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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Darlington

DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Highlighting its award-winning throwback weekend plans of celebrating the 1985-89 era of the sport, Darlington Raceway will have rock legend Bret Michaels perform the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 pre-race concert on Sunday, Sept. 3.


Michaels, known for his role as front man for the multi-platinum recording band Poison and as a highly successful solo artist, will perform a variety of Poison and solo hits spanning his multigenerational career.


Stage-front tickets to see Michaels perform the Bojangles’ Southern 500 pre-race concert are on sale now by visiting DarlingtonRaceway.com or calling 866-459-7223. A grandstand ticket must be purchased with pre-race concert access.


"Bret Michaels is an iconic singer and performer who will put on an amazing show for the fans during the Bojangles’ Southern 500 pre-race concert," Track President Kerry Tharp said. "Michaels, with the band Poison, was one of the top rock acts in the late 80’s, which fits into our celebration years of 1985-89 extremely well."


Michaels is a multiplatinum global superstar who has turned his passion for music into a multi-faceted brand that encompasses record breaking touring sales, reality TV stardom, legendary songs that have sold over 32 million records, product endorsements as well as being a devoted philanthropist, all supported and followed by three generations of loyal fans.


Michaels was born in the small town of Butler, Pa., on March 15, 1963. Rising to fame as the front man of Poison, one of rock’s most iconic and enduring bands, he helped define the rock ‘n roll scene on the Sunset Strip. Their massive success includes selling over 30 million records worldwide and numerous hit singles.


Equally as successful, Michaels’ solo career has charted its own course with multiple solo albums. His album, Custom Built, topped the charts, reaching No. 1 on Billboards Hard Rock list.


When this multi-talented performer is not touring he can be found both in front of and behind the camera as a director, producer and a reality TV superstar. His first foray into reality TV brought the record-breaking "Rock of Love with Bret Michaels" franchise to VH1, one of the most successful shows in the network’s history, shattering weekly rating records during its run. Following three successful seasons of the show, he teamed up with VH1 for the docu-series "Life As I Know It" setting even more records.


Michaels has also starred in and won the NBC hit show, "Celebrity Apprentice." Coming into the show as the underdog, his tenacity and business sense helped him win the series, raising well over $300,000 for Diabetes research.


Michaels, personally and through his Life Rocks Foundation, has helped raise tens of millions of dollars for charity and makes donations to not only diabetes awareness and research but to such causes as childhood cancer, Wounded Warriors, St. Judes Children’s Hospital, PetSmart Charities and more. Having been diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of six, Michaels is passionately devoted to raise awareness of the debilitating disease in hopes of finding a cure.


He has partnered with both the American Diabetes Association and the JDRF acting as a spokesperson and sponsor, earning him numerous awards from a variety of organizations including the ADA’s first ever Chairman’s Citation award.

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BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas
RELATED: Stage racing is a hit | Full Martinsville results



In the sixth race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the stage format debuted on a short track, and significantly upped the ante at Martinsville Speedway.


Fierce racing for the top-10 spots at the end of Stage 1 and Stage 2 added to the bumping, banging and thrilling racing at Sunday’s STP 500. 



Here’s what NASCAR reporters are saying about the Stage format:



"NASCAR really hit on something here, and it’s only going to get better as the playoffs approach and begin." — Matt Weaver, Autoweek | Full story

"Sunday was what NASCAR drivers, series officials, team executives and former racers forecasted when they introduced stage racing in January." — Dustin Long, NBC Sports | Full story


"Both stage conclusions were similar to the tight, crowded racing often seen in Saturday night shows at entertaining local short tracks." — Mike Hembree, USA Today | Full story



"There was hard racing, frayed nerves, angry tempers — all elements one would normally see on the half-mile track — but these elements were also amplified because of the intensity brought about by the awarding of points when the first two stages concluded on Lap 130 and 260 of the 500-lap race." — Jordan Bianchi, SB Nation | Full story


WATCH: Stage 2 ending sizzles at Martinsville



Kyle Busch was particularly perturbed with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at the end of Stage 2, as the No. 17 tapped Busch, allowing Chase Elliott to win the stage. Busch promised payback would come eventually for Stenhouse.



