Fresh Faces: Austin Wayne Self Is Ready

By Joseph Wolkin Life for a normal 19-year-old usually involves getting ready for finals. But then again, Austin Wayne Self isn’t your normal 19-year-old. Racing for Mason Mitchell Motorsports in the ARCA Series, one of NASCAR’s top prospects has his sights set on winning the team its second straight championship. Last year, he won the Rookie of the Year award with Cunningham Motorsports, but there is more pressure now with the possibility of moving to one of NASCAR’s top-tier divisions in 2016. What is the biggest challenge you face while trying to make a name for yourself? “The biggest challenge is the…

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Speed Merchants: Fireball Roberts Paved the Way

By Ben White Throughout NASCAR’s 65-year history, many drivers enjoyed reputations of being the very best at driving with the pedal to the metal. They knew no other way to race than to run flat out every lap, no matter if sheet metal got crushed in the process. Glenn “Fireball” Roberts was known as one of NASCAR’s first superstars of stock car racing. The Apopka, Fla. driver was credited with helping build the sport’s popularity in the early 1960s. Roberts died on July 2, 1964 at the height of his career after suffering a crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway six weeks earlier.…

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Danica Continues to Show Big Gains

By Jerry Bonkowski I KNOW I shouldn’t say it – because it could ultimately wind up being a jinx. But I can’t help myself. I told you so. There, I said it – something I’ve been preaching since before the season – that Danica Patrick was going to have a break-through season in 2015. People sent me emails, called me on the radio and told me I was crazy. While others predicted she’d have her best success on either 1.5-mile tracks or superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega, I believed her best showings – even a potential win – would come on a…

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5 Lessons Learned: Matt Kenseth Is Back

By Jared Turner Hot Streaks Must End Coming into Sunday’s race at Bristol, only three drivers – Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. – had finished in the top 10 in every race this season. By the time the dust settled on the rain-delayed, crash-marred marathon that finished some nine-and-a-half hours after its scheduled start time, not one of the three drivers had managed to keep his top-10 streak alive. The culprit for all three? Wrecks, which are just the nature of the beast in Thunder Valley. The good news? The three drivers still sit atop the Sprint Cup Series…

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5 Lessons: Danica Is Learning, Improving

Jimmie Johnson Is New Texas King Entering the Duck Commander 500, Jimmie Johnson had won four races at Texas, including three of the past five at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track. But all of the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s wins here had come in the fall. That’s not the case anymore, however. With his triumph on Saturday night, the six-time Sprint Cup champion finally unlocked the door to Victory Lane in the spring race while making it four wins overall in the past six Texas races. That’s the essence of domination -- at a track that, for the longest time, wasn’t among Johnson’s…

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Battle at Bristol? Short track causes tempers to flare

By Jared Turner Think the first seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races of 2015 have been wild and unpredictable? Buckle up. You probably haven’t seen anything yet. The next track on the schedule, Bristol Motor Speedway, is notorious for bump-ups, short tempers, fights and, yes, wrecks. Want to settle a score? Bristol’s steep 33-degree banks, lightening-fast speeds (at least for a short track) and narrow racing groove make the treacherous .533-mile high-banked layout a good place to do it. Unlike many tracks where roughing up a driver in the final laps is widely frowned upon, such tactics are not only lawful at…

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