All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Entering the 2017 season, not many would have guessed that Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. would win a race with Roush-Fenway Racing still in rebuilding mode, but the Mississippi native showed off his restrictor plate prowess by taking his No. 17 car to victory lane not once, but twice at Talladega and Daytona for his first two career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins. When the Playoffs started, many had Stenhouse as one of the first four out, but once again he proved the naysayers wrong byRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Joey Logano’s season may not have gone quite to plan with his No. 22 team missing the playoffs, but heading into Sunday’s Alabama 500 at Talladega, Logano will look to play spoiler at the 2.66-mile track. “I’m wired one way,” said Logano.  “I’ve got one gear and it’s wide-open.  That’s all I’ve got, so, for me, it keeps it pretty simple.  When I come to the superspeedways it’s go to the front and stay in the front, race hard, and I think that shows inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor As Dale Earnhardt, Jr’s full-time career in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series continues to wind down, this weekend, he heads to Talladega Superspeedway – the track he has been the most productive at – for the final time. With Sunday’s Alabama 500 being his last ride around the 2.66 mile facility, this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater” takes a look back at his triumphant Talladega moments over the years. 2001 EA Sports 500 – October 21, 2001 After winning at Daytona earlier in the yearRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Talladega may not be the Round of 12 elimination race any longer, but the mammoth 2.66 mile superspeedway is still a huge wild card and will go a long way toward determining which drivers will be in position to move on to the next round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Racing at Talladega has always been crazy from the time the track opened back in 1969. From the driver boycott of the first race that led to unknown driver Richard Brickhouse scoringRead 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 Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. WINNERS Martin Truex, Jr. – The wins just keep on coming for Truex and Furniture Row Racing. 2017 has been a career year for the No. 78 team and Truex added another victory to the win column on Sunday at Charlotte. Truex may not have had the best qualifyingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Don’t count Dale Earnhardt, Jr. as a fan of the traction compound that was used during Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte. The compound, which has been used with mixed results at Speedway Motorsports, Inc. tracks this season, was laid down in the second and third grooves at Charlotte, but things didn’t quite gel between the cars on track and the ability for the compound to increase grip. Trouble with the PJ1 compound started on Friday in practice when a handful of drivers, includingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After two finishes outside the top-15 to finish out the first round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Kevin Harvick turned things around as the second round started at Charlotte by winning two stages, leading the most laps, and finishing third in Sunday’s Bank of America 500. Harvick kicked the weekend off with a strong qualifying effort to start the race in third place and he was able to find the lead for the first time just 52 laps in. He would thenRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Entering Charlotte Motor Speedway as one of the favorites to move on in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the path forward for Kyle Busch isn’t looking quite as certain after several encounters with the wall that left him with a 29th place finish and took a big bite out of his points advantage over the cut-off line. “It stinks to give up points,” said Busch. “We came in here and thought we had a good shot to run in the top-10 and weRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The Fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway is often overshadowed by the Coca-Cola 600 and the All-Star Race, but there have been a few occasions when the second race date at the track provides a memorable finish. The 1972 National 500 was one of those races. David Pearson would put his Wood Brothers Mercury on the pole, with Buddy Baker joining him on the front row. In what would be the final race that the Wood Brothers entered two cars, A.J. Foyt qualified third, followedRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With the first round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs complete after last weekend’s race at Dover, NASCAR’s premier division heads home to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend to kick off the Round of 12 with Sunday’s running of the Bank of America 500. As the first race in the Round of 12, Charlotte will play a big role in setting up how the remainder of the round will play out at Talladega and Kansas in the next two weeks. The 1.5-mile quad-ovalRead More