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Being a tire changer in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes a great deal of time and effort to master the position. Front tire changer Cameron Waugh did that and spent the last 3 1/2 years changing for one of the best teams of all time — the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for Jimmie Johnson.

But Watkins Glen was Waugh’s last race, and he is moving on from the sport. Waugh is one of the good guys and he will be missed. His reasons for leaving are personal, but from what we know he is moving cross country to Colorado.

“It’s been an absolute blast being able to pit the No. 48 with some of my closest friends,” Waugh said. “I will miss the intensity of pit road but most of all I will miss the friendships I have made over the years.”

Taking Waugh’s spot on the No. 48 will be longtime front changer Kevin Novak. Novak is a very good changer and spent many years at Roush Fenway Racing before recently heading over to HMS.

For more pit crew news, visit PitTalks.com.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Truex, Pollex shed tears of joy after huge Charlotte win


Sherry Pollex announced Monday evening that she’s reached the two-year mark in her recovery from ovarian cancer.


Pollex and longtime boyfriend Martin Truex Jr. were the focus of one of the best moments of the 2016 in May, when the duo shared an emotional Victory Lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway after the Sprint Cup Series driver walloped the Coca-Cola 600 field, leading 392 of 400 laps for the win.


MORE: Truex, Pollex host ‘Catwalk for a Cause’ for seventh year

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RELATED: Vote now for your favorite Sprint Cup Darlington scheme 

BUY TICKETS: Darlington


Getting in with the throwback theme for this year’s events at Darlington Raceway, Darrell Wallace Jr., Mark Martin and Roush Fenway Racing unveiled Bubba’s No. 6 Ford that pays tribute to the longtime RFR driver. 


Martin ran the iconic No. 6 Folger’s Coffee scheme during the 1990 and 1991 seasons, earning a total of four wins in those two years.



Wallace Jr. is one of the first XFINITY Series drivers, along with RFR teammate Ryan Reed, to unveil his look for Darlington, but more than two dozen Sprint Cup Series cars have been revealed. Darlington’s throwback program launched last year and is expected to continue for the next several seasons.


Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Vote now for your favorite Darlington scheme 

BUY TICKETS: Darlington

The Darlington Raceway throwback scheme for Martin Truex Jr. was revealed on Tuesday via social media by Auto-Owners Insurance, the primary sponsor for the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota for the Sept. 4 Bojangles’ Southern 500 (NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Darlington has just become an even more exciting race for our Furniture Row Racing team by having the retro Auto-Owners Insurance paint scheme on our Toyota Camry and also my fire suit,” said Truex in a team release. “Auto-Owners has put a lot of creative thought in activating its primary sponsorship and we would like nothing more than to reward the 100-year-old company with a victory at one of NASCAR’s most celebrated tracks.”

The scheme celebrates Auto-Owners Insurance’s 100-year anniversary, and it was unveiled in a video that featured an old-school look.



Truex is eighth in the points standings entering Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In 22 races this season, he has one win, three top-five finishes and 10 top 10s to go along with three Coors Light Pole Awards.

In 10 Sprint Cup Series starts at Darlington, Truex has one top-five finish and four top 10s. Last season, he finished ninth there after starting seventh.


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VOTE: Favorite Darlington scheme | MORE: Relive the ‘Tide Ride’ making history

BUY TICKETS: Darlington

 

The final piece of the Joe Gibbs Racing Darlington throwback paint schemes puzzle fell into place Tuesday afternoon at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

 

Matt Kenseth pulled back the cover of his No. 20 Toyota Camry to reveal a Tide-influenced scheme that he’ll run on Sept. 4 in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

 

Tide has a rich history in NASCAR, including being on Darrell Waltrip’s car for his 1989 Daytona 500 win, as well as a famous moment at Darlington — in 2003, Ricky Craven, in his orange Tide car, beat Kurt Busch to the stripe by .002 seconds in a classic slam-bang finish. Ricky Rudd also ran the paint scheme for several seasons.

