Porter Mother-Daughter Duo Carrying on Family Legacy at Anderson Motor Speedway

Posted on March 19, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

Racing was always in Sylvia Porter’s blood. It was something she was born into. Her father, Rupert Porter, built Anderson Motor Speedway, in Anderson, South Carolina, in 1963, and put Sylvia to work in the concession stand when she was 13.

But running the track was never something Sylvia wanted to do growing up.

“I ran from it when I was younger,” Sylvia said this week. “I grew up there.”

Sylvia went away to college at The University of South Carolina, and spent two-and-a-half years traveling the country with NASCAR. But 15 years ago she returned home.

Now, she’s running the track her dad built with her mom, Shirley, making sure the family legacy lives on.

“I had no thought of coming back. It’s funny how things work out,” she said. “I fell in love with it all over again. I was older and wiser and I had got a lot of things out of my system just traveling. When you’re older you appreciate things more. So I had no doubt when I came back.”

Rupert Porter passed away nearly 10 years ago, and Shirley and Sylvia have been running the race track by themselves ever since.

Shirley has been at Anderson, a .375-mile asphalt oval, since it opened 56 years ago. Rupert got the idea to open the track because of his interest in drag and street racing. He and a business partner found the property to build about 35 minutes from their home in Seneca, South Carolina, where the Porters still live today. The initial building of the track was partially funded by Rupert selling the dirt removed from the area to the state of South Carolina to help build Interstate 85.

At the time, Shirley was working as an elementary school teacher while Rupert built apartments and commercial buildings. He then recruited her to join him in the real estate business.

“As you can see, I’m a woman of many, many hats,” Shirley said.

Anderson Motor Speedway

Anderson has always been a family track, and to this day they run it the same way. The employees, fans, and neighbors are all considered family, and Sylvia said many of the employees have been there since it opened.

“We love our community,” Sylvia said. “We just try to be good, do the right thing and be good to our neighbors. We love our young race fans,we love our older race fans.We’re very blessed that we’ve been able to be there all 55 years.”

“We are a family-oriented track and we just work really, really hard to make it the best that we possibly can,” Shirley added.

Even though the Porters have been around racing nearly their entire lives, once Rupert opened the track he never got behind the wheel again. Shirley and Sylvia, too, have never given it a try.

“I have a bunch of speeding tickets,” Sylvia said with a laugh. “I have a lead foot. I like to drive fast, which is terrible, but I’m usually in a hurry because I’m running late.”

But the mother-daughter duo have learned to appreciate the sport, and are very hands-on at the track, spending their days buying food for concessions, loading freezers, ordering and unloading tires, paperwork, booking and getting organized for Friday nights..

“It’s a labor of love, but we do enjoy it,” Sylvia said. “I have a great staff. In racing, especially at this level, everybody works a different job and everybody comes together on Friday nights to make this happen.”

“It’s always such a joy,” Shirley said. “I’m a greeter. I like to go down to the front gate and meet all of the race fans as they come in.”

Anderson will open the season this Friday night with late models, modifieds, mini stocks, legends, and pure stock.

AMS Schedule

When the season kicks off, not only will the Porter family be represented working at the track, they’ll also be in the stands. Rupert’s brothers are on the top row for every race, making the family atmosphere even more special.

“They come every Friday night,” Sylvia said. “It brings us joy that two of my dad’s brothers who he loved so much come and they watch the races and they enjoy Friday night down there. I’m sure they’re proud of the accomplishments dad made.”

Another constant presence at the track is the Shriners, an organization Rupert was a part of. The track holds an annual Shriners race for the children’s hospital in Greenville, South Carolina.

All of these aspects are what brought Sylvia back to her home track. And she has no regrets.

“I do it because I love the sport,” Sylvia said. “But more than that: I love the people. There are some really good people in racing. When the chips are down, they might fight on the track, they might battle on the track, but when things go wrong, someone’s health is in trouble, someone’s house burns down or there’s a crisis, that’s the first people you can look to is your competitor there at the racetrack lending a helping hand. That’s what I love about the sport. To be honest, that’s why I still do it.”

