FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Carl Edwards has found a way to try to mask the frustration of his winless NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
After the ghoulish Halloween madness at the biggest baddest track of them all, a return to a cookie cutter venue at Texas Motor Speedway will bring some much needed normalcy to the Sprint Cup this weekend. Just three races remain on the 2009 slate and for some, the end of the season can't come soon enough.
What's the best way to push criticism out of today's sports news cycle?
Somewhere in a grungy little warehouse, those counterfeit T-shirts are being disgorged from a press. The slogan will be tacky and obviously unauthorized, but the shirt will sell well enough when they show up in the camper lot at Ft. Worth, Texas, or Avondale, Ariz. Might as well get a head start, because Jimmie Johnson has apparently put this NASCAR Sprint Cup title chase away.
This article appears in the November 9, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Based upon how it's turned out, this has been a pretty mild and tame Sprint Cup season in terms of driver movement and drivers entering the series -- the so-called silly season.
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The more NASCAR tinkers with Talladega, the more mayhem ensues.
It's entirely appropriate that the NASCAR circus swings through Talladega over Halloween weekend. If ever there were a venue that gave drivers heart palpitations, visions of disaster and sweat-soaked nightmares, it would surely be the 2.66 mile-long behemoth in Alabama. With the restrictor plates reduced in size ( by 1/64th of an inch) this weekend, in order to prevent Carl Edwards' Ricky Bobby style crash in the spring race, the net result of this reduction will be a drop of between 12 and 15 horsepower, bunching the cars even more uncomfortably closer together than before.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Carl Edwards has found a way to try to mask the frustration of his winless NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
After the ghoulish Halloween madness at the biggest baddest track of them all, a return to a cookie cutter venue at Texas Motor Speedway will bring some much needed normalcy to the Sprint Cup this weekend. Just three races remain on the 2009 slate and for some, the end of the season can't come soon enough.
What's the best way to push criticism out of today's sports news cycle?
Somewhere in a grungy little warehouse, those counterfeit T-shirts are being disgorged from a press. The slogan will be tacky and obviously unauthorized, but the shirt will sell well enough when they show up in the camper lot at Ft. Worth, Texas, or Avondale, Ariz. Might as well get a head start, because Jimmie Johnson has apparently put this NASCAR Sprint Cup title chase away.
This article appears in the November 9, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Based upon how it's turned out, this has been a pretty mild and tame Sprint Cup season in terms of driver movement and drivers entering the series -- the so-called silly season.
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The more NASCAR tinkers with Talladega, the more mayhem ensues.
It's entirely appropriate that the NASCAR circus swings through Talladega over Halloween weekend. If ever there were a venue that gave drivers heart palpitations, visions of disaster and sweat-soaked nightmares, it would surely be the 2.66 mile-long behemoth in Alabama. With the restrictor plates reduced in size ( by 1/64th of an inch) this weekend, in order to prevent Carl Edwards' Ricky Bobby style crash in the spring race, the net result of this reduction will be a drop of between 12 and 15 horsepower, bunching the cars even more uncomfortably closer together than before.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
As NASCAR heads to Talladega this Sunday, the Cup Series will conclude its 22nd consecutive year of "restrictor plate racing." Designed to slow speeds on the circuit's two fastest tracks, Daytona and Talladega, restrictor plate racing is a temporary solution to an age old question: how can NASCAR keep drivers safe while leaving competition and innovation intact?
There is something intoxicating about an interview session with Felix Sabates. Four or five reporters, a dozen or so questions, couple of easy set-ups for some zingers, good times.
KOONTZ LAKE, Indiana -- There's an old legend that Talladega Superspeedway has been cursed because it is built near a Native American burial ground. Since the 2.66-mile track opened in 1969, its races have been grim, dark spectacles where disaster and calamity lurk on nearly every lap.
As the Chase hits the halfway mark, it might as well be named the Hendrick Memorial Parade. Their cars hold the top three spots in points, with Tony Stewart's HMS-supported Chevy a solid fourth. Barring a major catastrophe, driver Jimmie Johnson will win his fourth straight title -- which would be the ninth overall for the organization since 1995. It's the type of dominance that should keep anyone signing on the dotted line for years to come, right?
