Race Weekend Central

Mirror Driving: Matt Crafton’s Penalty, Kyle & Kurt’s Big Problems & Johnson Playing Dumb?

Matt Crafton was penalized at Gateway Saturday and sent to the back of the longest line for two incidents where he made contact with the truck in front of him.

Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2009 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond

The final weekend in the race for the Chase saw plenty of playoff-worthy drivers put their best foot forward at Richmond. Brian Vickers slipped in, Kyle Busch fell just short… and there were a slew of others in between who made it clear they’ll spend this fall fighting for a season championship. The shuffling of …

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Bowles-Eye View: Kyle Busch’s Chase Crumbles Around “Points Racing”… Will He Be Next?

Kyle Busch’s No. 18 pulled into the pits Saturday night… and everyone from fans to first aid held their collective breath. It was five minutes after the checkered flag at Richmond, the last laps of a regular season that ended without his name in lights as a Chase contender. In the end, the difference between …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2009 Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta

The aged surface of Atlanta Motor Speedway offered up multi-groove racing from the drop of the green flag that also yielded some bizarre events, with Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards both having freak problems that knocked them out of contention. Tony Stewart also had another off weekend, which cost him some of his first-place votes …

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The Yellow Stripe: Kevin Harvick, RCR Headed for Happier Future After Great Weekend

The difference between champagne-soaked success and bitter, incongruous crumpled sheetmetal defeat in NASCAR is razor thin. And it’s a fact the good folks at Richard Childress Racing know all too well this season. After two years of placing all three cars in the elite Chase field, the addition of Casey Mears in a fourth car …

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The Yellow Stripe: Has This NASCAR Season Really Been All That Bad?

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and in the case of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series that’s certainly how I felt this past Sunday (Aug. 30), as for the fourth and final time this season, NASCAR’s top echelon took a well-deserved weekend off from the relentless slog that is the Cup schedule. With …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2009 Sharpie 500 at Bristol

The new banking at Bristol, along with the new car, has bred a new form of racing at the old bullring. Single-file bump-and-runs have been replaced by side-by-side competition, with wrecks at the finish line replaced by the type of winning maneuvers you’d be more likely to see at a track like Atlanta or even …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2009 CARFAX 400 at Michigan

A fuel-mileage race at Michigan? Who would have guessed it? Seriously, as expected Sunday’s 400-mile affair in the Irish Hills left us counting drops of Sunoco gasoline to see who was going to make it to the finish line first. And just like any stock car event decided by fuel strategy, those final few laps …

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Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in Sprint Cup: 2009 Heluva! Good Sour Cream Dips at the Glen Edition

Monday’s race at Watkins Glen did not provide many answers as far as the Chase is concerned. Most contenders finished well enough at Watkins Glen to keep the points race tight, despite many eyes trained on road-course ringers like Boris Said, Andy Lally and Ron Fellows to pull off some upsets. However, when push came to …

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Frontstretch NASCAR Power Rankings: Top 15 After the 2009 Heluva! Good Sour Cream Dips at the Glen

Turning right and turning left was good for some at Watkins Glen, but turned others into a knot they never wriggled out of. After his record-breaking fifth victory at the track, Tony Stewart was able to once again garner all of the first-place votes for this week, but the remainder of the spots in our …

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Thinkin’ Out Loud: 2009 Heluva! Good Sour Cream Dips at the Glen

Editor’s Note: Matt McLaughlin is on vacation through the race at Michigan. For the next two weeks, Managing Editor Tom Bowles fills in. The Key Moment: Tony Stewart got the jump on Kyle Busch on a double-file restart with 23 laps to go. After that, it was his race to lose unless the No. 14 …

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