3M Automotive Aftermarket, NASCAR announce partnership

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Official NASCAR Release

ST. PAUL, Minn. & DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (November 6, 2015) — NASCAR® and 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division today announced a five-year extension to their long-standing Official Partnership. As part of the agreement, 3M Automotive Aftermarket will continue its nearly two-decade NASCAR Sprint Cup Series contingency sponsorship that provides many of its innovative automotive products and solutions used in race cars and race shops throughout NASCAR.

As an Official Partner, 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division will continue to carry the NASCAR bar mark on key product categories sold to car enthusiasts everywhere and to professional auto repair shops. In addition, the division will collaborate with the NASCAR R&D Center to integrate 3M automotive products and solutions into the sport.

“For years, 3M has provided science-driven products to solve NASCAR’s toughest challenges in the garage, in the car and at the track, and we are very proud of this long-standing and successful relationship,” said Laurie Altman, vice president and general manager, 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division. “Race teams can continue to have access to advanced 3M solutions that save time in car construction, enhance the paint process and make repairs easier during a race weekend. Our customer base is rich with fans of the sport, and this relationship allows us to spend time with those fans over several race weekends.”

3M Automotive Aftermarket Division will kick off its partnership with NASCAR during the 2016 Daytona 500®.

“Our long-standing partnership is driven by the authentic integration of 3M products across our sport,” said Steve Phelps, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, NASCAR. “This agreement continues the recent trend of innovative companies partnering with NASCAR to ensure we deliver the best racing product in the world.”

3M automotive products keep the world on the move, with innovative solutions for building, repairing and maintaining vehicles. From the collision repair professional to the individual vehicle enthusiast, people around the world trust 3M products to protect, repair and keep their vehicles looking showroom new. And 3M’s commitment to this industry extends beyond product performance to a careful stewardship of the world’s resources and environment. Serving the needs of its customers has made 3M a trusted leader in vehicle care and repair, and 3M is dedicated to earning that trust each and every day.

For more information about 3M automotive products, contact 1-877-MMM-CARS, contact your local 3M Distributor or 3M Sales Representative or visit the website at www.3Mcollision.com. Follow 3M AAD on Facebook at www.facebook.com/3MCollision and on twitter @3M_Collision and Instagram @3MCollision.

Tune-in to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ Eliminator Round’s™ second race, the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and PRN, with additional coverage on NASCAR.com.

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Team Release

CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 6, 2015) — There have been few bigger proponents of young racing talent anywhere in the sport than Championship race Team Owner Chip Ganassi. For over 25 years he has identified, hired and developed some of the best young racing talent from all around the world. Subsequently, Chip Ganassi and his Chip Ganassi Racing Teams (CGRT) announced today the creation of the Generation Ganassi (Gen G) racing talent identification program, a mentorship that will look to identify and assist North America’s young and talented race car drivers.

The program identifies 13-18 year old drivers as “Ones to Watch” in the world of auto racing and offers professional guidance to aid in fostering their growth within the sport of auto racing.

The first recipient of the 2016 Generation Ganassi moniker is a 15-year-old driver from Canada named Devlin Defrancesco. Defrancesco has been racing karts since 2009 where he has had much success including winning the Canadian National Junior Championship in 2013 and also named Vice-Champion of the CSAI Italian Championship. In 2015, he joined British racing team Carlin to prepare for races in the FIA Formula 4 Championship.

NOTES OF INTEREST

• Gen G – Generation Ganassi: Each year, CGRT will identify at least 10 young drivers from karting, sprint cars, modified, midgets, late model, etc. and each will be paired with one current CGRT driver, a CGRT racing competition person and also someone from CGRT business operations to help guide them through the turbulent waters of auto racing. In addition, each Gen G winner will get the Gen G logo to display on their car, helmet and firesuit. Gen G takes its name from the Generation X, Y and Z monikers given to new demographic groups. Gen G will now refer to the young race car driver that aspires to take racing from simply a passion to a profession.

• A History of Spotting Talent: CGRT owner Chip Ganassi has a long history for identifying and developing young driver talent, from former drivers like Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya to current talent like Scott Dixon, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson and Sage Karam. Ganassi drivers have won eight Rookie of the Year Awards with drivers Eddie Cheever (Verizon IndyCar Series), Zanardi (Verizon IndyCar Series), Montoya (Verizon IndyCar Series/NASCAR Sprint Cup Series), McMurray (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series) and Larson (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series and K&N Pro Series East).

