Sauter, Busch ready to vie for Texas victory

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Holly Cain

Kyle Busch may be looking to score his fourth-straight NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series win of the season in Friday’s Vankor 350 at Texas Motor Speedway (at 9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) but history indicates he will have a substantial challenge in two-time series champ Johnny Sauter.

Sauter has won three of the last five Gander Truck races at the Texas high-banks and is defending winner of Friday night’s race. His five career victories are most among active drivers at the track and only Todd Bodine has ever scored more (six). Twice Sauter has won back-to-back races (swept 2012, 2017-18).

The driver of the No. 13 ThorSport Ford F-150, Sauter has scored top 10s in the previous three races of the 2019 season, including a runner-up finish at Atlanta. He sits fourth in the championship standings – nine points behind leader Stewart Friesen, who took the points lead for the first time in his three-year career following last week’s Martinsville race.

The Canadian Stewart Friesen holds a slim four-point edge over previous championship leader Grant Enfinger and is five points up on defending series champ Brett Moffitt. Only 11 points separate the top-six drivers in the standings.

Sauter and Matt Crafton (2014) are the only two drivers ranked among the top 10 in the championship with previous wins at Texas.

Harrison Burton is ranked fifth (nine points behind Friesen) and continues to lead the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings. The 18-year old has three finishes of 11th or better in the opening four races. The Texas track has been important and historic in his family. It’s where his father Jeff Burton scored his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in April 1997.

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Staff Report

Greg Biffle has not made a NASCAR national series start since the end of the 2016 season, but the 49-year-old driver is returning for a NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series practice Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway, and then for a race when the Gander Trucks returns to the Lone Star State in June.

Biffle revealed via Twitter on Thursday night he will shake down the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 Toyota during Thursday’s practice sessions in order to get some laps before his full-blown return for the June race.

So it’s been a few years and everyone’s been asking when… Tomorrow I will return to the track @TXMotorSpeedway for some practice in the @KBMteam 51 truck… pic.twitter.com/S5NguNzfcp

— Greg Biffle (@gbiffle) March 28, 2019

“I’ve always said that I would return to NASCAR in the right situation and when Kyle and I started talking about that KBM needed a driver for the June Texas race, I felt like this was the right opportunity to return to the track. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be able to drive such good equipment,” Biffle said in a team release. “I started my career in the Truck Series and it was one of the greatest times of my life, so it’s going to be a lot of fun to get back behind the wheel of a truck.”

Team owner Kyle Busch also will practice Thursday, and he still will drive the No. 51 this weekend in Friday night’s Vankor 350 (9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Busch has won all three of his starts in the Gander Trucks this season.

Biffle is no stranger to the Gander Outdoors Truck Series, either. He scored 16 of his 55 NASCAR national series victories in the series and won the 2000 championship.

“As we were putting the finishing touches on our driver lineup for this year, we found ourselves looking for someone to drive the No. 51 Tundra in the June race and we are fortunate to be putting a driver of Greg’s caliber behind the wheel,” Busch said in a team release. “I’ve been friends with Greg for a long time and we’ve always joked about how it would be cool for him to drive trucks again. When this opportunity came about the talks got serious and we both decided it was smart decision. Not only is he capable of stepping right in and getting another win for the No. 51 team as we work towards the Owner’s Championship, he will also be an experienced teammate for Harrison (Burton) and Todd (Gilliland) to lean on that weekend as they try to secure a spot in the playoffs and pursue another Truck Series Driver’s Championship for our organization.”

Posted on March 28, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

Though they are just six races in, the combination between Jimmy Blewett and Gershow Motorsports seems to be paying dividends for both sides.

Blewett, a veteran of racing on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, teamed with the Gershow team over the offseason. Joe Bertuccio — another modified veteran that is well known in the garage area — is the owner of the team.

And after a rapid seven races in the first month and a half, the team is finding success at the front of the field and coming up just short of winning. It’s been what they had hoped the partnership would be.

“We are off to a great start,” Blewett said. “Everyone is getting along really well. We were going to take this one race at a time and if it worked out, it worked out. If it didn’t, we weren’t going to lose a friendship over it. At the rate we are going, I think we will be together as long as Joe wants to race together.”

They started their season in February, in Florida, before moving up the East Coast to South Carolina and North Carolina in March. Blewett competed in the 53rd annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway for the entire tour type Modified slate and came away from the week finishing third in the championship standings.

Although they didn’t win, they built a notebook of adjustments and developed crucial chemistry they were able to carry with them into the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opener.

