Posted on by Staff Report

There is going to be a new driver and team combination in town when the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rolls into New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Musket 250 presented by Whelen next month.

Woody Pitkat will team with Eddie Harvey Racing for the longest race of the season, and will also drive the No. 1 for the final two races of the year at Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.

The hope is that the combination will make a run at the Whelen Modified Tour title in 2020.

“It’s just been a 10 year friendship and the timing is right,” Harvey told NASCAR.com. “For the last three years, every time we have come north to race, I’ve been going out to dinner with Woody at least one of the nights. How we have never come together before is beyond me, but we never really thought about it.”

Pitkat is no stranger to winning success. He has four career Whelen Modified Tour wins, with the most recent of them coming with Danny Watts Racing this season in May at Wall Stadium Speedway in New Jersey. He’s a former NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track champion at both Stafford and Thompson as well.

RACING-REFERENCE: Woody Pitkat Career Stats

“I think it’s a good deal,” Pitkat told NASCAR.com. “I’ve had a long relationship with Eddie back since I was running with David Hill and going down south. Eddie called me and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m fortunate enough that he is giving me the opportunity to do it.”

This season, Harvey has competed in 10 of the 11 races with three different drivers behind the wheel. Burt Myers drove the car to four finishes inside the top seven in the first four races of the season, before chasing and eventually earning his 10th NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Modified championship at Bowman Gray Stadium. Jeff Rocco and George Brunnhoelzl III have also competed for the North Carolina based car owner.

Harvey is a former championship car owner on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour.

“I’ve never really driven an LFR car in a race, I practiced Bobby Santos’ a few times, but I’ve never been able to race it. I’m looking forward to something new, and I’ve seen what the LFR brand has accomplished on the tour,” Pitkat said. “You’ve seen what some of the people who have switched have done. Every time I have talked to Eddie has been really fun. I’m hoping we will be good right off the trailer.”

Pitkat and Harvey have picked the most prestigious race of the 16-event championship points schedule to begin their pairing. The Musket 250 presented by Whelen puts drivers, equipment and teams to the test, with live pit stops and strategy playing a major role in the final laps.

“They finished third in the race last year and I think it was the first time Burt Myers had ever seen the place,” Pitkat said. “The race comes down the strategy, and if anything, it will give me a chance to get acclimated to the equipment. We will have to stay on the lead lap and be in contention at the end. I’m going to places like Loudon, Thompson and Stafford, and I feel like those are my key tracks.”

“I just want to give him an opportunity to turn it up and have some good races under him,” Harvey said.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC - MARCH 16: Burt Myers, driver of the #1 Vestal Buick GMC Chevrolet, during qualifying for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Performance Plus 150 presented by Safety-Kleen on March 16, 2019 at Myrtle Beach Speedway in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Posted on by Staff Report

Eric Goodale might be fifth in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship standings, but he isn’t letting that number put him at ease. He wants to win. Badly.

The Riverhead, New York, driver has two top five finishes in the first 11 races of the season, but he scored both of them at the beginning of the season. He wants to turn it around when the Whelen Modified Tour returns to Oswego Speedway on Saturday for the Mod Classic 150 presented by McDonald’s.

“We’re having our best points year, which is cool, but not cool, because I’ve been really disappointed in our finishes this year,” Goodale said. “Two years ago we were contending for wins on the regular. That’s why you race, that’s why we show up. It’s fun to do, and I love and enjoy doing it. At the end of the day, you show up to win the race. We just haven’t been putting ourselves in position.”

RACING-REFERENCE: Eric Goodale’s 2019 Season

The last two races definitely haven’t been what Goodale was looking for. At Stafford, he was running inside the top 10 on the final lap when contact sent him into the wall, forcing him to not finish. At Thompson, the team struggled and finished outside the top 10.

“We just haven’t had the speed in the cars — we haven’t deserved to win based off our speed. Jason (his crew chief) and I have worked together a lot. It’s been a hard year. We’ve had some solid finishes to walk away with and have a good ride home, but at the end of the day, not winning races is getting old really quick,” Goodale said.

“We got wrecked at Stafford and totally destroyed the car we’ve been racing with and we had to bring out the backup car at Thompson and we had a lot of issues. That was a tough race for us and it set us back a lot.”

