The FedEx Preview Show was live on location this week, and with a guest host, as well.
Denny Hamlin, driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota, took viewers through the streets of San Francisco starting at 2:15 p.m. ET. NASCAR.com’s Jonathan Merryman will be riding shotgun to chat with Denny about Sonoma, along with the sights and sounds of the West Coast.
See the video clip above.
RELATED: Gateway entry list
Erik Jones is returning to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for a start this weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park.
The 2015 Camping World Truck Series champion will pilot the No. 51 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports in Saturday’s Drivin for Linemen 200 brought to you by Altec (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM). This marks Jones’ first start in the series since clinching the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway last November.
Cody Coughlin was originally slated to pilot the ride but a schedule conflict came up between the Camping World Truck Series race and his full-time Late Model competition. The 20-year-old has made three starts in the Truck Series in 2016 for KBM.
Jones is competing for a championship in the NASCAR XFINITY Series driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The 20-year-old led 84 laps in last year’s event at the 1.25-mile track before an electrical issue relegated him to a 23rd-place finish. The XFINITY Series is off this weekend.
Cole Custer (No. 00 JR Motorsports Chevrolet) is the defending race winner at the Madison, Illinois track.
RELATED: This week’s TV schedule
STAMFORD, Conn. — NBCSN presents #NASCARThowback, the ultimate NASCAR viewing party, Wednesday, June 29th at 8 p.m. ET. Through on-air social integrations fans can relive the 2001 July Daytona race with their favorite past and present NASCAR drivers, on-air personalities and race teams.
NBCSN encourages viewers to react live, tweeting their thoughts and showcasing their own at-home watch parties throughout the two-hour cut down race from Daytona International Speedway. The iconic race from 15 years prior saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. capture his emotionally charged victory.
The first completely interactive on-air race, fans can tweet using #NASCARThrowback and potentially see their tweets, and those of their favorite drivers, appear on screen during the broadcast. The tweets will be pulled into NBCSN’s broadcast center and featured alongside the race, giving viewers a glimpse into what drivers and other viewers were thinking during this unforgettable race.
NBC Sports’ production team is just 10 days away from the 2016 debut of live NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY racing, set to unfold over Independence Day weekend celebrations from Daytona International Speedway, and highlighted by the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday, July 2nd at 7 p.m. ET.
RELATED: Series standings | See how the XFINITY Chase Grid looks
Photo credit: (HHP/Gregg Ellman)
For any rookie there is always a bit of a learning curve, but for Brandon Jones he has several veterans surrounding him to help guide the way in his first full NASCAR season.
One of the younger drivers in the garage, 19-year-old Jones pilots the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. He’s fifth in the standings with seven top 10s ahead of next weekend’s Subway Firecracker 250 (July 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
At RCR, Jones has a stable of teammates with a variety of experience in Brendan Gaughan (No. 62 Chevrolet) and the brothers Dillon, Ty (No. 3 Chevrolet) and Austin (No. 2 Chevrolet) as well as Paul Menard (No. 2 Chevrolet) to lean on for advice and guidance.
“The biggest thing everybody’s helped me out with is not coming so much to the tracks I’ve been to in the past, but the tracks that we haven’t seen so far,” Jones said at Iowa Speedway last week.
“People like Brendan and all the teammates really they help me out a lot. We’ve got a lot of notes from previous years from everybody that goes to driver debriefs so I have that to kind of go over and look through. They are just always there to help me out if they see something.”
Gaughan, who has 20 years of NASCAR experience, shares an easy rapport with the young Jones as evidenced by their willingness to play off their similar first names and their exchange when the elder statesman of the RCR team asked Jones how old he was during a recent press conference. When Jones answered, 40-year-old Gaughan buried his head in his hand.
Just past halfway in the regular season of the XFINITY Series, Gaughan likes what he has seen from Jones.
“When he goes out and runs top 10 just about every week, it’s not like you need to keep giving him a lot of coaching,” Gaughan said. “You just want to try to keep the head on straight, keep him pointed in the right direction — and he does a good job of that already to begin with.”
