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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”

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Greg Biffle hasn't won since 2010, but he has entered 2012 with a new focus and fire. Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Greg Biffle hasn’t won in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since Kansas in the fall of 2010 (49 races ago), but Friday Biffle mentioned that he likes his chances at finding victory lane in the coming weeks.

“Any time is a good time to win a race. These are some good opportunities for us in Texas and Kansas which are two great tracks for us,” Biffle said during his weekly press conference. “We ran, in our standards, fairly well at Martinsville being top-10 most of the day. Unfortunately there at the end with the 10 car and the way the cautions fell and the lucky dog we ended up 13th. This is a race track and we have a great lineup all the way through Darlington and Dover, all these race tracks, that we think we can win at. It is important for us to win. We are trying and we were off a little bit at Vegas. Hopefully we will be on the money here.”

Biffle has come on like gang-busters since the 2012 season began, and it caught most of us by surprise after his lackluster 2011 effort. Through six races in 2012 he has an average finish of 6.8 — his average finish in 2011? 16.8. Matt Puccia has become an unsung hero at crew chief, and he is seemingly the only change on the No. 16 team since last season. Biffle has no worries just yet of reaching victory lane, but how much longer can he go before he starts to get nervous about not finding victory lane?

Continue reading “HOW WORRIED IS POINT LEADER GREG BIFFLE ABOUT HIS CURRENT 49-RACE WINLESS STREAK?”

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Fans get a glimpse of Mark Martin's Toyota 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: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Mark Martin has unloaded fast this week in Texas, and his Michael Waltrip Racing team continues to roll. Martin paced the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session of the week Thursday evening with a lap of 189.427 mph.

Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger and Regan Smith rounded out the top-five fastest in this practice session.

The No. 55 car that Martin shares with Brian Vickers and Michael Waltrip sits ninth in Sprint Cup Series owner points, and all three of the Michael Waltrip Racing team cars rank inside the top-10 of the owner point standings.

Is it time for Martin – the oldest driver that will compete Saturday night at age 53 – to roll back into victory lane? Maybe, but don’t crown him the champion of the Samsung Mobile 500 just yet.

Why you ask? Well we are six races into the 2012 season, and did you know that no driver who has paced the first practice session of a weekend has gone on to win a race? In fact in 2012, the guy who unloads the fastest off the truck has an average finish of 15.5 so far. Can Martin buck the trend? Find out Saturday evening in the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Continue reading “MARK MARTIN FASTEST IN FIRST TEXAS SPRINT CUP PRACTICE, BUT WHY MIGHT THAT BE BAD NEWS?”