All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – As Chase Elliott was driving his way toward winning the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship last season, Hendrick Motorsports’ newest hire was keeping a keen eye on the proceedings back at the shop in North Carolina. That driver was Kyle Larson. Signed by Hendrick after losing his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing just four races into 2020 due to the use of a racial slur on iRacing, Larson’s path to redemption also became a path toward becoming a Cup Series champion. After watchingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – Long runs were Denny Hamlin’s superpower on Sunday afternoon in Phoenix, but instead he just got kryptonite. Coming into the weekend as fired up as ever to finally win a NASCAR Cup Series championship of his own, Hamlin knew that if he was going to make that happen, he needed a long run for his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to come to life and propel him to the front of the field. Just as Hamlin started closing ground on the leaders and lookedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz — 35 races down, one to go. Sunday afternoon, the NASCAR Cup Series will hit the track at Phoenix Raceway for the 2021 season finale, bringing this season to a close and crowning a champion. After being held at Homestead-Miami Speedway from 2002 to 2019, the championship race moved to the Arizona desert starting last season, giving the four drivers competing for the title a whole new challenge in their pursuit of the Bill France Cup. Heading into this year’s championship race, it willRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – A dream fulfilled. Daniel Hemric entered the night at Phoenix Raceway having never won a race in any of NASCAR’s three national series. Now he leaves the one-mile oval in the Arizona desert as champion. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who has seemed snake-bitten throughout his career, watching his chance for victory slip from his grasp time and time again, would not be denied this time around. When the chips were down, Hemric made it happen. While Austin Cindric looked to be theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – Day two at Phoenix Raceway will be highlighted by NASCAR’s second highest division, as the NASCAR Xfinity Series wraps up its 2021 campaign by crowning its newest champion. Twelve championship hopefuls started the six-week march to the Valley of the Sun, with only four drivers left standing to duel it out in the Arizona desert on Saturday night. Austin Cindric will look to make it back-to back Xfinity titles before moving on to the Cup Series in 2022, while AJ Allmendinger, Daniel Hemric,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – As the laps were winding down in Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway, Ben Rhodes could see the championship slipping away and he wasn’t going to settle for second place. Setting his sights on championship rival Zane Smith, Rhodes was a man on a mission, chewing up the ground between himself and Smith to catch up to the rear bumper of Smith’s No. 21 Chevrolet. After a bump in Turn 3 with nine laps to go, Rhodes sent Smith up theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – When the checkered flag waves on Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway, it will mark the end of an era. After a run of nine years, the current Gen 6 car, which has run through different iterations since 2013, will be retired and replaced by the Next Gen car, representing the biggest shakeup in the way NASCAR races in recent memory. As a part of championship weekend in Arizona, NASCAR President Steve Phelps took the podium for his annual State ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be the first title fight of the weekend to be settled, as the four remaining drivers in the Playoffs will duke it out Friday night at Phoenix Raceway for the right to hoist the championship trophy when the checkered flag falls. Eight drivers started the Playoffs with a berth in the championship race in mind, but half of them fell by the wayside, leaving Matt Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Rhodes, and Zane Smith as theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor PHOENIX – After winning his first NASCAR Cup Series championship last year at Phoenix, Chase Elliott is hoping he’ll be able to hit repeat this weekend on the one-mile oval in the Arizona desert. As one of two drivers in the Championship 4 that have previously won a championship, Elliott noted that having the experience of winning the title last season will help his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team improve their performance this time around as they once again look to end the day atop theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor PHOENIX – Embrace the chaos. Denny Hamlin has found himself wrapped up in a social media firestorm after his actions following last weekend’s race at Martinsville, but as he heads into the NASCAR Cup Series championship weekend in Phoenix, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is enjoying being the bad guy, turning the hate into motivation. “I live in chaos,” Hamlin said. “My life is chaos and I thrive under chaos. I mean, honestly, you can probably ask Kyle (Busch), the moreRead More