Posted on by RJ Kraft

RELATED: GEICO extends relationship with Germain Racing, Dillon’s contract extended

RICHMOND, Va. — For Ty Dillon, knowing his future is secure is invaluable at a place that has felt like home from Day 1.

On Tuesday, Germain Racing announced that it has extended Ty Dillon’s contract. The announcement was made in conjunction with the news that the team’s longtime sponsor GEICO was extending its relationship with the organization and the No. 13 Chevrolet. Germain’s technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing will continue as well and include the use of ECR Engines.

“It’s very exciting to have a multiyear agreement with such a great company,” Dillon told NASCAR.com between Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice sessions on Friday at Richmond Raceway. “Right away I felt very at home at Germain Racing. Everybody here starting from Bob (Germain, owner) to Larry Rogers (general manager) and Bootie (Barker, crew chief). Everybody who makes everything go at this company has made me feel at home. It’s been a great mesh so far and we’ve done really well. We know where we can improve and we know we are going to improve.”

There had been speculation from the day Paul Menard’s move to Wood Brothers Racing was announced in July that Ty could shift to RCR and be teammates with older brother Austin and Ryan Newman.

“Staying at Germain was always my plan from the day I signed with them originally,” Dillon said. “I want to make this my home. I want to make this my career. I hope to race here forever and win championships and win races and always be known as the driver of the No. 13 GEICO Chevy.”

While fellow Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidates Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez have gotten a bit more of the rookie buzz, Dillon’s season thus far in the No. 13 Chevrolet has been solid. He was in contention late in May at Dover and led 27 laps in that race. Dillon also found himself up front for the last restart at the Coke Zero 400 in July at Daytona. More recently, he notched a 13th-place finish at Darlington, a track notoriously tough on rookie drivers. That result helps sets the tone for the final third of the season for Dillon.

“Just building momentum off that where we start getting comfortable running inside the top 10 and top 15,” Dillon said of his strong run at the track ‘Too Tough To Tame.’ “When you do that, your results will get better and better when you adjust your whole weekend around what it takes to run in that segment of drivers and teams. When you know what it takes week in and week out, you become more consistent and you set your goals to the next level.”

The 25-year-old has boosted the team’s performance with 16 top 20-finishes through the first 25 races this season. For the entire 2016 season, the No. 13 team with driver Casey Mears had just six top 20-finishes.

Improving on unloading with speed and qualifying are near the top of Dillon’s agenda over the course of the final 11 races of 2017.

“We always seem to race really well and the only thing holding us back is that we take so long in these races to get to where we should be running and sometimes you can’t be that far off at some of these race tracks because the leaders are coming so fast,” Dillon said. “If we can get to where we can qualify constantly in the top 18, I think that we will really, really take the next step as a team.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

MORE: Post-Darlington penalty report

Denny Hamlin always likes to race at Richmond Raceway. It’s his home track, and he has three wins in the September event, including last year.

A victory in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale, however, wouldn’t just satisfy hometown good vibes and add to his impressive win total.

It would be a sort of redemption.

Earlier this week, Hamlin’s car from last week’s win in the historic Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was handed an L1-level penalty, and the victory for his No. 11 FedEx Toyota team will not count toward NASCAR’s playoffs.

The team was penalized 25 points, and Hamlin also is without crew chief Mike Wheeler this weekend. Wheeler must serve a two-race suspension for the offense.

Hamlin said his Joe Gibbs Racing group is using the penalty ruling in a positive way going forward. He also won at New Hampshire in July and is qualified for the playoffs, regardless.

“It’s a ton of motivation for sure,” Hamlin said Friday at Richmond. “Trust me, this is not what I want to talk about coming to my home track, for sure. You know that part of it stinks, but there’s tons and tons of motivation that will be behind us this week to go out there and perform well, and so far through the practices, I think we’re in pretty good shape.’’

Hamlin said he and Wheeler discussed the penalty the team received and acknowledged it was a fair reprimand.

