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FLAGLER BEACH, Fla. — Ray Black Jr. is thrilled to be taking the next step in his racing career, as the driver will compete in the full season of the 2016 NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS). Black, who had a breakout year in 2015 while competing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, is ready for the challenge of NASCAR’s second-tier series with the continued support of Bobby Dotter’s SS Green Light Racing and crew chief Jason Miller.

 

“I’m very eager for this season to start and to take the next step in racing by moving up to the NASCAR XFINITY Series!” said Black. “It’s a much bigger stage with some of the best racing competition in the world. The truck series was a great starting point for me in NASCAR, but it’s always good to keep challenging yourself, and I feel that’s what this move will do for me. It’s a great opportunity for me to show everyone what I can do!”

 

The move to the NXS also serves as a historic milestone for SS Green Light Racing, as it will be the team’s first full-time season in the series. Owner Bobby Dotter previously focused his team strictly on the truck series but is passionate about the opportunity to challenge his team by moving up to the NXS with Black. The team has since been busy during the offseason prepping cars for the year.

 

“We ran one XFINITY race with Ray last year, and it went much better than everyone expected,” stated Bobby Dotter, team owner. “Ray really took to the feel of the car! Our goal was always to be in the XFINITY Series with Ray, we’ve just sped up that timeline a little bit. Ray is ready for the step up, and the team is ready to grow with him next year.”

 

“It’s exciting knowing that I’ll be the first full-time XFINITY team for Bobby. It’s a cool bit of history to be part of and a great opportunity for everyone involved,” Black explained. “The team and I really meshed well together last year! We kept growing and getting better as the season went on. I think we’ll only keep improving as a team with this coming season.”

 

Black had a standout year in 2015 when he finished 11th in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings, earning one Top-5 and 12 Top-15 finishes in 23 races. With an additional 10 races and a bigger field of competition in the NXS, Black will be using the momentum and confidence he gained in 2015 to have an even stronger 2016 season.

 

“Running the full season last year gave me a lot of confidence that will help me this year,” stated Black. “We know we can run competitively at a high level of performance. We might have a little bit of an adjustment period with the XFINITY cars since we haven’t consistently run them other than the race we did at Texas in the fall last year, so we do have a lot to learn. But once we get a feel for the cars, I think we should be good to go. We really got some solid momentum going in 2015, and I don’t see why we can’t better that in 2016!”

 

“I think finishing in the Top-15 in the championship standings is a solid goal for the year as a driver,” he continued. “As far as a team goal, we are really looking to log all the laps we can and minimize any mistakes that we can. It should be a fun year, and I can’t wait for it to get started!”

 

Fans can follow along with Black’s 2016 season in the NXS following him and his sponsor, ScubaLife, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @TeamScubaRacing and @RayBlackJr. Learn more about Ray Black Jr. and Team Scuba by visiting www.rayblackjr.com and www.teamscuba.com.

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January’s big claim to fame is change. Whether it’s a lifestyle switch-up, getting to the gym more, or, in NASCAR terms, a new crew chief or driver or manufacturer, the overall theme is variation from the norm, permanent or otherwise.



With it usually comes hope, optimism and excitement — a few words we’ll be hearing plenty next week during Charlotte Media Tour.



But it has us asking the question: Which team faces the biggest transition in 2016? NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola and RJ Kraft debate the topic and offer their choices for the upcoming Sprint Cup Series season.



DeCola: Hey, RJ, this is a pretty interesting topic, and hopefully these teams embrace their changes a little better than I have, considering I’m currently on pace to exercise just once in 2016 … but I digress. To me, this is an easy one. Changes across the sport will be dynamic and plentiful this season, but no team faces a bigger transition than Hendrick Motorsports. 



The man that has all but defined NASCAR over the past two decades-plus will now watch races from the broadcast booth, as Jeff Gordon steps out from behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet and hands the reins over to young Chase Elliott. The four-time premier series champion was such an embedded presence at Hendrick that his absence will be felt in several ways, regardless of how strong Elliott is in his first year of full-time Cup competition. 



Based on the height difference, Elliott’s feet may be larger than Gordon’s, but that’s a heck of a big set of shoes for the 20-year-old to fill, and it will likely define much of Hendrick’s upcoming season.

