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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.

Posted on by Staff Report

Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday a driver change for the XFINITY Series’ American Ethanol E15 Presented by Enogen at Iowa Speedway (June 19, 1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). 


Under recommendations from his doctor, Matt Tifft will sit out for the main event as he undergoes treatment for a disc condition in his back, as reported via a team release from the organization.


Instead, Sam Hornish Jr. will sit in the driver’s seat of the No. 18 Toyota for the 250-lap event. 


Tifft, a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver, has had six starts in the NASCAR XFINITY Series this season, including top-10 finishes in his last two races, at Talladega and Dover.


Hornish Jr., a full-time Sprint Cup Series driver in 2015, also competed in three XFINITY Series events last season for Biagi-DenBeste Racing.


Tifft also had been scheduled to run the NASCAR Camping World Series’ Speediatrics 200 in the No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota, and German Quiroga will fill in for him in that series.


Quiroga drove the No. 11 Toyota at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, bringing the Red Horse Racing Tundra home in eighth place.


“I’m really excited to have the chance to race at Iowa this weekend. It wasn’t originally in the plan, so I’m thankful to Tom DeLoach and Red Horse Racing for giving me this opportunity,” Quiroga said in a team release. “I’ve been successful at Iowa in the past, so I’m confident that we’ll have a good Toyota Tundra and be able to pick up a good result.”



Posted on by Staff Report

JR Motorsports announced Tuesday that Marcus Richmond will take over crew chief duties for its No. 00 team of Cole Custer for the remainder of the 2016 season.

 

“Marcus is a well-known crew chief in the Truck Series garage, and we are delighted he has joined our team,” Kelley Earnhardt Miller, general manager of JR Motorsports, said in a team release. “He brings a lot of experience and the kind of steady leadership that can take us to Victory Lane and into the inaugural Chase this season. Paired with Cole and the rest of the team, we are eager to see this new partnership begin at Iowa Speedway.”

 

Richmond is a well-experienced NASCAR Camping World Truck Series veteran with 205 starts as a crew chief in the series, which includes nine victories and a runner-up in the 2013 championship standings led by Ty Dillon. His lengthy resume includes stints with Richard Childress Racing, Red Horse Racing and, most recently, GMS Racing.

 

“The main reason I came to this team is because they do what it takes to win races, and they have a driver that can win races,” Richmond revealed. “I feel like this is a great opportunity to do that here at JR Motorsports, with Cole in the driver’s seat.”

 

Richmond will sit atop the pit box for the No. 00 team starting at Iowa Speedway for the Speediatrics 200 (June 18, 8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Custer heads into the weekend 14th in standings with one top-five and two top-10 finishes.

Posted on by Staff Report

It’s doesn’t take much to figure out that when it comes to getting paid, some athletes have it pretty good these days. Two NASCAR drivers in particular are doing quite well when it comes to providing for their teams and families.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson made Forbes.com’s recently released list of the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes for 2016, coming in at No. 71 and 82, respectively.

According to the website/magazine, Johnson’s pay was $22.2 million, broken down into $16.2 million for salary and winnings and $6 million for endorsements.

Meanwhile, NASCAR’s most popular driver, Earnhardt Jr., earned $23.5 million, with $15 million coming from salary and winnings and $8.5 million for endorsements.

Proof positive that mamas and papas should want their babies to grow up to be NASCAR drivers, not cowboys.

To see the full list, go to Forbes.com.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Rough day for Junior, others at Michigan | Race results


The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series off weekend could not have come at a better time for Dale Earnhardt Jr. after a 39th-place wreck-induced finish in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

“Damn, I needed one,” Earnhardt said on Dirty Mo Radio’s “The Dale Jr. Download.” “I’m going to have some fun. Get my battery recharged for the rest of the year because we don’t have another off week until August. This break couldn’t have come at a better time. I was cooked. All the bad luck we’ve had, racing hasn’t been a whole lot of fun lately. 


“We took off at the start of the year, having such a good time and really enjoying everything that was going on. This break, hopefully, will give us a chance to reset, come back with a good attitude. Get some points back, get some good finishes back in the bank.”

After five top-eight finishes in the season’s first nine races, Dale Jr. has had three finishes of 32nd-or-worse in the past six races. The latest a result of a three-car incident involving Chris Buescher (No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford) and AJ Allmendinger (No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet) on Lap 61 with a No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that Junior believed to be a “solid top 10 car.” On the podcast, Junior explained what happened and why he took issue with Buescher’s role in it.

“Went down the front straightaway going into (Turn) 1, the 47 (AJ Allmendinger) got loose and went real high. I went underneath him in the middle lane to try and challenge the position shortly after a restart. The 34 (Chris Buescher) was underneath me on the bottom and he got pretty loose. I seen him coming and he clipped a car and I couldn’t keep it out of the fence. We got hooked up with the 47 I think and got into the wall pretty hard. 


