The Nos. 3, 14 and 19 teams in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series received L1-level penalties for violations found during teardowns at the NASCAR R&D Center following Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway.
The Nos. 14 and 19 teams both had rear window violations. The No. 14 team was found to have violated Section 20.4.8.1 (dealing with rear window support). A brace that supports the rear window failed and did not meet specifications for keeping the rear window glass rigid in all directions at all times. The No. 19 team violated Section 20.4.8.1.c as its rear window decklid was not sealed properly.
Crew chiefs Mike Bugarewicz (No. 14) and Scott Graves (No. 19) each were fined $50,000. Car chiefs Jerry Cook (No. 14) and Todd Brewer (No. 19) each were suspended for the next two Monster Energy Series points races. The teams also were docked 20 driver points and 20 owner points apiece.
Clint Bowyer drove the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to a runner-up finish while Daniel Suarez drove the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a third-place finish at Dover.
The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team was found to have violated Section 20.4.3.a&.d (splitter did not meet rule specifications). Crew chief Justin Alexander was fined $25,000 and car chief Greg Ebert was suspended for the next Monster Energy Series points race. Austin Dillon drove the No. 3 Chevrolet to a 26th-place finish at Dover.
All of these teams have the right to appeal their penalties to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel.
NASCAR officials issued a total of five L1-level penalties Wednesday, including two in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
In addition, the No. 41 Monster Energy Series team was found to have one lug nut not secure in post-race inspection. Crew chief Billy Scott was fined $10,000. Kurt Busch drove the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to a fifth-place finish at Dover.
With success stories like Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rookie William Byron and Xfinity Series up-and-comer Ty Majeski, the racing community might consider iRacing a worthy tool for developing talented, young drivers, complementing the traditional and time-tested progression of developing prospects through local and regional short-track ranks.
Here are some of our favorite components of iRacing:
Start-up cost If you’re launching your racing career on iRacing, you don’t initially need to buy a car, an engine, tires, a trailer, race fuel, safety equipment and a fire suit (unless you’re a real fanatic who wears one in an office chair). That means there’s not much of a monetary barrier to race if you’ve got a desire to go fast — or, at the very least, see if you’ve got some semblance of natural talent before starting a race team in your backyard, or moving on to the real deal.
You have a reset button When you crash out of a race on a real track, you can’t undo it. It’s not cheap to repair a race car, and it doesn’t seem fun to tow some bent metal back to the garage. On iRacing, however, you’ve got the luxury of what every racer of the past century wish they’d had: The reset button. Put your car in the fence during practice? No problem — reset the car and get a new one. Nothing lost. Crash out of a race? Bummer, but there’s always the next one, where you’ll have a brand-spanking-new virtual car.
It takes little time to travel to new tracks If you want to check out New Hampshire Motor Speedway and then Sonoma Raceway, you’ll only spend a few minutes switching between the two, rather than days or weeks of transporting across the country. Plus, you can learn every track layout and nuance before racing in an actual race car.
There are more people racing There are tens of thousands of active iRacers. If that many cars showed up at a local short track, it would be too crowded and the bathrooms would have a long line. It’s more enjoyable to race in the comfort of your home where you can race with no pants if you really wanted.
You never know who will show up to race Maybe you’ll race against Byron, Kyle Larson, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Tony Stewart, AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Matt DiBenedetto, Timmy Hill (who’s probably the fastest on iRacing out of these drivers), or another real NASCAR star. You never know.
Yeah, you could actually race against Tony Stewart on iRacing. | Rainier Ehrhardt
You can race at your convenience iRacing offers a 24/7 rolling racing schedule. If you work or go to school, you can race around your schedule. If you’ve got a spare hour, you can hop in a quick race. That’s considerably more difficult in real life. If you can’t sleep at night because you’re thinking about becoming the next big racing star, you can hop on iRacing at 3 a.m. and you won’t violate local noise ordinances, hopefully.
You can talk to the other drivers while you race Even if you’re not the next Byron or Majeski, maybe the real victory is the friends you make along the way. Unlike real racing, you can use iRacing’s in-sim text- or voice-chat system to communicate with other drivers. You’d have to shout awfully loud to talk to the other drivers in a race at your local short track.
