Chase Elliott nabs NAPA as majority sponsor for Cup

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Staff Report

Agreement for No. 24 starts in 2016 for driver’s full-time Sprint Cup debut

RELATED: Elliott adds to 2015 schedule

Hendrick Motorsports announced Tuesday evening that NAPA Auto Parts will be the majority sponsor of the No. 24 team and Chase Elliott, starting next season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

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The three-year deal, announced in Las Vegas at a convention for the auto parts distributor, will place the blue and yellow NAPA colors on the No. 24 Chevrolet as primary sponsor for 24 races each year, including the season-opening Daytona 500. The company will be an associate sponsor for the remaining events.

"I’m so fortunate to work with a company like NAPA," Elliott said in a release provided by the team. "They’ve been behind me 100 percent, and I never take that support for granted. Continuing the relationship means a lot, and I know the entire team is focused on making it as successful as possible. It’s going to be a lot of fun."

Elliott, the defending NASCAR XFINITY Series champion, will be a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate next season, taking over the Hendrick No. 24 ride from four-time premier series champion Jeff Gordon.

Elliott has already made two Sprint Cup starts this season (38th place at Martinsville, 16th at Richmond) in a six-race tune-up for next season. His 2015 slate grew Monday with the addition of the non-points-paying Sprint Showdown, a preliminary to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Zack Albert

No. 4 SHR driver to wheel throwback Budweiser scheme at Darlington

Kevin Harvick voiced his thoughts openly last weekend about the state of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, painting his vision of what a revamped season of events could look like in broad strokes. Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the defending Sprint Cup champion sounded his approval for a do-over schedule change a long time in the making.

Harvick helped to unveil a throwback paint scheme for his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet, a nostalgic Budweiser look that he’ll use to defend his Southern 500 win this September at Darlington Raceway. The retro graphics are part of an industry-wide push for a classic throwback weekend at NASCAR’s original superspeedway, with opportunities for teams, drivers and fans to participate.

The celebration of tradition dovetails nicely with NASCAR’s 2015 schedule, which restored the South Carolina track to its customary Labor Day spot on the racing calendar. Though Harvick’s proposed schedule alterations included new tracks, potential additions of more road courses and other revisions, moving Darlington isn’t on his list.

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"Well, it should’ve never been moved in the beginning," Harvick said. "Now that it’s back where it belongs as the Southern 500 date, you see so many of the race tracks that have come from one race, gone to two races and then gone back to one — and there’s several more of them that need to go from two races to one and find some fresh places to show off our sport and generate some excitement with new fans in new places across the country."

Darlington Raceway president Chip Wile helped the track announce its decision to incorporate classic touches to its lone race on the Sprint Cup schedule last April, well before the move back to Labor Day was made final. With both well-received developments coming to fruition in 2015, Wile said the reverberations were felt beyond the boundaries of the Palmetto State.

"I think everybody in the sport agreed that moving the Southern 500 back to Labor Day was the right move, and in our community, it’s been such great news," Wile said. "Everybody has embraced us as a race track again and are engaged in all the different things that we’re doing."

While Harvick has opened up about the rhythms of the NASCAR schedule, he said he hasn’t closely followed the drumbeat around shortening races, a topic NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France broached late last month in a meeting with Associated Press Sports Editors. One race that will most certainly remain intact length-wise is at Darlington, where the premier series — then called "Grand National" — ran its first 500-mile event in 1950.

"I haven’t been down the shorten-races path too far," Harvick said with a smile. "I’ve been on the schedule rant, so I think as you look at the races and the length of the races, obviously, it seems to have been successful for some of the other race tracks to shorten them up a little bit. Things sometimes happen a lot slower, I’ve learned, in the business world than the way that (wife) DeLana and I ran our business. When we had a problem, we would fix it overnight. So that’s not how it works in the big business world."

