Posted on by Jason Lofing

Keegan Leahy won his third NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series race of 2018, completely dominating the competition at Pocono Raceway in one of the most impressive performances in series history. Leahy started fourth, was leading by Lap 3 and spent 85 of 100 laps on the point.

At the checkers, Leahy was a distant 10.5 seconds in front of Christian Challiner, who came home second after starting from pole position. Ray Alfalla scored his second straight third-place result followed by Jimmy Mullis, fresh off his win at New Hampshire. Chris Shearburn completed the top-five finishers.

RELATED: Full iRacing schedule/results for 2018

Though Challiner showed the most speed in qualifying, it did not take long before Leahy asserted himself as the car to beat by taking the lead on Lap 3. A caution on Lap 6 slowed the field when Brian Schoenburg made contact with Darik Bourdeau, collecting Logan Clampitt and Bobby Zalenski in the aftermath.

The yellow brought the field to pit road and Clampitt’s crew did their job, allowing him to hold the lead. With clean air and fresh tires, Clampitt looked to set sail on the restart.

The early caution would end up being the only one of the race, and with the final 90 laps going green, drivers with long-run speed made their way through the field. Challiner and Alfalla could keep pace for a while, but both had little hope in competing with Leahy’s speed after their tires wore. Ryan Luza may have been the biggest threat to the eventual winner, but he had a tough hill to climb after a penalty forced him to start from the pits.

However, by the first round of green-flag stops between Laps 37-42, Luza had crept into the picture with Leahy still dominating. Even with a healthy lead, Leahy pitted a few laps before many of the other front-runners, extending his lead even further as it became clear nobody was going to touch Leahy without a mistake or a caution.

His margin fell slightly as the second run went on due to the earlier pit stop, but it still rested at more than seven seconds when Leahy made his last stop for service on Lap 69. Challiner and Luza decided to pit later, on Lap 74, hoping fresher tires at the end of the race would help them advance. The strategy worked well for Challiner as he ran down Alfalla for the runner-up spot. Luza, though, had problems getting into his pit box and lost several seconds. He fell to 10th after it looked as if he’d challenge for second.

Alfalla holds the championship lead, but Leahy is only 10 points behind in second. Zalenski slipped to third after his incident, with Luza fourth and Nickolas Shelton in fifth. With only two races to go before the playoffs, the battle for the top eight is incredibly tight. Matt Bussa holds the final transfer spot but only has a six-point gap back to Challiner in ninth. Nick Ottinger, Michael Conti, Shelton, and Luza are all in the top eight after Pocono within nine points of Bussa.

The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series heads to the final 1.5-mile track of the regular season as the series visits Texas Motor Speedway with the playoff bubble drivers all looking to break out. Which one can make a statement and get that much closer to qualifying for the round of eight? Find out in two weeks when the PANiS takes on TMS!

Posted on by Steve Luvender

When NASCAR races at a road course — something typically foreign to young drivers who grew up racing local oval tracks — it’s iRacing’s time to shine. Christopher Bell, Parker Kligerman, and Garrett Smithley were among those pro NASCAR drivers who prepared for their respective races at Watkins Glen this past weekend by turning virtual laps on the iRacing sim.

All three drivers finished their races cleanly — including, for Xfinity Series drivers, a portion of the race run in wet track conditions.

Even though Chase Briscoe didn’t race at The Glen this weekend, that didn’t stop him from hitting the track.

After The Glen, Alex Bowman spent his time on iRacing a little differently.

iRacing, always working to improve the realism in its software, released a video explaining the process behind the development of the sim’s new damage model.

NASCAR PEAK ANTIFREEZE iRACING SERIES UPDATE

The stars of iRacing stock cars head to Pocono Raceway on Tuesday for Race 12.

Jimmy Mullis, coming off his first career victory two weeks ago at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, looks to follow up with another win — but there’s been a change atop our Power Rankings.

