Race Weekend Central

Odds & Ends Around the Track: NASCAR Fans Love Crashes Edition

2019 Daytona Clash Cup Big One Ii Nkp

Thank you FOX Sports for such touching tributes to Darrell Waltrip. After last week’s article, I know I am in the minority who already misses DW. Whether you love or hate the man, there are not many opinions in the middle on old DW. If you weren’t moved by Stevie Waltrip’s “Letter to DW” segment, …

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Odds & Ends Around the Track: Farewell to DW Edition & Sonoma

2019 Bristol Zach Catanzareti Darrell Waltrip

(Photo: Zach Catanzareti)

This time every year NASCAR fans are ready for a change of networks. We say farewell to FOX for the season and farewell to Darrell Waltrip forever on television coverage of NASCAR. Just as he did during his racing career, DW moves the needle. Love him or hate him, you will never be bored by …

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Odds & Ends Around the Track: Trouble in Paradise Edition

2019 Michigan I Cup Ryan Blaney Corey Lajoie Bubba Wallace Football Nkp

No Cup race this weekend means itʻs time to find other ways to have fun (credit: Nigel Kinrade)

Once again NASCAR can’t win for losing! One of the best races of the year as far as on-the-track action got moved to a Monday evening slot. NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck always runs a YES/NO poll after each race, and I was shocked this race was a 50/50 split. I have been one of the …

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Odds & Ends Around the Track: Michigan I

2018 Michigan I Cup Pack Racing Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Am I the only one who remembers the difference between the two Michigan International Speedway races by what you can get at the farmer’s market near the track? The biggest issue with having the Michigan race pop up a week earlier on the schedule is that the strawberries are not ready yet. This first race, …

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Odds & Ends Around the Track: Pocono I

Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

All this talk about NASCAR needing shorter races before the Coca-Cola 600, and yet afterward everyone had to be saying, “Give me more of that!” The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers put on one heck of a show as the final course in an all-day auto racing feast. The Grand Prix of Monaco was …

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Odds and Ends Around the Track: World 600

2019 Daytona I Cup Denny Hamlin Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Forgive me, but this is one of the weeks during the NASCAR schedule when us “old-school” NASCAR fans reminisce about bygone names for classic races. The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway started as the “World 600,” and just like the old Fire Cracker 400, it’s almost impossible for me not to slip when talking …

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Odds and Ends Around the Track: Monster Energy All-Star Race

2019 Atlanta Cup Kevin Harvick Rodney Childers Nkp

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Kevin Harvick won 14 races over the last three seasons going into this year. He may have won another five or six if his pit crew had not let him down. Last weekend at Kansas Speedway, Harvick found yet another way to grab defeat from the jaws of victory when after leading 104 of the …

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Odds and Ends Around the Track: Kansas Spring

2019 Dover Cup Zach Catanzareti Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

(Photo: Zach Catanzareti)

The toughest thing in auto racing is trying to put the technology genie back in the bottle. When I first received NASCAR credentials back in 2001, I recall being excited about going to my first NASCAR test at North Carolina Speedway, now known as Rockingham Speedway. Watching teams of mechanics trying all kinds of mechanical …

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Odds & Ends Around the Track: Dover Spring

2019 Las Vegas I Cup Daniel Suarez Nkp

Odds & Ends Around the Track: Dover Spring Dover International Speedway used to be a beast of a track with the unexpected accident changing the whole dynamic of the race because every wreck there could turn into a big one. In the last few years, the racing has gotten more ordinary, but just when you …

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Odds and Ends Around the Track: Talladega Spring

2018 Joey Logano Talladega Cup

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

It appears I might not be welcome again at family events after my Easter dinner extravaganza with the soon to be new in-laws. They are NASCAR fans but they didn’t take too kindly when I brought my own Easter eggs painted in NASCAR colors along with a custom made high-banked track that was patterned after …

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Odds and Ends Around the Track: Richmond Spring

2019 Bristol Zach Catanzareti Cup Joey Logano

(Photo: Zach Catanzareti)

Odds and Ends Around the Track: Richmond Raceway Spring Usually, I am part of the “Stop Looking at the Empty Seats” group, but last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway should be used as the evidence on how bad things have gotten. Despite closing down the corner grandstands, the empty seats on both the backstretch and …

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Odds and Ends Around the Track: Bristol Spring

Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Odds and Ends Around the Track: Bristol Motor Speedway Spring There is some sort of NASCAR-history-poetry-in-motion thing that we are discussing Darrell Waltrip before heading to Bristol Motor Speedway. Nobody had more wins there than DW, with 12 in his career and a mind-blowing seven in a row. Nothing ticks me off more than when …

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