1. Next Gen We’ll get our first “official” look at the Next Gen car this Wednesday as all three OEMs, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, reveal their own unique looks for the 2022 Cup season. The Gen-7 car project, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is designed primarily to lower costs for teams …
1. Chasing the W In the end, after leading a race-best 276 laps, Denny Hamlin had to settle for another third place finish — his fourth of the year — at Martinsville this past weekend. The result was Hamlin’s seventh top five in eight attempts, with his other finish still being an 11th-place run that …
1. Time to Play in the Dirt I cannot wait for this weekend. Cannot. Wait. I’m endlessly fascinated to see what will happen in both races on the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt. Fair to say I’ve not anticipated regular season races quite like these two for some time — a decade or more at least. …
ONE: It Gets Late Early Out Here The great Hall of Fame Yankee catcher and 13-time World Series Champion Yogi Berra once quipped “it gets late early out here,” and it’s a Yogi-ism (as his many impromptu lines were known) that fits well with the current playoff picture. It would be fair to say there …
A Year Of Change. After a Year of Change. There’s a lot to look forward to this season. Putting the Daytona 500 to one side for a moment, we’ve got the Bristol Dirt race, a trip to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, a jaunt around Road America, a new oval in Nashville Superspeedway, …
When Matt DiBenedetto fires the engine on his No. 21 Ford for the 63nd running of the Daytona 500 next February, his second full year for the team, Wood Brothers Racing will be starting its 68th season in NASCAR, five more years of stock car longevity than the Great American Race itself. In a sporting …
A Worthy Champion Huge congratulations to Chase Elliott on his first Cup championship, matching a feat his father Bill achieved all the way back in 1988. Chase’s dominant, nerveless, winning performances at both Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway these past two weeks, all with the incessant pressure of the playoff format, showed he is a …
Broadcaster Bowyer There was a moment this weekend at Kansas Speedway that typifies the spirit of NASCAR fans in one simple image. It was a picture Clint Bowyer tweeted post-race. I think this perfectly sums up my run in @NASCAR and @kansasspeedway in particular. My fans ALWAYS have more fun than the others. Huge thank …
The Wildest Card Talladega is the dictionary definition of a wild-card stock car race — just look how many drivers got their first win there. So for those wheelmen currently on the wrong side of the cut line, this weekend offers the best possible chance at booking a spot in the final eight with a …
1. Joey, Wall. Wall, Joey. Who can forget Matt Kenseth intentionally wrecking Joey Logano at Martinsville Speedway in 2015? This favorite moment of mine was all set because Logano, who was right in the thick of the championship hunt, drew the irk of Kenseth from a previous incident at Kansas Speedway, which took out the …
Ryan Blaney Is in a Hole It’s fair to say that Ryan Blaney began the playoffs at Darlington Raceway in the worst of all possible manners. Improperly mounted ballast saw Blaney lose both his crew chief for the race and 10 of his 13 hard-earned playoff points, not to mention having to start at the …
1. Let’s Get Down to Business Now that the most unusual NASCAR regular season has been mercifully consigned to the history books, it’s time to get down to the serious business of crowning a 2020 champion. This will be the seventh time, under the final four format, that the title will be awarded as a …