Some drivers are just looking for a solid finish.

iRACING PAINT SCHEMES OF THE WEEK

Brantley Roden re-created Kyle Busch’s new M&M’s Crunchy Mint Toyota Camry for iRacing. There’s no guarantee it’ll make you drive through the field for a third-place finish at Watkins Glen like Busch did, but it looks good on the track.

iRacing Kyle Busch mint paint scheme

LeafFilter sponsored Ryan Truex’s No. 11 Kaulig Racing car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen Saturday, and painter Justin M. Williams brought it to life on iRacing.

Ryan Truex LeafFilter No. 11

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Take a look at this side-by-side, bumping-and-banging photo finish in iRacing’s Camping World Truck Series-style trucks at Michigan, which featured a 0.003-second margin of victory.

Posted on by David Smith

The Victory Lane celebration at Watkins Glen International was a pivot point for Chase Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson. Finally, after 99 races and eight runner-up finishes together, the duo is victorious.

 

Now they turn their attention to a stretch run, which includes the playoffs, in which they might be even more competitive.

 

Elliott’s average finish of 9.8 in races with less than the average number of restarts ranks fourth among Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regulars, trailing Kyle Busch (3.9), Kevin Harvick (5.3) and Martin Truex Jr. (6.7), three early and obvious favorites for the championship. A faster car would help close that three-position gap to Truex in races heavy on long runs – Elliott’s No. 9 ranks just 10th this season in Central Speed — and while midseason upticks in speed are rare, Elliott’s team managed to accomplish the feat in both 2016 and 2017. The No. 9 Chevrolet ranked sixth in regular-season speed last year; it ranked fourth in the playoffs.

MORE: Elliott wins at Watkins Glen

Elliott utilized that speed last year to lead a combined 295 laps, nearly 53 percent of his yearlong total, at Dover, Martinsville and ISM Raceway in Phoenix during last year’s playoffs, three tracks he’ll visit again this fall. Two of those facilities  — Martinsville and ISM along with Bristol, which will host a regular-season race on Aug. 18 — comprised three of Elliott’s best single-race adjusted pass differentials during this season’s first half.

 

The track type on which Elliott is at his best as a passer, 2-mile tracks, is represented twice prior to the playoffs; he’ll return to Michigan this weekend, a track on which he’s thrice finished second, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sept. 9. He scored an adjusted pass differential 15 spots better than his average running position’s expectation in June’s race at Michigan.

MORE: Post-Watkins Glen playoff watch | Elliott’s win was in the numbers

Gustafson’s pit strategy calls should assist Elliott in the event any speed gains don’t quite shore up the difference between the car and those of the vaunted “Big 3.” The crew chief is retaining his driver’s running position on 80 percent of green-flag pit cycles — the series average is 67 percent — with a 22-position net gain on oval tracks to show for his effort.

 

Ninety percent of Gustafson’s stops under green this season were conservatively timed, or around the time when most teams elected to pit. He pitted outside the norm twice at Texas to mixed results; the team retained a top-three spot during the race’s second green-flag pit cycle after short-pitting, but lost five positions when long-pitting later in the race. It’s unclear whether he’s tabled unorthodox strategy for later use, but Texas does make an appearance in the playoffs.

 

Perhaps the biggest hurdles for Elliott and crew are the 1.5-mile tracks, of which there are four between now and the end of the season. One of them is Homestead-Miami Speedway, the track tasked with crowning the series champion in a winner-take-all scenario.

 

Elliott’s Chevrolet ranks 13th in Central Speed on intermediate tracks specifically, and the driver hasn’t found much success navigating through traffic at 1.5-milers. Through seven races on the track type in 2018, his adjusted pass differential sits at minus-18 spots, 35 positions worse than the expectation of his average running whereabouts.

 

There’s reason for optimism, though, considering his effort on the same tracks in 2017.

