Posted on by Staff Report

Rookie and KBM teammate Christopher Bell earned second-fastest spot

RELATED: Complete practice results

His No. 4 truck reaching a high speed of 136.051 mph, Erik Jones soared back to the top of the leaderboard just minutes before the end of the sole Camping World Truck Series practice at Iowa Speedway for Friday’s American Ethanol 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver had spent most of the afternoon riding the top position.

Bell, who is making his series debut this weekend at Iowa for Kyle Busch Motorsports, created quite the first impression, wheeling around the tri-oval at 135.682 mph to briefly lead the session, before eventually earning the second position under teammate Jones.

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Coming off a strong fourth-place result at Gateway last weekend, John Hunter Nemechek‘s No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet was next on the leaderboard with a top speed of 135.193 mph. GMS Racing’s Spencer Gallagher (135.037 mph) and ThorSport Racing’s rookie Cameron Hayley (134.933 mph) rounded out the top five.

Reigning back-to-back series champion Matt Crafton propelled his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Toyota to sixth on the leaderboard.

The Truck’s sole practice — which spanned two hours and 25 minutes — saw four cautions overall, three for spins in Turn 4. Tommy Regan brought out the first one when his No. 45 Chevrolet spun off Turn 4 one hour into the session. Minutes later, Ray Black Jr. brought out the second caution when his No. 07 Chevrolet also spun. Tyler Reddick‘s No. 19 ride took a spin in Turn 4 onto the frontstretch with less than an hour remaining, signaling the final caution.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is back on track at Iowa at 5:45 p.m. ET for Keystone Light Pole Qualifying (FOX Sports 2).

Posted on by Staff Report

Ty Dillon places fifth in final session after leading first practice

Practice 2 recap | Get results

Austin Dillon turned in the top time during Friday’s final practice for the NASCAR XFINITY Series Owens Corning Atticat 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, which starts on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.

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Dillon, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, covered the track in 30.450 seconds at a speed of 177.340 mph.

JJ Yeley was second (176.546 mph), followed by Ryan Blaney (175.245 mph), Drew Herring (175.245 mph) and Ty Dillon (174.317 mph), who had the best time in the opening practice of the day.

Series points leader Chris Buescher placed sixth in the final practice (173.930 mph) and defending NXS champion Chase Elliott was ninth (173.773 mph). Elliott current ranks third in points.

Practice 1 recap | Get results

Ty Dillon topped the leaderboard late in Friday’s opening practice with a time of 177.392 mph in his No. 3 Chevrolet. He had the best time of either practice.

Blaney posted the second-fastest speed, propelling his No. 22 Team Penske Ford at 176.875 mph around the Illinois track. The eldest Dillon — Austin Dillon — was third behind his brother, recording a high speed of 176.702 mph in the No. 33 Richard Childress Chevrolet. Roush Fenway Racing‘s Chris Buescher (176.114 mph) and Richard Childress Racing‘s Brian Scott (175.313 mph) completed the top five performers.

Midway through the hour-and-a-half session, Ross Kenseth — son of Sprint Cup Series regular Matt Kenseth — brought out the caution flag, when he got loose and spun. The No. 20 wheelman impressively avoided contact and recovered to post the 13th-fastest speed in the field.

Posted on by George Winkler

Dirt racer shows he can get it done on pavement at Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa — Christopher Bell said he didn’t come to Iowa Speedway with any expectations for his first career start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. But he sure left with them after finishing fifth in Friday’s American Ethanol 200 Presented by Enogen.

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Despite not having much experience on pavement, the 20-year-old Bell drove the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota right up front with stars such as race-winner Erik Jones and two-time defending champion Matt Crafton.

It was the culmination of a one-day show that also included Bell finishing second to Jones in the lone practice session and putting together a qualifying run of 10th.

"The only goal was to be able to finish the race," Bell said on pit road afterward. "To come home top five is unbelievable and something I will be proud of for awhile."

