Posted on by Holly Cain

A few days removed from an excursion to the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Festival in South Dakota, Clint Bowyer showed up at Michigan International Speedway invigorated and ready to repeat his work at the fast two-miler this summer – ready to win again.

He arrives for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 (2:30 ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) joining six-time race winners Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick and four-time winner Martin Truex Jr. as the only competitors with multiple Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins this season.

MORE: Full Michigan schedule | Which drivers are on the bubble?

Bowyer, 39, collected his second trophy at Michigan in the rain-shortened race this past June – the win a product of his fast No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and also some quick strategic thinking by his crew chief Mike Bugarewicz. Bowyer also won at Martinsville Speedway in March – his first win since October 2012 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In the last six months especially, Bowyer has revitalized his career and established a strong presence in the 2018 Cup championship race with his wins. It is reminiscent of that 2012 title-contending season (he finished runner-up to Brad Keselowski) and marks the third time in his career he’s hoisted more than one trophy in a season.

With only four races remaining to set the 16-driver playoff field and make a run at the title, Bowyer is currently fourth in the rankings. But he is also mindful that that his team must raise its game to be a part of that elite conversation.

What will it take? More wins, he explained. It’s simple.

“You have to elevate your game and rise to their capabilities and expectations,” Bowyer told the media Friday morning. “Those guys, not only do they have the wins, they are dominant cars that have led a lot of laps when they get those wins and all the stage points and all that stuff. You have to be able to do that more consistently.

 “On our team, that is what we have to do. We have touched on that and made some mistakes and know we have to get those mistakes behind us to capitalize on every possible situation. Every stage. Every lap. That is what we have to do better. We have to smooth out the highs and lows. You have to stay on top of the mountain. You can’t fall off the damn mountain. That’s what it boils down to.”

With the playoff push really starting to be felt, Bowyer’s wins give his team the opportunity to begin sizing up the 10 tracks and races that will ultimately decide the championship.  A fast, big track, Michigan is a reasonable reference point for some of the other venues the series visits – both to close out the regular season and also in the playoffs.

 “We were obviously really fast here last time and finished 1-2-3 with our Stewart-Haas camp,’’ Bowyer allowed. “Kevin [Harvick] was the class of the field and I think we ran third for most of the race. We were right there. All of our cars were really, really fast. That is the last race. That is so last week. You think about racing and whoever won last week, it doesn’t mean anything. Everybody gets better each week.

“You don’t go back after a win and sit on your hands and not do anything and talk about how good you were. You go to work on trying to get better. Doesn’t matter if you dominated the race and destroyed the field, you go back and go to work on getting better.

 “That being said, everybody has had time to get better here and I know they will. I also know we have, too. It is always exciting to go to any race track for the second time, especially when you have had some success to see how you will stack up when you unload again.” 

Bowyer’s performance in June at Michigan was certainly a welcome deviation from his recent results here. Before that win, he hadn’t had a top-20 since 2015 – a 10th-place that was the cap to a nine-race top-10 streak.

His Stewart-Haas team, however, has been the class of the field more often than not. They swept the podium at Michigan in June – a first for the organization. It’s been a similar showing in recent weeks.

The team had all four cars among the top eight at Sonoma Raceway. It had two in the top five at Chicago, three in the top eight at Kentucky. It had three among the top-10 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and three in the top 11 at both Pocono and last week at Watkins Glen. 

That momentum and keeping his eye on the 2018 prize is what Bowyer insists is most vital at the moment.

This week, his Ford team helped roll out the new Mustang that will compete in 2019. And as impressed as he is with the prospects, Bowyer would sure like to hoist a trophy driving this season’s Ford Fusion.

“I am looking forward to next year with the Mustang but I am looking forward to capitalizing on the program we have with the Fusion this year and getting the most out of that,’’ he explained. “Slowly but surely here the window is opening. 

“The playoffs are fixin’ to start and it is time to unleash the beast.”

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The driving story of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season has been the dominance of the ‘Big 3’ of Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. But a first career win by Erik Jones at Daytona may have marked the beginning of a plot twist.

