Throwback Thursday Theater Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Of all the wins Jimmie Johnson was able to accrue during his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career, one type of track eluded him for so long – road courses. Despite his impressive resume, winning a road course race would take some help to finally make the long-awaited trip to victory lane. Enter the 2010 running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Johnson would start on the outside of the front row and led 48 of the first 57 laps, but as the race playedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A decade ago, Dover International Speedway showed its true colors in the late stages of the 2011 running of the NASCAR Xfinity Series 5-Hour Energy 200, leading to one of the craziest crashes seen at the one-mile concrete oval. As the laps wound down, Carl Edwards seemed to have the race in the bag, holding a steady lead over the other dominant driver of the day, Joey Logano. That is until Michael Annett spun out on the frontstretch with three laps to go, pushing the raceRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Darlington, March 1988. Proving that persistence pays off, Lake Speed finally made good on his last name that seemed destined for a racing greatness by dominating at one of the toughest tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit to capture what would be his one and only win at NASCAR’s highest level. Before getting his start in NASCAR in 1980, Speed’s greatest claim to fame was winning the World Karting Championship in LeMans, France two years prior, defeating a future three-time Formula 1 champion, the lateRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor As the Beatles’ song goes, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” If there was one line from a song that illustrated the final laps of the 1991 Winston 500 at Talladega, it would be that one after a controversial push from teammate Rick Mast helped ensure teammate Harry Gant had enough fuel to make it to the finish and claim the victory. As the second half of the 188-lap race played itself out, fuel mileage would be the name of the gameRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A bridesmaid no more. Kasey Kahne had come so close to capturing his first win in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2004 and early in the 2005 season only to agonizingly fall short over and over again, but when the series rolled into Richmond Raceway in May 2005 for the Chevy American Revolution 400, everything changed. After a rookie season that saw him rack up 13 top-five finishes, 14 top 10 finishes, four poles, and five runner-up finishes – some by the slimmest of margins –Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor April 18, 2004 – The day Martinsville Speedway bit back, derailing the chances of one future NASCAR Hall of Famer going to Victory Lane, and paving the way for another to break a years long winless streak and capture the final win of his NASCAR Cup Series career. For much of the first half of the Advance Auto Parts 500, it looked as if defending race winner Jeff Gordon was going to be the driver to beat down the stretch, as the four-time Cup Series championRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When the NASCAR Cup Series rolled into New Hampshire in June 2009, almost everything that could have gone wrong for rookie Joey Logano did, but at the end of the day, he would be the one hoisting the trophy in Victory Lane. Dubbed “Sliced Bread” as he made his way up the ranks, Logano got the nod to replace Tony Stewart behind the wheel of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry when Stewart started driving for himself at Stewart-Haas Racing. The Middletown, Connecticut native hadRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor In the fall of 2015, the term “quintessential NASCAR” was coined by then NASCAR CEO Brian France with the genesis of the phrase coming after a late race incident between Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Both drivers found themselves in contention as the race played out, with Logano running in the top-five for the majority of the race and Kenseth leading 153 laps on the day. A restart with 20 laps to go placed the two drivers onRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Kentucky is known for horsepower of a four-legged kind with the state hosting the prestigious Kentucky Derby each year, but back in 2011, the state gained a new kind of horsepower when the NASCAR Cup Series rolled into Kentucky Speedway for the inaugural running of the Quaker State 400. After years of lobbying for a Cup Series date to go along with the Xfinity Series and Truck Series races the track had been hosting since opening its gates in 2000, the Speedway Motorsports Inc. owned trackRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor There have been many memorable moments in the history of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but a native Hoosier capturing the checkered flag on his native soil, makes the 2005 running of the race one of the most special in the event’s history. In his first six starts at Indianapolis, Tony Stewart had come close to winning at the Brickyard, with two top-five finishes and a top-10 finish, but a win still eluded him. Stewart was on a roll when the 2005 edition ofRead More