He’ll have time to savor the Iowa performance because Bell said this was the only Truck race scheduled for him this year. He’ll go back to driving for KBM’s Late Model team, where he began his pavement career in September.

Since then Bell has compiled five victories in Late Models. He prepared for his Truck Series debut by running two K&N Pro Series races earlier this season, including one at Iowa Speedway in which he finished fifth after starting 18th.

Before taking up pavement racing, the Norman, Oklahoma native won the 2013 USAC National Midget championship on dirt. In 2014, he compiled 26 feature wins on dirt, including the Turkey Night Grand Prix USAC Midget race in Perris, California — an event that Tony Stewart won in 2000.

But with such a short resume on pavement, Bell said he needed to call team owner Kyle Busch on the way over to the track and ask him for some advice.

"This is my first time ever on radial tires," Bell said. "That was probably one of the things I was most nervous for coming in here was never running these tires. So he gave me some pointers there."

Apparently, the advice worked, because Bell moved up from 17th after Lap 50 into the top five for the race’s final 50 laps. From there, he was rock-solid through to the end, seemingly satisfied with an unlikely top-five finish.

"Obviously being in a KBM truck definitely puts a lot of pressure on you because they’re expected to run good and they do have really nice trucks," Bell said. "The truck’s probably a little better than the driver tonight, but I’m just really thankful to be here and hopefully I’ll get some more opportunities."

Humble as that may sound, Bell’s Truck debut registered as more than a blip on the radar in Iowa and won’t be easy to forget.

"It’s was a dream come true," Bell said. "Every short-track driver in the United States wants to run in NASCAR."

Posted on by George Winkler

Two-time winner in 2015 stays close to two-time champ Matt Crafton

DES MOINES, IOWA — Tyler Reddick started racing go-karts when he was 4, which may or may not seem like a long time ago considering the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver is just 19. But one thing is for sure, Reddick has come a long way from those humble beginnings in Corning, California, a town of about 8,000 along Interstate 5 between Sacramento and Redding where Reddick said there was plenty of space to do all sorts of things outdoors.

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Now Reddick is trying to go door-to-door with two-time defending champion Matt Crafton as the series heads to Iowa Speedway for Friday’s American Ethanol 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). Reddick, who drives the No. 19 Ford for Brad Keselowski Racing, is just 12 points behind ThorSport’s Crafton and has two wins, five top fives and six top-10 finishes compared with Crafton’s three wins, six top fives and seven top-10s.

The youngster has done a good job of keeping up with the wily veteran, but can the success continue during a key summer stretch that will set up the race for the title in the fall?

On Thursday, Reddick was at the Baker Boys & Girls Club at Amos Hiatt Middle School in Des Moines. He and fellow drivers John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters were interacting with children and teaching them about NASCAR. Reddick and Nemechek were in front of the school, snapping photos with some of the students, when the question came up whether Reddick was ready for a pressure-packed championship run.

"Confidence-wise I knew going into it that we were going to have a shot at winning a championship and some races this year," Reddick said. "But until it happens, it’s pretty unreal to see it happen. You know you can do it, but to actually see it and partake in it, that is pretty special."

Reddick entered this season with 17 Truck Series starts, including nine top-10 finishes and two poles, but he had yet to register a victory. He got his first win in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway and followed it up with another at Dover International Speedway. The wins have made Reddick feel confident, but the second didn’t come without some drama.

In the Dover race, Reddick had a run-in with Jennifer Jo Cobb, who thought Reddick wrecked her. Cobb got out of her truck to show Reddick her displeasure and subsequently was fined $5,000 and put on NASCAR probation through the end of the year.

RELATED: Cobb calls out Reddick, earns fine, probation for leaving truck

Since the incident, which occurred on May 29 in the Lucas Oil 200, Reddick says Cobb has not spoken to him about it.

