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JTG-Daughtery working to carry Daytona momentum into the remainder of the season

The last three Daytona 500s have produced surprise winners with the most recent version doing exactly that when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was deemed by NASCAR Cup Series officials as the victor when they ruled that the JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet was ahead of the pack when a race-ending yellow flag waved. It was only the third career win for the Olive Branch, Mississippi driver with both his other triumphs having come back in 2017 when he drove for Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse’s JTG-Daugherty team had only won one other Cup race prior to last Sunday with driver A.J. Allmendinger in 2014 on…

Jimmie Johnson has much to learn going in to Cup Series return

How could a driver who has amassed seven championships and 83 victories at the NASCAR Cup Series level over the course of a stellar career have anything to learn? When that driver has not turned a single competitive lap in the Next Gen car and has been out of this form of racing since the end of the 2020 season, the answer to that question is quite a bit. Jimmie Johnson retired from full-time competition in NASCAR two seasons ago to pursue racing in IndyCar. After finding only marginal success in open-wheel machines, the 47-year-old star is now back as…

Austin Dillon looking forward to new teammate, improved performance

A win in the cutoff race at the Daytona International Speedway last August got Austin Dillon into the 2022 NASCAR Playoffs for the fifth time in his NASCAR Cup Series career. This season, the 32-year-old driver is hoping to do more than just make the cut. With a new teammate in the stable, he hopes the entire Richard Childress Racing operation will take another step toward returning to the dominant form it once had. It isn’t as if RCR was lagging way behind the competition last year. After all, Dillon scored the one win and then teammate Tyler Reddick drove…

Daniel Suarez: “We’re happy but we’re not satisfied”

After several seasons marked by struggles at the NASCAR Cup Series level while driving for teams such as Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, Daniel Suarez seemed to find a comfort zone in 2022 in his second campaign with Trackhouse Racing. Bolstered by confidence provided by team leaders Justin Marks and ‘Pitbull’, the 30-year-old driver became a consistent front runner and secured his first win at the top level of the sport when the No. 99 Chevrolet pulled into victory lane at the Sonoma Raceway. While Suarez was happy to earn his first Cup win, he believes there were other…

Is there enough rising talent in the pipeline to fill potentially vacant seats?

It looks as if NASCAR could be set for a generational change such as that from a few years ago when drivers such as Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards left the sport within the space of just a few seasons. Now, it appears as if Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. are at the age where they will be stepping away in the not-to-distant future. Of course, that process has already begun. Kurt Busch retired last year and Kevin Harvick has announced that this will be his last as a full-time competitor….

Christopher Bell looking to continue progression in 2023

It is sometimes said that getting to the top is one thing and staying on top is another. Christopher Bell will be working to prove that he can stay on top after having proven last season that he could get there. The 28-year-old driver from Norman, Oklahoma won three NASCAR Cup Series races in 2022, two of which came in the most pressure-filled situations imaginable. While 2021 was not necessarily a bad season. After all, the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver won his first Cup race on the road course at the Daytona International Speedway. But this past year seemed…

Ross Chastain: “We were and we are willing to do anything”

If Hollywood were looking to make a movie about racing, a possible script idea could sound something like the following. A driver spends several seasons struggling at the lower levels of NASCAR with no real success achieved only to finally get a big break. However, that opportunity is ultimately ripped away leaving said driver seemingly out of luck. However, new opportunities arise that ultimately lead to a seat with a new and unproven team that quickly emerges as a contender allowing the driver to score Cup Series wins. Those victories ultimately lead to some miraculous last lap heroics and a…

Kyle Busch looking for return to championship form at RCR

Without a doubt, the biggest piece of news involving a driver moving from one team to another this past season was that of Kyle Busch parting ways with longtime team Joe Gibbs Racing then ultimately landing at Richard Childress Racing. The 37-year-old star has compiled one of the most impressive records in NASCAR history with two Cup Series championships and 60 wins at the top level of the sport to his credit. And all of that has been accomplished before the age that has often been considered the prime of a racer’s career. Now, for the second time in his…

Kyle Larson not shying away from dirt even during NASCAR Playoffs

Kyle Larson didn’t win the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship by accident. He is a talented driver with a great crew and both of those elements are part of a great organization. Even with all of that, the Elk Grove, California driver’s path to the title might have seemed like an unorthodox one for some observers. Rather than being solely focused on the Cup Series task at hand, Larson spent a good deal of last season racing in places other than the venues which were hosting NASCAR. Over the course of the season, the driver who had been suspended from…

Jeremy Clements hoping to parlay Playoff eligibility into more support

Jeremy Clements experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in the hours and days following his win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Daytona International Speedway. The euphoria of winning on that form of racing’s biggest stage and earning a spot in the NASCAR Playoffs was soon replaced by the news that his car’s engine manifold had been deemed illegal at the NASCAR R&D Center. While the Spartanburg, SC driver and his family-owned team were allowed to keep the win, his Playoff eligibility was stripped along with crew chief Mark Setzer being suspended and fined….