I’m Just Saying: Re-Ranking the Chase Field

By Aaron Burns JOEY LOGANO: Led everyone with six wins. Revenge, bad luck cost him a title. KEVIN HARVICK: Had 16 top-twos, led over 2,200 laps, but finished second 13 times. KYLE BUSCH: Champion missed 11 races. Was hit-miss, but won when he had to. MARTIN TRUEX JR.: Huge turnaround from 2014. Pocono winner and title contender. An impressive season. BRAD KESELOWSKI: Was consistently fast. “Bad Brad” gave away a couple of Chase wins. DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Three wins and 16 top-five finishes. Deserved better than 12th in points. JEFF GORDON: Swan song included a win at Martinsville and a surprise Championship…

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6 Fearless Predictions For the 2016 Season

By Jared Turner With every new NASCAR season there are new possibilities. While some never come to fruition, others inevitably do. Here are six bold predictions for the 2016 Sprint Cup Series campaign. Joey Logano Will Win It All: In 2015, Joey Logano had the speed to make it all the way to Homestead-Miami Speedway and capture his first title. Logano, however, lacked the patience. Instead of wrecking Matt Kenseth at Kansas, Logano should have played it safe and finished second if necessary to avoid contact. Instead, he went for broke, took Kenseth out and effectively lost the championship two weeks later…

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Six Young Drivers to Watch in 2016

By Aaron Burns Another youth movement has hit NASCAR. Check out these six young talents who could be contenders for years to come. Chase Elliott: The son of 1988 NASCAR champion Bill Elliott, Chase Elliott has the pedigree, the equipment and the confidence to earn a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title. All the 20-year-old Georgia native needs is experience. Elliott is a NASCAR XFINITY Series champion and the driver-to-be of the No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott doesn’t want to make fans forget about Jeff Gordon, but he has the potential to hoist more than one championship trophy in his…

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Lessons Learned in 2015: RCR Is Missing a Step

By Jared Turner Job Security Is A Precious Commodity When Michael Waltrip Racing announced in August that it would suspend operations of its Sprint Cup Series teams at the end of the season, the decision meant more than 200 employees would be out of jobs and forced to find work for 2016. It also meant that MWR’s two drivers – Clint Bowyer and David Ragan – would have to move on. While Bowyer has landed with HScott Motorsports for 2016 and will replace Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017, Ragan’s plans had yet to be announced as of press time. Others…

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Sticking to His Guns: Kenseth Wouldn’t Change Anything

By Jared Turner Matt Kenseth felt he was justified in wrecking Joey Logano on Nov. 1 at Martinsville Speedway. In Kenseth’s mind, there wasn’t a lot of difference in what he did to Logano and what Logano had done to him while the two battled for the lead two weeks earlier at Kansas Speedway. Of course, NASCAR rightfully disagreed and issued Kenseth a two-race suspension for his Martinsville actions – which were deliberate, premeditated and, frankly, just wrong. So has Kenseth, who returns to the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for this weekend’s season finale, come to see the error of…

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Danica’s Day: Patrick Finishes 16th for Second Week in a Row

By Aaron Burns After having not finished better than 17th since Pocono in August, Danica Patrick is becoming acquainted with 16th place. Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 saw Patrick make up considerable ground when a well-timed caution moved her from outside the top 20 to 16th, and when rain shortened the race, Patrick had her second consecutive 16th-place result. It was one of those nights where 16th was better than Patrick could’ve hoped. She moved into the top 20 early on after qualifying 21st, but a penalty for crewmen going over the wall too soon knocked her outside the top…

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