NASCAR Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Kyle Larson, who was without his full-time crew chief Chad Johnston this week, because of a lug nut violation at Pocono Raceway has failed post-race inspection following the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Larson came home with an impressive third-place finish, but according to NASCAR his No. 42 Target Chevrolet, prepared this week by interim crew chief Philip Surgen, fell outside of the tolerance on the laser scanner following the event. A NASCAR Spokesperson states that any penalties stemming from this violation willRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – In the second race that featured NASCAR’s new lower-downforce package, Joey Logano lowered the boom—again. There was one major difference between Joey Logano’s victory in Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway and his win May 21 in the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte. This one counted in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings and punched Logano’s ticket into the Chase. But it remained abundantly clear that Team Penske already has a handle on the aerodynamic configuration the sanctioning body isRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor I’m sure I sound like a broken record by now, but Kyle Larson is closing in on finding victory lane in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  Racing this week without his crew chief, Chad Johnston (suspended after a lug nut violation in Pocono) Larson qualified seventh for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan, and he was in contention all day long thanks to some great work on restarts. “My restarts were pretty good,” Larson said after the race. “You’ve got to have a good guy behindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Jimmie Johnson had a decent day going in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan. He started from the 16th spot, but by the mid-point of the race, Johnson had emerged as a solid top-10 car. He even led four laps during a cycle of green flag stops from lap 99 to lap 102. But at lap 162, things began to come undone for the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. Trevor Bayne and Johnson were battling for position, when Bayne washed up the track and intoRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It’s been an odd season for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Usually, if you’re an Earnhardt fan, you circle the restrictor plate races and Michigan on the schedule as places where the No. 88 is expected to contend for victory. At Daytona and Talladega earlier this year, Earnhardt just lost control of his car and crashed out of the events. Sunday on lap 60 at Michigan Earnhardt suffered a similar fate as he slammed into the outside retaining wall at the exit of turn two. This crashRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – Daniel Suarez was speechless—and justifiably so. The Mexican driver had just passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for the lead on the next-to-last lap and held on to win Saturday’s Menards 250 presented by Valvoline NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Michigan International Speedway by .280 seconds over the man who sets the standard in the series. The first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series race, Suarez overcame a pit road speeding penalty assessed on Lap 29 of 125Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – For more than a third of active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, there will be no rest for the weary. One driver from each Cup organization is eligible to participate in a test of newly repaved Kentucky Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. The test is a continuation of NASCAR’s proving-out process for a new lower-downforce competition package earmarked for 2017. Last year, as the sanctioning body solidified the rules for 2016, races at Kentucky and Darlington were used as benchmarks forRead More

By John Sturbin, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – Teenager William Byron overhauled Matt Crafton with five laps remaining and drove to victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rattlesnake 400 Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Byron, of Kyle Busch Motorsports, posted his second series victory at the expense of Crafton, who dominated the 167-lapper after brushing the Turn 3 wall 11 laps into the night. Byron earned his breakthrough series victory earlier this season at Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile quad-oval similar to TMS. Byron, 18, isRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It’s been almost four full seasons since Tony Stewart — one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers — reached victory lane. Stewart is in the midst of his final season on the circuit, and things as you may know by now, started off on the wrong foot after a severe back injury just weeks before the start of the season sidelined the driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet for nine races. If Stewart is wanting a storybook finish to his incredible NASCAR career, he will need toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – After two frustrating weeks of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying, Joey Logano learned the drill. Posting the fastest speeds in both the second and final rounds of Friday’s knockout time trials at Michigan International Speedway, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 (1 p.m. ET on FS1) at the two-mile track. In the previous two weekends, at Charlotte and Pocono, Logano led the first two rounds of qualifying but failed to close the deal in the decisive third round. OnRead More