Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

RELATED: NASCAR Playoff Bubble watch for Bristol | Playoff standings 

Yes, Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano may still remain on the NASCAR playoff bubble in the Monster Energy Series field with three weeks to point or win their way into the mix.

But these two veterans have probably long had this portion of the scheduled circled — heads-up, thumbs up.

Three drivers — Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth — hold playoff-eligible positions by virtue of points. However, that could change with new winners at any of the next three venues.

Bowyer is ranked 17th, one position below the playoff cutoff, trailing 16th-place Kenseth by 31 points entering Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM) at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Logano is one position behind Bowyer, in 18th place and trailing Kenseth by a more sizable 98-point margin. It’s more of a longshot for him to gain enough points to crack the playoff field. He needs to win. Fortunately for him, he has venues coming up where he’s celebrated before.

BRISTOL STATS: Clint Bowyer | Joey Logano

This week’s .533-mile Bristol bullring looks good for both Bowyer and Logano. The next stop in Darlington, S.C., over Labor Day may be the wild card as both drivers have much better records to stand on in Richmond, Va. — site of the regular-season finale —  in three weeks.

“You can’t worry about those points,” Bowyer said of his chances. “You have to go out and do your job week in and week out. If you do that, I feel like, with the way we’re running, we can get in two different ways.

“I think we could win and I think we can point our way in. I think both of those are definite do-ables right now for us.”

At Bristol, Bowyer has 11 top-10 finishes in 23 starts for an impressive percentage, and that includes a runner-up finish there in April.

He has finished among the top 10 in three of the last four Bristol races with two top fives.

Logano is the youngest pole-sitter in Bristol’s great history (March 2010 at the age of 19) and established himself one of the track’s best qualifiers early on. Most important to Logano and his Team Penske outfit, he enters Saturday’s race with four straight top-10 finishes at Bristol, leading laps in every one of the races. And he won the summer night race in back-to-back seasons, 2014-2015.

“We’ve come close to victory several times this year,” said Bowyer, who has scored the 10th-most points of any driver this season with four top-three finishes. “That’s what can be so frustrating. You are only one or two spots away from where you want to be, but there’s a huge difference between first and everything else in this business.

“I want to celebrate in front of all those wild and crazy fans,” he said of Bristol. “There’s no better atmosphere. They’re so close to you that you feel that environment.

“I’m the hunter, not the hunted, so it’s a lot of fun to go into this weekend knowing that you’ve got to go out there and chase that guy down or chase those guys down and, hopefully, pop off a win here and just put it all to bed.”

RELATED: Playoff clinch scenarios for Bristol

If not … the two will set their sights on Darlington, where neither Bowyer nor Logano has won before. Logano has a pair of top-fives, while Bowyer is still racing for his first at the sport’s legendarily “tough” track.

And if the facility lives up to its nickname, the two drivers will gladly head north to Virginia the next week where the three-quarter mile-Richmond oval will firmly decide the playoff field.

Both Bowyer and Logano have won twice at Richmond.

They bring a solid resume in general, beyond the trophy-hoisting. Bowyer’s sixth-place driver rating is tops among any of the contenders — including Logano and those three winless drivers in the playoffs by points right now: Kenseth, McMurray and Elliott.

Bowyer has led 348 laps at Richmond and spent 70.9 percent of his race time driving in the top-15 of the field.

Logano, who has led 190 laps total at the track, won Richmond in the spring but NASCAR ruled it was an encumbered finish the Thursday after the race (issues with the rear suspension were found during inspection). The win remains in Logano’s column in the season standings, however with an asterisk next to it, disallowing the automatic playoff bid or playoff points.

A victory at Richmond would not only boost Logano into the playoffs, but also would likely be a huge psychological lift for the perennial championship challenging team.

The tone is set and there is no panic.

“On to the next one,” Logano said following last Sunday’s race. “We’ll keep moving.”

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (August 17, 2017) – For the first time in the sport’s history, NASCAR will live-stream an in-car camera on Twitter for all 10 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™ Playoffs races in 2017, NASCAR announced today.

Beginning with the first race of the NASCAR Playoffs at Chicagoland Speedway, NASCAR will provide fans a unique look from inside the race car with a live camera stream that can be accessed via its official Twitter handle, @NASCAR, and NASCAR.twitter.com.

