Ryan Blaney Tag

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 Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service A late caution set Brad Keselowski up for victory in NASCAR’s longest race—and set Chase Elliott up for a second straight crushing disappointment. In Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, which went to overtime for the second time in its history, Keselowski surged ahead after a restart on Lap 404 and beat Jimmie Johnson to the finish line by .293 seconds to win a race that stretched to 607.5 miles, longest in NASCAR history. Elliott led Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford by 1.6 seconds beforeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Another great start, another disappointing finish at Phoenix for Chase Elliott AVONDALE, Ariz. – At Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, Chase Elliott once again was the victim of Murphy’s law. In Friday’s time trials, Elliott won the pole for Sunday’s FanShield 500, marking the eighth straight top-10 start at Phoenix for the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Finishing races at the one-mile track, however, has been a problem for Elliott, and that proved true once again in the fourth NASCAR Cup SeriesRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Joey Logano expected a bump from Kevin Harvick in the two-lap overtime Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, but the bump never came. Instead, Harvick pulled up beside Logano in the center of Turns 1 and 2 on the final lap of the FanShield 500, but Logano sped away with a hard charge off Turn 2 and cruised to the finish line with a margin of .276 seconds. With the victory—his second at Phoenix and the 25th of his career—Logano is the first multipleRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer NASCAR Cup Series points leader Ryan Blaney didn’t get to the conclusion of Stage 1 after being taken out in a three-car crash during Sunday’s FanShield 500 at Phoenix Raceway. Fresh off signing a multi-year contract extension with Team Penske, Blaney was poised to have some good luck on his side, which he hasn’t had despite having a 12-point lead over his teammate Joey Logano. After Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. spun and make wall contact to bring out the first caution, the field reshuffled and took theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The first major piece of silly season for the much anticipated 2021 NASCAR Cup Series campaign was solved Friday as Ryan Blaney signed a multi-year extension with Team Penske. Blaney wasn’t hesitant to say in Friday’s press conference at Phoenix Raceway that he’s loyal to Roger Penske and never even thought of talking with any other teams as the extension was negotiated during the off-season. “I was really happy with where I was at. I love the people I am around and working with all theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The NASCAR Cup Series has been setting up shop on the West Coast for the past two weeks and this Sunday, the series will finish up its tour of the Southwestern United States with a trip to Phoenix Raceway and the FanShield 500. In a preview of November’s championship race, Sunday’s race on the one-mile oval in the Arizona desert, which made its debut on the Cup Series schedule in 1988, will be the first big test of the new short track/road course aero package thatRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Jimmie Johnson enjoys strong run in swan song at Auto Club Speedway FONTANA, Calif. – Before the green flag waved Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, Jimmie Johnson took prime position behind the pace car as the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field fanned out five-wide behind him in a respectful salute to the seven-time champion. When the green flag waved to signal the beginning of the Auto Club 400, Johnson saw his wife Chandra and daughters Genevieve and Lydia doing the honors fromRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The annual NASCAR Goes West campaign enters its second week as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Southern California for Sunday’s running of the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. Built on the site of an old steel mill featured in the movie “Terminator”, the two-mile oval has been a part of the NASCAR schedule since opening in 1997. During its 20+ years on the circuit, the track has gone through ownership changes, as well as expanding to two race dates in 2004 and thenRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It wasn’t an ideal result both Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman who were two of the heavy hitters late in the going during Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Following two-time stage winner Chase Elliott’s bid of scoring his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series win went haywire due to a cut tire that saw him make wall contact in Turn 1 on Lap 221, the spotlight shifted to those two determined competitors. Blaney showed tremendous muscle, but Bowman came into race win picture duringRead More