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

Posted on by Staff Report

This week, Donut Media and NASCAR are partnering for exclusive racing content. Today: We raced each other in a NASCAR stock car.

Previously: NASCAR’s origins

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.

Tuesday’s offering is a hands-on approach to driving a stock car. Like, as hands-on as one can get. The gang joins NASCAR Next driver Will Rodgers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for an unforgettable day in a NASCAR Racing Experience stock car.

MORE: Book your own driving experience

Who posts the fastest time around slick 1.5-mile Las Vegas? Competing against each other on fast laps are:

• Bart, who looks most like a NASCAR driver, according to his teammates;

• Nolan, classified as a “wimp” on the road;

• James, who is wearing his lucky autographed Dale Jr. hat.

Even better, all “drivers” are mic’d up so you can hear their real-time, live reaction once they hit 140 mph. Check out the full YouTube video 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 Staff Report

Kevin Harvick will have a new rear tire changer on his pit crew for Sunday’s Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Chris McMullen, who has been the rear tire changer for Aric Almirola this season, will move from the No. 10 team to Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing crew this weekend. SHR made the move after Almirola was eliminated from the NASCAR Playoffs field last weekend in Phoenix.

RELATED: Breaking down Championship 4 | Why Harvick will win

Michael Johnson will move from Harvick’s crew to Almirola’s No. 10 pit crew. Johnson has been Harvick’s rear tire changer since replacing Daniel Smith, who has been out because of health issues since the Bojangles’ Southern 500 in September.

Crew chief Rodney Childers said Tuesday afternoon on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that Smith took a leave of absence after being diagnosed with cancer.

“We had plugged (Johnson) in from Bristol until now. He has done an excellent job for us and has been a great team player, but he was a guy who had never changed on a Cup car before in his life,” Childers said during his afternoon appearance. “He stepped up to the plate … and he’s made it through these playoffs and got us to this position.

“But the reality of it is, we’re not quite fast enough (on pit road) to win a championship. As a company, we feel like the 4 has the best front tire changer right now and the 10 has the best rear tire changer right now, and we’re going to try to put the two of them together and see what happens.”

The change comes as Harvick will be without crew chief Rodney Childers for a second straight week. Childers was suspended for two races following an infraction after Harvick’s win in Texas. Tony Gibson has replaced Childers as Harvick’s crew chief during the suspension.