NASCAR Sprint Cup Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Roger Penske is on the cusp of history in the 50th anniversary of his organization and three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves is ready to witness it firsthand. The longtime Verizon IndyCar Series veteran was part of a 1-2-3 Team Penske sweep this season, with Simon Pagenaud claiming the title. With a long offseason playing out during NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, the 41-year-old Brazilian has been able to keep up with the progress of fellow Penske driver Joey Logano, who isRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott ended up not needing a substitute driver for tonight’s rain-shortened AAA Texas 500 and ended with a strong fourth place finish. Elliott started tonight’s 334 lap race just outside the top 10 in eleventh place but started working his way forward early in his No. 24 Kelly Blue Book Chevrolet. Elliot ran near the bottom of the top ten for much of the race’s opening half. As the race settled into a rhythm, Elliot began to pickRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – This year, two drivers transferred from the Sprint Showdown to the Sprint All-Star race. The two drivers who won the Sprint Fan Vote were Chase Elliott and Danica Patrick. After qualifying was rained out, the starting grid was set by owner’s points, putting Elliott in the seventh position and Patrick in the 19th position. Elliott held on to the seventh position for much of the first segment. Patrick held station as well until after the mandatory two tire green flag pit stop.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service If he had to do it over again, Matt Kenseth might have stayed in line in front of Martin Truex Jr., rather than moving up the track to try to block Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. But Kenseth had to make a split-second decision, and he moved into the outside lane in the final corner of Sunday’s Daytona 500. But Hamlin dived to the inside, and Kenseth nearly wrecked before regaining control of his car. Hamlin went on to win the race, andRead More

By Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Coming off the finest season of his career, Martin Truex Jr. suddenly finds himself behind the wheel for a new manufacturer. After several years of thoughtful deliberation, Furniture Row Racing left Chevrolet and its affiliation with Richard Childress Racing in favor of Toyota and a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. During “Toyota Tuesday” at the 34th annual Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom, Furniture Row president and general manager Joe Garone explained the move. “If we were goingRead More

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Block me once, and I’ll cut you some slack. Block me twice — and it’s “Gotcha.” That, in essence, was the conversation on Joey Logano’s team radio after Logano spun race leader Matt Kenseth in Turn 1 with less than five laps left in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Logano went on to win the race after a green-white-checkered-flag restart that sent the race two laps past its scheduled distance of 267 laps. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has monopolizedRead More

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Starting 24th in a backup car, Kurt Busch fought his way to the front of the field through intermittent rain showers and won Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway when a deluge halted the race after 138 of a scheduled 200 laps. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was second when NASCAR red-flagged the event for the fourth time. Martin Truex Jr. was credited with third, followed by Matt Kenseth and Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski. The victory was Busch’s second of the season. He wonRead More

CONCORD, N.C. – Will the mystery winner of Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 enter and sign in please? Hint: It’s the guy who does back flips every time he takes the checkered flag. But for the first 370 of 400 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway, no one would have picked Carl Edwards or his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as the likely winner of the season’s 12th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin had spent the lion’s share of time at the headRead More

Jeff Gordon ruled out any possibility on running next year’s 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 during a press conference this morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion was at the Brickyard because he is the pace car driver for today’s Indy 500. Gordon has amassed an incredible 92 wins to go along with his four titles, but says that the longtime dream of the Indy 500 is something that is missing in his career. “There is no doubt in my mind that one thing …Read More

RICHMOND, Va.—NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France couldn’t have been more emphatic when he met with the Associated Press Sports Editors on Thursday in New York City. Safety remains the sanctioning body’s number one priority, France said, and with that assertion came a ray of hope for Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch, who was sidelined at Daytona International Speedway in February after a crash that broke his right leg and left foot. Busch’s No. 54 Toyota slammed nose-first into a concrete wall unprotected by SAFER barriers during a NASCARRead More