Posted on by NASCAR Wire Service

PARADE magazine bestows honor upon the ‘uniquely American’ sport

NASCAR has been named one of the United States’ "National Treasures" by PARADE magazine and will be featured in the widely distributed print edition this Sunday.
 
PARADE’s ongoing series highlights "uniquely American people, places and things that make us very, very happy," and so has also recognized the Declaration of Independence, the Hollywood sign, Stevie Wonder and potato chips among other "National Treasures."
 
The NASCAR distinction is supported by Sprint Cup driver Danica Patrick, who describes the sport as "totally American — NASCAR’s roots are true."

Click here to read more about NASCAR as a National Treasure.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Earnhardt looks to join select few, will line up 20th on Sunday

LONG POND, Pa. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. is looking to join some rare company in Sunday’s Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 at Pocono Raceway (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

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Fresh of a 2014 sweep of both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at the Tricky Triangle, Earnhardt is looking to become the third driver to win three in a row at 2.5-mile Pennsylvania track. Bobby Allison and Tim Richmond are the other two to accomplish that with the latter’s being the most recent occurrence in 1987.

However, the Hendrick Motorsports driver will be starting 20th in his bid to win three straight at Pocono and he explained what led to his worst starting spot since Richmond.

"I chopped the entrance to (Turn) 1 on the first lap and that cost us a little bit of time. And then the next run we went into Turn 1 and turned sideways and got loose and just kind of killed the lap. So, we had pretty good speed in practice and just didn’t … the driver didn’t do a good job."

That qualifying performance led Junior to help his No. 88 team push the car back to the garage.

Earnhardt showed speed in Friday’s opening practice, placing fourth in the 85-minute session (176.564 mph). In the second practice, Earnhardt was second on the speed chart (175.596 mph) in the 55-minute session.

Still, he understands the difficulty in winning one race at Pocono let alone three straight win.

"It’s just difficult to win one, you know?" Earnhardt said Friday at Pocono. "It’s difficult to win, period. And there’s so much competition in this series now."

Junior will be looking to do something Allison and Richmond did not have to do in their run of three straight victories. He will try and join their club by winning with two different crew chiefs. Greg Ives is on top of the box this season as Steve Letarte, his crew chief for the sweep last year, left to be part of NBC’s NASCAR coverage after last season.

"Well we won those two races by having some great pit strategy," Earnhardt said on Friday at Pocono. "Steve (Letarte) got real aggressive on his pit calls and I think that is definitely going to be what is going to put you in position to win. You kind of call this race in reverse.  

"The tire is pretty tough here and durable. There is not a whole lot of fall off. You can call the race sort of like a road course in reverse and put yourself up toward the front like we did last year. It makes it pretty difficult to get around you if you have a good car. I mean we were able to pass some guys that tried to get more aggressive than we were. Everything has kind of got to fall in the right place and allow you to make those choices."

The change in crew chiefs hasn’t affected Earnhardt’s performance this season. Entering Pocono, Earnhardt is fifth in the point standings and scored a win last month at Talladega Superspeedway, his 24th victory in the Sprint Cup Series. He has top-five finishes at all intermediate and restrictor-plate tracks this season (seven in total).

Earnhardt is looking to keep the good vibes and good times going with Ives, who worked as a crew chief for two years for Earnhardt’s NASCAR XFINITY Series organization, JR Motorsports. 

"He takes this super, super serious. This is his dream come true to be able to crew chief in the Cup Series, and I want to give him every opportunity to be successful and us as a team, we’re in a good position winning races, running well; we don’t want to take a step back."

Hendrick Motorsports has had stretches of dominance at Pocono. The organization’s four drivers have won the last five races, Jeff Gordon has the most wins here (six) and Jimmie Johnson swept the 2004 events here. In total, the organization has 17 wins at the Tricky Triangle.

Johnson says its hard to win here regularly, making a sweep all that more of an accomplishment. Something only seven drivers, including Junior and Johnson have done.

