Matt McLaughlin

Remembering Tim Richmond, Part I Tim Richmond was back with the Blue Max team for 1985, though there had been some friction within the team. A lot of people in the know were saying Richmond was a better driver than the equipment he had allowed him to show, while others …

It’s been over two decades now since Tim Richmond last competed in a Winston Cup race. There’s little mention of him in NASCAR’s official literature, and if you’re a new race fan, sadly, you may never even have heard of his name aside from ESPN‘s 30 for 30 documentary a …

Sadly there are just three short tracks left on the contemporary NASCAR Cup schedule; Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond. I cherish all three of these racetracks and am blessed to have attended races at all of them, some of the finest races I’ve ever gone to. While all are short tracks …

Beside The Rising Tide: A Look Back At Darrell Waltrip, Part I… ‘Lady, I Am The Show’ Potential break Junior might have gotten more than he bargained for when he went to sign his own contracts with Waltrip. Junior was about as old school as anyone left in the sport …

Friends, charlatans, NASCAR fans, I come here today not to praise to Darrell Waltrip but to bury him. OK, that’s a bit harsh. I wish ill upon no one. But last week, three-time NASCAR Cup champion, and the chief architect of NASCAR on FOX’s 19 years of aural terrorism, Darrell …

One of the things that changes as a soul grows older (as opposed to growing up) is an increasing dislike for changes. Things are as they are and they’re just fine that way. But some changes are inevitable and even necessary. Unless you went into full Luddite mode last week, …

At the risk of repeating myself, there’s nothing so wrong with the new NASCAR that an old racetrack can’t fix it. Over the last 70 years, Martinsville has earned its reputation as consistently one of the finest on the circuit. If we are to take into account the “Matt Factor” …

First this week: A brief (and rare) personal note.  Friday Nancy Buckwalter went home to the loving arms of her Savior. Nancy was the sister of my friend Creig Ballantine and mother of local 410 Sprint Car ace Timmy Buckwalter. She was the beloved Matriarch of the Buckwalter Racing team. …

Discussion as to whether last week’s Vegas Cup race was a good one or a poor one did something that the race itself failed to do. It evoked passion. As we discussed last week the hype about the (one of the new) race packages might have had some of our …

Some weeks a topic for my weekly column is self-evident and screams for attention. Some weeks (Hell, most weeks) I hear more of a whisper….or the sounds of silence. Thus this week I present some random notes based on topics I scribbled down in my notebook over the course of …