Richard Petty Motorsports announced Monday that the United States Air Force will return as sponsor of its No. 43 Chevrolet and new driver Darrell Wallace Jr. in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
The organization announced via social media that the partnership will be for two key 2018 races — Daytona in July and Phoenix in November.
“The Air Force is excited to partner with Richard Petty Motorsports once again and this year we are ‘enlisting’ a new driver, Darrell “Bubba” Wallace, Jr.,” said Timothy Hanson, Air Force Recruiting Service Strategic Marketing Division chief, in a team release. “NASCAR and other motorsports align well with our target audience’s interests and the Air Force’s commitment to teamwork and technology.”
The U.S. Air Force has been involved in NASCAR sponsorship since 2001, when it provided primary and associate backing of Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 Ford. The military branch shifted its support to the Petty organization in 2009, and has been a primary sponsor for multiple races in each season since.
The USAF paint scheme rode with RPM to its most recent win, with Aric Almirola at Daytona in July 2014.
Extending its partnership with the U.S. Air Force is Richard Petty Motorsports’ latest announcement in what’s been a steady flow of news in recent months. Wallace, 24, was tabbed Oct. 25 as a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate for 2018 with full-time driving duties in RPM’s No. 43 team.
“I’m proud to join the men and women of the Air Force and represent them on and off the track,” Wallace said in a team release. “I’m also really looking forward to meeting the next wave of Airmen and play my part to engage, inspire and bring awareness to the unique opportunities which lie within our United States Air Force. I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with some Airmen and they are the best at what they do. I admire them for their service and the protections they provide our country.”
The organization announced Dec. 8 that it would shift manufacturers to Chevrolet, striking an alliance with Richard Childress Racing. On Nov. 3, RPM announced that Mid America Mortgage’s Click ‘n Close brand would sponsor the No. 43 for at least three races in 2018, including the season-opening Daytona 500.
Monday, Dec. 18
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Roundtable 2, FS1
Tuesday, Dec. 19
2:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Roundtable 2, FS1 (re-air)
Friday, Dec. 22
2:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Roundtable 2, FS1 (re-air)
Wednesday, Dec. 27
7 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Features Part 1 (re-air), FS2
8 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Features Part 2 (re-air), FS2
9 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Radioactive (re-air), FS2
10 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Roundtable 1 (re-air), FS2
11 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Race Hub – Roundtable 2 (re-air), FS2
12 p.m., Refuse to Lose: Jeff Gordon and the 1997 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS2
1 p.m., Untold Stories: Daytona (re-air), FS2
2 p.m., Beyond the Wheel (re-air), FS2
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Masters of the Clock: The Legend of Martinsville (re-air), FS2
4:30 p.m., A Perfect Storm: The 1979 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS2
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Christopher Bell toasted his 23rd birthday with a special treat Saturday night, winning the Junior Knepper 55 race for USAC Midgets in Du Quion, Illinois.
Bell started third and led just the final four laps in the 55-lap feature on a 1/6-mile dirt track inside the Southern Illinois Center. The Oklahoma native edged runner-up Chase Briscoe, the Truck Series’ Most Popular Driver and Sunoco Rookie of the Year from last season.
“To be able to win the last race of the year like that is pretty cool,” Bell told USAC’s website. “I’ve been pretty close and really fast here in the past, but I just haven’t been able to win. The team’s always been really good here too, but finally, it all came together tonight.”
Bell also prevailed in the Turkey Night Grand Prix in November at Ventura, California.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 20th out of 21 drivers in the main event. Former Truck Series champion Matt Crafton, making his midget debut, finished 13th in the second B-Main and did not qualify for the final.
Several former football players have found homes in NASCAR, putting their athletic skills to use in a new career as a pit crew member. A handful of players from the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs seemed to make an early audition Saturday night for a new line of work, earning a shout-out from a home-state fan in NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer.
After the Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill scored on a 64-yard pass play — the first touchdown in Kansas City’s 30-13 rout of the Los Angeles Chargers — his teammates decided to take a page from NASCAR’s playbook with a simulated pit-stop celebration. With receiver Albert Wilson serving as the fueler and running back Anthony Sherman working the imaginary jack and air wrench, Hill was in and out presumably for a quick change to fresh cleats.
The Chiefs naturally turned to Bowyer — a Kansas native — for a critique. The reviews were positive.
If the Chiefs had wanted first-hand feedback on their pit-stop form Saturday night, they would not have had far to turn. Mike Metcalf, a pit-crew coach and gas man for Chip Ganassi Racing, was in attendance at Arrowhead Stadium with his wife, Dara. The Chiefs gave a tip of the hat to CGR and driver Kyle Larson in a post to Facebook.
