Beginning Saturday night at Gateway International Raceway, the next three Nationwide Series events will be run at tracks that don't host the Cup Series.
The Camping World Truck Series, however, does compete with the Nationwide Series at Gateway and also at O'Reilly Raceway Park. That series will run on Friday at both events. The July 31 race at Iowa Speedway wraps up this trio of stand-alone races for the Nationwide Series.
Now past the halfway point in the season, Brad Keselowski remains the standings leader, a post he's manned following the past 11 races.
But a group of Midwest drivers hope they can put a dent in Keselowski's advantage.
Carl Edwards is second, 227 points back. That's the closest the Columbia, Mo., native has been to the leader since the series raced at Charlotte in May. At that point, he was fourth, 163 points behind Keselowski.
Edwards, the 2007 Nationwide Series champion, has been a second-half challenger the past two seasons. He was 192 points behind reigning series champion Kyle Busch at this stage last year, and 188 behind eventual champion Clint Bowyer in 2008. Last year, four of Edwards' five wins were collected in the second half. In 2008, he won six of his seven total races after Race No. 18.
Edwards is one of three drivers entered who has two wins at Gateway. He won in 2006 and '08. Two-time series champion Kevin Harvick joins Dale Earnhardt Jr., another two-time series champion, as the only drivers to win back-to-back races at the 1.25-mile track; Harvick did in 2000-01. Reed Sorenson also has multiple wins, in 2005 and '07.
Justin Allgaier, from Riverton, Ill., is the lone series-only regular with a win (Bristol) and a pole (Nashville) this year. He's only raced once at Gateway, an 11th-place result last year. The 2009 rookie of the year also is fourth in the standings.
Steve Wallace, who also will compete in Friday night's Truck Series race, is arguably in the midst of his best season. He's eighth in the standings with seven top-10 finishes after 18 races. His career high is nine top-10s last year. He's been as high as sixth in the standings this year and has spent 10 weeks inside the top 10. He's looking for his first top-10 finish at Gateway, however. In four races, his average finish is 27.2.
This always is a big weekend for the Wallaces. Steve's uncle, Kenny Wallace will face Steve's other uncle, Mike Wallace and Steve at Gateway. Although not a St. Louis native like his uncles and father, Rusty Wallace, the 1989 Cup Series champion, Steve, who was born in North Carolina, considers himself an "honorary native."
Kenny, the Nationwide Insurance "Driver of the Week" this week, will make the 472nd start of his career Saturday night, second all-time in series starts to Jason Keller, who has 506. Mike will make his 366th career series start, which is sixth on the all-time list.
In 11 starts at Gateway, Kenny has four top-10 finishes. Mike carries the best-finish banner for the family in series competition at the track. He was second in 2005, his best result in nine races there.
Loop Data: Things are looking up for Leffler
Jason Leffler hoped for more when last February rolled around.
In 2009, he had just wrapped up the most statistically successful season of his career. His eight top-fives matched a career high, and his 20 top-10s were a career high. He finished the year fourth in the standings, which was the second-highest final points position of his career.
There was an abundance of optimism.
That hope washed away almost immediately this year after a 33rd-place finish at Daytona. It didn't get much better from there. In the first nine races, Leffler posted only one top-10 finish (ninth at Bristol).
In those nine races, which put Leffler 15th in the points, he had an average finish of 21.7, an average running position of 20.0 a Driver Rating of 77.3, eight fastest laps run and a laps in the top 15 percentage of 44.6 percent.
But Leffler's talent -- and luck -- finally went his way with race No. 10 at Darlington. He notched his first top-five of the season, starting a string of three consecutive top-10s.
In the past nine races, everything seemed to come together. Leffler is back in the top 10 in points, and has scored five top-10s in the past nine races.
During that most recent span, Leffler has an average finish of 13.0, a Driver Rating of 90.0, an average running position of 14.1, 47 fastest laps run and a laps in the top 15 percentage of 71.4 percent.
The trend of success should continue this weekend at Gateway. Leffler is strong there, with two top-fives and three top-10s in seven starts.
