Posted on by Staff Report

Ten years later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch sat down face-to-face to discuss their heated rivalry that blossomed in 2007 and came to a head at Richmond Raceway in 2008 — and lasted years longer.

On the latest edition of Dirty Mo Radio’s “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, Earnhardt and Busch met up over beer and doughnuts (provided by Busch) early in the morning at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, North Carolina. Their talk dove deep into what led to the events of that infamous night in Richmond (which Jeff Gluck reported on earlier this week).

Before the rivalry really sparked, both drivers were feeling the pressure in the search for a ride for the 2008 during the ’07 season.

“In 2007, I had no idea where I was going to drive,” Earnhardt said. “…I talked to a lot of people.”

“You probably did the whole tour,” Busch replied. “You were 3-4 months ahead of me.”

RELATED: All of Junior’s premier series victories | All of Kyle Busch’s wins

Eventually, both figured out their new rides as Earnhardt would go from the No. 8 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet to the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, while Busch jumped from the No. 5 at Hendrick to Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the No. 18.

Once their plans were set, that’s when the feud fired up.

Earnhardt wrecked Busch on the backstretch at Kansas Speedway in late 2007, having major implications on Busch’s hopes to win the championship.

After the race, Busch didn’t mince words with Earnhardt, calling him out for the incident and raising the question as to why he would wreck a car that belongs to a team he would race for next year. Earnhardt apologized for his mistake in post-race interviews.

“I heard his comment (about Junior coming over to Hendrick Motorsports and wrecking their equipment),” Earnhardt said Tuesday as they rehashed their rivalry. “That comment made my mind go, ‘He thinks I’m taking his ride.’ I’m thinking the whole time, ‘I’m not taking your ride! They’re keeping (Casey) Mears. Mears is taking your ride.’ That made me think he assumed I had screwed him over so many times. You know. He’s wrecked me. He’s pushed me out of HMS. I had it in my mind that you thought I was the devil.”

Busch confirmed with one word: “Absolutely.”

When the 2008 season rolled around, both drivers came out of the gate swinging. Busch won at Atlanta and Talladega to position himself second in the points standings heading into Richmond, while Earnhardt accumulated consistent finishes to work his way up to third in points.

“At first, I thought it was me versus the 88 team, Junior, those guys, mainly Junior, but then kind of as it developed and the season was kind of going, it was more of like a me versus Hendrick Motorsports-type thing,” Busch said. ‘It just became like, ‘Look, you all made this decision, so now you all are going to feel the wrath of this decision.’ ”

Then came Richmond.

The race was fairly tame between Earnhardt and Busch up until the battle for victory came down to the two competitors in the closing laps. But the rivalry exploded when Busch wrecked Earnhardt with three laps remaining, ruining the No. 88’s chances of winning.

“It was a recipe for disaster,” Earnhardt said. “Everything up to that point up through the first half of that year was leading to this moment.”

The recollection of the event prompted Busch to ask Earnhardt, “So did you know in the moment, though, when the wreck happened and you had a chance to see it that it wasn’t purposeful?”

Earnhardt’s response: “Yeah.”

“My mindset in that moment was like, if it was somebody else, if it was a teammate or somebody I was actually kind of getting along with, there probably would have been two more inches given, right?” Busch added.

MORE: Dale Jr. through the years | Junior’s best No. 88 schemes

But Earnhardt would get his payback later that year. And what better place than the fall Richmond race to deliver it to Busch?

“I was under a lot of pressure from my fans to do something,” Earnhardt said. “I felt in my heart if I don’t get him back, everybody’s going to look at me as this guy who gets wrecked and don’t do (expletive). It was just me being hard-headed and ignorant.

“I felt like if I didn’t wreck you at some point, my fans were gonna be really pissed.”

It was a decision that Earnhardt didn’t take lightly.

