After everything was all said and down, fans were not particularly happy about the conclusion of the All-Star Race, that saw Jimmie Johnson to sandbag his way to a cool and crisp one million dollar payout.

Fans voiced their opinions on social media stating their displeasure for the final segment. They also voiced their displeasure towards Johnson's ride-in-the-back strategy.

The conclusion notwithstanding, NASCAR did a great job executing out the first four segments. They produced some of the best racing of the season, with new contenders like Dale Earnhardt Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, and Marcos Ambrose all leading laps. The parity was at restrictor plate race levels.

After the first four segments came the infamous final segment, which also included a mandatory pit stop.

Personally, I did not understand the reasoning behind this rule. Everyone knew that the four segment winners were either going to get a splash of gas or stop-and-go.

Even though the race didn't end the way fans hoped for, changes to the format happen every year (which is good news for the fans who hated this years version). The million dollar question now on everyones mind is this. What format changes are going to be implemented for the 2013 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race?

I say NASCAR should leave the 4 segments alone The segments were very exciting and very enjoyable. They just need to find a way to make the final segment just as exciting as the first four segments. SB Nation NASCAR Editor Jeff Gluck said that the All-Star Race would be perfect if the segment winners were lined up like this. Segment 4 and 3 winners are the front row, and Segment 2 and 1 winners were in the 2nd row. In other words, Earnhardt Jr and Kesoloweski would make the front row, and Kenseth and Johnson make the 2nd row.

I don't necessarily disagree with Jeff, but I think NASCAR should make everyone pit for four tires and fuel by having the winner of the 4th segment come in first, 3rd segment winner comes in 2nd, and so on. It should be mandatory that everyone takes 4 tires and fuel. It makes no sense for the segment leaders to come into their pit stalls just to go right back out with no adjustments or anything. It almost cost Dale Earnhardt Jr as he almost hit Ryan Newman and Mark Martin coming out of his pit stall.

Overall, the All-Star Race is good. However, it needs a bit more work added on to make it perfect.

What are your thoughts about the All-Star Race format? What should NASCAR do to make the race better?

So Twitter is partnering with NASCAR, like I didn't see that coming. Two years ago I wrote about the advantage NASCAR fans have through social media over other sports and their fans.

“Social media and Twitter in particular will be vital to the growth of our sport,” said NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Steve Phelps. “This sport is founded on access to the drivers. Twitter is a great opportunity for our fans to get closer to the activity and drivers. We are the first league that Twitter has chosen to partner with. It is going to provide a great complement to our race broadcast for our fans and a great behind-the-scenes look for our fans.”

It is nice to see the 140-character at a time form of social media jump on board with NASCAR. Twitter offers an interaction between fans, teams, drivers, and members of the media that no other sport can provide it's fans. I mean look what happened back in February when Brad Keselowski decided to pass his time during a red flag stop in the Daytona 500 by 'Tweeting' what was going on from his point of view.

His actions alone gained him more than 100,000 new 'followers', and gained NASCAR more attention in both traditional media and social media circles.

“I think Twitter has a large effect on myself personally and the sport,” said Keselowski. “It is a great opportunity to combine technology and give more access to our fan base. I get on Twitter and I love to tweet. The best of that was being in Daytona and tweeting during the race. It was something out of the ordinary. I love that opportunity to connect with a larger fan base than what I can meet in one day. It’s just amazing the type of passion fans have. It’s such a positive thing for the sport.”

It is this fan advantage that NASCAR has over more traditional stick and ball sports that attracted Twitter to NASCAR as Omid Ashtari, head of Sports and Entertainment for Twitter, stated during today's press conference;

“NASCAR has some of the most passionate fans in all of motorsports, and we want to be able to bring those fans closer to the race,” Ashtari said. “Twitter gives fans all around the world the opportunity to get close to the drivers and teams they love. Some of the best examples we have seen are Brad Keslowski during the Daytona 500. It was a very unique moment for all of us. It gave the fans a different perspective and unique angle they haven’t seen before. Another favorite example was recently when 12 drivers went to the White House, and Jimmie Johnson tweeted a picture of Dale Jr. trying to tie his tie as they were headed to the White House.”

