NASCAR

6:57 AM ET By the time the sun sets over Phoenix on Sunday, we will have a new NASCAR Cup Series champion, the last man standing after nine months, a 26-race regular season, a nine-race playoff and, finally, a 312-lap throwdown on the rugged 1-mile flat semi-roval that is the Phoenix Raceway. Here they are.

4:54 PM ET Associated Press With a 14th NASCAR Cup Series championship on the line this weekend, team owner Rick Hendrick on Tuesday defended his decision to extend his sponsorship deal with Liberty University as the school faces scrutiny over its handling of sexual assault allegations. Hendrick Motorsports last month reached a new five-year agreement

5:58 PM ET Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch should not have used a slur referring to the mentally disabled during a post-race interview and NASCAR was right to order the tempestuous driver to undergo sensitivity training, team owner Joe Gibbs said Tuesday. Busch apologized on social media for

7:15 PM ET Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Alex Bowman was the only driver celebrating after NASCAR set its championship four — and he’s not even racing for the title. Bowman picked up the victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in the final elimination race ahead of the winner-take-all season finale. Bowman wasn’t eligible to make

9:45 PM ET Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Noah Gragson said he’d win at Martinsville Speedway to earn a spot in the Xfinity Series championship and did just that Saturday night in NASCAR’s most compelling title race. Gragson, the confident 23-year-old from Las Vegas, had to win at Martinsville to make the winner-take-all Xfinity finale

3:54 PM ET Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Zane Smith raced his way into the Truck Series championship finale with a Saturday victory in overtime at Martinsville Speedway, where a three-wide scramble to the finish vaulted him into title contention. Smith was last in the eight-driver field at Martinsville and had to win to earn

7:14 PM ET Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Larson drove to yet another victory, his ninth of the year and most meaningful to date in his new job with Hendrick Motorsports. Larson drove the No. 5 Chevrolet to victory lane at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, the 17th anniversary of a Hendrick plane crash

7:49 PM ET AUSTIN, Texas — Daniel Ricciardo’s show run in Dale Earnhardt’s 1984 car prompted a tweet of appreciation from the NASCAR legend’s son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., on Saturday. The tweet left Ricciardo slightly lost for words. On Saturday morning at the Circuit of the Americas, host of this weekend’s U.S. Grand Prix, Ricciardo

6:30 PM ET Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Ty Gibbs upset the field again, racing to his fourth Xfinity Series victory of the season Saturday and stopping title contenders AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric from advancing to the championship round. Gibbs, 19, passed reigning champion Cindric with 10 laps remaining at Kansas Speedway and

6:51 PM ET Associated Press FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Larson claimed the first of four championship-contending spots in NASCAR’s season finale with a dominating victory at Texas on Sunday to start the round of eight in the playoffs. Larson led 256 of 334 laps at the 1 1/2-mile track and got his eighth win

6:38 PM ET Associated Press FORT WORTH, Texas — All four spots in the championship round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series are still up for grabs after non-playoff qualifier John Hunter Nemechek overcame a late penalty Saturday to win at Texas Motor Speedway. Nemechek won the first of three races in the round of eight,

1:54 PM ET Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It only took about a day after Chase Elliott wished Kevin Harvick “a merry offseason and Happy Christmas” for NASCAR’s reigning champion to get the zinger on merchandise on his official website. The holiday-themed gear even has a tab in the online store. It’s the kind of

5:46 AM ET Associated Press CONCORD, N.C. — Kevin Harvick was going to get his revenge on Chase Elliott, believing somewhere and somehow, he’d even the score after Elliott cost him a win last month. When Harvick delivered his payback, it nearly knocked the reigning NASCAR champion out of the playoffs. But karma then flipped

6:42 PM ET Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kyle Larson rallied from early electrical issues Sunday to win for the seventh time this season and storm into the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs. Larson’s victory on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway ended a topsy-turvy day for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson and reigning Cup champion Chase

6:30 PM ET Associated Press CONCORD, N.C. — AJ Allmendinger charged into the second round of the Xfinity Series playoffs with an overtime victory Saturday in the elimination race on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Allmendinger remained a perfect 3-0 on the hybrid road course/oval added to the NASCAR schedule in 2018. He wasn’t

8:23 PM ET Bubba Wallace is now a NASCAR Cup Series race winner. Deal with it. He did it Monday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, the crapshoot of all racetracks. He did it in a rain-shortened event, the crapshoot of all race strategies. He did it driving for a new team co-owned by the greatest basketball

4:29 PM ET Associated Press TALLADEGA, Ala. — Bubba Wallace became just the second Black driver to win at NASCAR’s top Cup Series level when rain stopped Monday’s playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. Wallace had driven through a crash and to the front of the field five laps before the second rain stoppage of the

4:53 PM ET p=””> Rain stopped the NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway on Monday, but by no means did it put a damper on Bubba Wallace’s historic victory. The 27-year-old’s first NASCAR Cup Series win made him only the second Black winner in series history. Wendell Scott first did so in December 1963. According