Wednesday, though, was all about celebrating Stewart-Haas’ foray into the realm of a classic feel for NASCAR’s oldest 500-mile race. Team officials indicated that retro paint schemes for its remaining three Sprint Cup cars — driven by Kurt Busch, Danica Patrick and owner/driver Tony Stewart — were soon to be released.

Harvick was assisted in pulling the cover off his old-school Chevrolet by NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Rex White — who drove his own bright No. 4 Chevy, nicknamed "Gold Thunder," for much of his storied career. White, 85, came closest to winning the Southern 500 with a runner-up finish in 1960, the year of his lone premier-series championship.

"The Southern 500 had to be the No. 1 because it was the only superspeedway at that time, until Charlotte and Atlanta got built," White said. "A lot of people say, ‘well, what was your favorite superspeedway?’ There was only one and that was Darlington."

Harvick’s No. 4 included a handful of other nostalgic touches — including the first look at period-style, white-letter Goodyear tires that will be used in the Sept. 6 race and an original, winged "NASCAR International" logo on the car’s A-pillar. According to Wile, the emerging details are just a sampling of what’s coming ahead of Labor Day.

"What we’ve said to the teams is just to do something retro, do something that really celebrates something you’ve done, your team’s done that gives people that old-school feel," Wile said. "This thing continues to build. NASCAR is getting involved, the teams are getting involved, some of the official partners are getting involved, so this is something that everyone seems to be rallying around and it’s just going to be incredible."

SHOP: Harvick throwback die-cast

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Zack Albert

Camping World Truck Series driver says track can be a ‘cruel teacher’

Even after crashing out of his two previous Kansas Speedway starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Spencer Gallagher still sees the intermediate-sized track in the Midwest plains as a favorable venue.

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It’s a love-hate relationship that could understandably veer toward hate, but for Gallagher, the love side of the spectrum still wins out.

"I’ve had some ridiculous things happen to me at my career at Kansas, but I still love the place," Gallagher says. "She can be a cruel teacher, but it really is a great race track."

Gallagher and the rest of the Truck Series regulars get their chance to learn more Kansas lessons, shaking off a five-week layoff in Friday night’s Toyota Tundra 250 (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1), the fourth of 23 races this season for the tailgate tour.

Spins, wrecks, and other heartaches tell only part of the tale of Gallagher’s backstory with the 1.5-mile speedway. The 25-year-old Las Vegas native also claims Kansas as the site of his first win in the ARCA stock-car series last season, but also as the home to his truck series debut in 2013.

Though that first Truck race was marked by a dead-last starting spot and a crash-abbreviated 22nd-place finish, it still serves as a reminder for how far Gallagher has come from his partial-schedule beginnings to his full-time role with GMS Racing in the No. 23 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet this season.

"What a disaster that race was," Gallagher said, pointing out a photo on the wall of his race shop that shows him making a pit stop during his debut. "It’s funny, if you go back and look at my record at Kansas, I have had some of the dumbest stuff I’ve every had happen to me in my entire race car driving career happen at Kansas, but I still love the place. By all rights, I really shouldn’t be because it hasn’t been kind to me all that much. I still love going around it.

"It feels like a whole lifetime ago. That was a different team really with a completely different way of doing things than we are now. We’ve come so far. We’re so much better than the team we were a couple of years ago. I really catch myself thinking and feeling that a lot, that wow, all that stuff feels like a lifetime ago."

Fast forward two years later and Gallagher has reason for optimism in his first full season in a NASCAR national series. Though he notes that the results haven’t reflected the team’s performance so far, Gallagher still ranks eighth in the truck standings with plenty of racing left — just three races into a season-long contest.

Gallagher hasn’t lacked for motivation, identifying himself as "the goal-setting type." This season’s aim is a finish in the top five in the Camping World Truck Series standings, a feat he sees as achievable.

"We have made leaps-and-bounds improvements over the stuff that we were running even last year. It’s been nothing short of a revolution for us in the offseason," he says. "So I try to be a goal-oriented person. I find that helps me get things done a lot better. If you have a clear goal in mind, that keeps your mind from wandering and it keep you on focus."

