Ray Alfalla led Tyler Hudson by two points going into the season ending race at Homestead Miami. In a season without a chase-style playoff system, two competitors can't be much more evenly matched. But when the race was over, the drivers got bubbly from their kitchen instead of victory lane, because neither of them…

NASCAR, commonly derided as turning left for 400 miles, does feature a couple of road courses in its top circuit. Reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski has had unusual success at one of them, Watkins Glen International, and he attributes it all to playing a PC video game as a teenager.

Because of their high fidelity physics and the crude way in which a standard console controller is equipped to handle them, motorsports simulations may be the most demanding genre of any video game. When I fired up NASCAR the Game: Inside Line, rather than jump straight into my career I tried to repeat a moment from…

Brad Keselowski, the current No. 1 driver in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series, and winner in two of its first three postseason Chase for the Cup events, met his match on Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. when Josh Bralley of Hickory, N.C. outgunned him to the finish in Activision's NASCAR The Game: Inside…

We've featured Joey Logano, the driver who races the No. 20 GameStop Toyota in NASCAR's Nationwide Series, several times before. He's had some awesome car wraps before, hoods dedicated to Bioshock 2 or Red Dead Redemption—things that still look a little strange turning left at 120 mph.

Why, you'd play video games on it, just like NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. did at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. As website Joystiq points out, it took 57 workers four months to complete the 332.5 ton, 720p screen, which is comprised of 9 million LEDs.

Most single men don't pay much attention to which brand of laundry detergent they buy, beyond whatever's cheapest. But back in North Carolina, I had a friend who was adamant about using Tide and could identify others who used it by their scent.

Earlier this week Eutechnyx, the studio behind NASCAR's revival on console gaming, delayed NASCAR 2011 to March 29. Then word passed that the racing series will refining its championship points structure for the next season. Were the two related?

Let's thank the crew behind the Activision Eutechnyx NASCAR 2011 The Game Lowe's GoDaddy Cheerios Impala. They gave us some super box art that run real good today. The game releases March 29, part of a sportspocalypse month in gaming.

The motto of Jimmie Johnson, who clinched his fifth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championship last month, is "Anything With An Engine." With dumpsters, coffins and lawnmowers, this upcoming arcade racer bearing his name takes that to an illogical extreme.

NASCAR The Game 2011 dropped another 22 names of drivers (and their crew chiefs) who've licensed the use of their images in the game. There's a lady driver on this list, but it's not Danica Patrick.

Another five screens for NASCAR The Game 2011, due next year from Eutechnyx and Activision, show off the wear and tear on the cars, walls, and pavement - such as the patch job at Phoenix International Raceway.

Just to screw with you, GameStop's put Gran Turismo 5, which was originally planned to release on Tuesday, on the hood of Joey Logan's No. 20 Toyota for tomorrow's O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway. Seen via GoJoeyLogano.com

The flaps go up to keep Jeff Gordon from going airborne in this new batch of screenshots for NASCAR 2011: The Game, due next year from Eutechnyx and Activision.

Thing about Joey Logano, driver of NASCAR's No. 20 GameStop Toyota, is when he pits for a splash of gas and two driver's side tires he trades in the used ones for $6.75 in store credit. (/laugh track)

Alcohol references of any type usually mean an ESRB rating stricter than E. This isn't new to NASCAR games. But it's amusing to see Kurt Busch, driver of the Miller Lite No. 2. get his own brand of beer.

Not sure what the point is of a site countdown when the game is confirmed and, today, 15 screens for NASCAR 2011: The Game were get put up on the new site. But that countdown's still a-tickin' anyhow.

As was rumored last week, Activision will publish a NASCAR-licensed game and racing-focused studio Eutechnyx will be building it, according to an official site launched today with a countdown clock that hits zero in five days.

Gamasutra this week reported that NASCAR - whose 12-year run with EA Sports ended in 2008 - will return next year under Activision and the developer Eutechnyx, known for its focus on racing games.