The speed has been present nearly every race. There is no disputing that, as Ryan Blaney has had a fast car capable of contending in all seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season.
But while Blaney has had speed and led the third-most laps, that speed has not translated into winning. Instead, happenstance and miscues have contributed to what Blaney acknowledges has been a frustrating season heading into the Food City 500 on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“There are moments you get frustrated at it,” Blaney said. “You just wish stuff would stop happening.
“The good thing is we’ve had speed all year. Honestly, I think we’ve had cars good enough to win almost every single one of them – at least have a shot at them.”
Blaney’s season began by crashing-out of the Daytona 500, a race he spent the majority of running up front before being collected in a multi-car accident with 10 laps remaining. Then came consecutive 22nd-place finishes at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where again Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford was among the fastest cars on the track but mistakes and luck prevented him from contending.
Pushing aside three races in a row where the results were not indicative of performance, Blaney rebounded by posting three consecutive top-five finishes. Everything seemed to be pointing upward.
Then came last week, when the gremlins that inflicted Blaney to start the season returned at Texas Motor Speedway. He was leading when his car began billowing smoke, later diagnosed as a parts failure that caused the water to leak out and caused the engine to blow. In a race where he led 45 laps, Blaney finished 37th.
It has just been that kind of season thus far for Blaney. He is third in laps led and only three other drivers have more top-five finishes, except those totals are offset by him having finished 22nd or worse in the other four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season.
“We had that run there of really good finishes like we finished where we had been running,” Blaney said. “I wouldn’t say it’s relieving, but it was nice to finally actually not have anything go wrong in those races. And then, you look at last week leading the race and a part falls off and we end up blowing up. That part is frustrating.”
Amid what has been roller coaster year, Blaney says he doesn’t let himself dwell on the lows for any considerable amount of time. He attempts to find solace in the number of times he’s been in contention and how well Team Penske has executed in 2019, with teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano having combined for three wins already this season. (Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have won the other four races.)
And as Blaney reminds himself, things could be worse. That Penske has had such speed gives the impression that his first victory of the season could occur any week. And all it takes is for one win to change the complexion of his season.
“When we have so much speed right now as a whole group, yeah, you want to capitalize on it,” Blaney said. “You want to rack (wins) up as much as you can as quick as you can when you can.
“But I’d rather have fast cars and things happening when we’re in contention to win races than be running 15th and wondering, scratching our heads where the speed is at. They’re both frustrating, but I’d rather be in this position and you just keep having fast cars and running up front.”
Natalie Decker, 21, will make her NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, competing in the Zombie Auto 150 for DGR-Crosley. A native of Eagle River, Wisconsin, Decker recently returned from Spain where she was one of 28 finalists competing for 18 spots in the new, all-female W Series.
While she failed to make the final cut, Decker said the experience was unforgettable.
“It was amazing and so wonderful,” Decker said. “I’m so happy I did it. I have a lot to learn in road racing; I had never done that before.
“It was really cool to get that experience and I learned a lot. Maybe one day I can race an F3 car, but I really don’t want to do that now. I really want to focus on (NASCAR). I really wanted to do the W Series just because of what they were doing for women and being a part of that.”
Decker has made three starts for the DGR-Crosley team this year in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. Her best finish was 13th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bristol’s fast, high-banked, 0.533-mile layout left a quick impression.
“When I first pulled in, I was getting dizzy just trying to look at everything,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine what it would be like when I got out on the track.
“It was totally different. I come from short-track racing, but this is a whole new level of short-track racing. I’ve raced at Slinger Speedway (in Wisconsin) and that’s a really banked track but this is just totally different.”
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Saturday’s Alsco 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race brings additional incentive for four drivers – the series’ seventh race is the first for this year’s Dash 4 Cash bonus program.
Tyler Reddick (Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet), Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota), Chase Briscoe (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 98 Ford) and Michael Annett (JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevrolet) qualified for the opening round of the program based on their respective finishes a week earlier at Texas Motor Speedway.
The highest finishing Dash 4 Cash-eligible driver in any of the four races – consecutive stops at Bristol, Richmond Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway and Dover International Speedway – earns a $100,000 bonus.
