Posted on by Staff Report

Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott will have a fresh look on his No. 9 Chevrolet for the Bristol Night Race next month.

NEW! Chase Elliott Hooters gear

Hooters released the fresh, clean orange-and-blue based scheme that will promote Hooters Spirits, the company’s new branded liquor products that will be released later this year.

One of NASCAR’s most anticipated races every year, the Bristol Night Race is slated for Saturday, Aug. 17 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App.

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Perhaps we can attribute it to late July’s soaring temperatures across the nation, but tempers are heating up across NASCAR as the regular-season stretch hits its final weeks.

A week after mixing it up with Erik Jones at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. once again found himself in a dust-up on track, this time with Kurt Busch on Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

The pair tangled late in the Gander RV 400 to send it into NASCAR Overtime, prompting Stenhouse to take his frustrations out on Busch’s No. 1 Chevrolet by appearing to move him from behind and forcing the 2004 champ into the No. 34 of Michael McDowell.

Neither driver attempted to speak to the other after the race, but Busch tweeted early Monday afternoon he’d be looking to move on from the disagreement, adding one more little jab on his way out.

Stenhouse didn’t appreciate the social media sparring.

But wait, there’s more!

Fellow youth movement drivers — and off-track friends — Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace also got into it at the “Tricky Triangle,” prompting a heated, non-violent discussion on pit road after the race.

Wallace acknowledged the incident on Twitter once video emerged, with a simple explanation.

On Monday, he was back to messing with his pal in the comments section of @NASCAR’s Instagram.

Image From Ios

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suarez later replied: “tough man now?? And yesterday after the race? but for real don’t, save it for someone else.”

With just five races remaining before the field is set for the 2019 NASCAR Playoffs, it’s not like things will scale back on the intensity level.

Expect the feuding to continue (hello, Bristol Night Race), unless they all take Wallace’s suggestion to work things out in a different way.

(Can confirm: All of the above drivers did not just become best friends.)

Posted on by Staff Report

For the first time since 2002, the championship-deciding finale will have a new host track in 2020 – and now, you can book your ticket to see NASCAR history.

Officials at the 1-mile ISM Raceway at Phoenix — which recently completed a $178 million renovation project designed to improve the fan experience, and one which included a reconfiguration for the track’s start/finish line — announced Monday that 2020 season tickets are now on sale.

RELATED: Buy tickets now!

ISM Raceway has hosted the Round of 8 finale since the introduction of the NASCAR Playoffs elimination format in 2014, and it has served as the penultimate race of the season every year since 2005.

A season tickets package guarantees race fans out West the lowest prices, includes free gifts (like FanVision rental in the spring), speedy access around the facilities and more.

MORE: On season tickets

 

 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Cliff Daniels, the race engineer who helped Jimmie Johnson win the 2016 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship, has been named as the new crew chief for Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team, the organization announced Monday.

Daniels, 31, replaces Kevin Meendering, effective immediately, and will guide the No. 48 team this weekend at Watkins Glen International. Daniels had been working in Hendrick’s competition systems group before rejoining the No. 48 team as race engineer for the June event at Sonoma Raceway.

RELATED: Playoff bubble analyzed | Johnson driver page

Meendering, who took over as Johnson’s crew chief this year after longtime pit boss Chad Knaus moved to William Byron’s car, will remain with Hendrick Motorsports in a senior competition role.

“We have great confidence in Cliff’s ability to win races with Jimmie and the team,” said team owner Rick Hendrick. “He’s a natural leader and tremendously talented from both a technical and communication standpoint. Cliff’s familiarity with Jimmie and the No. 48 team culture will benefit us a ton. He will bring the spark that’s been our missing ingredient.”

 

Cliff Daniels
Hendrick Motorsports

A seven-time champion at NASCAR’s highest level, Johnson hasn’t won a race since June 2017 at Dover International Speedway. He is currently 17th in the series standings, 12 points outside the cutline for the playoffs with five events left in the regular season.

Two of Johnson’s teammates, Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, already have qualified for the postseason with victories this year. Byron is 12th in the standings, 62 points ahead of the seven-time champion.

Daniels earned his engineering degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and served for two years as race engineer for Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing (2013-2014) before moving to Hendrick Motorsports. A former driver himself, Daniels raced late models at short tracks in Virginia before embarking on his career as an engineer.

