Denny Hamlin Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It’s been a banner day for Kurt Busch and Stewart-Haas Racing at Texas Motor Speedway. Earlier on Friday afternoon, the Las Vegas native put down the fastest lap in practice, followed by two of his SHR teammates, and qualifying for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 was more of the same as Busch was at the top of the board at the end of the first round of qualifying, with two of his teammates in tow once more. While there were two other rounds scheduled, MotherRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It was another case of déjà vu at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday afternoon as Stewart-Haas Racing and Ford continued to show off their speed in the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice of the weekend. Three of the four Stewart-Haas cars, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer led the way for the Blue Oval brigade, with Busch’s fast time of 27.523 seconds, 196.200 mph topping the board. “(Turns) three and four are an incredible sensation,” Kurt Busch said of the Texas reconfigurationRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After a much needed weekend off to recharge the batteries, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is back to business as they head to the Lone Star State and Texas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s running of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. First joining the circuit in 1997, the 1.5-mile Texas track has provided some great racing over the years as the surface wore down as each season passed. For the second time the season, drivers will get a crack at the track that was repavedRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After completing a trip out to the West Coast, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back east this weekend and straight to the first short track race of the season, with Sunday’s running of the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. A mainstay on the schedule since 1949, the historic half-mile, which is also the smallest on the circuit, will test both man and machine over 500 grueling laps. The track has basically one groove, meaning the only way to pass will be the moveRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Several Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series teams were issued penalties by NASCAR Wednesday, notably impacting Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team. Elliott’s team received an L1-level penalty for a rear suspension violation following Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway, where he finished a season-high third. The team was found to have violated Section 20.14.2, which deals with rear suspension and trailing arm angles/pinion angle shims. Elliott’s car didn’t meet the requirements as the Rule Book states it must be in completeRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wraps up their venture to the West Coast this weekend as they roll into Southern California to do battle on the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Sunday’s Auto Club 400. 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. The track has gone through ownership changes throughout its history, as wellRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Rookie phenom William Byron hasn’t had the results fans, critics and the team would’ve hoped for after three races, but that all changed after scoring a career-best 12th in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. More importantly than a top-15 effort, Byron led his first-ever laps in a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. The collegiate driver put his No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on top of the scoring pylon for 15 laps. Byron’s road to the lead started on Lap 190, when theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor New name, still the same old Phoenix. For now. After the kickoff to the West Coast swing last weekend in Las Vegas culminated in a second straight domination by Kevin Harvick, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix this weekend to take on the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. Phoenix has resided on the Cup Series schedule since 1988, but the track looks completely different than it did 30 years ago, having undergone a reconfiguration back in 2011. The reconfiguration added progressive bankingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Go Fas Racing and Matt DiBenedetto have found themselves in sponsorship trouble heading into Sunday’s race at ISM Raceway, but the NASCAR community has banded together to make sure they will make it to the grid for the TicketGuardian 500. Starting with a tweet from DiBenedetto on Tuesday morning, alerting the world of their predicament, the effort started picking up steam, with fellow drivers and others in the sport pitching in to help out the small team make it to the track. Though Go FasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – On Sunday night, after 17 barren years, Kevin Harvick finally completed the second chapter of his love affair with Atlanta Motor Speedway. In the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season, Harvick delivered a proper thrashing to the rest of the field, leading 181-of-325 laps and beating runner-up Brad Keselowski to the finish line by 2.690 seconds. Early in 2001, after Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a last-lap crash in the DaytonaRead More