Last week, a lot of things happened in Charlotte in the world of NASCAR. None of them on-track, mind you, but people talked, the word “excited” was used, used some more, and then used even more than that.
Thing is, the word “excited” may not have been the first word on NASCAR fans’ minds upon confirmation of last week’s biggest news, the Chase for the Sprint Cup changes to include expansion to 16 teams and elimination after the third, sixth, and ninth races.
Still, we had MotorSportsTalk’s Jerry Bonkowski on site in Charlotte to recap all the happenings (he wrote all posts below except the ones listed in parentheses). Here’s a rundown of everything from the teams, drivers and NASCAR sanctioning body in the last week, in case you missed any of it.
- AJ Allmendinger ready to make the most of second chance with new team
- NASCAR reveals 2014 Drive for Diversity class (Tony DiZinno)
- NASCAR must make sure new 16-driver Chase sticks (Chris Estrada)
- Give new Chase for Sprint Cup format a chance
- Breaking down the new changes to the Chase for the Sprint Cup
- Full transcript of NASCAR chairman Brian France’s announcement of changes to Chase for Sprint Cup format
- SportsDash: NASCAR stars on looming Chase changes (DiZinno)
- NASCAR welcomes 2014 Hall of Fame induction class
- Brad Keselowski ready to prove 2012 championship was not a fluke
- Danica Patrick, the Picasso of NASCAR?
- Richard Petty not convinced likely changes to Chase for Sprint Cup will help
- Hard to believe: Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns 40 this year — wants to send Steve Letarte out as a winner
- Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. like expected changes to Chase
- Kyle Larson ready to show he has what it takes in Sprint Cup in 2014
- Count Danica Patrick out of Indy 500 — but not Kurt Busch, AJ Allmendinger
- NASCAR team owner Gene Haas still hopeful of building U.S.-based F1 team