Charlotte Motor Speedway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service What if?… That’s the question that will continue to haunt us after a long day of auto racing on Memorial Day weekend. What if Mother Nature hadn’t intervened, delaying the start of the Indianapolis 500 and shortening the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night? A weather system that battered the Midwest forced Hendrick Motorsports to change plans that had been in the works for a full year. Delayed from the planned 12:45 p.m. start, the green flag at the Indy 500 flew nearly four hoursRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – A lightning delay that turned into a heavy rainstorm made a winner of Christopher Bell in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Not that Bell didn’t deserve the victory in the rain-shortened race, which NASCAR was forced to call after 249 of 400 laps were complete. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota started third, led a race-high 90 laps and won the second stage of the 14th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. The decisiveRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Ty Gibbs saved the strongest performance of the day for the money lap in time trials for the Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Streaking around 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway in the final round of Saturday’s qualifying session for NASCAR’s longest race, Gibbs covered the distance in 29.355 seconds (183.955 mph) to claim the first Busch Light Pole Award of his career. Gibbs edged William Byron (183.580 mph) by 0.060 seconds to become theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – With a masterpiece of strategy and modicum of good fortune, Chase Elliott won Saturday’s BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start of the season. Saving a set of new tries for the final run in the 200-lap event at the 1.5-mile track, Elliott grabbed the lead after a Lap 183 restart and held it the rest of the way. Driving a No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a paint scheme reminiscent of the signature lookRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Nick Sanchez showed what an opportunist can do when the right moment presents itself. Taking advantage of fresh tires and a quick pit stop, Sanchez charged from the 10th position on a restart with nine laps left in Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and held off Corey Heim to win his second NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race of the season — and of his career. Sanchez crossed the finish line 0.507 seconds ahead of Heim, whoRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Through two rounds of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the 16-driver starting field has now been cut in half, with four more drivers getting axed from title contention following Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte. Entering the day, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, and Kyle Busch were the four drivers on the outside looking in, with Brad Keselowski hanging on by a thread, just two-points ahead of the cut-off line. By the time the checkered flag flew, Reddick had racedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  CONCORD, N.C. – Road course aficionado AJ Allmendinger stole some thunder from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers with a convincing victory in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.  Driving the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, Allmendinger led twice for a race-high 46 laps, including the last 33, and beat runner-up William Byron to the finish line by 0.666 seconds to win his first Cup race of the season, his first at the Charlotte Road Course andRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff field is down to eight. Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 on the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL marked the first elimination race for the series, with the first four drivers getting axed from championship conclusion when the checkered flag waved. While Sam Mayer walked off with the win to clinch his place in the next round, it was a fierce battle down around the cut-off line to see who would make the cut and who would be spendingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Kyle Larson is one step closer to making the Memorial Day Double at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway a reality. Ahead of Sunday’s running of the NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, Larson along with Hendrick Motorsports and Arrow McLaren unveiled the two Chevrolets that he will pilot in 2024 when he attempts to run all 1100 miles of the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Both cars, including Larson’s No. 5 Cup car and the No. 17 Chevrolet heRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When the NASCAR Cup Series takes the green next Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Chase Elliott will not be a part of the field after he was handed a one-race suspension on Tuesday. The penalty comes a day after he and Denny Hamlin had a run-in on lap 185 of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in which Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet bounced off the Turn 4 wall and then drove down the track into the right-rear quarter panel of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota,Read More