Denny Hamlin Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – The stars of the NASCAR Cup Series took to the track at Circuit of the Americas on Saturday morning for their only track time ahead of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Drivers and teams would have a limited practice session before rolling right into qualifying to set the 39-car field for the race. Kyle Busch Fastest Overall in Practice Split into two groups (A and B), with limited time to dial in their cars before qualifying, they wasted no time in getting upRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When the NASCAR Cup Series takes the green flag in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta, it will also be taking a step off into the unknown. Atlanta’s aging racing surface, which had been in place since 1997, held together as long as possible, but the 260 laps around the 1.5-mile track last July were the last on that particular surface as the track underwent a repave and reconfiguration for the 2022 season. Almost as soon as Kurt Busch crossed the line to takeRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney earned his third career Phoenix Raceway pole position on Saturday afternoon and will line up alongside Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin to lead the field to green in Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500 (3:30 p.m., FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It is the best race start of the season for both drivers, who are eager to rebound after uncharacteristic tough luck in the opening three races of 2022. Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford has only aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The start of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season has seen the Next Gen car put through its paces on a variety of tracks, now it heads to Phoenix Raceway and Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500 for what could be its most important race yet. The one-mile oval in the Arizona desert played host to a two-day test in late January, but there is still a cloud of uncertainty about how the car will race come Sunday, making the very limited track time available like gold forRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS — Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell won his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole position on Saturday and will lead the field in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota bested the 10 cars that advanced to second round qualifying at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a lap of 182.673 mph. Defending race winner Kyle Larson put his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a thrilling race in Southern California last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will make the trip up Interstate 15 to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week, with Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 marking the second leg of the West Coast swing. Las Vegas began its life on the NASCAR circuit as a 1.5-mile oval with 12 degrees of banking in 1998, but following the 2006 running of the race, the track underwent a massive reconfiguration that saw progressive banking put in place with the new banking rangingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric stays on top with Fontana pole In a qualifying session that should have merited hazard pay for the 10 final-round drivers, Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric backed up his victory in the Great American Race with a pole-winning run on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Cindric will start where he finished the 500 in Sunday’s Wise Power 400 NASCAR Cup Series event at the 2-mile track (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the first time in two years, NASCAR is back at Auto Club Speedway. After missing out on racing in 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunday’s Wise Power 400 marks the Cup Series return to the two-mile D-shaped oval and the kick-off to NASCAR’s West Coast swing. Built on the site of an old steel mill featured in the movie “Terminator”, the two-mile oval has been a part of the NASCAR schedule since opening in 1997. During its 20+ years on theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The future is indeed now in the NASCAR Cup Series. Not because it’s the first-ever regular season race with the current car (known as NextGen), but it also saw another first-time winner in the Daytona 500. In just his eighth career Cup start, Austin Cindric brought Team Penske its third win in “The Great American Race.” While the No. 2 team celebrated, other drivers were either heartbroken or collected in wrecks that’ll prove costly to team’s due to the supply shortage of the current car. DespiteRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Days before the 64th running of the Daytona 500, rookie Harrison Burton was put through the paces during a flight with the Air Force Thunderbirds. On Sunday afternoon, he was airborne again. This time it wasn’t an Air Force F-16 that was taking flight, it was his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang. As the field powered its way through Turn 2 on lap 64, a bump from Brad Keselowski turned Burton’s car sideways, causing him to slide down the bankingRead More