The start of the 2020 season has certainly featured a “new guard” trend in success.
Three 2019 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series championship contenders are still racing in the series but none are currently ranked among the top 10 this season. It’s been a decided trend toward new names.
The defending winner of Saturday night’s Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway (6 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — Tyler Ankrum — is a shining example of the young new guard poised to make a run at the 2020 title.
There are three full-time series drivers with previous wins at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway, including Ankrum, whose impressive seven-second win over Stewart Friesen last year is the 19-year old’s only series victory — coming in his first Kentucky start. This week, Ankrum arrives ranked eighth in the driver standings with a pair of top 10s to his credit — both coming in the last two races. His season-best work is a runner-up result at Homestead-Miami Speedway in June.
Championship leader Austin Hill, 26, has never won at Kentucky and has only a single top-10 finish (10th in 2017) in four starts, but he certainly brings an impressive 2020 season resume into this weekend’s event. He holds a hefty 51-point edge over Ben Rhodes atop the championship standings. Although Hill’s No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota team is still looking for that first win on the season, the organization has done everything but celebrate in Victory Lane. Hill has top-10 finishes in all six races and has earned runner-up finishes in two of the last three stops.
Rhodes, driver of the No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford, would love to become only the fourth driver with multiple wins at Kentucky (joining NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr.. James Buescher and Kyle Busch). This is the Louisville native’s “home race” and he’s eager to kick-start his season with a win. He has four top-10s in the opening six races and is coming off a fifth-place finish at the last race in Pocono.
A competitive exception to the younger generation’s dominance, is 2019 regular season champion Grant Enfinger. The 35-year-old Alabama native has two wins already – at Daytona and Atlanta – the first time in his four-year Gander Trucks career that the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford has scored multiple wins. Enfinger is ranked third, 61 points behind Hill with only a three-point edge on Sheldon Creed for fourth and a five-point advantage on Todd Gilliland for fifth in the tightly stacked standings.
Defending series champion Matt Crafton is the only other former Kentucky winner in the field among full-time NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series drivers. The 44-year-old has started 21 of the series’ 22 races at Kentucky and has 15 top-10 and six top-five finishes including that 2015 victory. He led 11 laps last year and finished 13th. He could use a boost in his title defense. Crafton has only a pair of top 10s through the first six races and one top five – a fourth place at Las Vegas. He crashed out of the series’ last race at Pocono and finished a season-worst 40th.
In its fifth year of NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, Kaulig Racing has gone from a one-team startup to a serious threat for the 2020 championship as the league inches closer to the postseason with this week’s Kentucky Speedway doubleheader.
The organization’s trio of drivers, which includes full-time drivers Ross Chastain and Justin Haley and part-time driver AJ Allmendinger, might be the most unique teammates in the Xfinity Series garage. Each have varying degrees of experience levels, but all have united as one to achieve success in just a short amount of time.
The drivers’ stories are unique. For Allmendinger, the 38-year-old’s time at Kaulig has been a fun-filled career resurgence driving the No. 16 entry. After last competing full time with JTG Daugherty Racing’s No. 47 NASCAR Cup Series entry in 2018, Allmendinger has earned two victories with the Kaulig group. While all signs point toward a future Cup Series ride (perhaps with Chip Ganassi Racing), Chastain, 27, is biding his time with the Chevrolet-powered No. 10 machine. Haley, 21, is still in the beginning stages of his NASCAR career. But in a short amount of time, the No. 11 driver has placed himself among a prestigious list of drivers who have won at least one race in all three national series.
“I think that helps these guys get along because it’s not three 21-year-old guys that are just competing to get to that one Cup ride,” team owner Matt Kaulig told NASCAR.com. “They’ve got different agendas. They all want to win. But I think they all feel pretty comfortable and really good with where they are in the sport.”
