Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR issued an indefinite suspension to driver Mike Wallace on Thursday for a social media post that violated its member conduct guidelines.

According to the penalty report, Wallace violated NASCAR Rule Book Sections 12.1, 12.8 and 12.8.1.e (Member Conduct Guidelines), the last of which states:

“Member actions that could result in a fine and/or indefinite suspension, or termination:

“Public statement and/or communication that criticizes, ridicules, or otherwise disparages another person based upon that person’s race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition.”

As a condition of the behavioral penalty, Wallace must also perform sensitivity training as directed by NASCAR before his reinstatement.

Wallace, 61, has driven the No. 0 Chevrolet for owner Johnny Davis in three NASCAR Xfinity Series events this season. He has four wins in 497 career Xfinity starts. Wallace also has five wins in 115 starts in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and has made 197 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Posted on by Holly Cain

With three races remaining to set the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff field – this weekend’s Richmond Raceway doubleheader will play a major role in seeding the championship-eligible drivers and deciding which competitors complete the 12-driver playoff lineup.

A highly anticipated two-race slate this week begins with the Go Bowling 250 on Friday night (7 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) followed by the Virginia is for Race Lovers 250 on Saturday afternoon (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). No current full-time Xfinity Series driver has won at Richmond previously.

RELATED: Full Richmond schedule | Xfinity Series standings

Five-race winner Austin Cindric of Team Penske goes into the pivotal race slate holding a sizable 54-point advantage on six-race winner Chase Briscoe, of Stewart-Haas Racing, for the regular season championship. They are two of seven drivers with victories already and playoff hopes secure.

Last week’s dramatic Darlington finish featured some particularly hard racing between NASCAR Cup Series championship contender Denny Hamlin and Xfinity Series title hopeful Ross Chastain, who was looking for his first win of the season.

Contact between the two in the closing laps allowed Brandon Jones to surge past and pick up his third trophy of the year. Chastain finished runner-up (for the fourth time this season), which keeps him third in the driver standings — but in eighth place in the playoff outlook standings, the top-ranked driver without a victory on the season.

No doubt he’s eager for that win to propel him to what he would consider a more fitting position to start his first Xfinity Series Playoff run. This weekend gives him two chances for a trip to Victory Lane. However, the .75-mile Richmond track historically hasn’t been one of Chastain’s best. He will start from the pole position on Friday.

The driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet has only a single top-10 finish in nine previous Richmond Xfinity Series starts. That was a runner-up showing in 2018 driving a Chip Ganassi Racing car. He was 11th in last September’s race at the track.

That 2019 fall race was won by current NASCAR Cup Series rookie Christopher Bell with Cindric runner-up by a healthy 1.7 seconds. In all, six current playoff-eligible drivers finished among the top 10 last September — Justin Allgaier (fourth), Briscoe (fifth), Harrison Burton (sixth), Noah Gragson (seventh) and Michael Annett (ninth).

There are seven drivers with victories this season — six of them are multiple winners from Cindric (five) and Briscoe (six) to three-race winner Jones, and two-race winners Gragson, Justin Haley, and the rookie Burton.

Points-wise there remains one position still considered competitive for the playoffs. Brandon Brown is 12th in the standings, with a 45-point edge on veteran Jeremy Clements. Myatt Snider is ranked 14th, 51 points behind Brown.

This weekend marks Snider’s Richmond debut. The 35-year-old Clements has 19 Richmond starts, yet only a single top 10 — eighth place in spring 2018. He was 35th and 16th in the two races last year. And while he has continued to mount a challenge to Brown, the driver of the No. 51 Chevrolet hasn’t had a top-10 finish since the Daytona Road Course, five races ago.

Brown, who will celebrate his 27th birthday next week, has six Richmond starts and no top-10 finishes. The driver of the No. 68 Brandonbilt Motorsports Chevrolet has a career-best showing at the track of 19th in spring 2018. He was 20th there last year. He hasn’t scored a top 10 this season since a 10th-place finish on July 18 at Texas Motor Speedway — seven races ago. He finished 17th at Darlington last week.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Chase Elliott chalked up his on-track run-in with Martin Truex Jr. last weekend at Darlington Raceway as a “racing incident,” saying he feels the two drivers have a foundation of mutual respect.

