The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Chase Elliott and the No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet of Reed Sorenson will move to the rear of the field for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Both cars failed pre-race technical inspection two times resulting in the penalties handed out by NASCAR.
Elliott, who won Wednesday night’s NASCAR All-Star Race, was originally set to start eighth after last week’s random lineup draw. Sorenson, meanwhile, was already slated to start last in the field.
The No. 51 of Joey Gase, No. 53 of Josh Bilicki and No. 77 of JJ Yeley all dropped to the rear for driver changes.
For the second straight points-paying race, the NASCAR Cup Series will run during the day at a smooth, 1.5-mile circuit.
Just like last weekend’s race at Kentucky Speedway, today’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN) at Texas Motor Speedway will produce very little tire falloff, making track position key.
In fact, this weekend’s event will feature the same tire combination used at both Kentucky and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, giving us two meaningful races to analyze in order to find mispriced NASCAR odds for Texas.
And after looking at results from both of those races, one driver continues to be disrespected by oddsmakers, providing plenty of prop-betting value.
What does Matty D need to do to get a little respect?
DiBenedetto just finished third at Kentucky and his fourth-best driver rating in that race proves it was no fluke.
That top-three result also afforded his Wood Brothers team a prime pit stall selection for today’s race, which will certainly help DiBenedetto keep or gain that all-important track position.
DiBenedetto finished second in February at Las Vegas, which is significant considering teams will run the same tire combination this weekend that was used at both Vegas and Kentucky.
And finally, the No. 21 Ford will start 11th in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, giving DiBenedetto the advantage of early track position.
The frustration in Christian Eckes’ cool-down lap communication to his team was telling, a groaning, angst-heavy curse followed by an admission that he hasn’t quite reached the level of Kyle Busch — his mentor, teammate and team owner. The post-race thumbs-down for the FOX Sports cameras gave his emotions a visual.
What Eckes had to show for his Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway was a career-best second place in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. The rookie led four times for 52 laps, but his Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 18 Toyota came up just shy of carrying him to a breakthrough victory in his first full season as Busch scooted away in a 10-lap sprint to the end.
“I definitely gave it my best effort,” said Eckes, who claimed his second top-five finish of the season. “Looking back on it, there’s probably a few things I could’ve done just to side-draft him and try to clear him, but I did my best. He’s so damn fast at aero games, and I’m not yet. So I’ve got a little bit of learning to do for Kansas, but overall really proud of my team.”
Eckes started seventh and made gains through handling adjustments that helped his truck come to life in the second and third stages. In the final green-flag cycle of pit stops, Busch provided a lesson on entering and exiting pit road, putting his truck out front by a significant margin.
Busch led by nearly four seconds before a late caution period bunched the field for the dash to the end.
“Led a bunch of laps, missed my marks on pit road I guess a little bit,” Eckes said. “I thought I hit it right, but Kyle was a straightaway ahead of me by the time I got out of the corner. It is what it is.”
Busch eventually took the upper hand in their late-race scramble, fending off Eckes by .777 seconds at the finish. But he remained impressed by the 19-year-old driver’s growth, a development curve unaided by extra track time from practice or qualifying in the series’ six races since COVID-19 at-track protocols were established.
His previous career-best was third, achieved three times in the last two seasons. Saturday, Eckes did one better.
“What can you say about Christian, he’s getting better each week,” Busch said. “Every time out, they get that chemistry going more and more with (crew chief) Rudy Fugle and those guys. Real proud of that Safelite Tundra running fast and being there to challenge us at the end.”
Kyle Busch held off 19-year old rookie Christian Eckes by .777-seconds to earn the victory in the Vankor 350 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
It was master and protégé showing the way with Eckes still scoring a career-best second-place finish in the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota. The two – running first and second – held a 12-second advantage on the field during much of the final stage of the race.
They exchanged the lead for a lap following a restart with 10 laps remaining, but ultimately Busch was able to get around his young driver with eight laps left and hold off the field to earn his 59th series win – third of 2020. It was nearly a perfect competitive day as Busch was scored the winner initially in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race earlier Saturday at Texas. But his car was disqualified following technical inspection.
The two drivers – Busch (72 laps) and Eckes (52) combined to lead 124 of the race’s 167 laps.
Reigning series champion Matt Crafton finished third followed by Stewart Friesen, who earned his best finish of the season. Another former series champion Brett Moffitt finished fifth – his second top five of the year.
Tyler Ankrum, Justin Haley, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes and Ross Chastain rounded out the top 10. Both Haley and Chastain also finished top-10 in the Xfinity Series race earlier in the day.
