Race Weekend Central

By Frontstretch

Transparency Is Essential For NASCAR–So Why Don’t They Have It?

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Two series, three violations among four teams, seven suspensions, 81 driver and owner points, and $250,000 in fines. Those are the results after NASCAR penalty day this week after the sanctioning body saw the violations at Texas and Rockingham.

Sprint Cup driver Martin Truex, Jr.’s No. 56 Toyota was found to be too low in post-race inspection, and though Truex’s second-place finish will stand, Truex was docked six points and his crew chief fined. Also in the Cup garage, NASCAR confiscated the rear-end housings from the Nos. 2 and 22 cars of defending Cup champion Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Because of new rules pertaining directly to those parts, plus a perceived intent to gain an illegal advantage, Keselowski and Logano lost 25 points apiece, and their crew chiefs, Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon were suspended for six points races and the All-Star event, along with both car chiefs, team engineers, and Penske Racing Competition Director Travis Geisler.

Nuts for Nationwide: Analyzing The Nationwide Top Five

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Kyle Busch may have stolen most of the glory so far in the 2013 Nationwide Series season, but the Nationwide championship hunt is shaping up to be one of the better battles in recent memory — that is, if things stay as close as they are heading into next week’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond.

Sam Hornish Jr. currently leads the points standings, as he has since the first race of the season (save for a one-race tie with Justin Allgaier). But while Hornish once led by as much as 28 points, that lead has evaporated after an incident at Texas that damaged his No. 12 Ford, relegating him to a 34th-place finish and allowing his closest competitors to catch back up.

Voices From the Cheap Seats: A Bad Day In A NASCAR World

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Apparently, I hit the snooze button one too many times this morning. Suddenly my eyes fly open and I realize I am already running 20 minutes behind schedule in my morning routine. Time to prioritize!

Ok, skip the morning cup of coffee and cig on the deck…well the cig and the deck part anyway! I pour a cup of coffee left in the pot from the day before and nuke it for 55 seconds in the microwave. Yeah, I’ve done this before so I know by trial and error the correct time for stale coffee in my particular model of microwave.

Four Burning Questions In Kansas: Judging Fast Speeds And Penalty Appeals

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Kansas Speedway is the site of Round 8 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, but before I get into this weekend’s preview, I feel I would be remiss if I did not express my most profound condolences to all those affected by both the Boston Marathon bombings and the West Texas Fertilizer Plant Disaster. There are no words to express the pain I felt upon hearing of these horrible tragedies, and my heart and all of my thoughts and prayers go out to all of the innocent families that these tragedies struck. Alas, in times like these, the best thing we can do as humans is pull ourselves back up by the bootstraps and get back to doing what we do best. That is exactly what the men and women of NASCAR will be doing this weekend, in the wake of these disasters as we as a nation forge past the atrocities of the past week.

The Critic’s Annex 113- Christmas Time

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Hello, race fans. Welcome back to the Critic’s Annex, where we take an additional look at motorsports-related programming available on television. Earlier this week, I promised you a look at the V8 Supercars’ Microsoft Office 365, held on April 6-7 from Symmonds Plains Raceway in Tasmania. However, things can change from time to time. On …

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Busy Penalty Wednesday In NASCAR

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On Tuesday’s edition of NASCAR RaceHub on SPEED, it was reported that they did not know the extent of the penalties that would be levied against Penske Racing after their rear-end housings were confiscated prior to the NRA 500. However, they did report that the penalties would be “severe.” They were not wrong. On Wednesday, …

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Did You Notice? … NASCAR Penalties: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

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*Did You Notice?…* On some things, despite mounting criticism NASCAR has the ability to stay consistent. In the wake of penalties issued Wednesday, the one that stands out the most here is *Martin Truex, Jr.’s* penalty for being too low in post-race inspection. That six-point deduction – equivalent to about 25 in the old system – along with a $25,000 fine for crew chief Chad Johnston keeps along with the same type of infraction reaching all the way back into the previous decade.

Why I find that important is, for the first time if you asked 50 of the top media members and garage insiders what Truex’s penalty would be, I’m confident all 50 would have said what actually happened. For once, a rulebook deadpanned as written in dry erase marker has a sense of permanence when it comes to a penalty for a _specific_ violation.

Fantasy Insider: Good Picks, Bad Picks And Sleepers, Oh My!

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We are nearing the quarter-pole of the season with race No. 8 at Kansas this Sunday. That means by now we’ve seen drivers at enough tracks to pretty much know who’s going to contend most weeks and who is not. Even if your favorite driver has been disappointing, he or she can still be your favorite driver — but in terms of picking them regularly in your fantasy lineup, it may be time to look in another direction.

Kansas also brings us another intermediate track, and tracks like these 1.5-milers are what the new Gen 6 car was supposedly built for. That’s because with the old Car of Tomorrow, we had way too many snooze fests at these types of tracks.

NASCAR Mailbox: Security Measures, Christmas, And Tattling

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It’s not hard to rile up NASCAR fans. Just drop the words, “Brian France”, “Chase”, “Jimmie Johnson”, or any other buzzword and they’re off to the races (so to speak).

However, I found out over that weekend that this is simply child’s play in comparison to the potential for controversy when it comes to the wings of the political parties. I had somehow underestimated the impact that, “NRA” sponsoring the race would have on how quickly everyone on both sides of the aisle would completely lose their minds. Liberals were losing their minds because, oh my gosh, why would a company want to appeal to their base?

Oh and apparently the NRA kills people…

Truckin’ Thursdays: Kansas Kind To First-Time Victors

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This weekend, the Camping World Truck Series heads off to Kansas Speedway for a little Saturday afternoon action at the 1.5-mile oval. In 12 previous visits to the facility, no driver has even been a repeat winner — yet. But perhaps what’s more interesting is that of those 12 different victors, four happened to notch their first career trip to victory lane at the speedway. With an entry list 37 strong and only four previous winners at Kansas entered (Johnny Sauter, Ron Hornaday, Jr., Todd Bodine and James Buescher), the likelihood of adding a 13th different winner is pretty high.

But until the checkered flag flies on Saturday afternoon, I’d like to take a look at the drivers who did score their first wins at the track and where they are now.

Penske Penalities – Passive Pusnishment for Past Sins?

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Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and the entire Penske organization have had a tumultuous last few weeks. First, the dust up at Fontana with Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart for Logano, Saturday night’s exercise in stress management with getting the cars yanked out of inspection and on the grid as everybody else was getting ready to …

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