Chip Ganassi Racing pit crew wins annual Comcast champion award

Posted on November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 by

PHILADELPHIA (Nov. 17, 2017) – At an event to kick off NASCAR Championship Weekend in Miami on Thursday, November 16, Comcast announced the Chip Ganassi Racing Pit Crew Department as the winner of the third annual Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award. Comcast created the award in 2015 to honor NASCAR industry members for their philanthropic efforts, awarding $60,000 to the winner’s selected charity and $30,000 to the respective charities of the two remaining finalists.

Led by coaches Shaun Peet and Mike Metcalf, the Chip Ganassi Racing Pit Crew Department began meeting monthly to identify ways to help and impact local organizations in need. The team has dedicated countless hours to charities around the Charlotte, North Carolina, area, including Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte, Charlotte Rescue Mission, Camp Care and Barium Springs Home for the Children. They have participated in clothing drives, disaster relief cleanup, building clean up and restoration, cooking and serving meals and trail building, among other activities. The department has also led a yearly bicycle drive called the “Race to the North Pole,” which in 2016 donated more than 150 children’s bicycles to the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte.

In addition to their work with local charities, the team has also sought out ways to give back to the NASCAR family. After the unexpected passing of No. 42 NASCAR XFINITY Series car chief Ryan Shea in March 2016, the Pit Crew Department not only collected Christmas gifts for his wife and two kids, but also helped with tasks around their home to provide care and support during a difficult time.

The $60,000 donation from Comcast on behalf of the Chip Ganassi Racing Pit Crew Department will be provided to the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte, and will support the organization’s efforts to provide a home for families of children receiving treatment at local Charlotte-area hospitals.

“It is an honor to recognize the Chip Ganassi Racing Pit Crew Department as the 2017 Comcast Community Champion of the Year, as they truly embody the selfless and passionate spirit of giving back that this award represents,” said Matt Lederer, Executive Director of Sports Marketing at Comcast. “Comcast places high value on community service, and we’re humbled by the incredible stories that we’ve been able to highlight in the NASCAR industry through this impactful award.”

The Chip Ganassi Racing Pit Crew Department was chosen by a panel of judges consisting of former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty, NASCAR.com reporter Holly Cain and 2016 Comcast Community Champion Wade Jackson, as well as executives from Comcast and NASCAR. The other finalists, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski, were each awarded $30,000 toward their respective charities. Each finalist’s story can be viewed by clicking here.

Comcast has a long track record of community service, aiding in the advancement of local organizations, developing strategic programs and partnerships, and mobilizing resources to connect people and help them thrive. To learn more about the Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award, as well as the finalists, please visit: ComcastCommunityChampion.com.

Posted on November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 by Nascar

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – JR Motorsports has three teams in the Championship 4 battling for the NASCAR XFINITY Series title so it’s not a stretch to say the organization is favored heading into Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Daniel Hemric won’t argue the point but that won’t keep the Richard Childress Racing driver from showing up this weekend.

An underdog?

“Personally I would rather be fighting from behind,” Hemric said during Thursday’s media day here at the Loews Miami Beach. “I’ve been doing it all my life, it seems like. So, to be in that situation is something I’m used to.

“But I know we’ve proven ourselves to get to this point. I feel like the hardest point is to get to this point. To know … the slate is swept clean and everybody is on the same page we have as good a shot as anybody.”

His No. 21 team has run its best down the stretch, it seems, with six top-10 finishes in its last eight starts. Good enough to earn the fourth and final playoff spot.

William Byron, with four wins, and Justin Allgaier, with two, have the wins for the JRM group. Teammate Elliott Sadler has none, but like Hemric, has gotten this far on strong finishes and avoiding enough disastrous results to advance on points.

That doesn’t mean that neither can win, only that they haven’t. Yet.

A rookie, Hemric has moved seamlessly from the Camping World Truck Series where he spent two years into the XFINITY program at RCR.

Earlier this year, he said he felt there was “no reason we shouldn’t be one of the (playoff) cars in Homestead,” and it turns out he was right.

