Hello, race fans. Welcome back to Couch Potato Tuesday, where race telecast criticism is the name of the game. This past weekend, the Sprint Cup Series raced at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with three lower level series (Whelen Modified Tour, K&N Pro Series and an exhibition race for the ACT Tour) as support. Meanwhile, the Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series each raced at a somewhat empty Kentucky Speedway.
*Key Moment* – Kyle Busch had another motor issue which relegated him to also-ran status and allowed Denny Hamlin to pass him for the lead with 206 laps to go. From that point on, barring a major mechanical failure or strategic blunder, Hamlin was just logging laps until he did a tremendous burnout.
*In a Nutshell* – Hamlin’s crew forgot to add extra air to his tires before he went out for qualifying on Friday which resulted in him starting the race from the 32nd position. From the drop of the green flag, Hamlin was on a mission to get to the front. Once he got there, he just drove away with the race.
By Jeff Wolfe It’s one thing to say you’re going to do something. It’s another thing to make a statement about what you’re going to …
James Buescher jumped back aboard the No. 30 Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.) Turner Motorsports Chevrolet at Kentucky Speedway after Alex Bowman had the seat …
In the first race at Chicago, we finished fourth, so I was excited to go back, knowing that we could run competitively. Everything was on total schedule. We qualified eleventh in the first race, came back and qualified eleventh for the second race. We were really consistent and the car was fast. They dropped the green flag, we took off with the lead pack, and I was happy. Then we came in for our first pit stop and when the race went back to green, the motor quit on me. I would fire it up, it would keep going and then quit again. So anyway, what had happened was one of the coil wires broke. So there was nothing we could do; we didn’t know what it was at the time. It was a little bit of a bummer, but we just had a wiring problem. It was a new car. So, that’s the bottom line.
As the face of the sport continues to change, the final remaining cogs of what were Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s heydays at DEI officially severed ties …
Between the Stewart butt grab and the Gordon mustache, you might have forgotten that there was an actual race with actual points for the actual Chase going on. Groundbreaking stuff, right? But, yes, there was a 400-mile postseason kickoff event, one that Brad Keselowski won to take control of the point lead. Yet Jimmie Johnson was right behind him, making sure he wasn’t forgotten either. Heck, he almost won the race himself and sits second in points! Title number six is still very much a possibility.
*MavTV American Real 500*
On Saturday night under blinding sunshine (literally), the IZOD IndyCar Series held their 500-mile season finale at Auto Club Speedway. On this night, there was really but one big story for the race, that being the championship. However, more was at play here than just the title chase.
IndyCar Central started out with a look back at the craziness that was the Baltimore Grand Prix presented by SRT before getting into the pre-race interviews. The primary feature of the show was a one-on-one interview that Marty Snider conducted with Will Power. The main topic of discussion included the upcoming championship battle with Ryan Hunter-Reay and how Power has been unable to finish in recent years.
By Jeff Wolfe Brad Keselowski drives car No. 2. But maybe it was the fear of being No. 2 that propelled Keselowski to victory in …
_After speaking with “Doug Yates last week”:https://frontstretch.com/mneff/41414/ about growing up around racing and how he ended up in the engine business, we’ll explore the technical side of building engines that go very fast. Fans always hear about finding horsepower and helping cars gain speed. Yates will give fans a glimpse at what it takes to make a car produce horsepower, talk about his role in the EFI program for NASCAR and settles the direct fuel injection vs. throttle body injection question. He also touches on Hendrick’s engines woes at Michigan, building engines for drag boats and aftermarket performance nuts._
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