Charlotte Motor Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Tony Stewart was winless in 17 previous tries in NASCAR’s longest night and hoped that his 18th start in the Memorial Day weekend classic would be the race where he would finally be able to end the night in victory lane. “Any time you win a race at Charlotte, it’s big. It’s a speedway with a lot of history and, obviously, the Coca-Cola 600 is a huge event. I’m a big fan of shorter races nowadays, but theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After rookie Alexander Rossi won the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day, all eyes were on the standout rookies of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to see if they could make it two rookie wins on the day. While none of the five rookies in the field were able to end the night in victory lane, NAPA Auto Parts, which sponsored Rossi in the Indianapolis 500 and also sponsors rookie Chase Elliott and his No. 24 Chevrolet wound up with the top rookie finish atRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief INDIANAPOLIS – Monaco. Indy. Charlotte. The Memorial Day Weekend tradition begins as the sun rises on an early Indiana morning. Formula 1 has an Aussie on pole for the Monaco Grand Prix in the form of Daniel Ricciardo. IndyCar has affable Canadian, James Hinchcliffe on point for 100th Indianapolis 500. Martin Truex Jr. will lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field to green for the Coca Cola 600. All three unlikely stars that appear ready to shine on this monumental day. May 29, 2016 – aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Martin Truex Jr. crashed a Ford party on Thursday night, winning the pole for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET on FOX). With his team making adjustments to the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota throughout the qualifying session, Truex saved his best lap for the round that counted, covering the 1.5-mile distance in 28.077 seconds (192.328 mph) to edge Team Penske Ford driver Joey Logano (192.007 mph) by .047 seconds for the top starting spot inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The greatest day in auto racing is upon us once more with three premier events (F1 at Monaco, the Indianapolis 500, and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte) all taking place throughout the day on Sunday. With the 57th running of the Coca-Cola 600 set for Sunday afternoon into the night, we’ll take a step back to one of the most memorable races at Charlotte in recent memory, the 2005 Coca-Cola 600 and the amazing finish between Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte. Ryan Newman and JeffRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After an impressive start to All-Star weekend on Saturday morning with the rain-delayed Sprint Showdown, all eyes were on the new NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race format to see if it could equal the excitement from the preliminary race, but the new format fell well short of expectations as the Showdown overshadowed the main event. The Sprint Showdown started off with a photo finish between Trevor Bayne and Chase Elliott in the first segment of the All-Star preliminaries as Bayne made a daring three-wide pass forRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – At the end of a wild and crazy Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Joey Logano got the upper hand in an intense battle with last-chance qualifier Kyle Larson and took home the million-dollar prize as the winner of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. Trying to block the stronger car of Logano in the closing 13-lap final segment of the race, Larson buried his car into Turn 1 as Logano edged ahead. Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet got loose and sailed upRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Clearly, Ryan Blaney had one of the strongest cars in Saturday’s Sprint Showdown, but a restart violation with one lap left in the race’s first 20-lap segment squelched his hopes of advancing to the Sprint All-Star Race. Blaney was in hot pursuit of leader Chase Elliott when NASCAR called a caution on Lap 15 because of Michael McDowell’s spin through the infield grass. To begin Lap 20, the one that would decide the first transfer position, Blaney and Elliott entered the restart zone side-by-side.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Different week. Different circumstances. Same driver. Last Sunday at Dover International Speedway, Kyle Larson was chasing Matt Kenseth for the win in the AAA 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Larson treated Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, with the utmost respect, taking great pains to run the veteran driver as cleanly as possibly. Kenseth won, with Larson trailing him in second place by a fraction of a second. But that was not the case on Saturday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – With Chase Elliott’s Chevrolet bouncing off the outside wall, and Kyle Larson’s Chevy bouncing off Elliott’s car coming to the finish line, Larson won a wild drag race to claim the last of three available spots in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FS1). At the end of the final 10-lap dash in the Sprint Showdown, Larson pinched Elliott into the outside wall entering the dogleg at the 1.5-mile track and banged intoRead More