Ford Championship Weekend Tag

By Brant James, NASCAR Wire Service MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Kevin Harvick’s two wins this season are fewer than any of the other three drivers eligible to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His Stewart-Haas Racing team needed half a season to finally find its footing after switching from Chevrolet to Ford. Martin Truex Jr. remains the most consistent, most consistently able to strong-arm a weekend for a Toyota contingent that has been the prime manufacturer of the season. Harvick isn’t concerned. AndRead More

Listen to “Drafting The Circuits November 16, 2017” on Spreaker. Frank Santoroski and the Drafting the Circuits panel – Gray Warren, Richard Youden, Seth Eggert, Christopher DeHarde and Joey Barnes – previews Ford Championship Weekend for NASCAR and reports on the Formula One Grand Prix of Brazil. Credits: Host – Frank Santoroski DTC Panel – Joey Barnes, Seth Eggert, Christopher DeHarde, Gray Warren, & Richard Youden Producers – Anthony Arnold & Keith Hayes Special thanks to Whoobazoo for hosting the DTC Podcast. Social Media: Follow DTC on Facebook Follow DTC on Twitter Follow Whoobazoo on Twitter Note: Also heard on iHeartRadio and iTunes.Read More

By Brant James, NASCAR Wire Service Crew chief Cole Pearn spent the first 35 races of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season watching driver Martin Truex Jr. amass a bevy of insurance through playoff and stage points with his series-high seven victories. All that security is gone now, as the Furniture Row Racing team that has been the standard for the garage enters the finale on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a four-car showdown for the championship. All Truex Jr. has to do is finish better than three formerRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Competition between NASCAR manufacturers isn’t confined to the race track. In a press conference featuring executives from Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, Ed Laukes of Toyota couldn’t pass up an opportunity to needle Chevy’s Jim Campbell. “Let me apologize for those 16 Monday mornings,” Laukes quipped, referring to Toyota’s 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories this season. “Let me apologize for last night,” retorted Campbell, referring to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship Chevrolet driver Johnny Sauter won on Friday. AllRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Though the line that separates acceptable racing practices from on-track over-the-line aggression may not be defined in bold paint like the line that marks the start and finish of a race, NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France contends that drivers know exactly where it is. “Do you know how many drivers have come to see (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director) Richard Buck in the last two weeks, three weeks, four weeks?,” France asked rhetorically during his annual “State of the Sport”Read More

By Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service Homestead, Fla. – When you’re a single-car team, competing for NASCAR’s biggest prize, you have to work smart and do things a bit differently. That’s where Furniture Row’s Cole Pearn comes in. The first Canadian NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Waterloo (Ontario). A former late model driver and three-time Canadian go-kart champion, his preferred participation sport is beer league hockey. It meshes perfectly with the Rocky Mountain lifestyle of his Denver-based race team.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOLLYWOOD, Fla.—If the four men on the dais at the Diplomat Resort & Spa had been a vocal group, rather than the four Championship Round drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Jeff Gordon provided a ready name for the ensemble. “He’s the favorite,” Gordon said, pointing at reigning series champion Kevin Harvick. “We’re the sentimentals. That’s all there is.” The “we” in this case referred to Gordon, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., all of whom will be attempting to dethrone the championRead More