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  • The White Zone: Let’s add some other events to the All-Star weekend

    The White Zone: Let’s add some other events to the All-Star weekend

    “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I want to know why we don’t do other activities on All-Star weekend.

    Every year on the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gathers at Charlotte Motor Speedway to run the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. It’s composed of winners from the previous season and the races preceding it in the current season, past winners of the event, past Sprint Cup Series champions, the winners of the two Sprint Showdown races and the recipient of the fan vote. It’s your old school Saturday night shootout where the winner gets a million dollars.

    But that’s not what I’m here to talk. I’m here to talk about the lack of miscellaneous events that you find at All-Star events of the stick and ball sports.

    Now you could argue that the city of Charlotte and the NASCAR shops are in and of themselves miscellaneous events. However, when I look at the All-Star weekends in other sports, they tend to have a common denominator. They all have skills events that precede the main event. These events include the home run derby in Major League Baseball, the SuperSkills competition in the NHL and the shooting stars competition, the skills challenge, the three-point contest and the slam dunk contest in the NBA.

    Now not all of them have miscellaneous events with their All-Star game. The NFL Pro Bowl doesn’t have any skills competitions preceding it. Although you could argue that the Pro Bowl itself is a miscellaneous event that leads up to the Super Bowl.

    Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
    Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

    Some of you might remember that we used to have skills events leading up to the All-Star Race. The first one was always the pit crew challenge which gave the winning team of the event the first pit stall choice on race night. They did away with it in 2013 due to a lack of sponsorship.

    Another, for a few years, was the burnout contest where the track brought in some celebrities to score the burnouts. For some reason, that too went away.

    So I’ve been giving this some thought and I’d like to throw out some suggestions for skills events. One would be a celebrity race event. The basic premise is that you put some famous people in cars – probably something from the Richard Petty Racing Experience or the Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure – and let them run a mini race. Before you say, “they don’t know how to drive a race car,” they’ll let anyone drive a car if they let me drive 10 laps around Talladega. The presence of these celebrities might bring some added exposure to the All-Star Race itself.

    Personally, I’d rather see something like having drivers from other forms of racing do this event instead of pop culture stars, but this time of May is when the big boys are preparing for Memorial Day Sunday. Which is what I, and others in the racing world, consider the single biggest day of racing on the planet.

    Another thing I’d like to see is an obstacle course race where you put down cones and the drivers have to navigate the makeshift road course in the fastest time.

    This next one is not so much a car-related challenge, but it still requires skill nonetheless. We take the four drivers with the most Twitter followers, give them a minute and see who can sign the most memorabilia.

    And, since this is a fantasy, let’s bring back the Pit Crew Challenge.

    If you guys have ideas for other skills events, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section.

    My plane is about to take off, so I must wrap this up. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. Nylon is made from coal and petroleum.

  • Charlotte In the Rear-View

    Charlotte In the Rear-View

    It’s time to put a nice little bow on everything that happened in NASCAR’s backyard.

    This weekend, the NASCAR traveling carnival made its annual October stop at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500. It was the 30th race of the season, fourth race of the Chase and first of the Contender Round.

    It was supposed to go green just past 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night but unyielding rain showers forced NASCAR to push the race to the following day at 12:30 p.m.

    Under clear blue Carolina skies, Matt Kenseth led the field to the green flag at 12:32 p.m. Eastern time. The field didn’t make it halfway down the backstretch before the first caution of the race flew for debris on the front. It came from the No. 23 BK Racing Toyota of Jeb Burton when the field accordioned back and he rammed the back of the No. 35 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Cole Whitt.

    The race restarted on lap five and it remained under green until the competition caution on lap 26. J.J. Yeley was tagged for his crew being over the wall too soon and restarted the race from the rear of the field. The race restarted on lap 31. Yeley was posted for an unapproved adjustment on his car during his pit stop. He was forced to hit pit road and fix the problem.

    Kasey Kahne made contact with the wall on lap 41, pitted from 12th and rejoined the race in 41st two laps down. It went from bad to worse when he suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall on lap 61. This brought out the third caution of the race.

