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JTG owner Daugherty finds humor in Allmendinger’s road course pressure

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A lot of NASCAR is about proving you have what it takes to run with the elite. Drivers can spend an entire career in search of that one win to validate their spot in the Sprint Cup Series garage.

That’s exactly what it felt like for AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, leading up to his first win of his Cup career at Watkins Glen International last season.

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"You can run up front, but if you don’t have that win, you’re just looked at differently," Allmedinger said at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom. "All it takes is that one win to get in and your name is no longer talked about.

"But just to get a win, and really our base group has stayed the same, so we’re a family. We’ve won a race together now. You can’t it away and it just gives us confidence to go want to win more and I think we can, it’s just going to take a lot of work. We’ve gotten better in the offseason, as I’m sure everybody has said. We’ll see once we unload at Daytona and really unload at Atlanta and the season really kicks off, but I feel good about what we’ve done."

RELATED: Allmendinger learns spotter news the hard way

While the JTG Daugherty team may have made improvements in the offseason, it was announced on Monday that they won’t be able to demonstrate their progress at the Sprint Unlimited race at Daytona International Speedway.

"In mid-December NASCAR changed the rules regarding Sprint Unlimited eligibility," JTG Daugherty Racing team owner Tad Geschickter said in a statement released by the team.

"We were not qualified for that race until NASCAR’s decision to expand the field stating all 16 drivers who qualified for the Chase were eligible. We had already budgeted for our 36 points paying races. There was not ample time for us to secure additional sponsorship and prepare for the race without compromising our Daytona 500 preparation."

Moving forward, it’s no longer about securing that first win, but maintaining and continuing success into the new season.

"I think for year two (of the new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format), we still expect to win and get in," No. 47 crew chief Brian Burns said. "We’d like to say that running consistent all year long — let’s say something bad happened at the Glen or a track where we were expected to win — I’d like to say we made it in on points as well, to be a consistent team like that.

"To get into the Chase is great; to compete and run well in the Chase is another step that we’re working on getting towards and that’s just being consistent everywhere we go. We don’t just want to show up and have people talk about us at Watkins Glen, saying this is the team to beat. We want to go to every track and say this is a team that could win at every track we show up at, and that’s our goal."

Allmendinger’s win at Watkins Glen in August last year put the one-car team into the Chase field for the first time in the organization’s short history and from there it was a learning experience for the new title contenders.

"What we’ve learned is that we’re not as good as we thought we were," Daugherty said. "We captured thunder on a weekend in Watkins Glen and got a little bit ahead of ourselves and then got our butts kicked a lot from there forward. So we’ve got to, no matter what happens, we’ve got to bounce back every weekend regardless."

While making the Chase can create daunting pressure for drivers throughout the season, continuing to cultivate road course success is another heavy load to carry. But Daugherty explains that he feels stress-free when it comes to racing on a road course.

"I never feel any pressure, and that’s too bad because I know AJ is drinking Pepto-Bismol," Daugherty joked. "I love it, I think we’re gonna kick everybody’s behind. I tell everybody … I go through the garage, I tell Jimmie Johnson, I tell (Clint) Bowyer, and I tell Jeff Gordon, I tell all of them, ‘We’re gonna kick your butt.’

"The week before we went to Watkins Glen I went down the line to every man … I told Jimmie, I told Jamie McMurray, I told Clint, ‘We’re going to wax your behind at Watkins Glen.’ Now AJ was not really happy with me for doing that, but I don’t have to drive a race car, all I do is talk. So I don’t feel any pressure."

For Allmendinger, he knows that 2015 is about carrying the confidence he found last year into every race of the upcoming season.

"There’s no more pressure than what I put on myself," Allmendinger said. "I expected to go out there — whether it be Sonoma or Watkins Glen — and be one of the cars to beat. Now that we’ve got a victory (at Watkins Glen) it feels no different to go there and still be one of the cars to beat. I’ve got confidence in myself, no matter what type of race track that I’m on. It’s just fun now to be able to go back to a race and be the defending champion and to finally have that in my Sprint Cup career."

Posted on by Staff Report

Multiple over-the-wall changes for No. 88 team

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It’s a year of change for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

In addition to the primary sponsor change — Nationwide Insurance — and new crew chief with Greg Ives, fans will see different pit crew members going over the wall for Dale Jr. in 2015.

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Nevertheless, the No. 88 crew is keeping the changes within the Hendrick Motorsports family.

