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
Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
It’s been a few weeks now since the new nominees for the NASCAR Hall of Fame have been announced, time for fans – and media types – to ponder the list and decide who deserves to be among the next five inductees. And there’s no Cup race this week to occupy [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
As I sat in front of the TV and watched the Dillon brothers, Ty and Austin, turn in remarkable performances in the weekend races at Iowa Speedway, my mind wondered back to other afternoons over the years, when I’ve seen Richard Childress and his grandsons at NASCAR races.
There’s no questioning [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A few observations after a long Independence Day weekend:
All the talk about a realignment of the NASCAR schedule makes one wonder if the decision makers are forgetting their NASCAR history. Remember when it looked like a slam dunk to put two races at Texas Motor Speedway at the expense of [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Several years back, I was standing in the back of Kyle Petty’s hauler, enjoying one of those rare moments in NASCAR reporting when even the lamest question brings a treasure trove of good quotes.
It happens all the time with Petty, and his father the King. That’s not always the case [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
In racing, or anywhere else for that matter, money talks and everything else walks. It’s why a driver has to have a pocket full of money behind him to get a ride in one of the elite NASCAR divisions, and why there are start-and-park teams in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Atlanta, Ga. – One of the pleasant parts of being a motorsports writer in the Atlanta area years ago was getting to visit on a regular basis with a true legend of the sport – Raymond Parks, who died Sunday at age 96.
When I first started frequenting Mr. Parks’ liquor [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
With NASCAR’s return to Road America this weekend for the first time since 1956, maybe there will be some media attention focused on the winner of that long-ago race.
This year’s event is for the second-tier Nationwide Series. The only other NASCAR race at Road America was for the division now [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
As I sat and watched Denny Hamlin knock out a runaway win at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, his fifth in the past 10 Sprint Cup races, I thought back to an interview with Hamlin last year at Talladega Superspeedway, when he wasn’t winning nearly as often.
We talked about his [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
One of the great ironies of auto racing is that the sport is in many ways a family-oriented affair, but at the same time too much family participation can be a bad thing.
Racing dads are usually the main culprits.
And in another ironic twist, a racer is most successful when they’re [...]
The news this week that Ford is dropping the Mercury line that has for years produced cars for people who wanted a little more than a Ford but not as much as a Lincoln brings to mind the 1970s in NASCAR, when the “Big Cars” still ruled the roost in the series now known as [...]