chase elliott Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer Ahead of next Sunday’s Daytona 500, the 44 hopeful entrants into the Great American Race took to Daytona’s high banks to set the front row and the lineups for Thursday’s CanAm Duel qualifying races. After last season’s attempt at group qualifying, which turned into an unmitigated disaster, NASCAR made the decision to move back to single car runs for qualifying on Sunday. The new format would consist of two rounds in which all 44 cars would post a time in the first round and then theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Can Hendrick Motorsports really be better without Jeff Gordon? From a global perspective, to suggest such a thing would be pure heresy. But from a year-over-year performance perspective, it’s well within the realm of possibility that the 2016 version of Hendrick Motorsports could outshine the 2015 edition, even with rookie Chase Elliott taking Gordon’s place behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet. In fact, team owner Rick Hendrick said as much. Even though Gordon advanced to the Championship Round of the Chase andRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service To say 2016 will be a year of enormous change in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing is to understate the issue. NASCAR is rolling out a new competition package in its foremost division, one that features lower downforce. The aim is to make the Sprint Cup cars more difficult to drive, which in turn will put more control in the hands of the drivers. You’ll see dramatic changes on the track. Chase Elliott, a 20-year-old rookie, succeeds icon Jeff Gordon behind the wheel ofRead More

By Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Kyle Larson took out a season of frustration on the NASCAR XFINITY Series field Saturday in the season finale, tracking down Austin Dillon in the closing laps to win the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway by slightly less than a second. Despite Larson’s dominance in leading 118 of 200 laps, Chris Buescher ran a clean race, finishing 11th to clinch his first XFINITY Series title. Buescher came into the race needing to finish 13th or better to guarantee himself the championship. AfterRead More

By Jeff Olson, NASCAR Wire Service Chris Buescher isn’t fond of points racing or being cautious. But when it comes to Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Ford EcoBoost 300 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:45 p.m. ET on NBC), he might have to do a little of both. Buescher leads Chase Elliott by 18 points, Ty Dillon by 22 and Regan Smith by 24 going into the race. With such narrow margins, Buescher will try to balance caution with aggression. “You’ve got to be a little bit more careful, but atRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – If Saturday’s DAV 200 Honoring America’s Veterans had been a court case, 39 NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers would have pleaded “no contest.” The exception was polesitter Kyle Busch, who led 190 of 200 laps in registering a dominating victory at Phoenix International Raceway, his eighth in 19 starts at the track. In a race that saw defending series champion and seventh-place finisher Chase Elliott trim XFINITY leader Chris Buescher’s margin in the standings from 24 to 18 points, Busch ran awayRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas—Brad Keselowski’s love affair with the Lone Star State continued in full force on Saturday with a hard-fought NASCAR XFINITY Series victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway. Keselowski grabbed the lead from Coors Light Polesitter Austin Dillon on Lap 189 of 200 after a restart with 16 laps left in the race. The No. 22 Team Penske Ford finished 1.137 seconds ahead of the No. 88 JR Motorsports entry driven by Kevin Harvick, who passed Dillon forRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – Current NASCAR XFINITY Series championship leader Chris Buescher doesn’t have anything announced for next season, but says he likely will return to NASCAR’s second-tier tour. Buescher, a two-time winner in XFINITY this season, ran six races in the Sprint Cup Series this season for Front Row Motorsports with his highest finish being 20th at Auto Club Speedway. The Roush-Fenway Racing driver did not appear to be unsettled about having nothing prepared for 2016 during a conference with the media today at TexasRead More

JR Motorsports (JRM) announced today it has entered into a multi-year partnership with BRANDT, a leading agriculture retailer and manufacturer of agricultural specialty products.  Additionally, the team has named Justin Allgaier driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro, beginning in 2016. Allgaier will vie full-time for a NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) championship with BRANDT Professional Agriculture as a primary partner on the No. 7 in 18 of 33 events.  BRANDT will receive associate placement in the remaining 15 races.  The 2017 races will be announced at a later date. “JRRead More

RICHMOND, Va. – Reigning NASCAR XFINITY Series champion Chase Elliott was first off pit road under caution on Lap 218 of 250 and held the top spot the rest of the way in breaking a 39-race winless streak on Friday night at Richmond International Raceway. Elliott’s victory in the Virginia529 College Savings 250 trimmed his deficit to 21 points behind series leader Chris Buescher, who finished 10th. Elliott’s first victory of the season was also the first in 24 races for an XFINITY Series regular at RIR. “We always wantRead More