Ricky Stenhouse Jr Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Alex Bowman swapped car numbers for the 2021 season – from 88 to 48 – but has certainly retained his Daytona magic, earning the pole position for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver a record fourth consecutive front row start in the NASCAR Cup Series season-opener. Bowman, 27, went out late in the qualifying order (38th of 44 drivers) Wednesday night – the first night-time pole qualifying session in race history –Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The final two races that make up the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will be a gauntlet for the drivers still in championship contention with races at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval set to wreak havoc on the Playoff field. Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega is the first wild card race that will have to be dealt with, as the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing will likely throw a wrench into even the best laid plans and leave some of the Playoff driversRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was just 0.007 seconds shy of capturing his first NASCAR Cup Series win since 2017 while Aric Almirola took a wild slide to cross the line in third during Monday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Both drivers played a pivotal role on the overtime finish, but ultimately ended up tangling each other while fighting for the win. Not only that, but also trying to save fuel. It took a backseat once the field took the white flag, as the new word became charge. KevinRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service An event that began with a massive show of support for Bubba Wallace ended with one of Wallace’s best friends, Ryan Blaney, celebrating in Victory Lane for the second straight race at Talladega Superspeedway. In a frenetic overtime dash, Blaney won Monday’s GEICO 500 by .007 seconds over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as crashing cars bounced of each other and the outside wall behind the top two finishers. The victory was Blaney’s first of the season, second straight at the 2.66-mile track and the fourthRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When the NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Talladega this weekend for the GEICO 500, it will be a bit of a throwback to the days when the 2.66-mile superspeedway was a mainstay on the summer schedule. Originally scheduled for late April, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the race to June and the heat of the Alabama summer. Since opening its doors in 1969, Talladega has been a wild card on the schedule with the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing on full display over the past half-century,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It was a superb effort for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Austin Dillon, who finished fourth and eighth respectively in Thursday’s Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Each scored their first top-10s since the second race of the season at Las Vegas three months ago and credited their crew chiefs for a job well done. Thursday’s stellar performances were much needed results as they’ve struggle to put a full race together where their speed is proven following their standout race. More so for Stenhouse, who’s hadRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Lightning struck near Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday night. Bad luck didn’t, where Chase Elliot was concerned. After two crushing defeats since the re-opening of NASCAR’s 2020 season May 17 at Darlington, Elliott got to the checkered flag without incident and won the rescheduled Alsco Uniforms 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile intermediate track. In an event contested at 500 kilometers (312 miles), Elliott passed fading Kevin Harvick for the lead on Lap 181 of 208 and cruised to a 2.208-second victoryRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a successful week to reopen the 2020 season at Darlington, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to home base at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 61st running of the Coca-Cola 600. Sunday should have been a day full of racing with the Formula 1 race at Monaco and the Indianapolis 500 preceding Sunday night’s race, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only NASCAR will be in the spotlight, with both qualifying (2:00 pm ET) and the race (6:00 pm ET) taking place in oneRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – In a final two-lap scramble that ended with a multicar crash on the frontstretch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Joey Logano found a way to defend last year’s victory in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series race. Logano sped away after a restart on Lap 266 of 267 and led runner-up Matt DiBenedetto to the finish under caution to win for the second time at Las Vegas, the first time this season and the 24th time in his career, breaking a tieRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Rain stopped the Daytona 500 after 20 laps of a scheduled 200 Sunday afternoon, forcing postponement of the Great American Race until Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were the centerpiece of pre-race festivities. After addressing the crowd, President Trump gave the command to start engines and paced the field for a lap before returning to the Daytona 500 Club. Jimmie Johnson, starting hisRead More