Posted on by Zack Albert

Noah Gragson savored a solid NASCAR Xfinity Series debut last weekend at Richmond Raceway. But the runner-up effort was tinged with a shade of regret after coming close to unseating teammate and eventual race winner Christopher Bell.

“I’m going to go to bed for the next 20-next years and think, ‘Man, I wish I could go back to that night at Richmond and maybe do something a little bit different,’ ” Gragson said. “But you win some, you lose some.”

The terms of his arrangement with Joe Gibbs Racing mean that Gragson, 19, will get an immediate second chance at Xfinity paydirt this weekend. He’ll drive the No. 18 Toyota in Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Talladega Superspeedway, then will follow that with the last event in his three-race audition, May 5 at Dover International Speedway.

RELATED: Full schedule for Talladega | Dash 4 Cash field

Gragson has just one previous appearance at Talladega, finishing 14th last October at the 2.66-mile venue’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event. But he says he’s well aware of the track’s unpredictable nature, largely due to engine restrictions that foster tightly wound racing in large packs.

“Talladega, that one might come back in a ball or something and I’m not sure that’s the kind of roll of the dice,” Gragson said after his Richmond debut. “I know we’ll have a fast Toyota Camry there with Switch on the hood. Man, I’m not too good of a restrictor-plate racer just because I don’t have a lot of experience.

“I watched Daytona this year from the spotter stand of the Xfinity race and man, they couldn’t get off of each other. They were beating and banging and spinning out, so I don’t know what my strategy is going to be.”

Firmed-up game plan or not, Gragson’s performance was enough to leave crew chief Eric Phillips “very encouraged” about his young driver’s prospects over the next two weekends. Phillips and the No. 18 team head to Talladega with three straight top-five finishes, a stretch that includes Ryan Preece’s victory at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Pretty impressive his first time to show up in an Xfinity car here at Richmond, which I would say this is one of the hardest race tracks that we’re going to run all year,” Phillips said. “To run second says a lot about the kid, and I think it says a lot about our program. We’ve got really good cars right now. We probably started off the year behind a little bit at JGR and we’ve worked really hard, but tremendous job and tremendous poise by Noah all day.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. will be among a group of drivers conducting a Goodyear Tire test at Michigan International Speedway Tuesday and Wednesday – a test session originally slated for earlier in the month, but postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions.

 

This week’s test dates were originally given to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but because the Michigan race weekend is June 8-10 and the Indianapolis race weekend is not until Sept. 7-9, Goodyear reworked the timing. 

 
RELATED: Get tickets for the Michigan races

 

“Hopefully this will give us much more representative conditions of what to expect for race time in June (at Michigan),” Goodyear’s Director of Racing Greg Stucker said last week, announcing the change in timing.

 

Stucker said the company was hopeful to move the Indianapolis tire test to another date in either June or July.

 

Joining Truex (Furniture Row Racing) are Alex Bowman (Hendrick Motorsports), Brad Keselowski (Team Penske), Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) and Aric Almirola (Stewart-Haas Racing) — all participating in the test session before the series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for this weekend’s GEICO 500 (Sunday, April 29, 2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch’s victory at Richmond Raceway was his third in a row and the 46th of his career in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker for 15th place all time.

It’s the second Hall of Famer on the all-time wins list that Busch has equaled in wins this year. His first win of the year, at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this month, tied the Joe Gibbs Racing driver with Bill Elliott, who he has since put in the rearview.

Baker’s 46th win came in a crown jewel race — the Southern 500. It was the 1964 running of the event, with Baker passing Jimmy Pardue to lead the last 63 laps for his final career win.

Let’s take a look at how Busch’s career stats match up to Baker’s at the time of both drivers’ 46th win.

Key Stats Buck Baker Kyle Busch
Starts 503 471
Wins 46 46
Top fives 246 168
Top 10s 372 249
Laps led 5,795 14,879
Laps completed 109,468 131,913
Busch Pole Awards 45 29
Age 45 32

 

With his current hot streak, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver may catch a few more people on the all-time wins list this year. Herb Thomas is next in his sights with 48 wins. Tony Stewart (49 wins) is after that, with the 50-win plateau looming in the distance as well.

Here’s a look at the all-time top-20 winners in Monster Energy Series history, with an asterisk denoting an active driver.