Fans can watch the full broadcast of the race at Chicagoland, Sunday, September 17 at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App.

On the same screen of the live stream, fans will find a real-time curated timeline of tweets that capture the best of the NASCAR live conversation.

“Through the in-car camera live stream on Twitter, our fans will have another compelling vantage point of the NASCAR Playoffs, where the energy and intensity of stage racing will be elevated to a whole new level,” said Steve Phelps, Executive Vice President and Chief Global Sales and Marketing Officer, NASCAR. “To provide this level of access on Twitter throughout the 10-week playoffs is a fantastic way to complement the viewing experience on NBC Sports and the NBC Sports app.”

The NASCAR Playoffs live stream will be accessible for free for logged-in and logged-out users in the United States via NASCAR’s official Twitter handle and connected devices. Real-time race highlights will also be available on @NASCAR, offering fans additional ways to follow the playoffs at home or on the go.

“NASCAR continues to innovate on Twitter, a place where their passionate fans discuss what’s happening before, during and after every race,” said Anthony Noto, Twitter COO. “Our new collaboration will offer NASCAR fans a unique live stream perspective for the 2017 playoffs alongside the real-time Twitter conversation.”

Toyota will sponsor the first in-car camera live stream on Twitter during the playoffs kick-off race at Chicagoland.

Leading up to the first playoffs race, NASCAR will debut individual Twitter emojis and hashtags for all 16 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drivers, available to Twitter users until each driver is eliminated from championship contention.

Fans can watch the full broadcast of each Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race on NBC, NBCSN, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. NASCAR.com will continue to offer its full portfolio of complementary viewing products throughout the 2017 playoffs. In-car camera angles will also be available on NASCAR Drive and NASCAR Mobile.

Posted on by Nascar

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Who knows how much a pit road speeding penalty had to do with Kyle Busch’s charge through the field Wednesday night, which ended with the 32-year-old back in Victory Lane?

Busch was angry, he admitted as much afterward, and he sometimes races harder when he’s angry.

 He was so irate during Wednesday night’s UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway that the Camping World Truck Series owner/driver drove from the back of the field to the front in what might have been record time.

Granted, it doesn’t take long to knock off a lap at Bristol, a .533-mile, high-banked oval. Just a few seconds really.

So how long did it take Busch? Fifty laps? Less than 27 miles? That’s barely from the race track to Abingdon, Virginia, and the recently shuttered Moonlite Drive-In.

Barely long enough for a trip to the concession stand to grab a final hot dog and drink. At the track, not the drive-in.

Not nearly as quickly as the time it took Busch to go from Stage 2 winner to see-you-later, though, busted for speeding when passing through what amounts to a NASCAR school zone.

Mad?

“I guess I was tonight,” Busch said when asked after career win No. 49 in the series. “Certainly I knew they weren’t picking on me but, you know, it was 35.01 (mph) so it was right there, right on the limit and was frustrating for sure.

The pit road speed limit at BMS is 30 mph. But much like the highways and byways, NASCAR drivers can fudge. Ease it all the way up to 34.999 mph. Anything beyond that, however, and you get sent to the rear of the field.

Busch was frustrated enough that he voiced his displeasure with a few choice expletives via the team radio. Later he chose his words a bit more carefully.

Those came after a final caution flag with less than five laps remaining in the UNOH 200, a caution that proved to be the only thing that could slow Busch down. His words were harsh then as well. Then, a bit more resigned.

The reset pushed the race three laps beyond its scheduled distance but Busch persevered, rocketing away from two-time series champ Matt Crafton like a man in a hurry and someone with places to go.

 “I think the bottom (lane) was still dominant,” explained Crafton. “I knew he (Busch) would be able to launch hard right there.”

Later, once the race was won and there was nothing between Busch and the checkered flag, his words were a bit more measured.

“We were able to overcome it,” Busch said of the earlier setback.

Yes, don’t speed on pit road and there’s no reason to be angry, no reason to go to the back of the field. But racers push the limit all the time, it’s what they’re paid to do. If such instances sometimes give Busch a little extra incentive, so be it.

Busch is an extremely talented racer but he didn’t go from the back to the front all by himself. His No. 46 Toyota, built by his own Kyle Busch Motorsports group, gave him a piece that clearly was better than those around him.