"I think we both know what happened," Reddick said. "She thinks that I hit the back of her vehicle, but it was backed into the wall so there was obviously going to be damage there. I watched the XFINITY and Cup races from that weekend, and you didn’t have to have any contact with anybody — and if the car behind would run up on the car in front of you, the car in front would get loose naturally. I’m assuming that’s what happened."

While Cobb went home disappointed, Reddick ended up in Victory Lane. Then after an 11th-place finish at Texas, Reddick had another shot at victory last week at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis. However, a faulty restart opened the door for Cole Custer to charge to the front and get the win.

WATCH: Custer takes advantage of Reddick’s poor restart at Gateway

"Every race I run, I get better, and I learn more," Reddick said of his performance last week. "And I learn from my mistakes."

But a blip like last week, if one could call an eighth-place finish a blip, hasn’t dulled the shine of Reddick’s career progression.

"It’s a dream come true," Reddick said. "Never knew (when I started at 4) that I would be racing still to this day at this level, so it’s been quite an experience."

Posted on by Holly Cain

Voda, Jarrett and Petty bring mix of integrity, ease, experience and opinion

Their chemistry is immediately evident.

Fifteen seconds into an interview with the NBC Sports’ NASCAR pre-race broadcast dream team of veteran broadcaster Krista Voda, former NASCAR champion Dale Jarrett and former NASCAR racer turned high opinion analyst Kyle Petty, the trio were finishing each other’s sentences and launching one another into laughter.

"I think what’s great about our combination is that in this job you don’t necessarily have to like the people you work with but you do have to respect them, and we’re very lucky because I think there is both," Voda said. "We genuinely like each other in addition to respecting the work we do."

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"But," Jarrett deadpanned, "We’ve just got to get Kyle to come out of his shell and then everything will be good."

The overriding theme of this group is unmistakable.

Not only do they respect one another, but they are all well-respected in the NASCAR garage area. Each brings a level of experience and knowledge that creates authenticity for the network in its NASCAR return. The result should be a compelling, enjoyable, informational start to the season’s final 20 Sprint Cup races and 19 XFINITY Series events, which the network (using both NBC and NBCSN) will air for the next decade.

NBC Sports takes over coverage of the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series beginning with the July 4-5 race weekend at the iconic Daytona International Speedway. Voda, Jarrett and Petty will handle the pre-race duties – a responsibility each takes to heart.

"Working with Krista, I know she is such a professional, so well-prepared," the mercurial Petty said. "She studies, she takes notes, talks to people, and she has a funny sense of humor and throws things out that make you feel at ease.

"Working with Dale on ‘NASCAR AMERICA’ (NBC Sports Network studio show), I realize if I was as smart as Dale, I would have won more races because I’m learning stuff now from him I wish I knew when I was driving a race car. You’re talking about a guy who’s won a championship (1999), won the Daytona 500 and is so articulate.

"It’s such a mix of Krista’s professionalism, the deep history knowledge that Dale brings and if you’re going to have those two bookends then you need to tie it in the middle and that’s where I come in."

After not broadcasting a NASCAR race since 2006, the network comes in with a bit of blank slate, but one that will fill up quickly with the duties and privileges of covering both the Sprint Cup Series’ exciting Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup 10-race playoff as well as the XFINITY Series championship run. It’s the first time the season finale will be on network television since 2009.

"I was glad to be a part of last year’s [Chase broadcast],” Jarrett said. "That was so exciting. There was great anticipation as an analyst of what was going to happen every week. The things that took place off track, to see the raw emotion and passion of drivers and teams knowing that each lap meant so much to them.

"Now they know a little more what to expect, I expect it to ramp up.

Petty agreed. Developing must-see storylines won’t be a problem.

"You hang on every lap, every thing that’s said, then you watch the drivers and what they do and how it goes,” Petty said. "I think if we use last year and how that Chase went, it will be different this year. It’ll be a little bit different from the standpoint now they have a year under their belt and understand how to race the Chase, what they need to do get through the first three races, then run the next three races.

