Michael McDowell Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Denny Hamlin landed a knockout punch in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.  NASCAR Cup Series regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. survived to fight another round.  Bubba Wallace rescued himself from the brink of elimination from the series Playoffs and advanced to the Round of 12 by four points.  Kevin Harvick, winner of the first elimination Playoff in 2014, won’t be around to fight for the title in his final season of Cup racing. He joins defendingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – For Christopher Bell, Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session brought an unprecedented accomplishment.  For Martin Truex Jr., Bell’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, it brought a sense of relief—if that’s possible for a driver trying to climb above the cut line in the series Playoffs.  In the final round of time trials at the 0.533-mile short track, Bell turned a lap in 15.109 seconds (126.997 mph), edging another teammate, Denny Hamlin, by 0.008 seconds (126.930 mph) for the top starting spotRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Martin Truex, Jr. entered the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs riding high on the regular season championship, but after a dismal start to the postseason, his hopes of staying alive in his chase for a second title come down to next week’s elimination race at Bristol. After entering the Playoffs with a surplus of 36 playoff points, Truex and his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team stumbled out of the gate at Darlington with an 18th place finish, which dropped him to sixth in the standingsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Christopher Bell earned a second chance on Saturday. For the second straight NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race, Bell will start from the pole position after a blistering lap at 180.276 mph (29.954 seconds) in the final round of qualifying for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bell beat last Sunday’s Darlington winner Kyle Larson (179.826 mph) by 0.075 seconds to win his fourth Busch Light Pole Award of theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Denny Hamlin’s commitment to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing featured a lot more moving parts than a run-of-the-mill driver contract. First, Hamlin had to renew the agreement of 23XI Racing, the team he owns with former NBA superstar Michael Jordan, with Toyota. Hamlin also had to cement the deal with JGR as a supplier for 23XI. As of NASCAR Cup Series Playoff media day in Charlotte—four days before the Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway—Hamlin had not signed his deal withRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. – After edging Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin by .026 seconds in Saturday’s time trials, Christopher Bell will lead the field to green in the first NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race of 2023—Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  Bell navigated the venerable 1.366-mile speedway in 29.065 seconds (169.193 mph) to claim his third Busch Light Pole Award in the last eight races and first at the Track Too ToughRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin won the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – taking to the track twice in Saturday’s final qualifying session alone and bettering his already field-best speed in his second outing. This is the fourth pole position of the season and third road course pole – also at Sonoma, Calif. and Chicago Street Race – for Hamlin, whose No. 11Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – The little team that could did it again. Michael McDowell took the fight to the rest of his competitors Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, winning the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard to secure his place in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. After posting the fastest time in practice and turning in a fourth-place qualifying run, McDowell and his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team made it known that they would be a threat on Sunday – and delivered. “Oh, man, this is such aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Two of the drivers on the verge of making it into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs were the fastest in the preliminaries to Sunday’s Verizon 200, with Daniel Suarez winning the pole and Michael McDowell posting the fastest time in practice. Suarez, who comes into Indianapolis just five points out of the top-16 with just three races remaining in the regular season, was confident this could be a banner weekend for his team and he backed it up in qualifying. When all was saidRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Neither an early spin nor damage to his No. 24 Chevrolet could prevent William Byron from winning Sunday night’s rain-shortened Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.   With a storm approaching the 1.54-mile track, Byron surged past AJ Allmendinger into the lead on Lap 167 and remained out from until an accident in Turn 3 involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace caused the seventh caution of the evening on Lap 178.  With Byron outRead More