Jones also has the experience to draw on from crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. atop his pit box. Hillman comes from a racing background but he used another sport to describe how the young driver gets ready, especially for a track that’s new to him. Coming into this season, Jones, a Georgia native, had 30 NASCAR national series starts split between the XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series.
“It’s kind of like being a quarterback; he watches a lot of game film, a lot of in-car camera stuff and the races that have been run at the racetracks before to try and be on top of it before we ever get here,” Hillman told NASCAR.com at Iowa.
Hillman notices the cool and calm demeanor with which Jones carries himself. The duo bonded away from the track as well and Hillman, age 37 and a father of three, has welcomed Jones into his family.
“To have the age difference between the two of us, but to have a lot of things in common and enjoy a lot of things outside of racing, it’s really cool to be able to hang out and grow together,” Hillman said.
Hillman, a New York native, brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from working primarily in the Camping World Truck Series and winning two championships with Todd Bodine, as well as working with young drivers such as Kyle Larson, Jeb Burton, Cameron Hayley and Ben Rhodes. Last season, Hillman was atop the pit box for Brian Scott and the No. 2 team at RCR in the XFINITY Series.
Under Hillman’s guidance, Jones is in a comfortable position to be one of the 12 drivers competing in the debut of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase, which begins Sept. 24 at Kentucky Speedway. While Jones has been consistent in averaging a finish of 11.4 — fifth-best among XFINITY Series regulars — he has yet to record a top-five finish in 2016, and has been out front for just 36 laps (all coming at Talladega in April).
Those are among the next steps Hillman wants to see Jones make as the series gets closer to the postseason.
“We have to take our eighth-, ninth- and 10th-place finishes and make them fourth, fifths and sixths,” Hillman said. “And then once we do that, we can start making them firsts, seconds and thirds, and just take it a step at a time. Hopefully, if we keep doing that and progressing the way we are, by the time we get to the Chase, we’re in a spot to be in contention.”
NASCAR handed down a pair of penalties to Camping World Truck Series teams on Wednesday after a P2-grade post-race violation by NEMCO Motorsports and an in-race behavioral infraction by driver Caleb Holman at Iowa Speedway.
The NEMCO No. 8 Chevrolet team was docked for failing to meet the proper ride height in a post-race inspection after pole-starter John Hunter Nemechek‘s 12th-place finish in the Speediatrics 200. The team was stripped of 10 championship points in both the drivers’ and owners’ standings, and crew chief Gere Kennon was fined $6,000 and placed on probation through the end of the year.
After the points adjustment, Nemechek drops from sixth place to a tie for eighth place in the driver standings.
Holman was fined $5,000 and also placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31 for approaching the racing surface after a crash with eight laps remaining. After exiting his wrecked No. 75 truck, Holman walked away from NASCAR officials and safety workers to gesture from the track apron at Austin Wayne Self’s passing vehicle.
Holman finished 26th in the 32-truck field; Self was 16th.
Six NASCAR XFINITY Series crew chiefs have been placed on probation through Dec. 31 after receiving P2 Level penalties for irregularities discovered following pre-race inspection for this past weekend’s American Ethanol E15 250 at Iowa Speedway.
All six of the vehicles in question were singled out for right-side body panel modifications; five of the six drivers of those vehicles finished in the top 10 in Sunday’s race, including winner Sam Hornish Jr.
Those penalized were:
• Chris Gayle, crew chief of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Hornish made his first start of the ’16 season when he was called on to fill in for driver Matt Tifft;
• Chris Gabehart, crew chief of the JGR No. 20 Toyota driven by Erik Jones. Jones finished 27th;
• Team Penske crew chief Brian Wilson; driver Brad Keselowski finished third in the No. 22 Ford;
• David Elenz, Kevin Meendering and Jason Burdett, all crew chiefs for JR Motorsports, were among those placed on probation as well.
Elenz heads up the No. 88 Chevrolet for JRM. The entry uses a variety of drivers throughout the year and saw Alex Bowman finish fifth with the team at Iowa.
Meendering is crew chief for driver Elliott Sadler (No. 1 Chevrolet); Sadler finished sixth.