Former No. 88 fueler Dustin Lineback returns to his old ride in 2015, filling the vacant front tire carrier position. He’ll be carrying tires for front tire changer David Mayo, who has pitted with both the No. 48 and 88 teams in the past.

Longtime rear tire changer Joe Slingerland returns to his familiar post for 2015. He’ll be aided by rear tire carrier William "Rowdy" Harrell, who served as a No. 48/88 backup in 2014.

Current fueler Matt Tyrrell will remain with the No. 88 team this season, as well as jackman Nick Covey.

These pit crew members will receive their first test of the season when they travel down to Daytona International Speedway for the annual Speedweeks, which culminates with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 22 (1 p.m. ET, FOX).

Posted on by Staff Report

Likes group qualifying overall, just not at restrictor-plate tracks

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Tony Stewart expressed his distaste for group qualifying at restrictor-plate tracks during a live interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday night that was also attended by Stewart-Haas Racing teammate and 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick.

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"To be perfectly honest, I am not a big fan of that," Stewart said when told Daytona 500 qualifying (1:30 p.m. ET, Feb. 15, FOX) would include a group element to determine the front row for the Great American Race (1 p.m. ET, Feb. 22 on FOX).

RELATED: How Daytona 500 qualifying works

"It’s exciting to watch, but the thing that most don’t realize is that, first of all, you’re trying to be the last guy to come out," Stewart said. "Once those guys in the back get that run and make that first lap, the last thing they want to do is go ahead and run that next lap full throttle and give the guys they just passed the same opportunity.

"So what you have is guys dumping out of the throttle and closing rates that are not good at all. You can’t hardly see through the guy in front of you. If somebody does something three or four cars up there and your spotter can’t tell you about, it has a lot of potential to be, you know, bad."

Harvick, who won a career-high eight Coors Light Pole Awards last season, chimed in with his agreement.

"It’s tough to make it work at Daytona and Talladega," Harvick said of group qualifying. "The format is unbelievable at all the other race tracks, but I’m with him."

Stewart closed by suggesting to NASCAR that future tweaks to the system might be needed.

"It’s qualifying," Stewart said. "We have enough trouble wrecking cars at restrictor-plate tracks as it is. I do like the idea that it’s traditional as far as locking in the front row. I think that is something that is important. I think there’s ways that maybe in the future NASCAR could do it a little different.

"I think all in all the whole qualifying format for the year was awesome. I thought that was one of the best changes and one of the easiest changes NASCAR had to make. It was a really, really good decision on their part. It brings a lot of excitement on Friday; I’m just not crazy about it at Daytona and Talladega."

Posted on by Staff Report

Cup driver to pilot No. 92 in NCWTS at Daytona

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Ricky Benton Racing announced Wednesday that David Gilliland will drive the team’s No. 92 Ford in the season-opening NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.

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Gilliland, entering his 10th year as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular, is scheduled to make only his fourth start in the Truck Series in the NextEra Energy Resources 250 (Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) at Daytona International Speedway.
 
"I want to win races," Gilliland said in a release provided by the team, "And this crew, the engine package and what Ricky has put together can win. I want to be a part of it."
 
Gilliland, who re-signed Jan. 13 with the Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Ford team on the Sprint Cup tour, said maintaining his affiliation to a Ford team in the Truck Series was important. He added that his future with the Benton-owned team, which has participated on a part-time basis the last five seasons, wasn’t set in stone beyond Daytona.
 
"I’m not ruling anything out," Gilliland said. "We are going to run Daytona and see how it goes from there."
 
RBR — based in Cerro Gordo, North Carolina — will continue with Mike Hester as crew chief for the No. 92. Roush Yates Racing Engines will remain the team’s engine supplier. Sponsorship will come from BTS Tire and Wheel Distributors, Goodyear FleetHQ, Wynn’s and Tim Cooksey Oil Company.
 
The team used a rotation of drivers in 2014, with four drivers competing in two races each — Ross Chastain, NASCAR Next’s Austin Hill, Corey LaJoie and Scott Riggs. LaJoie notched the team’s best finish — a 10th place in August at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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BitPay to be featured on the No. 54 for Justin Boston

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Kyle Busch Motorsports announced Wednesday that BitPay will provide primary sponsorship for its No. 54 Toyota and rookie Justin Boston in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener.

