NASCAR Category

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer claimed his first win of the 2024 season Saturday beating his closest championship challenger Justin Allgaier to the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 checkered flag and giving Ford its first series win of the year. Custer’s No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang took the lead from Allgaier on a re-start with nine laps remaining and then held off the JR Motorsports Chevy by .670-second to secure his 14th career victory in a thrilling finishRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Defending Pocono race winner Denny Hamlin conceded Saturday that securing NASCAR records do indeed matter to him and his legacy. The 43-old veteran holds an active driver’ series best mark of seven wins at Pocono Raceway – including his career first victories in the NASCAR Cup Series – a sweep of the 2006 season. Hamlin currently has 54 wins – one shy of NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace’s 55-victory total and second only to Kyle Busch’s mark of 63 wins among active drivers. “Where I’veRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs earned his second career NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Position Saturday claiming the top starting spot for Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 21-year old Gibbs will line up first in the No. 54 JGR Toyota, equaling his best previous series qualifying effort at Charlotte Motor Speedway this May. His lap of 170.039 mph around the 2.5-mile Pocono oval was .118-seconds faster than WilliamRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Long Pond, PA – Corey Heim earned his series’ best fifth victory of the season in Friday evening’s rain-interrupted CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The 21-year old swept both stages and led 55 of the 70 laps to add to his trophy total. But, he had to battle competitors and climate for this win. The Georgian’s No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota led Grant Enfinger’s Chevrolet across the finish line by .867-second to take his 10th career victory – quickly re-establishing himself asRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Bowman is back. It has been a long road for Alex Bowman since he last visited Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he’ll have to wait no more after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race to break a winless streak dating back some 80 races. Since that win in March 2022 at Las Vegas, the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet has been through a lot, including a concussion that sidelined him for a number of races that same year, as wellRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Shane van Gisbergen will not be able to defend his NASCAR Chicago Street Race win after a crash in the rain with just 25 laps completed in Sunday’s Grant Park 165. Entering the day as the presumptive favorite to win again on the 12-turn, 2.2-mile street course in Downtown Chicago and sweep the weekend following his NASCAR Xfinity Series win on Saturday, the New Zealander seemed to be up to his old tricks again in the early laps on Sunday before Mother Nature hadRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Kyle Larson and Shane van Gisbergen are two of the best in the business when it comes to road course racing in NASCAR and this weekend in Chicago are putting on a clinic for the rest of the field when it comes to racing hard, but respectful around the tight confines of a street course. Since van Gisbergen shocked the NASCAR world with his win at the inaugural Chicago Street Race a year ago, drivers have been astonished with the way he was ableRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Just when the NASCAR Xfinity Series field thought it had Shane van Gisbergen covered, he showed them how it’s done, winning Saturday’s The Loop 121 on the Streets of Chicago. With two road course wins already in 2024 and a Cup Series win on the Chicago street course last season in his back pocket, van Gisbergen came in as the overwhelming favorite and rightfully so. Rolling off from the pole alongside Kyle Larson, it was a heavyweight fight for the New Zealander and LarsonRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – All of the preliminaries are complete, it’s time to go racing. Kyle Larson completed a clean sweep of both practice and qualifying on Saturday in preparation for Sunday’s running of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race. Prior to the green flag dropping on Sunday afternoon for the NASCAR Cup Series to take over the streets of the Windy City, here are some of the storylines of the weekend. Study Time A year after Shane van Gisbergen shocked the NASCAR world by winning the inaugural ChicagoRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Kyle Larson made everyone stand up and take notice on Saturday in Chicago, scoring the pole for Sunday’s second-annual running of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race. After posting the fast time in practice, Larson rolled that speed right into qualifying, leading his group to advance to the final round, where he was fast once again, rocketing around the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course in one minute, 27.836 seconds to claim his fifth pole of the season. Larson, who currently leads the Cup Series points standings, willRead More