CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Saturday night belonged to champions Tyler Reddick and Brett Moffitt as the best in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series were feted on Saturday night at the Crown Ballroom in the Charlotte Convention Center.
Reddick was celebrated following his title driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for the Dale Earnhardt Jr. co-owned JR Motorsports.
“This year was a big character-building year for me and it’s a great honor to bring JR Motorsports its third Xfinity Series championship,” Reddick said during his champion’s speech.
The 22-year-old California native bookended his season with victories to start the year at Daytona and a championship triumph to close the season at Homestead-Miami. He had come into the postseason as a bit of an underdog, especially when compared to his JRM teammates Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier as well as fellow rookie Christopher Bell.
“Tyler, I was just blown away — not only at Homestead,” Earnhardt Jr. said when presented with the championship owner award. “With each race, he handled his business. He was aggressive and did everything he needed to do. Just really impressed with him. Looking forward to seeing what he can do next year at RCR. It’s going to be fun to race against him.”
Reddick will defend his crown but with a new team in 2019: Richard Childress Racing.
The Truck Series champion knew a little something about being an underdog as well. Moffitt surged to six wins in the upstart No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota. The championship was also the first for team owner Shigeaki Hattori. When you consider what the team’s original plans were for 2018, that is quite remarkable.
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“When the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicked off in February, our Hattori Racing team only had four races on the schedule,” Moffitt said during his speech when reflecting on the season. “So to be standing here today in front of you as the 2018 champion is truly an honor and quite unbelievable.”
The 26-year-old Iowa native had a knack for coming on strong late in races for wins and that trend continued in the latter stages of the postseason. The Iowa native closed the playoffs with back-to-back wins at ISM (Phoenix) and Homestead-Miami.
Moffitt admitted in a post-race availability after the awards ceremony that he is still working on his 2019 plans.
Each champion received his championship ring and Goodyear presented each title-winning driver with a mini-silver replica of their respective car and truck.
Joey Logano was also honored with the 2018 Comcast Community Champion Award. The drivers who finished second through fourth in each series — Cole Custer, Daniel Hemric and Christopher Bell in the Xfinity Series as well as Noah Gragson, Justin Haley and Johnny Sauter in the Truck Series — each gave speeches discussing their seasons as members of the Championship 4.
The banquet also was the last that will reference the Truck Series as the Camping World Truck Series. That series is being rebranded to the Gander Outdoors Truck Series starting in 2019.
Below is a complete list of the awards that were handed out on Saturday night:
Camping World Truck Series
Mahle Engine Builder of the Year: Victor Garcia, Ilmor Engines
Duralast Brake in the Race Award: Noah Gragson, No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota
Mobil 1 Driver of the Year: Johnny Sauter, No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet
Sunoco Rookie of the Year: Myatt Snider, No. 13 ThorSport Racing Ford
Manufacturer Championship: Chevrolet
Champion Sponsor: AISIN Group
Champion Crew Chief Award: Scott Zipadelli, No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota
Champion Truck Owner Award: Shigeaki Hattori, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Champion: Brett Moffitt, No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota (Presented with American Ethanol Award, Sunoco Diamond Performance Award, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Award)
Xfinity Series
Mahle Engine Builder of the Year: Doug Yates, Roush Yates Engines
Duralast Brake in the Race Award: Daniel Hemric, No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Mobil 1 Driver of the Year: Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Sunoco Rookie of the Year: Tyler Reddick, No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Manufacturer Championship: Chevrolet
Champion Car Owner Award: No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, accepted by Greg Zipadelli
Champion Crew Chief Award: Dave Elenz, No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Champion Owner Award: Dale Earnhardt Jr., JR Motorsports
Champion: Tyler Reddick, No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet (Presented with American Ethanol Award, Sunoco Diamond Performance Award, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Award)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch have been two of NASCAR’s biggest stars of the sport for more than a decade; nearly two, in Junior’s case.
Each made their mark in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, along with putting together a pair of dominant, championship-winning race shops in NASCAR’s lower national series.
But the similarities stop there, according to Busch’s former and Earnhardt’s future driver, Noah Gragson.
“Polar opposites,” Gragson said Saturday night at the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series Awards at the Charlotte Convention Center. “Two race car drivers, but polar opposites. … This is going to get me in trouble.”
