Posted on by Jerry Bonkowski

When longtime NASCAR fan favorite Marcos Ambrose decided to end his nearly 25-year racing career, he sought to get as far away from race cars and race tracks as he could.

Boy, did he ever.

Having left NASCAR after the 2014 season, Ambrose moved his family literally halfway around the world, roughly 10,000 miles away from the Charlotte area and back to his native Tasmania.

To put that into a bit clearer context, Tasmania is an island state, 150 miles south of parent country Australia, and the last major land mass southward before reaching Antarctica — home of the South Pole.

Roughly the size of West Virginia, much of Tasmania is pristine wilderness, with a population of less than 550,000. And it’s back in his native land that Ambrose has once again found peace, happiness and not surprisingly, has rediscovered his love of racing. Only now it’s primarily as a teacher/coach and crew chief for daughters and aspiring go-kart racers Tabitha and Adelaide.

“My racing career was coming to the point where I needed to come back to Australia for personal reasons,” Ambrose said in an interview with NASCAR.com. “I got out of racing, it was just time for me to stop, really. Raising a family was really important to me and being a good dad and a good husband.

“So we’ve done that. And my girls now are 13 (Adelaide) and 15 (Tabitha), so they’re well on their way and I’ve really enjoyed my time with them.”

RELATED: Marcos Ambrose career stats

While Adelaide is in the early stages of her racing career, older sister Tabitha has shown great promise and, like her father, already possesses great skill behind the wheel.

So much so that the proud father envisions his oldest daughter moving up to Australian “circuit and some speedway racing in the next year or two.” While he’s not ruling out Tabitha eventually following in his NASCAR footsteps, he’s also not rushing her development, either.

“Racing’s just so great for kids,” Ambrose said. “It teaches them a lot of stuff about life, how to be a good loser, victories, working hard, putting in effort, and taking a bit of risk as well.

“Racing has just been great to me in my life and now Tabitha has really taken to it. We support her and what she’s doing, but she’s going to have to make it on her own. And if she wants to go down a path of racing cars, she’s going to have to find a way. We’re certainly happy for her to be going down that road and we support where we can.”

Tabitha’s exploits have reignited Ambrose’s own love of racing. While he no longer climbs behind the wheel, Ambrose recently became crew chief in the Australian TA2 (Trans-Am) Series for friend and driver/team owner Owen Kelly, who has driven several late model and NASCAR Cup and Xfinity races in the United States for, among others, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports.

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Even though he lived halfway around the globe, Ambrose had long aspired to one day compete in NASCAR, and set out to climb a racing ladder that eventually saw him achieve that goal.

After starting out in his native land, he moved to Europe and raced in the Formula Ford Series in the mid-to-late 1990s, competing against soon-to-be Formula One stars Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button and the late Dan Wheldon, as well as someone he would eventually renew an on-track rivalry with in NASCAR, Danica Patrick.

Ambrose learned his lessons well in Europe; he returned to Australia and won back-to-back Supercar championships in 2003 and 2004.

After one more season in that series, he moved to the United States and began competing in 2006 when JTG-Daugherty Racing owners Tad and Jodi Geschickter gave Ambrose the opportunity he had coveted for so long.

“Without Tad and Jodi, I would never have made it to NASCAR,” he said.

While he won two races in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series, both at Watkins Glen International (2011 and 2012), those victories are not No. 1 on Ambrose’s his list of career achievements.

“Winning races, yeah, that’s great but it’s a fleeting moment,” Ambrose said. “But to make it to a full-time (NASCAR) Cup driver, for me was the highlight of my career because it is so competitive and the quality of drivers and the teams. Coming from overseas into that American-dominated sport, it was just a big thing. I’m really proud of my time.”

In addition to being forever grateful to the Geschickters for taking a chance on him, Ambrose has great love and appreciation for NASCAR legend Richard Petty, for whom he drove in the final four seasons of his Cup career (2011-2014).

“Richard is just one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met and I got to know,” Ambrose said. “He’s so full of wisdom, was such an incredible race car driver, a storied family in racing, such a humble guy and nice person, nice family. (Richard’s former crew chief, Dale) Inman’s the same. Robbie Loomis was there when I first came in, Sammy Johns, just so many wonderful people inside that organization. It’s just incredible to think that I drove for him and I respect him so much and the family so much.

“I’ve got so much respect for racing families that have been doing NASCAR for three and four generations now and what they’ve gone through and what they’ve done. They’re part of the fabric of NASCAR and that’s what makes the sport so great, those kind of people. I was privileged to have known Richard and to race for him.”

After leaving NASCAR and a brief 10-race return to Australian Supercars at the end of 2014 and into 2015, Ambrose turned away from racing because he had gone through burnout — and not the kind of burnout that he experienced after all the races he won in his career.

