Dale Junior offers a bold prediction for Saturday's race

   Apparently fans of NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., shouldn't worry he is in a deep points hole in the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

   After completing Saturday's first of two practice sessions, a confident Earnhardt offered a bold assessment of his situation:

   "We're going to win this race. I really got a good feeling about it. This is what we've got to do anyway to try to get further points and try to win the championship. I just got a good feeling," he said.

   "The car's been great all weekend. Attitude's good. Everybody's excited. The team’s working well together. The car’s responding well. The car ran some good laps in practice and felt real good."

Fox Sports' Steve Byrnes takes medical leave of absence

   Fox Sports' Steve Byrnes, who only in January returned to work after one battle with cancer, is taking an indefinite medical leave of absence, the network announced Wednesday. Byrnes has suffered a recurrence of cancer.

   Byrnes most recently has been co-host of "NASCAR Race Hub" and served in various roles with Fox's coverage of NASCAR races.

   Any updates on Byrnes will come at the discretion of the family.

Sam Hornish Jr. to replace Marcos Ambrose at Richard Petty Motorsports in 2015

   NASCAR driver and former IndyCar Series star Sam Hornish Jr. will move fulltime to the Sprint Cup Series with Richard Petty Motorsports, the team confirmed in a news release on Wednesday afternoon. The move was first reported by the Observer and ThatsRacin.com on Tuesday.

   Ambrose is returning to his native Australia.

    “Owners Richard Petty, Andrew Murstein and Doug Bergeron have built this organization into a championship-contending team with world-class sponsors and partners," Hornish said. "Many people have noticed to the progress being made here and I’m ready to build off this momentum. My goal is to put the No. 9 team in victory lane in 2015 and be a competitor in ‘The Chase’.”

   This will be Hornish's second fulltime stint in the Cup series. He struggled in his first go-around which was with Team Penske. In three-plus seasons, Hornish had eight top-10 finishes in 108 starts. In recent seasons he has found success running in the Nationwide Series, where he finished second in points last season and fourth in 2012.

   Hornish, 35, has been running a partial schedule in the Nationwide Series this season with Joe Gibbs Racing. In eight starts, he has one win, four top-five and four top-10 finishes. He's also won two poles.

   The No. 9 team will continue to be led by crew chief Drew Blickensderfer who has three Cup ceries wins to his credit.  

Kristen Yeley fastest so far in 'Better Half Dash' qualifying

    Kristen Yeley, wife of NASCAR driver J.J. Yeley, clocked the fastest time in Monday’s qualifying session and will be among the favorites to win the fourth annual Better Half Dash Thursday night on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s frontstretch quarter-mile oval. 

   “Three years of experience,” she said. “I’m a lot more comfortable. I need to find my groove a little bit It takes me to find my groove, but when I do, I’m completely comfortable and I know my limits.”

   Despite running the only sub 20-second lap, Yeley won’t know until Thursday if she’ll start from the pole when the 25-lap charity race supporting Motor Racing Outreach and Speedway Children’s Charities goes green. That honor will be determined by fan donations. Fans can make a donation to their favorite Better Half Dash driver at www.betterhalfdash.com. The driver with the most individual donations will have the option of choosing her starting spot. 

   Melanie Self, Heidi Stoddard, Ashton Bayne and Karlee Hensley rounded out the top five, while Ashley Deihl Stremme, Ashley Allgaier, Jenna Robinson, Adriene Pattie and Jordan Fish finished 6-10. Amy Reimann did not qualify.

Check out the top performers during the 2014 Chase so far

   Leading the way in the Chase

   Joey Logano has five wins this season and two in the first four races of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Look who else is running well so far during NASCAR's version of the playoffs:

   Rank     Driver                 Points    Wins in Chase

   1.          Joey Logano          175                  2

   2.          Kyle Larson           164                  0

   3.          Kyle Busch            150                  0

   4.          Kevin Harvick         150                  0

   5.          Martin Truex Jr.      139                  0  

How Clint Bowyer welcomed son, Cash, into the world

   Sprint Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer and his wife, Lorra, welcomed their first child this week, a son, Cash. Bowyer, never short on entertaining stories, had another when describing the day of Cash's birth and what it was like for Bowyer.

   PS - Hearing Bowyer tell it in person was even better, but you'll get the gist.

   Q:What has it been like to become a father?
   Bowyer: First of all, just so happy and proud.What a wild experience - all your friends and family, peers and everybody is trying to warn you and tell you that it's going to change your life. You're like, 'There's no way.' Then all of the sudden that little gremlin comes out of there and you're like, 'Oh my God, this is real.' I was probably not the norm as far as spectator in an event like that. In the room there I was high-fiving people and I was kind of pushing the doctor out of the way at one point because I was trying to get a better view of him coming into the world. Of course the nurses are trying to hold me back and they're like, 'You can't get that close.' I'm like, 'Get the hell out of my way, here he comes.'  It was a lot of fun. We were all laughing. An amazing experience.

   "He's running really good during the day -- you think this is way too easy, this is no problem at all. Then his engine drastically takes a turn for the worst about the time you're trying to go to sleep on that really comfortable couch over in the corner that's about this wide and basically like sleeping right here on this tabletop, he starts really screaming very loud. The nurses tend to come in to do paperwork at 3 a.m., which is really handy. They want to ask you about your education and things like that and you're like, 'Lady, can we wait until daylight maybe -- that would be a good goal,' - 3 a.m. is not a good time in the morning to be talking to me with him screaming, her pissed and now I am. It's been a wild deal and Cash is awesome."

Ryan Newman: 'We've made a really good living on being ourselves'

   Ryan Newman loves the fact as he enters the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup on an even playing field with every other remaining Chase driver even though he has no wins this season and some of his competitors have four or five.

   But if it were up to him, he wouldn't have it that way.

   On Wednesday, Newman said drivers who have already won races should be able to transfer bonus points for those wins into the next round.

   "I don't think it's fair for them for a guy like me who hasn't won a race this year to come in and be equal to them in the next three-race bracket," he said.

   When a reporter pointed out to Newman that other sports' playoff series follow a similar scenario, Newman said, "We're not other sports. We can't lose that fact. We're still not other sports. This isn't stick-and-ball. It's nothing to do with anything like that.

   "I struggle to compare ourselves to other sports. We've made a really good living on being ourselves and we can't lose that fact."