HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (January 12, 2017) — Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) announced today that the team will compete in the 59th running of the Daytona 500 with Elliott Sadler behind the wheel of the No. 7 Golden Corral Chevrolet.
Sadler, a 16-year veteran of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, will be running double-duty during NASCAR’s opening weekend competing in both the Cup and XFINITY Series. The Emporia, Virginia native and Baldwin have a relationship dating back to their days at Robert Yates Racing when Baldwin served as crew chief for Sadler.
"This is a great opportunity for me and everyone affiliated with Tommy Baldwin Racing," said Sadler. "I love the Daytona 500 and to have Tommy and Golden Corral offer me this opportunity is awesome. Tommy and I have known each other a long time. We actually won a qualifying race for the Daytona 500 together back in 2006. We’re gonna rekindle some of that magic and work our tails off to get our car in the race. I know Tommy is putting a lot of effort into this and we’re gonna go out and get the best result we possibly can for him and TBR’s partners."
Golden Corral returns for their seventh season together and will bring back their popular ‘Top 10 Kids Eat Free’ promotion. If Elliott Sadler finishes in the top-10 at Daytona, kids 10 and under will eat free at Golden Corral restaurants nationwide on Monday, February 27th.
"We are excited to be working with Tommy Baldwin Racing for the seventh season," said Shelley Wolford, Vice President of National Marketing and Media at Golden Corral. "We will be cheering Elliott on to qualify at Daytona and then race for a Top 10 Kids Eat Free finish."
"We look forward to having Elliott join TBR and Golden Corral for the upcoming Daytona 500," said team owner Tommy Baldwin. "Elliott has always been a strong restrictor plate racer which makes this a great opportunity for everyone involved. We know our fans look forward to the ‘Top10 Kids Eat Free’ promotion every year so we want to capitalize on that and finish the Daytona 500 strong."
"If you’re looking for a driver you’re looking for me."
That’s what was written on young Carl Edwards‘ business cards nearly 20 years ago, cards he used to hand out at the race track while trying to transition from his day job as a substitute teacher in Columbia, Missouri, to a racer.
But even as he stood on the stage in front of the press corps at Joe Gibbs Racing Wednesday to announcing his departure from full-time racing after 12 seasons in NASCAR’s premier series, his humble, Midwestern roots were apparent.
They’d never left.
They were there even at Homestead-Miami Speedway, when a crash with Joey Logano in the final 10 laps took Edwards from Victory Lane to the garage, his dreams of winning the 2016 title were crushed as his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Instead of reacting with anger, Edwards went to the No. 22 pit box, shook crew chief Todd Gordon’s hand and wished the team the best of luck the rest of the race.
That act spoke volumes about Edwards’ character, both as a person and a race car driver.
"In pro sports, you’re going to get the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," JGR owner Joe Gibbs said. "And I think for all of us, everybody’s going to handle a victory pretty good … but that adversity, when you hit that … I think you guys have all seen (Edwards) go through some tough stuff and really handle himself extremely well."
No one knew it, but that race, that night, would serve as the closing act in Edwards’ full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career finale.
With the exception of winning the title, Edwards’ night in South Florida couldn’t have served as a better curtain call for the 37-year-old driver.
"Let me tell you about Homestead, though. With 30 laps to go, 40 laps to go, 30 laps to go, 20 laps to go, that’s what I live for," Edwards said. "…That is racing to me. I mean, (crew chief) Dave (Rogers) and I had worked all year to be in that moment, to pass ‑‑ that battle with Jimmie (Johnson), and then to be able to pass Joey and Kyle (Busch) for the ultimate prize, driving just as hard as I could, and to be in that position and to know that day we were getting it done.
"…That part of Homestead, for me personally, I won."
And really, he’s won again in a way as he steps away from premier series racing. Edwards is walking away from a career that he can be proud of, a stint across parts of 13 years in NASCAR’s premier series that boasts 28 victories, 22 poles and two runner-up finishes in the championship standings to Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart in 2008 and 2011, respectively.
