Actor and former California Governor will pilot 2016 Toyota Mirai
Leading the field to green for the Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, June 28 will be actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The actor, whose new film "Terminator Genisys" comes out July 1, will be piloting a 2016 Toyota Mirai while leading the 43-car field at the road course.
The Toyota Mirai is a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle that emits only water from its exhaust. This is not only Schwarzenegger’s first time as a official pace car driver, but it will be the first hydrogen fuel vehicle used as a pace car at Sonoma.
"I can’t wait to drive the pace car at Sonoma," Schwarzenegger said in a press release. "It will be an honor to lead these fantastic athletes and champions around the raceway, and on top of it, I get to drive a car that is both powerful and green."
During the former governor’s time in office, Schwarzenegger established California’s Hydrogen Highway — the nation’s first network for hydrogen fueling stations.
Tune into the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday, June 28 at 3 p.m. ET with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1.
For every hashtag, Coca-Cola, NASCAR donate $1 to the USO, up to $50,000
Now through the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 5, NASCAR fans have the opportunity to not only share messages of gratitude to service members and veterans, but also support fundraising efforts for the United Services Organization (USO).
This week, Coca-Cola partnered with NASCAR and the USO to launch the #ShareASalute campaign to honor troops, military families and veterans. As part of the campaign, fans are invited to share personal expressions of gratitude to troops via Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #ShareASalute.
For each message posted throughout the campaign with the #ShareASalute hashtag, Coca-Cola and NASCAR will donate $1 to the USO, up to a combined total of $50,000. Messages posted will also be shared with NASCAR fans via www.NASCAR.com/Salute.
This initiative was launched as part of NASCAR: An American Salute, the industry’s collective expression of reverence, respect and gratitude for those who have shared and continue to defend our nation today.
The greatest NASCAR driver of all time is … Jimmie Johnson?
That’s the word on the street, or in this case the voice on the radio, and since the bluegrass channel was on a commercial break I decided to stick around long enough to hear how that particular conclusion was reached.
Such comparisons are inevitable – it’s the sort of thing that arises when one is chasing legends. No different than when Jeff Gordon was piling up victories and championships in pursuit of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. No different than when Earnhardt was piling up victories and championships in pursuit of Petty. And no different than when Petty began piling up wins and titles on his way to overtaking a host of former champions, including his father, Lee, the first to win three NASCAR premier series championships.
What the 39-year-old Johnson has managed to accomplish in little more than 13 full seasons in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series certainly puts him in the same league with Petty and Earnhardt, NASCAR’s only seven-time champions.
There’s no doubt that Johnson, fit and trim and now only two wins away from matching Earnhardt’s career win total of 76 victories, is one of the sport’s greatest drivers.
But is he No. 1?
From a numbers standpoint, the Hendrick Motorsports driver will undoubtedly surpass Earnhardt’s win total, and it’s likely he’ll eventually capture a seventh championship. He could, in fact, become the first driver to win more than seven titles.
That would make him the most successful driver from a championship standpoint (neither he nor anyone else will come close to Petty’s mark of 200 career wins), but will that make him NASCAR’s greatest driver?
No.
That designation, without question, belongs to Earnhardt.
Statistics are a great way to gauge success. But it takes more than numbers to measure greatness.
Johnson has managed to excel during what some claim is the most competitive era in the history of NASCAR. Yes, there are more winners, on average, today. But there are also more races on the schedule, thus also more opportunities.
A larger number of teams run the full schedule today, although that doesn’t necessarily mean there are more "better" teams competing.
Earnhardt never ran a season consisting of 36 points races; Johnson’s never run in fewer than 36.
Earnhardt never had the opportunity to compete at Kansas, Chicago or Kentucky; but by the same token, Johnson never raced at North Wilkesboro or Riverside. I have a strong feeling both could have won at those tracks given the chance.
