When you are coming off a championship year, and you are already in second place in the Nationwide standings, things can only go up or down from there. For Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the sky is the limit this year…and its direction only goes up. He’s proving that he’s even more of a dominating force in Nationwide this year, and early on. By comparison to last year’s numbers, if he continues on this course he will easily be the champ again this year. With wins in Vegas and Texas already under his belt, last weekend notched him not only his second victory of the year – and a close one against Denny Hamlin in a six lap restart on the challenging, high-banked oval track of TMS – but also provided his Roush Fenway Racing team with its fourth win in a row in Texas, as they dominate Sprint Cup and Nationwide this year in a show of NASCAR force.

Notes on Stenhouse Jr.’s Car Racing Experience from 2011-12

If you think that Stenhouse won’t repeat his championship run this year, think again. Telling are his numbers from last year and this year.

• In 2011, he won the NASCAR Nationwide championship. That year he had 32 starts, 2 wins, won 3 poles, and enjoyed 16 top-5 wins and 26 top-10 wins along the way.
• So far in 2012, he has 6 starts, 2 wins, 4 top-5 wins, and 5 top-10 wins. Easily, his stats are light years better than how he started out last year.
• Even more telling are the most recent NASCAR Nationwide Standings; they show Stenhouse trailing Elliot Sadler by four points for the first place position after week 6.

WATCH: Ricky Stenhouse Win’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300

Just in case you missed all of the action of week six in NASCAR Nationwide, you can relive it all here. This video recants the car racing experience from the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. Some lighting issues forced the race to halt at two different points. But a final six lap restart provided Stenhouse Jr. with breathing room over Denny Hamlin, and he took home the win.

The car racing experience for Roush Fenway Racing at the Texas Motor Speedway has now seen nine cup wins after 23 races, thanks to efforts by Greg Biffle to overcome Jimmie Johnson – who was vying for lucky number 200 for Hendrick – and winning it all over this past weekend. For Biffle, it denoted his 17^th career victory. In a night race that saw a record 234 green flags at laps, there were not really any major obstacles or crashes to contend with, just Johnson, who led the race for more than 130 laps only to be denied at the end of the evening.

“It is a fun race track for me and for our team,” Biffle told the press following the race; he last won at this track in 2005. “It is nice to come to a track where if during practice you are slow or have trouble qualifying or are slow during the race, you know you can fix it and you can go out and win. We have that confidence. It is nice to sit in a race car and know that we can do this,” he added.

At the end of the race, Greg Biffle not only won it all, but he also has secured his position at first place in the ESPN Sprint Cup Standings. Roush Fenway Racing has got to be elated over the fact that Biffle is in first at 273 points and Matt Kenseth is tied for second with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 253 points as we head into week 8 of the NASCAR racing experience.

WATCH: NASCAR at Texas, April 2012, Greg Biffle Pre-race

We found this video to be interesting because it adds more personable and palpable perception to the car racing experience, from the driver’s point of view. In this video, watch as Greg Biffle humbly answers questions pre-race before his big win at Texas. His confidence should not be confused with arrogance. He’s actually a class act driver who you want to root for on the sidelines.

The car racing experience is generally only depicted from the first person standpoint; the first person of the race car driver piloting the stockcar that is. On the other side of the equation are the immediate family members of the driver. In this instance, Tabitha Ward has watched as her husband raced in more than a decade of the now Sprint Cup, and now as her son contends with the big boys on the pro tracks, she’s emotional, but prepared.

“It’s so much more emotional for me,” Tabitha told the press prior to her son competing at Martinsville for his rookie debut. “I was always a supporter of Ward, a big cheerleader, but I quietly supported him. I stayed with the kids. We were there, we were always cheering for him, but that was his job, his career. Now with Jeb, I feel like I’m involved. We’re in the middle of it. He’s our child and we’ve done nothing but this the last four, five years. We’ve sacrificed a lot.”

Jeb was ecstatic just prior to the race, and who can blame him. It’s like waiting your entire life for that big moment where your dream becomes a reality, and the suddenly, in all of its fleeting glory, there you are. For the Burton’s it was a certain accomplishment. For Jed, it was surreal.

“I think me as a driver, my confidence level is high and my team believes in me more,” Burton said just before making his rookie debut. “I’ve just become a better race car driver altogether. I’m excited about this weekend. I think after this weekend, a bunch of stress will be off of me and a bunch of confidence will be on.”

He went on to finish in the top-15 at 13^th. Even a five car crash that took him out late in the race was not enough to stop the rookie. Now his first race is in the books. And top-15 isn’t too shabby for your first pro car racing experience.