Rank Driver Wins
1. Richard Petty 200
2. David Pearson 105
3. Jeff Gordon 93
t-4. Bobby Allison 84
t-4. Darrell Waltrip 84
t-6. Jimmie Johnson* 83
t-6. Cale Yarborough 83
8. Dale Earnhardt 76
9. Rusty Wallace 55
10. Lee Petty 54
t-11. Junior Johnson 50
t-11. Ned Jarrett 50
13. Tony Stewart 49
14. Herb Thomas 48
t-15. Buck Baker 46
t-15. Kyle Busch* 46
17. Bill Elliott 44
t-18. Kevin Harvick* 40
t-18. Mark Martin 40
20. Tim Flock 39

 

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Ahead of the fifth NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series race, Steve Luvender offers up his Power Rankings of the top drivers in the series.

STREAM LIVE: Richmond race Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET

1: Ryan Luza (–)

A pit road misstep was no match for the speed of the No. 6 at Las Vegas. Two wins in a row makes Ryan Luza one step closer to the big five-figure payday.

Related: Luza continues to roll, wins Las Vegas

2: Ray Alfalla (+1)

Three-Time’s first win of the season looked evident at Las Vegas, but he settled for a second-place finish. He’s still perfect on top-10 finishes this season, so apparently we haven’t jinxed him yet. Alfalla’s the defending winner at Richmond, where the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series heads next.

3: Michael Conti (+3)

While Michael Conti’s seventh-place effort at Las Vegas wasn’t the headline-making day he might have wanted, there’s something to be said about his consistency this season. He’s three for four in Top 10s. Plus, passing 30 cars after starting 37th is awfully impressive.

4: Keegan Leahy (-2)

After a hot start to the season, Keegan Leahy’s race ended early in the desert. At least when he crashed into a stopped, damaged car, he was leading the race.

5: Logan Clampitt (-1)

Not a great run for #ClampNation at Las Vegas — but, hey, maybe a race at Richmond Raceway in the Richmond Raceway-sponsored car is just what the doctor ordered.

RELATED: Full schedule and results for series

6: Taylor Hurst (+2)

Even with only one Top-10 this season — a runner-up finish at Auto Club Speedway — Taylor Hurst has inched up to sixth in points.

7: Zack Novak (+2)

The Las Vegas pole-sitter is coming off two consecutive top-10 finishes — plus, his Toyota Camry led 27 laps in the race. Novak also led an impressive 65 laps in last year’s race at Richmond. He’s one to watch.

8: Bobby Zalenski (-1)

Slip Angle Motorsports’ Bobby Zalenski rebounded after an early incident to finish 16th, one lap off the pace, at Las Vegas. He scored a top 10 in his only other outing to Richmond Raceway. He’s a solid bet for a strong finish.

9: Jimmy Mullis (-4)

The 2018 momentum for Jimmy Mullis screeched to a halt (well, slid through the infield grass — too soon?) after an early incident with Brad Davies and Bobby Zalenski relegated the No. 27 to a 37th-place finish.

10: Brad Davies (NR)

Despite an early race dust-up in the desert, Brad Davies claimed a notable third consecutive top-10 finish. That streak may be in jeopardy, though, as we head to a track where Davies hasn’t scored a top 15 since 2010.

Posted on by Staff Report

After Kyle Busch crossed the finish line to win his third consecutive race of the season in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway, he went into the grandstands to celebrate with the fans.

It was a first time Busch had ever done so in his career. And the reason why was a special one, citing the fact that it was the 10th anniversary of his infamous run-in with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond in 2008 — a topic that was the highlight of Junior’s podcast earlier in the week.

RELATED: The sit-down between Junior and Rowdy

“It was the 10-year anniversary of you know what and I was wondering if I’d come out alive,” said Busch in his post-race press conference.

Busch noticed a difference among those who greeted him at the fence on the frontstretch, a change of pace for a driver who is generally used to getting more boos than applause after a race victory.

“I think it certainly was different tonight,” Busch added. “I saw a lot of yellow there at the front fence line. I saw a little bit of black, which was the championship jacket from our season back in ’15.

“Don’t worry, I was definitely eyeing it out, like who’s there, who’s there, who’s there.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott has the reputation of being despondent at times following his spate of second-place finishes since joining the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series full time in 2016.

