Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Eldora’s big night in photos


ROSSBURG, Ohio — While the differences between Eldora Speedway, a dirt-based short track/slice of heaven, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a relatively flat, wide and paved 2.5 miles of paradise, couldn’t be more stark in contrast, there could be something that Wednesday night’s Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby winner Kyle Larson will take with him two hours due west to “The Brickyard” — confidence.


“Any time you can win, it helps your confidence, for sure,” Larson said after picking up his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory since 2013 in his third attempt at capturing one of the series’ crown-jewel races. “Obviously it’s way different; a half-mile dirt track to a 2(.5)-mile paved track, but confidence is key for any athlete.”


Larson has shown flashes of on-track brilliance in the Sprint Cup Series at times this season — when given a car capable of working with him, rather than against him — but his third full-time campaign has largely been a disappointment for a phenom still in search of his first premier series victory.


Wednesday’s landmark win, coupled with a successful recent test at one of auto racing’s handful of race track meccas have the young driver seemingly destined for a successful weekend at IMS, riding a wave of momentum and increased faith in himself and his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet team. His two top-10 finishes in two Brickyard starts don’t hurt, either.


“I tested Indy last week; really good test, I thought,” said Larson, who is 19th in the Sprint Cup Series point standings. “Really excited about this weekend. I know our team and Hendrick engines, they have some good stuff coming in and we’ll see how it goes. …


“We’ve gotten a lot better on the Cup side since the beginning of the year. We struggled really bad; we were one of the worst cars on the race track the beginning of the year. The last few months, now, we’ve come close a couple times. Kansas we ran up front. About Kansas time we really turned it up and ran top five most of that race, (before we) got in a wreck.


Shortly after Kansas, Larson came within an intentional move of race-winner Matt Kenseth for the victory at Dover. He chose not to — which sparked plenty of hot takes on Twitter but was almost undeniably the right decision — and it appeared the No. 42 squad was on the right path, but it has stumbled a bit of late.


Wednesday’s second-place finisher Christopher Bell called Larson “the most talented guy I’ve ever seen, hands down,” so it’s only a matter of time that his talent pushes him to Victory Lane, as long as his No. 42 Chevy has the kind of drive in it that he’s looking for.


According to the driver, it certainly sounds like it does.


“We have speed now in our cars, our Chip Ganassi Racing cars, the past few weeks, just haven’t had the luck, I guess,” Larson said.


“We’ve just gotta keep working hard. We have some good tracks coming up for us.”


And it all starts at Indy.

Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Results | Standings | Updated Chase Grid


ROSSBURG, Ohio — Kyle Larson had never heard of Bobby Pierce until last year’s running of this event, when the dirt track standout earned the pole, led 39 laps and finished second.

After Wednesday night’s Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway, won by Larson, there’s a good chance the Sprint Cup Series driver — and NASCAR fans in general — won’t be forgetting his name any time soon.

Pierce, in just his seventh career truck start, stomped the field to a tune of 102 of 150 laps led, sometimes approaching a full 5-second lead on the half-mile short track.

But the 19-year-old had his shifter stuck in fourth gear and was unable to get it unstuck before an impending restart with less than 30 laps to go. The issue relegated him to a disappointing 25th-place finish after wrecking and slowly landing against the inside wall.

“Kind of what bit me there was I couldn’t get it out of fourth gear on the caution, so I was riding around there just beating it, just trying to get it out,” Pierce told NASCAR.com after he was cleared and released from the infield care center. “I was restarting in second or third and I’m sure that’s what Larson was doing, too, but on the restart I just couldn’t get going.

“I got to second (place) and I caught him there and just kind of drove it in a little too hard. Kinda hit the baby powder or whatever it was. The baby powder made it a little slick getting in, and that was all she wrote. Hit the wall, knocked the right rear off the rim.”

Pierce was unable to get his truck moving after hitting the wall and, despite his pleas to get pushed back on the track, was required to exit his vehicle and make a trip to the care center even though he “only hit the wall going about 1 mile per hour.”

Even if he’d been able to get it going again, it was unlikely that his team could’ve fixed the shifter, patched up any body damage and gotten him back out on the track in time to compete for the win.

That’s just how racing goes, sometimes.

