Archive for the ‘Race Preview’ Category
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Clockwise.
NASCAR continues its annual summer “Yankee Goodwill Tour” of the Union states, hitting up
Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York. Watkins Glen has always been a bit of an oddball on the circuit, at least compared with the rest of the NASCAR fare.
Of course, Watkins Glen is only one of the two road courses in NASCAR, but it’s the only race where you race clockwise, not counter-clockwise like all other tracks. The pit boxes are also on the right side, the only time we get to see that. In Cup Series, it’s also the smallest in terms of seating capacity (41,000), but also one of the five longest (only Daytona, Talladega, Indy and Pocono are longer).
Because it’s a road course and there’s more to explain, we’ll play it a little more seriously this week. (Worked well for Sonoma anyway.)
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Tags: Buck Baker, Daytona International Speedway, Formula 1, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway, J.D. McDuffie, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Harvick, Pocono Raceway, Robby Gordon, Talladega Superspeedway, Tim Richmond, Watkins Glen International
Posted in Race Preview | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
This image represents another quality post from Restrictor Plated and does not have a double meaning at all. Nosiree bub.
Oohhhh. I don’t want to have to write another preview of
Pocono. It’s such a pain thinking of a tie-in to a track in the middle of nowhere. It took me hours to write the last one too. Ah, forget it. I’ll just link to the old one if anyone is still interested. Nothing’s really changed since then anyway other than
Tony Stewart won the last one. It’ll be fine. Now maybe I should work on the dang picks post.
Tags: mini, Pocono Raceway, Tony Stewart
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Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
Put down that ellipse tool, young designer. It's time to break out the rounded rectangle.
You probably don’t know what I mean by that, but that’s okay. This weekend, NASCAR travels to Indianapolis to visit the 100-year-old shrine to American automobile racing: The Brickyard, that large rounded rectangle in a circuit replete with ellipses.
So put out the finest china (and I don’t mean the “Heroes of NASCAR” series of collector plates except for the Bobby Allison Miller High Life one because your cousin Marvin broke it when he put a package of firecrackers in a 10-pound package of ground chuck last Memorial Day) because we’re visiting the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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Tags: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson, Milwaukee Mile, Nationwide Series, Tony Stewart
Posted in Race Preview | 2 Comments »
Friday, July 10th, 2009
Feelin' fine.
Writer’s block is a…thing.
Man, who knew that taking two weeks off from writing would throw my rhythm off so badly? Writing about writer’s block is seemingly the height of pretentious writer tricks (Finding Forrester, Wonder Boys, Adaptation, ad nauseum), but when you’re struggling even to recall the word to use to explain your particular conundrum (the word I couldn’t articulate was “articulate”), it seems like the place to go as a writer.
The traveling NASCAR circus heads to Chicagoland Speedway this weekend, which is in Joliet, Illinois. Trust me, you’ll thank me later for avoiding the “easy out” Blues Brothers references. That draft was terrible.
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Tags: Al Unser Jr., Casey Mears, Chicagoland Speedway, Daytona International Speedway, Firestone Indy Lights, Helio Castroneves, IndyCar Series, International Speedway Corporation, Jimmie Johnson, Kansas Speedway, Martin Truex Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., Scott Dixon, Tony Stewart
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Actual size.
This week, the NASCAR journey takes everyone to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. New Hampshire is the smallest state that NASCAR operates in (area and population), but despite it’s diminutive size, it actually hosts two popular races annually. (Being in the furthest reaches of “Greater Boston” helps.)
But, see, that’s the problem, New Hampshire just doesn’t give you much in the way of journalistic hooks. So, everybody trots out their “B” material like “Tony Stewart Is Rock Solid in the Granite State” or every four years, you can trot out a New Hampshire primary hook. So, in the interest of public service, here are a few alternate headlines that journalists could take a stab at this weekend at New Hampshire:
Okay, admittedly these are terrible. It feels more like a poorly-done “Before & After” category on Jeopardy! after the writers phoned it in on a Friday after a six- or seven-martini lunch. (”What is e.e. cummings Turbo Diesel?”)
How about we skip to the preview?
(See? This is what I meant! I can’t force “B” material to transmogrify into “A” material!)
