Posted on by Holly Cain

It is absolutely impossible to speak with Sherry Pollex for more than two minutes and not start feeling something strong and distinct develop in your own heart and mind. She is positive, motivated, and optimistic. And she makes you feel the same way.

It’s an amazing demeanor for someone so bravely battling stage III ovarian cancer. In fact, Pollex, 37, has recently begun her second trip through intense chemotherapy treatment after doctors located a Ping Pong ball-sized recurrence of cancer in her spleen this summer. Surgeons removed her spleen and she was still recovering in the hospital when her longtime boyfriend Martin Truex Jr. won the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup race July 8 at Kentucky Speedway.

She was trackside this past week, however, when Truex, 37, and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team kicked off the playoffs with a huge victory at Chicago — his series best fifth of the season and a perfect exclamation point for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

It seems like the ultimate in “win-win” situations!

“To be able to experience what he’s going through on and off the track has been huge for both of us,” Pollex told NASCAR.com. “I think the race track is a good place to go to kind of forget about all your troubles. You go there, perform well and it makes everything better. It makes him happy, and I love seeing him happy. It’s been an amazing year.”

The ability and opportunity to appreciate Truex’s success in NASCAR has actually been a sort of panacea for Pollex. And for Truex.

Truex, the Regular Season Champion, is guaranteed a spot in the second round of the NASCAR Playoffs with Sunday’s win. He’s collected more race trophies, more playoff points than any other driver this year. And, he’s done it with good vibes even against emotional odds.

You think Truex is strong behind the steering wheel of his Toyota? Imagine what he’s like out of the driver’s seat being a source of strength, compassion and can-do for Pollex.

“I think about that a lot,” Pollex said. “He’s not a super emotional person and doesn’t talk a lot about his feelings and I worry about him dealing with everything that I’m going through — I know he worries about my disease and me possibly not being there for him one day.

“I can’t imagine the pressure in everything he’s had to deal with and he just handles it with such class. His character speaks for itself. Most people in the garage have a lot of respect for him. He’s a good person and he has a big heart and he’s always been there for me. He’s my rock and he’s never wavered once through everything we’ve been through.”

On her website, Sherrystrong.org, Pollex has candidly written about her recent medical situation. Opening up helps her. And she hopes, helps others.

As word of her current situation has gotten out, Pollex said she’s been surprised at the number of people who have reached out to cheer her on — at the grocery store or gas pumps even, people stop her to wish her well.

“The passion the fans have in NASCAR, there’s really no other sport like it,” Pollex said. “I wonder sometimes, why do they feel so connected? I think some really feel like they are going through a battle with me. So many people around the world are touched by cancer and any time you can relate to someone going through something that tough, you feel a connection to them. You can’t explain to people what it is to meet people who are going through what you are going through. It’s real.

“For me, I’ve been very open with what I’m going through and I want to help other women and people in general who are battling cancer. I kinda feel like that’s the path God has put me on. Everyone is dealing with a struggle or something going on in their life. No one’s life is perfect. I just put it all out there and hope it inspires or helps someone.”

Judging by the response she receives and the feel-good Truex produces, it’s safe to say Pollex’s message of positivity through adversity has gotten out.

And now each weekend, Pollex can take great satisfaction in watching Truex find such success. He’s put in 12 years in NASCAR’s big time and four years ago took a leap of faith to join the small Furniture Row Racing team based 1,000 miles from NASCAR’s Charlotte hub, a small organization that fought to be considered a legitimate title contender compared to the “mega-organizations” it competed against.

And now, Truex and team are making a great, even emotional, run for his first Monster Energy Series title and the Furniture Row Racing team’s first championship too.

“I feel like it’s God rewarding him with this success for him being such an amazing person,” Pollex said. “Everything you’ve worked your whole life for is finally coming to fruition. You’re with a manufacturer that’s good, you and your crew chief are good — him and Cole (Pearn) are such a good combination — and that team. It’s the closest-knit group of guys I’ve ever been around. They have told me so many times that, ‘There’s no other guy in that garage we would want behind the wheel of that race car than him.’