“Cliff has really shined since he came back to the ’48’,” Johnson said. “When he returned, there was an immediate change in the team dynamic that all of us felt. We’ve worked together for a long time, have a ton of mutual respect and a shared vision. I have no doubt the strong connection and working relationship is going to pay dividends right away.

“I’m so grateful to Kevin. He’s a truly awesome person who I think very, very highly of. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him in his new role. He’s a brilliant guy and will make all of us better.”

Daniels brings an air of confidence to his new role.

“We have an opportunity to win an eighth championship and a lot more races with Jimmie,” Daniels said. “I’m proud to be in this position and have total faith in the team and our ability to perform at the level everyone expects.

“We have the best driver, the best organization and the best leadership, so everything we need to be successful is in place. It’s always been my goal to become a crew chief, and I’m thankful to Mr. Hendrick for his confidence.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Inopportune cautions foiled the best-laid plans of drivers Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick — and their respective crew chiefs.

Even though those two arguably had the best cars in Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway, neither was in position to challenge for the victory when the race went to overtime and Denny Hamlin ultimately finished in first place.

RELATED: Updated points standings | Official Pocono results

The winner of Stage 1, Busch, stayed on the track and retained the lead for a restart on Lap 119 of 163. Unable to reach the end of the race on fuel, however, Busch came to pit road on Lap 134 and fell to 26th in the running order. He spent the rest of the event working his way back up to ninth at the finish, while his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates — Hamlin, Erik Jones and Martin Truex Jr. — swept the top three spots.

Busch led 56 laps, second only to Harvick’s 62.

Harvick drove his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to third place in Stage 1, second in Stage 2 and led the field to green to start the final stage on Lap 104. But then he lost the top spot to Hamlin on the restart lap and never regained it.

The way Harvick saw it, the pair of cautions in the last 10 laps deprived him of the chance to win in a car that was set up for long runs.

“If the caution doesn’t come out, I think we were in good shape, but that’s the way it goes, especially at this place,” said Harvick, who was trying to double up on last Sunday’s victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “You have to have the cautions fall your way, and you have to have everything go right.

“We just had a few little things here and there that didn’t go our way and wound up sixth.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

For the second straight week, Kyle Larson started a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race from the rear of the field in a backup car, but his run in Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway was considerably more satisfying than the day he had last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Larson crashed 10 minutes into opening practice Saturday morning and had very few laps on his backup No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet before qualifying. He was the 29th fastest in time trials but, under NASCAR rules, had to drop to the back of the field for the start.

RELATED: Full Pocono-2 results | Complete standings update

At times during Sunday’s race, Larson had the fastest car on the track. By the end of the first stage, he was sixth and remained in contention throughout the balance of the race, though his running position varied according to divergent strategies and pit stop cycles.

When the race went to overtime, Larson lined up fourth and pushed race winner Denny Hamlin out front on the final restart. Larson had a close call with the wall in overtime and lost a position when he slowed to avoid contact with the barrier.

“I didn’t hit the wall, but I got close,” said Larson, who finished fifth. “I knew I was going to be close to the wall, so I bailed out of the throttle to keep myself from hitting the wall and lost momentum. I felt bad, but it was better than ending up torn up like the last time I was aggressive on a restart.

“It was a good day. It was a lot better car than I thought I was going to have, so it just goes to show how good our team is right now and how good our cars are. Last week, I felt like we had one of the fastest cars and we didn’t get to show it (because of two wrecks during the race). Today, I felt like we were one of the fastest cars. If I could just race a primary car, who knows what we could do? I just have to clean up a little bit of what I’m doing in practice and the races, and hopefully we can get a win.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

You’d never know from William Byron’s demeanor or his language that the 21-year-old driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had just finished fourth in Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway.

“It was a struggle,” said Byron, who restarted sixth in overtime and passed both Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick to post his second top five of the season. “I felt like the guys did a good job with strategy, and being able to maximize on restarts. We got fortunate on a couple of things.”

MORE: Full Pocono race results

With five races left in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Byron remains 12th in the standings, but he increased his margin over Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson — the first driver currently out of a playoff-eligible position — to 62 points.

Nevertheless, after the strong run at Pocono, Byron seemed more focused on the difficulty he faced at the “Tricky Triangle,” where he started 31st after his car failed pre-race inspection. After pitting for the last time on Lap 115, Byron saved just enough fuel to make it to the end of the race, which went three laps beyond its posted distance.