Oswego Speedway | Classic Weekend Schedule

For now, Goodale is looking forward. He has two consecutive top five finishes at Oswego, and he’s hoping that this Saturday’s event pans out the same way.

“We’re pinning a lot on this race to get our ship back together,” Goodale said. “I can tell you that we are not lacking anything off the track, we’re doing everything we need to do. Some of it is probably me as a driver, some of it might be the car. Everything isn’t quite working the way I know that it can. We are looking at every aspect of what we are doing to see if we can find the little bit extra. We have a few tricks up our sleeve.”

Oswego is one of the venues on the Whelen Modified Tour schedule that Goodale says is unlike any of the others. Saturday’s race puts the series on the big stage as part of the track’s annual Classic Weekend, which also includes major Supermodified events.

“It’s fun, and it’s bumpy as (expletive),” Goodale said. “You have the raised interior wall all the way around the track that keeps you honest. It’s really easy to get pinched in there with your left-front. There is no nicking that wall — you can completely tear the left-front right off your car. It adds a whole dynamic.”

“It’s also two completely different turns. Everyone feeds on the bottom in turns one and two, but in three and four, everyone wants to enter on the bottom and you push up the hill. You want to run the bottom, but you don’t have much grip. It’s tough. That’s where the opportunities for passing happen.”

With five races left, Goodale’s chances of winning the Whelen Modified Tour championship might be slipping away. But he has one major goal in mind, and all his attention is towards it.

“I want to win a damn race,” Goodale said. “The points will take care of itself, and I want to finish top five in points. But I honestly just want to win a damn race.”

NASCAR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR NEWS & NOTES:

  • The leader of lap 80 in Saturday’s Toyota Mod Classic 150 presented by McDonald’s is going to earn some extra cash. Through a fundraiser organized by Carol Haynes and racing photographer Fran Lawlor, $2,480 will be awarded to the leader of that one lap. The original idea was created by Mary Hodge, longtime racing photographer and wife of Howie Hodge, who passed in 2017, to celebrate Howie’s 80th birthday. Mary passed at the beginning of this season, but Haynes and Lawlor are following up on her wishes.
  • As first reported by RaceDayCT, Chase Dowling will drive the No. 82 for Danny Watts, after Watts and driver Woody Pitkat parted ways earlier this week. Dowling has five starts this season driving for Jamie Tomaino, where he’s finished on the podium twice. Pitkat had one victory driving the car at Wall Stadium Speedway in May.
  • Amy Catalano is entered in her attempt to make her first career Whelen Modified Tour start at Oswego. Catalano attempted to qualify at Stafford Motor Speedway on August 2, but missed the field. She’s a modified regular in New York and has multiple NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track titles to her credit.

I want to say thank you to everyone for being a part of the 80th birthday memorial for my father. Thank you Fran Lawlor…

Posted by Kevin Hodge on Monday, August 19, 2019

Posted on by Terrin Waack

There’s a first time for everything, especially when details are so specific.

And for the first time in NASCAR history, a team has three drivers with four wins each through 24 races in a single season. Think about that: One team can stake claim on half the victories this year. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. are to thank for that milestone, combing for 12 checkered flags.

POWER RANKINGS: Bristol to Darlington

To quickly rehash who won what and where: Hamlin got things started at the Daytona 500, then he also made it to Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway (second race) and Bristol Motor Speedway (second race). Busch went back-to-back at ISM Raceway and Auto Club Speedway and then won the first races at Bristol Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway. Truex’s first win was at Richmond Raceway, followed by Dover International Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Sonoma Raceway.

Hamlin is the most recent winner – the Bristol Night Race was two weeks ago, right before the off weekend. Truex last won June 23. Busch goes even further back to June 2.

This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Darlington Raceway, where the trio combines for four wins total, for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin won in 2010 and 2017. Truex was the 2016 winner. Busch’s crown jewel Darlington win dates back more than a decade – 2008.

Truex was racing for Furniture Row Racing at the time of his Darlington triumph, and that team was a JGR affiliate.

So, taking that fact into consideration, JGR and company have essentially won four of the last six races at Darlington. Make that six of the last 11, going back to Busch’s win. To ignore the affiliation, just subtract a win – Truex’s – from those numbers.