"I kind of put sweeping here in the same box as sweeping at Daytona or Talladega," Johnson said. "There are just so many circumstances out of your control at this track. And those lead to the difficulty in winning often and sweeping, for that matter. 

"This race, there are always long green-flag runs and varying strategies. The teams that don’t have the raw speed to race for the win roll the dice and usually catch cautions and lose track position. Track position is so important. There are a lot of moving targets. It’s not just a straight-up downforce-style race. And I think that increases the difficulty to win here regularly."

With the success that the four-car stable has had here, Earnhardt’s recent run of success here makes him the prohibitive favorite this weekend. In addition to last year’s sweep, he posted two top-five finishes in the 2013 races at Pocono and has scored top-10 finishes in seven of his last eight starts there.

So what contributes to that dominance for Junior and Hendrick as a whole?

"Well, we’ve got four fast cars," Earnhardt said. "This is a horsepower race track where engines can make a difference. I feel like over the last several years we’ve had one of the best engine programs in the sport. So, I think we’ve just got really good stuff. 

"Your car really, really shines here; whereas the driver is a little bit of the factor or a lot of the factor, especially on restarts and trying to work that difficult air when you’re behind somebody and make a pass and set it up on a particular part of the race track where it will happen. But the car really shines here and we’ve got some of the best equipment in the garage."

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Second-year driver will start sixth in Sunday’s Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400

LONG POND, Pa. — Halfway through the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season, Austin Dillon admits the results aren’t where the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team wants them in his second season in the sport’s top series.

"It’d be like a C-minus on our finishes," Dillon told NASCAR.com at Pocono Raceway, site of Sunday’s Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). 

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"As far as on speed compared to last year, we’re better. We haven’t had the finishes that we want. I think my driving style is fine. We just could be better on the last couple restarts. Our points aren’t there because of motor issues and failures. Hopefully, we can get rid of some of those failures."

Those issues Dillon speaks of are an electrical problem in March at Martinsville that led to a 41st-place finish and an engine failure in May at Talladega that resulted in a 35th-place finish. 

"I think we’d be in the top 14, 13 in points if you take away two engine failures, a blown tire in Atlanta. A couple of different things that didn’t go our way that we could have back would really benefit where we should be."

One of the hallmarks of his rookie campaign was Dillon’s ability to log laps and stay on track. In 2014, he missed logging only 53 laps of the 10,541 circuits. Keeping his car clean and out of trouble had him 15th in points this time last year. This season, he has already been off track for 259 laps of the 4,321 laps run in large part due to engine woes he simply didn’t have last year.

Dillon comes into Sunday’s race at Pocono 24th in the points standings with one top-10 finish (a 10th-place result at Bristol). With the exception of a 16th-place showing last month at Charlotte, Dillon has finished outside the top 20 in four of the past five races.

On the plus side, Dillon’s average starting spot is 17.2 (counting Pocono), an improvement from the 19.9 mark he averaged last season.

That mark was further improved as Dillon backed up his fifth-fastest time in Friday’s opening practice (176.561 mph), with a fast lap of 176.526 mph in the final round of qualifying. He will start Sunday’s race sixth. This is his third straight start in the top 12 and his best starting spot in 2015. 

The two-time national series champion (2011 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and 2013 in the NASCAR XFINITY Series) has been spending some time in the XFINITY ranks, running the No. 33 Chevrolet for RCR. Dillon has scored two wins (at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March and Charlotte Motor Speedway in May) and seven top fives in 10 starts in that series. The 25-year-old sees great value in the prepaation the extra seat time allows him.

"It’s definitely been more beneficial having the laps (in XFINITY) on Saturdays to be prepared for Sundays, the start of the race especially," Dillon said. "We take off a lot better knowing what the track is going to do. We have two wins in the XFINITY cars, so the confidence has been really high. It’s been great to have the XFINITY car." 

Dillon’s two Sprint Cup starts at Pocono produced an average finish of 16.0 and starting positions of 11th in both races. But the driver is ready for what the Tricky Triangle has to offer and has a Camping World Truck Series win (in 2014) at the 2.5-mile track to boot.

