Posted on by Zack Albert

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Add close friend Kyle Larson to the list of people surprised by Kasey Kahne’s Thursday announcement that 2018 would mark his last season in NASCAR.

Larson and Kahne both split time last weekend between Michigan International Speedway and the Knoxville Nationals, the premier event for sprint-car racing. But Larson says that the notion of Kahne leaving the stock-car circuit never came up.

RELATED: Larson primed for Bristol| Drivers react to Kahne’s announcement

Kahne, 38, said he’s opting to spend more time with his 2 1/2-year-old son, Tanner, and to continue as a hands-on driver/owner for his sprint-car operation.

“None. I was kind of caught off guard by it,” Larson said Thursday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I spent a whole week with him in Knoxville and he never mentioned anything about that. So yeah, a little surprising but I think in his situation with having Tanner and wanting to spend more time with him, it’s going to be a lot of fun for him — as well as he’ll get to race a sprint car a bunch. He loves doing that and loves trying to figure out how to make his car go faster and being his own crew chief over there is a lot of fun for him.

“I’m excited for him because I know it’s going to be a fun change for him. He’s just going to enjoy life a lot more than he already does.”

Kahne, an 18-time winner in his 15th Monster Energy Series season, sits 28th in the drivers’ standings.

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Larson revealed his Darlington throwback scheme Thursday, and it’s one that honors NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Davey Allison. Larson will run the same type of striping effect that Allison had at one time on his famous No. 28 Texaco Havoline Ford.

The stripes on Larson’s  No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet will be in the colors of DC Solar at Darlington. Larson told NASCAR.com’s Jessica Ruffin recently that this year’s throwback idea was near and dear to Jeff Carpoff, the president and CEO of DC Solar.

RELATED: Darlington paint schemes

Larson will run the scheme in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Sept. 2 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson has three top-10 finishes in his four appearances at Darlington in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

MORE: Buy Tickets for Darlington

 

Posted on by Jordan Bianchi

It was the kind of finish in a rough-and-tumble race that should’ve had Cole Custer encouraged leaving Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Yet, while the seventh-place finish extended Custer’s streak of consecutive top 10s to five and 10 in the past 11 races overall, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver couldn’t help but think a better result — and the accompanying points — had slipped away.

“I want to win,” Custer said. “That’s what we want to do. It’s frustrating when things don’t go your way. I thought we were doing everything right, we just need everything to fall into place.”

Adding to Custer’s sense that a better day escaped him at Mid-Ohio is that he is locked into a tight battle where with five regular season races remaining the top five in the Xfinity standings are separated by a scant 20 points with only a three-point gap between second through fifth.

RELATED: Xfinity Series standings 

And on Saturday, despite finishing seventh, Custer conceded points to Justin Allgaier (race winner), Daniel Hemric (third) and Elliott Sadler (sixth). Custer only gained ground on points leader Christopher Bell, who finished 11th after a late-race spin caused by contact with Sadler.

Whomever wins the regular-season points crown earns an additional 15 playoff points, while second is worth 10 points; the top 10 in the standings all earn a declining amount of points. How points are distributed for excellence during the regular season means any points lost now may make a big difference come the postseason. A year ago, Custer started the playoffs four points behind Hemric — the same margin Hemric ultimately edged Custer out by for the final transfer spot into the championship finale.

The ethos that every point matters is how Allgaier and crew chief Jason Burdett approached Mid-Ohio, and plan to do so throughout the remainder of the regular season. That mentality paid off, with Allgaier scoring 10 regular season points for winning the first stage, a single point for finishing 10th in Stage 2 and six playoff points for winning a stage plus the overall victory.

The Xfinity Series next races Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, followed by the final regular-season stops at Road America (Aug. 25), Darlington Raceway (Sept. 1), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Sept. 8) and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Sept. 15).

“This is a good stretch of races for us to get points, to make up points,” Burdett said. “There are a lot of bonus points for winning the regular season championship, and if we can get on up to first or second … all those bonus points are going to be huge.”

Although Bell had the worst finish of the top-five contenders at Mid-Ohio — attributed to contact with Sadler as they contested the second position that resulted in Bell spinning — he remains the championship leader going into Bristol. Not only is Bell up 17 points on Sadler and Hemric, who are tied for second, but he owns a series-best four wins and has emphatically shed the inconsistency that pockmarked his first half of the regular season.

“Winning bonus points and the regular season championship has been our No. 1 focus since we won at Richmond (April 20),” Bell said. “Our goal has been to try and make life as easy as possible during the playoffs.”

Bristol can be unforgiving, though, and an off night by Bell on Friday could open the door for any of the four drivers immediately behind him to vault ahead in the standings. That’s a fact Bell knows all too well, as he crashed out while running near the front during the spring race at the half-mile Tennessee track.

