Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Grubb heads back to Hendrick | See who is on the move for 2016

Darian Grubb, Hendrick Motorsports‘ newly appointed vehicle production director, said he was “somewhat surprised” by Joe Gibbs Racing‘s decision to remove him from a crew chief role after the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
 
Grubb’s remarks came Thursday afternoon on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “Tradin’ Paint” program with Chocolate Myers and Jim Noble.
 
The Joe Gibbs-owned organization released its crew chief lineup Dec. 21, saying that Grubb was “currently exploring several opportunities” after a four-year stint with the operation and that he would be succeeded by Dave Rogers as crew chief of the JGR No. 19 Toyota driven by Carl Edwards.

Grubb indicated he was placed on notice early on in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, where he helped guide Edwards to a fifth-place finish in the overall standings. The situation was similar to 2011, when Grubb was informed mid-Chase that he was unlikely to return to Stewart-Haas Racing, where he ultimately helped secure a Sprint Cup championship with driver/owner Tony Stewart that season.
 
“I was somewhat surprised,” Grubb told SiriusXM. “I mean, the first conversation I had about it was one week into the Chase. I was told at that point that I need to get nine more solid weeks in. I was like, ‘well, I’ve been through this before.’ Last time, it was six weeks; this time, it was nine. I knew something was going to come up with a change, and I guess fifth in points just wasn’t good enough in some people’s eyes, and five points away from running at Homestead.
 
“I knew I was going to be making some changes. I didn’t know what it was going to be at that point, but I had to start thinking about it. And then went on and found out I wasn’t going to be in a crew chief position, so I had to explore some options.”
 
Grubb landed with Hendrick Motorsports on Monday, returning to the organization that had helped jump-start his NASCAR career from 2003-08. Though the departure was an unexpected one, Grubb says he’ll look back with fondness on his years working at JGR with drivers Denny Hamlin and Edwards.

“The way it goes through, we had really good performance,” Grubb said. “We won every year. We were in contention for a championship all the way to the end most of the time. It was a good group to work with, they had a lot of good people there, and I think we accomplished a lot of good things. So it’s definitely nothing I’m going to look back and be disappointed in.”

In his new role with Hendrick, the 40-year-old Grubb will work hand-in-hand with vehicle technical director Kenny Francis to oversee all aspects of manufacturing race cars for the four-team organization. He said that he expects to maintain a regular presence at the track on race weekends and that he may have more freedom to potentially spend more time with his family, but said it would still take some adjustment to transition away from the role of crew chief.
 
“I’ll still be there and I’ll probably be pecking on people’s shoulders and trying to get up there and get in their ears and do whatever I can do,” Grubb said, “but it’s definitely going to be a shock to my system after so many years of doing that and hope I can add some benefit. I tell you, it’s going to be nice being able to actually say I want to take a weekend off to be able to spend with my family or something if I want to. I’ve only had one weekend off in 11 years and that was when I got married.”

Posted on by Staff Report

With a new team and a new year comes a new paint scheme for Elliott Sadler‘s OneMain Financial-sponsored Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

The paint scheme, as well as the number of the car, were revealed online Wednesday on OneMainRacing.com.

Sadler’s move to the Dale Earnhardt Jr. co-owned JRM was announced in October. At that announcement at Dover International Speedway, Earnhardt talked about the sense of steadiness their support would provide.

“Elliott has worked with OneMain for a very long time so that’s an easy relationship to trust and get behind and be a part of,” Earnhardt said. ” … I will say when we told our employees on the shop floor, they were ecstatic. It brings stability and those people really depend on that.”

In 2015, Sadler finished sixth in the XFINITY Series standings driving for Roush Fenway Racing. Before that, he spent two years driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and a season driving for Richard Childress Racing in XFINITY. In 296 starts in the series, Sadler has 10 wins.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Top moments in Gordon’s career

Well of course it was a fellow named Jeff Gordon who discovered a fellow named Jeff Gordon‘s celebrated inaugural NASCAR winning car – the debutante drive of what would become a Hall of Fame racing career.

