Race Coverage of the GEICO 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway is

scheduled for Sunday, September 16,  2012.

Television (TV): ESPN at 2:00 pm/et; NASCAR Countdown Pre-Race show at 1:00 pm/et;

green flag approx 2:16pm/et


Scheduled Race Re-Airs:

ESPN2, Monday, September 17 at 12:30am/et;  SPEED, Wednesday, September 19 at 12:00pm/et

Earnhardt Jr changes engines; will start from back: Dale
Earnhardt Jr. will start from the rear in Sunday's GEICO 400 at
Chicagoland Speedway, the first race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup, after his #88 Hendrick Motorsports team opted to change engines
after Saturday's qualifying session. Issues the team found within the
engine will force Earnhardt to give up the fourth starting spot, but
crew chief Steve Letarte believes Earnhardt, one of 12 drivers eligible
for the Cup championship, can use pit strategy to move to the front. "I
don't think we are super concerned," Letarte said. "We had a great car
in practice and qualified really well, so we showed we have good speed.
Fortunately, this is a race track that there are multiple pit
strategies, and it's not a really simple, straightforward pit strategy
to call.

Kyle Busch will run more Nationwide races after missing Chase:
Kyle Busch has added one Nationwide Series race to his 2012 schedule and
may add a few more after missing the Chase in NASCAR's premier series.
Busch was a late addition to Saturday's Nationwide race at Chicagoland
Speedway. He replaced his brother, Kurt Busch, who was scheduled to run
most of the final eight races in the Kyle Busch Motorsports #54.  Kyle's
website lists him as the driver for the rest of the Nationwide schedule
with the exception of next weekend at Kentucky. "We're playing it by
ear, seeing what Kurt wants to do, what [sponsor] Monster Energy wants
to do,'' the 2009 Nationwide Series champion said of the remainder of
the season.  Busch said "it sucks'' not being in the Chase. He hopes
adding more Nationwide races will help his KBM program that has won only
one race -- Kurt at Richmond in the spring -- this season.