JGR is good for six Darlington victories overall on its own. The others came from Bobby Labonte in 2000, Matt Kenseth in 2013 and Carl Edwards in 2015. (Just to note: Hendrick Motorsports has the most at 14.) It wouldn’t be surprising if that tally goes up to seven this weekend.

RELATED: Who’s the Southern 500 favorite?

Hamlin has the best all-time average finish at Darlington – 6.2 in 13 starts – and has only ended outside the top 10 twice in his career. Truex and Busch have finished 11th or better in the last four races there. Busch stretches that to nine races, too.

And then there’s the fourth driver at JGR: Erik Jones, who has yet to win a race this season.

With only two Darlington starts under his belt, Jones holds the second-best average finish (6.5). He was fifth in 2017 and eighth in 2018. Even in the Xfinity Series he never wound up outside the top 10 at this track.

The 1.366-miler in South Carolina is one of two regular-season races left before the 16-driver playoff field is set. Obviously Hamlin, Busch and Truex have solidified their spots in the postseason with their respective wins. Busch sits first in the championship standings with 932 points, while Hamlin is third (855) and Truex is fourth (838). Jones is further down in 14th with 646 points – safe, for now.

Jones can clinch a spot in the 2019 NASCAR Playoffs at Darlington if he scores 54 points and a winner repeats or if he scores 54 points and Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Aric Almirola or Ryan Newman wins. Jones could also clinch with a new winner and subpar performances by his closest competition. Or, simply put, he can win his way in.

Not a single multi-car team right now has had all of its drivers make it to Victory Lane, but Joe Gibbs Racing is closing in on just that.

Posted on by Staff Report

For the third straight week, Bubba Wallace’s throwback paint scheme for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) holds a lead atop the “Best In Show” vote.

VOTE: Darlington paint scheme ‘ Best In Show’

Wallace’s No. 43 Chevrolet honoring Adam Petty maintained a lead on the pack, nearly doubling his vote total in the span of a week.

William Byron’s “Days of Thunder” neon green look remains steadfast in second, as well, while Alex Bowman’s No. 88 Chevrolet honoring the late Tim Richmond has moved into third place overall.

Chase Elliott’s No. 9 in honor of his father, Awesome Bill, previously had that distinction, but was outpaced by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Bowman, who earned the most votes over the past week.

The next-closest is Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 nod to Darrell Waltrip, but he’s got some ground to make up.

Want to make sure your favorite scheme has a shot at taking the honors? Be sure to get those votes in before the polls close Aug. 30.

PHOTOS: See the throwback schemes 

Posted on by
No. Driver Sponsor Make Organization
00 Landon Cassill StarCom Fiber Chevrolet StarCom Racing
1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet Accessories Chevrolet Chip Ganassi Racing
2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford Team Penske
3 Austin Dillon American Ethanol Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing
4 Kevin Harvick Busch Beer / Big Buck Hunter Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
6 Ryan Newman Oscar Mayer / Velveeta Ford Roush Fenway Racing
8 Daniel Hemric Caterpillar Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing
9 Chase Elliott NAPA Throwback Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Darlington Throwback Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Pennzoil Ford Team Penske
13 Ty Dillon GEICO Chevrolet Germain Racing
14 Clint Bowyer Rush Truck Centers / Mobil 1 Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
15 Ross Chastain TBA Chevrolet Premium Motorsports
17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Dog’s Most Wanted Ford Roush Fenway Racing
18 Kyle Busch Snickers Throwback Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
20 Erik Jones Sports Clips Throwback Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
21 Paul Menard Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford Wood Brothers Racing
22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford Team Penske
24 William Byron City Chevrolet Throwback Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
27 Joe Nemechek TBA Chevrolet Premium Motorsports
32 Corey LaJoie CorvetteParts.net Ford Go Fas Racing
34 Michael McDowell Dockside Logistics Ford Front Row Motorsports
36 Matt Tifft Hilliker Glass / Surface Ford Front Row Motorsports
37 Chris Buescher Kroger Fast Lane to Flavor Chevrolet JTG Daugherty Racing
38 David Ragan Shriners Hospital for Children Ford Front Row Motorsports
41 Daniel Suarez Haas Automation Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
42 Kyle Larson Clover Chevrolet Chip Ganassi Racing
43 Bubba Wallace Victory Junction 15th Anniversary Chevrolet Richard Petty Motorsports
47 Ryan Preece Kroger Chevrolet JTG Daugherty Racing
48 Jimmie Johnson Ally Throwback Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
51 BJ McLeod Jacob Companies Ford Petty Ware Racing
52 JJ Yeley Jacob companies Ford Rick Ware Racing
54 Garrett Smithley AQRE Chevrolet Rick Ware Racing
66 Joey Gase MBM Motorsports Toyota MBM
77 Reed Sorenson Motor Racing Network Chevrolet Spire Motorsports
88 Alex Bowman Axalta Throwback Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
95 Matt DiBenedetto No. 95 IMSA GTO Throwback Toyota Leavine Family Racing
Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials announced penalties Tuesday to the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing team in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series after last weekend’s event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The No. 52 Chevrolet driven by Stewart Friesen to a seventh-place finish Sunday was found with one lug nut not safely secured in a post-race check. As a result, competition officials issued a $2,500 fine to crew chief Tripp Bruce III.

