Posted on by Zack Albert

There’s something to be said for the Bristol Night Race boost NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran Jeremy Clements received over the weekend. The 34-year-old driver gutted out a fourth-place finish at the Tennessee track, providing his best result of the season so far.

Conventional thinking would forecast that his Bristol run would provide an extra dose of confidence for the Xfinity Series’ next stop, Saturday’s CTECH Manufacturing 180 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Road America, the track that produced his only victory in 2017. Clements says he isn’t lacking for confidence there either way.

“I don’t know. I don’t need a shot in the arm for that, honestly,” Clements said from Bristol’s pit road after his first top-five finish since that Road America win two years ago. “I mean, this is cool as hell but it’s not going to make me run any better next week. Everything’s just totally different — different car, brakes, transmission. Everything’s just so different.

“It wouldn’t matter if we wrecked and finished last, I’m still pumped up to go to Road America and I’m ready to kick their ass, man. That’s a place we can win and we’ve done it before, so why can’t we do it again?”

RELATED: Full schedule for Road America, Canadian Tire

Clements’ history with the picturesque 4.048-mile road course has been a mixed lot, with two top-10 finishes in his eight starts there. This season, he has finished 11th in both road-course events (Watkins Glen International, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course).

Clements said his family-owned No. 51 team has been making gains despite a small inventory of cars, with the focus on developing more horsepower as the organization builds its own engines. He sits 14th in the Xfinity Series standings, with a significant points gap to make up to qualify for the 12-driver postseason field.

Winning would solve that math problem, especially at the sprawling Wisconsin circuit where unpredictability looms at many of its 14 bends. The field should be stout, with Monster Energy Series regular Matt DiBenedetto and road-racing ace AJ Allmendinger on the preliminary entry list, but Clements expects to be competitive.

“We’re going to be right there,” Clements said, “so they better not overlook us.”

RELATED: Full stats for Clements’ NASCAR career

Posted on by Staff Report

Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted Wednesday night that he still plans to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway next week as previously planned.

Earnhardt Jr., his wife Amy, daughter Isla and dog Gus were involved in a frightening airplane crash last week while traveling to Bristol Motor Speedway. There were no serious injuries reported, but Earnhardt Jr. took the weekend off from his duties as an analyst on NBC Sports and has been focused on recovering at home with his family.

RELATED: Earnhardts safe after crash

Junior also tweeted his lower back is heavily bruised, but he’s been treating the area every day.

The 15-time Most Popular Driver retired from full-time NASCAR competition at the end of the 2017 season, and immediately moved into the broadcast booth with NBC Sports. He had two Xfinity Series races on the docket, though, for his own JR Motorsports team — last year at Richmond Raceway and this year at Darlington Raceway.

Driving the No. 88 Chevrolet at Richmond last season, Earnhardt Jr. qualified second, led 96 laps and finished fourth.

Earnhardt Jr. has slowly become more active on social media after taking time to process the events of last week in private. He released a statement on Monday, and also topped a previously recorded episode of the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast with a heartfelt message to his fans.

On Wednesday night, in addition to replying to fans asking about his Darlington plans, he good-naturedly tweeted at former crew chief and NBC co-worker Steve Letarte, who admitted he was watching the racing classic “Days of Thunder” for the first time Wednesday night.

The Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway is scheduled for Aug. 31 at 4 p.m. ET, televised on NBC (Radio: MRN, SiriusXM).

Posted on by Zack Albert

NASCAR competition officials announced procedural changes Wednesday for the 2020 season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, unveiling the driver participation guidelines for the sport’s national series, reducing the size of the Xfinity Series field from 38 to 36 and setting the schedule for the Dash 4 Cash and Triple Truck Challenge bonus programs.

Driver participation rules for Xfinity and Gander Trucks races feature only slight changes from the previous season. Under NASCAR’s current rules, drivers with more than five years of experience who earn points in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series were limited to driving in seven Xfinity Series events and five races in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

Under the 2020 guidelines, drivers with more than three years of premier series experience will be limited in their lower-series participation. The amount of Xfinity Series races allowed for those veterans will trim from seven to five. The allowable participation for the Gander Trucks will remain at five races.

As in years past, points-earning Monster Energy Series regulars above the three-year experience threshold also will be barred from participating in the regular-season finale and playoffs for the other two national circuits. Events in the Xfinity Series’ Dash 4 Cash and the Gander Trucks’ Triple Truck Challenge will also be off limits.

