Cup

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – Iowa’s partial repave was the talk of the NASCAR Cup Series garage area coming into Iowa Corn 350 weekend, but after Friday’s lone practice session, tires have become the main concern. By the time all was said and done, more than a handful of drivers had issues with their tires being unable to cope with the mix-and-match between the old and new Iowa pavement. Noah Gragson finished the 63-minute practice session at the top of the board with a lap of 22.828 seconds,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – When you know it’s time, it’s time. And that time has come for Martin Truex, Jr. On Friday at Iowa Speedway, the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion announced that the 2024 season would be his last in full-time Cup competition as he’ll hang up the helmet when the checkered flag falls I November. It will bring a 19-year career of racing full-time at NASCAR’s highest level to a close and cement a career that has included marquee wins and championships not only inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – Build it and they will come…. eventually. After nearly two decades in existence, Iowa Speedway finally gets the call for a NASCAR Cup Series date this weekend, marking the latest track to host NASCAR’s premier series. The 0.875-mile oval in Central Iowa, a brainchild of NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace, has hosted three of the lower-level NASCAR series – Xfinity, Trucks, and ARCA – over the years, which only amplified the calls for the Cup Series to visit and the fans inRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – The hometown hero Kyle Larson executed as he needed to, making a pass for the lead with eight laps remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 to claim his second win at the Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway road course and third trophy of the season. It was a frantic start to the day on the newly-repaved 1.99-mile course through the rolling Northern Californian hills with seven caution flags falling before the 110-lap race’s halfway point – more yellow flags thanRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Team Penske’s Joey Logano claimed his third pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway – turning a fast lap of 97.771 mph in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, bettering the previous record by more than a second on the newly-paved 1.99-mile road course in Northern California. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will start Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) alongside 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who was aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill. – Surprise and elation were the watchwords for Team Penske driver Austin Cindric, who won Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at the expense of teammate Ryan Blaney. The race was Blaney’s to win—until the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion ran out of fuel on the next-to-last lap and handed the lead to his teammate. Cindric charged past Blaney at the start/finish line and completed the checkered-flag lap as Blaney rolled agonizingly slowly to a 24th-place result. The victoryRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill. — It was with an obvious sense of pride that Michael McDowell reveled in his pole-winning run on Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. McDowell claimed his third Busch Light Pole Award of the season—and of his career—but this one came at a quirky flat track, not a superspeedway, where the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, a former DAYTONA 500 winner, is expected to excel. McDowell toured the 1.25-mile irregularly-shaped track in 32.468 seconds (138.598 mph)Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A mainstay of the NASCAR Cup Series since 2009, Stewart-Haas Racing announced on Tuesday that the 2024 season would be its last and would be ceasing operations at season’s end. Rumors of the team’s future have been floating around the Cup Series garage for many months and weeks, but in a joint statement on social media, co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas laid out why now is the time they have elected to exit stage left. “We have made the difficult decision to close Stewart-Haas RacingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service What if?… That’s the question that will continue to haunt us after a long day of auto racing on Memorial Day weekend. What if Mother Nature hadn’t intervened, delaying the start of the Indianapolis 500 and shortening the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night? A weather system that battered the Midwest forced Hendrick Motorsports to change plans that had been in the works for a full year. Delayed from the planned 12:45 p.m. start, the green flag at the Indy 500 flew nearly four hoursRead More