DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Shane van Gisbergen’s meteoric rise from Australian road racing champion to NASCAR winner has required he learn seemingly the simplest and most fundamental aspect of oval racing.

“Turning left,” he deadpanned. “It’s difficult, for sure.”

The 36-year-old native of New Zealand similarly struggles to fathom ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Man, I loved Humpy — just as most of the racing world did.

H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler Jr. was a one-of-a-kind showman, a NASCAR savant whose outlandish stunts sprang from one of the sport’s keenest minds.

Wheeler died of natural causes Wednesday, at age 86, surrounded by his family. For 33 years, he was the president and ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Wilkesboro Speedway is back on the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular-season schedule.

The historic race track in Wilkes County is set to host a points-paying race on July 19, 2026, NASCAR announced Wednesday in its schedule release.

It will be the 0.625-mile track’s first points-paying race since 1996. NASCAR is moving ...Read more

CHICAGO — While NASCAR is bypassing the Chicago Street Race next summer, it is filling the void on the schedule with a Cup Series race during July Fourth weekend at the long-dormant Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

The announcement Wednesday marks the first return for NASCAR to the Joliet track since it was idled in 2019. It also seeks to...Read more

In my childhood, my father took us on a summertime drive from Chicago to Michigan’s Harbor Country. As the miles rolled on, we passed steamy steel mills, blaring billboard ads for Stuckey’s pecan rolls, rickety gas stations and crowded truck stops. I still hold the idyllic memory of that family car trip to the beach in Union Pier, near a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — NASCAR is returning to Southern California, only its cars will be racing on the streets of Coronado and not on an oval in Fontana. The stock car racing circuit announced Wednesday it will be hosting a three-day series of races June 19-21, ending in a NASCAR Cup Series race on the U.S. Naval base in Coronado.

NASCAR did not race ...Read more

Fresh off earning a box-office hit with "F1," the movie, Apple Inc. has reportedly outbid ESPN for the U.S. broadcast rights to F1, the actual sport.

While F1 has not announced that it has accepted the deal, the nine-figure offer would enrich the elite racing championship. But it comes with a painful trade-off. Since 2018, F1’s American ...Read more

CHICAGO — Two weeks after its third annual Fourth of July weekend run through Grant Park, NASCAR has made the decision not to hold the Chicago Street Race in 2026, leaving open the door to return on a different date the following year.

In a letter Friday to Mayor Brandon Johnson, NASCAR said it is pausing the race because it needs more time ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The two NASCAR Cup Series teams that are suing the governing body of NASCAR made another move Monday.

And NASCAR immediately fired back.

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed a preliminary injunction to maintain their charter status and to allow them to continue competing as Cup teams while litigation continues. This ...Read more

CHICAGO — During a weekend of hot, high-speed friction against the asphalt of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race course, thousands of tires burn out and wear down. After a few dozen laps, they lose their grip and become obsolete.

But their life cycle doesn’t end there. Each NASCAR race weekend, most of the 3,000 tires provided by Goodyear ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson is open to NASCAR returning to Chicago, but hinted Tuesday the city may need a better deal before stock car drivers again race through its streets.

NASCAR has 90 days to request a contract extension with the Chicago Park District. If the racing authority wants to win city leaders over, it could need to change ...Read more

CHICAGO — This year the downpour waited until after the NASCAR Grant Park 165 was finished. After previous years were interrupted by storms, fans came ready for the weather Sunday.

Aaron Moy, 52, from Morton Grove, crafted an “Anti-Rain Vortex” hat to wear to today’s race: a strip of laminated printer paper spiraled around a plastic ...Read more

CHICAGO — Katherine Legge is used to being in the spotlight after years of driving Indy cars, so being the only woman competing in Sunday’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race would be no big deal.

Legge, the only female NASCAR driver, entered Saturday needing to qualify for one of the final four spots in Sunday’s Cup Series race. She understands ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Daniel Suárez is a free agent.

The driver of the No. 99 Cup car will leave Trackhouse Racing at the conclusion of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the team announced Tuesday.

The decision is a mutual one, according to the team and Suárez himself. He will continue to compete for Trackhouse in the interim as the team ...Read more

The lasting impression of the new movie F1 isn’t of the spectacular racing sequences on an IMAX screen but that of Brad Pitt. No one should look like that at any age, much less 61.

It’s not inspiring. It’s not motivational. It’s just depressing.

The hairline is intact, as are the abs and muscle tone. While I crushed pretzel bites in ...Read more

CHICAGO — The NASCAR Chicago Street Race is still more than a week away, but Mother Nature is already burning up the track.

The heat dome that descended on Chicago last weekend with unrelenting 100-degree temperatures caused buckling pavement on a stretch of the pop-up race course, forcing the city to close some streets ahead of schedule to ...Read more

CONCORD, N.C. — Margins in NASCAR have never been smaller.

Whether it’s the leveling effect of the Next Gen car or the evolving technological arms race among teams, the Cup Series has never been tighter. And as parity grows, so does the need to uncover even the slightest competitive advantage.

That’s where artificial intelligence comes ...Read more

CHICAGO — Could the rain delays that dogged NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race in its first two years have inadvertently become its superpower?

“Wet weather road racing is really exciting,” four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon told Chicago’s City Club on Thursday night. “The most exciting type of racing is not only slick (...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — After NASCAR driver Ross Chastain went from worst to first and won the biggest race of his life at the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, N.C., he smashed a giant watermelon to honor his family’s farming history.

Then, he pulled out a photo of U.S. Army Specialist Kevin McCrea, a Philadelphia native who was disabled after a ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the legendary Dale Earnhardt died in a final-lap crash at the Daytona 500 in 2001, Dan Lindsay was about to graduate from the University of Missouri with a degree in marketing after he’d spent most of his time at MU studying accounting.

He had a vague notion of Earnhardt but was no NASCAR fan. To the contrary: In a ...Read more