Posted on by Reid Spencer

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series hasn’t raced since March 2 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but for ThorSport Racing driver Ben Rhodes, the break was welcome — and necessary.

ThorSport made an offseason manufacturer change from Toyota to Ford, with a small window of time to accomplish the changeover. That’s why Rhodes was fine with the pause in the schedule after Las Vegas.

RELATED: Full Martinsville schedule

“With our switch to Ford this year, we need all the time we can get,” said Rhodes, who finished fourth, fourth and seventh in the first three races. “We haven’t been to the wind tunnel yet. We haven’t done any of the other things that teams like Kyle Busch Motorsports and GMS Racing are doing.

“This time allows us to do some R&D on our side and really work off the track to get at speed. A lot of the speed you see these days is made at the shop, from the wind tunnel, the seven-post machine, stuff like that. It’s kind of a blessing, but the racer in me wants me to race every single day.”

Incidentally, Rhodes is also the poster child for the value of stage points in NASCAR racing. He finished fourth in the season opener at Daytona but failed to finish in the top 10 in either of the first two stages of the race and left the track 16th in the series standings, tied for the position with journeyman Norm Benning.

He’s now ranked fifth in the overall driver standings.

RELATED: Full Camping World Truck Series standings

Posted on by Holly Cain

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Three of NASCAR’s brightest young talents sat shoulder to shoulder, sharing smiles and good spirits Friday morning at Martinsville Speedway — all talented teenagers today and certain stars of tomorrow.

Noah Gragson, 19, the November 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner at this track, joined 17-year-olds Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland to preview the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (resuming approximately 11 a.m. ET Monday on FS1) at the historic .526-mile oval.

MORE: Full schedule for Martinsville

The three Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers are good friends away from the track and intense competitors on track – a can’t-miss dynamic for the sport.

And expectations are high.

“We all joke around, mess around off the track, but when it’s time to be serious and it’s time to get to crunch time and put our racing hats on, I think we all are like a light switch, we flip very easily,’’ said Gragson, who drives the No. 18 Safelite Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

“On the race track I think we all want to be in a KBM top-three finish, 1-2-3. If we all are 1-2-3, then we’re going to be battling hard. I think together, collectively, we all want the best for the organization of Kyle Busch Motorsports and we all know we have fast Toyota Tundras, so now it’s just working together until we get to the front and then it’s game on.”

And it’s been a good game. Real good.

Gragson scored his first career national series win in Martinsville’s Camping World Truck Series race last October, beating former series champs Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter to the checkered flag. And he finished fourth in the track’s spring race last year.

“I have a lot of confidence in myself, but I’m trying not to – I don’t know how to put it, — but trying not to rely on that,’’ Gragson said. “I’m trying to treat this weekend as if I’ve never been here before and that I’m going in here and I’m trying to learn all weekend and really focus on executing and knowing what I can do because I feel like if I come into this weekend and I say, “Oh, well I won here before. I know how to do it,” that really doesn’t do me any good for a young driver.

“Maybe Jimmie Johnson or guys who have won here a lot of times, maybe they can do that, but I don’t feel like I can do that. (I’m a) young driver just trying to learn as much as I can. I’m not putting any pressure on myself. I’m just trying to execute all weekend.”

It’s a similar goal for both Burton – the son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup driver Jeff Burton – and Gilliland – the son of former Daytona 500 polesitter David Gilliland. Both are just 17 years old, which means they aren’t allowed to compete on the series’ biggest tracks yet, so this weekend’s opportunity at the famously tight Martinsville half-miler is a long-anticipated return to action for all three.

Like his friends, Gilliland has seized upon every NASCAR opportunity. He has three top-seven finishes in six truck races, including a third-place showing at New Hampshire last summer and a fifth-place effort in the fall Martinsville race. He turns 18 years old in May. That’s the threshold age NASCAR has set for full-time competition – on all types of tracks – in its national series.

“It’s been hard (not racing),’’ said Gilliland, who will steer the No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota this weekend.  “(I’m) just spending a lot of time at the shop and a lot of time at the simulator just trying to make up for lost time, kind of like I’m not missing anything at all.

“That’s what we’re hoping for. I wish I could keep racing, but soon enough we’ll be racing every week.”

Burton doesn’t turn 18 until October, so he will still be getting a significant amount of his experience this season in the ARCA Series until his birthday. But what time he has had behind the wheel in the Truck Series has certainly been productive – his learning curve is obvious and impressive.

