Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Tag

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – The 2016 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was one for the record books. Martin Truex Jr. decimated the field as he led 392 laps, 588 miles after starting from the pole. With only four cautions, only three other competitors had the opportunity to take the lead. Jimmie Johnson led five laps, Paul Menard two laps, and Joey Logano one lap. Truex’s performance in the No. 78 Bass Pro Shops /Tracker Boats / USO Toyota Camry shattered records set in 1967 byRead 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 David Morgan, NASCAR Editor It’s that time of year again. The weekend before Memorial Day marks the beginning of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series traditional two-week stop at NASCAR’s home base of Charlotte, North Carolina and the 1.5-mile quad oval that is Charlotte Motor Speedway. First up on the two week stopover in the Queen City is the Monster Energy All-Star Race, a non-points event that has served up more than its fair share of exciting moments in its 33 year history. What is now the All-Star RaceRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Through the first 11 weeks of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the trend has been for each race to feature three stages, with the first two stages making up about half of the race and then the final stage to the finish. But things will be a bit different when the series rolls into Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 as NASCAR announced on Monday that the longest race of the season will now feature four stages instead of the normal three. Instead ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Martin Truex Jr. finally ended his Kansas hex. Truex streaked away on the final restart with two laps left in Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 to win his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. Truex led a race-high 104 of 267 laps to win for the ninth time in his career and for the second time this season. Three times in the past, Truex had led the most laps in a Kansas race—without winning. But onRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway was a battle against loose conditions for the 2017 Sunoco Rookie of the Year (ROTY) contenders in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Several found their cars to be so loose that it affected their position on track. Of the five ROTY contenders only Gray Gaulding has no previous experience at Kansas. Daniel Suarez qualified the best of the rookies once again, placing his No. 19 STANLEY Toyota Camry 15th on the starting grid. Suarez ran well often,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After winning his first career pole on Friday, Ryan Blaney headed into Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 at Kansas as one of the favorites to be able to contend for the win and after a strong run from the driver in his sophomore season, the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team would bring home a fourth-place finish when the checkered flag flew. Blaney would lead the first nine laps of the race before ceding the lead over to eventual race winner Martin Truex, Jr., butRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Kansas Speedway is not normally a track known for its vicious crashes, but with 67 laps to go in Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400, a three-car crash involving Joey Logano, Danica Patrick, and Aric Almirola, would bring out the red flag as safety officials worked to extricate Almirola from his car. Entering Turn 1 on lap 200, Logano appeared to have something break on the right-front of his car, which turned his Ford to the left, making contact with the right-rear of Patrick’s car andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor A week after lamenting that he was ready to get back to a “real racetrack”, Kyle Busch heads to Kansas Speedway this weekend and will be looking for a repeat of last year’s Go Bowling 400, where he was able to finally breakthrough for his first win on the 1.5 mile intermediate track. So far in 2017, Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing as a whole remain winless, but Kansas could be just what the doctor ordered for the No. 18 team. Though Busch struggled atRead More

By Aaron Bearden, NASCAR Contributor Phew. The last few weeks sure have been fun, haven’t they? Ever since the conclusion of the West Coast Swing – another solid stretch of the schedule – NASCAR has gone on a tour of many tracks that fans and media alike seem to clamor for, often putting on thrilling races in the processes. The past five races have seen all three of the schedule’s short tracks, a superspeedway race and just a single 1.5-miler, which was itself interesting due to the wild-card nature ofRead More