Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series will head to Richmond International Raceway this week while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is off. Check out the full weekend schedule below.


Note: All times are ET



SUNDAY, APRIL 24:

ON TRACK
— 12:30 p.m.: Driver introductions
— 1 p.m.: Presentation of Colors by: Ft. Lee Color Guard
— 1:00:20 p.m.: Invocation by: Joe Ellison
— 1:01:00 p.m.: National Anthem: Trent Harmon
— 1:02:30 p.m.: Flyby TOT: Team Bandit (Turn 1 to Turn 4)
— 1:07:30 p.m.: “Driver’s, Start Your Engines” by: Robert “Dell” Wilson
— 1:14 p.m.: Green flag: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 (400 laps, 300 miles), FOX (Results)



PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 4 p.m. (approx.): NSCS post-race


DAILY ROUNDUP
— See at-track photos from Richmond
— Stewart cuts tire in first Cup return
— Edwards pulls bump-and-run on JGR teammate for Richmond win
— Watch Edwards’ last-lap shove to the No. 18
— Ky. Busch dodges questions of Edwards’ shove post-race
— Edwards: ‘I thought, I’m gonna give him a little nudge’

FRIDAY, APRIL 22:

ON TRACK
— 11 a.m.-12:25 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, FS1 (Results)

— 12:30-1:55 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, FS1 (CANCELED, weather)
— 3-3:55 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series final practice, FS1 (CANCELED, weather)

— 4:15 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying* (CANCELED, weather), FS1 (Lineup)

*Lineup was set by the rule book


GARAGECAM (Watch live)
— 10:30 a.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
— 2:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series (CANCELED, weather)


PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 9:30 a.m.: Ryan Blaney
— 9:45 a.m.: Matt DiBenedetto
— 10 a.m.: Kurt Busch
— 10:45 a.m.: Erik Jones
— 12:30 p.m.: Carl Edwards
— 1 p.m.: Denny Hamlin
— 5:15 p.m. approx.: NSCS post-qualifying

DAILY ROUND-UP
— Stewart climb into No. 14 Chevy for first time in ’16
— Harvick tops rain-shortened Richmond practice
— Rain puts halt to activity at Richmond
— Harvick on pole after qualifying rained out at Richmond
— Hamlin: Drivers Council ‘didn’t agree’ with fine

SATURDAY, APRIL 23:

ON TRACK

— 9-9:50 a.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 9:35 a.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying*(CANCELED, weather), FS1 (Lineup)

— 10:30-11:50 a.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice, FS1 (Results)
–12:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series ToyotaCare 250 Heat #1 (35 laps, 26.25 miles), FS1 (Results)

–1:10 p.m. (approx): NASCAR XFINITY Series ToyotaCare 250 Heat #2 (35 laps, 26.25 miles), FS1 (Results)
— 1:45 p.m. (approx): NASCAR XFINITY Series ToyotaCare 250 main race (140 laps, 105 miles), FS1 (Results)

*Lineup will be set by the rule book

PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 3 p.m. (approx.): NXS post-race


DAILY ROUND-UP
— Allgaier tops Richmond NXS practice
— Cup Richmond pit stall assignments
— See at-track photos from Richmond
— Johnson tops final Cup practice at Richmond
— Dale Jr. holds off T. Dillon for Richmond win

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full race results


Fans were treated to a thrilling Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, with Carl Edwards sealing the win.


Drivers took to Twitter to talk about their respective runs after the race and, in some cases, clear some air.



NASCAR Nation also made sure to comment on the career-best run for Matt DiBenedetto (6th) and the emotional post-race interview he gave on pit road.



It was also a season-best finish for Clint Bowyer, who fought back for an eighth-place finish.

Posted on by Staff Report

Defending race-winner Matt Kenseth didn’t repeat after going behind the wall to fix damage incurred on Lap 327 of Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

 

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had rebounded from an early race brush with the wall after a right front tire went down to get back into the top three, but a similar issue cropped up with a little less than 200 laps to go to send the No. 20 car hard into the outside wall, where it sustained significant damage.

