All posts by David Morgan

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Denny Hamlin kept his No. 11 Toyota up front for more than half of Sunday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway, but in the closing laps didn’t have enough to hold off teammate Martin Truex, Jr. and had to settle for a third-place result. The five-time Martinsville winner noted that it all came down to his car being fast on the short runs, but not so much on the long runs, which allowed his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate the opportunity to pass him forRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a weekend away for the first break of the 2021 season, the NASCAR Cup Series gets back to business Saturday night with a trip to southern Virginia for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 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. As has been the case for the last year and a half, no practice, no qualifying, just line up andRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor April 18, 2004 – The day Martinsville Speedway bit back, derailing the chances of one future NASCAR Hall of Famer going to Victory Lane, and paving the way for another to break a years long winless streak and capture the final win of his NASCAR Cup Series career. For much of the first half of the Advance Auto Parts 500, it looked as if defending race winner Jeff Gordon was going to be the driver to beat down the stretch, as the four-time Cup Series championRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor On more than a few occasions in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Kyle Larson has dominated a race to the level he did on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway only to fall short in the end. Leading 269 laps and winning the first two stages of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, Larson seemed to be on cruise control toward his second win of the season, but as the laps wound down and tire management came into play, a confluence of events would keep Larson fromRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A year after the COVID-19 pandemic threw the brakes on the 2020 season, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to the epicenter of where it all came to a screeching halt – Atlanta Motor Speedway. The series would return to the 1.5-mile quad oval later in the year to make up the rescheduled Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, albeit without spectators. Fast forward to this Sunday and NASCAR’s best will have a limited number of fans in the stands to cheer them on as they tackle Atlanta’sRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor This time last year, Phoenix served as the last race before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the sports landscape, sending all of us, NASCAR included into our new normal. A year later, with the effects of the pandemic still being felt, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Arizona desert to take on Phoenix Raceway and Sunday’s Instacart 500, in what could be a preview of the championship race when the 2021 season wraps up at the one-mile oval in November. Through the first fourRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After two weeks in Daytona Beach, the NASCAR Cup Series packs up and heads south on I-95 for Sunday’s running of the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 1.5-mile oval came into existence in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in the early 90’s, with the Cup Series making its first appearance at the track in 1999. Since undergoing a reconfiguration in 2003, Homestead has provided some great racing on its progressive banking on one of the true ovals on the circuit and that has onlyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The last two weeks, Joey Logano has found himself in contention for the win at Daytona International Speedway with a few laps to go, but will leave with a goose-egg in the win column. Logano was leading the pack into Turn 3 on the final lap of the Daytona 500 before a run-in with his Team Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski, saw him getting swept up in a fiery, multi-car crash. Fast forward to Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 on the Daytona road course and once again,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Had the original 2021 schedule held, the NASCAR Cup Series would have been heading down I-95 to Homestead-Miami Speedway, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced some changes, meaning NASCAR’s top division will be staying in Daytona for another week. After last weekend’s running of the Daytona 500 on the oval, it’s the track’s 3.61-mile, 14-turn road course that will be the focus this Sunday for the running of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253. The 70-lap race will be the third for the Cup Series on theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Another Daytona 500 is in the books and once again, the finish was capped off by a violent, multi-car crash. A year removed from Ryan Newman’s harrowing crash in the 2020 edition of the Great American Race, carnage reigned supreme in the waning moments of this year’s race at the World Center of Racing. With the Harley J. Earl trophy on the line, it was every man for himself on the final lap, as Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski ran 1-2 down theRead More