NASCAR Wire Service Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – There was an air of inevitability to Kyle Busch’s closing run in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. Busch was tracking down race leader Ryan Blaney after restarting fourth on Lap 239 of the fourth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Running in Blaney’s wake for 37 laps, Busch finally made the winning pass on Lap 296 of 312 and nursed his car to the finish line. Busch’s third victory at the one-mile track and his 52nd in theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – How did Kyle Busch win Saturday’s IK9 Service Dog 200 at ISM Raceway? Poof! His closest pursuers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Busch was out front on Lap 130 when the engine in the No. 01 Chevrolet of Stephen Leicht exploded in front of Justin Allgaier and pole winner Christopher Bell, who were running second and third at the time. Enveloped in a Days-of-Thunder-style cloud of smoke, Allgaier spun in the fluid from Leicht’s car, hittingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Ryan Blaney ended the day the way he started it—with the fastest car at ISM Raceway. After leading opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice with the quickest lap of the day (141.716 mph), Blaney put his No. 12 Team Penske Ford on the pole for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at the one-mile track. Blaney covered the distance in 25.480 seconds (141.287 mph) in the final round of knockout qualifying to outpace Chase Elliott (140.045 mph) by a comfortable .203 seconds. The BuschRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – It was a victory for Joey Logano. It was a victory for Team Penske. It was a victory for NASCAR’s new higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package, which debuted in full flower on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In a pitched battle between teammates, Logano held off Brad Keselowski on the final lap of the Pennzoil 400 to score the second straight victory for Team Penske and the second straight for the new Ford Mustang, which was introduced into the Monster Energy NASCARRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – It took successful a gamble, a serendipitous caution and a couple of overtimes for Las Vegas native Kyle Busch to win a second NASCAR Xfinity Series race on his home track, but Busch beat the odds in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300. A lap down at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel, Busch rallied to win his 93rd Xfinity race, extending his series record and bringing his victory total across NASCAR’s three national series to 197.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Little would make Kyle Busch happier than a three-race weekend sweep in his home town. The driver of the No. 51 Toyota took the first step on Friday night, winning the Strat 200 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. For the second straight week, Busch swept both preliminary stages before taking the checkered flag. In his 2019 series debut last Friday at Atlanta, Busch broke a tie with NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. for mostRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Kevin Harvick knew he didn’t have the fastest car for Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But Harvick also predicted that the fastest car wouldn’t win the pole for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at the 1.5-mile track (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He was right. When the cars crossed the stripe as the seconds ticked down in the final round, it was Harvick who had the pole-winning lap at 180.517 mph (29.914 seconds), edging DaytonaRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Too sick to start practice on Saturday, Brad Keselowski found the cure to what ailed him in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Still suffering from the effects of stomach flu, Keselowski held off a charging—and frustrated—Martin  Truex Jr. in the closing circuits of the 325-lap Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and powered his No. 2 Team Penske Ford across the finish line .218 seconds ahead of Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The victory was Keselowski’sRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – As darkness enveloped Atlanta Motor Speedway, and rain pelted the windshield of his No. 51 Toyota, Kyle Busch patiently waited for word he had sole possession of the all-time victory lead in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. The record-setting win wouldn’t be quite that easy. After the red flag for rain, NASCAR restarted the race, rather than calling it. Five laps later, after parrying a determined charge from former series champion Johnny Sauter, Busch took the checkered Saturday’s Ultimate Tailgating 200,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – To hear Christopher Bell describe his race in Victory Lane, you’d never know that he had just won it. “I felt pretty sloppy there as a driver sometimes,” Bell said after leading 143 of 163 laps in winning Saturday’s Rinnai 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “Running the yellow line (at the bottom of the track) is so hard. “I don’t know, I would just struggle on the longer runs there.” Struggling, of course, is a relative thing. AfterRead More