 

Based on his running position on intermediates last season, he was expected to secure an adjusted pass differential of plus-31; he earned a plus-156, a wild overachievement befitting a driver who ranked second in overall passing. A repeat of such a development could transform him into a serious championship threat, a notion that seemed unlikely to most fans after he averaged an 18.1-place finish through the season’s first eight races.

 

Last Sunday’s win at Watkins Glen was a big day for Elliott and the Elliott faithful, but there may soon be more to celebrate.

 

David Smith is the Founder of MotorsportsAnalytics.com. Follow him on Twitter at@DavidSmithMA.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR issued the following statement on Monday: “Brian France has taken an indefinite leave of absence from NASCAR as chairman and chief executive officer. Effective immediately, NASCAR Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President Jim France has assumed the role of interim chairman and chief executive officer.”

Jim France grew up in the early years of stock car racing, living and learning every detail of the sport from his own experiences, and from his father Bill France Sr., the founder and first president of NASCAR, and brother Bill Jr., NASCAR’s former president, chairman and CEO.

Jim France

Joining International Speedway Corporation in 1959, France worked in all phases of operations in his early years with the company.

He was elected to the ISC board in 1970 and has served as the company’s secretary, assistant treasurer, vice president, chief operating officer, executive vice president and president.

France has been involved in motorsports most of his life. In addition to stock cars, he has also been a strong supporter of both sports car and motorcycle racing in the United States, evident by his professional involvement in those sports. In 1999, he founded GRAND-AM Road Racing; in 2012, he was the driving force behind the merger of GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series, which began operation as one entity under the IMSA banner in 2014. He also was one of the crucial forces behind NASCAR’s acquisition of ARCA earlier this year.

France has served as a board member for ACCUS (Automobile Competition Committee of the United States). France was on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1969-1970, serving in Vietnam.

France was born and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida, and graduated from Seabreeze High School. He attended Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, and earned a business degree in 1968.

Posted on by Staff Report

The Dawsonville Pool Room’s siren was ringing after Chase Elliott’s inaugural Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win at Watkins Glen International on Sunday. And the locals seemed to respond, as a crowd awaited the new race winner when he landed at Elliott Field in Dawsonville, Georgia.

Accompanying Elliott were fellow Monster Energy Series driver and friend Ryan Blaney — who climbed out of the plane first, saying “Boy’s a winner!” — and his father, Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott.

MORE: Elliott wins at Watkins Glen | Elliott, father Bill share special moment | Celebration photos

The driver of the No. 9 was grateful for the support, tweeting after the warm welcome.

 

Posted on by David Smith

Was Chase Elliott’s win Sunday at Watkins Glen a culmination of a summer’s worth of improvement, a fun story line where a previously winless driver joins this year’s championship contenders? Or was it more a case of him being in the right place at the right time?

Let’s take a look at the statistical evidence.

Elliott’s average finish across 22 starts this season is 13.0. However, in races with eight or more starts and restarts, his average finish is 21.7, a result putting him in the neighborhood of Chris Buescher (18.3), Kasey Kahne (21.0) and Michael McDowell (21.2). Among this group, Elliott’s car is the only one ranked in the top 20 for yearlong Central Speed.

RELATED: Chase Elliott wins at Watkins Glen

Meanwhile, in the races with fewer than eight starts and restarts, including Watkins Glen, his average finish is 9.8, fourth-best among regulars in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, trailing only Kyle Busch (3.9), Kevin Harvick (5.3) and Martin Truex, Jr. (6.7), three drivers who’ve combined for 16 victories in 2018.

Eight of the last nine races saw less than eight starts and restarts. Elliott scored an 8.5-place average finish in those events.

Restarts have stymied Elliott this season. His 77.5 percent position retention rate on preferred groove restarts ranks 17th in the series. His 37 percent retention on non-preferred groove attempts also ranks 17th. The poor retention habits are reflected in races with high restart tallies.

