NASCAR Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – Blake Koch’s championship hopes took a hit Friday afternoon at the start of opening practice for Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway. The 31-year-old Florida native was on his first lap at the 1.5-mile oval when the car veered right and hit the Turn 2 wall and severely damaging his No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet. “Something broke on the car,” Kock said about the incident. The damage was enough to warrant the team to bring out the backupRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — There was a bit of a rift between the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates after last week’s finish in Martinsville. In the closing laps, Jimmie Johnson held the lead, but there was a trio of JGR cars chasing him for the win. Matt Kenseth had been the dominant driver all day long in Martinsville as he led a race-high 176 laps, but he found himself trapped behind his teammate Denny Hamlin in the closing laps. Hamlin was fast on Sunday as well, asRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — The weekend at Texas Motor Speedway got off to a rough start for one of the eight drivers still in championship contention in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase. Kyle Busch slammed into the wall coming to the start finish line to begin his first lap of practice. The damage from the contact with the wall was severe enough that Busch is now relegated to a backup car for the remainder of the weekend. “Unfortunate there with our practice crash that we had, kindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Rain washed out a pair of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice sessions on Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway, which meant Friday morning’s session would be the only chance drivers and teams would have to get their trucks tuned in for Friday night’s Striping Technology 350. Christopher Bell, one of the six remaining Chase contenders, paced the session with a laptime of 29.580 seconds, which equates to 182.556 miles-per-hour. Tyler Reddick was second-fastest, while Matt Tifft was third-quick in the session.Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Matt Tifft, who ran a part-time schedule in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series in 2016, has been announced as a full-time driver for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series for the 2017 season. Tifft is a talented young driver, and he became a headline this season for something other than his driving abilities as he had to miss three months after a benign tumor was discovered in his brain while he was being evaluated for painRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Michael Annett has struggled mightily since taking the leap from NASCAR Xfinity Series competition to Sprint Cup Series racing with HScott Motorsports in 2014. In 103 starts in NASCAR’s premier series, Annett has yet to record a top-10 finish. Annett will now jump back down to the Xfinity Series for the 2017 season to run for one of the most potent teams in the garage area — JR Motorsports. The team announced that Annett will move to their No. 5 teamRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — We are closing in on the final round of the inaugural Truck Series championship Chase, and one of the biggest threats for the championship with three races remaining is a rookie Phenom — William Byron. Byron, driving the No. 9 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports, has set the world on fire this season breaking all-time rookie records with an impressive six victories so far in 2016. In an interview with Motorsports Tribune on Thursday, Byron admitted that he never expected toRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor For one of 2016’s championship contenders — Kevin Harvick — the 2017 season is already taking shape. Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing announced in February that they would be moving from Chevrolet to Ford for the ’17 season. After a press release from Anheuser Busch on Thursday, the sponsorship picture is looking full for the No. 4 team. Anheuser Busch’s Busch Beer brand will adorn Harvick’s car for a total of 16 events in 2017, which is an increase of four races from 2016. The BeerRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It has been a dominant season for Toyota Racing, and Joe Gibbs Racing in particular. But after the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville, one of the team’s four drivers — Carl Edwards — finds himself in an uphill battle if he wants to advance to the Sprint Cup Series championship race in Homestead four weeks from now. Edwards started the day from the seventh position, but his day got off to a rocky start as he was busted for speeding on pit road during hisRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – In a sense, Chase Elliott comes to Talladega Superspeedway with the greatest amount of freedom, simply because he has the largest challenge to overcome and the narrowest path to do so. After unfortunate results at Charlotte and Kansas, the Sunoco Rookie of the Year points leader is 12th in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, 25 points behind Joey Logano and Austin Dillon, who are tied for eighth. After the Hellman’s 500 on Sunday (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN),Read More