Posted on by Reid Spencer

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SHOP: Harvick gear

BRISTOL, Tenn. – For most of the final 200 laps of Sunday’s rain-interrupted Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick was where he needed to be – out front and in control of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Behind Harvick, who took the checkered flag 1.933 seconds ahead of runner-up Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the race was often out of control, as the essence of traditional Bristol made an emphatic appearance at the .533-mile concrete short track.

Harvick’s victory was his second at Thunder Valley, his second of the season and the 33rd of his career. It was the first Bristol victory for crew chief Rodney Childers and for Stewart-Haas Racing, whose co-owner, Tony Stewart, finished 30th after experiencing mechanical problems in his final run at the high-banked speedway.

RELATED: See all of Harvick’s victories

“We should have won a lot of races this year, but we just had things not go our way,” said Harvick, who was out front for 128 laps and pulled away for the win after a brief rain shower caused the ninth and final caution with 66 laps left. “We made mistakes, or whatever the case may be. But, to get back into Victory Lane here at Bristol feels really good.

“We’ve had some good cars here over the last few years… We knew we had the performance that we needed to have in the cars pretty much every week. And it’s been one of those deals where things have just not gone exactly right. But to have the win now and just try to get that momentum before we get into the Chase and get things rolling is really what we needed.”

Denny Hamlin regained two lost laps to finish third, followed by Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher, who moved into 30th place in the standings with his fifth-place run. By virtue of his Aug. 1 victory at Pocono, Buescher will qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup if he’s still in the top 30 three races hence, at the end of the 26-race regular season.

Pole winner Carl Edwards finished sixth, with Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano completing the top 10.

Stenhouse posted the best finish of the season for Roush Fenway Racing, running a paint scheme and wearing a helmet in honor of close friend Bryan Clauson, who lost his life because of injuries sustained in a midget car accident on Aug. 6.

“We really wanted to get this Bryan Clauson tribute car in Victory Lane,” Stenhouse said. “It just wasn’t meant to be today. We made our car a lot faster throughout the race and came from two laps down to get back on the lead lap. 

“We missed some wrecks and gave it all we had. I thought we were matching the 4 car (Harvick) there lap for lap, but he got away from us, and we had to restart sixth there on that last restart, but it was an honor to drive this car.”

On an afternoon where rosin helped provide speed in the low groove, Harvick’s most formidable competition disappeared before the finish of the event, which was suspended because of rain after 48 laps on Saturday night and resumed on Sunday after showers blew through the area by late afternoon.

On Lap 358, Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 256 laps, spun in Turn 2, thanks to a broken suspension part. As Busch’s No. 18 Toyota sat sideways at the exit from the corner, Justin Allgaier delivered the coup de grace, unable to avoid Busch’s car.

Having started the race on Saturday in relief of ailing Michael Annett, Allgaier finished off Busch’s Camry before ricocheting up the track and collecting the competitive cars of Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson.

RELATED: See what happened to the No. 18 of Busch

“We’ve been having parts failures here, so something we’ve got to address and fix,” Busch said. “I’m really tired of losing races here with parts falling apart, so they’ll hear about it on Tuesday.”

Busch also had some choice words for Allgaier and his spotter.

“I’ve been wrecking for half a lap and they just come on through and clean us out,” he said. “That’s stupid, so I don’t know – frustrating day. Let’s go home.”

Allgaier said he tried to go low to avoid Busch but then tried to miss the No. 18 on the high side.

“The No. 22 (Logano) ducked in front of me getting into (Turn) 1 and I had to jam on the brakes pretty hard,” Allgaier said. “I got really loose and I was just trying to catch it. That’s when the spotter was telling me that the No. 18 was spinning and he kept rolling down the hill.

“So at first I committed to go below him, because I was already on the bottom, and then he was still coming down the hill, so I tried to go out around the outside of him and, unfortunately, I just didn’t make it.”

Comparatively speaking, that wreck was a minor incident relative to the chaos that followed.

Battling for the lead after a restart on Lap 372, Kurt Busch turned sideways in his No. 41 Chevrolet, clipped the side of Joey Logano‘s Ford and collided with the No. 2 Ford of Brad Keselowski, who subsequently finished 33rd and lost the series points lead to Harvick.

