Posted on by Staff Report

The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup might not begin until September, but several drivers have the opportunity to clinch a spot in the top 30 this weekend at Kentucky Speedway, thus securing a spot in the NASCAR playoffs. To clinch an early Chase berth, a driver must have multiple wins and a top-30 spot.

 

Below are Chase-clinching scenarios for this weekend’s Sprint Cup race in the Bluegrass State:

Brad Keselowski : With three wins this season thus far, last week’s Daytona winner can clinch a top-30 spot if he is 361 points ahead of the 31st spot in the point standings. Second-ranked Keselowski is currently 342 points ahead of 31st-place Brian Scott , so he’ll need help to accomplish this feat.

Carl Edwards : A two-time 2016 victor, Edwards currently has 527 points, 318 points ahead of 31st-place Scott. Like Keselowski, he’ll need to be 361 points ahead of 31st-place post-Kentucky in order to clinch a top-30 spot, and also needs help to achieve this.

Kevin Harvick : While Harvick sits atop the points standings, he only has one win to his name in 2016. He can clinch a top-30 spot this weekend if he’s 361 points ahead of 31st-place, but he’ll need multiple wins to officially solidify his spot. If a new driver were to win each upcoming race, not all drivers with a single victory will automatically make the Chase. With another win, it will be impossible for the 31st-place driver to pass Harvick based on the limited points available for runner-up results and the current close proximity of 30th and 31st-places.

Kurt Busch: Currently at 545 points with one 2016 win, Busch will need to clinch a top-30 spot at Kentucky and earn another win before the Chase begins to officially clinch a spot. He’s in a similar boat to Harvick where he’ll need some help to clinch.

Joey Logano : Logano currently has one win and 531 points, and is 322 points ahead of the 31st-place position. He’ll need to clinch a top-30 spot at Kentucky and earn another win to clinch.

XFINITY Series clinching scenarios

Daniel Suarez: Suarez currently has one win and 499 points and is 412 points ahead of 31st place. To clinch, he needs to win and leave Kentucky with a 451-point lead over the 31st-place driver.

Elliott Sadler : Sadler has one win and 493 Points and is 406 points ahead of 31st. He needs to win and leave Kentucky with a 451-point lead over 31st place in order to clinch.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitor John Wes Townley will not compete as scheduled in Thursday’s truck series race because he is undergoing treatment for a “possible concussion,” his team said in a statement Wednesday.


Townley’s No. 05 Jive Communications Chevrolet will be driven by Parker Kligerman this week at Kentucky Speedway.


A team release announced the news without further detail. It said Townley is hopeful to return to the seat of his truck for the July 20 race at the Tony Stewart-owned Eldora Speedway in Ohio.


Townley was involved in a physical altercation with Spencer Gallagher during the truck race at Gateway Motorsports Park two weeks ago. Townley was fined $15,000 by NASCAR for his actions. He publicly apologized.


Gallagher also apologized for his role in the confrontation. He was fined $12,500 for his actions. Both drivers were placed on probation until Dec. 31.


“I want to apologize to NASCAR and my fans,” Townley said after the fine. “That’s not the way I want to represent myself, Zaxby’s or Jive Communications. I’ll try my best to make sure it never happens again.”


Townley was planning to compete in last Friday’s XFINITY race in Daytona Beach, but withdrew, saying he was focusing on this week’s truck and ARCA race.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR fined Darrell Wallace Jr. $15,000 on Wednesday as a behavioral penalty under Sections 12.1; 12.8 a; 12.8.1 b of the NASCAR Rule Book. Those sections pertain to disciplinary action and NASCAR member conduct.


Wallace criticized NASCAR officials on social media following the XFINITYSeries’ Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway when expressing his displeasure with how the race ended. The finish was reviewed by NASCAR officials as the race ended under caution, and Aric Almirola was declared the winner. 


Section 12.1 of the rule book deals with the general procedure for a violation of NASCAR rules.


Rule 12.8 a deals with NASCAR membership and member conduct.


Rule 12.8.1 b deals with potential penalties and details having to do with member conduct.


The XFINITY Series driver pilots the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and is currently ninth in the series standings after a 20th-place finish at Daytona. 


Also on this week’s penalty report: The No. 1 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team of Jamie McMurray was issued a written warning for failing the pre-race laser inspection system. This is the team’s second warning. After four warnings, a team loses its pit selection for the next applicable race. 

