Posted on by Holly Cain

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Austin Hill bookended his 2019 season with a victory in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, finishing a comfortable 1.569-seconds ahead of veteran Matt Crafton, whose runner-up effort was enough to earn him his third NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship.

Hill won all three stages in the race and led a race-high 56 laps to give the No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota its second consecutive Miami win. Last year, Brett Moffitt drove the truck to a race and series championship trophy.

Christian Eckes finished third to earn Kyle Busch Motorsports its record seventh series owner championship, the organization’s sixth in the last seven years.

RELATED: Crafton wins third championship | Unofficial race results

From the drop of the rain-delayed green flag, the four championship eligible drivers – Crafton, fourth-place Ross Chastain, fifth-place Moffitt and 11th-place Stewart Friesen – had to deal with a highly-motivated Hill for the race win. Officially eliminated from playoff contention last week at Phoenix’s ISM Raceway, Hill came into the event highly-motivated nonetheless.

He drove around title-contender Chastain to win the first stage and held off Crafton for wins in both the second stage and ultimately the race trophy.

The 25-year-old Georgia native finished the season as he started – in Victory Lane – matching his work in the season-opening Daytona International Speedway race, his first career win. He won again at Michigan  International Speedway in the summer and then again at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and was truly a formidable contender through the playoffs. Unable to overcome a points deficit after a crash at Martinsville Speedway in the final playoff round then kept him from the Championship 4. 

“I’m excited for the win, but at the same time it stings a little bit just because I know that if we would have been a little bit better in the round of six, we could be celebrating a win and a championship,” Hill said. “But like I say, I can’t thank everybody out there enough.

 

And Hill conceded with a smile, “It’s awesome to get my fourth win of the season and end on a high note.”

This year’s champion, Crafton, matches a three-title mark equaled only by Jack Sprague (2001, 1999 and 1997) and exceeded by only NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr., who has four titles (2009, 2007, 1998 and 1996). Crafton is the only driver to ever win back-to-back titles in the Gander Trucks Series (2013-14).

“It feels amazing and we’re one step closer to what Hornaday’s done,” Crafton said after climbing out of his car, noting many underestimated his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford team. “And they called us the underdog.”

Moffitt, who led the series with four wins, 13 top fives along with 17 top 10s and three pole positions, was clearly disappointed with his fifth-place finish.

“We were just pretty bad from the get-go this morning, just missing speed,” said Moffitt, who drives the No. 24 GMS Racing Chevrolet.  “It is what it is, we had a good year and we’ll re-group and go after it again next year.

“It’s a disappointment but we’ll move on and get better.”

Chastain, who was a strong favorite to earn his first title, was equally as disappointed after the race. He led 36 laps on the night and, for much of the early race, looked ready to challenge Hill for the win to land his first NASCAR title.

Chastain won three races and earned a series-best 19 top-10 finishes. A competitor in all three NASCAR national series, Chastain only declared himself championship eligible in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series in June.

“I want to throw up right now to be honest with you, but it has been an absolute dream,” said Chastain, who will drive for Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next year.

“It’s pretty crazy that we did that [made the playoffs], and made it to Homestead. We did everything we could and that says a lot.”

Tyler Ankrum, the driver of the No. 17 DGR Crosley Toyota, finished 22nd but officially earned the series’ Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors for his season’s work. He wasn’t allowed to compete on the big tracks until he turned 18 in March and missed the opening three races of the season calendar.

“We had a really great season I thought,” said the 18-year old Ankrum, who won his career first series race at Kentucky Speedway this summer and qualified for the playoffs as a rookie.

“When we had highs they were really, really high.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The young guns will have to wait.

Matt Crafton, a 43-year-old veteran of 19 full seasons in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, took home his third championship with a second-place finish in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Crafton claimed the title without winning a race this season, but that was all but irrelevant as Crafton moved within one championship of series-leader and Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr.

“I guess I finally got out of the wheelchair and got up one the wheel and got it done,” said Crafton, who crossed the finish line 1.569 seconds behind race-winner Austin Hill but a comfortable 9.201 seconds ahead of Ross Chastain, who finished fourth in the race and second among the Championship 4 drivers.

“One step closer to what Hornaday’s done, and they called us the underdog.”

RELATED: Trio comes up short in title bid | Full race results

Crafton exhibited a mixture of elation and defiance as he celebrated in Victory Lane. Almost an afterthought among pundits entering the race, Crafton schooled his younger Championship 4 competitors with a No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford that improved throughout the race.

Others discounting his chances clearly was a motivating factor for Crafton.

