Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full race results from Dover

Just after escaping an 18-car wreck, Carl Edwards spun and slammed hard into the inside SAFER barrier on the backstretch with 40 laps remaining in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism on Sunday at Dover International Speedway.


Edwards was running in second place at the time of the accident. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said he tried to give room to Kurt Busch as they came out of Turn 2, with Edwards’ No. 19 Toyota pitching sideways off the corner. From there, the No. 42 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson made contact with the No. 19’s rear bumper, sending Edwards’ ride careening toward the inside wall.


Edwards was critical over the JGR team radio, saying, “Yeah, that one hurt. Damn, man. Give me a break. Who was that?” Edwards’ crew implicated Larson, and the No. 19 radio crackled again: “What an idiot.”


Edwards was more reserved after being evaluated and released from Dover’s infield care center.


“I didn’t see much,” said Edwards, who finished 28th, 41 laps short of the 400-lap distance. “I was trying to give Kurt a little room, it looked like he got choked up and as I looked at the replay it looked like I moved down a little and Larson got underneath me. I don’t think he meant to do it, but it surprised me. I didn’t know he was that close.”


Larson continued on, equaling his career-best effort in the Sprint Cup Series with a second-place finish. In post-race interviews, he echoed the apology that he issued over his team radio after Edwards’ late-race crash.


“Not sure if Carl got loose, went to block me, or if I came up or what,” Larson said. “I got into him, turned him into the inside wall. So I feel bad about that, if it was my fault. Even if it’s not my fault, I feel bad about that.”


Edwards’ finish marked his third straight finish outside the top 10 since back-to-back wins at Bristol and Richmond last month.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full race results from Dover

The AAA 400 Drive for Autism was red-flagged on Lap 354 of 400 when Jimmie Johnson‘s No. 48 Chevrolet failed to accelerate on a restart and caused a wreck that collected 18 cars at Dover International Speedway.


Starting from the outside lane on the front row, Johnson’s race-leading car was slow to come up to speed, causing Martin Truex Jr. to rear-end the No. 48, and Kevin Harvick to plow into Truex. That collision clogged the 1-mile track’s frontstretch, triggering a melee that involved nearly half the 40-car field.


“I got a great start in second gear,” said Johnson, who led four laps but finished 25th. “As I went to put it in third (gear) and came across the shifting gate it never went into third. It actually got locked in the neutral area of the transmission. I had plenty of time. Martin was plenty patient with me and I was trying to get third and I couldn’t. I tried for fourth and third and fourth and I finally got hit. Just a freak deal with something with the transmission. I’ve never had that happen to me in my career.”


Johnson spun into traffic behind him, damaging a list of cars that included: No. 18 Kyle Busch, No. 1 Jamie McMurray, No. 43. Aric Almirola, No. 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 22 Joey Logano, No. 16 Greg Biffle, No. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 47 AJ Allmendinger, No. 15 Clint Bowyer, No. 31 Ryan Newman, No. 95 Michael McDowell, No. 6 Trevor Bayne, No. 13 Casey Mears, No. 27 Paul Menard and No. 11 Denny Hamlin.


Truex was lined up fourth for the restart, taking instructions from his crew to let Carl Edwards pass him for third leaving pit road so that he would have the outside lane at the drop of the green. That placed him right behind Johnson’s lagging car, causing significant front-end damage.


Remarkably, Truex’s Furniture Row Racing crew repaired his No. 78 Toyota enough to salvage a ninth-place finish.


“Just one of those deals: wrong place, wrong time,” said Truex, who led twice for 47 laps. “Frustrating, but we got a top 10 out of it, so not too bad. The guys on pit road did a great job fixing it. Just hate that it happened. I wanted to be fourth on that restart, but I didn’t want to be fourth that bad. I should have been third so maybe I should have not let (Edwards) beat us off pit road. I don’t know how you can see those things coming. All in all good day, just bad finish.”


All drivers were either evaluated or treated and released from the infield care center after the stack-up, but Almirola emerged holding an ice pack on his left hand.


“It just stinks we all got stacked up like that,” said Almirola, who finished 31st. “I banged up my hand. I think I may have a broken finger, it is pretty sore and swollen. We worked really hard to get back on the lead lap and we were actually making a lot of progress it just took us all race to get back up on that lead lap. I hate that our day is going to turn out like that. That is a shame. Then to make matters worse I think I have a broken pinky finger. That isn’t very manly, is it?”


