Most Popular Driver Award voting opens for Truck Series

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 6, 2015) — As on-track competition heats up, there’s another showdown on the line in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR’s seven touring series, as voting for the Most Popular Driver Awards begins on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Chase Elliott looks to defend his NASCAR XFINITY Series Most Popular Driver title while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is guaranteed a new winner. Fans can vote once per day online for the Most Popular Driver Awards at www.NASCAR.com/mostpopulardriver.

Voting is open and runs through Friday, Nov. 20 for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Saturday, Nov. 21 for the NASCAR XFINITY Series, prior to the respective season finale races at Homestead-Miami Speedway during Ford Championship Weekend. Voting for the seven NASCAR touring series will also conclude Saturday, Nov. 21.

The winners will be announced at the 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Awards. The combined postseason gala will take place at the Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood, Florida on Monday, Nov. 23.

The Most Popular Driver Award winners for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and NASCAR Mexico Series will be honored at the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Series Awards at the NASCAR Hall of Fame/Charlotte Convention Center on Saturday, Dec. 12.

To be eligible to receive Most Popular Driver votes, NASCAR XFINITY Series or NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers must have selected to receive 2015 championship driver points in their respective series. Additionally, drivers in every series must have attempted at least half of each of their series’ races this season.

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 6, 2015) – As on-track competition heats up, there’s another showdown on the line in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR’s seven touring series, as voting for the Most Popular Driver Awards begins on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Posted on October 6, 2015 by

Posted on October 5, 2015 by

Below is a breakdown of how the full 43-car field fared at Dover International Speedway.

1. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick scored his spot in the Round of 12 in dramatic fashion by leading a career-best 355 laps and notching the 750th victory for manufacturer Chevrolet.

2. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Post-race, Busch said he was pleased with where his team finished, citing it had a second-place car, but also adding it had quite a bit of ground to make up to catch the “lightning-fast” No. 4 team.

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. The final caution flag was a lucky break for Earnhardt, who took the opportunity to address a loose wheel. He then used a solid restart to slip past fellow Chase contender Jamie McMurray and punch his ticket to the next round.

4. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. “Nice work guys. Nothing to be ashamed of,” McMurray radioed his team after just missing the cut for Round 2. For more in-car audio, sign up for RaceView.

5. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Almirola was posting top-five lap times with 55 laps to go, but needed those remaining circuits to pick up seven spots and match his best Dover result.

6. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. The decision to stop twice during the fifth caution period to ensure the No. 5 was full of fuel didn’t hurt Kahne, who earned his seventh Dover top 10.

7. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Kenseth, already a Round 2 contender thanks to his Loudon victory, spent the remaining 125 laps on Sunday looking for more corner speed.

8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse restarted 10th after the fifth caution flag, and he held on for his best Dover finish.

9. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. Larson looked to play the spoiler when he moved into the top three in the final 100 laps, but a decision to stay out during the final caution flag hurt his chances.

10. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Logano advances to the next round of the Chase with his ninth Dover top 10.

11. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Chevrolet, Furniture Row Racing. Truex, a Round 2 contender, climbed through the field after starting from the rear when NASCAR had a post-inspection issue with the flare on his side skirt.

12. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. “Man, it’s never easy,” Gordon told his team after a rough final restart. “I know that wasn’t easy,” spotter Eddie D’Hondt said. “But we did what we needed to” (to advance). For more in-car audio, sign up for RaceView.

13. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush-Fenway Racing. Biffle got sideways with 11 laps to go, but saved his car while running 15th.

14. Clint Bowyer, No. 15, Michael Waltrip Racing. Bowyer recovered after dropping from eighth to 25th when he made an unscheduled stop on Lap 175 for a loose wheel.

15. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Crew chief Darian Grubb didn’t want to risk the No. 19’s spot in the next round of the Chase so he called his driver back down pit road during the sixth caution flag for a right-front tire issue.

16. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Around Lap 60, Keselowski was running 16th when he reported that his engine temperatures were dropping. He maintained and will compete in the second round of the Chase.

17. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. An issue with the left-front jack bolt caused Busch to lose ride height late in the race. The team corrected the issue but still had to make additional repairs during the Lap 374 stop under caution.

18. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin won the race off pit road after a four-tire stop during the competition caution, but his forward momentum was stalled because he was tagged for speeding. A second penalty sealed the deal, but he still advanced because he won Chicagoland.

19. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Newman earned the beneficiary pass after the third caution flag and managed to stay only one lap down as the race progressed. He advanced to the second round of the Chase.

20. Sam Hornish Jr., No. 9 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Hornish and his team chased the handling of his No. 9 Ford all day, even as the track took on rubber.

21. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick worked with her team to help her No. 10 Chevy take off better around Dover’s 1-mile oval.

22. David Ragan, No. 55 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing. Ragan, who fell off the lead lap by Lap 105, had previously told his team he was “too free on exit and pretty snug in the center.”

23. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Dillon’s team made several chassis adjustments during the second half of the race to help him get into the corner better.

24. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears was running 25th during the first half of Sunday’s race when he was hooked in the right rear and saved his car from spinning on-track.

25. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard rolled off the grid 14th and almost immediately went backward as he watched his first Chase run fade.

26. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart recently announced he’d retire from driving after 2016 to focus on ownership. But on Sunday, the driver of the No. 14 focused on pit strategy to improve his track position.

27. Justin Allgaier, No. 51 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Allgaier received the beneficiary pass during the competition caution, but spent much of the race looking for mid-corner grip.

28. Cole Whitt, No. 35 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Like his teammate Brett Moffitt, Whitt discovered that his car improved around Dover as the 1-mile concrete oval took on rubber.

29. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG-Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger was going too fast trying to get onto pit road when he spun up the track on Lap 311.

30. David Gilliland, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Gilliland reported a tight-handling condition during the final 60 laps of Sunday’s race, which his team worked to address.

31. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Halfway through a fuel run when the fifth caution flag was waved, Bayne elected to take the wave-around like most cars one or more laps down.

32. Alex Bowman, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Bowman and his team continually made adjustments on the No. 7 Chevy throughout Sunday’s race trying to find balance.

33. Reed Sorenson, No. 98 Ford, Phil Parsons Racing. Already three laps down and in 36th, Sorenson told his team that he was “just racing the track right now” when they informed him leader Kevin Harvick was bearing down.

34. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. “Holy crap,” DiBenedetto said while running 37th on Lap 101 when he learned leader Kevin Harvick was on his bumper — again.

35. J.J. Yeley, No. 26 Toyota, BK Racing. Long green-flag runs were a struggle Sunday for Yeley.

36. Josh Wise, No. 32 Ford, Go FAS Racing. Wise sustained minimal nose damage after making contact with Jeb Burton on Lap 3.

37. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. During the fifth caution flag, Annett reported that his entry was neutral and he couldn’t pick up the gas when he wanted to.

38. Alex Kennedy, No. 33 Chevrolet, Circle Sport. Kennedy rolled off the grid 36th in his Dover debut.

39. Timmy Hill, No. 62 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Starting 43rd at the fast 1-mile oval made forward progress an immediate issue for Hill in his fourth Dover appearance.

40. Landon Cassill, No. 40 Chevrolet, Hillman Smith Motorsports. Cassill’s fear that his engine was “letting go” was realized on Lap 372 and prompted the eighth caution flag.

41. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. A torn rear axle seal sidelined Johnson in his 500th Cup start and ended his quest for a seventh championship.

42. Brett Moffitt, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Moffitt’s lap times were improving as the track picked up rubber, but his car was “killed” when he blew a right-front and made hard contact with the wall to bring out the seventh caution flag.

43. Jeb Burton, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Burton spun on Lap 3 and cut a tire on Lap 192 to bring out the caution flag twice on Sunday.

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Nascar

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author.

DOVER, Del. — How strong was Kevin Harvick and the Stewart-Haas Racing team in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway?

“If we would have had qualifying on Friday,” crew chief Rodney Childers said Sunday evening, “we’d have led 400 (laps).”

Folks laughed and Childers smiled. But beneath the euphoria of another victory, Childers wasn’t kidding.