"You see teams do things … and as an analyst think, ‘why would they do something like that?’ And then they win the race.

"The game has changed because of the Chase. I think that the crew chiefs being willing to gamble and the drivers willing to gamble, makes it exciting because it’s never, ever, over until that checkered flag."

It’s a good bet that Voda, Jarrett and Petty will send fans off to the green flag feeling more knowledgeable and eager. These three personalities bring a primetime mix of integrity, ease, experience and high opinion. Add in the network’s history of good storytelling and it appears NBC won’t just be picking up where it left off, but launching its new NASCAR era forward at full speed.

"Doing the pre-race show is a huge responsibility and I mean that in a good way,” Voda said. "We’re telling the fans what we expect them to see and why you should be glued to the seat. Our job is to bring the passion of the sport to our fans’ living rooms so they can’t imagine getting up and turning the channel.

"Fans are going to want to be a part of what we have. Wow, Kyle and Dale are having so much fun. If we can bring that passion we have the sport home to people then we have done our job."

Posted on by RJ Kraft

NBA’s Warriors overcome obstacles just like Harvick did in run to title

Back-to-back days this week saw two champions crowned in the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.



The NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup on Monday night, while the NBA’s Golden State Warriors won their first title in 40 years on Tuesday night.



The Blackhawks have been something of a modern dynasty, winning three titles in six seasons, while the Warriors have been an emerging team in the Western Conference. Golden State had made the postseason the previous two seasons but had missed the playoffs the five seasons before that. The last time the Warriors made it out of the conference semifinals was when they had won their previous title in 1975.

Last summer, the team made a coaching change, firing Mark Jackson, who the players loved and bringing in Steve Kerr, who nearly took the New York Knicks coaching opening.



Kerr took a team that had pretty much the same roster the season before and won a league-high 67 games in the regular season. He then led his team to overcoming two 2-1 series deficits in the Western semifinals against the Memphis Grizzlies and again in The NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yes, the Warriors had league MVP Stephen Curry, but the tide shifted against the LeBron James-led Cavaliers when Andre Iguodala was inserted into the starting lineup for Game 4.



Iguodala, who came to the Warriors in the summer of 2013, had been a starter for most of his NBA career and was a member of the 2012 Gold Medal winning USA Basketball team in the Summer Olympics. This season, with the Warriors he came off the bench, doing a variety of little things to make the sacrifices to help his team win. Iguodala performed admirably as a starter in Games 4 through 6, all wins for the Warriors and he was named the MVP of The NBA Finals.



Getting to the mountain top in any sport is extremely difficult. It requires sacrifice and buy-in by all members of the collective. And like all good drama, there is also usually a pivotal moment that has to be overcome. 



We saw that last year with Kevin Harvick. Harvick left Richard Childress Racing after 13 seasons for Stewart-Haas Racing. He and his new crew chief Rodney Childers won at Phoenix International Raceway in just their second race together.



There were some trouble spots though, as Harvick had some engine issues, tire trouble and pit crew woes that hindered him and cost him valuable position in a few races.



Prior to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, SHR swapped pit crews with Tony Stewart‘s over-the-wall crew becoming Harvick’s pit crew and vice versa. Stewart’s pit crew had several members that had been with him for his 2011 championship.

In the Chase, Harvick seemed to fine another gear as he won at Charlotte Motor Speedway to lock up a spot in the Eliminator Round. 

After a crash with Matt Kenseth led to a 33rd-place result at Martinsville Speedway, Harvick had his back against the wall. He scored a runner-up finish at Texas Motor Speedway before scoring the victory at Phoenix to advance to the Championship Round. As it turned out, Harvick had to win to advance to have a shot at that elusive title and he did. 



