NASCAR Brad Keselowski

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NASCAR XFINITY Series O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Preview

OReillyChallenge_2011

NASCAR XFINITY Series teams are racing 300 miles over 200 laps in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, November 5th at 3:30 pm ET. Television coverage is on NBC with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

What to Watch For: Texas marks the penultimate race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase Round of 8. Elliott Sadler (12 points above Erik Jones on the cutoff line) leads the Chase Grid, followed by Daniel Suarez (+12), Blake Koch (+5), Justin Allgaier (0, currently holds tiebreaker over Erik Jones), Erik Jones (0), Ryan Reed (-2), Brendan Gaughan (-17) and Darrell Wallace Jr. (-18).

The Round of 8 drivers’ career average finishes at Texas: Erik Jones (2.3), Elliott Sadler (12.1), Justin Allgaier (12.5), Daniel Suarez (13.3), Darrell Wallace Jr. (13.3), Ryan Reed (16.2), Brendan Gaughan (19.4) and Blake Koch (31.5). Jones is the lone Chase contender who has won at Texas Motor Speedway (2015). Continue reading →

Austin Dillon Edges Hard-Luck Joey Logano for Texas Pole

 

Austin Dillon, driver of the #3 Realtree/Bad Boy Chevrolet, poses with the Coors Light Pole Award after qualifying for the pole position during Salute to Veterans Qualifying Fueled by Texas Lottery for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on November 4, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo - Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #3 Realtree/Bad Boy Chevrolet, poses with the Coors Light Pole Award after qualifying for the pole position during Salute to Veterans Qualifying Fueled by Texas Lottery for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on November 4, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Just because Austin Dillon is no longer in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, that doesn’t mean the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet has forgotten how to go fast.

Dillon sped around 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in 28.081 seconds (192.301 mph) in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session to earn the pole for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at 2 pm ET on NBC, the second race in the Chase’s Round of 8. Continue reading →

Jimmie Johnson’s Win at Martinsville Brings Talk of Seventh Title to Forefront

Mr. Martinsville is back – and with him, a realistic shot at a record-tying NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

Winless at the 0.526-mile short track since the spring race of 2013, Jimmie Johnson ended his “drought” on Sunday with a victory in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 and earned a berth in the Championship 4 race, set for Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In winning for the ninth time at Martinsville, the fourth time this season and the 79th time in his career, Johnson didn’t take the lead until he passed Denny Hamlin for the top spot on lap 409 of 500. Continue reading →

Logano Advances with Win in Wild Talladega Race; Chase Field Cut to Eight

If Joey Logano’s victory in Sunday’s Hellman’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was decisive—in relative terms—the race between Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon for the final pot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup’s Round of 8 was anything but.

In an overtime race that went four laps past its scheduled distance, Logano surged ahead after a restart on lap 191 at the 2.66-mile track and beat runner-up Brian Scott to the finish line by 0.124 seconds.

Hamlin’s margin over Dillon for the eighth spot in the Round of 8 was much smaller. At the end of 510.72 miles, Hamlin outraced Kurt Busch for third place by 0.006 seconds—roughly two feet—to score the exact number of points he needed to eliminate Dillon from the Chase on a tiebreaker. Continue reading →