And now — after years of effort to historically and meticulously restore the former Busch Grand National car that Jeff Gordon first drove to a NASCAR Victory Lane in 1992, three times total — the famed No. 1 Baby Ruth Ford will be showcased and available for purchase at the Barrett-Jackson auction Jan. 29 in Scottsdale, Arizona under the rather nondescript lot heading: “1094.1: 1992 T-Bird NASCAR.”

 

It has been both a labor of love and antiquity for the dozen or so involved in this project from the original guys who worked on the car like Billy Hess [original chassis builder], Keith Simmons [crew chief] and Ray Evernham — efforts led and inspired by the retired NHRA star Darrell Gwynn, who will donate the money raised in the auction to his Darrell Gwynn Quality of Life Chapter of The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis.

 

The Buoniconti Fund is the fundraising arm of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis — the world’s most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center located at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

This has not only been an interesting history lesson, but a true testament of care and inspiration.

And it all started innocently enough with Gwynn’s friend Gordon striking up a conversation at a car show in Daytona Beach years ago with a woman wearing a vintage Jeff Gordon Baby Ruth race car T-shirt. The woman surprised and confirmed to Gordon that her family actually owned the car, lived locally in Daytona Beach and after years of taking it to car shows, may be ready to sell it.

 

“So no one in this garage knows at the time that Jeff Gordon‘s car is right around the corner, how is that possible?” Gwynn recalled with a big smile.


RELATED: See some of Gordon’s iconic paint schemes


After examining the car Gwynn made a deal to purchase it from the family. He transported it from Florida — also Gwynn’s home — to Charlotte, where it sat for years. Hess and Simmons were able to confirm its authenticity with a couple of idiosyncratic details they were privy to knowing that the original car sported. Specifically, there was an extra roll bar under the dash. And they both helped immensely in carefully and authentically restoring the car for this month’s auction.

 

“So sure enough, Billy Hess goes outside his office and looks underneath the car and there’s that bar,” Gwynn explained. “I was so excited on the phone because I have ‘the car’ and my Jeff Gordon discovered it. I said, ‘I have to have this in writing.’ They got on a conference call and put together a certificate of authenticity and signed it.

 

“This car has been sitting for four, five years and Jeff made that announcement he was going to retire, so I felt like it’s time to do this,” Gwynn said. “I have a lot of fans at Barrett-Jackson and this car is one of the assets for [my foundation]. … one of the assets we gave when we merged our organizations.

 

“My superiors see this old beat-up stock car and I have to explain to them, ‘You don’t understand.’ But they smile and say ‘OK, Darrell. We believe in what you do.’

 

“Why am I doing this?” Gwynn offered with another huge smile. “I like to raise money for a great cause, number one. One of the stipulations when I partnered with the Miami Project was I’m going to have fun doing it.

 

“And this is my idea of having fun.”

 

Gordon’s stepfather John Bickford said he and Gordon are hoping to attend the auction for the sale of this car — Gordon’s appearance of course depends on his new work schedule as a NASCAR analyst for FOX Sports. But Bickford just looked at the finished product a week ago and was extremely impressed with the auction-ready result.

“Darrell did his research and was adamant he made the right choices and it was only earlier this year that everyone took a “relief breath” when Keith Simmons took a look at the car [to authenticate],” Bickford said.

 

“Everyone was on pins and needles. Darrell called and said, ‘it’s the car.’ I told him, ‘you’re one lucky dude, that’s all I can say.’ “Bickford recalled with a laugh.

 

“I’m happy for Darrell. I think Darrell is an iconic guy in motorsports and I think when you’re given a personal challenge and still find a way to give back to the world and try to make it better by what you’ve learned, you have to have respect for a guy like that.

“Life isn’t as easy for a guy like him as it is for you and I, but he gets up every day and works hard at it to give back to the people. It’s hard to find the right things at the right time, and sometimes things fall in place.”

