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The first three races of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) playoffs are in the books, with Erik Jones, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and Aric Almirola failing to advance to the Round of 12.
The postseason continues Sunday at Dover, where Martin Truex Jr. earned a victory back in May.
To make this week’s NASCAR Props Challenge picks, I’ll rely on betting odds to project expected driver performance, as well as race trends from the season’s previous race at Dover, which is the only event at the track using the current MENCS aero package.
1. Will a Hendrick Motorsports driver finish in the top four: Yes or No?
While Alex Bowman, William Byron and Jimmie Johnson can work their ways into the top four, Chase Elliott is the Hendrick driver with the best chance.
But “expecting” one of these drivers to crack the top four over Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., etc. is too rich for my blood.
Pick: No
2. O/U 7.5 playoff drivers finish in the top 10?
Eight current playoff drivers scored top 10s back in May. In addition, Erik Jones is the only non-playoff driver with better than 30-1 odds to win Sunday’s race, so I’m taking the over.
Pick: Over
3. Which playoff driver will finish higher: Denny Hamlin or Joey Logano?
At the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, Hamlin’s 12-1 odds are slightly better than Logano’s 14-1.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (October 2, 2019) – NASCAR and ARCA announced today a new championship format for 2020 that will see the continuation of three historic regional championship series and the coronation of a new fourth champion, all under the ARCA Menards Series banner.
The series provide an integral development step for young drivers who aspire to move up to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series or NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series; as well as a highly-competitive professional level for short-track veterans.
They will also provide continuity to three of the longest running high-level regional stock car series in the United States.
The four championships will be:
• ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West will continue the traditions established by the Busch North Series (founded in 1987) and Pacific Coast Late Model Series/Winston West (1954) and currently competing as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West. The series will feature an annual schedule of six to eight races and crowning of separate regional champions.
• ARCA Menards Series – The 20-race ARCA Menards Series, founded in 1953, a mix of national-series combination events at venues such as Daytona International Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, as well as short tracks like Madison International Speedway in Wisconsin and the Illinois and DuQuoin State Fairgrounds mile dirt tracks.
• ARCA Racing Series Showdown – Ten races within the larger ARCA Menards Series championship will feature the best of the three series coming together to crown a Showdown champion.
“We cannot be more excited about 2020,” said Brandon Thompson, Managing Director, NASCAR Touring Series. “Both NASCAR and ARCA have worked extremely hard over the last year to provide a rules package and schedule that will serve as the foundation for the preeminent series for racing at this level. It was important for us to move the series forward while creating an environment inclusive for both the current long-term owners and drivers in the series as well as aspiring competitors.”
“What first started as a friendship between Bill France Sr. and John Marcum nearly 70 years ago took a momentous step forward today,” said ARCA President Ron Drager. “The amount of history and tradition these series are bringing together to form four elite championships for drivers is an amazing testament to the strength of this sport.
“We are proud and honored to be able to bring the ARCA sanction to the East and West Series; and we are looking forward to working with the race teams, tracks, media partners, fans, and sponsors that have helped those series achieve their long term success.”
NASCAR also announced if an East, West or current ARCA Menards Series car owner has a car that meets the 2019 rulebook, there will be a rules package that will allow them to compete in 2020.
“We’re pleased that we’re able to extend our racing sponsorships to include the ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West,” said Menards President & CEO John Menard. “We hope that race fans throughout the country will further enjoy great racing action while also becoming familiar with the Menards brand by shopping at our home improvement stores located in the Midwest or at Menards.com”.
ARCA and MAVTV also announced today an extension of its telecast rights agreement for select ARCA Menards Series races. This important partnership, together with events covered by FOX Sports, ensures that all 20 ARCA Menards Series races will be available live to race fans, including the 10-race Showdown. NBCSN will continue to carry the ARCA Menards Series East and West as part of their extensive NASCAR coverage.
The 2020 ARCA Menards Series will officially begin on Saturday, Feb. 8 at Daytona with the Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire. It will mark the 57th annual ARCA visit to Daytona.