“Momma and I just try to continue that tradition and we plan to for as long as we’re physically able to.”

Friday’s opener at Anderson will begin at 8 p.m.

“We’re hoping for a better weather condition this year,” Shirley said. “Let’s just hope the weather is good to us this year and we’re all ready and ready to go.”

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Posted on March 18, 2019 by Staff Report

NASCAR fined the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for lug nuts not properly installed following the races this weekend at Auto Club Speedway.

The team had one lug nut not safe and secure in post-race inspection.

NASCAR fined crew chief Chris Gabehart $10,000 for the infraction. Driver Denny Hamlin drove the No. 11 Toyota to a seventh-place finish Sunday.

Posted on March 18, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

A little adversity can’t hurt — even when you’re a five-time champion.

Doug Coby’s path to victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opener might not have been the one he thought he would have to take, but it all worked out in the end. In a search of a sixth series championship, Coby is making headlines once again as he opened the season in Victory Lane at Myrtle Beach Speedway.

Defending race winner Jon McKennedy was strong throughout the day, coming home second, while the Pasteryak name returned to the top five and the defending series champion took a gamble that didn’t pay off.

All that and more in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Rapid Rewind from Myrtle Beach.

Performance Plus 150 presented by Safety Kleen: RACE RESULTS | RACE RECAP | PHOTO GALLERY

Welcome Back, Champ

He may not have won the championship last year, but everyone knew Doug Coby wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. After an offseason filled with testing, and a few adjustments inside the Mayhew Tools team, Coby showed up to Myrtle Beach looking to erase some past misfortune at the South Carolina oval.

Well, in the end, celebrating in Victory Lane pretty much accomplished that goal. After qualifying on the pole, and winning the first Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole Award, Coby’s day was off to a dream start. What better way to open the season? Winning the pole and having control of the green to set the pace at a gritty, tire-eating track was going to be important for the Milford, Connecticut, driver.

Take a look back @ the Whelen Modified Tour Opening Day || 03.16.19

– @JBonsignore led practice ud83dudd7a
– @doug_coby won the pole ud83eudd47
– @doug_coby started 32nd ud83dudc4eud83cudffc
– @doug_coby got the victory ud83eudd2f

ud83dudcd6 Story: https://t.co/W3ldBZTuoP #NWMT pic.twitter.com/1Lls4v4P1o

— NASCAR Home Tracks (@NASCARHomeTrack) March 17, 2019

But it was just before he buckled into the car when things took a turn down the wrong path. Coby and his No. 2 Mayhew Tools Chevrolet crew noticed something stuck into the left-front tire, and when they pulled it out, the tire was beginning to go flat. The crew made the decision to change the tire, forfeiting their pole position per the NASCAR rulebook for unapproved adjustments. Coby was frustrated with the ruling to send him to the tail of the field, since he felt like the team was boxed into a corner with no other choice but to change the tire — for something that wasn’t of his, or his crews, fault.

But, that didn’t derail his drive to win. He found a way to get to the front.

“It had a phillips head on it, with an inch long stick at the end of it, it was straight in the tire,” Coby said of what the team found before the green. “Ultimately, I like to think that I can keep my composure over any circumstance, but I voice my frustration when I think I know I am right. But I’ll never let that affect how I will race. With this kind of stuff, you just have to let it roll.”

His eventual path to the win was a difficult one. Early, while slicing through traffic in the tail of the field, Coby nearly saw his entire effort go up in smoke during a wreck, where he was nearly boxed into the outside wall.

“If I had bent my right-front suspension in the first wreck when I got up against the wall, I’d be having a different interview. I just don’t feel like I should have been put in that position to go to the rear,” Coby said. “But we had to perform, and we did. We didn’t just let pit strategy do it. We passed a lot of cars out there.”

Even though strategy did matter, Coby decided to stay out during a caution early, gaining crucial track position. When the cautions flew his way in the final laps, a quick stop by the team allowed Coby to get out towards the front of the field, where he later passed Kyle Ebersole for the lead and he never looked back.