His last Camping World Truck Series race was here at Martinsville in November and Burton scored a career-best fourth-place finish. So he has specific and legitimate reason to be optimistic.

“I kind of get the last four races of the year at KBM, so I’m still kind of on a part-time schedule, jumping around and in the races that I can be,’’ said Burton, who will drive the No. 51 DEX Imaging Tundra. “There’s other guys in the mile-and-a-halves (races). It’s a balance. In between, I want to move up, but I got to learn, too. I got time and I’m taking that time and learning as much as I can.

Burton will make his first 1.5-mile start in ARCA cars this year, and will run Texas and Homestead in the Truck Series at the end of the year.

“Those will be fun in the Truck Series and hopefully we can go out and run good,” he said. “It’s a different ball game. Like I said, short tracks, mile-and-a-halves, all that’s so different. It’s a big learning curve, but I’m ready for it.”

And this weekend’s “lessons” will come in a setting of good friends, who will also be the fiercest of competitors. Only one driver can hoist the trophy, but all three of these young talents are positioning themselves as winners.

“I think that’s been something that’s very special, just growing up with everyone you know,’’ Gilliland said. “Us three have raced against each other for a long time. We’re all very competitive and we’ve raced – me and Harrison have raced hard.

“We’re just out here doing our best and I think it helps having teammates that you get along with. You can communicate information a little bit better, a little bit easier. I think everything is just going to flow together this season and I think we’re going to have some fast trucks.”

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR announced this offseason that it will standardize at-track team rosters across all three national series in 2018, providing a structure for the number of personnel working on each vehicle during the course of a race weekend.

Official team rosters for Monday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) were unveiled.

Simply click the “print” icon above, next to the headline and social media icons, to get the full list.

RELATED: Overview of 2018 rules updates

Posted on by Staff Report

Axalta and Hendrick Motorsports have extended their long-standing partnership with a four-year contract extension through 2022, the team announced Friday.

The leading global coatings company will serve as a 25-race primary sponsor from 2018-2022. Axalta will sponsor Alex Bowman for 15 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races in 2018 and 12 races in 2019, and William Byron for 10 races in 2018 and 13 races in 2019. The 2020-2022 schedules will be announced at a future date.

RELATED: Our favorite Axalta paint schemes

Axalta and Hendrick Motorsports began their partnership in 1992 with rookie driver Jeff Gordon, who won four championships with the sponsor driving the iconic rainbow-colored No. 24 Chevrolet. Axalta extended its partnership to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016 and 2017 before teaming up with Hendrick newcomers Bowman and Byron this season in the Monster Energy Series.

This year marks Axalta and Hendrick Motorsports’ 26th season in a multi-faceted partnership.

“Motorsports is in Axalta’s DNA,” Axalta Chairman and CEO Charlie Shaver said in a team release. “For more than 25 years, our partnership with Hendrick Motorsports has enabled us to showcase our industry leading performance coatings that have helped make cars lighter, more efficient and look terrific. We’re excited to continue our successful partnership with Hendrick Motorsports through 2022.”

MORE: See all of Gordon’s wins in photos

The company also opened a 36,000-square-foot Customer Experience Center on Hendrick Motorsports’ Concord, North Carolina, campus last May. This allows fans to become fully immersed in the racing experience.

“We are so proud of our partnership with Axalta,” Hendrick Motorsports Owner Rick Hendrick said. “Their long-term commitment to our organization and our sport as a whole has been unbelievable. They are constantly innovating and investing to keep the program fresh, enhance the experience for their customers and ultimately drive value for their business. Projects like the Customer Experience Center on our campus are unprecedented and reinforce the strength of our relationship.

“We’ve worked together for more than a quarter of a century, and I believe it’s just the beginning.”

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 23, 2018) – NASCAR and PNC Bank today announced a five-year agreement that introduces the bank as the “Official Bank of NASCAR®” and “Official Wealth Management Partner of NASCAR®.”

The agreement provides PNC exclusive status and promotional rights around retail, corporate and private banking across the country and U.S. military bases abroad. PNC will be present at key NASCAR races throughout each season and offer its services to the industry, providing valuable insights to drivers, teams, tracks and sponsors. The agreement takes effect immediately.

“PNC Bank has a trusted reputation and national reach and we couldn’t be more pleased to welcome them to our family of partners,” said Steve Phelps, EVP and Chief Global Marketing, Media and Sales Officer, NASCAR. “Like many blue-chip brands, we are thrilled PNC Bank sees the value of the NASCAR fan. I’m confident we’ll deliver unique opportunities for PNC to connect with our industry and diverse fan base.”