    Kahne said that he didn’t “know why either one of those tires went down. Obviously, we were doing something wrong to have two tire failures like that. It’s discouraging, but that’s the way it goes.”

    Greg Biffle was busted for speeding on pit road and restarted the race from the rear of the field.

    The race restarted on lap 66. Four laps later, Carl Edwards tapped the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and sent him into the wall. Earnhardt eventually cut down his right-front tire and slammed the wall a few laps later. This brought out the fourth caution of the race.

    He said that Edwards “got a great run on us and drove down into one and got in the back of us a little bit. I don’t know if I cut him off or not. But he drove in there pretty hard and ran over the left rear quarter panel of the car and got in the fence.”

    Joey Logano opted to stay out under the caution and assumed the lead.

    After the race restarted on lap 81, not much really happened. The lead only changed during the lap 120 pit cycle. Debris on the backstretch brought out the fifth caution on lap 167.

    The race restarted on lap 174. Kenseth drifted up in front of Ryan Newman and was hooked into the wall exiting Turn 4.

    Kenseth said that his situation “just kind of snowballed, you know. We were real fast out front. We were kind of tight in traffic and got behind pitting, and then I missed the pit stall trying to come around the 21 and had to back up in the pit, and that put us back there, so just kind of snowballed. But with Ryan, I honestly don’t know. I’ve got to look at it. He went up like I thought he was broke, so I went up through the middle, and I thought I left him plenty of room and then next thing I know, I was pointed at the fence.”

    Justin Allgaier laid oil on the track when his engine expired on lap 182, bringing out the race’s seventh caution. On the ensuing restart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., riding the high line, drove through the uncleaned oil and made contact with the wall. Earnhardt spoke on the incident after the race.

    “We all hit the wall. I hit the wall, Brad hit the wall. Then we went another lap and I pitted and a bunch of other guys hit the wall. There was oil down there. It wasn’t Speedi Dri,” he explained. “I’ve raced this for 20 years. I know what oil and Speedi Dri is. We hit fluid and flew into the freaking wall hard. That’s not Speedi Dri. It was oil up there. There were some shadows cast by them billboards across the track and that may have made it difficult for them to see. Justin blew a hose. He didn’t knock a hole in the bottom of the engine that would just leave a track of oil. He blew a hose or something that is going to spray oil and throw oil all about the race track and up the race track. Maybe it was two-and-a-half car lengths wide how much oil was on the track. You can put it where the car went. You got to get out there maybe and feel around, get your hands on the track.”

    After the race, Managing Director for the Sprint Cup Series Richard Buck said that they (NASCAR) “looked everywhere, including putting people on the ground and walking the area where they said the oil was and there was no oil. I don’t know that you say that anybody misread anything. We all did our jobs. We actually had a human being, protected by the trucks, walking that area to make sure. We do everything we can to bring the surface back to a raceable condition. I think we’ve got an excellent record with that. Sometimes with these lubricants and things that they use, there is some staining to the track, and we’ll go back and do a double-check on that … to make sure that we have got all the fluids. We did that today and we feel absolutely confident that there was no oil on that very top groove or down below or anywhere else.’’

    Now I’m not going to sit here, play armchair-spotter and say there was oil. Depending on what brand these teams use, it can be any color. Some brands of motor oil are black and some are a bit clearer. I have no reason to doubt “June Bug”. He’s been racing in the Sprint Cup Series since 2000. I also have no reason to doubt Richard Buck. But I will say that given some teams – especially teams one or more laps down – have a propensity to “call out” debris to get a timely caution, it wouldn’t shock me if NASCAR views those drivers as the boy who cried ‘wolf.’

    But I digress.

    Another thing that happened under this caution period was the two Kyle’s (Busch and Larson) making contact and Larson getting spun out on pit road. It looked like to me that Larson made the last second decision to hit pit road and Busch made the last second decision to stay out. Both were tagged for commitment line violations as both ran into the orange commitment cone and restarted the race from the rear of the field.

    After the lap 201 restart, the race proceeded more orderly until the next cycle of green flag stops on lap 231. During these stops, Sam Hornish Jr. took the lead for the first time this season. The ninth and final caution of the race flew with 95 laps to go when Kenseth suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 3. Hornish pitted under the caution and the lead cycled back to Joey Logano.

