Martin Truex Jr. owns three top-five finishes and five top-10s in 31 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Daytona International Speedway. In the series’ most recent race on the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Truex led 14 laps and ended up fourth. Truex is also a former DAYTONA 500 pole winner after recording the fastest lap in qualifying back in 2009. (more…)
Beard Motorsports enters this year’s Daytona 500 solemnly but with a tremendous amount of pride in the contributions its founder and president, Mark Beard Sr., made to his family, his friends, his businesses and his favorite endeavor – NASCAR. Mr. Beard passed away on Jan. 31. He was passionate about racing and the businesses he built with his family, and even though he will be terribly missed, his work ethic and kind heart lives on with the many people he influenced. (more…)
Centerville, Tenn. (January 25, 2021)—Rackley W.A.R., co-owned by Willie Allen and Curtis Sutton, announced today that their newly-formed team will field the No. 25 Chevrolet Silverado in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) with driver Timothy Peters. The team will begin full-time series competition at the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
“It has always been a dream to be a NASCAR owner,” Allen said. “We are excited about the all-star team we have assembled. I am thankful to have partnered with Curtis Sutton, as we both are driven to succeed. Our team is assembled with very humble and hungry individuals, and we are a close family who want to achieve greatness.” (more…)
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (January 20, 2021): BJ McLeod Motorsports announces today that Ryan Ellis to drive the No. 99 car on a part-time NXS schedule with BJ McLeod Motorsports (BJMM) in 2021.
For the first time since 2016, Ellis will run a multiple-race schedule with the NXS team. Ellis is no stranger to BJ McLeod Motorsports. In 2018, Ellis first stepped in the No. 78 Xfinity car at Daytona International Speedway. The next year, Ellis also ran for the team at Iowa and Elkhart Lake, where he finished 17th, his career best in the BJMM car. (more…)
CONCORD, N.C., (January 12, 2021) – Kohler Generators, a leader in whole home backup generators and which operates underneath the umbrella of Kohler Co., has partnered with Roush Fenway Racing as an anchor partner making its debut on the No. 6 Ford with driver Ryan Newman on Feb. 14 at the famed Daytona 500. Kohler Generators will also serve as Newman’s primary partner for races at Atlanta (3/21), Darlington (5/9), Charlotte (5/30), Road America (7/4), Bristol (9/18), Talladega (10/3) and Martinsville (10/31). (more…)
In this edition of Lou Modestino’s “Track Talk”…..
Read all about these items after the jump… (more…)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 10, 2020) – NASCAR, in collaboration with FOX Sports and NBC Sports, today announced 2021 race start times and networks for the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series seasons. (more…)
The last thing Kevin Harvick needed was another bad race at Martinsville.
The last thing he needed was a driver below the cut line coming into Martinsville to win the race.
The last thing he needed was to have every driver he was chasing finish ahead of him. (more…)
Kyle Busch has been wanting to forget 2020 as the pandemic season has not proved to be in his favor. The lack of practice and testing sure seemed to hurt him the most. But he overcame all of that and put teammate Martin Truex, Jr. in a must win situation in the process. (more…)
Chase Elliott came back with a vengeance and won back-to-back races on the Roval. Elliott went back in the filed after an issue and at one point, the PRN broadcast team mentioned that he was making ground up but still a longshot to come back and win. I guess no one told Chase Elliott that.
Let’s face it, while I don’t think he would call himself a road course specialist, the kid is super good turning left and right. And it doesn’t seem to matter where the road course or roval is, he has been dominant on them. Rain or shine doesn’t seem to matter either.
Unlike the Xfinity race, the Cup race just had a slightly wet track to contend with. It wasn’t too long before cars were swapping out rain tires for slicks. I don’t mind watching cars race in the rain or on wet tracks, but stock cars aren’t really set up for that even with rain tires. They are about as ungainly as a race car comes.
As much of a statement as Chase’s win was, the same could be said about Kyle Busch on the other end of the spectrum. Busch finished a very disappointing 30th and fulfilled his promise that they would be eliminated in this round. He may not win this year.
Of all the drivers that have surprised me in this playoff is the elder Busch brother. Kurt Busch managed a 4th place finish and as we look towards Kansas, Kurt has five Top 10 finishes in his last seven races there. If he can run like that, he stands a chance on advancing quite a ways. Kurt also has an enviable record at Texas but he may need some help by the time they get to Martinsville.
Kansas has been very kind to Denny Hamlin, winner of the past two races and tied with Martin Truex, Jr. with two wins. But MTJ hasn’t won there since 2017. Other recent winners include Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.
My picks for the drivers exiting this round was pretty close. My list a few weeks ago was:
So Bowman advances, Austin Dillon falls and Kyle Busch had an epic fail.
For the next round that includes Kansas, Texas and Martinsville, the choices get a lot tougher. A simple mistake could be the difference between advancing or not. Texas may be the race that makes or breaks some of these guys.
My picks for failing to advance to the finals are:
Dark horse to fall:
Shocker but really not:
I basically see Kevin Harvick as the only driver not vulnerable to points. He has a good shot winning anywhere and has been the most consistent driver this year. Everyone else feels like a bad race could stop them. Obviously, it’s win and you advance but aside from Harvick, few drivers seem like a sure bet these next three races.
Who do you have?
(Featured image courtesy of Team Chevy PR)
