Race Weekend Central

Holding a Pretty Wheel: It’s Not All Dale Earnhardt Jr. All the Time

I was reading through some old (and not-so-old) racing columns and found one that I wrote last year that got me thinking. Actually, it was the comments that I got that got me thinking. I wrote about some of the issues that were making NASCAR less than popular with the fans. You can read about …

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Matt McLaughlin Mouths Off: Revisiting Major NASCAR Storylines of 2008

With the adoption of the 36-race Cup schedule some years back, the World 600 now ends the first of three 12-race segments that make up the season. And while it may be an even split, each portion comes ripe with its own agenda. At the start of segment one, teams arrive full of optimism at …

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Thompson in Turn 5: Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Junior is Still the Better Deal

There is no end in sight to the comparisons between the racing careers of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch, the driver he replaced this season at what has been NASCAR’s premier racing organization: Hendrick Motorsports. And replace Busch at HMS, Junior absolutely did. Make no mistake about it; had Rick Hendrick not had an …

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Mirror Driving: Can Humpy Be Replaced? Jeff Gordon, Johnson Off the Pace? & How Will Logano Race?

Welcome to Mirror Driving. Every week, your favorite columnists sit down and give their opinion about the latest NASCAR news and rumors. Love us or hate us, make a comment below and tell us how you feel about what we’ve said! This Week’s Participants: Tom Bowles (Editor-In-Chief; Mondays/Bowles-Eye View & Wednesdays/Did You Notice?) Vito Pugliese (Tuesdays/Voice of …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2008 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte

The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race on the NASCAR schedule, and the twists and turns that take place over those four-and-a-half hours of racing led to plenty of opportunities for writers to change their votes in the rankings. As you might expect, Kasey Kahne made a leap from unranked to well inside the top …

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Sprint Cup Report Cards: Grading the NASCAR Pack 1/3 of the Way Through the 2008 Season

In the immortal words of one Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” The star of the 1980s silver screen was right: life does move fast – and so does NASCAR. With the checkered flag flying on the Coca-Cola 600, we’re …

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Matt McLaughlin Mouths Off: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sounds the Nationwide Series Alarm

Though he’s a bit more polished than the rough around the edges kid he once was, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still struggling to get this politically correct thing down. Occasionally, he’ll still drop an unanticipated bombshell that will send NASCAR officials scrambling to their shelters – and this week in Charlotte, Earnhardt delivered another one …

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Mirror Driving: Junior a Car Owner? Kyle a Truck Wrecker? & How to Change the All-Star Race

The Sprint All-Star Race lacked the excitement of previous years. Why was that, and what can be done to revitalize the race in the future?