It’s easier to try different types of racing Want to try dirt racing? Short tracks? Road racing? It’s easier to fine-tune your multidisciplinary skills on iRacing than it is to try a bunch of different real-life race cars, or convince somebody to give you a shot.
It’s technically an electric series Are you into green racing? Well, unless you have some really weird sort of gasoline-powered computer, you’re running your iRacing car with electricity. NASCAR Green, baby.
There are no unexpected mechanical failures One of the most frustrating parts about racing is when you blow an engine or break something in your car. On iRacing, your car doesn’t break down randomly like in real life; rather, something needs to go wrong on your end — like the power going out, breaking your steering wheel controller or spilling water on your keyboard. (Don’t ask why I mentioned that one specifically.)
Drivers are ranked objectively In iRacing, you carry around two numbers: Your Safety Rating, and your iRating. Your Safety Rating indicates to other drivers how many corners you have per incident — the higher your Safety Rating, the safer you probably race. Your iRating tells people how fast you should be, based on your performance in your previous races. In the developmental ranks of real stock car racing, there’s no such thing. You can’t evaluate your competitors and see if they’re safe or fast. Sure, iRacing’s system isn’t perfect — your ratings take a hit when something happens outside your control — but having these ratings in place is helpful when you don’t know everybody else in the field.
It’s super accessible On a more serious note, there’s one really cool distinct feature of iRacing. Drivers with physical challenges can more comfortably compete in iRacing. An iRacer-founded company called SimAbility offers adaptive hand control solutions for iRacing members — and iRacing’s developers work with SimAbility and others to actively work to make sim racing more accessible.
So, is iRacing a tool to better develop skills if you’re a young driver? That depends — if you like competing at your convenience, trying diverse disciplines of racing and racing in your pajamas in your living room, maybe. You can simulate a racing career on iRacing — but, please, promise you won’t simulate how real racers use the bathroom when you’re sitting in your office chair.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR announced today the formation of a youth esports racing series, the first esports competition created to attract and identify young talent. The series will be hosted on iRacing, the world’s premier racing simulation platform. NASCAR’s youth esports series establishes an easily accessible entry point to real-world racing and provides young competitors with an unparalleled simulation experience on iRacing’s ultra-realistic software.
The youth series will be open to participants ages 13-16 worldwide. The inaugural 12-week season is slated to kick off in June on virtual renderings of iconic short tracks like Langley Speedway, The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
The regular season, comprised of the first eight events, will be open to all participants. The 50 racers accumulating the most points over the regular season will qualify to compete in the four-week playoffs. The top 30 in points after the playoffs will advance to a final championship event at the iconic Martinsville Speedway. The season will include a mix of single and heat race formats. Participants can register today on NASCAR.com/iRacing.
NASCAR currently sanctions the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series, an esports series now in its ninth season and features the most elite oval sim-racers competing on virtual versions of NASCAR-sanctioned race tracks. The addition of a youth series on iRacing will provide driver’s seat experience for competitors looking to hone their talent, including those with professional racing aspirations.
“As we expand our presence in esports, NASCAR is uniquely positioned as the only sport that can develop skills transferable to real world competition,” said Blake Davidson, NASCAR vice president of consumer innovation. “We’re excited to see the young, diverse and global talent pool this series attracts, especially as we cultivate our next generation of drivers.”
William Byron, a rookie driving the iconic No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, started his racing career on iRacing in 2011 at 14 years old. In just two years on iRacing, Byron accumulated more than 100 wins and finished in the top five in an additional 203 races.
Now, only seven years later Byron is leading the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings in NASCAR’s top series, complementing a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship (2017), NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship (2015), and Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (2016) and Xfinity Series (2017).
“NASCAR has been at the forefront of competitive online racing for years and its enhanced involvement in esports will be even more evident through the launch of its youth esports series on iRacing,” said Tony Gardner, iRacing president. “NASCAR drivers have used iRacing to accelerate their development beginning at a young age, as well as to hone their skills throughout their careers. We look forward to cheering on the alumni from the youth series when they compete at the highest levels of NASCAR in the years to come.”
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues with the KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, May 12 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Heading into race weekends, NASCAR.com will feature unique aspects of the upcoming race track and race weekend.
