Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Loudon, N.H. last weekend was the site for the first race in the “Race to the Chase” — the 10 races leading up to the final 10 races — the “Chase for the Sprint Cup.”
The “Chase” begins in Loudon also — in Septemeber.
Both races there tend to be either boring from start to finish or boring with a little excitement toward the end. This first race to the Chase was pretty much the first option. It had no real excitement but was filled with lots of disappointments from beginning to end.
It wasn’t totally without surprises.
Surprise number one came when Patrick Carpentier qualified his No. 10 Dodge on the pole position for Sunday’s Cup race. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Mother’s Day Weekend —another short weekend — proved to be almost as interesting as the weekend before in Richmond, though when the race was done the “Lady in Black” seemed to have been tamed.
Practice sessions and qualifying for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races were no indication of that at all.
Darlington has always been referred to as the track “too tough to tame.” It’s new surface had some thinking it was impossible to master.
Many drivers had contact with the wall during the practice sessions and qualifying. Some of the cars had minor damage; others had enough damage to cause them to change to a backup car. Some damaged both cars. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Richmond was night racing in all its glory.
The first Richmond race is always the shortest race weekend; it doesn’t include any of the non-points races. Everything is done in a single day, with the exception of the Sprint Cup race.
The Nationwide and Cup series have one two-hour practice session each in the morning and both series qualify toward the middle of the afternoon. The Nationwide race starts immediately after Cup qualifying.
The Nationwide race began with Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Lipton Dodge on the pole, which was interesting (but not in a bad way) considering Lipton was the sponsor of the race — the Lipton Tea 250.
Despite Kahne’s great qualifying attempt, his race attempt didn’t fair so well. Kahne would only lead the first 17 laps before Carl Edwards, in the No. 99 Ford, took the lead for 126 laps. Kahne ended up in the wall, with help from another driver, on lap 158. He would finish the race at 14 and on the lead lap. (more…)
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Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
The Samsung 500 at the Great American Speedway — apparently the new name for Texas Motor Speedway — wasn’t the best race, so far, this season. Not much happened during the race.
That wasn’t the same for Sprint Cup qualifying two days before.
Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 00 Aaron’s Toyota, began his first lap in his qualifying attempt. As he turned into the corner, it appeared the car got loose and he over-corrected it by “hooking to the right,” said McDowell on The Today Show Monday. In doing so, he went straight into the wall.
Due to the tremendous amount of speed, once the car initially hit the wall, it flew up and barrel-rolled several times. “I counted seven,” (more…)
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Short track racing typically equals disappointment. Disappointment for the drivers, not the fans, and Bristol was no exception.
Once again, like several times this season, the expected winner or dominant driver didn’t cross the finish line first.
For the second time this season with only five races under the belt, Cup qualifying was cancelled due to rain (or weather). Once again, the starting order was set by the owner points.
Nationwide qualifying was also cancelled (for the third time), because the drivers had not practiced on the track. (The rain had cancelled Nationwide practices earlier.)
Saturday called for both series to have one long final practice each with Clint Bowyer’s No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet being the fastest Nationwide car. Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Budweiser Dodge was the fastest Cup car. Both names would continue to play a part in Saturday’s Nationwide race. (more…)
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Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Let’s hope not, because once again, Vegas was great racing.
Where weekend before where it was all rain, all day — Las Vegas was far from rainy. It was very much a typical race weekend.
Qualifying was Friday, as usual. The Cup drivers and fans got their first taste of the new way of qualifying (that is if you haven’t been watching Truck or Nationwide qualifying).
The top 35 in owner’s points qualified first and then all those who weren’t in the top 35 qualified at the end together. It makes it more fair for the teams who may or may not make it in, they say.
I agree with this. I think it gives all the “go or go-home” cars the same advantage (or disadvantage) — but that’s just my opinion. (more…)
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
What happened at California Speedway — newly named the Auto Club Speedway — will go down as one of the most talked about races of the season, and possibly of the sport of stock car racing. It took forever to complete — or even started for that matter.
Sunny southern California, was not so sunny this past weekend. While it was raining Friday here in south Georgia, it was evidently raining everywhere else. (more…)
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