The bad restart stat may suggest a problem in his driving repertoire, something Elliott eventually will have to address; however, his issue is mitigated on tracks and in races that don’t induce a high number of restarts. Instead of struggling to clear his biggest hurdle, this summer stretch, as predicted, has given mileage to his long-run passing acumen.

RELATED: Chase Elliott through the years

Elliott, an efficient passer in two seasons at the NASCAR Xfinity Series level, recorded the second-best surplus passing value in 2017, scoring a pass differential 172 spots better than his average running position’s expectation. In 2018, his overall passing value has regressed, but he’s still one of the 10 best passers in the series, subsisting on high long-run pass efficiencies on short tracks and 2-mile tracks. Additionally, he’s proving a stingy defender. To date in 2018, his adjusted pass differential for a single race dipped below minus-4 just twice.

With clean air and a caution-free final stage, Elliott would’ve been tough for anyone to pass in the waning laps at Watkins Glen. Truex, the reigning series champ and winner in the only other road-course race this year, ran his gas tank dry attempting to overtake him.

MORE: Dawsonville siren sounds for Chase

Elliott’s first victory came in a type of race that played to his statistical strengths. As his number of strengths expands, so too may his win total.

Only 22, Elliott should develop into a more reliable and well-rounded driver, with styles suiting most scenarios that befall modern-day NASCAR races. For now, he has a discernible strength, a weakness that doesn’t always play a factor and capitalized on a summer stretch of the schedule that appears tailor-made to showcase his abilities.

David Smith is the Founder of MotorsportsAnalytics.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidSmithMA.

 

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Race 11 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway crowned a new winner in the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series: Jimmy Mullis. Zack Novak finished second — one position shy of winning two races in a row. Ray Alfalla reclaimed the top spot in the point standings as the world’s best virtual stock car racers head to Pocono Raceway Tuesday.

1: Ray Alfalla (+2)

Ol’ Three-Time is back on top heading into Pocono, where the No. 2 has finished on the podium three times, including a win in 2013.

2: Ryan Luza (–)

Even though Ryan Luza’s lone start at Pocono last year wasn’t stellar (unless we’re talking business for the body shop), it’s hard to ignore the fact that he’s a weekly pick to perform this season.

3: Bobby Zalenski (–)

After giving up the points lead following a 12th-place effort in Loudon, Slip Angle Motorsports’ Bobby Zalenski driver looks to continue his solid season in the Pocono Mountains. Well, they’re pixel mountains. You can only really see them in the background of the track on iRacing.

4: Michael Conti (–)

Michael Conti dominated most of the action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but gave up control after a bad pit stop. The good news for Conti is that he’s racing at a track where he won previously.

5: Keegan Leahy (+1)

The series’ hottest Canadian driver rebounded masterfully in New Hampshire after a disappointing finish in Chicagoland — but Tuesday’s race at Pocono Raceway will mark Leahy’s first start at the Tricky Triangle.

6: Zack Novak (+1)

Zack Novak nearly went back-to-back in Victory Lane, but came up one spot short at his home track in New Hampshire. Novak, Lockdown Racing’s top-ranked driver, finished fifth in Pocono last year — plus, he’s finished either first or second in three of the last four races this year.

7: Matt Bussa (-2)

Matt Bussa’s promising run — and potential fifth consecutive top-10 — ended abruptly at the Magic Mile, but he’s still solidly standing fourth in the overall points. Bussa hasn’t finished better than 11th in three attempts at Pocono Raceway, his most recent start coming in 2015.

8: Nick Ottinger (+1)

Daytona winner Nick Ottinger’s had a quiet but consistent season, eighth in points after an eighth-place finish at Loudon. The Gale Force Radicals Online driver finished runner-up at Pocono in 2013 and fourth in 2012 — so he knows how to get around the triangle.

9: Logan Clampitt (-1)

Logan Clampitt’s officially in a drought — his best finish since May was 13th — but he finished fourth at Pocono last year, if it’s any consolation.