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The digital currency company joins forces in time for the curtain-raising NextEra Energy Resources 250 (Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) at Daytona International Speedway. The KBM team prevailed in last year’s opener, with owner/driver Kyle Busch taking the checkered flag.
 
Boston, a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, is scheduled to make his second career start in the series at Daytona. He drove a Bill Venturini-owned truck to a 30th-place finish in August at Bristol Motor Speedway, exiting early after a crash.
 
The 25-year-old Maryland native also entered two races last season for Joe Gibbs Racing in what is now known as the NASCAR XFINITY Series. Boston finished ninth in his XFINITY debut on Sept. 20 at Kentucky Speedway, then wound up 12th in the No. 20 Toyota the following week at Dover International Speedway.
 
Boston is one of a handful of new faces behind the wheel at KBM for 2015. He’ll join Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Matt Tifft and his truck owner among the team’s stable of drivers.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Organization hopes to boost program that struggled in 2014

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After last season’s bottoming-out, Roush Fenway Racing headed into the offseason needing an injection — of performance, new attitudes and fresh faces. Definitive changes have transformed the latter two, and the team’s hope is that the former will follow suit.
 
Roush Fenway didn’t use name tags for its refreshed roster during last week’s presentation at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom, but it may as well have. New drivers in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series have joined the mix, and new engineers are bent on deconstructing the team’s shortcomings and closing its technology deficit.
 
If first impressions mean anything, the team’s first media session with a new core in the competition department showed a loose, enthused group aiming to climb from the performance valley of 2014.

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"I think Roush Fenway has kind of been the same for a long time," said Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a Roush mainstay since 2009, now entering his third NASCAR Sprint Cup season, "and when you’re promoting from within all the time, the guys that you’re promoting kind of learn from the guys ahead of them, everything kind of stays the same. At some point, it just kind of gets stale. With the new faces, we kind of went all-in."
 
On the driving side, the personnel may be new to Roush Fenway but are familiar to most in the NASCAR crowd. Longtime Ford driver Trevor Bayne makes the jump to a full-time Sprint Cup ride in Roush’s hallowed No. 6, and former truck standout Darrell Wallace Jr. joins veteran Elliott Sadler to round out the team’s new look on the XFINITY circuit.
 
But some of the most important changes have taken place behind the scenes, with two key hirings last November. Mark McArdle has joined the Roush Fenway fold as its engineering director on the Sprint Cup and XFINITY side after a successful stint at Richard Childress Racing. Kevin Kidd signs on as the Sprint Cup Series team manager in charge of at-track operations, moving over from Joe Gibbs Racing.

RELATED: Roush makes competition additions
 
The new dynamic, plus a freshening of the team shop, has already helped the team break some of its old patterns.
 
"Problem-solving is very, very difficult," said Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway’s longest-tenured driver. "We recognized when there are single-car teams running better than our cars were that we had a fundamental problem right from the very beginning. It wasn’t until we brought in some new blood and got a 10,000-foot view of what we’re looking at, and kind of dissected the car all the way down to the chassis."
 
Robbie Reiser remains in place as the team’s general manager, a position he accepted at the end of the 2007 season after a long-running career as a championship-winning crew chief. The additions of McArdle and Kidd help bolster the team’s engineering staff, a luxury that Biffle said Reiser didn’t always have.
 
"We gave him a crescent wrench and a hammer, and he didn’t have the right tools," Biffle said. "When we put him in charge of Roush Fenway competition, we were a couple years late as a team, as an organization, maybe three, four, five years late in doing that. So we put him in that position; instantly, our performance went up. We ran better, we made challenges at the title — Carl tied in points with Tony (Stewart, in 2011) — but we never gave him any more support. It was Robbie on an island, and he had to do it all. We needed to provide more stability for that. As other teams grew, we kind of stayed in that position."
 
The overhaul hasn’t been limited to technology; changes have also given team chemistry — often a finicky quality to balance — a significant boost. Jamie McMurray, who drove for Roush from 2006 to 2009 before returning to team owner Chip Ganassi, said he knew the potential pitfalls first-hand during his time there.
 
"The dynamic at Roush was definitely different, and I think it’s different now. It’s changed," McMurray said last week. "I don’t want to put words in anyone else’s mouth that’s driven there, but most guys that drove for Roush and then left couldn’t believe how much different the environment was at a different organization. I was here initially and went to Roush, and I was like I couldn’t believe how good I had it at Ganassi, just the vibe throughout the shop and the way you were treated. …
 
"First off, Jack’s mellowed out a lot in the past five years. Jack would take, you’d have the team meetings on Tuesday and you would go in and sit at this long conference table — all the crew chiefs and all the drivers — and I swear Jack got a kick out of just humiliating you in front of everybody. As you would be the guy being humiliated, you would look around at other teammates and you could tell they were like, ‘Sorry you’re having to go through it,’ right?
 
