NASCAR Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Dirty air plagued Cole Custer’s aspirations of being a true contender for the win after leading 47 out of the first 48 laps, and settled for a ninth-place result in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, highlighted by a late-race run-in with Brandon Jones. Just like at Atlanta, rain cancelled qualifying and the grid was set by last season’s owners points. This meant Custer would start in first for the second straight race. Once the green flag dropped, Custer right away, but theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Justin Allgaier’s strong start to the young NASCAR Xfinity Series season was halted after failing to finish Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway due to an engine failure past halfway, forcing him to bring his No. 7 Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet Camaro to the garage after 119 laps, and ended his streak of three straight top-fives at the 1.5-mile circuit. Allgaier had worked his way from restarting 11th to start off the final stage to the fifth spot until reporting to his No.Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Brett Moffitt gave it a valiant effort to cancel “The Kyle Busch Show” during Friday’s Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but it wasn’t meant to be as he finished second to the now 53-time series winner after overcoming a disastrous pit stop at the end of Stage 1. The defending Truck Series champion came into the pits behind Stage 1 winner Busch to be serviced for four tires and fuel, but the air hose being caught underneath the right rear of Moffitt’s No. 24Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer A complete afterthought in last week’s Daytona 500, Martin Truex, Jr. showed up to race with a strong, but disgruntling runner-up effort during Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, leading 4 of 325 laps. The thought of scoring his first top-five at Joe Gibbs Racing was irrelevant to Truex, who voiced his displeasure about lapped cars, specifically Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, who he felt that by running the preferred bottom line, it cost him from beating Brad Keselowski, who went on to becomeRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Johnny Sauter’s short run mastery didn’t panned out when it counted most during Saturday’s Ultimate Tailgating 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing second to Kyle Busch, who surpassed Ron Hornaday, Jr. as the all-time winner in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. Just barely over a week into his second stint at ThorSport Racing, the series fifth-winningest driver pushed No. 13 Tendal Heal Ford F-150 to its limit throughout the mist-plagued 130-lap race, even capitalizing on Busch’s loose wheel to take the lead on Lap 54Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Air hose woes proved to be costly for Tyler Reddick, who was just getting the run on eventual race winner Christopher Bell before the final caution came out, and had to settle for fifth in Saturday’s Rinnai 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In the closing laps, Reddick’s No. 2 Pinnacle Financial Partners Chevrolet Camaro was making a hard charge on the bottom, to the point of clipping the apron in the corners at times, just to catch the dominant Bell and started looking like Reddick wasRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kyle Busch’s 14th attempt to capture the Harley J. Earl Trophy will have to wait another year after going from leading in the closing stages to finishing second in Sunday’s Daytona 500, leading 34 of 207 laps. On Lap 199, Hamlin ended Busch’s time out in front just as the field was wrecking behind him in Turn 3, collecting seven cars. The plan for Hamlin was to race and staying out, which Busch followed suit. Two restarts later, it was about to goRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. –  Shattered dreams and a wad of junked cars surrounded the garage area after an 21-car crash on Lap 191 brought out the first of two red flags during Sunday’s 61st Daytona 500. Heading into Turn 3, Matt DiBenedetto, who led a race-high 49 laps, was running in fourth when contact by Paul Menard caused a wicked ripple effect that went from a fierce and clean race, to an absolute barn burner. As cars tried to avoid the mess, some weren’t as fortunateRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Modern day superspeedway racing has gained the stigma of being a crap shoot style of competition and a trend fans have grown to be accustomed of watching, particularly the past two Daytona 500s. Whether it’s the addition of stage racing or drivers being impatient, everyone has an opinion regarding the matter, but one thing is certain. Sunday’s Daytona 500 is the final race of the old package, but the concern of becoming victims of being collected in the big one still loomsRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Six years ago, Michael Annett’s career drastically changed at Daytona International Speedway when a broken sternum sidelined him 6-8 weeks, ending his bid of contending for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, where in the previous season, he finished fifth in points. Ever since that gloomy afternoon, Annett’s view of the sport didn’t change but his performances created a whirlwind of struggles in NASCAR. Scoring only two top-fives in 91 Xfinity Series starts, numbers that’s undesirable especially the equipment he runs for whichRead More