Monster Energy Cup Category

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series headed to the newly repaved and reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott was riding a wave of momentum. Elliott has yet to finish worse than 14th all season, and earned his fourth Top 10 of the season last weekend at Martinsville Speedway. In the first practice for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, Elliott placed his No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet SS 20th on the charts. He improved to fifth fastest in the second practice. However, Elliott drifted wide offRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas -– Jimmie Johnson proved on Sunday that you can’t keep a good driver, a good car and a good team down for long—even if you change the playing field at one of his favorite race tracks. The seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion passed Joey Logano for the lead on Lap 318 of 334 and pulled away for his first victory of the season in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at newly repaved and reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway. The winRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Writer FORT WORTH, Texas — For the first 170 laps of Sunday’s 334 lap O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, it was all Ryan Blaney. The 23-year old driver for the Wood Brothers Racing Team had led 148 laps — the first time that the No. 21 team has led more than 100 laps in an event since October of 1982 — But a caution near the end of Stage 2 set up a disappointing conclusion to the race for Blaney. While Blaney optedRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Writer FORT WORTH, Texas — Dale Earnhardt Jr. returned to his old form in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Being mired deep in the starting lineup didn’t faze him, neither did a new track configuration. The only obstacle that really challenged Earnhardt all day was the intense Texas heat. During the race, on a bright sunny 81 degree day, Earnhardt’s helmet cooling fan malfunctioned. A gassed Earnhardt talked about his boiling day after climbing from his racecar. “It was warm. I thought the carRead More

By Beth Lunkenheimer, Contributing Writer FORT WORTH, Texas — The offseason brought about some pretty major changes to Texas Motor Speedway. While many drivers were quite fond of the rough surface at the 1.5-mile oval, nestled just north of Fort Worth, Texas, something had to give after the porous surface held rainwater through multiple race weekends last season. The speedway announced a major improvement project back in January that brought a fully repaved surface. Additional drainage was added, and the surface was reconfigured. The banking in Turns 1 and 2Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Writer FORT WORTH, Texas — Trevor Bayne comes into this weekend’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway 15th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings. It has been a great start to the season for the 26-year old Roush Fenway Racing driver. However, if Bayne is going to get his fifth top-15 finish of 2017 on Sunday, he will have to overcome a lot of adversity. In Saturday’s final practice session, Bayne, who was 10th fastest in the session, just pushed theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Writer FORT WORTH, Texas — Nine drivers were unable to take a qualifying lap on Friday for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. All nine were stuck in the technical inspection line after failing on their first pass through. Among the nine drivers were some really big names like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne. Saturday morning, those drivers got their first shot to prove how fast their cars really are, and spoiler alert someRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Tex. – Kevin Harvick needed a do-over in the second round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway, but putting the extra lap on his tires proved well worth the effort. Harvick led not only the second round but also the first and third in winning the pole for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET on FOX). “I just didn’t feel like I got through Turns 1 and 2 like I needed to,” HarvickRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Writer FORT WORTH, TEXAS — When walking around Friday afternoon before qualifying for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, I couldn’t help but notice there were a ton more fans sitting outside the grandstands checking out the midway than what were actually up in seats watching the racing action. When I asked many of them if they were going to go inside to watch qualifying, they said that they didn’t think qualifying was worth the price of admission. Once qualifying began, I immediatelyRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Writer Many people have argued for years that 1.5-mile tracks are too cookie cutter. Well, they can’t claim that about Texas Motor Speedway anymore. This offseason, the track underwent a massive repaving and re-profiling which flattened the banking four degrees on one end of the track, which now gives crew chiefs a dilemma of what end of the speedway to adjust their cars for. In opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, the new track layout bit several of the sport’s top drivers. In all three driversRead More