Busch joked on the FS1 telecast that he shouldn’t celebrate until after his No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota truck finished inspection but he was clearly pleased to earn the win and to see his own young driver challenge him so well.
“What can you say about Christian [Eckes], he’s getting better each and every week, every time out getting that chemistry more and more with [his crew chief] Rudy Fugle and those guys,” Busch said. “So real proud.
“But wanted to make sure we went out on a win.”
Eckes was simultaneously happy and frustrated to come so close to his first career win.
“We battled hard and it was really fun to go toe-to-toe with the best and just got to get a little better to beat him,” Eckes said. “I thought our truck was good enough to beat him I’ve just got to improve a few things. I’m really proud of my team.”
With 40 to go, Eckes held a .631-second advantage on Busch and the two were more than nine seconds ahead of the rest of the field before a series of green flag pit stops.
Busch nearly steered into the wrong pit box initially on his green flag stop – seeing the No. 18 sign, which is Busch’s NASCAR Cup Series number – before catching himself and motoring on to the right box. His advantage on track, however, was enough to put him back out front by three seconds as the pit stop sequence completed with 32 laps remaining.
A caution came out with 15 laps remaining after contact with Todd Gilliland and Ben Rhodes while racing hard inside the top 10. Gilliland’s No. 38 Ford suffered the worst damage and retired. Rhodes’ team made quick repairs in the pits and he returned to finish ninth.
It was an unusually tough day for several of the Texas track’s best, including former series champion Johnny Sauter, whose five previous wins in Fort Worth are most among active drivers. His No. 13 Ford had to retire only 62 laps into the race, hurting his place in the points standings, dropping him from 10th to 12th with only four races remaining before the Playoffs begin. The top 10 drivers in the driver standings vie for the title.
The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series championship leader Austin Hill finished outside the top-10 for the first time this season. The driver of the No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota made a pair of extended pit stops before eventually retiring on Lap 107, in 30th place.
The DNF delivered a hit in Hill’s championship points lead, however. The young Georgia-native’s championship advantage dropped from 46 points ahead of Sheldon Creed before the race to only 22 points over Rhodes after the Texas checkered flag.
Kyle Busch was disqualified from an apparent victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday after his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota failed post-race inspection at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch’s car was found out of compliance with the height requirements, according to the NASCAR Rule Book. That ruling elevated Austin Cindric, who was the second driver to take the checkered flag, to his third Xfinity Series victory of the year in the My Bariatric Solutions 300. It also sent Busch’s No. 54 to last place in the 37-car field.
After winning Saturday night’s Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race, Busch said he was unsure what caused the car to fail the height portion of the inspection. He said he was unsure whether the team would appeal the penalty, adding that his reaction to the violation was frustration instead of a indifference for an infraction that wasn’t his doing.
“Yeah, it’s bothersome. It pisses me off,” Busch said. “We come out here and race and run hard and score a win and then it gets taken away from you. It sucks because it’s nothing we did. We even put a round in the right-rear during the race in order to help the handling characteristic and then the left-rear was low. I don’t know. There’s nothing I can do about it, so you just kind of move on. I don’t know; I guess NASCAR wants me here longer.”
His last remark was delivered with a smirk. Busch is on record as saying he would retire from Xfinity Series competition after scoring his 100th career victory. Saturday would have marked No. 98.
The last driver to be disqualified from an Xfinity Series win was Denny Hamlin, whose No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was also penalized for failing height requirements last August at Darlington Raceway. That promoted apparent runner-up Cole Custer to victory.
NASCAR competition officials introduced a tougher deterrence system into the rule book before the 2019 season, one that included disqualifications for significant rules violations.
The South Carolina racing community came together this weekend to celebrate the life of stock-car racing pioneer Raymond Arnold Jr., a figure whose behind-the-scenes work aided the cause of NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott.
Arnold, who served as a longtime member of Scott’s pit crew, died July 7 at the age of 85. His mechanical know-how, passion for racing and friendship endeared him to Scott, who became the NASCAR Cup Series’ first Black winner in 1963.
Arnold was in attendance when Scott was enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, and he was acknowledged by Scott’s sons, Franklin and Wendell Jr., as part of the induction speech. Scott’s children were part of the No. 34 team, but Arnold was also considered family.
“We got along good. I was an only child, never had a brother,” Arnold told NASCAR Productions in 2010. “And if I could’ve picked a brother, I probably would’ve picked him for big brother. … The more I was around him, the better I liked him.”
