When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When NASCAR gives you time off, look elsewhere. That is just what Scott Speed has done, as he is capitalizing on his very part-time NASCAR schedule by parlaying his varied racing skills into a totally different racing experience.

The Scoop: The first NASCAR dirt race in some 43 years went down at Eldora Speedway in Ohio. The Tony Stewart-owned track has played home to many prestigious races over the years, but the Camping World Truck Series made history Wednesday night, running the Inaugural Mudsummer Classic. Not only was NASCAR racing on dirt for the first time since Richard Petty's 1970 win at Fairgrounds Speedway, but the sport also varied its qualifying and race procedures for the unique venue: two-lap qualifying to set heat races, five eight-lap heat races, top 20 in points locked into main event and one non-locked-in driver in each heat race transferring to main event, last chance race with top 5 drivers transferring to main event. And the race itself was unorthodox for NASCAR: three segments (60 laps, 50 laps, 40 laps), each separated by a red flag for non-live pit stops.

Injuries have been a subject off and on in NASCAR since its existence, but concussions really did not full join the discussion until last season. In October 2012, star driver (and Chase driver) Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat out two races after a nasty impact in a huge wreck at Talladega. That crash aggravated a head injury he sustained earlier in the year after wrecking in a test at Kansas Speedway. Earnhardt Jr.'s choice to sit out of races was not a common thing, but helped bring forward a plan that NASCAR is slowly implementing to test drivers for concussions and prevent concussed drivers from racing.

The Scoop: Sunday's story for the Camping World RV 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway started out as "how long will Jimmie Johnson take to get to the front?" It ended on a different note, as Brian Vickers and the No. 55 Aaron's Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing battled back from a lap down to win both Vickers' and the team's third-ever Cup race. Vickers, who was fastest in Saturday Happy Hour practice, took the lead from Tony Stewart on lap 287. Both had gained track position by either skipping pit stops or taking just two tires and both were stretching fuel to finish the race.

The Scoop: Jimmie Johnson continued his winning ways and had no problems with restarts, as he won Saturday's Coke Zero 400, becoming the first driver to complete a Daytona season sweep since Bobby Allison in 1982. Johnson started 8^th and hung around that point before taking the top spot for the first time on lap 31 and then holding it securely from laps 33 to 70. Joey Logano's crash during a set of green flag pit stops on lap 71 brought the drivers that had already pitted to the front, giving Denny Hamlin the lead and putting Jimmie Johnson 16^th on the restart. Cont...

The Scoop: Matt Kenseth has had some bad luck in 2013 (engine failures), but even more good luck. Clever strategy by crew chief Jason Ratcliff and clutch driving by the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota garnered this Joe Gibbs Racing team its 4^th win of the year.