Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Race results | Updated Chase Grid

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Before the season, it would’ve seemed preposterous for a rookie with one career NASCAR national series start to his name to be the clear-cut favorite with a week to go in the Camping World Truck Series campaign.
 
Now it’s hard to process that William Byron won’t be among the four drivers competing in the Championship 4 round of the inaugural series Chase at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Friday.
 

Byron, the 18-year-old Kyle Busch Motorsports phenom and winner of a series-high six races in 2016, was poised to make it seven on Friday at Phoenix International Raceway before losing an engine with nine laps remaining in the Round of 6 finale.
 

He’d led 112 laps to that point.
 

“(The motor) was a little bit hot that run,” Byron said on pit road following the race. ” … I felt a little vibration a lap before that, but I was passing lapped trucks and I was poised to kind of ride and finish it out. But when I hit the throttle it just went dead. It started sputtering for a couple laps and I tried to flip through my boxes and just nothing took.
 

” … It’s just racing, I guess. It really is unfortunate when you’re out there leading and have the best truck, executing the way we needed to all night. Just one of those deals, I guess. It’s the worst possible time for it. We really wanted to compete for a championship. We were going to do that, for sure, but now we don’t get the chance to. It’s part of it. I guess we can go into Homestead and try to get a win. That’s what we really want to finish out the year.”
 

The engine failure saddled the young driver — a sure lock for Sunoco Rookie of the Year, if it’s any solace to him – with a 27th-place finish, allowing Timothy Peters to move past him in the standings to the fourth and final spot to race for the title in Miami.
 

Looking past the disappointment of Friday night, Byron’s success this season has been nothing short of incredible, finishing in the top five in nearly half of his starts.
 

The domination the No. 9 team has shown makes it ever-so-slightly easier to digest.
 

“I just try and smile it off, I guess,” Byron said. “The only satisfaction is that we had the best truck. We don’t have the win, but the only satisfaction is that we were that dominant. I’ve been really happy with the team this year. (Crew chief) Rudy (Fugle) has been amazing to me and hopefully we can just finish it off. I know he’s heartbroken like I am and we’ll just debrief and go onto Homestead.”
 

Given how disheartening it must be to know — and have all of your competitors know — that you’re the driver and truck to beat, only to have it come down to a parts failure … would Byron trade any of his wins to still be competing for the title?
 

“I definitely would like both (the wins and the championship) and feel like I can control both, but I would never take back the wins we had,” he said. “It’s gotten me to a new level; it’s gotten this team to a new level with confidence and just performance.
 

“I would never trade those; they were awesome moments with my team. I was thinking about sharing another one with them tonight, but it just didn’t happen.”

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Harvick apologizes for incident

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kevin Harvick said he reached out to Austin Dillon following last week’s incident between the two Sprint Cup Series drivers at Texas Motor Speedway but got no response.
 
Austin Dillon said he’s here at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend to race, and preferred not to comment on what took place last weekend.
 
“I reached out to him and he didn’t reach back,” Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, said after qualifying Friday at PIR. “So it is what it is.”
 
The two competitors were racing for fifth place at Texas when contact from Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet sent Dillon’s car into the wall in Turn 4 and ended his night.
 
Asked about the contact, Dillon said Harvick “knew how tight he was on my door and that’s why I got tight and slid up on front of him. He didn’t check (up), but he had the opportunity to.
 
“He didn’t like it that the silver spoon kid was out-running him tonight.”
 
The reference was to a 2013 incident involving Harvick and Ty Dillon, Austin’s younger brother, that took place at Martinsville in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Following late-race contact there, Harvick referred to the brothers as “punk-ass kids” who had “no respect for what they do in this sport and they’ve had everything fed to them with a spoon.”
 
Austin and Ty Dillon are the grandsons of team owner Richard Childress; Harvick spent his first 13 years in Sprint Cup driving for Richard Childress Racing before departing at the end of 2013 to join SHR.
 
Asked about the potential for retaliation, Harvick said Austin Dillon “can handle things however he wants to handle them.
 
“Obviously he is a little bitter about the things that I said … and that is probably a little bit my fault for never speaking to him about the situation,” he said.
 
Harvick said Dillon should have been mad about the Texas incident. “They are just starting to perform like they need to perform and he wants to win and he is a competitor and I can’t blame him for that,” he said.
 
