By Keith Waltz Richard Petty celebrated in victory lane on Aug. 4, 1974, when NASCAR’s premier stock car series visited Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway for the first time. Built as an eastern showplace for American open-wheel racing, the 2.5-mile triangular track was designed with input from two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward and features three distinctly different turns that connect three straightaways of various lengths. It opened for business in 1971. While the 1974 Purolator 500 was the first NASCAR-sanctioned event in the resort area of the Pocono Mountains, it was not the track’s first stock car race. In fact, just a year…

By Jared Turner With last Sunday’s Brickyard 400 now in the proverbial rear-view mirror, the drivers of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series won’t face Indianapolis Motor Speedway for almost another full year. The track up next on the 2016 schedule bears a striking resemblance to IMS, however. In fact, depending on whom you ask, it’s quite possible that a strong run at Indianapolis could bode well for a driver in Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono. While the two tracks certainly have their differences – seen most vividly in their respective shapes –  Pocono and Indy also possess some notable similarities. Both are…

NASCAR Has Lost Its Shine At Indianapolis There was a time when the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was considered one of NASCAR’s “crown-jewel” events. One would now be hard-pressed to make a case for this, however. How can Indy be a crown jewel when the empty seats at the track far outnumber the seats that are filled? If you watched Sunday’s race, it was impossible to overlook how egregiously uninhabited whole sections of the grandstands were at the fabled 2.5-mile speedway. Hard to believe there was hardly an empty seat in the house when NASCAR first visited Indy in 1994…

Over Labor Day weekend, NASCAR fans will be transported back in time to an era when life was simpler and the sport was experiencing an unprecedented amount of growth. With drivers like Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker and Darrell Waltrip in the prime of their careers and Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd just starting out, the late 1970s and early 1980s saw NASCAR’s popularity soar with intense on-track competition and iconic paint schemes. On Sunday, September 4, Darlington Raceway will channel the excitement and energy from that era by bringing back its wildly popular throwback campaign after its successful debut last season. With…

By Ben White Sprint Cup star Dale Earnhardt Jr. had his eye on a very special ride when he reached his 16th birthday in October of 1990. He rounded up the funds to pay for a Chevrolet S10 pickup. During every spare moment, he washed it, waxed it and detailed its interior with precision. But in a split second, it turned to a heap of rubble. “I financed it for five years for a $100 payment,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a 2014 FOX Sports article. “I had it for about three months, and I flipped it on Christmas morning driving to MeMaw’s…