Changes to the Brickyard weekend next year led the news this week after NASCAR announced the addition of Grand-Am Road Racing and the Nationwide Series to Indianapolis in 2012. The move takes the Nationwide cars from the Lucas Oil Raceway Park, a place they have raced since 1982. In other news, Ford officials said this [...]
Archive for July, 2011
Fuel Injection, Jimmie Johnson, & The Brickyard
July 7th, 2011 
T.C. None of the three things I mentioned in the headline are connected, I just decided to write a hodgepodge post with a few different thoughts and observations. Feel free to comment on one or all (or not at all). Fuel Injection The new fuel injected engines were on display for the first time on Thursday [...]
David Ragan Cautiously Optimistic. But Should He Be?
July 7th, 2011 Journo David Ragan finally notched his first Cup Series win this past weekend at Daytona. It was a long road for the 25-year-old driver after four and half seasons in the sport’s top series. Ragan’s meteoric rise at Roush Fenway started with the old “Gong Show” (then called Roush Racing: Driver X for Discovery Channel) in [...]
Posted in The Business of NASCAR 
Tags: david ragan, jack roush, NASCAR, roush fenway, Silly Season, Sponsor, UPS 
6 Comments »Ask The Insiders Wednesday #133
July 6th, 2011 T.C. It’s a short week! Thanks to the Fourth of July, we’ve only got a few days before cars and trucks will be back on track. All three major NASCAR series are in action this weekend at Kentucky. While we all work through another hump day, here’s the 133rd version of reader questions and our answers. [...]
When Reporting Goes Too Far
July 4th, 2011 T.C. We’ve seen a few stories emerge over the last few weeks in the NASCAR world that have made some wonder, including myself, how far is too far? It seems that some have set aside ethics and the principles of responsible reporting in exchange for page views. If you follow the sport closely, and are active [...]
Two Car Tandem Or Pack Drafting? What Do You Prefer?
July 4th, 2011 Journo A lesson from this weekend? It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. A demonstration of that is the couple of people telling TC he’s full of it for writing that all those deals for Daytona would fall apart (thank you for pointing out the obvious). Turns out they didn’t. In a couple of instances [...]
Posted in Racing Observations Tags: Daytona, drafting, NASCAR, pack drafting, superspeedway, talladega, tandem, tandem drafting 25 Comments »The NASCAR Week That Was: June 26-July 2
July 3rd, 2011 Journo It was sponsors who led the news this week. Crown Royal announced on Tuesday that they would be ending their sponsorships of Roush Fenway Racing and NASCAR at the end of the season. The company said they would continue their sponsorship of NASCAR’s Richmond event. In other news, GoDaddy.com was sold this week. Despite the [...]
Please, No Nationwide Cars At Indy. And Maybe No NASCAR
July 1st, 2011 Journo Indianapolis Motor Speedway is home to one of the greatest traditions in all of motorsports. The prestige of the place and the events surrounding it made it a perfect fit for the up-and-coming NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 1994. 200,000 spectators showed up that first year – in 2007 the number was 270,000. 17 years [...]
Posted in The Business of NASCAR Tags: Brickyard 400, F1, GrandAm, IMS, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IRP, Jeff Belskus, LROP, Lucas Oil Raceway Park, MotoGP, ORP 18 Comments »