Posted on by Holly Cain

For many race teams, a different crew chief atop the pit box in a pressure-packed, high stakes race like Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship finale (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) would be a hands-up, unpredictable situation.

But when Tony Gibson climbs into the hot seat, pit side at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday night, the No. 4 SHR Ford team he will lead and its driver Kevin Harvick will likely feel fortified and ready for the challenge even with the team’s crew chief Rodney Childers and car chief Robert Smith sidelined for a second week by NASCAR after Harvick’s car failed inspection at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago.

Gibson, 54, certainly isn’t “new” to the sport, or to the kind of professional pressure he’s got this week filling in for Childers. He is a Daytona 500-winning crew chief (2017 with Kurt Busch). He was the car chief on the late Alan Kulwicki’s 1992 Cup championship team and also on Jeff Gordon’s 1998 and 2001 title-winning teams.

The Daytona Beach native is a longtime, highly respected strategist and personality that SHR is confident can glide into the season’s hottest pit seat and lead the team’s championship contender Harvick to a fantastic shot at winning a second title.

“I think personally, all these guys want to step up and show Rodney that, you know what, we are a great team and you have built an awesome race team here and we want to show you that, how mature we are as a group and how we can function as a group even when our leader is not with us,” Gibson said Wednesday during a national conference call with the four championship-eligible crew chiefs.

“We can still follow your lead and we can still get this done.”

RELATED: No. 4 tweaks pit crew for Miami | Why Harvick will win the 2018 title

Achieving against the odds is something Gibson is well-versed in.

Just this season, the longtime SHR employee has overcome major health problems. A blood clot put him in the hospital this summer and resulted in a “mini-stroke,” Gibson said, which left him with severe hearing loss and the loss of some function in his left eye. But intense therapy and regular appointments with his doctors have helped Gibson regain his vision and he wears a hearing aid to help with any lingering issues there.

There was actually a follow-up appointment with his neurologist scheduled for this Friday.

“I’m not going to make that one, I’m going to be in Homestead,” Gibson said.

“I contacted my doctor and they all released me to go and fly,” he said. “…if at all possible, I was going. There was no way I was going to let those guys down. So as long as my doctor said I could go, I was going. That’s what they got me here to do.”

Instead Gibson’s challenge will be guiding this super-achieving No. 4 team to an exclamation point on a stellar season. Harvick’s eight wins is a personal best for the 2014 Cup champion and his 28 top-10 finishes through the first 35 races ties a career mark set in 2015. Gibson would like to help Harvick top that mark with a victory and championship trophy this weekend.

RELATED: See every Miami winner | Stats breakdown | Is this the best Championship 4 ever?

At this point, the team is not on “auto-drive” but certainly knows what needs to be done. And if anything, the big penalty – which also included a loss of 40 championship points and forced Harvick to race his way into the Championship 4 last week – has motivated the team even more.

Gibson said he essentially just wants to keep the season-long good juju going. That’s what they did last week at Phoenix and that’s what they plan to do this weekend.

And NASCAR has given the OK for Childers to come inside the race track should Gibson guide this team to a championship Sunday evening.

“We took each practice, each run, one at a time, thought about changes and what we needed to do, and Rodney had a great plan laid out and we kind of just followed his lead through that,” Gibson said. “He has an awesome race team. They all pretty much know what to do. You don’t have to tell them what to do. They follow right along.

“My biggest fear is just making the wrong call or doing the wrong thing. I want those guys to be proud of me. Like I told Rodney, I just want to do you a good job and hope you can be proud of me, so that’s what I want to get done.”

As it turns out Gibson and Childers are close friends away from the track and that relationship may turn out to be especially beneficial this weekend. 

“Me and Rodney have a really, really good relationship, along with Kevin,” Gibson said. “Me and Rodney, we do a lot of things off the track together. … we have a lot of things in common that we love to do, so we’ve got a friendship outside of the racetrack part of it and the racing side of it, which I think kind of helps all that kind of merge a little easier.

“I don’t have an agenda in this whole deal coming in. .. I have a company agenda of winning a championship.”

Posted on by Team Release

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) announced today that Safelite AutoGlass will return to the organization in 2019 as a primary sponsor for 19 races on Harrison Burton’s No. 18 Tundra during his first full-time season in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS). The nation’s largest provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement services joined KBM in 2018 as the primary sponsor for championship contender Noah Gragson and also has served as an associate sponsor for Burton’s limited Truck Series schedule this season.

