Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch showed early speed in Friday’s opening practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, topping the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard with a best lap of 134.292 mph.

Busch is a three-time winner at the 1.058-mile track. He is also the series’ most recent New Hampshire winner, prevailing from the pole in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota.

RELATED: Practice 1 results | Weekend schedule

Kyle Larson was second-fastest at 133.788 mph in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin, the race’s defending winner, turned in the third-best lap in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota with JGR teammate Erik Jones fourth on the leaderboard.

JGR completed a season sweep at New Hampshire last season, part of the organization’s recent run of five wins in the last six Loudon races.

Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five as the fastest Ford driver in the 50-minute session ahead of Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM).

Martin Truex Jr., last week’s winner at Kentucky Speedway, was ninth-fastest in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota.

An incident involving the Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Ford of David Ragan caused the only stoppage in opening practice at the 32-minute mark. Ragan slid out of the racing groove entering Turn 3 and scraped the outside retaining wall.

VIDEO: Watch Ragan’s hit

Six teams had 15 minutes deducted from their practice time because of infractions during inspection last weekend at Kentucky Speedway. The affected teams:

• 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Daniel Suarez
• 23 BK Racing Toyota of Blake Jones
• 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet of AJ Allmendinger
• 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson
• 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet of BJ McLeod
• 99 StarCom Racing Chevrolet of Kyle Weatherman

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 New Hampshire (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been released. Click the print icon above, or the link below.

ROSTERS: New Hampshire

RELATED: Overview of 2018 rules updates

Posted on by Sponsored Content

DEARBORN, Mich. — The season-long quest to find Ford’s biggest NASCAR fan will continue with a new element this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Ford is recognizing Constantine Sealing of Glastonbury, Conn., as the Official Small Business of the Ford Hall of Fans. The company will have its name splashed across the hood of the No. 6 Fusion and driver Matt Kenseth’s uniform for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301.

“The response from individuals who have shown creativity and enthusiasm for Ford Hall of Fans has been great, but there are a lot of small businesses who display their loyalty to Ford and NASCAR as well and we wanted to recognize that,” said Jeannee Kirkaldy, motorsports marketing manager, Ford Performance. “Constantine Sealing is a family-owned business that has supported racing on a local level while also being great ambassadors for Ford. We feel they’re a worthy recipient of this title and look forward to seeing them get some well-deserved visibility this weekend.”

Constantine Sealing Service was started in 1979 by Bill Constantine Jr. when he was only 18 years old and has grown steadily. He and his three sons now head an operation that includes a variety of commercial and residential pavement maintenance in Connecticut and surrounding states, including paving, asphalt repairs, line striping, and seal coating. The family owns approximately 20 Ford vehicles of all shapes and sizes for both personal and professional use.

“I’ve been following racing for 42 years,” said Constantine, who used to sponsor street stock and pro stock cars at Stafford Speedway (Conn.), but also spent many nights at Riverside Park Speedway (Mass.) before it closed in 1999. “When they told me we were going to be on the hood of Matt Kenseth’s car, I could not believe it. I figured it was going to be a little sticker on a quarter panel or something like that, but then when they sent me the picture of the car I was in a state of shock. I didn’t know what to say or what to do.”

Constantine counts Ford drivers Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kenseth among his current favorites, but recalls rooting for the likes of Cale Yarborough, Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan, Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin through the years.

“We used to go every year to the Daytona 500 from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. I didn’t miss a year,” said Constantine, who has also attended races at Talladega, Pocono, New Hampshire, and Atlanta among others. “I’m a Ford man. When I was growing up my dad always had Fords and bought them from Monaco Ford. I remember him telling me what good people they had working there and ever since he said that our whole family has bought nothing but Fords.”

Ford Hall of Fans launched earlier this year in an effort to recognize those people who make the sport tick — the fans. People can nominate themselves through a video or photo that demonstrates what makes them passionate about NASCAR.

Initial entries will be accepted until Aug. 19, 2018, and a select panel of judges will decide on 16 semi-finalists. The public then will vote for their favorite with six finalists selected to attend Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway Nov. 16-18. Two grand prize winners will emerge after a series of competitions and will receive a VIP trip to the NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Charlotte and a new Ford vehicle of their choice.

Fans can enter the Ford Hall of Fans by going to www.NASCAR.com/Ford.

*No purchase necessary. Must be legal U.S. resident 21 or older. Promotion consists of sweepstakes and contest. Sweepstakes ends 11/5/18; contest ends 8/19/18. Contest finalists must attend Ford Championship Weekend, 11/18. For prize, entry, and eligibility details, see Official Rules for the Sweepstakes and Official Rules for the Contest.
Sponsor: Ford Motor Company. Not sponsored by NASCAR.
Posted on by Staff Report

The annual NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway is nearly impossible to prepare for because it’s the lone race on dirt all year.

Note: Nearly.

RELATED: Full race results

There is a way drivers can ready themselves for the high-banked half-mile track in Ohio. That’s via iRacing. And those who logged lots of laps on the racing simulator the week leading into Eldora saw great success at Wednesday night’s Dirt Derby.

A diverse top 10 included first-timers, dirt experts and full-time drivers alike. All of them looked comfortable on the ever-changing dirt, and for good reason. Of the drivers who finished in the top 10, nine had recently logged time on iRacing to prep for the race, according to data provided to NASCAR.com.

Winner Chase Briscoe is known to boot up iRacing frequently and even competed in some of the virtual world championship events. Then there’s Brett Moffitt, who finished fifth in the No. 16 with iRacing as his primary sponsor and spent the lead-up to the race turning virtual laps with fans.

Logan Seavey stole the show, leading 53 laps and is the highest ranked iRacer among all drivers in the field … and a top-10 user on all of iRacing. He was cruising late before falling back on a couple of late restarts.

See below for the nine top-10 finishers and their iRating, which is iRacing’s ranking system that helps determine each racer’s skill level. The higher the better.

Note: Matt Crafton finished fourth at Eldora.

Finishing position Driver Oval iRating Dirt iRating
1 Chase Briscoe 4920 3485
2 Grant Enfinger 1250 1250
3 Stewart Friesen 1402 1528
5 Brett Moffitt 1250 1250
6 Noah Gragson 2124 1250
7 John Hunter Nemechek 1961 1350
8 Logan Seavey 8675 3346
9 Justin Haley 1550 1463
10 Nick Hoffman 1250 1250
Posted on by Staff Report

Trackside Live is heading up north for two action-packed shows at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The first show will be on Saturday, July 21 at 7:45 p.m. ET, while the second show will be on Sunday, July 22 at 9:15 a.m. ET.

WATCH: Trackside Live | MORE: Full schedule for NHMS | Buy your tickets

Don’t miss your chance to meet your favorite drivers as the regular season winds down and playoff battles heat up. Watch the video above and get excited for the lobster showdown! It’s going to be a good one.

Enjoy!

Posted on by Zack Albert

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.”

Posted on by Staff Report

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
Posted on by RJ Kraft

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.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

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.”