 

“We just keep blowing right front tires, I don’t know why,” Kenseth told FOX after the second incident.

“The first one was a little confusing, I knew I blew a right front, but I thought they were telling me it wasn’t flat so I was a little confused. This one just blew a lot earlier and the angle was a lot worse hitting the wall. We really weren’t very tight, our Dollar General Camry was pretty fast today. I was encouraged again today even though we don’t have the result.”

Goodyear will be taking the tires that had issues from the JGR teams of Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin for further analysis. All three drivers had tires go down on them during the race. Despite his teammates’ struggles, Carl Edwards led 276 laps and won the race at Bristol.

 

Kenseth returned to the track at Lap 363. He was scored in 35th position and was 36 laps down at time, despite having led 142 laps on the day.

The 2003 champion finished in 36th place.

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch, winner of two straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, saw his streak snapped after tire issues sent him into the wall multiple times in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.

 

“Fans were on. Everything was fine. Just blew a (expletive) tire,” Busch told the team over the radio after a right front tire problem sent him into the wall on Lap 50.

Goodyear Racing offered an explanation for what happened in the first instance to the No. 18 on Twitter.

 

Busch was not the only JGR driver with tire woes on this day as both Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin also had issues. Goodyear is taking those tires from the 11, 18, and 20 for further analysis. The JGR drivers’ teammate Carl Edwards won the race while leading 276 laps.

RELATED: Kenseth goes into wall, derails bid for Bristol win

It was a long day for Busch as he also was penalized for being too fast on pit road when he came in for adjustments after the hit.

 

Later, on Lap 116, Busch was tapped from behind by the No. 34 of Chris Buescher and spun out down to the bottom apron, but he managed to avoid major damage.

 

After all that, “Rowdy” had steered his No. 18 Toyota back into the top 12 by Lap 160 before the final nail in the coffin ended his day.

 

On Lap 258, Busch had another tire go down, sending him back into the wall for his hardest hit of the day.

 

“It’s (expletive) killed,” crew chief Adam Stevens said over the radio as he summoned his driver to the garage. “We’re done, go home.” 

 

After getting out of the car, Busch told FOX that he had “no idea” what kept leading to his cut tires.

 

“Guess it just wasn’t meant to be,” Busch told FOX.  “We drove up from the back to the front a couple times and showed them what we’re made of, but unfortunately it doesn’t matter when you’re in the garage.”

 

A five-time winner at Bristol, Busch finished the race in 38th place.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Find FS1 in your area


All times ET

Monday, April 18
8 a.m., Empty Cup: Quest for the 1992 NASCAR Championship (re-air), FS1
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Food City 500 (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN

Tuesday, April 19
8:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m., 100,000 Cameras: Daytona (re-air), FS1
6:30 p.m., WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: Long Beach (re-air), FS1

Wednesday, April 20
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN

Thursday, April 21
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
2 a.m., NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (tape), NBCSN

Friday, April 22
9 a.m., WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: Long Beach (re-air), FS1
11 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, FS1
12:30 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, FS1
2 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Weekend Edition, FS1
3 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series final practice, FS1
4 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS1

Saturday, April 23
3 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series practice (re-air), FS1
4:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series final practice (re-air), FS1
5:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice (re-air), FS1
7 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying (re-air), FS1
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, FS1
9:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS1
10:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Weekend Edition, FS1
11 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice, FS1
Noon, NASCAR RaceDay: XFINITY, FS1
12:30 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series: ToyotaCare 250, FS1

Sunday, April 24
10:30 a.m., NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
1 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Toyota Owners 400, FOX
Midnight, NASCAR Victory Lane, FS1

 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings | SHOP: Edwards gear


BRISTOL, Tenn. – The record will show that polesitter Carl Edwards won Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in dominating fashion, leading 276 of 500 laps and beating runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the finish line by .766 seconds.
 