Haley thinks the team is hitting its rhythm as the season progresses, which he credits partly to the advent this year of Kaulig’s own in-house engineering department, a change of pace compared to previous years when Kaulig outsourced the staff from Richard Childress Racing.
“We all get along together,” Haley said after his Talladega victory. “I think the biggest thing for Kaulig is we all work as a team. We all build each other’s cars. In the shop, it’s all one group. Me, AJ and Ross have all gotten along really well. They all have a lot of knowledge. I’m pretty new to this, I’ve struggled a little bit to start. But leaning on them has been awesome.”
Allmendinger embraces race winner Haley at Talladega. Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images
Talladega could be the most defining moment in the team’s young history, which was capped off by Chastain and Allmendinger celebrating with Haley after his first career victory in the Xfinity Series, a moment that saw Allmendinger sprint down pit road to the start-finish line to embrace Haley after the race.
“We’re just like a bunch of buddies in school,” Chastain said. “In all reality, I think AJ and Justin are probably a little closer honestly because they have this weird father-son dynamic. I’m just either like a distant cousin or an uncle or nephew or something. I don’t know where I fit in exactly, but I wedge myself in there.”
Those actions are no façade to satisfy sponsors or pull a publicity stunt. The camaraderie is real, but the brotherhood still doesn’t get in the way of their will to win.
“These guys genuinely like each other,” Kaulig said. “I’ve heard there are teams out there where the drivers don’t all get along. I don’t think it’s a non-competitive thing because Ross and Justin and AJ … I mean they definitely want to win. They want to beat each other. … It transfers to the whole team because those guys are the visible guys.”
To put their 2020 accomplishments to date in perspective, the three drivers have earned a combined 12 top-five finishes, which makes up more than half of Kaulig’s total of 22 top fives since its first season in 2016. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, they have also earned 53 of the organization’s 75 top-10 finishes.
With the enhancements the organization has made to its program, especially over the past offseason, it’s clear the numbers are no fluke. While the drivers and their crews operate as three separate teams on Saturdays, it’s the work behind the scenes during the week at the race shop that unites them as one.
“It’s just like in any job, it’s leadership,” team president Chris Rice said. “You bring the drivers in and say, ‘Hey, here’s your job, this is what you’re gonna do, here’s your team.’ But everybody at Kaulig Racing works on everything. So really, you’re coming into battle with all three teams. … It starts from the top. Matt Kaulig just creating something that we can be proud of and go out tomorrow and know that we’re going to have a job, we’ll be able to go racing and do the things we love. That’s where it starts and the drivers feed off of that.”
Haley (11), Allmendinger (16) and Chastain (10) race at Daytona International Speedway in 2019. Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
From the drivers to the shop members, Kaulig has developed a culture that thrives on having fun to achieve success, but that doesn’t mean the young team owner doesn’t run a tight ship. From the race team to his various other business ventures, the Ohio-born team owner has used lessons learned on the football field as a former quarterback for the University of Akron Zips to transcend the organization from a one-car operation to a three-car championship-level powerhouse.
“I always say, it’s an old football term, it’s not necessarily the Xs and the Os, it’s the Jimmys and the Joes,” Kaulig said. “It’s the people, you’ve got to start with good people. They’ve gotta be good at what they do. They’ve got to be passionate about what they do, but it’s not so much the passion, it’s hard work and it’s execution. You’ve got to find people that want to do it and are good at it, then you want to improve all of your processes all of the time. You want to have continuous and never-ending improvement in everything that you do.”
So, is 2020 the year Kaulig Racing knocks off teams like JR Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske to make a title charge? Kaulig is confident, noting it’s all about carrying the momentum into the playoffs. His teams show no sign of slowing down to prevent that from happening.
“Just put yourself in position,” Kaulig said. “All you need to do is get to Phoenix (Raceway), then we know we’re as fast as anybody. The goal would be to get both of those guys (Chastain and Haley) in the Championship 4 and then you have a 50% chance of winning the championship. That’s what we’re going to do.”
