Posted on by RJ Kraft

NEWTON, Iowa — Eight starts into his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career and William Byron is already a two-time winner.

The 18-year-old has gone to Victory Lane in 25 percent of his starts, with the most recent win coming last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. That win puts him in company with Matt Crafton as the only two-time winners in the series through seven races. Four series regulars have tallied wins this year.

With nine races to go before the field for the inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase, having two wins helps give Byron a leg up on claiming one of the eight postseason spots by regular season’s end at Chicagoland Speedway in September. With that advantage, Byron and the No. 9 Kyle Busch Motorsports team can adopt a little different mindset.

“I haven’t really thought about the Chase honestly before we got that second win because I didn’t want to think about the potential that there would be eight different winners or more,” Byron said Friday at Iowa Speedway.

“So, it’s good to have that win and be able to focus on what we can do to try and win more races. I think our race team is always looked at as just trying to do the best we can each week, and as a rookie that’s your goal, is just to try and get the best finish you can each time.

“We haven’t been able to try a lot of different things but now, with having two wins, there’s more confidence that comes with that and we can go out and try to accomplish some more things.”

Saturday night’s Speediatrics 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) brings Byron to the site of one of his four NASCAR K&N Pro Series East wins in 2015 en route to his championship in that series.

Byron expects the familiarity — even though it was in a different series — to help him.

“When I came here the first time, coming to Iowa was the biggest track I’d ever been to, so I now have a few mile-and-a-halves and Daytona to lean on — and Pocono — places that are really big race tracks for us,” Byron said.

“It’s a big help to understand the race track and have a feel for what we need in the race car. Even though they’re totally different vehicles there’s still a lot that can apply and hopefully I can apply that and get a win this weekend.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

(Photo: ThorSport Racing)


NEWTON, Iowa — Days after a fire caused significant damage to its Sandusky, Ohio, race shop, ThorSport Racing continues to assess and move forward.

It’s been a trying week for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as the organization recovers from a fire that broke out shortly around 12:30 a.m. Monday morning. Firefighters worked well into the day to contain the fire. No one was injured, and the cause of the fire is still unknown.

“Obviously, we’re behind the eight ball a little bit,” David Pepper, ThorSport Racing’s general manager said on Friday at Iowa Speedway. “We need to come here and have a good, solid performance. That will do as much to keep the morale up as anything. We did lose some equipment, but we’re in a good position to keep going.”

Pepper estimated that 40 percent of the shop was destroyed by the fire and while there is no timeline to move back in, every intention is to rebuild and move back into the space.

“If you would have asked me that Monday, I would have told you I’m not sure we’re going to save the building. Now we’re 72 hours out and the extent of the damage from all the pictures that folks are seeing was just trying to put the fire out. The fire was between the walls and ceiling, so it forced us to bring in an excavator and knock the walls down.

“The suspension department, our hard fab department, paint and body — they were either severely damaged or lost in the fire. The remaining part of the shop suffered a lot of water and smoke damage. But, until the inspectors get in there and really see where we are, it’s hard to set a timeline.”

Despite the adversity, the organization’s four Toyota entries of Matt Crafton (No. 88), Cameron Hayley (No. 13), Rico Abreu (No. 98) and Ben Rhodes (No. 41) are here at Iowa Speedway ready to compete this weekend in Saturday night’s Speediatrics 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). As of now, the team plans to run its full-time competition schedule for all four of its entries.

Pepper said all the trucks had some type of smoke and/or water damage and that several brand-new chassis in the back section of the shop are probably lost as well as most of the team’s equipment for Gateway Motorsports Park. The Truck Series will race there next weekend in the Drivin’ For Lineman 200 (June 25, 8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The response that ThorSport has received across the racing community and its local community in Sandusky has been tremendous. Teams here at Iowa have brought the four-truck team various parts and pieces needed. Sandusky businesses brought food to shop workers and first responders, and that support continued as the team moved to work on its trucks.

