Editor’s note: Fantasy Fastlane will look at each race from a fantasy perspective, examining the top plays as well as several under-the-radar options and a play to avoid for NASCAR Fantasy Live. See the full analysis here.
Clint Bowyer had critical words over the radio for his Stewart-Haas Racing team’s pit crew last weekend at Kentucky Speedway. Wednesday, the organization confirmed it has taken measures to address those issues.
Bowyer touched on SHR’s alterations to its over-the-wall personnel for the remainder of 2018 in a Thursday afternoon appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Those moves came after Bowyer’s otherwise quiet 12th-place finish at Kentucky and ahead of Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
RELATED: SHR shakes up crew rosters | New Hampshire schedule
Bowyer said that between testing the Charlotte road course and a promotional appearance for Watkins Glen International this week, he hasn’t been at the race shop to fully digest the changes, but that they have his attention. He also noted that all teams were still in an adjustment period in the first year under NASCAR rules changes that reduced the allowable amount of over-the-wall crew from six to five.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Bowyer told SiriusXM. “I think if you look at Stewart-Haas’ overall performance at any given race track, if we ever did have a weak link, I mean, it’s been documented that it’s in that area. We have time to fix that. We have time to correct it whether it’s coaching or different processes.
“I mean, this is still a relatively new process for everybody in the garage area that we’re doing — one less guy and everything else. The guys are still learning. No different than anything else in life, you’re only as good as the people around you, and sometimes you just don’t get lined up with the right team or whatever the case may be.”
The maneuvers affect all four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams fielded by Stewart-Haas Racing. Two of SHR’s four drivers are already multiple-race winners in the regular season with Kevin Harvick (five wins) and Bowyer (two) leading the way. The other two — Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch — are well within the provisional playoff field on the basis of points, but are still seeking their first win of the season.
“I’m excited to see how the changes change my program, and not only mine, but the 10, the 41 and the 4,” Bowyer said. “I think we’ve all had some minor changes, nothing major. I don’t think we have a major problem. We just gotta kind of nip it in the butt here with seven races to go before the pay window opens in the playoffs.”
As the team aims to build chemistry in the second half of the season, Bowyer describes the seven regular-season races that remain as “good opportunities.” Though he’s won twice already this season, he’s still short in the victory column to the so-called Big Three of Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who have combined to win 14 of 19 races so far this year.
Bowyer said his second-half aspirations include adding a fourth voice to the chorus of regular visitors to Victory Lane. Addressing pit-road difficulties, he says, provides a starting point for achieving that goal.
“We made some mistakes and just had a bad race. Those three aren’t doing that,” Bowyer said of Kentucky, where Truex rolled to his fourth win of the year. “We’ve got seven races to clean that up and within those seven races, we need to win at least one to become part of and make the conversation the Big Four and not just the three. I think we’re capable of that. That’s the biggest thing is capability in any race team and I think we have that. We’ve just got to get it all put together and we’ve got seven races to do so.”
Martin Truex Jr.’s latest win — Wednesday night at the ESPY Awards — was another tally for NASCAR in the Best Driver category.
RELATED: Truex triumphs at ESPYs
Since the ESPYs debuted in 1993, NASCAR drivers have been honored with the Best Driver Award a record 17 times. Truex, nominated for the second straight year, became the ninth stock-car racer to win at the ESPYs (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award).
A full list of NASCAR winners through history at the ESPY Awards:
| Driver | ESPY Wins |
Years honored |
| Jeff Gordon | 4 | 1996, 1998, 1999, 2007 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 4 | 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 |
| Tony Stewart | 3 | 2003, 2006, 2012 |
| Kyle Busch | 1 | 2016 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 1 | 2004 |
| Kevin Harvick | 1 | 2015 |
| Dale Jarrett | 1 | 2000 |
| Bobby Labonte | 1 | 2001 |
| Martin Truex Jr. | 1 | 2018 |
ROSSBURG, Ohio – Logan Seavey nearly had a debut for the ages in both NASCAR and the Camping World Truck Series at Eldora Speedway.
Nearly two years removed from open heart surgery, Seavey made his first national series start in Wednesday’s Dirt Derby, making a one-off start for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the No. 51 Toyota. He led 53 laps around Eldora and held the point position as late as Lap 144 in the scheduled 150-lap race that ultimately went 153 laps in a NASCAR overtime finish. The Toyota Racing Development driver came home eighth in the race.
