NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The news that the NASCAR community has been waiting for since the offseason began finally came down on Thursday as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was medically cleared to resume his racing career after successfully completing an on-track test to finalize his recovery from a concussion. Earnhardt and his No. 88 team performed the test at Darlington Raceway on Wednesday, where he completed 185 laps during a test session that lasted nearly five hours. Earnhardt was joined at the test by his crew chief Greg Ives asRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After months of rumblings about the future of HScott Motorsports at the conclusion of the 2016 season, official word came down on Monday that the team will indeed cease operations and will not field a team for the 2017 season. “Over the past several months I considered a number of options for moving forward with the team. Regrettably there are no viable sponsor/driver options immediately available to allow the team to participate in 2017,” said team owner Harry Scott, Jr. Both of the drivers thatRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The season-opening exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway, which has had various name changes and format changes over the years, having recently been known as the Sprint Unlimited, will have a new name and format for the 2017 running of the event that is reminiscent of the early years of the race. On Wednesday, Daytona announced that the race, which began its life in 1979 as the Busch Clash, will be known as “The Clash” for next season. The race held the Busch Clash monikerRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor With the announcement that Greg Biffle was leaving Roush Fenway Racing after the 2016 season, the inevitable has happened and the team announced on Tuesday that they would field only two cars for the 2017 season after fielding three for the past four seasons. Returning to the team next season will be Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. to field the No. 6 and No. 17 cars, respectively. Bayne will once again have crew chief Matt Puccia at the helm, while Stenhouse will have aRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor As the NASCAR offseason continues to roll along, another domino in NASCAR’s silly season has fallen with the announcement from Germain Racing on Monday that Ty Dillon will replace Casey Mears behind the wheel of the No. 13 Chevrolet in 2017. Dillon had spent the past five seasons in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, as well as making select Cup Series starts over the past three years. Those five seasons included three wins in the Truck Series in 2012Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After 19 seasons driving for Roush-Fenway Racing, the longest tenured driver for the organization, Greg Biffle, announced his departure from the team on Monday. Biffle, who finished the 2016 season ranked 23rd in points, drove in all three national NASCAR series for the team, starting in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 1998 before moving to the NASCAR Xfinity Series full-time in 2001 and finally climbing behind the wheel of the No. 16 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2002, where heRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Kyle Busch came up short in defending his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, finishing sixth in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Busch finished third in the championship standings, five points behind race-winner and seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and two points behind second-place Joey Logano. “It’s very challenging,” Busch said of how tough it is to repeat as champion. “The biggest thing is you just don’t know where anybody is until the end. I mean, (Jimmie)Read More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Four drivers entered Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a chance at the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship. For Joey Logano, it was his second chance in three years to earn his first championship. Logano was riding a wave of momentum entering the Ford EcoBoost 400 after winning at Phoenix International Raceway a week earlier. Logano was fast immediately after his Team Penske team unloaded his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion off of the transporter. He was fourth fastest in the first practice,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Homestead, Fla. – Call him Seven-Time. Jimmie Johnson joined NASCAR’s most exclusive club on Sunday, winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, putting the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on par with icons Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. “You’re a good man, you’re a great champion, and now you’re a seven-time champion,” crew chief Chad Knaus radioed to Johnson, who grabbed the lead from Kyle Larson through Turns 1 and 2Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Showing speed throughout the day, Carl Edwards looked to be primed to capture his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship on Sunday, but it was not to be for Edwards and the No. 19 team after a crash on a restart with 10 laps to go brought their championship hopes to a screeching halt. Falling short of the championship in 2008 and 2011, Edwards was one of the fastest cars throughout the race weekend and had the confidence to try and redeem himself in theRead More