I’ll argue that the talent pool Earnhardt often faced was just as deep – with lineups including drivers such as Petty and Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett, Geoff Bodine and Harry Gant. Eventually Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace, Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki, Tim Richmond and others took their place. Most were champions; many are already members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Johnson is one of the greatest drivers that today’s fans will ever see. What he has done has been nothing short of amazing. If one wants to argue that he would not have won 74 races and six championships had it not been for Hendrick Motorsports and Chad Knaus, the same could be said of Earnhardt, who owed much of his success to Richard Childress Racing and the talented group he worked with there.
But what elevates Earnhardt above the rest is more than the fact that he was so successful. He provided fans with some of the sport’s most memorable moments during his two-plus decades. Among them: winning the pole at Watkins Glen in ’96 (and setting the track qualifying record, to boot) just two weeks after suffering a broken collarbone and sternum in a vicious crash at Talladega; climbing from his damaged car and into the ambulance, only to quickly exit and return to his car once he realized it would still run, at Daytona in ’97; his first and only Daytona 500 victory the following season, a win that erased 19 years of heartbreak.
There was the "rattle his cage" incident with Terry Labonte en route to victory in the night race at Bristol in ’99; the wrongly-termed but aptly promoted "pass in the grass" on his way to winning the 1997 All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway; and the charge from 18th to first in the final five laps of the 2000 Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
For two decades, greatness drove a Chevrolet and it carried the number 3.
They were memorable moments that elevated the sport and defined the man.
Johnson can win more races and win more championships, but he can’t match that. He needn’t worry – no one else can, either.
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No. 18 driver Chase eligible; but must meet two requirements
Kyle Busch got back in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 at the Sprint All-Star Race – faster than most expected after his foot and leg injuries in the season-opening XFINITY race at Daytona. And he was granted a waiver, making him Chase eligible.
Whether Busch makes the Chase for the Sprint Cup depends on two factors: He must win a regular-season race; and he must crack the top 30 in the driver points standings.
With two 2015 Sprint Cup points races under his belt and 13 remaining to meet those requirements, NASCAR.com began analyzing whether Busch can make it into the Challenger Round, which begins Sept. 20 at Chicagoland Speedway.
George Winkler and Kathy Sheldon have their opinions on whether Busch can make it four-for-four among his JGR teammates, who all have one win this season already. Do you think ‘Rowdy’ can cap off his quick recovery with a playoffs run? Tell us in the comments section below.
Sheldon: Always fun to go H2H with you, George. Almost as fun as watching Kyle Busch push the limits on the track. Unfortunately, I don’t think his season will recover as fully as his body has — and we’re all thankful he’s OK. Busch clearly has the talent and the equipment, and after Dover he has that first post-surgery wreck out of the way, which seemed to leave him unfazed. But that wreck, which gave him a 36th-place finish, all but doomed his chances of being in the top 30 in points after Richmond. He pretty much had one mulligan, and it’s used, through no fault of his own. That’s the problem, for me: Too may factors remain out of the driver’s control for Busch to achieve the 15.8th-place average over 15 races necessary to reach that 30th-place barrier.
Winkler: If I were a betting man, and I’m not, the smart money is on Busch not making the Chase. Like you say, he’s used up his mulligan and will be hard-pressed not only to avoid any bad luck but also to get the win he needs to advance to the Chase. That said, I have enormous respect for Busch’s driving ability, and he’s in top-notch equipment. This is a gut feeling, but I feel like when backed into a corner, the great ones react by overcoming the odds. Just look back to last year’s Chase. Did anyone think Kevin Harvick was going to win the championship after his 33rd-place finish at Martinsville during the Eliminator Round? Probably not, but he pulled out wins at Phoenix and Homestead to get the job done. I think Kyle can be in that same class with Kevin — and make a comeback for the ages (said in Jim Nantz voice).
Sheldon: I’m not a gambling girl, either. But if I were, I’d put money on Busch getting a win, as well. But his bold checkers-or-wreckers approach to driving will cost him as he tries to climb out of this points hole. Even at Bristol, where he has five wins and 12 top-10 finishes, he wrecked out at the 2014 fall race and finished 29th in the spring race. And we have Sonoma in the next 13 races, where Busch has an average finish of 25th place over the last six races.
