Race Weekend Central

IndyCar Preview: Pocono INDYCAR 500 Fueled by Sunoco

2014 Indycar Texas Racing Action

The INDYCAR schedule is keeping its drivers up on the wheel.  The series will have gone from the Texas oval to the street course of Houston and now to the testy triumvirate of turns better known as Pocono.  The variety of tracks is an under-appreciated aspect of the tests that the drivers must face to …

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Pace Laps: Tire Problems, Harvick’s Nationwide Win and Busch Fails Inspection

2014 Indycar Houston Race 1 Huertas Woohoo

Carlos Huertas grabbed his first win in the first of a double-header in Houston over the weekend.

Did you miss an event during this busy week in racing? How about a late-night press release, an important sponsorship rumor, or a juicy piece of news? If you did, you’ve come to the right place! Each Monday, The Frontstretch will break down the racing, series by series, to bring you the biggest stories that …

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Happiness Is…Thursday Night Racing, Sand, and Houston

2014 Sonoma Cup Kyle Busch Clint Bowyer Cia

(Credit: CIA)

Happiness Is usually prattles on about some kind of something or other to open each column.  It’s an opportunity to hit on something that might not fit into the usual points.  This week there’s none of that fluffy crap to get things going.  It’s just the good ol’ stuff that brings about a smirk.  Let’s …

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Happiness Is… Jimmie Johnson, Road Courses & More Road Courses

Road America

The dive into Turn One at Road America has become one of the more iconic images in NASCAR, and a saving grace for the Nationwide Series -- and for good reason. Why aren't Cup cars running here as well?

Angriness Is, brother to Happiness Is, sent a text after the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ Michigan race last weekend that summed up everything in a more succinct fashion than us purported wordsmiths could: “What did fathers do to deserve that f*^#ing race?” Yup.  As entertainment, races are supposed to be some form of escape and …

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IndyCar, Quiet But Still There

2014 Indycar Texas Racing Action

There’s little in the way of news for IndyCar this week.  Heck, there’s been little in the way of news for a few weeks now.  There’s been no Silly Season discussions, no big sponsorship deals, and no big announcements regarding tracks.  There have been some rumblings of a different schedule for next year, but it …

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Happiness Is… Car Counts, Pocono & ‘1’

Blah, blah, blah.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If anyone saw last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, they’ll understand that opening.  As the band Rush accepted its long-awaited entrance to the hall, guitarist Alex Lifeson gave a speech that consisted of just one word — blah — used in an …

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Happiness Is… Isle of Man Time Trials, Pocono(?) and Maple Syrup

2014 Dover I Cup Jimmie Johnson Trophy Cia

(Credit: CIA Stock Photography)

The season is over; everyone can start testing for next year. Now that Jimmie Johnson has won the last two races, there’s a prevailing feeling that the team has found their golden horseshoe, is about to go on a tear and that no one stands a chance. It’s quite possible that sentiment is correct. That …

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Happiness Is… Comics, Geeks and a Prelude to a Big Weekend

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season is 11 races old, nearly a third done already. So it’s worth mentioning that this stretch is the latest Jimmie Johnson has gone in a season without winning since, well, he invented the sport. Where has the golden horseshoe gone? It’s hard to argue that it’s been lost, as Johnson still …

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Grand Prix of Indianapolis: Pagenaud ekes one out after a rough start to the race

Grand Prix of Indianapolis In a Nutshell: Simon Pagenaud and his team worked fuel and pit strategy better than any other team. After the wreck to start the race (more on that below), the race passed by in an orderly fashion until the first caution at Lap 42, which lead to three more yellows by Lap 55. …

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Happiness Is… Cornucopia, The Draft & Congress

Happiness Is is more than happy to put that lackluster display of racing, aka Talladega, down to memory. While the continued goal here is to find the positive side of motorsports, it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so with the superspeedway in Alabama. The fact that the Cup race made sure to end with a …

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Open Wheel Wednesday: Good for Indy

This column is about the inevitable, wonderful, frightening, confusing concept of change. Simple definitions for change use words like alter, modify, or become transformed. Those are all well and good. But the concept of change is something that is unavoidable and necessary. In this paradigm, change is akin to evolution, which is what ensures an …

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Happiness Is… Franchises, Barber, Work and Wrigley

At Watkins Glen International In Watkins Glen, Ny On August 11, 2013.

Martin Truex, Jr.‘s No. 56 team went from full-time to part-time status in the blink of an eye.

So it was an off week in NASCAR. Did anyone miss it? Aww, c’mon, a little break never hurt. Of course, the difficulty in writing anything worthwhile about the sport becomes problematic when, you know, nothing really happened. But wait, something did. The demise of Swan Racing has taken center stage in the news cycle — …

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