Kyle Busch rallies for Truck Series victory

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Race results | Series standings

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Not even a pit road speeding penalty could keep Kyle Busch from his appointed rounds on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.

With drafting help from Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Erik Jones entering Turn 1, Busch regained the lead from Ryan Blaney on Lap 97 of 100 in the Careers for Veterans 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and held on to win by .157 seconds.

Blaney held the second spot, and Jones finished third, followed by Johnny Sauter and Austin Dillon. Two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton battled a buckling windshield, a penalty for pitting too soon to correct it and a late spin after contact from John Wes Townley‘s Chevrolet to finish sixth.

Crafton gained three points on series leader Tyler Reddick, who ran ninth, and now trails by eight. Jones is third in the standings, nine points back.

The victory was Busch’s first at MIS after four runner-up finishes in the series, and it was his second in two starts since returning from an injury that sidelined the driver of the No. 51 Toyota from all racing activity from Feb. 21 through mid-May.

“First win for me, first win for KBM here,” said Busch, who won for the 44th time in the Truck Series. “I loved racing with those guys up there — Jones, Blaney and Dillon. It was pretty hectic on how all that was going to shape up and play out.

“Just cool to finally get that monkey off my back here in the Truck Series and notch another race track where I’ve won in all three divisions here at Michigan.”

Under caution on Lap 27, Busch was penalized for speeding while entering pit road and restarted at the back of the field on Lap 31. By Lap 51, Busch had worked his way back to fifth in the running order, and after an exchange of green-flag pit stops, he regained the lead on Lap 69.

“We were trying something new with our tach settings, and it didn’t really work,” Busch said of the speeding infraction.

Drivers gauge pit road speeds with their tachometers and a series of lights on the dashboard. In essence, Busch was seeing two sets of lights at the same time, calibrated to different settings, and that led directly to the speeding penalty.

Once Busch passed Blaney with fewer than four laps left, Blaney — without a teammate to help — was resigned to a second-place finish.

“When we got the lead (after a Lap 95 restart), I knew it was going to be hard to keep him behind us, because he can lay back to the 4 (Jones) and just get a big run and get by you,” Blaney said. “There’s nothing, as the leader, that you can do about it.

“You’re wide open. You can break the draft all you want, but when he’s got a partner, it’s just like speedway racing — he can go by you.”

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Pat DeCola

LEXINGTON, Ohio — Regan Smith ended a 52-race XFINITY Series winless streak in Saturday’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course — but at what cost?

That’s the question runner-up Alex Tagliani, who Smith moved out of the way coming around the final corner of the 2.4-mile road course, found himself asking after the race.

The No. 22 Team Penske driver, whose only scheduled XFINITY start this season came this weekend, felt that Smith’s aggressive move was out of line based on how the two had raced throughout the event’s 75 laps — and it’s something he won’t forget.

“The pass I put on Regan early on, it took a lot of time to put that pass in because I know he’s working for the championship and he was very vocal about what happened last weekend so he seemed to be very aggressive, too,” Tagliani said after the race. “I’m a little guy, so I didn’t want to get into a fist fight. Knowing what I know now, I probably would’ve done a little bit less of an in-between pass, and it’s really unfortunate what happened at the end. Take your point and walk away happy, but to celebrate this way … winning this way is not winning for me.

“From my perspective, there’s going to be some bumpers. That’s going to happen and I know that. The thing is, where I really don’t appreciate is moving. I don’t respect his win today. He didn’t really try. He could’ve tried Turn 2 and put the fender on me and just moved me out of the way a little bit and get a run on the back straightaway. He could’ve bonsaied me going into Turn 4. He could’ve come out of 4 and just dove on the inside of (Turn 5). He could’ve done all kinds of things, but he never tried.”

The “last weekend” that Tagliani refers to is the late-race fracas between Smith and Ty Dillon, who finished third at Mid-Ohio and sided with Tagliani in their joint post-race press conference, when the JR Motorsports driver vehemently disagreed with Dillon’s move on him that left Smith with a 20th-place finish.

Thus, it’s interesting that the roles were nearly reversed, and Smith saw things in a different light.

