Storylines: Pocono/Nashville/Texas Week

One weekend, three races, at three separate race tracks.

And one driver – running in all three events.

That would be Kyle Busch.

Busch, who leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, will run that series' events at Pocono Raceway, the Pocono 500 on Sunday afternoon.

In addition:

Busch also plans on being at Texas Motor Speedway for Friday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, the Sam's Town 400. Then, on Saturday night, he'll be in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Nashville Superspeedway for the Federated Auto Parts 300 presented by Dollar General.

This is unprecedented to say the least. No driver has ever attempted to run in all three NASCAR national series on one weekend at three different tracks.

Due to the intense travel challenges, Busch will take part in only one qualifying session this weekend – at Pocono, in the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

At Nashville, Busch will be in the No. 32 Toyota for Braun Racing. Tennessee native Will Allen will sub for Busch during practice and qualifying.

At Texas, Busch will be in the No. 51 Toyota for Billy Ballew Motorsports, but qualifying and practice in the truck will be handled by J.R. Norris.

Kyle Busch – undoubtedly a significant storyline this weekend. Following are some others;

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

Pocono: A 2.5-Mile Unlike Any Other
Pocono Raceway's relatively flat 2.5-file layout has some distinct similarities to Indianapolis – same distance, the absence of significant banking – but for the most part, the triangular-shaped layout is its own peculiar animal.

Some consider it almost akin to a road-course event, due to the three – yes, that's right: three only -- distinct turns. Those turns are complemented by a 3,740-foot front straight, one of the longest straights in NASCAR.

Jeff Gordon: Defending Race Champion, Chase Contender
Jeff Gordon was winless and outside the top 12 earlier this season, part of an overall “slump” by Hendrick Motorsports. Well, slumps are relative, as Gordon is proving. He's still winless, but a string of consistent finishes has him up to sixth in the point standings.

The 2008 season has been a lesson in patience for Gordon. He started off the year in 39th-place after a DNF in the Daytona 500.

Gordon is also the defending race champion this weekend.

Chase Contention: Kahne Has Critical 12th Spot, For Now
A 31st-place almost knocked Kasey Kahne out of the top 12 – almost. He's barely hanging on, with David Ragan glued to his back bumper. Ragan, suffering no sophomore slump in his second season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is only eight points behind Kahne. Ragan, improving each week, finished 26th and 33rd last season at Pocono.

Driver Rating: Busch Brothers on a Roll
Kyle Busch comes into this weekend's Pocono 500 on a nearly unheard of tear. With his dominating win at Dover, Busch now has four consecutive races with a Driver Rating of 120.0 or higher – a streak that has occurred only two other times since Loop Data's inception in 2005. The first was in 2006 by two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson (five straight from Oct. 14 until Nov. 12), the second was last season by four-time series champion Jeff Gordon (five straight from April 1 until May 6).

Older brother Kurt also has a Driver Rating superlative, this one Pocono-specific. Busch has earned two perfect Driver Ratings of 150.0 at Pocono Raceway. His first was in July of 2005, when he led 131 of the 203 laps en route to a dominating win. His second came in the series' last trip to Pocono, last July. In that race, Busch led 175 laps and racked up 99 Fastest Laps Run to capture his first win of the season.

Several Homecomings for NASCAR Garage
A number of team members will return to their home state this weekend – be it Pennsylvania, Tennessee or Texas. Below are a number them:

NSCS Pennsylvania Natives
Darin Nestlerode (Jersey Shore) – No. 31 car chief
Pat Tryson (Malvern) – No.2 crew chief
Greg Erwin (Hatboro) – No. 16 crew chief
Billy Curwood (Shickshinny) – No. 42 engineer
Travis Geisler (Pittsburgh) – No. 12 engineer
Danny Emerick (Byrn Mawr) – No. 48 engine tuner
Stephen Ritchie (Jonestown) – No. 19 engine tuner
Josh Kirk (Chambersburg) – No. 5 mechanic/rear-tire changer
Lance Munksgard (Warre) – No. 41 pit crew coach
Jason Seitzinger (Shartlesville) – No. 24 shock specialist
Mike Motil (Hazelton) – No. 41 tire specialist
Jim Bender (Duryea) – No. 9 tire specialist
Sean Kerlin (Marysville) – No. 48 tire specialist
Mike Harrold (York) – No. 10 tire specialist
Steve Brown (Honesdale) – No. 29 tire specialist
Toby Mellott (Needmore) – No. 19 tire specialist
Dave Radney (Canton) – No. 88 transporter driver
Dave Littau (Pottsville) – No. 2 front-tire carrier
Terry Spaulding (Troy) – No. 19 front-tire changer
Chris Fasulka (Wilkes-Barre) – No. 88 gas man
Matt Myers (Ford City) – No. 88 front-tire carrier
Kevin Hebert (New Holland) – No. 77 rear-tire changer
Troy Welty (Manchester) – No. 07 windshield/driver support
Tom Mayerchek (Sharon) – No. 22 spotter
Gina Mayerchek (Sharon) – No. 22 scorer
T.J. Majors (Wampum) – No. 88 spotter
Brad Little (New Kensington) – No. 99 driver support
Scott Crowell (Towanda) – No. 20 second gas man

