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RELATED: What drivers are saying at media day | Elliott’s family legacy 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chase Elliott heads to Chicagoland Speedway this weekend stuck in the midst of a summer slump — but also armed with motivation to turn that around in the opening race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

For the Hendrick Motorsports driver, advancing with consistency is just as much of a goal as nabbing that much-eluded first win in NASCAR’s premier series.

“I’d love to advance as far as we can, but I’d love a win,” Elliott said during NASCAR Playoffs Media Day on Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “That’s what we’re here to do. We’ve had a year and a half to do it, and haven’t. I take a lot of pride in wanting to win.”

These next 10 races leading up to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway are a stretch of races when Elliott & Co. seemed to find a bit of rhythm last season; he came up two spots short of a win in the 2016 playoffs opener at Chicago, and followed that up with seven top-15 results in the final nine events.

As a sophomore driver, Elliott looks to only improve on that.

“I look at last season, it was actually pretty similar I feel like to where we are right now performance-wise,” Elliott said. “A tough summer stretch. We had a few races that we ran good in the summer months last year that I don’t think we hit on as good this year. Still ran well at some of those tracks.

“I think the biggest thing with that is success in one season doesn’t guarantee success in the next. So, sure, we know we need to be better, as does everybody. But like I said, you hit on one thing at the right time, it can carry you forward.  We know that as a group. I can’t say our mindset is a whole lot different.”

These next 10 races also mark the final events Elliott will pilot the No. 24 Chevrolet before passing the torch to young William Byron next season. Instead, Elliott’s ride will feature the No. 9, a number that has always been special to the Elliott family and made famous by Chase’s father and Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott.

RELATED: Byron to drive No. 24, Elliott to pilot No. 9 in ’18 | Gordon on Byron

But the No. 24 obviously has an esteemed legacy of its own with Jeff Gordon being the only driver to win a premier series race with that iconic number.

Elliott wants to add to that legacy.

“It’s been a cool honor to have that,” he said. “It would mean a lot to me to add to the win list that Jeff has created with that car over the years while I still have the chance.

“I think that’s an obligation of mine, to try to achieve that. That’s on my priority list.”

MORE: A history of the No. 9 in NASCAR | A history of the No. 24 in NASCAR

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: See who made the postseason | What drivers are saying about the playoffs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The No. 18 pit crew that helped put Kyle Busch into this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs won’t be going over the wall for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver when the championship battle begins this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.

It will be personnel from the No. 19 entry of teammate Daniel Suarez instead.

News of the pit crew swap surfaced Tuesday, a day before Busch met with the press during this year’s Media Day activities at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

“It comes down to performance and for us … everybody on the whole organization kind of decided it was a necessary change to give ourselves the best opportunity to go race for a championship,” Busch said Wednesday.

Changing pit crews isn’t unheard of as championship-contending teams attempt to shore up all aspects of their squads heading into the 10-race playoffs. And there have been no indications of such a move having adverse effects.

EXCLUSIVE: No. 11 crew chief on missing Chicago race

Going over the wall for Busch’s Toyota team beginning this week will be tire changers Clay Robinson and Kip Wolfmeir, tire carriers Kevin Harris and Matt VanMeer, jack man Trey Burklin and gas man Kenneth Purcell.

The No. 19 pit crew will now consist of gas man Tom Lampe, tire changers Josh Leslie and Jake Seminara, tire carriers Brad Donaghy and Kenny Barber and jack man TJ Ford.

Suarez did not qualify for the 16-team playoff; Busch, teammates Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth did.

“With all these teams as good as they are you have to come out here with all the bullets in the chamber,” Busch said. “We feel like we’re a little bit short there with the pit crew. We have metrics and things like that that kind of all show that they were just a little bit off, not far but just a little bit. When you need it most you’re going to need to count on those guys and that could be the last stop at Homestead and the fastest pit crew wins, hopefully.”

Busch won the series title in 2015 and made the Championship 4 last season. He enters Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicago third in points, with wins at Pocono and Bristol earlier this year.

Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing) and Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing) are first and second in points. Truex and Larson have four wins each and Busch said Truex has to be considered the favorite.

A different pit crew, he said, could make the difference.

“My guys would have speed but the speed they had was occasional,” Busch said. “The consistency they had was less than stellar. When you can have a faster group and their consistency is better, there’s no question you have to take that.”

SHOP: Kyle Busch playoff gear

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Patrick won’t return to SHR in ’18

Having covered Danica Patrick since her earliest days in auto racing’s big leagues — trackside as she won the pole position for the 2013 Daytona 500 and then scored a historic eighth-place finish in the race — it was immediately apparent she would be a difference-maker, the kind of competitor that would be remembered for generations.

