April 24, 2022 By Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service One lap. That’s all it took for Ross Chastain to drop a watermelon and raise a trophy in celebration. The 29-year old Floridian led only the last - typically frantic - lap in the GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Sunday to take his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory. Chastain was running third behind Erik Jones and Kyle Larson with one lap remaining. Larson pulled out of line to the outside poised to make a pass for the lead. But, Jones pulled in front of Larson to block the momentum while…

April 23, 2022 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service It was an Earnhardt Saturday in Earnhardt country. Grabbing the lead on a restart in the third overtime, Noah Gragson—driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports—won the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway. Gragson beat Jeffrey Earnhardt, grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was driving a black No. 3 Chevrolet in a special appearance for Richard Childress Racing, which fielded Dale Sr.’s car during his heyday. On the mammoth 2.66-mile track where Dale Sr. won a record 10 times and Dale Jr. added another six, Jeffrey Earnhardt…

April 17, 2022 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kyle Busch has a special fondness for Bristol Motor Speedway, but the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota needed a huge stroke of luck on Sunday night to rekindle his love affair with the half-mile track. Busch won the Food City Dirt Race from a distant third place after the Ford of second-place Chase Briscoe slid up the high-banked dirt track into the Chevrolet of leader Tyler Reddick in the final corner, turning both cars sideways. Reddick righted his Camaro and steered toward the finish line, but…

April 16, 2022 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Overcoming a mistake in communication, Ben Rhodes charged to the front in the closing laps of Saturday’s Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt snatched the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory from runner-up Carson Hocevar. One circuit after the final restart on Lap 146 of 150, Rhodes, the defending series champion, buried his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota into Turn 1, slid to the outside of third-place finisher John Hunter Nemechek and dived to the inside of Hocevar to take the lead. The dramatic charge to victory atoned for Rhodes’ failure…

April 9, 2022 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The first night race for the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway was a cakewalk for Hendrick Motorsports—until a late caution sent the race to overtime, that is. But William Byron survived a final restart and a mistake on the white-flag lap to win Saturday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at the .526-mile short track. Byron led 212 of the 403 laps. Teammate and pole winner Chase Elliott led the first 185 circuits, as Hendrick Motorsports surpassed 10,000 laps led at Martinsville, becoming the first Cup organization to hit…

April 8, 2022 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILE, Va. – On older tires, Brandon Jones stole an Xfinity Series win from the scion of the owner of his race team on Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway. Jones dived to the inside of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs as the Call 811 Before You Dig 250 went to a second overtime. Jones cleared Gibbs on the second circuit (Lap 261) and got to the finish line .677 seconds ahead of Landon Cassill, as Sam Mayer bumped Gibbs’s Toyota and squeezed it into the outside wall off the final corner. While…