The starting lineup for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart NASCAR Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has been set.
Kyle Busch will start from the pole position, with Joey Logano joining him on the front row to lead the field to green for the 267-lap, 400.5-mile race.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 8, 2020) — NASCAR today announced its schedule of events through August for all three national series and the ARCA Menards Series, which includes two additional NASCAR Cup Series doubleheaders and two separate stops — on two different courses — at Daytona International Speedway.
The NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series will visit Michigan International Speedway Aug. 7-9, featuring a Cup Series doubleheader on Saturday, Aug. 8 (4 p.m. ET, NBCSN) and Sunday, Aug. 9 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN). Meanwhile, the NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Road America on Saturday, Aug. 8 at noon ET (NBCSN).
For the first time, the NASCAR Cup Series will race on the storied road course at Daytona International Speedway during the Aug. 14-16 weekend. The road course-oval hybrid, most noted for the annual running of the Rolex 24 At DAYTONA, will feature races across all three national series and the ARCA Menards Series. The historic races will replace NASCAR’s annual visit to Watkins Glen International.
FS1 will continue to carry coverage of the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series throughout the balance of the season. As part of the 2020 revised schedule, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, which was originally slated to host the first race of the Gander Trucks playoffs, will now become race No. 14 of the regular season on Sunday, Aug. 30 at noon ET.
NASCAR’s modified event procedures and protocols have been finalized in accordance with public health officials, medical experts and local, state and federal officials. NASCAR will determine if fans are allowed entrance to NASCAR Cup Series races on a market-by-market basis, in accordance with local and state guidelines.
More details on additional NASCAR national series events, including the playoffs, will be announced at a later date.
The latest installment of the 2020 schedule is as follows:
Date
Track
Series
Distance
Network
Start Time (ET)
Fri., Aug. 7
Michigan
Gander
200 mi
FS1
6 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 8
Road America
Xfinity
182 mi
NBCSN
Noon
Sat., Aug. 8
Michigan
Cup
312 mi
NBCSN
4 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 9
Michigan
ARCA
200 mi
MAVTV
1 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 9
Michigan
Cup
312 mi
NBCSN
4:30 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 14
Daytona (road)
ARCA
TBA
MAVTV
5 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 15
Daytona (road)
Xfinity
182 mi
NBCSN
3 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 16
*Daytona (road)
Gander
153 mi
FS1
Noon
Sun., Aug. 16
Daytona (road)
Cup
231 mi
NBC
3 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 21
Dover
ARCA East
125 mi
TrackPass
2 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 21
Dover
Gander
200 mi
FS1
5 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 22
Dover
Xfinity
200 mi
NBCSN
12:30 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 22
Dover
Cup
311 mi
NBCSN
4 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 23
Dover
Xfinity
200 mi
NBCSN
1 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 23
Dover
Cup
311 mi
NBCSN
4 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 28
Daytona
Xfinity
250 mi
NBCSN
7:30 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 29
WWT Raceway
ARCA
150 mi
MAVTV
6 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 29
Daytona
Cup
400 mi
NBC
7:30 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 30
WWT Raceway
Gander
200 mi
FS1
Noon
*The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Daytona (Aug. 16) has been realigned from Iowa Speedway; the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races will not run at Eldora Speedway (originally scheduled for July 30) and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (originally scheduled for Sept. 6) and have been realigned for dates and locations to be determined; the NASCAR Xfinity Series will not run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (originally scheduled for May 30) and has been realigned to a date and location to be determined; the NASCAR Xfinity Series will not run at Michigan (originally scheduled for June 6) and has been realigned to a date and location to be determined.
**Schedule locations, dates, times and networks are subject to change.
NASCAR announced the next installment of the rebuilt 2020 schedule on Wednesday, a 19-race update that begins at Michigan International Speedway on the second weekend in August and ends at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Aug. 30.
