Posted on by Staff Report

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has unveiled his paint scheme for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Aug. 31 at historic Darlington Raceway when he returns to the track.

Earnhardt Jr. will honor his late father, Dale Earnhardt, by sporting a Hellmann’s Chevrolet with designs inspired by a paint scheme Senior ran for his first premier series start, the 1975 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Earnhardt finished 22nd that day, but that historic start was only the beginning of his legacy.

SHOP: Buy Junior throwback gear

The look that Junior will display in the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet includes the vintage style No. 8 and a blue and yellow paint job that offers a modern look of the car that his father piloted almost 44 years ago.

This will be the fourth time that Junior has run a special paint scheme to honor an Earnhardt family member.

“This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a press release. “We had the perfect opportunity with the Darlington throwback race and I couldn’t pass up the chance. Hellmann’s has been completely supportive from the beginning and the whole concept aligns well with their core values.”

Earnhardt Jr. retired from full-time racing following the 2017 season. He competed in one Xfinity Series race last season, a fourth-place effort at Richmond in which he led 96 laps.

RELATED: Darlington tickets

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Monday morning to discuss Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway in detail, particularly how NASCAR officials viewed and officiated the final-lap wreck.

Chase Elliott notched his first victory of the year Sunday after 15 different drivers led laps. The Hendrick Motorsports driver claimed the victory under caution following an incident involving David Ragan, William Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jeffrey Earnhardt and Larson evolved into a wreck near the middle of the field. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver was hit on the outside, contact that sent his No. 42 Chevrolet careening toward the inside retaining wall and ultimately flipping down the apron.

Larson exited the car under his own power and was later checked and released from the infield care center (along with the others involved in the wreck), and NASCAR officials will take a closer look at that wreck this week.

RELATED: Larson: ‘Longest flip I’ve ever had’ 

“A lot of work goes into it even prior to the race in the wind tunnel, looking at what the liftoff speeds were,” O’Donnell said of Larson’s car getting into the air. “We’ll have to look at a couple of things; the initial impact of the car on the side around the right rear. Maybe that contributed to the air getting under the tire there, as it headed toward the wall. We’ll look at all that.

“We’ll certainly make any adjustments we need to. We obviously want to keep the cars on the ground, but on the good news front glad to see Kyle was alright. Talked to him after the race and he was certainly shaken up from the wild ride, but he was in a good spot.”

Shortly before that wreck occurred, Stenhouse Jr.’s solo spin sent his No. 17 Ford into the outside wall at the back of the lead pack. NASCAR did not throw the caution immediately upon impact, but made the decision to put out the yellow shortly after.

“Our desire for the fans is to always, always finish under green,” O’Donnell said. “You want to let the race play out as much as we can, and that starts almost with (Erik Jones’) 20 car (spinning) going into (Turns) 3 and 4. Do you throw that caution or do you hold off and see if that car is able to roll off? Certainly, if he was stalled out on the apron, that caution comes out, but we saw that he was able to drive off. So, that’s kind of our philosophy in the closing laps.

“When it comes to the 17 hitting the wall and going down to the apron, then what we’re looking at is does he have the ability to fire the car back up and drive off or not and is there anything on the track? We’re going 200 miles per hour, so to quickly look at that takes a few seconds. By the time that happens, cars are out in 1 and 2 … his car doesn’t roll off so we throw the caution. That caution flag was almost the exact time when the (Larson) incident started unfolding on the backstretch as well. Even if there was no incident on the backstretch, that caution would have come out.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The droughts were clearly dragging on those vested in Chevrolet’s success in NASCAR: the teams, the drivers and the automaker’s brass. Desperate measures were needed, and they came from near the top.

Those numbers weighed like a millstone around the neck: 0-for-7 since 2015 at Talladega Superspeedway, a stretch monopolized by rival Ford; an 0-for-9 start to the 2019 Monster Energy Series season, and a 13-race dry spell overall. More bitter still was the way Ford orchestrated a flushing victory at the 2.66-mile Alabama track last fall with a 1-2-3 sweep.

This time, the Ford bunch were left to wonder, “what if.”

“They’ve changed their plan,” said Joey Logano, who drove a Ford to victory here a year ago. “They’ve watched us and changed their plan and it was successful for them today. Speedway racing is like that. It’s monkey see, monkey do and you’ve just got to find the next thing that puts you ahead.”

