Car FYI

NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano holding the Championship Trophy in 2024 after prevailing in the Playoff Finale at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR) Every year since its 1948, NASCAR’s top division has crowned a champion at the end of a season of racing. In the 77 years, there have been various points-paying formats for the title but none has been so polarizing as the current NASCAR Playoffs for the Cup Series . Ever since its inception, the championship-deciding 10-race format attracts strongly polarizing views of the sport’s fans and observers. Supporters of the current Playoff format promote the diverse group of contenders late in a season, how it directly rewards winning races and there is a certain crowning of a champion at the final race. Detractors of the NASCAR Playoffs have been vocal since its initial incarnation in 2004 (called the Chase for the Cup) criticizing it as manufactured title hunt which, in honesty, it is. One major argu...

Photo Credit: ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images With the start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, competitors racing with the Chevrolet bow tie will be running an unmarked vehicle. Of course, fans of the sport will instantly recognize the car as the sixth generation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that has raced since 2018 and since 2022 in the form of the Gen 7 stock car, there is no mention of the Camaro name on the vehicle for 2025. The discontinuation of the production Chevrolet Camaro following the 2024 model year prompted the adjustment to how the brand’s vehicles would be represented in racing. Running what is essentially an obsolete car for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the Chevrolet contingent are not the first teams to compete with cars no longer running off assembly lines. From the foundation of NASCAR in 1948 to the 1970s, Cup races would commonly feature cars across several model years but a Grand National Series (later Cup Series) rule required that cars be based...

Photo Credit: Pattie Petty/NASCAR When it comes to stock car racing or even auto racing in general, the name Richard Petty ranks alongside the legendary stars of any major sport. The son of early stock car racing icon Lee Petty, Richard’s accolades behind the wheel are marks drivers today struggle to beat. Amassing 200 victories in the NASCAR Grand National/Cup Series including seven championships, Petty would retire from driving in 1992 with the lofty nickname of “The King”. Although his on-track feats would be enough to earn the moniker, professionalism and business sense reflected by a long-term partnership with automotive additive company STP combined with a fan-friendly personality has made Richard Petty a figure that continues to resonate among the motorsport community. Before all the victories and championships, a 1/3-mile oval on Toronto’s Exhibition Place was the site where everything started.  Richard Petty was born the son of Lee Petty who achieved three championships ...

Photo Credit; Chris Owens/IMS   NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson will pursue a motorsport feat many now term “The Double” by competing in two major events during the United States’ Memorial Day weekend. In addition to his regular duties driving the #5 Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup series’ longest distance event, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Larson will be involved in the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500. He will be driving the #17 Arrow McLaren fielded entry for his first IndyCar Series outing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kyle Larson is set to become the fifth driver in 30 years to complete the task. Not only did Larson secure a spot inside the 33-car grid for the Indy 500 but made a spirited run for the front row and even the pole during Sunday qualifying at the 2.5-mile speedway. His effort would ultimately result in an impressive fifth place starting spot for the #17 car. Scheduled to run in NASCAR’s All-Star race at No...

On December 14th 1947, a meeting inside Daytona Beach’s Streamline Hotel would formally establish the basis of what we know as NASCAR was formally established as a motorsport sanctioning body. It would be absurd to believe that Bill France Sr. and the other members of the gathering would fully fathom the greatness their creation would achieve over the period of over 75 years. As the technology, the athleticism of drivers and crews and finances were difficult to predict from the beginning, the journey to what NASCAR is in 2023 involved in a number of interesting tangents.  Originally assembled with a Modified division and later the Strictly Stock series (evolving into what now is the current Cup Series), NASCAR rapidly expanded their reach with a slew of stock car series for regional as well as national racing. The opening decades of NASCAR also involved experiments into many unusual forms of auto racing competition; Some of those featured stock car auto racing.  In honour of t...

