HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- There may still be confetti floating in the South Florida air after Jimmie Johnson's championship celebration Sunday night, but in this "full-speed ahead" sport of NASCAR, nothing ever comes to a complete stop. That's just the way NASCAR Chairman Brian France wants it.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
As NASCAR heads to Talladega this Sunday, the Cup Series will conclude its 22nd consecutive year of "restrictor plate racing." Designed to slow speeds on the circuit's two fastest tracks, Daytona and Talladega, restrictor plate racing is a temporary solution to an age old question: how can NASCAR keep drivers safe while leaving competition and innovation intact?
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
A small news story has me thinking big things about NASCAR this week. And to think, it all revolves around something as simple as a number.
NASCAR heads to Pocono this weekend, the site of the sport's latest effort to spice up competition: double-file restarts. Now eight-weeks old, the move debuted with great fanfare, and has been lauded by most in the garage.
KOONTZ LAKE, Ind. -- There's a lot on the line at Sunday's AllState 400 at the Brickyard -- NASCAR's annual trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Simply put, there are three entities that cannot afford to fail -- NASCAR, Goodyear and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself.
NASCAR's Hall of Fame will begin the process of selecting its inaugural five inductees Thursday when 25 nominees are unveiled. It will be prestigious to make the list, virtually a guarantee of future membership, and it will be interesting to see who doesn't make the cut -- those forgotten by the passage of time.
The two biggest racing series in the world, Formula 1 and NASCAR, don't have much in common. NASCAR's big, bulky stock cars pale in comparison to F1's open-wheel marvels of engineering precision, with the wind tunnel meaning just as much to a team's finish as the driver in the cockpit. With side-by-side racing difficult in F1, there are more lead changes in one stock car race than there are in one-third of an F1 season.
So NASCAR is going to go with double-file restarts in the Cup series. Good for them. The new rule should make for some interesting racing over the next few weeks, and especially in the Chase. I worked with my colleague Lars Anderson last week on a piece that he wrote for the magazine about how NASCAR can improve the quality of its racing. Double-file restarts was one recommendation.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- There may still be confetti floating in the South Florida air after Jimmie Johnson's championship celebration Sunday night, but in this "full-speed ahead" sport of NASCAR, nothing ever comes to a complete stop. That's just the way NASCAR Chairman Brian France wants it.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
As NASCAR heads to Talladega this Sunday, the Cup Series will conclude its 22nd consecutive year of "restrictor plate racing." Designed to slow speeds on the circuit's two fastest tracks, Daytona and Talladega, restrictor plate racing is a temporary solution to an age old question: how can NASCAR keep drivers safe while leaving competition and innovation intact?
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
A small news story has me thinking big things about NASCAR this week. And to think, it all revolves around something as simple as a number.
NASCAR heads to Pocono this weekend, the site of the sport's latest effort to spice up competition: double-file restarts. Now eight-weeks old, the move debuted with great fanfare, and has been lauded by most in the garage.
KOONTZ LAKE, Ind. -- There's a lot on the line at Sunday's AllState 400 at the Brickyard -- NASCAR's annual trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Simply put, there are three entities that cannot afford to fail -- NASCAR, Goodyear and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself.
NASCAR's Hall of Fame will begin the process of selecting its inaugural five inductees Thursday when 25 nominees are unveiled. It will be prestigious to make the list, virtually a guarantee of future membership, and it will be interesting to see who doesn't make the cut -- those forgotten by the passage of time.
The two biggest racing series in the world, Formula 1 and NASCAR, don't have much in common. NASCAR's big, bulky stock cars pale in comparison to F1's open-wheel marvels of engineering precision, with the wind tunnel meaning just as much to a team's finish as the driver in the cockpit. With side-by-side racing difficult in F1, there are more lead changes in one stock car race than there are in one-third of an F1 season.
So NASCAR is going to go with double-file restarts in the Cup series. Good for them. The new rule should make for some interesting racing over the next few weeks, and especially in the Chase. I worked with my colleague Lars Anderson last week on a piece that he wrote for the magazine about how NASCAR can improve the quality of its racing. Double-file restarts was one recommendation.
