Race Weekend Central

5 Points to Ponder: When Chase (Elliott) Does the Chasing

2021 Watkins Glen Cup Chase Elliott Racing Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

1. Chase Elliott nearly pulls off ridiculous comeback Everybody loves a good come-from-behind victory, but is it still entertaining when the heroic comeback doesn’t quite complete the job at the end of the day? Based on what we saw from Chase Elliott Sunday (Aug. 8), the answer is yes. Given that the defending NASCAR Cup …

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5 Points to Ponder: Aric Almirola Comes Up Big, and What’s Next for Matty D

2021 Cup Loudon Aric Almirola Wins Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

1. Has there ever been as clutch a win as the one Aric Almirola just pulled off? Ever since Kyle Larson started getting on a roll, the dream of NASCAR Cup Series playoff intrigue has been just about dead. Then this past Sunday (July 18), Aric Almirola decided to give it the racing equivalent of …

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5 Points to Ponder: Hendrick vs. Gibbs Shaping Up As Heavyweight Title Fight

2021 Nashville Cup Kyle Larson Kyle Busch Pack Racing Logan Riely Getty

(Photo: Logan Riely/Getty Images via NASCAR Media)

1. Can anyone crash the Hendrick-Gibbs championship showdown? NASCAR held a pair of Cup Series races at Pocono Raceway this past weekend, and believe it or not, Kyle Larson didn’t win either of them. To be fair, it took a flat tire on the last lap on Saturday (June 26) to make that sentence true. …

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5 Points to Ponder: Kyle Larson, King of NASCAR, is a Thing That is Happening

2021 Sonoma Cup Kyle Larson Win Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

1. Kyle Larson as championship frontrunner is simply wild One of the silliest parts of sports punditry is the “if the season ended today … ” syndrome, simply because the season does not, in fact, end until it ends. But the concept persists because it’s fascinating, and never more than right now in the NASCAR …

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5 Points to Ponder: Do You Need to See Where You’re Going to Race in NASCAR?

Kurt Busch races in the rain during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas (May 2021). (Photo: NKP)

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

1. COTA was pretty fun … except when no NASCAR driver could see anything It’s not clear how anyone at NASCAR can make a solid determination about whether the national series should return to Circuit of the Americas in 2021. On paper, COTA seemed like it would make for an amazing addition to the NASCAR …

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5 Points to Ponder: Spoiler SZN, Pushing It & The Path to 16+ Winners

2021 Talladega I Cup Denny Hamlin Martin Truex Jr Kaz Grala racing NKP

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

1: Spoilers vs. drivers Talladega Superspeedway rightfully gets attention for its tendency to cause the Big One. But this particular trip to Alabama the weekend of April 24-25 managed to avoid the kind of multi-car mayhem that knocks a third of the field out in one fell swoop — in both the NASCAR Xfinity and …

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5 Points to Ponder: Dirt & Road Courses Forever?

Bristol dirt track in 2021, overhead view, Jared C Tilton/Getty Images

(Photo: Jared C Tilton/Getty Images via NASCAR Media)

1: Bristol Dirt Experiment a Win (For Now) First it took decades for the NASCAR Cup Series to return to a dirt track, albeit one that isn’t generally a dirt track but rather Bristol Motor Speedway covered with dirt. Then it took an extra day for the race to actually be run, since apparently Mother …

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5 Points to Ponder: Cream Rises, Ford Flounders?

2021 Phoenix I Cup Martin Truex Jr Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

ONE: Truex Restores Natural Cup Series Order Just as we were about to hit the point of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season where Bill Murray’s “Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!” line from Ghostbusters would have applied because none of the races were being won by the drivers you’d expect, Martin Truex Jr. …

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5 Points to Ponder: Double Your Pleasure at Daytona

Ty Gibbs at Gateway Photo: NKP

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

ONE: Daytona Road Course Needs to Stay Among the many, many questions that can likely never be answered to the satisfaction of NASCAR fans everywhere is how many road course races on the Cup Series schedule is the right number. The general consensus, as much as there is one, is that the two that were …

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2021 NASCAR Preseason Power Rankings, No. 20: Cole Custer

Nascar Cup Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Plenty of drivers who experience success in stock car racing before reaching the top level of NASCAR have to wait a while before breaking through with that first NASCAR Cup Series victory. Cole Custer doesn’t have to worry about that since he got that milestone out of the way early. The very valid question awaiting …

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5 Points to Ponder: Kyle Busch Finally Takes a Bow in 2020

2020 Talladega Ii Cup Kyle Busch Nkp

(photo: nkp)

1. It Took A While, But Kyle Busch Kept His Winning Streak Intact It was strangely fitting that in a race that forced drivers, teams and fans to wait more than three days from the time it was red flagged for weather until its checkered counterpart was shown, Kyle Busch found a way to cross …

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Calm Turns to Chaos, But Nick Ottinger Wins eNASCAR iRacing Playoff Race at Kansas

Enascar Iracing Kansas 2020 Nick Ottinger

Screenshot/Image credit: eNASCAR

For the first 127 of 134 laps at virtual Kansas Speedway, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoff race was a calm, almost serene affair with no cautions and only pit strategy causing any intrigue. But in the ultimate case of cautions breeding cautions, a yellow flag with seven to go touched off a series of …

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