I’m passionate about winning and that was a big factor in deciding to re-sign with Joe Gibbs Racing. I think JGR gives me the best opportunity to win a championship in the Cup Series for M&M’s and Interstate Batteries. I know that everyone on our team is committed to that goal and will push towards making that a reality in 2013.

With the No. 54 moving to the JGR camp, Busch says his racing team, KBM can focus on them team’s other cars. He said:

I’m extremely proud of what we have accomplished in a short period of time at KBM in both the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series. When we started KBM our attention was to build something for the long term and now we are going to put a greater focus on our future with Parker [Kligerman] competing in Nationwide and Joey [Coulter] running trucks.

JGR President JD Gibbs said:

It’s no secret that you have to have great drivers to win in NASCAR and in the past year we’ve been able to secure long-term deals with Kyle and Denny [Hamlin] and of course we were able to add Matt [Kenseth] as well. Kyle is a big part of our success at JGR and we’re thrilled to know he will be with us for a long time.

Related Stories

• Kenseth To Drive Five N’Wide Races For JGR In 2013
• Kligerman To Drive For KBM In N’Wide In 2013
• Sadler To Drive For JGR In Nationwide Series In 2013
• It’s Official: Kenseth To Join JGR In 2013

Kligerman drove for Penske Racing in the Nationwide Series before being released in favor of Ryan Blaney. He drove for Brad Keselowski Racing in the Camping World Truck Series before being released from that ride in favor of Blaney.

He won the fred’s 250 Powered By Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway driving for Red Horse Racing.

KBM may also field a Camping World Truck Series entry for Darrell Wallace Jr.

Related Stories

• Sadler To Drive For JGR In Nationwide Series In 2013
• Blaney To Drive For Penske Racing In Nationwide Series

Sadler is leaving Richard Childress Racing after finishing second in the points the past two seasons. There was speculation that Sadler would also drive a limited Sprint Cup schedule for JGR, but that is not in the plans according to team president JD Gibbs.

JGR will field a second car that will be driven by Kyle Busch, Drew Herring, and Darrell Wallace Jr.

Wallace may also drive in the Camping World Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Related Stories

• Sadler Reportedly Close To Deal With JGR
• Sadler Not Returning To RCR In 2013

Kyle will drive the first fives races of the season including the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. He will split the remaining races with Kurt, as the team will attempt to win the owner’s championship.

Monster Energy president Mark Hall said:

Monster Energy has always stood for competing and winning no matter what the sport. To make this happen, we’ve always sought out the most determined, fearless and committed athletes for the Monster team. With the Busch brothers sharing the wheel of the Kyle Busch Motorsports Monster Energy Camry, we have every reason to believe we have drivers capable of running up front every weekend.

Kyle added:

Since debuting in NASCAR, Kyle Busch Motorsports has had the goal to add a championship-caliber Nationwide Series team to our organization. With today’s announcement of Monster Energy as primary sponsor and my brother Kurt as the second driver, we’ve accomplished that goal. The Monster Energy team of athletes consists of champion performers united by a desire to be the best. Kurt and I share that same desire and will settle for nothing less than adding a NASCAR Championship to the long list of achievements for one of the strongest brands in the world.

Mike Beam will serve as the team’s crew chief. Beam has earned victories as a crew chief in all three national touring NASCAR series.

Kurt Busch will also drive select events for Phoenix Racing, for whom he drives in the Sprint Cup Series.

KBM is still seeking sponsorship for the remaining races on the schedule.

Leffler said:

As a racer, your ultimate goal is to win races, and driving the No. 18 Dollar General Tundra for KBM is definitely an opportunity where I expect to achieve that goal. Kyle has put together a first-class organization that builds top-notch equipment. I’m honored that he has the confidence in me as a driver to come in and carry on the winning tradition that his team has established. Dollar General is one of the premier sponsors in our sport and I’m looking forward to representing them on and off the track.

While racing for second position on the 14th lap of the race, Hornday and Busch got three-wide going into Turn 1. Hornaday appeared to move up to pass a slower car, making it three-wide. Hornaday got a little loose and made contact with Busch, who was on his outside, in Turns 1 and 2.

Hornaday continued wiggling, trying to regain control of his truck. The two made contact again and both bounced of the wall. Both appeared to have tire rubs and cosmetic damage, but certainly nothing that would put them out of the race.

