NASCAR Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – Daniel Suarez was speechless—and justifiably so. The Mexican driver had just passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for the lead on the next-to-last lap and held on to win Saturday’s Menards 250 presented by Valvoline NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Michigan International Speedway by .280 seconds over the man who sets the standard in the series. The first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series race, Suarez overcame a pit road speeding penalty assessed on Lap 29 of 125Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – For more than a third of active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, there will be no rest for the weary. One driver from each Cup organization is eligible to participate in a test of newly repaved Kentucky Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. The test is a continuation of NASCAR’s proving-out process for a new lower-downforce competition package earmarked for 2017. Last year, as the sanctioning body solidified the rules for 2016, races at Kentucky and Darlington were used as benchmarks forRead More

By John Sturbin, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – Teenager William Byron overhauled Matt Crafton with five laps remaining and drove to victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rattlesnake 400 Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Byron, of Kyle Busch Motorsports, posted his second series victory at the expense of Crafton, who dominated the 167-lapper after brushing the Turn 3 wall 11 laps into the night. Byron earned his breakthrough series victory earlier this season at Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile quad-oval similar to TMS. Byron, 18, isRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – After two frustrating weeks of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying, Joey Logano learned the drill. Posting the fastest speeds in both the second and final rounds of Friday’s knockout time trials at Michigan International Speedway, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 (1 p.m. ET on FS1) at the two-mile track. In the previous two weekends, at Charlotte and Pocono, Logano led the first two rounds of qualifying but failed to close the deal in the decisive third round. OnRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – After Friday’s opening 85-minute NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session at Michigan International Speedway, there was strong consensus among drivers as to the lower-downforce aerodynamic package in place for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 (at 1 p.m. ET on FS1). In a word, the new configuration was “challenging.” That’s exactly what it was supposed to be. “Speeds are blazing fast down the straightaway but quite a bit slower in the corner, and that has been interesting,” said 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski. “It’sRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service A rare exception as a driver from outside of NASCAR’s developmental hotbeds, Brad Keselowski calls Rochester Hills, Michigan home. Decorated already – even with his prime years potentially still in front of him – Keselowski, 32, boasts the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship and 19 career wins. One achievement the No. 2 Team Penske driver would dearly like to add to his resume is a win in his native state. Keselowski gets the chance to visit Victory Lane beneath the roar of his hometown fansRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service After winning at Eldora last year while running a partial NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule, Christopher Bell entered this season with a good amount of hype. The 21-year-old Kyle Busch Motorsports driver started the season off slow, with a high finish of 16th (Daytona) in his first three races, but has turned his performance around with showings of fourth (Kansas), third (Dover) and eighth (Charlotte) in his last three contests. Bell will attempt to continue his recent success in Friday’s Rattlesnake 400 at Texas MotorRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Working with a substitute crew chief, and saving enough fuel to get to the finish line and complete a celebratory burnout, Kurt Busch won Monday’s rain-delayed Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway. Busch won for the first time this year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and for the third time at Pocono, a 2.5-mile speedway featuring three widely different corners. And Busch claimed his 28th victory in NASCAR’s premier series with race engineer John Klausmeier leading theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Jimmie Johnson saw his chances of winning the Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 at Pocono Raceway end after wrecking with less than 40 laps to go. The incident happened on one of the many frantic restarts as Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet slid in Turn 1, then clipped the rear of Brad Keselowski before making heavy contact with the inside wall. Johnson, a three-time winner at Pocono, has finished outside the top 20 in three of the last five races, with his only notable result beingRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The NASCAR has postponed its Sprint Cup Series race, the Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 at Pocono Raceway, due to persistent rain. Originally set for a 1 p.m. ET start time on Sunday, the race became delayed as mist continued to fall on the track and NASCAR officials were never able find a dry window. The new start time will be Monday, June 6 at noon ET with television coverage on FS1 and radio broadcasts on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The most recent event atRead More