ESPN Puts Themselves (Unintentionally) in a Dark Place at Atlanta

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Hello, race fans. Welcome back to Couch Potato Tuesday, where race broadcast criticism is the name of the game. This past week, the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series were each at Atlanta Motor Speedway for 1,000 miles of racing and wearing tires down to the cords. Speaking of wearing down to the cords, I’m pretty sure that Trevor Bayne did quite a bit of that on Sunday night if his practice laps Saturday were any indication. His car seemed to be more at home at Lebanon Valley than Atlanta.

Also of note, we’re getting into college football season again. Countdown prior to both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races was affected by games running long. I have no idea why ESPN thinks that it is a good idea to allot three hours per game. They have to run exceptionally fast in order to finish in that amount of time. At this point, ESPN literally has the power to dictate terms to schools about when they start games (the Tuesday night MAC and Sun Belt Conference events are just one example of this.) I’d suggest moving the start times up, but I guess they’d probably wait until next year to execute any changes.

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in NASCAR: Atlanta/Richmond Edition

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In his post-race interview after blowing an engine at Atlanta, Carl Edwards said all he could do to get in the Chase was win at Richmond on Saturday and hope for a miracle. The reality is, unless Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch get involved in a melee from Talladega Nights, Edwards isn’t going to make the playoffs.

With three superstar drivers looking at the Chase from outside at the beginning of the summer, it was pretty clear that Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Edwards weren’t all going to claw their way back in. After engine problems at Atlanta, Edwards has one nail left on the claw and is hanging from a ledge.

Tech Talk with Dave Rogers – One Shot to Put Rowdy in the Chase

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_The regular season comes to an end this coming weekend at Richmond. Kyle Busch is in the thick of the wild card hunt and is heading to one of his best race tracks on the circuit, while crew chief Dave Rogers has one shot to make or break the title hopes of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Rogers is dotting all of his I’s and crossing all of his T’s to make sure the team has every chance to be a part of the 12 teams in the Chase for the title. He talks this week about testing, tire durability, having Busch as his driver and setting up cars to go fast or be comfortable._

Mike Neff: *We’re heading to Richmond this weekend. It is the last race before the Chase and the whole Wild Card scenario is hanging thick in the air. Kyle is very good at Richmond, knowing the circumstances surrounding the weekend and what is at stake, how aggressive can you be with your setup and strategy knowing that if you go too far, you could knock yourself completely out of contention?*

The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2012 AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta

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If not for a badly-timed tire problem for Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr. wouldn’t be getting my shoutout — because he’d have won the race. Instead, Truex had to settle for fourth after a wild restart. Adding insult to injury, Truex, who has flown under the media’s radar all year long despite being a fixture in the top 10 in points, garnered relatively little television attention compared with the night’s other race leaders.

No Normal Day at the NASCAR Office

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Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth: two racing horses of clearly different colors. One loves Indiana and everything in it; the other is obsessed with the Green Bay Packers. “Smoke” will take his temper to your mouth, then buy you a beer; the “quiet champ” of 2003 has the most sarcastic sense of humor nobody ever hears about. One is a self-described bachelor, winning a title on the heels of dumping his girlfriend last September; Kenseth, in contrast, has had two children within the last three years.

Until now, they’ve been tied together by nothing more than a helmet throw, an angry Smoke retaliating for some ill-advised contact that knocked both drivers from a chance of winning Bristol in August. In a few days, perhaps an announcement will leave them loosely connected; Kenseth is poised to take over Stewart’s former No. 20 car, the Home Depot Toyota at Joe Gibbs Racing starting in 2013. But as Atlanta’s competition failed to break the “bad news” cycle, these men dominate the NASCAR headlines for another reason no one wants to talk about.

IndyCar Baltimore Recap: Title Battle Tightens with Hunter-Reay Victory

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*In a Nutshell:* In a race that was filled with nine full course cautions, Ryan Hunter-Reay pushed the pace and made his way from a poor qualifying position to take the checkered flag first. Aggressive from the onset, Hunter-Reay wasted no time in letting it be known that he would be a contender for the win. Joining him on the podium, Ryan Briscoe took second with Rookie of the Year winner Simon Pagenaud taking third. Scott Dixon and Reubens Barrichello slotted themselves in fourth and fifth respectively.

Is Denny Hamlin a Serious Title Contender? We’re About to Find Out

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Color me impressed. Seven months ago at the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series season, if someone would have told me that Denny Hamlin would be the winningest driver on the season going into the final regular season race at Richmond, I would have laughed at them. I, along with many others in the NASCAR community, had written Denny Hamlin off as a serious title contender heading into 2012.

After all, it was Hamlin who entered this year reeling from a miserably disappointing 2011 season that saw the Virginian driver finish an unimpressive ninth in the standings with only five top-5 finishes on the year. 2011 (and the end of 2010 as well, of course) was so bad for Denny that he had to go see a sports psychologist to help reclaim all of his lost confidence. Not exactly the mindset known to be possessed by champions, to say the least.

But here we are, almost a full year later, and Denny Hamlin is on top of the NASCAR world once again.