To hear the two drivers each describe the final lap, it’s like they weren’t even at the same race.

“We took the white flag, I made an adjustment inside the car with something I can do,” Smith said. “Went into Turn 1 and pretty much sailed it in there because I at least needed to close it up and make him nervous. As soon as I got on his bumper, I noticed him start to get a little more squirrelly, a little bit more trouble through the corners and that allowed me to stay with him that whole last lap. We went through Turns 9 and 10 and that allowed me to stay right on his back bumper and was pushing him through there and just letting him know that I was there and right on top of him. We went in the carousel and he went to play it cautious … and I pretty much went the speed that I thought I needed to go, which was a little bit faster than the speed he thought he needed to go and just kind of pushed him up the race track a little bit. I hate doing that to him; he’s raced me clean throughout the years … these wins are hard to come by and it’s been a long time since I’ve had one. I was pretty hungry and after last week, I was even more hungry.

“The fact of the matter is, I moved him out of the way and he finished second. I didn’t wreck him, I didn’t spin him, I didn’t do anything like that. Obviously, I don’t expect him to be happy about that. I wouldn’t be either. I’ve been on the receiving end of many of them here on these road courses. We had to take that opportunity.”

While Tagliani likely won’t see Smith on the track for at least the rest of the season — he has no other scheduled XFINITY starts announced, and Smith’s plans for next year are still up in the air — this one is sure to sit heavy on his mind for some time.

He’ll be waiting.

“I thought maybe it was a mistake on my part, to think that because I’d (raced him clean) early in the race, he was going to race me clean until the end. I was unprepared,” Tagliani said.

“Next time I will be prepared.”

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Pat DeCola

LEXINGTON, Ohio — Perspective.

A week ago, Regan Smith was caught up in a fiery post-race fracas with XFINITY Series championship rival Ty Dillon after an on-track mixup at Watkins Glen International.

On Thursday, he walked with eyes wide and jaw agape through the neonatal intensive care unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, which cares for infants born as young as 24 weeks — roughly five and a half months.

Smith, a recent first-time father to a nearly 6-month old son, Rhett, and JR Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott toured the hospital on behalf of the Patient Champions program, which pairs drivers with children who have completed or are undergoing treatment at the hospital.

“Talking about perspective, if (feuding with Dillon) is the worst thing we have going on …” said Regan, before trailing off. “We’re standing here in a hospital right now with kids that have a lot of serious things going on. It was a race. We’ll move onto the next one. Naturally, there’s a lot bigger things going on in the world.”

The program, which pairs 10 drivers with 10 “Patient Champions” from the hospital, is in its third year in NASCAR since the sanctioning body began racing at the road course in the XFINITY Series in 2013.

Patients, who are afflicted with diagnoses ranging from Autism to Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis to Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and everything in between, have a hand in designing their drivers’ respective paint scheme themselves — Smith’s purple, giraffe-embroidered No. 7 Chevrolet is a sight, for sure — and are recognized throughout the weekend at the race track. Front and center at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 driver/crew chief meeting on Saturday, the group of children received a 30-second standing ovation from some of the biggest names in the sport, before breaking off to the garage area to hang out with their paired driver and, yes, sit in their actual race cars.

Through its The 1989 World Tour partnership, XFINITY gifted each of the Patient Champions with a Taylor Swift-themed canvas bag filled with an iPad mini, CD, signed photo, thumb drive, t-shirt and third row tickets to her show when she rolls into Columbus in mid-September

As the race prepared to get underway, the Patient Champions held one of the most important jobs of any race weekend — co-grand marshals.

Giving the command to start engines is certainly a moment that will stick with these children throughout their lives.

Visiting the hospital is one that is sure to linger in the minds of Smith and Elliott.

“I think more than anything, it’s just knowing that these kids have gone through a lot and continue to go through a lot and just being able to hang out with them and mess around and play with them,” said Smith, who legitimately could not wipe the smile off his face after receiving a tin of cookies from his Patient Champion, Laynie Roll. “I think, for me, the NICU hit close to home. Just because we’re not far removed from having a baby that small. I shouldn’t say ‘that small,’ but having a baby of that age. To see some of the 24-week-old babies that are that premature, it’s incredible to even think that 30, 40 years ago, it probably would’ve been a different outcome. As they’ve learned, as this hospital has grown and as we’ve gotten smarter as a whole, to see that they’re able to have a baby that is that little surviving, some of them breathing on their own is incredible.”

