Friday is a big day for NASCAR, starting with the Nationwide Series.

Practice is at 9 am (untelevised, no link.)

Qualifying: Live Leaderboard (SPEED, 4 pm)

Race: Live Leaderboard (ESPN, 7 pm)

Here are the fantasy updates for the FantasyNascarPreview leagues on both Yahoo! and ESPN.

Yahoo! League

It was a special/crazy week in the Yahoo! league. Kahne Racing’09 led the scoring with 371 points and jumped 12 spots to first place. Other movers included Aardvark Racing Tires (+19), 28rocket (+15), Metrosexual Unicorns (-22), and BlueEyedWheeler (-16).

Weekly Leader (371 pts) & Overall Leader (2523 pts)

ESPN League

Weekly Leader (579 pts)

Overall Leader (5590 pts)

Join our ESPN League!!!

I ran across this really cool story at NASCAR.com about the roots of NASCAR in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

I grew up in Forest City, NC; about 30-40 minutes from Spartanburg. I have many fond memories from childhood of going to Spartanburg for “the mall” and Putt-Putt Miniature Golf and other “big city” things. I had no idea how much NASCAR was engrained in the culture there.

Who else wants to go to the “Spartanburg Super Speedway” and afterwards, head over to The Beacon for a Cheeseburger-A-Plenty

If you haven’t been there yet, you should head over to the FNP Forum and read all of our users’ input. But if you don’t have time or you are just curious here are the favorites from the forum:

A List:

Mark Martin

Jimmie Johnson

These two got nearly twice as many mentions as any other driver. Others include: Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer.

B List:

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Ryan Newman

Tony Stewart

Denny Hamlin

David Reutimann

Others: Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex Jr.

C List:

Marcose Ambrose

Bobby Labonte

Others: Sam Hornish Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Reed Sorenson

If you missed today’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega, you missed one hell of a finish. Brad Keselowski won in dramatic fashion. After pushing Carl Edwards into first place on the last lap, Keselowski faked high and then went low. Edwards tried to block and ended up airborne and in the catchfence. It was the best finish I have seen this year, maybe ever.

After the crash Edwards exited his burning wreck and ran to the finish line ala Ricky Bobby.