Kurt Busch Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The third NASCAR round from Las Vegas Motor Speedway is over, and after a long hiatus from Victory Lane Brad Keselowski made his long awaited return in the Kobalt 400 on Sunday. 1) Weather Someone somewhere was throwing every odd obstacle at the NASCAR community on Sunday. First, there was rain. Then, there was intense gust of winds. Later, there was a sandstorm that hit so hard that the cameras from the FOX telecast were shaking, which made it where we were barely able to seeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Overcoming a pit road speeding penalty with daring late-race strategy, Brad Keselowski broke a 33-race drought with a victory in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Keselowski passed Las Vegas native Kyle Busch with five laps left to win for the first time since the fifth race of 2015 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion beat Team Penske shopmate Joey Logano to the finish line by .675 seconds, as Busch lostRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief A contender for a possible win, misfortune struck Matt Kenseth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Following a restart on lap 224 of Sunday’s Kobalt 400, heavy winds and aggressive racing took shape as the field jockeyed for position. Kenseth was running on the inside of Martin Truex Jr.’s when the backend of his No. 20 began to spin around in Turn 1. As a result, rookie Chase Elliott collided with Kenseth. Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch made contact as well, but the damage was too severeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Kyle Busch is the only driver to have won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from the pole position, a feat he accomplished in 2009. But Busch won’t have that opportunity in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at the 1.5-mile race track (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX). Busch was 24th in the first round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session, barely advancing to Round 2. Ultimately, he qualified 23rd at 192.795 mph, considerably slower than brother Kurt Busch’s pole-winningRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Running a track-record lap he described as “insanely fast,” Las Vegas native Kurt Busch led qualifying for Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX). The Coors Light Pole Award was Busch’s second straight in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, following last week’s top qualifying effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch remains the only driver to win a pole this year with the 2016 lower-downforce competition package. “Two poles in a row — this is great,” said Busch, whoRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – With wrecks erupting behind him, Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag in overtime under caution in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway—and then he remembered. Almost lost in the euphoria of Johnson’s second straight victory at the 1.54-mile track was the realization that, with his 76th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, he had tied the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all-time wins list. But as the No. 48 Chevrolet rolled around the track on itsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Kurt Busch fell just short of beating brother Kyle Busch on the track during Friday’s time trials at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch covered the 1.54-mile distance in 28.925 seconds 191.668 mph) in the money round of knockout qualifying for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (1 p.m. ET on FOX), beating his older brother by .013 seconds. But the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota failed post-qualifying inspection, and his time was disallowed. ThatRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After last Sunday’s barn burner of a finish in the Daytona 500, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series packs up and heads to Georgia for this weekend’s running of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. As we head to Atlanta, we’ll take a statistical look at the track and which drivers should perform the best based on their past finishes in this edition of “Crunching the Numbers.” Track Facts Track Size: 1.54-mile quad-oval Banking/Turn 1 & 2: 24 degrees Banking/Turn 3 & 4:Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Jimmie Johnson played spoiler last Sunday at Texas, stealing a win from Brad Keselowski in the closing laps. On Friday afternoon at Phoenix International Raceway – though “spoiler” is not a role he relishes – the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion was at it again, winning the pole for Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC) with a track-record lap at 143.158 mph (25.147 seconds). Johnson, who was bounced from the Chase for the NASCARRead More

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – At NASCAR Sprint Cup racing’s shortest track, Joey Logano’s torrid run just got longer. The winner of three straight races—constituting a sweep of the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—Logano toured .526-mile Martinsville Speedway in 19.215 seconds (98.548 mph) in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session to win the pole for Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 (1:15 p.m. ET on NBCSN). Driving the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Logano edged fellow Chase driver Martin Truex Jr. (98.487 mph) by .012Read More