RELATED: Elliott, Truex tangle at Darlington | Cup Series standings

Elliott and Truex collided during their contest for the lead with 15 laps left in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500, the opener of the 10-race NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Truex, running second, made an aggressive move heading into Turn 1 and his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota slid up into Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Both cars scrubbed the wall and later faded to mid-pack finishes.

Elliott said he anticipated competing onward against Truex without any repercussions from their late-race clash.

“No, I feel like Martin and I both have a lot of respect for each other,” Elliott said in a Thursday teleconference ahead of Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) at Richmond Raceway. “I know from my end, I respect him — he’s a champion. I feel like we’ve had some really hard battles together, so I would hope that’s mutual. And if it’s not mutual, I still have respect for him either way. I do think that situation was a racing incident. I think we were both battling really hard for a win. I think any other time in the race, I probably would give him the position. But in that situation, you have to know that nobody is going to let anybody in for a race win with 15 laps left.

“I hate that it happened – it hurt both of us. So, like I said, I don’t think it was something he did on purpose. I think we were both being aggressive and when you’re coming to a race like that and a potential win of the Southern 500, I mean I think I’d be foolish not to push for every last inch that I would have an opportunity to get. It was just an unfortunate end to a solid comeback for us.”

Elliott finished 20th as the last driver on the lead lap, and Truex placed one lap down in 22nd. Their contact allowed Kevin Harvick to take control and hold on for his series-leading eighth victory of the season.

The result dropped Elliott two positions to seventh in the Cup Series Playoffs standings. He sits just four points behind sixth-place Truex with two races left in the opening Round of 16.

Truex took some ownership of the incident shortly after it happened, telling his No. 19 team on the radio after the checkered flag: “Sorry, man. I was going for it. I guess I shouldn’t have.” Told of Elliott’s assessment in a teleconference earlier Thursday, Truex agreed with his view of the moment.

“It was just kind of one of those racing deals, where it was obviously really close,” Truex said, adding that he thought he had enough momentum to complete the pass. “It was pretty much going to be the pass for the win in my eyes. I feel like in that moment, we both made a split-second decision and tried to anticipate or think about what the other one would do, and I think we both guessed wrong, to be honest with you. Just really close, obviously, nobody’s fault. I don’t think you can really put blame on one guy. Just kind of a racing deal that was unfortunate for both of our teams.”

Sunday’s 500-miler marked the second consecutive Darlington event where late-race contact denied Elliott’s strong bid for a victory. During the track’s May 20 race, Kyle Busch inadvertently clipped Elliott as they vied for second place, sending the No. 9 Chevy into the inside retaining wall.

Elliott reacted with a middle-finger salute directed at Busch after exiting that wreck, but said the incident with Truex was comparable in venue and the stage of the race only.

“I do think that was a little different than the May thing,” Elliott said. “Similar and different, I guess. But definitely the situation was different.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Richard Petty Motorsports confirmed Thursday that Bubba Wallace will not return to the organization’s No. 43 Chevrolet for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Silly Season’s key figures

RPM officials released a statement Thursday afternoon. The news was first reported by The Athletic.

“Earlier this morning, Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr., informed Richard Petty Motorsports he will not be returning for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) season,” RPM said in a prepared statement. “We will complete the season with Wallace behind the wheel of the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. We look forward to the next chapter in the making for the iconic No. 43 team. We will announce our new driver in the near future.”

Wallace, 26, will round out his third full Cup Series season with the Richard Petty-owned organization this year. He sits 23rd in the Cup Series standings with five top-10 finishes — a career best for a single season.

“This was not an easy decision as I have nothing but the utmost respect for Richard Petty and his family, but I believe it’s time for someone else to take over the reins of the No. 43,” Wallace said in a statement released on his social media channels. “Thank you to the King and everyone at Richard Petty Motorsports for giving me the opportunity to start my Cup Series career. I’ve grown so much as a driver and as a person since joining them. We’ve got nine more races together, and I hope we can finish the 2020 season on a high note.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

And so it has come down to this. A 250-lap race at a venue the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series has not visited since 2005 will decide which 10 competitors advance to the 2020 playoffs.

The ToyotaCare 250 on Thursday night (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Richmond Raceway is the series’ regular-season finale. And racing a new track with so much on the line may be the ultimate fair-and-square equalizer.

