Familiarity with JGR gives Truex confidence heading into Daytona 500

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Martin Truex Jr. showed up for Daytona 500 Media Day looking relaxed but speaking of high expectations for his debut season driving the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Truex moved to the Gibbs stable this year after spending five seasons with the Furniture Row Racing organization where he enjoyed the best year of his career – winning eight races (more than his previous entire career total of seven) en route to the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy.

Because of the working relationship between FRR and the Gibbs organizations, he said the transition to the championship Gibbs group has “fortunately” been relatively seamless. Now he and his crew chief Cole Pearn can join company competition meetings in person instead of via satellite.

The expectation is to win immediately. And often.

“I would say that it was a lot easier,” Truex, 38, said with a smile during Media Day to preview Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “A lot less unknowns. Less nervous about it just because I know things. I talk about simple things like I know what their brakes are like. I know what their throttle pedal feels like. I know what kind of steering they run.

RELATED: Truex joins JGR

“When I’ve switched teams before it’s like starting over a lot of times. When I went from DEI (Dale Earnhardt Incorporated) to MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) it was like completely starting over. All new people. All different parts and pieces. All new equipment. Everything felt different. The approach was different. That’s where you kind of have that anxiety of, ‘How’s this really going to be?’ I think it’s going to be good, but I don’t know.

“There’s so many questions when you switch teams like that. For this transition for me, it was a lot easier because we worked so closely together the past couple of years. We’ve essentially built our cars together. We used all the same stuff – parts and pieces, engines, you name it. I’m familiar with all that. I’m familiar with their process. The way they do things. The way they work together. The way their meetings are. You name it, it’s a comfortable change. For me, it’s been as easy as it’s ever been to switch teams like this year.”

Obviously the first big goal for Truex is a good showing in the Daytona 500. The closest he came to winning it was the closest anyone came to winning it – one-hundredth of a second. He finished alongside Denny Hamlin – now a teammate at JGR – in a 2016 finish so close officials had to review it.

PHOTOS: Closest finishes in Daytona 500 history

Ultimately Hamlin hoisted the trophy. Truex is still pursuing it – eager to add a Daytona 500 triumph to his championship career. He has three top-10 finishes in 14 races at the annual race and was 18th last year.

“I guess it can be frustrating, but anything that big is not easy to get,” Truex recalled, shaking his head. “It’s just the way it is. You look at Dale Earnhardt, it took him 17 tries or something – 20. He won the most races at Daytona of anyone ever and he hadn’t won the Daytona 500. That just shows how hard it is to win.

“I don’t think that’s changed over the years. You look at a guy like Trevor Bayne – he came out of nowhere and won the thing (in 2011) and never won any other races. It’s one of those races where crazy things tend to happen. Huge stories tend to come out of it and that’s part of the reason why it’s such a big deal.”

This year, in this circumstance, it would also be a statement.

Truex is driving for the fourth team in his 13-year full-time career. He won races for the previous three and would love to land Gibbs a fifth Cup title.

Last year he made a run at back-to-back championships – unofficially a part of the 2018 “Big Three” of eight-time race winners Kevin Harvick and Truex’s new teammate at JGR, Kyle Busch. Truex was a four-time winner and the threesome were the year’s winningest.

“Everybody in the garage wants to be one of those guys that are looked at as, ‘Here’s the guys to beat every week,'” Truex said. “We all want to be there.

“It’s been fun to be in that position for a couple years. No guarantee that we’ll be there again. You never know who’s going to figure it out quick and come out – some guy could come out of nowhere this season, you never know because it’s going to be so different. I don’t know.

“There’s a lot to learn. I really don’t worry about all that stuff. I worry about results. I want to win races and if we do our jobs and if I’m happy with the job I’m doing then yeah, I’ll probably be one of those Big Three.”

Posted on February 13, 2019February 15, 2019 by Staff Report

Johnny Sauter will return to ThorSport Racing for the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series as part of the Sandusky, Ohio-based organization’s full-time, four-truck lineup.

Sauter ran for ThorSport from 2009 to 2015 before spending the past three seasons — including a 2016 championship campaign — with GMS Racing. In January, GMS and Sauter parted ways following a three-year stint together. The Wisconsin native will run ThorSport’s No. 13 entry — the same entry he drove for the team from 2009 to 2012. The 23-time winner in the series has finished in the top four in the final standings in each of the past six seasons.