Max Siegel nearly bought himself a NASCAR team five years ago. Along with partners Reggie White, Ronnie Lott and Eddie DeBartolo, he was within two weeks and a few pen strokes of completing a deal to purchase what was then MB2 Motorsports. But White's death in December of 2004 scuttled the deal. "Reggie was my best friend, man. He married my wife and I," Siegel said. "It was amazing to see him the last few days of his life so excited about something."
Jimmie Johnson has turned "The Chase" into NASCAR's version of Groundhog Day.
In a week where the inaugural class of NASCAR's inaugural Hall of Fame was announced it seems entirely appropriate that the circus swings through Charlotte and the sport's spiritual home base, for race number five of the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup.
I don't usually take a rooting interest in Cup races, so I was a bit surprised to find myself feeling a bit sorry for Denny Hamlin after his mistake late in the race at Fontana last Sunday.
Kasey Kahne speaks about the Chase.
Tony Stewart rescued his Sprint Cup championship hopes with a stirring, determined and opportunistic drive in the final 55 laps at the Auto Club Speedway. Sure, he had some good luck, catching that caution after getting the wave around to get back on the lead lap, but this was classic Tony Stewart in championship mode. He took a potentially devastating situation and transformed it into the best possible result.
Six drivers sit within a mere 114 markers of points leader Mark Martin as the Sprint Cup circuit swings into Auto Club Speedway for the fourth race of the Chase and the 30th race on a 36th race schedule. A 2-mile D-shaped circuit with multiple racing grooves and just 14 degrees of banking in the turns, the same as Kansas last week, drivers that run well here typically perform strongly at Michigan which is considered to be a sister track. So it's worth looking at the results from both those races as well as the second race of the 2009 season, held at ACS, when selecting your lineups this week.
Can anyone stop the Hendrick juggernaut?
"The key to change ... is to let go of fear." -- Rosanne Cash
For Casey Mears it's a risk worth taking.
Five things we learned on a cool autumn day at Kansas Speedway:
Maybe drivers other than Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson in NASCAR's "Chase for the Championship" should approach the rest of the season like a dieter trying to shed excess weight:
The two most popular drivers in auto racing -- Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -- may soon be involved in a limited NASCAR arrangement, NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick confirmed to SI.com.
Heading into Kansas this weekend, Mark Martin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kasey Kahne sit first, third, and 12th in points, respectively. Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits 22nd. At the end of the year, they'd all better send Junior a really nice thank you card.
He may not be the points leader, but after wasting the competition in Sunday's race at Dover, Jimmie Johnson may be ready to say "Game Over" in this year's Chase for the Championship.
Five things we learned as the Chase field wrapped up the second of its 10 races.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Danica Patrick signed a three-year contract to remain at Andretti Green Racing in the IndyCar Series, according to team and IndyCar sources.
On Sunday in Loudon, Denny Hamlin may have unknowingly gotten his big break.
TOKYO -- Three drivers separated by just eight points heading into the final race of the season with a championship on the line. That's what the IndyCar Series has coming up with its winner-take-all season-finale in South Florida on Oct. 10.
Five drivers. That's how many, in my book, that have a realistic shot of winning the Sprint Cup championship. But as the circuit heads to New Hampshire on Sunday for Chase race No. 1, one thing is clear: Jimmie Johnson, the three-time defending champion, is still the man to beat.
Jimmie Johnson has been here before, as the perennial contender denied, the champion, and twice the defender. Now the Sprint Cup champion begins what would be a historic defense, a quest for a fourth consecutive title, a feat unprecedented in NASCAR and most of major motorsports. Former Champ Car dominator Sebastien Bourdais comprises the club in North America right now.
Ryan Newman hadn't been in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship since 2005, and it wasn't expected in the first season of Stewart-Haas Racing. But the Rocketman has re-entered the 10-race playoff thanks to a composed and gutsy run to 10th at Richmond that put him 77 points in front of 13th-placed Kyle Busch.
RICHMOND, Va. -- This may well be the year in which Jimmie Johnson's streak of consecutive Sprint Cup championships ends. Maybe Tony Stewart continues his impressive season to claim a third title and his first as an owner/driver. Or perhaps 50-year-old Mark Martin finally gets his first Cup championship. The next 10 races will tell the story, beginning Sunday at Loudon, N.H., but rest assured that three-time defending champion Johnson heads into the Chase with the target on his back, even if he doesn't see himself as the favorite.