Now he’s trying to prove there’s no reason he shouldn’t be hoisting the championship trophy Saturday evening. Allgaier and Sadler are old hands at battles where everything is on the line. Byron’s a youngster but he’s proven to be a fast learner — and faster driver.

Hemric may be the surprise finalist but he doesn’t plan to attack the weekend from that perspective. He’s here, he said, because he and his team earned that right.

“I don’t have any pressure on me,” he said. “I’ve kind of, like I said, lived my life just kind of fighting from behind. I’m good being in the situation I’m in. I actually like to think I thrive on it. It’s just cool to be a part of it.

“This is a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity to be in this situation, and I’m trying to approach it like that.”

Posted on November 16, 2017January 24, 2018 by Nascar

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Three champions and, perhaps, a champion in waiting.

Martin Truex Jr. will win a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title. Maybe Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, maybe not. But he’ll win one. Perhaps more. Who knows?

Truex and his competition — former champs Brad Keselowski (2012), Kevin Harvick (’14) and Kyle Busch (’15) — head off into the land of the somewhat unknown Friday at Miami as preparations get underway for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

It’s the final trip around the track for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season. A final shot at the championship for four drivers who have survived a 26-race regular season and advanced through three rounds of elimination to wind up here. There’s a satisfaction in that, but not the feeling of accomplishment that winning a title brings.

Thursday, the four were at the Loews Miami Beach, along with the four championship contenders from the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series.

It was the calm before the storm, you might say, although it had its prickly moments.

Busch didn’t hesitate when he offered up “Sometimes you just don’t like a guy,” when asked about the on-track relationship with fellow driver Keselowski.

It wasn’t exactly breaking news and the truth is Busch probably doesn’t like a lot of folks he competes against, but that’s also probably what has made him one of the most successful racers in the series the past several seasons.

He gets paid to win races, not win friends. His bosses at Joe Gibbs Racing don’t complain when he brings home another trophy.

ANALYSIS: Why each driver can win: Keselowski | Harvick | Busch | Truex

Six wins on 1.5-mile tracks this year might land Truex in the favored role, but a late-race push by Harvick at Texas earlier this month to beat the Furniture Row driver opened eyes. None of the four is unbeatable, and previous wins won’t mean a thing when the green flag falls Sunday.

Still, as Busch noted, Truex has raced for championships and won championships (he’s a two-time champ in the XFINITY Series), so give the guy and his No. 78 team its due.

Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing teams seem to be peaking. Busch has three playoff wins, same as Truex. Only Keselowski (Team Penske) appears to be in the underdog role, having slipped in the back door a week ago at Phoenix.

Of course, how he got there won’t matter Sunday evening. Only that he’s there.

Nothing was resolved Thursday. Nothing is ever resolved on Media Day. But that’s OK.

There was no conflict apparent among those competing for the Camping World Truck Series title either.

It’s business as usual for finalists Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter, old hands at this. Crafton’s a two-time champion; Sauter won the title last year. If they’d been any more relaxed on Thursday, they’d have been asleep.

Christopher Bell? He’s been here before, two-for-two after his surprise appearance in the finals a year ago, and moving up to XFINITY next season. Only Austin Cindric is the interloper and maybe he’s too young to be concerned.

This past Sunday, two days after clinching a spot in the Championship Round, Cindric invited his entire team over for dinner. Nervous? Nah. Sometimes you don’t know enough to be nervous.

In the XFINITY Series, it’s three against one. JR Motorsports has 75 percent of the championship field in William Byron, Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler. Richard Childress Racing counters with Daniel Hemric.

Byron is one year removed from competing in the Truck Series. And one year removed from graduating high school. Next year he’ll be behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. In the Monster Energy Cup Series. That’s known as an accelerated degree program.

Allgaier and Elliott are veterans, former Monster Energy Cup Series drivers, and nothing that might happen Saturday will catch them off guard. Unless it’s losing. They expect to win.