The drivers agree on one thing – competing in a Dash 4 Cash event is very similar to NASCAR’s season-ending playoffs. The goal is to win the race but finishing ahead of the other qualifiers will be enough to collect the six-figure bonus.
“At the beginning … you still want to win the race,” Bell noted. “But at the end of the race, if you’re not in position to win, then it really changes. It almost kind of relates to the final four at Homestead because you’re only racing three other competitors.”
Reddick says his approach is the same as it would be for any race, but that “you kind of look at it like a cutoff (elimination) race.
“I’ll pay closer attention to Chase and Michael than I have in the past … obviously me and Christopher have been pretty even about everywhere we’ve gone this year.”
Said Annett: “I definitely think it comes into play when it’s not your day, you can turn it into it and not necessarily have to win the race. That’s the biggest thing – taking chances that you probably wouldn’t for a fifth- or sixth-place finish.”
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Forget about the superspeedways. Chase Elliott roared to his first pole of the season Friday, capturing the No. 1 starting spot for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Elliott, driver of the No 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, toured the 0.533-mile, high-banked track with his final round run of 14.568 seconds at 131.713 mph. Prior to Friday’s effort, all four of Elliott’s previous poles had come on what had been the series’ restrictor-plate tracks – three at Daytona International Speedway and one at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I’ve been wanting a pole outside of Daytona and Talladega for quite some time now,” Elliott, a three-time Cup race winner, said. “I felt like I was able to deliver a pole to my team that really deserves it, on way more than one occasion over the years. I felt like I haven’t (done) my part.”
Elliott was eighth quickest in the opening round that saw the 24 fastest advance; he was second fastest in the second round to advance to the final 12.
He had been eighth in the day’s lone practice.
“I think Ryan probably threw me a bone, it looked like he messed up,” Elliott said of fellow competitor Ryan Blaney. “He had a pretty good lap going.
“The starting spot is great, but it’s also just a starting spot. I think the first pit box down there is probably more important than anything.
“Our car has pace so I think if we can get it driving good, I think we have a chance (on Sunday).”
Blaney, driver of the Team Penske No. 12 Ford, was “One Lap Blaney” through the first two rounds, racing his way to the top of the scoreboard with single-lap efforts. But the final round proved to be a different story.
“I got greedy,” Blaney admitted. “Got greedy into (Turn) 3 and missed it. Probably would have run about a (14).45. Got loose out of (the turn) and lost it just a little bit.”
As a result, Blaney will start behind Elliott, third on the 37-car grid. His second-round run of 14.528 seconds at 132.076 mph did top the mark of 131.407 mph established by Denny Hamlin in 2015 for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, to set a new Bristol qualifying record.
William Byron will start alongside Elliott, his HMS teammate, after locking down the No. 2 starting spot. It was the second consecutive race in which Byron had qualified on the outside of the front row.
Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing will begin the race in fourth and fifth.
Kurt Busch, winner of last year’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol, struggled in qualifying and failed to make it out of the first round. The former series champion will start 27th Sunday.
“Car was loose; we didn’t get a good time,” Busch said. “That’s all I have. I did one lap and I’m in here talking for 30th. Car was loose. We didn’t get a good time.”
Points leader Kyle Busch did not advance to the final round and will start 17th. Busch is a seven-time winner at BMS and is the defending champion of the Food City 500.
Already Denny Hamlin has won twice in seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season, demonstrating such high-level consistency that he is second in the standings heading into Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
And yet, despite a stellar a start to the season, Hamlin prefers not to rejoice over what his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota team has thus far accomplished. Instead, Hamlin prefers to look ahead, adamant that he and his team can – and will – be even better as the season progresses.
Hamlin’s belief is supported by the fact while he has two wins — the season-opening Daytona 500 and last week’s race at Texas Motor Speedway – he and his No. 11 team have actually been quite mistake-prone. The team has been penalized four times in the past three races for rules infractions on pit road – two for Hamlin speeding, and two for the pit crew having an uncontrolled tire. Last week, Hamlin had to twice rally back from penalties to win at Texas.