Five things we learned on Saturday night at Richmond in the final race of the regular season:
NASCAR's competitive universe continues to shrink. And it might be the best thing that's happened to Richard Petty in a long time.
Editor's Note: This column was written at the end of August, but drivers' positions in the standings are current entering Richmond this week.
As we head to Richmond this weekend, the most competitive Chase race in history will feature 11 drivers in a quest for the final eight spots in the 12-car field. With just 105 points separating fifth-place Carl Edwards from Brian Vickers in 13th, that leaves dozens of potential playoff scenarios. There's only one thing we know for sure among the madness: it's the best possible scenario for a sport that's been all too predictable in recent years.
Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers have taken wildly divergent paths since leaving Hendrick Motorsports -- one on his own volition, one forced out to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- After a successful Labor Day weekend race at Atlanta Motor Speedway that drew perhaps the track's biggest crowd this decade, the pressure to make the Chase is increasing on one of the biggest names in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.
Five things we learned this weekend in Atlanta:
A small news story has me thinking big things about NASCAR this week. And to think, it all revolves around something as simple as a number.
Brad Keselowski was 80 miles off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla., and still couldn't find a place where Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't command the room. Or in this case, deck. It was Keselowski, not his boss and mentor, that actually drove the Navy-sponsored Chevrolet in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. So this visit in May, 2008, to aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt should have been a home game. He knew better. Earnhardt Jr. was the show, the attraction, the one sailors and air bosses packed into hallways and into a crowded galleys to chat with it, to nervously hand a pen and sundry pieces of memorabilia that wouldn't figure to make it aboard a warship.
A lot of people will fault Brad Keselowski after signing with Roger Penske Racing for 2010 instead of sticking with powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports. But there's no question this move was the best he could have made under the circumstances.
After listening to Marcos Ambrose explain his racing background in the post-race media conference at Kansas Speedway in early July 2006, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series veteran driver Rick Crawford, seated on the stage a few feet away, walked over to the Australian and shook his hand.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Weekend off?
There apparently is a reason they actually run the races. And whereas we don't always know as much as we think about any particular sport, racing seems to have a special way of shredding the virtual certainties we concoct in our minds.
SONOMA, Calif. -- As NASCAR Sprint Cup prepares for a rare weekend off, the drivers battling for the 12th and final spot in the Chase for the Championship have a chance to pause -- and feel anxious.
Five things we learned under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night in the Sharpie 500:
With the race for the Chase heating up, media attention has understandably shifted to the 15 or so men fighting for a dozen playoff spots. But before the playoff push overwhelms the rest of the field, there are a handful of others we need to salute. They may not be competing for this season-ending trophy, but by this time next year, they could be in the thick of the Chase hunt.
Five things we learned on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway:
KOONTZ LAKE, Ind. -- With just three races remaining before the Chase, NASCAR has its own version of "Trading Spaces."
For years, NASCAR's success on the race track has been synonymous with Fords in Victory Lane. With nearly 600 wins over six decades of Cup Series competition, Ford has been one of NASCAR's dominant forces.
The fine folks at my favorite NASCAR blog, All Left Turns have a very interesting probability table that analyzes the Chase-qualifying chances of several drivers. I'm not too sure about the methodology, but the table does confirm what most of us already know: Kyle Busch is just about the only driver outside of the top 12 with a decent chance (43 percent to be exact) of making the Cup series' postseason.
The boy of summer will soon meet the legend of the fall. It should be an interesting championship season.
It's very hard to believe, but 22 races into the Sprint Cup season, Carl Edwards hasn't done a single backflip, his signature victory celebration. It's even more difficult to believe considering he had nine wins -- the most in the series -- in 2008.
Five things we learned on Monday in upstate New York at Watkins Glen International:
We spend a lot of time here at Racing Fan obsessing over the Cup series and all of its attendant drama. But the recent accomplishments of one Ron Hornaday Jr. cannot be ignored. The man has won five straight races in the Camping World Truck Series, the most in NASCAR's modern era, which began in 1972. Richard Petty won 10 straight races in 1967, and five in a row in 1971. Bobby Allison also won five in a row that year.
