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The NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase heads to Martinsville Speedway, the only short track in the Chase. The two point leaders in the Chase are the two best drivers on the Virginia paperclip. Both Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson claim Martinsville as one of their favorite tracks.

Since coming into the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, Jimmie Johnson has long dominated this track. With four of those races being won in the NASCAR Chase, Jimmie Johnson has won six races at Martinsville. On the flat Martinsville half mile, Johnson also has finished second twice and third twice.

The race that sets up the final run to the championship is Martinsville this is the main reason Johnson has dominated the NASCAR Chase the last four years. Johnson has won from as far back as 20th position, although qualifying is the key to his success at Martinsville.

At Martinsville, Denny Hamlin is the also dominant. Hamlin the defending race winner of the fall race and he has three wins. Hamlin, in his home state track also makes the top five consistently. Eighth is Hamlin’s worst finish in his career at Martinsville if his one crash is thrown out of the equation.

Look for Jeff Gordon to be waiting in the wings, if anything does happen to Johnson and Hamlin in this race. On the Martinsville track, Gordon was the most dominant driver before Johnson arrived on the scene. Gordon’s worst finish at Martinsville is ninth since 2003 and he has won seven times.

On Nov. 5-6 at Churchill Downs, Zenyatta is now the favorite to win the 27th Breeders’ Cup World Championships, just slightly ahead of Lookin at Lucky.

With a big win at the Lady’s Secret Stakes this weekend, the undefeated six- year-old took over the favorite’s spot for the 2010 Breeders’ Cup.

At Hollywood Park, Zenyatta came from last to win the $250,000 Lady’s Secret Stakes and become North America’s all-time richest female thoroughbred. For the win, she was ridden by Mike Smith.

For this week’s NTRA National Thoroughbred Poll, Zenyatta is also unanimous choice. At Hollywood Park on Saturday, the undefeated six- year-old received all 18 first-place votes following her 19th consecutive victory.

The champion was the only horse to receive a first-place vote and mare totaled 180 points.

In Horse Racing Odds, she is at 7-2 at many sportsbooks to win the Breeders’ Cup. Lookin at Lucky is right behind at 4-1, which won a decisive victory in the Indiana Derby.

With various prices at various bookmakers, behind them are Blame (Arch) in a three-horse muddle that bounces between 5/1 and 8/1. Quality Road (Elusive Quality) and Haynesfield (Speightstown) are the other two included in this one.

On Sunday, the four-time defending Sprint Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson, won the Dover AAA 400, the second leg of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

In the 10 race NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase, the Dover AAA 400 is regarded as the most physically demanding race. Masquerading as a one-mile short track, the high-banked turns and short one-mile concrete track combine to make the Dover mile a super speedway.

As first time NASCAR, drivers are never prepared for the demands of such a high-speed mile track, so it’s no surprise a wily veteran like Johnson would win at Dover. When every driver exits their car after the Dover AAA 400, they will be physically and emotionally drained and the drivers never have a chance to rest on this track.

Drivers that are not afraid to rim ride near the wall and get the maximum RPM’s out of their car are the best drivers on this track. For a track such as this, Carl Edwards was made. In the NASCAR garage, Edwards is the most fit driver and his nickname Concrete Carl is derived from his success on all of NASCAR’s concrete tracks.

Among the online betting fans’ favorites heading into the race were Edwards and teammate Greg Biffle, another Roush Fenway driver that is not afraid to drive inches from the wall and generate maximum speed out of his 3M Ford.

On Tuesday, Andy Schlek, who has been runner up in the Tour de France twice, and Stuart O’Grady, his Saxo Bank teammate were both sent home from the Spanish Vuelta for drinking, which is against team rules and regulations. Apparently, when the two teammates enjoyed a drink after they went out for dinner, the rule was broken.

The boss of the team Saxo Bank, Bjarne Riis made the decision to remove the two from the team. Schlek believes the decision Riis made was exceptionally harsh, although Schlek and O’Grady take full responsibility for the actions that they took leading to their team removal. Schlek stated that he was upset that he could not stay and help the rest of his team, including his brother Frank. Riis was unavailable and not able to comment at this time, according to Cyclingnews.com.

Since the mention of the Schlek brothers leaving Saxo Bank to join a different team in Luxembourg, the relationship between Schlek and his Saxo Bank boss Riis has been on the rocks. Brian Nygaard and Kim Andersen, Riis’s former press assistant and aide created this Luxembourg team. Jens Voigt, Jakob Fuglsang, and Schlek’s teammate O’Grady were also considering switching to the Luxembourg team, including other teammates of Saxo Bank.