This week: The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series are at Kansas Speedway. For race tickets, visit NASCAR.com/tickets.
• Watch dreams come true … or not
Kansas Speedway has become a track where fans can witness dreams coming true … or being dashed.
The latter happened in the fall of 2013, when Kyle Busch seemed to be heading for his first championship following strong finishes in the opening three races of the Playoffs. But Kansas wasn’t kind to the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who had to go to a back-up car for the race and then crashed – finishing 34th and dashing his title hopes.
But Busch found redemption in 2016 and finally was victorious in America’s heartland after leading the final 37 laps of the spring race to defeat second-place Kevin Harvick. It was a milestone win for Busch, as at the time Kansas was one of just three tracks where he hadn’t visited Victory Lane in a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points race. (The other two were Charlotte and Pocono, and he has since won at Pocono.)
And the fall race in 2015 saw an incident everyone remembers that was a dream come true for one driver and a nightmare for another. Joey Logano collected his second Monster Energy Series win at Kansas to guarantee advancement in the Playoffs, but it came at the expense of Matt Kenseth – who desperately needed a good showing to move on in the postseason. In the waning laps, the duo came together in Turn 1 and Kenseth spun – a move that eliminated Kenseth from the race and ultimately crushed his championship hopes.
Of note, Kenseth will be back behind the wheel at Kansas for his first race of 2018. He’ll be driving the No. 6 Ford as he reunites with Roush Fenway Racing.
• Make it a family affair
What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day weekend than by treating the matriarch of your family to some Saturday night racing? Kansas hosted its first Monster Energy Series night race on the evening before Mother’s Day in 2014, and has held that spot in the schedule ever since.
Families can take advantage of the “Family Pack” ticket deal starting at $399 for families of four – which offers a 41 percent discount. The package includes grandstand seats, pre-race passes to get up close and personal to the drivers and cars on pit road, and a parking pass.
Additionally, youth tickets for Saturday’s KC Masterpiece 400 are available for just $29 in select sections located near all the action in Turns 1 and 4.
• Sing along before the race
Multi-platinum recording artists Gin Blossoms will perform the pre-race concert on Saturday night at Kansas Speedway.
You can be the envy of your friends as you sing along to “Hey Jealousy” and other hits on the frontstretch before the field takes the green flag. All you need is a ticket to the race, and a pre-race pass will get you down close to the stage.
Kansas Speedway is offering a free pre-race pass with select ticket purchases – available only at this link. This will allow you access to the pre-race concert with the Gin Blossoms, the ability to take a group shot at the start/finish line or to see your favorites at driver introductions.
Fans at home can catch the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series KC Masterpiece 400 on Saturday, May 12 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Keegan Leahy continued his stellar 2018 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series season by winning at Kansas Speedway after passing Logan Clampitt for the lead with eight laps to go. Ray Alfalla continued his hot start to 2018 by finishing second while Nickolas Shelton was third. Zack Novak led a race-high 72 of 167 laps but faded a bit to come home fourth. Veteran Chris Shearburn completed the top-five finishers. Notably absent from the top five was Ryan Luza, who sat out Kansas for an unknown reason.
Clampitt, who started on pole and led 51 laps, was on a different strategy than the rest of the field but ran just short of making it to the finish on fuel. To make matters worse, he spun and hit the wall when making his stop, relegating him to 27th at the checkers.
The night started with Novak quickly making his way to the front from sixth position on the grid. He sliced through the top five and passed Clampitt for the lead on Lap 5. Novak threatened to pull away but a crash involving Michael Conti and Bobby Zalenski, both who entered the race inside the top five in the championship standings, slowed the field. Conti could not continue and finished 34th but Zalenski soldiered on with damage and brought his car home 24th.
Despite having the No. 1 pit box, Clampitt could not beat Novak off pit road as the No. 15 car continued to pace the field as the second run played out much like the first. Though Clampitt started to reel Novak in during the later stages of the run, the second caution brought the leaders back to pit road with Novak comfortably ahead.
