NASCAR Cup Series Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill. – Surprise and elation were the watchwords for Team Penske driver Austin Cindric, who won Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at the expense of teammate Ryan Blaney. The race was Blaney’s to win—until the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion ran out of fuel on the next-to-last lap and handed the lead to his teammate. Cindric charged past Blaney at the start/finish line and completed the checkered-flag lap as Blaney rolled agonizingly slowly to a 24th-place result. The victoryRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MADISON, Ill. — It was with an obvious sense of pride that Michael McDowell reveled in his pole-winning run on Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. McDowell claimed his third Busch Light Pole Award of the season—and of his career—but this one came at a quirky flat track, not a superspeedway, where the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, a former DAYTONA 500 winner, is expected to excel. McDowell toured the 1.25-mile irregularly-shaped track in 32.468 seconds (138.598 mph)Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A mainstay of the NASCAR Cup Series since 2009, Stewart-Haas Racing announced on Tuesday that the 2024 season would be its last and would be ceasing operations at season’s end. Rumors of the team’s future have been floating around the Cup Series garage for many months and weeks, but in a joint statement on social media, co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas laid out why now is the time they have elected to exit stage left. “We have made the difficult decision to close Stewart-Haas RacingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service What if?… That’s the question that will continue to haunt us after a long day of auto racing on Memorial Day weekend. What if Mother Nature hadn’t intervened, delaying the start of the Indianapolis 500 and shortening the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night? A weather system that battered the Midwest forced Hendrick Motorsports to change plans that had been in the works for a full year. Delayed from the planned 12:45 p.m. start, the green flag at the Indy 500 flew nearly four hoursRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – A lightning delay that turned into a heavy rainstorm made a winner of Christopher Bell in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Not that Bell didn’t deserve the victory in the rain-shortened race, which NASCAR was forced to call after 249 of 400 laps were complete. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota started third, led a race-high 90 laps and won the second stage of the 14th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. The decisiveRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Ty Gibbs saved the strongest performance of the day for the money lap in time trials for the Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Streaking around 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway in the final round of Saturday’s qualifying session for NASCAR’s longest race, Gibbs covered the distance in 29.355 seconds (183.955 mph) to claim the first Busch Light Pole Award of his career. Gibbs edged William Byron (183.580 mph) by 0.060 seconds to become theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Kyle Larson is becoming a well-traveled man as he splits his time between Indianapolis and North Carolina between his full-time duties in the NASCAR Cup Series and his first attempt at the Indianapolis 500. On Sunday, that meant starting the day rocketing around Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the second day of Indy 500 qualifying, where he had advanced into the Fast 12 after Saturday’s first day of time trials. Larson posted the fifth-fastest time in the Fast 12 at 232.788 mph to move on to theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — It was a study in domination and impeccable strategy. Leading a NASCAR All-Star Race record 199 of 200 laps, pole winner Joey Logano kept Denny Hamlin and peripatetic Kyle Larson at bay on Sunday night in winning the 40th running of the event and collecting the $1-million top prize. Running the entire race on softer option tires—and eschewing the more durable prime tires at repaved and revitalized North Wilkesboro Speedway—Logano beat runner-up Hamlin to the finish line by 0.636 seconds, withRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer An All-Star sized drama escalated very early in the 40th NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, leaving one driver heated and starting a fight on a full moon Sunday night. On the opening lap of the 200-lap main feature, Kyle Busch was already racing hard to get by both Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. for 10th position. However, Busch saw himself being squeezed by Stenhouse and brushed the backstretch wall as a result. Busch was irate over the contact from Stenhouse and made itRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Both Ty Gibbs and Josh Berry made the most out of an unfortunate situation up front and crossed the line second and third respectively in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. In the closing laps, Gibbs thrusted his way to second after both Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher’s intense battle for the lead went south after rubbing fenders in Turn 3. Both frustrated racers saw their day go south when their tires went flat and forced to make an unscheduled pit stop. From there, Gibbs wasRead More