William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports and Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing led the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively, during open testing Wednesday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Byron’s top speed of 188.298 mph was good enough to beat out Ryan Newman, who was second at 188.186 mph for Richard Childress Racing. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch, Larson and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones rounded out the top five during the morning session. Full results are at the bottom of this story.
In the afternoon session, Larson led with a top speed of 188.403 mph, which held up as the top speed of the day. Newman again finished second (187.162 mph) with Byron, Kurt Busch and Jones rounding out the top five. Sixteen drivers tested Wednesday on the 1.5-mile track, site of the third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2018 season and the NASCAR Playoff opener in September.
The test concludes tomorrow after another round of practices.
Wednesday was also the first time for some drivers of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to try out the new model on the track.
“It’s nice to get back in a stock car,” Larson said. “I’ve still done a fair bit of racing this offseason. But it’s been a couple of months since I’ve been in a (stock) car. It was nice to get some laps here and feel like we’ve got some pretty good speed and good balance with our new Camaro ZL1.”
Name: Tammy Originally From: Ohio Current City: Newport News, Virginia Member since: 2008
Getting to know Tammy
Q. Why did you join the Official NASCAR Fan Council? “I heard that the NASCAR Fan Council would really listen to the voice of the fans and I wanted to become a part of that! I knew if they were really listening that some things would change, for example, when they asked us about the double file restarts. I thought it was awesome.”
Q. How did you first become interested in NASCAR? “I remember when I was a kid, my Dad would listen to NASCAR on the radio. Every once in a while, it was on television. We would go camping every weekend and we would listen to the race on the radio. My Dad is responsible for my addiction to NASCAR. It is something that we have in common and can talk about at any given moment.”
Q. What makes NASCAR special for you? “It is such a family sport. I have now gotten my daughter into NASCAR. We go to the races together either on the weekend or for vacation. It brings people together. The drivers are so accessible to the fans, which makes it all the more special!”
Q: Do you have any favorite NASCAR memories or traditions? “One of my favorite memories surrounding NASCAR is when I won hot passes for myself and my daughter at Richmond the weekend of September 2016. We got to do the pace car ride, go to the driver’s meeting, be at the stage for driver intros and go to Victory Lane for the celebration. I even got Jeff Gordon’s autograph while in the garage. That had to be the best experience and the most fun I have ever had!! I cannot even describe the anticipation of that weekend.”
Q: If you could go to any NASCAR race/track, where would you go? “The Daytona 500 is on my Bucket List, but I also love going to Charlotte Motor Speedway!”
Q: Do you have a favorite in any of the following categories? Driver: “Kyle Busch” Track: “Charlotte Motor Speedway” Memorabilia: “I have a Hoodie that has over 80 autographs on it including Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. I was also able to get a race-used tire from Jeff Gordon’s final race at Darlington!”
Q: What do you like to do in your free time? “Watch NASCAR and attend races!!! If there is no race, then just relax and watch a movie.”
Q: What is your family like? “I have 2 kids. My Daughter, is my best friend and race buddy for all the races that we go to. I also have a son who followed his parents’ footsteps and joined the Navy! He is now in the Military Sealift Command.”
Q: What would be your dream vacation? “I would Love to go to Daytona for all of Daytona week and the 500, that would be my dream vacation!”
From all of us at NASCAR, we thank Tammy for her continued support and look forward to hearing from her in 2018.
Jordan Anderson announced Wednesday morning that he’ll enter the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 2018 campaign as an owner/driver, fielding a No. 3 entry under the Jordan Anderson Racing banner.
After participating almost all of last year with a single truck, Anderson enters his fourth full season in the series with more resources — a four-truck fleet and four employees, himself included, based in the Niece Motorsports shop in Statesville, North Carolina. The 26-year-old South Carolina native will continue this new endeavor with longtime sponsors Bommarito Automotive Group, LTi Printing, Jacob Companies and Knight Fire Protection.
“It’s a new chapter, for sure,” Anderson said. “It’s a long way from where we were last year, but it’s a new chapter, a new journey for us. It’s going to have its own set of challenges, but I’m excited to see what we can do this year.”
Representatives from those companies joined Anderson’s friends and family in making Wednesday’s announcement, but even with the outpouring of support and the promise of new capabilities, Anderson indicated that he’ll continue in a hands-on role in every aspect of making the team go. That means planning to drive to every event on the 23-race schedule and taking his turn behind the wheel of the team’s modest transporter.