Saturday, Blewett opened his tenure with the Gershow Motorsports team in Whelen Modified Tour action with a third-place effort in the Performance Plus 150 presented by Safety Kleen at Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina. The team went to Caraway Speedway in North Carolina with Blewett’s family-owned car for another Modified event on Sunday, where Blewett was leading the race before a transmission failed.

RACING-REFERENCE: Jimmy Blewett Career Statistics

“We are going to go racing,” Blewett said of the plans. “You will probably see us at all of the races. Joe said let’s get through the first few races together. We said we were going to do Speedweeks and if we did well, we were going to go Tour racing, and we ran really well at New Smyrna. We jelled good.”

And even though the records show the success they are having on the track, and Blewett feels like they are hitting on nearly all cylinders, Saturday at Myrtle Beach almost didn’t develop into what it did. On Friday night, it was looking like Blewett wouldn’t have some of his team leaders in attendance at Myrtle Beach.

Blewett’s veteran crew chief, Stash Botoua, and some additional team members, were scheduled on a flight from New York to South Carolina late in the day, but the flight was delayed. Just a few hours later, the flight was completed canceled — which meant the group was boxed into a corner with limited options.

Skip the season opener, or wait until the early morning and hope a flight was able to take off?

Neither.

Grab a rental car and begin the drive south, which was approximately 10 hours.

“When their flight got cancelled, they left at 11:30 and drove through the night to get here,” Blewett said. “I ended up doing the tires myself this morning. My crew chief and my car chief were a little bit concerned that would bother me, but I have my own team and I’ve done everything on my own before. Those guys were there for me, and they were driving all through the night to get here. I’ll do anything for them.”

RACING-REFERENCE: Deeper Look at Blewett’s Career

Blewett’s Whelen Modified Tour history includes six victories, with the most recent of them coming while driving Bob Garbarino’s famed ‘Mystic Missile’ in 2016. Over the last two years, Blewett ran a partial schedule with his family-owned operation while he focused on running for weekly Modified championships at Wall Stadium in New Jersey.

Right now, it looks like he could be on pace to chase his first Tour title. At Myrtle Beach, in ‘Showtime’ fashion, Blewett blasted through the field on fresh rubber on a few different occasions — splitting drivers three-wide in hopes of making it to the front.

“This one wasn’t a win, but it was a win, because those guys had to run through the night to get here. My hats are off to them,” Blewett said Saturday. “The problem is, I felt you needed to get the spots while the tires were fresh, otherwise, when they aren’t fresh, you can’t make the moves. We put a right-rear tire on that was a little bit too big and it cost us a lot of track position, but, we were able to pit and put two tires on, then we put one more on at the end.”

Just a few minutes after the race the team found a wire loose on the alternator, which Blewett felt definitely hurt his chances. He was up to second just under 15 laps to go and was running lap times a tick faster than eventual winner Doug Coby, before he started losing power because of a dying battery.

“The car was awesome at the end. The dead battery, I feel like it killed my shot at doing anything with Doug,” Blewett said.

But, taking the third-place finish and putting together the battles they have been through so far, including the fight for his crew to even attend the race on Saturday driving through the night, Blewett can taste Victory Lane.

“We are pretty darn close,” Blewett said of the team. “We are very, very close. My crew chief, car chief and I, it takes a team effort, but we are all on the same page when it comes down to making the adjustments. Their setup is completely different than anything I have ever run, but, the route that I tell them that I feel like we need to go and what they are going to go, it’s the same route I have been thinking in my mind. When you have that, it’s special. They’ve had fast cars, but haven’t been able to seal the deal and finish it off like we are now. We need to just keep the momentum up and keep working on it. I feel this is the team I need to be with to win races.”

Posted on March 28, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

Evergreen Speedway has been holding races since 1954. In those six decades, families have passed down a love of racing at NASCAR’s only sanctioned track in Washington from generation to generation.

Tyler Tanner knows all about that.

Tanner’s maternal grandfather raced at the Monroe, Washington, facility, a 0.375 and 0.646-mile semi-banked oval asphalt track located in the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, as did his mom and her brothers. Tanner’s dad also raced there.

“They met there at that track and I’ve been going there my entire life,” Tanner said.

Tanner’s mom had already stopped racing by the time he was born, but his dad continued at Evergreen until Tanner was about 6.

Tanner began racing himself around that time, while also giving basketball, baseball and soccer a try. None of those other sports stuck like racing, though.

“I wasn’t very good at other sports. Whatever else I played, I just wasn’t very good at any of them,” he said. “Obviously being that my parents both raced it was introduced to me when I was pretty little, and I just didn’t enjoy much else as much as I did racing.”