Metcalf has his own football pedigree as a former running back at Appalachian State before turning to a career in NASCAR. His Chip Ganassi Racing crew was honored last month with the Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award for its humanitarian efforts.
The Chiefs have made connections to NASCAR in the past. Former Chiefs Jamaal Charles and Abram Elan visited Kansas Speedway in 2012, and the kicking duo of Lawrence Tynes and Dustin Colquitt stopped by the 1.5-mile track in 2006. Dick Vermeil, who had a brief stint as a motorsports broadcaster, visited the Kansas City track in 2005 during his last season as Chiefs head coach.
Longtime crew chief Tony Gibson will be exchanging his role atop the pit box for one in the Stewart-Haas Racing shop next season. Saturday morning, he expressed his appreciation for the move, saying he was eager to begin the next stage in his life and NASCAR career.
“As many of my racing family know, I have been trying to come off the road for several years,” Gibson said through his personal Twitter account. “Traveling 4 days a week for 31 years can take a toll on you. For 2018, Stewart-Haas Racing gave me the opportunity to come off the road and still have a very hands-on job within the organization. Working closely with all 4 crew chiefs and NASCAR.
“My career as a crew chief has given me so many memories I will cherish forever, but now I start a new chapter in my life enjoying some valuable time with my wife, new grandson Luke and all my family. I look forward to watching all the success Stewart-Haas Racing will have in 2018!!”
Stewart-Haas Racing announced changes Friday to its driver-crew chief pairings for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Billy Scott will be Gibson’s replacement on the No. 41 Ford team. Gibson will continue with SHR in an unspecified role.
Gibson, 53, has been with Stewart-Haas Racing since its first season in 2009. Over that span, he worked with Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick and most recently Kurt Busch. All six of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories have come with SHR — three wins with Newman and three with Busch, including last year’s Daytona 500.
Gibson’s connection with racing success predates his debut as a premier-series crew chief in 1994. He has worked as a mechanic and a body-hanger, and served as car chief during championship campaigns for Alan Kulwicki (1992) and Jeff Gordon (1998, 2001).
The NASCAR Cup Series title sponsor, Monster Energy, sets the bar high when it comes to the cool factor — in everything, and Kurt Busch’s new Jason Beam helmet designs push his 2018 gear over the top.
Busch, driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing is so excited about his new BEAMdesigns helmets with Monster Energy green and black that he’s not even waiting for the paint to dry to share the new looks.
When Ryan Truex ordered up the first batch of T-shirts to sell through his personal website, he did so as a lark. “I kind of made them as a joke, you know,” he says now.
But the simple design — a self-penned rendering of his No. 16 truck with basic, lower-case text reading, “go ryan” — caught on. Finding an unpaid endorser in NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver certainly helped the cause.
“Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. just … I never paid him or gave him anything, he just decided he loved them and bought one and the rest is kind of history,” Truex says. “He will randomly just tweet a picture of him wearing it and then I sell out instantly. It’s been pretty crazy.”
The brisk apparel sales were just another head-turning aspect of a solid season for the 25-year-old Truex in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. After just missing out on the postseason, Truex landed his first two Keystone Light Pole Awards and finished ninth in the standings, highest among the non-playoff drivers. | Season recaps for Playoffs drivers
Those were the latest strides made in his second season with Hattori Racing Enterprises, the upstart team fielded by Shigeaki Hattori, a longtime racer with a rich pedigree in open-wheel competition. With an uncertain offseason ahead of them, both Truex and Hattori enter 2018 wanting more.
First steps
Hattori, 54, first moved to the United States from his home country of Japan in 1995. He won twice in Indy Lights competition and later became a two-time entrant in the Indianapolis 500.
But stock-car racing gradually drew his interest. Hattori made 10 Truck Series starts in the 2005 season before turning his attention to team ownership in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. That developmental tour was where Truex first caught his eye, as the young driver secured back-to-back series championships in 2009-10.
Shigeaki Hattori
But the two didn’t become better acquainted until the weeks before the 2016 season, when they struck a late deal for a partial Truck Series schedule.
“Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know him pretty well and see his passion for racing and for NASCAR, and how much desire he has to be a successful team owner,” Truex said. “He does it because he loves it. He’s dedicated, honestly, most of his life to making his team work, run well and be successful. When he’s not in America, he’s in Japan trying to sell sponsorship and keep all his partners happy. And when he is here in the U.S., he’s at the shop every single day in his office.
