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

Posted on by Staff Report

Pit road performance was crucial during Sunday’s Pocono 400, a race in which teams often get ‘tricky’ with their pit strategies. Martin Truex Jr. took advantage of his team’s stout performance on pit road to pick up his second win of the season.

Fans now have the ability to get in-depth data on every pit stop from the previous weekend’s race. Use the program below to explore a team’s set of pit stops — use the arrows to toggle between drivers (Aric Almirola is the default), or even races, and explore pit stop times, flag state and how many tires a team took on every stop.

Pit road stats: Pocono

      Posted on by Reid Spencer

      LONG POND, Pa. — The anticipation Bubba Wallace felt on returning to the track where he made his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut last season soon turned to disappointment when the engine in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet expired after 108 laps, the result of a missed shift.

      That terminal failure followed a pit-road speeding violation that forced Wallace to serve a pass-through penalty, putting the prospect of a strong finish in jeopardy.

      “I made a mistake on pit road speeding again here at Pocono,” Wallace said ruefully after steering his car to the garage. “We took the wave-around, and we were on older stuff (tires). The No. 95 (Kasey Kahne) was a little bit better than us, well, for sure better. I just tucked in behind him so we didn’t waste too much time and kind of did like a long shift and gave up a little bit of time.”

      That led to the costly miscue.

      “I did it earlier in the race around some cars and had no trouble with it. I just had too much weight and pulled to the left and went from third (gear) to second. I really hate it, and I have never done it before. It’s a bummer. She screamed pretty loud for a second and that was it. It didn’t re-fire after that.”

      The mistake led to a clever retort from team owner Richard Petty after the race:

      “(Crew chief) Drew (Blickensderfer) came up with a good strategy to make us rebound from that penalty that we had, and I thought we were going to set ourselves up for a decent finish,” Wallace added. “That’s what we needed. We kind of struggled with some front grip all weekend long, but we started hitting on it right there at the end.”

      Posted on by RJ Kraft

      LONG POND, Pa. – Most of the talk entering Sunday’s Pocono 400, and for the bulk of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season so far, centered around how Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch had dominated with nine wins in the first 13 races.

      That discussion seemed to leave Martin Truex Jr., last year’s series champion, as somewhat of a forgotten man. All weekend long, the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota maintained a steady confidence that his team was “right there” despite not having the treasure trove of playoff points he had built up last year. He cited how at this time last year he only had two wins (he went on to win eight times in 2017), while this year he came into Pocono with just one win.

      The 37-year-old New Jersey native scored another win Sunday at Pocono Raceway, one of his handful of home tracks. In the process, he served notice that the 2018 championship picture is far from a two-car conclusion between Harvick and Busch.

      RELATED: Truex takes Pocono | See how Truex got the victory 

      “It’s always fun to win,” Truex said. “But especially when you beat the best guys out there. These two guys (Busch and Harvick) were so fast today. Honestly, we were all really equal. It was a matter of who could get out front. The 4 and I stayed on tires. We felt like in practice we were really fast on scuffs. Cole (Pearn, his crew chief) made a good call to stay out and once I got in clean air, this thing was a rocket ship.”

      Despite a string of incidents and bad luck early in the spring, Truex has nine top fives on the season – tied for second-most in the series. And unlike last year, when it seemed like everything that could go right for the No. 78 team did, nagging issues such as lost spots on pit road and blown tires have happened, but the team has not lost its way as Sunday proved.

      “We’ve had more battles this year,” Truex said. “We’ve had more adversity. Last year I felt like things just ‑ it was almost like we couldn’t do anything wrong. This year we’ve had to really work a lot harder for it, but I feel like we’re still right there.”

      Through the season’s first 14 races, the trio of Truex, Harvick and Busch have combined for 11 wins and 2,105 laps led. Together, the trio has taken top-five spots together in four races this season and have a combined 28 top fives on the season. They rank first through third in playoff points gathered thus far and all three were part of last year’s Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

      So is it fair to say the three of them are in a league of their own after they comprised 75 percent of the top four with Kyle Larson taking the runner-up spot?

      “I think three out of the four have definitely been the best,” Larson said of Harvick, Busch and Truex. “I mean, I’m the only one that doesn’t have a win in the front four. … I think that three of those guys are definitely head over heels better than the rest of us.”

      RELATED: Harvick’s headway fades in late going | Series standings | Every 2018 winner

      Sunday’s race saw the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Harvick, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Busch and the No. 78 of Truex all take turns at the front with Harvick leading a race-high 89 laps. Truex overcame a slow pit stop on the left rear after the end of Stage 1. Before that, he ran down Harvick for the lead and playoff point with seven laps to go to take the stage win.

      Truex also capitalized on staying out under a Lap 140 caution and made the older tires hold up over the final 21 laps and three cautions. The decision to stay out did not work out as well for Harvick, who fell to fourth at the end. Busch took four tires for fresh rubber, restarting eighth and surged to a third-place finish.

      “Every single weekend this year, I’ve felt like we can show up and win,” Truex said. “In this sport, as tough as it is and as competitive as it is, that’s really what you look for. Any time you’re in a situation like that, I think you’re in a good place.”

      As the crew chief of the No. 78 team, Pearn is confident that the team is continuing to make strides week to week as the season progresses.

      “Ultimately, you can only control your own destiny, so I think it’s just a matter of continuing to work on the areas that we know we need to improve,” Pearn said. “It’s a matter of staying after it, and if you manage your own inputs, the output is going to be the best that you can hope for.

      “Obviously those guys, the 4 and the 18, have done an unbelievable job all year, and we’ve been close for sure, and today was a great step in the right direction and let us know that we were kind of working the right way.”