“Heck, it’s always gotta be something. If you’re going to win the race, you’ve gotta have luck and be good at the same time,” said Pierce, whose best CWTS finish of the season came at Kansas (23rd). “Larson had a flat there early on and he charged back through there, but unfortunately our deal was later on so we couldn’t come in and get it fixed. Even if it did, I don’t think they could’ve gotten the tranny fixed getting it out of fourth because I tried every single trick in the book to get it out and it just would not go.”

Pierce said he’s planning on running the event again next year, and likely has to be the odds-on favorite at this point, whether or not Larson aims to repeat his win. While no more national series events are on his schedule for the season, Pierce isn’t ruling them out for the future.

“Heck, the two years I’ve done (Eldora) have been really good so far,” Pierce said. “(MB Motorsports team owner) Mike Mittler has treated me really well so far; planning on doing it again next year. As far as asphalt goes, just gotta find sponsorship if I’m going to do it.

“(I’m pursuing more races) a little. Our dirt late model year and the previous years have been so good that even if I don’t get sponsorship to try it a couple more times or whatever, then I’ll be all right. It’s good to run these deals. It’s good to run pavement, too, because it makes you a better driver, going back to the late model and trying to pick up sponsorship.”

People noticed. Some of whom are undoubtedly sponsors.

Feel free to do a quick Twitter search. Race fans knew Bobby Pierce was there, and race fans know Bobby Pierce is a driver to watch after these thrilling performances.

“Well, hey. If I can’t win,” he said. “At least I put on a good show, I guess.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

RELATED: Should you start Gordon in fantasy?

When Jeff Gordon gets behind the wheel of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it will mark his first start since the 2015 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which at the time was believed to be his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

However, recent circumstances and events have changed that. With concussion-like symptoms keeping Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the car, Gordon will return for at least the next two races at Indianapolis (July 24) and Pocono (July 31). Seeing Gordon behind the wheel of the No. 88 — not the No. 24 he made famous — will undoubtedly feel a bit like watching Michael Jordan sport the No. 45 jersey instead of his legendary No. 23 jersey when he initially returned to the NBA’s Chicago Bulls in 1995.

Gordon’s final full-time season in 2015 brought about much fanfare, many gifts from tracks and an unforgettable march to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ultimately, Gordon did not win the title but the journey was incredible — that Martinsville victory truly something else — and a heck of a way for the four-time champion to go out at the time.

Gordon is far from the first athlete to eventually return after walking away. Here’s a look at a few others and how they fared in their returns, including one whose final chapter has yet to be fully written.

Michael Jordan
 After leading the Bulls to a three-peat, Jordan retired before the start of the 1993-94 season and pursued a baseball career for a brief time. He would return to the Bulls in March of 1995. MJ would lead the Bulls to another three-peat, including the iconic image of nailing a game-winning shot in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz. Jordan again retired before returning for two seasons in 2001 with the Washington Wizards and retiring for good in 2003. The stint with the Wizards serving as a forgettable blemish on a magnificent career of a player considered, if not the greatest, one of the greatest of all-time.

Brett Favre
 Favre was an icon with the Green Bay Packers setting numerous franchise records. After retiring in March of 2008, the quarterback began to have doubts about his retirement — wanting to return to the Packers — and eventually was dealt to the New York Jets about a month before the 2008 season began. The stint in New York was forgettable and he once again retired in February of 2009. That lasted until August of 2009 when Favre inked a deal with the Minnesota Vikings and helped to lead the team to the NFC Championship Game. He would retire for good after an injury-plagued 2010 season.


Roger Clemens
Clemens retired after the 2003 season, a season in which the New York Yankees reached the World Series but lost to the Florida Marlins in six games. However, that retirement was really short lived because by January of 2004, Clemens, who lived in Texas, inked a deal with the Houston Astros. He would pitch three seasons with the Astros and was a key piece of the 2005 team that reached the World Series (and was swept by the Chicago White Sox). In ’06 with the Astros and ’07 with the Yankees, Clemens would join the teams in the middle of the season. Clemens also had a short stint with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League in 2012. 