The announcement signals another step in an ongoing effort to establish a stronger national PNC brand, even in markets without a retail branch presence. Last year, PNC said it was forming a national digital retail strategy. Since 2016, the bank announced the opening of expansion markets focused primarily on middle market corporate lending in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Kansas City, the Twin Cities, Nashville, Denver, Houston and the Port Cities market of Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston.

“As we continue to focus on establishing a more powerful national presence, PNC’s new alliance with NASCAR will open more avenues to build on our brand and business coast-to-coast,” said PNC Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer William S. Demchak. “NASCAR is a storied part of Americana that built a national fan base. Millions of Americans say they are NASCAR fans, and so are we.”

PNC becomes the latest Fortune 500 company to invest in the sport. In 2017, more than 1 in 4 Fortune 500 companies invested in NASCAR — a 7 percent increase year-over-year — showing sustained investments or growth year-over-year for the past five years.

“PNC Bank has earned the reputation as a reliable and trusted financial institution with strong client relationships,” said Susan Schandel, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, NASCAR. “We look forward to leveraging their capabilities and technology solutions as they become NASCAR’s primary provider of banking services moving forward.”

Announced during the NASCAR Fuel for Business Council® meetings in Charlotte, North Carolina, the agreement is PNC’s first with a sports league. PNC joins the NASCAR Fuel for Business Council®, bringing together an exclusive group of more than 50 Official NASCAR Partners to buy and sell products and services from one another.

Posted on by Staff Report

Racing is about more than just simply speed, and it goes deeper than just on-track competition. Competitors and the fans that follow them collectively form a family of sorts, a tightly knit unit that bonds over the smell of burning tires and exhaust.

That is especially true in the dirt racing world, where drivers work on their own cars, flare their tempers on short tracks and become heroes to those who pay to see them every week.

It is in the spirit of that universe where “Shifting Gears” lives, and the spirit in which the film was developed.

RELATED: Get showtimes near you

“I grew up in the South, and going to visit my granddad in Asheville, we would walk to the dirt track and sit up on the hill,” said Keith Harris, who wrote the script for “Shifting Gears” and also stars as Tom Williamson. “That always has been in my fond memory bank. … We wanted this to have a real grassroots kind of feel to it. I’ve got nothing but mad respect for those drivers.”

In the family-friendly flick, Williamson is an overworked dad, in a dead-end job who decides to spend his life savings on a “family business” hoping to bring his family closer together – his family being his wife, Carol, teenage son, Jeremy and daughter, Stephy.

Instead, that decision wagers the family’s destiny on Jeremy’s unexpected dirt track racing skills.

When it comes to some of the more colorful anecdotes of the dirt track scene, well, Harris had first-hand intel. His friend Rick Kennedy worked at a local garage for a decade and collected funny stories from the racers that visited. Some of the tentpole moments in the movie are based off true stories from Kennedy’s journal.

The idea of collecting those stories was the spark for Harris to write the script.

“My goal as a filmmaker was obviously to honor the sport as well as the people and the core audience, too,” Harris said. “I wanted to be as authentic as possible and have as few red flags thrown by people who are in the sport as possible. That was my goal.”

Several NASCAR drivers got their start on the dirt scene and can relate to some of the themes throughout the movie – especially the strong sense of family and community.

Corey LaJoie, one of those drivers raised on dirt, offered this review to NASCAR.com:

“Shifting Gears” is a well-made movie that keeps you entertained with light hearted humor and the Williamson’s determination to keep their family’s small auto shop in business.

Growing up in a racing family, I can relate to Jeremy’s mission to prove himself both on and off the race track to his family and friends.

The movie portrays a feel-good story of learning the ropes of dirt racing in order to buy the family’s shop back. They pull together to make it happen, just like thousands of short track racers all over the country do every single week. 

With a solid cast and interesting ending, I certainly recommend taking the time to watch “Shifting Gears.”

John Ratzenberger, who stars as Conrad Baines, a local businessman who wants to knock down the service station Williamson and family are trying to run, has his own take on the film.

Dirt racers are known for getting their hands dirty and touching all parts of the car. It’s a skillset that ultimately goes beyond racing.

“The whole messaging of this movie is right along with what I’ve been trying to do for 20 years,” Ratzenberger said, “and that is teaching young people how to use tools. That doesn’t happen anymore. I love when people want to work on cars and want to be nuts-and-bolts guys.