“And,” she continued, her voice full of passion and admiration, “How he handles things in the car and when things don’t go his way. Martin and I talk about things, how his personality is so different than from before I got diagnosed.

“The old Martin would have gotten mad when they had a bad pit stop or run bad. But he’s not like that anymore and I think that’s what he means when he says, ‘With everything Sherry and I have been through … it’s made me a better person and a better driver.’

“You can take all that adversity and turn it into something positive and that’s exactly what he’s done. That’s hard to do.”

And she should know.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: See exclusive photos of the race

When NASCAR brought its road show to Japan for the first time in the 1990s, it meant transporting everything that makes the sport so great 7,000 miles — including the post-race drama American fans love to see.

Little did they know the drama would center around the father-son duo of Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. But as Junior explains in this excerpt from “Made in Japan,” which airs tonight at 6 ET as part of FS1’s Race Hub, things got interesting when he felt his father’s shoe whiz past his head after the race.

Find out what provoked Dale Sr. to do such a thing and what happened afterward, then tune in for the rest of “Made in Japan” to see the other stories that unfolded when NASCAR went to the Far East for a race.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Dale Jr. Preview: New Hampshire | Johnson helps with hurricane relief

Dale Earnhardt Jr. talked about his own and his father’s NASCAR records during the latest version of his Dirty Mo Radio ‘Dale Jr. Download’ podcast.

As his final full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is down to just nine more races, Earnhardt was asked if he’s put much thought into not surpassing Bill Elliott’s Most Popular Driver Award record, which sits at 16. Earnhardt won for the 14th consecutive time in 2016.

Earnhardt said it wouldn’t be fair if he stuck around a couple more years just to reach that feat.

“I never thought about it,” Earnhardt noted. “It would be sticking around only for that and that would be wrong.”

That question segued into a conversation about his thoughts on Jimmie Johnson possibly winning eight championships, which would surpass a record set by both his father, Dale Earnhardt, and Richard Petty.

“There’s a little sliver of me that doesn’t want Jimmie (Johnson) to win eight,” Earnhardt said. “I like that Jimmie tied him because I see him and my father more as equals. I think Jimmie is definitely in the conversation of the greatest driver that’s ever been in the sport. Now, I’m biased because I think my dad’s awesome.”

MORE: Listen to the full podcast

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

RELATED: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s complete history at New Hampshire

For his final full-time season as a driver, NASCAR.com will offer an analytical preview on Dale Earnhardt Jr. ahead of every remaining Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.

Race: ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Date: Sunday, Sept. 24, 2 p.m. ET (NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Previous five results at New Hampshire: 18th, 25th, fifth, ninth, 10th

RELATED: Junior reflects on missing playoffs

Notable: The ‘Magic Mile’ is a track where Earnhardt has had success, but a Victory Lane celebration has so far been elusive. In 34 career starts, Earnhardt has 15 top-10 finishes at Loudon and eight top-five finishes with the most recent coming in 2015 when he placed fifth after starting 19th. The closest Earnhardt has come to crossing the finish line first here was in Sept. 2004 as he finished third just behind winner Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth. More recently, Earnhardt was one of just six drivers who led the field (for 10 laps) at New Hampshire this past July.

Memorable: Even without a win, Earnhardt has had a handful of strong performances in New Hampshire, including Sept. 2003 when his then No. 8 team led a race-high 120 laps. Unfortunately, Earnhardt fell back to finish fifth, but it ended up being good enough for his first top five at the track. A year later in the same race, Earnhardt improved his New Hampshire career-best by finishing third.

 Quotable: “We spent several hours in the simulator on Monday trying to figure something out for this week. We aren’t riding this year out or giving up,” Earnhardt said. “We’re going to keep working hard the rest of the season. I’m looking forward to New Hampshire – it’s a fun track. It’s flat and it’s kind of tricky to get around, but it’s fun.”