Burdett oversees the No. 7 Chevrolet with driver Justin Allgaier for the organization. Allgaier finished seventh.
In addition to the P2 Level penalties, the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing team with driver Ryan Reed received a written warning for failing the laser inspection station three times during pre-race inspection. As a result, the team has been docked 15 minutes of practice time at the series’ next event.
Also failing the LIS on two occasions, and receiving written warnings only, were the teams of Sadler, Daniel Suarez (JGR No. 19) and Harrison Rhodes (MBM Motorsports No. 13 Chevrolet).
The XFINITY Series is off this weekend and returns to action Friday, July 1 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: See the full list
For the second consecutive year, Chase Elliott was ranked on the world’s 50 most marketable athletes list. He is listed in the 50th spot.
The list, produced by SportsPro, ranks athletes based on various criteria including value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal.
“He looks set to be the poster boy of stock car racing for years to come,” his entry reads. “… He might even eclipse his father’s (Bill Elliott) achievements.”
The 20-year-old star’s growth in his first full Sprint Cup season in 2016 has been striking as he is 11th on the Chase Grid — ahead of veterans Jamie McMurray and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. — and sixth in standings — one spot higher than six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
The rankings were also largely based on the athletes’ marketing potential over a three-year span.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Usain Bolt, Stephen Curry and Cam Newton were also featured on the list.
Chat with fans this weekend during the NASCAR action at Sonoma Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park.
Let’s rewind the clocks back to February 2015. Speedweeks was kicking off at Daytona International Speedway and NASCAR’s plan for the Pit Road Officiating (PRO) system had been unveiled shortly before that. No pressure for a new system to make its debut on the sport’s biggest stage, right?
What ensued was an innovative setup that passed with flying colors and earned largely favorable reviews. Nearly a year and a half later, the system is still going strong, and the use of technology has made one of the most chaotic and frantic times during a race — occurring multiple times during an event — a safer, more consistent place.
The PRO system uses anywhere from 40-50 cameras, with the total number at each track dependent on the layout of the venue. Those cameras feed video of every pit stop to a central hub located in a track’s TV compound.
Should a violation or suspected violation occur, the system flags the stop for an official to review immediately. Eight officials inside the PRO Trailer review the footage, reporting violations to the race control tower and logging pertinent information from each stop, such as how many tires were changed or what adjustments were made.
At present, the system is only in place for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and companion events. When the Sprint Cup Series was off on Father’s Day weekend, however, the system was at the NASCAR XFINITY Series-NASCAR Camping World Truck Series doubleheader at Iowa Speedway, according to a NASCAR spokesperson.
Last month, NASCAR.com spent part of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Hisense 4K TV 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the PRO Trailer to get a firsthand look at the system and officials in action.
INSIDE THE SETUP
Before a race begins, the cameras and mounts have to be set up at the track. This work typically takes place Wednesday afternoon, when the materials arrive on site. The cameras are put in place, pointing at pit road.
On a typical weekend that culminates in a Sunday race, calibration of the cameras and any necessary tweaks are done Thursday. A check is done Friday, and there typically are races Saturday and Sunday. Two cameras are assigned to a server in the trailer, meaning that if one server fails, the system only loses half of a pit box since each pit box has two cameras pointing to it.
So how does the system read the pit box so well and accurately?
“The system has a wire-line model of the pit road,” Andy Hitchcock, an engineer for the PRO Trailer, told NASCAR.com. “It’s impossible to go and take a real, live camera up there and point it at the exact way that the wire-line model is. So the wire-line model is adjustable so that you can grab a point on the wire-line and actually drag it to the corners of the pit box so that it really does line up. Otherwise, the system doesn’t work because the wire-line has to match the exact image.”
Wind and crowd noise can cause the cameras to move and shake, but the system can recognize fixed objects such as pit walls and banners, which help smooth out the image that is being fed back to the trailer for a steady view.
At the end of a race weekend, everything gets taken down off the roof, the IT infrastructure gets packed up and loaded underneath the PRO Trailer as the circuit heads to its next stop.
