Ryan Blaney Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service On a blustery Sunday in the Irish Hills of Michigan, Kevin Harvick saved his season. Grabbing the lead and pulling away after a restart on Lap 166 of 200 at Michigan International Speedway, Harvick won the FireKeepeers Casino 400 by 2.903 seconds over pole winner Bubba Wallace and leap-frogged bubble-riding Martin Truex Jr. in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings. Harvick’s victory ended a 65-race drought for the 46-year-old former series champion from Bakersfield, California. The win was his sixth at Michigan and his fifth in the lastRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The end of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season is in sight with just four races remaining before the Playoff field is set. After a visit to the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend, the series heads north to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s running of the Firekeepers Casino 400. With this race taking place near the home of two of the three manufacturers (Chevrolet and Ford), teams put extra emphasis on winning here for bragging rights. Especially this year with the track debutRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Tyler Reddick picked right up where he left off on the road courses, scoring the pole for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at The Brickyard. Reddick piloted his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet around the 14-turn, 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with a lap of one minute, 28.354 seconds (99.378 mph) to jump to the top of the board in the final round of qualifying, holding off all comers to take his second career NASCAR Cup Series pole. “It actually didn’t,” Reddick said ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – It’s that time of the year again, when NASCAR invades open wheel territory for a weekend at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For the second year in a row, the Cup Series will be joining their counterparts from the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series in running on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile infield road course in what will be an action-filled tripleheader weekend, culminating in Sunday’s Verizon 200. In the first race on the road course last year, carnage ensued, leading to flared tempersRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin earned the pole position for Sunday’s M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (3 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) turning in a blazing fast lap of 169.498 mph around the iconic 2.5-mile oval – easily out-qualifying the field by .15-seconds to earn his third pole position of the season. It will be an all-Joe Gibbs Racing front row with Hamlin starting his No. 11 Toyota alongside teammate Kyle Busch, who was secondRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor New England here we come. A week removed from a thrilling showing on the high banks at Atlanta, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to a flat oval this weekend for Sunday’s running of the Ambetter 301, as the march to the end of the regular season continues on. First joining the Cup Series circuit in 1993, the 1.058-mile oval that has progressively banked turns from two to seven degrees is one of the more difficult tracks on the schedule as the flat nature of theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Chase Elliott is a former NASCAR Cup Series champion and currently the 2022 title leader. But finally scoring a dramatic victory Sunday afternoon at his home track – Atlanta Motor Speedway – in front of a vocal and adoring home crowd ranks right up there as far as he’s concerned. Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led a race best 96 of the 260 laps and held off a charging field to win Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart, ultimately securing the trophyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Half of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season is now complete as Atlanta Motor Speedway comes calling this weekend to kick off the second half with Sunday’s running of the Quaker State 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 last July were the last on that particular surface as the track underwent a repave and reconfiguration for the 2022 season. The 24-degree banking in the turns wasRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer After a Stage 3 spin, Ryan Blaney was able to bounce back to finish third in Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. Throughout the 300-lap race, Blaney was consistently in the top-10 and racked up 10 stage points to his name with a third-place outing in Stage 1 being the highlight. Despite having a solid run, Blaney struggled matching the pace the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Martin Truex, Jr., who won the first two stages, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, laid on the competition. TheyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LEBANON, Tenn. – Just call him “Concrete Chase.” Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway threw everything it could at Chase Elliott, but when the checkered flag flew, it was the No. 9 Chevrolet that was victorious for the second-time this season – both on concrete tracks. “Just so proud of our team because we kind of had a setback there about halfway and we were able to get our NAPA Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix,” Elliott said. “It was a longRead More