Posted on by Davey Segal

The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series playoff picture isn’t just heating up. It’s on fire.

Five of the eight postseason spots virtually are secured thanks to wins, so the remaining three spots will be tightly contested for the remainder of the regular season.

With just a trio of races remaining before the start of the seven-race dash to the championship, in a series known for aggressiveness, business is about to pick up even more.

RELATED: Gander Trucks standings | Latest Gander Trucks news | Series schedule

Here’s a look at the full picture:

CURRENTLY IN

Having already claimed checkered flags this season, Brett Moffitt, Johnny Sauter, Austin Hill, Ross Chastain and Tyler Ankrum are all but locked into the eight driver playoff field.

Moffitt, the defending series champion, and Sauter, the 2016 title winner, were expected to be in this position despite both champions changing organizations in the offseason.

Hill, also in a new place for 2019, kicked this season off with a win at Daytona International Speedway for reigning champions Hattori Racing Enterprises.

Chastain and Ankrum have unique stories of their own. Ankrum’s win this past weekend at Kentucky Speedway came in the reigning K&N Pro Series East champion’s rookie season for DGR-Crosley, one in which he missed the first three races due to NASCAR’s age restriction.

Chastain declared for Gander Trucks points before the race at Texas Motor Speedway and set his sights on immediately accomplishing two things  – winning a race and entering the top 20 in points, both of which would qualify him for the postseason. He did each rather quickly, crossing the finish line first at Iowa Speedway – although his truck failed post-race inspection resulting in a disqualification. However, he followed that up the next week with an official victory at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, propelling him up the series points standings and into the playoffs.

Chastain is now inside the top 20 and a legitimate threat to hoist the hardware at Homestead-Miami Speedway. A first-time winner for this season, though, would give Chastain reason to worry.

ON THE BUBBLE: IN

As he has done for most of the season, ThorSport Racing’s Grant Enfinger currently leads the points standings and is in a strong position to earn the 15 extra playoff points as the Regular Season Champion.

Two-time series champion Matt Crafton as well as Stewart Friesen also are in on points, resting comfortably above the cut line.

Below that line is where things get interesting.

NEEDS TO WIN

Simply put: If you haven’t already been named, you’re in must-win mode.

A pair of Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates find themselves on the outside looking in – Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Harrison Burton and two-time K&N West champion Todd Gilliland, who experienced engine issues after running in the top 10 at Kentucky.

Kyle Busch’s organization has been stellar in the series for years. If neither qualifies for the playoffs, it would be the first time since 2013 a KBM truck won’t finish in the top six of the standings.

Loop Ben Rhodes in with Burton and Gilliland – close behind the cutoff, but not close enough to be guaranteed to qualify on points. Rhodes, driver of the No. 99 ThorSport Racing truck, will more than likely need to earn his third career victory (first this season) to be playoff bound.

Don’t sleep on GMS Racing’s Sheldon Creed either. The reigning ARCA Menards Series champion has yet to score a top-five finish this season, but three of his four top-10 results have come in the last five races.

The Gander Outdoors Truck Series returns to the track Saturday at Pocono Raceway for the Gander RV 150 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

Following teardown at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, there will not be further penalties to Halmar Racing and its No. 52 team after its primary truck was confiscated at Kentucky Speedway on Thursday morning.

NASCAR officials said then they found the truck to be not acceptable, and confiscated it for further evaluation at the R&D Center after finding a firewall issue in the vehicle.

RELATED: Read initial report

That evaluation happened Tuesday, and no further penalties were issued. Driver Stewart Friesen was forced to race at Kentucky with his backup vehicle, and he started from the rear of the field. No team members were ejected.

Friesen, who is second in the Gander Trucks points standings, finished second Thursday night.

MORE: Full series standings

Though confiscating a truck is a unique situation, it’s not all that rare for NASCAR officials to have a team fix something that is in violation of the rule book. NASCAR officials saw something on the No. 52 that didn’t conform to the rule book, and the team had the opportunity to fix the issue.

The team could not fix the problem at the track, so NASCAR confiscated the truck and its parts and issued a “rear of the field” penalty. The at-track penalties issued are the only penalties for this Opening Day Inspection violation.

Posted on by Terrin Waack

Ryan Newman is a NASCAR veteran. The 41-year-old made his Cup Series debut in 2000 and became a full-time driver soon after. That’s two decades-worth of experience in the premier series alone.

This season, though, the past is truly just the past.

