Posted on by Staff Report

Mike Mittler, a longtime team owner in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, has died. He was 67.

Mittler’s passing was confirmed by multiple sources. His team indicated last fall that Mittler had been fighting cancer.

https://twitter.com/odsteve/status/1127017818023714816

Mittler’s MB Motorsports team was heralded as a launching pad for many aspiring drivers, some of whom reached the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray and Regan Smith were among the 49 drivers on MB Motorsports’ all-time roster under Mittler’s watch. Many paid tribute to their former team owner Friday evening as the news spread of his passing.

Mittler is credited with 301 career starts as a team owner in the Gander Trucks circuit, dating back to the inaugural season in 1995. His closest brush with victory came with dirt-track ace Bobby Pierce, who won two straight pole positions at Eldora Speedway and finished second driving Mittler’s No. 63 in the midsummer event on dirt in 2015.

That 2015 race at Eldora was Pierce’s first career Gander Trucks start. He chased dirt ace Christopher Bell — then a prospect, now a burgeoning superstar — all over Eldora’s half-mile dirt oval before bringing his battered truck across the line second.

“I thought if it stayed green, we’d have every opportunity to work (Bell) and get by him, but it just didn’t go that way, “Mittler told NASCAR.com after that race. “I just thought, ‘Wow, what a phenomenal opportunity after 20 years, to be in position to finally have an opportunity to win a race.’

“That’s why you’re in this sport, to be in contention to win. It wasn’t a fluke. We were there all day. It was no fluke at all. The kid’s the real deal. He said this is a dream come true for him, and it is for me, too.”

In addition to his career as a team owner, Mittler was a prominent supplier of racing equipment through his Mittler Brothers company.

Among those chiming in with memories and well-wishes Friday:

Contributing: Zack Albert, Brad Norman

Posted on by Pat DeCola

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kyle Busch endured perhaps the scariest racing moment of his life this week – and he wasn’t the one driving.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s 3-year-old son Brexton was involved in a four-wheeler accident, which the 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champ detailed Friday at Kansas Speedway, site of Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1).

“Brexton was riding his four-wheeler and I taught him early on you know, when you go straight you can go as fast as you want to go but then you’ve got to let off the gas, use the brakes, slow down, turn and go the other way,” Busch told reporters following his 13th-place qualifying run. “He was doing really good; he rode for an hour with no problems and then he saw his friends dart off in one direction and he was going a little fast, cranked the wheel in order to follow them and it two-wheeled and it threw him off.

“When it threw him off, he didn’t brace for impact and he hit his head and it knocked him out.”

Brexton was wearing his helmet, thankfully, and the elder Busch indicated it likely saved his life.

“Scariest thing I’ve ever seen, certainly, to see your son lying there, lifeless,” he said. “Thankfully it was only about 10 seconds and he came back to. He doesn’t remember all of that going on which is a good and a bad thing, I think, but past that, it’s a good damn thing he had his helmet on because he might not be here. …

“He took some deep breaths, so that was good, I knew he was still there. He had a pulse, everything was fine in that regard. Squeezed his face and yelled for somebody to get a bottle of water, sprayed the bottle of water on him and he was up, he was good.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxPsisSHzH_/

 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Without tremendous fanfare, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman have risen to the top of the Chevrolet pecking order in recent weeks.

Elliott won his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season on April 28 at Talladega Superspeedway. Bowman finished second. Elliott won the pole for Monday’s rain-delayed race at Dover and ran fifth. Bowman finished second.

And in final practice on Friday at Kansas Speedway, Bowman was second and Elliott sixth behind Kurt Busch, who has been solid all season long in his Hendrick-powered No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

RELATED: Bowman, Elliott strong in Kansas final practice

In fact, Elliott has accounted for the last four Chevrolet victories in NASCAR’s premier series—three last year to go with the Talladega win. But Elliott doesn’t feel as if he’s carrying the load for the car maker.

“It’s nice to have wins, obviously,” Elliott said. “I think, as a manufacturer, the more that we all run better, we’re all going to help each other, much like Alex’s good runs the past couple weeks. They’re good for the company as well.

“Just like I think Chevrolet having good runs is good for the manufacturer. I don’t necessarily think we’re carrying it. Any of the Chevrolets could have won Talladega, and that wouldn’t even be a relevant question. It’s nice to have won some races but, no, I think that narrative could have changed pretty easily a couple of weeks ago to somebody else.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

It started with an e-mail.