"I don’t think it’s that way any more, and I think that got Jack a long way at times treating people that way. I wasn’t motivated by being humiliated. I was more motivated by a guy like Chip, wrapping his arm around me like, ‘We’re going to get through this. Hang with me.’ Just way different environment than what I have now."
 
The team has dealt more recently with the departures of Matt Kenseth after the 2012 season and Carl Edwards this offseason. The exodus appears to be stemmed: Biffle recommitted to Roush Fenway after declining offers from other teams, keeping one of its keystone drivers in place.

MORE: Biffle looks to lead Roush reversal
 
To hear Biffle and the rest of Roush’s current drivers tell it, the rise in confidence is already palpable.
 
"As far as the shop, making it nicer and bringing in the new faces, I think it kind of re-energizes everything, but it transfers down," Stenhouse said. "I guess it would start with the drivers, being in shop, hanging out with the guys. When they feel the confidence that I have in what they’re doing and what our organization is doing, a lot of the workers in our shop feed off of that. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t set a bad example. You want them to follow what you’re feeling and what you’re doing. We’ve got a lot of energized drivers.
 
"We had a photo shoot yesterday and all the drivers are getting along, hanging out, and I think that’s part of it. I don’t know if Roush has ever had all the drivers get along and hang out and have fun. I think Jack’s enjoying it as well."

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Ford Technical Support Center takes on bigger role with limited testing

Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company

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Most NASCAR drivers spent the bulk of last week’s Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom seated in front of a microphone fielding questions from the media.
 
Chris Buescher spent his turning laps at Dover International Speedway.
 
The 22-year-old wasn’t ignoring NASCAR’s limited testing policy for 2015. Instead, the Roush Fenway Racing driver completed nearly an entire race in Ford Racing’s full motion platform simulator during the media tour’s stop at the Ford Technical Support Center in Concord, North Carolina.
 
"Very close to 200 laps, very close," the NASCAR XFINITY Series driver said.

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The simulator is the centerpiece of the 33,000-square-foot technology center and is realistic enough that some folks have become ill after sliding behind the wheel.
 
"We put Robbie Reiser (RFR vice president of competition) in the SIM early on and I don’t think he took it too well," Buescher said. "There are people that have gotten sick. It’s a different motion, a lot of movement. The screen is constantly moving. Especially if you wreck, when you get into that position it gets a little crazy."
 
But it’s a bit more than fun and games. For teams, the highly advanced piece is the next best thing to turning laps on an actual track, and can be used to assess setups for each of the tracks on the NASCAR schedule — from superspeedways to short tracks, road courses to intermediates. For drivers, it’s also an opportunity to log laps and become familiar with the nuances of each venue. It’s also one place where weather is never an issue.
 
With NASCAR limiting testing for the 2015 season, such opportunities are more crucial than ever.
 
"The biggest help for me is just more seat time," Buescher said. "Last year before Watkins Glen … myself, (teammates) Trevor (Bayne) and Ryan (Reed), were able to get on the simulator and run some laps leading up to the road races. And that’s one of the places that I think it works the best, at this moment."
 
It should be noted that Buescher went on to win the XFINITY Series race a short time later at Mid-Ohio for his first career victory.
 
Officials said nearly every track would eventually be programmed into the system.
 
"I think that the ovals will come along … we’re making huge steps in that area but it’s still rather new technology," Buescher said. "… I think they were saying that the F1 teams, once they came out with this technology, it took them three to four years to really get it to where it was perfect. … Now that the technology has come so far, we expect our learning curve to be quicker than that. But still, certainly there’s a way to go."
 
Other tools available to all Ford teams at the center, which has been operational for less than one year, include three additional "rigs" used to fine-tune, test and measure specific areas of a race car.
 
The center also boasts a small theater where engineers from Ford as well as the Ford teams can gather to watch practice, qualifying and races with feeds that include live timing and scoring and the ability to sort and retrieve data almost instantly.
 
"Our plan is to use this facility for more than just NASCAR development," said Raj Nair, Ford Group vice president for global product development. "We want to make the tools and resources available to our teams across many of the racing series we compete in."
 
