The Pocono Organics CBD 325 at Pocono Raceway on Saturday didn’t disappoint as Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson battled for the win late. Larson, chasing his fifth cup series victory of the year and looking to win four in a row, came short when the left front on his No. 5 Chevrolet went down after taking the white flag as the leader. 

“Yeah, I hate to win one that way, but hell; yeah, I’ll take it,” said Bowman. “Man, we kind of gave the lead away. We were on two tires and just got super tight. I tried to hold him off as long as I could.”

The tire going down allowed Larson’s teammate Alex Bowman to take the lead and sail to his third win of the year. The No. 48 Chevrolet led the field for 16 circuits while Larson led 15. Bowman apologized to his crew before misfortune struck the No. 5 team.

“Yeah, I don’t know what to think about that,” said Bowman. “‘Bad Luck Bowman’ had some luck there. I mean, the No. 5 beat us. Their misfortune, it happens. That’s part of the sport. I’ll take it.”

Bowman will go into the second race at Pocono, scheduled for Sunday afternoon, with five top five and nine top 10 finishes.

Kyle Busch, sitting 0.683 seconds behind Bowman at the checkered flag, led the most laps of the 325-mile event of 30. The driver from Las Vegas won stage one and finished ninth at the end of stage two. 

Busch has seven top fives and 11 top 10 finishes through 18 completed events. 

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron rounded out the top three finishers on Saturday at the “Tricky Triangle”.

Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.

Kurt Busch, winner of stage two, took home sixth. Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

The field slowed eight times for the caution flag throughout the day while nine drivers led laps with 14 different different leaders throughout the first of two races at Pocono this weekend.

The cup series will race following the NASCAR XFINITY Series event on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET. on NBCSN. The Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 will also air live on MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Ch. 90.

Kyle Larson continued his dominance in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. Winner of the last two previous cup races coming into the annual exhibition race, Larson led the field for 17 circuits to win his second career All-Star event.

“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” said winner Kyle Larson. “That second run there, we were really bad and I was like, ‘man, we’re in trouble’. I went backwards that round, so I was like we’ve got an uphill battle. I did not imagine seeing myself winning this race today. Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) and everybody works so hard on this thing and made some good adjustments throughout the first, second and third rounds and got us in position.”

The event featured a format of six rounds comprising random inverts, a pit crew challenge and more. It also featured an open race earlier in the day at Texas that allowed three opportunities for three drivers not locked into the All-Star Race to earn a starting spot into the race, plus a fan-vote winner.

Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola advanced their way into the All-Star race via winning a segment in the open race. Matt DiBendetto won the fan-vote making up the field of 21 drivers.

Brad Keselowski gave Larson chase in the last laps of the race, falling 0.206-seconds short of winning the $1,000,000 dollar payout. The driver from Michigan, leading just five circuits of the race, tied his previous best finish in the event by placing second. 

“It feels like running second to the Hendrick cars right now is an accomplishment. They are just stupid fast, said Keselowski after tying his 2016 finish. “I had him off turn 4 but they just have so much speed. He just motored right back by me, like damn! It feels like a first-in-class day with the Discount Tired Ford. The team did a great job of executing and getting us in position, we just didn’t have enough speed to make the most of it. It was good execution day though and I am proud of that.”

The final restart worked out exactly how Larson needed it with 10 laps to go.

“That last restart worked out exactly how I needed it to. I wanted Chase (Elliott) to not get a good run down the back,” said Larson on the final restart to begin Round 6. “Thankfully, I think the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney) got to his inside. I just shoved him down the back and he probably thought I was going to just follow him. I thought there had to be enough grip above where we’d been running for one corner. It was a little slick up there, but I was able to get it and hold him off from there.”

Chase Elliott, winner of the pit crew challenge and leader of 12 laps, placed third.

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five finishers.

Alex Bowman, William Byron, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch took home top 10 finishes.

Two yellow flags resulted in cautions throughout the 100-lap feature. Erik Jones brought out the yellow by spinning in turn two on the opening lap of the race. Jones continued on, later finishing 11th.

