Posted on by Staff Report

Action-Packed Weekend on Tap for Michigan International Speedway
Michigan International Speedway has lined-up an action-packed weekend for fans to take in some great racing.  The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will hold the Zomongo 200 on Friday then the NASCAR Xfinity Series race the LTi Printing 250 will be Saturday followed by the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday. There will be tons of stuff to do alongside the stellar competition on the track. This is a weekend you won’t want to miss.

MORE: Full Michigan schedule  | NASCAR TV schedule 

Young Stars In The Monster Energy Series Shine At Michigan

In recent years, Michigan International Speedway has proved to be the playground of choice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ rising stars. The June 2016 race produced the youngest top three in Monster Energy Series history as Joey Logano (then 26), Chase Elliott (then 20) and Kyle Larson (then 23) finished 1-2-3. Since then, Kyle Larson has stolen the show, winning the last three races in the Irish Hills. Now Larson looks to become just the ninth driver to win four or more races in a row at a track.

One of Larson’s closest competitors at Michigan has been a driver looking for his first win – Elliott, who finished second in his first three starts at the 2-mile track and eighth in his most recent visit there.

And you can’t forget about Michigan-native Erik Jones (from Byron), who finished 13th and third in his first two starts at his home track.

The “young guns” will have their work cut out for them though this weekend as Kevin Harvick (five wins), Kyle Busch (four wins) and Martin Truex Jr. (two wins) have won 11 of 14 races this season and don’t look to be slowing down.

RELATED: Will young talent rise in Michigan?

Make sure to get your tickets at http://www.mispeedway.com/ or for more information, call 1-888-905-7223. The FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, but if you can’t make it to the track check it out on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Xfinity Series Packs Great Action Into A Saturday Afternoon

The LTi Printing 250 race is 250 miles of pure excitement. See the future stars of the NASCAR Xfinity Series like Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Daniel Hemric compete against Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veterans like Kyle Busch, Paul Menard and Alex Bowman in the race.

Expect the action to be close as last season’s Xfinity Series Michigan race came down to a last-lap pass with Denny Hamlin beating William Byron to the line by a mere 0.012 seconds margin of victory.

The LTi Printing 250 at Michigan International Speedway is scheduled for Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET.

RELATED: Buy tickets to the race

Entertainment Doesn’t End On The Track, Much More To See And Do

Michigan International Speedway is considered one of NASCAR’s most entertaining tracks for fans to have memorable experiences the entire weekend.  This year’s race weekend will be no different as fans can look forward to seeing David “The Bullet” Smith, the world’s highest-flying human cannonball. On the music front, Tim Dugger and 38 Special are playing Saturday and The Return, a Beatles tribute band, will be playing in the fan plaza Sunday morning.

There really is something for everyone. Throughout the weekend, fans can participate in a corn hole tournament, do wood carving, bingo and watch fireworks on Saturday night.

“We are excited to bring so much entertainment in June to make it a week-long experience for our fans,” track President Rick Brenner said.

Fans can check out www.mispeedway.com/entertainment for all the entertainment options that are planned for the June race weekend at MIS. Guests will want to arrive extra early this season to take advantage of all the options that are available.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR handed down an L1-level penalty to the No. 18 team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series following last weekend’s action at Pocono Raceway. The No. 18 did not meet height measurements in post-race inspection, violating Sections 20.17.3.2.1.2.a of the NASCAR Rule Book.

Crew chief Eric Phillips was fined $10,000 and suspended for the next NASCAR Xfinity Series championship points event (Saturday’s LTi Printing 250 at Michigan International Speedway). The team was also assessed with the loss of 10 owner points.

Kyle Busch drove the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the win at Pocono, his 92nd victory in the Xfinity Series.

Dustin Zacharyasz will fill in as the interim crew chief at Michigan.

Posted on by Team Release

STATESVILLE, N.C. — GMS Racing officials announced today that NASCAR Cup Series driver Alex Bowman will fill in for Spencer Gallagher in the No. 23 NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) entry this weekend at Michigan International Speedway as well as at Kentucky Speedway (July 13).

ISM Connect, the world’s first fully integrated network of consumer engagement technology, will serve as primary sponsor for Bowman and the No. 23 team at both Michigan and Kentucky.

“I want to thank GMS Racing for letting me race the No. 23 Chevrolet this weekend in Michigan,” said Bowman. “Last time I was in the Xfinity race at the track, we started on the pole and I was able to lead some laps. I am looking forward to this weekend and what we can do on track with the No. 23 team.”