Five things we learned after the running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, won in an upset by David Reutimann after a rain-shortened race ended on Lap 227:
Three years after the floodgates opened on an open-wheel NASCAR invasion, it appears the bleeding has finally stopped for the IRL. As the curtain rises on this year's Indy 500, Dario Franchitti finds himself running open-wheel after just one failed season attempting to transition into Sprint Cup. He joins Jacques Villeneuve, Sarah Fisher and Patrick Carpentier as recent examples of how success in one form of motorsports doesn't always translate somewhere else -- failures that make others wary of attempting to make the jump (Danica, are you listening?).
Innovation comes less often from Eureka! moments than from borrowing a bit here, and a bit there. The Vikings were actually quite helpful, once all the pillaging stopped. Rock n' Roll didn't just steal itself from the blues. Someone had to do it for Elvis. Anyway, sports leagues can learn from each other, too. So here are five things racing could learn from the other major sports, and vice versa.
Critics are trying to figure out why NASCAR ratings are down 15 percent from last season. The biggest drop in viewership since the sport's gargantuan TV contract in 2001 is significant enough to raise eyebrows.
Given the state of the U.S. economy, it's a well-known fact that NASCAR's immediate future -- tied as it is to the fate of corporate America -- is uncertain. But with the news earlier this week that the White House was effectively taking over General Motors, while at the same telling Chrysler that it was off the federal dole, a murky outlook has grown suddenly more opaque. Everybody knew last year that a pullout of at least one automaker was a real possibility. Now they're going to have to come to terms that such a situation is almost a certainty. We are extremely close to being through the looking glass here, people.
There's a very interesting piece this week on ESPN.com by former SI scribe Ed Hinton that's all about NASCAR's Drive For Diversity program. Normally, stories about D4D make my eyes glaze over just a bit. It's always been my (not so firmly-held) belief that diversity will come to NASCAR when it's good and ready, and that there's just no way to force drivers who aren't ready into its three national series.
If Daytona is NASCAR's Super Bowl to start, then California is its red herring that follows. For the past four years, the speedway one hour from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood has won the Oscar for Worst Track Conditions, with the 2-mile oval criticized incessantly by fans, media, and race teams alike. Last year's February edition produced the biggest firestorm yet. After a light but steady rain fell all weekend, NASCAR attempted to start the race on Sunday when the track wasn't completely dry. Chaos ensued in the form of a multi-car wreck, with water seeping out from underneath the racing surface and causing slick spots where cars suddenly lost control without warning. After finally addressing the problem and stopping the race, rain resumed -- and fans were then kept in the dark until almost 2:00 a.m. EST before race officials finally gave up. The decision to postpone the finish until Monday came only after a record seven-hour rain delay.
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida --When the green flag drops for the Daytona 500, fans in the grandstands and those watching on television won't notice whether teams tested in the offseason or not. They will see the same type of racing they have come to expect in NASCAR's biggest race. And because of that, NASCAR should make its offseason testing ban permanent for years to come.
It begins on Friday, the longest season in sports. The Sprint Cup cars will roar onto the track at Daytona International Speedway to practice for Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR's version of an all-star preseason game. Then on Sunday there's qualifying for the 51st running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15, the first of 36 points-paying races in a season that is already filled with more uncertainty than any in recent memory.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Squeezed out by the emergence of multi-car teams when business was booming, single-car, independent teams are going to save NASCAR's starting lineups in the Sprint Cup Series during the economic downturn.
MOORESVILLE, North Carolina -- After 10 days away from this community known as "Race City USA," I was quickly reminded that I was back in NASCAR territory.
The holidays are a giving time of year, one in which everyone has their eyes on a gift of their dreams. So, it's time to have a little fun and present my NASCAR Wish List for your favorite drivers this offseason. These may not be on their list for Santa ... but they should be ...
This is the week when drivers, mechanics, marketing executives and even the traveling slobs known as the "motorsports media" put on fancy clothes and tuxedos for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Banquet.