The contact between Busch and Keselowski ignited a wreck that involved 11 cars and eliminated Busch, Matt Kenseth and Sunoco rookie Ryan Blaney from the race.

“I think I just missed the bottom groove by a few inches, got loose and the wreck was on,” Busch said. “The way that our car was restarting it felt comfortable, it felt good. That inside with the (rosin), if you don’t hit it exactly right you lose a lot of time. 

“I tried to make up for it and got loose… We had a win in our sights and I just drove the car at 101 percent instead of that 99. I just over-pushed the groove by a few inches. When you miss your line on a (rosin) grip level, you go for a ride.”

Notes: Harvick came from 24th on the grid to win the race, the deepest in the field a Bristol winner has started since Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the checkered flag from 30th in the 2004 Night Race… Three of Stenhouse’s career top-five finishes have come at Bristol… There were 20 lead changes among eight drivers in a race that produced nine cautions for 106 laps.

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RELATED: Byron checks off boxes one milestone at a time

BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owner Rick Hendrick said this week’s signing of Camping World Truck Series phenom William Byron has nothing to do with driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s recent battle with concussion-like symptoms, and he expects his driver to return to competition as soon as doctors will allow.

“Dale looks great,” Hendrick said Saturday night prior to the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I had lunch with him and his road crew Wednesday. … We are taking extra effort with the doctors making sure he’s going to be 100 percent. He’s got a doctor’s appointment next week. He’s coming along great and he wants to get back in the car.

“William has nothing to do with Dale at all. William has all to do with our future down the road, what’s going to happen in 3-5 years from now? Nobody knows.”

Earnhardt has been sidelined since early July after being diagnosed with concussion like symptoms following the Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts at Kentucky Speedway. In his absence, drivers Alex Bowman and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon have piloted the team’s No. 88 Chevrolet.

RELATED: Bowman to drive at Michigan — not Gordon — if Dale Jr. can’t go

Byron has won five times this season in the Truck Series while driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

He will compete full-time for JR Motorsports, which is co-owned by Hendrick, Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller, in the XFINITY Series beginning in 2017.

Hendrick fields Sprint Cup entries for Earnhardt, six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Chase Elliott, son of former series champion Bill Elliott.

Johnson and primary sponsor Lowe’s signed two-year contract extensions with Hendrick in September of 2015, meaning next season is his last under the current contract.

“Jimmie plans to retire there; we plan for him to retire there,” Hendrick said of Johnson, who has 77 career victories. “Beyond that, we’re excited about (William) just like we were Chase.

“If you don’t get someone in the pipeline, when it’s time for someone to retire then you don’t have them. I’d rather bring someone like William along so that we know that we’ve got someone for the future in our company.”

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RELATED: Key story lines for Bristol night race

 

BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR officials applied 18 more inches of rosin to each of the four corners on the bottom groove after Friday night’s XFINITY Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

 

A sticky substance that allows drivers to stick and run both the top and bottom grooves, rosin was applied to the track in the same manner on Thursday night prior to Friday’s XFINITY Series race.

 

Officials originally hadn’t planned to add any more rosin before Saturday’s Sprint Cup race. Drivers such as Friday night’s XFINITY winner Austin Dillon supported the addition of more rosin.

 

“It’s interesting to have another lane down there on the bottom,” said Dillon, who will also be running Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race. “Hopefully they can add a little more (rosin) to the bottom and get that bottom lane just to stay a little bit longer.”

 

 

Saturday’s Sprint Cup Series’ Bass Pro Shops NRA night race was set to begin at 8 p.m. ET, but weather forced a rescheduling to 1 p.m. ET on Sunday (CNBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

Justin Allgaier will make his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start of 2016 Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. Allgaier will pilot the No. 46 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet in place of Michael Annett, who is experiencing flu-like symptoms, the team announced on Twitter.



Allgaier drove the No. 51 for HScott Motorsports in 2014 and 2015. He currently drives in the NASCAR XFINITY Series for JR Motorsports.


Allgaier finished second in Friday night’s XFINITY Series race, and he’s currently third in the series points standings.


