Posted on by Staff Report

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and wife Amy have welcomed daughter Isla Rose Earnhardt into the world. The happy mom announced the news on Twitter early Tuesday morning.

MORE: It’s a girl! Earnhardts welcome Isla Rose | Photos: Dale, Amy through the years

It didn’t take long for well-wishes to pour in from the NASCAR community. Read on for heartfelt reaction to the birth, and stay for the touching video Dirty Mo Media prepared in advance.

And have a tissue or two ready.

Posted on by Staff Report

Dale Earnhardt Jr. now has a new mission in life. “Everything I do will be for her and Amy,” Earnhardt Jr. tweeted of his new daughter, Isla Rose Earnhardt, who was born on April 30. He and wife Amy Earnhardt announced Ms. Isla’s arrival on Tuesday morning via Twitter.

PHOTOS: Amy, Dale through time

Earnhardt Jr. has long spoken about his excitement in becoming a father. The day finally came, and was preceded by months of social media updates. Junior made consistent posts on the size of the baby. Amy posted videos of her talking long walks in the days leading up to the birth, something expectant mothers often day as a tool to help initiate the labor.

And now, Little E is born one day after what would have been Dale Earnhardt’s 67th birthday.

“It’s a new beginning,” Earnhardt Jr. tweeted.

That it is, Junior. Enjoy the ride.

MORE: Drivers react, send well wishes | Amy breaks the news

Posted on by Staff Report

Richard Petty Motorsports announced a partnership on Tuesday morning that will see World Wide Technology (WWT) serve as a primary sponsor for six races with Darrell Wallace Jr. and the No. 43 team starting next weekend at Kansas Speedway (May 12, 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Additional races include Sonoma (June 24), Indianapolis (Sept. 9), Las Vegas (Sept. 16), Charlotte’s road course (Sept. 30) and Dover (Oct. 7).

A rendering of the No. 43 World Wide Technology Chevrolet
Image courtesy of Richard Petty Motorsports

“I’m really into technology in my personal life and this partnership makes perfect sense for myself and our race team,” Wallace Jr. said in a team release. “World Wide Technology will bring a whole new set of tools to our race team that we can directly translate into speed in our cars. The amount of data they can collect and analyze for us will give us an advantage and help us with our entire process of setting up the car on a race weekend.”

RELATED: Wallace earns runner-up finish in Daytona 500

As part of the partnership, World Wide Technology will be the Technology and Analytics Partner for Richard Petty Motorsports. In addition, the organization will provide data analytics consulting and technology solutions focused on helping improve team performance.

“Technology is always changing in our sport. The amount of data available and collected by teams during test sessions and race weekends is staggering and could be overwhelming. Our partnership with World Wide Technology will help ensure our team maximizes the knowledge available in this collection of data so we stay ahead of what’s happening in our sport,” Brian Moffitt, chief executive officer, Richard Petty Motorsports, said in a team release.

PHOTOS: Career highlights for Bubba

Petty said that WWT’s ability to accentuate performance for RPM and technical ally Richard Childress Racing was an attractive component of the partnership.

“That’s the trade-off. I think the technology part will probably be more than the monetary part,” Petty said, “because we’ve had the information, we just don’t know what to do with it. These guys are supposed to be able to dissect it for us and say, ‘OK, this is the way this needs to be.’ We’re forward to them helping us and helping RCR also.”

The No. 43 Chevrolet and team members will bear WWT branding and Silicon Valley in St. Louis messaging for races sponsored by the St. Louis-based company that is worth more than $10 billion in annual revenue.

Wallace enters this weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 22nd in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings and in the midst of a Sunoco Rookie of the Year battle with William Byron.

RELATED: Wallace’s ‘authentic personality’ helping RPM open sponsorship doors

Posted on by Staff Report

Since announcing a “baby Earnhardt” was on the way in October 2017, Dale Jr. and wife Amy have had the racing community eagerly awaiting the arrival of their baby girl.

And now, the countdown is over.

MORE: Dale and Amy through the years | Dale Jr.: ‘So blessed’

The happy couple welcomed Isla Rose Earnhardt on April 30, the first child for both, revealing the baby’s birth on Tuesday morning.


Dale Jr. has been open about his excitement to enter the fatherhood fraternity throughout the pregnancy. Sharing his thoughts on social media, the former driver has given fans an inside look into the couple’s experience. He even gave updates on the size of the baby throughout the trimesters on Twitter.

RELATED: Drivers send well wishes | How Amy told Dale Jr. she was expecting

The baby was born the day after what would have been Dale Earnhardt’s 67th birthday.

In an interview on the Dan Patrick Show, he talked about how quickly his life has changed since hanging up the fire suit at the end of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

“You’re driving 200 mph last year and now you’re going to try to put a baby seat in a Suburban — what happened to you, Junior,” Patrick quipped at Earnhardt, who laughed.

“I’m becoming a father,” he said.

Earnhardt Jr., who is 43, and Amy wed on New Year’s Eve in 2016.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Editor’s note: The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing series resumes at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 8 at Kansas.

