Best Buy shifts NASCAR dollars to Roush Fenway

Best Buy Co. said Tuesday it's shifting its NASCAR sponsorship next year to Roush Fenway Racing drivers Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards, dealing a blow to the team of Richard Petty Motorsports.

The electronics retailer said it would be the primary sponsor of Kenseth's No. 17 Ford for nine of the 36 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the main sponsor of Edwards' No. 99 Ford for two races. Best Buy also will be an associated sponsor for each in other races.

"NASCAR continues to be a relevant way for us to connect with our customers," Best Buy said in a statement.

Best Buy had been a major sponsor of Petty's A.J. Allmendinger, who drives the car with the legendary No. 43 once used by Petty himself.

"Although it is very disappointing that Best Buy is changing directions at this late date, we wish all of our friends there the best in their future endeavors," Petty said in a statement.

Petty also said "our plan has always been to run a two-car team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2012 and we are continuing down that path. We will move forward and explore all of our options in regard to the No. 43 program in the coming weeks."

-- Jim Peltz

Photo: A.J. Allmendinger driving the Best Buy Ford in practice at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Oct. 21. Credit: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images

NASCAR's Kasey Kahne wins in Phoenix; Carl Edwards leads Chase

Kasey Kahne won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, while Carl Edwards kept a three-point lead over Tony Stewart in the Chase for the Cup championship battle -- the same gap they had when the race started.

With only one race left on the Cup schedule, all of the other 10 drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup title playoff have been officially eliminated, including reigning champion Jimmie Johnson.

Edwards and Stewart will now decide the championship next Sunday at the finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.

Edwards and Stewart finished second and third, respectively, behind Kahne after swapping the lead between themselves for much of the 312-lap race.

Jeff Burton finished fourth and Stewart teammate Ryan Newman was fifth.

Kahne had gone 81 races without a win, and the victory cameas he is about to leave the Red Bull Racing team for Hendrick Motorsports next season. "It's been a long time coming," Kahne said. "It was a great run today."

In addition, Red Bull has said it's looking to sell all or part of its NASCAR team after this season, so it's unclear whether the team will be back on the Cup circuit in 2012.

Kyle Busch, who started in the rear of the 43-car field, charged as high as third but the engine let go on his No. 18 Toyota shortly after the halfway mark.

ALSO:

Kyle Busch apologetic after losing top sponsor for two races

Sam Hornish Jr. gets first NASCAR victory in Nationwide race

Carl Edwards is not about to panic during Chase for the Sprint Cup

-- Jim Peltz in Avondale, Ariz.

Photo: NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne celebrates his victory in the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday with a burnout at Phoenix International Raceway. Credit: Christian Petersen / Getty Images

Tony Stewart leads halfway through NASCAR race in Phoenix

The battle for NASCAR's Sprint Cup title went off as advertised Sunday.

Tony Stewart, who started the day trailing Carl Edwards by only three points in the championship standings, was leading at the halfway point of the Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

But Edwards kept up the pressure, running a close third behind Stewart and second-place Matt Kenseth, who was the race pole-sitter.

Stewart was aggressive from the moment the green flag waved, charging from his eighth-place starting spot to the lead in less than 40 laps of the 312-lap race on the one-mile Phoenix oval.

Brad Keselowski was fourth and A.J. Allmendinger fifth. Kyle Busch, who started near the back of the 43-car field, had climbed to 13th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 23rd.

Overall, though, passing proved difficult for the drivers and much of the racing was single file on the newly repaved Phoenix International layout.

This is the next-to-last race in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup title playoff; the finale is next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

ALSO:

Kyle Busch apologetic after losing top sponsor for two races

Sam Hornish Jr. gets first NASCAR victory in Nationwide race

Carl Edwards is not about to panic during Chase for the Sprint Cup

--Jim Peltz in Avondale, Ariz.

Photo: The field takes the green flag Sunday at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. Credit: Christian Petersen / Getty Images

Race-day preview of NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup in Phoenix

Morning drizzle gave way to partly sunny skies at Phoenix International Raceway as the green flag neared Sunday for the next-to-last race in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

In the driver introductions for the Kobalt Tools 500, the crowd gave rousing welcomes to Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart, who are expected to decide the Cup title with two races left in the season.

Edwards, seeking his first championship, holds a three-point edge over Stewart, who’s vying for his third title. Stewart is starting eighth in the race, Edwards will start in ninth. Matt Kenseth is on the pole.

Kyle Busch, the polarizing driver who routinely is booed during introductions, got an especially hostile reception following a week in which the driver was heavily penalized for intentionally wrecking a rival a week ago in Texas.

Interstate Batteries has the dominant paint scheme on Busch’s No. 18 Toyota because his main sponsor, the M&M’s candy company, dropped Busch for the last races in response to his actions.

Busch, who has publicly apologized for his behavior, qualified 34^th in the 43-car field. But he has to drop to the rear at the start because his Joe Gibbs Racing crew changed his car’s engine in practice Friday.

Look for race updates at latimes.com/sports.

ALSO:

Kyle Busch apologetic after losing top sponsor for two races

Sam Hornish Jr. gets first NASCAR victory in Nationwide race

Carl Edwards is not about to panic during Chase for the Sprint Cup

--Jim Peltz in Avondale, Ariz.

Photo: Crew members push Clint Bowyer's car to the garage Sunday prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. Credit: Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

NASCAR's Matt Kenseth wins pole for Phoenix race

Matt Kenseth won the pole position for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in Phoenix, while title contenders Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart qualified in the top 10.