“It was a tough day,” Byron said. “We didn’t really have a lot going our way. In the first stage, and even the second stage, we were just kind of hanging on.

“We just found a way to kind of make it work. We had good strategy and just found a way to kind of settle in there in a decent spot and save the right amount of fuel. We ran out of fuel coming across the (finish) line, so that was great. We saved the right amount of fuel, and that was about it.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

LONG POND, Pa. – With 20 laps to go in the scheduled distance of the Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway, Erik Jones held the lead but there was cause for concern. Did he have enough fuel to make it to the finish? Could he outlast a hungry pack of cars — including two teammates — right behind him?

Thanks to his fuel-saving efforts on the last run and two late cautions, Jones had enough to score the runner-up finish.  That economical approach, however, helped Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin make the pass for the lead on Lap 144 – a position Hamlin would not surrender the rest of the way through the NASCAR Overtime finish. All in all, JGR finished 1-2-3 on the day and Kyle Busch finished ninth while running on a different strategy.

MORE: Full Pocono results 

“We had a little less fuel than them on the last run so we had to save more,” Jones said. “They felt like they got to a point where they felt like they saved enough to get real close to making it so they started pushing it. I wasn’t in position to do that so I continued to save. At that point when it was still green I was hoping they would run out with me having to save as much as I was.

“… The caution came out, looking back on it, I wish we would have just ran hard. If we ran hard, we wouldn’t have given up the lead and we would have been in the lead on the restart and probably wouldn’t have given up the lead there either. It’s easy to look back and say I would do that different but at the time, it was our best opportunity.”

At the same time, though, Jones was happy to extend his position in the standings as he drives towards a second straight playoff appearance.

MORE: Full Cup standings

“If we have a day where we run out of fuel because we’re pushing to get a win and we don’t make it, that’s a pretty bad day where we finish 25th coming down to get fuel and lose all these points we’ve gained here the last month,” Jones said. “We’re in a spot now where we are almost a race up on the cutoff line. It’s a good feeling and it took a long time to get there so we don’t want to give it up all at one time.”

The runner-up finish was his third top-three finish in as many races and eighth top 10 in the past 11 races this season. The finish was also his third straight top five at Pocono. The significance of the day was not lost on team owner Joe Gibbs, who also addressed that the organization continues to work on a new deal for the 23-year-old driver.

“They’re the ones we worry about because our other guys are in (the playoffs),” Gibbs said. “Erik was on that edge. Of course, running out of fuel would be a disaster for them. Right now, I think the last three weeks show where the team is. Chris Gayle has done a great job and I think Erik can sense it and we all know with young guys.

“Once they get it, it can be something special for them and I think Erik is on the verge. Everybody on our race team, we’re all excited about Erik and his future and we’re doing everything we can to put everything in place to make sure we have him taken care of.”

Jones feels like he is getting closer to Victory Lane with solid results in his past at Watkins Glen, the Bristol night race and Darlington – three of the next four tracks on the schedule.

RELATED: Jones aggressive when he needs to be — even if it upsets some

“There’s not a track coming up the rest of the year that I don’t feel we can’t run well at and that’s a good feeling,” Jones said. “I know we’re going to win one. We can’t keep running third every week. It’s just going to happen eventually.”

Posted on by Staff Report

The race-winning Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota of Denny Hamlin has passed post-race inspection at Pocono Raceway with no issues.

The No. 11 Toyota was found to be compliant with the 2019 NASCAR Rule Book after Sunday’s Gander RV 400. Additionally, the No. 20 of runner-up Erik Jones and No. 19 of Martin Truex Jr. also cleared inspection with no issues.

With the post-race teardown complete, the race results are official.

A lug nut was found not safely secured on the No. 11 of Hamlin as well as the No. 42 of Kyle Larson. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Truex (finished third) will be taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center.

The post-race process is part of a new, more timely approach to inspection for all three NASCAR national series. Competition officials announced in February that thorough post-race inspections would take place shortly after the checkered flag at the track instead of midweek at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.

Those inspections come with a stiffer deterrence structure that includes disqualification for significant rules infractions — “a total culture change,” according to Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer. In the past, race-winning teams found in violation of the rules were penalized with post-race fines, points deductions and/or suspensions, but victories were allowed to stand.

