Meet Garrett Smithley: Patience, persistence at core of NASCAR career

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Jodie Valade

On the dashboard of every car Garrett Smithley has ever driven is written one phrase that has defined his life as a race car driver: “Patience, never give up.”

By chance, it was scrawled on the very first used Bandolero his parents helped him buy — the only equipment they ever bought him — when he was 15 years old and initially began to dream of a career in NASCAR. He liked it, and it stayed.

It has been on the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars he has driven for JD Motorsports for the past four years he has been the full-time driver of the No. 0 Chevrolet.

And it has been in his car for all 11 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races the 27-year-old has driven in over the past two years.

“If I kind of live my life by that, then I have a better shot to make everything happen,” Smithley says.

Patience helped him get to NASCAR in the first place, as Smithley grew up an avid fan of racing but never even stepped foot into so much as a go-kart until he was 15 years old. One perfect turn on a lap and he was hooked with a realization he had been waiting his whole life for that feeling.

Persistence has allowed him to not only take a chance on himself by learning every aspect of the sport — from driving to securing sponsorship — but moving from Georgia to Charlotte at age 18 on the hopes he could get noticed despite his limited experience.

Smithley knows he got a late start in the racing world. He knows he has only driven for small teams and has had to scrap to sell his own sponsorship deals and use his background in theater to showcase his charismatic personality.

But he believes there’s a place in NASCAR for him, too — even if Kyle Busch grumbled last week in Las Vegas that he wasn’t qualified to race at the highest level after making contact with Smithley’s lapped No. 52 late in the race.

“There’s no set path to get to the Cup Series,” Smithley says. “There’s no path that says, ‘Hey, you need to do this, this, this and this and this.’ I feel like my path is one of the more unique paths — kind of doing it grassroots and getting to the big stage relatively quickly after having a late start.”

• • •

Matt Sullivan | Getty Images

Smithley has been watching NASCAR races for as long as he can remember. With no family connections to the sport, he never imagined it as a career option. His father and grandfather both were in the military, with his dad’s pilot job taking him from Pennsylvania to Virginia to Georgia.

He played with Matchbox cars and auto racing video games. He remembers attending his first race at Dover when he was 6 years old — and he fell asleep in his mother’s lap. That was the extent of his early racing experience.

Instead, he played football and baseball. And his mom loved theater, so by age 5, Smithley was singing and acting, too. When he was a junior in high school, he landed the lead of Charlie in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Yes, that’s a musical.

His life changed when his parents brought him to an amusement park where he drove a go-kart at age 15.

“There was one turn that I remember,” Smithley says. “I was out toward the wall and drove into the corner, apexed the corner and hit the lines perfect and swung out to the wall. It was that corner, and I know it sounds cliché, but I was like, ‘Wow, that was really cool. I feel like I can do that for a living.’ ”

Somehow, his parents never doubted him — but they didn’t know how to go about helping their son get into the sport, either. So Smithley began googling. At Senoia Raceway, near his Peachtree City, Georgia, home, he learned he could test drive a Bandolero for $40.

“I spun out three times, but didn’t hit the wall,” Smithley remembers.

Eventually, that led to Smithley’s parents buying him a Bandolero — the one with the quote — as he tried to figure out how to race it. When he showed up to a practice race, he realized he still had a lot to learn. He didn’t have safety equipment. He wasn’t sure how anything worked.

“I didn’t know how to buckle myself in,” Smithley says. “We had to ask the next family over how to buckle me in. We had no idea what we were doing.”

Around that time, Tina Johnson first spotted Smithley zooming around the track — and wrecking often. The driving instructor who raced Legend and Bandolero cars for 15 years noticed the talented young kid who had no fear and plenty of drive. When Smithley came to her to ask for guidance, she was thrilled.

“You can see in kids the drive or if they’re scared,” she says. “Garrett never had that (fear). Every time I tell him to do something, he listened so well and he always saved his cars and was just a go-getter.”

She helped him learn the details of the sport, how to drive without wrecking, how to shift gears when he moved to a Legend car. In his first real race, he finished fourth.

