Where should you tune in for NASCAR races this week? We have the answer for that and provide all the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has the weekend off, but the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series will be at full speed at Iowa Speedway. Check out the full schedule below, subject to change.
Note: All times are ET
Saturday, June 16 — 9:35-10:25 a.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series first practice, FS1 (Results)
— 11:05-11:55 a.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final practice, FS2 (Results)
— 3:05-3:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series first practice, FS2 (Canada: TSN app) (Results)
— 4:30 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Pole Qualifying, FS2 (Results)
— 5:40-6:30 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, FS1 (Canada: TSN app) (Results)
— 7 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Store 200 (200 laps, 175 miles), FS1 (Results)
Sunday, June 17 — 2:35 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Pole Qualifying, FS2 (Canada: TSN app) (Results)
— 5 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen (250 laps, 218.75 miles), FS1 (Canada: TSN5) (Results)
Then he made sure he cashed the winning ticket with a determined charge on two new tires as rain threatened Michigan International Speedway.
Bowyer got the lead under caution at the end of Stage 2 of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 when crew chief Mike Bugarewicz opted for two tires on the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Bowyer had to do the rest, holding off teammate Kevin Harvick after a restart on Lap 126, barely preventing Harvick, who had fresh rubber on all four corners of the car, from clearing him off Turn 2. Bowyer got the good fortune he needed when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun in Turn 2 on Lap 129, causing the eighth caution of the afternoon.
Rain started almost immediately and soaked the track, forcing NASCAR to call the race after 133 of a scheduled 200 laps at the 2-mile track.
That made Bowyer the winner of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time at Michigan and the second time this year.
Jeff Zelevansky | Getty Images
With pole winner Kurt Busch finishing third behind Bowyer and Harvick, Stewart-Haas pulled off its first 1-2-3 sweep in the organization’s history.
“It took something crazy on a restart to be able to get Kevin,” a jubilant Bowyer said in a raucous Victory Lane celebration. “That was a gutsy call. When we went out there on two tires, I looked in the mirror and I was so far ahead of everybody else (coming off pit road), I was like, ‘Oh man, we are in trouble!’
“The rain came just in enough time. I was trying to hold him off. I was cutting him off and taking his line away pretty bad. If it wasn’t for a win, you wouldn’t be doing that. He was so much faster than me in (Turns) 1 and 2. I got down in (Turn) 3 and just had to take his line because that bear was coming.”
Harvick was close indeed. He was roughly one foot away from clearing Bowyer off Turn 2 on the restart and picking up his sixth victory of the season.
“The 14 just gambled, rolled the dice that the rain must have been going to come, and he was able to keep me on the bottom there just by a little bit on the restart,” Harvick said. “Then it was just going to take me a few laps to work back by.
“But he did a good job hanging onto his car, and the gamble paid off for him. Look, I’ve been on both sides of this. If you’re going to have racing luck work against you, you want to at least stay on your own team.”
Kyle Busch ran fourth in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the only non-Ford driver in the top eight. Paul Menard came home fifth, his best finish of the season in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.
Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Jamie McMurray completed the top 10.
Kyle Busch retained the series lead by 75 points over Harvick in second and 98 over Logano in third.
The start of the race was delayed 2 1/2 hours by rain, and it ended when the rain returned, but the afternoon belonged to Bowyer, who was well aware of just how close his teammate came to depriving him of his 10th career victory.
“He almost cleared me off of (Turn) 2, and he would have rode off into the sunset again for the 4 car,” Bowyer said of Harvick. “I was able to just get by him, because he left me room and was courteous and a good teammate.
“I tried to give him enough room in 3 and 4 but just enough that I was going to try to stay in front of him and take the air off him. That is the only thing you can really do in that situation.”
Kyle Larson’s hopes for a fourth straight Michigan victory were hampered by a Lap 85 spin off Turn 4. Larson’s Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet skidded into the infield grass, damaging the front splitter. Larson limped home with a 28th-place result, ending a personal string of four straight top-10 finishes.
Three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers — Kyle Busch, Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin — started at the rear of the field after issues with their cars’ splitters in pre-race inspection. All three rallied to race into the top 10, though Jones dealt with further adversity with a speeding penalty on his first pit stop.