RELATED: Gander Trucks standings | Richmond weekend schedule

Austin Hill holds a 38-point advantage over Brett Moffitt for the coveted regular-season championship, which will reward the champ with a valuable 15-point bonus for his months-long work. And three drivers – 19-year-old Tyler Ankrum, 20-year-old Todd Gilliland and 19-year-old Derek Kraus will be vying for the final two points positions to carry into the postseason. Ankrum is ranked ninth with a four-point edge on Gilliland in 10th. Kraus sits in 11th, 10 points behind Gilliland.

Then of course, there’s a real possibility someone not already playoff eligible takes the victory Thursday night and only one of those three young drivers advances in on points. Two recent championship contenders, 2016 series champ Johnny Sauter and Stewart Friesen – a member of the 2019 Championship 4 – are still winless on the season.

Veterans Sauter and reigning Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series champion Matt Crafton are the only series regulars to have actually competed in a truck race at the .75-mile Richmond track previously. The last driver to win a race there was Mike Skinner in 2005.

Sauter, who is ranked 15th in points (125 points behind 10th-place Gilliland) has competed in three Richmond truck races with a best finish of 10th in 2003. Crafton has run five truck races at Richmond with a best finish of seventh in 2005. Neither of these veterans has led a lap at the track.

Crafton won at Kansas Speedway in June, so he’s already eligible to defend his season title. Sauter would need a victory Thursday night to make the playoffs. He has never finished worse than ninth in the championship in his 11 previous full-time seasons. And last year’s sixth-place run marked the only time he’d finished outside the top four since 2012.

Certainly the last handful of races leading up to Thursday’s regular-season finale have been action-packed, producing plenty of drama for those three young drivers fighting for those last two points positions.

At various times last week at Darlington Raceway – another relatively “new” venue for the series – this trio of Ankrum, Gilliland and Kraus fought it out for position, all suffering different challenges in the race. In the end, Kraus gambled, stayed on track for an overtime restart and earned a career best runner-up finish to stay every bit in the playoff hunt.

Gilliland was seventh and Ankrum was 11th – good enough to keep their positions in front of Kraus in the championship points standings.

And while the Richmond oval may be new for them, Ankrum, Gilliland and Kraus have plenty of experience racing tracks shorter than a mile. It’s what they grew up cutting their racing teeth on. All three have good reason to be confident heading to Virginia even if they haven’t raced at this track.

“Before this year we’d be nervous about going to a track we’ve never been to, but really we’ve gotten used to dealing with stuff we’ve never done before,” Gilliland said. “The biggest thing is just getting our setup right for Richmond. We’re trying to base it off races in the past like we have been all season.

“I think our Frontline Enterprises Ford F-150 will be good and hopefully I can get more laps on the Ford simulator to be as prepared as I can. We need to run the best race we can as a team and I think if we do that we should be able to stay above the cut line and focus on the playoffs.”

There is reason for all three to be optimistic.

Ankrum, driver of the No. 26 GMS Racing Chevrolet, has three ARCA Menards Series East wins on short tracks – ironically driving for Gilliland’s father, David.

Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, earned five of his seven ARCA Menards Series East wins on short tracks and all 12 of his ARCA Menards Series West career wins on short tracks – plus he has an ARCA Menards Series victory at the half-mile Toledo, Ohio, track.

Kraus, driver of the No. 19 McAnally Hilgemann Racing Toyota, earned nine of his 10 ARCA Menards Series West victories on short tracks en route to the 2019 series championship.

Championship points leader Austin Hill, who won a ARCA Menards Series East race at Richmond five years ago, will start his No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota from pole position Thursday night alongside last week’s Darlington winner, Ben Rhodes. Kraus will start sixth, Gilliland will line up eighth, and Ankrum is 11th on the grid.

“Having Richmond on the schedule is great for the series,” Hill said. “It’s one of the places the Truck Series was built on and it’s always nice to go back to a track that you’ve won at. It’ll be similar to Darlington where not a lot of guys in the field have much experience and even though it (his win) was five years ago, it’s always a benefit to have laps under your belt.”