Friesen ranks third among the eight championship-eligible drivers in the Gander Trucks playoff field. The series resumes Sept. 13 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Dippel suspended | Borland out indefinitely

Also noted on this week’s penalty report are indefinite suspensions to Gander Trucks driver Tyler Dippel and Monster Energy Series crew chief Matt Borland. Both were issued behavioral penalties, backdated to Aug. 22.

Posted on by Staff Report

Brittany Logano revealed the retro paint scheme for her husband Joey’s No. 22 Ford for Darlington Raceway on Tuesday, introducing a look that pays homage to Kevin Harvick’s 2007 car design with a winking acknowledgement of their once-fierce rivalry.

Harvick drove a yellow-and-red Richard Childress Racing No. 29 entry to victory in the 2007 Daytona 500. In Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), those Shell-Pennzoil colors will adorn Joey Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

RELATED: Darlington schedule | Throwback gallery

The paint scheme was unveiled with a humorous nod that referenced the height of the Logano-Harvick difference of opinions. In June 2010 at Pocono Raceway, Logano was on the receiving end of late-race contact from Harvick, prompting the then-20-year-old Logano to lash out at the Harvick family in post-race interviews.

Logano took special aim at Harvick’s wife, DeLana, who at the time was a regular fixture atop the team pit box wearing a fire suit that matched her husband’s. Logano’s post-race shot: “I don’t know what his deal is with me, but it’s probably not his fault. His wife wears the fire suit in the family and tells him what to do, so it’s probably not his fault.”

Brittany Logano references the line in the video before motioning her husband out of frame.

Posted on by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In a one-of-a-kind NASCAR tradition, the venerable Darlington Raceway’s NASCAR Throwback Weekend allows the sport’s best of today to honor the greats of yesterday.

With the nod to great history, the Bojangles’ Southern 500 (Sept. 1, 6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) continues to be a must-see event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series calendar for fans and a highly-anticipated race for the competitors – both in the garage with special paint schemes and on the South Carolina race track with only two regular-season races remaining before the 2019 NASCAR Playoffs field is set.

Fans have a chance to vote for what they consider the best car at recreating the sport’s historic vibe. Voting continues until Aug. 30 on NASCAR.com and, judging by the effort teams have put into this unique weekend, deciding for whom to back is no easy task.

VOTE: Favorite Darlington throwback scheme

Among the compelling nods to the past, defending Darlington race winner Brad Keselowski will be steering a black No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a paint scheme that pays tribute to the car’s former driver, NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.

The famous No. 2 is from Wallace’s 1996 season – a five-win campaign – one of 11 multi-win seasons in Wallace’s celebrated Cup championship career. Keselowski drove a tribute to Wallace’s 1990 car – the No. 27 owned by Raymond Beadle – to his first Southern 500 win a year ago.