Team Chevy’s wicked change-up pitch ultimately ruled the score sheet in Sunday’s GEICO 500, with Chase Elliott leading a sweep of the top three and the manufacturer claiming five of the top six spots. The results were the byproduct of laser-focused meetings that continued once Chevrolet teams arrived at Talladega, with Jim Campbell — Chevrolet’s U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports — urging those participating under the bowtie banner to work together.

RELATED: Official race results

Those drastic steps clicked with near perfection, with Chevrolets sweeping the stages and Elliott leading a race-high 45 of the 188 laps in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9.

“We’ve tried before to very little success,” said Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson, who called the triumph a shared victory among Chevrolet teams. “There certainly wasn’t ever as much effort as we have had over the last few weeks, and I think Jim Campbell deserves a lot of credit for stepping up and facilitating it all and drawing the box of guidelines that we’re going to have to work in. Everybody quickly agreed to that and continued to push forward to support Chevrolet.

“Like I said, we’ve tried this before and it’s really been a pretty pathetic attempt at it. Today was a culmination of a lot of hard work and a lot of effort by all the Chevy teams.”

Strategy meetings before superspeedway races are not uncommon, but those spanning multiple organizations require a higher level of coordination. To hear it from those in attendance, the overarching message was clear.

“We all have egos and we all think we’re a tick better than the guy we’re sitting next to, but we were all able to put that aside and focus on the betterment of our manufacturer,” said Daniel Hemric, who notched a career-best finish in fifth. “It’s been a while since we were able to get a Chevrolet in Victory Lane as a whole, especially in a speedway race here at Talladega, so it’s incredible to see us all work together the first time as if we’d been doing it many times. Those meetings are very straightforward. We left with not many questions in mind. It was a matter of us doing the best we could to help each other as much as we could, and that’s what we did.”

If there’s any venue where the best-laid plans go to the scrap heap, it’s Talladega. Added to the mix of variables this spring was a new rules package, with different methods of slowing speeds through horsepower reduction and aerodynamic devices.

RELATED: Updated 2019 standings

Ford teams took turns at the front on another unpredictable afternoon, most notably Logano (37 laps led) and Mustang mate Aric Almirola (27 laps). But Chevrolet drivers were able to use their numbers — 19 Chevys battled 14 Fords and seven Toyotas — to their advantage with a final push to the checkered flag.

“It is hard to plan it with the nature of it, but I don’t know if we could’ve done much of a better job than what we did today,” Hemric said. “We had strength in numbers, and more is better in this situation. I don’t know exactly how many ended up in the top 10, but it looks like the majority. Proud of that. That’s pretty impressive considering how we haven’t worked together in the past, and to have everybody come together and bond in unity like we did was pretty special.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Ryan Preece did what a rookie is supposed to do at Talladega. He stayed out of trouble and finished the race.

And when caution flew on the final lap of the GEICO 500, Preece was running third behind race winner Chase Elliott and runner-up Alex Bowman.

RELATED: Official race results

Driving the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet, Preece, a star of the first magnitude in the modified ranks, had his best-career finish in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

“It was awesome,” Preece said. “I was only here one other time, and that was in an Xfinity car in 2016, and I was running third with three to go and went for the hole and got flushed. So, I wasn’t going to do that today.

“Ultimately, it was a perfect situation for Chevy there on that restart, being able to line up and push each other and really not give the other manufacturers an opportunity to get by us. So a great day for (sponsor) Kroger and for JTG, and hopefully we can use this momentum moving forward.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

TALLADEGA, Ala. – If there was any sign needed that Chase Elliott is the people’s choice in NASCAR, all one needed to do was take a listen to the crowd at Talladega Superspeedway.

It was evident when the Hendrick Motorsports driver took the lead at any point in Sunday’s GEICO 500, but even more so when he took the lead for good with four laps to go. The win was his first of 2019 and the fourth of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.

RELATED: Elliott wins at Talladega | Top moments in Chase’s career

“I’ve never had a crowd what just felt like in the palm of your hands is how it felt,” Chase Elliott said of the overwhelming crowd response. “You get excited. They get excited. You walk and they don’t say anything. You pump your arms up and they get pumped up.

