“NASCAR is postponing the scheduled events on May 8-9 at Martinsville Speedway. Our intention remains to run all 36 races, with a potential return to racing without fans in attendance in May at a date and location to be determined. The health and safety of our competitors, employees, fans and the communities in which we run continues to be our top priority. We will continue to consult with health experts and local, state and federal officials as we assess future scheduling options.”
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will return to (virtual) action Monday as the NASCAR Roots iRacing Series is set to take the green flag in a four race event.
The tour will start at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on Monday, April 20. It will race at Southern National Raceway Park in North Carolina on Monday, April 27; at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Connecticut on Monday, May 4; and at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Monday, May 11.
The races will be streamed live on NASCAR Roots’ channels on Facebook, Twitter and Twitch.
Our first race will be this coming Monday (the 20th) at @newsmyrnaspdwy at 7pm. Set those reminders. We‘ll see you there! ud83cudfc1 ud83cudf89
#eNASCAR | @iracing | @whelenmtrs | @nascar pic.twitter.com/hXx1yDEDtz
— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) April 17, 2020
Entrance into the series is limited to invitation only, and will feature drivers from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and is open to drivers from the ARCA Menards Series as well as NASCAR’s international series.
Heat races and a Last Chance Qualifier race will help set the field for the feature race, which will be 50-100 laps, depending on the venue.
When Chase Dixon got his first win in a limited late model two years ago, he looked up at the stands and saw a host of young fans celebrating his win with him.
At just 16 years old, Dixon is still young himself, but he knows he’s a role model in his corner of the racing world at Kingsport Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned 0.375-mile semi-banked concrete oval track in Kingsport, Tennessee.
“Whenever I got out of the car and I celebrated I saw so many kids lined up on the fence cheering for me and it was an amazing feeling,” Dixon said.
Since then, Dixon has used his success as a driver for good, running a “Stop Bullying” campaign with a logo on his car. He hopes that some of the kids who watch him from the stands will take his message to heart.
“Not every little kid looks up to a race car driver, but some kids that come down to the pits, if they want a hero car in the autograph session, they more than likely look up to you so whenever they see that on your car they want to be just like you,” he said.
Kingsport Speedway | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Dixon, who lives in Abingdon, Virginia, got a bit of a taste of racing himself as a kid watching his sister drag race and hearing stories of his grandfather’s career behind the wheel, and it was always something he wanted to do himself.
It was a chance sighting while out for dinner one night that truly gave him the itch to drive.
“One day we were out in a restaurant eating and I saw a bandelero hanging from the ceiling and I told my dad, ‘I want to get into one of those,‘ ” Dixon said. “And a year later he surprised me with one and we got into racing.”
Dixon’s dad, Chris, and grandfather, Greg Killen, have been the driving forces behind the young driver’s career. The trio learned the ins and outs of the sport together, and Dixon said they all grew closer in the process.
In his first season of driving the bandolero three years ago, Dixon won six races and finished runner-up in points. The next year he had the opportunity to run a limited late model, and again found success, winning three races and taking six poles, missing out on a track championship by one point.
“It was obviously a big ole step and I wasn‘t expecting to do as well as I did,” he said.
“It was definitely a big stepping stone, but my progression, I was impressed myself. It definitely wasn’t easy. It took a lot of hard work and determination.”
Dixon spent a lot of time practicing on the simulator, and said that mixed with him being hands-on with the car has helped him a lot. He didn’t have any experience with working on cars before he began racing.
“Dad told me when I got the car, ‘If you‘re going to race you‘re going to have to work on it,‘” he said. “And I was completely fine with that because to this day it‘s what I want to do when I grow up. I want to work on race cars or I want to be a professional race car driver. It‘s one of the two jobs that I want.”
Chase Dixon Motorsports | Facebook
The competition and the family atmosphere is what makes racing something Dixon wants to continue through his life.
“I feel like this sport is a family-driven sport and I love it that way,” he said.
“I love the competition and I love the feeling you get whenever you‘re behind the wheel, and also the family is so involved with the short track roots racing… It gets the family closer and it‘s just such an amazing deal I guess because you get to go to the racetrack with your family. Whenever we go to the racetrack I take my mom and my dad and my grandfather. My grandparents always come. And even my crew, they‘re family to me.”