“I was real mad and I’m mad at Chris because you know, you try to take care of each other there. I know when I drive my car I try to think when I’m going into the corner, ‘Am I going to bust my ass and take this guy out?’ I mentally have concern for not only my well-being but his. You don’t want to ruin anybody’s race. I know Chris didn’t want to ruin my race and Chris probably is disappointed it happened. And I know that I made mistakes and everybody does but it doesn’t mean that I can’t have an opinion about it when it happens. If anybody wants to give me any (expletive) about being upset, you’d be singing my tune if you was riding shotgun when that car hit the fence. 


“It’s easy to sit on the couch and play armchair quarterback. I’m not going to hold it against Chris. I like the guy. I’ve talked to him several times. He’s a nice guy. He’s a good racer and just made a mistake and cost us a big chunk of points. I still think we’re a good team. We’re going to be OK. We can’t have a lot of bad luck but things like this are out of our control. Can’t help getting taken out, wadded up. We just got to do what we can in the races we can run good at and take care of ourselves.” 


WATCH: Junior wrecks amid contact with Buesher, Allmendinger


Crew chief Greg Ives took to Twitter on Sunday night to shoulder the blame for the team’s qualifying woes. The 88 team started Sunday’s race 27th on the grid and Earnhardt’s 16.8 average starting position is his worst since 2011. 

“Greg is going to put that on his shoulders and take a lot of the blame for that but … I don’t quite agree with it.” Earnhardt later added that “Greg and those guys are working their guts out. They are a good team, full of good guys and they deserve a lot of respect.”


Junior is heading out of town for the off weekend as evidenced by a Twitter photo of he and fiancee Amy Reimann at the airport. Last year’s June off weekend saw the pair get engaged. 

And when the 41-year-old returns, he knows the task at hand as he sits 11th in points and winless after back-to-back seasons of four and three wins, respectively. 

“Richmond (site of the regular-season finale and the season’s 26th race) is going to be here before we know it and we don’t want be sitting at Richmond having to run, having to finish X to make the Chase. I mean that’s crazy for a team like us, I just feel like that’s insane. We are definitely a top-10 team easy, maybe even a top-five team. We can run with them when we put it all together so I got good confidence that things are going to work out.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Harvick’s stranglehold atop the standings is real, with a 30-point lead over second place. Pretty soon, it might not be the only submission move he’s touting.

 

MORE: UFC’s Tate offers Harvick fighting lessons

A series-leading 13th top-10 finish — in 15 races! — for Busch at Michigan continues to show off the No. 41’s consistency, which will be ultra-important in the Chase.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/brad-keselowski/
BradKeselowski
2
Team Penske

Keselowski remained winless in his home state, but he’s getting closer. 

 

MORE: ‘No hugs’ in talk between Kes, Gordon

Edwards is already trending in the right direction even before you consider we next head to a track at which he won in 2014 (Sonoma).

 

MORE: Edwards touts new package

For all his perceived struggles over the first half of the regular season, Logano’s win on Sunday was his 12th since the start of 2014, the most in the series.

 

MORE: Logano lands first win of 2016 

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/kyle-busch/
KyleBusch
-4
Joe Gibbs Racing

Busch is now 109 points behind leader Kevin Harvick, and he hasn’t even missed any races, like last year. Perhaps he can get back on track at Sonoma, where he picked up his first 2015 win.

 

MORE: Engine issues send Busch to garage

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

Both Johnson and teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. had issues with young, Roush-affiliated drivers Trevor Bayne and Chris Buescher. Expect some veteran lessons to be taught at some point.

 

MORE: Bayne battles Johnson, Blaney bobbles

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

Elliott now has four top-five finishes in his last six races — all of which were also top 10s. A win appears to be imminent.

 

MORE: Best finish, but Elliott hungry for win

Kenseth enjoyed a nice stretch of top-10 finishes that included a win, but that streak (four straight) ended at Michigan.

Despite his victory in 2013, don’t expect Truex to recover from his Michigan woes at Sonoma, where his average finish is 21.0 — fourth worst of any track at which he’s raced.

Larson’s average finish over the first 11 races: 22.64.

His average finish over the past four: 7.25. Larson is ultra-talented, but his car failed post-race inspection on Sunday.

 

MORE: No. 42 fails post-race inspection

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/austin-dillon/
AustinDillon
1
Richard Childress Racing

If Dillon’s game has truly improved this season — as it appears it has — Sonoma will be a good test for him. In four career road course starts in his Cup career, he has no top-10 finishes.