HEAR MORE FROM COBY: VIDEO: Coby Opens Up With Victory at Myrtle Beach

The testing over the offseason as part of the 53rd World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway definitely helped steer the Phil Moran led team in the right direction, and Coby also made the move to a new shock builder — joining the Earnest Performance team.

On top of all of that, Steven Kopcik, the crew chief for second-place points finisher Chase Dowling last year, has been helping the team, and was in attendance on Saturday.

“You have to remember that a lot of the ideas for the LFR cars come from Phil, and when he and Rob Fuller designed the LFR car, some of the ideas came from both of their experiences. Steven, working for LFR, and Chase not running full-time, he’s been in the shop putting cars together and he has a great knowledge of what worked last year for Chase,” Coby said. “The neat thing about this whole LFR deal is that there are a lot of new customers but they are still treating us as though we should be treated as those championship customers. Steven’s help with tires, it’s nice to have. It’s a good fit for the help we are able to get from him. Hopefully he has some opportunities to help us a little bit more this year.”

But, maybe the most promising aspect of the victory for Coby was the fact that he was able knock Myrtle Beach off the list of few tracks where he has struggled. After failing to finish inside the top 10 the last two years at the .538-mile track, Coby leaves the race at the top of the standings.

“I think everyone always figured that no matter what happens at Myrtle Beach, the No. 2 is going to come out in a whole because they can’t get a handle on this track, but not tonight,” Coby said. “We made some adjustments for the beginning of the race, and we weren’t sure they were going to work but it turns out they did. It helped us build a notebook. It’s a good feeling to start the season on a high compared to the low from the last two years.”

McKennedy Comes Up Just Short of Repeat Win

Jon McKennedy definitely has a knack for tracks that have worn out surfaces. He’s been known for it his entire Modified career in New England, and Saturday, it was only display in South Carolina for the second straight year.

The Chelmsford, Massachusetts, driver started from the front row, but when Coby had to move to the tail of the field, it gave McKennedy the opportunity to be the control car for the drop of the initial green flag. And even though Tommy Catalano led the first two laps, it was all McKennedy after that during the initial stint of the race — as he found himself leading the charge, and setting the pace, something he wanted to make sure he had the opportunity to do.

“Most of my driving career, I’ve always been pretty smooth. A lot of the worn out tracks tend to fit my style, especially knowing how much you can push the car,” McKennedy said. “A lot of drivers have a hard time knowing the limit. There is only so much traction available for these tires, but I’ve been pretty fortunate during my career to know that limit, and not exceed it.”

Throughout the race, McKennedy dictated his own fate — but when it came down to the final laps, it was all about which tires went on the car and which time, which helped decide his end result. While attempting to chase down Coby for the lead in the final laps, McKennedy was racing veteran Jimmy Blewett for second. While he did that, Coby pulled away, but McKennedy was able to battle Blewett and eventually hang on for a second-place effort.

Following up a victory at Myrtle Beach in 2017 with a runner-up finish was a solid start to the season for the Tommy Baldwin Racing team. In the end, it could have been the ultimate decision to leave the right-front tire on during a late pit stop that could have been part of the result.

“We put two rear tires on and the No. 2 car (Coby) put three on, but we still had a really good car,” McKennedy said. “He could just roll the middle a little bit better, turning down to the bottom. I had to wait on the throttle, and I got a little bit tight at the end. We asked the right-front tire to go the whole 150 laps, but we still had an awesome car. We probably got beat with the right-front tire, but it was a gamble. Just one car short.”

The communication between McKennedy, and Baldwin — two veterans of Modified racing — seems to have clicked right from day one. Baldwin, a former Daytona 500 winning crew chief, has deep roots in NASCAR’s Modified ranks, and still owns a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team.

“Last year, right from the start, Tommy and I had communication that was really good. We ran about 13 races together last year in a few different series and won four of them,” McKennedy said. “This year we built a brand new car, with a few new guys on the crew, and things are working out. We are on the same page with our adjustments. It’s just a good deal. Hopefully we can run a bunch more races together and continue to grow.”