When she came to NASCAR full-time in 2012 there were high and historic expectations on and off the track. And Danica did not back down from them.

This week’s news that Patrick won’t return to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018 causes pause, the hope being the 35-year-old will land with another team. She is, after all, the sport’s ultimate survivor — having thrived against harsh odds and many naysayers.

And while she may still be prone to judging her experience by the lessons learned and near-misses on track, she could righteously be spinning victory doughnuts for the impact and audience she brought to the sport.

“She didn’t know who my daughter was at all, and I saw those early days where she converted Olivia to a true fan,” NASCAR President Brent Dewar told SIRIUS XM NASCAR Radio’s “Happy Hours” hosts Matt Yocum and Kevin Harvick on Tuesday.

“I would ask Olivia, why are you cheering for, Danica? And she says, ‘Dad, she’s a girl trying to beat the boys. How cool is that?’

“And that’s opened the doors for many fans and many young racers. We’ve got a lot of young females coming up through the series, and Danica’s presence will be immeasurable for years and years to come. She’s a top talent, both on and off the track.”

Being a woman in a traditional male sport that depends so much on marketing automatically means navigating a difficult dichotomy.

Patrick always has prioritized the time spent on track and the good results she expects. Her being female made some things more difficult and other things easier enduring that undeniably long, hard learning curve.

Patrick’s performance automatically received more scrutiny because she was different. But she was ready.

From the get-go, she has understood the importance of marketing and was eager to combine her talent and aspiration with corporate duties. It was a win for Patrick and the companies she worked with. And still is.

What she has done is no different than what her male counterparts did or wanted to do. She has seized the opportunities that she has earned. And Patrick’s publicity was NASCAR’s publicity. It has helped the entire sport, not just her.

Many were surprised when Patrick decided to leave IndyCar racing, where her 2008 victory in Japan and Indianapolis 500 accomplishments were so significant. It would have been easier to stay and continue competing in the open-wheel ranks that Patrick grew up learning.

But the lure of a new challenge under NASCAR’s bright spotlight is exactly what intrigues her.

And she deserves credit for taking the tougher, unfamiliar, more scrutinized path. She has had to learn to drive a completely different race car around race tracks — for the most part — she’d never even visited.

Yet it has never intimidated Patrick. It has challenged and inspired her. And her determination has impressed her fans, and her competitors.

“I’ve always been a believer in Danica’s ability as a race car driver and that continues to be the case,’’ team owner Tony Stewart said Wednesday. “She’s one of the most fearless people I’ve ever met. She has never backed down from a challenge. In fact, she’s sought out new challenges throughout her career, and that’s what brought her to NASCAR and Stewart-Haas Racing.”

When interviewing Patrick about her racing over the years, I have always been struck by her answers. Instead of a quick, automatic response, she will pause to think about the questions and offers thoughtful, often nuts-and-bolts answers. For example, she doesn’t speak in broad generalities about wanting to win at Martinsville, or how much she may love the iconic hot dogs there. She talks about what she needs in the car at that particular venue — mechanically and seat-of-the-pants.

When she does well, she wears the pride and achievement on her face. And when things don’t go well, she analyzes and looks big picture. She always has demonstrated her passion and will go bumper-to-bumper on track and face-to-face with drivers afterward to settle issues if need be.

Patrick has brought exactly the kind of hutzpah the sport thrives on — that any sport would benefit from. She has inspired a generation of young girls — including my own daughter — to realize there is nothing that can hold them back from pursuing a dream.

But it’s not just the “girls” that benefit from Patrick’s example. It’s all of us.

Making a difference in the world isn’t just a catchphrase or easy sound byte. It’s a genuine aspiration we all should share.

MORE: Tony Stewart’s full statement

Posted on by Nascar

CHARLOTTE — Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart called her “fearless” and Kevin Harvick said she is “a huge part of this sport” one day after Danica Patrick announced she would not return to Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Patrick, 35, announced her impending departure Tuesday but gave no indication of her future. Wrapping up her fifth full season as driver of the No. 10 entry for SHR, she has seven top-10 finishes in 180 career starts. She is the only female competitor to start on the pole for the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s season-opening and most prestigious event.

“I’ve always been a believer in Danica’s ability as a race car driver and that continues to be the case,” Stewart said via a Facebook posting Wednesday morning. “She’s one of the most fearless people I’ve ever met. She has never backed down from a challenge. … My support for Danica is unwavering.” | Read more from Stewart here

Harvick joined SHR in 2014, a year after Patrick came on board, and won the Monster Energy Series title. During media day for this season’s 10-race playoffs, Harvick said his teammate has “turned a lot of people on to racing that might not have otherwise been turned onto racing. The impact and the footprint that she has brought to our sport is big.

