Posted on by Terrin Waack

“You’re a superstar.”

Family members congratulated Brandon Brown on FaceTime as he waited inside the media center at Bristol Motor Speedway. In his second full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series season, the 27-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, qualified for the playoffs. Brown clinched the 12th and final spot with his 12th-place finish in Friday’s regular-season finale.

“They’re just over the moon,” Brown said on the post-race Zoom. “I’m ecstatic. It’s so great to make them happy and bring an opportunity like this to our family team. It’s a dream come true.”

RELATED: Official results

Brown drives the No. 68 Chevrolet for Brandonbilt Motorsports, whose shop is located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Like Brown, Brandonbilt Motorsports is in its second full-time season. Brown drove for the team last year in its No. 86 entry to one top 10, an average finish of 19.7 and a 15th place in the final standings.

This year, in 26 starts, Brown has four top 10s and averages a 16.5 finish. He’ll already top last season’s ranking since he’s in the 12-driver postseason field.

“I mean, realistically, I think we’re really going to try and fight to get through this first round,” Brown said. “I want to see us get into the second round. I have full faith in all of our guys to be able to make that happen.”

The Round of 12 starts next Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the Alsco 300 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Brown came in 17th and 16th in last year’s spring and fall events, respectively. Then, the series will take on Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course — two wild cards.

“The plan is now that we’ve secured a spot in the playoffs, we’re going try and pick select races for some lease motor programs to really get ourselves competitive, starting with Las Vegas,” Brown said. “I think this just gave a little emphasis to a couple of the partners that are going to come out to help us get a little better equipment. But we’re definitely going to try and give it our all for this playoff run.”

Brown entered the Bristol event one spot above the cutline, safe by 49 points. He is in that same 12th spot now, just two spots below the eventual 10-driver cutoff in three weeks.

Ross Chastain, the runner-up at Bristol, was the top driver without a win. He took the green flag in the eighth playoff spot with a large 523-point advantage. He remains the eighth seed for the postseason since a repeat winner (Chase Briscoe) took the checkered flag.

“Yeah, we thought we were going to make the playoffs three months ago,” Chastain said. “But I know what Brandon went through, trying to get here, grinding it out and just focusing on not wrecking, not having big points losses to his next guy. Just enjoy this week.”

That’s the plan. It was Brown who originally gave that enjoyment advice anyway.

Perspective is key, too.

“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the season if we are a playoff team, I would have said we’re going to be one that’s competitive for it; I wouldn’t have guaranteed you we’d be in,” Brown said. “In our five-year plan, we’ll call it, we’re definitely ahead of schedule being a playoff-contending team and one I feel can really fight to get to the second round of those playoffs. This was the mark we needed to hit so everything ahead of us is going to be above and beyond, which is really where we like to strive to be.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

It was a perfect rub-and-run.

In a race that filled the final position for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff, Chase Briscoe nudged close friend, fellow Ford driver and regular-season champion Austin Cindric out of the way with six laps left and pulled away to win Friday night’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Cindric didn’t have his full set of resources, having lost the power steering on his No. 22 Team Penske Ford during the final run. Cindric lost second place to Ross Chastain, who had led 117 laps. Chastain finished .651-seconds behind the race winner.

The victory was Briscoe’s seventh this season, his first at Bristol and the ninth of his career. Briscoe finished the regular season with 50 Playoff points, tied with Cindric, who won five of the first 26 races.

RELATED: Unofficial results

“The last 15 laps, our car came to life,” Briscoe said. “I figured something out. We had to root and gouge our way up there — that’s what Bristol is all about.

“If we could end up second in points and win the race, we’d have the same amount of Playoff points as (Cindric). Mission accomplished.”

Brandon Brown clinched the final berth in the 12-driver Xfinity Playoff with a 12th-place finish.

Harrison Burton ran fourth on Friday, followed by Justin Allgaier, who swept the first two stages and led 126 of the 300 laps before the handling of his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet tightened up after the second stage break.

Anthony Alfredo, Noah Gragson, Brandon Jones, Jeb Burton and Riley Herbst completed the top 10.

Racing in close quarters, Cindric grabbed the lead from Chastain one circuit after the final restart on Lap 252. Cindric held the top spot until Briscoe’s No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford powered past him on Lap 295.