• How To Be Considered: Gen G is open to any young drivers between the ages of 13-18 in any form of stock car or open wheel racing program anywhere in the country. Candidates must complete an online application process including basic background questions and a brief video essay answering why they should be selected to enter the program. Submission of a video that highlights their racing achievements, interaction with family and friends and personality is also encouraged. The application window for the first full class will be open today and the deadline for submissions Jan. 31, 2016 with the winners being announced in March 2016.

QUOTEBOARD

Chip Ganassi, Owner, Chip Ganassi Racing Teams:

“I have always been very passionate about trying to give back to the racing community as it has given me so much throughout my life. I have always had a real interest in finding and trying to develop young racing talent and over the years have even experienced success in doing it. This is simply an effort to give young drivers a ‘leg up’ as they navigate the turbulent waters of auto racing. The hope is that a program like this can make a difference in some drivers’ careers.”

Devlin Defrancesco, 15-year-old Kart Driver:

“I couldn’t be happier to be the first recipient of the Generation Ganassi award. To be identified by Chip Ganassi is not only an honor but also something that I will use as motivation to live up to the standards that Chip and his organization has always had for their drivers. This is a big day for me.”

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Reid Spencer

FORT WORTH, Texas – On turf that typically belongs to two-time defending NASCAR Camping World Series champion Matt Crafton, Erik Jones dominated on Friday night.

Jones led 117 of 147 laps on the way to victory in the WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway, his first win at the venue, his third of the season and the seventh of his career.

In an event that featured only one caution, a track-record low, Jones finished 2.855 seconds ahead of runner-up and NASCAR Driver for Diversity alum Daniel Suarez, who matched his career-best finish. Jones extended his series from 10 to 17 points over Crafton, who ran fourth after winning the Keystone Light Pole Award. There are two more races left in the Truck Series season.

The top two finishers drove Toyotas fielded by Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Jones, who is doing triple duty this weekend at Texas, will race the No. 4 Tundra next at Phoenix, where he has won the last two races.

“Getting the win here, that’s a nice boost for everybody, not just myself but everybody at KBM,” Jones said. “We needed this to get back on track. We’ve struggled a little bit the last month, month and a half and worked hard to get back to this point.

“And now, to go out there and win one the way we did, and lead as many laps as we did, that’s a really nice statement for us. Hopefully, we can go to Phoenix and do the same kind of thing we’ve done the last two years. It’s nice to have that points lead back up closer to the 20 range than the 10 range, but we still have two more weeks, and we have to hold onto it, be strong and close this deal out.”

In recent years, Crafton’s been the dominant force in the series at 1.5-mile intermediate speedways, but Jones grabbed the lead on Lap 13 and pulled away to a lead of nearly three seconds. Jones squandered that advantage with a slow pit stop under green on Lap 47, but the lone caution on Lap 54 bunched the field and erased a lead of 5.9 seconds built by Crafton.

Jones overtook Crafton for the top spot on lap 65 and controlled the race the rest of the way, losing the lead only briefly during a cycle of green-flag pit stops around Lap 100.

The race was the shortest ever in the Truck Series at Texas, lasting just one hour, 23 minutes and 48 seconds.

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Reid Spencer

MORE: See all 43 cars for Sunday’s race | Complete lineup for Sunday

FORT WORTH, Texas—As a driver who likely must win one of the next two races to keep his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title prospects alive, Brad Keselowski took a giant step in the right direction during Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway.

The 2012 series champion covered the 1.5-mile distance at a speed of 196.929 mph in the money round to win the pole for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC/Live Extra, PRN, SiriusXM), the second of three races in the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

The Coors Light Pole Award was Keselowski’s first at Texas, his third of the season and the 11th of his career. It was also the third pole in the last four races for Team Penske.

The driver of the No. 2 Ford posted the fastest time in each of the three knockout rounds. Kevin Harvick (195.993 mph) qualified second, followed by Kyle Busch (195.716 mph) and Joey Logano (195.419 mph), as Chase drivers claimed the top four spots on the grid.

However, Keselowski and Logano, embroiled in catastrophe and controversy last week at Martinsville Speedway, are on decidedly different agendas from those of Busch and Harvick, who are tied for second and fourth, respectively, in the Chase standings.

“This is a good start, but our ultimate goal is to be the fastest at the end of the race on Sunday,” Keselowski said. “It’s a good start, and it gets us up front with a great pit stall, and hopefully we can make the most of it.

