Kyle Busch leads final practice at Bristol

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Staff Report

Practice 2 | Complete final practice results

After coming in third in opening practice, Kyle Busch‘s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota rocketed around Bristol Motor Speedway and to the top of the leaderboard in Friday’s second practice session. “Rowdy” recorded a fast lap of 131.146 mph, a speed that rivals the previous qualifying track record Kevin Harvick set in 2014 (131.362 mph).

David Ragan made a late run to earn the second spot on the leaderboard, maneuvering his No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota at 130.646 mph around the short track.

Having led the opening practice, Kyle Larson‘s fast lap of 130.018 mph allowed him to spend some time at the top of the leaderboard before setting for third on the board in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet.

Team Penske‘s Joey Logano came up next, wheeling a fast lap of 129.587 mph for the fourth position, while Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five (129.404 mph).

Reigning Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick posted the sixth-fastest speed, recording a high speed of 129.334 mph in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola and Jeb Burton all experienced trouble in the opening session, but were back on track in the final session. Johnson led the corral, posting the ninth-fastest speed (129.073 mph) in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, while Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet was 21st (127.724 mph).

Several drivers attempted qualifying runs during the second session, bringing several drivers’ speeds up from the previous session.

The Sprint Cup Series is back on track tonight at Bristol at 5:45 p.m. for Coors Light Pole Qualifying (NBCSN).

Practice 1: Complete opening practice results

Kyle Larson surged to the top of the leaderboard in the final minute of Friday’s Sprint Cup practice at Bristol Motor Speedway, propelling his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet around the short track at 129.833 mph to lead the session.

Matt Kenseth also made a late run, briefly topping the leaderboard before settling into second with a fast lap of 128.597 mph from his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

The leader for the majority of the hour-and-a-half session, Kyle Busch came up third after Kenseth’s late run. “Rowdy” wheeled his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the short track at 128.580 mph.

Michael Waltrip Racing‘s Clint Bowyer (128.099 mph) and Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Carl Edwards (127.707 mph) rounded out the top five.

Wheeling the iconic No. 24 rainbow paint scheme at 126.637 mph, Jeff Gordon posted the 14th-fastest speed in the field. Chase Elliott, who will take Gordon’s place in the No. 24 ride next season, watched Gordon from the top of the No. 24 hauler following his own XFINITY practice.

Jimmie Johnson missed 38 minutes of the practice after his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet got up high on the track and made contact with the wall nine minutes into the session. He returned to the track and posted the 18th-fastest speed. Jeb Burton and Aric Almirola also hit the wall during the session.

Martin Truex Jr. slammed into the wall in the final 10 minutes of practice, forcing the No. 78 team to bring out the backup car.

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Staff Report

Brendan Gaughan led NASCAR XFINITY Series practice Friday morning with a quick lap of 125.289 mph in the No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Another RCR Chevrolet, the No. 33 of Brandon Jones, was quick at the end of practice, notching the second-fastest speed of 124.995 mph, edging out teammate Brian Scott. Scott’s No. 2 Camaro was third-fastest with a speed of 124.914 mph at the 0.533-mile concrete oval in Bristol, Tennessee, under clear skies.

Sprint Cup regulars Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were fourth- and sixth-fastest, respectively, in their Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. Hamlin’s No. 20 posted a speed of 124.897 mph, and Busch’s No. 54 was clocked at 124.549 mph.

Ty Dillon rounded out the top five in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet, posting a fast lap of 124.792 mph.

Series points leader Chris Buescher was eighth-fastest in the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford at 124.444 mph.

The Food City 300 is scheduled for 7:30 ET tonight (NBCSN/Live Extra, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Staff Report

AJ Allmendinger announced Friday morning at Bristol Motor Speedway that Bush’s Beans renewed its longtime partnership with his JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47 team.

“Earlier this year we announced Kroger, just here to announce that Bush’s Beans is coming back for a multiyear deal,” Allmendinger said. “They’ve been with the company for over a decade. It’s one of the best sponsors we have, especially when it comes to being family-oriented. They’ve been a family-oriented company for almost 107 years now.”  