“I had been contemplating it and dreaming about it,” Earnhardt said. “I didn’t want to do it. But I had to do it. … It’s definitely not my personality. I hate confrontation in any form. I try to avoid it at all costs. I like everybody to be happy. But that’s not going to be the way it is on the race track. I felt this pressure, ‘He’s not his daddy, he don’t stand up for himself, he lets people push him around.’ I thought I had to do it.”

So he did, sending Busch around with a shot to the rear quarter panel that had the fans cheering.

Busch went on to win eight races in 2008 while Junior had one victory, but the incidents with Earnhardt lingered in the back of his mind despite the success. Busch ended the season ranked 10th in the driver points standings, with Junior close behind in 12th.

“I didn’t feel vindicated because we sucked so bad through the final 10 races,” Busch said. “As soon as we hit (playoff) time, we stepped on any tack we could possibly find. It was horrible. We absolutely faltered and threw it away.

RELATED: Kyle Busch through the years

“Things probably have maybe turned around sooner if ‘08 had ended with a championship. I may have been a little smarter and grown up a little bit quicker where it would have been like, ‘Hey Dale, sorry, I’m a total (expletive). Can we just forget about ’08? I’m OK now.’ ”

For Earnhardt, the rivalry messed with his head for a long time.

“I was consumed by our rivalry at different points of my life,” Earnhardt said. “I always knew where Kyle Busch was at on the race track. From 2008 to 2012 or ’11, I was consumed by it. It bothered the (expletive) out of me. I hated it. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t like fun, at all.”

Although it took a decade for the two fierce competitors to finally sit down and talk about it, it was a conversation that both agreed should have happened way before 2018.

“Man, when can we just figure out how to bury this hatchet,” Busch recalled thinking over the years. “I hate being mad at the guy, but I was just always waiting on him, and I don’t know why. Maybe it was because of age, maybe it was because of his stature. I don’t know why.”

“That’s so crazy. I never thought about it like that,” Earnhardt replied. “I thought Kyle hated my guts, or hated what I was or who I was.”

And not only have Earnhardt and Busch never forgotten about that Richmond scuffle, but they also realized their loyal fans haven’t, either.

“I was really surprised 10 years later, fans are still so frickin’ passionate about that night,” Earnhardt said.

“Yep, I hear about it all the time,” replied Busch.

Posted on by Staff Report

The No. 17 car in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series received a safety violation on Tuesday for having a lug nut not properly installed at the conclusion of Monday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The issue was discovered in post-race inspection, and NASCAR has fined crew chief Brian Pattie $10,000 as a result.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford to a fourth-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol. Stenhouse is 18th in the series standings.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

CONCORD, N.C. — It’s been a big 48 hours for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Roush Fenway Racing: A season-best fourth place at Bristol, three main sponsors renewing and the announcement that Ford plans to introduce the Mustang into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2018.

“The Mustang is cool. Winning races in Mustangs and championships in Mustangs, it’ll be cool to get back in a Mustang,” Stenhouse said at the race shop in Concord, North Carolina.

Stenhouse achieved a high amount of success in the Ford Mustang during his two full-time seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, recording back-to-back championships and eight wins with Roush from 2011-12.

“I felt like it took me two or three years to get used to calling the Fords a Fusion, now we’re going back to a Mustang. All in all, these partners and these color schemes will look good on a Mustang. Hopefully we can get back to our winning ways in those Mustangs, for sure.”

With Fastenal, Fifth Third Bank and Sunny D extending their primary sponsorship agreements for the No. 17 through 2021, the team has firm footing as it prepares for the new body in 2019.

RELATED: Ford Mustang plans in 2019 |  Big sponsorship news for Roush

As Ford Performance bats .500 so far this season, winning four of the first eight races with Kevin Harvick (3 wins) and Clint Bowyer (1 win), the speed with an older body style has Stenhouse feeling extremely optimistic about the upcoming change.

“I think this year, we’ve been pretty encouraged by what the Ford teams can do on the mile-and-a-half race tracks, seeing we are really the last car to really change our bodies and really change them up,” Stenhouse said. “So, I’m encouraged by what all we’ve learned and what we feel like we need in our Mustang.”

