NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer For Virginia native Denny Hamlin, a trip to Richmond is like coming home. Hamlin grew up in Chesterfield, Virginia, less than 25 miles from Richmond International Raceway, and has taken to his hometown track like a duck to water. Despite early season success of winning the Daytona 500 and two additional top-five finishes in the first five races of 2016, Hamlin and his No. 11 team have been struggling through the month of April, having yet to score a finish higher than 12th in theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer With two-time Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning in attendance on behalf of his sponsor Nationwide Insurance, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. looked to find his way back to Bristol’s victory lane for the first time in 12 years, but had his work cut out for him from the very start of the race. After qualifying 20th, the start of the Food City 500 had Earnhardt and his team wondering just what went wrong when Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet stumbled when the green flag flew, forcing him downRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After scoring his best career finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series last weekend at Texas, Chase Elliott and the other Cup Series rookies headed into Bristol ready to get a crash course in racing on the half-mile bullring. All five rookies started outside of the top-15 and although Bristol seemed to have their number early on, most of them found a way to turn things around by the time the checkered flag flew. Leading the way once again was Elliott, who fell two lapsRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Matt Kenseth’s season of consistent struggles continued Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. After looking a sure contender for the race win, Kenseth crashed just 187 laps into the 500 lap event. Kenseth confirmed that it was a tire failure that plagued his No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, forcing hard contact with the wall and damaging the right side of his car. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver managed to work his way up to third after restarting 26th, but not long afterRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – When Carl Edwards wins the pole at Bristol, good things happen – for Edwards. So forgive the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing if he feels optimistic about Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET on FOX), the eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season. With the only sub-15-second lap in the money round of Friday’s knockout qualifying at the .533-mile short track, Edwards won his second Coors Light Pole Award of theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Fresh off his season-best finish of 14th at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night, Trevor Bayne sees a huge improvement in the Roush Fenway Racing organization only seven races into their 2016 campaign. Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 champion, nearly pulled off an off-sequence pit strategy that would brought home his first win in over five years. Still, the Tennessee native was running solidly in the top 10 prior to surprise strategy call, mixing it up with teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on a couple of occasions forRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Bristol for this weekend’s Food City 500, it’s that time of the week again when we take a step back in history to look at a significant race from Bristol’s past. On the docket for this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater” is the 1990 Valleydale Meats 500, which came down to a photo finish to determine the winner. Ahead of the spring race weekend at Bristol that year, the track had put down a sealer on the thenRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer With Darlington Raceway hosting another throwback themed Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend this season, teams and drivers have been working feverishly on their throwback schemes for this year’s race. After coming to Darlington with a Neil Bonnett throwback last season, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his Nationwide team had bigger plans for their 2016 unveil and they did not disappoint. For the 2016 Southern 500, Earnhardt will be piloting a No. 88 Chevrolet with Buddy Baker’s “Gray Ghost” livery that Baker took to victoryRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 from Texas Motor Speedway is officially over and for the second consecutive week Kyle Busch is the victor. Here are the latest five takeaways from NASCAR’s trip to the 1.5-mile oval. 1) Kyle Busch Can someone seriously stop this man? ‘Rowdy’ is, without question, at the best place of his career both personally and professionally, and it shows both on the track and during interviews. The reigning 2015 Sprint Cup champion has rattled off four wins in eight days among allRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After the wildly successful throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway for the return of the Southern 500 to Labor Day last season, the track and teams are joining forces once again with a plethora of throwback schemes set to grace the track’s high banks in September. On Monday, the No. 17 Roush-Fenway Racing team, piloted by Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., unveiled their entry into the throwback race, electing to honor another legend of the sport. Last season, Stenhouse and Roush-Fenway ran a blue and gold David PearsonRead More