Ross Chastain and Ryan Newman tangled in turn two on lap 79. Like Jones, Newman and Chastain both continued. Newman later took his No. 6 Wyndham Rewards Ford to a 20th-place finish while Chastain finished 18th in his No. 42 Chevrolet.

The series will resume on June 20th for an inaugural event at Nashville Superspeedway. The event will take place at 3:30 p.m. ET. live on NBCSN.

Ty Gibbs led wire-to-wire at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, piloting the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Gibbs, making his 31st career ARCA Menards Series start and leading all 100-laps of the event, will leave the track with his second ARCA victory of the year.

Drew Dollar started the afternoon in fifth and sat there for pretty much the entire 150-mile event. Dollar battled Gibbs for the top spot on the restart with 30 to go but got loose. The driver from Atlanta took home his seventh career ARCA top five.

Gibbs, after starting on the pole, takes the checkered flag for the 10th time of his ARCA career.

Corey Heim rounded out the top three finishers. 

Jack Wood and Derek Griffith took home fourth and fifth.

Thad Moffitt, Greg Van Alst, Kyle Sieg, Nick Sanchez and Alex Clubb took home top 10 finishes.

The field was slowed for three yellows throughout the afternoon. The first involved Bret Holmes and Scott Melton on the opening lap when Holmes was racing three wide with Heim on the bottom and Wood on the top when his No. 23 Chevrolet got loose and looped around. Everyone in the field got around except for Melton as he t-boned Holmes in the driver side door. 

Both drivers walked away and were later released from the care center.

The field slowed on lap 51 for a scheduled competition yellow while the third yellow with 34 to go involved the No. 7 Ford of Eric Caudell. Caudell was done for the day as a result and finished 14th.

The next race for the ARCA Menards Series will be at Toledo Speedway on May 22nd.

Corey Heim scored the victory at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday piloting the No. 20 JBL Venturini Motorsports Toyota. Heim, leading just five laps of the General Tire 200, scored his third career ARCA Menards Series win. 

Bret Holmes, reigning series champion, was leading on the restart with one lap to go. In ARCA, overtime consists of the green / white flag followed by the checkered flag in a one-lap shootout. Holmes got stuck in the middle as Nick Sanchez and Corey Heim battled for the victory on the backstretch. Eventually, Heim cleared Sanchez and sailed to the victory. 

Holmes went on to finish fifth on the leaderboard while Sanchez took home third.

Dave Mader III, making just his 16th career ARCA Menards Series start since 1983, finished runner-up.

Drew Dollar, tying Holmes for the most laps led in the General Tire 200 on Saturday of 28 circuits, took home the fourth spot.

Taking home top 10 finishes were Thad Moffitt, Andy Jankowiak, Kyle Sieg, Eric Caudell and Scott Melton. 

Derrick Lancaster was running upfront until getting into an incident on lap 72 when his No. 29 machine pancaked the wall hard on the backstretch, causing his car to catch fire. Lancaster parked his car in the grass and climbed out of the damaged machine to lie on the ground.

The latest update is that he was transported to an area hospital for further evaluation.

Along with the incident involving Lancaster, the General Tire 200 featured four cautions with two red flag periods. 

The next event for the ARCA Menards Series will be at Kansas Speedway on May 1. That event will air live on FS1 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

It was revealed Monday that driver Jennifer Jo Cobb has not been approved by NASCAR ahead of her announced Cup Series debut at Talladega this Sunday. The exact reasons are still unknown, but sources indicate it was determined prior to her run-in with competitor Norm Benning at Richmond this past weekend. Another factor according to sources is that she has only 11 lead-lap Truck Series finishes in 217 truck starts.

Rick Ware Racing released the following statement:

“We’ve been informed by the sanctioning body that Jennifer is not approved to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series event at Talladega SuperSpeedway...This is an unfortunate situation, but as a team, we support NASCAR’s decision to uphold the sanctioning body's rules & regulations.”

A new driver for the No. 15 ride has yet to be announced.

Cobb’s only top 10 Truck Series finish came in the season opener at Daytona in 2011, where she finished sixth. The Kansas City, Kansas native has 31 career XFINITY Series starts along with nine ARCA Menards Series starts.