The other factor that’s helped him sharpen both his focus and his driving skills has been a newfound interest in dirt-track racing, where he’s a self-described "new convert to the gospel" of slinging a late model around clay bullrings as an extracurricular diversion.

Gallagher said he’s enamored with the compact time frame of dirt-track racing, which allows him to shoehorn an event into his schedule with relative ease. After Friday night’s Truck race, he plans to compete at Friendship Speedway in Elkin, North Carolina, in an effort to fit in more seat time.

Though the Kansas high banks are paved and contain a decent amount of grip, Gallagher said he sees some parallels with dirt-track racing, comparing the two styles of running on the ragged edge. Friday night, he’ll see if the hobby translates to success in his full-time ride.

"We’re going to get to find that out at Kansas," Gallagher said. "That’s going to be the first real test I’m going to have since I started. I totally see what people mean when they say it helps a driver’s feel so much because you’re so out of control constantly in those things. You have to develop a good ‘butt feel,’ as it were to just be able to get around the race track."

In just 15 career Truck Series races, Gallagher has a best finish of third place, secured last fall in a mad scramble of a finish at Talladega Superspeedway. This season, he’s still in search of his first top-10 run, but he’s emphasized making the focus about his team’s fortunes and not his personal aspirations.

"I kind of come secondary. If I’m having a great day, wonderful, but I want to make sure GMS Racing’s having a great day," Gallagher said. "… Week in, week out, we’ve taken cars to the race track that have had great speed with them, and that’s the important bit. If we can keep that consistency going through the rest of the season, good things happen, man. Good things are all about consistency, and that’s what’s important. That’s what I like about it."

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Nascar

Crew chief Lambert, two other crew members to miss next six races

CONCORD, N.C. — National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer Bryan Moss let stand penalties against driver Ryan Newman and his Richard Childress Racing No. 31 team here Wednesday after hearing more than nine hours of testimony from officials with the Sprint Cup Series organization and the sanctioning body.

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The meeting, which got underway at 8:30 a.m. ET at the NASCAR Research and Development Center, was the second attempt by RCR officials to have penalties against Newman and team owner Richard Childress, crew chief Luke Lambert and two other members of the No. 31 team overturned.

Instead, Moss ruled "based on a preponderance of evidence, the appellants violated the rules;" and "based on a preponderance of evidence the penalties are upheld as amended by the National Motorsports Appeals panel."

As a result, the loss of 50 championship driver and owner points will stand, as will Lambert’s $75,000 fine and the six-week suspensions of Lambert, team engineer Philip Surgen and tire technician James Bender. Lambert, Surgen and Bender will remain on probation through Dec. 31 as well.

In a prepared statement read to members of the media following the decision, RCR spokesman Tim Packman stated, "We do not agree with the final ruling.

"We feel we had a compelling case; we still feel we were in the right and the facts presented today would have proved that. We appreciate the opportunity to be heard.

"We stand behind our suspended team members and look forward to their return. We will now move on, continue our goals of winning races and making the Chase for the Championship."

With Lambert now sidelined until the series returns to Daytona in July, the No. 31 team will be run by veteran crew chief Todd Parrott.

The case stemmed from penalties handed down March 31 following a tire audit conducted following the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. NASCAR officials took tires from several teams following that event, eventually sending some to an outside agency for further evaluation.

Initially, the No. 31 team was assessed P5 penalties that included the loss of 75 championship driver and owner points as well as a $125,000 fine for Lambert. However, a three-member NASCAR Appeals Panel later reduced the points penalty to 50 for Newman and Childress while reducing Lambert’s fine to $75,000. The panel let stand the six-race suspensions and probation.

As a result of Wednesday’s ruling, Newman remains 14th in driver points as the series prepares to travel to Kansas Speedway for Saturday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (FOX Sports 1, 7:30 p.m. ET).