“So many of the adventures and stories and things that we’ve been able to do have come from being on the road,” Anderson said. “The average person may say, ‘That’s crazy. I wouldn’t want to do that,’ but we love it and there’s times where it gets long, but we all have a good time and make the most of it.
“I think that’s been our story. The local Late Model racer that does all he can to get to the track every week or the guy who races dirt Late Models — those are the real racers and fans that our sport’s built on, and I think those guys can relate to what we’re doing.”
Anderson’s self-sent media alert for Wednesday’s news went out at 2:18 a.m. His preparatory note to MRN’s Steve Post, the event’s emcee, was delivered at 4:37 a.m. Wednesday morning’s announcement at the NASCAR Hall of Fame came at a far more reasonable hour — 11 a.m. — but Anderson’s wide spectrum of waking hours endures as a testament to his hard-working ethos.
Anderson’s new inventory of trucks is also unique, touching all the bases with representation from all three manufacturers. Wednesday, he unveiled his No. 3 Toyota for superspeedway competition, but his fleet will also include two Chevrolets and a Ford for the rest of the schedule.
All the trucks will carry the No. 3, a nod to Junior Johnson and how Anderson’s first reading of Tom Wolfe’s famed “The Last American Hero” profile of the Hall of Famer has stuck with him. So when the No. 3 became available on NASCAR’s list of available numbers for this season, Anderson pounced.
“That’s a legacy on its own that hopefully we can start a new legacy with this number with our team this year,” Anderson says. “Junior, that was my guy. I love watching old videos of him slinging that jack around the front of the truck. He did whatever it took to keep things going, and hopefully we’ll do some things like he did with his team back in the day.”
Nearly a year ago, Tony Gibson provided one of the most genuine celebration scenes of the season, with raw emotion from atop the pit box after watching Kurt Busch’s No. 41 Ford take the checkered flag in the Daytona 500.
One thing about that: Amid the build-up of the final lap in his chaotic work space, the longtime Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief couldn’t actually see the exact moment. His vantage point was too crowded with animated team members, but all the noise — from the fans in front of him and ecstatic team co-owner Tony Stewart by his side — told him his dreams were coming true.
“That’s why my reaction was so delayed is I never really saw us cross the start-finish line, but I knew something pretty good was going on when the crowd started screaming and Stewart started screaming and all the guys,” Gibson says. “But yeah, I missed the car crossing that line, but I got to watch it several thousand times on TV later on.”
After crossing a lifelong wish off his personal bucket list last year, Gibson will have a far different view for the 2018 NASCAR season. The 53-year-old veteran is rounding into the role of SHR’s production manager, a job that will center his mechanical know-how on the shop floor, ending his near-weekly travel routine after 31 years on the road.
Though his position is managerial in nature, Gibson says it hasn’t stopped him from staying involved in the Stewart-Haas trenches.
“I love being hands-on, which I’ve always been,” Gibson said. “So this will allow me to spend more time bringing everyone together as a group, getting to work with some guys in the chassis shop, fab shop and body shop — all the guys down on the floor, the grunts — everybody that’s really making this thing happen. Just being involved with them and making better parts and better pieces.”
Gibson made his announcement Dec. 16, a day after SHR released its driver-crew chief pairings for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series campaign. John Klausmeier, an engineer with Stewart-Haas since its first season in 2009, replaced Gibson as crew chief for Busch and the No. 41 team.
In his message shared over social media, Gibson indicated that such a change had been a long time coming. He said later that when he signed his most recent contract extension in 2014, an option clause was included for him to explore opportunities for a less travel-intensive role. His Daytona victory, combined with Klausmeier’s readiness for crew chief responsibilities, gave him the sense that the avenue was opening.
“I think he was just finally ready to get off the road but even more excited that he wasn’t just coming off the road and just taking an average job,” Stewart says. “I mean, his role with these crew chiefs and working on the floor with all these guys around the shop is something he will excel at. He’s such a good people person, he’s such a good motivator and he’s very hands-on, which is why the people that work under him appreciate him so much because he’ll get in there and dig as hard as anybody else to get the job done.”
Barely one month into the new gig, Gibson’s primary thrust has been to create uniformity across Stewart-Haas Racing’s four-team fleet. The twofold goal: To build identical cars with common reference points for all shop personnel and to jump-start compliance with NASCAR’s new at-track inspection system.
Those objectives might sound simplistic, but they involve plenty of technical nuance and communication that spans several of SHR’s departments.
“I think I’ve told Zippy (SHR competition director Greg Zipadelli) a couple times that it’s kind of like a mom,” Gibson says. “They call you a mom, but you’re actually a chauffeur, you’re a psychologist, you’re so many different things that a woman is. A banker, organizer … so it turned into being more than what I thought it was going to be, but that’s OK. Once people see your strength and see that you’re making a difference, they kind of latch onto you.
