Austin Dillon Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Despite sustaining damage in an early wreck, and despite leading only one lap in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski nailed down an opportunistic overtime victory in the 10th event of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Surging to the front on the final lap, after fellow Ford driver Matt DiBenedetto abandoned the bottom lane and gave Keselowski a clear run to the front, Keselowski claimed his first victory of the season, the 35th of his career and his sixth at Talladega, tyingRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service An emotional Alex Bowman could only shake his head and give kudos to the crew of his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet following a dramatic victory over Denny Hamlin Sunday in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Bowman took the lead for the first time all race on a restart with 10 laps remaining and easily pulled away from Hamlin, who had been the day’s most dominant driver. Bowman’s .381-second winning margin earned the 27-year old his first victory of the season, thirdRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Dirt—that’s the great unknown when NASCAR Cup Series drivers venture to the transformed Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). NASCAR’s top series hasn’t raced on dirt since Sept. 30, 1970, when Richard Petty beat runner-up Neil Castles by more than two laps at North Carolina State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh. Accordingly, Sunday’s event is arguably the most anticipated race of the Cup season. Conventional wisdom says that drivers with extensive experienceRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The NASCAR Cup Series’ most anticipated race in quite some time is this Sunday. Folks have their obvious picks as to who’ll win the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. No question the large consensus will pick Kyle Larson due to his dirt racing dominance. However, a couple competitors could steal Larson’s thunder. The man himself said Austin Dillon could be the one leaving “Thunder Valley” with the win, outside of him of course. Dillon is no slouch in dirt racing. In fact, heRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service You can call Ryan Blaney “The Spoiler.” With a pass for the lead with eight laps left in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Blaney took the air out of an otherwise dominating performance by Kyle Larson, who had to settle for second place after winning the first two stages and leading 269 of 325 laps. “Gosh, we had a great long-run car all day,” Blaney said after climbing from his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. “It took us aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After two weeks in Daytona Beach, the NASCAR Cup Series packs up and heads south on I-95 for Sunday’s running of the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 1.5-mile oval came into existence in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in the early 90’s, with the Cup Series making its first appearance at the track in 1999. Since undergoing a reconfiguration in 2003, Homestead has provided some great racing on its progressive banking on one of the true ovals on the circuit and that has onlyRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In a stunning upset at the end of an action-filled, rain-interrupted Daytona 500, Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell claimed his first NASCAR Cup Series victory after charging into the lead during a brutal multicar wreck in Turn 3 on the final lap. “I can’t believe it,” McDowell said. “I’ve got to thank God. So many years of just grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. I’ve got to thank (team owner) Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. I’m so thankful. Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Alex Bowman swapped car numbers for the 2021 season – from 88 to 48 – but has certainly retained his Daytona magic, earning the pole position for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver a record fourth consecutive front row start in the NASCAR Cup Series season-opener. Bowman, 27, went out late in the qualifying order (38th of 44 drivers) Wednesday night – the first night-time pole qualifying session in race history –Read 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