Ryan Newman rolled to the fastest speed in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Newman, who just missed out on the pole position in Friday qualifying at the 1.54-mile track, pushed the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet to a speed of 184.868 mph. He’ll start second in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM).
Martin Truex Jr. posted the second-fastest lap at 184.597 mph in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota. His speed came before his team served a 30-minute penalty at the end of practice for failing Optical Scanning Station inspection three times before qualifying. Truex did not log a qualifying speed and is set to start 35th in the 36-car field.
Paul Menard landed the third-fastest lap (184.566 mph) in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford. He was followed on the speed chart by Denny Hamlin (183.564) and Joey Logano (183.303), who rounded out the top five in the 80-minute session.
Kyle Busch, who won the pole in Friday qualifying, was 15th-fastest in final practice in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Defending race winner Brad Keselowski logged the 29th-best lap in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford. Daytona 500 champ Austin Dillon turned in the 24th-fastest lap in the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevy.
Truex was the only driver to serve a 30-minute penalty. Six other drivers had 15-minute deductions from their practice time:
Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 00 StarCom Racing Chevrolet
Gray Gaulding, No. 23 BK Racing Toyota
Michael McDowell, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Harrison Rhodes, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet
Jeff Gordon’s answer during a #askJG question-and-answer session with fans online Saturday leaves the door open the exciting possibility of seeing him back on track.
A fan asked if Gordon would be open to part-time duty in either the NASCAR Xfinity Series or NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Gordon said he’s happy in the booth with FOX and isn’t considering any driving at a 1.5-mile track or superspeedway. BUT (this deserves all caps) he might want to race a truck at Martinsville Speedway.
OK, really excited. And quick to provide context about Gordon’s long-standing love affair with the 0.526-mile ” Paperclip.” His career stats at Martinsville are impressive.
And Gordon’s last race at Martinsville as a full-time driver? “We’re going to Homestead!” is etched among the greatest Victory Lane moments of all time.
Yep, “giddy” accurately describes the reaction to possibly seeing Gordon race again for a Grandfather Clock.
See where your favorite driver will pit in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (1 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
NASCAR and track officials have moved up the start time for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway because of the threat of inclement weather.
The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was originally set for a green flag at 2:16 p.m. ET (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM). That start time — and all pre-race ceremonies — have been rescheduled for one hour, 10 minutes earlier.
Officials reached that decision Saturday morning, faced with an 80 percent chance of precipitation in the race-day forecast at the 1.54-mile track, according to the National Weather Service.
Driver introductions are now scheduled for 12:15 p.m. ET. The revised green flag time is 1:06 p.m. ET.
Editor’s note: Fantasy Fastlane will look at each race from a fantasy perspective, examining the top plays as well as several under-the-radar options and a play to avoid for NASCAR Fantasy Live. See the full analysis here.
That’s the question that confronts Austin Dillon after last Sunday’s last-lap victory in the 60th Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most important and prestigious race.
That triumph gave Dillon wins in two of NASCAR’s “majors.” Last year, he picked up his inaugural victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and qualified for the postseason playoff for the second straight season.
So, again, what’s next, now that Dillon has knocked two gigantic items off the bucket list?
The obvious choice is a series title. As a former champion in the NASCAR Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, Dillon is the only driver currently eligible to be the first to complete the trifecta. That’s something the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet already has thought about in depth.
“I definitely have thought about that,” Dillon said on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (1 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM). “That’s my goal is to be the first to win all three. I feel like that would be a heck of an accomplishment. I’ve thought about it a lot this week. After you win a huge race like that, what’s next?
“In my eyes, that’s the next goal. That’s what we need to go to work on hard this year, because we’ve already got a great opportunity with the way the Playoffs work as being locked in.”
Daytona is a restrictor-plate superspeedway, and conventional wisdom says the “real” open-motor season starts with the Monster Energy race at Atlanta. Dillon believes his team is prepared to run well at the intermediate speedways, too.
“We’ll just keep rocking it however we can,” Dillon said. “We still have a lot to work on. We want to make this Camaro ZL1 good at all tracks. We’re looking forward to that. Been excited about it.
