Menard, Rhodes top Road America practices

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Staff Report

The NASCAR XFINITY drivers were battling some weather conditions during the second practice session on Friday afternoon with light rain.

Despite the rain, Paul Menard was the fastest during the second practice at Road America. Menard’s No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet clocked in at 108.202 mph.

Second on the leaderboard was the No. 54 Toyota of Boris Said, soaring around the 4.048-mile road course at 108.044 mph.

Chase Elliott‘s No. 9 Chevrolet had some speed in the second session with a quickest lap of 107.672 mph, followed by the No. 22 Ford of Ryan Blaney (107.656 mph), for fourth on the leaderboard. Rounding out the top five was the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Ty Dillon (107.636 mph).

NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville is set for Saturday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. ET (NBCSN/Live Extra).

The Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville will be held on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET (NBCSN/Live Extra., MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Practice 1 results

Ben Rhodes topped the leaderboard for Friday afternoon’s first NASCAR XFINITY Series practice session at Road America for the Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville. Rhodes’ No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet posted a fastest lap of 108.500 mph.

The No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of Chase Elliott was next on the leaderboard, clocking in a fastest lap of 108.133 mph.

Last week’s winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Ryan Blaney, rounded out the top three with a fast lap of 108.039 mph in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

The No. 42 Chevrolet of Justin Marks (107.948 mph) and the No. 2 Chevrolet of Brian Scott (107.947 mph) came in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Points leader Chris Buescher just missed the top five as he had a fastest lap of 107.879 mph and was sixth on the leaderboard.

The race at Road America is the final road course race of the 2015 season for the XFINITY Series.

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Zack Albert

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — With 14 turns and high-speed sections, it’s easy to find trouble at Road America. Journeyman driver Stanton Barrett did during Friday’s opening day for the NASCAR XFINITY Series, but from an unexpected source and without ever turning a lap.

Barrett, preparing for his fourth XFINITY start of the season for car owner Rick Ware, was unable to get on the track for Friday practice ahead of Saturday’s Road America 180 Fired up by Johnsonville (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). There were no issues with the car; instead, a faulty lift-gate motor left the No. 17 entry trapped in the team’s hauler while the crew searched for a solution.

“It’s one of those things, man. It’s a bummer,” Barrett said. “We’ll get it going. We won’t be out on the track, so we just have to get the car through tech (inspection) now. There’s a lot of work to do.”

Barrett said the team spent approximately four hours wrangling with circuitry, switches and wiring in an effort to override the system. When all else failed, Barrett checked the manufacturer’s label to discover that the company — Dings Dynamics Group — was located in Milwaukee, 60 miles south of the 4.048-mile track.

The 42-year-old driver dialed the manufacturer up, saying, “It’s Stanton Barrett. I drive and need some help!” From there, the company helped the team sort out the problem with the assistance of a local electrician.

“Thank God, it worked great,” Barrett said. “An electrician came out and helped us bypass all the systems, too. It was really nice that we found all the resources we needed.”

Coors Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday at 12:15 p.m. ET (NBCSN/Live Extra).

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Zack Albert

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Saturday’s race at Road America marks the finale of a five-race NASCAR XFINITY Series schedule for veteran road racer Boris Said this year in Joe Gibbs Racing‘s No. 54 Toyota. On Friday, Said hinted that the event could signify another finale on a much broader scale.

Said will try to cash in on another opportunity in top-flight equipment in Saturday’s Road America 180 Fired up by Johnsonville (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He’ll be driving for the same No. 54 team that’s visited Victory Lane four times this season, three times with Sprint Cup vet Kyle Busch and once with JGR prodigy Erik Jones.