“As far as the incident itself, it’s pretty self-explanatory when you watch the in-car as to what happened. There was nothing intentional there.”
 
Dillon said his focus this weekend is “to win this race.”
 
“We’ve had a good American Ethanol Chevy and I’m looking forward to showcasing that here in a little bit and trying to get two poles in a row,” he said before qualifying.
 
He didn’t win a second consecutive pole, but he did make it to the third round in qualifying and will start seventh in Sunday’s Can-Am 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
 
Harvick might be out of mind, but he won’t be out of sight — he qualified sixth and will start alongside Dillon.

Posted on by Nascar

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Upon his arrival in Phoenix Thursday, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano spent time at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital where he met with kids, handed out NASCAR merchandise and made a $5,000 donation to the hospital through his Joey Logano Foundation.

 

Such efforts always leave a lasting impression; Thursday’s even more so.

 

Only one day earlier, Logano and his wife, Brittany, attended the funeral for 5-year-old Jake Leatherman in Hickory, North Carolina. Leukemia claimed the youngster, an avid fan of NASCAR in general and Richard Petty in particular.

 

The couple were among the many members of the NASCAR community who responded to a grieving family and a mother’s request.

 

Brittany Logano had learned of the child’s story while in Texas for last weekend’s Sprint Cup race, seeing a Facebook post by Charlotte television reporter Molly Grantham.

 

“She had just watched the video and told me about him and how he was a big race fan,” Logano said, “and I thought it would be cool if we could do something for his funeral.”

 

The Loganos provided a small race suit with Leatherman’s name on it, and because he was big fan of Petty, the suit included the seven-time champion’s famous No. 43 car number.

 

But it didn’t stop there.

 

“It wasn’t just Brittany and myself,” Logano, driver of the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske, said. “There were around 100 team members there (at the funeral). It was one of the most real moments, one of the proudest moments I have been a part of in this NASCAR community. … We compete against every week out here at the race track and fight the crap out of each other every week. To come together as one team and be NASCAR as a whole for a child that who looked at us as superheroes. That is how his family members described what he thought of NASCAR.”

 

According to WBTV, fellow drivers Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Ellis and J.J. Yeley were among those in attendance. Crewmen and crew chiefs turned out. Driver firesuits and crewmen uniforms replaced coats and ties.

 

Logano said he was “bummed” that he never got to meet the youngster.

 

“We all came together and were all there for him but we didn’t get to meet him and give him his race suit and how cool he would have thought that was,” he said. “To see all his heroes and pit crew members there that day would have been very special.”

 

It was one of the most difficult things he’s had to do, but Logano said it was “also one of the most impressive things, to see our NASCAR community come together like that. It was definitely eye opening and it puts life into perspective.

 

“I don’t have a kid yet but I can’t even imagine – watching his mom and dad and sister and grandparents all there it tore my heart out.”

 

And that was still fresh on his mind when Logano arrived at the Children’s hospital in Phoenix for Thursday’s previously scheduled event.

 

“It sure made that visit different for me,” he said.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Starting lineup | See every car | Points standings | Chase Grid

 

Alex Bowman stormed to his first Coors Light Pole Award in Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying at Phoenix International Raceway.

Bowman, prepping for his eighth start in place of the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., guided the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet to a best lap of 140.521 mph around the 1-mile track. The Arizona native’s first pole position comes in the 80th start of his Sprint Cup career.

 

“Man, it’s amazing,” said the 23-year-old from nearby Tucson. “We weren’t really that strong in qualifying trim in practice (earlier on Friday). I don’t really know where that came from, but I just can’t thank everybody at Hendrick Motorsports enough.

 

“To do this in Phoenix, so close to home, means so much to me. We have had such fast race cars. We haven’t had an ounce of luck, but to get a pole here means a lot.”

Kyle Larson posted the second-fastest lap, turning a 140.263 mph qualifying pass in the final round in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. He’ll start on the front row alongside Bowman in Sunday’s Can-Am 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the ninth of 10 events in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

Rookie Chase Elliott was third-fastest at 140.236 mph, completing a 1-2-3 sweep by drivers out of the eight-driver playoff picture.