Winkler: It’s interesting that his average finish is that low in recent races at Sonoma, because Busch has been good at the other road course, Watkins Glen — with two wins and eight top-10 finishes in 10 attempts. You mentioned Bristol, where Busch has five wins, but he also has four wins at Richmond to go along with a 7.4 average finish. However, Busch’s best chance for a win might be at Kentucky, where he has an average finish of 4.5. While there are spots where Busch might not do as well as he needs to, there are plenty of others where he could boost that average and/or pick up a win. Granted, it’s a tall order to make the Chase, but again, you gotta believe!
Sheldon: George, I think we agree that Busch making the Chase would be a good thing. Fans would love it — be they Kyle lovers or Kyle haters — because no one likes to see a serious wreck injure a driver and we all enjoy great comeback stories. But one more factor out of his control is mechanical trouble. Teammate Matt Kenseth was bit by that bug at Dover, and an engine failure in the first trip to Pocono last year left Busch with a 42nd-place finish. Pocono beats up cars with bursts of speed off the corners and more shifting, as JGR crew chief Darian Grubb for Carl Edwards explains in this week’s Tech Talk. Counting that engine failure and two race-ending crashes between June and September last year, Busch was left with a 23rd-place average finish in the 13 races preceding the Chase. That won’t get him into the top 30.
Winkler: Busch had some room to play with last year since he posted a win early in the season at Auto Club Speedway. He probably won’t take as many chances this year given his current situation with the margin of error being so slim. As one of NASCAR’s most talented drivers, he has shown he can have success on different courses. The only question will be whether he can maintain a high level of consistency, because he has proven, at least to me, that health won’t be an issue. Yes, some fans would love it if Busch could make the Chase, but would Brad Keselowski? That might be the real question we should be debating, but all kidding aside, their rivalry is yet another reason to root for Busch to make the Chase.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
• Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 car, has received a penalty for his actions during the May 31 race (Sections 12.1, 12.8 b and 10.4.2.1 in the 2015 NASCAR rule book). Bayne has been fined $20,000 and placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31.
• The No. 4 team has been assessed a P1 level penalty for receiving written warnings in two consecutive events (Section 12.5.3.1b,c NASCAR rule book). The team will receive the last choice in the pit selection process for this weekend’s event at Pocono Raceway.
NASCAR XFINITY Series
• The No. 97 team has been penalized for an infraction occurring during practice on May 29. It is a P3 level penalty (Sections 12.1 and 20.17.2.1b NASCAR rule book). Crew chief John Monsam has been fined $15,000, suspended from the next championship points race, and placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31. Car chief David Jones has been suspended from the next championship points race and placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31. Driver Peyton Sellers and owner Victor Obaika lose 15 series championship driver and owner points, respectively.
• The No. 33 car failed post-race inspection on May 30. This is a P2 level penalty (Sections 12.1 and 20.17.3.2.2b NASCAR rule book). Crew chief Nick Harrison has been fined $7,500 and placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31. Car owner Richard Childress loses 10 series championship owner points.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
• Jennifer Jo Cobb, driver of the No. 10 truck, has received a penalty for her actions during the May 29 race (Sections 12-1, 12.8 b and 10.4.2.1 NASCAR rule book). Cobb has been fined $5,000 and placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31.
Bolton kept him honest, but Humpe was in a class of his own
Kenny Humpe drove a nearly perfect race and returned to victory lane at Dover International Speedway for his fourth win in the 2015 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series Powered by iRacing.
Humpe held-off Justin Bolton on a green-white-checkered restart to secure the win. After starting second, Humpe overhauled polesitter and teammate Bolton 30 laps into the race. This wound-up being the only lead change of the race as Humpe led the final 170 circuits in yet another dominating performance to further enhance his commanding lead in the series points race.
Kevin King bounced back from some rough luck on restarts to claim third. Brad Mahar and Bryan Blackford finished fourth and fifth respectively, the first top five run of the season for each sim racer.
