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The Final Word – Thank God we have Talladega coming up on Sunday

By
Ron Thornton
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Credit: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Charlotte has come and gone for another season, so what can one say about the race that was. Well, “thank God that is behind us” comes to mind. I can not remember if it was sponsored by Nyquil or was simply the To Hell With A Cure for Insomnia 500, for me it turned out to be NASCAR’s version of English Premier League soccer. That is, best watched with PVR in hand.

Lap after lap of whatever and who cares. It was like watching a NBA game in the end, with the final few minutes about as exciting as it gets. Brad Keselowski wins, Kasey Kahne runs second, and Matt Kenseth extended his lead over Jimmie Johnson to four big points in the Chase standings. Did anything else much matter? I expected more from Charlotte, I expect nothing from ABC/ESPN, and not a single new fan was captured from what was presented in the television version of the contest. Thank God we have Talladega coming up this Sunday.

Talladega is coming up, Martin Truex Jr. is off seeking a new ride after Michael Waltrip Racing officially announced its contraction due to NAPA fleeing the scene. Brian Vickers is gone for the rest of the year as he deals with a re-occurrence of blood clots in his leg, but should be good to go in the seat of the MWR #55 for 2014.

NASCAR continues to seek the answers needed to make the racing more exciting. They returned to Charlotte a couple of days after the Saturday night race to see if the advent of more rear down force or more turbulent air might help shake things up. If the announce team can not make things more exciting, then the product itself has to improve.

Rating Charlotte – 5.5/10 – Something has to change, or those not true fanatics are going to continue wandering off to other stimulants or reducing their NASCAR experience to Daytona, Talladega, and Bristol.

If you do not like NASCAR, I understand. If you do not like Talladega, you really are a soccer fan. 40 plus cars sweeping by in aircraft formation three wide with just inches separating any of them in any direction at 200 miles per hour. One sneeze away from disaster. We will be watching this Sunday to see if such a sneeze might hamper the runaway bid of Kenseth and Johnson. Call your friends, call all those who usually do not watch, tell them this is what NASCAR produces each and every week. If we are lucky, Martinsville might actually keep them watching.

You can’t blame a guy for dreaming. Enjoy the week.

Marshall’s Madness: Front Row Racing Hoping History Repeats Itself

By
SM Staff
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Credit: frontrowmotorsports.com

The chance for underdog teams to get that break out win allowing them to continue to race without dying for sponsorship is this weekend in Talladega. We’ve discussed the possibilities of underdog team’s winning before but in my personal opinion one team sticks out over the rest and that’s Front Row Motorsports.

This weekend Front Row will field three of their Fords, driven by David Ragan, David Gilliland and Josh Wise. Last April in Talladega another fairy tale story happened that allowed David Ragan and David Gilliland to finish 1-2 in the Aarons 499 for Front Row. This weekend they are hoping for the same exact outcome.

“If we can stay in that lead pack all day, if I don’t make any mistakes and if we have a little bit of luck, we can make the right moves again and hopefully shoot for another win” said David Ragan “It’s going to be a big race for the whole Front Row Motorsports organization going back to Talladega for a second time this year”

Although Ragan is the only driver to deliver a win to the Furniture Row Racing squad their other driver David Gilliland played a big factor in helping him do that.

“Our 1-2 finish in May was huge. I don’t think you could have a bigger day at the racetrack as an organization” said Gilliland “I’m just really proud to have been a part of it. It was a special day and hopefully we can go back and do it again.”

I can guarantee that Gilliland might not have exposed it there in that comment but if him and Ragan are running 1-2 again he hopes his teammate will return the favor.  Another surprising fact to Gilliland’s name is that he hasn’t scored that elusive first NSCS win. The driver of the No. 38 has seen two top five’s at Talladega including one other top ten finish.

But this means nothing right? After all it is called a “wild card race” for a reason. In my mind though I think if history repeats itself a Front Row Motorsports driver will be standing in victory lane come Sunday.

Don’t think I’m crazy though, I say that because Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 and came back in July to win the Coca-Cola 400 at the same speedway, Daytona is also considered a “wildcard race”.  If Jimmie was able to repeat himself at a super-speedway this year then Front Row Racing can do the same.

Now I’m jumping back to reality, and I will do so by using Gilliland’s final comment:

“Like they always say at superspeedways, anything can happen. I’ve been wrecked out of the race in the opening laps and I’ve come close to winning a few times. So you’ve just got to go in with a smart strategy and be prepared to adjust, depending on where you are and where the cautions fall. You’ve just got to be in position. We were back in ninth or 10th for the green-white-checkered last time at Talladega and our Roush Yates horsepower got us up to the front in those final two laps. That’s what it’s all about — just lurking around the doorway for when it finally opens and then barging through.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR. No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS TOYOTA – Talladega 2 Preview

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SM Archive
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Parker Kligerman to Pilot the No. 30 Toyota at Texas Motor Speedway

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SM Archive
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Greg Biffle – Talladega Advance

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SM Archive
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Stenhouse Jr – Talladega Advance – Nationwide Insurance

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SM Archive
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Carl Edwards – Camping World RV Sales 500

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SM Archive
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Ambrose and DEWALT to Bring Back Special Friend to Races

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SM Archive
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Michael Waltrip, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota – Talladega Superspeedway NSCS Preview

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SM Archive
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2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Schedule Released

By
SM Staff
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NASCAR has released the 2014 Sprint Cup schedule and I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed. They need to change up the season a lot and once again, we have another year where the biggest change is somebody going to a night race or two tracks swapping dates. There is hope though. With the new TV deal in 2015, that leaves some wiggle room to play with the calendar and adjust the things that desperately need adjusting.