“It’s a great start to the season. It definitely gets the momentum going. We just need to keep pounding.”
HAMPTON, Ga. – Ryan Newman was within seconds of breaking a pole drought that dates to 2013 – until Kyle Busch made his final-round qualifying run at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Covering the 1.54-mile distance in 30.024 seconds (184.652 mph) in the money round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session, Busch edged Newman by .038 seconds to win his first pole of the young Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, his first at Atlanta and the 28th of his career.
Starting up front is certainly a benefit on the abrasive asphalt at Atlanta, but Busch added a word of caution after his pole-winning performance in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. And he identified the driver he sees as a primary threat – Kevin Harvick, who has led 734 of 1,315 laps without winning in his last four races at AMS.
“It’s a long race here in Atlanta,” Busch said of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (1 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM), the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. “You’ve got a lot of guys that are fast on old tires and a lot of guys that are fast on new tires. You need to be the better car on both of those, and Harvick’s obviously really good at both of those and mitigating his runs and being able to figure out what he needs.
“We’ll work on it (Saturday) in race trim and see what we can do. But right now, qualifying on the pole today is a really good achievement for our team so far.”
Newman has seven poles at Atlanta and 51 total for his career, but the driver of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet hasn’t started first on the grid since claiming the top spot for the fall race at New Hampshire in 2013.
Though disappointed at the continuing pole drought, Newman believes his car will race well on Sunday.
“Yeah, I think in race trim it’s pretty good,” he said. “I think there are always things that you can work on here. The track conditions seem to change so much when you start practice like that with a green race track.
“I look forward to the weekend. It’s one of the best race tracks we come to for being able to handle and work your magic inside the race car, because that’s what it all comes down to.”
Harvick (184.388 mph) qualified third after posting the fastest lap in the second round. Daniel Suarez will start fourth, followed by Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kurt Busch.
Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon was bumped out of the top 24 in the first round by Denny Hamlin’s last-ditch run and will start 25th on Sunday.
But Dillon had a better day than defending series champion Martin Truex Jr., whose No. 78 Toyota failed to pass the Optical Scanning Station (OSS) three times during pre-qualifying inspection. As a result, Truex’s car chief, Blake Harris, was ejected from the track for the weekend, and Truex will lose 30 minutes of practice time on Saturday.
“We had body scan problems on the rear wheel openings, and we had rear toe failure as well,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition. “It was a combination of those three times through, and we just didn’t get a green light.”
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HAMPTON, Ga. — The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team of Martin Truex Jr. failed inspection three times ahead of qualifying Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway and will thus lose car chief Blake Harris for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM).
Truex also will lose 30 minutes of final practice time Saturday and start 35th in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, the second of the season.
“It’s unfortunate that we had a situation where we had multiple failures in what was otherwise a very successful debut for the Optical Scanning Station for a downforce track,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition. “We had rear-wheel alignment problems and we had body scan problems and we just weren’t able to get all of the things legal in those attempts. We had body scan problems for the rear-wheel openings and we had rear-toe failures, as well. Between the combination of those times through, we just didn’t get a great light by the third time.”
Per the rule book, a crew member — chosen at the discretion of NASCAR — will be ejected for failing inspection three times.
“It’s a new process and we’re working hard – collectively, the whole garage is – to figure it out, to figure the boundaries out and how to get through and NASCAR is working with their equipment the same way and it’s tough,” Furniture Row Racing President Joe Garone said. “It’s tough. One time you go through, the next time you don’t. You go through again and some things pass that didn’t pass the time before. It’s just frustrating. But we’ll get it all worked out. It’s just a matter of time.”
Crew chief Cole Pearn will tentatively remain atop the pit box, as the team did not make a fourth inspection attempt due to time, Garone said. The rule book states if a team fails four times then it will lose another crew member chosen at the discretion of NASCAR for the race.
“It’s just a weird set of circumstances,” Garone said. “The tolerances are very tight. It’s difficult to get through and push when you need to and be conservative when you need to and figure it all out.”
Inspection attempts will reset for pre-race inspection on Sunday.
