Posted on by @nascarcasm

Post-race fireworks went off again at Pocono Raceway, as the brash, ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, in-your-face, trash-talking Aric Almirola once again found himself on the receiving end of another driver’s ire — Matt DiBenedetto. Aric’s arms must be sore from stirring the pot all the time.

MORE: Watch the confrontation

DiBenedetto confronted Almirola after the race. Almirola kept his helmet on, I’m presuming because DiBenedetto strikes me as the kind of guy who coats himself in Old Spice body spray, but regardless, the two are clearly still at odds with each other.

On behalf of the motorsports media corps, of which I am a fringe member in that I’m allowed in the media center but only to charge my phone and stuff my jacket full of free bottled water, which I then go out to the grandstands and sell at a markup, I make a humble request — please broker a peace accord and end this.

Granted, it’s not that we don’t want you two to come to fisticuffs in the garage after the race — the virtual tsunami of clicks would do WONDERS for us. I mean I can picture the headline now: “YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHO GOT IN A FIGHT AFTER THE RACE — IT MAY SHOCK YOU.”

No, we want this feud to end because we don’t want to have to spell “DiBenedeterotto/Almirolanon” over and over again. The risks are too great. It’s too hard to spell. And if you say it out loud, it sounds like a Harry Potter spell or something.

Have you ever been driving down the road and then suddenly you hit traffic (NOTE: Charlotte residents who drive on I-77, no need to answer) or hit a giant speed bump? That’s what it’s like when you’re typing a story or a tweet and then reach the part where you’d have to type “DiBenedegettio/Halmirola.” You suddenly have to slam the brakes and double and triple check it to make sure it’s spelled right. It completely screws up the rhythm. Actually, that’s just for the stories. Spelling doesn’t matter anymore with tweets.

Plus we think the fight might be one-sided. You may not know this by following Matt DiBenderito’s Instagram account, and I may be doing him a disservice by letting this little-known morsel of information loose onto the internet, but the dude works out occasionally. The fight would have three times as many syllables as punches.

Instead of feuding, you should be bonding over your last names. Hang out. Get to know each other. The collective smell of bacon and Dude Wipes is the aroma of peace and harmony.

Editor’s Note: To the author of this post’s point … we agree.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

With competition in NASCAR at a high, particularly surrounding this year’s “Big 3,” race teams have employed new and sophisticated ways to conceal secrets and strategies from rival organizations. In the same way fans at home can listen to Kyle Busch’s team radio during the race on TV or the NASCAR Mobile App, competitors can eavesdrop just the same, perhaps gleaning some insight into race strategy or car adjustments that might help more than just the team discussing the race.

Enter team code words.

At Pocono Raceway on Sunday, Kyle Busch made a pit stop and asked for an adjustment to his car, but in a slightly atypical manner. Instead of requesting the usual changes — a looser car, a tighter car, more drive off the corner, an ice pack — he asked for “strawberries.” Yes, strawberries. No, that’s not a typical term for a change to a NASCAR race car.

We never found out for what “strawberries” stood, exactly, but they must have worked, considering Busch won the race.

In the spirit of the No. 18 team’s “strawberries”, we’ve created a new generator to help teams come up with their own code words for discussing race strategy. Who knows — maybe the next time you’re listening, you’ll hear a team ask for “sweet potato” and know it means “take two tires”, or you’ll hear a crew chief shout “pumpernickel” over the radio and know it means “pit next lap.”

We hope you’re hungry.

Posted on by Zack Albert

William Byron has had plenty of expertise to lean on for advice in his rookie Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Prime among them: his seasoned teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, a four-driver roster that includes a wealth of knowledge from seven-time champ Jimmie Johnson.

But Byron has also had some guidance from a source outside the Hendrick fold, a helping hand who’s willing to offer his wisdom to the next wave of talent but who’s also standing his ground for the veteran guard on the track. That driver, one of this year’s “Big 3,” is Kevin Harvick.

“He has been open to helping and I feel like that’s been critical for my career,” says Byron, who recalled he was still racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series when they first crossed paths. “Kevin and I were actually hanging out at Watkins Glen a couple years ago, and he just basically told me the trajectory that I need to have on my career and the things I should look for. You just don’t get that from people a lot of times, so even this year, he’s sat down with me, we’ve had breakfast and had a chance to talk.

