Race Weekend Central

Beside the Rising Tide: Closing Time

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(Photo: Christian Koelle)

Exactly nine months after it left port with the Daytona 500, the 2019 Cup season came to its end with a very displeasing sneezing and wheezing as the calliope crashed to the ground — trailing smoke, clanking loudly, a bit rusted in some places and busted in others. As I watched the screen fade to …

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5 Points to Ponder: A Worthy Champion

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ONE: A Worthy Champion In the last 10 years, no one has won more Cup races than Kyle Busch, so it seems apt that he finish up the decade with a second title, four years after he secured his first. Busch’s undoubted driving prowess has always suggested multiple titles, but as the years passed since …

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Pace Laps: Kyle Busch Seals Legacy, Tyler Reddick & Matt Crafton Take Home Championships

Nascar Xfinity Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: Kyle Busch’s Second Title Changes His Legacy Denny Hamlin had Michael Jordan in his corner. Kevin Harvick had every resource at Stewart-Haas Racing. Martin Truex Jr. had the most time to prepare and the most wins on the Cup circuit this season (seven). Kyle Busch had a 21-race winless streak …

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Tracking The Trucks: Inside Winless Wonder Matt Crafton’s Championship Season

2019 Phoenix Ngots Matt Crafton Truck Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

In a Nutshell: Austin Hill placed the perfect bookend on his 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series season by cruising to victory in the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale. His Ford 200 trophy earned Friday night (Nov. 15) matched up perfectly with a victory in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Unfortunately for Hill, though, …

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Austin Hill Wins Ford EcoBoost 200; Matt Crafton Claims 3rd Truck Championship

2019 Homestead Ngots Matt Crafton Burnout Cck

(Photo: Christian Koelle)

Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Austin Hill took advantage of slightly fresher tires on the final run of the race to run down Matt Crafton and take the lead with 23 laps to go.  From there, Hill opened up a gap and held on to take his fourth win of 2019.  However, Crafton kept Hill in sight …

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Don’t Call Matt Crafton an Underdog

2019 Michigan Ngots Matt Crafton Face Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Matt Crafton is a Truck Series lifer. And at Thursday’s (Nov. 14) Championship 4 Media Day, he made it known he’s not an underdog for the title this season. Crafton, 43, enters championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the only Truck Series driver eligible for the championship not to win a race this season. Hell, …

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Frontstretch Podcast: Championship Weekend in Homestead

Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

In this week’s edition of the Frontstretch Podcast, Dustin Albino and Mike Neff discuss a lackluster race weekend at ISM Raceway that saw Denny Hamlin, Justin Allgaier and Stewart Friesen win their way to Homestead in the top three series. Hamlin had to hold off a handful of playoff drivers with a late-race restart in Phoenix, en route to …

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Truckin’ Thursdays: Who’s the Championship Favorite?

2019 Phoenix Ngots Brett Moffitt Truck Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series will crown its champion at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday (Nov. 15). The best finishing Championship 4 driver – Ross Chastain, Matt Crafton, Stewart Friesen or Brett Moffitt – will win the championship. However, that does not mean the championship winner will have to win the 2019 Ford EcoBoost 200. …

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Beside the Rising Tide: The Finish You Didn’t See and Other Non-Observations

2019 Martinsville Ngots Todd Gilliland Checkers Cck

(Photo: Christian Koelle)

The Best Finish to a Stock Car Race You Never Saw There were plenty of last lap dramatics in Saturday’s truck series race at Martinsville. But if you were watching the race at home you never saw any of it … not live anyway.  With two laps left to run and a three truck battle …

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Who’s Hot & Who’s Not in NASCAR: Please Staple, Don’t Paper Clip

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(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Martinsville Speedway is the oldest track on the NASCAR circuit, but lately the tracks uniqueness has been entirely flattened by awful racing throughout the pack, marked by an inability to pass and one driver pulverizing the rest of the field. In this case, a snoozer of a race resulted in a Joe Gibbs Racing driver …

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Tracking the Trucks: Todd Gilliland Grabs 1st Career Win Amid Martinsville Chaos

2019 Martinsville Ngots Todd Gilliland Burnout Cck

(Photo: Christian Koelle)

In a Nutshell: Todd Gilliland scored his first career win at Martinsville Speedway Saturday afternoon when he beat Ross Chastain to the checkered flag by almost a full second. The driver of the No. 4 Toyota held onto the top spot during an overtime finish that saw Gilliland’s teammate Harrison Burton spin in the NASCAR …

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Matt Crafton Replacing Matt Tifft for Sunday’s Race at Martinsville

2019 Texas Gots Matt Crafton Face Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Veteran NASCAR driver Matt Crafton will drive the No. 36 Ford for Front Row Motorsports in this weekend’s First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Matt Tifft, the primary driver of the ride, exited the track on Saturday morning (Oct. 26) prior to opening Monster Energy Cup Series practice via an ambulance, taken to a nearby …

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