“That’s just something that I’ve never really experienced and that’s one of the coolest moments of my racing career.”

Talladega is just about two-and-a-half hours from Dawsonville, Georgia — the home of Chase and his NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer father Bill Elliott — where the Dawsonville Pool Room siren was blaring loud for all to hear. But, this experience added more than a little something to the victory and made it stand out a little more than his first Cup victory at Watkins Glen last summer.

“I honestly can’t describe it to you,” Elliott said. “After the race was over just kind of the way it ended, I was kind of like in la-la land down there when I was looking for the checkered flag. I really don’t know. Every time I stood up, the crowd stood up.  Every time I got fired up, they got fired up. That’s something you can’t ever take for granted.

“Like I said, people might not always like you. It’s days like today, those moments that you’ll cherish and never forget. Certainly, I won’t. These races are too hard to win to not enjoy those moments.

“You never know if you’re ever going to win another one. I’ll forever remember getting out of the car and experiencing that. There’s nobody to thank but the folks watching for that moment, making me feel special. It being close to home had a lot to do with that I think. They made me feel at home today, which was pretty cool.”

The 2018 NMPA Most Popular Driver also joins his father as a Talladega race winner. Bill won twice at Talladega and set the qualifying record for fastest lap in 1987 at 212.809 mph. Chase’s dad was unable to attend today’s race because he was running a race at Road Atlanta – a race he also won. So it was like son, like father on this Sunday.

“He won, too,” Chase Elliott said. “Good day.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

TALLADEGA, Ala. – When Joey Logano holds the lead on the final restart at Talladega Superspeedway, he feels pretty good about his chance to close the deal. Three victories at the biggest track in the sport will do that to one’s confidence.

On Sunday, though, a victory was not in the cards in the slicing and dicing of superspeedway racing. The reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion held the lead on Lap 184 of a scheduled 188 in the GEICO 500 as he was coming to the final restart. However, a swarm of Chevrolets led by eventual race winner Chase Elliott were too much for Logano to contain and he lost the lead for good with four laps to go.

“I thought I was in a pretty good spot,” Logano said after his fourth-place finish. “We led a bunch of laps (37 on the day) just at the end — the 1 (Kurt Busch, finished sixth) had a big run and I felt like I had to block that. When I blocked that, the 9 (Elliott) got underneath me. If I chose the bottom to block the 9, I had the 88 (Alex Bowman, finished second) behind the 9 and they were just going to go by me as soon as they formed a run. I was in not a very good spot.”

“Once I got on the outside, I thought that was going to be a better spot to be than the bottom. Teammates there didn’t race each other to the end, which is good on their part because it makes sure one of their cars won. If they got side by side, I could have gotten a run again and made something happen but they were selfless towards each other and that’s the way it finished out. I really think even if it was green to the end all the way to the checkered flag, it would have looked exactly the same.”

RELATED: Race results | Race recap

Coming to the final restart, Logano was in as much of a catbird seat as one could be at a superspeedway with fellow Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – a 2017 spring race winner at Talladega – in third and set up to push the Team Penske No. 22 Ford to victory.

The Chevrolets, though, had other plans and worked together as a whole in a way not seen earlier this season at the Daytona 500.

“Once they dumped the 18 (Kyle Busch, finished 10th, was second on the final restart) and then they got underneath the 17 (Stenhouse, finished 25th, was third on the final restart) and dumped him out of the pack as well, it’s just me left and you kind of know you’re the next dumpee at that point,” Logano said. “You’re in trouble. I could defend as much as I could there. They’re going to go on one side or the other eventually. I couldn’t block it all with no help.”

Logano was the highest finishing Ford and earned his fourth straight top-five finish at the 2.66-mile Alabama track. But the 28-year-old was still left to lament the one that had just gotten away.

“Our Fords were fast. We showed speed in our cars,” Logano said. “If anyone could make a run at the Chevys, it was us. We were able to make quite a few runs up top to retake control of the race just the numbers weren’t on our side anymore.”

Posted on by Staff Report

The race-winning Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet of Chase Elliott has passed post-race inspection at Talladega Superspeedway with no issues.

