DARLINGTON, S.C. — Leavine Family Racing announced Friday morning that crew chief Wally Rogers is no longer with the team.
The organization did not name a replacement for the No. 95 Ford and driver Michael McDowell. The Bob Leavine-owned team is not participating at Darlington Raceway this weekend, but will return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Sept. 12 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as part of the team’s part-time schedule.
“We appreciate everything Wally has done for this organization,” Leavine said in a release provided by the team. “I’m committed to growing this race team and improving our on-track performance. Looking ahead to 2016, we are putting the pieces in place to improve the overall performance of this race team.”
Rogers had been with the team since its Sprint Cup debut in 2011. He helped guide the team to its best-ever finish — seventh at Daytona in July 2014 — in McDowell’s first season with the operation.
RELATED: Full practice results
Piloting his No. 2 Team Penske Ford at 175.880 mph, Brad Keselowski slid into the top position on the leaderboard with less than 10 minutes remaining Friday’s final practice session at Darlington Raceway.
Opening practice leader Greg Biffle found speed in the final minutes of Friday’s final practice, propelling his No. 16 Ford around the South Carolina speedway at 175.729 mph for the second position.
Like many of the other drivers in the field, third-fastest Kurt Busch — who was second on the leaderboard in the opening session — used the final minutes of the 115-minute practice to make a mock qualifying run in his No. 41 Chevrolet (175.723 mph).
A late run also benefited Paul Menard, who inherited the fourth position on the leaderboard with the help of a fast lap of 175.484 mph from his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing car. His teammate Austin Dillon rounded out the top five, getting a top speed of 175.453 mph out of his No. 3 ride.
Denny Hamlin remained atop the leaderboard for the majority of the final session. However, when drivers switched to qualifying trim in the final laps, he ended up 14th by the time the red flag waved to the signal the end of practice.
“The Track Too Tough to Tame” lived up to its name in the final minutes for reigning race winner Kevin Harvick, who smacked the wall off Turn 2 late in the session in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Harvick ranked 21st on the leaderboard.
After making contact with the wall midway through the second practice session, Kyle Busch and the No. 18 team deferred to a back-up car. The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota came up 35th on the leaderboard after the 115-minute session.
Coors Light Pole Qualifying is set for Saturday at 1:45 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
RELATED: Full practice results
Greg Biffle topped the opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Darlington Raceway for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Biffle paced the 115-minute practice with a fast lap of 176.201 mph at the 1.366-mile track in South Carolina. The Roush Fenway Racing driver has two wins in 14 starts at the “Lady in Black” and is currently on the outside of the Chase Grid with two races left in the regular season.
Stewart-Haas Racing dominated the leaderboard behind Biffle with Kurt Busch (175.842 mph), Tony Stewart (175.710 mph) and Kevin Harvick (175.654 mph) coming in second through fourth in the session. Harvick is the defending race winner at Darlington. Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Carl Edwards (175.647 mph) rounded out the top five.
Friday’s practice sessions provided the drivers with significant time with the low downforce package. This is the second race of the season to use that particular rules package as it was also used at Kentucky in July.
Austin Dillon “earned” a Darlington stripe early in opening practice when he hit the wall off of Turn 2 and had significant damage to the right side of his No. 3 Chevrolet. The team worked to fix the damage on his car instead of bringing out the backup and got him back out on track toward the end of the session. Brett Moffitt also got a Darlington stripe early in the practice session.
Chase Elliott, who will be attempting to make his fifth Sprint Cup start of the season, brushed the wall about a half hour into practice. Trevor Bayne also got into the wall during the practice session.
RELATED: See Darlington’s greatest hits
Practice 2 recap | Results
Joey Logano led the final XFINITY Series practice at Darlington Raceway on Friday, posting a top speed of 166.676 mph on Lap 2 of 28.
The Team Penske driver was fourth-fastest in the series’ opening practice earlier in the day.
Kyle Busch, who was fastest in the first XFINITY Series practice at Darlington, came in second-fastest behind Logano (166.642 mph).