“I think Kevin is someone that’s open to helping the younger drivers. He wants to see us succeed, but he’s still really competitive and hard to beat.”

Byron and the rest of the field will take on Harvick & Co. in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), the final road-course race in the regular season. The 20-year-old Byron will be making his first big-league start at the 2.45-mile track, where his only experience thus far is in Xfinity and K&N competition.

RELATED: Full schedule for Watkins Glen

Byron said he’s placed more emphasis on simulation work to get a better feel for the circuit, but that he’s also leaned on veteran road racers Max Papis and Ron Fellows for their feedback. An X-factor that may also provide a boost, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet is fresh from a career-best sixth-place finish last weekend at Pocono Raceway.

That sort of result, Byron says, should help the team press a little less going forward.

“I think you start to not go outside your box of information,” Byron says. “I think when you’re struggling or have a bad run, you start to kind of throw stuff at the car or you take bigger risks that don’t need to happen. That’s when you get in trouble, so I feel like when you’re running better, you show up more relaxed and it’s more of a controlled weekend.”

Byron sits firmly in the adjustment period in his first full season at Hendrick Motorsports, with a handful of tracks still on the schedule that he’ll be visiting for the first time. One of the biggest shifts, he says, has been getting familiar with the increased race length, jumping up from the Xfinity Series’ maximum of 300-mile distances to a steady diet of 400- and 500-milers — something “I still feel like my mental clock is not completely used to,” he says.

Though there’s been more travel at the premier-series level with a longer season, Byron says he’s enjoyed the new flow to the weekend.

“You have a lot of time to think about the race,” Byron says. “There’s a lot of stuff that leads up to the race and then you have a chance to really get your mind right. I feel like in Xfinity, you qualify the same day, there’s a bunch of stuff happening, the Cup cars are practicing and then all of a sudden, you race. There’s such a jumbled mess of things going on, so I think the Cup schedule is a little bit more focused around the race, and that’s pretty cool.”

Byron currently holds a 71-point lead over Bubba Wallace in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contest with 15 races left in the season. Though that title has been worn by some of the sport’s greats, Byron said his attention has been more focused on the overall standings and a late five-race push for the playoffs.

“I did probably earlier in the year, but I feel like it got to a point where you just need to improve the performance first and then that’s going to take care of itself,” Byron said of the rookie standings. “I think what’s positive right now is the runs we’re having. I’ll be honest, I don’t really look at the points as far as the gap or whatever because at this point, it’s probably going to take a win. I go out there hoping to win and I feel like we’re actually getting to that point where we’re going to contend for them. I’d rather do that this year than focus on points.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Beyond their shared 49 victories in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart are on similar sure-footed paths toward their inevitable ultimate days in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Busch’s victory Sunday at Pocono tied him with Stewart on the sport’s all-time wins list — a feat immediately recognized by the retired three-time champ.

“Congrats on win #49 today @kylebusch. There’s many more to come. Proud of you,” Stewart posted on his Twitter account, adding two emojis of “thumbs up.”

RELATED: Stewart congratulates Kyle Busch on No. 49

Busch, who was teammates with Stewart at Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2008 season, was genuinely moved by Stewart’s message — and by the feat.

“That’s awesome,” Busch said about tying Stewart. “And you keep reaching higher up the ladder and you keep reaching milestone drivers, and Tony Stewart is one of the all-time best — and one of the drivers that I was a fan of as well growing up so it’s awesome to be able to tie him.”

Even with a decade generation gap, these two hard-nosed, natural talents share many competitive traits in terms of racing talent and professional demeanor. And as their paths to NASCAR history cross, it’s interesting and revealing to explore the similarities and differences that separated them from others.

They are intense competitors, both willing to share their disappointment as well as their accomplishment — apt to take shots at themselves, the media, their team, their cars, even the sanctioning body — when results don’t match expectations.

They have been brutally candid in a time when others are prone to demure and gloss over. Political correctness has never been their style. They are genuine and honest — in good times and bad — a lost art for many star athletes no matter the sport these days.

Does losing hurt? You bet it does. Does winning feel incredibly good? You bet it does. Look at their faces, listen to the tone of voice, watch the emotion. Fortunately, in the case of both Busch and Stewart — winning has more often been the way of life and ultimately what will define both these supremely talented champions.