The Monster Energy Series takes next weekend off, returning to action for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on June 24 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM) at Sonoma Raceway.
Kyle Larson’s bid for a fourth consecutive Michigan International Speedway win ended Sunday with a spin into the infield grass.
Larson was running eighth in the FireKeepers Casino 400 when his Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet broke loose off the exit of Turn 4 on Lap 85 of the 133-lap race, shortened from a scheduled 200 laps by rain. The car’s splitter dug into the damp infield and Larson pitted for repairs.
Larson ended the day in 28th place as the next-to-last driver on the lead lap. Sunday’s result ended a streak of four straight top-10 finishes for the No. 42 team.
Larson had started 26th after a subpar qualifying effort Friday, but had rallied to second place by the end of the first stage at Lap 60. He fell to 10th after the exchange of pit stops.
Larson lost a lap after his excursion into the grass, but regained it as the beneficiary of the race-ending caution period for rain. Three of his five career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins have come at the 2-mile Michigan track.
Ryan Blaney was quickest on a restart with one lap to go and won Stage 1 of the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. For Blaney, who started ninth, the stage win was his fourth of the 2018 season.
Blaney held off Kyle Larson, who rebounded from starting 26th to finish second.
Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. Hamlin started at the rear of the field, along with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Erik Jones, for failing pre-race inspection (splitter).
Pole-sitter Kurt Busch led 46 of the first 60 laps but dropped to seventh to end the stage.
Finish
Driver
Team
Race points
1
Ryan Blaney
Team Penske
10
2
Kyle Larson
Chip Ganassi Racing
9
3
Clint Bowyer
Stewart-Haas Racing
8
4
Kevin Harvick
Stewart-Haas Racing
7
5
Denny Hamlin
Joe Gibbs Racing
6
6
Brad Keselowski
Team Penske
5
7
Kurt Busch
Stewart-Haas Racing
4
8
William Byron
Hendrick Motorsports
3
9
Joey Logano
Team Penske
2
10
Aric Almirola
Stewart-Haas Racing
1
Stage 2
Kevin Harvick took the lead on a restart on Lap 91 and did not look back in winning Stage 2 of Sunday’s race. For the driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford it was his series-leading eighth stage win of the season.
Fords dominated the Stage 2 results with Clint Bowyer placing second and pole-sitter Kurt Busch third. Kyle Busch, in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota, was fourth.
Paul Menard, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski finished fifth, sixth and seventh to continue the Ford parade. Jamie McMurray, in eighth place, was the top Chevrolet.
McMurray’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyle Larson didn’t fare nearly as well during the stage, spinning on Lap 85 and bringing out a caution. Larson fell a lap down as a result of the mishap.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — NASCAR Hall of Fame member and championship winning driver Rusty Wallace, along with Walter Czarnecki, the Executive Vice President, Penske Corporation and Vice Chairman of Team Penske, were announced as the latest members of the Team Penske Hall of Fame in a special ceremony on Sunday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway.
Of all the drivers who’ve raced for Team Penske throughout the team’s 52-year existence, none followed the path to prominence like Wallace. A little-known fact to most, Wallace made his first two starts for Roger Penske in 1980, finishing second in his debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The short-track ace from Missouri wouldn’t return to the Captain’s team until 1991, piloting the iconic yellow and black Miller Genuine Draft Pontiac. Wallace accumulated the final 37 of his 55 career premier series victories for Team Penske, ranking him third on the all-time wins list for Penske. Wallace was the 1989 Winston Cup Champion and a 2013 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.
“This is a great award and a great honor,” said Wallace. “I didn’t expect this was going to happen at all. I’m really honored to be in the Team Penske Hall of Fame, but even more honored to have driven for Roger. I always wanted to be a Penske driver. Even when I had other offers, I wanted to drive for Penske. To be in a club with the likes of Roger, Rick Mears, Mark Donohue, Walter (Czarnecki) and Karl Kainhofer is a real honor.”
