NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor One race down, two to go. After Kyle Larson locked himself into the championship finale last weekend at Texas, the seven remaining drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs move on to Kansas Speedway looking to be the next to clinch a spot in the title race by winning Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400. Among those seven other drivers still in the running for the Bill France Cup, all but one of them are previous winners at Kansas, with Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, DennyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor This time of the year, there is a clear division between the drivers still alive in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and those on the outside looking in. Add in the current high downforce/low horsepower package that is run on intermediate tracks and the situation is exacerbated, leading to what we saw in Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. On a number of occasions throughout the opening race in the Round of 8 in the Playoffs, the drivers fighting for a chance toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor FORT WORTH, Texas – What seemed to be a run of the mill NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway flipped a switch in the closing laps, wreaking havoc among some of the Playoff drivers. The trouble started on Lap 300, when smoke began billowing from underneath Joey Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford, signaling an expired engine and the end of his day. Already at a points deficit entering the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, Logano didn’t quite have the race he needed, finishingRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway had dramatic ups-and-downs all Sunday afternoon with the victorious exception of Kyle Larson, who absolutely dominated the race – leading 256 of 334 laps and holding off the field on seven different re-starts in the final 125 laps alone. Larson’s win by .459-seconds over Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron was his series best – and career best – eighth of the season and 14th of his career. Most importantly, it punched his ticket into the ChampionshipRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The Lone Star State comes calling this weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Texas Motor Speedway to kick off the penultimate round of the Playoffs with Sunday’s running of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 Texas first joined the circuit in 1997, but back in 2017 went through a reconfiguration, dropping the banking in Turns 1 and 2 from 24 degrees to 20 degrees, as well as widening the racing surface from 60 feet to 80 feet. Meanwhile, Turns 3 and 4 remain banked atRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – William Byron came into Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with only one goal in mind – just win. After the checkered flag waved on the 109-lap slugfest, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet nearly pulled it off, leading the most laps on the day, but ultimately falling short at the end and seeing his run in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs come to an early end. Coming into the day, Byron sat some 44 points underRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 featured a frequent winner, a couple of unlikely heroes and occasional villainy. Kyle Larson took the checkered flag after 109 laps at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course to win for the seventh time this season and advance to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Larson won for the third time on a road course—the most ever in series history in a single season—in a race that featured the violent renewalRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CONCORD, N.C. – Three weeks removed from their skirmish at Bristol, tensions remained high between Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick and midway through Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte, they boiled over – with Playoff implications on the line. Racing through Turn 8 on lap 56, Harvick found himself behind Elliott, giving the defending series champion a nudge, which sent him spinning into the wall, causing heavy damage to the rear end of the No. 9 Chevrolet. Under caution, Elliott’s team was able toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor 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-mile oval to creatingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor One wild card race down, one to go. After getting through Monday’s rain-delayed Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers aren’t through with the gauntlet that makes up the final two races of the Round of 12 just yet. Now that the checkered flag has flown on the final superspeedway race of the season, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval lies ahead, with the unpredictable nature of racing on the oval/road course hybrid. When all is said and done next Sunday, four moreRead More