Throwback Thursday Theater Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For the first eight years of its existence, Texas Motor Speedway had just one race weekend a year, but starting in 2005, the track was granted a second date in the playoffs and the racing at the 1.5-mile track certainly didn’t disappoint the first time out. Heading into the race, Tony Stewart led the points standings by 43 points over Jimmie Johnson, with Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, and Ryan Newman rounding out the top-five championship contenders. Newman may have won the pole, but he had toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Since 1949, NASCAR has raced at Martinsville and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back to the shortest track on the circuit this Sunday for the First Data 500. Before focusing on the present day and the opening race of the Round of Eight in the MENCS Playoffs, we’ll revisit the 2001 Old Dominion 500 – a race that gave NASCAR on ESPN analyst Ricky Craven his first career Cup Series win. As rain set in on the scheduled Sunday race date, the race wasRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Just days after the heart wrenching loss of Davey Allison to a helicopter crash at Talladega Superspeedway, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series returned to the 2.66-mile track for the 1993 running of the DieHard 500. Following a stirring pre-race tribute to Allison involving his family, the 43 drivers that made up the field that day strapped in for what was going to a barnburner of a race under the scorching July sun. Bill Elliott won the pole, with Ernie Irvan starting alongside for the 188-lap affair.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The always treacherous Dover International Speedway lived up to its “Monster Mile” nickname back in May 2016, as a multi-car pileup with 45 laps to go changed the entire complexion of the race and left many of the contenders with junked race cars One of the drivers who was able to survive that lap 355 melee was Matt Kenseth, who had his hands full over the closing laps of the race, battling with Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott for the race win. Kenseth was able toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Ryan Newman may have claimed the victory in the 2003 Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond Raceway, but the story of the night was the clash of Old School vs. New School in Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick that transpired in the closing laps. Before taking a dive into their incident that Saturday night in September, we have to go back in time a few years further to the 2001 running of the race, when Rudd and Harvick had their first run-in, which ended onRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series headed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway to kick off the annual West Coast swing in March 2017 and by the time the checkered flag flew, NASCAR was definitely the talk of the town. Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex, Jr. started the day on the front row, with Keselowski getting the early jump over Truex, leading 65 of the first 70 laps. Truex took over the lead at lap 76 following a restart after Kevin Harvick crashed on the frontstretch andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor INDIANAPOLIS – 25 years in, the Brickyard 400 may be a shell of its former self, but back in 1994, NASCAR hitting the track at the prestigious Indianapolis Motor Speedway had the sports world buzzing. In their first foray around the 2.5-mile speedway that had been reserved for open wheel cars since 1909, the drivers and teams put their stock cars through the paces over a jam-packed weekend of action, leading to a hell of a show when the green flag flew on Sunday for theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway has always been a special race for those in NASCAR, with a win in the 500-mile slugfest on the track “Too Tough to Tame” residing on the bucket list for nearly every driver and team that has ever turned a lap around the 1.366-mile oval. Entering the 1985 edition of the Southern 500, the pressure of winning at the storied track was ratcheted up even more for Bill Elliott, as a $1 million payday awaited him at the end ofRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Four years after Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte had their infamous run-in at the end of the 1995 Goody’s 500 at Bristol, resulting in Labonte’s crumpled Chevrolet rolling into Victory Lane following a last lap bump from Earnhardt, the two were at it again in the closing stages of the 1999 running of the Bristol night race. What followed were more fireworks from the two NASCAR Hall of Famers. Through the majority of the first half of the race, it was the TonyRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Back in August 2016, the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Spedway came down to a battle of the young guns, with a first career win on the line for the victor. After coming up short on victory so many times in his career in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Kyle Larson finally had everything fall into place for himself and his No. 42 team as he held off a hard charging Chase Elliott for the win. Not only had Larson finally found his wayRead More