On a late summer Saturday in Brainerd, Minn., rookie driver Maddi Gordon waited at the starting line in a roaring lime green Top Fuel dragster, one of the most extreme machines in motorsports.

When she hit the throttle and launched, the engine sounded like a pile driver wired to a jet engine. I was perhaps 20 feet from the car, and the blast ...Read more

If family history is any indication, Frank Kelleher is just getting warmed up in his fifth year as president of Daytona International Speedway.

The Kellehers have shown remarkable staying power.

The family’s tire shop in Scranton, Pa., was founded in 1927 and has spanned three generations. There, Kelleher developed a passion for cars and ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Long before he was a NASCAR star, Kyle Busch was a standout at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s The Bullring.

Busch, whose death at 41 in May shocked the country, was turning laps on the three-eighth-mile track by age 13. In recognition of the key role the Las Vegas native played at the venue, LVMS announced Wednesday that The ...Read more

CHICAGO — The streets of Grant Park will not echo with the sounds of 200-mph race cars in 2027.

Running out of time to strike a deal with the city, NASCAR pulled the plug Tuesday on the return of the Chicago Street Race for next summer but is still hoping to bring it back down the road.

Meanwhile, NASCAR confirmed it is putting Chicagoland ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR isn’t returning to Rockingham Speedway in 2027.

And the venue’s primary race organizer is, understandably, “disappointed.”

Track Enterprises, the prominent motorsports promotion company that has put on the successful NASCAR events at The Rock in 2025 and 2026, announced on Friday that in 2027 it will not host...Read more

CHICAGO — While NASCAR is hoping to get the Chicago Street Race back to Grant Park next summer, it may have hit a speed bump in negotiations for a state grant to help defray costs for the event.

The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity said Wednesday that the state has appropriated $5 million in the fiscal year 2027 budget to ...Read more

CHICAGO — Denny Hamlin is atop the NASCAR Cup Series points standings for the first time all season.

If that wasn’t enough reason for Hamlin to head into Fourth of July weekend in a celebratory mood, the series’ return to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. for the first time since 2019 is definitely a welcome one.

Hamlin won the Cup ...Read more

LONG POND, Pa. — Lavar Scott is accustomed to reaching top speeds around a racetrack. But for a few hours last Friday night, less than 24 hours before his race at Pocono Raceway, he took a beat.

Standing in front of a room of about 40 people at Holy Ghost Distillery, roughly 10 miles west of the track, Scott, a Carneys Point, Salem County, ...Read more