Monster Energy Cup Category

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Entering Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, winning was the only thing on Kasey Kahne’s mind. After 25 races, Kahne entered the race outside the Top 16 in points, without a win, and with only one more chance to qualify for the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. Kahne’s hopes looked promising in Friday’s two practices, as he was fourth fastest in practice one, and 13th fastest in the second practice. Kahne ultimately qualified his No. 5 Farmers Insurance ChevroletRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Jamie McMurray is a veteran driver who has been in NASCAR long enough to see every Chase for the Sprint Cup take place in every varied format that it has had over the years. But up until last season, McMurray — winner of seven Cup Series races in his career — had never made it into NASCAR’s championship playoff series. Now a year later, McMurray is experiencing the fruits of making it into the Chase in consecutive seasons. McMurray was fast all week long atRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor On Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, none of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookies had a stellar night, but for two of them, they were able to survive the chaos to race their way into the 16 driver Chase for the Sprint Cup field when the checkered flag flew. The two rookies that were able to move on to the postseason were Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher, both of whom had a rough go of it during the 400 lap race, but were ableRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor When Tony Stewart announced his retirement before the 2016 season, he said that he didn’t want a parade of retirement gifts. He could go about accomplishing that feat a different way than he has over the last two races. At the pace he’s currently going, there will not be many drivers that are going to be missing Stewart when he retires at the end of the year. Last week in Darlington, Stewart was summoned to the NASCAR hauler after he wiped out Brian Scott while driving downRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor After qualifying a dismal 34th on Friday, Chase Elliott set sail on chasing his first-ever Chase berth in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night. By lap 90, Elliott had worked his way inside the top-15 when an anxious moment ensued. While Elliott was running three-wide with Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon, Newman made contact with Gordon. The contact sent Gordon into Elliott, which then caused Elliott’s tire to cut down. Elliott would slam into the wall on lap 95,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond, Ryan Blaney and the Wood Brothers Racing team had one final chance to try and win a race to move into the Chase, but for the No. 21 team, a place in the postseason was not to be after an early race crash that ended their hopes of competing for the championship. Blaney entered the night 69 points behind Jamie McMurray for the 16th and final Chase spot on points, so the only way thatRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It all comes down to this weekend for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie, Chris Buescher. Buescher, who won at Pocono a month ago after the race was shortened by fog, is looking to make his way into the Chase for the Sprint Cup in his first season of trying. If Buescher does indeed make it into the championship field after 400 laps of racing Saturday night in Richmond, he will likely have to perform a little better than he did in Friday’s qualifying session. Buescher wasn’tRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – Don’t tell Denny Hamlin his first pole of the season isn’t significant. In the money round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota toured .75-mile Richmond International Raceway in 22.069 seconds (122.344 mph) to earn the top starting spot for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN), the final race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season. “I thought for sure we had too many laps on ourRead More

SHOW #427 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Update – We also recap Darlington, go over the Chase scenarios, Just Sayin’, Richmond Preview and more. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Toby Christie DOWNLOAD HERE CREDITS: Hosts: Kerry Murphey & Toby Christie Executive Producer: Kerry Murphey Music: Russell Nash Audio Director Voice Over: Thomas Moog SUBSCRIBE FREE HERE RSS FEED RADIO STATIONS CLICK HERE SUBSCRIBE FROM iTUNES: Take us with you! Subscribe to our audio shows from iTunes, and they will automatically show up on your computer as soon as we post freshRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After 500 miles around the historic Darlington Raceway last Sunday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Richmond for the final regular season race that will set the 16 driver field for the Chase with Saturday night’s running of the Federated Auto Parts 400. Often described as the perfectly designed race track by drivers, the 0.75 mile track lends itself to not only short track characteristics of beating and banging, but also the characteristics of a larger track with the side by side racing thatRead More