Wednesday’s announcement continues a trend of reducing the impact of Monster Energy Series drivers in the Xfinity Series and Gander Trucks in an effort to better showcase those series’ competitors.

RELATED: NASCAR 101

“We’ve made small tweaks since then, and this is third tweak, but the goal is to find a happy medium or that sweet spot where it works for all of our stakeholders,” said Meghan Miley, NASCAR senior director of racing operations. “We hear from the fans that we need to get Cup drivers out of Xfinity and Trucks, and they want to just see the regulars, but we hear from the younger drivers that, ‘Hey, we want to race against these guys because they make us better.’

“We also work with all the teams within the garage to make sure it’s working with the way they run their businesses, so we really loop in all of our stakeholders to get all of their feedback.”

While there’s a temptation to label the revised guidelines as a “Kyle Busch Rule” that cracks down on the Monster Energy Series star’s success in lower divisions, Miley says that the limits are not intended to single out one driver.

“That’s always something people bring up,” Miley said, “and while what Kyle is doing is no less impressive and he’s an extremely important owner in our Truck Series, we take into account what’s been the trend here for all of our teams in the garage, all of our stakeholders and really what is best for everybody, not just one person.”

In other procedural changes announced Wednesday:

Xfinity Series field size set at 36 cars: Competition officials will reduce the field from 38 to 36 for the 2020 season. The decrease comes on the heels of a move from 40 to 38 cars this year.

As with this season, the purse money that would be marked for the 37th and 38th finishers will be redistributed through the field.

“This year, we looked at what we did going into the 2019 season, seeing how it worked and then decided that we could probably go a little further,” Miley said, “the goal being that we take the prize money for those positions and put it back into the teams. All of it goes back into the teams, and you’re really taking care of the teams that are reinvesting in the sport and racing full time.

“It’s wanting to have the most competitive teams racing in those series to make them the best series they can be, and I think this is a good opportunity to strengthen the field and support those teams that are reinvesting back in the sport.”

The field for each race will be set with 31 starting positions based on qualifying speed, four provisional berths set according to the rule book, plus one provisional spot reserved for past series champions.

Dash 4 Cash schedule set for 2020: Competition officials announced that Texas Motor Speedway will join the four-race slate for the Xfinity Series’ Dash 4 Cash incentive program. Bristol, Talladega and Dover return to the schedule, and Homestead-Miami Speedway enters the format as the qualifying event to establish eligibility for the first bonus payday.

RELATED: More details about 2020 Dash 4 Cash

The Dash 4 Cash series will be back for its 12th season as part of the Xfinity Series schedule.

“Time flies,” Miley said. “I would say that this program, backed by Comcast, has really grown over the years. The teams have gotten so into it.”

Unlike “The Trip,” the eligibility and general requirements for the Dash 4 Cash are not changing. It’s a testament to having a fine-tuned program that consistently serves fans and tracks alike.

“In the format of Dash 4 Cash, you qualify the week before so those drivers that have qualified are usually in market and working really closely with the tracks, who do a really good job of promoting these events as well,” Miley said. “Then again with the fans, you go on social media after and the fans talk about how much they love seeing these series regulars battle it out and then go for that bonus. So there’s just excitement generated throughout the industry for it.”

Triple Truck Challenge back for second year: Officials also announced the return of the Triple Truck Challenge, which debuted earlier this season as a bonus program for Gander Trucks regulars. The 2020 version takes on a new look, moving to earlier in the season with three new tracks. The program will also shift to race weekends as companion events to other national series; all three races in “The Trip” were stand-alone events this year.

RELATED: More details about ‘The Trip’ in 2020

Gander Trucks drivers will compete for extra cash at Richmond, Dover and Charlotte.

Eligibility for ‘The Trip’ tweaked: Officials removed the entry deadline requirement for both drivers and teams aiming to compete for the Triple Truck Challenge. The detail figured into this season’s three-race series, keeping veteran Greg Biffle from vying for more bonuses after he won the first leg of the program. The same technicality would have kept other post-entry drivers out of the Triple Truck Challenge running.