Nonetheless, Hamlin’s two wins are tied for most in the series and he’s finished in the top 10 in every race but one. He trails JGR teammate Kyle Busch, who’s also won twice this season, by a mere eight points in the standings.
“I’m confident that if we can still have those kind of results with those kind of shortfalls, that we’re a team that can battle back and once we do have clean races, we’re going to have dominant races,” Hamlin said. “… I just feel like we’re definitely going to be better a few months from now than what we are now.”
It isn’t just the penalties Hamlin looks at as why he and the No. 11 team will be better in the future. Hamlin is in his first season working with crew chief Chris Gabehart, a first-year crew chief in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Obviously, based on the results, Hamlin and Gabehart have clicked well enough that Hamlin is off to the best start of his 14-year career. But that all-important chemistry between driver and crew chief, so often the difference from a team being very good and being excellent is still developing, says Hamlin. He credits Gabehart for helping him evolve as a driver by bringing a different approach than what he’s accustomed to, coinciding with NASCAR implementing a new aerodynamic rules package this season that has required further adjustments.
Ultimately, Hamlin wants to replicate the kind of relationship that Busch has with his crew chief, Adam Stevens. That will take time, though it is not lost on Hamlin that Busch and Stevens won the 2015 Cup championship in their first season together.
“I just feel confident in that and knowing that certainly with a little bit more execution and more learning with me and Chris we’ve continued to get better and better every race track we’ve gone to,” Hamlin said. “We’re really learning each other more and more.
“I feel like we’re not even close to the level of relationship that like Kyle and Adam are at; that’s where obviously you want to go with it. We’re miles apart from them as far as that aspect, but we’re not miles apart as far as how we’re running right now.”
BRISTOL, Tenn. — After a heavy, emotion-intense press conference where Darrell Waltrip announced his retirement from broadcasting at season’s end, there was a desire for some much-needed levity. Staying on brand, Waltrip provided.
The NASCAR legend was asked Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway about his television career being so closely associated with a three-word catchphrase and the inspiration behind it. That question wound up being the perfect lob, and Waltrip dunked it home with a rollicking story.
So here, we present the unabridged origin story of “Boogity, boogity, boogity,” as told by its inventor:
“It was (former FOX Sports chairman) David Hill that kind of motivated me to do that. I said, ‘David, we’re doing these races and they’re exciting to do, but they start the race and all I hear is, “… and the green flag is in the air.”‘ I said, ‘Are you kidding me? As a driver, I’m coming down to take the green flag, I got my hand on that shifter, I’m shaking all over, I’m getting ready to go race off into the first turn and I don’t know if it’s going to stick or not, and all we hear on the P.A. (public address system) is, “… and the green flag is in the air.”‘ I said, ‘That’s not good enough for me.’ He said, ‘Well, you’re a smart kid. Come up with something.’
“Ray Stevens, one of my best friends, I was in the motorcoach on Sunday morning at Darlington, I’ll never forget, and the song, ‘The Streak,’ came on. ‘Here they come, boogity, boogity. There they go, boogity, boogity.’ I said, ‘That’s it, that’s it.’ Of course, I added one — ‘Boogity, boogity, boogity. Let’s go racin’, boys,’ and it stuck. Did I think when I did that that 19 years later, I’d still be doing that?
“It’s a blessing and a curse. Some people love it. Some people, they don’t even know how to start a race unless they start it that way. Other people think it’s the dumbest thing they’ve ever heard, so I’m caught in a trap. Some people want you to quit doing it, and other people said, ‘Please, please, don’t quit doing that!’ So you can’t make everybody happy.
“And my boss, I don’t run FOX Sports, I work at FOX Sports. If they didn’t like it, they would tell me, ‘Don’t do that anymore.’ If some of these people, Mike Helton or any of these people didn’t like it, they’d tell me, ‘Don’t do that anymore.’ They don’t tell you that. And so I do what I do. I feel like it’s part of my legacy. Kyle Petty told me this not long ago, ‘How’s it feel to be known as the man that says Boogity, boogity, boogity, let’s go racin’, boys, and nobody every knew you drove a race car?” It’s kind of the dilemma I find myself in sometimes.”
