Is the Nationwide Series better with fewer standalone races?

The Nationwide Series has always raced at tracks that are not on the Sprint Cup schedule. There used to be a lot more of these tracks, but in recent years there have been a lot more race weekends with Nationwide and Cup at the same track. Currently the Nationwide Series has just six standalone races: both races at Iowa, Road America, Mid-Ohio, the July race at Chicagoland (which used to share with Cup) and the September race at Kentucky. Only the first three tracks have never hosted a Cup race.

The Nationwide Series no longer races at some non-Cup tracks like Memphis, Nashville, Myrtle Beach and Milwaukee. Or, in the case of Kentucky, where the series races tonight, and others like Homestead and New Hampshire, the series used to have standalone races there, but then received a Cup companion race. Some fans miss the days when the Nationwide Series had a greater variety of tracks without any associated Cup dates. So are less standalone races better for Nationwide, or should it go back to some of its old non-Cup tracks? It may not seem like a big issue, but it's certainly a relevant topic going into a race that was previously not tied to a Cup event, but now is.

Is Sonoma one of Michael Waltrip Racing's best tracks?

The Michael Waltrip Racing cars of Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers ran well during Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma, California. That's no surprise considering Bowyer won the race two years ago, and former MWR and current Furniture Row driver Martin Truex Jr. came into the race as the defending champion. Last year's win for Truex came after a six-year winless streak.

Waltrip was denied a third straight win at the road course, though, as Roush Fenway driver Carl Edwards held off Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to score his first road course victory and his second win of the season. Bowyer finished tenth after leading five laps, then spinning and collecting Kevin Harvick, but getting back into contention afterward. Vickers wound up 14th and at one point was running behind Bowyer in third place, however he did not lead any laps.

Edwards' win ends MWR's Sonoma streak, as well as Hendrick Motorsports' winning streak that began on May 10 with Jeff Gordon's win at Kansas, followed by Jimmie Johnson winning two in a row at Charlotte and Dover, Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Pocono and Johnson again at Michigan last week. But the Waltrip cars were still almost as strong as they have been at Sonoma for the past couple of years, and some people expected them to be contenders once again after strong results in practice and qualifying.

So it looks like at least right now, Sonoma is a good track for Michael Waltrip Racing. It probably won't be forever, but I'm sure that based on their past results, they will continue to look forward to coming here for a few more years.

Should the Chase for the Sprint Cup include a road course race?

One question that comes up every year as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Sonoma, California for the first of two annual road course races is should one of those races be held during the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup period leading up to the finale in Homestead, Florida. Since the first Chase in 2004, all ten races have been held on ovals. A lot of NASCAR fans, including myself, are in favor of that because a road course race with Chase implications could add excitement to the championship.

If a road course race was put on the Chase schedule, it would probably be Watkins Glen, which is held in August, one month before the Chase starts. The first race in the Chase has been at Chicagoland since 2011, and switching that race with Watkins Glen would put it in between its current Chase date and its original July date from 2001 to 2010. The September race at Dover, or at Kansas the following week, could also give up their Chase spots for Watkins Glen.

Or maybe Sonoma could get a Chase spot, but that could require a lot more schedule shifting than if Watkins Glen got a Chase date. Two tracks that definitely would keep their Chase spots are Homestead, who along with sponsor Ford signed an extension to keep the Championship Weekend there until at least 2019, but possibly up to 2024, and Talladega, whose second race moved to its current fall date from July in 1997.

So will the Chase have a road course race sometime within the next few years? It's hard to say right now, because it would shake up the schedule a good bit, which could have a big effect on the new 16-driver, four-segment system debuting this year. But a lot of people want to see it happen, and NASCAR, like always, is looking into what they can do to help them get what they want to see.

Juan Pablo Montoya making NASCAR return at Michigan

Juan Pablo Montoya will be competing in today's Sprint Cup race in Brooklyn, Michigan driving Team Penske's part-time #12 car along with Penske's two full-time drivers, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Montoya will start 28th in the 43-car field.

Montoya drove Chip Ganassi's #42 car from 2007 to 2013, and won two road course races, at Sonoma in 2007 and Watkins Glen in 2010. He never won an oval race, although he came close a few times. Montoya was released by Ganassi at the end of the 2013 season and was replaced by rookie Kyle Larson. He went back to IndyCar, where he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000.

