Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Every All-Star Race winner in NASCAR history | Race results

It was billed, appropriately enough, as “One Hot Night” and the 1992 running of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway proved to be just that.

 

Saturday night’s race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the 25-year anniversary of the “One Hot Night” spectacle, and in spite of the passage of time, it remains one of the most memorable races in the history of the event.

 

“I will say this – it lived up to every bit of the hype,” former driver Kyle Petty said. “Like few things in sports do. Rarely do things live up to the hype that you throw at them.”

 

Petty was a key player in the ’92 race. Along with fellow racer Davey Allison. And Dale Earnhardt, then a two-time winner of the 70-lap, three-segment event (he went on to have three wins in the All-Star Race overall) that paid no points but plenty of money.

 

“We witnessed in the amount of time we’ve been here some really great races, incredible races, everywhere,” Petty said. “But they don’t stick with you like this race sticks with you. For some reason this race sticks with fans different than other races. Whether it was the first night race, whether it was Earnhardt spinning and Davey wrecking, whether it was all the hype that led up to it.”

 

Officially it was known as The Winston. But with his typical promoter’s flair, CMS president Humpy Wheeler dubbed the event “One Hot Night” long before the first car hit the track.

 

Wheeler could not have been more correct in his assessment of the evening’s activities.

 

NIGHT VISION

 

The annual all-star race, funded by series sponsor RJ Reynolds, was in its eighth year and had already provided its share of memorable moments.

RELATED: Counting down the top moments in All-Star Race history

“You had (Darrell) Waltrip blowing up the engine on the start/finish line of the last lap of the first The Winston (in 1985),” said Dennis Dawson, who was senior manager of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series program for Sports Marketing Enterprises and RJR at the time.

 

“You had Darrell and Rusty (Wallace) coming through Turns 3 and 4 and Darrell getting spun, Rusty crossing the finish line and Darrell saying he hoped Rusty choked on the money (in ’89).”

 

And there was the memorable “pass in the grass” involving Earnhardt and Bill Elliott in ’87.

 

“So it had already created a buzz,” Dawson said.

RELATED: Relive the ‘Pass in the Grass’

 

The ’92 edition brought something new to the table – racing under the lights.

 

NASCAR’s top division had run points races at night before ’92. Bristol’s popular August race had been held under the lights since 1978; Richmond had been hosting night races since the early ’90s; and Nashville, before it came off the schedule, held night races for several years.

 

But the series had never competed under the glare of lights on anything other than a short track.

 

 

“It was crazy to think you could light this place,” Petty recalled. “You grew up running short tracks; a half-mile with a light pole here and a light pole here and a light pole here. And it goes from light to dark, to light to dark to light to dark. And that’s OK at 70 miles an hour. But at 170-180 mph? I remember when they said ‘we’re going to do it with lights and mirrors.’ I’m like ‘smoke and mirrors maybe.'”

 

In a last-ditch effort to keep the race at Charlotte, Wheeler had promised RJR officials that he would light the 1.5-mile track for the event, allowing it to be run later in the evening and on Saturday instead of Sunday.

 

“Humpy did pitch the thought of doing that, without having a clue how to do it,” Dawson said. “That part is true.”

 

RJR officials met with Wheeler and folks from MUSCO Lighting, a company out of Iowa that had been providing lighting solutions for outdoor sporting events.

 

There was skepticism and concern. But it went deeper than just whether the track could be safely lit for racing.

 

“It had never been done to that magnitude to start with,” Dawson said. “But lighting the outside and taking care of the fans was just as important as taking care of the drivers, the crew guys on pit road, the safety guys. The lighting thing was a big deal all the way around.

 

“But we knew that if they could get the job done that it was going to elevate the event.”

 

Mike Joy, anchoring the TNN broadcast in the booth that night along with analysts Buddy Baker and Neil Bonnett, said TV and competitors had different concerns. The broadcast partner needed enough light “to have a quality show,” Joy, now the lead announcer for NASCAR on FOX, said. “And we were afraid if we did that, if the lights were that bright, there would be too much glare for the drivers to see. We all went in pretty worried, but we all got more than we hoped for.”

