Race Weekend Central

Bowles-Eye View: Out with the Old, In with the New, Jeff Gordon Wondering What Might Have Been

Since 1993, Jeff Gordon has won more races than any other driver in Cup. Four series titles, three Daytona 500s and 81 victories dot the landscape of a career marked by stats putting him at or near the top of any category created in the modern era. You’d think all that number-crunching would have taught …

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Bowles-Eye View: NASCAR’s Championship Battle of Who Could Care Less

As the sun set around the country Sunday, people sat glued to their television sets – sports were on their mind, and boy, were they ingesting a heavyweight prizefight for the ages. As the leaders of two great teams exchanged punch after punch, the crowd galvanized towards a frenzied climax, with the matchup hurtling toward …

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Bowles-Eye View: Scraping Up Respect For a NASCAR Champion & Other Atlanta Odds ‘N’ Ends

As the smoke cleared from a wild and wacky Atlanta finish, I noticed a great story buried amongst the rubble of torn-up tires, terrifying restarts and tough luck for about a dozen drivers that should have won the race. So, instead of turning towards the mayhem, my eyes drifted instead to a man that had …

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Bowles-Eye View: Carl Edwards Struggling to Busch Series Finish Line

More than likely, Carl Edwards will clinch his first-ever Busch Series championship this Saturday at Memphis. An eighth-place finish is all that’s needed to secure the trophy with three races left, no matter what second-place points man David Reutimann does on the racetrack. It’s a significant achievement for a man who’s never won a title …

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Bowles-Eye View: Jimmie Johnson Proving Exceptional in Unlikely Title Defense

On a day where this Chase became clearly defined as a battle between just two, Jimmie Johnson celebrated the seventh victory of the season at Martinsville with more than just a win at stake. Pulling the latest punch in this yearlong prizefight atop the standings, Johnson was able to close the gap between himself and …

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Bowles-Eye View: Jeff Gordon vs. Matt Kenseth the Razor-Thin Line Between Chase Success & Lack Thereof

They say racing can boil down to a matter of inches. But in what’s become a wacky Chase, inches can simply be replaced by finishing. Just take a look at Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth. One is spending this Monday morning relishing the glory of a title clearly within their grasp; the other is shaking …

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Bowles-Eye View: Can Cup Drivers Bring Restrictor Plates to Their Knees?

For years, critics of restrictor plate racing have looked every which way to stop what they call “manufactured entertainment.” However, the racing at Talladega Superspeedway was always rallied by support from the stands – never unanimous, but just enough that it’s been next to impossible for NASCAR to appreciate both the danger and the destructiveness …

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Bowles-Eye View: Weird, Wacky, Wild… & Perhaps NASCAR’s Latest Mistake

Weird. Just, weird. I spent the latter part of Sunday night trying to come up with better words to describe the most recent 400-mile race at Kansas Speedway; however, no amount of journalistic prose could excuse the feelings that – well, something strange just happened to the Nextel Cup Series this weekend. Something I fear …

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Bowles-Eye View: Kyle Petty Pulling No Punches Plus Denny Hamlin Having No Humility Equals A Draw

When you’re a kid, you’re always taught that two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s a simple enough theory, and certainly nothing new; there’s plenty of examples that play out upon the public stage each day that prove its worth. Too bad Kyle Petty and Denny Hamlin chose to contribute to that growing pile of …

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Bowles-Eye View: Perfection Causing NASCAR Perfect Hell

So often in life, our ultimate pursuit is perfection. One parts failure on a car is one too many, one loss for our favorite sports team ruins the dream of a season unblemished, and one point off on a test simply makes us agonizingly short of a mythical 100%. Caught in the details of minor …

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