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.

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
-3
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.