Burton, the son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and current NASCAR on NBC analyst Jeff Burton, is currently in his third season driving a limited schedule for KBM. The talented teenager has recorded one pole, 76 laps led, three top-five and seven top-10 finishes across 14 starts since making his Truck Series debut for KBM at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway shortly after turning 16 in October of 2016.

RELATED: Key players in NASCAR’s Silly Season

The NASCAR Next alumnus has posted solid numbers across his first seven NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) starts in 2018, collecting his first Truck Series pole and leading 30 laps at Iowa Speedway in Newton in June, while overall posting three top-five and six top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 6.6. He led a race-high 46 laps and equaled his career-best finish by finishing third in his most recent start at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., Nov. 9 and will finish out the season this Friday at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.

“I’ve worked really hard the last few seasons driving a limited schedule for KBM to prove that I’m capable of running full-time in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2019 and I’m excited for the opportunity to do so with Safelite AutoGlass as my primary sponsor,” Burton said. “By using all of the resources that I have available at KBM, with the support of Toyota and Toyota Racing Development, I know that I’ll continue to improve as a driver and I’m confident that I’m capable of competing for wins and being a legitimate contender for the Truck Series championship next year. Obviously, to get to this point in my career it has taken a lot of support from a lot of different people, so I can’t thank my parents enough as well as companies like DEX Imaging, Hunt Brothers Pizza, Morton Buildings, RUUD and FIELDS for being great partners.”

“Harrison has done a great job of balancing being a high school student, as well as a student of racing since making his first Truck Series start for KBM shortly after turning 16 a few years ago,” team owner Kyle Busch said. “The results of his hard work are starting to pay dividends and we’re confident that his first Truck Series win will be coming shortly and he’ll be able to be in the mix for the championship next year.

“The support that Safelite provides our team by bringing their employees and business partners to the races is amazing to see, but even more rewarding is the chance for our organization to be a part of the efforts they make in giving back to the communities where we race. We know that Harrison will be a great representative for them on and off the track.”   

“We are very excited for the 2019 season with Harrison Burton behind the wheel of the Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra,” Garth Beck, Senior Vice President Safelite AutoGlass West Region said. “He is a very talented young driver with many accomplishments at a young age and will be a great fit for Safelite.  We are looking forward to another great year in partnership with KBM and Harrison for the 2019 season.”

In addition to his Truck Series schedule, Burton has run limited schedules in the ARCA Racing Series, NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and Super Late Models this year. He posted one win, five top-five and eight top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 6.1 across nine ARCA Racing Series starts this season.  He produced two poles, four top-five and five-top top-10 finishes for an average finish of 4.2 across five NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races this season. He has also recorded four Super Late Model victories this season, including the prestigious Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway in Kinston, Ala.

Burton captured the 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East title after registering a series-high five wins, two poles, 142 laps led, 12 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes and an average finish of 3.3 across the series’ 14 events. In addition to his five K&N victories, the North Carolina native has collected two ARCA Racing Series and numerous Super Late Model victories including marquee events including the Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway in Kinston, Ala., in 2018 and the ARCA/CRA SpeedFest at Crisp Motorsports Park in Cordele, Ga., in 2017.

Safelite AutoGlass is currently in their first season as a primary sponsor at KBM and third overall in the Truck Series. Noah Gragson will be looking to deliver the Ohio-based company their first-ever NASCAR championship this Friday, Nov. 16, at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.

Announcements on who will serve as Burton’s crew chief as well as further sponsorship announcements for the remainder of Burton’s 2019 schedule are forthcoming.

Posted on by Staff Report

This week, Donut Media and NASCAR are partnering for exclusive racing content. Today: The science of stock.

CATCH UP: NASCAR week on Donut Media

It’s NASCAR week on Donut Media, a week in which the car culture brand will celebrate and explore NASCAR’s roots and personalities as only Donut Media can.

Wednesday’s offering is an in-depth look at the science of racing a stock car, broken down like only the Donut guys can do. From humble beginnings driving production cars on a dirt track to the Generation-6 cars we see on the tracks today, the guys break down simply how downforce works, what’s up with the 2019 rules package and much more.

Expertise from Parker Kligerman and a NASCAR official managing the Optical Scanning Station is a welcome addition to Wednesday’s video, which you can watch below.

Want more from Donut Media on car culture, motorsports … even car pranks?

Subscribe on YouTube, and keep an eye out this week for more exclusive NASCAR content.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

When the three NASCAR national series descend on Homestead-Miami Speedway for Ford Championship weekend, post-race inspection will work a little differently than every other week of the season with championships on the line in Miami.

All three series — the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series — will have initial inspection, pre-qualifying inspection and pre-race inspection in a manner that they have all year.

