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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

Edwards Continues To Sizzle
Friday, 18 Mar, 2011 – 15:37 | One Comment
Edwards Continues To Sizzle

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Bristol, Tenn. – Las Vegas winner Carl Edwards continued his recent hot streak, leading every practice session in which he participated and capping it off by winning the pole for Sunday’s Jeff Byrd 500 Presented by Food City at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Edwards ran a lap at 128.014 miles per hour [...]

Minter: In Search Of The Next Trevor Bayne
Saturday, 12 Mar, 2011 – 10:59 | 5 Comments
Minter: In Search Of The Next Trevor Bayne

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Among the many good things that have come from Trevor Bayne’s victory in the Daytona 500 is its fueling of the discussion about who will be the sport’s next Trevor Bayne, the next little-known driver to rise to prominence.
For racing insiders, Bayne was anything but little- known before he drove [...]

Minter: Pointlessness Of System Is Pointed Out
Friday, 4 Mar, 2011 – 8:14 | 2 Comments
Minter: Pointlessness Of System Is Pointed Out

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A few observations as the Sprint Cup circuit heads to Las Vegas for the third points race of the year:
First off, as some of my colleagues have been pointing out, it took six races for a winner to actually earn some points. All three winners at Daytona were pointless since [...]

Minter: Points Don’t Always Add Up To Excitement
Saturday, 26 Feb, 2011 – 8:23 | 2 Comments
Minter: Points Don’t Always Add Up To Excitement

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A Speedweeks that will go down as one of the most memorable in history provided great drama in all three major NASCAR races, and it wasn’t the manufactured kind, it just happened.
Michael Waltrip won Friday’s truck race, on the 10th anniversary of his breakthrough Cup victory, which came on the [...]

Minter: Bayne Appears To Be A Genuine Article
Thursday, 24 Feb, 2011 – 6:00 | One Comment
Minter: Bayne Appears To Be A Genuine Article

Among the enjoyable things for a reporter to do at a short track is trying to pick out the drivers with the potential to move on to bigger and better things.
Back in 2007, at Peach State Speedway in Jefferson, Ga., the track now known as Gresham Motorsports Park, a 16-year-old kid was in the grandstands [...]

Minter: The No. 21 Car Back Where It Belongs
Monday, 21 Feb, 2011 – 9:08 | One Comment
Minter: The No. 21 Car Back Where It Belongs

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Way back in the day, before I ever even had a driver’s license, I went to numerous NASCAR races in the Southeast with some of the most loyal Ford fans you’d ever want to meet.
Brothers Wesley and Weldon Stubbs were the kind of people who truly would rather have pushed [...]

Minter: Ah, The Smell Of Bondo In A NASCAR Garage
Saturday, 19 Feb, 2011 – 8:30 | One Comment
Minter: Ah, The Smell Of Bondo In A NASCAR Garage

Daytona Beach, Fla. – A few random observations from a Friday at Daytona International Speedway.
First, it was refreshing to walk through the garage and get a whiff of fresh Bondo being applied to a race car. Donnie Wingo and the crew of Trevor Bayne’s No. 21 Ford were in the far end of the second [...]

Friends-And-Family Plan Put Big Bro Into The 500
Friday, 18 Feb, 2011 – 10:09 | Comments Off
Friends-And-Family Plan Put Big Bro Into The 500

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Daytona Beach, Fla. – After all the lead changes, two-car drafts, possible rules changes and everything else that went on at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday, the coolest story turned out to be one of brotherly love; or at least brotherly drafting.
Brad Keselowski pushed his older brother Brian to a [...]

Swap ‘Til You Drop Will Be Key Strategy In The 500
Thursday, 17 Feb, 2011 – 17:55 | Comments Off
Swap ‘Til You Drop Will Be Key Strategy In The 500

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Daytona Beach, Fla. – The two-car tango is still dominating the debate at Daytona, and now after Thursday’s Gatorade Duels, there’s a new term and a new strategy to study.
Veteran Bill Elliott, in the media center after racing his way into the 500 – even though he could have gotten [...]

Harvick Now Comfortable With His Black Past
Thursday, 17 Feb, 2011 – 7:24 | Comments Off
Harvick Now Comfortable With His Black Past

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Several years back, when I had a racing job that included a salary and benefits package, I drove up to Kernersville, N.C., to do a story about Kevin Harvick and his Kevin Harvick Inc. operation.
The story line I intended to pursue was how he, in many ways, was quite similar [...]