Setting The Stage: Whelen Modified Tour Ready For 35th Season

Posted on March 4, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

New Faces in New Places; Growing List of Rising Rookies, New Track Additions & Incoming Pole Award Sponsor Headline 2019 Whelen Modified Tour Season

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Five months after Justin Bonsignore clinched his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship, his title defense is set to commence. Bonsignore leads a stout group of drivers into the 35th season of Whelen Modified Tour action — but he’s far from the only storyline heading into the newest campaign.

As always, a fresh list of driver and team combinations has slowly, but surely, come to the front of the discussion as the season gets ready to take the green flag at Myrtle Beach Speedway on March 16. But, there are also a list of drivers who will remain with their same team in hopes of continuing 2018 success, or steering themselves back in the right direction.

WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR: 2019 Schedule | Race Center | Latest News

New Faces, in New Places

After a stout season in 2018, Chase Dowling has moved on from his tenure with LFR Chassis and Rob Fuller Motorsports and will be competing part-time for Jamie Tomaino in 2019. The Roxbury, Connecticut, driver picked up his first Whelen Modified Tour win in the inaugural Musket 250 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September and finished inside the top-10 in all but three races.

He also finished in the runner-up position in the final championship standings. But, after parting ways with Fuller, Dowling landed with Tomaino in a combination that will showcase the youth talent and veteran core that the Whelen Modified Tour has to offer, all in one. Tomaino has 621 career starts over 34 years, and stands as the only driver to make at least one start in each Tour season since the beginning of the modern era in 1985. Dowling, who joins the stable of the 1990 series champion, has just 57 starts and one win — but has quickly made it clear he plans to be around a while with over 30 top-10 finishes in his short career.

It might come across as a surprise to some, but the combination of Matt Swanson and Boehler Racing could certainly be one that sparks a cinderella story rather quickly. Swanson, of Acton, Massachusetts, has 49 career Whelen Modified Tour starts across four years — but a majority of them came with his family-owned car out of the family shop.

When Rowan Pennink retired late last year, Swanson was tabbed to drive the famed “Ole Blue” No. 3 — and didn’t let the team regret making the move. Swanson finished second in his first start in the car while Pennink was celebrating the birth of his first child, but after Pennink officially hung up the helmet, Swanson competed in the final five races of the season, ending it with a seventh-place finish at Thompson’s World Series. With the team on path to jell even more when the season begins, the combination of Swanson — the youngest Sunoco Rookie of the Year in series history — and the veteran core group of the Boehler racing family — who have been around for more than four decades — it could spell glory.

Veteran Jimmy Blewett, who has run part-time in his family-owned car over the last two years, could be in position to make a run at the title again if all the stars align for him. Blewett teamed with Gershow Motorsports in February and the combination went south to New Smyrna Speedway’s 53rd annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. Blewett finished third in the final point standings for the week, and wrapped the five nights of Modified racing with a second-place effort in the Richie Evans Memorial 100.

After some discussion internally, Blewett and the team announced via Facebook that they would be running the opener at Myrtle Beach together. If all goes well, it certainly could mean Blewett will be in the car for the season. Bertuccio’s Gershow Motorsports team competed last year with Ronnie Williams at the controls — capturing two poles and five top-10 finishes in 15 starts.

Kyle Benjamin, who has two top five finishes in eight starts in NASCAR Xfinity Series action for Joe Gibbs Racing in the past, will run a partial schedule for Rob Fuller and LFR Chassis. With Dowling leaving the team, Fuller is giving Benjamin a chance to compete in his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour attempts. Benjamin also has five career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victories.

“Kyle seems to be a great kid with a ton of talent,” Fuller said in a team release. “I‘m looking forward to introducing him to the Modified community and scoring some great finishes for our team and sponsors.”

Sunoco Rookie Contenders Ready To Rise

Last year it was Tommy Catalano who snagged Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors after only planning to run a few races. This year, another Catalano is hoping to keep that newfound family tradition rolling.

