chase elliott Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Ryan Newman has had the reputable trait of being the hardest competitor to battle in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was no different as that aggression led to his first top-10 with Roush Fenway Racing after scoring a ninth-place result. “It was a good run for us,” said Newman. “We had a car better than what we finished.” “The Rocket Man” showed strong and consistent pace all afternoon, running inside the top-five for a majority ofRead More

By Kenny Bruce, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, TENN. – Forget about the superspeedways. Chase Elliott roared to his first pole of the season Friday, capturing the No. 1 starting spot for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Elliott, driver of the No 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, toured the 0.533-mile, high-banked track with his final round run of 14.568 seconds at 131.713 mph. Prior to Friday’s effort, all four of Elliott’s previous poles had come on what had been the series’ restrictor-plate tracks – three at Daytona International SpeedwayRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a visit to the Lone Star State, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back to a short track with this weekend’s stop at Bristol Motor Speedway for the running of the Food City 500. Bristol always brings out the excitement from fans and competitors alike as packing 40 cars into the half-mile high banked bullring can only be explained by the phrase “flying fighter jets in a gymnasium”, which is more accurate than it would seem. Drivers race two and sometimes three wide throughoutRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent The O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 appeared to be a return to form for Jimmie Johnson. The seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Champion earned a top-five finish at Texas Motor Speedway, his first since last year’s Coke 600. His No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 led the way for 60 laps, more than all of the laps the Hendrick Motorsports driver led last season. When the final caution waved with 80 laps to go, Johnson, along with most of the field, pitted. He restarted fromRead More

By Lee Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – Jimmie Johnson is back in the saddle again. After leading first practice at Texas Motor Speedway and the first two rounds of qualifying, the seven-time champion bumped his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott from the top spot with seconds remaining in the final round with a lap at 188.890 mph to win the pole for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Busch Pole Award is the first for Johnson in 96Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Following last weekend’s first short track race of the season at Martinsville, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to a 1.5-mile track with Sunday’s visit to Texas Motor Speedway for the running of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. First joining the circuit in 1997, the 1.5-mile Texas track has provided some great racing over the years as the surface wore down as each season passed before being repaved and reconfigured prior to its 2017 race dates. As a refresher, the reconfiguration affected Turns 1 andRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Some season firsts took place for Chase Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, including his best track finish after coming up 0.594 seconds short of dethroning the dominant Brad Keselowski, who led 446 of 500 laps. The 23-year-old’s strong result marked Chevrolet’s third top-five of the season, and not only Elliott’s best finish of the season thus far, but Hendrick Motorsports first top-five all season in a track that’s been their yard for well over aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Brad Keselowski led 446 of 500 laps in winning Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. An easy victory, right? Well, not exactly. After Keselowski’s pit crew put him in the lead for a restart on Lap 380, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford spent the rest of the race fending off a determined charge from Chase Elliott. Ultimately, Keselowski got to the finish line .594 seconds ahead of Elliott and 1.335 seconds in front of Kyle Busch, who wasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – With surgical efficiency, Joey Logano continued his domination of knockout qualifying at Martinsville Speedway. Saving his car and his tires for the final round of Saturday’s time trials at the .526-mile short track, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a lap at 97.830 mph (19.356 seconds). Driving the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Logano edged Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driver Aric Almirola (97.643 mph) for the top starting spot byRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After weeks of aero package this and aero package that, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to some normalcy this weekend as they head to Martinsville Speedway for the first short track race of the season and Sunday’s running of the STP 500. 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. The track has basically one groove, meaning the only way to pass will beRead More