“There was nothing sweeter, to be honest,” Crafton said. “It was that little jab in the side — and I don’t know if I needed that, but it just ticked me off. And I just said, ‘I’m going to prove you really, really wrong tonight.’

“I knew I was going to do whatever I had to do for every one of these guys, for (team owners) Duke and Rhonda (Thorson) and everyone who worked hard, but I said it was that little bit extra poke.”

Though fired up by the slight, Crafton had to exercise the patience of a veteran when Hill passed him for the lead on Lap 112 of 134.

“Once they told me the 24 (championship contender Brett Moffitt) was nine seconds back, and we were gapping him by three-tenths (of a second) a lap, I was like, ‘I need to look at the big picture here and not take a chance of losing this championship. Let’s just ride right here — race as hard as I could without doing anything dumb to put the thing in the fence.”

RELATED: Every Gander Trucks champion | Sweet celebrations in Victory Lane

Winning the title without winning a race didn’t bother Crafton in the least.

“I’ll sleep very, very well all winter — with the trophy,” he said.

Crew chief Junior Joiner — who has been with Crafton for all three of his championships, the first two coming back-to-back in 2013 and 2014 — echoed that sentiment.

“We didn’t win the race, but gosh, darn it, we won the war,” Joiner said.

The youth movement did have its moments. In his eighth Truck Series start of the season, 19-year-old ARCA champion Christian Eckes secured the seventh owner’s championship for Kyle Busch Motorsports with a third-place finish, a day after Eckes was announced as one of KBM’s full-time drivers for next year.

Eckes couldn’t have claimed the owner’s title, however, if it weren’t for the efforts of a veteran driver.

Crafton made his first start in the Truck Series in 2000, running only his debut race at Auto Club Speedway that year. Greg Biffle won the Truck Series title that season, and it was Biffle whom KBM team owner Kyle Busch coaxed out of retirement to run one race in the No. 51 Toyota at Texas Motor Speedway.

Biffle won in his only start, and it was that victory that qualified the No. 51 for the owner playoffs.

“I just thought an old retired guy might be able to get it done — and he did,” Busch said.

Coincidentally, Crafton is the first Ford driver since Biffle in 2000 to win a Truck Series championship.

Posted on by Staff Report

Front Row Joe? Now it’s First Place Joe.

Veteran Joe Nemechek set the all-time record for combined starts in the top three NASCAR national sets when he took the green flag in Friday night’s championship NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The Ford EcoBoost 200 is career start number 1,186 for the 56-year-old driver, surpassing the marked previously held by Richard Petty. “The King” made 1,185 career starts, all at NASCAR’s highest level, over a 35-year career. Nemechek fittingly set the record driving his own truck, the No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet.

Nemechek’s breakdown as of Friday night: 673 Cup Series starts, 444 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts and 69 Gander Trucks starts. He has 20 wins in NASCAR’s national series, including four Cup Series victories from 1999-2004.

Nemechek made another bit of history last weekend when he and son John Hunter Nemechek became the first father-son duo to both compete in all three races of NASCAR tripleheader weekend.

Kevin Harvick is third on the all-time starts list with 1,150 combined starts heading into the weekend, meaning he should pass Petty next year. Mark Martin (1,143) and Michael Waltrip (1,072) make up the top five.

Kyle Busch (1,035), Morgan Shepherd (1,027), Terry Labonte (1,017) and Jeff Burton (1,005) are the only other drivers in history to top 1,000 total starts.

Posted on by Staff Report

UPDATE: New green flag time is 9:40 p.m. ET.

Rain delayed the start of Friday’s championship race in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race was originally scheduled to get underway at 8:10 p.m. ET, but rain in the area of the 1.5-mile track caused the start to be delayed.

When the Ford EcoBoost 200 gets underway, defending champion Brett Moffitt will battle Ross Chastain, Matt Crafton and Stewart Friesen in the Championship 4. Coverage is on FS1, the FOX Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

RELATED: Live weather updates | Updated Miami schedule

Rain moved into the South Florida area during the late afternoon Friday and cut short opening NASCAR Xfinity Series practice. On-and-off periods of rain continued leading to the cancellation of both Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practices and Gander Trucks qualifying.

That forced the Gander Trucks lineup to be set by the NASCAR rule book, meaning Friesen will be on the pole and on the front row along with Christian Eckes. Meanwhile, Chastain will start third with fellow championship competitors Moffitt in fourth and Crafton in the ninth position.

