All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By Kirby Arnold, Special Contributor  AVONDALE, Ariz. — The crapshoot that has become those four and five-wide restarts at Phoenix Raceway can make the difference between winning a championship and suffering through an offseason of what-if, especially when the margin of defeat is three-tenths of a second.  That’s what separated Ryan Blaney from his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano when the checkered flag flew on the NASCAR Cup Series season Sunday. Logano celebrated his third Cup Series championship and Blaney, the defending champion, exited his car exhausted after a franticRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Special Contributor  AVONDALE, Ariz. — Corey Heim knew he would need to drive a near-perfect race to snag the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship Friday night at Phoenix Raceway.  In the end, even that wasn’t enough to beat Ty Majeski, who dominated from the start to win the race and capture his first series championship. Majeski led 132 of the 150 laps and controlled the final 26 laps after a late caution flag.  Heim, clearly the best of the rest and the only real challenger to Majeski,Read More

By Kirby Arnold, Special Contributor  AVONDALE, Ariz. — A.J. Allmendinger and his Kaulig Racing team haven’t left anything untouched in their preparation for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway.  The team tweaked the No. 16 Chevrolet to the point it couldn’t be tweaked any more.  As for the driver, Allmendinger drove so many laps around the one-mile track on a simulator that he was ready for the real thing by early in the week.  “It got to the point I think on Tuesday I was probably on ourRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Special Contributor AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christian Eckes has been here before, victory lane in a championship race at Phoenix Raceway. But then, he hasn’t.  The 23-year-old won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series final race last year on the one-mile oval, but he wasn’t among the four drivers running for the championship. Sweet as it was to win and finish fifth in the standings, he has one focus Friday night when he straps into his McAnally Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado.  Claim the championship.  “We’ve turned it into aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va.— He did it again. For the second straight year, defending series champion Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 elimination race at Martinsville Speedway to advance to the Championship 4. And as Blaney took the checkered flag to win Sunday’s Xfinity 500, Christopher Bell made a kamikaze move into the final corner in a futile attempt to deprive William Byron of the final spot in the next Sunday’s title event at Phoenix Raceway. Bell drove hard into Turn 3Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Christian Eckes wasn’t about to lose a race he had dominated, even if it meant using the front bumper on his No. 19 Chevrolet—twice. After a restart with five laps left in Friday night’s Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville Speedway, Eckes first moved the Toyota of Taylor Gray and then the Ford of Ben Rhodes—both of which were rolling on 40-lap fresher tires—to win the race and earn a spot in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series’ Championship 4Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – In the most dramatic Playoff race of the 2024 season – featuring three different leaders in the final three laps – 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick made a clutch pass out of Turn 4 on the last lap to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday when it counted most. Reddick passed his team owner, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin with two laps to go then moved high up against the wall to pass Team Penske’s RyanRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – An emotional Austin Hill climbed out of his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the Homestead-Miami Speedway frontstretch to celebrate one of the most significant race wins of his burgeoning career – claiming the Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 300 trophy Saturday and securing one of four positions to race for a trophy in the Nov. 9 series championship finale. Hill – who also swept both of the race’s stage wins – took the lead from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer withRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A strategy call from the pit box coupled with a patient move forward landed veteran Grant Enfinger his second consecutive NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoff race win in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway while his closest competitors ran out of fuel behind him in the closing laps. Enfinger, who won the opening race in this Playoff round at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway three weeks ago denied the other seven Playoff racers a chance at an automatic bid into championship contention. So nowRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS — Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano made his Team Penske’s fuel strategy call work to perfection Sunday afternoon to claim victory in the South Point 400 Playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and earn the first of four NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 berths. Logano led only the final six laps on the Vegas 1.5-miler but was able to hold off the afternoon’s most dominant car, Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota by a slight .662-second inRead More