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Strong Chase showing reignites desire for championship No. 5

RELATED: 2013 recaps for every Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup driver

This is the eighth in a series of 2013 Sprint Cup Series driver recaps that will be featured on NASCAR.com

One of the 2013 highlights for Jeff Gordon was getting a chance this summer to spend time and make a web feature series with Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard. At the time, Gordon joked about whether his own season story would have a Hollywood ending.

Boy did it. And it was award worthy, too.

After being added by NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff field as an unprecedented 13th driver following the controversial season finale at Richmond, Gordon and his No. 24 team seized the opportunity the four-time champ insists was legitimately due to them.

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"We may have been a late addition but I knew in my heart we belonged in the Chase and we proved that week after week," Gordon said, accepting his sixth-place trophy during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards banquet.

Not only was Gordon’s sixth-place finish in the championship standings his best since 2009 (third place), it marked the second straight year he won both a Coors Light Pole (Charlotte) and a race (Martinsville) during the high-stakes 10-race Chase.

After Gordon’s emotional and impressive eighth career victory at Martinsville in October, he was ranked as high as third in the standings. But a flat tire on his Chevrolet only 73 laps into the Texas race the next week led to a frustrating 38th-place showing that virtually ended his title hopes.

"The Chase was actually the best part of our season," Gordon said. "It wasn’t easy and the competition was tough, but we had great cars, qualified better and did all the things I think we needed to be doing earlier in the season.

"We like running good in the Chase, and that’s cool, but we need to be solid earlier."

That Gordon was able to make a run for the Chase at all says a lot about the perseverance of his team considering the many early trials and tribulations it had to overcome.

After earning the outside pole position for the season-opening Daytona 500, Gordon led 31 laps but managed only a 20th-place finish in NASCAR’s Super Bowl. It marked the fourth consecutive year he finished 20th or worse, but more significantly to him, it set a tone of playing catch-up.

He posted only three top-15s in the first seven races, and three DNFs in a seven-race swing in the summer put the team further in the hole. On the year, Gordon’s five DNFs tied Ryan Newman as most among Chase contenders — and is more than any other drivers among the top 20.

"We ask ourselves every year … even if you are the champion, you ask — How do you improve for next year?" Gordon said. "I feel like for us we just didn’t get a good start to the season. We started behind at Daytona and were playing catch-up the whole time.

"For us, it’s about getting into a rhythm a little earlier and maintaining improvement for the whole season. We have to focus on being in the championship earlier instead of going to Richmond and stressing out just trying to get in."

In the end, Gordon says he enters 2014 more optimistic and encouraged. He added win number 88 to his career total — a mark bettered only by Hall of Famers Richard Petty (200 wins) and David Pearson (105 wins).

As he proudly watched his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and friend Jimmie Johnson accept his sixth championship trophy in the last eight years, Gordon said he left the awards ceremony more determined than ever.

Far from being ready to retire, the 42-year-old Gordon knows only that there are races to win and championships to decide.

"It’s bittersweet because you’re proud to be a part of Hendrick Motorsports and Rick (Hendrick) is more than just a boss and friend to me," Gordon said. "And Jimmie, I’ve known for so long and love seeing him have success.

"But at the same time we want to win. When you’re not at the head table, it’s highly motivating. You see the accolades, you see the awards, you want to be experiencing that."

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Posted on by Nascar

New addition had first NASCAR experience at Richmond, became hooked

Madison Martin, a 23-year-old from Cumberland, Md., is the newest addition to the Miss Sprint Cup lineup.

Martin will join Kim Coon and Brooke Werner as representatives for Sprint, entitlement sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, for the 2014 season.

"The biggest part is bringing NASCAR to the fans," Martin said of her new job. "Giving them that cool, personal experience that I had at my first race. If I can make somebody’s day by talking to them … about the sport I love, that’s an amazing opportunity.

"Meeting with fans, with drivers, doing stories, it all just pairs together a lot of the things that I love and enjoy doing."

