Posted on by Nascar

Harry Scott didn’t set out to own the most teams competing in NASCAR, but that’s pretty much the situation the Raleigh, North Carolina native finds himself in today.

Scott currently fields eight teams in NASCAR — two in the Sprint Cup Series through his HScott Motorsports organization, one XFINITY Series team in collaboration with fellow Sprint Cup owner Chip Ganassi and five NASCAR K&N Pro Series East teams with co-owner/driver Justin Marks.

Last year, driver Ben Rhodes captured the K&N Pro Series East title while driving for Scott’s group.

“My goal eventually is to have one of these K&N drivers come all the way with me or with an affiliated organization — come from our K&N East operation to XFINITY and on up to Cup. That would be a pretty special thing,” Scott told NASCAR.com earlier this season.

This weekend’s racing program at Richmond International Raceway will see each of Scott’s teams in action as the three-quarter mile track hosts K&N East, XFINITY and Sprint Cup events.

Drivers William Byron and Scott Heckert headed into Thursday night’s UNOH 100 at RIR first and second in points with teammates Dalton Sargeant (fourth), J.J. Haley (sixth) and Rico Abreu (seventh) also in the top 10.

Brennan Poole, who has split seat time with Sprint Cup driver Kyle Larson and Marks in the No. 42 XFINITY Series entry, will make his 14th start of the season in Friday’s Virginia529 College Savings 250.

Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 will include HScott Motorsports drivers Justin Allgaier and Michael Annett.

That’s quite a lot to keep up with for an owner who began his NASCAR efforts less than seven years ago by partnering with then-Nationwide Series owner Todd Braun and Braun Racing.

“I’ve always been interested in racing, always been a race fan, always been attracted to it,” Scott, founder of AccuDoc Solutions, a medical billing services provider, said. “Growing up in Raleigh I wasn’t in the racing scene, I didn’t grow up in it. My father was a physician. The first real inside exposure that I had was with Todd and that group. I was introduced to them in Daytona in February of 2009. We built a friendship and then we built a partnership in 2010.

“It was almost an internship. I had the ability to get the exposure; they welcomed me. It was a really good opportunity to get the experience that prepared me for what it’s become today through a series of other opportunities.”

After Braun ceased operations, Scott joined forces with team owner Steve Turner, who fielded XFINITY, Camping World Truck Series and K&N teams. The union, though, was already dissolving in the fall of 2013 when the opportunity for Scott to become a Sprint Cup team owner surfaced.

Scott had been considering such a move, “but not necessarily at that point,” he said.

Former team owner James Finch was looking to unload his Phoenix Racing operation, and Scott was an interested party.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Scott said. “I’m very pleased that I took the jump and took the risk. In an ideal situation for me, it was probably a year or two earlier than what I had expected. But it’s worked out really, really well.”

The fact that he wouldn’t have to build a team from the ground up was enticing, and less costly. Phoenix Racing also already had working arrangements in place with Hendrick Motorsports (which had also provided engines to Turner Scott) to supply engine and chassis.

Primary sponsor Brandt had expressed an interest in moving into Sprint Cup as well.

“All those things kind of came together in September of 2013,” Scott said. “It was an opportunity that I really couldn’t turn down.

“The key to being able to do all this are the relationships that we’ve been able to forge with Hendrick, with Chevrolet, with Stewart-Haas now, they provide us some engineering support, and our sponsor relationships. Without all of those things, there’s no way we could compete and do what we do. It was almost a perfect storm so to speak.”

The association with Ganassi made sense on two fronts — Scott had the available XFINITY Series operation from the earlier Turner-Scott affiliation and Ganassi needed a feeder series for the development of driver Kyle Larson.

An expected two-year program for Larson, however, was cut in half when the opportunity to put the youngster in the No. 42 vacated by Juan Pablo Montoya surfaced. But the team remains in place, another stop on the racing ladder where drivers can continue to gain experience.

“It’s a good fit for both of us because (Ganassi) provides us with a lot of support technically; we lease space in their shop and it also allows Chip to stay close to Larson’s racing … Obviously they’ve got an interest in making sure he’s in the most competitive equipment he can be in. As we both do.”

His Sprint Cup teams, Scott said are “paying our dues.” Allgaier, in just his second full season, is 30th in points while Annett, who joined HScott in January after a ’14 season with Tommy Baldwin Racing, is 36th.

