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By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Joey Logano added another memory at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, and seven other Ford drivers followed behind him.  Covering the 1.540-mile distance in 31.256 seconds (177.374 mph), Logano won the pole for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and led a parade of eight Ford drivers into the top eight starting positions.  That’s the first time since 1965 at Beltsville (Md.) that Fords have qualified for the top eight spots on theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a three-week stint out west, the NASCAR Cup Series is much closer to home this weekend as it heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second superspeedway race of the season – Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400. Atlanta’s aging racing surface, which had been in place since 1997, held together as long as possible, but the 260 laps around the 1.5-mile track in July 2021 were the last on that particular surface as the track underwent a repave and reconfiguration for the 2022 season. The 24-degreeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick hate late-race cautions.  William Byron loves them.  After a two-tire call under the fourth caution flag in Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway, Byron surged past Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in overtime to win his second straight NASCAR Cup Series race.  Byron can thank Ford drivers Aric Almirola and Harrison Burton, who on successive weekends spun with a handful of laps left—at Las Vegas and Phoenix, respectively—and gave Byron a chance toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The West Coast Swing reaches its final leg this weekend in the Arizona desert as the NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Phoenix for Sunday’s running of the United Rentals Work United 500. Though the drivers and teams have two races with the Next Gen car under their belt at the one-mile oval, a new aerodynamic package that debuts this weekend will make Sunday a key race to help formulate a game plan for when the series returns in November with a title on the line. TheRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Brad Keselowski is no stranger to the top of the leaderboard on a superspeedway and that’s exactly where he found himself in Saturday’s final practice session for the 65th running of the Daytona 500. Piloting his No. 6 RFK Racing Ford around the 2.5-mile track in 47.071 seconds, 191.201 mph, the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion staked his place at the top and would not be moved for the remainder of the 50-minute session. “We made some really good improvements,” Keselowski said.Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The wait is over. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series kicks off this weekend with the annual Busch Light Clash exhibition race. After being held at Daytona International Speedway as the opening salvo to Speedweeks throughout its existence, the race moved away from the birthplace of NASCAR out to the West Coast last year, into the confines of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. For the second year in a row, the purpose-built quarter-mile track plays host to NASCAR’s premier division and will give all of the teamsRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – As the grizzled veteran of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4, Joey Logano showed his fellow title contenders how it was done Saturday at Phoenix, scoring the pole for Sunday’s championship deciding race. The 2018 series champion posted a lap of 26.788 seconds, 134.389 mph to jump to the top of the board ahead of his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to put himself in the best position possible when the green flag drops. “It keeps the pressure on them,” Logano said. “That’sRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Christopher Bell had another miracle in his pocket, but Ross Chastain stole the show with a scarcely believable video-game move in the final corners of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. For the second time in as many rounds in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Bell won a race he had to win. After beating pole winner Kyle Larson to the finish line by .869 seconds, Bell will race for the series title next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. “Mom and dad,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson speeds to pole position for Martinsville elimination race MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Kyle Larson backed up last Sunday’s victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a pole-winning run at Martinsville Speedway. Though Larson has been eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, he’ll lead the field to green in the race to decide which three drivers will join Joey Logano in the November 6 Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway—Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). After locking upRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Seven drivers. Three transfer spots into the Championship 4. One race. The Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs all comes down to Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, a half-mile bullring in southern Virginia where bent sheet metal and hurt feelings are all but inevitable. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic track, which is also the smallest on the circuit, will test both man and machine over 500 grueling laps. The track has basically one groove, meaning the only wayRead More