Posted on by Zack Albert

Given the sometimes fickle nature of team and sponsorship alignment, Casey Mears counts himself as one of the lucky ones. He enters his sixth full season with the Germain Racing No. 13 Chevrolet, with GEICO backing intact and a contract that will keep him in the fold through 2018.

With continuity and job security seemingly locked in, Mears and Co. can focus on the essentials — building speed and making incremental gains in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.

“We all have common goals of getting better and getting stronger,” Mears said during last week’s Chevrolet portion of the preseason Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. “If we don’t do that, things can always change in motorsports, but the thing it allows us to do is look internally at where we can get better. … From a driver’s standpoint, from a crew chief’s standpoint, a team standpoint — if you know there might possibly be change, it makes it easier to point the finger than go out and find the result, if that makes sense. …

“Now that we have these three years together, when there’s an issue or we’re not fast, we’re seeking an answer. We’re going to figure out how to make that work because we know these are the people we’re working with for the next three years. That’s where the positive thing is.”

Mears says the goals for 2016 are modest ones: an improvement on intermediate-sized tracks that make up the bulk of the Sprint Cup schedule, and a bump into the top 20 in the series standings after finishes of 23rd, 26th and 24th the previous three years.

One of the building blocks is the continuation of a technical alliance between the single-car Germain operation and Richard Childress Racing that began in 2014. Mears said the No. 13 team would continue to receive chassis, Earnhardt Childress Racing engines and technical support, while Germain will build its own car bodies.

An RCR technical alliance has proven to be a valuable asset for single-car teams in the past. Just last season, Childress-affiliated Furniture Row Racing pushed Martin Truex Jr. all the way to the championship round in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, potentially stoking hopes for a similar postseason fate for Germain.

“It would be hard to really counter what Furniture Row did last year,” Mears said. “Quite honestly, they were the strongest team out of the organization and for one reason is, they have an extremely large budget, they were able to take what RCR offered and fine-tune it and do some things they thought would help on their own as well. We’re more in a position to where if we can equal what they’re doing or compete and beat some of these guys, we’ve done a really, really good job with what we’re getting. From our perspective, we’re drawing from those guys. We’re getting all we can from there.”

The Barney Visser-owned Furniture Row organization changed manufacturers in the offseason, forming a new alliance with Toyota stalwart Joe Gibbs Racing for 2016. With the No. 78 team leaving the Chevrolet fold, could the ripple effect could be a power vacuum within the RCR alliance?

“That remains to be seen,” Mears said. “Obviously, they were a good source of feedback and information last season, but I think RCR has an extremely talented group behind them and really talented drivers. I don’t see them really missing a beat there. We’ll know more as the season starts, but for sure, they were a value and they definitely brought something to the table.”

For now, Mears hopes staying power within the team — a relative rarity in modern stock-car racing — can pay off. Crew chief Bootie Barker also returns for a sixth consecutive season, aiming to help the team make strides with a new reduced-downforce aerodynamic package this year.

“The details are right, the playbook’s making sense,” Mears said. “We’re repeating things going back to tracks and starting there where we left off and gaining, getting better. That’s one thing I’m really looking forward to this year. Obviously, there’s a slight change in the rules, but outside of that, we have a really good history now to look back on and good places to start.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

MORE: ‘Rowdy’s’ 2016 paint scheme | Busch set for tune-up race


Kyle Busch knows that in NASCAR, a driver’s legacy is everything.


Facing the ” ‘Rowdy’ can win XFINITY Series races, but will he ever be a Sprint Cup Series champion?” question for much of his career, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver cemented his stature in 2015, capping an improbable championship run with a victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November to clinch his first title.


He’s not done yet.


“(Being a champion) is a huge honor to carry on throughout my legacy in the sport but also just to get that monkey off my back with media or people or fans or just in general … always saying, ‘Well, Kyle’s great at winning XFINITY races, but what has he done in Cup?’ … Well, I’ve won plenty in Cup and now I’ve got a championship,” Busch said during last week’s Charlotte Media Tour. ” … Even though there’s one under my belt, there’s plenty more to achieve. We’ll go out there and we’ll fight hard and we’ll make sure we can do that week in and week out and year in and year out.