Scott is among the younger Sprint Cup Series team owners at 49 and hopes to be around “as long as I’m able to do it physically.”

“I’m not in it for the short term,” he said. “I’m trying to build this the right way. Some of these guys have got 20, 30 years head start on me. It’s hard when you’re competing against them every week to keep it in perspective. You want to be as competitive as you can, but you also don’t want to be naïve enough and get disappointed when you’re racing a Hendrick organization, or Joe Gibbs or Stewart-Haas. …

“I didn’t come into the Cup series thinking I was going to light the world on fire immediately, because it just doesn’t happen, I don’t care how much resources you have. It’s not just resources. It’s people, it’s time, it’s experience, and you can’t buy experience.”

Scott sees the ownership landscape changing, and says he hopes he can assist others the way owners today have helped him. He listens, he is given advice and he learns.

“I take all that to heart,” he said of conversations with Hendrick, Ganassi and others. I’m glad they’re here.

“There will come a time where hopefully I’m in their position giving the advice and I can give back to the sport, help young teams coming along … and that would be my ultimate goal — to bring some of these young drivers along too. That would be really fulfilling.”

Posted on by Nascar

Movement back and forth between the 2015 base rules package, the lower downforce platform used at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway, and the high drag package used by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams at Indianapolis and Michigan has concluded.

But there are still a few more changes in store for teams as they prepare for this weekend’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond (7:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), as well as the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup that follows.

A new right-side tire code awaits Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series competitors at Richmond as Goodyear officials have gone away from the multi-zone tread tire used at the three-quarter mile track earlier this year. The right-side tire for this race is a single compound built around the same compound used on the outside of the tire surface in April.

The multi-zone tires have been used at several venues — including Atlanta, Texas and Charlotte as well as Richmond.

With one restrictor-plate race remaining, Oct. 25 at Talladega, teams will roll out the superspeedway package — which consists of a slightly different aerodynamic package.

While most competitors have been pleased with the reduced downforce package used most recently at Darlington, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said earlier this week that the plan to run only the original ’15 package throughout the 10-race Chase remains in place.

The 2016 package, he said, likely will be delivered to teams by month’s end following talks with manufacturers, teams and others in the industry.

No Test at Auto Club

NASCAR officials have cancelled a Goodyear tire test and open team test scheduled for Oct. 27-29 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

Goodyear determined it wasn’t necessary to return to the 2-mile track based on tire wear results from this past season’s race. And with Goodyear canceling the two-day portion of the test, teams opted not to make the cross-country trek a day before having to be in Martinsville, Virginia, for the opening race of the Eliminator Round in this year’s Chase.

Teams from Richard Childress Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Roush Fenway Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing were scheduled to participate in the Goodyear portion of the test.

Only two open tests remain on this year’s National Series Unified Testing schedule — next week (Sept. 14-16) at Kansas Speedway and Oct. 12-14 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Darlington Warnings

Two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams and two XFINITY Series teams were issued warnings as a result of inspection issues at Darlington Raceway this past weekend.

On the Sprint Cup side, the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota with driver Denny Hamlin failed pre-race inspection four times, resulting in a warning for the team. The No. 62 Premium Motorsports entry failed pre-qualifying inspection twice and received a warning as well.

The XFINITY Series teams of series points leader Chris Buescher and the No. 17 entry fielded by owner Rick Ware were late arriving in the inspection line and will be docked 15 minutes of practice time.

Buescher’s team will serve the penalty at RIR. The No. 17 team is currently not entered in this weekend’s event.

Winning Combination

This month’s Century Poll asked 100 members of the NASCAR community which rules package NASCAR should move forward with as it prepares for the ’16 season.

Nearly 50 percent of those responding selected the low downforce with a softer tire (the package used most recently at Darlington).

More than one fourth (27 percent) chose a low downforce package with more horsepower while 15 percent said different packages for different tracks would be the way to go.

The Century Poll is made up of 50 members of the NASCAR garage (owners, drivers, track officials, etc.) and 50 members of the media.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Hamlin tears ACL playing basketball

Odds are that Denny Hamlin considers his pickup basketball games as healthy maintenance — his time on the court conditioning for the body, therapeutic for the mind.

Or both.