“I like to remind my audiences that civilization wasn’t built by actors and celebrities. It was built by people who know how to use tools.”

“Shifting Gears” opens March 23 in select theaters nationwide, and also on streaming services such as Amazon, iTunes, DirecTV, and more. Find where you can see the movie at ShiftingGearsMovie.com.

Posted on by

With a new team and fresh start, Aric Almirola’s spark is back and blazing in 2018.

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver likened his season so far to a different spark stemming from a high school experience on Wednesday.

RELATED: No regrets for Almirola over 2018 Daytona 500

“It’s honestly like when you’re dating a girl in high school and things just don’t progress and then you make that change and you got a new girlfriend and that’s all you can think about,” he told NASCAR.com. “You go to bed thinking about it, you wake up in the morning thinking about it, it consumes you and that’s kind of the place I’m in right now.”

That place is a good one in which to be. Almirola is the only driver in 2018 to finish all five races in the top 13. This weekend’s race marks a milestone for Almirola; it will be his 250th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start. His No. 10 Ford currently ranks 10th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings heading into Monday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Almirola continues strong start to ’18

“I think it’s really just a confidence booster,” he said of his strong early runs. “It … motivates us even more and gets us more excited about the rest of the season because we’re off to such good start with a relatively new and inexperienced team working together. So, as we build a notebook and as we get more comfortable with each other and as (crew chief) Johnny (Klausmeier) and the engineers start to develop trends that I like in the race car, I feel like we’ll start unloading at the race track with more speed and the cars will be more comfortable and it will help our whole weekend just go more smoothly.”

The 34-year-old started this season with a blank notebook, one that he and his team slowly fill each week that they visit the race track. A new beginning in a series that he has competed in full time for six years has left him rejuvenated and he wakes up excited every morning with the opportunity of a clean slate and the promising speed of Stewart-Haas Racing Fords.

RELATED: SHR savors banner day at Atlanta

It’s almost like he’s a rookie again.

“The first few years (in the Monster Energy Series) we progressed and got better and we won a race and I was very excited,” Almirola said. “We made the Playoffs and things were continuing to get better.

“And then all of a sudden, things leveled off and they leveled off for a few years and whether that was my fault or the team’s fault or whatever, it doesn’t matter; the reality was that things continued to stay the same. And that when happened, I feel like either you’re growing or you’re dying … It sort of took the wind out of my sails after a while – and same for the team, also. So that’s why change was somewhat inevitable …

“Now for to have this opportunity with such an incredible organization like Stewart-Haas Racing, it’s re-energized me and made me feel like a rookie again. You get all that newness and that excitement.

“I’m putting in so much effort and so much focus because I feel like this is the opportunity for me to either go make it or go home, and I want to make it.”

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

Carl Edwards spoke Wednesday night more than a year after leaving full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driving, and to the disappointment of many fans, he isn’t planning a return.

“I don’t have any plans to come back,” Edwards told Claire B. Lang on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I do miss a lot of people. I stay in touch with a lot of folks and have fun, but I really appreciate the time from Joe Gibbs and everyone else to go do the things I want to do.

“I do miss the fans and there are a couple races I’d like to be a part of, but for the most part I’m having a lot of fun.”

RELATED: Carl Edwards through the years

Edwards said he’s overheard one rumor (in person, no less) that he had died, which he obviously assured fans isn’t close to true. As for the popular rumor that he might run for office, well, that has a better chance.

“I really believe in America and that the Constitution is a fair rule that’s letting us have all of our success and our freedom,” Edwards said. “So if sometime there’s a chance for me to help that cause and lend some assistance to not letting us get off track, then heck yes. But there’s nothing planned any time soon.”

In the meantime, Edwards is farming with his family, though he says calling him a farmer is probably not fair to real farmers.

“We farming and we’ve been having fun with it,” Edwards said, laughing. “We’re getting ready to plant a bunch of corn and soybeans.”

Edwards profusely thanked Joe Gibbs and JGR for racing opportunities and for being able to walk away and live life on his own terms.

“That part of my life was spectacular,” Edwards said of his racing career with 28 Monster Energy Series wins. “I wouldn’t trade one second of it for anything. I just hope everyone is doing what they want to be doing and getting the most out of every day.”

Posted on by David Smith

We get it, NASCAR fans. You endured a long, cold winter without your beloved sport and your favorite driver. Your excitement for the new season was through the roof. Then came Daytona, followed by Atlanta and the West Coast swing. Now five races into 2018, your favorite driver has … struggled? Okay. Don’t panic. Let’s talk through this.

