All posts by Luis Torres

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

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer For 248 laps, Saturday’s KC Masterpiece 400 was stage winners Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson’s playground, leading a combined total of 154 laps. That all changed with 20 laps to go after the two battled door-to-door for second until Blaney’s car collided with Larson at the entry of Turn 1, damaging both cars and their chance of winning. While Larson rallied back to a fourth-place finish for his fourth top-5 this season, Blaney wasn’t as fortunate as he brought his battered No. 12 Fleetwood RVRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Using techniques from fellow Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson, John Hunter Nemechek made his return in the Camping World Series and didn’t disappoint. Through adversity and taking advantage of other’s shortcomings on fuel, Nemechek came home in fourth during Friday’s 37 Kind Days 250 at Kansas Speedway. Nemechek said he fought a tight truck all night and came up short of scoring a win at the venue his father Joe’s last Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in 2004. Despite this, he gave propsRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Lady luck reared its ugly head once again for Ben Rhodes at Kansas Speedway as for the second straight year, his bid for victory backfired as another mechanical woe knocked him out of contention during Friday’s 37 Kind Days 250. Unlike his heartbreaking engine failure while leading with eight laps to go last year, Rhodes finished the race, but was only credited with an 18th place finish, his worst of the season. The seventh place starter was gradually moving up the leader board and afterRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The “Monster Mile” is unforgiving, no matter who much experience a driver has in NASCAR. For sophomore Daniel Suarez, it has treated him exceptionally well, scoring a sixth and eighth-place finish in his two previous trips. During Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware, Suarez embodied a solid performance, equaling his career-best finish from Watkins Glen last season of third-place. It’s Suarez’s first career top-5 on an oval, and second overall in his young career. Not only he accomplishedRead More