Timmy Catalano, Tommy’s brother, is going to chase the Rookie of the Year honors driving the family-owned No. 45 in all 17 events. With backing from his fellow family members, and advice about some of the tracks he’s never been to before coming from his brother, Timmy is hoping the new venture ends with celebration.

But he is far from the only rising star looking to make a name for himself in 2019. Sam Rameau, who moves from the tour-type Modified ranks of New England up to the Whelen Modified Tour, has some brief experience in the series. He competed in the Sunoco World Series 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park last year — getting his feet wet in the season-finale with a 17th place finish in a 33-car field. Rameau was a front-runner on the Valenti Modified Racing Series in New England last year.

“My dad raced Enduro cars and Street Stocks his whole life,” Rameau told RaceDayCT.com in February. “I never dreamed of racing an open wheeled Modified — nevermind on the Whelen Modified Tour with guys like Ryan Preece, Doug Coby, Justin Bonsignore and Timmy Solomito. Racing with these guys is a dream come true. I just can‘t believe I‘m doing it.”

READ MORE ON RACEDAYCT: Sammy Rameau Excited To Get Rookie Season Rolling

Joey Mucciacciaro, a Super Late Model competitor in the south, also has plans to run the full NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour slate as he first reported to RaceDayCT. The team will use a chassis out of the LFR shop — a chassis department that won 11 events last year.

Welcome Mayhew Tools as Pole Award Sponsor

Mayhew Tools, a Massachusetts-based company that produces tools used around the globe, will sponsor the pole award for teams this year. Even though the driver is often recognized as the winner of the pole, the team also plays a major role in the speed of the car on the track.

This year, crew chiefs are also going to be rewarded when their driver wins the pole.

[NEWS] Mayhew Tools To Sponsor Whelen Modified Tour Pole Award

ud83dudcdd https://t.co/9gCCWxvic6 #NWMT | @mayhewtools pic.twitter.com/dn03IFcMTM

— NASCAR Home Tracks (@NASCARHomeTrack) February 22, 2019

Mayhew Tools will provide the “Big Stick” to each pole-winning crew chief immediately following the conclusion of qualifying. The “Big Stick” is the largest pry bar the company has ever produced.

Just for example, Justin Bonsignore won five pole awards last year, and if he can accomplish the same goal in 2019, his crew chief Ryan Stone would have five “Big Sticks” in the shop.

South Boston, Wall Stadium Added To Schedule

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour teams may have their fair share of the same tracks this season, but there are also two new facilities on the schedule. South Boston Speedway, a .4-mile oval in Virginia, played host to 11 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour races between 2009 and 2016. In those events, a select few drivers gained experience that might pay off for them now.

Kyle Bonsignore, who picked up his first Whelen Modified Tour win at Stafford Motor Speedway last fall, has two top five finishes in three starts at the Virginia oval. Patrick Emerling, Eric Goodale, Burt Myers and Andy Seuss are also among drivers who have prior starts at the track.

LEARN MORE: Wall Stadium | South Boston Speedway

Wall Stadium, a third-mile oval in New Jersey, returns for a date on May 18. In three previous Whelen Modified Tour events there, three different drivers visited Victory Lane — including two from the Blewett family.

John Blewett III won the inaugural race in 2003, while Reggie Ruggerio broke into the winner’s circle in the second event in 2004. Jimmy Blewett, who since has titles at Wall during weekly competition, won the event in 2007. Blewett has been running Wall weekly over the last few years, so will certainly be among the top contenders when the Whelen Modified Tour enters town.

Additional Tidbits of Offseason News

FansChoice.TV announced in February they will air each and every NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race on their website via a live stream in 2019. The events will also air on NBCSN, typically scheduled for the week following the conclusion.