The decision of Moss, his second ruling since taking over the role last season, is final.

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Staff Report

Team owner: ‘We stand behind our suspended team members’

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"We do not agree with the final appeal ruling. We feel we had a compelling case and still fell we were in the right and the facts presented today would have proved that. We do appreciate the opportunity to be heard.

"We stand behind our suspended team members and look forward to their return. We will now move on and continue or goals of winning races and making the Chase for the Champion."

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Staff Report

Pick your winner for Saturday’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1)

Posted on May 5, 2015April 16, 2021 by Tadd Haislop

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Five of the six NASCAR K&N Pro Series race winners in 2015 are 21 years old or younger. The championship points leaders in both the East and West are 17 and 16, respectively. And a 17-year-old just became the highest-finishing female in the 61-year history of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West.

It is fitting that as fans celebrate Jeff Gordon’s final year of competition, the ranks of NASCAR are filled with young drivers battling to one day fill that void. And on Tuesday, in a building that honors the sport’s history, NASCAR introduced some of those potential future stars of the sport.

During a ceremony at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, 12 drivers were formally announced as the newest NASCAR Next class, a group of up-and-coming talent that joins the industry program aimed at spotlighting NASCAR’s emerging stars.

“The NASCAR Next initiative spotlights the future of NASCAR, a collection of promising young talent who have shown the potential to one day reach the highest level of our sport,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president for Industry Services. “Alumni – and current members – of the NASCAR Next program are achieving success at the national series level, and we are confident that this class will build upon that foundation of excellence for many seasons to come.”

Now in its fifth season, the career résumé of NASCAR Next alumni is impressive, highlighted by Chase Elliott’s 2014 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, Kyle Larson’s 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award, and Cole Custer’s September 2014 win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, making him the youngest winner in NASCAR national series history.

Of the 28 drivers previously selected for the program, 21 have raced in one of NASCAR’s three national series (NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series), and 11 are competing full-time there in 2015.

The team was selected through an evaluation process that included input from industry executives and veteran racers. Drivers must be between the ages of 15-25, have tangible and expressed goals in eventual competition in the NASCAR Cup Series and demonstrate the potential to realize that goal.

Each driver in NASCAR Next must be actively competing in a NASCAR touring or weekly series – NASCAR K&N Pro Series East or West, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1, NASCAR Mexico Series, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series or NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitors also are eligible provided they are not slated to run a full season in their respective series.

The NASCAR Next members for 2015-16 are:

– Rico Abreu (23, Rutherford, Calif., Twitter: @Rico_Abreu) – A 2014 USAC national champion and winner of the 2015 Chili Bowl, he has two top-10 finishes in three K&N Pro Series East starts, his first season racing in stock cars.

– Nicole Behar (17, Otis Orchards, Wash., @NicoleBehar33) – Tied the series record for highest finish by a female driver in just her fifth K&N West start with her second place mark at Irwindale Event Center, and has top-10 finishes in four of six West starts.

– Kyle Benjamin (17, Easley, S.C., @kylebenjamin71) – This Roush Fenway Racing developmental driver earned his first K&N Pro Series win at Bristol Motor Speedway, and is the youngest race winner in ARCA history.

– James Bickford (17, Napa, Calif., @Bickford_James) – The 2014 K&N West Sunoco Rookie of the Year earned his first win at State Line Speedway last season and finished fifth in the season championship.

– William Byron (17, Charlotte, N.C., @WilliamByron) – With a win at Greenville Pickens Speedway and three top 10 finishes, he sits atop the K&N Pro East season championship standings.

– Cole Custer (17, Ladera Ranch, Calif., @colecuster00) – He holds the records for youngest pole award and race winner in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR’s touring series, and led late in the Truck race at Martinsville Speedway earlier this season.