For those of you who aren't in the conversation yet you can join us at Twitter by using hashtag #NASCAR.

- this story was created using portions of press release from Charlotte Motorspeedway Public Relations

Wishing all of you a great Mother's Day from the staff at NASCAR RnR.

Kansas Speedway is in need of a repave. The racing surface of the eleven year old track has become somewhat a patchwork of sealant and rectangular tar surface mends.

The intermediate track is owned by International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and was opened in 2001 with Jeff Gordon winning the first Cup race that September.

Kansas Speedway was built in the fan friendly D-shape design. Although the D-shape design of the track allows better viewing angles for spectators sitting in the stands the fans have slowly become disenchanted with these types of racing facilities giving them the nickname 'cookie cutter' tracks because they are all the same in appearance with little variation in basic design.

Most of the tracks built from the mid 1990's to the mid 2000's were based on the same D-shape design. Even though each of these 'cookie cutter' tracks vary in banking and radius of their turns they all appear to be the same to the average NASCAR fan almost to the point where fans tuning in on Sunday don't know which track their NASCAR superheros are racing at until it is flashed across the screen or the announcer happens to mention the track's name.

The problem for the fan is that these D-shaped ovals like Kansas appear to have no individuality and most of these fans are tired of seeing the same type of racing week in and week out with what seems to be the same drivers who have mastered these 1.5 mile tracks winning each week.

The problem for drivers is that no matter the degree of banking or the radius of the turns the cars on the track all seem to have the same problem while racing each other for position, the dreaded aero push. With D-shaped 'cookie-cutter' ovals the cars are essentially in a corner for about two-thirds of the 1.5 mile lap and no matter how different each track may be in it's banking and turn radius's you just can't get rid of the areo push that drivers experience.

Drafting is a good way to gain speed and cut fuel mileage while racing in a straight line, but once you get into the corners the air you didn't want on the nose of your car on the straightaway you want back. What happens is that "the trailing car suffers a reduction of downforce on its front tires, resulting in a loss of stability and handling" (via howstuffworks.com) and since these 'cookie cutter' tracks are mostly corners it makes it very hard for drivers to pass the cars in front of them.

This is why it is hard to pass and why teams spend an abundant amount of time developing the areo packages for their cars and why you see the same cars winning at these types of tracks - those who spend the most, win the most!

Continue reading this post »

I don't know about you but I've been both interested and disinterested in the races at the beginning to this NASCAR season. I've been interested because the regular front runners seem to be struggling to stay in the top 10 yet I've been disinterested because I've found the races to not be that exciting.

Its not that I'm looking for huge crashes and stuff of the like but lately I've found that the races seem to hold my attention a little less than in the past. I can't quite place my finger on it, but I'm sure it might be due to the lack of East Coast races at the start of this season. Aside from Daytona, Bristol, and Martinsville the rest of the races (including this week's race at Kansas) have been out of the EST.

Perhaps this why there were so many empty seats at Bristol, lack of fan interest because the lion's share of races thus far have all been more west. Perhaps if there were a few more races in the EST then more people would be interested in going to the races because they would have been following it more. I mean three of the first 8 races have been on the east coast while the other five races have been west of the Mississippi.

Besides my complaint about the lack of races on the east coast I've been interested in several story lines that have emerged so far this season. In no particular order;

• The rise of MWR as a top 10 contender
• The fact that Dale Jr is sitting 3rd in points
• The fact that The Biff leads the points
• Stewart Haas has won almost half of the points races so far this year
• The struggles of Johnson, Gordon, Edwards, and The Kez
• The fact that despite having two less starts than those around him in the points Mark Martin is sitting in 20th - the next driver who has fewer than 7 starts is Travis Kvapil who has 6 starts and sits 34th in points
• The reversal of fines and penalties of the 48 car and crew members after the car failed pre-race inspection at Daytona

These are more of the significant story lines I've been interested in, there's been more but these are the big ones that stand out for me. How about you? Do you agree with me or not? What do you think has been the most interesting story so far this year?

