Chase for the Championship Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor HOMESTEAD, Fla. — “At the end of the day when you come to Homestead and you’re going for a championship in the Chase format, you put yourself in position and that’s all you can do.” – Justin Allgaier After qualifying sixth for Saturday night’s Ford EcoBoost 300, many expected Justin Allgaier to be the weak link in the Championship 4. Although he was the lowest Chase contender in the running order after qualifying, Allgaier rose to the occasion when the green flag was displayed. TheRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Christopher Bell won a dramatic Drivin’ For Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park on Saturday night, and by claiming his second career victory in the Camping World Truck Series, Bell became the fifth different Truck Series points eligible driver to win a race in the first nine races of the season. What this essentially means is that the eight driver grid that will make up the inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase for the Championship is getting pretty damn full, pretty damn quickly and thereRead More

By Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – There’s no telling where a younger, less mature Kyle Busch might have been this week. For all his talent, he probably wouldn’t have been at Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day session in preparation for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBC) and his shot at a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Team owner Joe Gibbs sees the difference in his driver, who has overcome extreme adversity to put himself in position to battle defending champion Kevin Harvick, four-time champRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – Kyle Busch has continued to overcome the long odds this season and following a fourth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway, is just one race away from qualifying for the Championship Four in Homestead. The 30-year-old missed the first 11 races of the year following a horrific crash at Daytona International Speedway during an XFINITY Series race in February.  When Busch returned NASCAR required he win a race and be among the top 30 in points in order to qualify for the Chase.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief A day after NASCAR announced the suspension of Matt Kenseth for two races following his collision with Joey Logano at Martinsville, I’m left wondering if Brian France and company made the right call. The decision to suspend the former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion has sent a message to fans and drivers alike, but also created division on the severity of the punishment. Many look to the Kevin Harvick incident during the green-white-checkered finish at Talladega as intentional and point to the fact that the sanctioning bodyRead More

TALLADEGA, Ala. – The roof came open and the bottom fell out. That was Denny Hamlin’s day in a nutshell. Hamlin was second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings coming into Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but a disastrous 37th-place finish left him on the outside looking in as the Eliminator Round begins with eight surviving drivers. The No. 11 FedEx Toyota suffered a fluky mechanical issue early, then was victimized on a last-lap restart when he was caught up in a massive pileup that left Hamlin irate withRead More

JOLIET, Ill. – In the theater, using the expression “Break a leg” is a way to wish an actor good luck on opening night. Twelve days before Sunday’s opening Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway, Denny Hamlin tore the ACL in his right leg playing basketball. Late in the myAFibRisk.com 400 at the 1.5-mile track, Hamlin found his good fortune in the form of a serendipitous pit call on the part of crew chief Dave Rogers. Staying out on old tires, Hamlin grabbed the lead momentsRead More

RICHMOND, Va. – Joe Gibbs Racing brought guns to a knife fight on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. But JGR’s Matt Kenseth did his teammates one better — he brought a howitzer. Leading 352 of 400 laps in a race he owned from the outset, Kenseth pulled away from Kyle Busch after a restart with 18 laps left and won the Federated Auto Parts 400 by .951 seconds over his teammate. Kenseth’s fourth victory of the season, tying him for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series lead with Jimmie JohnsonRead More

NASCAR’s new Chase format is working out just as they hoped it would, but perhaps, it’s working out too well. The Eliminator 8 round in the Chase for the Championship has upped the intensity among the remaining contenders. After Martinsville, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick found themselves in a deficit heading into Texas Motor Speedway. The 1.5-mile oval was the sight of not only six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson’s 70th win, but the most dramatic post-race scuffle of the season between two of NASCAR’s best. The contact It allRead More