Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Chase Bubble Watch | Power Rankings after Texas

 

With Jeff Gordon locked in for the Championship 4, former Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 crew chief Ray Evernham made his picks for the three other drivers who will be battling for the Sprint Cup title at Homestead.

Evernham likes Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick for the final four, making his picks on Sirius XM radio Tuesday with host Dave Moody.

“Martin Truex will be one of the guys going to Homestead. They have shown they can beat any of those other cars on any given day,” Evernham said.

And a more mature Kyle Busch is in good shape, too. Evernham noted Busch’s presence in Victory Lane the last few weeks congratulating another winning.

“He’s matured and he has become a bit of a politician,” Evernham said of Busch. “He’s learning the ropes in more ways than one. I think he’s being sincere. I think those guys called him when he was hurt, and he is now a mature race car driver who appreciates the sport and his position.”

Though some equipment failures have shown a “chink in the armor,” Evernham predicted the No. 4 Stewart-Haas team would be defending the 2014 title at Homestead.

 

Evernham noted two big problems for the teams he’s not picking to advance from the Eliminator 8.

 

Both Team Penske drivers must win to advance. He said the biggest competition Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski face is not from other Chase drivers, but from those who could leave a spot open by denying a Chase driver a win this week.

 

“We’ve talked about several ways to play this game, and it’s a lot like Survivor Island,” Evernham said, naming another Hendrick driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. , among those who could be a threat. “The biggest thing that the No. 2 and the No. 22 have to fight this weekend is all the guys who are not in the Chase who are going full tilt to win at Phoenix.”

 

As for the Joe Gibbs Racing team, which came into the Chase as a force, Evernham thinks that the issues JGR teams had with their splitters at Texas could carry over to Homestead.

 

RELATED: NASCAR will not penalize JGR for splitters

 

NASCAR officials announced Tuesday that no penalties would be levied on the Nos. 11, 18, and 19 teams after their splitters were confiscated during pre-race inspection. The teams were forced to replace the parts and go back through inspection before the start of Sunday’s AAA Texas 500.

 

“As much as 30 thousandths of an inch or 40 thousandths of an inch make a big difference,” Evernham explained. “It’s not gonna turn the cars from blazing fast to junk, but it will change several things.”

 

Evernham said the winning teams will be able to put aside the pressure throughout the whole team, from the driver through every over-the-wall team member and every person setting up the cars. He said relishing pressure is what made the No. 24 team so strong when he was Gordon’s crew chief.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR will not penalize three Joe Gibbs Racing teams for pre-race inspection failures at Texas Motor Speedway.

 

Officials confiscated the front-end splitters of the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin, the No. 18 of Kyle Busch and the No. 19 of Carl Edwards prior to Sunday’s AAA Texas 500. The No. 20, which was piloted by Erik Jones this week due to Matt Kenseth‘s two-race suspension, cleared inspection with no issues.

 

Team members replaced the splitters prior to the drop of the green flag and resent the cars through inspection with no issues.

 

The splitter situation nearly mirrors Team Penske‘s issue at Michigan in August, when the Nos. 2 and 22’s splitters were confiscated after failing pre-race inspection.

The splitters were brought back to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, but no penalties were ultimately handed down to the Penske teams, either.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Cut tire puts Logano in a hole

How did a sunny Saturday in Texas lead to an hours-long weather delay that wiped out all but the NASCAR XFINITY Series race? That was one of the questions posed to NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday morning.

“It was unique and was certainly frustrating,” O’Donnell said of the situation, which was hampered by early morning showers and unusually heavy rain in Texas throughout October. “It’s really hard where you have an environment where, you know, it’s not raining, the fans look at it and say ‘What’s going on here?’ “

The main culprits in the delays were weepers, small cuts in the track where water pours out and streams across the racing surface. The weepers caused difficulties drying the track because, when the sun finally did come out, the heat helped pull the water up and out and compounded the problem, O’Donnell explained.


Two Sprint Cup practices and XFINITY qualifying were canceled due to the delays, and the absence of the Cup practices, O’Donnell said, carried over into Sunday’s AAA Texas 500. Tire issues, first involving Joey Logano, whose left-rear shredded on Lap 10, put teams in a precarious guessing game early in the race.

