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USA Today
4 days ago
- Automotive
- USA Today
Samantha Busch, wife of NASCAR champion driver Kyle Busch, in images
Samantha Busch, wife of NASCAR champion driver Kyle Busch, in images Kyle Busch is on his way to a Hall of Fame career in NASCAR. He has won numerous races at every level, Craftsman Truck, Xfinity and, of course, Cup Series. Wherever Kyle Busch goes his wife Samantha has been seen for years. She is a familiar presence cheering on her husband as he looks to notch victories. Television cameras gravitate to Samantha Busch as she sits atop the box hoping her husband captures checkered flags. Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch Samantha Busch
Miami Herald
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Action shifts to Talladega after a couple of odd turns
Coming off a couple of very different race weekends, NASCAR arrives at Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday's Jack Link's 500 at the Cup Series' biggest track. The talk in the infield media center, garage and haulers will likely center around the last two races: a brutal Bristol for everyone not sporting Kyle Larson colors, followed by an incredibly delightful visit to Rockingham Speedway. After last spring's quirky, tire-falloff oddity in cool temperatures, not much happened in Thunder Valley on April 13 as Larson's No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet scorched its way around the half-mile Bristol bullring to lead 411 of the 500 laps on a warmer day. At least the 2024 version was compelling. The only reason Larson didn't repeat his 462 laps led in last September's Bristol race was because of Ryan Blaney's strategy of not pitting, putting him in position to lead 48 circuits. But the No. 12 Ford driver lost on the yellow flag for the second straight week -- not needing it when leading at Darlington and not getting it when needed at Bristol. The excitement ramped back up on Easter weekend when the Xfinity, Craftsman Truck and ARCA series gave fans who tuned in on FS1 and the CW plenty of action and tight racing at Rockingham that Bristol sorely lacked. The racing was so good at the 1.017-mile, D-shaped speedway located in North Carolina's sand hills that it begged a question: Is there a future place on the Cup schedule for The Rock? "We know that (NASCAR Executive Vice President) Ben Kennedy told the Charlotte Observer that, 'Yes, we're looking at Rockingham. We could go back there in 2027 if everything goes good,'" said former driver Kenny Wallace on social media. Wallace was at the track with fellow Missourian Ken Schrader for the festivities and racing's return and said he felt optimistic about Rockingham. "It was a grand slam. ... I feel really good that NASCAR Cup Series will be back at Rockingham in 2027," he added. As for the mammoth Talladega 2.66-mile high-banked challenge, it produced in a way as big as its layout one year ago. Running fifth off the final turn, Tyler Reddick drove his No. 45 Toyota through a mess sparked by blocking from leader Michael McDowell as the field approached the checkers. The Team 23XI driver won his first 2024 race for team owner Michael Jordan as chaos started behind him. While Reddick is the defending race winner, 15-year veteran Ricky Stenhouse Jr. notched just his fourth career victory when the Cup Series returned to the high-speed track east of Birmingham, beating Brad Keselowski's No. 6 Ford in early October. Talladega also has a history of drivers recording their very first Cup wins at the Alabama superspeedway. Keselowski found Victory Lane in 2009 for his initial triumph in NASCAR's top series. Over three straight seasons running from 1986-88, Bobby Hillin Jr., Davey Allison, Phil Parsons and Schrader were first-time series winners. And Stenhouse (2017) and Bubba Wallace (2021) also scored checkers there for the first time. So a driver like Ryan Preece, Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek, Zane Smith, Carson Hocevar, Noah Gragson or Riley Herbst should hang in there, be patient and try to avoid "The Big One." Sunday may be your day. --Field Level Media Field Level Media 2025 - All Rights Reserved
NBC Sports
13-04-2025
- Automotive
- NBC Sports
What to watch for in today's NASCAR Cup race at Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn. — It's Bristol, baby, but what does that mean for today's race? A race where tire wear is prevalent? Maybe. A race that sees Denny Hamlin score a third consecutive victory? Possibly. A race where mistakes will determine who is racing for the win and who isn't? Count on it. Here's a look at what to watch for in today's race at Bristol Motor Speedway: Drivers to watch Favorites: Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. The two have combined to win five of the last eight races on the concrete at Bristol. Hamlin seeks to win his third consecutive race of the season after victories the past two weeks at Martinsville and Darlington. Larson seeks to win his second race of the weekend. After finishing second in Friday's Craftsman Truck race, Larson won Saturday's Xfinity Series race. Keep an eye on: Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell. Blaney has been fast much of this season but has yet to reach Victory Lane. He lost the lead on pit road ahead of the overtime restart last weekend at Darlington. Bell has five top-three finishes in the first eight races of the season, including the past two events. Don't overlook: Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman. Keselowski needs a good run. His average finish is 26.1, the worst of his career eight races into a season. He finished third in last spring's race at Bristol when drivers had to manage tire wear. Could the same thing happen today? Bowman starts on the pole and finished in the top 10 in both Bristol races last year. He's opened the season with five top 10s in the first eight races this year. Dustin Long, Nice and easy might get to the checkered flag first With drivers expecting tire wear to be a factor, similar to last spring's race, pole-sitter Alex Bowman explains what it could be like for drivers to manage tires in today's race. 