By Jared Turner With two playoff races in the books, four drivers have clinched berths in the Round of 12. None of the four who’ve punched tickets to the next round is a surprise. Of the four, three of them — Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch — have been hands-down the season’s most dominant drivers. The other, Brad Keselowski, is a former Monster Energy Series champion who boasts considerable playoff experience and is aligned with one of the sport’s top organizations in Team Penske. While the names at the top of the playoff standings aren’t the least bit surprising,…

By Ben White Kyle Shano, interior specialist for TriStar Motorsports and driver Cole Whitt, comes from a family of racers that traveled east from California years ago to NASCAR’s Cup series. “The first Cup series race I saw was the 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1996,” Shano said. “I’ve always been around the sport. My Dad, David Shano, has been racing forever and I grew up watching him. He was a Winston West driver for many years and is actually the transporter driver for the No. 77 Furniture Row Cup team.” For several years, Kyle drove dirt Late Models before he…

By Joseph Wolkin Tommy Joe Martins is known as the voice of the little guys in the NASCAR garage. This year, he’s taking on a new challenge of starting a Truck Series team. Fortunately, it’s slowly working for him. What’s it like to split time between finding funding and running a team? “Well, it looks like I’m going to have the opportunity to move to North Carolina and be much more hands-on with the team and take on more of a manager role. Everything I’ve done has been from far away. My dad has been really involved with that and he’s always…

By Ben White Jeffrey Earnhardt, driver of the CTSMC Motorsports Chevrolet, is proud to carry the No. 33 on the sides and top of his bright green Cup series machines. After all, there’s some family ties that date back to when his father, Kerry Earnhardt, ran the number while his building his own driving career in the mid the early 2000s. In April of 2012, team owner Joe Falk bought the team from Earnhardt’s longtime team owner, Richard Childress. It was chosen because of Dale’s incredible success with the No. 3. Now, the grandson of seven-time Cup series champion Dale Earnhardt is…

By Keith Waltz This weekend’s ISM Connect 300 will be the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ final fall visit to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the foreseeable future. The track has hosted two NASCAR premier series races each year since 1997, but there is only a single visit to the 1.058-mile oval on the 2018 calendar. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule has featured 36 races each year since 2001, but NASCAR has occasionally allowed a company to shuffle dates among its portfolio of tracks. That’s what’s happening with New Hampshire’s second race. The track in Loudon, New Hampshire, is owned…