Cup Category

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After just one top-10 finish in the first round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Carl Edwards and his No. 19 team will head into Charlotte to start the Round of 12 needing to step up their performance in order to be able to move on to the next round of the Chase. Edwards’ average finish of 11.67 may have been enough to allow him to move into the second round with relative ease, but with four less drivers in the running forRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday’s running of the Bank of America 500, the time has come once again to take a look back at a race from Charlotte’s past in this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”. In this week’s edition, we will focus on the 2002 UAW GM Quality 500 – a race that saw a relative unknown score his first Cup Series win in just his second start. After leading the points for the majorityRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor With the first round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup complete after last weekend’s race at Dover, NASCAR’s premier division heads home to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend to kick off the Round of 12 with Saturday night’s running of the Bank of America 500. As the first race in the Round of 12, Charlotte will play a big role in setting up how the remainder of the round will play out at Kansas and Talladega in the next two weeks. The 1.5Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – It was a Martin Truex Jr. blowout, a Jamie McMurray blow-up and a Jimmie Johnson “We blew it again.” Truex cruised to a decisive victory in Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway, a race that pared the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field from 16 drivers to 12. Winning for a fourth time this season, a second time at Dover and the seventh time in his career, Truex was without peer after a pit road snafu on LapRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into Dover, Chip Ganassi Racing found its two cars straddling the line to be able to advance onto the Round of 12 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, with Kyle Larson just above the line and Jamie McMurray just below it. While the team was confident that they could get both of their cars into the top-12 in points by the time the day was over, it would be the opposite of that after a rough day for both Larson and McMurray.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover, it was the tale of two races for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookies as just one of them left the Monster Mile with a good run, while the others left disappointed. Chase Elliott, who came into the day without a win but a decent point advantage over the Round of 12 cut-off did exactly what he needed to throughout the race, starting ninth and running a clean race, staying out of trouble over the course ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service If you don’t consider Martin Truex Jr. one of the favorites to win this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, you haven’t been paying attention to the first two races in the Chase. Truex won the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway and had perhaps the fastest car a week later at New Hampshire, though he dropped to seventh at the finish after a late restart. Now he comes to Dover, the track closest to his childhood home in Mayetta, N.J., full of confidence—and notRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service As a Sunoco rookie in his first Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Chase Elliott has found the first two playoff races surprisingly “normal.” Elliott comes to the elimination at Dover tied for ninth in the standings, 16 points ahead of Jamie McMurray and Austin Dillon, the first two drivers below the cut line. But Elliott expects that, as the rounds of the Chase progress, the intensity will ratchet up significantly. “I think the further you get into it, the more it is goingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – For the second time in the first three Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races this year, rain played havoc with Sprint Cup qualifying, forcing cancellation of Friday’s knockout time trials for the first elimination race of the playoffs. This is the third straight Sprint Cup event at Dover for which qualifying has been cancelled because of rain. With the field set by the rule book, Brad Keselowski, whose No. 2 Team Penske Ford leads the owners’ standings, will start Sunday’sRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor For Jimmie Johnson, Dover represents both a place where he has had a lot of success over the years, but has also been his Achilles’ heel recently. With elimination from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup still a possibility on Sunday, Johnson heads into the Citizen Soldier 400 hoping luck is on his side this time around and he’ll be able to move on to the Round of 12 by the time the checkered flag flies. This time last year, Johnson looked to beRead More