The next dilemma for the FOX Sports booth might come this weekend. Bristol Motor Speedway asked Waltrip to wave the green flag for Sunday’s Food City 500 (2 p.m. ET, FS1 PRN, SiriusXM), begging the obvious question.
“That’s the first I’ve heard about this, so immediately, I said, ‘Who’s saying boogity, boogity, boogity?'” said FOX Sports colleague Jeff Gordon. “I think they’ve got a plan for that. I don’t want to ruin it, but I think they have a plan. It’s not going to be me, no. There’s only one guy that can say, ‘Boogity, boogity, boogity.’ “
Darrell Waltrip formally announced Friday his retirement from the FOX Sports booth following the June race at Sonoma Raceway, saying farewell in a press conference that was emotional, passionate and from the heart — just like the man himself.
Waltrip got plenty of laughs during his opening statement, and there may have been a few tears by the end as well. And naturally, there was a piece of news when the 72-year-old Hall of Famer agreed to wave the green flag at the start of Sunday’s race (2 p.m., FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the “Last Great Colosseum.”
From Mike Joy’s introduction, to Mike Helton’s moving words to DW being DW, the full press conference is a must-watch. You can watch the embedded video below, or visit our YouTube channel.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Christopher Bell sits in the upper reaches of the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings. He has one victory already this season, virtually assuring him a postseason berth. Plus, Bell rolls into Saturday’s start at Bristol Motor Speedway with eligibility for the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus.
So why do a fair share of the pre-race questions directed his way surround a possible jump to the Monster Energy Series, even with the 2020 season so far away?
“It’s cool, right?” Bell said Friday at the .533-mile track, on the eve of Saturday’s Alsco 300 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM). “I’m honored that people want to know where I’m going to go. That’s better than people not caring, so that’s really cool. I don’t know. I wouldn’t say it’s a distraction just because it goes in one ear and out the other, so it’s not anything that I have any input in. It’s not like I can control that. The only thing that I can control is finishing races and hopefully winning races.”
Bell’s success in the Xfinity Series — nine wins in roughly a season and a half of competition, plus a NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship in 2017 — have accelerated the talk about such a leap. This season, the Joe Gibbs Racing ace is the only driver to have led a lap in all six Xfinity races this season, and he sits just 12 points back of series leader Tyler Reddick.
His career may be earmarked for a move to the Monster Energy Series, but his path to NASCAR’s top division is still unclear. Further muddying the ladder’s rungs is news that Erik Jones — one of Joe Gibbs Racing’s four drivers in the premier series — is inching toward a contract extension.
But Bell says he doesn’t see himself supplanting any of JGR’s current foursome of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Jones.
“I never really pictured Erik being my hole, and if you look at the Gibbs camp right now, I can’t really picture anyone being my hole because all four of their cars are running exceptional right now,” Bell said. “I mean, if you watch any of the races, all four of them are right in the top five. So, I don’t know. I don’t know where I’m going to land, and I’m just enjoying the ride right now.”
One positive for Bell is the timing, with the so-called “silly season” not near reaching peak hilarity.
“It’s still early in the year,” Bell said. “Normally, I don’t figure out where I land until August-ish, so we’re definitely way early in the year to know where I’m going to be.”
When Darrell Waltrip, Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds came together for one of their earliest broadcasting collaborations — a Saturday Busch (now Xfinity) Series race at Phoenix for TNN seems to be the consensus recollection — the chemistry clicked. Those fledging efforts held so much promise, Joy says, that his agent took the tape of the broadcast to the powers that be at FOX Sports, NASCAR’s newest broadcast partner.
“That convinced them that there was some great potential for the three of us together,” Joy says, “more so than any of the individual parts and pieces paired together with other people.”
Joy held the quarterback role with his play-by-play efforts, McReynolds explored the tactical side with his crew chief background, but Waltrip brought something different to the color analyst role. His Hall of Fame driving career gave him racing cred, but his penchant for being one of the sport’s best talkers gave him an uncanny comfort with the cameras rolling. What FOX executives saw in translation was the potential for Waltrip to be for NASCAR what John Madden was to the NFL.