Harvick, who prevailed at the 1-mile track last fall, had led three times for a race-high 117 laps. The pole-starter finished 15th, the first driver one lap down.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Race results | Updated series standings | SHOP: Kenseth gear

 

Matt Kenseth roared to victory Sunday afternoon at Dover International Speedway, holding off a hard-charging Kyle Larson to score his first win of the season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

 

Kenseth led 48 of 400 laps in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. His triumph in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism was his third at the 1-mile track and the 37th of his Sprint Cup career. But the victory also helped stem a rough start to the 2016 season as he virtually clinched a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

 

“It all worked out for us, kind of the opposite as I feel like it’s been going the last couple months,” said Kenseth, who has just one other top-five run this year — a fourth place last weekend at Kansas. “We’ve had really fast race cars. We’ve been in position to win a lot. This wasn’t our fastest car by any means. But we were able to be there at the end of the race and pull it off.”

 

RELATED: See all of Kenseth’s wins in the sport’s top series

Larson, seeking his first premier series win, held on for second in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. He led 85 laps and wound up just .188 seconds behind at the checkered flag after a stirring challenge for the lead down the stretch.

 

Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Chase Elliott surged within striking distance of the front-running pair, but settled for a career-best third-place finish. Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch completed the top five in a topsy-turvy day.

 

A massive, 18-car crash brought out an extended red flag on Lap 354, thinning the field of contenders. After a stoppage of 11 minutes, 22 seconds, the race restarted on Lap 360, with Kenseth leading. But on the restart lap, contact from Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet sent Carl Edwards‘ No. 19 Toyota spinning hard against the inside wall.
 

That set up the final restart on Lap 366, with Kenseth and Larson coming to the line side-by-side. On Lap 381, Elliott passed Larson for second but surrendered the position in traffic three laps later. During the final five laps, Larson pulled alongside Kenseth but couldn’t complete the pass from the inside lane.

 

“I had gotten close to his bumper a couple times. I may have even got into him once,” Larson said of his close-quarters battle with Kenseth. “I didn’t want to do anything dirty. I respect Matt Kenseth a lot. He’s definitely in my eyes the cleanest racer out there. He always races me with respect. I try to do the same with him.”

 

Two pre-race favorites — Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick — had rallied from their share of issues at the Monster Mile, including their involvement in the event’s sixth yellow flag before the fateful 11th caution period and ensuing red flag.

RELATED: Botched restart sets off 18-car wreck

Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet suffered a mechanical failure trying to get up to speed on a restart, with Martin Truex Jr., Harvick and others piling in behind him. The chain reaction blocked the frontstretch, collecting several other cars in the melee.

 

Harvick had started from the pole position and led three times for a race-high 117 laps, but lost ground on a series of early pit stops. “We just keep getting further and further back,” Harvick radioed his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet crew on Lap 172, during the fourth caution period.

 

Johnson, a 10-time Dover winner, started 21st in the 40-car field, but gradually moved up in the running order. But Johnson spun during the sixth caution, looping his Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevy after Reed Sorenson‘s spinning car dropped fluid through the first and second turns on Lap 212.

 

Johnson avoided contact, catching a fortunate break when Harvick slowed his car to a halt just shy of a collision. Those strokes of luck for the two favorites went for naught after the large pileup nearly 140 laps later.

 

Brad Keselowski, a winner two weeks ago at Talladega, led once for 49 laps Sunday, but dropped from contention after crunching into Austin Dillon‘s slower car, damaged from an earlier wreck. Keselowski made multiple pit stops for repairs and rallied for a sixth-place finish.

 

Tony Stewart finished 34th in just his fourth start of the season since missing the first eight Sprint Cup races with a back injury. His hopes were dimmed by a mechanical failure — a broken track bar that punctured the oil tank — that caused his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet to slow in the 341st lap.

 

The result kept him 37th in the driver standings. He needs to finish the regular season 30th or better in the rankings and post a victory to qualify for the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

 

The series returns Saturday night for its traditional mid-spring invitational, the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (9 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

 

Note: Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet failed post-race laser inspection station and will be taken to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further evaluation. If penalties are warranted, they will be announced later this week.