Michael Phelps
Phelps, who holds the record for most gold medals in a single Olympic Games (2008 at Beijing, eight gold medals) had earned a record 18 gold medals over four Summer Olympic Games as a member of the U.S. Olympic Swim team. After retiring following the London games of 2012, Phelps announced in 2014 he was going back into training. The decorated swimmer could add to his gold medal count some more as he has qualified for three individual events at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio that will be held in August. 

Posted on by

PHOTOS: Big-name drivers in No. 88 | Junior through the years

 

For at least the next two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, starting this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon will be behind the wheel of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet as Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to recover from concussion-like symptoms.

The high-profile changing of seats prompts several questions — for the recovering Earnhardt Jr., the returning Jeff Gordon and the No. 88 team itself. NASCAR.com reporters Holly Cain and Zack Albert tackle a handful of these questions in a quick reporter roundtable.

1. Will Dale Jr. still make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs?

HC: Of course, this depends on the length of time doctors would like Earnhardt to heal. But should he return in two weeks’ time, I still think it’s absolutely a good bet he makes the Chase, perhaps even wins a race. He’s won seven races in the last two seasons. And he has five wins at tracks that would still be on the schedule to set the Chase field — a pair at Michigan and three victories at the regular-season finale venue, Richmond.

ZA: Getting healthy — not even necessarily for a return to NASCAR, but in general — remains the overall priority for Earnhardt Jr., but the team must press on regardless of who is in the driver’s seat. A two-week absence will drop Earnhardt from the 16-driver provisional Chase grid, placing urgency on winning when he potentially returns. The almost certain granting of a Chase eligibility waiver from NASCAR competition officials should guarantee that the opportunity exists. But should his absence last longer, the thought of shelving this season in favor of a full-fledged 2017 return may make the most sense.

 

 

2. What do we expect from Jeff Gordon ?

HC: Frankly, how could our expectations be too high here? Especially at Indy, where Gordon is the all-time winningest driver with five trophies. He is the dream substitute — a pillar of the Hendrick Motorsports organization, fresh off a Chase final-four season and trackside all year in his role as a FOX Sports race analyst.

Earnhardt’s Chevrolet will be in good hands. The biggest issue may only be making sure Gordon doesn’t pull into Chase Elliott ‘s No. 24 pit stall.

ZA: This isn’t exactly Michael Jordan puttering around in a Washington Wizards jersey. Half a season off doesn’t exactly allow for the accumulation of rust, especially when considering that Gordon, one of the sport’s all-time greats, retired from full-time competition at the height of his game.

The expectation is for Gordon to be sharp as ever. The results are anyone’s guess.

 

 

3. What does this do for both drivers’ legacies?

HC: Even should Gordon pull off an amazing victory in Earnhardt’s car this week at Indy or next at Pocono, the four-time Cup champ’s legacy is already NASCAR Hall of Fame bound. For Earnhardt, getting out of the car and setting a standard in the sport’s concussion treatment will be as important a legacy as his two Daytona 500 victories and 24 other Cup wins. He is the sport’s reigning superstar and his responsible and inspiring actions only increase his stature. And that’s saying something!

ZA: Jeff Gordon ‘s legacy in the sport is already secure in quick-drying cement. His comeback’s only possible augmentations (and they’d be nominal boosts to his already transcendent portfolio) would be another victory or reaching the 800-starts plateau, a mere three appearances away.

Earnhardt Jr.’s legacy — and popularity — may only grow as he continues to lead the charge in the research of sport-related brain trauma. That contribution to stock-car racing is far greater than any possible unchecked boxes on his career list of on-track accomplishments.

 

Posted on by Nascar

Dirt-track experience isn’t a must for those competing in this week’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, the Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby, at Eldora Speedway.

 

But it certainly doesn’t hurt.

 

“I think that it’s very beneficial to have dirt experience when you’re running hot laps and when you’re qualifying,” Tyler Reddick , driver of the No. 29 Ford for Brad Keselowski Racing, told NASCAR.com. “And a little bit in the heat race, depending on which heat race you’re in — if you’re in the first (heat), the track will be a little wetter than it will be in the sixth and it probably means more.

 

“Definitely as you get into the feature, the dirt experience doesn’t mean as much, but I’d hate to say it doesn’t mean much because if you look at the top three at the end of the race last year, three of the dirt guys in that race (finished) 1-2-3. So I’d hate to tell you that it doesn’t mean a lot.”