“The first 24 hours, I got over 400 text messages and emails from competitors,” Pepper said. “Red Horse Racing, KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), GMS (Racing), just in the Truck Series. Had some Cup teams offer up haulers and pit boxes. Across the entire spectrum of racing, whether it be local short track guys at Sandusky that we know, ARCA guys because we competed in ARCA for a number of years – offering up anything that we needed to get to these races.”

“You can not say thank you, thank you, thank you enough to your competitors,” Pepper said.

Pepper said if it wasn’t for the first responders that arrived on scene, the team’s Iowa plans may not have come to fruition.

“We had fire departments from four different locations in the county there. They were literally pushing race trucks out. They’re big race fans. They know us. They’re putting a fire out and they’re in full fire gear asking us what trucks do they need to push out to us so we can be here at Iowa this week. They were in there pushing them to the door and then we’d take them the rest of the way. We would not be here racing without those guys.”

In the wake of the fire, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team set up shop in several places, including the vacant parking lot of a Kroger grocery store to work on its fleet of trucks. With the 100,000 square foot building that opened in 2011 “uninhabitable” due to the damage and cleanup from the fire, it marked a back-to-basics, old-school approach to racing for the organization.

“Kind of went back to the late ’90s of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series when we used to work in parking lots at Sears stores, so for the old guard there at the race shop, it was kind of a throwback and in some ways not that bad. Some of the young guys were pretty amazed that we used to build these things out in parking lots in between races out on the West Coast. We’re prepared.”


The team also rallied together in what Pepper called “the best team-building process we’ve ever had” with different members running in to get items for any of the team’s four trucks. And in light of the events, Pepper expects no dropoff in the team’s performance.

“It won’t affect anything whether we’re building them in parking lots, whether we’re staying at race tracks and asking them to let us stay late and build them,” Pepper said.

“We have to build race trucks that keep the points lead, put all our trucks in the Chase and win a championship. The goals haven’t changed. They just can’t. There cannot be a built in excuse for this. This is when we have to show our leadership and lead this team to where it needs to be and that’s out front as one of the premier teams that we feel we are.”

Team co-owner Duke Thorson started small when the team began 20 years ago, fielding one primary entry until 2004, when the team moved to two full-time trucks. The organization fielded a part-time third truck for a few years after that, before adding a third full-time entry in 2014 and expanding to a fourth team this year.


ThorSport is the longest-tenured team in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, having competed since 1996. The organization has earned two driver championships with Crafton behind the wheel in 2013 and 2014.

Pepper said that at breakfast for the team this week, co-owner Duke Thorson delivered a simple message to the group but one that Pepper believes will resonate.

He “told us ‘Hey, you keep going, we go to the races, we go to win every week and we’re going to rebuild. We’re going to rebuild it better than it was before and we’ll be stronger for it.’ “

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The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season has been filled with photo finishes, strong on-track racing and a long list of winners. In just 15 races there have been 10 winners — Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch and Joey Logano.


A win virtually grants a team a berth for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, so who will be next? NASCAR.com’s Jessica Ruffin and Maggie MacKenzie debate the next driver to join the elite list. 


RUFFIN: As incredible as the 2016 season has been thus far, it’s about to get even better the next few weeks. All of our 10 winners this year are veterans of the sport who have notched a ‘W’ in the win column at some point during their careers. But watch out for the young stars of our sport, who have gotten closer and closer to victory as the season has progressed. The leader of that charge? Rookie Chase Elliott. Based on his recent performances — most notably a runner-up at Michigan last weekend — Elliott will be celebrating in Victory Lane sooner rather than later.


MACKENZIE: I agree with you, Jessica, that we need to look out for the young stars. They are the future of the sport and many are already contenders for the win week-after-week. However, as strong as Elliott has been thus far — in that famous No. 24 — I believe Austin Dillon will beat him to the checkered flag in his equally famous No. 3. 