“Entertaining has always been in his DNA,” Joy says. “I think more so than any previous analyst, Darrell saw the opportunity to not just inform and educate people about this sport, but to entertain them as well. But that became a very important part of our three-part challenge to inform, educate and entertain. Darrell brought the entertainment.”
After a run of 19 seasons, a key piece of that entertaining broadcasting chemistry will leave this summer. Waltrip, 72, announced Thursday that this season will be his last in the FOX Sports booth. The news prompted an outpouring of appreciation on social media from fans and well-wishers, but closer to home, Waltrip’s broadcasting colleagues offered their personal tributes in conversations this week with NASCAR.com.
“To me, the list of things that Darrell has brought to NASCAR broadcasting is endless, and I think it’s been there from Day 1,” McReynolds said. “He’s informative, he’s clever, he has fun, he’s always light-hearted. He’s had some good days and bad days, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen Darrell Waltrip down.”
It’s an uplifting impact that four-time champion Jeff Gordon saw early on, both as a competitor from the driver’s seat and later as a fellow analyst upon his addition to the FOX Sports booth for the 2016 season.
“DW changed the sport on and off the track,” said Gordon, who joined Waltrip in the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year. “The stats on the track speak for themselves, particularly as we roll into Bristol. What he did on the track — his wins, the championships and laps led. Then, what he did with FOX, as the network came into NASCAR, to elevate the sport and expose it to millions more fans. DW helped the broadcast introduce drivers, like myself, to viewers, and brought a different perspective on how races are broadcast. I tell him all the time that he’s a Hall of Fame driver, but he has equally contributed to the sport as a broadcaster.”
Courtesy of FOX Sports
Beginnings
Before the FOX Sports core of Joy, Waltrip and McReynolds joined forces, there was a level of familiarity given their long-running backgrounds in stock-car racing. To hear McReynolds phrase it, “We knew each other, but we didn’t know each other.”
“None of us knew what to expect,” he added. “It’s almost like when you pair a new driver with a new crew chief with a new team. You think you’ve got it all right, but you really don’t know until you start the season. But it didn’t take me long to realize that we’ve got something special here.”
Those bonds came through in those Saturday matinee races, which unknowingly would become their audition tapes for a more prominent stage with FOX Sports. What also emerged was a convivial spirit that would last for nearly two decades to come.
“I think the best thing about doing those TNN races, was that for Larry and Darrell, it wasn’t work. It wasn’t their day job,” Joy says. “Their day job was racing — Larry on the pit box, Darrell in the race car. TV was something to do that was fun, but wasn’t a chore. And for 19 years, as much hard work as is involved in getting this done, it’s still fun. We started out insisting it was going to be fun, and we’ve kept that same attitude — all three of us, and now Jeff Gordon as well — for 19 years.”
Waltrip quickly made those early FOX telecasts his own, not only with his folksy yarns and country music references but with his signature “Boogity, boogity, boogity!” call to start each race. Waltrip also is credited with christening FOX’s mobile studio as the Hollywood Hotel, providing a nod to his former crew chief turned broadcasting teammate, “Hollywood” Jeff Hammond.
“It’s little catch phrases and the way his mind works,” Hammond says. “He’s always looking for something to spice it up. He embellished it and embraced it.”
Courtesy of FOX Sports
The first race of Waltrip’s FOX Sports tenure became a turning point for the sport, but for the most somber of reasons. The network’s debut came Feb. 18, 2001, with stock-car racing’s biggest prize, the Daytona 500.
Waltrip cheered from the booth as his brother, Michael, came under the checkered flag first to claim his breakthrough victory in NASCAR’s top series. But the elation and attention quickly turned to concern for former rival Dale Earnhardt after his fatal crash in the final lap, the details of which only became public after the 500’s on-air window had closed.
“We’re all riding an emotional high as that checkered flag fell at Daytona, and in less than five minutes, it’s like somebody jerked the ladder out from under us and we’re all eating the floor at the same time when the realization of what’s going on here hit,” Hammond said. “Yes, for Darrell to show that side, Michael was leading but Darrell was battling good and bad at one moment, and he’s our lead guy. It was a day that we all found out how challenging our second job or our passion for the sport can swing and what you can be faced with in the blink of an eye.”