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, seeking his second consecutive Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berth, will be driving his Bush’s Grillin’ Beans Chevrolet SS in Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) in his sponsor’s home state.

“Just to be able to announce that for another multiyear deal with them, especially in this day and age of sponsorship and continually keep trying to find sponsors to have such great sponsors like we do and to have them pumped up about our race team and come back for more years and hopefully a lot of great years to come, it’s great for us,” Allmendinger said.

Bush Brothers & Company, a family business for over 100 years ago in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee, considers his NASCAR partners to be part of the family.

“We are very excited to extend and expand our long-standing relationship with JTG Daugherty Racing,” Tom Ferriter, President and CEO, Bush Brothers & Company, said in a statement. “After 13 years, we think of Jodi (Geschickter), Tad, Brad (Daugherty), AJ and all of the No. 47 team as part of our family.  

“We look forward to continuing to work with JTG Daugherty Racing for many more years to come. We are especially proud to make this announcement at Bristol Motor Speedway since East Tennessee has been home to Bush Brothers & Company since our company’s founding in 1908.”

Allmendinger will make his 15th career start in Thunder Valley, where he’s led 54 laps with a 25.4 average finish. His best result was 12th in the 2011 spring race. He sits 22nd in the standings and likely needs to win his way into the Chase with three races left in the regular season.

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Zack Albert

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Daniel Suarez said he’s already earmarked the $100,000 he collected Friday night through the NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash bonus program, aiming to put the money back into the restoration of his modest collection of vintage cars. But the 23-year-old driver owed much of his six-figure payday to a much newer car and a vintage performance.

Suarez endured a taxing 302 laps, an overtime finish and benefited from trouble to bonus contender Ryan Blaney to come home fifth in Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. His fourth top-five finish in the last seven XFINITY Series races bumped him up a spot to sixth in the championship standings and put more money into the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team’s coffers.

Suarez said he wasn’t keeping a mental log of where other Dash 4 Cash competitors were on the scoreboard, though the stray thought of clinching the bonus did pop into his head.

“We were trying to get better and I said, ‘Man, I think we’re in the spot right now.’ It was pretty good,” Suarez said. “You don’t have time to think about it, you have so many things going on with the race car, about the laps and everything. Sometimes, that crosses your mind to think you’re in the position to win this thing. I think it was great. Our 100 percent focus was to be better and better during the race and it’s how we finish. Thanks to the team and all the hard work, we ended up with a top-five.”

Suarez outlasted the remaining three drivers eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus at Bristol — among them Regan Smith, who finished ninth, and Elliott Sadler, who crashed out to a 31st-place result. But his fiercest competition for the enlarged check was 21-year-old Blaney, who had prevailed in Wednesday’s weekend opener for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Blaney rose as high as second in the running order and spent the bulk of the evening on the fringes of the top five. But his car developed problems as the race entered its final quarter with two loose rear wheels. Blaney finished five laps down after making two unscheduled green-flag stops — one to change the left-side rubber, then the next for the right — leaving him glum in 22nd place.

“I don’t know. I thought it was driveline-related, but I’ve never had two loose rear wheels so I didn’t know it was that bad,” Blaney said. “Thought it was driveline. It’s unfortunate. It sucks. …

“Dash 4 Cash was feeling really good and just gave it away.”

Suarez’s outing helped to set the field for the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash finale, scheduled in two weeks at Darlington Raceway — a track where Suarez has never raced. Richard Childress Racing drivers bracketed Suarez in the final rundown at Bristol, with Ty Dillon taking fourth and Brian Scott sixth. Defending series champion Chase Elliott completed the bonus-eligible quartet for Darlington with a seventh-place effort.

For Dillon, the performance had a pleasing side effect, allowing him to chop five points off the series lead held by Chris Buescher, who ran out of fuel while leading on the lone green-white-checkered restart and settled for 11th place.

“I felt like I passed a couple of cars seven times there at the end. Our car was just blistering fast,” Dillon said. “We had a good restart there and got our fourth top-five in a row, gained some points and we’re just chugging away at this thing. They’re slowly letting us back in it and we’re getting better and better.”

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Zack Albert

What: 55th annual Irwin Tools Night Race.

