Matt Kenseth’s team receives third written warning; Paul Menard to miss practice time

Among the warnings given to Sprint Cup teams last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the team of Matt Kenseth received its third. The No. 20 failed pre-qualifying laser inspection twice.

If a team receives a fourth warning, it loses pit selection.

The No. 27 of Paul Menard received its second warning for failing pre-qualifying template inspection three times. Menard will lose 15 minutes of practice time at Pocono Raceway.

Aric Almirola, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson lost pit selection for the Coke 600 after they received their fourth warnings prior to the qualifying for the race.

Kyle Larson competing in USAC midget race tonight after winning Tuesday

Kyle Larson will go for his second consecutive USAC midget win tonight at Gas City I-69 Speedway in the second night of Indiana Midget Week.

Larson, whose background is in sprint and midget cars, took a break from his Chip Ganassi Racing duties to race Tuesday at the quarter-mile Montpelier Motor Speedway. He scored his first USAC National Midget win since 2013.

Larson held on in a three-lap shootout to earn his fourth career Indiana Midget Week win and his 13th career USAC National Midget Week victory, tying him with Rico Abreu, Steve Knepper, Don Meacham, Ryan Newman and Stevie Reeves for 49th on the all-time list.

Also competing Tuesday was NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Christopher Bell, who finished third. Abreu finished 14th in the 23-car feature.

Xfinity Series entry list for Pocono

Forty-one cars are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend’s inaugural Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway.

Since this list was released, Richard Petty Motorsports announced that it has suspended operations of the No. 43 team, citing missed payments by the sponsor.

Sprint Cup drivers entered are: Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Paul Menard, Aric Almirola, Matt DiBenedetto and Josh Wise.

Sprint Cup entry list for Pocono

Forty cars are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway.

Since the entry list was released, Go Fas Racing has announced that Jeb Burton will drive the No. 32 car this weekend. Also, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing has stated that Ty Dillon will drive the No. 95 car this weekend even though Michael McDowell is listed on the preliminary entry list.

Kyle Busch Motorsports loses appeal of Truck penalty

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel announced Wednesday that it has upheld the penalties against Kyle Busch Motorsports for a penalty issued to the No. 51 Camping World Truck Series team last month at Dover International Speedway.

Daniel Suarez‘s second-place vehicle was found to violate the tailgate height rule in post-race inspection.

NASCAR docked the team 10 owner points, fined crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion $6,000 and placed Graves on probation through Dec. 31.

The matter was heard by Tim Bennett, Richard Gore and Russell Hackett.

Kyle Busch Motorsports has not announced if it will appeal Wednesday’s decision to the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer.

NASCAR on NBC podcast, Episode XX: Mike Bagley, Pete Pistone of The Morning Drive

Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone take a turn answering questions on the latest NASCAR on NBC podcast instead of asking them as they do every morning on SiriusXM Satellite Radio.

The hosts of “The Morning Drive” became a team nearly seven years ago and since have been a fixture from 7-11 a.m. daily on SiriusXM’s NASCAR channel. Blending a mix of irreverence and frivolity with a discussion of hot-button issues and news, the show has become a direct line to the pulse of NASCAR Nation through its newsmaker interviews and fan debates.

NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell is a weekly guest on the program, an indication of its sway as a sounding board for the sanctioning body.

“We’re very well aware the listen to us in Charlotte and Daytona Beach,” said Bagley, who has hosted the show since 2008 and was joined by Pistone after the April 2009 death of journalist David Poole. “Really, that’s flattering to us because that tells me they value what we put out. And they value our listeners and our callers and the feedback and emails we get. They use that as a test of, ‘Hmm, the boys are talking about this this morning. What are the fans saying?”

Other topics covered by Bagley and Pistone:

–How they handle controversial subjects, detractors and the fine line between hearing fans out and shutting down the unhealthy debates;

–Their divergent personalities and backgrounds in NASCAR and how it shapes the direction and tenor of the show;

–What’s worked and hasn’t among the show’s regular features and some of the best and worst interviews.

After the segment with Bagley and Pistone, NBC Sports motorsports researcher Christopher Lees stops by to add historical and statistical perspective to the triumphs of Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi and Coca-Cola 600 winner Martin Truex Jr.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking below or download and subscribe to it on iTunes by clicking here. The free subscription will provide automatic downloads of new episodes to your smartphone. It also is available on Stitcher

Here are times cues for easy referencing while listening to the episode:

NASCAR ‘back to the drawing board’ to improve passing up front after Coca-Cola 600

Executive vice president Steve O’Donnell said Martin Truex Jr.’s dominant victory in the Coca-Cola 600 has NASCAR heading “back to the drawing board” to improve its 1.5-mile racing.

O’Donnell, the chief racing development officer for NASCAR, credited Truex and Furniture Row Racing for its “blowout” victory in which the No. 78 Toyota led a record 392 of 400 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“Certainly great for Martin Truex Jr. and the race team and Furniture Row and (owner) Barney Visser,” O’Donnell told SiriusXM NASCAR’s “The Morning Drive” in his weekly appearance. “But also certainly a challenging race for us and things we’ve already learned and going to back to the drawing board, and one of our stated goals is passing up front. That was not what we saw (Sunday) night.

“Not to take anything away from Martin. He had the car to beat, and he didn’t give it up all night long.”

The quality of racing was in contrast to the Sprint All-Star Race the previous week on the same track. NASCAR changed its rear-toe alignment rules for the All-Star Race, restricting the amount of “skew” teams can employ to improve handling and stability. As a result, there hardly were any spins in the longest race of the season as several drivers said their cars felt more comfortable on the 1.5-mile oval.

O’Donnell said NASCAR used different rules in successive weekends at Charlotte to prove out whether the changes had a significant impact. Nearly four hours of mostly lackluster racing Sunday affirmed that.

“That’s one of the reasons we ran two different things to have some comparative data,” O’Donnell said. “We saw some really good things with the skew we had for the All-Star Race. It’s something we can immediately pull the lever on.”

NASCAR already announced last week that the skew rules from the All-Star Race would be used for the June 12 race at Michigan International Speedway and the July 9 event at Kentucky Speedway.

O’Donnell also said NASCAR would look at finding ways to improve tire wear in night races, which typically have cooler track conditions.

“More so than anything, you immediately look at the partnership with Goodyear and what we need to do to really look at how we wear tires as much as possible, particularly at night races,” he said. “We can go to work on that.

“Goodyear has been a great partner this year from the rules package and matching that up. We’ve seen some really strong results, particularly in the day races. Obviously, we’ve got some things to look at as we look at some of the future night races and see what we can do with that tire combination and the rules package.”

O’Donnell also conceded when a driver has a car as good as Truex’s was, there only is so much that can be done to improve passing at the front of the pack. There were nine lead changes across 600 miles Sunday, mostly during green-flag pit sequences.

“It’s one of those things,” O’Donnell said. “(NASCAR Chairman) Brian (France) said this. We only have one race to compare against vs. 14 to 15 NFL games, or 10 NBA games. But if you do look at, and we do compare ourselves in terms of being a playoff sport each and every week, and you’ll have those blowouts from time to time.

“I don’t want to by any means take anything away from what Martin, (crew chief) Cole Pearn and that team has done because they are more deserving of that win. He is a great story. When you look at it, he’s a guy who you expect could win a championship now. That is just great to see.”