All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After enduring a tumultuous first season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series back in 2014, Martins Motorsports and driver Tommy Joe Martins took an absence from NASCAR’s second tier series over the past two seasons, but on Friday, the team announced that they would be making a return beginning with the April 22nd event at Bristol Motor Speedway. “The timing was right,” team owner Craig Martins said. “We had a tremendous opportunity to make this move, and we took it. A return to Xfinity was aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After seven races have been completed in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, there are definitely some teams that have stepped up their performance from last season, while others have stumbled out of the gate thus far in the season. As the series takes their first off-weekend of the year before embarking on a marathon run into late August, we’ll take a look at performance of the top teams in NASCAR’s premier division up to this point and how they rank amongst their peersRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With the 2017 running of the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race just weeks away, NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway gathered on Tuesday afternoon to unveil the format for this year’s race, which differs a bit from years past. This year, the race will consist of 70 laps, broken down into four stages, with the first three stages running 20 laps each and a final 10 lap dash for the $1 million prize. Winners of the first three stages will automatically advance to the final stageRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Since 1997, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has been making the trek to the Lone Star State to take on the 1.5 mile Texas Motor Speedway, but of the 32 events that have taken place at the track, just one sticks out as the best of the best. In this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater,” we’ll take a look back at the 2004 Samsung Radioshack 500, which produced the closest Cup Series finish ever at the track. After coming up just short of his firstRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After a trip to the smallest track on the circuit for some great racing at Martinsville last weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Lone Star State and Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s running of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. First joining the circuit in 1997, the 1.5 mile Texas track has provided some great racing over the years as the surface wore down as each season passed. However, this go around, the track will be a completely different animal as theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After winning his first Martinsville grandfather clock in this race one year ago, Kyle Busch looked primed to accomplish that feat for the second year in a row after leading the most laps in Sunday’s STP 500, but with handling issues plaguing him in the final stint of the race, he had to settle for a runner-up finish instead. Busch started the day in 10th place and took over the lead for the first time under caution on lap 109. Though it was just forRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The first five races of the season haven’t exactly gone to plan for Austin Dillon, but Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville was just what the doctor ordered for the fourth-year Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver as he was able to score his best finish of the season with a fifth-place result. In this race one year ago, Dillon brought home a fourth-place finish, so the driver out of the Richard Childress Racing stable has learned how to get around the treacherous half-mile in recentRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville was shaping up to be a promising day for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his No 88 team, but a late race crash would put an end to his hopes for his first top-10 of the season, relegating him to a 34th place finish instead. Martinsville serves as one of Earnhardt’s better tracks on the circuit, with one win, 13 top-five finishes, 18 top-10 finishes, 972 laps led, and an average finish of 12.9 in 33 starts entering the day, soRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Late in the going in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville, Christopher Bell looked to be in the catbird seat with the lead in the waning laps, but after contact with a truck at the tail-end of the lead lap, Bell’s shot at the win was gone and he had to settle for a third-place finish. After winning at Atlanta, Bell was looking to make it two wins in a row by adding a Martinsville grandfather clock to his trophy case. StartingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After winning his seventh championship last fall, Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire through the first five races of 2017, but this weekend’s trip to Martinsville Speedway could be just what the doctor ordered. Entering Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville, Johnson has only finished in the top-10 once this season and sits 17th in points. However, Martinsville ranks as one of his best tracks on the circuit, second only to Auto Club Speedway in average finishRead More