Novak won the race off pit road once again and sprinted out to a lead for the third run in a row. This time, however, company would be coming. Leahy, who had the better long-run car, caught and passed Novak on Lap 73 to take the lead for the first time. Just four laps later, Novak fell into the clutches of Shelton as his sudden freefall continued. By Lap 82 he sat fifth with an ill-handling car.
Back at the front, Leahy headed to pit road under green on Lap 87, dragging Alfalla with him. Leahy quickly cycled back to second position followed by Shelton and Alfalla. Clampitt, the only driver seemingly trying to make the race on one stop, remained on track in the lead. When Clampitt surrendered the lead to pit on Lap 105, it was clear he had little chance of making it to the end without stopping again, putting Leahy in control.
On Lap 126 the top three all made their final pit stops, with Leahy nearly speeding on entry as he locked his front tires. No driver appeared to gain an advantage in the pits, leaving any passing to be settled on track over the last 40 laps. As the laps ticked down, Leahy found himself in heavy traffic and Shelton, sensing a chance, began to push and close the gap. Unfortunately for Shelton he ran a bit high in Turn 1 and brushed the wall, apparently doing enough damage to harm his car’s performance. Alfalla managed to pass for the runner-up spot with two laps to go, with Leahy well in the clear up front.
Alfalla’s second-place finish kept him in the points lead, but Leahy is now second, 22 points back. Luza slipped to third after missing the race, 45 points adrift. Zalenski also lost ground after an early crash but is still fourth and Shelton completes the top five, knocking out Conti.
The stretch of fast, downforce-heavy tracks continues for Week 7 when the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series visits Charlotte Motor Speedway for the longest race of the season. The 200-lap, 300 mile affair is the closest this series gets to an endurance event and with the current state of the tires, expect to see plenty of comers and goers. Points leader Alfalla has amazingly only lead 18 laps this season. Is Charlotte where he will turn in a vintage performance? Will Luza show up and get back to his winning ways? Or can Leahy ride the momentum to a third win in 2018? Find out on iRacingLive when the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series drivers take on CMS!
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 9, 2018) — NASCAR Productions took the checkered flag for Outstanding Social TV Experience at last night’s 39th Annual Sports Emmy® Awards, marking the sport’s sixth win since 2011 and second consecutive in this category. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™ driver and DAYTONA 500® champion Austin Dillon joined a talented lineup of guests, presenting the awards for Best Playoff Coverage, Camerawork and Live Graphic Design.
“100,000 Cameras: Ohio State vs. Michigan” received top honors in the Outstanding Social TV Experience category for its innovative use of fan-generated video to showcase one of the nation’s top college football rivalries. Weaving together content submitted using #100KCams, the groundbreaking FS1 documentary series has taken viewers inside some of NASCAR’s most captivating races since its debut, this year expanding to include its first-ever event outside motorsports.
“After the enormous success of the first three ‘100,000 Cameras’ documentaries, one of which was honored with a Sports Emmy last year, FOX Sports felt it was time to reach beyond the world of NASCAR to see if the same formula for fan-sourced content could work in another arena,” said Tally Hair, Managing Director and Executive Producer, NASCAR Productions. “We’re honored to be able to tell the story of the Ohio State vs. Michigan rivalry in a way that’s never been done before and for this distinction from the NATAS.”
Last night’s ceremony also recognized the sport’s broadcast partners FOX and NBC in several categories, including NASCAR on FOX for Outstanding Sports Promotional Announcement, Outstanding Technical Team Remote and Outstanding Live Event Audio/Sound. View the full list of winners here.
Presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports Emmy Awards recognize outstanding achievement in sports television coverage. Nominations were announced in 40 categories earlier this year, and winners were honored last night at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City.
Watch more from NASCAR Productions and FOX by tuning in this Saturday for the KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway, live at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
There have been plenty of dominant seasons in the playoff era (2004-present), and Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick has the look — and the statistical evidence — of being in the midst of another one.
We took a look back at every season in the playoff era and identified the drivers with the most wins each year, then dove into their stats following the first 11 races of that season. We wanted to compare where they were then to where Harvick is now.
The results are striking. If Harvick keeps this pace up, he’s headed for an all-timer of a season.
See our study below, and remember: The numbers pulled are from that season’s eventual top race-winner, but through the first 11 races of that year.
