Race Weekend Central

Happiness Is: The Glen, Gluck & Financials

2018 Cup New Hampshire Zach Catanzareti Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin, when not staring at his dash clock (Photo: Zach Catanzareti)

The regular season now consists of five remaining races.  That’s right, you should congratulate yourself on making it through 21 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup races already this season — at times, it hasn’t been easy. Of course, making remarks like that would just seem to add to the notion that the season is too long …

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Happiness Is: Crickets, Compounds & Hungary

Pj1 Logo

PJ1 Trackbite - the saving grace for NASCAR? (credit: PJ1)

A reader noted that last week Happiness had posted information about the wrong Formula One grand prix. I made the error and corrected the column as soon as I saw the response, but it says something about fans of motorsports. You could call it being keen-eyed and passionate. The focus here isnʻt to note a …

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Happiness Is: Track Length, Kenseth & Germany

#78: Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing, Toyota Camry Auto Owners Insurance Leads The Field Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

The Cup race at Kentucky (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

No fluff this week, just happiness. Enjoy. Letʻs get happy.   Happiness Is…Distance.  The adage is that distance makes the heart grow fonder. Thatʻs a positive spin on the problems that distance can bring in any relationship. Of course, distance can also encourage a wandering eye and dissolution of the relationship, that one where distance …

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Happiness Is: Numbers

2018 Pocono Cup Zach Catanzareti Martin Truex Jr

Martin Truex Jr, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano(Photo: Zach Catanzareti)

The major motorsport shows were all on stage this past weekend as NASCAR, Formula 1 and IndyCar all played around, made some noise and laid some rubber — with a little bit of carnage included. Combined, all three provided an interesting, disparate and engaging display of racing and culture. That seems like a pretty good …

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Happiness Is: Fireworks, Family Fracas & Roots

#42: Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet Camaro Credit One Bank Spins After Contact With #18: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry Skittles Red White & Blue Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

Kyle Busch & Kyle Larson at Chicagoland, 2018 (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

The Fourth of July gave many people a midweek summer respite, a chance for food, fun, family (however you consider it), and likely fireworks of some sort.  For those who are able to enjoy taking the rest of the week off, cheers. For everyone else whoʻs back at the grind, do what you can. The …

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Happiness Is: Axioms, Divos & Bowie

Chase Elliott 2018 Mencs Cup Series, Sonoma

Chase Elliott (Photo: Danny Peters)

We just had an interesting weekend of racing with Formula 1 returning to France, IndyCar racing at Road America in Wisconsin and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series running rampant near Californiaʻs wine country. That put all three series on road-course specific tracks, and all three seemed to bring about a similar sense of racing. …

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Happiness Is: A Break & Open Wheel

#14: Clint Bowyer, Stewart Haas Racing, Chevrolet Camaro Haas 30 Years Of The Vf1 Celebrates In Victory Lane Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Since when did Michigan become Pocono — aren’t rain-shortened races the pride of the Pennsylvania track?  No matter. So now we head into an off weekend with that race at Michigan being the last memory. No wonder people are concerned about the ratings.   No worries, race-winner Clint Bowyer is here to keep things interesting: …

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Happiness Is: Half, TTs & Maple Leaves

2018 Cup Dover Zach Catanzareti Jimmie Johnson Chad Knaus

(Photo: Zach Catanzareti)

No pithy babbling to get the column going this week.  Just meat and potatoes. Or kale and tofu. Enjoy. Let’s get happy.   Happiness Is…Half.  The Cup race last weekend at Pocono Raceway signaled the second half of the ‘regular’ season has begun, and with it the top of the pecking order has become rather …

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Happiness Is: Packages, Miles & A Finale

Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series Daytona 500 Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fl Usa Sunday 11 February 2018 Danica Patrick, Premium Motorsports, Godaddy Chevrolet Camaro World Copyright: Nigel Kinrade Nkp

Bon Voyage, Danica (Photo: Nigel Kinrade/NKP)

The announcement for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, class of 2019, seemed to come out of nowhere.  That doesn’t mean that it probably hadn’t been on the docket for months, but rather that it does bring a kind of funny realization.  It’s the kind of feeling that comes as no real surprise yet at the …

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Happiness Is: Connections & Technology

Mirrors

Ferrari's mirrors turned out to be a little too un-mirror-like (credit: Getty Images)

It’s that time of year again when NASCAR stays near its home and plays in the backyard.  It’s a metaphorical backyard cookout, complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, probably someone who whines, and the unsatisfactory feeling that once it ends that you don’t feel either full or at peace with yourself.  The food tasted …

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Happiness Is: Quiet, Pastels & Forgotten Names

#22: Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Shell Pennzoil And #21: Paul Menard, Wood Brothers Racing, Ford Fusion Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

Joey Logano leading a quiet race (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Spencer Gallagher won the first race of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career this past Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.  The ebullient driver, raw and giddiness exuded palpapatle joy during his post-race interview.   The reaction from other drivers and those calling the broadcast, which should be noted were other drivers, also seemed to embrace the win, …

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Happiness Is: Caring, Shoey & 45

Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade / NKP)

So there’s been some little bits of news this weekend in NASCAR-land but nothing that would count as earth-shaking.  The news that Ford will be switching to the Mustang in the Cup series for the 2019 season tops the list, however. While this announcement may have been spoiled earlier in the year it still doesn’t …

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