Now the focus shifts to making those same triumphs happen in the Monster Energy Series, where Stenhouse earned his first two career wins at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway last season.

“Come 2019, I’m really wanting us to get our program to the highest level that we can because I really feel like when we switch to the Mustang in ’19, it’s going to continue to elevate our program. I think Ford’s done their homework and their research and the teams have given a ton of input. Stewart-Haas, Penske, ourselves really put a big collaboration with Ford to get these cars where we want them. I’m excited for 2019, for sure.”

Overall, Roush Fenway Racing has accumulated 70 victories and three championships with the Ford Mustang in the Xfinity Series since 2011. Roush hopes to begin the process of obtaining that same prosperity next year.

RELATED: Roush Fenway Racing complete NASCAR statistics

Jack Roush, founder and owner of Roush Fenway Racing, was also on hand for the sponsorship announcement, sharing just how far back his professional career in the automotive and motorsports industry goes with the Ford Motor Company and the Mustang.

“I went to work right out of college to work for Ford to help build Mustangs in the plants,” Roush told NASCAR.com. “I started racing Mustangs in ’66 and had a great 10-year run of drag racing. We’ve had a great run with Mustangs and have had a lot of success with Mustangs in the Xfinity Series.

“…I look forward to being able to carry the Mustang banner to the front in NASCAR’s highest series.”

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Although we’re nearly a quarter of the way through the NASCAR season, there’s never a break in the action on everybody’s favorite racing simulation software, iRacing. When you can race the high banks of Bristol from the comfort of your living room, why would you ever stop?

Plus, an iRacing subscription and a racing wheel clamped to your desk makes you qualified to critique what the pros are doing in real life, if Twitter’s taught us anything. You might be racing against stars like William Byron or Kyle Larson, after all.

Here’s what’s happening this week where the worlds of virtual race cars and real race cars intersect.

• Joe Gibbs Racing driver Daniel Suarez stopped by Richmond Raceway’s iRacing simulator cockpit — which appears to be modeled after Logan Clampitt’s No. 46 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series car.

• Part-driver-part-NBC-personality Parker Kligerman took home a victory at Bristol — not in a real race car this week, but, rather, in an iRacing league. Do you think he sprayed champagne in his living room?

NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series Update

While Kyle Busch won his second straight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this week, Ryan Luza, too, won his second consecutive race. The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series hit the virtual Las Vegas Motor Speedway last Tuesday, and the Texas native made an impressive run to the front in the closing laps to claim another victory (as our Las Vegas Power Rankings predicted, by the way).


RELATED: Full iRacing race report

The three-time series champion Ray Alfalla currently leads the points after scoring top-10 finishes in each of the season’s first four races.

iRacing Paint Schemes of the Week

The creativity of custom paint scheme artists on iRacing is almost as impressive as the drivers who’ve perfected their skills using the simulation.

Brantley Roden re-created Kyle Busch’s Skittles Toyota Camry that raced to victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. It might not make you as fast as Kyle Busch, but you can race the rainbow on iRacing.

Race it on iRacing

Tanner Tallarico put a unique spin on Kevin Harvick’s No. 98 Xfinity Series Ford — if it were a super late model. Kevin Harvick sometimes drops down to the local level to compete against different racers, so this fictional iRacing re-creation seems half-believable.

Kevin Harvick Hunt Brothers Pizza iRacing No. 98

Race it on iRacing

In the “what on earth?” category, Brennan McGee re-created an old-school NASCAR on NBC car for iRacing. Yes, if you’re an iRacing member, you can race around on the mid-2000s show car from the hit video game NASCAR Thunder 2004.

Race it on iRacing

Flashbacks to NBC’s Wally’s World, anyone?

Don’t Try This at Home

While iRacing is a serious simulation, sometimes it’s nice to have a little fun, too. Watch a virtual version of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car try to jump a row of other cars … uhh, for science.

