Race Weekend Central

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in Sprint Cup: 2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond Edition

Under the lights on a wild Saturday night at Richmond, sparks flew and fans booed. A controversial accident between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. made headlines, but it was Clint Bowyer who left the track with a victory. It was Bowyer’s second career win, but that was small consolation for Junior, whose winless streak …

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Who’s Hot/Who’s Not In Sprint Cup: 2008 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Edition

Anything can – and as we saw Sunday – will happen at Talladega. The new car provided exciting racing for the fans and good runs for some drivers, but provided plenty of headaches for others. Wheelmen like Juan Pablo Montoya and Travis Kvapil had surprisingly strong finishes, while Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards’s days ended …

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Fantasy Picks ‘N’ Pans: 2008 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega

The Cup stars head to northern Alabama this weekend to the longest and fastest track on the schedule, the Talladega Superspeedway. It’s the first time that the series comes back to a plate track, having run at Talladega last fall in the new CoT configuration. That car, along with a newly-paved track, resulted in a …

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Did You Notice? Greg Biffle’s Bump, Penske in the Dumps & Multi-Car Expansion Trumps All

Did You Notice? In the wake of the RCR sponsorship announcement on their long-awaited fourth car, the widening gap in NASCAR between the haves and the have nots? Let’s assume for a second that Joey Logano does so well in the Nationwide Series this year, Joe Gibbs Racing chooses to start up their fourth team …

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Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in Sprint Cup: 2008 Goody’s Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Edition

In this short season, Denny Hamlin has asserted himself as one of the stronger drivers on short tracks. After nearly winning at Bristol two weeks ago before a fuel pickup problem relegated him to a sixth-place finish in the closing laps, Hamlin made his way to victory lane at his home track this weekend, earning …

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Voices From the Heartland: Where to Hide or Find Your NASCAR-Themed Easter Eggs

Well folks, it’s that time of year again! It’s time to get creative and dye those Easter eggs! For all you hardcore NASCAR fans, I hope this week’s column will give you a few ideas on where to hide all those eggs that you actually put racecar numbers on. (Don’t be ashamed, everyone does it. …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2008 Food City 500 at Bristol

Despite scoring his worst finish of the season, Kyle Busch holds the top spot in the Frontstretch Power Rankings for the second straight week in a row. But the high banks of Bristol wreaked havoc on the rest of the list, forcing movement up and down the line… and even leaving some surprising names on …

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10 Points To Ponder… After the 2008 Food City 500 at Bristol

1) Can’t Get Much Simpler – Last Friday’s rainout of qualifying for the Food City 500 required NASCAR to fall back to its rulebook for determining the lineup. It’s one of the more complex plans ever created, so let’s see if we can work through it together… OK, let’s begin. The first rule’s easy; the …

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Bubble Breakdown: On Groundbreaking Weekend, Teams on NASCAR’s Top-35 Bubble Attempt Breaking Away From the Pack

The Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta may have made history at the front of the field – with Toyota claiming the first victory for a foreign-born manufacturer since 1954 – but it also featured a number of drivers trying to prevent history of a different sort at the rear. With just one race remaining before …

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Matt McLaughlin Mouths Off: What is Right with NASCAR Racing

More than occasionally, I am chided by readers for being too negative about the sport I cover. I am labeled a prophet of gloom and doom; though all too often, my predictions have borne out. That raises a question in some reader’s minds as to why I continue covering a sport that gets me so …

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