NASCAR Wire Service Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   TALLADEGA, Ala. – Aric Almirola charged into the lead with four laps left in Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway and held off Elliott Sadler at the finish to win the third NASCAR XFINITY Series race of his career.   With the Ford of Darrell Wallace Jr. plowing into the inside backstretch wall behind him on the final lap, Almirola held the top spot to the finish, beating Sadler, the series leader, to the finish line by .142 seconds.   The win wasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – It took Joey Logano all afternoon to drive from the back of the field to the front in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Logano started from the rear after a post-qualifying transmission change, but when the checkered flag waved after Lap 400, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was at the head of the field, having held off a banzai charge from teammate Brad Keselowski during a 19-lap green-flag run. Logano took the lead for theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – A week off and an extra day at Bristol did nothing to break Jimmie Johnson’s momentum. Grabbing the lead from Kevin Harvick on Lap 480 of 500 in Monday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Johnson stayed out front for the final 21 laps and beat Clint Bowyer to the finish line by 1.199 seconds. The checkered flag was Johnson’s second at the .533-mile short track, his second straight this season and the 82nd of his career in the Monster EnergyRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – In Sunday’s STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, everything worked – but nothing more than Brad Keselowski’s race-winning No. 2 Ford. Yes, that’s right, a Ford. The car maker found Victory Lane at the .526-mile short track for the first time since Oct. 20, 2002, when Kurt Busch won at NASCAR’s oldest and smallest premier series track in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Keselowski and runner-up Kyle Busch swapped the lead during the final 64-lap green-flag run,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Polesitter Chase Elliott held off defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter after a restart with 12 laps left and pulled away to win Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway by 1.865 seconds. Elliott grabbed the lead from third-place finisher Christopher Bell on Lap 234, when Bell’s Toyota tangled with Austin Cindric’s Ford through Turns 1 and 2. Bell lost the top spot, and Sauter charged past into the second position before NASCAR threw the 10th andRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service Combining a history that stretches more than 65 years with a future infused with a new premier series entitlement sponsor and a next generation of stars, NASCAR unveiled a new brand identity Monday via its social and digital media platforms. In addition, NASCAR also unveiled the mark and name for its premier series, which will become the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series beginning in 2017. The new brand identity – which replaces the familiar bar mark that had been in place since 1976 – uses theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Tex. – Back from the dead. With a Lazarus act that was delayed and then shortened by rain, Carl Edwards revived his moribund championship hopes the only way he could—with a victory in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Last in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after a hard crash and a 36th-place finish last week at Martinsville, Edwards took the lead under caution on Lap 257 when his crew dashed off an 11-second pit stop. EdwardsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – After last Saturday night in Kansas, Martin Truex Jr. needed a home game, and Dover International Speedway – the site of Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (1 p.m. ET on FS1) – is the closest NASCAR track to his native New Jersey. “It’s always good to come here,” Truex said. “It’s my home track. I love coming up to this race track for a lot of reasons. Of course, being close to home is always neat, but a lot ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DOVER, Del. – With the threat of rain on Friday at Dover International Speedway, there was an urgency to opening practice and a need for speed in the session. Strong runs in qualifying trim paid off for Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will start first and second, respectively, in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism at the Monster Mile (1 p.m. ET on FS1), with positions on the grid set according to practice speeds. “I think (the weather) definitely changes the approach,”Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When Jamie McMurray pulled onto pit road for the first time in last Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway, he knew immediately the preferences he had selected for the new digital dashboard in his No. 1 Chevrolet simply weren’t going to work. There was nothing wrong with the dash itself. The problem lay in the options McMurray had picked and the way he had configured the series of lights designed to warn him about his pit road speed. “ThereRead More