RELATED: Results for every All-Star Race run

 

A SLAM BANG FINISH

 

 

Allison started the 70-lap race on the pole and won the first 30-lap segment. When fans voted to invert the field for the second segment, his No. 28 Robert Yates Racing Ford restarted from the rear of the field. Petty, with crew chief Robin Pemberton calling the race from pit road, won the second segment.

 

All that remained was a 10-lap shootout with Petty, Earnhardt and Allison among those in front for the restart.

 

With the air temperature dropping, track conditions continued to change.

 

“Track surfaces need to be hot and they need to change throughout the day for old-timers like us that know what you have to work on,” Pemberton said. “… When you can run five hours and the track temperature is within five degrees and it’s 87 degrees or whatever it happens to be, it doesn’t add that element of the track changing, grip level changing, you’ve got to keep up with the car, other strategies other than just two or four tires.”

 

Larry McReynolds, crew chief for Allison said not keeping up with those conditions stymied his driver heading into the final segment.

 

“I didn’t do a good job of getting aggressive and keeping up with this changing track,” McReynolds said. “We had no notebook. The only night notebook we had was Bristol, which was not relative to anything. So we knew the track was going to change based on the temps, but I think with the changing track, more cars, more rubber (on the track), I didn’t do a good job of getting aggressive enough.

 

“But when you dominate the first segment, come through the field from dead last to fifth or sixth in (segment) No. 2, you’re a little bit hesitant (to make changes).”

 

The final 10-lap segment opened with Petty checking out on the field, building a sizable lead before Darrell Waltrip’s spin on the frontstretch brought out the caution.

 

When they restarted with seven laps remaining, it was Petty out front, Earnhardt second and Allison third. But not for long.

 

Earnhardt grabbed the lead on Lap 64 and a pass by Allison dropped Petty to third.

 

A lap later, Petty was second and closing. When they rocketed out of Turn 2 for the final time, Petty shot under the menacing black No. 3, and promptly was nearly forced off the track as Earnhardt ran him low.

 

Allison, meanwhile, had built up a head of steam and was closing rapidly.

 

“The crowd was already standing but they got loud as the car were going down the back straightaway,” Dawson said. “And then just a few seconds later the tone changed. I looked over toward Turn 3 just trying to see the race track and I guess there was a spot between two motorhomes – I could see Earnhardt sideways and smoke boiling off the tires. Then we all ran around to the front of Victory Lane to see what was going on and there was Kyle and Davey coming down through there side by side.”

RELATED: An All-Star team for the All-Star Race

Earnhardt and Petty had both driven deep into Turn 3 and only one car stuck – Petty’s No. 42. Earnhardt spun up the track, Petty slowed briefly, and Allison shot back into the picture.

 

“You could tell by the fans’ reactions. You could hear it when I thought they were going down the back straightaway, you could hear it when I thought they were somewhere around Turn 3; It was so loud that we always took headsets to Victory Lane,” Dawson said. “Because the crowd would get loud. It was pretty intense.”

 

There were no TV monitors on pit boxes to follow the action and no oversized TV screen on the backstretch. McReynolds was unsure of what was unfolding.

 

Until the leaders came storming off the fourth turn.

 

“When they came off four, I said ‘I know who’s gonna win this drag race – Robert Yates,'” McReynolds said of the team owner and legendary engine builder.

 

Allison did, but just barely. Racing side-by-side to the line, he nosed out Petty for his second consecutive All-Star win. But contact between the two sent his car careening into the outside wall as he took the checkered flag.

 

Briefly knocked unconscious, the race winner was quickly removed from his car and transported to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion and bruised lung.

 

Only a few Victory Lane photos were snapped; none included the winning driver or his car.

 

“No. 1 was Davey being OK. That was a huge deal,” Dawson said. “They got Davey out of the car and sent him off in the helicopter. They put the car on a wrecker and they tried backing that race car into Victory Lane to have a Victory Lane celebration.”

 

Dawson, Yates and T. Wayne Robertson, the head of Sports Marketing Enterprise, RJR’s sports marketing arm quickly squashed that idea.

 

“Because there was not going to be a celebration that night,” Dawson said. “We had a driver that was semi-conscious. And his well-being was a whole lot more important than Winston trying to get a big deal out of a Victory Lane.

 

“Victory Lane is a big deal to us, but not that night.”

