NASCAR Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Brett Moffitt will pilot the No. 11 Toyota Tundra for Red Horse Racing in Thursday night’s Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway. The 23-year-old former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year is subbing for Matt Tifft, who recently underwent brain surgery. “Obviously, we’re thinking of Matt and can’t wait for him to return, so we’re sending him our best wishes and we hope to see him back at the track soon,” Moffitt said in a statement. “I hate that it’s underRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Brad Keselowski had an excellent solution for the massive wrecks that scrambled the finishing order of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. He stayed ahead of all of them. Leading 115 of 161 laps in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, Keselowski sped away from his pursuers after a restart in overtime and posted his third victory of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season in thoroughly convincing fashion. The victory was Keselowski’s first at Daytona andRead More

By David Westergreen, Fan Column The first NASCAR race I ever watched was the 2001 Daytona 500. While it is a race well remembered for its last lap, what is often forgotten is the 49 lead changes among 14 drivers and underdog winner. Performances by Ward Burton and Sterling Marlin bringing Dodge back to the forefront for the first time since 1979 at Daytona are lost to the memories of Dale Earnhardt. This was my first experience as a fan. I did not see any one of Dale’s 76 winsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Aric Almirola won his second NASCAR XFINITY Series race by much less than a nose. But to the driver of the No. 98 Fred Biagi-owned Ford, that was a vast improvement over his first victory in the series—when he wasn’t even in the car when the race ended. In Friday night’s Subway Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Almirola was inches ahead of Justin Allgaier off the final corner in overtime when NASCAR called the eighth caution of the raceRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Is Tony Stewart having fun yet? In his last year of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, Stewart came to Sonoma Racing asserting on Friday he wasn’t having much fun driving a Sprint Cup car. That all changed in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile road course, where Stewart bulldozed Denny Hamlin into the outside wall in Turn 11, executing a dramatic last-lap pass for his first victory since June 2, 2013 at Dover. In the three years since that victory,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Carl Edwards ran a lightning-fast lap in the first round of Saturday’s knockout qualifying at Sonoma Raceway—and it worried him. “After that first lap—I have to be honest—I sat here and thought, ‘Man, I’m really going to screw this up on the second one,’ ‘cause the first one was really good, but it held on for the pole, and so I’m really excited.” Edwards toured the 1.99-mile road course in 1 minute, 14.392 seconds (96.301 mph) in the first round andRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Since when is finishing last a good omen? It could be for Kyle Busch, who finished 43rd at Michigan last year before scoring the breakthrough victory at Sonoma that propelled him into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and ultimately to the series championship. A year later, Busch comes to Sonoma fresh from another last-place run at Michigan—40th this time because of the smaller Sprint Cup starting grid under the Charter system instituted this season. Last year, Busch missed theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – As proficient as Kyle Larson has been on high-banked ovals, you might be tempted to discount his chances of getting his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory on a road course. Then there’s his lack of experience at venues like Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International. Interestingly, Larson credits his dirt-track background with the ability to get a quick handle on road courses. “I don’t have hardly any road course experience,” Larson acknowledged on Friday at Sonoma. “My first road courseRead More

By Chris Knight, NASCAR Wire Service NEWTON, Iowa – Following his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the season last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender William Byron used a late race restart and three-wide pass to charge from fourth to first to win Saturday night’s Speediatrics 200 at Iowa Speedway. Byron, driving the No. 9 Liberty University Toyota Tundra, swiped the lead from Cole Custer on a restart with nine laps remaining, but a caution six laps from the finish saw theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – In the second race that featured NASCAR’s new lower-downforce package, Joey Logano lowered the boom—again. There was one major difference between Joey Logano’s victory in Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway and his win May 21 in the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte. This one counted in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings and punched Logano’s ticket into the Chase. But it remained abundantly clear that Team Penske already has a handle on the aerodynamic configuration the sanctioning body isRead More