NASCAR on TV this week

By Frontstretch

Beyond the Cockpit: Mark Sibla and the Business of INDYCAR

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_The IZOD IndyCar Series returns to the track for the start of the 2013 season this weekend in St. Petersburg, and Frontstretch is here to get you up to speed on your favorite open-wheelers. As part of our season preview coverage, IndyCar Editor Toni Montgomery recently had the chance to speak with Mark Sibla, Vice President of Partner Strategy for INDYCAR, about the state of the sport. Find out how INDYCAR copes with a challenging economy, offers exceptional value to their partners, and who Sibla thinks might be the breakout driver of the year._

Toni Montgomery, Frontstretch.com: Please tell us about your background. How and when did you start in INDYCAR? Did you grow up around racing or did you come from outside and if so, how did you end up in motorsports?

Did You Notice? … Who Has Something to Prove, Underdogs Overachieving and Quick Hits

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*Did You Notice? …* A running theme among all the drivers succeeding this season? You’ve got Brian Vickers, in a part-time ride running eighth in his first 2013 start with Michael Waltrip Racing. There’s AJ Allmendinger, making spot starts for James Finch flirting with the top 10 every time out. On the luck rollercoaster sits Matt Kenseth, more emotional than perhaps ever before in surging to the front at Las Vegas. Even the point leader, Brad Keselowski, who spent the offseason feeling disrespected by critics, has roared out of the box with four top-5 finishes in the first four races.

Side By Side: Should Interlopers Cut Series Regulars a Break?

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_Welcome back to Side By Side. There are always two sides to every story, and we’re going to bring them both, right here, every week. Two of our staff writers will face off on an important racing question … feel free to tell us what you think in the weekly poll and also in the comments section below!_

*This Week’s Question: After a late-race shove from Chris Buescher knocked him out of the top 5, Nationwide regular Justin Allgaier expressed his unhappiness with the way Buescher raced, saying, “Unfortunately when you’re not racing for points, when you’re racing those who are racing for points, it’s hard to sometimes not do something like that so you can prove yourself. But at the same time, it screws a lot of people up around you don’t even realize it.” Do drivers need to race the regulars who are racing for a title in a series differently than they might race the regulars in their own declared series?*

NASCAR Writer Power Rankings: Top 15 After Bristol I

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Bristol is back! Bumping, banging, battle scars and post-race fights all made an appearance. Kasey Kahne did not let the disappointment of finishing second last week keep him down. He qualified second for the second week in a row, ran in the top 5 all day, led more than 100 laps and drove away from the field in the final 30 laps earning his first win of the 2013 season.

Open Wheel Wednesday: Shouldn’t IndyCar Be Hyping The Season A Bit More?

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Can you hear that? It’s the faint din of the roar of the engines emanating from IndyCar. That’s right, the season is here. The teams just finished testing at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, and the green flag will be dropped on Sunday. And what are we to make of it?

NASCAR, for all of its bloated silliness, does one thing right with the beginning of their season: they get people interested. With the pseudo-All Star race (the Sprint Unlimited), Daytona qualifying, the Duels, the Truck and Nationwide races, NASCAR makes so much noise that it’s hard to avoid them as a fan of racing. Some might even be exhausted by the time the actual Daytona 500 comes around.

Five Points to Ponder: NASCAR Rivalries Unleashed And A Champion Returns

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I think it’s safe to say that erstwhile teammates Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano will not be sharing a gentle game of hoops anytime soon. The acrimony between the two began – in public, at least – after the Daytona 500 in a Twitter war about the final restart of the Great American Race. The situation revved up to full-on animosity at Thunder Valley this past weekend after an on-track incident and a post-race altercation of sorts.

Going By the Numbers: Keeping A Sizzling NASCAR Start Throughout 2013

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Four races into the 2013 season, the top performer at Richard Childress Racing is not the guy you’d expect. Not Kevin Harvick, the 19-time Cup winner and current flagship of the organization. Not Jeff Burton, the past-his-prime veteran who can still turn in a solid finish here and there. Not even Kurt Busch, whose Furniture Row Racing team is, according to him, basically a fourth Childress car.