 

THE AFTERMATH

 

There was no rivalry born out of the last-lap incidents – Earnhardt, not surprisingly, was angry about losing but not about how he had been raced. The teams of Allison and Petty bore no grudges.

 

“We weren’t arguing with each other,” Petty said. “Nobody was mad. There was no story. A week later it was a non-story. For the race fans, the only story was what a great race that was. The story was the race. Not what we did, not what the teams did, not what anybody did. The story was can Davey come back this week from those injuries?”

 

“I can say from the time I got to the hospital, there was never a negative word toward Kyle or between the 42 and the 28,” said McReynolds. “It never even crossed our minds.”

 

In fact, Petty even offered to drive Allison’s XFINITY (then Busch) Series car in the following week’s race “just to shut everybody up,” Petty said. But manufacturer alignments – Petty drove a Pontiac, Allison a Ford – nixed that plan.

 

McReynolds was left with an injured driver – although Allison was back behind the wheel the following week – and a short supply of race cars.

 

Tim Brewer, crew chief for Bill Elliott and the Junior Johnson & Associates team, stepped in and offered the team an intermediate car.

 

McReynolds said Brewer told him, “You can just keep it as long as you want. Use it if you want to.

 

“The whole month of June, we hauled a Budweiser car in the front of that hauler with a Texaco Havoline decal stuck in the window in case we had to use it,” he said.

RELATED: Talladega ties run deep with Alabama Gang

 

Allison won twice more that year — giving him five victories plus the All-Star win on the season — before falling short of the title in the season-ending race at Atlanta. He died the following season when the helicopter he was piloting crashed at Talladega Superspeedway.

 

Earnhardt went on to win two more championships and cement his status as an icon before his death on the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001.

RELATED: An oral history look at Dale Earnhardt’s final win

 

“By Davey not being here and Dale not being here now, that adds to it,” Petty said of the race. “Because that’s a moment. That changes how you perceive this race as you look back at it.

 

“If we were all three sitting here laughing about it and complaining about it, then you may view it differently. You wouldn’t view it in that nostalgic tone as much as you do now. But it definitely lived up to the hype for sure.”

 

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Drivers offer well wishes for Almirola

CONCORD, N.C. — Following a sponsorship announcement with Maaco for this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he had spoken with Aric Almirola on Wednesday evening about the three-car crash that occurred during the Go Bowling 400.

“I talked to Aric (Wednesday) night and he said when his car went up in the air both rear springs fell out of the car, so the car came back down and hit the frame,” Earnhardt said. “He said it was the highest-recorded g-force vertically that they’d ever seen. And I can imagine that if the car slams down on the chassis.”

MORE: See how the wreck unfolded | Smith to drive Monster Energy Open

Almirola, 33, suffered a fracture of the T5 vertebra following the incident. How long he will be out of the car has not been announced. Richard Petty Motorsports officials have announced that former series driver Regan Smith will pilot the team’s No. 43 Ford in this weekend’s Monster Energy Open qualifying race.

“They can look at why that happens and how to fix that so that when the car lands it doesn’t land directly on the frame,” Earnhardt said of NASCAR’s post-race safety evaluation. “Because there’s no breakaway or cushion at that point to the driver. He’s bolted to the frame. They’ll look at all the things that happened in the series of events that happened during that accident to find ways to help guys that are in that situation again.”

RELATED: Almirola’s car taken to the R&D Center for further look

Almirola, RPM CEO Brian Moffitt and Bill Heisel, director of OrthoCarolina Motorsports, are scheduled to meet with the media Friday to discuss Almirola’s injury, rehabilitation and the team’s plans moving forward. The press conference will be streamed live on NASCAR.com. You can watch that here.

The wreck occurred on Lap 199 of the 267-lap race and began when Joey Logano (Team Penske Ford) made contact with Danica Patrick (Stewart-Haas Racing Ford) in Turn 1. Patrick’s car slammed nose-first into the wall and caught fire; Logano’s Ford also hit the wall hard and the two were still sliding up against the wall when Almirola’s car piled into the left front of Logano.

Both Logano and Patrick were visibly shaken, but neither was injured. Almirola, however, had to be removed from his car by rescue personnel after safety workers cut away the roof of his car.

The race was stopped for nearly 28 minutes while rescue personnel attended to the drivers and workers cleared the track of debris.