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Tags: Adam Petty, Dale Jarrett, Davey Allison, David Stremme, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, Joe Nemechek, Kenny Irwin, Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Martin Truex Jr., Martinsville Speedway, Matt Kenseth, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Rusty Wallace
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Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Requires: MS-DOS 4.0 or higher, 10 MHz Intel compatible or faster, 640 KB of RAM. Graphics: CGA, EGA, MCGA/VGA, 16-color Tandy or Hercules. Sound (optional): Ad Lib, Soundblaster, Roland, Tandy, PC speaker.
I’m going to tell you a tale today: a tale of some of my early exposure to NASCAR. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was but a lad, late in my formative elementary school years. I remember watching NASCAR on television (on the occasions when it made network television—we didn’t have cable at the time), listening to guys like Ken Squiers, Ned Jarrett, Paul Page and Benny Parsons call the races.
Going to continue this story behind the break.
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Tags: Benny Parsons, Bill Elliott, Boris Said, Camping World West Series, Infineon Raceway, Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ken Squiers, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Michigan International Speedway, Ned Jarrett, Paul Page, Riverside International Raceway, Tony Stewart, Wally Dallenbach
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Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!
Michigan International Speedway this weekend, now sponsored by a kinda shady “identity theft prevention service.” Oh sure, the CEO is so confident about his service that he publishes his own social security number, which is great for people looking for an easy driver’s license. Oops.
But it is kind of appropriate, actually. NASCAR cars do carry stickers that make them look like stock cars. It’s a bit of identity theft, or at least just an identity crisis. And after all, this is Michigan, and so of course it’s all about the auto manufacturers since we’re close to Detroit—which is having a bit of an identity crisis as well. It used to be appropriate, but of the four NASCAR manufacturers, we have one car manufacturer who is technically headquartered in Washington, D.C. now, one who now splits time between Detroit and Milan and one who is headquartered in, well, Toyota.
So, expect a lot of downer stories going into Michigan this weekend.
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Tags: Auto Club Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona International Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports, Homestead Miami Speedway, Michigan International Speedway
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Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
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Tags: Bill Elliott, Carl Edwards, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Kasey Kahne, Lowe's Motor Speedway, Milwaukee Mile, Pocono Raceway, Richard Petty, Trenton Speedway
Posted in Race Preview | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
All sorts of ways to spin this metaphor: Richard Petty Motorsports' engine power, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s season, where 80% of NASCAR fans want Kyle Busch to jump off of...
Ah, God! One sniff of NASCAR –
To greet our flesh and blood –
To hear the engines revving
Once more through Charlotte’s mud!
Our towns of wasted honour –
Our streets of lost delight!
How stands the old Ford Fusion?
Are Dover’s walls still white?
(With EXTREME apologies to the estate of Rudyard Kipling, who would probably be spinning in his grave if he knew that 100 years after writing a touching poem about faraway soldiers’ longing for home, it would be adapted by a colonial to extol the love of auto racing.)
(Well, assuming he’s not already spinning in his grave because India is no longer “White Man’s Burden” or that Indian Tata owns British Jaguar and Land Rover now, or…you know…Ken Livingstone, Bernie Ecclestone, Gordon Brown, Victoria Beckham, Amy Winehouse, etc., etc., etc.)
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Tags: Bristol Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, Jeremy Mayfield, Kyle Petty, Nashville Superspeedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway, Ryan Newman
Posted in Race Preview | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Okay, make that *two* kinds of Fenders you won't see at the Circuit de Monaco.
We’re approaching Memorial Day weekend which means that some racing fans are looking forward to the Grand Prix of Monaco or the Indianapolis 500. And while that’s all well and good for those snooty aristocratic bourgeoisie eating their havarti cheese and sipping on rioja and driving their cars without fenders (kidding…mostly, I plan on watching them as well), for the NASCAR boys it’s a home game again: Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.
So join us, one and all: NASCAR fans, the lactose intolerant (or orange growers) and those who can’t swim as we get ready for the real top billing (it’s the final event on the card, that’s why), the Coca-Cola 600.
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Tags: Humpy Wheeler, Lowe's Motor Speedway, Speedway Motorsports Inc., Tony Stewart
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