Gragson is making the leap up to Xfinity competition next season with JR Motorsports’ No. 1 Chevrolet entry, following a pair of Truck Series seasons with Kyle Busch Motorsports. In his time with KBM, the 2018 Snowball Derby winner compiled two wins, 30 top 10s and a runner-up finish in the standings after placing third in last month’s Championship 4 race at Homestead.
The 20-year-old driver will have the fortune of learning first-hand from two of the best the sport has to offer, and credits the guidance he received from the 2015 Cup champion as a stepping stone for where is today.
“I definitely think going through that growth spurt over at Kyle Busch Motorsports (helped me),” Gragson said. “Kyle, he’s one of the most talented race car drivers in all of NASCAR. Period. Can’t argue it. It is what it is. He’s one of the best, and to be able to learn from him and ask him questions … ‘Hey man, what are you doing on restarts? What are you doing getting into your pit box with your feet on the brake pedal and the clutch pedal and all that?’ That type of experience, to lean on, is priceless.”
While he’s learned countless lessons under the tutelage of Busch the past few years, JRM might feel a little more like home.
“For myself personally, I feel like (Dale and I) have a lot of similarities. … I think I can be even more myself going over to JR Motorsports. I just really enjoy the atmosphere over there with all the guys. It’s more of a laid-back atmosphere and it’s a bit of a change for me. It’s just a different environment; not saying one’s right, one’s wrong.”
The move to the digital/social heavyweight JRM also might help him expand on his outgoing, comical personality — a profile he’s owned and embraces, but one that he wants fans to know that is only one aspect of who he is.
“I think they might see me more as the jokester and the clown,” Gragson said. “Deep down I like to have a fun time, I like to joke around. But when it’s time to put the helmet on, it’s time to strap those belts on, and fire up that motor. It’s down to business.
“I might look like the clown, but all I’m thinking about … is about my race car and how to make this sport better.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finishing a race second is tough; finishing a season second is an accomplishment for 20-year-old Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series driver Cole Custer.
Custer said slipping to second in the season-finale Ford EcoBoost 300 after leading 95 laps in the No. 00 Ford was rough, but to have a championship in his sights and a season with one win and six poles was rewarding, culminating in a bittersweet Championship Weekend but a proud NASCAR Xfinity Series Awards banquet.
Custer is losing crew chief Jeff Meendering, who will be Brandon Jones’ crew chief with the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Xfinity Series next season. He doesn’t know yet who will be atop his pit box.
“I’m not smart enough to know what the cars need, so I’ll leave that to people who are,” Custer said, saying he’s not too concerned about the unknown. “I know what I need to do to get better, and we’ll get the communication going right and be.”
As for his own list of what to focus on for 2019 … Custer is clear.
“I need to get better at short tracks; we were a little weaker there. And I need to focus on closing in on the end of races. We had the speed and a lot of top fives, I just need to close them out.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Alon Day says he’s not here to count points, he’s here to count wins. And count those wins he did during a season in which he had a career-high seven of them en route to his second consecutive championship in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
Day, a native of Ashdod, Israel, celebrated that championship Friday evening in Charlotte at the NASCAR Regional, International and Local Awards Banquet, where he walked the red carpet, posed for pictures and later gave his championship acceptance speech in front of a packed ballroom.
Before that speech got underway, however, Day was trying to fit the championship ring on his finger, but it kept slipping. Day nearly let the ring slide completely off, but he made a quick save with his other hand.
“It’s too big,” Day said with a smile, to which the audience chuckled.
It was fitting because, as Day admitted earlier on the red carpet, he nearly let the championship slip away in the next-to-last race weekend at Hockenheimring (Germany). In his words, he tried to pass the leader on the last lap just like Jimmie Johnson tried to do against Martin Truex Jr. on the Charlotte road course and spun out. That led to a 15th-place finish and plenty of pressure entering the final weekend at Zolder (Belgium).
“I knew coming to Zolder, I needed to be as sharp as I can to be there in the end,” Day said. “And that weekend went pretty much perfect.”
Perfect indeed. Day made another great save by winning both races at Zolder, including leading from start to finish in the final race of the season, to capture his second title in a row. Overcoming the adversity made the championship even sweeter the second time around.
“This is even better,” Day said of his second chance to walk the red carpet. “We had a crazy season. I won much more races than last year (seven to four), but I made a lot of mistakes that cost me a lot. And until the very, very last moment in the race at Zolder I didn’t know if I was going to win the championship until literally, I crossed the line.”