Bolton started on pole and looked to have a good car for the short run but as the laps wore on Humpe became stronger and Bolton let him go on Lap 31. Humpe built a sizeable margin over the next 35 laps before a spin by Brad Davies brought out the caution for the first time.
Humpe’s pit crew gave him a fantastic stop and allowed him to maintain the lead, giving him the clean air on the restart. Now out in the clear, Humpe took control of the race and jumped out to a half-straightaway lead over Bolton before the yellow flag waved again on Lap 113. The caution flew just inside the fuel window which eliminated fuel strategy from the equation.
As expected, the pace and intensity picked-up after drivers knew they could make it to the end on fuel. Humpe once again sprinted out to a comfortable lead but the battle for the rest of the top ten was close and competitive. Ray Alfalla, Nick Ottinger, and Tyler Hudson joined the fray as the race wore on and each looked to have the potential to finish in the top five.
Just as the field began to organize another yellow slowed the pace on Lap 154, erasing Humpe’s lead and drawing the leaders to pit for tires. Surprisingly, none of the lead lap cars stayed out on old tires, nor did any of the frontrunners gamble on a two tire stop for track position which allowed Humpe to maintain the lead off pit road for the third time.
The last quarter of the race was marred by several incidents which involved drivers who came into Dover high in the championship standings. Alfalla, Chad Laughton, Chris Overland, and Patrick Crabtree all found trouble. Laughton found the most trouble when he became involved in an incident after Cody Byus and Benjamin Burmeister made contact. Laughton wound up with serious damage and finished thirty-third.
All the trouble allowed Humpe to extend his lead in the championship which now sits at a whopping 76 points as the 2015 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series hits the halfway point of the season. Alfalla remains second after late race contact cost him a top ten finish. Overland is third, 30 points back of Alfalla, after being shuffled out of the top five on a late-race restart. Laughton and Crabtree are tied for fifth and sit just a single marker behind Overland.
With half the season in the books, Humpe is clearly the class of the field. In eight races he has won four times to go along with seven top five finishes and three poles. His advantage in the laps led category is staggering: 664 laps compared to Laughton’s mark of just 153 laps … which is fewer than Humpe led at Dover alone.
The second half of the season kicks-off with the series’ annual visit to Michigan International Speedway, along with a new build which could slightly change the handling of the cars. Thus far, Humpe and his team have been churning out great setups week after week, but can they keep it up with the new build or will a new team find a package that can dominate? Tune into iRacing Live to catch all the action from MIS!
Rules to take effect in all three series starting this weekend
NASCAR formalized expanded standards for pit road safety apparel Wednesday, making specially certified gloves, head socks and underwear mandatory for over-the-wall pit crew personnel in all three national series.
The move became official through a bulletin added Wednesday to the NASCAR Rule Book. The requirements go into effect beginning with this weekend’s events for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Pocono Raceway and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway.
The measures were spurred by a major pit-road fire, which injured three crew members during an XFINITY Series race April 24 at Richmond International Raceway. Two members of the Richard Childress Racing No. 62 team for driver Brendan Gaughan were briefly hospitalized; a third crewman, working in a neighboring pit stall for the JGL Racing team, was treated and released the same night from the track’s infield care center.
NASCAR competition officials had already recommended that teams use the apparel approved by the SFI Foundation, a California-based organization that sets motorsports industry standards for racing equipment. Teams in all three national series were notified May 13 that the recommendations would soon become a rule.
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition and Racing Development, said last month that many teams were already in compliance with the new rule. The three weeks from when teams were notified until the rule went into effect, Pemberton said, were meant to allow teams and manufacturers of safety equipment enough time to get crew members up to code.
"We were going down this path anyway," Pemberton said. "I use the (phrase) ‘you get a tap on the shoulder every now and then’ … (the Richmond incident) helped to put it on the fast track. We’ve all worked together and a lot of times it’s better if we throw a rule out there for everybody to comply."
Sprint Cup Series: Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 (Sunday, June 7, 1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) Camping World Truck Series:WinStar World Casino 400 (Friday, June 5, 9 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM)
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Click here for on-track times, press conferences, leaderboards and GarageCam.