And lest anyone complain that Busch had an unfair advantage with the use of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup or XFINITY Series pit crew, think again.

The folks on the crew, including crew chief Cody Glick, oversee Busch’s Late Model team. That doesn’t make them any less talented but they’re not quite the same caliber as those working the NASCAR pits on Sunday afternoons.

It was the last start of the season in the series for Busch, meaning the career-win record of 51 victories by Ron Hornaday Jr. is safe for now. Hornaday will go into the NASCAR Hall of Fame next January as the winningest driver in Truck Series history.

Busch trails Hornaday by two. It’s likely that next year he will be the winningest driver in both the Truck and XFINITY Series.

He won three times in just seven starts this season with his Truck team.

He might not have been angry in all of them, but if he was, well, we’ve seen how that can turn out.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

Since 2009, Bristol Motor Speedway has held a tradition unlike any other on the NASCAR schedule.

During Bristol’s driver introductions — the pre-race spectacle in which the 40 competitors are individually introduced to the fans before climbing in their race cars — each driver gets the opportunity to emerge from backstage accompanied by a song of his or her choice.

Giving drivers creative freedom has (predictably) led to some entertaining moments. At the very least, it’s given us a fascinating look into NASCAR stars’ musical tastes.

Over the past eight years, I started to spot trends. Why did it seem like a quarter of the field always walked out to AC/DC? How many times did Kyle Busch choose Raytona 500’s “Rowdy Busch?” Why does Brian Vickers like O.A.R. so much?

That’s why I decided it was time to pore through the raw, hard data myself to see what I could find. Are there better uses of time? Probably. But what’s the fun in that? I’ve always wanted to get into investigative* journalism**.

So, sit back, relax, and put on your finest wig while we look at some facts and figures about this fine NASCAR tradition.

Most common songs

Like showing up to a social occasion wearing the same clothes as somebody else, it’s inevitable that two drivers are going to pick the same song. However, over the years, there have been a few songs that have been perennial hits among NASCAR drivers.

Since 2009, 10 drivers have walked out to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” for instance, the most commonly recurring song in Bristol driver introduction history.

Here are all the songs ever chosen, sorted by the number of times they were picked.

Who are all these drivers who’ve picked “Thunderstruck,” you ask? There are eight of them:

  • Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2009 (Night)
  • Jimmie Johnson in 2009 (Night)
  • David Ragan in 2009 (Night) and 2010 (Night)
  • Marcos Ambrose in 2010 (Spring) and 2012 (Night)
  • Timmy Hill in 2014 (Spring)
  • Kevin Harvick in 2016 (Spring)
  • Cole Whitt in 2016 (Night)
  • Jamie McMurray in 2017 (Spring)

“Thunderstruck” also holds the designation of being the song chosen by the most drivers in a single race, when Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and David Ragan all emerged to AC/DC’s rock hit in the 2009 night race.

Most common artists

Holding the “most popular song” title isn’t AC/DC’s only mark of popularity. Looking at the pure number of times an artist was used — across all their songs — AC/DC’s got a runaway lead. Twenty-six times drivers have walked out to Bristol driver introductions while being serenaded by the Australian rock band. That’s more than second- and third-place artists Kid Rock and Motley Crue combined.

Here’s the entire lineup of NASCAR drivers’ artists of choice:

Fun musical driver stats

Over the years, there have been 13 drivers who’ve started each of the 16 Bristol races that were kicked off with musical introductions: Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Paul Menard, and Ryan Newman.

Of those drivers, Jamie McMurray and Kurt Busch are the only two to have walked out to a Nickelback song — earning their place on what I’ve dubbed the Nickelback Hall of Shame (sorry, Nickelback fans***).

Nickelback Hall of Shame:

  • 2009 (Night) Casey Mears, “Animals”
  • 2010 (Night) Juan Pablo Montoya, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”
  • 2010 (Night) Kurt Busch, “This Afternoon”
  • 2011 (Spring) Jamie McMurray, “Burn It To The Ground”
  • 2011 (Night) Casey Mears, “Burn It To The Ground”

Luckily, nobody’s picked any Nickelback songs since Casey Mears subjected us to “Burn It To The Ground” in the 2011 night race. Mears is also the only driver who chose a Nickelback song more than once.

