| Pos | Trk | Driver | Team | Time | Speed | Lap # | # Laps | -Fastest | -Next |
| 1 | 9 | William Byron | Liberty University Toyota | 31.411 | 171.914 | 2 | 24 | —.— | —.— |
| 2 | 24 | Kyle Larson(i) | DC Solar Chevrolet | 31.539 | 171.217 | 1 | 1 | -0.128 | -0.128 |
| 3 | 21 | Johnny Sauter (C) | Allegiant Travel Chevrolet | 31.549 | 171.162 | 1 | 7 | -0.138 | -0.010 |
| 4 | 00 | Cole Custer | Haas Automation Chevrolet | 31.550 | 171.157 | 18 | 18 | -0.139 | -0.001 |
| 5 | 88 | Matt Crafton (C) | Black Label Bacon/Menards Toyota | 31.554 | 171.135 | 1 | 4 | -0.143 | -0.004 |
| 6 | 29 | Tyler Reddick | Cooper Standard Ford | 31.563 | 171.086 | 2 | 9 | -0.152 | -0.009 |
| 7 | 33 | Ben Kennedy | Jacob Chevrolet | 31.650 | 170.616 | 1 | 13 | -0.239 | -0.087 |
| 8 | 41 | Ben Rhodes | Alpha Energy Solutions Toyota | 31.741 | 170.127 | 2 | 26 | -0.330 | -0.091 |
| 9 | 19 | Daniel Hemric | DrawTite Ford | 31.821 | 169.699 | 1 | 4 | -0.410 | -0.080 |
| 10 | 23 | Spencer Gallagher | Allegiant Travel Chevrolet | 31.845 | 169.571 | 1 | 13 | -0.434 | -0.024 |
| 11 | 17 | Timothy Peters (C) | Red Horse Racing Toyota | 31.859 | 169.497 | 1 | 7 | -0.448 | -0.014 |
| 12 | 98 | Rico Abreu | Safelite Auto Glass/Curb Records Toyota | 31.895 | 169.306 | 1 | 6 | -0.484 | -0.036 |
| 13 | 8 | John H Nemechek | Fire Alarm Services Inc Chevrolet | 32.051 | 168.481 | 1 | 13 | -0.640 | -0.156 |
| 14 | 4 | Christopher Bell (C) | JBL Toyota | 32.056 | 168.455 | 4 | 14 | -0.645 | -0.005 |
| 15 | 97 | Jesse Little | Carolina Nut Co Toyota | 32.182 | 167.796 | 3 | 23 | -0.771 | -0.126 |
| 16 | 11 | Matt Tifft | Brain Gear/Surface Sunscreen Toyota | 32.252 | 167.431 | 4 | 13 | -0.841 | -0.070 |
| 17 | 81 | Ryan Truex | Chiba Toyopet Toyota | 32.276 | 167.307 | 1 | 21 | -0.865 | -0.024 |
| 18 | 22 | Austin Wayne Self | American Victory Toyota | 32.409 | 166.620 | 3 | 23 | -0.998 | -0.133 |
| 19 | 05 | Brady Boswell | Zaxby’s Chevrolet | 32.449 | 166.415 | 2 | 19 | -1.038 | -0.040 |
| 20 | 13 | Cameron Hayley | Mattei Air Compressors Toyota | 32.472 | 166.297 | 1 | 12 | -1.061 | -0.023 |
| 21 | 02 | Scott Lagasse Jr(i) | Alert Tonight FL/Florida Lottery Chevrolet | 32.473 | 166.292 | 5 | 7 | -1.062 | -0.001 |
| 22 | 51 | Daniel Suarez(i) | ARRIS Toyota | 32.477 | 166.272 | 2 | 21 | -1.066 | -0.004 |
| 23 | 18 | Noah Gragson | SpeedVegas/Alert ID Toyota | 32.485 | 166.231 | 4 | 18 | -1.074 | -0.008 |
| 24 | 20 | Austin Hill | Lone Survivor Foundation Ford | 32.538 | 165.960 | 2 | 33 | -1.127 | -0.053 |
| 25 | 92 | Grant Enfinger # | BTS Tire/Goodyear Commercial Tire Ford | 32.737 | 164.951 | 2 | 13 | -1.326 | -0.199 |
| 26 | 16 | Stewart Friesen | Halmar International Chevrolet | 32.745 | 164.911 | 23 | 24 | -1.334 | -0.008 |
| 27 | 71 | Alon Day | FLwaterfront.com Chevrolet | 32.947 | 163.900 | 3 | 5 | -1.536 | -0.202 |
| 28 | 49 | Reed Sorenson(i) | Chevrolet | 33.228 | 162.514 | 4 | 19 | -1.817 | -0.281 |
| 29 | 44 | Tommy Joe Martins | BootDaddy/Diamond Gusset Jeans Chevrolet | 33.236 | 162.474 | 2 | 16 | -1.825 | -0.008 |
| 30 | 07 | Patrick Staropoli | Auto Nation Cure Bowl Chevrolet | 33.279 | 162.264 | 2 | 21 | -1.868 | -0.043 |
| 31 | 1 | Travis Kvapil | CorvetteParts.net Chevrolet | 33.325 | 162.041 | 2 | 2 | -1.914 | -0.046 |