RELATED: Race results | Briscoe edges out Enfinger at Eldora
“This was a really cool experience for me,” Seavey said. “Obviously, I’ve only done a couple stock car starts. Mostly just open-wheel stuff and to get in here and you know, run up front there in the first stage, compete for the lead and then kind of be able to maneuver my way through the field in the second stage and then lead 50 or so laps there on the third stage. It was really, really fun.”
Seavey took the lead at the start of the final stage – he had pitted after a second-place result in Stage 1 and stayed out after driving back up to third at the end of Stage 2. The 21-year-old looked to be in command of the race but a caution came out with 12 laps to go to bunch the field back up.
The ensuing final two restarts on older tires over the last eight laps weren’t so kind to the California native. The Lap 146 restart pitted Seavey against the series’ 2017 Sunoco Rookie of the Year and eventual race-winner Chase Briscoe. Seavey, who is the 2017 POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series champion, also runs a sprint car for Briscoe.
“I know Chase (Briscoe) really well and I know he likes to play a lot of games on restarts,” Seavey said. “He’s really good at it. I knew it was going to be tough and he kind of just got rolling a little bit better than I did and then I started spinning my tires.
“… I knew after that first restart – I thought it was okay and then the second one I kind of had to – just spun the tires. Those guys have a lot of practice on restarts even though it’s on dirt. They’ve got a lot of practice and I really haven’t done this too much. I knew that was kind of my weakest link when I came in and I knew the field would be really tough and that’s what got me tonight.”
Briscoe was not at all surprised to be battling his friend for the victory, noting that Seavey has a bright future in NASCAR similar to that of dirt-to-stock-car drivers Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. Both Larson (2016) and Bell (2015) are previous Eldora winners.
“I knew he was probably going to be one of the three guys to beat and he was doing a heck of a job,” Briscoe said. “That’s a name that NASCAR people are definitely going to have to get familiar (with). I think he’s probably the next big thing, honestly.”
ROSSBURG, Ohio – A consolation chat from Eldora Speedway owner and three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart didn’t erase all of the sting from Grant Enfinger’s runner-up by a nose finish in the Eldora Dirt Derby.
Enfinger and Chase Briscoe went side-by-side for nearly the entire final lap with contact coming off of Turn 4 and Briscoe emerging as the winner by 0.038 seconds. Adding additional intrigue, Briscoe and Enfinger were ThorSport teammates for this one with Briscoe making a one-off start in the No. 27 Ford.
RELATED: Briscoe, Enfinger battle to the line in overtime | Race results
“Man, that was close,” Enfinger said when shown the replay by FS1’s Kenny Wallace on pit road. “By a bumper. It’s a shame. It’s a heartbreaker here but really proud of the effort of these guys.”
For his part, the 33-year-old Alabama native said there is not much if anything he would have changed about how he approached those last two laps.
“I feel like we had the position on him,” Enfinger said. “We really had equal trucks. Thought I had the spot on him in (Turns) 3 and 4. He kind of used us up down there but it wasn’t nothing dirty. It was the same thing I would have done to him when it’s the last lap at Eldora for a really, really big race.
“… Hindsight is 20-20. I feel like I kind of nailed the restart getting up. Feel like I had the preferred line in the middle of the track. he had the preferred line on exit. I think I was going to beat him coming to the line and he just kind of swiped us a bit.”
Briscoe enjoyed racing against his teammate in the NASCAR Overtime finish and knew that Enfinger would be stiff competition on the final restart since he rarely spins his tires.
“Me and Grant ran like an inch apart from each other without touching for a lap and seventh-eighths,” Briscoe said. “Coming to the line I knew if I didn’t go all the way to the top, I probably wasn’t going to win.
“It wouldn’t have been right for me or Grant, I don’t think, if I had lifted and raced him differently. We both did it clean and I definitely didn’t want to have contact with him.”
The runner-up result was Enfinger’s best finish of 2018 and his third straight top-eight finish. That leaves Enfinger fourth in the standings and one of three winless drivers in the provisional playoff field with three races to go in the regular season. He has a 120-point lead on the first driver sitting on the outside of the playoff field (teammate Myatt Snider). Yet, Enfinger is taking nothing for granted.
“I don’t think we are solid at all,” Enfinger said of his playoff positioning leaving Eldora. “I want a win for this 98 team to lock us in. Yeah, it was a good points night but with three races left anything can happen.”
ROSSBURG, Ohio – Coming to the finish in Wednesday night’s Eldora Dirt Derby, you didn’t know who was going to win.
