NASCAR, Genius Sports form exclusive multi-year betting data partnership

Posted on May 3, 2019May 3, 2019 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 3, 2019) – NASCAR and Genius Sports, the global leader in sports data solutions, today announced a landmark deal that will see Genius Sports develop an official NASCAR gaming offering for legal sportsbooks. The new agreement is the first step toward creating an advanced live betting product that will drive fan interest and deepen engagement around NASCAR race events.

Genius Sports will utilize NASCAR’s official data feed to build a high-end live betting product to be sold to legal sportsbooks around the world. Exclusive access to NASCAR’s official data will allow Genius Sports to create a real-time gaming platform that provides up-to-the-minute odds and a suite of traditional wagers and prop bets. The new initiative will enhance the race day experience and keep fans engaged with the sport for longer periods of time.

“Partnering with Genius Sports allows us to deliver a dynamic fan engagement platform in the rapidly-growing world of legalized sports gaming,” said Brian Herbst, senior vice president, broadcasting and innovation, NASCAR. “This new relationship will provide another entry point to the sport and complements our strategy to create a more immersive experience for fans.”

As a result of the agreement, Genius Sports becomes the exclusive provider of NASCAR data to licensed sportsbooks. The new data partnership marks NASCAR’s first in the growing U.S. sports betting sector.

“NASCAR fans are some of the most devoted in the world, and we look forward to helping them to create a deeper, more connected experience that is both safe and secure as the business of sports betting continues to evolve in the U.S.,” said Mark Locke, Genius Sports CEO. “Furthermore, our global relationships will help bring the excitement of NASCAR racing to new audiences both within the U.S. and in new territories around the world.”

With 40 cars on the track reaching speeds of more than 200 miles per hour, NASCAR’s official data is vital to the development of a gaming platform. Only licensed sportsbooks in regulated territories will have access to the official data, providing greater transparency, accuracy, and cooperation to monitor and safeguard NASCAR events.

Before the start of the 2019 season, NASCAR developed a comprehensive sports integrity program and gambling policy in which the sanctioning body granted all teams and tracks the ability to sell marketing sponsorships to sports-betting companies and licensed sportsbooks.

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Holly Cain

Saturday’s Allied Steel Buildings 200 at Dover (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is the fourth and final round of the popular Dash 4 Cash incentive program. Last week’s Talladega Superspeedway winner Tyler Reddick, along with Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Gray Gaulding are eligible for the final $100,000 bonus. The highest finisher among the four Saturday will win the money.

Bell (at Bristol), Cole Custer (at Richmond) and Reddick (at Talladega) are the previous three 2019 bonus check winners.

RELATED: Full Dover schedule | Xfinity standings

Bell is the only driver among the four currently eligible with a previous Xfinity Series victory at the notoriously tough Dover “Monster Mile.” He won in the series’ last visit to Dover in October 2018. He has finished top-five in his two starts on the track and led 110 laps. Reddick won the 2015 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Dover. He has one top-five in three Xfinity starts and led 23 laps. This is only Briscoe’s second Xfinity race at Dover. He finished 19th in his debut last Fall. Gaulding also has only one previous series start at the track, finishing 34th in 2017.

JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier is the defending race winner. He joins Bell, Jeff Green and Morgan Shepherd as the only former winners entered.

Reddick – the reigning series champion – leads the Xfinity Series championship standings again, 32 points over Bell and 73 over third-place Austin Cindric.

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Track Release

Charlotte Motor Speedway is set to host its two biggest races of the year … and they’re going to do it with “Flair!” Eight-time WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair – a native of Charlotte, North Carolina – will assume honorary pace car driver duties for the Coca-Cola 600 on May 26.

The WWE royalty will lead a field of NASCAR stars including Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and more before the green flag drops on the iconic event.

Flair has won more women’s titles than any superstar in WWE history and is the daughter of 16-time world champion Ric Flair. Flair also became the first female superstar in WWE history to main event a singles match on Raw, SmackDown LIVE and a pay-per-view.

