Cup Category

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Denny Hamlin essentially called his shot this week, saying on his popular weekly podcast that he absolutely expected to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Wurth 400 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. And the veteran backed it up – holding off championship leader Kyle Larson by a slight .256-second to claim his third win of the season and 54th of his career – tying the legend Lee Petty on the all-time wins list. Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the lead from LarsonRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service First out for final qualifying and first on the scoring chart, Kyle Busch earned his first pole position of the season Saturday with a lap of 162.191 mph in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet around the one-mile Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. It’s the 34th career pole position for the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and he’ll start on the front row for Sunday’s Wurth 400 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) alongside Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, whose fast lap (161.951Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Erik Jones will not be racing in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Dover, following his hard crash at Talladega last Sunday. Corey Heim will take up the relief driver role in the No. 43 Toyota, Legacy Motor Club said in a statement Tuesday. Jones was involved in a four-car pileup at the 2.66-mile superspeedway on lap 157, in which his car was sent head-on into the outside SAFER barrier in Turn 3. Though Jones was able to climb from his car under his ownRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Like a Michael Jordan drive to the basket, Tyler Reddick channeled his 23XI Racing co-owner on the final lap at Talladega, weaving his way through the chaos to get to the finish line first and score the win in Sunday’s GEICO 500. Heading into the final lap, it was shaping up to be a battle of the Fords and Toyotas, with pole-sitter Michael McDowell and six-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski leading the Blue Ovals on the bottom lane, with Reddick leading what wasRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Michael McDowell has been a force to be reckoned with in qualifying on superspeedways this season and he was back at it again at Talladega, banking his second pole position of the season. With a lap of 52.609 seconds, 182.022 mph, McDowell put his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford on the front row for the third time on a superspeedway in 2024. For teams like Front Row and drivers like McDowell, Talladega is one race that they circle as an opportunity andRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – To fuel save or not to fuel save, that is the question. Coming out of the Daytona 500, one of the major talking points was the rising prevalence of fuel saving at superspeedways and the effect it is having on the racing at those types of tracks. It appears more of the same will be true when the green flag drops on Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega. The overwhelming consensus from the driving corps will be that fuel saving will be the dominantRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. — From deep in the heart of Texas to Sweet Home Alabama. Following last weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, the NASCAR Cup Series is on to the biggest and baddest track on the circuit – the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s running of the GEICO 500. Since opening its doors in 1969, the track just off Interstate 20 in Eastern Alabama has been a wild card on the schedule with the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing on full display over the past half-century,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – Finally. After riding a winless streak for more than a year and a half, Chase Elliott is back in victory lane in a NASCAR Cup Series race after winning Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Coming close to breaking the streak on a handful of occasions since his last win at Talladega in October 2022 and having to overcome an injury that kept him sidelined for a number of races in early 2023, things finally came together in theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – So close, but so far. Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway came down to a battle between two drivers holding the longest winless streaks in the NASCAR Cup Series in Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski. Elliott may have won the battle, breaking his winless streak and taking the trip to victory lane, but Keselowski can walk away with his head held high after delivering a runner-up finish for the team that bears his name. Still there is work toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – Kyle Larson has been all about going fast this week. Fresh off a rain-shortened day of NTT IndyCar Series testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday for his attempt at the Indianapolis 500, Larson is back to his regularly scheduled duties of driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Larson was no worse for wear once he arrived in the Lone Star State, setting the fast time in qualifying on SaturdayRead More