Kraft: Put the pedal to the metal on those personal goals, Pat. Anyways, I think the biggest transition will be with a team that is changing manufacturers for the first time. Furniture Row Racing, the single-car team based out of Colorado, is moving from Chevrolet to Toyota and will have a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. The move gives Toyota another entry among its Sprint Cup entries (replacing the departing Michael Waltrip Racing) and also should help Furniture Row get to its eventual goal of being a multi-car organization. Yet, with that move, comes a raised set of expectations not to mention the pressure that comes from following up a breakout 2015 season.

The team is looking to build off a dream season that saw Martin Truex Jr. score a win at Pocono (the organization’s first since 2011), post 14 top 10s in his first 15 races and reach the Championship 4 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The Cinderella-esque run to Homestead and Truex’s bounce-back season was the feel-good story of the 2015 campaign and it will be interesting to see what both he, crew chief Cole Pearn and the team as a whole can do for an encore. Interestingly enough, JGR didn’t find its footing until the summer and the reduced-downforce package was a mixed bag for Truex at Kentucky and Darlington, so there could be some short-term pain before the long-term gain for the No. 78 team in the new alignment.


DeCola: Great point about Furniture Row. Its 2015 breakout was great to see and the transition to Toyota should pay dividends. Speaking of Toyota and JGR, it brings up another facet about Hendrick’s changes — the addition of Darian Grubb. 

After notching nine wins as the crew chief for Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards over at JGR the past four seasons, Grubb parted ways with the organization that currently holds the Sprint Cup Series title and wound up back at Hendrick (where he previously served on the No. 48 team) as vehicle production director.

As you may have noticed, JGR’s four cars spent most of the 2015 season dominating the field, with Kyle Busch eventually being crowned champion. With Grubb’s technical knowledge (along with any trade secrets he may have picked up at JGR the past few years) and Kenny Francis’ vehicle technical direction, there’s a better-than-not chance that Hendrick’s cars regain the speed they’ve shown over the past decade, in which it won six titles.

Kraft: I’m glad you brought up the JGR changes, Pat. Last year, JGR made crew chief changes to three of its four teams and it took some time and the return of Busch from injury before things seemed to click into gear. The past few years there has seemingly been a new pairing that hits the ground running in the top series (Matt Kenseth-Jason Ratcliff in 2013 at JGR, Kevin Harvick-Rodney Childers in 2014 at SHR Busch-Adam Stevens at JGR and Truex-Pearn at Furniture Row in 2015) but those feel more like exceptions rather than the norm.

With the Carl Edwards-Dave Rogers pairing, both driver and crew chief are going on their third different pairing in three years so there is going to be an adjustment period and a transition phase if you will. Of all the crew chief changes that have taken place thus far, the Denny Hamlin-Mike Wheeler pairing is the one that I believe to be the most likely to fly to amazing heights from the start of the season. Wheeler was with Hamlin as the race engineer on the No. 11 up until last season when he became an NASCAR XFINITY Series crew chief for the No. 20 team. The duo won three of their six XFINITY Series races together in 2015.

How do these changes affect Furniture Row, you ask? Through their technical alliance in which the teams will share data much like Furniture Row did in its technical alliance setup with Richard Childress Racing under the Chevrolet umbrella. The better the results, the better the data to analyze, the better you can make the cars. Enough with all this talk of transition though, let’s get some of these cars on track and let the results speak for themselves.

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RELATED: Learn more about the NASCAR Hall of Fame

There’s a possibility, albeit remote, that O. Bruton Smith could be entering the NASCAR Hall of Fame as a race car driver instead of a race promoter extraordinaire.


Smith, at age 17, bought a race car and decided to be a professional driver.

 

“One time, I actually beat (NASCAR Hall of Famers) Buck Baker and Joe Weatherly,” Smith said in a May 7, 2005, interview with Motorsport.com. “So I knew when I beat them I could be a contender, right?”


Smith’s mother, however, believed otherwise and appealed to a Higher Authority. She prayed her son would change his mind.
 

“She started fighting dirty,” Smith said in the same interview. “You can’t fight your mom and God, so I stopped driving.”


NASCAR stock car racing became the beneficiary of the intervention. Smith turned to race promotion, ultimately creating some of America’s greatest facilities. His eight-track Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI), anchored by Charlotte Motor Speedway, helped boost the sport to new heights in the 1950s and was the first American motorsports company to go public in 1995.

 

The Oakboro, North Carolina native is part of the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s class of 2016 that includes Jerry Cook, Bobby Isaac, Terry Labonte and Curtis Turner. Induction ceremonies will be held Jan. 22 in Charlotte, N.C. and will be broadcast live at 8 p.m. by the NBCSN.

