Race Weekend Central

Turn Back the Clock: 1993 NASCAR Season

Dale Earnhardt Sr. Tribute 2011

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

While the 1992 NASCAR season is seen as the most pivotal year in the modern era of NASCAR, what followed in 1993 set the stage for the next two decades of competition, thrusting the sport from burgeoning regional underground sport to one of national prominence. Key events, new tracks, personalities and accomplishments help define the …

Read more

Beside the Rising Tide: Fire on Gander Mountain

2020lasvegasngrotskylebuschvictorylanerandylanning

(Photo: Randy Lanning)

NASCAR’s third level touring division, a.k.a. the Truck Series, came into being in 1995. It was a kinder, gentler era for the sanctioning body, when it seemed that they could do no wrong. It seemed if NASCAR had sanctioned a series for fat kids racing Marx Big Wheels around suburban supermarket parking lots, tickets to …

Read more

Beside the Rising Tide: Counting on a Miracle

Olympus Digital Camera

(Photo: Rick Lunkenheimer)

For a sport based on high speed and non-stop action, NASCAR racing can be incredibly frustrating sometimes. It is positively soul-sapping to watch two lines of race cars sitting tucked away under their covers in a heavy downpour, especially when it occurs just before the long-delayed start of our sport’s equivalent to the Super Bowl. …

Read more

Beside the Rising Tide: Ready, Set, 2020…

2019 Daytona Clash Cup Track Overhead Nkp

(Photo: NKP)

I fear calling this time of year “late winter” might be overly optimistic when it comes to continued cold snaps and snow, but I have it on expert what remains of winter will be brief. If you can’t trust a groundhog, who can you trust? Let’s just say we’re in that brief period of time …

Read more

20 Years Later: Dale Earnhardt’s Big Brickyard Win Remembered

1995 Brickyard 400 Dale Earnhardt Nascar 1a

(Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway)

Indianapolis Motor Speedway has become a tough sell among NASCAR fans. Once considered a crown jewel on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tour, the Brickyard 400 – this year referred to as the “Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard” – has become nothing more than another date on the schedule. The …

Read more

Beside The Rising Tide: Remembering Davey Allison – Part 2

Allison Petty

(Photo: LJworld.com)

Editor’s Note: For Part One of Matt’s retrospective on Davey Allison, click “here.”:https://frontstretch.com/mmclaughlin/34578/

Robert Yates Racing and the team’s talented young driver Davey Allison made their official debut at the 1989 Daytona 500. Things got off to an inauspicious start. Davey was running well when Geoff Bodine got into his rear bumper and sent the No. 28 car spinning. The car rolled, but came down on all four wheels, and Allison limped off to the pits, where the crew was able to repair the car well enough to get him back out there for points. Allison finished 25th in that year’s race.

NASCAR 101: Most Dominating Coca-Cola 600 Performances

2015 Charlotte I Cup Jeb Burton Jimmie Johnson Casey Mears Credit Amy Henderson

Photo Credit: Amy Henderson, Frontstretch

This weekend marks the 56th running of the Coca-Cola 600, or, for longtime fans of the sport, the World 600. The premise of the race when it first began was simple: pit man against machine. What would tire first: an overworked engine or a weary driver? 400 laps of exhausting wrestling of the steering wheel …

Read more

The Earnhardt Legacy

Fans and critics alike are raving this week following Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s return to victory lane at Talladega Superspeedway. An emotional Earnhardt claimed that he felt the win – his sixth at Talladega – added to his father’s legacy. On this week 20 years ago, Dale Earnhardt himself was also adding to his legacy, scoring …

Read more

The Critic’s Annex: Remembering Steve Byrnes

Let’s cut to the chase. This bites. It is never good to have to write about the passing of anyone. It’s tough enough to deal with the passing of pets, let alone human beings. As you all know by now, Steve Byrnes died on Tuesday after battling cancer for much of the past couple of …

Read more

Professor of Speed: Where Have All the NASCAR Legends Gone?

So I’m in the checkout line at my local grocery store. It’s the day before a major national holiday and the place is teeming with rushed shoppers. I looked over the pile of goods on the conveyor belt and matched it against my list when I noticed a smiling Dale Earnhardt Jr. near the end …

Read more