The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was issued a loss of 10 driver points and 10 owner points in the official post-Indianapolis penalty report released Wednesday.
The points penalty previously was announced after the No. 19 team failed pre-race inspection four times Saturday at Indianapolis, an L1-level infraction.
In addition to the loss of points to team owner Joe Gibbs and driver Daniel Suarez, the No. 19 Toyota was sent to the rear for Monday’s race and car chief Todd Brewer was ejected from the event.
Suarez finished 18th in Monday’s race. He needed a win to qualify for the Monster Energy Series Playoffs.
How do you celebrate, NASCAR style? With a burnout – or lots of burnouts.
Tune in Thursday, Sept. 13 at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN’s “NASCAR America” for the NASCAR Burnout Blvd Fueled by Sunoco live from Las Vegas as the 16 NASCAR Playoffs contenders will parade down the magnificent Las Vegas Strip then lay down some rubber.
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All 16 drivers will drive down the Strip after some pre-event pageantry outside the Miracle Mile Shops. The cars will travel down the Las Vegas Strip then north to Spring Mountain Road to take turns doing the victory burnouts they hope to perform again during the playoffs.
Fans are welcome to view the procession along Las Vegas Boulevard, including the pre-event festivities outside the Miracle Mile Shops and the burnout location at Spring Mountain, between Fashion Show and Wynn Las Vegas.
The 10-race NASCAR Playoffs kick off Sunday, Sept. 16 in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
For a preview of the action, check out Clint Bowyer’s big-time burnout after his March win at Martinsville.
Kasey Kahne will miss the next three races for Leavine Family Racing as he continues to recover from lingering health issues experienced following Darlington Raceway.
Regan Smith will once again serve as the team’s substitute driver for Las Vegas, Richmond and Charlotte race weekends behind the wheel of the No. 95 Camaro ZL1.
Kahne and LFR announced on Sept. 6 that he would be sidelined for Indianapolis Motor Speedway after his physicians recommended he sit out the race pending further evaluation. Regan Smith was named the substitute driver for Indy, finishing 20th in the race.
Kahne offered further thoughts on Wednesday, addressing questions on why he doesn’t just retire now — as he plans to do at the conclusion of the 2018 season.
“The answer is simple,” Kahne wrote. “I love racing. I’ve been racing most of my life and I’m not ready to give it up.”
Following the conclusion of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Sept. 2, Kahne went directly to the infield care center after experiencing extreme heat exhaustion and dehydration during the final 100 laps of the 367-lap race.
In a conference call with reporters on Sept. 7, Kahne indicated that the dehydration had been a chronic problem that increased in severity at Darlington as drivers faced hotter temperatures in one of the longest races of the year. He also noted the health issues contributed to his initial decision to retire.
With temperatures in Vegas expected to be in the triple digits, Kahne will continue to work with his physicians on a plan for his health.
A team spokesperson said Leavine Family Racing will provide an update following the Charlotte race weekend
What, did you think I was going to give away the winner in the first paragraph, did you? No way – we have to build suspense, intrigue, mystery.
Overall it was a tremendous year for the Fantasy NASCAR. A new platform was introduced that made the game fun, but more importantly, easy to use.
Personally, as a relative novice to fantasy sports, I am quite proud to declare that I finished 687th in my own league because nice league administrators build poor lineups and allow the participants to do all the winning. That is totally why I finished 687th. I’m not being convincing, am I?
I am terrible at it. The week I had my best performance was the week I was sick and forgot to set my lineup.
Yes, I frequently ignored the advice given by Steve Letarte, but I have trust issues with that guy. I think half the time he was telling us the wrong drivers to draft so he could draft the correct ones and then brag about it. I have no evidence to back up this claim but I just find comfort in blaming Steve for things.
OK, onto the winner.
It’s the player with username X2.
User X2 was able to triumph over 3,999 other participants in NASCARCASM’S Fantasy Dumpster Fire to claim not only the title, but also two hot passes in 2019 to the race of his or her choosing. They get to enjoy one of the greatest joys that a race fan can experience, and by that I mean staying put and snickering as they kick out the plebeians with the cold passes.
He or she may walk around the garage taking in the sights and sounds knowing that they triumphed online over almost 4,000 strangers because they likely were able to exploit some programming loophole that permitted them to start Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. every single week.
