Posted on by Staff Report

Company to end long-time relationship with team after Richmond penalties

NAPA Auto Parts announced Thursday that it will end its long-running sponsorship of Michael Waltrip Racing at season’s end in the wake of the team’s heavy penalties for manipulating the results of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular-season finale Sept. 7.
 
Two days after the event, NASCAR officials hit MWR with a $300,000 fine, the deduction of 50 driver and owner points, probation and removed driver Martin Truex Jr. — currently sponsored full-time by NAPA in the series — from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup post-season field. It did so after a review determined that the actions of the teams for fellow MWR drivers Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers took liberties with the spirit of competition at Richmond International Raceway, site of the last race before the Chase began.

Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway, site of the Chase opener, NASCAR President Mike Helton announced a competition bulletin, adding a section to the NASCAR rulebook that read, in part, that, "NASCAR requires its competitors to race at 100 percent of their ability with the goal of achieving their best possible finishing position in an event."

On the company’s Facebook page, NAPA posted this statement: "After thorough consideration, NAPA has made the difficult decision to end its sponsorship arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing effective December 31, 2013. NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR. We remain supportive of the millions of NASCAR fans and will evaluate our future position in motorsports."

NAPA had been with Waltrip since adorning his Dale Earnhardt Inc.-owned car in the 2001 Daytona 500, his first victory in NASCAR’s top series. NAPA also stuck with Waltrip through his transition to team ownership in 2007, when he helped Toyota make its big-league stock car racing debut, and used him extensively in television advertising.

"NAPA has been with me from winning two Daytona 500s, to missing races with a new start-up team, and back to Victory Lane again," Waltrip, 50, said in a statement. "The relationship grew far past that of just a sponsor, but more of a partner and a friend. We will not be racing a NAPA car in 2014, but I have friendships that will last a lifetime.

"To the fans and those who made their voice heard through social media, as the owner, I am responsible for all actions of MWR. I sincerely apologize for the role our team played and for the lines NASCAR has ruled were crossed by our actions at Richmond. NASCAR met with the competitors in Chicago and we all know how we are expected to race forward."

MWR issued a statement of its own regarding NAPA’s announcement: "Michael Waltrip Racing respects the decision NAPA announced today following the events at Richmond. There is no doubt, the story of Michael Waltrip Racing begins with NAPA Auto Parts, but there are many more chapters yet to be written. MWR has the infrastructure and support of Toyota for three teams plus three Chase-caliber, race-winning drivers. With the support of our corporate partners we are preparing to field three teams in 2014. MWR is a resilient organization capable of winning races and competing for the championship and that remains our sole focus."

NAPA had announced a three-year contract extension with MWR and Truex last season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Thursday’s decision leaves the No. 56 without a primary sponsor and comes with two years left on the contract.

Two days after the penalties were announced, the Atlanta-based retailer of replacement auto parts and accessories told its followers on Facebook that it was reviewing its relationship with Michael Waltrip Racing. Aaron’s, primary sponsor for Vickers, and 5-Hour Energy, primary sponsor for Bowyer, said they respected NASCAR’s decision.

Aaron’s said through its Twitter account Thursday that "Aaron’s thanks NASCAR fans for their loyalty. After a 14-year sponsorship of MWR, we remain dedicated to MWR, to NASCAR and to the fans." 5-Hour Energy previously said it would be "addressing our sponsorship relations internally."

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Driver battled pit road adversity to third-place finish at Chicagoland

MORE: Full coverage of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup

JOLIET, Ill. — New rules and a well-sorted car made restarts a strong suit for Kevin Harvick on Sunday night at Chicagoland Speedway.
 
Harvick parlayed both into a hard-fought third-place finish in the first round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, further establishing his credentials as a title contender in his swan song with Richard Childress Racing.
 
The podium finish wasn’t short on drama. Three times in the Geico 400, Harvick battled back from pit-road adversity that knocked him from the top 10 — once when his rivals all pitted took two tires instead of his four, once on a sluggish stop and once when he was blocked in by Dave Blaney as he tried to leave his stall.
 
That’s when his prowess on restarts during the race’s six second-half caution periods lifted him up the running order.

"Our car was really good on the restarts, so you could pick a bunch of them off pretty easy there going into Turn 1 and 2," said Harvick, who started 17th. "All in all, it was a good night, just too loose at the end to run with those guys up off the corner, but still a good night."
 