What To Watch For: NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series points leader Austin Hill can clinch the regular-season championship Thursday night on his own with 23 points. … Richmond Raceway has hosted 11 Gander Truck races producing nine different pole winners and eight different race winners. … The first Gander Truck event at Richmond was on Sept. 7, 1995 and the event was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte, driving a Chevrolet for NASCAR Hall of Famer Rick Hendrick. … Mike Skinner (1996, 2005), Jack Sprague (1998, 2001) and Tony Stewart (2002, 2003) lead the series in wins at Richmond. … Only one of the 11 Gander Trucks races at Richmond have been won from the pole or first starting position, and it was the inaugural event. … The second starting position is the proficient starting position in the field producing more winners (five) than any other starting spot. … The deepest in the field a series race winner has started at Richmond is 27th by Tony Stewart in 2003.

Posted on by Terrin Waack

Hailie Deegan had high expectations for 2020. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have changed what they look like. But it certainly hasn’t lowered them.

“I think it’s just going to make the development process a little bit harder,” Deegan said Wednesday on a Zoom teleconference. “I think it’s going to be a little bit harder on me and I’m going to have to really buckle down and focus on it even more than I already am. Really give it 110-percent effort every opportunity I get because I’m not getting as much as I was planning on.”

Practice has been limited in the ARCA Menards Series. For example, there’s only one 45-minute session at Toledo Speedway this Saturday for the Royal Truck & Trailer 200. Live pit stops were also eliminated altogether, opting for breaks instead.

RELATED: ARCA Menards Series standings | Series schedule

While neither element is necessarily required to pull off a race, both would help a young driver — such as 19-year-old Deegan — looking to improve as a competitor. Those are the two areas Deegan thinks are vital to her advancement into the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, the next big career move.

“I didn’t have this in my plan,” Deegan said. “This wasn’t in my couple-year plan of stock-car racing, of trying to make it. This was something no one had in their plan, no one has ever been through before.

“It makes it very difficult, especially for a driver like me that doesn’t have as much experience as I want to have and needs more experience. You’re not getting that. It favors the driver that have been there forever.”

As of right now, Deegan does not have any Gander Truck Series events or bids set up for 2020 or 2021, respectively. Finances are all going toward her ARCA Menards Series ride, which is doing well this season. In the 14 races so far, she has steered the No. 4 DGR-Crosley Ford to three top-five and 12 top-10 showings; good for a 7.6 average finish. She’s currently ranked third in the points standings — even without a win.

Talks about making the leap haven’t begun because sponsors not only want to see how her seasons play out but also how NASCAR handles 2021 protocol. Right now, none of the national series are holding practice or qualifying. And it’s important both parties get the most out of the relationship.

Deegan’s timeline hasn’t changed, though, nor has it been delayed.

“I wouldn’t call it a lost year,” Deegan said. “I haven’t gotten everything out of it that I was planning on. But I think we’re making the best of it.”

Posted on by Alex Weaver

Chase Elliott has a long history with NASCAR and a bloodline that encompasses multiple generations. He has become a household name in the NASCAR Cup Series, but have you noticed that some of Elliott’s key losing moments have been the result of a battle with a Joe Gibbs Racing driver? You hear of great rivalries in sports — Lakers vs. Celtics, Red Sox vs. Yankees, now Elliott vs. JGR?

The third incident occurred Sunday night at Darlington Raceway with Martin Truex Jr. Elliott and Truex Jr. were battling for the lead late in the opening race for the NASCAR Playoffs with a berth in the Round of 12 on the line. Truex Jr. got a big run to make the pass on Elliott with 13 laps remaining. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver thought he was clear enough, but Elliott wasn’t going to concede the lead during a crash that cost them both.

RELATED: Watch Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. collide at Darlington

The contact cut a tire on Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The damage to Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sent him sinking through the field. Elliott finished 20th, just two spots ahead of Truex. The incident allowed Kevin Harvick to pass both en route to his eighth win of 2020. Elliott and Truex Jr. left Darlington sixth and seventh in the playoff standings.

History repeated itself with Elliott at Darlington this year. Who can forget the Wednesday night showdown earlier this season where Elliott added to the bird population in South Carolina by offering a certain gesture of his frustration to Kyle Busch? After a late-race run-in, Elliott’s No. 9 was sent crashing into the inside wall by Busch and out of a race he had a chance to win. One conversation later, both drivers showed respect and professionalism by not harboring any feelings.