The NWMT held their season opener at Martinsville Speedway on Thursday, marking the first event at the half-mile track known as the “Paper Clip” in 11-years. Ryan Preece won the pole for the event with Ryan Newman starting second. 

With eight laps complete, rain fell on the track resulting in a one-hour and 13-minute red flag period. Once track crews dried the track, Ryan Preece led the field over Tony Catalano, Ryan Newman, Kyle Ebersole, and Eric Goodale in the top five.

When the field saw the checkered flag, Eric Goodale scored his fourth career Whelen Modified Tour victory. Goodale, piloting the No. 58 GAF Roofing Chevrolet, started the event in third.

Pole sitter Ryan Preece, leading 110 of 200 laps, finished 12th in his No. 6 Riverhead Raceway Chevrolet.

Tyler Rypkema took home the second spot in just his 16th career Whelen Modified Tour start. Rypkema started the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 in 10th.

Justin Bonsignore led 52 of the 200 circuits in the No. 51 Chevrolet after starting the event at the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments. The No. 51 machine had a water leak following qualifying.

Max McLaughlin and Kyle Bonsignore rounded out the top five.

Taking home top 10s were Doug Coby, Tommy Catalano, Patrick Emerling, Woody Pitkat, and Jamie Tomaino.

Second-place starter Ryan Newman suffered problems with his No. 53 Curb Records Chevrolet and had to go to the garage on lap 48. The NASCAR Cup Series veteran wasn’t able to return and finished the race 29th. 

The event from Martinsville Speedway will air on NBCSN at 4:30 p.m. ET. on April 15th. 

The next race for the series will be at Stafford Springs on April 25th. You can catch the event live on NBC Sports Gold TrackPass.

NASCAR announced changes to Sunday’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday. The changes, stemming from tire issues discovered during the pair of Cup Series practices on Friday, include added competition cautions and adjusted stage lengths. 

The stages (previously 75 / 150 / 250) will now be 100 / 200 / 250, along with a pair of scheduled competition cautions at laps 50 and 150.

In addition, NASCAR and Goodyear will give race teams an additional set of tires for the event on dirt.

NASCAR announced penalties stemming from Phoenix Raceway on Tuesday. Five of the penalties impacted NASCAR Cup Series teams while another impacted a crew member in the Camping World Truck Series garage.

Crew Chief Jeremy Bullins, of the No. 2 team of Brad Keselowski, and Travis Mack, crew chief of the No. 99 team of Daniel Suarez, have been both fined $20,000 and suspended for the next Cup Series race for having two lug nuts not safe and secure.

Matt McCall, Ben Beshore, and Ryan Fugle, crew chiefs of the No. 1, 18 & 24 Cup Series teams, have all been fined $10,000 for having an unsecured lug nut.

Jonathan Stewart, an engineer on the No. 21 GMS Racing NCWTS entry, has been indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for violating the sanctioning bodies substance abuse policy. 

The ARCA Menards Series joined the ARCA Menards Series West for a combination event at Phoenix Raceway. The General Tire 150, an entry list of 30 drivers, included a little bit of everything from a red flag to rain to chaos all Friday afternoon and evening. 

Ty Gibbs scored the victory at Phoenix Raceway on Friday by holding off eventual second-place finisher Corey Heim in a one-lap shootout. Gibbs, winning the pole after rain washed out qualifying at the one-mile paved oval, led the field for 124 of the 150 circuits.

“In those moments I just … God blessed me a lot with my driving ability and I’ve got clean tires and somehow I drove through it,” said Gibbs on navigating the sprinkles and one-lap shootout. “It was raining pretty hard there for a little bit but once it cleared off, we went back to green. It was a fun time and I had a blast!” 

Gibbs leaves the track with his ninth career ARCA Menards Series victory.

The winner of the event gave credit to God after climbing from his No. 18 Toyota.

“First of all, thank the man above,” said Gibbs. “He’s put me here, and he’s put me in this situation and I’m serving for God and I’m chained to his faith forever. I’d do anything for him and I can’t thank him enough and give him enough glory. He blessed me so much and I’m so thankful to be in this situation and where I am. Not a lot of kids really get to do what I get to do and I’m very thankful for that and I really love driving race cars.”