"Last year, both (Cup) races were pretty solid for us. We had one stint where we were really fast in the race last year and we took a similar package here.

"Track position’s always big. And if we can keep that, that would be beneficial."  

Posted on by Staff Report

“Bat boxes” constructed from Chevrolet Volt car battery covers

The Chevrolet Volt has enough technology and environmental friendliness to go around, but thanks to some old-fashioned ingenuity from the automaker’s engineers, the car’s battery covers have found a second life housing endangered bats.

The longtime NASCAR manufacturer’s crafty way to find extra uses for scrap automotive materials took center stage Saturday at Pocono Raceway as part of the NASCAR Green environmental initiative. Children attending the weekend’s racing at the 2.5-mile track helped assemble the wildlife shelters affectionately known as "bat boxes," which will help provide alternate housing for brown bats affected by a deadly fungus that gravely impacts their hibernation habits.

Finding an unconventional re-use for the Volt battery cover, which doesn’t fit easily into conventional recycling methods, has helped keep the part out of landfills. It also has helped General Motors provide homes to 34,800 insect-hungry bats as of last October, helping to keep a delicate environmental balance in order. 

Saturday’s activity gave youngsters at Pocono a chance to get hands-on with the environmental issue. GM has frequently gotten school groups, youth clubs and recreation centers involved to make homes using battery covers, solidified adhesives for Corvette body panels as makeshift stalactites, and anti-chip paint coating to give bats a grippy surface from which to hang.

The 15 bat boxes that youth assembled Saturday will reside at the Pocono track’s campgrounds.

Posted on by Staff Report

The No. 4 Chevrolet tops all three practices in Pocono

RELATED: Watch video of Stewart’s wreck | Practice results

Kevin Harvick led the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice on Saturday at Pocono Raceway. Harvick turned a lap of 175.974 mph around the 2.5-mile course in 51.144 seconds and topped the leaderboard during all three Pocono practices.    

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Kyle Larson finished second with a speed of 175.292 mph, followed by Kasey Kahne (174.914), Carl Edwards (174.897) and Kurt Busch (174.829) to round out the top five.

Edwards and Harvick are the only drivers who snagged a top-five finish in both of Saturday’s practices. 

Defending Pocono race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. was ninth-fastest with a speed of 174.452 mph in the final tune-up in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet.

Dale Jr. is looking to win three straight at The Tricky Triangle, a feat that would put him in rare company with Bobby Allison and Tim Richmond, who are the only drivers to accomplish the three-peat at Pocono.

Notably outside the top 10 for Saturday’s final practice were Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.

Sprint Cup Series action continues tomorrow with the Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 at 1 p.m. ET (FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

Harvick tops Saturday morning’s Pocono practice

Kevin Harvick led NASCAR Spring Cup Series practice on Saturday morning at Pocono Raceway. Harvick turned a lap of 175.658 mph around the 2.5-mile course in 51.236 seconds.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second with a speed of 175.596 mph, followed by Carl Edwards (175.593), Martin Truex Jr. (175.493) and Denny Hamlin (175.418) to round out the top five.

Jeff Gordon finished outside the top 10 in the No. 11 spot (174.689). Gordon tops the all-time wins list at Pocono Raceway with six victories.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Catch up before the Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400, 1 p.m. ET (FOX Sports 1)

What: 34th annual Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400
Where: Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, Pa.
When: Sunday, June 7, 2015
TV/Radio: FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR
Distance: 160 laps (400 miles)
Green Flag: 1:18.30 p.m. ET

Pit Road Speed: 55 mph
Caution Car Speed: 70 mph
Fuel Window: 32 laps

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On The Front Row (Full lineup)
1. Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet (177.599 mph)
2. Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota (177.550 mph)

To the rear
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet (engine change)
Joey Logano, Team Penske No. 22 Ford (rear gear change)

Failed to Qualify
None

Fastest in Practice (Full practice results)
First Practice: Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet (176.932 mph)
Second Practice: Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet (175.658 mph)
Third Practice: Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet (175.974 mph) 

Triple Play

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s season sweep at Pocono Raceway last year sets him up for a chance at a place in the track’s history books. Should he secure the checkered flag in Sunday’s 400-miler, he’d join NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison and the late Tim Richmond as the only drivers to win three straight at the Tricky Triangle 

Hendrick’s streak, too

Earnhardt’s modest run of two wins in a row is part of a larger Pocono streak for his Hendrick Motorsports team. Jeff Gordon started the string with a victory here in August 2012, followed by wins in 2013 by teammates Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne — all before Earnhardt’s two-race tear. 