MORE: Full Truck lineup

Posted on by Staff Report

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The connection and fondness was immediately evident as Tony Stewart and Joe Gibbs took their seats Friday morning to talk about their respective teams’ chances in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship race, the Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Gibbs was dressed in a suit and Stewart was dressed more casually in a team button-up shirt and baseball cap — the juxtaposition causing them both to laugh.

RELATED: Meet the ‘Big 3’ and ‘New 1’

“Well this is how you dress when you have one car in the championship and that’s how you dress when you have three,” Stewart joked immediately.

The truth is, although the two are competing against one another for the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title, the former teammates concede they are much more alike than dissimilar. And this is a big weekend for both.

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin will compete against Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick for the series championship Sunday afternoon. And although the competition will undoubtedly be intense for NASCAR’s biggest prize, the two 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees leading the organizations bring a similar mindset into the big race.

Stewart, a three-time Cup champion driver, has won two titles as an owner — his third series trophy in 2011 and Harvick’s in 2014. Gibbs is a four-time Cup champion owner — earning two titles with Stewart (2002 and 2005) and one each with Bobby Labonte (2000) and Kyle Busch (2015).

Stewart competed in 22 NASCAR Xfinity Series races for Gibbs in 1998 before moving to the JGR team full-time from his 1999 rookie season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series through the 2008 season. He joined forces with Gene Haas to form Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009.

“Every driver is different, and Joe (Gibbs) can tell you better than anybody, because he’s dealt with more, quote-unquote, professional athletes than anybody, and how you get people to respond is different from person to person,” Stewart said of his ownership style. “Sometimes you’ve got to be a little stern with them. But there’s that one button in each of us that gets us to respond.”

“I think that’s kind of what makes good leaders and good owners and good crew chiefs and good competition directors. You have to know your people. You have got know what that button is. You need to know what you have to do to get the best out of them.”

Stewart looked over at Gibbs and smiled, “I learned a lot from this guy in the years I was there,” Stewart said. “And I’ve said it a million times, if I didn’t work for him, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now. I wouldn’t be doing the things I’m doing now.

“I also wouldn’t be in debt like I am now, and I blame all of it on Joe.”

MORE: Behind-the-scenes photos from Miami

Posted on by Staff Report

See the order for Saturday’s single-car qualifying for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Click here for the complete order or click the printer icon above.

Note: With both practices washed out on Friday, NASCAR has canceled qualifying on Saturday and instead will run a 50-minute practice session.

Posted on by Staff Report

Persistent rain showers and brief bouts of lightning in the area jumbled Friday’s on-track schedule at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Saturday was impacted, too.

Both Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practices, NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series qualifying and NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice were canceled due to weather on the opening day of championship weekend. NASCAR later announced that Saturday’s Monster Energy Series qualifying was canceled in favor of adding one of the missed practices back to the schedule.

The starting lineup for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 will be set by the rule book, meaning owner points — Denny Hamlin will start from the pole position, with Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch lined up behind him in spots 2-4. All drivers are part of the Championship 4 field. All points for the four title hopefuls were reset to 5,000 for this race, with the tiebreaker being best finish of the Round of 8 — and then second-best finish as necessary.

That practice is scheduled from 2:05-2:55 p.m. ET, sandwiched between NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying and the Ford EcoBoost 300 title race in that series.

MORE: Cup lineup | Weekend schedule

Earlier Friday, the first Monster Energy Series practice session of championship weekend was slated to begin at 3:35 p.m. ET, but wet weather forced other plans. Moments before the planned start time, NASCAR officials warned there had been a lightning strike in the area. That sparked the first cancellation. Rain later stopped, and the track began its drying process — only for it to start back up again. The second and final Monster Energy Series practice was slated for 6:30 p.m. ET and was ultimately called around 7:15 p.m. ET.

Increased rain made practices, Gander Trucks qualifying (slated for 4:35 p.m. ET) and Xfinity Series final practice (slated for 5:35 p.m. ET) all washouts. Rain had started earlier in the afternoon, starting less than 15 minutes after opening NASCAR Xfinity Series practice began at 2:35 p.m. ET.

The Gander Trucks championship race is slated for 8 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and the lineup was determined by owner points. Championship 4 driver Stewart Friesen will start from the pole position, with Ross Chastain lining up third, Brett Moffitt fourth and Matt Crafton ninth.

Posted on by Staff Report

There was plenty of impact — and in a short period — in the opening NASCAR Xfinity Series practice Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Championship 4 driver Justin Allgaier sustained damage on his No. 7 Chevrolet when David Starr drifted his No. 52 into its side just five minutes into the session. A clearly frustrated Allgaier wheeled his car back to the garage so his team could survey — and then fix — the damage.

