Posted on by Staff Report

Want to be an Uber or Lyft driver for the NASCAR stars? Well, you had a chance because NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Noah Gragson got a flat tire on the way to Charlotte Motor Speedway and made a desperate plea for help getting to the track before qualifying for Saturday’s race.

Were you on I-485? Then you could have swung by and picked up Gragson, who would have no doubt been indebted to you for at least a day. Should have been worth a couple of race tickets, no? Qualifying was set for 12:10 p.m. ET, and the race was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET (both on NBCSN and the NBC Sports App).

UPDATE: Gragson was picked up by a JR Motorsports employee and he made it to the track on time.

 

Posted on by Marissa Fuller

CONCORD, N.C. — At this time last week, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. thought he had his 2020 plans intact with Roush Fenway Racing in the No. 17.

Cue NASCAR Silly Season.

On Wednesday, Roush announced it would part ways with Stenhouse and bring in Chris Buescher to pilot the No. 17 Ford next season. It’s a sweet homecoming for Buescher, who spent his three years in the Xfinity Series with Roush Fenway Racing, but a tough goodbye for Stenhouse who didn’t see the move coming.

RELATED: Key moves in Silly Season

“A lot came down,” Stenhouse Jr. said after Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval qualifying Friday. “It was unfortunate, for sure, definitely tough timing for myself and my group to try and find another option. But, all in all, I’ve got to look back on the 11 years that I had with Jack (Roush) and winning races and championships and getting my first Cup win and being competitive. Not as consistent as what we wanted but at the end of it all, (but) I’m very thankful that Jack took a chance on a dirt racer from Mississippi to come drive his car.”

Stenhouse, who has only raced behind the wheel of a Roush Fenway Racing car in seven full-time seasons in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, got his first career win in 2017 at Talladega Superspeedway. In all, he has 248 starts with the team, logging two wins, 15 top fives, 33 top 10s and two poles.

Stenhouse’s emotions have fluctuated over the last two days with the realization he does not have a ride for next season while he still tries to focus on closing out 2019 in the No. 17. But he said he understands the reasoning behind the organization’s decision, despite how difficult it is for him.

“Over the past two days, I’d say I went from angry (to) sad (to) optimistic,” he said. “Sometimes change is good. Like they said, it just didn’t work and it hadn’t been working over the last couple years. We’ve had speed, we just haven’t had consistent finishes.

RELATED: Roush thankful for redo with Buescher

“I think that’s what sucks for myself — I feel like we’ve had plenty of speed to get the job done, it’s just that a lot of things came down to us not getting those results. Ultimately, that’s what we’re here for is results and they weren’t coming.”

Stenhouse still considers his relationship with team owner Jack Roush a special one after spending the entirety of his Cup Series career in a Roush car.

“Little emotional with the relationship that Jack and I have, only team I’ve ever been at,” Stenhouse said. “Looking forward to seeing what’s next. Like I said, there’s a lot of work to do on that, but all in all, I’m definitely looking forward to these last eight with the great partners that we have, everybody on the 17 team.”

Would a full-time ride in the Xfinity Series be out of the question? Not exactly.

“I’m open to anything for sure,” Stenhouse said.

Fellow Cup Series drivers were just as surprised as Stenhouse was at the news this week and offered support Friday in the garage.

“I think he’s got a lot of talent and he’s a great race car driver,” Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola said. “He’s won two Xfinity championships back-to-back (2011 and 2012), so I think Ricky does a great job. I feel like for most of his career he’s tried as hard as he possibly can try to get the most out of what he’s got.”

Said Kevin Harvick, who has a management company that will represent Stenhouse next year: “Ricky’s got a great reputation in the garage, well-connected. He’s the only driver at Roush Racing that has won races since Carl Edwards left. That’s the unfortunate thing. He’s a Cup winner, he’s a two-time Xfinity Series champion and it’s just bad timing and sucks.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CONCORD, N.C. – William Byron has the knack at his home track, even if the two configurations at Charlotte Motor Speedway are vastly different.

A Charlotte native, Byron won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte back in May on the traditional 1.5-mile oval. On Friday, Byron toured Charlotte’s Roval — a 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course — in 80.932 seconds (103.198 mph) to earn the top starting spot for Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Qualifying results | Full Charlotte schedule

In winning his fifth Busch Pole Award of the season and the fifth of his career, Byron edged Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman (103.078 mph) by .094 seconds. Byron and Bowman are 12th and 13th, respectively, in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings, with the playoff field to be cut to the top 12 drivers after the first-round elimination race.

