NASCAR on TV this week

Thinkin’ Out Loud: Loudon-2 Race Recap

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*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.

No Matter the Format, NASCAR Cream Rising to the Top in Chase

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The Chase may be a manufactured contest to try and generate additional interest in the late season races of a long NASCAR season, but one thing is for sure: the best teams in any sport will always find their way to the top of the ranks more times than they’ll finish near the bottom. Last week’s race at Chicagoland saw Denny Hamlin run out of gas late and lose a multitude of spots on the final lap while Jeff Gordon’s day was ruined by a stuck throttle. However, week two of the playoffs finds Hamlin standing in Victory Lane with a Gatorade-soaked driver suit while Gordon, sans mustache, was the third driver to cross the finish line. The reason the 12 teams who made the Chase are in contention for the title is because they were the 12 best teams in the first 26 races of the season.

The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2012 Sylvania 300 at Loudon

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It wasn’t a win for Jeff Gordon, and he still has a lot of ground to make up before he can even begin to think about that elusive fifth Cup title. But this week, Gordon certainly looked a lot more like… well, like Jeff Gordon. After starting on the pole, Gordon remained in the hunt throughout the race, running inside the top 10 all day long and ending the day in fourth place.

A Match Made in Hell: Why NHMS Doesn’t Belong on the Schedule

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Ho hum. Boring. Another race at New Hampshire has gone by, once again, completely devoid of excitement. Once again, only a select few cars could pass, and the rest simply logged laps on a track that clearly is not suited for the NASCAR brand of racing. How much longer is NASCAR willing to put up with this?

It seems as though every time the series rolls into New Hampshire, there is a legion of fans and media members who have this inexplicable false hope that this low-banked, one-mile oval will put on a good show. And every time, those people come out disappointed. Quite honestly, I have absolutely no idea where such high hopes are coming from. In my 14 years of watching NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, I have yet to see a good Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In fact, after 14 years, I have yet to see ONE good race at this track.

Pace Laps: Inside A Hot Streak, Crowd Concerns And Dancing An Offseason Away

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*Sprint Cup: What’s The Key To Hamlin Getting Hot?* Denny Hamlin has been dominant in recent weeks, the most recent driver on a hot streak. Earlier in the season, Greg Biffle had one. So did Jimmie Johnson. Things change fast in NASCAR, and Hamlin’s hot streak, as well as some of the runs before, shows that even in an era where there isn’t much freedom to work on the racecars, the team who can adapt to the current rules the quickest has a distinct advantage. Back in August, Brad Keselowski mentioned that Johnson’s car, and the other Hendrick Motorsports entries had rear end geometry that looked funny. The Hendrick cars, as well as those from a few other teams, looked a bit sideways on the straightaways, the product of a rear end designed to turn more easily in the corners. NASCAR said that the numerous teams who had figured out how to make the rear end travel better by having a trailing arm that traveled with the car were all within the rules. And then the sanctioning body changed the rule that the teams were working within.

Nationwide Series Breakdown: Kentucky 300

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Austin Dillon must wish the Nationwide Series tackled the Kentucky Speedway 30 times a season after Saturday. Cruising unmolested in the latter parts of the race, Dillon had no trouble scoring his second win of the 2012 season and sweeping the 2012 campaign’s races in Sparta, KY. Sam Hornish Jr., Brendan Gaughan, Drew Herring and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top 5.

The championship chase took a dramatic turn in this one after a red-hot start by incoming points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Having led the first 32 laps, a trip down pit road turned treacherous for the No. 6, which had its right front fender caved in after contact with Eric McClure’s car exiting his stall. Ensuing work to repair the damage mired Stenhouse in traffic, and led to handling woes that saw the defending champ pound the turn 4 wall on lap 48. Cutting down a tire, the No. 6 team was forced down pit road under green and limped around the rest of the afternoon, eventually coming home 17th, three laps down.

Tracking the Trucks: Kentucky 201

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*In a Nutshell:* James Buescher took the checkered flag 1.292 seconds ahead of Parker Kligerman in Friday night’s Kentucky 201 at Kentucky Speedway. Buescher led three times for a race high 64 laps en route to his fourth victory of the year. Ty Dillon, Joey Coulter and Brian Scott rounded out the top 5.

*Who Should Have Won:* James Buescher. Turner Motorsports and Buescher in particular have excelled all year on the intermediate tracks, and Kentucky was no different. After qualifying eighth, the driver of the No. 30 Chevrolet spent just 33 laps working his way toward the front. He took the lead for the final time on pit road under the sixth caution and never looked back, pulling out to a more than two-second lead at times.

What’s Missing in NASCAR Isn’t a Villain; It’s the American Dream

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=NASCAR needs a villain. Those are words that have echoed around the sport over the last few years. Really, we’ve heard them since the death of Dale Earnhardt, but it seems like they’ve gotten louder in recent years. NASCAR needs a bad boy, one who will be unabashedly aggressive on the track and proud of it off the track. One who knows how to use the ol’ chrome horn once in a while, one who will knock you into next week and then blame you for it. Yes, people say, that is just what we need. Except it isn’t.

What NASCAR really needs, even more than a villain to play the spoiler, is a real, honest-to-goodness blue-collar hero.