    The race restarted with 88 laps to go. Jimmie Johnson was running third when his engine blew up on the backstretch. He would go on to finish 39th.

    Martin Truex Jr. kicked off the final round of stops with 52 laps to go. Sam Hornish Jr. took the lead with 50 to go and led until he pitted with 34 to go. He finished the race in 19th and his 22 laps led were the most laps he’s ever led in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

    Logano regained the lead and drove away from Kevin Harvick to score his 12th career victory.

    If the NASCAR community were playing a drinking game where we took a shot every time someone said Talladega in the last seven days, we’d all be dead from alcohol poisoning. Logano said after the race that this makes Talladega easier.

    Logano left Charlotte with a six-point lead over Kevin Harvick in the points standings.

    Chevrolet left with a 47-point lead over Toyota in the manufacturer standings. With 23 cars in the field representing the bow ties, Chevrolet really has a race and a half lead over Toyota. If it had been a Toyota car that won and scored max points (48), the lowest the highest finishing Chevy could’ve possibly finished would’ve been 23rd and gained 21-points. To put this in simpler terms: If Toyota doesn’t close the gap to within 22-points by Phoenix, Chevrolet will clinch their 13th consecutive manufacturers title simply when the green flag flies.

    So that should just about wrap up everything that happened in Charlotte.

    Next up, NASCAR heads to America’s heartland to race at Kansas Speedway. Coverage of the Hollywood Casino 400 begins at 2:00 p.m. on NBC. The Motor Racing Network will be on the air at 1:00 p.m.

    Until then, I’ll leave you with this fact. There is a persistent storm at Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. Lightning storms occur for about 10 hours a night, 140 to 160 nights a year, for a total of about 1.2 million lightning discharges per year.

  • ‘Sliced Bread’ Tames the Beast of the Southeast

    ‘Sliced Bread’ Tames the Beast of the Southeast

    In two weeks, Joey Logano will go into Talladega breathing a sigh of relief after taking the checkered flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 227 of the 334 laps on his way to victory in the Bank of America 500. It was his 12th career win, fourth of the season, first at Charlotte and third at the track for Team Penske.

    Logano said that the team “had a great car.” He continued, saying, “Todd Gordon and this Shell/Pennzoil team, all of Team Penske, you always want to win it. Charlotte is everybody’s home turf and you want to make it happen here.” Logano also added that the win “makes Talladega way easier. I know that’s on everyone’s mind when this round starts and last year we won Kansas when it was the first race of this round and now we were able to get it this time at Charlotte. We’ll get lots of sleep here the next couple of weeks.”

    Kevin Harvick brought his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) Chevrolet to his 11th runner-up finish this season (an average of 36.7 percent). Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and SHR’s Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five.

    Carl Edwards, Austin Dillon, Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski and Aric Almirola rounded out the top-10.

    Ryan Newman lumbered his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to a 15th-place finish.

    Following contact on pit road under the eighth caution of the race, Kyle Busch finished 20th one lap down.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. made contact with the wall on lap 70, fell back through the race and finished 28th, four laps down.

    “I lost count of how many time we hit it (the wall) today,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know. We had a pretty decent car. Carl (Edwards) got a great run on me down the front straightaway and just drove in there and the left rear quarter-panel, I have to look at that to see whether that was a racing deal or whatever.”

    Pole-sitter Matt Kenseth led 72 laps before falling back in the field and slamming the wall multiple times which relegated him to a 42nd-place finish. He was the lowest-finishing Chase driver.

    Notable finishes include Greg Biffle, who started fourth, finishing 24th, Jimmie Johnson finishing 39th after blowing an engine with 77 laps remaining and Kasey Kahne who slammed the wall early in the race and finished dead last.

    Logano leaves NASCAR’s backyard with a six-point lead over Harvick. Truex Jr. follows seven back. Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards leave tied for fifth at nine points back. Jeff Gordon leaves in seventh place, 11-points back. Brad Keselowski leaves 13-points back.

    Ryan Newman is six points behind the eighth-place cutoff. Kyle Busch is 10-points back. Earnhardt Jr. is 19 back and Kenseth is 32 back.