| 32 | 66 | Jordan Anderson | Columbia SC – Famously Hot Chevrolet | 33.665 | 160.404 | 2 | 20 | -2.254 | -0.340 |
| 33 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | Driven2Honor.org Chevrolet | 34.196 | 157.913 | 2 | 22 | -2.785 | -0.531 |
| 34 | 50 | Spencer Boyd | GruntStyle.com Chevrolet | 35.878 | 150.510 | 4 | 4 | -4.467 | -1.682 |
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Team owner Rick Hendrick shed light Friday on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s timetable to return to NASCAR competition, saying he anticipated his driver to be on pace to compete in time for the 2017 Daytona 500.
Earnhardt Jr., 42, has been sidelined from the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet since July after two severe crashes left him with concussion-like symptoms. He was ruled out for the remainder of the Sprint Cup season in September.
“I think sometime in December the doctor’s going to give him the final clearance and then we’ll get him in a car,” Hendrick said Friday after a news conference with the Sprint Cup Championship 4 car owners at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “He feels great. Everything’s on track. I mean, every step that we supposedly need to go through, we’ve gone through, and I don’t see anything holding us back.”
Earnhardt, who has been working on rehabilitation of his neurological conditions since this summer, reiterated that intention last month at Martinsville Speedway, saying in a pre-race interview that “we’re booking things as normal” ahead of the 2017 season. That included sponsorship plans, photo shoots and other logistical agreements in preparation for next year.
But Earnhardt Jr. also indicated he was eager to return to NASCAR’s premier series, something Hendrick reaffirmed Friday.
“He sent me a text the other day that he was excited and waiting for Daytona,” Hendrick said. “I think we’ve just got a couple more hurdles to clear.”
Jeff Gordon and Alex Bowman have split time in Earnhardt’s No. 88 this season, with Gordon filling in for eight races and Bowman set to make his 10th start of the year in Sunday’s season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Gordon has indicated that he’s likely to resume his retirement from racing next season unless called upon by Hendrick. As for Bowman, the 23-year-old racer who competes part-time in the XFINITY Series has said he’s still uncertain what his driving responsibilities — beyond simulator work for Hendrick’s team — will be in 2017. Friday, Hendrick was uncertain as well.
“Alex is a good guy. He’s helped us in a lot of ways,” Hendrick said. “We’re just kind of taking that one a day at a time. He’s done testing for us, he’s done simulation for us and he’s really done a good job. We’re just kind of taking it a day at a time. We don’t really have any certain plan.”
RELATED: Why Logano will win the title
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Joey Logano‘s path to the championship phase of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs this year has highlighted what might be an underrated component of his game.
“Clutch — it’s a great word,” Logano said with a trademark grin. “I like it.”