“I think Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. probably summed it up best in terms of talking about the lack of that last practice, (where) a lot of times teams really dial in the tire pressures,” O’Donnell said. “Some would go perhaps too far, and you saw some of that happen early in Sunday’s race. You didn’t see that later in the race.”

Defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick also experienced tire trouble early in the race, but crew chief Rodney Childers claimed it was debris that caused it, as heard on the in-race driver-crew chief audio.

“I think there were one or two where it was debris on the track, and that happens,” O’Donnell said. “We do everything we can to make sure there’s nothing on the race track.”

Logano’s tire failure and subsequent damage to the No. 22 Team Penske Ford led to him going to the garage and finishing 40th. He is eighth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, 63 points below the cutoff line, heading into Phoenix.

Facing a must-win situation at Phoenix in order to advance to the Championship 4, Logano’s team won’t have much time to dwell on the Texas result, but one wonders whether a final practice Saturday evening  would have made a difference.

“That was a lot of discussion in the garage area … we talked to the drivers, the crew chiefs,” O’Donnell said about the decision to not hold a final Sprint Cup practice after the XFINITY Series race. “There’s a lot on the line and we certainly want to make every effort to get practice in, but after having those discussions, the teams felt like they were ready to start setting up the cars for the race and preparing for Sunday.”

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

RELATED: Buy tickets now | 2016 schedules for top two national series
MORE: Highlights of the 2016 schedules

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 10, 2015) — NASCAR today announced the 2016 schedule for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, which features 21 tracks hosting 23 events in the U.S. and Canada. As with the previously announced NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series schedules, agreements have also been reached with the tracks to host the Camping World Truck Series through 2020.

Iowa Speedway will host its first NASCAR national series companion weekend, with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series joining the NASCAR XFINITY Series on June 18-19. Other changes for 2016 are:

 

• The Dover International Speedway event moves two weekends earlier in the schedule (May 13).

 

• The first visit to Texas Motor Speedway moves one week later to June 10.

 

• The Gateway Motorsports Park event moves two weekends later in the schedule to June 25.

 

• The Canadian Tire Motorsport Park event returns to the Sunday of Labor Day (U.S.) weekend, on Sept. 4.

 

“For more than 20 years, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has been home to some of the closest side-by-side racing in the sport, and we’re committed to delivering that to our fans for many years to come,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “We expect that the stability of five-year agreements will benefit the entire industry, and anticipate the continuation of compelling NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship battles, like the one we’re watching unfold in 2015.”

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicks off the 2016 season during Daytona Speedweeks, as the iconic track welcomes fans to experience its $400 million redevelopment project, DAYTONA Rising. After Daytona, the trucks will race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a double-header with the NASCAR XFINTY Series for the second consecutive season. Two popular Wednesday night events — at Eldora Speedway (July 20) and Bristol (Aug. 17) — also return to the schedule for 2016.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series closes the 2016 season with five events in five weekends, including three triple-header weekends with the NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series at Texas Motor Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway. FOX Sports will provide broadcast coverage of every race event in the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck season.

2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule

Date Event
Feb. 19 Daytona
Feb. 27 Atlanta
April 2 Martinsville
May 6 Kansas
May 13 Dover
May 20 Charlotte
June 10 Texas
June 18 Iowa
June 25 Gateway
July 7 Kentucky
July 20 Eldora
July 30 Pocono
Aug. 17 Bristol
Aug. 27 Michigan
Sept. 4 Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Sept. 16 Chicagoland
Sept. 24 New Hampshire
Oct. 1 Las Vegas
Oct. 22 Talladega
Oct. 29 Martinsville
Nov. 4 Texas
Nov. 11 Phoenix
Nov. 18 Homestead
Posted on by Pat DeCola

With the way the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was turning laps around the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500, you’d think a certain former premier series champion was behind the wheel.
 
Instead, it was 19-year-old Erik Jones.
 
Filling in for the suspended Matt Kenseth, Jones — in just his second career Sprint Cup Series start and third Sprint Cup appearance, all of which were in other drivers’ cars — spent much of the day in the top 10 in what proved to be a challenging race for some of the sport’s most seasoned vets.
 