The Showdown will take the green flag with ARCA’s inaugural visit to ISM Raceway on March 6 as part of the national series’ event weekend in Phoenix, while the West will kick off the Las Vegas weekend with a return to the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
West dates also include traditional events at Irwindale Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., and will crown its champion at ISM Raceway in November. The East will race at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, as well as Toledo Speedway, Watkins Glen International, and again be part New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s annual Full Throttle Fall Weekend. The East season will culminate with the championship race at Dover International Speedway.
In addition to Daytona and Charlotte, the ARCA Menards Series schedule will include Talladega Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway and Pocono Raceway, and finish the season at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 16.
The Showdown 10-race schedule features Salem Speedway, Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Minnesota’s Elko Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and will crown its first Showdown champion at Memphis Motorsports Park on Sept. 26.
Complete schedules for all four championships will be announced shortly.
The slate of races across the country provide an opportunity for drivers to focus on their regional championships or expand their racing plans and chase bigger prizes.
From Jimmie Johnson to William Byron, the path to the top of NASCAR has long gone through ARCA and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series.
In 2020, that path will take on a new look.
With an announcement Wednesday, NASCAR and ARCA unveiled the new ARCA Menards Series, which will encompass the three long-running regional stock car series, while also providing a new combined championship series.
What has been known as the K&N Pro Series East and West will become the ARCA Menards Series East and West. The current 20-race ARCA Menards Series will remain in place. And a 10-race slate within the latter will serve as a crossover for all three series, and crown a fourth champion of the ARCA Showdown.
The news is the next step that began with an announcement in April 2018 that NASCAR had acquired ARCA. Over the ensuing months, hours of research, on-track testing and meetings with stakeholders were poured into the process to come up with a series that would serve as one strong pathway for drivers aspiring to reach the next level of the sport while at the same time becoming a place where veteran short-track racers could find a home.
While they competed as separate series throughout 2019, both sides worked together to create the common platform.
“Both NASCAR and ARCA have worked extremely hard over the last year to provide a rules package and schedule that will serve as the foundation for the pre-eminent series for racing at this level,” said Brandon Thompson, managing director, NASCAR touring series. “It was important for us to move the series forward while creating an environment inclusive for both the current long-term owners and drivers in the series as well as aspiring competitors.”
“What first started as a friendship between Bill France Sr. and John Marcum nearly 70 years ago took a momentous step forward today,” ARCA President Ron Drager said. “The amount of history and tradition these series are bringing together to form four elite championships for drivers is an amazing testament to the strength of this sport.”
NASCAR also announced if an East, West or current ARCA Menards Series car owner has a car that meets the 2019 Rule Book, there will be a rules package that will allow them to compete in 2020.
Count Hailie Deegan among the young up-and-coming stars in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series. | Photo: Meg Oliphant
DRIVING SUCCESS AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL
In recent years, both the NASCAR Pro Series and ARCA Menards Series have become instrumental in developing the next crop of NASCAR Cup Series superstars. Like Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick before them, the likes of 2018 Cup Series champion Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson raced – and won – at this level.
Of the 12 remaining drivers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, 10 of them have won races in either series – accumulating 43 victories and four championships. The top eight NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff drivers have won races in either the NASCAR K&N Pro Series or ARCA Menards Series, with Justin Allgaier and Chase Briscoe being former champions.
With series that feature historic names such as Frank Kimmel, Hershel McGriff and Andy Santerre, the ability to create an environment where drivers can compete at this level for an extended period of time was equally important in the process.
From NASCAR to the Indianapolis 500, John Menard has found success supporting motorsports in the United States, and the opportunity to serve as the entitlement sponsor for this new broader entity fit perfectly into his desire to support grassroots racing.
“We’ve been a long-time racing sponsor at various levels including NASCAR, IndyCar and ARCA and are pleased to take our partnership with ARCA to the next level,” Menard said. “We like doing business together and share many of the same values and standards that have helped us survive and thrive through the years.”