(For the record, I’m on Team Pearn here.)

Selection repetition

While most drivers pick a different driver introduction song each Bristol race (shoutout to Joey Logano, who’s particularly good at this), there are some who seem to prefer to stick to what they like. That even means, in the case of three drivers, picking the same artist for every single one of their career starts at Bristol.

Drivers who have selected the same artist every start (more than one career Bristol start since the 2009 night race):

  • Chase Elliott, Eric Church (3 races)
  • Terry Labonte, George Strait (2 races)
  • Elliott Sadler, Richard Strauss (3 races)

Nobody ever said consistency is a bad thing. I guess Elliott, Labonte, and Sadler are the type of people who buy the same pair of shoes after they wear out the same pair. There’s nothing wrong with sticking with what you like, I suppose. (Weirdos.)

Some more notable examples of repetition

Jeff Burton selected Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” a record five consecutive times (2009-2011).

Tony Stewart selected Kid Rock’s “Bawitdaba” four consecutive times (2009-2011).

David Reutimann selected The Offspring’s “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” four consecutive times he raced (2011-2013).

Kyle Busch selected Raytona 500’s “Rowdy Busch” a record seven times. Unsurprisingly, he’s also the only driver to have ever selected the song named in his honor.

Here’s a statistically and historically accurate fantasy tip that nobody else is going to tell you: If Brad Keselowski picks a Kid Rock song as his driver introduction song, he’s going to win the race. If he doesn’t pick Kid Rock, he’s not going to win the race.

It’s true!

Keselowski picked Kid Rock in back-to-back races: The 2011 night race and the 2012 spring race. He won both races. Those were the only times he’s ever picked Kid Rock, and those were the only times he’s won at Bristol.

Speaking of victory…

Winning!

Feeling lucky? These are the tunes each Bristol race winner has selected:

  • 2009 (Night) Kyle Busch: Kanye West’s “Amazing”
  • 2010 (Spring) Jimmie Johnson: Led Zeppelin’s”Ramble On”
  • 2010 (Night) Kyle Busch: Raytona 500’s”Rowdy Busch”
  • 2011 (Spring) Kyle Busch: Raytona 500’s”Rowdy Busch”
  • 2011 (Night) Brad Keselowski: Kid Rock’s”Jackson, Mississippi”
  • 2012 (Spring) Brad Keselowski: Kid Rock’s”Born Free”
  • 2012 (Night) Denny Hamlin: V.I.C.’s”Wobble”
  • 2013 (Spring) Kasey Kahne: Kip Moore’s”Beer Money”
  • 2013 (Night) Matt Kenseth: Metallica’s”Seek And Destroy”
  • 2014 (Spring) Carl Edwards: Motley Crue’s”Kickstart My Heart”
  • 2014 (Night) Joey Logano: Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna”
  • 2015 (Spring) Matt Kenseth: Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction”
  • 2015 (Night) Joey Logano: Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up To Boston”
  • 2016 (Spring) Carl Edwards: Bon Jovi’s “Have a Nice Day”
  • 2016 (Night) Kevin Harvick: Jake Owen’s “Good Company”
  • 2017 (Spring) Jimmie Johnson: Tupac’s “California Love”

To summarize, the winningest artists in NASCAR history are:

  • Raytona 500 (2 wins)
  • Kid Rock (2)
  • Kanye West (1)
  • Led Zeppelin (1)
  • V.I.C. (1)
  • Kip Moore (1)
  • Metallica (1)
  • Motley Crue (1)
  • Carl Orff (1)
  • Megadeth (1)
  • Dropkick Murphys (1)
  • Bon Jovi (1)
  • Jake Owen (1)
  • Tupac (1)

Busch, of course, scored both Raytona 500 victories, and Keselowski, as noted, notched the two for Kid Rock. So far, history seems to indicate that an artist can only win with one driver.

More observations

Notable picks, presented without comment:

Juan Pablo Montoya picked Smash Mouth’s “All Star” in 2009 (Night).

Martin Truex Jr. picked the NAPA Know How jingle in 2010 (Spring).

Joey Logano picked “Crank Dat” by Soulja Boy in 2010 (Spring).