“… I’m just a fierce competitor that wants to go out there and win races and compete for championships still.”


Busch said he feels “the pressure to win a title is off (his) back” and a “huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders”, so it’ll be interesting to see what the 34-time Cup winner can do on the race track now that he’s officially quieted his doubters.


Especially with an actual, full season of competition under his belt.


The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, of course, missed 11 races last season while recovering from leg and foot injuries sustained in the season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona. Busch isn’t quite 100 percent healed from offseason surgery to remove screws as he’s still dealing with “swelling and scar tissue, but (I have) full range of motion. Just not running.”


MORE: Timeline of Busch injury, recovery


He expects to be at full strength come Daytona, primed and pumped to defend his title with second-year crew chief Adam Stevens.



“For myself and Adam Stevens, what’s better than one championship? Two. What’s better than two? Getting three,” said Busch, 30. “We’ve just got to continue on. There’s going to be one guy different on our team; he’s coming off the road, so we’ve got to move a couple guys around but that’s about it. I’m optimistic and both prepared and excited for a great season and working with Adam again.”


By virtue of being the reigning Cup champion, an added bonus to the many perks of said title is the ability to vote in next year’s NASCAR Hall of Fame balloting process. It’s part of an ever-growing voice that comes along with being at the top of a driver’s class; the best in his or her profession.


That said, Busch still thinks he has a ways to go before that chutzpah translates to the garage.


“As far as carrying stature or having a better or more listened to voice, that’s to grow over time,” he said. “I feel like you get that with a Jimmie Johnson or a Jeff Burton; people listened to Jeff Burton a lot. He’s very vocal and is very smart. We tend to call him ‘The Mayor.’ And he doesn’t have a championship, but we still listen to the guy.


“I don’t know that your weight necessarily changes based off your accomplishments. I think more so it bases off who you are, your personality and what you’re talking about.”


So now that he’s a champion, a father, and NASCAR role model, how has the past year changed him?


“I’m 365 days older,” Busch said. “Past that, I don’t know.”

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

Improving on 2015 begins at the restart for Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske squad.



It’s not like 2015 was too far off of Keselowski’s 2012 championship form. The No. 2 driver made the Round of 8 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and finished the year in seventh place.



But we know in NASCAR, off by just a fraction of an inch can make enormous differences. In terms of wins, Keselowski was off by that fraction: He had only one win in 2015 after compiling six in 2014.



Last season it was the No. 22 Penske car and Joey Logano which racked up six wins — though both drivers piled up the laps led with 1,431 for Logano and 1,185 for Keselowski.



One key difference for the No. 2, crew chief Paul Wolfe said, was late-race restarts.



“Ultimately, I feel like we ended last season much stronger than we were in ’14 and you can’t always judge a team by the amount of wins,” Wolfe said during last week’s Charlotte Media Tour. “I try to look at the bigger picture of the performance and where it was at. That being said, we need to be able to execute a little better. We didn’t execute like we needed to. I think a lot of that comes down to communication between Brad and I and understanding what we can do to make our car better on the late-race restarts.”



Keselowski dominated a few races at the end of the 2015 season, with top-four finishes at Talladega, Texas and Homestead, showing the wins are just waiting to resurface. And the low-downforce rules package appears to play into his strengths: He had a sixth-place finish at Kentucky and a runner-up finish at Darlington, both of which featured a lower downforce package in 2015.



“I like the new car; like the new direction in many ways. I like where we’re headed as a manufacturer,” Keselowski said during the media tour.



Driver and crew chief are on the same page in terms of the rules package.



“I’m optimistic about the rules change, the aero package and feeling like we’ve done a good job over the last couple of years being a team that can really adapt well,” Wolfe said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge, for sure.”