Strong Start For Pasteryak

Chris Pasteryak made the decision late last year to move to LFR Chassis, in hopes of improving his performance on the track. After an offseason filled with added confidence and anticipation, Pasteryak opened the with a strong fifth-place finish on Saturday.

The Lisbon, Connecticut, driver started seventh, and ran inside the top-10 for much of the Performance Plus 150 presented by Safety Kleen, challenging up at the front of the field at times. Much like some of the other competitors, his finishing spot was definitely impacted by the tire strategy his family-owned team decided to use — but it certainly worked out in his favor.

The top-five was the first for Pasteryak in Whelen Modified Tour competition since 2009, and his fifth career in 45 starts. In his return to full-time action last year, Pasteryak’s best finish was eighth — so he has already beat that mark in just one race.

Gamble Doesn’t Pay Off For Defending Champ

It was no secret that Justin Bonsignore had plenty of speed at Myrtle Beach. After topping the charts in the lone practice session of the day, qualifying didn’t quite go the way the Phoenix Communications team wanted, but Bonsignore wasted no time getting to the front of the field at the drop of the green.

In the final laps, Bonsignore’s crew chief Ryan Stone decided to save two fresh tires in the pits hoping for a late caution. But it never flew.

“We just got greedy. We always seem to end up in those positions where the opposite seems to happen of what we need when it‘s a strategy race,” Bonsignore told SPEED SPORT. “We wanted a win, we had two tires left in the pits that we were going to come back for and just didn‘t get the yellow that we needed to be able to take advantage of it.”

Bonsignore opened last year with a fifth-place effort and only finished outside the top 10 once throughout the season. If he wants to accomplish that feat again, he will have to finish no worse than 10 in the remaining 15 points championship events.

Up Next

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour teams won’t have much time to think about what transpired at Myrtle Beach. In just under two weeks, the series returns to action at South Boston Speedway in Virginia, on Saturday, March 30.

Posted on March 18, 2019March 18, 2019 by Staff Report

Kyle Busch’s quest for a huge milestone of national series wins has drawn comparisons — right or wrong — mainly because of the iconic nature of the number he’d been chasing: 200.

It’s been nearly 10 years since Busch first casually mentioned reaching the double-century mark, coming on the occasion of his 50th national win at Richmond Raceway. “It would be sure nice to get that,” Busch said back on May 2, 2009, on the occasion of his 24th birthday. “I know it’s not 200 Cup victories like Richard Petty has, but it will still be a phenomenal mark for me.”

RELATED: Full schedule for Auto Club

Ten years later, after making history at Auto Club with win No. 200, Busch still isn’t trying to draw direct comparisons to Petty, whose all-time win mark of 200 is arguably as important a number as his iconic No. 43. But the number 200 doesn’t come around often in stock-car racing. Asterisk or not, it’s a mark worth celebrating.

Is it worth taking the great risk of trying to compare the two, achieved in different eras with different levels of competition, different technology, different tracks? Our Zack Albert and Jonathan Merryman discuss.

Albert: As tempting as it might be to try to force a false equivalency between Kyle Busch and Richard Petty and their accomplishments, I’m not taking that bait. Petty’s 200 wins stand on their own as triumphs in the sport’s top division. Busch’s 200 over three series are remarkable on their own level, impressive for their consistency and the speed with which he’s reached that plateau.

In the preseason, Busch himself mentioned Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James as an unsolvable problem, that while he’d like to be mentioned among NASCAR’s all-time greats, there’s no formula or opinion meter that calculates stats and achievements across the eras to arrive at a clear-cut No. 1. If Rowdy isn’t willing to try an apples-to-apples comparison with Petty’s feats, I’ll sit this one out, too.

Merryman: Kyle Busch may not be on board with the apples-to-apples comparison, but I’m all for it. So, is Kyle Busch’s 200-win mark equal to that of Richard Petty’s? I may be in the minority, but I vote yes. Why, you ask? Well, like Richard Petty did back in the day, Kyle Busch shows up to race anywhere, anytime and in anything with four wheels, a motor and a steering wheel.