Sunday’s 312-lapper is the final race in the Round of 8 to determine the final four qualifiers for the Nov. 20 Championship 4 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Only Jimmie Johnson, who qualified 17th Friday, and Carl Edwards (11th) have clinched title shots, leaving two open spots up for grabs among the six remaining postseason hopefuls.

The rest of the Chase field’s qualifying spots: Joey Logano (fourth), Denny Hamlin (fifth), Kevin Harvick (sixth), Matt Kenseth (10th), Kurt Busch (12th) and Kyle Busch (19th). Harvick, who tops the series with eight Phoenix victories, has won five of the last six races for the series on the Arizona oval.

 

Fourth on the grid wasn’t what Logano wanted in his quest to make the Championship 4 at Homestead, but his position on the outside of the second row could be an advantage at the start of the race.

 

“No, it’s not first, right?” said Logano, who is tied for third in the Chase standings with Kyle Busch. “We had a fast Shell Pennzoil Ford again in qualifying and didn’t get the pole. That part is frustrating. The good part is we are fourth and not that far back, and the outside lane is usually a good place to be here at Phoenix on the restarts.

“Usually the leader takes the outside, and that works out pretty well. Overall, we should get a decent pit stall and be able to race toward the front. I’m frustrated because I am not first, which I guess is a good thing — but it kind of stinks.”

The Chase drivers aside, the story in qualifying was Bowman, who ran a third lap after posting his fast time in the second, not knowing he had run fast enough to secure the pole.

 

Earnhardt, who watched from pit road, was elated at the success of his relief driver.

 

“This is his hometown, kind of, so it’s awesome that all his friends are around to see him do this,” Earnhardt said. “This is great for his career. This is exactly what we were hoping to happen for him. Hopefully, he can put it together on Sunday.”

Austin Dillon was second-fastest in the opening round of qualifying, but committed a “blend-line” violation with an improper merge onto the race track early in the second round. It mattered little as last weekend’s pole winner at Texas wound up seventh in Friday’s qualifying in the desert.

Martin Truex Jr., whose Chase hopes ended in the Round of 12, will start last in the 40-car field after his Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota failed to make a lap. After a wreck with its primary car in Friday practice, the team had difficulties getting its reserve through inspection. The backup car cleared with roughly one minute left in the opening 20-minute round, and time ran out before Truex could get buckled in.

Tony Stewart, scheduled to run his final Sprint Cup race at Phoenix, just missed a chance at advancing past the first elimination in qualifying. His 137.825 mph lap was just .014 seconds slower than Casey Mears, who took the 24th and final spot in the first round.

Contributing: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

 

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full practice results | Fastest 10-lap averages

A 139.524-mph run sent Kyle Larson‘s No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet to the top of the leaderboard late in Friday’s opening Sprint Cup Series practice for the Can-Am 500 (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix International Raceway.

Joey Logano, the fastest Chase driver, was second on the speed charts, his No. 22 Team Penske Ford clocking in at 139.492 mph.

Hendrick Motorsports‘ Chase Elliott (139.297 mph), Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin (139.152 mph) and Furniture Row Racing‘s Martin Truex Jr. (139.136 mph) rounded out the top five — Truex, though, got into the wall late and his team unloaded the backup car.

Kyle Busch was the slowest Chase driver, coming up 19th in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 138.000 mph.

Phoenix’s most recent winner Kevin Harvick notched the 15th-fastest speed after making a mock-qualifying run in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Harvick is an eight-time winner at the Arizona track.

Harvick, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Truex Jr. all failed pre-qualifying inspection three times at Texas Motor Speedway last week and lost 15 minutes of practice time as a result. AJ Allmendinger was also docked 15 minutes after practice time after failing pre-qualifying laser inspection three times.

RELATED: Logano crew chief fined, other teams penalized post-Texas

The Sprint Cup Series is back on track at 6:45 p.m. ET for Coors Light Pole qualifying (NBCSN/NBC Sports App).

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR drivers, tracks, teams and more showed their appreciation to military service members Friday in honor of Veterans Day. See what they had to say.


Posted on by Staff Report

Tyler Reddick confirmed Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he will not return to Brad Keselowski Racing next season, ending a three-year tenure with the team owned by the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.

 

“It’s going to be a shame I’m not going to be there next year, but I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve spent there,” Reddick told SiriusXM. “Hopefully I can repay them with two more wins to add to the list.”

