Chris Buescher captures first victory when fog stops race at Pocono

Aug. 1, 2016 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Chris Buescher sat in his car on pit road, dreaming of the possibilities. NASCAR had just red-flagged Monday’s rain-delayed Pennsylvania 400 when a heavy fog settled over Pocono Raceway after 138 of a scheduled 160 laps, and Buescher was the unlikely race leader. “I’m thinking of every kind of rain dance I can,” Buescher said on his radio. The mental rain dance worked. When NASCAR ended the stoppage by calling the race because of weather, Buescher had his first victory as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, and Front…

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Jones powers past Dillon for third win of the season

July 30, 2016 By Brian Eberly NASCAR Wire Service NEWTON, Iowa – For 83 laps, it looked like Ty Dillon's winless drought would finally end. That was until Erik Jones flashed the brilliance that has many predicting big things for the Joe Gibbs Racing prodigy. Jones led a race-high 154 laps in the No. 20 DeWalt Toyota en route to victory lane on Saturday night in the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway. Jones passed Dillon with 15 laps remaining to retake the lead for the final time of the night and beat Dillon’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet to the…

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Byron breaks rookie record with Truck Series win at Pocono

July 30, 2016 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa. – Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Pocono Raceway featured no Sprint Cup drivers in the field. Then again, the race didn’t need any representation from NASCAR’s top division, as dominant as William Byron was. The 18-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., led 44 of 60 laps in the No. 9 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota in a caution-filled event and pulled away to beat runner-up Cameron Haley to the finish line by a comfortable 1.407 seconds. The victory was the fifth in 12th starts this year for…

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Driver Profile: Michael Lira Is on the Rise

By Joseph Wolkin Michael Lira began a new journey this past weekend at Iowa Speedway. The Florida native piloted the No. 15 car in the Xfinity Series, taking a giant leap from the ARCA Racing Series. For Lira, who just turned 19 years old, the chance to move up into the NASCAR realm is one his family has worked hard for after starting an ARCA program in hopes of starting something special. How difficult has it been for you to work through the rankings and make a name for yourself? “It’s definitely not an easy fight to make it to the top…

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Crew Member Profile: Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chris Miko

Chris Miko, the second transport driver for Joe Gibbs Racing and driver Matt Kenseth, hadn’t even heard of NASCAR before a golden opportunity came his way to attend a Sprint Cup Series event. It proved to be the path to a new career. “I saw my first NASCAR race in 1997 at Pocono Raceway,” Miko said. “I was living in New York at the time and I went with a bunch of friends. We actually were in a bowling league and we got some free tickets to the race. I’ve been hooked on NASCAR ever since. It was a July race I…

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Driver Feature: Ross Chastain Is Carving Out a Place with JDM

When Ross Chastain joined JD Motorsports last year, he never imagined the team would have enough money to compete weekly for top 10s – let alone buy a show car. After earning four top 10s last year, the watermelon spokesman is attracting more sponsors as the small team gains momentum. How would you evaluate how the year has gone thus far? “We haven’t gotten the finishes we probably wanted or sometimes deserved. We’ve had more speed than where we’ve been finishing, which is a good problem to have.” What do you feel like you need to do to get those better finishes? “It’s…

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