Losing a race is supposed to hurt

The movie Patton famously begins with a scene during World War II in which American General George S. Patton addresses a group of soldiers prior to a battle. Within the speech to his troops, Patton declares that, “I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed.” Well, losing is supposed to be a distasteful thing. And when one has come close to winning in a particular competition or achieving a long sought after goal only to have victory slip away, it is supposed to hurt. That was the case on Friday night in the NASCAR…

Continue reading

Rich’s Ramblings: Encouraging news of Shell-Pennzoil’s reupping with Team Penske

From time to time I plan to drop in a brief recording to offer a few thoughts. I plan to make most of these on the way to or from a race track on some topic that may be of interest but not necessarily for a written story. In this edition of Rich’s Ramblings I talk about the announcement that Shell-Pennzoil has reupped its deal with Team Penske and IndyCar. This is encouraging news not only for Team Penske and IndyCar but for racing in general. Just click on the play button below to give it a listen. Please consider…

Continue reading

The Coca-Cola 600 is not too long … but some other races are

Memorial Day weekend traditionally brings about the longest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule when drivers and teams make their way to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600. But in a time when the sanctioning body has shown a willingness to make changes to its racing slate, the question of whether or not the 600-mile distance of one of the sport’s most notable events is too long might be considered. Let’s just start right here by saying the Coca-Cola 600 should never change. After all, this race, along with the Daytona 500 and the Southern 500, is…

Continue reading

Rich’s Ramblings: Trackhouse makes big splash with Kimi Raikkonen announcement

From time to time I plan to drop in a brief recording to offer a few thoughts. I plan to make most of these on the way to or from a race track on some topic that may be of interest but not necessarily for a written story. In this edition of Rich’s Ramblings I talk about the announcement by Trackhouse Racing that 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen will race later this year at Watkins Glen as part of that organization’s Project 91 initiative. Just click on the play button below to give it a listen. Please consider also…

Continue reading

Turn 2 Blog: So many things went wrong in such a short period of time

*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. There are so many places to start when critiquing the 2022 version of the NASCAR All-Star Race. But let’s start with the track. If there has to be an All-Star Race, is Texas Motor Speedway the right place for it? Richard: First, as I said last week, I am not really a fan of All-Star events although, until this year at least, NASCAR’s version has been…

Continue reading

Who cares about the All-Star Race format?

When racing enthusiasts think of the NASCAR All-Star Race they think of the most legendary moments of that event. No one thinks about the format that was used in whatever years those moments occurred. It doesn’t matter how many laps there, if there were segments, or if there were mandated pit stops. However, people do remember Darrell Waltrip’s engine mysteriously blowing just as he crossed the finish line in the inaugural “The Winston”(as the All-Star Race was called back then) or when his crew and that of Rusty Wallace duked it out after those two drivers tangled on the last…

Continue reading

The most important thing about Kurt Busch’s Kansas win was …

Kurt Busch’s win in last Sunday’s Advent Health 400 at the Kansas Speedway was important for several reasons, some of which may seem obvious while others might not be so readily evident. The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion passed two of the biggest stars in the sport when he moved around his brother Kyle and Kyle Larson late in the going to secure the victory. At the same time, there were other factors that made this win by the 23XI Racing Toyota significant and noteworthy.  The 43-year-old native of Las Vegas entered that event 21st in the Cup Series standings…

Continue reading

Turn 2 Blog: More than 16 winners? & Who takes the All-Star Race seriously?

*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. On Sunday in the Advent Health 400 at Kansas Speedway, Kurt Busch became the eleventh different winner in the first thirteen NASCAR Cup Series races in the 2022 season. With still thirteen more races to go before the NASCAR Playoffs cut, could there be sixteen or more winners? Richard: In years past I have not given much consideration to the possibility of there being sixteen different…

Continue reading

Harrison Burton searching for signs of better days ahead

Breaking into the NASCAR Cup Series, no matter how much experience and success a driver has had at other levels of motorsports, is never easy and Harrison Burton is finding that out during the first third of the 2022 campaign. The 21-year-old driver from Huntersville, North Carolina has seen his share of success by achieving four wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and and eleven more in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series but he now finds himself searching for the formula that will help those earlier triumphs translate to the top division of the sport. So far, that has…

Continue reading

Kyle Larson on how he transitions from one type of car to another so seamlessly

Kyle Larson has won a race this year in a NASCAR Cup Series car at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Along with that, he has also won on the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series at the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California, and he has won in a Dirt Late Model with the Castrol FloRacing Night in America Series at the famed Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The 29-year-old driver from Elk Grove, California is one of the most diverse racers of this or any generation. But it’s not like he has caught lightning in…

Continue reading