NASCAR Category

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer For this week’s edition of Climbing the Ladder, Seth Eggert sat down with ThorSport Racing driver Ben Rhodes. Rhodes is a 19-year-old NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver. Rhodes drives the Alpha Energy Solutions No. 41 Toyota Tundra. Rhodes is campaigning for both the 2016 Camping World Truck Series Championship and 2016 Truck Series Rookie of the Year Honors. Seth Eggert: How did you become interested in motorsports? Ben Rhodes: I was seven years old, and my brother started racing. We bought a go-kart fromRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The last time the NASCAR Xfinity Series visited Dayona International Speedway, Chase Elliott took home the victory, beating out Joey Logano in a thrilling finish earlier this year. Elliott is not competing for points in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season. The last time a contender for the Xfinity Series Championship won at Daytona was Ryan Reed in February 2015. If the past Daytona races are any indication, this one will be an unpredictable, exciting and wild race. Xfinity Series Chase 14 races into theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Not many people in the NASCAR universe are as charismatic or genuinely liked as Kerry Tharp. Tharp, who has served admirably as NASCAR’s Senior Director of Communications for several seasons, will move to a new job as Darlington Raceway’s track president starting Juky 1st, the track announced with a press release on Wednesday. The always engaging Tharp vows to carry on the historic tradition of one of NASCAR’s oldest tracks. “I am deeply humbled and honored to have this opportunity,” Tharp said. “I love theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor When the NASCAR Xfinity Series Subway FireCracker 250 goes green this Friday night, one of the best looking cars twinkling under the powerful trackside lighting at Daytona International Speedway will undoubtedly be Kaulig Racing’s No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro. This week the team, which has been one of the pleasant surprises so far in 2016, will have a new sponsor on board — Celsius Energy Drink. The sponsor is new to the race team, but they have sponsored Koch’s racing efforts for years. The paint scheme,Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor NASCAR has announced penalties stemming from the chaos that broke out in last week’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Drivin for Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park. John Wes Townley, who drives the No. 05 truck for Athenian Motorsports and Spencer Gallagher, who drives the No. 23 truck for GMS Racing each have wallets that are quite a bit lighter today after their on track wrestling match this past weekend. Townley, who first charged at Gallagher to start the fight was fined $15,000, while GallagherRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor In the midst of celebrating his first win in three years, Tony Stewart took a moment at Sonoma Raceway to look ahead to the future once he steps out of the driver’s seat for the final time when the checkered flag flies at Homestead in November. Stewart’s departure at season’s end marks the second top tier driver to step away from the cockpit in as many years with Jeff Gordon vacating the No. 24 car at the end of 2015. With both Stewart and GordonRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor 45 drivers will head to Daytona International Speedway vying for a place in the field for Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Subway FireCracker 250. One name that will be missing in action is 20-year-old rookie Matt Tifft. Tifft was expected to compete after completing surgery to correct an issue with a disc in his back. Unfortunately — or forunately, actually — as Tifft was being treated for his back injury, doctors found a low-grade glioma in his brain. A glioma, according to a team pressRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Is Tony Stewart having fun yet? In his last year of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, Stewart came to Sonoma Racing asserting on Friday he wasn’t having much fun driving a Sprint Cup car. That all changed in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile road course, where Stewart bulldozed Denny Hamlin into the outside wall in Turn 11, executing a dramatic last-lap pass for his first victory since June 2, 2013 at Dover. In the three years since that victory,Read More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Recently, road courses have not been kind to Denny Hamlin. In the last 12 road course races, Hamlin has had an average finish of 29.1. However, the weekend started promising after Hamlin qualified in sixth for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Hamlin slid back to ninth after the first caution, but never fell out of the top ten. Hamlin then settled into the ninth position until the second caution waved on lap 46. On the restart, Hamlin worked his way into the lead.Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a strong weekend all the way around in Sonoma. He was fast in both practice sessions, and he qualified a respectable 13th for Sunday’s race. In the early stages of the race, Earnhardt worked his way up into the top-five where he would stay for a good portion of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Earnhardt looked poised to cruise to his third-consecutive top-10 finish at Sonoma Raceway. However Earnhardt got shuffled back late in the event, after a sluggish pit stop mired him inRead More