"That’s exactly what NASCAR hoped for when it rolled out the stage format in January. NASCAR knew some traditional fans would view it as another gimmick, another way to ruin what was a traditional race. For NASCAR, it made the move to create moments to get fans wanting to watch earlier in the race, a move that could increase interest as well as television ratings." — Bob Pockrass, ESPN | Full story


Race winner Brad Keselowski, who helped design the new format, said: "That’s what this format is supposed to be about, is having moments like (that). Whether you agree with specific moves is really neither here nor there, but when you put things on the line, when you put more on the line throughout the race, you get more moments like that."


Other drivers are fans of the stage format, as well.



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BUY TICKETS: Celebrate Auto Club’s 20th anniversary
RELATED: Newman wins big in Phoenix


Richard Childress was still a driver/owner when Ryan Newman was born — the year was 1977 in case you’re wondering — and now all these years later here the two were, seated beside each other in the media center Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Newman the winning driver of the Camping World 500, Childress the winning team owner.


Childress took a chance on Newman in 2014 because he needed a veteran driver, and Newman took a chance on Richard Childress Racing because he needed a job. That’s often how things work in the world of NASCAR.



It took the pair more than three years and 112 races to get into Victory Lane, and the truth of the matter is that some wondered if Newman’s winning days had come and gone.



He had made the transition from open-wheel sprints and midgets to NASCAR and quickly found success with Team Penske, where he won 13 times from 2002-08. He won four more times after a move to Stewart-Haas Racing (2009-13) but found himself out of a ride when SHR brought Kevin Harvick on board.


RELATED: All of Newman’s wins in photos



Some wondered the same about Childress and his three-team organization competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Before Sunday’s victory, no RCR driver had been to the winner’s circle since Harvick’s victory at Phoenix in the fall of 2013.



That’s a tough pill to swallow for an organization that had once been the cream of the crop in NASCAR’s top series, winning six championships and 105 races.



"It’s been a long, hard fight, and a battle all the way," Childress acknowledged. "Nobody ever gave up. We never gave up on Ryan. We know that he can do it. Our cars just haven’t been quite where we needed to be."


RELATED: Newman’s career stats | Childress’ owner stats



Childress, inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this year, knows what it’s like to struggle. He made nearly 300 starts as a driver at NASCAR’s top level without going to Victory Lane. "But I always felt like this might be the weekend that the bigger teams might have a problem and I’d be there in position to win the race," he said of his driving career.



He’s always been quick to acknowledge that improvement doesn’t come overnight, but instead can be a long, arduous process. "Like turning an ocean liner around," he’s often said. "It takes time."



RCR hasn’t been the only team that has found itself scrambling to recapture past success, but maybe Sunday’s victory is a sign that the organization is indeed once again headed in the right direction.



NASCAR’s top series is full of drivers who have yet to win — nearly half those in Sunday’s field at Phoenix remain winless. A handful of others are mired in winless streaks as long or longer than Newman’s run of futility.



"Going a long time without winning, you have confidence in your mind that you can do it," Newman said. "There are guys that go their whole career and never win, good drivers.



"You just got to stay humble. This sport, you walk away from it, there’s one guy that wins, 39 losers. You have to be humble walking into it that you’re probably not going to win that day. (The) odds are against you."



MORE: Dillon, Childress congratulate Newman over radio


In the time it took Newman to return to the winner’s circle, 19 others won one or more races. Drivers such as Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth measure winless streaks in weeks, not months. And certainly not years.



"But those days of domination I think are kind of fewer and farther between," Newman said, "if you look at the first four races of this year."



True. With Kyle Larson on the brink of a second career win (he’s finished second three times in four races this season), Chase Elliott continuing to knock on the door and a host of teams finding themselves in the mix, the series’ competition pool appears deeper than ever.



Now we can add Newman’s name to the list. Sunday’s win all but assures him of a spot in this year’s 16-team, 10-race playoff.



Unlike his last two appearances, however, this time he’ll go in as a race winner.



