All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Now that the 2017 NASCAR season is complete and the year is drawing to a close, we’ll take this opportunity to take a look back at the year that was. Today, we’ll tackle Part One of the 10 most memorable moments of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Calls it a Career After 18 seasons behind the wheel in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. hung up his helmet at the end of the 2017 season, retiring fromRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After sponsoring Brendan Gaughan for the past six years at Richard Childress Racing, South Point Hotel and Casino, which is owned by the Gaughan family, will shift their sponsorship to Daniel Hemric for the entire 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule. With Gaughan stepping aside from full-time racing, Hemric’s No. 21 team becomes the beneficiary of the sponsorship as he enters his sophomore season in the series. “RCR and the Gaughan Family have had a special relationship that we’re thrilled to be able to continue,” saidRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After running for his family’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team since 2013, John Hunter Nemechek will be moving on in 2018, taking over driving duties on a part-time basis in the No. 42 Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. About a week ago, Nemechek posted a video to Twitter showing him walking out of the NEMCO Motorsports shop for the final time, but his destination was still unknown at that point. On Tuesday, Ganassi made the move up to theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After being a Ford team for the past eight seasons, Richard Petty Motorsports will be ditching the Blue Oval for a Bowtie for the upcoming 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. On Friday, the long rumored alliance with Richard Childress Racing was confirmed by the team, allowing the No. 43 team to take up residence on the RCR campus in Welcome, NC and change manufacturers over to Chevrolet. RPM will also receive chassis and engineering support from RCR, as well as engines from ECR.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor NASCAR will continue the trend of cost-cutting measures in 2018 as the sanctioning body announced roster limits to the number of pit crew and at-track crew members for each team on a given race weekend. Rosters will be broken down into three categories: Organizational, road crew, and pit crew. The organizational category is comprised of the competition director, technical director, team manager, IT specialists, etc. Starting next year, only three to four people in this category will be allowed at the track. For Monster EnergyRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The road has been long and full of trials and tribulations, but Martin Truex, Jr. and his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team are Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champions. Leading the way in almost every statistical category throughout the 2017 season, Truex came into the season finale at Homestead as the championship favorite, but it would take the same drive and determination that they have always shown to carry them to the title. Truex himself noted that they did not have the fastest carRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Editor’s note: This is the second of a four-part series focusing on why each of the Championship Four will end Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title in hand. Martin Truex, Jr. enters Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the championship favorite, but there’s more to it than just his on track accolades this season. Heading into the final race of the season, Truex is enjoying the best year of his career, with seven wins (half of hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Ahead of this weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway that will see one of four drivers walk away with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy, we’ll take a step back to 2004 and the first year of the Chase format, along with the drama that played out in the season finale to deliver Kurt Busch with his first Cup championship. With Sprint/Nextel taking over the series title sponsorship from Winston at the end of the 2003 season, a new championship format was introduced, calledRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It all comes down to this. After 35 race weekends, the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season comes down to one final race to determine the champion. Four drivers head into Homestead-Miami Speedway and the Ford Ecoboost 400 with an equal shot at the championship, while the other 36 drivers in the field are simply looking for a win to cap off the season. Since its reconfiguration in 2003, Homestead has provided some great racing on its progressive banking on one of the trueRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After locking himself into the championship race at Homestead, Justin Allgaier and his No. 7 JR Motorsports team got some bad news on Monday that they will likely have to battle for the title without crew chief Jason Burdett. Allgaier’s car was found to have an unattached brake cooling hose in post-race inspection at Phoenix, leading to a L1 penalty for the team. The rule that was broken (Section 20.15.2.2) reads that “Rear brake cooling assemblies must be sealed from air inlet to exhaust.” AsRead More