NASCAR Tag

By Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service Charlotte, N.C. – Joe Gibbs knows how difficult it is to repeat as champion. Although he won three NFL Super Bowls as coach of the Washington Redskins, none of those titles came in consecutive seasons. “In pro sports, I think the hardest thing is to stay up (on top) because once you have a great year everybody else is pointing or looking at you,” said Gibbs, speaking on “Toyota Tuesday”, the first stop on the 34th annual Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented byRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Let’s cut to the Chase. Starting this year, the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series will use elimination-based playoff formats to determine their respective champions, just as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has done for the past two seasons. According to NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France, the new approach not only builds on the resounding success of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but it also provides a training ground for drivers who ultimately will compete at NASCAR’s highestRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service To say 2016 will be a year of enormous change in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing is to understate the issue. NASCAR is rolling out a new competition package in its foremost division, one that features lower downforce. The aim is to make the Sprint Cup cars more difficult to drive, which in turn will put more control in the hands of the drivers. You’ll see dramatic changes on the track. Chase Elliott, a 20-year-old rookie, succeeds icon Jeff Gordon behind the wheel ofRead More

Seven-Race Chase Formats to be Implemented in 2016 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 19, 2016) – Using the overwhelming success of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format introduced in 2014 as a guidepost, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France announced today the implementation of a playoff system in both the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. On the heels of a 2015 Chase that saw the highest season-finale viewership in nearly a decade, record-breaking page views on NASCAR.com and unparalleled volume on social media, the NASCARRead More

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Jan. 18, 2016) – Fresh off a 10-race schedule in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) with JR Motorsports (JRM), Cole Custer will embark on a full 23-race slate in JRM’s No. 00 Chevy Silverado in 2016. The soon-to-be-18-year-old California native has 19 career starts in parts of two seasons in the series, all with Haas Automation sponsorship. Last season, Custer showed flashes of brilliance from the start, qualifying second at Martinsville in his debut before finishing 16th. His third start of the season, at Gateway InternationalRead More

By Owen A. Kearns, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Some label Terry Labonte the NASCAR premier series’ least flamboyant champion. Perhaps it just seemed that way, when measuring Labonte alongside such colorful contemporaries as NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip. His calm, quiet demeanor at least partially explains why Labonte became known as “The Iceman.” The Corpus Christi, Texas driver may not have personified flash, but Labonte got the job done. Labonte won his first of two championships in 1984 and figuratively fell off theRead More

By Owen A. Kearns, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Curtis Turner lived life and stock car racing in the same manner – at full throttle. A bootlegger at age nine, the Virginia native was a self-proclaimed millionaire at 20 and made and lost several fortunes while becoming one of the greatest drivers – and most colorful characters – of NASCAR’s pioneer era. He won a lot but also wrecked just as often. His parties were legendary and lengthy, as were Turner’s on and off-track antics in rental carsRead More

By Owen A. Kearns, NASCAR Wire Service In a different era, in which stock cars driven to and past their limits didn’t break with frequency, there’s no telling how many races or championships Bobby Isaac might have won. Isaac, the 1970 NASCAR premier series champion, won 37 of his 309 starts. But he was a DNF – did not finish – 129 times. His 49 poles rank 10th all-time, with 19 – a still-standing, single-season mark – coming in 1969. Only 38 drivers have won 19 or more poles inRead More

By Owen A. Kearns, NASCAR Wire Service There’s a possibility, albeit remote, that O. Bruton Smith could be entering the NASCAR Hall of Fame as a race car driver instead of a race promoter extraordinaire. Smith, at age 17, bought a race car and decided to be a professional driver. “One time, I actually beat (NASCAR Hall of Famers) Buck Baker and Joe Weatherly,” Smith said in a May 7, 2005 interview with Motorsport.com. “So I knew when I beat them I could be a contender, right?” Smith’s mother, however,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – I first saw Jeff Gordon race in November of 1992, but I barely noticed him. My eyes were glued to the television for the final race of the season, but my interest had nothing to do with Gordon’s debut in NASCAR’s premier series. No, the primary focus was the three-way battle for the championship between Bill Elliott, Davey Allison and privateer Alan Kulwicki. And, oh, yes, there was the small matter of King Richard Petty taking the green flag in aRead More