All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – In the second race that featured NASCAR’s new lower-downforce package, Joey Logano lowered the boom—again. There was one major difference between Joey Logano’s victory in Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway and his win May 21 in the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte. This one counted in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings and punched Logano’s ticket into the Chase. But it remained abundantly clear that Team Penske already has a handle on the aerodynamic configuration the sanctioning body isRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – Daniel Suarez was speechless—and justifiably so. The Mexican driver had just passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for the lead on the next-to-last lap and held on to win Saturday’s Menards 250 presented by Valvoline NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Michigan International Speedway by .280 seconds over the man who sets the standard in the series. The first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series race, Suarez overcame a pit road speeding penalty assessed on Lap 29 of 125Read More

Lewis Hamilton beat Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by just six hundredths of a second to claim a fifth career Canadian Grand Prix pole position, putting him just one adrift of Michael Schumacher’s record at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. After setting an impressive lap of 1:13.076 to top the list at the end of Q2, Hamilton ramped up the pace even further with his first run in Q3, lowering the benchmark to 1:12. 812. Rosberg followed almost immediately and while the German’s lap was similarly outstanding, he could not outpace hisRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – For more than a third of active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, there will be no rest for the weary. One driver from each Cup organization is eligible to participate in a test of newly repaved Kentucky Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. The test is a continuation of NASCAR’s proving-out process for a new lower-downforce competition package earmarked for 2017. Last year, as the sanctioning body solidified the rules for 2016, races at Kentucky and Darlington were used as benchmarks forRead More

Sebastian Vettel proved the value of the updates brought by Ferrari to this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix by claiming top spot in final practice at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The session was ended early, however, when Renault’s Kevin Magnussen crashed out with eight minutes remaining, resulting in red flags. Key to the updates Ferrari has added to its car in Canada is a new turbocharger and its effect were felt this morning when four-time champion ended the abbreviated session as the only man to dip under the 1:14s mark. VettelRead More

By John Sturbin, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – Teenager William Byron overhauled Matt Crafton with five laps remaining and drove to victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rattlesnake 400 Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Byron, of Kyle Busch Motorsports, posted his second series victory at the expense of Crafton, who dominated the 167-lapper after brushing the Turn 3 wall 11 laps into the night. Byron earned his breakthrough series victory earlier this season at Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile quad-oval similar to TMS. Byron, 18, isRead More

FORT WORTH, Texas (Friday, June 10, 2016) – Carlos Munoz was devastated when he didn’t win the historic 100th Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago. The Colombian was able to gain a little solace today by taking the Verizon P1 Award and will start from the pole position in Saturday’s Firestone 600. Driving the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda, Munoz earned the first pole of his four-year Verizon IndyCar Series career with a two-lap qualifying average of 217.137 mph on the 1.455-mile oval at Texas Motor Speedway. The 24-year-old’s best qualifyingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – After two frustrating weeks of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying, Joey Logano learned the drill. Posting the fastest speeds in both the second and final rounds of Friday’s knockout time trials at Michigan International Speedway, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 (1 p.m. ET on FS1) at the two-mile track. In the previous two weekends, at Charlotte and Pocono, Logano led the first two rounds of qualifying but failed to close the deal in the decisive third round. OnRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – After Friday’s opening 85-minute NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session at Michigan International Speedway, there was strong consensus among drivers as to the lower-downforce aerodynamic package in place for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 (at 1 p.m. ET on FS1). In a word, the new configuration was “challenging.” That’s exactly what it was supposed to be. “Speeds are blazing fast down the straightaway but quite a bit slower in the corner, and that has been interesting,” said 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski. “It’sRead More

After topping the morning session at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Lewis Hamilton doubled up in second free practice in Canada, beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to top spot by 0.25s. Hamilton’s best time, on the ultrasoft compound Pirelli tyres, was a 1:14.212, almost two tenths of a second up on his pole position time of 2015. Vettel pressed the defending champion hard though. In the opening session the German was half a second adrift of his Mercedes rivals but on ultrasofts Vettel powered to a lap of 1:14.469 to get toRead More