Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Talladega results

The Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford team received an L1-level penalty from NASCAR on Wednesday after the car failed post-race inspection following the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. According to NASCAR, the car failed post-race rear wheel steer on the LIS.

As part of the penalty, crew chief Drew Blickensderfer was fined $65,000 and suspended from the next three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points events. Additionally, the team was assessed with the loss of 35 driver and 35 owner points.

Aric Almirola drove the No. 43 Ford to a fourth-place finish in the GEICO 500, matching his highest finish of the season (he was also fourth at the Daytona 500). His race finish is now encumbered.

“We accept NASCAR’s decision and will continue to work to get the most out of our race cars every week while maintaining the NASCAR rulebook,” Philippe Lopez, RPM’s director of competition, said in a statement provided by the team. “We look forward to Kansas this weekend.”

Scott McDougall will be the interim crew chief for the No. 43 this weekend at Kansas, according to the official NASCAR entry list.

Among other penalties issued Wednesday was a $10,000 fine to Ken Davis, the crew chief for the Tommy Baldwin Racing No. 7 Chevrolet. The car, driven by Elliott Sadler to a 17th-place finish, was found to have a missing lug nut in post-race inspection.

MORE: Learn about NASCAR’s 2017 deterrence policy

Posted on by Jason Lofing

RELATED: iRacing 2017

Defending NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series Champion Ray Alfalla scored his first win of the 2017 season, passing Zack Novak with 16 laps to go before holding off a charging Kenny Humpe for the victory at Richmond International Raceway.

 

Humpe had a couple of chances to battle Alfalla for the lead, including one time with seven laps to go when he got a nose under Alfalla coming off Turn 4. The two made contact which sent Humpe for a slide and nearly cost him second position.

 

Humpe, to his credit, did not give up and with two laps remaining he was once again on Alfalla’s back bumper. With Alfalla hogging the low line Humpe searched for grip on the outside but could not find a way past Alfalla over the last two circuits. Alfalla crossed the line just over 0.2 seconds in front of a spinning Humpe, who crossed the line sideways after making a final bid to draw alongside off Turn 4.

 

Ryan Luza finished third, 1.5 seconds behind. Corey Vincent was fourth and Ryan Lowe came home fifth, both just behind Luza at the checkered. Novak had been holding third but ran out of fuel on the last lap and finished eighteenth.

 

The 200-lap race had just two cautions and was relatively clean throughout. The long runs allowed sim racers with a solid setup in their car to move forward, but doomed those who found themselves struggling with handling.

 

Nick Ottinger started the night on pole and led the first 15 laps but Vincent had the fastest car early and passed Ottinger for the lead shortly before the first yellow flag of the race waved for Mitchell Hunt’s spin off Turn 2.

 

Vincent held the lead during the pit stops which followed and maintained a comfortable gap back to Alfalla after the sim racing resumed in earnest. The next 130 laps would run under the green flag, testing the tire saving skills of the whole field as grip off the corners was at a premium.

 

One driver experiencing no lack of grip was Humpe, who started to make inroads on the lead around 30 laps into the run. In the span of 20 laps Humpe went from the backend of the top five to blowing by Vincent for the race lead.

 

However, just two laps later Humpe hit pit road for a scheduled stop for tires and fuel. The field cycled through the round of stops without incident but in the meantime Humpe had lost the lead to Alfalla, who had pitted a couple laps before the former leader.

 

As another round of green flag stops approached Alfalla maintained the lead over Vincent with Humpe unable to gain ground on the top two during the second run. One by one the leaders headed to pit road for a second time under green, but one stayed on the race track: Novak. On Lap 147 Novak got the yellow he wanted. Enough time had passed that Alfalla and the other leaders from earlier in the race had to pit again for tires and would restart behind Novak.

 

On the restart, Novak looked strong for 10 laps. However, slowly but surely Alfalla began reeling him in. The problem was not catching Novak, but passing him. Novak did well to take away Alfalla’s line and hold his challenger at bay for several laps before an incident with the lapped car of Michael Johnson opened the door for Alfalla to make the race-winning pass.

 

With Richmond in the rear view mirrors, Luza is still atop the standings after Week Six, but Alfalla has closed to within seven points. Bobby Zalenski dropped to third, a single point behind Alfalla. Logan Clampitt is another ten points adrift and Darik Bourdeau rounds out the top five, 39 markers back.

