Spotlight E.P. News

Big guns

Posted on 25. May, 2012 by admin.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend, and he scored some points on the sponsorship front.

Earnhardt, who won the Showdown to advance to the Sprint All-Star race where he finished fifth, was asked the day before to respond to a move in Congress that would ban sponsorships of race teams by branches of the military. He showed some political savvy, or perhaps evidence of some coaching by his team’s public relations staff, by throwing the ball, so to speak, back into the court of Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who sponsored the legislation before the House Appropriations Committee, which approved the measure, which still must pass several more steps before becoming final.

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Meeting McClure | After dramatic crash, spotlight falls on driver from racing family

Posted on 17. May, 2012 by admin.

Among the upsides to Eric McClure’s frightening crash at the end of the May 5 Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway is that the NASCAR world was finally introduced to McClure, and vice versa.

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Fast Forward: Three years after first Cup win, Keselowski shows no signs of stopping

Posted on 10. May, 2012 by admin.

Three years ago at Talladega Superspeedway, after Brad Keselowski held his ground on the final lap and got his first career Sprint Cup victory (while Carl Edwards, after contact between the two of them, flew into the catchfence), many speculated that Keselowski was destined for stardom. Others figured he might be like Bobby Hillin Jr., Phil Parsons, Ron Bouchard, Dick Brooks or Lennie Pond – drivers who got a win at Talladega then never won anywhere else.

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F Sport transforms Lexus IS350 into a real gem

Posted on 02. May, 2012 by admin.

It’s no secret that I have always liked the Lexus IS series. I’m not sure if it’s because the rear-wheel drive compact sport sedan is fun to drive, or because it’s so ‘different’ when compared to the rest of the cars in the Lexus lineup. Or maybe with its $33,595 starting price it is the only Lexus that has a chance at fitting into my budget?

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‘Pfalz’ start | Family tree, formerly known as ‘Ehrenhardt,’ explored by Dale Jr.

Posted on 26. Apr, 2012 by admin.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s interest in racing history is well-documented, as anyone who ever watched his old “Back in the Day” TV show can attest.

His interest in Earnhardt family history is just coming to light. It came out last week, during Earnhardt’s session with the media at Kansas Speedway, when he was asked about the visit to the White House by last year’s Chase participants.

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Rebound Biffle: ‘This year is my year’

Posted on 20. Apr, 2012 by admin.

Greg Biffle’s rebound appears to be for real. The veteran driver, who hasn’t performed up to expectations in recent seasons, broke a 49-race losing streak on Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, and has led the Cup points standings since the third race of the season, at Las Vegas.

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Drivers lament need to repave old asphalt tracks

Posted on 05. Apr, 2012 by admin.

When Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark talks to Sprint Cup drivers, it’s a common occurrence for those drivers to implore him to leave his track as is. Although the pavement at AMS is 20 years old, abrasive and bumpy, the drivers say that’s the way they like it.

But those drivers will have to deal with plenty of new pavement this year as Kansas Speedway, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway will be repaved, and there apparently will be changes made to the track at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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‘Slippery slope’?

Posted on 22. Mar, 2012 by admin.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. says folks just can’t keep a secret in the NASCAR garage these days. It’s not his fellow drivers who are being the blabbermouths, so to speak, it’s NASCAR officials and their new policies – and proposed ones – for sharing information among race teams and fans, too.

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‘Volcano’

Posted on 15. Mar, 2012 by admin.

Many a race fan, upon stepping into the giant stadium-like seating area at Bristol Motor Speedway for the first time, has marveled at seeing a NASCAR race track in the space typically occupied by a grassed football gridiron. On the other hand, drivers entering from the lower side of the grandstands see the place from a totally different perspective.

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Sharing the spotlight

Posted on 07. Mar, 2012 by admin.

It seems that throughout his NASCAR career, Matt Kenseth’s accomplishments have a way of getting overshadowed by other events.

In 2000, his rookie year in the series now known as Sprint Cup, he won the Coca-Cola 600 and rookie of the year honors, but most of the attention that year went to the driver who finished second in the rookie standings, one Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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Third time’s a charm

Posted on 13. Jan, 2012 by admin.

There was considerable second-guessing about ­­the picks for the first two classes of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but the consensus is that the voting panel got it right in determining the third group of five that will be inducted in Charlotte, N.C., on Jan. 20.

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“The future’s bright”

Posted on 14. Oct, 2011 by admin.

In moving from Richard Childress’ race team to Michael Waltrip’s, Clint Bowyer is moving from a team that has won 99 Sprint Cup races and six championships to a much younger team that that has won two races and has a best points finish of 16th, all three by David Reutimann.

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No more Mr. Nice Guy – After run-in with Busch, Johnson finally shaking ‘vanilla’ label

Posted on 18. Aug, 2011 by admin.

Jimmie Johnson’s run-in with Kurt Busch at Pocono, followed by his and Busch’s comments on the subject the next week at Watkins Glen, are signs that Johnson is a different person than he was in his early days in NASCAR. And the budding feud also could mean that this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup could be reminiscent of one of the sport’s classic championship battles where two drivers who didn’t particularly like each other went head-to-head each week in the run for the championship.

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