Posted on by Nascar

FORT WORTH, Texas — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owner Harry Scott says no decisions have been made concerning the future of the HScott Motorsports organization and likely won’t be until after the completion of the 2016 season.
 
HScott currently fields two full-time teams in Sprint Cup, the No. 46 of driver Michael Annett and the No. 15 of driver Clint Bowyer. The organization, which runs under the Chevrolet banner, utilizes engines from Hendrick Motorsports.
 
It was announced Friday that Annett would move to JR Motorsports next season to compete full-time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. Pilot Flying J, his current sponsor in Sprint Cup, will make the move to JRM as well.

RELATED: Annett, Byron to join JRM in XFINITY
 
Bowyer’s stay with HScott has been for the ’16 season only as he moves on to Stewart-Haas Racing next year to take over that organization’s No. 14 for three-time series champion Tony Stewart. Sponsor 5-hour Energy will move to Furniture Row Racing where it will be aligned with driver Erik Jones.
 
All of which has led to speculation concerning the future of HScott.
 
“First, I want to wish Michael and Pilot Flying J success in the future,” Scott said in a statement provided to NASCAR.com. “I have enjoyed working with them and wish them all the best.
 
“As for the 2017 season, I am considering a number of options — including an offer to run a different driver — but no final decisions have been made and won’t be announced until after the end of the season.”
 
Scott has a charter, which guarantees a spot in the starting field each week, for both the No. 15 and 46 entries. However, the charter for the No. 46 entry was a one-year arrangement between HScott and Premium Motorsports owner Jay Robinson.
 
Bowyer is currently 27th in Sprint Cup points with no wins and only three top-10 finishes. Annett is 36th with no top 10s.
 
HScott has been fielding full-time entries in NASCAR’s premier series since 2014 after purchasing the assets of Phoenix Racing. Previously located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the organization moved its headquarters to Mooresville, North Carolina, before the start of the ’16 season.

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: ‘Rowdy’ reflects on time spent with ‘Smoke’


FORT WORTH, Texas — An issue early in Friday’s opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sent Kyle Busch to the garage and his team to the hauler to unload the backup No. 18 Toyota.

The defending Sprint Cup Series champion made contact with the outside wall on his first lap around the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway layout. Damage to the right front of the Joe Gibbs Racing entry was significant.

It took approximately one hour for the backup entry to be sufficiently prepped. Busch quickly posted the 10th-fastest lap when he was finally able to return to the track.

“We got into turn three and the car felt great, loaded up really good, got back to the throttle and then got to the bumps that are over there in (Turns) 3 and 4,” Busch said afterward.

The car “felt like it bottomed out a little bit,” he said, “and kind of got me up the track and then from there the whole car just kind of came out of the track and I got loose and couldn’t get it checked up or slowed down before it slapped the wall.

“Speeds are really high here at Texas and when you lose that grip, typically it happens in a hurry and (it) just kind of got away from me there. I wish that I would have had maybe taken it a little easy, but I really wasn’t even trying that hard to be honest with you. Just kind of a shock that that happened.”

Because the incident took place prior to qualifying, Busch won’t be required to drop to the rear of the field prior to the start of Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I don’t think I have ever crashed on the first lap of getting out there on the race track before,” he said. “We’ve right-sided cars before here or there and I always had a running joke with one of our guys at the body shop that comes to the race track on Sundays … anytime he has to put a right side wrap on a car, it meant good things. Going to a backup car, I don’t think it is going to hurt us any.”

By the end of practice, he had slipped to 22nd in the rundown.

He’s a two-time winner at Texas in the Sprint Cup Series, and won here earlier this year. He’s finished no worse than fourth in his last four Texas starts, and six of his last seven.

“Didn’t even get a lap on that thing but all in all I know that I’ve got a great group of guys that will dig in as deep as they need to in order to make sure we do everything that we can to prepare it to get ourselves back to where we need to be for being competitive here this weekend,” he said.


