Posted on by Staff Report

Erik Jones has signed a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing, the organization announced Friday.

Jones will continue to drive the No. 20 Toyota Camry in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2020 alongside teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.

RELATED: Key drivers in Silly Season

“I’m so happy to finally have my plans for 2020 confirmed and to talk about it,” Jones said in a team release. “I’m excited to be staying with Joe Gibbs Racing and the 20 team and to continue the success that we have built over the last two years in the Cup Series. I put my heart and soul into this and this race team. This is my living and how I want to make a career and what I want to do. I’ve been racing with JGR since 2014 and it’s really cool to be able to continue with the foundation we’ve built over the years and hopefully win more races and contend for championships together.”

Running in his third full-time Monster Energy Series season and second with JGR after moving from Furniture Row Racing in 2018, Jones has recorded two victories at NASCAR’s premier level — the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in July 2018 at Daytona International Speedway and the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington earlier this month.

RELATED: Jones wins at Darlington | Drivers to win in 100th start

Jones is the only driver in Cup Series history to have his first two wins occur at Daytona and Darlington. The 23-year-old Byron, Michigan, native qualified for the NASCAR Playoffs for the second consecutive season thanks to that win at Darlington.

Jones began his NASCAR national series career with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, earning seven victories and the 2015 championship. He moved up to the Xfinity Series with JGR for a full-time stint in 2016. Jones has recorded nine Xfinity race wins.

“Erik has accomplished so much in our sport already and yet, he really is just at the start of a long career,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “He’s been a part of Joe Gibbs Racing for almost his entire professional career and we’re excited to see what the future holds for him.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

The journey for Ryan Hines to a career in NASCAR was a natural one, having grown up with family members who raced and claiming a hometown that’s almost a half-hour drive to Eldora Speedway.

Last week, Hines told a more complete version of his story. Hines, a 23-year-old coordinator of Xfinity brand content for Stewart-Haas Racing, told NBC Sports about his path as a gay man in the stock-car racing industry in the hopes that it would provide inspiration to others.

One week later sitting outside the No. 98 SHR hauler in the Xfinity Series garage at Darlington Raceway, Hines said the reception of his story has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Everyone’s been good, everyone I work with,” said Hines, who primarily handles the weekend public relations duties for driver Chase Briscoe. “Media people around the sport have reached out, and I get a lot of random people who have reached out, too, to say ‘hey, thanks for sharing your story,’ saying how it helped them in different ways and how it inspired them. That means a lot, and that was the whole goal of it: just to be like, ‘hey, you can do it.’ Don’t limit yourself because you think that you can’t be yourself in this sport, because you can.”

On most weekends through his childhood, Hines could be found at a race track, whether it was following his cousin’s non-winged sprint car efforts through Ohio, Indiana and Michigan or working at Eldora’s dirt high banks. Hines provided updates for both the track’s website and later its video display board.

After graduating college, Hines received his first taste of NASCAR through an internship with Hendrick Motorsports before making the transition to SHR. “I’ve just grown up around it and it’s always been a family thing,” he says. “That’s what got me into it.”

Hines says he had come out to people close to him about his sexual orientation during high school. He said it wasn’t necessarily a personal burden that prompted him to share his story with a larger group this season, but rather the hope that he might be a source of encouragement.

“I did this story to hopefully help somebody,” Hines says. “I know growing up, what gave me the courage was reading stories on OutSports.com. Seeing other people do it in other sports, that kind of told me it was OK to be who I am and to not hide it. I’ve been out since high school to everyone close to me, but I figured doing this story would hopefully help further the conversation and help somebody. If you can just help one person and it speaks to them, then it’s worth it.”

Not that the reception has been entirely rosy. Critics emboldened by Internet anonymity and keyboard courage have shared divisive remarks, but Hines has made a point to largely ignore the hatred.

“Some of the social media comments — Facebook, in particular — aren’t so kind, but I expected that and it doesn’t really bother me,” Hines says. “Not everyone’s going to be OK with it, and that’s fine, but the people who matter, who are around me and the people that I work with are great with it and that’s all that matters to me.”

Hines’ openness has been refreshing, and he says he’s happy to see others benefit from its impact. The media attention has been another piece that’s helped spread his word.

