NASCAR Wire Service Tag

Courtesy of NASCAR Wire Service NEWTON, Iowa — Last week, a blink-of-an-eye moment weighed heavily on William Byron. Saturday, the driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet lifted his head and shouted out a pent-up yelp that formed the suitable soundtrack the rookie’s first career NASCAR XFINITY Series victory. “I feel it all kind of comes around in racing and last week we were so close,” said Byron, who finished a mere .012 seconds behind Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin last Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. “You’ve gotRead More

By: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – Two weeks ago at Dover, Kyle Larson took a painful master class in restarts from Professor Jimmie Johnson. In Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Larson graduated with high honors, using a series of exceptional restarts to win his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season and his second in a row, dating to last August, at the two-mile track in the Irish Hills. At Dover, Larson lost a race in which he had the dominantRead More

NASCAR Wire Service ST. LOUIS, Mo. – “Happy Father’s Day!” a crew member shouted at team owner Joe Nemechek Saturday night as track workers put together the Victory Lane stage behind them. Nemechek had already passed out a half dozen hugs and handshakes to other members of the team he owns, NEMCO Motorsports. “Incredible,” was all Nemechek could muster in response after watching his son, John Hunter Nemechek, pass Matt Crafton late in the race and win the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series Drivin’ for Linemen 200 at Gateway MotorsportsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – The rookie drove like a veteran in Saturday’s Irish Hills 250 at Michigan International Speedway, but in the end, the veteran took the rookie to school. Side-drafting off the final corner, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Denny Hamlin pulled ahead of Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender William Byron and won a drag race to the finish line to win his first NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “We were battlingRead More

By: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – Christopher Bell, a self-described “dirt track kid” from Oklahoma, continued to show he’s pretty good on pavement Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Bell edged Chase Briscoe after a side-by-side, closing-laps battle to win the 21st annual winstaronlinegaming.com 400 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Bell, who started 21st in the 28-truck field, won under caution after a white-flag wreck involving Timothy Peters, Austin Self and Johnny Sauter on TMS’ repaved and re-profiled 1.5-mile oval. A 22-year-old native of Norman, Oklahoma,Read More

By: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – The man who once made his parents stop at Hardee’s because he thought it was Cale Yarborough’s race shop pulled even with his childhood hero in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway. Getting the jump on Kyle Larson on an overtime restart at the Monster Mile, Johnson crossed the overtime line on the backstretch moments before a multi-car wreck brought out the 15th caution of the race and froze the field with Johnson in the lead and aRead More

By: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – Saturday’s One Main Financial 200 ended as it started – as a two-man show with polesitter Kyle Larson on top. Larson and Ryan Blaney were in a class by themselves at Dover International Speedway in the 11th NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season. In winning for the third time in six starts this season, Larson led 137 of the 200 laps to Blaney’s 28. In fact, Larson now has three wins, a second and a third this season for an averageRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Armed with a new crew chief and a gas tank that held just enough fuel to get him to the end of 600 miles with less than a second to spare, Austin Dillon won the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series of his career and put the vaunted No. 3 Chevrolet back in Victory Lane for the first time since 2000. Working for the first time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with crew chief Justin Alexander, Dillon was one ofRead More

By: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Kevin Harvick was between a rock and a hard place with three laps left in Saturday’s Hisense 4K TV 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Ryan Blaney took full advantage of the veteran driver’s conundrum. Passing Harvick for the lead after a restart on Lap 198 and 200, Blaney crossed the finish line .244 seconds ahead of the driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Blaney had pushed Harvick to the front past eventual third-place finisher Austin Dillon on aRead More

After squeaking out the fastest lap in the second round of Thursday night’s knockout qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick left no doubt when it counted. Touring the 1.5-mile track in 27.918 seconds (193.424 mph) to post the fastest lap of the day in the final round, Harvick claimed his first Coors Light Pole Award for the Coca-Cola 600 and his second overall at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet will lead the field to green in NASCAR’s longest race on Sunday afterRead More