For Smith, the experience was one that brought up many questions, invoking his inquisitive, curious side as the hospital’s neonatology chief Dr. Edward Sherman brought he and Elliott through the department. The new father clearly has an invested interest in the well-being of children overall and wanted to make sure he brought as much joy as possible to every patient he came in contact with, enthusiastically drag racing toy cars in the lobby and later, painting wooden toy chassis in the arts and crafts room with patients.

Elliott, still just 19 years old, maintained a reserved, tentative approach. The sobering experience was a lot to take in for anyone, let alone someone who just graduated from high school last year.

It was a similar, somewhat intentional pairing to 40-year-old Brendan Gaughan and 20-year-old Dylan Kwasniewski‘s visit last year. Needless to say, the reigning series champion walked out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital differently than when he walked in.

“I think (their strength) is the key to it all. Seeing these kids and what they go through makes you sit back and realize how fortunate we are to really do what we love to do,” Elliott said. “Don’t take anything for granted, because you don’t know when anything can happen at any given point. That’s just life. Just very fortunate to be here and come see things first-hand. This hospital and Nationwide, the things that they do for them to make this happen is huge. It’s cool to see it and be a part of it.

“I got to see this race weekend last year and ran the race and got to see … (last year’s race-winner) Chris (Buescher) had a young boy on his car. I didn’t have anybody on my car and we obviously didn’t win that day, but it was cool to see the joy that brought. It makes you sit back and realize that a bad day at the race track could be a lot worse.”

*******

At the conclusion of the 2014 running of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200, Luke Benner stood in Victory Lane in front of a giant trophy with a No. 1 finger in the air.

Standing next to him was race-winner Chris Buescher, who’d just picked up his first career NASCAR victory — but let the spotlight shine on Benner, his Patient Champion.

“It was a really humbling win for me,” Buescher said Friday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. “(I did feel extra pressure to win) and it probably had something to do with the fact that they said ‘We’re on the car now and we expect you to win, so you better.’ They were not shy about what they were hoping to get out of the weekend.

“They’ve been awesome. The whole Benner family has been a lot of fun to deal with and be around. To create a friendship and follow Luke’s progress … they (came) back this weekend even though we have a new Patient Champion on the side of our car. We’ll have William Schaffer on board and his family out here this weekend, but we’ll also have the Benners, so we (had) a lot of kids running around our area trying to keep everything going forward. It’ll be exciting that there’s that little bit of extra pressure but at the same time, there’s 10 of us that have the extra pressure so it evens out, I’d say.”

And that’s what it’s all about. Creating a special bond between patient and driver — a mutually beneficial relationship that truly represents the communal spirit that makes NASCAR such a unique sport and experience through and through. It’s clear that the sanctioning body, its teams and, most importantly, its drivers value and care for its fans and the relationships bonded — especially with those in need.

Even for Nationwide, which gave up its entitlement sponsor position of the series at the conclusion of last season, to remain so visible and charitable is nothing short of incredible.

“These are kids that have gone through a lot, but because of the hospital and what they can do there, they can come out of it as a success story and they’re special, unique kids that can talk through the challenges and what they’ve overcome,” said Jim McCoy, director of sports marketing for Nationwide. “For us to highlight those stories in a national way through a race, putting (the patients’) face on the car, having them come out to the race track and just enjoy time not thinking about whatever ailment that they have, it brings a lot of meaning to what we do and why we look forward to this race every year.”