“When I left America, I just cut the cord,” he said. “That was just a way for me to actually just handle leaving NASCAR and leaving North America. We just had to start a new chapter in our lives.”

That included withdrawing completely from social media.

“I really stood away from (racing) big time,” he said. “We just turned the tap off. To be honest, my life’s always been about racing. I’ve been racing since I was 15. It was a huge push to go to Europe, and then make a career back in Australia, and then start again and go to America.

“And then (nearly) 10 years of NASCAR on your own, I didn’t have the infrastructure around me, the family around me, and I think I just burned out. I think that was part of my issue. When I came back to Australia, I thought I could still drive for Roger (Penske in Supercars) and do the racing thing. And really, I just couldn’t. My brain was just saying, ‘No, you have to stop and just reset.’ And I think that’s what I’ve done over the last six years. That was part of the closing of my social media accounts and everything, just sort of giving your brain a rest and just changing up what you were doing.

“I just felt like I took on so much burden that I just needed to stop and break that. We’re six years out from that and now I feel much better. I feel like I’m back to my old self.”

Ambrose is still young enough to wheel a race car. When asked if he’d consider it, he flashes the same kind of big smile that made him such a fan favorite in NASCAR, and quips, “You know, it’s probably time for that six- or seven-year itch, isn’t it?

“I do miss racing. … Tabitha and Adelaide getting into racing has reinvigorated me in the sport. And so we’ll just see where it goes from here.

“We’re actually now in the process of reopening my social (media) pages. We’re doing it really to help Tabitha and to re-engage in the community. I’m doing the crew chief thing now and I’m back at the race track contributing where I can and I’m really enjoying that. I feel like I’ve got a lot of experience in racing and the cars that I’ve been setting up have been going quite well so I’ve enjoyed that as well. So we’re sort of just re-engaging now into motorsport.

“I’m sure I could jump back in and do some training and do some testing and be back to somewhat of my former glory, but I haven’t tried, and it just hasn’t been on my radar.”

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Ambrose has not returned to the United States since he left nearly seven years ago. But fond memories are still fresh in his mind.

“I do miss the NASCAR community and the friendships that I built in there and in America,” he said. “I certainly have a lot of friends in the garage that I’d love to see again. I’d love to re-engage. So yes, I certainly miss it, a great part of my life. Nearly 10 years of my life was on the NASCAR circuit. And yeah, it’s fond memories.

“We’d love to come back. … Once COVID gets under control and everything, hopefully we can come back, especially with Tabitha now showing some interest in racing. I think North America would be a great place for her to go.”

Since leaving NASCAR, Ambrose has become a successful businessman. He owns several commercial properties in Tasmania, with his pride and joy being Thousand Lakes Lodge, a resort he built in the remote outback for folks who like to rough it during the day but enjoy returning for luxury and pampering at night.

“I’ve really enjoyed doing that,” Ambrose said. “It’s an old Antarctic Training Center up in the mountains. It really is a wild place with wombats and Tasmanian devils, voles and things like that and lots of bushwalking. So that’s been good.

 

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Photo courtesy Thousand Lakes Lodge

“(Building the lodge) was part of that sea change. It was part of just resetting the clock. I spent so long in the concrete jungle of NASCAR and it’s a fast-paced life. You’re in a jet to get to the track, you’re in a car driving down the motorway to get to the track. You’re at the track, you’re racing your race car, you’re sleeping in a motor home, there’s just generated noise and concrete and so I think I just needed to just get back to basics.

“So I thought it was a good idea at the time to go and build this wilderness lodge and I’ve really enjoyed doing it. It was actually really good for my soul to sort of just get back to nature a little bit and to do something very different.

“There’s quite a few, myself and Carl Edwards are a couple of examples. You just get to a stage where you’ve just got to make a decision and you’re either in or you’re out, you can’t be half in or half out. Sometimes you just got to make the cut. And for me, I had a young family and I wanted to raise them. My body and my brain was saying, ‘Hey, you just need to stop what you’re doing here.’ And so that’s kind of where it was.”

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One of the happiest memories of Ambrose’s career in NASCAR was how American fans embraced him, something that continues to this day. When asked if he was humbled by how fans responded to him, how they still send him letters and emails and how they still are curious what he’s doing these days, a broad smile once again stretched across Ambrose’s face.

“Yes, yes and yes,” he chuckled. “To race at the top level is tough. But then to not create enemies and for people to enjoy what you do, for me, that’s even better. Americans, they generally love Australians and the Australian way of life. So I was fortunate to be Australian and racing in NASCAR, embraced that, and people embraced that for me. All I tried to do when I went to the race track was just try my best and to have a red hot go of it.