Harvick, the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, didn’t lead every lap in the series’ 29th race. He led 355. The dominating performance came one week after the No. 4 Chevrolet was out front for 216 of 300 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

A miscalculation cost Harvick that particular victory — his fuel cell ran dry just three laps from the finish to drop him from first to 21st. Combined with a crash at Chicagoland Speedway the previous week, Harvick arrived in Dover with seemingly little chance of advancing out of the Challenger Round of this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Fifteenth in a field of 16 that would see four drivers eliminated from Chase contention, Harvick didn’t accomplish the impossible at Dover. The improbable? Yes. The impossible? No.

We’ve seen this movie before. Faced with elimination last year, Harvick thrashed the field at Phoenix and then went on a week later to win the race and the championship at Homestead.

Pressure rolls off the 39-year-old like rain off a freshly waxed car. Being put in a must-win situation isn’t pressure in Harvick’s world. It’s opportunity.

Pressure is being thrust into the spotlight following the loss of one of the sport’s legendary figures.

“That was pretty high,” Harvick said of the call-up to fill the ride formerly held by seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt in 2001. “There will never be anything close to that one.

“When you look at the sport’s biggest hero gone, you look at millions of race fans that are depending upon somebody to drive that car and you have 350 people that have jobs and families and you’re their guy, never done it before, but good luck. You know what I mean? That’s a lot of pressure.”

Before Sunday, Harvick had never won at Dover. Cross the 1-mile concrete track off the list. Only Sonoma, Texas, Pocono and Kentucky remain to be conquered.

In a span of barely three-and-a-half hours Sunday, Harvick and his team went from the best team not expected to advance to the team to beat from here on out.

Runner-up Kyle Busch, extending his own amazing season by racing his way into the next round from outside the top 12, said as much.

“That was a guy,” Busch admitted, “that we wanted to knock out … that’s a guy that can win all these races and you don’t want to have to compete against a guy like that.”

Harvick has finished second 10 times this year, and to come so close without closing the deal can be disheartening. It can also build character.

“If you’re going to get frustrated over running like we’ve run this year, you’re probably going to be a detriment to your team,” Harvick said.

Win or lose, he said, you show up at the start of a new workweek and begin anew.

“It’s just the nature of this team and what they do, and the character of it is deep, and they all believe in each other,” he said. “When you have a group of people like this that doesn’t do things out of the ordinary for situations like this, you know, they just look at it as another task at hand.”

He has led more than 2,000 laps for the second consecutive season, a mark as impressive as this year’s 19 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes.

It was a demoralizing defeat for those who thought they had the defending champion on the ropes. But there are more opportunities ahead for Busch and others in the Chase field.

“We’ll see what happens,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. “There are still two more rounds to figure out who’s going to make it to Homestead.”

In the meantime, Harvick and his group aren’t making any apologies for Sunday’s runaway.

““We’re not going to ride around fifth all day and wait to take the lead at the end,” Childers said. “That’s not what we’re made out of.

“We came here to lead laps and to do our job and to end up with that car in Victory Lane.”

And at the end of the day, that’s exactly what they accomplished.

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Staff Report

Chip Ganassi Racing will host its second annual Sound Garage event on Monday evening at the team shop — and you can watch the action on NASCAR.com.

Following the success of last year’s event, which is geared toward millenials, the 2015 outing will feature recording artist A Thousand Horses as well as Ganassi’s diverse stable of young drivers. That list includes Kyle Larson, Sage Karam, Dylan Kwasniewski, Sebastian Saavedra and Brennan Poole.

Tonight’s stream will run from 8 to 9 p.m. ET. Come back then to watch the action.

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Staff Report

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, said Monday that Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet was brought back to the laser-inspection area minutes before Sunday’s AAA 400 because it was suspected that the side skirt had been manipulated — and further inspection proved that to be true.

“One of our officials noticed the side skirt of that car and thought it had perhaps been manipulated,” O’Donnell told NASCAR.com on Monday. “We brought it back to the laser-inspection station and sure enough were able to prove out that it had been.”