    Next week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolls into America’s heartland for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

  • Dillon on Fire in Charlotte

    Dillon on Fire in Charlotte

    CONCORD, NC – Austin Dillon was on fire at Charlotte Motor Speedway; at one point, literally. Dillon qualified his No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the pole for Friday’s Drive for the Cure 300 by edging fellow cup driver Kasey Kahne with a speed of 183.524 mph. During pre-race activities, one of the fireworks that were set off, misfired and landed on Dillon and his car, burning his fire suit. Dillon laughed it off and went on to win the race, which capped a sweep of both XFINITY races at Charlotte this year.

    “I was actually praying, and the fireworks hit me in the back,” Dillon said. “I didn’t know if it was a sign from God or what. But it got me going right there with a firework in the butt.”

    After the race, Dillon thanked his team and dedicated the victory to two friends who are fighting breast cancer.

    “It’s pretty cool to say we’ve swept both races at our home track,” Dillon said. “We didn’t start the race very strong. I told Danny (Stockman, crew chief) we were really tight and needed to make some adjustments. He made great calls and took big swings at it. Those guys made this Rheem Chevrolet fast. We pulled away there at the end, it was great.

    “This is a special win for us not only as a team but me personally. I know two people close to me that are battling breast cancer and this win is for them. It’s an honor to be able to bring home this trophy for them. I hope it brings a few smiles when they’re having a rough day.”

    Kyle Busch appeared to have the car to beat, leading a race-high 102 laps. He also took the all-time lead in the XFINITY series at Charlotte with 1,288 laps led, breaking the previous record held by Mark Martin with 1,257.

    However, he lost several spots during a lap 147 restart. As he tried to work his way back to the front, he and Kahne got into a battle for third place that saw both cars touch a number of times. Busch eventually got the spot, but Kahne drove deep into Turn 3 and got into Busch which sent him into the outside wall. Both cars were damaged in the incident, but Busch clearly got the worst of it. He pulled his car off the track, finishing 31st and left without commenting.

    When asked about the incident, Kahne said, “Kyle got mad because he got into it with his teammate (Jones) off Turn 2 on the start. “That shuffled him back to where I was,” Kahne continued, “and I’m racing to try to get by him. He started beating on me down the back and on the front, and I overdrove Turn 3 and got into him.”

    Erik Jones was a distant second, followed by Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez and Regan Smith. Series leader Chris Buescher finished seventh and extended his lead in the series to 26 points over Chase Elliott who finished ninth.

    The NASCAR XFINITY Series travels to Kansas Speedway next Saturday for the Kansas Lottery 300.

    Click here for the complete results.

  • Rowdy Heads Final Practice

    Rowdy Heads Final Practice

    Kyle Busch topped the charts in the final practice session.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 28.518 and a speed of 189.354 mph.

    Brother Kurt, who led the way in the earlier second practice session, was second with a lap of 28.572 and a speed of 188.996 in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Joey Logano placed his Team Penske Ford in third at 28.646 and 188.508. The No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Ryan Newman was fourth at 28.649 and 188.418. Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five at 28.676 and 188.311 in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10.

    Kevin Harvick placed 12th.

    Martin Truex Jr. placed 15th.

    Jeff Gordon finished 16th.

    Pole-sitter Matt Kenseth rounded out the Chase drivers in 20th and continued his under 20th run in the Friday sessions following his 22nd-place run in the earlier session.

    With practice and qualifying in the books, all that remains is to run the race. The Bank of America 500 begins tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC and NBC Sports Live Extra. The radio broadcast begins at 6:00 p.m. ET on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

  • Kurt Busch Leads the Way in Practice

    Kurt Busch Leads the Way in Practice

    Kurt Busch led the way during the second practice session at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet posted a lap of 28.606 and a speed of 188.772 mph to top the charts in the second Sprint Cup Series practice. Carl Edwards was second in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a lap of 28.629. Edwards won the Coca-Cola 600 the last time the series competed at Charlotte in May.

    Ryan Newman was third fastest in the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing at 28.780. Martin Truex Jr. was fourth at 28.789 and Joey Logano was fifth with a lap time of 28.802.

    Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10. Johnson, who was eliminated from the Chase after the last race of the Challenger round at Dover International Speedway last week, was the fastest of the non-Chase entrants.

    Pole-sitter Matt Kenseth timed in at 22nd-place and Kevin Harvick placed in 25th. Jeff Gordon rounded out the Chase drivers in 32nd.

    The final practice for the Sprint Cup drivers is scheduled for Friday evening from 6:30-7:20 p.m.ET and will be televised on the NBC Sports Network.

  • The White-Zone: Why the Contender Round Favors Jeff Gordon

    The White-Zone: Why the Contender Round Favors Jeff Gordon

    “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading,” and I must unload about why the Contender Round will put the ball in Jeff Gordon’s court.

    The motto for the 24 team in the Challenger Round struck me as simply “survive and advance.” While he had a dominant car at Chicagoland, he was a 10th-place car at best in Loudon and Dover. Now that Gordon has moved on to the Contender Round, he’ll find the track lineup of Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega to his advantage.

    First is the “Beast of the Southeast.”

    Jeff Gordon has a love/hate history with Charlotte Motor Speedway. This was the track where he scored the first of his 92 career wins on May 29, 1994. He’s visited victory lane here five times and has 17 top-fives, 24 top-10s, and nine poles. Gordon has led 787 laps with an average start of 10.7, an average finish of 15.4 and he has completed 93.3 percent of the combined laps in 45 career starts.

    Now with that said, Charlotte is the ultimate hit or miss track for the driver of the No. 24 car. His 10 DNF’s here are his most at any track on the NASCAR schedule. From 2005 to 2007, he suffered five straight DNF’s. In the last five races, those five being the races with the Gen-6 car, he’s finished 35th, seventh, seventh, second and 15th. This gives him an average finish of 13.2, which is higher than his career average of 15.4 at the track. Gordon might have a better run this time around since the Chase race doesn’t require as much chasing the changes as the Coca-Cola 600, but I would say it’s wishful thinking to expect anything but a 10th-place finish.

    Where the odds truly begin to go up for Jeff Gordon is when we make our way out to the heartland and race at Kansas Speedway.

    This has been one of his more friendly tracks. He’s won three times with 11 top-fives and 13 top-10s, led 218 laps with an average start of 13.1, an average finish of 9.9 and has completed 99.2 percent of the combined laps in 19 career starts.

    His top-10 average of 68.4 percent is his eighth best behind Pocono, Phoenix, Homestead, Indianapolis, Sonoma, Martinsville and Kentucky. Gordon’s top-five average of 57.9 percent is his third best behind Sonoma and Martinsville. In his last five races at Kansas, he’s finished 13th, third, first, 14th and fourth. This gives him an average finish of 7, higher than his career average of 9.9 at the track. In May, he ran top-10 most of the race and came home fourth. I think it will be another top-five run for Big Daddy in the heartland.

    While I expect Jeff Gordon to run well at Charlotte and Kansas, what really gives me confidence in his Contender Round run is the Alabama roulette wheel (I really hope that starts catching on) of Talladega Superspeedway.

    Before I go into detail, I’m aware that after Daytona, Gordon said he was glad he only had to do this plate stuff one final time. I’m also not going to say for certain if he’ll just run in the back trying to survive and advance. I do know that, next to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Big Daddy has been the best plate racer this season. He won the pole and dominated the Daytona 500, leading 87 laps before getting caught up in the last-lap wreck on the backstretch. He also won the pole and led 47 laps here back in May where he most likely had the race won until he was busted for speeding when he locked up the brakes getting onto pit road under the sixth caution and restarted the race from the rear of the field. He was unable to work his way back to the front when the field decided to run single-file until two laps remaining. Gordon, again, was caught up in the last-lap wreck and finished 31st. While he didn’t make as much noise in July at Daytona, he did bring the car home to a sixth-place finish before getting caught in the tri-oval melee.