It was a hard fought, neck-and-neck battle, but X2 was able to edge out player !GoinBroke! by a mere 8 points. !GoinBroke!, for their valiant attempt at the win, will receive a lovely $100 to the NASCAR superstore, where I’d imagine there’s one hell of a sale going on for the Kasey Kahne stuff.
For the third-place finisher, Victory Motorsports, there is nothing because participation-trophy culture breeds weakness and cowardice. Sorry ‘bout it.
If you are the first or second-place winners, please send me a tweet at @NASCARCASM so we can get you hooked up with your cool stuff.
So to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers, congratulations on a magnificent fantasy showing. Also, thank you for all having usernames that I can include in the blog. NOT all 4,000 of y’all had PG-rated usernames. I’m talking you you, [REDACTED].
Thanks for playing along. And remember, just because our little contest ended at the end of the regular season, the league still continues throughout the playoffs. So continue setting lineups weekly. This was fun. Let’s do it again next year.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The IMSA community is profoundly saddened by the news that its Vice Chairman, Don Panoz, passed away from cancer at the age of 83.
A lifelong entrepreneur, the charismatic Panoz is best known to race fans as the founder of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and creator of the famously loud and uniquely styled front-engined Panoz LMP1 race cars.
Panoz fell in love with the unique atmosphere at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after experiencing it himself for the first time. Panoz aimed to replicate the spirit of Le Mans, its unique rules and regulations while adding his own fan-friendly atmosphere, first through the creation of a “one-off” event at Road Atlanta, the 10-hour or 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans, which debuted on Oct. 11, 1998. The overall winners of that inaugural race were co-drivers Eric van de Poele, Emmanuel Collard and WeatherTech Championship Prototype champion team owner Wayne Taylor.
Buoyed by the success of Petit Le Mans, Panoz founded the ALMS, a series of races throughout North America on world-class race tracks, including three that he owned: Sebring International Raceway, Road Atlanta, and Mosport — what today is known as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Panoz became a driving force for sports car racing in North America at a time when the sport was badly in need of direction, vision and leadership.
Under Panoz’s watchful eye, the ALMS was the first motorsports sanctioning bodies to open the pre-race starting grid to race fans, enabling them to walk among the cars and drivers on the race track minutes before the start of each race. It’s a practice that is still a part of every IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race — and has been replicated by many racing organizations around the world.
In 2012, Panoz recognized that to truly achieve the type of success he envisioned for sports car racing in North America, a merger between the ALMS and the GRAND-AM Road Racing Association was needed. He joined forces with GRAND-AM Founder Jim France — and together with their respective CEOs, Scott Atherton with ALMS and Ed Bennett with GRAND-AM — and the historic merger was announced at Daytona International Speedway on Sept. 5, 2012.
Rick Dole | Getty Images
“Don Panoz will be remembered as a one of the most important figures in the history of sports car racing,” NASCAR Chairman and CEO and IMSA Chairman Jim France said. “Don was a true gentleman who deeply cared about our sport. That was obvious to all who are involved with sports car racing. He became a great friend and partner, and we shared the pride of combining GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series and re-establishing the IMSA brand, bringing sports car racing together again. Don was a true innovator whose work touched many lives.”
With France as Chairman, Panoz became Vice Chairman of the new organization, which took on the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) moniker. Panoz had acquired the rights to use the IMSA name years earlier for his own sanctioning body, extending the lineage of the highly respected organization founded in 1969 by Bill France Sr. and John and Peggy Bishop.
“It is difficult to find the right words to express my sadness with the news of Don’s passing,” said Atherton, who became president of the new IMSA. “He was a very special guy — the most visionary and creative person I have ever worked with. He was a serial entrepreneur of the highest order. Don was the consummate ‘idea guy’ — not all of them good mind you — but he came up with several that were truly brilliant that transformed entire industries.
“Many of us who make our living in motorsport owe him a debt of gratitude. He deserves full credit for putting professional sports car racing back on the map when it was at its lowest point. His acquisition of IMSA, Sebring International Raceway, Road Atlanta, Mosport and the creation of the American Le Mans Series are enduring monuments of his legacy.”
Panoz’s involvement in motorsport extended well beyond the ALMS and his race tracks, which all were part of his Panoz Motor Sports Group. His Panoz Esperante GTR-1, was the first successful front-engine prototype race car in more than 30 years. Following that, Panoz was a pioneer in the introduction of hybrid technology in sports car racing, bringing the car known as “sparky” into competition at the 1998 Petit Le Mans.