Since the inception of Loop Data in 2005, a span of five Gateway races, Leffler has a Driver Rating of 93.0, an average running position of 12.2, 36 fastest laps run and a laps in the top 15 percentage of 71.7 percent.
Busch, JGR draw line in owner standings sand
Just like its flagship driver, Joe Gibbs Racing is not going quietly into the Nationwide Series night.
Although Busch won't be defending his driver championship -- or his win last year at Gateway -- his organization is aiming for its third consecutive owner title.
The No. 18 Toyota team reclaimed the series owner standings lead by nine points after last Friday's race at Chicagoland. Jodi Geschickter, listed as the owner of Keselowski's No. 22 Dodge, had been leading that category since late April, following the race at Talladega.
The No. 22 team also had the lead after the March race at Phoenix.
JGR claimed the top spot after the next event at Texas, but the No. 22 team had been in control since.
Other leaders include DeLana Harvick, who led after the first race of the year at Daytona, and Jack Roush, who led the owner standings after races 2-4 this season.
JGR won its first owner championship with the No. 20 Toyota in 2008. Bowyer claimed the driver crown that year. Last year, Busch and JGR unified the titles for the first time since 2006. The first shared title in series history was in 2003.
Gibbs' No. 20 car is in third place in the owner standings, 100 points behind the No. 18.
Brad Coleman takes the baton from Busch this weekend at Gateway and has done his part to keep the No. 18 team in contention. He has an average finish of 8.3 in his three races this year.
Despite this weekend's event being his fourth missed race of the season, Busch already has produced seven wins, including last week at Chicagoland. He's currently scheduled to run 29 races this year, recently adding next week's event at O'Reilly.
In 188 career Nationwide starts, Busch has 37 wins and now is second on the all-time list, chasing Mark Martin (48 wins in 231 starts). Harvick, who's third, has 36 victories in 251 starts.
Busch's seven wins are tied with two-time series champions Sam Ard and Jack Ingram, who each had seven wins after 18 races in 1984.
Busch had four wins after 18 races in 2008, when he tied Ard's series record of 10 wins in one season. Busch ran 30 races that year.
Move over Martin, another Truex looks to make his name
Stand-alone races are opportunities for younger drivers to showcase their skills. A pair of 18-year-olds gets their shots this weekend at Gateway: Matt DiBenedetto returns to the No. 20 Toyota while Alex Kennedy will drive the No. 23 Chevrolet.
Both drivers last raced in the June 19 Bucyrus 200 at Road America, which was Kennedy's series debut.
Now, make way for Ryan Truex, who also is 18.
He's the younger brother of two-time series champion Martin Truex Jr., who won at Gateway from the pole in his track debut in 2004.
But Ryan comes with solid credentials of his own, including a NASCAR championship. He's the defending K&N Pro Series East champion and currently leads that series after six races this season.
"[They're] pretty big shoes to fill," Ryan said, comparing himself to his brother. "I don't expect to go out and set the world on fire. I'm just going to get my feet wet and just try to get as much experience as I can.
"I'm not going to think I can run top 10 or top five or anything like that. It's a tough series. It took [Martin] a lot of starts to figure it out. I put more pressure on myself just to run as good as him because of the last name and everything.
"Three years ago I [was] racing a Legend car at Wall [N.J.] Stadium and now I'm here. It's hard to believe how fast it's come, but I'm excited, [and] ready to make the most of my opportunity."
Tough task for new dad McClure
It's been a difficult last couple of weeks for Eric McClure on the track.
Off the track, though, it's a different story.
For the third consecutive week, McClure will have to qualify on time. Prior to the July 1 race at Daytona, he'd been in the top 30 in owner points. That race marked the first time he had to qualify on time since November 2007.
But early last Sunday morning, the rough patches evaporated, at least for a while. Just after 3 a.m., he and his wife, Miranda, welcomed their third daughter, Mirabella Rileigh McClure.
The steady rise of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Jason Keller, drivers who had been outside the top 30 but are now among the automatic qualifiers, have pushed McClure to in-on-time status. His Team Rensi Motorsports organization is 32nd in owner points heading to Gateway.
McClure did make the races at Daytona and Chicagoland.