PHOTOS: Danica’s memorable moments | Key players in NASCAR’s Silly Season

“On the other side of that you have the performance side of things that at some point measures into everybody’s sponsorship,” he said. “I hope that Danica gets a sponsor because she’s an important part of our sport. … She’s had a lot of very good moments; look at Joey Logano, he went from Joe Gibbs Racing to (Team) Penske and became an immediate championship contender just by getting in a different situation.

“That’s what you hope for in this situation, that Danica can find a team and a sponsor that fits her situation better than the situation that has been in the past.”

Posted on by Jason Lofing

RELATED: Full iRacing season schedule

Taylor Hurst played spoiler in the battle for the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series championship, taking two tires during a caution with 13 laps to go then surging to the lead on a late restart to win his first race of the season at Chicagoland Speedway. Hurst restarted in fourth with 10 laps to go but needed less than a lap to claim the top spot from Alex Bergeron just before the caution froze the field once again.

The race restarted for the final time with four laps to go, and while Hurst got a good jump, Ryan Luza was in hot pursuit despite the damage he sustained on the previous restart. With three laps remaining Luza closed to within a car length down the back straightaway, but a crash further back in the field brought the caution out before Luza could challenge for the win.

Luza would settle for second, but while a victory would have locked him into the final round of the championship, the runner-up finish let him build a reasonably comfortable margin over his fellow competitors.

Jimmy Mullis came home third, Bergeron faded to fourth, and Marcus Richardson finished fifth after running strong for most of the night.

Zack Novak led the field to the green after earning his fifth pole of the season but led only one lap before Logan Clampitt took the lead away. Clampitt would go on to lead a race-high 73 of 167 circuits while Novak found trouble on a restart after some bad luck with pit strategy. The damage ended his night and the polesitter finished thirty-eighth.

Clampitt continued to pace the field until Lap 33 when he gave up the lead to make his first pit stop. He briefly lost the lead until the cycle completed and then again on Lap 50 when Andrew Fayash, who was on a different strategy, stayed out under caution. Clampitt made quick work of Fayash though and took the lead back one lap after the restart, this time with Michael Conti in tow.

The second run was much like the first as Clampitt started to pull away on the long run but a caution closed the field up and Clampitt wound up losing the lead on pit road to Luza.

The clean air seemed to help Luza’s car as he became the class of the field out front, leading until he, like Clampitt before him, gave up the lead for service on pit road. A caution during the round of stops mixed up the running order, but Luza still held the lead on the restart with 27 to go. Hurst was 22nd and only climbed to 15th by the time the yellow came up with 15 laps remaining. However, the gutsy pit call worked and Hurst gained 11 spots in the pits on his way to victory.

While Luza failed to lock himself into the final four, he does hold a 15-point lead over Clampitt in the standings. Bobby Zalenski is third, 23 points back and is the final transfer spot since Ray Alfalla is locked in thanks to his win at Darlington. Corey Vincent and Richardson are only three and four points out, respectively while Novak has more work to do. He sits 33 points out after his crash and will likely need a win to advance.

With only two races remaining in the NPAS season, the series heads to Dover International Speedway for Week 15. Three spots in the final four are still up for grabs. Who can join Alfalla in Homestead to fight for the title? Find out in two weeks when the NPAS drivers take on the Monster Mile.

Posted on by Zack Albert

SHOP: Denny Hamlin playoff gear

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Perhaps it’s a testament to the depth of Joe Gibbs Racing’s personnel that Denny Hamlin posted a top-five finish last weekend, functioning without one of his team’s key cogs calling the shots from the pit box.

That didn’t make it any easier for Michael Wheeler, the team’s full-time crew chief, serving a suspension and watching Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota making laps without his oversight.

“Not being in the garage during a weekend, it’s more difficult and challenging than I thought,” Wheeler said Tuesday during a NASCAR.com shop visit to JGR’s headquarters. “I was kind of prepared for it last minute, but I was kind of in the mindset that this would be OK and we’ll get through it just fine. But every hour that goes by and the car’s on track and I’m not there and blind from what’s going on, I’m thankful that I’ve got a good group of guys around me that are handling the situation — but the moment the race started the other night, on Lap 2, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a bad feeling.’ This is a hard thing to get over.

“At the moment, it’s part of what it is. We’re getting through it, but it’s definitely not enjoyable at all.”