And he did it right: He did it with class, humility and the Midwestern demeanor that has followed him from Colombia, Missouri, to North Carolina and to race tracks across the country.
"It’s very flattering," Edwards said of the public’s positive, always-do-the-right-thing perception of him. "Yeah, I just …"
He stopped, turned away from the audience, visibly wiping away tears.
When he spoke again, his voice quivered a bit.
"I just want to be a good person, you know. Sorry, guys. Damn camera shutters are killing me there. It’s the lighting, it’s awful," he joked, trying to make light of his emotion.
It’s great to go out with a championship. But sometimes, it’s not always about the trips to Victory Lane. It usually wasn’t for Cousin Carl, even when he was handing out business cards in the beginning.
"You guys know that I don’t race just for the trophies," Edwards said. "This has always been a really ‑‑ this has been a neat journey for me and it’s always been something that I’ve been rewarded by the challenges … So you go from that to working up the courage to ask people to drive a car to being put in situations where you know if you drive well and you win, you get sponsorship and everything works.
"Going through that whole process and becoming a better person, a stronger person, a better competitor, a better teammate, a better friend to people, that’s a big deal to me, and I feel accomplished.
"And I know when I sit in that race car that I am the best race car driver I can be. So whether or not I have a championship, I’m really satisfied with that."
Kenseth addressed the changing guard at Joe Gibbs Racing on Wednesday following a Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas.
"I didn’t find out until late Sunday night, and I was probably as shocked as anybody else was," Kenseth said. "I guess the more I think about, probably the less surprised I am knowing some of the conversations we’ve had in the past. He’s a great teammate, and a great competitor.
"You hate to see him go, but on the other hand, it’s what he wants to do so I applaud him for doing it."
Kenseth also added that he thought Daniel Suarez would do a fine job filling the seat, but that the two hadn’t spoken yet.
The veteran will turn 45 in March, and he’s coming off a two-win season and a near-trip to the Championship 4. As for his future? He’s not planning on leaving any time soon.
"I feel great," Kenseth said. "I enjoy what I’m doing, I love the race team I drive for and all the people there. I’m looking forward to the start of the season."
Denny Hamlin, a fellow JGR teammate, has tweeted out the following as well:
Ford Performance indicated that other stages of the driver development program would be announced at a later time. The program is designed to cultivate home-grown talent for all Ford teams in NASCAR. According to the news release, current teams will be consulted about driver selection and placement, but their contractual ties will reside with Ford, which will also use signees in product development and testing.
“We’re making a commitment to win long-term in NASCAR,” Dave Pericak, Ford Performance’s global director, said in a release provided by the manufacturer. “We have been increasing our engineering support and our technological development at the team level, and now we’re looking to work with our teams to find the best available drivers coming up in the sport.”
The move further strengthens the ties with the automaker and team owner Brad Keselowski, which will field Ford trucks full-time for Austin Cindric and now Briscoe this season. Briscoe, a 22-year-old Indiana native with a rich sprint-car racing pedigree, landed the ARCA championship in 2016, riding a six-win season to the series crown.
“This is a big day in the history of BKR,” Keselowski said in the news release. “To be recognized as a true partner to Ford and Ford Performance and what they are trying to do speaks directly to the hard work our team has put in over the last several years. It is an honor, frankly, and it is really what BKR is all about — providing young, talented drivers with championship-caliber equipment to continue to hone their craft and showcase their talents.
“We have been fortunate to have had a lot of success together with Ford across the three major NASCAR touring series and to now elevate that relationship in an official capacity is a testament to what we set out to do.”
The move marks the second significant boost for Ford’s racing program ahead of the season. Stewart-Haas Racing‘s four-car organization has joined the Blue Oval camp for 2017, helping Ford Performance increase its numbers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage. That expansion also included the birth of a NASCAR XFINITY Series program for SHR, with Cole Custer competing full-time and Kevin Harvick driving on a part-time basis.