MAKING THE CALL ON A RACE DAY
The PRO Trailer’s main activity doesn’t begin until cars come down pit road for service. In the Hisense 4K TV 300, a rash of cautions early in the race made that a frequent occurrence.
When a driver comes down pit road, a bell-like sound alerts officials in the trailer. The officiating system monitors the stop and flags it if a possible violation occurs. That moves the footage to the top of the queue for immediate review, where officials must make a determination. In some cases, the trailer officials overturn violations that the system flags.
Pit road infractions fall into three groups: Vehicle (i.e. pitting outside pit box, driving through too many pit boxes), equipment (i.e. uncontrolled tire, removing gas can from the pit box) and crew (i.e. too many crewmembers over the wall, crewmembers over the wall too soon).
Five cautions occurred in the first 64 laps of the Hisense 4K TV 300, meaning nearly all of the field was on pit road at some point in the opening one-third of the race.
The first in-race violation came at Lap 16 when Dakoda Armstrong was penalized for a crewmember going over the wall too soon. That is a common violation that gets called several times in a race, but also is one that accounts for human interpretation. Officials will consult with each other on judgment calls that are not clearly black and white, like a crewmember’s position as the car is coming to pit.
“I tell the PRO Trailer officials that if you are the crew chief and you are over my shoulder and I’m looking at the penalty, when you look at it you’ve got to be able to say ‘God, you’re right.’ If you look at it and say, ‘See look at that,’ it should be a tie,” Chad Little, NASCAR managing director, technical inspection/officiating told NASCAR.com at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Little further explained how officials are instructed to rule from the trailer.
“The rules are applied to each team on a more level playing field, but it’s also proof. So it’s more fair for everyone,” Little said. “We constantly remind the officials that tie goes to the runner. The way the analytics work out there, the system (shows) you potentially have a penalty right here. You look at that video and look at it from all different angles and you can either say, ‘No, we shouldn’t do this one — it’s a ‘tie goes to the runner’ or ‘Yes, it’s a penalty.’ That’s the official’s choice.”
Trevor Bayne, who drives the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, said he thinks the visual proof is helpful, but he also understands NASCAR is a hard sport to officiate.
“It’s better when you have real data and visual, videos and stuff to watch and say, ‘OK, we actually did do that. We can’t argue that,’ ” Bayne told NASCAR.com last month. “NASCAR is a tough sport to officiate. There’s no timeout to say, ‘Hey, wait a second, we want to see if we did speed on pit road under green or if we did lose a tire and need a penalty’ or whatever.”
Back to Charlotte, an incident on Lap 25 involving Elliott Sadler, Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones prompted a wave of activity on pit road. The cars involved were issued several penalties, including pitting before pit road is open and too many crewmembers in contact with the pit service area. Those are common penalties for cars coming to fix damage under a caution flag.
When violations are found, crew chiefs get the penalty footage in close to real time, but have a short wait for footage of every one of their stops.
“On Monday after the races are over, (crew chiefs) are able to look at all of their pit stops,” Little said. “During the race, just because of the amount of fiber it takes to see stuff, they only see the penalties. It’s almost real time. It will be after the stop is over, it’s not that real. But it’s almost real time they will get to see the penalty.”
The eventual race-winning team, Denny Hamlin and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota group, had to recover from an uncontrolled tire penalty on Lap 160. All told, there were 37 infractions on pit road in the race, the second-highest total of the season in the XFINITY Series.
MEASURING THE IMPACT
In just over a year, Little has seen the impact of the PRO Trailer.
“Obviously, safety is a big concern,” Little said. “We’ve made our pit road officials safer by taking them off of pit road. We’ve increased the level of parity as far as how we apply the rules to all the teams. That’s an important part of it. Thirdly, we’ve been able to fine-tune a lot of the pit road rules because of the analytics. So those three things are big things.”
Nothing is perfect, but the PRO system has seen its share of success — and who knows what the future may hold.
“It’s still subjective, but there’s less subjectivity,” Little said. “It’s no different than other sports — football, basketball, baseball. They do reviews now. … We have the luxury of looking at it, got to make a quick decision, but we try to be more fair.”
