Who… gets my shoutout of the race? Intermediate tracks like Kansas are rarely kind to lesser-funded single-car teams, but this week, one of those teams broke up the party at the front for much of the weekend, including late in the race. AJ Allmendinger had a fast car, as evidenced …
Read More »The Underdog House: NASCAR Success Doesn’t Happen Overnight
Think Small Smaller NASCAR teams are constantly talking about improvement, and it’s something for which there is always room. However, improvement goals vary, and that is necessary because teams in the group are all at different stages of development as teams. One team’s goal of top-20 finishes may be totally …
Read More »The Underdog House: Getting a Foothold in 21st Century NASCAR
Think Small One of the chief worries about NASCAR’s charter system when it was instituted this year was how new teams would be able to get a foothold in the sport, and while that is a concern on paper, in practice, the charter system changes very little, because teams entering …
Read More »The Underdog House: What Small Teams Want You to Know
Think Small I had a conversation this past weekend with Germain Racing driver Casey Mears, and I asked him the one thing he wished that NASCAR fans understood about his job. Mears offered the following assessment. “The thing I wish more fans knew is just how difficult it is to …
Read More »The Underdog House: Which Small Sprint Cup Team Blew Us Away At Chicago?
Think Small. That’s the motto for this column as I take a larger look at the teams still trying to make a name for themselves in the Cup Series despite fewer resources and a far more difficult mountain to climb. Writer’s Note: What follows is another fresh look for this column, one I …
Read More »The Underdog House: Would-Be Winners and Hangers-On
(We’re changing things up a little this week; instead of focusing on races past, we’ll take a look ahead at our small teams and the outlook down the stretch.  Hate it and want to see more on how they fared in the races? Let me know. Want to see more …
Read More »The Underdog House: Tracking NASCAR’s Small Teams From Darlington to Richmond
Tommy Baldwin Racing Regan Smith, No. 7 Nikko RC Road Rippers Chevrolet Looking back: Smith is a former Darlington winner, and he raced the track very well on Sunday night and netted a top-20 finish to show for it. It was exactly the kind of race TBR needs to have: …
Read More »The Underdog House: Tracking NASCAR’s Small Teams from Michigan to Darlington
Tommy Baldwin Racing Regan Smith, No. 7 APC Chevrolet Looking back: Michigan International Speedway was one of Smith’s better runs on a 1.5-to-2-mile speedway this year, with a 26th-place finish and a lap led on his tally. Smith said afterward that he feels like his team is learning some things …
Read More »The Underdog House: Tracking NASCAR’s Small Teams From Bristol to Michigan
Tommy Baldwin Racing Regan Smith, No. 7 APC Chevrolet Looking back: Smith had a brush with the wall just past the quarter mark of the race, bringing out the first caution of the day after the restart Sunday following the earlier competition yellow. Even so, he managed to avoid further trouble …
Read More »The Underdog House: Why NASCAR’s Small Teams Matter
The teams covered in this article each week aren’t likely race winners (though many of them certainly can—and on occasion have—win if circumstances dictate). However, NASCAR is about more than winning. Consider the amount of preparation that one of the sport’s elite teams has to put into bringing a racecar to the …
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