Charlotte Motor Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday’s running of the Bank of America 500, the time has come once again to take a look back at a race from Charlotte’s past in this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”. In this week’s edition, we will focus on the 2002 UAW GM Quality 500 – a race that saw a relative unknown score his first Cup Series win in just his second start. After leading the points for the majorityRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The last time the NASCAR Xfinity Series visited Charlotte Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin took home the victory in exciting fashion. Hamlin held off Austin Dillon on a late restart in overtime and went on to win by 0.291 seconds. Justin Allgaier was the highest finishing Xfinity Series regular in fifth. The last time a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender won at Charlotte Motor Speedway was 2010 when Brad Keselowski took a trip to victory lane. Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, and Keselowski are theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor With the first round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup complete after last weekend’s race at Dover, NASCAR’s premier division heads home to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend to kick off the Round of 12 with Saturday night’s running of the Bank of America 500. As the first race in the Round of 12, Charlotte will play a big role in setting up how the remainder of the round will play out at Kansas and Talladega in the next two weeks. The 1.5Read More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer After the elimination race at Dover International Speedway in 2015, Jimmie Johnson shocked the NASCAR world as he was eliminated from the Chase for the Championship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Fast-forward to 2016, and Jimmie Johnson firmly raced his way from the Round of 16 to the Round of 12. As attention was set on the four drivers that had been eliminated from the Chase, as well as race winner Martin Truex Jr., Johnson’s team showed life that has been missing from theRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer After finishing 27th at the Kentucky Motor Speedway stand-alone race, Ty Dillon was on the outside, looking in, 15-points behind the Chase cutoff, and last in on the Chase Grid. The Drive Sober 200 at Dover International Speedway looked as if it would be an up-hill battle with several NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars in the Xfinity Series race. Dillon was seventh fastest in the first practice session, and 14th fastest in the second practice session. The second practice session was cut short by rain.Read More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – Heading into Kentucky Speedway and the first race in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase, Erik Jones and the powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing organization were a title favorite. Jones recorded four wins and 13 top-five finishes in the 26-race regular season and entered the weekend with a six-point advantage in the championship standings. Jones had a dominant car on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, leading a race-high 100 laps before a late-race wreck ended his night in the garage instead of inRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor For the past three seasons, Kevin Harvick has been unquestionably the class of the field just about every time the Sprint Cup Series arrives at a race track. That wasn’t the case however this week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Harvick started the Coca-Cola 600 from the eighth position, but in the early stages he didn’t look like much of a contender for a win. After the competition caution at lap 25 though, Harvick did battle his way inside the top-five, but his surge was shortRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – Martin Truex Jr. and his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota Camry team outpaced the field for the Coca-Cola 600 pole on Thursday night and easily led the most laps in the race itself. This was Truex’s ninth career pole, and first pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Truex opened up an early lead until the competition caution on lap 25. After the restart, Truex held off the competition, to once again open up a gap that extended to nearly six seconds. DuringRead More

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