The incident during practice wasn’t the only issue for the No. 18 team Friday. After posting the second-fastest time in the opening round of qualifying, Busch and the team returned to the garage after a lower radiator hose came loose after he completed his run.


As a result, he will start 24th Sunday.


Busch is fourth in points, four points ahead of fifth-place Joey Logano (Team Penske). The Texas race is the second of three in the Round of 8, with three positions up for grabs to go to Homestead with a shot at the 2016 championship. Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports) locked up one of the Championship 4 spots with his win last weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing), teammate Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards (JGR) are also outside the top four entering Sunday’s race.

Johnson, Denny Hamlin (JGR), Matt Kenseth (JGR) and Busch are first through fourth.

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Former Major League Baseball player Jim “The Rookie” Morris recalls walking into O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth, Texas, last year for the first time.

 

He was amazed at what he saw.

 

“I was shocked at just the lack of everything basically with the baseball program,” Morris told NASCAR.com of the school’s lack of equipment and facilities. “I want everybody to have a level playing field. I want a safe haven for kids to go to after school where they’re not on the streets, they’re actually doing something and being coached by people who love them.”

 

So Morris decided to do something about it: With the help of a group of sponsors, including Thrivent Financial — a organization that helps Christians manage their finances — Morris and NASCAR driver Michael McDowell will host a celebrity softball game at the school on Saturday prior to Sunday’s race at nearby Texas Motor Speedway. Volunteers, alumni, students and teachers will be afforded the opportunity to play and during the game, plans for the school’s baseball field renovations, as well as new batting cage, equipment and uniforms, will be unveiled.

 

Despite his lack of baseball experience, McDowell — who says lightheartedly that he has “no abilities, no skills” in that area — is excited to be a part of an event that will be impactful for the school and the Fort Worth community.

 

“Just like any other thing we do with Thrivent — to live generously and to give back to our community is a really important part and we have a great opportunity with the platform that we have to make a difference in communities,” said McDowell, who also works with Habitat for Humanity, Samaritans Purse, The Wounded Warrior Project and other organizations through primary sponsor Thrivent Financial.

 

“To get people to rally together and to do that is really cool.”

 

He’ll also be able to learn a little more about baseball, thanks to a stout teacher in Morris: The inspiration for Disney’s 2002 film “The Rookie,” Morris went from a 35-year-old high school teacher to a Major League Baseball pitcher in a three-month span after making a bet with his high school players that he would try out for the major leagues if they won the District Championship. He pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays and then the Los Angeles Dodgers before retiring in 2001.

 

Now, Morris’ mission in life is to help underprivileged children and communities through his Jim “The Rookie” Morris Foundation and give them the same opportunities he had growing up. Giving these students new equipment and a revamped facility is the start of helping reform their life, he explained.

 

“My father and I didn’t get along, rough life — he was in the Navy, he moved around constantly,” Morris said. “Baseball was the one constant I had in my life. In between the white lines of that baseball field, I could be the kid I was supposed to be.

 

“… There is no color in baseball. The baseball’s white, the bats are different colors, the gloves are different colors, the players are different colors — they come from different backgrounds, different countries. I want these kids to see that, that they can go out and reach their dreams as much as we can.”

 

McDowell sees parallels between his racing career Morris’ rise to the big leagues, as he’s persevered through the NASCAR ranks and finally earned his first major series victory this season at Road America in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

 

“When I came into the sport, I had high expectations and I was young and I had won in everything else I’d done and then I got to NASCAR and it was a very humbling experience,” McDowell recalled. “I really struggled to perform and after I lost my job at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing), I sort of just found where I am with sort of underfunded race teams and single car teams, start and parking and just driving whatever I could just to stay in the sport. Definitely trying to just persevere through that.