“Man, this is like the best Christmas present I ever got in my life,” Said said after Friday’s final practice at the 4.048-mile track. “I’ve been racing for over 30 years. I’m going to be 53 in a couple weeks. In the last three or four years, I’ve been racing cars that don’t have a prayer to win, underfunded teams. It’s still fun, but not fun not being competitive. So, to get an opportunity to drive for Monster and Joe Gibbs and Toyota in equipment like this, it was a dream come true. To finally run in the top five at Watkins Glen, it kind of shows, hey maybe it’s not my age, it was just the equipment.

“It’s just been one of the most fun years I’ve ever had doing these five races with these guys. Now that it’s last one, it might be the last NASCAR car race I ever run, I don’t know. But it sure is a cool way to go out.”

If Saturday proves to be Said’s swan song, his record will show one XFINITY victory, one Camping World Truck Series win and two Sprint Cup pole positions in a career that dates back to 1995 in NASCAR national series competition. This year, Said’s biggest highlight was a fourth-place finish at the Glen, and leading two laps two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio and a lap at Talladega in May.

Said pointed out that he dialed back his sports-car racing schedule this year to better focus on his five-race schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing. But he’s otherwise kept occupied off the track in a partnership with Rick Hendrick’s automotive group for BMW and Volkswagen dealerships.

“That’s another dream come true,” Said said.

In terms of the future, Said indicated that he’d likely compete in sports car events next season, but he’d jump at the chance for another competitive ride in NASCAR.

“Who knows? If I could ever get another opportunity like this again, I don’t care if I was 70 years old, I’d take it,” Said said. “This is like a vacation every time I get to run this. I have fun every minute of the day here. Part of me is sad to see it end, but part of me is like, man, it sure was fun, though.”

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Zack Albert

RELATED: See how Smith won at Mid-Ohio

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Regan Smith used a bit of bumper two weeks ago to become NASCAR’s most recent road-course winner, shoving road-racing veteran Alex Tagliani in the last lap at Mid-Ohio to take his first XFINITY Series victory of the year.

With the final road-course race of the season looming at Road America, Smith said he doesn’t have regrets about the late-race contact, which left Tagliani steaming with cross post-race words.

“I think if you’re in that same situation, you’ve got to do what you can do to go for wins,” Smith said before opening XFINITY practice Friday at the 4.048-mile circuit. “I guess in that circumstance in that situation, I didn’t wreck him, just had a little bumper tag there and we came out as the beneficiary of it. I have not spoken to Alex and didn’t really figure he’d be in the mood right after the race to talk at all, so I think possibly down the road, we will. He’s somebody that I’ve raced with a few times now and enjoy racing with him. I think he would understand the scenario of going for wins and doing what we’ve got to do there.

“It’s a fine line. There’s wrecking a guy and there’s moving him and getting the position. We see the moving all the time. It’s not anything new. It’s been done in our sport for a thousand times and a thousand more times in the future, I’m sure. The feedback I got from drivers, crew members, you name it, they thought it was a good move and they thought it was fine. I didn’t really hear too much negative about it.”

Smith’s victory helped bolster the JR Motorsports driver’s case for a series championship. Though he ranks fourth — 51 points behind series leader Chris Buescher — he noted that plenty can change with 11 races remaining on the calendar.

“I think we’re still in it,” Smith said. “We’re racing like we’re still in it, and the mindset is to go out and do everything we can to lead laps and win races. And if you’re doing that, you close up on points even quicker than you can imagine.”

While the title fight for this season has ramped up, Smith has also kept a focus on making his 2016 plans final. His recent remarks about his potential free-agent status have sparked interest into what next season might hold, plus in which series he’ll be competing.

Smith reiterated his goal of returning to the Sprint Cup Series, where he’s performed admirably in fill-in roles the last two seasons — including three races this year in place of the suspended Kurt Busch and one race after Kyle Larson‘s fainting spell on the eve of the first Martinsville race of 2015.

