Rick Minter, Senior Writer
Rick Minter joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1991, where he covered motorsports as well as serving as a bureau chief. From 2000-2008 he focused on racing exclusively, traveling the NASCAR circuit as the paper’s motorsports writer and winning awards from several organizations including the Georgia20 Automobile Racing Hall of Fame Association and the City of Atlanta. Minter and his wife Joanne live on the family farm in Inman, Ga. In his spare time he collects and restores antique tractors and trucks.
Articles by Rick Minter
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
The Christmas/New Year’s holidays are times for reflection, and as I’ve listened to NASCAR radio shows and read stories on the Internet where “experts” weigh on what NASCAR needs to do to reinvigorate its fan base, I keep thinking back to an interview I did a couple of years ago [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
For those who would like to see NASCAR’s Nationwide Series be something more than mostly Cup Lite, there was a bit of encouraging news last week.
Independent Nationwide car owners Robby Benton and Brack Maggard, the guys who pulled off a major upset when they won at Montreal this past season [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
If anything can be learned from the past five Sprint Cup seasons, it’s that staying the course isn’t the way to stop Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team when it comes time to decide the season championship.
Many a driver has said that they don’t really change their approach once [...]
Looking back on this and other seasons of races past, the things that really stand out are the sights and sounds of the racing atmosphere. And one of the things that makes a race track experience enjoyable, as much as anything, is a good track announcer.
No matter how the races are going down on the [...]
It’s pretty safe to say that Rutledge Wood is the only personality who has been interviewed both at Oliver Gentry’s junkyard in Newnan, Ga., and in the Tonight Show studios in California.
But, according to Wood’s Facebook page, he’ll set that milestone tonight. Wood is set to talk to host Jay Leno about his new History [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
With another racing season in the books, it’s natural to begin looking back on the highs and lows of the year.
Most years, the highs outnumber the lows, and this year was no exception.
Among the personal highs this year are a quality one-on-one interview with Jeff Gordon back at the first [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Long before Homestead-Miami Speedway landed the final Sprint Cup race of the year, the stock car racing season ended in Florida, at Five Flags Speedway in the Panhandle city of Pensacola.
The Snowball Derby is the race where drivers from across the nation, short trackers and NASCAR stars alike, square off [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
As the cooler weather arrives in the old neighborhood here in the vicinity of Atlanta Motor Speedway, it’s time to get out the winter clothes and pack away the t-shirts for the time being.
As I reached in the back of the closet the other day, I pulled out a favorite [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Regardless of what you think of the current state of affairs in NASCAR, you have to give the brass some credit for trying to get the ship back on course.
Of course some might say that all the changes made in recent years have led to the problems of today, and [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
The remaining days of the 2010 NASCAR season likely will be dominated by talk of what was won during the year – who won the races and the championships. Will it be Jimmie Johnson winning a record fifth straight Sprint Cup championship, or will it be Denny Hamlin or Kevin [...]