Tyler Tanner Motorsports | Facebook | Twitter

The focus turned to solely racing for Tanner when he was about 8. He traveled across the country racing quarter-midgets before eventually turning to late models. Tanner also ran in 14 races in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series from 2011-2015.

Just about everything he knows about the sport Tanner said he learned from his family. Being a third-generation driver, he said having that background has helped him progress in the sport and build relationships with others in it.

His parents owned a company that manufactured parts for the racing industry. From the cars to maneuvering on the track to the business side, all aspects of racing are in his family’s blood.

“I think most of everything I’ve learned has been from being surrounded by it my entire life,” he said. “Not just the racing aspect of it, but preparation in the shop and all that type of stuff… when I came home from school I was around the business side of racing and going to races every weekend. I always worked on my own equipment. So just all aspects of it.”

This year will be Tanner’s sixth season at Evergreen, where he’s the defending super late model champion. Part of what brought him back to his family’s track was the improvements made by Doug and Traci Hobbs, who took over the lease at Evergreen in 2011. Prior to the Hobbs, Tanner said the racetrack wasn’t high on his list of places to compete, but ever since the change in leadership it’s become a completely different track.

“Around the same time we started racing there Doug and Traci Hobbs took over the lease and completely turned the place around,” he said. “And they got a bunch of big events going there and built the series back up and everything, so that’s when we started going and racing there again.”

Evergreen Speedway | Facebook | Twitter

Tanner has a full-time job outside of racing, but he has made it a priority to make all the races at Evergreen this season.

“Just seeing the growth again. Since they took it over it continued to grow: the competition, the fan base and everything about Evergreen Speedway. It’s nice,” he said. “It’s been fun to be involved in it and be a part of it. Being a racer you don’t want to go to a race where there’s no competition or no fan base or anything like that. You want to race the best people you can, and I think that’s what draws so many of us to Evergreen.”

Evergreen Speedway will open it’s season on Saturday with super late models, street stocks, mini stocks, hornets, stingers and V8 extremes. Heat races begin at 4:20 p.m.

Evergreen Speedway schedule

It looks to be another tough summer at Evergreen, which is exactly what Tanner is hoping for. If his family hadn’t been the ones to help him fall in love with racing, the competition would have.

“I don’t know what it was about it that drew me to (racing) more than anything else. I just liked being able to go to different racetracks all the time. It was a challenge,” he said. “The higher you progress it just continually becomes more and more of a challenge. I’ve always enjoyed that about it.”

Posted on March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 by Staff Report

Leavine Family Racing could expand from a one-car team to a two-vehicle operation as soon as the 2020 season, team owner Bob Leavine told SportsMap.com in Houston on Wednesday.

“Yes, we are working on expanding for 2020 right now,” Leavine said during a Q-and-A session. “It’s just a matter of sponsorship because we can put the people on it, and we have the organization and Toyota Racing Development will support that. So yes, we are working to expand.”

This is Leavine Family Racing’s first year under the Toyota umbrella and with a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Matt DiBenedetto joined the No. 95 operation in the offseason, replacing veteran Kasey Kahne in the seat. DiBenedetto led 49 laps in the season-opening Daytona 500, and Leavine indicated he’s pleased with the driver’s progress.

MORE: 2019 season stats

“We were going to run two cars for this year with Daniel Suarez and a driver we selected, but that didn’t work out,” Leavine said. “But overall, I am happy with how everything turned out. I am glad we got Matt DiBenedetto because he wanted to come here.”

Leavine announced in October 2018 that DiBenedetto was joining the organization with a two-year deal.

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Team Release

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C (March 28, 2019) – Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announced today that it has renewed its on-going partnership with Interstate Batteries in a multi-year agreement that will extend the relationship beyond 30 years. As one of the longest running sponsorships in professional sports, Interstate Batteries will continue to serve as the official battery of Joe Gibbs Racing and primary sponsor on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series No. 18 Toyota Camry driven by Kyle Busch for six races.

“I tell people all the time that one of the great things about professional sports is the relationships you have a chance to develop over the years and I don’t know if there is a better example than what we have with Norm Miller and everyone there at Interstate Batteries,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing.

