By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I’ve never been one for wanton groupieism, but I was struck with a mild case of starry-eyed surprise earlier today when I saw the Sprint Cup drivers lined up on pit row waiting for their turn to qualify. And yes, their presence made it kind of difficult, at times, to get the whole car in the shot. Hey, cut me some slack—just because you do this for a living doesn’t mean you’re not human, and when my dog Clint got to within about a foot of me, I couldn’t help but go a little wobbly. If you’re curious to see some candid shots of NASCAR’s big guns alongside their race-winning rides, check them out below the jump.

Continue reading "Top NASCAR Drivers, With Rides" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Just like in the Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide cars must measure up to a set of rigid body templates to ensure that the cars are aerodynamically equal (and that they "all look the same," as the common complaint goes). NASCAR inspector Dann Fenwrick told me that the bodies of these older-style Nationwide cars actually keep their shape better than the Sprint Cup CoTs, which are so safe and crushy that even just racing hard can leave their panels warped. Clint Bowyer is one of those drivers pulling double-duty in both of NASCAR’s top series—he’s leading the points in Nationwide, and he’s a major contender in the Chase at the Sprint-Cup level—so he’s got both cars’ sets of issues to deal with. His Nationwide Series crew chief Dan Deeringhoff was on hand for the inspection, and briefly argued with the inspectors over an issue with the car’s front right corner. He told me they’d be back for another inspection after practice and that it was a good thing they had so many—otherwise he’d be tempted to change things around in the interim! Watch Clint’s No. 02 Chevrolet (and, briefly, Scott Wimmer’s No. 29) going through the templates below.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Sunday marked the final race of what’s called NASCAR’s "regular season," and now we’re on to the Chase for the Cup, the ten-race showdown that determines this year’s Sprint Cup champion. Only the top twelve drivers who emerge from the pre-Chase season are eligible for the championship, so there was no small degree of scrambling in the final run at Richmond, particularly among the drivers who were close to falling off the bottom of the top twelve. A three-way battle between Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, and David Ragan for that all-important twelfth spot ended with Bowyer alone moving on to the Chase, after battling his way back from a fifteen-position loss when he got boxed in at his pit stall by Juan Pablo Montoya’s lousy parking job. My boy Clint was overwhelmed with relief, and I couldn’t be happier for him! More cryin’ and crashin’ after the jump!

Continue reading "Countdown To The Chase Wraps Up, With Relief, Just Desserts, and a Sweet Tony Stewart Tantrum" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Drivers Clint Bowyer and Kenny Wallace spent an afternoon at the strip recently, roasting the tires off of a pair of NHRA Pro Stock cars done up in the same color schemes as their usual NASCAR rides. Bowyer and Wallace got to practice their burnouts and their launches under the tutelage of NHRA champions Dave Connolly and Jeggie Coughlin. I thought it was especially cool to see Pro Stock version of the No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet, which I recently had the chance to crawl around in at Seafair. Wallace emerged from the ordeal a little weak in the knees, but Clint was sporting his trademark happy-go-lucky attitude and spouting admiration for the extreme rides. "We don’t have hot rods," he said, "these guys do." I guess 1400+ hp drag cars are a handful even for guys who are used to running 850 hp engines! Their quarter-mile hijinks will go into a special segment aired on SPEED this weekend as part of the fanfare surrounding the first-ever NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, NC. See more pics below the jump, and read more at CompetitionPlus.

Continue reading "NASCAR Drivers Try Their Hand At NHRA Pro Stockers" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Clint Bowyer got slammed during an early wreck today at the Aaron’s 312 after Dario Franchitti cut down a tire, hit the wall, and cut a destructive path through other cars as he careened down Talladega’s steep bank. (Poor Clint—it seems he’s always at the wrong place at the wrong time when one of these open-wheel guys decides to lose it). The wreck sent both Franchitti and Chevy driver Larry Gunselman to the hospital, Franchitti with a shattered ankle—but Bowyer, while unhurt, arguably had more to lose than most. He’d been the points leader in the Nationwide Series, and a DNF would’ve been catastrophic to his chances at the championship. So despite extensive front-end and body damage, his team gamely patched up the Camping World Chevrolet and got him back out on the track to salvage what points he could. Despite being over 20 laps down at one point, Bowyer rallied, managing to finish the race in his junk car—and even hanging onto his points lead!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

NASCAR Chevrolet driver Clint Bowyer ripped it up in the Chevy "Bounty Hunter" monster truck at Fort Worth on Wednesday—specifically, he ran over a row of dead Fords that looked like they’d been hauled out of the local boneyard for the event. Being a fan of both Bowyer and old Fords, I gotta say it: come on, Clint. There were clearly a lot of usable parts on those LTDs, and that vintage Galaxie obviously shouldn’t even be in the lineup. If you’ve gotta crush something with a monster truck, couldn’t it be—I dunno, a row of Toyotas? Maybe including Tony Stewart’s car? Heh.

Source: Scene Daily

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Someone once said of Bristol Motor Speedway that it looks like someone dug a hole in the ground and poured a racetrack into it. Drivers have likened racing on the short, nasty little track to "flying jet fighters in a gymnasium." And the corporate types call it "the fastest half-mile in NASCAR." Whatever you want to say about it, there’s no track on the whole Sprint Cup circuit quite like it: its specific combo of brevity and steeply-banked turns makes for 16-second laps and close, violent, high-contact and high-speed racing. Bumpin’ and bangin’ is SOP here, and it’s not uncommon to see cars cross the finish line with half their sheet metal missing. Anyway, a lot can happen pretty fast when you take a bunch of stock cars and throw ‘em in a blender, and during Sunday’s race, a lot did. In just the last five laps we saw Joe Gibbs racers Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin cruising for a 1-2 finish when the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets started charging. In just a few short minutes, Stewart got spun into the wall after making contact with Kevin Harvick while Jeff Burton slipped past, Hamlin’s fuel pickup stumbled on the restart, knocking him out of the lead, Harvick kept in it to finish second behind Burton and Clint Bowyer brought up the rear of the team charge to finish third. This last-minute switcheroo scored RCR its first 1-2-3 finish. As a dazed Jeff Burton said of his win, "I dunno what happened"—I guess that’s Bristol for you! Congrats to Burton, and to my two faves Harvick and Bowyer, for such a super finish. CarDomain will be covering the next Bristol race in August, so stay tuned!

By Jen

Editor

Ok, so you only get one lap with them, and it’s not a hot lap in a stock car. But for those who’ve always wanted to wave regally to 160,000 screaming fans from the back of a pickup truck alongside their favorite NASCAR driver—which, if you think about it, is a pretty specific fantasy—head on over to Bristol Motor Speedway’s "Ride of a Lifetime" auction and plunk down a bid. Among the drivers for sale are Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, defending series champ Jimmie Johnson—and last week’s Daytona 500 winner, Ryan Newman. I’m kind of curious to see what kinds of prices everyone will all fetch, but beware: the auction site requires registration, even just to watch.