All posts by Toby Christie

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Caution clocks, wave-arounds, lucky dog free passes, competition yellows and of course the dreaded debris cautions. These unnatural elements have been concocted over the last several years in order to ‘spice’ up the sport of NASCAR. Fans had begun to clamor that NASCAR was shifting more from a sports league into more of a sports entertainment company ala the WWE. But I mean you can’t blame NASCAR for coming up with all of these convoluted rules, I mean a race can’t be exciting if thereRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Kevin Harvick has to be scratching his head right now. Since winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway in his first attempt — the 2001 spring race — he has not been able to record a win at the 1.5-mile speedway in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Sunday, the trend continued Sunday in heart-breaking fashion. Harvick started the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 from the sixth position, and early on he showed patience. While other drivers blast past his No. 4 Chevrolet early in the race, Harvick would sit back andRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It’s no secret that Roush Fenway Racing has struggled mightily to rejoin the conversation of being one of NASCAR’s elite teams over the last couple of years. Roush was a perennial championship contending team year-in and year-out from the 1990s until the early 2010s. However, in the last two seasons the team has struggled to keep up with the powerhouse organizations in the sport: Hendrick, Penske, Gibbs and Stewart-Haas. The organization, which has seen its marquee drivers (Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards) jump ship inRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor NOTE: Video of the finish of the 2000 Cracker Barrel 500 is included at the bottom of this post This week we flashback to March 12, 2000 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup (then Winston Cup) Series Cracker Barrel 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This race is the subject because the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Atlanta this weekend, and just like this past weekend’s Daytona 500, this classic race featured a breath taking photo-finish. To paint a picture of the world when this race occurred, here areRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn have started the season off with a second place finish in the Daytona 500, but many were wondering how severe penalties would be for the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team, after they failed pre-qualifying inspection, and were unable to make it back to the grid in time to take a qualifying lap because of a roof flap issue. Wednesday afternoon, NASCAR released the post-race penalty report for Daytona, and the No. 78 team has received a P2 penalty. As a result, PearnRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The Daytona 500 is in the books, and if you’re a fan of one of the big-named drivers in the sport then chances are you know everything about how your driver did this past Sunday. Unfortunately, television and social media accounts don’t always follow the little guys working their tails off in the back of the pack. This all new Tribute Racing series, ‘Keeping up with the underdogs’ is for you: the fans of the underdogs. Regan Smith, driving for Tommy Baldwin Racing, had aRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor A huge domino has just fallen for the 2017 season, and beyond. Stewart-Haas Racing, which has been one of the most dominant team in recent year, and has always been a Chevrolet team, will swap to Ford cars and engines for next season according to a Ford press release. The release states that the Stewart-Haas Racing team has a multi-year agreement with Ford. Stewart-Haas Racing currently fields the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars for Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick. Stewart, the teamsRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor What has been rumored for weeks, is now confirmed to be true. Ty Dillon will pilot the No. 14 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. Stewart-Haas Racing made the announcement via Twitter Tuesday afternoon. CONFIRMED: @tydillon in No. 14 @amsupdates & @BrianLVickers in No. 14 @LVMotorSpeedway. Future races remain TBD. — Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) February 23, 2016 After Atlanta, Brian Vickers will slip back behind the wheel for the next race at Las Vegas. Reports of anyRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Toyota has spent nine long years trying to notch the manufacturer’s first Daytona 500 victory in NASCAR. It wasn’t an easy road after starting their NASCAR program from scratch in 2007. In their first Daytona 500 outing, Toyota’s highest finisher was Dale Jarrett who finished in 22nd position. Toyota’s other finishers that day were: Michael Waltrip (30th), Dave Blaney (34th), and David Reutimann (40th). It was a humbling day, but Toyota Racing Development stuck with improving their program and now in 2016, the monkey is officially off ofRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Heading into the 2016 Daytona 500, Hendrick Motorsports seemed like they would over-power the field for the win. As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now heads out of Daytona, none of Hendrick’s four drivers are able to boast that they finished inside the top-10 of ‘The Great American Race’. This is the first time since the 2009 edition of this event that all of Hendrick Motorsports’ cars failed to finish inside the top-10. Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, and Saturday’s XFINITY Series race winner, Chase ElliottRead More