In addition to Truex’s 30-minute practice penalty, Harrison Rhodes and Jimmie Johnson (failing inspection twice) and Jeffrey Earnhardt, Gray Gaulding, Michael McDowell and Cole Whitt (late to qualifying inspection) will all serve 15-minute holds.
As a kid growing up in Baltimore or even a college student leading the High Point University (NC) basketball team, Derrell Edwards says he would never have predicted that his greatest sporting honor would be celebrating a Daytona 500 triumph in NASCAR’s most famous Victory Lane.
“It’s been surreal for me actually,” said Edwards, who is the first member of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program to be a part of the winning Daytona 500 pit crew, and believed to be the first African-American to win the race as an over-the-wall crew member.
“Without any background of NASCAR it hasn’t sunk in to the point it would if I had been a racer all my life. But as an athlete, I’ve been an athlete all my life so it’s definitely the biggest thing I’ve ever felt. I’ve won championships in college and in high school, but this is those things on steroids.”
“It’s an exciting feeling and to do it with a special group of guys we have this year has been just unbelievable, honestly. It still hasn’t sunk in fully yet, it’s been sinking in day by day by day. Actually one of the veteran tire changers told me, ‘Honestly, you won’t really understand what you’ve done for another 20 years.’ “
Edwards works as a tire carrier for Austin Dillon’s iconic No. 3 Chevrolet after joining the Richard Childress Racing team last season when he crewed Paul Menard’s car in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ranks.
The 26-year-old found his way to the sport after a celebrated career leading the High Point University men’s basketball team to a Big South Conference championship his senior year in school.
A conversation about a pit crew opportunity at NASCAR Hall of Famer Childress’ team that same year piqued Edwards’ interest in the sport, which he concedes he hadn’t really followed before.
He earned an internship with RCR in the spring of his final year of college. And after graduation, Edwards spent a year learning the craft in the ARCA Series before having the opportunity to step up to the Xfinity Series (with RCR’s Brendan Gaughan) and some limited experience at the Monster Energy Series level. He was hired to work full time with Menard in 2017. Edwards has been actively involved in the Drive for Diversity program the last two years.
Listening to Edwards speak about his time in NASCAR, it’s obvious his rise in the sport is more than a selfish pursuit. He genuinely is excited about what his accomplishment may inspire in others, as what it validates in himself.
“I wouldn’t have dreamed this or written this down in a million years that I’d be in NASCAR,” Edwards said. “But opportunity presented itself.I never really regret too many decisions I make. This is definitely one of the best I’ve ever made in my life. I believe it’s happening for a reason and I’m getting this platform for a reason, and it’s probably a story that needs to be shared and told to kids that are back in places like Baltimore where I’m from, that think there isn’t any hope.
Smile, Derrell Edwards. You just made history. | Photo courtesy of RCR
“I really want to pride myself in getting this story out there and being able to share it with some kids back home and all over the U.S. — that if I can, they can.”
Edwards’ enthusiasm is sincere and inspiring. He isn’t just someone who wants to make a difference. He is making a difference.
This year’s Daytona 500 was a significant turning point for the sport in some ways. Not only did Edwards make history with his work on the winning team — but the race’s runner-up finisher, Darrell Wallace Jr., became the highest finishing African-American driver ever in the 500.
“I feel like it’s happening,” Wallace said excitedly. “Timing is everything and this is perfect timing.”
The No. 3 crew celebrates after Austin Dillon’s Daytona 500 win. Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images
“Some people just feel like they may not have a chance to even be a part of NASCAR but I’m living proof that from my culture as a minority you can get into it and be successful as well,” Edwards continued. “It’s showing that NASCAR has no problem with it. And that’s what I love. It’ll be great for NASCAR to get these different viewers in, more people interested and getting into the sport itself.”
And, as Edwards points out, even the “lucky penny” that his driver Dillon was given the week before the race — and carried in his car during Sunday’s 500 — was given to him by an 11-year-old African-American fan Jordan Wade, from Bradenton, Florida.
Afterward, Dillon wrote a letter to Wade’s elementary school teacher to ask for an excused absence for the youngster.
“Please allow Jordan to be excused from the last two days. He was crucial in our Daytona 500 victory.”