“That was an incredibly terrible accident,” Earnhardt said. “Danica was extremely lucky as were the other two drivers.”

Earnhardt, NASCAR’s most popular driver, will step away from competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after this season. He missed the final half of 2016 due to a concussion. He also missed two races in 2012 for a similar injury. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is well-versed in NASCAR’s safety protocol.

“Having talked to NASCAR a lot over the last couple of years I really feel good about how proactive they are; they have specific individuals that that’s their job every day, to science this stuff out and be looking at ways to improve,” he said. “We never used to have that. It used to be more what the teams could do and what the drivers wanted to do and you did most of that safety advancing behind the closed doors of the shop. Now we have people within the industry that they have on payroll that that’s their job. So that makes me feel very comfortable.”

As for what the future holds for his fellow driver, Earnhardt said he offered no words of advice. Almirola competed for Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports team in 2010-11 in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

“Aric’s really sharp. He knows he needs to take care of himself,” Earnhardt said. “The doctors told him how lucky he was, how easily that could have went the other way … had he gotten some spinal cord damage, how easily that could have happened for him. He’s well aware and he won’t be rushing back to put himself in any kind of danger going forward.

“But it’s a tough situation for him. He certainly doesn’t want to give up his opportunity and lose his place in the sport as a driver and I can understand. I’m certain he has concerns in the back of his mind even though he knows he needs to take care of himself. But he loves driving; he wants that opportunity when he gets well.”

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR, NASCAR Team Properties, and YETI announced Thursday, during the NASCAR Fuel For Business Council® meetings in Charlotte, North Carolina, multi-year agreements, which introduced the YETI brand as the “Official Outdoor Partner of NASCAR®.”

Each of YETI’s iconic products fall within the outdoor category, including premium stainless steel drinkware, premium coolers, and premium soft-sided coolers. NASCAR Team Properties and YETI have developed a variety of NASCAR and team-licensed product, the first line of which is available now on YETI.com and YETICustomShop.com.

“YETI is a dynamic and wildly popular brand that will be a welcomed addition to our industry and fans,” said NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Global Sales and Marketing Officer, Steve Phelps. “There continues to be great momentum surrounding our business as evidenced by nearly 10 new brands entering the sport at the Official level this year.”

YETI joins NASCAR’s diverse portfolio of Official Partners, which includes some of the most recognizable brands in the world. With an industry that is constantly on the move and comprised of outdoor enthusiasts, NASCAR drivers, teams and fans pair naturally with YETI’s premium coolers and drinkware. According to a recent independent study from Simmons Research, NASCAR fans are more than 40 percent more likely than non-fans to participate in at least one outdoor activity, such as fishing and camping.

“YETI is honored to officially be a part of the NASCAR family,” said YETI CEO, Matt Reintjes. “We’re proud to be associated with the many influential brands that partner with NASCAR. From the drivers and teams, to the fans and fellow sponsors, the sport is built around passion, and because of that common ground we feel that this partnership is an ideal fit for our brand.”

As part of this partnership, YETI joins the NASCAR Fuel for Business Council, which brings together an exclusive group of nearly 55 Official NASCAR Partners. This business-to-business environment offers opportunities for many FORTUNE 500 companies to work together to address specific corporate needs.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™ season will continue with the Monster Energy All-Star Race and Monster Energy Open on May 20 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, airing live on FS1 starting at 6 p.m. ET. The races can also be heard on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Posted on by Nascar

This weekend’s running of the Monster Energy All-Star Race is an anniversary for Chevrolet and many of the teams aligned with the automaker.

 

Ten years ago, Chevrolet scored its first victory with the R07 engine, a new piece designed to replace the outdated, although still formidable, SB2.

 

Kevin Harvick, driving the No. 29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, won the event, known then as the Nextel All-Star Challenge, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

 

Success in a points-paying event wasn’t far behind — the first points win for a team using the R07 came a week later when former Hendrick Motorsports driver Casey Mears captured the Coca-Cola 600 at CMS.

 

Chevrolet teams won 23 races the previous year, the first season of a five-year title run for Jimmie Johnson. In ’07, with teams transitioning to the R07, eight of the manufacturer’s 26 wins came with the new engine under the hood.