– Ruben Garcia Jr. (19, Mexico City, Mex., @rubengarcia4) – The runner up in last season’s NASCAR Mexico Series season championship, he had one win and 10 top-10 finishes there while also competing in three NASCAR Xfinity Series races.

– Austin Hill (21, Winston, Ga., @_AustinHill) – Had three consecutive K&N East wins, in the final two races in 2014 and the 2015 season opener at New Smyrna Speedway where he captured his first pole award and led every lap.

– Jesse Little (18, Sherrill’s Ford, N.C., @jesselittle97) – Had a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 2014 to finish fourth in the season standings. Won the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway in his 2015 K&N East debut.

– Dylan Lupton (21, Wilton, Calif., @LuptonDylan) – Was the 2014 K&N West championship runner up with a win at Kern County Speedway and registered 14 top-10 finishes; made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Phoenix International Raceway in March.

– John Hunter Nemechek (17, Mooresville, N.C., @JHNemechek) – Earned six top-10 finishes in 10 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts in 2014, and won the prestigious Snowball Derby Late Model race at Five Flags Speedway in December.

– Dalton Sargeant (17, Boca Raton, Fla., @DaltonSargeant) – Has a win at Kern County Raceway Park in the West this season, and four top-five finishes in five combined East and West races.

Posted on May 5, 2015 by

No. 88 driver reminisces on his dad, Talladega on the ‘Dan Patrick Show’

The 26th-place finish during last year’s spring race at Talladega Superspeedway still haunted Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He had celebrated in Victory Lane since then – twice at Pocono Raceway and once at Martinsville. But to the Earnhardt family, Talladega had always been special.

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“I was betting on the pack wrecking before we crossed the finish line and it didn’t happen and I finished 26th with a perfectly fine race car, and I just was so ashamed,” Earnhardt said on the "Dan Patrick Show" Tuesday of last year’s spring event in Alabama. “I was embarrassed and ashamed, and, you know, I learned a really, really hard lesson in that race.”

“…I can’t run conservatively for part of the race and then switch it on at the end and expect to make all the right decisions. I have to start the race with one goal and one objective and just be that way every lap.”

Aggressive racing was the answer for Dale Jr. on Sunday, as he spent most of the afternoon toward the front of the pack. The effort paid dividends, as he took the checkered flag to a roar from Junior Nation in the grandstands.

This time, his No. 88 car wasn’t in perfect condition — he went to Victory Lane with a race car spewing smoke, the result of overheating from debris on the front of his grill. With eight laps to go, Earnhardt contracted debris on his front grill, causing his car’s water temperature – and heartbeats — to skyrocket.

“Yeah, we actually saw it before the driver saw it, before Dale Jr. saw it, and we saw the debris and at that point, what are you going to do?” said Earnhardt’s spotter TJ Majors during the Dale Jr. Download on Dirty Mo Radio Tuesday. “We’re going to have to run until it blows up at that point.”

“… He said he hasn’t seen it push water yet, but I don’t know if you necessarily see it push water when you’re doing 200 miles an hour. But to me, I wasn’t going to…if he says, ‘Oh I don’t see any water in it yet’ – keep your foot in it then, just keep going.”

“Keep going” is just what Earnhardt did. And just what his father Dale Earnhardt — who earned the nickname the “Intimidator” for a reason — would have done. While Earnhardt’s driving style isn’t completely reminiscent of his hard-hitting father’s, he is learning just when he needs to play it smart – and when to turn it up.

“I feel like I’m more of a thinker,” Earnhardt said on the "Dan Patrick Show." “As far as a race car driver — I feel like I’m a smart driver. Dad had that intimidating style and nickname, and he lived up to that persona. That was him every day and how he raced on the track. He never was the kind of guy that outthought everybody and, you know, was the clever guy or the sly guy. He was just aggressive and running hard and pushing and shoving.”