WATCH: Crashes Part of Car Racing Experience for Rookies, All Drivers

Would any car racing experience really be the complete package if a driver was not faced with the prospect of dealing with on the course collisions during national races? Avoiding impact is just one of the key strategies that they teach drivers in NASCAR. For rookie driver, Jen Burton, the 19-year-old had just that to add in his initial debut in pro level car racing experience. A five car collision sidelined him briefly late in the race. He would come back to finish in the top-15, however, after making a pit run. We have the video for you in today’s coverage of the World Camping Truck Series.

Nascar Joie Chitwood III

The car racing experience in NASCAR is getting greener by the day. In part, this effort has been an enormous project that was started back in 2008 by the sport with the creation of the NASCAR Green Innovation project. The four years that have transpired since that time have seen some sweeping changes that make NASCAR look a lot more blue-skied in lieu of the fact that it is the most impactful sport in the world on our fragile ecosystem and environment.

“The country is going in a green direction, both from a corporate standpoint and in terms of general consciousness,” said Mike Lynch, managing director for the NASCAR Green Innovation. “We felt the NASCAR environment could shine an enormous amount of visibility on companies’ technologies and solutions.”

Taking NASCAR green is no small task. One has to appease the fans, the teams, the drivers, the 400 plus sponsors, the racing tracks, and still manage to make a profit. Considering that a stockcar engine burns a galloping one gallon per five meager miles traveled on track – and there are about 1,500 races per year – going green seemingly is a hypocritical thesis. But the sport has heeded the call to reduce its carbon imprint, and the results have been a resounding success to date.

Since 2008, the sport has gotten sponsor and drivers on board. More teams are recycling parts, saving millions of tons of metals and plastics from landfills.

Thanks to mobile and green-fueled recycling containers provided by Coca Cola – a key sponsor – at least 12 million bottles were saved from landfill last year (enough to create nearly 300,000 gallons of petro).

The sport added ethanol 10% to engines recently, and that’s saving about 50,000 gallons of petro annually.

NASCAR planted about 4,000 new trees last year (they can suck up about a metric ton of carbon dioxide in a lifetime per tree).

New fuel safety containers prevent spills and fume leakages.

A new e-scrap program recycles millions of race day fan flags each year.

And, the sport frequently connects with and reminds fans to help do their part, as according to recent surveys, going green is important to about 90% of NASCAR’s estimated 75 million fans.

WATCH: Brian Vickers Goes Green with Car Racing Experience

Check out this video that was found on YouTube. It depicts all-star NASCAR driver, Brian Vickers, and his conscious approach to merging the green concept with a realistic application to the car racing experience. In the video, Vickers offers first hand details about what he is doing to go green and reduce emissions, how much gas the cars guzzle, and delves into how to address and tackle various environmental issues that are facing NASCAR as green hurdles in the future.

Most teams that field multiple cars generally will have a more heightened car racing experiencing in NASCAR. It really is just the math playing into factor here; more cars on the track equate to more chances at winning races and earning poles. Perhaps the team that best knows this metric is the Roush Fenway Racing Team. Vilifying of that notion is that they have four drivers in the top 11 or better standings (Sprint Cup and Nationwide) heading into the Easter break for NASCAR.

While the team failed to net itself a win at Martinsville last weekend, all things considered, they don’t really need one. Greg Biffle, their lead driver alongside of Carl Edwards, is in first place (in spite of being winless for four weeks and counting) heading into the break; Carl Edwards sits at 11^th. Kenseth, their third driver, is in fourth and Stenhouse is second in Nationwide. So yes, fielding multiple cars is a winning strategy for one of the teams with the most winningest car racing experiences in NASCAR.

Even shoddy performances, like Edwards car troubles at Martinsville last weekend, can’t stop a team destined for greatness.

“We just have such a hard time, myself included, Bob (Osborne, crew chief) and I both have a hard time getting the car dialed in,” said Edwards of his dismal car troubles last weekend in Virginia. “I don’t know if it’s the way we practice, but there’s something that we’re missing. And in general our whole team has never been extremely strong here, but we have had those glimpses of speed. … It’s not that I don’t like (the track), I keep expecting to have that real breakthrough run where we go out and lead a bunch of the race and it all clicks.”

While the team has seen a few ups and downs, nobody can really complain, at least not with their Nationwide and Sprint Cup hopes. Greg Biffle is at the top spot in the Sprint Cup Standings currently at 226 points. Dale Earnhardt Jr. trails him by a solid six spots for second. And their Nationwide driver, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., sits in second place in the Nationwide Standings. Things are looking pretty bright in 2012 for Roush Fenway, indeed.

WATCH: 2012 NSCS Martinsville Goody’s 500 (crazy finish)

Check out this intense footage that shows the final laps of the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. It was the classic car racing experience that we have all come to grow and expect from NASCAR. As the stock cars made their final laps around the trioval track, there could, as usual, only one winner. This time around, Roush Fenway Racing had to stomach another heartbreaking loss, but still looks sound for the standings this year.