Don’t try that with an actual race car. Or do, but it might get a little expensive. Thankfully, we’ve got iRacing for experiments like this.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Joey Logano’s ability to multitask is getting put to the test this year.

The 27-year-old driver and his wife, Brittany, became parents, welcoming their first child in January. Logano has also found time to mentor a father-son duo’s path into stock-car racing, having the relationship unfold on the Discovery Channel series “Twin Turbos,” which debuted in February. All that comes in addition to a hat he’s worn for the last five-plus seasons, as a valued teammate for Team Penske’s growing organization.

Of all the roles Logano currently holds, none has compared to caring for the young family’s 3-month-old son.

“Being a new dad is probably the biggest adjustment I’ve ever made. It’s a lot more than taking wedge out, I can tell you that much,” Logano says. “It’s a big adjustment. It’s been challenging, but it’s been the most fun and rewarding thing already.”

Logano’s search for more gratifying moments continues this weekend at Richmond Raceway, the site of his most recent victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. That win came almost a full year ago, a drought that included missing out on last season’s playoffs.

Joey Logano celebrates winning the Toyota Owners 400 with his team and wife Brittany
Matt Sullivan | Getty Images

Since then, Logano and his No. 22 Ford team have made methodical gains to rekindle those winning ways. So far this year, consistency has been their hallmark. Logano sits second in the Monster Energy Series standings with seven top-10 finishes in the first eight races of 2018. Points leader Kyle Busch — winner of the last two events — is the only other driver to reach that figure.

“We’re right on the edge of getting those top fives, which does always sting a little bit, but we’re not where we want to be, by no means,” Logano said. “If you’re not winning races, you’re not where you want to be. But we’ve made progress from where we were last year. We’re sitting second in points, so we’re close to where we want to be but we need to start racking up those wins, start racking up those playoff points.

“Those are very important, but we’ve been running up front and getting those stage points, which is important and which shows in the overall point standings right now, but like I said, wins are everything in this game right now.”

Ready for his close-up

Logano has made multiple appearances on television as himself, taking a guest-starring role on automotive-themed shows such as “Fast N’ Loud” and “Jay Leno’s Garage.” But his screen career also includes a cameo turn on 2015’s “Sharknado 3,” opposite teammate Brad Keselowski.

Logo for Twin Turbos TV showHis newest on-screen project, though, provides an opportunity to nurture a young driver’s career — and drive fast cars as a bonus. Logano has taken aspiring driver Brad DeBerti and his father, Doug, under his wing for “Twin Turbos,” which airs Wednesdays (10 p.m. ET/PT) on Discovery.

The DeBertis share Logano’s passion for cars, working to create custom builds in an effort to fund Brad DeBerti’s racing endeavors. Logano said he saw plenty of parallels between their family and his, which had little experience with the ins and outs of motorsports early in his career.

“Just like I had some people and role models who helped guide me, I’m kind of that person for them to help guide them along,” Logano says. “So there’s a lot of similarities in the way they do things together and the way my dad and I did a lot of things together growing up.”

And the show has also provided an authentic look at Logano’s life away from the race track.

“I can be who I am. I don’t have to act and be something else,” Logano says. “It’s a very natural fit, and I think that’s what fans want to see is what you are in a natural, fun environment.

“It’s just hanging out with cars, cool people and doing some fun things.”

Zeroing in

Joey Logano talks with Ryan Blaney
Jonathan Ferrey | Getty Images

As for Logano’s other roles, he’s played a stabilizing part in a Team Penske operation that has broadened its reach this season. The organization added a full-time third car for Ryan Blaney in the offseason, and it has continued its alliance with the Wood Brothers Racing team and driver Paul Menard.