All in all, while Saturday’s race was won by Smith, the ones that walked away champions were Aiden VanWagner (Patient Champion of Elliott Sadler), Alexandra James (Patient Champion of Ben Rhodes), Dominic Clarke (Patient Champion of Darrell Wallace Jr.), Evan Kern (Patient Champion of Chase Elliott), Kylee Leonard (Patient Champion of Alex Tagliani), Laynie Roll (Patient Champion of Regan Smith), Michael Galiher (Patient Champion of Ryan Reed), Owen Mattie (Patient Champion of Brian Scott), Roger “Mikey” Allen (Patient Champion of Brendan Gaughan) and William Schaefer (Patient Champion of Chris Buescher). Roll, race-winner Smith’s Patient Champion, received an extra special experience, as she helped Smith celebrate in Victory Lane after the race at Mid-Ohio.

“To come out here, they get to experience something that they’re not going to get on a daily basis or in any normal sport,” Buescher said. “You’re not going to get the all access, come in the garage, sit in the cars, be on the pit box during the race. It’s all stuff that is very unique to our sport and is very close up and all the Patient Champions get to do that this weekend.”

“It’s very cool that we were able to carry it on.”

Posted on August 15, 2015 by George Winkler

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle are both battling for a Chase berth this weekend in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Michigan International Speedway, but they’re on opposite sides of the Chase bubble.

Entering the Pure Michigan 400 (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) Biffle is 80 points behind the 16th and final Chase driver, Clint Bowyer. Gordon is in 12th place with a 59-point cushion between himself and Kasey Kahne, the first driver outside of the top 16.

Given the different situations, does that mean Gordon and Biffle will take different approaches to Sunday’s race?

Gordon said he didn’t feel like he had much cushion to play with given how frequently things change in this sport.

“I just want to finish a race where I’m capable of running,” Gordon said. “What we can’t do is have problems that we’ve had; you can’t get caught up in a wreck like we did in Indy. You can’t have a brake issue like we had last week. We can’t be finishing 30th and 40th. It’s not like we have to win. We want to win and we’re working hard to do that, but we know that top 10s are plenty good enough.”

While Gordon has the luxury of aiming for top-10 finishes, Biffle is facing perhaps his best chance for a victory before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. The Roush Fenway Racing driver leads active drivers with four Sprint Cup wins at Michigan and has finished in the top 10 in 15 of 25 races on the 2-mile track, but he has just two top-five finishes this season.

Yes, Michigan has been good to Biffle, but does that success actually put extra pressure on him to get in the win column this weekend? And will he drive more aggressively to get that victory?

“Yeah, I think a little of both,” Biffle said. “We have four races and have to win one of them to get in the Chase. We have been very fortunate to make the Chase six of the last seven years. We feel the pressure, trust me. … We felt like we have been close. Charlotte, last week and Pocono were all opportunities for us. This certainly could be a weekend for us.”

Or, it could be the weekend for Gordon to notch his first win of the season and assure himself a chance to make one final run at a fifth Sprint Cup championship. Gordon has won three times at Michigan, including last year’s August trip to the Irish Hills. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has 27 top-10 finishes in 45 races at Michigan, where he has won six poles.

“I have always enjoyed this track,” Gordon said. “It felt very natural here. We have had great success here. The three wins probably don’t speak to the true stats. It’s been a track that not only have we been fast at and won a few times at, but we have put some pretty nice, consistent finishes together, too.”

Consistency is something the No. 24 team hasn’t enjoyed much of lately. In the past four races, Gordon has alternated between good and bad results, finishing ninth in New Hampshire, 42nd in Indianapolis, third at Pocono and 41st at Watkins Glen.

“We had some good fortune at Pocono, and kind of recovered ourselves from the Indy incident,” Gordon said. “And then we followed that up with the Watkins Glen debacle. So, I’m hoping that this weekend we can have another recovery like we had at Pocono.”

In order to do so, Gordon, along with Biffle and the other drivers, will need to make the right adjustments to the high-drag package being used at Michigan. It’s the second time the series has used this setup, following its debut last month at Indianapolis.

NASCAR announced Friday that the high-drag package wouldn’t be used for the Chase, but who adjusts best to it this Sunday could go a long way toward determining who actually participates in the postseason.

“In the race you can’t be wide open,” Gordon said. “I wish. I really wish we were because I think in order for this package to get the most out of it you need to easily be wide open, so you can really utilize the draft. … We are going to be fanned out and finding clean air and then trying to get that tow down the straightaway. It’s going to be a totally different Michigan I feel like than what we have ever had before.”

