Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full Sprint Cup lineup | Weather updates


The Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway has been postponed to Sunday at Noon ET due to inclement weather, setting up a doubleheader for the second consecutive weekend. The Sprint Cup Series race will be broadcast on NBC, with the NASCAR XFINITY Series race following on NBCSN.


The decision to postpone from Saturday night to Sunday at noon was made at approximately 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday after rain pelted the track and surrounding area as the outer bands of Hurricane Matthew made their way through. Weather forecasts varied initially, but a change to Matthew’s trajectory Saturday morning led to the call to postpone.

As of Saturday at 11 a.m., Matthew was a Category 1 hurricane after making landfall at McClellanville, South Carolina (about 55 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach), according to the National Weather Service.


Sunday will now serve as a doubleheader, putting on two races the same day on the same track for the second consecutive weekend.


The Sprint Cup Series race goes green at noon ET, with TV coverage on NBC and radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The XFINITY Series race will follow, with a projected start time of 4:30 p.m. ET. It will be broadcast on NBCSN with radio coverage on PRN SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.


According to Charlotte Motor Speedway, the gates will open at 9 a.m. ET. Bank of America 500 tickets are valid for both races on Sunday; Drive for the Cure 300 presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina ticketholders will be admitted after the Bank of America 500 ends.


Sprint Cup Series drivers have one practice session and qualifying in the books at Charlotte. All events Friday were wiped out due to weather, which scheduled to be two Sprint Cup Series practices and XFINITY Series qualifying and that series Round of 12 finale.


Chase driver Kevin Harvick will start on the Coors Light Pole on Sunday afternoon with Alex Bowman, filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevrolet, starting second. Chase Elliott will start third, with Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart completing the top five.

As the storm moved up the East Coast, Daytona International Speedway suffered some damage. Atlanta Motor Speedway was offering help to displaced people, opening its campgrounds to those fleeing the wind, rain and flooding.

Posted on by Staff Report

UPDATED: 10:40 a.m. Saturday

RELATED: Weather updates from Charlotte | Update schedule for Charlotte

The effects of Hurricane Matthew reached far into North Carolina on Friday and Saturday as rain from the storm forced the cancellation of on-track activity at Charlotte Motor Speedway, including the postponement of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and XFINITY Series races.


Sunday will be a NASCAR doubleheader with two races the same day on the same track for the second consecutive weekend.

The Sprint Cup Series race is scheduled to start at noon ET, with TV coverage simulcast on NBC and NBCSN (PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The XFINITY Series race would follow, with a projected start time of 4:30 p.m. ET. It will be broadcast on NBCSN with the same radio coverage.


As of 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Hurricane Matthew was a Category 1 hurricane (down from a Category 4 on Thursday) and was causing severe damage along the South Carolina coast on its way northward.


Charlotte’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, the Bank of America 500, is the first race in the premier series’ Round of 12 of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.


The Drive for the Cure 300 Presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC is the final race in the XFINITY Series Chase’s Round of 12. 


Two Sprint Cup Series practices were slated for Friday, and the NASCAR XFINITY Series was slated to have Coors Light Pole Qualifying as well. Those three events were canceled.

Posted on by George Winkler

RELATED: Chase driver profiles | Chase Grid
It’s crunch time for Chase drivers — and for our numbers — as we try to see who will advance past the Round of 12 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which gets underway this weekend at Charlotte. But first let’s see how we did with our Round of 16 predictions.

We had Chris Buescher and Jamie McMurray bowing out after Dover. Check.

However, we had Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott getting ousted, and instead they survived and advanced. Ouch, hip-checked.

In our defense, Dillon was in a precarious position at the Dover elmination race until Kyle Larson‘s mechanical misfortune, and Tony Stewart, who also got eliminated, barely edged out Elliott for the final spot in our previous prediction. (This round-about explanation was meant to get you ready for some of what you’ll hear in the upcoming presidential debate.)

But stick with us folks, and see how we do this round. Even if we don’t get it all right, there are stats you don’t want to miss for big-name drivers like Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in a round that includes Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega (the big wild card that routinely thumbs its nose at stats people like us.)


