NASCAR Playoffs Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Ryan Blaney’s disastrous weekend in “Sin City” is now in the books after finishing 32nd in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion’s setback started during Saturday’s practice session where he only logged in a single lap before a flat tire sent him careening into the Turn 1 wall, making contact on the driver’s side. Blaney was able to exit out of his car before being checked and released from the infield care center. Consequently, Blaney had toRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer On an afternoon where several Round of 8 drivers endured a plethora of drama, William Byron was one of the very few who left Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a trouble-free Sunday. An outcome any driver pines in having. Although Byron’s No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet was among the quickest cars on the grid, he was no match for the likes of Christopher Bell and race winner Joey Logano in terms of raw pace and fuel strategy respectively. In the end, Byron began this Playoff round withRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Joey Logano’s 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season has been a rollercoaster ride with last Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte being the latest episode of the whirlwind saga for the No. 22 Team Penske group. When the checkered flag was waved, it appeared Logano had just seen his title aspirations go by the wayside after missing the Round of 8 by four points with Tyler Reddick taking the eighth and final transfer spot. An angry Logano rehashed the bitter memories of being taken outRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer A day removed from Alex Bowman’s costly disqualification, Hendrick Motorsports announced they’ll not appeal NASCAR’s decision of penalizing the No. 48 team after the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway had concluded. Therefore, the Round of 8 will go on without all four HMS entries continuing their fight for the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Instead, it’s down to Bowman’s teammate trio of Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Chase Elliott to bring a 15th championship to the organization. This news was a result ofRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer AVONDALE, Ariz. — For the second straight year, Christopher Bell will have a chance of winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway. In fact, Bell is the only driver who has made the Championship 4 a year ago and return to the big dance. Similar to last year, coming in clutch was the name of the game for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Only this time, he didn’t need to win the cutoff race as he punched his ticket to Arizona by winning atRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer AVONDALE, Ariz. — From backing up his No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford into the Championship 4 to confirmation that’ll he’ll be back with the Xfinity team next year, life has been pretty swell for Cole Custer. Last Saturday, with a ravaged Mustang and on fire, Custer did his best Tow Mater (Cars) and Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza) impression by limping his machine backwards to the start/finish line at Martinsville Speedway. Well aware that every position is up for grabs and can make a difference on who’llRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer AVONDALE, Ariz. — Track time is everything for a NASCAR driver and Carson Hocevar could have an advantage over his Championship 4 competitors heading into Friday’s Craftsman 150 at Phoenix Raceway. Not only Hocevar will have a shot of winning the Craftsman Truck Series championship, he’ll also run his ninth Cup Series race of the year with all but one being for Legacy Motor Club’s No. 42 squad. In fact, the Michigan racer will go from qualifying the No. 42 truck for Niece Motorsports to partakingRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The often treacherous pit entry at Homestead-Miami Speedway proved to be the turning point of Sunday’s 4EVER 400 presented by Mobil 1. Both Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson, who were the main front runners all day, were entering pit road to make their final scheduled pit stops where things went haywire. As Blaney slowly blended down to pit entry, Larson was still going fast and on the verge of colliding into him. It lead to a mistimed accordion effect where Larson had to slow down, lockRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It’s hard to imagine Martin Truex, Jr., one of the heavy favorites to win this season’s NASCAR Cup Series title when the playoffs began, had yet to score a single top-10 finish in the playoffs. That all changed when he finished eighth during Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, ending an alarming skid for the time being. At the same time, the result left a lot to be desired. “We left some on the table,” said Truex on PRN. “We took a bigRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer AVONDALE, Ariz. – Lap 200 was when the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race saw its chaotic shakeup and it involved Chase Elliott. Following a multi-car crash in Turn 4, the field went to war once again with Elliott slowly getting better as the race went on. Compared to his Championship 4 competitors, Elliott’s pit crew were getting the job done and helped him gain valuable track position. Elliott restarted fifth and went on the attack towards the Dogleg, to the point he clipped part of theRead More