Posted on by Team Release

RELATED: Buy Darlington tickets | ’16 throwback schemes
SHOP: No. 23 gear


A NASCAR ‘Throwback’ weekend at Darlington Raceway and two Toyota Camrys serve as the perfect canvas for Dr Pepper and Orange Crush to pay homage to their history. 

  

David Ragan’s No. 23 Dr Pepper paint scheme will echo the iconic “I’m a Pepper” look that we grew up with. Matt DiBenedetto’s No. 83 is going to stand out in the Orange Crush paint scheme from the 70s.


  

“We’re proud to have both Dr Pepper and Orange Crush featured on our cars for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway,” said BK Racing owner Ron Devine. “Dr Pepper has been such a loyal partner of ours and we are thrilled to have them bring Orange Crush along for such an iconic race.”


“We’re thrilled to partner with NASCAR and BK Racing in remembering our heritage,” says Derek Dabrowski, Senior Director of Brand Marketing for Crush and Dr Pepper. ” ‘I’m a Pepper’ remains one of the most iconic slogans and jingles in U.S. advertising history, and it’s a great source of pride for ‘Peppers’ everywhere. We’re looking forward to honoring it with NASCAR fans during this throwback weekend.”


“We’re also excited to pay tribute to the rich heritage of Orange Crush,” continues Dabrowski. “We hope by showing off the brand’s throwback creative we can tap into the nostalgic feelings race spectators and our longtime Crush fans have for the brand.”



During the weeks leading up to the race, BK Racing’s social media will throwback to the history of the Dr Pepper brand. Fans can participate by using the hashtag #ImAPepper. Fans who participate will be entered to win autographed merchandise. The contest will run from August 18 through the Darlington race weekend.

Posted on by Nascar



MORE: NASCAR tweaks rules package for Kentucky

As a teenager thrown into NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series with the options of sink or swim, Joey Logano had few places of refuge.

Taking over the No. 20 Toyota of then two-time series champion Tony Stewart at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2009, Logano struggled under the weight of high expectations and a new series against much tougher competition.

But while his Sprint Cup education got off to a somewhat rocky start, it was success in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series that helped keep his confidence up and his progression steadily moving ahead.

And nowhere was that progression more evident than Kentucky Speedway, site of this weekend’s NASCAR triple-header featuring the Camping World Truck, XFINITY and Sprint Cup Series.

Logano, who currently has 25 career victories in the XFINITY Series, earned consecutive wins in 2008, ’09 and ’10 at the 1.5-mile track located in Sparta, Kentucky. His victory in the Meijer 300 in ’08, was his first in a NASCAR national series event.

“I tested here so much growing up,” said Logano, now 26 and competing fulltime for Team Penske in the Sprint Cup and on a partial schedule in the XFINITY Series.

“At Gibbs, this is where we came and tested six or seven times a year; it was a lot. So when I came here in an XFINITY Series car, it was like BOOM! I know this race track. I know what it takes to go fast and we won.”

NASCAR eliminated private team testing prior to the start of the 2015 season. Today, the only on-track time allowed other than race weekends are Goodyear tire tests and a handful of organizational tests.

The additional track time provided a wealth of benefits for Logano. No less important, though, was the overall competitiveness of the Joe Gibbs Racing XFINITY Series program at that time. JGR entries won 49 of 105 XFINITY Series races during the three-year span of ’08-10.

“The cars over there then, like they are now, were dominant,” Logano said. “They were so fast. You just jump in them and win.

“So as a rookie, we would go to race tracks and know exactly what I needed at this track to be able to go out there and win.”

Logano made the move to Team Penske in 2013 and immediately earned his first top-10 championship points finish in the Sprint Cup Series. He has three top-10 results in three outings at Kentucky with Penske, including a runner-up finish last season.

Fourth in points, Logano has finished fifth or higher in his last four Sprint Cup Series starts, including a fourth-place result in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Teams will be attempting to solve the riddle of not only an entirely new racing surface at Kentucky when Saturday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) gets underway, but a new track configuration as well.

In addition to the repave, workers also re-configured Turns 1 and 2 of the track, increasing the banking from 14 to 17 degrees during an extensive off-season upgrade.

The pit exit lane has also been widened from 14 feet to 30 feet and the width of the racing surface in Turns 1 and 2 has shrunk from 74 feet to 56 feet.

RELATED: Teams come to new-look Kentucky for test

Fourteen Sprint Cup teams tested on the new configuration June 13-14. Logano’s No. 22 Ford team, headed up by crew chief Todd Gordon, was among those logging laps and gathering data.