Dixon will run the “Stop Bullying” logo on his late model which he hopes to run for points at Kingsport this season, whenever that may be given current postponements due to the coronavirus. Kingsport has postponed all races until May 3.
The young driver will be a rookie in late models, driving it in just two races last season. He had a chance to test twice and practice a bit before the season was ultimately postponed.
Even though he wishes he was racing, Dixon is at least happy he got a chance to get behind the wheel a few times and see where the car stands whenever they are able to race again.
“We get to see how well we performed… Even in these bad times we get to work on it because we were pretty fast but still it gives us time to work on it and make it better,” he said. “I believe we‘ve found some speed in the car and some errors we corrected.”
Dixon had plans to also run part-time this year at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Virginia, but the track canceled the 2020 season altogether. He still has hopes of getting his first taste of other tracks like Hickory Motor Speedway in Hickory, North Carolina, and South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia.
He’d also like to return to Martinsville Speedway for the prestigious ValleyStar Credit Union 500, one of two late model races he competed in in 2019.
“We came close to making the race last year,” Dixon said. “We got into accident in the heat race and was one spot short of getting into the race. But it was still a very good learning experience.
“I‘m definitely competing against some of the best of the best in late model stock racing but with my team I feel like we can go to those tracks and have a good top five and maybe even compete for a win. Especially this year. I think we upped our equipment a lot and I think our program will be a whole lot better.”
Time for drivers to crank up those sim-racing rigs, the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is back in action this weekend at virtual Richmond Raceway for the Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota (Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX, FS1 and the FOX Sports App).
The 150-lap eNASCAR iRacing event this weekend will feature a 30-car field (26 invited entries and four transferring from a Sunday morning qualifying race). The starting lineup will be set by a qualifying session. No car-repair resets will be allotted during the main event, a change from previous races.
RELATED: Power Rankings | Entry list, details for Richmond
Sunday morning’s Richmond qualifier will consist of 13 drivers, ranging from fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Labonte to current NASCAR Cup Series drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Daniel Suarez. The top two finishers from the 25-lap event will advance to the main race, as well as two additional provisionals chosen by FOX.
Since the inaugural eNASCAR iRacing race back at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, the series has consisted of three different race winners, three different pole winners and various rule changes to shake things up.
During a time when a lot of things weren’t guaranteed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NASCAR industry has rallied behind something that would still give fans their weekly dose of racing competition.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin won the first race at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway. Timmy Hill, an underdog competitor in the NASCAR Cup Series, won the second iRacing event at virtual Texas Motor Speedway. And, William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, won the most recent race at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway.
SHOP: eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series gear
Drivers who haven’t spent a lot of time iRacing in the past, such as seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, are now just as involved in the virtual events as veteran iRacers like Byron, Hill and Garrett Smithley.
NASCAR Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, Tyler Reddick, is another driver who didn’t have much iRacing experience but has really taken it seriously and practiced getting better in the virtual world. Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and other big names in NASCAR are in the same boat.
Johnson, who has been practicing for hours each day on his new sim rig to feel a sense of normalcy, has a newfound understanding of the virtual racing world and why drivers and fans enjoy it so much.
“It brought a little bit of structure for me; more than I anticipated honestly, because I was just so far behind in the sim experience. But to see the viewership numbers and understand how much fun the fans are having watching it, it has motivated me and has me highly interested to keep it going,” Johnson said. “As we look around and see other sports try to figure out how to virtually offer something for their fans, we were one of the first, if not the first, to do it and do it well and break all kinds of records in the process. So, hats off to everybody to pull it though and our partners on the television-side to allow this to happen.”
The series was idle last weekend in observance of the Easter holiday, but the weekend before that the series visited virtual Bristol Motor Speedway. Byron was on the pole for the event and ended up dominating the caution-filled race, taking home his 293rd iRacing victory.
MORE: Byron rolls at virtual Bristol
Byron, who got his racing start partially by using iRacing as a learning tool, treats each virtual race the same way he would a regular race at the track.
“Yeah, I think the easy excuse is to say, oh, it’s a game and all that, but at the end of the day, everyone is racing, and seeing how much time some guys have put in, I know that it means something to them,” Byron said. “You’ve got to race. It’s race craft, and I feel like race craft is the same no matter what you’re racing; whether it’s on a computer or at the dirt track or at an asphalt race, it’s the same.”