“Luckily I got a break in 2011 and got to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in the XFINITY Series. Only got to do a handful of races but those went well and that kind of put me back on the map of somebody that could do it and had the ability to do it … but I never got that first win until (this year at Road America).

“Just a story of sticking to it and fighting hard and I feel like I’ve had some great opportunities the last few years and that’s allowed me to stay in the sport and I’m very thankful for that.”

 

Morris will also join McDowell at the race track for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App), along with a group of local children.

 

“I’ve never been a NASCAR fan, but I’ve never had the opportunity to go, so this is great big deal for me, this is a great big deal for the kids and the coaches,” Morris said. “At least for a little while, they can leave the life they were stuck in and go out there and watch race and just have fun.”

 

The Celebrity Softball Game will take place on Saturday, Nov. 5 at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth, Texas, from 3:30-6 p.m. local time. The event is open to the public. 

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Chase Grid | Series standings | Texas schedule

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Busch summed up his Joe Gibbs Racing team’s championship path Friday afternoon ahead of pole qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway.

“Race hard, go for the win, do what you need to do,” Busch said, allowing a slight smile.

The reigning Sprint Cup Series champion – along with his three JGR teammates, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards – all have reinforced the philosophy in one way or another in NASCAR’s 2016 playoffs. But it has been an interesting and tedious path for the team, which for the first time ever advanced all four of its drivers into the penultimate round of the championship Chase.

At both Talladega Superspeedway two weeks ago and the short track of Martinsville Speedway last week a variation of the four Gibbs drivers ran bumper-to-bumper in a group. 

At Talladega, Kenseth, Busch and Edwards stuck together mid- to back-pack as Hamlin raced for his Chase lifeline, ultimately finishing third. At Martinsville, Hamlin, Kenseth and Busch freight-trained through the field (Edwards had a tire failure and finished 36th). But they finished behind Jimmie Johnson, whose victory ensures him one of four spots to challenge for the big trophy in the Homestead season finale in three weeks, as well as race runner-up Brad Keselowski.

Busch seemed upset on pit road after climbing out of his No. 18 Toyota immediately after the race and suggested that one of the Gibbs trio could have and should have challenged Johnson for that automatic berth in the title finale.

“We worked so good together that we gave the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) car the win today,” Busch said at Martinsville. “That’s how good JGR is.”

RELATED: JGR denied in quest for sweep of Championship 4 spots

The Gibbs teammates met this Tuesday, as they always do to dissect and plan strategy. To talk it out.

“That’s the thing that we always do every week,” Busch said. “We all strive to be the best we can as teammates to help one another, but then there’s also the strategy that you have to have to be able to perform to the best of your ability for your team and to go out there and win the championship.

“This format obviously lends itself to a different situation than in years past. Maybe I was expecting a little bit different than what transpired in the race on Sunday (at Martinsville), but we talked, forgive and forget and move on and here we are.”

Busch’s JGR teammates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards also spoke to the racing media Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, where Busch won this April, but where Johnson has won four of the previous six races.

CAIN: Will JGR’s team-first change as Chase nears its conclusion?

Kenseth was calmly adamant that there was no big issue with the teammates and the way they are expected to race.

Nothing to see here, folks. 

“I think our teamwork at Joe Gibbs Racing is second to none,” Kenseth said. “I’ve had a lot of great teammates, none any better than what I have now, that’s for sure. 

“Everybody is really, really competitive and wants to win. Our goal was to have four cars at Homestead and now there’s only three spots left. Every week we talk about what we can do to help each other, and make things better but we also realize when they drop the green on Sunday, it’s one against 39 and have to get the best finish we can for our respective teams.”

He did, however, acknowledge that things are a little more complicated in general than perhaps two or three decades ago. Much of that is because there were no three- or four-car teams battling each other and others for the title trophy.

“The format has brought up certainly a lot of different scenarios,” Kenseth acknowledged of the three-year old elimination-style Chase.

