NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Three laps. That was all Ross Chastain needed to punch his ticket to the championship race Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet was unable to hold off Joey Logano down the stretch and had to settle for a second-place finish in the South Point 400. Chastain was quick all day long, starting from 11th place and leading on four different occasions for a race-high 68 laps led. On the final restart with 16 laps to go, Chastain ascendedRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Tyler Reddick earned his third pole position of the season Saturday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevrolet will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 Playoff race (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 26-year old Californian’s lap of 184.603 mph knocked fellow Chevy driver William Byron from the pole position and then Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric finished the session by grabbingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. — Eight drivers down, eight to go. Round two of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is now complete, with four more drivers getting the boot when the checkered flag waved on Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte. Up until the closing stint of the race, it looked as if the four drivers that came into the race under the cut-off line would stay there when the checkered flag flew, but when a caution came out on lap 105, the race for theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a turn of events that bordered on the unbelievable, Christopher Bell found his only path to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. On fresh tires, thanks to a strategic pit stop under caution on Lap 105, Bell passed Kevin Harvick to the outside through Turns 1 and 2 after a restart on Lap 111 and pulled away to win Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. With the victory, BellRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Joey Logano wins pole position for Charlotte ROVAL elimination race CONCORD, N.C. – Joey Logano wasn’t pleased with the way he negotiated the final chicane at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. The good news was that the final section of the 17-turn track—which is actually the opening chicane of the alternative qualifying configuration—didn’t hurt his effort significantly in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series time trials. Turning a lap in 120.755 seconds (103.424 mph), Logano secured the pole position for Sunday’s Round of 12 eliminationRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – There are numerous adjectives that can be used to describe this weekend’s race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course: unpredictable, volatile, treacherous, chaotic, etc. One thing is for sure, Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 is going to be a hell of a ride, with four drivers getting cut from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs when the checkered flag waves. In an effort to spice things up back in 2018, Charlotte officials elected to switch from running another race on the 1.5-mileRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Two wild card races down, one to go. The finish line of the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is in sight now that the Yellawood 500 at Talladega is complete and only the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL remains to determine which eight drivers will be moving on to the next round with their title hopes still intact. Chase Elliott is the only driver that is truly safe in the Queen City next weekend, having won Sunday at Talladega to secureRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – Always the unquestionable fan favorite at NASCAR’s famed Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Georgia-native Chase Elliott made a last-lap pass to claim the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 victory Sunday afternoon – having to better one of his best friends, Ryan Blaney, to earn the first automatic bid into the next round of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. With a lap to go, Elliott pulled his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the bottom lane to the top lane and got aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Since the Next Gen car made its debut in the NASCAR Cup Series earlier this year, drivers have been concerned with the severity of the impacts they have been feeling in the cockpit. This week, those concerns were amplified even further when it was announced that Alex Bowman would have to sit out of Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway while he recovers from concussion-like symptoms following a crash last weekend at Texas. Bowman’s absence marks the second driver in the last 10Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – It appears the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will be full of wild card races. Following a chaotic race at Texas last week, the gauntlet continues this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway with Sunday’s running of the Yellawood 500. Since opening its doors in 1969, the 2.66-mile track just off Interstate 20 in Alabama has been a wild card on the schedule with the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing on full display over the past half-century, leading to some of theRead More