Interstate Batteries was the founding sponsor for Joe Gibbs Racing, helping the organization launch the race team back in 1992. “We literally had nothing when we met with Norm and asked him to help us start this race team and now our new agreement will extend the partnership to more than 30 years. And what’s amazing is how it has continued through generations. Obviously, J.D. (Gibbs) played a big role in the relationship over the years and he developed a great friendship with Scott (Miller). And now, Coy (Gibbs) has become instrumental to our daily operations. When you reflect on all that has happened over the years and everyone that has been involved, I really think God had a role in bringing us together.”

Interstate Batteries has been a part of nearly every major moment in Joe Gibbs Racing history including the organization’s first win when driver Dale Jarrett won the Daytona 500 in 1993. Interstate Batteries was the primary sponsor on the No. 18 in 2000 when Bobby Labonte captured the organization’s first NASCAR Cup Series Championship and continued to play a key role when Kyle Busch won JGR’s most recent Championship in 2015. “I knew Kyle was something special when I first looked at his stats,” said Norm Miller, Chairman of Interstate Batteries. “And now after so many wins and a Championship, we are really proud to continue with Kyle in our car for the foreseeable future.”

Together, Interstate Batteries and Joe Gibbs Racing have visited Victory Lane 32 total times in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, including twice with Hall of Fame driver Dale Jarrett, 21 times with Bobby Labonte and nine times with current driver Kyle Busch, including his most recent win to reach a career milestone of 200 wins. In addition, Interstate Batteries and JGR have combined to win three NASCAR Xfinity Series races.

“Our relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch has been such a blessing for all of us and we are so proud to extend this partnership to keep us together for what will be more than 30 years,” said Norm. “It is a partnership that has been successful on so many levels. We’ve certainly had our successes on the race track with championships and many celebrations in Victory Lane, but it also helped us achieve our goals on the business front. It doesn’t work if it’s not good for business and obviously this is a partnership that has worked for what will be three decades. It also has been a success on a personal level as well with the relationships we’ve both been able to develop over the years. It has been very special.”

“Rarely does a marketing opportunity come along that can change the trajectory of a company,” said Scott Miller, CEO, Interstate Batteries. “Almost 30 year later, our brand has become a household name, our battery sales continue to increase and Joe Gibbs Racing absolutely had a hand in that. It is helping us ignite our future and become first choice in sustainable battery solutions.”

Posted on March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 by Zack Albert

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on August 23, 2018 when the 2019 Dash 4 Cash program was revealed.

NASCAR officials revealed the schedule for the Xfinity Series’ Dash 4 Cash program Thursday, bringing back the four tracks that composed the bonus-money initiative last season.

The 2019 series will open April 6 at Bristol Motor Speedway, continue with stops April 12 at Richmond Raceway and April 27 at Talladega Superspeedway before ending May 4 at Dover International Speedway. Also like last year, drivers earning championship points in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be excluded from the four-race series.

“We had worked with our tracks and our teams and drivers on this as well and we just found that it worked well for all of our partners and the fans,” said John Bobo, NASCAR vice president of racing operations. “Dash 4 Cash is just a great moment that kind of re-energizes the season as we turn the corner into summer, and I also love it because it highlights our emerging stars and gives some real attention to them as well.

“I’m a fan of Dash 4 Cash, and I think it’s always worked well, even from the racing format, I think it really showcases their abilities.”

The March 30 race at Texas Motor Speedway will again serve as a qualifier for the Dash 4 Cash opener. The top four title-eligible Xfinity Series drivers from the Fort Worth event will compete for the first Dash 4 Cash payday in the Bristol opener. Prize money and other details regarding the Dash 4 Cash format will be announced at a later date.

Bristol and Dover will mark their fifth straight year as participating tracks for Dash 4 Cash events. Richmond will also become a five-time host; previous Dash 4 Cash events at the Virginia short track have occurred nonconsecutively (2011, 2016-18). Talladega made its Dash 4 Cash debut this year.

Posted on March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 by Nascar

Name: Ayza
Current City: Ft Lauderdale, Florida
Member since: 2008

Getting to Know Ayza

Q. How did you first become interested in NASCAR?
“Friend of mine took me to the Daytona 500. My favorite part was the energy of the crowd and the roar of the engines!”

Q. What is your favorite NASCAR memory?
“First fan fest I went to Daytona… seeing Jimmie Johnson making the media wait to sign autographs for a bunch of kids (15-20) before going into the media center.”

Q. Who are your favorite drivers?
“Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman, because I would love to talk to Jimmie about his career and Alex to see where he expects to be in 5 years… also he’s a huge pet lover!”

Q: Do you have a favorite in any of the following categories?
Memorabilia: “JR’s signed crystal car”

Sponsor: “Coca Cola because it is my favorite drink!”