The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series has given drivers of all different levels the opportunity to compete on an equal platform, and it’s showcased some of the drivers you might not hear about as much.
“For me personally, what I’ll gain from this is recognition,” said Hill, winner of virtual Texas Motor Speedway. “For us, it’s hard to get that recognition because of the level of competition that we are in, in real life. But this win will hopefully gain us some recognition and attract more sponsors in the real world when we get back racing because they know Timmy Hill from iRacing, from FOX, from this invitational. That’s what I hope from it. Hopefully it will help me in the real world.”
The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series drew in such a crowd that iRacing introduced Saturday Night Thunder. This event features drivers from the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series and the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
The inaugural event was two weeks ago at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway and real-life dirt racer Logan Seavey took the checkered flag after passing Chase Cabre with 13 laps to go. Saturday Night Thunder is now an event that will be on the weekly iRacing schedule, continuing in order to provide a platform for everyone involved in NASCAR to keep racing.
This weekend at virtual Richmond Raceway, the Saturday Night Thunder event will take place at 8 p.m. ET and fans can catch the race on eNASCAR.com/live and streamed live on NASCAR’s YouTube Channel.
Ricky Rudd is a wheel man. Don’t believe me? Fast forward to the 2-hour, 18-minute mark in the latest NASCAR Classic Full Race Replay of the 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400.
With less than 20 laps to go at Richmond Raceway, Kevin Harvick put the bumper to Rudd as they come off the corner. Somehow, someway, the “Rooster” was able to gather it up and didn’t even lose second place to a closing Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 8 Budweiser Chevy.
RELATED: Full race results | Classic Race Replays | Relive Harvick’s first career win
Now, I didn’t take physics in school and don’t remember much from geometry, but 10 out of 10 average NASCAR drivers wreck a race car pointed at a 45-degree angle on the front stretch of any track. Rudd didn’t, and that was bad news for Harvick.
After leading 12 laps, Rudd caught Harvick and returned the favor, putting Rudd in the perfect position to go take the win with six laps to go.
This exchange sparked a rivalry between the “Rooster” and “Happy” many will remember boiled over two years later yet again at Richmond when Rudd put Harvick into the fence.
We all know the rest of the story: Harvick jumps on Rudd’s car post-race trying to fight, and Rudd famously says, “He’s got that little yap-yap mouth, I couldn’t tell what he was saying.”
Relive the origins of the Ricky Rudd-Kevin Harvick rivalry in this NASCAR Classic Full Race Replay of the 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400.
A qualifying race comprised of 13 drivers has been added to Sunday’s schedule for the iRacing Pro Invitational Series event at virtual Richmond Raceway.
The 25-lap event will take place Sunday morning at approximately 10:30 a.m. ET, with four drivers transferring into the main event later Sunday afternoon — the Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota (1 p.m. ET, FOX, FS1, FOX Sports App). There will be no caution flags and no resets for the qualifier.
RELATED: More on race weekend
The top two finishers from the qualifying race will advance, and two additional drivers chosen by FOX will be given provisionals. That means the field for the Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota will expand from 26 cars to 30.
The qualifying race won’t air live, but will be sent to the FOX studios.
Below is the entry list for the qualifying race, subject to change.
| No. | Driver | Affiliation |
| 00 | Quin Houff | StarCom Racing |
| 8 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Invitation |
| 15 | Brennan Poole | Premium |
| 19 | Bobby Labonte | Invitation |
| 32 | Corey LaJoie | GoFas |
| 34 | Michael McDowell | Front Row |
| 41 | Cole Custer | SHR |
| 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG |
| 49 | Chad Finchum | MBM |
| 52 | JJ Yeley | Rick Ware |
| 53 | Joey Gase | Rick Ware |
| 89 | Landon Cassill | Invitation |
| 96 | Daniel Suarez | Gaunt Bros. |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. found a unique way to surprise his wife, Amy, regarding the gender of their second child.
Earnhardt ordered a pair of baby shoes with the color providing a hint. With help from their 1-year-old daughter Isla, Amy opened the box, revealing the couple will have another girl in the family.
Watch the big reveal below. Congrats to the Earnhardt family.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_DkvYjFEG_/?igshid=141zojszdr7m0
Without looking it up, who won the NASCAR Cup Series race in the spring of 2008 at Richmond?
