NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Five days after the fact, Matt DiBenedetto was still basking in the afterglow of last Sunday’s sixth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. For the record, DiBenedetto scored the best result in the five-year history of BK Racing. After the race, he celebrated with tears in his eyes. More important, however, was the effect the strong run could have on the long-term NASCAR Sprint Cup Series effort of the growing organization. “Obviously, that was special for the whole team,” DiBenedetto said on Friday before openingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – For the first time this season, the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was the driver who was supposed to be behind the wheel. Returning sooner than expected from a burst fracture to his L1 vertebra suffered during an offseason all-terrain vehicle accident, Tony Stewart took to the track during opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice on Friday at Richmond International Raceway, preparing for his first competition of the season in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (1 p.m. ET onRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – With rain threatening to fall at Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers put extra effort into Friday morning’s opening practice. The effort paid off for 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick, who was fastest in practice at 129.089 mph and consequently will start on the pole in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at the .75-mile short track (1 p.m. ET on FOX). With the field ordered by practice speeds according to the Sprint Cup rule book, Joey Logano (128.694 mph) willRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief One of the big topics heading into this weekend’s event at Richmond International Raceway is NASCAR’s lenient stance on lugnuts tightened during a pitstop, and Kurt Busch believes the time to change that stance is sooner rather than later. NASCAR has taken a ‘less policed’ approach recently, believing that the teams should have the freedom to decide on whether or not to tighten all five lugnuts during a pitstop, a decision far different than in years past when anything less than five would lead to aRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Ryan Blaney is off to a solid rookie season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, already scoring two top-10’s in the opening eight races. However, there is one thing missing for the 22-year-old this season and that has been the chance to race against Tony Stewart. Although Blaney competed against Stewart for several races prior to his official rookie year in 2016, there has been no opportunity this year due to Stewart’s injury that was sustained prior to the start of the season. That all changesRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service Since 2000, only two drivers have produced five top-10 finishes through the first eight races of their Sunoco Rookie of the Year seasons. One is six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. The second, current first-year sensation Chase Elliott. Elliott will try to keep pace with Johnson’s mark when he goes for his sixth top 10-showing of the season in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway (1 p.m. ET on FOX). “Richmond has been a special place for me,” Elliott said. “We hadRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After missing the first eight races of the season following an off-season back injury in which he suffered a burst fracture of the L1 vertebra, Tony Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing announced on Thursday that Stewart will be back behind the wheel of his No. 14 Chevrolet this weekend in Richmond for the Toyota Owners 400. “As soon as the doctors said they were happy with my scans, I wasn’t going to wait any longer to get back in my racecar,” said Stewart. “I want toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Richmond International Raceway this weekend for the Toyota Owners 400, we’ll take a step back in time in this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater” to look back at one of the most memorable races to ever take place at Richmond, the 1986 Miller High Life 400. Throughout the 1980’s, the feud between Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip continued to grow and by the time the series made their visit to Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway for the secondRead More

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