The steady strength Logano has enjoyed has been a teamwide phenomenon, with Keselowski currently fifth in the standings and Blaney sixth. And Menard, in his first season in the Wood Brothers’ No. 21, already has two top-10 finishes this season, one shy of his total for all of 2017. All four Penske-affiliated cars ran first through fourth at one point last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“There’s definitely some hurdles when you add a race team like that,” Logano said. “It’s not just putting another car on the race track. You’ve got to hire a lot more people, you’ve got to build more cars, right? So the production side of this whole thing is something that’s very challenging, from the machine shop to building chassis to hanging bodies. You’ve got to build another car for all these races, so it’s a big, big challenge for the race team, but we’ve handled it fairly well, I think, right off the bat and been able to show that we’ve all been consistent.”

If only his son’s sleep schedule could be as consistent. Logano said close friends had told him how much different his life would become after getting married, which he did after the 2014 season.

The even bigger change to his already busy life came shortly after New Year’s Day, when the Loganos became a party of three.

“You’re so focused on your job all the time, right, but you also want to be a good dad and husband at the same time,” Logano says. “It’s hard to balance all that off, and I’m sure that a lot of people can relate to that. You don’t have to be a race car driver to be able to relate to that and how you do that work-life balance.”

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Fastenal, Fifth Third Bank and SunnyD have signed contract extensions with Roush Fenway Racing to serve as primary sponsors of the No. 17 Ford driven by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. through 2021, the team announced Tuesday.

All three companies will serve as primary partners, with Fastenal continuing to be an anchor primary partner and committing to an increase in primary races. This year marks the fourth full season for Fastenal, which began its partnership with Roush Fenway Racing in 2010, as the anchor partner on the No. 17.

“That’s huge for myself (and) that’s huge for this company — really, to kind of look that far out in advance, but also to have partners that have been with us for that long,” Stenhouse Jr. told NASCAR.com at Bristol Motor Speedway. “It has been a really good partnership for all of us. They all see the benefit of what we can do for them in the sport, so that’s huge.

“It means a lot to everybody on my team.”

Fifth Third Bank has been an RFR partner since 2012, while SunnyD came on board in 2016, giving Stenhouse’s No. 17 Ford a colorful new look.

The partners are different companies with different personalities, but they share one common element, Stenhouse said.

“They all feel like we’re just part of their family, which is something that I’ve always enjoyed with every partner,” he said. “Just really kind of getting integrated with all of them and feeling like family when you’re around them. …

“(The diversity) shows other companies that are out there what NASCAR can do for this diverse group. I think it helps us when we go out and want to sell some other sponsorship, we show that we can be beneficial to all different areas.”

Stenhouse was elevated to Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 17 team in 2013 after winning two NASCAR Xfinity Series championships under the RFR banner in 2011 and 2012. He earned his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins in 2017 at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, respectively, with Fifth Third Bank on his No. 17 Ford in both instances.

“We’re extremely proud of our relationships with Fastenal, Fifth Third and SunnyD, both personally and professionally, and we’ve been fortunate to work with each to provide on-track performance and solid marketing solutions based on their varied goals and objectives,” Roush Fenway president Steve Newmark said in a team release. “Strong partners are the foundation to the success of any NASCAR team and we believe we have the best in the sport. Every employee of Roush Fenway recognizes what these companies do for us, on and off the track, and we’re honored to have all three of these top-level brands committed to our program for many years to come.”

The sponsorship extension, which covers about 85 percent of No. 17 inventory through 2021, according to the team, allows Stenhouse Jr. to set his sights on one goal — getting back to Victory Lane.

“You want to keep pushing forward,” Stenhouse said. “Our main goal is, we’ve gotten Fifth Third in Victory Lane twice — we want to want to make sure to get SunnyD and Fastenal there as well, or really any other partners that we get on board to finish out some of the races that we have.

“So, that’s our main goal. We’re really kind of focused on that now, we’re not worried about if (our sponsors) are going to come back, what we’re going to do. So, we just want to make sure we continue to do the best job that we can for them so that we can continue this partnership and not just look at ’21, but look past that as well.”

Posted on by Staff Report

It’s Bristol, baby — back-to-back-to-back.

Bristol Motor Speedway and NASCAR jointly announced Tuesday that its August triple-header will move to a three-day show, with NASCAR national series races each night from Thursday to Saturday.