NASCAR Hall of Fame discussion and debate is typically expected and generally prevalent as talented and high-profile drivers step away from competition. And such is the natural consideration for Carl Edwards, who announced — quite unexpectedly — Wednesday that he was stepping away from competing in the sport.
Edwards, at only age 37, joins former NASCAR multi-time champions Jeff Gordon, 45, and Tony Stewart, 45, in making this career decision in just the last two years. The four-time champion Gordon ended his full-time career in 2015 only to fill-in for injured Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in eight races last season. Stewart, a three-time champ, stepped away from the NASCAR driver’s seat at the end of 2016, but is still competing in other forms of racing.
For both Gordon, a 93-time winner in NASCAR’s premier series and Stewart, a 49-race winner in what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Hall of Fame induction seems to be a given.
As a contemporary of the two, Edwards’ credentials also will naturally give rise to Hall of Fame discussion even though he competed 12 fewer years than Gordon at the top level and five fewer years than Stewart, an IndyCar champion before he arrived in NASCAR.
"I would say that his career, he’ll probably come under strong consideration for everything he did," Edwards team owner Joe Gibbs said of Hall of Fame talk Wednesday following Edwards’ news conference.
Edwards’ NASCAR statistics — highlighted by 28 Cup wins, the 2007 XFINITY Series title to with 38 wins in that series as well as six Camping World Truck Series victories — are certainly impressive even though they don’t include a championship at the Cup level or a Daytona 500 victory.
Three times Edwards came painstakingly close to hoisting the Cup trophy.
He won a season-high nine races in 2008 only to finish runner-up to seven-time winner Jimmie Johnson, who was right in the middle of a five-year championship run.
Edwards was a season runner-up again in 2011, actually tying Stewart in the points standings for the title but losing on a tie-breaker. Stewart won five of the 10 Chase races, Edwards had only one victory on the year. It remains, obviously, the tightest championship battle in NASCAR history.
And of course, Edwards was leading the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, poised to perhaps at last claim that oh-so elusive championship. But contact with fellow Championship 4 driver Joey Logano with what turned out to be 12 laps remaining, led to a wreck and a fourth-place finish in the standings.
"It’s ironic for him that in the two championship bids that he was right there, one of them he lost by one point and the other one, 15 laps to go and he had it, he was pulling away from everybody," Gibbs said. "I think that it’s not my place to judge all that, but I think those guys will give strong consideration for him in the future."
Since Edwards began full-time premier series competition in 2005, only the newly-crowned seven-time champion Johnson has bettered Edwards’ nine race wins in a single season (2008). Gordon had a string of double digit wins in 1996 (10), 1997 (10) and 1998 (13).
He’s won races at 14 tracks on the Cup circuit and proven himself among the most diverse with multiple victories on short tracks like Bristol, intermediate venues such as Texas and has a win on the Sonoma road course.
There is also immediate precedent that Hall of Fame nominees don’t necessarily need a Daytona 500 trophy or a championship ring.
Mark Martin, who will be inducted in NASCAR’s great Hall later this month, earned 40 Cup victories but none came in the Daytona 500, nor did he win a Cup title. One of Martin’s Daytona near-misses, however, is legendary as he came painfully close in 2007 finishing runner-up to Kevin Harvick in a photo finish. He was a five-time runner-up in the Cup series championship. His 40 wins came in 882 starts, compared to Edwards’ 28 wins in 445 starts.
Fred Lorenzen, a 2015 Hall of Fame inductee, won fewer races than Edwards (26) — the 1965 Daytona 500 among them.
Both Edwards and Martin had similar good fortune in the XFINITY Series. Edwards earned 27 pole positions and won 38 times in 245 starts; Martin had 30 poles and won 49 times in 236 starts. Edwards won the 2007 championship and finished runner-up four times — all while running full time in the Cup ranks too. He finished in the top-10 in 174 of those 245 starts — an incredible 71 percent of the time.
