NASCAR Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – In recent years, Kevin Harvick has exercised his dominance at Phoenix International Raceway by crushing the competition. In Sunday’s Good Sam 500 at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert, he maintained his mastery by a matter of inches, banging fenders with Carl Edwards in a side-by side overtime battle on the way to the finish line. After the drivers traded shots on the way to the stripe, Harvick pulled ahead to win the fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race ofRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer After Friday’s bizarre qualifying session for the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway left Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting in the 26th position, Jimmie Johnson in a back up car, and Kasey Kahne needing a new engine, all three drivers needed to rebound in Sunday’s Good Sam 500. Both Johnson and Kahne relinquished their starting positions and started in the rear per the NASCAR rulebook. When the green flag waved, both Johnson and Kahne quickly worked their way up through the field. Within 30 laps,Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor On a bright, sunny day at Phoenix International Raceway, brake heat altered the day for several drivers and teams. Two drivers — Ryan Newman and Paul Menard — who are looking at returning to the playoffs after making the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2015, took big hits to their 2016 post-season hopes Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway. Both drivers, who are teammates at Richard Childress Racing, slammed into the outside wall hard in separate accidents in the Good Sam 500. Newman, who entered the day 17th inRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Deep down you can feel a shift of power occurring among the manufacturers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ranks. Chevrolet has long had it’s foot on the throat of the competition, but weeks ago, one of the manufacturer’s strongest teams, Stewart-Haas Racing, announced that they are jumping ship after the 2016 season. But what kind of an impact will Stewart-Haas have on Ford’s attempt at catching Chevrolet as the Series’ top car brand? Ryan Blaney, who drives a Ford for the iconic Wood Brothers RacingRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AVONDALE, Ariz. – Justin Allgaier continued to build on an already strong season Saturday following a fourth place finish in the Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. Allgaier, 29, started tenth, but quickly became a factor as he marched towards the front, climbing as high as second in the middle part of the race. It was the third consecutive top 10 finish for the JR Motorsports driver, who has progressively climbed up the championship standing and now sits fourth, 12 points behind leaderRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Busch calls it a “knack.” His rivals might refer to the continuing saga of Kyle Busch at Phoenix International Raceway as absolute dominance. But the record books will show Saturday’s result in the Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 as yet another NASCAR XFINITY Series victory for the Busch juggernaut. Leading 175 of 200 laps at the one-mile race track, Busch notched his ninth victory in 20 starts at PIR. That’s the highest total number of wins by a single driverRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AVONDALE, Ariz. – For the second consecutive weekend, Brad Keselowski struggled on a Saturday. The 2012 Sprint Cup champion qualified seventh in the Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, but struggled with a daunting pace put forth by the Toyota’s of Joe Gibbs Racing, led by a victorious Kyle Busch. Keselowski managed to lead nine laps, but overall struggled at the bottom half of the top 10 before settling for ninth. The finish is a rough one for all involved as Keselowski was alsoRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AVONDALE, Ariz – Coming off a sixth place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and momentum in his corner, Ryan Blaney isn’t looking like a rookie, but rather a driver on the rise, a driver on the cusp of breaking through for his first win in the Sprint Cup Series. With the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway set to get underway Sunday, it’s important to know how this season began. The 2016 season began with refreshing news that Wood Brothers Racing, one of NASCAR’sRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AVONDALE, Ariz – Jimmie Johnson met with the media early this morning to clarify the accident he had in qualifying, which forced the team to go to a backup car for Sunday’s Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. The accident happened in Turn 2 during the final round of knockout qualifying. In an interview yesterday, Johnson could not confirm what happened, only saying “I don’t know for sure.” Johnson, 40, would later confirm through Twitter that the steering wheel came off. This morning the six-timeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Running the fastest lap of the day when it counted most, Kyle Busch paced a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the top three starting spots for Sunday’s Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway (on FOX at 3:30 p.m. ET). Busch covered the one-mile distance in 26.014 seconds (138.387 mph) in Friday’s final round of knockout qualifying, a session interrupted by Jimmie Johnson’s hard wreck against the Turn 2 wall. The Coors Light Pole Award was Busch’s first of the season (after an inspectionRead More