Duck Commander 500 Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Fresh off his season-best finish of 14th at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night, Trevor Bayne sees a huge improvement in the Roush Fenway Racing organization only seven races into their 2016 campaign. Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 champion, nearly pulled off an off-sequence pit strategy that would brought home his first win in over five years. Still, the Tennessee native was running solidly in the top 10 prior to surprise strategy call, mixing it up with teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on a couple of occasions forRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 from Texas Motor Speedway is officially over and for the second consecutive week Kyle Busch is the victor. Here are the latest five takeaways from NASCAR’s trip to the 1.5-mile oval. 1) Kyle Busch Can someone seriously stop this man? ‘Rowdy’ is, without question, at the best place of his career both personally and professionally, and it shows both on the track and during interviews. The reigning 2015 Sprint Cup champion has rattled off four wins in eight days among allRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor For several years, Landon Cassill has been regarded as one of the hottest prospects in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but many believe he just hasn’t had the equipment to match his talent level. This offseason, Cassill swapped from Hillman Racing to the Front Row Motorsports team, and already he is showing huge signs of improvement. Tribute Racing had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Cassill at Texas Motor Speedway about how he is enjoying life with his new team. “I’m enjoying it,” CassillRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — From the rough start that was a 36th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has turned around his season in a big way. That 180-degree spin from February’s ultimate let-down continued Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Earnhardt rolled off from the 14th spot, thanks to a transmission change that sent Chase Elliott to the rear of the field, and early on his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet was quite tight. Once Earnhardt began to tune on it fromRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – After running in the top 10 for a majority of the race in the Duck Commander 500 on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. saw his great run dashed in a late accident on lap 294. The 28-year-old ran a clean race and kept his No. 6 Zest Ford Fusion out of trouble, running as high as fifth at the 1.5-mile oval. On the exit of Turn 2 Jimmie Johnson made contact with an already loose Austin Dillon, sendingRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Rookie Chase Elliott overcame starting in the rear of the field to claim his first career top-five finish in Saturday’s Duck Commander 500. From the drop of the green flag, Elliott wasted no time hanging out in the back as he blasted through the field and made it up to 28th when the competition caution flew on lap 28. Following the round of pitstops, Elliott picked up where he left off and cracked the top-20 on lap 46 and eventually cracked the top-15 asRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — If overcoming adversity is what judges if a team is championship material, then go ahead and award Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus their seventh Sprint Cup after their effort in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500. Johnson started 11th and finished fourth, but its everything that happened in between that made the night really special. On a pit stop during the competition caution at lap 31, Johnson made contact with the rear of eventual race winner Kyle Busch’s car. This caused severe damageRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – Fate did not play in the hands of Trevor Bayne on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Bayne refused to pit during a sequence of green flag stops, inheriting the lead on lap 260 and throwing a strategic wrench in an otherwise uneventful race to that point. The Roush Fenway Racing driver led 12 laps before the relinquishing the lead to a race-dominant Martin Truex Jr. Tire wear was at a premium at the 1.5-mile oval, with many teams electing to pitRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — For crew chief Cole Pearn, Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway couldn’t have ended any worse. His No. 78 Toyota, piloted by Martin Truex Jr. led a race-high 141 laps, but ultimately what appeared like a failed pit call by Pearn snuffed out what looked to be a runaway win. On a lap 289 caution, Pearn elected to keep his driver on the track, but then changed his mind last second, however it was too little, too late. “Our plan wasRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor A frustrating night went from bad to worse in Brian Vickers’ prospective final start of the season for Stewart Haas Racing. Vickers started in 13th place and moved up to eighth place until the competition caution flew on lap 28. A quick pitstop by his pitcrew briefly lifted Vickers up to fourth place. It ended up being almost all for naught as he spun his tires and lost a handful of positions almost immediately.He eventually fell back to 14th place over the course of theRead More