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

Earnhardt Jr. is tied with Kyle Busch and Cole Whitt for four DNFs, second-worst in the series to Matt DiBenedetto’s five.

 

MORE: Earnhardt done early after wreck

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/denny-hamlin/
DennyHamlin
-3
Joe Gibbs Racing

After another sub-par finish, now will be the time to grab Hamlin in NASCAR Fantasy Live, because he most certainly won’t be down for much longer.

 

MORE: Hamlin blows tire, goes for wild spin

Newman’s success at Michigan continued Sunday, as he hasn’t finished worse than 18th at the Michigan track since 2010.

Despite falling to 17th from his starting position of fifth overall — his highest of the season — Blaney is in the midst of a quietly solid stretch of races, with four top-10 finishes in six races.

Kahne moved up a spot in the standings, but still has just five top 10s on the year — glaring, considering his rookie teammate has more than double that amount.

Despite his third top-10 finish, McMurray didn’t gain at all in the standings. He’s five spots ahead of his teammate Kyle Larson in the standings, but the No. 42 driver appears much closer to a win.

Bayne’s average finish of 18.1 in 2016 is well on pace for the best mark of his career, topping 2012’s 22.5 on a part-time schedule.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/ricky-stenhouse-jr/
RickyStenhouse Jr.
-1
Roush Fenway Racing

Despite proving he’s in incredible physical shape, Stenhouse is not in amazing shape in these Power Rankings, in danger of falling out of the top 20 after failing to notch a top-10 finish for the 10th straight race.

Posted on by Mobil 1

For Mobil 1, our normal is anything but, which is why we celebrate the passionate and loyal Mobil 1 enthusiasts whose lifestyles and professions consistently require them to push their engines — and themselves — beyond what is considered “normal” driving experiences.

As the Official Motor Oil of NASCAR, Mobil 1 technology is used in more than 50 percent of all NASCAR teams, proving itself every single weekend in some of the world’s top race cars. But Mobil 1 is also proven every weekend in the unsung vehicles that make racing possible — pace cars, service trucks, track dryers, EMT vehicles, tow trucks, and more.

For track vehicles and their drivers, a day on the job is anything but normal. For NASCAR Track Services Coordinator Jason Toth, his normal drive happens every Sunday. Driving in the NASCAR Chase safety vehicle, Jason and his team play an integral role in ensuring that all 43 race cars are operating in a safe, working track environment — from green to checkered flag. At ExxonMobil, safety is more than just a priority — it is a core value and an integral part of our culture which we will never stop working toward.

This video is the first in a series showing how the Mobil 1 brand’s — and the individuals who trust it — “normal” is anything but.

Stay tuned for more.

Watch today’s video, which is part of NASCAR Inside Track presented by Mobil 1, then come back during the season for more in-depth looks at NASCAR from Mobil 1.

Posted on by Nascar

SPARTA, Ky. – Saddled with his fourth consecutive finish outside the top 30, defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is looking forward to a brief break before the series heads to Sonoma Raceway in two weeks.


On Sunday, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver placed last in the 40-car field competing in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. He had completed only 52 of the race’s 200 laps when engine issues sidelined the No. 18 Toyota.


Monday, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was here at Kentucky Speedway, participating in a two-day organizational test with 13 other Sprint Cup drivers.


“We get to have a couple of weeks here to try and regroup and try to change our luck somehow,” Busch said during a break in testing. “I wish there was a store I could buy some because I’m certainly out.”


Busch missed the first 11 races of the 2015 season due to injury, but returned to win five times en route to capturing his first Sprint Cup championship.


That success seemed to carry over, as the team opened the ’16 season with four consecutive top-five finishes. He won three times in the first 11 races.


But since his victory at Kansas Speedway last month, the fortunes of driver and team have soured. He finished 30th at Dover, 33rd at Charlotte and 31st at Pocono before the Michigan mishap.


The former points leader has tumbled from the top to ninth in the standings after 15 races.


If running well and winning races can provide a team with momentum, then running poorly can drag a team down as well.


“It can, depending on the strength and camaraderie within that team,” Busch said. That hasn’t been the case with his group, led by crew chief Adam Stevens.


“When we started the season, we had really good races, we had a bad one, we bounced right back,” he said. “… So we can do it. It’s just a matter of trying to get out of the funk. …


“We’re either top four or bottom four. That’s just where we’ve been this year. That’s kind of the discrepancy we see in our finishes. But our cars are fast, we’re competitive each week, we can run up front. I know we can do this; we can pass cars.”


In 15 starts Busch has nine top-five finishes. In the other six races, he has finished 25th or worse.


That his team can win races isn’t a concern. But for now Busch simply wants to be around at the end of them.