Where: Bristol Motor Speedway, .533-mile oval in Bristol, Tenn.

When: Saturday, Aug. 22, 7:30 p.m. ET.

TV/Radio: NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles.

Pit road speed: 30 mph.

Caution car speed: 35 mph.

Fuel window: 150 laps.

On the front row: | Full lineup

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota (131.407 mph)

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (131.263 mph)

Did not qualify

Travis Kvapil, The Motorsports Group No. 30 Chevrolet; Jeb Burton, BK Racing No. 26 Toyota; Reed Sorensen, Premium No. 62 Motorsports Chevrolet

Fastest in practice

First practice: Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates No. 42 Chevrolet (129.833 mph) | Results

Final practice: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (131.146 mph). | Results

Driver rating (Best driver rating average at Bristol based on past 21 races):

Matt Kenseth (104.6)

Jeff Gordon (100.3)

Last year’s winner

Joey Logano, Team Penske No. 22 Ford.

Milestones in the mountains

Two drivers in the field will click off landmark starts in NASCAR’s premier series Saturday night. Ryan Newman is scheduled to make his 500th Sprint Cup appearance in Bristol’s annual night race, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be making his 100th start in the series. For one of the two, the occasion came as a surprise. “I honestly had no idea until someone informed me of it this week,” Newman said. “500 is definitely a career milestone but for me, the biggest career start was my very first one. You got to have people who believe in you enough to just give you a chance and for that I am truly grateful.”

Gordon’s landmark

The return of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevy’s rainbow paint scheme may be a ‘one weekend only’ occurrence, but Bristol Motor Speedway gave Jeff Gordon a sustaining gift Friday that will last ages. A swath of seats in the mammoth grandstands will be known as the Jeff Gordon Terrace, joining sections named for stock-car racing legends — Earnhardt, Allison, Petty, Pearson, Waltrip, Johnson, Wallace, Yarborough and Kulwicki.

History lesson

Then named Bristol International Speedway, the .533-mile track debuted with the Volunteer 500 on July 30, 1961. Jack Smith was credited with the inaugural victory, but he was behind the wheel for only the first 290 laps, giving way to relief driver Johnny Allen for the final 210 circuits in the searing summer heat.

They said it

“One in 43.” — Matt Kenseth on weighing his chances of securing a second consecutive Sprint Cup victory, and a Bristol season sweep, this weekend.

Former Bristol winners in field

Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon (5); Matt Kenseth (4); Carl Edwards (3); Brad Keselowski (2); Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Tony Stewart (1)

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Zack Albert

RELATED: Full series standings | Chase Grid

BRISTOL, Tenn. — In postseason terms, Aric Almirola is still an outsider, but not by much — just 23 points behind Clint Bowyer, the final driver on the provisional Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff grid.

It would be easy, if not exactly sporting, for Almirola to rejoice about Bowyer’s short-term woes — a 41st-place finish last week at Michigan — and wider-scope issues — the impending breakup of Bowyer’s Michael Waltrip Racing team at season’s end. While opportunities exist for Almirola to capitalize, he’s not expecting his would-be Chase rivals to merely play out the string.

“There are two ways to look at it,” Almirola said after Friday’s final Sprint Cup practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. “One is, yeah, they may be vulnerable and guys are kind of distracted and they’re scrambling looking for jobs, but the other way to look at that is they don’t have anything to lose, so they can push all the gray areas as hard as they can and be really aggressive and what’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’re not going to lose their jobs because they’re already looking for work.

“There are a couple different ways to look at that and I think as hardcore racers as all those guys that he has on his team are, they’re not gonna lay down; they’re not gonna give up; they’re gonna fight hard; they’re gonna try and make the Chase. It’s about pride. Everybody in this garage area has egos and we all want to beat our competitors and I doubt any of those guys, Clint included, are going to lay down.”

Almirola aims to gain more Chase ground, starting with Saturday night’s Irwin Tools Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM), the third-to-last race of the Sprint Cup regular season. Besides Bowyer in front of him, he also has Kasey Kahne just three points off his heels with three unpredictable races — Bristol, Darlington, Richmond — looming on the schedule.