A STEM and Education Studies scholarship honoring Arnold is also available through the Spartanburg County Foundation. Visit RayArnoldLegacy.com for details.
The weekend-long memorial celebration — which was held with COVID-19 precautions in place — included visitation Thursday in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with graveside services the following day at Upper Shady Grove Baptist Church in nearby Wellford. Plans also included two racing-related tributes at Palmetto State tracks that were regular stops for Scott’s team — a Friday night meeting at the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg and a Saturday afternoon victory lap at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
The Spartanburg track holds a special place for the Arnold and Scott families. Ray Arnold was attending a race there with some friends, and when he met the driver, Scott was troubleshooting a problematic carburetor on his 1961 Chevrolet. Arnold said that just weeks earlier, he had bought a trimmed-out 1962 Impala with performance parts. After some wrenching and the addition of an adapter plate, Arnold’s new carburetor rode with Scott’s No. 34 to the finish, and a friendship was born.
“From then on, we just kept growing closer and closer,” Arnold said in 2010. “Every time he came in the area, I’d find out where he was going to be, and me and some of my buddies would just go to the race track.”
Arnold continued with Scott until his racing career ended in 1973, balancing his time helping the race team with his job as a teacher of automotive mechanics and driver education at Eastside High School in Greenville County. Fellow crew members nicknamed Arnold “Rags” because he was often seen with a shop rag hanging from his pockets.
Arnold said he was a witness to the challenges Scott and his team faced as a Black man competing in the Deep South during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He also saw the struggles Scott had in his search for speed as a determined independent.
“The words ‘never’ and ‘can’t’ are two words he never used,” Arnold told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in 2016. “He wouldn’t give up.”
Arnold is survived by three children, Dr. Sonya Arnold, Dr. Antonia “Toni” Arnold-McFarland and Raymond “Trey” Arnold III.
Austin Cindric collected his third consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series win Saturday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway after Kyle Busch’s No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota failed post-race inspection – the left rear on his car ruled too low.
The Team Penske driver Cindric, who swept a doubleheader weekend at Kentucky Speedway last week, originally finished less than a second behind Busch, but the finishing order was corrected to show Cindric the winner and Xfinity Series championship leader Chase Briscoe the race runner-up.
Justin Allgaier, who led a race-best 98 of the 201 laps, rallied back through the field for a third-place finish after being penalized for a pit-road exit violation with 30 laps remaining. The blend line penalty forced him to rally from two laps down making his third-place effort that much more impressive.
Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Harrison Burton, a two-time winner in 2020, finished fourth and Michael Annett was fifth. Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones, Kaulig Racing teammates Justin Haley and Ross Chastain and Brandon Brown rounded out the top 10. It marks the ninth consecutive top-10 finish for Chastain and is Brown’s fourth top 10 of the season.
Cindric was dressed in a Texas winner’s tradition white cowboy hat when he showed up for a second media video-conference availability Saturday after being officially declared the race winner. He conceded the Busch disqualification wasn’t how he liked to win races but victories are hard to come by at this level.
“Obviously great to get the Money Lion Ford Mustang in Victory Lane no matter how it happens,” Cindric said. “Great points day.”
Cindric – only the ninth driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to win three straight races – said he was tipped off to the possibility of a change in finishing order after walking out of his team transporter and seeing Busch’s car and team still undergoing inspection in the garage.
“You want to win it on track and I feel like we had a shot to do that today and maybe didn’t execute as well as we should have and that’s what kept us out, but fast race cars and being in position, that’s what counts,” Cindric said.
And, the ace road course racer laughed acknowledging that he now has more NASCAR Xfinity Series oval wins (three) than road course triumphs (two).
“I’ll take it,” he said. “It’s great to be able to capitalize on fast race cars. I said that last week and I’ll say that again. I didn’t think this weekend we were quite as good as what we had in Kentucky but overall being able to run up front all day and get great stage points was great and we’ve just got to keep building on that.”
Allgaier, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet swept the opening two stages – the sixth time he’s done that in his career. But he’s only turned that early race dominance into a victory one previous time. And it was not to be on Saturday afternoon because of the late-race penalty. It’s the second time this season he has led the most laps but not earned the trophy. He led 156 laps at Bristol, Tenn., in June but finished 18th.
Noah Gragson, a two-time winner this year, finished 30th after his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was involved in a pair of incidents. His Lap 5 contact with Riley Herbst brought out the day’s first caution flag, then Gragson exited 75 laps short of the finish after a close call with Cindric and a crunching of the Turn 2 retaining wall.
