NASCAR Cup Series Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson claimed his first pole position of the 2024 season Saturday afternoon to lead an all Hendrick Motorsports front row for Sunday’s Toyota Owner’s 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (7 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson’s time of 22.438-seconds (120.332 mph) just bettered his teammate Chase Elliott’s mark of 22.440-seconds (120.321) around the three-quarter mile Richmond oval – good enough to earn the 2021 series champion and defending Richmond race winner the 17th pole position of his career. “DefinitelyRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron turned in a steady and inspired drive to earn the NASCAR Cup Series victory from pole position in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas road course Sunday, holding off the field by less than a second but dominating the field when he needed to. Answering his season-opening Daytona 500 win, the 26-year-old Charlotte native becomes the first driver to win multiple races this season. This is his 12th career NASCAR Cup Series victory and givesRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service In a thrilling final qualifying round, Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron was able to hold on to the pole position despite a 94.685 mph run by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs, whose slight bobble in the final turns – in the final seconds of the session – at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) road course was just off the mark. This is the 13th career pole for Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – and the fifth on a road course, which isRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor As crew chief Harry Hogge once said in the movie Days of Thunder, “Tires is what wins races,” and that was never truer than in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. For the first time in three years, the spring date on the half-mile high banked oval in East Tennessee was back on its concrete surface and back to the Bristol we all know and love, but this time around the NASCAR Cup Series teams and drivers would have to go into gladiator modeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   BRISTOL, Tenn. — How appropriate.  On a day where tire management was the essential element in a NASCAR Cup Series race, three veterans swept the podium positions, with Denny Hamlin winning Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.  In a race that produced 54 lead changes—a record for Cup Series short tracks—Hamlin lost the lead briefly to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps but regained it in traffic and beat Truex to the finish line by 1.083 seconds. Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. — Denny Hamlin was convinced he had to improve his performance at Phoenix Raceway, and on Saturday afternoon, he took the first step in that direction. Touring the one-mile track in 27.138 seconds (132.655 seconds) in the final round of qualifying, Hamlin put his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the pole for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin, who hasn’t won at Phoenix since 2019, beat JGR teammate Ty Gibbs (132.227Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer “This Mustang Dark Horse is bitchin’!” Noah Gragson didn’t mince any words on how he felt about bringing home a superb sixth-place finish in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In a race where the four-car organization remained quiet or faltered, Gragson and his No. 10 squad put together a strong showing. Notably, Gragson’s charge towards his third career top-10 finish shined bright in the final 27 green flag laps where he was in a battle for a top-five finish,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS — Based on the box score alone, you might think Kyle Larson dominated Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  You’d be wrong.  Yes, Larson led 181 of 267 laps at the 1.5-mile track. Kyle Busch led the second-most—18. And, yes, Larson swept the first two stages and took the checkered flag to secure his third victory at Las Vegas, tying Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski for most among full-time active Cup drivers.  The truth is thatRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS — For the second NASCAR Cup Series race this young season, Joey Logano will start on the pole. Speeding around windswept Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 29.291 seconds (184.357 mph) in the final round of Saturday’s time trials, Logano will occupy the top spot in the grid for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A three-time winner at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway—tied with Brad Keselowski for most among full-time active drivers—Logano beat Hendrick Motorsports driverRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Atlanta Motor Speedway is back. In the early 2000’s, the 1.5-mile quad-oval earned a reputation for delivering photo finishes with three of the closest finishes in NASCAR Cup Series coming over a span from 2000 to 2005. However, as the pavement aged, the track’s tendency for those types of finishes faded with it. Enter the 2022 season and a reconfiguration masterminded by Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, which ramped up the banking in the turns and narrowed the racing surface to transform the track into aRead More