“Everything is so new that I’m more of a rookie than I’ve ever been probably in my entire racing career,” Newman told NASCAR.com. “Even when I was young and I was four and a half years old, that’s probably the closest I am to right now. I feel like it’s been a big learning curve, and it’s been interesting to try to figure out how all this is working with all these packages and things like that.”

Not to mention an entirely new team.

After five seasons of driving the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing – and just one victory during that time, in 2017 – Newman decided to switch things up. He’s now steering the No. 6 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing.

Newman has yet to return to Victory Lane this year and currently sits 17th in the championship standings. His 471 overall points fall two short of Erik Jones’ 473 for the 16th and final playoff spot. There are seven races left, starting with Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, before those under the cutoff line receive the boot from title contention.

RELATED: Full New Hampshire schedule

“Motivation is when you’re winning all the races and leading a bunch of laps,” Newman said. “That’s motivation. Right now, I see that as we’re not doing a good enough job to do what we feel we’re capable of, so we better go do what we’re capable of.”

And he genuinely thinks he and his team can.

Through 19 races, Newman has had one top-five run and seven top-10 performances. He’s averaging a 13.8 finish after a 19.4 average start.

“We’re trying to get over a hump that other teams haven’t gotten to yet,” Newman said. “We’re doing OK. We’re just not as good as I want to be. Those stats that I have would be something amazing for other teams, but at the same time, they’re not where I was in 2003 – 16 years ago when I won 11 poles and eight races.”

SHOP: Newman gear, die-casts

Expectations are clearly higher, especially since Newman believes he’s the same driver now that he was back then. He described himself as a “hard-nosed racer” – always has been, always will be – while others portray him more as a perfectionist.

“I’ve always told Ryan I think he’s hard to pass because he doesn’t make mistakes,” RFR teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said earlier this season. “He’s got the same mentality: If you’re faster, pass me. Go around me. Run a different line than I am.

“But the reason he’s so hard is he never messes up. That’s something that, me as a driver, I want to get into that position where I don’t make mistakes because I feel like that’s helped Ryan throughout his whole career.”

Stenhouse isn’t the only one taking lessons from Newman.

Since the No. 6 team is in its first season together, members are still trying to figure out best practices when it comes to working well as a unit. Communication has at least been a strong point. So it’s mainly building off that for chemistry purposes and developing trust on all levels.

“I have a lot more experience than a lot of personnel on my team,” Newman said. “It’s kind of my responsibility as an experienced person – not just an experienced driver, but an experienced person – to give that feedback, to get that understanding that I’ve created over 19 years in the Cup Series and 35 years driving.”

Because it is a collective effort – new or old, rookie or veteran. Even Newman prides himself on still learning a little bit each week.

“If you ever stop,” Newman said, “you will not succeed.”

Posted on by PJ Walsh

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

For the first time since visiting Richmond in April, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to a flat track of one mile or less at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

To make this weekend’s NASCAR Props Challenge picks, we’ll lean on historical results from New Hampshire, as well as performance from ISM (Phoenix) Raceway and Richmond Raceway — two flat tracks — earlier this season.

1. Will Chevrolet win for the fourth straight weekend? Yes or No?

Based on odds from the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, Chevy’s top driver is Chase Elliott at 14-1 to win the race, which ranks just seventh overall.

Pick: No

2. O/U 3.5 drivers score 45 points or more?

Since stage racing was introduced in the MENCS, New Hampshire races have averaged five drivers scoring at least 45 race points.

Pick: Over

3. Which driver scores the better finish: Erik Jones or Daniel Suarez?

The key metrics between these two drivers are very close both at New Hampshire in recent years and at flat tracks this season, with Suarez owning the very slightest of edges in performance.

Pick: Suarez

4. O/U 138.5 total points for Hendrick Motorsports?

Download the FREE Action Network app to finish reading this article and get the rest of PJ Walsh’s NASCAR Props Challenge Picks.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Anybody can tune into a NASCAR team communications with a radio scanner (or, better yet, the NASCAR.com Scanner) and eavesdrop on pit strategy — and that includes competitors. This fact alone creates the need for drivers and pit crews to use code words known only to those on the team to communicate what’s being done on a pit stop.

During Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a break from his broadcasting duties to ask an important question concerning such code words after Kyle Busch pitted for left-side tires — or “Chick-fil-A” according to No. 18 team radio secrets.

Thousands replied to Junior with their suggestions, as Twitter users tend to do.

