Cup Category

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service In only his fifth NASCAR Cup Series season, Chase Elliott is proving himself a road course master, easily besting the field Sunday at the Charlotte ROVAL and more importantly, the 24-year old continues to establish himself as a perennial championship contender. Elliott’s win in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 Playoff race was his fourth consecutive road course victory, a mark of excellence shared only with NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, who won six straight road course races. It’s his second consecutive winRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer History was made in Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the NASCAR Cup Series finally got a shot of competing in the rain on race day. Well, sort of, because rain wasn’t a factor compared to Saturday’s wet and wild Xfinity Series race. In fact, the track was actually beginning to dry before the conclusion of Stage 1, so that monumental moment didn’t last. That didn’t meant the race lacked any mayhem because there were plenty of wet spots thatRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor There are numerous adjectives that can be used to describe this weekend’s race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course: unpredictable, volatile, treacherous, chaotic, etc. One thing is for sure, Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 is going to be a hell of a ride. Especially with wet weather in the forecast and the issues that racing in the rain brings to the table. In an effort to spice things up back in 2018, Charlotte officials elected to switch from running another race on the 1.5-mileRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Just when you thought this week’s NASCAR news was done, think again. This time, it impacts the future of three Ford drivers as Thursday’s announcements gets us a step closer of finishing out the silly season puzzle. Matt DiBenedetto will stay with the Wood Brothers for only one more season as Xfinity Series star Austin Cindric will make the move to the Cup Series in 2022. Therefore, Cindric will stay in the second division with Team Penske as he signed a multi-year deal. Finally, ClintRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The announcements just keeps on hitting left and right as three announcements have taken place in the world of NASCAR over the past 24 hours with plenty more to come. Plenty positives, but some I’m simply skeptical due to the fact it has some implications, ranging from a specific driver to the status of one race team. Here are some of my takeaways from each of those confirmations involving Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Hailie Deegan. Bowman Succeeds Another NASCAR Icon In a clever socialRead More
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service For the second time in as many seasons, Denny Hamlin broke Matt DiBenedetto’s heart, before NASCAR removed the pathos from the situation with a post-race ruling. At the end of a third overtime at Talladega Superspeedway, Hamlin beat DiBenedetto to the finish line to win by .023 seconds—roughly two feet—in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at the 2.66-mile track. But NASCAR erased the close call by penalizing DiBenedetto for forcing William Byron below the yellow line separating the racing surface fromRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor One wild card race down, one to go. A crazy afternoon at Talladega, as expected, wreaked havoc on the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, putting a number of championship contenders in dire straits with just one race remaining before the postseason field is cut from 12 drivers to eight. Heading into the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, only Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin are truly safe having already clinched their spots in the next round. Busch automatically advanced with his win at Las Vegas, while Hamlin punchedRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Let me make this clear about Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, I’m not holding back. Denny Hamlin wins a long and controversial 200-lap, three-overtime saga by just 0.023 seconds over Matt DiBenedetto and like last August at Bristol, the racing crowd jeered the now 44-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at the expense of Matt D coming up short of a maiden win. Gutted for DiBenedetto, but that’s just the way life is sometimes. Stuff isn’t meant to be and will have to wait another weekRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor The final two races that make up the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will be a gauntlet for the drivers still in championship contention with races at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval set to wreak havoc on the Playoff field. Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega is the first wild card race that will have to be dealt with, as the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing will likely throw a wrench into even the best laid plans and leave some of the Playoff driversRead More
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service New tracks, road courses and a dirt race—NASCAR fulfilled its mission of expanding its sphere of influence with the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, announced Wednesday afternoon. With the addition of road course races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Tex., and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., NASCAR has doubled the number of road-course events on the schedule—retaining the races at Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International and the Charlotte Roval. For the first time sinceRead More