Saturday’s runner-up showing at Richmond Raceway was the eighth of his career, but one that elicited a different type of emotion — perhaps more relief than anything else.

MORE: Full Richmond race results

Elliott, who entered Saturday’s race 23rd in the standings, gutted out his best finish of the year, trailing only race-winner Kyle Busch. Elliot qualified second, fell back in the field, but rallied late after a spate of end-race cautions that benefited his No. 9 Chevrolet, which had excellent short-run speed.

MORE: Most runner-up finishes before a win

“Circumstances were on our side tonight, which is not normal. So I’m happy about that,” Elliott told FOX Sports after the race with a trace of a smile on his face. ” … It wasn’t pretty for sure. We have a lot of work to do, I still feel like, to have the speed that we need and have the car like I want it to.

“But it was still nice to be on the good side of things for the first time in a while.”

It’s been a slog at times for Elliott and his Hendrick teammates this year as they adapt to the new Camaro ZL1, but the on-track performance has noticeably upticked in April.

The summer stretch looms, and with it the opportunity for Elliott and his teammates to join the mix as race winners and perhaps even championship contenders. Even with Elliott’s sunnier disposition, though, there remains an undercurrent of reality.

“I think we’ve been getting better, for sure, over the course of the past handful of weeks. I thought last week was really probably our best effort as a company,” Elliott said. “I think we have to continue to be realistic with ourselves.  We can’t look at the results tonight and think we’re right there, because in reality I think we still have some work to do.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RICHMOND, Va. — Take a bow, Kyle Busch.

The driver of the No. 18 Toyota got what he needed late in Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway — cautions and short runs in the final 40 laps — to win his third straight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, matching Kevin Harvick’s feat from earlier in the season.

Busch streaked away from the rest of the field on a series of late restarts, ultimately beating Chase Elliott to the checkered flag in overtime to record his fifth victory at the .75-mile short track and the 46th of his career, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker for 15th on the all-time list.

RELATED: Race results | Photos from Richmond | Kyle Busch gear

Pit stops were a crucial aspect of Busch’s victory. Under caution on Lap 370 for a chain-reaction accident involving Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman, Busch’s crew got the No. 18 Toyota Camry off pit road first and repeated the feat on Lap 391 after David Ragan’s spin in Turn 3 slowed the action for the fifth time.

“I think the difference for us tonight was just the adjustments (to the car),” Busch said. “Trying to stay with the race track all night long. (Crew chief) Adam Stevens and my guys did a phenomenal job. I think one of the other keys to the night was just my guys — my pit crew. They got us out front when it mattered the most those last two pit stops. They were awesome tonight on pit road.”

Busch started 32nd after a conservative qualifying strategy backfired. That was the deepest in the field a winner had ever started at Richmond. Clint Bowyer held the previous mark, winning from 31st in 2008.

But can Busch win four straight, when the series moves to Talladega next weekend? That’s a tall order, given the vagaries of restrictor-plate racing.

“It’s definitely cool we’ve won three in a row,” Busch said. “We did it a couple years ago, and now I don’t know if you can shoot for four in a row. It’s hard to go to Talladega with that much of a winning streak and think that you can go to Victory Lane, but we’re going to go there anyway and give it a shot.

“We’ll see what we can do … I think it’s easier to win the Power Ball than to win at Talladega.”

MORE: Larson, McMurray swap paint

The last driver to win four straight Monster Energy Series races was Jimmie Johnson, who secured his second series title in 2007 with consecutive playoff victories at Martinsville, Atlanta, Texas and Phoenix.

Elliott finished second for the eighth time in his career, improving from seventh to second over a succession of restarts, passing Denny Hamlin for the runner-up spot after a Lap 401 restart in the NASCAR Overtime.

“Yeah, just very fortunate circumstances there at the end for us, with the way the restarts went,” Elliott said. “Having a short run there at the end was definitely in our favor. So it was nice to be on the good end of things for the first time in a while.

“Looking forward, we have to be realistic about how we ran tonight. I think the result shouldn’t weigh into how hard we worked this week because we have some work to do. I think that we have to keep that in mind.”

Hamlin held third, followed by Joey Logano, who won both the first and second stages before the handle on his No. 22 Team Penske Ford Fusion deteriorated slightly after the sun set. Kevin Harvick ran fifth, overcoming a penalty when one of his crewmen threw pit equipment across his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Fusion during a stop under caution at the end of Stage 1.

