Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Complete driver roster for 2016

The folks at Wood Brothers Racing are busy getting ready for this month’s Daytona 500, the season-opening race for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

 

That is not unusual. The legendary team has prepared for the series’ biggest, most well known race ever since there was a Daytona 500. This year is No. 58 for the event billed as the “Great American Race.”

 

Actually, the family-owned organization’s Daytona history runs a bit deeper — team founder and patriarch Glen Wood competed on the beach and road course before the 2.5-mile superspeedway rose up a few miles inland.

 

What’s unusual is what will follow. Because after Daytona will be Atlanta. And Las Vegas. And Phoenix and Auto Club. Martinsville and Texas and Bristol. And on and on and on.

 

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule whips across the country, and this year, for the first time since 2008, the Wood Brothers and their familiar red-and-white No. 21 Ford will be there every step of the way.

 

“I’m looking forward to going back to some of the tracks we haven’t been to for a while like Atlanta, Martinsville — I really love road courses and things like that, places that present an opportunity that’s a little different, even like a Pocono,” Len Wood, who along with brother Eddie oversee the operation of the team today. “Anything can happen at a Pocono or a road course, so that’s what I’m looking for.”

 

The team has 98 victories, but only one since cutting back to a limited schedule. Granted, it was a big one — the 2011 Daytona 500 with driver Trevor Bayne.

 

Last year, Ryan Blaney made 16 starts for team, finishing with top 10s at Talladega in the spring (fourth) and Kansas in the fall (seventh). He scored a pair of XFINITY Series wins (Iowa-2, Kentucky-2) while driving for Team Penske and a Camping World Truck Series victory (at Bristol) for owner/driver Brad Keselowski.


MORE: Blaney clarifies height conspiracy


His Sprint Cup schedule may have been limited, but the knowledge gained was not.

 

“It’s good to get experience, it’s good to work with the whole team on these Cup cars and be able to race around the competition,” Blaney, 22, said. “Just racing around your other competitors is one of the biggest battles — knowing how they race and just learning from them.

 

“That’s something I’ve been able to do in the Truck Series and the XFINITY Series. But the Cup side is way different. The cars are way different, they handle way different, there are different things you can do.

 

“It was definitely a learning year, a good year to get us prepared for this full-time season.”


RELATED: Who is the favorite for Sunoco Rookie honors?


Blaney, along with Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports), Chris Buescher (Front Row Motorsports), Brian Scott (Richard Petty Motorsports) and Jeffrey Earnhardt (Go FAS Racing) make up this year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year class. All have multiple Sprint Cup Series starts, from Earnhardt’s two to Blaney’s 18.

 

The Wood Brothers team will continue its technical alliance with Team Penske, likewise a Ford organization and one that fields Sprint Cup teams for Keselowski, the 2012 series champion, and teammate Joey Logano.

 

Crew chief Jeremy Bullins is a former Penske crew chief, having helped lead all three drivers to Victory Lane in the XFINITY Series. Bullins also has ties to the Wood Brothers — he began his career working with the group when the team shop was still based in tiny Stuart, Virginia.

 

“For me personally, it’s a big deal to be on this car, for this car to be successful,” Bullins said.

 

How successful the team can be as it transitions back to full-time status, Bullins said, “is up to us.”

 

“When you look at Ryan and his ability, the equipment that we have and the resources we have, really it’s up to us and how far we take it,” he said. “Obviously the goal, the reason we are here, is to try to win races and try to win championships eventually.

 

“When you start your first year in the Cup series, you don’t anticipate that but it’s up to us how far we take it. The potential is there, for sure.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Gearing up for its seventh year, the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation announced that tickets are now on sale for the annual Catwalk for a Cause event, a childhood cancer fundraiser. 

The fundraiser takes place May 18 in downtown Mooresville, North Carolina, and this year the event is beach-themed. Fans should make sure to snag their tickets quick because they’ve been known to sell out.