 

MORE ON 2016 CLASS: Jerry Cook | Bobby Isaac | Terry Labonte | Curtis Turner

 

Born on a farm in rural North Carolina, Smith never considered an agricultural life. He hated the thought of being poor, which a childhood during the throes of the Great Depression appeared to suggest.

 

“You have food, clothing and shelter but you never have any money and I never did like that. I did not like that,” Smith said in a July 2003 Car & Driver story authored by Bob Zeller. “You worked from sunup to sundown, but you never did see the rewards.”

 

By 1949, Smith had his own stock car racing association, the National Stock Car Racing Association, which was a direct competitor to William H.G. “Big Bill” France’s fledgling NASCAR. Both groups fought for the same drivers and neither was making much money.

 

France and Smith discussed a possible merger in 1950 but the Korean War and U.S. Army scuttled the negotiations. Smith was drafted, served two years stateside as a paratrooper and by the time he mustered out the NSCRA was defunct.

 

Smith began to be noticed in 1954 when he took over promotion of the half-mile track at the Charlotte Fairgrounds.

 

Motorsports writer Russ Catlin wrote of “the genius of a 27-year-old fanatic named Bruton Smith … who took a poorly lighted, run-down half-mile track that wends around a muddy lake and built it into a spectacular speed emporium.”


In partnership with Turner and others, Smith built Charlotte Motor Speedway, completed in 1960 at a cost of $1.5 million. The first Coca-Cola 600 – then the World 600 – was the facility’s opening event.

 

Eventually, Smith decided just owning the 1.5-mile track wasn’t enough. Boosting its profile meant adding seats, building suites and condos for VIP customers – and changing demographics of ticket buyers and sponsors.

 

“He took a cue from the oil industry in World War II when they were trying to get women who were suddenly driving the family car to stop in and pump gas at their service stations,” said CMS’ then-general manager Humpy Wheeler. “What they did was clean up the stations and make sure they had a decent women’s rest room.”

 

By 2000, the track’s customer base was 40 percent female.

 

“I took the position that Charlotte Motor Speedway was constantly under construction,” said Smith, a statement that describes how the now 88-year-old entrepreneur views his racing empire. Fueled in part by public stock offerings, Smith acquired Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1990 and Bristol Motor Speedway in 1996 – expanding the latter from 71,000 to 160,000 seats. SMI bought Sonoma Raceway in 1996, Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1997, New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2007 and Kentucky Speedway in 2008.

 

Smith built and opened Texas Motor Speedway – SMI’s signature project – in 1997, which rose from the prairie outside Fort Worth. The track later added Big Hoss TV, the world’s largest HD screen measuring 20l,633.64 square feet. SMI presents 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races annually, including three in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

 

 “He (is) such an innovator. He would think of something and do it,” said NASCAR Hall of Fame voter Eddie Wood, co-owner of the Wood Brothers Racing team, in a May 20, 2015 interview with ESPN’s Bob Pockrass.

 

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France agrees.

 

“He deserves to be in (the NASCAR Hall of Fame); he’s made a huge impact (on the sport) obviously,” France said. “He has given the fans an experience that has transformed the sport.”


Tickets are available for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Dinner and Ceremony (limited quantities available). Individual ticket and ticket packages are available at ticketmaster.com, the NASCAR Hall of Fame Box Office or by calling 800.745.3000.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams are currently scheduled for five open team tests this season, according to the 2016 Unified Testing Master Schedule.

 

Four of the tests will be two-day affairs and will take place at Indianapolis (July 12-13), Watkins Glen (July 26-27), Chicago (Aug. 23-24) and Homestead (Oct. 18-19).

 

Each organization is allowed to send no more than one team to an open test.

 

A single-day open team test is scheduled for Thursday, March 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway leading into the track’s race weekend. All teams entered in the race will be eligible to participate in that test.

 

The open team test at the 1.5-mile track comes as teams roll out a base rules package that will be used for all events other than those held on superspeedways.

 

Teams competed with the package twice last season, at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway.

RELATED: Reduced-downforce highlights 2016 package


On the tire-testing front, this week’s two-day Goodyear test at Las Vegas is the first of nine scheduled tire tests for Sprint Cup teams and the tire supplier, although Goodyear can increase that number when necessary.

 

For example, the repaving of a track, such as at Kentucky Speedway this season, could necessitate an additional test for verification.