Johnson came from oblivion to run sixth after brushing the outside wall early in the race, losing a lap on the track and suffering through a lengthy pit stop that sent him to the back of the field. Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.

Notes: Winning three straight Cup races isn’t a novel experience for Kyle Busch, who scored back-to-back-to-back victories at Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indianapolis after missing the first 11 races of the 2015 season because of injury. Busch went on to win the series championship that year. … Fords dominated the action early, taking the first three positions in Stage 1 and the top four in Stage 2. … Pole winner Martin Truex Jr. battled Busch for the lead late in the race, but a problem with the jack on the left side of his car on the final pit stop cost him nine positions. He finished 14th. … Kurt Busch became the 21st driver to lead at least 9,000 laps in his Monster Energy Series career. Busch led 98 laps at Richmond. … Teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray appeared to purposefully trade paint during caution laps.

NASCAR.com staff contributed to this report.

Posted on by Zack Albert

RICHMOND, Va. — Short-track tensions at Richmond Raceway brought out a brief show of temper to two normally mild-mannered teammates: Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Larson rallied late for a seventh-place finish and McMurray placed 19th in the Toyota Owners 400, but their skirmish under caution provided a spark to a frantic final push to the finish.

The conflict stemmed from the aftermath of Lap 367 mix-up, when Kurt Busch crowded McMurray’s No. 1 Chevrolet into Turn 2’s outside wall. McMurray slowed, Ryan Newman piled in and Larson took evasive action behind him.

RELATED: Race results | 3 in a row for Busch

Larson bypassed McMurray to grab the free pass when the yellow flag flew two laps later for fluid from Newman’s car. One scrape prompted a retaliatory brush under caution from McMurray, who pulled his car alongside Larson’s No. 42 to express displeasure.

“We were all racing for the lucky dog there and honestly, when we went into (Turn) 1, Jamie got to the brakes so early, I thought he had blown a right-front (tire) or something because he had a lot of smoke,” Larson said. “I knew a caution was going to be coming out so I shot a little bit of a gap there and got through there just in time for the caution and then the lucky dog, and then we screwed that up on pit road.

“Jamie was, I guess, upset with me, but I’m sure he’s just frustrated with that whole lap in general because he was in lucky dog position and then pretty much got his car destroyed. I think he was just probably frustrated over the whole thing.”

Larson lost the lap he had regained when repairs on pit road took longer than expected. But he was the beneficiary again on the next-to-last caution, putting him in a position to log his fifth top-10 finish of the year.

McMurray held on to finish on the lead lap, but came home 19th for the second straight week. He exited his car quickly to leave the track, but in response to a question from ESPN’s Bob Pockrass if anything was going on between the two, McMurray said, “nothing.”

“I didn’t see him to talk to him, so I really don’t know,” Matt McCall, McMurray’s crew chief, told NASCAR.com. “I think he wasn’t sure because the 41 (Kurt Busch) put us in the fence and I don’t think he knew what happened when the 42 got below him there in (Turns) 1 and 2 when the caution came out, so I’m not real sure.”

Even though McCall didn’t have the full post-race context from his driver, he indicated that teammates aren’t immune from the heat of competition.

“We’re racing. We come to race, right?” McCall said. “So to me, it doesn’t matter if it’s your teammate or not, you’re racing out there. If he thinks he did something wrong, maybe it was letting him know. I don’t know.”

Posted on by Staff Report

What channels are NASCAR races on this week? We answer that and provide all the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: Get the NBC Sports App |  How to find FS1, FS2 | Get FOX Sports GO | How to find NBCSN

Monday, April 23
12 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 (re-air), FS1
6 p.m.: NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m.: NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

On MRN:
12 p.m.: MRN Motorsports Monday presented by Outback Steakhouse (Hosts: Steve Post, Erin Evernham)

Tuesday, April 24
5 p.m.: NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m.: NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m.: 100,000 Cameras: Talladega, FS1
7:30 p.m.: Beyond the Wheel 2018, FS1

On MRN:
7 p.m.: NASCAR Live (Host: Mike Bagley)

Wednesday, April 25
5 p.m.: NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m.: NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