“I appreciate that people still think of me in those circles. It sort of does reinvigorate me to say, ‘Hey, what are you doing down in Tasmania, you should be doing something more.’ So maybe I’ll get back engaged a bit more quickly and I’ll see you guys soon.”

To hear the full interview with Marcos Ambrose, check out The Racing Beat on the BLEAV Podcast Network (BLEAV.com) and your favorite podcast platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and more.

RELATED: Where are they now? Mark Martin enjoying less competitive retirement life

The Marcos Ambrose file:

* Age: 45

* Hometown: Launceston, Tasmania

* NASCAR Cup Series career (2007-2014): 227 starts, 2 wins (both at Watkins Glen in 2011 and 2012), 18 top-five and 46 top-10 finishes

* Highest single-season Cup finish: 18th in 2009 and 2012

* NASCAR Xfinity career: 77 starts, 5 wins, 9 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes

* NASCAR Truck Series career: 22 starts, 0 wins, 2 top-five and 4 top-10 finishes

* During his NASCAR career, Ambrose drove for Hall of Famers Richard Petty and the Wood Brothers, as well as JTG-Daugherty Racing, Robby Gordon and Michael Waltrip. When he left NASCAR to return to race in the Supercars Series in Australia, he drove 10 races over two seasons (2014-2015) for another legendary team owner, Roger Penske, before officially retiring from all forms of racing.

* Won back-to-back Australian V8 Supercars Series championships in 2003 and 2004.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials issued a one-race suspension Monday to team owner Chip Ganassi for violating COVID-19 event protocols last weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

Ganassi violated Section 12.8.1.b of the NASCAR Rule Book, a subsection of the member conduct guidelines that includes compliance with COVID-19 event procedures. Officials said that Ganassi’s penalty was “for bringing into the competition area a non-essential individual that was restricted from the footprint.”

RELATED: Cup Series standings

Ganassi was also fined $30,000. Pending any potential appeal, he is barred from this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Chip Ganassi Racing is still permitted to field its two entries — the No. 1 Chevrolet for driver Kurt Busch and the No. 42 Chevy for Ross Chastain — in Sunday’s event.

Additionally, two Cup Series crew chiefs were fined $10,000 after their cars were found with one unsecured lug nut each in a post-race check Sunday evening at the Daytona Road Course. Those penalized were crew chief Adam Stevens of the race-winning No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Christopher Bell, and crew chief Jeremy Bullins for the fifth-place finishing Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NASCAR’s opening fortnight in Daytona produced a pair of fresh faces in Victory Lane in the short term, but also created intrigue and impact for the longer haul. Two first-time Cup Series winners also means two first-time playoff entrants, with Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell and road-course tamer Christopher Bell securing early tickets for the 16-driver postseason field.

To be crystal clear, it’s extremely early. The NASCAR Playoffs are 24 races away, and the regular season offers plenty of opportunity for the usual suspects to go the win-and-in route to further their championship pursuits. But with two long shots (Bell was a 50-1 dark horse Sunday; McDowell went off at 66-1 odds for the 500) already clinched, going the points path for one of the 14 remaining berths has become a more delicate road for potential playoff tweeners.

RELATED: Cup Series points standings

“The dynamic has changed dramatically right now,” says Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, who rallied for a fifth-place finish Sunday and sits 10th in points. “We’re very early in the season and it’s now turned into a points race for those last few spots. Hopefully it doesn’t matter for us. I think that we’ll be able to go to Richmond and Martinsville and some of those tracks and contend for the win and hopefully bring home wins, but if you don’t win, you’re in a lot of trouble right now because it’s not looking like you’re gonna be able to get in the playoffs right now without a win.”

Reinforcing the point that the 2021 season still has that new car smell, it’s early, but never quite too early to see where the Cup Series field stacks up within the playoff construct. Allowing for the small sample size, here’s an overview of who stands where, two races in:

• Clinched: Just the two — McDowell and then Bell. McDowell’s Daytona 500 victory virtually sealed Front Row Motorsports’ second-ever playoff berth, joining Chris Buescher’s 2016 run to the playoffs in the portfolio for car owner Bob Jenkins. Bell’s qualification might be more expected as part of the powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing operation, but it still ranks as a first for the organization’s least-experienced driver.

“I mean, absolutely. I think the 34 (McDowell) certainly is a surprise,” said JGR’s Denny Hamlin. “He’s going to be in the playoffs. Ninety percent of the people that know anything about the sport, 95% really would put the 20 car (Bell) in the Playoffs one way, shape or form anyway. I don’t think that that’s really taking up a spot that wasn’t already probably pegged.”

Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

• High perch in points: Bell and McDowell aside, the rest of the top six spots are not surprisingly occupied by perennial heavyweights — points leader Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and defending series champion Chase Elliott. Right behind them is the series’ biggest overachiever so far — Ryan Preece, who starts the season with finishes of sixth and ninth in JTG-Daugherty Racing’s non-chartered No. 37 team. The Modified Tour standout ranks an impressive seventh in points, quite the early jump after a 29th-place result in last year’s final standings.

• Mild mid-pack surprises: Martin Truex Jr. sits 14th after two races, and his versatility and speed should bring him back into the points standings’ upper reaches. Behind him, positions 15 through 25 are an interesting lot, separated by just 13 points. Corey LaJoie’s Spire No. 7 leads that pack, ahead of a scramble that includes Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Ryan Newman and Daniel Suarez just waiting to sort itself out.

• Rally-cap time: Time remains for playoff hopefuls with little to show for their sluggish two-race start, but it’s still stark to see certain names outside the Cup Series’ top 25. Among the comeback-minded: Erik Jones (26th), rookie Chase Briscoe (27th), William Byron (29th), Tyler Reddick (33rd) and Matt DiBenedetto (37th). Opening with finishes of 33rd and 37th has been particularly detrimental to the Wood Brothers’ DiBenedetto, who has just five points total — last among full-time drivers. Plenty of races remain for him to replicate his playoff positioning of a year ago.

Posted on by Jason Christley

Some race teams come back from New Smyrna with an idea of what they want to try for the rest of the racing season.

But most are just there to win.

Matt Hirschman has done a whole lot of that his last few years in Florida. His 2021 title was the third in the last four years during the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing week at the Florida half-mile. Hirschman’s racing season model has been the same for years: no focus on a single series, but rather on the open events and a few Whelen Modified Tour races.

There’s a reason Hirschman is nicknamed “Big Money.”

In that sense, the week-long World Series championship is a cluster of open shows, one race after another for an entire week.

And when it’s money time, Hirschman is there: he’s won the Richie Evans Memorial 100 four of the last five years. He’s no slouch in the John Blewett III Memorial 76, either. Over the last five years, he’s won that event twice and finished second three times.

“It bridges the gap from 2020 to 2021, meaning from November to April it gets us back in race mode,” Hirschman says. “You just knock the rust off, so to speak. I don’t think I need that so much from the driving standpoint.

“It’s more of just working together with everyone, just being familiar with how we do things and the order in which we do things. I think it’s more beneficial from that standpoint.”

Hirschman hasn’t run more than four tour races since 2014, but won at New York’s Oswego Speedway in 2018 and lost an overtime thriller to Justin Bonsignore last year at New Hamphire’s White Mountain Motorsports Park. He non-committal on his 2021 tour schedule.

The 2021 season will take the green flag on Thursday, April 8, at Martinsville Speedway.

RELATED: Buy Tickets for Martinsville | 2021 Whelen Modified Schedule

New Smyrna has turned into a trophy battle between Hirschman and Ryan Preece.

Since 2015, either Hirschman (2017, 2019-21) or Preece (2015-16, ’18) have won the Richie Evans Memorial 100. In that span – covering 34 tour-type Modified races overall – Preece has 11 wins and Hirschman eight.

Hirschman swept the Richie Evans Memorial and week-long titles in 2020 and ’21, while Preece did it in 2015 and ’16. In 2017, Hirschman on the tace and Preece the title, and in 2018, Preece won the race and Hirschman the title.

You have to go back to 2014, when Justin Bonsignore won the Richie Evans Memorial and Ron Silk the championship to find someone other than Preece or Hirschman holding the trophy.

For Silk, racing at New Smyrna all about winning and having fun.

Silk is one of just four drivers — along with Ted Christopher, Jimmy Spencer and Preece — to win both a Tour title and a World Series title.

No driver in the modern-tour era has won the World Series and the tour in the same year. Richie Evans, in 1984, is the last driver to win both the World Series and NASCAR Modified title in the same year.

Steve Park won the championship at New Smyrna in 1992 and ’93, and then finished second on the tour in 1995 and ’96. Reggie Ruggiero finished second on the tour seven times, including 1987 and ’89 when he won the New Smyrna championship.

Christopher, who won nine tour-type Modified titles and split one SK Modified title at New Smyrna, finished third behind champion Jimmy Blewett and runner-up Hossfeld in 2008, when he went on to win his only tour title.

Recent Whelen Modified Tour champions have eschewed the World Series. New York’s Justin Bonsignore, who won his second tour title in three years in 2020, hasn’t raced New Smyrna since 2017. He has three wins there, including one in 2015 when he was World Series runner-up. Similarly, six-time tour champion Doug Coby made one start in 2014, ran five nights and finished fifth in points in 2019 and ran two nights this year.

