Race Weekend Central

Sprint Cup Rookie Report: Joey Logano’s Inadvertent Pit Call Leads to a Top-10 Finish

It was a day where Joey Logano reminded us that he was still a rookie and then demonstrated how much he has grown as a driver by recovering from it. After running in the top 15 for most of the race, miscommunication put the driver in the precarious position of being up front but having to pit off sequence.

Bubble Breakdown: Underdog Bubbles Burst While John Andretti Beats Scott Speed on Fuel Mileage

The last few weeks, John Andretti’s radio has been a little livelier than normal. Instead of just lap times and car positioning, John has been requesting to know where the No. 82 car is on the track. That’s because Red Bull Toyota has beaten Andretti’s No. 34 Chevrolet the last three races, slowly closing the …

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Bubble Breakdown: Scott Speed Slowly Chipping Away at John Andretti’s Lead

I am gonna start this week’s column with a bit of advice, as I know many of you attend races and even camp at the track like I do. So if you are camping at the race, and they come over the PA system and warn of impending severe thunderstorms, go take down your 30-foot …

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Sprint Cup Rookie Report: Yellow Tail & Lambrusco Pace the Rookie Field at NASCAR’s Wine & Cheese Event

Well, once again we were forced to wait until Monday for the race because for some reason NASCAR feels that it is absolutely necessary to get the entire pre-race show in. I remember back in the day, flipping the race on at 12:30 p.m., expecting to see the pre-race show, and instead found the pace laps in progress because weather was threatening. Guess we’ll never see that kind of common sense anymore… but I digress.

Bubble Breakdown: Tempers Flare Between David Stremme & Robby Gordon at Pocono

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 …

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Sprint Cup Rookie Report: Scott Speed Finds His Lucky Charms in the Pocono Mountains

Scott Speed Start: 37th; Finish: 23rd Summary: It became apparent in the first quarter of the Pennsylvania 500 that Scott Speed was going to have a good day when he progressed forward from his 37th qualifying position instead of falling back as has been the case several times this year. The No. 82 broke into …

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Bowles-Eye View: Don’t Let Pocono Rain On Your Parade – Some Sunday Highlights From the Track

While Pocono’s 500-miler was pushed back a day, the rain couldn’t do the same to my deadline. So while I’d love to write on the race itself, instead I started this Sunday night (Aug. 2) staring at a blank page after “start your engines” became “stop those weepers!” That left us with hours upon hours …

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Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in Sprint Cup: 2009 Brickyard 400 Edition

Jimmie Johnson may have come from out of nowhere to claim his second consecutive Brickyard 400, but the three-time defending has been RED HOT as of late.

Sprint Cup Rookie Report: No Primary Engine? No Problem for Joey Logano at Indy

Joey Logano Start: 18th; Finish: 12th Summary: The Allstate 400 qualifying order will credit Joey Logano with a top-20 starting position but in reality, the rookie was forced to take the green flag from the tail end of the field following an engine change earlier in the weekend. After jokingly stating the only direction he …

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Bubble Breakdown: Scott Speed Wins the Indy Battle, But John Andretti Winning the War

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 …

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Scott Speed Driver Diary: Getting Hitched, Danica & Racing With Kyle in Cars & on Dolphins!

First off, I have to say that things are going quite well in my first week of marriage. Amanda and I tied the knot over the off-weekend and everything worked out well. The weather was good, which was important because it was an outside ceremony. We’ll have to wait a little bit for our honeymoon …

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