 

Bickford was especially appreciative of the great attention to exact detail on the car, noting the white letters on the tires because it was just before Goodyear used gold coloring and the bias-ply tires, for example.

 

“What I like is Darrell really studied the pictures from Victory Lane,” Bickford said. “They really worked hard on the car. … These guys found all the Victory Lane pictures and made sure the car looked like the Victory Lane shots because that’s what they’re representing.”

CAIN: My dinner with Gordon


Another key part of this restoration and auction has been the reassurance and encouragement from the car’s original owner, Bill Davis, who not only helped launch Gordon’s NASCAR career but fielded the 2002 Daytona 500-winning car for driver Ward Burton and who will be inducted in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame this March.

“It’s a real cool thing,” said Davis, who sold his NASCAR assets in 2009 to focus on his successful trucking business. “The car basically got preserved and now restored to what it was and somebody will hopefully take it and love it and put in to collection.”

 

Davis especially appreciates being a critical part of the certain NASCAR Hall of Famer Gordon’s career storyline.

 

“I certainly look back at my entire NASCAR career with great fondness,” Davis said. “It was a wonderful thing for us to get to do and have the success we did and make the friends we did.”

 

Seemingly from the very beginning, this whole project seems “meant to be” — its work authenticated and verified by so many of the people originally involved in the car and what was to be, the start of much greatness.

 

“The stars weren’t aligned the last several years I was trying to make this happen,” Gwynn said. “I didn’t have room to store it, for example, so I stored it at Ray Evernham’s shop, which is around the corner from Billy Hess’ shop and Billy is the original chassis builder.

 

“He started taking the car apart and then Jeff makes the announcement he is going to retire. So I said, we’ve got to accelerate this process.

 

“I’ve always tried to do it around special times when I take a car to Barrett-Jackson. And this is certainly a special time.”

 

And certainly a special effort.

Posted on by Holly Cain

A 2015 rewind and a 2016 preview for the top five finishers last season in the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series. Today: Daniel Suarez, the fifth-place finisher in the XFNITY Series standings.


Team: Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota (drove the No. 18 Toyota in 2015)

RELATED: Suarez gets new number for 2016
 
Strides: Few drivers come into the series with such high expectations. But the young Suarez — who turns 24 on Jan. 7 — certainly made good on the promise outlook winning the 2015 XFINITY Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year title — the first Mexican-born driver to ever earn the prestigious award. He earned three poles as part of seven front-row starts and collected eight top-five and 18 top-10 finishes.
 
Setbacks: It took seven races to score his first top-five but a runner-up showing at the notoriously tough Bristol Motor Speedway went a long way toward establishing confidence and verifying his full-time move to one of NASCAR’s major series. He said he considered his improved second half of the season a better indicator of where things stand for the team. Suarez ended up averaging an 11.7 place finish on the season and should be a title contender in 2016 with a full year of competition under his belt.
 
Quoteworthy: “We have the speed and so many of the things we have to put in the right place. But something very important to me is the speed and we have that. If we can put ourselves in the right position to be patient, be strong and be consistent we will put ourselves in position (for the championship). If we are just a little bit better next year I feel we will have a shot.”
 
What’s next: Suarez should be used to high expectations, but in 2016 he will need to deliver after a rookie campaign in the XFINITY Series. He is in an envious position returning to the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing — a championship-level team highly-touted for having some of the best young emerging talent such as Suarez.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: See the some of Dale Jr’s 2016 paint schemes

Always the sentimentalist, Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted out a wonderful photo on Wednesday afternoon, showing a yellow race car with a No. 3 on the side.

The car, of course, belonged to his late father, Dale Earnhardt.

It’s tough to tell where the car was used and for what race, but it’s cool to see how even back then race cars were sponsored. Earnhardt’s ride was funded by a “John Burns Construction Co.” which has been around since 1906 and even listed their number on the side.