“I think with everything, once you get through the first year or even the second or third year, you take a look at it and see what always needs tweaked or maybe updated,” Miley said, “and we found with the format of the Triple Truck Challenge, it really didn’t make sense to have those entry deadline rules in there. If anything, it could potentially take away from the momentum of what the program’s all about. So we felt that with this format and for these events, it probably made sense to remove those and so we’re going to do that for 2020.”

The entry deadline requirement for eligibility will remain in the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash program.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NASCAR officials released the races that will make up the Xfinity Series’ Dash 4 Cash and Gander Outdoors Truck Series’ Triple Truck Challenge in 2020.

Dash 4 Cash will return to three of the four tracks that made up its springtime swing this season. The Triple Truck Challenge — nicknamed “The Trip” — will visit three new venues and take place earlier in the season.

RELATED: NASCAR 101

“The 2020 schedule is a little different, so that definitely had us going back and looking,” said Meghan Miley, NASCAR senior director of Racing Operations. “The goal of it when looking at what events we’re going to do, we want them to be consecutive because that just keeps the momentum going for the program. Additionally, three of the four markets are key for Comcast, with the program wrapping up in their back yard.”

The Dash 4 Cash program will offer bonus money for eligible Xfinity Series regulars at four selected tracks:

March 28: Texas Motor Speedway
April 4: Bristol Motor Speedway
April 25: Talladega Superspeedway
May 2: Dover International Speedway

Texas returns to the Dash 4 Cash series for the first time since 2010, the program’s second season. Bristol, Talladega and Dover will collectively return to the Dash 4 Cash schedule for the third straight year. The series’ March 21 visit to Homestead-Miami Speedway will serve as the Dash 4 Cash qualifier, which will determine the four eligible drivers for the Texas opener.

Richmond Raceway drops from the Dash 4 Cash program, but picks up another incentive-laden race with the Triple Truck Challenge. Gander Trucks teams will compete on the .75-mile track next season for the first time since 2005.

The full slate for the Triple Truck Challenge:

April 18: Richmond Raceway
May 1: Dover International Speedway
May 15: Charlotte Motor Speedway

The Triple Truck Challenge was introduced in 2019, held at Texas, Iowa and Gateway in June.

Other rules and prize-money payouts for Dash 4 Cash and the Triple Truck Challenge will be announced at a later date.

Posted on by Staff Report

Fans in Canada can watch Sunday’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Playoffs race via a live stream on NASCAR.com.

Bookmark the link here or simply go to https://www.nascar.com/trucksincanada/

Sunday’s race is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET. Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio have the radio calls. Fans in the United States can watch on FS1.

MORE: Full schedule for Canadian Tire, Road America

After opening the playoffs last year, the 2019 race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park serves as the second race in the opening Round of 8.

In years past fans have often seen last-lap contact when battling for the win. Last year it was Noah Gragson getting into teammate Todd Gilliland — spinning them both out — near the final corner.

Defending series champion Brett Moffitt leads the eight-driver playoff field into Canada, and he’s automatically advanced into the next round by virtue of his win in the postseason opener at Bristol.  Veteran Johnny Sauter currently holds the last transfer spot, sitting three points above Austin Hill and 13 points above Tyler Ankrum on the cutline.

The playoff field will be trimmed to six following the third race of the Round 8, Sept. 13 at Las Vegas.

Posted on by Terrin Waack

Adaptability will determine who survives and thrives in the playoffs.

The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series kicked off its 2019 postseason at Bristol Motor Speedway last week. Brett Moffitt won and became the first driver to solidify his Round of 6 berth. Now the circuit heads to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, a 2.459-mile road course with 10 turns that’s much different than the recent 0.533-mile oval.

“Well, it was pretty crazy (Thursday),” Tyler Ankrum said, who is currently eighth in the standings. “So I think it set the tone that it’s only going to get crazier. We’ll see for these next two races. Then, you know, what happens happen.”

The Chevrolet Silverado 250 is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Moffitt wins at Bristol | Full Canadian Tire schedule

With where the championship standings fall right now, Ankrum (eighth, 2,030 points) is the bottom-ranked playoff driver. He and Austin Hill (seventh, 2,040 points) are below the cutline, which Johnny Sauter has set in sixth at 2,043 points. Moffitt is in first and holds 2,081 points.

Three races make up each playoff round, the third being an elimination race. The current Round of 8 consists of Bristol (done), Canadian Tire (next) and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Sept. 13 at 9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), which is a 1.5-miler. None of the tracks are alike.

