Charlotte Motor Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Final practice seemed to be going exactly as planned for 2012 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, but things went awry for him just minutes after blazing around Charlotte Motor Speedway with the fastest lap of the session. Keselowski toured around the Charlotte road course with a lap of 1 minute, 17.730 seconds at 105.596 mph, but as the session neared its final moments, the frontstretch chicane became the bane of his existence. The lap looked to be going just fineRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Kurt Busch and his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford crashed the Chevrolet party at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Friday, winning the pole for a race in which the word “crash” could be commonplace. Running late in the final round, Busch toured the 2.28-mile, 17-corner course in 76.805 seconds (106.868 mph) to edge road course ace AJ Allmendinger (76.846 seconds at 106.811 mph) for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET on NBC,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Denny Hamlin already had his work cut out for him heading into the inaugural Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but after the first day on the 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course, he and the No. 11 team have a challenging road ahead if they are to transfer on to the next round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. After two poor performances in the first two races of the postseason, Hamlin enters Charlotte with a 28-point deficit toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Following two optional test sessions on Thursday, the NASCAR Xfinity Series got their first official crack at the new Charlotte Motor Speedway road course with a pair of practices on Friday afternoon. The results from Friday closely mirrored those from Thursday as Austin Cindric was fast again, putting up the quickest lap time in the first practice session with a lap of 1 minute, 18.443 seconds at 104.636 mph. He was followed by Daniel Hemric, Alex Labbe, Ryan Preece, and Justin Allgaier toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor CONCORD, N.C. – After making his presence known every step up the NASCAR ladder, Daniel Hemric is finally getting his shot at the big time as Richard Childress Racing officially announced him as the new driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet starting in 2019. “So many people want to have this opportunity and they work their whole lives for it,” said Hemric. “Going through this process, everybody who’s followed my career from racing the Bojangles’ Summer Shootout at Charlotte to super late models, whatever it was,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor CONCORD, N.C. – After turning heads in the Xfinity Series over the last couple of years, Ryan Preece’s bet on himself has paid off as he will be headed to a full-time ride in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2019. Less than a week after JTG Daugherty Racing announced that they would be releasing AJ Allmendinger from his contract at season’s end, the team made it official on Friday that Preece would be taking over the seat of the No. 47 Chevrolet starting nextRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor There are numerous adjectives that can be used to describe this weekend’s race on the new Charlotte Motor Speedway road course: unpredictable, volatile, treacherous, chaotic, etc. Once thing is for sure as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ventures into the unknown, it’s going to be a hell of a ride. In an effort to spice things up this season, Charlotte officials elected to switch from running another race on the 1.5-mile oval to creating what they are calling the ROVAL, incorporating both the high banksRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The newest and perhaps biggest challenge awaits the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with this weekend’s race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. The ‘Roval’ as it is more commonly referred is the final race of the first round of the Playoffs, which will eliminate the bottom four of 16 drivers. Our friends from Mobil 1 The Grid sat down with Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart to preview the unique challenges of the 17-turn, 2.28-mile circuit layout.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – AJ Allmendinger didn’t hold back when he talked to reporters during a break in Tuesday’s road course test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I think there’s going to be a lot of contact, for sure,” Allmendinger predicted. “Through the infield, it’s pretty narrow. In general, through the infield, I think there’s going to be contact.” The bus stop chicane on the backstretch may be the most challenging section of the 2.28-mile course. Drivers will carry tremendous speed into those two quick cornersRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Unable to contain himself, Kyle Busch let out an elated scream as his car entered Turn 3 on the 400th and final lap of Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And now, for the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, you’re going to need a bigger broom. From start to finish, Busch fashioned a dominating victory at the only active Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series track at which he had never won a points event. That makesRead More