NASCAR on TV this week

Alan Gustafson on Turning Left and Right with Cup’s Best Road Racer

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_Jeff Gordon is the best road racer in the history of Cup racing based on the number of road races he’s won. Unfortunately it has been several years since Gordon has returned to Victory Lane at a twisty course. The man charged with making Gordon’s car get around Watkins Glen is Alan Gustafson, who spent a little time with Frontstretch to talk about getting the car set up for the Glen._

_Gustafson covers how much aerodynamics play into the Glen, pitting the car heading in the opposite direction as normal and how rigid the car can be on the road course in New York._

Couch Potato Tuesday: Special Guests and Weather Mark Telecasts

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Hello, race fans. Welcome back to Couch Potato Tuesday, where race telecast critiques are the name of the game. This past weekend, the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series were each in action at Pocono Raceway. Meanwhile, the Nationwide Series was in action with ESPN’s “B-Team” at Iowa Speedway.

*U.S. Cellular 250*

On Saturday night, the Nationwide Series held their second race of the season at Iowa Speedway in front of a sellout crowd. Since ESPN was busy covering the Sprint Cup race in Pocono in addition to this event, there were some changes. First off, there was a rare two-man booth for this race. Marty Reid was joined only by Ricky Craven. There was no Pit Studio (it was back in Pocono), so Shannon Spake hosted Countdown from pit road. It was a throwback telecast in a way with only five on-air personalities.

Handicapping NASCAR’s 2012 Wild Card Chase Contenders

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_With Indianapolis and Pocono behind us, the 2012 Race to the Chase is now at full bore. Championship contenders are emerging at the front of the standings, but perhaps more importantly, the Wild Card picture is beginning to develop some clarity. Here’s my assessment of each of the Wild Card contenders along with their chances of making the Chase._

Pocono Recap For NL

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Johnson’s Bobble Brings Gordon Unlikely Pocono Victory Jimmie Johnson, for much of the day at Pocono looked primed for a second straight victory. Jeff Gordon? …

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Pace Laps: Pocono Tragedy, A Tiff in Trucks, and The End For a Short Track?

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*NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Tragedy Mars Momentum From Pocono Finish* NASCAR Nation is in mourning this Monday after losing one of their own, a race fan during a series of storms that turned tragic. As severe weather swept through Pocono Raceway, shortly after the race was called a 41-year-old man was killed and ten injured as a series of lightning strikes hit behind the grandstands (four remained in area hospitals, one critical at press time). In a heartbeat, the smiles surrounding getting the race in on Sunday were replaced by sadness, confusion and concern as everyone tried to figure out what went wrong.

“I’m pretty sure I know which one it was,” said winner Jeff Gordon. “We were walking down pit road, the umbrellas weren’t doing any good, there was a huge, huge crack from lightning. You can tell it was very close. I mean, that’s the thing that’s going to take away from the victory, is the fact that somebody was affected by that.”

Tragedy Overshadows All For NASCAR At Pocono

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Lifetime fans of racing are no strangers to tragedy. Safety advancements can only go so far when the goal is to hit a turn at 200 miles an hour; even superstars, driving towards athletic immortality, can only be one broken part from seeing it all stripped away. Dan Wheldon, Dale Earnhardt, Adam Petty… their deaths serve as glass-breaking moments, sobering reminders about how fragile life is for all of us. When fans sit in the stands, they have some faint acceptance that something horrible could happen on-track. The invocation, done every race day, serves as a subconscious reminder that the risk, however slight these days, is always there.