 

The series returns to a 1.5-mile track in two weeks’ time, with a 300-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway marking the third such racetrack in 2017. Luza won at Las Vegas and was strong at Texas before being involved in an accident, so look for him to make a bid for his third win of the season. Alfalla should not be counted out though and has momentum on his side as he looks for a second straight victory. Be sure to tune into iRacingLive at 8:45 p.m. Eastern on May 23 (00:45 GMT on May 24) to see who comes out on top on NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series’ longest night!

Posted on by @nascarcasm

FROM THE DESK OF GUS THE DOG

Yo, yo, yo, ye minions — gather ’round my verbal lectern as I drop knowledge nuggets.

Well, as I’m sure you’ve heard, my owner, Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr., is retiring after a 119-year career (Editor’s note: Adjusted for dog years). I figured I’d add my 14 cents. (Editor’s note: Also adjusted for dog years.)

MORE: Dale Jr. to retire | Junior nation reacts

Did I know the announcement was coming? Well, sort of. He hinted a couple of weeks ago when he scratched me behind the ear and said, “Hey Gus — we’re gonna be spendin’ a lot more time together.” I figured he failed laser inspection and was suspended or something.

Then I’m like, “OK, maybe this means I get to ride in the race car now.” I would give up my nudes of Danica and Ricky’s German Shepherd to stick my head out the window at 200 mph. But that’s not gonna be the case. He and I will be home, fighting over couch space. But at least I get to keep the nudes. I’m a water-bowl-is-half-full kind of dog.

So the night before the announcement, he was wide awake at 4 a.m. Usually when this happens, it’s because he set an alarm because an eBay auction taking place overseas is ending and he really wants to make sure he wins that Eddie Bierschwale belt buckle or Rich Bickle Thermos or any of the other crap he wins. Oh God. I just realized he’s probably gonna get a bunch of retirement gifts. Anyone have the number for the producers of “Hoarders?” This is gonna get out of control. Useless crap everywhere, from eBay and now from tracks. Amy and I bury most of it back behind the Old West town when he’s gone and he’s never noticed. Mashing the panic button with my manicured paw.

So that morning, he gets dressed up in a suit and leaves. He’s not really a suit kind of guy. He’s a laid-back, T-shirt-and-jeans-with-a-U-shaped-crotch kind of guy, so I knew something was up. Next thing I know, my phone is blowing up. Figuratively. Not as in, I have a Samsung Galaxy. “Your owner’s retiring!” texts were rolling in from everyone. Immediately Alex Bowman showed up and just started mowing our lawn and trimming the hedges and preparing fresh batches of lemonade for Dale and Amy when they got home.

So now everything changes for me. Dale’s gonna be home a lot more, which is going to make flirting with Amy so much harder. I have no idea what he’s going to do next. Will he be like Jeff Gordon and head to the TV booth? Will he be like Tony Stewart and return to the dirt tracks? I love rolling around in dirt but that’s unlikely. Will he be like Carl Edwards and do whatever it is Carl Edwards is now doing? BTW, I have it on good authority he’s completely Amish now.

I know he’s gonna start getting super mad at me when he finally sees how much stuff I usually leave lying around the house. Dog toys, chewed up ASICS, what have you. He’s gonna have tantrum. OK, so I leave one dead rabbit in the Elvis room and it’s this HUGE, gross thing, BUT, OH, you can toss a bunch of demolished race car carcasses on your yard and it’s “charming and folksy.”

He’ll also need a job, which means you can count on him joining LinkedIn, and then promptly breaking that social media platform, too. I can see it now, getting the email — “DALE EARNHARDT JR. has asked you to endorse him in the following skills: Drivin’, networkin’, makin’ that sweet, sweet jerky.”

All I know is that if he’s gonna be home more often, he needs to respect my boundaries. If we’re gonna co-exist in harmony, then none of that ordering me around. If he does that, so help me God, I’ll swallow a DaleCall and every time I bark, he’ll come running.

Stay tuned for more.
— Gus

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR Productions took home hardware for Outstanding Social TV Experience at last night’s 38th Annual Sports Emmy® Awards, marking the sport’s fifth win since 2011 and first ever in this category. NASCAR’s on-stage presence was amplified by Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Daniel Suárez, who was on hand to present three awards for Spanish-language achievements.

“100,000 Cameras: DAYTONA 500” received top honors for its innovative use of fan, team and driver-generated video to tell the story of the Great American Race. Weaving together content submitted using #100KCams, the third installment in the groundbreaking FS1 documentary series took viewers inside the 2016 DAYTONA 500, capturing the event’s most compelling moments from every conceivable angle.