Hemric, like Byron, raced in the Truck Series in ’16. Today he’s 26 and carrying the hopes of the entire RCR organization and, no doubt, his hometown of Kannapolis, North Carolina.

Twelve drivers, 12 teams, three championships. Media Day can be fun. It can be entertaining.

But they’re all here to race, and beginning Friday they’ll do just that.

Posted on November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 by

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – They’re not exactly the Three Musketeers.

It won’t be “one for all, and all for one” when three JR Motorsports teammates — Elliott Sadler, William Byron and Justin Allgaier — take the green flag in Saturday’s Ford Eco-Boost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN).

In fact, all three drivers, along with Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric, will be competing for the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship trophy, and there’s only one of those to go around.

That doesn’t mean the teammates won’t race each other — or Hemric, for that matter — with respect.

“We have four race teams that were successful all season, and we race each other with the utmost respect,” said Allgaier, who will compete on Saturday without crew chief Jason Burdett, under suspension for a inspection violation last weekend at Phoenix.

RELATED: Allgaier crew chief suspended

“We race each other hard, we race each other clean, and Daniel fits right in on that. Daniel is an extremely clean race car driver. So I feel like, even though we’re teammates, and even though we race each other differently than we would other competitors, I feel like the four guys that we have going for the championship have an equal and mutual respect for each other.

“It’s going to be a clean and hard battle all the way until the checkered flag.”

Until the checkered flag, or until the final lap?

“Even in that circumstance — we can all talk a big game, right? — knowing my teammates and knowing Daniel, it’s going to be a hard battle,” Allgaier said. “If we’re running 1-2-3-4 coming to the checkered, it’s going to be a dogfight.

“But I think it’s going to be the cleanest dogfight you’ve seen in a number of years.”

Sadler sees it the same way, although, for the 41-year-old veteran, this is the only race of the season that really matters.

“I know who I’m racing against and what I’m racing against,” said Sadler, who is seeking his first NASCAR championship. “My guys … they’ve all been sharing information this week. The crew chiefs and all are still doing the same protocol they’ve always done. I think Justin, William and myself understand that it’s one race for one championship.

“We’re going to race each other hard. We understand that all the chips are on the table, and we all know what each other’s got, which is a little bit different from racing people from other teams. I know William’s setup, and I know Justin’s, and we’re all going to know what each other’s fighting. So there’s a lot more information on the table.

“But I think we’re going to race each other hard. You don’t get this opportunity all the time, and you’ve got to take advantage of it when you get it.”

Unlike Sadler and Allgaier, Byron will be moving on after this season as he steps up to a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ride with Hendrick Motorsports. So does Byron perhaps stop being a teammate one race early?

“I don’t think (you) ever (stop),” Byron said. “You’re out there for yourself, though. You’re there to try and win for your team. You want the other guys on your team to win if you can’t, but you’re going out there to compete for a championship.

“That’s our goal, and we’re going to race those guys just like we have all year — race them clean, and we’re not going to have any issues.”

The three JRM drivers, however, can’t afford to ignore Hemric, who qualified for the Championship 4 race on points last Saturday at Phoenix. Hemric is driving a brand new car in the all-Chevrolet matchup at Miami, and he doesn’t feel challenged in the speed department.

“The hardest part is to get to this point,” Hemric said. “Everybody’s even going into a one-race match, and that’s pretty exciting to be a part of. Those guys have three cars to worry about. We’ve got one.”

Posted on November 16, 2017 by H.A. Branham

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Lesa France Kennedy called Thursday’s “Over the Edge At ONE DAYTONA” the most unique event to be held at International Motorsports Center. Minutes later the NASCAR Vice Chairman and International Speedway Corporation CEO experienced that uniqueness firsthand.

Kennedy and former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace literally went over the edge, rappelling down the eight-story IMC building side-by-side to kick off a three-day fundraiser benefiting The NASCAR Foundation and Easterseals Northeast Central Florida.

Let’s call the event both unique and successful. The NASCAR Foundation’s executive director Nichole Krieger announced Thursday that “Over the Edge At ONE DAYTONA” had raised more than $150,000 to benefit children in need, that amount coming from people participating in the rappelling who brought sizable donations — along with their nerve.