While Silk didn’t win a race this year, he was competitive all week and ended up in a three-way tie for second in the points with Eric Goodale and Ryan Preece.

The week is a break from the snow and ice up north the Modified community sees every winter. Add five nights of racing, and it’s a hard combination to beat in February for Silk.

“The weather sucks up here [in the winter],” Silk says. “Obviously, we race because we love racing, so we can’t race up here. It’s a good week.

“Vacation’s the wrong word because it’s a lot of work, but your regular daily routine just kind of comes to a grinding halt. You’re in an alternate reality for a week where you’re just racing every day and hanging out with your buddies. It’s a great time to get away and go do that.”

While the championship indicators may not be there at New Smyrna, the health of Modified racing bodes well for an exciting 2021 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Patrick Emerling and Craig Lutz finished fifth and sixth this year at New Smyrna, with both picking up wins. Anthony Nocella proved to be competitive all week, while Jon McKennedy collected three top fives.

The World Series coming and going is a sign of something else, too: the racing season up north is on the horizon. The Whelen Modified Tour opener at Martinsville Speedway is set to go in less than seven weeks. Unlike Hirschman, Silk will be on the Tour full-time competing for a second championship.

“I’d be hungry either way, but you’ve got the feeling of racing again,” Silk says. “Really, it’s not going to be too much longer before we’re back.”

Cars race during the John Blewett III memorial tour Modified race at the New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna Beach, Florida on February 10, 2021. (James Gilbert/ARCA Racing)
It was an up-and-down week for some Modified drivers at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway. (James Gilbert/NASCAR)
Posted on by Zack Albert

Coach Joe Gibbs was on the right side of two first-time victory celebrations last weekend, both delivered by two of the younger prospects in his racing operation’s system at Daytona International Speedway’s road course.

The Cup Series capper came Sunday from Christopher Bell, who validated his credentials as a can’t-miss prospect homegrown within Toyota’s development pipeline. Saturday’s Xfinity Series win was homegrown, too, but within Gibbs’ close-knit family — his 18-year-old grandson, Ty, did the honors in his series debut.

RELATED: First wins at Joe Gibbs Racing

It all came against the backdrop of what would have been J.D. Gibbs’ 52nd birthday Sunday. The coach’s son died in January 2019 after a long battle with a neurological condition, but his spirit and influence as a team executive remain a prominent part of Joe Gibbs Racing’s ongoing success.

“This is J.D.’s birthday today. Our family back home is celebrating it,” Coach Gibbs said after Sunday’s triumph with Bell. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about him. Of course, any parent or grandparent out there would know what it feels like when you have that heartbreak. But J.D. spent his whole occupational life building our race team. So I think he’s getting a full view of it right now. I think he’s loving it. We sure miss him. I think everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing misses him.”

Part of J.D. Gibbs’ multi-faceted legacy at JGR was his knack for assembling winning pieces on the driver roster. The organization is stocked with two former champions in Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., and with longtime title contender Denny Hamlin — all three respected veteran presences in the Cup Series garage. This weekend, the wins came all the same, but from newer contributors to the JGR effort.

Before his breakthrough, the 26-year-old Bell endured two forms of adversity — one longer-reaching and the other shorter. The long-term doldrums came in an uneven rookie campaign last year at Leavine Family Racing before leaving that affiliate for the JGR mothership this season. “Just the highs and lows,” Bell said. “Last year was very disheartening for me.”

The short-term ill was his role in sparking a massive pileup in the 2021 season-opening Daytona 500, his first race in JGR’s No. 20 ride. With twists and additional turns added to the Daytona venue a week later, Bell drove masterfully in avoiding the late-race minefield that thwarted several worthy contenders.

His team owner called it a “statement victory.” The Oklahoma native was reluctant to tout his accomplishment in quite the same way.

“I don’t know. I’d say that’s more for other people to say than me,” said Bell, who won in his 38th Cup Series start. “I knew going to Joe Gibbs Racing that this is my time. I’m either going to put up or shut up. I’m very grateful for how it’s played out so far between the first two weeks.”

Saturday’s prelude was every bit as special for the 80-year-old NASCAR Hall of Famer. Ty Gibbs had racked up eight ARCA Menards Series victories during the last two seasons, but expectations were more muted in his jump to Xfinity Series competition, despite having a strong steed in the No. 54 Toyota.

