Kurt Busch Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Lightning struck near Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday night. Bad luck didn’t, where Chase Elliot was concerned. After two crushing defeats since the re-opening of NASCAR’s 2020 season May 17 at Darlington, Elliott got to the checkered flag without incident and won the rescheduled Alsco Uniforms 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile intermediate track. In an event contested at 500 kilometers (312 miles), Elliott passed fading Kevin Harvick for the lead on Lap 181 of 208 and cruised to a 2.208-second victoryRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The Bowtie Brigade showed up during Sunday’s Busch Pole Qualifying for tonight’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as they occupy the first three rows with Kurt Busch being the top Chevrolet driver. Busch earned his 28th NASCAR Cup Series pole after clocking in at 29.790 seconds (181.269 mph) to dethrone eight-time Charlotte winner Jimmie Johnson off the top spot. Not only it’s the 2004 Cup Series champion’s first pole with Chip Ganassi Racing, it’s also his first since the 2018 fall race at Talladega. FollowingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a successful week to reopen the 2020 season at Darlington, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to home base at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 61st running of the Coca-Cola 600. Sunday should have been a day full of racing with the Formula 1 race at Monaco and the Indianapolis 500 preceding Sunday night’s race, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only NASCAR will be in the spotlight, with both qualifying (2:00 pm ET) and the race (6:00 pm ET) taking place in oneRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A staple of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule since 1950, Darlington Raceway has served as a lifeline to help the sport get back on its feet in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Just three days after the 2020 season restarted with the running of the Real Heroes 400 at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, the stars of NASCAR’s top division head back to South Carolina for another dance with the Lady in Black in Wednesday night’s Toyota 500. With no practice or qualifying heading intoRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the second time in the last three years, Matt Kenseth is coming out of retirement to climb back into the cockpit of a race car and compete at NASCAR’s highest level. On Monday, Chip Ganassi Racing announced that for the remainder of the season, the 2003 Cup Series champion will be driving the No. 42 Chevrolet for the team, taking over the seat vacated when Kyle Larson was fired for using a racial slur two weeks ago. “I have always said that when we haveRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It was a tale of two stories for Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Kyle Larson and Kurt Busch in Sunday’s FanShield 500 at Phoenix Raceway. However, their outcomes were encouraging as the duo finished fourth and sixth respectively. Larson had one of the strongest Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LEs throughout the race-extended 316 lap event (leading two laps), but the bid of getting his primary sponsor McDonald’s first points-paying NASCAR Cup Series win since July 1994 would have to wait yet another day. This was because Larson’s attemptRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The NASCAR Cup Series has been setting up shop on the West Coast for the past two weeks and this Sunday, the series will finish up its tour of the Southwestern United States with a trip to Phoenix Raceway and the FanShield 500. In a preview of November’s championship race, Sunday’s race on the one-mile oval in the Arizona desert, which made its debut on the Cup Series schedule in 1988, will be the first big test of the new short track/road course aero package thatRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Jimmie Johnson enjoys strong run in swan song at Auto Club Speedway FONTANA, Calif. – Before the green flag waved Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, Jimmie Johnson took prime position behind the pace car as the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field fanned out five-wide behind him in a respectful salute to the seven-time champion. When the green flag waved to signal the beginning of the Auto Club 400, Johnson saw his wife Chandra and daughters Genevieve and Lydia doing the honors fromRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. – Alex Bowman had a new nose for the finish line Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. Driving the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet—a sleeker version of the Camaro with a new front fascia—Bowman ran away with the final stage of the Auto Club 400 at the two-mile track in the Inland Empire. In picking up his second career victory and his first at Fontana, Bowman led five times for 110 of the 200 laps in the third NASCAR Cup event of theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The annual NASCAR Goes West campaign enters its second week as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Southern California for Sunday’s running of the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. 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. During its 20+ years on the circuit, the track has gone through ownership changes, as well as expanding to two race dates in 2004 and thenRead More