“People start asking about tickets in October,” Truex Jr. said. “We sold out last year at 600 and we hope to have the same success this year. We don’t focus on the dark side of cancer. We focus on living in the moment and letting these kids shine.”

Catwalk celebrates its seventh year, with money raised going to support childhood cancer initiatives at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. It also helps to drive awareness and funding through efforts within the NASCAR community and with their involvement in the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer nationally, and the Rare Cancer Coalition, newly formed with partner foundations across the Carolinas.

This year, the foundation is proud to announce that the event will be sponsored by Nature’s Bakery — a sponsor of Danica Patrick in the Sprint Cup Series.

“We could not be more excited to have Nature’s Bakery as a partner for Catwalk,” Sherry Pollex, foundation vice president and co-founder of Catwalk, said. “Danica was a crowd favorite last year and to have Nature’s Bakery support her and support us in this way is extraordinary.”

Posted on by Staff Report

FOX Sports announced Monday that former Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick would return as a guest analyst for its NASCAR XFINITY Series coverage in 2016, starting with the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.
 
Harvick broadcasted three events as a guest in the FOX booth last season, including the 2015 opener. He’ll be alongside Adam Alexander and Michael Waltrip for this season’s PowerShares QQQ 300 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN/SiriusXM).
 
Harvick earned largely positive reviews for his broadcast work last season.
 
“I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, actually,” Harvick said after his Daytona debut last February. “It was kind of a new challenge and for me, I felt like you kind of bring that perspective to the booth of right off the race track and being able to really relate to what’s going on on the race track, with being elementary enough to relate to the race fans so that you can keep it simple and understand. It’s something that I definitely enjoyed and had a lot of fun doing.”
 
FOX Sports used a handful of Sprint Cup drivers for its XFINITY broadcasts last season. Among those was Jeff Gordon, who joins the FOX booth full-time this year. Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer and Danica Patrick also took turns providing commentary for FOX Sports in 2015.

Announcements on additional Sprint Cup drivers in the FOX NASCAR booth for 2016 XFINITY Series races are forthcoming, according to a network release.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: See the 2016 paint schemes

AdvoCare teamed up with Roush Fenway Racing to unveil Trevor Bayne‘s 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series paint scheme on Monday via social media through a click, share and reveal campaign.

Bayne has been sponsored by AdvoCare since 2014 starting in the XFINITY Series and the company was the primary sponsor on the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Cup ride in 2015. The 23-year-old wheeled the No. 6 Advocare-sponsored ride for all 36 races last season, earning a year-best ninth-place results at Michigan (in June) and Daytona (in July). The 2015 season marked Bayne’s first full-time season in the sport’s top series.

Bayne has one career Sprint Cup win, the season-opening Daytona 500 in 2011, as a part-time driver for Wood Brothers Racing.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Several drivers head to California to pull for Panthers

Super Bowl 50 will take place this weekend in Santa Clara, California, between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. The game has plenty of star power, headlined by quarterbacks Cam Newton and Peyton Manning.

With many NASCAR teams located close to the Charlotte home of the Panthers, many drivers will likely be pulling for the hometown team. On the other side, Kyle Busch‘s Denver Broncos fandom is well-known and Furniture Row Racing has its headquarters in Denver (who the single-car team is pulling for is no secret in the video a bit below).

Check out the video above to see Busch, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Kasey Kahne and more offer their choices for the best Super Bowl team ever. And you can also see why Erik Jones should not become a football prognosticator anytime soon.

Just who are drivers pulling for in Sunday’s big game? Noted Washington Redskins fan Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his pick over the weekend. Check back over the week as we update with more picks.

 

 

Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shared their picks with The Charlotte Observer, with both drivers taking the Broncos and siding with seeing Manning win a second Super Bowl. See their full explanations for their picks here.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Bowyer to drive for HScott in 2016

 

HScott Motorsports and Clint Bowyer have welcomed a new sponsor. A VISINE paint scheme will adorn Clint Bowyer‘s No. 15 Chevrolet fielded by HScott Motorsports as primary sponsor in three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events this season. VISINE will also serve as an associate sponsor and marketing partner for the entire season.