The previous 2017 season, in Darlington’s throwback race, Keselowski drove a paint scheme honoring one of Wallace’s “favorites” – a car the Hall of Famer nicknamed “Midnight.” That car was so special to Wallace that he included it in his NASCAR Hall of Fame exhibit in 2012. Wallace drove it – as both a Pontiac and Ford – in his two winningest seasons – a 10-victory effort in 1993 and an eight-win mark in 1994.

Two-time Darlington winner Denny Hamlin will also be honoring a NASCAR Hall of Famer. His No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will look like three-time Cup champion Darrell Waltrip’s former race car. For six years, Waltrip drove a No. 11 race car, and while Hamlin concedes Waltrip was often the rival of his favorite driver growing up – Bill Elliott – Hamlin was eager to pay respects to Waltrip this way.

“I grew up a huge Bill Elliott fan and he was one of the toughest competitors, Darrell Waltrip was,’’ Hamlin said at his car’s unveiling in June. “One of my best friends at the time, we grew up watching racing and his favorite driver was Darrell Waltrip. So we would always be sparring back and forth each week whether it be at school or wherever, talking about his driver versus my driver.

“I’ve grown to really like Darrell and everything he represents, and to give 40 years of his life, not only to racing, but he transformed the sport in so many different ways, that’s just an honor to be able to know him and see him off into the sunset.’’

Waltrip retired from the NASCAR on FOX booth earlier this year.

MORE: See all the throwback schemes

One of the cars receiving a huge amount of worthy attention and social media buzz in recent weeks is Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 Petty Motorsports Ford, which will carry the livery of the late Adam Petty at Darlington.

Instead of the famed Petty Blue normally outfitted on the No. 43, the car will be orange, green, purple and yellow – the paint scheme of Adam Petty’s race-winning car from the 1998 ARCA Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Petty, son of Kyle and grandson of Richard, was killed in May 2000 at the age of 19 in a practice session accident at New Hampshire Motor Speedway just as his promising young career was taking off.

“It’s truly an honor and top throwback that I’ve been a part of and knowing the history behind the Petty family and Adam’s vision and seeing it come to life at Victory Junction,’’ Wallace said at the unveiling ceremony earlier this month. “I think this really speaks for Adam and what his vision was. I was too young to know him and I feel like we would have had a great time to grow together to bring this organization back to where it needs to be.’’

Three of the four Stewart-Haas Racing Fords will race with the paint schemes of team owner Tony Stewart from when he won his three Cup championships (2002, 2005 and 2011). Aric Almirola’s No. 10 Ford will carry the livery from Stewart’s 2002 season when the soon-to-be-inducted NASCAR Hall of Fame selection won three races and his maiden Cup championship.

SHR driver Daniel Suarez will steer the No. 41 Ford in Stewart’s 2005 championship livery. Stewart won five races and earned 25 top-10 finishes in 36 races that year, a personal best top-10 mark for the champ.

And lastly, veteran Clint Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford will resemble Stewart’s 2011 championship-winning car. It was one of the most dramatic title runs in NASCAR history, with Stewart – who had been winless in the regular season – hoisting five trophies in the 10-race playoffs, including the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale winner’s hardware. The three-time champion would retire from full-time Cup racing five seasons later.

“It’s really cool to see all three of these cars together,’’ Stewart said when the team unveiled the looks earlier this month. “I’ve got all three of these championship cars, but not together, so to see these race at Darlington will be really cool and bring back a lot of memories. It just makes me smile.’’

RELATED: Comparing throwbacks from 2015 on

For other competitors, the opportunity to emulate a paint scheme is truly personal. Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, for example, will honor their own racing fathers – NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott on Chase’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and legendary sprint car driver and NASCAR competitor Dave Blaney on Ryan’s No. 12 Penske Racing Ford. Both drivers’ cars will carry the paint schemes from their fathers’ former rides.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones will also invoke a more personal throwback. His No. 20 Toyota will carry a paint scheme similar to the car he drove in his rookie Late Model season.

Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will also be fielding a sentimental throwback – his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will carry the same colors and design as one of the off-road trucks he raced before landing his opportunity in NASCAR’s big leagues. Johnson ran the truck – nicknamed “Butch” – in several Baja 1000 Trophy Truck class races in 1995, earning the SCORE Rookie of the Year honors as a 20-year-old driver in that division.