In addition to winning the Euro title, Day made his second career start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2018, this time wheeling the No. 23 on the oval at Richmond Raceway after making an appearance on the road course at Sonoma the previous season.
Being able to race in both the Euro Series and in the United States has made Day a star back home in Israel, where he says there now exists a motorsports section in the sports pages. He says it’s weird to think that because of him there are people halfway around the world tuning in to watch NASCAR races on TV.
Day hopes fans will continue to watch him in 2019, whether he’s going for a third title in a row in the Euro Series or in one of NASCAR’s national series. He says his focus is on road courses, though he knows he needs more seat time on ovals in order to be a complete racer.
Whatever happens from here, Day says 2018 was an emotional season that he will never forget, and one in which he learned plenty, including how to bounce back from adversity and come out on top when things seemed like they were slipping away.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The list of K&N Pro Series East champions is both long and distinctive. After this season, it has just a bit more of a Western flavor, too.
Champion Tyler Ankrum capped his title-running year Friday evening in Charlotte, North Carolina, when he was formally crowned as the series champion at the NASCAR Regional, International and Local Awards Banquet.
“It’s actually funny, I’m the second guy from California to win the championship,” Ankrum said after walking the red carpet. “Kyle Larson was the first. That was an interesting stat when you see where he’s at, so that’s pretty cool.”
The mention of Larson, one of the many young stars at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series level, also underscores the path Ankrum hopes to take in the ensuing years following his K&N Pro Series East championship.
Harrison Burton. Justin Haley. William Byron. Three marquee names with full-time rides in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and Monster Energy Series. Also, the previous three K&N Pro Series East champs.
Add Larson. Plus Joey Logano. The very best in the world, competing for premier series wins every week … and former K&N Pro Series East champs.
“For sure,” Ankrum said when he asked if he hoped to follow a similar path. “I wouldn’t be doing this if i didn’t want to go all the way. I’m really excited for what we’ve got in the future, and I just hope I make it.”
He’s well on his way. Ankrum, 17, won a series-high four races in his rookie season. He had never been in a K&N East car before this season. His nine top-five finishes and 12 top-10 finishes (in 14 races) were three more than any other driver, in both categories.
The championship campaign also served as the launching point for likely new ventures next season.
“Hopefully I’m truck racing next year,” Ankrum said. “We’re trying to work on a full deal with DGR-Crosley and hopefully we can pull that off. But if not, you’ll see me in the ARCA Series part time and the Truck Series part time.”
Before 2019 though, Ankrum put a cap on 2018. He walked the red carpet, posed for pictures and gave interviews. He stood before his peers and others in the industry and delivered a championship speech.
“This is the sink-in process,” Ankrum said. “It’s crazy, you see all those people at the race track and they’re up to their neck in grease, they’re in their work clothes. To see everyone all clean shaven and in their ties and suits, it’s pretty nice. It’s a good way to end the year.”
Chad Knaus is known around the track as an intense competitor as evidenced by his seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championships and 81 wins atop the pit box with Jimmie Johnson. The 2019 season will see Knaus work with Sunoco Rookie of the Year William Byron and the No. 24 team at Hendrick Motorsports.
“I wish I had all the answers,” scoffed Kurt Busch during one of the many dog days of NASCAR summer 2018 when asked what the veteran driver had going for 2019. “I love the way that Monster Energy has supported me over the years in NASCAR. They’ve told me that they’re with me and we’re going to go to a competitive top-tier team in 2019. That’s where I’m at with all this. I’m hoping it works out.”
A slow train coming, it did.
As we learned earlier this week, Kurt Busch will climb into the No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet of the Chip Ganassi Racing outfit come the drop of the green at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 17. A former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, Daytona 500 winner and “That’s NASCAR” Entertainment fixture, we spoke with Busch from his winter house in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he and wife Ashley were putting in some time on her polo horses and soaking up the sun.
Not sure if Richard Petty did it this way, but Kurt Busch, as we’ve all come to learn, has his own way of doing things.
There’s been an impressive reaction to your move to Chip Ganassi Racing for 2019. The announcement seemed to wave the green flag on the rush to Daytona in a few months’ time. Thoughts?