 

The primary sponsorship includes the races at Auto Club Speedway on March 20, Texas Motor Speedway on April 9 and Pocono Raceway on June 5.

 

Last month, HScott Motorsports announced that it was moving shop locations from Spartanburg, South Carolina to Mooresville, North Carolina. The team also revealed that Bowyer will continue to pilot the No. 15, which is a transposition for HScott, which inherited the No. 51 when it purchased the team from James Finch in 2013.

 

5-Hour Energy will be the primary sponsor of Bowyer’s entry for 24 of next season’s 36 races.

RELATED: See more 2016 paint schemes

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 31, 2016) — While the 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in the race’s history, attrition has claimed a handful of favorites as the race hits the halfway mark and the second segment of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.

At the conclusion of the 12th hour, multiple cars remain on the lead lap in all four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes, but it’s the cars that are no longer in contention that are the story. Among those: the early favorites in both the Prototype and GT Daytona (GTD) classes, and last year’s overall race winner.

The action started in the eighth hour when Tony Kanaan, driving the defending race-winning No. 02 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP, went behind the wall with a brake issue while running second. One hour later, the class of the Prototype field retired when Ozz Negri pulled the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Tire Kingdom Honda Ligier JS P2 off the track with an engine failure while leading.

That left the battle for the Prototype lead and the race for the maximum five Patrón Endurance Cup points awarded at the 12-hour mark to none other than the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP of Scott Pruett — who enters the race tied with Hurley Haywood with five overall Rolex 24 wins — and the No. 2 Tequila Patrón Honda Ligier JS P2 of Pipo Derani. Derani passed Pruett with five minutes remaining in the segment to earn the maximum five points.

Through two segments the No. 2 Tequila Patrón Honda Ligier JS P2 and the No. 31 Whelen Corvette DP — which finished the second segment in third — lead the Prototype class with seven points in the four-race competition that makes up the four longest endurance races in the WeatherTech Championship. The Michael Shank Racing entry also has seven points, but is out of the race and will score the minimum two points in the two remaining segments.

A major shakeup also occurred in the GTD class in the 10th hour. The No. 16 Pertamina/Monster Energy Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Justin Marks and the No. 48 Castrol/Universal Industrial Services Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Bryce Miller collided in Turn 1 while battling for the lead, knocking both out of contention. The No. 48 Lamborghini is tied for the Patrón Endurance Cup lead at seven points with the race-leading No. 23 Team Seattle/Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT3R.

The No. 52 Professional Security Consultants ORECA FLM09 of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports has led at the end of both segments to lead in PC with 10 points, while the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR team leads the way with nine points in GTLM. The No. 912 Porsche is second with seven points, along with the No. 68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE which leads at halfway.

The Patrón Endurance Cup will continue with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Best photos from Rolex 24

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona was certainly rare of late, in that none of the current NASCAR drivers entered in the great sports car race hoisted an overall winner’s trophy.

Since Casey Mears became the first full-time Sprint Cup Series driver to score an overall victory in this event in 2006 — NASCAR drivers have won five more grand Rolex titles, including team owner Chip Ganassi’s head-turning sixth overall victory last year.

XFINITY Series driver Brendan Gaughan was NASCAR’s highest finisher this year, his No. 20 ORECA FLM09 finishing third in the PC class; nine laps behind the class winner and eight laps ahead of the next car in class; 43 laps down to the overall winner.

“It was a lot of fun to come back to the 24 — my average finish is 2 now (he won in GT3 Class in 2011) so I either retire now or come back for another Rolex,’” Gaughan said. “Such a great event and what an honor to be here.”


Former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year (2011) Andy Lally claimed his fifth class win in the GTD classification.

But as is sometimes the case in this 24-hour endurance test, some of NASCAR’s biggest names didn’t end up hoisting trophies, instead finding the value in turning laps on the speedway to feel prepped and ready come stock car’s version of Speedweeks here in two weeks.