Brian Vickers picked Shania Twain’s epic “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” in 2011 (Spring) (one of the few times he didn’t pick O.A.R.).

Landon Cassill Rick-Rolled the crowd in 2011 (Spring). He also picked the “Sesame Street” theme song in 2016 (Spring).

Denny Hamlin entered to V.I.C.’s “Wobble” in 2012 (Night).

Kasey Kahne picked a Chumbawamba song in 2014 (Night).

In the 2012 spring race, Tony Stewart entered to “How Do You Like Me Now?” by Toby Keith, and in the 2012 night race, he walked out to “How You Like Me Now” by The Heavy. Was there confusion as to Smoke’s selection the first time around? Nobody knows (and likely, nobody but me cares).

Songs that never made the cut due to drivers who didn’t qualify for the race:

  • 2010 (Spring), Mike Bliss: Seether’s “Rise Above This”
  • 2010 (Spring), Max Papis: Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”
  • 2013 (Spring), Scott Riggs: Godsmack’s “Stand Alone”

Putting it all together…

16 races at Bristol have used driver introduction songs so far, starting in the 2009 night race.

674 total musical entrances have been made. (677 selections have been made, but the three aforementioned DNQs don’t count as entrances.)

516 different songs have been used in total.

339 different artists or musical acts have been used.

100 songs have been used more than once.

That’s a 19.4 percent song re-usage rate.

Explore some stats yourself:

Song selections by driver

For some notable selections, check out Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Landon Cassill.

Song selections by event

What now?

Now that you’ve sufficiently wasted your time, you’re probably wondering what’s next. Well, you’ll have to tune in Saturday evening for the pre-race ceremonies**** during the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race to find out how driver introduction song history is rewritten.

Credits:

Thanks to Jeff Gluck for documenting driver introduction songs over the years. Nice!

Thanks to Sim Racing Design for 2009 (Night) data.

Thanks to Motor Racing Digest for 2013 (Spring) data.

Thanks to Dustin Long/NBC Sports for 2017 (Spring) data.

Data from NASCAR.com for 2013 (Night), 2014 (Spring), 2015 (Spring), and 2015 (Night).

Footnotes:
* There’s nothing investigative about analyzing NASCAR drivers’ introduction songs. The only investigation is to why and how so much time was wasted in assembling this recap. 

** The author is not a journalist and this is not journalism by any stretch of the imagination. 

*** I’m sorry for your poor taste in music. 

**** Oh, and maybe stick around for the race, too.

Posted on by @KESELOWSKI

BUY TICKETS: See the races in Bristol 

Erik Jones looked poised for his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory as he lined up second behind Martin Truex Jr. on the final restart Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.

And he almost did. After Kyle Larson jolted past Truex for the lead, the 21-year-old rookie held on for a still-solid third-place finish.

But for a brief, fleeting moment, he caught glimpse of victory.

“We were kind of in our own league there for a long time – were kind of matching lap times, he would go faster and I would go faster,” Jones said of the Furniture Row Racing cars. “I really thought that whoever was out front was going to win, unfortunately neither of us got it done. Neither of us really got going great after that last restart. I spun my tires, he spun his and it just wasn’t what we needed at the end.”

Lucky for Jones & Co., the Monster Energy Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway this week, a track where Jones has flexed his muscle in the past. He has two wins there in the XFINITY Series, the most recent one the spring race earlier this season. In his lone Monster Energy Series start at “The Last Great Colosseum,” he finished 17th, but ran with the leaders the majority of the day.

This provides a bit of confidence.

“We looked back to the spring race, we ran really well – I thought we were really fast all weekend long in practice, didn’t get to qualify due to rain,” Jones told NASCAR.com. “But ran up front, ran in the top three all day long, right there with the 78 and the 42.

“So that just gives us a lot of confidence going back; I think we’re going to have that speed again. Hopefully, the track is doing the same thing with the PJ1 and applying it on the bottom that we’ll be able to bring back the same package and hopefully have similar speed that we did there a few months ago.”

Jones will also have crew chief Chris Gayle back atop the pit box, as Gayle has served his two-race suspension for a Pocono infraction. The No. 77 team currently sits 16th in the driver standings, but 19th in the playoff standings, a position where Jones essentially needs a win to make the playoffs.