Lesa France Kennedy and Rusty Wallace turned the event into a race down the building. | Photo special to NASCAR.com

In addition to Kennedy and Wallace, a number of other “VIP Rappellers” negotiated the 102-foot drop Thursday, including Krieger, NASCAR Executive Vice President Gary Crotty and Senior Vice President Karen Leetzow, Easterseals Chairman Joe Kern, Easterseals Northeast Volusia County CEO Bev Johnson, Easterseals Northeast Volusia County Board member Sheryl Cook and Daytona International Speedway President Chip Wile.

“Last time I was as high up as this building was when I was flipping down the backstretch here at Daytona International Speedway about 10 years ago,” Wallace joked prior to rappelling.

Kennedy and Wallace braved extremely windy conditions, cheered on by a local DJ on the P.A. system and several hundred onlookers, all repeatedly urging them to turn their careful descents into a full-blown race.

“I was coming down that baby and all of a sudden Lesa goes flying down,” Wallace said. “I said to myself, ‘Wait a minute. We’re not rappelling. This is a race.’

“But we had a great time. Raised a lot of money for the kids. To me, this was a home run.”

“We had a blast,” Kennedy said. “It’s not the average day at the office.”

Posted on November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 by Brant James

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Austin Cindric was precocious from the beginning of what would become a racing career.

First, he had to talk his mother, Megan, and father, Tim, the president of Team Penske, into allowing him to race karts. Then he had to overcome each of the obstacles they intentionally placed before him to make sure he truly wanted it. He overcame each one in turn.

Cindric, 19, could become a precocious NASCAR champion if he betters the three other championship contenders – Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton and Christopher Bell – in Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1).

“He’s an interesting kid. He’s very studied,” Tim Cindric said. “When he was growing up in Bandoleros and Legends and stuff, we wouldn’t let him paint his helmet. The driving suits he had were very generic, not even name-brand stuff. I never felt like he needed to go in there like a Penske kid. He needed to go in there and be a kid.”

He’s a teenager with, as his father describes it “an old soul,” not just in the way he has been able to become rapidly acquainted with — and successful in — myriad different race cars including Australian Super Cars, sports cars and the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series, but in the mature way he approaches a sobering side of the sport.

The reminder is right there for all of the Cindrics to see, in the worn black rubber bracelet he’s worn on his right wrist since October of 2011, the white lettering worn nearly illegible.

“Dan Wheldon passed,” Tim Cindric said of the IndyCar driver who perished in a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “After I got back from Dan’s funeral — Dan wasn’t somebody Austin really knew, he probably said ‘hello’ to him — at that service they had these little black rubber band things and they just said ‘Remember’ on them. I took it home and threw it on my vanity and Austin said, ‘Can I have that?”

“What are you going to do with it?,” Tim Cindric countered.

“I’m going to wear it,” Austin answered.

“You didn’t really know Dan,” Tim Cindric responded again. “And he said, ‘Us race drivers, we all understand all this.’ You do? It was a little deep for us. And he said, ‘If anything ever happens to me doing this, you and Mom just have to remember, this is what we do.’ And he’s never taken that thing off.”

Austin Cindric describes the decision as “just part of my childhood” but said the moment, involving a driver he said he idolized, left a mark.

“At my age, that was the first time that it happened that I could remember,” he said during Championship 4 Media Day at the Loews Miami Beach, “and I was watching the TV, watching the race, watching the championship fight and something like that happens. It’s pretty impactful, but it’s part of the sport, part of what we do and race cars are pretty safe.”

It wasn’t the first time that Cindric had surprised his parents not only with his attitude toward the sport, but also with a connection he’d made with a late driver he’d never met. The previous instance hit even closer to the Cindric home as it involved Greg Moore, who had signed to drive for Team Penske in 2000 but died at age 24 in an October 1999 CART crash at Auto Club Speedway.

