2016 Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Daniel Suarez lined up fourth in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway, and on the initial start of the race he made a bold three wide move for the lead. Suarez would not get the lead, but the bold move cemented the fact that he was going to be a driver to deal with all day long. But around the mid-way point of the event, Suarez — who is one of eight drivers still in Chase contention —Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Usually race car drivers are a selfish lot. However when it comes to Justin Allgaier and Blake Koch there is nothing selfish about their friendship. The two drivers faced uncertain futures after the 2015 seasons, but they each landed new gigs in the Xfinity Series. Fast forward eight months and Allgaier and Koch are locked tight in a battle for the final transfer spot to the Xfinity Series championship race in Homestead. Heading into Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at TexasRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — It’s been a frustrating season for Team Penske in the Xfinity Series. After an eight-win explosion a year ago, the team has only recorded two victories with just three races remaining in 2016. However, Texas will start with their car on the pole after Brad Keselowski grabbed his first pole of the year in the Xfinity Series in the closest possible margin. In the third and final round of qualifying, Keselowski actually tied Erik Jones for the top spot in the qualifyingRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Usually with three races remaining in the season, the remaining Chase drivers dominate every practice session, every qualifying round and every race. In Saturday morning’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice for the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway though, Ryan Blaney led a slew of unexpected drivers who topped the speed charts. Blaney turned a lap of 188.515 mph, and he was followed by AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Casey Mears and Paul Menard. The fastest single lap any ChaseRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — On an extremely busy day for Austin Dillon, he surprised everyone by capturing the pole for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. “I don’t know about the lap. I changed my line a little bit, looking at dart fish. It worked out for me,” said a stunned Dillon after his run. “I thought I hurt myself cause I changed my line, but it actually made me faster through one and two. I was watching Harvick’s line and I changed it to kindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Over the past couple of seasons, Kyle Busch has been arguably the best driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage. Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch and his No. 18 team had one of their most trying days in recent memory. In the opening minutes of the first practice session of the weekend, Busch got loose coming off of turn four on his warm up lap and slammed into the outside wall before ever completing a timed lap. The contactRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Spencer Gallagher recorded his second Keystone Light Pole position in the last six races Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. The pole position continues the positive trend for the GMS Racing team in the Camping World Truck Series in recent weeks. Gallagher has already tied or surpassed his career-high marks in top-fives, top-10s, laps led and pole positions this season. In addition to Gallagher’s turn around, Johnny Sauter won last week at Martinsville ensuring that the GMS Racing team will have at leastRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — There was a bit of a rift between the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates after last week’s finish in Martinsville. In the closing laps, Jimmie Johnson held the lead, but there was a trio of JGR cars chasing him for the win. Matt Kenseth had been the dominant driver all day long in Martinsville as he led a race-high 176 laps, but he found himself trapped behind his teammate Denny Hamlin in the closing laps. Hamlin was fast on Sunday as well, asRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — The weekend at Texas Motor Speedway got off to a rough start for one of the eight drivers still in championship contention in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase. Kyle Busch slammed into the wall coming to the start finish line to begin his first lap of practice. The damage from the contact with the wall was severe enough that Busch is now relegated to a backup car for the remainder of the weekend. “Unfortunate there with our practice crash that we had, kindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Rain washed out a pair of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice sessions on Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway, which meant Friday morning’s session would be the only chance drivers and teams would have to get their trucks tuned in for Friday night’s Striping Technology 350. Christopher Bell, one of the six remaining Chase contenders, paced the session with a laptime of 29.580 seconds, which equates to 182.556 miles-per-hour. Tyler Reddick was second-fastest, while Matt Tifft was third-quick in the session.Read More