The best laid plans of mice and men -- and now NASCAR -- often go awry. That's the situation this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where NASCAR's three national series close out their seasons.
Five things we learned at Phoenix International Raceway:
It has always been NASCAR's dream to be as big as the NFL, but when ABC cut away from Sunday's telecast with 34 laps to go at Phoenix so it could show America's Funniest Home Videos, it became NASCAR's version of the infamous "Heidi Game."
Matt Kenseth won the 2003 Sprint Cup championship by reaching victory lane just once but amassing 25 top-10s in 36 races. It was a feat of consistency that was lambasted as boring, thus the system used to determine NASCAR's top-series champion was changed the next season.
HAMPTON, Ga. -- As Americans prepare to go to the polls to vote on Election Day, the underlying theme is "It's the economy, Stupid." That same phrase could be used to describe the plight of NASCAR.
The National Football League instituted instant replay as hedge against botched officiating calls. College football followed, and this summer, so did Major League Baseball, a bastion of tradition that was slow to allow turn-of-this-century technology to interlope on a game born before the turn of the last. The National Hockey League reviews controversial goals at its nerve center in Toronto. They all get it right -- within a reasonable doubt -- and in the NHL's case, from up to thousands of miles away.
Imagine a sun-swept Texas afternoon in 2015. After the roar of a ceremonial flyover, a Texas Motor Speedway crowd of 200,000 rises to its feet in anticipation of NASCAR's signature moment.
The old saying goes, "Stick and stones can break my bones -- but names can never hurt me." Not so fast. At a time where NASCAR's rumor mill is reaching its peak, try telling that to Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
Are we witnessing the end of NASCAR's open-wheel era? Just one season after Juan Pablo Montoya electrified the racing world by moving from Formula 1 to NASCAR, the whole experiment seems to be stumbling towards a ghastly conclusion.
SI.com's Mark Beech offers the most intriguing news, notes and analysis fans s need to know heading into each week's race.
Up and down the garage, you hear it from drivers, from crew chiefs, from pit crew guys: They positively hate road course racing.
Four days after tires, tempers and tension ran high at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the buzz continues about the sport's future direction.
The promiscuous business of wooing and retaining drivers for the 2009 season and beyond will underpin much of the current Sprint Cup season, even with 16 weeks remaining. This so-called "Silly Season" process, a summer rite that has bloomed in spring the past two years, needs little embellishment, but here are a few plausible scenarios that could make things pretty interesting in the near- and far-terms.
The crowd at last weekend's AllState 400 at the Brickyard was the smallest in the 15-year history of the race. After Sunday's tire debacle at Indy, imagine how small the crowd could be next year.
During a time of economic uncertainty, all eyes are on NASCAR and whether the sport remains financially viable in the face of increasing costs. But the fix needed to keep this sport afloat is simpler than you might think.
It once seemed like America in microcosm, a high-banked land of opportunity where a hard-worker with a gleam in his eye and lead in his foot could make something of himself, where money and fame flowed like high-octane gasoline.
What is to be said for those NASCAR fans whose guilty souls are cracked open by Deputy Travis Junior?
Mauricia "Mo" Grant spent nearly three years as a race official in the Nationwide Series, working for NASCAR as the only African-American female in such a role. Now she's at the center of a $225 million lawsuit filed against the organization, in which she alleges sexual and racial discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination. She claims she was called demeaning names, subjected to sexual advances -- including two male co-workers allegedly exposing themselves to her -- and made the brunt of graphic and lewd jokes.
BROOKLYN, Michigan -- After a week in which NASCAR had to defend itself against bad news, including continued complaints about its new car and litigation regarding racism and sexism, only one driver could save the day.
Last weekend should have been a celebration for NASCAR. On Sunday, the sport's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., snagged his first Cup win in two years while running out of gas at the finish in Michigan. A day earlier, 18-year-old Joey Logano, long considered the sport's future star, became the youngest driver to win in the Nationwide Series -- the sport's equivalent of Triple A baseball. Two days of young, popular, talented drivers up front, a wave of momentum any sport would love to have.
