The Final Lap with Kerry Murphey

FYI WIRZ: NASCAR fans might be wary of the hot Sprint Cup garage

It seems the adage—be careful what you wish for, you might get it—pops up in many places throughout many lives. Here’s a motorsports happening.

Author: Dwight Drum racetake.com

Photo credit: Dwight Drum racetake.com

Often when at a NASCAR race, fans will inquire about the hot pass dangling from a credentials lanyard. They know it means access. Usually fans want to know how to get a hot pass that would allow them into the Sprint Cup garage.

Some fans with sponsor and team connections gain access to the hot Sprint Cup garage, but they are among a select few. Other select fans obtain a cold pass which allows them into the Nationwide and Camping World garages and into the Sprint Cup garage before race car activity when the race cars are not practicing or qualifying.

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Guest Column By Cathy Elliott

Thirty-five weeks a year, one of the most fun and challenging things about this column is the fact that it can often be quite speculative in nature.

Based on what happened the previous week or month in NASCAR, we have the luxury of utilizing what has gone before in order to predict what might happen next. Each week is an important link in a chain that begins when the season is tossed overboard in February, and ends in November when a champion lands to anchor it for the next 12 months.

But this is Week 36. As of this writing, mere hours separate us from the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and NASCAR’s championship anchor is dangling so close to the ocean floor that the sand is already swirling. After the closest and most exciting year in recent memory, all that stands between this moment and the end of the 2012 season is the simplest of toddler math, countable on a single hand: one race, two drivers and three points.

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Author: Dwight Drum racetake.com

FYI WIRZ: NASCAR’s Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick Talk Phoenix

A newly configured and repaved Phoenix International Raceway track presents a huge question mark for drivers and teams as Carl Edwards totes a skinny three-point advantage over Tony Stewart with two races and 96 total points remaining for their championship runs.
The Kobalt Tools 500 in Phoenix, Ariz., will consume 312 stock car laps on a one-mile oval with 11-degree banking to a sold-out audience.
Fans not shoulder-to-shoulder in the stands can tune into ESPN at 3 p.m. Sun., Nov. 13.

Author: Dwight Drum racetake.com

The media focus may shift from Kyle Busch’s dilemma should he return to the track—with probation limitations—to the tight fight between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart for the trophy.

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FYI WIRZ: NASCAR’s Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson talk Charlotte

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) presents race 31 of 36, the Bank of America 500, at Charlotte Motor Speedway this Saturday night. The 334 lap event on the 1.5-mile 24 degree quad-oval in Concord, N.C, will be televised on ABC at 7:30 p.m.

Author: Dwight Drum racetake.com

The Charlotte area is home to most NASCAR teams, but not many will be looking for a home field advantage. Six-time CMS winner Jimmie Johnson shared his thoughts on that.

“If there is any advantage for being home, it’s probably the same for everybody,” Johnson said. “There’s something about sleeping in your own bed, seeing your family, being close to home, there’s just a comfort that comes with that, so I don’t see it really playing any way, shape or form there.”

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