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Brad Norman

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was published Aug. 15, 2015. Busch spun into the grass early in Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400, as well.

RELATED: Full practice results

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Kyle Busch checked out of the infield care center with his body and sarcasm intact after a wreck in final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Saturday at Michigan International Speedway tore up his No. 18 Toyota that qualified sixth on Friday.

Busch and the No. 18 team will run their backup car, dropping to the back of the field for the start of Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

Busch, a longstanding critic of grass infields, had little to say about his health after the wreck early in practice in which he appeared to get loose when in close proximity to Clint Bowyer‘s No. 15 Toyota, assuring fans “I’m fine.”

But he had a lot to say about the damage to his car.

“I’m thinking all these race tracks need more grass. I think more grass would be beneficial,” Busch said sarcastically. “I think we should have more grass and it should be tall.”

Grass is akin to ice when a race car careens across it, and damage to the car that results from ripping up chunks of turf often could be avoided, drivers say.

Busch was even a bit more colorful about grass at tracks on Twitter.

“I was just running along, everything was fine and I was actually feeling pretty good about it. Just started to get a little free up off of (Turn 4),” Busch said. “It started stepping out like it did here in the spring. I over-corrected and hit the wall so this time around I just kind of made it keep rotating and head down toward the infield. I think we need more grass at these race tracks, I think the apron should be full of grass.”

Busch’s biggest concern with gong to a backup car piled on top of the challenge of running a new package, the high-drag package, at Michigan is he must avoid a bad finish to retain his Chase eligibility. Busch has the required win — in fact four of them — but also must maintain a 30th-or-better place in the drivers points standings.

After a runner-up finish at Watkins Glen, Busch sits in 30th place in the standings, six points ahead of 31st-place driver Cole Whit.

RELATED: See the Chase Grid

For the purpose of avoiding a disastrous finish Sunday, Busch said wrecking Saturday was a good thing, because he learned what not to do with this high-drag rules package.

“We just learned about how the draft was and what kind of instances you could try to put yourself in and what kind of instances you didn’t want to be in,” he said. “Now that we have to start in the back, it’s a good thing we did that. It’s a good exercise and we’ll just have to adjust our car for being in the back of the field.”

After returning to practice, Busch posted the ninth-best practice speed of 190.320 mph in the backup No. 18 Toyota.

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Staff Report

Matt Crafton soared atop the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series leaderboard Friday afternoon, posting the fastest lap in final practice at Michigan International Speedway.

The two-time defending series champion registered a fast lap of 186.659 mph in the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Toyota. His time was almost a tenth of a second faster than Daniel Hemric, who was fastest in Friday’s opening practice for Saturday’s Careers for Veterans 200 presented by Cooper Standard and Brad Keselowski‘s Checkered Flag Foundation (Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

Hemric turned a slightly faster 186.210 mph lap in final practice in the NTS Motorsports No. 14 Chevrolet. Cameron Hayley also backed up his second-fastest speed in the first session with a third-best 185.907 in the final session behind the wheel of the ThorSport No. 13 Toyota.

Cody Coughlin, a 19-year-old development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, was fourth-fastest in preparation for just his second Truck Series start, driving the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 54 Toyota. He was just ahead of Austin Dillon, who rounded out the top five in the GMS Racing No. 33 Chevrolet.

Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch was sixth-fastest, just ahead of points leader Tyler Reddick.

Keystone Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. ET Saturday (FOX Sports 1).

Hemric hangs on to top spot in first practice

Daniel Hemric shot to the top of the leaderboard in opening NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

Hemric, driving the NTS Motorsports No. 14 Chervrolet, turned a fast lap of 185.009 mph on the 2-mile track. The 24-year-old driver is scheduled to make just his 16th start in the series in Saturday’s Careers for Veterans 200 presented by Cooper Standard and Brad Keselowski‘s Checkered Flag Foundation (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

NASCAR Next product Cameron Hayley was second-fastest in the ThorSport Racing No. 13 Toyota at 184.186 mph. Michigan native Erik Jones was third-fastest at 184.082 mph on his home track in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Toyota.