A reminder on our numbers: We’ve looked at average finish and laps led in the following categories for each Chase driver: 1. Season stats, 2. Last five races and 3. History at Round of 12 tracks. This way, we feel like we’ve accounted for who has done consistently well this season versus who is hot now versus who has some good experience under his belt.

Let’s look at results for average finish, then we’ll move on to laps led before unveiling the final prediction:

Average Finish

Rank Driver Points
1. Brad Keselowski 33
2. Kevin Harvick 24
3. Chase Elliott 23
4. Denny Hamlin 22.5
5. Martin Truex Jr. 22
6. Joey Logano 21.5
7. Kyle Busch 17.5
8. Matt Kenseth 16
9. Jimmie Johnson 15
10. Kurt Busch 14.5
11. Carl Edwards 14
12. Austin Dillon 11

How we got the numbers: We assigned a point value to each Chase driver relative to how he finished in each of the following categories: average finish this season, average finish in the last five races and average finish at the Round of 12 tracks. For example, if a driver was tops in average finish this season, he got 12 points; second place got 11 points and so on down to last place, which got one point. Then, we added up the point values each driver earned in the three categories to arrive at the above list. Here are the top three drivers and bottom three drivers in each category:

Average finish this season:
Leaders: 1. Brad Keselowski, 2. Kevin Harvick, T-3. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin.
Followers: 10. Matt Kenseth, 11. Austin Dillon, 12. Jimmie Johnson.

Average finish last five races:
Leaders: 1. Martin Truex Jr., 2. Brad Keselowski, 3. Kyle Busch.
Followers: 10. Jimmie Johnson, 11. Kurt Busch, 12. Carl Edwards.

Average finish at Round of 12 tracks:
Leaders: 1. Chase Elliott, 2. Jimmie Johnson, 3. Brad Keselowski.
Followers: 10. Martin Truex Jr., 11. Kurt Busch, 12. Kyle Busch.

Analysis: It’s somewhat stunning to see Jimmie Johnson as the lowest rated driver in average finish for the season given the amount of success he has had over the course of his career. Clearly, his team needs to improve quickly if it wants to win a seventh title. … Carl Edwards has not performed well over the past five races, but the silver lining is he has a recent win at Charlotte (2015’s Coca-Cola 600) and finished sixth in the Bank of America 500 last year. … Kyle Busch is winless at Charlotte while his struggles at Kansas have been well-documented. Those concerns are again supported here with the worst average finish among the 12 drivers at the next three tracks.

Now, let’s take a look at how the drivers fared in laps led.

Laps Led

Rank Driver Points
1. Martin Truex Jr. 33
2. Kyle Busch 30
3. Kevin Harvick 28
4. Matt Kenseth 27
5. Jimmie Johnson 22
6. Denny Hamlin 20
7. Brad Keselowski 17
8. Joey Logano 16
9. Carl Edwards 15
10. Kurt Busch 13
11. Chase Elliott 8
12. Austin Dillon 5

How we got the numbers: Same as with average finish, we assigned a point value to each Chase driver relative to how he finished in each of the following categories: laps led this season, laps led in the last five races and laps led at the Round of 12 tracks. Then, we added up the point values to arrive at the above list. Here are the top three drivers and bottom three drivers in each category:

Laps led this season:
Leaders: 1. Martin Truex Jr., 2. Kyle Busch, 3. Kevin Harvick.
Followers: 10. Chase Elliott, 11. Kurt Busch, 12. Austin Dillon.

Laps led last five races:
Leaders: 1. Martin Truex Jr., 2. Kevin Harvick, 3. Denny Hamlin.
Followers: 10. Jimmie Johnson, 11. Austin Dillon, 12. Kurt Busch.

Laps led at Round of 12 tracks:
Leaders: 1. Jimmie Johnson, 2. Matt Kenseth, 3. Kyle Busch.
Followers: 10. Carl Edwards, 11. Chase Elliott, 12. Austin Dillon.

