| ConAgra Banquet 400 News: |
| Carl Edwards flipped out over the weekend.
The Columbia, Mo., native who has called Kansas Speedway his home track, returns to "The Track That Will Blow You Away!" in October for the Banquet 400 and Kansas 300 on Oct. 7-9. Edwards is already a past winner at Kansas Speedway, winning the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in July 2004. After that win - like all his other wins - Edwards performs his signature back Flip off the race car. "That (the back flip) was a little bit of an untested maneuver there," he said of his flip off his No. 99 Ford Taurus. "I haven't practiced that ever off of a car really, so I just thought I'd give it a shot and it worked out. It's easy to do compared to racing. The back flips are easy; the winning is the hard part." Edwards, whose previous NASCAR wins were in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, became the first driver ever to post both his career-first NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series victories in the same weekend last week. He now has wins in all of NASCAR's major series. Edwards and the rest of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series favorites return to Kansas Speedway in October for the Banquet 400 and Kansas 300. The events on Oct. 8-9 are part of a five-race RPM Ticket. |
| More ConAgra Banquet 400 News: |
| By anyone else's standards, 2004 was a productive IndyCar Series season for Marlboro Team Penske. Bookend victories, a combined 21 top-10 finishes, five pole positions and more than 800 laps led were turned in by Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr.
They both finished in the top 10 of the standings, each had top-10s at Kansas in 2004 and pulled in more than $1 million each in prizes. But it wasn't enough to quench the determination and spirit that drove Hornish to consecutive IndyCar Series championships and Castroneves to back-to-back Indianapolis 500 victories. "Nobody has higher expectations for me than I do for myself," Hornish said. "I'm not satisfied with anything less than the best; every time I race I give 110 percent and do whatever it takes to win." While "disappointing" is a relative term, everyone associated with the history-rich Penske Racing expects more this season. "My goals for 2005 are to capture my first Indianapolis 500 and my third IndyCar championship," Hornish said. "I'm in my second year with Marlboro Team Penske so the 'growing pains' of the first year and getting to know everyone are over." Hornish, who qualified fourth or better nine times, including a fourth-place start at Kansas in 2004, led 11 races for a total of 301 laps and extend his series record to 2,151. |