“Greg Moore’s father, Rick, had sent me Greg’s Marlboro helmet. There were only a couple,” Tim Cindric said. “After he passed away, we’d had some made for the test he was going to do and it sits in my basement. Austin obviously sees it all the time, but Austin didn’t know Greg. He was one when that happened. [Austin] said, ‘If I ever get my helmet painted, I’d like to paint it like Greg’s.’ He was 10 or 11 at the time.

“I said, ‘Austin, you can’t just paint a helmet like somebody else’s without permission.’ I said, ‘If you really want to pursue that, first of all …., why?’ He says, ‘Well, I think he’s very similar to myself. I think Greg and I would have gotten along really well.’ I said, ‘You never met Greg. What do you know about Greg?’ He said, ‘Well, on the Internet I’ve watched videos, I’ve read his book.’ And he went on to tell me more about Greg than I knew about Greg.”

With “that box checked,” Tim Cindric said, he allowed his son to contact Rick Moore, who enthusiastically agreed, telling helmet designer Troy Lee that the boy could have access to any designs he wanted.

“Whatever he wanted, relative to Greg, it was his,” Tim Cindric said. “Rick sent him an autographed Greg Moore hero card from every year Greg drove, which I thought was really cool. Greg used to put a little space ship guy, a little Troy Lee icon thing on the back of his helmet. He sent him a pile of those to put on his dash and on his helmets, so he’s always done that to each of his helmets.”

Cindric’s Brad Keselowski Racing is ceasing operations at the end of the season and the driver has no announced plans for 2018. The Bowmanville winner has a breadth of experience, but said he has “committed” himself to NASCAR. Cindric earned his spot in the final amid controversy at Phoenix Raceway, as he made contact with and spun Ben Rhodes in the waning laps, costing Rhodes a chance to run for a title. Cindric said he attempted to reach Rhodes this week but that his call went directly to voicemail. The pair have raced together since childhood and are friends, he said.

Posted on November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 by Staff Report

MORE: Best quotes from Championship 4 Media Day

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — If there’s an underlying tension among some of the four drivers competing for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship, an exchange between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski on Thursday brought it to light.

“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy — fact of the matter,” Busch said, commenting on their long-running rivalry. “I never ran into Matt Kenseth; I don’t think Matt Kenseth ever ran into me, so there is a respect factor out there on the race track and you certainly do a better job sometimes when you’re around some of those guys that you may or may not necessarily like, but as once a wise man told me, I think it was Chase Elliott, I race those like they race me.”

EARLIER: Keselowski-Busch exchange Twitter barbs

The remarks came during Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel ahead of Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Busch and Keselowski have had their share of on-track run-ins through the years, and their comments about them often have been unapologetic. Sunday, they’ll both compete for their second championship with other title contenders Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr.

Keselowski, who answered first, was more muted in his response.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” he said. ” … From my perspective (it would be) a little bit foolish to get caught up with any one person. I do think that both of us are fortunate to have great cars, great teams and when you run up at the front a lot things are going to happen. I feel like where we’re at in the sport right now, we’re both going to be here for a long time to come.

“If you looked across the field, every one has had some run-ins with each other. Probably all four of us have probably run into each other through the course of our careers. That’s part of the fun of the sport as well.”

During later interviews, both drivers again were asked to discuss their relationship.

Busch said Keselowski is “too different” and he didn’t think they’d ever be close.

Keselowski added: “We probably get caught up in all these relationship things and forget about the reality of what this stuff’s supposed to be all about, and that’s going on the race track and racing.”

They’ll do plenty of that starting Friday.

RELATED: Analyzing championship field

Posted on November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 by DraftKings

Rankings below are based on a mixture of expected output and DraftKings’ NASCAR salaries for that day. The ordering is not based on highest projected fantasy totals, but rather by the value of each driver.

(FPPK = average fantasy points per $1,000 of salary.)