Czarnecki began his relationship with Roger Penske and Penske Corporation in 1970 through his duties with American Motors, a few years later, he operated one of the nation’s leading Chevrolet dealerships for volume sales and customer service located in Southfield, Mich. During that same time, Penske purchased Michigan International Speedway out of bankruptcy, with Czarnecki serving as the track president. During his tenure, the speedway grew from 25,000 seats to over 125,000, hosting races for NASCAR, IndyCar, IROC, ARCA and many other top-tier sanctioning bodies.
Czarnecki later served as Vice Chairman of Penske Speedways, which owned and operated Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Nazareth Speedway, North Carolina Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. In 1999, Penske Speedways merged with International Speedway Corporation. Czarnecki remained Vice Chairman of Team Penske, a role in which he continues to serve. With nearly 50 years of service, Czarnecki has left an immeasurable impact on Penske Corporation, Team Penske and motorsports.
“I’m honored and very, very grateful and humbled by this,” said Czarnecki. “Roger and I have been together for 48 years and this is certainly one of the highlights of my career. I remember when Roger and I first met — at a Trans Am race in 1969 in California. We bumped into each other because we were staying at the same hotel. That was the beginning of it all and I’ve never looked back from there.”
Inductions into the Team Penske Hall of Fame occur annually. Each year, two inductees are chosen from current and former drivers, employees and partners that have made a significant impact on the team and its history. The Hall of Famers will be honored both at an event and within the walls of the Team Penske facility located in Mooresville, North Carolina.
The first four inductees to the Team Penske Hall of Fame were: Roger Penske (2016), Mark Donohue (2016), Rick Mears (2017) and Karl Kainhofer (2017).
On to Episode Two of “Renovation Realities: Dale Jr. & Amy” on the DIY Network! On this episode I learned more about shiplap than I expected. By that I mean prior to this episode, I had never heard of shiplap, and now I have. HEARING DALE EARNHARDT JR. SAY “PUTTIN’ UP THE SHIPLAP” WAS THE SOUL-AFFIRMING EXPERIENCE I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED.
Also, you get a better feel as to the awful condition of the home prior to the renovation. I would have given up. I’m not fit for the “Do It Yourself” network, but if they had an offshoot where frustrated individuals basically gave up halfway through a project called the “&^%$ It, You Do It” Network, I’d be perfect. Anyway, here we go.
FIRST SEGMENT
Looks like they’re redoing the kitchen. They’ll turn it into this pristine, immaculate space where Dale will come up with ghastly sandwiches. He’s like the Dr. Frankenstein of sandwiches. He places Cheetos and dill relish on a piece of bread then screams, “IT’S ALIVE!”
They’re somehow gonna turn the tool shed into a dining room. Fascinating. They’ll be eating where a bunch of tools were kept. As in actual tools. I didn’t mean that all the guys on “The Bachelorette” were all hanging out there. Sorry for the confusion.
Courtesy DIY Network / Rocky Gonet (AP Images)
Previous owner was “quite the collector” says Amy, as she’s too kind to say “hoarder.” So there’s a bunch of crap they have to throw out. They likely edited this scene to not show Dale examining each thing piece by piece, with one “Imma sell this on eBay!” pile and one “Naw” pile.
MAGGOTS AND CAT POOP. THEY HAVE FOUND MAGGOTS AND CAT POOP IN THE HOUSE. But they’re continuing on. That’s what sets Dale and Amy apart. They’re driven to finish the job. If this were my show, this episode would come to an abrupt end as I burn down the house for insurance money then head north on U.S. 1.
They’ve now uncovered dead scorpions. To review: maggots, cat poop and scorpions. This house is like an advent calendar of awful s—t.
The floor gave way under Amy. It’s that rotten. She was OK, thankfully. Again, if this were me, Episode 2 would be over after eight minutes. The final scene would be me drinking at Captain Tony’s and watching the smoke from my house rise in the distance.
SECOND SEGMENT
Dale is having great difficulty pounding nails into the support beams of the ceiling. Someone please get a race car out there so we can see him properly drive something.
Looks like Dale used some wrong pieces and has to undo a bunch of work and basically start over. If this is what you were looking to do, Dale, buying then trying to assemble an Ikea TV stand woulda been a hell of a lot cheaper.
He actually said he’s learned from his mistakes, and that he’s learned to “slow down.” I guess as a race car driver that isn’t exactly an innate skill. But he’s taking responsibility. And he didn’t instinctively blame TJ Majors or something. I would have.