With dirt slinging, doors banging and the checkered flag waving, Chase Briscoe edged ThorSport Racing teammate Grant Enfinger to earn his second career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) victory in the sixth annual race at the historic Eldora Speedway.
RELATED: Briscoe’s Eldora celebration | Full race results
In a one-off race with ThorSport, Briscoe, on newer tires, took advantage of a Lap 145 restart to pass leader and Toyota Racing Development protégé Logan Seavey, but the event’s final caution within three laps of the finish set the tone for the exciting finish in NASCAR overtime.
For Briscoe, a Ford Performance development driver, it was his second straight win after earning his first career victory last November in the Truck Series season finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway with Brad Keselowski Racing.
“I know (Enfinger) is running for a championship and he’s our teammate,” said Briscoe. “I wasn’t going to wear him out. I wasn’t going to just wreck him for the win. We rubbed, and I definitely let it float on the way to the wall and I’m sorry for that, it’s not how I race.
“I’m so thankful that Ford allowed me to do this race. I was begging them about three weeks ago to let me do it and it came together at the last minute. It’s awesome to be in Victory Lane.”
Spending much of his childhood in the grandstands of Eldora watching his grandfather compete, Briscoe became emotional talking about the significance of winning in his second Eldora Truck Series start.
“It just means so much to win Eldora,” Briscoe said. “I was growing up as a dirt guy. My grandpa won here, and this is our Daytona for dirt guys. This win is for all the dirt guys out there who don’t get a shot. Tonight proves a dirt guy can do it at this level.”
After the race, Enfinger said if the roles were reversed, he would raced Briscoe the same way.
“I feel like we had a position on him, we were pretty good right there,” said Enfinger. “He used me up and I was going for it, he didn’t do anything dirty, it was just the last lap for a really, really big race.
MORE: Briscoe follows in grandfather’s footsteps | Enfinger has no hard feelings for Briscoe
“I really wish we could have gotten a win. I’m glad Duke and Ronda Thorson got a win, I really wish it could have been this No. 98 team. Man, that close. It’s a shame. A heartbreaker here, but I’m really proud of the effort here.”
Dirt stalwart Stewart Friesen recovered from a Lap 28 spin to finish third while defending Eldora winner Matt Crafton took fourth and three-time NCWTS winner this season Brett Moffitt rounded out the top-five.
Noah Gragson earning his spot into the field through the last-chance-qualifier finished sixth, John Hunter Nemechek claimed seventh, while Seavey who led 53 laps in his debut slipped to eighth on older tires.
“I’m not sure there was much I could’ve done there,” said Seavey. “Right at the beginning of that second stage, you could kind of feel the track was getting a little abrasive and maybe taking a little rubber off the tires. My truck gained a lot of grip there in the second stage and I just slowed down because I knew everybody was going to take tires and I had already taken mine.
“I assumed I had to try to take as much as I could, but at the end of the day, you know we had 50 more laps and I think just overheating the tires and got kind of eaten up there those last couple restarts.
“Overall, (the) experience was as good as I think it could’ve gone without those last couple cautions there at the end.”
Defending Monster Energy Series champion Martin Truex Jr. was announced Wednesday as the winner of the Best Driver category at the annual ESPY Awards.
Truex was the top vote-getter in fan balloting conducted by ESPN. The other nominees were Brittany Force (NHRA), last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1) and Josef Newgarden (IndyCar).
MORE: All-time NASCAR ESPY winners
Truex’s win marked the third time in the last four years that a NASCAR driver has won the award. Kyle Busch (2016) and Kevin Harvick (2015) were each honored for their championship seasons the previous year.
“It’s an honor to receive the ESPY for Best Driver,” Truex Jr. said in a press release. “2017 was an amazing year, and I still have to pinch myself to believe it turned out the way it did. Congratulations to all the other nominees on their great seasons last year and thanks to all the fans who voted for me.”
NASCAR drivers have prevailed in the category 17 times in the 26 years since the ESPYs debuted. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson top the list of all-time winners with four Best Driver awards each.
Former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick hosted the event. Patrick, a regular attendee in previous editions of the sports gala, became the first woman to host the ESPYs since it began in 1993. She retired from motorsports after participating in the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 this season.
All four Stewart-Haas racing pit crew rosters will see changes for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), a team spokesperson confirmed for NASCAR.com.
During last weekend’s Monster Energy Series race at Kentucky Speedway, Clint Bowyer had a strong No. 14 Ford but expressed frustration over the team’s radio that they couldn’t hold position during pit stops. He finished 12th in the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart.
