Dale Earnhardt Jr. at his Charlotte press conference. (Getty)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is scheduled to undergo tests, both inside the car and out of it, on Monday and Tuesday to determine his availability for Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville.

Junior has missed the previous two Sprint Cup Series races after being diagnosed with a concussion after a last lap pileup at Talladega two weeks ago. At the time, it was also determined that he had suffered a previously undiagnosed concussion at the end of August at Kansas Speedway when he crashed during a Goodyear tire test.

On Sunday, team owner Rick Hendrick originally said before the race that Junior had already been cleared to race at Martinsville. However, in a mid-race press conference on Sunday, Hendrick clarified his remarks, and said that Junior still needed to pass a test in the car at Gresham Motorsports Park on Monday, and would see neurosurgeon Dr. Jerry Petty at Petty's office on Tuesday.

[Also: Retaliation attempt fails for Danica Patrick (Video)]

"However, I

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- After leading 44 laps in the early stages of Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, Jimmie Johnson found himself back in 20th place after getting caught by a caution flag immediately after making a pit stop under green from the lead. But that didn't look like too much of a mountain to climb. He had more than half of the race to make up the track position. And then he crashed.

On lap 136, Johnson's car snapped sideways on him exiting turn four. He backed into the wall, crumpling the left rear quarterpanel and rear fender of his Lowe's Chevrolet. For a moment, it looked like deja vu from last year's Charlotte race, where Johnson's crash effectively took him out of title contention.

"And everything else today -- this weekend -- was really good except for one corner and truthfully I was just trying to get inside of (Martin Truex, Jr.), he was loose in front of me, I could see his car moving around and I was trying to put some pressure on him and his car

Kyle Busch was oh-so-close to getting his first Nationwide Series victory for his own Kyle Busch Motorsports team on Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway.

After the race was extended because of a late crash, many cars near the front of the field were pushing the limits of their fuel tanks. Busch was one of them, and it looked like he was going to grab that first win as he led Ricky Stenhouse to the line as the white flag waved.

However, Busch started to wiggle his car back and forth on the backstretch of the final lap, and in turn 3, his car ran dry, allowing Stenhouse to pass him for the race win.

Saturday's race featured 12 cautions, including one when Stenhouse made contact with Joey Logano. Will we see that type of action on Sunday? We'll find out soon.

Danica Patrick inspects her car before Nationwide Series practice on Friday. (Getty)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- With four races to go in the 2012 Nationwide Series season, Danica Patrick is 10th in the points standings, two points ahead of Joe Nemechek, who has run one fewer race. She has two top 10s, and the most memorable moments of her season aren't celebrations, but rather disappointments.

"I feel like we've been overall much faster than what our results have showed and performed better in the race than what our results have showed," Patrick said. We definitely had a pretty long stretch of bad luck through the summer and I feel like that was maybe where we had the most speed. Everything from Elkhart to Daytona to Iowa, there a bunch of races that things happened that were not completely out of my control but definitely not always in my control fully.

"I feel like with that in mind, it's been an okay season. We recognize as a team that we need to find speed and that's why you've seen the changes happen in the team that have happened. We all want to get faster. We all

If NASCAR came to Eldora, Tony Stewart's grin would be too big for this picture. (Getty)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- As NASCAR looks for new venues for the Camping World Truck Series schedule, Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway, a half-mile dirt oval in Rossburg, Ohio has been mentioned as a possible site for the 2013 Truck schedule.

On Friday, Stewart said that the possibility of the series coming to Eldora had, in fact, been brought up, and that he would be ecstatic if NASCAR came to his short track.

"But the rumor about the trucks, trust me, I would be ecstatic if we could get any NASCAR race at Eldora, that would be great," Stewart said. "But, I've talked to NASCAR, they've been looking at all kinds of tracks. You know, it's been brought up in conversation but that's about as far as it's gone right now."

A Truck Series race has never been run on a dirt track. The ARCA Series runs on dirt tracks in addition to paved tracks of all sizes and styles, and according to ARCA owners in this article by SB Nation, the transition between the two surfaces isn't all that complicated.

One

(Getty)KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Richard Petty Motorsports announced Friday that it will stay with Ford for the 2013 season.

"Our team relationship with Ford Racing has helped us win races and be competitive in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series," RPM co-owner Richard Petty said in a release. "They have been our partner over the past three seasons and we're proud to continue that relationship into next season, especially with the debut of the new Ford Fusion in the Sprint Cup Series. We expect to continue to win races and challenge for championships in both series with Ford Racing."

RPM will stay a two car team in the Cup Series, but the drivers of the cars were not identified. Both Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola, the team's current drivers, have contracts that expire at the end of the season. Ambrose, who won at Watkins Glen earlier this year, said he is close to an extension with the team. Stanley and DeWalt will continue to sponsor the No. 9 car next year, and Smithfield Foods will

These two men have been the best at Kansas. But how much does it matter now? (Getty)

What impact will the new surface at Kansas Speedway have on Sunday?

That's the question that you'll hear more times than you can count over the course of this week, as Sunday's race is the first Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas since the track repaved. Gone is the consistent 15 degrees of banking throughout the track's four corners, replaced by variable banking of 17 degrees near the white line and 20 degrees near the wall.

So, we ask again, what impact will the new surface have? Since racing can be such a finicky beast, it's probably impossible to figure out the exact significance of past performance at a remodeled racetrack. You certainly can't look back to the last few races on the old surface for a reliable indicator, but can you throw out the results completely?

The result is probably somewhere in the middle. What we do know, however, is that Jimmie Johnson (surprise!) and Greg Biffle were the two best drivers at Kansas before the repave. And it wouldn't be stunning if they were

For a significant portion of Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, status quo looked like it was going to be maintained at the top of the points standings.

Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin, the top three drivers in the points standings entering the Chase, were bunched together at the front of the field and even occupied the top three spots in the race for a segment. It was going to take something big to catalyze a meaningful shift in the points standings.

When the caution flag flew on lap 223 for debris just after the field had cycled through green flag pit stops, Johnson and Hamlin pitted to try to make it the rest of the race on one stop. Keselowski stayed out. It wasn't terribly surprising; Johnson has admitted that saving fuel is a weak link for his team, the fuel mileage of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas has been much discussed and exceptional fuel mileage was a reason that Keselowski won two weeks ago at Dover.

Clint Bowyer celebrates after winning the NASCAR Bank of America 500 Sprint Cup. (AP)What happened next was surprising,