NASCAR

6:15 PM ET Associated Press CONCORD, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson handed out mini bottles of Patron at his retirement announcement — so perfectly on brand for the cool Californian who stormed to a record-tying seven NASCAR championships yet somehow bored fans who found him too vanilla for their liking. Nothing about Johnson was ever boring,

1:07 PM ET ESPN News Services CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson sat down next to Jeff Gordon at a 2001 driver meeting and asked the champion if he had time to offer any career advice. Gordon was so impressed with the fellow California native that he encouraged Rick Hendrick to start a team built specifically

1:07 PM ET Jimmie Johnson has announced that 2020 will be his final season as a full-time driver in NASCAR’s Cup Series. Johnson made the announcement Wednesday in a video posted to his Twitter account, saying he is “so thankful for 18 incredible years of racing in NASCAR.” #Chasing8 one final time pic.twitter.com/ZoldabKy9M — Jimmie

8:31 PM ET So we’ve reached the end of the line, that is for the three months or so before they go racing at Daytona. But it’s still a cold, dark winter with less NASCAR than we’ve become used to. You could make a good argument that the four strongest drivers this season were the

10:17 PM ET Kenny Bruce Kyle Busch captured his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship and Joe Gibbs Racing dominated on the racetrack, winning a stunning 19 of 36 points races while becoming the first organization to put three of its four teams in the Championship 4 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Busch, who captured

5:28 PM ET Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be the honorary starter for the 2020 Daytona 500, making him part of the pre-race ceremonies for the third consecutive year. Earnhardt made the announcement on his podcast Monday, one day after the NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Daytona

10:09 PM ET Until Sunday, Kyle Busch‘s career still came with an asterisk. A but. A what-if. Those are gone now, left behind forever in the wake of a slow late-autumn cruise around a South Florida racetrack, father and son grinning ear-to-ear in their Toyota Camry, beneath a flag that read “2019 NASCAR Monster Energy

6:44 PM ET Associated Press HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Busch emerged from the Joe Gibbs Racing juggernaut as NASCAR’s latest champion, winning his second title Sunday after two teammates were slowed by pit-road gaffes. Busch won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to snap a 21-race losing streak and beat Gibbs teammates Denny Hamlin and

7:14 PM ET Associated Press HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Tyler Reddick won his second consecutive Xfinity Series championship by snatching the lead away from Cole Custer in a spirited season finale Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Reddick and Custer traded the lead three times in a single lap with Reddick finally surging his Richard Childress Racing entry

11:29 PM ET Associated Press HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Matt Crafton won a championship without winning a race, an unprecedented feat under NASCAR’s new title-deciding playoff systems. Crafton finished second in Friday night’s Truck Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway — good enough for his third series title in the winner-take-all format. The champion needed only to