He won the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and he’s won the Brickyard 400, two of NASCAR’s signature events. The Phoenix win, he said, will be no less memorable.



"Yeah, the drought makes a difference," Newman said. "It shouldn’t, but it does. That’s just the way your mind works.


"If we go out and win the next three races in a row, it will still feel sweet. After not winning for so long in a sport that’s so demanding, it does add some sugar to it."

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RELATED: Race recap | Results | Standings

 

It isn’t unprecedented, but it is impressive.

 

For the first time since 2009, and only the second since 1992, Ford teams have won the season’s first two races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

 

Meanwhile, six of the top 10 drivers in the point standings come from the Ford camp and this year’s two winners — Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski — have put themselves squarely in line for the season-ending 10-race playoffs.

 

Granted, winning early and often isn’t unusual — Chevrolet teams won the first three races of the 2010 season and a whopping 13 of 14 out of the gate in ’07.

 

Three of the past five seasons have seen a more balanced beginning with each of the three manufacturers — Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota — winning one of the first three races in various orders.

 

It’s ridiculously early to be calling anything a trend. The two season-opening Ford wins in ’09 didn’t portend of great things for the company that year — only one more win came its way the remainder of the season. But the past year or so has provided much in the way of Ford’s renewed commitment to NASCAR as part of the Ford Performance program.

 

Meanwhile, the early returns on the addition of Stewart-Haas Racing to the fold have been nothing but positive. In addition to Busch’s Daytona 500 victory, Kevin Harvick managed everything but collecting the trophy in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta. Harvick won the first two stages and led all but 33 laps of the 325-lap race. Both Busch and Harvick compete for SHR.

 

Team Penske has shouldered the majority of the workload for Ford in recent seasons while Roush Fenway Racing tries to re-establish itself as a contender. They aren’t the only kids on the Ford block, just the two most successful.

 

But with SHR so competitive so soon, it’s hard not to notice.

 

"We’re racers," Greg Zipadelli, vice president of competition for SHR, told NASCAR.com. "We’re old-school racers. Our guys have worked hard to get everything done; I know everyone says that, but they worked long hours and they did it every day" to complete the switch from Chevrolet to Ford.

 

MORE: Harvick tops Stages 1, 2 | No win, but plenty of success for Harvick

 

SHR fields four cars at NASCAR’s top level for drivers Harvick, Busch, Clint Bowyer and Danica Patrick. The organization also added one full-time and one part-time XFINITY Series team this year.

 

More than 100 new employees were added as SHR began building its own chassis and various other machine-shop items. "And anytime you add people, you don’t know how long it will take for everyone to get settled and things start to flow," Zipadelli said.

 

Team Penske has ruled the Ford roost from almost the time it left Dodge after a championship season in 2012. The majority of the 14 Ford victories in 2014 came from Team Penske drivers Keselowski and Joey Logano; the following year all seven Ford victories came from Team Penske; and a year ago it was seven of eight.

 

Close-knit alliances often result in improved results on the track for all parties. Toyota-branded Furniture Row Racing obviously benefited from its association with Joe Gibbs Racing last season and should do so again this year; the SHR/Hendrick pipeline saw two drivers win titles in a three-year period with Harvick in ’14 and Jimmie Johnson last season.

 

Team Penske has stayed to itself, going it alone, however.

 

"We pretty much played by ourselves, and I think that that’s made us much stronger," said team owner Roger Penske.

 

But he said he realizes the advantages of working alongside a fellow "branded" organization, and SHR has provided that opportunity.

 

"We knew coming in with Stewart‑Haas that they were going to be guys that could set a bar for us," Penske said. "In fact, we built some chassis for them before Daytona, some center sections, and we had our cars in the wind tunnel and compared them. So we know what they have and they know what we have."

 

Seeing an increase in the number of Ford teams running out front and in the top five is a good sign for those organizations. Perhaps the competitive gap has narrowed a bit.

 

"You know how strong the Toyotas have been and the Chevys have been," Penske said. "This gives (Ford teams) at least a chance to say we’re on par with these guys. Now, with a couple of wins I’d have to say we might be an inch or two ahead."

