Cup Category

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After kicking off the first half of the season with three wins, Kyle Busch and his No. 18 team have been having a summer to forget, with finishes of 30th or worse in the three races prior to Sunday’s race at Michigan. Unfortunately for Busch, the summer slump would continue in the FireKeepers Casino 400. Starting ninth, Busch started having handling issues and made note that something was going on with his engine almost immediately. As Busch started dropping back just prior to lap 53,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – For more than a third of active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, there will be no rest for the weary. One driver from each Cup organization is eligible to participate in a test of newly repaved Kentucky Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. The test is a continuation of NASCAR’s proving-out process for a new lower-downforce competition package earmarked for 2017. Last year, as the sanctioning body solidified the rules for 2016, races at Kentucky and Darlington were used as benchmarks forRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It’s been almost four full seasons since Tony Stewart — one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers — reached victory lane. Stewart is in the midst of his final season on the circuit, and things as you may know by now, started off on the wrong foot after a severe back injury just weeks before the start of the season sidelined the driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet for nine races. If Stewart is wanting a storybook finish to his incredible NASCAR career, he will need toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – After two frustrating weeks of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying, Joey Logano learned the drill. Posting the fastest speeds in both the second and final rounds of Friday’s knockout time trials at Michigan International Speedway, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 (1 p.m. ET on FS1) at the two-mile track. In the previous two weekends, at Charlotte and Pocono, Logano led the first two rounds of qualifying but failed to close the deal in the decisive third round. OnRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – After Friday’s opening 85-minute NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session at Michigan International Speedway, there was strong consensus among drivers as to the lower-downforce aerodynamic package in place for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 (at 1 p.m. ET on FS1). In a word, the new configuration was “challenging.” That’s exactly what it was supposed to be. “Speeds are blazing fast down the straightaway but quite a bit slower in the corner, and that has been interesting,” said 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski. “It’sRead More

SHOW #414 – Guest: Brian Scott / We recap the Pocono weekend, Kurt Busch makes fuel last, Brad Vs. Jeff smackdown (for some reason), lug nuts bite another crew chief, plus a full Michigan preview and a spotlight on driver Danica Patrick. 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 ourRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service A rare exception as a driver from outside of NASCAR’s developmental hotbeds, Brad Keselowski calls Rochester Hills, Michigan home. Decorated already – even with his prime years potentially still in front of him – Keselowski, 32, boasts the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship and 19 career wins. One achievement the No. 2 Team Penske driver would dearly like to add to his resume is a win in his native state. Keselowski gets the chance to visit Victory Lane beneath the roar of his hometown fansRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor A two-mile, high banked behemoth in the backyard of the big three American automakers, Michigan International Speedway has played host to NASCAR since 1969 and will do so again this weekend as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to the track for Sunday’s running of the Firekeepers Casino 400. Before we focus on the here and now, we’ll take a look back into the past in this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater” and the 2001 Kmart 400, which saw the resurgence of a champion and aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Since his runner-up finish at Bristol back in April, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had been having a rough go of things in the five races that followed, failing to finish inside the top-10 in any of them, but on Monday at Pocono, Earnhardt returned to form at a track that he has had good luck at in the past. Starting eighth, Earnhardt struggled early in the race as it looked like Monday’s race might just be a continuation of their performance issues that they had beenRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Pocono’s tricky layout is notorious for giving rookies in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series a hard time, but for the stellar rookie class of 2016, Sunday’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono was a walk in the park. In this week’s “Rookie Report”, we’ll recap just how well the rookies did at the “Tricky Triangle”. Chase Elliott has been the class of the rookie field for much of 2016 and his first career trip to Pocono was one of his best showings of theRead More