Heim, leader of only one circuit, placed second in the General Tire 150. The Georgia native leaves the track in the desert with his 12th top-five and 17th top 10 finish. 

Thad Moffitt rounded out the top three on Friday. The driver of the No. 46 Clean Pacs Ford led the field for five circuits after starting ninth on the leaderboard.

Kyle Sieg and Derek Kraus took home top-five finishes.

The rest of the top 10 included Jesse Love, Drew Dollar, Todd Souza, Taylor Gray, and Trevor Huddleston. 

Taylor Gray led the field for 15 laps before being hit with a two-lap penalty on pit road at the middle portion of the race. The No. 15 crew added fuel while taking tires … which is a no-no under ARCA rules. They do not allow teams to engage the fuel can while taking tires at the same time. 

Eight caution flags slowed the event in addition to an 11-minute and 9-second red flag period. 87 of the 150-laps were under green while the remaining 63-laps were under yellow.

The first yellow took out four notable contenders as the race went green. The incident involved Gracie Trotter, Jack Wood, Zane Smith, and Toni Breidinger and forced all four to the garage. 

They could not continue.

The next race for the ARCA Menards Series will be at Talladega Superspeedway on April 24th. Coverage of the General Tire 150 will air live on FS1. 

The ARCA Menards Series West will return at Sonoma Raceway on June 5th.

John Hunter Nemechek took home the victory Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway piloting the No. 4 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Nemechek led 94 of the 134 circuits to score his seventh career truck series victory.

“It’s an awesome day. The goal here for us was to come here and win. We’ve been close the last two weeks and we have fast race trucks. I can’t thank everyone enough.” said Nemechek on scoring his first win with the team. “The opportunity to come here and race in the Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports is an amazing opportunity and we’re capitalizing on that. We want to be the dominant one this year and we want to win as many races as we can. It’s awesome to get it kicked off here in Vegas and beat the boss.”

Placing runner-up was Nemechek’s teammate and bossman Kyle Busch. The Las Vegas Cup Series veteran and truck series team owner led 16 laps of the event before cutting a tire and drawing out the yellow on lap 90. Busch came to pit road to change tires and repair damage sustained to the rear-quarter … putting him a lap down. Busch, the winner of stage two, received the free pass three laps later, placing the No. 51 Toyota back on the lead lap. 

“We just didn’t have enough in our Cessna Tundra. They (Nemechek’s No. 4 team) were a little bit better than us so not sure what differences they had,” said Busch. “I was just really tight and really rough over the bumps, trying to get through the bumps. Looking at the splitter wear, it was really rough on the splitter and wearing through it. We were battling some little things, but overall our truck was still fast. It was cool to come home one-two.”

Nemechek, winner of stage one and on baby watch, will go into the next event at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 20th with two top-five and three top 10s through three events in 2021.

“He was faster than me in stage two, so I really didn’t know, said Nemechek on teammate Kyle Busch. “It was all about using our truck to the best we could possibly do, wrapping the bottom and taking the dirty air away. He had to run up and it created more lap time for him. Overall, it was an awesome victory. I wish my wife Taylor was here. She had to stay home because we are about to be on baby watch. It’s awesome.”

Scoring his 20th top five with a third-place finish was Austin Hill. Hill started the event 31st.

Stewart Friesen and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five finishers.

Taking home top 10s were Zane Smith, Grant Enfinger, Parker Kligerman, Christian Eckes, and Ben Rhodes.

Nine cautions slowed the field in Friday’s Bucked Up 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

One of the stoppages involved seven trucks in turn two on lap 98 that included most notably Hailie Deegan and Sheldon Creed. Austin Wayne Self, Raphael Lessard, Bret Holmes, and Ryan Truex were also involved.

The final yellow came out on lap 124 in turn two involving the four trucks of Chase Purdy, Jordan Anderson, Tyler Ankrum, and Parker Kligerman. That wreck ended the evening for Ankrum while everyone else continued.

The next race for the truck series will be at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 20th. The Fr8 Auctions 200 will take place at 2:30 p.m. ET. live on FS1 and MRN Radio.