Jones wasn’t invincible to the rampant tire issues that plagued many, having a right-front go down and tearing up the nose of his Toyota Camry, but he battled back to finish 12th, a more-than-acceptable result for a driver still earning his stripes.
 
“I wish we could have been a little stronger there at the end,” Jones said on pit road after the race. “We had that right-front go down and it tore the nose up pretty good so kind of took us out of a shot at a top-10. To still come home 12th is a good day for us.”
 
Jones — originally scheduled to run both the Camping World Truck Series and XFINITY Series races — had to change his Sunday plans when he learned on Thursday that Matt Kenseth had lost both appeals to get his suspension dropped and that a replacement was needed.
 
His doubleheader quickly turned into a tripleheader, and a successful one at that. The Kyle Busch Motorsports/Joe Gibbs Racing driver built on his points lead with a win in Friday’s Truck Series race and followed it up with a fourth-place showing in Saturday’s XFINITY event.
 
Perhaps the biggest things he’ll take away from the weekend, however, are the lessons learned on Sunday.
 
“You really have to be on top of your game and if you have any mistake like we did with the right-front, it really takes you out of any shot you have to run well,” said Jones. “Just staying in it and staying out front, that’s the biggest thing you need to do. I thought we did a decent job of staying in the top 10 all day up to that point. Other than that, it was a good day for us.”
 
Jones, who also mentioned he’s “ready to take a day off” after the busy weekend, gets to do it all again (the tripleheade that is) next weekend.
 
Kenseth’s suspension will keep him out until Homestead, thus “The Kid” will suit up once more for the Eliminator Round finale at Phoenix.
 
Jones picked up his first career NASCAR national series victory there in 2013 at the age of 17 in the November Truck Series race, then backed it up the following year with another.
 
With an added week of preparation with No. 20 crew chief Jason Ratcliff, the combination sets himself up for even higher expectations in his third career start.
 
So does he feel he could win?
 
“I’d like to think so,” Jones said. “My fortune has been very good at Phoenix, it’s a track I really like and actually JGR was there testing a month or two ago. I feel pretty good about it and feel going there we have a good package.
 
“I feel confident in my ability and think that’s definitely a place where we can go up and run top-10. You never know, if the weekend is going well we could probably be up front and challenge for it.”

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RELATED: Full race results | Series standings | Chase Grid

Below is a breakdown of how the full 43-car field fared at Texas Motor Speedway:


1. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson ran the bottom line to make up time and catch then-leader Brad Keselowski en route to his third straight Texas win (sixth overall). | RELATED: NASCAR.com goes 1-on-1 with Johnson in Victory Lane

 

2. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. The pole sitter led 312 laps and was just four circuits shy of punching his ticket to the Championship 4. | RELATED: Keselowski dominates but can’t seal the deal

 

3. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Desperate to defend his 2014 championship title, Harvick rebounded from a couple cut tires and even spent some of Sunday’s race driving with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the shifter because his car kept popping out of gear. | RELATED: Harvick overcomes adversity for top-three finish

 

4. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. NASCAR took the splitters from Kyle Busch and two of his Joe Gibbs teammates, but that didn’t seem to deter Busch, who led a lap and kept his name in the hat for the Championship 4. | RELATED: NASCAR confiscates splitters for three JGR teams

 

5. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Edwards recorded his seventh top-five Texas finish after spending most of the race in the top 10.

 

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Earnhardt held onto a car that was “wrecking loose” and was the beneficiary twice en route to his 16th top-10 at Texas.

 

7. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Kurt Busch raced his way back into the top 10 on Lap 174 after dropping back to 22nd when his pit crew missed a few lugnuts during an early stop. | RELATED: Chase bubble watch post-Texas

 

8. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Chevrolet, Furniture Row Racing. Truex, one of the biggest movers early, had to hold on tight in the closing laps due to a lack of power steering. | RELATED: Truex keeps title hopes alive with tough Texas run

 

9. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. While most teams were sweating the lack of practice due to Saturday’s rain, Gordon and the No. 24 team could breathe easy thanks to their Martinsville win last weekend.

10. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. McMurray picked up his third straight Texas top-10 after stopping for two tires only during the final caution period.

11. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. After a lengthy chassis adjustment to help over the bumps, Dillon cracked the top 10 with 50 laps left in Sunday’s race and went on to record his best Texas finish.

12. Erik Jones, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Subbing in for a suspended Matt Kenseth, Jones qualified sixth — his best Cup start — and managed his best Cup result.

13. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard went from being on the splitter during the first part of Sunday’s race to needing help over the bumps en route to his eighth top-15 at Texas.

14. Brian Scott, No. 33 Chevrolet, Circle Sport. Scott turned in a solid run in his first Cup appearance at Texas.

15. Clint Bowyer, No. 15, Michael Waltrip Racing. “Stay after it,” spotter Brett Griffin encouraged Bowyer as he was running 15th and chasing down the competition ahead of him. | RELATED: Hear driver audio on RACEVIEW.

16. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. After making her best Texas start (11th), Patrick spent the race fighting a loose-handling condition.

17. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger restarted 20th on the final caution and picked up a few spots running the high line.

18. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Better on long runs, Almirola climbed through the field after an early penalty on pit road.

19. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. A hole in the cowl cover from the flat tire under green-flag conditions impacted Biffle late in Sunday’s race.

20. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. “I think something is broken,” Kahne reported as he faded from 12th in the final 25 laps. | RELATED: Hear driver audio on RACEVIEW.

21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. “The front is shot,” Stenhouse reported to his team as he made his green-flag stop for four tires and fuel with 81 laps left in Sunday’s race.

22. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Newman was running ninth when he had a left-rear tire go down on Lap 145, and he made an unscheduled pit stop.

23. David Ragan, No. 55 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing. Ragan dropped through the field after he had to make an extra stop early in Sunday’s race for damage sustained when leaving pit road on Lap 26.

24. Sam Hornish Jr., No. 9 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. A vibration with 100 laps to go prompted Hornish to give up the battle for the beneficiary pass and hit pit road.

25. Landon Cassill, No. 40 Chevrolet, Hillman Smith Motorsports. Looking for rear grip, Cassill was running 26th and racing for the beneficiary pass on Lap 201.

 

26. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. With Sunday’s finish, Mears keeps his streak alive and has completed all 23 events he’s attempted at Texas.

27. Cole Whitt, No. 35 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Whitt’s biggest challenge mirrored that of the competition — endure the ever-changing handling thanks to tire wear.

 

28. Justin Allgaier, No. 51 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Allgaier picked up six spots within the first eight laps but consistently dealt with a tight handling condition in the center of the turns.

 

29. David Gilliland, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. The longer green-flag run helped the handling of Gilliland’s car.

 

30. Brett Moffitt, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Handling was a persistent issue for Moffitt, who radioed his team early in the race, “The rear feels like it’s on ice, especially on throttle.” | RELATED: Hear driver audio on RACEVIEW.

 

31. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett improved upon his April appearance at the intermediate Texas track.

 

32. Jeb Burton, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. A 2013 victor at Texas in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Burton made his first Cup appearance at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth oval on Sunday.

 

33. J.J. Yeley, No. 26 Toyota, BK Racing. Yeley led Lap 55 during the fourth caution period before reporting to pit road for service.

 

34. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Ford, Leavine Family Racing. McDowell ran as high as 13th on Sunday, but was trapped on pit road when the eighth caution flag waved.

 

35. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. DiBenedetto fared better during long green-flag runs and was in striking distance of his best Texas result.

 

36. Ryan Preece, No. 98 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. The Texas newcomer started from the rear of the field after an engine change.

 

37. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Larson’s best Texas start opened strong, but was stalled when he experienced a left-rear tire issue on Lap 101 to bring out the caution flag.

 

38. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. A mechanical issue (fuel pump) sent Hamlin to the garage early in Sunday’s contest.

 

39. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne lost his right-rear tire and cut his brake line after getting into the wall on Lap 197 to bring out the eighth caution flag.

 

40. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Logano, now in a must-win situation going into Phoenix, was briefly sidelined when his left-rear tire exploded on Lap 10. | RELATED: Logano goes for a spin early

 

41. Alex Bowman, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Bowman made his way into the top 25 before encountering a motor issue.