The California native came to Homestead-Miami Speedway confident in the task at hand and used a late stop for four tires to be able to get by several championship hopefuls for the lead and held on to the take title. 



In 2015, Harvick has picked up where he left off this season with two wins, a series-high 10 top-five finishes, including eight runner-up finishes and the series points lead. 

Perhaps, his strong start following a championship bodes well for the Warriors next season, who like Harvick will see competition come at them from everywhere. 



While Harvick has to fend off six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and several others, the Warriors face a similarly tall order.
 Their challengers will include a healthy Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder, a rested and veteran group in the San Antonio Spurs, James and his Cavaliers and a potential surprise team that much like the Warriors could come out of left field to surprise everyone.

But for now, the Warriors can let the championship tonic overtake them because after all, you don’t get to the top of the mountain all the time.

Posted on by Staff Report

Driver of the No. 4 Truck has had his share of heartbreak in recent races

No one in their right mind would bring Erik Jones to a casino right now.
 
His NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season can be summed up with one word.
 
Unlucky.

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Despite dominating races, the NASCAR Next alum has yet to visit Victory Lane. Jones’ latest unfortunate event unfolded at Gateway last week. He led a race-high 84 laps at the St. Louis-area track before an accident on Lap 145 forced him out of the 160-lap race for good. The week before, he led 68 of the first 84 laps before battery issues took him out of contention. Flashback to mid-May, Jones lost to Kasey Kahne by the second-smallest margin in NCWTS history – again after leading the most laps. Rewind another week back, Jones ran out of fuel after pacing the field for a track-record 151 laps.
 
Jones will attempt turn his luck around in Friday’s American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway (8:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) where he is the defending race-winner.
 
"Iowa has been a pretty fun place for me," Jones said. "I ran well in the XFINITY Series race there earlier this year, so I’m pretty excited to get back there this weekend and I think the whole team is as well. It’s a place that has been pretty good to me since I went there for the first time in 2013, when we ran second in the spring, and then we were able to get the win there last year."
 
Just how bad has Jones’ luck been?
 
He leads the NCWTS in nearly every statistical category, yet ranks fourth in the standings, 33 points behind Matt Crafton. Jones sits atop the series in in average start (2.5), average mid-race position (2.1), average running position (3.8), number of fastest laps (333), laps led (480) and driver rating (124.7). His average finish is 8.3, a stark drop from his average start and mid-race positions.
 
Heading into Friday’s race, Jones’ sole focus is on taking the checkered flag.
 
"I’m looking forward to having another short-track race this weekend," Jones said. "We showed some good speed in our Special Olympics World Games Tundra last week at Gateway and we have a really good short-track program overall. I think we have a good shot at defending our title this weekend."

Posted on by Staff Report

Defending race winner comes into Saturday’s night race third in standings

Despite being from Atlanta, over 700 miles away from Chicago, Chase Elliott happens to really like the Windy City.
 
He grabbed his latest win there last July, vaulted to the top of the standings, and stayed there, using the momentum to run away with the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship.

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Ranked third in the NASCAR XFINITY Series standings, 35 points behind leader Chris Buescher, Elliott hopes to win at Chicagoland Speedway again as he returns to the 1.5-mile track for Saturday’s Owens Corning AttiCat 300 (9:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). The 19-year-old JR Motorsports driver goes in riding a four-race top-10 streak and a visit to Victory Lane could snowball into another NASCAR XFINITY Series title.
 
"Chicago is a fun race track that has many grooves, which makes for a lot of exciting racing," Elliott said. "I really enjoyed going there last season. We had some success there in July which really gives me a confidence boost heading into the weekend."
 
Don’t be fooled by Elliott’s 35-point deficit in the standings. He has the field right where he wants it. Elliott leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series with 11 top-10 finishes and could easily be in first if not for wrecks at the two restrictor plate tracks – Daytona and Talladega. Elliott finished 28th at Daytona and 37th at Talladega, his only showings outside the top eight this season.
 