“I swear he works like 20-hour days. I don’t think he ever sleeps. He’s all in. He’s very passionate about it, and when you have a guy like that believe in you, it says a lot.”
Their first race together had an immediate yield — a runner-up finish in the 2016 season opener at Daytona International Speedway. But that was the only top-five effort in their partial schedule; HRE used seven different crew chiefs in a 15-race season as it tried to find its way.
This season, with veteran Scott Zipadelli calling the shots atop the pit box for the duration, Truex and Hattori found their rhythm. The plucky single-truck outfit benefited from that much-needed chemistry, making inroads against the series’ larger teams, such as Kyle Busch Motorsports, ThorSport Racing and GMS Racing.
“I think coming into the season, we were looked at as an underdog, for sure. But as the season went on, I felt like we became another top team,” Truex says. “We weren’t really looked at as underdogs; we were looked at as guys you had to race to win, and we started to prove that. …
“Honestly, I feel like we kind of exceeded our own expectations. I know we didn’t win, but came awful close and I think proved a lot of people wrong who kind of wrote us off at the beginning of the year. That feels good.”
Brotherly vibe
Truex’s other popular T-shirt seller riffs off his bond with his brother Martin Truex Jr., who sealed his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title this season. The shirt reads: “Ryan Truex Jr.” with a red ‘X’ over the “Jr.” The item description on his website is direct: “That’s not my name.”
Forgive the TV announcers who first pegged him as a Junior out of reflexive habit, this after multiple seasons of using the suffix with his brother, who is 12 years his elder. “It just kind of started, and now people just say it because they think it’s funny,” the younger Truex says. “It makes for a good T-shirt, so it’s all right.”
Unnecessary suffix or not, Ryan Truex doesn’t seem to mind the closer connection to his brother, who has tallied up a dozen victories in the last two seasons, including a series-high eight this year in his dominant march to his first crown in NASCAR’s top division.
Martin Truex Jr., left, and brother Ryan Truex, ,right, talk on the grid at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Though the two brothers compete in different national NASCAR circuits, Martin Truex Jr. has helped his brother with advice when their paths cross at a given event. Plus, there’s a carryover effect in seeing a family member go on such a tear.
“The biggest thing with Martin is his confidence level these last two or three years has just been through the roof,” Ryan Truex says. “I think that mentality and that attitude rubs off on people. I know it helped me a lot. He would come by the hauler during the race weekend and when he talks, people listen. When he has opinions or things he thinks we should do, or even if it’s something as simple as a bump or a groove on the race track where I need to do something different, everybody’s all ears and willing to listen to him.
“That’s definitely been a huge help this season for me as well. It’s definitely good motivation to see how successful he’s been. Yeah, he knows his stuff. He’s got a lot of experience and has been to all these race tracks and knows what it takes to win.”
Looking forward
The close of the 2017 season may not be that distant a memory, but the planning phase for next year is already underway. Both Hattori and Truex sound hopeful that those plans involve each other, but the search for sponsors and the prospects for expanding HRE to a two-truck operation aren’t yet final.
Hattori said he hopes to firm up the organization’s 2018 plans with something to announce by mid-January. Growing to a two-truck team would be a large undertaking, but one that Hattori says would better position the group for success.
“It’s really difficult with only one program to compete with those big teams, and I ideally want to make it two programs and then we can share data,” Hattori says. “Especially now, we only have two or three days for testing in the season, so it’s really important during practice time if we can run two trucks and share data, it would definitely help both programs.”
For the time being, the clock is ticking toward Daytona’s Speedweeks in February and the start of the season. Reaching 11th-hour agreements doesn’t seem to phase Truex; he’s used to the concept.
“Honestly, my whole NASCAR career has kind of been last-minute deals,” Truex says. “Even the past two years with Shige, we hadn’t really had anything signed or announced until late January. I feel like I’ve still got a little bit of time here to work. My obvious goal is the Cup Series, and regardless, Shige’s done a whole lot to help me get there and has played a huge part in my career, for sure. We’re doing everything we can to make things happen, but it’s definitely a sponsorship-driven deal. It’s going to take some funding and that’s what we’re working on now.”
Last year’s performance, Truex says, went a long way toward attracting potential backers. The team wound up in the top five in more than a third of the 23 Camping World Truck Series races last year, and it placed in the top 10 in more than half. The campaign included a particularly hot stretch from July into September, when Truex logged top-five results in five events in a six-race span, leading multiple laps at Mosport, Chicagoland and New Hampshire.
It’s enough to make folks take notice, even if he still gets called Ryan Truex Jr. from time to time.