The teenager remained poised through multiple restarts and overtimes, surging after an off-track dip and holding off defending Xfinity Series champ Austin Cindric down the stretch. He was tearful as he searched for ways to express his feelings post-race, but was also quick to apologize for and take ownership of an interview he’d done at the same track a week before. In those post-race remarks, the young Gibbs spouted off after a fourth-place ARCA finish, drawing detractors that included JGR alum and Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett; one week later, a measure of accountability resonated within the joy.

His performance meant the first of his grandfather’s own back-to-back interviews as the winning team owner during Daytona’s road-racing weekend. Gibbs’ next generation of drivers signaled their arrival, and the family’s sense of pride swelled amid the memorable milestones.

“Everybody out there that’s a parent or a grandparent knows what I’m talking about,” the elder Gibbs said after Saturday’s victory. “It’s great when you see people achieve things, particularly on our race team and everything, but then you look and it’s your grandson. Everybody knows the experience and thrill that we have when our kids do things that are special. I think every parent or grandparent out there knows what I’m talking about. It’s just a thrill for us.

“I think back, we’ve had certainly some tough stuff in our family over the last three years with J.D., but to have this experience tonight is really special and different for us.”

Posted on by Terrin Waack

For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, crew chief Adam Stevens celebrated a race win with a driver other than Kyle Busch. Stevens helped sophomore Christopher Bell put the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Victory Lane on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway after Bell conquered the track’s road-course layout. The win marked Bell’s first and Stevens’ 29th.

Stevens won only one race in 2020, and it was the third-to-last event. This victory came in just the second race of the 2021 schedule.

“I generally don’t self-analyze career milestones or achievements,” Stevens said in a post-race Zoom teleconference. “I can tell you it felt really good. I’m beyond thrilled for Bell and beyond thrilled for all my team guys. … We’re all learning each other. Everyone is doing such a good job with such a good attitude. That’s what feels good to me. Certainly less about me.

“It always feels good to win. It’s nice to be reminded we’re doing the right things and we’re doing them the right way.”

RELATED: Race results | Christopher Bell wins Daytona Road Course

The Busch-Stevens duo split during the offseason after six full-time seasons together at NASCAR’s top division. Their shared record included two championships (2015 and 2019) and 28 wins. They also worked together in the Xfinity Series, tallying an additional 19 victories.

Busch now has Ben Beshore atop the No. 18 pit box.

Bell is in just his second season in the Cup Series, his first with Joe Gibbs Racing. As a rookie, Bell competed for Leavine Family Racing in its No. 95 Toyota, but LFR shut its operation’s doors at the end of last year, prompting the move to JGR.

The biggest difference between working with Bell now compared to Busch before is the experience level. That was to be expected, though.

“We have to spend a lot of time talking about how we’re going to operate and what makes a good weekend, what makes a bad weekend — lessons we can learn from,” Stevens said. “You can learn from bad days just as easy as you can learn from a good day. You have to be ready to pull those lessons out. Just a lot of time communicating, laying the foundation for us to do great things in the future.”

Seems like it’s working.

Bell is now qualified to run in the NASCAR Playoffs. He didn’t make the 16-driver postseason field in 2020, finishing the season 20th in the final standings.

“I didn’t imagine we’d win our second race together, but happy to do so,” Stevens said. “It definitely changes the whole season — how you approach the season, what your obstacles might be. Now that we have one under our belt, I think we can get a few more.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Chase Elliott’s four-race win streak on Cup Series road courses ended with a thud after an eventful Sunday on Daytona International Speedway’s 3.61-mile circuit.

RELATED: Official results

Elliott spun with six laps remaining in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 in a close contest with Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin, dropping him out of the top five and relegating him to a 21st-place finish.

Elliott, the defending series champion, started from the pole position and won the first stage. He led 44 of the 70 laps, but was shuffled back to 14th in the running order for a restart with 13 laps to go.

Elliott eventually drove back to fourth place despite an off-course slip that covered the grille of his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with grass and later contact with Corey LaJoie’s No. 7, but his Turn 6 stack-up on Lap 64 sent his car around and ended his victory hopes.

MORE: Elliott makes insane save

Elliott was among the drivers who pitted after a caution flag flew for rain on Lap 56, but he was unable to regain ground as efficiently as eventual race winner Christopher Bell.

“When you have those late-race cautions like that and you have a mixed bag of who stays and who goes, it’s a bit of a gamble either way, I felt like,” Elliott said. “I thought (changing) tires was the right move. Tires won the race, so I think it was the right move. You get back in traffic and it just gets to be so chaotic, and then just depending on who gets through and who doesn’t kind of determines how it’s going to shake out.

“I hate it. I made too many mistakes. We went off track and it was just a bad deal. We had a fast NAPA Chevy and I appreciate the effort. I hate it for Corey. He ran me off there, so I thought he was going to take the lane again, so I went to cross him over and I think that time he was actually going to give me the lane. So, go figure. But we’ll try again next week.”