Two-time champion Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes are all returning to the organization for full seasons. The trio of drivers all made the 2018 playoffs in the series. Crafton, a 14-time winner in the series, will be back to pilot the No. 88 truck. Enfinger, a two-time winner in the series coming off a career-best fifth-place finish in the standings, will be in the No. 98 truck.

Rhodes returns for his fourth season with the team but will sport a new number — No. 99. This marks the two-time winner’s third different number in four seasons with ThorSport. He previously drove the Nos. 41 and 27 trucks.

Myatt Snider, last year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year winner in the series, will return in a part-time capacity and drive the No, 27 truck.

The season begins this weekend at Daytona for Friday’s NextEra Energy 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Paul Menard came close last weekend but did not win the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona. He still went to Disney World.

Three days after the late-race run-in with Jimmie Johnson that derailed his chances, Menard said he was trying to turn the page on Sunday’s incident at Daytona International Speedway. He said that he spoke with Johnson on Wednesday morning, before his appearance later that afternoon at Daytona 500 Media Day.

“It is what it is, right? I felt like I was holding a wheel as good as I could,” said Menard, who led 51 of the exhibition race’s 59 laps in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford. “I thought up front would be a pretty safe place, too, but Jimmie did what he did to try to win. It was not intentional. Maybe I moved down a little bit, I don’t know if there was no room for error, and two cars collided. So that’s what it is. I spent the last two days at Disney World with my two little kids and had a good time.”

Menard will aim to regroup ahead of Sunday’s main event, the 61st Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Though he had pointed comments for Johnson — the race’s eventual winner — in post-race interviews, Menard indicated that he was trying to let the heated moments pass.

“We’re moving on,” Menard said. “What’s done is done. We’re not looking in the rear-view mirror on that one, just moving on.”

Johnson appeared in a later media session and said that after his discussion with Menard, there’s a better understanding between the two. Johnson’s stance that their late-race contact was not initiated on purpose hasn’t changed since Sunday.

“I don’t know if there’s really anything different,” Johnson said. “I mean, it’s great to have that conversation and talk to him. He knew then and he knows again after today, our phone call, that it wasn’t intentional. Looking back, I could’ve given him a few more inches, that way when he came down, there was a bit more margin for error between us. There’s always lessons to learn going back and looking at the tape and talking to someone about those things, but I think where he and I stand, I’m sure he wasn’t happy after the race, but he knew it wasn’t intentional, and it was more of racing thing than anything.”

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Perennial championship contender Kyle Busch said Wednesday during Daytona 500 Media Day that he and Joe Gibbs Racing officials are close to signing a contract extension.

“We’re in discussions right now,” Busch said. “We’re talking. It’s all been agreed to. It’s just a matter of putting a pen to the paper, so. We’re all good.”

RELATED: Pics from Busch’s wins

Busch has 51 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins — second most among active drivers, behind only Jimmie Johnson — and 47 of those came in the No. 18 Toyota. He won the series championship in 2015 and is coming off one of the best years of his career. “Rowdy” won eight races in 2018 and made the Championship 4, finishing fourth in the final standings.

Busch’s current deal is believed to run through 2019. He and team owner Joe Gibbs announced in November 2015 that the two sides had signed a multi-year agreement.

Since that announcement alone, Busch has 17 wins and 53 top-five finishes in the ensuing three seasons.

He enters 2019 nearing 200 total wins across all three NASCAR national series — his 194 victories include the 51 Cup wins, 92 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and 51 in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

MORE: One thing missing for ‘Rowdy’

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Denny Hamlin readily acknowledges that when he shows up at Daytona International Speedway, he is a race favorite. He’s earned that distinction as a former Daytona 500 winner.

But this year a victory in the sport’s biggest race wouldn’t only be of historical significance but put an end to the longest winless streak in the 38-year old Virginian’s decorated Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career. Last year he did not win a race for the first time since his 2006 rookie season.

“I feel pretty optimistic,’’ Hamlin said, sitting down to meet with reporters during the annual Daytona 500 Media Day. “I would say about the same as usual to be honest with you.

“I thought The Clash (last Sunday afternoon) kind of gave us an indication that we were able to kind of get up front even starting last. We got up front in a timely manner. No surprises really from that, so there’s no reason to think otherwise that we can’t win.”

This year, his showing in the Feb. 17 Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusNASCAR Radio) will be especially important and, frankly, sentimental as he has dedicated his season to one of his biggest supporters, J.D. Gibbs, 49, who passed away last month after a long illness.

