Inside Circle Track

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…

Photos of NASCAR Cup Series cars(No. 1-18)

Here are photos of cars numbered 1-18 entered in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway: Richard Allen has been covering NASCAR and other forms of motorsports since 2008. Respond to this piece on Twitter –> @RichardAllenIDR or on Facebook –> InsideCircleTrack/Facebook

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….

Atlanta Cup Race: Starting Lineup, Pre-Race Analysis, Predicted Winner

Analysis Every NASCAR Cup Series race held so far in the 2020 season has been filled with unknowns but perhaps none have come with as many question marks as this weekend’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. Atlanta Motor Speedway has undergone a major refurbishing since the last race held here in the summer of 2021. The worn surface has been repaved. The banking has been altered and the racing groove has been narrowed. As a result of those changes, NASCAR has called for the teams to employ the same engine rules and aero package as those used at Daytona International…

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…

Kyle Larson: “Every time I get in a race car I get better”

Once the peak of Mt. Everest has been reached, the only way to go is downhill from there. In the minds of many, accomplishing the feat of claiming the NASCAR Cup Series championship is equivalent to reaching the peak of the tallest mountain in motorsports. But at least one driver does not necessarily see it that way. For those who might have wondered just how much dirt racing Kyle Larson would be able to to in 2022 as NASCAR resumes practice and qualifying, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion demonstrated this past weekend that he plans to do quite a…

Phoenix Cup Race: Starting Lineup, Pre-Race Analysis, Predicted Winner

Analysis Counting the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, the NASCAR Cup Series is batting four-for-four so far this season in terms of excitement and intrigue. But more than just keeping the string of great races alive, the Ruoff Mortgage 500k represents an opportunity for drivers and teams to build a notebook with the Next Gen car for the most important race of the 2022 season. The championship deciding race is, of course, held at Phoenix Raceway. No doubt, the evolution of this car will be much further along by the time the Cup Series returns to Arizona in November….

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…