The No. 9 Chevrolet was found to be compliant with the 2019 NASCAR Rule Book after Sunday’s GEICO 500. Additionally, the No. 88 Chevrolet of runner-up Alex Bowman and No. 47 Chevrolet of Ryan Preece also cleared inspection with no issues.

The Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevrolet of Daniel Hemric will be taken back to the R&D Center for further teardown this week.

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

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 Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Alex Bowman was able to savor a solid 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports as he came up just one spot shy of teammate Chase Elliott, the eventual race winner Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway.

A field-freezing caution after a pair of final-lap crashes thwarted Bowman’s chances of mounting a charge to win the GEICO 500. But scuttle any thought that the driver of the No. 88 was content to settle in for a comfortable, career-best second-place day with the checkered flag in the balance.

“Oh, I was going to be selfish as hell coming to the start-finish line there,” Bowman said, “but we just didn’t make it that far.”

RELATED: Race results | Race recap

Bowman led eight laps Sunday — his first this season — and spent plenty of time among the contenders in the final stage of the 188-lap race. Just before bedlam erupted on the backstretch on the final circuit, Bowman said that crew chief Greg Ives had implored him to make his move earlier, anticipating the chaos.

Though the potential for a final push to the front came up short, Bowman was able to taste his first top-five since placing fourth in the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course race last September. It also topped Bowman’s previous career-best, a third-place effort at Pocono Raceway last July.

All of the superlatives provided a boost for a team and a driver that had yet to crack the top 10 this season.

WATCH: Last laps at ‘Dega

“It feels great just to get the monkey off our back,” Bowman said. “This year’s been horrendous. It’s been pretty embarrassing, quite honestly, the mistakes that I’ve made and the amount of things that we’ve kind of let happen and caused on ourselves. Really good execution today and really proud to kind of reset after that off weekend and hopefully keep the momentum going.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson went for a ride on a last-lap wreck Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, emerging from a multi-flip wreck no worse for wear.

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron and Front Row Motorsports driver David Ragan made contact coming out of Turn 2 on the final lap of Sunday’s GEICO 500, with Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet hitting the outside wall and turning back to the inside of the pack. His car smashed into Larson’s car, and the No. 42 Chevrolet was sent off the track toward the inside retaining wall — where it made heavy contact, and flipped down the apron.

“That was probably the longest flip I’ve ever had,” Larson said after he was checked out of the infield care center. “I didn’t know if it would ever stop. … It was a little bit scary, but thankfully I’m all right.”

RELATED: Race results

All drivers involved in the incident — Larson, Ragan, Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Jeffrey Earnhardt — exited the cars under their own power and were eventually cleared from the medical center.

“I was in the middle there after we took the white flag and I just got loose and wrecked the 24 (of Byron),” Ragan said after the race. “I spun him out across my nose and he collected a few other cars. That last wreck was my fault. I was pretty stupid to wreck like that when you are running 10th or 15th on the last lap.”

For Larson, it was yet another incident on what he’s dubbed a “crappy” start to his season so far. He finished the race 24th and currently sits 21st in the points standings.

“Thanks to the fab shop and Chip Ganassi Racing for building safe race cars,” Larson said. “Like I said, that was scary. So, I’m just thankful that I’m OK. … As soon as we left the restart zone we were kind of just in a bad spot. When you’re like that and everybody is four or five-wide, you know something crazy is going to happen.”

MORE: Wreck brings out red flag

Posted on by Reid Spencer

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Chase Elliott seized the lead in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway during a four-lap shootout to the finish and took the checkered flag under caution after Kyle Larson barrel-rolled behind him.

Elliott’s victory broke a Chevrolet drought in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series dating to last October at Kansas Speedway and broke a seven-race Ford stranglehold on the 2.66-mile track.

The first driver not from Team Penske or Joe Gibbs racing to win this season, Elliott crossed the stripe ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman, who scored his career-best finish but regretted he didn’t have the chance to make a move on Elliott on the last lap.

RELATED: Full race results
SHOP: Elliott gear

On a day when Chevrolet drivers faithfully executed a game plan to work together, Elliott scored his first win at Talladega and the fourth of his career. Elliott had taken the checkered flag in three of Chevrolet’s four 2018 wins, including the triumph at Kansas.

“What a day!” Elliott said. “A huge thanks to all my partners, my team, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet — there was a lot of teamwork done today.