At first, NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver Jennifer Jo Cobb thought the note was one of those scam-artist come-ons promising millions from a long-lost foreign bank account.

But she did some checking, and the invitation to serve as a United States “ambassador” to another country turned out to be real.

Cobb has already been to Georgia — not the state known for its peaches, but the country south of Russia. This year, she’ll take her gift of gab on three separate trips to Russia itself, first to Moscow and surrounding cities after the Truck race at Charlotte, then later to St. Petersburg in July and finally back to Moscow in September — all during breaks in her racing schedule.

“They want me to come talk about my racing career,” Cobb said Friday at Kansas Speedway. “They want me to come talk about overcoming obstacles. They want me to come talk about science, technology, engineering, math, and how it relates to what I do.

“I’m not a natural STEM person. In school I did not excel in those areas. I excelled in talking and writing and socializing. But I’ve had to learn to figure out things like that, because I work on my own race cars, and I want them to go faster.”

Cobb will use a translator when she gives her talks in Russia, but she has been preparing for the trip by learning a few basic Russian phrases and reading spy novels.

“I’m a little scared,” she acknowledged. “I’m reading stupid Russian spy books right now to try to just get a feel for culture, and I need to stop. It’s scaring me.”

In reality, Cobb expects her trips to Russia to be as fascinating and rewarding as her trip to Georgia was.

“It’s amazing as an American to go to other countries and get that perspective,” she said.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — After Friday afternoon’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Kansas Speedway, the question “What’s wrong with the Stewart-Haas cars?” may be a dead issue.

Hurtling around the 1.5-mile track in 30.131 seconds (179.217 mph), Kevin Harvick led a Stewart-Haas Racing sweep of the front row time trials for Saturday’s Digital Ally 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Which cars saw their times disallowed? | Qualifying results

Harvick was .083 seconds faster than teammate Aric Almirola (178.725 mph), who in turned topped Clint Bowyer (178.324 mph) by .068 seconds. Daniel Suarez completed the SHR monopoly at 178.247 mph. Almirola’s and Suarez’s times were disallowed after both of their cars failed inspection on Saturday afternoon.

The Busch Pole Award was Harvick’s third of the season, his fifth at Kansas and the 28th of his career. The driver of the No. 4 Ford picked up his third victory at the 1.5-mile track in this race last year, when he also started from the pole.

Harvick’s performance in time trials backed up the speed he showed during Friday’s final practice, when his fastest lap was fourth on the speed chart, and his consecutive averages for 10, 15 and 20 laps were fastest across the board.

“I thought we had a chance at the pole,” said Harvick, who is looking for his first victory of 2019 after a banner eight-win season last year. “We didn’t know exactly how fast it would run, and the guys did a great job. Really, this is a car that’s been a couple months in the making.

“We knew we had some work to do on the mile-and-a-half race tracks with this particular package, and every department at Stewart-Haas Racing and the engine shop at Roush Yates — obviously, they’ve won a few races this year (with Team Penske). But they just continue to work, and the guys on this team have done a great job of detailing things out …

“I’m happy with how my car drove. It has a ton of speed, and hopefully we can capitalize on it.”

Bowyer, from nearby Emporia, Kansas, has yet to win at his home track.

“It’s fun to be back at Kansas,” said Bowyer, whose best finish at the track (second) came in 2007. “It’s fun to be in a fast car at home. That’s the biggest thing. You come home and you just want to run good. I have been beat up pretty bad here.

“There are so many media members, fans, family, everybody tells me how I have to do better at home. Obviously, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing has been working hard to get us in Victory Lane and I think their efforts are really starting to show.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Only two active drivers have won more than two-time winner Joey Logano at this week’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stop, Kansas Speedway.

Yet for all his success at the track, Logano conceded Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) remains a huge unknown throughout the garage. For starters, the Kansas City venue has been unusually chilly for this time of year — daytime temperatures hovering in the 50s and 60s and cooling off significantly at night. And with a new and yet-to-be-race-tested package at this particular track no one knows for sure what to expect on the 1.5-mile high banks.

RELATED: 10-lap averages at Kansas | Final practice results

Unlike some race weekends when drivers run a handful of laps on track and allow their teams to fine tune in the garage, most every driver was turning scores of laps in Friday’s opening practice sessions.

Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford was 12th in the first practice and 20th in the final practice. But the reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion looked fully at ease speaking with the gathered media on Friday afternoon. He conceded that expectations vary greatly for the race and was less surprised by the amount of drafting practice and total laps run in general.

“I think everyone just realizes that you are going to have a lot of wide-open time here and the more you have, the more the draft will come into play,’’ Logano said of Friday’s practice strategies. “You have to be around other cars for those reasons. The difference between clean air and dirty air, balance-wise, is quite a difference because the speed here is faster and you don’t have as much downforce.

“If you go out there and are easy, wide-open by yourself, what are you learning?”

There’s a decent argument that Logano would be a fine teacher. He’s had plenty of success at the track — eight top 10s and seven top fives in his 19 Kansas starts. He finished third in this race last year, won the pole position and led 100 laps in the fall playoff race but finished eighth.

He had a streak of five consecutive top-five finishes between 2013-15, winning the fall races in 2014 and 2015.

Again, however, he reiterated the specific conditions this weekend — the new technical package and unusually cool weather — create a unique circumstance. And it just may present a great opportunity for Logano, who is ranked second in the championship, only five points behind three-time 2019 winner Kyle Busch.

Logano has been hit-or-miss at the previous 1.5-mile venues this season — earning a victory at Las Vegas, but finishing 23rd at Atlanta and 17th at Texas. He’s also had top 10s in the last four races coming to Kansas.

His mindset is adapt and go. And who could argue?

“Cooler temperatures will bring the pack closer,’’ Logano said. “The cars today in practice, it was surprising how much we were lifting actually in that draft. The cars were really sliding all over the place in dirty air and the temperature is a little warmer right now with the sun out.

“When you get to a night race it will bring the pack closer together. It used to be the other way around. When we were lifting a lot we wanted the track temperature to be hot and to rubber up a lot so that it would get really wide and we could move around and do all this stuff. Now, you want it cooler so that you are more wide-open and that is what brings the cars closer.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Kurt Busch surged to the top of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard, topping Friday’s final practice at Kansas Speedway.

Busch posted a best lap of 177.731 mph in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet, leading the 50-minute session, the final tune-up for Saturday’s Digital Ally 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Final practice results | 10-lap averages | Full schedule for Kansas

Alex Bowman continued his recent show of speed by posting the second-fastest lap. But his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet didn’t escape unscathed, scraping the outside wall with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Home-state favorite Clint Bowyer was third-fastest in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford. Teammate Kevin Harvick, a winner at the 1.5-mile Kansas City track last spring, landed the fourth-fastest lap, with Denny Hamlin completing the top five as the fastest Toyota in the session.

Kyle Larson also encountered trouble late in final practice. His No. 42 Chevrolet spun entering Turn 1, nearly collecting Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 Toyota as it skidded. Both continued without significant damage.

Truex, the most recent winner in the series, improved to 21st-fastest on the leaderboard, up from his 27th-best speed in first practice in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota.

Aric Almirola, who topped opening practice, was ninth on the final-practice chart in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford.

Busch Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM)

SHR shows speed in early practice

Aric Almirola led a 1-2 sweep for Stewart-Haas Racing in Friday’s opening act for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Kansas Speedway, topping the first practice leaderboard.

Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford clocked a 178.153 mph lap at the 1.5-mile Kansas City oval. He was just ahead of second-fastest Clint Bowyer, a home-state favorite who wound up with a best lap of 177.381 mph in the No. 14 SHR Ford.

RELATED: Practice 1 results

Kyle Busch secured the third-fastest lap at 177.160 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Brad Keselowski was fourth with William Byron rounding out the top five in the 50-minute session, the opening prep for Saturday’s Digital Ally 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM)

Defending race winner Kevin Harvick landed the ninth-fastest lap in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford. Martin Truex Jr., winner of the series’ most recent race Monday at Dover, was 27th-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota. Truex is a two-time Kansas winner, having swept the 2017 season’s events at the 1.5-mile track.

MORE: Best 10-lap averages

NASCAR officials penalized four teams by deducting practice time after their cars failed inspection multiple times last weekend at Dover. The Front Row Motorsports No. 36 Ford for driver Matt Tifft was held for 30 minutes at the end of first practice for failing inspection three times at the Monster Mile.

The following teams served 15-minute penalties for failing inspection twice at Dover:

• The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr.