Elliott has been closing in on Victory Lane for the last month. Most recently, he placed runner-up at Michigan after failing to hold off Kyle Busch on the closing laps. In Iowa in May, he paced the field for a career-best 114 laps, but ceded the lead to Buescher on a late restart for another second-place finish.
 
Elliott understands he cannot gain all of his points back at once and that consistency is the key to another XFINITY Series crown.
 
"We are in this for the long haul and understand it’s a lengthy season," he said. "My NAPA team and I are committed to getting better each time we go out and race, that’s where it has to begin."

Posted on by Staff Report

34-year-old will be the sixth driver to run the car this season

RELATED: Front Row team page

Justin Marks will be the sixth driver to get behind the wheel of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion at Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 (June 28, 3 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, PRN, SiriusXM).

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Marks will be attempting to make his second start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series after starting 36th and finishing 30th two years at Sonoma in Tommy Baldwin Racing‘s No. 7 ride.

Born in St. Louis, but raised in Northern California, Marks has 36 Camping World Truck Series starts with two poles and four top 10s. He also has made 11 XFINITY Series starts with one top-10 finish. He did the double at Daytona International Speedway in February, finishing 32nd in the Truck event and 34th in the inaugural XFINITY race. Marks had attempt to qualifying for the Daytona 500 but just missed the field after a 18th-place finish in the first Budweiser Duel.

The 34-year-old is slated to run a pair of road course races this summer in the XFINITY Series at Mid-Ohio and Road America in the No. 42 Chevrolet for HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi.

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Brett Moffitt will step out of the ride as the series heads to a road course. Moffit has run seven races for Front Row. David Ragan ran the Daytona 500 before replacing Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing and later Brian Vickers at Michael Waltrip Racing. XFINITY Series points leader Chris Buescher ran the No. 34 in five races, and Joe Nemechek and Reed Sorenson have driven the car for a race apiece.

With Kyle Larson, Marks owns Larson Marks Racing, a sprint car team, and HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks put NASCAR Next driver Rico Abreu in a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East team in 2015.

Posted on by Nascar

Bruce: Teams switching manufacturers hasn’t happened too often

RELATED: Furniture Row looking for more support | Truex ranks fourth in latest Chase Grid

Whether or not a switch in nameplates is in the works for Furniture Row Racing remains to be seen, but additional support from Chevrolet or a fresh start with another auto manufacturer isn’t expected to depend solely on the organization’s ability to expand from its current single-car status to a multi-car team.
 
The Denver, Colorado-based NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization, with driver Martin Truex Jr., currently fields only the No. 78 Chevrolet. It has been a single-car effort since debuting in the series a decade ago but has its eye on expansion.

RELATED: Is second car in the cards for Furniture Row?
 
The company does enjoy a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, in effect giving it three more teams from which it can obtain data and information as well as "hard parts" related to it’s Sprint Cup effort.
 
The RCR organization consists of Sprint Cup Series teams for drivers Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman. It also fields four full-time teams in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series.

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Truex recently ended a 69-race winless streak with a victory at Pocono Raceway. Second in the points standings, the 34-year-old likely earned himself and his team one of the 16 positions for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
 
His third-place finish last weekend at Michigan International Speedway was his 14th top-10 of the year. It’s the first time a driver has managed 14 top-10s in the first 15 races since seven-time champion Richard Petty accomplished the feat in 1969.

RELATED: Truex’s consistency puts him in King’s company
 
Team owner Barney Visser raised the idea of a possible manufacturer change early last week.

Joe Garone, General Manager for Furniture Row Racing, said at Michigan "we didn’t say we were changing (manufacturers). We were just saying that we are looking."
 
Garone said the consideration was part of the overall plan for securing sponsorship for the organization as it continues to try and expand its footprint in NASCAR.
 
