Danica Patrick’s announcement about jilting the IndyCar Series for NASCAR started tongues wagging and keyboards clicking last week as pundits pondered the impact Ms. Patrick will have on stock car racing.
Frankly, nobody knows how she’ll do on the track. She’s reasonably talented and will have reasonably good equipment. Other than that all we know for [...]

Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Nashville’s ABC affiliate Channel 2 will bump Saturday night’s Bristol race in favor of an NFL exhibition game between the Tennessee Titans and Chicago Bears.
I’m sure there are contractual complications involved, but for whatever reason(s) the decision is telling:
In Middle Tennessee, once a hot-bed of NASCAR racing, one of the most [...]

I saw an estimate that put the crowd at New Hampshire Speedway at 30,000 for last Sunday’s IndyCar race.
As my old sports editor once said about an obviously-inflated attendance figure at a Vanderbilt football game, a lot of those fans came disguised as empty seats.
When the TV cameras panned the gaping New Hampshire grandstands, a [...]

The biggest story in NASCAR this season is not Jimmie Johnson’s drive for a history-boggling sixth championship, Dale Earnhardt Jr’s promising comeback or the stirring first-time triumphs by five Sprint Cup drivers.
The biggest story is one that doesn’t get much coverage: drivers walking away unscathed from crashes that a few years ago would have been [...]

By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Nashville – The apparent demise of Nashville Superspeedway might open the door to bringing back NASCAR racing to historical old Fairgrounds Speedway.
The Supespeedway, located 40 miles east of Nashville, will seek no NASCAR sanctions next year, owner Dover Motorsports announced last week. The 11-year-old track, valued at around $50 million, [...]

By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Nashville – Dover Motorsports has announced it will seek no NASCAR races next year for Nashville Superspeedway and will “evaluate all options for the track, including its possible sale.”
The track, located in Gladeville, Tenn., 40 miles east of Nashville, has struggled with attendance since opening in 2001.
Should Dover sell the [...]

Nashville – The pit-road preacher who gave perhaps the most memorable invocation in NASCAR history will have a chance for an encore performance.
Cliff Hawks, VP/GM of Nashville Superspeedway, says pastor Joe Nelms “will definitely be invited back next year.”
Nelms is minister of Family Baptist Church in Lebanon, Tenn., located a few miles from the Superspeedway [...]

I remember a time when outhouse races were held to drum up interest in a NASCAR race. Might that be next for Indy?
More on that in a minute.
Who’d have thunk that the once-ballyhooed Brickyard 400 would require a supporting cast to draw a crowd? I covered the inaugural 1994 race and some estimated the crowd [...]

Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Gladeville, Tenn. – Talented young Tennessee racer Trevor Bayne says he has had no recurring problems from the mysterious illness that sidelined him earlier in the season.
“I feel fine, no problems at all,” Bayne said Friday at Nashville Superspeedway, where he will compete in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race.
“I’m scheduled to go [...]

By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Gladeville, Tenn. – Friday afternoon’s truck race practice at Nashville Superspeedway was interrupted when a dog trotted onto the track.
The meddling mutt was identified as a “one-eyed beagle” and according to one Media Center wag he turned some impressive lap times before being black-flagged for failing to pass pre-race inspection.
It [...]