Bowyer and teammate Kevin Harvick have qualified for the 2018 NASCAR Playoffs win wins. Kurt Busch is 9th in the playoffs standings and Aric Almirola sits 13th entering New Hampshire.
The changes, as first reported by NBC Sports’ Dustin Long:
— Shayne Pipala to No. 4 front tire changer, replacing Eric Maycroft. Maycroft moves to Michael McDowell’s No. 34 team.
–Ira Jo Hussey to No. 14 front tire changer, replacing Daniel Coffey.
–Matt Holzbauer to No. 14 tire carrier, replacing Josh Sobecki.
–Coffey to No. 10 front tire changer, replacing Ryan Mulder.
–Mulder to No. 41 front tire changer, replacing Pipala.
Stewart-Haas Racing provides the pit crew for the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team. Holzbauer comes over to the No. 14 team from the No. 34 team.
Alex Bowman unveiled a special paint scheme featuring Nationwide Children’s Hospital on Wednesday via “NASCAR America” from the Hendrick Motorsports campus in Concord, North Carolina.
The 25-year-old driver will run the scheme at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 5. Nationwide, a longtime partner of Hendrick Motorsports, donated the scheme to the hospital, using its signature butterflies in the design. The goal behind the scheme was to drive awareness, bring recognition and raise funds for the hospital, which Nationwide has supported for 60 years. Nationwide’s sports platforms have raised more than $27 million for the children’s facility since 2011.
Ashzyia Jackson, a patient at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, was on hand for the unveiling with Bowman. Fellow Patient Champion Bicen Thall will attend the race at Watkins Glen, and his name will be featured above the door of the special No. 88 Chevrolet.
While this marks his first year piloting the No. 88 full time, Bowman was the first driver to pilot a Nationwide Children’s Hospital scheme as it adorned his No. 99 Xfinity Series ride at Mid-Ohio in 2013. He has since visited the hospital twice and is expected to go again before the scheme’s debut at The Glen.
The No. 88 team has a longstanding relationship with the hospital, extending back to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s tenure behind the wheel. Earnhardt made several visits to the hospital over the years, and piloted special schemes honoring the hospital throughout the final years of his racing career. The Dale & Amy Earnhardt room was dedicated to the driver and his wife in 2016, and the couple established the Dale and Amy Earnhardt Fund a year later as a way for Earnhardt to continue his work with the hospital after his retirement.
RELATED: Dale Jr. finds, gives comfort at NCH | Dale, Amy establish hospital fund
To learn more about the hospital, please visit: www.nationwidechildrens.org.
Eldora is unique in both racing surface and format, especially when it comes to setting the starting lineup.
Single truck qualifying determines the official pole winner, but it doesn’t determine the rest of the starting order for the race. It simply sets the lineups of the ensuing five qualifying races. The finishing order from those events plus a Last Chance Qualifying Race and entries that get in on owner points sets the final order for the 32-truck field that races at 9 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).
RELATED: Memorable race moments | Explaining the format
Follow along with us here. We’ll continually update results from the qualifying results and update the starting lineup, found at the bottom of this article.