The victory was even more satisfying to Briscoe after 11th and 16th-place runs in last weekend’s doubleheader at Richmond Raceway.

“I was so mad after last week,” said Briscoe, who led 11 laps, including the final six. “I told all the guys there ain’t no way we’re getting beat today. I was so mad after how we ran last week, and I get on the internet all the time and see guys count us out after one bad race.

“I know what this team is capable of… I finished second here the last two races, and I wanted to win here so bad, and it’s awesome that I can actually celebrate it with all these race fans.”

Cindric struggled after his power steering began to fail 15 laps into the final green-flag run.

“I’ve never felt so helpless in all my life,” Cindric said. “I’ve never felt such pain in a race car. My body went numb for a while… I’ve never lost a race that way.”

The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff begins next Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Behind Briscoe and Cindric, Allgaier is seeded third, followed by Gragson, Jones, Justin Haley, Harrison Burton, Chastain, Ryan Sieg, Michael Annett, Herbst and Brown.

Posted on by Staff Report

BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. — Craig Von Dohren wrapped up his 11th Hope Mortgage T.P.Trailers Modified Division championship at Grandview Speedway earlier this month, but he’s not done.

The Oley, Pennsylvania, driver only won one feature during the abbreviated season, but his consistency allowed him to finish 227 points ahead of defending track champion Duane Howard.

Now Von Dohren will set his sights on the big money postseason race at his home track this weekend.

Grandview, one of the premier dirt tracks in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, will host the 50th Annual Freedom 76 Modified Classic on Saturday. The winner will earn $35,550, plus the possibility of some lap money.

RELATED: Grandview Speedway Website

Von Dohren will be joined in pursuit of the top prize by 2014 winner Stewart Friesen, along with Billy Pauch Jr., Bobby Varin, Mike Maresca and others.

Von Dohren last won the Freedom 76 in 2015, his fifth victory in the event. Mike Gular is the defending race winner, while Grandview notables Duane Howard (six track titles, five Freedom 76 wins) and Jeff Strunk (10 track titles, seven Freedom 76 winners) will be in the mix to add to their legacies.

The action set to start at 7 p.m. Fans are invited to enter the speedway grounds between 9 a.m. to noon to reserve seats. Saturday action will include qualifying events, the $1,000 to win Kirsten Snyder Web Design & Photography Cash Dash, the Schaeffer Racing Minuteman 20 topped off with the 50th Annual Freedom 76.

The Freedom 76 was first run on Sept. 19, 1971, with Ed Mumford taking the victory.

RELATED: Grandview Past Champions | Freedom 76 Past Winners

The race weekend kicks off Friday evening with the Freedom 38 for Sportman, which pays $3,550 to win.

Brian Hirthler won the T.P. Truck Equipment Sportman Division at Grandview by five points over Brad Arnold. It was the second NASCAR title for Hirthler, who won the Sportsman title in 2017.

For details on all racing at Grandview check in at www.grandviewspeedway.com, Facebook or telephone (610) 754-7688.

Craig Von Dohren Car

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

All 10 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series playoff drivers entered Thursday night’s kickoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway with high hopes. Few left with much to smile about.

A run at victory was derailed early for regular-season champion Austin Hill when he clipped the outside wall in the opening circuits of the 200-lap race, receiving significant damage to the rear bumper of the No. 16 Hattori Racing Toyota Tundra.

RELATED: Official results

Another incident on Lap 156 didn’t help matters after Austin Wayne Self tried to clear Hill on the straightaway, resulting in Hill spinning out the No. 22 truck. Hill wound up finishing 25th, five laps off the pace and the lowest finishing playoff driver.

Zane Smith, who came into Bristol as the second seed in the playoffs, fought an ill-handling No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado toward the end of the race. He managed to hang onto a 16th-place result, one lap down.

“I can’t give you an honest answer,” Smith said afterward. “All of a sudden with 15 to go, I just wasn’t able to turn at both ends. It was really bad in (Turns) 1 and 2. Same feeling as a right front (tire) going down or something. I was just waiting to knock down the fence.”