 

Christopher Bell (Kyle Busch Motorsports), Bobby Pierce (MB Motorsports) and Reddick took the top three spots in last year’s annual pilgrimage to the historic Rossburg, Ohio, venue.

 

Bell came up through the USAC circuit, competing in sprints before making the transition to NASCAR and asphalt. Pierce went the Late Model route as did Reddick, each grooming himself for the next step.

 

Reddick is currently seventh in points and seeking his first win of the season. He finished 11th at Eldora in 2014 before his third-place run a year ago.

 

The 11th stop of the season for the series is scheduled to get underway at 9 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

Keeping up with the changing track conditions is crucial, Reddick said, but it’s also easy to out-think oneself.

 

“One of my mistakes last year was relying on what the old Eldora would have done,” he said. “They watered the bottom pretty good last year in that race and I started up toward the front. I made the mistake of going to the top too soon. The bottom hung around for I felt like 20-25 laps. It may not have been that long but it felt that way because I was getting freight trained because I went to the top too soon and everyone was passing me on the bottom.

 

“I guess that’s the new Eldora, with less banking the bottom sticks around a bit longer.”

 

Two-time series champion Matt Crafton and John Hunter Nemechek , this year’s Atlanta race winner, are among the few in the field that have run well consistently at the half-mile track, logging top-10 finishes each season.

 

“Hopefully we break into that top five, maybe top three,” Nemechek said. “I felt like we had a great truck last year; we got behind on a couple of adjustments on the first break, (then) we made our truck better.”

 

This year’s 150-lap feature will be run in three segments of 40, 50 and 60 laps. There will be a competition caution between each segment.

 

“I think that will play a major part in who gambles and who doesn’t for track position, when to come take tires,” Nemechek said of the format. “Do you take tires both times or stay out and come in for the last one? It’s going to put a whole different perspective on it and a whole different strategy for each team.”

 

Reddick said he’s a fan of the longer final segment but agreed with Nemechek’s assessment of varying pit strategies. Track position will likely be key, he said, adding that “as much fun as it is to race there and as easy as you would think it would be to pass, it’s actually pretty hard to pass there.

 

“Track position is important. … The tires are pretty bullet-proof but you can still wear them out I’m sure.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Matt Kenseth won the prestigious Slinger Nationals title Tuesday night, moving his NASCAR teammate Erik Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing) out of the way in a move that had Kenseth apologizing.

 

A late-race restart at Slinger Speedway — a quarter-mile high-banked track located in Slinger, Wisconsin — led to a hearty bump in the renowned Super Late Model, non-NASCAR event. (In the video below, Kenseth is in the No. 8 and Jones is in the No. 20.

 

“My move wasn’t a very good one,” Kenseth told the Sentinel-Journal newspaper. “It was definitely uncalled for. I hit him way too hard. … It was definitely way too extreme, way too hard. I was just trying to move him up off the bottom a little bit and overshot it a bit.”

 

It was the seventh Slinger Nationals title for Kenseth, a Wisconsin native.

 

“That’s not really short-track racing in my book,” Erik Jones told the Milwaukee newspaper, which reported the two drivers spoke after the race.

 

Kenseth and Jones will both head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway next for this week’s respective NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series races.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Eldora race format


Eldora is unique in both racing surface and format, especially when it comes to setting the starting lineup.


Keystone Light Pole Qualifying determined the official pole winner ( Caleb Holman ), but it doesn’t determine the starting order for the race, or even who starts first. It simply sets the lineups of the ensuing qualifying races, of which there are five. The finishing order from those events, plus a Last Chance Qualifying Race, sets the final order for the 32-truck field.


Follow along with us here. We’ll continually update results from the qualifying races and update the starting lineup, found at the bottom of this article.