 

“We had two things occurring in the 2007 season; Chevrolet had new engine hardware approved in the R07 and the second was we were rolling out the Car of Tomorrow,” Doug Duchardt, general manger for HMS, told NASCAR.com. “So as the season began we started thinking about how we wanted to combine those two. We knew the R07 had more power potential so we focused on getting those engines into the previous car, the non-COT races, because those were more intermediate races.”

 

The COT debuted that year at Bristol and was run on all tracks under 1 mile, as well as Darlington (1.366 mile), road course races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, and the fall stop at Talladega.

 

“We felt like that while there was an advantage obviously to have more power, that if you were at a Richmond or Bristol or Martinsville, that’s not as big as say Charlotte,” Duchardt said. “So at the beginning of the year we focused on getting that rolled out for the intermediate tracks.

 

“As we started running them and saw the potential in the engine, we thought it was going to take longer to roll out. But the thing I remember is … when we first started running them everyone knew what the potential gain was. We put the carrot out there to the engine shop of, ‘We’d like to have this rolled across all of our programs by the 600.’ We thought it was a stretch to get there. And when we put that vision out there, that goal, it was amazing how everyone focused on that and worked to achieve it.”

 

With Toyota teams arriving on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series level that season, other OEMs had been given new parameters on which to build their engines to keep a level playing field.

 

“It was really just a matter of seeing the writing on the wall, the limitations of the architecture of the SB2 and knowing that we were going to have to keep up with something that had more capability that really drove us in that direction,” said Pat Suhy, Chevrolet Racing NASCAR group manager.

 

“We didn’t just look at them and say, ‘Oh crap!’ We knew architecturally that the SB2 was challenged. And we had evolved designs of a small block before Toyota showed up. But them showing up with their part is what I think kind of forced NASCAR’s hand, if you will, to let the other OEMs do significant architectural changes to our stuff in order not to be left behind.”

 

Heading into Saturday night’s race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR), the R07 has powered drivers to 156 victories in NASCAR’s elite division.

 

That first victory, Suhy said, was “huge.”

 

“Because there’s always buyer’s remorse, right? You get this new engine and, ‘Man, it’s got to be at least as (good as) the old one. I hope it’s better.’ We had a few teething pains at the very beginning. Getting the first win under your belt, it’s like with anything, you breathe a sigh of relief and say, ‘Good, now we can get on.’ Not question if it’s as good; let’s make it better now.”

 

Likewise, getting the win in the 600 the following weekend, Duchardt said, was special.

 

“I always say the engine guys have it a little easier because we had a real simple and accurate way to measure the performance of the engine, and it’s on the dynamometer,” he said. “So we could understand the power, the torque, the fuel efficiency of the engine. So we knew by every measure that this was as good or better in every aspect. If you weren’t having success with it, it wasn’t because it was an inferior product to your previous one, it was because of other reasons.

 

“Once we saw that it was a better product than the SB2, then we had confidence in it moving forward. The fact that we won that race was just icing on the cake.

 

“I think it was Casey’s only win so that was really special, it was the National Guard car, Memorial Day … If you add all that in and the work to be ready for it, it was a special day all around.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Check out this cool thing Dale Earnhardt Jr. did.

Pretty cool, right?

Stare at the photo on the left a little closer.

Look familiar?

Now, feel free to call me crazy, but I’m going to go ahead and believe 100 percent, without a doubt, until it is proven otherwise, that the Hendrick Motorsports driver, already the uncontested “King of the Photobomb,” used a time machine to return to 2017 as a pre-teen, complete what will go down as the greatest photobomb in history and continue his reign as the photobombing champ.

RELATED: Junior the photobomber — back at it | Dale Jr. raises the photobomb bar

Consider your mind blown by this (photo)bomb.

Posted on by Staff Report

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.

MORE: Dale Jr. career stats, numbers

Race: Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Date: May 20, 8 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Previous five results: Third, 10th, fourth, seventh, fifth

Notable: Since 2005, Earnhardt Jr. ranks first among all drivers in the Monster Energy All-Star Race in green-flag passes, with 434. … Over the past five All-Star events, Earnhardt Jr. has finished in the top 10 in every instance. No other driver can match that feat; Denny Hamlin is closest with four consecutive top-10 finishes.