“Even Jordan, who handed Austin that penny before the race, it’s awesome to see him all over TV as well,” Edwards said. “He’s definitely going to have some kids think they can get into NASCAR and have a chance as well. I thought that story was awesome.’’
And the larger story here – important, historic milestones in the sport – will be celebrated for decades thanks to Edwards, and all those who he hopes to inspire.
“Not just me, but anybody to win the first of anything or to be the first at anything is a cool deal,” Edwards said. “I think it is a pretty big deal. I’ve actually been getting tons of calls from friends and even media back home. My friends and everyone there, they know I’m in NASCAR and on a pit crew, but now that they see I’ve won the Daytona 500.
“I feel special to be able to do that for the sport. That’s always a goal of mine. I love what [pit crew coach] Phil Horton has done with Drive for Diversity.
“And I can say there will definitely be some different viewers watching NASCAR on Sundays, for sure.”
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Chase Briscoe never would have thought he would be racing in the Xfinity Series a few years ago. He didn’t even know he would be racing in NASCAR.
“A lot of people don’t know my story, but I was sleeping on a couch for three years and volunteering at race shops and honestly I just thought I was going to go to school and work a 40-hour week job and race sprint cars on the side,” Brisoce told NASCAR.com on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “… I was actually moving back to Indiana the week I found out I was going to get the opportunity to run the ARCA stuff. I was over it and going back home and a door opened up for me and it ended up progressing all the way to here.
“I don’t think I’d believe it five years ago — I really still don’t believe it to this day. So, hopefully five years from now I can say I’m in Cup and battling for wins and championships. But we’ve got to perform here first.”
Briscoe, 23, will make his Xfinty Series debut in the heart of Georgia this weekend. The 2017 Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year is slated to run 12 races in Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 60 Ford, sharing the ride with Austin Cindric and Ty Majeski. He will also run select Xfinity races for Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste as well as sports car and sprint-car forays, with a potential for a few Truck starts.
His 2018 race total is expected to amount to 60-70 events, he said.
“There are so many people and so many names and so many different crew chiefs and what not,” Briscoe said. “… It’s just a lot to handle, but it’s going to be fun and the biggest thing that will help me overall is just getting to drive different kinds of race cars, kind of the versatility of all that. I think it will make me better down the road, honestly. So, I’m looking forward it.
“Something I never thought I’d do in my career, be running sports cars and NASCAR and sprint cars all together, but it will be a fun year. Wish I was full-time but I think that’s kind of the best thing about being part-time, you can do all those things.”
Briscoe ended last year with the Camping World Truck Series Most Popular Driver award — and a winner trophy from the series’ season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
With that win, he saw his career come “full circle” — from sleeping on couches to celebrating in Victory Lane for the first time.
“It was huge and for me, it kind of just solidified everything,” Briscoe said on the win “ … Certainly gives you a little bit of confidence (coming into Atlanta) I think but at the same time, the Xfinity Series is so much tougher than the Truck Series just like the Trucks is tougher than ARCA and the Cup Series is tougher than Xfinity.
“So, you’ve got to constantly climb up the ladder and you’ve got to win with whatever you get in and hopefully we can do that over here.”
This weekend, he sets his sights on Atlanta – one of his favorite race tracks – and figuring his way around in an Xfinity car.
“(I’m) just anxious, ready to go,” he said. “It’s been a couple months since we’ve been in the car, so excited to get here and obviously a little bit nervous just because I don’t know what to expect. It will be the first time sitting in the thing … One of my favorite race tracks, though, so that makes it a little bit easier for me. Just excited to get going and curious to see how the outcome is going to be.”
And maybe one day, he’ll figure his way around a bobsled – Briscoe tweeted Friday that he would love to jump in one.
Why? It’s the most similar Olympic sport to stock-car racing. And Briscoe’s a racer, no matter the vehicle.
“The bobsled has always been something that I just thought looked cool,” Briscoe said with a smile. “I think it’s as close as you can get to driving a race car and it be an Olympic sport. Something about it – you’re in high-banked corners and you’re going 80 miles per hour and it just looks fun to me.”