But while Edwards cruised to victory with the fastest car in the eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season, drivers behind him suffered a litany of troubles, populating the top 10 with the most unlikely array of competitors this season.
 
Consider that:
 
Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Chase Elliott posted a career-best fourth-place result a week after recording a career-best fifth at Texas.
 
Trevor Bayne ran fifth, scoring his first top five since his surprise victory in the 2011 season-opening Daytona 500.
 
Matt DiBenedetto came home sixth, scoring a best-ever finish (and only the second top 10) for BK Racing. Clint Bowyer rallied from laps down to run eighth, his first top-10 and third lead-lap finish of the season.


RELATED: See all of Edwards’ career Cup wins

All Joe Gibbs Racing drivers other than Edwards had serious issues on Sunday. Kyle Busch, trying for his third straight Sprint Cup win, blew two right front tires, hit the wall twice and retired from the race in 38th place. Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin suffered similar issues with right fronts and finished 36th and 20th, respectively.
 
Kevin Harvick, who had arguably the fastest car in the closing stages of the race, never got a chance to show it, because he kept drawing the inside lane for every restart. The speed at Bristol is in the outside lane, and Harvick ultimately ran seventh with a No. 4 Chevrolet that was much better than its finishing position.
 
Simply put, it was another wild, action-filled afternoon at Thunder Valley, but for Edwards, it was simply an extension of what he and the No. 19 Toyota team have been accomplishing this season.
 
Edwards posted his seventh top 10 in eight races, climbed to second in the series standings (one point behind Harvick) and, first and foremost, all but assured himself of a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

RELATED: See the best photos from Sunday at the track
 
“It was a really great race for us,” said Edwards, who won for the first time this season, the fourth time at Bristol and the 26th time in his career. “It started on Friday well, started this winter building these cars. But the car was really fast in qualifying, got the first pit stall, and that meant a lot to the guys. They were just flawless on pit road. The car was really fast, and (crew chief) Dave (Rogers) did a good job of managing everything.
 
“We didn’t have any trouble, and really it’s just a testament to everybody at the shop and our whole team. Really awesome to have a win so now we can really have some fun and focus on this championship.”
 
If Edwards’ race was problem-free, hardly anything else was ordinary. Even Earnhardt’s second-place finish was an anomaly.
 
The driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet inadvertently activated the “kill” switch on his car at the start of the race by applying too much brake pressure. Earnhardt rolled onto pit road and lost two laps while his team rebooted the electronic control unit (ECU) that governs the electronic fuel injection.
 
Two wave-arounds under caution in the first half of the race put the 88 back on the lead lap, and Earnhardt parlayed his good fortune into a better-than-expected run. Unlike Harvick, Earnhardt benefited from restarts in the outside lane, and on the final restart with five laps left, he rocketed from fourth to second and held off third-place finisher Kurt Busch.
 
“Just warming the brakes up, I engaged that system to kill the throttle,” Earnhardt said of the early trouble. “I was warming the brakes up like I always do, and apparently I applied too much pressure and it killed the motor.
 
“We’ll work on that and maybe raise that threshold a little bit, because I wasn’t really using the brake that much.”
 
Earnhardt acknowledged he stole a runner-up finish with a car that wasn’t that good.
 
“We had about a 10th-place car,” Earnhardt said. “We weren’t really that good all day. We tried a setup that we’ve never really ran here before, just trying to learn a little something going forward, and we’ll go home and science it out a little bit.
 
“We got real lucky the last three restarts to be on the outside line. We restarted 10th, sixth and fourth, and when you restart fourth, you’re typically going to come out in second place after that. I was hoping we didn’t have any more cautions after that. So it was good. We’ll take it.”

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RELATED: Full race results | Series standings

BRISTOL, Tenn. — It’s payday for Erik Jones, as the 19-year-old is going home with an extra-large $100,000 check for taking the first NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash bonus at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday.