Last night’s ceremony also recognized the sport’s broadcast partners FOX and NBC in several categories, including FOX NASCAR in the Outstanding Sports Promotional Announcement category for its season launch “Daytona Day” campaign.

Presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports Emmy Awards recognize outstanding achievement in sports television coverage. Nominations were announced in 41 categories earlier this year, and winners were honored last night at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City.

Watch more from NASCAR Productions and FOX by tuning in this Saturday for the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway, live at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Best tweets, pics, video of the day

It’s not a surprise attack, but there’s definitely an element of surprise in Tuesday’s NASCAR XFINITY takeover of Philadelphia.

 

Fresh from a fourth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Ben Kennedy envisioned the reaction of passersby to burnouts on the streets of the City of Brotherly Love.

 

“We’re going to do it around lunchtime,” Kennedy said of a planned stock car parade, complete with a smoke show, in downtown Philadelphia. “Naturally, people are probably going to be going to lunch. They might have an hour off where they can walk around and take in the city.

 

“They might happen to stumble upon it and see this stuff. That part will be pretty neat, and we’re all looking forward to it. … They’re going to shut down several streets here during lunchtime right in the heart of Philadelphia, right where all the action is going on, right where all the good restaurants and big businesses are.”

 

Kennedy is one of 12 NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers who flew into Philadelphia on Tuesday morning to raise awareness of NASCAR racing on the East Coast — but not through a traditional media blitz with in-studio appearances on television and radio.

 

Instead, through the coordination of Pocono Raceway and Dover International Speedway, the series entitlement sponsor — XFINITY — and the sanctioning body, the drivers were making stops that are representative of the fabric of Philadelphia life.

 

There was a STEM-focused question-and-answer session at the Franklin Institute, followed by a meet-and-greet autograph session with fans at the Comcast Center Front Plaza. Then came the parade through downtown Philly, featuring pit stops at City Hall followed by burnouts on Market Street.

 

Several drivers, including Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., took part in a cook-off featuring Pat’s and Geno’s, two renowned purveyors of Philly cheesesteaks.

 

Wallace answered the question that has occupied Philadelphians for decades, though he didn’t have a real basis for comparison.

 

“Geno’s,” Wallace said. “I had a Philly cheesesteak there. I didn’t have one at Pat’s, so Geno’s is No. 1 in my book. I was hungry, and it was really good.”

 

After landing in Philadelphia, Wallace had to work up an appetite.

 

“We were at the Franklin Institute, passing out tickets to families and kids to get them to Pocono and Dover events,” Wallace said. “That was a lot of fun.”

 

Wallace was happy to spend the day helping to promote his sport.

 

“You get a lot of weird looks when you’ve got a bunch of guys walking around in fire suits,” he said. “Everybody was wondering what’s up. And they definitely stopped to ask questions. We had a lot of tickets to hand out, and it’ll be cool to get some new faces out there in the stands.

 

“It’s all about promotion these days and getting the word out there. We’re continuing to try to get new faces and a new demographic and keep pushing those efforts. NASCAR has been doing everything they can to make that happen, using the young guns and XFINITY Series regulars.”

RELATED: Free Kids Tix for XFINITY races

 

More appearances followed, as drivers were scheduled to fan out to Thomas Edison High School, the Reading Terminal Market, an XFINITY Store grand opening at King of Prussia, an XFINITY live stint and, finally, the Philadelphia Phillies baseball game against the Seattle Mariners.

 

Roush Fenway Racing driver and two-time Daytona winner Ryan Reed was afforded the honor of throwing out the first pitch.

 

“They asked if I’d do it, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,’ ” Reed said after landing in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning. “I’m a little nervous. I was texting with somebody, and they said, ‘Don’t bounce it. Don’t bounce it in. Put some heat on it, whatever you do.’ ”

 

Previously, Reed had thrown a first pitch at a Birmingham Barons minor-league game but never before in the majors.

 

“I’m going out there cold,” Reed said. “I didn’t practice at all. You know, I might try to find a baseball if we get a break at some point and try to throw it somewhere. In downtown Philly, there’s not a lot of places to throw a baseball, but maybe I’ll get to the stadium a little early.”

 

Kennedy, the grandson of late NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. and the son of International Speedway Corporation CEO Lesa France Kennedy, sees similarities between the Philadelphia takeover and some of the annual Champion’s Week festivities.

