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
The Southeastern short track world lost one of its icons on Jan. 4 with the passing of Luther Carter.
Carter, who died at 75 after a battle with cancer, was an old-school racer who passed his love of the sport along to his son Mark Carter, who became a racer himself, as well as his grandson [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Watching fans file past the press box at Talladega Superspeedway makes one wonder which of the Chase contenders would be able to bring back the blue-collar fans who have deserted NASCAR in recent years.
Talladega was and is Earnhardt country, as Dale Sr. and Dale Jr. have been [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
HAMPTON, Ga. – A colleague, Monte Dutton, wrote this week about how Atlanta Motor Speedway, despite its name, isn’t really an Atlanta track.
He’s right. It’s in Hampton, a small southern suburb and a location that many question given the larger population centers on the north side of Atlanta.
But back when [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
HAMPTON, Ga. – The dust-up at Bristol Motor Speedway between Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth seemed to have run out of steam by the time the Sprint Cup Series rolled into Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday. But the debate over things like throwing helmets and punches continued in the media center [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
BRISTOL, Tenn. – A few observations from the early race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway:
At the close of a media event in which the paint scheme for the No. 2 Dodge was unveiled, Brad Keselowski sat around with a small group of reporters and gave his thoughts on how young [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
When the news came that Charles Leroy “Buck” Simmons, one of the greatest short track drivers who ever lived, had died at the relatively young age of 66, my mind wandered back to a Friday night some years back, to a race at a track called Highway 106 Speedway in [...]
Race fans across the country are mourning the loss of their “Little Bitty Buddy.”
Jimmy Mosteller, a long-time racing announcer and co-founder of the old Hav-A-Tampa dirt racing series, died Wednesday.
Mosteller started announcing horse racing events after a brief try as an apprentice jockey. But he found his true calling while following his race-driver friend Jack [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
ATLANTA, Ga. – Sometimes, while cruising the backroads around my home on the south side of Atlanta, I’ll come across an intersection where in years past there would be a poster nailed to a tree or a power pole. The posters were for races at Senoia Raceway, and they were [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – The trophy and the $100,000 winner’s check from the Dream at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway wound up back in my hometown of Fayetteville, Ga., brought here by Shane Clanton, who led all 100 laps of dirt racing’s most lucrative event.
The Clantons have been fixtures on the dirt [...]
Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Sometimes, despite their good intentions, people in the racing world get Memorial Day mixed up with the Fourth of July and Veterans Day. Memorial Day, once known as Decoration Day as in decorating the graves of those killed in the line of duty, isn’t about those who serve. It’s about those [...]