RELATED: Full playoff standings

Having a familiar voice call the shots on the radio bodes well for the young star in this position — Jones will need all the chips available as he looks to gamble his way into the playoffs with three races to go before the field is set.

And gamble they will, Jones said.

“You’ve got to be aggressive,” Jones said. “As a driver, I have to be aggressive, as a crew chief, Chris Gayle has to be aggressive. …We’re not racing for top 10s anymore – we’re racing to just try to snag a win. That’s the only thing that really means anything to us at this point in the season. …

“You know, it’s unfortunate, I think back to a lot of races on the year where we didn’t get the finish we could have gotten or had a DNF that wasn’t necessarily our fault. It’s frustrating to pick out those races and think if they would have went a little bit differently, we could be in a lot better position. But (we’re) definitely being aggressive and trying to snag the win right now.”

While the team views all remaining tracks – Bristol, Darlington and Richmond – as opportunities to create its own destiny, Jones said the short track in northeast Tennessee is the one they are especially focusing on.

“I think we’ve all got Bristol circled as a team,” Jones said. “We ran really well there in the spring. We didn’t get the finish we wanted, but we had a really fast race car.

“Obviously it’s a huge goal to make the playoffs, and I know we’re capable of it,” he said later. “We’ve just got to go out and make it happen, and it goes back to execution. We’ve had fast race cars at a multiple number of races, we just haven’t put the whole day together, whether it be we didn’t qualify well or we qualified well and had a bad stop late or whatever else.

“It’s just going to take putting an entire weekend together. It starts on Friday and ends with a good day on Sunday.”

Or in this case, Saturday night under the lights.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

RELATED: Fit Row Presented by Lilly Diabetes launches

Editor’s note: This story is part of our Fit Row series that focuses on the health and fitness aspects of racing and its superstar drivers. Presented by Lilly Diabetes, the exclusive diabetes health partner of NASCAR, the series will feature 10 themed stories.

Joey Galloway knows speed. The former college football standout at Ohio State University and NFL wide receiver knows how to move the chains, too. An avid NASCAR fan that has attended some “30 to 40 races,” the now-ESPN college football analyst gained further appreciation for the job of a pit crew member.

Galloway spent a cool morning during the offseason at the headquarters of Joe Gibbs Racing working out with some of the team’s crew members and learning the ins and outs of pit stops – like when to go over the wall and how to serve as a tire carrier or change a tire on a race car.

The visit to JGR’s Huntersville, North Carolina-based shop came from a long-standing invite of driver Matt Kenseth and his crew chief Jason Ratcliff. At one race, Galloway stood near the wall for a pit stop and called it the “most exciting thing I’ve ever seen in sports.”

“Because I had that experience, doing this out here today was great,” Galloway told NASCAR.com. “The car’s coming in and I didn’t go because that car is coming faster than you think it is. When you are there at eye level, you see that car coming at you, it’s tough to jump out there in front of it because now you are trusting that other guy is going to stop the car before it takes you out.”

Galloway also appreciated learning additional knowledge about a sport he loves – such as the intricacies of applying lug nuts on a pit stop and the skill level required to execute fast pit stops of around 11 seconds.

“The appreciation for the skill level that these guys have because after I got us through about a 45-second pit stop and then to watch the professionals do it and how quickly, you get a big appreciation for what they’re doing,” Galloway said.

Speaking of Galloway’s performance in the pit drills, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Senior Athletic Advisor Mike Lepp was very complimentary.

“We saw some really good things out there,” Lepp told NASCAR.com. “Great foot speed. Hitting lug nuts is something he’s never done (Galloway hit three). We have tire changers that are a little less accurate but they have great foot speed and that kind of erases missing lug nuts because they are great to the car and around the car. Joey was great with that – kind of a natural.”

Using former college athletes on pit road, usually former football players, has been a rising trend in NASCAR. Lepp said as a result of the competition to gain spots on pit road, the importance of the athletic component on pit road has evolved over the last 10 years.

“Can you take a guy that was fast and quick in another sport and evolve him into this?” Lepp said. “Certainly, we do. If you look at our pit crews, a lot of them are ex-college athletes, things like that. I think most teams have evolved to that.”