Dillon is in his third full-time Sprint Cup season for Richard Childress Racing and sits quite comfortably in 13th on the Chase Grid thanks to a slew of top-10 finishes — and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. 


RUFFIN: Dillon has surprised me this season. After recording only one top five last season, he’s certainly bounced back with a vengeance. But while his top 10s have been impressive, he hasn’t done as much to contend for the win — which is really what counts. Elliott has been up front week after week, and if it hadn’t been for a shaky restart, he might have clinched a Chase berth last weekend with a win at Michigan.


MACKENZIE: Despite having opportunities to lock in the win, Elliott has yet to head to Victory Lane and this will remain true if, as you stated above, he cannot master restarts. Dillon, too, has been toward the front of the pack plenty of times — he was the polesitter at Fontana and started on the front row at Talladega as well. And let’s not forget, Daytona is coming up and Dillon has been quite successful here with a top five, four top 10s and a pole in just six starts. 


RUFFIN: The final laps at Michigan were simply a glitch for the No. 24 team, it seemed. Crew chief Alan Gustafson told me afterwards that the team got “98 things of 100 right” in the Irish Hills. With ample resources and skilled personnel, they’ll use the off-week to regroup and come back swinging. And Elliott is just hungry for a win: The 20-year-old has a fire under him that allowed him to pull off his recent string of six straight top-10 finishes. Even without a win, he’s sitting sixth in the standings, the highest of all winless drivers and above all three of his veteran Hendrick Motorsports teammates. When you’re ahead of a six-time Sprint Cup champion like Jimmie Johnson, I’d say your near future is pretty bright.


MACKENZIE: I couldn’t agree more with you about Elliott’s bright future, but checking “98 things” off the list doesn’t necessarily guarantee a win. I’m looking ahead at the schedule and Dillon has proven strong at many upcoming tracks and his experience will benefit the No. 3 team when it comes to taking the checkered. And, let’s not forget, he has crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe in his ear. 


RELATED: Dillon, crew chief’s relationship linked to strong start to ’16


And, hey, Dillon’s hungry for a win, too; which should make for strong on-track racing for the rest of the summer stretch. 

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This past weekend at Michigan International Speedway, Kevin Harvick‘s No. 4 pit crew had a new front tire changer, Tim Sheets.


Sheets’ move to the No. 4 came late in the week and is a long-term change. Stewart-Haas Racing‘s No. 4 crew has always been a top pit crew, but has struggled a bit this year. Harvick finished fifth in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.


Sheets was once the front changer for the No. 31 of Ryan Newman and after he split from Richard Childress Racing joined Casey Mears‘ No. 13 team before taking the role on the No. 4 team.

Additionally, Stan Doolittle will serve as the jackman for the No. 4 team. Doolittle replaces Mike Casto. 

For more pit crew information, visit PitTalks.com.



Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR XFINITY Series crew chief for the No. 22 team, Brian Wilson, was fined $7,500 by NASCAR for failing the post-race Laser Inspection Station measurements following Saturday’s Menard’s 250 presented by Valvoline at Michigan International Speedway. 

 

The No. 22 Team Penske Ford, which was driven by Joey Logano this past weekend, was also assessed with the loss of 10 championship owner points. This is a P2 penalty (Sections 12-1; 20.17.3.1.2).

 

A penalty and a warning also came down in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Wednesday for the Nos. 11 and 23 teams after their standalone event last Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

 

Scott Zipadelli, crew chief for the No. 11, was fined $5,000, suspended from all NASCAR Series Championship points events through June 22 and placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31 for not having the truck’s lug nuts properly installed. This is a P3 penalty (Sections 12-1; 10.11.3.4 a).

 

The No. 23 team, piloted by Spencer Gallagher, received its second written warning of the season for the truck trailing arm U-bolts and U-bolt mounting saddles not conforming to specified rule book drawings in pre-qualifying inspection.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR assessed a P3 penalty to the No. 42 Sprint Cup Series team (Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates) on Wednesday for violating sections 12-1 and 20.17.3.1.2 of the NASCAR rulebook during events last weekend at Michigan International Speedway.

