With the 2012 champion Brad Keselowski officially crowned, it was time for Tony Stewart to close the door on being the past champion, give new the new champ a little advice, and move on to the exciting events of the 2013 season.
No matter how hot a team is when they enter the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the deadly combination of mistakes and bad breaks – mostly beating themselves – will instantly take a team out of championship contention.
Now that the never-ending banquet is over, the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is finally in the books. The champion has been crowned and it’s only 78 days until the qualifying for the Daytona 500.
While the spot light is on new NASCAR champ Brad Keselowski and the other Chase drivers during the Vegas Championship Week celebrations, the generosity and caring of NASCAR has also taken center stage throughout the festivities.
From Chevrolet’s first win 57 years ago at Columbia Speedway in South Carolina in a Chevy driven by Fonty Flock to Chevy’s current claiming of ten consecutive manufacturer’s championships, the brand has run deep in NASCAR racing.
The 2012 Camping World Truck Series season was one for the record books. A new champion, James Buescher, was crowned while nine different drivers scored their first career wins. There were also 16 different winners during the season’s 22 races.
Every NASCAR fan can agree that the Sprint Cup Series has an excess number of mile and a half tracks on the schedule. Mile and a half tracks don’t feature the close, competitive racing that superspeedway’s, short tracks and road courses do. NASCAR is always looking for fan input on the series and one suggestion they’re not listening to is fans no longer wanting as many mile and a half tracks on the schedule.
Now that the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season is in the history books. It is time to look back at how the top teams in the sport performed in 2012. Some teams rose to the occasion and performed at the top of their game while others disappointed and performed below expectations. Here are my grades for the 2012 season.
The 24-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, outdueled teammate Layne Riggs, Ben Rhodes and the field during a 12-lap shootout to win in his penultimate Truck start with Front Row Motorsports in Ridgeway, Virginia.
Chandler Smith led a Ford sweep of the top four positions as he won tonight’s race at Martinsville Speedway. Ben Rhodes was second, Layne Riggs third and Ty Majeski fourth.
Gio Ruggiero (eighth) and William Sawalich (ninth) both recorded top 10 finishes for TRICON Garage to lead Toyota in Friday night’s NASCAR Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
The 2021 CARS Super Late Model Tour champion from Mooresville, North Carolina, clocked in a pole-winning lap at 95.371 mph in 19.855 seconds for his third O'Reilly career pole in Ridgeway, Virginia.
The 2026 ARCA Menards Series East champion from Kannapolis, North Carolina, became the youngest pole winner in Truck Series' history at age 16 years, two months and 27 days old.