RELATED: Kyle Busch spins Chase Elliott and ends his night

The incident that started it all was the most memorable — Elliott and Denny Hamlin in 2017 at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin bumped Elliott out of the way in an attempt to get to the front on the closing laps. The move may have cost Elliott the possibility of his first career Cup win. Both drivers got out and exchanged words in a heated argument on the frontstretch in front of an animated grandstand.

Time has passed since that first battle. Elliott has eight wins in the NASCAR Cup Series and is back competing for a chance at the Bill France Cup in 2020.

RELATED: Denny Hamlin turns Chase Elliott in 2017 at Martinsville

Now we head to Richmond Raceway for the second race of the NASCAR Playoffs. Historically strong at short tracks, Elliott’s stats will tell you his chances at Richmond aren’t his best. In what will be his 10th start at the Virginia short track, Elliott is going after his first win there. The strongest finishes at Richmond for the No. 9 team both came in 2018 with a runner-up in the spring and a fourth place later that year. Other than that, he has only cracked the top 10 one other time and only led 34 laps there.

If Elliott can keep it off the tow truck and finish with a strong result, he will look promising heading to one of his strongest tracks, Bristol Motor Speedway. Having already captured the All-Star Race win in July and contending for the win and scoring two stage wins in June, Elliott will look to have a 2020 season double take at the track he calls one of his favorites on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit.

A key to Elliott getting a needed result at Richmond and Bristol? Maybe, it’s stay clear of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. They say there is no memory longer than a driver’s scorned. If retaliation is on the mind of driver No. 9, he has nine races and three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers to target on the road to the championship race at Phoenix Raceway come November.

Stats courtesy of Racing Insights.

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

It’s time to get back to short-track racing, as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Richmond Raceway for the second stop in the playoffs’ Round of 16. Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will be run underneath the lights.

RELATED: Full Richmond schedule | Dillon vaults up Power Rankings

TRACK DETAILS

Richmond Raceway is a 0.75-mile D-shaped oval located in Richmond, Virginia. First opened as a fairgrounds half-mile layout in 1953, Richard Petty holds the record for most wins at the track with 13. Kyle Busch leads all active drivers with six.

The track features 14-degree banking in the corners, 8-degree banking on the frontstretch and two-degree banking on the backstretch. The frontstretch is 1,290 feet long and the backstretch is 860 feet.

The 2020 season is the first since 1959 that Richmond has only hosted a single Cup Series race during the year.

STAGE LENGTHS

Stage 1 will end at Lap 80, Stage 2 at Lap 235 and the full distance scheduled to end at Lap 400.

STARTING LINEUP

Kevin Harvick will start Sunday’s race where he left off at Darlington — at the front of the field. The regular-season champion gets the nod on the Busch Pole alongside Joey Logano, filling out an all-Ford front row.

Chevy drivers Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, and William Byron round out the top five. The lineup was determined by four performance metrics from the Cup Series’ previous race: 15% based on fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race position and 35% of the owner points position.

RELATED: Full starting lineup | More on the new lineup formula

RULES PACKAGE

The 2020 NASCAR rules package for short tracks will be in effect with a tapered spacer used to set a target of 750 horsepower. The cars will use a reduced downforce package with a shorter spoiler, a shorter splitter overhang and other aerodynamic changes. 

GOODYEAR TIRES

Each team will be provided with nine sets of Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials for the race.

Richmond’s abrasive surface continues the strategic focus from Darlington – tire management. With high tire wear and additional effort to conserve tires for potential long runs, drivers and crews will have to take risks to gain spots later in the race. The good news for teams is they have run this set-up on similar tracks twice this season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway — the site of the 2020 Cup Series Championship race.

“We’re on a back-to-back stretch of the NASCAR playoff schedule where we race on high-wear race tracks,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing.  “Richmond is known for several things – being a racy short track, being a favorite of drivers and fans, and now as a high-wear track. The tire set-up for Richmond is aligned with two other tracks that are of similar length — Loudon and Phoenix. That is especially important in this current racing climate with no practice. Having the same tire set-up on a similar track will help teams tune in quicker on their car set-ups, which is even more important with the shorter race distances of short-track racing.”

