All posts by David Morgan

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

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Each week, NASCAR Editor David Morgan will break down who’s hot and who’s not after the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race weekend. Today, we break down the Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway WINNERS Matt Kenseth – The old man has still got it. In what may have been his final race at Phoenix, Kenseth took it to the youngsters, showing them he has still got plenty in the tank when it comes to driving a race car. After announcing last week that he wouldn’tRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Runner-up finishes have been the storyline of Chase Elliott’s sophomore season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, with the 21-year old Georgia native coming close to victory time and time again. On Sunday at Phoenix, Elliott would fall just short of both the win and being able to advance to the championship race on a must-win day for him and his No. 24 team. “We were so close to having another shot next week,” said Elliott. “But man, I can’t say enough for ourRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor An eighth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship will have to wait until 2018 for Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team. Entering the day in a must-win situation to be able to claim the final spot in the Championship 4 and advance on to Homestead, Johnson qualified 12th and was holding steady just outside the top-10 on lap 149 when he blew a tire entering Turn 3, sending his Chevrolet hard into the outside wall. The damage was enough to send him to theRead More