Inside Circle Track

Let’s not get carried away with stadium racing

We’ve all seen it many times. A new song comes out that’s all the rage and consequently it gets played over and over again. Soon, everyone has grown tired of the song that not long ago was at the top of the charts. And before long, that song and the band that performed it have faded into obscurity. Sunday’s Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles went about as well as NASCAR could have hoped. The crowd was big and enthusiastic, the racing was good, and everyone was complimentary of the show and its execution. It was a…

Qualifying Results, Heat Lineups, and Analysis for the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum

Heat Race Lineups The top-4 from each heat advance to the 150-lap main event. Everyone else goes to a Last Chance Qualifier which will take the top-3 to the main event. The heat races are 25 laps each while the two B-mains are 50 laps in duration. The starting lineup for the feature will consist of 23 cars. Heat Race 1 Lineup: 1. Kyle Busch, 2. Daniel Suarez, 3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 4. Ryan Blaney, 5. Denny Hamlin, 6. Aric Almirola, 7. B.J. McLeod, 8. David Gilliland, 9. Ross Chastain Heat Race 2 Lineup: 1. Tyler Reddick, 2. Cole Custer,…

What might the Clash teach teams about the Next Gen car?

The time has finally come. After years of talk and speculation followed by months of testing, the Next Gen car to be used this season and beyond in the NASCAR Cup Series will turn its first competitive laps this weekend at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. The 150-lap exhibition main event held on a makeshift quarter-mile track will truly be an event filled with firsts. Not only will the car be new but the race will be contested at place not originally intended for auto racing. The L.A. Coliseum has hosted the…

L.A. Coliseum is a big gamble but it’s worth the risk

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is no stranger to big events. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl I and the Miami Dolphins topped the Washington Redskins to win Super Bowl VII on the grounds of that stadium. And that’s not all. This building is the only venue in the world to have ever hosted the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the Olympic Games. This weekend, however, the L.A. Coliseum may very well host the most unique event in its storied history when the NASCAR Cup Series stages its season-opening Busch Light Clash…

Phoenix Next Gen Test Important for Numerous Reasons

Give credit where credit is due. NASCAR is not going to force its teams to roll into the 2022 season without ample track time to test the Next Gen car. Although there have been reports that the cars are in somewhat short supply, the Daytona International Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Charlotte Roval, and even Bowman-Gray Stadium have played host to the Cup Series over the most recent weeks and months as teams have put the new racer through its paces during the winter and even back into the fall of last season. And that testing is…

Might the Next Gen call for the use of the tandem draft at Daytona?

The words ‘tandem drafting’ will almost certainly elicit one response or another among those who followed the NASCAR Cup Series a few years ago. There was a time when two cars could run in tight nose-to-tail formation and gain significant speed for a short time at the venues then known as ‘plate tracks’. As a result, drivers found partners early on in races held at the Daytona International Speedway and the Talladega Super Speedway and rode right in front of or right behind that buddy for most of the day. The racing in those two-by-two formations looked a bit odd…

Jacques Villeneuve: Formula 1 champ hoping to achieve goal of Daytona 500 start

During his racing career, Jacques Villeneuve has accomplished what many racers can only dream about. The 50-year-old Canadian has succeeded at the highest levels of motorsports in terms of both race wins and championships. However, there is still one goal he hopes to achieve, and in 2022, he is taking steps toward doing exactly that. Villeneuve’s 1995 season was a remarkable one as the son of legendary racer Gilles Villeneuve earned the CART Series championship along with a win in the racing’s most prestigious event- the Indianapolis 500. From there, he stepped onto the world stage and earned the much…

How might a shortage of cars in the shop impact racing on the track?

While some fans may have concerns about how the Next Gen car will look or handle, there could be an even bigger issue regarding the new NASCAR Cup Series machine looming on the horizon. And that possible worry is that the sport’s teams may not have a deep enough inventory of the cars they will use during the 2022 season should they experience catastrophic disasters, especially during the early races on the schedule. It’s enough of a worry that some drivers addressed the situation during a recent NASCAR Media availability held during the test session last week at the Daytona…

Would you rather win at a “lower level” or run mid-pack at a “higher level”?

If you heard the story of a race car driver who dreamed of making it to the NASCAR Cup Series, and after a successful run through the ARCA Menards Series and the NASCAR Xfinity series, did exactly that. But the ending of that story depends on the reader’s perspective. After making it to the top level of motorsports, the driver in question only scored one top-10 finish in 79 starts. Then after two full seasons, that driver was no longer a part of the NASCAR Cup Series. Is that driver a failure because he didn’t succeed at the “top level”?…

No winners in the Brandon Brown sponsorship saga

A young driver wins his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race driving for a small, family-owned team that had struggled from week to week to find enough sponsorship to literally keep the wheels rolling. This is the kind of stuff that leads to the making of a Disney movie. There’s no way this story could have turned out badly, right? Well, enter vulgarity and politics along with a number of poor, short-sighted decisions made along the way and this dream story turns somewhat nightmarish. Brandon Brown drove to victory for the first time in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career last…