In 22 Sprint Cup Series starts this year, Annett’s best finish is 20th at Daytona International Speedway in July.

Posted on by Staff Report

The long-simmering Brad Keselowski–Kyle Busch feud boiled over a bit Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway following an incident between the two in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race.

 

Busch went into the wall following contact with Keselowski with fewer than five laps remaining as the two dueled for the lead. When asked about the incident post-race, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver told reporters “He’s a dirty racer,” according to NBC Sports.

 

RELATED: Watch the incident between the two

 

Of the incident, Keselowski said: “It’s probably my fault. I haven’t heard from Kyle … he had a really fast car. … He got a really good run on me in (Turns) 1 and 2. The high lane in 3 and 4 had a lot of speed. He tried to get up and we were all right on top of each other. We both kind of got the raw end out of it, he probably more than I did. I don’t think either of us wanted to make contact.”

 

The two have had multiple run-ins in the past, including in 2010 back at Bristol and 2013 at Kansas, when Keselowski went spinning across the infield with 10 laps to go following a shot from Busch in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race. “I got wrecked by a dirty driver,” Keselowski said at the time.

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CONCORD, N.C. — For William Byron, this trip to Hendrick Motorsports was different.

 

As a fan of the organization with 11 Sprint Cup championships, Byron had visited the Concord, North Carolina, shop before. He peered through the windows at an organization he dreamed of driving for one day.

 

Thursday, his multi-year contract in partnership with JR Motorsports was made official.

 

Friday, he was back at the shop — only this time wearing a black Hendrick polo shirt and a bright smile.

 

“I’ve got a bunch of apparel and things I’m trying out, so I’m really excited about that,” Byron said. “It’s like a kid in a candy store. That’s the cool part about it, but I also can’t wait to get to know some of the guys and meet the crew chiefs.”

 

Team owner Rick Hendrick will give Byron a personal tour of the shop after this weekend’s events at Bristol Motor Speedway. Hendrick came calling a few weeks ago, which Byron had no inkling would happen. Not when his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner, Kyle Busch Motorsports, also has Sprint Cup Series ties.

 

“For Mr. Hendrick to put the deal together and to have the interest in bringing me along as a driver and not have any strings attached is just a really special opportunity,” Byron said. “Not only was it a great fit meeting with them, but then when I heard what he had to say, what he was proposing, it’s something that I just couldn’t turn down.”

 

What was it like for an 18-year-old to meet the legendary car owner?

 

“I was pretty nervous,” Byron said with a laugh. “I was probably trembling a little bit. He just has such a good perspective on the sport and such good insight, so every minute that I got to listen and learn was really neat for me.”

 

There have been no talks or a timetable put in place for his future beyond 2017, when he will run in the NASCAR XFINITY Series in a JRM entry, Byron said. The immediate focus is the Camping World Truck Series championship. Byron leads the drivers points standings by 37 points after Bristol, on the strength of five wins. He also is locked into the series’ inaugural Chase.


“It’s just one thing at a time,” Byron said. “They want me to succeed at JR Motorsports and get to know the guys, get to know the culture, and that’s the most important thing. But it’s encouraging to know I have a future here, and that’s really cool to me.”

 

The excitement of what’s ahead will be hard for Byron to suppress.


Chase Elliott set the bar with JR Motorsports in 2014 with an XFINITY Series championship, and Byron wants to try to match it. Teammates like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne are at his disposal. Jeff Gordon is still around, and his was one of the coolest phone calls Byron said he received. And Jimmie Johnson is someone Byron grew up idolizing and at whose house he once trick-or-treated.

 

“Once we got up there, all the dads that were carting around the candy were really amazed,” Byron said. “They didn’t think he was going to open the door. It was really neat and something I’ll always remember.”

 

As will this week, which Byron could only describe as a whirlwind.

 

“It’s such a surreal feeling,” Byron said. “I’m really proud to be a part of it. It’s fun to have something to want to race for like that, and it’s going to really help the future because I’m so passionate about being here. That’s always a good fit for everyone, and that’s what I’m looking forward to the most.”