This just in: NASCAR has a problem. A big, potentially catastrophic problem.
NASCAR chairman Brian France denied Wednesday that a former official complained to her supervisors about racial and sexual discrimination, claims she alleged led to her eventual firing and discrimination lawsuit
Unlike other big league professional sports, NASCAR's teams and drivers don't disclose compensation. The public knows what Peyton Manning, Alex Rodriguez and Kobe Bryant earn, but can only guess and wonder about Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch.
So which do you prefer, the raw speed of IndyCar or the beatin' and bangin' of NASCAR? Let's compare the two racing series in four different categories.
Heading into Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, an anonymous NASCAR insider shares his thoughts about the latest vibes in NASCAR nation.
Heading into Saturday's All-Star race, an anonymous NASCAR insider shares his thoughts about the latest vibes in NASCAR nation.
In a star-driven circuit like NASCAR, it's easy to get hung up on the stellar seasons put forth by Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton and the others near the top of the standings.
The notion would have seemed absurd a decade ago but there, at the end of a national teleconference in June 2006, NASCAR chairman Brian France asserted his desire for his series to develop and race in the future something he called a "green car."
Former NASCAR driver Shane Hmiel, who was banned for life from NASCAR in 2006 after failing a third drug test, has taken hard, careful and serious steps to revive his career.
NASCAR's stars are serious about fighting drug use in the sport -- even if it means regular, random testing
As a sports nation, we have a distinct problem letting go. Just look at the recent collective mourning over Brett Favre. Retirement never comes easy for sports icons, but the way we desire perfection walking out the door can make the process gut-wrenching. Their exit is hurtful but the pain for all parties can be concealed by the joy of winning one final time: like John Elway winning two straight Super Bowls.
The Car of Tomorrow has now become the Car of Today, as NASCAR's new, safer car design has become standard issue machinery for every team. Has NASCAR's efforts at leveling the equipment playing field altered the sport's excitement level. SI.com's Mark Zeske and Tom Bowles debate the issue.
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- There is a formula used to determine when Easter Sunday falls each year, but many of us aren't smart enough to figure it out without looking at the calendar.
The fun is back. Expect television ratings and attendance to follow.
Stock-car-racing scion Brian France spends as much time in the air crisscrossing NASCAR nation as he does at the track. The grandson of NASCAR's founder took over the family's multibillion-dollar empire in the fall of 2003 and promptly put his stamp on the sport by revamping the championship point system. This season he tweaked the formula again, making individual race victories count for more in the run-up to the Nextel Cup. We caught up with France at NASCAR's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., where a special team oversees car standards and runs safety testing.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- It didn't have the metaphorical perfection of the driving of the golden spike to link the transcontinental railroad or the significance of a treaty ending some long gone war.
There is a bronze statue in Rockefeller Center, Atlas bearing the world upon his shoulders.
Here are the five keys to winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup title.
NASCAR made a major announcement this weeky with the goal of helping its "poor."
NASCAR, now entering its 60th season, has undergone dramatic change in recent years. From switching television networks, series sponsors, implementation of a contrived points race known as "The Chase" and a next-generation race car, it is a league that's appeared to have abandoned its roots.
While there's at least one NASCAR driver who's having a happy New Year, most of us are left pondering one of the big questions left from 2007: What exactly is the point behind all of NASCAR's qualifying rules and provisional exceptions?
Around the world, the Countdown to Christmas has been replaced by the Countdown in Times Square. As 2008 draws ever closer, the New Year beckons a fresh start. With change on the horizon, it's a time to erase the past and concentrate on a better future.
Tired of the boring NASCAR off-season already? Can't wait until the start of the 2008 Sprint Cup season with the celebrated and historic 50th running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 17?
As the curtain closed on the 2007 Nextel Cup season, the furor over open wheel drivers turned stock car rookies reached a fever pitch. With Sam Hornish Jr. and Patrick Carpentier, both of whom attempted to qualify for the season's final race at Homestead, poised to join Jacques Villeneuve in next season's rookie class, the migration from some of the more respected open wheel series -- Formula One, IRL and CART -- has reached levels never dreamed of as little as a decade ago.