Taking the No. 9 to Victory Lane at Watkins Glen, Chase Elliott became the second driver behind Jones to earn his maiden premier-series victory this year. Add that to a strong second-place run by Daniel Suarez, who nearly beat out Busch at Pocono Raceway, and it appears the youth movement may gradually come to fruition with four races remaining in the regular season.

RELATED: Full Michigan schedule | Hamlin leads first practice

“I think we (young drivers) all knew what (we) had to do,” Jones told NASCAR.com and NBC Sports following a tour of the Toyota Motor North America Research and Development facility on Thursday in York Township, Michigan. “I think there was just work, not only for the young guys, but the whole field, to catch up to the three who have been winning the majority of the races. It wasn’t just the young guys that needed to get there, it was everyone except them.”

Before his Daytona triumph, Jones only had one top-five finish to his credit. In the four races since then, Jones has scored two fifth-places results in as many races and hasn’t finished worse than 16th in that span.

Jones said they’ve been working hard to contend and win races, an effort that has shown in the recent performance.

“It does feel good to be one of the young guys who have won along with Chase,” Jones said. “I think it’s been good to see some variety here in the last month of guys who’ve been contending for wins and who have won some races. You can see that everyone has closed in a little bit.”

For the most part, the upswing in performance spans across all of Joe Gibbs Racing. Two straight top-five finishes by Suarez bode well for him to potentially squeak out a must-have victory to qualify for the postseason. Although Denny Hamlin has recorded one top-10 result in the past five races, he’s in solid position to make the playoffs without a win, sitting 189 points above the cutline heading into Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Jones gets behind-the-scenes look at Toyota’s presence in Detroit

But according to Jones, it’s been an uphill climb since February to get the organization’s Toyota Camrys to where they are now.

“I feel like we at JGR had some catch-up to play at the beginning of the year compared to some other teams,” Jones said. “I think we’ve done a good job of getting there. Kyle was really taking advantage of good execution to win some races early this year. I think he’d agree if you’d ask him that he didn’t have the best car. But now, I think we’re at the point where we can win some races based on having some of the best cars.”

With that said, is the No. 20 team peaking as the playoffs loom heading into Jones’ home track ?

“For right now, yeah,” said Jones. “We’re in a stretch of good tracks, at least for me and I think for JGR in general. If you look back in years past, JGR and Toyota have done a good job of continuously getting their cars better as the years go on, especially around playoff time. You’re seeing it again this year.”

Posted on by Staff Report

It’s early on a Friday morning at Michigan International Speedway during a weekend that celebrates children in our sport through the Kids Drive NASCAR platform. And it’s a perfect time to kick off a race weekend than with The NASCAR Foundation’s fifth Speediatrics Fun Day Festival of the year — the first such event at Michigan.

The NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Fun Day Festival is dedicated to inspiring children to lead a healthy lifestyle. Children in attendance at the event, held in Graves Farm Campground, had the opportunity to become acquainted with some of NASCAR’s up-and-coming drivers — NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers Dalton Sargeant and Myatt Snider — who also couldn’t help but demonstrate their competitive spirit alongside the kids.

Boy Scouts at Michigan's Fun Day Festival
Special to NASCAR.com

“Today is all about the kids,” The NASCAR Foundation Executive Director Nichole Krieger said. “We love having Dalton and Myatt out here with us to celebrate the kids in our sport and to show them that being healthy and active can be fun. We are grateful to partner with Michigan International Speedway to bring the Speediatrics Fun Day Festival to this racing community.”

NASCAR-themed Speediatrics characters took center stage throughout the event, with The NASCAR Foundation mascot Chase joining the drivers and kids to participate in NASCAR-themed field day activities: Safety Sam’s Pinewood Derby Race, Pit Stop Pete’s Goodyear Tire Race, Victory Lane’s Jump Rope Challenge and Chase’s Sponge Relay.

Boy Scouts at Michigan's Fun Day Festival
Special to NASCAR.com

The festival also became a backdrop to celebrate a $20,000 grant presented by The NASCAR Foundation to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Ann Arbor (RMHCAA), to assist efforts in providing a supportive home away from home for families of children experiencing a serious illness or injury requiring hospitalization at a local area health facility.