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Byron inks deal with Hendrick. scores JRM XFINITY ride for ’17

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The only thing more stunning than William Byron’s signing with Hendrick Motorsports was the swiftness with how competitive the youngster became after taking a ride with Kyle Busch Motorsports for 2016.

Byron, 18, had only one career start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series prior to this season. Through this year’s first 13 races, he leads the series in wins with five and sits atop the points standings.

“He’s taken that garage by storm,” David Wilson, President and General Manager, Toyota Racing Development, USA, said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “We thought he was talented; he won a K&N championship. But that’s not the end-all. But what he’s done the first half of the season has taken all of us kind of by surprise. I don’t think we were anticipating the next step this soon; I don’t think William was anticipating it this soon.”

That “next step” is a full-time ride with JR Motorsports, the XFINITY Series arm of Hendrick Motorsports co-owned by driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick.

Hendrick officials announced the signing of Byron Thursday. JRM currently fields two full-time entries in the XFINITY Series with drivers Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler, as well as a third full-time entry driven by an assortment of competitors.

KBM, owned by defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, fields full-time entries in the Camping World Truck Series for drivers Byron and Christopher Bell as well as a third that’s featured Cody Coughlin, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez behind the wheel. The organization is affiliated with Joe Gibbs Racing, for whom Busch and Suarez compete.

There’s no anger, only disappointment in the Byron move, Wilson said.

“We feel so fortunate and grateful that we have such a deep bench … this sounds overly magnanimous but the sport still wins, right?” he said. “William is such a good kid, a nice young man. Hendrick and JRM are going to benefit from it and the sport is going to benefit from it.

“I have to be gracious about it. One of the things that people don’t perhaps realize and accept is that he’s been with Toyota for a few months. He’s been in a Chevy, he’s been with JRM, his first full-bodied car was a JRM Late Model.

“We knew that going into it.”

 
RELATED: Furniture Row expands to two cars for 2017 

The Toyota driver pipeline is deep and talented. Furniture Row Racing officials recently announced the addition of a second Sprint Cup Series team that will feature Jones as its driver, joining current driver Martin Truex Jr. Bell and Suarez are also expected to continue to move up the ladder while others in lower series, such as K&N, are being groomed for possible advancement.

“This isn’t going to dissuade us,” Wilson said. “We know that this won’t be the last time we lose a driver from our ‘stable.’ But in the end the sport benefits and we will endeavor to try and do the best job we can with these young kids.”

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BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Chris Buescher has a victory but remains outside the top 30 in points, a situation that the Front Row Motorsports rookie driver hopes to remedy in the coming weeks as he seeks a berth in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR  Sprint Cup.

For the third consecutive season, NASCAR’s Chase field will consist of drivers in the top 30 in points who have one or more wins, with any remaining positons in the 16-team field determined via points.

Buescher earned his first career Sprint Cup victory at Pocono Raceway, and trails 30th place David Ragan (BK Racing) by only three points heading into Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR). But it’s not just Ragan and the seemingly slim deficit that Buescher said he and his Front Row Motorsports team have their sights set on.

“I think anyone will tell you that it’s not necessarily just three points,” said Buescher. “It’s going to be constantly changing. There are four drivers in this window that can basically upset the balance or change it each and every weekend.

“For us right now, yeah, it’s three points to David Ragan, but after Bristol it could be a completely different story. We could gain points on David, but get passed by the one behind us. It’s a balance, but we’ve got to take it week by week.  … We have to capitalize on our weekends as much as possible. That’s what is going to be important for us — to do the best we can and let everything else fall the way it’s going to.”

Regan Smith trails Buescher by 14 points; Brian Scott sits 11 behind Smith.

Ten drivers have clinched one of the 16 Chase berths based on wins and their current points positions, including defending series champion Kyle Busch and 2012 champ Brad Keselowski. Tony Stewart has a victory, but has yet to officially clinch a spot since the three-time series champ sits 26th in points and could fall out of the top 30.

Eleventh through 16th in points but winless this season are Ryan Newman, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson and Trevor Bayne.

Should Stewart remain in the top 30 and Buescher advance, only four positons would be set based on points.