 

Contributing: Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Find FS1 in your area


All times ET

Monday, May 16
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: AAA 400 Drive for Autism (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Tuesday, May 17
4 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: AAA 400 Drive for Autism (re-air), FS1
7:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: May Dover Race (re-air), FS1
9:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series: Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 200 (re-air), FS1
2 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: AAA 400 Drive for Autism (re-air), FS2
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Wednesday, May 18
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Thursday, May 19
4:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final practice, FS1
6 p.m., The 600: History of NASCAR’s Toughest Race (re-air), FS1

Friday, May 20
2 a.m., NASCAR The List: Greatest Finishes (re-air), NBCSN
2:30 a.m., NASCAR The List: Memorable Moments (re-air), NBCSN
11 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final practice (re-air), FS1
12:30 p.m., The 600: History of NASCAR’s Toughest Race (re-air), FS1
1:30 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sprint Showdown final practice, FS1
3 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race final practice, FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub – Weekend Edition, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Keystone Light Pole Qualifying, FS1
7 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Sprint Showdown, FS1—postponed until Saturday
8 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series SetUp, FS1
8:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: NC Education Lottery 200, FS1—postponed until Saturday

Saturday, May 21
2 a.m., NASCAR The List: Texas Motor Speedway (re-air), NBCSN
2:30 a.m., NASCAR The List: Daytona Memories (re-air), NBCSN
9:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sprint All-Star Race practice, FS1
11 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Sprint Showdown, FS1
12:30 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: NC Education Lottery 200, FS1
7 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS1
8:30 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay – All-Star, FS1
9 p.m., NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, FS1

Sunday, May 22
9 a.m., Empty Cup: Quest for the 1992 NASCAR Cup (re-air), FS1
9:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (re-air), FS1


Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Results | Standings | At-track gallery

 

DOVER, Del. — Hendrick Motorsports‘ most consistent driver this season stopped his car on pit road at Dover International Speedway a top-three finisher, secured by an exceptional run amidst a thrilling battle in the closing laps.

Before you jump to conclusions, we’re not talking about six-time Sprint Cup Series champion and 10-time “Monster Mile” winner Jimmie Johnson.

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Chase Elliott landed his team-best eighth top-10 finish of the season, battling for the lead with eventual race-winner Matt Kenseth and runner-up Kyle Larson to finish third, his best finish through the first third of the 36-race campaign.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t be on the good end of (a great race) but proud of our effort today,” said Elliott, now seventh in the points standings, solidly in line for a Chase for the Sprint Cup berth. “We really started a good ways out of where we needed to be. I thought we made a lot of really, really solid gains throughout the day to get our car better and better.

” … Hate to not get the job done and be so close, but we’ll keep digging at it and try to get a little better.”

Elliott, Larson and Kenseth gave fans one of the most entertaining finishes of the season, trading positions back and forth over the final thirty-plus laps with each potential victor offering a uniquely compelling story line.

The No. 24 driver appeared to have the fastest car at times — and he thought he may be able to pass the No. 20 at some point — before eventually losing steam while battling the No. 42.

“I mean, I felt like we might (catch Kenseth). It was just a matter of getting some clean laps and not having to fend off the 42 I think was the big thing,” Elliott said. “When somebody’s on your bumper like that, it’s hard to put a real good lap together.

“When you’re racing around people, it just slows everybody down. When the 42 got into the 20, I was able to catch them, got a run on Kyle. Looking back, wish I had done some different things to open up some clear lanes and run different lines. Regardless, I don’t think we were quite as good as what the 42 was there, and he did a good job of getting back by us, giving Matt a shot.”

While neither Elliott nor Larson were able to land in Victory Lane for the first time in their respective Sprint Cup careers, the show the young stars put on while battling with NASCAR’s second-oldest full-time Cup series driver — an accomplished veteran and champion in his own right — was remarkable.

The battle may have been a preview of the years to come.

“I certainly wouldn’t complain if I was battling for wins for the next 10 years,” said Elliott. “It would be great on my watch. I don’t know about (Larson), but that’s the way I would do it. That would be great. I’d love to be in the mix for wins moving forward.”

Larson concurred.

“Yeah, no, it was fun battling Chase there. I didn’t see him much throughout the race. I knew he was lining up behind me there the last restart,” the Chip Ganassi Racing driver said. “It was fun racing with him, though. We’ve had a lot of good battles through the XFINITY Series and even K&N (Pro Series). Hopefully we’re battling up front for many years to come. Just looking forward to the future.”

 

For Elliott, a driver never content with anything short of a race victory, a win can’t come soon enough despite Sunday marking continued gains for the 24 team.


“I had a chance and didn’t get it done. That’s about as simple as it gets. … Doesn’t really matter what I say. Till you go get it done, it really is irrelevant,” Elliott said. “For me, I think I have a team that’s capable of doing it. The way I see today, we had our shot, we had a chance to do it today, I didn’t do it.