Memorable moment: It was pure jubilation in 2000 — hard to believe it was 17 years ago — when Junior was victorious in his first-ever All-Star event. Nabbing the lead from Dale Jarrett, passing his smoking car just before the white flag fell … being the first rookie to win the race … that unforgettable quote: “We didn’t come here to run third! We came here to take all the money!” … that iconic bear hug from Dale Earnhardt Sr. This wasn’t just Junior’s most memorable All-Star Race moment, it is one of the most indelible moments of his entire career.

RELATED: Every All-Star Race winner | Dale Jr.’s top All-Star memories

Quotable: “The All-Star Race to me has always been very important. As a kid watching that race and watching my father run it, hearing him talk about it and explain how important it was to him, what it meant to him and how hard he tried to win it, that really cemented in my mind what it means to the sport. It certainly stands alone and has a special meaning.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Editor’s note: Every Friday during the season, “Tweets You Might Have Missed” presents eight of the best NASCAR-related tweets from the week.

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The red carpet was studded with drivers, wives and girlfriends, media members and NASCAR personnel on Wednesday evening for the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation’s eighth annual Catwalk for a Cause, which raises funds for childhood and ovarian cancers.

Drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Newman and others all were in attendance. Aric Almirola, who suffered a compression fracture of the T5 vertebra after being involved in a wreck during Saturday’s race at Kansas Speedway, also made an appearance on the red carpet and participated in the program.

 

The event was a dramatic James Bond-themed gathering held at Statesville (N.C.) Regional Airport. Fifteen “Catwalk Heroes,” ranging in age from 3 to 17 years old were introduced on stage leading up to the main event. These children are either battling or have beaten cancer. Several drivers, including Earnhardt Jr. and his wife Amy, walked in the event with the children.

For ovarian cancer survivor Sherry Pollex, Martin Truex Jr.’s long-time girlfriend who started the foundation with Truex, Wednesday night’s event was especially meaningful as it marked her first Catwalk for Cause event with her cancer in remission.

“It’s kind of a ‘pinch-me’ moment — I’m like, ‘Is this really happening?’ because I never really envisioned it being this big,” Pollex told FS1 via Facebook Live. “… It is very humbling and I’m so thankful for the support not just from our sponsors, but everybody in NASCAR and everybody outside the sport in our community that came out tonight to watch the kids.”

Country pop group Florida Georgia Line also performed later that night.

 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At 15, Hailie Deegan is the youngest member of the 2017-18 NASCAR Next driver class.

She’s also the only female in the group of nine.

No pressure, right?

“On the track, no one really knows I’m I girl,” Deegan said on Wednesday during a luncheon for this latest NASCAR Next class at 204 North Tryon in Uptown Charlotte. “No one really knows you’re a girl until you come out (of the car). I think I’ve proven myself as another driver who is fast.”

Deegan certainly has the bloodlines. Her father is action sports pioneer Brian Deegan, a Monster Energy athlete and the most successful X Games competitor in the history of that event. Hailie followed her father’s career path into Freestyle Motocross (FMX) and off-road trucks, an arc that also resembles Jimmie Johnson’s early days in motorsports.

“Jimmie Johnson came from the same sort of racing I did,” Hailie said. “The only difference is that I’m a girl.”

But the aspirations are the same for the Temecula, California, native, who last year became the first female driver to post a podium finish in the Lucas Oil Off Road Series.

“I’d love to be a seven-time champion,” she said.

To prepare for her transition to NASCAR racing on oval tracks, Hailie ran Legends Cars last year at venues as far-flung as Irwindale, California, and Charlotte Motor Speedway. In 2016 she raced in the full Summer Shootout schedule at Charlotte.

“Coming in, I started racing oval last year in a Legends Car, and if you can drive a Legends Car, you can drive just about anything there is,” Deegan said. “Driving Legends Cars, I was about mid-front pack, but the ability it gave me to drive stock cars and late models was a whole different scenario.”

Hailie is a new addition to a talented NASCAR Next class that also features some familiar faces. Harrison Burton, son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and NBC Sports analyst Jeff Burton, returns for another season in the K&N Pro Series East.

RELATED: Meet the NASCAR Next Class of 2017-18

Fellow 16-year-old Todd Gilliland, son of former Cup driver and current team owner David Gilliland, already has accumulated 12 K&N Pro Series victories in 30 starts and last year became the youngest NASCAR national or touring series champion when he claimed the K&N Pro Series West title.