 

NASCAR debuted the Unified Testing Master Schedule in 2015, eliminating private team testing in a cost-cutting move supported by teams. Unlike last season, however, when open teams tests typically came on the heels of the tire tests, this year’s open tests are scheduled months after the initial Goodyear events.

 

The additional time should give Goodyear time to build track-specific tires for the open tests instead of having teams test with tires unlikely to be used in the track’s upcoming event.

 

Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch are participating in this week’s tire test at Las Vegas.

 

Additional tire tests currently scheduled are Charlotte Motor Speedway (March 8-9); Richmond (March 29), Pocono (April 19-20), Indianapolis (April 26-27), Kentucky (tentatively scheduled for May 3-4 although expected to move due to the repave), Watkins Glen (May 10-11), Michigan (May 17) and New Hampshire (May 31-June 1).

 

As was the case last season, Sprint Cup organizations have been divided into groups of four and will participate in tire tests on a rotating basis. However, it will not always be the same four groups represented at a particular test (one team from Stewart-Haas Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing are represented this week at Las Vegas, however the lineup for Richmond will include Roush Fenway Racing instead of Hendrick.)

 

Each organization is scheduled to take part in four tire tests this season with the exception of JGR, which will take participate in five.

 

Participation in the tire tests consists of teams that finished 20th or higher in the 2015 owner points standings.

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RELATED: Gordon headlines FOX’s NASCAR roster for 2016

 

Jeff Gordon as “the new guy” just doesn’t feel accurate, but he’s exactly that on FOX’s NASCAR broadcasting team for the 2016 season.

 

Gordon was in the studio Tuesday gearing up for his debut Monday on “Race Hub” (5 p.m. ET, FS1.) The four-time champion did spend some time in the booth last season as an analyst during some of the network’s NASCAR XFINITY Series races.

MORE: Photos of Gordon through the years

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A 2015 rewind and a 2016 preview for the top five finishers last season in the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series. Today: Matt Crafton, the third-place finisher in the truck series standings.
Team: ThorSport Racing No. 88 Toyota.

Wins: 6 (Atlanta, Kansas, Texas-1, Kentucky, Martinsville-2, Homestead)

Strides: Victory Lane. Lots of times. The ThorSport No. 88 was nearly unstoppable on 1.5-mile tracks, scoring five of the team’s six wins on intermediate tracks and helping Crafton more than double his career win total.

Setbacks: Very few things on the team’s minus side for 2015, but four finishes outside the top 20 hampered Crafton’s progress and ended his stellar run of two consecutive Camping World Truck Series titles.

Quoteworthy: “We had a phenomenal season. Six wins and 700 — I think they said 780 laps we led. That’s a pretty good season. We just had one column that was bad for us: DNFs. I made mistakes and everybody made mistakes. But I promise you one thing, it’s going to make us stronger for 2016.”

What’s next: The two-time champ turns 40 this summer and remains plenty hungry for more. After Johnny Sauter‘s offseason departure, Crafton will have a 1-2 punch of young teammates to mentor — returning ThorSport driver Cameron Hayley, 19, plus 18-year-old newcomer Ben Rhodes.

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CONCORD, N.C. (Jan. 12, 2016) — Panasonic Toughbook will become a primary sponsor of the No. 5 Chevrolet SS team of driver Kasey Kahne in 2016, continuing its nearly decade-long relationship with 11-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions Hendrick Motorsports.

This season, Panasonic will be featured as a No. 5 team primary sponsor in two Sprint Cup races — Feb. 28 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Oct. 2 at Dover International Speedway — and as an associate-level partner in all other events.


“We’ve partnered with Hendrick Motorsports for almost a decade because they exemplify the attributes the Panasonic and Toughbook brands represent — quality, performance, reliability and leadership,” said Jan Ruderman, vice president, Business Mobility Group, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. “Kasey is an extension of the Hendrick Motorsports brand and an exemplary competitor in his own right. As we enter the 2016 NASCAR season, we believe our partnership with Kasey, his team and Hendrick Motorsports will deliver great results both on and off the track.”

Panasonic became a Hendrick Motorsports technology partner in 2007 and expanded its program in 2014 by adding on-car sponsorship. It was a two-race primary sponsor of the No. 24 Sprint Cup team in 2014 and 2015 as part of its current three-year agreement that runs through 2016.

Panasonic leverages the Hendrick Motorsports relationship to promote its Toughbook mobility products and other technology solutions for business. Throughout its Concord facility and at racetracks across the United States, Hendrick Motorsports employs Panasonic innovations, including Toughbook computers, Toughpad tablets, cameras, displays, digital signage and projection units. The team also utilizes Panasonic’s professional video products to support its in-house content production capabilities.

