NASCAR Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Martin Truex Jr. has had a good start to the 2016 season, but he is still seeking his first win of the year as the Sprint Cup Series invades Texas Motor Speedway. Truex led the first practice session of the weekend at the 1.5-mile speedway, and in his media availability he said that expects a great race this weekend with NASCAR’s new lower downforce package. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s similar to what we’ve seen in Atlanta and California,”Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor AJ Allmendinger is in the midst of a hot streak. The driver of the No. 47 Chevrolet overcame numerous obstacles to finish eighth at Auto Club Speedway a couple of races ago, and then this past week he was battling Kyle Busch for the win en route to a second-place finish at one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks — Martinsville Speedway. Following his best effort of the season, Allmendinger was ecstatic. “It was a lot of fun.  I passed Jimmie Johnson like five times at Martinsville. ThatRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – With intense on-track battles taking place over the past few seasons, six-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson admitted at Texas Motor Speedway on Thursday that Kevin Harvick is on his radar. Johnson, 40, has finished ahead of Harvick eight times since the 2014 season, the year Harvick moved to Stewart-Haas Racing and teamed with crew chief Rodney Childers. Although Harvick has scored nine wins and 53 top 10’s in 78 appearances with SHR, the 2014 Sprint Cup champion has had aRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer For this week’s edition of Climbing the Ladder, Seth Eggert sat down with NEMCO Motorsports driver John Hunter Nemechek. John Hunter is the 18-year-old son of NASCAR driver and team owner Joe Nemechek. John Hunter drives the family owned No.8 Chevrolet Silverado. John Hunter was the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Most Popular driver, and is campaigning for the 2016 Camping World Truck Series Championship. Seth Eggert: What made you decide to follow in your Father, Joe Nemechek’s and your Uncle, John Nemechek’s footsteps?Read More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer With the Texas Motor Speedway celebrating its 20th anniversary, there is good reason to reflect on the great racing that the venerable 1.5 mile oval has given us over the years. In looking back, I often wonder about the one race that wasn’t held. The 2001 Firestone Firehawk 600 for the CART Series. When the Texas Motor Speedway was still under construction, track manager and promoter, Eddie Gossage, had a vision that would see the new race track host all of the major American racingRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service Don’t expect Daniel Suárez to concede his spot atop the NASCAR XFINITY Series standings any time soon. Through his first five races, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver boasts a higher average finish (4.8) than the last five NXS driver champions through the first five contests in their respective championship-winning seasons: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 6.2 (2012); Chris Buescher, 7.8 (2015); Stenhouse, 8.2 (2011); Chase Elliott, 8.8 (2014) and Austin Dillon, 9.8 (2013). In addition, Suárez’s 112.8 driver rating was only outpaced by Stenhouse in his 2012 title-winningRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service At first glance, it’s easy to perceive Matt Kenseth’s start to the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season as “slow.” The No. 20 Toyota driver only has one top-10 finish in the first six races, one year after amassing five victories and 19 top-10 showings. “The results have been disappointing, but we’ve ran pretty well,” said Kenseth, who ranks 14th in the series points standings. “We’ve been in contention in a couple races. Neither of them worked out. We had fast enough cars, if all ofRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer After three races into the 2016 Camping World Truck Series Season, several drivers have already risen to the top as contenders for the championship. With Kyle Busch’s return to the series and win at Martinsville Speedway, and plans to run more races throughout the year, the window is slowly closing. With 13 races left in the regular season, there is still plenty of time for drivers to make it into the first ever Chase for the Camping World Truck Series Championship. A few changes haveRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief An eventful STP 500 from Martinsville Speedway has been settled and Kyle Busch is the man that grabbed the traditional grandfather clock after holding off AJ Allmendinger in the closing stages. Here are the key topics coming from Sunday’s race at NASCAR’s oldest track. 1) Impatience from start to finish The common theme is patience early and then to take everything late. That certainly wasn’t the case on Sunday, from the drop of the green flag bumpers found each other with drivers more than willing toRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Richard Childress Racing had a phenomenal effort in the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, with their trio of drivers all securing top 10 finishes, led by Austin Dillon in fourth. The weekend began with Paul Menard qualifying fourth, Ryan Newman fifth and Dillon 29th. At the start, Menard pushed his No. 27 Libman/Menard’s Chevrolet SS to the front early, leading 10 laps and looking like a contender for the win. Newman also hung among the leaders, but as the race went on the No.Read More