Posted on by @nascarcasm

RELATED: @nascarcasm called out on Joey Logano/Darrell Waltrip tattoo bet

Before anyone cared who I was, I was just a lowly resident of Indianapolis, Indiana. A mid-sized Midwestern hamlet, famous for speed, NFL quarterbacks with foreheads the size of IMAX screens, and its impressive 2-1 resident-to-Applebee’s ratio. It’s where I toiled diligently, standing on that median and waving the sign that read “CASH 4 GOLD,” hoping motorists would turn in and be willing to sell their teeth for $3 each. I feel a connection to this town. I feel pride when I tell someone where I’m from, and they respond with, “Oh yeah — think I flew over there once.” This town drives me. It made me what I am today.

That day when I was watching a Pocono race, I was making wisecracks to my wife. I’ll never forget her words: “You should really find a way to get these jokes out to a wider audience so that more people can not laugh at them.”

I typed www.twitter.com into that address bar and mashed the enter key with the force of Thor’s hammer. Enter a world I could never have fathomed even at my most inebriated on Boone’s Farm. A world where we could blame Jimmie Johnson for everything from wrecking Dale Jr. to our incurable rectal itch that hasn’t gone away in years. Where we could tell the masses, “I hope you’re race day is wonderful and may you have a pleasant week!” and receive, “Um, your…” in reply. An online utopia where a simple picture of Kasey Kahne in a V-neck shirt could be beaten into bad-joke smithereens, only for those smithereens to be beaten into even smaller smithereens, and, well, repeat this process about 500 times. A vast community that allowed us to bastardize the English language into shorthand like “OMG Blaney TOTES GORG.” I felt at home.

I signed up what feels like ages ago, back when the Car Of Tomorrow was still a good idea and Mark Martin was only on retirement No. 7. As I type this, my follower count currently sits at an astonishing 146,400. And I am told that a good 25 percent of those followers are actually real people and not bots or NSFW accounts. It is with these people I have built a trust.

Twitter has allowed me NASCAR access that I never imagined I would have without yanking Tony Stewart’s hard card off his neck then running away because I know I’m more high-motor than he is and could get away easily. I know a guy who is friends with a guy who plays basketball with JJ Yeley. I slide into Dale Jr.’s DMs and invite him to Bunco night at my house (Standing invitation, Junebug — hit me back.) I’ve been to Jamie McMurray’s house. Not IN. I sort of stood outside and pressed myself against his picture window while he was inside watching “Eat, Pray, Love.” He never saw me but based on my last check of Google Street View, the print is still there.

It is with those aforementioned people that I made a pact. Following Joey Logano’s encumbered win earlier this season, I tweeted this. You probably saw it, liked it, retweeted it, screenshot it, whatever it is you did.

I entered into this pact under the assumption Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford team would easily manage at least another win during the 2017 season. As the season went on and that win didn’t come, my anxiety grew more and more by the week. “Will I end up with something permanent that I don’t want?” I wondered aloud, much like every dude waiting in the green room of “The Maury Povich Show.”

The win never happened. When the checkers waved at Richmond, Logano’s playoff hopes and my hopes for having an unadulterated inner thigh blew away like a tearoff in the wind.

It’s OK, though. It’s difficult to maintain such a high level of competitiveness over so many years. Granted, Joey COULD have waited to have an off year in a year that I HADN’T promised to tattoo Darrell Waltrip’s face on my inner thigh, but I bear no ill will. There is no need to confront Joey about this. I’ve seen video of people trying to do that and they usually end up face down on pit road under a pile of NASCAR officials.

I never make a promise without following through with it, or having a way to completely weasel out of it without any legal repercussions. So as you can see, in all of its glory, is Darrell Waltrip’s face, forever emblazoned across my pasty white thigh.

This is what the people wanted, and this is what I delivered.

To be honest, I thought it would bother me more, but I’ve grown quite accustomed and even fond of his visage greeting me every time I have to apply Gold Bond on a warm race day. He sits mid-thigh — almost like a welcome rest area if you were traveling from knee to gooch.