Here’s a look at how they tallied their historic numbers:

It took Stewart — who retired in 2016 — 598 starts to reach 49 wins. He didn’t start competing in the Monster Energy Series full-time until 1999 when he was 28 years old — arriving in the stock-car ranks already the first driver in history to win the USAC Triple Crown (Sprint Cars, Midgets and Silver Crown) in 1995 and then earning the Indy Racing League championship in 1997.

Busch, on the other hand, was only 20 years old before landing a full-time Cup job with Hendrick Motorsports in 2005. He finished runner-up in the 2004 Xfinity Series championship and had only a handful of Camping World Truck Series starts by the time he made his full-time Cup debut.

RELATED: The times Busch, Stewart finished 1-2

Both drivers won immediately at the Cup level, however.

Stewart won three races in his 1999 rookie season — at Richmond, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami — and finished fourth in the championship run that year. Busch won two races his 2005 rookie season — at Fontana and Phoenix. He was only 20th in the championship standings, however, while Stewart hoisted his first of three season trophies.

Stewart won races at 21 different tracks on the schedule — with a personal high, and still series record of five victories at Watkins Glen where the series races this week. His wins covered the gamut of superspeedways to short tracks to 1.5-milers to road courses. He won multiple times on 15 tracks.

Busch has won races at 23 tracks — and claims multiple wins at 14 tracks. His seven victories at Bristol Motor Speedway are a personal best. As with Stewart, he has won on every type of venue on the schedule.

While Stewart and Busch have championships to their credit, neither has won the Daytona 500 in a combined 30 starts.

The numbers and statistics represent the elite, championship-caliber talent Busch and Stewart share — and with Busch rapidly adding to his win total, there seems to be limitless opportunity to expand his historical imprint. Next up on the historical Cup victory chart is win No. 50, which would tie Busch with NASCAR Hall of Famers Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett.

With his win Sunday, Busch tied Kevin Harvick with six wins each this season. The 2015 champion is not only in a title chase but is also within eight victories of another historic milestone — 200 NASCAR wins — a tally associated with the great Richard Petty, who earned them all in the Cup Series.

Busch’s total would represent all three major NASCAR divisions — he has 49 wins in Cup, 92 in the Xfinity Series and 51 in the Camping World Truck Series for a total of 192 victories.

Just for perspective, NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson has 106 wins (all but one in the Cup Series). Dale Earnhardt had 97 national series wins (76 in Cup and 21 in Xfinity), Jeff Gordon has 98 total (93 in Cup, five in Xfinity) and Stewart has 62 national series victories (49 in Cup, 11 in Xfinity and two in the trucks).

“Any time you’re able to continue to win races in this series, it’s obviously just that extra step, and you keep continuing to climb the ladder,” Busch said following Sunday’s Pocono win. “There’s a lot of great names that I’ve passed already and that I’ve tied today with Tony and that I very much look up to that are higher and look to one day be able to accomplish all of them.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Joey Logano and Team Penske revealed their Darlington throwback scheme for the 2018 Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Tuesday during NASCAR America on NBCSN.

Logano will sport a scheme honoring Steve Park in the Sept. 2 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the NBC Sports App).

“It is so fun to be driving Steve’s (Park) car at Darlington,” Logano said in a team release. “It’s a cool looking car and something that we have talked about for a long time. We have always been asked by fans, ‘when are we going to run the Steve Park car,’ and here it is.”

MORE: Buy tickets to Darlington!

Park competed in what was the Monster Energy Series for 10 years and won two races with 35 top-10 finishes in 183 starts. His first victory came in this scheme in 2000 at Watkins Glen International, site of this weekend’s GoBowling at The Glen (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM and the NBC Sports App).

RELATED: See other Darlington throwback schemes

Logano has never won at Darlington — in nine career starts he has four top-10 finishes and two top-five finishes. His best result was a fourth-place finish in 2015, a race won by Carl Edwards.

Joey Logano and Steve Park with 2018 Darlington throwback scheme
Photo Credit: Clutch Studios

And here’s a look at Park’s 2000 scheme that Logano and Team Penske are replicating:

Steve Park Pennzoil scheme from 2000
Jonathan Ferrey

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Richard Childress Racing and driver Ryan Newman will honor Neil Bonnett this year at Darlington Raceway, sporting a sleek black throwback look that honors the former member of the famed “Alabama Gang.”