 

In doing so, Kenseth will join Kyle Busch (No. 18, honoring Dale Jarrett), Denny Hamlin (No. 11, honoring Darrell Waltrip) and Carl Edwards (No. 19, honoring Tony Stewart) in the JGR fleet of drivers.

 

More than two dozen throwback paint schemes for this year’s race have been announced. The throwback program launched last year and is expected to continue for the next several seasons.

 

This year’s theme honors the era of 1975-84.

MORE: Legends banter about the scheme

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https://www.nascar.com/drivers/brad-keselowski/
BradKeselowski
1
Team Penske

Keselowski had a career-high 25 top-10 finishes in 2015, nine of which were top fives. He already has 10 of the latter in 2016.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/kyle-busch/
KyleBusch
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Joe Gibbs Racing

Busch led 192 laps in this race last year but finished eighth. He should have a good shot again this weekend, as long as he’s happy with his car. He wasn’t at Watkins Glen.



MORE: Busch frustrated — ‘I can’t turn’

While he only has one win at Bristol, Harvick’s 10 top-five finishes at the track rank second only to Matt Kenseth’s 13 among active full-time drivers.

Busch has a whopping five wins at Bristol, his most at any track. Sure, they all came in 2006 or earlier, but he still knows how to get around the short track.

Logano, the race’s defending winner, has the best average starting position (7.6) among active drivers.

Edwards won the spring Bristol race from the pole, leading a whopping 276 laps. Sweeping the season would be a great present to himself to cap off his birthday week.


MORE: Edwards at 37 — through the years

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/denny-hamlin/
DennyHamlin
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Joe Gibbs Racing

Hot off his second win of the season, Hamlin comes into Bristol as the defending pole winner at a track where Toyota excels.

Kenseth was leap-frogged by his winning teammate (Denny Hamlin) here, but a third straight top-10 finish at Watkins Glen was impressive for the JGR driver.

Truex looked great at Watkins Glen until a run-in with Brad Keselowski in the closing seconds. It’s not their first mixup.


MORE: No ‘blood beer’ for Truex and Co.

After missing the season’s first eight races, Stewart has increased his position in the standings by an impressive 14 positions — in just 14 races.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/jimmie-johnson/
JimmieJohnson
-3
Hendrick Motorsports

Johnson dropped three spots in the standings (here, too) and we now live in a world in which a retiring Tony Stewart looks like more of a title hopeful than a guy nicknamed Six-Time. 2016, man.


MORE: Knaus looking to right 48 ship

You’d think the fact that Newman and Tony Stewart (absent for eight races) have the same amount of top-10 finishes (seven) would bode poorly for the RCR driver, but he just keeps rising up the standings.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/chase-elliott/
ChaseElliott
2
Hendrick Motorsports

Bristol tends to chew up rookies and spit them out. Elliott’s top-five finish in his first attempt this spring begs to differ.

Larson crashed out of this Bristol race last year, got wrecked out of a top-five finish at Watkins Glen and his team got a written warning for failing pre-quaifying inspection twice. Things have been better in the No. 42 camp.


MORE: No. 42 team warned

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/austin-dillon/
AustinDillon
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Richard Childress Racing

While Dillon’s result at Watkins Glen was less than desirable, it wasn’t all bad news for the young driver this week.


MORE: Dillon engaged to former NFL cheerleader

McMurray is teetering on the edge of the Chase Grid, but he needs a good run to solidify his standing.

The good news: Kahne is the last Chevrolet driver to win at Bristol. The bad news: That came more than three years ago.

Bayne has officially matched his career high in top-10 finishes. Wait, let me clarify. Bayne has as many top 10s this year as he does in the rest of his career — combined.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/dale-earnhardt-jr/
DaleEarnhardt Jr.
-1
Hendrick Motorsports

Junior’s 16,049 laps run at Bristol are most among active, full-time drivers. Unfortunately, he won’t be adding to that total on Saturday night.

