Toby Christie

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Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

The Paul Menard Empire must be high-fiving this evening. They are the loyal fans of Paul Menard. They have faithfully stood beside their driver through his humble beginnings, and are now reaping the benefits since he went to Richard Childress Racing.

Menard turned the fastest lap in NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying with a speed of 181.714 mph. Menard was the only driver fast enough to crack the 181 mile-per-hour barrier. This pole marks Menard’s fifth career Nationwide Series pole.

Denny Hamlin will make it an all Sprint Cup regular front row, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third followed by Austin Dillon and Nationwide point leader Elliott Sadler.

Other notable starters included: Kurt Busch (6th), Cole Whitt (7th), Kasey Kahne (8th), Danica Patrick (17th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20th).

The two drivers who have to take their equipment home early are Morgan Shepherd and Joe Jackson.

Here is the full starting lineup for tonight’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300

1. 33-Paul Menard
2. 18-Denny Hamlin
3. 6-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4. 3-Austin Dillon
5. 2-Elliott Sadler
6. 54-Kurt Busch
7. 88-Cole Whitt
8. 38-Kasey Kahne
9. 30-Steve Arpin
10. 44-Mike Bliss
11. 11-Brian Scott
12. 20-Joey Logano
13. 22-Brad Keselowski
14. 12-Sam Hornish Jr.
15. 70-Johanna Long
16. 31-Justin Allgaier
17. 7-Danica Patrick
18. 43-Michael McDowell
19. 09-Ryan Truex
20. 5-Dale Earnhardt Jr.
21. 08-Kyle Fowler
22. 10-Jeff Green
23. 81-Jason Bowles
24. 01-Mike Wallace
25. 4-Danny Efland
26. 41-Timmy Hill
27. 40-Erik Darnell
28. 19-Tayler Malsam
29. 15-Blake Koch
30. 27-David Ragan
31. 39-Kelly Bires
32. 42-Josh Wise
33. 87-Joe Nemechek
34. 75-Scott Riggs
35. 47-Scott Speed
36. 46-Chase Miller
37. 51-Jeremy Clements
38. 52-Tim Schendel
39. 23-Robert Richardson Jr.
40. 50-T.J. Bell
41. 24-Benny Gordon
42. 14-Eric McClure
43. 74-Kevin Lepage

– Toby Christie is the lead Motorsports writer for Sicknissified.com, and he can be reached via twitter or email. Tweet him @Tobalical or email him at tobalical@sicknissified.com. You can also find his work at TheFinalLap.com this weekend.

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Carl Edwards
Carl Edwards signs an autograph during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12, 2012 in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo Credit: Tyler Barrick/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Usually as a motorsports writer you write specifically about auto racing, however occasionally stories will pop up that are out of the realm of tire wear, oil changes and laptimes. One of those stories is the one that cropped up with the release of Amanda Beard’s new book. In it she has a chapter on her relationship with Carl Edwards. In that chapter she states that Edwards was selfish, and he didn’t help her in times of need including an addiction she had to cocaine.

Carl Edwards Friday at Texas Motor Speedway responded to Beard’s book.

Q: WHAT WAS YOUR OPINION ON WHAT AMANDA BEARD WROTE ABOUT YOU IN HER BOOK AND THE FACT THAT SHE WROTE ABOUT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

“I thought about that a lot and I couldn’t really come up with a good explanation or answer for you guys because I truly didn’t know what to think about it. I guess all I can say is that I considered us friends and I didn’t realize that she had all those problems. I would have done anything in the world to have helped her with those. As always, regardless of what she writes in her books and things like that, if she ever needs something from me I would be there to help her out. I don’t know what else to say about that.”

Continue reading “CARL EDWARDS RESPONDS TO AMANDA BEARD’S BOOK, SAYS “IT’S OUT OF LEFT FIELD””

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Denny Hamlin signs an autograph during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12, 2012 in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo Credit: Tyler Barrick/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Denny Hamlin is an interesting fellow. Last week he was busy being the caddie for his friend Bubba Watson at The Masters Par Three contest, now this week he has a cause that is near and dear to his heart gracing his race car. The colors of The March Of Dimes is on the No. 11 Toyota Camry this weekend, and Hamlin brought a special guest to the media center Friday morning to talk about it.

Kieran Wittstruck is a six-year-old boy who was born 10 weeks premature, yet there he stood in the media center as healthy as could be adorning a miniature firesuit matching the one that Denny Hamlin had on. After bringing everyone’s attention to the importance of supporting the March of Dimes, and just knocking us all out with Kieran’s cuteness – it was time to get to business and talk about Hamlin’s 2012 season.

Continue reading “Denny Hamlin: My Team Is “Like A Five To Six” Out Of 10″

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Smoke was all smiles during the first practice session of the weekend on Thursday, but in final practice he was forced to a backup car. Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

The final practice session of the week is in the books for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Trevor Bayne – who’s hopes of taking home the 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship were dashed when sponsorship couldn’t be found this weekend – paced the session with a lap of 184.641 mph in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team Ford.

Bayne has a lot to prove, and he has plenty of incentive to want to do well this weekend – outside of the fact that he is a racecar driver.

Greg Biffle was second-quick in this session, and he was followed by Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-five fastest.

One of the shockers of the session was Kurt Busch who wheeled his No. 51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet to the eighth-fastest time in the session, and Casey Mears also displayed some speed in his No. 13 GEICO Ford with the 12th fastest lap time.

The only incident of the practice session came when Tony Stewart – who won at Texas last November – slammed into the wall early in the session. The contact was severe enough to force “Smoke” – who posted the 35th-fastest time before the crash – to go to a backup car for Saturday’s race. It’ll be interesting to see how finely Steve Addington can tune Stewart’s backup car before Sprint Cup Series qualifying starts at 5:40 pm local time.

Continue reading “Trevor Bayne Paces Final Sprint Cup Practice In Texas — Tony Stewart Crashes, Will Go To Backup Car”

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This is the photo snapped by Brad Keselowski in the season opening Daytona 500 from inside his car. This photo has taken social media in NASCAR to the next level. Photo Credit: Brad Keselowski's Twitter (@Keselowski).

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Despite being a five-time winner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and being a NASCAR Nationwide Series champion in 20120, the thing that has drawn the most headlines nationally for the 28-year-old NASCAR driver is his twitter account @Keselowski. During a red-flag in this year’s Daytona 500, which was for of all things a jet dryer truck fire, Keselowski became the first driver to tweet from inside his racecar.

Instantly he gained over 200,000 followers in a matter of just moments. Little Brad Keselowski from Rochester Hills, Michigan became the headline story on Yahoo.com, MSN.com heck even every major news network. It was a big story — a NASCAR driver tweeting photos to the world, from inside his car during a race — now it may have been during a red flag — to that point nobody had even heard of drivers carrying their cell phones in the car. In that sense Keselowski is a revolutionary member of social media for his sport.

Friday I got the opportunity to ask Keselowski about the importance of social media in auto racing, you could see a smile reach his face as he fielded the question, and immediately one of the most prominent drivers on Twitter took off with the subject.

“I think social media is very important to the sport, and it is very important to future generations and to increasing the younger demographic in our sport. I think it’s well documented that that’s very much needed. And I’m glad to be at least what I feel like to be in the forefront of that,” Keselowski stated.

Continue reading “NASCAR’S MOST SOCIAL DRIVER? BRAD KESELOWSKI OPENS UP ON SOCIAL MEDIA”