NASCAR Category

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Now that we are now one week removed from racing’s biggest weekend of the year, I’d like to take a look back to just how historical, significant and amazing the trio of the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Coca Cola 600 were this year by looking at some of the incredible facts and statistics of the day. The Monaco Grand Prix had never before started under the safety car, until this year when rain caused the field to take the first 10 laps behind BerndRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – The maiden voyage of the NASCAR XFINITY Series at Pocono Raceway was shorter than planned, but race winner Kyle Larson wasn’t complaining. NASCAR awarded the checkered flag in the Pocono Green 250 to Larson when the race was red-flagged after 53 of 100 scheduled laps and then called because of persistent rain. The victory was Larson’s first of the season and fourth in the series, but it was a source of frustration to runner-up Erik Jones, who arguably had theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Before last week’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr.’s 2016 season could have been summed up with a lyric from the blues standard “Born Under a Bad Sign.” “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all,” could well have been Truex’s theme for the current campaign. He lost the Daytona 500 to Denny Hamlin by six inches. He led 141 laps at Texas and finished sixth. He won the pole and led 172 of 267 lapsRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads back to Pocono Raceway for the second time this season, it’s time once again for another edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater” as we take a look back at a race from Pocono’s past. In this week’s edition, we will take a look back at the 1987 Miller High Life 500, an emotional race for one team and driver in particular. After winning the 1986 season finale at Riverside International Raceway, Tim Richmond was at the top of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Tony Stewart was winless in 17 previous tries in NASCAR’s longest night and hoped that his 18th start in the Memorial Day weekend classic would be the race where he would finally be able to end the night in victory lane. “Any time you win a race at Charlotte, it’s big. It’s a speedway with a lot of history and, obviously, the Coca-Cola 600 is a huge event. I’m a big fan of shorter races nowadays, but theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After rookie Alexander Rossi won the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day, all eyes were on the standout rookies of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to see if they could make it two rookie wins on the day. While none of the five rookies in the field were able to end the night in victory lane, NAPA Auto Parts, which sponsored Rossi in the Indianapolis 500 and also sponsors rookie Chase Elliott and his No. 24 Chevrolet wound up with the top rookie finish atRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Martin Truex Jr. crashed a Ford party on Thursday night, winning the pole for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET on FOX). With his team making adjustments to the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota throughout the qualifying session, Truex saved his best lap for the round that counted, covering the 1.5-mile distance in 28.077 seconds (192.328 mph) to edge Team Penske Ford driver Joey Logano (192.007 mph) by .047 seconds for the top starting spot inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The greatest day in auto racing is upon us once more with three premier events (F1 at Monaco, the Indianapolis 500, and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte) all taking place throughout the day on Sunday. With the 57th running of the Coca-Cola 600 set for Sunday afternoon into the night, we’ll take a step back to one of the most memorable races at Charlotte in recent memory, the 2005 Coca-Cola 600 and the amazing finish between Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte. Ryan Newman and JeffRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor As a part of Charlotte race weeks, the NASCAR Hall of Fame voting committee will gather on Wednesday, May 25 to induct five new names into the shrine of the sport’s legends. This year’s class will be the eighth in the history of the Hall of Fame and all 20 of the nominees have one reason or another that they should be inducted. With 20 nominees, the voting panel has a tough task to condense this year’s class down to five, so like the votingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After an impressive start to All-Star weekend on Saturday morning with the rain-delayed Sprint Showdown, all eyes were on the new NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race format to see if it could equal the excitement from the preliminary race, but the new format fell well short of expectations as the Showdown overshadowed the main event. The Sprint Showdown started off with a photo finish between Trevor Bayne and Chase Elliott in the first segment of the All-Star preliminaries as Bayne made a daring three-wide pass forRead More