking for sponsorship, so that too could soon change. In the past, when NASCAR made right turns, a slew of " road course ringers" would show up at the track.

Kurt Busch seemed relaxed as he stood over the girl at Jack Stacks BBQ in Kansas City. The Las Vegas native was in town to learn the secret of KC BBQ and to help promote next week's race at the Kansas Speedway. "I enjoy jumping out on to the gril," said Busch. "When I get scared is when I'm in the kitchen, when I have to bake something or get all the other side fixin's. The grill, I think that's a man's place. " Busch, who won the first Chase for the Championship in 2004, is currently 9th in points as NASCAR's chase enters it's third week.

Ask your average sports fan what they know about racing, and the first think most will say is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There is just something special about that famed yard of bricks. For NASCAR drivers there is no doubt that the Daytona is number one. And even though NASCAR has only been coming to Indy for 18 years, it has quickly become two, and in many drivers eyes, even one "a. " "It ranks up there, possibly number one," said four time Indy winner Jeff Gordon. It makes sense.

Tony Stewart might just be the hottest driver in NASCAR right now. With his win Sunday in Las Vegas, he's won two races to start 2012 (if you count his duel victory), three of the last four and five of the last 10 races last season. So wait, let me take back that opening line and just say, Tony Stewart IS the hottest driver in NASCAR right now. And how about this stat, the win in Vegas on Sunday, means Smoke has won on every active track on the NASCAR circut. "That's a huge personal accomplishment for me," sais Stewart.