Both Keselowski and Logano are excited about their equipment and adapting quickly to the rules changes.



“I think Team Penske’s done a great job, obviously with working with the new rules and coming out of the gate strong,” Logano said. “I think last year we saw how important that is. …  You click off a couple of wins and lock yourself into the Chase early, and that really pays dividends once the Chase comes around.”



Logano believes Team Penske will stack up well against Toyota’s powerhouse teams in 2016, particularly as fellow Ford team Roush Fenway Racing makes moves to improve.



“I think we’re going to be in good shape,” Logano said. “You look at our new body, I think the new body is going to be good for us. … I feel comfortable with the way Roush Yates has improved our motors in the offseason. We’re working internally as just the 22 team, but we have to work on a larger scale with the Penske team and even larger scale with the manufacturer.”



As for competition between inside the Penske team, Keselowski says he and Logano push each other to be better, battling for wins as they share information.



“Certainly there’s a little bit of brotherhood there, but all in a good way,” Keselowski said. “We’re great teammates. We work together really well.”



Chasing a championship is never easy, though.



“There’s always tension, right?” Keselowski asked. “We’re here to win and anything less is unacceptable. I think there’s a little bit of a blessing that we won a championship so early because that instills a lot of confidence that anything is possible.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Qualifying results | Photos from The Roar Before the Rolex 24

 

If rain falls on parts of 11 NASCAR race weekends again in 2016, we hope at least one of them is at a road course, so we can see stock car racing’s version of this:

 

MORE: Behind the scenes at Rolex 24 practice

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: 2015 Darlington throwback paint schemes | Buy tickets



Darlington Raceway on Thursday released its commemorative ticket design for the 2016 Southern 500 throwback weekend over the Labor Day holiday, Sept. 2-4.


This year’s commemorative ticket will hearken back to the ticket from the 1978 Southern 500, featuring South Carolina native and Darlington Raceway legend David Pearson. It will be used for both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ Bojangles’ Southern 500 and the NASCAR XFINITY Series’ VFW Wport Clips Help a Hero 200 races.



The design gives nods to the present and more recent past, as well, honoring the 2015 Souther 500 winner, Carl Edwards, and featuring more photos spanning the track’s history.



“The retro-style ticket was one of many touchpoints fans enjoyed during last season’s throwback festivities,” track President Chip Wile said. “We felt that it was important to continue to honor our rich history with a tremendous champion like David Pearson, while also celebrating last year’s winner Carl Edwards, on the ticket.”


The 2015 throwback event was so popular that Darlington Raceway won the NMPA’s Myers Brothers Award for the event. The 2016 theme focuses on the 1975-1984 era in NASCAR. 


MORE: Best photos from Darlington’s throwback weekend

Posted on by Staff Report

Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing officials have announced that Dave Winston will serve as crew chief for the organization’s No. 95 Chevrolet team and driver Michael McDowell in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series for 2016.

A former race engineer, Winston served as crew chief for Alex Bowman at BK Racing in 2014. His 15-year career in NASCAR has included stops at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, Red Bull Racing and Roush Fenway Racing.

“Dave is a perfect fit for our team, having worked at both large and small organizations,” CSLFR’s Bob Leavine said. “He understands the budget constraints of a small team but knows what is required to make the team more competitive.

“I really like his engineering background as that is a key factor in our alliance with (Richard Childress Racing).”

The group also announced the promotion of marketing director Jeremy Lange to Vice President of Operations.

Circle Sport, owned by Joe Falk, and Leavine Family Racing, owned by Bob Leavine, merged during the ’15 offseason. The 2016 season will be the first full-time effort for the former Leavine Family Racing organization.

Circle Sport fielded the No. 33 Chevrolet in all 36 races this past season with a variety of drivers behind the wheel.