Bumpy issue

The gradual development of bumps in Turn 2 — also known as the "tunnel turn" over the infield entrance — has added a new dimension for Sunday’s race. Some drivers have turned critical, but front-row starter Carl Edwards is a fan. "To me, if they could just go ahead and take some bumps like that and put them over in the other corners, too, it would be even better," Edwards said. "It adds something. As long as it’s not breaking parts, I believe it gives us an opportunity to set up passes. We’ll see how it goes in the race, but it could be one of those things where you might have an opportunity to take advantage of a guy’s trouble that he has through there." 

Mixed fortunes for Harvick

Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick swept to the top of the leaderboard in all three practices Friday and Saturday, and he landed the fifth starting position in Coors Light Pole Qualifying. His speed wasn’t rewarded in the selection of pit stalls, as his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet team picked last in the 43-car field as a result of a P1 penalty assessed this week. Harvick will pit Sunday in unlucky stall No. 13.

History lesson

Pocono Raceway opened in 1968 as a .75-mile track, expanded to its current 2.5-mile layout in 1971. The triangular speedway began hosting NASCAR’s top division in 1974, when Richard Petty edged Buddy Baker to become the first winner. Sunday’s race will be the 75th event for NASCAR’s premier series.

Driver Rating

Best driver rating average at Pocono based on past 20 races:

1. Denny Hamlin, 108.3

2. Jimmie Johnson, 106.9

3. Kurt Busch, 105.9

Defending race winner

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet

Former Pocono winners in the field

Jeff Gordon (6); Denny Hamlin (4); Jimmie Johnson (3); Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards (2); Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Greg Biffle (1).

Posted on by NASCAR Wire Service

No. 78 Chevrolet takes checkered flag after leading 97 laps

RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings | BUY: Truex Jr. gear

LONG POND, Pa. – Martin Truex Jr. knew that his third career victory would come – eventually.

Enjoying easily the finest season of his NASCAR career, Truex raced to a convincing win in Sunday’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400, leading 97 of 160 laps, including the final 27 at Pocono Raceway.

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His victory marked the third consecutive Sprint Cup race in which Truex led the most laps. He’d led 131 laps at both Charlotte and Dover, only to come home fifth and sixth in the last two weeks.

"We finally got it," said Truex, who had registered top-10 finishes in 12 of the first 13 races this season. "We’ve had a great season. We have had everything it has taken to win races (and) we just hadn’t got it done.

"This team deserves to win and I’ve known that all year long. Throughout my career I’ve kind of gotten used to disappointment, honestly, and I’ve learned to deal with those days where it didn’t go your way, even though you didn’t do anything wrong." 

The victory ended Truex’s 69-race winless skid. A long time coming, it was popular in the garage – even with his fiercest rivals – for multiple reasons.

Truex drives for Furniture Row Racing, a bit of an outlier in the racing world as a single-car team based in Denver. Sunday’s Sprint Cup victory was the second ever for Furniture Row and owner Barney Visser, who also won at Darlington with driver Regan Smith in the 2011 Southern 500.

After winning consecutive NASCAR XFINITY Series titles, Truex, 34, had bounced around, from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Michael Waltrip Racing, where it looked like he might have found a home. Then came the second Richmond race of 2013 in which Truex had seemingly raced his way into the Chase – only to have his team penalized out of the picture. He then lost his ride when MWR was compelled to consolidate.

Prior to Sunday, he’d managed only two Sprint Cup victories — at Dover in 2007 and Sonoma in 2013.

