Monster Energy Cup Category

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Fresh off his season-best finish of 14th at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night, Trevor Bayne sees a huge improvement in the Roush Fenway Racing organization only seven races into their 2016 campaign. Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 champion, nearly pulled off an off-sequence pit strategy that would brought home his first win in over five years. Still, the Tennessee native was running solidly in the top 10 prior to surprise strategy call, mixing it up with teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on a couple of occasions forRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Roush Fenway Racing is coming off of arguably its strongest race in a couple of seasons. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne were top-10 competitors all night long in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas, and Greg Biffle was a solid top-15 car as well. However, they all faced difficult outcomes. Stenhouse was collected in a 13-car pileup, Bayne was caught a lap down by a wonky pit strategy and Biffle was crashed by Kasey Kahne. But nonetheless you can feel the momentum building forRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Kyle Busch has picked up right where he left off after his championship season a year ago. Busch is currently in the midst of a hot streak as he’s won the last two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, and he has won the last four NASCAR National Series (Sprint Cup, Xfinity, Truck) races overall. Busch now sits at an incredible 161 victories between NASCAR’s top three divisions, which naturally has fans and pundits comparing him to the legendary Richard Petty, who won 200 races inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer With Darlington Raceway hosting another throwback themed Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend this season, teams and drivers have been working feverishly on their throwback schemes for this year’s race. After coming to Darlington with a Neil Bonnett throwback last season, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his Nationwide team had bigger plans for their 2016 unveil and they did not disappoint. For the 2016 Southern 500, Earnhardt will be piloting a No. 88 Chevrolet with Buddy Baker’s “Gray Ghost” livery that Baker took to victoryRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 from Texas Motor Speedway is officially over and for the second consecutive week Kyle Busch is the victor. Here are the latest five takeaways from NASCAR’s trip to the 1.5-mile oval. 1) Kyle Busch Can someone seriously stop this man? ‘Rowdy’ is, without question, at the best place of his career both personally and professionally, and it shows both on the track and during interviews. The reigning 2015 Sprint Cup champion has rattled off four wins in eight days among allRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor For several years, Landon Cassill has been regarded as one of the hottest prospects in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but many believe he just hasn’t had the equipment to match his talent level. This offseason, Cassill swapped from Hillman Racing to the Front Row Motorsports team, and already he is showing huge signs of improvement. Tribute Racing had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Cassill at Texas Motor Speedway about how he is enjoying life with his new team. “I’m enjoying it,” CassillRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After the wildly successful throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway for the return of the Southern 500 to Labor Day last season, the track and teams are joining forces once again with a plethora of throwback schemes set to grace the track’s high banks in September. On Monday, the No. 17 Roush-Fenway Racing team, piloted by Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., unveiled their entry into the throwback race, electing to honor another legend of the sport. Last season, Stenhouse and Roush-Fenway ran a blue and gold David PearsonRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Tex. – Opportunistic Kyle Busch sped away from the rest of the field after a restart with 33 laps left in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and collected his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. What’s more, Busch won his fourth straight NASCAR national series race, having swept last week’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup events at Martinsville and having won Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas. Quite simply, the prodigiousRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — From the rough start that was a 36th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has turned around his season in a big way. That 180-degree spin from February’s ultimate let-down continued Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Earnhardt rolled off from the 14th spot, thanks to a transmission change that sent Chase Elliott to the rear of the field, and early on his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet was quite tight. Once Earnhardt began to tune on it fromRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – After running in the top 10 for a majority of the race in the Duck Commander 500 on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. saw his great run dashed in a late accident on lap 294. The 28-year-old ran a clean race and kept his No. 6 Zest Ford Fusion out of trouble, running as high as fifth at the 1.5-mile oval. On the exit of Turn 2 Jimmie Johnson made contact with an already loose Austin Dillon, sendingRead More