Headline News Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a turn of events that bordered on the unbelievable, Christopher Bell found his only path to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. On fresh tires, thanks to a strategic pit stop under caution on Lap 105, Bell passed Kevin Harvick to the outside through Turns 1 and 2 after a restart on Lap 111 and pulled away to win Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. With the victory, BellRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Defending champion Daniel Hemric gave it a run Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but in the end, he just didn’t have enough to stay alive in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs and was eliminated from championship contention. Starting the Drive for the Cure 250 on the 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course in third place, things were looking up for Hemric to be able to advance on to the Round of 8 by the time the checkered flag waved, but everything went awry early onRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Marco Andretti just wanted to log laps and finish his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start in one piece, but unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go his way Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Driving the No. 48 Chevrolet for Big Machine Racing, Andretti rolled off from deep in the field, but held his own against the stock car regulars, climbing up the leaderboard as he gained confidence around the 17-turn road course. Andretti broke into the top-20 at the start of the final stage, butRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – It took a bit of thievery for AJ Allmendinger to preserve his perfect record at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. “We got that one—we stole that one,” shouted Allmendinger after spinning his car like a dervish during a celebratory burnout at the finish line of the 2.32-mile, 17-turn road course. Indeed, the 40-year-old Allmendinger swiped the lead from Ty Gibbs—a driver half his age—after an overtime restart on Lap 68 of the Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCrossRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Safety has been the big keyword in the NASCAR Cup Series this season with all of the issues surrounding the Next Gen car and on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the sanctioning body sat down with the driving corps to try and carve out a path forward. Earlier this week, NASCAR tested proposed changes to problematic areas of the Next Gen car, namely the rear end of the vehicle, in a crash test in Ohio and on Saturday, they explained that the testRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Joey Logano wins pole position for Charlotte ROVAL elimination race CONCORD, N.C. – Joey Logano wasn’t pleased with the way he negotiated the final chicane at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. The good news was that the final section of the 17-turn track—which is actually the opening chicane of the alternative qualifying configuration—didn’t hurt his effort significantly in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series time trials. Turning a lap in 120.755 seconds (103.424 mph), Logano secured the pole position for Sunday’s Round of 12 eliminationRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – There are numerous adjectives that can be used to describe this weekend’s race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course: unpredictable, volatile, treacherous, chaotic, etc. One thing is for sure, Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 is going to be a hell of a ride, with four drivers getting cut from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs when the checkered flag waves. In an effort to spice things up back in 2018, Charlotte officials elected to switch from running another race on the 1.5-mileRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Two wild card races down, one to go. The finish line of the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is in sight now that the Yellawood 500 at Talladega is complete and only the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL remains to determine which eight drivers will be moving on to the next round with their title hopes still intact. Chase Elliott is the only driver that is truly safe in the Queen City next weekend, having won Sunday at Talladega to secureRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – Always the unquestionable fan favorite at NASCAR’s famed Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Georgia-native Chase Elliott made a last-lap pass to claim the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 victory Sunday afternoon – having to better one of his best friends, Ryan Blaney, to earn the first automatic bid into the next round of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. With a lap to go, Elliott pulled his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the bottom lane to the top lane and got aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Noah Gragson’s astounding win streak in the NASCAR Xfinity Series was bound to come to an end at some point and on Saturday at Talladega, it did just that as he finished 10th in the Sparks 300. Charging from the back of the field to start the race, Gragson finished the first two stages in the top-10. He was making his move late in the race on leader Austin Hill before a block from Hill slowed his momentum and he was unable toRead More