1. Martin Truex, Jr. ($11,100) — He is the best intermediate track driver in NASCAR, but Homestead is a little different. The Furniture Row team is prepared for this moment, though, and was happy with its Homestead test in October. At intermediate tracks, Truex is averaging 94 points per race. That sounds fake. (6.5 FPPK)

2. Kyle Busch ($10,500) — Busch claimed the 2015 championship by winning at Homestead. It doesn’t matter if he wins the championship — fantasy NASCAR players want fast-lap points. After securing a playoff spot, Busch didn’t even try at Texas, and he still ran 20 fast laps. (5.6 FPPK)

3. Kyle Larson ($9,500) — There are two possible outcomes: Larson earns his fifth consecutive DNF, or he scores the most fantasy points. He scored the most points in each of the last two Homestead races, and the high-groove track is tailor-made for him. (4.9 FPPK)

4. Kevin Harvick ($9,700) — No one has been better at Homestead over the last three years — his average running position in each race is third. No one has been faster in the playoffs. In the last intermediate track race, Harvick passed the presumptive champion Martin Truex Jr. for the win. (4.5 FPPK)

5. Denny Hamlin ($8,900) — Everyone knew payback was coming at Phoenix. It’s too bad for Hamlin, but it’s less worrisome for fantasy NASCAR players. Hamlin has two wins at Homestead and eight top 10s in 12 races. (4.3 FPPK)

6. Brad Keselowski ($9,900) — He’s a long shot to win the championship, but Johnson pulled off a similar feat last season. Of course, that was aided by the liberal use of the caution flag at the end of the race. BK has a chance to win but not to lead laps. (4.4 FPPK)

7. Chase Elliott ($9,400) — Phoenix was Elliott’s fifth second-place finish this season. It also was his 11th top-five finish — the most by a driver without a win. The assumption is that the fast laps and laps led points will go to a championship contender, but that has not been the case in past Homestead races. (4.4 FPPK)

8. Matt Kenseth ($9,100) — Short tracks have been Kenseth’s strength this season, but he’s no slouch at intermediate tracks. He has a top-10 average running position in each of the last nine intermediate track races. He also has a top-10 average running position in each of the last six Homestead races. (3.9 FPPK)

9. Jamie McMurray ($7,700) — He has finished with top-10 fantasy points in each of the last three Homestead races. If he’s fast in practice, then he’ll be fast in the race. McMurray’s average running position has matched his long run practice speed 83 percent of the time at intermediate tracks (highest correlation in NASCAR). (3.3 FPPK)

10. Jimmie Johnson ($9,600) — The No. 48 Lowe’s car hasn’t been fast since the spring. Johnson ran 10 fast laps at Charlotte in October. Since the spring, in the other seven intermediate track races combined, he has run a total of 10 fast laps. (3.5 FPPK)

11. Ryan Newman ($7,600) — Last year at Homestead, Newman finished 25th. There was chaos at the end. Newman ran 96.6 percent of his laps inside the top 15. Going back to 2011, Newman always has an average running position inside the top 15 at Homestead. (4.2 FPPK)

12. Joey Logano ($9,200) — Team Penske does not have intermediate track speed. The April Texas race was the only time Logano has led laps, and he only led the fourth-most laps. Logano and his team likely will experiment, or part of his team will be assisting Keselowski’s team. (3.4 FPPK)

13. Daniel Suarez ($7,000) — A year ago at Homestead, Suarez started on the pole, led 133 laps and won the race and the XFINITY championship. He likely won’t win this weekend, but he has enough skill to earn his 13th top-10 finish. (3.9 FPPK)

14. Erik Jones ($8,100) — It doesn’t matter what happens at Homestead — Jones has the rookie of the year award locked up. It might seem like a meaningless race, but there might be some fire in his belly this weekend. Homestead is where Jones lost the XFINITY championship last season. (3.9 FPPK)

15. Ryan Blaney ($8,700) — Employ simple logic. Blaney nearly qualified for the championship race. The majority of tracks on the NASCAR circuit are intermediate tracks. He must be good at the intermediate tracks (eighth-best average finish). (3.1 FPPK)