Your driver’s average finish might not be very good at the moment, but the results may belie the effort that went into procuring them. Let’s search for some silver lining and slivers of hope:

RELATED: Full weekend schedule for Martinsville | Paint Scheme Preview: Martinsville

Chase Elliott (19.2-place average finish)

Elliott tied for the second-most top-15 finishes last year with 27, so it’s startling that he only has two in the first five races of the new season. He presently has two DNFs caused by accidents on his record, which shed poor light on outings at Daytona and Las Vegas, in which he was running second and ninth, respectively, at the time of the crashes. His speed ranking (10th) and average running position (14.6) provide a better indication of his capability.

We also haven’t seen the best iteration of Elliott in traffic given last year’s output. To date, Elliott is a minus passer on the season, securing nine positions less than expected from a driver with his average running position; in 2017, he ranked as the third-best passer in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, earning 172 positions beyond his running spot’s expectation. Restarts from the non-preferred groove acted as a hurdle for him during this five-race sample, in which he retained his position just 16.67 percent of the time while amassing a 30-position loss across 12 attempts. Considering he was a top-five restarter from that groove last year, the laws of statistical regression should benefit him moving forward.

Jimmie Johnson (20.0-place average finish)

We don’t yet know how Johnson’s age-42 season will take shape. He is three years removed from what is, on average, the peak year in a Cup driver’s career, and aging affects drivers differently, but it seems unfair to point to age as the underlying issue with the seven-time champ when the peripheral numbers seemingly restraining his effort are widespread within his own team.

Poor qualifying and inspection area maladies have doomed Johnson in the first five races, during which he started from the top 20 only once. While there’s plenty of time for track position gains in a single race—something at which Johnson still appears good given his 31 surplus positions, earned through on-track passing, beyond his average running position’s expectation—starting with a deficit is ill advised. Worse, Johnson’s No. 48 ranks 13th in speed, representing a drop from ninth last year.

His ability to sift through traffic is elite via a quantifiable percentage; his 83.33 percent position retention on restarts from the preferred groove would’ve made for a top-six rate last year.

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Kurt Busch (18.6-place average finish)

You wouldn’t think a driver with two stage wins and whose car ranks as the third fastest in the series would have this bad of an average finish. Busch has speed in spades, is a plus passer and holds position retention rates—88.9 percent from the preferred groove and 71.43 percent from the non-preferred groove—that build upon his reputation as an ace restarter.

Two DNFs are hindering Busch’s results. Like Chase Elliott, he was wrecked while contending for a Daytona 500 win. He was in the same crash as Elliott at Las Vegas. As the year progresses, herculean feats like passing for 25 positions more than expected from his average running position at ISM Raceway (a plus-29 adjusted pass differential in total) should define his season and its corresponding race results.

Daniel Suárez (21.8-place average finish)

Suárez’s Joe Gibbs Racing entry averages a speed ranking of 14.2, a chasm of over seven positions to his average result. His restart numbers—16.67 percent retention from the non-preferred groove for a loss of 21 positions—are weighing him down. There is a sense his effort on restarts will improve considering his 2017 output.

Despite his 44.8 percent retention rate on non-preferred groove restarts, he ranked as a top-15 restarter last year and fared especially well on such attempts late in races, when his 75 percent retention in crunch time ranked third in the series. Suárez is also developing into a steady long-run mover, with a plus passing efficiency outside of the restart window, evident in positive adjusted pass differentials at ISM Raceway and last weekend at Auto Club Speedway.

Jamie McMurray (22.8-place average finish)

Sure it’d be nice if McMurray’s entry, ranked 19th in speed, was as fast as that of his Chip Ganassi Racing stable mate Kyle Larson’s (ranked 11th overall and fifth with Daytona omitted), but there are easier, more obvious issues to shore up here.

McMurray’s crash rate of 0.60 is currently the highest among full-time drivers, which smacks of a temporary aberration; his full-season crash frequencies topped out at 0.31 twice in the last six years. The No. 1 team also holds the biggest total positional loss during green-flag pit cycles. Crew chief Matt McCall has retained McMurray’s running position prior to green-flag stops just 45 percent of the time—a rough 23 percent below the series-wide rate—for a loss of 30 spots that McMurray has been forced to make up on his own volition.

Improving on both of those unwanted distinctions would right McMurray’s ship better and more swiftly than any on-the-fly gambit for more speed.

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