“Either you do or you don’t, and we haven’t yet.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: E. Jones prevails for Dash 4 Cash bonus | Results

 

DOVER, Del. — Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. was all smiles and high fives as he climbed out of his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing LoudMouth Exhaust Ford on pit road late Saturday afternoon at Dover International Speedway.

His runner-up finish to Erik Jones was his best of the 2016 season, best of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career, and best ever for an African-American driver in the series. And it came in a backup car.

“Our team, I keep saying it, we never give up,” an enthusiastic Wallace said on pit road while receiving plenty of congratulations as people walked by.

“It is really a credit to my guys right here for really thrashing this thing. It is unfortunate when you do have to bring the backup car out, like we talked about earlier.

“We never give up and we work really hard to get some speed in this baby. I can’t thank LoudMouth Exhaust enough for coming on board. This is a good debut for them. They will be on our car in Charlotte. We will go have some fun in two weeks, a home track for us, and hopefully we can get one spot better.”

Wallace had to work for his effort this weekend. He ran among the top six for most of the race after starting 11th. But he was in a reserve Mustang after crashing his car in opening practice.

The 22-year-old has always had a good relationship with Dover, however, and his stellar history at this venue helped launch his NASCAR career.

He won an XFINITY Series pole position in his first series start at the track in 2012 and again in 2015. He won the pole position in his first Camping World Truck Series start at The Monster Mile in 2013. And he won two poles here in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East ranks — winning from the pole position in 2011.

“That was big,” Wallace said, allowing a smile.

“We just have to continue on. We can use this for motivation but I said earlier, we are nowhere near close to where we need to be. We are off on speed and handling and we know that.

“We have another off-weekend to find some more for our Ford Mustangs. We have to keep plugging away. We can’t get frustrated and just give up on it. We have to keep our heads up and work together to get our team better.

“This is a really good day for us. I can go to sleep tonight knowing that we gave it our all, especially after the backup car and all those shenanigans, it kind of erased that — until I go in Monday and hear all about it again in the debrief.”

The showing at Dover kept Wallace ranked ninth in the XFINITY championship points. He trails leader Elliott Sadler by 81 points entering the series’ next race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in two weeks.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Cup standings | See Sunday’s lineup

 

DOVER, Del. — Even those who have been around the sport for a long time are amazed to hear the litany of Jimmie Johnson accomplishments at this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stop, Dover International Speedway.

 

His 10 — yes, TEN — wins at the Monster Mile is an all-time record. His Dover tally alone is actually more than the career win totals of 25 drivers he’ll compete against in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).

 

His 2,999 career laps led at Dover is also the most from any active driver. And the six-time champion has won three of the last five races here.

 

All that greatness surely helps balance the irony and disappointment of Johnson’s Chase-costing 41st-place finish in the series’ last Dover visit in October.

 

“That was human error, it was something that we did wrong as a race team and cost ourselves a shot at the Chase when were in the fall race,” Johnson recalled.

 

“You’re going to have bad experiences at all tracks. People are going to make mistakes. Drivers are going to make mistakes even if it’s at their favorite track. It doesn’t matter.

 

“My love for this track; I fell for it on my first lap in an ASA car back in the ’90s and it’s still just as cool now as it ever has been.”

 

And it would seem if Johnson’s love of track is somehow reciprocated.

 

His success on one of NASCAR’s toughest one-milers is factually amazing. In addition to his 10 victories, Johnson has 15 top fives and 20 top 10s in 28 starts plus five pole-position starts, for good measure. Twice he has won from the pole.

 

It’s the kind of track mastery that used to happen more regularly in NASCAR’s “glory days” of Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, but sure doesn’t occur frequently in the modern era. Kind of like winning six championships in just eight seasons.

 

“To have my favorite track to drive turn out to be one of my most successful race tracks, at this point in my career, it’s just cool to see it all converge and come together,” Johnson said.

 

“The experience around the track is so intense and so fun, I guess it’s the only track that we compete on that really reminds me of my motocross or off-road roots with the transitions into the corners and off the corners. I came here in an ASA car maybe ’97 or ’98 and just fell in love with the track then and was very fast and competitive then.”

 

Johnson arrives in Dover this week ranked fourth in the championship standings, 37 points behind Dover pole-sitter and the season’s title leader Kevin Harvick. But Johnson already has a pair of wins (at Atlanta and Auto Club), which qualifies him for the 2016 Chase.

 

He will start the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet 21st on Sunday — the grid set by opening practice speeds since qualifying was rained out. It’s only the fourth time in the last 15 races he has started outside the top 10.

