Race Weekend Central

The Yellow Stripe: Drought Busters – Who’s Gone the Longest Without a Trip to NASCAR Victory Lane?

In the 1930s an epic drought, caused in part by primitive farming techniques, triggered a unique weather phenomenon called the Dust Bowl. It was a period of severe dust storms that blackened the sky, wreaked havoc on the land and reduced visibility to only meters in some instances. These storms reached as far as New …

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The Yellow Stripe: Baby Steps for Sam Hornish Jr. In More Ways Than 1

Right about the time Sam Hornish Jr. might have been starting to feel comfortable in a stock car this June, he got what Bill Weber described as “the full Pocono experience.” The veteran commentator was referring to the series of scrapes Hornish endured across the weekend, none of which appeared to validate his choice to …

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The Yellow Stripe: Will the Real Gillett Evernham Motorsports Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up…

If you were starting a new three-car team in NASCAR next season – and let’s just set aside the financial burden and inevitable sponsorship woes that come with a startup outfit for a minute – you could do a lot worse than to assemble your own trio of wheelmen from the sort of stable of …

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The Yellow Stripe: Shooting TV Ads With the NASCAR Stars – My Memories Behind the Scenes

Advertising is a fickle business at even the best of times. Long hours, low pay, huge stress and the odd co-worker who’d stab you in the back at the drop of a hat are just some of the daily occupational hazards. Believe me when I say it’s not all martinis at lunchtime on Madison Avenue …

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The Yellow Stripe: 7 Golden Rules for a Rookie NASCAR Columnist

The NASCAR season is an unrelenting, unremitting grind. It doesn’t matter who you are – whether you’re a driver, complete with your private planes and entourage of “handlers,” – or you’re a pit crew, one that travels countless thousands of miles and spend weeks and months on the road away from their family, friends and …

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The Yellow Stripe: They Come in All Shapes & Sizes – Ranking the Types of NASCAR Tracks Across America

“If God had made us all the same, life would have been boring, Daniel.” So said my dearly departed Grandfather, the legend that was William Peters. And the old boy was right; he usually was, to be fair. And if it’s true about people, it’s certainly true about sport and NASCAR, in particular. Can you …

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The Yellow Stripe: 8 Thoughts After 8 NASCAR Races in 2008

Technically speaking, we’ll be at the quarter pole mark following the conclusion of the rollercoaster ride at Talladega this Sunday; but, with a brief pause in the relentless slog that is the Sprint Cup schedule, it’s a good time to put out eight thoughts and questions with eight races of the 2008 season in the …

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The Yellow Stripe: Should NASCAR Race Outside the U.S.?

The first commercial produced by Nextel to mark their arrival into NASCAR at the beginning of the 2004 season was a one minute long spot called “Anthem” featuring a rousing soundtrack and clips of racing action from the early days of racing on Daytona Beach right through to the then-present day. The ad was Nextel’s …

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The Yellow Stripe: Is It Already Bust Rather Than Chase for Juan Pablo Montoya?

Each week, NASCAR.com runs a short article on Juan Pablo Montoya. Entitled “Where’s Juan?” it’s a gentle look at what’s going on in the world of the Bogota, Colombia native. But where, exactly, is Juan these days? After Sunday’s 19th-place finish, two laps down, it’s not a bad question – because for most of this …

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