Paul Menard Tag

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer Three races, two dominant wins, leave Ford Performance on top of the three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series manufacturers. Ford Fusions took six of the top-10 finishing positions in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube. Stewart Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick took the victory, his 100th career win across NASCAR’s top three series. Prior to the season, many expected Ford Performance to be at a disadvantage. This was based on the domination of Toyota’s 2018 Camry last season and the brand-new Camaro ZL1 for Chevrolet.Read More

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer In a Daytona 500 that turned into a game of ‘survival of the fittest,’ Paul Menard survived to finish inside the top-10. It was Menard’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race with the Wood Brothers Racing Team. His No. 21 Omnicraft Ford Fusion was up front for much of the 500 miles at Daytona International Speedway. On the final restart, Menard lined up in the back of the pack of cars that remained. He pushed Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace, Jr. forward as cars jockeyed for position.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ryan Blaney held off Team Penske teammate Joey Logano to win Thursday night’s first 150-mile qualifying race in the Can-Am Duel at Daytona International Speedway, but the story of the race was the list of prominent cars that did not survive until the checkered flag. In the second Duel, Chase Elliott grabbed the lead on Lap 27 of 60 and held it the rest of the way, beating Kevin Harvick to the finish line by .081 seconds. Erik Jones survived anRead More

By Beth Lunkenheimer, NASCAR Contributor Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for the top-30 drivers in the series leading into next month’s 60th running of the Daytona 500. Age: 37 Years in Cup: 14 Career Wins: One Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Win For the first time since 2011, Paul Menard will have to get to know a new team as he makes the transition from Richard Childress Racing to Wood Brothers Racing heading into the 2018 season. Menard finished 23rd in theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – With a victory in Saturday’s Zippo 200, Kyle Busch continued to tick items off his bucket list. Recovering from a wheel-hop and spin in Turn 1 on Lap 17 of 82 along with a penalty for driving through too many pit boxes, Busch claimed his first NASCAR XFINITY Series win at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International road course, beating polesitter Joey Logano to the finish line by 1.049 seconds. “The cars have really been working for me here and it justRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer It has been long rumored and is now official, Paul Menard will replace Ryan Blaney at the Wood Brothers in 2018. Menard, who is in his 11th full season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, will take his Menard’s sponsorship to the Team Penske alliance team. Menard’s will sponsor 22 races on the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Team Ford Fusion. Plans for long-time Wood Brothers partner Motorcraft / Quick Lane, along with additional sponsorship will be announced later. The Wood Brothers, the oldestRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SPEEDWAY, Ind. – With a new competition package that produced a race-record 16 lead changes and the closest NASCAR XFINITY Series finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, William Byron threw more blocks than an NFL fullback in holding off charging Paul Menard to win Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250. Byron made the decisive pass for the lead on Lap 85, surging past JR Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler into the top spot. Menard gained two spots, from fourth to second over a six-circuit stretch from Laps 90 toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis had been circled on the NASCAR Xfinity Series calendar for several months due to the implementation of a new aerodynamic package for the event and after its first outing, it certainly seems like the sanctioning body is onto something with the package. In years past, clean air was king at Indianapolis as the leader could just pull away from the field with ease, leading to a lackluster, follow the leader type of a race. To remedy this, NASCAR unveiledRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The major story of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola – Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final run at his beloved Daytona International Speedway in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – turned out to be a footnote to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s masterful victory in a war of attrition that produced a race-record 14 cautions. The driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, who got his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in his 158th career start twoRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega, two fan favorites will make up the front row, with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. scoring his first pole since Atlanta in September 2013 by beating out Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who will join him on the front row. Stenhouse and Earnhardt set the fastest times in the first round of qualifying and when the final round began, Earnhardt went out and backed up his first round time to scores of cheers from the Talladega faithful. As the last car on track,Read More