“We just had a plan, and we executed really well. Obviously, it could have gone either way, but fortunately everybody stayed together and stayed the course and we got a little help on the last lap with the caution.

“I appreciate all the support, man. This is special. This is close to home for me and sort of feels like a home race.”

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders Ryan Preece and Daniel Hemric ran third and fifth, respectively, as Chevrolets claimed four of the top five positions. Joey Logano was fourth in his Team Penske Ford.

Kyle Busch was 10th in the top-finishing Toyota, extending his streak of top 10s to start the season to 10 races.

After taking the white flag, Elliott held the lead over Bowman, when David Ragan over-corrected on the backstretch and turned William Byron’s Chevrolet across traffic. After contact from Byron’s car, Larson slid toward the inside wall beside Jeffrey Earnhardt’s Toyota, got airborne and began rolling. NASCAR called the sixth caution of the afternoon, and a half-lap later, Elliott crossed the finish line to seal the win.

RELATED: Larson’s ‘longest flip’

“It was a really crazy day, well‑executed day on the Chevrolet teams’ behalf,” Elliott said. “Proud of that effort. That last lap was going to get wild. I don’t know exactly what Alex had up the sleeve. I know he was coming with something.

“We’ll take it.  Unbelievable feeling. The crowd was intense. We’re proud to get it done for them.”

Bowman confessed to mixed feelings after his runner-up finish.

“I’m not just going to let him win, right?” Bowman asked rhetorically. “I’ve got to try. I knew I could get to his quarter panel. I was pretty confident I could get to his quarter panel through the tri‑oval. Who knows who is going to get to the line first? At that point, I thought I could do it. Depends on the car behind you, where he goes.

“It would have been fun to try, but happy for Chase, Nationwide (Bowman’s sponsor), everybody that lets us keep doing this thing. I’m glad to kind of turn the season around. It’s been a rough start to the year. These guys deserve way better than the finishes they’ve had. To come home second, it’s not a win, but headed in the right direction.”

RELATED: Bowman planned move on Chase

Logano had control of the race on Lap 182 of 188, when contact between the cars of Aric Almirola and Chris Buescher sent Buescher’s Chevrolet spinning on the backstretch. Matt DiBenedetto couldn’t avoid Buescher’s Chevy and lifted it off the pavement with enough force to rip the hood off DiBenedetto’s Toyota.

The cars of Martin Truex Jr. and Justin Haley were also damaged in the wreck. Haley was unable to continue and retired from his Cup debut in 32nd place. Elliott, who led a race-high 44 laps, grabbed the lead from Logano after the restart on Lap 185.

The race just 10 laps old when a crash in Turn 1 eliminated a handful of cars expected to contend for the victory. Fighting for the second position, Bubba Wallace had a strong run on close friend Ryan Blaney, and the nose of Wallace’s Chevrolet rubbed across the rear bumper of Blaney’s Ford, getting both cars out of shape.

As Blaney righted his car and moved forward, Wallace steered his Chevy toward the apron and lost control, spinning across traffic near the front of the pack. Clint Bowyer’s Ford slid up the track into the Mustang of Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, knocking Harvick’s car into the outside wall.

RELATED: Wallace ignites wreck

After futile attempts to repair the cars, Wallace and Harvick retired from the race, along with Michael McDowell and Matt Tifft. Denny Hamlin also sustained damage in the wreck and soon was three laps down and out of contention. After hitting the wall on Lap 83, Hamlin took his car to the garage.

“The No. 22 (Joey Logano) pulled up and he checked up a little bit,” Wallace said of the crash. “I went to go to the bottom, where I was safe. I don’t know if I crossed (Blaney’s) bumper or whatever. But it got him wiggled down and shoved me even farther down than I wanted to go.

“So I went back up just to stay off the apron and it just unloaded. It’s just unfortunate, but I tried not to wreck my buddy, Ryan, and it cost our day and some others’.”

During the Lap 11 accident, debris from McDowell’s car slammed into the nose of Jimmie Johnson’s Chevrolet, and on Lap 25, the No. 48 Camaro of the seven-time champion clobbered the Turn 3 wall. Though Johnson got to pit road without causing a caution, his race was effectively over.

Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Brendan Gaughan, Almirola and Kyle Busch completed the top 10.