See how the remaining Chase drivers have fared at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix
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Austin Hill is one of five trying to make first Truck race
After winning the last two NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races of the season, NASCAR Next driver Austin Hill will attempt to make his first career start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway (Saturday, 1:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1).
Hill, driving the No. 92 for Ricky Benton, will be one of five drivers attempting to make their debuts in the series in the Kroger 200. There are 37 entrants for 36 starting spots.
"It means the world to me to be able to drive a truck at Martinsville with RBR," Hill said. "I really appreciate all the hard work everyone has put in to make this happen.
The NASCAR Next driver won at Greenville Pickens Speedway and Dover International Speedway in September, the last two races on the K&N Pro Series East 2014 schedule.
The four other drivers attempting to get their first Truck starts are Charles Buchanan Jr, fielding the No. 87 for himself; Wendell Chavous, driving the No. 74 for owner Mike Harmon; Camden Murphy, driving the No. 08 for owner Bobby Dotter and Matt Tifft, driving the No. 0 for owner Kenneth Grimes.
Chavous races dirt late models in Georgia. Murphy races in the ARCA Midwest Truck Tour and the United Auto Racing Association Super Late Model division. Tifft joined Ken Schrader Racing this season in the ARCA Racing Series and earned a career-best second-place finish at Kentucky in September.
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Veteran has two Nationwide Series wins in 2014
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Brendan Gaughan will again be in the NASCAR XFINITY Series (what is now the Nationwide Series) for the 2015 season, Richard Childress Racing announced on Thursday.
Gaughan will be back behind the wheel of the team’s No. 62 Chevrolet with sponsorship from South Point Hotel & Casino, which is owned by his family. RCR has been partnered with South Point since the 2012 with Gaughan ran a limited Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series schedule for the team. He ran a full-time Truck Series schedule in 2013 before moving into the Nationwide Series this season.
In 2014, Gaughan scored his first career Nationwide Series win with a victory at Road America in June. He followed that up in September with a late surge to grab the win at Kentucky.
"Returning to Victory Lane this season has been a big morale booster for not only me but for my team as well," Gaughan said in a team release. "For the remainder of the year we will continue to learn and find things that work to get us a leg up on the competition for next season. I can’t wait for next year with the No. 62 RCR team and to contend for the XFINITY Series championship."
Gaughan is currently eighth in the 2014 Nationwide Series point standings.
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Harvick, Dale Jr. and Kahne to share duties driving No. 88 in XFINITY Series
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Hunt Brothers Pizza has re-upped its sponsorship with JR Motorsports for 2015 in what will be the NASCAR XFINITY Series, now the Nationwide Series.
For the second straight year, Hunt Brothers Pizza will serve as a primary sponsor for four of Kevin Harvick‘s races in the series. In the Nationwide Series this season, Harvick has won four of his 14 starts for JRM, the team co-owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Harvick has driven the team’s No. 5 entry in all but one of his starts, piloting the No. 88 in the other. Starting next year, the No. 88 will be the team’s full-time third car, with Harvick, Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne among the drivers sharing driving duties. Earnhardt Jr. ran the No. 88 in the four Nationwide Series races he ran this season.
This season, the JR Motorsports fleet has nine wins in the Nationwide Series, with Harvick posting four of the wins. The team also has the top two drivers in the points standings, Chase Elliott and Regan Smith. Smith announced earlier this month that he had re-upped with the team for another season, while Elliott will be back with a new crew chief in 2015. Ernie Cope will be atop the pit box for the No. 9, as Elliott’s current crew chief, Greg Ives, moves to the Sprint Cup Series to serve as Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief.
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Cheez-It to serve as a primary sponsor for ‘The Biff’ starting in 2015
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Greg Biffle has picked up a new primary sponsor for the 2015 Sprint Cup Series season. Roush Fenway Racing announced that the Cheez-It brand will serve as a primary partner of the No. 16 Ford.
The deal is a multiyear partnership with other Kellogg’s brands, such as Frosted Flakes, which have appeared on the No. 99 car of Carl Edwards. With Edwards moving on to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2015, that sponsorship will now be on Biffle’s No. 16.
"It’s going to be really great to have Cheez-It on the car next season," Biffle said in a team release. "My family and I have been enjoying Cheez-It snacks for years and I could not be more excited to represent them. The Cheez-It cars have always looked really good on the track and they are going to look even better with the No. 16 on the side."