“Probably it took me 15 minutes and Garrett knew how to drive a clutch system,” Johnson says. “That is not easy, but he had it. He is such a quick learner.”

When someone recommended Smithley attend the Richard Petty Driving Search in Charlotte in 2010, he didn’t hesitate. It wasn’t racing — he served as a driving instructor for the Richard Petty Driving Experience — but he’d still be around cars while in the epicenter of the sport in Charlotte. That was one step closer to NASCAR.

Smithley has dubbed his No. 0 Xfinity Series team #NumberNuthin. Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

During five years with the Richard Petty Driving Experience, Smithley focused on learning the business side of the sport — how to sell sponsorship, how to cold-call CEOs and ask for funding. All the while, he still dreamed of racing at the highest levels.

Brian Keselowski ran the Richard Petty Driving Experience and in late 2012, recommended that Smithley drive in an ARCA test session at Daytona.

“He was like two-tenths quicker than our other driver,” Keselowski said. “I still haven’t figured out how he did that. How did you do that at Daytona, of all places? It’s pretty much just a wide-open, hold-it-down track. I was pretty impressed with that.”

It was, it turns out, Smithley’s big break. He landed three ARCA races in 2013 from that test, and then four Gander Outdoors Truck Series races in 2015.

In 2016, he talked to Johnny Davis about driving three Xfinity Series races. That turned into 32 of 33 races that season, and he has been driving for JD Motorsports ever since. His best finish of fifth at Daytona last season buoyed his 22.1 average finish in 2018.

It is not the conventional route, Smithley realizes. He was patient and persistent and it worked.

“I did things completely backwards,” he admits.

• • •

Kyle Busch says Smithley “killed our day” last weekend in Las Vegas when his No. 18 Toyota found the rear bumper of Smithley’s No. 52 Rick Ware Racing Ford as he tried to maneuver around the lapped car late in the South Point 400.

“We’re the top echelon of motorsports and we’ve got guys that have never won Late Model races running out here on the race track,” Busch told reporters after finishing 19th. “It’s pathetic. They don’t know where to go.”

No, Smithley has never won a Late Model race. He never even raced in one. He took his unconventional route to NASCAR by finding sponsorship that helped him land his first Monster Energy Series race in 2018 at Michigan — where he drove 215 mph when he had never approached that speed before, and was in awe of who he was sitting next to at the driver meeting.

But Smithley still wants respect for where he is and how he got there.

STATS: Analyze Smithley’s career

“I completely understand Kyle’s frustration,” Smithley says. “I get why he was upset. He’s running for a championship; it’s high stakes. I totally get it. I wasn’t mad that he was upset. But I feel like I did everything in my power to hold my line. Two cars got around me and one didn’t.

“What I took offense to is when he calls my career into question, when he says, ‘Oh, guys who haven’t even won Late Model races are out here running the Cup Series.’ Yeah, I didn’t have the opportunity to run with the best of the best. He’s been in that position for a lot of years. Obviously he’s a great race car driver. There’s no question he’s one of the best out there and he’s a future Hall of Famer. I’m not taking anything away from that. I just haven’t had those opportunities.”

Held my line…2 cars got around 🤷🏼‍♂️ https://t.co/pZCRb4uFay

— Garrett Smithley (@GarrettSmithley) September 16, 2019

Smithley has only driven for smaller teams like StarCom Racing, Spire Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing in his Cup Series races.

“They do everything they can to be able to compete all race long and every week, but they’re probably short on engines and tires and all the things that make race cars go fast,” Keselowski says.

Smithley says there’s a special gratification that comes for driving for smaller teams and seeing the impact made by tiny gains. He sees the passion that drives smaller teams to still compete, and it inspires him.

Still, he wonders what might happen if he had a chance to drive for a bigger team.

“I kind of joked around, but I was serious when I said if Kyle put me in something he owned, Late Models or Trucks, there’s no question I could win,” Smithley says.

Hey, you never know. Patience, never give up.

Posted on September 19, 2019September 20, 2019 by Zack Albert

RICHMOND, Va. — A fairly clear division of power looms over this season’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, with Christopher Bell, Cole Custer and Tyler Reddick presiding as a tenacious trio at the top. Their regular-season dominance — 17 wins in 26 races — has afforded them a substantial insurance policy for the postseason.