As for Buescher, win No. 2 can’t come soon enough.
 
"Absolutely," he said. "Getting that first one out of the way was huge for us. Now we are just looking forward to 2015 and adding on to that list. We need to get the second and third one and so on.
 
"I think with our XFINITY Series lineup we have here we should be competing for a championship this year. … Everyone in the shop has been working extremely hard and everyone is ready to get back to racing."
 
The simulator may be incredibly realistic and a tremendous learning tool, he said, but knocking off a few hundred laps here or there "isn’t enough practice through the offseason.
 
"We are ready to get to Daytona."

Posted on by Staff Report

Meet Glenda Official NASCAR Fan Council member of the month

Name: Glenda

Current City: Gulfport, Mississippi

Member since: 2008

Getting to know Glenda

Q. Why did you join the Official NASCAR Fan Council?

"For beginners, my family and I lived in Riverside, California when I was a very little girl. We lived near the race track and my two older brothers worked on the pit crews when the race was in town. My brothers always took me with them while they worked and I fell in love with racing. Til this day it compels me to learn more. So with that being said I am so grateful to be a part of a sport where fans can be interactive in helping change the face of NASCAR, by being a member of the Official NASCAR Fan Council so that we can improve the fan experience. No other sport that I know of can offer a Fan Council membership like this. I was one of the original starting members when the Council began and for that I am proud to be in such an elite council."

Q. What comes to mind when you think of NASCAR? What’s your favorite NASCAR memory?

"Well I am always thinking of NASCAR but what comes to mind is the feeling of the thunder in my chest when the cars go by. The feeling of the bits of rubber hitting your arm while sitting in the seats, the grateful feeling I have knowing I am so fortunate to attend as many races that I have, and to be able to give first-hand information to the council about the races that I have attended. In 201,1 I was able to get into Denny Hamlin’s car as well as talk face to face with him as he signed my purple cowgirl hat. It was exciting to experience behind the scenes activities I was so blessed to be a part of."

Q: Do you have a favorite in any of the following categories?

Driver: "Denny Hamlin"
Track: "Talladega & Phoenix"
Memorabilia: "My signed hat and car by Denny Hamlin"

Q: If you could go to any NASCAR race/track, where would you go?

"Talladega"

Q: Tell us about your family. Do you have children and/or pets?

"I have two older brothers and one sister who all love NASCAR. I have an African Congo parrot named Harley that talks and she can say ‘Boogity Boogity Boogity, let’s go racing boys!’ I have a cat, his name is Denny. I have one son and his wife that have thre boys that are our next future NASCAR drivers!"

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

"I love woodworking but I collect NASCAR items to add to my 600 plus items in my collection."

Q: What’s your dream car?

"Mustang Cobra"

From all of us at NASCAR, we thank Glenda for her continued support and look forward to hearing from her in 2015!

Posted on by RJ Kraft

With SHR and GoDaddy deals up, this is a big year for Patrick

Play: NASCAR Fantasy Live | Vote: Ultimate Daytona Moment
MORE: Danica doubts she’ll ever do the double

Entering the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Danica Patrick is focused on the chance to build off the gains she felt she made last season. Even with that, there is plenty of other buzz around one of the sport’s most popular drivers.



The Stewart-Haas Racing driver has a new crew chief as she enters her third season in NASCAR’s top series. The third season is often the measuring stick for a driver with team and sponsorship deals often coinciding with that length. Coincidentally, Patrick’s deals with Stewart-Haas and her primary sponsor, GoDaddy, are both up at the end of the year.



For her part, Patrick does not desire a change.

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"Stewart-Haas is an amazing team, and I have no issues here," Patrick said during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom. "It’s been the closest thing to family.


"Obviously in the early days of wanting to run NASCAR, I’ve been lucky enough to have a great sponsor like GoDaddy and have the faith of the people around me that I could really name the team I wanted to drive for, and Tony and Gene made it happen, and GoDaddy made it happen. … I didn’t even want to run anywhere else necessarily; I didn’t pick to run anywhere else, and I still don’t."



RELATED: GoDaddy changes Danica, dog Super Bowl ad

Patrick also dismissed any talk of driving a Formula One car. Stewart Haas-Racing co-owner Gene Haas is starting up an F1 team for the 2016 campaign.



Haas sees great value in Patrick and would like to keep her in the fold.



