Race Weekend Central

Holding a Pretty Wheel: Brian Vickers on the Brink of the Ride of His Life

In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. The signs were there well over a year ago – it was just a matter of time, a matter of a little more experience, a matter of a little luck. And when it mattered the most, the young driver from North Carolina (a dying breed now) found …

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Holding a Pretty Wheel: 5 Who Would Like to Forget – Who Isn’t Meeting NASCAR Expectations?

Last week in this column, I discussed the seasons of five drivers who were having a rather unpublicized good year. But there are also drivers who, while well inside the Top-35 cutoff in points, are having a season that is fraught with disappointment – the kind of year in which everyone from media to fans …

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Holding a Pretty Wheel: Diamonds in the Rough – 5 NASCAR Drivers Having a Great 2009, Not That You’ve Seen It On TV

NASCAR broadcasts these days are, as many fans complain, not exactly equitable in how they dole out airtime to drivers. While one guy (you fill in the name) will be on TV throughout the broadcast no matter where he is running, another (fill in that guy, too) might be having a great run-and you hardly …

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Holding a Pretty Wheel: Before My Brain Melts… NASCAR Thoughts for These Summer Nights

It seems as though most of the country is running hot this week, with the summer swelter of the dog days of August closing in on almost everyone. I can’t believe how fast the summer has gone; the season is more than half over, and, well, there certainly has been plenty going on lately. There …

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Holding a Pretty Wheel: Too Steep a Learning Curve Makes Too Wild a NASCAR Ride

There has been discussion lately about rushing young drivers too quickly to the top in NASCAR, because at one time in the not-too-distant past it was considered out of the ordinary for drivers younger than their mid- to late-20s to join the elite class of race drivers that is now NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. It …

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Holding a Pretty Wheel: Life Is a Team Sport, But Is NASCAR?

We’ve all heard it: the winning driver in victory lane thanking his teammates, without whom he surely could not have prevailed. Well, OK, maybe not in those exact words, because he’d sound like a dork, but you know the drill. Thank those teammates! So, how important are those teammates, really? In a perfect world, of …

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Holding a Pretty Wheel: The 2 NHMS Gems You Probably Didn’t See

LOUDON, N.H. – Each Monday in the Frontstretch newsletter, Tom Bowles brings readers the “Secret Star of the Race.” This is the driver who has a great run but gets little mention on television, not getting the credit he deserves for a strong performance. Thinking about that this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, I …

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