'In the spring last year, we rode around at what felt like half speed all day, and I thought I was going to get out of the car and everybody was going to be mad because we didn't run hard all day,' Bowman said. 'Everybody loved it because there was so much chaos. So in the fall, we just ran hard all day. You run hard every lap, and that's kind of what Cup racing has become these days … how hard you have to run the car. 'There are some places you have to manage, but for the most part, you're ten-tenths every lap. I think (Sunday), it's really going to depend on when the cautions come out and what they do. Like you look at the end of that spring race, and we didn't get any cautions for a lot of things that could have been cautions, probably. But at the beginning of the race, we were getting cautions all the time. So there's two ways to predict that, right? If you save too much and you keep getting all these cautions, you're just giving away track position. But if you don't get the cautions and you run too hard, you're killed on that, too. 'So it'll be interesting to see what the mindset is there and what the reality that we live in (Sunday), as far as what the tires do with it being a little warmer and where we go. So I think the biggest thing is it's going to be a ton of learning on the go because as much as we all think we know exactly what it's going to do from practice, we probably really don't have a clue, and we're going to have to learn as we go.' Watch pit road Bristol is the only track with pit stalls on the frontstretch and backstretch. During cautions, all cars must enter pit road at Turn 2 even if their pit stall is on the frontstretch. One of the challenges for drivers is driving around the curve on the apron in Turns 3 and 4. Drive too close to the inside wall and a driver will short cut the radius of the corner and be hit with a speeding penalty. That's what happened in Ty Gibbs in last fall's playoff race. Others have been caught in that area in past races. There are three pit road timing segments on the apron in Turns 3 and 4. So, if you see or hear of a pit road penalty in sections 6, 7 or 8 of pit road, it came in that apron section between Turns 3 and 4.
Fox News
31-03-2025
- Automotive
- Fox News
Kyle Larson wins Cup Series at Homestead, finishes one race shy of triple-header sweep
Kyle Larson passed Alex Bowman with six laps remaining in NASCAR's Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver the 30th win of his career at one of his best tracks. Larson sped by as Bowman scraped the wall on Turn 4 with the lead. Larson extended his edge to more than a second over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, then held on to beat Bowman by 1.205 seconds for his second career Cup Series win at Homstead, and his second victory of the weekend. Larson fell one race short of sweeping the triple-header weekend. He won the Craftsman Truck race on Friday and finished fourth in the Xfinity Series on Saturday. He was hoping to join Kyle Busch as the only drivers to sweep a triple-header weekend — Busch did it at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2010 and 2017. He was far from dominant on Sunday. Larson, driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, led just 19 of 267 laps and had to overcome poor starting position, pit road mishaps and bad restarts to pull off the win — his first victory of the season and first in the Cup Series at Homestead since 2022. Bowman, who was Saturday's pole winner, finished second in the No. 48 Chevrolet. Bubba Wallace was third for 23XI Racing after leading 43 laps — the most laps he's led in a race since September 2023. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. Ryan Blaney was running third when his engine blew up on Lap 207, causing a thick cloud of smoke to cover the track and a lengthy cleanup. It had been a strong race for Blaney before then. He led 124 laps and won Stage 1 after starting sixth. It was the second time in three races that Blaney did not finish a race because of an engine failure with his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. "It just stinks," Blaney said. "Led a lot of laps. Lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on pit road but got back to third. And it was a great race between me, Bubba and Larson. ... It was going to be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so, but just didn't really work out for us. We'll keep our head up. "It's one of those things where it's not really going our way right now, but the good news is we're bringing fast cars." While exiting pit road on Lap 84, Josh Berry's No. 21 Ford hit the side of Larson's car, then hit Joey Logano's No. 22 Ford. Both Logano and Berry spun then went the wrong direction into their pit stalls to check the damage. Larson's car was slightly damaged from the contact. Another incident happened on Lap 172. Chase Elliott received a penalty for not being line up single-file coming into pit road, even though Elliott could be heard on his in-car feed saying the he had veered left to avoid hitting someone, but gave the spot back. Elliott, driving a No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, finished 18th. The Cup series races next at Martinsville Speedway, where Blaney won in November to punch his ticket into last season's playoff final four. Wiliam Byron won Martinsville last spring. Reporting by The Associated Press. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.