Also, would you agree with me about the interest level? Would you be following the Cup Series a little more if they had more races on the East coast than on the west coast? Let's hear what you have to say - speak up!

I'll be blunt. Nelson Piquet Jr. was shafted in Sunday's Camping World Truck Series race at Rockingham.

I don't understand how so little was made of this so let's reconstruct the scene. Piquet, the former Formula 1 star, had led 107 laps from the pole, and left his final pit stop in second behind Kasey Kahne.

However, Piquet Jr., who chose the final and ideally advantageous pit stall, was ticketed for going too fast exiting. As a result, Piquet was sent to the tail-end of the longest line and ultimately rallied to finish seventh over the last 20 laps.

So how could this happen? Isn't the advantage of choosing the last pit stall that Piquet would be exempt from the timing lines? That's typically the case but not at Rockingham where NASCAR gave Speed TV the last stall for a camera mount, relegating Piquet to the second pit stall.

This completely negated the polesitter's advantage. While Piquet had a clear exit, so did several others with over ten trucks start and parking or getting involved in early accidents. So Piquet's hard-earned advantage was relegated to next to nothing.

The least NASCAR could have done was back the timing line up to Piquet's stall to reflect the traditional position of a pit road.

Of course, Piquet ultimately committed the crime and he paid the price. He and his team were notified of the location of the timing lines and it was up to Piquet to adjust accordingly. It was a rookie mistake and it cost him the opportunity to capture his first victory.

It's just a shame that there's an asterisk, regardless of how slight it may be.

It would seem that Clint Bowyer isn't going to win over any Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon fans right now. During the restart of the Green-White-Checkered at Martinsville this weekend Bowyer, on fresh tires, dove under the Jeff Gordon while he was battling Jimmie Johnson, both of whom were on older tires, for the lead.

What happened next changed the course of the race.

Bowyer bounced off of the curb and right into the side of Gordon's car who then slid up into Johnson and sent him spinning into the wall. Gordon then came back down and took out Bowyer sending him looping out of Turn Two.

Ryan Newman just happened to be at the right place at the right time and took the lead after the leaders were wrecking in turns one and two.

But was Newman really a positive recipient of the Bowyer mistake or was he an active participant?

You see, Newman actually peaked under Bowyer on the re-start and when Bowyer moved down to block him Newman bumped into his rear end propelling Bowyer a little into the corner a little faster than he wanted to go and the rest, as they say, is history.

So, is it justified that Bowyer takes all of the blame for the carnage that took out half of the Hendrick racing organiztion and damaging another quarter (Dale Jr actually got some damage on the right side of his car as Gordon careened off of Bowyers car into his)?

According to Newman it is;

"Clint put 'em three-wide, bounced off the curb and jumped up into 'em, from what I saw. That's what caused everything. I was going to make a run on Clint to do the same thing he was trying to do to Jeff. But Clint blocked me and I hit him right at the start-finish line and that kind of propelled him up to where he got up into the 24 car once they got to the corner. It worked out to my favor. I mean, it wasn't intended to be that way -- but it definitely worked out to my favor."

Personally I think this should be looked at as just another racing incident, which isn't that uncommon at Martinsville. I mean Gordon and Johnson both had used tires on while Bowyer didn't. Newman tried to make a move on Bowyer and he blocked Newman. Newman hit Bowyer who as a result bounced off of the curb right into Gordon who then bounced off of Bowyer into Johnson.

Just another racing incident if you ask me, nothing more and nothing less.

What are your thoughts?