By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

In what’s getting to be a pretty repetitive storyline, Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in today’s Nationwide race. The last several laps were fast and furious, and the race ended up going to a green-white-checker finish–but Kyle’s No. 18 was fast, and he held off charges by Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, who respectively finished 2nd and 3rd.

As an aside, the crowd seems to be warming up a bit to Busch this season, his ongoing histrionics and hissy-fighting notwithstanding. People don’t seem to hate him like they used to, and you don’t hear that resonant “Boooooooo!” from the stands like you did when Busch was winning races, say, two years ago.  It’s been a long road for Kyle, though–this will be his 50th win across NASCAR’s three series. That’s a pretty long time to get race fans to the point where they barely tolerate him.

How about you? Do you still hate Kyle Busch?

NASCAR coverage brought to you by Valvoline Engine Guarantee–the first and only motor oil in the industry that will guarantee your engine up to 300,000 miles. *Registration required, some limitations apply.

Continue reading "Kyle Busch Wins TECH-NET 300" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

NASCAR just wrapped up a two-day test session at Daytona for the new Nationwide Series car–the second-tier series’ answer to Sprint Cup’s Car of Tomorrow. The tests mostly focused on drafting in a pack, which is key to the race at superspeedway tracks like Daytona and which will play a crucial role in the new car’s first for-points race, which takes place here on July 2nd. Race teams headed up by top Nationwide drivers like Carl Edwards and Joey Logano found the car to be a little unpredictable and sometimes “unstable in traffic.” Teams also gave conflicting reports on the new car’s handling, which ran from “screaming loose” (Carl Edwards’s Mustang) to more tight and tidy by the second day. Still, everyone’s optimistic that the bugs will be worked out by July. Hit the jump for more pics from the test session at Daytona.

Continue reading "Nationwide Series New Car In Testing At Daytona" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Ah, motorsports–it’s so much more than racing these days. The motorsports contingent is always huge at SEMA, and it’s one of those categories that can literally go from A to Z: there are so many variations on automotive competition that there’s no way you can expect to capture a representative cross-section. That’s okay–it just allows us to focus on what we find cool, with shameless subjectivity. In the interests of inclusiveness, we’ve tried to hit as many of the hottest motorsports series as our five entries will allow. NASCAR is represented by the new Nationwide Series Mustang, running Ford’s all-new Roush Yates FR9. Then there’s the 2010 Camaro’s debut entry in Formula Drift, which will definitely be on our radar in the coming season. Chris Rado’s insane Time Attack Scion carries the torch for that genre. SCCA is represented, albeit in vintage form, by Bob Boileau’s multiple-championship-winning Civic. And the Traxxas short-course race truck rounds out the motorsports fleet for off-road racing. Um, yeah, we totally skipped NHRA. And a bunch of other stuff. Oh well, time to hit the polls!

[slideshow id=3386706919819370741&w=426&h=320]

[polldaddy poll="2269393"]

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I’ve found it a little funky-looking in some of the renderings and photos that have been circulating, but when I saw it in person in the Ford booth at SEMA, the new Nationwide-Series Mustang just looked plain mean. Plus, this is seriously historic: while Mustang has dominated a ton of other motorsports series, it’s been largely absent from national-level stock car racing, so its entry into NASCAR is a pretty big deal. And moreover, the rear sheetmetal, even though it’s a NASCAR-mandated template, looks better than the factory Mustang’s 2010 back end. The Nationwide Mustang will be running the new Roush Yates FR9, an all-new beast and a complete departure from the 351-based motor that Ford’s been running in NASCAR since ’91. More pics…

Continue reading "The New NASCAR Mustang at SEMA" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Today, Kyle Busch became the winner of the awkwardly-named Camping World RV Sales 200 (who comes up with these things?), not to be confused with Sunday’s Sprint race, the Camping World RV 400. Today’s race was a harrowing, crashy one that saw early achievers get laid low, and during the last couple of restarts, Kyle left the pack in his dust every time. I watched the No. 18 team celebrate in Victory Lane, and, and while it’s true that they splash nasty, sticky Gatorade over everyone, it won’t get you (or your camera) unless you’re down in the first few rows. Advice if you’re ever there: go high, unless you brought a change of clothing! See more pics below the jump, as well as a video clip of the No. 18 Toyota rolling into the circle.

Continue reading "Kyle Busch Dominates Nationwide Race" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

The Dover Nationwide race is on now! Check it out on ESPN2. And if you missed the start, you can watch my video taken from the top of Victory Lane, below. And click below the jump if you want to see the pace lap, too.

Continue reading "Nationwide Race Live on ESPN2" »

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

NASCAR’s second-string Nationwide Series won’t debut its own version of the Car of Tomorrow until at least 2010, but they officially began testing of their "new car" on Monday. And who’s the coolest prototype on the track? Dodge rolled up with this NASCARed-out Challenger, and I think it looks hot as hell. From the fenders back, it looks pretty much like any other stock car, because of the way the cars’ lines have to conform to specific body templates determined by NASCAR. But the sanctioning body has modified the rules governing the forward sheet metal, so it appears that the nationwide CoTs might actually be permitted to run real front clips instead of just stickers. See more pics of the Challenger testing at Richmond International Raceway below the jump, along with the other manufacturers’ offerings—the Malibu, the Fusion (though Ford will supposedly be running a Taurus), and the Camry.

Source: Jalopnik.

Continue reading "Dodge To Run Challenger In NASCAR's Nationwide Series" »