Another highlight was the Panoz Esperante GT LM, which won both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2006, which also earned Panoz the coveted “Spirit of Le Mans” award from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organizers of the annual 24-hour race in France.
In the early 2010s, Panoz was instrumental in the development of the revolutionary DeltaWing race car, which was half the weight and horsepower, but all the performance of other prototype race cars. The DeltaWing raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ALMS and the WeatherTech Championship until the end of the 2016 season.
Beyond sports cars, the Panoz Motor Sports Group also included Van Diemen, which built successful chassis used in open-wheel and prototype development series; Élan Technologies, which built engines and chassis for a variety of race cars; and G-Force, which built IndyCar chassis that would win the Indianapolis 500 in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004. The organization also built the well-respected DP01 chassis used in the final season of the Champ Car World Series before its merger with IndyCar in 2008.
Most recently, the Panoz Avezzano race car won the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge GTS class Sprint/Sprint-X Manufacturers’ Championship.
“Don loved the challenge that top-level motorsport represented,” Atherton said. “He loved to compete and was always looking to achieve success with game-changing innovation and by doing things differently. Putting the engine in the front of a modern LMP1 race car, introducing hybrid engine technology at Le Mans long before it was embraced by mainstream manufacturers and, of course, the DeltaWing are but a few of many, many examples.”
Rick Dole | Getty Images
Panoz’s racing endeavors were made possible by his entrepreneurial success in other ventures. His career began in 1961 when he and friend Milan “Mike” Puskar, a fellow alum of West Virginia University who also served alongside Panoz in the Army, founded Milan Pharmaceuticals in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Panoz was the youngest president of a pharmaceutical company in the United States.
Milan eventually became Mylan, which now sells an estimated 1,300 products in more than 140 countries and territories worldwide.
In the 1970s, Panoz created Élan Corp. in Ireland, which became a leader in drug delivery products and technology. Panoz led a research team that created time-release medication through a transdermal patch, commonly used today as a nicotine patch. Élan Corp. was the first Irish company to be publicly listed on the U.S. stock exchange, and Panoz retained more than 300 pharmaceutical industry patents.
Panoz founded Élan Technologies, which includes Élan Composites, Élan Power, Élan Precision and Élan Fabrication; and the Panoz Institute at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, which houses the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He also founded international resorts such as Chateau Élan in Georgia, The Vintage Golf Club in Australia, Diablo Grande Winery & Resort in California, and St. Andrews Bay Resort and Spa in Scotland.
Panoz earned several prestigious accolades throughout his life. He was the 29th inductee into the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2013, the Bob Russo Heritage Award recipient from the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2014, the La Bella Machina award winner at the 2015 Concorso Italiano in Monterey, California, and the 2015 recipient of the Women In The Winner’s Circle Leadership Award from racing pioneer Lyn St. James and the Women’s Sports Foundation.
That award was presented at the 2015 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Panoz also is a member of the West Virginia University College of Business Hall of Fame.
“I had the honor and privilege of working side-by-side with Don for nearly 15 years — witnessing many of his landmark achievements in motorsports, hotels, golf resorts, residential real estate and much more, not just in America, but around the world,” Atherton concluded. “His drive, energy and work ethic were truly remarkable. Don ran on the rev limiter right to the end. But he was also a lot of fun to be around, always quick with a joke or a fascinating tale from his past. We have all lost a great man and many of us have lost a great friend and mentor.”
Panoz leaves behind his wife of 63 years Nancy; sons Danny and Chris; daughters Donna, Dena, Lisa and Andrea, along with many grandchildren and great grandchildren, and numerous longtime friends and business associates from around the world.
The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Champion swung by NASCAR’s studios on Tuesday, and Kyle Busch took plenty of fan questions.
From the most troubling track in the playoffs, to heading to Las Vegas in the sweltering heat and his favorite win of 2018, “Rowdy” and host Alex Weaver tackle the best the fans had to ask.
Jamie McMurray was driving Monday with more than a Chip over his radio, but one on his shoulder, too.
Hours after a report surfaced indicating team owner Chip Ganassi has told the longtime CGR driver he would not be in the No. 1 Chevrolet full time for the 2019 season, McMurray gutted out one of his best performances of the season in a do-or-die situation.