K&N Engineering, which took over as the East and West entitlement sponsor in 2010 and helped further elevate the two regional series as a cohesive national stage, will remain a key entity in the sport as the “Official Performance Filter of NASCAR.”
NEW ERA EXTENDS RICH HISTORY
The new series provides continuity to three of the longest running high-level regional stock car series in the United States.
• The ARCA Menards Series West began in 1954 as the Pacific Coast Late Model Series. In what became more widely recognized during the NASCAR Winston West era, it produced short-track legends such as McGriff, Ray Elder and Roy Smith. Harvick won the championship in 1998, and in recent years, powerhouse Bill McAnally Racing and southern California car owner Bob Bruncati’s Sunrise Ford Racing have clashed in championship battles under the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West banner.
• ARCA Menards Series East was founded in 1987 as the NASCAR Busch North Series, a companion to the Charlotte-based NASCAR Busch Series. Northeast stars like Andy Santerre, Mike Stefanik and Ricky Craven dominated the Expanding to the East Series in 2006, it became a proving ground for the sport’s next top stars, beginning with Logano’s championship run in 2007 as a highly touted 16-year-old. Drivers such as Larson, Byron and Tyler Ankrum won East titles to kick off their ascent up the NASCAR ladder.
• The ARCA Menards Series, founded in 1953, is a mix of national series combination events and Midwest short tracks. Frank Kimmel won a record 10 championships between 1998 and 2013, while current Cup Series drivers Ty Dillon and Chris Buescher and 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Regular Season Champion Grant Enfinger took home championships in recent years.
Jay Alley @alleygroup
While the complete 2020 race schedules for all four championships are still to be announced, Thompson and Drager confirmed a number of key events for the upcoming series.
• The 2020 ARCA Menards Series will officially begin Saturday, Feb. 8, at Daytona with the Lucas Oil 200 Driven By General Tire. It will mark the 57th annual ARCA visit to Daytona. The 10-race superspeedway portion of the schedule will include Talladega Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway and Pocono Raceway, and finish the season at Kansas Speedway in October.
• The ARCA Menards Series West will begin the season as part of the national series weekend at Las Vegas, with the return to the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The West slate will also include traditional events at Irwindale Speedway, All American Speedway in Roseville and Sonoma Raceway, with the championship culminating at ISM Raceway in November.
• The ARCA Menards Series East schedule includes events at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, as well as Toledo Speedway, Watkins Glen International and again be part of the annual Full Throttle Fall Weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It will have its championship decided with its traditional fall visit to Dover International Speedway.
• The Showdown will take the green flag with ARCA’s inaugural visit to ISM Raceway on March 6 as part of the national series’ event weekend in Phoenix. The Showdown’s 10 races, which will also count as part of the 20-race ARCA Menards Series schedule, features events at Indiana’s Salem Speedway, Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Minnesota’s Elko Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Both Iowa and Gateway have hosted K&N Pro West combination races as well as ARCA events annually, and this in an opportunity for those tracks to bring all three series together. The first Showdown champion will be crowned at Memphis International Raceway in September.
In addition, NASCAR and MAVTV announced a three-year extension of its telecast rights agreement for select ARCA Menards Series races. The partnership, combined with the races covered on FOX Sports, means that all 20 ARCA Menards Series races — including the 10-race Showdown portion — will be available via live or same-day broadcast. NBCSN will continue to carry the ARCA Menards Series East and West as part of their extensive NASCAR coverage.
Tyler Reddick will move up to the NASCAR Cup Series to drive the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing for the 2020 season, the organization announced on Wednesday.
Reddick will replace Monster Energy Series rookie Daniel Hemric following the Sept. 17 announcement that Hemric would be released from the team at the conclusion of the 2019 season.
The defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion has competed in two full-time seasons in the second tier of NASCAR’s national division, earning the 2018 title while piloting the No. 9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
Reddick is currently in the thick of the Xfinity Series Playoffs battle, sitting third in the postseason standings with a 52-point cushion on the cutline heading into Saturday’s Round of 12 elimination race at Dover International Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“It means a lot to me that Richard, his team, and Caterpillar believe in my ability to represent them both on and off the racetrack,” Reddick said in a team release. “My goal was always to get to race on Sundays, and I’m so excited to achieve that next year with RCR, ECR and Caterpillar. I’m excited to take this next step in my career with their support, but also realize I’ve still got a lot of work to do this year with my No. 2 team to bring home the Xfinity Series Championship. I can’t think of a better way to end RCR’s 50th celebration and kick off next year than by capturing that trophy.”
Entering Dover, the 23-year-old from Corning, California, had earned five victories this season, along with 21 top-five and 24 top-10 results. Reddick has recorded eight triumphs in 79 races spanning three seasons in the Xfinity Series.
Reddick competed in a pair of full-time seasons for Brad Keselowski Racing in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2015-16, earning three victories during that span.
Through three weeks of the NASCAR Playoffs, there’s a question we must answer ahead of the Round of 12: Is Kyle Busch in trouble?
Busch’s most recent string of shaky performances started at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he brought home at 37th-place finish. That was followed up by a 19th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, second place at Richmond Raceway and a 37th-place effort at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval.
NASCAR.com’s Jonathan Merryman and Alex Weaver are here to debate: So, what does all that mean?
Jonathan Merryman: Absolutely nothing. Over the past four seasons, no one has been better than Kyle Busch. While the Round of 16 didn’t go as planned for the No. 18 team, it doesn’t matter. Points reset, and he is again the points leader heading into the Round of 12 that comprises races at Dover International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Kansas Speedway.
Busch has managed to win three times at Dover, Talladega is a wild-card, and Kansas saw a string of eight consecutive top 10s from Busch end this spring.On top of the natural talent, Busch also has a 41-point cushion to the cutline. In other words, he has one mulligan left and three races to dial it in before the heat is on in the Round of 8.
Even then, the Candyman should be fine. After all, M&M’s do well in the heat – “They have a thin candy shell.”
Alex Weaver: Momentum needs to be in his favor. While Busch is one of the best drivers in the field — and ever — momentum has to be in your camp when fighting for a championship. The team has been stricken by mistakes on pit road, wrecks and mechanical issues over the last few weeks and hasn’t found Victory Lane in the past 15 races. That’s a slump for Kyle Busch.
Do I think he needs to be worried in the Round of 12? Absolutely not. Do I think he needs to be worried about the Round of 8? Again, no. He came in with enough playoffs points, including the 15-point bonus for being the Regular Season Champion, his points cushion will continue to help his cause.
Does Busch need to be worried about adding another championship? Yes. It is time for Busch to turn on the heat and show his dominance in the next two rounds of the playoffs. To quote the Candyman himself, “It’s pathetic to have to lean on insurance. My premiums are going to go up.”
Sure, a cushion is a soft place to land. But when running for a championship, an average finish of 19.3 in the Round of 16 sure does jack up insurance prices.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s lone NASCAR start of the 2019 season came in last month’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway. A fifth-place finish capped his first start in about a year, as he drove a paint scheme first driven by his seven-time champion father in 1975.
The weekend was captured by Dirty Mo Media for a short film, “Time Machine.” From Earnhardt’s thoughts and nerves before practice and the race, fan reaction to his great run, handling questions about the plane crash he was in two weeks earlier outside of Bristol Motor Speedway to the joys of having wife Amy and daughter Isla experience the throwback weekend with him, “Time Machine” takes you inside the race weekend as the driver himself experienced it.
With the NASCAR Playoffs transitioning from the Round of 16 to the Round of 12, here’s a round reset with an overview of the three races to date and the three ahead for the Monster Energy Series:
• Who’s in (in order): Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Clint Bowyer.
• Who’s out (in order): Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones.