Newman and sponsor Caterpillar combined to reveal the news Tuesday afternoon, one day after Bonnett’s birthday — he would have turned 72 this year. Bonnett died in 1994 at age 47 following a wreck during practice for the Daytona 500.

RELATED: See all of the throwback paint schemes

Graphic of Ryan Newman's paint scheme

The RCR veteran is the latest driver to unveil his colors and scheme for the ever-popular Darlington throwback weekend.

The 2018 throwback weekend will be the track’s fourth race under the award-winning platform. This year’s theme, “Seven Decades of NASCAR,” embodies the sport’s storied history over 70 years.

Bonnett won 18 times at NASCAR’s top level — the exact total where Newman currently sits — including a stretch of 11 victories from 1979-83. He also logged 83 top-five finishes, 156 top 10s and started from the pole 20 starts in 362 career Monster Energy Series races.

MORE: Buy tickets to Darlington!

A driver for several teams, Bonnett drove the No. 31 twice in 1993, which is the scheme Newman and his team will honor for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 (Sept. 2, 6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RacingOne
The 1993 Neil Bonnett paint scheme that Ryan Newman will honor. | RacingOne
Posted on by Zack Albert

Tom Higgins, who told the stories of stock-car racing for decades as a reporter and author, has died. He was 80.

Among his many accolades, Higgins was the 2015 recipient of the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. He had been in declining health since suffering a stroke last year.

Higgins is credited as the first writer to cover every race on the NASCAR schedule. He joined the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer as a reporter on outdoor recreation and transitioned into the motorsports beat full-time. He was a mainstay at the Observer until his retirement in 1997.

“For more than five decades, Tom Higgins was an ever-present figure in the NASCAR garage,” said NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France. “Within the industry, he built a reputation as a trusted and fair voice who delivered our sport to the fans. To those fans, he was a must-read journalist whose reporting was rightly taken as gospel. Simply put, he defined what it meant to be a NASCAR beat reporter.

“As such, his outstanding career earned him NASCAR’s top honor for journalists, the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence, in 2015. On behalf of the France Family and all of NASCAR, I extend my deepest condolences to the friends and family of Tom Higgins, a true NASCAR media giant.”

Higgins was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 2011. He also was recognized with the Henry T. McLemore Award for lifetime achievement in motorsports journalism from the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1980.

“He was very well-respected with the racing crowd, from the Allison (family) all the way to Jeff Gordon,” Richard Petty told the Observer years ago. “He probably covered more racing than any one individual.”

Drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon were among several in the NASCAR community to offer condolences to the Higgins family on social media.

Higgins was raised in the mountain community of Burnsville, North Carolina, and became a two-sport standout in baseball and basketball. His connection to the outdoors spurred him to take on his first writing jobs in the Blue Ridge towns of Canton and Asheville.

“Once I got to Asheville and heard the clacking of those teletype machines and was part of putting out a daily newspaper, I was hooked,” Higgins told the Asheville Citizen-Times in 2014.

Higgins was also won over by stock-car racing, covering his first NASCAR event on July 1, 1956, at the former Asheville-Weaverville Speedway. Hall of Famer Lee Petty was the winner. Higgins said he initially balked at the assignment, but became enamored by the sounds, smells and the personalities.

“I thought it was the wildest thing I had ever seen,” Higgins told the Asheville paper. “Those people were crazy.” But his bonds with the sport’s earliest stars only grew through the years. “When I started, the drivers and I were the same age, and they had the same background as me,” he said. “Small towns, just regular fellas, and we hit it off.”

From the sport’s pioneers to the most recent generation of drivers and mechanics, Higgins covered them all with a homespun style. He chronicled the life of original NASCAR hero Junior Johnson in a book he co-authored with Steve Waid, the 2019 Squier-Hall honoree.

After his retirement from the Observer, Higgins remained active as a writer on a freelance basis and in his personal blog. He said later that his philosophy for covering the sport and cultivating relationships was borrowed from his mountain upbringing, a code among the community to treat people fairly and with respect.