And for all of this, Edwards may be a viable Hall of Fame candidate. And he has left the door open to competing in the future. The one thing that is certain, is whether or not Edwards ends up in the Great Hall, he stepped away this week feeling absolutely fulfilled.
"It’s more than I ever expected," Edwards said. "I’ve accomplished more than I ever dreamed of accomplishing. I have the satisfaction that I don’t know how to express.
"Everybody has worked hard at something and been nervous and insecure but kept digging and leaned all those lessons to get to a point, where you’re like, ‘I’ve done this.’
"This is way more than I ever expected. So yeah, I’m very satisfied with that."
Scott Radel, director of engineering at JRM, has been tabbed to crew chief all four races. Radel has been a JRM engineer since 2013, and previously worked for Hendrick Motorsports. He won championships with JRM in 2014 and with two other teams as an engineer. Radel brings 20-plus years of experience in calling races.
"I am looking forward to the opportunity to be atop the pit box for these four races, with Dale and Kasey behind the wheel," said Radel, a 44-year-old Ohio native. "JRM has had tremendous success over the past three seasons, and the ability to field a fifth entry is one that will help continue building on that momentum in 2017."
Earnhardt Jr., who won for the first time in a JRM Chevrolet last year at Richmond International Raceway, will return to the .75-mile D-shaped oval for one of his two scheduled races, and the other will be in the Bristol night race. Sponsorship for both events will be announced at a later date.
Earnhardt Jr. has made 40 starts in NASCAR XFINITY Series competition for JRM, winning at Richmond. In that span, he’s earned 20 top-five and 28 top-10 finishes. He owns four career NXS victories in six starts at Richmond and grabbed his lone win at Bristol in 2004.
The No. 88 "All Star car" has been a full-time car the past two seasons, but with JRM’s expansion to four full-time teams and the addition of new drivers William Byron and Michael Annett, it will be a fifth JRM entry in the four races named.
Kahne has made 24 starts in JRM Chevrolets, with one victory at Daytona in 2014, and added 11 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes.
By Peter Intermaggio, Senior Vice President, Marketing Communications, Comcast
(This story was first published on Feb. 16, 2015)
On February 21, a new era begins at Comcast as the green flag drops on both the biggest sports sponsorship in our 50+ year history and the first ever NASCAR XFINITY Series race. We’re extremely proud and excited to be part of this sport. But, I realize not everyone knows our company and our brand, so here’s some quick background.
Comcast is at the intersection of media and technology. Our corporation contains two parts: Comcast Cable, which includes XFINITY — the brand for our television, Internet, voice and home security offerings — and NBC Universal, our media and entertainment company.
XFINITY is the nation’s largest video and high-speed Internet service. We provide the fastest Internet and broadband speeds to the most homes, and offer more than 8 million Wi-Fi hotspots in public areas around the country. Our X1 Entertainment Operating System brings together the best of television and entertainment by transforming the viewing experience. Customers are provided with powerful search tools, voice control and a cloud-based DVR service that lets you take your personal DVR content to go, on any device. Our XFINITY On Demand platform offers the most TV shows and movies and enables you to enjoy your favorite content on your schedule.
Rounding out our product portfolio are XFINITY Voice, our reliable home phone service, and XFINITY Home, our security and automation platform.
We’ve joined with NASCAR as the entitlement sponsor of the NASCAR XFINITY Series because we see an opportunity to use the XFINITY platform to enrich the viewing experience for fans. We are already driving innovation around ways to watch NASCAR on laptops, phones and tablets at home and on-the-go. And, with mobile apps like XFINITY TV Go and X1 with Cloud Technology we’ll help ensure fans never miss a minute of the action.