The series races next in the Kansas Lottery 250 at Kansas Speedway next Saturday (5 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Contributing: Staff reports
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The South Carolina racing community came together this weekend to celebrate the life of stock-car racing pioneer Raymond Arnold Jr., a figure whose behind-the-scenes work aided the cause of NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott.
Arnold, who served as a longtime member of Scott’s pit crew, died July 7 at the age of 85. His mechanical know-how, passion for racing and friendship endeared him to Scott, who became the NASCAR Cup Series’ first Black winner in 1963.
Arnold was in attendance when Scott was enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, and he was acknowledged by Scott’s sons, Franklin and Wendell Jr., as part of the induction speech. Scott’s children were part of the No. 34 team, but Arnold was also considered family.
“We got along good. I was an only child, never had a brother,” Arnold told NASCAR Productions in 2010. “And if I could’ve picked a brother, I probably would’ve picked him for big brother. … The more I was around him, the better I liked him.”
A STEM and Education Studies scholarship honoring Arnold is also available through the Spartanburg County Foundation. Visit RayArnoldLegacy.com for details.
The weekend-long memorial celebration — which was held with COVID-19 precautions in place — included visitation Thursday in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with graveside services the following day at Upper Shady Grove Baptist Church in nearby Wellford. Plans also included two racing-related tributes at Palmetto State tracks that were regular stops for Scott’s team — a Friday night meeting at the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg and a Saturday afternoon victory lap at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
The Spartanburg track holds a special place for the Arnold and Scott families. Ray Arnold was attending a race there with some friends, and when he met the driver, Scott was troubleshooting a problematic carburetor on his 1961 Chevrolet. Arnold said that just weeks earlier, he had bought a trimmed-out 1962 Impala with performance parts. After some wrenching and the addition of an adapter plate, Arnold’s new carburetor rode with Scott’s No. 34 to the finish, and a friendship was born.
“From then on, we just kept growing closer and closer,” Arnold said in 2010. “Every time he came in the area, I’d find out where he was going to be, and me and some of my buddies would just go to the race track.”
Arnold continued with Scott until his racing career ended in 1973, balancing his time helping the race team with his job as a teacher of automotive mechanics and driver education at Eastside High School in Greenville County. Fellow crew members nicknamed Arnold “Rags” because he was often seen with a shop rag hanging from his pockets.
Arnold said he was a witness to the challenges Scott and his team faced as a Black man competing in the Deep South during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He also saw the struggles Scott had in his search for speed as a determined independent.
“The words ‘never’ and ‘can’t’ are two words he never used,” Arnold told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in 2016. “He wouldn’t give up.”
Arnold is survived by three children, Dr. Sonya Arnold, Dr. Antonia “Toni” Arnold-McFarland and Raymond “Trey” Arnold III.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads west for its first trip to Texas Motor Speedway in 2020. The O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 was originally March 29, but the race was postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the action is set to be made up Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and mark the premier series’ 14th event since it returned to racing.
Texas will actually host all three of NASCAR’s national series this weekend — with the Xfinity Series (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN) and Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series (8 p.m. ET on FS1) taking over Saturday and the Cup Series being the main feature Sunday.
Here’s a primer with helpful information for the 18th of a scheduled 36 Cup Series races this year.
Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile oval with a minimum width of 58 feet. The banking is 20 degrees in Turns 1 and 2 and then 24 degrees in Turns 3 and 4, with five degrees of banking in the straightaways. The frontstretch is 2,250 feet long, while the backstretch stretches 1,330 feet. The asphalt surface was repaved and the track was reconfigured before the spring race in 2017.
Jeff Burton won the first Cup Series race in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 6, 1997 — the Interstate Batteries 500. Burton led 60 of the 334 laps and beat Dale Jarrett to the finish line by 4.067 seconds. Terry Labonte led a race-high 104 laps but finished fourth.
Sunday’s 334-lap race will be the 39th race for NASCAR’s top division at the Texas track.
STAGE LENGTHS
Stage 1 is set to end at Lap 105, Stage 2 at Lap 210, and the final stage is slated to conclude on Lap 334.
STARTING LINEUP
The NASCAR Cup Series race will be held without practice and qualifying as the sanctioning body tries to limit exposure for on-site personnel to control the spread of coronavirus. Sunday’s starting lineup was determined by a random draw among groups in the team owner standings:
Positions 1-12: Random draw from charter teams in those positions in owner points
Positions 13-24: Random draw from charter teams in those positions in owner points
Positions 25-36: Random draw from charter teams in those positions in owner points
Positions 37-40: Open teams in order of owners points
Pit-stall selection is based on the finishing order from last Sunday’s event at Kentucky Speedway.