“The partnership influences all areas of our company,” said Patrick Perkins, Hendrick Motorsports‘ vice president of marketing. “Panasonic products are used in every Hendrick Motorsports department, from competition to marketing, and we’ve seen the results. We’re proud to continue the relationship and look forward to more wins together in 2016 and beyond.”

Since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, Kahne, 35, has earned three Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berths and five race wins with the No. 5 team. The Enumclaw, Washington, native has 17 career wins, 27 pole positions and 156 top-10 finishes in NASCAR’s top division.

“I’m happy to be part of Panasonic’s continued relationship with Hendrick Motorsports,” Kahne said. “They’re a worldwide brand, and their technology helps with our performance every day, both on and off of the racetrack. It’s a partnership that directly impacts our whole organization and will help give us every opportunity for success in 2016.”

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WELCOME, N.C. – Building on the triumphs from 2015, Menards will continue its partnership with Richard Childress Racing‘s NASCAR XFINITY Series program as a primary sponsor for select races with both the No. 2 Chevrolet with Paul Menard and the No. 33 Chevrolet with Brandon Jones for the 2016 season.
 
Menards, the third-largest home improvement store in the United States, has been prevalent in RCR’s XFINITY Series campaign since 2012.
 
“We are excited to be back for another season of NASCAR XFINITY Series racing with RCR. Last year proved to be a success with Paul Menard‘s win in our home state of Wisconsin at Road America along with four top-five and eight top-10 finishes with Menard and Brandon Jones behind the wheel,” said Jeff Abbott, Menards Promotion Manager. “We are proud of the caliber of race cars Richard Childress and his team bring to the race track each weekend. We look forward to another exciting season in 2016 with Jones and Menard behind the wheel again.”
 
Menard will drive the No. 2 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet Camaro for select events in 2016, while maintaining a full-time schedule in the No. 27 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entry for RCR. The Eau Claire, Wisconsin-native is a three-time XFINITY Series race winner with five pole awards, 34 top-five and 87 top-10 finishes. Menard will kick off the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, making his 200th XFINITY Series start.
 
Danny Stockman will return as crew chief of the No. 2 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet team with Menard. The duo captured the win at Road America, earning Menard a victory in his home state of Wisconsin in 2015.
 
As previously announced, Jones, an 18-year-old driver hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, will compete on a full-time basis in the XFINITY Series in 2016. Jones made his XFINITY Series debut with RCR at Iowa Speedway in 2015. The rookie driver earned one top-five and two top-10 finishes with a total of 16 laps led in five starts last season.
 
Mike Hillman Jr. has been named crew chief for Jones and the No. 33 team. Hillman Jr.’s 12 years of experience will help guide the young driver in his rookie season in the series. The veteran crew chief joined RCR in 2015 and recorded 18 top-five starting positions, resulting in six top-five and 18 top-10 finishes throughout the 2015 season. Menards will be Jones’ primary sponsor at the season opener at Daytona International Speedway on February 20th.
 
“Menards’ continued support this season with Paul Menard and Brandon Jones in the XFINITY Series is a true testament to their commitment to RCR and this sport,” said Richard Childress, CEO and Chairman of Richard Childress Racing. “The Menards racing team found success last season with Paul winning in his home state of Wisconsin and Brandon’s solid finishes on track. We hope to build on that success this year and provide Menards an opportunity to be a winning company both on and off the race track.”
 
Menards has a long, successful history as a racing sponsor dating back to the 1970’s which includes one of NASCAR’s crown jewels, the 2011 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with driver Paul Menard. A family-owned company started in 1960 and headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Menards has 297 retail store locations throughout the Midwest.

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RELATED: Learn more about the NASCAR Hall of Fame

Jerry Cook never intended to support his family driving a modified stock car. It kind of snuck up on the young resident of Rome, New York.
 
Cook, who built his first modified at the age of 13, took the wheel by happenstance, when his hired driver wrecked two of the race cars he owned. That was in 1963, well before Cook won his first of six NASCAR modified championships.
 
But Cook soon discovered he had a knack for winning races – and finishing well enough to cash a decent check when he didn’t.
 
“Every time I reached into my pocket, it had money in it,” Cook would say later. “So I kept racing.”
 