McDowell made 16 starts last year for the LFR team, which previously fielded Ford entries.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Sign up for 2016 NASCAR Fantasy Games

Time to put your best fantasy foot forward because registration is now open for NASCAR Fantasy Live and Streak to the Finish games for the 2016 season. Before you go locking down your most creative team name, let’s go over how it all works.


In Fantasy Live, players can manage one or more teams of five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers against a $100 salary cap while choosing drivers with the best chance at scoring the most points each week. Drivers are scored across four statistical categories: Laps Led, Fastest Laps, Place Differential and Finishing Position. Players can also earn optional bonus points each week by successfully predicting the winning driver and/or winning car manufacturer for each week’s particular race. There is no limit on how many times a driver can be selected. 


At the end of each weekly period, the player earning the most points for that week from each prize-eligible league will be placed in a pool of all applicable weekly league winners. One weekly prize winner will be chosen at random from the pool. Thirty-six weekly prize winners (one per week) will each receive a promotional code for $50 of merchandise at the NASCAR.com Superstore. Grand prize, second, and third-place winners be awarded at the end of the season.


The game play for Streak to the Finish is the same format from 2015. Players can build streaks by predicting which drivers will finish in the top 10 each week across all three national series. Once a driver is used in each series during an active streak, they are not available to choose again until that streak is broken. Driver selections must be completed at least five minutes before the posted start time of the race.


The Streak to the Finish season is broken into five segments with prizes awarded at the end of each segment. Streaks reset after each segment, giving players a new chance to win.


Segment 1: 2/19/16 – 4/17/16

Segment 2: 4/18/16 – 6/12/16

Segment 3: 6/13/16 – 7/24/16

Segment 4: 7/25/16 – 9/10/16

Segment 5: 9/11/16 – 11/20/16


This year, the prizes have changed.


There will now be two first-place winners per segment — one for the most correct picks and one for the longest streak. For segments 1-4, the top 30 players with the longest streak and the top 30 players with the most correct picks will be awarded. During the fifth and final Chase segment, the top 100 players in each category will be awarded. The first six players who reach a streak of 30 milestones in a single entry across the entire game will each receive a racing helmet signed by a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver.


There is no end date to register for Fantasy Live or Streak to the Finish games, players can create entries and join leagues anytime throughout the season. Participants must log on and register with NASCAR.com in order to access the Fantasy Games page.

Posted on by Track Release

RELATED: Buy tickets for Bristol | See the new ‘Colossus’

BRISTOL, Tenn. (Jan. 28, 2015) — The ETSU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Bristol Motor Speedway held a joint press conference on Thursday afternoon to announce they have reached an agreement to host ETSU’s 2016 Southern Conference football opener at the Last Great Colosseum.

The Buccaneers, who are playing a full SoCon schedule this upcoming season, will host Western Carolina on Saturday, Sept. 17.

ETSU football head coach Carl Torbush and the Buccaneers know the significance of playing at Bristol Motor Speedway and are excited to be part of this historic event.

“We are very excited about this opportunity to play at Bristol Motor Speedway,” said Torbush. “We are very appreciative of Jerry Caldwell and everyone at BMS in making this happen. They are great supporters and friends of our program. It has taken a lot of hard work from those at BMS, ETSU, Western Carolina and the Southern Conference in putting all this together and we are thrilled to be making this announcement. Scott Carter and our administrative staff have also put in a lot of hard work in helping making this possible.  Not only will this will be a historic event for the schools, but also our fans, the conference and FCS Football. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our players, coaches, staff, university and fans.”

Western Carolina head coach Mark Speir grew up in NASCAR country, so he’s looking forward to renewing the rivalry with ETSU in such a storied venue such as Bristol Motor Speedway.

“We are first of all very excited about the renewal of the Southern Conference football rivalry between Western Carolina and ETSU,” said Speir. “We’re looking forward to being the first SoCon team to welcome Buccaneer football back to the SoCon — and to be able to do so in such a storied American sports venue like Bristol Motor Speedway is an awesome opportunity for both of our programs. Bristol is an iconic emblem in one of America’s most popular sports, NASCAR. It’s especially cool for me, a guy from Kannapolis, N.C., who grew up in the heart of NASCAR country and has been a fan all my life, to have our team compete on that stage in what will be transformed into college football’s largest stadium. This is a great opportunity for our program and our fans.”