MORE: Drivers rally around Truex Jr. after victory

But even his on-track travails paled in comparison to those of his long-time girlfriend Sherry Pollex, who battled cancer in 2014 – a year in which Truex managed to lead only one lap all season. If that wasn’t enough, Truex lost his grandmother this week.

It was Sherry who told Truex to have faith and dig deep after the frustration of 2013 and that everything would work out.

"I kind of believed her," Truex said. "I just knew it was going to take a lot of work. I knew it was going to be a tough road. … I felt really fortunate that there was a great ride open with the (Furniture Row) 78 … Then Sherry’s situation happened and it was like: All right, this is when you show people what you’re made of. She showed me what she was made of and it was like, wow, if she can do that, I can do this.

"It never gets any better than this. It takes time to heal things, especially with what Sherry and I went through. This just kind of makes you forget all about it. I just feel super-blessed to be with this group of guys. I’m just proud to drive cars for them and proud that Sherry is here, healthy. She is as excited as I am and everything is going well for her."

Kevin Harvick, who finished second on Sunday, said he was "really happy" for Truex.

"If you’re going to lose to somebody today, that’s a great person to lose to," Harvick said. "You look at everything, personally and professionally, Martin and Sherry have dealt with and you have to be super-happy for them. To see them have that bright spot is something I think the whole garage will support and be happy with."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., a long-time friend of Truex, who finished 11th, concurred

"I’m just happy for him," Earnhardt said. "I know he’s been through a lot of stuff, both inside the car and outside the car the last several years. He’s been able to get into a good opportunity with good people. He’s got a team that believes in him. They’ve come a long way over the last several years."

WATCH: Dale Jr. on Truex’s victory

Harvick, fastest in all three practice sessions this weekend, had nothing for Truex, who opened a 2.75-second lead with 12 laps to go.

If Truex had a true advantage against Harvick, it was on restarts, of which there were four in the final 40 laps. Truex avoided the need to hold off Harvick one last time when Danica Patrick (whose crash brought out a caution on Lap 135) went spinning for a second time, but this time right through the entry of pit lane. This time, the race stayed green.

"The difference was the one real good (restart)," Truex said. "Joey (Logano) was behind me and gave me a good shot. I just tried to mix it up so the (guys behind me) weren’t sure what I was going to do next. I think we picked the right gear ratio for restarts here and that is critical."

Truex’s triumph was also the first for crew chief Cole Pearn.

"We’ve got a really good, tight-knit group of guys," Pearn said. "That makes it a lot of fun being out there (in Denver). We’ve all made similar commitments in our lives. We hang out together and that just makes it a ton of fun when you can succeed with a group like that."

Posted on by NASCAR Wire Service

Carl Edwards starts on front row in Sunday’s Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400

RELATED: Starting lineup

LONG POND, Pa. — NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying can be fraught with twists, turns and unexpected bumps in the road.          
 
Friday’s qualifying session at Pocono Raceway, which saw Kurt Busch capture the Coors Light Pole for Sunday’s Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 had them all.
 
Throughout the day, Turn 2 — the Tunnel Turn — had been a major topic of concern.

"There are grocery store parking lots around the country that are jealous of those three bumps that have developed there," said Busch, speculating that an offseason beautification project with water feature, enhancing the exterior tunnel entry, somehow created the lumpy racing surface.
 
"To me, if they could just go ahead and take some bumps like that and put them over in the other corners too, it would be even better," said Carl Edwards. "It adds something. As long as it’s not breaking parts, I believe it gives us an opportunity to setup passes."
 
Ultimately, the issue with the bumpy track took a back seat when Denny Hamlin spun in Turn 1 in the final minute of qualifying, halting the session with 39 seconds remaining and preventing himself and four other drivers from posting a time in the final round.
 
"It really is a bizarre set of circumstances," said Jimmie Johnson, a winner of four races this season but one of the drivers left in the qualifying cold. "It’s just unfortunate (for) the guys that were on the track. But as long as NASCAR is consistent (with the rule) through all three series, then we will take our medicine and just deal with it. We (start) ninth. That is the best we’ve been in a while.
 