When A. J. Allmendinger left the world of open wheel racing for Team Red Bull in the Nextel Cup series, he knew he had a big job in front of him.
Although NASCAR's Champions Week garnered more coverage than a typical race week, there are seven things you might have missed.
Jimmie Johnson is ready to celebrate his 2007 championship at this weekend's Nextel Cup Awards banquet. He's excited about reviewing and savoring the past season. Most other NASCAR driver and their fans are ready to put the year in the rearview mirror -- and not look back.
The top 12 Chasers weren't the only drivers running around in circles this season, even though the NASCAR coverage sometimes made us feel like it.
With the announcement Monday that Jeremy Mayfield will replace Jeff Green at the helm of the No. 66 Haas CNC Racing Chevy, Mayfield took more than just a ride away. With one stroke of the pen, he took the proverbial door and slammed it shut on the 2007 Nextel Cup silly season.
Each week SI.com has evaluated and ranked the 10 best drivers in NASCAR. For the Chase, the list expands to 12.
The 2007 Nextel Cup season might well go down in history as the season that worked.
After Saturday night's NASCAR's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway might better be called the Duller 500.
The weekly Power Rankings are taking the week off as SI.com assesses NASCAR's real power list, the men and women who have the most influence on the sport week in and week out. Herewith, the 15 most influential people in NASCAR today.
With apologies to old Will Shakespeare, what's in a number? This past week saw a resolution of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s secondary drama -- the destination of the No. 8.
The saying is as old as the sport itself: If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'. The culture of cheating has been ingrained in NASCAR ever since the engines first fired in 1949 on a dirt track in Charlotte. That afternoon the first car that roared across the finish line was piloted by Glenn Dunnaway, but when it was discovered that he had illegal rear springs in his Ford, the victory was handed to Jim Roper. The NASCAR boys have been searching for creative ways around the rules ever since.
Didja go a little crazy around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday? Turn on the television and there was no NASCAR? Was it time to catch a little summer sunshine?
NASCAR guarantees starting spots in each week's Cup race to the 35 highest-ranked drivers in owner championship points and one position to any current or former champion who doesn't make the field based on speed. Those rules washed away a potential pole-winning run at Daytona last weekend by Boris Said when rain forced NASCAR to cancel qualifying and seed the filed based on the system described above. Is that fair? SI.com's Tom Bowles and Mark Zeske debate.
Each week SI.com's Mark Beech will evaluate and rank the 10 best drivers in NASCAR.
NASCAR turned serious in its actions against drivers who use their cars as weapons this week when the sanctioning body suspended Ted Musgrave from Saturday's Craftsman Truck Series race at Memphis.
Each week SI.com's Mark Beech will evaluate and rank the 10 best drivers in NASCAR.
Sure, there are still 20 races to go until the Nextel Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 18, but the 2007 regular season is already more than half over. With 10 races left until the start of the Chase, here's a look at the best and the worst of racing so far.
The long-term premise of the Car Of Tomorrow is simple: Create the same type of vehicle for each team to use, and everyone will start with the same opportunity to succeed on the racetrack. NASCAR's goal is to put the race back in the hands of the driver, not the team that has the most money or the manufacturer that can build the best car.
Each week SI.com's Mark Beech will evaluate and rank the 10 best drivers in NASCAR.
The work of the France family is far from over.
Bill France Jr., who transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate during his 31 years as chairman, died Monday at his Daytona Beach, Fla., home. He was 74.
The No. 24 Chevy Impala SS was being pushed through post-race inspection at Bristol Motor Speedway late on Sunday afternoon, and one of the rising stars in the NASCAR garage stood nearby, watching intently.
With NASCAR's new Car of Tomorrow set to finally make its competitive debut this weekend at Bristol, Tenn., SI.com's Mark Zeske explores some of the most intriguing questions surrounding the development.
Predicting the future of auto racing may be a daunting -- and impossible -- task, but it helps to realize the importance of these three words:
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