“I’m pumped about this race. Track position is important everywhere, and here isn’t as much as maybe a few others, because the track wears out, and you see some comers and goers with the way the track wears out—but we will still take it.”

Keselowski and Penske teammate Logano are sixth and eighth, respectively, among the eight drivers still eligible for the championship.

“I think, if you’re not in the top five right now, you’re in a must-win situation,” Keselowski said. “Thankfully, we started out in the right situation with being fast. We feel like we’ll be really strong next week at Phoenix as well.

“So all signs point to us having a very strong opportunity to win one of the next two.”

Non-chase drivers took the fifth and sixth starting spots, with Kyle Larson qualifying on the inside of the third row and Erik Jones, subbing for suspended Matt Kenseth, grabbing the sixth position on the grid. Kenseth must sit out the next two races for wrecking Logano last Sunday at Martinsville.

“Sixth is a really good effort for us,” Jones said. “We made the final round at Kansas as well (in relief of injured Kyle Busch in May), so it’s cool to make the final round in both our starts.

“We’ll see where it goes from here. Obviously we’ve got a long ways to go yet for Sunday—500 miles. This definitely helps everybody’s confidence a little bit for that.”

Kurt Busch, who also needs a win to stay in the Sprint Cup title hunt, will start seventh. Chase driver Carl Edwards qualified 13th, missing the cutoff for the final round by .004 seconds.

Jeff Gordon, who secured a spot in the Nov. 22 Championship Round race at Homestead-Miami Speedway by winning at Martinsville, will start 18th. Martin Truex Jr. will take the green flag from the deepest position in the field among Chase drivers—23rd.

Danica Patrick posted a season-best 11th-place qualifying effort.

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Pat DeCola

FORT WORTH, Texas — With so much conversation surrounding the Matt Kenseth/Joey Logano debacle this week, one term that continues to be thrown around is “driver code.”

Certainly a subjective concept, driver code is interpreted differently from driver to driver, a gray area not unlike baseball’s “unwritten rules.”

The complexity hasn’t cleared up much for Kenseth’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Carl Edwards.

“Not really, no. I don’t know what it all means,” Edwards said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC/Live Extra, PRN, SiriusXM) “… There’s so many factors in this situation with so many different things happening, it’s really difficult to line it all up and say, ‘Okay, this is why this happened and this is how to proceed going forward.’ It seems pretty complex. I’m just going to focus on my deal and we’ll move on.”

While driver code may still not be the clearest of pictures for Edwards — or any one else on the track or around it, for that matter — he did get his first lesson in it about a decade ago from a potential future NASCAR Hall of Famer.

His hero — Mark Martin.

“Mark Martin, very early on … we were racing at Bristol in 2004 maybe or 2005, and Mark is a mentor of mine, he is one of my heroes and helped me a ton in my career and during that race he ran into the back of my car — it was all I could do to not wreck,” Edwards recalled.

“At the time, I wondered what happened and didn’t know what was going on. On Monday, I called him, ‘Hey Mark.’ He said, ‘Hey Carl.’ I said, ‘Remember that race when you ran into the back of me and I didn’t know if there was something that I needed to know there?’ He said, ‘No, for the last few races you’ve been racing me hard and I thought you were taking a little more and I just figured if that’s how you want to race, that’s how you want to race.’ I was like, ‘Whoa, no I don’t want to race like that.’ He said, ‘Okay, fine then don’t and we won’t.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ He said, ‘See you next week.’ That was it.”

Perhaps the conversation was only so cordial because, you know, they were teammates at Roush Fenway Racing at the time, but it was a significant lesson that Edwards holds true and lives by to this day, as a contender for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“Car racing … everybody drives their car and you just have to do what you think is the best and what is the right thing to do at the time and all of us have done all sorts of things. Some of them were right, some of them definitely weren’t right,” said Edwards. “You just have to go out there and race everybody the way you want to be raced. In some ways you have to demand the same in return.”

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Pat DeCola

FORT WORTH, Texas — People love a good underdog story.

Chances are, that opening sentence made some of you reading this chant, “Rudy! Rudy!” under your breath, but what about when you’re the one being overlooked, cast aside and not given your due?

That’s the position Martin Truex Jr. and his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team find themselves in — despite being third in points with three races left in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

The veteran explained that it’s a double-edged sword Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM).