Hines, though, says he’s hopeful a day will come when stories like his aren’t news, when one’s sexual orientation is just as natural as a family-bred path to a career in racing.

“That’s what one of my friends said to me. He’s like, the point of the story is it’s not a story, and I can’t say it any better than that,” Hines says. “It shouldn’t be a story, and I do hope we get to the point where being gay is the same as being straight. There’s not really an assumption that someone’s straight; you shouldn’t have to come out, so to speak. It should just be a normal part of everyday life.”

Posted on by Terrin Waack

Brick by brick, Hendrick Motorsports has become the most successful team at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. No more than three races have passed at the 2.5-mile oval without a Hendrick victory, ever. How it shakes out is 10 wins total.

That’s double any other organization.

Overall, Hendrick Motorsports has 26 top fives – most by four – and 40 top 10s – most by six – in 94 starts. It has led 328 laps more than its competition with a total of 1,025 go-arounds out front.

The only category the organization doesn’t completely dominate in is pole wins. It’s tied for the No. 1 spot with Joe Gibbs Racing at five apiece.

RELATED: JGR could sweep 2019 crown jewels

Jeff Gordon won the inaugural race at what’s now considered the Brickyard in 1994, and the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet went on to win a series-best five Brickyard 400s before retiring from full-time competition after the 2015 season. The next closest driver is Jimmie Johnson, who’s also a part of HMS family and still active in the No. 48 Chevy. Johnson has made it to Indy’s Victory Lane four times.

The other Hendrick win came from Kasey Kahne (also retired) in 2017.

As the Monster Energy Series heads to Indianapolis this Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Johnson finds himself in quite a predicament. For the first time in his career, the seven-time Cup Series champion is at risk of missing the NASCAR Playoffs, which were implemented in 2004. He’s ranked 18th in the championship standings at 599 points – 18 short of Daniel Suarez’s 617 in the 16th and final playoff spot – and Indy is the last regular-season race.

A silver lining: Johnson has been in this situation before … kind of.

Last year, Johnson entered the 26th event not locked into the postseason. He wasn’t outside the bubble like he is now, but he was 15th with no real security. His 16th-place finish ended up being enough to keep him within the top 16 standings and earn him a playoff berth.

Johnson ultimately closed out last season 14th.

RELATED: Power Rankings for Indy | Odds for Brickyard 400

And here’s another fun fact: Johnson went on to win the overall championship in three of the four seasons he won the Brickyard 400. The overlap years were 2006, 2008, and 2009. His fourth Indy win was 2012, when he finished third in the final standings.

Johnson is the only Hendrick Motorsports driver who’s not set for the NASCAR Playoffs. Chase Elliott (eighth) secured his bid with two wins (Talladega Superspeedway and Watkins Glen International). Alex Bowman’s first career victory (Chicagoland Speedway) earned him a slot (11th). William Byron pointed his way in, sitting safely 66 points above the cutline in 13th.

Then again, Johnson is also the only Hendrick driver who has kissed the bricks before.

Posted on by Staff Report

Zeb Wise won an emotional tribute race Thursday night at the dirt track in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield, beating out plenty of talented dirt racers — some of whom are NASCAR drivers.

Wise, just 16 years old, held off a late charge by both Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell — who would bring out cautions following separate on-track incidents with less than 10 laps to go — to win the second annual 39-lap Driven2SaveLives BC39. The race honors Bryan Clauson, a versatile and talented driver who died in August 2016.

Clauson drove the No. 39 throughout his career, and that’s the exact car Wise drove to victory for Clauson-Marshall Racing. In fact, Clauson-Marshall Racing swept the podium and finished 1-2-3, with Tyler Courtney and Chad Boat finishing second and third.

Larson, who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, entered the race on the heels of a thrilling win in the final race of Wednesday’s opening act. He was running second to Wise on Thursday with 10 laps to go, made a bold move for the lead and created contact that resulted in a flat tire for Larson. He finished ninth.

Moments later, Bell — who has six wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year with Joe Gibbs Racing — hopped the cushion in Turn 3 and nearly flipped to bring out the caution. He was running third at the time and slipped to a 15th-place finish.

In addition to Larson and Bell, full-time NASCAR national series drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chase Briscoe qualified for the main event. Stenhouse Jr. finished seventh place driving the No. 17, and Briscoe was 24th.