The fickle nature of all three tracks presents the opportunity for wild points swings, but Almirola would prefer to get to the Chase on the merits of performance. Richard Petty Motorsports‘ season-long search for speed in Almirola’s No. 43 and teammate Sam Hornish Jr.’s No. 9 has made that a more difficult prospect.

“We’ve had a few setbacks that were costly to us, but all in all we’ve had 15th-place cars and we’ve been running top-15 with them,” Almirola said. “That’s really all we can do. The guys back at the shop are working extremely hard and so is everybody else in the garage area to bring better cars to the race track every weekend. We’ve just been playing catch-up all year long. I’m really proud of everybody at RPM, but the moral of the story is we just need more speed in our cars and as we work harder and harder and continue to get more speed in our cars, our results will reflect that.”

One factor that has made matters trickier — opening-day pitfalls in back-to-back race weekends. This Friday, Almirola made contact with the outside retaining wall in opening practice, forcing his RPM crew into repair mode to keep his primary car intact. But it hardly compares with last weekend’s adversity, which left him ailing and infirm in Michigan’s infield care center.

After missing portions of practice last weekend, Almirola rallied for a 14th-place finish in the Pure Michigan 400. This weekend, he’s happy to leave his ailment several states away.

“I’m back to 100 percent but my goodness was that rough,” Almirola said. “I never felt so bad in a long time. I had some sort of 24-hour stomach virus and it was maybe a little longer than 24 hours, maybe 36 hours, and I was down for the count. I was laying in the infield care center on Thursday night from 11 to maybe 2:30 in the morning getting IVs and went back to the bus and got a little bit of sleep, but woke up every half-hour with throwing up or whatever and you know what the other is, so it was a long night.

“I got back up the next morning and went back to get some more IVs and I watched the first hour of practice laying on my couch in my motorhome and it was all I could do to gather myself up and get over to the garage and make a couple laps at practice.”

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — When Chris Buescher‘s Ford faltered on a green-white-checkered restart on Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch took full advantage, as is his custom.

In a Food City 300 that went to two laps of overtime at the .533-mile short track, Busch finished .427 seconds ahead of Kyle Larson, as Buescher faded to 11th after his car failed to pick up fuel off Turn 2 of the next-to-last lap.

The victory was Busch’s third of the season in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, his eighth at Bristol and the 73rd of his career, extending his own series record.

“This is home — this is where I’m supposed to be,” Busch said, standing outside the car in Victory Lane. “I wish I was here Wednesday night (after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race), so we could continue the sweep lookout for (Saturday), but that was a second place. Oh, well.”

Polesitter Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Ty Dillon and Daniel Suarez, who got a bonus for his top-five run. As the highest finishing eligible driver in the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash program, Suarez picked up an extra $100,000.

Pit strategy put Buescher at the front of the field under the fourth caution of the race, caused by Cale Conley‘s spin in Turn 4. Staying out on older tires while most of the lead-lap cars came to pit road for fresh rubber and fuel, Buescher nevertheless pulled away from Busch during a succession of restarts, as Busch saved his equipment for what he thought would be the inevitable late-race caution.

“I let the 60 (Buescher) go,” Busch said. “He ran out there to about a straightaway on us, and I was just trying to save and do what I could to keep my tires underneath me. I knew we were going to get some cautions at the end to bunch us back up, and fortunately we did.

“I wasn’t sure they were going to make it on fuel (having pitted on lap 131 of 302), and obviously they cut it close — a little too close.”

Busch got the yellow he needed, just in time. Brad Teague‘s wreck on the frontstretch with five laps left set up the green-white-checkered and gave Busch the chance he needed.

Buescher, who saw his series lead shrink to 19 points over Ty Dillon, knew he could have made it to the end on fuel, had the race not gone to overtime.

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Complete starting lineup

BRISTOL, Tenn. — If it’s pole day in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing must be celebrating.

Denny Hamlin powered his No. 11 Toyota around .533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway in 14.602 seconds (131.407 mph) on Friday to win the pole for Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race (on NBCSN at 7:30 p.m. ET).

