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Michael Waltrip and team had to have left the season-opening Daytona 500 feeling pretty good after a solid top-10 finish to start off the third year in existence for the heavily Toyota-supported team. In fact, the first two races of 2009 had to be satisfying for Waltrip.
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2009 Season Review: Brian Vickers
Take your pick between Brian Vickers's fuel-mileage victory in the CARFAX 400 at Michigan or his much-needed seventh-place run at Richmond that earned him a berth in the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: Robby Gordon’s Sponsorship Woes Signal the End of the “Real” Owner/Driver
It appears, barring an 11th hour arrival of a White Knight flush with millions of dollars in sponsorship, Robby Gordon’s five-year battle to be a competitive full-time Sprint Cup owner/driver is about to come to an end. Said Gordon, who competed for the last time with support from longtime sponsor …
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: Jimmie Johnson’s Garage Leadership Misinterpreted by the Media
There was certainly no shortage of accolades being heaped on the crew of Jimmie Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 by the ABC broadcast crew, lauding their impressive work following a lap 3 accident Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. However, what was not known at the time was that the driver, …
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: Complaining Aside, Restrictor-Plate Racing is Here to Stay
Wow, has the anti-NASCAR restrictor plate hating crowd had a heyday this week following more than the usual uneventful laps that were run and the not so unusual spectacular wrecks Sunday during the running of the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Once again drivers criticized the restrictor-plate form of …
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: Griese’s Comments Uncalled For, But Situation Handled Well By All Involved
During post-race interviews following Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville, race winner Denny Hamlin predicted that his victory would not be the primary focus of the sports media, who instead would make the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship the lead story. Hamlin believed that most of the nation’s …
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: Martin/Montoya the Closest Martin Has Come to an On-Track Feud
Two weeks ago, Turn 5 focused on the increasingly more confident Juan Pablo Montoya and his newfound status as one of the elite drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The article Juan Pablo Has Arrived, But Championship Hopes Are Underpowered chronicled the third-year driver for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s ascent …
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: The Hall of Fame Votes Are In & The Committee Got It (Just About) Right
Now with 60 years of NASCAR history to draw on, the sport has selected its first five inductees to the soon-to-be completed Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. A 50-member blue ribbon panel representing a broad spectrum of the sport voted from a list of 25 that the 21-member Nominating …
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: Talladega’s New Catchfence A Needed Improvement Despite The Spin
To date, the most exciting and talked about ending of the 2009 Sprint Cup season was the death-defying finish of the Aaron’s 499 in April, held at the always treacherous Talladega Superspeedway. A frantic last-lap ended with Brad Keselowski winning in only his fifth Sprint Cup start while challenger Carl …
Read More »Thompson in Turn 5: Juan Pablo Montoya Has Arrived, But His Championship Hopes Are Underpowered
For Juan Pablo Montoya, 2009 marks the year that he has become, by every measure, a stock car driver. When the Colombian began his full-time Sprint Cup career in 2007 after barely a hand-full of races ran in the Nationwide and ARCA series, there were plenty of reasons to be …
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