Alex Bowman, set to make his truck series debut for JR Motorsports, was fourth-best, followed by fellow Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch to complete the top five.

Johnny Sauter, last year’s winner at Michigan, was sixth-fastest in the ThorSport Racing No. 98 Toyota. He was slightly faster than two-time Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton, his ThorSport teammate in the No. 88 Toyota.

Spencer Gallagher‘s scrape with the Turn 2 wall halted practice with approximately 13 minutes left in the 55-minute session. His GMS Racing team unloaded a new No. 23 Chevrolet after his primary truck suffered significant right-rear fender damage.

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Staff Report

#	Car	Driver	Team
1	23	JJ Yeley(i)	Dr Pepper Toyota
2	62	Reed Sorenson	Premium Motorsports Ford
3	98	Timmy Hill(i)	Premium Motorsports Chevrolet
4	33	Travis Kvapil(i)	Chevrolet
5	32	Josh Wise	Skuttle Tight Ford
6	40	Landon Cassill(i)	Snap Fitness Chevrolet
7	34	Brett Moffitt #	CSX Play It Safe Ford
8	26	Jeb Burton #	Maxim/Estes Toyota
9	35	Cole Whitt	Dockside Logistics LLC Ford
10	83	Matt DiBenedetto #	Cosmo Motors Toyota
11	38	David Gilliland	MDS Transportation Ford
12	7	Alex Bowman	Advanced Patient Care Chevrolet
13	46	Michael Annett	Pilot Flying J Chevrolet
14	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Zest Ford
15	51	Justin Allgaier	Brandt Chevrolet
16	43	M. Crafton(i) / A. Almirola	Armour Ford
17	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Chevrolet
18	15	Clint Bowyer	5-Hour Energy Toyota
19	42	Kyle Larson	Target Chevrolet
20	27	Paul Menard	Richmond/Menards Chevrolet
21	10	Danica Patrick	GoDaddy Chevrolet
22	16	Greg Biffle	Ortho Ford
23	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Ford
24	6	Trevor Bayne	AdvoCare Ford
25	31	Ryan Newman	Caterpillar Chevrolet
26	1	Jamie McMurray	Cessna/McDonald’s Chevrolet
27	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet
28	47	AJ Allmendinger	Kroger/Scott Products Chevrolet
29	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe’s Chevrolet
30	24	Jeff Gordon	Pepsi Chevrolet
31	21	Ryan Blaney(i)	Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford
32	9	Sam Hornish Jr.	Transportation Impact Ford
33	41	Kurt Busch	Haas Automation Chevrolet
34	22	Joey Logano	Shell Pennzoil Ford
35	20	Matt Kenseth	Dollar General Toyota
36	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Microsoft Chevrolet
37	55	David Ragan	Aaron’s Dream Machine Online Version Toyota
38	18	Kyle Busch	Interstate Batteries Toyota
39	5	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance Chevrolet
40	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Freight Toyota
41	14	Tony Stewart	Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet
42	3	Austin Dillon	Dow Chevrolet
43	4	Kevin Harvick	Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet
44	19	Carl Edwards	ARRIS Toyota

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: See all 43 cars | Full starting lineup

The pit stall assignments are out for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway, and Coors Light Pole Award Winner Matt Kenseth got to pick first on where he will pit.

Kenseth chose pit stall 1 to service his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota; which is the first pit stall off pit road leading into Turn 1.

Second-place qualifier Denny Hamlin, in the No. 11 Toyota, has the pit stall just in front of the start-finish line at the 2-mile track.

Carl Edwards (starting third) will pit in the 22nd pit stall, just past start-finish line.

Austin Dillon‘s No. 3 Chevrolet (starting fourth) will be pitting in the second pit stall, right behind Kenseth while Tony Stewart (starting fifth) chose the fourth pit stall.

Kenseth, Hamlin and Kasey Kahne (starting 11th) all have openings in front of them on pit road.

The Pure Michigan 400 (200 laps, 400 miles) on Sunday, Aug. 16 at 2:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN/Live Extra, MRN, SiriusXM)

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Staff Report

Aric Almirola sat out a portion of Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway as he dealt with an illness.