But a fast race car from crew chief Greg Ives and the No. 88 shop, coupled with Earnhardt’s desire to redeem himself from last year at Talladega – boded for a more Intimidator-like Junior on Sunday. And redemption was certainly sweet for Junior on Sunday, as he took a victory lap Alan Kulwicki-style on the track, waving to a full and cheering crowd. He finally won at a track that he dominated in his early years but has been puzzled by the past decade.

“I got my confidence back now,” Earnhardt said in the post-race press conference Sunday. “I know what I need to do, and that’s run hard, not lay back, not worry about crashing out, bad points. I’d rather crash and not finish well trying than to be riding around in the back. Certainly hard lesson to learn, but I learned it.”

And to learn it at Talladega, a breeding ground for Junior Nation and a place where the Earnhardt name is revered perhaps more than any other track – was even sweeter.

“It feels like if there’s one track where we have the most supporters, it seems like Talladega has always felt that way,” Earnhardt said on the "Dan Patrick Show." “There’s just so many Earnhardt fans there. It felt that way when Dad raced there … They came there year after year and seen us either come close or be disappointing. So it was great to, you know, send them home happy, man.

“That’s what they come here to see, is us do well and win the race."

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Holly Cain

JGR driver: ‘I really think that’s the most dangerous thing’

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Carl Edwards was understandably frustrated Sunday afternoon after the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. His frustrations, however, were not just because a good day went bad in a last lap accident.

The veteran was concerned over the way his competitors navigated through his last lap accident – in some cases, seemingly failing to slow down at all while Edwards’ hobbled No. 19 ARRIS Toyota lay vulnerable on the track.

Edwards, who had been among the front-running pack of cars much of the day, was running second with 38 laps remaining. With eight laps to go, he was a very racey 10th as the intensity and urgency ramped up and finally produced a last lap accident involving a half dozen cars.

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"I thought we had a great run and then Casey Mears just spun me out going into (turn) one," said Edwards, who ended up 32nd. "That was frustrating. I was driving down here and I thought we were going to have a good run and I thought we’d get a top-five and as he pushed and pushed I was just hoping he would let go.

"I tried to save it and I have to apologize to everybody for my language on the radio – I was really upset as I was saving it. There were people going by 100-plus mph and they never checked up. I really think that’s the most dangerous thing in the sport right now at these places."

Edwards said he planned to address the situation with the drivers he saw whiz by him and he seemed incredulous that the dangerous situation would even exist among the drivers at this high level in the sport.

"I was just really frustrated that I could spin out for a quarter mile over there and there are still people going by wide open," Edwards said. "Really, NASCAR does such a great job making these cars safe and these tracks safe that the biggest cause of injury is going to be one of us not checking up when there’s a guy sideways.

"I mean, I have my door facing the field and the 51 (Justin Allgaier) car I think it was went by at about 160 or 180 mph. That’s just not the way I try to race these guys when there’s a wreck."

Edwards’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth was among those that had to take evasive action and he was also, equally as stunned by the way the race ended and in particular the way some drove through the accident scene.

"I had to lift so I didn’t send Carl (Edwards) to the hospital," Kenseth said. "I’m just dumbfounded that NASCAR didn’t throw a caution. We were driving past wrecked cars for half a lap at 180 mph – it was a crazy ending."

For Edwards, it’s home to the Midwest this week – Kansas Speedway – to try again for that first victory with his new team. After looking so promising, Talladega ended up dropping Edwards a position in the Sprint Cup Series championship standings to 18th – two positions shy of the top-16 Chase cut-off but well inside the top-30 he needs to be should he punch that win-and-in ticket.

"Overall, great performance, but we didn’t get what we wanted," Edwards said.

"We’ll get this monkey off our backs and go win some races – Kansas is next week and I love that place."

Posted on May 5, 2015 by

New NASCAR Next class already making mark on track

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 5, 2015) — Five of the six NASCAR K&N Pro Series race winners in 2015 are 21 years old or younger. The championship points leaders in both the East and West are 17 and 16, respectively. And a 17-year-old just became the highest-finishing female in the 61-year history of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West.

