All posts by Joey Barnes

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Bobby Labonte has enjoyed a part-time driver role for the past several seasons in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but the 51-year-old admitted he would consider the option to go racing in the Truck Series full-time if it made sense. Labonte, the 2000 Sprint Cup Series champion, hasn’t raced in the Truck Series since 2007, but in 10 career starts possesses one win and five top 10’s. “It is absolutely something that we have talked about and met with some people about,” said Labonte. “Again, everythingRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The true comeback story of 2016 in the Verizon IndyCar Series thus far has to be that of Simon Pagenaud. The Frenchman has enjoyed a stellar start to the season, scoring two runner-up finishes and back-to-back wins in the opening four rounds of the Verizon IndyCar Series championship. Pagenaud, who has led 160 of 530 laps this season, has seen a resurrection of sorts after his first season with Team Penske didn’t go according to plan. So what made last year so abysmal for the 31-year-old?Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief In report by ESPN F1, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff declared that he wants to keep driver Nico Rosberg on next season, but stated that neither he or the German are in a hurry to finalize a deal beyond this year. Rosberg has been on a tear, winning six consecutive races, including the opening three of the season. However, his recent form suggests that he would be a very sought after free agent should a deal with Mercedes not be reached,  something Wolff would like to prevent.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief After a spectacular afternoon at Richmond International Raceway, it was a Carl Edwards shove to move teammate Kyle Busch out of the way en route to claim his second consecutive victory of the season. Without any further delay, here are my takeaways from Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at the short track oval. 1) Back to Sunday’s a win for NASCAR For the first time in nearly two decades NASCAR returned to a daytime spring race (last year’s race was run on Sunday due to aRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Josef Newgarden was hoping a return trip to Barber Motorsports Park would mean a return to Victory Lane, but when the checkered flag flew the young American came home with a third place finish. Newgarden maintained a consistent pace for much of the day, always hanging among the top five before charging late. The 25-year-old made a daring move on the inside of Will Power in the closing stages of the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama, and began to hunt down the wounded Honda of GrahamRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Simon Pagenaud dominated early and came back late to score back-to-back wins in the Verizon IndyCar Series. Capturing his first win for team owner Roger Penske last weekend at Long Beach, the Frenchman scored the pole at Barber Motorsports Park and extended his championship lead in what has been a phenomenal start to the season following a thrilling finish in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. A spin on the pace laps by Mikhail Aleshin followed by a run-off by Jack Hawksworth delayed the startRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief No other driver has electrified NASCAR’s top-three touring series recently quite like Erik Jones. The 19-year-old has already conquered the Camping World Truck Series, winning the championship last season. Jones, a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver, also impressed last year in select races in relief of an injured Kyle Busch, most notably at Kansas Speedway, where he made his first career start and drove all the way up into the top-five before crashing out midway through. So, it only seems natural that Jones has been appointedRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief One of the big topics heading into this weekend’s event at Richmond International Raceway is NASCAR’s lenient stance on lugnuts tightened during a pitstop, and Kurt Busch believes the time to change that stance is sooner rather than later. NASCAR has taken a ‘less policed’ approach recently, believing that the teams should have the freedom to decide on whether or not to tighten all five lugnuts during a pitstop, a decision far different than in years past when anything less than five would lead to aRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Ryan Blaney is off to a solid rookie season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, already scoring two top-10’s in the opening eight races. However, there is one thing missing for the 22-year-old this season and that has been the chance to race against Tony Stewart. Although Blaney competed against Stewart for several races prior to his official rookie year in 2016, there has been no opportunity this year due to Stewart’s injury that was sustained prior to the start of the season. That all changesRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief It was an eventful afternoon in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Carl Edwards took home the trophy, but with so many storylines coming out of the half-mile oval, our weekly segment can’t cover them all, but we’ll try to get the more notable ones. So, without any further delay here are my biggest takeaways from Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. 1) Hit or miss For Joe Gibbs Racing, Sunday really was a tale of hit or miss. Edwards did take home theRead More