They insist the path to clinching one of four championship-round berths at Homestead-Miami Speedway is no straightforward waltz.

“This year, we come in with the ‘Big Three’ and this and that, and you don’t want to let the pressure build up and you don’t want to be the guy that buckles under that pressure of well, he’s expected to be one of the final three at Homestead,” says Reddick, who won the Xfinity title last year with far less burden heading into the playoff hunt. “You’ve just got to phase that out and do your thing.

“I understand you’ve got to run it stage by stage and race by race and just be smart. We’re in a place to where it would be a gain to win, but it would be really, really bad if we had an error and didn’t finish a race.”

The battle to break up the so-called Big Three or claim the fourth seat at the Homestead table remained a prominent topic at Thursday’s Xfinity Series Playoffs Media Day at Richmond Raceway, site of Friday’s postseason-opening Go Bowling 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Bell carries the biggest bounty of playoff points — 55 — entering the seven-race postseason. Custer — like Bell, a six-time winner this year — and regular-season champ Reddick are tied with 44. Next on the list is Austin Cindric, a distant fourth with 17.

The scenario takes a page from last year’s Monster Energy Series Playoffs, which had its own Big Three in Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr., who combined to also go 17-for-26 in the regular season. All three navigated past the eliminations to reach the Championship 4 round.

The playoff points edge doesn’t equal immunity, something Bell knows well.

“Well, we definitely have the advantage, but last year was a rude awakening,” said Bell, who cruised through the first round last season before crashes in the first two races of the Round of 8 placed him in a precarious spot for the next-to-last race at ISM Raceway near Phoenix. In a must-win spot, he did. “… It happens fast, man. You get on the other side of it very, very fast.”

On the other side of the three, nine other drivers hope to wedge their way into the Homestead conversation. “We’ve been joking all day between the 12 of us, who’s going to be the fourth guy,” said Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley, who enters as the 10th seed. “No one’s really come up with a firm answer, but I hope it can be us.”

The rest of the field carries similar hopes, some with even greater aims.

“I don’t see why not. I’d like to think that we could be the first guy,” Cindric said. “That’s the best way to look at it in my opinion, because we don’t to just be part of the party, we want to be the best car. It’s understanding that these next seven races what it’s going to take to be that best car, whether that’s executing races and putting ourselves in position or going out and winning races.

“The goal, yes, is to make the Championship 4 and then go run the best you can, but at the same time, if you can be better than those three other guys that’ve pretty much swept the whole regular season, that’s how you win a championship, for sure.”

Posted on September 19, 2019December 18, 2019 by Terrin Waack

Joey Gase can turn a penny into a dollar.

Not literally, of course. The 26-year-old isn’t a magician. He’s a driver.

But the way Gase is able to stretch every cent given to MBM Motorsports, one of the smaller organizations in NASCAR, he might as well be both.

“Our team owner always jokes that he knows at the last minute, at the last hour, he can always rely on Joey to come up with some kind of money for that race weekend to help the team,” said Ryan Bell, crew chief of Gase’s No. 35 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series. “And it’s almost not a joke. Whether it be $2,000 or $10,000, it always seems like at the last minute we’re putting a (sponsor) sticker on, and every penny helps in our situation.

“That’s what sets him apart, and that’s why his career has lasted as long as it has.”

Nine years and counting.

Gase broke into the NASCAR national series scene in 2011 and has since notched 233 starts in the Xfinity Series, 38 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and four in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series. He became a full-time Xfinity Series racer in 2014, with a highlighted fifth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway in 2015.

At the time of his only career top five, Gase was with Jimmy Means Racing, another small team. He started that race 39th (out of 40 cars) and navigated his way toward the front as laps dwindled down, with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Monster Energy Series practice tires on his car — they were used, but better than what Gase could otherwise afford.

That late charge showed what Gase could do with nicer equipment.

So when top-tier drivers from bigger teams question Gase’s legitimacy and put him in the spotlight — like Kyle Busch did following the race at Las Vegas — the digs can get frustrating.

