Cincinnati Reds infielder Scooter Gennett has made his fandom of NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt well known on the field. This weekend, he’ll take it to another level.
Gennett and other Major League Baseball players will participate in Players’ Weekend this Friday through Sunday, making avant-garde uniform choices to put their personalities and passions on full display.
Gennett switched his jersey to No. 3 this season in an homage to The Intimidator, and his bat handles are identified by a decal bearing Earnhardt’s legendary car number. This weekend, Gennett’s gear will pay further tribute to the NASCAR Hall of Famer with black No. 3 Goodwrench cleats, a checkered-flag motif on his bat, and “Dal3” on the back of his jersey.
“It’s my favorite number,” Gennett told MLB.com during spring training this year. “I was a big Dale Earnhardt fan when I was younger. Still am.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave his approval of the jersey change shortly after Opening Day.
We can’t blame you if you did a double-take when news broke that Bill Elliott was making a comeback in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this weekend at Road America in the Johnsonville 180 (3 p.m., Saturday on NBCSN). For some, it must have felt a little bit like the start of a good April Fools’ Day joke.
But trust us, it’s really happening.
Elliott is on the entry list as the driver of the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet this weekend, which will be the Hall of Famer’s first Xfinity race in more than a decade.
But if for some reason you still can’t believe it, then check out some of the tweets, which have ranged from humorous to heartfelt, coming in from the track in Wisconsin:
Rookie stripes being put on a NASCAR Hall of Famers car… you don’t see that every weekend! 😂 pic.twitter.com/7iWjMM76Ul
Darlington Raceway celebrates its annual Throwback Weekend next week, when one of the most iconic tracks on the NASCAR circuit serves as a host for the industry to honor its past in creative paint schemes and promotions.
We’re kicking off the Darlington celebration today by posting six classic races from 1958-78 to our YouTube channel. And we’re remastering them and uploading in 4K.
The heroes of yesterday have never looked better on your screen. Here is the playlist.
Check out all six races and watch as NASCAR Hall of Famer Fireball Roberts claims his first Southern 500 victory in 1958; as David Pearson and Cale Yarborough swap victories in the two 1968 races … and then again in 1973; and as the high speeds (and difficult driving) at the egg-shaped oval leads to plenty of scrapes, wrecks and highlight moments.
There’s a twofold goal in mind this weekend for Justin Allgaier. The shorter-term aim is to score his first victory at Road America, the sprawling Wisconsin road course that hosts Saturday’s Johnsonville 180 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).
The longer-term focus for Allgaier and the JR Motorsports No. 7 team is to keep their momentum in the close contest for the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ regular-season championship.
Allgaier enters Saturday’s 45-lap event with 10 consecutive top-10 finishes, a run that includes a victory at the series’ most recent road-course event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The consistency has helped the 32-year-old driver offset a pair of crash-related finishes outside the top 30 (Charlotte, Pocono) in late spring, catapulting him to second place in a five-way fight for the regular-season crown.
“That’s been the one thing for us, I feel like we’ve had great speed all year. We just haven’t been able to capitalize on it when it matters,” Allgaier said after his most recent strong finish, a third last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I look at Charlotte and Pocono as the two that, man, really just they irked me because we felt like we had a solid top-two or three night going at both of those and didn’t get to show it.
“This month has been incredible. Obviously you want to peak at the right time, and the playoffs are coming. I think we’re in a good spot.”
Allgaier, a three-time winner this year, sits just 13 points behind Xfinity Series leader Christopher Bell with four regular-season events remaining. Behind Bell and Allgaier are Elliott Sadler, Cole Custer and Daniel Hemric — a top-five cluster separated by a mere 42 points.
All five are within reach of capturing the regular-season title and the bounty of 15 playoff points that goes with it. Though Allgaier and crew chief Jason Burdett have kept an eye on the standings, their focus has been more about performance than number-crunching.
“I think if we do what we did tonight and what we’ve done the last few weeks, the points are going to take care of themselves,” Burdett said after Bristol. “We’ve had a lot of good runs — 10 top 10s in a row, I guess now — which is what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to string that out through Homestead, or until we get to Homestead and then we’ve got to go win.
“Right now for us, we just need to gather as many bonus points as we can and part of that is the regular season deal. If we can get first or second, it’s a big jump in points there. Right now, we’re just going to keep digging, keep going every week and see what we can get out of it.”
Allgaier has a road-course knack in his portfolio, with two of his eight career Xfinity wins coming on the twisty circuits — 2012 at Montreal and two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio. He also placed third earlier this month at Watkins Glen.
With Road America, Burdett says he’s prepared for “a crapshoot” on the historic 4.048-mile course, which features several fast sections and a tendency for contact and wrinkled sheet metal. Still, Allgaier says he’s circled the track’s place on the calendar as one of his favorites, citing his feel for handling the challenges of the high-speed stretches and 14 demanding turns.