“It’s not as cut and dry as probably when it first came out when everyone thought it was just about winning. There’s things that go on and lots of moving pieces.

“I think there’s a lot of huge benefits to having good teammates and talented teammates and crew chiefs and all that stuff. The only downfall you can find of it is it’s hard to beat them when they are in the same stuff. I reap the benefits every day of having great teammates and crew chiefs and competitive cars.”


SEE ALL THEIR WINS: Kenseth | Edwards | Busch | Hamlin

Edwards joked that the upside of his early exit last week at Martinsville didn’t put him in position to even be frustrated that the remaining JGR three car-train failed to earn a victory despite its competitiveness.

“I know there was frustration after the race, but that was the only good thing about having that tire problem is that I didn’t get caught up in any of that – if there was something good out of it,” Edwards said. “So, I didn’t see first-hand what happened. I haven’t gone back and watched the video yet but knowing the discussions afterward everybody had a different perspective but everybody understood one another and they really got over it very quickly. It wasn’t a big deal.”

Edwards’ teammates are ranked second (Hamlin), third (Kenseth) and fourth (Busch) as the series prepares to take the checkered flag in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). However, Edwards is a three-time winner here on the Texas high banks – best of any Gibbs driver. Because he is ranked eighth (39 points behind Johnson) he is a position where he will likely need a win either here or next week at Phoenix to advance.

“Without getting into particulars about the driving or whatever just to be able to sit at the table with Matt (Kenseth), Kyle (Busch) and Denny (Hamlin) during our meetings and as much as open and honest as all of them are, kind of the format that Coach (Gibbs) has is just really cool,” Edwards said. 

“It’s opened my eyes to some different things. Different things that I maybe wasn’t paying attention to as a driver that I should’ve been and it’s been really cool. I guess something specific other than just the whole team atmosphere and the teamwork. I mean, amongst competitors, especially fierce competitors like all of us that’s very rare and I think it’s something that we’ve just got to hold onto and keep using because it’s working.”

As he also acknowledged, it’s a highly competitive, highly driven group with one goal in mind. And only one driver who could ultimately achieve it.

“I think we’re all about as different as four drivers can be and it actually helps and is really good,” Edwards said of the Gibbs group.

“It’s a unique situation that I think is really special. I know it benefits me and I think as a group it benefits all of us the way we’ve been doing things.

“Yeah, we’re going to have days where we’re frustrated and we don’t get along, but we tidy that stuff up real quickly.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

MORE: Series standings | Practice 1 results


FORT WORTH, Texas — Three of the eight XFINITY Series championship eligible drivers met with the media Friday at Texas Motor Speedway and judging by their remarks, no one was even near ready to call this title run a done deal.


They were reticent, in fact, to even declare a clear-cut favorite.

“I wish it was tighter,” Brendan Gaughan joked. “You’ve got to look at the (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars and say they’re definitely the favorites, they’ve been strongest all year. But then Elliott Sadler had a 50-point lead before the Chase started.

“We already took out two guys who you expected to be in the next round. Everybody has a chance now. Eight guys still have a chance to win the championship right now.”

In fact, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Daniel Suarez is tied with JR Motorsports’ Elliott Sadler atop the standings. Blake Koch trails them by only seven points. The first six drivers are separated by 14 points.

Gaughan, in seventh place, is 29 points back. Eighth place Darrell Wallace Jr. is 30 back heading into Saturday afternoon’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.

Koch, who went to a back-up No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet after crashing early in Friday’s opening practice, said he was absolutely convinced this series title was legitimately still up for grabs. Which four drivers will settle the trophy in the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale is still anyone’s guess with two races left to set that field.


RELATED: Heavy damage for Koch, goes to backup

“I think it’s really tight,” Koch said. “You have a three-race points battle that gets intense and anything can happen in any of those races to either put you in or put you out.'”