Larson finished third in the FireKeepers Casino 400 with interim crew chief Philip Surgen atop the pit box, the 23-year-old driver’s second-best finish of the season.

NASCAR fined Surgen $25,000 and docked the team 15 championship driver points and 15 championship owner points. Surgen was filling in for Chad Johnston, who was suspended after a lug-nut violation following the Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 on June 5 at Pocono Raceway.

The No. 42 was in violation of sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 20.17.3.1.2 (vehicle inspection measurements) of the rulebook. Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet failed post-race inspection.

NASCAR also gave a written warning and took 15 minutes of practice time away from the Nos. 2 (Brad Keselowski), 16 (Greg Biffle), 23 (David Ragan) and 46 (Michael Annett) Sprint Cup teams on Wednesday for failing laser inspection three times before qualifying at Michigan. It was the second warning for the Nos. 2, 23 and 46 and first for the No. 16 team.

The No. 15 team (Clint Bowyer) received a written warning for failing laser inspection twice before the race at Michigan. It was that team’s first warning.

The Nos. 32 (Jeffrey Earnhardt), 44 (Brian Scott), 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) teams received written warnings for failing laser inspection twice before qualifying at Michigan. It was the third warning for the No. 44 team, the second for the No. 32 and the first for the Nos. 78 and 88 teams.


And the Nos. 14 (Tony Stewart), 17 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.), 24 (Chase Elliott), 34 (Chris Buescher), 41 (Kurt Busch), 47 (AJ Allmendinger), 55 (Cole Whitt) and 78 (Truex) teams received written warnings for failing template inspection twice before qualifying. It was the second warning for the No. 14, 17, 24 and 47 teams and the first for the Nos. 34, 41 and 55 teams. It was the fourth for the 78, which lost its pit stall selection at Michigan.

Posted on by Staff Report

Photo credit: @FS1
 
Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Michigan International Speedway saw the much-anticipated debut of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the broadcast booth alongside Adam Alexander and Michael Waltrip. 

Earnhardt talked about his experience contributing to FS1’s race telecast on Dirty Mo Radio’s “The Dale Jr. Download.”

“I had been procrastating about going in there and doing that,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I’d been asked for a couple years to do it. My great friend Michael Waltrip was really encouraging me, Jeff Gordon, couple other people, Darrell (Waltrip). A lot of people in the industry, producers and so forth that I’m friends with were very encouraging to try it out and I’ve watched all my peers go up in the booth to do that and they all do such a great job, so I felt like that I had to try it once. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but for me, personally, I am really shy, so for me putting myself out there like that was a really challenging thing. 


“I had way more fun than I thought I’d have. My eyes were open to a lot of things that were happening up there.”

Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer and Danica Patrick are among the drivers who have served as race analysts this season for NASCAR on FOX’s XFINITY race coverage.

Junior’s broadcast day started with a 7 a.m. ET production meeting, but the most hectic part came when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice came to an end at 12:55 p.m. ET. He had to shower and get to the booth ahead of the 1:30 p.m. ET start time for the XFINITY event — not to mention cool down from a hot race car. 

“Hustling up there was tough,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I got that shirt and tie on and I was sweating like crazy having come out of that car. The car was 140 degrees on Saturday in practice so it took me a while to cool off. 

“Michael and those guys were great, gracious, so supportive. My dad and Michael were great friends, so being up there with him made the whole thing a lot sweeter and way more comfortable for me. I felt like I was just standing there with a friend and we were just talking about the race. Adam’s a pro. He’s up there doing all the hard work and gives you a ton of confidence. Those guys just tee you right up to help you spit out a thought.”

Dale Jr. is open to a return visit to the booth and was glad that he had this experience at Michigan. 