“He (Wheeler) said it was enough, that he was satisfied with the penalty,’’ Hamlin said. “I asked him his honest opinion and he said (the car) wasn’t right.”

The 31-time race winner explained that after discussing the situation, he felt like the team simply didn’t build enough “tolerance” into the car to account for race conditions.

“Close doesn’t matter, it was still over the line,’’ Hamlin said. “We just didn’t allow for running into the wall with five laps to go. We didn’t allow for the dirt and the grime to get in there and loosen those things up as bad as it did. It’s unfortunate.

“But we’ll fix it and go forward. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was one of my competitors I would expect the same type of penalty. We’ll move on and try to win this week.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

UPDATE: Travis Mack is now in his third season with Earnhardt’s team and will serve as interim crew chief for the No. 88 at Richmond. This story originally ran on NASCAR.com on Feb. 3, 2016.

___________________________________

When you sign up to be the car chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. ‘s No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, there’s quite a bit of understood pressure that comes along with the job.

Sometimes there’s even more pressure that comes along with being a husband, as Travis Mack learned early Wednesday morning.

According to his Twitter account, Mack, who heads into his season as Earnhardt’s car chief under crew chief Greg Ives, delivered his own baby girl at 3:15 a.m. in his home bathroom.

“My Wife is so strong,” Mack tweeted.

Simply incredible.

Best wishes to both mom and daughter and a tip of the cap to Mack, for staying cool under pressure.

Posted on by Staff Report

A look at the drivers that ran 10 consecutive laps during Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Richmond Raceway.

RELATED: Practice 2 results

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 78 Martin Truex Jr. 2 11 117.480
2 18 Kyle Busch 2 11 117.362
3 2 Brad Keselowski 2 11 117.219
4 24 Chase Elliott 1 10 117.083
5 22 Joey Logano 2 11 116.888
6 19 Daniel Suarez # 2 11 116.825
7 4 Kevin Harvick 53 62 116.759
8 21 Ryan Blaney 1 10 116.748
9 11 Denny Hamlin 4 13 116.661
10 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 2 11 116.622
11 42 Kyle Larson 39 48 116.597
12 41 Kurt Busch 1 10 116.567
13 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2 11 116.490
14 14 Clint Bowyer 3 12 116.327
15 10 Danica Patrick 4 13 116.265
16 43 Aric Almirola 1 10 116.235
17 27 Paul Menard 2 11 116.226
18 5 Kasey Kahne 2 11 116.209
19 20 Matt Kenseth 2 11 116.187
20 38 David Ragan 2 11 116.166
21 31 Ryan Newman 2 11 116.077
22 47 AJ Allmendinger 3 12 115.935
23 1 Jamie McMurray 2 11 115.892
24 3 Austin Dillon 3 12 115.872
25 95 Michael McDowell 1 10 115.633
26 6 Trevor Bayne 3 12 115.580
27 48 Jimmie Johnson 22 31 115.444
28 32 Matt DiBenedetto 2 11 115.376
29 23 Gray Gaulding # 2 11 114.910
30 13 Ty Dillon # 9 18 114.484
31 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt 18 27 110.540

 

RELATED: Practice 1 results

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 11 Denny Hamlin 2 11 118.948
2 2 Brad Keselowski 1 10 118.808
3 14 Clint Bowyer 3 12 118.749
4 31 Ryan Newman 3 12 118.636
5 4 Kevin Harvick 2 11 118.522
6 18 Kyle Busch 1 10 118.496
7 21 Ryan Blaney 1 10 118.426
8 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 10 118.323
9 10 Danica Patrick 1 10 118.274
10 77 Erik Jones # 3 12 118.244
11 1 Jamie McMurray 1 10 118.198
12 34 Landon Cassill 2 11 118.091
13 5 Kasey Kahne 2 11 118.085
14 24 Chase Elliott 1 10 117.896
15 3 Austin Dillon 5 14 117.752
16 37 Chris Buescher 1 10 117.342
17 20 Matt Kenseth 24 33 117.263
18 47 AJ Allmendinger 2 11 116.967
19 19 Daniel Suarez # 10 19 116.818
20 13 Ty Dillon # 2 11 116.508
21 32 Matt DiBenedetto 4 13 116.461
22 78 Martin Truex Jr. 17 26 116.167
23 41 Kurt Busch 15 24 115.858
24 95 Michael McDowell 17 26 115.857
25 43 Aric Almirola 17 26 115.072
26 23 Gray Gaulding # 8 17 114.647
27 48 Jimmie Johnson 26 35 113.961
28 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 37 46 112.289
Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Playoff picture entering Richmond

