NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor A bridesmaid no more. Kasey Kahne had come so close to capturing his first win in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2004 and early in the 2005 season only to agonizingly fall short over and over again, but when the series rolled into Richmond Raceway in May 2005 for the Chevy American Revolution 400, everything changed. After a rookie season that saw him rack up 13 top-five finishes, 14 top 10 finishes, four poles, and five runner-up finishes – some by the slimmest of margins –Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor April 18, 2004 – The day Martinsville Speedway bit back, derailing the chances of one future NASCAR Hall of Famer going to Victory Lane, and paving the way for another to break a years long winless streak and capture the final win of his NASCAR Cup Series career. For much of the first half of the Advance Auto Parts 500, it looked as if defending race winner Jeff Gordon was going to be the driver to beat down the stretch, as the four-time Cup Series championRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor There have been many memorable moments in the history of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but a native Hoosier capturing the checkered flag on his native soil, makes the 2005 running of the race one of the most special in the event’s history. In his first six starts at Indianapolis, Tony Stewart had come close to winning at the Brickyard, with two top-five finishes and a top-10 finish, but a win still eluded him. Stewart was on a roll when the 2005 edition ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Returning to the track a week after unspeakable tragedy struck into the heart of the team, Hendrick Motorsports rolled into Atlanta Motor Speedway in late October 2004 looking to kickstart the healing process. By the time the checkered flag flew on the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, the healing was well on its way thanks to an emotional win from Jimmie Johnson. En route to Martinsville Speedway the previous weekend, a Hendrick Motorsports team plane, carrying 10, had crashed into Bull Mountain in southeast Virginia. ThereRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Note: This is the fifth in a five-part series of features highlighting the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2020 – Buddy Baker, Joe Gibbs, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Waddell Wilson. The class will be officially enshrined on Jan. 31 at the Charlotte Convention Center, broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. For those that ever watched him race; saw him win and win and win; watched him hoist NASCAR’s cherished Cup Series championship trophy, again andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For the first eight years of its existence, Texas Motor Speedway had just one race weekend a year, but starting in 2005, the track was granted a second date in the playoffs and the racing at the 1.5-mile track certainly didn’t disappoint the first time out. Heading into the race, Tony Stewart led the points standings by 43 points over Jimmie Johnson, with Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, and Ryan Newman rounding out the top-five championship contenders. Newman may have won the pole, but he had toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Through the first decade of racing at Texas Motor Speedway, there had not been a repeat winner, with 12 different drivers taking home the patented six-shooters and cowboy hat from victory lane, but when the Cup Series rolled into the Lone Star State in April 2007, that was all about to change. Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton would lead the field to green, with Gordon dominating the first 153 laps of the race, leading 146 of them. On lap 154, a new contender emerged inRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Ahead of this weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway that will see one of four drivers walk away with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy, we’ll take a step back to 2004 and the first year of the Chase format, along with the drama that played out in the season finale to deliver Kurt Busch with his first Cup championship. With Sprint/Nextel taking over the series title sponsorship from Winston at the end of the 2003 season, a new championship format was introduced, calledRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor As the summer continues to crawl toward an end, the annual Bristol Night Race looms large as an August staple, as drivers throughout the garage area have the race on their bucket list to win. For one driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., he will be strapping into the cockpit on a full-time basis one final time this weekend, driving double duty in both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series races on the Bristol high banks. With that in mind, let’s takeRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Entering the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season, Carl Edwards was not yet a household name, but after a weekend for the ages at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he was well on his way to becoming one. The Missouri native burst onto the NASCAR scene in 2003, winning three races in the No. 99 truck for Roush Racing and backing it up the following season with another three wins to bring home top-10 points finishes in his first two full-time seasons in NASCAR. When Jeff BurtonRead More