Paul Menard Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into 2017, Richard Childress Racing is going all-in on their efforts for next season as they announced on Wednesday that they would be moving to eight full-time teams across the top two national NASCAR series for the first time since 2011. The organization will keep the same three driver lineup in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series next year with Austin Dillon, Paul Menard, and Ryan Newman returning to the No. 3, No. 27, and No. 31 teams respectively. Slugger Labbe will be backRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. – Carl Edwards never had the reputation as a spectacular qualifier – until this year. On Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Edwards ran 135.453 mph (28.119 seconds) in the money round of knockout qualifying to earn the top start spot in Sunday’s Bad Boy Off Road 300 (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN), the second race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The Coors Light Pole Award was Edwards sixth of the year, doubling his previous single-season best. It wasRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor With the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup kicking off this weekend at Chicago, the time has come to take a look back at a race from the past for this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater.” This week, we’ll go back to 2009, when Chicago was a mid-summer night race instead of the first race of the Chase and the wild finish of the Lifelock.com 400. Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and Scott Speed would lead the field to green under the lightsRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After 500 miles around the historic Darlington Raceway last Sunday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Richmond for the final regular season race that will set the 16 driver field for the Chase with Saturday night’s running of the Federated Auto Parts 400. Often described as the perfectly designed race track by drivers, the 0.75 mile track lends itself to not only short track characteristics of beating and banging, but also the characteristics of a larger track with the side by side racing thatRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N. Y. – Joey Logano finally finished what he started. The driver of the No. 12 Ford won Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Watkins Glen International from the pole, giving Team Penske its first victory in what has been a disappointing season so far. The win in the Zippo 200 was the second straight at the 2.45-mile road course for the 26-year-old driver, who led 67 of 82 laps and drove his car to the limit, keeping teammate Brad Keselowski behindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Stories about top-tier drivers getting a new crew chief are usually explosive news, but when Richard Childress Racing announced that Paul Menard would have a new crew chief starting this weekend in Pocono, there wasn’t much fanfare. However, I think bringing Danny Stockman Jr. over to turn the wrenches on the No. 27 Chevrolet SS was a smart decision. Not to take anything away from Menard’s former crew chief Justin Alexander, but Stockman has quietly become one of the brightest development crew chiefs in theRead More

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 Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Richard Childress Racing had a phenomenal effort in the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, with their trio of drivers all securing top 10 finishes, led by Austin Dillon in fourth. The weekend began with Paul Menard qualifying fourth, Ryan Newman fifth and Dillon 29th. At the start, Menard pushed his No. 27 Libman/Menard’s Chevrolet SS to the front early, leading 10 laps and looking like a contender for the win. Newman also hung among the leaders, but as the race went on the No.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The third time was the charm for Joey Logano. Then again, so were the first and second. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford dominated qualifying for Sunday’s STP 500 (1 p.m. ET on FS1), topping the speed chart in all three sessions of Friday’s knockout qualifying at Martinsville Speedway. The Coors Light Pole Award was the third straight for Logano at the .526-mile paper-clip-shaped short track, marking the first time a driver has won three consecutive poles atRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After four days of deliberations, NASCAR handed down their penalties stemming from the race weekend at Auto Club Speedway on Thursday. For his failure to fulfill his media obligations at the conclusion of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Kyle Busch was fined $10,000 and placed on NASCAR probation for the next four championship races through April 27th. Danica Patrick also earned a behavioral penalty from NASCAR for leaving her car and walking onto a hot track after her incident with Kasey Kahne inRead More