Check out the short clip below, posted on YouTube by Roush Fenway Racing to announce the news.
Biffle will also carry sponsorship for Ortho Insect Control next season for approximately half of his races. Biffle’s longtime primary sponsor, 3M, is moving to Hendrick Motorsports next season to sponsor the No. 24 Chevrolet of Jeff Gordon.
Biffle qualified for the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup but was among the four drivers eliminated following the final race of the opening Challenger Round at Dover. He is currently 14th in the points standings.
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Wurth Group to serve as primary sponsor for three Sprint Cup races on No. 2 Ford
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Brad Keselowski will have a familiar primary sponsor back in the Sprint Cup Series next season. Team Penske announced on Thursday that it reached a multiyear extension deal with the Wurth Group to continue as a partner in the sport’s top series.
Under the agreement, Wurth will serve as a primary sponsor for three races on No. 2 Ford. Wurth will also serve as an associate sponsor for the balance of the season.
Wurth initially joined up with Penske for the 2012 Nationwide Series season, but entered into the Sprint Cup Series this year with Keselowski and the No. 2 car. To date, Wurth has been the primary sponsor for four points races this season for Keselowski.
"It has been great to have Wurth on board the No. 2 Ford this year," Keselowski said in a team release. "One of the things that stands out about our relationship with Wurth is that not only do I see their name and colors on our cars — I see their products being put to good use in our race shop. I think that says a lot about our relationship and they have been a big part of our success this season."
Last year, MillerCoors and Penske announced a multiyear agreement for Miller Lite to continue its primary sponsorship on the No. 2 Ford as well.
Keselowski won the Contender Round finale at Talladega Superspeedway to advance to the Eliminator Round in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
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No. 88 crew chief has a grandfather clock, wants one for Dale Jr.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief for four more races, Steve Letarte, can’t win a championship with the 11-time Most Popular Driver, but he can give the man who seems to have everything, including a jerky-making machine, a grandfather clock.
Last Sunday, the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team bowed out of the Chase for NASCAR Sprint Cup at Talladega Superspeedway following a 31st-place finish in a must-win race. On Monday’s edition of SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s "The Morning Drive," Letarte was already looking ahead to getting his second win at Martinsville Speedway in the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 (Sunday, 1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
"We went up there as a company and tested a couple of months ago to try to improve our product there," Letarte said. "We did not take it lightly when the 41 (Kurt Busch) outran us there in the spring.
"I can’t think of a better way to rebound from getting kicked out of the Chase and proving to all of the guys that are advancing in the Chase that we’re not just going to lay over for them, and we want to go up there and win a clock."
In his first start as a crew chief with Jeff Gordon at Martinsville, Letarte won. Both the track and racing itself have changed a lot over nine years, but patience is the winning strategy.
"Since 2005 I’ve been trying to figure out the elusive way to get back into Victory Lane. And I remember how he did it then," Letarte said "The track has changed quite a bit. Double-file restarts have changed things.
"Really Martinsville comes down to the last 50 or 75 laps. You run 400 laps to stay in the top 10, to save your tires, save your brakes. It’s a… patience tester."
In the last seven starts at the half-mile paperclip-shaped track, the No. 88 has five finishes of eighth or better, including a third-place finish in March and a runner-up result in the spring of 2011 to Kevin Harvick.
"Dale and I have been close," Letarte said. "We’ve had the lead there coming to the white (flag), and our car just lost rear grip. We get a little loose into (Turn) 3, and Harvick got by us.
"The race is won in the last 60 laps, and we’ve seen it in a bunch of different ways. We saw it in the spring with the 41 car passing guys for the win."
In his last season as a crew chief before moving on to the NBC Sports booth as an analyst next season, Letarte reflects on those two races with regret when he thinks about how he could have won more than four races with Earnhardt Jr.
"…maybe it’s because I’m getting closer to the end of my career, those are the races that I look back on, wishing we could have done something a little different because it’s so hard to win in this series against all these race competitors and the ones that you were close at, those are ones that hurt the most," Letarte said.
Letarte hopes to get four more trophies with Earnhardt Jr. before the end of the season. That’s especially true this weekend at Martinsville, so Dale Jr. can join his outgoing crew chief in the club that owns a Ridgeway grandfather clock. This fall, the track celebrates the 50th anniversary of giving away the iconic trophy to race winners. NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen earned the first clock on Sept. 27, 1964.