“Right now, we’re digging. So I do everything it takes, I’ll get in all the engineering meetings, all the design meetings to try to help those guys connect that gap from engineering to bolting it on the car. The guy that’s building or designing this part, making sure he goes on the floor and it’ll actually work on the race car and the guys that are putting it together. I’m trying to bridge that gap and then focus on things that the crew chiefs, let’s just let them go do what they need to do and I’ll focus on the actual building of the cars, putting them together, if we’re going to make a change, those type of things. So it’s a lot of fun, but it’s a lot more work than what I thought it was going to be when I first signed up for it.”
The hours might be tough, Gibson says, but proximity to his children and grandchildren has become the priority in his new schedule. Gibson said he still expects to travel “every fourth or fifth race, just to stay up on top of the things that are going on at the track.” He also said he’ll likely be a natural choice as an interim replacement should any of SHR’s four crew chiefs need to serve a suspension or miss a race for other unforeseen circumstances.
So perhaps Gibson’s headset hasn’t completely been mothballed, but he still expects an adjustment period once the racing schedule begins in earnest.
“It probably will be,” Gibson says. “I’m sure when they peel off for Daytona, it’ll be a little different for me.”
Known lately for throwing it back to the past, Darlington Raceway has its sights set on the future.
The track announced Wednesday a capital improvement project to the 1.366-mile speedway, slated to begin immediately.
“Darlington Raceway and its parent company, International Speedway Corporation, are committed to providing a best-in-class guest experience for our fans when they attend our NASCAR events,” said Kerry Tharp, Darlington Raceway President, in a track release. “This investment in our facility further achieves that goal and solidifies our place as the Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR.”
The project, coined A Better Darlington…The Tradition Continues, will feature a renovation of the track’s Tyler, Wallace and Colvin Grandstands, giving fans a more comfortable seating experience when they attend the September NASCAR race weekend. The track will once again celebrate NASCAR’s history with its throwback platform with the “Seven Decades of NASCAR,” in tribute to the 70th anniversary of the sport.
The enhancements follow a trend across International Speedway Corp. tracks, with similar investments to improve the fan experience at Daytona International Speedway, ISM Raceway at Phoenix and Richmond Raceway in the past few years.
The pitch of the Tyler Tower Grandstands on the frontstretch will be improved, providing better sightlines and viewing experience for the fans. Stadium-style chair back seats with cup holders will replace the current metal seats in Tyler, providing a wider and more comfortable seating experience.
The metal seats in the Wallace Grandstands on the frontstretch will be replaced with bench style seats with backs, providing fans with a wider and more comfortable seating experience, as well. The historic Colvin Grandstands will also receive a makeover, with wider, more comfortable bench seating, along with refurbished concession areas and restroom facilities.
Artist rendering courtesy of Darlington Raceway
In addition, all grandstands at Darlington Raceway will now be considered smoke-free, with designated smoking areas available throughout the concourses for guests.
Multiple cross-over gates will be installed along the front stretch as well, providing fans with quicker and more efficient access to Bojangles’ Southern 500 pre-race activities.
The project will also feature a one-of-a-kind Wall of Honor, unique to any other NASCAR track. This iconic banner signage will adorn the bottom of the Wallace and Colvin grandstands and will pay tribute to the former race champions at the Lady in Black.
With all its success hosting NASCAR and other community events, Darlington Raceway is contributing $64.6 million in economic impact to the state of South Carolina, according to an updated 2017 study conducted by Dr. Tom H. Regan of the University of South Carolina’s Department of Sport and Entertainment Management.
“Darlington Raceway is one of South Carolina’s premier historical landmarks that has attracted millions of people over the last seven decades,” said South Carolina House Speaker Jay Lucas (District 65-Darlington).“ … I am confident that once renovations are complete, Darlington Raceway will be considered the most exceptional sporting event venue that is far ‘Too Tough to Tame.’ ”
The 2018 Bojangles’ Southern 500 is Sunday, Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. and Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney will join NBC’s Super Bowl pre-game coverage on Feb. 4, the network announced Wednesday.
Truex Jr. and Blaney, along with NBC reporter Rutledge Wood, Olympian Bode Miller, soccer analyst Andres Cantor and The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore will experience the Super Bowl celebration together from Minneapolis, and take part in outdoor events and activities leading up to kickoff.