The difference: Following each championship race, a post-race inspection process will unfold that will run two to two-and-a-half-hours. Those inspections will be exactly what is done during teardown at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, a couple days after the weekend’s races.

RELATED: Miami schedule | Ranking the title hopefuls 

“There will be no post-race inspection here in the R&D Center (following Miami),” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Vice President of Officiating and Technical Inspection, told NASCAR.com. “Our goal is to make sure that when the checkered flag falls on the champion on all three nights, that our fans will not be in a situation where they have to worry about any type of complication. We want to make sure that everyone is in compliance with our rulebook and that we can celebrate with our champions.

“The team that wins the championship — we’ll do a thorough inspection on that vehicle. Engine comes out. Engine is taken apart to make sure everything is in compliance. And then we will make sure we do the same thing if we need to on the second-place runner in the championship.”

Some additional tidbits from Sawyer on the inspection process at Miami:

• Championship 4 vehicles did not come into the R&D Center for a pre-Miami look. In past years, this was done to check the body location on the chassis. However, the Optical Scanning Station (OSS) provides officials with that information each week, Sawyer said.

MORE: Learn about the OSS process

• NASCAR has meetings scheduled with the Championship 4 teams in all three national series this weekend to go over ground rules and weekend processes. “It’s more just to make sure we are all on the same page,” Sawyer said. “We want to make sure it is a great event and the champion is decided on the race track and not through some type of infraction on pit road or a post-race penalty.”

• Just like at Phoenix, spoilers will come off the Cup cars on Friday for officials to inspect prior to cars hitting the track. Teams will bolt them back on following inspection. This is done “to ensure that all the competitors feel confident that they are on a level playing field,” Sawyer said.

NASCAR officials put that procedure in place last week following an L1-level penalty to the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team for using a spoiler not exactly as supplied from the manufacturer, and not altered. 

Posted on by Brad Norman

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of four stories examining why each driver could win the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship. Coming Thursday: Joey Logano.

RECAP: Kevin Harvick | Martin Truex Jr.

• • •

Kyle Busch will win the 2018 championship because … 

He has the most avenues to get to Victory Lane. There isn’t a driver in the field who has displayed consistent excellency like Busch and his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team have all year in key areas — qualifying, racing, pit stops.

• Qualifying: Busch leads the series in average starting position at 7.6, a full position ahead of second-place Kevin Harvick. He has four Busch Pole Awards — the same number as Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. — but when he’s not on the pole, Busch makes the most of his No. 18 Toyota in qualifying trim to start at the front of the pack.

• Racing: Busch has matched his career-high wins in a single season with eight. He’s won a staggering 22 races over the past four years. We’ve seen him win this year with both short-run speed and long-run speed. We’ve seen him win by using his bumper (hello, Chicagoland). We’ve seen him win in dominating fashion (hello, Coca-Cola 600).

RELATED: Kyle and Samantha through the years

• Pit stops: Joe Gibbs Racing is known for having some of the best athletes on pit road in the industry, while the No. 18 team is known for its consistently fast pit stops. If the Championship 4 are pitting with 10 laps to go in the race, there’s a good bet Busch is going to come out of his pit box quickest.

Perhaps the other non-measurable Busch has going for him — besides momentum from winning at Phoenix — is a steadier confidence than we’ve seen in years past.

We’ve seen cheers for the driver who notoriously has often worn the black hat. Busch has opened up more on social media this year, revealing often intensely personal moments with his family. And he’s never seemed more comfortable in his own skin.

It all adds up, both the stuff that can be measured and then the stuff that can’t. “Rowdy” raises the Cup on Sunday night in Miami.

Posted on by Staff Report

As NASCAR descends upon Miami to crown three new national series champions, it will first give back to a local community that was severely affected by two Category 4 hurricanes, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Michael, over the past two years. On Friday, NASCAR and the Arbor Day Foundation will culminate its year-long community tree recovery initiative at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Earlier this year, NASCAR and Arbor Day Foundation announced the initiative, distributing trees to communities devastated by natural disasters across the United States. The effort will conclude at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where participating partners K&N Engineering and Ford, along with representatives from the industry, local professional sports leaders and teams including the Miami Heat & Florida Panthers, and other special dignitaries will be on-site to support the community. Those on-site will give back trees, energy-saving LED lighting kits and with the support of partners, provide attendees with an opportunity to experience the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship.

“We have been so proud to partner with NASCAR to help bring trees to communities that need them so desperately. This particular region has been hit with enormous hardship due to the hurricanes and we hope providing them these trees will help bring some joy as they rebuild their communities,” said Dan Lambe, President, the Arbor Day Foundation.

