Sprint Cup Series Tag

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Usually with three races remaining in the season, the remaining Chase drivers dominate every practice session, every qualifying round and every race. In Saturday morning’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice for the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway though, Ryan Blaney led a slew of unexpected drivers who topped the speed charts. Blaney turned a lap of 188.515 mph, and he was followed by AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Casey Mears and Paul Menard. The fastest single lap any ChaseRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — On an extremely busy day for Austin Dillon, he surprised everyone by capturing the pole for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. “I don’t know about the lap. I changed my line a little bit, looking at dart fish. It worked out for me,” said a stunned Dillon after his run. “I thought I hurt myself cause I changed my line, but it actually made me faster through one and two. I was watching Harvick’s line and I changed it to kindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — Over the past couple of seasons, Kyle Busch has been arguably the best driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage. Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch and his No. 18 team had one of their most trying days in recent memory. In the opening minutes of the first practice session of the weekend, Busch got loose coming off of turn four on his warm up lap and slammed into the outside wall before ever completing a timed lap. The contactRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — There was a bit of a rift between the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates after last week’s finish in Martinsville. In the closing laps, Jimmie Johnson held the lead, but there was a trio of JGR cars chasing him for the win. Matt Kenseth had been the dominant driver all day long in Martinsville as he led a race-high 176 laps, but he found himself trapped behind his teammate Denny Hamlin in the closing laps. Hamlin was fast on Sunday as well, asRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor FORT WORTH, Texas — The weekend at Texas Motor Speedway got off to a rough start for one of the eight drivers still in championship contention in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase. Kyle Busch slammed into the wall coming to the start finish line to begin his first lap of practice. The damage from the contact with the wall was severe enough that Busch is now relegated to a backup car for the remainder of the weekend. “Unfortunate there with our practice crash that we had, kindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor For one of 2016’s championship contenders — Kevin Harvick — the 2017 season is already taking shape. Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing announced in February that they would be moving from Chevrolet to Ford for the ’17 season. After a press release from Anheuser Busch on Thursday, the sponsorship picture is looking full for the No. 4 team. Anheuser Busch’s Busch Beer brand will adorn Harvick’s car for a total of 16 events in 2017, which is an increase of four races from 2016. The BeerRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It has been a dominant season for Toyota Racing, and Joe Gibbs Racing in particular. But after the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville, one of the team’s four drivers — Carl Edwards — finds himself in an uphill battle if he wants to advance to the Sprint Cup Series championship race in Homestead four weeks from now. Edwards started the day from the seventh position, but his day got off to a rocky start as he was busted for speeding on pit road during hisRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship started with optimism for 16 drivers and teams. After Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway, the championship aspirations for four of those 16 have come to an abrupt end. Tony Stewart, who is in his final season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, was one of the four drivers eliminated from the 2016 Chase following the Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway. Stewart, who never showed the speed to contend for a win on Sunday, endedRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor What a year it’s been for 26-year-old Austin Dillon. The driver who won championships at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series levels, looked to be out of his element in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the past couple of seasons. Fast forward to Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway, and Dillon was busy racing his way into the round of 12 of the 2016 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup. Dillon entered the day with a five-point deficit toRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano, who are all in the 2016 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, were scheduled to run the Xfinity Series race Saturday at Dover International Speedway. When weather cancelled all on-track activity Saturday, NASCAR announced that the Xfinity Series event would be moved to Sunday morning at 10 a.m. ET, just before the Sprint Cup Series race. This essentially meant that three of the 16 drivers running for the most prestigious championship in American motorsport had one hell ofRead More