 

He was 12th- and 13th-fastest, respectively, in the final two practices on Saturday. And he had the eighth-best 10-lap average.

 

“We definitely get fired up knowing this one is coming up,” Johnson said. “When we get here and then in moments like what we just had in practice where we didn’t have the speed we wanted. It adds actually more frustration than it would at a normal track.

 

“Because we are like, ‘man, this is our place,’ this is where we run well, why are we off?

 

“There is a balance for sure.”

 

And no one better to find it.

Posted on by Staff Report

Heat 1

Fin Str Car Driver
1 2 7 Justin Allgaier*
2 1 20 Erik Jones*
3 3 88 Alex Bowman
4 6 22 Joey Logano
5 4 2 Paul Menard
6 7 6 Darrell Wallace Jr
7 5 48 Brennan Poole
8 8 16 Ryan Reed
9 9 44 JJ Yeley
10 11 11 Blake Koch
11 10 24 Drew Herring
12 14 14 Jeff Green
13 15 90 Mario Gosselin
14 16 0 Garrett Smithley
15 18 97 Alex Guenette
16 12 01 Ryan Preece
17 17 13 Timmy Hill
18 20 70 Derrike Cope
19 13 10 Matt DiBenedetto
20 19 74 Mike Harmon

*Justin Allgaier and Erik Jones are Dash 4 Cash-eligible for the main race. 


Heat 2

Fin Str Car Driver
1 3 3 Ty Dillon*
2 1 19 Daniel Suarez*
3 5 39 Ryan Sieg
4 4 18 Matt Tifft
5 7 33 Brandon Jones
6 6 62 Brendan Gaughan
7 13 43 Jeb Burton
8 10 4 Ross Chastain
9 9 51 Jeremy Clements
10 11 07 Ray Black Jr
11 12 28 Dakoda Armstrong
12 20 15 Travis Kvapil
13 15 25 Ryan Ellis
14 16 52 Joey Gase
15 14 78 BJ McLeod
16 2 1 Elliott Sadler
17 8 42 Justin Marks
18 17 40 Carl Long
19 18 89 Morgan Shepherd
20 19 93 Josh Reaume

*Ty Dillon and Daniel Suarez are Dash 4 Cash-eligible for the main race. 

Posted on by Staff Report

Final Practice | Results



Denny Hamlin lunged to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard in Saturday’s final practice at Dover International Speedway.



Hamlin powered the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota to a best lap of 157.329 mph on the 1-mile concrete oval. He’ll start sixth in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), lining up according to first practice speeds after Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying session was rained out.



Kevin Harvick, Sunday’s pole-starter and the most recent winner at the Monster Mile, was second-fastest at 156.447 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevy.


Defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch notched the third-best lap at 156.365 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. His brother, Kurt Busch, and rookie Chase Elliott completed the top five in the 55-minute session.



Jimmie Johnson, a 10-time Dover winner, was 13th-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.



Harvick was also fastest in the category of 10 consecutive lap average, posting a speed of 154.471 mph over a 10-mile run. Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Elliott rounded out the top five average speeds among the drivers running 10 straight laps.



Sunday’s 400-miler will be the 12th of 36 points-paying races this year for the Sprint Cup Series.



Practice 2 | Results


Kyle Busch topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Dover International Speedway at 157.839 mph in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.


Right behind the 2015 Sprint Cup Series champion was JGR teammate Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota at 157.356 mph.


Rounding out the top five on the leaderboard were Carl Edwards in the No. 19 JGR Toyota (157.006 mph), Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (156.760 mph) and Kurt Busch in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet (156.590 mph).


Series points leader Kevin Harvick, who was fastest in Friday’s practice, was 10th-quickest during the session with a speed of 156.413 mph in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

It’s only appropriate that “Time Magazine’s” recent list of the “Top 10 Most Influential Car People in Sports” would include three individuals who have made their respective marks in the NASCAR ranks.

Brian France, chairman and CEO of the sanctioning body, was No. 5 on the list because he “puts cars in front of more eyeballs than just about anyone else in sports.”

Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Gene Haas followed at No. 6 for joining forces with Tony Stewart to make his organization a “top-tier Sprint Cup contender.” Also worth mentioning is the over-achieving Haas F1 team, which has already scored championship points in its debut season in Formula One racing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in at No. 7 because “one of every five marketing dollars spent on NASCAR is spent on Dale Earnhardt Jr. One visit to the Fanatics Trackside Superstore at any NASCAR track is all you need to confirm that assertion.

F1 champion Lewis Hamilton topped the list.