NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan.—For once, Christopher Bell thinks he has a car that’s race-worthy as well as lightning fast in qualifying at Kansas Speedway. Navigating the 1.5-mile track in 30.111 seconds (179.336 mph) in the final round of Saturday’s time trials, Bell edged Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs (179.099 mph) by 0.040 seconds for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET (3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bell will start the first race ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan.—The pit crew servicing Chase Biscoe’s car this weekend won’t be the same group that helped propel him into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with an 11th-hour win at Darlington and subsequently into the Round of 12. Briscoe learned Monday of a swap that will bring the crew of the No. 4 Ford of Josh Berry to his No. 14 Mustang. Briscoe is the only Stewart-Haas Racing driver to have qualified for the Playoffs this season. “The pit crew thing is tough,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Speeding penalties, handling issues, and mechanical problems. The four drivers that saw their NASCAR Cup Series Playoff hopes dashed Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway had it all. Ty Gibbs was the first driver to end the night on the outside looking in, having watched his six-point advantage that he came into the weekend with erased early on with a pit road speeding penalty on Lap 133. The penalty dropped him to the tail end of the field and with track position beingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Just Kyle Larson doing Kyle Larson things. It was just utter dominance for the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway as he led an astounding 462 of 500 laps en route to his fifth win of the 2024 season and second overall on the high-banked half-mile. Larson rolled off from second-place to start the night behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman, but on lap 33, he vaulted to the lead and the rest isRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Elimination weekend is upon us. The NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Bristol Motor Speedway for a Saturday night under the lights in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race which will see the current 16-driver Playoff field cut to 12 when the checkered flag falls on the night. Racing at Bristol is always intense, but when the lights go down for the night race, the intensity gets cranked to 11. The aggressiveness that the drivers will show on the high-banked bullring that is calledRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain won his first pole position of the 2024 season – and second of his career – Saturday afternoon at the historic Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International road course. Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet turned in a fast lap of 122.279 mph around the 2.45-mile, seven-turn course in upstate New York to edge former race winner Martin Truex Jr. for the top position by a mere .134-second. Ranked 15th of the 16 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers, it was an importantRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor HAMPTON, Ga. – The first ticket to the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs has been punched. Joey Logano, with a helping hand from his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in the closing laps of regulation, advanced to the front of the field, set to square off against the Trackhouse Racing duo of Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain in a battle to the finish. However, the caution flag would fly with two laps remaining, pushing the race into overtime, with Logano able to keepRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor HAMPTON, Ga. – Entering the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, nearly every driver was wary of the Playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the unpredictability the track brings. And rightly so. Just 57 laps in, two contenders in the postseason saw their race go up in smoke after points leader Kyle Larson had an apparent tire issue in Turn 2, causing his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to get loose and then make a beeline for the outside wall, where he made heavy impact and ricochetedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor HAMPTON, Ga. – Ryan Blaney’s defense of his 2023 NASCAR Cup Series title starts in earnest this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with hopes of returning to the championship podium 10 weeks from now at Phoenix. Having made the run through the postseason to capture his first Cup championship a year ago, Blaney and his No. 12 Team Penske group have a blueprint of what it takes to get it done, but explained they won’t be able to use a carbon copy for the 2024 Playoffs,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor HAMPTON, Ga. – Charters have been the word of the season with the negotiations between NASCAR and the teams in the Cup Series dragging on and on in a constant back and forth between the two entities. Entering the start of the Cup Series Playoffs at Atlanta Motor Speedway, those talks have taken a turn with the majority of teams electing to sign the new deal put in place by the sanctioning body and two teams – 23XI Racing co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan,Read More