NASCAR Cup Series Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott smiled and bristled a bit when asked if he returns to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway this week feeling like the reigning track champion after being declared last year’s Pocono race winner after the drivers who finished ahead of him on track – apparent winner Denny Hamlin and runner-up Kyle Busch – were disqualified following post-race inspection. “He actually gave me the trophy, but he kept the flag – his little girl was kind of married to the flag and itRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Six to go. The countdown to the end of the regular season for the NASCAR Cup Series continues as the Tricky Triangle comes calling for Sunday’s running of the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. With only three turns, instead of the four turns at all other ovals on the circuit, Pocono is definitely one of the most unique tracks on the schedule. The three turns all have differing banking with Turn 1 and its 14-degree banking modeled after the now-defunct Trenton Speedway, Turn 2 and itsRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. – Martin Truex Jr. had led more than 900 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway without claiming any victory hardware in 29 previous starts at the 1.058-mile oval. However, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota left absolutely no doubt about securing that career first win in Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301 at the track, leading a dominating 254 of the 301 laps. The impressive work was the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s third victory of the season – andRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. – With torrential rain and the threat of storms in the area all day, NASCAR has decided to push back Sunday’s scheduled Crayon 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to Monday. The race will now start at noon ET Monday and will still be televised on the USA Network with radio coverage on both PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell will start his No. 20 Toyota from pole position in hopes of defending hisRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell will start Sunday’s Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway exactly where he finished his last start at the 1.058-mile New England track: in position No. 1. Bell, 28, won Saturday’s pole qualifying session for the Crayon 301 (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a lap of 124.781 mph in the No. 20 JGR Toyota – just a tick faster – .007-seconds – than his teammate, Martin Truex Jr., who willRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor New England here we come. A week removed from a thrilling rain-shortened event in Atlanta, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to a flat oval this weekend for Sunday’s running of the Crayon 301, as the march to the end of the regular season continues on. First joining the Cup Series circuit in 1993, the 1.058-mile oval that has progressively banked turns from two to seven degrees is one of the more difficult tracks on the schedule as the flat nature of the track makes trackRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Neither an early spin nor damage to his No. 24 Chevrolet could prevent William Byron from winning Sunday night’s rain-shortened Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway.   With a storm approaching the 1.54-mile track, Byron surged past AJ Allmendinger into the lead on Lap 167 and remained out from until an accident in Turn 3 involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace caused the seventh caution of the evening on Lap 178.  With Byron outRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – SVG. Three letters that say it all. Shane Van Gisbergen, a three-time V8 Supercars champion from New Zealand rolled into Chicago for his first NASCAR Cup Series start and took the field to school, capping off a strong weekend by capturing the victory in the inaugural Grant Park 220 on the Chicago Street Course. “You always dream of it,” Van Gisbergen said of the possibility of winning coming into the weekend. “Thank you so much to the Trackhouse team, Enhance Health, Project91. What anRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Denny Hamlin will lead the field to green for the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series street race on Sunday after snagging the pole for the Grant Park 220. Noting that the first day on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn course in downtown Chicago was “my single best day at the race track in all of my career”, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the top spot in the waning moments of qualifying with a lap of one minute, 28.435 seconds. Tyler Reddick,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor CHICAGO – Ross Chastain and his Trackhouse Racing team might have partied hard after winning last weekend in Nashville, but it’s back to business heading into the unknown of a first-ever street course race this weekend in Chicago. With the momentum of his first win of the season and his first victory in more than a year, the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet noted that his team is not changing tactics mid-season and will be keeping their foot on the gas as the summer stretchRead More