Unless you are a Clint Bowyer fan, odds are you may not remember immediately. What you likely remember is Kyle Busch door-slamming Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the end of the race in a battle for the top spot.
That wreck threw gasoline on a fiery rivalry between Earnhardt and Busch that started the previous year and was somewhat tied to Busch’s departure from Hendrick Motorsports, and Earnhardt Jr.’s eventual new home at HMS — 2008 marking their first seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing and HMS, respectively.
RELATED: Full race results | Classic Race Replays | Dale Jr., Kyle Busch revisit 2008 Richmond race
The two sat down in 2018 and hashed out the issue on Dale Jr.’s podcast where Busch and Earnhardt both agreed that the wreck wasn’t intentional or as a driver would say “just one of those racing deals.” Earnhardt even admitted in their interview that he was “consumed by our rivalry at different points of my life.”
Last week, Earnhardt was named as one of 10 nominees to the Modern Era Ballot for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
Relive the entire 2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 from Richmond Raceway at 12 p.m. ET today in this NASCAR Classic Full Race Replay. (If you are a Dale Jr. fan, try not to throw anything through your computer screen.)
As the sports world remains on pause, nurses and doctors across the nation are working tirelessly amid the COVID-19 outbreak. That includes Michael Palmer, an ER nurse in Michigan who was recognized Wednesday by NBCSN.
Little did Palmer know, his recognition came with a surprise. Before he could sign off, another face joined the broadcast: his favorite NASCAR driver, Jimmie Johnson.
RELATED: How the industry is lending a hand
“Thank you, Michael,” Johnson said. “You are such an inspiration to all of us. I just can’t imagine what you and your family are dealing with. I’m glad through my journey as a race-car driver and my values I’ve been able to inspire yourself, you’ve had something to connect with. But now it’s flipped. And you’re inspiring all of us.”
Palmer was certainly surprised and went on to share his personal at-track experiences with Johnson. Palmer’s son is also a fan, and Johnson has always made time for the father-son duo whenever he saw them.
Later, when Johnson shared the video on Twitter from his own account, he also mentioned giving Palmer the “full race experience” when the sport returns to racing.
“Wow, I’m just blown away by this,” Palmer said on air before Johnson’s tweet. “This just means so much. I have to work tonight — a midnight shift — so when I go into work, I’m sure I’ll be showing everybody this. This is just a dream come true.”
Michael Palmer is an ER nurse in Michigan who has been working nonstop in the battle against coronavirus.
He's also a massive @jimmiejohnson fan, and today on #LunchTalkNBCSN, Jimmie surprised him on the air to thank him and show gratitude for his hard work and bravery. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/3ug1rhgWkc
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) April 15, 2020
The next installment of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is set for Sunday, and the virtual venue holds true to the original 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
The select field of current and former Cup Series regulars will compete at virtual Richmond Raceway in a 30-car field, returning to competition after a break for the Easter holiday. The Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota at the .75-mile track will be the fourth iRacing event in the series, created to fill the void of a real-world motorsports stoppage because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
RELATED: Qualifying race added prior to Sunday’s main event
FOX Sports will return as the broadcasting partner for the Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota (1 p.m. ET, FOX, FS1, FOX Sports App). Veteran Mike Joy remains on the call with analysts Jeff Gordon and Larry McReynolds, joined by in-race contributor Clint Bowyer. The fixed-setup race is scheduled for 150 laps with competitors not allowed any car resets for repairs.
The 30-car field is a change for the league and represents fewer entries than previous races. Here’s how the number was determined: 26 NASCAR Cup Series drivers were manually selected for this short-track event. Then, on Thursday, a qualifying race was announced with 13 entries.
The top two finishers in that qualifying race Sunday will advance to the feature later in the afternoon, and FOX will additionally pick two more drivers as provisional entries into the main event.
RELATED: More on qualifying race
Additionally, Saturday Night Thunder will return on Saturday — and continue moving forward — after its first race at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago. The Thunder event complements the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, and NASCAR Cup Series drivers not competing in Sunday’s show are eligible for this race, a change from the Bristol weekend.
At Richmond, the Saturday Night Thunder field will use NASCAR Xfinity Series cars and the race will air on NASCAR’s YouTube channel and eNASCAR.com/live.
