Denny Hamlin Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Denny Hamlin may be moving on to the Championship 4 to fight for a NASCAR Cup Series championship next week, but after Sunday’s race at Martinsville, it’s clear his focus is currently on Alex Bowman and the late race contact between the two. As the two drivers battled for the lead with less than 10 laps to go, Bowman got into Turn 3 too hot, moving up the track into Hamlin’s left-rear quarter panel, sending him for a spin into the outside wall. While Hamlin wasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Denny Hamlin provided the perfect capstone to a day of banged-up stock cars, hurt feelings and crushed dreams. Alex Bowman took the checkered flag in Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway after sliding up into Hamlin’s race-leading Toyota on Lap 494 of 501 and knocking Hamlin’s car up the track and into the outside wall. As Bowman tried to start a burnout to celebrate his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and his first at the .526-mile short track,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Seven drivers enter Martinsville Speedway with a shot at moving on to next week’s NASCAR Cup Series championship race, but only three will leave Sunday’s Xfinity 500 with those title hopes still intact. The Round of 8 in the Cup Series Playoffs all comes down to the half-mile bullring in southern Virginia, where bent sheet metal and hurt feelings are all but inevitable. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic track, which is also the smallest on the circuit, will test both man andRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Seven drivers entered Kansas Speedway looking to punch their ticket to the championship finale and after the checkered flag fell on the Hollywood Casino 400, those same seven drivers are still looking. Kyle Larson remains the only driver locked into the Championship 4 after sweeping the first two races of the Round of 8, paving the way for a showdown next weekend in Martinsville to fill the three remaining spots. Among the drivers still vying for the championship, defending Cup champion Chase Elliott and Denny HamlinRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson did the heavy-lifting on Sunday, leading nine different times for a race-high 130 laps, ultimately crossing the finish line a hefty 3.619-seconds ahead of the field to earn a NASCAR Cup Series-best ninth win of the season (15th of his career) in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. It is the third consecutive race win for the 29-year old Californian and the second time this season he’s won three in a row. The last time a driver won three straight racesRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor One race down, two to go. After Kyle Larson locked himself into the championship finale last weekend at Texas, the seven remaining drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs move on to Kansas Speedway looking to be the next to clinch a spot in the title race by winning Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400. Among those seven other drivers still in the running for the Bill France Cup, all but one of them are previous winners at Kansas, with Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, DennyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor This time of the year, there is a clear division between the drivers still alive in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and those on the outside looking in. Add in the current high downforce/low horsepower package that is run on intermediate tracks and the situation is exacerbated, leading to what we saw in Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. On a number of occasions throughout the opening race in the Round of 8 in the Playoffs, the drivers fighting for a chance toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – What seemed to be a run of the mill NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway flipped a switch in the closing laps, wreaking havoc among some of the Playoff drivers. The trouble started on Lap 300, when smoke began billowing from underneath Joey Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford, signaling an expired engine and the end of his day. Already at a points deficit entering the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, Logano didn’t quite have the race he needed, finishingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The Lone Star State comes calling this weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Texas Motor Speedway to kick off the penultimate round of the Playoffs with Sunday’s running of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 Texas first joined the circuit in 1997, but back in 2017 went through a reconfiguration, dropping the banking in Turns 1 and 2 from 24 degrees to 20 degrees, as well as widening the racing surface from 60 feet to 80 feet. Meanwhile, Turns 3 and 4 remain banked atRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 featured a frequent winner, a couple of unlikely heroes and occasional villainy. Kyle Larson took the checkered flag after 109 laps at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course to win for the seventh time this season and advance to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Larson won for the third time on a road course—the most ever in series history in a single season—in a race that featured the violent renewalRead More