Redstate Sports

Posted at 6:02pm on Feb. 11, 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Seaon Preview and Predictions

By Darin H

This Sunday begins the official start to the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. The Great American Race gets me through the post-Superbowl blues (it's a long time until the NFL draft!), and I'm more of a Braves fan than a baseball fan (I don't know what I'm going to do with TBS dropping the Braves and DISH not having MLB Innings). So it's off to the races for NASCAR fans like me.

Read on for more

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Posted at 11:22am on Nov. 1, 2007 A worthy cause you NASCAR fanatics should be interested in

By Erick

Here is a worth cause needing sponsors.

Thanks to Mark Tapscott for sending it along. I'd encourage you to help out if you can.

Fueled By The Fallen is a non-profit organization developed to both honor and pay tribute to the United States service members who lost their lives fighting for the freedom of others. A mobile memorial has been created in the form of the Memorial Race Car Team. Funds will be raised in conjunction with the team and will be given to the families who have lost sons, daughters, husbands, and wives in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The mission is to honor those service members, give back to their families and create awareness of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedom.

Cross posted at RedState.

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Posted at 12:36pm on Jun. 13, 2007 Dale, Jr. & Jeff, Sitting In A Tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G

By Erick

Discuss. You know you want to.

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Posted at 10:57am on Feb. 28, 2007 This is Crap.

By Leon H Wolf

Yeah, okay. I'm a Matt Kenseth homer, everybody here knows that by now. But this really pisses me off, and I think most people who will view the situation objectively will agree that Kenseth is getting absolutely shafted in this situation, and crew chief Robbie Reiser's reputation has been unjustifiably drug through the mud. For the first time, the exact nature of the violation which cost Reiser four races at the track, and Kenseth 50 valuable standings points. The original story from NASCAR was that the "cover of a wheel well vent" was not properly closed; we learn today that this means that a piece of duct tape came off of a hole in the wheel well.

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Posted at 11:25am on Feb. 19, 2007 Disgraceful Hijinks

By Leon H Wolf

I've been meaning to write about the Daytona 500 since yesterday afternoon, but I've been to angry to attempt it. I'm still pretty cheesed, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.

First of all, congratulations to Kevin Harvick, who came out of nowhere to grab the win. Great work and all that. However, it should come as no surprise to find that NASCAR yet again got burned by trying to play favorites and discarding their own rules. The rest of this post will accordingly be griping about how NASCAR is a fantastic sport which is run by a bunch of bumbling idiot jokers. If you're not interested in any of that, just skip what's below the fold...

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Posted at 11:39pm on Nov. 5, 2006 Toyota entering NASCAR Nextel Cup

By Mike D in SC

While listening to Fox News this morning, I heard them discussing the entry of Toyota into the NASCAR Nextel Cup, and the reaction Toyota might get from red blooded American NASCAR fans. I haven't yet found anything online from Fox News on the subject, but here is a related MSNBC article. (Sorry, I know that MSNBC is about the most politically biased "news" source on the net, but I'm leading up to a point made by Fox on the air, but not by MSNBC.)

Read more...

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Posted at 11:49am on Oct. 9, 2006 Talladega Roundup

By Leon H Wolf

Another race at Talladega, another crazy race filled with wrecks and a crazy finish.

Much was made going into this race about the new surface on the track, which was supposed to make it slicker. Combined with the fact that NASCAR had problems getting the restrictor plates to keep cars under 200mph, and it was anticipated that this Talladega race might feature one of the more spectactular crashes in history. However, for talladega, this race was relatively mild - and the biggest crash of the day involved only three cars.

More below...

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Posted at 10:39am on Sep. 11, 2006 Chase for the Cup Predictions

By Leon H Wolf

The Chase for the Cup field is finally set, and the standings at this point are as follows:

1. Matt Kenseth (Leader)

2. Jimmie Johnson -5
3. Kevin Harvick -10
4. Kyle Busch -15
5. Denny Hamlin -20
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -25
7. Mark Martin -30
8. Jeff Burton -35
9. Jeff Gordon -40
10. Kasey Kahne -45

Below the fold, I engage in the dicey proposition of picking which drivers are most likely to win the Chase...

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Posted at 10:00am on Sep. 10, 2006 Outside.

By Leon H Wolf

If he is capable of such introspection, Tony Stewart will spend some time this week wondering why, as the defending champion, he found himself completely missing the Chase this year. One hopes, for the good of the sport, that Stewart can internalize the fact that his own ridiculous antics are solely to blame for his fate this year.

Stewart is without a doubt one of the most talented racers - if not the most talented racer - in the sport. However, he is also without question a man who often lets his temper get the better of him, and responds in ways that are dangerous to others and himself. For instance, at Daytona, Stewart was black flagged twice for retaliating to supposed mistakes by Matt Kenseth and Jamie MacMurray - despite this, he finished fifth, clearly indicating that if he had only kept his cool, he would almost certainly have won the race. Stewart was also black-flagged at Pocono for his ridiculous stunt with Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer, in a race in which he ultimately finished seventh. If he had only been able to refrain from being a childish jerk on either of those occasions, Saturday's 18th-place finish would have been good enough for him to make it into the Chase for the Cup, where he undoubtedly would have been a favorite to repeat. Instead, Stewart finds himself on the outside looking in, hopefully engaging in some thoughtful meditation about whether about the error of his ways.

