chase elliott Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Using a contrarian strategy that included bluffing Kevin Harvick onto pit road earlier than planned in the final stage of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, Martin Truex Jr. pulled off a convincing victory in the 16th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. On Lap 73, during the final stage of the race, Truex’s crew chief, Cole Pearn, ordered the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota to pit road. On the spur of the moment, Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, optedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – Clint Bowyer gambled. Then he made sure he cashed the winning ticket with a determined charge on two new tires as rain threatened Michigan International Speedway. Bowyer got the lead under caution at the end of Stage 2 of Sunday’s Firekeepers Casino 400 when crew chief Mike Bugarewicz opted for two tires on the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Bowyer had to do the rest, holding off teammate Kevin Harvick after a restart on Lap 126, barely preventing Harvick, who had freshRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After last weekend’s race at Pocono saw Martin Truex, Jr. score his second win of the season, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Michigan to race on one of the biggest and fastest tracks on the circuit, Michigan International Speedway, in Sunday’s running of the FireKeepers Casino 400. With this race taking place near the home of two of the three manufacturers (Chevrolet and Ford), teams put extra emphasis on winning this race for bragging rights. The two-mile speedway tends to favor the teamsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. –A new high-downforce, restrictor-plate competition package at Pocono Raceway brought a familiar result on Saturday—at least where the NASCAR Xfinity Series is concerned. Overcoming a pit road speeding penalty that sent him to the back of the field for the start of the second 25-lap stage in the Pocono Green 250, Kyle Busch clawed his way through the field to win the 92nd race of his career. What wasn’t familiar was Busch’s victory at Pocono. It was his first, in hisRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kevin Harvick has positioned himself to make NASCAR history in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 – a victory in the iconic race would give the 42-year-old former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion his second three-race winning streak of the season. And this weekend will mark only the 13th race of the schedule. That Harvick and his veteran No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford team could accomplish such an impressive mark was never a question. And perhaps the motivation was only stoked inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With their primary driver suspended for the foreseeable future, GMS Racing has had to turn to others in the NASCAR garage to substitute drive their No. 23 entry in the NASCAR Xfinity Series until Spencer Gallagher is able to return. After Johnny Sauter piloted the car at Dover two weeks ago, the team has elected to put Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular Chase Elliott in the car this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and in a handful of other races throughout the rest ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Kevin Harvick’s answer to NASCAR’s new competition package was the same old song—another victory in a season that already has produced a surfeit of success. This time it was Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with a restrictor-plate limiting the horsepower and a large blade on the rear of the cars providing downforce and maneuverability. Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was still the strongest car in the field, and the driver who already has five pointsRead More

By: NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – In a sport where differences are often measured in thousandths, Kyle Larson was in firm control of Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying session at Dover International Speedway-after an adjustment between the first and second rounds at least. Larson charged around the high-banked one-mile concrete track in 22.770 seconds (158.103 mph) to earn the pole position for Sunday’s AAA 400. Saving his fastest lap for the third and final round, Larson was the only driver to top 158 mph during theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Following a wild Talladega weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series hits the road back toward the mid-Atlantic as they set their sights on Dover International Speedway and Sunday’s running of the AAA 400 Drive for Autism. Dover began its life as an asphalt track back in 1969, but in 1995, the track was converted to concrete, making it one of only two on the circuit. As one of the two concrete tracks on the NASCAR schedule, the one-mile high banked oval that is DoverRead More

By: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – Joey Logano led a Ford feast on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, beating Kurt Busch to the checkered flag by .127 seconds to win the GEICO 500, the 10th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Logano led the final 42-of-188 laps, a race-high 70 overall, and controlled the action after a 14-car wreck on Lap 166 thinned the field. Logano led the field to the green flag for the final restart on Lap 172 and stayed out front the restRead More