Buescher just needs consistent points at this … point. With an average finish 5.5 spots higher than his average start at Bristol (in two races) he should continue moving the chains forward in the standings.

Posted on by Staff Report

Veteran crew chief Tony Eury Jr. will serve as crew chief for Todd Szegedy in the No. 15 15-40 Connection car in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race Wednesday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Rob Fuller Motorsports announced Monday afternoon.

 

“After getting to know Todd, I am excited to be his crew chief in Bristol,” Eury said in a team release. “I think we have a legitimate shot to win, and we’re going to have some fun with it as well. I’ve paid attention to how the track is from past modified races, and I think working on super late models every week can be applied to working on the modified car as well. We are going in with a game plan, but I might bring a few ideas to the table that we can try and see what happens!”

 

Eury Jr. is cousin of Sprint Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and served as Junior’s Sprint Cup crew chief on a part-time basis for four seasons and full-time in 2006 and 2008. The duo won twice during their full-time seasons together. Eury also captained the Sprint Cup pit box for Brad Keselowski and Michael Waltrip briefly, as well as Danica Patrick in the XFINITY Series. Eury’s father, Tony Eury Sr., served as crew chief for Earnhardt Jr. as well (1999- 2004) and Dale Earnhardt in the XFINITY Series.

 

Eury Jr. was named general manager for Mooresville, North Carolina-based LFR Chassis, Inc. in 2014.

 

The Bush’s Beans 150 will take place Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 6 p.m. at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Camping World Truck Series’ UNOH 200 follows the conclusion of the 150-miler, beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Vote now for your favorite Darlington scheme 

BUY TICKETS: Darlington


Jamie McMurray‘s No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet will honor Bill Elliott at this year’s Southern 500 throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway.

Elliott ran the “Mac Tonight” scheme originally in 1997, and the midnight blue car will ride again in the Sept. 4 Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.)




The McDonald’s scheme harkens back to a McDonald’s “Mac Tonight” advertising campaign.


“I am excited that McDonald’s is bringing back the Mac Tonight paint scheme for this race,” McMurray said. “Last year was so much fun to see all the different throwback looks that teams had for the Southern 500 race. I think that Darlington has done a great job to get so many of the teams to participate and have a unique weekend to celebrate the history of NASCAR.”




RELATED: See all the Darlington throwback paint schemes


This year’s throwback theme focuses on the era of 1975-84.  More than two dozen throwback paint schemes for this year’s running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 (Sunday, Sept. 4, 6 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR) have been announced. The program launched last season and is expected to continue for the next several seasons.


Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Bristol unveils Colossus video screen


Ryan Blaney‘s No. 21 car will feature a special Virginia Tech football paint scheme this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, and Wood Brothers Racing unveiled the look on the gridiron Monday morning.


Racing’s “Last Great Colosseum” is host to the Tennessee-Virginia Tech college football game on Sept. 10., and the No. 21 team is helping get the party started early.


Hokies coach Bud Foster poses with Leonard Wood and the VT car Friday. 


“Virginia Tech has been a big part of the Wood Brothers for a long, long time,” said Leonard Wood, who helped his brother, Glen, found the race team in 1950. “We’ve been friends with Coach Foster and just met the new coach [Justin Fuente]. I never dreamed when my daughter was going to Virginia Tech that we’d have a race car on the practice field here at Virginia Tech. It’s just awesome.

“That ‘VT’ on the hood just jumps out at you and I love the color combination. It’s one of my favorites.”


The Virginia Tech scheme also will run at the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 held Oct. 30 at Martinsville Speedway, and Hokies junior wide receiver Cam Phillips likes the Ford’s look.



“You’ve got colleges and you’ve got football teams, but Virginia Tech is our hometown college team. We pull for them all the time,” Leonard Wood said. “Hopefully they’ll win. We’ll be racing in Richmond on the night of Sept. 10, the night that they’re playing in the Battle at Bristol, so we won’t be watching the game, but we’ll be paying attention. We’ll be watching Twitter.”