NASCAR jargon and language can be quite daunting for fans who are just watching NASCAR for the first few times or the initial time in their NASCAR lives. We’re going to talk about a few of the words and language used in NASCAR that you might have heard around the pit or on TV, to give you a better understanding of some of the jargon and language floating around the world of NASCAR.

NASCAR language and jargon for the new NASCAR fan

You might have seen a large convoy of extra large trucks pull into a NASCAR track before the race, often it will have NASCAR’s that are viewable as it enters the track. These vehicles are transporters for each of the race teams’ two cars, a main and a backup, incase of problems. In addition, these vehicles are the storage garage for parts and tools to repair an entire NASCAR, and a place for the team to unwind.

Racers must change their driving techniques to work in combination with their race cars, which usually changes as a race progress, making their cars either tight or loose. Tight cars are hard to turn and the driver will have to ease-off the accelerator while turning, to slow the car and allow him to steer easier. Teams and drivers usually adjust things like the tire pressure, spring stiffness and chassis weight distribution in order to correct this problem. A race car that is loose, turns too easily, which can tend to make a race car fishtail. Once again, teams will make adjustments to the chassis, tires and springs to correct this problem and give the driver more control and thus greater speed. Confidence breeds speed in NASCAR and a driver who is comfortable with their car is going to run faster and be more successful.

Variables like track temperature and tire wear play important roles in how a NASCAR reacts to the driver during a race and the control a driver has over their ride. Small factors, like the amount of tape over a NASCAR’s grill can change the way a race car handles during a race. Juggling all the factors involved in a fast race car is what the best drivers and racers in NASCAR do better than others, and is often the difference between a champion and runner-up.

The next time you hear any of these words you will have a better idea of their significance in the race you’re watching and this knowledge should increase the entertainment you receive from watching NASCAR. See you at the track!

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NASCAR fans and professionals both have been waiting for the anticipated arrival of the new rulebook for the Nationwide Series, which was expected in June, but has been delayed due to facts that haven’t been made public. This rulebook will define the new car for the Nationwide Series, but is still apparently under review, as they finalize all the fine details. The future of the Nationwide Series is on the line, as this rulebook will lay the ground for all the future races in the Nationwide Series, so they need to make sure they get it right.

NASCAR is working on a new rulebook and car for the Nationwide Series

It’s expected that NASCAR won’t release the new rulebook until they have had time to meet with the owners and teams. There are probably several options they need to run past the owners and teams and want to make sure they have their input. The worsening economy could be having an effect on the final look of the rulebook, and the delays with the rulebook and the introduction of the new car, which had originally been scheduled for August 2010, but was recently delayed by NASCAR, until 2011.

Industry and media sources indicate that it’s most likely that a partial roll out of the new car will be introduced sometime next year at Talladega and Daytona and road courses Watkins Glen and Montreal, but things could always change again.

Like the rulebook, however, the introduction of the Nationwide car hasn’t been finalized, so change could be in the rule of the day as far as the dates and final look of the car is concerned. We do know that Ford and Dodge have both decided to run versions of their Mustang and Challenger muscle cars as their Nationwide entries. Chevrolet still resists running their muscle car, the Camaro, and will instead run the Impala SS, the same car it runs in the Cup series. They have been resisting pressure by NASCAR of late to use their Camaro muscle car in the Nationwide Series, but have continued to state that they will not be using the Camaro anytime soon in the Nationwide Series.

Joey Logano must feel like the dark skies that had been around him have parted and he can finally see the sun, as after a season that has seen the 19 year old racer ride ups and downs, he finally captured his first win of the season in a rain shortened affair at New Hampshire’s Motor Speedway at Loudon.

Joey Logano has NASCAR's greats in his sights

Nervous minutes before Joey Logano had been sitting against his No. 20 race car, trying to look cool and collected as he waited to hear if he was going to capture his first win due to the intervention of Mother Nature. The gathering crowd around Joey Logano and the No. 20 pit box was restless as the cars sat on pit road under a red flag waiting for the storm to begin, and they didn’t wait long.

Sunday was about Joey Logano though, a racer who has battled through a rookie season that has been far from easy on a racer who is probably getting use to getting there by the tough route. A young racer who earned the somewhat auspicious nickname of “Sliced Bread” for his exploits in NASCAR’s support series. Sunday’s victory marks only the fourth time in seventeen starts this season that Joey has been able to crack the top ten and what a way and place to accomplish the feat.

