Austin Dillon Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The West Coast swing is just about complete for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Auto Club Speedway in Fonatana, California is on tap for this weekend, and is the final stop of the swing. The Cup series heads into the track on the high of a photo finish in Phoenix. Overall, four different drivers have won the four races to start the season, and I fully expect there to be a fifth driver claiming their spot in this year’s Chase this weekend. To beRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AVONDALE, Ariz. – The Good Sam 500 has been one for the ages and gave Phoenix International Raceway its closest finish ever in the track’s history and seventh closest all-time in the history of NASCAR. With that said, it is time to break down some of the biggest stories from Sunday’s race. 1) Harvick continues his reign in the desert There may not be anyone more automatic at a race track like Kevin Harvick is at Phoenix International Raceway. The NASCAR on FOX group have labeledRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – In recent years, Kevin Harvick has exercised his dominance at Phoenix International Raceway by crushing the competition. In Sunday’s Good Sam 500 at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert, he maintained his mastery by a matter of inches, banging fenders with Carl Edwards in a side-by side overtime battle on the way to the finish line. After the drivers traded shots on the way to the stripe, Harvick pulled ahead to win the fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race ofRead More

Josh Farmer, IndyCar reporter & NASCAR Contributor Austin Dillon may have been the second luckiest driver in Las Vegas on Sunday as he claimed his first top five of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Dillon put himself in a good position for the race on Friday as he qualified in sixth place and once the green flag flew, he proved that his Friday performance was no fluke. Dillon ran inside the top five for the entire opening stint before NASCAR threw a competition caution on lap 30. He continued runRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Most of the time, when an athlete talks about a “team victory,” it’s nothing more than a sports cliché. But Denny Hamlin’s win in Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway—by the closest margin in the history of the Great American Race—was a testament to the strength and solidarity of the Toyota teams of Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing, a JGR affiliate. In a wild last lap at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Hamlin moved into the outside lane inRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The finish of Saturday’s Powershares QQQ 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway left winner Chase Elliott out of gas on the cool-down lap and runner-up Joey Logano pounding his steering wheel in frustration. But it was the high-speed chess game seconds before the first and second-place cars crossed the finish line that made all the difference. Fearing he wouldn’t get help from Kasey Kahne, Elliott’s JR Motorsports teammate, Logano pushed Elliott clear of the pack on theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor We are less than 20 days away from the official start of the 2016 NASCAR season. For the next ten months battles will be waged on short tracks, big tracks and tracks that have right handed turns mixed in. Around every turn a storyline will develop, and a new headline will be etched into everyone’s mind. But we’re still days away from the spawning of the 2016 season. Right now my job is to predict exactly what will happen in the 2016 season. Chances are I willRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Richard Childress Racing drivers Ryan Newman and Paul Menard qualified for last year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Austin Dillon didn’t make NASCAR’s playoff in his sophomore season at the sport’s highest level, but this year, he’s determined to change that scenario and put his No. 3 Chevrolet “where it deserves to be.” Dillon’s Chevy got a jump-start after the 15th race of the 2015 season, when veteran crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe took over the pit box. Four ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – As it turned out, the final step in Chris Buescher’s march to the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship was almost pedestrian. None of his closest pursuers could mount a serious challenge for the victory in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In fact, Buescher, title runner-up Chase Elliott and fellow contenders Ty Dillon and Regan Smith all went a lap down to race winner Kyle Larson during a long green-flag run in the middle of the race. Ultimately, Buescher got aRead More

By Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Kyle Larson took out a season of frustration on the NASCAR XFINITY Series field Saturday in the season finale, tracking down Austin Dillon in the closing laps to win the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway by slightly less than a second. Despite Larson’s dominance in leading 118 of 200 laps, Chris Buescher ran a clean race, finishing 11th to clinch his first XFINITY Series title. Buescher came into the race needing to finish 13th or better to guarantee himself the championship. AfterRead More