“Are you kidding me right now?,” Allgaier said over the radio driving back to the garage.

RELATED: Full practice results

“Just disappointing,” Allgaier told NBCSN’s Parker Kligerman. “I’m pretty laid back this weekend and I feel like I focused a lot on going out there and doing our own thing and being patient. It felt like we were doing that. … (Starr) ran right into the side of us. It’s disappointing to tear up our car.”

Starr apologized over the radio and said he didn’t know Allgaier was to his outside — possibly due to a team radio issue.

The practice session was then yellow-flagged less than 15 minutes into the session for rain, and it never got restarted.

“At least it’s raining, I guess,” said Allgaier, noting others were unable to put down laps while his car was in the garage.

Fellow Championship 4 driver Tyler Reddick was leading the practice session when the drizzle started and ended with the fastest speed. Christopher Bell was second, Allgaier was fourth and Cole Custer was fifth.

MORE: Custer headed to Cup Series

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Denny Hamlin has experienced a substantial amount of growth both personally and professionally this season, but two key influencers have given him the tools to reach that higher level.

It’s no coincidence the addition of crew chief Chris Gabehart has played a massive role in what has led to a Championship 4 berth and one of Hamlin’s best shots at a title in his 14-year career.

After Hamlin’s clutch win in last Sunday’s race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Hamlin felt he misspoke when he documented he and Gabehart aren’t great friends away from the race track, citing Gabehart has assisted in the balance of maturing from a personal and professional standpoint.

“We do talk about other things other than racing,” Hamlin said. “We call each other in the middle of the week. Sometimes it’s just kick it. Probably not a fair statement to say we’re just professional partners in this and that’s it. I think he brings out the best in me. That is absolutely for sure.”

RELATED: Why Hamlin will win the 2019 championship

Gabehart, a 38-year-old Purdue University graduate that made his way from his driving days in late-model racing to a mechanical engineer for Kyle Busch Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, steered the No. 11 ship from a winless 2018 season to a six-win championship-contending path. Not only has Gabehart served as the mastermind behind the team’s stellar season, but he’s also been quite possibly Hamlin’s biggest cheerleader.

“I always think about every time I suit up or I get in the race car, I buckle in, he comes to the window and talks to me,” Hamlin said. “I feel like this has just been something he’s rehearsed, just the speech to pump me up. It’s so funny, he’ll leave, and the guy that puts my window nets up, wonder how long he spent practicing that?

“He never is short of motivation,” he added. “I think that’s really one of his strong suits. You hear it on the radio, too, right? Kind of never lets me get out too far one way. He guides you back in the lane.”

To say Gabehart’s leadership has provided vital direction that Hamlin needed would be a disservice to the close relationship Hamlin held with former crew chief Mike Wheeler prior to this year, but you also can’t ignore the magnitude of Gabehart’s ability to bring out the best in those around him.

Even team owner Joe Gibbs agrees.

“If you go through a whole year like he (Hamlin) did last year and not win a race and the rumors start, is this guy over the hill?” Gibbs said Friday morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I think Denny was fighting through that saying that’s not the case.

“I think Chris really helped because Chris has a different outlook on things and then I think Denny getting off to the start that he did winning that Daytona 500. I think that we all know that people mature and grow up, different things happen in their life. Denny’s in a part in his life where he says I get a second chance really in a lot of ways and he’s making the most of it. I think Gabehart has really helped him with that.”

Gibbs has also been a source of strength for Hamlin this year, especially after the tragic loss of Gibbs’ son, J.D. The younger Gibbs discovered Hamlin, taking him from the short-track scene in Virginia to NASCAR stardom fairly rapidly.

Through the heartbreak, Hamlin was able to shake the pain and win the Daytona 500, kickstarting a season that has led to another championship opportunity in Sunday’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But it wasn’t all paradise from there as Hamlin noted the summer months were a rough patch for him, but it was Gibbs who stepped in beyond his role as an owner.

“When you see somebody going through something like that with Denny or any of our guys that you’ve been with for a while, yeah, you share with them, talk to them,” Gibbs said. “You’re friends really, and sometimes you can help, particularly if you’ve been through a lot of things in life and you’re a little older, sometimes you can help.”

It’s obvious the 38-year-old veteran has a chip on his shoulder bigger than the size of hometown Chesterfield, Virginia, but he’s relaxed in his approach to what he feels like he has to prove.

Whether or not Hamlin is destined to hoist his first championship trophy Sunday night in South Florida, Hamlin can view the 2019 season as a success both on and off the track, having Gabehart and Gibbs in part to thank.