“I’m spending Tuesday with my new spotter and we’re going to watch speedway races and intermediate tracks and go over what we expect of each other,” 2015 race winner Jamie McMurray said. “Once this race is over, your focus just goes to your real job (in NASCAR).”

The defending overall Rolex race winning team of McMurray and co-drivers Kyle Larson, IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and former Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan finished 13th overall, 28 laps down after a crash with approximately three hours remaining thwarted any chance of a podium finish.

Larson was driving when the car suffered its second major brake problem of the race, launching the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year straight into a tire barrier at substantial speed.

“That one time, it locked early and wasn’t slowing down and I didn’t make the corner and I drilled the barriers,” Larson said, assuring that he was fine physically.

“I’ve never hit anything like that so I was just hoping it would be soft. It was pretty soft. I’m not hurting at all. Glad I’m going to be here in two weeks in a stock car.”

His No. 02 Ford prototype suffered multiple nagging problems throughout its title defense this week, forcing time off track to repair and the laps lost — even earlier in the event — proved too much to overcome. Still, they finished seventh in class.

NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger was scored 50th in the 54-car field. His No. 60 Honda prototype — which won the 50th anniversary of this race four years ago — suffered engine failure about nine and a half hours into the 24-hour affair. The Michael Shank Racing team had hoped to score a victory in honor of their longtime driver Justin Wilson, who was killed competing in an IndyCar race last season.

And while the overall race winning Honda team will duly and deservedly earn the world’s headlines this week, the new look Daytona International Speedway will also be talked about for a great while.


RELATED: Larson, McMurray react to Daytona renovations


It proved a wonderful venue for the Rolex and will be packed with fans and VIPs in only two weeks as NASCAR takes over for its 2016 edition of Speedweeks. Having some time to check out the $400 million speedway makeover this week, the drivers were impressed and enthused about the new-look facility. And track executives couldn’t be more ready to introduce it to the NASCAR crowd.

“The Rolex 24 is a unique event but the focus has always been on the infield,” Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood said. “We’re so excited that Daytona Rising and the Rolex 24 has given fans a chance to check out the concourses, sight lines and seats, but with NASCAR coming to town, we know all the grandstand amenities on the other side of the stadium will be put to their fullest tests because we’ll get maximum capacity.

“So all those great NASCAR fans that never get a chance to get into the infield are going to enjoy the Daytona 500 and the events with all the great things on the outside — 1,400 screens, we’ve got wifi in all concourses, vertical transportation, social zones, you name it.

“That’s when we’ll put the Daytona International Speedway to a true test when we’re at max capacity with all those NASCAR fans during Speedweeks.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: NBC Sports Live Extra


All times ET

Monday, Feb. 1
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
2 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub (re-air), FS2

Tuesday, Feb. 2
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
3 a.m. NASCAR Race Hub (re-air), FS2

Wednesday, Feb. 3
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
7:30 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
3 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub (re-air), FS2

Thursday, Feb. 4
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
7:30 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
8 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
8:30 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
2 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub (re-air), FS2

Friday, Feb. 5
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
8 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
3:30 p.m., NASCAR America: Stories of NASCAR #6 (re-air), NBCSN
4 p.m., NASCAR America: Top Moments (re-air), NBCSN
4:30 p.m., The List: Best Daytona Moments, NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN

Saturday, Feb. 6
7:30 p.m., The List: Best Daytona Moments (re-air), NBCSN
11:30 p.m., The List: Best Daytona Moments (re-air), NBCSN

 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Photos from Rolex 24 at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Appropriately enough, after 24 hours of seemingly non-stop action, the fastest car still running was the overall winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Luis Felipe “Pipo” Derani, a baby-faced 22-year-old racing prodigy from Brazil, took the checkered flag on Sunday afternoon in the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Honda-powered Ligier JS P2, 26.166 seconds ahead of 2005 overall winner Max Angelleli in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP.

