Author: Mike Haag

FORT WORTH, Texas – Track officials at Texas Motor Speedway have announced that the seating area in the track’s new Restart Bar is sold out for next Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile speedway. However, there are limited tickets available for the speedway’s newest fan amenity for Saturday’s My Bariatric Solutions 300 Xfinity Series race. The Restart Bar is located 26 rows above the Restart Zone at the start of the dogleg exiting Turn 4. This new facility features outdoor seating, half-round tables, barstools and fixed seats at bars which are also…

Courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway Media Relations FORT WORTH, Texas – If there is one particular Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver that is pumped that Major League Baseball’s Opening Day falls during a rare off week, it is Kurt Busch. Opening Day will feature all 30 teams in action today, beginning with Busch’s beloved Chicago Cubs visiting the Miami Marlins to kick off the day’s busy schedule. Busch, the 2004 Cup Series champion who currently drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, is such an avid baseball fan that last year he completed the rare stadium cycle. Once he visited SunTrust Park,…

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In big time NASCAR racing, there are, of course, Victory Lane celebrations for the race winner. And then there are CLINT BOWYER Victory Lane celebrations or rather, as we learned Monday. …. Victory Lane, grandstands, pit road, frontstretch, track garage, driver motorhome lot, Stewart-Haas Racing shop and, of course, back home in Kansas celebrations. Parties, soirees, clicking-of-the-heels. High toasts, hearty handshakes, pats on the back. Smiles all around. There was plenty of hooting and hollering too – and that was just from Bowyer. It’s all the result of one of the…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Clint Bowyer was so excited he started his celebratory burnout at the entrance to Turn 3 at Martinsville Speedway, flirting perilously with the outside wall. Bowyer had ample reason to start the party early, before he got to the frontstretch for a traditional smoke show. With his victory in Monday’s snow-delayed STP 500, he had just ended a winless streak in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series that had reached 190 races, dating to the fall race at Charlotte in 2012. The victory did more than end a drought. It validated…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Hamlin and Harvick tangle at Martinsville – to Hamlin’s detriment MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Brake check? What brake check? After Monday’s snow-delayed STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, fifth-place finisher Kevin Harvick pleaded innocent to an intentional brake check of fellow veteran Denny Hamlin late in the event won by Clint Bowyer. “No, he hit me a couple times and I was just trying to make sure I had my car under control,” said Harvick, who slowed in front of Hamlin enough to damage the nose of Hamlin’s No.…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. — In a race delayed for two days by a freak snowstorm in southern Virginia, John Hunter Nemechek charged to the front on a restart with 31 laps left on Monday and held off Kyle Benjamin to win the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race by a mere .106 seconds. The victory was the first at Martinsville for Nemechek, who had two previous runner-up finishes at the .526-mile short track. This time, despite Benjamin pounding his rear bumper in the final corner, Nemechek earned the grandfather clock trophy…

News, notes and photos courtesy of NASCAR Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Next Race: STP 500 The Place: Martinsville Speedway TV: FS1 Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 263 miles (500 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 130), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 260), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 500) Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Looking Up Jimmie Johnson was ranked fourth this week by ESPN The Magazine on their list of sports’ “Dominant 20” athletes of the last two decades, which also included names like golf’s Tiger Woods, basketball’s Lebron James and the football’s Peyton Manning. And…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Faced with heavier than expected snowfall on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, NASCAR officials have postponed Sunday’s scheduled STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and the resumption of the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race until Monday. The STP 500 has been rescheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, following the completion of the Truck Series event, which was halted on Saturday after 23 laps by rain that later turned to snow as a storm moved into southern Virginia. The Alpha Energy Solutions 250 will restart…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr,. would have preferred to earn his third straight official pole on Saturday, but with rain forcing cancellation of STP 500 qualifying at Martinsville Speedway, Truex is happy to take the result. With the field ordered according to owner points after the rainout, Truex will start from the top spot on the grid for the third straight week in Sunday’s race (2 p.m. ET on FS1), having won poles at both ISM Raceway in Phoenix and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Though…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – NASCAR delayed the completion of Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 until Sunday after rain brought the proceedings to a halt after 23 laps at Martinsville Speedway. The race will resume after Sunday’s STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event at the .526-mile short track, with an estimated start time of 7 p.m. It will air on FS1. Ben Rhodes started from the pole and led every lap of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event before the No. 1 truck of Mike Senica stalled on the track on Lap 15, causing…