NASCAR Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Clearly, Ryan Blaney had one of the strongest cars in Saturday’s Sprint Showdown, but a restart violation with one lap left in the race’s first 20-lap segment squelched his hopes of advancing to the Sprint All-Star Race. Blaney was in hot pursuit of leader Chase Elliott when NASCAR called a caution on Lap 15 because of Michael McDowell’s spin through the infield grass. To begin Lap 20, the one that would decide the first transfer position, Blaney and Elliott entered the restart zone side-by-side.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Different week. Different circumstances. Same driver. Last Sunday at Dover International Speedway, Kyle Larson was chasing Matt Kenseth for the win in the AAA 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Larson treated Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, with the utmost respect, taking great pains to run the veteran driver as cleanly as possibly. Kenseth won, with Larson trailing him in second place by a fraction of a second. But that was not the case on Saturday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway,Read More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – Defending Sprint Cup Series Champion, Kyle Busch, made his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series appearance in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte. Busch had won his five previous starts at Charlotte. After not being happy with his truck in the only practice session on Thursday, Busch quickly worked his way up to the top five. After the competition caution, Busch took the lead from rookie Rico Abreu. Busch held onto the lead until Daniel Hemric began to battle himRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – Charlotte hometown drivers William Byron, and Daniel Hemric were both looking for some hometown magic at their home track. Byron started on the pole after posting the fastest time in practice and qualifying being washed out by rain. Meanwhile Hemric started the race in eighth. Byron got off to an early start, leading the first 24 laps before pitting under the competition caution. After the first round of pit stops, both Byron and Hemric restarted in the top five. Byron slid back onRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rookie Rico Abreu struggled early in the only practice the Truck Series would have on Thursday. Abreu finished the day 10th fastest, where he would start after qualifying was rained out. Abreu hung around in the top 10 during the first green flag run. Under the competition caution, Abreu and his crew took two tires to take the lead. Although Abreu would only lead one lap, he was able to hold off several trucks shortly after theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Matt Crafton had a lot to overcome on Saturday—a 17th-place starting position and a difficult pit stall that cost him dearly in the early stages of Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But after 134 laps, Crafton was 5.748 seconds ahead of second-place Kyle Busch, winning the race and extending his series lead to 12 points over seventh-place finisher Timothy Peters. In fact, the two-time champion won consecutive races for the first time in his NASCAR CampingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – With Chase Elliott’s Chevrolet bouncing off the outside wall, and Kyle Larson’s Chevy bouncing off Elliott’s car coming to the finish line, Larson won a wild drag race to claim the last of three available spots in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FS1). At the end of the final 10-lap dash in the Sprint Showdown, Larson pinched Elliott into the outside wall entering the dogleg at the 1.5-mile track and banged intoRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Wow, that’s all you can say about the Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the last chance qualifying race for the Sprint All-Star Race. In the three segments, which totaled 50 laps of racing action, we saw two breath-taking photo finishes. Chase Elliott was on the wrong end of each one, as he lost out to Trevor Bayne in segment one by five-one-thousandths of a second. Elliott then was mired back in the pack in round two, but came charging back through the field inRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor There is a brand-spankin’ new format for this weekend’s Sprint All-Star race, and one of the big changes is how many drivers will advance from the preliminary Showdown. The race before the big race will consist of three 20-lap segments, the leader at the end of each segment will advance to the All-Star race. There will also be two more drivers who will make it into the big show by way of the fan vote. Conventional wisdom would tell you that drivers like Chase Elliott, KyleRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Persistent rain wiped out all track activity on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, setting up a full day of racing on Saturday at the 1.5-mile track. Both the Sprint Showdown, which will determine three qualifiers for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, and the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race have been rescheduled for Saturday. Practice for the all-star race will open Saturday activity at 9:30 a.m., followed by the Sprint Showdown at 11 a.m. and theRead More