Larson, who clinched the 2021 Cup Series title with victory in the 2021 season finale at Phoenix, led the way in average lap speed (131.728 mph) on the first day of a scheduled two-day test at the track on Tuesday. The Next Gen car is a wholesale change from NASCAR cars of years past, but
NASCAR
With reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson competing this week at the Chili Bowl Nationals, Hendrick Motorsports announced Monday that Earnhardt will test Larson’s #5 Chevrolet today (Tuesday) and tomorrow at Daytona International Speedway test. The 47-year-old, who currently works as a NASCAR TV analyst for NBC, retired from the Cup Series at the end of
The two-time Daytona 500 winner hasn’t raced a Cup car since his retirement following the 2017 season, but is participating in a two-day test at Daytona International Speedway with his former Hendrick Motorsports team while reigning Cup champion Kyle Larson is competing in the Chili Bowl, an important short track midget racing event. Speaking following
It was less than four months ago, during an interview at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Wilson said, “We’re all behind,” when it came to the development and testing of the new car. At that point, NASCAR had conducted just one multi-car test at Daytona International Speedway, and that produced a list of new issues,
NASCAR has made a revolutionary change to its premier stock car class this season, with teams no longer fabricating their own cars from scratch but assembling them from a common supply chain to dramatically cut costs. In the video (above) NASCAR’s managing director of vehicle systems Brandon Thomas explains how the chassis has been broken
After news broke last week that the RPM team’s storied #43 would be under new majority ownership next year, the rebranded organisation officially revealed its new name during a news conference on Tuesday, in which it was revealed that the team will run two Chevrolets for Erik Jones and Ty Dillon. Jones, who recently signed
Airline entrepreneur Maury Gallagher, the owner of the GMS squad that claimed Truck titles in 2016 and 2020 with Johnny Sauter and Sheldon Creed, has also acquired two charters in the agreement and will run two cars during the 2022 season. Erik Jones signed a contract extension with RPM in August and should remain in
Having contested 24 Formula 1 grand prix for McLaren and Stewart during the 1990s, Jan Magnussen is no stranger to the motorsport limelight. But the Dane admits that he tried to go under the radar for a one-off NASCAR Cup Series appearance at Sonoma in 2010, which he describes as a “fantastic experience”. Despite an
Due to COVID-19 pandemic protocols and for cost-saving, the vast majority of NASCAR race weekends have gone without practice or qualifying since early 2020. In a statement, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition Scott Miller said: “NASCAR is excited to return practice and qualifying to its race weekends. “We missed seeing cars and trucks on track all
The first day of a group test at the Charlotte Motor Speedway oval on Wednesday proved eventful, with Austin Dillon crashing his Richard Childress Chevrolet, while newly-crowned 2021 champion Kyle Larson and veteran Denny Hamlin had spins. Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman reported that the new car was “real edgy and hard to feel”, saying
Four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon says that 2021 series winner Kyle Larson has done “amazing things” in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports. After a brief stint as a TV analyst with Fox Sports following his racing career, Gordon returned to Hendrick in an official role in June of this year as vice-chairman of
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who finished second in 2018 with Furniture Row Racing and again in 2019 with JGR, led for 72 laps on Sunday and hit the front in stage three after undercutting his title rivals at what should have been the final stop of the race and cycling him back to the
Having won out in the ‘regular season’, Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson continued his impressive form throughout the playoffs, and capped off an excellent season with a strong defensive drive from Martin Truex Jr, who was looking to claim his second Cup Series title. Larson led the most laps at Phoenix, but had fallen out of lead
Truex has won four races this season – second-most among the title contenders – and won the spring race at Phoenix Raceway, the venue of Sunday’s title race. Yet Truex seems to have flown under the radar because three of his victories came early in the season. While he had to fight and claw for
Larson, 28, was indefinitely suspended from NASCAR and fired from Chip Ganassi Racing in March 2020 for using a racial slur over the radio during a public iRacing event. He sat out the remainder of the 2020 season, with a return to NASCAR never a certainty. After fulfilling the requirements by NASCAR to lift his