10: Jimmy Mullis (NR)

Lockdown Racing’s Jimmy Mullis finally broke through to claim his first victory at New Hampshire, but now heads to a track where he finished 31st in his only start.

Posted on by Pat DeCola

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Ninety-nine races and the win count is one.

It’s been a long time coming, but Chase Elliott is now a victor in NASCAR’s top series. The 22-year-old Hendrick Motorsports product turned in a thrilling performance in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen, holding off reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. for most of the final stage — as many wondered if the veteran would outfox the young driver and pull away with a second straight victory at the road course.

MORE: Relive Elliott’s first Monster Energy Series win | NASCAR reacts to Elliott’s victory

But he didn’t. Elliott won. 

And he had his dad, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, on hand guiding — and eventually celebrating with — him the whole way.

“I’m proud of him, proud of the team. They’ve done a good job,” said the elder Elliott, who spotted for Chase through the Bus Stop at WGI. “They’ve worked really hard the last two and a half years to put this together, and Mr. (Rick) Hendrick has done a lot for this organization and done a lot for racing.”

Those two and a half years? They’ve felt like an eternity for some of NASCAR Nation, yearning to see Elliott fulfill his destiny as both the son of a legend and, in his first two Hendrick seasons, the successor to one of NASCAR’s greatest ever in Jeff Gordon. 

The start of this year brought a new car number and a new mindset following some offseason guidance from teammate Jimmie Johnson over a few beers during a retreat to Colorado, but the mission remained the same: win.

The shift actually started last fall during the NASCAR Playoffs, seeing Chase put together the best 10-race stretch of his career with four runner-up finishes — after just one through the season’s first 26 contests.

Sunday was a culmination of two-plus years of learning at the Cup level. The win may have been a surprise to most, perhaps even Chase, himself.

Not Bill.

“Well, I still think last fall was kind of a defining point in his career,” he said. “I mean, the way he ran the last 10 races last year and the things that kind of went on, and I just … you kind of look at the end of last year, and we were so close to getting a win and getting that last few legs of the (playoffs), and he’s done everything right and there was nothing really I felt like he did wrong. There’s going to be days that circumstances play a part, good, bad or indifferent, and that’s a part of the way the racing gods go, right, wrong or indifferent.”

RELATED: Chase gets assist from Johnson | From a kid to Cup winner: Chase over the years

There were periods where confidence appeared, at least on the outside, to be shaken. In a sport of great quotes through the years, it had to hit a nerve with Chase that his most notable words were some form of “I just hate it for my guys back at the shop,” often after respectable-by-most-accounts top-five finishes. 

But a driver with shaken confidence doesn’t hold off one of NASCAR’s winningest drivers over the past few years for more than 30 laps at one of the sport’s most-challenging race tracks. That simply just doesn’t happen.

The lessons he’s learned through the struggles he and his team and organization as a whole have felt are going to pay dividends. It has started to show lately — Sunday was his third consecutive race with a stage win, and he’s now provisionally locked into the playoffs. 

The fact that it took 99 races to land in Victory Lane might have been difficult for Chase to wade through while it was happening, but in 20, 30, 40 years he’ll likely point to his early-career challenges as the chisel that carved him into the driver he’s destined to be. 

After all, it took Bill 115 races to finally crack through for his first Cup win at Riverside in 1983 … and things turned out pretty well for him. 

“Like I said, I think sometimes you get in this sport, and this is kind of my philosophy … you get in this sport and you win too soon, then in your mind it becomes too easy,” Bill said. “I think it took me — I know it took me a long time to win my first race in a lot of years because I didn’t run a lot of races first off. So, I think I started racing in ’76, and it wasn’t until ’83 I won my first Cup race. … You learn a lot through that; you learn a lot about yourself.

“But this is a whole different level today. I mean, when you’ve got guys like Kyle (Busch) and (Kevin) Harvick and (Martin) Truex and all those guys that run like they run, to be able just to even finish second to them, that’s a heck of a day in my opinion.” 