After a successful first Full Throttle Weekend last September, New Hampshire Motor Speedway will again play host to the Musket 250 in 2019. The 2018 edition, which was the longest race in Whelen Modified Tour history, saw Chase Dowling edge Patrick Emerling across the line after Ryan Preece and Justin Bonsignore collided racing for the lead on the final lap.

This year, Whelen Engineering, the supporting sponsor of the Whelen Modified Tour, is taking the event to the next level, as they announced they will become the primary sponsor of the race.

Phil Kurze, a longtime executive with Whelen Engineering, passed in December following a long illness. Kurze helped to push NASCAR regional, international and local racing to extreme heights after helping to seal deals with the NASCAR Modified Tour, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. He was committed to helping put the local, short-track level of racing on a platform like never before.

Mary Hodge, a photographer who spent countless years covering the Whelen Modified Tour circuit with her late husband Howie, passed away in February. Hodge spent more than 40 years photographing races across the country.

Posted on March 3, 2019March 3, 2019 by Zack Albert

LAS VEGAS — Sunday’s race with both the tapered spacer and aero ducts as part of the 2019 rules package for NASCAR’s top series was as unpredictable as anticipated at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But the setup’s performance was also noteworthy for how several of those pre-race forecasts didn’t take.

At day’s end, Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, said the package won’t be judged by Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 alone. O’Donnell said he saw positive indicators at the 1.5-mile track, but the package will continue to be a work in progress.

“We’ve said from the beginning that this is going to be a season that we’re going to analyze,” O’Donnell said. “We’re not going to go every race and say, ‘Was that a good race, was that not?’ I know fans do that, but for us, directionally are you improving upon where you wanted to be. And if you look at last year versus this year, I would say we are.

“Was it tremendous improvement? Probably not. But again as a fan, you want to see lead changes. We saw that today, and I think if you would’ve looked in the past with no cautions, we would’ve seen someone check out all race long and we wouldn’t have seen a lead change.”

Sunday’s race was an extension of the previous weekend’s event at another intermediate track in Atlanta Motor Speedway, with increased downforce and a reduction in horsepower. The Las Vegas event went a step further with the addition of aerodynamic ducts to produce a larger wake from a leading car to trailing cars.

An organizational test, qualifying and practice fed a variety of pre-race predictions, but the package’s predicted resemblance to restrictor-plate-style racing on a smaller-scale track didn’t quite pan out, with only glimpses of pack-style competition during restarts. Prophecies of mass destruction and multi-car crashes faded with a caution-free race, save for the two stage breaks. And the prognosis for an underdog surprise also fizzled, with an array of heavyweights making a clean sweep of the top five.

“You go back even before the race — and I think even some of the media and it probably came from the garage: ‘We’re going to wreck the entire field, this isn’t going to be a race.’ Didn’t happen,” O’Donnell said. “Some said NASCAR’s goal is pack racing. Not the case. Our goal was to bring cars closer together, have more lead changes, but again, (I) was surprised. I think if we had more green-flag restarts, I think you probably would’ve seen one or two wrecks, but we’ll see. It’s early, again. I’d rather err on the side of not wrecking cars and having some lead changes versus having that happen through accidents.”

O’Donnell said the 400-miler almost played out as a tale of two races, with a tamer Stage 1 as a prelude to slightly more intense competition in the next two portions. The race featured 19 lead changes, a figure that was down from the 23 that occurred in sweltering conditions last September, but the highest for the annual March event at Vegas since 2016 (see chart below for more).

Date	Winner	Leaders/ Lead changes	Green flag (GF) passes	GF passes for the lead	GF laps to end the race
2019	Logano	9/19	3,341	47	100
2018	Harvick	6/11	2,379	9	73
2017	Truex Jr.	6/14	1,982	15	9
2016	Keselowski	10/20	2,210	22	35
2015	Harvick	10/19	3,054	18	69

Not surprisingly, Joey Logano savored how the package played out from his premium perch in Victory Lane. Other drivers expressed difficulty with passing ability, saying teams are still trying to establish a better understanding of how the package will unfold. Sunday, drivers were still trying to digest the early impacts.