Joey Logano, the last driver not from Hendrick Motorsports to win at Pocono, was not so forgiving. Logano said he already had a ‘headache’ thanks to the bumps — and that was before his lap in progress was negated by Hamlin’s spin.
 
"A car spins out and they throw a red flag for it and then you don’t get an opportunity to go out and make a lap," Logano said. "I don’t understand it. It makes me mad. I don’t get it. We didn’t even have a chance to try to put our car up front."
 
Busch suggested that Pocono Raceway attempt to grind the bumps prior to Sunday’s race. Earnhardt was encouraged that Pocono Raceway CEO Brandon Igdalsky was not only aware of the situation, but planning to take action before the Sprint Cup Series returns in late July.
 
"I feel like they understand that while we can probably get through this weekend with what’s back there right now, it’s probably not in their best interest to leave it as-is," Earnhardt said. "It will continue to get worse and I don’t think that we can get our race cars through there if it gets much worse than it is."
 
Carl Edwards finished second in qualifying. "My plan with Denny (Joe Gibbs Racing teammate) almost worked out," Edwards joked. "But he didn’t spin early enough to keep Kurt from catching me."
 
Martin Truex Jr. qualified third in the Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet, unaware that the session had been cut short but well aware of the challenges in Turn 2.
 
"It’s wild," he said. "The first time through there, I thought either our car was way off or there’s something wrong with the race track. The bumps are 10 times bigger than they were last year, which is crazy. You’re going across bumps that are 8-10 inches tall and, literally, the tires are coming off the ground."
 
Jeff Gordon qualified fourth and series leader Kevin Harvick, who posted the fastest lap in each of the first two qualifying sessions, was fifth. Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne were the other drivers who were burned by Hamlin’s spin, having waited too long to attempt a lap in the five-minute session.
 
Kurt Busch noted during practice that he was losing speed in Turns 1 and 3 and elected to focus on the vast majority of the course, not the troubles in Turn 2. His team also overcame a "wrong gear ratio in the transmission in third gear."
 
"There was so much disconnect when we first got here," said Busch, whose third pole of the season was the 19th of his career. "We had to drop back, reboot with (crew chief) Tony Gibson, (engineer) Johnny Klausmeier, the whole gang. Today was a big group-bonding day and a strength-building day on what this No. 41 team can do together."
 
With 43 race entries, all drivers qualified for Sunday’s race.
 
Tony Stewart, mired in 28th in the point standings, was forced to a backup car after a crash coming out of the Tunnel Turn in the 36th minute of Friday’s practice session.  Stewart was 28th in the first round of qualifying and failed to advance. "Driver error," said Stewart, who has managed just one top-10 finish this season. "I was already past the bump. I got loose on the exit (of the turn) and couldn’t catch it."

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More heartache for Erik Jones, who started on pole

RELATED: Full race results | Updated Truck Series standings

FORT WORTH, Texas _ Matt Crafton continued his recent domination of NASCAR’s intermediate racetracks Friday night, hammering out a victory over an aggressive Daniel Suarez in the 19th annual WinStar World Casino & Resort 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Crafton, the two-time/reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, survived a pair of late-race cautions and restarts against Suarez – including the final with two laps to go – to record his eighth career victory by 0.569-seconds.

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"The restarts were hairy," Crafton said in Victory Lane. "We got a pretty good start on that last one and ran side-by-side-by-side. We’re happy for sure, but not satisfied."

Erik Jones started on the pole Friday night after turning a qualifying lap at 181.074 mph in qualifying earlier in the day. Crafton started second and was seriously challenged only by No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota driver Suarez, who finished second in a two-lap shootout after trading paint with the No. 88 in the late laps.

It was Crafton’s third win of the season. The two-time defending series champion extended his lead in the points standings to 25 over Tyler Reddick.

John Wes Townley in the No. 05 Chevrolet , Johnny Sauter‘s No. 98 Toyota and Austin Theriault in the No. 29 Ford rounded out the top five.