Logano’s performance in pivotal situations has given the Team Penske driver another shot at his first title in Sunday’s season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 26-year-old ace punctuated the last two series of eliminations with a victory in each round’s finale, ensuring his place at the championship table.
Those postseason achievements are an extension of Logano’s overall efforts since the current Chase system was introduced in 2014. In the 29 playoff races since that format took root, Logano has won seven of them — more than any Sprint Cup driver.
“I think that’s something that I’m very proud of, to come into high-pressure moments like that and be better under pressure — and not just me, my whole race team,” Logano said Thursday during Championship 4 Media Day activities in Miami Beach. “We’ve been able to win two races (this year) under those situations and that’s something I’m very proud of and very excited for this weekend because it’s the same situation, right?”
MORE: Top quotes from drivers
Logano’s results this season suggest that both he and his Team Penske No. 22 Ford group are peaking at the right time. His teammate, Brad Keselowski, won four races in the season’s first half, but Logano prevailed just once in the regular season — at Michigan in June.
Logano also qualified for the Championship 4 field in 2014. After some early season setbacks, he wasn’t certain this was the year he’d book a return trip.
“There was a point in the season that I wasn’t sure that we were going to get this far, you know, and we’ve definitely found a lot of speed in our race cars in both the 2 (Keselowski) and the 22 at Team Penske, and then to the point, it’s like, man, we’ve got something to win this championship,” Logano said.
“It’s a long season. The sport is cyclical. It goes up and down. You’re good for a little bit, and the next thing you know you’re looking for more and people catch up. It’s just part of it.”
With this year’s 35 other events in the rearview, Logano just has to be good for one more race against a stacked championship field, each with their own heavyweight credentials. Kyle Busch will be vying for a repeat Sprint Cup crown. Carl Edwards, like Logano, will be looking for his first title, trying to overcome the heartache of 2011 when he lost the championship in a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart. And Jimmie Johnson will be seeking to cement his place among the sport’s immortals with a seventh championship to put his name in the discussion with Earnhardt and Petty.
But Logano knows there are plenty of other drivers in the larger 40-car field eager to end the season on a positive note. His assignment for a successful weekend: To finish in front of all of them with the stakes at their highest.
“I’ve got to beat everyone, and that’s a pressure that I love,” Logano said. “I said before the race last week on the radio, I said, these are the moments we live for. This is what we prepare for every single day. This is what we think about. This is an awesome opportunity, and to embrace that pressure, because there’s only four drivers that get that. You know, it’s a privilege to have pressure.”
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The first-ever Chase playoff format for the NASCAR XFINITY Series created an intriguing foursome competing for the championship in Saturday’s season finale. The dualities ran deep.
Two pairs of title-eligible teammates from two organizations created a showdown between Joe Gibbs Racing and JR Motorsports, Toyota and Chevrolet, and — because of the wide range of experience among the four — a contrast between veteran savvy and youthful exuberance.
Those contrasts played out with the XFINITY Series crown on the line in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 with Gibbs up-and-comers Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez squaring off with JRM’s veteran compatriots in Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The final 50 laps saw all four drivers battling fiercly for the lead, but ultimately it was JGR’s Suarez who won the race, outlasting JRM’s Sadler, who gambled late with a two-tire pit stop and finished third. Sadler’s teammate, Allgaier, finished seventh and JGR’s Jones was ninth as they got trapped behind race leader Cole Whitt on the final restart.
The four drivers were in an anticipatory mood during Thursday’s Media Day at the Loews Miami Beach, trumpeting the virtues of having teammates to lean on through the weekend and conjuring up images of a virtual 2-on-2 matchup. But with a winner-take-all structure in place for Saturday’s curtain-closer, the allegiances may only go so far.
“We know already that we are going to help each other as much as we can before the race, and once we get into the race, everyone is on his own, and we know that, and we understand that,” said Suarez, in his second full season of XFINITY competition.
“There is just one trophy, and there are two drivers, two friends here. We have to take care by ourselves and move forward.”