In addition to these throwback looks, here are some other highlights to anticipate from Sunday night’s grid:

  • Kyle Busch’s championship-leading No. 18 Toyota will pay tribute to Bobby Hillin Jr. – the two drivers both having “Snickers” sponsorship; Hillin in 1990 and Busch since 2008.
  • Paul Menard’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford will carry a tribute to the legendary team’s co-founder Glenn Wood – the NASCAR Hall of Famer having passed away just this January.
  • Alex Bowman’s No. 88 will feature the late Tim Richmond’s livery. Richmond, who drove a season and a half for Rick Hendrick, won 13 career Cup races and was one of the biggest auto racing stars in the 1980s, competing in both NASCAR and IndyCar.
  • William Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will carry the colors of Tom Cruise’s race car in the famed “Days of Thunder” motion picture.
  • Corey LaJoie (Dale Jarrett), David Ragan (David Pearson) and Ryan Preece (Ron Bouchard) are all honoring some of the sport’s most famous winners with their cars.
  • Austin Dillon will recognize his team owner and grandfather, Richard Childress, driving a black-and-gold No. 3 Chevrolet similar to what Childress drove in the late 1970s before another RCR driver, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt, famously took over the car.

Not only will fans have a chance to take in some NASCAR history this weekend, but the competitors themselves seem so genuinely connected to the paint schemes they will race, and they’re also eager to check out their competitors’ once-a-season looks as well.

The opening Monster Energy Series practice is at 2:05 p.m. ET on Friday, with qualifying set for 2 p.m. ET on Saturday (NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

Chris Marek is currently second in the late model points standings at Elko Speedway, and he’s fighting for the best finish of his career.

Chris Marek

Marek has seven championships at Elko, a 0.375-mile semi-banked asphalt oval track in Elko, Minnesota, four of which have come in the track’s Division I series. But in all those championships, the highest Marek has finished in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national standings is 18th.

Elko Speedway | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

With two NASCAR races remaining, Marek is 32nd in the national points, and has a goal of cutting that in half.

“I’d really like to get in the top 15 in points,” Marek said. “If we can get up into top 15 that would make it my best year. I think that would be a pretty big goal for us.”

Marek has been racing at Elko for 16 years, starting in the lowest hornets division and working his way up through the ranks.

His family has a long history at their home track, which is about four miles from his team’s race shop. Marek’s uncles raced there in the early ’80s, his grandparents sponsored cars, and his dad ran sportsman cars for a national ASA touring series.

Marek’s father-in-law also raced at Elko. While Marek didn’t technically meet his wife through racing, both his and her parents have known each other since high school and continued their friendship through racing.

“We met through family friends but I think it all kind of boiled down to the race track,” he said.“Pretty much all sides of my family have been out there for a long time racing and have been champions.”

Elko Speedway Points Standings

Img 1520

The rule in Marek’s family growing up was that he couldn’t start racing until he was 16, putting him a bit behind others in the sport. As soon as he was able he was in the car, something he’d wanted to since since he was little.

“I kind of had tall dreams and didn’t really think that I would make it really far,” he said. “I was just a young kid who wanted to race go-karts and things like that. I kind of made the most of it, went out and found some sponsors and got going that way. With my dad putting his eggs in my basket and quitting the traveling series that helped me out a lot.”

He gained the nickname “Cruiser” from his dad’s racing days, and it’s stuck to this day.

Marek is in the only one in his family who still races, but he’s far from alone at the track. Races are a family event for him. Along with his dad, uncles, wife, and kid, his sister, her husband, and kids also enjoy racing, as do his in-laws.

The Marek’s own a family towing business, and have made sure to understand racing is just a hobby. They focus on mostly racing at Elko so the family doesn’t have to take too much time away from the office.

“When we leave it’s taking three out of the seven employees that we have out of the office to go racing,” Marek said. “So we try to make sure that we understand that it’s just a hobby and we’re just doing it for family fun.

“We were a little bit more serious about it earlier in my career, but I’m 30 and married with a kid now so we just don’t work quite as hard at it anymore.”

NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division I points standings

Even if they don’t spend as much time on the sport as they once did, racing is still serious to the Marek’s. It’s both the family bonding time and the competition that keeps Marek coming back year after year.