RELATED: Buy tickets!

FOX will carry the Coca-Cola 600. Additionally, FOX will become the new broadcast home for WWE SmackDown LIVE starting Friday, Oct. 4. Fox Sports 1 will also be the new home of a Tuesday-night WWE studio show which will cover all the happenings in the WWE universe.

Prior to the green flag, Coca-Cola 600 ticketholders can also enjoy a FREE pre-race concert featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Cheap Trick.

Posted on May 2, 2019May 5, 2019 by Staff Report

A golden-anniversary celebration is part of the weekend’s festivities as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pays its first visit this season to Dover International Speedway, site of Monday’s Gander RV 400.

Here are all the insights for Sunday’s event at the Monster Mile.

TRACK DETAILS

Dover International Speedway is a 1-mile oval with 24 degrees of banking in the turns and 9 degrees of banking on the straightaways. The track changed from asphalt to a concrete racing surface for the 1995 season.

The track held its first race for NASCAR’s top division in 1969. Monday’s race will the 99th for the series at Dover, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

RULES PACKAGE

Teams will use the 2019 rules package with a target horsepower of 750 and no aero ducts as part of the aerodynamic devices. The additional downforce of the larger spoiler, splitter and radiator pan is expected to increase corner speeds and heighten the rigorous nature of an already tough track.

The return of single-car qualifying begins this weekend for all three national series, including the Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series. The rules change was announced Wednesday, ending a run of five-plus years for multi-car, multiple-round qualifying for all three circuits.

All three national series will compete with a new Goodyear tire set-up at Dover. An April 9 tire test confirmed the combination, which alters the left-side tire compound and updates the construction for both left- and right-side tires. Teams will also participate with tire inner liners at Dover, the only track that measures 1 mile or shorter where those are used.

Monster Energy Series teams will be provided with three sets of tires for practice, one set for qualifying and nine sets for Sunday’s race. Xfinity and Gander Trucks teams will each have six sets allotted for the weekend.

STATS

• Team Penske has won eight times at Dover International Speedway, but is experiencing a mild Delaware drought. The organization’s last Monster Mile victory came with Brad Keselowski in September 2012. Team Penske has scored 41 wins on 21 different tracks since its most recent Dover victory.

• Jimmie Johnson’s history of Dover dominance earns a place among the all-time best for a driver at a single track. Johnson’s 11 Dover wins are tied for second place in NASCAR’s modern era (starting in 1972- ) with Darrell Waltrip’s 11 Martinsville Speedway victories. Waltrip tops that all-time list with 12 triumphs at Bristol Motor Speedway.

PHOTOS: Drivers with at least nine wins at single track

• Kyle Busch carries the longest streak of top-10 finishes of his career into Dover this weekend. Busch has recorded top-10 efforts in 12 consecutive races dating back to last November at ISM Raceway near Phoenix. In the last 20 years, only four drivers have strung together more than a dozen top 10s in a row, led by Dale Jarrett’s 15-race streak of top 10s in the 2000 season.

Stats courtesy of Racing Insights

LIVE COVERAGE

The Gander RV 400 will air on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio at noon p.m. ET on Monday, May 6. Fans can also follow along on the live leaderboard on NASCAR.com, get in-car audio on RaceView and watch in-car cameras on NASCAR Drive. Be sure to set your Fantasy Live lineup and sub in your garage pick (if needed) before the end of Stage 2 when rosters lock for good.

2018 RACE WINNER

Kevin Harvick started second and led 201 of the 400 laps last May to score his second Dover victory and to lead a 1-2 sweep by Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick led the final 63 laps and took the checkered flag 7.450 seconds ahead of teammate Clint Bowyer.

ACTIVE DOVER WINNERS

DRIVER	WINS
Jimmie Johnson	11
Kyle Busch	3
Ryan Newman	3
Kevin Harvick	2
Martin Truex Jr.	2
Kurt Busch	1
Chase Elliott	1
Brad Keselowski	1

Posted on May 1, 2019May 1, 2019 by Zack Albert

NASCAR officials announced Wednesday that all three national series will return to single-car qualifying at all oval tracks.