Pretty neat.

RELATED: Dale Jr. reveals favorite Christmas gift of all-time

Posted on by Staff Report

The No. 16 car that Greg Biffle now drives for Roush Fenway Racing has a storied history with several current and future NASCAR Hall of Fame members among its pilots — here’s look at some of those drivers in that number, on 1/6/16.

 

In addition to Biffle, some of the best drivers who have wheeled the No. 16 are Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Fireball Roberts, Rusty Wallace, Joe Weatherly and Glen Wood. 

Several more have driven the 16, including Wally Dallenbach Jr., Ted Musgrave, and Kevin Lepage, who were among the first to drive the car for Roush Racing, debuting it for the team in 1992.

More than 80 drivers have been behind the wheel of the No. 16 for at least one race. Vote in our poll for the best of the bunch. 

 

Posted on by Team Release

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) announced today the addition of Kevin “Bono” Manion to the team’s crew chief lineup for the team’s three-truck effort in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for 2016. Manion will call the shots for the Tundra that will be shared by drivers Daniel Suarez and Cody Coughlin. Additionally, the team announced that 2015 Truck Series champion crew chief Rudy Fugle will be paired with 2015 K&N Pro Series East champion William Byron and veteran crew chief Jerry Baxter will guide Christopher Bell‘s efforts.

Manion brings with him 12 years of experience as a NASCAR crew chief, spending the last 10 seasons in the Sprint Cup Series. The Massachusetts native collected five victories in his time atop the pit box in NASCAR’s premier series, including two marquee wins with Jamie McMurray in 2010; the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. Before graduating into NASCAR’s top division, he guided Martin Truex Jr., to back-to-back NASCAR XFINITY Series titles in 2004 and 2005. In addition to his five Sprint Cup Series victories, Manion boasts 15 XFINITY Series wins; 13 with Truex Jr., and two with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Fugle begins his third season as a crew chief at KBM and fifth overall with the team. Under his tutelage last season, Erik Jones posted three wins, five poles, 925 laps led, 11 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes en route to becoming the youngest champion in Truck Series history and the first driver to collect both the Rookie of the Year and the series title in the same year. The duo also nabbed KBM its record-breaking fourth Truck Series Owner’s championship last season, which was the second with Fugle calling the shots. In 2013, he led KBM’s No. 51 Tundra team to a series-leading six wins and an Owner’s Championship. The New York native’s Truck Series drivers have totaled nine wins, six poles, 21 top-five and 35 top-10 finishes across his 44 races atop the pit box for KBM.

Baxter begins his fourth season atop the pit box for KBM. Combined in his first three seasons, the California native’s drivers posted seven wins, three poles, 1171 laps led, 24 top-five and 40 top-10 finishes across 67 starts. The veteran crew chief spent the 2015 season calling the shots for KBM’s No. 51 team, which collected two wins, 10 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes with drivers Daniel Suarez (12 starts), Matt Tifft (six starts), Kyle Busch (three starts) and Christopher Bell (one start) behind the wheel. In addition to his seven wins at KBM, his resume includes a Truck Series win with Cale Gale in 2012 and a NASCAR XFINITY Series win with David Reutimann in 2007.

“The goal at KBM is to have all three of our teams competing for wins and top fives every race and consistently be among the battle for the Owner’s Championship,” Busch said. “Rudy, Jerry and the group of crew members that they have assembled on their respective teams, and everyone in the shop have accomplished those goals the past few seasons and the third team made strides through all of last season. With the addition of Bono — a guy who is a true racer and a proven winner at NASCAR’s highest level — as the leader of that group of guys, I’m confident that their performance level will be much improved this season.”

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It’s hard to believe, but Kyle Busch was crowned 2015 Sprint Cup Series champion at Homestead-Miami Speedway nearly a month and a half ago. Now that we’re smack dab in the middle of NASCAR’s offseason and the season-opening Daytona 500 is on the horizon, it’s time to look forward to the 2016 season.

