Denny Hamlin Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a wild weekend in Daytona to wrap up the regular season and set the 16-driver field for the Playoffs, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to one of the crown jewels on the circuit, Darlington Raceway, for this weekend’s running of the Cook Out Southern 500. A staple of the Cup Series since 1950, there are many elements to Darlington that make it a special track. From the egg-shape of the track that features one end narrower than the other as a result of building theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In its first year of existence, 23XI Racing is wasting no time in making big moves as the team announced Friday it would be expanding to a two-car team in 2022, signing veteran Kurt Busch to pilot the team’s second car – the No. 45 Monster Energy sponsored Toyota. The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be heading into his 23rd season at NASCAR’s top level when he joins the team co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin – the seventh differentRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes to an end right where it all began back in February as Daytona International Speedway is set to host Saturday night’s running of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Two battles will be taking place on Saturday as Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are set to duke it out for the regular season championship, while just one spot remains up for grabs in the Playoffs. Of the drivers still looking to race their way in, TylerRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Ryan Blaney took the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining and skillfully held off a frantic field to earn the victory Sunday in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season. Those eight laps out front were the only laps Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford led on the afternoon but it was good enough to give him his second victory of the season – by a modern-day track record marginRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The end of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season is in sight with just two races remaining before the Playoff field is set. After a stretch of road course races, the series returns to an oval this weekend with Sunday’s running of the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. With this race taking place near the home of two of the three manufacturers (Chevrolet and Ford), teams put extra emphasis on winning here for bragging rights. The two-mile speedway tends to favor the teams thatRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Winless on the season, Denny Hamlin looked to be on his way to his first victory of the season Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before a late race run-in with rookie Chase Briscoe derailed his day. After a debris caution with 10 laps to go brought pit strategy into play, Hamlin’s team elected to stay out instead of making the trek down pit road with the remainder of the leaders, boosting him into the lead, where he would stay through the two multi-car crashesRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Is it better to be lucky than good? For Kyle Larson, Sunday at Indianapolis was a bit of both. Coming into Sunday’s Verizon 200 on the IMS road course in a dead heat with Denny Hamlin for the regular season points lead, Larson looked to be on a leisurely drive around the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course en route to yet another win before the late stages of the race took a weird turn toward chaos, seemingly taking him out of contention. However, when theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for its annual trip to the Racing Capital of the World, but this time there’s a twist. Instead of racing on the iconic 2.5-mile oval for Year No. 28 at the Brickyard, NASCAR’s best will join their counterparts from the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series in running on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile infield road course in what will be an action-filled tripleheader weekend. It will be uncharted territory for the majority ofRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson had to navigate lapped traffic in the closing laps and hold off his hard-charging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott – the track’s most prolific winner of late – to earn the victory in Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen. But the 28-year old Californian Larson has been a driver to count on this season, finishing either first or second 10 times through the 23 races to date.  And Sunday’s trophy at the historic Watkins Glen International road course is Larson’s NASCAR Cup Series-bestRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a two week break while the Olympics played out half a world away, the NASCAR Cup Series is back in action this weekend with Sunday’s running of the Go Bowling at The Glen, marking a return to the Upstate New York track for the first time since 2019. The Cup Series raced at Watkins Glen in 1957, 1964, and 1965 before returning to the track full-time in 1986, utilizing the “short course” layout initially, but after a series of violent crashes at the end ofRead More