NASCAR was back the following weekend at Rockingham, making an emotional attempt to return to a hollowed sense of normalcy, even with flags at half-staff and tributes everywhere.
In a testament to his faith and the respect he had earned within the garage, the track asked Waltrip to offer the pre-race prayer. He opened by asking all of those assembled to join hands.
The impact
Legacies worthy of consideration for the NASCAR Hall of Fame are unicorns. Rarer still are the figures in the sport with dual legacies. Junior Johnson did so as a pioneering driver and then team owner; Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons followed suit with prominent careers as champion drivers and beloved broadcasters. Buddy Baker and Neil Bonnett are both Hall of Fame hopefuls this year, both with rich driver-broadcaster pedigrees.
Waltrip’s blue jacket from the NASCAR Hall has long been secured, but his larger-than-life persona in the booth adds a compelling chapter to his story.
“This is not taking anything away from any other driver who has migrated to the broadcast booth and became a broadcaster,” McReynolds said, “but I do think we’ll look back and know that Darrell Waltrip moved the bar and he moved it a long way.”
Photo courtesy of FOX Sports
Echoed Hammond: “When Darrell came along, Darrell took it to not another level, but to two levels above. He had a gift of gab. A lot of times we liked to laugh about it and put it in the context of how he was kind of the used-car salesman for NASCAR. He always had a line, he always had a comment and he always had an opinion. For that reason, he alienated a lot of the veterans, but he energized a lot of the new fans and gave them the opportunity to really differentiate the good guy and bad guy when it came to race car drivers.”
Final wishes
Waltrip told The Tennessean that he plans to spend more time with his family, which has grown in recent years. His daughter Jessica’s first child, Luisa, was born 14 months ago, meaning Waltrip’s dutiful wonderment as a grandfather is in full swing.
One transition begins, but another era will end in the FOX Sports booth on June 23. With nine races remaining in Waltrip’s tenure, we asked the broadcasting colleagues who have been with him from the beginning what their wishes would be for his retirement.
Mike Joy: “Be busy, be engaged, stay off the couch, and come back and say hey when the spirit moves him. Don’t be a stranger. I see many people retire from doing something they love and have a hard time finding another passion to get as excited about. Darrell has business interests, he has his car dealerships, there’s grandchildren now and there’s some traveling that he and (wife) Stevie want to do. That’s great, but I think it’s hard to replace the roar of the crowd, whether that’s in the grandstand or on social media or just in the phone calls and questions that come up on a daily basis. That’s a very, very hard thing to replace. So I think my best wish for him would be, don’t be a stranger. Come around and see us.”
Jeff Hammond: “There’ll be other things you’ll want to do. Understand like you did with your driving career, he didn’t want to let that go. He wanted to race trucks. It’s hard to let go of something that you care so much about and is so much a part of you, and realize you have to pass it on. There is going to be, mentioning the grandkids, hopefully someday if Darrell so chooses and it works out that they want to race and they become popular racers, it’s like the future is coming. Sometimes the future is ahead of you and it’s hard to catch up with. You’ve got to be willing to let it go and realize you did your job and did it well and hey, have fun with what was.”
Larry McReynolds: “Pretty simple, just be happy and enjoy. Whether you sit on the front porch every day and drink coffee with the dog at your feet, whether you’re on the golf course every single day, whether you’re traveling, whether you and Stevie have that grandbaby every day, it does not matter to me as what I consider one of my closer friends, just enjoy these years.”
Ryan Blaney paced the field in Friday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway, wheeling his No. 12 Ford around the .533-mile track at 129.614 mph.
Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano was second-fastest in the 50-minute practice session, moving his No. 22 Ford around the track at 128.882 mph.
Erik Jones in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (128.865 mph), Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (128.735 mph) and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 JGR Toyota (128.709 mph) rounded out the top five.
Quin Houff brought out the caution about 17 minutes into the practice session after smoke wafted from his No. 77 Chevrolet and his car put fluid on the track.
The Monster Energy Series returns to the track at 6:10 p.m. ET for Busch Pole Qualifying (FS1). Sunday’s Food City 500 is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. ET (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