The 24-year old Suarez, of Monterrey, Mexico, was second fastest in Friday’s opening practice and the quickest among the XFINITY Series regulars. A two-race winner this season, he also felt it was too early to declare a definitive favorite in this inaugural Chase format. Even if he likes his chances.

He finished sixth in this race last year and was 16th here in April.

“I think it’s … you know, it just adds a lot of pressure to everyone and that’s normal,” Suarez said of the Chase. “When you add pressure to somebody, sometimes you make mistakes and I’m not talking just about drivers — teams as well, pit crews, everyone — so I think it’s something very cool to see.


“I mean, I think I work well under pressure, but we’ll see in the next few weeks.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

FORT WORTH, Texas – Looking proud, optimistic and fit, Matt Tifft addressed reporters Friday morning at Texas Motor Speedway to talk about his new job driving a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota full time next year in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series.


The 20-year old Ohio native, who had a benign brain tumor removed July 1, appeared in the Texas Media Center Friday morning eager to talk about this next important step in his career.


And how hard he worked to achieve it, certainly the road less traveled by.


“It’s an incredible opportunity,” Tifft said. “The crazy thing is I remember a couple months ago just coming to Bristol and doing a press conference about just trying to get back in the car [following brain surgery].


“So it’s so cool to be sitting here today and announcing plans for next year and being full time. The Joe Gibbs Racing organization was so great through every thing I went through. It’s going to be an awesome opportunity to race with them week in and week out.”


Tifft smiled often as he spoke to reporters about his unpredictable and unconventional season to date. He was as inspiring as he was informational, sharing his very determined path to overcome his health issues and continue to advance his young career in the NASCAR ranks.


He candidly discussed some of the extra precautions he takes at the race track, like wearing Surface Sunscreen zinc stick to guard the surgical scar on his head. He recalled down to the minute – 7:51 p.m. – when he came out of surgery to remove the tumor on his brain.


RELATED: Tifft tweets upbeat video after brain tumor surgery

“They told me I would be there for three or four days just admitted in the hospital and I got through a lot of things and got eating by midnight that night and I remember asking the next morning – I asked the nurse for a checklist of what you need to get out of this hospital,” Tifft recalled. “I just wanted to get done with everything, get back to home and instead of waiting three days, I got out less than 24 hours later from brain surgery and that motivation I had ever since then I never thought in my mind that I wasn’t going to do this.”


Turning his part-time 2016 effort into a full-time job next year was always the plan, he said. But clearly, his medical situation became the primary focus before he was given the all clear to pursue a more robust schedule.


Tifft returned to NASCAR competition Sept. 16 for a Camping World Truck Series start at Chicagoland Speedway, scoring a 12th-place finish. He earned his first post-surgery top-10 (10th place) at Talladega last month. He has a pair of XFINITY Series starts since his surgery, including a season best fifth place (plus two laps led) at Kentucky Speedway and an eighth place at Charlotte.


“When we started this year with the 13-race schedule, in my mind my job was to go out and perform and show that I could race with my teammates and learn as much as I could. But with the ultimate goal of hopefully being able to move into a full-time role. Probably towards the time that it started happening – where that the health issues started to come up – was probably when we first started talking about it and then obviously this stuff kind of got put on the back burner, so, you know, now that we’ve been able to get back in the car and get some good runs again, that’s when we started really seriously talking about it,” Tifft said.


He grinned widely explaining the most painful thing he’s been through recently was watching his hometown Cleveland Indians lose in the World Series this week. 


He is so hopeful – and grateful – for this opportunity at JGR. For this opportunity in life.


What has he learned?


“How much I love it,” Tifft said. 


“You know, I think I remember in July probably two or three weeks after surgery and it was incredible to me how much my perspective on life – had changed because, you know, I remember watching races on TV and when I first started going through these things and I had to miss a race for the back issue at Iowa it was like, ‘Man, I really want to be out there,’ and then I remember sitting at home in July thinking, ‘I have no idea, you know, what my future entails for me.’ I didn’t know – I didn’t know if I could drive a street car.


