NASCAR Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Three races into the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Larson is starting to assert himself as a bona fide championship contender. At 24 years old, the driver in his fourth full-time season on the circuit can’t even legally rent a car at most rental companies, but he is driving like a seasoned pro so far this year. Sunday in the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Larson rolled off from the fifth starting spot, and on the first run of theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – In a race whose aftermath left hometown driver Kyle Busch with a bloody forehead, Martin Truex Jr. passed the faltering car of Brad Keselowski on the white-flag lap and cruised to a sweep of all three stages in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As Truex approached the checkered flag to win a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time this season and the first time at LVMS, Joey Logano’s Ford slid up into Kyle Busch’sRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The second Stage of the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway played out the exact same way that Stage 1 did. A late caution gave the field an opportunity to hit pit road for fuel and tires, and just like with Stage 1 two competitors stayed on track to gamble for championship points. This time the drivers who stayed out were seven-time Series champion Jimmie Johnson and 2004 Series champ Kurt Busch. Just like in Segment 1 tires were proven to be of the utmost value.Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor There were varying strategies at the conclusion of Stage 1 of the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas. A caution with 10 laps remaining in the stage gave the field an opportunity to pit for tires and fuel before the break for Stage 2. However, Joey Logano (third spot at the time of the caution) and Jamie McMurray (11th at the time of the caution) opted to roll the dice and stay on the track in hopes that they could gain championship points. When the green flag cameRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway wasn’t a drag race, but lane choice proved critical to Joey Logano’s 28th NASCAR XFINITY Series victory in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Choosing the top side for a restart on Lap 196 of 200, after Ty Dillon’s spin on Lap 192 necessitated the ninth and final caution of the afternoon, Logano cleared Kyle Larson off Turn 4 after an intense side-by-side battle and pulled away to win by .602 seconds.Read More

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 Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor A.J. Allmendinger had a decent start to the 2017 season going after finishing third in the Daytona 500, and surviving for a 26th place effort in Atlanta, but when his car made it back to the garage for post-race inspection NASCAR found that his No. 47 Chevrolet SS had three lug nuts that were not properly fastened. NASCAR announced Atlanta penalties Wednesday, and Allmendinger and his No. 47 team have been docked 35 championship driver and owner points. His crew chief Randall Burnett has alsoRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor He didnt receive much media fanfare in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but Cole Whitt did an incredible job finishing 20th in his second race with TriStar Motorsports. The little team that could, which has 30 full-time employees and fields an Xfinity Series team in addition to the No. 72 car that Whitt drives, has now begun their season — their first in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series since 2013 — with consecutive top-20 finishes. Whitt, who started 37th,Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Sunday at Atlanta, Kevin Harvick led a staggering 292 laps of the 325 that were completed in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. However a costly error by the 41-year old driver on pit road with 16 laps remaining in the event relegated the 2014 Series champion to a disappointing ninth place finish. Harvick, however, showed grace in defeat when he was interviewed following his latest non-winning dominating effort at the 1.5-mile speedway in Hampton, Georgia. After the race, you could say Harvick took theRead More