2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series

The 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series began on February 16, 2008, at Daytona International Speedway with the Camping World 300. The season will conclude on November 15, 2008, at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Ford 300. NASCAR's second-tier series will be known as the NASCAR Nationwide Series beginning with the 2008 season, ending the 26 year sponsorship by Anheuser-Busch's Busch Beer. The seven-year agreement gives Nationwide Insurance the exclusive rights to tie its brand to NASCAR's second most popular racing series. [ [http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/bg/10/03/nationwide.series.title.sponsor/index.html NASCAR.com: Nationwide Insurance to be sponsor of No. 2 series] ]

Schedule

The following table shows the 2008 schedule published by NASCAR. Race names are subject to change. [ [http://www.nascar.com/races/bg/2008/data/schedule.html NASCAR.com: 2008 Nationwide Series Race Schedule] ]

♣ — Race will run at night, or start in the late afternoon, and finish at night.

"Bold Italics" - Indicates current or next race.

Television

The 2008 TV schedule will follow the same format as 2007, most races will be broadcast on ESPN2 and six races will be broadcast on ABC when ESPN2 broadcasts larger sporting events. All races will be shown live on free-to-air TV in Australia on Ten HD

2008 season races

See List of 2008 NASCAR races for a complete list and schedule of the 2008 season races.

Camping World 300

The Camping World 300 presented by Chevrolet was held February 16 at Daytona International Speedway. Tony Stewart won the pole and then went on to win the race. Stewart became the first driver to win the season opening Nationwide Series race at Daytona from the pole.

Did Not Qualify: #12 Sam Hornish, Jr., #84 Mike Harmon

Nicorette 300

The Nicorette 300 was held on March 10 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Jeff Burton won the pole. As usual, the race would be dominated by Sprint Cup Series points leader Kyle Busch. Busch hoped to make history by being the points leader in all three of NASCAR's top racing circuits. He would do so to an extent, leading 153 laps. However, Busch's hopes would be derailed by a flat tire while entering turn 1. His misfortune would open the door for other drivers such as Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, and polesitter Burton. David Ragan would take the top spot after pit stops under the caution for Busch's crash. However, Burton and Kenseth took first and second on lap 177. Things would stay this way for 9 laps until Kenseth made the pass for the lead. The main highlight of the race came on lap 189. While exiting turn two, Dale Earnhardt Jr. attempted to pass Eric McClure. However, McClure spun in front of Dale Jr., turning him into the wall and into the path of rookie Bryan Clauson, who hit McClure's car as it hit the wall, lifting it off the ground. This brought out a red flag lasting several minutes. Although Kenseth led with three to go, debris from Ragan's car brought out a green-white-checkered finish to lap 198, with Kenseth holding off Harvick for his first win of the season.

O'Reilly 300

The O'Reilly 300 was held on April 5 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Kevin Harvick started from the pole after qualifying was rained out. Kyle Busch won the race, it was his first Nationwide Series win of the 2008 season. Busch led four times for 126 laps, including the final 43 laps of the race. Kevin Harvick who led 55 laps broke an axle on his first pit stop and lost 21 laps while his crew replaced it, he finished 34th. Tony Stewart went down a lap with an unscheduled pit stop on lap 71 after cutting his right rear tire. He had run over a lug nut on pit road during a green-flag pit stop on lap 56. Only 14 cars finished on the lead lap.

Failed to Qualify: Brett Rowe (#05), Morgan Shepherd (#89),
Derrike Cope (#49), Joe Fox (#0)