As race drivers are prone to surmise, Joey Logano likes his chances in Saturday night’s regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) largely because he has won twice here before, including the last time the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series visited in May.

The difference this time? He must win — if he hopes to secure a Monster Energy Series playoffs bid.

Logano’s No. 22 team was issued an L1-level penalty following the Richmond spring race after NASCAR’s post-race inspection found issues with the rear suspension, so Logano’s win does not count as a qualifier for the playoffs.

Following that news, Logano’s typically championship-contending Team Penske group went into a slump. An eighth-place finish at Kentucky and a fourth-place finish at Indianapolis are the only top-10 showings for the normally multi-race winner since July.

Even after an uncharacteristically slow summer, Logano and his experienced team would not have predicted they would be racing for their playoff lives when the series returned to Richmond in what has now turned into a “last chance race” for the preseason title favorite.

“If we do everything right, we can squeak one out,’’ a rather serious-looking Logano told the media Friday, acknowledging, “It’s do-or-die this weekend.”

MORE: Detailed bubble look

And the thing is, Logano is not alone in his win-and-in quest. There are other top names now in that same situation — from preseason playoff picks such as Clint Bowyer to rookies such as Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez, who really have come into their own here, two-thirds of the way through the schedule.

Even the three winless drivers still ranked among the playoff-eligible top-16 in points — Chase Elliott, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray — are very real trophy threats this weekend.

Logano freely admits he didn’t envision the high-pressure scenario he has found himself in. The bottom line is Logano must hoist a trophy late Saturday night in Richmond’s Victory Lane if he wants the opportunity to go door-to-door for his first championship.

And he knows it.

“This is what I live for,’’ Logano said. “Second place is a failure.’’

Posted on by Staff Report

MORE: Glass Case of Emotion podcast

NASCAR.com’s “Glass Case of Emotion” podcast starring Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney and co-hosts Kim Coon and Chuck Bush is set to hit the big stage at Richmond Raceway this weekend for the show’s first-ever live episode.

The trio will broadcast their show live on NASCAR.com and stream it on Facebook Live at 1 p.m. ET.

Following the show, Blaney will strap into his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford to compete in the Monster Energy Series regular-season finale Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN).

BOOKMARK: Saturday’s live-streaming link

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full Practice 2 results

Kyle Larson topped the leaderboard in Friday’s second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Richmond Raceway at 120.235 mph in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

Right behind him was Joey Logano in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford at 120.208 mph. Logano is in need of a win in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN) regular season finale to advance to the playoffs.

Rounding out the top five were rookie Daniel Suarez in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 119.925 mph, series points leader Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota at 119.697 mph and Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 JGR Toyota at 119.564 mph.

Rookie Erik Jones, also in need of a win, only managed to run five laps in the session. He was one of two drivers (along with Landon Cassill, who ran 11) that fulfilled a 60-minute penalty hold to start the session.

Teams will qualify Friday at 5:45 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

RELATED: Full Practice 1 results

Matt Kenseth and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 2017 Regular Season Champion Martin Truex Jr. topped the leaderboard in Friday’s first Monster Energy Series practice at Richmond Raceway, with matching best speeds of 120.897 mph in their respective No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Right behind them was Toyota stablemate Kyle Busch in the No. 18 JGR ride at 120.423 mph.