Spain rider Imanol Erviti, on this day, was winner of the 10th stage, while the overall lead was claimed by Joaquin Rodriguez. Rodriguez grabbed the lead by an amazing two seconds and he is from the team Katusha. Furthermore, on the intermediate sprints, Rodriguez claimed a bonus due to his time. Igor Anton Hernandez is now behind Rodriguez, who the latter stole the lead.

In Northeast Spain, Erviti, Caisse d’Epargne rider, completed 109 miles of riding in an astonishing 4 hours, 13 minutes, 31 seconds, giving him his second career win in Vuelta. Romain Zingle and Greg Van Avermaet, both from Belgium were following behind Erviti, by 37 seconds.

While O’Grady ranked 157 in Vuelta standings, Schlek was ranked number 77 overall. For Wednesday, the 11th stage ride was set, and is 130 miles starting at Vilanova i la Geltru going to Andorra.

Igor Anton is the Vuelta cycling race that has finally seen their first Spanish stage winner. The Belgium overall leader was Philippe Gilbert, while on the fourth leg of the race he took the win.

Anton was able to break away and take a one second victory over the Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, Spain’s Joaquin Rodriguez and Slovakia’s Peter Velits, 300 yards from the finish line. Igor Anton finished in 5 hours and 28 seconds the 114 miles, in total.

Behind Igor Anton was Russia’s Dennis Menchov by only 19 seconds and took 19th place. Carlos Sastre from Spain, the 2008 Tour de France winner, who coincidentally is a climbing specialist, was in the 25th spot at 1:34. Currently, over both Rodriguez and Anton, Gilbert has a 10-second overall lead.

Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert was ahead in the standings overall, previously in the race. Even though the afternoon was sweltering hot and came out the winner in the third stage, he was able to surge to the finish line.

Tejay Van Garderen, the first grand tour for the young American, was able to place fourth in the overall and managed to survive his first hill test. Team HTC-Columbia rider is 26 seconds behind.

In 4 hours, 6 minutes and 12 seconds, the 98-mile ride from Marbella was completed by Gilbert. The red jersey was then taken by him. During this stage, Katusha’s Joaquin Rodriguez was beat by the Pharma-Lotto rider by only 3 seconds. He has a 14 second lead over him, for the overall classification.

This coming Saturday, the IRL Kentucky 300 at the Kentucky Speedway will feature a classic points battle between road race expert Will Power and defending IRL champ Dario Franchitti. Power did win the Mario Andretti Trophy, although he has not performed well on the ovals. Of all the IRL road races, the award is given to the leader in points.

Dario Franchitti will have the edge on Will Power for the next three races, starting with the race at Kentucky, although he is a solid road racer. Franchitti has won on the Kentucky Speedway in the past, which is a one and a half mile cookie cutter track. In recent races, racing on the mile and a half tracks has proved to be nerve racking.

Much like NASCAR restrictor plate races, the Indy cars tend to race on the cookie cutter tracks. Nose to tail for most of the race, they race inches apart. It could lead to a massive pile up at high speed, if any driver flinches. Passing is not easy and the racing is tension filled.

In a race at Kentucky Speedway, the best qualifying cars have the best edge. To Penske Racing, this will give an edge to Franchitti and he won two races at Kentucky while Ganassi Racing holds one trophy at the speedway. On the Kentucky track, both Power and Franchitti are teammates that have won recently. Ryan Briscoe always puts his best foot forward for Penske Racing on these type tracks and he is also Power’s teammate. In 2008, Franchitti’s Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon also won the Kentucky race.

For the past 75 years, the old and once-illustrious greyhound racetrack, Wonderland – Massachusetts‘ last bastion of live dog racing, until last years’ voter-approved ban on greyhound racing – closed its doors for the final time on Thursday.

The CEO and president of Wonderland, Richard Dalton said, “This is an emotional day for us. And the most difficult part of it is that hardworking people have been given notice they no longer have a job.”

Most employees blamed their subsequent loss of employment on Governor Patrick and the closing for his seemingly insensitivity toward their plight, as all knew he was aware of their desperate situation. Still, for slot machines and sports betting to be allowed into the track, when a bill came up requesting allotment, which might have tempted more customers back for something other than greyhound racing, the Governor refused to sign it.