Bowman has competed in a total of 52 NXS races over a six-year span. In those six years, the Tucson, Arizona, native collected one win, six top fives, 15 top 10s, three pole awards and led 97 laps. In three starts at Michigan, Bowman has never finished outside the top 15, and he collected his most recent NXS pole with JR Motorsports in 2016.

Additional drivers for the remaining races will be announced at a later date.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Goodyear will provide new tire compounds for both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series races this weekend at Michigan International Speedway.

The new set-up for both series is the product of a tire test at the high-speed, 2-mile track on April 17-18. It will debut in Saturday’s LTi Printing 250 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) for Xfinity cars and Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) for the Monster Energy Series.

RELATED: Full schedule for Michigan, Texas

Goodyear officials said that the new compounds are designed to introduce more wear, placing a premium on tire management. The makeup of the tire is also designed to minimize heat build-up on one of the schedule’s fastest tracks.

“Michigan was paved not too many years ago and the track still has a lot of grip, so we have to be cognizant of that and the speeds the Cup cars are running when we make our tire recommendation,” Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing, said in a release provided by the tire maker. “We tested at Michigan this spring with the expressed intent of looking at right-side tire temperatures, and came away with a great compound that will wear more and run cooler. We also were able to update our left-side construction and go with a compound on that side of the car that will wear more as well.”

Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. were the drivers participating in the two-day test session last April.

Goodyear Racing will also provide a new compound for left-side tires for Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The construction update brings the series’ tire for Texas up to code with the rubber used at other speedways.

Posted on by Holly Cain

Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion Martin Truex Jr.’s win at Pocono Raceway over the weekend provided a glimpse at how the 2018 title hunt may well shape up.

Truex picked up his second victory of the season and is the only driver other than five-time winner Kevin Harvick and four-time winner Kyle Busch with more than one win. And those two title chasers were right on Truex’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota’s bumper – finishing third and fourth, respectively.

Just behind Truex, however, was 24-year old Kyle Larson, who notched his third runner-up finish of the season and fourth consecutive top-10.

Many left Pocono feeling it may have been a preview of what to expect in the Homestead-Miami season finale that crowns a champion.

RELATED: Playoff watch post-Pocono

“I’m good with it,” said Larson, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver, on Sunday. “Let’s do it. ” … I think from fourth- to sixth- or seventh-best car, it’s pretty close.”

As the series begins stock car’s Summer Solstice, it’s compelling and telling to see how the young drivers such as Larson have historically done at this week’s 2-mile Michigan Speedway.

Certainly the veterans such as Busch, Harvick and Truex have quickly reminded everyone they are repeat championship-worthy, but this week’s Michigan venue, in particular, has recently been a track where the young stars have garnered headlines and earned respect.

Larson isn’t just the defending race winner — he has actually won three straight at Michigan, including this week’s race from the pole position last June. Five of his eight starts at the track are top-10 finishes, four of the eight are top-three results.

Michigan has proven itself a Mecca of late for NASCAR’s rising young Cup talent.

Consider this: In the June 2017 Michigan race, Larson won, Elliott (then 21 years old), finished second, Joey Logano (then 27) was third and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (then 28) was eighth.

In the August 2017 Michigan race, Larson won again, Erik Jones (then 21 years old) was third, Chris Buescher (then 24) was sixth, Austin Dillon (then 27) was seventh and then-21-year-old Elliott was eighth. Half of the top 10 was under the age of 28.

Logano, 28, has two wins and three pole positions at Michigan and has finished out of the top-10 only once since 2013.

Jones, 22, finished 13th and third in his two starts at his home-state venue – leading five laps in the late summer Michigan race.

Elliott, 22, who finished 10th at Pocono on Sunday, actually had a string of three-straight second-place finishes in his first three starts at Michigan. He was eighth in the late summer race there in 2017. The young talent shares much of that credit with his crew chief on the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Alan Gustafson.

“He has won races there,” Elliott said of Gustafson before last year’s Michigan race. “He has a good feel for the race track. We ran well there the first race and I really think because we ran well, we went back and worked harder to try to run better.

“I think a lot of times when you have a good run at a race track, especially with the way the Michigan dates are – they are so close together – you could think you could just go back with the same thing and run well. Where in reality, I think that is a good way to get behind and I think he did a good job of staying up on things and making sure we improved and didn’t just stay the same.”