Place to watch a race: “In Daytona out in the pits”

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

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Marissa Fuller

The kind of show that the young and motivated driver Ross Chastain has put on in the first six weeks of the NASCAR national series season is not only impressive, but eye-opening.

Chastain, the watermelon farmer from Alva, Florida, notched his first career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series last season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a second trip to Victory Lane doesn’t seem too far off.

RELATED: Full Texas schedule

The 26-year-old has competed in every NASCAR race event this season. That means all six Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, all five Xfinity Series races and all four of the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series races. He has grabbed two top-five finishes, six top 10s and has completed 3,113 laps of 3,282 possible.

After finishing fourth and leading 53 laps during Saturday’s Gander Trucks race at Martinsville Speedway, Chastain’s excitement for the upcoming race at Texas Motor Speedway is even greater.

“Definitely a lot to build on, for sure, and we’ve got a brand-new truck we’re bringing to Texas next week and honestly all last month I’ve been looking forward to Texas. Today is a good sign of things to come,” Chastain told NASCAR.com.

Al Niece, Niece Motorsports team owner, is delighted with Chastain’s performance and is looking forward to more of the same from him in upcoming races. Their organization has been working hard on bringing strong trucks to the track.

“We’ve been doing great with him all year. We’re just trying to stay ahead of the game a little bit. Cody (Efaw, team manager) and Phil (Gould, crew chief) have been on top of everything and when we have to make little changes, they’re seeing it and doing it,” Niece said.

Chastain, who started 10th and won Stage 2, went back-and-forth with eventual race winner Kyle Busch for multiple laps and noted that being in winning contention with someone like the 2015 Cup Series champion is encouraging. Chastain wasn’t sure if he was making the right move at first, signing on with Niece Motorsports. It’s starting to become clear it’s a good thing he did.

“That was a big deal, getting a stage win and trying to keep our track position with Kyle (Busch). It’s a dream come true to be out here, let alone get the chance to win,” Chastain said. “I saw a lot of potential with Al Niece and Cody Efaw and the whole TruNorth team, and I’m glad I did (sign). I’m glad I stuck to my gut.”

His determined attitude to run as many races as possible hasn’t gone unnoticed. Drivers among all three series have noticed the runs Chastain has made and think his hard work is putting him ahead.

“Ross Chastain, more laps in a race car this season than anybody else in all of NASCAR …” second-place finisher Ben Rhodes told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “It makes a difference, right?”

Chastain doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon, either, as he’s entered in all three events at Texas and both races on the upcoming Cup/Xfinity circuit at Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Kansas. He will also run the Gander Trucks race and attempt to make the Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte in May, followed by Cup and Xfinity races at Charlotte on Memorial Day weekend and then both races at Pocono.

Chastain is running full-time in the Monster Energy Series for Premium Motorsports in the No. 15 Chevrolet and had a tough race Sunday at Martinsville after losing an axle and then suffering an engine issue. Chastain is also running a full slate in the Xfinity Series with the bulk of his starts coming in the No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet and three starts for Kaulig Racing’s No. 10 team.

Posted on March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 by Staff Report

NASCAR competition officials released a bulletin to Monster Energy Series teams Wednesday, announcing rules changes intended to reduce speeds at superspeedways.

The changes include a rear spoiler increased from 8 to 9 inches. Officials will also mandate a 1-inch bolt-on track bar mount to change the height from 11 to 12 inches, raising the rear of the car by one inch. Both changes will be in effect for the season’s remaining races at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

RELATED: Full schedule for Texas

NASCAR had eliminated rules for minimum ride heights at superspeedways ahead of the 2018 season, and teams responded by hunkering down the rear of their cars to reduce drag and increase speed. Wednesday’s track bar change is intended to offset those techniques by raising the rear of the car.

The season-opening Daytona 500 was the last superspeedway race with restrictor plates in place to reduce engine horsepower. The next superspeedway event, scheduled April 28 at Talladega, will slow speeds with the use of aerodynamic devices and a tapered engine spacer for a target horsepower figure of 550.

NASCAR officials conducted a two-day test session with the new package on Feb. 18-19, the Monday and Tuesday after the Daytona 500. A NASCAR spokesperson said the observed and predicted speeds from the test were higher than desired, and that Wednesday’s changes are intended to return speeds to a safe range. The spokesperson said that officials “do not anticipate any changes to the style of racing at Daytona and Talladega.”

Teams and drivers participating in that two-day test were:

• 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for driver Daniel Hemric
• 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet for driver Kyle Larson
• 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for driver Alex Bowman