Wally Brown, JGR’s competition director, certainly believes the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Larson and reigning series champion Elliott have an advantage heading into the Phoenix finale. “Usually a lot of times, JGR might be the favourite going into a championship race. I think we’re definitely the underdogs. We have to beat the guy – Kyle
Busch, a two-time series champion, finished second in Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway, but was still eliminated from further contention for the 2021 series championship. In an interview caught on video by NBC Sports, Busch said a slur commonly used to refer to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities while describing his last-lap tangle with
The two drivers were battling for the lead when they made contact on lap 494 of 501, sending Hamlin’s #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota spinning. Bowman went on to win the race while Hamlin finished 24th, but the veteran still progressed to next week’s Championship 4 title decider at Phoenix on points along with Chase
In the closing 25 of 501 laps, Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsport Chevrolet and title contender Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) battled side-by-side multiple times for the lead until Bowman got loose and knocked Hamlin into a spin on lap 494. As Hamlin dropped to an eventual 24th position, Bowman – who had dropped out of playoff
Although Truex ran up front for most of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, he never seemed to have quite the speed of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. Truex, however, was in a far more precarious situation in points than Hamlin and needed every available position to have a chance of
Hamlin said his new-found interest in F1 has come from several of his friends paying attention to it and by watching Drive to Survive a popular documentary series produced in a collaboration between Netflix and Formula 1 to give a behind-the-scenes look at the series. “I think this year I’ve probably watched more [F1] races than
Larson had to hold off multiple contenders over six restarts in the final 60 laps – and just edged his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron by 0.459 seconds at the finish to earn his series-leading eighth win of the 2021 season. After winning Stage 2, Larson continued to lead into the final part of the
The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver appeared to have a car that could contend with team-mate and eventual race winner Kyle Larson on Sunday, but right-front tyres issues plagued him during the race. Starting at the rear of the field after his car failed pre-race inspection multiple times, he fought up to eighth by the conclusion
Logano’s Penske Racing team was one of 21 that participated in the two-day Charlotte test – the most teams to take part in a Next Gen test so far after an earlier eight-car test at Daytona International Speedway. During the test this week, NASCAR came up with multiple possible solutions for teams to try to
Late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race on the Charlotte Roval, the rear bumper cover of Chase Elliott’s #9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet dislodged and began dangling from behind his car. Elliott had wrecked on lap 55 of 109 after being hit by Kevin Harvick, which left the reigning Cup champion with severe rear-end damage. In
John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of innovation and racing, said the updates to the Next Gen chassis that will be introduced to the Cup Series in 2022 will be primarily made to its front and rear clips – all of which can be retrofitted into an existing clip. There will also be changes to
Larson first noticed an electrical problem on his car early in Stage 2 and when he pitted under caution on lap 34, his team discovered he had lost an alternator belt. Changing the battery provided a quick fix but the team formulated a plan to change the belt under additional stops. Once the work was
The latest coming together between the pair came three weeks after a fiery post-race confrontation at Bristol, when a delayed Elliott – who had suffered a puncture in contact from Harvick while battling for the lead – deliberately held up the 2014 champion and helped his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Kyle Larson to steal victory. Stewart-Haas
Team Hezeberg, a joint effort between racing legend Toine Hezemans and Dutch entrepreneur Ernst Berg, plans to field the No. 27 Ford Mustang in several races next season as the Cup Series debuts the Next Gen car. The team’s operations in the United States will be based at Reaume Brothers Racing in Mooresville, North Carolina.
Keselowski watched race winner Wallace use a block to protect his lead, and felt he had a way to get around the 23XI driver before running out of time. Instead, a four-car wreck on Lap 117 of the scheduled 188 laps at Talladega brought out a caution, locking Keselowski into second place. Soon after the