From left to right, the Miss Sprint Cup lineup includes Kim Coon, Madison Martin and Brooke Werner.

Martin, a graduate of Frostburg State University where she majored in Mass Communications, previously worked for WSOC-TV in Charlotte. She also served as an intern for Fox News Channel and was a student reporter at Richmond International Raceway.

"My mom took me to my first race (at Richmond) and I got pulled up on the Miss Sprint Cup stage by Monica (former Miss Sprint Cup Monica Palumbo Hancock)," Martin said. "That was actually my introduction into Miss Sprint Cup and my introduction into NASCAR. And I ended up becoming a huge fan after that experience."

Expect to see Martin in demand when there’s a charity golf tournament tied into the Cup schedule — she was captain of her high school golf team and was ranked as one of the nation’s top 100 female golfers.

"I started golfing when I was 13 and kind of became obsessed with it," she said. "I got super into it and worked really hard. I was captain of the boys’ team — we didn’t have a girls’ team — but I ended up being the No. 1 player, going to state and going to a national tournament. It was just an amazing experience."

More than just a presence in Victory Lane, the role of Miss Sprint Cup involves plenty of travel (Coon logged nearly 45,000 miles in 2013, Werner nearly 36,000), and long hours at the track as well as off site. In addition to Victory Lane duties, the representatives spend hours at The Sprint Unlimited Experience meeting with fans, hosting driver appearances and taking part in various fan-related events. They also can be found in the garage throughout the weekend, interacting with fans and officials and generating content for social media.

"There’s so much that’s good about the job," said Werner, who joined the team in 2013. "Meeting race fans every weekend … fans that come back race after race that kind of become like your family. There are fans you’ll see in Sonoma and then you’ll see them in New Hampshire. The fans are definitely the best part.

"Sprint gives us opportunities to do so many awesome things. We had a chance to tour the Walter Reed Memorial Hospital. … You see these warriors who have put so much on the line for us just kind of light up by seeing their favorite driver walk in the room. And we got to be there to see all of that, so that was really special."

Coon said she knew NASCAR fans were passionate, but working as a Miss Sprint Cup has given her a much better understanding of their support.

"You have fans that come to 20 races a year; you have fans from all over the world — Australia, Japan, Germany," she said. "And you have fans that have saved up and maybe this is their one vacation for the next few years.

"I’m very blessed. It’s not very glamorous — there are glamorous parts but it’s a lot of hard work and a lot of responsibility. It takes a lot of dedication."

Martin, who will join Coon and Werner at Daytona in February as the Sprint Unlimited non-points race kicks off the 2014 season, said she’s had initial discussions about what to expect in the coming year.

She knows the "shuffle" — how best to make sure she’s seen behind the driver in the Victory Lane shot — and she’s been warned about the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team, who Werner said "likes to douse you in Gatorade and make you all rainbow colored."

"But not really anything scary," Martin said, laughing. "I think it’s an honor to have this job and it really is a dream job. We’re on the road a lot … you have to be thankful for that. Not everybody gets to have that experience.

Madison Martin previously was a student reporter for Richmond International Raceway, where her love of NASCAR developed.

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Richmond scandal mars an otherwise solid season for 34-year-old

This is the seventh in a series of 2013 Sprint Cup Series driver recaps that will be featured on NASCAR.com

Six days. That’s all it took for Clint Bowyer‘s 2013 season to go from promising to infamous, and literally spin out of control.

On one Sunday night at Atlanta, there was Bowyer poised to take the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings from Jimmie Johnson, until the engine in his No. 15 car let go. And on the following Saturday night at Richmond, there was Bowyer deluged in controversy after a suspicious spin of his vehicle helped ignite one of the largest controversies in recent NASCAR history.