In an interesting NASCAR twist, Dillon Welch, who grew up racing and currently covers motorsports for MRN and NBC, turned heads by advancing to the A-Main. He finished 11th.

NASCAR weekend officially kicks off in Indianapolis on Friday with opening NASCAR Xfinity Series practice at 2:05 p.m. ET (NBCSN).

Posted on by Staff Report

The pursuit for the final two playoffs spots in the Monster Energy Series boils down to a final showdown this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sunday’s Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the last of 26 regular-season races, one with the high stakes.

It’s the second straight year Indianapolis has hosted the regular-season finale, which will determine the 16-driver postseason field. A group of 14 drivers have already clinched spots on the basis of regular-season wins or insurmountable points cushions, leaving just two berths up for grabs.

RELATED: Full schedule for Indianapolis | Odds, lines

Erik Jones and Kyle Larson finished first and second, respectively, last weekend at Darlington Raceway, and both took significant jumps in this week’s Power Rankings. Jones’ victory meant all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have won this year, and the organization carries a head of steam into the historic venue.

Here is the rest of the need-to-know information for Sunday’s regular-season finale.

TRACK DETAILS

Indy is a 2.5-mile rectangular track with 9.2-degree banking in all four turns and flat straightaways. The facility is home to the Indianapolis 500, which was first run in 1911. NASCAR’s top series has competed at the Brickyard 25 times. Jeff Gordon won the inaugural 400-mile event for stock cars in 1994, leading 93 of 160 laps.

RULES PACKAGE

The race at Indianapolis will feature the 2019 rules package with aero ducts and a tapered-spacer engine generating a targeted 550 horsepower.

Each team will be provided with three sets of Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radial tires for practice, one set for qualifying and nine sets for the 400-mile race (eight, plus one transferred from practice or qualifying).

This is the first time teams will run this tire combination at Indianapolis. A tire test at the 2.5-mile track on June 4-5 prompted officials to adopt the tire setup previously used this season at Pocono Raceway, another high-speed track with a different configuration but the same length. The Indianapolis track applied a sealer to the racing surface in May, ahead of the Indianapolis 500.

STATS

  • Jimmie Johnson has won four times at Indianapolis, part of Hendrick Motorsports’ record 10-win total at the 2.5-mile track. He has an 18-point gap to the postseason cutline, a deficit he’ll need to erase to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time in his career.
  • Kyle Busch, a two-time Brickyard winner, has won the pole position for the last three 400-milers at Indy. If he adds a third Indianapolis win to his portfolio Sunday, it will mark a sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing of four crown-jewel events (Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500, Brickyard 400).
  • Since Chicagoland Speedway kicked off the NBC Sports portion of the NASCAR schedule, Busch has earned the most points. He’s followed on that list by his three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates: in order, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Jones. Fifth on the list? Larson, who has five top-five finishes in the last nine races.

Source: Racing Insights

LIVE COVERAGE

This weekend’s race will air live Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and will be streamed on the NBC Sports App. Radio coverage can be found on the IMS Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Also, follow along on NASCAR.com for live Lap-by-Lap coverage, the live leaderboard, Drive (featuring in-car cameras) and RaceView (subscription: in-car audio, stats, more). Be sure to set your lineup in Fantasy Live and make your picks in the Props Challenge.

2018 RACE WINNER

Brad Keselowski is the defending race winner at Indy, emerging from a fender-clanging duel with Hamlin to take the lead for the final time in the next-to-last lap. Keselowski’s first Brickyard 400 triumph was also a first for team owner Roger Penske, who has a peerless record in IndyCar competition at the historic track. Keselowski’s win was the second in what would be a three-race win streak as the No. 2 Ford team charged into the playoffs.

ACTIVE INDIANAPOLIS WINNERS

Johnson, four times; Busch, two times; Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman, one time each.

Posted on by Nick Giffen

The Action Network specializes in providing sports betting insights/analytics and is a content partner with NASCAR. Check out more NASCAR betting analysis here.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series holds its final race of the 2019 regular season at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 26th running of the Brickyard 400. Four drivers — Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson — are on the playoff bubble. All other drivers are either locked into the playoffs or must win to get in.