 

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BUY TICKETS: See the races in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Never mind that Kurt Busch has three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories at New Hampshire — and none at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.



Busch, a Las Vegas native, was delighted with the Wednesday announcement that Las Vegas would get a second date in NASCAR’s top series — along with accompanying XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series races.



The second Las Vegas event, to be held on a yet-to-be-determined date in September starting in 2018, replaces the fall race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff. Busch’s enthusiasm for the additional Las Vegas date was tempered only slightly by the absence of New Hampshire in the playoff.



After all, the most recent of Busch’s victories at the Magic Mile came in 2008.



"That’s big, to have Trucks on Friday, XFINITY on Saturday, Monster Energy Cup Series on Sunday," Busch said in advance of Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). "That’s big. And then it’s a playoff atmosphere in September. It will be a little warm, but we’ll see how that plays out, but the way this city continues to grow around sports … there’s an NHL team that’s now here, the Raiders continue to flirt with coming down here. With the way that this town evolves, you see it as a win-win with the entertainment side and the sporting side.



"To lose a date at New Hampshire, I think that will really push the New Englanders out hard for their July race, and there will be much more support around their race then. I haven’t won there in many years, so I’m OK with winning three times early in my career. I haven’t won there as of late, so it doesn’t matter."



The way Busch sees it, the addition of a fall race at Las Vegas also will amplify the importance of the spring event. 



"Wherever the date is, you have to be ready for it, and now when you have a springtime race at a track such as Phoenix, Martinsville, Texas — Vegas now fits in this category. All those races are that much more important in the spring because they are playoff races in the fall (at the same tracks)."



Busch’s brother Kyle, the 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, backed his brother’s sentiments.



"It’s a great opportunity for the city of Las Vegas to have another race here and for NASCAR to come to town two times," Busch said. "I look forward to that."


Posted on by Staff Report

MORE: Atlanta starting lineup

HAMPTON, Ga. — Goodyear and driver Kyle Busch seem to be inextricably linked in the news fodder of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, and that continued to be the case Sunday morning at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

An errant step by a fan in the garage sent oil spilling onto two tires of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, necessitating a trip to the Goodyear building where the tires were washed and, after careful inspection, returned to the team.

"It’s unfortunate, but look around," crew chief Adam Stevens said, noting the crowded garage area full of race fans and team personnel. "The tires seem to be fine, no issues there, hopefully, so we should be OK."

This year, teams are required to start the race on the tires used during qualifying and at an abrasive track such as Atlanta, the fewer the laps on tires, the quicker the lap times. Teams have two fewer sets at their disposal compared to last season for today’s 325-lap race, the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

Jimmy Makar, senior vice president of racing operations for JGR, wasn’t aware of the situation when asked Sunday morning, but seemed convinced the team would be required and able to start the race on the qualifying tires and would not be provided an additional set to replace those on which the oil had spilled.

Stu Grant, general manager of global race tires for Goodyear, said the tires were cleaned with "mild soap and water, that type of thing."

"You don’t want to put solvent on it because the rubber will absorb the solvent," he said.

Busch will start third for today’s race. He won Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race, the Rinnai 250, only to learn later that his car had failed post-race technical inspection due to a height violation.

"Maybe they should have checked the air pressure in the front tires first," Busch quipped after being told of the infraction.

The 2015 Monster Energy Cup Series champion was involved in a crash in last week’s season-opening Daytona 500 that was the result of a tire going down.

"You know, obviously Goodyear tires just aren’t very good at holding air," an upset Busch said after the incident. "It’s very frustrating when we have that down here every single year we’ve been here."

Asked about Goodyear’s post-race analysis of the team’s Daytona tires, Grant said there was nothing to indicate that a tire going down caused Busch to crash.

"That would appear to be the case," he said. "But Kyle is a professional race car driver and he spun for some reason; he felt something."

Grant said Goodyear officials studied the two rear Daytona tires at the company’s headquarters in Akron, Ohio, and viewed video provided by FOX, which aired the Daytona 500, as well as video obtained from NASCAR.

A flat spot was found on the right rear, and that only occurs when a tire has air in it, it’s spinning and then locked up, according to Grant.