In the end, it was the latter that was remembered more than the former. Bowyer spent the final weeks of the 2013 season keeping a low profile for his role in a race manipulation scandal that led NASCAR to levy against Michael Waltrip Racing perhaps its most severe fine, one which had the effect of knocking Bowyer’s now former MWR teammate Martin Truex Jr. out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and later led the sponsor of the team’s No. 56 car to pull out.

Bowyer wasn’t alone — MWR driver Brian Vickers and his spotter Ty Norris were also sanctioned by NASCAR for a suspicious late pit stop that also played a role in the drama. But in terms of the public outcry, the usually amicable and gregarious Bowyer bore the brunt of it, forcing one of the sport’s most colorful characters to withdraw into a metaphorical shell until the worst of the storm passed.

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"Anytime you have anything bad happen, I don’t care (what), if your name is tied to anything bad, you’re bummed out. Everybody who knows me knows that I love this sport, knows that I appreciate not only the sport, but everybody in it. I enjoy going to the race track, I enjoy believe it or not, talking to (the media). I don’t know why in the hell that is. But I do. I have fun with all aspect of this sport," Bowyer said.

"I enjoy driver intros, that’s our chance to kind of bag on each other a little bit and have some fun and then go out and try to kick each others’ teeth in. But nonetheless, I enjoy this sport. I knew the magnitude of that situation, and respected my part in it, and you’ve got to pay your dues when you have something like that happen. It doesn’t matter what it is. If you’re tied to anything negative for yourself, your race team, or your sport, you’ve got to respect that situation and give it some time."

While the scandal continues to have long-lasting impacts — MWR had to contract to a two-car operation after sponsor NAPA pulled out — Bowyer can at least occasionally joke about it now, as he did in his Champion’s Week speech in Las Vegas. His year was OK, he said, "until it took a spin for the worse. And let me tell you, it was really bad."

And it certainly eclipsed what the No. 15 team did on the track. Although Bowyer went winless this past season for the first time since 2009, he tied a career-high with 10 top-five finishes, and was consistent enough to linger second or third in the standings for 13 straight weeks. He was at his best on the eve of the Chase, and was in position to assume the lead when Johnson was involved in an accident at Atlanta.

It would have been short-lived — the points were reset for the Chase the following week — but Bowyer was disappointed nonetheless after his engine failed, denying him the chance to seize the top spot. Even so, it’s events like that surge into Richmond that he holds on to, even when everyone else is focusing on what came after.

"Looking back, it’s easy to look at one particular thing in a season. But for me, the season’s long, man," he said. "We did a good job of managing the year, managing points and where we needed to be as far as that aspect goes. It’s so important to hit that Chase at full stride, and unfortunately we didn’t do that this year. But nonetheless, I still feel like I’m with a crew chief and with an organization and a manufacturer that’s going to get that done."

Although Bowyer finished fifth at Homestead to claim seventh in the final point standings, the Chase for the No. 15 team was an almost impossible situation given the maelstrom surrounding them. Now the focus turns to next season, and toward that end it will be a different MWR team that rolls into Speedweeks — one without NAPA or Truex, and Jeff Burton in a third car used primarily for research and development. The scandal may have defined his 2013 season, but Bowyer doesn’t believe it will hamper his efforts to contend in 2014.

"I don’t, because we didn’t have to pull back on the tools it takes to build fast race cars — the engineering and simulation and all the things we all know are the keys to success," he said. "We didn’t lose those assets. We lost a lot of assets, there’s no question. … but I guess when it comes down to speed and being able to contend for wins and hopefully still contend for a championship, I still feel like we have those assets intact."

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Johnson wins sixth championship, Gen-6 cars debut with speed, style

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Jimmie Johnson took a giant step toward joining NASCAR’s pantheon of legends. And he did it in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Gen-6 race car, which made its debut in record-setting fashion.

To say the least, 2013 was a very big year.

Johnson, whose run of five consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships ended in 2011, regained his winning form. His "six pack" of titles is one fewer than the seven championships won by NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt – a record the 38-year-old El Cajon, Calif., competitor will stalk in 2014.