Note: Three drivers tied for 5 wins in 2012. We are using Brad Keselowski’s numbers because he won the championship that year. We bolded and underlined the best figure in each category.
Isla Rose already has the ‘Earnhardt smirk’ down. At least according to her dad.
It’s been one week since Dale Earnhardt Jr. and wife Amy welcomed home their new bundle of joy, and the first seven days of fatherhood have been a whirlwind.
“I feel like everything that’s going to come out of my mouth is so cliche,” Earnhardt Jr. said during the most recent episode of “The Dale Jr. Download” podcast. “The love that you have is more than ever. This person … I don’t know what it is. It’s hard to explain. You feel this love for this baby that is not a love that you’ve felt for anyone else. I love my wife to death. I love my parents, my father and my sister. … It’s a 100 times more than that.”
The couple, who wed on New Year’s Eve in 2016, announced the pregnancy in October 2017 and had the racing world on pins and needles as the due date got closer.
The newest little Earnhardt was born April 30, just one day after what would have been Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s 67th birthday.
“I was really emotional, more so than Amy” he said. “This whole week I keep telling Amy she reminds me of a pit crew. The car comes down pit row, hops in the box … it’s like clockwork. It hits this line, the crew jumps over, goes to work, does the work, crew goes over wall, car leaves and everyone is back watching the race.
“It’s instinctual. That’s the way she’s been. Baby comes out, she knows what to do, she’s doing it. She’s not crying, not emotional. She’s just doing her mother thing. I’m just a basket of nerves and crying.”
And it didn’t take long for Junior to find a little personality in his daughter either.
“She smirks the ‘Earnhardt smirk’ some, where she does it off to the side,” he proudly shared. “… I like to tell Amy that’s the Earnhardt in her coming out, because that’s how Daddy always smiled.”
Kevin Harvick is a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, a four-time winner already in the 2018 season and the most recent race winner Sunday at Dover International Speedway. Safe to say he’s used to pressure and to meeting those expectations.
But a seemingly sweet and innocent tweet from Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Tuesday led to Harvick admitting that even he sometimes feels the burden to do well for others.
Specifically, for Mammaw.
Martha (Mammaw) Earnhardt, Dale Jr.’s grandmother and the mother of Dale Earnhardt, visited Junior’s newborn daughter, Isla, and happened to mention that she still watches every Monster Energy Series race and still pulls for Harvick, who drove for Richard Childress Racing in the renumbered No. 29 car after Earnhardt was killed in a 2001 wreck in the Daytona 500.
My Mammaw Earnhardt dropped by to visit Isla today. She tells me she still watches every Cup race on Sunday, and pulls for @KevinHarvick because he took over dads ride way back when. She’ll be 88 years old this year.
Harvick was asked about this on Friday at Kansas Speedway and smiled widely as he talked about it.
“Seeing the reaction from a lot of fans is a lot of responsibility, honestly. As I said on the show Tuesday night (“Happy Hours” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), when you look at the Earnhardt family in general, the legacy they have in our sport. … it’s a major backbone of what has happened in this sport,” Harvick said.
“When you look at that, I feel like I have a small part of where that changed, took place and where it’s going.
“For me, there’s a lot of pressure but also a lot of pride in that as well, trying to do right, whether it’s for the family or those old Senior fans, you want to do to the right thing. I haven’t always done the right thing but I feel like as you go through the years you transition more into the right direction than you did in the beginning so for me, personally, that feels good.”
The third NASCAR Xfinity Series Philadelphia Takeover hit the streets of the City of Brotherly Love on Tuesday. A record 21 drivers across 12 teams were in Philadelphia to greet fans while promoting next month’s Pocono Green 250 (June 2 at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In addition to Pocono Raceway, Dover International Speedway — site of the most recent Xfinity Series race — was involved in this event.
Drivers explored the city through various activities that included going to the Franklin Institute for a STEM-focused Q&A, meet and greets at the Comcast Center Front Plaza and Xfinity Live, visiting the steps made famous by Rocky Balboa, stopping by Pat’s & Geno’s, serving up food at the Reading Terminal Market, taking in a Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball game and the smoke show in Center City complete with burnouts. Keep tabs on how the day was spent below.
