Daytona 500 Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Chase Elliott kicked off Speedweeks last Sunday by scoring his second consecutive Daytona 500 pole and the sophomore Hendrick Motorsports driver continued his hot streak on Thursday night by winning the first of the two Can-Am Duel races. “We had such a fast NAPA Chevy tonight. I didn’t think anyone was going to help us there at the first part of the race and I had a couple of good pushes to get us out front. Eddie did a great job on top of theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into the 59th running of the Daytona 500 this Sunday, it’s time again for another edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater,” in which we’ll take a look back at a race from Daytona’s past. This week’s edition features one of the greatest upsets ever in the “Great American Race” – the 1990 Daytona 500, which saw underdog Derrike Cope pull off the win after a dominant day from Dale Earnhardt went awry with half a lap to go. Earnhardt claimed a front row starting spotRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor As the 59th running of the Daytona 500 looms ahead, the drivers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will all be gunning for the opportunity to call themselves champions of the “Great American Race”, but for Michael Waltrip, this race takes on another dimension as it will be his last behind the wheel. After making his 784th career start in the Cup Series, Waltrip will be hanging up his helmet at the conclusion of Sunday’s race, bringing his 32-year driving career to an endRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Ahead of the start of the 2017 NASCAR season next weekend at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR took the opportunity to unveil the stage lengths for not only the season openers for all three national series, but also for the remainder of the season. The new format, which was unveiled with much pomp and circumstance last month in Charlotte is geared toward making the racing more exciting throughout each event in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.Read More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer *Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for 24 drivers. We will release one driver preview per day over a 24-day stretch. Age: 36 Years in Cup: 11 Career Wins: 7 Biggest Accomplishment: 4 wins in 2016 A stellar 2016 season saw Martin Truex Jr. tie a career best with eight top-five finishes and set career bests with four wins, five poles and 1,809 laps led. The four wins included two of the sport’s crown jewels, the Coca-ColaRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into February’s season opening Daytona 500, the drivers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will all be looking forward to their chance to win the “Great American Race” before embarking on the remainder of the 2017 season, but for two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip, next month’s race will be his last behind the wheel. Waltrip notoriously went winless in the Cup Series for the first 16 years of his career before finally breaking through for his first win in the 2001 DaytonaRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Change. Whether it’s in business or in your personal life, the one and only constant is change. On Monday evening at the Charlotte Convention Center, NASCAR executives announced a major change to the racing for all three of its national series. These changes come as attendance and ratings continue to decline and the sanctioning body looks for a way to keep fans engaged throughout the course of a race. The new format breaks down as follows: Each race will have three stages Stage 1 andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Ahead of the 59th running of the Daytona 500 in February, two more teams have thrown their hat into the ring to attempt to make the 40-car field in the Great American Race. Two of the regulars in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Brendan Gaughan and Elliott Sadler, will try their luck next month at Daytona as they look to make another start in NASCAR’s Super Bowl. Should they make it in, Gaughan would be making his second Daytona 500 start and first since 2004, whileRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The news that the NASCAR community has been waiting for since the offseason began finally came down on Thursday as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was medically cleared to resume his racing career after successfully completing an on-track test to finalize his recovery from a concussion. Earnhardt and his No. 88 team performed the test at Darlington Raceway on Wednesday, where he completed 185 laps during a test session that lasted nearly five hours. Earnhardt was joined at the test by his crew chief Greg Ives asRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Last weekend, Formula One cars hit the 31 degree high banks of Daytona for the first time in history as part of Ferrari’s Finali Mondiali year end celebration and races. The event, held in North America for the first time featured thousands of Ferrari road and race cars from across the globe in a series of races and exhibition laps with everything from historic cars, and challenge series cars to recent F1 machinery. Scuderia Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were on hand and thrilledRead More