Alongside the XFINITY brand, Comcast Business offers services to small, mid-market and enterprise businesses. Focused on bringing world class communications services to businesses — like the teams, sponsors, vendors and non-profit organizations that coexist within the dynamic NASCAR ecosystem — this group is no stranger to the sports world. In fact, our Business team already provides service to some of the most storied franchises in American sports like the San Francisco 49ers and Boston Red Sox.
Finally, Comcast is also a media and entertainment company. Through NBC Sports, Comcast is all in on NASCAR with a 10-year deal to broadcast NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series races starting July 4 in Daytona, and air our news program, NASCAR America. Combine that with the awesome storytelling of sister properties like The TODAY Show, NBC News and even Universal Studios, our filmed entertainment division, and you have a powerful platform bringing the sport to millions.
Comcast Corporation is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses.
Here’s a quick visual to help bring our business to life:
When we announced our partnership last year we said technology lives at the heart of NASCAR just as it does at Comcast. We’re already seeing that come to life as the season begins and can’t wait to build upon that together with all of you. We think a mix of XFINITY products, Comcast Business services and NBCUniversal media properties are a natural fit for NASCAR and passionate fans of the sport. As we build relationships and learn more I assure you we will continue to pursue ways to leverage technology to provide unmatched experiences for fans and the industry.
We look forward to working with you to make the next 10 years the greatest the sport has ever seen.
Learn more about the series “Where Names Are Made” and those drivers who have made or will make their names in the XFINITY Series by watching the video below.
CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR has its own version of spring training in January, but instead of the drivers or teams, it’s the folks working behind the scenes who are getting in preseason reps.
The annual NASCAR Summit Presented by American Medical Response (AMR) concluded its three-day run Tuesday at the Embassy Suites Hotel & Conference Center, where hundreds of dedicated track services, medical, safety, and security workers prepared for the season ahead.
Now in its 16th year, the NASCAR Summit has provided open forums and sessions for those workers to learn about best practices and innovations to help make the sport go from weekend to weekend.
"This meeting is really one of the best meetings of the year and it really sets our tone for the season in terms of safety," said John Bobo, NASCAR Managing Director of Racing Operations. "We have operations here, security, we have our medical personnel and we really get to look at what we did in the past season and then we get to look at the season ahead and do everything we need to do to prepare for it, but it’s the special people who run toward the blue light and run toward the siren and toward the fire. These are those people and it’s great to be with them and to figure out everything we need to do to make sure every event is safe and all our competitors are safe."
NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton echoed those sentiments before Tuesday’s awards ceremony, where unsung heroes in the medical, security and track services fields were recognized for their outstanding contributions.
"One of the most particular reasons that I enjoy saying hello to you and a thanks to you is because in order for NASCAR to do what it does, it has to have a heart and soul of people who are of the character that run toward a situation instead of away from it," Helton said, "and there’s nobody in our organization that is as significant as the group that is in here today for this summit that represents that character of our sport."
Attendees of the annual conference gathered information and learned techniques from five general sessions Monday and then chose from 11 breakout sessions Tuesday in their various fields. Subjects ranging from proper jet dryer operation, injury trends among NASCAR pit crews, track painting and preparation and an update on the NASCAR Green Initiative were among the offerings.
Summit participants also sampled wares from 26 exhibitors and vendors. Among the presenters was new premier series entitlement sponsor, Monster Energy, handing out stickers and free samples as its relationship with stock-car racing grows.
"I think we’re as interested in Monster as the general fan is interested in Monster and what changes that’ll bring and how things are presented, what life is like at-track," Bobo said. "We certainly do appreciate Monster being here at the Summit and all they’ve done to support us. They’ve certainly kept us (going) through some of the sessions late in the afternoon, so it’s been great."
During the Summit’s awards ceremony, the NASCAR Foundation announced that $4,845 had been raised from Sunday’s Trivia Night, a charity raffle and other donations over the three-day convention. The honorees for exceptional service from the 2016 season were:
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver came up just short of a title at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, so it was a surprise to see the 37-year-old walk away in his prime.