New Hampshire, the track where he witnessed his first Cup race as a fan, where he drove to victory in developmental series races, and the place he made his debut in the major league of racing. A humbling and frustrating 32^nd place-debut that made him realize he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to win. Sunday though was his day, his first of many to come if he has his way, but a triumphant homecoming that no one really expected, especially with his early problems in the race.

One thing for sure about this 19 year old racing fanatic, he’s going to surprise at times, and has always been a bit of a wild card. We can look forward to him providing us with amazing thrills and a few spills over his career and maybe a few years from now, we’ll be talking about him as one of the best. This is one of the best things about NASCAR; you just never know whose going to rise to the top of the ladder.

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Ron Hornaday looked strong and fast in winning his second straight race Saturday in the MemphisTravel.com 200 held at Memphis Motorsports Park in Memphis, Tennessee. He smiled brightly and wrapped his hand quickly around the Elvis Trophy like he was starting to get use to it. Starting on the pole again with a qualifying lap of 117.7 mph, the dominance of his No. 33 Chevrolet was evident from the beginning, and he and his team are surely back at the garage to try to make sure nothing changes with their truck.

Ron Hornaday wins second straight truck race

Hornaday grabbed the lead at the start and never looked like he was going to give it up, until a smart pit stop put Brian Scott briefly in the lead. Scott was able to stay in front of Hornaday for 18 of the next laps, until Hornaday dropped inside of Scott in Turn 1 of Lap 135. The pair raced side by side up the track until they reached Turn 3, when Hornaday was able drive to the inside of a lapped truck and grab the advantage over Scott, who had to try to take the outside lane. In the final analysis Hornaday lead for 180 of the 200 laps, including 108 of the first 114, a truly dominant driving performance that must have his competition worried he’s going to run away with the 2009 season. This third win of the season expands Hornaday’s lead to 76 points over Matt Crafton, gives him 42 career wins in the series, which is tops all-time in the history of the series.

Brian Scott should hold his head high; he had a good race, but lost to the best in the business at the moment, and has a lot to look forward to in the future. He certainly had his problems with lapped traffic that slowed him down, but then this is where the experience and skill come in. Hornaday looked faster all day, and Scott probably wouldn’t have been able to stay in front of Hornaday, even if he hadn’t been slowed by traffic.

David Starr finished third, Aric Almirola fourth, while Matt Crafton finished in fifth position. Mike Skinner took sixth place, Timothy Peters seventh, Johnny Sauter eighth, Colin Brawn ninth, and the top ten was completed by Todd Bodine.

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Tired of doing all the work the last few races, only to finish out of first place, Kyle Busch decided to take a different route to victory in Saturday’s Camping World RV Sales 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. Instead of jumping out in front and setting the pace at the Magic Mile, Kyle Busch decided he didn’t need to lead the majority of the laps to win the race. Kyle Busch has lead the majority of the laps in his last eight races, but only managed to win two. In fact, all he really had to do was be the first over the finish line, and if he saved his finishing surge until the right moment he might have a better chance of being the first to the line.

Kyle Busch wins the Camping World RV Sales 200

Staying back in the pack and letting others set the pace turned out to be the recipe for success, as he waited for the last green flag to make his attack. Slipping in behind his Joe Gibbs team mate Joey Logano, he waited for his chance and then made his pass for the lead on Lap 165 of the scheduled 200. Staying in front of Logano in the corners and out of the straight stretches, Busch was able to put a little road between him and Logano, until the final ten laps. Pulling up behind Busch’s No. 18 Toyota as he was trying to fight his way through lapped traffic, Logano was able to stay on Busch’s bumper until the final lap, when Busch was able to pull away, and eventually beat his team mate to the line by 0.617 seconds. The win was Kyle Busch’s 26^th career win in the series, which puts him fifth best all-time, just behind Jeff Burton.

Brad Keselowski finished strong and took third place; Mike Bliss was right on Keselowski’s bumper, while Kevin Harvick drove home in fifth in his own No. 33 Chevrolet. Carl Edwards had a tough day but managed sixth, Greg Biffle was steady and finished seventh, Scott Speed finished eighth, Erik Darnell took ninth, and the top ten was rounded out by Jason Leffler.