Photo Credit: Logan Riely/Getty Images untitled NASCAR Cup Series: Kyle Larson Prevails in Heated Late Race Battle at Bristol The conclusion of the opening three-race round on the road to deciding the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship has playoff contenders as well as the rest of a 38-car field converging on the concrete 0.533 short oval of Bristol Motor Speedway for a 500-lap Saturday night affair. Ahead of the green flag for the Bristol’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, only 3 of the eligible 16 drivers had their places in the 12-spot second round of the 2021 Cup Series playoffs secured. Having already gained entry into the second round of the playoffs, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson won the opening two stages of the short track race. Drivers such as Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney would mathematically clinch their spots into the next round as the final stage of the Bristol race commenced for a 240-lap dash to the checkered flag. Hamlin’s quest for a second ...

Photo Credit: Chris Owens/IndyCar untitled NASCAR Cup Series: A Truly Successful Night for Truex in Richmond   The second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs has gone on show resurgence from the Toyota-backed Joe Gibbs Racing team. After Denny Hamlin took victory at last Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway , Martin Truex Jr. secured his place in the round championship round by winning at the 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway. The #19 Bass Pro Shops Red White Blue Toyota Camry of Truex started the Federated Auto Parts 400 in third but shot to the lead on the first lap. However, Truex’s start was ruled to have been premature by NASCAR resulting in the top spot to be surrendered to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. Hamlin had a dominant run at the Richmond short track leading 197 of the race’s 400 laps and winning the opening two stages of the event. Carving his way back to the front after the opening start of the race,...

Photo Credit: Jared East/Getty Images untitled NASCAR Cup Series: Hamlin Holds Off Charging Larson for Win at The Lady in Black A gruelling 500-mile race on one of the most historic tracks on the NASCAR circuit, the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway had the extra provenance of being the first race of the 2021 Cup Series playoffs. The 1.366-mile oval played havoc with the championship ambitions for most of the 16 drivers vying this year’s season-ending crown. The track known as the Lady in Black claimed Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Michael McDowell in accidents over the 367-lap race. Though Hamlin was able to keep Kyle Larson behind him through the final 36-lap run as the last lap approached, the driver of the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet aggressively entered turn 3 to make one last charge on the #11 Offerpad Toyota field by Joe Gibbs Racing. Rubbing the rear of Hamlin’s car hard through turn 4, Larson’s late effort was ...

Photo Credit: Jeff Curry/Getty Images untitled Leading 142 laps of the total 163-lap distance of the Toyota 200 presented by CK Power at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Sheldon Creed scored an important victory in what is the first event in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ 10-race, three-round playoff. Sheldon Creed and Zane Smith swapped the lead through the middle of the race before the #2 Liftkits4less.com Chevrolet Silverado of Creed took firm control of the Friday night event on lap 50. In an overtime finish at the 1.25-mile oval, Creed fended off the charge from the #88 Toyota of Matt Crafton to cross the line in first by a 0.292-second margin. Smith would have to park his #21 Chevrolet after 99 laps due to a rear gear failure. An event slowed by eight cautions, one of the more unusual breaks in the racing action was a power outage at World Wide Technology Raceway that resulted in a 48-minute red flag. Another major caution occurred during th...

Photo Credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images untitled The final laps of the New Holland 250 at Michigan International Speedway featured an intense fight between drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Josh Berry not only battling against each other but with their racing image. Despite having won on the ovals four times since joining Kaulig Racing’s Xfinity Series program in 2019. Allmendinger is still working to shake off his appearance as a road racer. Winning a triumphant NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the short track of Martinsville, Berry’s transition to running larger speedways ahead of his 2022 full-season campaign would benefit greatly with a strong run on the two-mile oval. Requiring three green-white-checker overtime finish attempts with the final being for the #54 SportClips Toyota of Ty Gibbs hitting the wall coming out of turn 2, A.J. Allmendinger would pull off his second NASCAR victory in the span of a week following his surprise win in last week's Cup race on ...