NNS Tennessee Natives
Marty Oody (Loudon) – No. 5 front-tire changer
Tim Whelan (Nashville) – No. 5 gas man
Brett Jones (Lebanon) – No. 27 gas man
John Reese (Mt. Juliet) – No. 27 jack man
Butch Waugh (Murfreesboro) – No. 27 rear-tire carrier
Danny Rankin (Chattanooga) – No. 2 rear-tire changer

NCTS Texas Natives
Ryan Lawler (Colleyville) – No. 07 driver
Colin Braun (Ovalo) – No. 6 driver
David Starr (Houston) – No. 11 driver
Jacob Brownlee (Austin) – No. 13 crew member and fifth-generation Texan
Tom Mitchell (Ozona) – No. 14 team owner

NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES

Stand-Alone Season Begins
The June race at Nashville Superspeedway signals the start of NASCAR Nationwide Series stand-alone season. With no NASCAR Sprint Cup Series companion event on the schedule, the races provide series regulars a time to shine – and they've taken advantage of that chance in the past. Scott Wimmer won the first race at Nashville last March breaking “Concrete” Carl Edwards' three-race winning streak there; a series-only regular has won the last two races at Kentucky Speedway and a series-only regular has won at The Milwaukee Mile over the last five years (Aric Almirola was credited with the win there last year as he started the race teammate Denny Hamlin won).

Logano Hoopla Familiar To Atwood
Nashville native Casey Atwood can identify with the hype surrounding 18-year-old phenom Joey Logano, who finished sixth in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut last week at Dover. Atwood was 18 years, 10 months and 9 days old when he became the youngest driver to win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Milwaukee in 1999. He won again that season and after another full year in the Nationwide Series spent two years in NASCAR Sprint Cup before his national series career hit hard times. Now 27, Atwood has been a valuable asset to double-duty teams as a practice/qualifying driver, a position he will hold for 2002 Nationwide Series champion Greg Biffle this weekend.

A May To Remember
The past month was definitely one to remember in series competition. Joe Gibbs Racing won three of May's four races while its drivers were victorious in all four events; Kyle Busch won for Braun Racing at Charlotte. Before Busch's win, JGR totaled six victories in succession, a series record.

Series-only regulars made a statement by having five drivers solidly ranked in the top 10 in the standings the entire month, a first since August, 2007. Classic racing was on display at Charlotte where Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin started a rivalry and teammates Kyle Busch and Jason Leffler created a stir at Dover. And Joey Logano made his long-anticipated debut a successful one.

Double-Duty Substitutes
Other than Casey Atwood for Greg Biffle, the other substitute drivers scheduled to handle practice and probable qualifying runs for double-duty drivers also competing at Pocono this weekend are:
Willie Allen for Kyle Busch (Allen, a Tennessee native and driver for Sadler-Hamilton Racing, a team co-owned by Bobby Hamilton Jr., was the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year last season); Stephen Leicht for standings leader Clint Bowyer; Jason Hedelsky for Carl Edwards (Hedelsky normally serves as Edwards' spotter in the Nationwide Series); Josh Wise for David Reutimann and Auggie Vidovich for David Ragan.

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES

Watershed Season – Part 1: Competitive Balance
Scott Speed won this past weekend at Dover, becoming the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series' third consecutive first-time winner. There never have been four consecutive first-time winners in the series. It could happen this week. Two prime candidates are Chad McCumbee, who was second to Matt Crafton at Lowe's Motor Speedway and rookie Colin Braun, who was third at Kansas Speedway.

Watershed Season – Part 2: Youth Movement
Clearly, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is undergoing a youth movement of sorts.

The average age of this year's seven winners: 28.1 years.

In 2007, it was 40.6 years.