I’m back from the glorious paradise that is Puerto Rico and arrived just in time to catch the rain that ruined any chance of getting a decent race in on Sunday (Aug. 2). My return may be to your dismay, as Tom Bowles and Mike Lovecchio did a heck of a job sizing up the …
Rain forced the postponement of Sunday’s race until Monday afternoon (Aug. 3), meaning there will be no bubble chatter this week as I had to work and therefore wasn’t able to listen to the in-car radio communications during the event. I tried to get out early, but when I asked my boss if I could …
Sunday, NASCAR traveled to the hallowed halls of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in their annual attempt to show that if you take 43 stock cars and put them at one of the greatest tracks in the entire world, you really don’t get very good racing. While a caution with 30 laps to go made for …
Well, it’s that time of year where we look back at the first half of 2009 and grade our bubble teams. Keep in mind this report card is aimed at a specific subset inside the Cup garage – those in and around the cutoff for the 35 locked-in spots the series gives out each week …
Writer’s Note: I want to offer special thanks to several readers for pointing out some obvious statistical errors in last week’s column. While the errors did not change my determination of who belonged in each category, there was no excuse for them being there. Next time I wait until the 11th hour to finish this …
Rain washed out qualifying for Daytona last Friday, meaning the field was set by owner points. This was not good news for our bubble drivers, as the teams outside the Top 35 not only had to start at the rear of the field – they also had to do so in their qualifying setup, as …
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 …
Had you watched qualifying on Friday, you may have been asking yourself, “why did Scott Speed have to qualify on time while John Andretti had a guaranteed spot? NASCAR’s website has Speed in the 35th spot in points and Andretti in 36th.” The answer is simple; you were looking at the wrong standings. The Top-35 …
For the first time this season, the stars of the Sprint Cup Series leave the ovals behind for the twisty confines of a road course. The more technical of the two courses tackled by the Cup circuit, Infineon Raceway is full of tight quarters and few passing zones, making track position… and staying on the …
Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson ran out of gas on the final lap to hand a win to Mark Martin at Michigan.
Fuel mileage was again the name of the game for the second week in a row this past Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. As some of the top-15 teams dried up late and faded, three of our bubble teams were able to surge ahead as they went into conservation mode soon enough to stretch their …
I’m getting a little dizzy here. NASCAR normally moves forward with glacial process when it comes to rule changes that at times make evolution look hasty. They’ll hold study groups and meetings, generate a ton of internal memos, send up a few trial balloons in the garage while maintaining plausible deniability, and then finally issue …
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