NASCAR Category

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill.—On a track similar to the one that gave him his first NASCAR Cup Series victory, Chase Briscoe achieved another career first—a Cup Series pole position.  In the final round of time trials on Saturday, Briscoe sped around 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in 32.544 seconds (138.274 mph) to earn the top starting position for Sunday’s inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  Even though he had a slight bobble on his money lap,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Another instance of “what might’ve been” for Chase Briscoe following a fourth-place finish in the five-plus hour Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Sunday. Similar to the battle with Tyler Reddick in the Bristol Dirt Race early in the season, Briscoe was in the mix for the win. Only this time, Briscoe was chasing down Kyle Larson and with four laps left in regulation, Briscoe made his move to get by Larson for the top spot. Briscoe couldn’t fully clear Larson before the exit of TurnRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway started with Denny Hamlin out front and ended with Denny Hamlin out front. What happened in-between defied belief. And a driver who claims to thrive in chaos proved to be a man of his word. Hamlin won the longest race in NASCAR history—619.5 miles—in two overtimes, beating Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to the finish line by .014 seconds. With the victory—the second this season and the 48th of his career—Hamlin nowRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – By the slimmest of margins, Denny Hamlin beat a car he owns for the Busch Light pole position in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the final round of time trials of Saturday evening, Hamlin ran a lower line through Turns 3 and 4 than did his fellow competitors, and that paid off with a blistering lap of 29.399 seconds (183.680 mph)—just .003 seconds faster than that of Kurt Busch (183.661 mph) who drives the No. 45 23XI ToyotaRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C.—When Josh Berry crossed the finish line at Charlotte Motor Speedway—giving JR Motorsports its first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at its home track—second-place Ty Gibbs was just reaching the 200-foot-long Speedway TV screen television on the backstretch. After JRM teammate Justin Allgaier scraped the outside wall for the second time and had to pit during the final 81-lap green-flag run, Berry won Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 300 by an astonishing 18.039 seconds over Gibbs. But the race wasn’t that lopsided before Allgaier had toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – When fate dealt Carson Hocevar another heartache Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Niece Motorsport teammate Ross Chastain took full advantage—with a serendipitous push from Grant Enfinger. On the final lap of the second overtime in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series contest, Chastain raced side-by-side on the backstretch with John Hunter Nemechek, before the timely push from Enfinger propelled him forward and enabled him to clear Nemechek’s No. 4 Toyota. Chastain crossed the finish lineRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Trackhouse Racing has been making waves since their debut in NASCAR and on Thursday, the Justin Marks led Cup Series team made another big splash by announcing the team would be fielding an entry for former Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen at Watkins Glen later this season. The 21-time F1 grand prix winner and 2007 world champion will headline the Trackhouse Racing “PROJECT91” car, which was unveiled earlier in the week as the team’s third entry in the Cup Series to provide a seat forRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Busch has reason to be optimistic about Coca-Cola 600 Kyle Busch has shown consistent strength on 1.5-mile intermediate speedways this year, and that’s a source of confidence entering NASCAR’s Memorial Day weekend marathon at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch won the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 from the pole, and he’ll try for a repeat performance in the 63rd running of the event on Sunday evening (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Though Busch claimed his only victory of the season inRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH – Ryan Blaney won his first career NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race Sunday night at Texas Motor Speedway earning a $1 million payday in the annual fan favorite non-points event. And he and his team celebrated twice. Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford ultimately beat Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Toyota by .266-seconds in an overtime finish. But at one point, Blaney thought he may have taken the checkered flag twice – a caution flag flew the first timeRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH – Kyle Busch beat Ryan Blaney in a new “drag race” style competition for the pole position in Sunday’s much-anticipated NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. For their work, Busch and Blaney will start from the front row of Sunday’s $1 million-to-win NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A traditional qualifying session decided which eight drivers advanced to the final round and then the cars were paired in an elimination bracket format. Each “race”Read More