Executive Vice President and General Manager of BMS, Jerry Caldwell added, “It’s exciting for us to support ETSU’s return to football and offer these athletes an experience they’ll never forget. Having the Bucs at Bristol is our way of joining hands with the local community in ETSU PRIDE while generating visibility for their new football program.

“Backing this game also falls in line with one of our key initiatives called; It’s MY Bristol, Baby! The campaign encourages local residents and businesses to feel a sense of ownership — a part of the family — of this legendary Speedway. Naturally, hosting a home game for ETSU, an extended family member, just makes sense for us and will be memorable for regional football enthusiasts for years to come.”

ETSU Season Ticket Holders will receive a general admission ticket to the game at BMS with their season ticket package. Reserved seating upgrades and parking will be available when purchasing ETSU season tickets. If you are an ETSU season ticket holder and have questions, please call the ETSU Ticket Office at 423-439-4828.

An allotment of ETSU student tickets will be available through the university at a later date.

Other guests planning to attend may place a deposit through the BMS Ticket Office at 866-415-4158 or 423-BRISTOL.

Early bird ticket prices are $25 for General Admission, $40 for Reserved seating and $55 for Battlefield seats on the track near the sidelines. Groups of 50 or more may call BMS about special pricing.

Youth tickets for children 18 and under and students from other schools with official I.D. may purchase tickets through BMS for $15.

The Buccaneers are coming off their first season since 2003, playing as a FCS Independent in 2015. Meanwhile, Western Carolina went 7-4 overall, 5-2 in SoCon play last year.

ETSU and Western Carolina have played 45 times with the first game of the series being contested in 1932.

For more information on Buccaneer football, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the football page.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Rain makes qualifying … interesting

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Driving a brand new Prototype developed and built in his native Russia, IndyCar driver Mikhail Aleshin won the top starting spot for the Rolex 24 at Daytona — with the ninth fastest time of Friday’s qualifying sessions at the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course.
 
Englishman Nick Tandy had the afternoon’s fastest lap, leading a Porsche sweep of the top two starting spots in the highly competitive GTLM Class, touring the course in 2:01.408 (105.561 mph) and edging fellow Porsche North America team car driver Frederic Makowiecki for the top starting spot in the prestigious endurance race, which starts at 2:40 p.m. ET on Saturday (on FS1).
 
On a rain-drenched afternoon at the Birthplace of Speed, Tandy posted his lap on Michelin tires before conditions deteriorated even further. Accordingly, the GTLM cars were appreciably faster than the Prototype and Prototype Challenge entries.

 

Luis Filipe Derani was the second fastest qualifier in Prototypes, with Oswaldi Negri third in the No. 60 Honda-powered Ligier JS P2. Negri is teaming with NASCAR Sprint Cup driver AJ Allmendinger, John Pew and Olivier Pla. All but Pla were part of the 2012 overall winning team, which also included the late Justin Wilson.
 
The defending Rolex 24 winners — NASCAR drivers Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson and IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan — had an adventurous qualifying session that included an off-course excursion at the entrance to Turn 1.
 
With Dixon behind the wheel, the No. 02 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry was seventh fastest among the Prototypes and 32nd overall.
 
Johnny Mowlem led the PC Class with a time of 2:05.708 (101.951 mph). NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Brendan Gaughan was a late addition to the No. 20 ORECA FLM09/Chevrolet team, which also includes Tomy Drissi, Marc Drumwright and Ricardo Vera.
 
Mowlem’s ORECA FLM 09 was eighth overall and, surprisingly, faster than any of the entries in the Prototype Class.

MORE: Photos from The Roar Before the Rolex 24