Dale Earnhardt Jr Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – Call him the Grinch. Halloween may be the next holiday on the calendar, but Kyle Busch stole Christmas morning from Chase Elliott late on Sunday afternoon at Dover International Speedway. Running Elliott down from more than four seconds back in the last 40 laps of the Apache Warrior 400 at the Monster Mile, Busch powered his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the outside of Elliott’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and cleared him off Turn 4 as the carsRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The 2017 season has not gone the way that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team planned for it to go, but in his final race at Dover on Sunday, Earnhardt showed the kind of speed that he has been lacking for the majority of the season and came away with a seventh-place finish. Not only was it Earnhardt’s best finish at Dover since the fall race in 2015, but it also his first top-10 finish since Sonoma back in June. “ItRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The first round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs rolls on as the series heads back to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for their second visit of the season and Sunday’s running of the ISM Connect 300, which will also be the final time the Cup Series makes a visit to the track in the fall as they move to just one race weekend in 2018. First joining the Cup Series circuit in 1993, the 1.058-mile oval that has progressively banked turns from twoRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Heading into Saturday night’s regular season finale at Richmond, it was win or go home for the drivers sitting outside of the top-16 prior to the Federated Auto Parts 400. Ultimately, none of those drivers on the outside looking in were able to capitalize by the time the checkered flag flew and will head home without a shot at the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship and wondering what they could have done over the first 26 races to change their fortunes. Among theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Richmond Raceway for the regular season finale to cement which 16 drivers will head into the playoffs with a chance at the championship, but four years ago, this race and NASCAR as a whole was rocked by a race manipulation scheme dubbed as “Spingate.” Entering the race in September 2013, there were 10 drivers vying for the final five Chase spots, four of which would go to the drivers in the top-10 in points andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Penalty day in NASCAR has come following the race weekend at Darlington Raceway and this week’s penalty announcement is a doozy, with drivers from both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series feeling the wrath of the sanctioning body. Denny Hamlin made headlines across the sport with his sweep of both races on the historic track, including a monster comeback in Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500, but now both of those wins have been ruled as encumbered by NASCAR due to issuesRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer For the third year in a row, NASCAR’s Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway was a resounding success. Some could argue that the Throwback Weekend idea saved Darlington Raceway from a fate similar to North Wilkesboro and Rockingham Speedway. The Throwback Weekend is just one of three ‘theme’ weekends NASCAR has. On Memorial Day Weekend, NASCAR pays tribute to members of the military with the 600 Miles of Remembrance in Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Coke 600. July 4th weekend, NASCAR pays tribute to the history of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After a weekend off to recharge the batteries before making the final 12 race push to finish off the season, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to one of the crown jewels on the circuit, Darlington Raceway, for this weekend’s running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500. Darlington Raceway has been a staple of the Cup Series since opening in 1950 for its annual Labor Day weekend event with the Southern 500 being held on that date until a controversial decision was made to moveRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After a tough week for JR Motorsports and the No. 5 team following the loss of mechanic Adam Wright in a car crash one week ago, Michael Annett helped the healing process as he brought home his best finish of the season with a runner-up finish in Sunday’s Johnsonville 180 at Road America. “First off, we had a guardian angel riding with us this whole weekend,” said Annett. “Lost not only a great friend, great guy, and a great mechanic. Adam Wright, we lost himRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Kyle Busch’s quest for the weekend three-peat at Bristol just got a little easier. Driving his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Busch streaked to the pole during the rain-shortened 20-minute qualifying session for Friday night’s Food City 300 with a lap of 15.090 seconds, 127.157 mph, for his sixth NASCAR Xfinity Series pole of the season in his ninth start. The pole also marks the 63rd time that Busch will start at the top of the board in the Xfinity Series. “It’s just aRead More