Heading to Watkins Glen this weekend, Jimmie Johnson is basking in the glow of a miraculous 13th-place finish that could have ended up far worse. Making up 20 spots in the final 20 laps of the race, the No. 48's charge through the field was fascinating television as he made mincemeat out of his competition in the final few circuits. Coming from three-laps down in the final 150 miles, Johnson's comeback was the racing equivalent of getting away with murder.
NASCAR heads to Pocono this weekend, the site of the sport's latest effort to spice up competition: double-file restarts. Now eight-weeks old, the move debuted with great fanfare, and has been lauded by most in the garage.
For five years, Aric Almirola's NASCAR career sailed along smoothly. Signed to a development contract by Joe Gibbs Racing, he started in the Late Model Whelen All-American Series in 2004 and advanced through Camping World Trucks and Nationwide to Sprint Cup. He began this season in Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's No. 8, the Chevrolet that Dale Earnhardt Jr. made famous.
EDMONTON, Alberta --There are 1,823 miles between Indianapolis and this prairie city, where streaks of summer sunlight remain until 11:30 p.m. But on Sunday, there was more than just passing interest among the IndyCar Series community with Sunday's AllState 400 at the Brickyard NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Five things we learned on Sunday at the Brickyard, the most historic track in America.
Kyle Busch's 2009 is a tale of two seasons.
With midsummer already upon us, there's a lot of talk about what's going to happen to drivers, teams, and owners for 2010 and beyond. But in a sport in which news and rumors are now a 24/7 business, we often forget to stop and think about how the changes made during last Silly Season panned out.
KOONTZ LAKE, Ind. -- There's a lot on the line at Sunday's AllState 400 at the Brickyard -- NASCAR's annual trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Simply put, there are three entities that cannot afford to fail -- NASCAR, Goodyear and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself.
TORONTO -- Call this week's column the "Feud Edition" as driver squabbles in Saturday night's NASCAR race at Chicagoland and a revival of the Paul Tracy-Helio Castroneves feud in Sunday's IndyCar Series race gave race fans some added entertainment.
It seems all roads are leading to Stewart-Haas Racing these days.
It's that time again! The Bowlesy Awards have made it to a fourth year, recognizing the good, the bad and the ugly that has been the 2009 Sprint Cup season to date. This semi-annual checkup happens each July and December, and recognizes a select number of stock car drivers on their accomplishments -- or lack thereof.
With Martin Truex Jr.'s declaration Tuesday that he's leaving next season for Michael Waltrip Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing faces a hiring decision critical to the future of the organization.
Five things we learned under the lights on Saturday night at Daytona:
I first caught Scott Speed's act last January, when I was in Charlotte for NASCAR's annual preseason media tour. It was an evening Red Bull event, and Speed addressed the press from a comfy couch, wearing shades and a button-down shirt open to about mid-torso. The California native, who was coming off of a two-year stint on the F1 circuit (where he went winless in 28 starts), seemed very conscious of projecting a laid-back vibe, greeting the media with, "What up, dog?"
In reading over the decision yesterday to grant a temporary injunction allowing Jeremy Mayfield to race, the song that came to mind was REM's "Everybody Hurts."
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- The driver known as Sliced Bread popped out of the toaster earlier than anybody realistically expected by winning Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire.
These are tough days at Richard Childress Racing. Last November at Texas, I met with Childress to discuss the state of the U.S. economy and its impact on NASCAR. Something that he said -- really, something that he kept hammering home -- during our conversation recently occurred to me while I was perusing the current standings (no RCR driver ranks higher than 15th).
The two biggest racing series in the world, Formula 1 and NASCAR, don't have much in common. NASCAR's big, bulky stock cars pale in comparison to F1's open-wheel marvels of engineering precision, with the wind tunnel meaning just as much to a team's finish as the driver in the cockpit. With side-by-side racing difficult in F1, there are more lead changes in one stock car race than there are in one-third of an F1 season.
Richard Petty is a man of iconic imagery. He is to NASCAR what Jerry West is to the NBA. He could be the logo, too.
Compared to the past three Sprint Cup seasons, Richard Childress Racing has been mired in a slump. With 10 races remaining before the Chase, none of its four drivers are in the top 12. Jeff Burton (15th in the points and 46 behind current final qualifier Juan Pablo Montoya) and Clint Bowyer (16th and 65 back), still have a chance, but Casey Mears (21st and 300 back) and Kevin Harvick (25th and 380 back) really don't.
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