This week marks an important time in iRacing: Dale Earnhardt Jr. returned to the virtual track after a multi-year hiatus, to the delight of many.

Dale Jr. on dirt? We’ll wait here patiently while he announces his plans to run the Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora this summer. Fingers crossed. C’mon, Dale.

Don’t get too excited, though — Dale and Amy have a baby on the way. We’d imagine it’s tough to squeeze in iRacing races amidst father duties, media obligations with his new job at NBC Sports, and running a four-car Xfinity Series team.

Through a screenshot he tweeted, Myatt Snider found that iRacers seem to be fans of his — or at least his No. 13 Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra. We counted six Myatt trucks in a row in a race at Talladega.

NASCAR PEAK ANTIFREEZE IRACING SERIES UPDATE

Three-time NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series champ Ray Alfalla claimed his first victory of 2018, defending his 2017 victory at Richmond Raceway Tuesday night. Ryan Luza, chasing his third consecutive win, led much of the race, until Alfalla set sail late and won by a half second over the fastest iRacer in Texas.

With 15 cautions, it wasn’t the most glamorous race of the season. The top four finishers — Alfalla, Luza, rookie Keegan Leahy, and Matt Bussa — were the only drivers fortunate enough to leave with clean (virtual) cars.

Watch the race recap:

The top iRacers head to Kansas Speedway May 8 for the sixth race of the 18-race season.

iRACING PAINT SCHEMES OF THE WEEK

Want to be like NASCAR.com’s @nascarcasm?

Jordan Davis-Flint re-created John Hunter Nemechek’s Talladega-pit-entry-spinning No. 42 NASCAR Xfinity Series Chevrolet Camaro for iRacing.

Thomas S. brought Kevin Harvick’s famous Talladega flannel-themed Busch paint scheme to life in iRacing, too, if you’re into that sort of thing.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME

The Richmond race in the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series was a race of attrition and crunched race car pixels, as many short track races go.

How about Bobby Zalenski’s avoidance of the Big One at Richmond?

Zalenski picked up ten spots — going from 22nd to 12th — swerving around the carnage of this particularly big crash. Masterful stuff. Or, maybe a little dangerous. We haven’t decided which.

Posted on by Brad Norman

A number is more than just a number to drivers.

It’s how they are identified. It’s how their fans separate them from others.

Every driver and team has a specific look to the individual numbers painted across the cars. The “2” for Team Penske isn’t the same “2” used at Joe Gibbs Racing.

On Monday, a fan tweeted at Alex Bowman looking for answers after he noticed the “88”  run by the 25-year-old racer isn’t the same “88” Dale Earnhardt Jr. used while he was behind the wheel.

Alex Bowman's '88' leans backward on his Nationwide car.
Alex Bowman’s ’88’ leans backward. Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

Junior wasn’t just trying to be different from his Hendrick Motorsport teammates with his unique style. Rather, he was just holding true to the advice his father gave him long ago.

If you want to move forward, your car needs to lean, too.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s '88' leaned forward on his Nationwide car.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s ’88’ leaned forward. Jerry Markland | Getty Images

Sometimes it’s more than just a simple number.

Posted on by Staff Report

Joey Logano’s win Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway likely will be one he’ll never forget. It wasn’t the Team Penske driver’s first win, of course, but it was his first victory since becoming a father in January — and the first trip to Victory Lane for son Hudson.

Hudson likely will be in plenty more Victory Lane images through the years, as his dad is one of the top drivers in NASCAR.

MORE: Top photos from weekend

And if Hudson decides he wants to drive a race car on his own some day, well, his dad is fine with that. The nearly 4-month-old actually has a trait that makes Joey Logano think he’d fit in right now.

“He’s not a real easy baby, which means he’ll probably be a really good race car driver because he cries a lot,” Logano said with a laugh. “He’ll fit right in here.”

Who ever said there was no crying in racing?

WATCH: Loganos react in Victory Lane

Posted on by Reid Spencer

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Busch recovered from a pit-road speeding penalty at the end of the second stage of Sunday’s GEICO 500, but he couldn’t shake off the effects of a 14-car wreck with 22 laps left in the race.

RELATED: Full race results | Driver standings

Busch came to Talladega Superspeedway seeking a fourth straight victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Instead, he fell victim to the same “Talladega curse” that ended the winning streaks of three NASCAR Hall of Famers.

Bobby Allison (1972), Dale Earnhardt (1987) and Rusty Wallace (1993) all came to Talladega with victory strings of three races or more and failed to extend their streaks at Talladega. Now you can add Kyle Busch to that list.

MORE: All-time NASCAR national series winners

“Once we got in that wreck, it was over, but we had a decent car up until then,” said Busch, who finished 13th. “We got the car handling better all day long, and every adjustment we made to it was an improvement and gave us more on the race track, but we just lack speedway speed.”

Both Busch and Kevin Harvick have won three consecutive races this season. Harvick’s string ran out at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

 

Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kurt Busch occupied some prime real estate in Sunday’s final laps at Talladega Superspeedway, riding within sight of leader Joey Logano with his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick in close proximity.