Gibbs, son of Joe Gibbs Racing founder Joe Gibbs, died on Jan. 11 from a degenerative neurological disease. J.D. was not only president of the NASCAR championship organization but he was the person who signed Hamlin to the team in 2005. It was a relationship established on talent but built on equal parts friendship and business. And this week, Hamlin still looked pained and sentimental thinking of the loss.

“It’ll be super important (to do well),’’ Hamlin said. “Everyone knows how important he was for me and my career and everything he did for us, so certainly having success on track will be crucial for that. Now that I pledged $111 for every lap that we lead, it’s going to be important for me to get up front and get up front often.”

Up front is a reasonable and likely place to find Hamlin at Daytona International Speedway. His work in the Daytona 500 – specifically – and Speedweeks in general, is undoubtedly a career highlight reel. He is the 2016 Daytona 500 winner, earned three victories in the Duel at Daytona qualifying races and three wins in the Advance Auto Parts Clash – including his first career Cup-level victory as a rookie in the 2006 Clash non-points race.

His 267 laps led in the Daytona 500 is most in this year’s field as are his 407 total laps led at Daytona International Speedway (also including the summer’s Coke Zero 400).

Hamlin is also among the sport’s most elite company winning both the Clash and the Daytona 500 in the same year – something that’s occurred only six times total.

This season Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota will have a new crew chief in Chris Gabehart, who moved up from JGR’s NASCAR Xfinity Series stable. Interestingly, as much pressure as there is in the sport’s most celebrated race, Hamlin thinks the Daytona 500 restrictor plate race may well be the best kind of transition for a new crew chief.

“I think it’s actually a good race to start with a new crew chief because you’re not really talking about handling that much,’’ Hamlin said. “It’s a good one to just kind of get your feet wet on the communication side of things. What his lingo is on the radio versus mine, so I think it’s actually a good start to the year.

“Even for the drivers that are in new situations, to start a year on a superspeedway where you’re not really having to fix the car much. It’s kind of more about the driver and how he strategically makes his way through the pack.”

PREVIEW: What’s the 2019 outlook for Joe Gibbs Racing?

A win or even a good showing in the 500 would certainly continue the kind of positive energy Hamlin showed in the end of last year.

He finished a season-best runner-up twice (at Dover and Martinsville) during the 10-race 2018 Playoffs to end the season and finished 11th in the overall standings. He earned four pole positions and sat on pole for the season finale at Homestead, Fla.

It’s all eyes ahead.

“I’m looking forward to this one more than looking back on the last one simply because there’s just nothing I can change from this past year,’’ Hamlin said. “I couldn’t help the bad breaks that we had or the things that went wrong. All you can do is just figure out how can that not happen again.

“With a new crew chief, you’re obviously also working on what do we need to do to communicate better? What do you need from me and what do I need from you and that’s the most important thing that we really worked on.

“You always feel like you have something to prove, but certainly this year in particular, I’m very fired up to go out there and win. Not one race, not two races, not even three – just like multiple races and show that we are a contender each and every week just like I know that we are.

“You can always talk about the ones that got away last year, but that was last year. So what, now what? We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do to change the narrative of our team that we’re on the decline.”

NEW LOOK: See Hamlin’s fresh paint scheme for 2019

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Everyone knows the friendship between Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott off the race track.

But how about the one between Blaney and Chase’s father, Bill Elliott?

Blaney got to know the Hall of Fame driver a little better during a four-hour, music-less drive with the two Elliotts to Colorado last season between races in Texas and Phoenix.

MORE: Chase Elliott career photos

“Bill doesn’t listen to the radio, so it’s dead silent,” Blaney recalled Wednesday at Daytona 500 Media Day. “And I had to sit in the front seat with him and Chase was sleeping in the back. And so you make conversation.”

Despite the lack of Miss May I coming through the speakers, Blaney treasured the chat, citing his strong relationship with the elder Elliott.

“Bill’s been great to me, Bill’s a great guy,” Blaney said. “Being able to talk to someone like that, who I have so much respect for, was really special to me.”

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Preece has added his name to a very short list.

The number of modified champions who have ventured into NASCAR’s premier series and enjoyed even a modicum of success can be expressed in single digits.

Jimmy Spencer won two races in what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, a feat later equaled by Steve Park. Mike McLaughlin won six times in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and Jeff Fuller claimed one victory in that series, but neither ascended to full-time Cup rides.

So the odds are long against Preece, the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion who is running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the Cup series this year.

Then again, the odds against Preece have always been long, and the 28-year-old from Berlin, Conn., has shown a willingness to gamble for the highest possible stakes—his own future.

It’s an oft-told story. In 2017, Preece took all the money he could scrape together and bought two races in a top-of-the-line Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He finished second in his first outing at New Hampshire. In his second start in JGR equipment, he won at Iowa.

Those performances were the springboard that first earned him additional rides in the Xfinity Series and ultimately propelled him to his current Cup deal with JTG Daugherty Racing.

Now all Preece has to do is change the narrative established by his modified predecessors.

“The gamble paid off,” Preece said. “I’m not saying it would for everybody. I didn’t know if it would. My phone wasn’t blowing off the hook at first. I want people to know that. It could be a life-changing gamble either way.”

Even though Preece has landed at JTG Daugherty, he is maintaining a strong connection to his modified roots. On Tuesday night, he won a 35-lap modified feature at New Smyrna Speedway, just down the road from Daytona Beach. And he has sought counsel from Park, who in 2000 took the checkered flag at Watkins Glen, won two poles and posted 13 top 10s in his best Cup season.

Park’s best piece of advice to the rookie?

“There’s a lot of stuff I could say, but I don’t think I could say it right here,” Preece said on Wednesday’s media day to preview the Daytona 500 (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX). “I would say, ‘Don’t hold back. Don’t just drive the car. Don’t just drive through what it’s doing. Constantly tell them very in detail what the car’s doing, because they’re not going to make it better if you don’t.’

“Coming from modifieds, if it was close, it was like, ‘Hey, guys, it’s good. Don’t worry about it. I’ll wheel it.’ That gets you pretty far, but that’s not going to win you races — not at this level.”

Preece is replacing AJ Allmendinger in the No. 47 Chevrolet this year. Allmendinger’s best performance on an intermediate speedway last year came in the Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte, where NASCAR introduced a higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package for that event only.

The 2019 rules package incorporates the principles that produced close racing at Charlotte. That’s a source of optimism for Preece. So is the recent organizational test at Las Vegas.

“Single-car speed really won’t mean much, but if you have single-car speed, you just need to translate it to the draft,” Preece said. “That was something we had, and now we just need to fine-tune and be meticulous about getting it to go from that single-car to the draft.”

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Larson says his previous interactions with new teammate Kurt Busch had been limited to isolated chit-chat, maybe an off-hand conversation when they qualified on the same row and shared a parade vehicle during pre-race ceremonies.

But based on conversations with others, Larson says he’s prepped for some solid chemistry building.

“Everybody I’ve talked to that’s been a teammate with him in the past has always said that as crazy as he is, he’s a great teammate,” Larson says, referring to Busch’s sometimes brash persona. “He’s been good to work with so far and he’s got a ton of knowledge and experience. I’ve enjoyed it and looking forward to getting to other race tracks outside of Daytona so we can learn more off of each other.”

RELATED: Full Daytona 500 coverage

Larson, 26, is entering his sixth full season driving Chip Ganassi’s No. 42 Chevrolet. It will be his first campaign paired with Busch, the 2004 premier series champion who replaces Jamie McMurray in the No. 1 Chevrolet.

On the surface, Larson’s laid-back personality might seem to be on an opposite spectrum with the bolder Busch, who has mellowed over time after bursting onto the NASCAR scene with a gung-ho approach. But Larson says he’s less concerned about how they’ll mesh, focusing instead on soaking in the wealth of knowledge that comes with Busch’s experience and success.

“I think personality-wise, I think I’ll stay the same. I think work-ethic-wise, I think he can push you to be a little bit better, so I’m excited just in that aspect of thing,” Larson said. “… We’re around a lot of different people all the time and I feel like I do a good job of staying grounded and being who I am. I don’t think I’m going to have any episodes like he’s had in the past now that he’s my teammate, but like I said, it’s not often you get to work with a past champion as closely as I’m going to get to this year. I’m very excited about that opportunity.”

MORE: What’s new in NASCAR this year?

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Brad Norman

Editor’s note: This week in advance of the Daytona 500, NASCAR.com will look back at some memorable race victories and detail the odds the winning driver had, and which driver in the 2019 field most correlates.

Previously: Kurt Busch | Trevor Bayne

Twenty years after Dale Earnhardt’s memorable 1998 Daytona victory — which we ranked first in our all-time race rankings — Austin Dillon lurked in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on a late restart.

With one career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win to his credit, Dillon entered the 60th running of the Daytona 500 last year with 40-1 odds to win the “Great American Race.”

RELATED: Daytona 500 odds

He trailed leader Aric Almirola when the white flag dropped, but got an incredible run on the outside on the final lap. When Almirola moved to block, Dillon didn’t lift, sending Almirola into the wall and pushing his No. 3 into the lead — and soon thereafter, Victory Lane.

Following the prerequisite victory slide and celebration in the Daytona infield, of course.

The most comparable driver in this year’s field is …

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Yes, entering Daytona Speedweeks, Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron was pegged at the same 40-1 odds as Dillon was last year. His makeup is the same, too.

Hendrick Motorsports has an unrivaled plate program, especially in qualifying — that much is evidenced by Byron winning the organization’s fifth consecutive Daytona 500 pole.

Hendrick drivers will start 1-2-3-4 in this year’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), so the Monster Energy Series sophomore will have plenty of help around him — at least in the early going.

Posted on February 12, 2019April 1, 2021 by Staff Report

NEW SMYRNA, Fla. — Two of short-track racing’s top talents took the checkered flag on Monday night at New Smyrna Speedway.

Five-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby and established Super Late Model star Bubba Pollard picked up victories in their respective divisions on the fourth night of racing as part of the 53rd annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway.

Coby, who hadn’t seen New Smyrna except once, back in 2014, dominated the 50-lap Tour Type Modified feature. He qualified second, and with an invert of zero, Coby lined up to the outside of the front row for the drop of the green flag. The Milford, Connecticut, driver took the advantage from polesitter Patrick Emerling in the first turn of the race and never looked back.

The veteran proved to be a quick study of the Florida half-mile. He is hoping to use the five nights of Modified racing to get a step up on some of his Whelen Modified Tour competitors in hopes to return to championship form.

“We have tried a lot that we wouldn’t have been able to try if we hadn’t come here. That’s flat-out why we came,” Coby said. “The wins are nice, but really, this is still a test session. The car is in one piece, we can go celebrate, but, we have to come back tomorrow.”

Emerling finished second on the track, holding off a hard-charging defending World Series champion Matt Hirschman, who opened his week on the podium in his attempt to repeat. However, Emerling didn’t make it through post-race technical inspection, moving Hirschman to second.

In the 35-lap Super Late Model battle, Bubba Pollard started from the top spot after winning the pole award, but it wasn’t long before he was trailing. The Georgia native found himself following behind Dan Fredrickson in the opening laps — in fact — all the way until the 29th circuit.

When Fredrickson slid out of the groove in turn three, Pollard took advantage and never looked back from that moment. In some ways, it was an emotional Victory Lane for the entire team, since the car Pollard drove to victory wasn’t his own.

Pollard is driving the No. 11 for David Rogers — a New Smyrna local driver who was unable to compete this week due to a medical procedure.

“I can’t believe it, I can’t believe I’m even driving it,” Pollard said. “It’s a legendary car. David Rogers and his group, they are great people. This is for him and all of the guys that work hard.”

Travis Eddy won the 35-lap Florida Modified feature while Augie Grill picked up the Pro Late Model win. Derek Kraus won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season-opener after rain pushed the event to Monday.

Results: World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Night 4:

Tour Type Modifieds: 1. Doug Coby; 2. Matt Hirschman; 3. Jimmy Blewett; 4. Anthony Nocella; 5. Chuck Hossfeld; 6. Timmy Solomito; 7. Mike Willis Jr.; 8. Jeremy Gerstner; 9. Jeff Goodale; 10. Calvin Carroll; 11. Amy Catalano; 12. Dillon Steuer; 13. Ryan Preece; 14. Jeff Gallup; 15. Nikki Carroll; 16. Jimmy Zacharias; 17. Andy Jankowiak; 18. Tommy Catalano; 19. Tyler Rypkema; 20. Dean Rypkema; 21. Al Amarino; 22. Chris Risdale; 23. Tom Tonn

Super Late Models: 1. Bubba Pollard; 2. Brad May; 3. Gabe Sommers; 4. Colin Garrett; 5. Sam Mayer; 6. Derek Kraus; 7. Logan Seavey; 8. Dan Fredrickson; 9. Anthony Sergi; 10. Harold Crooms; 11. Derek Griffith; 12. Travis Braden; 13. Spencer Davis; 14. Carson Kvapil; 15. Nolan Pope; 16. Alex Labbe; 17. Brent Strelka; 18. Clay Greenfield; 19. Jeff Holmgren Jr.; 20. Stephen Weaver Jr.; 21. Christian Rose; 22. Chuck Tuck; 23. Patrick Thomas; 24. Trey Bayne; 25. Gus Dean; 26. Ryan Moore; 27. Jett Noland; 28. Jared Irvan