The rules change ends a run of five-plus years for the group qualifying format, which was introduced before the 2014 season. The group qualifying system will remain for the series’ three road-course events.

Officials also dropped the use of multiple elimination-style rounds. The changes go into effect for this weekend’s NASCAR tripleheader at Dover International Speedway.

RELATED: Full schedule for Dover

At oval tracks larger than 1.25 miles (Darlington Raceway and larger), teams will determine the starting lineup with a single timed qualifying lap. At tracks 1.25 miles and shorter (World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and smaller), teams will start on the basis of the best of two timed single-car laps.

Competition officials made the alteration after a steep rise in qualifying gamesmanship through the first quarter of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. With the series’ 2019 rules package placing an emphasis on the aerodynamic draft, teams often waited for the most advantageous position (receiving an aero pull) before making a qualifying attempt.

That qualifying cat-and-mouse game boiled over in March at Auto Club Speedway, when none of the top qualifiers wanted to be first out and all 12 failed to log a final-round speed. That incident and a chaotic qualifying session two weeks later at Texas Motor Speedway drew the ire of Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, who said April 1 that officials were considering all options — including a return to single-car runs.

Wednesday, officials reaffirmed that the multi-car system had become untenable.

“It was (a) unified (decision) between broadcasters, teams and NASCAR,” Scott Miller, NASCAR senior VP of competition, said of returning to single-car runs.

“One of the other things to make a compelling program out of it is we’ve seen the use of the ghost car (on television). That’s going to be a big element in presenting a quality show. I think fans are going to be able to see which drivers drive in deep, which drivers roll the middle faster and get off the corners faster and really give the talent in the booth something to talk about.

“Another interesting aspect is every team has a good shot of getting covered during the qualifying session. We’re building in a few two-minute breaks to where TV can get some spots in and not break away from live action. That’s one of the goals in this, and I think with those designated spots and breaks we will be able to present almost a whole qualifying session live without going away.”

The qualifying order draw will be determined by the previous race’s starting lineup. For example, in the Monster Energy Series, the top 20 starters from the previous race will draw to take their qualifying lap in positions 21-40 (the second half of qualifying). The remainder of the cars will draw to qualify in positions 1-20.

Before reverting to single-car qualifying, competition officials introduced a handful of stopgap moves in hopes of curbing the antics in the multi-car format. Officials added a deterrence element after the Auto Club incident, disallowing all qualifying speeds if a driver failed to post a time in subsequent rounds. The department also tried to establish better-defined staging areas for teams waiting to make their lap at the pit-road exit, but that led to a competition for better parking spots at Texas and what Clint Bowyer termed as “clogging” after congestion hindered his qualifying efforts.

The last change officials came in April at Richmond Raceway, where the length of the qualifying rounds shrank to create more urgency in placing a lap, with all three rounds clocking just five minutes each.

Multi-car qualifying was used for road-course events in 2013, ahead of its full implementation at every track the following season. It was eliminated from superspeedway races at Daytona and Talladega in March 2015 as a safety measure after a series of crashes and questionable aero games made the system unfeasible at those high-speed circuits.

Posted on May 1, 2019May 1, 2019 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Four talented youth drivers have been selected to hone their racing skills as participants in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Youth Driver Development Program after a national talent search in March.

NASCAR and Rev Racing hosted a youth driver combine at GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, N.C., where drivers ages 12 to 16 were evaluated during practice sessions and heat races.

Four drivers were selected to the 2019 class, including Rajah Caruth, 16, an iRacing competitor from Washington D.C., with aspirations of a traditional racing career. Among the new participants are Lacy Kuehl, 12, of Sarasota, Fla., who has experience racing dirt oval flat karts, and Blake Lothian, 16, a World Formula Kart driver from Wellesley, Mass.

Fourteen-year-old U.S. Legends car driver Isabella Robusto of Fort Mill, S.C., returns to Rev Racing having trained with the youth driver development program in 2017 and 2018.