“I didn’t know when that timeline was going to be. I didn’t know if I was going to drive a race car this year, next year, whenever, but, you know, I just definitely kept the faith in myself that I could get back to that point. 


“That’s what kept me motivated the whole time, but without the support of family and friends and that motivation to get back to racing, I don’t know how quick my recovery time would have been and obviously it’s different for every person. When I had to step out of that car and almost had what I love so much and wanted to do since I was five years old taken away from me, it made me appreciate it so much more that I’m stepping back to that role as a race car driver.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Practice 1 results | Chase Grid | Preview Show: Texas


Kevin Harvick scooted to the top spot in opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Harvick powered the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet to a best lap of 196.685 mph on the 1.5-mile track. He’ll seek his first Texas win in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM). The event is the second of three events in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs’ Round of 8.

Carl Edwards was second-fastest in early preparation for Sunday’s 500-miler, pushing the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota to a best lap of 196.278 mph. Edwards was just ahead of Gibbs teammate Matt Kenseth, third-fast in the JGR No. 20 Toyota at 195.929 mph.

Joey Logano was fourth-fastest in the 85-minute session as Chase title contenders swept the first four spots on the leaderboard. Rookie Ryan Blaney completed the top five.

Defending series champion Kyle Busch, a two-time Texas winner who took the checkered flag at the Fort Worth track in April, crashed early in the session, forcing his Joe Gibbs Racing team to a reserve No. 18 Toyota. Busch was in the midst of his first lap at speed when the car pitched sideways into the Turn 4 retaining wall.


MORE: Busch set for backup

Busch returned to the track with 25 minutes left in opening practice, mustering the 22nd-fastest lap among the 40-car field.

Jimmie Johnson, a six-time Texas winner who has won the track’s fall race four straight years, was just 33rd-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet. Johnson prevailed last weekend at Martinsville to clinch a berth among the Championship 4 field for the Nov. 20 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. ET.

Posted on by Staff Report

JR Motorsports announced a four-car, full-season lineup for the NASCAR XFINITY Series in 2017, with newcomers Michael Annett and William Byron joining incumbents Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier.
 
The team also announced that it would field a fifth car in select races with Sprint Cup regulars Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr., the team’s owner, behind the wheel.
 
Annett’s name is the newest added to the JRM roster. The 30-year-old Iowan’s No. 5 Chevrolet entries will carry sponsorship from Pilot/Flying J travel centers. With intentions of competing full-time on the XFINITY tour, Annett will depart the HScott Motorsports No. 46 Chevrolet, his ride the last two years in the Sprint Cup Series.
 
Annett competed full-time in the XFINITY Series from 2009-13.
 
“I’m excited for this opportunity with JR Motorsports,” Annett said in a release provided by the team. “Dale Jr. and Kelley (Earnhardt Miller, the team’s general manager) have done a great job building this organization. They have put the right people in place and have a championship to their name. I look forward to joining them and competing for wins and a championship next season in the XFINITY Series.”
 
The move marks an expansion for the Earnhardt-owned organization, which fielded two full-time teams this year for Sadler and Allgaier, then a third full-time Chevrolet Camaro for a rotation of drivers. The team also entered a fourth Chevrolet in a handful of races this season.


Byron, the 18-year-old breakout star of the Camping World Truck Series this year, signed with Hendrick Motorsports in August, drawing a developmental assignment with JR Motorsports next season. The first-year Liberty University student and NASCAR Next product has six wins in just his first season of truck competition.

Sadler and Allgaier return to JRM for the second straight season. Both remain championship-eligible in the XFINITY Series Chase’s Round of 8 heading into Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM).

Sadler has enjoyed a career resurgence in his first year in JRM’s No. 1 Chevrolet, collecting three wins and claiming a hold on the series lead since July. That month, longtime sponsor OneMain Financial announced that it would sever its ties to Sadler, only to reverse course six weeks later.

