Franklin can see the comedy in pretty much any situation

During the playing of the national anthem, Franklin forgot the words and could not seem to decide whether to cry or break into one of her signature dances. "I was a huge mess," she said with a laugh.

Franklin can see the comedy in pretty much any situation. An exception, of course, was the mass shooting two weeks ago in Aurora, Colo., where Franklin, who will be a senior, attends Regis Jesuit High School. Before the Games began, she said, "Every single race I'm going to have that in the back of my mind." She added, "Hopefully, I can make Colorado proud and bring a little bit of light there."

Her gritty double had a salutary effect on the United States team. 

Wolfe moved up to FitzBradshaw's Nationwide team

Wolfe became a crew chief for the first time at FitzBradshaw in 2006 with driver Ruben Pardo in the K & N Series East. Pardo won on the road course at Lime Rock.

Wolfe moved up to FitzBradshaw's Nationwide team in '07 and also worked at Braun and CJM before Penske hired him in '10. Mike Bliss finished second at Memphis for the Wolfe-led FitzBradshaw team in '07 and Josh Wise had five top-10s in 17 starts in '08.

"I guess I'm fortunate," Wolfe said. "Penske called me. They had seen I'd done a great job and the best job I could with what I had. I was working with really small teams, not real big budgets and we really had to work hard with what I had. I never won races (in Nationwide), but what we were able to do with what we had was like winning races.