Elliott’s run dated back to August 2019, when he prevailed at Watkins Glen International. He followed that with victories on a pair of oval-road layouts — two at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and one in the Daytona Road Course’s debut last August.

Former Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon still holds the record for most consecutive road-course wins with six straight from 1997-2000.

Posted on by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For the second consecutive week, Daytona International Speedway crowned a first-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell earned the honor Sunday on the track’s road course, taking the lead from Joey Logano with two laps to go and pulling away to a comfortable 2.119-second victory over the former series champion.

Bell, 26, is the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion and this is his second season at the premier level — his first driving for the championship Gibbs organization. His work Sunday, however, was more reminiscent of a veteran. There were eight caution flags, eight race leaders and a whole lot of action in the waning laps.

RELATED: Official race results | At-track photos

Bell pulled around Logano in the chicane just yards before the white flag and easily stretched the lead to earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series trophy. Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin finished third, followed by Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski.

Kevin Harvick, AJ Allmendinger, last week’s Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell — also a first-time winner this season — Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman rounded out the top 10. This is just third time in NASCAR Cup Series history the season has started with two first-time winners — joining 1949 and 1950.

“This is definitely one of the highlights of my life so far,” a smiling Bell said after climbing off the roof of his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, where he flashed the No. 1 sign to the grandstands.

“Just so incredibly thankful to be here with Joe Gibbs Racing and all our partners. This feels like I prepared my whole life for this moment to race in the Cup Series. Last year was a huge learning curve for me, and I’m very grateful I got the opportunity to run in Cup and it definitely prepared me to move to Joe Gibbs Racing.”

Bell’s pass for the win capped a suspenseful final dozen laps. Defending race winner and reigning series champion Chase Elliott led a race-best 44 laps but was caught up in heavy traffic after his final pit stop with 15 laps remaining. He won Stage 1 and was running fifth — rallying back to the front with six laps to go when he spun out in the infield — a victim of a chain-reaction collision in the fender-to-fender racing at the time. He ultimately came home 21st — snapping a four-race road-course victory streak.

“Man, we had those late-race cautions like that and a mixed bag of who stays and who goes,” said Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“It’s a bit of a gamble either way I felt like. I think (pitting for) tires was the right move. Tires won the race. So it was the right move. You get back in traffic and gets to be so chaotic.

“Who gets through and who doesn’t just kinda determines how it’s going to shake out.”

RELATED: Watch Chase Elliott’s great save | Contact from Hamlin derails Elliott’s run

For much of the 70-lap race Elliott paced the field, making up ground when needed and often putting on a road-course tutorial. Hamlin stayed close and kept him honest, ultimately coming home third. Logano ran among the top five for much of the race and took the lead on Lap 63 when other cars pitted for fresh tires.

“He’s the one that got through with tires,” Logano said of Bell. “One more caution lap would have been enough to have a door-to-door finish across the line maybe.

With his maiden win, Bell is now ranked fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. Hamlin, who won Stage 2, leads the series standings by 12 points over Logano heading to the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I just kept doing what I was doing all day long,” Bell said of the career milestone. “Whenever we took the green flag, I felt like I was really patient. Kyle (Busch) tried to go three-wide around me at the start. I knew that I was OK. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) kept asking what I needed in the car and I didn’t really need anything. Just took my time to get going, get up to speed and really proud to be here.”

Note: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without major issue. NASCAR officials found one unsecured lug nut on each the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of race winner Bell and the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Keselowski.

Posted on by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: How to find NBCSN | Get the NBC Sports App | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App

Monday, Feb. 22
Midnight, NASAR Cup Series: O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at Daytona (re-air), FS1
12:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: BestBrake Brake Pads 159 at Daytona (re-air), FS2
4:30 a.m., NASAR Cup Series: O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at Daytona (re-air), FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Superstart Batteries 188 at Daytona (re-air), FS2
9 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at Daytona (re-air), FS2

Tuesday, Feb. 23
Midnight, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: BestBrake Brake Pads 159 at Daytona (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

On MRN:
7 p.m., NASCAR Live

Wednesday, Feb. 24
10 a.m., The Golden Hour: Making of Days of Thunder (re-air), FS2
11 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: BestBrake Brake Pads 159 at Daytona (re-air), FS2
1 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Superstart Batteries 188 at Daytona (re-air), FS2
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at Daytona (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Thursday, Feb. 25
4 p.m., Dale Jr. Download: Larry McReynolds (re-air), NBCSN
5 p.m., Dale Jr. Download: Randy and Corey LaJoie (re-air), NBCSN
6 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Friday, Feb. 26
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Saturday, Feb. 27
5 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Homestead (re-air), FS1
Noon, NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Homestead (re-air), FS2
4 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Xfinity at Homestead-Miami, FS1
4:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami, FS1 (Canada: TSN 2)
10 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami (re-air), FS2

