Jimmie Johnson Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a trip to Pocono last weekend that saw Denny Hamlin score his third win of the season, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stays in the Northeast as they go road course racing this weekend in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen. 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 of the long back straightaway, theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Starting next weekend at Watkins Glen, seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will have a new crew chief atop the pit box. Hendrick Motorsports announced Monday that Cliff Daniels will take over the role that had been held by Kevin Meendering. “We have an opportunity to win an eighth championship and a lot more races with Jimmie,” Daniels said. “I’m proud to be in this position and have total faith in the team and our ability to perform at the level everyoneRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Seven weeks after their first trip to the “Tricky Triangle,” the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series makes their second visit of the season to Pocono Raceway for Sunday’s running of the Gander RV 400. With only three turns, instead of the four turns at all other ovals on the circuit, Pocono is definitely one of the most unique tracks on the schedule. The three turns all have differing banking with Turn 1 and its 14-degree banking modeled after the now-defunct Trenton Speedway, Turn 2 andRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Not too surprisingly, as NASCAR heads into the final contests to set the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, the races have been high on drama – both on the track and for the championship implications. Weekly shake-ups in the standings are becoming the norm, and that most favored of old sports clichés, “one race at a time,’’ may actually have found its legitimacy as drivers close out the regular season. In the past four weeks, three drivers – AlexRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season rolls on as they head from last weekend’s thrilling race on the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway to the flat, one-mile oval that is New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Sunday’s running of the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301. First joining the Cup Series circuit in 1993, the 1.058 mile oval that has progressively banked turns from two to seven degrees is one of the more difficult tracks on the schedule as the flat nature of the track makes track positionRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is officially at the halfway point, crossing the threshold last weekend in Daytona. To kick off the second half of the season, the series heads to the Bluegrass State for Saturday night’s running of the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Kentucky first joined the Cup Series schedule in 2011 and has played host ever since, with just four different drivers claiming victory in the eight races held at the track so far. The track was knownRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As the dark clouds and lightning descended upon Daytona International Speedway Sunday afternoon, Justin Haley climbed out of his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet feeling like it was perhaps divine intervention. He was first on the scoreboard at the time Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 was red-flagged for lightning 33 laps short of the intended 160-lap distance. Two hours and 12 minutes later, the 20-year old Indiana native was celebrating his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup win – inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A day after a run-in with Brad Keselowski during practice for Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, William Byron’s opinion of the incident between he and the 2012 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion hasn’t changed. Though the two were able to talk things out and he was able to hear Keselowski’s side of the story, the second-year Hendrick Motorsports driver still believes the move that sent his No. 24 car spinning and him to a backupRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR celebrated the Independence Day holiday the only way it knew how on Thursday, by taking to the track at Daytona International Speedway for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice and the fireworks certainly started early. The first of two sessions were entertaining and full of action, with drivers running two and three-wide in an effort to feel out the package that makes its debut at Daytona after receiving rave reviews at Talladega a few months back. Though the typical FloridaRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Following last Sunday’s battle in the Windy City, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back to where it all began, Daytona International Speedway, for this weekend’s 60th running of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, the third superspeedway race of the season. From 1959 until 1987, the 160 lap, 400 mile shootout at the World Center of Racing, then called the Firecracker 400, was held on July 4th, even if the holiday fell in the middle of the week. Beginning inRead More