Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - NASCAR roars into "Thunder Valley" as all three of its national touring series race under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee this week. The IndyCar Series heads to Northern California for road-course racing at Infineon Raceway, while Formula One runs on the Streets of Valencia in Spain for the first time.

eek break as the impressive street circuit in the port city of Valencia hosts the European Grand Prix.

After scoring his first career Formula One victory on August 3rd at the Hungaroring in Budapest, McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen hopes his winning momentum will continue in Spain. Ferrari's Felipe Massa dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix, but his late-race misfortune led the way for Kovalainen's first F1 win in his 27th grand prix entry. Massa's trip to the podium as the winner seemed to be inevitable, but with three laps remaining, his engine blew up as the car came to a halt on the pit straight.

Kovalainen knows the Streets of Valencia will be challenging.

"It looks pretty fast, to be honest," Kovalainen said. "You get used to street circuits being quite slow, with lots of slow-to-medium-speed corners and very short straights, but this is almost the opposite. There are a lot of fast kinks and esses, a couple of decent straights and lots of high-speed stuff. Its too early to say yet whether there will be opportunities to overtake around here, but there are a couple of hairpins where it might be possible."

Kovalainen's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, currently holds a five-point lead over Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in the World Championship standings.

Fernando Alonso won the 2007 European Grand Prix. The Spaniard crossed the finish line 8.1 seconds ahead of Felipe Massa for his third F1 victory of the season and the 13th of his career. Raikkonen started on the pole but faulty hydraulics on the car led to a 14th-place finish. Last year's race was held at the Nurburgring Grand Prix Circuit in Germany. Valencia will host the event for the first time.

"I'm very happy to be driving at home for a second time," Alonso said. "It's always a special feeling to race in front of my countrymen, and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope this time I can get a good result as the circuit will be new for all the drivers. As a new circuit, I think it gives the drivers a chance to show what they can do, but I am not under any illusions as I expect all the drivers to be quick."

The Spanish Grand Prix was held in April in Barcelona.

Alonso is a two-time winner of this race. The two-time F1 World Champion is winless so far this season, with his best finish, a pair of fourth-place runs in Australia and Hungary. He won back-to-back F1 titles from 2005-06.