Rounding out the top five were Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who must win Saturday night (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), was sixth in practice. Fellow “must-win” driver Erik Jones logged the eighth-fastest speed.

A handful of drivers will be held in final practice, with Erik Jones and Landon Cassill each earning 60-minute penalties for Darlington infractions. Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth will be held 30 minutes, while Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick will pause for 15.

The next practice session is at noon ET on NBCSN.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: XFINITY playoff standings | Full schedule for Richmond

The NASCAR XFINITY Series playoff picture is bearing down toward a pivotal point, with just half of the 12 preseason berths locked in. Friday night’s 250-lapper at Richmond Raceway should go a long way toward deciding the complexion of the season’s final stretch.

Playoff hopefuls have the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) — the last short-track race of the XFINITY season — circled as an opportunity for championship eligibility. The playoff picture stands to gain a measure of clarity with just one other regular-season race (Sept. 16 at Chicagoland) on the schedule.

William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Reed, Elliott Sadler, Brennan Poole and Daniel Hemric are the only certified clinchers heading into Richmond. Six others — Jeremy Clements, Cole Custer, Matt Tifft, Blake Koch, Michael Annett and Brendan Gaughan — are provisionally in.

Clements’ situation is unique. He is the only XFINITY Series regular with a victory (Road America on Aug. 27) who has not yet met the other requirement for postseason eligibility. He sits 17th in the series standings, needing to maintain a spot among the top 20 to secure his spot. A finish of 20th or better Friday would secure Clements’ reservation.

The most dubious grip on a provisional playoff spot belongs to Gaughan, currently occupying the 12th and final berth, with just a 20-point gap separating him from 13th-place Dakoda Armstrong. Annett ranks a scant three points ahead of Gaughan, placing him in a similarly fragile spot.

Though Sadler has no uncertainty about his playoff standing, he has plenty of extra motivation to perform well in his home state. Sadler — still seeking his first win of 2017 — leads the series standings with a 91-point edge over his JR Motorsports teammate Byron and a 119-point cushion over third-place Allgaier, another JRM driver.

If Sadler leaves Richmond with a 61-point edge in hand, he’ll clinch the regular-season championship. That achievement includes a 15-point bounty in his playoff-point column, a tidy advantage for the seven-race postseason.

Posted on by Brad Norman

HARRISBURG, N.C. — The love of cars and tires is in Liz Prestella’s blood and on her skin.

The skin is simple enough: a stark, dark tattoo of a single wrench on her right leg. The blood? That comes from hours spent with her grandfather, Al, and dad, Alton, watching NASCAR races. Of time spent in the garage, wrenching on her car, making her own repairs and doing her own maintenance.

It’s the blood that helps explain Prestella’s rise into NASCAR, a journey that started as an intern with Jennifer Jo Cobb and a journey in which the current chapter has Prestella as a tire specialist for the No. 37 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team at JTG Daugherty Racing.

MORE: Inside access with JTG Daugherty

“I love every aspect on working on the cars,” Prestella tells NASCAR.com while, appropriately, leaning on a stack of tires. “As a tire specialist, you have the same system every week. Things don’t change. Every week it’s the same routine. It’s not like there’s random craziness that could happen. I prefer the organized chaos, not the all-over chaos.”

It’s been quite a climb for Prestella, a native of Southern California. Her time with Cobb included interior and decal work. Prestella’s slight frame made her the only person on the team who could fit into Cobb’s seat, so she fitted that out weekly.

Stops with Derrike Cope, Jay Robinson and Tommy Baldwin were next prior to her joining JTG as the company expanded to a two-car organization with driver Chris Buescher.

Her job as a tire specialist is exact. Measurements are in millimeters. It requires strict organization and insane attention to detail. Failure to measure properly, or put tires in the right sets, or tires in the right spot would mean failure on the race track on Sundays.

“Everything we do is very exact,” Prestella says. “It has to be very meticulous and planned out and organized. If you’re unorganized, you’ll have crew chiefs yelling, you’ll have drivers yelling. You have to be very articulate and meticulous about where the tires are at, otherwise you could have a catastrophic failure.”

