Race Weekend Central

Daytona 500 Recap: Johnson Uses Lane Choice to Win Second Daytona 500

The list of drivers who’ve won in their 400th career start, including Sunday reads like a Who’s Who of Who’s Mattered within this sport. Four of them are Hall of Famers: Richard Petty, Lee Petty, David Pearson, and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. paired with the sport’s most successful independent, Dave Marcis. It’s a number that, however …

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Five Points to Ponder: NASCAR’s Short-Track Silence and Stubbornness

*ONE: NASCAR’s Silence On Restarts Troubling*

In one of those rare instances at Bristol where the FOX crew seemed fully on top of the race, instead of their on-air personalities or a select handful of drivers, a well-presented set of replays demonstrated that Matt Kenseth in fact beat leader Brad Keselowski to the restart line on at least one occasion while coming close to doing the same on another. The video made it crystal clear. Yet there was no penalty that ever came down from NASCAR, although it never affected the end result (Keselowski held off Kenseth and won the race).

5 Points to Ponder: Hamlin On-Track, Sadler Off-Track? and a Big Homecoming for Kurt Busch

Two races into the season is hardly enough time to make a lasting prediction for the remainder of a long regular season that will stretch till September. But no matter how early in the season, Sunday was a very big day for the No. 11 team and driver Denny Hamlin. Two races in, Hamlin sits atop the point standings; in six previous full-time seasons, he’s averaged 20th in points by now. It was a second straight convincing showing that had the No. 11 among the class of the field, demonstrating that the learning curve between driver and new crew chief Darian Grubb may well be a short one.

Matt McLaughlin’s Thinkin’ Out Loud: 2012 Daytona 500 Race Recap

Matt Kenseth drifted high on the final restart to pick up teammate Greg Biffle, who never made a move on his teammate down the stretch. While Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr. battled for second, Kenseth drove to his second Daytona 500 victory in four years.

Mikey Kile, Andy Belmont Racing Seeking Return to ARCA Prominence in 2012

Photo Credit: Andy Belmont Racing

Coming off a strong 2010 campaign that saw him score his first career ARCA win and finish top 5 in points, Mikey Kile certainly wasn’t planning to all but take the 2011 season off. Sponsorship troubles kept the Louisiana native off track for all but five Nationwide Series starts, his last coming during the summer stretch at Iowa.

That being said, he may as well have from an ARCA standpoint. With a double-edged assault of Tim George Jr. and eventual 2011 champion Ty Dillon, Richard Childress Racing combined to win seven poles and eight of the 19 ARCA Racing Series events run last year, utterly dominating the series in a display that was the polar opposite of 2010, where three competitors entered the final race at Rockingham with a shot at the title.

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