Thinkin’ Out Loud

Who’s in the headline Heading into Phoenix, everybody and their brother was positive Kevin Harvick was going to stomp the competition into submission and make a statement about his position as the unquestioned favorite heading into Homestead. Someone forgot to tell Kyle Busch as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver took …

Who’s in the headline Kevin Harvick has had the fastest car nearly every weekend this season. The Achilles heel for the team is that they routinely shoot themselves in the foot through pit road miscues. When they don’t, they dominate, which is what happened at Texas on Sunday. Harvick led …

Who’s in the headline Joey Logano knew he had a chance to go to Homestead and challenge for a championship. It was going to take some old school, short track racing but he wasn’t afraid to do it. In Turns 3 and 4, where the greats of the sport have …

Who’s in the headline In the typical, overreaction world of 24/7 social media and sports talking heads, Chase Elliott has gone from early title dropout to championship favorite. Elliott went to Victory Lane for the second time in three races, and Elliott Nation is in a lather over the potential …

Who’s in the headline There is domination by drivers and domination by teams. Sunday was total domination by the Stewart-Haas Racing organization. They won every stage and the race with a different driver doing each, and the driver who didn’t win any of them finished second in all three. In …

Who’s in the headline Chase Elliott lost a heartbreaking race at Dover in the fall of 2017 and blamed himself solely for the loss. Sunday was a complete team effort that vaulted Elliott to Victory Lane and a berth in the Round of 8. Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola both …

Who’s in the headline The list of road course favorites was long going into the first ROVAL race, and it was a safe bet that Ryan Blaney wasn’t on most of those lists. However, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good, and Blaney was lucky to be in …

Who’s in the headline Kyle Busch has the most wins of any active driver at Richmond Raceway, but prior to this spring, it had been five years since he won a race there. He had also never won a fall race at the Virginia short-track. Not only did Busch win …

Who’s in the headline Momentum is a beautiful thing when you’re running for a championship, and Brad Keselowski is riding a huge wave of it after winning his third consecutive race and locking himself into the second round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Keselowski won the second stage …

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. …