In breaking Kevin Harvick‘s August 2014 track qualifying record by .005 seconds, Hamlin won his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his third at Bristol and the 22nd of his career.

JGR swept the top three spots in qualifying for the second straight week, having accomplished the feat last Saturday on the two-mile track at Michigan International Speedway. The pole was JGR’s fifth straight on an oval track (AJ Allmendinger, in a JTG Daugherty Chevrolet, claimed the top starting spot for the Aug. 9 race on the road course at Watkins Glen).

Hamlin edged teammate Kyle Busch (131.263 mph) by .016 seconds. Carl Edwards (130.655 mph) took the third starting spot, followed by David Ragan in a Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota (130.460 mph) and Joey Logano in a Team Penske Ford (130.344 mph).

Hamlin also won the pole for Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race.

“To have that two nights in a row here is hopefully going to pay dividends,” Hamlin said. “We’re excited. Bristol’s been a great track for me in the past, and we’ve got nothing to lose this weekend, just gearing up for the Chase, so I think our FedEx team’s ready.”

Hamlin has a victory at Bristol in addition to his two poles, and with a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup position guaranteed by virtue of his victory at Martinsville in April, he can go all-out for a win on Saturday night without fear of consequences.

Busch fought handling issues in the final two rounds of knockout qualifying and went for broke on his final attempt in the last round.

“We were just a little too free there the second segment and the first run of the third segment,” Busch said. “It’s a little edgy up there, so you try not to push too hard, but still make a good lap and come back safely.

“Then there at the end we tried a ‘Hail Mary’ and it worked. It picked us up speed, but it didn’t pick us up that spot.”

Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson grabbed the sixth through 10th spots on the grid, respectively. The qualifying effort was Stenhouse’s best of the year.

Jeff Gordon will start 24th in his last race at Bristol as a full-time Sprint Cup driver. Travis Kvapil, Jeb Burton and Reed Sorenson failed to make the 43-car field.

Posted on August 20, 2015 by

NASCAR fans, check your calendars.

Sure, it’s hot and humid outside — it is August, after all — but this week feels a lot like Christmas, doesn’t it?

Saturday marks one of the premier days of each year in motorsports — we’ll be runnin’ ’em under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Irwin Tools Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

For many, the night race at Bristol is the most-anticipated event of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, even ranking ahead of the Daytona 500.

Seeing that race live is something special, something sure to be on every fan’s ultimate bucket list.

So that has us wondering — what’s on your bucket list?

NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola and Jessica Ruffin offer their personal ones, and you should feel free to list your own down in the comments section.

DeCola: My NASCAR bucket list? Man, that’s a tough one. The sport has so much history at so many different tracks for so many different reasons, it’s hard to narrow it down. For starters, I think I’d want to knock the Brickyard 400 at Indy off my list. The Brickyard is arguably the most famous track in the world — certainly in the United States — and I have a sneaking feeling the history runs so deep there that you can breathe it in just as easily as the exhaust from 43 cars running around a 2.5-mile rectangle at 200 mph. Indy’s an obvious bucket list item.

Ruffin: Stepping on those celebrated bricks and looking up at the famed pagoda is nothing short of a NASCAR dream, Pat. Indy definitely makes my list, too. And while it’s much smaller and less glamorous than Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I’m going to throw Martinsville Speedway on my NASCAR bucket list. As the oldest track on the circuit, Martinsville takes you back in time to the roots of racing. All the greats from Fireball Roberts to Junior Johnson to Richard Petty to Dale Earnhardt have wheeled race cars around the paperclip oval. Watching old-school short-track racing from the grandstands — which all have a spectacular view — while munching on a legendary Martinsville hot dog is a must-do for any diehard fan.