Sheldon Creed, the top-seeded driver, looked poised for a strong run until he was caught speeding on pit road during a caution period on Lap 88, sending him to the back of the field. Creed worked his way back up to 11th. He finished ahead of Christian Eckes, Ben Rhodes and Todd Gilliland, who walked away from Bristol with 12th-, 13th- and 14th-place finishes, respectively.

ThorSport Racing driver Grant Enfinger faced mechanical issues on pit road on Lap 62, but he was able to drive the No. 98 truck back through the field for a solid sixth-place recovery, while teammate Matt Crafton finished 10th.

On the other hand, it was a more positive night for GMS Racing drivers Brett Moffitt and Tyler Ankrum. Moffitt earned the Stage 1 victory after leading every lap, while Ankrum led the way from start to finish for the second-stage triumph – the first stage victory of Ankrum’s career.

While Ankrum finished seventh in the race, it was Moffitt who had the dominant truck all night but couldn’t hang on when it mattered the most. Moffitt was passed by 17-year-old driver and teammate Sam Mayer, who had fresher tires, with 30 laps remaining, forced to settle for a second-place finish despite leading a career-high 117 of 200 laps.

“I joked on pit road, the worst year of my life continues,” Moffitt said, who still remains winless this season and overcame two broken legs earlier in the year. “It sure does; it sucks. We’ve had a lot of fast trucks, but none of them worked out. It’s unfortunate because I felt like we had a truck so strong tonight that ultimately the guys that were racing against us had to play an alternate strategy. It just so happened that it worked out better for them than it did for us.”

Moffitt shouldn’t hang his head too low, though. Due to the misfortune of others mixed with his strong run, the 2018 series champion leaves Bristol with the points lead heading into the second race in the Round of 10 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR disqualified the No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, driven by Trevor Bayne, after Thursday night’s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Official results

The No. 45 Chevrolet failed post-race height requirements. Bayne’s fifth-place finish in the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics will no longer hold, and he will be scored last.

Bayne was making his third Gander Truck Series start in 2020. Prior to this year, he had not raced in a NASCAR national series event since 2018.

Also during post-race inspection, the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Toyota of Derek Kraus was found to have on lug nut not fully secured. Kraus placed 16th, but moved up to 15th after the DQ of the No. 45.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

A 17-year-old stole the thunder from the playoff drivers at “Thunder Valley.”

Driving in a part-time role for GMS Racing, Sam Mayer beat GMS teammate and 2018 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series champion Brett Moffitt to the finish line by 4.413 seconds to win Thursday night’s UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics at Bristol Motor Speedway. Just a few hours later, Mayer capped off a sweep of Thursday racing at Thunder Valley with a win in the Bush’s Beans 200 ARCA Menards Series event.

RELATED: No. 45 Truck disqualified | Race results

Moffitt led 117 of the 200 laps at the .533-mile concrete short track, but with superior tires for the final run, Mayer passed him for the lead on Lap 171 and pulled away for his first victory in the series. Mayer is the second-youngest driver to record a victory in the division. Cole Custer won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as a 16-year-old in 2014.

“Oh, my gosh! Dude, I love this place. This is win No. 3 for me here,” said Mayer, who scored a pair of victories at Bristol in the NASCAR East Series. “Man, I don’t know what to say. I can’t thank all the guys at the shop enough. They worked their tails off. We fired off so good. We only made one track bar adjustment all day. Oh, my God, that feels so good.”

Mayer knew he had a team capable of winning. His only doubt was his own ability to do the job, but Mayer erased that doubt emphatically.

“I just had to come here and perform,” he said. “That last pit stop (after Stage 2) put us in a perfect place, and I was able to drive right by all of them. Man, it’s such a good feeling. We have two more Truck races this year—the momentum is awesome.”

Moffitt, who took the playoff lead with his fourth runner-up finish of the season, came to pit road for the only time after winning Stage 1. As a consequence, Mayer’s tires were 50 laps fresher for the final run. But Moffitt was philosophical.

“We need to have four trucks at Phoenix (Raceway) racing for a championship in Phoenix, and this is a good start for us,” Moffitt said.

Teammate Sheldon Creed recovered from a pit-road speeding penalty to finish 11th and hold second place in the standings. Zane Smith had a fast GMS Chevrolet, too, but faded to 16th in the closing laps. Tyler Ankrum, in the fourth GMS playoff truck, won Stage 2 but lost track position when instructions to come to pit road after the stage win were obscured by radio chatter.