“Working hard every day to figure out 2016,” Smith said. “I think I’ve been clear for the better part of two and a half years now that I want to get back to Sprint Cup and do that at some point, so I’m fortunate to be in fast race race cars at JR Motorsports right now and have an amazing opportunity here and definitely don’t take that for granted. At the same time, I want to give myself that opportunity to get back to the other series. As soon as all that stuff plays out and I have answers, then I’ll given them as soon as I can.”

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Zack Albert

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — News of Richard Childress Racing‘s crew chief switcheroo for its Nos. 3 and 33 Chevrolet teams in the NASCAR XFINITY Series might’ve seemed like a rash measure back in June. With Ty Dillon sitting second in the driver standings, the swap resembled an overhaul more than a tweak.

Eight races later, the early returns are promising for both RCR outfits, with momentum aligning for Dillon’s championship push heading into Saturday’s Road America 180 Fired up by Johnsonville (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Dillon remains second in the standings with a 19-point deficit heading into the 23rd of 33 races this season, but he also has a streak of four straight top-five finishes built up for the final road course event of 2015.

The Richard Childress-owned team announced its move June 24, moving Nick Harrison over to call the shots for Dillon’s No. 3 operation. Danny Stockman shifted over to RCR’s No. 33, a full-time team but with three part-time drivers — Austin Dillon, Brandon Jones and Paul Menard — sharing the seat.

The younger Dillon said the change has gone smoothly so far, but that the more encouraging byproduct has been the team’s ability to compete for top-five finishes rather than settle for top-10s.

“It’s going really good. We’re all figuring it out and we’ve made sure we’ve had our communication down the last couple weeks,” Ty Dillon said. “Every week, we’ve gotten stronger and stronger and had really good race cars. It makes it easier to finish top-five when you have such good race cars. Nick’s been calling good races and we just have a lot of momentum right now, heading in the right direction. We keep finishing in the top five like we are, we’re going to get some wins and really put the heat on them.”

The move paid some immediate dividends for Austin Dillon, who prevailed at Daytona International Speedway in the team’s first event since the personnel change. The Dillon-Stockman pairing reunited the driver-crew chief combination that netted the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship in 2011, then the XFINITY crown two years later.

Menard will participate in his fourth race under Stockman’s watch this weekend, making his first XFINITY start in his home state of Wisconsin since 2010. The Sprint Cup Series regular said he understood the reasons for altering the team dynamic.

“It was more for Ty, honestly,” Menard said. “They called me to see if I was OK with making the switch and I said whatever is better for the company is fine with me. I know we’ll run good with both those guys.”

Ty Dillon has methodically made up ground — or at least held serve — in the weeks following the change. After crashing out at Daytona and slipping to 43 points in arrears, he’s chopped the deficit in half and then some, helping him apply pressure to Roush Fenway Racing‘s Chris Buescher, the points leader since May. It’s resulted in additional spring in the step for Dillon, noticeably so according to Harrison.

“We’ve had a string of top-fives here, so we’ve got some kind of mojo rolling and we’ve been having fun doing it,” Harrison said. “The pressure and intensity level’s getting higher as we creep down toward the end of the year. Having some momentum is definitely showing to be a strength, and you can tell it’s helping everybody’s spirit going into the closing part of the year.

“We’ve had two top-fives at Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen, so coming here, I think confidence is up for not only us but especially Ty. I feel like that’s real important. You can just tell his attitude and charisma is where it needs to be right now and I feel like that’s going to help tremendously.”

The poise may come in handy this weekend on the blazing fast 4.048-mile circuit, where off-course pitfalls and the prospect of fender-bending conflicts await. Dillon has managed to steer clear of the former if not quite the latter in this month’s other two road-course events, gathering top-five finishes at both.

The potential for trouble — mixed in with the uncertainty of possible racing in the rain — hasn’t done much to deter Dillon’s outlook as the final third of the season begins.

“We’re going for it. This is definitely an opportunity,” Dillon said. “We’re not sitting back and trying to let things happen for us. We’re going for it. You never know what can happen with rain and the way a road course races anyway, so we’ve got to be on the attack and try to win this race.”