Edwards has a three-point lead over Stewart with two races left in the Cup season. Kevin Harvick is third, 33 points behind, and Kenseth is fourth, 38 points back.

Kenseth, who won the Cup title in 2003, turned the fastest lap in Saturday's qualifying with an average speed of 137.101 mph on the newly repaved, one-mile Phoenix International Raceway. A.J. Allmendinger qualified second at 136.446 mph.

Stewart will start eighth in the 43-car field and Edwards ninth. Harvick qualified 27th.

Kyle Busch, preparing for his first race since he was heavily penalized for intentionally wrecking another driver a week ago in a NASCAR Truck Series race, qualified 34th in the 43-car field.

But under NASCAR's rules, Busch will have to start at the rear Sunday because his Joe Gibbs Racing team needed to change the engine of his No. 18 Toyota during practice Friday.

RELATED:

The conundrum that is NASCAR's Phoenix race

Why NASCAR's Kobalt Tools 500 could hold surprises

Tony Schumacher serves notice at NHRA Finals qualifying

--Jim Peltz in Avondale, Ariz.

Photo: Matt Kenseth during practice Friday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. Credit: Jennifer Stewart/US Presswire

The conundrum that is NASCAR's Phoenix race

"This could be interesting."

So summed up driver Kevin Harvick as he previewed Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the newly repaved, reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway.

As with any repaved speedway, it's unclear how the pack of 43 cars in a Cup race will behave on the new, smooth surface. But the uncertainty is heightened Sunday because it's the next-to-last race in NASCAR's Chase for the Cup championship playoff.

Carl Edwards leads the Chase by three points over two-time champion Tony Stewart, and it's widely thought that they will battle for the title. But Harvick, 33 points behind Edwards and third place in the standings, still has a shot.

Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 "could be a game-changer," Harvick said, but "in what direction, I don't think anybody knows because we have no clue how it's going to race."

"We know we can all drive around by ourselves and make good lap time and adjust on our cars," the Bakersfield native said. "But how hard it will be to pass when they drop the green flag and everybody's on the race track? We don't know." 

NASCAR's Carl Edwards says Chase just starting

The top nine drivers in NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup title playoff are so close with seven races left that “it’s still as if we’re just starting the Chase,” driver Carl Edwards said Wednesday.

Edwards is tied with Kevin Harvick in the championship standings after three races in the 10-race Chase and only 19 points separate them from ninth-place Jeff Gordon.

“It’s going to slowly whittle itself to seven, six, five” drivers and “by the end of the Chase, you’re going to have four guys, three guys going into Homestead [Fla.] with a chance,” said Edwards, referring to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20.

Edwards, a driver on the Roush Fenway Racing team, spoke to reporters on a teleconference during the second day of testing at the newly repaved and reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway. The one-mile track hosts the next-to-last Chase race Nov. 13.

The uncertainty of how the cars will perform on the new surface means “there could be some accidents and things happen that we don’t usually see at Phoenix,” said Edwards, known for his signature back flips after winning a race.

“It’s going to be pretty amazing to be the penultimate race and have all those opportunities for something crazy to happen,” Edwards said. “It could shake everything up.”

Now in his seventh full year in the Cup series, Edwards, 32, is still seeking his first championship in NASCAR’s premier division. The Missourian was close in 2008, a year in which he won nine races, including three in the Chase. But he finished second behind Jimmie Johnson, who has won a record five consecutive titles.

“I’m a little more at ease with the whole situation” compared with 2008, said Edwards, who has only one win so far this season but a series-high 14 top-five finishes. “I feel that you learn the most through your failures, not through your successes. I have more true confidence.”

The next Chase race is Sunday at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway.

-- Jim Peltz

Photo: Carl Edwards does his signature back flip after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series race last Saturday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Credit: Patrick Semansky / Associated Press

NASCAR from Daytona to Irwindale on tap for July 4 weekend

Most major motor-racing series are idle over the July 4 weekend, but NASCAR's top series returns to its most famous track, Daytona International Speedway, on Saturday night while one of its minor-league series does the same at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Carl Edwards leads the field for the Coke Zero 400 at the high-banked, 2.5-mile Daytona super-speedway.

Drivers again are expected to pair up in two-car drafts as they did in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, when Trevor Bayne, who had just turned 20, won the race in a huge upset.

Bakersfield native Kevin Harvick, who won the July race at Daytona a year ago, is in second place in the Cup standings, 25 points behind Edwards, and reigning champion Jimmie Johnson is 33 points behind in third.

NASCAR's second-level Nationwide Series also is racing at Daytona on Friday night, where Danica Patrick will again take a weekend off from her IndyCar schedule to drive in a Nationwide event.

Patrick already has driven in more than a dozen NASCAR races and there is widespread speculation that Patrick will leave IndyCar next season to race stock cars full-time.

Also on Saturday night, the half-mile Irwindale track near the intersection of the 605 and 210 freeways will host NASCAR K&N Pro Series West drivers in the Southern California Toyota Dealers 200.

Greg Pursley of Newhall leads the K&N Pro Series West title standings after winning four of the series' first six races this season.

The Izod IndyCar Series, the NHRA Full Throttle drag-racing series and Formula One are all off this weekend.

When they resume July 10, IndyCar will race on the streets of Toronto, the NHRA will be in Joliet, Ill., and Formula One will be at the Silverstone circuit for the British Grand Prix.

-- Jim Peltz

Photo: Trevor Bayne, front, leads Carl Edwards, David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte to win the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20. Credit: Glenn Smith/Associated Press