This makes race agendas easy to define. Every driver will be racing to win, except the four bubble drivers. Instead, they will look to accumulate stage points and keep an eye on one another as the latter part of the race unfolds.

IMS is a 2.5-mile flat track, which makes it possible to pit and remain on the lead lap. That puts multiple pit strategies in play, much like the other 2.5-mile flat track, Pocono Raceway. While track position is important at Pocono, it is far more important at Indianapolis.

RELATED: Race-winning odds

When adjusting for driver count and laps run, Pocono had 18% more passes than Indianapolis last year. In 2015, when NASCAR experimented with a high-drag package at Indianapolis, Pocono had 11.5% more passes. In 2014, when the aerodynamic package was most similar to this year’s package, Pocono again saw 18% more passes than Indy.

Between the importance of track position and multiple pit strategies, it could be whichever car puts itself out front late in the race hangs on for the win. That has held true at Indy in the past, where long-shot winners are nearly as much a tradition as the race winner kissing the yard of bricks.

Long-shot winners include:

• Jamie McMurray (2010). McMurray had four career wins in nearly eight full-time seasons prior to his Brickyard 400 win, with three of those wins coming on restrictor-plate tracks.

• Paul Menard (2011). Menard won with a fuel mileage strategy, holding off five-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon over the closing laps. To date, it is Menard’s only Cup Series win.

• Ryan Newman (2013). Newman finished 11th in the standings in 2013 and has only has one win since in six seasons.

• Kasey Kahne (2017). Kahne claimed his first win since 2014, a span of 102 races. It would be his final career Cup victory.

While multiple long-shot drivers are in play, the easiest way to become a winner is to put yourself in position to win by running near the front. One driver in particular jumps out thanks to his history at 2.5-mile flat tracks and his outstanding opening price.

William Byron +5000

Byron has yet to win in his 61-race Cup Series career, but his improvement this year over his rookie campaign in 2018 is remarkable. Overall, Byron is 13th in the standings, 10 places better than his 23rd-place finish in the points last year. At Pocono, Byron improved from 18th and sixth in his rookie year to ninth and fourth in his sophomore season.

In those two Pocono races this year, Byron was fourth and 10th in Driver Rating. In the first Pocono race, he won the pole position, led the third-most laps and had the third-most fastest laps. At the second Pocono race, Byron’s car failed inspection, relegating him to a 31st-place start. Despite that, a clean race and solid pit strategy led him to finish fourth.

Byron also won in his only start at Indianapolis in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which sports a horsepower regulation more similar to this year’s Cup Series rules than in previous years. He also tallied a win at Pocono in his only start in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

RELATED: More on William Byron

Hendrick Motorsports also seems to have a good grasp at this aerodynamic package at 2.5-mile flat tracks. In 2014, Hendrick won all three 2.5-mile flat track races.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. claimed both Pocono wins, and Jeff Gordon won the Brickyard 400 after he and teammate Kasey Kahne led a combined 110 of the 160 laps. This year, drivers with Hendrick engines led 62 of the 160 laps at the first Pocono race.

My pre-race model gives him the 11th-best average finish among all drivers, but he’s not being priced as such at MGM properties in Las Vegas, which is where you can find this line.

Elsewhere, Byron is widely available at +4000. Because he’s widely available at +4000, I wouldn’t go any lower than that number. I also wouldn’t hesitate to make this bet.

If he’s slow in practice and qualifying, he’ll likely remain at this number. On the flip side, if Byron qualifies near the front, you’ll see this line plummet. It’s very likely these will be the best odds we see on Byron all week.

Posted on by Staff Report

Spin and win? Spin and win.

Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson won a USAC National Midget race thriller last night in Indianapolis, at the dirt track that’s inside the venerable Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Despite a spin after contact coming into the final turn, Larson’s two opponents ended up flipping their cars, which allowed the 27-year-old to right himself and cross the start/finish line first.

Larson, Michael Pickens and Justin Grant were actually the only three cars left on the track during the 25-lap elimination-style event, and boy did they put on a show for the fans.

RELATED: Indianapolis weekend schedule

Wednesday night’s event was the opening act to Thursday’s 39-lap A-main at the same track. The Driven2SaveLives BC39 honors Bryan Clauson, a versatile and talented driver who died in August 2016.

