The First Two Playoff Races Have Offered Few Surprises

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,…

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Kyle Busch dodges disaster to win Playoff race at New Hampshire

  Sept. 24, 2017   By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service   LOUDON, N.H. – Kyle Busch didn’t need a smokescreen to win Sunday’s ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway – he simply had to survive one. Driving unscathed through a cloud of smoke on the backstretch on the final lap of the second stage, Busch, the polesitter, took control of the race at the halfway point and beat Kyle Larson to the finish line by 2.641 seconds. In winning for the third time this season, the third time at Loudon and the 41st time in his Monster Energy NASCAR…

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Tyler Reddick earns first career win in XFINITY Playoffs opener

Sept. 23, 2017 By Chris Knight NASCAR Wire Service SPARTA, Ky. – Running a partial NASCAR XFINITY Series schedule this season, Tyler Reddick spoiled the party for the opening round of the Playoffs by earning his first career win in Saturday night’s VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky Speedway. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver took control of the lead 74 laps from the finish and never looked back. His 14.540-second margin of victory over teammate Brennan Poole was the largest in the series’ history at the 1.5-mile speedway in 16 years of competition. “I don’t know if it was necessarily me making a statement,…

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Truck Series leader Christopher Bell sweeps stages in New Hampshire win

Sept. 23, 2017  By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. – In Christopher Bell’s dominating win in Saturday’s UNOH 175 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the rich got richer. The top seed in the series Playoffs, Bell won the first two stages of the opening postseason event and took the checkered flag 1.248 seconds ahead of runner-up Ryan Truex to notch his fifth victory of the season. The win earned Bell automatic advancement into the second round of the Playoffs, gave him an additional seven playoff points to bring his series-leading total to 47 and…

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Crew Member Profile: TriStar Motorsports Interior Specialist Kyle Shano

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…

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Tommy Joe Martins Is Finding His Place in the Truck Series

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…

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