“Would I love to be in a Joe Gibbs (Racing) car tomorrow? Absolutely,” Gase told NASCAR.com. “That’s my ultimate goal. But at the same time, I’m here. I’m in NASCAR. And I’m having fun trying to live the dream and make the most out of what I have the best I can.”

• • •

Ten years ago, Gase won the late-model championship at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Iowa. He drove a 2004 Port City Racecar a family friend bought for $20,000 and gave to him. There was no team backing.

“It was just me, my dad, my uncle and my grandpa on my crew,” Gase said.

And then anyone his father could convince to help out after work — literally. He went into local restaurants and bars asking for volunteers. People did show up.

The Gases really put everything into Joey’s racing career. Mother Mary Jo was a hair stylist, but made it to every event before she died in 2011. His father Bob left a job at the power plant after 25 years, not wanting to miss a single moment. Younger sister Ashley helped from a public-relations standpoint once old enough. Uncle Jim didn’t have any kids of his own, so Joey received full attention. Clearly even the grandparents were involved if grandpa was on the crew.

“It’s a family story,” said Kevin Korsmo, the race promoter at Hawkeye Downs. “Where you see one, you see them all.”

Korsmo knows the Gases well, too. He raced against Bob for more than 10 years before Bob got out from the driver’s seat and let Joey take the wheel at 8 years old.

Hawkeye Downs, which has been around for nearly 95 years now, was the family’s local track. There, from past to present, Joey won his first-ever Jr1 Go Karts event in 2001 and raced his dad for the first time in 2019. It’s where he made a name for himself.

“Every little kid’s dream was to make racing a full-time thing,” Korsmo said. “You never think too much about it because around these parts in Iowa, we’ve had some success stories, like Landon Cassill and Michael Annett, but it’s just something most of us know we’re going out racing to have a good time. He made more of it. I was really impressed with how hard he worked to get where he is.”

After the late-model championship, Joey’s name started making rounds. He was introduced to one person after another until he ultimately met Archie St. Hilaire, who now owns Go FAS Racing.

Joey made his NASCAR national debut on Aug. 6, 2011, finishing 20th at Iowa Speedway in the Xfinity Series, and was then asked to do four more races that season — the beginning of his career.

“I’m like, ‘Joey, we can’t afford this. How much is it going to cost?’ ” Bob said. “It went from that to just so overwhelmed with happiness. I’m sure right after he left, I probably turned around and started crying just because he worked so hard and we all worked so hard. That was a dream come true.”

• • •

Less than a week ago, Gase finished 38th in the Monster Energy Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He drove an old Hendrick Motorsports car that was originally bought from HScott Motorsports before it shut down at the end of the 2016 season.

“That just shows you how old some of our equipment is compared to the top teams that build a new car every single week,” said Joey, noting his team put on only two tires in the last 150 laps of the 267-lap race because that was all the budget allowed.

Meanwhile, South Point 400 winner Martin Truex Jr. pitted with 37 laps to go and switched out four tires.

“Joey, in that same situation, can perform at the same level,” Bell said. “It’s hard because fans don’t understand that. They look at a guy who finishes 33rd every week and say, ‘Man, that guy is such a terrible driver.’ No. He’s not a terrible driver.”

Look at Brad Keselowski in the 2007 Xfinity Series season. He did 13 races with Keith Coleman Racing, with an average finish of 35.5. Keselowski then joined JR Motorsports, a bigger team, for 14 races and increased his average finish to a 17.9.

Not many, if any, would call Keselowski a bad driver. But even he had to go through a rough patch before catching a break and eventually working his way up to being crowned the 2012 Monster Energy Series champion.

“You can’t just say, ‘Well, I don’t have $20 million. I could never race,’ ” Bob said. “That doesn’t look good for the younger kids in the world, those with dads that don’t have a business or millions of dollars. Are they supposed to just quit racing if they can’t win a race? That’s the bad part about everything. I don’t want NASCAR to have an image that if you’re not rich, you’re never going to do it. Because that’s not true.”

It just takes more effort.