Qualifying Race 1: Results

Position Number Driver Manufacturer
1. 63 Bobby Pierce Chevrolet
2. 75 Caleb Holman Chevrolet
3. 11 Jake Griffin Toyota
4. 05 Brady Boswell Chevrolet
5. 8 John Hunter Nemechek Chevrolet
6. 49 Wayne Edwards Chevrolet
7. 66 Jordan Anderson Chevrolet
8. 10 Caleb Roark Chevrolet

Qualifying Race 2: Results

Position Number Driver Manufacturer
1. 29 Tyler Reddick Ford
2. 24 Kyle Larson Chevrolet
3. 16 Stewart Friesen Chevrolet
4. 33 Ben Kennedy Chevrolet
5. 88 Matt Crafton Toyota
6. 22 Austin Wayne Self Toyota
7. 43 Korbin Forrister Ford
8. 51 Cody Coughlin Toyota

Qualifying race 3: Results

Position Number Driver Manufacturer
1. 71 Ken Schrader Toyota
2. 21 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet
3. 80 Justin Shipley Ford
4. 9 William Byron Toyota
5. 00 Cole Custer Chevrolet
6. 98 Rico Abreu Toyota
7. 50 Travis Kvapil Chevrolet

Qualifying Race 4: Results

Position Number Driver Manufacturer
1. 44 JR Heffner Chevrolet
2. 23 Spencer Gallagher Chevrolet
3. 86 Brandon Brown Chevrolet
4. 17 Timothy Peters Toyota
5. 02 Tyler Young Chevrolet
6. 78 Chris Fontaine Toyota
7. 6 Norm Benning Chevrolet

Qualifying Race 5: Results

Position Number Driver Manufacturer
1. 41 Ben Rhodes Toyota
2. 4 Christopher Bell Toyota
3. 19 Daniel Hemric Ford
4. 13 Cameron Hayley Toyota
5. 07 Sheldon Creed Chevrolet
6. 82 Sean Corr Chevrolet
7. 1 Jennifer Jo Cobb Chevrolet

Last Chance Qualifying Race: Results

Position Number Driver Manufacturer Advance to race?
1. 51 Cody Coughlin Toyota Yes
2. 98 Rico Abreu Toyota Yes
3. 22 Austin Wayne Self Toyota Yes (owner points)
4. 78 Chris Fontaine Toyota No
5. 43 Korbin Forrister Ford No
6. 49 Wayne Edwards Chevrolet Yes (owner points)
7. 6 Norm Benning Chevrolet No
8. 1 Jennifer Jo Cobb Chevrolet Yes (owner points)
9. 82 Sean Corr Chevrolet No
10. 66 Jordan Anderson Chevrolet Yes (owner points)
11. 50 Travis Kvapil Chevrolet Yes (owner points)
12. 10 Caleb Roark Chevrolet No

Eldora starting lineup

Starting Position Driver How Determined
1. Bobby Pierce Top finisher in Qualifying Race 1
2. Tyler Reddick Top finisher in Qualifying Race 2
3. Ken Schrader Top finisher in Qualifying Race 3
4. JR Heffner Top finisher in Qualifying Race 4
5. Ben Rhodes Top finisher in Qualifying Race 5
6. Caleb Holman Second finisher in Qualifying Race 1
7. Kyle Larson Second finisher in Qualifying Race 2
8. Johnny Sauter Second finisher in Qualifying Race 3
9. Spencer Gallagher Second finisher in Qualifying Race 4
10. Christopher Bell Second finisher in Qualifying Race 5
11. Jake Griffin Third finisher in Qualifying Race 1
12. Stewart Friesen Third finisher in Qualifying Race 2
13. Justin Shipley Third finisher in Qualifying Race 3
14. Brandon Brown Third finisher in Qualifying Race 4
15. Daniel Hemric Third finisher in Qualifying Race 5
16. Brady Boswell Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race 1
17. Ben Kennedy Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race 2
18. William Byron Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race 3
19. Timothy Peters Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race 4
20. Cameron Hayley Fourth finisher in Qualifying Race 5
21. John Hunter Nemechek Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race 1
22. Matt Crafton Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race 2
23. Cole Custer Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race 3
24. Tyler Young Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race 4
25. Sheldon Creed Fifth finisher in Qualifying Race 5
26. Cody Coughlin Top finisher in Last Chance
27. Rico Abreu Second finisher in Last Chance
28. Austin Wayne Self Owner points
29. Wayne Edwards Owner points
30. Jennifer Jo Cobb Past series champ/Owner points
31. Jordan Anderson Owner points
32. Travis Kvapil Owner points