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Kasey Kahne had a hard time finding Victory Lane after winning Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. It has been awhile since the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge had to find its way to the winners circle and Kahne had to ask for directions to find the crowd of fans and industry professionals waiting to pay homage to the latest winner of the 2009 NASCAR season.

Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350

Kahne had to fight off early challenges by the field, but once he got up to speed the quality of his ride and driving skill started to take over. He had to fight-off a late charge by road-course guru Tony Stewart through a series of double-file restarts at the end of the race, the last time due to Scott Speed’s disastrous spin during Lap 108, and just beat Stewart to the line to take the win. This was just one of seven caution flags of the day that was filled with bangs and crashes on the track and a few off the track as well. This was Kasey’s first win of the 2009 Sprint Cup NASCAR season and the tenth in his short career, but certainly not his last.

Marcos Ambrose had a good run, he had difficulty in the opening laps, but after beginning at the rear due to the changing of an engine, he was able to chase down the leaders for third, and if the race had been a few more laps the ending might have been a little different.

Jimmie Johnson had a difficult day, he had to recover from a speeding penalty in pit lane that put him behind but after battling through to the end, he was able to take fourth place. Denny Hamlin lead in Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 for 33 laps of the race, which was second to Kasey Kahne’s 37 laps in the lead, but had a few problems near the end of the race and finished fifth. Juan Montoya had a difficult day but managed to finish sixth, A. J. Allmendinger ran at a steady speed to take seventh, Clint Bowyer managed eighth. Jeff Gordon had a few problems getting through the field and finished ninth, while Elliot Sadler finished up the top ten in the Toyota/SaveMart 350 held at Infineon Raceway on Sunday afternoon.

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Drivers in NASCAR often finish one race and then jump in a plane and head off to another NASCAR competition at another track. They burn their candle on both ends, trying to race and win as much as possible, and are often very successful at this kind of endeavour.

Carl Edwards wins the Northern Tool.com 250

This is just the scenario that allowed Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards to drive to victory Saturday night in the Nationwide Series Northern Tool.com 250 held at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin. Edwards had earlier in the day competed and practiced with his Cup Series car at Infineon Raceway but was able to fight off fatigue and the field to eventually grab the lead from Joe Gibb’s Racing’s Kyle Busch with a pass on Lap 205 to take the win.

Kyle Busch started the race strong, and was able to stay in front for the majority of the race, but wasn’t able to hold the fast-running Edwards off, and gave the lead up with just fifty laps remaining. It looked like the field might get a chance to catch up to Edwards after the second of two cautions during the last 50 laps of the race. But he was able to stay in front of his chasers, and eventually pulled away near the end to easily take the flag in his first Nationwide win of the 2009 season, just ahead of Busch.

Edwards was seen to be extremely energized by the win and stated that “It’s really cool to get that first win. Hopefully, it kicks off the rest of his season like it did last year.”

Edward’s comment is referring to his win at the Milwaukee Mile in 2008, which kicked off a truly impressive second half run for Edwards, with him winning seven times in the last 19 races of the year. The question now is, can he achieve this again or better it?

Brad Keselowski finished third in the Northern Tool.com 250, Erik Darnell took fourth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fifth, while Steve Wallace took sixth. Mike Bliss finished seventh, Stephen Leicht eighth, Ron Hornaday took ninth, and the top ten was rounded out by Jason Leffler.

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Ron Hornaday will probably be wishing for rain every time he’s scheduled to race at Milwaukee on a Friday night, as re-scheduling the Copart 200 Camping World Truck Series race to Saturday resulted in the Kevin Harvick Inc. racer dominating from start to finish on his 51^st birthday. His truck ran beautifully around the track and appeared to be running a lot better than his competitors, who were having their problems. His crew chief Rick Ren decided to make a few changes after Friday’s practice session that definitely helped improve the truck’s performance and helped lift Hornaday above his competition on Saturday.

Ron Hornaday wins the Copart 200

Truly a cool day for this young-at-heart competitor, who when asked about his age commented, “I’m in my 50s, now, I guess.”

The victory was the 41^st career Camping World Truck win for Hornaday and his second win of the 2009 Camping World Truck Series and at Milwaukee, where he won in 1997. Ron was in front of the pack for 180 of the scheduled 200 laps around Milwaukee and he was one second ahead of second place finisher Dennis Setzer at the end.