“That’s encouraging going into next week. It’s a tough place, but man, is it fun,” Allgaier said. “If we do our jobs and stay out of incidents — because that’s always the hard part of the road courses — I think we’ve got a good shot at maybe going back to back on road courses and winning again.”
Chip Ganassi Racing announced Thursday that Ross Chastain will drive the team’s No. 42 Chevrolet in three NASCAR Xfinity Series races this season.
Chastain, 25, is scheduled to make his first start for the team Sept. 1 at Darlington Raceway. Additional races Sept. 15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Sept. 21 at Richmond Raceway round out his partial slate with the team.
Chastain has made 22 starts each in the Monster Energy Series (for Premium Motorsports) and the Xfinity Series (for JD Motorsports) this season. He also has four starts this year in the Camping World Truck Series. His best effort this year in Xfinity competition was a spirited drive to fourth place last month at Iowa Speedway.
Chastain is set to become the fifth driver to wheel the No. 42 this season, joining John Hunter Nemechek (12 races), Kyle Larson (six races), Jamie McMurray (three) and Justin Marks (one). Larson has scored four Xfinity Series victories for the team this season, helping the No. 42 entry to its sixth-place rank in the team owners’ standings.
NASCAR’s Xfinity Series race Saturday on the famed Road America road course will include a current NASCAR Hall of Famer on its grid for the first time, popular driver Bill Elliott, who was nicknamed “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” during his championship time competing in NASCAR during the 1980s, 90s and 2000s.
The 1988 Cup champion will steer the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet in Saturday’s Johnsonville 180 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), making his first start in one of NASCAR’s national series in six years and first start in the Xfinity Series since 2005. His only Xfinity Series win came on a road course — at Watkins Glen in 1993.
Ironically, the Hall of Famer will be considered a “rookie” at the 4-mile Wisconsin road course since he has never competed there before.
“When this opportunity came up from (president of GMS Racing) Mike (Beam), I had to jump on it,” Elliott said in announcing the news earlier this month. “Chase (Elliott) has ran a handful of races for the team so I figured I would give it a shot at Road America. Beam and I have worked together in the past so it will be exciting to get back behind the wheel and bring back some old memories.”
Elliott’s 22-year old son, Chase, who won his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this month at Watkins Glen, will serve as spotter for his father during this off-week from Cup competition.
There have been eight different winners in as many races on the course, and Xfinity regular Jeremy Clements picked up his first career win last year.
This is also a significant stop in firming up the playoff picture. With four races remaining to establish championship-eligibility, Ross Chastain holds the final playoff position with a 42-point edge over Michael Annett, who was a career best runner-up in this race last season.
The field for the Johnsonville 180 includes a bevy of big names. From Elliott to IMSA road racing stars Andy Lally and Katherine Legge, to IndyCar standouts like James Davison, who led the opening laps of last year’s race at Elkhart Lake to Conor Daly, who is making his NASCAR competition debut. Longtime NASCAR fan favorite Brendan Gaughan is entered, too.
A federal judge on Thursday approved Front Row Motorsports’ winning bid in the sale of NASCAR team BK Racing.
The $2 million purchase includes all of BK Racing’s assets, along with the team’s charter for the No. 23 Toyota.
BK Racing has entered every Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this season under owner Ron Devine, filling its No. 23 Toyota with four different drivers, most notably Gray Gaulding (17 of 24 starts).
Front Row Motorsports is a two-car operation based out of Statesville, North Carolina. Under the Ford umbrella, the team hosts the No. 38 for longtime driver David Ragan and the No. 34 for Michael McDowell, in his first year with the team.
The Bob Jenkins-owned team has two wins at NASCAR’s top level. Ragan won at Talladega in 2013, and Chris Buescher won in his 2016 rookie year at Pocono. Both of those teams have charters, as well, and Front Row Motorsports leases another charter to TriStar Motorsports.
About three weeks ago, Caleb Hammond and his family accepted a difficult realization: Cancer treatments weren’t working for the 11-year-old anymore.
Caleb left the hospital where he had been receiving treatments for his two-year battle with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and returned to his home in Oskaloosa, Iowa, to live the rest of his life away from painful procedures, and to spend time with his family.
But he had one request that has reverberated across NASCAR and social media: He wanted to gather as many racing stickers as possible to cover his casket.
NASCAR drivers and teams have answered the call — and the Hammond family has been overwhelmed with the response.
Caleb has been a racing fan since age 2, when he visited his uncle, Chris Playle, at Playle’s house across from Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
According to the Des Moines Register, drivers would park their cars on the streets before the pits opened, and Playle would bring Caleb outside to see them. Once cars started racing, Playle and Caleb would pull up lawn chairs and watch the action.
