William Byron Tag

By Lee Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas — A fast car can cure a lot of mistakes. Just ask Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin. The reigning Daytona 500 winner overcame a slew of penalties—some self-inflicted—to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Although the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry got down, he was never out of contention. Hamlin led three times for 45 laps en route to his third win at Texas, his second win of the season and the fourthRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent The O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 appeared to be a return to form for Jimmie Johnson. The seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Champion earned a top-five finish at Texas Motor Speedway, his first since last year’s Coke 600. His No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 led the way for 60 laps, more than all of the laps the Hendrick Motorsports driver led last season. When the final caution waved with 80 laps to go, Johnson, along with most of the field, pitted. He restarted fromRead More

By Lee Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – Jimmie Johnson is back in the saddle again. After leading first practice at Texas Motor Speedway and the first two rounds of qualifying, the seven-time champion bumped his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott from the top spot with seconds remaining in the final round with a lap at 188.890 mph to win the pole for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Busch Pole Award is the first for Johnson in 96Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – With surgical efficiency, Joey Logano continued his domination of knockout qualifying at Martinsville Speedway. Saving his car and his tires for the final round of Saturday’s time trials at the .526-mile short track, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s STP 500 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a lap at 97.830 mph (19.356 seconds). Driving the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Logano edged Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driver Aric Almirola (97.643 mph) for the top starting spot byRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The start of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is officially here and with it comes the biggest race of the season, the Daytona 500. For 61 years, drivers have been making the pilgrimage to the Daytona high banks to win the sport’s most prestigious race and write themselves into the record book as Daytona 500 champion. Many have attempted it, but only a select few have been able to hoist the Harley J. Earl trophy in victory lane at theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Paired for the first time with crew chief Chad Knaus, sophomore driver William Byron put his No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the pole for the Feb. 17 Daytona 500 on Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), leading a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the top four spots and extending that organization’s dominance in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Daytona International Speedway. Byron edged last year’s pole winner, Alex Bowman, by .036 seconds for theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – All four Stewart-Haas Racing cars were amply endowed with speed for Saturday’s knockout qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway. Kurt Busch was just glad he got the pick of the litter. “Four Stewart-Haas Fords—I’m really happy that I got the fast one,” Busch quipped after winning the pole for Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 (2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and lead an SHR sweep of the top four starting spots for the second race in the Monster Energy NASCARRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Talladega may not be the Round of 12 elimination race any longer, but the mammoth 2.66-mile superspeedway is still a huge wild card and will go a long way toward determining which drivers will be in position to move on to the next round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Racing at Talladega has always been crazy from the time the track opened back in 1969. From the driver boycott of the first race that led to unknown driver Richard BrickhouseRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer “I have to say ultimately, it’s Rick’s call. It’s Hendrick Motorsports. We’ve had a lot of very open conversations and discussions but in the end, Rick is the one that makes the decisions,” Jimmie Johnson said on who made the call to split up a 17-year partnership with crew chief Chad Knaus. A day removed from the bombshell news of the NASCAR season took place, both Johnson and Knaus spoke for the first time about the announcement Thursday. It’s no secret the legendary duo has hadRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer What fans expected to be a career-long partnership will no longer be as the legendary duo of seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus will split at the end of the season after 17 seasons together. Hendrick Motorsports announced Wednesday that changes were made in both the No. 48 and No. 24 teams for the 2019 season. Knaus will now make the calls for William Byron, while current Xfinity Series crew chief Kevin Meendering has been promoted to becomeRead More