The final breakdown: six points-paying NASCAR Cup Series races, five NASCAR Xfinity Series races, four NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races and four ARCA Menards Series events, one of which is the East Series. The schedule features a shift in venue for the weekend of Aug. 14, seeing NASCAR take on the Daytona International Speedway road course in full force for the first time in history. It all starts with the ARCA cars running it that Friday followed by Xfinity action on Saturday and a Gander Trucks/Cup Series twin bill on Sunday at the “World Center of Racing.”
Road America and Dover International Speedway will also host events during the homestretch in advance of the NASCAR Playoffs. The NASCAR Cup Series regular season is still scheduled to conclude with a race on the 2.5-oval layout at Daytona on Aug. 29.
More details on NASCAR national series dates, including the playoffs, will be announced at a later date.
Additionally, NASCAR’s modified event procedures and protocols have been finalized in accordance with public health officials, medical experts and local, state and federal officials. NASCAR will determine if fans are allowed entrance to NASCAR Cup Series races on a market-by-market basis, in accordance with local and state guidelines.
Date
Track
Series
Distance
Network
Start Time (ET)
Fri., Aug. 7
Michigan
Gander
200 mi
FS1
6 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 8
Road America
Xfinity
182 mi
NBCSN
Noon
Sat., Aug. 8
Michigan
Cup
312 mi
NBCSN
4 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 9
Michigan
ARCA
200 mi
MAVTV
1 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 9
Michigan
Cup
312 mi
NBCSN
4:30 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 14
Daytona (road)
ARCA
TBD
MAVTV
5 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 15
Daytona (road)
Xfinity
182 mi
NBCSN
3 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 16
Daytona (road)
Gander
153 mi
FS1
Noon
Sun., Aug. 16
Daytona (road)
Cup
231 mi
NBC
3 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 21
Dover
ARCA East
125 mi
TrackPass
2 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 21
Dover
Gander
200 mi
FS1
5 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 22
Dover
Xfinity
200 mi
NBCSN
12:30 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 22
Dover
Cup
311 mi
NBCSN
4 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 23
Dover
Xfinity
200 mi
NBCSN
1 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 23
Dover
Cup
311 mi
NBCSN
4 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 28
Daytona
Xfinity
250 mi
NBCSN
7:30 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 29
WWT Raceway
ARCA
150 mi
MAVTV
6 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 29
Daytona
Cup
400 mi
NBC
7:30 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 30
WWT Raceway
Gander
200 mi
FS1
Noon
Other notes: — Both Dover and Michigan will host Cup Series doubleheader weekends, with the “Monster Mile” playing host to five national series races in three days from Aug. 21-23.
— The historic races on Daytona’s road course will replace NASCAR’s annual visit to Watkins Glen International, as New York state health and safety regulations cannot allow for the previously scheduled NASCAR weekend to happen there at this time.
— World Wide Technology Raceway, which was originally slated to host the first race of the Gander Trucks playoffs, will now become race No. 14 of the regular season.
— The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Daytona (Aug. 16) has been realigned from Iowa Speedway.
— The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Trucks Series will not run at Eldora Speedway (originally scheduled for July 30) and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (originally scheduled for Sept. 6) and have been realigned for dates and locations to be determined.
— The NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (originally scheduled for May 30) has been realigned to a date and location to be determined.
— The NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Michigan (originally scheduled for June 6) has been realigned to a date and location to be determined.
See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart at Kentucky Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
A Bluegrass State visit is on tap this weekend at Kentucky Speedway as the 1.5-mile track hosts a modest milestone — its 10th NASCAR Cup Series race.
Sunday’s Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart (2:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will cap a busy four-day stretch of racing with all three NASCAR national tours plus the ARCA Menards Series in action. None of the NASCAR events will have practice or qualifying before the green flag; ARCA will conduct a lone practice.
With plenty of miles ahead at the northern Kentucky facility, here’s a primer with helpful information for the 17th of a scheduled 36 Cup Series races this year.
