Author: Mike Haag

By Brant James, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Team owner Chip Ganassi spoke personally with Danica Patrick and her representatives Thursday and Friday about the possibility of fielding cars for her in either the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, or both, but said he doesn’t yet have enough information to determine if participating in her farewell jaunt is feasible. “I think it’s a great idea for her to do that,” Ganassi said of Patrick ending her racing career at two tracks where she has enjoyed some of her greatest success. “I think it’s a fabulous idea, a fabulous marketing idea, it’s…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – With a dramatic run late in Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Denny Hamlin knocked Championship 4 contender Martin Truex Jr. off the pole for Sunday’s Ford Eco-Boost 400 (on NBC at 3 p.m. ET). Hamlin covered the 1.5-mile distance in 31.038 seconds (173.980 mph) in the final round, edging Truex (173.952 mph) by .005 seconds for the top starting spot in the race that will decide the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship. Truex, in turn, was .004 seconds faster than title contender Kyle Busch (173.930 mph). Championship 4…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Danica Patrick said good-bye to racing during a tearful press conference on Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway—but it will be a long good-bye. “This will be my final season as a full-time driver,” Patrick said between sobs, before revealing plans to finish her career by running two more races in 2018, the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. Though Patrick said details had not been finalized for either race, she indicated negotiations on both fronts have been under way for some time. “We’re down the line with different facets of moving forward, but…

By Brant James, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Memories of his formative nine seasons with his family team will be easily conjured for Dale Earnhardt Jr. this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In his final race as a full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver – Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBC) – the sport’s most popular figure will utilize a No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with an aesthetic reminiscent of the one in which he made his Monster Energy Series debut in 1999. Amid personal acrimony with stepmother and now-defunct Dale Earnhardt Inc. team owner Teresa Earnhardt,…

By Brant James, NASCAR Wire Service MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Kevin Harvick’s two wins this season are fewer than any of the other three drivers eligible to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His Stewart-Haas Racing team needed half a season to finally find its footing after switching from Chevrolet to Ford. Martin Truex Jr. remains the most consistent, most consistently able to strong-arm a weekend for a Toyota contingent that has been the prime manufacturer of the season. Harvick isn’t concerned. And with reason. He’s in position for another epic close, and the…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – According to the metrics and the odds makers, Brad Keselowski is at the bottom of the totem pole entering Sunday’s Ford Eco-Boost 400 (on NBC at 3 p.m. ET) at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After all, he squeaked into the Championship 4 race on points, when Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin renewed their burgeoning rivalry last Sunday at Phoenix Raceway to the detriment of Hamlin, whose charge toward the final four ended in a heap of bent sheet metal against the Turn 3 wall. Keselowski was the beneficiary of Hamlin’s demise. And though…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – They’re not exactly the Three Musketeers. It won’t be “one for all, and all for one” when three JR Motorsports teammates—Elliott Sadler, William Byron and Justin Allgaier—take the green flag in Saturday’s Ford Eco-Boost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN). In fact, all three drivers, along with Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric, will be competing for the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship trophy, and there’s only one of those to go around. That doesn’t mean the teammates won’t race each other—or Hemric, for that matter—with respect. “We have four…

By Brant James, NASCAR Wire Service MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Austin Cindric was precocious from the beginning of what would become a racing career. First he had to talk his mother, Megan, and father, Tim, the president of Team Penske, into allowing him to race karts. Then he had to overcome each of the obstacles they intentionally placed before him to make sure he truly wanted it. He overcame each of them in turn. Cindric, 19, could become a precocious NASCAR champion if he betters the three other championship contenders – Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton and Christopher Bell – in Friday’s…

By Brant James, NASCAR Wire Service Crew chief Cole Pearn spent the first 35 races of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season watching driver Martin Truex Jr. amass a bevy of insurance through playoff and stage points with his series-high seven victories. All that security is gone now, as the Furniture Row Racing team that has been the standard for the garage enters the finale on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a four-car showdown for the championship. All Truex Jr. has to do is finish better than three former series champions — Brad Keselowski (2012), Kevin Harvick (2014) and Kyle…

Courtesy of the NHRA HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Brittany Force, Robert Hight, Bo Butner and Eddie Krawiec were feted as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series champions Monday during the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series awards ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The championship drivers were honored for their season-long achievements and presented with checks and trophies for winning 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world championship titles during the NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship, NHRA’s playoffs. Force was crowned the second female Top Fuel racer to win the category crown…