NATIONWIDE Return to Charlotte

NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES

Ricky on a Roll

One-third of the way through the 2012 season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the leader in the clubhouse – with a bullet.

Off his third consecutive victory at Iowa Speedway, the reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series champion heads to Charlotte with a bolstered standings lead, currently 28 points over second-place Elliott Sadler. Since a 19th-place result to start the year at Daytona, Stenhouse has ripped off nine straight finishes of sixth or better including three wins.

Stenhouse won the pole for this race last year and finished fourth, just missing the opportunity to give Roush Fenway Racing a top-three sweep. Matt Kenseth won, followed by Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Kenseth and Edwards aren’t entered but Busch has the opportunity to build on his all-time win record at CMS. He’ll be back driving his own No. 54 Toyota. He last won this race in 2010. He’s one of five former winners of this race who are entered this weekend.

Bliss-ful Return to Charlotte

Looking for a darkhorse at Charlotte? Mike Bliss may be your driver.

Bliss, 47, is one of the most versatile – and perhaps unheralded – drivers in NASCAR. Running for TriStar Motorsports, an independent series team, Bliss currently is ranked eighth in the standings, the seventh consecutive week he’s been listed in the top 10 after starting off the year in 27th due to an accident at Daytona.

Although he’s yet to post a top-10 finish this season, the 2002 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion and only driver to accumulate 200 starts in both Nationwide and Trucks has had his best success at Charlotte. Both of his Nationwide Series victories have come at CMS. He won this race in 2009 and captured his first series win in the 2004 fall event. He finished 18th in this race last year. With 135 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Bliss will pull double duty this weekend, also running in the Coca-Cola 600. Other full-time Nationwide Series regulars entered in the season’s longest Cup race are T.J. Bell, Danica Patrick, 1992 series champion Joe Nemechek and Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Cole Whitt.

NNS CMS ETC: Two-time series champion and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick, driver of the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet, will take part in a live online chat on Friday, May 25 at 4:15 p.m. ET on NASCARNationwideseries.com. … The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota remains in second place in the owner standings behind the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford for the second consecutive week. The No. 18 supplanted the No. 2 RCR Chevrolet following Darlington. … Justin Allgaier’s sixth-place finish at Iowa was his best result thus far in 2012 and also best since a sixth last fall at Atlanta. … Austin Dillon has put up consecutive top-five finishes since a season-worst 17th-place at Talladega. He continues to lead the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings. … Angela Cope, the niece of 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope and whose twin sister Amber also races, will make her first start of the season at Charlotte. Her most recent series start was in the fall race at CMS last year.