2016 Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor For a sport to run fairly there should be one set of rules, and every competitor should be required to abide by them. It sounds like a solid theory, but for the past 18 years, three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Tony Stewart has seemingly been allowed to play by a separate set of rules than his fellow drivers. That reality continued this past Saturday night at Richmond International Speedway. Ryan Newman had raced for 25 weeks to put himself, his sponsor and his race teamRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer This coming weekend the Verizon Indycar Series will race at Sonoma Raceway for the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma. The event is slated for September 16-18, 2016. About the Race The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma is the sixteenth and final round for the Verizon Indycar Series in 2016. The event is held on a natural terrain road course, one of six such races on the schedule. The race will decide the 2016 Indycar Series Championship, and pay double points. This will be the thirteenth race forRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer And then there were two… With fifteen race weekends in the books, and just one remaining, the Verizon IndyCar Series is set to crown their 2016 champion at the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on September 18th. The season started with optimism from every team on the grid. Target Chip Ganassi driver, Scott Dixon, was looking at adding a fifth title to his resume.  Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya was looking to avenge a season where he lost the crown to Dixon on a tiebreaker.Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Jamie McMurray is a veteran driver who has been in NASCAR long enough to see every Chase for the Sprint Cup take place in every varied format that it has had over the years. But up until last season, McMurray — winner of seven Cup Series races in his career — had never made it into NASCAR’s championship playoff series. Now a year later, McMurray is experiencing the fruits of making it into the Chase in consecutive seasons. McMurray was fast all week long atRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor When Tony Stewart announced his retirement before the 2016 season, he said that he didn’t want a parade of retirement gifts. He could go about accomplishing that feat a different way than he has over the last two races. At the pace he’s currently going, there will not be many drivers that are going to be missing Stewart when he retires at the end of the year. Last week in Darlington, Stewart was summoned to the NASCAR hauler after he wiped out Brian Scott while driving downRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor After qualifying a dismal 34th on Friday, Chase Elliott set sail on chasing his first-ever Chase berth in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night. By lap 90, Elliott had worked his way inside the top-15 when an anxious moment ensued. While Elliott was running three-wide with Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon, Newman made contact with Gordon. The contact sent Gordon into Elliott, which then caused Elliott’s tire to cut down. Elliott would slam into the wall on lap 95,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – With one ferociously fast pit stop, Kyle Busch erased a lackluster qualifying effort and cruised to victory in Friday night’s Virginia529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway. A master at getting on and off pit road in minimal time, Busch entered the pits in fourth place under the first caution of the race after a tap from J.J. Yeley sent Justin Marks spinning into the frontstretch grass on Lap 48. Busch was first off pit road—decisively—and at that point itRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It had been a sub-par past five races by Erik Jones’ standards. In the five Xfinity Series events heading into Friday night’s Virginia529 College Savings 250 at Richmond, Jones had recorded just two top-10 finishes and he had also finished outside the top-20 twice during that span. After three wins earlier in the season, many wondered if perhaps things were beginning to come unraveled for Jones and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team. After an impressive second place finish at the 3/4-mile track in Virginia, allRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It all comes down to this weekend for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie, Chris Buescher. Buescher, who won at Pocono a month ago after the race was shortened by fog, is looking to make his way into the Chase for the Sprint Cup in his first season of trying. If Buescher does indeed make it into the championship field after 400 laps of racing Saturday night in Richmond, he will likely have to perform a little better than he did in Friday’s qualifying session. Buescher wasn’tRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – Don’t tell Denny Hamlin his first pole of the season isn’t significant. In the money round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota toured .75-mile Richmond International Raceway in 22.069 seconds (122.344 mph) to earn the top starting spot for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN), the final race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season. “I thought for sure we had too many laps on ourRead More