“All those mega-teams, it’s just so hard to compete with them. We proved it’s possible to do it with less money and less resources and equipment,” Truex says. “We definitely exceeded expectations all around — our own and everybody else’s. I think that’s worth something. This team didn’t exist two years ago, so I think that says a lot about how far we were able to come in such a short time.”
Ryan Blaney is 23, has two full seasons in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season under his belt and has driven for two of the most iconic teams in auto racing.
“I never really thought of it,” Blaney said following the end of the 2017 season. “Two of the most historic teams in the sport and I’ve gotten to drive a Cup car for both of them.”
In 2016 and ’17, Blaney drove the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing. The car, and the team, have been around nearly as long as the sport itself. Founder Glen Wood raced on the beach in Daytona and competed with the No. 21 in the early 1950s.
Blaney won for the Wood Brothers, scoring team win No. 99 with his victory at Pocono Raceway in June of ’17. It was his first victory in the series and put him in a group that includes NASCAR Hall of Famers David Pearson, Curtis Turner, Cale Yarborough and Dale Jarrett. A.J. Foyt, Neil Bonnett, Donnie Allison, Dan Gurney and Marvin Panch put the familiar No. 21 in the winner’s circle, too. (OK, Gurney’s four wins came in the No. 121 but still …).
In 2014, Blaney made two starts for car owner Roger Penske; For 2018, he will move to Team Penske full-time and drive the No. 12 Ford as that organization expands to three cars – joining 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski and teammate Joey Logano.
“I’ve just been fortunate to be with some great teams ever since we got started,” Blaney said. “My dad was a big part of that, getting me in the door of a lot of places. Can’t thank him enough for that.”
Dave Blaney enjoyed a successful open-wheel career, winning a Silver Crown title, World of Outlaws title, Chili Bowl title and Kings Royal crown before moving into NASCAR where he spent more than a dozen years.
Because the Wood Brothers and Penske organizations enjoy an alliance – WBR gets its chassis from Penske, as well as technical data – the move isn’t expected to be particularly disruptive.
“It’s not going to be a huge change in equipment and things like that,” Blaney said. “We got all our cars from Penske and we’re taking a lot of the personnel with us over to the No. 12 car.
“We already work pretty well with Brad and Joey, adding another car. And bringing Paul (Menard) in. I think Paul is going to do a really good job with that group.”
Menard will drive the No. 21 in 2018; the winner of the Brickyard 400 in 2011, he spent the previous seven seasons with Richard Childress Racing.
“It’s bittersweet; I love driving for the Wood Brothers,” Blaney said. “The past three seasons have been a lot of fun, to get to know them and hear their stories. To be able to win for them was really cool, too.
“But, on the other hand, it’s a big deal to be able to drive for Roger Penske on the Cup side. It’s always something I’ve wanted to do too, since I got with him five years ago.”
Penske’s NASCAR association isn’t quite as long as the Wood Brothers, his first entry as a team owner came in 1972, but it’s equally impressive. One hundred and four wins have come with drivers such as Mark Donohue, Bobby Allison and Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Logano.
Blaney is eager to get started. No longer a greenhorn, he said his second full year in the series taught him quite a bit.
He finished 12th in the standings in 2016 and wound up ninth this past season, thanks to the win that put him in the Playoffs and the consistency that carried him through to the Round of 8.
“You kind of calm down a little bit, you’re a bit more methodical about things,” he said. “When you’re younger, you’re kind of set on kill the whole time. That’s good but sometimes it’s not the best thing.
“I feel like once you kind of understand the sport a little bit better and how to run 38 weeks out of the year you definitely learn a lot. Just being a little bit more patient and thinking a lot more about actually not going out and driving the car as hard as you can. How can you actually make the car fast without having to drive it 110 percent … that’s the smartest way you can do it.”
It’s just time behind the wheel, he said. Something he’s looking forward to having more of in 2018.
Stewart-Haas Racing has shaken up the leadership on the Nos. 10 and 41 teams going into the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
Kurt Busch, who announced earlier this week he had re-signed with the organization to continue driving the Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford, will work with Billy Scott. Scott moves over from the No. 10 team after working with Danica Patrick, who is stepping away from racing, the last two years.
Tony Gibson had been paired with Busch since late 2014, but Gibson had expressed interest in coming off the road in the near future. He will remain with SHR in an unnamed capacity.
On the No. 10 team with newcomer Aric Almirola will be John Klausmeier, who moves into a crew chief position after serving as a race engineer at SHR since 2009. Klausmeier earned valuable experience atop the pit box in 2016, serving as Busch’s interim crew chief at Pocono Raceway and going to Victory Lane.