“I’m a big competitive person. I really like showing up and kind of picking my brain every week” he said. “But I’d say the biggest thing is definitely the family thing.

“Some weeks you have a rough week and you don’t want to show up or you’d like to take a week off but seeing my 3-year-old crawl in the racecar and ask if we can go to the race shop, and work on the car and spending that time with my parents and brother-in-law and what not, it makes it a little bit more personable than competition. I guess I like both aspects of it.”

Even if racing is just a hobby, Marek isn’t giving up on going for new goals. He has a chance at a fifth track championship, and if not, he still has an opportunity to climb up the national standings.

If that doesn’t happen, as long as he runs consistently and has good finishes every week, he’ll be happy.

No matter what, his family will still be by his side at their home track.

“At Elko, we have a little bigger fan base and have more fun,” he said. “We’re real close, and real fortunate to have a real nice racetrack close to home.”

NASCAR racing will return to Elko Speedway on September 14 with late models, thunder cars, power stocks, legends, and bandoleros.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

NASCAR Throwback Weekend is upon us once again, and that means watching dozens of old-school-looking paint schemes take on Darlington Raceway – this time, each car themed from the early ‘90s era. It’s one of the coolest and most unique weekends of the year, but it’s also one that draws some of the most discourse on Twitter – particularly when it comes to which paint schemes are best.

The teams this year have done an excellent job of designing their throwback paint schemes. And since we can’t award a tie for all the cars as the coolest designs, this year I decided to form my opinion by listening to people on Twitter.

RELATED: Every 2019 throwback paint scheme for Darlington

I carefully set a hot-take trap to gather only the most informed opinions – those, of course, come from the people who engage with me on Twitter, each of them terrific, beautiful specimens of people.

https://twitter.com/steveluvender/status/1165949473438220288

Let’s see which rules came out of the trap, shall we?

Number style is a must

Ryan Vargas says the mark of a good throwback is the willingness of a team to change its number font to match the car it’s mimicking.

And, sure, some teams have it easy in this regard – they’re throwing it back to themselves.


Respect the colors

A common thread among those on Twitter (how rare!):

If you’re paying tribute to a paint scheme, respect its original colors, some say.

“Fauxbacks” are acceptable

Ah, yes, the fauxback – or a fake throwback car based only off period-correct design elements and not so much one car in particular. Once a staple of NASCAR Throwback Weekend, we’ve seen fewer and fewer fauxbacks hit the track over the years.

The closest we’ve got to a fauxback this year is Kevin Harvick’s Busch Big Buck Hunter car.

No, a Big Buck Hunter car never raced in NASCAR in the early ‘90s – at least to our knowledge – but the sponsor harks back to a time where we loaded our quarters into the machine at the mall pizza-arcade.

We’ll allow it. Besides, the No. 4 team already raced one of the finest displays of early 1990s cars-manship we’ve ever seen with its Generation X paint scheme at Pocono Raceway.


Reality is a constraint

We don’t know what the future holds, but I say we give this one a shot next year: Let’s guess what NASCAR paint schemes will look like in the year 2050.


Throw it back, or else

Don’t be a party pooper. Everybody else is dressing up. If you don’t participate, bad things might happen.

Mmm, tasty!

It’s true. William Byron’s throwback car does share some similarities with a quiche, defined by Google’s auto-suggestion thing as “a baked flan or tart with a savory filling thickened with eggs.”

Wikimedia Commons image
Wikimedia Commons image

There are some color similarities between the two, at least.


Now do a silly one!

Sometimes tweets elicit responses that are fun. These are the best types of tweets online.

WHOA, partner. Calm down with this extreme hot take.

Throwback Thursday is real.

I suppose this is technically a correct response to the prompt.

Or … too many rules?

There’s an angle I hadn’t considered. Are we looking at this the wrong way?

Have we wasted our time with this entire discussion? Should we just be happy to have sponsor participation instead of arguing over the nuances of what makes a good throwback?

Maybe we should just sit back and enjoy the show and party like it’s sometime between 1990 and 1994.

Now, armed with knowledge and opinions, don’t forget to cast your vote for the throwback paint scheme you think deserves the title Best in Show.