“The package was insane on restarts,” said Kurt Busch, who wound up fifth. “The adrenaline and the activity, everyone racing harder, with three-wide. I mean, you didn’t know where cars were going to come from, and then yes, we did get strung out, but handling comes back into play. You’ve got to make your car handle and we had just enough handle on our car to get a top five today.”

The full package will return in two weeks at Auto Club Speedway for the Monster Energy Series’ first trip to a 2-mile track this season. Though O’Donnell said there was still work to be done, he was pressed post-race for what he wanted to see from the package’s performance.

“I think it’s not really up to me, right? It’s the fans,” O’Donnell said. “You want higher ratings and you want more butts in seats ultimately. You want rivalries out there and drivers getting after it, and I think what happens in that situation is you have more passes for the lead and you have cars closer together, so I think we’re on the march to do that. I think we saw some of that today, but we can continue to improve on it.”

Posted on March 3, 2019March 3, 2019 by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS — For the second straight week, Kevin Harvick looked dominant in the early stages of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.

Harvick was the class of the field in the first stage of the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading Laps 1-43 from the pole and closing out the stage after green-flag pit stops by leading Laps 62-80.

RELATED: Full results | Stage results

In the second half of the race, however, Harvick lost the handle on his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and fell to fourth at the finish. The arc of the Las Vegas event mirrored that of the Atlanta Cup race a week earlier, when Harvick won the second stage before fading to fourth.

“The second half of the race, it’s happened to us two weeks in a row,” Harvick said. “The last two weeks, we’ve just been way off to start practice, based on where everybody thought we should start. And we just weren’t even in the ballpark, making huge changes to get in the ballpark.

“They’ve done a great job of getting the car close. When we get some baseline stuff here, we can start working on the details and not scrambling so much. But they’re doing a great job, and we knew that was going to be a possibility, and we didn’t know where we’d be with our cars.

“We qualified decent and had a good first half of the race two weeks in a row, but just got tighter as the race went on.”

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS – Kurt Busch was struggling in dirty air early in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The solution? Trade the dirty air for clean air at the front of the pack.

Busch and crew chief Matt McCall opted to stay on track as long as possible during the second stage of the race, pitting for tires and fuel with 15 laps left in the segment. That enable Busch to keep his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet on the track while others came to pit road for the stage break.

Busch led the field to green on Lap 168 before losing the lead briefly to eventual race winner Joey Logano for one lap. Busch then held the top spot on older tires despite huge pressure from Kevin Harvick before Harvick took the lead on Lap 188. Busch held on for a fifth-place finish in his third race with his new team.

“We got really tight in traffic, and our pit strategist was saying that, if we stayed long in the second stage, then we could stay out,” Busch said. “It played out to where we got clean air, and it completely changed the complexion of the car…

“It gave us a lot to learn from today, and I’m really proud of everybody to get a top five. Now we’ve got two top fives to year, but we know we’ve got some more work to do.”

Posted on March 3, 2019March 3, 2019 by Staff Report

The race-winning Team Penske No. 22 Ford of Joey Logano passed post-race inspection at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with no issues.

The No. 22 was found to be compliant with the NASCAR Rule Book. With the post-race teardown complete, the race results are official.

RELATED: Las Vegas race results

Two cars were found with one unsecured lug nut — the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota of Matt DiBenedetto, who finished 21st, and the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Daniel Suarez, who finished 17th. The penalty for that typically is just a fine to the crew chief and is announced Monday.

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.

RELATED: 1-2 finishes for Brad, Joey

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 scrutiny. The new post-race inspection process also was designed to deal with potential violations more promptly, avoiding any midweek news that might cloud the previous week’s results or the build-up to the following week’s event.