“There’s two sides to it. I really enjoy the underdog role; it’s really cool and I think for a lot of reasons, if you look at our race team, we are an underdog,” said Truex, who earned his Chase berth with a win in June at Pocono. “I’ve never been in a championship battle in this series. I’ve got a rookie crew chief. We’re a single-car team in Denver. There’s a lot of reasons why we do fit the mold of an underdog. 

“At the same time, I get frustrated sometimes because I feel like what we’ve done this season gets overlooked and people have short memories. We were second in points in the summer and we’ve had a really good season. There’s a lot of times where I’d like my team to get a lot more credit than they have. Sometimes I’d like to get a little more credit as a driver, but at the end of the day, that’s not what really matters. What really matters is us coming out here and doing our jobs.”

Truex has quietly performed at a consistently high level all season. Be it his overall reserved demeanor or ability to stay out of the dramatic spotlight some of the other high-profile drivers have found themselves in, Truex’s name doesn’t seem to be mentioned as often as the rest of the front of the pack, despite the fact he’s performed better than most of it.

Especially when it comes to title talk, Truex is all but forgotten from the general conversation. It’s odd, because at this point with a trio of races left, the New Jersey native’s stats — one win, eight top fives and 21 top 10s — eclipse those of 2014 Ryan Newman, who finished second at Homestead and nearly took home his first title.

Truex has managed an average finish of 9.0 during the Chase — for comparison, three-time 2015 Chase winner Joey Logano‘s is 8.43 — but next to nobody is deeming the 78 team title-worthy.

Even The Chase Grid Battle Powered by Bing forecasts he’d be out of contention before the Eliminator Round, and only 59 percent of Chase Grid Battle players that made picks for Homestead have him advancing. Yet here we are.

Still, Truex is determined to improve on his finishes.

“I don’t think it’s good enough. I think we’ll need to improve for sure, unless we have some crazy stuff happen again in the next two weeks, which is highly unlikely,” Truex said. “I think, for us, I don’t think ninth will be good enough. I also think almost every race in the Chase besides Martinsville and Talladega, we’ve run better than we’ve finished and we need to change that. If we can finish the way we’ve been running, I think we’ll be in good shape. Texas and Phoenix are two good tracks for us. We tested out in Phoenix a month or so ago and we were really fast.

“For us, it’s really all about our expectations of ourselves and we’re going to be disappointed if we don’t perform at the level we know we’re capable of. We’ve got three to go and we’ll see what happens. We’re having fun with it and hopefully we can get the job done to the best of our abilities.”

Posted on November 5, 2015 by

RELATED: Kenseth’s suspension upheld

Today the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer, Mr. Bryan Moss, heard and considered the appeal of a Behavioral Penalty issued on Nov. 3, 2015 to Matt Kenseth (driver) relative to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series vehicle #20 at Martinsville Speedway.

The penalty concerns the following sections in the 2015 NASCAR Rule Book: Sections 12.1 and 12.8.

The original penalty assessed included suspension from NASCAR until the completion of the next two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events and placed on NASCAR probation for six months following the issuance of the Penalty Notice.

Earlier today, a three-person National Motorsports Appeals Panel heard the appeal and made the following decisions:

1. The Appellant violated the rules set forth in the Penalty notice;
2. The Panel affirms and upholds the original Penalty levied by NASCAR.

Upon hearing this afternoon’s testimony, the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer made the following decisions:

1. The Appellant violated the Rules set forth in the Penalty Notice;
2. The Penalty is amended to: “Suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship Events. Placed on NASCAR probation through December 31, 2015.”

The decision of the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer is final and binding on all parties.

Posted on November 5, 2015 by

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel today heard and considered the appeal of a Behavioral Penalty issued on Nov. 3 to Matt Kenseth (driver) relative to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series vehicle No. 20 at Martinsville Speedway.

The penalty concerns the following sections in the 2015 NASCAR Rule Book: Sections 12.1 and 12.8.

The original penalty assessed included suspension from NASCAR until the completion of the next two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events and placed on NASCAR probation for six months following the issuance of the Penalty Notice.

Upon hearing the testimony, the decisions of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel are:

1. The Appellant violated the rules set forth in the Penalty notice;

2. The Panel affirms and upholds the original Penalty levied by NASCAR.

The panel consisted of the following three individuals:

Mr. Ken Clapp

Mr. Bill Mullis

Mr. Dale Pinilis

The Appellant has chosen to appeal the decision of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel to the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer in accordance with Section 15 of the NASCAR Rule Book. The appeal will begin at 1 p.m. ET.