    You also can’t overlook the fact that Gordon has more restrictor-plate points wins than any other driver in the history of NASCAR. Before anyone goes to Wikipedia to try and tell me it’s actually Dale Earnhardt, the Intimidator only had 11 points wins in plate races – two of his Talladega wins came before the plates – while Jeff Gordon has 12. I’m not saying that Earnhardt wasn’t the best plate racer in NASCAR history, I’m just saying that Gordon is no slouch when it comes to Daytona and Talladega.

    Granted, he hasn’t won a plate race since sweeping Talladega in 2007. But it’s not a stretch to say he could get one last restrictor plate win. Regardless, it’ll be a thrill to be there in person to see Big Daddy make his final start in the hallmark style of racing in NASCAR. I also think when all is said and done, Jeff Gordon will stand victorious at the Alabama roulette wheel.

    Do you agree with my case? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. A syzygy occurs when three astronomical bodies line up.

  • NASCAR Racing Schedule for Charlotte Motor Speedway

    NASCAR Racing Schedule for Charlotte Motor Speedway

    This weekend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the XFINITY Series will compete at Charlotte Motor Speedway while the Camping World Truck Series is off. All of the on-track action will be broadcast on NBC Sports Live Extra. Please see the full schedule below.

    All times are Eastern.

    Thursday, Oct. 8:

    On Track:

    1:30-2:55 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Practice – NBCSN/Live Extra
    3-3:55 p.m.: XFINITY Series Practice – NBCSN/Live Extra
    5:30-6:55 p.m.: XFINITY Series Final Practice – NBCSN/Live Extra
    7:20 p.m: Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, NBCSN/Live Extra
    8:40 p.m.: Whelen Southern Modified Tour race (150 laps, 37.5 miles)

    GarageCam: (Watch live)

    1:00 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series
    2:30 p.m.: XFINITY Series

    Press Conferences (Watch live at NASCAR.com)

    12:15 p.m.: Regan Smith
    3 p.m.: Carl Edwards
    4 p.m.: Jeff Gordon
    8:20 p.m.: Post-Sprint Cup Series qualifying

    Friday, Oct. 9:

    On Track:

    3:30-4:25 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Practice – NBCSN/Live Extra
    4:45 p.m.: XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying – NBCSN/Live Extra
    6:30-7:20 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Final Practice – NBCSN/Live Extra
    8 p.m.: XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 Presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (200 laps, 300 miles) – NBCSN/Live Extra (Green Flag 8:18 p.m. approx.)

    Press Conferences (Watch live at NASCAR.com)

    10:15 p.m.: Post-XFINITY Series Race

    Saturday, Oct. 10:

    On Track:

    7 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500 (334 laps, 501 miles) – NBC/Live Extra (Green Flag 7:21 p.m. approx.) – RACE POSTPONED TO SUNDAY DUE TO RAIN

    Press Conferences (Watch live at NASCAR.com)

    10:45 p.m.: Post-Sprint Cup Series Race

    Sunday, Oct. 11:

    Pre-Race Schedule:

    11:40:00 a.m.: NSCS Drivers Introductions 
    12:30:00 p.m.: Start of the Bank of America 500 (334 Laps, 501 Miles)

    On Track:

    12:30 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500  (334 Laps, 501 Miles) – NBC/Live Extra (Leaderboard)

     

    TV Schedule- Additional NASCAR Coverage

    Thursday, Oct. 8:

    5 p.m.: NASCAR America Live – NBCSN

    Friday, Oct. 9:

    6 p.m.: NASCAR America Live – NBCSN
    7:30 p.m.: XFINITY Series Countdown to Green – NBCSN

    Saturday, Oct. 10:

    4 p.m.: NASCAR RaceDay – FOX Sports 2
    5 p.m.: NASCAR America Live – NBCSN
    6 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Countdown to Green – NBCSN
    11 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Post-Race – NBCSN – Postponed Due To Rain
    11:30 p.m.: NASCAR Victory Lap (tape) – NBCSN – Postponed to Sunday Due To Rain
    12:30 a.m.: NASCAR Victory Lane – FOX Sports 1 – Postponed Due To Rain

  • Bank of America 500 Preview

    Bank of America 500 Preview

    To quote a famous Oscar-winning film, “There’s no place like home.”

