chase elliott Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – When it came to Chase Elliott’s performance in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was suffering from a severe lack of self-esteem. After Sunday’s STP 500 at the .526-mile short track, Elliott will have to reevaluate. Starting on the outside of the front row after rain washed out Friday’s time trials, Elliott ran in the top five for the bulk of the afternoon and rolled home third, by farRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – In Sunday’s STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, everything worked – but nothing more than Brad Keselowski’s race-winning No. 2 Ford. Yes, that’s right, a Ford. The car maker found Victory Lane at the .526-mile short track for the first time since Oct. 20, 2002, when Kurt Busch won at NASCAR’s oldest and smallest premier series track in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Keselowski and runner-up Kyle Busch swapped the lead during the final 64-lap green-flag run,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After winning his first Martinsville grandfather clock in this race one year ago, Kyle Busch looked primed to accomplish that feat for the second year in a row after leading the most laps in Sunday’s STP 500, but with handling issues plaguing him in the final stint of the race, he had to settle for a runner-up finish instead. Busch started the day in 10th place and took over the lead for the first time under caution on lap 109. Though it was just forRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The start of the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season has not gone as planned for Kyle Busch Motorsports rookie Noah Gragson. After getting wiped out in a lap two melee at Daytona International Speedway and being involved in a lap two incident at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Gragson was looking for some redemption at Martinsville Speedway. Gragson and his No. 18 Switch Toyota Tundra team unloaded with speed. In the first and only practice session for the Alpha Energy Solutions 250, he was thirdRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Polesitter Chase Elliott held off defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter after a restart with 12 laps left and pulled away to win Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway by 1.865 seconds. Elliott grabbed the lead from third-place finisher Christopher Bell on Lap 234, when Bell’s Toyota tangled with Austin Cindric’s Ford through Turns 1 and 2. Bell lost the top spot, and Sauter charged past into the second position before NASCAR threw the 10th andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Late in the going in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville, Christopher Bell looked to be in the catbird seat with the lead in the waning laps, but after contact with a truck at the tail-end of the lead lap, Bell’s shot at the win was gone and he had to settle for a third-place finish. After winning at Atlanta, Bell was looking to make it two wins in a row by adding a Martinsville grandfather clock to his trophy case. StartingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – For the second straight week, Kyle Larson will start on the pole for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event. He can only hope the result of the race is the same, too. Last week, Larson won the pole at Auto Club Speedway and went on to win last Sunday’s race at the two-mile track. On Friday, when rain washed out time trials at Martinsville Speedway, Larson earned the top starting spot for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1)Read More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer While the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season started last month at Daytona International Speedway for most competitors, 17-year-old Justin Haley’s season starts this weekend in the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway. This is because NASCAR’s rulebook only allows drivers that are 16 and 17 years of age to compete on road courses and tracks 1.1 miles or smaller. Haley’s 18th birthday is April 28, which will allow him to compete for the complete 2017 NASCAR Camping Word Truck Series season. NASCARRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix to kick off the Western swing, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wraps up their venture to the West Coast this weekend as they roll into Southern California to do battle on the two mile Auto Club Speedway in Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Built on the site of an old steel mill featured in the movie “Terminator”, the two mile oval has been a part of the NASCAR schedule since opening in 1997. The track has gone throughRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After the kickoff to the West Coast swing last weekend in Las Vegas culminated in a victory by Martin Truex, Jr. to mark the third different winner in the first three races of the season and also featured a post-race pit road brawl, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Valley of the Sun this weekend to take on the Camping World 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Phoenix has resided on the Cup Series schedule since 1988, but the track looks completely differentRead More