“We were very impressed with what we saw from these drivers at the combine in March,” said Jusan Hamilton, NASCAR director, racing operations and event management. “Each driver demonstrated strong potential and we believe will be successful in racing. The four selected stood out based on their abilities both on and off the track, have great experience and left quite the positive impression on our evaluators.”

NASCAR Drive for Diversity and Rev Racing seek the highest quality candidates from diverse backgrounds and develop them into successful NASCAR drivers. During the summer, the youth program provides selected drivers with equipment, mentoring and competition experience.

Rev Racing, the competition arm of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Youth Driver Development Program, will put the four drivers in INEX Legend Cars in 2019. Each driver will compete in the Bojangles’ Summer Shootout at Charlotte Motor Speedway in June and July, and several other events throughout the summer.

“We have really taken an in-depth look at how we develop and train our drivers at the youth level,” said Max Siegel, CEO of Rev Racing. “We’ve seen the program grow over the last 10 years and make a substantial impact in NASCAR. The level of talent and enthusiasm we are already seeing in these young individuals is both promising and exciting. Connecting with drivers as early as possible allows us to have a greater impact on driver development on and off the race track. Our goal is to see these drivers move through the pipeline and into the national series.”

The youth development program serves as a stepping stone for drivers to eventually move to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series race cars with the goal of one day competing for a NASCAR national series team.

The NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program, a separate program that will host its combine later this year, introduces talent to Late Model Stock cars and offers opportunities for drivers to compete in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and Whelen All-American Series with the Rev Racing team.

Graduates of the youth development program include NASCAR K&N Pro Series West driver Hailie Deegan, 17, and Rev Racing Late Model driver Nicholas Sanchez, 17. In 2018, Deegan became the first female driver to win a K&N Pro Series race after taking the checkered flag at Meridian Speedway in Idaho. Deegan won her second K&N Pro Series race in 2019, finishing first at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track.

Sanchez raced in last year’s Bojangles Summer Shootout with Rev Racing’s Legends Car program and recently completed his rookie season in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

The 2019 class features the following drivers:

Rajah Caruth: In 2018, Caruth raced the Legends ’34 Coupe in the inaugural season of the eNASCAR Ignite Series, NASCAR and iRacing’s youth series created specifically to identify and attract young and diverse talent. He made 18 starts in the eight-week regular season, where he finished second seven times, made the playoffs and advanced to the championship round. Caruth has raced in more than 230 races on iRacing thus far in 2019 with 21 wins and more than1,600 laps led.

Lacy Kuehl: Kuehl has raced in a dirt oval flat kart 32 times with one first-place finish. Notable accomplishments include winning at the Inverness Grand Prix and racing for Diabetic Ketoacidosis survivors. Kuehl would eventually like to earn an invitation to the Maxxis Nationals.

Blake Lothian: Lothian raced nine of 10 races in a World Formula Kart in the 2018 New Hampshire Karting Association (NHKA) Outdoor Series in New Hampshire. His highest finish was third place and he finished the season seventh out of more than 20 drivers. In 2017, he was the NHKA Briggs and Stratton LO206 Senior Champion with seven first-place finishes and three second-place finishes.

Isabella Robusto: A current youth development driver, Robusto competed in the 2018 Bojangles Summer Shootout 10-race series where she finished sixth in the overall points standings. She won Battle at the Big Top at Texas Motor Speedway, a U.S. Legends National Qualifier.

Posted on May 1, 2019May 2, 2019 by Staff Report

All three NASCAR national series are headed to Dover International Speedway this weekend, and all three will be on display as NASCAR.com live streams the first four events on Friday from the “Monster Mile.”

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will get things started with their opening practice from 11 a.m. to noon ET. Bookmark NASCAR.com/live and don’t miss any of the action as the top drivers return to the track following Chase Elliott’s victory last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

RELATED: Full Dover schedule

After that, the Xfinity drivers will hit the track for their first practice from noon to 1 p.m. and again from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sandwiched in between is qualifying for the Gander Outdoors Truck Series from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Commentary from MRN will be available on the live stream.

