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Truckin’ Thursdays: Same Story, Different Year: Will History Repeat?

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With just six races remaining in the 2012 season, James Buescher finds himself in a familiar place. Going into Las Vegas Motor Speedway last year, the driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet sat just three points behind eventual champion Austin Dillon. This season he’s just four markers behind Dillon’s younger brother Ty, but in 2011, Buescher moved away from the championship lead as the races wore down, finishing third in the standings. In those final five events, the driver of the No. 31 posted an average finish of 13th, and a third-place spot in the standings was pretty impressive given he had one less start than the rest of the leaders.

Truckin’ Thursdays: Could Kentucky Determine the Champion?

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With just seven races remaining to determine the 2012 Camping World Truck Series champion, the series heads off to Kentucky Speedway for a Nationwide Series companion race this weekend. While a visit to Kentucky may not be all that spectacular on its own, six champions have also won in the Bluegrass state during their respective championship seasons.

It all began back in 2000, the inaugural season for the Truck Series at Kentucky when Greg Biffle snagged his third of five wins that year, in a season where he finished outside the top 14 just once; a 25th-place result at Texas in November. Just two years later, it was Mike Bliss who scored his third of five victories in 2002, winning the championship after leading the standings for the final ten races of the year.

Pace Laps: NASCAR’s Chicagoland “Cutoff,” Mental Mistakes and Big Payoffs

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*Sprint Cup: Will Judgment Call Cloud The Chase?* Brad Keselowski’s decisive win on Sunday was not without some controversy. On the final pit stop of the race, Keselowski’s crew reeled off a lightning fast pit stop and, as he was coming out of the pits, Keselowski gave it everything he had to get on the track close enough behind Jimmie Johnson to make a pass for the lead. In doing so, Keselowski blended into traffic under Johnson’s car, upsetting his line. Johnson was on the radio immediately, questioning Keselowski’s move. When exiting the pits under green, drivers must stay on the apron of the track until the exit of turn 2 before they blend into race traffic. (It’s a safety measure as much as anything.) Drivers are shown the so-called “blend line” in the weekly drivers’ meeting. Johnson wondered whether Keselowski had moved onto the track too soon.

The Fickle Force of Fate

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Three points. Three positions on the race track.

Failing to earn three additional points kept Kyle Busch from making this year’s edition of The Chase for the Sprint Cup. Someone, working somewhere in the NASCAR main office (and at M&M/Mars) is probably lamenting the fact that one of sports’ most volatile and controversial figures will spend the next ten weekends watching the season championship go (yet again) to another driver.

This is a rough time of year for athletes. If you’re a football player, your talents are being assessed under the media’s microscope – and every idiot with a pizza stained t-shirt managing a fantasy team. For every player who looks good, there’s another who looks great; for every possible playoff contender, there’s an already-forming line of teams buying tickets for the S.S. Better Luck Next Year.

Charity Corner: NAPA, Truex, Jr. To Reward Wounded Soldiers at Chicagoland

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This weekend, NAPA Auto Parts and Michael Waltrip Racing team up to give two special soldiers and their guests a VIP experience at Chicagoland Speedway. Sergeant Erik Blank and Staff Sergeant Otis Hooper will enjoy a weekend of hospitality full of memories at they attend the Chase opening GEICO 400. In a contest that ran through July 31st, fans had the chance to nominate their favorite soldiers for the experience. Once the nominations closed, representatives from the NAPA Chicago Distribution Center and NAPA Illinois store owners chose the winners.

Five Points to Ponder: A Chase-tastic Edition Ready, Set, Chase

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_Ladies and gentlemen, after 24 races of preamble we get down to the serious business of the season: The 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup. The regular season is in the books, the elite field of a dozen is set and ten races remain before we crown this year’s champion at Homestead-Miami on November 18th. There isn’t really any other place to start this week’s edition of Five Points to Ponder._

Pace Laps: For Many, The Final Chapter Begins

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*Sprint Cup: A Postseason Snapshot* After 26 long weeks, the field for the Chase for the Sprint Cup has been decided. Only one spot actually changed hands in Richmond, as Jeff Gordon passed Kyle Busch for twelfth place on the points chart and the final wild card. (Both Gordon and Busch had one win on the year, making points the deciding factor.) Now, as the series heads toward Chicago, the talk will inevitably turn towards that of title favorites among the twelve who make the final cut.

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.