Ty Dillon (165.643 mph), Kyle Larson (164.556 mph) and Daniel Suarez (164.457 mph) rounded out the top-five fastest on the practice leaderboard.
Saturday’s VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/Live Extra, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is the final race in the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash program and Suarez, Dillon, Brian Scott and Chase Elliott will compete for the final $100,000 cash prize.
Elliott was ninth-fastest while Scott was 11th-fastest in Friday’s final practice.
Practice 1 recap | Results
Kyle Busch led opening practice for Saturday’s XFINITY Series VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver completed his fastest time on Lap 2 of 19 at a speed of 167.379 mph.
Closing in on Busch was JGR teammate Denny Hamlin who came in as second-fastest (167.015 mph).
Paul Menard (166.304 mph), Joey Logano (166.034 mph) and Ty Dillon (165.788 mph) round out the top-five fastest drivers at the “Too Tough to Tame” track.
Piloting the No. 9 Chevrolet, defending race winner and XFINITY Series champion Chase Elliott was 11th-fastest in the first session (165.009 mph).
The XFINITY Series returns to the track at 3 p.m. ET for the final practice before Saturday’s race at 3:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN/Live Extra, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
With five Darlington wins under his belt, including four straight Southern 500 victories from 1995 to 1998, while manning the pit box during Jeff Gordon‘s heyday, you’ be hard-pressed to find a crew chief who knows Darlington Raceway better than Ray Evernham.
In 20 attempts, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is winless at the track named “Too Tough to Tame.” That may just change with a little help from the legendary pit boss.
“Go easy on them tires; you know this place,” Evernham tells Earnhardt in the video below.
Even with a Darlington-specific tire that Goodyear created, the falloff at the “Lady in Black” is almost as famous as the stripes she gives to the right sides of stock cars.
That difficulty — combined with the history and tradition — makes the urge to grab that first Darlington win just that much stronger for Junior.
Watch the video below to see their full conversation — all while Junior is behind the wheel of his throwback No. 88 Valvoline Chevrolet — and tune in Sunday for what’s setting up to be a spectacular Bojangles’ Southern 500 Sprint Cup Series race (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: Darlington throwback paint schemes
Darlington’s throwback theme for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 already is a hit with racers and fans alike, bringing out the creativity in the industry with special paint schemes and providing opportunities to honor great racers who have gone before.
But what if along with those throwback paint schemes, like Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Valvoline No. 88 nod to Cale Yarborough and Clint Bowyer‘s No. 15 salute to recently passed Buddy Baker, we could actually bring back the NASCAR legends themselves for this one race. Who would you pick?
Hall of Fame crew chief Dale Inman could fill the whole 43-car field with legendary race car drivers. He won seven premier series championships with Richard Petty and an eighth with Terry Labonte, competing against some of the most storied personalities in the sport.
“Damn, I’ve seen ’em all. I don’t know …” Inman said of trying to choose just one driver to place in a throwback ride. “Earnhardt Sr. was good there you know.”
Bowyer, too, wished Earnhardt Sr. could join the field at the 2015 Southern 500.
“Obviously for me it would be Earnhardt for me because we lost him, you know. That’s first and foremost. Anyone you ever lost is who you’d want to bring back.”
But Bowyer said bringing back the man with the most wins (47) and most poles (47) at Darlington, David Pearson, would be the ultimate measuring stick for today’s Sprint Cup drivers.
“Pearson … man, what a character and just a genuine badass and an aggressive and successful racer. Anytime you have someone who’s successful in the sport you make a living in, you want to be able to see what he had, what he’s made of and see how you stack up.”
Eddie Wood, co-owner of Wood Brothers Racing, fondly remembers those days with Pearson driving the No. 21 Purolator Mercury. Pearson drove for the Woods Brothers from 1972-79 and won seven times at “The Lady in Black” during that span with two runner-up finishes.
“That was his place,” Wood said of Pearson’s dominance at the South Carolina track. “The hotter the better for David. He liked it HOT, so we’d have to run in the daytime for him.”