Despite the unfortunate consequences, Governor Patrick has claimed that the resulting from his refusal to sign the measure, which he said he could, not, in good conscience, does, because, he said, “the slots provision amounted to no-bid contracts for the tracks.” However, he would help all those he promised who had lost their jobs.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo has said that he plans to file a bill for $2 million to go toward job re-training for those workers who had been put out of employment yesterday by this closing and he strongly supported the bill favoring the slot machines.

Up to 150 people are employed in Wonderland.

Nick Heidfeld has been released from his contract with the team, confirmed Mercedes, so that he can take up his duties as Pirelli’s official test driver. On Tuesday, Heidfeld begins his testing duties for the tire supplier behind the wheel of the 2009 Toyota TF109 at Mugello. This season he had acted as the Mercedes test driver.

Mercedes boss Ross Brawn said, “Nick is an extremely experienced driver and we are confident that his racing knowledge and technical feedback will prove extremely useful to Pirelli and therefore of benefit to the sport as a whole. Nick has been a real asset to Mercedes GP Petronas since joining our team this year and we are pleased to see his career progressing”.

On Monday night, Heidfeld celebrated the birth of his third child and he thanked Mercedes for the opportunity.

Heidfeld said, “First of all I would like to thank Ross Brawn, Norbert Haug and Nick Fry for allowing me the opportunity to become Pirelli’s official test driver. The team has always said that they would not stand in my way if such a chance arose and they have kindly allowed me to take up this exciting new role.

He added, “I would like to thank everyone at Mercedes GP Petronas for the great cooperation that we have had this year. I have greatly enjoyed supporting the team in my position as Reserve Driver and have felt welcome right from the outset. It was impressive to have the opportunity to work with the current world champions and I wish the team all the best for the remainder of the season and beyond.”

On Wednesday, Heidfeld will conclude Pirelli’s two-day testing session.

Super DIRT Week is a packed week of dirt track racing at the “Moody Mile” at the New York State Fairgrounds coming this fall.

This is one of the biggest events in the sport of dirt track racing so there isn’t much time for newcomers to practice, especially with the Syracuse 200 on October 10.

DIRTcar Racing officials created the DIRTcar Futures event for racers to gain experience at Syracuse to compete against each other. The DIRTcar Futures races give open-wheel and full fender racers a chance to practice competing and put the spotlight fully on them.

First there is one combined session for practice and qualifying, then the 358-Modified and Sportsman Modified Futures events will be on Thursday, October 7. Friday, October 8 will feature DIRTcar Big-Block Modified and Pro Stock rookie races.

According to DIRTcar Racking Northeast Region General Manager Cory Reed, there were almost twenty first time sign-ups for the Big-Block and 358 divisions last year. Over 40 registered in the Sportsman ranks causing them to have two races.

He also mentioned that this even takes away the stress and pressure for the drivers because they don’t have to qualify for features in each class; they can go right to Super DIRT Week championship events and competing won’t make them lose their rookie status.

Super DIRT Week starts with a ‘Happy Hour’ on Wednesday, October 6 and runs through the following Sunday with the Syracuse 200 Super DIRTcar Series Big-Block Modified Championship starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 10.

The Honda Indy 200 begins on August 8, at Mid-Ohio, could be a grudge match between Penske teammates. At the conclusion of the Edmonton IRL race, Helio Castroneves and Penske teammate, Will Power were involved in a sticky situation.

As the leader, Castroneves was judged by IRL officials as blocking and he was black-flagged. After the race, Will Power said upon emerging from his car, that Castroneves did indeed block him, although no blocking was revealed when it was viewed on several camera angles. After the race, Castroneves was involved in several heated conversations and subsequently he apologized.

Will Power was unable to clinch the championship in Edmonton due to the issue with his teammate Castroneves, although he holds a 50-point lead over Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti. In the IRL currently, Power is the best road racer and at Mid-Ohio, he will be the Indy racing betting favorite to win the Honda Indy 200.

For this race at Mid-Ohio, Helio Castroneves will be under scrutiny from all sides and he always performs well under pressure. At the end of this race, Castroneves should be there and if it comes down to himself and Power it will be worth the price of admission.

Last year’s IRL champion, Dario Franchitti couldn’t be counted out. Now that his title hopes are all but dashed, he will be gunning for wins with reckless abandon and he is a solid road racer.

Andretti Autosport’s road race ace is Ryan Hunter-Reay. At the end of a road race, Hunter-Reay is always in the mix and it isn’t because of pit strategy. Hunter-Reay will be the best Andretti Autosport driver and he will make the top five of the Honda Indy 200.