Search Results for: brad keselowski

Five Points to Ponder: Send the Brickyard Packing (and the Restart Rules…and the Points System)

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*ONE: The Brickyard Has to Go*

Back in 1994, when the Brickyard 400 was an inaugural event, there’s a reason it sold out and was instantly one of the sport’s marquee moments. Taking the green flag there was more than tackling a storied oval. It was a story of triumph for how the backwater racers of NASCAR had surged from down south, become prominent in a way open-wheel racing used to be, and brought their beating and banging onto Indy’s home turf. It was the equivalent of planting the flag in the enemy’s capital city.

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in NASCAR: Indianapolis/Pocono Edition

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Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson may have been the two latest Hendrick Motorsports drivers to visit Victory Lane, but make no mistake about it, the spotlight is going to be on Dale Earnhardt, Jr. this week.

For the first time since September, 2004 Junior will head to the next event as the Sprint Cup points leader. And while media coverage and interviews are nothing new to Earnhardt Jr., both are going to be ramped up this week.

Overhyping and Individual Coverage Mars ESPN at Brickyard

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Hello, race fans. Welcome back to Couch Potato Tuesday, the weekly piece here at Frontstretch where TV coverage is placed front and center. This past weekend, we had “mini-Speedweeks” out in Indianapolis. The Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series were at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, along with Grand-Am’s two series. Meanwhile, the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards raced Friday night at nearby Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis with USAC’s three big divisions (Midgets, Wingless Sprints and Silver Crown) as support.

Pace Laps: Winning At All Costs, RestartGate, And Going Dancing Again

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*Sprint Cup Series:* *Carl’s Last-Ditch Move To Make The Chase: Win At All Costs?* For Carl Edwards, the high point of Sunday’s race at Indy was simple: taking the plane ride home. Starting second, on the outside of the front row it took less than 15 laps for the No. 99 car to develop major engine issues; that forced several off-sequence stops, both under green and yellow before the cause of the problem was finally found. Dropping four laps off the pace, there were no Lucky Dogs to help him; just a lackluster performance, served up at the wrong time as a 35th-place result left him in the midst of Chase disaster. Now an all-but-insurmountable 61 points behind Clint Bowyer, who’s 10th in the standings a winless Edwards knows with six races left his key to making the playoffs won’t come through a handful of top-10, even top-5 finishes down the stretch.

“I think we are officially racing only for wins,” he said matter-of-factly after Indianapolis. “I think it will involve lots of pushing on the right pedal and turning left and going as fast as possible. We have to take chances. We have to go race. We can do that, we can race like that. It will actually be a big relief in a way because there is no other choice.”

Four Burning Questions: Distractions and Additions

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*What happens at Penske Racing from here on out?*

The suspension of AJ Allmendinger due to a failed drug test has been a gigantic distraction for the race team. You can argue with me all day, but you cannot convince me that _two_ negative tests and the waiting around in between the two hasn’t at least provided some uneasiness in the Penske camp.

Sam Hornish Jr. will compete in at least the next two races, though Penske has yet to announce what will happen after that. While Allmendinger has agreed to go through NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program, that process is at least five months in the making and Allmendinger’s contract with Penske was up at the end of the year.

Did You Notice? … Silly Season Swung Wide Open By One Bad NASCAR Drug Test

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*Did You Notice?…* That in life, all it takes is one fleeting moment, one spoken word to turn our lives from successful to shattered?

In this case, it was as simple and tasteless as peeing into a cup. A.J. Allmendinger’s life changed forever Tuesday, suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for violating the sport’s drug policy in a decision that plunges his career into chaos. The driver’s “B” sample, tested weeks after the “A” showed no change in result, an unknown substance (rumored to be everything from methamphetamine to a rare stimulant found in an energy drink A.J. was endorsing) the root cause of what has kept him on the sidelines since hours before the July 7th Cup Series race at Daytona.