Yeah, I think it went great. There has been a lot of support and enthusiasm from the fans about the switch. To have Monster Energy and to get the No. 1 car was a cool branding moment, but at the end of the day it’s about performance and as Chip Ganassi said to me, “Kurt, I want you. I want you, as a champion, to come over to this team.” And the Stewart-Haas Racing offer that I got for ’19 wasn’t all that exciting and we bounced. We made the move. I’m really looking forward to working with, what I believe is a future champion, in Kyle Larson and using my experience to get these cars dialed-in.
Do you and Kyle know one another at all?
A little bit. On-track experience has been solid with the respect that he has shown me and the times that I’ve helped him on-track has been, I think, solid. Now it is time to get together outside the track simply to just share a beer and get together and hang out and tell some war stories.
Jonathan Ferrey | Getty Images
You’re a NASCAR champion and Kyle is a potential champion. With all the collective racing wisdom and experience you’ve gleaned from a 20-year career, I would think that could be quite helpful to Kyle as well as the entire Ganassi race effort.
I agree 100 percent, and for me, I felt like it was one of the reasons to make a change and move away from SHR. After 20 years in the sport, I’m not necessarily passing the torch, but at least they can utilize the experience that I have to maybe teach somebody that is willing to learn about it. At SHR they’ve got a great fold of drivers that have experience, but this is a unique opportunity. There are also some IndyCar aspirations and also some sports car aspirations that I have. The way that Ganassi jut welcomed me in with open arms, it made a lot of sense.
As the summer burned off and you were somewhat undecided as to where you might race in ’19, did you come to a fork in the road? It could have been SHR, it could have been Ganassi, it could have been Formula E …
Yeah, I’ve been at the pros and cons intersection before. I’d stay with the team or I’d leave the team and this time around it was 99 percent pro-Ganassi when it came down to it, and so that’s how I looked forward. The decision was made pretty early this year and once we got all the little stuff settled… Man, I was running for a championship at SHR and Chip Ganassi said, “You know, while you’re still championship-eligible, we’ll just hold off on the announcement.” So that’s why it took a little bit, I looked at it like, “Man, we need to go big. We need to go with some fun and flashy announcement when we do switch.” Literally, my first day available to work for Chip Ganassi contractually was on December 1st and that’s why we launched now.
Did you know Chip previously? Obviously you know the man through walking through garageland, but has there been any sort of relationship?
Just in crossing paths. Whether it was sports car stuff when I raced in the Rolex or the time that I spent at Indianapolis running IndyCar, Chip and I always had that genuine smile and handshake when we saw each other. Then, there is Felix Sabates, who is a part owner of the team. I’ve known him over the last 15 years and we go to dinner and tell war stories together. It’s neat to jump in there.
As far as the shop and the team and all that, have you got your head wrapped around that or is a bit too early?
I was at the shop yesterday and we did a big announcement for the crew guys before it all went public. I think everybody was blown away by Monster’s energy level with girls brought in and product tastings of different flavors; we had a DJ with lights to kick it off. At the end of it all took the mic and said, “Guys, we’re here to win and it’s about teamwork and it’s about the dedication and commitment to making everything better.” Man, everybody absorbed it and everybody was chomping at the bit to get back to work and to polish up on all areas to take Chip Ganassi Racing to the next level.
You’re back to Chevrolet in 2019. What did you make of the Cup teams running Chevy in ’18?
I feel like right out of the box that Chevrolet struggled and then they made gains throughout the year and Kyle Larson was the fastest car at Darlington for the Southern 500. They didn’t quite execute on pit road to win that race. Yes, there were a few moments of speed, but what we need to have is tons more moments of speed to be in position to pick up the wins. I think that’s what everybody at Ganassi wants to do and what everybody at Chevrolet wants to do.
After 20 years of all of this, you have to start all over again. You good with that?
As fast as the contract came together with Chip Ganassi, that’s all the motivation I needed. He wanted me. There was a forward-thinking process through this. I mean I literally got some seats in cars yesterday and in my mindset, I felt like it was Feb. 1. I feel like Daytona is going to be next week and let’s go after this. There is no lack of motivation from me.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Having had a few weeks to reflect on the 2018 NASCAR season, Alex Bowman said Thursday that he still has goals left unfinished after his first full season with Hendrick Motorsports. Though he checked another pole position and a first-time playoff berth off his list, he still wanted more — namely a tick mark in the win column.
