2017 Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The last few years have been rough for race fans who have traveled to Texas Motor Speedway as rain has halted on track activity numerous times. Over the last several years the pavement at the 1.5-mile speedway has become weather beaten and it had began eroding. The track also began trapping rain water below the surface which made drying the track during a rain delay nearly impossible. It was announced during a teleconference on Friday by track president Eddie Gossage that starting this Monday, theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor LAS VEGAS — The news the NASCAR world had been anticipating for weeks finally came to fruition on Thursday, as Monster Energy was announced as the new entitlement sponsor for NASCAR’s Premier Series starting with the 2017 season. Terms of the deal were not discussed by Brian France in a last minute press conference, but the Chairman of the sport did say that the agreement is a multi-year deal. France was pleased in aligning the sport with a popular brand like Monster Energy. “Monster EnergyRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — NASCAR has made a move to try to even the playing field in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Starting in 2017, Sprint Cup Series drivers – with over five years experience — will be limited to participating in just 10 NXS races per season. Cup drivers also wont be allowed to participate in the four Dash4Cash races, or in any of the championship Chase events. It’s a nice step, and many are applauding the sanctioning body for making this change, but there’sRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Matt Tifft, who ran a part-time schedule in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series in 2016, has been announced as a full-time driver for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series for the 2017 season. Tifft is a talented young driver, and he became a headline this season for something other than his driving abilities as he had to miss three months after a benign tumor was discovered in his brain while he was being evaluated for painRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Michael Annett has struggled mightily since taking the leap from NASCAR Xfinity Series competition to Sprint Cup Series racing with HScott Motorsports in 2014. In 103 starts in NASCAR’s premier series, Annett has yet to record a top-10 finish. Annett will now jump back down to the Xfinity Series for the 2017 season to run for one of the most potent teams in the garage area — JR Motorsports. The team announced that Annett will move to their No. 5 teamRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor For one of 2016’s championship contenders — Kevin Harvick — the 2017 season is already taking shape. Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing announced in February that they would be moving from Chevrolet to Ford for the ’17 season. After a press release from Anheuser Busch on Thursday, the sponsorship picture is looking full for the No. 4 team. Anheuser Busch’s Busch Beer brand will adorn Harvick’s car for a total of 16 events in 2017, which is an increase of four races from 2016. The BeerRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer The 2016 season for the Verizon Indycar Series is now in the books. Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud motored off into the distance at the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, taking his fifth 2016 race win, and claiming his first series championship in the process. Let’s take a look at some of the headlines coming from California’s wine country. 1 ) No Lingering Questions  This day and age, oftentimes a championship leaves behind lingering questions as to whether or not the points system, or championship system,Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Thursday, at Daytona International Speedway Chevrolet unveiled the new sixth-generation Camaro SS body style that will be on track for the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. Simply stated, it’s beautiful. “For the past 50 years, Camaro has played a key role in Chevrolet’s racing success in winning races and championships,” said Mark Kent, director, Chevrolet Racing. “We look forward to further success with the new Camaro SS in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.” According to Chevrolet, computational fluid dynamics analysis as well as traditional full andRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Earlier this season, it was announced that Matt Kenseth’s current majority primary sponsor — Dollar General — would not return as for the 2017 season. This led many to wonder if the 2003 Sprint Cup Series champion would find enough sponsorship to keep the No. 20 Toyota competitive all of next year. Thursday, DEWALT Tools ended that speculation and announced that they will be expanding their role as a sponsor with Kenseth and the Joe Gibbs Racing team as a whole. DEWALT will add fourRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The NASCAR Hall of Fame voting committee had their work cut out for them as they had to narrow 20 legendary names down to just five who would make it into enshrinement for the Hall’s 2017 Class based on their on-track accolades. There were many deserving candidates on this year’s ballot, but there were five that stood out above the rest according to the voters. Benny Parsons Parsons was an incredible driver, as he amassed 21 victories in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, including theRead More