“It’s a different place now,” Logano noted. “But it’s still Kentucky; it still has the same trends.”


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When the lug nut rule first got changed, PitTalks.com was a big advocate against it. Hitting four lug nuts was the future of pit road and over a year and a half, teams had gotten used to the rule and were moving on.

Here’s the reality: the rule has actually crippled two different stats, the first being the pit stop time. Every crew member wants to go fast and going back to five nuts has hurt pit times by over half a second on average, based on our calculations. It’s not easy re-adjusting to slow pit stops, but crews have managed.

On the flip side, the amount of loose wheels has almost gone away. Before NASCAR reinforced the five lug nut rule, we had been tracking known loose wheels at Sprint Cup Series races. We had confirmed 24 loose wheels up until the race at Richmond International Raceway on April 24. Since the rule was reinforced with penalty on April 25 heading into Talladega race weekend, we have only been able to confirm one loose wheel. 

A big reason for that is the penalty that comes with breaking the five lug nut rule. A $20,000 fine and one-race crew chief suspension is a huge hit to teams. Teams have slowed down to ensure no lug nuts come off and that all are tight at the end of the race.

Whether you agree with the rule or not, you can’t argue with the numbers: 24 to 1.

For more pit crew news, visit PitTalks.com.


Posted on by Staff Report

Three days after night racing at Daytona International Speedway, Tony Stewart was behind the wheel.

Of a USAC Midget.

Following a question-and-answer session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the two-time Brickyard 400 winner turned a few laps in Carson Macedo’s sprint car on the dirt Tuesday.

Indianapolis announced it was configuring a dirt track at the infield of the famed 2.5-mile oval as a retirement gift to Stewart.

 

“We’re excited to bring together two of Tony’s biggest passions: dirt track racing and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” track president Doug Boles told NASCAR.com. “Tony means so much to IMS and we really wanted to do something different and special in his honor before his last Brickyard 400. Our fans can’t wait to see all of NASCAR’s stars on July 24 and I know they’ll be cheering especially hard for ‘Smoke’ on race day.”

 

And by the looks of it, “Smoke” loved his gift.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Saturday night’s win at Daytona International Speedway by  Brad Keselowski  was the 100th for Team Penske in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition. The historic victory came during a season in which Team Penske is celebrating its 50-year anniversary.

The journey to 100 is, of course, filled with numbers and some quirky stats. Here are some interesting tidbits, courtesy of Team Penske:

• In two of Team Penske’s 100 wins, the winning driver led only one lap. Both times in 2015 with Brad Keselowski at Auto Club Speedway and Joey Logano at Watkins Glen.

• Fifteen of Team Penske’s 100 wins have come from the pole position.

• Brad Keselowski dominated at Richmond International Raceway in 2014, leading 96 percent of the laps. That is the highest percentage of laps led by a winner in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition for Team Penske.

• Team Penske drivers have scored 12 wins at Bristol Motor Speedway, the most wins at a single track for the team. Rusty Wallace leads all Team Penske drivers with seven victories at the .533-mile track.

• Both Rusty Wallace and Kurt Busch won their first race with Team Penske at Bristol.

• The No. 2 for Team Penske has scored 64 victories. Rusty Wallace has 37, Brad Keselowski has 19 and Kurt Busch has eight.

• In Team Penske’s 100 victories, winning drivers led 12,295 laps en route to Victory Lane. 

• Rusty Wallace scored 10 victories in 1993, the most wins for a Team Penske driver in a single season of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition.

• In 2014, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano teamed to score 11 victories, the most for Team Penske in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

• Rusty Wallace started 33rd at New Hampshire in 1993, the deepest a Team Penske driver has started and won.

• Team Penske’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win came in the 1973 Winston Western 500 at Riverside International Raceway with driver Mark Donohue.

• In addition to the familiar 2, 12 and 22 numbers for Team Penske, the team also fielded the No. 16 for NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison in the 1970s, with Allison scoring three of the car’s four victories.

• Rusty Wallace and Joey Logano are the only drivers to win three races in a row for Team Penske. Wallace accomplished this twice, in 1993 winning Bristol, North Wilkesboro and Martinsville in succession, and in 1994 winning Dover, Pocono and Michigan. Logano accomplished this in 2015 by winning at Charlotte, Kansas, and Talladega in the Round of 12 of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

• Forty-nine of the 100 wins came with the winning driver starting within the top five.

• Team Penske has scored a Sprint Cup Series victory every year since 1991.