Wheeler, saddled with an L1-grade technical violation after Hamlin’s encumbered victory at Darlington Raceway, served the first race of a two-event suspension in last weekend’s regular-season finale. He’ll sit out the second race of his ban in Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), the postseason opener at Chicagoland Speedway.

Ably stepping in last weekend to make his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series crew chief debut was Chris Gabehart, who has guided Gibbs’ stalwart No. 20 operation to eight wins and 11 poles in the NASCAR XFINITY Series over the last two seasons. Gabehart’s late-race adjustments helped raise Hamlin and the No. 11 out of midpack purgatory to post his fifth top-five effort in the last six races.

But Hamlin said some adjustment was also necessary on his own behalf, providing feedback to new faces instead of having the familiar Wheeler as his primary go-to.

“I think your speed is built at the shop, but races won are sometimes on the pit box — your strategy calls and things like that,” Hamlin says. “I think the first week that we had to go through it, it definitely affected us in certain ways. I don’t think it affected the way we ran at Richmond; I think that was an overnight thing that we did. But yeah, it’s a different transition to work with someone new.”

Wheeler is scheduled to return Sept. 24 for the second event of the 10-race playoffs at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where Hamlin prevailed in July. In the meantime, the 36-year-old driver seeking his long-awaited first premier-series crown is hoping to kick off his postseason march with a flashback to 2015, when he opened the playoffs with a Chicago victory.

This time, though, he’ll need to rely on JGR’s deep bench to pull it off.

 “One more week and we’ll get through it,” Hamlin said. “We just have to make sure we have a good solid week at Chicago and move on.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Danica Patrick won’t return to SHR

Following Stewart-Haas Racing’s announcement that Danica Patrick would not return to the team next season, team co-owner Tony Stewart released a statement on her departure on Wednesday.


Stewart has been her car owner for the entirety of Patrick’s full-time premier series career. Patrick was also teammates with Stewart from 2013-16 when he drove the No. 14 car.

PHOTOS: Danica through the years

Posted on by Steve Luvender

I can’t wait for this year’s NASCAR Playoffs to begin.

Even though

somehow didn’t make it, I’ll still be pulling for

— or, better yet,
.

I’m calling it now. The real wild card race will be

because
.

In the Round of 16, there’s Chicago, New Hampshire, and Dover. I’m not sure
 will make it past that round, because he’ll probably
.

After that, there’s Charlotte, Talladega, and Kansas. If it were up to me,
would

.

Then, there’s the Round of 8 — or, as I call it,

. Martinsville, Texas, and Phoenix may prove to be

tracks, but I believe
.

Finally, we’re off to Homestead, where I’m certain

will hoist the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup and claim
.

Honestly, I wish NASCAR would just

already.

It’ll also be a

goodbye to

at the end of the season, but I certainly think
.

Bring on the Playoffs! I’m already starting to
.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Federated Auto Parts 400 results | Virginia529 College Savings 250 results

Three teams were penalized on Tuesday after NASCAR officials discovered lug-nut violations after the races at Richmond Raceway — two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams and one XFINITY Series team.

The No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team of driver Kurt Busch and the No. 77 Furniture Row Racing team of driver Erik Jones each were found to have one loose lug nut in post-race inspection. The XFNITY Series No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team of Matt Tifft also had one loose lug nut.

Crew chiefs Tony Gibson (No. 41) and Chris Gayle (No. 77) were fined $10,000 each. Matthew Beckman (No. 19) was fined $5,000.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

MORE: Smithfield Foods to SHR in ’18

Following the news that Smithfield Foods, currently sponsoring the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford Fusion, would be joining Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018, Richard Petty has released a statement.

“We have had numerous discussions with Smithfield Foods regarding the extension of our relationship dating as far back as February. Over the past few months, Smithfield had continually told me they wanted to be with us, and I recently shook hands on a deal to extend our relationship. I come from a time when we did major deals with sponsors like STP on a handshake. I’m sad to see this is where we are now. This decision is very unexpected, and we are extremely disappointed in this late and abrupt change of direction.”

RELATED: Drivers of the No. 43 in NASCAR history

Petty also confirmed that driver Aric Almirola would not return to the organization in 2018, but the team intends to continue racing, as it has since 1949.

“Losing a sponsor of this magnitude in September is a significant set-back to Richard Petty Motorsports, but Andy (Murstein) and I are committed to moving forward with the No. 43 team. We have a lot of great partners who have expressed their continued support, and our fans will rally around the No. 43. We’ve been around since 1949, and we’ll be around a lot longer.”