All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It’s the end of an era. Lowe’s Home Improvement, which has sponsored Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team at Hendrick Motorsports since the team came into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2001, announced on Wednesday that they would not be returning to adorn Johnson’s Chevrolet in 2019. “Working with Hendrick Motorsports, Jimmie, Chad (Knaus) and the entire No. 48 team has been an incredible journey,” said Michael P. McDermott, Lowe’s chief customer officer. “Rick Hendrick and his organization have been exceptional partners,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wraps up their venture to the West Coast this weekend as they roll into Southern California to do battle on the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Built on the site of an old steel mill featured in the movie “Terminator”, the two mile oval has been a part of the NASCAR schedule since opening in 1997. The track has gone through ownership changes throughout its history, as wellRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After going without a sponsor for the pole award over the first four weeks of the season, NASCAR announced on Wednesday that the sanctioning body has reached a multi-year agreement with Anheuser-Busch to return as the sponsor for the fastest qualifier award for the first time since 2007. The company’s Busch brand will serve as the pole award sponsor, beginning this weekend at Auto Club Speedway, as well as taking over the “Official Beer of NASCAR” moniker. “We are continuing to evolve our presence inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor If there’s one constant four races into the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, it is that Chase Elliott has been the standard bearer for Hendrick Motorsports. On Sunday at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Elliott led the way for the organization once more, bringing home a third-place finish, the best of the season for both Elliott and HMS as a whole. “We had a good car,” said Elliott. “It was solid, you know? Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made a good call there at theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor New name, still the same old Phoenix. For now. After the kickoff to the West Coast swing last weekend in Las Vegas culminated in a second straight domination by Kevin Harvick, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix this weekend to take on the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. Phoenix has resided on the Cup Series schedule since 1988, but the track looks completely different than it did 30 years ago, having undergone a reconfiguration back in 2011. The reconfiguration added progressive bankingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads into Phoenix for the second race of the West Coast swing. In this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”, we take a look back to the race that started it all in the Valley of the Sun, the 1988 Checker 500. As the series headed into Phoenix in November of 1988, Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace were locked in a championship battle that had seen Wallace gaining on Elliott’s lead over the last quarter of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The NASCAR penalty hammer has dropped on Kevin Harvick and his No. 4 team at Stewart-Haas Racing after the team’s dominating win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last Sunday. The team was found to be in violation of Sections 20.4.8.1 (Rear Window Support and Structure) and 20.4.18 (Rocker Panel Extensions) in post-race teardown at the NASCAR R&D Center. A rear window support brace was found to have failed and did not meet NASCAR specifications for keeping the rear window glass rigid at all times. Also,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Go Fas Racing and Matt DiBenedetto have found themselves in sponsorship trouble heading into Sunday’s race at ISM Raceway, but the NASCAR community has banded together to make sure they will make it to the grid for the TicketGuardian 500. Starting with a tweet from DiBenedetto on Tuesday morning, alerting the world of their predicament, the effort started picking up steam, with fellow drivers and others in the sport pitching in to help out the small team make it to the track. Though Go FasRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For all of those who participate in NASCAR, from drivers to car owners, crew chiefs, and media members, the upper echelon of the sport is earning a place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. On Tuesday, the nominating committee for the Hall of Fame announced the 20 names of those who will get their chance to be enshrined among the legends of the sport. Fifteen of the nominees are those who were carried over from last season, but there were also five new nominees lookingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start for Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team, but the seven-time champion was able to rebound to a 12th place finish. After qualifying 14th, pre-race inspection issues, which saw the team fail inspection three times, led to the ejection of car chief Jesse Saunders and forced Johnson to start the race at the back of the field. “I’ve never been in this situation,” Johnson said. “Last weekend, there wereRead More