Kentucky Speedway is a 1.5-mile oval, built by developer Jerry Carroll and opened for racing in 2000. The track, which sits less than five miles south of the Ohio River and the Indiana-Kentucky border, was acquired by Speedway Motorsports Inc., in 2008.
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
Kentucky Speedway was fully repaved and partially reconfigured ahead of the 2016 season, in part to shake up the racing but also to improve drainage and track-drying. Turns 1-2 were increased in banking (from 14 to 17 degrees) and reduced in width (from 74 to 56 feet); the surface in Turns 3-4 remained at 14 degrees of banking and a 74-foot width. The backstraight is 1,600 feet long, and the curved frontstretch has variable banking from 8-10 degrees.
The track first hosted the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series for its opening weekend in 2000, and Greg Biffle was the inaugural winner. Kevin Harvick prevailed in the first NASCAR Xfinity Series race a year later. Kentucky played host to its first Cup Series event in 2011, with Kyle Busch leading 125 of the 267 laps. Kentucky is also the site of Joey Logano’s first Xfinity Series win in 2008.
Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series event marks the tour’s first Kentucky race since 2017. The track also hosted the NTT IndyCar Series from 2000-2011.
STAGE LENGTHS
Stage 1 is set to end at Lap 80, Stage 2 at Lap 160, and the final stage is slated to conclude on Lap 267.
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 will be 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 Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
RULES PACKAGE
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
Goodyear Racing will run the same tire for all three NASCAR national series events this weekend, a new tire set-up for Kentucky that was used at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — another intermediate-sized track — earlier this year. Goodyear updated the tire compound to increase left-side traction and altered the tire construction on both sides. The tire combination is also scheduled to be used at events at 2-mile Michigan International Speedway and 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway later this season.
The Cup Series event will also be run during the warmth of a Sunday afternoon, a change from previous Kentucky races held on Saturday evenings.
“Last year, we integrated a compound change to the right-side tire at Kentucky to increase wear, and have followed that up with a change to the left-side to add grip for this weekend,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “There are a couple areas of focus when we race at these tracks with ultra-smooth surfaces, like Kentucky, Texas and Michigan. One is to monitor the grip level from year to year so we keep up with the track aging process. The other is to manage the heat generated through the tires. The grip created by these tracks results in a lot of speed and that speed, in turn, leads to heat. Making sure we bring tires that wear and shed rubber helps dissipate that heat, and enables the tire run at a more optimal level.”
Each Cup Series team will have eight sets of tires allotted for Sunday’s 400. Xfinity Series teams will have five sets each in their Thursday and Friday events, and Gander Trucks teams will have four sets each for their Saturday evening race.
STATS TO KNOW
— Brad Keselowski reigns as Kentucky Speedway’s all-time wins leader in the NASCAR Cup Series with three victories. The Team Penske driver also has three Xfinity Series wins to his credit.
— Toyota leads all automakers with wins in five of the nine Cup Series races held at Kentucky. Ford has won twice at the Bluegrass State venue, with Chevrolet and Dodge scoring one Kentucky victory each.
— Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick have surged in recent weeks, combining to win seven of the 12 races since the sport returned in May after the coronavirus outbreak. The pair has also won in three consecutive Cup Series events and four of the last five. Kentucky is the lone oval track on the Cup Series schedule where Harvick has yet to win.
— Chase Elliott ranks fourth in the Cup Series in laps led this season, spending time up front in 12 of the 16 races. Kentucky, however, is the only Cup Series track where Elliott has not led a lap in his career.
— Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola enters Sunday’s race with a streak of five consecutive top-five finishes, a career-best. For Almirola to continue that string, he would need to achieve his first top-five day at Kentucky, where his best finish in seven starts is eighth place.
Source: NASCAR statistics, Racing Insights
LIVE COVERAGE
Tune in to television coverage Sunday on FS1 (2:30 p.m. ET) or on the FOX Sports App. For full radio coverage from Kentucky 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).