Competition officials introduced the quicker post-race inspection timetable in an effort to make the results official on race day, aiming for a 90-minute target time frame to complete their scrutineering. The new post-race inspection process was also designed to deal with potential violations more promptly, avoiding any midweek news that might cloud the previous week’s results or the build-up to the following week’s event.

NASCAR will still inspect cars and parts at the R&D Center as needed, but the more comprehensive at-track inspection will take priority.

According to NASCAR statistical archives, the last time a premier series driver was disqualified occurred in 1973, when early retiree Buddy Baker was demoted to last place in the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The last time an apparent race winner in NASCAR’s top division was disqualified came on April 17, 1960, when Emanuel Zervakis’ victory at Wilson (N.C.) Speedway was thrown out because of an oversized fuel tank on his No. 85 Chevrolet.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Thanks to a fast No. 11 Toyota, a feel for fuel economy and a first-ever application of traction compound to the asphalt at Pocono Raceway, Denny Hamlin rediscovered the magic at the “Tricky Triangle” that marked his spectacular debut in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2006.

Leading a 1-2-3 finish by Joe Gibbs Racing drivers—none of whom, surprisingly, was Kyle Busch—Hamlin passed teammate and race runner-up Erik Jones on Lap 144 and saved enough fuel to last through an overtime that carried the event three laps beyond its scheduled distance of 160 circuits.

RELATED: Official results
SHOP: Hamlin gear

Hamlin won for the fifth time at the 2.5-mile triangular track after a nine-year absence from Victory Lane. The victory was Hamlin’s third of the season and the 34th of his career.

After losing a last-lap battle to Kevin Harvick last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Hamlin made what turned out to be the winning pass on the outside of turn 3, where had the PJ1 traction compound had been applied.

“You just want to know that you’re a race winner,” said Hamlin, who turned heads in his 2006 rookie season with two wins from the pole at Pocono. “You just want to know that you can contend for wins. Yeah, you’re looking for momentum, but you’re just looking for wins week-in and week-out.

“We really fought for it last week and came up short, so it feels really good to kind of redeem ourselves this week and have such a strong car. Once we got behind there, we were able to make up positions on the 19 (third-place finisher Martin Truex Jr.) and 20 (Jones).”

Hamlin last pitted for fuel under caution on Lap 115, after Ryan Preece clobbered the Turn 1 wall to bring out the fifth of seven yellows. All three of the JGR cars were saving gas during the final run.

“I was in fuel-save mode and still trying to get around those guys,” said Hamlin, who was running third behind his teammates after a restart on Lap 119. “When I got around them, I really went into conservation mode instead of stretching the lead out there.”

Hamlin passed Truex in traffic on Lap 142 to secure second place. Two laps later, he surged past Jones into the top spot.

“I got the opportunity on the outside of Turn 3,” Hamlin said. “Thank Pocono for the PJ1. Obviously, it could be hedged a little bit lower, but they at least gave us a second to race in today that we haven’t had before.”

RELATED: Updated 2019 stage points

Jones notched his runner-up finish after consecutive third-place runs at Kentucky and New Hampshire.

“Honestly, we started the race so far off today, I wasn’t sure how we were going to run,” said Jones, who moved up one position in the series standings to 13th and increased his cushion over 17th-place Jimmie Johnson to 39 points with five races left in the regular season. “We were able to turn it around halfway, get back in contention.

“There at the end, I wasn’t sure how it was all going to play out. It was nice to get some good restarts. Martin gave me a great push at the end (on the overtime restart after a wreck involving Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent the race to extra laps). We were there for a second, then the top got rolling. I couldn’t really do anything. Good to get another top-three run. We’ve just got to break through. Once we get that first (win), I think we can click a few off here.”

William Byron finished fourth after starting 31st because his qualifying time was disallowed for a post-qualifying inspection failure. Kyle Larson ran fifth after starting from the rear in a backup car, the result of a wreck in opening practice.

Harvick, Daniel Hemric, Brad Keselowski, Busch and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10. Harvick led a race-high 62 laps, and Busch was out front for 56, but inopportune cautions spoiled their respective race strategies and left them fighting through traffic to get the results they did.

Busch won the race’s first stage, and Johnson picked up his second career stage win in the second before finishing 15th.