In his sixth race after taking over for Robbie Loomis on the No. 24 pit box in 2005, Letarte got his first win as a crew chief. It was the seventh victory and seventh clock for Gordon, so he gave the first-time winner the prize.
"Jeff just looked at me and he just pointed and said, ‘That one’s yours,’ Letarte said.
"So when the guy from Ridgeway drove down in the infield and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this trophy. Where does it go?’ I said, ‘I got you. It goes right here in the back of this truck. This truck’s mine.’ And now it’s in my basement.
"…I have a little trophy case downstairs, and that one’s down there. Every time I walk by, it brings back great memories of a race that … set my career path I think. I had a chance to crew chief Jeff Gordon, and we won really early in our career together."
Now Letarte hopes to return the favor, winning late in his own career and in his fourth year with Earnhardt Jr.
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Keep tabs on all the action this weekend at Martinsville
This weekend brings the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to Martinsville Speedway.
The Sprint Cup Series Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 is on Sunday, Oct. 26 at 1:30 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN.
The Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 is on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 1:30 p.m. ET with coverage on FOX Sports 1.
For more information on track times, press conferences and GarageCam, you can check out this weekend’s schedule. For TV times, see this week’s TV schedule.
We know you may not have the time to watch the race action without any interruptions, so if you’re on the go, here’s how to keep up at Martinsville.
NASCAR.com’s live Sprint Cup Series leaderboard and Camping World Truck Series leaderboard update in real-time and offer constant text updates of lead changes, cautions, strategies, strong runs and everything in between. From the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard, fans can also access live standings. On the go? Download the NASCAR Mobile app to follow the leaderboards live from your device.
Lap-by-Lap will keep you caught up even if you can only take a peek here or there. Check in to read back through all the laps you’ve missed, or keep an eye on the feed for real-time race updates.
For all the information you need on the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format, check out Chase 101 for an easy-to-follow guide — Martinsville is the first race in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Eliminator Round. Fans can also keep up with how their fantasy Chase Grid is doing here. You can also see what drivers need to do to lock up their spots in the Championship Round here.
We’ll also send race updates via Twitter through the official @NASCAR and @NASCARStats handles.
RaceBuddy will have enhanced views and coverage for the Sprint Cup Series race with 10 HD live race views, including six in-car cameras as well as a backstretch camera, pit road camera and more.
Haven’t tried RaceView yet? If you sign up, you’ll get virtual video of cars on the track from various angles and hear what your favorite team is saying over the radio. Use it as a second screen or as your only screen. Just want to scan the radios? You can have that too with RaceView Audio. On a mobile device? Get RaceView Mobile here.
If you want to be more involved in the on-track action, you can manage your fantasy team on NASCAR.com and follow your team’s performance in NASCAR Fantasy Live. Mobile users can also download NASCAR Connect, a game from OneUp Sports that allows users to play other fans with race predictions, for some off-track competition while drivers battle it out on the track.
Live Press Pass video streams will keep the NASCAR action rolling even after the winner goes in and out of Victory Lane. Catch interviews with the top finishers immediately following the checkered flag for the Sprint Cup Series and Camping World Truck Series, and stay tuned to NASCAR.com throughout the week for the latest news.
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In 2014 Behar recorded two top-10s in three K&N Pro Series West starts
Aspiring stock-car driver Nicole Behar comes from a racing family, hailing from the quaintly named hometown of Otis Orchards, Washington — a suburb of Spokane in the extreme eastern part of a westernmost state.
The Evergreen State has produced several top talents who made it to NASCAR’s highest ranks, including current Sprint Cup stars Greg Biffle (Vancouver) and Kasey Kahne (Enumclaw). Though the shared home state would seem to stoke Behar’s fandom through familiarity for one, the other or both, the answer is actually, D) none of the above.
"I think it’s very cool that they came from there," Behar said, "but I’m a (Jimmie) Johnson fan."
Rooting interests aside, Behar has a chance to add her name to the list of Pacific Northwest greats. The 16-year-old took the latest step in trying to make that a reality by participating in last week’s NASCAR Drive for Diversity Combine at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia.
Behar’s journey to a half-mile track roughly 2,600 miles from home was actually a return trip. She participated in the workshop last year and welcomed the chance to again showcase her skills, but this time without the first-time jitters.
