Trevor Bayne, drives the #6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford during testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 18, 2016 in Homestead, Florida. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
With the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 set for November 20, drivers in NASCAR’s top series made their way to Homestead-Miami Speedway on Tuesday to participate in the first of two scheduled team testing sessions. They are slated to conclude testing Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In Tuesday’s session, teams and their drivers took advantage of a full day’s worth of testing to prepare for November’s championship race. The 11 teams who took part in the tests had the opportunity to gain valuable racing data while experimenting on the Speedway’s 1.5-mile oval. Continue reading →
Kyle Busch’s domination of Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway was about the only predictable thing that happened in the first race of the Round of 8 in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase.
In winning his fourth XFINITY race at the 1.5-mile track, his ninth of the season and the 85th of his career—extending his own series record—Busch led 150 of 200 laps, passing Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez after a restart with 13 circuits remaining.
“It was a hard-fought battle,” said Busch, who had surged to a lead of 7.961 seconds before the first caution slowed the field on lap 57. “Seemed like it was going to be easy for us. We had a super-fast car, and when we were out front, I could take it easy on those long runs and we could drive away.
“The car would turn so well. A lot of things were trying to work against us at the end of the race. We were able to persevere and do the right things and have lucky restarts and be in the right grooves and not get caught up in the mêlée that was happening.”
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Core Toyota, is introduced prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Citizen Solider 400 at Dover International Speedway on October 2, 2016 in Dover, Delaware. Photo – Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
Runner-up Kyle Busch finished a whopping 7.527 seconds behind Martin Truex Jr., winner of Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway.
Though the Joe Gibbs Racing organization that fields Busch’s cars gets its engines from Toyota Racing Development (TRD), as does Truex’s Furniture Row Racing, and though the organizations maintain a technical partnership, Truex’s team has enjoyed an edge in speed of late, winning two of the first three races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
CHASE FORMAT HAS ADDED AGGRESSION TO ERIK JONES’ RACING STYLE
Top-seeded Erik Jones didn’t wait for the seven-race XFINITY Series playoff to alter his racing style to suit the new elimination format.
By his own admission, Jones raced conservatively last year in winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. But the win-and-you’re-in structure of the XFINITY Chase has given the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota more freedom to race for victories at any cost. Continue reading →