The result was Truex Jr.’s crew had to work to fix the area and get it back up to code before rolling to the grid and starting from the back of the field because of “unapproved adjustments.” Originally slated to start ninth in the final race of the Challenger Round in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Truex rallied for an 11th-place finish and advanced to the Contender Round.

After the race, Truex told NBCSN that “NASCAR tried to make an example out of us today for some reason.”

O’Donnell said every car goes through a vigorous pre-race inspection and part of that is the laser-inspection process that looks at every part of the car. In this case, he said, the car passed inspection, but when it was headed out to the grid an official noticed that the side skirt looked like it was manipulated.

“We’ve got additional cameras and obviously our personnel who are looking at the cars prior to anyone taking the green flag,” O’Donnell said. “It’s unfortunate it happened to the 78, certainly had a good result in the race. But we’ll continue to police that area in each race.”

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Staff Report

TaxSlayer.com revealed Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s paint scheme for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race the company will sponsor next year.

The bright red look is different from a typical Junior scheme, but the man who drives the No. 88 Chevrolet likes it — after all, he helped design it, according to the company, and Junior said on Twitter that he was influenced by one of his dad’s paint schemes.

Earnhardt 1987 https://t.co/FA8pO4Ohi7

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) October 5, 2015

TaxSlayer.com is expanding its involvement with JR Motorsports in 2016 while also beginning a new relationship with Hendrick Motorsports. It will serve as the primary sponsor for a total of 10 NASCAR XFINITY Series races in 2016, appearing on the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet currently driven by Regan Smith as well as the No. 88 entry that has been fielded for various drivers this season.

In addition to serving as the primary sponsor of Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Sprint Cup entry for one race in 2016, TaxSlayer.com will also be an associate sponsor throughout the year.

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Watch the live stream here

From 8-11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, NASCAR.com will live stream the post-race inspection process at the Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C.

The three-hour look takes you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials inspect NASCAR Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway.

The cars at the R&D Center this week are: the No. 4 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick (won Sunday’s race), the No. 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch (finished second in Sunday’s race), the No. 43 Ford of Aric Almirola, the No. 88 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 1 Chevrolet of Jamie McMurray.

For more information on what the inspection process entails, click here.

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Nascar

DOVER, Del. — Kyle Busch, still looking for his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, remains in the title picture thanks to a runner-up finish in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

The result proved to be more than enough to push the Joe Gibbs Racing driver into the top 12 in points, a necessity for those hoping to advance into the Contender Round of this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Busch led five times for 19 laps in an event that was dominated by defending series champion Kevin Harvick. During a weekend that saw rain limit practice time and force the cancelation of qualifying, Busch said there was enough of an unknown going into Sunday’s race to hold his attention.

“I had a little bit of concern just based off the short amount of practice time that we got and the way the car was feeling in those practice sessions,” Busch said. “You know, I just wasn’t quite as confident in it as I wanted to be.

“I never really got a good feel for what I thought I needed to race. But right then and there, for today, the way we ran, I can’t say enough about my team. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the guys, they made some really good calls and … some smart changes overnight, and we had a really fast car today.

“You know, I shouldn’t have been too worried, I guess. I should have put my faith in my team, which they prevailed today for me.”

Busch missed the season’s first 11 races after suffering a broken leg and fractured foot in an XFINITY Series crash in February at Daytona International Speedway. He returned to Victory Lane five races later, and captured four of five during a hot summer stretch that saw him begin to work his way back inside the top 30 in points.

Now, he’s one of 12 still contending for this year’s title. He’s advanced through the opening Challenger Round by rallying from a 37th-place finish a week ago at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Although outside the top 12 heading into Dover, Busch said he wasn’t counting points as the race played out.

“I think when you’re in the position that we were in when we were running second there the whole race, you don’t have to watch it,” he said. “You just do the best you can and that was the best that we were going to do today.

“Fortunately we came out with that finish and second-place was what we needed to do. … The points reset so we’re back even with those guys and hopefully we can have a good, solid next three races.”

Bonus points for race wins, awarded for during the first 26 races and used to help determine seeding for the opening round, are not awarded after the first round. Therefore, the 12 drivers advancing into the Contender Round each have 3,000 points heading into next weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.