“Bristol is so fast, it’s a short track that races similar to a mile-and-a-half,” Bell said. “It’s easy to get in trouble because it’s so fast and narrow. It’s a place to have to survive to be there at the end.”

Should Bell stumble, Sadler, Hemric, Custer and Allgaier are each well-positioned to capitalize. Allgaier appears especially capable of taking the fight to Bell, as he, too, has come on strong over the second half, riding a streak where he’s finished no worse than ninth over the past nine races. The JR Motorsports driver also ranks first in laps led and his three victories trail only Bell’s four.

“The regular season champion — I don’t know if we can get to first, but we’re still pushing,” Allgaier said.

Posted on by Staff Report

Longtime fan favorite Kasey Kahne announced his retirement from full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing following the 2018 season on Thursday morning.

Not only popular with NASCAR Nation, Kahne, 38, was well-respected among his peers in the garage, as well.

Fellow competitors and former teammates reached out to Kahne on Twitter to offer their congrats on a career that included 31 trips to Victory Lane across all three series, including several marquee wins.

MORE: All of Kasey Kahne’s Monster Energy Series wins | Career in photos

 

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Fifteen-year premier series veteran Kasey Kahne revealed that 2018 will be his last full-time season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Kahne, 38, currently drives the No. 95 Chevrolet for Leavine Family Racing.

“I’ve thought about this decision for many months, if not longer,” Kahne wrote on his Twitter account. “It’s time for me to step away from racing in NASCAR full time.”

(See the full statement in the Twitter post at the bottom of this article.)

Kahne has compiled 18 wins in 527 starts in the Monster Energy Series, most notably capturing the Coca-Cola 600 three times (2006, ’08, ’12) and the Brickyard 400 once, his last victory driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

MORE: Recap of Kahne’s final Hendrick season | Career in photos

Kahne’s best finish in the season-ending standings was fourth in 2012 while driving for Hendrick and with Kenny Francis as his crew chief. He was the Sunoco Rookie of the Year in 2004 while driving for Ray Evernham. He had a series-high six victories in 2006 for Evernham.

Leavine Family Racing sent out the following tweet on social media in response to the news:

Kahne’s first race was the 2004 Daytona 500 in which he finished 41st after bowing out early with an engine issue. However, Kahne won his first pole a few weeks later at Las Vegas and now has 27 Busch Pole Awards to his credit.

MORE: All of Kasey Kahne’s Monster Energy Series wins | Full career stats

Kahne has the distinction of winning in all three of NASCAR’s national series with eight wins coming in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and five wins in the Camping World Truck Series.

Here’s Kahne’s full statement:

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Darlington’s throwback paint scheme fun adds an extra layer of spice this year as the top eight vote-getters for best paint scheme go head-to-head in a bracket format. If March Madness is college basketball’s favorite time of year, the pageant of paint schemes might be called Darlington Delirium.

Voting is open in the first round of Southern 500 bracketology, so cast your ballot now. And of course discuss the seeding — our selection committee based it on the top eight in voting for Darlington’s Best in Show fan award through Aug. 15.

RELATED: Vote for your four favorite schemes

The first round pits these eight looks honoring NASCAR’s past against each other as the theme for 2018 is “Seven Decades of NASCAR.”

William Byron vs. Brad Keselowski: Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet will be wrapped by Sam Bass’s “Hot Summer Nights” design honoring Jeff Gordon’s rainbow car while Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford is a nod to Rusty Wallace’s 1990 ride.

Chase Elliott vs. Matt DiBenedetto: Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet’s paint scheme honors his cousin, Casey Elliott. DiBenedetto’s pink-and-blue lightning bolt look for the No. 32 Ford hearkens back to Jeff Burton’s No. 99 car with Exide branding from 1996-2000.

Derrike Cope vs. Jimmie Johnson: Cope’s No. 99 yellow-and-red Bojangles’ theme matches the current race sponsor and throws it back to the partnership’s start in 1993. Johnson’s No. 48 “Last Ride for Kobalt” paint scheme is a nod to the one he captured Hendrick Motorsports’ 200th win with in 2012 at Darlington.

Kyle Busch vs. Clint Bowyer: Two current season heavyweights square off with Busch’s Ernie Irvan “Rainbow of Flavor” scheme on the No. 18 Toyota battling the No. 14 Ford’s tip of the hat to Ned Jarrett’s 1965 Ford Galaxie.

RELATED: See all the throwback schemes | Buy tickets now!

First-round voting will be open through Aug. 20. Those four winners will create the semifinal matchups, open to voting Aug. 21-25. Championship round voting will be open Aug. 26-31, with the winner being announced before the start of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 (2 p.m. ET Sept. 2, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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CHARLESTON, S.C. – Kyle Larson has Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway highlighted.

