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NASCAR This Week
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NASCAR news and opinion from Monte Dutton, verteran motorsports reporter for The Gaston Gazette.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'NASCAR'
Burning issues
- For the second year in a row, Tony Stewart suffered a heartbreaking loss in the Coca-Cola 600. Casey Mears made it to the end of the 2007 race without pitting and it cost Stewart that race. This tim...
Post-race report: Charlotte
Coca-Cola 600 Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord The winner and how he did it: Kasey Kahne followed up his victory in the Sprint All-Star race, a short exhibition, with another in the ...
Gas shortage
It really requires only simple math. The generic cars have smaller (slightly under 18 gallons) fuel tanks. The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race. Two years in a row, it’s come down to who had en...
Kahne sweeps, Stewart weeps
CONCORD - The Coca-Cola 600 was, for the second year in a row, decided on fuel. It didn’t cost $4 a gallon, but several contenders would’ve paid a bundle for a gallon at the end of ...
NOTEBOOK: Dragsters showcased at the speedway
CONCORD - John Force’s NHRA Funny Car sped somewhat tentatively down Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s pit road before the Coca-Cola 600, signaling the impending completion of zMax Dragway nea...
Sunday’s pre-race report
Well, this product is certainly all over the world: Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR’s in Daytona, but the teams are here: Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord. Favorites: Kyle Busch, Greg...
It’s different
I’m not sure I can even describe it properly — this didn’t occur until me until I watched the Nationwide Series race last night from the press box — but the racing with ...
All Junior lacks is an official victory
CONCORD - Remain calm. All is well. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to win again. Since moving to Hendrick Motorsports this year, he’s done everything else: third in Sprint Cup points, four t...
Predictions …
I may have touched on this at some point, but it strikes me as odd that I’m constantly being asked to make predictions. Most times that I go on the radio — and that’s a pretty good b...
It’s not nice to fool Mother NASCAR
CONCORD - NASCAR officials have uncovered "irregularities" in the wings on the two Haas CNC generics, and there is going to be hell to pay. The team enters two Chevrolets - one n...
Busch wins Nationwide melee … er, race
CONCORD - Kyle Busch has won in three different series, and Saturday night’s victory in the Carquest Auto Parts 300 meant he has won Nationwide Series races in three different cars. Busc...
Donny Lia wins Ohio 250
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Donny Lia wins Ohio 250", url: "http://nascar.rbma.com/articles/3452" });...
Notebook: Ragan remembers who his friends are
CONCORD - Perhaps the position is fleeting, but David Ragan, often derided during his rookie season, is a creditable 12th in the Sprint Cup standings entering tonight’s Coca-Cola...
Keselowski takes on the odds
CONCORD - One of the struggling drivers who compete every week in the Nationwide Series, but not Sprint Cup, could win tonight’s Carquest Auto Parts 300, but it’s not the way to bet. The l...
Smith coy about his new Kentucky home
CONCORD - Speedway Motorsports Inc. CEO Bruton Smith announced on Thursday that he has purchased Kentucky Speedway. Other than that, not much happened. During a 40-minute press conferen...
Kyle’s cool with 600 pole
CONCORD - A television announcer asked Kyle Busch what being Kyle Busch felt like. "It’s pretty cool," said Kyle Busch. Winning the Coca-Cola 600 pole was, quite possibly, the lea...
Gordon tries to make the system work … for him
CONCORD - A funny thing happened on the way to Jeff Gordon’s fifth championship … twice. NASCAR changed the system. The Chase made Kurt Busch champion in 2004 and Jimmie Johnson in 2007. H...
They can’t all be classics
CONCORD - In truth, no one knows what’s going to happen in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600. Just because the Sprint All-Star Race was boring, that doesn’t mean the next one will be. Fou...
Montoya climbs the stock-car ladder one step at a time
CONCORD - This Juan Pablo Montoya knew: The task in front of him was daunting. He deserves credit for that. It’s natural for a man of his accomplishments - winning the Indianapolis 500 an...
Notebook: Mears, Memorial go hand in hand
CONCORD - It’s not unusual for someone named Mears to win on Memorial Day weekend. What set Casey Mears’ victory in last year’s Coca-Cola 600 apart was that it occurred in Cha...
Don’t count your passes before they’re made
If there’s one notable characteristic of fans — that’s short for fanatic — it’s the bent toward overreaction. Throw in lack of patience, and you’ve got the principa...
Racing’s great innovator to step down from Lowe’s position
Maybe someone else just as successful will come along, but Howard Augustine (Humpy) Wheeler Jr. is irreplaceable in terms of impact on stock-car racing. Wheeler, president and general manager o...
Month of May
Bobby Labonte discussed how Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s May events have morphed into a collective event that rivals the open-wheel celebration taking place in Indianapolis. "They used to c...
Hard to blame Biffle
Who wouldn’t be a little ticked off? Greg Biffle took his share of criticism for remarks he made after mechanical woes took away a shot at winning two weeks ago in Darlington. Biffle took...
Burning issues
- Given the format, it’s hard to imagine a Sprint All-Star Race being as uneventful as this one. - The crowd for the All-Star Race was massive. It’s a shame so many first-timers didn’...
A matter of style
Kyle Busch isn’t Jimmie Johnson’s teammate anymore, but his influence remains. "Working with Kyle Busch was probably one of the most interesting driving styles I have seen, look...
All-Star Race was a miracle … because it wasn’t much of a race
CONCORD - Not every race can be a classic, but the Sprint All-Star Race is contrived only slightly less than the plot of Plan 9 from Outer Space. Once upon a time, the cars roared down into turn one a...
All-Star upset raises Kahne
CONCORD - Kasey Kahne, the popular choice to compete in the Sprint All-Star Race, actually won it. When Greg Biffle’s Ford, which had dominated the previous segment of the exhibition even...
A career that’s tops in class
CONCORD - Nary a wrong move. That’s the story of Dale Jarrett’s career, which ends in the Sprint All-Star Race tonight. The Hickory resident is 51. His most recent victory occurred in 200...
Notebook: Gordon remembers what it was like to be Kyle Busch
CONCORD - Some of the records being set by Kyle Busch - youngest-to-win at various tracks, victories by age 23, etc. - were held by Jeff Gordon, his former teammate. Gordon can relate. "Bec...