The 2020 NASCAR rules package for intermediate-sized tracks will be in effect with a tapered spacer used to achieve a target of 550 horsepower. The cars will use aero ducts in addition to other aerodynamic devices to increase downforce.
GOODYEAR TIRES
Teams in all three NASCAR national series will run the same tire setup. This will be the first time teams run these Goodyear tire codes at Texas Motor Speedway, though they ran them at Kentucky Speedway last weekend and Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February. For Cup Series and Xfinity Series, the setup features a compound change to add more grip on the left side and a construction update on the right side. For the Gander Truck Series, the setup will have construction updates on both sides but the compound change for more grip on the left side.
“Repaved tracks create their own set of challenges for us and the teams of NASCAR,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “At places like Texas, high tire wear is not the issue. In fact, it’s the opposite. After being repaved just a few seasons ago, Texas’ track surface is still very smooth, so we have to design our tread compounds to wear. Tire wear is a good thing and is especially important on a smooth surface. When a tire wears, that means the tread is shredding rubber and allowing some of the heat generated to be dissipated from the tire. That makes the tire run cooler with better grip and performance.”
The Cup Series will be allowed nine sets for the race. The Xfinity Series will have five sets. And the Gander Truck Series will have four sets.
STATS TO KNOW
— Kevin Harvick has won three of the last six races (fall 2017, fall 2018 and fall 2019) at Texas Motor Speedway since the track was repaved and reconfigured in 2017, including two of the last three. Otherwise, three different drivers made a trip to Victory Lane: Jimmie Johnson (spring 2017), Kyle Busch (spring 2018) and Denny Hamlin (spring 2019).
— Sixteen of the last 18 races at Texas Motor Speedway were won from a top-10 starting position. Three of the victories came from the polesitter (Jimmie Johnson, fall 2012; Kyle Busch, spring 2013; Kevin Harvick, fall 2019).
— The driver who led the most laps won three of the last nine races at Texas Motor Speedway. Also, the race winner led more than 115 laps in three of the last four Texas races.
— The final green-flag stretch was 30 laps or longer in four of the last six races at Texas Motor Speedway. Both of the 2019 events had a final green-flag run of 74 laps or longer.
— Team Penske has won three times at Texas Motor Speedway, but the last was the spring race of 2014 by Joey Logano. All three of the team’s drivers have won at least one race this season. Logano and Brad Keselowski each have two wins, while Ryan Blaney has one.
— Erik Jones, who has yet to win a race in 2020, boasts the best average finish (9.43 in seven starts) at Texas Motor Speedway among all active drivers.
Source: NASCAR statistics, Racing Insights
LIVE COVERAGE
Tune in to television coverage Sunday on NBCSN (3 p.m. ET) or on the NBC Sports App. For full radio coverage from Texas Motor Speedway, listen in to PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on-air.
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 and the return of Drive (featuring in-car cameras).
Denny Hamlin won the first of two Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway in 2019. His No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 45 of the 334 laps and beat Clint Bowyer’s No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to the finish line by 2.743 seconds. Kyle Busch was out front for a race-high 66 laps but ultimately finished 10th in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota.
There’s a plethora of routes that can be taken to begin a career in NASCAR, but one that continually stands out is nestled right in the sport’s backyard.
NASCAR Technical Institute, located in Mooresville, North Carolina, is a branch of Universal Technical Institute, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with 12 campus locations in cities across the country. While many students elect to attend NASCAR Tech right out of the gate, students also have the option to transfer from other campuses if they decide a path in NASCAR is one they want to pursue.
While the lengths of classes vary, students can complete most programs at UTI in one year or less. New classes start every three to six weeks, meaning incoming students aren’t forced to wait a full semester before they are able to enroll into the next round of courses, compared to traditional four-year and two-year schools. With accelerated courses and revolving enrollment, UTI also allows students to finish school and go right to work, speeding up the process of obtaining a job shortly after graduation by partnering closely with industry and employers and placing four out of five graduates in their particular field of study.
John Dodson changes tires on the No. 27 Pontiac of Rusty Wallace.
John Dodson, brother of the late crew chief Barry Dodson who helped lead Rusty Wallace to his lone NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1989, serves as the Vice President of Business Alliances & NASCAR at NASCAR Technical Institute. While brother Barry led on the pit box, John was a tire changer and a fabricator on the title-winning team.
