Car FYI

Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images The Toyota Camrys prepared by Joe Gibbs Racing were the toast of Texas for much of the Duck Commander 500 on Saturday night. In a race where three of the four Joe Gibbs owned cars and the associated Furniture Row Racing #78 car led for all but 15 of 334 laps, the one who triumphed at the end only truly showed his hand late on the fast Fort Worth, Texas track. The 500-mile race at the Texas Motor Speedway started after a roughly two-hour delay. Leading the field to green, the Stanley-sponsored Toyota wheeled by Carl Edwards led 57 of the first 57 laps of the race. On lap 59, Edward’s main adversary for the night emerged in the form of the black #78 Toyota Camry. Martin Truex Jr started 3rd in the field and kept his Furniture Row Racing car in the top-5 for almost the entire race. Thanks to a long green flag running from lap 34 to 136 (totalling more than half the race’s scheduled distance), Truex Jr held the lead for an impre...

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images Keselowski Overcomes Penalty to Win Windy Las Vegas Cup Race Competing within the desert locale of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the third race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season provided an interesting challenger in the form of wacky weather. Extremely strong winds at the beginning of the race resulted in gusts that would have blown car covers off the Sprint Cup racing machine if not for some astute crew members. A very brief rain shower accompanied the wind minutes before the Kobalt Tools was scheduled to start. The momentary mist dissipated and Sunday’s race started with Kurt Busch’s #14 Chevrolet leading the 39-car field. Slowed six times due to yellow flags including a lap 30 competition caution caused by the previous rainfall on the track, the Kobalt 400's most serious melee came on lap 225 shortly after a restart. Matt Kenseth’s #20 Toyota slid loose leading to an incident that would also collect Chase Elliott and Car...

Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Johnson Equals The Intimidator’s Career Win Tally With Thrilling Atlanta Victory The second race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season was a drastically different affair compared to the Daytona 500 opener won by Denny Hamlin . Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 was the season’s first use of new low-downforce aerodynamic rules on the stock cars. Differences in car handling and the aged surface of the oval track contributed to a very active race with plenty of competitive passing. Despite vehicles being less stable than in previously years, the 39-car field was slowed by only three cautions with the first coming out on lap 211. Ceasing on an advantage through short-pitting in a late stint to vault over the race-dominating vehicle of Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr, the #48 Lowes Chevrolet piloted by Jimmie Johnson held an advantage of more than five seconds before a lap-324 caution resulting from a spinning #31 ...

Photo Credit: Ford Motor Company The blue oval brigade will gain a powerful, new ally for the 2017 NASCAR season. On Wednesday morning, Ford Performance (the motorsport and special vehicle arm of Ford Motor Company) announced the addition of Stewart-Haas Racing to their brand for next year's Cup Series. Stewart-Haas Racing has signed a multi-year deal with the auto company to field four Ford Fusion stock cars starting with the 2017 Daytona 500. “We are thrilled to be able to add a championship-level team like Stewart-Haas Racing to our Ford NASCAR program,” said Ford Motor Company's executive vice president and Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair. Stewart-Haas Racing will join Penske Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Wood Brothers Racing and Front Row Motorsports as NASCAR Cup organizations to be gathered under the 2017 Ford line-up. Ford Fusion-bodied Stewart-Haas Racing cars will be supplied by the same Roush Yates Engines V-8 powerplants used by t...

Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images The first 200 laps of competition for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2016 season took place at the crown jewel of stock car racing. A facility recently renovated under the Daytona Rising initiative focused on greater fan comfort (a plan also including the reduction of seating from the 2014 capacity of over 145,000 to approximately 101,000), the track configuration contributing to high-speeds and multi-car drafting remained the same. This year's Daytona 500 saw the race decided in a matter of less than half the distance of the 2.5-mile track on the final lap. Before the Green Flag Since 1982, the Daytona 500 has been the stage to start of the Cup Series season. Ahead of the green flag for the 58th annual 500 mile race at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway oval, several radical changes have been instituted for the new Sprint Cup Series season. A new charter team structure guarantees 36 teams will start every race this seas...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy Just 400 miles are all that remains of 2015 competition in the top stock car racing series in the world. The conclusion of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season at Homestead-Miami Speedway once again guarantees 43 drivers will attempt to take the checkered flag for the last event of the year. Four drivers enter the race with the opportunity of being crowned the series champion, depending on the outcome at Homestead-Miami Speedway. For the majority of the field though, victory or defeat is simply a reason to come back next year. Jeff Gordon has a chance of claiming the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup title but has planned the outcome to this race that will hold a note of permanency to a career of 23 years. Jeff Gordon will be starting this race vehicle’s engine for the final time in competition. The #24 Chevrolet SS fielded by Hendrick Motorsports final drive by the currently four-time champion in NASCAR’s top series is forged with some impressive superstar creden...

Photo Credit: Axalta When Jeff Gordon debuted in NASCAR Cup Series competition in the final race in 1992, it was difficult to miss the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Under sponsorship of DuPont Performance Coatings, the stock car not only wore the name of the popular paint company but its product. A multi-colour paint scheme accompanied by rainbows on the hood and side panels proved innovatively eye-catching in a period when the majority of professional stock car teams relied largely on a single colour. Created by now-famed motorsport artist Sam Bass, DuPont, Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff Gordon gained immediate notoriety. The #24 DuPont Chevrolet rainbow paint design's initial dazzle was eventually met with equally stunning performances on the track by the driver that would become one of the most winningest competitors in the NASCAR Cup Series. A memorable part of Jeff Gordon's stock car racing career, the Rainbow paint scheme will make one final appear...

Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images After three weeks consisting of two short tracks and a 2.66-mile superspeedway, the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returned to the intermediate-sized oval in the shape of Kansas Speedway. Despite the lengthy delay in the Saturday night race due to a downpour, the full 267-lap distance around the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway was accomplished in a thrilling conclusion. The Spongebob Squarepants 400 was scheduled ahead of Mother's Day (traditionally a non-active Sunday for the Sprint Cup Series). A pre-Mother's Day race, the Kansas Speedway event was shaped by the intervention of mother nature. Due to an anticipated rainfall that ultimately drenched the Spongebob Squarepants 400, a 2-hour, 16-minute, red flag meant the race wrapped-up early Sunday morning. Not only did the rain lengthen the duration of the race Kansas, the interruption changed the complexion of t...

Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images After two rain-plagued weekends on the short tracks of Bristol and Richmond, the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series convened on a sunny, Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway. A 2.66-mile tri-oval conducive for speeds of 200 miles per hour and higher, its was not going to be a calm Sunday drive for the 43 drivers and teams committed to running 188 laps for the GEICO 500. The second restrictor plate race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Saturday's time trials was performed under a revised format that avoided the messy result of this year's Daytona 500 group qualifying. Despite a different format, Jeff Gordon again prevailed with the pole in his Hendrick Motorsports by an astonishing 0.281 seconds over his teammate Kasey Kahne. When the GEICO 500 started on Sunday, Gordon enjoyed his qualifying advantage for a mere three laps before the #5 car of Kahne too...