"The video from FOX showed that," he said. "The car is spinning and the right rear is definitely up."

Grant believes that after spinning and sliding off the steep banking, the right rear was flat-spotted all the way through, which caused the air loss.

He said no cuts were found on the left rear tire based on research analysis, and the NASCAR video verified that the tire was up when Busch’s car began to spin.

"The left rear is up until he is hit by the 77 (of Erik Jones)," Grant said. "The 77 knocks the tire off the flange, it loses air and then the tire gets folded over and that’s how we found it. The tire was folded in half at the center line but again it did not have a cut."

 

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RELATED: Atlanta announces repave plan
HAMPTON, Ga. — Drivers have made their feelings known about Atlanta Motor Speedway’s scheduled repave, lobbying nearly in unison for the project to be delayed. Marcus Smith, president and CEO of track owner Speedway Motorsports, Inc., says he’s listening.

Smith addressed the topic and the possibility of a second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event at SMI’s facility in Las Vegas in a meeting with reporters approximately an hour before the green flag of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta.

The 500-miler is scheduled to be the last on the Georgia track’s 20-year-old pavement, which has drawn rave reviews from drivers. The gritty surface places a premium on tire wear and car control, leading to multi-groove racing and slipping and sliding throughout the field.

Smith said he’s heard the pleas from drivers over the tripleheader weekend to keep things the way they are, to at least temporarily stall the renovation.

“I can’t really say the status has changed, but it’s caused us to think about what we’re doing,” Smith said. “We’ve looked at the track a lot, of course, over the years, and we feel like we’ve gotten about three more years out of the life of the track right now. So the challenges are still there on keeping the track raceable and making it something we can have a race on today and have a quality race.

“But definitely (we) have heard from the drivers saying that they like this gritty surface and so we will look at it after the race today and be able to make a better determination of what we’ll have to do going forward.”


RELATED: Bell wins Truck Series race at Atlanta

Drivers have been nearly unified in their praise of the old surface, taking to their Twitter accounts to campaign for a paving reprieve at the 1.54-mile track. Matt Crafton joined the chorus in his post-race remarks after finishing second in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event.

 

“It’s so much fun,” Crafton said. “I think we need to start a drivers’ council. If anybody from Atlanta Motor Speedway wants to come in here and wants to talk about repaving this place, then we need to get all the drivers together and talk about it because that was some of the greatest racing I’ve seen in a long time. … Everyone was all over that race track, and that’s what it’s all about.”

 

If and when the Atlanta repave occurs, Smith said his team of engineers and paving experts will likely take cues from Texas Motor Speedway, which has completed a resurfacing project ahead of NASCAR’s visit next month to the Lone Star State. The use of different asphalt compounds and artificial aging processes should help to accelerate Texas’ breaking-in period, with Smith indicating that he hopes its new surface will emulate Atlanta’s current state.


PHOTOS: See the Texas repave underway

It’s yet another item on a long to-do list for SMI, which owns eight speedways that host 12 dates on the 36-race schedule for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. A pressing concern out of the Atlanta weekend is a planned Wednesday meeting for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors to discuss the possibility of adding a second Monster Energy Series race at SMI’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway as early as 2018.

 

“We love the support that we get out of Las Vegas,” Smith said. “I think the fans love it, so it’s a great track for us. I think when we see that the community is supportive of racing there, it’s definitely encouraging to us.”


RELATED: Report says Vegas closing in on second premier series date

NASCAR entered into a five-year sanctioning agreement with the 23 tracks that host Monster Energy Cup Series events in October 2015. NASCAR officials have long maintained that they have no intention of expanding the schedule beyond its current 36-race limit.

 

Adding a second event in Vegas would likely need to occur at the expense of an existing track on the schedule, fueling speculation about whether SMI would shift a race away from its remaining seven tracks — Atlanta, Bristol, Charlotte, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Sonoma or Texas — or whether another venue would surrender a date.

 

 

“You know, I’m not big on speculating. I’d rather just tell you when I know, but it’s fun to speculate,” Smith said with a grin. “So we’ll see.”