Let The Engines Roar: by Anthony Baker

Yesterdays race at Kansas Speedway was suppose to be a breath of fresh air as the race track has been looked at as one of the better tracks or maybe even the best track in the Next Gen era. The car races well, there’s multiple grooves, the tires wear decently and there’s strategy at times. The restarts can be chaotic which leads to cautions breed cautions moments as well so there’s something honestly for every fan to enjoy. However at least on social media, the discourse wasn’t too thrilled about the race. The discourse really didn’t like the fact that it didn’t seem like much passing towards the front of the field as they would have liked which is understandable, but also a lot of concern about the grandstands which also had people wondering if Kansas should go to one race instead of 2. This is also the 4th race in a row where the discourse hasn’t been pleased about the Cup series product as of late. Let’s take a closer look. Ever since the Next Gen car debuted in 2022 the racing on t...

Nascar heads to thunder valley this weekend as it’s time for the Food City 500, which is a 500 lap race around the half mile concrete oval known as Bristol Motor Speedway or otherwise known as the last great Colosseum. It’s going to be a cool weekend as temperatures are expected to be in the 60s but questions remain about how the tire will react this time around. Let’s get into it. This is just the 2nd spring race in the next gen cars and I say this because I believe that was one reason as to why tire wear was so insane last spring along with the cold temps. With now a year of spring data and warmer temperatures I don’t believe that we will see the tire fall off at the rate that we saw last year. I do think there will be some wear later into a long run that falls off significantly. With the traction compound I thing track position will be important early and the bottom line will be the preferred line unless we see some tire saving mode. I expect this race to be a ra...

The heavy difference between the Saturday race and the Sunday race at martinsville speedway must be studied. There was complete chaos on Saturday especially in the later stages of the race, but on Sunday the race was quite tame. While it must be noted that racing in the cup series at this track took a hit compared to the gen 6, but the racing compared to the xfinity series is still way less chaotic. So the Xfinity series raced at martinsville speedway in 2006, but after that race they didn’t return for 14 years. Once they returned it was nothing but chaos.Since their return to the paper clip, the racing has provided quite a bit of controversy including the most recent race this weekend. This is a stark difference from how the cup series races have been as there has been less passing but less wrecks as well. The Xfinity series has time and time again had races at the track start off as racing and ending in slam and run racing. It showed even more true this past Saturday as several d...

This week in the NASCAR cup series brings us to Martinsville. This time we prepare for 400 laps around the paper clip and with a softer tire, I expect the racing to be similar to the fall race that saw tire wear and falloff. Last year in the spring race we saw William Byron win after a late race restart. The fall race while we saw controversy saw a Ryan Blaney win. Byron is coming into the weekend off a 12th place finish at Homestead which saw him have to overcome a costly penalty. Ryan Blaney comes into the weekend off of back to back dnfs due to blown engines so he’s definitely looking to turn things around this weekend. Let’s get into this preview. This tire is the same tire that was ran in the fall of last year, and this will be the only tire as there is no option tire in play this weekend. However as of this moment as I type this there is a chance of rain this Sunday which could lead to the wet weather tires being used. This would be the first time that the Cup series wou...

Last week saw more drama in the NASCAR world as it was widely discussed that the approval process to drive in the Cup series should be adjusted. The talks started after the announcement that Katherine Legge would be driving in the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevy. The talks became louder after a up and down day that saw Legge spin on lap 4, but after that was able to stay out of trouble and log laps like any rookie would want. That was until another incident later that took out Daniel Suarez. While she has had success in various other forms of racing, she doesn’t have many starts in a stock car especially on a oval which drew concern. Another issue was the lack of time or practice that there was for her to prepare, especially when one is a rookie for a team that also isn’t full time. Let’s get into it. Now normally when it comes to rookies making Cup starts that are their first start, there is a rookie test which is like a shakedown that gets rookies more familiar with th...

The third week of the NASCAR Cup Series season took us to The Circuit of the America’s located in Austin Texas. The race track being used this week was designed differently compared to year’s past as the long back straightaway was cut in half and turn 6 went from a right hander to a right then two sharp lefts to help cut the course down. This proved to be a fun corner, let’s get into it. Teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace led the field to the green and the field could barely get past the start finish line before chaos began. Carson Hocevar made a jump to the outside of Bubba Wallace and it look like there was slight contact but nothing too serious. On the inside lane going into turn one, the 1 car of Ross Chastain sent it in deep and made contact with Chase Elliot spinning him out. Several others such as Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs also made contact. A few laps later Ty Dillion got into Austin Cindric pushing him wide off of the final turn. Cindric didn’t like that and ret...

The second points paying weekend of the NASCAR season leads us to the Atlanta Motor Speedway. 39 drivers are in the field for the Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday. William Byron looks to go 2 for 2 on the season as Daniel Suarez looks to defend his win from last year. The Penske cars are strong at the drafting tracks so they are a group to keep an eye out for as well. Joey Logano was the most recent winner at Atlanta as that win helped his bid for the championship. This weekend marks the 2nd weekend of the NASCAR season and it brings us to another drafting track that gives off the vibes of Daytona before it’s repave years ago. This track is like a hybrid superspeedway built on an intermediate track. The field typically starts off as a tight condensed pack but over time spreads out into individual packs like mid 2000s pack racing. Handling matters more at this track than it does at Daytona so it will take more than just a fast car to win. The talk of the week so far has been the aging...