McMurray, 21st in points heading into the 25th annual Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was in need of a win in order to clinch a berth in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. He wound up placing seventh, but was in position to strike for the win late running in the top three.
After starting 21st — since qualifying (and both practice sessions) were rained out — the 2010 Brickyard 400 winner and crew chief Matt McCall elected to stay on the track late, elevating McMurray to third place on Lap 145 of the 160-lap event. On the ensuring restart, an aggressive McMurray was all over the rear bumper of Clint Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford, but the contact allowed leader Denny Hamlin to pull farther ahead.
“You never know what is going to happen,” McMurray said. “When I was third, yeah, I had been getting really good restarts all day long on the bottom. So, yeah, I did (think I had a shot), but just didn’t have it.”
Before McMurray could continue to battle and move up, a caution came out after Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt crashed hard into the outside wall. The 42-year-old driver was unable to hold his ground on the final restart, getting shuffled back to seventh over the final few laps. While the result wasn’t enough to propel him to a fourth straight– and potentially final — playoff berth, it tied for his third-best finish of the season.
“You just do whatever you have to in order to win, and it’s the same strategy that the No. 11 and No. 14 were on,” McMurray said. “I think we all pitted really close. It was hard to pass today and having that track position at the end I didn’t think… I mean I wanted to stay out because it was hard to make up any ground. When the No. 42 pitted I was worried about how many behind us might follow him in. We definitely made the right call.”
Denny Hamlin led a race-high 37 laps Monday in search for his first Brickyard 400 win, but was foiled by an untimely caution flag and a late-race surge by eventual winner Brad Keselowski.
Keselowski bruised by Hamlin with a lap and half remaining at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones slipped by for second place, leaving the No. 11 Toyota to settle for third place and lament the finish.
Hamlin led the race before a crash between Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt near the back of the pack prompted the final caution flag with seven laps left. That tightened the field and allowed Keselowski, who had the benefit of fresher tires, to close in.
Asked what he could have done differently, Hamlin focused his ire toward Cassill and Earnhardt.
“Not have meaningless guys in the back wreck,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know what they’re doing, crashing with a couple laps to go, multiple laps down. Meaningless. Besides that, all those cautions allowed the guys who took tires and saved their strategy allowed them to come back up there and obviously allowed the 2 (Keselowski) to kind of rough us up there at the end. Very unfortunate, but it’s what happens sometimes.”
This one hurt. Hurt bad. Can’t thank my whole team on the road and shop for making this car so fast. Team, pitcrew, CC all were perfect today. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Let’s make a run…
Hamlin made his final pit stop on Lap 126 of the 160-lap event. Keselowski stayed on the track longer before making his last stop for service on Lap 143, giving him fresher tires for the home stretch. The pair of caution periods — one for debris and one for the Cassill-Earnhardt melee — further allowed Keselowski to close the gap.
With two laps to go, Keselowski tracked Hamlin down and the two cars brushed on the backstretch. Keselowski finally got the upper hand as he cleared Hamlin’s car nearing the white flag.
Hamlin enters the playoffs after a winless run through the 26-race regular season. He’ll aim to keep a personal streak going in the postseason; he has won at least one race each year since his rookie season in 2006.
The postseason aims, however, took a back seat to the immediate disappointment late Monday afternoon.
“I don’t even care about the playoffs at this moment. All I care about is not winning this race,” Hamlin said. “It’s one that was big on my list of races I wanted to win and the team gave me the car that was certainly capable of doing that today. Executed flawlessly on pit lane, the strategy was good, had a fast car. Just circumstances. Cautions killed us at the end and allowed those guys to come up there.”
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – It’s been a historic two weeks for Brad Keselowski. The No. 2 Ford driver executed a hard-nosed pass of Denny Hamlin with two laps remaining in Monday’s rain-delayed Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard to win his first race at prestigious Indianapolis Motor Speedway, one week after visiting Victory Lane in the crown-jewel Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Keselowski earned Team Penske its first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win at the track to go with the storied organization’s 17 Indianapolis 500 trophies – including one this May.
The 34-year-old Michigan native finished runner-up in this race last year and positioned himself to one-up the effort thanks to a late-race pit strategy call by his crew chief Paul Wolfe. On a restart with three laps remaining, the 2012 Cup champion muscled by Hamlin on fresher tires. He beat runner-up Erik Jones – who later maneuvered around Hamlin – to the start-finish line by 0.904 seconds.