Posted on November 5, 2015 by

Editor’s note: During each week of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, The Joey Logano Foundation will provide grants to a non-profit in each of the race markets in a program called “Chasing Second Chances.” Each week, Logano will detail those plans for NASCAR.com.

Hey everyone!

I appreciate the words of encouragement a lot of you have been sending. Our #22 team is looking ahead and focused on what we need to do in order to secure our place in the championship. We will keep fighting.

This Week’s Cause: Cancer Awareness

The month of November has a variety of awareness causes focusing on cancer. It includes lung, pancreatic and stomach cancer to name a few. With all the different cancer awareness causes in the same month, we decided that Chasing Second Chances would focus on a couple organizations helping individuals fighting all types of cancer.

For this blog post, I wanted to talk about something that is really important, especially as I look at the organizations Chasing Second Chances is helping this month and the issues they are addressing. I want to talk about perspective.

By nature, I am a positive guy. I smile and laugh a lot. It doesn’t mean that I don’t get frustrated or down at times, but I’m usually able to find positive out of most situations thanks to my amazing wife, loyal fans, and a team that believes in me.

I hear a lot of stories of people battling cancer, finding themselves unable to pay their mortgages or at risk of losing a job because they are too sick to work. Sometimes the simple tasks of daily life that you and I take for granted become to tiring to accomplish. I won’t take for granted all that I have been blessed with. It is not fair to those fighters who battle for their lives daily; who battle for the strength to care for their children or go for a simple walk outside to not keep things in perspective. I hope my foundation’s support this month will offer encouragement and assistance needed to get these individuals and their families through the challenges they face.

This Week’s Joey Logano Foundation Chasing Second Chances Partner

This week, Chasing Second Chances is supporting Cancer Care Services out of Fort Worth, Texas. Their mission is to provide help and hope to cancer patients, survivors, their families and caregivers through direct financial, emotional, spiritual and social programs, services and activities.

You can learn more about them through this video: http://bit.ly/1M7jKqR

Cancer Care Services provides support to anyone impacted by cancer living in Tarrant, Parker or Hood counties. The services they provide include:

· Financial assistance for qualifying cancer patients: Cancer prescriptions, food supplements, medical equipment, supplies, transportation reimbursements, COBRA insurance payments, dental assistance and emergency funds;

· Emotional support for everyone: Free one-on-one family or group counseling, general or specialized support groups;

· Social support for everyone: Free yoga, massage therapy, children’s day camp, art therapy, music therapy, children’s play expression, educational seminars and other seasonal social activities;

· Spiritual support for everyone: Free, one-on-one counseling and support groups.

Through our gift of support, the Joey Logano Foundation hopes individuals and families seeking assistance will find comfort in a scary and many times overwhelming situation. We are proud to support this organization and the work they do to make the community a better place.

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Staff Report

Matt Kenseth:

“Really, I just want to. … I appreciate them having the process and going here, didn’t turn out like we wanted. Obviously, I’m more than a little disappointed with the decision and the penalties to start with. A couple of facts, which I’m sure you guys will find — I’m the first driver in the 65-year history of NASCAR to get suspended for an incident that happened in the Sprint Cup Series race, so I feel like I was unfairly made the example instead of knowing where the line is, what the penalties are.

Like I said, I’m extremely disappointed but we’ll get through this. Look forward to going to Homestead. I’m not going to change who I am. I’m not going to change what I stand for. I’m not going to change how I race. I’ve been in this business for a long time. I feel like I’ve had a pretty good career to this point, and I feel like I’m going to continue to have the respect on the race track that I feel like I deserve. So I’m looking forward to going to Homestead, hopefully going there and getting a win before the year is out.”

Joe Gibbs Racing team owner Joe Gibbs:

“I think all of us right now are just so disappointed. I just wanted to say, that guy right there has spent 20 years in this sport. He had one other minor infraction, I think it was a $5,000 fine. He has spent 20 years of his life racing in this sport and he’s been great for NASCAR. Our reason for appealing is we felt like this penalty was kind of unprecedented and it was inconsistent with a number of other on-track incidents. One of those is exactly like this one, and yet this penalty against Matt is an unprecedented one. I appreciate getting the chance to go through this process. I think we’ve done all we can do, and we’re going to go back to racing.”