Category: NASCAR Blogs

*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. Would you rather run mid-pack in the top series or compete for wins in a lower series? Richard: This past Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race highlighted two drivers who are in the middle of answering that question. Both John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer have been in the NASCAR Cup Series and experienced little or no success. However. both have done well and are doing well…

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*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. What are your thoughts on Sunday night racing? Richard: Recent races in Nashville and Atlanta have been held on NASCAR’s traditional day of the week, but rather than in the afternoon, they were contested on Sunday nights. My initial thought when I saw the timing was that it would hurt attendance. That, however, did not appear to be the case as the grandstand was full in…

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Imagine fans on the field just meandering around literally minutes before the start of an NFL game. Or, excited patrons on the court posing for photos with and seeking autographs from NBA players right up until the time for the national anthem to be played. Well, neither of those things is going to happen prior to an official game. In NASCAR,  however,  fans interacting with the stars of the sport prior to an event is a common occurrence every week. Fans have unprecedented access to their favorites in the garage areas of the different tracks and even on pit roads…

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*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. How does any work get done in a NASCAR garage area crowded with fans? Richard: I don’t go to a lot of NASCAR races as a media member but this weekend at Nashville I was reminded of just how many people are allowed access into the areas where team members are preparing the cars literally just before those machines are to be rolled onto the starting…

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Throughout much of its early history, NASCAR racing was intertwined with the city of Nashville. The venerable Fairgrounds Speedway hosted all three of the sanctioning body’s top divisions with the Cup Series competing there from 1958 to 1984. But the city and the top level of the sport parted ways and remained separated for several years until 2021 when the NASCAR Cup Series returned to middle Tennessee by contesting an event at the Nashville Super Speedway. Since then, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott have won the two Cup Series events held on the 1.33-mile track. That concrete-surfaced facility held NASCAR…

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Winning at least one race was pretty much essential for making the 2022 NASCAR Playoffs. Austin Dillon’s win at Daytona in the regular season finale left Ryan Blaney as the only winless driver to have a shot at the championship following the cutoff race. But things seem to be working out differently this season as it appears as though there will not be as many different victors after the 26th race on the schedule as was the case last year. There are 16 available Playoff spots with race winners getting first dibs. Those who rank highest in points without a…

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With there having been 10 NASCAR Cup Series winners in the 16 completed races held so far in the 2023 season, the number of available spots in the NASCAR Playoffs are quickly becoming spoken for. There are 10 remaining events to be held before the cutoff will be made to determine those 16 drivers who will compete for the championship with six spots still to be determined. In 2022, there were 16 different winners in the first 26 races(keep in mind that Kurt Busch had won but could not compete in the Playoffs for medical reasons). Since winning a race…

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*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. What drivers have surprised you(good or bad) going into the break? Richard: I’m going to start with those who have surprised me most on the positive side. I thought it would take a while for Kyle Busch to get acclimated to Richard Childress Racing and it would take a while for RCR to get acclimated to Kyle Busch. There have been a couple of instances that…

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NASCAR dropped the hammer on one particular driver and one particular team this past week and they should have. In both cases, either a clearly stated rule was violated or an unwritten no-no in which the sanctioning body had already established a precedent was committed. Without strong penalties, rules, whether written or not, have no teeth. Unless you have been in complete seclusion for a week, you probably already know that Chase Elliott will be sitting out this weekend’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis. The decision to suspend the sport’s most popular driver and…

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I have only recently begun to learn a little bit about how the English Premier League works from a co-worker who has explained some of it to me. One aspect of that soccer league that interests me is that an underperforming team can be “relegated” to a lower division in favor of one of the teams from that lower division being boosted up to the top level. Hearing about that got me thinking about NASCAR. Recently, a group of NASCAR Cup Series owners stated that the charters they receive should become permanent. Currently, there are 36 charters split among 16…

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