Fox Sports
24-03-2025
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Hendrick Motorsports is off to a great start to the NASCAR season, but they're after perfection
Hendrick Motorsports is off to a great start to the NASCAR season, but they're after perfection Updated Mar. 24, 2025 11:58 a.m. ET share facebook x reddit link Associated Press HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — It's been a fast start to the NASCAR season for powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports. The racing team has two wins in the first six Cup Series races of the season, including Kyle Larson's victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday. And its drivers hold the top three positions in points and four of the top six. Still, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon believes his team is just in the chase. 'The nice thing is, when you get a start like this and you're up there in the points, it's the fine-tuning (that comes after),' Gordon said. 'What you're chasing is victories. Perfection is what you're really looking at.' ADVERTISEMENT William Byron — who last month won his second straight Daytona 500 — Larson and Alex Bowman sit atop the standings. And the latter two Hendrick Motorsports drivers were in a battle for the win at Homestead. Bowman, who started first in the 37-car field on Sunday, had passed Bubba Wallace for the lead with about 30 laps to go while Larson surged from behind. By Lap 261, Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet scraped the outside wall, allowing Larson's No. 5 Chevrolet to get by him and dash off to a 1.205-second win that gave him his first Cup Series trophy of the year. Larson said afterward he could sense both Bowman and Wallace, who finished third for 23XI Racing, might start making mistakes as he gained on them. He added he got around Bowman easier than expected on his teammate's errant move. 'Guess I choked that one away, for sure,' Bowman said. 'Just kind of burnt myself up. I saw the 5 (Larson) coming and moved around a little bit. ... Just a couple mistakes there. Felt like we were OK all day.' It capped a busy weekend for Larson, who fell one race short of sweeping the triple-header weekend. He won the Craftsman Truck race on Friday and finished fourth in the Xfinity Series on Saturday despite leading 132 of 201 laps. He came back motivated on Sunday, winning his second career Cup Series race at one of his best tracks despite leading only 19 of 267 laps. 'I didn't think anybody was going to catch (Bowman).' Gordon said. 'You just can't ever count out Kyle Larson, especially at this place.' Byron and Larson each have a Cup Series win, three top-five finishes apiece, and four top-10 finishes each this year. They've led a combined 203 laps. Bowman has one top-five finish, five top-10 finishes and has led 62 laps. Chase Elliott, driving the No. 6 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, is sixth in the point standings with three top-10 finishes. Those four Hendrick cars are the only Chevrolets in the top 10 in points. 'We've had a couple races where all four of the cars are in the top eight or 10," Gordon said, 'and, you know, it's a finicky sport because you want to get off to a good start, get in a good position in points so that you're not on your heels and playing catch up. That part's really nice, but we've been getting beat.' Added Larson: 'Although we're four of the top six, I don't think that any of us are like the best car currently.' On Sunday, that car, in Gordon's eye, was Ryan Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Blaney dominated — he led 124 laps and won Stage 1 after starting sixth. He was running third when his engine blew up on Lap 207, causing a thick cloud of smoke to cover the track and ending his afternoon. 'Honestly, I think that was the car,' Gordon said. 'It's ridiculous how fast they were. So I still think we're chasing right now.' ___ AP auto racing:
