Posted on by Reid Spencer

CONCORD, N.C. – Though he didn’t get into his pit stall as quickly as he would have liked in the unique Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race qualifying format, Clint Bowyer had enough speed in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to earn the pole position for Saturday night’s marquee event at Charlotte Motor Speedway (at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Though he hasn’t won a pole for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race since he won the top spot at New Hampshire in 2007, Bowyer had enough muscle under the hood of his Ford Mustang on Friday to beat Kyle Busch by a decisive .177 seconds.

“Hell has frozen over,” Bowyer quipped. “It’s so easy to make mistakes in that (format), because it’s so out of the ordinary of what we usually do. I actually didn’t get on pit road near as good as I wanted to.

RELATED: Qualifying results

“I had my dead-set line that I was going to get to and would lift (off the gas) at, and when I didn’t get on pit road like I needed to, I drove past that and I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m going to get stuck.’ and my eyes were getting bigger.”

Nevertheless, Bowyer negotiated the three laps plus a mandatory four-tire pit stop (with no pit road speed limit) in 118.794 seconds for a speed of 136.371 mph. The only other driver to break 119 seconds, Busch logged a speed of 136.168 mph.

“Our Fords have been extremely fast, but we haven’t gotten them in Victory Lane like we’d like to yet, but we’re knocking on the door,” Bowyer said. “Who knows? I just saw (Charlotte Motor Speedway president) Marcus Smith. I said, ‘You know how bad I want to win your million dollars?’ I’m going to take his million dollars tomorrow night!”

Busch was pleased with his own performance and that of his team.

“I thought everything about the lap actually was pretty good,” said the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “I’m not sure how fast the lap itself was — how fast our car was on the lap.

“I felt like my progressiveness onto pit road and pit road speed was relatively good, and then the braking point and being able to just chatter the tires all the way into the box was really close. Really on the money there. I thought we got all we could get out of it.”

Kevin Harvick, Bowyer’s teammate at SHR, qualified third at 136.068 mph. Austin Dillon, who paced the field in Friday’s final practice, claimed the fourth starting spot for the race that pays $1 million to the winner.

RELATED: Austin Dillon leads final practice

“It feels really good to back it up,” Dillon said. “We had a really fast lap by ourselves right there. I’m proud of my pit crew for having a solid pit stop, and, man, the adrenaline is just flowing right now after hitting pit road with all that speed.

“It’s an intense situation, and you just want to give those guys that pit, and not slide it so it doesn’t focus on you. But, yeah, that was a good overall run for us.”

All told, 15 cars — those already locked into the All-Star Race — made qualifying runs. Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Erik Jones, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano will start from positions five through 10, respectively.

Three segment winners from the Monster Energy Open, which precedes the All-Star Race on Saturday, will earn spots in the main event, as will one driver selected by fan vote.

In an earlier qualifying session on Friday, Daniel Hemric, Dillon’s teammate at Richard Childress Racing, won the pole for the Open. Ford driver Michael McDowell claimed the second starting spot.

“I said on the radio this is the first box checked for the weekend,” Hemric said. “You’ve got to bring the fastest race car you can, and we’ve done that. Hopefully, we can do our jobs tomorrow and do what we need to do to get in the All-Star race and really have some fun.”

MORE: Hemric on winning Open pole

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CONCORD, N.C. — The competition package mandated for this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star race features two significant components: a single-piece carbon-fiber splitter/pan and a radiator duct in the hood of the car.

From a “feel” standpoint, however, most drivers participating in practice sessions Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway couldn’t tell much difference between the configuration they have been running at intermediate speedways so far this year and the package for Saturday’s million-dollar event (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: All-Star weekend schedule

But that doesn’t mean the feel was exactly the same.

“This place is just so weird, Charlotte is, as a track,” said Austin Dillon, who was strong in both Friday practice sessions at the 1.5-mile track, topping the speed chart in Final Practice. “It’s a lot different handling-wise.

“I feel like there are different things, obviously, with the splitter and how high the cars are. I think they handled a little differently in practice. Some people looked like they really struggled in traffic, but I felt like my car was decent in traffic. I feel like some of that is just getting the balance right, because we haven’t run this package.”

Though some cars benefited from the draft, particularly in the first session when the Open cars and All-Star cars ran together, Dillon believes there will still be a premium to being out front.

“I felt like clean air was still the fastest way for my car, but you could get a pull, for sure,” Dillon said. “A bigger pull, and I noticed it right off the bat running behind the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) coming to the green, that I could get a bigger pull than what we have been this year.”

Posted on by H.A. Branham

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR Day and Daytona International Speedway. Talk about a perfect pairing.

Hundreds of NASCAR fans felt that way Friday as The NASCAR Foundation partnered with the speedway, the event’s host, for the 15th annual celebration on the plaza area outside the DIS Ticket and Tours Building.

In the city where NASCAR began in 1947, fans gathered for a sun-splashed lunch and a chance to win prizes through a raffle; proceeds benefited the foundation, NASCAR’s charitable arm that focuses on improving the quality of life of children in need throughout the United States.

“It’s a beautiful day and this is for a good cause,” said one of those fans, Daytona Beach’s Sean Ruddy.

Ruddy said he’s never missed a NASCAR Day at DIS. He plans on keeping that streak intact, being a lifelong follower of the sport.

“I grew up in this area and [my fandom] probably started with my Dad who brought me over here to the races. We would work on the concession stands or the souvenir stands back in the day, just to be able to get into the track and say we were there.”

Gale Stump came down Friday from Jacksonville. She took the day off from work and arrived in head-to-toe National Guard racing garb, a holdover from her days of following Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the NASCAR Cup Series, when he was sponsored by the military branch.

“I’ve been a fan forever – old school,” Stump said. “For me, it started in the early 1990s with Dale Earnhardt Sr. and then later with Dale Jr. But I also followed Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, and Tony Stewart. And now, it’s the young guys coming up.”

Stump, too, was eyeing the prizes lined up for the raffle. There was a lot to eye.

Nascar Day Main 1
Special to NASCAR.com

Tickets cost only $1 and potential payoffs were enticing. Among those prizes: Two-night stays in several of the city’s premier hotel-resort properties … 2019 Daytona 500 champion’s hat and helmet signed by Denny Hamlin … tickets to the July 5 Circle K Firecracker 400 at the speedway … and a NASCAR Racing Experience Ride Along Package.

“We really need to thank Daytona International Speedway for helping us celebrate our sport, our community and our fans – and also for supporting our efforts to help children because at the end of each and every day for us, it’s all about the kids,” said Nichole Krieger, executive director of The NASCAR Foundation, which was founded in 2006 by the late Betty Jane France.

And so it was most appropriate that a youngster well-known in NASCAR circles was in attendance Friday – the “NASCAR Whiz Kid,” 13-year-old Michael Nichols of Ormond Beach, who possesses an astounding acumen for NASCAR history. Ask him a question, any question, and he invariably can supply the answer.

The Whiz – wearing his trademark checkered-flag bow tie – wasn’t being quizzed Friday. He and his father Michael Sr. were, like others, just enjoying the atmosphere at the “World Center of Racing.”

“This is like the NASCAR holiday,” the Whiz Kid said. “One big [special] day each year.”

Posted on by Staff Report

See the order that cars will head out for qualifying as they set the starting spots for the Monster Energy Open (Saturday, 6 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Order Car  Driver Sponsor
1 46 Joey Gase MBM Motorsports Toyota
2 77 Quin Houff Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
3 66 Timmy Hill MBM Motorsports Toyota
4 51 Cody Ware JACOB Companies Chevrolet
5 52 Bayley Currey RWR Ford
6 53 BJ McLeod Enlisted Nine Fight Company Chevrolet
7 15 Ross Chastain VIPRacingExperience.com Chevrolet
8 00 Landon Cassill Elongator Tailgates Chevrolet
9 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fastenal Ford
10 43 Bubba Wallace World Wide Technolgy Chevrolet
11 95 Matt DiBenedetto Anest Iwata Toyota
12 37 Chris Buescher Kroger Your Personal Pit Stop Chevrolet
13 32 Corey LaJoie Freedom Hard Ford
14 47 Ryan Preece Kroger Chevrolet
15 88 Alex Bowman Axalta Chevrolet
16 41 Daniel Suarez ARRIS Ford
17 38 David Ragan MDS Transport Ford
18 13 Ty Dillon GEICO Military Chevrolet
19 24 William Byron Hendrick Autoguard Chevrolet
20 42 Kyle Larson Advent Health Chevrolet
21 21 Paul Menard Menards/Knauf Ford
22 36 Matt Tifft Surface Sunscreen/Tunity Ford
23 34 Michael McDowell Dockside Logistics Ford
24 8 Daniel Hemric Caterpillar/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet
Posted on by Staff Report

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race Final Practice

Austin Dillon shot to the top of the leaderboard during Friday’s final All-Star race practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 179.450 in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Behind him was Ryan Blaney in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford with a fast lap of 178.560 mph.

RELATED: Practice results

Rounding out the top five was Clint Bowyer in third in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a lap of 178.336 mph, Joey Logano in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford at 177.954 and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota with a speed of 177.713 mph.

All-Star teams participated in pit road speed practice sessions in advance of qualifying.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Open Final Practice

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Daniel Hemric finished first in final practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Open with a speed of 180.234 mph in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Michael McDowell was right behind him in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford at 179.539 mph.

RELATED: Practice results

Rounding out the top five were Matt Tifft in the No. 36 Front Row Motorsports Ford (178.998 mph), Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (178.159 mph), Ty Dillon in the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet (177.690 mph).

These drivers are all participating in the Open with hopes of making it into the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race. Three drivers will make it from stage wins during tomorrow’s race and one will make it by winning the Fan Vote.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Combined Practice 

Aric Almirola topped the leaderboard in Friday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 181.360 mph in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

Right behind him was teammate Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford at 179.581 mph.

MORE: Practice results 

Rounding out the top five were Clint Bowyer in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford (178.915 mph), Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (178.778 mph) and Paul Menard in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford (178.696 mph).

Series points leader Joey Logano was the eighth fastest with a speed of 178.518 mph in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

This practice was combined with drivers from both the Open and the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race.

Posted on by Staff Report

See the order that cars will head out for qualifying as they set the starting spots for the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The All-Star cars will qualify based on the time of three laps plus a pit stop.

RELATED: How the All-Star Race works

Order Car  Driver Sponsor
1 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford
2 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Brakes Chevrolet
3 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Hazelnut Toyota
4 12 Ryan Blaney BodyArmor Ford
5 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops/Tracker ATV’s & Boats/USO Toyota
6 48 Jimmie Johnson Ally Chevrolet
7 2 Brad Keselowski Discount Tire Ford
8 14 Clint Bowyer Toco Warranty Ford
9 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford
10 20 Erik Jones Craftsman Toyota
11 3 Austin Dillon DOW Chevrolet
12 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota
13 4 Kevin Harvick Busch Beer Millennial Car Ford
14 1 Kurt Busch GEARWRENCH/Monster Energy Chevrolet
15 6 Ryan Newman Acorns Ford
Posted on by Holly Cain

The Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star weekend kicks off Friday night with the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race under the lights.

And while it’s essentially a “home” race for most of NASCAR’s three major series, it’s actually an away show for the series’ championship leading team, ThorSport Racing, which is based in Ohio. And that’s fine with this group of drivers, who figure that makes a victory this weekend all the more dramatic.

RELATED: All-Star weekend schedule

ThorSport Racing has certainly been setting the tone of the season with Grant Enfinger leading the championship standings by 13 points over defending series champion Brett Moffitt. Enfinger’s teammate Johnny Sauter is the defending race winner. Another teammate, Matt Crafton, is one of only three multi-time Charlotte race winners – 2008 and 2016.

This weekend may well open up the title chase again. Enfinger’s lead over Moffitt is tenuous. Former championship leader Stewart Friesen is only 15 points back and Enfinger’s three teammates – Ben Rhodes (-33 points), Sauter (-35) and Crafton (-42) round out the top six.

And Enfinger, who made it to the Championship Four in 2018, acknowledged with a smile that while everyone else may be “excited” to race at Charlotte, he still feels a bit “snake bit” at the track; change in luck this weekend will be welcome. He’s still looking for his first victory of the season despite leading the point standings four different times.

“I know everybody else is excited about the race but I’m more excited about just getting through Charlotte and hoping we can just get through this race,” Enfinger said smiling.

“It seems like the last couple races myself and [crew chief] Jeff Hensley, I just struggled, just missed it a little bit so I say that jokingly, I feel like we’ve got a really good package, we’re bringing our best mile-and-a-half truck here, No. 44. I am really excited about it, but at the same time, in back of my mind, we’ve just run so badly there the last couple of years, so hopefully we can get all that fixed. I’ve got confidence in the guys working on it so hopefully we’re going to be good.”

Certainly one driver Enfinger and the rest of the field will need to deal with on Friday night is Kyle Busch, who will be making his fifth and final Gander Trucks start of the season.

Busch has won all four previous truck races he entered this year and is a record seven-time winner of the Charlotte truck race. In 12 starts, he has finished first or second 10 times. His only finish outside the top-10 is … 11th place (2007).