"It really helps not being nervous because all the fear is really gone," Behar said. "It’s helped meeting new people and getting their opinion on you. Everyone has something there to offer that you can learn."
With parents who met racing go-karts as her family nucleus, Behar seemed destined to tackle a pastime with an automotive bent. She said for her eighth birthday that she wanted a horse; instead, her father showed up with a more mechanical sort of horsepower.
Since getting a feel for driving snowmobiles during Washington’s harsh winters growing up, Behar eventually graduated to bigger things, winning four championships in local karting series before moving up to full-bodied cars. She scored her first Late Model win at age 14.
All the while, Behar has had to budget her blossoming racing career with a steady regimen of schoolwork. Though she is currently a junior in high school, her participation in the accelerated Running Start program (offered in Washington and Hawaii) has allowed her to attend college courses while completing her prep degree. The dual enrollment has furthered her education, but has made her busy racing schedule at several Northwestern U.S. tracks a tricky balancing act.
"It’s definitely very difficult," Behar said. "You have to balance it out with traveling, being on the airplane and doing my homework in my spare time. You just have to keep the professors aware."
School has also been in session on the race track, where Behar has enjoyed her first taste of the developmental NASCAR K&N Pro Series West. In three starts in 2014, she recorded a pair of top-10 finishes, including a solid sixth place in her debut at State Line Speedway in nearby Post Falls, Idaho.
Her progression was enough to merit an invite back to the Combine, where she auditioned against 19 other drivers for a seat with the Rev Racing team in the K&N ranks in 2015. Behar said her plans for next season are "nothing set in stone," but that she hoped more K&N starts were in her future, on either a part-time or full-time basis.
"I’m very grateful for this opportunity, no matter if you get selected or not," Behar said. "You’re getting your name out there, getting more experience driving different cars. Everyone’s looking at you and telling you what you can do differently, so it’s just fun learning from everyone here."
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What the key parties involved have gone on to do since the incident
One year ago, Darrell Wallace Jr. stormed to his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory at Martinsville Speedway, etching his name in the history books at the sport’s oldest big-league track.
But behind him loomed a powder keg. Once Kevin Harvick and Ty Dillon made late-race contact in a battle for second place, the events that followed ignited a short fuse; the actions of both sides kept it dry, with Harvick offering a scalding parting shot toward Richard Childress — then his team owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series — and his ascendant grandsons, whom he referred to as "punk-ass kids" on his way out of the race track.
One year removed from all the hard feelings, bent fenders and name-calling in one of the season’s most incendiary moments, the truck series returns to Martinsville for Saturday’s Kroger 200 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1).
Neither of the 2013 combatants are entered in the 200-lapper, leaving a large crop of series regulars to fight it out in the tour’s 19th of 22 events this season. While there won’t be a carbon-copy repeat of last year’s melee, all sides have made significant growth from the fireworks that offered an extra layer of heat to the cool autumn weekend in the south Virginia foothills.
KEVIN HARVICK
His role: Running second with 13 laps remaining, Harvick’s NTS Motorsports No. 14 was nudged from behind twice by Ty Dillon‘s Childress-owned No. 3, sending both spinning and catching series leader Matt Crafton and rookie Chase Elliott up in the mess. Once righted, Harvick sideswiped Dillon’s truck under caution and played bumper cars with his rival before eventually parking, firing off a testy verbal salvo and leaving the track in a huff.
Zinger quote: "Exactly the reason why I’m leaving RCR because you’ve got those kids coming up and they’ve got no respect for what they do in this sport and they’ve had everything fed to them with a spoon."
Fast forward: Just two weeks later, Harvick and Childress were all smiles and embracing in Victory Lane at Phoenix International Raceway, sharing a post-race toast of celebratory beers and proving that wins go a long way toward shortening memories and allowing bygones to fade. Harvick, who finished third in the Sprint Cup standings in his RCR swan song, joined Stewart-Haas Racing as planned in the offseason and has enjoyed one of the most successful seasons of his career, winning eight Coors Light Pole Awards — two more than he achieved in 13 years with Childress. Harvick is the lone SHR driver still title-eligible in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. He wound up 30th last October at Martinsville and apologized for his comments the next day; he hasn’t entered a truck series event since.
