Cup

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Talladega Superspeedway for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GEICO 500, we’ll take a step back in time to the 1981 Talladega 500 for this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater” to showcase one of the most infamous finishes in Talladega history. For the first 13 years of the Talladega 500, no driver had ever repeated, paving the way for longshots and underdogs to make their way to victory lane. In the 1981 running of the race, that very thing wouldRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor One of the least safe options that teams have been able to employ in the history of NASCAR is officially off the table.  Monday, NASCAR banned teams from sending their cars out onto the racetrack with less than five lug nuts per wheel, and every lug nut is now required to be tight. This comes on the heels of three-time Sprint Cup Series champion, Tony Stewart calling out the sanctioning body less than a week ago for their unsafe practice of allowing teams to skipRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief After a spectacular afternoon at Richmond International Raceway, it was a Carl Edwards shove to move teammate Kyle Busch out of the way en route to claim his second consecutive victory of the season. Without any further delay, here are my takeaways from Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at the short track oval. 1) Back to Sunday’s a win for NASCAR For the first time in nearly two decades NASCAR returned to a daytime spring race (last year’s race was run on Sunday due to aRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Kasey Kahne earned his first top five of the season at Richmond International Raceway. This was also Kahne’s first top five finish since the 2015 Kansas Chase race, 14 races ago. This is only the fourth top five for Kahne since he won at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day Weekend in 2014. In the weekend’s two practice sessions, Kahne was eighth and second fastest. The move from night to day, combined with the 2016 aero-package seemed to be a perfect match for the HendrickRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer For the fourth race in a row, and the fifth time in nine races this season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has visited victory lane. This time, it was Carl Edwards who won the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway in a last lap, final corner, bump and run on teammate Kyle Busch. Edwards also won last weekend’s Food City 500 at Bristol. Fellow JGR drivers Denny Hamlin, who won the season opening Daytona 500, and Matt Kenseth, theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – The honeymoon at Joe Gibbs Racing may be over. Yes, on Sunday at Richmond International Raceway, Carl Edwards won his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in the Toyota Owners 400 and the fourth in a row for JGR, but he did so with a last-lap bump-and-run on teammate Kyle Busch, who was seeking his third victory in four events. “We did everything right – be smart,” Busch was told on his radio, after Edwards moved the No. 18 ToyotaRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a great race Sunday in the Toyota Owner’s 400 at Richmond International Raceway, unfortunately it won’t be remembered that way after he finished an unimpressive 13th. Earnhardt, who was looking for a weekend sweep after winning the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, started the day from the 16th position, and for the first half of the race he looked to have a 12th-place car. However, as the race got into the closing stages Earnhardt and his crew chief Greg Ives keptRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer There must be something in the water in Virginia. Just like Martinsville three weeks ago, the five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookies all struggled at some point in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond. With the spring Richmond race reverting to a day race for the first time since 1997, the bright sunshine beating down on the 0.75 mile short track created handling difficulties for all of those in the field, rookies and veterans alike. Falling a lap down early with an ill-handling car, ChaseRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It had been a long time since Tony Stewart raced in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series — last November to be exact — but the three-time Sprint Cup Series champion competed admirably Sunday in his first start since suffering a burst fracture in his back during the offseason. Stewart started the Toyota Owner’s 400 at Richmond International Raceway with high hopes, as everything surrounding the conditions of the race seemed to be lining up in his favor. “This is exactly what — if I could scriptRead More