Unfortunately, while playing hoops Tuesday night, Hamlin tore his right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and will need offseason surgery. Joe Gibbs Racing says doctors have cleared Hamlin to compete in the remaining 11 races this season — including Saturday night’s regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

Hamlin’s injury and its timing, however, have brought immediate judgment.

Bring on the bubble wrap.

Should a driver just about to start NASCAR’s 10-race playoff run put himself in position to get hurt? Should team owners react with special “no-risk” clauses in driver contracts?

Hamlin’s weekday game of basketball is really not much different than Jimmie Johnson cycling 50 miles on race morning or Kasey Kahne running 10 miles the evening after a Sprint Cup Series practice.

It’s no different than Danica Patrick challenging her body to contort into a difficult yoga pose, Carl Edwards lifting weights or Josh Wise and Landon Cassill competing in a grueling Ironman 70.3-miler in the Austrian Alps during an off-weekend.

Any of those activities poses a risk.

NASCAR drivers are sometimes in more dangerous situations making sponsorship appearances. They skydive, swim with sharks, run military-grade obstacle courses and go hunting for public relations commitments and promotional obligations.

Brad Keselowski hurt himself celebrating a win in Kentucky Speedway‘s Victory Lane, for Pete’s sake.

An accident is just that.

And it’s an ironic situation these race car drivers find themselves in. They make a living doing something extremely risky — maneuvering cars at 200 mph while racing inches apart from other cars and track walls.

And yet it’s their “safe” downtime spent jogging, cycling, shooting hoops or doing yoga — most motivated by the desire to improve their competitive abilities — that proves most worrisome.

Contract “reviews” will be called for, as will bold suggestions for more clauses than a Santa convention.

But isn’t it all really about common sense and good reason?

A driver’s ability to compete affects their livelihood but also the livelihoods of their team owner, crew members and support staff back at the race shop.

It’s an important responsibility affecting many people. And the drivers at this elite level get that — or will be reminded of it by the end of the week.

Heli-skiing without a helmet the Wednesday before a Chase race probably isn’t the brightest idea.

Playing a game of pickup basketball or going for a 10-mile run?

That’s a different story.

NASCAR is in the midst of a long-overdue trend recognizing the benefits of physical fitness and finally putting to rest the question of whether this sport’s athletes are athletes. More drivers are doing more things out of the car to better themselves physically and that’s something team owners should encourage, not frown upon.

Implementing strict rules about what a driver can do out of his or her primary race car is its own dangerously slippery slope.

Yes, the recent wake of non-Sprint Cup Series racing injuries that have sidelined the sport’s biggest stars — Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch — is extremely unfortunate.

But both of those drivers — and lots of others, too — possess a certain mentality that the more you race, the better you race.

Busch, who missed the season’s first 11 races recovering from injuries suffered in a NASCAR XFINITY Series race, would tell you competing in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck series makes him better in the Cup ranks and that the extra seat time is a business necessity for his team.

Kyle Larson, Kahne and Stewart, who missed four months of competition in 2013 recovering from injuries in a sprint car race, find competing in the occasional sprint car race good medicine for the soul.

And who can begrudge them that, as long as it’s working?

This is the second time Hamlin has hurt himself playing basketball and he will be reminded of that often this weekend. But he could have just as easily twisted his ankle walking from his car to the garage.

It all comes down to risk versus reward. And in the case of race car drivers and any other reasonably active adult, one often accompanies the other.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Practice 1 results

 

Austin Dillon rose to the top of opening NASCAR XFINITY Series practice Thursday afternoon, edging his brother on the leaderboard at Richmond International Raceway.

Dillon, a Sprint Cup Series regular running a partial XFINITY schedule, drove the Richard Childress Racing No. 33 Chevrolet to a best lap of 121.474 mph on the .75-mile track. He’ll shooting for his fourth XFINITY win of the season in Friday night’s Virginia 529 College Savings 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

A late-afternoon storm washed away a 55-minute final practice, leaving the 85-minute opening session as Thursday’s only track time for the series. Coors Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled Friday at 3:45 p.m. ET.

Younger brother Ty Dillon was second-fastest in practice at 120.627 mph in another Childress-owned entry. The No. 3 Chevrolet driver enters the 25th of 33 races this season second in the XFINITY standings, 29 points behind series leader Chris Buescher.