JGR has a full athletic facility for the pit crews to work out in over the course of a grueling 38-week season and the organization, like many in NASCAR, takes great steps to keep their crews as healthy as possible

As a receiver, Galloway had 701 receptions over a 16-year NFL career in some high-pressure environments playing for the Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots and Washington Redskins. Being on pit road is a pressure-packed gig and the 45-year-old thinks that former college athletes bring a special skill set to the job.

“Athletes have an ability to deal with pressure,” Galloway said. “We have an ability to deal with harsh coaching and an ability to deal with direct communication.”

Lepp went one step further on that thought.

“Usually with athletes, you’ll have what we call the athletic mindset,” Lepp said. “That mindset is usually what separates the guys that make it from not making it. … Everybody is going to make mistakes in 38 races but who comes back from that mistake, who’s fast again.

“Every pit stop is filmed and when you make that mistake, it’s going to get played over and over and over again. It’s kind of like military special ops – I always say pit crews are like that. If you make a mistake, everybody knows about you. If you did your job, nobody knows your name. The driver goes to Victory Lane, you are kind of off to the side.”

Posted on by NASCAR Wire Service

RELATED: Race results | Standings | Detailed breakdown | Playoff picture

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Not even a NASCAR overtime could stop Kyle Busch from rallying back from a speeding penalty at the end of Stage 2 to win Wednesday night’s UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch, forced to the back of the field under penalty to start the final stage, put on a clinic on a Lap 119 restart and utilized the high line to roar through the field and find himself back in the top-10 by Lap 136.

Nearly 30 laps later, Busch found himself on the tails of leaders Johnny Sauter and Matt Crafton. Taking second from Sauter on Lap 163, Busch moved back into the lead four laps later slicing and dicing through lap traffic.

When Austin Wayne Self and Justin Haley tangled with five laps, the final restart left the field one more attempt to swipe the lead away from Busch.

The now five-time Bristol Truck Series winner, however, would have none of it pulling away from Crafton at the Lap 201 restart and cruised to his third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the year and 49th of his career.

“I knew once I got that penalty that I had to go somewhere, other than where everyone else was,” said Busch. “I just started grooming the top and it took about 15 laps for it to come in and then it started going, it was pretty fast.”

“I can’t say enough about all these guys on this Banfield Pet Hospital Tundra, it was awesome. It was awesome when we unloaded. We made some fine-tune adjustments to it. She was really good all-day long.”

Looking like a superhero with his comeback, Busch, who isn’t expected to compete in anymore Camping World Truck Series races this season, said he learned enough from the penalty that could give him a potential advantage towards earning a second triple-weekend sweep at Bristol. The first came in August 2010.

“It was a lot of fun to come through the field like that, it kinda gave me some ideas about the rest of the week,” added Busch. “Probably showed a bunch of stuff too. That’s what it’s all about. This is the start of the triple, hopefully we can get it.”

While many welcomed the event’s final caution, Crafton didn’t want to see the yellow flag, as he was sure he was catching Busch as the final laps counted away.

“I searched the top, searched the bottom, and went back to the old faithful bottom,” said Crafton. “One thing I’ve done, I’ve finished second to Kyle way too many times here. All in all, it was a very good truck and we have nothing to hang our heads about.

“We were running him down there at the end. I didn’t want to see that yellow because we were running him down, we were so good on old tires. And then that restart, when you are starting on the outside you’re going ‘oh man this could be really really bad’ and he has that grip to take off on the bottom and I was sitting up there spinning the tires.” 

Busch led the field to green after nearly a two-hour rain delay and dominated the first stage leading all 55 laps.

The Brad Keselowski Racing trucks of Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric pitted on Lap 27 and restarted 1-2 for the Lap 64 restart, but Matt Crafton used the bump and run on Cindric and took control a lap after the beginning of Stage 2 and led until Busch caught Crafton in lap traffic and re-inherited the lead at Lap 105 and sailed away to the Stage 2 win.  

Busch led the field off pit road but was busted by NASCAR for speeding in section 4, handing the lead back to Crafton for the start of Stage 3 and the eventual comeback for Busch.

The Truck Series will take a one-week break before returning to action north of the border at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the running of the Silverado 250 on Sun., Sept. 3.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Qualifying results

Weather in the area delayed the start of the Camping World Truck Series UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway for 1 hour, 58 minutes.

