Ryan Blaney Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Serving as the United States home for Formula 1 since opening in 2012, the Circuit of The Americas plays host to some good ol’ American Muscle this weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series comes to town for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. The 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course sitting just outside of Austin, Texas is the first of six road courses for the Cup Series to visit in 2023 and will give drivers and teams their first look at some new rules for the road courses thisRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Joey Logano added another memory at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, and seven other Ford drivers followed behind him.  Covering the 1.540-mile distance in 31.256 seconds (177.374 mph), Logano won the pole for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and led a parade of eight Ford drivers into the top eight starting positions.  That’s the first time since 1965 at Beltsville (Md.) that Fords have qualified for the top eight spots on theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a three-week stint out west, the NASCAR Cup Series is much closer to home this weekend as it heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second superspeedway race of the season – Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400. Atlanta’s aging racing surface, which had been in place since 1997, held together as long as possible, but the 260 laps around the 1.5-mile track in July 2021 were the last on that particular surface as the track underwent a repave and reconfiguration for the 2022 season. The 24-degreeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick hate late-race cautions.  William Byron loves them.  After a two-tire call under the fourth caution flag in Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway, Byron surged past Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in overtime to win his second straight NASCAR Cup Series race.  Byron can thank Ford drivers Aric Almirola and Harrison Burton, who on successive weekends spun with a handful of laps left—at Las Vegas and Phoenix, respectively—and gave Byron a chance toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Larson continued his dominance at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday with a pole-winning run for Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  Larson topped the speed chart in Friday’s 50-minute NASCAR Cup Series practice session and posted the fastest lap of the weekend in the first round of time trials, covering the 1.0-mile distance in 27.324 seconds (131.752 mph).  In the final round of qualifying, Larson was the only driver to topRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The West Coast Swing reaches its final leg this weekend in the Arizona desert as the NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Phoenix for Sunday’s running of the United Rentals Work United 500. Though the drivers and teams have two races with the Next Gen car under their belt at the one-mile oval, a new aerodynamic package that debuts this weekend will make Sunday a key race to help formulate a game plan for when the series returns in November with a title on the line. TheRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS — Joey Logano, winner of three of the last eight NASCAR Cup Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will start from the pole position in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube after topping 186 mph Saturday in the final round of qualifying.  Logano toured the 1.5-mile track in 29.024 seconds (186.053 mph) to earn his first Busch Pole Award of the season, his second at Las Vegas and the 27th of his career.  Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford was .141Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a thrilling race in Southern California last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will make the trip up Interstate 15 to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week, with Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 marking the second leg of the West Coast swing. Las Vegas began its life on the NASCAR circuit as a 1.5-mile oval with 12 degrees of banking in 1998, but following the 2006 running of the race, the track underwent a massive reconfiguration that saw progressive banking put in place with the new banking rangingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Brad Keselowski is no stranger to the top of the leaderboard on a superspeedway and that’s exactly where he found himself in Saturday’s final practice session for the 65th running of the Daytona 500. Piloting his No. 6 RFK Racing Ford around the 2.5-mile track in 47.071 seconds, 191.201 mph, the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion staked his place at the top and would not be moved for the remainder of the 50-minute session. “We made some really good improvements,” Keselowski said.Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – As the grizzled veteran of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4, Joey Logano showed his fellow title contenders how it was done Saturday at Phoenix, scoring the pole for Sunday’s championship deciding race. The 2018 series champion posted a lap of 26.788 seconds, 134.389 mph to jump to the top of the board ahead of his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to put himself in the best position possible when the green flag drops. “It keeps the pressure on them,” Logano said. “That’sRead More