NASCAR Category

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer With Aric Almirola still sidelined from a back injury suffered at Kansas Speedway, Casey Mears will pilot the No. 98 Fresh From Florida Ford Mustang at Daytona International Speedway. Mears is coming off a 21st place finish at Pocono Raceway three weeks ago. Mears brings his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series experience to Biagi DenBeste Racing and the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 as he slides into the same Mustang that has won two of the last three restrictor plate races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series withRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The 1998 Pepsi 400 was scheduled to be a monumental mark for NASCAR’s crown jewel track, Daytona International Speedway, as the track’s July 4th weekend race would be run under the lights for the very first time. However, a devastating wildfire that had swept through Central Florida around that weekend, destroying 126 homes and charring 500,000 acres, forced the race to be postponed to mid-October, making it one of the final races of the season. In addition to the race being run under the lightsRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Entering the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway, the 15th race of the season, only three of the NASCAR Xfinity Series regulars (Justin Allgaier, Ryan Reed, and William Byron) have scored victories during the 2017 season. The restrictor plate-style of racing gives more teams a chance at earning a victory and a potential Playoff berth. Elliott Sadler leads the Championship Point standings, despite not scoring a win, he leads with 25 points over his JR Motorsports teammate, Allgaier. The last time the Xfinity SeriesRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor As expected, Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team was handed a penalty on Wednesday for unsecured lugnuts found at the conclusion of last Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway. Following his fifth place finish in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, two lugnuts were found to be improperly installed on Busch’s Toyota, bringing with it a one race suspension and a $20,000 fine for interim crew chief Ben Beshore. Beshore has been serving as Busch’s crew chief for the past three weeks as hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Following last Sunday’s road course race at Sonoma Raceway, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back to where it all began, Daytona International Speedway, for this weekend’s 58th running of the Coke Zero 400, the third restrictor plate race of the season. From 1959 until 1987, the 160 lap, 400 mile shootout at the World Center of Racing, then called the Firecracker 400, was held on July 4th, even if the holiday fell in the middle of the week. Beginning in 1988, the raceRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Less than two weeks after Jimmie Johnson signed a contract extension to stay at Hendrick Motorsports through 2020, the organization’s youngest driver, Chase Elliott, has also signed a contract extension of his own to keep him in the seat of the No. 24 Chevrolet through the 2022 season. Elliott’s contract was not set to expire until the end of the 2018 season, but the extension gives the four-car organization some much needed stability for the future. “It means the world to me to be aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway marked the first road course of the season for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the 1.990-mile track located north of San Francisco certainly did not disappoint. Leaving Sonoma, here are five of the top storylines of the day. Harvick Checks Another Track off the List Starting the season, Kevin Harvick had just four tracks that he had not yet won at: Kentucky, Pocono, Sonoma, and Texas. After Sunday’s race, Harvick took that list down to three,Read More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer For this week’s edition of Climbing the Ladder, Seth Eggert sat down with Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) driver Cole Custer. Custer is a 19-year-old NASCAR Xfinity Series driver that drives the No. 00 Haas Automation, Code 3 Associates Ford Mustang and is campaigning for the 2017 Xfinity Series Championship as well as Rookie of the Year honors. He currently sits seventh in the Championship Point standings. Seth Eggert: What made you enter the same industry that your father, Joe Custer, who is the executive Vice-President ofRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Coming off three-straight Top 10 finishes in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season, Chase Elliott was looking to improve on his 21st place finish in last year’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. The driver of the No. 24 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet SS finished eighth in his backup car after a mistake with just minutes left in the final practice on Friday left his primary car destroyed, and his Hendrick Motorsports team scrambling. Though he had no laps in the backup car,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Kevin Harvick won Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series West event at Sonoma Raceway. That was like taking candy from babies. But Harvick mixed it up with the big boys in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, and the outcome was the same. Executing an ideal strategy for the long green-flag run that consumed the second half of the race—minus roughly 200 yards—Harvick won a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event for the first time this season, the first time at Sonoma andRead More