NASCAR will still inspect cars and parts at the R&D Center as needed, but the more comprehensive at-track inspection will take priority.

According to NASCAR statistical archives, the last time a premier series driver was disqualified occurred in 1973, when early retiree Buddy Baker was demoted to last place in the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The last time an apparent race winner in NASCAR’s top division was disqualified came on April 17, 1960, when Emanuel Zervakis’ victory at Wilson (N.C.) Speedway was thrown out because of an oversized fuel tank on his No. 85 Chevrolet.

Posted on March 3, 2019March 3, 2019 by Staff Report

Kyle Busch had just taken the lead midway through the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and seemed headed toward his third win in three days at his hometown track when he brought his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in for a green-flag pit stop.

That routine move proved to be his undoing in thwarting his attempt at a tripleheader sweep when he came onto pit road too fast, smoke billowing and tires screeching.

RELATED: Las Vegas race results

Busch was nabbed for traveling too fast on pit road on Lap 129 of the 267-lap race, and forced to serve a pass-through penalty.

Busch fell to 24th and one lap down after the mistake, but it didn’t mean the end of his opportunity at the trophy. He managed to work his way into the top five with about 65 laps remaining, but couldn’t manage one final push to the lead as he was held up by the lapped car of Corey LaJoie. He finished third.

“I certainly screwed up our day coming to pit road there,” he said after the race. “We tried a different brake package for us this weekend and trying to make up time in order to get a bigger jump on the guys behind me coming to pit road there and just ruined it for us and we had to come from the back. I think we passed the most cars today so I think we were the most impressive today, but that doesn’t matter because we don’t have a trophy.”

His crew chief Adam Stevens did take positives from the speed of the No. 18 Toyota, as it rallied from the back.

“Mistakes happen, you know,” Stevens said of the pit road error after the race. “He just got into pit road a little hot, locked ’em up and couldn’t get slowed down in time and sped in the first section. It’s not the first time we’ve seen that in this sport. He was trying to get all he could get. It’s part of it.

“But (we’re) pleased with the speed we had in our car and the balance was close, so as a team I felt like we did a good job, and he did a good job on the race track overcoming from that. Kind of ran out of laps there. I think we had speed equal to the car that finished in front of us, but kind of gave our track position away.”

Busch is the only driver in NASCAR history to have won races in three national series at the same track in the same weekend. Both of those came at Bristol Motor Speedway, first in 2010 and most recently in 2017.

— Contributing: NASCAR Wire Service

Posted on March 3, 2019March 3, 2019 by Staff Report

Team Penske drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano swapped the lead three times over the final 40 laps of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vega Motor Speedway.

For a moment, it appeared there would be a fourth — coming out of Turn 4 on the final lap.

But Keselowski’s sweeping, attempted slide job just missed the mark as last week’s race winner took second place in the No. 2 Ford, watching teammate and defending series champion Logano win his first race of the year.

The moment @joeylogano knew he got it done.#NASCARGoesWest | @LVMotorSpeedway pic.twitter.com/fSE4iHeHql

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 3, 2019

Keselowski caught and passed Logano for the lead on Lap 240, then lost it back to the No. 22 Ford on Lap 244. But Keselowski cut significantly into Logano’s lead with just two laps to go, then timed his last-gasp move nearly perfectly.

“I passed Joey with the lapped traffic there and caught a break there, and then lapped traffic cost me the lead to Joey and he pulled a good slide job,” Keselowski told FOX reporters after the race. “I tried to pull it back, and I was just a touch too nice to him.”

The implication, of course, is that Keselowski could have initiated contact or even wrecked the No. 22 vying for the win. As it stands, the teammates finished 1-2 for the fifth time in their respective careers.

That both cars had plenty of speed set up both the last-lap showdown, and also could portend future strong showings between the two — and perhaps similar finishes.