• The No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet of Ryan Preece

• The No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Alex Bowman

Posted on by Staff Report

See the order that Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars will roll off to qualifying at Kansas Speedway on Friday night (7:05 p.m. ET, FS1).

RELATED: NASCAR returns to single-car qualifying at ovals

Order Car Driver Team
1 38 David Ragan Mystik Lubricants Ford
2 36 Matt Tifft Out West Express Ford
3 15 Ross Chastain Low T Center Chevrolet
4 6 Ryan Newman Performance Plus Motor Oil Ford
5 51 Cody Ware JACOB Companies Chevrolet
6 52 Bayley Currey Belmont Classic Cars Ford
7 31 Tyler Reddick TAME the BEAST Chevrolet
8 27 Reed Sorenson Harrah’s Chevrolet
9 00 Landon Cassill StarCom Fiber Chevrolet
10 32 Corey LaJoie Schluter Systems Ford
11 13 Ty Dillon GEICO Chevrolet
12 77 Quin Houff OilFire Rye Whiskey Chevrolet
13 43 Bubba Wallace World Wide Technology Chevrolet
14 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Red Nose Toyota
15 46 Joey Gase MBM Motorsports Toyota
16 47 Ryan Preece Kroger Chevrolet
17 66 Timmy Hill MBM Motorsports Toyota
18 34 Michael McDowell Dockside Logistics Ford
19 37 Chris Buescher Kroger Your Personal Pit Stop Chevrolet
20 8 Daniel Hemric Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet
21 3 Austin Dillon American Ethanol Chevrolet
22 20 Erik Jones DeWalt Toyota
23 48 Jimmie Johnson Ally Chevrolet
24 24 William Byron UniFirst Chevrolet
25 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet
26 95 Matt DiBenedetto Digital Momentum/Hubspot Toyota
27 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. SunnyD Ford
28 19 Martin Truex Jr. Auto Owners Insurance Toyota
29 12 Ryan Blaney BodyArmor Ford
30 14 Clint Bowyer Rush Truck Centers/Haas Automation Ford
31 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota
32 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford
33 1 Kurt Busch Global Poker Chevrolet
34 21 Paul Menard Menards/Dutch Boy Ford
35 41 Daniel Suarez Haas Automation Demo Day Ford
36 42 Kyle Larson Credit One Bank Chevrolet
37 2 Brad Keselowski Wurth Ford
38 4 Kevin Harvick Busch Beer Ford
39 88 Alex Bowman Axalta Chevrolet
40 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford
Posted on by Holly Cain

With eight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories in 2018 and a near-miss at his second Cup title, Kevin Harvick came into the 2019 season feeling understandably confident in himself and his Stewart-Haas Racing team.

But 11 races into the season, Harvick and his No. 4 team are still surprisingly looking for a first trip to Victory Lane. That’s not to say they haven’t been close. But as defending winner of Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400 at Kansas Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Harvick would like nothing better than to right the ship.

RELATED: Kansas schedule | Entry list

Last year, Harvick won this race from the Busch Pole position – a place he’s started more than anyone else in history at Kansas (four) — and he also holds the track qualifying record at 197.773 mph (October 2014). Historically the pole position is the winningest spot on the Kansas grid, producing six winners to date.

Harvick has finished eighth or better in eight of the last 11 Kansas races – three times he’s won, three times he’s finished runner-up. During that stretch he’s led 668 laps total, the most in the field. In 10 of those 11 races, he led double-digit laps.

This season, however, Harvick and essentially the rest of the field find themselves playing catch-up to Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske, whose teams have combined to earn 10 of the first 11 trophies. The other typically “hot” driver at Kansas, two-time race winner Martin Truex Jr., has won two of the last three 2019 Monster Energy Series races, including last week at Dover in his new No. 19 Toyota ride for JGR. He swept the two Kansas races in 2017 en route to winning the series championship.

Last year, Harvick already had won four times before the series arrived at the Kansas 1.5-miler, where he won again. In fact, his SHR team had five wins total through the opening 11 races in 2018 with Kansas’ own Clint Bowyer winning an early season trophy in Martinsville too.

WATCH: See highlights from Harvick’s 2018 win

That the Penske Fords have won this year – twice with Brad Keselowski and once with Joey Logano – assuages the situation some for the SHR Ford team. But patience is not a practical virtue as the regular season approaches the halfway point. SHR has 25 top-10 and 10 top-five finishes among its four drivers but that conspicuous “0” where it would prefer a higher number.

