Kevin’s Corner

Remember this past February? Yeah, it’s been a good while, but in the realm of NASCAR racing, it may not be too tough to recall. After all, that month saw all three top series visit Daytona, the Speedweeks kickoff which naturally produces the most memorable races of the entire season. The Nationwide and Truck races in particular saw first-time winners in James Buescher and John King, respectively.

And then King, a rookie then driving for Red Horse Racing, pretty much fell off the face of the earth when it came to NASCAR. Although able to secure funding for the first five races of the Camping World Truck Series season, King’s team scaled back tremendously, only resurfacing when Parker Kligerman took over the ride just last month. King was the first in a line of young drivers who lost their rides in the series, and is now the latest to emerge with a new team. At this weekend’s Kentucky 201 at Kentucky Speedway, the Tennessee native aligns with Wauters Motorsports, itself the former home of a much-maligned rookie, Paulie Harraka.

As fast as the news came of AJ Allmendinger’s suspension for a failed drug test, it seems only fitting that the news that suspension is already lifted was equally as quick.

No, seriously. Not two months after the news broke in July, Allmendinger, the former driver of Penske Racing’s No. 22 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is already “back,” or at least could be back, in theory. The news comes as a shock not in the sense that Allmendinger completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery Program; I don’t think anyone who knew the driver on even the most basic of levels would peg him as a bad guy whose problems were only going to worsen.

Of course there will be the Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland, the first of 10 races in the Chase for the 2012 championship. Several storylines, from who will come out strongest out of the gate to how Kyle Busch will take missing the Chase, are sure to form over 400 miles Sunday afternoon.

And of course there will also be that race’s predecessor, a Chicagoland Nationwide Series event that will see Elliott Sadler and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. continue to battle for the season championship, with Cup regulars Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch hoping to play spoiler along with young newcomer Alex Bowman.

Despite 11 out of the 12 spots in the 2012 Sprint Cup Chase having already been solidified, this weekend’s regular season finale at Richmond International Raceway should prove to be one of the most gripping of the year.

That’s because of the lone remaining Chase spot. Though currently held rather handily by Kyle Busch, it’s by no means his to lose. In fact, losing will not be a part of the equation for Busch or four other drivers Saturday night.

The objective? Win.

Growing up, I can recall a number of songs that first came to me via NASCAR. Whether it was from watching one of the race broadcasts (Metallica’s “Fuel”) or playing one of the sport’s licensed video games (“Flirtin’ With Disaster,” Molly Hatchet), there were many songs that I associated with NASCAR early on, even though most weren’t specifically NASCAR-themed (of course, there’s all that Creed that was played at Michigan International Speedway’s Skoal tent when I was younger, but that’s another story entirely).

But pause for a moment and try to think of any such songs that have surfaced in the last few years. Tough, isn’t it? I’m not saying that none of the more recent tunes are memorable, but that’s the case for the majority. I can think of “T.N.T.” by AC/DC, for instance, but that’s really more of a play on the TV station on which the given race was broadcast — and anyway, the video that accompanies it is kind of pointless. I think an argument could be made for Rascal Flatts’s cover of “Life is a Highway,” but that’s about it.

Do you follow Parker Kligerman on Twitter? Well, if you’re one of over 15,000 that can say yes to that question, it’s a possibility you saw a cryptic post-Pocono tweet from the former ARCA standout.

“Great Recovery by whole Of BKR. I’ve enjoyed the last year and a half,” he tweeted Saturday. “Things you’ll see soon, r 4 the better 4 everyone! #excited4future”

Two days later, Kligerman was no longer the driver of the No. 29 Dodge RAM for Brad Keselowski Racing in the Camping World Truck Series. The change comes as Kligerman sits sixth in championship points through 11 races, with two top 5s and seven top-10 finishes. His lone finish below 11th? A 19th at Kentucky.