Toby Christie

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By: Toby Christie – @Toby_Christie

It has been a rough curtain call season so far for Dale Earnhardt Jr. After 16 races, the 42-year-old driver is mired 22nd in points, but he is riding the momentum of two straight top-10 finishes heading into possibly his best track — Daytona International Speedway.

Earnhardt always seems to be a factor when it comes down to the win at restrictor plate races, and this time around — possibly his final race at Daytona — he has a really fast car.
Continue reading “Dale Earnhardt Jr. Has Great Car For What Could Be Last Daytona Race”

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By: Toby Christie – @toby_christie

If you’re a top tier NASCAR Camping World Truck Series or NASCAR Xfinity Series team owner, you should be making phone calls right now to get John Hunter Nemechek behind the wheel of your race cars.

What the 20-year-old driver has done in his brief 62-race Truck Series career is astonishing, made even more incredible by his current emotion-fueled two-race winning streak with his back against the wall. A couple of weeks ago, Nemechek was facing an uncertain sponsorship situation at his family-owned NEMCO Motorsports race team.
Continue reading “Opinion: It’s Time For John Hunter Nemechek to Move to Next Level”

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By: Toby Christie – @Toby_Christie

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced his retirement from full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing earlier this season, he was emphatic that he would not be completely done driving.

The 14-time most popular driver will have at least two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts for his JR Motorsports team in 2018, but what about a one-off Cup Series start?
Continue reading “Could Dale Earnhardt Jr. Really Run the 2018 Daytona 500?”

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By: Toby Christie – @Toby_Christie

One of the greatest safety innovations in racing history is the SAFER barrier, or the metal walls, with energy absorbing foam that sit in front of the existing concrete walls at race tracks around the country. Fans, drivers and members of the NASCAR industry have called for tracks to add SAFER barriers at every section of the track inside and out, but every now and again cars in severe accidents find exposed concrete walls.

This weekend, at Sonoma Raceway during the Toyota / Save Mart 350 we were reminded once again how important the softer SAFER barrier walls are.
Continue reading “Opinion: Sonoma Reminds Us That SAFER Barriers Need to Be Everywhere”

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By: Toby Christie – @Toby_Christie

In the interest of being honest, I have to admit that when NASCAR announced during the offseason that if a race winning car failed post-race inspection at a high enough level that they would tag the victory as an “encumbered” win, I was a fan of the move. An encumbered win would result in point penalties, but more importantly the win would not count toward the driver’s total of ever important playoff points.

It felt like finally something was going to be happening to teams that decided to bring a tricked up car to the track to tack on more wins.

However, after seeing the process unfold a couple of times so far in 2017, I can’t help but feel like like I was naive for my initial thoughts on the new rule. In fact now I feel the rule is a load of crock.
Continue reading “Opinion: Can We Just Start Stripping Encumbered Race Wins?”