NASCAR Category

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor HOMESTEAD, Fla. — An entire season’s work rests on one 400-mile race for the four drivers and teams left in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. NASCAR’s new Chase format — unveiled in 2014 — essentially makes the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway a dog-eat-dog winner-take-all race for the championship. Talk about pressure. For Jimmie Johnson, there is added pressure. If the California-native can rise above his competition in Sunday’s race, he will be tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with most Sprint Cup SeriesRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Competition between NASCAR manufacturers isn’t confined to the race track. In a press conference featuring executives from Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, Ed Laukes of Toyota couldn’t pass up an opportunity to needle Chevy’s Jim Campbell. “Let me apologize for those 16 Monday mornings,” Laukes quipped, referring to Toyota’s 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories this season. “Let me apologize for last night,” retorted Campbell, referring to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship Chevrolet driver Johnny Sauter won on Friday. AllRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Carl Edwards, one of four drivers left in the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup, is still seeking his first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. After Saturday’s two practice sessions for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400, it really looks like Edwards could be in a great position to finally add a huge piece of hardware to his mantle. Edwards, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, was third-fastest in the first practice session of the day, and he followed that up by recording the second-fastest lapRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor HOMESTEAD, Fla. — For the past 15 years, Ford has sponsored the final NASCAR race weekend of the season. Over that span, there have been plenty of incredible moments at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. exploded onto the NASCAR scene with breakout performances in the Xfinity Series in 2011 and 2012. Between those two seasons, Stenhouse recorded an impressive eight victories, and in both years he came into Ford Championship Weekend with a chance to clinch a title. “Ford Championship Weekend a lot of great memories come to mind of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor It all comes down to this. After 35 race weekends, the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season comes down to one final race to determine the champion. Four drivers head into Homestead-Miami Speedway and the Ford Ecoboost 400 with an equal shot at the championship, while the other 36 drivers in the field are simply looking for a win to cap off the season. Since its reconfiguration in 2003, Homestead has provided some great racing on its progressive banking on one of the true ovalsRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor HOMESTEAD, Fla. — If you told Martin Truex Jr. before the year started that he would rack up four wins and lead over 1,800 laps over the course of the 2016 season, I’m sure he would have taken that in a heart beat. Truex has racked up those exact numbers, which equal career-bests, yet he is still left bummed out. The Mayetta, New Jersey native has reason to be dejected as he looked to be the favorite for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, that is until a blown motorRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Johnny Sauter won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship with a third-place finish in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, leaving race winner William Byron to consider what might have been. As Byron and Tyler Reddick battled for the lead, Sauter passed Championship 4 contender Matt Crafton for third-place on Lap 119 of 134 at the 1.5-mile track. Sauter then pulled away to claim the championship as Crafton faded to seventh in the closing laps. Byron, the polesitter,Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Christopher Bell put in a gritty performance in the Ford EcoBoost 200, overcoming adversity to get within reach of the NASCAR Camping World Series championship in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but fading late en route to a third place finish in the points standings. The 21-year-old Oklahoma native started eighth, but an ill-handling No. 4 Toyota Tundra put the rookie on the backend of the field and playing catch up to the rest of the Championship 4. Continually flirting with theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor HOMESTEAD, Fla. — For the first 110 laps of Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it looked like Matt Crafton, who drives the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra had his third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship all sewed up. But over the final 24 laps of the season-ending Championship race, the handling went away on Crafton’s race truck. “Really good there at the beginning and then was terrible there on the last run and came up short,” a dejected Crafton summarized following theRead More