Harvick is third in the points standings despite being the only driver among the top seven without a victory yet. He trails three-time race winner Kyle Busch by 63 points and is 58 points behind second place Logano.

“Our cars ran fine at Texas,’’ Harvick said of the similar 1.5-mile venue the series has already competed on. “Obviously, we had some isolated problems. Our cars from the Stewart-Haas standpoint haven’t won a race, but they ran fine at Texas.

“We’ve been in contention. We were plenty good at Bristol and Richmond, so it’s really just a detail thing at this point to get one of them to Victory Lane.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Mitchell Pehrson likes to use his racing in the same way NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Joey Gase uses his: to raise awareness for organ donation.

Organ donation is something near to Pehrson; in 2005 he received a kidney from his brother-in-law.

Pehrson was active duty in the marines at the time, and his brother-in-law was active duty in the army. But the procedure didn’t stop Pehrson from pursuing racing. He got back behind the wheel in 2010, and has been running full-time at Magic Valley Speedway, a quarter-mile semi-banked asphalt oval in Twin Falls, Idaho, ever since.

Magic Valley Speedway Facebook

Mitchell Pehrson

Pehrson grew up around racing. His dad was a crew member for a team when Pehrson was a kid, and got the chance to get behind the wheel during a rookie race that let crew members drive the team’s car.

Pehrson said his dad got the bug from doing a heat race, and the next year built his own car to drive.

That same bug hit Pehrson soon after.

“My mom used to get mad at me because she’d get me all cleaned up and ready for bed and she’d tell me to go say good night to him and I’d be out there changing a tire or helping him with the car getting all dirty again,” he said.

Pehrson got his own opportunity to drive during his senior year of high school, racing in the hornets division at Magic Valley for two seasons.

“I actually flipped a car the night before I graduated,” he said.

After two years, Pehrson left the track to join the military, and stayed active duty for two years before being diagnosed with kidney failure.

In the years after his surgery, Pehrson spent some time as a crew member at Magic Valley while watching the track’s street stock division grow.

“I was like that seems like a fun class so I decided to do it,” he said. “And my brother decided to do it too.”

The younger Pehrson spent 2010 racing against his brother, while their dad ran in Magic Valley’s Division I late model class, though Pehrson said it was a struggle at first.

“I had some mechanical failures that didn’t quite make me competitive and I struggled a bit the first year. He ended up finishing second in the points, I finished if I remember right sixth in points,” he said. “It was kind of tough but it was a good, humbling year.”

Three years later, Pehrson’s success would match his family’s. In 2013, his dad was the Division I late model state champion in Idaho, and he and Pehrson’s brother finished first and second in the points at Magic Valley. That same year, Pehrson also won the track’s Division III championship, and he had three nieces who also raced.

The Pehrson’s still all race at Magic Valley. Racing, for Pehrson, has always been about family.

“We have such a close family, that now it’s just more family time that we get spend with each other,” he said

Mitchell Pehrson

“The camaraderie between fellow competitors, fellow racers in the pits, our great track promoter Eddy McKean, it’s just that second family feeling that you get in the pits when you show up and everybody is just ‘hey how are you, good to see you back,’ kind of feeling.”

Pehrson briefly moved up to the Division I late model class at Magic Valley in 2015 to try to run for rookie of the year. He finished second. The next year, he was back down to the street stocks, where he feels he belongs.

“I wanted something I could run and have fun with and something I see myself excelling in,” he said “So finding the right car and the right class was the hardest part.

“There’s something about running a 50-year-old car, it’s kind of a nostalgia feel. Seeing these 50-year-old cars out there running at 3300 pounds, just banging bumpers and everybody just having a good time, getting out high-fiving each other and talking and joking about how much fun they had.”

Pehrson plans to run another full season at Magic Valley, and has a couple of second place finishes in three races so far in 2019.

While he says he’s struggled a bit out of the gate to get used to changes they’ve made to his car, he’s ready to get some more wins under his belt soon.

“The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is getting back in Victory Lane. I’ve had a pretty good streak with my car,” he said.

“It’s just a fun-filled addiction.”

Magic Valley Speedway will host Whelen Night on Saturday beginning at 5 p.m.

Magic Valley Speedway Schedule