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Nascar

A year ago, it was Kasey Kahne.

Only two races remained before the start of the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and the Hendrick Motorsports driver was 13th in points. Unfortunately, he was outside the top 16 in the Chase standings.

Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, AJ Allmendinger, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola trailed Kahne in points. But they were among those that had wins. They had invitations to the dance.

At the time, Kahne had managed only two top-five finishes. His average finishing position was 16.8. He hadn’t been to the victory lane since midway through the previous season.

So he and his team went out and won at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It earned Kahne one of the final Chase spots and the No. 5 team a second chance.

It wasn’t quite as easy as it sounds.

Kevin Harvick, as was often the case, was dominant at AMS. Kahne fell a lap down early. The team battled back. He didn’t take the lead for the first time until Lap 303 of the scheduled 325-lap race. Suddenly, he seemed to be on his way to the win. Then cautions appeared, forcing two late restarts. Green, white, checkered late. Kahne’s lead was lost on pit road.

Yet somehow he muscled his way past Matt Kenseth coming to the white flag, holding on for the win and a spot in the Chase.

It’s a similar position for the 35-year-old this year. Two races remain — stops at Darlington Raceway and Richmond International Raceway — before the field is finalized for this year’s 10-race run to determine the Sprint Cup champion.

Kahne is once again winless. He is not alone.

Teammate Jeff Gordon has finished inside the top five only three times this year. The four-time champion is ahead of Clint Bowyer in the playoff picture, with a wider margin back to folks such as Aric Almirola and Greg Biffle.

A year ago Gordon had three wins and a vise-like grip on first place in the points.

Bowyer’s got a pair of top-fives, but much of the attention around the No. 15 team of Michael Waltrip Racing centers on where Bowyer will call home next season.

Paul Menard has a razor-thin lead on Gordon in points, but taking nothing for granted.

Can anyone? Matt Kenseth‘s blown engine at Bristol last week, leaving the Joe Gibbs driver 42nd in the final rundown, didn’t go unnoticed. Things not only can happen, they often do.

With 10 drivers already secure — 11 if you go ahead and give Kyle Busch one of the spots although he’s close enough to the fault line that a misstep could make things interesting — and two races remaining, at least three of this year’s Chase spots will be filled based on the points standings after Richmond.

It could be five, if no new winner emerges in the next two weeks.

Few on the fringes, though, have shown signs of contending for wins.

Almirola? One top five and only three laps led this season.

Biffle? It’s shaping up to be the wrong type of career year for the Roush Fenway Racing driver, with just two top-fives and an average finish of 20th.

Austin Dillon? Kyle Larson? Both have shown potential. Both are winless.

Kahne? Well, who knows?

The question isn’t can it be done. Kahne’s already proven that it’s possible.

The question is who among those can pull it off?

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Nascar

The Joe Gibbs Racing teams of Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth, which combined to win six of the last nine NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, will each lose 15 minutes of practice time next weekend when the series heads to Darlington Raceway.

The two were among 11 teams issued warnings arising from pre-qualifying and pre-race inspection issues at Bristol Motor Speedway, site of the Aug. 22 Irwin Tools Night Race.

Busch’s No. 18 team failed pre-race inspection four times on Saturday. Busch finished eighth in the race.

Kenseth’s No. 20 team was penalized for failing pre-race inspection on its first two attempts, as well as failing to get to inspection at the allotted time. Kenseth finished 42nd after when an engine issue sidelined the 2003 Sprint Cup champion after 110 laps of the 500-lap race.

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series is not competing this weekend. The Bojangles’ Southern 500 is scheduled for Sept. 6 at Darlington (7 p.m., NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The 15-minute penalties will be enforced when opening practice gets underway on Friday, Sept. 4 at 11 a.m.