“It’s incredible, last year I lost this race almost exactly the same way,” Keselowski said in Victory Lane after joining his team in climbing the frontstretch grandstands to celebrate with the loyal crowd.
“It feels really good to make up for it and to get Roger Penske his first Cup car win here at the Brickyard. It’s an incredible feeling and I’m so happy for Team Penske.”
Hamlin finished third, while Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five. Hamlin and Bowyer – who raced for the lead much of the final stage – each led a race-high 37 laps.
The race marked the end of the regular season with points leader Kyle Busch – who finished eighth Monday – officially collecting the regular-season championship. He and seven-race winner Harvick top the points standings as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series begins its 10-week playoff run this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM).
“We had a lot of ups and downs, mostly downs but fought our way back,’’ the six-race winner and two-time Indy winner Busch said just before receiving the regular-season trophy.
“In the grand scheme of things it was a pretty good day considering we get to go home with some hardware.”
The third member of the sport’s “Big 3” this season is four-race winner Martin Truex Jr. The reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion goes into the playoffs ranked third, although he only completed 41 laps at Indy, his No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota officially finishing last in the 40-car field having to retire early with a brake problem.
With the two wins, Keselowski jumps into fourth place in the Playoff standings just ahead of the season’s other two-time winner Bowyer.
Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman were the only two drivers that hadn’t secured a playoff berth before the drop of the Indy green flag, but both advanced to the 16-driver field with 16th- and 33rd-place efforts at Indy.
“We raced up into the top 10 a couple times, we just didn’t have the speed to run up front,’’ said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“We’ll go home and work hard and be ready for Las Vegas. I’m just proud I’ve made every playoff since NASCAR started them. …we have a lot of experience and I think our experience in pressure-packed situations will help us.”
There were plenty of pressure-packed situations in Monday’s race, including two at the end of the day unraveling the chances of a couple of front-runners.
Ryan Blaney, who ran among the lead pack most of the day, missed his pit stall on the final stop and ended up 11th in his Team Penske Ford. And former series champion Matt Kenseth, who seemed to revitalize the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford operation this weekend, had pit problems as well on the final stop with the car falling off the jack.
Still it was a positive day for the team. Kenseth led five laps and scored the first stage win of the season for the No. 6 Ford, capturing the Stage 2 checkered flag just ahead of Chase Elliott and Jones. His 12th-place effort was a season best for him and a promising sign for Roush Fenway Racing.
Three former Brickyard winners – Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman – kept the closing laps suspenseful as well. Because they came into the race ranked outside the playoffs’ top 16, a win would’ve eliminated Bowman from the postseason. They finished seventh, ninth and 10th respectively.
Keselowski’s win was the first for Ford Motor Company at Indianapolis since 1999.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and we know which 16 drivers will compete for the championship when the postseason opens at LVMS for the first time in series history.
Two spots were up for grabs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday in the regular-season finale, with 10 drivers having locked in their spots already via wins and four clinched via points.
Those outside the playoff picture entering Indianapolis were in a win-or-bust mode, and the upset victory didn’t materialize with Brad Keselowski winning at the Brickyard.
Below is the 16-driver field with the official seeding and points.
Regular Season Champion: Kyle Busch clinched the honor at Indy, becoming the second driver to win the distinction since NASCAR moved to this playoffs format prior to the 2017 season. Last year’s Regular Season Champion, Martin Truex Jr., went on to win the championship in Miami. For Busch, in addition to winning the honor and receiving a trophy, he receives a crucial 15 playoff points to add to his total and carry over from round to round.
Last In: Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman entered Indianapolis on the good side of the playoff bubble, but not locked in. Both could breathe a sigh of relief when a first-time 2018 winner positioned below the cutoff line didn’t throw the field into disarray by winning.
First Out: Ryan Newman finished the regular season in the top 16 of the driver standings, but he’s not in the 16-driver postseason field. That’s because Austin Dillon, who stood 18th in the standings after Indianapolis, won the Daytona 500 — and in this format, winning trumps all. Newman missed the playoffs this year after qualifying for the postseason in 2017. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth (part time in 2018) were the other playoff drivers who missed out this year.
First-timers: Erik Jones, in his second full-time Monster Energy Series season, qualified for the series’ playoffs for the first time. He’s the only first-timer in the field, although Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney qualified for the second time in their respective careers.