Josh Berry was third-fastest in the 85-minute session, pushing the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet to a lap of 120.503 mph in preparation for just his third XFINITY start. Daniel Suarez, a Dash 4 Cash bonus winner last week at Darlington Raceway, and Ryan Truex, making his first XFINITY start since 2012, completed the top five.

Defending series champion Chase Elliott was 10th-fastest in the JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet. Defending race winner Kyle Busch, who has five XFINITY victories at Richmond, was 11th-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota. Buescher, the series points leader since May, was 18th-fastest in the Roush Fenway Racing No. 60 Ford.

Berry also posted the best 10-lap average, edging JRM teammates Elliott and Regan Smith atop that chart. Only eight of the 41 drivers entered ran more than 10 consecutive laps.

Brian Scott, preparing for his 200th XFINITY Series start, was 14th-fastest in the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet.

Posted on by Staff Report

LEARN MORE: About Bing
PLAY NOW: Play the Chase Grid Battle Game here

Statistical analysis has taken on a life of its own in modern-day professional sports, and NASCAR is no different. And perhaps the most important number in the sport this week is 16 — as in the drivers eligible to advance to the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.



Who’s going to make the 16-driver field when the smoke clears at Richmond? 



We’re glad you asked.

One of the exciting new features in this year’s Chase Grid Battle Game Powered by Bing is the inclusion of Bing Predicts, a methodology that will provide round-by-round forecasts and help you advance to a fantasy championship. And as you sign up for the game and start to make your picks, keep in mind Bing recently has made accurate forecasts for the Women’s World Cup and the Tour de France.

To whet your appetite, below is a list of which drivers Bing predicts will make the 2015 Chase (ordered by points, which is why you will see Kyle Busch in 16th place). Come back in future weeks for more predictions by Bing.
 
1. Kevin Harvick

2. Joey Logano

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

4. Brad Keselowski

5. Jimmie Johnson

6. Martin Truex Jr.

7. Matt Kenseth

8. Kurt Busch

9. Denny Hamlin

10. Jamie McMurray

11. Jeff Gordon

12. Ryan Newman

13. Carl Edwards

14. Paul Menard

15. Clint Bowyer

16. Kyle Busch


Notes:
— Entering Richmond, Kyle Busch was 27th in points but had a win and was in the top 30, making him eligible for the Chase. Bing predicts he will rise to 25th in points after Richmond.



– Entering Richmond, Kasey Kahne was 17th while Aric Almirola was 16th. Bing predicts Kahne will overtake Almirola after Richmond, but it will not be enough to pass Clint Bowyer, who will earn the final berth in the Chase for a winless driver.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Learn more about RaceView Mobile

 

With the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup looming — and this weekend’s race at Richmond International Raceway serving as the regular-season finale — race fans have a seven-day free trial offer for RaceView Mobile.

To get this offer, download or open RaceView Mobile and select the $4.99 subscription offer to activate your free seven days. After the free trial period, you can enjoy the 2015 postseason for $4.99 per month, or cancel at any time.

The premium features include 3D Racing, selectable virtual cameras, telemetry, driver audio and race radio.

 

Download RaceView Mobile:

• For IOS, click here

• For Android, click here

 

Posted on by Zack Albert

Ned Jarrett, a two-time champion in NASCAR’s premier series, said Thursday that he is cancer-free after surgery and four weeks of recent treatment for melanoma, a form of skin cancer.
 
Jarrett, 82, said he was diagnosed with the disease this winter but that his health prognosis was encouraging. The NASCAR Hall of Famer said he was able to participate in last weekend’s festivities at Darlington Raceway without restriction, joining the NBC Sports booth to broadcast a portion of Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500.
 
“It is very positive and I feel good,” Jarrett told NASCAR.com. “In fact, I feel the best I’ve felt in a couple of years at least. Getting my immune system built up and getting toxins out of my body and the cancer, I’m really feeling good and feeling good about the whole situation. I know now how to better take care of my body, so hopefully, it won’t come back.”
 
Jarrett said that a biopsy was performed in January after dermatologists discovered a spot on his left arm during a check-up. After the diagnosis, he had successful surgery Feb. 20 to remove the cancerous areas.
 
After further consultation and tests at the Center for Advanced Medicine and Clinical Research in Cornelius, North Carolina, Dr. Rashid Buttar discovered additional melanoma and prescribed a four-week course of treatment in July. Jarrett was declared cancer-free after completion of the program.
 
