All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Racing on short tracks, Martinsville in particular, tends to amp up the aggressiveness in the closing laps and in Sunday’s First Data 500, Chase Elliott found himself on the receiving end of the aggressive driving by Denny Hamlin, ending up in the wall and putting a damper on the end of a stellar day for the No. 24 team. Elliott, who led 123 laps on the day, looked to be in the catbird seat for his first career win and a ticket to Homestead asRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After a trip out to America’s Heartland, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back east this weekend and straight to the final short track race of the season, with Sunday’s running of the First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic half-mile, which is also the smallest on the circuit, will test both man and machine over 500 grueling laps. Sunday’s race will mark the start of the three-race playoff semi-finals that will trim the eight driverRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor “They touch once! Twice! Drag race! Jimmie Johnson!” When looking back at memorable moments at Martinsville Speedway, the duel between Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon in the spring of 2007 is often near the top of the list. The race, which featured the much maligned Car of Tomorrow in only its second outing, would turn into a Chevrolet showcase with the four drivers that dominated the race all driving a car with a bowtie on the grill. Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Denny Hamlin,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The famed No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports will have a new face behind the wheel full-time in 2018: Darrell Wallace, Jr. After impressing the team in the four races he ran while filling in for the injured Aric Almirola earlier this year, RPM announced that Wallace will get his shot to run full-time for the team beginning in 2018. “This is a dream come true to race for ‘The King’, Richard Petty Motorsports, the iconic No. 43 and for all the fans and partnersRead 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 Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. WINNERS Martin Truex, Jr. – Racing with heavy hearts after the loss of crew member Jim Watson to a heart attack on Saturday night, Truex and his Furniture Row Racing team had extra incentive to go out and score the win on Sunday. Though the team was able to capitalize andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Matt Kenseth had his work cut out for him heading into the elimination race at Kansas Speedway, needing to make up eight points to be able to advance onto the next round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and he looked to be well on his way to accomplishing that before finding an early exit that put an end to his hopes of challenging for a second championship. Finishing the first two stages eighth and fourth, respectively, Kenseth put himself in position toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Entering the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Kyle Larson was one of the “big three” that everyone thought was a lock to make it through the postseason with relative ease to fight for the championship in the season finale at Homestead, but as the knockout format has shown over the last few years, anything can happen and on Sunday at Kansas, he would be on the losing end of that. After four wins in the regular season, Larson was ranked the highest among theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For Jimmie Johnson to be able to keep his hopes of an eighth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship alive, he’ll have to make it through Sunday’s elimination race at Kansas to do so. One may think that shouldn’t be too tough a task for the No. 48 team, but with only seven points separating him from the cut-off line, anything could happen by the time the checkered flag falls on the Hollywood Casino 400. The Round of 12 got off to a decent startRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The Round of 12 all comes down to this. After a wild weekend on the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway that saw the majority of the field suffer some kind of damage on the 2.66 mile behemoth in Alabama, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads west to America’s Heartland to take on the fast 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway for Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400. First joining the circuit as a relatively tame 1.5 mile track with 15 degree banking in the turns, KansasRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The 2001 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season started off with profound loss, but also ushered in an era of unprecedented growth for the series as they made their way to new markets and new tracks later in the year. One of those new tracks/markets was Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile intermediate oval just outside of Kansas City that would make its debut in September 2001. Jason Leffler and points leader Jeff Gordon would start on the front row, but it wouldn’t take long for thingsRead More