Suarez has a stellar teammate in Jones, who is earmarked for a full-time ride in NASCAR’s premier series next year with Furniture Row Racing. The two worked well this season under the JGR umbrella, combining for six XFINITY victories. But Jones agreed that the notion of teamwork has its limits at Homestead.
“I think throughout the weekend, you don’t change your process at all. We still share information, still lean on each other, help each other when we can,” Jones said. “Obviously in the early and mid-part of the race, we’re not going to do anything to hurt each other’s races.
“Once it gets down to that last hundred, last 50 laps, I think you have to go for it. At some point you’re going to have to race for it. We’re racing for a championship. We don’t want to take each other out of that chance, but at the same time we have to be in it to try to win our team a championship and make it happen. I think that’s the point of this Chase and the point of this format.”
Among the four championship contenders, team alliances created a split, but so has the difference in age. JRM’s Sadler is the eldest of the group at 41 with his teammate Allgaier having just crossed the bridge into his 30s this summer. JGR’s Suarez is 24 years old with Jones the youngest at 20.
Experience can certainly help, but so does pure skill — something the final quartet has in bunches. While variances in their racing backgrounds exist, all four can claim newbie status in regards to the new Chase format.
“I don’t know that the years have really given us any more experience,” Allgaier said. “Who’s to say with the resources and things they’ve gone through that they could potentially have more experience than what I do? I think we got four really talented race car drivers that made the final round. I think you’ve got four great teams in this final round.”
MIAMI — Homestead-Miami Speedway today announced a grandstand sellout for the Ford EcoBoost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship race on Sunday. The event, which starts at 2:30 p.m. ET and airs on NBC and MRN Radio/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, has sold out each of the last three years.
“Ford Championship Weekend continues to grow in stature each year, and having sold out the Ford EcoBoost 400 three years in-a-row is a testament to that,” said Homestead-Miami Speedway President Matthew Becherer. “Not only do we have world class racing with Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards competing for a championship amongst a full field of drivers, but we also offer outstanding entertainment as well, including the pre-race concert by The Band Perry. Championship weekend should provide tremendous excitement for the entire family as we celebrate the final race in the Chase for all three NASCAR national series, beginning with the Camping World Truck Series Championship race tonight followed by the XFINITY Series Championship race on Saturday.”
A limited number of Sunday tickets still remain for seats in the infield Pit Road Cabanas, in addition to spots in the FanVision Fan Zone, where four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon will be holding a Q & A on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
Tickets for the Ford EcoBoost 200 Camping World Truck Series Championship race tonight at 8:00 p.m. as well as the Ford EcoBoost 300 XFINITY Series Championship race on Saturday 3:30 p.m. are still available and can be purchased by calling (305) 230-5255, or online at www.HomesteadMiamiSpeedway.com.
CONCORD, N.C. — Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) announced today that Tyler Reddick, a current driver and a three-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS), will pilot the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro in multiple NASCAR XFINITY Series races in 2017. Reddick, 20, will share the No. 42 Chevrolet with 2014 NASCAR Sprint Series Rookie of the Year and 2016 member of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Kyle Larson. Veteran XFINITY Series crew chief Mike Shiplett will continue to lead the No. 42 team.
· Reddick has competed in many forms of dirt and asphalt racing in his still young career. He was the youngest driver to qualify in the pole position at the Eldora Speedway World 100, the youngest driver to win at the East Bay Winter Nationals, and the youngest winner in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. He’s also the youngest driver ever to qualify for a feature race in World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
· Reddick won in his first career start in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East at Rockingham Speedway in 2012. He competed in the NCWTS on a part-time basis in 2013 and 2014, before moving to full-time duties in 2015 and 2016. In 62 starts, Reddick has three wins, three poles, 24 top-five and 39 top-10 finishes. He finished second in the NCWTS standings in 2015 and after a win, seven top-five and 11 top-10s in 2016, Reddick currently sits ninth in the standings.
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owner Tommy Baldwin said Thursday that this weekend’s event at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be the last as a full-time organization for his single-car outfit.
The former crew chief said in a post on Facebook that “we felt it’s time for a new chapter in our lives and we have sold our charter to a great group of people who will continue to guide our vision.”