RELATED: Qualifying results
QUALIFYING RACE 1: RESULTS
| POSITION | TRUCK NO. | DRIVER |
| 1 | 41 | Ben Rhodes |
| 2 | 99 | Sheldon Creed |
| 3 | 22 | Austin Self |
| 4 | 80 | Justin Shipley |
| 5 | 02 | Austin Hill |
| 6 | 8 | John Hunter Nemechek |
| 7 | 33 | Braden Mitchell |
| 8 | 0 | Ray Ciccarelli |
QUALIFYING RACE 2: RESULTS
| POSITION | TRUCK NO. | DRIVER |
| 1 | 4 | Todd Gilliland |
| 2 | 51 | Logan Seavey |
| 3 | 16 | Brett Moffitt |
| 4 | 38 | Max McLaughlin |
| 5 | 12 | Ty Dillon |
| 6 | 97 | Ray Otto Jr. |
| 7 | 25 | Dalton Sargeant |
| 8 | 20 | Tanner Thorson |
QUALIFYING RACE 3: RESULTS
| POSITION | TRUCK NO. | DRIVER |
| 1 | 27 | Chase Briscoe |
| 2 | 54 | Chris Windom |
| 3 | 17 | Tyler Dippel |
| 4 | 6 | Norm Benning |
| 5 | 63 | Kyle Strickler |
| 6 | 18 | Noah Gragson |
| 7 | 49 | Wendell Chavous |
| 8 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb |
QUALIFYING RACE 4: RESULTS
| POSITION | TRUCK NO. | DRIVER |
| 1 | 88 | Matt Crafton |
| 2 | 98 | Grant Enfinger |
| 3 | 83 | Nick Hoffman |
| 4 | 24 | Justin Haley |
| 5 | 2 | Cody Coughlin |
| 6 | 21 | Johnny Sauter |
| 7 | 50 | Mike Harmon |
| 8 | 74 | Trevor Collins |
QUALIFYING RACE 5: RESULTS
| POSITION | TRUCK NO. | DRIVER |
| 1 | 52 | Stewart Friesen |
| 2 | 3 | Ryan Newman |
| 3 | 13 | Myatt Snider |
| 4 | 15 | JR Heffner |
| 5 | 34 | Jeffrey Abbey |
| 6 | 45 | Justin Fontaine |
| 7 | 03 | John Provenzano |
LAST CHANCE QUALIFYING RACE: RESULTS
| POSITION | TRUCK NO. |
DRIVER | ADVANCE TO RACE? |
| 1 | 8 | John Hunter Nemechek | Yes |
| 2 | 18 | Noah Gragson | Yes |
| 3 | 20 | Tanner Thorson | Yes (owner points) |
| 4 | 21 | Johnny Sauter | Yes (owner points) |
| 5 | 45 | Justin Fontaine | Yes (owner points) |
| 6 | 49 | Wendell Chavous | Yes (owner points) |
| 7 | 25 | Dalton Sargeant | Yes (owner points) |
| 8 | 33 | Braden Mitchell | No |
| 9 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | No |
| 10 | 74 | Trevor Collins | No |
| 11 | 97 | Ray Otto Jr. | No |
| 12 | 0 | Ray Ciccarelli | No |
| 13 | 50 | Mike Harmon | No |
| 14 | 03 | John Provenzano | No |
FULL STARTING LINEUP
| STARTING SPOT | TRUCK NO. | DRIVER | HOW DETERMINED |
| 1 | 41 | Ben Rhodes | Top finisher in Qualifying Race #1 |
| 2 | 4 | Todd Gilliland | Top finisher in Qualifying Race #2 |
| 3 | 27 | Chase Briscoe | Top finisher in Qualifying Race #3 |
| 4 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Top finisher in Qualifying Race #4 |
| 5 | 52 | Stewart Friesen | Top finisher in Qualifying Race #5 |
| 6 | 99 | Sheldon Creed | Second finisher in Qualifying Race #1 |
| 7 | 51 | Logan Seavey | Second finisher in Qualifying Race #2 |
| 8 | 54 | Chris Windom | Second finisher in Qualifying Race #3 |
| 9 | 98 | Grant Enfinger | Second finisher in Qualifying Race #4 |
| 10 | 3 | Ryan Newman | Second finisher in Qualifying Race #5 |
| 11 | 22 | Austin Self | Third finisher in Qualifying Race #1 |
| 12 | 16 | Brett Moffitt | Third finisher in Qualifying Race #2 |
| 13 | 17 | Tyler Dippel | Third finisher in Qualifying Race #3 |
| 14 | 83 | Nick Hoffman | Third finisher in Qualifying Race #4 |
| 15 | 13 | Myatt Snider | Third finisher in Qualifying Race #5 |
| 16 | 80 | Justin Shipley | Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race #1 |
| 17 | 38 | Max McLaughlin | Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race #2 |
| 18 | 6 | Norm Benning | Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race #3 |
| 19 | 24 | Justin Haley | Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race #4 |
| 20 | 15 | JR Heffner | Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race #5 |
| 21 | 02 | Austin Hill | Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race #1 |
| 22 | 12 | Ty Dillon | Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race #2 |
| 23 | 63 | Kyle Strickler | Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race #3 |
| 24 | 2 | Cody Coughlin | Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race #4 |
| 25 | 34 | Jeffrey Abbey | Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race #5 |
| 26 | 8 | John Hunter Nemechek | Top finisher in Last Chance |
| 27 | 18 | Noah Gragson | Second finisher in Last Chance |
| 28 | 20 | Tanner Thorson | Owner points |
| 29 | 21 | Johnny Sauter | Owner points |
| 30 | 45 | Justin Fontaine | Owner points |
| 31 | 49 | Wendell Chavous | Owner points |
| 32 | 25 | Dalton Sargeant | Owner points |