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
It’s been interesting to observe the way crashes are handled in NASCAR garage these days. The cars themselves have become almost expendable in the interest of excitement. More later on the drivers aboard them.
Before a car wrecked in practice or qualifying is ever dragged all the way into the garage [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Concord, N.C. – Riding up the road from Atlanta to Charlotte Motor Speedway this morning with my RacinToday co-worker Jeff Hood, my mind kept wandering back to my teenage years, when I made basically the same trip as the kid riding along with some much older me who were some [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
It’s always been a running joke among some members of the press that the people who do the pre-race prayers can mention nearly everyone at the race track – fans, drivers, crews officials, etc. – but they never seem to get around to the media.
It’s not a joke the way [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Just when you thought it was safe to write off polesitter Kurt Busch after a couple of encounters with the wall in the Sprint All-Star race, he came storming back to take the checkered flag and the million dollar payday.
“It’s an unbelievable experience,” Busch said. “It’s something that you sit [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
To those with very long NASCAR memories, it might sound absurd for a guy from Atlanta to suggest putting the All-Star race back on the road again, but here goes.
The most likely reason the sport’s decision makers abandoned the original plans to make the all-star race a traveling event is [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Commerce, Ga. – You wouldn’t think that a guy who gets his kicks running a Funny Car at 300 miles per hour (Matt Hagan) could find much common ground with someone who spends his idle hours bumping along the backroads at 40 miles per hour in an old farm truck [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Commerce, Ga. – One way or another John Force has a way of getting himself to Victory Lane after the Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.
On Sunday he was there to celebrate with his son-in-law Robert Hight after Hight defeated Force’s daughter Ashley Force Hood in an all-Force Funny Car final.
It’s [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Commerce, Ga. – A few random thoughts from Atlanta Dragway and a press box a little bit of my usual beaten path:
Whether it’s at a NASCAR superspeedway, a 3/8-mile dirt track or an NHRA drag strip, there are few things in life that match the feeling of hearing a race [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Commerce, Ga. – There are a lot of race fans, myself included, maybe even a majority, who are uncomfortable with change.
We prefer Darlington and Martinsville over the newer tracks on the NASCAR circuit. We keep hoping that Mark Martin has lots of wins left in him, and that Bill Elliott [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
The way Funny Car driver Jack Beckman has it figured, if you’re going to be the underdog in a drag race, your best friend is a dramatic change in racing conditions.
Last year’s Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway provided him just the opportunity he needed to upset Ashley Force Hood, who [...]