Has that terminology, a “catastrophic failure,” ever happened on Prestella’s crew?

“No,” she says with a slight smile. “I am very on top of my guys. If they see me coming or pointing at something, they know they messed up.”

RELATED: Buescher finds himself a home | Tour the shop with the drivers

The attention-to-detail trait is both innate and learned. It’s stuff that Prestella simply has in her, but it also has been honed over the years as her car knowledge expanded.

When Prestella first got her driver’s license, she told her dad she planned to take auto tech at school. And she did. The two of them have since tinkered on their own cars together, so she has a tremendous understanding of all parts of the car.

Her career goals, though, are intertwined with team success as opposed to individual success. Her career path doesn’t have a final destination — there is no certain position Prestella targets.

“My ultimate goals are to get wins and championships,” Prestella said. “I’m perfectly fine doing tires, or whatever is needed. I am willing to do anything on the cars. I can do all of it. I just want to be able to be out there winning.”

Getting there would come with some spotlight. Prestella is part of a growing number of women in the NASCAR garage. The titles and wins would validate her work, certainly, but they also would help her spread a message that is even more impactful.

“I hope that I am helping make young girls see that it’s possible for them to work in racing and work on cars, and not be limited just because they’re female,” she said.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NASCAR XFINITY Series teams head to Richmond Raceway this weekend with just two races left to secure their postseason fate, but they’re also getting a jump on new car-construction rules for the majority of races in 2018.

 

Friday night’s Virginia 529 College Savings 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) marks the next-to-last race in the regular season, but it’s also the first event in a three-race audition this year for flange-fit, composite-body cars.

 

“It’s pretty important to get ahead of it, even though Richmond is a pretty crucial race leading up to the playoffs,” said Blake Koch, driver of Kaulig Racing’s No. 11 Chevrolet, “but we still feel like we need to go there with it and learn as much as we can there.”

 

The new bodies, assembled with 13 bolt-on panels, have the potential to streamline car-building efforts, offer convenience in repairs and provide anti-tampering safeguards as a deterrence for rule-benders. The overall long-term goal of the switch from steel-bodied to composite construction is to reduce time and cost for teams competing in the series.

WATCH: Take a 360-degree tour of the flange-fit XFINITY Series car body

 

Using the new bodies is optional for this year’s three-race rollout, which also includes visits to mile-long tracks Dover (Sept. 30) and Phoenix (Nov. 11). An unscientific canvassing of the XFINITY garage after last weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway revealed that most teams plan to compete with composite bodies this weekend at Richmond.

 

“It looks good so far,” said Shane Wilson, crew chief for the Richard Childress Racing No. 62 Chevrolet and driver Brendan Gaughan. Wilson indicated that all five of Childress’ XFINITY teams plan to race with the new bodies. “When we get to the race track, you don’t know, but I think it’s going to be pretty foolproof. I think the task will be when we take them to Dover, not so much Richmond. Everything looks good so far and I really have no complaints, but I’ll know a little more this week.”

 

The new rule’s potential impact on the racing may not take immediate effect this weekend, but teams are already seeing its long-term possibilities in closing up competition disparities. Aside from the capability for time and cost convenience, the new body panels have tinker-proof features in the most aerodynamic-dependent areas.

 

That aspect, says crew chief Phil Gould, has the potential to reduce the amount of necessary wind-tunnel time, a premium expense.

 

“I think if everything’s done right, it’ll kind of close the gap up because there’ll only be so much you can do,” said Gould, who oversees the Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 Ford for driver Ryan Reed. “But it’s going to be up to NASCAR and how they police it, to make sure they hold everybody to it.”

 

Said Wilson: “Any kind of little wiggle room we can get in there is what we would take, and now it’s going to be more straight-up. That’s kind of what it is. They’ve put enough scare in us that I don’t think anyone will be manipulating it that much.”