Race Weekend Central

Beside The Rising Tide: 1313 Turkey Court

Fans, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Sonoma 2018

(Photo: Danny Peters)

Editor’s Note: Matt McLaughlin’s off this week. Enjoy one of his classic columns on the eve of another Pocono Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. While I enjoy stock car racing at Pocono, race weekends at the track are also tinged with a bit of melancholy. For more years than I care to recall, all my …

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Beside the Rising Tide: It’s Summertime and the Living is Easy

2017 Phoenix Ii Cup Pack Racing Matthew T Thacker Nkp

(Photo: Matthew T. Thacker/NKP)

It’s summertime and the living is easy, The fish are a jumping and the cotton is high…. Yep, there’s no doubt about it, it’s summertime here in the northeast. Although absent any local cotton fields, I can’t attest to the state of this year’s crop and the fish, in fact, seem to have gone missing …

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25 Years Later: Remembering Davey Allison, Part II

Allison Petty

(Photo: LJworld.com)

Editor’s Note: For Part One of Matt’s retrospective on Davey Allison, click here. Robert Yates Racing and the team’s talented young driver Davey Allison made their official debut at the 1989 Daytona 500. Things got off to an inauspicious start. Davey was running well when Geoff Bodine got into his rear bumper and sent the …

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25 Years Later: Remembering Davey Allison, Part I

Davey Allison

(Photo: Motorsports Images & Archives)

Editor’s Note: July 13 marks 25 years to the day NASCAR lost a shining light, Davey Allison. Allison passed away shortly after crashing his helicopter at Talladega Superspeedway, an accident that also seriously injured good friend and racer Red Farmer. Matt McLaughlin looks back on the man who became the centerpiece of a famous racing …

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Beside the Rising Tide: Ready, Aim, D’Oh!

Nascar Xfinity Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

I find myself wondering if, somewhere in the sphere of the black helicopter conspiracy types and Armageddon survivalists, someone has developed a pair of bulletproof tactical boots. If so, they need to send a crate of those boots to Daytona Beach ASAP. With unerring regularity, it seems every time a NASCAR official is placed in …

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Beside the Rising Tide: A Heat Wave of NASCAR Random Thoughts

2016 Chicago Cup Kyle Busch Celebrates Nkp

Today’s column (July 3) is based on empirical and indisputable fact. As I write this column at 10 o’clock Monday morning, it’s already 89 degrees and so humid you couldn’t strike a kitchen match. The G key on my keyboard sticks a little and my left index finger is sweating trying to type those Gs. …

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Beside the Rising Tide: Same Trough, More Snouts

2018 Michigan I Cup Pack Racing Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

“May you live in interesting times.” Most of us have heard this blessing that is, upon further analysis, actually a bit of a curse. Some ascribe the saying to the Arabs while most claim it is an ancient Chinese curse. (That notion has become prevalent based on it being used in Star Trek. And not …

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Beside the Rising Tide: NASCAR & the Wall of Death

Wall Of Death

Photographer Unknown

This week’s column will take a decidedly different tack based not on opinion, but on undeniable fact. However the vast majority of fans, drivers, NASCAR officials, fellow pundits, or team owners feel about it, indisputably the NASCAR Cup series takes next weekend off. Based on all empirical evidence gathered by studying data over the last …

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Beside the Rising Tide: Seismic Shifts Ahead

Pack Racing Michigan

(Photo: NASCAR via Getty Images)

Growing up a hardcore gearhead as a kid, I dreamed of one day relocating to Los Angeles. That’s where all the car guys were, as evidenced by the editorial headquarters of Hot Rod magazine, the automotive pornography I studied more intently than any textbook in grade school. The girls in L.A. were all pretty and …

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Beside the Rising Tide: A Less-Than-Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

1998 Charlotte I Cup Jeff Gordon Ward Burton Pack Racing Nigel Kinrade Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade/NKP)

It was 20 years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play Since then they’ve been going in and out of style But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile. Being old is one thing. Feeling old is another thing entirely. For the smaller percentage of you who were around at the time, Sunday marked …

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Beside the Rising Tide: Brian France’s Spring Semester Science Fair Project

#4: Kevin Harvick, Stewart Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Jimmy John's And #19: Daniel Suarez, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry Arris Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Say what you will about NASCAR’s 2018 Monster Energy All-Star Race but there’s no arguing it’s over. Or is it? If nothing else, we’ve gotten a glimpse of their new aero and restrictor plate package. It’s developed with an eye towards making racing on the intermediate tracks more palatable than the typically sedate parades we …

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Beside the Rising Tide: NASCAR, The Price Is Right

2017 Phoenix Ii Cup Pack Racing Matthew T Thacker Nkp

(Photo: Matthew T. Thacker/NKP)

Dear NASCAR, Well, you certainly caught us all off guard last week with the news you’ve put out feelers about selling the whole Magical Mystery Tour that is contemporary NASCAR racing. After much deliberation I’ve decided that I’d be the perfect new owner. No, I haven’t got much of a financial stake in the sport …

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