NASCAR Cup Series Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In its first year of existence, 23XI Racing is wasting no time in making big moves as the team announced Friday it would be expanding to a two-car team in 2022, signing veteran Kurt Busch to pilot the team’s second car – the No. 45 Monster Energy sponsored Toyota. The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be heading into his 23rd season at NASCAR’s top level when he joins the team co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin – the seventh differentRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes to an end right where it all began back in February as Daytona International Speedway is set to host Saturday night’s running of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Two battles will be taking place on Saturday as Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are set to duke it out for the regular season championship, while just one spot remains up for grabs in the Playoffs. Of the drivers still looking to race their way in, TylerRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Richard Childress Racing’s stress levels were already chaotic entering Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Especially for one Austin Dillon, who was 28 points behind teammate Tyler Reddick for the 16th and final playoff spot. With just a single race left in the regular season, the stress levels reached the summit after Dillon’s hard crash at the end of Stage 2. After holding off Brad Keselowski for the sixth spot to collect five stage points, Dillon would get clipped by Keselowski and sentRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Ryan Blaney took the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining and skillfully held off a frantic field to earn the victory Sunday in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season. Those eight laps out front were the only laps Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford led on the afternoon but it was good enough to give him his second victory of the season – by a modern-day track record marginRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The end of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season is in sight with just two races remaining before the Playoff field is set. After a stretch of road course races, the series returns to an oval this weekend with Sunday’s running of the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. With this race taking place near the home of two of the three manufacturers (Chevrolet and Ford), teams put extra emphasis on winning here for bragging rights. The two-mile speedway tends to favor the teams thatRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer On a chaotic Sunday afternoon at Indianapolis, you’ll have an extremely hard time finding any driver but AJ Allmendinger smiling. Ryan Blaney was among those bummed after finishing second in the Verizon 200. Not because of the madness during the final hour, but simply getting the shortest straw. During the final restart, Blaney was fifth and one of the few competitors who weren’t snake bitten by the dreaded Turn 6 curbs. Suddenly, shenanigans happened in front of him as Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe eliminatedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Winless on the season, Denny Hamlin looked to be on his way to his first victory of the season Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before a late race run-in with rookie Chase Briscoe derailed his day. After a debris caution with 10 laps to go brought pit strategy into play, Hamlin’s team elected to stay out instead of making the trek down pit road with the remainder of the leaders, boosting him into the lead, where he would stay through the two multi-car crashesRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Throughout Sunday’s Verizon 200 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, the curbing in Turn 6 was a point of concern, but when a debris caution set up a late race restart, those concerns took a drastic turn for the worse. After taking a pounding from the heavy stock cars and undergoing repairs during every caution, it was only a matter of time before the compromised curbing caused a major issue and a restart with five laps remaining in regulation became the tipping point.Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Is it better to be lucky than good? For Kyle Larson, Sunday at Indianapolis was a bit of both. Coming into Sunday’s Verizon 200 on the IMS road course in a dead heat with Denny Hamlin for the regular season points lead, Larson looked to be on a leisurely drive around the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course en route to yet another win before the late stages of the race took a weird turn toward chaos, seemingly taking him out of contention. However, when theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service INDIANAPOLIS – The first NASCAR Cup Series road course race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was full of drama – for A.J. Allmendinger, who led only the last two laps of overtime to secure his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday, and for those who fell short of the cherished trophy in an action-packed final few laps. Denny Hamlin was leading the race on the final restart with two laps to go before being hit from behind by rookie Chase Briscoe in Turn 10,Read More