RELATED: Drivers, officials, fans pumped for throwback weekend
Inman attributed some of Pearson’s success at the track also called “Too Tough To Tame” to his ability to take care of his equipment. This was extra difficult, as Inman recalled, because the track promoter sometimes would put bear’s grease on the track between Saturday’s practice and Monday’s race. Blue laws prevented NASCAR from running on Sundays in South Carolina then.
“Pearson just had a knack for taking care of the car. He always had a good car too,” Inman said. “At least most of the time. For Darlington we put bars under the fenders. You knew you were gonna hit the wall, so we just put bars in and just bolted them to the right side. But the guard rail wasn’t smooth like it is now. And they’ll wear the sides out this time with the low downforce package.”
Aside from the drivers who racked up at the track, including Richard Petty and Buck Baker, Inman said Parnelli Jones’ performance at Darlington had lasting impact on the racing there.
“Parnelli Jones came out here in maybe 1956 or 57 was the first one to really use the high bank to what it is now. I remember him just sliding up to the fence. He didn’t finish, of course.”
Jones crashed at Darlington in both 1956 and 1957. He finished 50th in a field of 70 cars in 1956 in the No. 1 Torrance Motors Ford and 34th in the No. 11 Ford owned by Oscar Maples in 1957. In 1958, Jones did finish the Southern 500 running, coming in 18th in a field of 48 cars during his last race there.
The list of great performances at Darlington is nothing short of epic. Just the list of winners sends any racing fan on a long ride down memory lane: Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts, Fred Lorenzen, Bobby Allison, Fonty Flock, Neil Bonnett, Benny Parsons, Harry Gant.
How would they stack up against Jeff Gordon, the active driver with the most wins at Darlington (seven)?
“Herb Thomas and Buck Baker were both really good,” Inman added to the list. “But Herb had it as good as anyone in those old Hudson Hornets that Marshall Teague built, and I think he won in a Chevrolet, too.”
Now that would be an entirely different kind of throwback idea. Run at Darlington again in restored Chevrolets, Fords, Hornets, Plymouths, Pontiacs and Dodges.
Driver explains why rainbow scheme won’t show up this week
Fans were all jazzed up to see Jeff Gordon run his old Rainbow Warrior scheme two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, so much so that they’ve been asking what he had planned for Darlington Raceway on throwback weekend.
Get those sad-faced emojis ready, because it turns out Gordon won’t run a throwback this week. He explained on social media:
I understand everyone’s bummed #24 won’t have a throwback design @TooToughToTame. Timing & right scheme didn’t work out for this weekend.
— Jeff Gordon (@JeffGordonWeb) September 3, 2015
The timing worked out for us to do our #Rainbow24 throwback @BMSupdates. It was great to drive that car again & see amazing support for it.
— Jeff Gordon (@JeffGordonWeb) September 3, 2015
To see who is running throwback paint schemes, check out our gallery, and vote for your favorite.
RELATED: MWR won’t run full-time Cup team
Officials with Michael Waltrip Racing have begun the process of shutting down the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization, filing the required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) with the North Carolina Commerce Department detailing the anticipated layoff of its employees.
Any employer planning the closure of a company or large layoffs is required to file a WARN notice with the state. Notices must also be filed with those workers affected, or their representatives, the N.C. Division of Workforce Solutions and the chief elected government official where the site/company is located.
According to the document, the company will lay off a total of 217 employees during a five-and-a-half month period, from Nov. 1 through April 15 of next year.
MWR, which began competing full-time in 2007, currently fields two full-time teams, the No. 15 Toyota for driver Clint Bowyer and the No. 55 Toyota for driver David Ragan. The racing facility is located in Cornelius, North Carolina.
At its height, MWR fielded three full-time teams, and its drivers have won seven Sprint Cup events. Its last victory came during the 2013 season and Bowyer has the team’s highest points finish, placing second in the 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Bowyer enters this weekend’s race, the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, looking to earn one of the remaining positions in this year’s 16-team Chase field.
Ragan, who joined the team after 11 races, is 24th in points.
