Aric Almirola Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Chase Elliott cruised to an impressive 6.577-second victory over Ryan Blaney Sunday in the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the most clutch victory of the 24-year old’s young career – earning a position in next week’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 season finale. Equally as dramatic was a failed last lap pass for position that has eliminated the regular season champion and nine-race winner Kevin Harvick from advancing to that final round. Harvick had to pass 2019 series champ Kyle Busch forRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor There are numerous adjectives that can be used to describe this weekend’s race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course: unpredictable, volatile, treacherous, chaotic, etc. One thing is for sure, Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 is going to be a hell of a ride. Especially with wet weather in the forecast and the issues that racing in the rain brings to the table. In an effort to spice things up back in 2018, Charlotte officials elected to switch from running another race on the 1.5-mileRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor One wild card race down, one to go. A crazy afternoon at Talladega, as expected, wreaked havoc on the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, putting a number of championship contenders in dire straits with just one race remaining before the postseason field is cut from 12 drivers to eight. Heading into the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, only Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin are truly safe having already clinched their spots in the next round. Busch automatically advanced with his win at Las Vegas, while Hamlin punchedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In a battle of two of stock car racing’s titans, Kevin Harvick swapped the lead with Kyle Busch and held off the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion over an intense string of closing laps to win Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Harvick picked up his ninth victory of the season, his second of the Round of 16 in the Playoffs and his third at Bristol. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford finished .310 seconds ahead ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Thunder Valley this weekend for the annual Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, a showdown under the lights on the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” that is sure to leave sheet metal twisted and tempers flaring once these drivers get done battling for 500 laps. Racing at Bristol is always intense, but when the lights go down for the night race, the intensity gets cranked to 11. The aggressiveness that the drivers will show on the high-banked bullringRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Two races down, one to go. With the conclusion of Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond, the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is nearly complete, with Bristol Motor Speedway and the first elimination race looming large next weekend for those drivers who have yet to lock themselves into the next round. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin are safe from whatever carnage may lie ahead at the Last Great Colusseum as the Playoff field is cut from 16 to 12.Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Brad Keselowski made good on a confident Babe Ruth-like prediction earlier this week when he said he expected to dominate and win Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 Playoff race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Dominate, he did. After leading a race best 192 of the 400 laps at the three-quarter mile track, Keselowski scored an impressive 2.568-second victory over Martin Truex Jr. to guarantee his position in the next round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. It’s Keselowski’s fourth win of the season inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Race No. 2 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is here as the championship contenders get set to take on the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway. After a barn burner in last weekend’s Southern 500 at Darlington to kick off the first round of the Playoffs, the traveling circus moves north to Virginia for its first visit to Richmond this season after the first race, originally scheduled for this spring, was moved elsewhere due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this year’s raceRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Pending who you ask among the NASCAR Cup Series playoff contenders, they’ll likely say Aric Almirola is the true dark horse contender for this year’s 10-race championship odyssey. Who can blame them as Almirola has had a career year with a career-high five top-fives and 14 top-10s in just the regular season alone. Due to him being more consistency than last season, it was good enough for both Stewart-Haas Racing and long time sponsor Smithfield re-upping their deals for next season on Tuesday. Almirola said thatRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Stewart-Haas Racing will have all four of its cars competing for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, occupying 25% of the post-season grid. That hasn’t stopped Vice President of Competition Greg Zipadelli from discussing about the team’s future. During Monday morning’s video conference, two highly touted drivers were brought up to “Zippy” as to whether or not he’d be interested of having them in the Ford camp. Those being Xfinity Series star Chase Briscoe and the currently suspended Cup racer Kyle Larson. Even if its current lineupRead More