“There are no limitations,” Jarrett said. “I’ll be a little bit more careful about what I eat and the sun exposure that I get, although I’m not going to stop playing golf or going to the races or wherever I need to go. I’ll just be a little bit more careful about exposure for my skin to the sun.”
 
Jarrett said that skin cancer wasn’t even an afterthought growing up in the rural North Carolina foothills, but that cancer was part of his genealogy. He lost seven family members, including his father, to the disease during a six-month stretch in 1983.
 
“Of course, I grew up on a farm and worked in a sawmill,” Jarrett said. “We didn’t know anything about cancer or how it worked or that sun could do damage, and we went without shirts most of the time working on the farm. Then all of the years that I raced, I was outside and didn’t even know about sunscreen. I feel very fortunate, especially since there has been a lot of cancer in my family, back in ’83 in particular. So I was fortunate that it went as long as it did without showing up.”
 
Jarrett said the purpose of making his story public was to raise awareness for cancer treatment, but the revelation is part of a much longer-running mission. Jarrett has helped raise more than $1 million for the American Cancer Society as host of a charity golf tournament in his home state for more than 25 years.
 
“I want to encourage people at the first sign of cancer, get something done about it,” Jarrett said. “We were very proactive on this situation as far as I’m concerned and I feel like that helped us to treat it and get rid of it quick and I would encourage others to do the same. If there are suspicions, check it out, get a handle on it and get it taken care of.”
 
Jarrett — nicknamed “Gentleman Ned” for his kind, calm disposition — scored 50 Grand National (now Sprint Cup) victories in his brief career, becoming one of the sport’s earliest stars in a period of substantial growth for stock-car racing. He was crowned premier-series champion in 1961 and 1965, and also won titles in 1957 and ’58 in the fore-runner to the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
 
Jarrett was voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011, the second group of five chosen for enshrinement. He was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.
 
After his retirement at age 34, Jarrett moved on to business ventures, a role as track promoter at Hickory Speedway and a seamless transition to broadcasting, where his voice became a familiar sound on MRN Radio and television networks CBS and ESPN.
 
Jarrett’s two sons — Dale and Glenn — followed his career arc from the track to the world of broadcasting. Dale Jarrett, premier-series champion in 1999, won the Daytona 500 three times with his father watching and making an emotional call of his first triumph in the Great American Race alongside the legendary Ken Squier in 1993. Dale Jarrett is currently part of NBC Sports’ broadcast team. Glenn Jarrett, Dale’s older brother, made 77 NASCAR national series starts and currently serves as a reporter for MRN Radio.
 
Ned Jarrett and Squier were reunited in the broadcast suite Sunday night at Darlington, with Dale Jarrett joining in as part of NBC Sports’ participation in NASCAR’s throwback weekend. Their vintage call of the 500-mile classic drew rave reviews across social media, but ranked as a special personal moment for the 82-year-old Hall of Famer.
 
“We’ve truly been blessed in a number of different ways over the years through the sport,” Jarrett said, recalling his career highlights on the track and in the booth. “This last weekend ranks up there in the top five of highlights of my life, whether it was professional or just things that happened along the way. I’m very thankful for that.”

Posted on by Nascar

CONCORD, N.C. — The days of penciling in a Hendrick Motorsports team as a championship contender aren’t exactly over, but it would be inaccurate to describe the four-team organization as peaking with just one race remaining before the start of this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

A year ago, HMS had all four of its teams, with drivers Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne, ready for the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ 10-race playoff.

Heading into this weekend’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway (7:30 p.m., NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR), only Johnson and Earnhardt have secured bids for the 16-team Chase. Gordon can make the field based on his position in the points standings (he needs to finish 17th or higher Saturday night) or with a victory, while Kahne mathematically can get in on points but more likely needs a win to get in.

RELATED: Updated standings 

 

The Chase officially gets underway Sept. 20 at Chicagoland Speedway.

While many organizations would be content with such a scenario, team owner Rick Hendrick knows that’s not what’s expected from his group — which has won 11 series titles. Hendrick engines and chassis have also been on the entries of eight of the last nine championship-winning teams (including those won by Stewart-Haas Racing‘s Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart).

The bar rests high for his organization, Hendrick said Tuesday at the HMS campus.

“People catch up; people work hard,” he said. “Rule package, rule changes, usually we’re on top of it and we come out in front.