Johnson won his second Daytona 500 and became the first competitor since 1982 to post a season sweep at Daytona International Raceway.

The Gen-6 car, a collaborative and far-reaching initiative undertaken by NASCAR, Toyota, Chevrolet Division of General Motors and Ford Motor Company to put the "stock" back in stock car, provided close, competitive racing. The season saw 19 track qualifying records broken; a record number (127,306) of Green Flag Passes; and the lowest Margin of Victory (1.267 seconds) since 2005. Twenty races ended with a margin of victory of less than one second, up from 17 in 2012.

Seventeen different drivers – including five who had gone winless the previous season – went to Victory Lane, two fewer than the series’ modern era record.

Top Driver

Jimmie Johnson: With four victories, Johnson led the points standings after all but three of the regular season’s 26 races. The Hendrick Motorsports driver, however, started the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup as the No. 2 seed behind Matt Kenseth. Victories at Dover International Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway enabled Johnson to keep pace with and then pass his rival. The only driver to qualify in all 10 years of the Chase era, Johnson posted an average finish of 5.0 in the 2013 Chase to edge Kenseth by 19 points. Johnson’s championships have come in three different generations of NASCAR Sprint Cup cars.

Matt Kenseth (Honorable Mention): Many felt 2013 would be a learning year as Kenseth transitioned from driving a Ford for Roush Fenway Racing to piloting a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Kenseth and crew chief Jason Ratcliff, however, jelled from the first Daytona 500 practice, in which Kenseth led 86 laps before his No. 20 Toyota succumbed to engine failure. He won a career-best seven times, including the first two races of the Chase. Kenseth led the Chase after six of its first eight races before handling issues and a 23rd-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway effectively doomed his hopes for a second NASCAR Sprint Cup title.  

Comeback Driver of the Year

Kurt Busch: Two seasons after his release from Penske Racing, Kurt Busch’s career has risen from the ashes thanks to a gritty performance behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet. Busch didn’t win, but he did just about everything but. He wheeled the Denver, Colo.-based organization into the Chase, the first time a single-car team has qualified for NASCAR’s postseason. Busch finished 10th in the final standings with a solid log of 11 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. The performance earned Busch a spot in a fourth Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet for 2014.

Kyle Busch (Honorable Mention): After a lost year in which he failed to qualify for the Chase, Kyle Busch roared back in 2013 to make his strongest bid yet for a premier series championship. He won four times during the regular season and finished second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kenseth in the opening two races of the Chase. A 34th-place finish at Kansas Speedway ended Busch’s title hopes but his fourth-place overall ranking is the Las Vegas native’s best since becoming a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup competitor in 2005. Busch posted 22 top-10 finishes and won three poles – each a season best.

Top Team

Hendrick Motorsports: Rick Hendrick again qualified all four of his drivers – Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne – for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Johnson produced the organization’s 11th NASCAR Sprint Cup championship and won six times. Kahne won twice. Gordon extended his reign as the series’ active win leader with his 88th career victory in October’s Chase race at Martinsville Speedway. Earnhardt failed to find Victory Lane but his 10 top-five finishes were a season best in a Hendrick Chevrolet, which matched his top output of 2004.

Joe Gibbs Racing (Honorable Mention): Coach Gibbs’ three drivers – Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin – gave JGR the most victories among team owners in 2013. Their combined total of 12, led by Kenseth’s seven victories, represented a .333 winning percentage over the season’s 36 races. Kenseth entered the Chase with the No. 1 seed. Kenseth and Busch ranked one-two through the first two races of the postseason before finishing second and fourth, respectively, in final points. It marked the first time since 1999 that two JGR drivers ranked among the top five overall.

Top Breakthrough Performance

Joey Logano: In his first season with Penske Racing, Logano upstaged his new teammate, reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski. Logano qualified for his first Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, while Keselowski became just the second champion during the Chase era to fall short of postseason qualification. The Connecticut native won for the first time in the No. 22 Ford in August at Michigan International Speedway. He posted season bests in overall finish (eighth), top fives (11) and top 10s (19) and laps led (323).