On Aug. 19, MWR officials announced that the organization and Bowyer had mutually agreed to sever their relationship following the completion of the 2015 racing season, which concludes in November at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
RELATED: MWR, Bowyer to go separate ways
It was also stated at that time that MWR would not field a full-time entry beyond this season.
Co-owner Rob Kauffman, whose financial resources helped keep the team afloat shortly after its debut, announced in late July that he was in the process of purchasing an interest in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
RELATED: Kauffman buys interest in CGR
In August, he said that MWR “really wouldn’t have existed through to today without substantial and continued financial support from me.
“I think that from a business standpoint it didn’t make sense any longer. You can’t have a top-10 budget and top-10 resources and not be in the top 10 for a sustained period of time,” he said.
“It’s a performance related business, it’s all about performance. It’s a great sport but a very difficult business model. From a business decision it just made sense to not go forward with that organization, which isn’t really commercially viable.”
Neither Bowyer nor Ragan has announced plans for 2016. Their current sponsors, 5-hour ENERGY (Bowyer) and Aaron’s (Ragan) also have not announced sponsorship plans beyond this season.
RELATED: Complete Darlington schedule | Darlington’s throwback schemes
Officials with Darlington Raceway and International Speedway Corp., which owns the South Carolina facility, should be congratulated for their efforts leading into this weekend’s Bojangles’ Southern 500.The retro-themed weekend has been the talk of NASCAR in recent months, garnering more attention than any event outside of the season-opening Daytona 500 back in February. Copious amounts of content — print, Internet and broadcast — have been devoted to this weekend’s race.
And rightfully so.
The fact that the program coincides with the return of the historic event to the Labor Day weekend is icing on the cake.
When the seed for the throwback plan was planted, there was no indication that this year’s race would be return to its long-held September date — the 2015 schedule wasn’t officially announced until August of ’14, and track officials weren’t privy to potential changes much earlier than that.
After a one-year dalliance with a November stop in 2004, the 500 had a nine-year run on Mother’s Day weekend in May where it did well.
Last year’s race was held in April in yet another schedule shuffle.
But the Southern 500 in April or May is not the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend.
“Having the extra time from last April until Labor Day this year has been really helpful because truly it’s just a small group of people that have put this together,” Chip Wile, President of Darlington Raceway, said recently. “And it’s been a learning process but it’s been really fun.”
The platform is the kickoff of what Wile describes as a five-year plan to revitalize the track’s lone NASCAR race weekend, which includes Saturday’s XFINITY Series race as well as Sunday’s Sprint Cup event.
For decades, the Southern 500 was considered one of the most difficult races on the series’ circuit. The track’s unusual shape — a 1.336-mile layout with distinct differences between Turns 1-2 and 3-4 — favors no particular driving style. Winners are often determined by a combination of skill and good fortune.
The oppressive heat and humidity that hung over the track nearly every September race weekend took its toll as well — the list of drivers that required relief at some point is a lengthy one.
That difficulty, combined with the fact that the track is the oldest paved speedway to host NASCAR events (it opened in 1950), earned Darlington a lofty position in NASCAR’s early years. The race is still considered one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events — along with the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. But the praise for this weekend’s program shouldn’t stop with track officials. Teams have bought into the idea wholeheartedly, developing amazing throwback paint schemes, many of which honor some of the sport’s legendary drivers and organizations.
Sponsors and various stakeholders, such as Goodyear, have gotten on board. Broadcast teams will incorporate the throwback platform into their programming.
It’s been a win-win situation for everyone involved. It also couldn’t have come at a better time.
Wile and his group wanted to make his track’s lone Sprint Cup race stand out above the crowd, and it certainly seems as if that has been accomplished. Darlington isn’t the only track that’s been able to develop an idea that resonates with those in the sport as well as those in the stands. Not as large in scope but certainly just as entertaining, the annual night race at Bristol Motor Speedway in August generates interest not only for the competition on the track, but its pre-race show is perhaps the most popular on the schedule. Anchoring the program are drivers entering the track to music they have chosen and the Motor Racing Outreach effort that has children of drivers and other personnel singing the National Anthem (an idea generated by former track president Jeff Byrd).
