Posted on by Track Release

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Let’s Get Ready to RACE! World Boxing Council’s (WBC) current World Heavyweight Champion and Tuscaloosa, Ala., native Deontay Wilder, will serve as the Honorary Pace Car Driver for this Sunday’s GEICO 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway (April 29). 

Prior to the start of the GEICO 500, Wilder — “The Bronze Bomber” — will lead the field around the mammoth 2.66-mile track in the Official Ford Mustang GT Pace Car and take them to the green flag to start off the much-anticipated event.

MORE: Top Talladega surprises | Full Talladega weekend schedule

Wilder, 32, has risen to be the most dominant boxer in the world with a 40-0 record, 39 by knockout. Driven by an indomitable will and a relentless work ethic, he has decimated his foes on his way to fulfilling his destiny. 

He is considered the most dynamic heavyweight boxer, and pound-for-pound, one of the best boxers in the world. Wilder is not limited by boxing. He uses his unique platform as heavyweight champion of the world to touch the lives of others. The 2008 Olympian is inspired by his idol Muhammad Ali to become a humanitarian force in the world.

Boxing was not his first impulse. Like many children of the south he longed to play football on Saturdays and Sundays. But, an unanticipated obstacle changed the course of his life. Wilder’s daughter was born with spina bifida, so he put aside his childhood dream and took on the responsibilities of being a father. 

Determined to provide for his daughter and family, Wilder, now a father of four, took up boxing. He soon discovered he was a natural. In short order, he began to shape his masterful career. 

The GEICO 500 is set to get the green flag at 1 p.m. (CDT). Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., is the defending champion. The Sparks Energy 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series event is set for this Saturday (April 28), at 2 p.m. (CDT), while the General Tire 200 ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards race will kick off the weekend at 5 p.m. (CDT) on Friday (April 27).

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Editor’s note: The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing series resumes at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 24 at Richmond.

Stream the race live Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET

iRacing’s a favorite hobby of plenty of NASCAR fans — and young drivers studying for school, apparently. C’mon, William. We see the steering wheel in your tweet. We know you performed a typical William Byron butt-whooping in an iRacing race then tabbed over to your college work for the picture.

RELATED: Power Rankings entering Week 5

There was no fooling Erik Jones, at least.


Prior to Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, Richmond Raceway held a live iRacing event in the track’s amphitheater, including NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series stars from Richmond Raceway’s own CHAOS CREW iRacing team, NASCAR driver Spencer Boyd, and Rowdy Burns. Really.

The race wasn’t an easy go for Rowdy from “Days of Thunder.” (Michael Rooker).

NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series Update

The stars of the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series head to the virtual Richmond Raceway on Tuesday night for Race 5 of the season.

Last week’s winner, Ryan Luza, is searching for his third consecutive win after claiming checkered flags at Auto Club and Las Vegas.

Current points leader and three-time series champ Ray Alfalla hopes to put an end to Luza’s winning streak while defending his 2017 victory at the short track.

Related: Race 5 iRacing Series Power Rankings

iRacing Paint Schemes of the Week

Brantley Roden painted Kyle Busch’s M&Ms Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Richmond-winning Toyota Camry.

John Mustian Jr. created a replica of Alan Kulwicki’s 1989 car — on a 2018 Ford Fusion.

Speaking of historic re-creations, Jordan Werth brought Ken Schrader’s famous 2003 Carrot Top car back to life on iRacing, for reasons unknown.

The artists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

Don’t Try This at Home

Check out this save in an iRacing Truck Series race at Bristol.

Lucky or good? You decide.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Matt Kenseth will drive once more for Roush Fenway Racing, returning to pilot the No. 6 Ford in a part-time role with Trevor Bayne for the remainder of the 2018 season, according to a report from SB Nation’s Jordan Bianchi.

Kenseth, 46, has not raced this year. He was in team owner Jack Roush’s stable for 13 seasons to begin his career, winning the 2003 championship in what is now known as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Kenseth won 24 races — including two Daytona 500s — during that stretch before moving to Joe Gibbs Racing prior to the 2013 season, where he won 15 races over the past five years.

MORE: Kenseth, win by win

Roush Fenway Racing did not comment on the report. The team plans a “major” announcement at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday.

Kenseth stepped away from competition following the 2017 season when JGR parted ways with the veteran and elevated Erik Jones to the No. 20 Toyota.

The Wisconsin native adamantly refused to use the word “retire” last year when discussing his future.

“I’m just going to take some time off, whatever that means, take a year or two … or three months, four months,” Kenseth said at Texas in November. “You never really know what happens. Something could come up that makes me excited and looks like a fit and I’m not going to rule that out.”

In 20 seasons, Kenseth has made 650 starts in the sport’s top series.

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.