Brian Vickers (Honorable Mention): Once tabbed a "can’t miss" prospect after winning a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship at age 20 and a pair of NASCAR Sprint Cup races, Vickers’ career had been stymied by illness. Vickers latched onto a part-time job with Michael Waltrip Racing in 2012 and finished three of eight races among the top five. This year saw Vickers take the team’s No. 55 Toyota to Victory Lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway – confirming his status as the car’s full-time driver in 2014.

Top Races

Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, May 4 – Often a back-and-forth affair, this May’s race at Talladega Superspeedway lived up to the track’s reputation. It also provided the surprise winner of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season – David Ragan. Ragan, who had previously won at Daytona International Speedway driving for Roush Fenway Racing in 2011, was pushed to victory by his current Front Row Motorsports teammate David Gilliland. It was Front Row’s first victory in NASCAR’s premier series.

Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway, March 24 (Honorable Mention) – Kyle Busch was the benefactor of all-or-nothing beating and banging on the final lap between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin during March’s race at Auto Club Speedway. As Logano and Hamlin traded paint for the win – a battle that caused both to wreck – Busch came on the outside to steal the victory. The Gen-6 race car produced 41 green flag passes for the lead during this one, tying the track record at the Southern California two-miler.

IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, August 24 (Honorable Mention) – Bristol’s annual night race is a spectacle – the perfect stage for late-race drama. During the 2013 edition, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne battled side-by-side in the closing laps. The edge-of-your seat action led to the fourth-closest margin of victory of the season, with Kenseth narrowly beating Kahne to the line.

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Posted on by Staff Report

Scott, 36, was lead engineer on No. 55 team for past two seasons

RELATED: 2014 Sprint Cup Series driver tracker

Billy Scott has been named crew chief for driver Brian Vickers and the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota team fielded by Michael Waltrip Racing, according to a team news release.

Scott, 36, served as lead engineer for the team for the past two seasons.

"Billy was the unanimous selection by everyone here at MWR including the crew, drivers and ownership," team co-owner Michael Waltrip said. "We feel like engineering is one of our strongest assets and with that type of talent in house, it was easy to promote from within.

"Billy has earned this opportunity because he has helped develop and refine the engineering tools that we use every day to make our cars faster."

Scott worked in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as a mechanic before returning to college to obtain an engineering degree. After graduating in 2005 he was employed at Robert Yates Racing and began as an engineer at MWR in ’08.

"I’m honored, but I also know this is a big responsibility," Scott said. "We have very high expectations for … 2014. Brian has been incredible to work with and is a winner, so we can’t wait to get 2014 started."

Rodney Childers served as the team’s crew chief for the bulk of 2013 before leaving to join Stewart-Haas Racing. Scott Miller, MWR’s executive vice president of competition, served as interim crew chief following Childers’ departure.

Vickers made 17 starts for the team in 2013, earning his third career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win with a victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. He also competed full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Joe Gibbs Racing before having to miss the last month-plus of the season after a blood clot was discovered in his right leg.

"I’ve been around Billy the last two seasons and he’s demonstrated a strong knowledge of what makes these cars go fast," Vickers said. "I have a lot of faith in Billy. This is one of the strongest teams I’ve had and that’s a great feeling heading into a new season."

MWR will field two full-time teams for the upcoming season — the No. 55 Toyota of Vickers as well as the No. 15 for Clint Bowyer. A third entry, which will carry the No. 66, will be run in select events with Waltrip and veteran Jeff Burton sharing the driving duties.

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Posted on by Staff Report

Townley finished 11th in points last season and had seven top-10 finishes

John Wes Townley will move to Wauters Motorsports for 2014 where he will drive the team’s No. 5 Toyota entry in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Zaxby’s will provide sponsorship.