The product on the track remains of primary importance, and fortunately that’s been a constant at Darlington — the racing there rarely fails to excite and entertain.
And if there’s a bit of a history lesson included, so much the better.
“I really love the history and the heritage of the sport,” former championship-winning crew chief Ray Evernham said. “I think it’s really important if we’re going to bring new fans, younger fans, that demographic, they’ve got to understand why. When you start telling some of the history and the tradition, and showing that, I think it gets people really interested.
“Now they understand why people are so passionate about it or why somebody will come sit in the same seat for 50 years or why we work so hard on these cars. I think it’s really important that we go back and show the steps that it took to get here in order to engage new fans.”
And there’s no better place or time than Darlington Raceway. On Labor Day weekend.
One DraftKings NASCAR fantasy player is still basking in the glow of his ultimate fan experience in June at Michigan International Speedway.
Bruce Strang, who is signed up to play with NASCAR’s official daily fantasy sports partner, earned a bevy of prizes for himself and guest Kimberly.
Strang’s VIP experience at Michigan included a lap around the track, access to the infield and close proximity to the drivers and crew chiefs.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Strang said. “The things we got to see and do were amazing. I have told everybody that I know and also some folks that I don’t really know.”
“There isn’t one thing that I wish would have went differently — well, maybe that the weekend didn’t end. Even though it rained a lot, and the race on Sunday was shortened, I still have zero complaints.”
NASCAR and DraftKings announced their joint partnership on May 14, a three-year agreement that gives DraftKings an exclusive license to develop NASCAR-branded games across the daily fantasy sports category.
Daily fantasy sports games on DraftKings give players a one-of-a-kind event experience as DraftKings has access to a direct data feed from NASCAR Digital Media that contains real-time statistics.
In each game, participants are assigned a fixed salary cap they can use to draft their entire roster, comprised of five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers. Scoring categories in DraftKings NASCAR daily fantasy sports games will include finishing position, fastest laps, laps led and place differential.
NASCAR games on DraftKings will provide fans the opportunity to win one-of-a-kind NASCAR prizes and VIP experiences — as Strang experienced.
More information on DraftKings NASCAR daily fantasy sports games is available at www.draftkings.com.
LEARN MORE: Bing: Chase predictions | About Bing
RELATED: Play the Chase Grid Battle Game here
Let the battle begin.
The Chase Grid Battle Game Powered by Bing, a game in which players make round-by-round picks in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, returns for the second consecutive season.
Registration is open now. Go here to sign up and start thinking about your strategy before the first postseason race Sept. 20 at Chicagoland Speedway.
New this year is the presence of Bing — and more specifically Bing Predicts, a methodology that uses algorithms to make predictions. Gamers can consider the Bing Predicts tool when playing the Chase Grid Battle Game and have a leg up on the competition.
Throughout the summer, Bing Predicts has made accurate forecasts for events such as the Women’s World Cup and the Tour de France.
Bing will make predictions for drivers advancing to each round throughout the Chase. Right now, the algorithm predicts Kevin Harvick will repeat as Sprint Cup Series champion, besting Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski in the Championship Round at Homestead.
“We’re excited to work with NASCAR to bring the power of Bing’s intelligent predictions to The Chase Grid Battle Game to help players up their chances of winning,” said Ryan Gavin, general manager of search at Microsoft Corp. “Bing Predicts is quickly becoming the resource for both avid sports fans and casual players to get an edge on the game and impress their friends — and we’re excited to bring it to NASCAR’s passionate fan base.”
Also new in 2015 is a race-by-race scoring format that awards points after each of the 10 Chase races. Prizes for the overall highest score includes a VIP trip to a 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, tickets to a NASCAR driving experience and an autographed driver helmet.
The highest-scoring participant after each of the four Rounds in The Chase will also receive $100 to use in the NASCAR.com Superstore. Players can form leagues to compete against friends and other fans, with the option to create up to three entries per user.