 

“It reminds me of being able to visit New York a while back,” Kennedy said. “Hopefully, this is kind of a tradition and something we can do throughout the years. It’s really a pretty neat setup that they’ve got going on here. It’s pretty neat to have XFINITY and (parent company) Comcast so involved as well.”

Posted on by Track Release

CONCORD, N.C. — Drenched in Coca-Cola, sweat and confetti after winning the Coca-Cola 600 on May 29, 2016, Martin Truex Jr. noticed a large, red-and-white Coca-Cola vending machine entering Charlotte Motor Speedway’s winner’s circle. Truex initially thought it made for a nice photo-op, but he could barely contain his excitement when he learned that the decades-old vending machine was his to keep.

“That’s nice to hear,” Terry Kimble said from his office in Grayson, Georgia, nearly a year later. “I never know what the drivers think of them. I don’t really get to meet them. I know that we work hard, though.”

RELATED: Truex Jr. makes history in Coca-Cola 600 victory

Kimble owns and operates Remember When Restorations, a small company that restores vintage Coca-Cola vending machines. He realized nearly 30 years ago that the demand for old Coke memorabilia spans the globe. A member of the Atlanta Police Department for 17 years, Kimble left the force at age 39 to work full time on restorations in 1989.

What steered the Charleston, West Virginia, native — who has restored roughly 600 vending machines — to NASCAR was a suggestion from Irish golfer Padraig Harrington.

Harrington met with Coca-Cola Sports Marketing Director Ben Reiling and a group of people at an event during the PGA’s TOUR Championship in 2009. Harrington, an aficionado of antique vending machines, suggested that Coca-Cola give one to the winner of the TOUR Championship every year. Reiling shared the idea with one of Coca-Cola’s leaders, Bea Perez, who signed off on the concept.

Reiling joined Coca-Cola’s PGA team of John Egan and Kasia Horner and after a weekend of hard work, presented 2009 TOUR Championship winner Phil Mickelson with an antique vending machine. The next May, Kurt Busch won the Coca-Cola 600, the Bruton Smith Trophy and a vintage Coca-Cola machine.

Kimble is Coca-Cola’s point man for the restorations.

“It takes approximately 60 days to restore one from start to finish,” Kimble said. “We try to do two or three at a time. It’s a very in-depth process because we take a machine completely apart. Even the insulation comes out. We take it and have it sandblasted after it’s taken apart, get all the old paint and rust off it and then our painter, Jeremy Black in most cases, does his thing. …

“We’re very particular about the color of red paint we use. After it’s painted, we get parts re-chromed, we use new gaskets and screws. We put a new compressor in it to make sure that years from now it’s going to work fine. We’re really particular about authenticity. We’re really particular about the decals we use from that era — which is usually the 1950s — and about everything. I want it to be as authentic as possible. It’s like a classic car.”

The winner of this year’s Coca-Cola 600 will receive a Cavalier 51 model. Truex, who will chase his second machine on May 28, keeps last year’s prize in his Mooresville, North Carolina, office.

“I guess you can say we received a classic piece of history for winning a classic race in historical fashion,” Truex said. “It might have felt like a dream-kind-of win, but it was the real thing.”

Posted on by Nascar

CONCORD, N.C. — L1-level penalties levied against the Team Penske No. 2 Ford team competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series were upheld here Tuesday following a Final Appeal hearing at the NASCAR Research & Development Center.

As a result of the ruling, Paul Wolfe, crew chief of the No. 2 team, is suspended for this weekend’s race, the Go Bowling 400 scheduled for Saturday, May 13 at Kansas Speedway.

“We are disappointed in the outcome of today’s final appeal hearing,” Team Penske officials said in a statement issued following the decision. “While we appreciate the process that NASCAR and the National Motorsports Appeals Panel has put in place to resolve issues like this, we felt like the penalties received following the March event at Phoenix were unjust.

“Brian Wilson will once again serve as Brad Keselowski’s crew chief this weekend at Kansas Speedway. We’re happy to finally have this behind us as the No. 2 team focuses its efforts on another Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship.”

Wolfe was fined $65,000 and suspended for three Monster Energy Cup Series races while driver Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 team were docked 35 driver and owner points, respectively, for a rules violation uncovered during post-race inspection following the Camping World 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

The No. 2 entry failed the post-race rear wheel steer on the LIS (Laser Inspection Station).