“I’m looking forward to working with a well-respected truck owner like Richie Wauters,” Townley said in a statement announcing the move. “He builds some of the best trucks in NASCAR. I know together we will post some top-fives and, hopefully, a few wins this season.”

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Townley, 23, finished 11th in points in the Truck Series this past season while competing for Red Horse Racing. His best results came at Chicago and Homestead where he finished sixth. 

“We are excited to have John Wes and Zaxby’s join us in 2014,” Wauters said. “He has made significant gains in his NASCAR career and we feel this is the right fit for him this season. 

“We expect to have John Wes in the top-five in points and, hopefully, bring home some wins for Zaxby’s.” 

Joe Gibbs Racing Engines will provide engines for the organization.

Tim George Jr. made 10 starts for the Wauters team in 2013 while Jason Bowles drove for the group at Eldora Speedway.

Townley has 50 career Truck Series starts and 45 starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Sauter’s strong start to 2013 was bookended by a solid late rally into the top five in points

This is the third in a series of 2013 Camping World Truck Series driver recaps that will be featured on NASCAR.com.

Johnny Sauter’s fifth full season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series took such an undulating path that even by late September, he rated his own chances as slim for a place of honor at the year-end awards ceremonies.

A midstream crew chief change, a clutch victory and a string of solid finishes late in the season changed all that.

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"It wasn’t very long ago we were in Las Vegas and they had me in the media room there and they were asking me all these questions about being at the banquet," Sauter said after giving his speech for a fourth-place result in the season standings. "They were saying ‘well, it’s for the banquet’ and I said, ‘well, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m not going to be there.’ We got on a roll there."

Sauter got off to the best start imaginable, winning the season opener at Daytona International Speedway and following that with a victory in the series’ next race at Martinsville Speedway. Top-five finishes in the first four races had him perched atop the standings, but Sauter fell to second place after his No. 98 ThorSport Racing team was hit with a 25-point penalty and a four-race suspension for crew chief Joe Shear Jr. for an unapproved fuel cell at Kansas Speedway in April. 

The infraction handed the series lead to ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton, who never relinquished the No. 1 spot on the way to his first series championship. But for Sauter, a chain of crashes (at Charlotte, Pocono and Eldora) pushed his ranking to the edges of the top 10 during the summer months. 

"When you only have 22 races and you go through a stretch where you have a couple of bad races, it’s very, very hard to make that up," Sauter said. "The key is consistency and obviously we saw that this year with what Crafton did." 

After Sauter’s tangle with Ty Dillon at Pocono, the No. 98 team dipped to ninth in the truck series standings, prompting ThorSport to make a change at crew chief by adding veteran wrench Dennis Connor to the mix. It didn’t happen overnight, but Sauter steadily began inching back up the chart, logging seven top-10 finishes over the final 11 races of the season.

That sustaining span was highlighted by a stirring victory in a wreck-filled contest at Talladega Superspeedway, where Sauter expertly avoided the carnage to seal a sweep of the season’s two restrictor-plate races. 

"Superspeedway racing, in my opinion, is a lot of luck, but I do think that this year I prepared more than I ever have for it," Sauter said of his approach to two of NASCAR’s fastest tracks this year. "I watched a lot of video footage from years past. We don’t qualify well when we go to those places, so it’s always a mystery. … I think it’s a big part of luck. I think preparation,obviously all the guys at ThorSport preparing for superspeedway racing makes things a lot easier for me. You just try to go out there and try to be smart all day long. Everything has to go right to win races, but at superspeedways especially." 

The team’s strong start to 2013, bookended by a solid late rally into the top five in points, bodes well for Sauter’s next season. Even more promising, the 35-year-old driver signed a multiyear contract extension just ahead of the season finale in November, securing his future with Duke and Rhonda Thorson’s Ohio-based operation. 

Three victories in 2013 marked a career-best in the win column for a single season. Sauter says the emphasis going forward will be eliminating rough patches in the results column.

"I need to perform every week and not have any bad luck," Sauter said. "Hopefully we’re the ones sitting at the championship table next year."

