All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After a dismal 21st place finish at Chicagoland Speedway to kick off the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, there will be a bit of a shake-up on top of the pit box for Kasey Kahne and his No. 5 team for the remainder of the season. Darian Grubb, who served as the crew chief for Tony Stewart during his 2011 championship season and is the current director of competition systems for Hendrick Motorsports, will assume the crew chief role for Kahne’s team starting nextRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Each week NASCAR Editor David Morgan will break down the top storylines from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. This week, we break down the Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Truex Shreds the Competition Martin Truex, Jr. entered the playoff opener at Chicago with four wins in his pocket, the regular season championship, and a boatload of playoff points at his disposal. Things couldn’t possibly get any better for the driver of the No. 78 Toyota, right? Well, it did. For theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Prior to Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, the first race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Joe Gibbs Racing elected to swap the pit crews between the No. 18 and No. 19 cars, giving Kyle Busch the crew that had been working with Daniel Suarez and vice versa for the crew that was working with Busch, as they moved over to service Suarez’s car for the playoffs. The swap was supposed to help Busch in his efforts to beRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For the second year in a row, the opening race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Chicagoland Speedway has been just what the doctor ordered for Chase Elliott and his No. 24 team. Heading into Chicago, just one point separated Elliott from the bottom four in the playoff standings, but when all was said and done in Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400, the 21-year old would be in a much more comfortable spot, scoring a runner-up finish when the checkered flagRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With the regular season of the NASCAR Xfinity Series drawing to a close at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday afternoon, the standings show one thing, the championship is likely to go through JR Motorsports before it is all said and done. Three of the four drivers for the team co-owned by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, and Rick Hendrick, lead the re-seeded standings and the fourth team driver is also in the playoff field, leaving open the possibility that the season finale at Homestead in NovemberRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After 16 races, the final spot in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs would come down to a tiebreaker, with the best finish of the season determining who moved on and who would be left on the outside looking in. Coming into Friday night’s race at Chicagoland Speedway, that final spot was down to two drivers, Ben Rhodes and Ryan Truex, with just seven points separating the two when the green flag flew. Though Truex had a better night overall, it was Rhodes thatRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Chicagoland Speedway for this weekend’s opening round of the playoffs, it’s time again for another edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”. Since Chicago has only been on the schedule since 2001, there are few races that really stick out in the track’s history, but one in particular sticks out above the rest. That race is the 2010 Lifelock.com 400, which saw a multi-time champion get bested by an underdog. Jimmie Johnson started on the outside of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With William Byron departing for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the season, JR Motorsports had a vacancy in their fourth team car for 2018 that they needed to fill. On Thursday, it was announced that Tyler Reddick would fill that vacancy after signing a multi-year deal with the team. “This is an amazing opportunity for me,” Reddick said. “Having the chance to race full-time with an organization like JR Motorsports is something I’ve worked toward my entire life. It’s aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After 26 regular season races to set the 16-driver field, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Chicagoland Speedway for the opening salvo of the playoffs and Sunday’s 17th annual running of the Tales of the Turtles 400. As one of the newer tracks on the circuit, having joined in 2001, the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway finds itself front and center as the playoffs begin. The track, which only hosts the Cup Series once each season, boasts banking of 18 degrees as well as aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With Silly Season in full force, another domino fell on Tuesday as Danica Patrick announced that she will not be returning to the driver’s seat of the No. 10 Ford and Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018. Patrick’s contract with SHR went through 2018, but was contingent on her having sponsorship to be able to continue with the team. As the weeks and months have gone along, it became more and more likely that sponsorship opportunities were not lining up for Patrick and her future with SHRRead More