Matt McLaughlin

While I’m hardly prehistoric, this old world of ours is, in fact, a very different place than where I grew up. Thanks to my lifelong fascination with fast, loud cars, I recall back in the days when car makers released new or improved car models in September. Back then, there …

The Key Moment Denny Hamlin took the lead from Clint Bowyer by pitting two laps earlier than the No. 14. He seemed to have the car to beat Bowyer when a pair of backmarkers, Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt, wrecked with six laps to go and bought out a caution. …

Don’t you hate when that happens? There’s two events you’re eager to participate in and they invariably end up scheduled for the same date and time. For years I’ve dealt with that issue with one of my sister’s birthday parties falling on or around the same day as the Daytona …

Kasey Kahne’s decision to retire Thursday (Aug. 16) from full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing took me by complete surprise. It is perhaps overstating the moment to say it sent shockwaves through the sport. But at very least, it sent large ripples across a pool of eligible drivers trying to make …

Author’s Note: Monday marked the 29th Anniversary of Tim Richmond’s death. Thus there is an entire generation of new fans who never got to see Richmond’s artistry at the wheel on the road courses or his epic Southern 500 win on a rain slick track in Darlington in 1986, perhaps …

BRIAN FRANCE NEWS Some of you will be surprised that I didn’t write an acerbic column this week discussing Brian France’s arrest for both a DWI and drug possession in Sag Harbor, N.Y. over the weekend. While my personal disdain for France remains high, frustration from what I’ve termed his …

Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were two of the 13 drivers that failed post-qualifying inspection and were forced to start in the rear of the field. However, it didn’t take long for them to work their way up through the field. Should the penalty for failing post-qualifying inspection be increased? …

One definition of “insanity” has been widely misattributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and Ben Franklin. Whomever coined the definition, it is said that insanity is repeating the same failed behaviors over and over expecting a different result. If that’s the case, one can only conclude the current Monster Energy …

Editor’s Note: Matt McLaughlin’s off this week. Enjoy one of his classic columns on the eve of another Pocono Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. While I enjoy stock car racing at Pocono, race weekends at the track are also tinged with a bit of melancholy. For more years than I …

After two exciting finishes at Chicagoland Speedway and Daytona International Speedway, there wasn’t much drama at the end of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this week at Kentucky Speedway. What is the least exciting Cup race you remember watching? Vito Pugliese: That’s easy: 1999 August race at Michigan. …