 

42. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart’s day was done after he got loose and spun through the grass on Lap 52.

43. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Blaney dropped from the top 10 and headed for the garage after hitting the Turn 2 wall on Lap 25.

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Updated series standings | Chase Grid

FORT WORTH, Texas — Martin Truex Jr. said he wasn’t sure if there was or wasn’t contact, and having just climbed from his No. 78 Chevrolet on pit road, he hadn’t had time to survey the side of Furniture Row Racing entry.
 
But the distinctive donut, the result of contact with the tire of another car, was hard to miss just below the driver’s-side window.
 
“We just got together a little bit on the front straightaway,” Truex said of late-race contact with Brad Keselowski as the two battled for the lead in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. “I don’t know if I went down or he came up. He said he thought he came up. It’s all good, it’s hard racing.”
 
A loose wheel and power steering issue — the issue was that he had none — dropped Truex from contending for the win to hanging on for a top 10. He finished eighth, and is fourth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with only one race remaining to determine the field of four that will compete for the championship later this month at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
 
“We had a chance at the win there, I think,” said Truex. “Racing with Brad at the end and the right front started shaking and the car just got really tight. Then it was just (a matter) of trying to keep the thing on there for 15 laps and make it to the end. It’s just a shame. We had a really good car today.
 
“The 2 (of Keselowski) was stout all day long but toward the end it looked like we got a little bit closer to him. Before that last caution we were actually catching him a bit. I don’t know; I wished we would have finished better but all in all I guess it was an OK day.”

RELATED: Keselowski discusses racing with Truex
 
Consistency helped put the No. 78 in the Chase picture, and a win earlier this season at Pocono Raceway guaranteed his spot in the 16-team field. He had 14 top-10 finishes in his first 15 starts to open the season. And that consistency is starting to resurface with four finishes of eighth or better in his last five starts.
 
Truex led only a single lap, but given Keselowski’s dominance on the day, few others spent any time out front as well. His team managed to avoid the tire issues that plagued some teams on the 1.5-mile track, and he quickly showed that his 23rd-place qualifying effort wasn’t a sign of things to come.
 
It helped his cause, he said, that Keselowski was unable to win and thus sew up one of the remaining spots in the finale.
 
“That certainly helped a little bit. I was cheering pretty hard for Jimmie Johnson,” Truex said of Johnson’s pass for the lead in the waning laps. ” … We’re still in good shape. Next week would have been a lot easier had we gotten second or third and we had a chance at it. It’s disappointing when those finishes slip away but … all in all we’re in good shape.”
 
Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Ford for Team Penske, was quick to confer with his rival on pit road. Though disappointed with the outcome — Keselowski led 312 of 334 laps in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race only to lose the lead to Johnson four laps from the finish — there appeared to be no ill feelings as a result of the contact with Truex.
 
“It certainly is never helpful when you make contact with another car, your own car or theirs, Keselowski said. “As far as whether it hurt my car or not, I couldn’t answer that.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Sunday’s win at Texas was the 75th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory for Jimmie Johnson, a milestone that only eight other drivers have reached in the sport’s history. It also put Johnson, eighth on the all-time NASCAR wins list, just one one behind Dale Earnhardt’s total of 76.

“It would be huge (to pass Earnhardt on the wins list),” Johnson said after his victory in the AAA Texas 500. “Hard to even put it into words. I came into this sport hoping to win a race. To have 75 of them is mind‑blowing. If I’m able to tie Senior, it’s something I would be just extremely proud of.”

If “Six-Time” does eventually pass Earnhardt, he would be seventh on the all-time list and have the totals of Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough in his sights.

When it comes to the most wins in NASCAR premier series history, here’s the top 10 drivers. An asterisk denotes a driver who is currently active.

All-time NASCAR premier series wins

Driver Wins Titles
Richard Petty 200 7
David Pearson 105 3
Jeff Gordon* 93 4
Bobby Allison 84 1
Darrell Waltrip 84 3
Cale Yarborough 83 3
Dale Earnhardt 76 7
Jimmie Johnson* 75 6
Rusty Wallace 55 1
Lee Petty 54 3