Allgaier will be back with the No. 7 Chevy team. His consistency of 24 top-10 finishes in 30 races this year — a mark he shares with Daniel Suarez — is second only to Sadler’s 27-for-30 clip in that category.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Complete schedule for Texas

Here are the hot topics, trending news and key story lines to get you ready for this weekend’s races at Texas Motor Speedway.

WEATHER

A mix of sun and rain is forecasted for the Texas tripleheader. Friday and Saturday appear to have identical forecasts with both days projecting a high near 74. Sunday will be partly sunny with a high of 72.

 

KEY TIMES



Sprint Cup Series: The first practice will be Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN/NBC Sports App), with another pair of practices coming Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET (CNBC/NBC Sports App) and 1:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN/NBC Sports App). Coors Light Pole Qualifying is at 6:45 p.m. ET Friday (NBC Sports App, will air tape delayed on NBCSN at 10:30 p.m. ET). Sunday’s main event, which is the second race in the three-race Round of 8, begins at 2 p.m. ET (NBC/NBC Sports App)

XFINITY Series: The first practice is Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN/NBCSN Sports App) with final practice later that day at 5 p.m. ET (NBC Sports App, will air tape delayed on NBCSN at 12 a.m. ET). Saturday is a busy day for the field with Coors Light Pole Qualifying beginning at 11:45 a.m. ET (CNBC/NBC Sports App) ahead of the 300-mile race (3 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App), which is the second in the Round of 8 of the XFINITY Series Chase.


Camping World Truck Series: A pair of Thursday practices were rained out so the series gets on track Friday morning for one hour from 10 a.m. ET to 11 a.m. ET. The second race of the Round of 6 of the Camping World Truck Series Chase is Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with Keystone Light Pole Qualifying just before at 3:45 p.m. ET (FS1).

CATCH DRIVERS LIVE



We’ll stream every driver press conference in the Martinsville media center at NASCAR.com/presspass. Some highlights are three of the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet on Friday and XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series Chase contenders on both Friday and Saturday. Click here for a full schedule.


LAST TIME

— Despite being eliminated from the Chase two weeks earlier, Jimmie Johnson proved he was still one tough competitor after earning his sixth win at Texas Motor Speedway during 2015’s AAA Texas 500. “Six-Time” only led for a total of six circuits, including the final four after taking the lead from Brad Keselowski on Lap 331 — and never looking back. Johnson has won the last four Chase races at the 1.5-mile track.

 

— Speaking of Keselowski, the Team Penske wheelman dominated the Texas event, topping the board for 312 laps and breaking the record for the most laps led at the track. Keselowski was still vying for a Chase spot at Homestead and the win would have earned him a berth; he ultimately came up short in making the Championship 4.


YOU SHOULD KNOW


• Jimmie Johnson: The winningest Texas driver returns to the track fresh off his Martinsville victory. Although Johnson is already locked into the Championship 4, a win here could leave the seven other contenders scrambling at Phoenix’s elimination race.


• This is the second of three races in the Round of 8, before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field is cut to the Championship 4 for the Homestead-Miami Speedway finale.

 

• With all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers still in contention for the 2016 championship, will we start to see teammates battle one another for wins instead of working together? With only two races remaining before the finale, anything is possible. 

THE FAVORITE



Jimmie Johnson. With six wins, the top driver rating (107.8) and an average finish of 8.3, there’s no doubt that Johnson is the one to beat. Even though he is the only Chaser guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4, don’t expect him to take it easy on his competition. 


Others to consider: Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch

THE SLEEPER



Tony Stewart. Although “Smoke” is out of the Chase, Texas could be his last chance to lock in his final career win before he retires at the end of this season. He’s visited Victory Lane here two times, tying him for third-most wins at the track. 

Others to consider: Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth

STAFF PICKS


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