A car racing experience in NASCAR that is void of the crashes, cautions, restarts, and on and off the track bickering, natheless the hype surrounding top rated drivers, would be nothing short of fall asleep on the couch boring. But that’s not why we are so bedazzled by this sport, quite the latter. The Goody’s Fast Relief 500 would once again define why this sport is so action packed.

With a few laps remaining in the race, Clint Bowyer would take out the lead cars of Gordon and Johnson, opening up a window of opportunity for Ryan Newman. After seeing a chance to take the lead, in spite of not leading the race for nearly the entire time, Newman shot out in front and held off a tail grinding A.J. Allmendinger to earn a hard fought win.

Newman Credits His Stewart-Haas Team for Come-From-Behind Win

“It’s the strength overall for Stewart-Haas,” Newman told the press of his confident racing team following the event. “Some guys are only capable of winning at certain racetracks, and we have proved that Stewart-Haas is capable of a lot.”

Tony Stewart Praises Newman on Win at Martinsville

Even Tony Stewart thought that the move by Neman to take the top spot following the Clint Bowyer instigated wrecking of Johnson and Gordon was nothing more than sheer genius. All things considered, NASCAR presents a car racing experience of opportunity. Newman saw his shot and went with it, and it paid off in the best way imaginable.

“I’m ecstatic for Ryan,” said Tony Stewart following the race. “I got to see it on the replay during the caution after all the havoc broke loose. Ryan made an awesome move to the bottom. He was heads up to get in the gas and through that hole before it closed up.”

Following this week, there is a one week break in NASCAR for spring. The car racing experience kicks into full force again on April 14^th at the Texas Motor Speedway for the Samsung Mobile 500.

WATCH: Martinsville Highlights You Want to See

Did you end up missing part of the race? Perhaps you had to work last weekend and were unable to even watch the race. Certainly, it’s always nice to read about it in the news, but words can hardly describe the last moments of this epic stock car battle. As the race neared its final laps, AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Newman would be so head-and-toe that announcers speculated that they were swiping each other’s door handles. The finish was as classic as they get for any NASCAR car racing experience, netting Newman his first – and entirely deserved – win at Martinsville.

When you are the young age (by NASCAR standards) of 21-years-old, and you have already set the record for the youngest driver to win a Nationwide event, the sky is the limit. For Joey Logano, he notched the 10^th win of his career at the Royal Purple 300, were he expanded his car racing experience as a non regular driver in the Nationwide under the Joe Gibbs banner, keeping the Gibbs’ team streak of winning at Fontana since 2008 well in-hand, even in spite of attempts by fan favorites like Ricky Stenhouse Jr., (the Roush Fenway Racing prodigy), to take the top slot of the day away from him. Still, the Royal Purple 300 was Logano’s and his alone.

It was a day of restarts and crashes. But this did not deter Logano. For the final 92 laps of the race he would remain at the front of the pack…and he would not budge one single bit to let other drivers have a chance at overtaking him. There were plenty of lead changes and a high amount of the intense action that fans and drivers of this sport crave. In fact, many later said it was one of the better races they had seen in quite some time.

“I don’t know who wouldn’t like watching that race. It was amazing,” recalled Adam Stevens, the crew chief for Logano. “So many lead changes. It really put it in the drivers’ hands where you could move around and change the lap time. Joey, he’s a master of that. That’s what impressed me the most, is just the little tiny adjustments that these drivers can make and change the lap times on their cars.”

Gibbs Ecstatic About Preserving Winning Streak at Fontana

“It means a lot,” Gibbs told the press following the big win. “I don’t know how that (streak) happened. These things are so hard to win. We spent years and years just trying to win a race. It’s a credit to all the guys. We got a hardworking bunch of guys that we put together, and we also do a lot of it in our (Sprint) Cup operation. It’s really a credit to the Nationwide shop. I really appreciate those guys.”

WATCH: Post Race Press Conference with Joey Logano

Get your dish of the post race press conference tidbits that you want to hear. Joey Logano answers plenty of interesting and pertinent questions that are posed to him by the media from the Auto Club Speedway following his 10^th career win in NASCAR.

What happens when you have won 7 out of 15 of your past Sprint Cup races, including taking home the title during 2011, and then you jump out in front quickly in 2012 by winning another key race in Fontana as Stewart did last weekend? Well you get pretty giddy about your car racing experience.
“This is definitely the biggest one so far,” Stewart said of his win at the Auto Club 400, which was shortened to a meager 129 laps in lieu of bad weather. “Especially to go through an offseason and pick it back up and to have some pretty big personnel changes in the middle of all that so, it’s pretty big right now. You know the hard part is that you just don’t want it to end, you want it to stay like this.”

