Cup Category

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer How many different obstacles in an elimination race can be thrown a drivers’ way? For Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson, a multitude of issues almost cost him a chance to fight for an unprecedented eighth series championship. Johnson narrowly escaped Kansas Speedway with his Championship hopes intact, a mere nine points ahead of Kyle Larson. Johnson ended the Hollywood Casino 400 in 11th, a far cry from where it looked like he would finish. Not once, but twice, Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’sRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Entering the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Kyle Larson was one of the “big three” that everyone thought was a lock to make it through the postseason with relative ease to fight for the championship in the season finale at Homestead, but as the knockout format has shown over the last few years, anything can happen and on Sunday at Kansas, he would be on the losing end of that. After four wins in the regular season, Larson was ranked the highest among theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For Jimmie Johnson to be able to keep his hopes of an eighth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship alive, he’ll have to make it through Sunday’s elimination race at Kansas to do so. One may think that shouldn’t be too tough a task for the No. 48 team, but with only seven points separating him from the cut-off line, anything could happen by the time the checkered flag falls on the Hollywood Casino 400. The Round of 12 got off to a decent startRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The Round of 12 all comes down to this. After a wild weekend on the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway that saw the majority of the field suffer some kind of damage on the 2.66 mile behemoth in Alabama, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads west to America’s Heartland to take on the fast 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway for Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400. First joining the circuit as a relatively tame 1.5 mile track with 15 degree banking in the turns, KansasRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The 2001 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season started off with profound loss, but also ushered in an era of unprecedented growth for the series as they made their way to new markets and new tracks later in the year. One of those new tracks/markets was Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile intermediate oval just outside of Kansas City that would make its debut in September 2001. Jason Leffler and points leader Jeff Gordon would start on the front row, but it wouldn’t take long for thingsRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Each week NASCAR Editor David Morgan will break down who’s hot and who’s not after the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race weekend. Today, we break down the Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. WINNERS Brad Keselowski – With Ford having won the first three restrictor plate races of the season, Keselowski and the remainder of the Ford contingent came into Talladega with Sunday’s Alabama 500 circled as a prime opportunity to complete the season sweep and punch their ticket into the next round of theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – On the Longest Day at Talladega—in a war of attrition that required three red flags and left 14 cars running at the finish—Brad Keselowski powered his No. 2 Team Penske Ford past the No. 31 Chevrolet of Ryan Newman on the final lap to win Sunday’s Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Two laps after the final restart on Lap 186 of 188, Keselowski and teammate Joey Logano ganged up on Newman, who held the runner-up position after Keselowski shot past him. TrevorRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It wasn’t the finish many in Junior Nation wished for at the start of the day, but after one of the wildest Talladega races in recent memory, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finishes out his career at the track in one piece, bringing home a seventh-place finish. Though it wasn’t a storybook finish that he would have liked to deliver for himself and his passionate fan base, Earnhardt was still appreciative that he was at least relevant for the win in his last start at Talladega. “ThisRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Surviving a race of attrition just to crash coming to the checkered flag may be dramatic, but it does not win you the race. Richard Petty Motorsports driver Aric Almirola did just that, finishing fifth. The Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was anything but calm for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competitor. With just a handful of undamaged cars and several competitive repaired cars, Almirola was in the thick of the battle for the lead in the No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion. Even inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor In a car that looked more like it had just completed 500 miles at Martinsville than a race at Talladega, Joey Logano nearly pulled off the three-peat in the fall race at the track, but in the end had to settle for a fourth-place finish when the checkered flag flew. “Brad and I worked well together and we were able to help him win the race today, which was good,” said Logano. “I wish we could have won the race.  I had a good enoughRead More