After questionable restarts in the Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series the previous weekend at Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR added more layers to the restart procedure in the pre-race drivers’ meeting at Chicagoland, saying that the second-place car was allowed to beat the leader to the start-finish line so long as the leader was in front when the green flag was displayed to the field. For Harvick, it caused him to look at restarts with a whole new approach.
 
On the race’s final restart, Harvick was third behind a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch, as the field lined up double-file. Armed with the knowledge that he could be more assertive under the new rules, Harvick pushed second-place Kenseth past his teammate at the drop of the green.
 
"I think everybody can be a little bit more aggressive as you saw at the end, not worrying about shoving the other guy in front," Harvick said. "I think when the green flag goes, you just start going and make a decision as to whether you want to go low or push the guy in front of you. As you saw at the end with Matt, I was able to be really aggressive on that restart and keep shoving him."
 
Although race winner Kenseth and runner-up Busch remain 1-2 ahead of him in the standings, Harvick held serve in fourth place with nine races remaining in the season. He also gained ground thanks to the more than six hours’ worth of rain delay, which changed a daytime event into a night race — an unanticipated benefit for the No. 29 Chevrolet’s handling characteristics after the team fought a tight condition in the early going.
 
The other unexpected perk from the down time? An increase in family time and a break from what had been a long weekend in the greater Chicago area.
 
"Honestly, I just went back and hung out with (wife) DeLana and my son, ate some dinner, relaxed and watched football," Harvick said. "That’s what I did — really not think about racing. When it was time to go, you get back into the right frame of mind."

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from the GEICO 400

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Rookie driver has two straight top-10 finishes

MORE: Full coverage of the Chase for the Sprint Cup

JOLIET, Ill. — Rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a clear path to his second consecutive top-10 finish, only it took a slight detour — through the drive-through, no less.
 
Stenhouse left the track for a bite to eat during the five-hour, 10-minute rain delay Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. Sated and with the majority of his race ahead of him, he drove from 18th place at the point of the red flag to a solid eighth-place finish in the Geico 400, the opening race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason.
 
"Went to Sonic," Stenhouse said. "Gave me a little bit of energy. Took a nap and really played it out well."

Through Twitter, Stenhouse offered to bring Clint Bowyer a chili dog while making his food run. Jimmie Johnson weighed in, saying he’d like a milkshake. Stenhouse said sure, but only in exchange for some set-up pointers, prompting the five-time Sprint Cup champion to withdraw his order.
 
As it turns out, Stenhouse finished just three spots behind Johnson without any friendly advice.
 
"We started the race and thought we were in big trouble," said Stenhouse, who dropped in the early stages after starting fifth in the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. "Luckily after the rain delay, getting back out there at night, it kind of helped our car turn a little bit better. I stayed out there on that last caution, thought we were going to be in trouble with those guys behind us on tires, but we were able to hold them off."
 
Sunday night’s effort marked a career-best Sprint Cup finish for the second straight week. He notched his first Sprint Cup Coors Light Pole Award three weeks ago at Atlanta, then followed his 10th-place performance at Richmond with the eighth at Chicagoland.
 
Crew chief Scott Graves’ decision not to pit during the final sequence of caution periods certainly helped Sunday night, but Stenhouse isn’t sure what the exact difference has been in the three-week uptick in results.
 
"I wish I knew," Stenhouse said. "I feel like our cars still don’t drive very good. I think Scott is making good calls to get us track position at the end of these races and we’re able to hang on to it. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. It’s good to carry that momentum from that pole in Atlanta, two top-10s now. We were looking forward to carrying that on the rest of the year. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.
 
"I think just good pit calls there at the end, keeping us out on the track and getting track position has been the best for us lately."

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Summit highlights support from official partners like UPS

CHICAGO — Former Vice President Al Gore remembers his initial reaction when he first heard NASCAR wanted to boost its efforts at becoming environmentally friendly and start NASCAR Green.

"I joked that NASCAR and ‘Green’ went together about as well as sharks and tornadoes," Gore told NASCAR.com. "But now ‘Sharknado’ is a big movie hit, and NASCAR is going green."

UPS

Gore was the keynote speaker at the 2013 NASCAR Green Summit delivered by UPS. The event celebrated the fifth year of the sport’s NASCAR Green initiative.

“With leadership, and a dedicated team you can work miracles," Gore said. "And what NASCAR has been doing is extremely impressive. It’s having an impact on the attitudes of all of us, and NASCAR fans."

