Cup Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – In a race whose aftermath left hometown driver Kyle Busch with a bloody forehead, Martin Truex Jr. passed the faltering car of Brad Keselowski on the white-flag lap and cruised to a sweep of all three stages in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As Truex approached the checkered flag to win a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time this season and the first time at LVMS, Joey Logano’s Ford slid up into Kyle Busch’sRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Brad Keselowski blew the first and second corners on his money lap in Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Then he blew away the rest of the field. Perhaps “blew away” is a bit of an exaggeration. Keselowski covered the 1.5-mile distance in 27.881 (193.680 mph) to edge Martin Truex Jr. (193.458 mph) for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX) by .003 seconds. The Coors Light Pole AwardRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series gets set to begin its West Coast swing in Las Vegas this weekend with the running of the Kobalt 400, it’s time once again to venture into the past in this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”. This week we take it all the way back to 1998 and the inaugural NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on the 1.5 mile speedway. Fans in that area of the country were ready for some NASCAR action in their hometownRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Since joining the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series circuit in 1998, Las Vegas Motor Speedway has had just one race date on the calendar, but starting in 2018, that changes. On Wednesday afternoon, the track and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced a $2.5 million partnership that would bring a second Cup Series weekend to the facility starting next season. With the schedule already jam packed and NASCAR not looking to add any race dates, that would mean one of the other tracksRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Viva Las Vegas! After spending the first two weekends of the 2017 season on the East Coast, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series packs up and heads west for the first leg of “NASCAR Goes West” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Sunday’s running of the Kobalt 400. Las Vegas began its life on the NASCAR circuit as a 1.5 mile oval with 12 degrees of banking in 1998, but following the 2006 running of the race, the track underwent a massive reconfiguration that sawRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Thanks to the unintentional generosity of the dominant driver in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, opportunistic Brad Keselowski won the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Kevin Harvick led 292 of the 325 laps at the 1.54-mile track, but a pit road speeding penalty under caution on Lap 311 sent him to the back of the field for the final restart. That gave Keselowski the chance he needed, and on Lap 319 he surged past KyleRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor There is bad luck and then there is Kevin Harvick’s luck at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Heading into Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, Harvick had been the dominant car in the three previous races at the track, leading the most laps in each of those events, but failing to capture the victory at the end of the day for various reasons, whether it be a bad restart, a bad pit stop, or something else. On Sunday, Harvick once again found himself in the catbird seatRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Kevin Harvick saved his best lap for the best possible moment on Friday afternoon, putting his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford on the pole for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX). In the third and final round of knockout qualifying for the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season, Harvick toured the 1.54-mile track in 29.118 seconds (190.398 mph) to post the fastest lap of the entire qualifying session.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor To say that Kurt Busch’s NASCAR career has been a rollercoaster of a ride would be an understatement. From the moment the Las Vegas native entered the sport, he has endured the highest of highs and the lowest of lows throughout his 18 year career, but after winning the Daytona 500 last Sunday, Busch is still riding the high of winning NASCAR’s biggest race. Following his win, Busch not only celebrated with his team into the wee hours of the morning, but also went onRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Entering the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season, Carl Edwards was not yet a household name, but after a weekend for the ages at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he was well on his way to becoming one. The Missouri native burst onto the NASCAR scene in 2003, winning three races in the No. 99 truck for Roush Racing and backing it up the following season with another three wins to bring home top-10 points finishes in his first two full-time seasons in NASCAR. When Jeff BurtonRead More