Denny Hamlin Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron earned his series best fourth pole position of the year Saturday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to green in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Byron’s time of 57.746 (170.235 mph) in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was .122-second quicker than his championship rival Martin Truex Jr. in Busch Light Pole Qualifying at the unique three-turn, 2.5-mile Pocono track and places the current two title leadersRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Six to go. The countdown to the end of the regular season for the NASCAR Cup Series continues as the Tricky Triangle comes calling for Sunday’s running of the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. 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 Trenton Speedway, Turn 2 and itsRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. – Martin Truex Jr. had led more than 900 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway without claiming any victory hardware in 29 previous starts at the 1.058-mile oval. However, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota left absolutely no doubt about securing that career first win in Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301 at the track, leading a dominating 254 of the 301 laps. The impressive work was the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s third victory of the season – andRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor New England here we come. A week removed from a thrilling rain-shortened event in Atlanta, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to a flat oval this weekend for Sunday’s running of the Crayon 301, as the march to the end of the regular season continues on. First joining the Cup Series circuit in 1993, the 1.058-mile oval that has progressively banked turns from two to seven degrees is one of the more difficult tracks on the schedule as the flat nature of the track makes trackRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Denny Hamlin will lead the field to green for the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series street race on Sunday after snagging the pole for the Grant Park 220. Noting that the first day on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn course in downtown Chicago was “my single best day at the race track in all of my career”, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the top spot in the waning moments of qualifying with a lap of one minute, 28.435 seconds. Tyler Reddick,Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LEBANON, Tenn. – Ross Chastain capped off a “perfect” race weekend, hitting all the right notes in Music City to earn the winner’s guitar trophy in Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway – his first NASCAR Cup Series race victory of the season, a day after claiming his first career pole position. But before hoisting his new guitar, the 30-year old Chastain had a watermelon to smash – his trademark victory celebration – a nod to his family’s multi-generation watermelon farm in rural Alva,Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LEBANON, Tenn. – Ross Chastain smiled and conceded, he had no idea how having the No. 1 pit box selection would be for Sunday’s Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. “I’d never had it before,’’ he said smiling. Chastain certainly earned it with honors on Saturday, claiming the Busch Light Pole in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet with a blazing fast 160.687 mph lap in qualifying – a full 1 mph better than the field – earning the right toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The NASCAR Cup Series is back in Music City for the third straight year to take on Nashville Superspeedway and Sunday’s running of the Ally 400. Prior to its Cup debut in 2021, the track located on the outskirts of Nashville in Lebanon, Tennessee, was no stranger to hosting NASCAR events with both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series running there from 2001 to 2011 before the track was shuttered. The Nashville track serves as an oddity on the Cup Series schedule, aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Denny Hamlin made the most of a second lap in the final round of Saturday’s qualifying to edge Tyler Reddick for the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Running the fastest lap of the day, Hamlin toured the 1.99-mile road course in 77.719 seconds (92.178 mph) to earn his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his first at Sonoma and the 38th of his career. Reddick hadRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The second half of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season rolls on as the West Coast comes calling this weekend, with Sonoma Raceway playing host to Sunday’s running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. A 12-turn technical road course situated about 30 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma is one of six road courses on the 2022 schedule, with Sonoma first joining the circuit back in 1989. Over the years, the course at Sonoma Raceway has gone through a few configuration changes. When the track was firstRead More