kyle petty Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Longtime motorsports owner, Felix Sabates, will be calling it a career with the end of the 2019 season and riding off into the sunset, Chip Ganassi Racing announced on Thursday. The 74-year old first entered the NASCAR ownership landscape with the founding of SABCO Racing in 1989, winning seven races with Kyle Petty and Joe Nemechek before joining forces with Chip Ganassi in 2001, when Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates was born. Fielding cars in NASCAR’s top two divisions, the duo won 43 racesRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Just days after the heart wrenching loss of Davey Allison to a helicopter crash at Talladega Superspeedway, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series returned to the 2.66-mile track for the 1993 running of the DieHard 500. Following a stirring pre-race tribute to Allison involving his family, the 43 drivers that made up the field that day strapped in for what was going to a barnburner of a race under the scorching July sun. Bill Elliott won the pole, with Ernie Irvan starting alongside for the 188-lap affair.Read More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Several drivers had tire issues in Sunday’s ARCA Racing Series Menards 200 at Toledo Speedway. While Thad Moffitt avoided the cut tires that plagued several of the contending drivers, he did go for a spin in his No. 46 Empire Racing Ford at the halfway point of the 200-lap race. Moffitt would pit for fresh General Tire rubber and continued to log laps, benefiting from five drivers cutting tires in a span of three laps inside of 50 laps to go. When the checkered flagRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor When it comes to dark moments in NASCAR history, the April 1993 weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway ranks right up near the top. With the tragedy of losing Alan Kulwicki far too soon reaching its 25th anniversary this year, we look back at the weekend that was at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile. Kulwicki was on top of the world after the 1992 season, having beaten the odds to hoist the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship trophy following a thrilling season finale. As both the ownerRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Dover International Speedway has always been a treacherous track since its inception in 1969, but the “Monster Mile” really earned its nickname when the asphalt surface was converted over to concrete in 1995, making Dover the first concrete track on the circuit and really giving “Miles the Monster” some teeth. Our Dover edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater” will focus on that first race on the concrete surface – the 1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500. The new concrete surface brought worries about the tires being ableRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It’s not often that NASCAR takes away a win from a driver that crossed the finish line first. In NASCAR’s Modern Era, the sanctioning body has only taken that step twice: Back in 2008 at Talladega, when Regan Smith passed Tony Stewart below the yellow line to win and 26 years ago at Sonoma Raceway, site of this weekend’s Toyota/Save Mart 350. With that in mind, the 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 and the controversial finish that ensued will be the focus of this week’sRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Memorial Day weekend in the motorsports world means one thing, racing’s greatest day beginning with F1 at Monaco, the Indianapolis 500, and ending with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”, we’ll take a step back a decade to look at a win by a member of a family known more for their open wheel exploits than those in stock cars. Of course, we’re talking about Casey Mears’ upset win in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600. Mears hadRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The All-Star Race, originally called “The Winston” when it began in 1985, was ran on Saturday afternoon in its inception, but when Charlotte Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler decided to put lights up at the track in 1992 and move the race to the nighttime, business really picked up from there. With the installation of the $1.7 million, 1.2 billion candlepower lighting system, ingeniously devised by Iowa lighting company Musco Lighting, Charlotte became the largest track to have lights installed, behind the short tracks ofRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer The Petty bloodline is making a return to the ARCA Racing Series as Thad Moffitt, the grandson of Richard Petty, will make his series’ debut on Saturday night at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. In a partnership with Richard Petty Motorsports, Empire Racing Group has entered Moffitt in the No. 46 Petty Blue Ford with primary sponsorship from Transportation Impact. Empire Racing Group will be serving as the developmental team for Richard Petty Motorsports in 2016, providing young drivers with driver coaching, technical support, public relations andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor In the late 1980’s, Bill Elliott and his Harry Melling owned Ford Thunderbird was a dominant force at the restrictor place tracks, with his brother Ernie Elliott serving as engine builder and supplying a powertrain that was unmatched throughout the NASCAR Winston Cup Series garage. Elliott had won the season opening Daytona 500 in 1985 and tacked on additional wins at Atlanta and Darlington in the weeks that followed, but when the series rolled into Talladega in May, Elliott and his team would leave everyoneRead More