Ankrum recovered to run seventh, and all four GMS Playoff drivers left Bristol above the cut line. After two more races, the playoff field will be cut from 10 drivers to eight. The two drivers currently below the line are Christian Eckes (12th Thursday) and Todd Gilliland (14th).

Smith was baffled by the sudden loss of handling in his No. 21 Silverado.

“All of a sudden, with 15 to go, I just wasn’t able to turn,” he said. “It was really bad in (Turns) 1 and 2. Same feeling as a right front (tire) going down or something. I was just waiting to knock down the fence. I just couldn’t turn at all — fading quick.”

Regular-season champion Austin Hill had issues, too. Hill’s No. 16 Toyota sustained damage soon after the start of the race, eventually relegating the Hattori Racing Enterprises driver to a 25th-place finish.

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept. 17, 2020) – NASCAR and the American Gaming Association (AGA) are teaming up to educate NASCAR fans on responsible sports betting through the AGA’s Have a Game Plan.® Bet Responsibly. public service campaign. As the campaign’s first professional sports league partner, NASCAR will develop co-branded content that encourages new and seasoned sports bettors to “Take a Pit Stop” and bet responsibly.

Today’s partnership announcement coincides with the AGA’s Responsible Gaming Education Week (Sept. 13-19), held annually to showcase the gaming industry’s year-round commitment to responsible gaming initiatives and promote transparency and gaming literacy to customers.

“Legal sports betting allows fans to engage with their favorite drivers and race teams in new, exciting ways. It is critically important to ensure they are informed about how to do so responsibly,” said Casey Clark, Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications, AGA. “This partnership further demonstrates NASCAR’s leadership among professional sports on responsible gaming.”

Over the last year, NASCAR entered into a series of partnerships with world-class brands to prepare the industry and its fans for the rapidly growing sports betting market. Sportradar signed on as NASCAR’s integrity partner, BetGenius as its data provider, Penn National Gaming and BetMGM as Authorized Gaming Operators, IMG Arena as its international streaming partner, and EquiLottery and LEAP in the lottery and virtual gaming spaces, respectively. To help fans become educated on sports betting, NASCAR recently launched NASCAR.com/betcenter and also works closely with The Action Network and VSiN.

“Ensuring that our fans have the resources to bet responsibly is a founding principle of our gaming strategy,” said Scott Warfield, Managing Director, Gaming, NASCAR. “The AGA uniquely understands the convergence of legal betting, sports, and responsible gaming. As sports bettors increasingly engage with NASCAR, we look forward to working together to promote bettor education and resources that help prepare our fans for the rapidly expanding legal sports betting landscape.”

As part of the partnership, NASCAR will develop co-branded content for distribution across its social platforms and produce public service announcements that will run across national radio. NASCAR.com will also produce original responsible gaming content for NASCAR.com/betcenter, which provide fans with stats, odds, and information designed to empower them to make informed decisions in the fantasy and gaming space.

The American Gaming Association launched Have a Game Plan.® in late 2019 as an extension of the industry’s ongoing commitment to responsibility. The AGA and NASCAR are both contributors to the International Center for Responsible Gaming’s (ICRG) fund to support research on sports wagering; AGA as a founding donor and NASCAR as the fund’s first league supporter.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

As the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to regular-season finale race at Bristol Motor Speedway, many questions already have answers.

Austin Cindric clinched the regular-season championship last weekend at Richmond, with finishes of fourth and 10th in the doubleheader. With a remarkable charge over the past 12 races, a stretch that included five victories and an average finish of 3.83, Cindric overtook Chase Briscoe for the top spot in the standings, though Briscoe holds an edge in wins with six.

Together, the only two full-time Ford drivers in the series have dominated the action for most of the season, winning a combined 11 of the 25 races so far. Other than a potential victory and accompanying playoff points—as well as establishing momentum entering the Playoff—neither driver has much on the line in Friday night’s Food City 300 (7 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Full schedule for Bristol | Xfinity Series standings

The same can’t be said of Brandon Brown, who enters the cutoff race with a comfortable 49-point lead over Jeremy Clements for the last of 12 spots in the Xfinity Series Playoffs—if anything about Bristol can be said to be comfortable. Brown simply needs to avoid calamity to clinch the final berth—assuming none of the drivers below him in the standings manages to pull off an unlikely victory. 