Following in the Kyle Busch team spirit of using fast food code words, a few folks on Twitter seemed awfully hungry, eagerly joining the conversation with their food-themed ideas.


And if you’re into music, there were plenty of suggestions:

We’d need to study some flashcards to remember the last set, but we admire the thoroughness.

I’m sort of getting the impression some of the respondents had an agenda behind their choices.

Some drivers got in on the action, too, giving away their strategies to competitors. Fools!

Some took the approach of messing with competitors to an extreme level, which we appreciate.

Truly genius. We’ll wait for the day these clever code words trip up even those on the team they’re intended to protect. Somebody’s memory is bound to fail at some point.

Posted on by
No. Driver Sponsor Make Organization
00 Landon Cassill StarCom Fiber Chevrolet StarCom Racing
1 Kurt Busch Monster Energy Chevrolet Chip Ganassi Racing
2 Brad Keselowski Alliance Truck Parts Ford Team Penske
3 Austin Dillon BEHR ULTRA Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing
4 Kevin Harvick Busch Beer/National Forest Foundation Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
6 Ryan Newman Oscar Mayer/Velveeta Ford Roush Fenway Racing
8 Daniel Hemric Okuma Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing
9 Chase Elliott Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Sylvania Ford Team Penske
13 Ty Dillon GEICO Military Chevrolet Germain Racing
14 Clint Bowyer Toco Warranty/Haas Automation Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
15 Ross Chastain YVARSBranding.com Chevrolet Premium Motorsports
17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fastenal Ford Roush Fenway Racing
18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
19 Martin Truex Jr. Sirius XM Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
20 Erik Jones STANLEY Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
21 Paul Menard Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Wood Brothers Racing
22 Joey Logano AAA Insurance Ford Team Penske
24 William Byron Liberty University Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
27 Reed Sorenson VIPRacingExperience.com Chevrolet Premium Motorsports
32 Corey LaJoie Weirs Motor Sales / Adirondack Tree Surgeons Ford Go Fas Racing
34 Michael McDowell Dockside Logistics Ford Front Row Motorsports
36 Matt Tifft Louis Kemp Crab Delights Ford Front Row Motorsports
37 Chris Buescher Scott Comfort Plus Chevrolet JTG Daugherty Racing
38 David Ragan Compressor World Ford Front Row Motorsports
41 Daniel Suarez Haas Automation Ford Stewart-Haas Racing
42 Kyle Larson McDonald’s Chevrolet Chip Ganassi Racing
43 Bubba Wallace Victory Junction Chevrolet Richard Petty Motorsports
47 Ryan Preece Kroger Chevrolet JTG Daugherty Racing
48 Jimmie Johnson Ally Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
51 Andy Seuss JACOB COMPANIES Ford Petty Ware Racing
52 Austin Theriault BANGOR SAVINGS BANK Chevrolet Rick Ware Racing
77 Quin Houff #MyTrackMyRoots Chevrolet Spire Motorsports
88 Alex Bowman Axalta Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
95 Matt DiBenedetto Procore Toyota Leavine Family Racing
Posted on by Staff Report

Already missing compelling on-track racing action? No worries. Get ready for a Monday night showdown under the lights and experience the madness of a race at Bowman Gray Stadium via FansChoice at 8 p.m. ET.

FansChoice TV will stream on tape delay the past weekend’s thrills and spills from the historic quarter-mile facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

MORE: FansChoiceTV coverage

Included are races from the main event modified race, plus sportsman, street stock and stadium stock divisions.

A local short track racing landmark, Bowman Gray Stadium is NASCAR’s longest-running weekly track. Bowman Gray hosted 29 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series events between 1958-1971. Despite the Cup Series’ departure, Bowman Gray has thrived as a grassroots racing institution.

Tune in at 8 p.m. ET to experience the madness.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Until the first round of pit stops, Daniel Suarez looked like the class of field in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.

Seeking his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, Suarez started on the pole and led the first 49 laps, but during a pit stop under caution for Chase Elliott’s blown right-front tire, Suarez’s crew chief, Billy Scott, opted for four tires, while many others went for right-sides only or no tires.

RELATED: Race results | Kurt Busch prevails in OT

Consequently, the driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford dropped to 13th for a restart on Lap 53. Further hurting Suarez’s effort was a green-flag pit stop on Lap 108 that drew a pit-road speeding penalty. Suarez lost three laps before he began a determined rally.

