All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – With Chase Elliott’s Chevrolet bouncing off the outside wall, and Kyle Larson’s Chevy bouncing off Elliott’s car coming to the finish line, Larson won a wild drag race to claim the last of three available spots in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FS1). At the end of the final 10-lap dash in the Sprint Showdown, Larson pinched Elliott into the outside wall entering the dogleg at the 1.5-mile track and banged intoRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Persistent rain wiped out all track activity on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, setting up a full day of racing on Saturday at the 1.5-mile track. Both the Sprint Showdown, which will determine three qualifiers for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, and the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race have been rescheduled for Saturday. Practice for the all-star race will open Saturday activity at 9:30 a.m., followed by the Sprint Showdown at 11 a.m. and theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service This year’s unique NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race format, which requires the first nine, 10 or 11 drivers to start the final 13-lap segment on old tires (with the specific number determined by lot) with cars on new tires behind them, already has drivers thinking about hypothetical scenarios. Drivers in 12th place or worse entering the final segment, where only green-flag laps count, will be guaranteed fresh rubber, and that number is crucial to a lot of calculations. “We have to see how the tiresRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – After announcing a multiyear extension to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing, 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick used much of his media session on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway to set the record straight about rumors that had run amok since the announcement earlier this season that SHR would switch from Chevrolet to Ford in 2017. Harvick said there wasn’t a shred of truth to reports he had been contacted by Hendrick Motorsports to replace Kasey Kahne in the No.Read More

Anyone who followed the Mazda Road to Indy career of Gabby Chaves knew that the young Colombian-American would make a name for himself in open-wheel racing, given his propensity for exciting finishes. Second in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires in 2012 to eventual Verizon IndyCar Series star Jack Hawksworth, Chaves then finished second to teammate Sage Karam in the 2013 Indy Lights Championship Presented by Cooper Tires. But the story of Chaves’ 2013 season was the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: part of a spectacularRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – Matt Kenseth’s luck took a turn for the better, after Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet took a turn that wrecked half the field in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway. In a thrilling 35-lap run to the finish that featured Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott in hot pursuit of Kenseth – and of each other – Kenseth manhandled a loose race car to the stripe, arriving .187 seconds ahead of Larson to win his first NASCAR SprintRead More

Max Verstappen became Formula One’s youngest ever race winner with victory in an enthralling Spanish Grand Prix that saw Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collide at the start. Making his debut for Red Bull Racing, Verstappen took the lead midway through the race and remained icy cool in the closing stage as he came under intense pressure from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. He crossed the line just 0.6s ahead of the Finn to win aged just 18 years and 227 days, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s seven-year-old record, set when theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – NASCAR’s new Dash 4 Cash format agrees with Erik Jones – even when his No. 20 Toyota is running on older tires. Despite staying out on used rubber for a restart with five laps left in Saturday’s Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 200 at Dover International Speedway, Jones pulled away to beat runner-up Darrell Wallace Jr. to the finish line by 1.434 seconds. The victory was Jones second of the year, both on concrete tracks (Bristol and Dover). He has now won twoRead More

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Englishman Dean Stoneman made light of bitterly cold, windy conditions today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course to win another exciting Mazda Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires. The cancer survivor and former FIA Formula 2 champion took the lead soon after an early full-course caution, then held off a variety of challengers to claim a richly deserved victory for Andretti Autosport. Santiago “Santi” Urrutia, winner of last year’s Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, guided Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian’s distinctive SoulRead More

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Parker Thompson this afternoon underlined the importance of confidence in auto racing. Since scoring his first Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda victory at Barber Motorsports Park last month, the young Canadian has been riding the crest of a wave. His second victory came just a day after his first, and after finishing a close second yesterday in the first of two races that comprised the Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Powered by Mazda at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix road course, ThompsonRead More