"One of the things about the No. 78 car is because it has always had Furniture Row and Denver Mattress on it everybody assumes it is sponsored," he said. "It has made it tough to find partners, but again Barney owns those companies. We need to get the word out that we are actively looking for sponsorship to come on board. Not just for the No. 78, but to expand the company into a multi-car team. It is for the long term growth of the team."
 
The last manufacturer switch involving a major Sprint Cup organization came at the end of 2012 when Team Penske announced it would swap its two-car effort from Dodge to Ford, a move brought about by Dodge’s decision to leave NASCAR at the end of ’12.
 
In ’09, Richard Petty Motorsports began making the transition from Dodge to Ford and became a full-blown Ford organization in ’10.
 
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates ran Dodge products through ’08; when it became Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in ’09, the move included a switch to Chevrolet.
 
Joe Gibbs Racing announced in ’07 that it was making the switch to Toyota for ’08, ending a seemingly unbreakable 16-year alliance with General Motors (primarily Chevrolet).
 
Speaking about the move during Toyota’s 10-year anniversary last year, team owner Joe Gibbs told NASCAR.com the decision was difficult but the change was necessary for his three-team organization. JGR has since added a fourth team to its Sprint Cup stable.
 
"We felt like after analyzing it, if you really look at the lineup inside GM, Rick Hendrick (Hendrick Motorsports) was in there and had won championships, Childress (Richard Childress Racing) had won many championships, and had been there longer than we had. We felt like moving to Toyota — this is a very competitive world — it gave us a better chance to distinguish ourselves and maybe be an elite team for a manufacturer that racing means a lot to."
 
And it’s that is kind of support and stature that Furniture Row officials hope to obtain, whether from Chevrolet or someone else.
 
Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota provide financial and/or technical support to their respective teams in the Sprint Cup Series. But the levels of support vary among organizations and it is not static – it can change from year to year (such as when new teams are added) or even during the course of a season.

The support isn’t based soley on what happens inside the race track – business relationships outside the track also can have a bearing on the amount of involvement.
 
"It’s not just about dollars and cents," Dave Wilson, President & General Manager, Toyota Racing Development, USA, told NASCAR.com. "Certainly that’s a component. But again, our mantra has always been about the tools we bring to the table, the technology we bring to the table versus our manufacturing colleagues.
 
"Those are very critical, strategic considerations for any team. … It’s a big investment, big changeover cost. Certainly nobody would take those decisions lightly."
 
Wilson said if there were solid organizations interested in Toyota and the circumstances and timing were favorable, "then certainly we would be interested.
 
"Right now, our priority is 2015. It’s to keep getting better; we need to continue to help the folks over at Michael Waltrip Racing get better. We need to get at least Clint (Bowyer) into the Chase if not Clint and Kyle (Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing)," he said.
 
"We keep an eye on the garage; we talk to teams every week. But certainly there has been no decision."

RELATED: Reaction pours in on rules change for Kentucky
 
Dave Pericak, Global Ford Performance Director, said his company is "very happy with the partners we have today and we have an approach where we are working to get everybody’s performance up and we are committed to doing that.
 
"We believe in long term partners and believe we have the right people that we are with currently," he said.
 
Chevrolet-branded teams have won nine of the last 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships. Dodge interrupted the string in ’12 when Penske driver Brad Keselowski captured the title.
 
Ford’s last title came in 2004 with Roush Fenway Racing and then-driver Kurt Busch; it was the second of back-to-back championships for the organization that had seen Matt Kenseth capture the crown the previous season.
 
Toyota is still seeking its first championship in the series although it did put one driver, Denny Hamlin, in last year’s four-team Chase finale. Kenseth finished second in points in ’13 after making the move from Roush Fenway to JGR.
 
Regardless of how it shakes out, Garone called Chevrolet "a great partner" with a successful history in NASCAR.
 
"But to get to the level we need to get to we need to get a lot more support," he said. "We are open and have been looking to try and get that just to push our team forward further."