Classic Fake: Just as the flags were coming out for rain caution, Stewart played like he would be entering the pit lane. Then he floored it and took first position, in spite of a shocked NASCAR pack that would end up losing the race 71 laps before the 200 it was penned for after the rain ended the race and gave Stewart his second win of the season, and key standing points.

Best Run of His Career, Says Stewart

As if the defending Sprint Cup Champ can really say that, all things considered, he won the Sprint Cup last year. But his standings early on in the top-five are indicative as to why he feels that way. Last year he barely edged to the front of the standings during the second turn of the season to win it all.

“I don’t know that it is the best I have run in my career but it is pretty close,” Stewart told the media from the Martinsville Speedway. “I mean when we were running the year we won the Triple Crown in ’95 I feel like that is the best that I had ever run in my career and I don’t feel like we are far off that right now.

WATCH: Rain or Shine – Tony Stewart Wins Auto Club 400

Is Tony Stewart a postal worker? We ask that because rain or shine, snow or warm weather, the mail must go through. For NASCAR, the car racing experience at the Auto Club 400 was halted at lap 129 due to the torrential downpours that drenched the track and made it unsafe to race on. But at the front of the pack, and as the caution cars appeared, during lap no. 129, Stewart crossed the line and took home the 46^th win of his impressive NASCAR career.

The car racing experience for 2012 for the returning Nationwide series champ, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and his Roush Fenway Racing team, are off to as good a start as could be hoped for. After winning a huge race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend, Stenhouse Jr. is now in second place in the standings, and he also set a new record for the only driver not competing in the Sprint Cup to ever win the Sam’s Town 300.

It was not without lack of action, however. The heat caused numerous problems, primary with engines overheating, tires being torn and errant drivers burning out and causing massive collisions. Then again, that basically sounds like everything we have grown to love about the exceptional car racing experience purveyed by NASCAR.

Early on, Mark Martin was the cat people speculated was going to win. However, during the final 54 laps of the race, Stenhouse stole the lead and didn’t budget one bit. Martin tried to no avail to catch up to him, and told the press later that he nearly wrecked five times while trying to take back the lead. At the end of the day, it was Stenhouse earning a lap around victory lane after crossing the finish line with a sweet five second lead, while notching just his third career victory in NASCAR.

View the current NASCAR Nationwide Standings – they show that Elliot Sadler only holds the top position by 25 points (178 points total) with Stenhouse Jr. in at second 25 points back (153 points).

WATCH: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Wins the Sam’s Town 300 in Las Vegas

After notching his third Nationwide win in his short career in NASCAR as a pro driver, Stenhouse Jr. is out to prove that his car racing experience is rather unique, and that he is just getting started. Check out this fantastic video we uncovered that depicts Stenhouse Jr. leading Mark Martin during the final lap with a 5 second lead to win the race. The Roush Fenway Racing team has to be simply ecstatic about their champ.

For a man who is now sitting pretty at the 11^th spot in the Sprint Cup standings – following his successful appeal and quashing of the 25 point penalty he was issued stemming from Daytona-Gate – one would think that Jimmie Johnson would be satisfied. He is not being taxed any fines or levied any points, and he certainly is not being banned from competing. But his crew chief, the denizen of cheaters in NASCAR (at least ones that get caught all of the time; he’s been caught on more than four different occasions), Chad Knaus, will still be paying down a $100k fine that NASCAR refuses to budge on.

John Middlebrook, the chief appellate officer for NASCAR, overturned Johnson’s penalties this week for illegally modifying the C-posts on the series template prior to the Daytona 500, which was actually mostly Knaus’s fault, as he is the standing crew chief for this Hendrick Motorsports driver.

So what is Johnson’s take on the drama? He’s agreeing to disagree, officially.

“This is one of those positions where we agree to disagree,” Johnson told the press in Friday morning conference. “Through the appeal process, we proved those C-posts were legal. […] I can’t explain anything (on the decision), but I can tell you the reason we won the appeal is we proved those C-posts were legal.”

NASCAR, however, stands by their decision, saying that Knaus did modify the C-posts, and illegally at that. Sounds like another trial and tribulation for the sport. In NASCAR’s defense, it seems they are making an example of Chad Knaus. For good reasons, too. This sport has no room for cheaters.

Check out your favorite drivers and where they stand in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings – Jimmie Johnson has climbed back to 11^th place following the successful appeal.

WATCH: Marty Smith Deliver the Dish on Hendrick Motorsports Winning Appeal

The biggest NASCAR news of the day is at that car racing experience for Hendrick Motorsports just got a little kick start in light of them winning their appeal and regaining some leverage in the current NASCAR standings. Watch as NASCAR analyst, Marty Smith from ESPN, delivers his expert opinion on how the Johnson/Knaus drama played out to its final conclusion, and the reinstituting of points to jump Johnson up six positions in the Sprint Cup standings.