By Joseph Wolkin It has been a transition year for Michael McDowell. His No. 95 team combined efforts with Circle Sport Racing to become Leavine Family Racing. Evidently, the move gave them a charter, and now, he is on pace for his best Sprint Cup season. What’s the biggest difference you’ve seen since you joined the organization? “The biggest difference is just going from part-time to full-time. Our first schedule was around 20 races, and then obviously being full-time this year. It’s been a steady increase. It takes a lot to go from 20 to 36 races. We had a lot of personnel…

By Jared Turner This weekend, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers will compete with a reduced downforce package for the third time this season. This aerodynamic package – which most notably features a smaller rear spoiler than the one used with the baseline 2016 rules package – will almost certainly be used full time in 2017 if all goes relatively well in Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Drivers debuted the reduced downforce aero package back in June when the Sprint Cup Series last raced at MIS. The package was also used at Kentucky Speedway in early July. Not surprisingly, reviews…

After being one of the fastest drivers at Bristol for Sunday’s rain-delayed race, Kyle Busch finished behind the wall with a torn-up race car. Busch, who led a race-high 256 of 500 laps, came home 39th out of 40 drivers due to a parts failure that sent his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for a spin around Lap 350. But instead of accepting the blame and moving on, Busch took the opportunity to criticize another driver – Justin Allgaier – and that driver’s spotter. Allgaier’s car clipped the nose of Busch’s car, resulting in major damage to both machines, while Busch…