16. Austin Dillon ($7,400) — This has been another forgettable season for Dillon. Other than winning his first career Monster Energy Series race at Charlotte, it was another season of 15th- to 20th-place finishes. At his price, 15th will work in daily fantasy NASCAR. (3.6 FPPK)

17. Clint Bowyer ($8,500) — Last year, Bowyer raced for a small, non-competitive team. The year before that, his Homestead race was the last before Michael Waltrip Racing shut down shop. In decent equipment, Bowyer has finished 12th or better in eight of nine Homestead races. (3.3 FPPK)

18. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ($7,800) — No one will mind if the NASCAR inspection team overlooks a jet engine under the No. 88 car’s hood. Junior fans want one more win, but Tony Stewart fans and Jeff Gordon fans wanted that, too. Junior’s last win at a 1.5-mile track came in 2005. (2.9 FPPK)

19. Kurt Busch ($8,300) — In the 2016 Homestead race, Busch drove from 16th to 13th. The year before that, he raced from 15th to eighth. Those races don’t look like great performances, but they both resulted in top-10 fantasy scores. (3.0 FPPK)

20. Aric Almirola ($6,200) — Everyone is ready for the offseason, but Almirola would like for the 2018 season to start the day after Homestead. Almirola has been competitive in average equipment (seven top-20 finishes in 11 intermediate track races), so just wait until he jumps into an Stewart-Haas Racing car. (4.7 FPPK)

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Brad Norman

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of four stories examining why each driver could win the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.

RECAP: Martin Truex Jr. | Kyle Busch | Kevin Harvick

• • •

Brad Keselowski will win the 2017 championship because …

No team is better when its collective back is against the wall. And make no mistake about it — the No. 2 Team Penske group is the definitive underdog heading into Miami.

No one has been better as an underdog in this elimination-style postseason format, though.

Keselowski produced clutch wins at Talladega in both 2014 and this year, when he desperately needed a victory. He rallied for fourth at Martinsville after being knocked out of the way by Chase Elliott with four laps to go.

And while Keselowski hasn’t produced super speed on 1.5-mile tracks this year, his Homestead history is impressive. He’s qualified in the top 10 for six consecutive years — with five of those coming in the top five — and logged finishes of sixth, third and third heading into last year, where he qualified second but wrecked out.

Homestead has the makings of a strategic race. Tires are crucial, and teams have fewer tire allotments this year than in years past. It’s also the first championship race under the stage-racing format, and while stage points don’t count for championship contenders, the guaranteed cautions are a new element.

Crew chief Paul Wolfe has a reputation as one of the garage’s top strategists, and will be prepared for any scenario but remain flexible enough to adjust on the fly if needed.

Things certainly have to break the right way for Keselowski and Co., but if so, the driver of the No. 2 will be a two-time series champion.

MORE: Brad and Paige Keselowski through the years | Breaking down the Championship 4

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Holly Cain

I first met Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Charlotte when the massive NASCAR national media corps showed up for preseason interviews in January 1998. In between formal sessions with the sport’s biggest-name drivers and owners, we were given the option to move into a nearby smaller room to speak to a young man who was about to make his full-time debut in what is now the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

The 22-year-old Earnhardt Jr. sat by himself at a table waiting to see who — if anyone — would essentially initiate him with this “process.” The chance to sit down one-on-one with the Earnhardt Jr. two decades later is a rarity, and I smile thinking how much everything has changed since.

I distinctly remember that first interview, however, and how he spoke quietly, looked down a lot and seemed a bit overwhelmed and unsure at the process. I concede, I did this mainly as a favor to his father’s public relations team. In retrospect, I’m glad I did.

In speaking with Junior, I discovered his seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion father made him work at his family’s car dealership — his first job was sweeping floors — that he attended military school for a bit and that he had played soccer and had some artistic ability.

At the time Junior only had a handful of starts in NASCAR’s former Busch Grand National series — those coming at strategic venues no-doubt well thought out by his dad — an assortment of short tracks, 1.5-milers, a road course and a couple big tracks.

