NASCAR Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – From race winner Brandon Jones’ standpoint, it’s too bad there wasn’t a bounty on Kyle Busch in Saturday’s LS Tractor 200 at Phoenix Raceway. Buoyed by a strong run through Turns 3 and 4, Jones shot past Busch into the lead on the frontstretch on Lap 181 and pulled away to win by 3.556 seconds over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Harrison Burton, who passed Busch on Lap 190 for the runner-up position. Next weekend at Atlanta, there will be a $100,000Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Justin Allgaier came into Phoenix Raceway with high expectations after winning last November’s race, but a pit strategy knocked him out of contention during Saturday’s LS Tractor 200, finishing in 13th after leading 51 of 200 laps. “The definition of luck that I talk about all the time is when opportunity meets preparations,” Allgaier on his top-15 finish. “We were prepared, but we just didn’t get the opportunity. I hate it for the No. 7 guys and everybody JR Motorsports. They built a really fast raceRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kevin Harvick showed the way, and Chase Elliott proved the model student in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series time trials at Phoenix Raceway. After Harvick tested the traction compound at the top of the one-mile track and made it work—running a qualifying lap in 26.110 seconds (137.878 mph)—Elliott followed with a pole-winning effort of 26.065 seconds (138.116 mph). “Kevin kind of made the top work, and I think after everyone saw that, they moved up,” said Elliott, who earned his first BuschRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The first major piece of silly season for the much anticipated 2021 NASCAR Cup Series campaign was solved Friday as Ryan Blaney signed a multi-year extension with Team Penske. Blaney wasn’t hesitant to say in Friday’s press conference at Phoenix Raceway that he’s loyal to Roger Penske and never even thought of talking with any other teams as the extension was negotiated during the off-season. “I was really happy with where I was at. I love the people I am around and working with all theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The NASCAR Cup Series has been setting up shop on the West Coast for the past two weeks and this Sunday, the series will finish up its tour of the Southwestern United States with a trip to Phoenix Raceway and the FanShield 500. In a preview of November’s championship race, Sunday’s race on the one-mile oval in the Arizona desert, which made its debut on the Cup Series schedule in 1988, will be the first big test of the new short track/road course aero package thatRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor As the 2017 season was rolling toward its conclusion in November 2017, Matt Kenseth showed he’s still got it. In what was his final race at the one-mile Phoenix oval, Kenseth took it to the youngsters, showing them there’s still plenty in the tank when it comes to driving a race car. After announcing the week prior that he wouldn’t be returning to the cockpit in 2018, Kenseth came out at Phoenix with guns ablazing, ready to crash the party of the drivers battling it outRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The opening salvo of the 2021 NASCAR season just underwent a major shakeup with Daytona International Speedway announcing a shortened race week schedule starting next season. Traditionally, the Busch Clash and Daytona 500 qualifying have been held on the weekend prior to the Great American Race, but next year, everything is getting compressed into a six-day window from Tuesday, February 9 to Sunday, February 14. The Busch Clash will be run on Tuesday night, but won’t be held on Daytona’s 2.5-mile oval. Instead, the exhibition raceRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Tony Stewart hasn’t raced a NASCAR stock car since stepping away from the Cup Series full-time in 2016, but the allure of racing once more at his home track proved to be too much for the three-time champion and newly minted NASCAR Hall of Famer. With the NASCAR Xfinity Series moving its July 4th race away from the storied oval and on to the 14-turn, 2.439-mile infield road course, Stewart announced on Wednesday that he will be returning to the driver’s seat for that race toRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer New team, new number and a whole new outlook for Todd Gilliland, who’s now in his third season in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. Along with it, gone are the much publicized turmoil Todd had at Kyle Busch Motorsports and hello to a familiar entity as he’s driving the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150. “It was a real cool off season with how everything came together,” Todd on joining FRM. “For me, it’s my first time driving for Front Row Motorsports,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It was far from a pretty race for Denny Hamlin, who managed to escape Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway with a less than satisfying sixth-place finish. The three-time Daytona 500 champion had two infamous moments happened in the 200-lap race where outside of race winner Alex Bowman, he was the focal point of the event. Earlier in the race, a three-car battle between Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick nearly went awry on the frontstretch when the trio drafted together. Harvick slightly bumpedRead More