Analysis: Chase Elliott and Kurt Busch are both behind the pace in laps led this season, but the outlook is significantly brighter around Elliott because of an average finish in the past five races of 9.6 compared with Busch’s mark of 15.0 over the same span. … When you win two of the past three races like Martin Truex Jr. has, of course you’re going to be rated highly in the last five races. But when you’ve also led the most laps over the course of the entire season, it’s easy to see why he’s the championship favorite. … If Carl Edwards plans to finally get that first championship, it would serve him well to get a win at Charlotte or Kansas, because he has one of the worst records at Talladega among the remaining Chase drivers.

FINAL PREDICTION

Rank Driver Points
1 Martin Truex Jr. 55
2 Kevin Harvick 52
3 Brad Keselowski 50
4 Kyle Busch 47.5
5 Matt Kenseth 43
6 Denny Hamlin 42.5
7 Joey Logano 37.5
8 Jimmie Johnson 37
9 Chase Elliott 31
10 Carl Edwards 29
11 Kurt Busch 27.5
12 Austin Dillon 16

Final prediction: Alas, Edwards won’t get a chance at that first title, according to our prediction. He’ll join Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch and Austin Dillon as the drivers missing the Chase cutoff after Talladega. Jimmie Johnson will be the last driver to make it (in eighth place) — with Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch in control as the series opens the Round of 8 at Martinsville Speedway.

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Full starting lineup

CONCORD, N.C. — The guy starting second in this weekend’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway isn’t racing to remain relevant in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

He’s racing to remain relevant. Period.

Alex Bowman, the former Sprint Cup driver, is now doing spot duty for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. A nice gig if you can get it. But Bowman doesn’t want to become known as Mr. Fill-In.

“I don’t want to sit here and say that I want to take advantage of that, but it doesn’t hurt my feelings if that does come up, if I’m the guy that gets called,” Bowman, 23, said Thursday evening, shortly after wheeling his way to the No. 2 spot on Sunday’s starting grid.

 

RELATED: McMurray understands fill-in challenges for Bowman

“In a perfect world I would love to run a fourth XFINITY (Series) car for JR Motorsports.”

Perfect hasn’t been the case thus far, however. JRM is expected to field four full-time teams in the lower-tier series again next season. Bowman has been a part of that plan this year, sharing time in one of the organization’s entries.

But next year’s lineup will include current Camping World Truck Series driver William Byron and any plans for Bowman, at this point, don’t come with full-time status.

If he continues to deliver performances akin to Thursday night’s qualifying effort, maybe that won’t be a problem.

For now, though, that seems to be the case.

 

RELATED: Fan mistakes crew chief Ives for his driver Bowman

Bowman and Jeff Gordon have been sharing seat time in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet while Earnhardt Jr. continues his recovery from a concussion. Gordon won four championships at NASCAR’s top level. He won 93 races. He made it all the way to the Championship 4 last season, his final push before hanging up his helmet (temporarily) and heading off to the television booth.

Bowman?

He was a virtual unknown until a qualifying effort at Richmond two years ago drew the attention of Earnhardt, “and he gave me a shot in his XFINITY car,” Bowman said.

The opportunity to compete in a Hendrick Motorsports car has elevated not only his performance, it has elevated his status somewhat as well.

“You are definitely viewed differently depending on what you drive and what you do with it,” he said.

“It’s very interesting how the garage works. I feel like if you are in one of the back 10 cars, you are not really almost even looked at as a race car driver sometimes until you do something that you are not supposed to do.

“If you run better than you are supposed to, you pass somebody you are not supposed to or you out qualify somebody you are not supposed to. Once you do that I feel like that kind of changes, but showing up to the race track in a Hendrick Motorsports car … I feel like I walk in and I’m viewed differently.”

Nearly qualifying on the pole, he missed the top spot by just .004 second, hasn’t hurt. Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) will start on the pole.

RELATED: See all the cars as they will line up this week

Earnhardt “saved my career,” Bowman said of the XFINITY opportunity. “He has been a big part of my life and I will definitely cherish that friendship forever.”

If there’s a debt owed, he knows the best way to repay it would be to compete at the level his friend expects.