“Brad’s been doing a good job of doing that late in the race of getting all he can out of it, and we’ve had some really good cars, so that’s encouraging,” No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe said. “It was good racing with the 22, obviously. Brad’s pretty respectful of his teammates, and Joey’s been that way. I thought he raced him hard, but raced him clean. Thought it was a good race there at the end.”

Posted on March 3, 2019June 22, 2021 by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS – It was a victory for Joey Logano.

It was a victory for Team Penske.

It was a victory for NASCAR’s new higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package, which debuted in full flower Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In a pitched battle between teammates, Logano held off Brad Keselowski on the final lap of the Pennzoil 400 to score the second straight victory for Team Penske and the second straight for the new Ford Mustang, which was introduced into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this year.

RELATED: Race results | Shop for Logano gear

Pennzoil sponsored both the race and Logano’s car.

“I said we’re going to do donuts on that giant infield logo after the race, and we were able to do it,” said Logano, who won for the first time this season, the first time at Las Vegas and the 22nd time in his career.

“What a great race. Brad and I were so evenly matched, and you just can’t drive away (with the lead). In the last five or six laps, Brad was catching me so quick, and I got stuck behind a lapped car. Man, it was so close. Lots of fun – my heart’s still running hard.”

Keselowski, who won last week at Atlanta, had a huge run through Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap, but Logano was able to clear his teammate off the final corner – with inches to spare – straighten his No. 22 Ford and head for the checkered flag.

“Yeah, I figured he’d run up against the wall there, and he made up more ground than I thought he would,” Logano said. “He made such a good run and I just barely cleared him there at the end.

“Team Penske going 1-2 shows the kind of speed we’ve got this season.”

On Lap 240 of 267 in a race whose only two cautions were the breaks between stages, Keselowski passed Logano in traffic to take the lead. Four laps later, Logano returned the favor and held the top spot the rest of the way.

“It was a good battle,” Keselowski said. “We were both running really hard on the top. It seemed to come down to what the lapped cars were going to do. The lapped cars screwed the leader, and the second-place guy got a really good run.

“It happened over and over again. First, Joey got hosed by a lapped car, and I got by him. Then I got hosed by a lapped car, and he got by me. But it was definitely a good event.”

In the end, the event came down to the final few laps, with Keselowski trimming Logano’s lead from just over a second to next-to-nothing with two laps left. Keselowski’s last-ditch try through the final two corners came up just short. The driver of the No. 2 Ford would have liked one more lap to settle the issue.

“I’d sure like to find out,” Keselowski said. “I passed Joey with the lapped traffic there and caught a break there, and then lapped traffic cost me the lead to Joey and he pulled a good slide job (off Turn 4 on the final lap).

“I tried to pull it back, and I was just a touch too nice to him.”

Kyle Busch recovered from a pit road speeding penalty to run third, his chances to make the final run a three-way fight for the win ending when he ran afoul of traffic on the final three laps. Pole winner Kevin Harvick dominated the first stage, but the handling of his No. 4 Ford deteriorated in the second half of the race, as it had done last week at Atlanta. He finished fourth.

RELATED: Busch’s sweep falls short

Kurt Busch parlayed a divergent pit strategy into a fifth-place run. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott and Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin completed the top 10.

Logano led 86 laps, second only to Harvick’s 88. With the race running green except for the stage breaks, 18 cars finished on the lead lap.

The new competition package kept the racing closer at the front and more fluid within the pack. The event produced 47 green-flag passes for the lead versus nine in last year’s race. All told, there were 19 lead changes at the completion of laps as opposed to 11 in 2018.

Seventeen drivers each accounted for more than 100 green-flag passes, according to NASCAR’s loop data.

