See Hamlin’s ’16 season — from thrilling Daytona 500 to road course triumph
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Dec. 20, 2016) – Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) announced today that owner-driver Kyle Busch will compete in five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events in 2017. Busch’s No. 51 Tundra will carry primary sponsorship from Textron Aviation, an aircraft industry leader that provides its customers with the most versatile and comprehensive general aviation product portfolio in the world. KBM will promote Textron Aviation’s Cessna, Hawker and Beechcraft brands.
Busch ranks second on the Truck Series All-time win list with 46. The Las Vegas native has been victorious in a remarkable 34.6 percent (46/133) of his starts since debuting in NASCAR’s third division in 2001 and has finished first or second 52.67 (70/133) percent of the time. “Rowdy” collected two wins and three top-five finishes across four Truck Series starts in 2016. His 170 all-time combined NASCAR national series wins rank second to NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty (200).
“We are very excited to have Textron Aviation and the Cessna, Hawker and Beechcraft brands as new partners for my five races in the Truck Series for 2017,” Busch said. “Textron Aviation’s commitment to multiple teams across multiple levels in NASCAR shows that they are a company that knows how to build successful programs and I’m looking forward to seeing our program take off at Atlanta.”
Busch will make his 2017 Truck Series debut Saturday March 4 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and will also race May 12 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, May 20 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, July 29 at Pocono Raceway and Aug. 12 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
Announcements for the rest of the driver lineup that will share driving duties behind the wheel of the No. 51 Tundra with Busch are forthcoming.
BK Racing has announced a multiple race partnership with Best Home Furnishings to sponsor the No. 23 BK Racing Toyota Camry with driver, Joey Gase. The Best Home Furnishings Toyota will be on track at the Daytona 500 in February, the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway and additional races throughout the 2017 season. The Daytona 500 will be Gase’s first race with BK Racing.
“We’re thrilled to have Joey and Best Home Furnishings, one of the largest furniture manufacturers, join us for the Daytona 500 in February,” said BK Racing team owner Ron Devine. “It is the largest race of our series and a wonderful event for Joey to debut his BK Racing relationship. We’ve been watching Joey’s growth for quite some time and looking forward to seeing what he can do behind the wheel of a BK Race car.”
“I cannot put into words how thankful I am for the opportunity everyone at Best Home Furnishings and BK Racing has given me,” said driver Joey Gase. “Racing in the Daytona 500 and the Bristol night race has been a dream of mine since I can remember. It’s very exciting to share this experience with everyone at Best Home Furnishings and those who have helped me get to this point in my career.”
Best Home Furnishings is becoming one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world. With five locations throughout the US and over 1,000 employees they have a very simple theme, make the best quality product at the most affordable price.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with BK Racing and Joey Gase,” said Glenn Lange, CEO of Best Home Furnishings. “Joey is a young, energetic and up-and-coming driver who has shown to be competitive from an early age. His heavy involvement with the non-profit, Donate Life exemplifies our shared values and passion to exude excellence in all facets of our business and personal lives.”
“Our family has been involved with the collection of classic and sports cars for decades. To have our company’s name as a primary sponsor on a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car is a dream come true,” said Lange.
The decision for Best Home Furnishing to enter the sport of NASCAR was quite simple. “NASCAR has some of the most loyal, passionate fan bases amongst the major U.S. sports scenes,” Lange said. “The cross section of this fan base also happens to align with our desirable furniture demographic.”
Gase sums up this relationship perfectly, stating, “It is awesome to say I will be 1 of the 40 drivers in the world racing in the 2017 Daytona 500 driving for BK Racing and Best Home Furnishings.”
LEVEL CROSS, N.C. — Petty’s Garage will expand the Level Cross, North Carolina, speed shop with a $2.4 million investment. The expansion will include renovations to the shop and the addition of 17 new jobs over the next two years. Construction is slated for the first quarter of 2017. The expansion will allow the team to continue their high-quality performance parts, restorations and custom builds that are fit for “The King.”
The added renovations will increase capacity for manufacturing automotive parts, as well as restoring and modifying cars and specialty builds to decrease the service wait time and meet demand. The added jobs will include technicians, as well as management positions, and marketing and sales jobs to the existing Petty’s Garage team of 33 employees.
“We’re thrilled to announce the expansion of Petty’s Garage,” said Richard Petty, owner of Petty’s Garage. “Petty’s Garage is the shop where I grew up building racecars and it is very special to me. It’s great that we’ve now built the demand to expand our team and increase our capabilities. We want to continue the tradition of renovation and innovation. To add to the economic development of Randolph County, and bring new jobs to the community, is something we’re extremely proud of as well.”
