2016 Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — If overcoming adversity is what judges if a team is championship material, then go ahead and award Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus their seventh Sprint Cup after their effort in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500. Johnson started 11th and finished fourth, but its everything that happened in between that made the night really special. On a pit stop during the competition caution at lap 31, Johnson made contact with the rear of eventual race winner Kyle Busch’s car. This caused severe damageRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — For crew chief Cole Pearn, Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway couldn’t have ended any worse. His No. 78 Toyota, piloted by Martin Truex Jr. led a race-high 141 laps, but ultimately what appeared like a failed pit call by Pearn snuffed out what looked to be a runaway win. On a lap 289 caution, Pearn elected to keep his driver on the track, but then changed his mind last second, however it was too little, too late. “Our plan wasRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Jeb Burton has had a rough start to the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign, but heading into Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 43 Ford Mustang sat 12th in the championship standings. Burton started the race from the 12th position, and felt great about his car heading into the race. Once the race started it was clear that he was more of a 15th-20th place car. Those Chase berth hopes took a hit on lap 144,Read More

SHOW #405 – Guests: President of Furniture Row Racing Joe Garone, Driver Daniel Suarez – We recap the Martinsville weekend, preview Texas Motor Speedway, and have fun doing all of the above. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Toby Christie. ( Roughly 48:00 mins) DOWNLOAD HERE CREDITS: Hosts: Kerry Murphey & Toby Christie Executive Producer: Kerry Murphey Music: Russell Nash Audio Director Voice Over: Thomas Moog SUBSCRIBE FREE HERE RSS FEED RADIO STATIONS CLICK HERE SUBSCRIBE FROM iTUNES: Take us with you! Subscribe to our audio shows from iTunes, and they willRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor To say Chase Elliott has been impressive in his rookie NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, would be a massive understatement. The 20-year-old driver has showed incredible poise en route to three top-10 finishes through the first six races of 2016. However, after qualifying fourth Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, Elliott may be on track to break through in a big way in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500. Even after nailing down a solid lap in the final round of qualifying, Elliott isn’t going to assumeRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Son, I think you’ve hit a homerun. – Bruton Smith It’s one of the most unique trophies in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series — Texas Motor Speedway’s wooden double cowboy boot trophy. What you may not know, is that it was created by renowned Fort Worth, Texas wood carver Robert Cortez. Cortez, 61, was gracious enough to take time out with Tribute Racing to talk about the origins of the trophy, that now sits on the mantle of some of the greatest NASCAR drivers in history. The story,Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Martin Truex Jr. has had a good start to the 2016 season, but he is still seeking his first win of the year as the Sprint Cup Series invades Texas Motor Speedway. Truex led the first practice session of the weekend at the 1.5-mile speedway, and in his media availability he said that expects a great race this weekend with NASCAR’s new lower downforce package. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s similar to what we’ve seen in Atlanta and California,”Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor AJ Allmendinger is in the midst of a hot streak. The driver of the No. 47 Chevrolet overcame numerous obstacles to finish eighth at Auto Club Speedway a couple of races ago, and then this past week he was battling Kyle Busch for the win en route to a second-place finish at one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks — Martinsville Speedway. Following his best effort of the season, Allmendinger was ecstatic. “It was a lot of fun.  I passed Jimmie Johnson like five times at Martinsville. ThatRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Brian Vickers did an incredible job substituting for the injured Tony Stewart Sunday at Martinsville, and recorded the best finish for the No. 14 team so far this year. Vickers not only recorded the best finish of 2016 for the team, but his seventh place finish Sunday is actually the best finish for this race team since Stewart finished sixth at Bristol 35 races ago. Vickers is happy with the outcome, but he yearns for more. “I was pleased but not satisfied. We had suchRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Going into Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville, it looked like Kyle Larson was in the middle of a lost season. Through the first five races of the season, Larson had just one top-10 finish and sat 24th in the championship standings. There wasn’t much reason for optimism heading into this week’s race either, as Larson had struggled through four previous starts at the half-mile paper clip track. His best finish at the shortest and oldest track in NASCAR was 19th in the fall of 2015.Read More