THIRD SEGMENT
One of the things you notice when watching this show is that Dale Jr. seems to have quite a wide array of cargo shorts. I’m glad to see that because I’m a cargo-shorts enthusiast myself and I will laugh in the face of anyone who tells me otherwise. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL.
YES, DALE’S OPERATING A GIANT CIRCULAR MITRE SAW. DO IT QUICK BEFORE THEY GET OUTLAWED THERE TOO, DALE.
Courtesy DIY Network / Emilee Ramsier
They’re “puttin’ up the shiplap,” says Dale. This is like one of the most Dale Jr.-sounding things I’ve ever heard Dale Jr. say.
This first one is taking forever. Slow shiplap times.
Amy’s away, so when it comes to making a decision regarding the shiplap, Dale very wisely calls her and gets her input. Anyway, they’re almost done. Shiplaps are winding down.
Y’all better be appreciating the absolute hell out of these shiplap puns.
FOURTH SEGMENT
Kitchen is done. It’s lovely. It’s also white. Very white. My OCD is begging them to never cook anything with red marinara sauce here.
I’ve learned that you don’t say a room in the house is a “room.” It’s a “space.” So I’m now referring to my man cave at home as my “Bro Space.” I’m gradually learning how to sound much more formal and educated when it comes to the field of renovation and interior design, which is necessary because 20 minutes ago I was giggling at cat poop.
Dale points to a piece of artwork on the wall and says, “And this is very cool, whatever this is.” He and I appreciate art the exact same way.
I just made Dale Jr. saying “Shiplap” my new ringtone. I am not kidding.
The start of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway is on hold because of rain.
The 400-miler for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was scheduled for a green flag at 2:14 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM), but early afternoon showers dampened the 2-mile track.
Three Joe Gibbs Racing cars will drop to the rear of the field at the start of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) because of inspection issues at Michigan International Speedway.
The No. 18 Toyota of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points leader Kyle Busch, the No. 11 Toyota of Denny Hamlin and the No. 20 Toyota of Erik Jones all failed pre-race inspection because of unapproved splitters.
All three cars will drop to the back of the 39-car field during pace laps. Busch was scheduled to start third, Jones eighth and Hamlin 10th.
BROOKLYN, Mich. — NASCAR Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Combine alum Breanna O’Leary was full of emotions prior to her Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series showing on pit road in Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway.
O’Leary graduated from the Pit Crew Combine in 2016, working her way up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series. She currently serves as a tire changer for the No. 45 Toyota for J.P. Motorsports.
On Sunday in the Irish Hills, O’Leary was on pit road in NASCAR’s premier series changing tires for the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing team and driver B.J. McLeod.
“I’m excited, definitely nervous,” O’Leary told NASCAR.com. “I’m just trying to keep myself level-headed. I’m mostly trying to tell myself it’s just another race. It’s just another pit stop.”
O’Leary, a 26-year-old Austin, Texas native, played softball at Alcorn State University. Before joining the NASCAR D4D program, O’Leary was working to earn her master’s degree in athletic administration and coaching at Alcorn State. O’Leary would have never guessed just how substantial of a turn her life would take when the opportunity in the sport was initially presented.
“At the time, I was actually a graduate assistant for our strength and conditioning coach at Alcorn,” O’Leary said. “They set it up through him. He was like, ‘I want you to do it.’ I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, I just knew they were coming and it was something to be competitive in, so I went for it.”
Now, O’Leary is an inspiration to others from all different walks of life and backgrounds who would like to follow a similar NASCAR path — all because she wasn’t afraid to take a risk.
“Probably never in my life I thought I would be here right now,” O’Leary said. “Being a tire changer, especially at this level, I would have never dreamt it. I would have never thought it.”
When asked what her mindset is going to be on Sunday in preparation for one of the biggest moment in her young NASCAR journey, O’Leary sounded like a seasoned veteran.
“I’m going to treat (the race) like any other race day, just for my nerves and try not to hype it up too much. Remind myself I’m here to do a job. Typically, before a stop, I’ll just count in my head ‘1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5’ so I’m not thinking or anything.”
