Kentucky Speedway Tag

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Three months ago, Matt Tifft was sidelined from competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as well as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series by a disc issue in Tifft’s back. During a routine test, it was discovered by Tifft’s doctors that he had a low-grade giloma, a brain tumor. Tifft underwent surgery to remove the non-cancerous tumor. After about two months of rehab, Tifft was finally cleared by his doctors, as well as NASCAR officials to return to NASCAR competition on September 12, 2016. Tifft’sRead More

By Chris Knight, NASCAR Wire Service SPARTA, KY – A huge push from Daniel Suárez on a restart with four laps to go in Saturday night’s eventful VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 sent Elliott Sadler ahead of Ryan Blaney to win the opening race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase at Kentucky Speedway. Sadler’s third win of the season and 13th of his XFINITY Series career was about more than just stamping his way into Round 2 of the Chase. The Emporia, Virginia, native fought for the win while thinking of his mother,Read More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – Heading into Kentucky Speedway and the first race in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase, Erik Jones and the powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing organization were a title favorite. Jones recorded four wins and 13 top-five finishes in the 26-race regular season and entered the weekend with a six-point advantage in the championship standings. Jones had a dominant car on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, leading a race-high 100 laps before a late-race wreck ended his night in the garage instead of inRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – Justin Allgaier enters the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase in the fifth position in the championship standings as he seeks the title in his sixth season in the series. Allgaier competed full-time in the XFINITY Series for five seasons before making the jump to the Sprint Cup level with HScott Motorsports in 2014. The two-year stint at the top level of NASCAR competition yielded just one top-10 result – an eight-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. For the 2016 season, Allgaier returnedRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – Erik Jones turned a lap at 182.207 mph in the final round of knockout qualifying to earn the 21 Means 21 Pole Award for Saturday night’s VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky Speedway. Jones edged teammate Daniel Suarez for the top spot as the front-row will be all Joe Gibbs Racing. The pole was the eighth of the season for Jones and his 26th top-10 start. Elliott Sadler, Ty Dillon, Sam Hornish Jr, Matt Tifft, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Blaney, Darrell Wallace, Justin Allgaier, BrennanRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – Matt Tifft was originally scheduled to compete in over thirty races this season between the NASCAR Camping World Truck and XFINITY Series and the ARCA Racing Series. That planned changed in June when the 20-year-old driver went in for an MRI as a result of a back condition. Doctors discovered a low-grade glioma in his brain that would require surgery and keep Tifft out of competition as he recovered. After almost three months of rehabilitation, Tifft returned to competition last weekend atRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – At Kentucky Speedway, Chase Briscoe needed to finish seventh or better to clinch the ARCA Racing Series championship with one race still remaining in the 2016 season. Briscoe finished worse than seventh just three times in 18 races heading into Friday night’s race at the 1.5-mile track and hadn’t had a finish worse than sixth since Pocono in June. After setting a new track record in qualifying, Briscoe led the field to green and despite not leading a lap, ran inside theRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – The 2016 season has seen 18-year-old Austin Cindric compete in the Pirelli World Challenge Series for K-PAX Racing, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for Martin-McClure Racing and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing. On Friday night at Kentucky Speedway, Cindric made just the fifth ARCA Racing Series start of his career, all with Cunningham Motorsports, and earned his first victory. Cindric led a race-high 64 laps in the No. 99 Pirtek Ford and never took tires, beatingRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer SPARTA, Ky. – The impressive 2016 season of Chase Briscoe continued at Kentucky Speedway as the 21-year-old rookie from Mitchell, Indiana set a new track record to win the pole for Friday night’s ARCA Racing Series Crosley Brands 150. “It was pretty hairy. We’re almost wide open all the way around here,” Briscoe said, of his lap around the recently repaved 1.5-mile track. The pole was Briscoe’s series-leading sixth of the season in the 19th race. The top nine qualifiers all broke the previous trackRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The last time the NASCAR Xfinity Series visited Kentucky Speedway, Kyle Busch took home the victory in dominant fashion. Busch led 185 of the 200 laps and beat fellow NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Austin Dillon by 0.455 seconds. Daniel Suarez was the highest finishing NASCAR Xfinity Series regular in third. The last time a NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship contender won at Kentucky was Brendan Gaughan in 2014. Ryan Blaney won at Kentucky in 2015, but was not competing full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity SeriesRead More