Race Weekend Central

Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2008 Sharpie 500 at Bristol

Bristol’s new variable banking has given drivers the option to pass without having to wreck a guy on the racetrack. But as Carl Edwards showed us Saturday night, the bump and run can still be the only option if the car in front is just good enough to keep you behind. Ensuring that move remains …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2008 3M Performance 400 at Michigan

Four wide-open grooves of racing at Michigan gave the drivers a lot of options Sunday – giving the faster cars a great chance to work their way forward. But for Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne, the only racing line they were able to handle was the one that led straight to the garage. Both saw …

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Mirror Driving: Gibbs’s Cheating, Kyle Busch Takes a Beating & Dyno Tweaking

Welcome to Mirror Driving. Every week, your favorite columnists sit down and give their opinion about the latest NASCAR news and rumors. Love us or hate us, make a comment below and tell us how you feel about what we’ve said! This Week’s Participants: Tony Lumbis (Mondays/Rookie Report) Mike Neff (Wednesdays/Power Rankings & Full Throttle, Thursdays/Picks ‘N’ …

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Fanning the Flames: NASCAR Cup Series Needs a 400-Meter Freestyle Relay of Its Own

I reached my Olympic zenith in 1984. The Los Angeles Summer Games to a 9-year-old kid, such as I was, were magical. The United States had boycotted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow and I was still too young to recall the ’80 Winter Games in Lake Placid with its Miracle on Ice, so 1984 …

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Mirror Driving: Road Ringers Lose, Casey Mears on the Move & Young Guns Get the Boot

Welcome to Mirror Driving. Every week, your favorite columnists sit down and give their opinion about the latest NASCAR news and rumors. Love us or hate us, make a comment below and tell us how you feel about what we’ve said! This Week’s Participants: Tony Lumbis (Mondays/Rookie Report) Mike Neff (Wednesdays/Power Rankings & Full Throttle, Thursdays/Picks ‘N’ …

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Fanning the Flames: NASCAR Fines, Carl Edwards’s Flips & Some Canadian Love

Your questions were all over the board this week, which was a welcome respite after last week’s Goodyear bashing, er… I mean, questions. As always, shoot whatever you got my way, and I’ll either answer it or make light of it next week! In case you’re wondering, that last part was a joke… nevermind, let’s …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2008 Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono

After the second weekend of testing out the Pythagorean theory at Pocono, the shape of the Chase came a little more into focus. The top drivers in points (“A” students) are solidifying their positions for September and beyond while aggressively going for the win – and the 10-point bonus that goes with it. Meanwhile, positions …

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Fanning the Flames: Strong Fan Reaction Makes This a Brickyard Backlash

Another strong batch of questions from the Frontstretch faithful this week. You’re building steam on the front end of the 17-week stretch to end what is turning into a real Dog & Pony show as we saw on Sunday afternoon. Let’s go ahead and get a couple of the Indy responses out of the way. …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2008 Brickyard 400

And the winner of the first annual Indianapolis Heat Race is… Jimmie Johnson! OK, so maybe it was the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, but the way in which the race was controlled by NASCAR – with competition cautions held every 10 laps – they might as well have renamed it the Allstate 25. With …

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Fanning the Flames: Junior Aces 1, Nationwide Notes & a NASCAR History Lesson

As I listened to the Jim Rome Show while sitting at my desk on Tuesday, I cringed when I remembered that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was to be a guest. Don’t get me wrong, I like Junior – I’m no rabid diehard but I’d like to drink a beer with the guy. Thing is, I really …

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Fanning the Flames: Busch Brothers Breaking Records & Other Odds ‘N’ Ends

Questions were a bit sparse this week, so it seemed to be the right time to clean out the inbox of a couple that weren’t time-specific. See? I’ll get everyone in at some point! First, though, we’ll start with a question that is very timely – in fact, Taylor here could know the answer by …

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