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Posted on by Staff Report

Atlanta Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway host fourth consecutive season

Coca-Cola, which has been involved in stock car racing for over 50 years and has been the official sparkling beverage of NASCAR since 1998, brought families together and brought fans closer to the stars of the sport this summer with three Coca-Cola Family Track Walks.

In its fourth consecutive year, the Coca-Cola Family Track Walks program provided thousands of fans with the chance to get out and get active by taking a lap of their own with their favorite drivers — on foot.

Fans got moving at three legendary tracks this year. Before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Coca-Cola Family Track Walk included access to an exclusive iHeartRadio Coca-Cola Open For Summer Concert featuring country superstar and All-Star Celebrity Apprentice winner, Trace Adkins, as well as Josh Thompson.

Over Labor Day weekend, Atlanta Motor Speedway hosted the second Coca-Cola Family Track Walk, and Chicagoland Speedway kicked off the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with the third and final event of the year.

During each Coca-Cola Family Track Walk, fans enjoyed entertainment including games, music and Q&A sessions with drivers. All events were free to ticket and credential holders for the corresponding race weekend.

“Coca-Cola Family Track Walks are a great way to participate in some active family fun this racing season. We’re excited to give fans amazing access to some of their favorite drivers and a unique vantage point from the actual track,” said Andy McMillin, vice president, Coca-Cola North America Group. “It’s a program that truly embodies the Coca-Cola values by providing fans with fun, optimism and delicious refreshment — and, just like our new ‘Get The Ball Rolling’ initiative, Coca-Cola Family Track Walks encourages active, healthy living, education and family togetherness.”

Through its partnerships with International Speedway Corporation, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Coca-Cola refreshes racing fans at the majority of NASCAR-sanctioned tracks. A signature part of the brand’s NASCAR association is the Coca-Cola Racing Family — a group of top drivers that includes Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett, Ned Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Kyle Petty, Elliott Sadler and Darrell Wallace, Jr.

For 127 years Coca-Cola has brought people and communities together. Today, that tradition continues through the company’s support of programs to promote energy balance and encourage active, healthy living. Through collaborative partnerships and programs, Coca-Cola is delivering more beverage choices, calorie information and physical activity opportunities than ever before.

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NASCAR Next driver will pilot No. 96 in K&N Pro Series East; Kennedy moving to Camping World Truck Series

Click here to read the full story.

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No. 48 team thrived in midst of inevitable turnover

In retrospect, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Jimmie Johnson won his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in the same season the Generation-6 car was introduced. Because at NASCAR’s highest level, there’s no team that thrives more on change.

On the surface, that seems difficult to believe — the No. 48 team does, after all, feature a driver in Johnson and a crew chief in Chad Knaus who have been inseparable since they were first paired prior to the 2002 campaign, and in the decade since have set the standard for excellence. Week after week, race after race, and season after season, fans see the same things — Johnson behind the wheel, Knaus atop the pit box, and that blue Chevrolet near the front — and make the natural assumption that nothing has changed. Shake things up a little, they often wonder, and then we’ll see what Johnson is made of.

Well, in truth, Johnson has rarely experienced a bigger shakeup on his race team than he did for this past season, and the results speak for themselves. No question Matt Kenseth deserved every accolade he received for thriving in a new environment, falling 19 points short of becoming the first driver to win a championship in his inaugural season with a new team since Darrell Waltrip did it with Junior Johnson and Associates in 1981. But this was hardly the same No. 48 team that battled Brad Keselowski down to the wire a year ago.

Johnson and Knaus were still around, of course. But Knaus’ longtime top engineer, Greg Ives, left to become crew chief for Regan Smith at JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The team added Dave Elenz, who had been the second engineer on the No. 88 team of Dale Earnhardt Jr., the No. 48’s stable mate at Hendrick Motorsports. There were two new mechanics, a new tire specialist and a trio of new over-the-wall crewmen. In fact, for all the No. 48 team’s renowned consistency, there are only three men who have been with the program for its entire run — Johnson, Knaus, and car chief Ron Malec, who was a mechanic for Johnson during their days in the American Speed Association.