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Posted at 12:22pm on Sep. 7, 2006 Chevy Rock and Roll 400 Preview

By Leon H Wolf

We're down to the final race before the Chase for the Cup (NASCAR's equivalent of the playoffs) begins, and any number of insane (but fully plausible) scenarios could play themselves out over the weekend.

Before discussing the nine drivers competing for the remaining 8 Chase for the Cup spots, it's important first of all to consider those who are no longer competing for a Cup spot, as this may play a crucial role in how Richmond is raced.

First of all, Carl Edwards was officially elimnated from Chase contention last week as we predicted. This is important because Edwards has been good and well pissed (with adequate justification) at Tony Stewart for over a month now, and may view this as the perfect opportunity for revenge: when he has the opportunity to knock the defending champ out of the chase. Edwards has already demonstrated earlier this year that he is more than willing to exact vengeance on drivers who have wronged him - however, the dustup with Dale Earnhardt may have convinced him to mellow out a bit.

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Posted at 9:12am on Sep. 4, 2006 Clutch.

By Leon H Wolf

Kasey Kahne entered Sunday's Sony HD 500 in desperation mode: as the first man out of the Nextel Chase for the Cup standings with two races to go, and a 90-point gap between himself and 10th-place Mark Martin, Kahne was in a very uncomfortable position, one in which he had to either hope that one of the ten most reliable drivers in NASCAR would crash early, or rely on himself to get the job done. And Kahne did indeed get the job done, leading 132 laps at California to get both the win and the most-laps-led points bonus. Kahne's impressive performance now has him within 30 points of 10th place, and 80 points of fifth place; in other words, with the exception of Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson, no one's spot in the Chase is safe going into the final pre-Chase race at Richmond this weekend.

Read on...

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Posted at 11:53am on Aug. 31, 2006 Sony HD 500 Preview

By Leon H Wolf

NASCAR heads west to California Sunday for the second-to-last race before the Chase for the Cup begins. Two drivers (Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson) have mathematically secured spots in the season-ending ten race "playoff," and there are 11 other drivers who have not been mathematically eliminated from contention for the remaining 8 slots. It's getting down to the nitty-gritty, and we'll see if some of the drivers on the outside don't take some chances this weekend in a last-ditch effort to make the chase.

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Posted at 11:30am on Aug. 27, 2006 Sharpie 500 Roundup

By Leon H Wolf

In my Sharpie 500 preview, I predicted that Matt Kenseth would win on NASCAR's most unpredictable track, or that in the alternate, Kyle Busch would* - lo and behold, it has come to pass: Kenseth racked up his second win in two weeks, and Kyle Busch finished second. Once again, Kenseth won the race with relative ease, dominating the last 50 laps in particular, as no driver could mount a serious challenge down the stretch. Unbelievable as it may seem, Kenseth has actually caught Jimmie Johnson in the standings, a feat many (including myself) would have thought impossible for any driver just a few short weeks ago.

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Posted at 9:45am on Aug. 25, 2006 Sharpie 500 Preview

By Leon H Wolf

The final stretch of the race to make the Chase has begun; with just three pre-Chase races left, there are eight drivers (Stewart, Gordon, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Burton, Earnhardt Jr., Kahne and Biffle) vying for the final six cup spots. This weekend, they all head to one of NASCAR's most famous and unpredictable tracks: the short oval at Bristol Speedway.

No track is harder to handicap than Bristol. Because the track is so small and congested, passing space on the outer concrete is sparse. This inevitably leads many drivers to wander into the slick apron, which leads to an abundance of bumping and all-out wrecks. Add to that the existence of a combined four pit-row entrances and exits on a one-mile track, and you have a lot of messes waiting to happen. Perhaps no track in NASCAR frays the nerves and excites the tempers of the drivers - and with the stakes this high, the tension may just cause some of them to crack.

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Posted at 8:47pm on Aug. 20, 2006 Kenseth Wins at Michigan

By Leon H Wolf

Once again, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon found themselves fighting for the number one spot with just a few laps to go - this time, however, Matt Kenseth had a better car to hold the lead with, and won the GFS Marketplace 400 going away. Kenseth had the strongest car of the day, leading over 80 laps and remaining in the top 10 throughout virtually the entire race. It was a vintage Kenseth race on an oval track which reminded us all of why he's the only driver within sniffing distance of Jimmie Johnson at this point. With the win, Kenseth virtually locked up one of the top two spots going into the chase; at this point he and Johnson are basically battling over five standings points. With the second-place finish, Gordon strengthened his hold on a spot in the Chase, and Tony Stewart wiped away most late-season doubts with another very strong finish.

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