According to a release from Leaving Family Racing, which currently runs under the Circle Sport Leavine Family Racing name, LFR has purchased the charter from Tommy Baldwin Racing. No purchase price was announced.
Baldwin’s team currently fields the No. 7 Chevrolet with driver Regan Smith. The team was formed following the departure of Bill Davis Racing, for whom Baldwin served as crew chief, in 2009.
It has just two top-five finishes in nearly 400 starts, the most recent coming at Pocono this year when Smith finished third.
“For the past eight years we’ve shown up at every race, worked hard to compete at the top level and bring value to our sponsors,” Baldwin wrote. “I feel confident that we are moving on having accomplished that. There have been many teams like ours that have come and gone. I’m proud that we have been able to sustain ourselves from the very beginning. …
“If you’re reading this, you already know that NASCAR is the greatest sport in the world. I have been blessed to have a career in motorsports because of how NASCAR has grown over the years.”
Baldwin went on to say that he isn’t sure what the future holds; fielding a part-time team wasn’t mentioned but neither was closing the team entirely.
Securing the charter means that the LFR team, which currently fields the No. 95 Chevrolet for driver Michael McDowell, will be guaranteed a starting spot in each race next season.
“Leavine Family Racing is committed to continued growth on and off the race track,” owner Bob Leavine said. “The charter is a meaningful step forward for our team and provides us further stability as we look towards success in 2017 and beyond. We are confident that the purchase of the charter and continued improvement on the track will lead to increased revenue opportunities.”
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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson was the first to arrive and the second to be introduced and no, he wasn’t wearing a cape.
He’s a six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, but he’s filled his trophy case without the aid of superpowers. As far as we know.
Sunday, down the road at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he’ll try to do something only two other drivers have accomplished. NASCAR has two seven-time premier series champions, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Win seven titles and you’re an icon. Johnson would like to be No. 3.
Of course, to accomplish that he’ll have to beat three other drivers — Joey Logano, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. It’s the Championship 4 round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 will either be 267 laps of heartache or jubilation for three of the four.
Thursday at the Loews Miami Beach, the four were making nice, sitting side by side, wearing smiles and fire suits. Unlike past years with a decidedly different mix of competitors, there was no animosity on display or simmering just beneath the surface.
“I don’t know how the guys feel, but I don’t think anything I’m going to say to these guys is going to make their car any slower on Sunday,” Edwards said, “so there’s really no point. I know it’s entertaining for you guys, but …”
Instead, we got guys talking about how they “embrace the pressure” and today’s today but this weekend when the helmets go on …
Maybe then it will be fire and brimstone, but Thursday it was more like milk and cookies.
“We’re all out there as competitors, but right now we’re outside the car,” Logano, driver of the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske, said. “We’ve got to spend a lot of time together this week.”
Busch, who can be the most caustic of the bunch — and God love him for it — described his fellow finalists as “easy to get along with, easy to talk to, easy to have a good time and joke around and mess around, so it’s been good.”
We don’t have to wonder if it will change Sunday. It will. Competition brings out the best, and sometimes the worst, and there’s no stage bigger in NASCAR than a season-ending race with the championship on the line.
Tempers will flare and nerves will fray and that’s as inevitable as the sunset.
Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, is making his first appearance in the finals under the elimination-style format for the Chase; previous titles were won by simply grinding the competition into the ground, then coasting to Homestead with “only needs to finish (fill in the blank) or better to clinch the title.”
Busch still jokingly refers to himself as a “part-time champion,” having won last year’s title with Joe Gibbs Racing after missing the first 11 races of the season due to injury.
Edwards, also out of the JGR camp, can’t avoid 2011 and losing the title on a tiebreaker – a replay of the final race of the season was the first thing he said he saw on TV recently while in New York City.
Logano, meanwhile, recalls his first final-round appearance in 2014, and how he says he “made a lot of mistakes that weekend,” inside the car as well as out.
They don’t have to dislike one another; each has his own baggage with which to deal.
The lack of contempt is the result of the four drivers involved according to Johnson.
