The off week prior to the race at Indianapolis serves as a welcome respite to everyone in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series except crew chiefs who might be on the hot seat. One casualty of “chopping block week” occurred Tuesday morning when BK Racing relieved Pat Tryson of his duties as the head wrench for David Reutimann’s No. 83 entry.
This has been a year in sports unlike any other. But Saturday night, NASCAR will hold its regular-season finale, on schedule, at Daytona International Speedway. The Coke Zero Sugar 400, moved this year from its traditional July 4th weekend, will still provide fireworks as the remainder of the sport's 16-driver field will be determined by the parity and unpredictability of a superspeedway draft.
It's one of NASCAR's most respected traditions, put back on the original date where it belongs. The 2019 Southern 500 marks the fifth straight on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, a spot it held on the sport's calendar from 1950-2004 until an ill-fated decision to bounce it around for over a decade.
The biggest news in NASCAR this weekend may not have come from the 2019 FireKeepers Casino 400. Instead, it happened over 1,000 miles away in a Gander Outdoors Truck Series race in Fort Worth, Texas.
That’s where 49-year-old Greg Biffle, the former NASCAR star won in his first race back in the sport since Homestead-Miami Speedway in November 2016. Biffle, the 2000 Truck Series champion, earned $50,000 for the Triple Truck Challenge and put himself in position for more opportunities.
March Madness, typically reserved for the NCAA Tournament, was supposed to trickle down to NASCAR last weekend. Martinsville Speedway’s short track is typically an automatic for the most exciting action you'll see all year; just last fall, Joey Logano pulled the bump-and-run on Martin Truex Jr. in a championship-defining moment.
Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadlerhave more than 1,500 starts between them in NASCAR’s top three divisions. Both men competed for championships, winning multiple Cup races while driving for two of the sport’s legendary teams. (Sadler drove for Robert Yates Racing while Kahne spent six years running for Hendrick Motorsports). Corporate branding has put them successfully at the forefront of sponsorships with companies like M&M’s, Red Bull, Dodge and OneMain Financial.
Wheeling a car that feels comfortable and turns well is the goal of every driver. But that car also has to be fast. When a comfortable setup feels perfect, yet falls mid-pack or worse on the speed charts, the process to find speed becomes maddening. Welcome to Greg Biffle’s life at Roush Fenway Racing.
The knock on the No. 4 team this year with driver Kevin Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers was simple. Entering Homestead, they had clearly proven themselves as one of the fastest — if not the fastest — on the NASCAR Sprint Cup grid each week: four wins, including a Phoenix sweep and leading the most laps out in the series was their proof on paper. But for all the victories they’d tallied, this bunch still had a hard time finishing races.