Byron was quickest despite a brush with the wall in the final chicane.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to fix a quarter panel,” Byron said. “I kind of missed that one, but I was trying to get all I could. I knew I was a little bit weak under the brakes the first couple of runs in Q-trim today, so I tried to fix it and maybe fixed it a little bit too good. … I almost blew it in the last chicane, locking up the tires.

“But the guys did a great job with this car, and it really takes every corner around this race track to get a pole. I knew we could qualify top five, but I really wanted the pole and really kind of went out there and got it. So I’m really proud of this UniFirst team, it’s going to be great to start up front.”

Three of Byron’s poles this season have come at crown jewel races on the Cup circuit: the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Bojangles’ Southern 500.

Bowman acknowledged his teammate’s prowess in the No. 24 Chevrolet.

“That run wasn’t the best,” Bowman said of his own attempt in the final round. “I know it could have been better. William just did a great job there getting through the corners. It’s definitely a positive to be starting on the front row, and we just have to focus on getting stage points on Sunday.”

Joey Logano (103.037 mph) qualified third and will start next to fourth-place Jimmie Johnson, the third of three Hendrick drivers in the top four and the only driver in the top nine not currently in the playoffs. Clint Bowyer claimed the fifth spot on the grid, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick.

Kyle Larson was sixth in time trials, with Martin Truex Jr., the winner of the first two races in the opening round of the playoffs, grabbing the eighth position. Truex is the only Toyota driver to qualify in the top 14.

Ryan Blaney was ninth, followed by Paul Menard, playoff driver Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, who’s 2020 move from JTG-Daugherty Racing to Roush Fenway Racing was announced this week.

Other playoff drivers qualified as follows: Erik Jones 15th, Kyle Busch 17th, Chase Elliott 19th after a spin in the first round of time trials, Kurt Busch 23rd, Ryan Newman 24th and Denny Hamlin 28th after wrecking in Turn 5 during practice and going to a backup car. Because of the car change, Hamlin will drop to the rear of the field for the start of the race.

Posted on by Staff Report

Joey Logano is known for his domination and championship mettle in a stock car. But what happens when you get the driver of the No. 22 Ford Mustang in an 800-horsepower hot rod truck?

Mix in the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway and it’s a race fan’s dream come true.

Logano’s team rebuilt a 1935 Factory Five Hot Rod Drift Truck in four days, then took it on the track for a good old-fashioned drifting session.

The all-matte black hot rod truck, decorated with a No. 22 on the side, looked at home on the track. Logano and his crew even brought the hot rod into the stock car world by pitting and making a four-tire stop.

If you want to see the Roval with an old hot rod on track, you’re in luck — check out the YouTube video below. The views are breathtaking, the truck is speedy and the tire marks you see are a hot rod love letter written by Joey Logano.

Posted on by Staff Report

There’s still bad blood between Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.

During last week’s NASCAR Playoffs race at Richmond Raceway, Dillon bumped the left rear of Bowman’s No. 88, sending it spinning up the track. The move was intentional. No. 3 crew chief Danny Stockman specifically told Dillon to “get him back now” after Bowman previously ran into Dillon’s side and shoved him up into William Byron’s car.

“I want to shove that silver spoon he’s been fed on his whole life up his (expletive),” Bowman said over his radio after the run-in.

RELATED: Scanner Sounds from Richmond

Bowman ended up finishing 23rd, right behind Dillon in 22nd.

Only adding fuel to the fire: Bowman is still fighting for a spot in the Round of 12, while Dillon didn’t make the 16-driver postseason field. Bowman fell below the cutline after Richmond and enters Sunday’s Round of 16 elimination race, the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), in 13th — two points fewer than Byron in the 12th and final spot.

“I don’t think there is a relationship there,” Bowman said Friday. “And what the comment was, you heard it. I said what I said. Obviously frustrated with that situation, but I don’t know. I think it hurt his day more than it did mine. We kind of ran where we were going to run anyway, so it’s just frustrating. Got ran all the way to the inside wall down the front straightaway and then just turned. It is what it is. Not immediately worried about it. Typically don’t see him at these places anyway.”