Out of the three days a week he’s home, Joey stops by the shop at least once to help with the car setup, or “all the fluff-and-bull parts” as Bell described it. When he’s not there, Joey is talking with sponsors — the team has 30 this season. At the track itself, he gets involved with the tedious stuff, such as double checking that everything is up to code and pushing the car through inspection itself.

There aren’t enough hands right now, so Joey lends one where he can.

“Joey, over the years, has really adapted to racing under these circumstances,” Bell said. “I’m telling you, it takes a special driver to do it. I’ve worked with a lot of them, and some of them can’t adapt — can’t find that kind of magic.”

Posted on September 19, 2019September 19, 2019 by Staff Report

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron is in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the first time in his career. It appears many more postseason appearances are in store for the rising young star — and through 2021, at least, Liberty University will be along for the ride.

Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday that Liberty University is extending its sponsorship of Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for two years. Liberty’s livery will be the primary sponsor for 12 races in both 2020 and 2021.

The 2018 Sunoco Rookie of the Year is 21 years old and a junior at the college, working toward an undergraduate business communications degree via Liberty’s online program.

MORE: Current standings

“Liberty University has been a big part of my racing career and progression through NASCAR from basically the beginning,” Byron said in a team release. “Their support on and off the track, including with my studies, has been monumental. They’ve been with me through numerous accomplishments, including race wins and championships, and I’m glad we were able to add to that list this season by making it into my first Cup Series playoffs. I’m excited about Liberty being back on board with the No. 24 team, and I look forward to what the future holds for us.”

In his first season with seven-time champion Chad Knaus atop the pit box, Byron has logged three top-five finishes and 10 top 10s through 27 races. He currently sits ninth in the standings, with two races remaining in the Round of 16 — the playoff field will be trimmed from 16 drivers to 12 following the race at the Charlotte Road Course on Sept. 29.

RELATED: More on Byron

Byron won seven races in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2016, then followed that with a four-win Xfinity Series campaign in 2017, culminating in winning the series championship in Miami. Liberty sponsored Byron for 17 races that year, including the championship-deciding season finale. The school has sponsored Byron since 2014, when he drove late model stock cars.

“We have been by William Byron’s side as he’s risen through the ranks at a young age, and it is an honor to continue to support one of our very own in his career,” said Jerry Falwell, president of Liberty University. “William and Hendrick Motorsports have always been a perfect fit for Liberty University. We share the same values and are committed to the same mission that makes champions on the racetrack and champions in life.”

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Staff Report

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs continue this weekend at Richmond Raceway with the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The race marks the second race in the Round of 16 for the drivers vying for a title.

This second race of the three-race Round of 16 is on the 0.75-mile D-shaped, asphalt short track. The standings had a major shakeup after last weekend’s playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Martin Truex Jr. was victorious and punched his ticket to the next round.

Here is the rest of the need-to-know information for Saturday’s action under the lights.

TRACK DETAILS

Richmond Raceway’s first race was on April 19, 1953 and was won by Lee Petty. Since the inaugural race, Richmond has hosted a race every year since 1955 and two races a year since 1959. The 0.75-mile track has 14-degree banking in corners, eight-degree banking on the frontstretch and two-degree banking on the backstretch. The frontstretch is 1,290 feet long and the backstretch is 860 feet. Richard Petty holds the track record for most wins with 13.

RULES PACKAGE

The race at Richmond will feature the 2019 rules package with no aero ducts and a tapered-spacer engine generating a targeted 750 horsepower.

Each team will be provided with three sets of Goodyear Eagle Intermediate Radial tires for practice, one set for qualifying and 10 sets for the 400-mile race (nine, plus one transferred from practice or qualifying).

Richmond Raceway is a high tire wear track so Goodyear is focused on selecting tread compounds that rubber-in the surface to create various grooves on the race track.

“Richmond is simply one of the more high-wear tracks on the NASCAR circuit,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “What we’ve seen this year with this higher downforce package, with the cars more ‘in the track’ and with less lateral slip, wear is down a bit compared to 2018. Saying that, tires are still very important at Richmond. The tread compounds we bring do a good job rubbering in the track, creating multiple racing grooves throughout the race.”

