Saturday night marks the cutoff line for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' Chase as the regular season concludes at Richmond International Raceway during the Federated Auto Parts 400. A week removed from Martin Truex Jr. seizing the checkered flag in Darlington, South Carolina, notable bubble drivers such as Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman jump to the forefront of the conversation. Mainstays such as Truex himself simply look to keep momentum going into the title chase. The final race of the season provides more intrigue than any other, per the usual. Will it be a normal contender getting into championship form? Or will a bubble guy seize the moment? How about a random player dashing the hopes of all bubble names? Here's a look at everything...

Valentino Rossi desperately needs a win entering the 2016 MotoGP Grand Prix of San Marino, a virtual home race for the Italian who sits second in the standings. Rossi trails Marc Marquez by 50 points after his third-placed finish at Silverstone, and as long as the Spaniard doesn't crash out of too many races and finishes consistently in the top three, the championship should be his. Marquez took the win last year, breaking Yamaha's dominance at the track, via MotoGP's official Twitter account: But that race took place in tough, rainy conditions, and the fast Misano track should suit Rossi, who grew up in Urbino, Italy, and is almost a local. Here's a look at the race schedule: Live streaming can be found at the BT Sport website (UK), beIN...

Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi will hope a partisan crowd can push him on to cut further into the Championship lead when the MotoGP season rolls into his home track for the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday. The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider could only trim three points off Marc Marquez's lead with his third-place finish at the British Grand Prix last time out but should be positive about his chances of topping the podium at the Misano World Circuit, where he won two years ago. MotoGP's Twitter account offered up some statistics ahead of the race, which show Rossi's Yamaha team have claimed the most victories at Misano since the Grand Prix series returned to the track in 2007: Marquez finished fourth at Silverstone to see his lead a...

Ever since he returned to Ferrari at the beginning of 2014, Kimi Raikkonen has often looked like a driver merely delaying his retirement from Formula One. The 2007 world champion was annihilated by Fernando Alonso that season and was powerless to prevent Sebastian Vettel making the team his own upon his arrival from Red Bull in 2015. Despite a series of strong results at the beginning of this year, that theme has continued for much of 2016. However, Raikkonen appears to be fighting back. Following his signing of a contract extension in July, he is beginning to look like the Raikkonen of old—even outpacing Vettel on occasion—and the Finn has revealed the reasons behind his recent revival. Another driver who knows how it feels to ...

Liberty Media Corporation confirmed it has agreed to purchase a significant stake in Formula One motor racing as part of a deal that will ultimately lead to the full sale of the sports organisation. Sky News reported on Wednesday the deal was worth a sum of $8 billion (£6 billion), although BBC Sports' Dan Roan revealed only a partial stake would be sold at first: Current owner Bernie Ecclestone has played an executive role at the top level of Formula One for more than 40 years, having ascended into a chief position in the early 1970s. However, the business mogul may not be an absent figure altogether. The Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy reported Ecclestone has been offered a new role to remain with Formula One in some ca...

Richmond International Raceway’s final race should be called The Bottom of the Ninth 400—this is the 26th and final race of the regular season, and several drivers’ playoff hopes are in their final at-bats. A year ago, the most thrilling part of the race was watching Aric Almirola pick his way through the field as he desperately drove to earn a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He needed a win, drove like a winner but couldn’t get there in the end. We’ll see much the same Saturday night when Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman gun for that final playoff spot on the Grid. As it stands, McMurray has a seven-point lead over Newman. That will be the race-within-the-race to watch. Chase drivers have worries...

Jenson Button and Felipe Massa, two of the most likeable and popular drivers in Formula One, announced their upcoming retirements over the Italian Grand Prix weekend (although Button claims his is not an actual retirement—we'll see). For fans of the sport, it will be like saying goodbye to old friends. Button is the third-most experienced driver in F1 history, with 298 grand prix starts on his resume, and Massa has amassed 243 to rank ninth on the list. However, this is the perfect time for both men to go, and their retirements should be seen in a positive light, as they open up two race seats in competitive cars for younger drivers. Button is 36 and Massa is 35; both are still competitive, but they are no longer at the peak of their ...

For the first time in the 2016 Formula One season, Nico Rosberg looked like a broken man after qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. Just six days after Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton joined him on the Belgian GP podium from 21st on the grid, Rosberg was a huge 0.478 seconds slower than the championship leader in a two-way fight for pole position at Monza. The German was unable to hide his horror in the immediate aftermath of the session, but he was almost unrecognisable around 24 hours later. Hamilton's slow start had allowed Rosberg to take a comfortable victory at F1's Temple of Speed. And after crossing the line to take his seventh win of the season, cutting Hamilton's lead to just two points with seven races remainin...

Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award winner for the past 13 seasons, is out for the rest of this one. As the Sprint Cup regular season ends and the annual Chase format determines a champion, just where do the Earnhardt fans go? Hendrick Motorsports brought back retired Jeff Gordon to sub. For most of the rest of the season, young Alex Bowman draws the assignment. Neither will be in the Chase. Who picks up the slack? Perhaps Martin Truex Jr., the guy with the common touch who won the Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway Sunday night. At the NASCAR track most steeped in tradition and lore, Truex stopped to kiss the finish line on the way to Victory Lane. A familiar site at Indianapolis, planting a kiss on the nasty...

The Italian Grand Prix was one of those weekends when the racing got in the way of the rumours in the Formula One paddock. It all started on Thursday afternoon when Felipe Massa—one of the most popular figures on the current grid—announced his retirement from F1 at the end of 2016. The Brazilian's impending departure has created a vacancy alongside Valtteri Bottas, and it was initially thought Felipe Nasr would be replacing his compatriot for next season. But it appears Williams are eager to unearth their own answer to Max Verstappen, with teenager Lance Stroll already agreeing to race for the team in principle. Two days after the Massa bombshell came the news from McLaren-Honda, who finally confirmed Stoffel Vandoorne will rep...