So let’s get to it — NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola and RJ Kraft make their cases for which Cup teams are in the best position to produce the 2016 champ and which is primed to make a comeback.

DeCola: First off — Happy New Year, everybody. Hope you’re starting to look forward to the upcoming season; I know I am. You know who else must be? Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, because Team Penske will produce the 2016 champion. After a successful, yet tumultuous 2015 season that saw a couple of their rivals finish first (Kyle Busch) and second (Kevin Harvick) overall, the Penske duo is primed to ride a wave of motivation into ’16 that should carry deep into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. It’s conceivable the pair will both be racing for a title in Miami this November. It’s likely one of them walks away a champion.

Kraft: The Penske duo is strong but I don’t see the title leaving where it currently resides at Joe Gibbs Racing. The four-car organization produced the most wins of any team last year (14) and has four title contenders taking the track every week. JGR hit big on the reduced downforce package in 2015 (with Kyle Busch winning at Kentucky and Carl Edwards winning at Darlington), and that will be the base package in 2016. It’s hard to see the Sprint Cup championship changing shop addresses after the upcoming season.

DeCola: Needless to say, I’m sure there will be surprises (like Kyle Busch winning the title after breaking his leg and foot to start the season) along the way that could change everything. Speaking of surprising comebacks, who do you have pegged as a team bound to make one in 2016? We saw plenty of organizations fail to meet expectations in ’15, so “bounce-back candidates” is a heavy category. I’m thinking Kyle Larson puts it all together in his third season to put his sophomore slump behind him and earn his first career Chase berth. Could certainly see him — and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Jamie McMurray — picking up a win or two, as well, something the organization has lacked since 2013.

Kraft: I’m going a little more off the grid with my choice, Richard Petty Motorsports. Aric Almirola was a surprise Chase participant in 2014 and despite missing the Chase in 2015, Almirola was more consistent with his career-best average finish of 17.9. Add in two top-12 showings on the reduced-downforce package as well as five top 10s in his final 11 races and the 31-year-old looks poised to make a move up the standings. Adding Brian Scott as a teammate should help as well. The longtime XFINITY Series driver has only had a handful of Cup starts, but his three top 15s in 10 starts in 2015 were one less than former RPM driver Sam Hornish Jr. had over a full season in 2015.

 

This debate has established one thing for certain: The 2016 season can’t get here fast enough.

Posted on by Staff Report

Kentucky Speedway announced Tuesday that it will undertake a multiple-point renovation of its 1.5-mile track, including a full repave, increased banking in Turns 1 and 2 and more energy-absorbing SAFER barrier.



The work, which includes improvements to the track’s drainage system, will be complete in time for its NASCAR weekend for all three national series July 7-9.



The repaving project will mark the first new asphalt for Kentucky Speedway since it opened with a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event in 2000. The track, which has hosted NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races the last five years, had become known for its character-building bumps in the rough surface.



After the renovations are complete, Kentucky may be best known for it asymmetric layout. Turns 1 and 2 will increase their banking from 14 to 17 degrees, narrowing the racing groove in the process. Turns 3 and 4 will remain at their original 14 degrees.



“I am excited about the finished product as we wanted to present a unique challenge to the drivers,” project manager Steve Swift said, vice president of operations and development for parent company Speedway Motorsports Inc. “This design, with Turns 1 and 2 completely different than 3 and 4 accomplishes that goal. The big winner will be the race fan.”



The track will also seek to improve safety with the addition of 3,200 feet of the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction Barrier (SAFER) system, following the lead of several other tracks on the NASCAR schedule.



Kentucky also aims to combat drainage issues, specifically “weepers” where water burbles up through cracks in the racing surface. The drainage trouble hampered track-drying efforts during last year’s NASCAR tripleheader, which also featured a test day for the new reduced-downforce aero rules package that will be the base setup for the Sprint Cup Series this season.