To recap, here is the full schedule of on-track activity being streamed on NASCAR.com:
— 11 a.m.-noon ET: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series opening practice
— noon-1 p.m. ET: NASCAR Xfinity Series opening practice
— 1-2 p.m. ET: NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series qualifying
— 2:30-3:30 p.m. ET: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice

Fast Friday will kick off on FS1 and the FOX Sports App at 3 p.m. ET with NASCAR Race Hub: Weekend Edition. Monster Energy Series Busch Pole Qualifying will follow on FS1 and the FOX Sports App at 3:30 p.m. ET.

NASCAR RaceDay, at 4:30 p.m. ET, and then the Gander Trucks race, the JEGS 200 at 5 p.m. ET, will round out the day on FS1.

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Zack Albert

Kyle Petty has placed a generation’s worth of effort into his philanthropic work. It’s a milestone he never quite saw coming back in 1995, when a handful of friends and motorcycle enthusiasts started discussion about the ultimate road trip for a good cause.

Some 25 years later, the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America has grown into an annual highlight of the stock-car racing community’s calendar of charitable deeds. With many miles of crisscrossing the country already in the books, Petty says he knew the ride’s silver-anniversary edition was one worth celebrating on an extreme scale.

“This has been on our radar screen for a number of years, but we kind of saved it for the 25th,” Petty says. “We wanted the 25th to be something special — the longest, going corner to corner, the most bikes we’ve had in forever. We’re going to some new places and we’re going to some old places that have been favorites of the riders through the years that we have fond memories of. … We just thought, hey, the 25th. Might as well blow it out big-time, man, and do it corner to corner.”

This year’s Charity Ride route is the most ambitious in the event’s history, with 250 riders embarking on a scheduled distance of some 3,700 miles from Seattle to Key Largo, Florida, over a stretch from May 3-11.

The ride will again benefit the Victory Junction camp for chronic and critically ill children in Randleman, North Carolina. The facility, established in 2004 to honor the memory of Petty’s son, Adam, received $1.3 million from last year’s event. The outpouring of support in recent years has meant that more than 8,000 children have attended the camp at no cost.

“It’s crazy, and I say that all the time. The NASCAR community, I shouldn’t be amazed by it any more by all that they do,” Petty said “When one person in the community does something, everybody kind of chimes in and helps. … When you look at the drivers and the people in the NASCAR community, they’ve always supported it. I look at it that this is my community because I grew up traveling week to week with the same group of people. When your community supports you, that’s big. So I think it means everything to me.”

LEARN MORE: Kyle Petty Charity Ride | Victory Junction

Petty calls this year’s nine-day itinerary “a mix of the old and the new, the favorites and soon-to-be favorites.” Both endpoints of the route are new to the ride, as are stops in Oregon and Utah. Glenwood Springs, Colorado and Santa Fe are familiar return trips for past riders, as is Childress, Texas, where Petty says he’s experienced uncommon kindness from the local townsfolk.

“A couple of our guys had left their luggage at the last hotel, which was about 400 miles away,” Petty says, “and when we got there, the lady that worked at the front desk of the hotel where we were, took their clothes to her house, washed them, dried them, and brought them back for them — all in about an hour and a half. I thought, ‘You just don’t get that. People don’t do that for you.’ That was amazing.”

Kevin Kane Photography

Among this year’s participants are his father, “The King” Richard Petty, current Monster Energy Series driver David Ragan, and former drivers Donnie Allison, Harry Gant and timeless wonder Hershel McGriff, a NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee who plans to join in at age 91. Petty will also have support from NBC Sports colleagues Rick Allen, Krista Voda and Rutledge Wood.

The planning and logistics of organizing overnight stays, fueling stops and three daily meals for nearly 250 people typically hasn’t given Petty much time for reflection. When the ride got its start, Petty figured he’d give the event a solid five-year run before moving on to other projects. Then five years prompted talk of a 10-year mark. The rides accumulated, and the 15-year milestone immediately spurred Petty’s group to the goal of a quarter-century.