    This Saturday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500, the 30th race of the season, the fourth of the Chase and first of the Contender Round. I consider this to be the more interesting round with the track lineup of Charlotte, Kansas Speedway and the Alabama roulette wheel, Talladega Superspeedway.

    Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) intermediate quad-oval located in Concord, North Carolina. It’s the centerpiece of the soon to be NASCAR Hall of Fame member Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports, Inc. empire, and by extension, the Performance Racing Network.

    Being in the Metrolina area, it’s the home track for just about every NASCAR team. For Hendrick Motorsports, the hauler drive from the shop to the track is a long, grueling, oh so difficult five-minute drive. I don’t know if it’s exactly five minutes, but it’s close enough that you can see the shop from the track.

    I don’t know if there’s a track out there more temperature sensitive than Charlotte. One moment, the ambient temperature could be 75 degrees and your car is driving loose. Then the temperature could drop one degree and the car becomes tight as hell.

    There are several keys to winning at Charlotte. First is keeping up with the changes. This is a long race at 501 miles. Second is taking care of the car. While 500-mile races aren’t as grueling on cars as they were in the past, it still must endure everything thrown at it around the Beast of The Southeast. Finally, there’s fuel management. Back in May, it was Carl Edwards who played the fuel game correctly to win the Coca-Cola 600.

    With as dominant as the No. 4 car has been as of late, it should come as no surprise that defending race winner Kevin Harvick is a 7/2 favorite to win Saturday night according to Vegas Insider. Kyle Busch, who finished 11th in the Coca-Cola 600 in his first race back from a broken leg, is 6/1. Personally, my money is on either of them to win.

    Don’t miss the Bank of America 500 Saturday beginning at 6:30 p.m. on NBC. You can hear the radio broadcast for the race at 6:00 p.m. on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini will be in the booth. Rob Albright and Pat Patterson will be working the turns. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Jim Noble and Steve Richards will work pit road.

    I’ll leave you with this fact. Avocados are poisonous to birds.

  • New Packages for NASCAR? I’m Impressed.

    New Packages for NASCAR? I’m Impressed.

    Staying away from commenting on the rules package at Kentucky Speedway has been tough, but seeing what the long-term reaction might be was more important. From my eyes, it appeared that the racing at Kentucky was better than the previous races at the Sparta, Kentucky track. The statistics bear that out and the eye test was overwhelmingly positive. Drivers loved it and all the slipping and sliding was entertaining to most fans.

    The problem NASCAR was trying to fix was the seemingly impossible task of passing on the mile and a half tracks. Many fans and drivers saw the same thing. Once a driver gained clean air, it was almost impossible to pass near the front. The package seemed to have worked, but NASCAR is still working on the final package. The sanctioning body gets a high mark for this experiment. Fans can only hope that a similar package will be instituted next year.

    This week, another rules package will be tried at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This package is described as a high drag package. Since NASCAR has been going to the Brickyard, boring races have been the rule. IMS is narrow and huge, allowing those with the perfect setup to run away and hide. We’ve seen that for years. This package should delete that phenomenon and make racing closer and allow more passing. We will soon see this weekend. If IndyCars can put on a great, and many argue, a better show on Memorial Day weekend than at Charlotte Motor Speedway, it was time for some changes to be made.

    The success of the Kentucky package and if the Indy package is even more successful, means that things could be very exciting for this weekend’s race. The Brickyard race should be special during the NASCAR schedule. For years through tire problems and bland racing, attendance has been horrid. There’s no doubt that the mere size of the venue causes much of that feeling, but race attendance has been shrinking for the once named Brickyard 400. Losing this event would be devastating to NASCAR.

    Will the new packages be used in The Chase? That is a good question. Though statements have been made saying that the changes are for 2016, with the much-improved racing at Kentucky and with the number of mile and a half tracks in The Chase, NASCAR will be tempted to make the change for the final  10 races. Time will tell and we should know soon, but if it gives us better racing and more passing, it’s a no-brainer. Watching Brad Keselowski’s pit crew make mistake after mistake and seeing Keselowski get back to the front each time was enough for me to endorse that package. Hopefully, the Indy package will give us more of the same. That’s a win-win for everyone.