Team Penske

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By Toby Christie, Editor — Follow on Twitter @Toby_Christie

FORT WORTH, Texas — Ryan Blaney had victory on his mind heading into Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The 24-year old Team Penske driver, utterly dominated the NASCAR Xfinity Series event on Saturday, and early on Sunday, it looked like he was working his way into a position to contend for a weekend sweep at the 1.5-mile speedway in Fort Worth.

Blaney started fourth, and by the first round of pit stops on lap 44, he had worked his way to the second position. However, during this set of stops, his team had an uncontrolled tire violation. Blaney would have to return to pit road and would go a lap down.
Continue reading “Ryan Blaney Overcomes Obstacle After Obstacle For Fifth Place Finish”

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By Toby Christie, Editor – Follow on Twitter @Toby_Christie

Brad Keselowski’s 2018 season started off in a frustrating manner.

The Michigan-native is regarded as one of the greatest restrictor plate drivers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage today, yet Keselowski’s ninth bid to win the Daytona 500 ended in a devastating crash while running inside the top-three. It’s the fifth time that Keselowski, 34, has had a DNF (four crashes and one engine failure) in The Great American Race. Understandably Keselowski was disappointed.

Continue reading “Time to Go All-In on Brad Keselowski, Team Penske In Las Vegas”

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By: Toby Christie, Editor – Follow on twitter @Toby_Christie

FORT WORTH, Texas — Brad Keselowski came into Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway with the 10th-place starting position, and hopes were high for another good finish to keep him in contention for a berth for the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a couple of weeks.

However, when the green flag was shown, about 10 seconds into the race it became obvious that this wouldn’t be a normal stress-free day for Keselowski and his No. 2 team. In the middle of turns 1 and 2 on the opening lap, Keselowski made contact with Kyle Busch, which nicked the valve stem out of Keselowski’s tire. Keselowski took his deflated tire to pit road, but luckily he didn’t let his spirits bottom out as well.
Continue reading “Brad Keselowski Rebounds For Fifth Place in Texas”

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By: Toby Christie – @Toby_Christie

In the interest of being honest, I have to admit that when NASCAR announced during the offseason that if a race winning car failed post-race inspection at a high enough level that they would tag the victory as an “encumbered” win, I was a fan of the move. An encumbered win would result in point penalties, but more importantly the win would not count toward the driver’s total of ever important playoff points.

It felt like finally something was going to be happening to teams that decided to bring a tricked up car to the track to tack on more wins.

However, after seeing the process unfold a couple of times so far in 2017, I can’t help but feel like like I was naive for my initial thoughts on the new rule. In fact now I feel the rule is a load of crock.
Continue reading “Opinion: Can We Just Start Stripping Encumbered Race Wins?”

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WRITTEN BY: Jonah Rens is 13 years old, and is a junior NASCAR reporter/writer for The Final Lap. His opinions are his own, and not necessarily those of The Final Lap. Follow him on Twitter @NascarRens

We are heading into the fourth race into this ten race, four round Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Already Team Penske is in command, with Hendrick Motorsports not too far off. Continue reading “Contender Round Kicks Off with Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports Battle”