“It’s just a beast in itself,” Hill said. “You got a half mile – a half mile that’s super fast like Bristol is, too – and then you go to a road course you only run once a year. I didn’t have the privilege of doing any other road-course races, so that’s going to be interesting. To be able to go to Las Vegas then is going to be really good for us.”

Justin Haley, who’s now in the Xfinity Series, won the race at Canadian Tire last year.

The Gander Trucks as a whole has not run a road course this season.

“Oh, I’m looking forward to it,” said Matt Crafton, who’s fifth (2,053 points) in the standings and has an average finish of 8.7 in six starts at Canadian Tire. “I love road racing.”

RELATED: Complete look at championship point standings

Other drivers in the playoffs not already mentioned are Ross Chastain (second, 2,065 points), Stewart Friesen (third, 2,057 points) and Grant Enfinger (fourth, 2,053 points). That makes eight total. Two drivers will be cut from the field after Las Vegas.

Only four get to compete for the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 15.

“Can’t slow down,” Chastain said. “You’ll get runover.”

The Round of 6 will start at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 12. After the 2.66-mile-long oval, the Truck Series will go to 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway. The last stop before the finale, ISM Raceway, is a mile.

The lack of similarities between the Round of 6 tracks mirrors that of the Round of 8.

“It’s the same thing once you get to Round 2,” Ankrum said. “So you have to be able to adapt really well.”

Posted on by Track Release

CONCORD, N.C. — One of NASCAR’s most highly anticipated weekends will feature arguably the greatest race car driver of all time leading the field to green on Sept. 29. Mario Andretti will serve as the honorary pace car driver for the Bank of America ROVAL™ 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Andretti will pilot the Toyota Camry XSE pace car before the green flag for the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on the ROVAL™. The world-renowned racer is the only driver to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the F1 World Championship in a storied career that spanned five decades across six continents.

RELATED: Buy tickets for Charlotte

The acclaimed driver is no stranger to Charlotte Motor Speedway or the ROVAL™.

Andretti raced in Charlotte’s fall race on the 1.5-mile oval in 1967, finishing 27th in a Holman-Moody car. The 79-year-old Nazareth, Pennsylvania, native also visited Charlotte Motor Speedway in March 2017 for a test drive around the ROVAL™.

“When Marcus Smith was creating the ROVAL™, he invited me to check out the improvements to the infield road course,” Andretti said. “It was such a fun course to drive and the more I drove it the more I got into a rhythm, but I knew it would be challenging to the NASCAR competitors with the elevation change and transition from road course to oval.

“After last year’s successful playoff debut for the course, I’m honored that Marcus would ask me to return to lead the field to green for this year’s Bank of America ROVAL™ 400.”

“Mario played an instrumental role in helping make the ROVAL™ into the showpiece it is today,” said Marcus Smith, the president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. “He test-drove a high-performance sports car on the course as we were in the process of figuring out what the ROVAL™ could become.

“Even with me in the passenger seat, he hit 177 miles per hour, which is pretty incredible — but it was like a casual Sunday afternoon drive for Mario.”

After the test, Andretti suggested adding chicanes on the frontstretch and backstretch to slow the cars down and create additional passing zones.

“I liked the higher speeds so I was hesitant, but after hearing it from someone of his caliber and expertise, it made even more sense to create chicanes on our straightaways,” Smith said. “Mario’s forward thinking and his unparalleled vision for creating a spectacle contributed to the incredible finish we had last year with Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.”

Birthed in 2018, the ROVAL™ is a 17-turn, 2.28-mile course that combines Charlotte Motor Speedway’s legendary quad-oval with a world-class infield road course. The second running of the Bank of America ROVAL™ 400 will take place on Sunday, Sept. 29, and serve as the cut-off race for Round 1 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The race will be televised live on NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Posted on by Staff Report

Bubba Wallace continues to lead the way in fan voting for the best Darlington throwback paint scheme that will run at Darlington Raceway for the weekend of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Sept. 1 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: See all the throwbacks | Vote for your favorite

This year, the track “Too Tough to Tame” celebrates the NASCAR era from 1990-94 — a span when Richard Petty’s career was wrapping up but Jeff Gordon’s was just beginning.