“Will you be proudly displaying your tattoo at the race track?” you are wondering. I regret to inform you that is unlikely. I am a modest individual. In order for this tattoo to be on display, I’d have to cut my jorts higher than is usually allowed in most track media centers. Even a romper for men is too long. I tried several of mine on — no dice. If you want to see it, perhaps I’ll oblige, but we’ll have to duck into that blue tent where they dunk tires and things’ll get more awkward than Cody Ware’s Twitter account.

This tattoo will not change the person I am — a proud Twitter troll that you’ve probably had muted for years. Instead it will be a daily reminder of the importance of maintaining promises. If you flippantly tweet something, people will remember. MY GOD I wish your attention spans were like Clint Bowyer’s.

Regards,

‘Casm

P.S. It’s totally not temporary I promise.

(Indianapolis, September 20, 2017)

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: ‘Fit’ Row by Lilly Diabetes launches on NASCAR.com

In a continuation of encouraging fans to better manage their health, Lilly Diabetes has created a stationary bike-riding competition to highlight the competitors within NASCAR.

The NASCAR Fitness Challenge Powered by Lilly Diabetes will showcase health and wellness in action. Taking place on Oct. 4 at the NASCAR Plaza to lead into race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, teams consisting of four cyclers will be made up of three pit crew members and one team employee.

Splitting teams into two groups, the competition will feature 30-minute stages to qualify for the 45-minute final round. Points will be awarded based on the power output by the competitor. Those points will also be added to the social challenge fans are encouraged to participate in, which kicks off today.

The winning team will receive a charitable donation of $20,000 from Lilly Diabetes for their charity of choice.

Teams expected to attend are: Roush Fenway Racing, Leavine Family Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Bolen Motorsports, Team Penske, Wood Brothers Racing, Germain Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.

The official health partner of NASCAR, Lilly Diabetes launched its ‘Fit’ Row series earlier this year on NASCAR.com. to focus on the health and fitness aspects of racing. Throughout the year stories have included the track walk at Charlotte Motor Speedway and how drivers like Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick stay in peak physical condition.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

We’re always looking for ways to innovate. Innovation helps save time, cut costs, and improve quality. So, in our constant pursuit to get better, we asked ourselves, “What can we automate?” Naturally, the first thing that came to mind is all the stuff that takes a human brain, and thus human time — time is money, after all.

This means taking a shot at automating Power Rankings — usually an expert-informed ranking of expected driver performance in the next race. Could a computer do a better job than a snarky, pun-obsessed human?

The stats in our new Power Automation Testing Beta (PAT Beta, for short) program are totally random and made up — they’ll be different every time you visit. Yeah, it’s maybe not quite as accurate as NASCAR’s Laser Inspection System — but, hey, at least we tried.

Please bear with us as we test out our new algorithm.

OK, maybe — maybe — our system isn’t quite ready for prime time. Perhaps some things just can’t be replaced by computers.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

MORE: Clements ‘shocked’ after winning Road America

 

In a career in racing that spans more than 30 years, NASCAR XFINITY Series Managing Director Wayne Auton enjoyed one of his favorite highlights only recently — Jeremy Clements’ Aug. 27 victory in the Johnsonville 180 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

 

Running his No. 51 Chevrolet on a shoestring budget, Clements muscled his way past Matt Tifft on the final lap and took the first checkered flag of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in his 256th start. That’s what Auton found so gratifying.

 

“You can’t go out here and buy an NFL team,” Auton said, “but you can’t definitely build a race car, get the right credentials, get the right driver, the right crew chief, and as the saying goes, on any given Sunday — and the reason I say that is we race Road America on Sunday — if the stars line up right, you can win one of these things.

 

MORE: Was Clements’ win biggest NASCAR upset of all time?

 

“It doesn’t take megabucks to win one of these things, if the stars line up right.”

 

Auton feels Clements’ team deserves a special nod as an organization not only with a limited budget but as a team with no affiliation with a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series affiliation.

 

“The Clements racing operation has four guys who work on the race car. Low budget. I’m not going to say how much money they have per race, but it’s basically nothing. They go and they work hard, and it’s neat to see a team of lower budget go out and beat the big guys.