NASCAR Nation was equally shocked, but wished Edwards well in his future endeavors. Their reaction:
Really happy for Carl Edwards. One of the fastest guys you’ll ever race. Great to see him doing what he wants after an incredible career.
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Carl Edwards gave three very detailed reasons why he is stepping away from NASCAR competition, only to circle back to the subject later and put it a bit more succinctly.
“Life is short,” Edwards told a room full of media, sponsor representatives and other assorted team and NASCAR officials Wednesday. “You’ve got to do what your gut tells you.”
And Edwards said his gut told him it was time to move on to something else.
Edwards, 37, officially announced that he will not compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2017, calling a halt to a career that included 28 victories at NASCAR’s top level, 10 Chase appearances and two second-place finishes in the series’ championship points battle.
The 2017 season was to be his third in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, his team since joining JGR in 2015 after an 11-year career at Roush Fenway Racing.
Instead, it will be 2016 NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Daniel Suarez who will be at the helm of the team’s No. 19 entry. Suarez, the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national championship and a product of the sanctioning body’s Drive for Diversity and NASCAR Next programs, will make his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in the season-opening Daytona 500, scheduled for Feb. 26 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Edwards, wearing a dark suit and gray dress shirt as he walked on stage at the organization’s headquarters here in Huntersville, didn’t entirely rule out a return to racing in some form or fashion, explaining that “If I’m going to get back in a race car, which I’m not saying the R (retirement) word here … I’m calling Coach (Joe) Gibbs first.
“There is no better race team. There is no faster car than a Toyota Camry. There’s no better engine. There’s no better crew chief than Dave Rogers. There’s no better crew.”
Why step away when he is seemingly still at the top of his game? He finished fourth in the 2016 points standings and was in the title picture right up until a crash with 12 laps remaining took him out of contention in the series’ final race.
He won three times in ’16, captured a series’ best six poles and was regarded as one of the early title favorites heading into the ’17 season.
The reasons for his departure, he said, “are pretty straightforward.”
For starters, he said he is satisfied with his career accomplishments, even though he did not win the series championship. His rewards have been in meeting the challenges and succeeding as he worked his way up the racing ladder.
“You go from that to working up the courage to ask people to drive a car to being put in situations where you know if you drive well and you win, you get sponsorship and everything works,” he said. “Going through that whole process and becoming a better person, a stronger person, a better competitor, a better teammate, a better friend to people, that’s a big deal to me, and I feel accomplished.
“And I know when I sit in that race car that I am the best race car driver I can be. So whether or not I have a championship, I’m really satisfied with that.”
Secondly, there’s the tremendous amount of time required to compete at the sport’s highest level. “And not just the physical time,” he said, “but I wake up in the morning thinking about racing. I think about it all day. I go to bed thinking about it. And I have dreams about racing. And that’s just how it is.
“I’ve been doing that for 20 years and I need to take that time right now and devote it to people and things that are important to me, things I’m really passionate about.”
Finally, he said, he wants to walk away healthy. That he is able to do that, he said, “is a testament after all the racing I’ve done and all the stupid stuff I’ve done in a race car; that is a true testament to NASCAR, to the tracks, to the people who have built my race cars, to my competitors, and to the drivers who have come before me who haven’t been so fortunate.”
There is risk, he acknowledged. It can be a dangerous and painful sport.
“I’m a sharp guy, and I want to be a sharp guy in 30 years,” he said. “So those risks are something that I want to minimize.”
Officially, his last victory came at Texas Motor Speedway in last year’s AAA Texas 500. It was his fourth win at the 1.5-mile track and guaranteed Edwards a berth in the Championship 4.
Edwards’ resume includes four wins at Bristol, three at Atlanta and two at Pocono, Michigan, Las Vegas, Homestead, Phoenix and Richmond. He scored single wins at Dover, Auto Club, Sonoma, Charlotte and Darlington in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
He also won the 2011 Sprint All-Star Race, a non-points event, at Charlotte.