A NASCAR Green tree planting

“The Homestead-Miami community has truly embraced NASCAR and has been an incredible host to our Championship Weekend for more than a decade. We feel this initiative is just one way the industry could give back to the region, by extending our thanks and support as they recover from these climate-related natural disasters,” said Catherine Kummer, Senior Director, NASCAR Green.

Throughout the course of the year, NASCAR and its partners have distributed and planted trees in North Carolina, Texas and Florida — all in addition to their core reforestation efforts and offsets totaling over half a million trees this year.

“NASCAR has aggressively pursued and implemented programs that are designed to reduce its impact on the environment while educating fans about the benefits of making more sustainable choices. This tree planting initiative is just the latest example of the broad NASCAR Green platform,” said Scott Jenkins, Chair of Board of Directors, Green Sports Alliance.

This effort is part of the 365-day initiative NASCAR Green, a comprehensive effort to reduce and offset the sport’s environmental impact while driving value and inspiration to the NASCAR fan, employee and industry member to do the same. Long-term programs underway include can be found at www.NASCAR.com/Green and on NASCAR Green’s Twitter page, @NASCARGreen.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

A long, long time ago — February, to be exact, before the “Big Three” became a thing and everybody joked about how Chase Elliott was never going to win a race — we challenged NASCAR Twitterfolk to make a bold prediction: Who’s going to make the 2018 Championship 4?

Really, we did this because we wanted to keep people honest. We didn’t want anyone in Miami gloating, “I called the Championship 4 before the season even started.” Accountability, folks.

Following a thriller Sunday at ISM Raceway, the field is set for the winner-take-all season finale in Miami. The four drivers competing for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup next week are Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, and Martin Truex Jr.

This brings us back to our pre-season Twitter question, of course: How’d everybody on Twitter do? Who can we laud in this public forum for their picking skills? Who called the Championship 4 back before Austin Dillon took the season-opening checkered flag in the Daytona 500 — a day that feels like forever ago?

 

Nobody’s Very Good at This

Well, in a startling turn of events, it turns out nobody predicted the Championship 4. Not one person had the foresight to name Busch, Harvick, Logano, and Truex Jr. Round of applause, everybody.

A few came close, however, picking the “Big Three” (but missing the fourth pick). Our “close enough” award winners:

It sort of makes sense why nobody picked all four championship contenders. Joey Logano completely missed the playoffs in 2017. Very few expected him to rebound not only into the playoffs, but all the way to the Championship 4.

In fact, only one person who correctly picked three of four contenders named Joey Logano as one of them. Way to go, @CameronBak923.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job

Now comes the most anticipated part of this whole competition: whose picks missed the Championship 4 entirely. Sorry for the public shame, but you knew what you signed up for.

[Author’s note: I’m not sorry. This is the fun part for me.]

These six individuals should never be trusted with your fantasy racing advice:

 

Please try again in 2019. We eagerly await your Championship 4 picks of Richard Petty, Norm Benning, Ricky Bobby, and Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races.

 

Cheaters Never Prosper

Demonstrating the unpredictability of the playoffs, some people tried to participate later in the season, but still totally whiffed.

It’s remarkable to miss this badly with an eight-month advantage.

 

Loophole!

Some Twitter users participated just after the race Sunday when the Championship 4 was actually set. Smart play!

You’re as clever as a crew chief, but unfortunately, we can’t accept these late picks. Try again next year.

 

Some Takeaways

In the context of early February, pretty much everybody expected Kyle Larson to contend for the title.

A lot of people expected Jimmie Johnson to make an appearance in the Championship 4.

People expected more from Ryan Blaney.

Chase Elliott has a lot of fans, and fans who had high expectations for 2018.

Almost nobody expected a Joey Logano resurgence.

And, while the playoffs proved unpredictable, one conjecture for who will take it all will likely come true Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway:

Thank you to all who participated. We’ll do it again next year.

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Denny Hamlin had to have known they were coming.

After unintentionally (that’s the key word here) getting into Kurt Busch at ISM Raceway on Sunday — the result of which entangled Chase Elliott, putting him laps down — the Joe Gibbs Racing vet must’ve felt that spark from No. 9 fans reignite immediately.

For the second straight season, the Elliott faithful turned their ire to the No. 11 Toyota, and while No. 9 fans might’ve had a legitimate gripe after last year’s run-in between the two at Martinsville Speedway, Sunday’s incident was just an unfortunate circumstance.

Still, it didn’t take long for Elliott’s passionate fan base to let the flood gates open on Hamlin, which he addressed Tuesday on Twitter.