“To think that you can be in this sport every single year and be the dominant guy that wins them all, that isn’t going to happen. NASCAR isn’t going to let that happen.”

Johnson won four of this year’s first 13 races, equaling his win total from a year ago, while Earnhardt Jr. has a pair of victories this season.

Earnhardt Jr. has five top-10 finishes since his win in the July Daytona race; Johnson and Gordon have three while Kahne has none. Combined, the four have led just seven laps in the past eight races, a statistic that doesn’t please the team owner.

“It’s just part of it,” Hendrick said. “I’m a big fan of (Winston) Churchill … I don’t like it when we’re behind, but it motivates me. We’ve just got to work hard, work smart and we’ll be back.

“We get in position in Darlington where we have three in the top six or seven and we run out of tires and that’s our fault. … Maybe we just didn’t use the right strategy, who knows? There’s been a lot of that this year. We’ve just fumbled the ball more than normal.”

Earnhardt Jr., who finished eighth, was the only HMS driver to finish in the top 10 at Darlington Raceway this past weekend. Kahne finished 12th, Gordon 15th and Johnson 19th.

RELATED: Results from Southern 500

 

HMS personnel aren’t blind to the situation.

“We know as a company … we see the obvious,” Earnhardt Jr. said during Tuesday’s edition of the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast heard on Dirty Mo Radio. “We see we’ve got to improve and get more speed. We as a whole group sense that.”

Knowing the strength and past success of the organization tempers concerns with the Chase on the horizon.

“I’m real confident that our company’s going to be able to find what they want and what they’re looking for,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “They always have.”

While his group may not be competing at the level expected, Hendrick isn’t ready to toss in the towel. He admits the organization, as a whole, is “off a little bit.”

“Maybe we’re the same and everybody else is better,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of success and these people want it and they want it bad. They have a lot of pride and they don’t like to be beaten. So does Joe Gibbs (Racing), so does (Team) Penske, so does everybody out there.

“The question is how do you get back?”

JGR and Penske teams have been the teams to beat of late, with JGR drivers winning seven of the past 10 races and Penske teams scoring two wins in that stretch.

“We’ve been (there) before when we weren’t looked at as the best team out there, the best record or whatever,” Hendrick said. “But it isn’t over yet. So you go ahead and count us out.” 

Posted on by Nascar

CONCORD, N.C. — Contract extensions for six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and primary sponsor Lowe’s are expected to be announced before the start of this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick said Tuesday that contract extensions would be finalized within the next week.

“It’s just a matter of rolling it out; probably next week,” Hendrick said following a groundbreaking ceremony for a 45,000-square-foot Axalta Customer Experience Center to be located on the grounds of the Hendrick Motorsports campus.

Johnson, 39, is attempting to become just the third driver in series history to capture seven premier series titles, a mark currently shared by Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.

A four-time winner this season, Johnson is currently the top seed in this year’s Chase with one race remaining to determine the 16-team field, this weekend’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).

With 74 career victories, Johnson is only two short of matching Earnhardt’s 76-win total. He has won multiple races every year since his first full season, including a career-high 10 in 2007. His five consecutive championships from ’06-’10 is a series record.

A former off-road racer, Johnson has been paired with Knaus since Hendrick elevated the El Cajon, California, native to a full-time Sprint Cup ride in 2002.

Knaus began his NASCAR career in 1991, working with driver Stanley Smith. He moved to HMS in ’92 as part of the buildup for the debut of the organization’s No. 24 team with driver Jeff Gordon and crew chief Ray Evernham.

After winning two championships with Gordon and Evernham (in ’95 and ’97), Knaus departed for a brief stay at Dale Earnhardt Inc. He reunited with Evernham to help with the return of Dodge to NASCAR in 2000 and the following year he worked as crew chief for driver Stacy Compton and team owner Mark Melling.

By season’s end, he had returned to Hendrick as crew chief to oversee the No. 48 entry with Johnson as driver and Lowe’s as the team’s primary sponsor.

The three principals have been together ever since.

HMS also fields NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entries for drivers Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne.

Gordon, a four-time series champion, will retire from driving at the end of 2015 and be replaced by defending NASCAR XFINITY Series champion Chase Elliott beginning next season.

In late 2011, officials announced a five-year contract extension that will keep Earnhardt Jr. in the fold through at least 2017.

Kahne’s contract was renewed late last year and runs through the end of 2018.