Just outside the top 16 are Kasey Kahne and Ryan Blaney.

“Right now, we’ve got to get all we can get and be aggressive with it to gain points and that’s more fun racing,” Buescher, one of four drivers competing for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, said. “We can enjoy these weekends and not be too worried about giving it up, just knowing that we’ve got to do everything we can do to run as well as possible.

“That’s not necessarily saying we’ve got to try and get ourselves in a fuel window and run out of gas and lose a bunch of spots. It’s saying we’ve got to be aggressive on track, take passes whenever we can get them, and make sure that we can drive forward so that we’re earning points versus losing them each of these next four weekends.”

Buescher finished 21st at Bristol in the spring race, and said it’s “probably one of our better race tracks this year for speed … and this should be a place where we can gain a lot of those points.”

But, he added, “the guys that we’re racing also run really well here, so it’s going be a battle right up to the end of Richmond.”

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BRISTOL, Tenn. – Matt Tifft remembers waking up in the middle of the night in the Intensive Care Unit following his brain surgery. The television was on and the XFINITY Series race at Daytona was playing.

Tifft went right back to sleep that night — but getting back to the track hasn’t been far from his mind since then.

“It’s great to see everyone,” Tifft said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed being at the race track … I don’t know that I’ve ever stayed away from a race track that long.”

The 20-year-old developmental XFINITY driver for Joe Gibbs Racing underwent surgery July 1 to remove a low-grade, benign brain tumor, and has been sidelined from the race track since. Poised and in good spirits, Tifft thoroughly explained the difficult recovery he’s endured for the past month and a half.

“I got this nice scar over here,” Tifft said, gesturing to a long scar on his head. “They got as much (of the tumor) as they could out. The way they best describe it is a wet cotton ball in a cup of water, basically. So, they can pull out as much as they can but there’s always going to be a couple strands left in. … But they were able to go in and do a fairly aggressive surgery and get the most out as possible.

“But one of the most shocking things to me was apparently with a brain tumor, one of the symptoms is a loss of smell. So, I came downstairs the Monday after I had my surgery and my mom, she was washing something with Murphy’s Oil (Soap). I guess I couldn’t smell things for years and it just hit me and it made me nauseous and all of a sudden I just started smelling everything. I was like, ‘My goodness, I can’t believe this.’ “

Scent wasn’t the only sense regained following Tifft’s recovery. He quickly realized how much the tumor had affected details of every day life on many levels.

“The first couple weeks getting back, I could do 30 minutes more of activity without getting too worn out,” Tifft recalled. “What I would figure out, though, is every day I had new experiences — going to the mall, walking around, things that you think are just so normal to everybody – all of a sudden, those things were stressful situations. … It was just fascinating getting to learn about that. And every day I got stronger and better and to the point where I was able to start driving a street car again, get back to normal life, basically. After that, I was able to get back to a normal physical activity level.”

While the process has been wearisome at times, it also has afforded Tifft the opportunity to connect with others who either have gone through brain surgery, themselves, or have children who have undergone a similar process.

“It really puts things in perspective,” Tifft said. “I think sometimes we get lost in this world of NASCAR, sometimes we get trapped in a bubble a little bit with that, and you get hit with something like this and it’s shocking but then you realize with other people, there’s a whole lot more that could be going wrong. It just makes you appreciate things a lot more.”

With a new outlook — and regained sense of smell — Tifft finally climbs behind the wheel Sunday with doctor’s approval for the first time since his procedure, as he tests a late model at Hickory Speedway.

“I think I will be smiling from ear to ear,” Tifft said. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to strap back in the seat. It will be a really great feeling.”

But perhaps a better feeling will be eventually getting back into a stock car, the thought that has kept Tifft going since July.


“You get that realization that this is not going to be tomorrow that I’m going to be OK, this is going to take some time and in the beginning that took a while to really understand that,” Tifft said. “There were definitely some times where you’re bummed out and you just want things to go back to normal. Then you just have to keep telling yourself that you have to do everything necessary to get back to that point.

“My goal from the get-go is to get back in the race car. … The reason I was able to stay so positive and so driven was the one goal of getting back in the car.”