 

Reddick did not announce his 2017 plans.

 

In 61 races, which includes two full-time seasons, Reddick has won three times and logged 24 top-five finishes and 39 top 10s. His first victory was the 2015 season-opener at Daytona, setting the tone for a memorable year in which Reddick never dropped below third in the points standings.

 

Battling Erik Jones and Matt Crafton all year, Reddick would finish second to Jones in the championship point battle.

 

Deemed a title contender by many entering 2016, Reddick did not find the same success as the previous year. The driver did not qualify for the inaugural eight-driver NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase, although he did win at Las Vegas, a postseason race.

 

A natural fit for Reddick may be a promotion to the NASCAR XFINITY Series, where Team Penske — for whom Keselowski drives — is expanding its operation to a second car.

 

The intention, according to the team, is for Ford Performance to use the second entry as an extension of a driver development program in an effort to build for the future.

 

Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski Racing will have two new drivers in its two-truck operation next year. Daniel Hemric, who qualified for the postseason, is moving on to drive for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR XFINITY Series next year.

It was announced on Friday that Austin Cindric would drive full-time for Brad Keselowski Racing in 2017.

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (November 11, 2016) — NASCAR announced today that it will surpass 10 million competition miles on Sunoco Green E15, a biofuel blended with 15 percent American-made ethanol, by the end of the 2016 season. The achievement will be celebrated during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ race at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend. The 10 million miles will have been accumulated across practice, qualifying and racing laps since the biofuel was adopted by the sport.

 

Six years ago, NASCAR entered into a groundbreaking partnership with Sunoco and American Ethanol, launching its long-term biofuels program to reduce emissions across its three national series. After an exhaustive analysis, Sunoco formulated Sunoco Green E15 to allow for a seamless transition, and the biofuel made its debut at Daytona International Speedway in 2011. All the ethanol for Green E15 is produced from American-grown corn at Sunoco’s ethanol manufacturing facility in Fulton, N.Y.

 

“As we approach 10 million miles on Sunoco Green E15 across our three national series, it’s evident that the renewable, higher ethanol blended fuel performs flawlessly against our rigorous racing conditions,” said Brent Dewar, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer. “This remarkable milestone is the result of an industry-wide commitment to demonstrate high performance racing with reduced emissions, while educating our fans about the benefits of sustainable and renewable American ethanol.”

 

Since transitioning to the biofuel, NASCAR has helped validate the fuel’s qualities in front of an audience of millions of NASCAR fans and is helping shift attitudes and behaviors around the use of ethanol. According to new research conducted in July, when compared to non-fans, NASCAR fans are more likely to support the use of ethanol blended gasoline to fuel NASCAR race cars, their own car, and cars on the road today to increase U.S. energy independence. Source: Custom Environment-Related Tracker commissioned by NASCAR and conducted by Toluna (July 2016).

 

“We are thrilled to reach this important milestone with NASCAR and to be a part of the effort to reduce the sport’s impact on the environment with Sunoco Green E15, while increasing horsepower and standing up to the most demanding conditions on the track,” said Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy. “Like their favorite NASCAR drivers, consumers are now utilizing a fuel with a blend of 15 percent ethanol. Americans have already driven over 500 million miles on E15. Today, nearly 400 stations across 28 states sell E15 and those numbers continue to climb. Consumer demand is on the rise because Americans are finding out that E15 is the right choice for their engines, their wallets and the environment.”

 

The move to Sunoco Green E15 coincided with the incorporation of more technology into NASCAR race cars. In 2012, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series transitioned from carbureted engines to electronic fuel injection using an electronic control unit (ECU) — the first computer technology used in a NASCAR race car. In addition, the series moved from analog gauges to a digital dashboard this season.

 

“As a lifelong fan and a proud team owner, I am certain that the switch to an ethanol blend has been a great move by NASCAR,” said Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of RCR. “We’re proud of our connection to the ethanol industry and all of the good that it’s doing for our country, and could not be more pleased to celebrate passing 10 million miles with the industry.”

 

During the pace car laps at the start of the race on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, NASCAR fans at the start/finish line will be asked to participate in a coordinated American Ethanol green flag wave to help commemorate the 10 million-mile achievement.

 

The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will continue with the Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.