“The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Ann Arbor is grateful for the support provided by The NASCAR Foundation,” said Julaine LeDuc, RMHCAA’s development director.  “Nothing else should matter when a family is focused on the healing of their seriously ill or injured child. Donations enable us to provide a ‘home away from home’ which assists in alleviating the families’ emotional and financial stress.”

The partnership with Michigan International Speedway and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Ann Arbor is an initiative of The NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Children’s Fund, which supports needs expressed by hospitals, specialty clinics, camps and other organizations providing medical and health care services in NASCAR racing communities.

Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin jumped to the top position on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard Friday in opening practice at Michigan International Speedway.

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota registered a 202.230-mph lap around the 2-mile track. Of the 40 cars to post speeds in the 50-minute session, 15 cracked the 200-mph barrier.

RELATED: Practice 1 results | Who’s on the bubble entering Michigan?

Kurt Busch, a three-time Michigan winner, wrapped up the second-fastest lap (201.901 mph) in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Ford. Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch completed the top five in the first prep session for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Clint Bowyer, who prevailed in Michigan’s most recent event in June, turned in the seventh-fastest lap in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford. Defending race winner Kyle Larson was eighth-fastest in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet.

Chase Elliott, last weekend’s first-time winner at Watkins Glen, clocked the 14th-fastest lap (200.602 mph) in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet.

Busch Pole Qualifying for Sunday’s 400-miler is scheduled Friday at 5:05 p.m. ET (NBCSN).

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR announced before the season that it will standardize at-track team rosters across all three national series in 2018, providing a structure for the number of personnel working on each vehicle during the course of a race weekend.

Official team rosters for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been released. Click the print icon above, or the link below.

ROSTERS: Michigan

RELATED: Overview of 2018 rules updates

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

YORK TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Toyota Racing Development’s presence runs deep in Detroit.

And prior to action at Michigan International Speedway this weekend, drivers Erik Jones, Noah Gragson and Todd Gilliland had a chance to see just how deep when they toured Toyota Motor North America Research & Development on Thursday.

Spanning 700 acres with 1,718 employees, the R&D facility is home to Toyota’s North American technical center, focusing on engineering design, engine unit design, prototype development, vehicle evaluation and more. Well before Toyotas hit the street and the race track, the first steps of exploration, development and testing are taken a little over 40 miles outside of the Motor City.

The drivers toured the 180,000 square foot Safety Test Facility and saw presentations by high-ranking Toyota officials about various projects and technologies related to the sport. The best part? At least for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Jones, it was when he pressed the button in the crash-testing room that launched a Toyota Highlander into a barrier at roughly 30 mph.

Toyota
Photo courtesy of Toyota Racing

“The coolest part for me is the crash test,” said Jones, driver of the No. 20 Toyota in the Monster Energy Series. “The automotive world, as much as we’re connected to it, we don’t get to see the behind-the-scenes stuff more than once or twice a year. It’s cool to see the projects they have coming down the pipeline.”

For Gilliland, the vastness of the facility was something he wasn’t fully aware of prior to visiting the facility.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to visit the Toyota headquarters in Plano, Texas, so to see all of the development that goes on up here that goes all over the world is pretty cool,” Gilliland said.

He added one small request: “Hopefully we can build some more stuff to make our race cars go fast.”

 

Posted on by Pat DeCola

With a new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, a revamped driver lineup and restructuring of the physical layout of his organization, team owner Rick Hendrick expected a few bumps in the road in 2018.

What he didn’t expect, however, was a 21-race wait before Hendrick Motorsports broke through for its first win of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series campaign with Sunday’s thriller of a win for Chase Elliott at Watkins Glen International.

“I was getting ready to sweat this year,” Hendrick told NASCAR.com on Thursday, referencing the organization’s streak of 33 consecutive years with a trip to Victory Lane.

But, as the long-time owner pointed out, this drought may have simply been a tribulation through which the team will emerge stronger and more focused on winning and growing as a complete organization from top to bottom.