In 1964 there were 62 races on the Cup Series schedule. Petty raced in 61 of those. Kyle Busch doesn’t have that opportunity. The most Monster Energy Series races he’s ever run in a single season is 36.

Having said that, Petty’s commitment to the sport is unmatched. He showed up and raced at places his biggest competitors didn’t. To me that is equivalent to Kyle racing at the Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series level. Is it Richard Petty’s fault David Pearson didn’t race full time his entire career? Does that take away from his 200? No. So why is it Kyle’s fault that Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. don’t run more races against him in the other series?

All in all, Richard Petty, on 200 occasions, won at a national level in NASCAR. Kyle Busch has done the same.

Posted on March 17, 2019March 18, 2019 by Chase Wilhelm

FONTANA, Calif. — In every sport, fierce debates circulate on who the greatest of all time might be in their respective disciplines.

In basketball, Michael Jordan has the championship triumphs (six) that earned him a rightful place as the “G.O.A.T.” Well, at least until LeBron James came along.

What’s unique about that debate is it doesn’t solely rest on Jordan needing six fingers to put on his championship rings, compared to James’ three so far in his career. James has broken a number of other records — big and small — and has the breathtaking athleticism to be worthy of a place in the conversation.

But in NASCAR, the greatest driver of all time discussion always seems to include three legends — Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson — because each has seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series titles. No other records are even considered.

Where, then, does Kyle Busch’s legacy lie after tying Richard Petty’s record with his 200th NASCAR national series victory in Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway?

For Denny Hamlin — whose fire suit dons the Jordan “Jumpman” logo each weekend — it isn’t fair that in NASCAR the G.O.A.T. is only subject to the number of championship trophies accumulated.

“No, because the championship format has changed,” Hamlin told NASCAR.com. “It’s come down to a one-race thing where it used to be an entire season. … But right now, I think the competition is better right now than it ever has been. It’s harder to win than it ever has been. The cars are closer together than it’s ever been. When you look back in the older era, I think, with all due respect to some other competitors — the Pearsons and Pettys and those guys — they were the best drivers and they had cars that were extremely fast compared to the field.”

With Busch’s milestone now official, that solidifies Hamlin’s belief that Busch is the greatest right now.

“There’s no one better,” Hamlin said. “I’ve kind of got to watch and race against what I argue is the best. At the time, I would have said Jimmie ‘X’ amount of years ago. I battled him through some championships and stuff and I was like, ‘This guy is on another level.’ I was very unfortunate to race in the Jimmie Johnson era. But now it seems like it’s kind of a Kyle Busch era in the sense that he has taken over as undoubtedly the best driver in the Cup Series.”

Maybe it’s the Kyle Busch Era now, but Alex Bowman, Johnson’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, said the accomplishments achieved in the Jimmie Johnson Era shouldn’t be minimized. He deserves to be in the greatest of all time conversation, too.

“It’s frustrating from my point of view to watch everyone kind of almost blow Jimmie off and think that other guys are better,” Bowman told NASCAR.com. “I think Jimmie is the greatest our generation is going to see. If there is a comparison that is going to be made, it should be Jimmie Johnson. I’m not trying to take away anything from Kyle Busch. I think he’s a great race car driver and probably the most raw-talented guy in the sport. Jimmie … the knowledge that he has and the way he handles himself, the way he leads that race team, it’s pretty incredible.”

And there lies the greatest question in NASCAR: Can you still be the greatest of all time without seven championships? What’s more, should the G.O.A.T. conversations be era-specific only? Is there even such a thing as a G.O.A.T. at all, or can it just be as simple as having multiple greats?

Let’s ask the new Mr. 200, himself.

“In different eras, there’s so many different things,” Busch said after his milestone victory. “Jimmie Johnson should be the G.O.A.T, right? He should be the greatest of all time because he won the most championships in the most different ways of having to win a championship in the most different cars he had to drive in to be able to win races.

“Before 2004, it was always the whole season was the champion,” he added. “Then, we had the 10-race playoffs and now we have the three, three, three and then one (championship finale). Unfortunately for me, I’ve made it to the final four of the last four years and I’ve only won it once. I feel like LeBron James because I can make it to the Finals, but once I get there, I can’t quite close it out and get it all done.”