Now, Montoya wants to show that he still knows how to drive stock cars, even after going back to open-wheel racing. This makes it a top story heading into today's race.

Can Richard Childress Racing win without Kevin Harvick?

The 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup season is through 14 races, none of which has been won by a Richard Childress Racing driver. RCR's most recent win in Cup competition came last November at Phoenix, with Kevin Harvick winning in his penultimate race with the team. Harvick, after driving for Childress since his 2001 rookie season, moved to Stewart-Haas Racing this year, and RCR's Cup lineup now consists of newcomers Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman, alongside Paul Menard, who joined in 2011.

RCR's last five Cup wins, going back to November of 2012, have all been provided by Harvick. The last driver other than Harvick to win a Cup race for Childress is Clint Bowyer at the 2011 Talladega fall race. With Harvick arguably being RCR's top driver during most of his tenure there, can they visit victory lane this year without him?

The same question was in many people's minds in 2001 after the death of Dale Earnhardt; they didn't know if any other driver could win with Childress. But Harvick, Earnhardt's replacement, answered that question by winning just three weeks later at Atlanta. Robby Gordon, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard also won races for Childress as Harvick's teammates. And even Harvick had his low points, like a three-year winless streak between the 2007 Daytona 500 and the 2010 Aaron's 499. In 2008 only Burton and Bowyer won for RCR in Cup, while in 2009 the team went winless in the series.

RCR started off on a promising note when Austin Dillon, a rookie, Childress's grandson and Harvick's replacement, won the Daytona 500 pole, but he led just one lap, and has not done as well in most of the races since then. Menard and Newman have also had both ups and downs during the season. Newman is the winningest and most experienced of the current RCR lineup, but only Menard has won for the team out of the trio. Basically, RCR has knocked on the door to victory lane a couple of times this season, but never been let in. Will they finally get there? There are still 22 races left.  

Jason Leffler still remembered one year later

Today marks one year since the death of NASCAR Jason Leffler in a sprint car crash in Chester, Pennsylvania. Leffler's death raised safety concerns about sprint cars, which were increased two months later when Tony Stewart was injured in a sprint car crash in Iowa, forcing him to miss the rest of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Leffler began competing in the Cup series in 2001 with Chip Ganassi. He then went on to drive at Evernham Motorsports, Haas CNC Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and some other teams. Leffler's last Cup start came three days before his death at Pocono in  TriStar Motorsports' #19 car. Leffler's death came less than a month after the suicide of Dick Trickle, whose last Cup start came in 2002. This made for quite a bit of tragedy, although not as much as the death of Dale Earnhardt, whose death in 2001 is the most recent in any NASCAR top series.

How I got into NASCAR

I decided it would be good to make a post about my exposure to NASCAR over the years, and how I became a real fan of it.

I discovered NASCAR when I was maybe 4 years old, in 1999. I soon became interested in Dale Earnhardt. My two triplet brothers liked Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin, respectively. In fact my brother who liked Gordon may have been the biggest NASCAR fan of the three of us at the time.

The first race I watched on TV was the 2001 Daytona 500, a few months before we turned 6. I was amazed at the huge wreck that sent Tony Stewart flipping along the backstretch. Gordon and Martin were in the crash, but Earnhardt was not, which made me very happy. But then on the final lap, with Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in front of them, Earnhardt and Ken Schrader crashed in turn 4. I remember Michael's brother Darrell cheering him on in the broadcast booth, with the crash happening behind Michael and Dale Jr.

After I heard that Dale had died (which I had figured even at my young age) I sort of made Waltrip my new driver, only because he had won. For the next couple of years I watched snippets of a couple more races. Sometime in 2003, my brothers and I got some free NASCAR notepads. I got Tony Stewart, my Mark Martin fan brother got Dale Jarrett and my Jeff Gordon fan brother just happened to get Gordon. Subequently I started to become a Stewart fan, while my Martin fan brother made Jarrett his second-favorite driver.