The green flag was scheduled to drop at 8:46 p.m. ET Wednesday, but that start time was postponed thanks to lighting in the area of “The Last Great Colosseum.” The crowd was cleared and personnel were asked to seek shelter.

Rain began to fall shortly after the track was cleared. NASCAR had on hand an armada of track-drying equipment for the .533-mile track after the rain stopped, including eight NASCAR Toyota Air Titans, five jet dryers, two track vacuums and one Elgin sweeper.

The green flag fell at 10:44 p.m. ET

Kyle Busch started on the pole. He is a four-time winner in the Camping World Truck Series at Bristol, and has won two of six races he has started in the series this season.

 

Posted on by Track Release

DARLINGTON, S.C. — In celebrating the legacy of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and honoring Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his final NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 start, Darlington Raceway is dedicating its Turn 3 suite towers in their names, respectively.

Earnhardt Towers will feature an assortment of graphics that depict memorable moments of Earnhardt Sr. and Earnhardt Jr., featured on the backside of each tower. The Earnhardt Towers name also will be proudly displayed on the front of the towers facing the track.

Earnhardt Towers will join a great tradition of historical names that the Lady in Black has given to its facilities, including:

  • Brasington Tower Grandstands (Turn 1) – named after Darlington Raceway’s founder and first president Harold Brasington
  • Colvin Grandstands (backstretch) – named after Bob Colvin, Darlington Raceway’s president from 1952-67
  • Tyler Tower Grandstands – named after W.D. “Red” Tyler, Darlington Raceway’s president from 1982-89
  • Jim H. Hunter Media Center – named after Jim Hunter, Darlington Raceway’s president from 1993-01
  • Pearson Tower Grandstands – named after David Pearson, NASCAR Hall of Famer and Darlington Raceway’s all-time wins leader (10) in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
  • Cale Yarborough Garage – Darlington’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage is named after the Timmonsville, S.C., native, who holds five victories in the famed Bojangles’ Southern 500

“Darlington Raceway is fortunate to have many of the sport’s legends honored throughout our property,” said track president Kerry Tharp. “We felt that it was fitting to honor Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for their positive impact on the sport and on the track Too Tough To Tame. Earnhardt Towers will forever celebrate and recognize their achievements and be a lasting landmark at our tradition-rich facility.”

As part of the dedication, Darlington Raceway will hold a special ceremony on Friday morning of race weekend (Sept. 1), featuring track president Kerry Tharp and Kelley Earnhardt Miller, co-owner of JR Motorsports and daughter of Earnhardt Sr.

The towers will be dedicated just before cars hit the track for NASCAR XFINITY Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 and Bojangles’ Southern 500 practice sessions, which are free to the public if fans bring an empty Monster Energy can to the track as part of its Free Can Friday initiative (http://www.darlingtonraceway.com/Articles/2017/08/Monster.aspx).

Earnhardt Sr. held Darlington Raceway in high regard and always cherished a victory at the track Too Tough To Tame. His nine Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins at Darlington rank second all-time (David Pearson had 10 wins). He won races at the Lady in Black in 1982, 1986, 1987 (2), 1989, 1990 (2), 1993 and 1994. He also won three NASCAR XFINITY Series races at the track (1986, 1987 and 1991).

Earnhardt Jr. will be racing in his final Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Sunday, Sept. 3 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM). He has four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes at the track in 21 career starts. He has been a loyal supporter of the track’s throwback campaign, which honors the history and heritage of the sport.

Darlington Raceway’s award-winning throwback campaign is now The Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR featuring the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500® on Sunday, Sept. 3. The NASCAR XFINITY Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 will race on Saturday, Sept. 2. Tickets are on sale now by calling 866-459-7223 or visiting DarlingtonRaceway.com. Children 12 and under can get in free to Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race.

Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin and girlfriend Jordan Fish have welcomed their second child into the world, Molly Gold Hamlin born on Aug. 15, 2017.

The couple took to Twitter to share the news. Jordan revealed that the couple was expecting on the day of the Daytona 500.

Hamlin and Fish also have a 4-year-old daughter, Taylor.

Hamlin likely will now have two things on his mind as he heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the annual night race (Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — winning and getting back home to spend more time with his newborn.