In the quick flight home from Charleston, South Carolina, following a school visit at Meeting Street Academy, the 26-year-old driver spoke about the 0.533-mile oval with hope.

Hope for a strong run as the playoffs loom, but more than that: Hope for his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of 2018.

“Bristol is definitely my favorite track,” he told NASCAR.com. “I just enjoy the style of driving it takes to be fast there. It’s really aggressive and now that they’ve kind of ironed out the VHT where it’s on the bottom, the racing’s even better than it used to be. I just like it – I’m really good there, too.

“I’ve never won but I’ve been close every time we’ve raced there. Hopefully this will be the year.”

MORE: Full Bristol schedule | All the Bristol night race winners

A recent frontrunner at the Eastern Tennessee track, Larson has finished in the top 10 for the last three races at Bristol, pacing the field for 472 laps in that span. He was notably close in the spring trip to Bristol, coming up second to race-winner Kyle Busch after leading 200 laps. He declared this week that there’s some “unfinished business” there.

“I think Bristol is the place for sure that I look at for the rest of the season,” he said on nabbing his first Cup victory of 2018. “Here and Homestead are probably my two best tracks. This place takes more, I feel like driver is a bigger factor than car.

“For sure I think your Big 3 will still be up there, but I think you’ll see some other guys – including myself – that have been a little inconsistent this year run up front and challenge for the win and hopefully beat those guys.”

Larson saw a fellow Chevrolet driver – and Big 3 outsider – Chase Elliott break through for his first career win in the Monster Energy Series two weeks ago at Watkins Glen. While he thought his own CGR Chevrolet team started the season ahead of the other bowties, the manufacturer’s other teams have begun to make “more gains” than his No. 42 team has. Now, he considers his team “kind of equal with them.”

MORE: Larson, No. 42 team, visit with kids

What’s noteworthy to Larson isn’t the lack of victories, though – it’s the races run en route to those solid results that have put Larson in position to challenge for a championship.

“I think we’d like to have a win or two by now, but we’ve challenged for a few wins already this year, so it’s not like we aren’t capable of winning,” he said. “We’ve run up front a lot of the time. There’s some tracks where we’re definitely off, but I think that’s more on my part than the team’s part. We’ve just got to keep working hard and keep trying to get better as an organization and as a team, really. Try to go for that championship. There’s a lot of teams that are doing a really good job and we’re just a small step behind them.”

The playoffs begin in a little over four weeks at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, offering a chance for Larson & Co. to gear up for a title.

If they can put all the pieces together, Larson just might have a shot at what is coincidently his other best track — Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I think we’ll get to have some bigger gains here shortly in the next couple months,” he said. “I’m excited about that and just hoping that we can have a good couple rounds of playoffs and maybe if things start falling into place at the right time, we can go for a championship.”

Posted on by Team Release
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) announced Wednesday that Christopher Bell will drive the No. 51 Hunt Brothers Pizza Tundra in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday.

Harrison Burton was scheduled to compete, but was forced to withdraw due to an illness.

Bell won the 2017 NCWTS championship with KBM. In his 53 starts in the Truck Series, he earned seven wins, 26 top-five and 41 top-10 finishes. This season he is competing full time in the XFINITY Series for Joe Gibbs Racing and has already accrued four wins in 2018 (and one in 2017).

“It will be great to get back in a Tundra with KBM at Bristol, but wish it was under better circumstances,” Bell said. “I hope Harrison feels better soon and I’m hoping I can get the Hunt Brothers Pizza Tundra into Victory Lane on his behalf Thursday night.”

“I have been driving since I was four years old and have never missed a race,” Burton said. “I hate to let down my guys, but my doctors just don’t believe I’m ready. Having to miss this race will give me even more motivation to come back even stronger in Canada next week.”

Burton is still scheduled to drive the No. 51 Tundra in five more races for KBM this season, including next weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Posted on by Staff Report

The final race before the 2018 NASCAR Playoffs kick off is special at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year, and it has a special pace car driver, too: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard kicks off at 2 p.m. ET, Sept. 10 — the last chance for drivers to make the field of 16 for the NASCAR Playoffs.

RELATED: Driver points standings and playoff standings

“I am honored that Chevrolet asked me to drive the Camaro ZL1 Pace Car in one of the biggest races of the year,” Earnhardt said in a release from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “The fan in me was already looking forward to this event. It’s a big race. There is a lot at stake since it’s the final chance for the teams and drivers to make the Playoffs. So, I hope to do a good job leading the field to the green flag, but I can promise you I’ll soak in every minute and enjoy the Brickyard in a way I never have before.”

Now an analyst for NBC Sports, Dale Jr. made his final start at the Brickyard as a full-time driver July 23, 2017. He crashed out, finishing 36th. In 17 starts at Indianapolis, Junior had one top 5, five top 10s and an average finish of 19.8.