"We’d love to see Danica come back," Haas said. "She’s a big draw, and we want to see Danica’s success as much as anyone does. I think NASCAR wants to see her success. … We’re very fortunate to have someone like Danica here."

While her rookie season of 2013 brought a season-opening Coors Light Pole Award at the Daytona 500, Patrick registered only one top-10 (an eighth-place finish in the Daytona 500), four top-15s and a 27th-place finish in the final point standings. Outside of the Daytona races, she never started in the top 12.



That changed in 2014, when Patrick made several significant strides. She started in the top-12 seven times at a wide variety of tracks (ranging from restrictor plate venues to intermediates to short tracks and road courses). She scored three top-10 finishes, including a career-best sixth-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend. 

Her average starting position went from 30.1 in 2013 to 22.3 in 2014 and her average finishing position went from 26.1 in 2013 to 23.7 in 2014. And while the end result was a 28th-place finish in the final standings, her overall improvement was not unnoticed.



"The results didn’t show it, but she had speed at a lot of race tracks that she didn’t have at the year before," said Tony Stewart, SHR co-owner, teammate and three-time champion.

MORE SHR: For reigning champ Harvick, pressure is off | Stewart ready to win again


Patrick considers the 2014 season a success, although she acknowledged that her final position in the standings wasn’t reflective of how she felt she had run.



"Progress is the standard," Patrick said when asked about measuring how she is doing in the sport’s top series. "I don’t think the championship standings really reflected what happened last year. There were many, many more times where I qualified in the top-12 or right there in the top-15 and that was a huge step in the right direction. … Restarts were definitely much better, especially when we got the car a little bit dialed in. Overall speed in practice was much better. All I can do is look to those things that I want to improve on and see if they have."

Now it is about taking that next step, where the speed is always there and those top-15s and top-20s become top-10s on a regular basis. And the key person in getting that progress out of the driver of the No. 10 Chevrolet SS will be crew chief Daniel Knost. SHR made a crew chief swap for the final three races of 2014 with Tony Gibson moving over to Kurt Busch‘s No. 41 team, while Knost came over to the No. 10 team with the interim tag.



In their three races together, Patrick averaged a finish of 25.3, with her best result an 18th-place finish in the season-finale at Homestead. The interim tag was removed from Knost’s title this offseason. Like all new pairings, hitting the ground running is easier said than done and Patrick is not blind to that fact.

"I’m sure there will be a little bit of a learning curve but I think we can overcome that sooner than later," Patrick said.



Patrick added that Knost’s background as an engineer is something she is used to and she welcomes the new perspective that comes with a new pit boss.



RELATED: Patrick’s crew chief for 2015 revealed

Greg Zipadelli, a former championship-winning crew chief with Stewart and the Vice President of Competition at SHR, liked what he saw from the pairing at the end of 2014 and said it was important to keep continuity within the SHR organization for Patrick.



"It just seemed like they were working better together," Zipadelli said. "We didn’t want to bring somebody from the outside, that didn’t know our program, didn’t know our tools. We didn’t feel like that was going to be beneficial to her."


Only time will tell if the pairing is the right fit. Eighty-two races into her Sprint Cup Series career, Patrick has yet to record a top-five finish or a win. Could a trip to Victory Lane be in the offing in 2015?



"I can’t guarantee anything," Patrick said. "… I have all the confidence that I need to do it. I definitely believe and know I can win."

Posted on by Staff Report

Veteran driver will pilot No. 44 Toyota full-time, lands sponsor

Play: NASCAR Fantasy Live | Vote: Ultimate Daytona Moment

TriStar Motorsports announced Tuesday that it has signed veteran driver David Starr to a three-year deal in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

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Starr returns to the seat of the No. 44 Toyota with primary sponsorship — also signed through 2017 — from Zachry Group, a San Antonio-based construction and engineering firm. The team said it intends to contest the entire 33-race schedule starting in 2015.

"Words cannot express how excited I am to partner up with Zachry Group for the next three seasons in the NASCAR XFINITY Series," Starr said in a release provided by the team. "It will be an honor and privilege to represent a company with such integrity and commitment to their customers, employees and communities where we work."

Starr drove in 14 XFINITY Series races last year — all but one with the Mark Smith-owned team — with a best finish of ninth place at Talladega Superspeedway in May. The native Texan is also a four-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he has 317 starts.

The XFINITY Series is scheduled to open Feb. 21 at Daytona International Speedway with the Alert Today Florida 300 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1).