Aaron's 312

The Aaron's 312 was held on April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway, in Talladega, Alabama. Tony Stewart won the pole and later went on to win the race. Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. dominated much of the race running in first and second place respectively. 2007 IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti blew a tire on lap 11 and spun around onto the apron in Turn 3 into the path of the #91 car driven by Larry Gunselman who slammed into the driver's side of Franchitti's car. Franchitti suffered a fractured left ankle and minor contusions from the hard impact, [ [http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/bg/04/26/talladega.post.race/index.html NASCAR.com: NASCAR rookie Franchitti injures ankle in hard crash] ] the injury would sideline him for 5 Sprint Cup Series races. The big wreck (often dubbed "The Big One") occurred on lap 71 when Kevin Lepage was coming off pit road and merged immediately in front of the lead pack traffic. Lepage was only running around 115 mph when the wreck happened compared to the leaders who were running 191 mph. Several contenders were taken out including Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. The race was red flagged to clean up debris. Around 16 cars were involved in the wreck, during the race several drivers were penalized for blending onto the track to early, instead of blending at Turn 2. Lepage publicly apologized for the incident the next day saying "I made a huge driver error by blending onto the racetrack in the wrong area. This caused a multi-car accident and changed the outcome of the race for many teams." [ [http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/bg/04/27/klepage.talladega.apology.ap/index.html NASCAR.com: Lepage apologizes for Nationwide Series accident] ] Dale Eanhardt, Jr. waited to make a last lap pass down the backstretch on Stewart but didn't have any drafting help, Dale would cross the finish line in sixth position.

Failed to Qualify: Brett Rowe (#05), Denny Hamlin (#18)

Carquest Auto Parts 300

The Carquest Auto Parts 300 was held on May 24 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina a suburb of Charlotte. Brian Vickers won the pole. Kyle Busch driving for Braun Racing won the race, ending the four-race winning streak of Joe Gibbs Racing. During the final caution (#88) Brad Keselowski tapped (#20) Denny Hamlin's bumper as the cars circled the track behind the pace car. Keselowski was upset with the way Hamlin had raced him. Hamlin retaliated by turning right into Keselowski's Chevrolet, damaging the left-front fender. The move by Hamlin upset Dale Earnhardt, Jr. owner of the #88, who was running fourth right behind the #88. While still under caution Earnhardt drove up and tapped Hamlin's bumper. After the incident an angry post race confrontation erupted between the #88 JR Motorsports crew and the #20 Gibbs crew. The confrontation resulted in three members of the JR Motorsports crew being fined by NASCAR and one member was also suspended for one race. [ [http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/nationwideseries/NASCAR_suspends_JR_Motorsports_crew_member_puts_Eury_Sr_on_probation.html SceneDaily.com: NASCAR suspends JR Motorsports crew member, puts Eury Sr. on probation] ]

Failed to Qualify: Brian Keselowski (#92), Brett Rowe (#05), Ryan Hackett (#76)

Meijer 300

The Meijer 300 presented by Oreo was held on June 14 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky. 18-year-old phenom Joey Logano won the pole. From the drop of the green, Logano and teammate Kyle Busch dominated the race, leading a combined total of 116 laps, with Busch leading a race high 85 laps. It would be the Logano and Busch show until lap 163 when Busch spun coming out of turn 2. From there, Logano went on to win the race, becoming the youngest winner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at only 18 years and 21 days, beating Casey Atwood's long standing record of 18 years, 10 months and 9 days set when he won at Milwaukee in 1999.

Failed to Qualify: Justin Hobgood (#91)

"NOTE: NASCAR announced on July 2 that Chad Walter crew chief for the #5 JR Motorsports team had been fined due to a rule violation during the Nationwide Series event at New Hampshire on June 28. Walter was fined $10,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until December 31 due to the use of improper language by a crew chief during a televised interview of the race. After a wreck between Bobby Hamilton, Jr. and the #5 driver Landon Cassill, Walter said "Shit happens" in an interview with a ESPN reporter. Rick Hendrick, listed owner of the #5 Chevy, was penalized with the loss of 25 Nationwide Series car owner points while Cassill was docked 25 Nationwide Series driver points [ [http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/bg/07/02/lcassill.newhampshire.penalty/index.html NASCAR.com: No. 5 crew chief penalized for language at NHMS] ]

Winn-Dixie 250

The Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola was held on July 4 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Denny Hamlin won the race.

Failed to Qualify: Andy Ponstein (#02), Danny Efland (#01), Kevin Lepage (#84), Nick Tucker (#57)

Kroger 200

The Kroger 200 was held on July 26 at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana. Kyle Busch was the overall winner.

Dollar General 300

The Dollar General 300 will held on October 10th at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina suburb of Concord.

References

See also

* 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
* 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
* List of 2008 NASCAR races
* 2008 in sports

External links

* [http://nascar.com NASCAR Official Website]
* [http://www.nascar.com/series/bg/ NASCAR Nationwide Series Home Page]