There’s a Saturday Night Thunder practice at 7 p.m. ET, and the stream will go live at 8 p.m. ET. Single-car qualifying begins at 8:05 p.m. ET, which sets the lineup for the four 10-lap heat races — with 15 cars possible for each heat.
Six cars advance from each heat race advance to the big show, putting in 24 cars. The final two spots in the 26-car field will come from the top two finishers of a 15-lap consolation race, which is scheduled for after the heat races and comprised of drivers who have not yet qualified.
The 125-lap feature race will follow, with one reset allowed and three green-white-checkered attempts. The projected entry list is below.
After a scheduled tripleheader at Atlanta Motor Speedway was postponed March 13, officials with NASCAR, FOX Sports and iRacing joined forces with drivers and teams to quickly create a stand-in series of esports events. Denny Hamlin won the series’ first race March 22 at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, and wins came on subsequent Sundays by Timmy Hill (Texas Motor Speedway) and William Byron (Bristol). The series was idle Easter weekend.
RELATED: Merch for iRacing Pro Invitational Series
Below is the entry list, subject to change.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bobby Labonte and Landon Cassill raced their way in Sunday morning as the two last-chance qualifiers. Daniel Suarez and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were selected as the two FOX provisional drivers after finishing third and fourth in the qualifying race, respectively.
TOYOTA OWNERS 150 PRESENTED BY TOYOTA ENTRY LIST
* Subject to change
| No. | Driver | Affiliation |
| 1 | Kurt Busch | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski | Team Penske |
| 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing |
| 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing |
| 6 | Ross Chastain | Roush Fenway Racing |
| 8 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Invitational |
| 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing |
| 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske |
| 13 | Ty Dillon | Germain Racing |
| 14 | Clint Bowyer | Stewart-Haas Racing |
| 17 | Chris Buescher | Roush Fenway Racing |
| 18 | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing |
| 19 | Bobby Labonte | Invitational |
| 20 | Erik Jones | Joe Gibbs Racing |
| 21 | Matt DiBenedetto | Wood Brothers Racing |
| 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske |
| 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports |
| 024 | Jeff Gordon | Invitational |
| 31 | Tyler Reddick | Richard Childress Racing |
| 37 | Ryan Preece | JTG Daugherty Racing |
| 38 | John Hunter Nemechek | Front Row Motorsports |
| 43 | Bubba Wallace | Richard Petty Motorsports |
| 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports |
| 51 | Garrett Smithley | Invitational |
| 66 | Timmy Hill | Invitational |
| 77 | Parker Kligerman | Invitational |
| 88 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports |
| 89 | Landon Cassill | Invitational |
| 95 | Christopher Bell | Leavine Family Racing |
| 96 | Daniel Suarez | Gaunt Brothers Racing |
SATURDAY NIGHT THUNDER ENTRY LIST
* Subject to change
| NAME | CAR # |
| Alex Labbe | 90 |
| Angela Ruch | 00 |
| Anthony Alfredo | 33 |
| Austin Cindric | 22 |
| Bayley Currey | 5 |
| Blake Koch | 57 |
| Brennan Poole | 15 |
| Chad Finchum | 13 |
| Chase Briscoe | 98 |
| Chase Cabre | 4 |
| Christian Eckes | 81 |
| Cole Custer | 41 |
| Derek Kraus | 19 |
| Drew Dollar | 015 |
| Elliott Sadler | 99 |
| Harrison Burton | 20 |
| Jeb Burton | 8 |
| Jesse Iwuji | 36 |
| JJ Yeley | 85 |
| Joey Gase | 53 |
| Josh Berry | 88 |
| Josh Bilicki | 099 |
| Justin Allgaier | 7 |
| Justin Haley | 10 |
| Kyle Weatherman | 54 |
| Landon Cassill | 89 |
| Landon Huffman | 75 |
| Logan Seavey | 67 |
| Matt Mills | 5 |
| Michael Annett | 1 |
| Michael McDowell | 34 |
| Myatt Snider | 93 |
| Noah Gragson | 9 |
| Ruben Garcia | 27 |
| Ryan Ellis | 78 |
| Ryan Truex | 40 |
| Scott Stenzel | 63 |
| Spencer Boyd | 2 |
| Stephen Leicht | 25 |
| Stewart Friesen | 52 |
| Todd Gilliland | 35 |
| Ty Majeski | 45 |
| Will Rodgers | 55 |