RELATED: Best NASCAR Playoffs drivers on road course

Dillon has never scored a road-course top 10, and he also ended last season’s Roval race in 39th place. Bowman, with two top 10s overall, was fourth.

The Richmond drama went beyond Dillon’s immediate team. It was Richard Childress Racing owner Richard Childress who first told Dillon to “move his (expletive) back if you get to it.”

“I don’t know,” said Bowman, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports. “That’s just part of it. That’s just part of how they operate. RC’s obviously a very involved team owner and is on the radio a lot more than our owner and that’s just part of it. It doesn’t matter. He’s not holding the steering wheel, so I’m not worried about who gave directions to anybody or anything like that. I’m here to advance to the next round this week and handle it in the future.”

For his part, Dillon said, “as far as radio communication, they have every right to be on the radio as much as anybody else on that team.”

The RCR driver thought the incident was over and done with since Bowman had ample opportunity to do something at Richmond and didn’t.

“We raced the rest of the race, and he could have done whatever he wanted to do,” Dillon said prior to Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying. “I’m fine with whatever he says. He had an opportunity the rest of the race to do something back and he didn’t, and that to me means we’re square.”

Dillon had made the postseason the previous seasons before the 2019 campaign. He knows playoff drivers will be taking all that they can, but that doesn’t mean he will be a pushover as a driver outside of the field.

“I got to battle it out and be respectful throughout but I can’t be taken advantage of either,” Dillon said. “There’s a line between taking that as a guy that’s not in the playoffs and there’s a line you can cross it. My button had been pushed in that situation. I’ve been on both sides of it. Been in the playoffs the last three years and, yes, I’ve taken advantage of guys because I was in the playoffs. I know that feeling, but at some point, if you take too much, it will come back on you.”

Contributing: RJ Kraft at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Posted on by RJ Kraft

CONCORD, N.C. –  Team owner Jack Roush called bringing Chris Buescher back into the Roush Fenway Racing family the chance to fix a mistake from four years ago. And the longtime team owner was happy for that second chance.

“It is not often in life you have the chance to redo a mistake,” Roush told media at Charlotte Motor Speedway ahead of this weekend’s Bank of America Roval 400. “I figured as I look back at the 32 years I’ve been involved in stock car racing, there are decisions I’ve made that I wish I could make over and fortunately this is the one I can make over.”

Buescher was named Wednesday as the new driver of Roush Fenway’s No. 17 Ford for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. He’ll replace Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who will complete his seventh season behind the wheel of the No. 17 at the end of the year.

RELATED: Silly Season’s key players | Potential odds

“It is a homecoming of sorts,” Buescher said. “Signed up 10 years ago to go into that driver development program with Jack and everybody at Roush Fenway Racing. For me, that was a huge moment for myself and got going into stock car racing. I had six late model races before then – was basically fresh out of Legends cars so that was a big moment.

“For this opportunity to come now and be able to come back over – we ran the 17 number through our entire ARCA seasons and all but the last four races there, so that’s kind of a neat deal. Was definitely a Kenseth fan growing up and it was nice to be able to have him be somewhat of a mentor for a short period of time for while I was over there.”

Buescher inked a driver development deal with Roush in 2009 and worked his way up from the ARCA Racing Series where he won the 2012 championship to the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he won Roush’s most recent championship in 2015. There was no room for the Texas native on the Cup side so he plied his trade at the sport’s top level with Front Row Motorsports (2016) and JTG Daugherty Racing (2017-19). Buescher made the playoffs with a Pocono win in 2016 with Front Row.

Due to his longstanding ties with Roush, the organization had a residual contract option on Buescher that was available to them if certain conditions hadn’t been met. That option came into play when Buescher had not yet reached a contract extension with JTG and reached out to the Roush organization about a potential return.

“We talked to our board – Jack and (co-owner) John Henry of (MLB’s Boston) Red Sox – had a lot of discussions about what the right direction was and ultimately decided that it was best for our organization to try and move forward and exercise that with Chris,” team president Steve Newmark said. “That literally came together this week.”

The change comes amidst the sixth time in seven seasons that Stenhouse has not made the playoffs while his teammate Ryan Newman did make the 16-driver postseason in his first season at Roush. Newman’s 13.5 average finish is his best since 2015 and is something that the Roush organization is hoping Buescher can mirror in 2020. The new Roush driver has a career-best 17.6 average finish and that mark has improved in each of his full-time seasons. Buescher also has a solid relationship with Newman’s crew chief, Scott Graves, who was his crew chief for the 2015 Xfinity title.