According to a release provided by Richard Petty Motorsports, Almirola was suffering from what the team hopes is a 24-hour virus. The team said it intended for Almirola to make limited laps in practice in the No. 43 Ford in hopes of participating in Coors Light Pole Qualifying later and retaining his starting spot for Sunday’s main event. Almirola did participate in qualifying and will lineup 30th for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

The team retained two-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton as a relief driver for the bulk of Friday’s lone practice.

It isn’t the first substitute role in the Sprint Cup Series for Crafton. The 39-year-old driver filled in for Paul Menard, awaiting the birth of his first child, during practice in March 2014 at Auto Club Speedway. Crafton also was an 11th-hour replacement for the injured Kyle Busch in the 2015 Daytona 500.

Almirola is the highest-ranking driver outside of the provisional Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason grid entering Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400. He made his first Chase appearance last year after scoring his first Sprint Cup win at Daytona International Speedway in July.

NBCSN reported that Almirola was received treatment at the 2-mile track’s infield care center.

The change of plans for Crafton was amplified by the adjustment to the high-drag rules package for the Sprint Cup Series this weekend.

“It’s definitely different,” Crafton said after his first stint in the RPM No. 43. “A lot of it’s unknown for them because of the new aero packages we have, so nobody knows anything about it. They thought the car would be tight, but I don’t think everybody’s fighting real tight right now. So, we’ll keep working on it.”

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Practice 2 results

Justin Marks sped to the top of the leaderboard late in Friday’s final NASCAR XFINITY Series practice at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, piloting his No. 42 Chevrolet around the road course at 95.574 mph. That was just quick enough to unseat Ty Dillon from the top spot.

Dillon, who led Friday’s opening practice and was looking for a sweep, had a best speed of 95.538 mph, which looked like it would hold up. That ended up being good for second place.

Marks hasn’t raced an XFINITY Series car since the season-opening race at Daytona, in which he finished 34th in the No. 29 Toyota.

Alex Tagliani (95.205 mph) was third in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, followed by Chris Buescher (95.152 mph) and Elliott Sadler (94.965 mph).

Chase Elliott, who finished eighth in the final session, spent time in the garage so his team could swap his transmission after the driver reported a small vibration on his second run, according to JR Motorsports.

Next on the docket for the XFINITY Series is qualifying, which takes place Saturday at 11:15 a.m. ET. The Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 follows at 3:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

Opening practice

RELATED: Practice 1 results

A late mock qualifying run vaulted Ty Dillon to the top of the leaderboard in Friday’s opening NASCAR XFINITY Series practice at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

In the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Dillon topped Brian Scott‘s best speed with approximately 90 seconds remaining in the opening 55-minute session with a pace of 95.660 mph. Scott, his Richard Childress Racing teammate, settled for second in the session at 94.937 mph.

In a practice session that saw its leaderboard get topsy-turvy as teams made late runs in qualifying trim, Boris Said piloted the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to third place (94.825 mph). Regan Smith was fourth at 94.755 mph and defending race winner and series points leader Chris Buescher taking fifth (94.736 mph).

Buescher enters Saturday’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) 24 points ahead of both Chase Elliott and Dillon. Elliott finished seventh in the first practice. Dillon, of course, was involved in a pit-road tussle with Smith following last week’s race at Watkins Glen. They avoided each other in Friday’s opening period of on-track activity.

Seven NASCAR XFINITY Series teams lost 15 minutes of on-track time as a result of recent minor infractions.

The following XFINITY Series teams served 15-minute practice time deduction penalties during the opening practice:Richard Childress Racing No. 2 (driver Brian Scott), Team Penske No. 22 (Alex Tagliani), JGL Racing No. 26 (Tomy Drissi), Richard Childress Racing No. 33 (Brandon Jones), Jimmy Means Racing No. 52 (Joey Gase), Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 (Boris Said) and JR Motorsports No. 88 (Ben Rhodes).

The seven teams were penalized for issues arising at Watkins Glen this past weekend (late exiting garage).