Derani brought home victory for teammates Scott Sharp, a Rolex 24 winner in 1996 (partnered, coincidentally, with Wayne Taylor), Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek.

Derani, who also gave Honda its first win in the season-opening event in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, is the fourth youngest overall winner of the race.

“The last two-and-a-half hours were pretty tough, pretty intense, with the Taylor brothers (Ricky and Jordan in the No. 10) pushing us really hard,” Derani said. “So to not make any mistakes and increase the gap up to the end was amazing.”

In the factory-backed GT Le Mans Class, Oliver Gavin held off Corvette Racing teammate Antonio Garcia in a side-by-side battle at the stripe to win the classification by .034 seconds in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R.

With two laps left, Garcia passed Gavin to the outside in the tri-oval, but with a deft crossover move, Gavin retook the top spot as the cars entered Turn 1.

“To race against Antonio is a pleasure,” Gavin said. “He’s an amazing teammate, and I knew I was going to have my work cut out to beat him.”

In GT Daytona, Magnus Racing’s Rene Rast nursed his No. 44 Audi R8 LMS GT3 to the finish line to hold off Nicky Catsburg in the No. 540 Porsche GT3 R by 3.048 seconds.

Rast’s co-drivers were John Potter, Marco Seefried and 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco rookie of the year Andy Lally, who picked up his fifth class win (and fourth in a GT car) in the Rolex 24.

In a gut-wrenching late-race decision by the team, Rast let the No. 28 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 driven by Fabio Babini pass him with eight minutes left, calculating the Lamborghini wouldn’t be able to finish the race on fuel. The gamble paid off.

But the Audi was short on fuel, too. Rast ran out of gas on the backstretch after taking the checkered flag.

“This means my little sister gets a watch,” said Lally, who has won a total of eight Rolexes (and given six of the previous seven away) with his five class wins and three series titles. “This was teamwork. This was amazing. …

“We were the little engine that could today. We probably had the slowest top speeds of everybody, but we had a really good-handling car, and we had superstars that were driving this thing who were my teammates.”

Chris Miller, Stephen Simpson, Misha Goikhberg and Kenton Koch drove the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Chevrolet-powered ORECA FLM 09 to a convincing four-lap victory in the Prototype Challenge class.

Finishing third in PC, nine laps down was the pole-winning No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports team that included full-time NASCAR driver Brendan Gaughan.

The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 was the equal of the overall race winner, if not better, but engine failure in the eighth hour sidelined the entry piloted by NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger, Oswaldo Negri, John Pew and Olivier Pla.

In fact, soon after Allmendinger turned over the car to Negri as the clock approached midnight on Saturday, the car expired while leading.

The defending overall champion No. 02 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Prototype raced by NASCAR drivers Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson and IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan suffered brake problems while running second and lost five laps in the eighth hour.

But the coup de grace to the team’s hopes for back-to-back wins came with 2 hours 50 minutes left, when Larson went off course in the West Hairpin and slammed nose-first into the tire barrier.

Again, brakes were the culprit.

“The four laps previous we started getting brake issues again,” Larson said afterward. “They said it looked like I had just lost all my rear brake, but it was locking my fronts up pretty easy, so I started braking really early. …

“It didn’t slow down enough to make the corner, and I drilled the barrier. We didn’t have a shot to win anyway, but it does suck that we tore up a race car, and I’m disappointed.”

The car left the track on a roll-back (though it did return after repairs), but Larson was unhurt in the crash. Now he can turn his attention to his full-time job, competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in the No. 42 Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

“I’m going toward the tire barriers really fast, and you’re just like, ‘I’ve never hit anything like that,’ ” Larson said. “So I was just kind of hoping it was going to be soft. It was pretty soft. I don’t even remember anything hurting at all or whiplash or nothing.

“I’m glad I’m going to be here in two weeks in a stock car.”

Note: As soon as the race was over, Angelelli was taken to a local hospital for observation and evaluation. Specific information about his condition was not available, other than that Angelelli was “conscious and stable.”