      Posted on by Staff Report

      Kevin Harvick seemed poised to check off one of the two tracks missing from his career win list Sunday at Pocono Raceway, staying in command for most of the 160 laps. But another chance at filling that void will have to wait until NASCAR’s return trip to the Pennsylvania track in July.

      Harvick led a race-high 89 laps but slipped back to a fourth-place finish behind winner Martin Truex Jr. in the Pocono 400. The result gave Harvick five top-five efforts in the last six Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, but he left the 2.5-mile with an 0-for-35 career mark there.

      RELATED: Race results | Truex outlasts Pocono field

      Harvick slid to second behind Kyle Busch in the running order after an exchange of pit stops on Lap 127. His Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford was unable to make up the ground in a flurry of four restarts before the finish, and he wound up in close pursuit of runner-up Kyle Larson and third-place Busch at the checkered flag.

      “We had a good car all day, just came down to really losing control of the race on the last pit stop,” said Harvick, who joined Truex in staying on the track while others pitted during the 140th lap. “Really not pitting or pitting didn’t really seem to matter. We lost control to the 18 and wound up losing a couple more spots on the restart starting on the inside, and that was the end of the day. Car was fast and everybody did a great job, it just didn’t work out.”

      Pocono and Kentucky Speedway remain the only two active tracks where Harvick has not won in his career. The 42-year-old driver will have the opportunity to cross off both next month with 400-milers at Kentucky (July 14) and Pocono (July 29) coming up on the schedule.

      Busch achieved the career circuit sweep in the previous weekend’s Coca-Cola 600, finally ticking the box for Charlotte Motor Speedway in a points-paying event.

      Posted on by Reid Spencer

      LONG POND, Pa. — Taking charge of Sunday’s Pocono 400 by staying out under caution on Lap 140 of 160, reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, Martin Truex Jr. pulled away after a restart with seven laps left to win the race and inject himself emphatically into the title conversation.

      The outcome was all about control. Five-time winner Kevin Harvick had it for most of the event, leading a race-high 89 laps. Four-time winner Kyle Busch had it late, winning the race off pit road on Lap 126 and leading Truex and Harvick until a debris caution slowed the action on Lap 139 and changed the course of the race.

      Busch finished third and Harvick fourth, as Kyle Larson grabbed second place after a Lap 144 restart and held the rest of the way, finishing 2.496 seconds behind Truex. With the victory, the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota made sure NASCAR’s Dominant Duo of Harvick and Busch can rightfully now be renamed the Big Three.

      RELATED: Race results | Stages recap
      SHOP: Truex Jr. gear

      The Mayetta, New Jersey, driver won for the second time at Pocono, the second time this season and the 17th time in his career. Collectively, Harvick, Busch and Truex have triumphed in 11 of the 14 Cup races this year.

      Truex was running second to Busch when NASCAR called the debris caution on Lap 139, after a parade of cars ran over a shiny object in Turn 1. When crew chief Adam Stevens called Busch to pit road — and Truex, Harvick, Chase Elliott and Larson remained on the track, Truex had control of the race — and made the most of it.

      “It’s been a really good weekend overall,” said Truex, who led 31 laps and overcame a slow pit stop that dropped him to 14th after he won the race’s first stage. “I feel like we’re getting back to where we were last year (when Truex won eight races).

      “It’s always fun to win, but especially when you beat the best guys out there. These two guys (Busch and Harvick) were so fast today. Honestly, we were all really equal. It was a matter of who could get out front. The 4 (Harvick) and I stayed on tires. We felt like in practice we were really fast on scuffs. (Crew chief) Cole (Pearn) made a good call to stay out, and once I got in clean air, this thing was a rocket ship.”

      WATCH: Truex on competing with Harvick, Busch

      Busch lost last year’s spring race at Pocono when he stayed out on old tires. Stevens made the opposite call on Sunday, but fresh rubber didn’t produce the benefit he and Busch had expected.

      “We decided to pit and put tires on again right there, because we had about 10 or 11 laps on tires,” Busch said. “And that’s where we got burned here in this race in that exact situation last year. So we didn’t want to make the same mistake again.

      “But once I got back there, I just couldn’t pass those guys. I was just stuck where I was at. The four tires just didn’t do anything today. It was certainly all about being out front.”

      Harvick held the lead when Derrike Cope spun off Larson’s front bumper on Lap 124, causing the third caution of the afternoon and the first for a racing incident. Harvick was blocked in his pits by pole winner Ryan Blaney and lost the lead to Busch. For Harvick, the die was cast from that point on.

      WATCH: Larson sends Cope for a spin

      “We had a good car all day,” Harvick said. “Just came down to really losing control of the race on the last pit stop. Really not pitting or pitting didn’t really seem to matter. We lost control to the 18 (Busch) and wound up losing a couple more spots on the restart starting on the inside, and that was the end of the day.

      “Car was fast, and everybody did a great job. It just didn’t work out.”

      Brad Keselowski ran fifth, followed by Blaney, Aric Almirola and Jimmie Johnson, who led his first two laps of the season during the first exchange of green-flag pit stops. Busch leads the series by 87 points over Harvick in second and 90 over Joey Logano (ninth Sunday) in third.

      Larson acknowledged that his runner-up finish was serendipitous.

      WATCH: Larson talks ‘Big Three’

      “We weren’t quite as fast as what I thought we’d be after practice,” Larson said. “I ran probably sixth or seventh all day long and finished second. Was happy about that, because I felt like, obviously, we were at a little bit of a disadvantage on tires there, but the track position overcame that.

      “But I felt like if I didn’t have a good restart on any one of those, I would have fell back outside the top five from those guys on fresher tires. Happy we finished second but needed a lot more to kind of compete with the three guys that ran up front all day.”

      In other words, Larson has work to do before the Big Three can become the Fabulous Four.