On MRN:
4 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami

Sunday, Feb. 28
Midnight, NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Homestead (re-air), FS2
1 a.m., Unrivaled: Earnhardt vs. Gordon (re-air), FS2
4 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Homestead (re-air), FS1
5 a.m., Unrivaled: Earnhardt vs. Gordon (re-air), FS1
2 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
3 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay, FOX
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami, FOX (Canada: TSN 5)
11 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami (re-air), FS1

On MRN:
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami

Posted on by Holly Cain

Ty Gibbs turned in a historic NASCAR Xfinity Series debut Saturday night as the 18-year-old won in his first series start, holding off reigning champion Austin Cindric on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.

Gibbs took the lead on a restart in double overtime and held off the field by a comfortable 1.726 seconds at the finish line, dropping to his knees to reflect after climbing out of his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota – a car owned by his grandfather, NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Daytona

With his win in the Super Start Batteries 188 at Daytona Presented by O’Reilly, Gibbs becomes only the sixth driver to win in his first series start – matching a feat achieved by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt in 1982 and most recently, Kurt Busch, 15 years ago.

Gibbs becomes the youngest driver to win a NASCAR Xfinity Series road course event. At 18 years, 4 months, 16 days, he breaks the record most recently held by Cindric (20 years old).

By most measures, it was an emotional victory after an intense, exciting race on the 14-turn, 3.61-mile road course. Cindric led the most laps (29 of the 56) but could not catch Gibbs in the end.

“I just cannot thank everybody right now, really this is like a dream come true for me, it’s just awesome,” said an emotional Gibbs, who turned his first-ever laps in the car and made his first career live pit stop Saturday evening.

“I really didn’t think I had it there,” he said of the intense racing at the end. “I fought back and we won.”

RELATED: Gibbs emotional after first career win

Gibbs teammates Daniel Hemric and Brandon Jones finished third and fourth, followed by Jeb Burton and another member of the JGR family, Harrison Burton. Miguel Paludo, Brandon Brown, Justin Haley, and Jeremy Clements rounded out the top 10.

A victory for Cindric would have been his second in as many races in 2021 and he turned in an inspired drive back to the front to contend for the win. He and AJ Allmendinger – another road course racing star – collided while running first and second heading to the Stage 1 checkered flag. Allmendinger’s car was badly damaged and he ran laps down the remainder of the race.

Cindric’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford was damaged as well, but the team made repairs and Cindric went to work. He returned to the race after multiple pit stops in 33rd place, but still on the lead lap. His road racing skills and the team’s strategy calls ultimately put him in position to contend for the win.

“Obviously I don’t want to be racing to a stage that aggressively, I’d love to see a replay and hopefully we can avoid something like that because obviously AJ and I were going to be fighting for a win later,” Cindric said. “I hated having that much damage to our PPG Ford Mustang that early. Just seemed like he was trying to block there, don’t know if he knew I was there or not. Sucks it’s over with and we salvaged a good finish. Congratulations to Ty.”

MORE: Cindric, Allmendinger clash in Stage 1

Gibbs’ grandfather, who owns the team, climbed down from the pit box and stood behind it to watch the final moments of the race. During a late-race pit stop, the teenager Ty was asking his team for peanut butter crackers. An hour later, he was hoisting the biggest trophy of his young career.

“I don’t even know how to feel,” the younger Gibbs said. “This is really hard for me to explain. After my uncle [JGR President J.D. Gibbs] passed away, it’s been hard for me. It’s just a dream come true. I’m just rambling. I’m excited. Mixed emotions for sure. This is just awesome.”

Of his tight-knit family, Gibbs again wiped tears.

“The family is everything to me, they do so much for me,” said Gibbs, who also won Stage 2. “I just can’t thank them enough, this is just amazing; this is a dream come true. It’s all the man above, I’m sorry I’m a wreck. I didn’t think this was going to happen at all. This is awesome, I can’t thank everybody enough watching and last week I had a terrible interview. I want to apologize for everybody, I just can’t thank everybody enough. This is just amazing.”

Following the second race of the season, Cindric holds the points lead by 24 markers over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Harrison Burton in second.

The Xfinity Series’ next race is the Contender Boats 250, scheduled next Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Notes: There were no issues in post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage at Daytona. … Hemric was forced to drop to the rear of the field for the start after his No. 18 JGR Toyota failed pre-race inspection three times. He had been scheduled to start fifth in the 40-car field.

Contributing: Staff reports