Larson, along with fellow NASCAR drivers Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., are among the drivers attempting to qualify for the A-Main in advance of the NASCAR weekend officially kicking off in Indianapolis on Friday morning.

Posted on by Staff Report

“The King of Queens” is coming to the race track as NASCAR and Netflix announce a new comedy series starring Kevin James.

James will star in and be the executive producer for the new multi-cam sitcom, The Crew. He will play the role of Kevin the crew chief in the show set in a NASCAR garage.

Crew chief Kevin will be the old-school sort, more likely to don a Darlington Throwback than anything else. But his old-school ways will be out of style with a rapidly modernizing sport: Think your dad telling you to put the cell phone away at dinner in order to have an actual face-to-face conversation.

Jeff Lowell, of the Ranch, Two and a Half Men and Spin City, will be the show’s writer, show-runner and executive producer. Jeff Sussman (The King of Queens, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, True Memoirs of an International Assassin and Grown Ups) and Todd Garner (Tag, Isn’t it Romantic and Mortal Kombat) will also serve as executive producers.

NASCAR’s Matt Summers and Tim Clark will also be involved as executive producers.

Look for the show coming out next year on Netflix.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR competition officials issued penalties Wednesday to four Monster Energy Series teams and one Xfinity Series operation for lug-nut violations during last weekend’s events at Darlington Raceway.

Four Cup Series teams were found with one lug nut not safely secure after Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500, incurring a $10,000 fine for their respective crew chiefs. The infractions affected these teams:

• The Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet driven by William Byron (crew chief Chad Knaus)

• The Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet driven by Kyle Larson (crew chief Chad Johnston)

• The Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet driven by Alex Bowman (crew chief Greg Ives)

• The Leavine Family Racing No. 95 Toyota driven by Matt DiBenedetto (crew chief Mike Wheeler)

The No. 19 Toyota driven by Brandon Jones in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series was found with the same violation. As a result, crew chief Jeff Meendering was fined $5,000.

A NASCAR spokesperson also announced that Joe Gibbs Racing did not file an appeal of penalties issued to the No. 18 Toyota driven by Denny Hamlin in Saturday’s Xfinity Series event. The car did not meet the height requirements in post-race inspection and was disqualified from an apparent victory, handing the win to Cole Custer.

Posted on by Staff Report

The polls have officially opened for the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Most Popular Driver Award presented by Hooters.

VOTE: 2019 Monster Energy Series Most Popular Driver

From Sept. 4 at noon ET through Wednesday, Dec. 4 at noon ET, fans can cast a vote for a single driver once per day at www.nascar.com/mostpopulardriver or the NASCAR Mobile app. Votes shares via Facebook or Twitter also count as double.

Eligible drivers include those who have declared series points and must be in the top-32 positions in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points standings by the start of voting.

This year’s Most Popular Driver Award recipient will be announced during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Awards ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee, Thursday, Dec. 5 on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Fans also can place their votes for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Most Popular Driver. To be eligible, drivers in the Xfinity Series must have declared series points and be among the top-25 positions in the standings, while Gander Trucks drivers need to be among the top-20 in the standings at the time votes begins.

Xfinity Series: Vote for 2019 Most Popular Driver

Gander Outdoors Truck Series: Vote for 2019 Most Popular Driver

Since the program’s full inception by the NMPA in 1983, 20 drivers have won the coveted award. NMPA Hall of Fame member and 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott holds the record for most popular driver award wins with 16 coming in 1984-1988, 1991-2000 and 2002. Former Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the award 15 consecutive seasons from 2003 to 2017.

Chase Elliott, son of Bill Elliott and driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, received the honor in 2018.

“I’m so honored to win this award,” Elliott said after receiving the award in 2018. “With all of its history, the success Dale Earnhardt Jr. has enjoyed and the success of the Elliotts and Earnhardts (winning Most Popular Driver) for so many years is awesome. It’s kind of crazy to watch that come full circle. To be able to receive the award this year is special, and I’ll certainly enjoy it.

“Performance on track and wanting to do well is my biggest hope. I just want to make all of the people proud that voted for us all year. Those are the things that mean so much to me.”

RELATED: Past Most Popular Driver Award winners