WATCH: What’s next for Busch? How about 300?

According to Busch, “the greatest” is all relative.

“There’s so many different comparisons that not every single person is going to have every single one of them,” Busch said. “I think that makes it where you can’t always say there’s a greatest, that there’s greats.”

Whether you like it or not, Rowdy cemented his place in NASCAR history as one of the sport’s great Sunday in Southern California. Time will tell if he can become a G.O.A.T. — because there can be more than one.

Posted on March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 by Reid Spencer

Sixth-place Kurt Busch had the highest-finishing Chevrolet in Sunday’s Auto Club 400, but his strong performance in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Camaro was overshadowed by the accomplishment of his brother, Kyle Busch, who claimed his 200th NASCAR national series victory in the same race.

Nevertheless, older brother Kurt shared in his brother’s achievement.

“This is a big day,” Kurt said. “For my little brother to have 200 wins, they’re all added up through his hard work and his dedication to perfection. Not bad for two kids with an attitude from Vegas.”

Though each driver has one championship to his credit — Kurt in 2004 and Kyle in 2015 — Kyle now has 53 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories to 30 for his brother. And Kurt is well aware of the gap.

“I’ve got to hold up my end of the bargain,” Kurt quipped after falling from fourth to sixth in the final two laps of Sunday’s race. “I’ve gotten too nice, and I’m not winning enough — but I’m having fun.

“I love the Ganassi guys. (Crew chief) Matt McCall wants more. I know he does. I want more. I was hoping for a top five today, but we’ll take it. All in all, we’re running where we need to be running.”

Posted on March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 by Reid Spencer

FONTANA, Calif. — On Lap 43 of Sunday’s Auto Club 400, Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford brushed the outside wall and fell back in traffic.

Keselowski was 22nd for a restart with one lap left in the first stage of the race, but he didn’t stay there. Through a combination of pit strategy and determined driving, Keselowski charged forward after dodging a wreck on Lap 60.

On Lap 72, he passed teammate Joey Logano for second. And when eventual race winner Kyle Busch was slapped with a pit road speeding penalty under caution during the break after Stage 2, Keselowski led 38 straight laps and built a four-second lead before a timely caution on Lap 164 put Busch back in the mix for the win.

RELATED: Auto Club results

Ultimately, Keselowski finished third behind Busch and Logano, but he wasn’t fully satisfied with the performance of his car.

“We were a little off, really, all day,” Keselowski said. “We got a lot better from the first run to the end. We were so strong in practice. The track changing kind of threw us for a loop with the wind. Just never could get right off Turn 2. Ended up kind of costing us the race there with the 22 (Logano). I couldn’t stay in front.

“But the team, Team Penske, these guys worked really hard on this car to get it back. I brushed the wall a little bit earlier. They fixed it, got us back. They kept working on it and (we) still had a solid day.”

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Staff Report

The race-winning No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for driver Kyle Busch has passed post-race inspection at Auto Club Speedway with no issues.

The No. 18 Toyota was found to be compliant with the 2019 NASCAR Rule Book after Sunday’s Auto Club 400. With the post-race teardown complete, the race results are official and Busch’s 2ooth NASCAR national-series victory stands.

The only issue noted in post-race inspection was one lug nut not safely secured on the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for driver Denny Hamlin after a post-race check. According to the guidelines in the rule book, the infraction should result in a fine this week for Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gabehart.

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 to monitor trends, but the more comprehensive at-track inspection will take priority. Sunday at Auto Club, NASCAR officials noted that two cars would go to the R&D Center this week: the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of third-place Brad Keselowski and the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet of sixth-finishing Kurt Busch.

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 March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 by Reid Spencer

FONTANA, Calif. – Let the debate begin.

Recovering from a pit road speeding penalty with the help of a timely caution, Kyle Busch collected his 200th NASCAR national series victory with a dominating win in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.

At the same venue that gave Busch his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in 2005, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota beat runner-up Joey Logano to the finish line by a comfortable 2.354 seconds to earn his 53rd win in the series and his second straight this season.