“He’s my racing buddy. It was kind of our deal,” Playle told the Des Moines Register. “I probably had just as much fun as he did.”
It was there that Caleb once met Kasey Kahne, who was at the track for the Front Row Challenge.
“He was all smiles. Enjoyed it quite a bit,” Playle told the newspaper. “Just being able to go, it was a good time.”
On Saturday, Caleb had a taste of what being a driver is like when he donned a fire suit and sped around a dirt track in a stock car as a 12-year-old sat beside him to help work the stick shift and navigate the track.
“A goal of his was to be able to drive a race car when he got older,” his father, John Hammond, told The Oskaloosa Herald. “It’s like a dream come true.”
In mere weeks, Caleb has been embraced by the NASCAR family, which was quick to respond to his request for stickers.
Putting a package together now for you Caleb lots of stickers headed your way https://t.co/61zuoteL8C
For those asking, we sent dozens of stickers to Caleb earlier this week. We hope they put a smile on his face and give him comfort as he continues to battle cancer. Stay strong, Caleb. Stay strong. https://t.co/YpcJSR307u
NASCAR competition officials announced rules changes Thursday for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series next season, including reducing the Xfinity Series field from 40 to 38 cars.
The competition department also announced details about the 2019 Xfinity Series’ Dash 4 Cash program, plus updated guidelines for the owners’ championship format and the awarding of past champion’s provisional berths for both national series.
Starting in 2019, the Xfinity Series field for each race will consist of 33 starting positions based on qualifying speed, four provisional positions according to the rule book and one past champion’s provisional. Purse money that previously was awarded to the 39th and 40th finishers will be redistributed through the field.
“I think the main reason we’re making these changes is for a stronger field with greater competition,” said John Bobo, NASCAR vice president of racing operations. “We want to provide the best racing in the world for our fans and we have to monitor and make changes when needed. I think one of the great things that we did in looking at these changes is we worked really collaboratively with the teams, the drivers and the tracks to really just provide the strongest race product from all sides of the garage.”
The Dash 4 Cash initiative will return to the same four race tracks in 2019: Bristol (April 6), Richmond (April 12), Talladega (April 27) and Dover (May 4). The same driver participation rules will be in place, restricting Monster Energy Series drivers from Dash 4 Cash events to showcase the series’ regulars.
The same objective will be at work in the owners’ championship format next year in both the Xfinity Series and Truck Series, which will be renamed the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2019. Owners in both series will only earn postseason benefits — playoff points or automatic playoff berths by virtue of wins — in the owners’ standings if the driver earns championship points in their respective series. The move is meant to create incentives for organizations competing for the owner title to field series regulars.
“It’s important to know that we didn’t discourage that the other way,” Bobo said. “We want teams and owners to hire drivers from lower series and give them an opportunity in the higher series. …
“When we got our driver participation rules this last season, I think we felt it was a pretty good mix, but we continue to look at that and creating the type of balance that we need, so we’re really curious to see how this rule impacts that, and we’ll be really curious to see what it does. But we also think that it presents something really important, which is as we go into the playoffs, we don’t want an Xfinity team owner or a Truck team owner to hire Cup drivers to come in and win them additional points for the playoffs.”
Bobo also provided a timetable for any further announcements regarding Monster Energy Series drivers and their participation guidelines in lower series for 2019. The number of allowable Xfinity and Truck Series races for championship-eligible Monster Energy Series veterans has shrunk the last two seasons, including a full restriction in the playoffs for those two series.
“I think we’ll be coming out with that announcement shortly,” Bobo said. “I think this is a topic that our role as a sanctioning body is always to create balance in the field and also produce the best racing possible for the fans, and I think that we’ve had a hell of a season so far. The racing has just been fantastic. That’s a long way of saying we’re going to continue to look at this and even after we announce it, any rule change for 2019, we’ll continue looking at it.”
Competition officials also released 2019 rules regarding eligibility for past champion’s provisional berths. In the Xfinity Series, owner and current or former series champion drivers are eligible once every eight qualifying attempts for a maximum of four provisional berths that season. In the Gander Outdoors Truck Series, the eligibility is once every five qualifying attempts, also for a maximum of four provisional opportunities per season.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and K&N Pro Series West are comprised of drivers who one day will compete against each other for wins at NASCAR’s highest levels, including the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. But before they move up the ranks in the future, they presently are competing for championships in the ultra-competitive K&N Pro Series.
Both K&N circuits offer some of the most competitive racing in NASCAR, with up-and-comers, NASCAR Next drivers and seasoned veterans all on the same track together. Winning the K&N Pro Series championship often is an indicator of big things brimming in the future — past East champions include Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, Team Penske’s Joey Logano and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regulars Justin Haley and Ben Rhodes.
