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
As the three contenders head to Homestead-Miami Speedway to decide the Sprint Cup championship, the talk on the street and on the Net is about which of the them – Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson or Kevin Harvick – will prevail.
At the Trading Post, a boots and blue jeans store just [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
The championship of the Sprint Cup circuit has a way of overshadowing about everything else in motorsports. That’s why Trevor Bayne’s amazing Cup debut at Texas Motor Speedway wasn’t one of the biggest stories coming out of that race and why Carl Edwards’ win at Phoenix last week, one that [...]
Brad Keselowski’s clinching of the 2010 Nationwide Series championship, the first ever in NASCAR for him and his car owner Roger Penske, came on the same Saturday afternoon that the University of Georgia stomped a small-school Football Championship Subdivision opponent, Idaho State, in college football and Auburn beat up on an undermanned Chattanooga team.
The three [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A few random observations as the Sprint Cup and Nationwide circuits head to Texas Motor Speedway and the NASCAR season nears the end of the road:
Hopefully the Cup debut of Trevor Bayne won’t be totally overshadowed by the Chase, as was the case with Jeff Gordon, who made his Cup [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Talladega, Ala. – In many ways, it was like old times at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday evening. Richard Childress was back in his old spot, sitting in front of the media as the winning car owner in a Cup race at Talladega, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was representing his family name [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A few observations heading into this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway:
It seems ironic that on one hand, the NFL is in the news with league officials cracking down on rough hits, promising to suspend players who cross the line between fair play and unnecessary roughness.
On the other hand, the NASCAR [...]
It kind of slipped under the radar, but an honest-to-gosh good ‘ol NASCAR boy from Spartanburg, S.C., scored his first-ever top-10 in the Nationwide Series on Saturday in the final race at Gateway International Speedway.
Jeremy Clements, who comes from a long line of NASCAR racers, finished 10th in the No. 04 Boudreaux’s Butt Paste Chevy [...]
Bill Elliott isn’t your typical racing dad. Throughout the budding racing career of his now 14-year-old son Chase, Elliott could best be described as The Eternal Realist.
His quotes about his son all sounded a cautious theme:
“We’re just taking this one step at a time,” he’d say. Or, “We’ve still got to get through the teenage [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Concord, N.C. – There was no doorbell ringing, but Avon came calling on Wednesday in the media center at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Actually it was Carl Edwards, on behalf of Avon.
While some in the room wondered what some of the sport’s tough old birds like the late Curtis Turner and [...]
Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Concord, N.C. – The Charlotte Motor Speedway media center isn’t the same this morning. Jack Flowers isn’t here. They found him dead in his chair at his home just down the road from the speedway earlier this week.
Jack and I had a good bit in common, besides covering NASCAR races. We’re [...]