Kurt Busch outmaneuvered his brother, Kyle, in a fender-scraping overtime finish to snag his first win with Chip Ganassi Racing. The elder Busch went from fourth to first in the two-lap OT shootout and led 41 of the 269 laps to score career win No. 31 in NASCAR’s top division, and a jubilant CGR crew rode the No. 1 Chevrolet into Victory Lane in an old-school celebration.
Kyle Busch finished just .076 seconds back in second place, with Erik Jones — a teammate of his at Joe Gibbs Racing — placing third.
NASCAR officials on Wednesday cleared Jimmie Johnson to return to competition this weekend at Kentucky Speedway.
The seven-time Cup Series champion self-reported a positive COVID-19 test last Friday, forcing him out of the circuit’s most recent race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is set to return to the driver’s seat of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the Bluegrass State.
“My family is so grateful for the incredible love and support we’ve received over the last several days,” Johnson said in a team release. “I especially want to thank Justin Allgaier for stepping in for me at Indy and being a true pro. I’m excited about getting back to business with my team this weekend.”
Johnson, 44, met the criteria established by NASCAR officials since the sport returned to action in May after the coronavirus outbreak. The requirements include two negative COVID-19 tests at least 24 hours apart, an absence of symptoms, and medical clearance from a physician.
According to Hendrick Motorsports, Johnson tested negative twice this week – on Monday and Tuesday – and was cleared by his physician Tuesday evening in accordance with NASCAR guidelines. The driver never experienced symptoms.
Following Johnson’s diagnosis, four Hendrick Motorsports crew members were tested for COVID-19 with all four receiving negative results, according to a team release. The No. 48 team will have its regular personnel roster for Sunday’s event at Kentucky
Johnson became the first NASCAR driver to reveal a positive coronavirus test. A member of Hendrick Motorsports’ road crew who had been in closer contact with Johnson was also self-quarantined after Johnson’s positive test.
Allgaier, an Xfinity Series regular for JR Motorsports, finished 37th Sunday at Indianapolis in an interim role in the No. 48 Chevy. His fill-in role ended after just 17 laps after he was snared by a multi-car tangle on pit road during the first round of stops.
The driver change ended Johnson’s streak of consecutive Cup Series starts at 663, a span that stretched back to his rookie season in 2002.
No. 44 Martins Motorsports crew chief Daniel Johnson has been suspended for the next NASCAR Xfinity Series points event, Thursday’s Shady Rays 200 at Kentucky Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1). Driver Tommy Joe Martins finished 35th at Indianapolis after losing his rear axle during the race, a violation of Section 12.5.2.7.4e of the NASCAR Rule Book, under “Loss or separation of improperly installed rear axle.”
Separately, No. 22 Team Penske crew chief Brian Wilson was fined $5,000 after the Team Penske car was missing one lug nut on post-race check. Driver Austin Cindric piloted the No. 22 to a fifth-place finish.
Zach Price, rear tire changer for the No. 12 Team Penske Ford of Ryan Blaney, continues the recovery process following a leg injury sustained early in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Zach Price continues to recover at home from a lower left leg injury sustained following Sunday’s pit road incident at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Curtis Thompson will serve as rear tire changer for the No. 12 this weekend at Kentucky,” Team Penske announced in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
A pit-road pileup on Lap 15 halted the 160-lap NASCAR Cup Series race at the 2.5-mile speedway after several cars created a road block at the entrance of pit road. Price was struck while changing right-side tires on the No. 12 Team Penske Ford when the No. 15 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet of Brennan Poole was pushed into Blaney’s car.
Price was show on camera giving a thumbs-up and a smile to the rest of his No. 12 team crew members while being loaded onto an ambulance via stretcher. After a visit to the infield care center, Price was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation before flying home with the rest of the team.
Blaney finished 32nd in Sunday’s race after a crash in Stage 2 forced him to retire from the race.