“Obviously I hate the circumstances,” Bowman said, “but without him saying ‘Hey, put Alex in it,’ I don’t think that Hendrick Motorsports really would have thought of me.

“Maybe they would have, but who knows? I’m definitely thankful for all his support.”

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MORE: Live radar | Friday on-track action canceled due to weather

 

CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch has celebrated in Victory Lane at 21 different race tracks in the Sprint Cup Series, from superspeedways to short tracks to road courses.

But in his 13-year Sprint Cup Series career, two tracks have eluded the No. 18 driver: Pocono Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Bank of America 500 (12 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It would certainly mean a lot,” Busch said on reaching Charlotte’s Victory Lane on Thursday at the 1.5-mile speedway. “We’ve been trying here for a long, long time and we’ve been close a few times and it just hasn’t all quite worked out the way we would have wanted it to I guess at the end of some of the races. So certainly we feel as though there’s no better opportunity to win a Charlotte race than in the Chase.”

A win at Charlotte would do more than check a box off Busch’s lengthy list of racing accomplishments: It would punch his ticket to the Round of 8 drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

With wildcard Talladega looming at the end of the three-race round, that security is especially coveted.

“Somebody’s going to leave here really happy and I hope it’s me,” Carl Edwards said Friday at Charlotte. “This round I believe is probably the toughest one just with Talladega out there and these mile-and-a-halves. It’s so competitive right now. We saw it with the first round. You’d think that making the 12-out-of-16 would be easy. It’s actually — it was a pretty good battle there, so we hope to get a victory here.”


One of the biggest competitors for the Joe Gibbs Racing duo? The JGR-affiliated car of Martin Truex Jr., who has won three of the last five Sprint Cup races. His three recent trips to Victory Lane equal the four-car JGR’s total Sprint Cup wins in the last 10 races.

 

For Edwards, the No. 78 success foreshadows Joe Gibbs Racing‘s performances to come in the Chase.

“If we didn’t know what engines and chassis and setups those guys had, it’d be really easy to say they’ve got something (that) they’ve got something special that we don’t have,” Edwards said.

 

“But knowing what they have and knowing what they’re able to do with it, that’s a motivator and I’ve been telling people this week I really believe you’re going to see … the four JGR cars really step it up because Martin (Truex Jr.) is … that rabbit out there that we’re all chasing and we know it can be done and I think in the end that’s a gift to have somebody in your camp or close to you that can do that.”

The four Joe Gibbs Racing cars also have access to the No. 78 team’s notes from their dominant Coca-Cola 600 win, something Busch believes is an advantage with limited practice time due to inclement weather. 


“They were really, really good,” Busch said on the No. 78’s winning Coca-Cola 600 run. “So we feel like we’ve got a good baseline to base ourselves off of.”

“If we could get Cole (Pearn, crew chief for Truex Jr.) to tell us everything, that would help,” Edwards said with a smile. “But I mean seriously those guys are so good that it gives us a lot of optimism, because there’s no — everybody’s looking up, looking forward.”

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MORE: No. 48 pit crew coach discusses recent pit road mishaps

In a building filled with banners, trophies and famed race cars, five newcomers entered Hendrick Motorsports‘ Nos. 48 and 88 shop as part of their induction to the decorated four-car organization, carving out their own slice of history.

These five young men, coming from various backgrounds, stood together — a united group — as part of the Hendrick’s 2017 pit crew class for its second annual signing day.


Completing the class are: TJ Semke, Mason Harris, Austin Holland, Timmy Hall and Dylan Intemann.


The quintet were joined by Andy Papathanassiou, Director of Human Performance, and Keith Flynn, Developmental Pit Crew Director.


“To me the reason why we decided on a formal presentation of our pit crew recruits is because this really is, in my explanation, the completion of a dream, Papathanassiou said Thursday, looking at the 2017 class. “And to have something like NASCAR come in … and say, ‘Hey, you can fufill your dream of being a professional athlete.’ “

The goal of this program is to have the recruits work their way up to eventually lining up behind the wall for one of Hendrick’s Sprint Cup teams. 


“Over 100 guys came through and (only) five guys made it,” Flynn revealed, highlighting the difficulties of the rigorous program that he manages.