RELATED: Race results | Stage recaps

With 53 victories in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and 94 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series — both records — Busch reached the milestone a day after a pit-road penalty cost him a chance to hit the magic number in the Xfinity race at the 2-mile track.

But on Sunday, he overcame the pit road speeding penalty incurred during the break after Stage 2 and powered back to the lead with 26 laps left. Now Busch will leave it to others to debate where his 200 victories stack up against the record 200 Cup wins accumulated by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty.

Driving a Day-Glo green Camry carrying the livery of longtime sponsor Interstate Batteries, Busch led 134 of 200 laps despite the penalty and became the season’s first multiple winner.

“Feels just like number one,” Busch said after taking the checkered flag. “Feels just like yesterday. Man, that was such an awesome race car. I mean, dang! This Interstate Batteries Camry was awesome today. I’m glad we put on a heck of a show for all these fans out here in California at Auto Club Speedway.

“It takes green to get in Victory Lane today. Today is St. Patty’s day. All these other guys were at a disadvantage. The Interstate Batteries Green Machine was flying today. Just awesome. Just awesome. To win 200, I mean, whatever it means, it means a lot to me. It means a lot to all my guys, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. You guys are all the best.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to drive for Joe Gibbs. I cherish every minute of it, love it always. Just wish that we could keep it going, keep it going like this, running strong, running well, and winning these races.”

Busch’s crew chief, Adam Stevens helped put the milestone in perspective.

“Two hundred is just another number,” Stevens said. “He was going to get there — it was inevitable. But it’s an honor to be the guy on the pit box when he does it.”

MORE: Busch lands 200th win | SHOP: Kyle Busch gear

Brad Keselowski came home third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney, as Ford drivers grabbed the next four positions behind Busch’s Toyota. Sixth-place Kurt Busch, brother of the race winner, drove the highest-finishing Chevrolet.

As he had done a day earlier in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, Kyle Busch swept the first and second stages of the Auto Club 400. But if Busch sailed to the stage wins with relative ease — finishing more than five seconds ahead of second-place Brad Keselowski in Stage 2 — other potential contenders had issues in the early going that cost them dearly.

For Clint Bowyer, it was simply a matter of a sour engine that caused him to fall two laps down by the end of the second stage. For pole winner Austin Dillon, it was a flat right-rear tire that interrupted a promising top-five run with four laps left in the first stage. Dillon battled back to finish 10th.

For defending race winner Martin Truex Jr., it was hard contact with the No. 17 Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Turn 2 after a restart on Lap 60. The accident, which caused extensive damage to the right rear of Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, took the 2017 champion out of contention. Nevertheless, Truex soldiered on to an eighth-place result.

The race winner had a turn with adversity, too. His stroll to victory in the Inland Empire hit a major obstacle with the pit road speeding penalty under caution during the break after Stage 2, as his No. 18 was just .04 mph over the speed limit tolerance leaving pit lane. After restarting 18th on Lap 128, Busch diced his way through the field and was running fifth at the start of a green-flag pit stop cycle on Lap 160.

Stevens kept Busch on the track after all the other front-runners had come to pit road, and on Lap 164, the gamble was rewarded. The left-front tire on Bubba Wallace’s Chevrolet exploded, strewing debris on the track and causing the caution Busch desperately needed.

With fresh tires after a pit stop on Lap 166, Busch restarted second on Lap 170, fell back to fourth briefly and but charged forward and passed Logano for the lead on Lap 175. Game over.

“We only raced for two laps before the 18 blew our doors off and drove away from us,” Logano said. “Fastest car in the race. We’ve got a little bit of work to do.

“Solid run for the Auto Club Mustang here. You want to win at your sponsor’s home track. Gosh, we came so close. Proud of the effort. Hung in there all day, hung strong. Just didn’t have enough for the green car.”

The next race for the Monster Energy Series comes next Sunday with the STP 500 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Martinsville Speedway. It’s the sixth of 36 points-paying races for the series this season.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on March 17, 2019March 19, 2019 by Staff Report

NASCAR has another Bicentennial Man.