Wolfe has already sat out two races — the Auto Club 400 as Penske officials filed the initial appeal and asked for his suspension to be deferred, and most recently the Geico 500 at Talladega before Tuesday’s final appeal hearing.

In his absence, Wilson, a team engineer, had served as interim crew chief for the No. 2 team.

A three-member National Motorsports Appeals Panel had upheld the original penalties on April 12.

Tuesday’s meeting, which began at 7:45 a.m. ET, lasted slightly more than four hours. Among those present were team owner Roger Penske and Competition Director Travis Geisler.

Keselowski is third in the championship driver points standings through the season’s first 10 races and the No. 2 team is third in the championship owner standings. The points deductions were factored into the driver and team point totals upon the initial announcement of the penalties, thus Tuesday’s decision did not result in any movement in the standings.

The 2012 series champion, Keselowski already has two wins this season, at Atlanta and Martinsville, all but guaranteeing he and his team a spot in this season’s 10-race playoff.

Roger Werner, chairman of the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States (ACCUS), served as the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer on Tuesday. Werner ruled on the appeal in place of Bryan Moss, who was unable to attend the hearing.

Posted on by Staff Report

BUY TICKETS: See the races in Pocono | See the races in Dover
RELATED: See the drivers in Philly

Drivers in the XFINITY Series hit the streets of Philadelphia on Tuesday for the second year in a row to celebrate NASCAR in advance of upcoming races near Comcast headquarters, the NASCAR XFINITY Series entitlement partner, at Pocono and Dover.

Follow along via tweets, which will be updated throughout the day:

Posted on by Nascar

BUY TICKETS: See the races at Kentucky | Get kids tickets to races

Goodyear officials will look to do more than verify the tire package for this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway when they hold a two-day test Tuesday and Wednesday at the 1.5-mile track.

“We’ve also got some things to try to actually promote a little more wear on a repaved surface, which is something we haven’t been able to do,” Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear, told NASCAR.com on Sunday. “The guys have kind of taken a different approach on compound formulation to see if we can’t actually generate some wear on what we project to be a fairly smooth surface.”

Kentucky Speedway will host the Quaker State 400 on Saturday, July 8 and will be preceded by NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (July 6) and XFINITY Series (July 7) races.

The 1.5-mile track was repaved before last year’s tripleheader; a portion of the asphalt has since been replaced.

“From my understanding they re-did the top two inches of it; they didn’t go down and take up everything, they put a new top coat on,” Stucker said of the changes. “We’re going to go there with the same package that we raced last year. At the same time, we feel like that was probably conservative. … We admit it was probably conservative but that’s OK, it was a repave and I’d rather be that way than not.

“So we’ll go back and see how different the surface is — it’s supposed to be the same (asphalt) mix. We’re going to verify that.”

Teams from Chip Ganassi Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Furniture Row Racing are scheduled to take part in the test. Drivers expected to be on hand are Jamie McMurray (CGR), Austin Dillon (RCR), Kurt Busch (SHR) and Erik Jones (FRR).

Two tire tests have been held this season, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A test at Michigan was postponed due to weather and has been rescheduled for July 10-11. Because of the date change, the MIS test will now be dealing with potential ’18 changes rather than focused on this year’s races at the 2-mile track.

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

BUY TICKETS: See the races at Kansas

When a winning Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series driver tells Carl Edwards he just did something “crazy,” that carries some weight.

 

Craig Stanton, a champion road racer and regular test driver for Toyota Racing Development, and Edwards got a Toyota Land Cruiser (heavily modified, of course) up above 230 mph at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

 

Crazy really is the only word for it.

 

“We just did something pretty crazy. We drove an SUV over 230 mph. But I’m telling you, at 225 mph the thing was wandering a little bit, and trying to keep my foot in it,” Edwards says.

 

Edwards gives credit to his driving partner after joking before the test run that he really didn’t ask Stanton enough questions before agreeing to the driving task.

 

“Craig Stanton said, ‘No matter what, keep your foot in it, and we got 230 mph,’ ” Edwards explained after the run. “It’s an unofficial record, but I think it’s safe to say it’s the fastest SUV on the planet.”
You can watch the record unfold in the video below.

 

 

What’s next for the driver who stepped away from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after the 2016 season?

“I got about 1,800 acres of soybeans to plant, but that’s about it for right now,” Edwards told Tom Jensen of Fox Sports.com.