 

“It’s part of the sport, and I know that’s what Bill France wanted when he built NASCAR.”

 

MORE: Drivers congratulate Clements

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At Phoenix International Raceway, the next-to-last event in last year’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoff, William Byron’s championship hopes exploded when the engine in his No. 9 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota did likewise.

But it wasn’t until a week later that Byron felt what he termed the “gut punch” of falling out of the playoff with a championship in his rookie season so close to reality.

Byron won seven races in the Camping World Truck Series last year and was the odds-on favorite entering the playoff — until his engine went sour at Phoenix. This year, Byron hopes to wash away that sour taste with a NASCAR XFINITY Series championship — before he makes the jump in 2018 to the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

With three XFINITY victories this year, all within a five-race stretch in the middle of the season, Byron goes into the playoff as the top seed, with 25 playoffs points, as the playoffs open on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway (8 p.m. ET on NBCSN). His most ardent hope is not to repeat the experience of going to Homestead without a chance to win the championship.

MORE: Playoff-bound drivers ready for Kentucky

“It was definitely a gut punch going through the final race and not having a chance at it,” Byron said on Tuesday during NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs Media Day at the Embassy Suites. “I didn’t really think about what the championship meant until I saw them celebrating and saw the excitement and what it means to win that.

“Everyone says that, when you lose one, you know how to win it, but I think watching everything unfold and knowing that I wasn’t a part of it was definitely the gut punch I needed to try and win this year.”

In preparation for his jump to Monster Energy Series next season, Byron has been attending events in the series and getting advice from his future teammates at HMS. But his primary focus is winning the XFINITY title and making up for the Camping World Truck Series championship that eluded him last year.

“Really, the best preparation I can do is run hard and really learn the next seven races,” Byron said. “There were a few things out there, whether I was going to run some (Monster Energy Series) this year, but I feel like, really, we’re focusing on what we have going on here and trying to win a championship.

“That’s what they want me to do, and that’s what, really, I want especially after last year and how that went. So definitely want to get redemption and try to win a championship.”

Byron is one of four JR Motorsports drivers to qualify for the playoff, along with Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier and Michael Annett. All four drivers in the organization share information unselfishly, and that should help Byron in his first XFINITY playoff.

“Elliott’s been there each week, talking to me about different race tracks and answering each question I have,” Byron said. “Same with Justin. I feel like we’re all from different experience levels, and we all have our different goals and different strengths.

“I think Justin’s been really strong, and Elliot’s been really consistent. Each week he’s finishing better, I feel like, than all of the regulars. That’s been a tough challenge to keep up with him, but we’re learning each week, and I think now we’ve kind of got all of our stuff together and the learning’s done.

“The learning curve has progressed enough where we can go and compete for a championship.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Race results

NASCAR competition officials announced Tuesday that the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has been issued an L1-level penalty.

During post-race inspection, the No. 24 Chevrolet was discovered to be in violation of Section 20.20 in the NASCAR Rule Book — modification of components to affect the aerodynamic properties of the vehicle.

As a result, Chase Elliott’s second-place finish in the NASCAR Playoffs opener at Chicagoland Speedway was ruled to be encumbered, crew chief Alan Gustafson was fined $25,000 and suspended for one race, car chief Joshua Kirk was suspended for one race and the team was hit with the loss of 15 driver points and 15 owner points.

The loss in driver points dropped Elliott from sixth place to eighth place in the postseason standings, with two events remaining in the three-race Round of 16. Hendrick Motorsports released a statement saying the team will not appeal. Kenny Francis will serve as the interim crew chief, and Kevin Hulstein will be the interim car chief.

Also on Tuesday, the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 team in the Monster Energy Series and the Biagi-DenBeste Racing No. 98 team in the NASCAR XFINITY Series received safety violations for unsecured lug nuts post-race at Chicago.

Crew chief Jason Ratcliff, who oversees the JGR No. 20 for driver Matt Kenseth, was fined $10,000. Crew chief Jonathan Hanson, who called the shots for Darrell Wallace Jr. last Saturday, was fined $5,000.