“I enjoyed the hell out of being in the booth and talking about the race,” he said. “I really got consumed with the race, itself, and really enjoyed trying to give my take on what I was seeing. And I think that if I spent more time with it and put a little more preparation and effort into it, I’d really enjoy it. I don’t know if that’s something in my future. Now that I went up there and did this, I know that I have more interest in it. I didn’t know whether I’d like it before I did. So now that I know I did enjoy it, I’m going to try and learn more.

“… I don’t know when I’ll do another race but more than likely I’ll talk myself into another race before you know it.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Online automotive platform Wheelwell joins Ben Kennedy and GMS Racing as a 2016 primary sponsor for the No. 33 Chevrolet in the Camping World Truck Series, the team announced Tuesday. The new partner will make its debut on the No. 33 Truck this weekend in the Speediatrics 200 at Iowa Speedway.


Based in San Francisco, California, Wheelwell offers automotive enthusiasts and industry professionals an online forum to research products, build their ideal models or improve car performance.


“We are thrilled to partner with Ben and GMS Racing in the NASCAR Camping World TruckSeries,” Wheelwell Chief Executive Officer Michael B. Gonzales said in a release. “NASCAR racing is at the pinnacle of automotive performance and Ben is a talented driver with a true passion for cars. Ben and GMS Racing make the perfect partners to represent Wheelwell’s community of enthusiasts sharing their knowledge and favorite automotive products.”

This weekend’s Truck Series event at Iowa will mark Kennedy’s 58th start in the Camping World Truck Series and fifth race with GMS Racing, which he joined in May. In his four races under the GMS Racing umbrella, Kennedy has recorded four straight top-15 finishes, including a season-best fourth-place result at Texas Motor Speedway. In the span of his four-year career in the Truck Series, the 24-year-old driver has seven top-fives, 18 top-10s and one pole position.


“I am looking forward to introducing Wheelwell to millions of NASCAR fans and fellow car enthusiasts,” Kennedy said. “Like many others in the racing community, I have a few ongoing vehicle projects and Wheelwell.com allows me to keep organized, seek help and learn from other members who are building, restoring or enhancing their vehicles.”

Race coverage for the Speediatrics 200 at Iowa Speedway begins Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Harvick on revamped Kentucky: ‘So far, so good’


PARTA, Ky. — There was a bit more of a racing groove here at Kentucky Speedway for the second and final day of an organizational test for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, thanks in part to yesterday’s on-track activity as well as high temperatures.

“It’s changed a lot, really changed in a good direction,” Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, said Tuesday. “Yesterday there was really no grip at all and it just took time. By the end of the day it was starting to get pretty good. Today there’s even more rubber on the track.

“I think a good thing about this is it’s hot and the rubber is laying down. When we come back, hopefully it’s hot. I think if it’s hot it will create a much better race and let us kind of move around and lay more rubber on the race track.”

The 1.5-mile track, owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., underwent a complete repave recently and this week’s activities are the first since work was completed.

In addition to the new asphalt, changes were also made to Turns 1 and 2, where the banking has been increased from 14 degrees to 17 degrees. The pit exit lane has been widened (from 14 feet to 30 feet), and as a result the width of the racing surface in 1 and 2 has shrunk from 74 feet to 56 feet.

Officials also rebuilt the drainage system underneath the facility to better handle water runoff and weepers that have created problems here in the past.

“Once you get in the gray (where no rubber has been put down) you just give up and wait until you get to the straightaway,” Kahne explained. “If you don’t, you will crash.

“Come race time it will be a lot different. More cars (on the track), you’ll be able to move up more, but right now if you get all four up in the gray, you just kind of wait until you get back in the lane and then go.”

Fourteen teams were on hand Monday, with only the No. 78 Toyota of Furniture Row Racing with driver Martin Truex Jr., not returning for the final day.

“It’s a good test for us,” Kahne said. “We needed some testing to run through a lot of different things, try stuff. There is a lot of data we’ll be able to look at, I’ll be able to look at and my teammates as well … to be a little bit more prepared when we do come back.”

