NASCAR Tag

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer The start to the NASCAR XFINITY Series season had been a brutal one for Justin Allgaier. The Riverton, Ill. native was caught up in one of the many wrecks in the season-opener at Daytona, completing only 28 laps and finishing 30th. The tough luck continued last weekend at Atlanta with a second straight 30th-place result. “When you’re up, you’re up, but when you’re down, you feel like you’re getting kicked in the teeth,” Allgaier said on the JRM Up Front podcast after Atlanta’s results. “We’reRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Brad Keselowski blew the first and second corners on his money lap in Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Then he blew away the rest of the field. Perhaps “blew away” is a bit of an exaggeration. Keselowski covered the 1.5-mile distance in 27.881 (193.680 mph) to edge Martin Truex Jr. (193.458 mph) for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX) by .003 seconds. The Coors Light Pole AwardRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Thanks to the unintentional generosity of the dominant driver in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, opportunistic Brad Keselowski won the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Kevin Harvick led 292 of the 325 laps at the 1.54-mile track, but a pit road speeding penalty under caution on Lap 311 sent him to the back of the field for the final restart. That gave Keselowski the chance he needed, and on Lap 319 he surged past KyleRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Kevin Harvick saved his best lap for the best possible moment on Friday afternoon, putting his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford on the pole for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX). In the third and final round of knockout qualifying for the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season, Harvick toured the 1.54-mile track in 29.118 seconds (190.398 mph) to post the fastest lap of the entire qualifying session.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Michael Waltrip had a puncher’s chance and gave it his best shot on Sunday. The two-time Daytona 500 champion announced last month that the 59th edition of ‘The Great American Race’ would be his last in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition. However in his 30th appearance of the event, the 53-year-old Kentucky native made the most the moment and drove to an impressive 8th place finish at the same track that broke his 462-race winless streak. After starting the day in 30th,Waltrip avoided disaster in theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – His car damaged in a wreck on the backstretch and held together with tape, Kurt Busch grabbed the lead on the final lap of the 59th Daytona 500 on Sunday and took the checkered flag in the Great American Race as a capstone to a checkered career that has trended upward since Busch joined Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. In a race that featured the first test of a new three-stage race format in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series—and featuredRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For Ryan Reed, there’s magic in the air at the Birthplace of Speed. Reed went to Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway in February 2015 and hadn’t won since—until Saturday night, when he held off Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran Kasey Kahne in overtime to claim victory in the Powershares QQQ 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series season opener. With the race going four laps past its scheduled distance of 120 laps, and with the series running NASCAR’s new three-stage eventRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer A new entitlement sponsor for the Cup Series, competition enhancements and the return of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the track are just a few of the major story lines heading into the Daytona 500. Motorsports Tribune spoke with Chicagoland Speedway President Scott Paddock to discuss his thoughts heading into Sunday’s Great American Race. New Entitlement Sponsor In January, Monster Energy became just the third company to serve as the entitlement sponsor in NASCAR premier series history, replacing Sprint. “I think it’s exciting for the industryRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer *Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for 24 drivers. We will release one driver preview per day over a 24-day stretch. Age: 36 Years in Cup: 11 Career Wins: 7 Biggest Accomplishment: 4 wins in 2016 A stellar 2016 season saw Martin Truex Jr. tie a career best with eight top-five finishes and set career bests with four wins, five poles and 1,809 laps led. The four wins included two of the sport’s crown jewels, the Coca-ColaRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer *Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Season for 24 drivers. We will release one driver preview per day over a 24-day stretch. Age: 38 Years in Cup: 16 Career Wins: 28 Biggest Accomplishment: 2004 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (then Nextel Cup Series) champion Fresh off of a season that saw him break an all-time record for consistency and an offseason that brought a wedding with wife Ashley, Kurt Busch appears to be in a good position heading into aRead More