his week it looked like Mother Nature was playing a joke on NASCAR. Despite a forecast of less than 10% chance for rain, the race was twice delayed by raindrops as small cells of moisture popped up right smack over the Michigan International Speedway. Some days you just have to have a sense of humor. As Johnson said, maybe a career in meteorology wouldn’t be a bad choice, because “You don’t have to get it right.”
Two rainouts in as many weeks is both frustrating and a real letdown for race fans, particularly those that put forth not only the effort but also the hard-to-come-by money that is required to take in a race live and in person. But as they say so often in the booth… “That’s racing.” A sport …
Marcos Ambrose had two top-two finishes at Watkins Glen, but most of the top spots on Monday went to the usual suspects – the same drivers who run in the top 10 or close to it most weeks. Is the road-course ringer a dying breed?
Did You Notice? Something during the rain-delayed ESPN broadcast that caught my attention? Kevin Harvick was being interviewed in the studio, and while the group was chatting the topic changed to driver development. All of a sudden, Harvick took a serious tone and started talking about defunct series like NASCAR’s Winter Heat, offseason racing televised …
Is it just me, or is it a little disconcerting that things that are determined “too dangerous” for the Sprint Cup Series are apparently just fine for the less experienced drivers and teams in the Nationwide Series? First it was the restrictor-plate package (a package that was fantastic on the old Cup cars, too, until it became “too dangerous.”) and now it’s rain tires and running a road course on a wet track. Is it just me, or should the Nationwide Series at least try to be less dangerous than Cup? Or are the NNS guys just more expendable?
Marcos Ambrose’s aggression, especially on the road courses, is no secret. Still, it was apparently news to Kyle Busch. Busch, who was leading with less than 20 laps to go, was chugging along the backstretch towards the “bus stop” chicane, only to have Ambrose divebomb the entry to the turn. Ambrose’s perfectly executed move left …
Marcos Ambrose is a forgetful person, apparently. As part of his prize last year for winning at Watkins Glen, he was presented with a golden lighter, courtesy of Zippo. He then proceeded to lose the lighter. It eventually popped up randomly a few months later. Now, he’s got a second one to go with it. …
We had a really rough time in Chicago. From the time we arrived there, all the way through practice, we’d just bottom out, destroying our car. That was very strange because we’re usually pretty successful at getting the car up off the ground. We just had a tough time there from the get-go. They dropped …
Last week, everyone following the Nationwide Series was left scratching their heads as to why CJM Racing chose to let go of promising rookie Scott Lagasse Jr. despite knocking on the door of the top 10 in points and having a sponsor happy with their wheelman. Since that move was indeed a head-scratcher, I’m still …
Q: I read about the Nationwide Series needing an “identity” every week. It’s a common theme on this site and others. My question is how can that series do so if guys like Mike Bliss, a Nationwide-only driver, gets canned in favor of Cup regulars? And how can the cars on track have their own identity if they are the same as the Cup cars? At least we thought we would get different models with the Nationwide CoT, but now Chevy doesn’t even want to use the Camaro. How can this series survive with decisions like these?
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