“If you think of (past) years and people having issues with one another, there’s really nothing lingering,” he said. “Not to say there won’t be by the end of Sunday night. It doesn’t surprise me with the group of four that’s there. If you change a couple of people out it could have definitely been different.
“But this group, I can’t recall anybody really having an issue with one another.”
We sought mind games, subtle jabs and perhaps a sneer or two. What we got instead was a gathering of Phi Kappa NASCAR.
Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick never seemed so far away.
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Johnny Sauter won two of the three Chase races in the Round of 6 for the Camping World Truck Series, but the veteran racer says it would be wrong to call him and his GMS Racing team the favorite in Friday night’s championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“I don’t ever consider myself the favorite,” Sauter said Thursday at the Loew’s Hotel here. “Anything can happen. We’ve seen it time and time again. I feel really comfortable with where we are as an organization and a team going into this race, but to say that I’m a favorite, that would not be doing ourselves a service.”
Sauter, Timothy Peters, Christopher Bell and Matt Crafton make up the Chase drivers who will be competing for the series’ title in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Crafton’s a two-time series champion (2013-14) and drives for ThorSport Racing; Peters doesn’t have a win this season, but has managed to survive through the inaugural Chase for the series to put his Red Horse Racing team in title contention; Bell’s the only youngster in the group, a winner at Gateway earlier this year in the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Sauter is the only one of the four finalists to bag a win in the Chase — he went back to back with victories at Martinsville and Texas to advance to the finals.
Crafton’s had three top five finishes; Peters has four while Bell has posted a pair.
That the title group is heavy on veterans isn’t a surprise to Sauter, who said the more experienced drivers “just probably through the course of the year raced a little differently than some of the younger guys … maybe a little bit smarter, and that just comes with experience, taking care of your equipment, things like that.”
Having spent time in the Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Truck Series, Sauter has seen just about every type of situation arise; for that reason, he said it’s unlikely anything can happen that will catch himself or his GMS team off guard.
“For me personally, I feel like I’ve seen and heard and have done it all so nothing would surprise me in the least,” he said. “Having said that, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure nothing crazy happens, nothing foolish.
“But this sport is very humbling; you can have all the momentum in the world, everything going your way, win two of the last three races in the final round and tomorrow night anything can happen.”
Sauter has 13 career wins in the Truck Series and he won three times in the XFINITY Series. His Sprint Cup career consisted of 85 starts for a handful of teams, including Haas CNC before it became Stewart-Haas Racing.
He finished second in points in the Camping World Truck Series in 2011 and fourth the past three seasons. But he’s never won the title. It’s something he’s considered, especially now that he has another opportunity. What it would feel like to win it and what it might feel like if he doesn’t.
“I’ve definitely done that,” he said. “What a championship would mean for GMS as an organization for all the guys; this is a long season … I can make a case for both sides. It’s means nothing until we run that race tomorrow night.
“You have to make sure you don’t get caught up in it from a mental standpoint. Just keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
RELATED: Meet Denny Hamlin’s spotter, Chris Lambert
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of interviews with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series spotters.
Tim Fedewa, Spotter for Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
How did you get started spotting in NASCAR?
I was running a Busch car, kind of at the back end of my career, so I knew I needed to figure out something to keep food on the table. It just came about that Bill Elliott needed some help on Sundays. Kristine Curley (PR) was working for Evernham at the time, we were friends. That’s kind of how I got going. Just kind of did it part time for different teams. Like I said, I knew my driving career was going down so I knew I better do something and that evolved into a job spotting.
Do you have any other duties with the team?
Not really. I help out and do what I can but in today’s world there are a lot of people that just have their specialty. I spot for Stewart-Haas but at the track on the weekends I also will do an XFINITY, Truck, ARCA, K&N race. Whatever is on the track, I’m spotting for that as well. I work with JR Motorsports, the 88 car for (Alex) Bowman when he drives it; sometimes for Josh Berry. But when the other Sprint Cup drivers get in it, they have their spotters. And that makes sense. I’ll spot for Spencer Gallagher in the Truck Series, Noah Gragson in the K&N Series, Chad Finley in ARCA. We do whatever is here. That’s how we make our living. The more races the better, actually.