John Dodson used his 25 years of NASCAR competition experience from 1977-2002 to transition to helping younger generations learn how to be successful in the industry. He has been with NASCAR Tech since the school’s inception in 2002.
Admittedly, Dodson said he has received more joy from assisting students achieve their dream careers than when he was living the NASCAR dream for himself.
“I never thought I would be in the education and workforce development business, but I love it,” Dodson told NASCAR.com. “… Racing and education are two different worlds in a way, but it’s great to see students train for exciting and fulfilling careers.”
When it comes to teaching students how to succeed in the challenging industry, Dodson reflected on his younger years when he earned his first job in the sport, noting it took six years before anyone on the team even asked for his opinion.
The first person to do so just happened to be championship-winning team owner Rick Hendrick while working with Dodson’s brother at a spoiler test. It was at that moment when Dodson had an epiphany, one he carries with him to this day and passes along to his students.
“I realized that life happens in stages for these students and graduates,” Dodson said. “You’re grinding and learning in your 20s, you’re getting to provide more input in your 30s and in the 40s you’re becoming the boss.
“I have really tough conversations with these young people when they graduate,” Dodson added. “… It’s kind of jokingly, but it really means a lot to go in with your ears open and your mouth shut. I give that speech to all of them. … You’re going to have to show them what you can do, don’t talk your way into anything. Work hard, grind and the sky is the limit in this industry.”
Dodson noted that 2019 served as a banner year for the institute’s spec engine program as NASCAR Tech student-built power units won three of the 12 races on the K&N Pro Series East schedule, as well as six pole awards with two different drivers. Drivers who were victorious with NASCAR Tech engines included a pair of wins with Chase Cabre at Memphis International Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway and then Max McLaughlin at Watkins Glen International.
At Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the NASCAR Modified Division, student-built engines recorded seven feature wins, plus the track championship with driver Burt Myers.
Along with the engine-building courses, NASCAR Tech also offers a variety of other courses based on student interest, including chassis applications, pit crew, finish fabrication, chassis fabrication, advanced fabrication and aerodynamics and CNC machining.
“Every week in every series, we have NASCAR Tech graduates on every team,” Dodson said. “We go to Victory Lane every single time NASCAR drops the checkered flag with our graduates. That is exciting.”
The roof of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski for Texas. Credit: Team Penske
On Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Cup Series driver Brad Keselowski will honor a total of 225 graduates who have completed their education at one of UTI’s campuses nationwide since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The graduates’ names will be featured on the roof of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Team Penske currently has graduates working on pit crews for Keselowski, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney at NASCAR’s highest level.
“Universal Technical Institute graduates have the skills to deliver for our organization, which is why we rely on UTI to help us identify new talent,” team owner Roger Penske said. “UTI has not only helped us win on the race track, its graduates work throughout our organization. This special paint scheme is a great way to recognize the recent graduates of UTI and celebrate our partnership. We look forward to honoring the UTI graduates on the No. 2 car in Texas next weekend.”
Additionally, Team Penske’s NASCAR entries have been powered by the mighty FR9 Roush Yates Ford engines since 2013, and Roush Yates Engines have hired more than 115 UTI graduates since NASCAR Tech opened its doors.
Not only are graduates earning jobs in the NASCAR realm, but Keselowski is also tapping into the UTI talent pool for his own company, Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing, located in Statesville, North Carolina.
To give you an idea of the confidence Keselowski has in UTI’s NASCAR program, Dodson noted Keselowski most recently called him in February while down at Daytona International Speedway preparing for the Daytona 500 to inquire about potential graduates to fill a position. After offering a recommendation, Keselowski approached Dodson at the drivers’ meeting before the Daytona 500 to tell him the company hired the recommended graduate on the spot and praised the graduate’s work.
“(Keselowski) knows that he could not have his facility here in North Carolina without the right workforce,” Dodson said. “It’s really cool when you get a call from Brad Keselowski saying I’m depending on you guys, we need the right kind of guys up here. He wants the all-star graduates, he gets them and he pays them well. Their future’s bright. I think that’s quite a testament when a NASCAR champion is contacting you for their own trained talent.
“It’s also really important that when we send our employer partners these graduates, they’re getting thoroughbreds,” Dodson added. “They’re getting what we say we’re going to deliver, because without that, then the phone quits ringing. … It’s important to us that these great kids keep coming here so we can continue to feed the industry well-trained winning talent.”
