Michael McDowell Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor HAMPTON, Ga. – Michael McDowell is no stranger to success on the superspeedways and with Atlanta Motor Speedway now in that category, he is hoping to be in a position to strike when the checkered flag falls on Sunday’s Quaker State 400. The winner of the 2021 Daytona 500 is in the midst of one of his best seasons in recent years, even though he has yet to score a win thus far. Through the first 18 races of the season, McDowell has captured one top-fiveRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service PLYMOUTH, Wis. – It was a dogfight between two drivers, pure and simple. It was Tyler Reddick who outdueled pole winner Chase Elliott in the intense mano-a-mano battle in Sunday’s Kwik Trip 250 at Road America. The victory was Reddick’s first in the NASCAR Cup Series, making him the fifth first-time winner this season. As the 13th different winner this year, Reddick shrank the Playoff bubble by one position. With seven races left before the cutoff race at Daytona, there are currently three PlayoffRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Defending race winner Chase Elliott couldn’t have asked for a better start to July 4 weekend at Road America. Making up more than three tenths of a second over the final three corners at the 4.048-mile road course, Elliott narrowly edged a disappointed Chase Briscoe for the pole position for Sunday’s Kwik Trip 250 (3 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Running late in the final round of Saturday’s time trials, Elliott navigated the mammoth circuit inRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service “Win Numero Uno.” Those were the words on the flag Mexican driver Daniel Suárez held out the window of his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet as he turned celebratory “donuts” on the frontstretch of Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway Sunday afternoon in the ecstatic first moments of his first ever NASCAR Cup Series victory. Suárez’s No. 99 Chevrolet pulled away from runner-up Chris Buescher’s RFK Racing Ford in the closing laps to take an impressive 3.849-second maiden NASCAR Cup Series win on the 1.99-mile Northern CalifornianRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Defending race winner Kyle Larson will start Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350  (4 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from the same position he finished the race last summer – leading the field.  Larson earned his fourth career NASCAR Cup Series pole position at the 1.99-mile Northern California road course on Saturday afternoon with a blistering lap of 91.935 mph in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He was fastest in practice and both rounds of qualifying to definitively earnRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway started with Denny Hamlin out front and ended with Denny Hamlin out front. What happened in-between defied belief. And a driver who claims to thrive in chaos proved to be a man of his word. Hamlin won the longest race in NASCAR history—619.5 miles—in two overtimes, beating Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to the finish line by .014 seconds. With the victory—the second this season and the 48th of his career—Hamlin nowRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – By the slimmest of margins, Denny Hamlin beat a car he owns for the Busch Light pole position in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the final round of time trials of Saturday evening, Hamlin ran a lower line through Turns 3 and 4 than did his fellow competitors, and that paid off with a blistering lap of 29.399 seconds (183.680 mph)—just .003 seconds faster than that of Kurt Busch (183.661 mph) who drives the No. 45 23XI ToyotaRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the second year in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the annual NASCAR All-Star Race, where a $1 million payday awaits the winner of Sunday night’s non-points exhibition race. A total of 24 drivers will compete in the four-round, 100 lap event, with eligible drivers including those who won a points-paying racing in 2021 or 2022, full-time drivers that have previously won an All-Star Race, and former Cup Series champions who still race full time. Drivers that met theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Executing a decisive bash-and-run on the next-to-last-lap of Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, Joey Logano wrested the lead from William Byron and ended a NASCAR Cup Series 40-race winless streak dating to March of 2021 at the Bristol Dirt Track. After Logano gave Byron’s Chevrolet a jolt entering Turn 3 on the white-flag lap, Byron shot up the track into the outside wall and fell back to 13th at the finish. Driving a No. 22 Ford sporting the throwback paint scheme of hisRead More

By NASCAR NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway today announced the format and eligibility for the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, May 22, that features four stages and 125 laps of on-track competition for a $1 million payday, stage winner incentives, amplified roles for the pit crews, and a distinctive head-to-head elimination qualifying format. The NASCAR All-Star Race returns to Texas Motor Speedway for the second consecutive season and this 38th edition brings some unique twists for the eligible Cup drivers pursuing the winner-take-all $1 million payday. The most prominent twist willRead More