Petty’s Garage was founded by Petty as a way to keep his competitive spirit alive. Petty — representing the second of four generations of Petty racers — won 200 NASCAR races in his career, a record many believe will never be broken. He also holds the record for most wins (27) in a season in 1967, including a record-setting 10 consecutive wins.
About Petty’s Garage
In June 2008 Petty’s Garage, a Level Cross, North Carolina-based company, was born to begin restorations on racecar chassis from owner Richard Petty’s private collection. Petty’s Garage is currently bringing “The King’s” winning tradition to a wide variety of high-performance automobiles from production-based Richard Petty Signature Series to custom builds and restorations. Petty’s Garage is a high performance speed shop focused on spectacular performance automobiles.
RELATED: NASCAR reveals new brand identity
Combining a history that stretches more than 65 years with a future infused with a new premier series entitlement sponsor and a next generation of stars, NASCAR unveiled a new brand identity Monday via its social and digital media platforms.
In addition, NASCAR also unveiled the mark and name for its premier series, which will become the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series beginning in 2017.
The new brand identity — which replaces the familiar bar mark that had been in place since 1976 — uses the colors and feel of past marks, while modernizing it to fit with the new era the sanctioning body enters in 2017.
NASCAR began the process of designing a new mark early in 2016. It becomes the fifth mark in NASCAR history.
“Our new NASCAR mark is modern, timeless, and embraces the heritage of our sport,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “It was important for us to recognize our history and implement a piece of each previous mark in the new design. Our goal was to evolve the sport’s visual identity to make it concise, relevant and functional, while respecting and maintaining the unique qualities of the original mark.”
The new mark incorporates pieces of each of NASCAR’s previous marks, including the red, yellow and blue coloring from the first three marks, respectively, and the ‘racing bars’ that accompany the acronym ‘NASCAR’ from the prior iteration.
Monday’s announcement also ended the wait for the highly anticipated name of NASCAR’s premier series. NASCAR and Monster Energy announced a multi-year partnership on Dec. 1 in Las Vegas, one that made Monster Energy the entitlement sponsor of NASCAR’s top series, the title sponsor of the NASCAR All-Star Race and the Official Energy Drink of NASCAR.
RELATED: New premier series mark, name revealed
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR today unveiled a new official brand identity which will replace the bar mark used by the sanctioning body since 1976. The announcement was made in conjunction with the news that Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™ will be the new name of the sport’s premier series beginning January 1, 2017.
The new brand mark and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series mark, which prominently features the iconic Monster Energy logo, together represent a new era in NASCAR and were first shared today across NASCAR social and digital media channels.
The NASCAR brand identity has been in development since early 2016 as part of a broader effort to refresh the NASCAR brand. It was designed to pay tribute to the storied history of NASCAR, incorporating elements of all four previous marks since the company’s inaugural season of 1948.
“Our new NASCAR mark is modern, timeless, and embraces the heritage of our sport,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “It was important for us to recognize our history and implement a piece of each previous mark in the new design. Our goal was to evolve the sport’s visual identity to make it concise, relevant and functional, while respecting and maintaining the unique qualities of the original mark.”
The first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points race will be the 59th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 26 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Tickets are available at NASCAR.com/tickets.
What channel is the NASCAR race on this week? We answer that and provide all the weekly NASCAR television listings here.
RELATED: Find NBCSN in your area
All times ET
Monday, December 19
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FS1
Tuesday, December 20
9 a.m., Empty Cup: Quest for the 1992 NASCAR Championship (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Scan All 43: Championship Edition, NBCSN
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Scan All 43: Best of Scan All, NBCSN
6 p.m., Stories of NASCAR: Champions of 2016, NBCSN
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Top Moments of 2016, NBCSN
Wednesday, December 21
2:30 a.m., Stories of NASCAR: Behind the Wheel (re-air), NBCSN
8 a.m., 1979 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FS1
4 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year, FS1
Thursday, December 22
8 a.m., NASCAR Race Classic: The 1993 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FS1
Friday, December 23
8 a.m., Empty Cup: Quest for the 1992 NASCAR Championship (re-air), FS1
Saturday, December 24
3 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Toyota/Save Mart 350 (re-air), FS1
8:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FS1
9:30 p.m., The 600: History of NASCAR’s Toughest Race (re-air), FS1
10:30 p.m., NASCAR Masters of the Clock: The Legend of Martinsville (re-air), FS1
11:30 p.m., One Hot Night: The NASCAR 1992 All-Star Race
Sunday, December 25
12:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FS1
1:30 a.m., Untold Stories: Daytona (re-air), FS1
2:30 a.m., A Perfect Storm: The 1979 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1
4 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FS1
5 a.m., The 600: History of NASCAR’s Toughest Race (re-air), FS1