‘Dinger and Jimmie and Right Turns-Oh My! Mulling NASCAR’s Past and Possibilities

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It’s certainly been a busy week on the NASCAR front. Between AJ Allmendinger, Dodge, Mother Nature and a did-he-or-didn’t he between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon at Pocono, there has been plenty of fuel for the fire for NASCAR aficionados to mull over. So, being a muller by nature, I’ve had plenty to keep me busy!

First off, check out Mirror Driving…did we call it or did we call it on the Parker Kligerman situation? It wasn’t hard to put two and two together and figure that once Roger Penske replaced Kligerman with Ryan Blaney as Brad Keselowski’s fill-in in the No. 22 Nationwide car that it would only be a matter of time until Blaney would land a more permanent role.

Four Burning Questions: Stormy Days and Peer Sympathy

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*Does Watkins Glen determine the Chase field?*

Up until the wild card shake-up that was Pocono Raceway, I was sure that the 12 that were in “as of now” would stay that way until the points were reset after Richmond. Jeff Gordon seemed too far gone to make it happen and no one else was competitive enough to beat Kyle Busch or Kasey Kahne.

Edwards’ Cup Troubles Benefit Nationwide Teammate Stenhouse

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Asked this past week at Pocono why he would be making his first Nationwide Series start of the year some six months into the season, Carl Edwards gave the expected answer: “It gives me a chance to have some fun and we can practice something we want to try on the Cup car.” But when asked if he’d be running any more races in 2012 after seven consecutive seasons of full-time double duty, Edwards remarked “This one just came up. There is the other factor that Ricky [Stenhouse] and those guys wanted someone at the road course to bounce information off of.”

There’s two facts to be taken from that statement. One, this race came about spontaneously, with longtime Cup sponsor Subway being the one to foot the bill for the Saturday race.

Michael Annett Driver Diary: Indy, Home to Iowa, and Fan Safety First

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When you’re growing up, as a little kid the two racetracks you always hear about and think about are Daytona and Indianapolis, the Brickyard. Those are the two tracks you always dream about racing on. I was really looking forward to making my first laps at the Brickyard. You hear so many things about the track, so many characteristics and all the history. I’ve been to a couple of Indy 500s and been a part of it and the atmosphere of what the whole track brings. I was really looking forward to being there and making laps and being part of the inaugural race. It was a lot of fun. Different from any other track we go to. Probably one of the most difficult tracks I’ve been to, not only making laps by yourself but then when you add 42 other cars it gets really difficult. It’s fun because as a race car driver, that’s what we enjoy is challenges and learning something new and the Brickyard obviously was that.

Truckin’ Thursdays: Exciting Reasons To Keep Watching At Halfway

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Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 125 marked the halfway point of the Camping World Truck Series schedule. That’s right … it took nearly six months to get the first half completed, a bit unbalanced as the series will run its final 11 events in right around three months. But despite the lack of momentum, thanks to a poorly designed schedule there have been plenty of exciting moments to keep viewers interested.

In just 11 events, the Truck Series has seen four different drivers grab their first career victories, a potpourri of new personalities gracing the top spot.

Professor Of Speed: Weathering The Storms

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My telephone rang on Sunday afternoon. The caller? My 82-year-old father, who lives about forty miles northwest of Pocono Raceway. He mentioned that rain had been passing through the area all morning, causing the start of the Sprint Cup race to be delayed because of heavy downpours. I could hear audio of the Pennsylvania 400 in the background as my dad gave me a quick synopsis of the event thus far. At my house in northern Michigan, about 750 miles away, we were recovering from _Star Wars_ Night at the local ballpark and more focused on the busy week that lay ahead than events at The Tricky Triangle.

Blackhawk Down: NASCAR Conspiracy Theorists Run Amok

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After Sunday’s race, as I sat down to write my recap I was on edge because I was already hearing rumors some fans had been struck by lightning and some of those individuals were badly hurt. (Tragically, we know now that Brian Zimmerman, a 41-year-old married father of three lost his life.) I immediately focused on that story and began calling friends I knew had been in the grandstands to ensure they were safe. But elsewhere on the Internet and in Twitterville (which I am rapidly learning is a lot less friendly place than Who-ville or Margaritaville), a cauldron was boiling over as more fuel was added to the fire by people hiding behind funny screen names. (I’ve been asked, so my Twitter handle mcmatt76 was chosen because “Matt McLaughlin” and “Mcmatt” were already in use. The “McMatt” part should be obvious. The 76 was added because a picture of my 1976 Trans-Am hangs over my desk.)

Potts’ Shots: Paying The Price In NASCAR, On The Track And Off

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I suppose, Billy that it’s much the same as everybody’s take on the situation. It’s sad. The guy made a serious mistake, and now he’s paying for it. Also, like everyone else, I have some questions myself. He says a “friend” gave him a pill, supposedly Adderall, and said it was an energy supplement, like you would take prior to a workout.

What does AJ think this is, high school? Even though it was more than 50 years ago, I can remember somebody handing me a pill and saying, “Try this, you’ll love it.” I was lucky. My father was a salesman for a pharmaceutical wholesaler, and I had been exposed to a lot of knowledge of what could happen. That pill went into the next trash can down the hall.