In 2005 I watched the last 40 or so laps of the Daytona 500, including Scott Wimmer's flip in a big crash between turns 3 and 4. I was worried at first but relieved when Wimmer was okay. I watched the Daytona 500 again in 2006 but found the finish under caution boring. In 2007, I heard about Clint Bowyer's upside-down finish at Daytona. That's why I rooted for him in the first race I watched from start to finish, the 2007 Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire, in which he got his first Cup series win.

In January of 2008, as a seventh-grade student, I got a little book with pictures of NASCAR crashes, close finishes and other "actiony" moments. This led me to watch NASCAR crash videos on YouTube, which took me to clips of the 2001 Daytona 500. It was with this that I learned Michael Waltrip had been driving for Dale Earnhardt at the time, meaning Michael's win was even more significant than I had thought, and that Darrell Waltrip was Michael's older brother. I also learned that it was the very first points race televised by Fox. Then I found out that the 50th Daytona 500 was coming up and was also on Fox. In that race, Tony Stewart almost won, but was defeated by Ryan Newman. After that, Newman became another one of my favorite drivers, along with Stewart, Waltrip and Bowyer. I also became interested in Reed Sorenson for some reason. Pretty soon I decided to add Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin to that list, because they had been my brothers' favorites, as well as Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton.

In June, I first discovered the "minor league" Nationwide Series, and watched Joey Logano win at Kentucky in just his third series start. I became a bigger NASCAR fan after watching the 2009 Daytona 500, after which Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler and Matt Kenseth had become my new favorites. I then set a goal to watch every race of the season, but this only lasted until Las Vegas two weeks later. I also only watched a couple of races in 2010 and 2011, but I did find the 2011 Daytona 500 exciting with Trevor Bayne winning.

But in October of 2011, after IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon's death, I started to get interested in NASCAR again. At the same time, my brothers were caring about it less and less. In 2012 I watched more races, and by the end of the season, champion Brad Keselowski was a new favorite driver of mine, as were Martin Truex Jr. and Bobby Labonte. I finally watched or at least followed every race in 2013, and I continue to do so this year. And that is my NASCAR fandom story!

Hendrick Motorsports looking to keep streaks alive

Heading into Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway in eastern Pennsylvania, powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports has two separate winning streaks they would like to extend.

The first is a three-race winning streak at Pocono. Jeff Gordon won here in August of 2012, followed by Jimmie Johnson last June and Kasey Kahne two months after that, leaving Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the odd man out, although he is expected to be a contender tomorrow.

The second streak involves wins this season. Hendrick cars have also won three straight points races coming into tomorrow's race (not including the non-points All-Star Race won by Chip Ganassi driver Jamie McMurray). Jeff Gordon won at Kansas, followed by Jimmie Johnson winning two in a row at Charlotte and Dover.

In today's final practice session for the race, all four Hendrick drivers placed within the top 15, and all but Kahne in the top ten. But it was the Hendrick-powered Stewart-Haas Racing car of Kevin Harvick who posted the fastest time in the session. Earnhardt and Gordon are starting in the top ten tomorrow.

UPDATE: Both streaks are still alive with Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning.

Are Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards leaving Roush?

A couple of weeks ago, before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, it was announced that Nationwide Series driver and 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne will be driving full-time with Roush Fenway Racing starting in 2015, and that the team will be bringing back the #6 car made famous by Mark Martin. Bayne has driven the Wood Brothers' #21 car part-time in Cup since late 2010.

However, Roush is probably remaining a three-car team next year instead of expanding back to four cars, and the #16 car of Greg Biffle or #99 of Carl Edwards might be shut down. It has been speculated since late last season that 2014 might be both drivers' last year at Roush. Biffle and Edwards have spent their entire Cup careers at Roush, with the exception of a few starts by Biffle in 2002 with Andy Petree and Richard Petty.

The latest rumors were that Edwards was either heading to a fourth car at Joe Gibbs Racing or a third Team Penske car, while Biffle was going to Michael Waltrip Racing. However, nothing has been confirmed, and now the word is that Biffle might actually be staying at Roush next year. Whatever ends up happening, this is a big story in NASCAR right now.

Here's my new NASCAR blog

I decided to make a blog about NASCAR since I make a lot of posts about it on my other blog here. This is my second blog on Blogger and I also have one on Tumblr. My first real post will come soon.