When green-flag stops cycled through, he was one lap down, and on Lap 179 of a planned 267, he returned to the lead lap as the highest-scored lapped car. A determined drive the rest of the way left him eighth at the finish.

“It was an eventful night for sure,” Suarez said. “We just had a fast race car but we got a bit tight. I feel like we made the car better, but we never got the track position back. We had a tire going down and then I was speeding coming to pit road because I was wheel-hopping because of the tire.

“It was one problem after another. We were fast enough to overcome that, but not enough to get a better finish. I feel like the good thing is that we have the speed. We just have to keep working to have a cleaner day and keep working to try to keep that speed the whole race.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

When Bubba Wallace spun in Turn 2 with six laps left in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, it changed the course of the entire race.

For one thing, it bunched the field for an overtime restart that put brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch center-stage for a breathtaking finish, with Kurt taking the checkered flag .076 seconds ahead of his younger sibling.

RELATED: Race results

For another, it treated the fans in the grandstands to the most electrifying finish of the season.

But one person who wasn’t thrilled was Team Penske driver Joey Logano, who had a comfortable lead over Kyle Busch and seemed bound for Victory Lane when Wallace spun to cause the seventh caution of the evening.

The race went to overtime, and on the restart, Logano got sandwiched between drivers and dropped to seventh at the finish.

“The caution came out at the wrong time,” Logano said. “It happens. You try to think through your notebook on how to have a good restart. I thought I was going to have a decent one, but I got stopped on the left rear there when Kyle got into me. That is what it is. That stopped all my momentum.

“The 1 (Kurt) had a huge run (on the outside), and I didn’t have anywhere to go. I couldn’t block them all. I tried to stop the 18 on his right rear by side-drafting. I saw the 1 coming and felt like, if I could get in front of him, that we were so low at the time if I blocked the 1 he would just go to the middle and pass me.

“I felt like I couldn’t stop the 1. I was in a bad spot. Once I got stopped on the left rear on the restart, I was a sitting duck and they just went by me on both sides.”

RELATED: Updated standings post-Kentucky

Logano didn’t win with arguably the fastest car. Nevertheless, he expressed appreciation for the quality of the event.

“Yeah, it was a great race,” Logano said. “It was a lot of fun. You had strategy and cautions, and it was probably the best Kentucky race we have ever had. If I was a race fan, I would say that was a cool finish. I’m a little too close to the fire to say it was a cool finish right now.”

Posted on by Marissa Fuller

The first win is always the sweetest, but it’s even sweeter when it comes after not only a disappointing race the weekend before but a seemingly long winless streak.

Matt McCall, crew chief of the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, got that ever-so-sweet first victory in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“This is what you work every day for,” McCall said. “A lot of hours, but got a wheel man now.”

RELATED: Kurt Busch survives OT thriller | Race results

The driver-crew chief pairing of Kyle Busch and McCall is new this season, but Busch knew from the start that the shift to Chip Ganassi Racing was “the right move for him.” He entered the 2019 season with confidence that he’d win with his new team. Busch knew he was going to win with McCall, too; it was just a matter of time.

“I knew he could be a winner,” Busch said. “I knew from the second I met him. We’re all winners now.”

McCall felt the same. This season marks McCall’s fifth full-time season as a crew chief with 164 starts under his belt and 16 top fives and 58 top 10s. Five of those top fives and 11 of the top 10s all came from the start of this season with Busch.

“(Busch) came in, that was the goal from the very beginning,” McCall said. “He has a lot of credentials, so when he starts talking about how many we’re going to win, it’s definitely a confidence booster for sure. He’s almost delivered, and he delivered tonight, so it’s been pretty fun this first half of the season.”

After making a weather-related judgment call late in last weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway and receiving plenty of backlash, this was a fitting remedy.

Busch had a chance to take home the victory at Daytona, but lightning and a last-minute decision to pit just before the race’s final stoppage ended those hopes with heartbreak.

None of that matters now.

This is Busch’s 31st career win in 16 full-time seasons, but it’s the first for McCall and many other members of the No. 1 team.

“It’s awesome. Just to get back to Victory Lane for the first time with a new team means the world to me,” Busch said. “But with all these guys, there’s so many that got their first win tonight, and they put me in position. A fast car, we had lap time, and we got a nice lucky break to get a shot at it with that yellow at the end. It takes teamwork all the way through, and thanks to Chevrolet, Monster Energy, Gear Wrench, Global Poker. These guys are winners, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”