While it’s  great to see fans having their driver’s back, there’s one small detail here being overlooked: Hamlin and Elliott have buried the hatchet. Quite some time ago, actually.

Thankfully for Hamlin, Elliott chimed in and joked that the No. 11 getting hooked in the right rear was “executed perfectly.”

Hamlin seems to be on board with the hashtag, but just needs to run it by Elliott’s HMS teammate, first.

These two drivers may not be sharing a beer any time soon, but they’ve clearly put Martinsville 2017 behind them … so stay out of Denny’s mentions!

Posted on by Staff Report

It’s NASCAR week on Donut Media, a week in which the car culture brand will celebrate and explore NASCAR’s roots and personalities as only Donut Media can. Throughout the week as part of the partnership, Donut Media and NASCAR will provide exclusive racing content.

See all the content below — added each day — and subscribe on YouTube to see everything on Donut Media.

Monday: How outlaw moonshiners influenced NASCAR
NASCAR’s moonshining origins are well-documented, but this offers a fresh take with plenty of historical context.

Tuesday: We raced each other in a NASCAR stock car
The gang joins NASCAR Next driver Will Rodgers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for an unforgettable day in a NASCAR Racing Experience stock car.

Wednesday: The science of stock
An in-depth look at the science of racing a stock car, broken down like only the Donut guys can do with expertise from Parker Kligerman and a NASCAR official.

Thursday: Everything you need to know about ‘The King’
Inside the NASCAR career of seven-time champion Richard Petty. All of his key stats to early shots of him in the garage to why he chose the No. 43 are featured in this segment.

 

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of four stories examining why each driver could win the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship. Coming Wednesday: Kyle Busch

RECAP: Kevin Harvick | Kyle Busch

• • •

Martin Truex Jr. will win the 2018 championship because … 

He’s the only one with Cole Pearn calling the shots atop the pit box and in the shop.

Through the season’s first 19 races, Truex Jr. and Pearn combined to win four races, compiling five poles and an average finish of 9.42 along the way. In the 16 events since, the No. 78 Toyota has neither started nor finished first, uncharacteristically averaging a finish of 12.81 … but why?

One could point to the distraction that came along with the impending closure of Furniture Row Racing for the downturn in results the second half of the season. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that didn’t play a factor, but I would go so far as to suggest this out-there theory: Pearn has been tinkering and analyzing and dialing everything in specifically for this one upcoming Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The final race in Furniture Row’s history, and owner Barney Visser’s last shot at a title.

MORE: Clutch wins in playoff history

Seven out of Truex’s eight wins in 2017 en route to his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title came on 1.5-mile tracks like Miami; he was the clear-cut favorite on them. With just one win on an intermediate track this season, it’s enough to raise an eyebrow — something was different. That kind of drop-off doesn’t just happen out of thin air, you know?

My thinking is that Pearn, the mastermind that he’s known to be, recognized early on that their intermediate program was off a tick from their pace last year and he needed to swing for the fences to compete with the Nos. 4 and 18, straight-up, in Miami. Especially after seeing the speed Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick showed on intermediates the first half of the year — they literally won every race run on them until Truex stopped that streak in July at Kentucky — some outside-the-box thinking was necessary.

By virtue of how far ahead the “Big 3” looked compared to the rest of the field in the early going, there was a better-chance-than-not that all three would be able to playoff-point their way into the Championship 4 — which basically wound up being true. Teams tend to focus on the immediate task at hand in this sport, as they should, and aiming focus in the shop months down the road is certainly be a gamble, particularly in this elimination-style playoff format.

But that Cole Pearn, he’s a gambler. A damn good one.

RELATED: Breaking down the Championship 4

And don’t get me wrong — I’m not suggesting in the least that they were throwing races away. Truex is so steady as a driver and their equipment is so good that it’s simply feasible that they took a calculated risk and pointed their focus on the longterm goal of winning a title rather than the week-to-week trophies that come along with race wins. And hey, Truex even nearly won a few of them (see: Watkins Glen, Richmond, Charlotte, Martinsville).

Sure, my theory is out there. Sure, it’s probably not true and just my far-fetched conjecture. But guess what?

Even if it isn’t the case — the two are still the best driver/crew chief pairing in the sport, come into the race as the defending title and race winner and have seen just about every situation imaginable go sideways. Yet they still find ways to come out on top.

Truex Jr. and Pearn could be hoisting another trophy come Sunday night despite how strong Busch and Harvick have been the whole season — and it might’ve been the plan all along.

MORE: Why Harvick will win the title