STATS

Saturday night’s race will mark the fifth short-track race of the season and there have been four different winners, four different pole winners and four different drivers who have finished second.
Kyle Busch has the most short-track wins among active drivers with 16, followed by Jimmie Johnson with 14 and Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin with 10.
Joe Gibbs Racing drivers won the last three races on short tracks and they have also won nine of the last 18 night races.
Only three drivers — Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer — have finished in the top 10 in all four short-track races in 2019.

Source: Racing Insights

LIVE COVERAGE

This weekend’s race will air live Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and streamed on the NBC Sports App. Radio coverage can be found on MRN 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

Kyle Busch is the defending race winner at Richmond. Busch started 11th and went on to lead 92 laps. There were only three cautions for 23 laps during the race. Kevin Harvick finished in second and Martin Truex Jr. finished in third. Joey Logano, the defending series champion, finished 14th.

ACTIVE RICHMOND WINNERS

Kyle Busch, six times; Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, three times; Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, two times; Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, one time each.

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Staff Report

NASCAR on Wednesday lifted the suspension of driver Bayley Currey, who has successfully completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery Program after a violation of the sanctioning body’s substance abuse policy.

NASCAR announced Aug. 15 that Currey had been suspended indefinitely. The 22-year-old driver was required to complete the Road to Recovery Program before reinstatement and receiving clearance to resume competition.

Currey has made 47 NASCAR national series starts in his career – 19 in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, and nine in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. His best career finish is a sixth-place run this year in the Gander Trucks race at Michigan.

Currey’s nine Cup Series starts all have come this season for Rick Ware Racing.

Upon announcement of his suspension, Currey said in a statement that he had used a pre-workout supplement called Juggernaut Irate, which contained a banned substance called DMAA (2-Amino-5-methylhexane).

“I was obviously not aware that I was violating NASCAR’s Substance Abuse Policy,” Currey said at the time. “I have immediately asked NASCAR to enter me into the Road to Recovery Program where I will gain more knowledge about such banned supplements and I will fully cooperate with NASCAR’s direction and advice.”

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Staff Report

NASCAR penalized three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams and two NASCAR Xfinity Series teams on Wednesday for having one lug nut not safe and secure following the weekend’s races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for driver Aric Almirola, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for driver Kyle Busch and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for driver Alex Bowman were all found with lug-nut violations during post-race inspection at the track.

As a result, all crew chiefs were fined $10,000 – John Klausmeier of the No. 10, Adam Stevens of the No. 18 and Greg Ives of the No. 88.

RELATED: Playoff check post-Vegas

Additionally, the No. 9 Chevrolet of driver Noah Gragson and the No. 19 Toyota of driver Brandon Jones in the NASCAR Xfinity Series also had one lug nut not safe and secure.

Crew chiefs Dave Elenz (No. 9) and Jeff Meendering (No. 19) were both fined $5,000.

Additionally, driver Bayley Currey has successfully completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program and his NASCAR suspension has been lifted.

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Staff Report

NASCAR’s top regional and international drivers converge on “The Magic Mile” this weekend for a unique tripleheader, and race fans around the world can follow all the action on FansChoice.tv

The second annual Full Throttle Fall Weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host 475 laps of racing across three championship events.

MORE: Watch on FansChoice

• The NASCAR Pinty’s Series will kick off the event with the Visit New Hampshire 100 at 12:05 p.m. ET. Defending race winner Kevin Lacroix holds a slim two-point lead over two-time champion Andrew Ranger heading into the penultimate event of the Canadian stock car championship. The race will be streamed on TSN GO app for residents in Canada and on FansChoice.TV elsewhere.

• The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East takes a step closer to crowning its 2019 champion with the Apple Barrel 125 at 1:20 p.m. Teenager Sam Mayer has a 30-point cushion with two races remaining. Last year, fans watched Brandon McReynolds – son of FOX analyst Larry McReynolds – take the checkered flag, and witnessed the coronation of 2018 champion and current NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series playoff driver Tyler Ankrum.

• The tripleheader will culminate with the main event, the Musket 250 presented by Whelen Engineering for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. The $25,000-to-win, high-stakes marathon will take the green at approximately 3:05 p.m.