Kevin Harvick, quickest on Monday, continued to post the top unofficial lap times Tuesday, with lap times quickly dipping into the 28-second bracket during the morning session.

Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano and Kahne also posted sub-29 second laps.

“It’s getting there,” Logano, driver of the Team Penske No. 2 Ford and the series’ most recent race winner, said of the track surface. “It’s taken awhile, but it definitely is starting to grip up, which is good.

“Yesterday was like ice skating on dull blades down there (in Turns 3 and 4).”

The use of a different aggregate in the makeup of the asphalt and application of lime to help age the track and pull oil from the new surface “makes sense,” Logano said.

“I think it might take a race or two to understand if it actually helps or not. Hopefully it does. But right now we’re in the process of cleaning all that up.

“When you’re laying rubber down the first time, it’s so hard to judge what’s going to happen because it’s so different.”

Tuesday’s practice was slowed only twice by on-track incidents. Logano’s Ford dropped fluid on the track near the end of the session for the first stoppage while Greg Biffle sustained damage to the rear of the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford in a separate incident.

This week’s test is the first of five organizational tests for Sprint Cup Series teams this season. Only one team per organization is allowed to participate. Future tests this year are scheduled for Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 12-13), Watkins Glen International (July 26-27), Chicagoland Speedway (Aug. 23-24) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 18-19).

The same aerodynamic package featuring a shorter rear spoiler that was used this past weekend at Michigan International Speedway is being used at Kentucky and will be in place when the series returns to compete here next month (July 7-9).

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams are off this weekend and will be back in action June 26 for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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RELATED: Full results from Michigan | Updated Chase Grid

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Kevin Harvick‘s weekend troubles all started with a yellow caution flag.

It was the yellow flag that waved for a debris caution and wreck during last Friday’s Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying at Michigan International Raceway, saddling the team with a 29th-place starting position. It was the yellow flag that flew twice during Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series Firekeepers Casino 400 at an unfortunate time.


“It was just really hard to pass all day and we kind of made some ground up and started getting midway up there and had a caution come out when we didn’t need it to,” crew chief Rodney Childers recalled in the garage after the race. “Kind of put us in a bad position where we had to do the wave-around and we drove back up there and got to about 13th or 14th again, and the same thing happened again and had to go back to 24th and do the wave-around again.”

But, truth be told, the No. 4 team may have welcomed just one more caution flag in the closing laps for another shot at a final restart.

“I got loose on the (Lap 194) restart where we restarted third,” Harvick said after finishing fifth in Sunday’s 400-miler. “But I’ve just got to say thank you to everybody from Stewart-Haas Racing, especially on the No. 4 Outback Chevrolet, and everybody from Busch, and Jimmy John’s and Mobil 1 and everybody who helps this car.

“It seems like the weekend of cautions; that’s what got us in our starting spot, anyway. But all-in-all, everybody kept their heads up and kept digging and we got a good finish out of it.”

Digging seems to be something the No. 4 team has done quite well this season. In the 15 races thus far, Harvick has improved or equaled his finishing spot from his starting position in all but four races — and two of those were races he was sitting on the pole. Sunday was no different, as the Stewart-Haas Racing driver climbed 24 spots to earn his 12th top-10 result of the year.

The resilience has gone beyond the driver’s seat: Pit stops have seemed to be the downfall for the No. 4 team throughout the year, notably during the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 15.

“We need to learn how to make a (expletive) pit stop,” Harvick said during the Dover race via in-car radio. “Track position means a whole lot.”

But on Sunday, the pit crew seemed to be back in championship form in the Irish Hills.

“The guys did a great job on pit road. We worked really hard on our pit stops and they were really good today,” Childers said.

The improvements will be crucial for the team moving forward, as the months until the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins wind down. With a win at Phoenix International Raceway in March, Harvick is virtually locked into the championship battle, the team trying for its second Cup title.

By the looks of the past weekend, they’ll be ready.