Cup Category

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona provided action and excitement from beginning to end, culminating in Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. scoring his second win of the season. Along with Stenhouse’s win, there were some other storylines leaving the World Center of Racing. Making Mississippi Proud With his second win of the season and second in as many restrictor plate races, Stenhouse becomes the fifth driver to obtain multiple wins this season, giving himself some added insurance for the playoffs. While some might have listed DaleRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The major story of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola – Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final run at his beloved Daytona International Speedway in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – turned out to be a footnote to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s masterful victory in a war of attrition that produced a race-record 14 cautions. The driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, who got his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in his 158th career start twoRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Every year, the underdog teams of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series circle the restrictor plate tracks of Daytona and Talladega as their chances to finish in the top-10 or contend for a race win, and Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 was yet another example of those tracks serving as the great equalizer. Along with Michael McDowell finishing fourth, two other underdog teams, Front Row Motorsports (David Ragan) and Beard Motorsports (Brendan Gaughan), brought home top-10 finishes, with their respective sixth and seventh place finishesRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor At a track where he had triumphed 17 times over the course of his career, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. came into Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona looking to put some of his restrictor plate magic to good use and try to win one more time on the 2.5-mile track, but the stars just didn’t align for Earnhardt as two crashes would relegate him to a 32nd place finish. After two straight top-10 finishes in the races leading into Daytona, followed up by a poleRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The 1998 Pepsi 400 was scheduled to be a monumental mark for NASCAR’s crown jewel track, Daytona International Speedway, as the track’s July 4th weekend race would be run under the lights for the very first time. However, a devastating wildfire that had swept through Central Florida around that weekend, destroying 126 homes and charring 500,000 acres, forced the race to be postponed to mid-October, making it one of the final races of the season. In addition to the race being run under the lightsRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor As expected, Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team was handed a penalty on Wednesday for unsecured lugnuts found at the conclusion of last Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway. Following his fifth place finish in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, two lugnuts were found to be improperly installed on Busch’s Toyota, bringing with it a one race suspension and a $20,000 fine for interim crew chief Ben Beshore. Beshore has been serving as Busch’s crew chief for the past three weeks as hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Following last Sunday’s road course race at Sonoma Raceway, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back to where it all began, Daytona International Speedway, for this weekend’s 58th running of the Coke Zero 400, the third restrictor plate race of the season. From 1959 until 1987, the 160 lap, 400 mile shootout at the World Center of Racing, then called the Firecracker 400, was held on July 4th, even if the holiday fell in the middle of the week. Beginning in 1988, the raceRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Less than two weeks after Jimmie Johnson signed a contract extension to stay at Hendrick Motorsports through 2020, the organization’s youngest driver, Chase Elliott, has also signed a contract extension of his own to keep him in the seat of the No. 24 Chevrolet through the 2022 season. Elliott’s contract was not set to expire until the end of the 2018 season, but the extension gives the four-car organization some much needed stability for the future. “It means the world to me to be aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway marked the first road course of the season for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the 1.990-mile track located north of San Francisco certainly did not disappoint. Leaving Sonoma, here are five of the top storylines of the day. Harvick Checks Another Track off the List Starting the season, Kevin Harvick had just four tracks that he had not yet won at: Kentucky, Pocono, Sonoma, and Texas. After Sunday’s race, Harvick took that list down to three,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Kevin Harvick won Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series West event at Sonoma Raceway. That was like taking candy from babies. But Harvick mixed it up with the big boys in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, and the outcome was the same. Executing an ideal strategy for the long green-flag run that consumed the second half of the race—minus roughly 200 yards—Harvick won a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event for the first time this season, the first time at Sonoma andRead More