All posts by Luis Torres

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The first race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park in Detroit was unkind to both Graham Rahal and Verizon IndyCar Series debutant Santino Ferrucci, ending their Saturday afternoons on the hook after separate crashes with less than 25 laps to go. Rahal was running a two-stop strategy as the only driver to have started the race on the black primary Firestone tires. Eventually, he pitted for the softer reds on Lap 26, but struggled adapting on those alternate rubber. As theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Prior to Belle Isle the sophomore slump had plagued Chip Ganassi Racing driver Ed Jones. In the first six races of the Verizon IndyCar Series season, the former Dale Coyne Racing shoe failed to finish three races, including last Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 – where he was transported to the hospital after a Turn 1 crash. Jones soldiered onto Detroit to turn his season around. In the end the United Arab Emirates native did just that – providing a quiet, consistent run. Last year’s Verizon IndyCarRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Pole sitter Cole Custer backed up his runner-up effort at Charlotte last Saturday with a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. It’s Custer’s first ever consecutive top-five finish and his third this season. “We had a really fast Haas Automation Mustang, we just didn’t have really good long run speed. That was our biggest problem. We just got too tight at the end of a run,” said Custer. “It was interesting to run the package and tryRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Justin Allgaier’s bid of scoring his second win of the season without worrying about fuel was all for not after he and Christopher Bell were collected in a crash during Saturday’s Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Allgiaer, who crossed the line in third on Stage 2, gave up track position for fuel on Lap 55 in order to remain in contention, putting his No. 7 Breyer’s 2-in-1 Chevrolet Camaro at mid-pack. Laps later, Bell also made a pit stop toRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer For the third time this season, Denny Hamlin crossed the line in third during Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, dominated by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch. After the race, Hamlin felt he could’ve battled with his teammate, but needed more speed during short runs. “I wish we would’ve won. I wish we had a little bit more speed. We were just a little bit off the 18 (Kyle Busch). It seemed like a half a tenth a lap or so,” HamlinRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer After a dismal Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race on May 19th, Alex Bowman regained his confidence at Charlotte Motor Speedway, thanks to a ninth-place finish during Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. Not only the finish marked Bowman’s fourth top-10 of the season, it was his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet Camaro pit crew’s performance that’ll be best remembered after several shortcomings of scoring stage points. Bowman said they were on top of things all night, and brought him confidence after starting deep in the field. “Yeah, for sure,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards made its return to Charlotte Motor Speedway after a 14-year absence Thursday, where it came down to a two-man battle for the win during the final seven laps. Brandon Jones, who made his first ARCA start of the season, held off a hard charging Riley Herbst by 0.293 seconds to win the General Tire 150 for his fifth career series win. Jones, who led 32 laps, said late cautions helped his No. 12 TRD/Mobil 1 Toyota holding offRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The fascinating and cruel nature of Bump Day reignited the debate of whether it’s a good idea having cars failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 compete. It’s simple, if they’re not fast enough or didn’t make the gun, they’re out. Two drivers’ aspirations of drinking the glass of milk and their heads engraved on the Borg-Warner Trophy were dashed Saturday as the charitable lass Pippa Mann and arguably, the face of IndyCar, James Hinchcliffe didn’t make the 33-car grid. Mann was bumped and didn’tRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer All eyes were on the new aero-package as it made its race debut in Saturday’s Monster Energy Open at Charlotte Motor Speedway and it didn’t disappoint, notably the third and final stage as A.J. Allmendinger held off Chase Elliott and Erik Jones to make his first Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race since 2015. After the race, Allmendinger said his mindset was to transfer into his fourth All-Star Race, not the racing package. “Yeah, I don’t care how many cars are in the field or ifRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Premium Motorsports announced Thursday that road course veteran Justin Marks will run the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro in next month’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway and the much anticipated Bank of America 500K at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in September. Car owner Jay Robinson chose Marks for his remarkable road racing performances, including his only NASCAR national series victory at Mid-Ohio in 2016. In addition of competing two more Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series events this season, Marks will have Sufferfest Beer CompanyRead More