The race started with Hornaday grabbing the lead from Matt Crafton on the third lap and then increasing his lead with every lap, until Aric Almirola’s disastrous spin on lap 127. Hornaday used the caution provided by Aric’s spin to pit and prepare his No. 33 Chevrolet to run the final laps. Hornaday was fast enough to stay on the lead lap after his pit and then when the seven racers in the lead pitted, Hornaday was back in the lead.

Hornaday continued to lead until a late caution flag brought the field back together for a restart with only 8 laps remaining in the race. He jumped ahead after the green flag fell and stayed ahead of Dennis Seltzer for the final 8 of laps. This win puts Hornaday 36 points ahead of Crafton for the series lead, with half the season left to go.

Brian Scott finished third in the Copart 200, Todd Bodine took fourth, and James Buescher was able to finish fifth. Stacy Compton finished sixth, Tayler Malsam took seventh place, Colin Braun was able to take eighth, David Starr was in ninth, and the top ten was rounded out by Terry Cook in his Toyota.

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NASCAR is a sport that has a language and jargon all its own, a collection of treasured and much-used terms that are routinely used and understood by all in the business. We’re going to talk about a few words that are specific to NASCAR, to provide you with a better understanding of just what someone is referring too when they use these words.

NASCAR language

Back Marker: Back marker is a term that refers to a car running off-the-pace at the back of the field, which is not a desirable position for any driver and team.

Balance: If a car goes around a race track like it’s on train tracks and doesn’t tend to over-steer or under-steer, then it’s referred to as being in balance.

Camber: Camber is a word that refers to the angle at which a tire makes contact with the surface it’s running on. “Positive camber” means the angle of the tire is leaning away from the centerline while “negative camber” would mean the angle is tilted toward the centerline.

Camshaft: A word referring to a rotating shaft inside the powerplant that opens and closes an engines intake and exhaust valves.

Chassis: This word refers to the floorboard, interior, and roll cage of a race car, which together are referred too as the Chassis.

Chassis Roll: When a race car goes around a banked corner at high speed, the forces exerted on the car are greater on the part of the car on the outside part of the track. This results in an upward and downward motion of the car as it moves around the corner at high speed which is called Chassis Roll.

Dirty Air: The lead car in a race uses air and then throws it away; air like this is referred too as dirty air.

Downforce: Air traveling over the surface of a race car as it travels down the track exerts a downward force upon the surface of the car, this force is called downforce. Designers try to increase this downward force to increase tire grip and thus allow a car to travel faster through the corner.

These quick definitions should make watching NASCAR a lot more fun and the next time you read or hear these NASCAR words you should have a better idea of their significance and the subject being discussed.

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Have you ever noticed how sometimes something wonderful falls right in your lap during an activity when it wasn’t your actual goal? Mark Martin has probably experienced this before, so when his plans to try for a top five finish in Sunday’s LifeLock 400 turned into a victory lap, he might not have been as surprised as a younger driver. This didn’t stop him from expressing his joy to the world in a bright smile that certainly speaks miles about his opinion about his good fortune and the final result at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.

Mark Martin looks as stunned at his victory as the other drivers

Fuel conservation again played a pivotal role in the final standings in the race as race leaders Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle misjudged the amount of fuel they had used during their battle and ran out of fuel in the final two miles of the scheduled 400 miles. Mark Martin on the other hand had been in fuel-conservation mode for a large part of the race, which included turning off cooling fans and units in order to save fuel, and resulted in his car having enough fuel to complete the last 44 laps. He crossed the line just 2.992 seconds ahead of Jeff Gordon, who also had enough gas to complete the race due to fuel conservation.

This victory was Mark Martin’s 38^th career win and moved him through the pack from 13^th to 8^th position in the series standings, just 321 points behind series leader Tony Stewart, who managed to finish seventh on Sunday. This is the third victory of the 2009 Sprint Cup season for Mark Martin’s No. 5 V Chevrolet tying him with Kyle Busch for the Cup Series lead.

Jimmie Johnson, who managed to lead the race for 146 laps and twice built up leads of more then seven seconds, managed to coast into the pit. After refueling, he drove around Martin’s car and crossed the finish line in 22^nd position.

Denny Hamlin finished third, just ahead of Carl Edwards in fourth, and Greg Biffle who grabbed fifth position, despite running out of fuel on the backstretch of the final lap. Juan Montoya finished sixth, Tony Stewart took seventh, Kurt Busch managed eighth, Brian Vickers survived to finish ninth, and the top ten was filled out by Clint Bowyer.

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