One of the inductees, Hall, says his four-year professional hockey career — Hendrick’s first hockey player recruit — helped him prepare for not only the program, but also the NASCAR industry as a whole.


“I think a ton of stuff translated over,” the tire carrier hopeful revealed. “Obviously, just the practice and preparation that you are used to with hockey … there’s a lot of hand-eye coordination and hand skills involved. I think that really translates with tire changing, especially.”


All five Hendrick Motorsports recruits have extensive athletic backgrounds: Semke played football for three years at the University of Kansas; Harris was a four-year football player for the University of South Carolina; Holland briefly provided behind-the-wall support at Roush Fenway Racing; and Intemann was an offensive lineman at Wake Forest University.


Papathanassiou — and the entire HMS organization — are confident in this group, envisioning a promising future for the five in their motorsports careers. 


“They found us as much as we found them. And you’re seeing the fruits of the labor of our constant year-after-year recruiting process.” 

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Cast your vote now

 

In the midst of the inaugural Chase for both the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, drivers from each series will begin chasing more than just the championship as voting has officially opened for the 2016 Most Popular Driver Award. 

 

The NASCAR XFINITY Series Most Popular driver race is wide open with past two-time winner Chase Elliott advancing to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year. Notable drivers who made their name in the series by winning the Most Popular Driver Award include Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1999), Kevin Harvick (2001), Martin Truex Jr. (2004-05), Carl Edwards (2007), Brad Keselowski (2008-10) and Danica Patrick (2012).  

 

John Hunter Nemechek will try to defend his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Most Popular Driver Award. If Nemechek were to win the award, he would become only the second driver in series history to be honored multiple times, joining former series champion Johnny Benson Jr. Other notable Most Popular Driver Award winners include Greg Biffle (2000), Austin Dillon (2011), Ty Dillon (2013) and Ryan Blaney (2014).

 

Voting is open and runs through Friday, Nov. 18, for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Saturday, Nov. 19, for the NASCAR XFINITY Series, prior to the respective season finale races at Homestead-Miami Speedway during Ford Championship Weekend.

 

Fans can vote once per day online for the Most Popular Driver Awards at www.NASCAR.com/mostpopulardriver. 

 

The winners will be announced at the 2016 NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Awards. The combined postseason gala will take place at the Loews in Miami Beach, Florida, on Monday, Nov. 21.

 

To be eligible to receive Most Popular Driver votes, drivers must have selected either the NASCAR XFINITY Series or NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to receive 2016 championship driver points. Additionally, drivers must have attempted at least half of each series’ races this season.

Posted on by Staff Report

Stewart-Haas Racing announced Friday that it had extended its partnership with ExxonMobil in a new multi-year deal that will make Kevin Harvick and his No. 4 Chevrolet the team’s lead Mobil 1 car in the future.


Mobil 1 primarily has been on the hood of Tony Stewart, who will retire at the end of this season. Clint Bowyer will replace Stewart in the No. 14 Chevrolet.


Harvick will be the “lead driver,” as the team said, but Mobil 1 will be on the hood of all four drivers at some point in 2017. Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick, in the Nos. 41 and 10, respectively, fill out the Stewart-Haas roster.


Additionally, Mobil 1 will serve as an associate sponsor for the team’s new NASCAR XFINITY Series program with Cole Custer.

Posted on by Track Release


“Daytona International Speedway experienced moderate damage from Hurricane Matthew with impacts to lights, speakers, signage, fences, gates, awnings and palm trees. Daytona International Speedway Ticket Office and Tours and the Richard Petty Driving Experience will be closed on Saturday and Sunday for facility cleanup. We will provide more updates through the weekend.”

 

“Pictures of a past weather event at Daytona International Speedway have been circulating on social media during the storm. Those pictures are from a weather event in 2009. There was no flood damage to the facility from Hurricane Matthew.”

 

“We are working with local, regional and state officials on recovery efforts following Hurricane Matthew. Daytona International Speedway is once again serving as a staging site for Florida Power & Light crews. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been impacted by this weather system.”