Though the fortunes of the No. 88 outfit rose and dipped at points during the season, Bowman’s positive approach helped mitigate the sometimes team-wide struggles. It’s a characteristic that stood out for a vested outside observer — his predecessor, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“I think from outside the car, he handled it really well,” Earnhardt said. “You know, a young driver their first year, not performing the way you want to perform, he never put it on anybody, he never pointed fingers, never said anything that had a little attitude to it or anything like that. He just was like, ‘We’re going to keep working. We’re having some struggles, we’re going to get it right.’ I thought he kept his attitude great when he was frustrated. …
“And so I felt like that Alex proved this season that if they can get the cars where they need to be that they got the right guy in the seat. I think that that was important for Alex because the car did struggle.”
Bowman’s first campaign with the No. 88 team overlapped with the first season of the Chevy Camaro ZL1 in the Monster Energy Series. Teammate Chase Elliott broke through for his first three wins in the second half of the season, but the organization fought to replicate its trademark performance with the new Chevrolet model and a retooled driver roster.
Still, Bowman was one of three Hendrick drivers claiming postseason berths, joining Elliott and seven-time champ Jimmie Johnson in the 16-car field. Bowman survived a harrowing first three races of the playoffs to advance to the Round of 12, an achievement he said may have changed people’s perceptions.
“I’m still on the same page of we didn’t win and that’s pretty frustrating to me, but we made it further than a lot of people thought we would in the playoffs, which was really cool,” Bowman said. “I really just wanted more, but it was a rough year for all of us at HMS. So to kind of start where we did and make the progress that we did was pretty cool.”
Bowman ended his year with the first three top-five finishes of his premier-series career, including a fourth-place effort at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course that helped him avoid the first postseason elimination. The 25-year-old driver said he hopes to improve on his stats in year two with Hendrick Motorsports, but acknowledged that some performance gains will be dependent on how quickly his organization adapts to a new rules package for 2019.
Earnhardt said Bowman’s progression has the potential to mirror his own. Earnhardt said he set modest goals in his first year with crew chief Steve Letarte (now his broadcasting colleague at NBC Sports) in 2011 of running among the top 15. When he was able to accomplish that on a regular basis, the team reset the bar at top-10 performance, methodically inching closer to being a threat to win.
“They can’t expect to just jump out there next year and they’re just going to miraculously start contending for wins,” said Earnhardt, who estimated that his own team’s transition to becoming a top-tier contender was a three-year process. “You’ve just got to move those standards up and push that team to believe in those standards and work toward that goal.
“Last year, I think his goal would be to run in the top 10 any time they could. I believe they could raise that up a little bit to a top five this year and just aim for that every single week until that is happening every week, and then you can change that goal.”
Coming off a breakout season, Ruben Garcia Jr. is leaving no doubt about where his goals lie in 2019 when it comes to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
“We really have to aim for the championship,” Garcia told NASCAR.com. “Every season I start I really focus on improving from last year and I think that’s what we’ve done the last five years. My first year in K&N I finished 10th, then fifth, then third. So now we are looking for the championship.”
The breakout season of 2018 continued to earn Garcia attention on Thursday as he was named to the 2019 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Class for the fourth straight year. The program counts current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers Kyle Larson, Daniel Suárez and Bubba Wallace among its distinguished alumni.
Garcia will return to the K&N East Series for 2019 with Rev Racing. The K&N East has seen Harrison Burton, Justin Haley, William Byron and Ben Rhodes take home the championship in recent years. Tyler Ankrum captured the title in 2018.
Garcia, a 23-year-old native of Mexico City, Mexico, won his second NASCAR Peak Mexico Series championship this year and earned his first two wins in the K&N East (at Memphis and Dover) — his first victories outside his home country. The win at Dover gave him a third-place finish in the K&N Pro Series East final standings.
“Dover has been my favorite track since the very first time I drove it,” Garcia said. “It was pretty special to win there. It was the season finale and to have a good performance in front of all the Cup teams and the Xfinity teams, it was pretty good.”
Racing is in Garcia’s veins — his father competed in the NASCAR ranks — mainly in the touring series. And his father has been a big influence on his career.With three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts under his belt in 2014, the younger Garcia is no stranger to NASCAR’s national series and he knows 2019 is critical as he tries to move up the ladder.
“Everyone involved in the Drive for Diversity driver development program has done a great job of giving us all the exposure we need to move up and make it up through the ranks in NASCAR,” Garcia said. “We’re working hard to try to start running in the Trucks or Xfinity Series because that’s probably the next step. For sure, 2019 will be a pretty important year that we can find our way up into a national series.”