How long have you been spotting for Kevin?
Since he started with the 4 car in 2014, so this is my third year. I was with (Marcos) Ambrose before at Richard Petty Motorsports. When they started this deal at SHR, I came over.
You mentioned working with Bill Elliott earlier, was that the first time as a spotter?
I might have done a little bit before then but I don’t think I did a whole lot because I was still driving. I might have helped a few guys up on the roof a couple of times. But I was kind of thrown into it in Sprint Cup. It couldn’t have worked out better for me because Bill, he didn’t need a spotter. He was so seasoned and good that I was just up there making noise in his ear, probably. But for me it was a good experience that I had a guy like him. If I had a rookie that really needed my assistance at the time I probably wouldn’t have been much help. But for me it worked out well because Bill … he was awesome.
What’s been the most bizarre thing you’ve witnessed from the spotters’ stand?
Probably the (Juan Pablo) Montoya deal (at Daytona). That was … with it being a night race and flaming up like that, it was pretty surreal.
What’s been your most memorable experience as a spotter?
Miami when we won the race and won the championship. There was a lot of stress that day for everybody. The Chase brings a lot of stress, each race you move on and advance the stress level for the team advances, as well. I just remember thinking that day, “Everybody has to do their own thing and do it right.” To have Kevin win the race and the championship, it was (great).
What’s one thing fans might not realize about your job duties?
I guess being away from your family. For anybody in racing, that’s the hardest part. You have different struggles from day to day in your job but as far as being on the roof and working the races, restarts are tough. You can’t predict what’s going to happen. You try to predict it in your head and you get in trouble. So I just go into every restart with an open mind. You think you know the tendencies of the other drivers but that’s where you get in trouble. You think, “OK, this guy doesn’t like going to the bottom (of the track); guys like Kyle (Busch) or Kurt (Busch), if they can get to the top and go, they’re going to go.” But you think that and it’s in your head but if that doesn’t happen, you stumble on your words … I just kind of try to go in there and tell ’em what’s happening. Just give them the best picture you can.
Which driver would make a good spotter and why?
I can tell you that Kevin has owned his own team; he’s watched it from above and he is just really smart. I always tell everybody that if I had had somebody like Kevin helping me when I drove, I’d probably still be driving or would have had a longer career anyway because he’s so smart. Not only as a driver. Usually when I tell him something, he already knows it. He’s already got it figured out. I’m Captain Obvious, that’s what I call myself. Between him and Bill, as far as knowing everything about not just driving but who has what tires, what strategy they’re thinking, he’s already thinking ahead and got that figured out.
Do you have a favorite track?
I like Bristol. Because everything happens so quick, you’re talking all the time. It is what it is. Clear is clear and you can’t take it back. If you get them in a hole you better hope that it’s there. We stand down in Turn 1 and I can see the whole track. I don’t have to move my head back and forth like I would if I’m at the start/finish line, so I’ve got a good view of it. You can still get in trouble there and I have as a spotter – a couple of years ago we were coming off (Turn) 4 and there was a wreck in 1 and by the time you see it and say it, we still got in it. It’s a tough race track when wrecks happen. But as far as when you’re running good and passing cars, it’s a blast.
Superspeedway racing is fun, it’s different. You’re talking a lot, always trying to figure out the best input to give your driver. It’s a challenge, there’s a lot going on.
What is one thing the average fan might not realize about your job?
Probably just how serious we take it. It’s stressful for sure. Yeah, we’re here racing but we put our heart and souls into it. It’s like I’m driving the car every weekend. I take it that serious. Nowadays, spotters are thought of as a competitive advantage – what can we do for the team to make it better? In all reality, we’re there to keep Kevin or whoever safe. That’s the bottom line so that’s the stressful part. That’s why we’re up there, to keep everybody safe. So whatever we do to get a competitive advantage, keeping your driver, and the other drivers, safe is still the priority.