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
NASCAR drivers usually honor their moms at Darlington Raceway because the Southern 500 is run on the night before Mother’s Day.
For the past five years, mothers of Sprint Cup drivers have served as Grand Marshals for the Saturday night race.
Like Carl Edwards’ mom, Nancy Sterling.
“I think Mother’s Day is special to [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
In any form of motorsports, the ultimate outcome is a door-to-door duel to the finish line, with a single winner collecting the lion’s share of the spoils.
In drag racing, it’s not the shot-like-a rocket runs that are the most entertaining. It’s the pedal-fests, where two drivers find themselves under less [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Trent Owens’ story is a familiar one in the NASCAR garage. The Darlington, S.C. native and nephew of Richard Petty started out with dreams of being a big-time race driver, but that didn’t turn out to be in the cards for him.
So, like many of his peers, he turned his [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Former Lowe’s Motor Speedway promoter H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, being the wise observer of all things NASCAR, rarely sides up with losers.
He was an early backer of a rowdy North Carolina short tracker, Dale Earnhardt, and helped steer him into a career in the series now known as Sprint Cup. Over [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
David Green has become a fixture in the NASCAR series now known as Nationwide. Over 19 years, he has nine wins and was the 1994 champion. He’s driven for some of the most powerful teams in the sport, including Hendrick Motorsports.
But last year, when he was about to go a [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
They’re called race track chasers, nomadic types who travel the countryside trying to attend races at as many tracks as they can.
Most hit the road with Allan Brown’s “National Speedway Directory” as their travel guide, marking each new track like a notch on a gunslinger’s pistol.
Some have recorded more than [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
In the 60 years of racing at Darlington Raceway, few events have drawn as much attention to the Lady in Black as the 1985 Southern 500. It was at that race that Bill Elliott secured the Winston Million for winning three of the four major events in a single Cup [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Commerce, Ga. – Fans of every sport treasure their traditions. But it’s almost a given that if a sport is going to grow, those traditions have to be tweaked.
There’s an idea floating around in the NHRA – it’s actually been around for years – that seems to have the potential of [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Gastonia, N.C. – A wise person once advised that it’s good to make friends with a preacher so there’ll be someone who knows you to preach your funeral. There’s an extra sadness at funerals where the reverend doesn’t know much about the deceased.
David Poole, despite his intense working pace at [...]
By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
In his final column, David Poole called for changes to the race track at Talladega Superspeedway to prevent a disaster from happening in light of the Carl Edwards crash at the end of Sunday’s Aaron’s 499.
Poole pointed out that changes to the cars, restrictor plates, yellow line rules and other [...]