“My mindset right now, and it was at Michigan, was ‘we just need to finish this race,'” he said. “I don’t care where we finish. If we finish 25th, that’s a start. That’s a start in the right direction. But we couldn’t even do that on Sunday.


“Certainly I still feel that same way. Going to Sonoma, we just need to be able to get out of that race with all four fenders on it and be able to finish that event. Start progressing our way toward the front where we know we can be.


“If we go out and win Sonoma, then we may just say that the curse is over, whatever it might be.”

Busch is the defending race winner of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. This year’s race is scheduled for Sunday, June 26 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Nascar

SPARTA, Ky. — Fourteen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams kicked off a two-day organizational test here Monday at the repaved and reconfigured Kentucky Speedway.



The 1.5-mile track will host all three NASCAR national series — Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck — next month (July 7-9).



In addition to the repaving, the track has also undergone a change in Turns 1 and 2, where the banking has been increased from 14 to 17 degrees. The width of the pit road exit lane has also more than doubled, from 14 feet to 30 feet. As a result, the racing surface in those turns is now narrower, shrinking from 74 to 56 feet.



The banking and width of the racing surface in Turns 3 and 4 remains unchanged.



“Theres no way to really assess it 100 percent because it takes so long to clean the race track off and put rubber down,” Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet and the series points leader, said Monday during a break in testing.



“Really, the morning was just spent trying to condition the race track. I think (Turns) 1 and 2 have taken some rubber well; (Turns) 3 and 4 … I think that will be the problem spot to try and make the car handle as far as that goes. Definitely takes some time to get it all right but so far, so good.”



The increased banking will likely mean that cars will be carrying more speed coming onto the backstretch and as they rush into the third turn. That change, combined with the current aerodynamic package used this past weekend at Michigan International Speedway and slated for use here next month, could make for some dicey moments.



“It’s definitely going to make Turn 3 more challenging,” Harvick, the 2014 Sprint Cup champion, said. “I think that’s already one trend that we’ve developed with this particular package — this car is looser getting into the corner, which it should be with the spoiler cut off the back of it.



“It’s going to be very similar to a Charlotte, Kansas-type speed once the track is where it needs to be. There is a bump where the two seams of asphalt meet that’s about three quarters of the way around the corner that you’re going to have to navigate. It doesn’t do anything to the car right now other than move the car. But that will be one spot that you will have to navigate as the speeds keep coming up. By the time it’s all said and done, you’ll be well into the 28-second bracket.”



Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski holds both the qualifying record (28.603 sec., 188.791 mph) and race record (145.607 mph) at Kentucky.



Monday morning’s lap times started off in the 31- to 32-second range on the new asphalt before beginning to creep down. A handful of drivers had slipped into the 29-second range prior to the lunch break.

The afternoon session, which concluded at 5 p.m. ET, saw Harvick with the fastest single lap (29.169 seconds), followed closely by Martin Truex Jr., AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano.



“I think the biggest thing right now that I see is the groove goes from being so wide coming out of Turn 4 down the front straightaway, it kind of narrows up getting into Turn 1,” defending series champion Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota) said. “The race track width narrows up, (and) the groove, it’s only one-groove wide right now.”



The narrower Turn 1, he said, should provide for some interesting moments as well.



“It’s just a little bit deceiving, something you don’t remember Kentucky Speedway being,” he said. “You’re used to (going) way out to the outside wall and being able to come way back down to the bottom. Now that groove is narrower, I’d guess about 12 feet or so. It’s a different feeling, something you’re not accustomed to from what you remember.”



Busch counts two Sprint Cup wins at Kentucky among his 37 career victories, including last year’s stop. He has won here in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series as well.



Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Ryan Blaney (Wood Brothers Racing, No. 21 Ford) said the uncertainty surrounding how cars would react on the new surface and configuration played a major role in slowing any initial progress.



“We spent the first couple of hours kind of tip-toeing around the race track and not trying to wreck,” Blaney said. “I think the last hour it kind of came in to where we could make changes on our car and be able to tell what the change did. Before, you couldn’t really tell because the track kept getting faster as rubber got laid down. …



“Tomorrow will be a really good test day for everybody to try some more stuff out. I think the track will be rubbered in where it should be.”



In addition to Harvick, Busch and Blaney, others testing here on Monday were Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing), Paul Menard (Richard Childress Racing), Kasey Kahne (Hendrick Motorsports), Michael Annett (HScott Motorsports), Jamie McMurray (Chip Ganassi Racing), Logano (Team Penske), Allmendinger (JTG Daugherty Racing), Matt DiBenedetto (BK Racing), Aric Almirola (Richard Petty Motorsports), Chris Buescher (Front Row Motorsports) and Greg Biffle (Roush Fenway Racing).