The hopes turned into regrets late in the GEICO 500, with Busch’s No. 41 Ford finishing as the runner-up just .127 seconds behind Logano’s Team Penske entry. Busch tucked in behind Logano for most of the final lap, failing to form a tandem charge with Harvick, who was left to scrap with Chase Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the remaining spots among the top five.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos from Talladega

Busch’s second-place result was his best of the season in the Monster Energy Series, but he lamented being “outfoxed” for the final trip around the 2.66-mile track.

“It takes two cars to try to break through the leader. I’m happy that a Ford won. It wasn’t the right one,” Busch said. “Kevin was in good position. I was going to roll with him in any direction that I could. We just got broken up by Stenhouse.

“Man, it’s just so close. You wish you could go over and do it again. I feel like I left that one out on the table.”

RELATED: Race winners from 2018 | All of Kurt Busch’s Monster Energy Series wins

Harvick and Busch were among the fastest Ford drivers for the duration of the weekend; they shared the front row after Saturday’s Busch Pole qualifying, with Harvick’s No. 4 leading their 1-2 start. Each spent time at the front Sunday, but were unable to crack the lead stranglehold of Logano, who paced the final 42 laps.

“The 41 pulled out sooner than I thought he would there,” Harvick said, “and we wound up getting hung out.”

Busch’s day was an eventful one even before Stage 1 transitioned into full churn. Busch was tagged with a Lap 13 speeding penalty on the first exchange of pit stops. That setback was preceded by a team communications issue before the green flag, forcing the No. 41 team to scramble to replace the radio.

Busch could hear the team, but the team could not hear him. Crew members brought an additional helmet and steering wheel to the car in an effort to remedy the problem, but the stop-gap solution was switching to the No. 4 team’s reserve radio channel.

“Just some weird deal,” said Billy Scott, Busch’s crew chief. “They changed out pretty much all the equipment in there and it still had a problem. It came down to it being a radio channel of some sort, so we ended up borrowing a radio for the 4 and went to their backup channel and that’s what we used. It was OK then, so kind of a weird deal. We’ll have to figure that out.”

The quick change left for some anxious moments for the No. 41 team, which sat on pit road for a handful of pace laps before hurrying back to its front-row starting berth.

“There’s only so many parts and pieces to change, right?” Scott said. “It got down to the last one, still fixed it. So I figure we had time to get it all swapped out.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Chase Elliott climbed out of his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet on pit road, downed a bottle of water, spoke with his crew and pretty much was left to wonder, “What if?’’ 

The talented 22-year old finished third in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. But unlike other victory near-misses – he’s had eight career runner-up finishes, including one just last week – Elliott conceded this time he was a victim of circumstance. He was the lone Chevy in a top-five scoreboard of Fords at a track where you need a dancing partner.

“It’s tough,’’ Elliott said of not being able to make a move paired with one of the six Fords that finished in the top seven. “You would think those guys want to win the race around me, but they just ride and ride and ride and they have to know in their minds they are waiting too long, even for themselves.

RELATED: Full race results

“I thought maybe one of them would get greedy and want to win, I certainly did. I knew if I went by myself it wasn’t going to work. For what it was, it worked out pretty good.’’

Team Penske’s Joey Logano scored his first victory in 36 races and was followed across the line by Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driver Kurt Busch. Elliott was third with Busch’s teammate Kevin Harvick right behind and defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. driving his Roush Fenway Racing Ford to fifth place.

While maneuvering the frantic final laps, Elliott hoped that someone up front would pull out of line with him and at least make a determined run at Logano. It never panned out.

“For us, we just never got anything going, I feel like, until the end,’’ Elliott said. “I was able to come in and put on tires toward the end of the race and have a little better rubber than those guys around me, which was nice, and I made some good moves to get up inside the top-five.

 WATCH: Elliott puzzled by lack of late-race aggressiveness

“Last few laps, (I) was really trying to make a run and do something there at the end. Those guys were being awfully patient with one another. I was very surprised. I mean, it was more than obvious that they were not going to help me move forward.’’

Elliott did move forward in terms of his season, however. After a frustrating 33rd-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 and another DNF at Las Vegas two weeks later (34th place) the Hendrick Motorsports driver has been playing a determined game of catch-up in the standings. 

He has four top-11 finishes in the last fives weeks – including, now, his back-to-back efforts of second (at Richmond) and third (at Talladega). He’s ranked 18th in the points standings – tying his highest mark of the season – and is only five points behind 16th-place Ryan Newman and eight points behind 15th-place Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

RELATED: Monster Energy Series driver standings

“For us trying to gain some points back, we needed a good finish [today],’’ Elliott said. “We are trying to dig out of a bit of a hole right now. So, (we) need runs like we’ve had the past two weeks. So we’ll move on.’’

The series races at the famous Dover International Speedway 1-miler next week where Elliot has never finished worse than fifth place in four Cup starts, including a best of second place in the fall race last year.