The race-winning Joe Gibbs Racing driver led a total of 62 of the 200 laps in the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300, and his victory essentially locks up a spot in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase. Should Jones record another Dash 4 Cash bonus in any of the three remaining Dash 4 Cash races, having two Dash 4 Cash bonuses would be the equivalent to a regular-season race win and give him a leg up on seeding when the Chase begins on Sept. 24 at Kentucky Speedway.

MORE: What to know about the Dash 4 Cash

“We got a really good restart and Kyle (Larson) just left the top open and we went up there and he worked pretty hard to keep us behind him,” Jones said post-race. “We just kept digging and it worked out. Just an awesome feeling. I never thought we’d get our first win here at Bristol.”

As for what he’s spending the dough on, Jones is a frugal man.

“Well, we’re all going to dinner so that’s going to be a big bill already I can tell,” Jones said. “After that, I don’t know, I’ll probably put it away. I don’t like to buy too many things.”

RELATED: Jones’ discusses emotional Victory Lane call

Jones’ JGR teammate Daniel Suarez, Richard Childress Racing driver Ty Dillon and JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier all qualified for the Dash 4 Cash competition by being the top two finishers among XFINITY Series regulars in the two heat races that preceded Saturday’s main event, which all came down to the final restart on Lap 198.

With just three laps remaining, it looked as if Suarez — who was running the highest of the Dash 4 Cash drivers in third — was going to be the one to hoist the cardboard check after the checkered flag fell. That was until his JGR teammate Kyle Busch spun his tires, backing up Suarez’s No. 19 Toyota.

“I feel like we had a top-three car all day long and we were running in the top five, top three all day,” Suarez said after the race. “In the end, the outside line was the preferred line and my teammate (Kyle Busch) spun his tires right there at the end with old tires and I was just right there stuck in the middle on the inside and there was nothing I can do at that point.”

Jones came from fourth on the restart to win the race. This was Jones’ first Dash 4 Cash event, as he was not eligible for the competition last season being a full-time Camping World Truck Series driver.

The next Dash 4 Cash event will be the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, April 23 (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The two heat races will be 35 laps each, with a 140-lap main event. There are a total of four Dash 4 Cash events in the 2016 season.

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BRISTOL, Tenn. — Darienne Breazeale couldn’t walk down pit road at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday without NASCAR fans stopping to gush over a video of the 23-year-old North Carolina native’s recent encounter with Kyle Busch in traffic.

Before her now-famous exchange with the Sprint Cup Series champion, Breazeale was just a diehard Kyle Busch fan who, as told by her friends, would knock down walls to meet the No. 18 driver.

No destruction was necessary when Busch pulled up right next Breazeale in traffic after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver swept the weekend at Martinsville Speedway, winning both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Sprint Cup Series races.

RELATED: Watch the video


After the video went viral, Kyle and Samantha Busch invited Breazeale and her friends to spend the weekend with the No. 18 crew at “The Last Great Colosseum,” which is Breazeale’s first trip to the short track.

“Ever since we’ve got here, everybody has just been so nice,” Breazeale told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “Every part of his crew has just gone out of their way … They’ve let us sit out here with the team the whole time, stand with him while he does the Pledge of Allegiance, national anthem and all that stuff.”

This was just Day 1 at the track for Breazeale, who plans on participating in more interviews and events before Sunday’s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I didn’t even have anything planned today with him,” Breazeale said. “I have a certain time to be with him tomorrow … but today when he got out of the car after practice I was standing at his trailer and I was like, ‘What’s up?’ and he did like I did in the video, started freaking out and was like, ‘You’re awesome’ and gave me a high five.”

Breazeale has gotten an outpouring of attention since the video was posted, but what she’s most proud of is what it’s done for her favorite driver.

“What’s so awesome to me, is that people who didn’t like him (Kyle Busch) before or didn’t realize how exciting NASCAR can be, they saw that and they saw how someone can be that excited about it,” Breazeale said.

