All posts by Motorsports Tribune

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill. — Pole winner Corey Heim lost the lead on Lap 18 of Saturday’s Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.  He didn’t regain it until the first lap of overtime, when frontrunner Christian Eckes spun his tires on a restart on Lap 164.   But that was enough for Heim to score his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of the season in a part-time role in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.  Eckes was leading comfortably with justRead More

By INDYCAR DETROIT – Josef Newgarden saved the best for last, winning the NTT P1 Award for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on his final flying lap of qualifying Saturday at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park. Newgarden’s top lap in the Firestone Fast Six was 1 minute, 15.2153 seconds in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. It was his first pole of the season and his first NTT P1 Award since the season-ending Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in September 2021. A different driver hasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill.—On a track similar to the one that gave him his first NASCAR Cup Series victory, Chase Briscoe achieved another career first—a Cup Series pole position.  In the final round of time trials on Saturday, Briscoe sped around 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in 32.544 seconds (138.274 mph) to earn the top starting position for Sunday’s inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  Even though he had a slight bobble on his money lap,Read More

By INDYCAR DETROIT – A significant off-track week for Kyle Kirkwood extended to more good news Friday on track at the Raceway at Belle Isle. NTT INDYCAR SERIES rookie Kirkwood was the quickest driver under sunny skies Friday afternoon during the opening practice for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, with a best lap of 1 minute, 16.1345 seconds in the No. 14 ROKiT/AJ FOYT RACING Chevrolet. The practice-leading performance – the first time Kirkwood or a Foyt driver has led a session this season – came just twoRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway started with Denny Hamlin out front and ended with Denny Hamlin out front. What happened in-between defied belief. And a driver who claims to thrive in chaos proved to be a man of his word. Hamlin won the longest race in NASCAR history—619.5 miles—in two overtimes, beating Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to the finish line by .014 seconds. With the victory—the second this season and the 48th of his career—Hamlin nowRead More

By INDYCAR INDIANAPOLIS – Marcus Ericsson won the 106th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge in a wild scramble after a late red flag Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, earning his first career victory in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Ericsson, from Kumla, Sweden, won under caution in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda after Sage Karam crashed in Turn 2 on the final lap. Before the race-ending incident, Ericsson and Pato O’Ward were locked in a fantastic duel for the lead after the restart with two lapsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – By the slimmest of margins, Denny Hamlin beat a car he owns for the Busch Light pole position in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the final round of time trials of Saturday evening, Hamlin ran a lower line through Turns 3 and 4 than did his fellow competitors, and that paid off with a blistering lap of 29.399 seconds (183.680 mph)—just .003 seconds faster than that of Kurt Busch (183.661 mph) who drives the No. 45 23XI ToyotaRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C.—When Josh Berry crossed the finish line at Charlotte Motor Speedway—giving JR Motorsports its first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at its home track—second-place Ty Gibbs was just reaching the 200-foot-long Speedway TV screen television on the backstretch. After JRM teammate Justin Allgaier scraped the outside wall for the second time and had to pit during the final 81-lap green-flag run, Berry won Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 300 by an astonishing 18.039 seconds over Gibbs. But the race wasn’t that lopsided before Allgaier had toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – When fate dealt Carson Hocevar another heartache Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Niece Motorsport teammate Ross Chastain took full advantage—with a serendipitous push from Grant Enfinger. On the final lap of the second overtime in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series contest, Chastain raced side-by-side on the backstretch with John Hunter Nemechek, before the timely push from Enfinger propelled him forward and enabled him to clear Nemechek’s No. 4 Toyota. Chastain crossed the finish lineRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Busch has reason to be optimistic about Coca-Cola 600 Kyle Busch has shown consistent strength on 1.5-mile intermediate speedways this year, and that’s a source of confidence entering NASCAR’s Memorial Day weekend marathon at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch won the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 from the pole, and he’ll try for a repeat performance in the 63rd running of the event on Sunday evening (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Though Busch claimed his only victory of the season inRead More