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Mirror Driving: Who Can Rebound, On And Off The Track In NASCAR

Mirror Driving: Who Can Rebound, On And Off The Track In NASCAR

Sep 19, 2012
*Jeff Gordon’s Chicagoland race was cut short when he hit the wall after the throttle stuck on the No. 24. Is Gordon’s Chase bid over already, or is it too early to count anyone out?* Kevin: It’s too early to count anyone out completely, I think. But it’s not looking good for him. Another race like this, say this week or next… then I’ll be more likely to count him out. Mike N.: He’s done. I know it seems ludicrous to say that but Gordon’s already a full race behind with 11 drivers in front of him. The odds of overcoming that are ridiculous.
Reinstated Allmendinger Faces Uphill Battle

Reinstated Allmendinger Faces Uphill Battle

Sep 19, 2012
As fast as the news came of AJ Allmendinger’s suspension for a failed drug test, it seems only fitting that the news that suspension is already lifted was equally as quick. No, seriously. Not two months after the news broke in July, Allmendinger, the former driver of Penske Racing’s No. 22 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is already “back,” or at least could be back, in theory. The news comes as a shock not in the sense that Allmendinger completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery Program; I don’t think anyone who knew the driver on even the most basic of levels would peg him as a bad guy whose problems were only going to worsen.
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Beth’s Brief

Sep 18, 2012
The last two weeks have brought major shakeups to the JR Motorsports Nationwide Series team. It all started with the organization’s release of competition director Tony Eury, Sr. Having joined the team in 2007 after 21 years with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Eury garnered seven wins 28 top 5s and 86 top 10s while serving as …

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Five Points to Ponder: The Chase is Here…and In Like a Lamb

Sep 17, 2012
*ONE: They Lied…Neither Keselowski, Johnson “Showing their Hands” After Round 1* OK, it’s taking the statement a bit out of context. When Brad Keselowski was asked immediately after winning at Chicago whether or not he and Johnson were showing their hands, the question was posed as to whether either of them were sandbagging during the race’s final green-flag run. But in a larger sense, despite Keselowski’s insistence that both he and Johnson were giving it all they had (Johnson’s own post-race comments were in concurrence, as he noted the No. 2 simply outran them to the checkers) both drivers weren’t telling the whole story. They were both rather… subdued.
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Tech Talk: Trying to Recapture the Magic at Loudon for Tony Stewart

Sep 17, 2012
_Tony Stewart started off his championship run last season with back-to-back wins at Chicago and Loudon. While his sixth-place finish on Sunday didn’t replicate his win from 2011, the nine bonus points he carried into the Chase this year have him sitting in basically the same position — on the cusp of being a contender. The attention now turns to Loudon, where Stewart and his teammate Ryan Newman were dominant in 2011. This Spring, they finished 12th and 10th respectively, but are poised to made another run at the top two spots this coming weekend after a successful test at Milwaukee._ _Frontstretch caught up with Steve Addington after the Milwaukee test to get his take on heading to the Magic Mile, cars in line for the Chase races, working with Hendrick Motorsports and how much they pay attention to the competition when they’re at the race track._
Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in NASCAR: Chicago/New Hampshire Edition

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in NASCAR: Chicago/New Hampshire Edition

Sep 17, 2012
Jimmie Johnson made it clear in the mid-part of 2012 that he would be the driver to beat in the Chase because of his consistency. From the May 12 race at Darlington to the June 30 race at Kentucky — a seven-race span — Johnson won twice while finishing inside the top six all but once. The only other driver that displayed consistency even remotely matching that this season is Brad Keselowski. What Keselowski has done might even be more impressive. Nobody has scored more points in the last 11 races; during that span, Keselowski has two wins, seven top 5s and 10 top 10s.
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Opening Day for NASCAR’s Chase Sets the Tone on ESPN

Sep 17, 2012
*MavTV American Real 500* On Saturday night under blinding sunshine (literally), the IZOD IndyCar Series held their 500-mile season finale at Auto Club Speedway. On this night, there was really but one big story for the race, that being the championship. However, more was at play here than just the title chase. IndyCar Central started out with a look back at the craziness that was the Baltimore Grand Prix presented by SRT before getting into the pre-race interviews. The primary feature of the show was a one-on-one interview that Marty Snider conducted with Will Power. The main topic of discussion included the upcoming championship battle with Ryan Hunter-Reay and how Power has been unable to finish in recent years.
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One Year Later: The IndyCar Finale

Sep 17, 2012
October 16, 2011 was meant to be a celebration of all that was good about IndyCar racing: a gripping conclusion to a tense, frenetic championship battle between the reigning champion Dario Franchitti and his chief protagonist, Australian Will Power, who had won six races on the year and was chasing his maiden IndyCar series title. A huge field of 34 cars, eight more than typically took to the track, would contest the finale that terrible day on the high banks of the mile-and-a-half Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was the 18th and final race in a season that had seen events in Brazil, Canada and Japan.
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Fan’s View: Some Unfamiliar Faces Appearing in NASCAR’s Victory Lane… Awesome!

Sep 17, 2012
Something odd is happening in NASCAR. Should you only watch the Cup coverage on Sunday, you wouldn’t notice. But tune in on Saturday or even the occasional Friday and the difference can’t be avoided. After about four seasons, a herd of young drivers are ready to stampede over the list of about 30 names that …

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Numbers Game 9/17/2012

Sep 17, 2012
by Garrett Horton 0 Despite all of Jimmie Johnson’s Chase accomplishments, there is a goose egg in the win column for Chase race openers. 2 The number of times a driver who won the Chase opener went on to win the championship – Kurt Busch in 2004 and Tony Stewart in 2011. 2 hours, 47 …

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Thinkin’ Out Loud: 2012 GEICO 400 at Chicagoland

Sep 17, 2012
Brad Keselowski took the lead after the final round of green flag pit stops and had a car that was simply better than everyone else for the final run to the checkered flag.
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Elimination Station: Whittling Down Title Contenders After Week 1

Sep 17, 2012
You can’t win a championship in the first quarter, the first round, or the first pitch. But you can certainly lose it, with a mental error or physical deficit making a comeback so impossible even _Rudy_ would step off the field and surrender. For the best athletes, their curse in learning to beat the best is knowing exactly when the best is about to beat them. When the white flag nears, they project the strength of “never surrender” but the light of the camera sometimes shows a broken spirit with nasty words they cannot speak. Or in this case… it was a nasty ‘stache.
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