Schedule


2-15: Sprint Unlimited (Fox Sports 1
)
2-20: Budweiser Duels (Fox Sports 1)
2-23: Daytona (Fox)
3-2: Phoenix (Fox)
3-9: Las Vegas (Fox)
3-16: Bristol (Fox)
3-23: California (Fox)
3-30: Martinsville (Fox)
4-6: Texas (Fox)
4-12: Darlington (Fox)
4-26: Richmond (Fox)
5-4: Talladega (Fox)
5-10: Kansas (Fox)
5-17: All-Star Race (Fox Sports 1)
5-25: Charlotte (Fox)
6-1: Dover (Fox)
6-8: Pocono (TNT)
6-15: Michigann (TNT)
6-22: Sonoma (TNT)
6-28: Kentucky (TNT)
7-5: Daytona (TNT)
7-13: New Hampshire (TNT)
7-27: Indianapolis (ESPN)
8-3: Pocono (ESPN)
8-10: Watkins Glen (ESPN)
8-17: Michigan (ESPN)
8-23: Bristol (ABC)
8-31: Atlanta (ESPN)
9-6: Richmond (ABC)
9-14: Chicagoland (ESPN)
9-21: New Hampshire (ESPN)
9-28: Dover (ESPN)
10-5: Kansas (ESPN)
10-11: Charlotte (ABC)
10-19: Talladega (ESPN)
10-26: Martinsville (ESPN)
11-2: Texas (ESPN)
11-9: Phoenix (ESPN)
11-16: Homestead (ESPN)

The season continues to be 36 races in length and the chase lineup remains the same. Kansas and Darlington are switching dates and Kansas is becoming a night race run on Mother’s Day weekend. The spring Texas event will run on Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday night and that’s the only other altercation. Some very good news that came along with this announcement is that NASCAR is mandating that the Air Titan which saved the day at Talladega earlier this year will be at every event in 2014!

In 2015, NASCAR isn’t ruling out the possibility of an overhaul with this brand new TV deal on the horizon. My dream is that NASCAR scales back the number of mile and a half’s and adds some more road courses and short tracks. At the very least, we need a road course in the chase to give that much more credence to the eventual champion. Feel free to comment below with your thoughts on the newly released schedule and your hopes for future changes to it.

NASCAR VP Steve O’Donnell Statement

“Yes. We’re excited this morning to officially announce our 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, starting with the 56th running of the Daytona 500, which will be live on FOX Sunday, February 23rd. Once again, we’ll showcase 36 points races, two weekends of non‑points action, which will include the All Star weekend in Charlotte on May 17th, and wind up at Homestead‑Miami Speedway on November 16th, which is the final Race for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, which will be live on ESPN.
Although there are no real surprises on the schedule, we will have four spring date changes. Texas will hold its event one week earlier. They’re moving to a Sunday afternoon event on April 6th. Darlington will run on April 12th. Kansas will hold its first‑ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series night race, and that will be shifted to May 10th. Finally Martinsville in the spring will host the series on March 30th, one week earlier than this year.
One of the things we’re excited to announce today, in addition to another great season of racing, we’re also working as hard as we can for fans in the stands and those watching on TV for them to have the best chance at each of our events to see a completed race.
We’re happy to announce that the NASCAR Air Titan drying technology will be at every Cup weekend in 2014. We all know that the time it takes to dry the track, the impact it’s had on either those watching in the stands or on TV, was the main reason Brian France tasked the R&D center to come up with a solution to reduce that timeframe.
We put the decision in the hands of the tracks for 2014. We met with a number of media members in Daytona at the beginning of the year and talked about this being Phase I of a technology. We’re happy to announce that we’ve learned a lot of things through Phase I. We’ve seen the Air Titan at a number of our tracks this year and we’ll be moving on to Phase II in 2014 as well.
You’ll see that again at all of our Sprint Cup Series weekends for 2014. We think it’s the right thing to do for the fans. We feel we’re really in a good position in terms of the technology that’s been advanced through the R&D center. We look forward to showcasing that, hopefully minimally, because we’d like to see the sun shine for each of our events.
With that, we’re headed to Talladega for the Chase. Excited about what we’ll see for this upcoming weekend. Certainly want to just remind everyone from the Air Titan standpoint, it played an important role last time being able to get those races in on time. Hopefully we won’t have to use that technology, but we’re excited to head to Talladega this weekend.”

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