The two join Dale Earnhardt Jr. — who will make his NBC debut — to give Minneapolis a little more flavor as the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New England Patriots. Coverage of the big game begins on NBC at noon ET on Feb. 4. The three drivers and Wood will focus on the “speed” generated at outdoor events in Minnesota, including a downhill tubing competition.
No word on if Truex Jr., an ardent Eagles fan, will wear a jersey of his hometown team on air.
In less than three weeks, drivers will be wide open on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway in (hopefully) bright, warm and sunny Florida for the upcoming Daytona 500.
But for now, there’s still a crap-ton of snow and freezing temps at northern tracks like Watkins Glen International … and that’s a good thing.
WGI posted an awesome video of a Jeep and a (very fitting) Toyota Tundra making the most of all-wheel drive and drifting all over its own banks, albeit of a different variety.
You aren’t going to want to miss this one. Check it out in all of its slip-slidin’ glory.
Tony Gibson walked into the Stewart-Haas Racing shop for the first time on Nov. 17, 2008, the day after the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season concluded at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The confetti falling on the 2008 season also meant the beginning of a new era for Gibson — he had just finished his final season with Dale Earnhardt Inc., a team he had been with since 2002. In a few months, he would begin a new venture with newly formed Stewart-Haas Racing and driver Ryan Newman.
Fast forward 10 years and Gibson, who now works as the team’s production manager, remains hard at work at the Kannapolis, North Carolina-based race shop — but the scenery looks a bit different today.
“It’s been a ride, I can tell you that,” Gibson told NASCAR.com at the team shop on Jan. 25. “The first day I came in here … I walked in and there was nothing here, really, not a lot. Just some cars, bodies off, just chassis, and I remember crawling around on the ground looking at everything, what I was up against. And all my guys showed up that night because they hired the whole entire team, which was the 8 team at DEI.
“We were all sitting in the lobby right there and we met with (Tony) Stewart and (SHR President) Brett Frood. And Eddie Jarvis (Stewart’s longtime business manager and friend) in the lobby right there when everybody got hired, he handed everybody their envelopes and all their stuff and insurance and stuff.
“From that day, going from not a whole lot to work with to what we have now is just unbelievable.”
Jessica Ruffin | NASCAR.com
The 2018 season marks Stewart-Haas Racing’s 10th anniversary competing in NASCAR’s highest level. The organization began when Haas Automation founder Gene Haas, who was running his own team Haas CNC Racing at the time, joined forces with Monster Energy Series champion Stewart before the 2009 season. Stewart had just wrapped up a 10-year stint with Joe Gibbs Racing, which resulted in two championships and 33 wins.
Stewart and Newman made up the team’s initial driver lineup and Stewart earned the team’s first championship in 2011. Two years later, SHR hired Danica Patrick to pilot the No. 10 ride, marking the first female to drive a full-time season in the Monster Energy Series. The team would expand to a four-car operation the following season, with Stewart, Patrick, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick behind the wheel in 2014.
That same year, Harvick and the No. 4 team would earn the team’s second Monster Energy Series championship.
Stewart with Harvick at Texas in 2017 (Chris Graythen | Getty Images)
“I think if you go back … before bringing Tony in, their goal was to finish on the lead lap,” Harvick said. “When you bring Tony Stewart in, it attracts a lot of good people and over the last 10 years, between Tony and all the good people and everything they’ve built here at Stewart-Haas Racing, they’ve been able to win two championships in 10 years and a bunch of wins.
“I’ve owned a race team before, not at this level but one level below, and it was hard to keep up, let alone build something from scratch, from the ground up in order to compete with the Hendricks and the Roushes of the world. It’s pretty hard to do.”
In its decade, Stewart-Haas Racing has nabbed 39 victories in addition to its two premier series titles. It formed an Xfinity Series operation in 2017, with Cole Custer piloting the No. 00 to Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 2017 season also marked the team’s switch from Chevrolet to Ford. Despite the expected difficulties that come with a manufacturer switch, Stewart-Haas opened up the season with a Daytona 500 win with Busch, tallying additional wins at Sonoma and Texas with Harvick.
“I’ve been here five years and I see about 99 percent of the same employees,” Busch said. “Everybody’s here and they’re racers and they’re committed. And they’re committed because there’s nowhere else to go – this is one of those environments where it’s loose, it’s serious, we have fun but we work hard here. And it’s a great environment if you’re a racer-type guy.”
Stewart with Haas at Sonoma in 2017 (Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images)
Stewart is indeed that racer-type guy, who imparts that same culture on the gleaming white floors at Stewart-Haas Racing. But for the three-time champion, success boils down to other people – his employees.