So we’re focusing on the championship battles as the K&N season winds to a close, and ahead of the combination race at Gateway Motorsports Park on Aug. 24. We highlight the top five drivers in each series and break down the championship races that are sure to thrill racing fans.
Car: No. 17 Toyota Points: 471 Behind leader: — Notes: Ankrum is the points leader for good reason — in 11 races, his worst finish so far this year is ninth. That’s a clean sweep of top-10 finishes, and he has nine top-five finishes to boot. The driver of the No. 17 Toyota has four wins on the year as well, including three in a row at Thompson, New Hampshire and Iowa. Having held the series points lead since the third race of the season, he is the championship favorite and one to keep an eye on once he moves up to the NASCAR national series level.
Car: No. 54 Toyota Points: 426 Behind leader: -45 Notes: Dippel is one of four full-time K&N Pro Series East drivers with a win this year, with his conquest at Langley Speedway serving as his second career win in the series. His average start this year is an impressive 3.9, which serves as the best in the entire series. His average finish of 5.9 ranks second-best among the series’ full-time drivers.
3. Ronnie Bassett Jr.
Car: No. 04 Chevrolet Points: 387 Behind leader: -84 Notes: Bassett is one of the veterans on the circuit despite being just 22 years old. He currently is trending toward matching his career-best season-long finish of third, which he also achieved last year when he nabbed his first career series win. Bassett’s 10th-place finish at Watkins Glen, the series’ most recent race, came at the right time as he’d gone three consecutive races finishing outside the top 10. With three top-five finishes in 11 races, Bassett has been able to avoid trouble most of the season to work his way up the standings.
Car: No. 6 Toyota Points: 374 Behind leader: -97 Notes: In his third full-time season in the East, Garcia nabbed his first win at Memphis International Raceway earlier this year. Garcia has been one of the best stories of the year, especially after opening the season with finishes of 26th, 10th, 10th, 12th and 15th. He was ninth in the standings at that point, but won the next week at Memphis to climb to sixth, and he’s been on the uptick ever since. Keep an eye on third through fifth in the standings as precious few points separate the drivers.
Car: No. 40 Toyota Points: 369 Behind leader: -102 Notes: Alfredo, a rookie at age 19, has been all over the place this year, but is one of the most exciting racers in the East. He also, arguably, has one of the best nicknames – Fast Pasta. The NASCAR Next member has one win and an impressive four top-five finishes to climb into the top five in the standings, but he also has crashed out of four races. His average start of 7.1 includes one pole and is third-best among drivers who have started all 11 races.
Car: No. 6 Ford Points: 382 Behind leader: — Notes: Thorn has been locked in an epic battle with Ryan Partridge throughout the season. Thorn currently occupies the top spot in the standings … for now. The two have swapped the points lead three times over the past six races. A win in the series’ most recent outing at Evergreen Speedway was Thorn’s second of the year, tied with two others for most among drivers who have made all nine series starts.
Car: No. 9 Ford Points: 364 Behind leader: -18
Notes: Partridge may have the most impressive stat among all K&N Pro Series West drivers. He has finished in the top five of every single race this year, which includes a victory at Orange Show Speedway in California. Partridge finished third in the series in 2015, his first full-time year, and was second to Todd Gilliland in the final standings last year. Expect him to be in contention for the series championship the rest of the year.
Car: No. 99 Toyota Points: 348 Behind leader: -34 Notes: Rouse jumped to third in the standings after last week’s race at Evergreen, ending a stretch of seven consecutive races of ranking fourth. Rouse’s eight top-10 finishes put him at the upper echelon of the series, but a 12th-place run at Sonoma has him just out of reach of first place … for now. He does have time over the next five races to chip away.
Car: No. 16 Toyota Points: 346 Behind leader: -36 Notes: A member of the NASCAR Next Class of 2018, Kraus has had plenty of highs in the K&N Pro Series West this year – two wins come to mind, particularly the opener at Bakersfield – but a few lows as well. His three finishes outside the top 10 are the most of anyone currently ranked in the top 10. He led the first 115 laps in the most recent race at Evergreen before running out of fuel and needing to refill. Still, the highs are high enough to think he’ll be in the championship race through the season finale at Bakersfield.
5. Hailie Deegan
Car: No. 19 Toyota Points: 327 Behind leader: -55 Notes: Deegan, another member of the NASCAR Next Class of 2018, has flashed star potential at times during her first full-time K&N Pro Series West season. At age 16, she finished runner-up to Derek Kraus at Douglas County Speedway in Oregon on June 30 as the highlight of her season. Deegan may contend for more wins as the season winds down – and championships in later years.
