Dale Earnhardt Jr Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After taking on the Monster Mile last weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads north to Pennsylvania this weekend for the first of two 2017 dates at Pocono Raceway and Sunday’s running of the Pocono 400. With only three turns, instead of the four turns at all other ovals on the circuit, Pocono is definitely one of the most unique tracks on the schedule. The three turns all have differing banking with Turn 1 and its 14 degree banking modeled after the now-defunct TrentonRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, the regular season of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is now halfway over. The 400-lap event on the one-mile concrete oval once again provided some of the best racing of the year, so without further ado, here are five of the top storylines leaving the Monster Mile. Jimmie Johnson Just Keeps Rewriting the Record Books Though Kyle Larson and Martin Truex, Jr. dominated the majority of the race at Dover, it was Johnson that came outRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Armed with a new crew chief and a gas tank that held just enough fuel to get him to the end of 600 miles with less than a second to spare, Austin Dillon won the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series of his career and put the vaunted No. 3 Chevrolet back in Victory Lane for the first time since 2000. Working for the first time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with crew chief Justin Alexander, Dillon was one ofRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Memorial Day weekend in the motorsports world means one thing, racing’s greatest day beginning with F1 at Monaco, the Indianapolis 500, and ending with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”, we’ll take a step back a decade to look at a win by a member of a family known more for their open wheel exploits than those in stock cars. Of course, we’re talking about Casey Mears’ upset win in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600. Mears hadRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It’s that time of year again. The weekend before Memorial Day marks the beginning of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series traditional two-week stop at NASCAR’s home base of Charlotte, North Carolina and the 1.5-mile quad oval that is Charlotte Motor Speedway. First up on the two week stopover in the Queen City is the Monster Energy All-Star Race, a non-points event that has served up more than its fair share of exciting moments in its 33 year history. What is now the All-Star RaceRead More

By Aaron Bearden, NASCAR Contributor Phew. The last few weeks sure have been fun, haven’t they? Ever since the conclusion of the West Coast Swing – another solid stretch of the schedule – NASCAR has gone on a tour of many tracks that fans and media alike seem to clamor for, often putting on thrilling races in the processes. The past five races have seen all three of the schedule’s short tracks, a superspeedway race and just a single 1.5-miler, which was itself interesting due to the wild-card nature ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – There’s no longer a goose egg in the win column next to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s name. With a last-lap pass in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Stenhouse collected his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in his 158th start and delivered the first win for Roush Fenway Racing since Carl Edwards triumphed at Sonoma in June 2014. “This is for all the guys at the shop–we’ve been terrible for a long time,” an exuberant Stenhouse said of the Roush renaissance.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor A front-row start at Talladega should have led to one of the best finishes of the season or even a win for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who has won at the storied track six times in his career, right? Well, not so fast. Starting the day on the outside of the front row alongside eventual winner Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Earnhardt was never able to power his way into the lead as he battled handling issues with his No. 88 Chevrolet throughout the day, noting on hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega, two fan favorites will make up the front row, with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. scoring his first pole since Atlanta in September 2013 by beating out Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who will join him on the front row. Stenhouse and Earnhardt set the fastest times in the first round of qualifying and when the final round began, Earnhardt went out and backed up his first round time to scores of cheers from the Talladega faithful. As the last car on track,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Heading into Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega, JR Motorsports, which currently holds the top three spots in the NASCAR Xfinity Series points standings, will be looking to make it back-to-back trips to victory lane at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. After expanding to four teams in 2017, some expected the organization to have some growing pains, but through the first eight races of the season, they haven’t missed a beat as they have established themselves as early championship favorites after falling just short last season. TheRead More