“People that didn’t like Kyle before, they’re like, ‘Wow, he’s a good guy.’ So I think he gained some fans out it.”

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RELATED: See Sunday’s full lineup | Full weekend schedule

 

BRISTOL, Tenn. — For Dale Earnhardt Jr., coming to Bristol Motor Speedway makes the 41-year-old feel like a kid again.

 

As the son of “The Intimidator,” it comes as no surprise that Earnhardt Jr. grew up around race tracks. While most children might have spent their adolescence frolicking with friends through suburban streets, Dale Jr. spent his atop a van, watching cars circle the track — and “The Last Great Colosseum” was one of his favorite places to do that.

 

“As a kid I loved coming here because we would just run from one end of the track to the other getting into whatever we could get into,” Earnhardt Jr. told the media on Friday at Bristol. “They used to park the comfort coach conversion vans in the corners. All the drivers would park theirs in the corners and we would just climb up on the back of them and watch practice.

 

“You were literally 30 feet from the cars when they were going by. In the race they would crash and roll down the banking feet from the bus. It was just the coolest thing as a kid to be able to be that close to the action and see the drivers in there working and turning the wheel and watch the cars literally work as they go through the corner and how the cars were handling. It was so much fun having that kind of vantage point.”

 

Junior has been an advocate of the racing at Bristol Motor Speedway for some time now, occasionally claiming it to be the best race track for attendees to become captivated by NASCAR.

 

“I’m very proud of this event,” Junior said. “I tell people all the time to come get tickets and watch this race and this is where you need to go if you want to get hooked.”

 

In 32 starts, Junior has seen Victory Lane once at Bristol, which came during 2004’s night race and was one of six wins (a career high) that year for him.

For Sunday’s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Earnhardt Jr. will line up 20th in the field, on the same row as Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott (19th).

 

MORE: Junior’s Darlington scheme | No. 88 rides around Uptown Charlotte

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RELATED: Saturday’s race results | Watch the dramatic finish

 

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kyle Busch said it would happen eventually, and eventually arrived Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion likely didn’t expect it to happen like this.

Busch had won four NASCAR XFINITY Series races this season, and Sprint Cup Series regulars had gone six-for-six entering the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol.

But after Busch and fellow Sprint Cup regular Kyle Larson chased one another lap after lap after lap around the high-banked half-mile track, it was series regular Erik Jones who collected the win and a $100,000 bonus from the series sponsor in its Dash 4 Cash program.

Busch had said earlier this season after a typically strong performance there was no doubt teammates Jones and Daniel Suarez would eventually make their way into Victory Lane. Jones had two series wins (earned in 2015) before Saturday; Suarez is looking his first series victory. Both finish consistently in the top five.

The issue for Busch at Bristol was the late restart, a three-lap dash after Ryan Reed and Mario Gosselin brought out the yellow on Lap 189 of 200.

Larson chalked up the loss to the restart as well, but blamed himself.

The Reed/Gosselin incident bled nine laps off the board and set up the three-lap dash. Not that more laps under green would have mattered, according to Busch, who led three times for 43 laps.

“Both restarts I had today were absolutely horrendous; both times I would go to the throttle and the engine would shut off and those guys were gone,” he said. “… I couldn’t keep a nose on their left-rear fender or anything.

“More laps obviously would have been better … but being on that inside lane is already a disadvantage.”

And that doesn’t bode well for Sunday’s Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he said.

“It used to be a race track that you could race around three-wide and pass and work traffic really well and have some fun,” Busch said. “Now it’s just frustrating and aggravating.

“It will be the top lane tomorrow. … The race will be around the top and it will be the same frustrating single-file show tomorrow.”

Larson restarted for the final time in the outside lane, Busch on the inside. Jones, fourth on the restart, shot in front of Busch when the No. 18 Toyota stumbled, then raced side-by-side with Larson for the lead as they came to the white flag.

“Just did a really poor job the last couple of laps,” Larson said, “really disappointed in myself and probably not going to forget about this one for quite a while.”