DeCola: Tell me about it. Much to my cholesterol-level’s dismay, Martinsville probably makes my bucket list for the hot dog, alone. Continuing down the history trail here, another one any fan would be thrilled to cross off their list is Darlington Raceway, especially for this year’s Labor Day Throwback race. Sure, the summer trips to Myrtle Beach are great, but driving along the outside of the landmark track along the way only makes me wish I could be standing in the infield, watching those killer throwback schemes race to take home the biscuit race for one of NASCAR’s majors — the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

Ruffin: This year’s throwback schemes at Darlington are going to be incredible — fans can bet they’ll be transported back to another age of racing when they watch Kevin Harvick‘s old-school Budweiser scheme turning laps around the speedway Labor Day weekend from the infield. Another place that makes my bucket list possibly for the infield alone is a “Big One” — good ole Talladega. Located in the heart of Dixie, the larger-than-life tailgating — which includes everything from mud wrestling to weddings — and passionate fans make ‘Dega a must-stop on the circuit. The racing’s pretty awesome, too, with the superspeedway-style drafting, high speeds and crazy, multi-car pile-ups. And if someone like Junior — the ‘Dega fan favorite — takes the checkered, the contagious post-race excitement is bound to leave you singing “Sweet Home Alabama” all the way home.

DeCola: Home, you say, eh? Well, there’s no better place to call home than Daytona International Speedway, which may as well consider itself the flagship track of our entire sport. Sure, I’ve been there before, but guess what — the annual season-opening Daytona 500 should be on every NASCAR fan’s bucket list … every year. One of the most unpredictable, enthralling races of the entire season, there’s no reason to “cross it off” if you’ve been there before. Once is surely not enough.

Ruffin: Daytona International Speedway isn’t called the World Center of Racing for nothing, that’s for certain. It’s an iconic track and the Daytona 500 — NASCAR’s Super Bowl — is the perfect way to open up the NASCAR season. Let’s fast forward from the first race to the last race now: The season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. While it’s not considered a NASCAR Major in everyone’s book (see what we do consider the four NASCAR Majors here), the final race of the season is a bucket list item simply for the sake of it being the race that ultimately decides the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. Judging by the exciting, nail-biting atmosphere it created last season with four drivers all vying for the title, Homestead’s popularity and hype is bound to increase. Not to mention its located in beautiful south Florida — so why not make a vacation out of it?

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Nascar

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Toyota officials made their first official comments concerning the demise of Michael Waltrip Racing Thursday, citing the automaker’s long relationship with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization.

“We want to thank everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing for a great partnership and for being a part of our ‘freshman class’ — one of the race teams that helped us enter the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series nine years ago,” Ed Laukes, Vice President marketing, performance and guest experience for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, said in a statement.

“Clint Bowyer has been a valuable member of the Toyota Racing family for the past four years, and we will continue to support him, and the rest of the MWR team through the end of the 2015 season.

MORE: Bowyer free to pursue other opportunities for 2016

The two-car organization, which currently fields Toyota Camry entries for drivers Bowyer and David Ragan in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, announced Tuesday that Bowyer would not return for 2016 and the group would not field a full-time team beyond this season.

MWR is co-owned by Rob Kauffman and Michael Waltrip . Its drivers have won seven Sprint Cup Series events with four drivers. Bowyer, who has driven the team’s No. 15 entry since 2012, finished a career-best second in the points standings in 2012 and enters this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway 15th in points and looking to secure one of the 16 available spots in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Ragan has been with the organization since May of this season, filling in for former driver Brian Vickers , who has been sidelined this season due to health issues.

Toyota made the move into Sprint Cup competition in 2007 and MWR, along with Red Bull Racing and Bill Davis Racing, was one of three organizations to field Toyota entries. The automaker moved into what is now the XFINITY Series in ’07 as well. It began competing in the Camping World Truck Series in 2004.

“We wish everyone associated with the team the best of luck in the future and we look forward to closing out the season focused on competing for a championship,” said Laukes.

MWR fielded three full-time Sprint Cup Series teams as recently as 2013. But after the group was penalized prior to the start of the ’13 Chase for manipulating the outcome of the final regular-season event at Richmond International Raceway, primary sponsor NAPA departed at the end of the year, forcing the group to scale back to two teams.

Toyota has three drivers sitting firmly in the Chase entering Brisol in Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. Kyle Busch, who has four wins, also is poised to make NASCAR’s playoffs as long as he can remain in the top 30 in the drivers points standings. He enters Brisol in 29th place, 23 points ahead of 31st-place driver Cole Whitt.

MORE: Updated Chase Grid standings