By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
It was a calm Steve Torrence who settled into a padded-metal chair, leaned back and propped his feet up on another chair in the lounge of his Top Fuel car hauler at Heartland Park Topeka a couple weeks ago. Really calm. Eerily calm.
Certainly, ironically calm considering what he is doing [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
In no particular order, one person’s list of top racing-related moments from what is one person’s favorite week of racing of the year:
– Pre-race at Indianapolis. There is no debate about which is the biggest, most important and most spectacular auto race in America. It’s Indy and it’s not even [...]

Red Horse Racing announced today that it will suspend operations of the No. 7 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team driven by rookie of the year contender, John King, effective immediately.
Due to lack of sponsorship funding, the No. 7 will be cutting back its program until further notice.
The organization will continue to operate the No. [...]

CONCORD, N.C. – Unless something miraculous happens, the 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship will come and go without Jeff Gordon. And NASCAR has banned miracles.
Perhaps the reality has set in, perhaps Gordon is an Olivier-caliber actor or perhaps he has new golf clubs and is looking forward to using them.  It could even [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
CONCORD, N.C. – Three years ago, after learning he had been elected to the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Richard Petty was happy but also humble and reflective. Thursday night, after his cars and drivers won the front row for Sunday’s crown jewel Coca-Cola 600, The King [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
CONCORD, N.C. – Marcus Gronholm has figured out how to keep 2,600-pound, 325-horsepower cars from sailing off of claustrophobic forested roads and from drifting off of gravel mountain switchbacks, but he’s having a tough time understanding American racing fans.
Gronholm, a former FIA World Rally Championship superstar, just drops his head [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
CONCORD, N.C. – Aric Almirola ripped off a stunning qualifying lap to win the pole Thursday for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The pole, which came after he logged a lap at 192.940 mph, was the first of the Richard Petty Motorsports driver’s Sprint Cup career. It [...]

CONCORD, N.C. – By most measures, Travis Pastrana’s entry into NASCAR’s Nationwide Series has been pretty positive. But by one measure – how much crap he’s taken from his friends – that entry has been a bit of a bummer.
The crap the action sports star has been issued has come courtesy of his X-Games peers and [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Zeroing in on criteria is the most difficult part when considering candidates for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It’s not that the criteria is nebulous, ill-defined. It’s that their really are none; except in the hearts in heads of each of the individual voters.
It was quite obvious [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In the end, it took what one member of the voting panel called a green/white/checkered restart, but the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday found out which five people would become its class of 2013.
The five are:
– Driver Herb Thomas
– Mechanic Leonard Wood
– Driver Rusty Wallace
– Driver/owner [...]