A Hero, Defined To many people, race car drivers are heroes, and it’s a thought echoed in the famous old Ernest Hemingway quote: “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” And yes, on some levels, what drivers do could be considered …

Taking Stock With nine races in the books – a quarter of the way through the full season — and an off weekend ahead, it seems like an opportune moment to take stock on the season so far with some quick hot takes. First things first, two teams have sprung …

The Young Guns Need Some Wins After a day that started from the pole, 38 laps led and a good deal of optimism, Sunday’s Bristol race saw Chase Elliott finish 11th after some crash damage. Ryan Blaney, meanwhile, led 158 laps and finished a creditable fourth — no one, by …

Strong Start for Denny Hamlin For the first time since all the way back in 2010, Denny Hamlin won at Texas Motor Speedway — his second win in seven races this season, and statistically his best start to a season in 14 years of running full-time at the Cup level. …

Same Old, Same Old Look back at the standings after the sixth race of 2018 and you’ll see much of the same as we do today. In fact, nine of the top 11 drivers are exactly the same and just like last year, we’ve had four winners thus far, the …

Martinsville Madness In the interests of full disclosure, there isn’t a track I enjoy more than the iconic Martinsville Speedway. For each of the last 12 seasons, I have had the pleasure of writing about the famed old paper clip. I like to make note of the fact that Martinsville …

One: 199 Not Out On September 4, 2005, Kyle Busch won his first ever Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in the Sony HD 500 at Auto Club Speedway. Coincidentally, it was first race I ever watched when I discovered NASCAR through my then day job in advertising (which is …

A Crucial Race There is an argument to be made that this Sunday’s 400-miler at Las Vegas Motor Speedway might just be one of the most important races in NASCAR’s recent history. With the 2019 package due to made its “full debut,” the drivers, teams and fans will all be …

DoItForJD: There are rare moments in sport that transcend the regular joy of victory and bitter taste of defeat and Sunday’s win for Denny Hamlin and the entire Joe Gibbs family was a good example. Just one short month ago, the sport lost J.D. Gibbs, just 49 years of age, …

In his sixth full season at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series level, Roush Fenway Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. regressed a touch. That came after a career year in 2017 which included his first two victories at the top echelon in a stretch of just eight midseason races. His maiden …