“I think it’s a testimony to the people who are the on the other side of this glass right here,” Stewart said, seated in view of the shop floor from the SHR lobby. “It doesn’t matter how many resources you have, it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at it — if you don’t have the right people to do the job it won’t happen (and) it won’t matter.
“The people that are in this shop working are die-hard racers — I mean, that’s all they think about … At the end of the day when it’s time for them to go home, they’re not worried about looking at that clock. They’re worried about getting their job done. They just want to go out and win races and have the opportunity to win races and win championships.”
The passion for racing, Stewart says, fuels his employees. It has for the last 10 years and will into the team’s future.
“When you can assemble that many people that have the same common goal — I mean, there’s people that work at race shops that literally show up in time to start the day and at the time that their shift’s over at the end of the day, they’re out the door (and) it’s a mad dash to see who can get out of the parking lot first.
“That’s not the way it is here. There are guys that at 9, 10 o’clock at night, they’re still here working and it’s because they’re passionate about it and they want the results. That’s what we want here and it’s just a relaxed group of guys — we’re not people to wear button-up shirts every day.
“We’re the T-shirts, jeans, tennis shoes crew in here that enjoy working on race cars and enjoy going and winning races.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Before Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams arrive in Daytona Beach for Speedweeks and the official start to the 2018 season, some drivers will be participating in a much-anticipated open test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Sixteen drivers including Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, and rookies Darrell Wallace Jr. and William Byron, will turn laps on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track this Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, as part of the test, which includes one car per organization.
This will be the last NASCAR organizational test until July, when teams will turn test laps on the Charlotte Road Course; however there will be several Goodyear Tire tests between now and then.
The full list of those expected to participate in the Las Vegas test next week includes: Ty Dillon (Germain Racing), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Roush Fenway Racing), Erik Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing), Paul Menard (Wood Brothers Racing), Ryan Newman (Richard Childress Racing), Cole Custer (Go Fas Racing), Chris Buescher (JTG Daugherty Racing), Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing), Kasey Kahne (Leavine Family Racing), Larson (Cup Ganassi Racing), Keselowski (Team Penske), Wallace (Richard Petty Motorsports), Byron (Hendrick Motorsports) in addition to Justin Allgaier, David Ragan and Drew Herring.
Pole qualifying for the Daytona 500 and the Advance Auto Parts Clash race are set for Feb. 11 at Daytona International Speedway with the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 18.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 30, 2018) – NASCAR today announced key leadership appointments across its growing international business landscape and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Jim Cassidy has been named to the new leadership position of Chief International Officer, reporting into Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer. Charged with growing the NASCAR brand of racing internationally, Cassidy will oversee all international competition and commercial operations, building on the success of NASCAR’s three international series with the NASCAR Pinty’s Series in Canada, NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series and NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
“Jim brings nearly two decades of racing operations and industry leadership experience. He has worked tirelessly to grow our existing motorsports properties outside of the U.S and will lead our efforts to identify important growth opportunities internationally for our sport and its growing fanbase,” said O’Donnell.
“NASCAR racing is broadcast in over 185 countries and territories, with race fans engaging stock car racing in person at events in Canada, Mexico and across Europe. The demand for NASCAR racing internationally has never been stronger and we look forward to bringing our sport closer to race fans everywhere,” said Cassidy.
Joining Cassidy in these efforts will be Chad Seigler in the new position of Vice President, International Business Development. Seigler will draw upon a decade of successful industry sales experience to oversee all international sales and partnership marketing. Celeste Griffin-Churchill in the new position of Senior Director, International, Joe Balash in his current role as Director, International Competition, and Bob Duvall in his position as Senior Director, International & Weekly/Touring Business Development will play key roles in this area.
NASCAR additionally announced that Ben Kennedy has been named to the leadership position of General Manager, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Kennedy will oversee all aspects of NASCAR’s popular truck series, working closely with Brad Moran, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Managing Director, and Jeff Wohlschlaeger, Managing Director, Series Marketing to continue to deliver great racing, fan experience and marketing across this series. Kennedy will report into Elton Sawyer, Vice President, Competition and will work closely with O’Donnell and Steve Phelps, Executive Vice President and Chief Global Sales and Marketing Officer.
“Ben will draw upon his years of experience across NASCAR’s grassroots and national series to bring valuable commercial and competition insights to our NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. With promising young drivers and experienced veterans battling it out in close, side-by-side racing, Ben truly understands from experience that every lap matters and we are excited about his future leadership in this important national series,” said Brent Dewar, President, NASCAR.