RELATED: More Home Tracks coverage

The longest race on the tour schedule, last year’s inaugural Musket 250 was settled in the final turn of the final lap as current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rookie Ryan Preece and eventual tour champion Justin Bonsignore got together and crashed racing for the lead, allowing Chase Dowling to skate by and claim his first career tour win.

With three races remaining, including Saturday at New Hampshire, Doug Coby holds a 19-point lead on Bonsignore as he chases his sixth NASCAR Whelen Modified title. Coby and Bonsignore have combined to win nine of 13 races this season.

The full day of racing of racing with the Full Throttle Fall Weekend on FansChoice.tv leads into Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway at 7:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Fans in New England can grab their tickets to the weekend (BUY TICKETS) and watch the FansChoice.tv stream from their seats on their tablet or mobile device.

Posted on September 18, 2019September 18, 2019 by Pat DeCola

With one race down in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, we’re already seeing some drivers sweating their playoff positioning while others surprisingly find themselves on the right side of the bubble … for now.

After a wacky night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that saw four playoff drivers finish 19th or worse, including the regular-season champion, NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola and Terrin Waack make their cases for which drivers should be the most panicked heading to Richmond Raceway (Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

DECOLA: For a quick minute there, it was starting to look like Clint Bowyer might be the dark horse of the NASCAR Playoffs, picking up steam at precisely the right time to set himself up for a deep postseason run. Heck, he even won the opening pole of the ’19 playoffs — his first in 12 years. He then went out and led just one lap from said pole, pulling into the garage after the race with an uninspiring 25th-place result.

The Stewart-Haas Racing cars are fast, obviously, and seemingly gaining momentum after the four-car organization swept qualifying by putting the quartet in the front two rows. Time and again, though, Kevin Harvick (finished second) is the only one of the four to consistently harness that power and turn in strong finishes week-to-week.

The book isn’t closed on Bowyer, for sure, as he’s capable of winning at Richmond (two wins, P3 there earlier this year) and he’s among the better road racers in the series, with the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval looming — his scored a top five there last year. He needs to rebound in a big way, however, if he wants to be on the right side of the bubble a couple of weeks from now.

WAACK: It sure seems like Aric Almirola has slid under the radar this entire season. There was never really a question of whether he’d make the playoffs, which he did, but he was never guaranteed a spot either, considering he has not won a race in 2019.

Right now, Almirola is right above the cutline — safe by six points in 12th. Below him is Ryan Newman. The two of them, apart from the difference in points, practically have the same stats. Both own one top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. Almirola’s slight edge comes from a single stage win and more laps led overall.

There could easily be a switcheroo on the cutline before the Round of 12. Newman is on a much more steady roll. The No. 6 has pulled off five top-10 showings in the last 10 races, while the No. 10 has just one during that span. Almirola was performing his best at the beginning of the season — six top 10s in the first seven races — but this is the end of the season.

Posted on September 17, 2019 by PJ Walsh

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Martin Truex Jr. scored the first win of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs last weekend in Las Vegas, and is hoping to make it back-to-back wins Saturday night in Richmond.

Truex won this race in the spring, and is unsurprisingly among the favorites at the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.

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 April race at Richmond Raceway.

1. Which playoff driver earns the higher finish: Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin?

This is close, but I’ll take Busch and his +300 odds to win the race over Hamlin’s +600.

Pick: Busch

2. Will all top-10 finishers be playoff drivers? Yes or No?

Daniel Suarez and Jimmie Johnson — both +8000 — have the best betting odds to win Saturday’s race among the drivers not currently in the playoffs.

Considering neither finished top 10 in the spring, I’m not very optimistic that a non-playoff driver finishes up there.

Pick: Yes

3. Toyota has won six of the last eight Richmond races. Will Toyota win again this weekend? Yes or No?

I typically don’t like taking one manufacturer over the field, but am going to make an exception here. Toyota drivers Kyle Busch (+300), Martin Truex Jr. (+500) and Denny Hamlin (+600) are on the short list of race favorites, with Erik Jones still in the mix at +1600.