TicketGuardian 500 Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Kyle Busch seemed to be unstoppable en route to the win Sunday at ISM Raceway, but Ryan Blaney sure put up a hell of a fight in an effort to give Team Penske a victory sweep on the day. “We’ve been poised to have days like this, contend for wins and run top 5 it just hasn’t happened this year,” said Blaney.  “We haven’t gotten the finishes we deserved and this is more like it, so that was good.  This is a good place to startRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – There was an air of inevitability to Kyle Busch’s closing run in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. Busch was tracking down race leader Ryan Blaney after restarting fourth on Lap 239 of the fourth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Running in Blaney’s wake for 37 laps, Busch finally made the winning pass on Lap 296 of 312 and nursed his car to the finish line. Busch’s third victory at the one-mile track and his 52nd in theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Ryan Blaney ended the day the way he started it—with the fastest car at ISM Raceway. After leading opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice with the quickest lap of the day (141.716 mph), Blaney put his No. 12 Team Penske Ford on the pole for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at the one-mile track. Blaney covered the distance in 25.480 seconds (141.287 mph) in the final round of knockout qualifying to outpace Chase Elliott (140.045 mph) by a comfortable .203 seconds. The BuschRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The West Coast swing for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rolls on this weekend with a trip to Arizona and ISM Raceway in Phoenix for Sunday’s running of the TicketGuardian 500. With two races with the new aero package under their belts in two different low horsepower configurations, drivers and teams get their first crack at the high horsepower configuration that will feature 750 horsepower and the standard larger spoiler, but not the aero ducts. In addition, the Cup Series will see the new trackRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – As the old aphorism goes, there’s nothing certain except death and taxes. After Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway, you can add Kevin Harvick at Phoenix to that list. Harvick beat Kyle Busch to the finish line by .774 seconds to win his third straight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series of the season, the first time a driver has strung three victories together since Busch accomplished the feat at Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indianapolis. The victory was a record ninth forRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor If there’s one constant four races into the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, it is that Chase Elliott has been the standard bearer for Hendrick Motorsports. On Sunday at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Elliott led the way for the organization once more, bringing home a third-place finish, the best of the season for both Elliott and HMS as a whole. “We had a good car,” said Elliott. “It was solid, you know? Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made a good call there at theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. finally found the extra speed he needed at ISM Raceway. Saving his best lap for the final round of knockout qualifying on Friday at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert, Truex sped around the circuit in 26.288 seconds (136.945 mph) to win the pole position for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Truex beat Kyle Larson (136.643 mph) by .058 seconds to earn his firstRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor New name, still the same old Phoenix. For now. After the kickoff to the West Coast swing last weekend in Las Vegas culminated in a second straight domination by Kevin Harvick, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix this weekend to take on the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. Phoenix has resided on the Cup Series schedule since 1988, but the track looks completely different than it did 30 years ago, having undergone a reconfiguration back in 2011. The reconfiguration added progressive bankingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Go Fas Racing and Matt DiBenedetto have found themselves in sponsorship trouble heading into Sunday’s race at ISM Raceway, but the NASCAR community has banded together to make sure they will make it to the grid for the TicketGuardian 500. Starting with a tweet from DiBenedetto on Tuesday morning, alerting the world of their predicament, the effort started picking up steam, with fellow drivers and others in the sport pitching in to help out the small team make it to the track. Though Go FasRead More