Happiness Is…Arrogance, Less, Next, and the Outdoors
It’s a NASCAR-free weekend. What will the ratings be for that? Much has been made of TV ratings so far this season; for NASCAR, IndyCar and even …
It’s a NASCAR-free weekend. What will the ratings be for that? Much has been made of TV ratings so far this season; for NASCAR, IndyCar and even …
One of the easy ways to fill space in a NASCAR column for the past couple years has been to debate the role of Cup drivers in …
Once upon a time, there was a track that featured scintillating racing. She was a lovely track, and people were always fond of her and …
This racing season is off to a fantastic start. Really. Two 12-hour races in Cup. The last three Nationwide races were won by Cup drivers. …
The Daytona 500 has become a strange affair over the past few years. Rain delays. Pot hole issues. The famed jet dryer incident. And now, …
JOIN OUR FANTASY RACING LEAGUE!! The Frontstretch has a big league on Yahoo!, once again and we’d like you to be a part of it. …
Ryan Newman gave a scathing review of racing at Talladega Superspeedway, something that seemed an adrenalized version of earlier criticisms of the track. Since restrictor plates were added to the cars to reduce horsepower, racing at Daytona and Talladega has evolved into, well, take your pick: equalizer; crapshoot; fake racing; 150 laps of racing with a big crash to thin the herd; or an immensely entertaining race product. It doesn’t matter which option you choose, or if you go with a mixture of some of them. Restrictor plate racing is its own entity, and one that sits outside the normal parameters of racing where a talented driver with a strong car can distance himself from the field.
So Brad Keselowski ended Kyle Busch’s streak and Kevin Harvick stole one. That sums up the action from Richmond this past weekend, right? Whatever. That’s like saying that _The Sound and the Fury_ was a book about a family in the South. Here’s a look at something other than the winners from this past weekend.
*Happiness Is…Carl Edwards*
Edwards joined the broadcast team of ESPN in covering the Nationwide race this past Friday. In seasons past, he had come across as stilted and offered little in the way of commentary that was insightful or impactful. It had seemed that he was playing up to some kind of construct of what he thought an announcer should be, rather than being himself. Of course, who knows what the producer might be babbling in his ear during a race as well, but wooden and laconic are typically not attributes one aspires to in sports broadcasting.