“This year I’m excited because I know I’ve got the opportunity, a really, really good, legit opportunity to go out there and get it done,” Hamlin said. “I’m just going to do the same things, prepare the same way that I have all year. I know that will give me a chance. At some point in the race, I’m going to have an opportunity to take control and win the race. As long as I continue to do that, I’ll live with the result, win or lose.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Cole Custer and Daniel Suarez had answered the questions patiently for weeks, fielding a repetitive loop of inquiries into their 2020 plans. Custer seemed primed for the next rung of the NASCAR ladder, and Suarez’s one-year deal was set to expire with no safety net visible. Much like the championship battle that takes place this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the drama surrounding the future of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Ford had reached a crescendo.

This week, they found those answers in just a few days’ span, with the initial media reports, Suarez’s Thursday night social-media confessional and ultimately an SHR announcement Friday morning. Custer will join the Cup Series ranks next season, redirecting his focus after his title bid in Saturday’s Xfinity Series finale. Suarez faces a late-season ouster for the second straight year, expressing surprise at the developments as he hurtles toward another offseason of uncertainty.

RELATED: Key players in Silly Season 

Team co-owner Tony Stewart tried to piece through some of the deal’s inner workings Friday morning at the 1.5-mile track, saying the No. 41 team was primarily the domain of co-owner Gene Haas. But the three-time Cup champ also said most everyone at the organization was comfortable with the decision to give the 21-year-old driver a shot at his rookie series at NASCAR’s top level.

“When you’ve got a feeder series and you’ve got your own program to work young drivers up through there, sometimes you get in scenarios like this where you’ve got more drivers than you have cars,” Stewart said. “So it’s a tough spot to be in for us as management, but we’re going to try to work with Daniel and see if we can find a solution to keep him in our system and hopefully get him back in a car one day. Cole has definitely earned his spot, for sure. Everybody’s worked hard. I mean, we wish we could have five cars, but we can’t, so it puts us in this odd position to make a change like that.

“So it’s bittersweet. We love Daniel, we love what he does, but we also believe in Cole and believe that this is the right time and his opportunity, and he’s really made big gains this year.”

How Custer went from potential prospect to a “definitely earned” Cup Series driver is a story unto itself. The California native had soldiered through single-win seasons in 2017 and 2018, but he received an offseason mandate from Stewart to ramp up his performance. He responded with a seven-win, six-pole campaign and a repeat trip to the championship round. 

Thursday, Custer hemmed and hawed through his Media Day obligations after the news originally leaked from Motorsport.com. Just 21 hours later, he could speak freely about the next step of his career.

“It’s obviously a dream come true,” Custer said, tempering his anticipation with his focus on Saturday’s finale. “I’ve been around the garage a long time and I think when I was a kid, I never thought I’d be good enough to be a Cup driver, so it’s pretty unreal to have that happen.”

For Suarez, the pendulum swung to the other side of the unreal. Though he greeted the assembled media with an especially cheery “¡Hola!” as he emerged from the No. 41 hauler for one of the final times, his shell shock over a seemingly close deal evaporating in the 11th hour was palpable. 

“It has been less than 36 hours since I found out,” Suarez said, hinting at the pocket of unpredictability around the development. “Like I said, I have been talking with most of you for the last few weeks and I am pretty sure that most of you saw me very confident because I knew where we were. I was 95% sure that we were in. I thought we were in good shape. I was extremely surprised. A lot of people at Stewart-Haas Racing worked very hard to put everything together. It was disappointing to see that.”

Suarez claimed the 2016 Xfinity Series championship, then jumped to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Cup Series operation for two seasons before being replaced by Martin Truex Jr. Suarez succeeded Kurt Busch in the No. 41 Ford for the 2019 season, claiming just four top-five finishes in the 35 races to date and missing the playoff field.

Suarez indicated he has had conversations with team owner Richard Childress, but none recently. Regarding Stewart’s intent to find a path to keep Suarez in the SHR fold, Suarez said those talks continue but the jolt of this week’s news was still fresh.

“I had a conversation with him earlier today,” Suarez said. “He is trying to help me stay in the family. I don’t know what I am going to do yet. There are a lot of things going through my head right now and I don’t know. I don’t even know if I want to be here. That is the way it is. I have to get back on my feet and find the best option for myself.”

Over the past month, SHR inked deals to keep Aric Almirola (No. 10) and Clint Bowyer (No. 14) in the fold for the 2020 season. Kevin Harvick, the 2014 champion and a driver in the Championship 4, will pilot the No. 4 Ford.