The caution came out and Hornaday was making his way back to pit road. Busch drove into the back of Hornaday and pushed him through Turn 3 wide open. He kept on Hornaday’s bumper, eventually turning him into the outside wall head-on. Hornaday made hard contact with the wall, but walked away from the incident.

Hornaday was a championship contender going into the race, but thanks to Busch, he will not win it this year. Busch was immediately parked for the remainder of the race.

On Saturday morning, Busch was then parked for the rest of the weekend’s events.

NASCAR president Mike Helton said:

The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came, I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed. As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it [Friday] night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. The volume of occurrences or reactions like I’m talking about, the rarity of those times that we’d make a step like this speak to the uniqueness and the severity of the topic. We understand the ramifications or the ripple effect of us making this type of a move, but we also take our responsibility very serious as to maintaining control of the event in all the garages; so it’s a balance there that we ultimately have to make a decision.

In response to NASCAR’s decision, Joe Gibbs Racing’s (Busch’s Sprint Cup team) owner Joe Gibbs said:

What we’re going to try to do now, [as in the past, with other situations involving Busch] we’ve tried to handle those things the right way and tried to make the right decisions and certainly that’s what we’re going to try to do with this.

Denny Hamlin was named to drive Busch’s Nationwide Series Toyota and Michael McDowell will drive JGR’s No. 18 Sprint Cup car.

This is the harshest punishment to date that NASCAR has issued since they instructed the drivers to “have at it.” This should serve as a warning to other drivers that “have at it” only goes so far.

An interesting note about the penatly, though, is that JGR is also punished by Busch’s actions when he was driving for his own Kyle Busch Motorsports team.

Ron Hornaday Jr. ran second to make a small dent in the advantage on series points leader Austin Dillon, who finished third. Johnny Sauter ran fourth, followed by rookie Joey Coulter and Kevin Harvick.

The victory was Hamlin’s first in the series in 12 starts, adding the driver of the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota to the list of drivers, now 23 in number, who have won at least one race in each of NASCAR’s top three series.

“It’s a big deal for me, more than what people probably think,” said Hamlin, who has run one truck race per year in 2009, 2010 and 2011. “When they think we go down to these different series—Nationwide and truck—and we’re just going down there to try to get wins, from my standpoint, it’s very, very tough.

“The truck series is more competitive now than what it’s ever been, and it means as lot to myself to win a truck series race, especially running just one a year, usually. … This was just one of those weekends where everything worked out great for us.”

Hamlin passed Hornaday and Dillon moments after a restart on Lap 187, as Dillon slid up the racetrack in Turn 1 but managed to maintain control.

“We gave it to him—I did,” said Dillon, who expanded his points lead to 11 over 10th-place finisher James Buescher. “Just couldn’t make the first turn and ran into Ron. If I could have made it through the first turn, it would have been me (or) Ron in victory lane, I’m pretty sure. We had faster trucks.”

Hornaday said he expected Dillon to slip in the corner and was prepared for it.

“The lap before the (next-to-last) restart, I cleaned my tires off pretty good, and I still shoved my nose pretty good,” said Hornaday, who gained one point on Dillon and now is tied for third in the standings with Sauter, 15 points back. “When I saw Austin not weaving his truck as much as I did on the (last) restart, I knew he was coming up into me.

“I had to make sure his right front tire was at my door, and I could lean on him back a little bit, so we didn’t get up in the marbles. It worked out for both of us, other than Denny Hamlin snuck through the middle of both of us and stole the win—but we’ll take it.”

Dillon passed Harvick for the lead on Lap 141 shortly after a restart that followed the sixth caution of the race, caused by contact between Germain Racing teammates Todd Bodine and Max Papis, who battled until Papis spun off Bodine’s front bumper.

After Papis spun again to bring out the seventh caution, Dillon led the field to the green flag for a restart on Lap 152 and held the top spot until Ryan Sieg’s spin on Lap 172 caused caution No. 8. Moments before the yellow flew, Hornaday passed Harvick for second, setting up a battle between a four-time champion (Hornaday) and a driver seeking his first title (Dillon).

When the field restarted on Lap 179, Dillon and Hornaday held the top two spots, chased by Hamlin and Sauter, both on fresher tires. One caution later, Hamlin powered beneath both Hornaday and Dillon on a Lap 187 restart and pulled away for the win.

No rookie has been as impressive as Nelson Piquet Jr. During the 2011 season, Piquet has earned four Top 5 finishes (all at 1.5-mile racetracks) and eight Top 10′s. He currently sits in 11th position in points, 18 points out of the Top 10.

