By Ben White The yellow 1966 Ford Galaxie owned and built by NASCAR legend Junior Johnson ranks as one of the most controversial in the sport’s 65-year history. Due to a disagreement over the 1966 rules package, Ford Motor Co. elected to sit out the season, even though they won the Cup championship with driver Ned Jarrett and team owner Bondy Long the previous year. Johnson built the specially designed Ford and hired the very popular Fred Lorenzen, available because of Ford’s departure, as his driver. A win in a major event with a well-known driver might prompt a return to the…

By Jared Turner It’s extremely rare in this ultra-competitive age of stock-car racing that one driver enters a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race weekend as a clear and undisputed favorite to come out on top. This Sunday’s showdown at Phoenix International Raceway would be one of those rare instances. Fresh off a commanding victory and overall dominant performance last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he led a race-high 142 of 267 laps, Kevin Harvick is the odds-on choice to prevail this Sunday in the Valley of the Sun. That’s because in addition to starting the season off with three finishes…

By Jerry Bonkowski Journalists are not supposed to show emotion or favoritism toward subjects they write about. That’s one of the first things they’re taught in journalism school. But this one time, I’m going to break that rule – and say “good for you” to Martin Truex Jr. Let me explain: The New Jersey native has gone through more adversity in the last 16 months than arguably any other driver on the Sprint Cup circuit. An attempt by an official of Michael Waltrip Racing in September 2013 to influence who ultimately made the Chase for the Sprint Cup not only led to…

By Jared Turner NASCAR should be applauded for tweaking the pre-qualifying inspection procedures following the debacle at Atlanta Motor Speedway where 13 drivers – including Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart -- were unable to even get on track to complete a qualifying run. After being widely criticized for not giving drivers enough time to get through inspection, NASCAR announced prior to the Las Vegas weekend that an 15 extra minutes would be allowed for teams to prepare their cars for inspection and for officials to complete the inspection process before qualifying in Vegas, Phoenix and Fontana. The change…