Reddick was fastest in the first round of qualifying but wound up starting 16th in Friday’s Truck Series race. His No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford looked to have speed to challenge Crafton, but Reddick was forced to serve two pit road penalties then stalled on pit road late in the race.

Jones, who has finished second or third four times in six races, had heartbreak again as the pit crew had trouble locating a spare battery when he pitted with a voltage problem. He was a lap down when repairs were complete. Before the mechanical trouble, Jones had led 68 of the first 86 laps in the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.

Ten laps after the swap, Jones reported the new battery hadn’t resolved the problem. He had to pit for a third battery on Lap 139 and went two laps down, finishing 15th.

Crafton won last year’s event here on fuel mileage, a strategy he and crew chief Carl "Junior" Joiner mapped-out en route to victory on the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway last month. Crafton also prevailed on the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway, a sister facility to TMS. 

Crafton led a career-best 118 laps en route to victory here last June, snapping a 26-race TMS winless streak.  Crafton and Joiner stretched their fuel mileage over the final 61 laps and cruised to a 13.302-second margin of victory over Justin Lofton. That comfortable MOV erased the series’ previous TMS record of 11.817-seconds set by Dennis Setzer in 2004. The victory was the fifth of Crafton’s career and second of 2014, marking the first time he had scored multiple wins in a season.

Friday night’s start was Crafton’s 29th at TMS – more than any active series driver entered in the 167-lap/250.5-mile event. For Crafton, that familiarity has bred respect.

"You don’t have to reacquaint yourself with the racetrack, but this track has changed quite a bit over the years," said Crafton, driver of the No. 88 Ideal Door/Menards Toyota Tundra fielded by ThorSport Racing. "Last year in this June race, it was really, really different than what I’d seen in the past. Usually when you’re here, you can run quite a few laps wide-open and I bet there wasn’t a total of five laps the whole weekend wide-open. It’s a lot slipperier and the racetrack is getting a lot more age on it. It’s definitely changing and I think it’s changing for the better."

With his earlier victories this season at AMS and Kansas Speedway, Crafton definitely is the measuring stick on 1.5-mile layouts. He entered the night with  an 11-point lead (257-246) over Tyler Reddick of Brad Keselowski Racing, last week’s winner at Dover International Speedway, and a 14-point lead over Erik Jones, Friday night’s pole-sitter and driver of the No. 4 Special Olympics World Games Toyota fielded by Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Driver making third Cup start of 2015 at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. — Ty Dillon was a bit more definitive about his 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series plans on Friday morning.

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"The plan is to be with be RCR," Dillon said. "And that’s definitely what I want to do and my grandfather (Richard Childress Racing team owner Richard Childress) so we’re working 100 percent. There might be options later down the road, but right now we’re 100 percent focused on getting sponsorship for full-time for RCR."

That said, the driver who is currently second in the NASCAR XFINITY Series standings in his second full-time season says there is "nothing real concrete" yet about the move up.

"We had talks, actually starting last year that going into this year we were going to start searching for an opportunity for me to run full-time in the Sprint Cup Series, like my brother (Austin) after his second year in the XFINITY Series. But it’s a slow process. We’re doing a lot of different things and working with a lot of different people. It’s not really our main focus. It’s kind of on the back burner at this point.

"But if we could get something nailed down early, it would only help our effort for next year. But right now, my main focus as a driver is getting experience."

The 23-year-old did offer up his dream scenario for next season, though.

"I think in a perfect world, just to kind of put it out there, I would love to run both series full-time and compete for the Rookie-of-the-Year title in the Sprint Cup Series and do what my brother is kind of doing this year in the XFINITY Series, but run all the races if I could."

Austin Dillon has run 10 XFINITY Series races so far this season with two wins, in addition to a full Sprint Cup slate.

Dillon will make his third Cup start of 2015 in Sunday’s Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 at Pocono Raceway (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) and fifth of his career. His best finish so far was a 25th-place showing in his debut last Labor Day weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.