Kyle Busch picked up his 200th career NASCAR national series victory by virtue of his win in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway, the same track where he notched his first career Monster Energy Series victory in 2005. His 200-win mark in NASCAR’s national series equals that of Richard Petty, who won 200 races in NASCAR’s premier series.

The win is the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s 53rd in the series. Busch also has piled up 94 wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and another 53 in NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Series competition.

“Feels just like number one. Feels just like yesterday,” a jubilant Busch said after climbing out of his car Sunday. ” … Just awesome. Just awesome. To win 200, I mean, whatever it means, it means a lot to me. It means a lot to all my guys, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s an amazing opportunity to drive for Joe Gibbs. I cherish every minute of it, love it always.”

The Las Vegas native notched his first of 200 victories in 2004 at Richmond Raceway in what is now the Xfinity Series, starting from the pole and leading 236 laps in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Win No. 2 wasn’t too far behind, as Busch led 93 laps a Charlotte Motor Speedway two weeks later for his second victory.

MORE: Unofficial results

NASCAR’s 2015 Monster Energy Series champion added his first victory in the premier series in 2005 at Auto Club Speedway, leading 95 laps after starting 25th to take the checkered flag and celebrate for the first time at the sport’s highest level. Earlier that year, Busch picked up his first Gander Outdoors Truck Series win at Charlotte, followed up a week later by another trip to Victory Lane at Dover.

Busch has won at least one Monster Energy Series race in every season since 2005 and only missed out on scoring victories in the other two series during that time frame in 2012. He’s also the 2009 Xfinity Series champion.

“I think the original goal was just to get to NASCAR and then once I got here, it was to win a race,” Busch said. “Once it was winning a race then it was about trying to sustain and being able to be a winner here and to be a champion here. To have the opportunities to continue down the line to be able to be successful each, and every year and we’ve been doing that. We’ve only won one title, but certainly I feel like I have the best team out there right now and we just have to be able to do it all year long.”

MORE: Busch firmly plants himself among all-time greats

Seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty also has 200 career national series wins, all of which came at the premier series level. The comparisons between the two milestones was inevitable, but one that even Busch himself doesn’t consider parallel.

“What I said from the beginning of all this is it’s not a comparison to Richard Petty’s 200 wins. It is not,” Busch said in March at ISM Raceway. “It is my own and an accomplishment for myself that should stand alone separate from Richard. Hell, I could say right now that I’m the winningest driver on pavement in NASCAR ever in the top-three series because Richard doesn’t have 200 pavement wins, right? …

“I think it’s a pretty cool accomplishment. There’s so many different ways you can argue it or debate it or whatever and it has nothing to do with Richard, it’s just solely a number. I think it’s an accomplishment of its own. With Richard’s accomplishment and what he’s been able to do and what he’s done for the sport, that’s huge,” Busch continued. “I feel as though I’ve been in this position to win as many races as I have due to a lot of great people and being able to go out there and celebrate 200 wins, I don’t know that it will happen again, but if it does, that person should certainly cherish that moment. I hate that you get beat up so much about an accomplishment, but I guess that’s part of life. Haters gonna hate.”

Now that Busch has crossed No. 200 off his list — and he’s still just 33 years old — what’s next on his agenda?

“I don’t know. 250 I guess — the race to 250,” he said. “It’s about being able to win on Sundays and I feel like I’ve won a bunch of races on Sundays — I’ve got (53) of them and the race there is going to be the race to 100 on that side. I think that’s kind of what the next goal will be, is to try to get 100 Cup wins. …

“Might as well set your goals high, go out there and achieve. Let’s set it at 100 and see if we can’t get there. That would certainly put us up there with the top guys, being one of the best of the best. But overall that’s a long ways to go. You got to win a lot of races, a lot of years, to be able to tally up that many. I’m not quite as good as Jeff Gordon any more with being able to win 10 races a year or 13 races a year. I don’t know if those details will happen that much any more. Last year we gave it a shot with eight. See if we can’t keep firing them off like we are right now and living the dream, baby.”