Voting opened Aug. 6 and runs through Aug. 30, and so far, Wallace’s No. 43 Chevrolet honoring Adam Petty has a substantial lead on the pack.

William Byron’s “Days of Thunder” neon green look is in second, while Chase Elliott’s No. 9 in honor of his father, Awesome Bill, is third. Paul Menard’s No. 21 that celebrates late team owner Glenn Wood is fourth, while Alex Bowman’s Tim Richmond-inspired look rounds out the top five.

And all those schemes are vying for the coveted “Best in Show” title that will crown the fan-favorite scheme. You can vote here: Vote now!.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR cited three teams in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for lug-nut violations after last weekend’s action at Bristol Motor Speedway. Those teams were the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Chase Elliott and the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Clint Bowyer.

RELATED: Bristol race results | Standings

Each crew chief was fined $10,000 — Paul Wolfe (the No. 2), Alan Gustafson (for the No. 9) and Michael Bugarewicz (No. 14). Keselowski finished third in the Bristol Night Race, while Elliott was fifth and Bowyer was seventh.

Despite the seventh-place finish, Bowyer is now outside of the playoff cutline, two points behind Daniel Suarez, who is the last driver in the playoffs. With two races remaining, the regular season resumes on Sept. 1 with the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Also on Tuesday’s penalty report were the L1 penalty to Tyler Reddick in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for failing inspection multiple times and the indefinite suspension of Bayley Currey for violating the substance abuse policy, both of which were reported on earlier.

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After thorough evaluation of athletes from universities across the country, NASCAR and Rev Racing have chosen seven participants to join the 2019-20 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Development Program.

The former collegiate athletes were selected based on a fitness assessment held in May at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina. The assessment tested their agility, strength and flexibility, followed by the participants learning the different crew member positions during a pit stop simulation.

Those selected will relocate to Charlotte, North Carolina, for a six-month pit crew training program led by Phil Horton, Rev Racing’s director of athletic performance. They will train to become tire changers, carriers and jackmen, with hopes of one day earning a spot on a national series race team.

NASCAR Drive for Diversity provides opportunities for women and minorities to pursue career opportunities in NASCAR on pit crews, in the driver’s seat through the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program and off the track through the NASCAR Diversity Internship Program.

“We are inspired by the level of athletes we’re seeing enter the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Development Program,” said Jusan Hamilton, NASCAR’s director of racing operations and event management. “With a wider range of colleges and universities partnering with NASCAR and Rev Racing on this program, the talent pool continues to expand and so does the pathway for each of the new members to achieve success with top race teams.”

Dalanda Ouendeno is among this year’s NASCAR Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Development Program participants. Ouendeno was a standout defender on the University of Miami women’s soccer team before trying out for a pit crew development role with Rev Racing.

Virginia natives Hadji Gaylord and Raynard Revels will also join the 2019-20 class after competing together as teammates on Norfolk State University’s football team.

“We look forward to welcoming this year’s class to NASCAR’s most comprehensive pit crew training and development program,” Rev Racing CEO Max Siegel said. “We couldn’t be prouder of the journey both our pit crew development program and graduates have taken from its inception. With the expansion of our recruiting efforts across the country, the talent level rises, and our program continues to evolve and create more opportunities for advancement at a higher level.”

In July 2019, NASCAR Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Development Program graduates Rojelio Ramirez, Omar Grimaldo and current program member Michael Hayden celebrated their first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win when driver Justin Haley took the checkered flag at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Through the years, the program has developed pit crew athletes who work on teams every race weekend. Since its inception, more than 100 athletes have participated in the program and more than 65 graduates have worked in the sport on the national level. More than 50 graduates are currently pitting on a national level and more than 30 are competing in the sport’s top series.

The 2019-20 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Development Program participants include:

Name Hometown University Primary Sport
Hadji Gaylord Norfolk, Va. Norfolk State University Football (Defensive End)
Robin Loza Charlotte, N.C. Central Piedmont Community College Football (Wide Receiver)
Maurice McKinnon Charlotte, N.C. Guilford College Football (Wide Receiver)
Dalanda Ouendeno Paris, France University of Miami Soccer (Defender)
Mequel Phillips Chester, Va. Virginia State University Football (Linebacker)
Raynard Revels Richmond, Va. Norfolk State University Football (Linebacker)
Alvin Wilson Lexington, Miss. Alcorn State University Football (Linebacker)