Larson had a win (at Fontana, California) and five runner-up finishes before his June Michigan masterpiece – from pole position to race trophy — last year and seems to be carrying that same momentum with a runner-up this past weekend.

Of course, Busch, Harvick and Truex may have something to say about the Michigan “young guns” recent trend considering their own early 2018 season dominance. But there’s no denying this track certainly has given plenty of hard-earned optimism and enthusiasm to NASCAR’s newest Generation-Fast.

“I’m excited to go there off of three wins in a row,” Larson said. “You know, for whatever reason, we’ve been fast there. We actually weren’t that fast the last one we had, but we were able to have some good restarts at the end.

“Hopefully we can go and have our car as competitive as it was the first two times and try and get a fourth win.”

Posted on by Steve Luvender

What happens when Formula 1 test driver Lando Norris gives the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series trucks a spin on iRacing?

Hey, he says he’s enjoying it. Come on over and try the real thing, Lando!

And what’s this in the Letarte household?

June 5 marks iRacing’s Season 3 update, featuring new content and updates across the service.

On the NASCAR side, cars will feature updated suspension geometry and updated aerodynamics, as well as visual enhancements. And, good news for short track racing fans — the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and SK Modified cars have been revamped, too.

If you like to make up your own rules, you can now create custom heat racing formats, too.

WHAT IF…

With top-tier NASCAR race teams running advanced computer simulations as part of their research and development suites nowadays, driver and NBC Sports analyst Parker Kligerman brought up an interesting question: What if iRacing could become a tool to help develop aerodynamic packages?

Or, what if iRacing became an outlet for race track designers?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s in, at least.

We’d gladly turn virtual laps on a Dale Jr.-designed track.

NASCAR PEAK ANTIFREEZE iRACING SERIES UPDATE

The stars of the iRacing series enjoy a week off until returning to the track Tuesday, June 12 at Michigan International Speedway.

Nick Shelton bested Jarl Teien in a photo-finish nail biter at Charlotte in Race 7 to earn his first series victory.

iRACING PAINT SCHEMES OF THE WEEK

Want to take a spin as Brad Keselowski? Tyler King meticulously re-created Keselowski’s Team Penske Wurth Ford Fusion for iRacing.

And, if you like to use your imagination, Scott Pierchorowicz painted a fictional version of Clint Bowyer’s Haas CNC car — showing how the car might look if the black and red colors were reversed.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME

Ride with YouTube user billman1975 at Pocono Raceway as a crash unfolds ahead in iRacing’s virtual NASCAR Xfinity Series cars.

Way to get through it, driver. Come on in for four fresh tires and a change of pants.

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Racing runs deep in the Blewett family.

Jimmy Blewett, a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver, shared a video of his son James dressed up for a presentation at Ramtown (N.J.) Elementary School as Dale Earnhardt  — mustache and all — and the younger Blewett absolutely nailed it.

This caught the attention of one Dale Earnhardt Jr. as well.

James was so pumped about hearing from one of his favorite drivers, he printed out Junior’s tweet — and wore his Dale Jr. shirt — to show the kids at school.

Well done, James!

Posted on by Zack Albert

The marriage of new media and old-school racing came full circle Monday.

The Mark Martin Podcast — a seven-episodes-old show hosted by the NASCAR Hall of Famer — plans to sponsor Jordan Anderson’s No. 3 team in this Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Texas Motor Speedway. Their partnership, announced last week, took its next step Monday with the 27-year-old owner/driver’s appearance on Martin’s podcast.

“It became incredibly important to me to have Jordan on the show to showcase him,” Martin said in his introductory remarks. “… One of the things that I really enjoy about Jordan is he’s going NASCAR racing the old-school way. He’s seeing the countryside from the windshield of a dualie pickup pulling an enclosed trailer with one truck inside with a couple of helpers, working all day and driving all night and really doing this the old-school way.”

RELATED: Jordan Anderson, the people’s racer (March, 2017)

Anderson’s positive attitude in his underdog journey as a multi-tasking independent — owner, driver, hauler driver, at-track go-fer — has won over fans and fellow drivers alike. Martin said Anderson’s career draws comparisons with his own early days in the sport, when he fought long odds to carve out his place in stock-car racing.