“I really, really enjoyed the people,” Higgins told the Citizen-Times. “I’m tickled to say I got invited to a lot of (drivers’) parties and poker games, and not many people in the press were afforded that opportunity. They trusted me, and they did throughout my career, and I’m proud of that.”

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Wow, a different type of “You up?” text from Noah Gragson! This time, the Camping World Truck Series driver solicited some companionship on Twitter in the form of iRacing competitors.

Fans had some fun running laps with Gragson and NASCAR Next driver Will Rodgers in advance of their races at Pocono Raceway this past weekend. Unfortunately for Gragson, illness kept him out of his Kyle Busch Motorsports truck at Pocono Saturday — but at least he logged some laps on iRacing for next time.

Bubba Wallace, too, hit up Twitter in search of iRacing drivers looking to turn some laps on the dirt.

Xfinity Series driver Spencer Boyd’s no stranger to iRacing, and he enjoyed some time in the motion simulator this week.

William Byron’s journey is the canonical iRacing-to-pro story. NASCAR on FOX’s Regan Smith spoke with Byron about his rise to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

 

NASCAR PEAK ANTIFREEZE iRACING SERIES UPDATE

Who doesn’t like a first-time winner? Lockdown Racing’s Jimmy Mullis claimed his first-ever NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Tuesday. Early in the race, it looked like Michael Conti could have claimed his third checkered flag in Loudon, N.H., but lost time after a botched pit stop.

Following New Hampshire, Slip Angle Motorsports teammates Ray Alfalla and Bobby Zalenski swapped the top two points positions, moving three-time champion Alfalla back to the top.

The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series resumes action at Pocono Raceway August 7. Cody Byus won last year’s race from the pole, but hasn’t started a race since April.

iRACING PAINT SCHEMES OF THE WEEK

Bubba Wallace showed his excitement racing a Justin Kruithof-created dirt late model version of Wallace’s Richard Petty Motorsports Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ride.

Jordan E. created an iRacing version of Elliott Sadler’s Xfinity Series car racing at Watkins Glen and Kansas.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME

We’ve all had days where we wanted to climb the fence and go home.

https://twitter.com/jgallstar1_tv/status/1021920032354455552?s=21

Posted on by Staff Report

Aric Almirola opened up to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday morning regarding his run-in with Matt DiBenedetto on pit road following the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway.

Following the conclusion of Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 at the “Tricky Triangle,” DiBenedetto angrily confronted the Stewart-Haas Racing driver by his No. 10 Ford Fusion — after also taking a swipe at Almirola’s ride with his No. 32 Go Fas Racing Ford on the cooldown lap.

RELATED: See what transpired between Almirola and DiBenedetto

“He was frustrated or upset, I guess, that I passed him on the last lap,” Almirola said during the interview. “I don’t know. I guess he thought that I shouldn’t race for 25th. I race for every spot all race long; I don’t care if it’s for 25th or for the lead. I guess he thought I should have let him finish 25th and I wasn’t going to do that.

“I passed him in the Tunnel Turn on the last lap and he said I took his line away from him and he was upset about it. I don’t know. I hate it for him that he didn’t finish 25th, but it’s called racing.”

While DiBenedetto hasn’t quite expressed his view of the matter yet, he alluded to the incident on Twitter following Sunday’s race in which he had a first-time sponsor on his car.

Still, the fact that the run-in transpired at all caught Almirola off guard.

“I was baffled,” he continued. “I was blown away after the race when he came and ran into the side of me and just spun me out. I couldn’t wrap my head around what he was so upset about, but apparently … I understand. When you’re back there and you’re fighting to stay on the lead lap week in and week out, racing like that, 25th is a big deal.

“But I was racing.”

UPDATE: Matt DiBenedetto has perhaps (jokingly) poured more fuel on the fire, replying to a NASCAR on NBC tweet referencing the feud with a well-placed GIF from Happy Gilmore.

Posted on by Staff Report

Tony Stewart, lip sync artist?

Turns out the three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion has some skills, as shown off in a Lip Sync Challenge video posted by the Columbus, Indiana, police department. The Indiana town is Stewart’s hometown, and the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing had fun with his appearance.

RELATED: Stewart tweets congratulations at Kyle Busch

Who knew Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was a jam for “Smoke?” Watch below for the cameo which happens at the start.