NASCAR Wire Service Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Brendan Gaughan caps final Daytona 500 with career-best finish DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With 10 laps left in his final Daytona 500, Brendan Gaughan was two laps down. Two quick cautions, however—the last one coming on Lap 199 of a scheduled 200—got Gaughan back on the lead lap as the highest-scored lapped car just in time for the first of two overtimes. Gaughan made the most of the opportunity, driving up to seventh place by the time the race reached its chaotic conclusion, withRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With the car of Ryan Newman sliding upside-down trailing sparks behind him, Denny Hamlin joined elite company on Monday night in the second-closest finish in Daytona 500 history. Hamlin beat Ryan Blaney to the finish line at Daytona International Speedway by .014 seconds, and while the driver of the No. 11 celebrated with a burnout on the infield grass, the emergency crew worked to extricate Newman from his No. 6 Ford, which came to rest on its roof at theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Rain stopped the Daytona 500 after 20 laps of a scheduled 200 Sunday afternoon, forcing postponement of the Great American Race until Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were the centerpiece of pre-race festivities. After addressing the crowd, President Trump gave the command to start engines and paced the field for a lap before returning to the Daytona 500 Club. Jimmie Johnson, starting hisRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was a first for Noah Gragson. It was more of the same for Dale Earnhardt Jr. When a wreck on the backstretch at Daytona International Speedway ended Saturday’s NASCAR Racing Experience 300, Gragson was in the lead, and when the driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line under caution, he claimed his long-awaited first victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. What was a novel experience for Gragson was old hat to Earnhardt, who wonRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Grant Enfinger held off charging Jordan Anderson on the final lap of overtime Friday night at Daytona International Speedway to win the NextEra Energy 250 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race by .010 seconds. Enfinger got his shot at the win after a massive wreck on Lap 98 of a scheduled 100 took out his ThorSport Racing teammate, Ben Rhodes, and a baker’s dozen of other contenders. Enfinger had the lead for a restart on Lap 105, butRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joey Logano grabbed the lead on the final lap of the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel 150-mile qualifying race Thursday at Daytona International Speedway and held on for the win, but a wreck at the halfway point dashed Daniel Suarez’s prospects of competing in his first Daytona 500 with his new team Gaunt Brothers Racing. In the second Duel, William Byron made a late charge to edge Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson for the victory by .117 seconds and will startRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was a relatively calm but unmistakably race-y start to Sunday’s Busch Clash at Daytona International Speedway, but by the last of three overtimes were complete, the garage area was littered with bent-and-dent race cars and some equally banged-up feelings. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones led only the last lap to claim his first Busch Clash win in a finish that echoed his first NASCAR Cup Series victory – also at Daytona when he led only the last lapRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Denny Hamlin couldn’t win the Busch Clash at Daytona for himself, but he made sure his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate did. For nearly the entire final lap in the third attempt at overtime, Hamlin pushed the mangled Toyota of Erik Jones all the way to finish line in a race that saw only six of 18 cars running at the finish. With the nose of his car caved in and held together with tape, Jones led only the final lap—theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With a blistering lap at 194.582 mph on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. broke the Hendrick Motorsports monopoly on Daytona 500 pole positions—sort of. In his first competitive trip in the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, Stenhouse covered the 2.5-mile distance in 46.253 mph to lock himself into the top starting spot for next Sunday’s Great American Race (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Admittedly, Stenhouse had a Hendrick engine under theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Note: This is the fifth in a five-part series of features highlighting the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2020 – Buddy Baker, Joe Gibbs, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Waddell Wilson. The class will be officially enshrined on Jan. 31 at the Charlotte Convention Center, broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. For those that ever watched him race; saw him win and win and win; watched him hoist NASCAR’s cherished Cup Series championship trophy, again andRead More