The Tennessee track will now host the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Whelen Modified Tour races on Thursday, Aug. 16 (originally Wednesday, Aug. 15), followed by the Xfinity Series race Friday night and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on Saturday night. The Camping World Truck race will air on FOX, while the Xfinity Series and Monster Energy Series races will be televised on NBCSN.

“Moving the Camping World Truck Series race to Thursday allows for three consecutive nights of NASCAR action, making it easier for fans to attend each race of this can’t-miss weekend,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series general manager. “We appreciate the effort from our partners at Bristol Motor Speedway, FOX and the race teams in putting the fans’ interest first.”

Bristol fans are some of the toughest in the sport, as evidenced by those who turned out on Monday for the conclusion of the weather-delayed Food City 500. A day of rain on Sunday pushed the end of the Food City 500 to Monday, and temperatures hovered around freezing all day.

Sleet and bits of snow interrupted the on-track action, but settled down enough for Kyle Busch to win for the seventh time at the track in the Monster Energy Series.

Busch also swept all three national series races in 2017.

Buy tickets for Bristol weekend now here.

“We’re blessed to work with so many quality partners who pulled together for the fans to make this schedule change happen,” said Jerry Caldwell, executive vice president and general manager for Bristol Motor Speedway. “We have received a lot of feedback over the years suggesting this change and through a number of meetings with NASCAR, television and sponsor partners, we all agreed that this move was in the best interest of the fans. We’re looking forward to showcasing the best three consecutive summer nights of racing in all of motorsports this August.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Ford Performance announced Tuesday morning that it plans to bring the company’s iconic Mustang to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2019.

According to the manufacturer, it will be Ford’s fourth different Monster Energy Series model since the “modern era” began in 1972 – the Mustang will follow the Thunderbird, Taurus and Fusion, the current model.

“This announcement makes me very happy,” said Edsel B. Ford II, a member of Ford Motor Company’s board of directors, in a press release. “Mustang is a car that is woven into the fabric of our country, and it’s only right that we put it on the track in NASCAR’s most visible series. I can’t wait.”

The move follows similar decisions from fellow manufacturers Toyota and Chevrolet, which changed their body styles significantly over the past two years. Chevrolet introduced the Camaro ZL1 into the Monster Energy Series this year.

Ford has used the Mustang in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2011.

According to Ford officials, the Mustang is still going through initial testing and will be formally submitted to NASCAR for approval this summer.

“NASCAR has a really good process that continues to get better every year,” Ford Performance Global Director Mark Rushbrook said during a Tuesday teleconference. “It’s a very well-defined process for timing. The submission will happen through June of this year, and then depending on how things go on that initial test, that will lay out the rest of our timeline.”

Ford drivers and even team owners have hinted throughout the season that a body change was likely coming in 2019.

“We’re obviously very excited,” Rushbrook said. “It’s something we’ve been working on for some time. There’s been a lot of speculation about it, and we’re happy we can put that to rest.”

Ford Performance has six organizations and 13 teams in its NASCAR lineup, including Wood Brothers Racing, Roush Fenway Racing, Team Penske, Stewart-Haas Racing, Front Row Motorsports and Go Fas Racing.

“We tried to leverage the skill across all of our teams,” Rushbrook said. “We’ve had active engagements from Roush Fenway Racing, Team Penske and Stewart-Haas Racing. They’ve been the main contributors to this, but (all of the teams) are anxious to get the best car on the track in 2019, so they’ve been very active with us.”

Five of the top six drivers in the Monster Energy Series standings belong to the Ford family, with Joey Logano the highest in second place. The manufacturer has won four of eight races this year as well, with Kevin Harvick winning three straight and Clint Bowyer breaking a 190-race winless streak earlier this year at Martinsville.

Posted on by Holly Cain

It may have been the hardest effort Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has ever had to put in for a fourth-place finish. But the result at Bristol Motor Speedway Monday afternoon, his first top-five of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season made every clutch decision, every zig and every zag worth it for Stenhouse and his Roush-Fenway Racing team.