WATCH: All Access: Chase’s final laps

“It’s that winning attitude, and sometimes going through tough times will make you better,” Hendrick said. “I think we just refused to quit and kept digging and were willing to share, willing to learn and willing to try something different.”

Now that Elliott’s first career win — and that elusive, historic 250th win as an organization — have been secured, the vibe around the shop is tangible and infectious.

“It’s got everybody on their toes celebrating,” Hendrick said. “It’s been a little bit of a drought for us. Just walking around the campus, you see everybody smiling and ringing the victory bell. It’s a real uplifting deal because we’ve kind of struggled this year.

“A win will do a lot for an organization. We’ve had some droughts before, but we’ve also had times where we’ve won four championships back-to-back in the 90s, and five championships with Jimmie and 17 races in a year. But we’ve got a new car, we had a shift in the way we organize our company and putting everybody in one place, all the engineers and crew chiefs. That was a change. …

“I look at where we are now and where we started, and it’s night and day. I feel real good about it, I think we’ve built a foundation for the future and we’ve just gotta keep digging a little bit better every week. That’s our goal.”

RELATED: Three Hendrick drivers are on the playoff bubble

Sarah Crabill | Getty Images
Sarah Crabill | Getty Images

With the foundation for the future now in place and trending upward, Hendrick took a moment to reflect on those that laid the bricks for the organization throughout its rich history and humble beginnings.

The history books will deeply show the impact drivers and crew chiefs such as Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have had on Hendrick Motorsports. But when an organization has won with 17 different drivers and 24 different crew chiefs on 26 different tracks, according to Hendrick, surely there will be unsung heroes among them.

MORE: Celebrating Hendrick drivers after 250 wins

“I have to go back to Harry Hyde,” Hendrick said of the NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee. “When we started, Harry would tell me ‘Man, if somebody would give me a chance, I could do this.’

“Harry was renting me 5,000 square feet. He was renting me the tools, the gears, transmissions and he only took $500 a week as a crew chief. We had five people when we started and two of them were volunteers. And we won three races that year (1984). Try to do that now. Impossible. I have to give Harry a shout out for being willing to put everything on the line, and then Geoff Bodine, to take a chance and get in the car with an unproven team … If it weren’t for those two guys, we wouldn’t be talking today. There wouldn’t be a Hendrick Motorsports.”

Two hundred and fifty wins later, HMS is among NASCAR’s elite, with a future as bright as it has ever had ahead.

Perhaps it took one intentional step back to recalibrate with all of its fresh changes over the offseason, but it’s starting to pay dividends — Elliott has been among the strongest drivers this summer, and Johnson, Alex Bowman and William Byron appear ready to follow.

As it goes, one step back, two steps forward.

“I didn’t think it was going to be as tough as it was when we started, for sure, but the thing that really excites me is how our folks dug in and said ‘We refuse to run like this, we refuse to lose. We’re going to get better,’ ” Hendrick said.

“… We’re getting smarter with the car. And again, the way we restructured the company, we’re getting smarter together and we’re working really tight and close together and I’m just as proud as I am of the win, I’m as proud the organization didn’t buckle when things got tough. They just worked harder and its starting to pay off,” he said.

“We’re not there yet and we’ve got a ways to go, but this sure feels good.”

Posted on by Matt Crossman

DEARBORN, Mich. — Tony Stewart climbed into a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car Thursday for the first time since 2016. He fired the Mustang up, stepped on the gas, and felt the car roar to life underneath him. Alas, he never got out of second gear as he drove from Ford’s Flat Rock plant to the world headquarters in Dearborn.

Slow as that entry might have been, he got an ovation from the hundreds of fans on hand when he arrived at “Mustang Victory Circle” anyway, as Ford unveiled the Mustang that will compete in 2019 at the highest level of American motorsports for the first time.

Ford Mustang Reveal Fc1
Photo courtesy of Ford Performance

RELATED: First look at the new Mustang

Blue and white confetti rained down as Stewart climbed from the car. All of the Monster Energy Series Ford drivers took in the scene seeing what awaits them for the 2019 campaign.