His first XFINITY start came three weeks after a DNQ at Nashville, Tennessee, in a No. 31 Chevy owned by his dad, with his uncle, Tony Eury Sr., as the crew chief and sponsored by “Gargoyles.” He completed only 87 of the 320 laps and finished 39th, victim of his car’s oil pump failure. Another young driver, a future close friend of Junior’s, and an eventual Cup champion, Matt Kenseth, finished 11th in that race.

Up-and-coming young drivers may find some solace to know that the future two-time Daytona 500 winner Earnhardt finished 39th, 39th and 38th in his first three NASCAR national series races.

In many respects, I’m guessing his father didn’t mind the lessons in tough luck and pick-yourself-up attitude. And Junior was a good student.

Not only did he pick himself up, but he also raised several trophies beginning the very next year. He found himself. And he found Victory Lane, winning seven races in 1998 on the way to the series championship, and six the next year winning a second consecutive title and establishing himself ready to be a big-time player in the sport’s big stage.

At one of his father’s press conferences after the seven-time champion won an early race in Daytona Speedweeks, he stood in the Daytona International Speedway press box high above the track’s famous front straightaway and was constantly turning away from reporters so he could stare out the wall of windows overlooking the track, where XFINITY Series cars were turning practice laps.

I got a kick out of his timing. He was far more interested in his son’s — whom he called “June Bug” — lap times and drive lines than answering questions about his own latest, greatest win there. After a few questions, he got the timing down so that he could answer a question then turn around toward the track just in time to proudly watch his son zoom around the tri-oval. He had that full-on, mustache-extended Earnhardt grin looking down at the track.

Those were the platinum hair and rock n’ roll halcyon days for Junior — winning races, working with his dad, enjoying all the perks of success and stardom.

“Sometimes we’ll go places and it’s like I’m walking with Elvis,” this year’s Monster Energy Series championship favorite Martin Truex Jr. once said of his good friend Junior.

Everything changed for Junior, however, that gut-wrenching day, Feb. 18, 2001 at the Daytona 500.

Sitting across the track high above in the Daytona press box, I remember too vividly watching Junior park his car after finishing runner-up to Michael Waltrip in the 500; a 1-2 showing for his dad’s team. Immediately after climbing out, Junior started running down pit road toward the infield care center — wanting desperately to understand the situation. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

There was no transition time really for Junior or for the fans — those that had cheered for his dad, immediately shifted their adoration to the son — absolutely willing to change driver allegiance to support this young man in the midst of a tragedy.

For all the good intentions, it was a lot for a 26-year-old to have thrust upon his shoulders.

And as Junior prepares to step out of the driver’s seat now 16 years after that fate-twisting Daytona 500, the grace, strength and resilience he showed in handling that unimaginable grief has been as important to him as the talent he has shown behind the wheel as a NASCAR champion, multi-time Daytona 500 winner and 26-time Monster Energy Series race winner.

Earnhardt Jr. has always reminded that his deep drive to win and succeed was not because his father had, it was because he wanted to — although obviously their presence in NASCAR has understandably been linked.

And for some, Junior’s decision to step away from full-time competition now affords many the “goodbye” fans never got to give his father — the thank you.

This is one of the most significant and emotional transitions the sport has ever experienced.

For Earnhardt, this life-changing shift should make him feel proud and will one day make his children — the first, a daughter, due in early May — feel proud, too.

He has handled the immense attention and fame with class and remained competitive and championship worthy through it all.

Something Junior told me for a story 15 years ago still resonates every bit today.

“(Being an Earnhardt) has opened a lot of doors for me,” he said. “I’ve never wished I was anybody else. Sometimes it gets a little bit over the top, but I just kind of ride it out. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Somewhere high above, his dad is smiling. And so will people everywhere Junior looks Sunday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway as he makes his last full-time start.

He has lived the spectrum of emotion with millions of eyes upon him and here’s hoping he gets out of the car Sunday feeling deservedly tremendous and accomplished for a career he should be proud of.

And it will be difficult to tell who is more grateful, Junior for the love and support, or NASCAR fans for the lessons in grace and strength.

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