Inside Circle Track

Joey Logano needs to pick up performance in order to defend title

Joey Logano came into the 2019 version of the NASCAR Playoffs as the defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion. And after the first round of three races within the championship series of events he remains alive in hopes of capturing a second consecutive title. However, a look at the recent finishes compiled by the No. 22 Team Penske Ford might offer a bit of troubling evidence that the hope of claiming the top prize at the end of the day at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in November could be in jeopardy. Over the last ten races Logano has managed only…

Jeff Purvis Relishes Memories of a Career Worth Celebrating

Many enthusiasts of Dirt Late Model racing consider the World 100 held annually at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway to be the most prestigious of events in that form of racing. Many enthusiasts of Late Model racing on pavement consider the Snowball Derby held annually at Florida’s 5 Flags Speedway to be the most prestigious event in that form of racing. Only one driver in the history of the sport has won both of those highly regarded events. Aside from winning the World 100 on three occasions(1983, 1984 & 1986) and the Snowball Derby(1995), the list of accomplishments compiled by Jeff Purvis…

Has Clint Bowyer done enough to remain with Stewart-Haas Racing?

After reading the headline of this piece you may have thought this would be about Clint Bowyer’s fourth place run on Sunday in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 on the road course portion of the Charlotte Motor Speedway. And indeed, the 40-year-old driver did turn in a solid effort that lifted him from below the NASCAR Playoffs cut-line coming into the race to a position that would allow him to advance on to the ‘Round of 12’ moving forward. However, life on the modern-day Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is only partially considered successful based on a driver’s on-track…

NASCAR made loud and clear point with Erik Jones disqualification

During the winter leading up to the 2019 NASCAR season the sanctioning body announced that it would begin taking wins and finishing positions away from cars that failed post-race technical inspections. It had been decades since the last time a car and driver had been hit with such a penalty under NASCAR’s watch but this season promised to bring about changes in the way rule violations would be handled. In more recent times, it had been common practice to issue fines, points reductions, and even suspensions to crew members when violations were found even though the winner’s trophy did not…

Mike Marlar set to make Xfinity Series debut in Richmond

For the second time in 2019 driver Mike Marlar will be making a NASCAR debut. On Friday night at the Richmond Raceway the Winfield, Tenn. native will try something he has not previously done before in his extensive racing career as he plans to make his debut with the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the Go Bowling 250. The entry list for this weekend’s event in the capital city of Virginia shows that the 41-year-old Marlar is listed as the driver of a car which is prepared out of the Motorsports Business Management team shops. George Church is listed as the…

NASCAR Playoffs: Now the mistakes are magnified

Every race has its share of mistakes made by drivers and crews and even the officials who govern the event. Sometimes those mistakes can be overcome and sometimes they result in a team scoring a finish that may seem like an underachievement. But over the course of a long season, those mistakes are often times forgotten by the time the next racing weekend rolls around. However, that cannot be the case at this point in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. The first round of the NASCAR Playoffs are set to begin on Sunday in the South Point 400…

Turn 2 Blog: The Playoff Field is Set… But Are We Paying Attention?

*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. Richard: After much build up, the 16 driver field for the NASCAR Playoffs is now set. Those competitors for the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship as well as the remainder of the drivers and teams are about to embark on the final ten-race run that will bring the season to a close with the final stretch broken into segments designed to reduce the contenders…

Strategy will determine the winner and final playoff spots in Brickyard 400

Perhaps like no other the race on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard typically boils down to which team and driver make the best strategy play at the end. Kasey Kahne’s win in 2017 and Paul Menard’s triumph in 2011 serve as shinning examples of how making the right late race calls in terms of when to pit or not to pit as well as what to do in the pits can decide who will take the checkered flag. The areo-sensitive Indianapolis Motor Speedway can make passing quite difficult. As a…

NASCAR should be racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Every year the debate seems to surface regarding whether or not the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series should or should not be racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The arguments against auto racing’s top division competing on the 2.5-mile track are many. The racing isn’t particularly good, the grandstands look empty, it’s a track meant for IndyCar, and there are other facilities better suited for stock cars are among the complaints against the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard. And all of these arguments have some degree of merit. However, there is one thing that cannot be disputed when…

Was Southern 500 Win Enough to Keep Erik Jones at JGR?

Joe Gibbs Racing has won 13 of the 25 races contested so far in 2019 on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. But until Sunday night/Monday morning at Darlington Raceway all of the team’s wins had been delivered for the Toyota organization by Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. However, it was the turn of Erik Jones in the Bojangles Southern 500 to contribute to the company’s dominance of victory lane as he held off Busch and Kyle Larson to win one of the sport’s crown jewel events. That was the second MENCS win for Jones in as…