“We were really, really strong and I felt confident coming into the race yesterday and today,” said Stenhouse, a former two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and two-time Monster Energy Series race winner in 2017.

“We fought adversity. We lost track position multiple times and had to pass a lot of cars to get back to where we were.

“[Crew chief] Brian [Pattie] made a great call coming down pit road and taking tires before that long green flag run we had. We got into second and I was hoping it would just go green to the end, knowing we had better tires than the 42 [race runner-up Kyle Larson], who was the class of the field all day.”

RELATED: Busch bests Larson late at Bristol | Recap Bristol in 204 seconds

Stenhouse, who won at two superspeedways — Talladega and Daytona –last year, looked absolutely a contender on the sport’s opposite venue, the half-mile Bristol bullring on Monday – a full 24 hours after the original green flag dropped.

As he did on Sunday, Stenhouse again methodically worked his way forward in a two-day rain-interrupted event that proved difficult for most drivers to proficiently establish any consistent rhythm.

After negotiating traffic all day, having his crew fine tune the No. 17 SunnyD Ford Fusion and getting through the tight traffic, Stenhouse finally got close enough to the front to challenge. And he did.

He restarted in fourth place after a caution flag for a late-race incident involving fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski and quickly worked his way up to then-leader Larson’s bumper providing one of the best battles of the afternoon before Larson was able to drive off.

“It was fun,” Stenhouse said. “I had to get to him and he was really loose. I was able to get underneath him and then I couldn’t quite clear him. It would have been nice if I could have cleared him, but we still didn’t have the best car there on the short run. We were definitely a better long-run car.”

RELATED: Larson comes oh-so-close to Bristol victory | SHOP: Stenhouse Jr. gear

Still, it was just the dose of can-do that Stenhouse’s team needed after a slow start to the 2018 season – after celebrating 2017 with a pair of big trophies and lots of optimism. It was his first top-five and only second top-15 of the year as the series heads to another short track, Richmond Raceway this weekend and then back to Talladega Superspeedway where Stenhouse won from the pole position last spring.

“We were fighting track position, gaining it and losing it back-and-forth over the last two days but all in all, it was a really strong run for our SunnyD Ford,” Stenhouse said. “We had a good Friday, a good Saturday and a good race on Sunday and Monday. I’m glad we were able to get it all in and we appreciate the fans for sticking around. That was a fun race.”

And best of all for Stenhouse, a turning point for the early season.

“All in all, a great weekend for us,” Stenhouse said. “Hopefully this will kind of get us going and kick start us into next week and the rest of the season.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. – There was a throwback moment in Monday’s weather-delayed Food City 500 that caught everyone’s eye.

On Lap 375 of 500, Daytona 500 runner-up Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. muscled past Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford to take the race lead. There, up front at Bristol, was the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet, sporting the traditional Petty blue and red colors, reminiscent of an era when team owner Richard Petty was the King of stock car racing.

RELATED: Results | Standings

Wallace led six laps before eventual race winner Kyle Busch overtook him, but those were the first six laps Wallace has led in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Though Wallace ran in the top 10 for much of the rest of the race, he faded to 16th at the finish after the handling of his Chevy deteriorated.

Afterwards, Wallace expressed a jumble of mixed emotions both to reporters on pit road and then to his fans in a candid first-person video on Twitter.

“Yeah, hell of a day,” Wallace said after the race. “Didn’t know what to expect firing off, and we fired off like a freaking badass and got our way up to 10th in that second stage there. I was as surprised as anybody.

“Going through the emotions, we were really good and that last caution came out, and we were struggling with left-front (tire) problems there late in runs, locking up easily, but still was able to make decent ground. Then, all of a sudden it went away there, and, man, just blindsided there by that.

“I’m just dejected because I’m scratching my head on where in the hell we went wrong or what we did wrong. I don’t think we did anything wrong. I guess that is big-time auto racing, but it was a good day.”