TY DILLON
His role: Dillon’s nudge triggered the rapidly escalating conflict, but he claimed later that Harvick may have dragged his brake to initiate contact or stall his momentum. Either way, the youngster wasn’t content to let Harvick’s retaliation go unanswered. Dillon repeatedly rammed Harvick’s truck from behind during yellow-flag laps, including a resounding pop when Harvick slowed to a stop in his pit stall.
Zinger quote: "I used to look up to that guy but I guess he doesn’t understand the circumstances of what’s going on. I understand it’s tough racing down there in (turns) one and two at Martinsville. I know we wrecked, but to tear up a truck after the race and act like a punk on the track and on pit road and stop on pit road in my pit stall when my guys were coming out, that was pretty ridiculous. I’m not happy with him. And for him not to stick around, that’s pretty sad, too."
Fast forward: The 22nd-place finish — last on the lead lap — didn’t help Dillon’s championship hopes; he took second in the season-long standings, 40 points behind eventual champ Crafton. The 22-year-old, who became engaged in the offseason, advanced to the Nationwide Series for 2014 and landed a defining win, driving the Childress No. 3 to victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July. The Nationwide rookie ranks fifth in the series standings with three races left.
AUSTIN DILLON
His role: The older Dillon brother wasn’t even entered in the Kroger 200, but found himself lumped in with Harvick’s collective ire in his post-race rant. A Nationwide Series regular at the time, Austin Dillon was already earmarked for Sprint Cup duty with his grandfather’s team though the official announcement was still two months away.
Zinger quote: "Growing up in the family with RCR and knowing what goes on here on a daily basis, it hurt my feelings. But I forgive Kevin. Kevin’s taught me a lot; he’s done a lot for our company and stepped in at a tough time for RCR. He’s kept us at the forefront of NASCAR. With my grandfather’s help he was able to do that. My grandfather gave him that opportunity."
Fast forward: Austin Dillon officially took Harvick’s place at RCR in December, with the team announcing that it would bring the No. 3 back to Sprint Cup competition for the first time since Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500. The rookie ranks 19th in the series standings with four top-10 finishes in 32 races. The elder Dillon has also dabbled in truck series competition, with five of his seven starts coming with the NTS team that fielded Harvick’s truck last October.
RICHARD CHILDRESS
His role: The veteran team owner was left seething after being summoned to the NASCAR hauler, but did his best to try to calm Ty Dillon in the garage after the late-race dust-up. Childress’ team, however, was anything but calm, approaching Harvick’s truck on pit road and heaving a heavy rubber mallet toward it. Five days later, the team was penalized, with crew chief Marcus Richmond absorbing a $10,000 fine and crew member Adam Brown suspended indefinitely for the hammer throw.
Zinger quote: "I’m disappointed. Very disappointed — that’s all I can say. I’ve got too much class to say what I really want to say. When I say it, I’ll say it to his face."
Fast forward: Childress launched its 2014 campaign with a new-look Sprint Cup driver lineup, with Austin Dillon replacing Harvick and Ryan Newman taking over for the retiring Jeff Burton alongside the returning Paul Menard. Newman was the only RCR driver to qualify for the Chase playoffs, and his title hopes remain alive in the eight-driver Eliminator Round. Childress ended his full-time participation in the truck series after 2013, but expanded his Nationwide Series operation to three full-time teams with full-time drivers by promoting truck regulars Ty Dillon and Brendan Gaughan. Richmond remained in the truck series and joined Red Horse Racing as a crew chief for Timothy Peters. Brown, the only one suspended in the Martinsville aftermath, is listed as a tire specialist for Gaughan’s No. 62 team on RCR’s website.
NTS MOTORSPORTS
Its role: Harvick’s only two truck starts of 2013 came at Martinsville behind the wheel of NTS Chevrolets, and both races ended in DNFs. Though last October’s effort wasn’t for championship points, it had the unintended impact of drawing more TV time for Anderson’s Maple Syrup, primary sponsor on Harvick’s No. 14 entry.
Zinger quote: None.
Fast forward: NTS Motorsports currently occupies the Kernersville, N.C., racing shop of the former Kevin Harvick Inc., which ceased operations after the 2012 season. Nine drivers have taken the wheel for Bob Newberry-owned trucks in 2014, with the major highlight coming from Justin Lofton‘s runner-up finish after starting from the pole at Texas Motor Speedway in June. The team is still looking for its first victory in the Camping World Truck Series.
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