“We wanted to maximize our strengths and address the areas where we needed to improve, and we feel this lineup gives us our best chance to succeed every time we bring our Ford Fusions to the racetrack,” said Greg Zipadelli, vice president of competition for SHR. “This is a very technical sport, but it’s the people who make it go, and we’ve got some of the best people in the business.”
2014 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champions Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers will continue to work together. The pairing has 14 races wins together in four seasons and has made the Championship 4 in three of the last four years.
Clint Bowyer – who joined SHR in the No. 14 Ford last year – will also continue to work with Mike Bugarewicz. The 2018 season will be Bugarewicz’s third year as a crew chief, having started in 2016 with Tony Stewart.
“We have some of the finest talent in the industry and we’re confident in the leadership of each of our teams as we pursue wins and a championship in 2018,” said team co-owner Stewart in a team release. “Obviously, we’re very happy to have Kurt Busch back with SHR and I’m proud to have Aric Almirola as a part of our race team. He’s someone I’ve always been impressed with since we were teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, and John Klausmeier is more than ready to be his crew chief.
“The partnership between Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers is the best in the garage, and after a bunch of strong runs and second-place finishes, I think Clint Bowyer and Mike Bugarewicz are ready for a breakout year. We’re in a really good place with each of our race teams.”
A talented group of Ford Performance’s youngest prospects will join forces ahead of the NASCAR season, with Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Cole Custer and Ty Majeski teaming up in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge opener next month at Daytona International Speedway.
The four drivers, who all are slated for competition in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2018, will share driving duties in the Jan. 26 event in a two-car Mustang GT4 effort in the GS class. They’ll be joined in the four-hour race by former division champion Scott Maxwell, who will serve as co-driver and mentor.
Briscoe, who turns 23 on Dec. 15, was Sunoco Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He was one half of the Brad Keselowski Racing driver lineup last year with the 19-year-old Cindric. Both drivers scored breakthrough victories in the Truck Series last season.
Custer, 23, secured his first career victory in the Xfinity Series, dominating the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Majeski, a current member of the NASCAR Next development class, made his Xfinity debut last year while continuing to thrive in the Super Late Model short-track ranks.
It was announced Nov. 20 that Briscoe, Cindric and Majeski will share the No. 60 Ford in the Xfinity Series next year for Roush Fenway Racing. Ford Performance also previously announced that Briscoe, a part of the manufacturer’s driver development program, will compete in other IMSA and Trans-Am TA2 events.
Full driver pairings will be announced at a later date. All five drivers are scheduled to participate in the Roar Before the 24 three-day test session Jan. 5-7, helping them gain valuable road-course experience ahead of the event.
A glimpse at what the young drivers are saying about the road-racing opportunity, in comments provided by Ford Performance:
Briscoe: “This will be something new and I’m going to do a lot of it this year, so I think it’s going to be a good learning curve. I’ve only run two road courses my entire life and even though we ran decent, I didn’t feel like I ever knew what I was doing. Hopefully, I can get to the point by the end of this year where I know what I’m doing on a road course. Even though I’ll be driving two different kind of race cars, the principals of how you drive and the technique it takes will be something I can learn. I’m also looking forward to having a teammate and competing in an event where both of you have an impact on how well you run.”
Cindric: “For me with my background some of my biggest moments in the early part of my career have been with Multimatic racing Mustangs in the Continental Tire Series, so for me I’m coming home. I come from a different background than the other guys and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun, learn a few things and hopefully bring home some hardware because I know those Mustangs are pretty strong around Daytona. Scott (Maxwell) and I have become really good friends and he’s been a big help to me in my career and I look forward to being teammates with him again and having a little fun throughout the weekend.”
Custer: “I’m really excited about this opportunity. I’ve never done any endurance racing, but I’m looking forward to having some fun and learning what it’s all about. This is obviously a big race and great way to start the season. Being able to race with the other guys is going to be a lot of fun as well because we’re all pretty much the same age and have a lot in common. I never thought I would get the chance to do something like this, but road course racing has really grown on me. I think it’s fun to learn the different sides of things and this is going to be a chance for me to learn as a driver and make myself better.”
Majeski: “I have virtually no road course experience at all. I’ve been on one road course my entire life and that was this past summer when I was sent out to the Ford Performance Driving School in Utah. Outside of that I have not been on a road course, so this will be great for me to get some experience and be around people who know a lot about it. I’m looking forward to working with Chase, Austin and Cole as well. They’re good guys and I’m excited for the opportunity Ford has put in front of us. It will be a learning experience, but it will be a lot of fun working with those guys and learning together.”
