SPORTS SHORTS

4 Lesser-Known Records Held by Richard Petty By Brian H Cotnoir No disrespect to Elvis Pressley, but there's only one man worthy of the title "The King", and his name is Richard Petty!  The King's 85th Birthday is fast approaching (July 2nd) and even 30 years after his final start in NASCAR he still holds his Lionshare of records in NASCAR.   Everyone knows Richard still holds the untouchable mark of 200 Career wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, 123 Career Poles, 7 Cup Series Championships and 7 Daytona 500 Championships, and of course his dominant 1967 season where he won 27 races--including a record 10 in a row!  Many of Richard Petty's Records will never be broken, and I have found several records of his that will also never be broken. 1.)  Most wins at the same track During his illustrious career Richard Petty dominated many tracks.   He won at the Historic Martinsville Speedway an astounding 15 times!  Petty scored his 2nd career win at the Paperclip track Now re

The Closest Thing We've Had Since Dale Earnhardt  By Brian H Cotnoir Since his tragic death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 there has been a void, of sorts, in NASCAR.   Dale Earnhardt Sr., a legendary driver in his own right, took on an almost mythical status following his death, and continues to grow with each passing year.   Many drivers have come and gone since then, but no one will ever replace the Intimidator, but there is one driver I've seen on track that reminds me quite a bit of Dale, and it's a man with an equally as awesome nickname: "The Outlaw", Kurt Busch. As of the posting, but of this article Kurt Busch is last driver to have driven in the Cup Series with Dale Earnhardt, and just like Earnhardt he's the son of a race car driver, a Cup Series Champion, and had a reputation on the track that was unmatched by anyone else.  There are other reasons I think why Kurt Busch is the closest thing we've had to Earnhardt, but before I go furt

In Brian Vickers By Brian H Cotnoir All right let's address the elephant in the room: Brian Vickers wife, Sarah, was a special assistant to Ghislane Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend.   That connection enough would be career suicide for anyone ( pun intended ).  As far as everyone's concerned, this relationship had no effect on his NASCAR driving career (his broadcasting career definitely, but not his driving career) So what happened to Vickers driving career?  That's a fairly complicated answer too. Vickers NASCAR career began in 2001 driving for his father, Clyde.  Running part-time, Vickers best finish was a 7th place finish at Richmond in 2002.   In 2003, he earned the opportunity of a lifetime when he was tabbed to replace Ricky Hendrick in the #5 car in the then Busch Grand National Series.  After some initial growing pains with his new team, Vickers finally found his footing winning three races.  At the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Vickers playe

 5 Times Drivers got SCREWED out of a win By Brian H Cotnoir If there's one thing in racing that pisses me off, it's seeing a driver (or team) get absolutely screwed out of a win because of some B.S. call or "rule infraction".  It's something that happens in every racing league from your local short track to top echelons of motorsports.  It's wrong, and it can be a huge turn off to lifetime fans of the sport.   There are probably more moments than I ever realized, but let's just start with these five. 1.)  Regan Smith at Talladega 2008 I already talked about this in my defense of Regan Smith article, but I will repeat what I said: NASCAR screwed Regan Smith out of his first career win at Talladega Super Speedway in 2008.   NASCAR implemented the controversial Double-Yellow line rule in an attempt to eliminate unsafe or highly risky passes at Daytona and Talladega.  The rule stated you could not pass below the Double Yellow Line to advance your position and