With his NASCAR career winding down in October 2016, Tony Stewart described his plans for retirement. “People ask, ‘What are you’re going to do next year?’ And I say, ‘Whatever I want.’ It’s the first time in 20 years I’m not going to be on NASCAR’s schedule,” he said. “You look at all the stuff […]
Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) The first ever NASCAR and IndyCar doubleheader was historic for a number of reasons, but this one may very well be the most disappointing. Two legendary NASCAR and IndyCar streaks came to an end this past weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Entering this weekend, 2001 was the most recent […]
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Indianapolis, NASCAR, Cup Series (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) By making his 656th consecutive NASCAR Cup Series start in Sunday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick now leads active drivers. Can he break Jeff Gordon’s record? Entering this past weekend, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson had competed in 663 consecutive […]
For the first time, NASCAR and IndyCar will run races at the same venue on the same weekend. Is this the start of a new tradition?An event few motor sports fans ever thought would occur, with longtime rivals from IndyCar racing and NASCAR stock cars competing on the same weekend and at the same facility, […]
Even in the most difficult times, in NASCAR, the show goes on. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The one thing NASCAR has always gotten right is its ability to keep the wheels turning. In crisis or coronavirus, the show finds its way to a race track and keeps plugging along. That has never been in doubt, at […]
Despite four NASCAR Cup Series wins on the season, two of which have come in the last week, Toyota Racing president David Wilson said the manufacturer is “on our back foot a little bit.” A week ago, Toyota celebrated a Martin Truex Jr. victory at Martinsville Speedway, which was backed up by Denny Hamlin’s win […]
Wendell Scott’s family still is looking for recognition for a victory in 1963 On Dec. 1, 1963, Wendell Scott became the first black driver to win a NASCAR race when he took home the checkered flag at Speedway Park in Jacksonville. Scott died in 1990, but now his family is asking NASCAR to award Scott […]
Porsche Motorsport official blames economic pressures from COVID-19 pandemic for move.Citing economic pressures related to the the COVID-19 pandemic, Porsche Motorsport announced on Thursday that it will be ending its factory involvement with the 911 RSR in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after the 2020 season. The Porsche Motorsport 911 RSR program captured the drivers’, […]
Finding continued success in NASCAR these days is like being a field goal kicker against a continually moving goal post.Toyota won 19 times in 36 races last season, but Ford and Chevrolet appear to have closed the gap during the offseason. And that figurative moving goal post is best illustrated by the ever-changing rules package. […]
IndyCar has gotten the green flag to finally start its season, which it will do in Texas with a nighttime race June 6 without spectators. The race at Texas Motor Speedway was the next one on the schedule that hadn’t been postponed or cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. IndyCar and track officials announced the […]
NASCAR is set to become the first major motorsports series to resume racing despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. A NASCAR Monster Cup Series race is scheduled for May 17 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, NASCAR said in a press release Thursday. The Darlington race, which will be held without fans in attendance, will be […]
Earlier this year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the pole for the Daytona 500 with a qualifying speed of 194.582 mph. That’s fast. But that’s how fast today’s Cup Series cars go on superspeedways with tapered spacers restricting engines. On this day 50 years ago, Buddy Baker got to go really fast. On Tuesday, March 24, 1970, […]
Despite being in unknown territory with postponed races amid the COVID-19 outbreak, NASCAR is still pushing forward with the Next Gen race car, said president Steve Phelps. But, whether it’s the new car or finalizing the 2021 schedule, it is not easy for anyone who works in the industry Phelps admitted Tuesday. Racing has been […]
“From the first race I went to, we didn’t see big diversity, ” said Jennifer Siegel. “We knew right away we were in a unique position to make a difference.” In a sport known for speed, Max and Jennifer Siegel are the slow and steady hands of change. What they have accomplished in a decade […]
When NASCAR driver Ryan Newman’s car flipped during the Daytona 500, it was the HANS device developed by former Michigan State professor Robert Hubbard that helped save his life. HANS, or Head and Neck Support, was developed by Hubbard and his brother-in-law and former racecar driver Jim Downing. “Anytime that any type of research […]
For better and for worse, the closing laps of the 62nd Daytona 500 once again lived up to the hype. The image of Ryan Newman’s No. 6 Ford hurtling toward the checkered flag on its hood will forever live in NASCAR lore. So will the scene a few minutes later, when an ambulance flippedon its sirens and made a beeline for Halifax Health […]
Stars have retired or are poised to, leaving the sport struggling to get a foothold in the sports landscape. NASCAR readies for its first, and most important, event of the year, the Daytona 500 on Sunday, it sits at a crossroads. It has hundreds of thousands of passionate and fiercely loyal fans. But the days […]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Daytona 500 has been postponed by rain for the first time since 2012, dampening NASCAR’s season opener that started with a ballyhooed visit from President Donald Trump. The race was postponed after two lengthy delays totaling more than three hours. The race will resume at 4 p.m. ET Monday and […]
NASCAR’s seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson spent Tuesday at Circuit of The Americas doing a bit of window shopping. Set to retire at the end of a long and successful stock car career at the end of 2020, the Californian took a detour from pre-Daytona 500 activities to visit the Texas road course, continuing to […]
On Sunday evening (UK time) NASCAR’s 62nd Daytona 500 will take place at the great Florida tri-oval, with a fresh face on the front row. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. secured his first pole position at Daytona and a third in NASCAR’s premier division on Sunday, on his first appearance for the JTG Daugherty Chevrolet team following a […]
The NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway package that debuted at Talladega Superspeedway last year saw roaring success from fans and media members alike. We saw more passes than in previous NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway races, drafting being relied on, three-wide packs in the final laps of the race and exciting finishes. However, as we prepare to enter Speedweeks, […]
Chevrolet will switch to the Camaro ZL1 1LE in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2020, replacing the Camaro ZL1, which made its series debut in 2018. Camaro ZL1 1LE — based on the fastest, most track-capable production Camaro ever – will make its competition debut next February during Daytona Speedweeks, which opens the 2020 NASCAR […]
Austin Cindric and Seb Priaulx won the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season finale (GS class) at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. This dynamic duo, brought together by Multimatic Motorsports, drove the No. 15 Ford Mustang GT4 to victory lane with a stellar performance. “Congratulations to Austin, Seb, and all the Ford Performance teams,” said Doug Yates, […]
The year 2022 still sounds, upon first mention, like when Zenon is scheduled to graduate from college. But it’s actually no more than a few years from now, and it also happens to be the year that NASCAR could possibly maybe introduce some element of hybridization into its race cars. Yep, hybrid NASCAR. Welcome to the future, folks. […]
We knew that the mid-engine Corvette would spawn a racing variant, but we weren’t quite expecting to see it unveiled so soon. During the launch of the new Corvette Convertible at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday evening, Corvette factory racer Tommy Milner fired up his new racer and made a surprise debut on stage. This […]
Mike Stefanik, one of two drivers in NASCAR history to win nine national series or touring championships, died Sunday in a small single-seat plane crash. He was 61. The winningest driver in the history of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, Stefanik’s career stretched nearly 30 years. He won the tour championship seven times, and in […]
On Sunday afternoon, veteran driver and former champion Kevin Harvick stormed to victory in NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway after a late battle with fan favorite Joey Logano. Late drama further back saw the final two playoff spots change hands in a crash-filled slugfest of a race, one of the sport’s […]
He’s too classy to make excuses about not qualifying for the NASCAR playoffs for the first time in 15 years. But if statistics don’t lie, then the Chevy Jimmie Johnson drives on weekends was at least partly to blame. When the green flag falls at Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 16 […]
Kyle Busch had an uncharacteristically tough night Saturday from the drop of the green flag. And yet, the eight-time Bristol winner still salvaged a fourth-place finish. The quick hits: Starting 31st; falling a lap down early; getting the lucky dog on Lap 214; staying out to take the lead on Lap 254; and managing to […]
Retired NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., his wife Amy and baby daughter have survived a small plane crash in east Tennessee on Thursday afternoon, authorities said. Earnhardt Jr., 44, was hospitalized and eventually discharged following the crash at Elizabethton Municipal Airport, according to CBS affiliate WJHL-TV. The Cessna Citation business jet rolled off the end of […]
It was 20 years ago when Dale Earnhardt Sr. spun Terry Labonte to win a Saturday night race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Earnhardt was chasing the trophy — the playoffs didn’t exist, no stages, no bonus points — and The Intimidator simply wanted the victory. Labonte had squeezed past Earnhardt to momentarily take the lead […]
In 1959, something happened that revolutionized NASCAR’s stock-car racing: the introduction of Daytona International Speedway. Daytona was unlike any race track before it because of these: banked turns. The turns had towering walls that sloped downwards to the center. Walls that NASCAR’s stock cars would drive onto. Daytona’s banks were a whopping 31 degrees, significantly […]
Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the spot on the schedule. Maybe it’s just the dog days of summer. But for whatever reason, tempers are starting to flare between drivers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. That angst could set up some feisty duels between drivers with long memories or scores […]
Kurt Busch has been called many things during his tumultuous 20 seasons at NASCAR’s top level. He is ornery, easily unhinged and has lost control of his temper enough times that it nearly derailed his career. But the most important descriptor for Busch is one often overlooked. He is a wheelman, one of the very […]
Tyler Ankrum took the lead when Brett Moffitt ran out of fuel with less than two laps to go and cruised to his first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series victory Thursday night at Kentucky Speedway. The 18-year-old Ankrum finished 7.373 seconds ahead of Stewart Friesen on the 1.5-mile tri-oval to earn a spot in the […]
In a long history littered with upsets and unlikely winners, Justin Haley’s victory might be remembered as the biggest fluke yet in NASCAR.But it also might be remembered as the start of something big, as it was for a few other bolts from the blue in the Cup Series. In only his third Cup start […]
NASCAR’s financial situation is constantly changing, from the governing body searching for a new title sponsor to teams struggling to hold onto big-name partners. That also includes drivers’ fluctuating salaries, which are seldom talked about when drivers sign a new deal or extension. Additionally, NASCAR stopped releasing race winnings after the 2015 season, so it’s […]
Novato native Dave Smith set to race Saturday in raceway’s 50th anniversary A little over a month ago Dave Smith drove a Mustang up a public road on a mountain for the Jaguar Simola Hill Climb in Knysna, South Africa. It was the first time Smith, a precision driver, had done a race like this, […]
Chandler Smith has won numerous ARCA and Super Late Model races on his ascent toward NASCAR Arguably Toyota’s best pavement stock car prospect, Chandler Smith will make his Gander Outdoors NASCAR Truck Series debut on Saturday night at Iowa Speedway in the No. 51 for Kyle Busch Motorsports. The 16-year-old rose to prominence driving Super Late […]
Joey Logano’s victory at Michigan on Monday gave Team Penske its fifth Cup win of the season. That’s two fewer than Penske had all of last year, when Logano won the series title. In another year, Penske might be the clear choice as NASCAR’s dominant team, but that’s not the case at the moment. Joe […]