Bear with me. I’ve got a point to make, but it’s going to take some finagling. On Sunday, I’ll be three weeks’ worth of 60. It took this long for me to notice. Sixty was just a number, not a check point. I guess I didn’t notice until last night. When I went to sleep, I thought I felt satisfied. I had just finished writing a story of which I was proud. I’m excited about a change on the horizon, but there’s a trace of panic in the furrowed fields of my mind. Such things take time, and I’m ready to go. I feel like a bucking horse waiting to get out of a stall, except that I’m too old to buck. The arthritic knees have been acting up.

At the conclusion Monday of the weather festival in Bristol, Tenn., I was down and out, man. I was bummed. The low was lower than the high was high.

The Food City 500 was such a great race, and so few people know it. Kyle Busch’s victory was too exciting to be wasted on a tiny crowd and a dearth of TV viewers. NASCAR needed the whole world to be watching. Instead, the crowd at Bristol Motor Speedway looked as if Tennessee had decided to hold its high school lacrosse finals there.

Martin Truex Jr. will make his 450th career NASCAR Cup Series start in Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway.



“That’s crazy how time flies,” said Truex when he was told that Richmond will be his 450th career start. “Just seems like yesterday we were making preparations to run our first Cup races.



“I feel fortunate to be competing at the highest level of stock car racing, thanks to everyone who has helped and supported my career along the way. I am still having plenty of fun and feel I have more good years left in me.”

NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway today announced the format and competition package for the May 19 Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race, both tailored to achieve one goal – the best possible race for the fans.

For the first time, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars will implement the competition package used in last season’s successful NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which saw record numbers in leaders, lead changes and green flag passes for the lead.

Every year at this time, I am a bit appalled at comments I see on social media to the effect that the racing at Bristol Motor Speedway isn’t any good anymore.

Or, more commonly, “ain’t no good no more.’

Really?

Racing at “the world’s fastest half (actually, .533) mile” has changed since the surface was tapered to widen the alleged racing groove. Where once the fastest lane through the turns was at the very bottom of the banking, now the preferred groove is at least a line up. This was done to make passing easier, and it is.

NASCAR^® and Monster Energy have signed an agreement that will extend the entitlement sponsorship of NASCAR’s premier series. The extension keeps NASCAR and Monster Energy partners through 2019.As part of the agreement, the brand also continues as the Official Energy Drink of NASCAR.

The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is about to get some American flavor. 

There’s a little bit of everything in Texxasss.

So did the late, great Ernest Tubb sing, and I’ve seldom seen his point disputed. The distance from Fort Worth to El Paso is greater than the highway miles, and the same is true of Amarillo to Corpus Christi, or Lubbock to Laredo.

It’s hard to sum up Texas with a speedway, or a stadium, or a home on the range where the deer and the antelope play.

Clint Bowyer is likable. He’s funny. After winning the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Monday, Bowyer made no secret that he planned to party like it was, at the very least, 2012.

He’s a character. NASCAR needs characters.

This isn’t to say that everybody likes him. If Jesus had a Cup ride, a segment of the fans would complain that he was too nice and didn’t race the Devil hard enough.

Bowyer is 38. He has been racing full-time in what is now the Monster Energy Cup Series since 2006. He’s won nine times in 438 tries. When he crossed the finish line first at the sport’s oldest track, it was the first time since 2012. Bowyer went 190 races between his eighth and ninth victories.