Posted on by Staff Report

JR Motorsports Late Model driver Josh Berry put his impressive eNASCAR skills in the spotlight Saturday night, winning the second Saturday Night Thunder iRacing event at virtual Richmond Raceway after a series of flawless late-race restarts.

Having led for much of the race previously, real-world short-track ace Berry retook the lead for good on Lap 113 of the 125-lap showdown after a series of pit stops that saw the driver of the No. 88 shuffled from the lead due to some tire-two strategies from his competitors.

“I was able to get out front and kind of run my line,” said Berry, who led 106 laps on the evening. “Richmond’s always been a really good track to me. I’m really glad to be a part of this tonight.”

It was Landon Cassill in the lead following a late caution with 40 laps to go after taking two tires, with Logan Seavey — the inaugural event winner at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago — lined up next to him in second after also taking two tires. Three laps later, though, Berry — who had led both Cassill and Ty Majeski before that caution — caught and passed Cassill to retake the lead.

RELATED: Complete eNASCAR coverage

A caution shortly thereafter saw Chase Briscoe and Anthony Alfredo stay out, with Cassill and Berry restarting third and fourth, respectively, after two-tire stops. One more caution fell, setting up a final restart that saw Berry — who had climbed from fourth to second — pass Alfredo and pull away for the victory.

Majeski finished second behind Berry, with Chase Cabre, Ty Gibbs and Cassill completing the top five.

The race Saturday at Richmond was the second event under the Saturday Night Thunder banner, an event that complements the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series featuring NASCAR Cup Series stars on Sunday. It was an appetizer of sorts for Sunday’s main event, the Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota (1 p.m. ET, FOX, FS1, FOX Sports App). There are no transfers from Saturday Night Thunder to the 150-lap feature.

RELATED: Entry list for Sunday’s race

More than 40 drivers entered Saturday’s race, with 26 racing in the main event Saturday night. Drivers qualified for the A-Main through three 10-lap heats, with the top six drivers in each heat — 18 total drivers — advancing to the main event.

Following the three heats, two 15-lap last chance qualifier (LCQ) races were held with all the drivers who hadn’t already advanced. The top four finishers of each LCQ completed the field for the main race.

Below are the complete results and how drivers advanced to the A-Main.

Fin Str Car Driver Mfr Led Status
1 3 88 Josh Berry Chevrolet 106 Running
2 2 45 Ty Majeski Chevrolet 0 Running
3 6 4 Chase Cabre Toyota 0 Running
4 12 18 Ty Gibbs Toyota 0 Running
5 1 89 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 9 Running
6 16 55 Will Rodgers Ford 0 Running
7 4 33 Anthony Alfredo Chevrolet 10 Running
8 10 29 Kaz Grala Chevrolet 0 Running
9 13 67 Logan Seavey Ford 0 Running
10 9 74 Bayley Currey Chevrolet 0 Running
11 8 75 Landon Huffman Chevrolet 0 Running
12 15 19 Derek Kraus Toyota 0 Running
13 22 57 Blake Koch Chevrolet 0 Running
14 20 27 Ruben Garcia Toyota 0 Running
15 18 99 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 0 Running
16 26 63 Scott Stenzel Chevrolet 0 Running
17 14 8 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 0 Running
18 11 41 Cole Custer Ford 0 Running
19 25 34 Michael McDowell Ford 0 Running
20 24 22 Austin Cindric Ford 0 Running
21 23 15 Brennan Poole Chevrolet 0 Running
22 7 98 Chase Briscoe Ford 0 Running
23 17 5 Matthew R Mills Chevrolet 0 Running
24 5 90 Alex Labbe Chevrolet 0 Running
25 19 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 0 Running
26 21 40 Ryan Truex Chevrolet 0 Running

ADVANCING FROM HEAT 1
1. Landon Cassill
2. Anthony Alfredo
3. Chase Briscoe
4. Kaz Grala
5. Logan Seavey
6. Will Rodgers

ADVANCING FROM HEAT 2
1. Ty Majeski
2. Alex Labbe
3. Landon Huffman
4. Cole Custer
5. Jeb Burton
6. Matthew Mills

ADVANCING FROM HEAT 3
1. Josh Berry
2. Chase Cabre
3. Bayley Currey
4. Ty Gibbs
5. Derek Kraus
6. Josh Bilicki

ADVANCING FROM LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER 1
1. Justin Allgaier
2. Ryan Truex
3. Brennan Poole
4. Michael McDowell

ADVANCING FROM LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER 2
1. Ruben Garcia Jr.
2. Blake Koch
3. Austin Cindric
4. Scott Stenzel

Posted on by FOX Release

Rascal Flatts, Coach Joe Gibbs and Kelsey Grammer serve as pre-race dignitaries for Sunday’s FOX NASCAR iRacing event from virtual Richmond Raceway via video from their respective homes.

Chart-topping trio Rascal Flatts, one of the most influential groups in modern country music, performs the national anthem Sunday, April 19, prior to the start of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race (1 p.m. ET on FOX*, FS1 and the FOX Sports app). Vocalist Gary LeVox, multi-instrumentalist Jay DeMarcus and guitarist Joe Don Rooney, members of the Grand Ole Opry and the most-awarded country group of the past decade, are celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Grammer, an actor/comedian and director renowned for his roles on Cheers and Frasier, gives the command to start engines. Gibbs, NASCAR and Pro Football Hall of Famer and owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, offers the invocation from his home prior to the start of the race.

RELATED: Full race preview

*check local listings

Posted on by Staff Report

Singer Cody Cannon of the country rock group Whiskey Myers will perform a virtual pre-race concert Sunday before the fourth eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race, the Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota. Cannon will join NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott and NASCAR.com digital host Alex Weaver for the online event.

RELATED: Entry list for race | See the virtual paint schemes

Whiskey Myers has released five studio albums since its debut in 2008, the most recent effort a self-titled record released in September 2019 and one which debuted No. 1 on Billboard Country and Billboard Active Rock charts, and No. 6 on the Billboard Top 200. Cannon will perform two songs — “Trailer We Call Home” and “Bury My Bones” — and chat about the upcoming race at the virtual Richmond Raceway. The race, which is set to air at 1 p.m. ET on FOX/FS1 (subject to change) and the FOX Sports App, will feature some of NASCAR’s biggest names in short-track action.

Cannon joins the list of virtual pre-race acts since the Pro Invitational Series was conceived and developed in advance of the Dixie Vodka 150 at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 22. Tim Dugger played a virtual pre-race show for that event, with Cole Swindell taking the reins last week and Justin Moore following suit for Bristol.

Fans can catch the virtual pre-race concert Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET on NASCAR’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Posted on by NASCAR Statement

“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.”

Posted on by Staff Report

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.

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.

Posted on by Staff Report

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.

Chase Dixon

“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.”

Chase Dixon

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.”

Posted on by Staff Report

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.

Posted on by Jonathan Merryman

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.


Posted on by Staff Report

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.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

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