NASCAR Category

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After his career best points finish to end the 2015 season, Martin Truex, Jr. and his Furniture Row Racing team were in high spirits heading into Daytona for the 58th running of the Daytona 500. Thus far in Speedweeks, the single car operation based out of Colorado has had a rough go of things. The trouble for Truex began with last Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited, where he had his No. 78 car near the front of the field as the laps were winding down. As the fieldRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief After encountering a vibration early on, Ryan Blaney raced his was back up to finish third in the opening Can-Am Duel race on Thursday night. Blaney, 22, stayed among the leaders in the opening 15 laps of the 60 lap event, lingering around the top 5. Moments later the rookie felt a strong vibration that eventually led to him falling a lap down, but a spin by Cole Whitt forced a caution to come out on lap 44, putting Blaney back on the lead lap. FollowingRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Wow, I’m speechless. If you would have asked me at the beginning of Speedweeks which teams would have four cars on the final grid for the Daytona 500, I would have obviously answered Hendrick, Stewart-Haas, Joe Gibbs Racing — but never in my wildest dreams did I think BK Racing would pull off the feat. For the mega teams I listed above, they are part of the new team charter system, which ensures that all of their cars will make every race in 2016 — BK RacingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Retaking the lead with five laps left in the first of Thursday night’s Can-Am Duel 150-mile qualifying races, Dale Earnhardt Jr. cruised to a dominating victory and grabbed the third staring spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500. In the second Duel, reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch took the checkered flag under caution after a wild last-lap wreck took out the cars of Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, AJ Allmendinger and Danica Patrick and damaged the No.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Mexican driver Daniel Suarez isn’t reluctant to admit the prospect of his first foray into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has already been the subject of discussion at Joe Gibbs Racing. But the 2015 Sunoco rookie of the year in the NASCAR XFINITY Series doesn’t feel the need to force the issue. Suarez will compete for the XFINITY title this year in addition to running 13 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races for Kyle Busch Motorsports. If an opportunity to try his hand inRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was a noon practice on the day of the Can-Am Duels at Daytona International Speedway, and there was six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, doing his thing. The regular routine for Johnson and No. 48 crew chief Chad Knaus is a succession of single-car runs at Daytona, staying out of the draft and out of trouble, looking for speed. Based on Thursday’s practice, Johnson may be poised to add a third Daytona 500 title to his resume. The six-time NASCAR SprintRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When Jamie McMurray pulled onto pit road for the first time in last Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway, he knew immediately the preferences he had selected for the new digital dashboard in his No. 1 Chevrolet simply weren’t going to work. There was nothing wrong with the dash itself. The problem lay in the options McMurray had picked and the way he had configured the series of lights designed to warn him about his pit road speed. “ThereRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor 15 years. Today marks 15 years since the darkest day in NASCAR’s 68-year history. The day I’m of course referring to is the tragic moment when the world lost seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt was at the forefront of NASCAR’s popularity boom from the late 1980s to the 1990s. He was raw, real, and was never afraid to lay the bumper to anyone if it took doing so to take home the trophy. Earnhardt was the blue-collar guy, who wasn’t there to make friends. Earnhardt was a driver thatRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It had to happen eventually. Wednesday’s second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice brought the first major accident of Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway. Ty Dillon’s No. 95 Chevrolet spewed oil on the track, the result of an oil cooler cracked along the weld. Cars running behind Dillon’s in Turn 2 checked up, and Michael Waltrip’s No. 93 Toyota tapped the back of Ryan Newman’s No. 31 Chevrolet, spinning the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. That started a chain reaction that sawRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With Clint Bowyer needing a place to drive for a year while waiting to take over the No. 14 Chevrolet at Stewart-Haas Racing, Justin Allgaier was the odd man out at HScott Motorsports. But in Allgaier’s estimation, the opportunity to race for a NASCAR XFINITY Series championship with JR Motorsports is ample compensation for losing a full-time Sprint Cup ride. The presence of team principals Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller made signing with JRM a no-brainer. “This isRead More