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A Mindful Mind Full

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It’s back-to-school time, which means it’s also make-the-Chase time, too. The postseason format for stock car racing has now become synonymous with the start of autumn. Once the checkered flag flies at Richmond, the final ten Sprint Cup races take their place in the media spotlight alongside college football, early season games in the NFL, and late season games in major league baseball. That’s precisely what Brian France intended when he explained what the “Chase for the Championship” was hopefully going to accomplish back in January of 2004. Here we are, eight years later, and France’s vision seems to have come true. The Chase, roller coaster TV ratings aside seems to have earned its recognition among the other “mainstream” sports of fall.

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not: Michigan/Bristol Edition

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With drivers the caliber of Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman fighting for the final wild card spot, many fans expected them all to get hot and combine to win a bunch of races before the Chase.

I was one of them. I guess I forgot why these teams were fighting for the second wild card spot in the first place: they haven’t been very good. Gordon earned a win (earned might not be the right word), and Newman has put together some decent runs, but with the sense of urgency high with only three races until the Chase, it doesn’t really seem like anyone wants the spot.

Call of the Wild: Who Will Get the Two Coveted Chase Spots?

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It never fails to amaze me how quickly the NASCAR season passes despite its immense longevity. Perhaps this is just simply a function of the passing of time – I keep getting older despite my best intentions – but can there really only be three races left until we start the oft ballyhooed 2012 Chase? It only seems like yesterday the one-man wrecking crew Juan Pablo Montoya smacked into the jet dryer at Daytona during the Great American Race. He’s been hitting just about everything else too, since. Ah, good times.

But I digress from my main point – a common theme for my columns these last five years I’ll admit.

SPEED’s Action is Tops, While ESPN Needs to Expand Coverage

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Hello, race fans. Welcome back to Couch Potato Tuesday, where race telecast criticism is the main topic of discussion. I’m back from a one-week hiatus imposed because I was in Watkins Glen for the Sprint Cup weekend there, representing Frontstretch. While I was there, I had originally planned to gather information in order to completely update/replace the article I wrote back in 2009 that goes behind the scenes of ESPN’s telecasts. The idea was that since technology modernizes at a substantial rate these days, ESPN would have had to modernize their own setup as well. However, ESPN refused to allow me access to the TV Compound, or to interview anyone associated with the network’s NASCAR telecasts.

A “Pure” Michigan 400 – Back To Business As Usual At MIS

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Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 was aptly named. The race was Pure Michigan International Speedway, bringing all of what we’ve come to expect at MIS in August — repave be damned.

Yes, the new asphalt did play a role, to some degree. The formerly multi-groove track used to see cars running four different lines, fanning out in all areas around the 2-mile oval. However, following a repave and a re-tire to keep the speeds under 220mph (at one point, quarter-sized chunks of rubber were coming off from blistering) it has become more of a one-and-a-half groove track in 2012. Speeds, once dangerous are still well in excess of 210 MPH down the straightaway.

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. The names you normally expect to see up front and factors in the race were there. Mark Martin leads active drivers with five career wins at MIS, the last coming in 2009 when – coincidentally – it was Greg Biffle who ran out of fuel on the last lap, while Martin sped past, only to run out of gas a corner later and coast to the win.

Seizing A NASCAR Window Of Opportunity

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Greg Biffle and Rodney Dangerfield have about as much in common as Lindsay Lohan and Barack Obama. One races cars for a living; the other was an actor/comedian. The driver would kill for any type of fan following; Dangerfield spent his career leaving legions of fans laughing. And though Dangerfield died a few years back, Biffle is very much alive and remains in the midst of his NASCAR career.

However, the two men remain tied together, if only through one simple phrase…

“I don’t get no respect.”

Pace Laps: NASCAR’s Regular Rewards, Old Dogs, New Tricks And Caution Crisis

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*Sprint Cup: Regular Season Champion… For What?* Jimmie Johnson was quite vocal in his media center appearance this Friday about the fact that the point leader after the first 26 races in the Sprint Cup Series gets little recognition when the points are reset for the Chase. This has been long debated—should the “regular season” points leader get a trophy? Bonus points? Something else? But this kind of talk has rarely come from the drivers themselves; now that it is, the ball has gotten rolling behind the scenes on whether NASCAR should, in fact, consider a change.

Tracking the Trucks: VFW 200

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*In a Nutshell:* Nelson Piquet, Jr. took the checkered flag nearly ten seconds ahead of Jason White in Saturday afternoon’s VFW 200 at Michigan International Speedway. Piquet, Jr. used a fuel mileage gamble and had enough in the fuel tank to score his first career victory. Dakoda Armstrong, Parker Kligerman, and James Buescher rounded out the top 5. Pole-sitter Joey Coulter failed to lead a lap and finished seventh.

*Who Should Have Won:* Nelson Piquet, Jr.