In truth, this is a program that’s succeeded to a historic degree despite remaking itself again and again and again, with only a few key pieces remaining intact throughout. All those championships don’t make the No. 48 team immune to natural turnover, like team members wanting to get off the road or leave the industry, people getting older, new faces breaking in, the natural ebb and flow of a sport that’s constantly in motion even at this time of year. But in the case of Johnson’s team, it still appears seamless, which not only says something about Knaus’ ability as a manager, but also makes all those accomplishments seem all the more impressive.

As much as beating opponents on the race track, the No. 48 team feeds off this stuff. Knaus said as much after the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, back when his firesuit was still soaked with champagne.

"Coming into this year we had changes, a lot of changes. It was good," he said. "We had some guys that wanted to come off the road, get married. We had Greg Ives, my right-hand man for years, got a chance to be a crew chief with Regan Smith. So things change. I think that’s one thing that has helped this team. Throughout the course of our careers, we haven’t been afraid to change. I’ve said it time and time again, that you either have to change the personality or change the person. We’ve been very fortunate that a lot of people on the 48 have moved on to bigger and better. That allows us to bring in new, fresh people. When you’re able to bring in new, fresh people into a proven commodity, you get some spice, you get some life. We’re very fortunate to have that this year."

Next season, most everyone on the No. 48 team should remain in place — Knaus said at Champion’s Week that the only anticipated change is the addition of an engineer from JR Motorsports to replace someone who’s decided to leave the industry. But many of Johnson’s over-the-wall crewmen are still just in their 20s.

"When all those guys get comfortable in their skin, they’re only going to get better," Knaus said of all his recent additions. "They’re only going to get stronger. It’s going to be really impressive when these guys really start clicking. It’s going to be good."

This from a team that’s coming off its sixth championship in eight years, mind you. Of course, the last time Knaus lost his top engineer — 2008, when Darian Grubb departed to become Tony Stewart‘s crew chief — the No. 48 won the title the next season, too. It becomes natural to wonder if the success and continuous remaking of this race team are somehow connected, if the change prevents everyone from becoming as comfortable as we on the outside think they should be after accumulating a jewelry box full of championship rings.

Listening to Knaus address the subject at Champion’s Week, you start to realize the No. 48 team thrives not despite the changes, but because of them.

"I feel like when you make a change … it makes you stronger, it makes you have to be stronger. When you work with somebody for a long time, you take them for granted, you know they’re handling this, they’re handling that, and sometimes you can get kind of blurry as to exactly what you want," the crew chief said in Las Vegas.

"When you get new guys and gals like that, you have to be very, very specific about what you want, what your guidelines are, what directives you give. When they ask you a question, you have to go back and think — OK, why is it that I do this? And understand, so when you give an answer, you’re giving the real answer. Because over a period of time, it’s like, ‘Oh, we do it that way. That’s the way we’ve always done it.’ And when a guy’s like, ‘Why do you do that?’ — I don’t know. Let me go back and look. Then I have to go back and dig, and that makes me work harder. So I like that. I like new talent."

No wonder, then, Johnson prevailed once again in a season that saw not only several changes on his No. 48 team, but also to the car he was driving. In all honesty, we should have seen this coming — when the previous Sprint Cup car was phased in, no team handled the implementation better than Hendrick and the No. 48, which won the title that year as well. Major changes like the implementation of the more brand-identifiable Generation-6 vehicle play right to the No. 48 team’s strengths, something Johnson made no secret of when he first tested the car at Martinsville last year.

"I know that we rise to the occasion when there are new challenges," he said then. That much is clearly evident by the six sterling silver trophies he now has on his mantle, collected over eight years of near-constant change within both his sport and his race team, and during which the primary common denominator has been success.

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