chase elliott Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The last month of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule has been all about the short tracks, with Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway wrapping up a three race stretch at tracks under 1 mile in length. Often described as the perfectly designed race track by drivers, the 0.75-mile track lends itself to not only short track characteristics of beating and banging, but also the characteristics of a larger track with the side-by-side racing that will take place throughout the event. After missing out onRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The combination of Chase Elliott and Martinsville Speedway has certainly been eventful. Maybe a bit of an understatement considering the luck he’s had in Virginia, highlighted with last fall’s wild comeback win. Eventful wasn’t the word during Sunday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500. The defending Cup Series champion finished second after passing Denny Hamlin late in the going, equaling his best result this season. However, if you ask him how his 500-lap race went, he bluntly said it was uneventful. Compared to the luck Elliott hasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Martin Truex Jr. passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin on Lap 485 of Sunday’s rain-delayed Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway and pulled away to win for the third time in his last four starts at the .526-mile short track. The victory was Truex’s second this season, ending a streak of seven straight different winners to start the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. The driver of the No. 19 Toyota triumphed for the 29th time in his career and for theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Rain halted Saturday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway after 42 laps, necessitating a Sunday doubleheader of incomplete races that will feature 458 laps of the NASCAR Cup Series race, along with the final 159 circuits of Friday night’s rain-delayed Cook Out 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series event. The eighth race of the NASCAR Cup Series season will restart Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, following the conclusion of the Xfinity race, which completed 91 of 250 laps Friday night,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a weekend away for the first break of the 2021 season, the NASCAR Cup Series gets back to business Saturday night with a trip to southern Virginia for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic half-mile, which is also the smallest on the circuit, will test both man and machine over 500 grueling laps. As has been the case for the last year and a half, no practice, no qualifying, just line up andRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Joey Logano made history on Monday afternoon. Leading the final 61 laps in the face of a determined charge by Denny Hamlin, Logano won the rain-delayed Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the first dirt-track race for the NASCAR Cup Series since 1970. But there won’t be that long a gap in the future, given that BMS executive and general manager Jerry Caldwell announced during the race that NASCAR will return to the Bristol dirt in 2022. Logano grabbed the lead fromRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A year after the COVID-19 pandemic threw the brakes on the 2020 season, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to the epicenter of where it all came to a screeching halt – Atlanta Motor Speedway. The series would return to the 1.5-mile quad oval later in the year to make up the rescheduled Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, albeit without spectators. Fast forward to this Sunday and NASCAR’s best will have a limited number of fans in the stands to cheer them on as they tackle Atlanta’sRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Inspection problems were the name of the game for Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson. The trio had to work from the rear of the field to score top-10s in the Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway. Following the Xfinity Series race Saturday, NASCAR reported that Larson and Byron failed pre-race tech twice. Therefore, relinquishing their second and 10th starting spots. Sunday morning rolled along and Elliott, who won last November, was also sent to the rear. He was scheduled to roll offRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Martin Truex Jr. overcame an early-race brush with the wall and took the lead on the final restart with 25 laps remaining to earn his first victory of 2021 and first in 31 career starts at Phoenix Raceway. Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota ultimately held off Joey Logano’s No. 22 Penske Racing Ford by a convincing 1.698-seconds for the win in the Instacart 500. The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Truex took the race lead from the outside on a bold restartRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor This time last year, Phoenix served as the last race before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the sports landscape, sending all of us, NASCAR included into our new normal. A year later, with the effects of the pandemic still being felt, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Arizona desert to take on Phoenix Raceway and Sunday’s Instacart 500, in what could be a preview of the championship race when the 2021 season wraps up at the one-mile oval in November. Through the first fourRead More