But he didn’t finish second Sunday. Chase won. 

We’ve felt it coming for a few the past few weeks, but it’s now official.

The Chase Elliott era is upon us, and all signs point to it being awesome.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – If there were a “Driver of the Race” award in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, it would be difficult to give it to anyone other than Chase Elliott, who held off reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. over the final 32 laps to win Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen.

Kyle Busch, however, could lay his own claim, after fighting his way back to third place, overcoming a fueling snafu on pit road during his final stop under caution on Lap 56.

RELATED: Chase Elliott breaks through | Race results

Busch left pit road with the lead after the stop, only to learn that his team had gotten only eight gallons of racing fuel into his tank. He returned to pit road a lap later to complete the fueling process and restarted 31st on Lap 59.

By Lap 66, Busch had cracked the top 10, and throughout the closing laps, he worked his way toward the front — ultimately passing Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez for third place.

“Sounds familiar,” Busch said of the glitch that perhaps cost him the race. “Every year we come here, we have a fast car and fail to execute, whether that’s just called bad luck or whatever.

“Last year we had a lug nut get stuck in the caliper. This year we had fueling problems. It never ceases to amaze me. Nothing surprises me anymore.”

WATCH: Busch’s fueling issue on pit road

Busch led 31 of the 90 laps, second only to Elliott’s 52. But after the blown pit stop, Busch had to work harder fighting his way through the field than Elliott did in keeping Truex behind him.

“It was a heck of a lot harder than it should have been,” Busch said. “But that was the predicament we were put in, and we had to go work. I certainly gave (team owner) Joe (Gibbs) his money’s worth today, maybe even a couple more races.

“We had a fast race car. I can’t say enough about our guys, our shop, everybody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) engines, everything that gave us that opportunity. We just failed to capitalize, so it’s a disappointing day, no question.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Just because you’re the defending series champion and last year’s race winner doesn’t make second place suck any less.

Martin Truex Jr. had leader Chase Elliott in his crosshairs over the final 30-plus laps of Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. He couldn’t reel him in.

Elliott held off the reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title-holder – a member of NASCAR’s vaunted “Big 3” – and Truex settled for the runner-up finish, his fourth of the season.

MORE: Complete Watkins Glen results

For two drivers — one who too often has seen wins slip from his grasp and another who has piled on 16 wins in the last three years alone — it seemed a foregone conclusion the veteran Furniture Row Racing driver would be adding his fifth win of the season with that many laps to work with.

Not so.

“(My car was) faster than the 9, just not enough to pass him,” a visibly-upset Truex Jr. explained in his post-race press conference. “I could get right to him. I chased him down from a ways back after that restart. … He checked up, got a lead on us, I just tried all I could to chase him down, and I got there with plenty of time. It’s just every time I’d start putting together some good corners and get close enough to him to even think about making a move, I’d get sideways behind him.”

WATCH: Truex says Chase had ‘upper hand’

In running so hard to catch the 9,  Truex burned up his tires … and his fuel.

“I was too loose all day on exit on all the corners. I couldn’t get the power down good enough, and running behind him there, just burned my rear tires off trying to make something happen,” said Truex, who is third in points. “We ran out of gas anyway coming off of Turn 5 that last lap, so it was really all a moot point. He was going to win regardless.”

Despite the heartbreak, Truex, in true-champion style, gave Elliott his due. The 22-year-old earned it, and he had to beat the best (Kyle Busch finished third, as well) to do it.

“He did a good job of putting his car exactly where it needed to be and not making a mistake,” Truex said. “Congrats to him on his first win. That’s a big deal for those guys, and they’ve been so close.  Chase did a great job, and they earned it, so congrats to them.”

Still, Truex knows he missed an opportunity.

“We tried, and we came up short,” he said. “It was my turn (to win), and I didn’t capitalize.”