Cup

By NASCAR Wire Service Combining a history that stretches more than 65 years with a future infused with a new premier series entitlement sponsor and a next generation of stars, NASCAR unveiled a new brand identity Monday via its social and digital media platforms. In addition, NASCAR also unveiled the mark and name for its premier series, which will become the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series beginning in 2017. The new brand identity – which replaces the familiar bar mark that had been in place since 1976 – uses theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After a successful first season behind the wheel for Front Row Motorsports in 2016, Landon Cassill will return to the team in 2017 to continue their work together, while his teammate for next season will be a familiar face in the FRM shop. Joining Cassill will be David Ragan, who drove for the team from 2012 through the 2015 Daytona 500 and earned the team’s first win at Talladega in May 2013. After Kyle Busch’s injury at the start of the 2015 season, Ragan movedRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The news that the NASCAR community has been waiting for since the offseason began finally came down on Thursday as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was medically cleared to resume his racing career after successfully completing an on-track test to finalize his recovery from a concussion. Earnhardt and his No. 88 team performed the test at Darlington Raceway on Wednesday, where he completed 185 laps during a test session that lasted nearly five hours. Earnhardt was joined at the test by his crew chief Greg Ives asRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After months of rumblings about the future of HScott Motorsports at the conclusion of the 2016 season, official word came down on Monday that the team will indeed cease operations and will not field a team for the 2017 season. “Over the past several months I considered a number of options for moving forward with the team. Regrettably there are no viable sponsor/driver options immediately available to allow the team to participate in 2017,” said team owner Harry Scott, Jr. Both of the drivers thatRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor LAS VEGAS — For a person belonging to one of the most powerful families in sports, it would have been easy to accept the status quo and turn a blind eye to those in need. However, Betty Jane France just couldn’t sit by and watch people suffer. France spent her entire life trying to make the world a better place for children. That dedication to making the world, and the sport of auto racing, a better place to be led to France being posthumously named the 2016Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor LAS VEGAS — The news the NASCAR world had been anticipating for weeks finally came to fruition on Thursday, as Monster Energy was announced as the new entitlement sponsor for NASCAR’s Premier Series starting with the 2017 season. Terms of the deal were not discussed by Brian France in a last minute press conference, but the Chairman of the sport did say that the agreement is a multi-year deal. France was pleased in aligning the sport with a popular brand like Monster Energy. “Monster EnergyRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Jeff Gordon will race in next month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona for Wayne Taylor Racing in their new Cadillac DPi-V.R. The four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion highlights the team’s high-caliber lineup of brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor as well as Max Angelelli. Gordon helped guide  WTR to a podium finish in the 2007 Rolex 24 for WTR alongside Angelelli, Wayne Taylor and Jan Magnussen. That was Gordon’s lone sportscar racing start among his legendary career in NASCAR where he earned 90 career wins to go along withRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The season-opening exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway, which has had various name changes and format changes over the years, having recently been known as the Sprint Unlimited, will have a new name and format for the 2017 running of the event that is reminiscent of the early years of the race. On Wednesday, Daytona announced that the race, which began its life in 1979 as the Busch Clash, will be known as “The Clash” for next season. The race held the Busch Clash monikerRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor With the announcement that Greg Biffle was leaving Roush Fenway Racing after the 2016 season, the inevitable has happened and the team announced on Tuesday that they would field only two cars for the 2017 season after fielding three for the past four seasons. Returning to the team next season will be Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. to field the No. 6 and No. 17 cars, respectively. Bayne will once again have crew chief Matt Puccia at the helm, while Stenhouse will have aRead More