Kenseth is currently fourth in the Chase Grid and has a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff locked up. Busch, who missed the first 11 races of the season due to injuries sustained in a crash at Daytona International Speedway in February, is currently second in the Chase Grid, but needs to clinch a top 30 position in the point standings over the final two regular-season races before he officially locks his spot in the Chase up.

Warnings may be issued to teams for a variety of minor infractions. For every fourth warning issued to a team, whether during a championship (points) or non-championship (non-points) event, the loss of pit stall selection will be enforced.

Others teams receiving warnings at Bristol for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice were: No. 22 (Joey Logano/Team Penske), No. 24 (Jeff Gordon/Hendrick Motorsports), No. 7 (Alex Bowman/Tommy Baldwin Racing), No. 30 (Travis Kvapil/TMG) and the No. 98 (Timmy Hill/Premium Motorsports)

Also penalized for being late to inspection were the following teams: No. 40 (Landon Cassill/Hillman Racing), No. 83 (Matt DiBenedetto/BK Racing, No. 15 (Clint Bowyer/Michael Waltrip Racing) and the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin/Joe Gibbs Racing).

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Holly Cain

Photo credit — Chase Elliott‘s Instagram @chaseelliott9

RELATED: Series standings

At only 19 years old, Chase Elliott already has a NASCAR XFINITY Series championship, is currently contending for a second one and has a pretty sweet job lined up next year taking over the iconic No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for retiring four-time Sprint Cup Series champ Jeff Gordon.

Not only has Elliott’s racing career taken off, he has too — literally — having just earned his private pilot license on July 23. And the view from above is something he’s wanted his whole life.

It seems Elliott got more than the racing gene from his father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, as he has inherited the flying bug from his dad, an accomplished and avid aviator.

“He’s been flying a long time so I’ve always been around it since I was little,” Elliott said of his father. “I’ve watched him fly for years and years and been fortunate enough to have access to his planes and sit up front and watch him fly them so I’ve always definitely interested in it.

“It’s one of those things where the more you do it, the more you become interested in it. And the more you get into it, the more intriguing it becomes. I learn something new every time I fly.

“It’s definitely tough to (master all the necessary lessons). A lot of things come along with it. But flying is a privilege and something you can’t take lightly ever.”

A lot of the same traits — discipline, smarts and dedication — Elliott put into his burgeoning racing career he used to earn the pilot license.

He actually started taking lessons while still in high school but it was such a busy time between school, racing and flying lessons that Elliott put off finishing his license until a few months ago with the support of his dad.

“It’s something you work hard for to achieve,” Bill Elliott said. “I see so many people who have gone through a lot of the flying part and the learning curve but never went on and got their pilot licenses and they always regretted it. I told Chase, ‘You need to go on and get this done.’

“I’m glad he did. That’s something he’ll carry with him regardless of where racing takes him.”

The Elliotts join an impressive list of NASCAR drivers who have secured private pilot licenses including Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and retired drivers Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Cale Yarborough and Ricky Rudd. Ryan Newman‘s wife Krissie flies helicopters.

Similarly, Elliott figures having the ability to pilot an airplane can be as much a practicality as it is a luxury. His father helped secure him a Cessna 182 single-engine, four-seater to use and Elliott is eager to start flying to races closer than home. Last week, he flew to Bristol. He has also posted a photo of himself practicing grass landings on Instagram.

“Absolutely, it’s a major convenience if you need to go somewhere, you can turn a four-hour drive into an hour-and-a-half flight,” Elliott said. “Time is valuable for anybody and any chance to make up time like that is great.”

Elliott wasn’t sure if he would fly himself to this weekend’s XFINITY Series race at Road America, but he is looking forward to the stand-alone road race regardless.

It’s the third road course race in the last four weeks for the series and Elliott is one of the series regulars who embraces the opportunity to turn right.