Posted on March 3, 2019March 8, 2019 by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give you the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: Get the NBC Sports App | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App | How to find NBCSN

Monday, March 4
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Tuesday, March 5
3 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
5 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR K&N Pro Series West: Las Vegas, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
10 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App

Wednesday, March 6
2:30 a.m., Glory Road: NASCAR Goes Road Racing, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Thursday, March 7
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Friday, March 8
3 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series practice, FS1/FOX Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
4 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Weekend Edition, FS1/FOX Sports App
5 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, FS1/FOX Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
6 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying, FS1/FOX Sports App (Canada: TSN2)

On MRN:
1:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice
6 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying

Saturday, March 9
7:30 a.m., NASCAR Presents: The Adventures of Janet Guthrie (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
8 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
11:30 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, FS1/FOX Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying, FS1/FOX Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
1:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Weekend Edition, FS1/FOX Sports App
2 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, FS1/FOX Sports App (Canada: TSN2)
3 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Weekend Edition, FS1/FOX Sports App
3:30 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Xfinity Series at ISM Raceway, FS1/FOX Sports App
4 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series race at ISM Raceway, FS1/FOX Sports App (Canada: TSN2)

On MRN:
11:30 a.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice
2 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series race at ISM Raceway

Sunday, March 10
8 a.m., NASCAR Presents: The Adventures of Janet Guthrie (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
8:30 a.m., Unrivaled: Earnhardt vs. Gordon (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
9:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series race at ISM Raceway (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
2 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at ISM Raceway, FS1/FOX Sports App
3 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay Pre-Race Show, FOX/FOX Sports App
3:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500, FOX/FOX Sports App (Canada; TSN5)

On MRN:
2:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway

Posted on March 3, 2019March 3, 2019 by Staff Report

Joey Logano, looking for his first Las Vegas win, took home Stage 2 in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The lead traded hands several times between Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and William Byron after Kevin Harvick dominated Stage 1. It was Logano that wound up with the stage win, however, aided by a costly penalty by Busch.

Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Keselowski and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

RELATED: Full Stage 2 results

Keselowski took two tires during stage break to come off pit road first before ceding the lead to Logano on Lap 97. Busch then worked his way in front of Logano’s No. 22 Ford takes the lead on Lap 112, before Logano took it right back.

Busch re-inherited the lead on Lap 120, but got hit with a speeding penalty on Lap 129 to put a damper on his attempt to sweep the weekend at his home track. He worked his way back up to 18th by the end of the stage, however.

During green flag cycles, Byron took over at the front of the field to lead 21 laps before his pit cycle washed him back to a still-respectable 11th. Logano re-took the lead upon the No. 24’s pitting, and cruised the rest of the way.

The Final Stage is scheduled for 107 laps.

Finish	Driver	Team	Race Points
1	Joey Logano	Team Penske	10
2	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	9
3	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	8
4	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	7
5	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	6
6	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	5
7	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	4
8	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	3
9	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	2
10	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	1

STAGE 1

Kevin Harvick cruised to his second stage win of the season when he took advantage of his pole position to dominate Stage 1 Sunday in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver and defending race-winner earned the Busch Pole on Friday, helping him lead 62 laps in the opening stage of the third race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Kyle Busch, going for the weekend sweep in his hometown after winning the Gander Outdoors Truck Series and Xfinity Series races earlier this weekend, was second.

Joey Logano, who has six straight top-10 finishes at Vegas, placed third.

RELATED: Full Stage 1 results

During green flag pit stops, Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson were hit with penalties for having too many men over the wall. They started fourth and seventh, respectively, but both wound up missing out on stage points. Michael McDowell’s team was later penalized for having his crew over the wall too soon.

Harvick’s SHR teammate Daniel Suarez led 12 laps after Harvick came in for his scheduled stop. The third-year-driver placed ninth in the stage.

Ryan Blaney was forced to come back down pit road on Lap 51 after he had a left rear tire going down. He sits 30th.

Finish	Driver	Team	Race Points
1	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	10
2	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	9
3	Joey Logano	Team Penske	8
4	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	7
5	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	6
6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	5
7	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	4
8	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	3
9	Daniel Suarez	Stewart-Haas Racing	2
10	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	1