On MRN:
Noon: MRN Crew Call presented by Hercules Tires (Hosts: Dion Williams, Sammi Jo Francis)
1 p.m.: NASCAR Coast to Coast (Hosts: Kyle Rickey, Hannah Newhouse)

Thursday, April 26
5 p.m.: NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m.: NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

On MRN:
1 p.m.: Throwback Thursday presented by Sunoco

Friday, April 27
11:30 a.m..: NASCAR Xfinity Series practice, FS1 (Canada: TSN GO)
12:30 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, FS1 (Canada: TSN3)
1:30 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, FS1 (Canada: TSN GO)
2:30 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, FS1 (Canada: TSN3)
3:30 p.m.: 100,000 Cameras: Talladega, FS1
4 p.m.: Beyond the Wheel 2018, FS1

On MRN:
11:30 a.m.: Inside Line Fantasy Racing Show (Hosts: Tyler Burnett, Robbie Mays)

Saturday, April 28
4 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice (re-air), FS1
5 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice (re-air), FS1
6 a.m.: 100,000 Cameras: Talladega, FS1
11 a.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series pole qualifying, FS1 (Canada: TSN GO)
1 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Award qualifying, FOX (Canada: TSN5)
2:30 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series pre-race show, FOX
3 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Sparks Energy 300, FOX (Canada: TSN1, TSN3, TSN5)
9 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Award qualifying (re-air), FS2

Sunday, April 29
12 a.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Sparks Energy 300 (re-air), FS1
11:30 a.m.: 100,000 Cameras: Talladega, FS1
12 p.m.: NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
1:30 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pre-race show, FOX
2 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500, FOX, FOX Deportes (Canada: TSN1, TSN3, TSN5)

Posted on by Staff Report

Joey Logano swept the first two stages in Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. It was Logano’s first two stage wins of the season, and he held off Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch as Fords claimed the top four spots in the stage.

While Logano got the stage win, Busch passed the milestone of 9,000 laps led in his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career, becoming the 21st driver to accomplish the feat. Busch crossed the plateau on his ninth lap led Saturday, which was the 175,454th lap of his career.

RELATED: Stage 2 results | Drivers with 9,000 laps led

William Byron was the top Chevrolet in the stage in fifth place, and Kyle Busch led the Toyota camp in sixth place.

Kevin Harvick finished the stage in 10th place, an impressive feat after being penalized on pit road when his crew threw equipment.

Finish Driver Team Race points
1  Joey Logano  Team Penske 10
2  Clint Bowyer  Stewart-Haas Racing 9
3  Aric Almirola  Stewart-Haas Racing 8
4  Kurt Busch  Stewart-Haas Racing 7
5  William Byron  Hendrick Motorsports 6
6  Kyle Busch  Joe Gibbs Racing 5
7  Ryan Newman  Richard Childress Racing 4
8  Brad Keselowski  Team Penske 3
9  Martin Truex Jr.  Furniture Row Racing 2
10  Kevin Harvick  Stewart-Haas Racing 1

Stage 1

Joey Logano took the lead from pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. on Lap 39 and didn’t look back en route to winning Stage 1 on Saturday at Richmond. For Logano, the defending winner of this race, it was his first stage win of the 2018 season.

Aric Almirola finished second with Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch third, William Byron in fourth and another SHR Ford in Clint Bowyer rounding out the top five.

RELATED: Stage results | Photos from Richmond

Among the big movers in the stage was Kyle Busch, who advanced to sixth place after starting in the 32nd position. Almirola, meanwhile, gained 23 spots after starting in 25th place as SHR continued to show speed early in the season.

Jimmie Johnson scraped the outside wall in Turn 2 on Lap 23, taking minor damage, but continued in the race. Johnson finished the stage in 24th place.

Finish Driver Team Race points
1 Joey Logano  Team Penske 10
2 Aric Almirola  Stewart-Haas Racing 9
3 Kurt Busch  Stewart-Haas Racing 8
4 William Byron  Hendrick Motorsports 7
5 Clint Bowyer  Stewart-Haas Racing 6
6 Kyle Busch  Joe Gibbs Racing 5
7 Chase Elliott  Hendrick Motorsports 4
8 Austin Dillon  Richard Childress Racing 3
9 Martin Truex Jr.  Furniture Row Racing 2
10 Kevin Harvick  Stewart-Haas Racing 1