And indeed Cook did – all the way into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, into which he’ll be inducted Jan. 22 as part of the Class of 2016 that also includes Bobby Isaac, Terry Labonte, O. Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner. Induction ceremonies will be live on NBCSN, Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

 

MORE ON 2016 CLASS: Bobby Isaac | Terry Labonte | Bruton Smith | Curtis Turner

 
Cook won modified championships in 1971-72 and 1974-77. Before retiring at the conclusion of the 1982 season, Cook also posted six championship points finishes of second and two of third. He won 342 NASCAR modified races in 1,474 career starts – and countless other non-sanctioned events. Cook finished among the top 10 an amazing 85% of the time.
 
Cook joins fellow Roman and career-long modified racing rival Richie Evans in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The late Evans, a nine-time NASCAR modified champion, was inducted in 2012 as the first Hall member whose career wasn’t connected to NASCAR’s premier series. Cook is the second.
 
“We’ve now finished off the battle of Rome,” said Cook. “For me and Ritchie to both be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, it kind of tops it off.”
 
Cook and Evans made upstate New York the epicenter of NASCAR modified racing in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Each driver had his legion of fans – vociferous on behalf of the merits of their favorite charioteer.
 
Cook and Evans were respectful of each other and friends off the track, yet as different as night and day.
 
Evans was the flamboyant one, famous for living life to its fullest with rock and roll music as the race shop’s background noise. A writer calling Cook’s home, however, would find the telephone answered by the driver’s wife, Sue, who would refer him to the backyard garage where preparing or repairing Cook’s red cars was quietly taking place.
 
Ray Evernham, a former modified driver, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship crew chief and television analyst had this to say about Cook: “Jerry was not a guy who raced on the edge. Jerry won his share no doubt. But if he didn’t win, he was still going to be in the top five.”
 
In some years, Cook’s team would run nearly 100 races, at up to 19 tracks of all sizes, shapes and surfaces from New England to Virginia.
 
Some of Cook’s signature wins took place outside New York and New England. Cook’s first major victory was the 1969 Dogwood 500 at Martinsville Speedway. He won a trio of 200-lap races at the tough, Bowman-Gray Stadium (in North Carolina) quarter mile between 1977 and 1980.
 
The closest Cook came to the NASCAR premier series was a Daytona 500 qualifying race in 1973. His car’s engine blew seven laps from the end. Cook, with a wife and two children, took a look at what non-factory-supported drivers were winning and decided to stay in the modifieds.
 
“So that’s why I stuck with what I did best,” he said.
 
Cook retired after winning the Spencer Speedway championship in 1982. For more than 30 years he was a key member of NASCAR’s competition department and was instrumental in the formation of the current NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
 
Cook, 72, was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers in 1998. He is a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and New York Stock Car Hall of Fame.

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One of Richard Petty Motorsports‘ two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will not only have a new driver and crew chief combination for 2016, but it will also feature a change in car number.
 
Officials with the two-team organization announced Monday that it will change its No. 9 team to the No. 44 for the 2016 season. The team features former XFINITY Series driver Brian Scott and crew chief Chris Heroy, both new to the organization.


“After the 2015 season, we had an opportunity to make some changes and get the No. 44 back. We felt that it was good timing. We really wanted to get that number back in the Petty family where it really belongs,” Richard Petty said Monday. “Brian (Scott) is coming on board, and he really hasn’t had a number in the Sprint Cup Series. Everything has just come together to really bring back a Petty tradition.



“For us, the numbers are more than just a number, you could say. They really represent our family history, our legacy and everyone who has worked for us or raced for us. We take a lot of pride in that and are glad to have the 44 back home.”


 
The RPM lineup also includes driver Aric Almirola in the group’s iconic No. 43 Ford.

 
The Petty organization first used the No. 44 in 1954 for a single race with driver Bob Welborn. It wasn’t used in a full-time capacity by the organization until ’93, following the retirement of seven-time series champion Richard Petty. Petty’s No. 43 was renumbered 44 for a single season with driver Rick Wilson behind the wheel. That team returned to its original number, 43, the following year.
 
The last full season a Petty entry featured the No. 44 was 2009 with driver AJ Allmendinger. The group began using the No. 9 as well after merging with Gillett Evernham Motorsports in ’09. 

Entries bearing the No. 44 have won 13 times in NASCAR’s premier series, most recently by Terry Labonte (1986) when the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver was competing for car owner Billy Hagan.
 
Cars featuring the No. 9 have won 53 times, including the final four times by RPM drivers Kasey Kahne (2009) and Marcos Ambrose (’11, ’12).