• Best Round of 16:Martin Truex Jr. Honorable mention to both Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski for completing the opening round with an average finish of 4.0, but the nod goes to Truex for winning the first two of the three and rallying for a seventh-place effort at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval.
• Worst Round of 16:Erik Jones. The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 driver finished outside the top 35 in all three events.
• Next up: Dover International Speedway (Oct. 6), Talladega Superspeedway (Oct. 13), Kansas Speedway (Oct. 20).
• Trending up for Round of 12:Chase Elliott. Fresh from a momentum-stoking Roval victory, the No. 9 Chevrolet’s driver heads to three tracks where he holds recent wins.
• Trending down for Round of 12:Kyle Busch. Though he has won at all three tracks for this round, the three Round of 12 venues all rank in his bottom half based on average finish, with Talladega at the bottom (minimum five starts).
Competition officials announced rules changes Tuesday for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, limiting the adjustments to a handful of procedural regulations intended to contain costs for teams.
Officials indicated the rules tweaks should not impact on-track competition, opting to minimize wholesale changes for next season. That strategy comes ahead of more comprehensive modifications expected for the 2021 season, when the next-generation stock car is scheduled to debut in NASCAR’s top division.
“The 2019 season has produced great racing and we anticipate the level of competition to continue to rise as teams build off this rules package in 2020,” said John Probst, NASCAR senior vice president, innovation and racing development. “Collectively, we continue to work closely as an industry to put on the best racing possible for our fans, while working diligently on the Next Gen car, scheduled to make its debut in 2021.”
Among the new regulations released to teams for 2020:
• Each car number will be allowed a maximum of 12 certified chassis designated as “active” at any given time. There was previously no limit. Each vehicle number will also be allowed to retain four chassis designated as “inactive,” set aside for future use.
Chassis can be decertified or retired only after use in a minimum of three races or if damage from a crash is deemed irreparable. Chassis designated for the preseason Clash exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway will not count against a car number’s active allotment, unless that chassis is also used in the Daytona 500.
Also, each organization will be permitted a maximum of 10 unique chassis designs.
• Organizations will be limited to a total of 150 hours of wind-tunnel testing per year. There was previously no limit. Testing is only permitted at four approved wind-tunnel facilities: Aerodyn Wind Tunnel in Mooresville, North Carolina; Auto Research Center (ARC) in Indianapolis; Penske Technology Group Wind Tunnel in Mooresville, North Carolina; and Windshear Wind Tunnel in Concord, North Carolina.
Manufacturers, however, are not permitted to conduct wind-tunnel tests on current-generation cars. There is no restriction on the amount of wind-tunnel testing and development for the Next Gen car model slated for 2021.
• Officials have introduced new at-track roster limits for the 2020 season, reducing the maximum number of “road crew” personnel (engineers, mechanics, crew/car chief, spotters) from 12 to 10 during race weekends.
Additionally, the new structure will limit the amount of “organizational staff” for each organization to three. Previously, three- or four-car teams were allowed to carry a fourth rostered member at the organizational level (i.e., technical director, competition manager).
• Teams must compete in a minimum of eight events with a full long-block sealed engine and at least eight events with a short-block sealed engine. Previous rules dictated three full long-block seals and 13 short-block sealed engines.
Cup Series officials and teams recently began the post-race procedure of sealing engines — either fully (long block) or just the bottom portion (short block) — as a measure to prevent costly and time-consuming rebuilds. The practice originated in other NASCAR national series.
• The extended parts freeze for the NASCAR Cup Series will remain in place through 2020, as development continues to shift toward the Next Gen stock car.
Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 32 GoFas Racing Ford, will often tweet out #StackingPennies after a strong run for his small-time team to indicate the baby steps the organization is making.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver unveiled a new hashtag Tuesday morning — for a different kind of baby steps.
The 28-year-old LaJoie and wife Kelly, married last New Year’s Eve, will usher in a new bundle of LaJoie this coming Easter. Congrats to the happy couple.