"The NASCAR Next initiative spotlights the future of NASCAR, a collection of promising young talent who have shown the potential to one day reach the highest level of our sport," said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president for Industry Services. "Alumni – and current members – of the NASCAR Next program are achieving success at the national series level, and we are confident that this class will build upon that foundation of excellence for many seasons to come."

Now in its fifth season, the career résumé of NASCAR Next alumni is impressive, highlighted by Chase Elliott’s 2014 NASCAR XFINITY Series championship, Kyle Larson’s 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award, and Cole Custer’s September 2014 win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, making him the youngest winner in NASCAR national series history.

Of the 28 drivers previously selected for the program, 21 have raced in one of NASCAR’s three national series (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series), and 11 are competing full-time there in 2015.

The team was selected through an evaluation process that included input from industry executives and veteran racers. Drivers must be between the ages of 15-25, have tangible and expressed goals in eventual competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and demonstrate the potential to realize that goal.

Each driver in NASCAR Next must be actively competing in a NASCAR touring or weekly series – NASCAR K&N Pro Series East or West, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1, NASCAR Mexico Series, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series or NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitors also are eligible provided they are not slated to run a full season in their respective series.

The NASCAR Next members for 2015-16 are:

• Rico Abreu (23, Rutherford, Calif., Twitter: @Rico_Abreu) – A 2014 USAC national champion and winner of the 2015 Chili Bowl, he has two top-10 finishes in three K&N Pro Series East starts, his first season racing in stock cars.

• Nicole Behar (17, Otis Orchards, Wash., @NicoleBehar33) – Tied the series record for highest finish by a female driver in just her fifth K&N West start with her second place mark at Irwindale Event Center, and has top-10 finishes in four of six West starts.

• Kyle Benjamin (17, Easley, S.C., @kylebenjamin71) – This Roush Fenway Racing developmental driver earned his first K&N Pro Series win at Bristol Motor Speedway, and is the youngest race winner in ARCA history.

• James Bickford (17, Napa, Calif., @Bickford_James) – The 2014 K&N West Sunoco Rookie of the Year earned his first win at State Line Speedway last season and finished fifth in the season championship.

• William Byron (17, Charlotte, N.C., @WilliamByron) – With a win at Greenville Pickens Speedway and three top 10 finishes, he sits atop the K&N Pro East season championship standings.

• Cole Custer (17, Ladera Ranch, Calif., @colecuster00) – He holds the records for youngest pole award and race winner in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR’s touring series, and led late in the Truck race at Martinsville Speedway earlier this season.

• Ruben Garcia Jr. (19, Mexico City, Mex., @rubengarcia4) – The runner up in last season’s NASCAR Mexico Series season championship, he had one win and 10 top-10 finishes there while also competing in three NASCAR XFINITY Series races.

• Austin Hill (21, Winston, Ga., @_AustinHill) – Had three consecutive K&N East wins, in the final two races in 2014 and the 2015 season opener at New Smyrna Speedway where he captured his first pole award and led every lap.

• Jesse Little (18, Sherrill’s Ford, N.C., @jesselittle97) – Had a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 2014 to finish fourth in the season standings. Won the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway in his 2015 K&N East debut.

• Dylan Lupton (21, Wilton, Calif., @LuptonDylan) – Was the 2014 K&N West championship runner up with a win at Kern County Speedway and registered 14 top-10 finishes; made his NASCAR XFINITY Series debut at Phoenix International Raceway in March.

• John Hunter Nemechek (17, Mooresville, N.C., @JHNemechek) – Earned six top-10 finishes in 10 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts in 2014, and won the prestigious Snowball Derby Late Model race at Five Flags Speedway in December.

• Dalton Sargeant (17, Boca Raton, Fla., @DaltonSargeant) – Has a win at Kern County Raceway Park in the West this season, and four top-five finishes in five combined East and West races.