NASCAR 101

As the 2019 NASCAR season comes to a close, it’s time to run back through the NASCAR 101 columns from 2019 and see if there are any updates to be had, as we did in 2018 and 2017. This year, it comes after the true end of the season rather than …

It is the time of the season that many diehard race fans hope never come: the offseason. As champions are crowned under a setting south Florida sun this weekend, the engines will fall silent for almost three months. All that is left are mere memories of a season filled with …

In what’s become an annual segment on NASCAR 101 (wait, this is year five? Time is a flat circle), this week takes a look at the drivers who didn’t return to NASCAR in 2019. Now, that phrase sounds a bit more absolute than it actually ends up being. Each year, we …

The closest points race in NASCAR right now isn’t necessarily a battle for the championship. Sure, there are few clear favorites for titles in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the Xfinity Series and the Gander Outdoors Truck Series. With two or three races to go in each series, there’s …

This column was all set. Perfect, even — the idea, that is. It was timely, fitting, whatever. Then Carson Ware dropped off the Gander Outdoors Truck Series entry list for this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. But you know what? Screw it. Doing it anyway. In the event that Ware returns …

After a quiet year for new winners in 2018, the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series is having quite a year for newcomers to victory lane. Spencer Boyd‘s Talladega Superspeedway triumph made him the fifth first-time winner in the series in 2019, with three races still to go before the season’s …

It’s hard to believe that Kyle Larson had not won in 75 races. Or the fact that Jimmie Johnson still can’t find victory lane. While Larson was able to take a home a much needed checkered flag last Sunday (Oct. 6) at Dover International Raceway to end his winless streak …

It’s Kyle Busch vs. Kevin Harvick vs. Jimmie Johnson in the battle of the 2010s. Just seven races remain in this decade of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing, and three drivers are in contention for the most wins overall during those 10 years. Entering this weekend’s race at Dover …

Been quite a week, eh? With Christopher Bell‘s thoroughly non-shocking move to Leavine Family Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for 2020, followed by the actually surprising loss of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 17 at the expense of Chris Buescher, Silly Season is very …

The team names sound familiar: Team Penske, Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports. There’s JTG Daugherty and Stewart-Haas and Germain Racing and Roush Fenway… but wait a minute: drivers named Garbage, Trackbar, Sloppy Joe and, um, Fluffy? What’s going on here? What’s going on is a playoff race at Las Vegas …