“It’s not always easy,” Anderson told Martin. “We kind of had that ‘Never Give Up’ hashtag going last year, and a lot of times in life whether you’re a race car driver or a school teacher or you’re starting your own business, there’s a lot of times in life when you come to that crossroads and you’ve got to make that decision. You can go the easy path or you go the hard path. You take that hard path sometimes and it includes long days and no sleep and lots of sacrifices, but at the end of the day making those sacrifices, it pays off, allowing you to take that journey.

“Nobody can ever take those stories away from you and the people and friends you meet along the way. Just am always so grateful to do this and to be at this level.”

Anderson’s Mark Martin Podcast-sponsored No. 3 will be on the track in Fort Worth in Friday’s PPG 400 (9 p.m. ET, FS1). The full podcast can be downloaded here.

Posted on by Staff Report

Driver-turned-broadcaster Kyle Petty and his wife, Morgan, announced Monday the arrival of their first child together.

Kyle Petty revealed the birth of their son, Overton Owens Petty, on Sunday, reporting through his Twitter account that both mother and newborn are “doing GREAT!” The birth came one day after Petty’s 58th birthday.

RELATED: Charity ride keeps Petty coming back

It’s the fourth child for Petty, who won eight times in NASCAR’s premier series before making the transition to broadcasting. Petty currently works as an analyst for NBC Sports. He’s also given back to the community through the Victory Junction Camp and the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America.

Kyle and Morgan Petty married in December 2015.

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

The 2018 NASCAR Salutes Refreshed by Coca-Cola initiative will focus on honoring military spouses and their commitment to supporting our military, their families and communities. In partnership with the USO’s Salute to Military Spouses campaign, NASCAR fans will learn about these spouses through a weekly content series.

And Coca-Cola Racing Family drivers will experience life on the other side of the microphone as Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace will do the asking of questions over this six-week stretch, with each driver interviewing a military spouse to help share their respective stories.

NASCAR and Coca-Cola will host each spouse at a race through the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, strengthening the bond that already exists between NASCAR and the armed forces. NASCAR and Coca-Cola will also donate, on behalf of each spouse, to the United Service Organizations to help directly support efforts that positively impact military families.

Recently, Hamlin interviewed Jolynn Lee, the Armed Forces Insurance Marine Spouse of the Year, and hosted Jolynn and family at Pocono Raceway.

Lee has been married to the Marine Corps for nearly 30 years, since her freshman year of college at age 18. An educator who taught for 10 years, Lee’s passion is connecting with, and offering support to, active duty military members and families that are going through trauma. A traumatic event while on duty impacts both the servicemember and his or her family, meaning the entire group often needs assistance.

As Lee details to Hamlin, her work is inspired by the resiliency of military spouses.

NASCAR and Coca-Cola’s donation, on behalf of Lee, will go to programs like the USO’s Bob Hope Legacy Reading Program that helps military kids stay connected to their parents through reading. Imagine that a servicemember is able to read a newborn child a bedtime story from Kuwait, or any place else around the globe. Servicemembers can walk into participating USO locations, record themselves reading their child’s favorite story and have that recording shipped home.

Austin Dillon interviews Shelia Brookins

Brookins is the 2018 Armed Forces Insurance National Guard Military Spouse of the Year, who describes herself as a “proud wife of a Kentucky National Guard (KYARNG) soldier.” She and Dillon discuss family sacrifices, resilience, patience and faith | Read more and see the interview

Ryan Newman interviews Stacy Bilodeau

Bilodeau is the Armed Forces Insurance 2018 Coast Guard Military Spouse of the Year. Her work with the USO Care Package Program harkens back to the USO’s early years, when Americans packed boxes full of little “tastes of home.”  | Read more and see the interview

Kyle Larson interviews Brian Alvarado

Alvarado’s platform as Military Spouse of the Year focuses on employment. “Being a Navy spouse is truly the honor of my life” Alvarado tells Larson in this wide-ranging interview. | Read more and see the interview

Bubba Wallace interviews Kristen Christy

Christy is the daughter of an Airman, lost her first husband who served in the Air Force and now is married to an Air Force reservist. Her focus as the Air Force Military Spouse on the Year is suicide prevention after her first husband committed suicide following his service in Iraq. | Read more and see the interview

Joey Logano interviews Krista Anderson

A Gold Star spouse herself, Anderson’s focus as the overall Armed Forces Insurance 2018 Military Spouse of the Year is helping other families of the fallen “in order to give back to the very community that showed their unwavering support in our darkest days.” | Read more and see the interview