Ryan Blaney Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor One race down, nine to go. The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs enter its second week as the title contenders move on to Kansas Speedway looking to punch their ticket into the next round by winning Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400. Among those drivers in the running for the Bill France Cup, six of them are previous winners at Kansas, with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and Joey Logano having won at the track in recent years. Kansas Speedway hasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. – Déjà vu will be just fine for Joey Logano.  The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford won the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series spring event at Darlington Raceway from the pole.  After edging Christopher Bell for the top starting position in Saturday’s time trials, Logano will have a chance to repeat the feat in Sunday’s Playoff opener, the Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  In the final round of qualifying, Logano negotiatedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a wild weekend in Daytona to wrap up the regular season and set the 16-driver field for the Playoffs, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to one of the crown jewels on the circuit, Darlington Raceway, for Sunday’s running of the Cook Out Southern 500. A staple of the Cup Series since 1950, there are many elements to Darlington that make it a special track. From the egg-shape of the track that features one end narrower than the other as a result of building the trackRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The last man standing. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex, Jr. came into Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona holding on to the final two NASCAR Cup Series Playoff spots, just hoping to survive the day and keep ahold of those positions in the points. However, a clean day is the exact opposite of what they got, with both drivers sustaining damage at various points of the race that threw the battle for the postseason into complete disarray. It took just 32Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Mother Nature won the day at Daytona International Speedway as persistent rain eventually forced NASCAR’s hand to postpone Saturday night’s scheduled Coke Zero Sugar 400 to Sunday. Though NASCAR waited out the rain for Friday night’s Xfinity Series race, which did not reach its conclusion until the early morning hours on Saturday, the sanctioning body pulled the plug on the Cup Series race shortly after the scheduled start time on Saturday night, rolling the dice on better weather during the day onRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona will solidify the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field with varying strategies for those drivers that have yet to lock themselves in. Currently, Ryan Blaney holds the 15th place position in points and has a 25-point advantage over Martin Truex, Jr. in 16th. For these two, the strategy will be two-fold on Saturday as they will be giving their best effort to win the race, but also will be trying to accumulate as manyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes to an end right where it all began back in February as Daytona International Speedway is set to host Saturday night’s running of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. While there is the battle for the race trophy, a much bigger prize is on the line for those that have yet to lock themselves into the Playoffs. Just two spots remain up for grabs after Kurt Busch dropped out of the running on Thursday. Of theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Chase Elliott won the pole position for Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen at Wakins Glen (N.Y.) International (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) making a strong statement for his championship chases as the regular season winds down. Elliott turned a lap of 125.147 mph around the 3.377-mile road course in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet besting his teammate, reigning series champion Kyle Larson by a slight .015-seconds to claim his third pole position ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – Last Sunday at Michigan, Kevin Harvick broke a 65-race drought.  Now the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford has a two-race winning streak.  Chased by runner-up Christopher Bell and third-place finisher Chris Buescher over the closing laps, Harvick threaded his way through traffic to win Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway by .441 seconds.  The NASCAR Cup Series victory was Harvick’s fourth at the .75-mile short track—his first there since 2013—and the 60th of his career, tying himRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the second time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series heads off to Richmond Raceway, but this time with Playoff implication on the line when the green flag flies for Sunday’s running of the Federated Auto Parts 400. After serving as a race in the first round of the Playoffs the last four years, Richmond Raceway was moved up nearly a month for the second race at the track in 2022, making it a crucial step in determining the 16-driver Playoff field. Often described as theRead More