This year, Petty is taking that moment for himself to reflect.

“When you get to 25 and look back, and I will say this is probably the first year that I’ve ever really sat down and thought about all the people that have been a part of the ride through the ride, the people that are not with us any more that have been part of the ride from the very beginning,” Petty says. “And I think about Adam and so many things that the ride has meant through the years to so many people, there’s 10 riders that have been on all 25 rides, so that’s all so special. You look back a bit at 25, but we’re still looking ahead, too.”

And looking ahead might mean another decade or two.

“I figured if Hershel McGriff can ride at 91, then we’re going to get 50 years out of this thing,” Petty says with a laugh. “I figure I’ve got another good 25 left in me, know what I mean?”

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Nascar

Name: Mike
Current City: Des Moines, Iowa
Member Since: 2014

Getting to know Mike

Q. How did you first become interested in NASCAR?
“My earliest memories of NASCAR go back to the early 80s. When I was a little boy our weekends revolved around racing. On Friday or Saturday, my dad would take me to the local short tracks to watch sprint car and stock car races. On Sundays we’d come straight home from the morning church service to watch the big boys race. If we had chores to do, the radio would be on or a TV turned towards our work. The voices of Ken Squier, David Hobbs, and Ned Jarrett still bring me back to those days.”

What is your favorite part about NASCAR?
“My favorite part of NASCAR is the storied heritage and tight knit community of fans. I have traveled extensively for the last decade of my life. No matter where I have gone, I have been able to find another passionate fan to share stories with as we experience the race together (sometimes at very odd hours).”

Q: Do you have a favorite in any of the following categories?
Memorabilia: “I have a collection of door numbers. My most prized is the Dale Earnhardt Jr autographed National Guard door.”

Sponsor: “I like the excitement and youth the Monster Energy sponsorship has brought to the sport. My use of their product has certainly increased once they came on board. I definitely consider supporting all brands that are represented by the sport when making a purchasing decision.”

Race Day Snack: “It is tough to beat the pork burgers, courtesy of Iowa Pork Producers, served at Iowa Speedway.”

What are some of your hobbies?
“As a father of four, my hobbies are my kids. I coach my son’s Little League team, act as chauffeur for my daughter to volleyball and basketball, and attempt to help them with homework. Beyond family life, I spend 80 hours a year volunteering with Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity. This includes the construction of homes as well as organizing events for large volunteering teams. I also enjoy small wood working projects, hunting whitetail deer, and I aspire to be a BBQ pit master.”

FROM ALL OF US AT NASCAR, WE THANK MIKE FOR HIS CONTINUED SUPPORT AND LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM HIM IN 2019!

Posted on April 30, 2019June 23, 2021 by Staff Report

NASCAR issued an L1-level penalty to the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 team Tuesday for infractions found during last weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event at Talladega Superspeedway.

Competition officials discovered a rear deck lid on the No. 3 Chevrolet that did not comply with the 2019 NASCAR Rule Book before Sunday’s GEICO 500. Officials determined that body filler was added and confiscated the unapproved part before Saturday’s Busch Pole Qualifying.

As a result, NASCAR deducted 10 points from Austin Dillon’s total in the driver standings and 10 points from Richard Childress in the team owner standings. Officials also issued a $25,000 fine to No. 3 crew chief Danny Stockman Jr., and suspended car chief Gregory Ebert from the next Monster Energy Series event.

A spokesperson for Richard Childress Racing said that the team has no plans to appeal the penalty, which will sideline Ebert for this weekend’s event at Dover International Speedway. The infraction knocks Dillon from 13th to 14th in the Monster Energy Series driver standings.

NASCAR also handed down a penalty to the Team Penske No. 12 team after one lug nut was found not safely secured in a post-race check after Sunday’s 500-miler. Officials fined crew chief Jeremy Bullins $10,000. Ryan Blaney drove the No. 12 Ford to a 15th-place finish at Talladega.