He is on a six-race run of top-10 finishes in his No. 9 NAPA Chevy and currently trails championship leader Chris Buescher by 23 points in the standings. He has finishes of seventh (Watkins Glen) and fifth (Mid-Ohio) in the two road races this year and finished fourth at Road America last season.

“I thought last year was a good learning experience,” Elliott said. “I was really pleased with Watkins Glen. I’m still learning on my end, but thought we had good cars this year and that’s a big step in right direction.”

For Elliott, that direction is up.

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Staff Report

No one would blame Cameron Hayley for getting homesick.

The 19-year-old NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver resides in Sandusky, Ohio where his ThorSport Racing team is based — 1,891.3 miles away from his hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Most of the tracks he races at are even farther away.

Distance has not stopped Hayley from chasing his NASCAR dream. Although it’s located on the opposite side of Canada, Hayley will have a homecoming of sorts when he performs in front of his fellow countrymen in Sunday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (1:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1) — the NCWTS’ only road course race of the season.

“Not only is this a track I’ve been to before, it’s also in my home country,” said Hayley, who ranks sixth in the NCWTS standings on the strength of three top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 14 starts this season. “I just hope that I will have a good run for all of my Canadian fans.”

An alumnus of the NASCAR Next initiative highlighting the sport’s top up-and-coming drivers, Hayley is still searching for his first NASCAR national series win. If he takes the checkered flag on Sunday, he would be the first Canadian to win a NASCAR national series race since Ron Fellows visited Victory Lane in Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2008.

Racing in his first full-time NCWTS season, Hayley has gained momentum lately, logging six top-10 finishes in his last eight starts, including a career-best fourth-place showing at Pocono. He made his series debut at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last season, finishing 11th and believes his prior experience there will help him on Sunday.

“We’ve done really well at tracks that I’ve been to in the past this year, already,” Hayley said. “I’ve been to Sonoma a couple times and that place was really difficult. You look at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and think, ‘it can’t be as difficult as Sonoma,’ but it’s a very fast race track, and fast race tracks are not forgiving. It takes a lot of finesse and a lot of guts to go out there and get it done. We are bringing a really good truck, so I think this will be another good race for us to go out and get a solid top five, if not a win.”

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Updated standings

Chris Buescher gambled at Bristol and almost came up big. The key word in the previous sentence: ‘Almost.’

The 22-year-old Roush Fenway Racing driver took the lead at the .533-mile track after electing not to pit on Lap 192 of 300. Buescher paced the field for the next 106 laps, but a fuel pick-up issue on the penultimate go-around of the race ended any hopes of triumph. Buescher was relegated to 11th, while Ty Dillon finished third, cutting Buescher’s NASCAR XFINITY Series points lead to 19.

If Buescher didn’t go for the win, he wouldn’t have lost as many points to Dillon.

“We had the speed, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Buescher said. “I’m glad we took the chance. I wouldn’t change it if we could do it over again, but unfortunately it knocked us right out of a top-10 and out of a win.”

Buescher and Dillon will continue to battle for the points lead in Saturday’s Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (3 p.m. on NBCSN) — the third and final XFINITY Series road course race of the season. The two drivers are the only competitors who finished in the top five of the previous two road course races.

A natural on road courses, Buescher won at Mid-Ohio last year in addition to his two top fives while turning left and right this year. He placed 18th in his lone start at Road America last season.

“Road America is a very difficult and unique road course,” Buescher said. “I love road racing and look forward to the challenge.”

Dillon finished 19th in his first-ever series start at Road America last year. He enters Saturday’s race riding a streak of four top-five finishes.

“Our team is looking at the big picture and sometimes we have to take a step back and realize that this is a long season; to take it little by little,” Dillon said. “This past weekend in Bristol was a perfect example — we struggled the first part of practice but (Crew Chief) Nick (Harrison), (Race Engineer) Danny (Efland) and the team just took a step back and reevaluated. We have a championship to win here and it won’t be easy.

“We have 11 races to go and we’re not going to let up.”