PLAYOFF STATS TO KNOW

— Sunday’s race at Richmond is the third race in a slate of five consecutive nighttime races. That stretch continues with the Round of 16 finale at Bristol Motor Speedway and the Round of 12 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

— Heading into the 28th race of the season, this marks the latest Kyle Busch has gone without a win. With nine races left to extend his 15-year winning streak, his best chance may come at the next two tracks, where he has 14 career wins between the two.

— Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and William Byron are the only drivers to finish in the top 10 in both races at tracks under 1-mile this season. Keselowski, Busch and Byron each currently sit above the Round of 16 cutline.

— Since May, Kevin Harvick has passed Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, Lee Petty, Rusty Wallace and Kyle Busch on the all-time wins list — 46% of Harvick’s wins have come after turning 40.

Source: Racing Insights

INTERACTIVE COVERAGE

For a more interactive experience, head over to NASCAR.com or the NASCAR app to check out an enhanced Race Center, live Lap-by-Lap coverage, the customizable live leaderboard with Scanner (which is FREE for both races), and the return of Drive (featuring in-car cameras).

Be sure to set your lineup in Fantasy Live and make your picks in the NASCAR Finish Line App!

RELATED: Darlington Scanner Sounds

2019 RACE WINNER

Martin Truex Jr. put on a show in last year’s playoff race at Richmond, sweeping the season series at the track and edging Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch — who led a race-high 202 laps — by a 2.6-second margin. Truex regained the lead from Busch with just 26 laps to go, setting up an electric finish between the two championship contenders.

RELATED: 2019 Federated Auto Parts 400 recap

ACTIVE RICHMOND WINNERS

Kyle Busch (six wins); Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin (three wins each); Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, and Joey Logano (two wins each); Ryan Newman and Brad Keselowski (one win each).

Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin’s car will sport a special paint scheme for Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Richmond Raceway, a design for the No. 11 Toyota that promotes FedEx Cares’ ties to the National Urban League.

RELATED: Paint Scheme Preview: Richmond | Weekend schedule

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will spotlight the civil rights organization’s Project Ready program, which helped prepare black students and other historically underserved youth for college and post-school careers. Hamlin met with students virtually to learn more about the program and two of them will virtually join the team as honorary pit crew members for Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I made the commitment to listen and learn about social injustice,” Hamlin said. “Education is an area where all kids don’t always have access to the same opportunities. I met recently with two Project Ready students virtually, and they educated me on the importance of Project Ready and how the program has helped prepare them for college and their careers.”

FedEx has supported National Urban League since 2008. It’s the second time this season that Hamlin and his sponsor have raised awareness for civil rights through a paint scheme on the No. 11. Hamlin raced a design at Talladega Superspeedway in June that honored the National Civil Rights Museum.

Posted on by Staff Report

Jimmie Johnson has revealed his plans following the end of his full-time NASCAR career in 2020 — he has announced a future partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing to explore the possibility of racing in the NTT IndyCar Series.

“When I tested Chip’s Indy car earlier in the year, it only lit the fire more,” Johnson said in a team release. “I found that I wanted to do it more than ever before. … As part of a natural progression, I wanted to publicly show the alignment with Chip Ganassi Racing to kick the sponsorship program into high gear. The goal is to run the full road and street program, and today is a very important first step in accomplishing that goal.”

RELATED: Johnson’s career highlights | See all of Johnson’s Cup wins

Johnson tested with Ganassi on the Indianapolis road course at the end of July and got some pointers from potential future teammate and five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon.

“It is always difficult to find great drivers but for them to be great guys too makes it even that much more challenging,” team owner Chip Ganassi said in a release. “To pair Jimmie with the likes of Scott Dixon is quite an opportunity. They are truly in rarified air and I think everyone knows by now that ‘I like winners.’ The goal right now is for us to run Jimmie in an Indy car for at least the next couple of seasons, and we want to show people we’re serious about the program. We felt it was important to get the partnership done and start putting the financial building blocks in place to make this a reality. Jimmie’s record speaks for itself and we feel a championship-level driver of his caliber can only make our team better.”

Johnson, a seven-time Cup champion and winner of 83 races, is competing in his final full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He has nine races left in his full-time career and did not qualify for the playoffs for the second straight season.