Riley Herbst, 18, accumulated seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 14 starts during his rookie season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West last year. NASCAR Drive for Diversity product Chase Cabre won poles in the twin K&N events at South Boston and finished fourth at the Virginia short track while driving for Rev Racing.

Ty Majeski, 22, one of the top Super Late Model drivers in the United States, finished third in the national standings in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. Majeski will make his NASCAR XFINITY Series debut at Iowa Speedway on June 24.

Zane Smith, 17, of Huntington Beach, California, turned heads when he ran second to Cup driver Chase Elliott in the 2015 Snowball Derby – much as NASCAR Next alumnus and current Cup Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Erik Jones did when he beat Kyle Busch in the 2012 running of that same event.

WATCH: Blaney introduces this NASCAR Next class

Chase Purdy, Gilliland’s teammate in the NASCAR K&N ranks, won both the rookie of the year title and track championship in the weekly racing series at Greenville Pickens Speedway. Though the 2016 NASCAR Whelen All-American rookie of the year is a Meridian, Mississippi, native, he’s an ardent Alabama football fan.

Purdy, who is running for rookie of the year in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East this year, has had his eye on the NASCAR Next program for several years.

“To finally be in it is really cool,” Purdy said. “It’s a real honor.”

Cayden Lapcevich, from Grimsby, Ontario, is the third Canadian driver to gain entry into the NASCAR Next program. And like Hailie Deegan, he comes from a family of racers. Cayden’s father, Jeff Lapcevich, has 63 starts to his credit in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series and serves as his son’s crew chief.

Cayden, 17, followed in his father’s footsteps, winning three times and becoming the youngest NASCAR Pinty’s Series champion in 2016.

“I think NASCAR Next is really going to help open up some doors,” Cayden said. “I think it will lead us down to the states here in the next couple of years, hopefully. NASCAR’s always been the path I wanted to take and the path I’m willing to take to try to make it to the finish.”

All Lapcevich and the rest of the NASCAR Next class have to do is scan an entry list in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series – and see the names of Next alums Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez – to know that reaching that finish line is well within the realm of possibility.

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INDIANAPOLIS, Wednesday, May 17, 2017 – The Chainsmokers and Major Lazer will lead a superstar lineup of performers at the new 400 Fest, a two-night concert event during NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 event Friday, July 21 and Saturday, July 22 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Other 400 Fest artists include Mac Miller, Cheat Codes and DNCE, with an additional performer to be announced soon. Gates open at 5 p.m. both nights, with music starting at 7 p.m. The complete 400 Fest schedule, with specific performance lineups for each day, and additional details will be available soon at www.400Fest.com.

“400 Fest will help introduce a new generation of fans to Brickyard 400 weekend,” IMS President J. Douglas Boles said. “This impressive array of superstars will add even more appeal to what is already one of the most exciting weekends of the year at IMS.”

Tickets to the two-night event go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Monday, May 22 at IMS.com/tickets, by calling 800-822-INDY or 317-492-6700 or by visiting the IMS Ticket Office at the IMS Administration Building.

Prices will increase as quantities are depleted, so fans are encouraged to purchase tickets early to get the best value.

For the first 2,500 fans, two-night General Admission tickets are available at $100 each, with General Admission Pit tickets — placing fans even closer to the action — starting at $130 each. Prices then will increase to $120 for General Admission and $150 for General Admission Pit, with a final increase to $150 and $200, respectively, as the event nears capacity.

A limited number of VIP tickets will be available at $349.50 each, offering fans the ultimate 400 Fest experience. VIP tickets include a hassle-free VIP-only venue entrance, access to the VIP-only viewing area and the General Admission Pit, a VIP gift bag and access to the 400 Fest VIP village featuring dedicated cash bars, water refill stations, relaxation stations with comfortable seating, private restrooms, charging stations and VIP-only concessions and merchandise stands.

400 Fest tickets do not include admission to the Brickyard 400 or Lilly Diabetes 250, but 400 Fest ticket holders can purchase discounted General Admission tickets to any of the three days of on-track action for those races Friday, July 21, Saturday, July 22 or Sunday, July 23, including full-weekend General Admission tickets.