Author: Mike Haag

GLENDORA, Calif. – The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship hasn’t quite turned out like J.R. Todd has planned, but the Top Fuel standout still has at least one big goal remaining this season. Currently sixth in points, Todd has a chance to join Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta in the top five with a strong finish at this weekend’s Auto Club NHRA Finals at historic Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. With Antron Brown already clinching his second straight world championship, Todd, just 14 points out of fourth, has changed his focus to finishing as…

GLENDORA, Calif. – Matt Hagan will arrive at historic Auto Club Raceway in Pomona for this weekend’s Auto Club NHRA Finals with an impressive list of accomplishments during his 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and a shot – albeit a long one – to win his third career Funny Car world championship. But trailing Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps by 86 points, Hagan knows he would need one of the most fortunate weekends in class history in his 10,000-horsepower Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T to deny Capps his first career world title. A few different…

GLENDORA, Calif. – Almost everything has gone according to plan for Ron Capps during the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship and now the Funny Car standout is on the verge of clinching his first career world title. Predicting it would take a finish of the semifinals or better at each of the NHRA’s six playoff races, Capps has done just that at the first five stops and takes an 86-point lead over Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan into historic Auto Club Raceway in Pomona for the Auto Club NHRA Finals, Nov. 10-13. On…

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Tex. – Back from the dead. With a Lazarus act that was delayed and then shortened by rain, Carl Edwards revived his moribund championship hopes the only way he could—with a victory in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Last in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after a hard crash and a 36th-place finish last week at Martinsville, Edwards took the lead under caution on Lap 257 when his crew dashed off an 11-second pit stop. Edwards beat Martin Truex Jr. out of the pits, and…

FORT WORTH – NASCAR and Chevrolet today announced the winners of the second annual NASCAR Chevrolet Diversity Scholarship Contest during a press conference at Texas Motor Speedway. Four undergraduate students from across the country were awarded a total of $20,000 in scholarships and treated to a VIP experience at today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, the AAA Texas 500. The contest challenged students to identify a technology or innovation within NASCAR, then explain how STEM professionals came to its design in 90-second videos. Video submissions were judged on technical accuracy, creativity and production quality. Rachael Frost, a mechanical engineering student at…

FORT WORTH, Texas  – International film and television star Chuck Norris, known universally for his ageless machoism, will introduce the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers still vying for the series championship when they arrive today for the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Norris will introduce the eight drivers still in contention for the championship – Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch – that will include a special twist during pre-race activities leading up to the AAA Texas 500 (1 p.m. CT, TV: NBC, Radio:…

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Tex. – Grabbing the lead after a restart on Lap 171 of 200, Kyle Larson moved to the top of the track just in time to hold off polesitter Brad Keselowski for the victory in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway. In a race that saw Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez open some breathing room in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase with respective fourth- and fifth-place finishes, Larson got a push from sixth-place finisher Elliott Sadler on the decisive restart and kept Keselowski…

FORT WORTH – Click on the sideshow below to see a variety of photos from Saturday’s race action at Texas Motor Speedway.  All photos provided courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR and Getty Images.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Antarctica may be a virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass with insanely frigid temperatures, but that didn’t deter Texas Motor Speedway from finding a race fan on the barren southernmost continent that is home to the South Pole. In the past five years, Texas Motor Speedway has had fans visit for its NASCAR and Verizon IndyCar Series races from 41 countries and territories as well as six of the seven continents. The one missing for the speedway to hit for the continent “cycle” was naturally Antarctica. Since there are no full-time residents of that continent, Texas Motor Speedway…

FORT WORTH – Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage says that if you are handicapping the field for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at TMS, Jimmie Johnson has to be the hands-on favorite to win. With his victory at Martinsville Speedway last weekend, the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion clinched the first berth in the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 20 and he will attempt to tie NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty with a record seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. “You have to look at…