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Hendrick Motorsports on unfamiliar ground in the NASCAR Playoffs

Have we been transported to some alternate dimension? After last Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the three drivers representing Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Playoffs are staring the possibility of elimination squarely in the face. The championship seeking field will be cut down from the 16 current combatants to 12 survivors following the next two weekends at Richmond Raceway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. And with the pending cutoff looming, HMS drivers Alex Bowman, Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott are in serious jeopardy of placing this organization that has been a…

Playoff Teams Must Decide Between Gambling or Playing It Safe

With the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series about to head for Las Vegas it seems like a good time to talk about gambling. But this piece isn’t about the type of gambling one might do at a slot machine or a blackjack table. Rather, it’s about the type of gambling the teams who find themselves locked into the NASCAR Playoffs might very well find themselves doing over the course of the next three weeks. As the playoffs are structured, 16 drivers and teams qualified to race for NASCAR’s ultimate prize over the next ten races. However, that field of championship…

Can Brad Keselowski steal the Cup title from the Big-Three?

Some may call it luck. Some may say that it is a situation in which preparation has met with opportunity. Some may simply call it mojo. But whatever terminology you may choose to use, Brad Keselowski has found it in a major way. And more importantly for the Michigan native, he and his Penske Racing team have found it at just the right time of the season. Keselowski has won back-to-back Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races. And these weren’t just any old races that the No. 2 Ford claimed, but rather, they were crown jewels of the sport. On…

Unpopular Opinion: Rules Have to be Enforced Even When Fans Think Otherwise

One of the most difficult jobs in all of sports has to be that of a racing sanctioning body when it has to enforce rules that are deemed by competitors, fans, and media as being unfair or just plain stupid. In those cases organizations such as NASCAR, Formula 1, IndyCar, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, the World of Outlaws Late Model and Sprint Car Series are often placed in the no-win situation of having to penalize a popular driver or team in order to maintain the sanctity of their rule books. But such decisions have to be made,…

Isn’t the Xfinity Series supposed to be for inexperienced drivers?

A lap 111 incident during the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday afternoon at Darlington Raceway and the ensuing comments made by the drivers involved in that incident caused quite a stir on social media following the race. At the root of the issue was a regular front-runner in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series who voiced his opinion that the Xfinity Series regular(and driver for an underfunded Cup team) he had raced with for the lead before the crash was ill-suited for the ride he had been entrusted with on that day. Ross Chastain…

Noah Gragson was simply doing what the NASCAR system calls for

It’s probably safe to say that the folks at Kyle Busch Motorsports didn’t like the ending of Sunday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Within the space of about 200 yards that organization went from the possibility of one of their drivers earning his first career win or one of their drivers locking himself into the next round of the playoffs. Instead, they ended up with two of their trucks spinning within sight of the finish line only to be passed by numerous competitors before limping to the checkered flag. Despite some…

5 Reasons Why NASCAR Drivers are Retiring at Younger Ages

Richard Petty: 54-years-old Darrell Waltrip: 53-years-old David Pearson: 51-years-old Bobby Allison: 50-years-old Cale Yarborough: 49-years-old The names listed above are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame with the ages at which they left the sport listed beside each. As can be seen, these legendary figures remained active in racing in either a full-time or part-time manner into their late 40’s and even into their 50’s. Granted, some of them may not have been terribly competitive late in their careers, but others were. Nonetheless, they were still a part of the sport for multiple decades. Carl Edwards: 36-years-old Kasey…

NASCAR must find someone who will lead from the front

Championship winning UCLA basketball coach John Wooden was quoted as saying “Great leaders are always out front with a banner, instead of behind with a whip.” In a sport in which being the leader is a highly prized position to hold, NASCAR has seemingly been led from the rear for almost two decades. During the organization’s formative years and then during the time in which it came to be known as the top form of motorsports in America, NASCAR was headed up by two of the strongest leaders a sport could have. On a weekly basis there was no doubt…

A healthy NASCAR is good for short track racing

There are many fans of other forms of racing who may criticize NASCAR or downplay the importance of that racing body to their particular favorites. Plummeting television ratings and empty pockets within the grandstands surrounding many tracks provide those who claim to dislike that form of racing with opportunities to point out failures. And certainly, this most recent news of NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France’s arrest for a DUI and possession of oxycodone has offered up yet another chance to point fingers at the top form of stock car racing. However, the simple truth is that all of racing,…

Should NASCAR’s Cup and Xfinity circuits race on dirt?

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series made its sixth annual trek to Rossburg, Ohio and the dirt-surfaced Eldora Speedway this past Wednesday night. The result was a door-slamming finish as Chase Briscoe just edged Grant Enfinger at the finish line to get the win. But perhaps the real story surrounding the event came even before the green flag waved as track owner and former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart lobbied for more races, particularly for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, to be staged on dirt tracks. “Maybe one of the days, we’ll get an Xfinity or…