• RaceBuddy: Live in-car coverage with 10 HD views. Up to eight in-car cameras for Cup races, and four for XFINITY races. • RaceView: Watch virtual video of cars on track and listen to the scanner. • RaceView Mobile: On your phone? Try RaceView here. • Scanner: In-car audio only. • Mobile Apps: Follow the leaderboards live from your device.
NASCAR announced penalties Wednesday for two XFINITY Series teams for infractions — one pre-race and one post-race — during last weekend’s event at Dover International Speedway.
The Richard Childress Racing No. 33 Chevrolet team of driver Austin Dillon was issued a P2-level penalty after the car failed post-race inspection after Saturday’s Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket. Officials determined the No. 33 car, driven to a fourth-place finish by Dillon in the 200-miler, to be too low on both sides in the rear.
As a result, NASCAR fined crew chief Nick Harrison $7,500 and placed him on probation through Dec. 31. Car owner Richard Childress was docked 10 series championship owner points.
NASCAR rescinded rules governing ride heights in the Sprint Cup Series ahead of the 2014 season, but those regulations remain in place in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series. The most recent ride-height punishment in a NASCAR national series was a P2-grade penalty for the JR Motorsports No. 00 team in the truck series after its win last month at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
NASCAR also penalized the Obaika Racing No. 97 Chevrolet team for a dropped weight during opening XFINITY Series practice at Dover. The loose piece of tungsten off the car driven by Peyton Sellers punctured the radiator of the No. 13 Dodge driven by Carl Long, causing a crash and forcing the veteran to a backup car for the race.
NASCAR reacted by handing the No. 97 team a P3-level penalty. Crew chief John Monsam has been fined $15,000, suspended for the next championship points race (Great Clips 250 Benefiting Paralyzed Veterans of America, June 13, 1:30 p.m. at Michigan International Speedway) and placed on NASCAR probabtion through Dec. 31. Car chief David Jones was also suspended for the next championship points race and placed on probation through Dec. 31. Sellers loses 15 points in the drivers points standings, and owner Victor Obaika also was docked 15 points in the owner standings.
The incident marked the second time in the past three weeks where an uncontrolled weight has dropped from a vehicle in the XFINITY Series. The JD Motorsports No. 4 team was hit with a P3 penalty May 19 after an errant weight from its car severely damaged owner/driver Jamie Dick‘s car the previous weekend at Iowa Speedway.
NASCAR handed down penalties Wednesday to Sprint Cup Series driver Trevor Bayne for exiting his car without the supervision of safety officials during last Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway.
Bayne, in his first full Sprint Cup season for Roush Fenway Racing‘s No. 6 Ford team, was fined $20,000 and placed on NASCAR probation through Dec. 31.
A three-car crash in the 174th lap of Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks tangled up Bayne and HScott Motorsports teammates Michael Annett and Justin Allgaier. After Bayne’s car skidded to a stop with severe front-end damage, he dismounted during the caution period and walked down the banked track surface in Turn 1 to the awaiting ambulance for the mandatory ride to the infield care center.
NASCAR formalized the rule, which is presented as a reminder during each pre-race drivers’ meeting, last August after a fatal accident involving three-time premier series champion Tony Stewart. Stewart was driving a sprint car at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park’s half-mile dirt track when driver Kevin Ward Jr. exited his car after a crash and was struck and killed.
The rule allows a driver to leave his or her vehicle before the arrival of safety personnel in the event of extenuating circumstances, such as fire.
Bayne’s infraction came two days after a similar incident involving driver Jennifer Jo Cobb, who walked onto the track surface to express displeasure with eventual NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner Tyler Reddick as vehicles circled during the yellow flag.
Race officials summoned Bayne to the NASCAR hauler Sunday for consultation. Monday morning, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell told NASCAR.com in its weekly debrief that punishment was likely pending.
"Both drivers were called to the hauler and we’ll look at both of those incidents, like we always do Tuesday but for us it’s a safety issue,” O’Donnell said. "We want to keep the race track as safe as possible for the competitors."
