NASCAR Blogs – Page 18 – Inside Circle Track

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Anyone picking against Chase Elliott at COTA?

Hendrick Motorsports teams have won three of the last four NASCAR Cup Series races here at the start of the 2022 season. Those victories have been shared among three of the organization’s four drivers with the only one being left out of victory lane so far being 2020 series champion Chase Elliott. Going into this weekend, the odds are strong that the company that has won the last two series championships will add another win on Sunday and that could very well complete the cycle of in-house winners. Chase Elliott has become NASCAR’s road course ace over the past few…

Don’t discount Ty Gibbs because of who he is related to

It would be easy to look at the record Ty Gibbs has achieved in the relatively short period of time he has competed at the higher levels of racing and attribute at least some of his success to the equipment he drives. But anyone who would do that simply isn’t watching closely enough. Yes, the 19-year-old rising star is the grandson of legendary NFL coach and NASCAR team own Joe Gibbs but there has to be more to his story than simply the fact that he has the right relatives. After all, he is not the first driver in NASCAR…

Turn 2 Blog: Atlanta Reconfiguration; “Out of Bounds”; Other Track Changes

*Turn 2 Blog is a regular feature on InsideCircleTrack.com. Here, site operators Michael Moats and Richard Allen take turns offering their thoughts on the NASCAR and pavement short track racing topics of the day. The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 held this past Sunday was the first race on the newly reconfigured and repaved Atlanta Motor Speedway. What did you think of the final product? Richard: This race, for me, was particularly hard to judge. It was definitely entertaining. And yes, NASCAR, like all other sports, is as much about entertainment as it is about the purity of competition….

NASCAR’s Tournament lasts all season

Just in case you haven’t been following along, the NCAA Basketball Tournament is set to begin this week as teams will battle their way toward a potential Final Four appearance and a national championship. For many sports fans this time of the year is a particular favorite as upsets, near misses, and high drama will be part of the show for the next few weekends. The tournament begins with a pair of “play-in” games between four teams who are simply hoping to work their way into the field of 64 title contenders. In some ways, the NASCAR Cup Series…

Regular Cup Series dominators not exactly dominating

On the surface, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season seems to have started off in very typical fashion after its first three points-paying events. Two powerhouse teams have collected all three trophies so far which should come as no surprise to avid followers of the sport. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric won the season-opening Daytona 500 then Hendrick Motorsports followed that up by wheeling cars into victory lane at Auto Club Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman respectively taking checkered flags. But when one digs just below the surface it becomes much more evident that…

Here’s one way to tell that NASCAR Cup Series racing has improved

This past Sunday afternoon I covered the Southern All-Star Dirt Series-sanctioned ‘March Madness’ event for InsideDirtRacing.com, the sister site of this page. The trip back to my home near Knoxville from Gaffney, South Carolina where the Cherokee Speedway is located takes just over three hours. That alone time in my truck provided me with the opportunity to listen to most of the Performance Racing Network’s broadcast of the Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series race from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As a high school Psychology teacher I relate to my classes that simply hearing spoken words does not offer a…

Flat tires leaving NASCAR drivers feeling deflated

Whether expected or unexpected, one problem that has shown itself early in the NASCAR Cup Series season has been that of the difficulty in getting a car with flat tires back to the pit area. The Next Gen car is very much different from its predecessor in that it sits lower, has a diffuser underneath it, and has larger wheels. Further, those larger wheels and tires with less sidewall do not allow for an inner liner as had been the case in years past. As a result of all those conditions, drivers have been losing multiple laps due to the…

Race cars aren’t supposed to be easy to drive

The practice and qualifying sessions held the day before Sunday’s Wise Power 400 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California did not provide the typical sights and sounds from such a happening. Often, practice and qualifying sessions tend to play out with few if any incidents as drivers log laps then report what they have felt from behind the wheel to their crews. After that, they then go out and attempt to run the fastest single lap they possibly can in order to secure a good starting spot for the main event. Saturday’s track time for the NASCAR…

NASCAR’s Newest Drama: Teammates blocking Teammates

Blocking another driver used to be highly frowned upon in racing. Along that same line, there was a time not so long ago that executing a slide job pass on a dirt track might result in a punch in the nose in the pit area after the checkered flag. But the racing landscape is an ever-changing one and both of those tactics are among the changes in modern racing styles. Nowadays, both blocking and the slide job have become as much a normal part of racing etiquette as the slingshot pass was back in the 1980’s. However, a more recent…

Auto Club Cup Race: Starting Lineup, Pre-Race Analysis, Predicted Winner

Analysis After the brief practice session followed by two rounds of qualifying on Saturday, this race on the worn and bumpy 2-mile surface of the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California looks to be an adventurous affair to say the least. A number of cars either spun or crashed during those sessions and it wasn’t rookies and no-names who were involved in the mishaps. The likes of NASCAR Cup Series champions Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott were among those to find trouble. Several drivers will find themselves in an early hole because of the issues they…