“The car guy in me wants to look at the lines and how sexy it is,” said Clint Bowyer, who drives for Stewart-Haas Racing. The NASCAR driver in him, Bowyer said, tries to figure out how fast it will be, and where engineers and crew chiefs will push to make it even faster.

“You put in the due diligence, put in the effort, in the hope it will perform better, obviously,” he said. “It’s like everything in life. You put your blood, sweat and tears into it. But you really don’t know until you go out and line her up and see what she does. With the technology and everything we have in today’s day and age, we think it’ll be bigger and better than we’ve ever had.”

This was a big week for the Mustang, Ford’s oldest car and the world’s best-selling sports coupe. In addition to the NASCAR news Thursday, the 10 millionth Mustang rolled off the assembly plant in Flat Rock on Wednesday. Mark Rushbrook, global director for Ford’s motorsports activities, tried to push it one step further, jokingly asking Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer, if the Mustang could run in Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 race at Michigan International Speedway (at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Enter for a chance at a new Ford, trip to Championship Week

The Mustang has a long history in racing. Its first race was in 1964, when it was a surprise winner of the Tour de France Automobile, a 10-day, 4,000-mile suffer fest. The Mustang has also competed in SCCA, Trans-Am, IMSA, NHRA, Formula Drift and NASCAR Xfinity (since 2011). But it has never competed at NASCAR’s highest level. That will change next year when it debuts in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 17, 2019.

The Cup-level Mustang is the result of collaboration between NASCAR, Ford performance and design teams and NASCAR teams that field entries for the famed blue oval. Designers and engineers worked hard to create a car that will be both competitive and remain true to its heritage.

MORE: Full schedule for the 2019 season

Jack Roush, owner of Roush Fenway Racing, knows plenty about both. He has fielded Fords for his entire career, which includes 3,565 races, 137 wins and two championships at the Cup level. He ordered his first Mustang in 1964 — within 30 days of the new sports car’s debut on the market. Thirty days after that, he had a job inspecting Mustangs as they came off the assembly line. Nobody in NASCAR has such a tight connection to one model.

“Mustang is a river that has run through me,” he said.

One day in the late 1960s, he took his Mustang for a ride headed south on I-75 from his home near Detroit. He looked up and saw police lights. He pulled over, and the police officer approached his car.

“He told me I was ‘outclassing’ the traffic today,” Roush said. “I thought it meant I had a better car, so I considered that as a compliment.”

Roush again hopes his Mustangs outclass the field in 2019. But not in the same way. That Mustang — it was a blue 1964 that Roush drove until it had 100,000 miles on it — was, indeed, a better car. But that’s not what the police officer meant. He meant Roush was speeding and wrote him a ticket.

Posted on by Track Release

CONCORD, N.C. – To ease weather-related worries about buying NASCAR race tickets, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. today announced a Fans First initiative that will have fans ‘singing in the rain’.

The Speedway Motorsports Weather Guarantee provides race fans the ultimate assurance in their NASCAR ticket investment. As part of the company’s new weather policy, if a NASCAR race is postponed due to weather and the ticket holder is unable to attend on the rescheduled date, a ticket credit can be issued toward a qualifying NASCAR race at any Speedway Motorsports venue. This initiative is valid for Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.

“Of all major professional sports, none is as heavily impacted by adverse weather as NASCAR,” said Speedway Motorsports’ President and CEO Marcus Smith. “With drivers already racing on the very edge at nearly 200 mph, even a little rain can have a dramatic impact on race weekend schedules. What we want to do is take weather out of the ticket-buying equation so fans can focus on having a great time and making memories on our premier NASCAR event weekends.”

Fans with an unused, eligible ticket will have 60 days from the original race date to request a ticket credit on a qualifying future event. The credit must be used toward another Speedway Motorsports’ NASCAR event within one calendar year of the original race date or the same event the following year, even if it takes place beyond the one-year mark. Certain restrictions may apply. Click here for further details on the Speedway Motorsports Weather Guarantee.