Piquet has struggled to find consistency this season, having five DNF’s during his rookie campaign.

With the 2011 season winding down, Piquet is facing uncertainty as we approach 2012. Piquet’s owner, Kevin Harvick, made an announcement in early September that Kevin Harvick Incorporated would shut down at the end of the season. KHI sold a majority of it’s truck team to owner Eddie Sharp. There is a small chance he could end up at ESR in 2012.

Piquet has said his future is open to the highest bidder. “It’s down to Turner,  Penske, and Kyle Busch Motorsports,” he said. KBM is expanding their operation into the Nationwide Series in 2012, but they will keep their truck team intact in 2012.

Penske Racing has announced they will more than likely field a full-time effort in the Nationwide Series for Sam Hornish Jr. They will also continue to run the No. 22 with Brad Keselowski in a majority of the races.

Turner Motorsports has announced they will run three full-time NNS programs in 2012, with two of the teams having a different rotation of drivers. TMS also plans to run at least two full-time trucks in the CWTS in 2012. They may field a third truck is if Ricky Carmichael stays in the series.

Unlike most drivers shopping around for a ride during the silly season, Piquet seems to hold his destiny in his hands. Piquet brought sponsorship from Qualcomm, Bozzano, Jontex, Autotrac, and Tagg to almost every race this year on his No. 8 KHI owned truck and has funding in place for a ride next season.

Piquet is most notably known for deliberately crashing at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 to help his teammate, Fernando Alonso win the race. The scandal has become one of the most important in F1 history. In December 2010, Piquet won a libel case in the higher court against the Renault.

Dollar General will sponsor the No. 20 Sprint Cup Series Toyota and driver Joey Logano for around 10 races next season. Home Depot will scale back its sponsorship next season.

Dollar General will also sponsor the No. 11 Nationwide Series team and driver Brian Scott. The company will also appear as primary sponsor of the Nos. 18 and 20 Nationwide Toyotas in select races.

The sponsor is expected to continue working with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.

During the pre-race broadcast for the STP 400 at Kansas Speedway, Fox broadcasters Jeff Hammond and Chris Myers discussed the incident, with Hammond saying that after the incident between Busch and Kevin Harvick at the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in which Harvick climbed out of his RCR Sprint Cup Chevy  to confront Busch on pit road, and Busch turned Harvick’s Chevy into the wall, Childress said that if Busch touched his equipment again, he would give him a “whuppin.”

A source said that Childress took off his jewelry and then approached Busch and allegedly struck him. The two were separated, but Childress was able to grab Busch and put him in a headlock. He reportedly punched Busch again before the they were separated again.

Before the Sprint Cup race, NASCAR officials met with Childress and Busch regarding the incident. NASCAR president Mike Helton said that Busch did not do anything to violate his probation.

NASCAR considered ejecting Childress from the track, but decided against it because they felt RCR needed its race-day leader. Childress has restrictions put on him, and was not allowed on pit road during the race. Further penalties are expected to be announced Tuesday.

NASCAR issued a statement:

NASCAR has reviewed the incident involving Richard Childress and Kyle Busch after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Saturday at Kansas Speedway. We have met with all parties involved and have determined what happened yesterday is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by NASCAR. Richard Childress’s actions were not appropriate and fell far short of the standard we expect of owners in this sport. We have met with Childress this morning and made our position very clear to him. Further, we expect he will make it clear to all in his organization to ensure this situation does not escalate any further. We will announce our actions regarding this incident Monday. Kyle Busch remains on probation with NASCAR and we continue to watch his actions carefully. However, we have determined that Kyle’s involvement in this incident does not violate his probation and no further action is required.

Update: NASCAR has fined owner Richard Childress $150,000 and placed him on probation until the end of the calendar year for violating Section 12-1, actions detrimental to stock car racing involved in an altercation in the garage area, of the 2011 NASCAR rule book.

NASCAR issued a statement:

The penalty we have announced today for Richard Childress reflects NASCAR’s response to the incident at Kansas Speedway on Saturday. We feel this action is appropriate and are confident all parties involved understand our position on this matter and will move forward appropriately.

Childress also released a statement in response to the announcement:

First of all, I’m responsible for my actions, plain and simple. As you know, I am a very principled person and have a passion for what we do at Richard Childress Racing. I believe passionately in defending my race teams and my sponsor partners. In this instance, I let that passion and my emotions get the best of me. I accept the penalty NASCAR announced today and, as a company, we will now focus on this week’s races at Pocono Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.