Race Weekend Central

Reed Sorenson

Running Their Mouth: 2009 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen

Beth Lunkenheimer

Each week, we’ll go through media reports, interviews, PR and all of our own stuff to find the best quotes from the Sprint Cup race, capturing the story of how the weekend unfolded. It’s the most original commentary you’ll ever find: the truth, coming straight out of the mouths of the drivers, crew members and car owners themselves. This week, here’s a peek at what the drivers were thinking following the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen.

2009 NASCAR Report Cards, Part II: Grading Dale Jr. & the Rest

Frontstretch Staff

Editor’s Note: For Part I of our midseason driver report cards, click here. Continuing on from yesterday’s review, it’s time for Professors Danny and Tom to grade those drivers sitting at the back of the class. Whether it’s some bad racing luck, poor chemistry with a crew chief or just plain awful driving, most of …

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The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2009 LifeLock 400 at Chicagoland

Amy Henderson

Who… gets my shoutout of the race? It’s a tough week to have to choose this one, but I’m going with a driver who, a year ago, was labeled as just another open-wheel convert who couldn’t figure out stock cars. Fast forward to the present, though, and Juan Pablo Montoya seems to have it figured …

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Frontstretch Fantasy Insider: Cookie-Cuttering, Chicagoland Style

Frontstretch Staff

There are few, if any, tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit as sterile as the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway. The epitome of a cookie-cutter oval, there will likely be few, if any, surprises at the front this Saturday night, so make sure you leave your underdog drivers sitting on the bench. Indeed, the big names of …

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Frontstretch Fantasy Insider: There’s Magic in New Hampshire’s Mile

Frontstretch Staff

While the configurations between Sonoma’s road course and Loudon’s oval are about as far apart as racetracks come, there are some similarities. The groove at Loudon is narrow, just like Sonoma… and drivers out-braking each other into corners will constitute much of Sunday’s action. Track position will be at a premium on race day, and …

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Did You Notice? NASCAR’s Drug Mistake? (Not Mayfield’s), Keselowski Should Be Cup’s Top Rookie & Johnson Plays Dead

Tom Bowles

Did You Notice? How secretive NASCAR is trying to be with this whole drug thing? There’s two main questions that came up in my head since the positive test, ones I couldn’t answer immediately as a reporter as Darlington was a weekend I’d taken off: 1) Why was Jeremy Mayfield allowed to practice and qualify …

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Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in Sprint Cup: 2009 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Edition

Frontstretch Staff

What a weekend! The rollercoaster-esque ebbs and flows of storylines and drama poured through Talladega more than at any track in a long time. The breakthrough win of David Ragan in Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 Nationwide Series race was impressive enough – but it merely set the stage for what would be a remarkable finish the …

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Frontstretch Fantasy Insider: Picking the ‘Dega Drafting Lane That’s Moving Forward

Frontstretch Staff

The fantasy wildcard weekend that is Talladega looms on the horizon. The Big One, which happens more times than not, can take out a player’s entire fantasy team in one fell swoop – or, it could cause a player’s team to sweep into the top 10 when most of the other competition is taken out. …

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Did You Notice? Restrictor Plate 1-Hit Wonders & the New Precedent of “Probation”

Tom Bowles

Did You Notice? Just probation for Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Did you really expect the sanctioning body to do anything more after their little post-race altercation at Phoenix? We already have the U.S. Army spread out in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere across the globe… there’s no need to dispatch an additional battalion to …

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Closing NASCAR’s 7th Decade: The Top-12 Drivers – Including the Champ Who’ll Lead Us Into 2010

Frontstretch Staff

2009 closes out the first decade of the 21st century for NASCAR, and what a long, strange trip it’s been. Who would have thought back in 2000 Petty Enterprises would cease to exist nine years later – along with no Adam Petty to lead NASCAR’s first family into the next generation? Or that Dale Earnhardt …

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Kevin Harvick Battles Back from Losing Draft to Win 2009 Budweiser Shootout

Phil Allaway

Sometimes history can in fact repeat itself. In a scenario very similar to the one that allowed Kevin Harvick to win the Daytona 500 back in 2007, a lane opened up on the high side at the end of the backstretch on the final lap. Harvick took advantage of the hole, took the lead away …

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