“We had so much trouble getting speed out of our cars,” Roush said. “With Ryan and with Matt Kenseth’s help last summer we identified some things we should be working on which had not been on our radar and worked on those things. When we put Ryan in the car, he fell right in line with what Kenseth had thought were the priorities and we see Chris falling in the same line.

“I look forward to having cars that are more similar for both drivers that we can develop from race to race without having so many wrecks. Ryan has done really well this year with keeping his car together and Chris has got a history of doing the same thing.”

For his part, Buescher has kept his car clean with a streak of 16 straight top-20 finishes that came to a close last weekend at Richmond. He has also logged 99.4 percent of the laps run entering this weekend’s race at the Roval.

While Newman is still in the mix for the playoffs, the organization has designs on having both its cars in the playoff field for 2020.

“I think some of the best days for Roush Fenway are in front of us,” Roush said.

Posted on by Staff Report

Jimmie Johnson launched to the top of the Monster Energy Series leaderboard in an eventful opening practice Friday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s oval and road course layout.

RELATED: Practice 1 results | Charlotte Roval schedule

Johnson posted a lap of 103.152 mph in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet on the 2.28-mile Roval circuit. Johnson was in contention for last year’s inaugural Roval victory when a last-lap tangle with Martin Truex Jr. thwarted both.

Kyle Larson was second-fastest in opening preparation for Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM). William Byron, Clint Bowyer and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top five in the 50-minute session.

Several drivers ran into early trouble, with a handful overshooting the redesigned chicane on the backstretch. Among those faring the worst was playoff contender Denny Hamlin, who spun into a tire barrier in the infield’s Turn 5, leaving his primary No. 11 Toyota with severe damage.

His Joe Gibbs Racing crew unloaded a reserve car for use in the balance of the weekend.

“It was supposed to be kind of a weekend off for these guys, but obviously we put them behind the 8-ball here and took away some track time for myself,” Hamlin told NBC Sports. “It really stinks, but definitely feel like our backup car will be fine and we’ll have a good race on Sunday.”

WATCH: Hamlin wrecks in practice

Others finding significant problems: Parker Kligerman, who walloped the Turn 1 barrier with his Gaunt Brothers Racing No. 96 Toyota; Joe Nemechek, who bunny-hopped the curbing of the backstraight chicane with the No. 27 Chevrolet; and Bubba Wallace, who tapped the Turn 5 tire wall with his No. 43 Chevy.

Michael McDowell missed opening practice after being transported to a hospital with what his team termed an abdominal ailment. Xfinity Series regular Austin Cindric practiced the Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford in his place, clocking the 24th-fastest time. Front Row Motorsports posted on Twitter that McDowell was released and expects to return to the car for Busch Pole Qualifying at 4:40 p.m. (NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM)

Truex, vying for his third straight win in the series, was 21st-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

See the order that the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will go out for single-car qualifying on Friday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval (4:40 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App). You can view the qualifying order here or by clicking the print icon underneath the photo.

Posted on by Staff Report

CONCORD, N.C. — Michael McDowell returned to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session after he was transported to the hospital with abdominal pain in the morning. The pain turned out to be kidney stones, the Front Row Motorsports driver later revealed.

“I’m feeling much better than I was this morning,” McDowell said. “I just woke up this morning with a lot of abdominal pain and side pain. Not sure what was going on. I just thought, ‘Ahh, you know, I’ll just fight through it.’ As the morning went on, it was clearly evident it was not something I was going to fight through.

“Got to the race track right before the garage opened and went to the infield care center and I was just in a lot of pain. Shortly after that I passed my first kidney stone and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. It was rough but now I feel pretty good.”

Austin Cindric drove the No. 34 Ford in McDowell’s absence for the first Monster Energy Series practice session and finished 24th. Cindric is a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series driver for Team Penske. He has two wins this season, both at road courses.

McDowell, 28th in points, is often at his best on road courses, with a career average finish of 26.7, nearly five spots higher than his overall average finish of 31.2. He started and finished 18th in last year’s inaugural running of the Bank of America Roval 400 and was 16th at Watkins Glen International last month.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule

This year’s race is scheduled for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET (NBC/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Contributing: RJ Kraft at Charlotte Motor Speedway