Noah Gragson, who took the checkered flag June 1, and JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier are the only two Bristol winners in the field for Friday’s race. Currently sixth in the standings, Allgaier has won three of the last six Xfinity races (including the last two in a weekend sweep at Richmond) and doubtless will move up when the Playoff field is reseeded on Friday night.

“I feel like our No. 7 team is hitting its stride at just the right time,” said Allgaier, who is tied with Cindric for most stage wins this season with 10. “Last weekend at Richmond was incredible and gives us some great momentum heading to one of my favorite tracks on the circuit.

“Bristol is a place that really suits my driving style, and the past few races (there), I feel like we’ve had the car to beat, but circumstances just didn’t work in our favor. Hopefully, we can get it done this weekend and end the regular season on a high note as we look ahead to the Playoffs.”

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

For Sheldon Creed, not knowing everything about how his race car works sometimes pays off. At least that’s what GMS Racing teammate Tyler Ankrum thinks.

Creed goes into the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Playoffs as a highly regarded championship favorite among his fellow postseason competitors. As a matter of fact, half of the 10-driver postseason field pointed toward Creed and/or the GMS Racing drivers as a whole when asked who’s the biggest threat for the title.

RELATED: Ask the drivers: Who’s the biggest championship threat?

But according to Ankrum, those accolades aren’t as much of a testament of him knowing every facet of his No. 2 Chevrolet Silverado, because that’s not the case for good reason.

“Sheldon has a dirt background, off-road trucks and he openly admits that he doesn’t know that much about the trucks,” Ankrum said. “But that guy can go out there and wheel the thing slap sideways all day and he don’t care. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘I know more than him, he openly admits he doesn’t know that much and I’m not doing as good as him right now, so what’s the difference?’”

That difference provoked 10th-seeded playoff driver Ankrum to think back to his rookie year to analyze why Creed is experiencing a high level of success. What he discovered is a mentality he’s working to get back.

“There’s a purity behind not knowing,” Ankrum. “As a rookie, there’s a purity to going to race tracks and not knowing anything about anything because the one thing you have is instinct and control of the steering wheel in your hands. If you have that, it’s the purest thing in the world. When you feel it, you feel like you’re Superman.”

The 22-year-old Creed sure is driving like a superhero as the sophomore Gander Trucks driver goes into Thursday night’s playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a four-point lead over teammate Zane Smith with three wins in the regular season.

Compared to to his rookie year last season, Creed has exemplified patience while still being unafraid to put his truck into situations others wouldn’t dare to risk, which is where that purity and instinct Ankrum noted still lives. For Creed, the growth is the product of more reps, along with the help of his trainer, Josh Wise, and GMS Racing teammate and 2018 Gander Trucks champion Brett Moffitt.

“I think the seat time, honestly,” Creed said. “Just more races, more experience and then also working with Josh Wise a lot and also Brett Moffitt was helping quite a bit. Just watching more, knowing watch to watch in film. Just tired of wrecking race trucks. It’s cool to be fast, but then when you wreck it every week it’s not. … Just putting in a lot more effort this year. I want to be here to stay.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Toyota and NASCAR are cranking the volume during this season’s NASCAR Playoffs.

Fans will enter for their chance to win a 2021 Toyota GR Supra 3.0 Premium, complete with 1-year subscriptions to both SiriusXM All Access and Pandora Premium. And it doesn’t stop there. Because when they enter, fans will also gain access to Toyota NASCAR Cup Series drivers’ personal playlists. Featuring the songs that get our drivers ready to go – both on and off the track.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Ends 11/8/20. Must be a permanent legal resident of the U.S. (excluding HI) or DC of legal age of majority (& at least 18) as of 9/16/20. Void in HI & where prohibited. For rules, entry, & complete details click here. Prize images are for illustrative purposes only. Actual prizes may vary. NASCAR, LLC, NASCAR Digital Media, LLC, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc., SiriusXM Radio Inc., & Pandora Media, LLC are not Sponsors of this Promotion.