NASCAR Cup Series

Ryan Reed will have Alan Burgess, retired USAF Major, riding along with him this Saturday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Burgess’s name will appear over the passenger side of Reed’s No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang in honor of NASCAR Salutes initiatives over the Memorial Day weekend.

Change. Sometimes change is good, like when you win a few million dollars. That is good. You get married to your sweetheart. Good. Your children start arriving. If you are a mature adult, and not some self-serving narcissist, that is very good. New talented drivers emerge on the scene. That is also a good thing.

The inaugural Coca-Cola 600, originally named the World 600, was held in 1960 and won by Joe Lee Johnson, the 1959 NASCAR Convertible Series champion. It was his second victory and the final win of his Cup career. Did you know he was the first of 32 different drivers to capture what has become one of NASCAR’s most sought-after trophies?

This Sunday NASCAR celebrates Memorial Day with the 58th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race will be broadcast at 6 p.m. Sunday evening, on the FOX network. The XFINITY Series will be on track Saturday for the Hisense 4K TV 300 on FS1.

The season is now almost a third over and so much has happened. Attendance is up at some tracks and way down at others. The new stages concept has given us better racing, but many are just staying away. Some of the gimmicks NASCAR has tried in order to generate interest have worked and some have not.

NASCAR announced today the inductees who will comprise the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2018. The five-person group – the ninth since the inception of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010 – consists of Red Byron, Ray Evernham, Ron Hornaday Jr., Ken Squier and Robert Yates. In addition, NASCAR announced that Jim France earned the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

All-Star Race Recap: Denny Hamlin took home a tenth-place finish in Saturday night’s Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway after making contact with Brad Keselowski in the final 10-lap dash to the finish, causing irreparable damage to the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota.

Regan Smith, who strapped into the No. 43 Ford for the Monster Energy Open, will once again fill in for the injured Aric Almirola in this weekend's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Smith drove to a fourth-place finish in the Monster Energy Open after just 85 minutes of practice with the Richard Petty Motorsports team. Smith will join the No. 43 team in representing the U.S. Air Force for Memorial Day weekend and will pay tribute to fallen Senior Airmen Mark Forester in the 600 Miles of Remembrance.

The driver of Furniture Row Racing’s No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry turns 21 on Tuesday, May 30, just two days after the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Jones knows the celebration if he’s able to accomplish his goal would be even more special because of the true American hero he will be paying tribute to during NASCAR’s longest race.

32nd in Points: Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 32 Cosmo Motors team are ready for the longest race of the season this weekend as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pulls into Charlotte Motor Speedway. At the last points-race, Kansas Speedway, the Go Fas Racing team had great pace, but fell victim to a parts failure, causing a great weekend to drop the team in points. This weekend, the Cosmo Motors team looks to their home race to climb back into the top-30 in points.