The summit was an opportunity to show how far NASCAR Green has come since 2008. NASCAR Managing Director of Green Innovation Dr. Mike Lynch said the program now has 25 partners, including 10 that are new to sports. Six NASCAR facilities operate off renewable energy, and a partnership with American Ethanol has seen NASCAR’s race cars drive four million miles using ethanol-blended Sunoco Green E15 fuel.

"We’re so far ahead of schedule, I don’t have words for it," Lynch said. "These are just things that I never would’ve predicted that we’d be where we are today."

Lynch said one key to NASCAR Green’s success was getting involvement from sponsors already involved in the sport’s competition side. Coca-Cola and Coors Light have recycled more than 15 million containers at race tracks across the country. Goodyear and Liberty Tire team to recycle 120,000 tires each year. UPS committed to planting 1 million trees, including 8,000 this year at NASCAR venues. Those trees will help neutralize 100 percent of the carbon produced by all on-track activity.

UPS Director of Global Sponsorships & Sustainability Communications Betsy Wilson said NASCAR Green is a perfect match for the company.

"It’s an important part of who we are at UPS, and it’s important we work with partners who share our values," Wilson said. "I think NASCAR has done a great job of leading amongst sports entities in this space. And I think they’re so far ahead of the game it’s great to think of what may come in the next five years."

The 2013 Summit, the second since the programs inception, was highlighted by a series of panel discussions and guest speakers. Ret. General Wesley Clark spoke on the concerns about the dependency on foreign oil. Representatives from the sport’s auto manufacturers and other partners talked about what’s to come for both the sport and consumers.

NASCAR Green was developed under the leadership of NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France. With the "Green" idea in mind, France said he and his team met with Gore more than five years ago and left the meeting "encouraged." Both France and Gore said professional sports can have a significant influence on the public attitude toward Green initiatives.

"From the original vision, I think we’ve achieved way beyond what I would’ve thought," France said. "The sponsor participation and their related programs in to what we’re doing put us on a path to frankly lead sports in an area many people thought we would not be able to do."

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Company shifts investment away from series title sponsorship

NASCAR and Nationwide Insurance have finalized a new agreement to extend Nationwide’s position as the official auto, home, life and business insurance partner of NASCAR through 2017. As part of the new contract, Nationwide Insurance also will become the presenting sponsor of the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. 

The insurer, in its sixth year of a seven-year agreement as title sponsor of the NASCAR Nationwide Series, will pivot from its series entitlement sponsorship and focus its NASCAR marketing programs on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series beginning in 2015. 

“As a series entitlement sponsor and savvy marketer, Nationwide Insurance has been an ideal partner to our sport and we’re proud to have them continue to be part of our family of Official NASCAR Partners,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR chief marketing officer. “The company has been highly successful in using our sport as a platform to enhance its brand and drive its business and has stated publicly how much value they glean as a series sponsor. The fact that Nationwide will continue its investment across our sport — in a variety of ways and for many years to come — is encouraging and speaks to the power of NASCAR as a marketing platform.”

The insurer began its 15-year motorsports history as a hospitality sponsor with targeted race tracks and progressed to the Official Insurance Partner of NASCAR and the title sponsor for the U.S.’s No. 2 motorsports series. Nationwide Insurance will look to build a more consistent presence in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series enabling its message to reach an even larger NASCAR audience. 

“The NASCAR Nationwide Series is a great proving ground not only for drivers and crew members, but for sponsors too,” said Nationwide chief marketing officer, Matt Jauchius. “We’re proud of the success Nationwide Insurance has attained through our relationships with NASCAR and the Nationwide Series. It’s a natural evolution for Nationwide Insurance to move our marketing investment to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and we’ll continue to put tremendous effort behind all of our NASCAR marketing platforms in the years to come.”

Nationwide Insurance also will sponsor the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. The NASCAR Foundation presents the award to a NASCAR fan who embodies the ideals of charity and community that Mrs. France has championed throughout her life. Nominees for the award honor the spirit of NASCAR, demonstrating goodwill and generosity in the interest of helping children in need. One winner receives a $100,000 donation to direct to the children’s charity of their choice along with a NASCAR experience of a lifetime. The top three remaining finalists receive $25,000 to direct to their children’s charity of choice.

“We approached NASCAR about sponsoring the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award because it embodies the spirit and culture of giving that Nationwide Insurance values,” added Jauchius. “The Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 race is a good example of the collaboration among sponsors, teams and the NASCAR Foundation pulling together to shine the national spotlight on a deserving organization. We look forward to working with Betty Jane and the Foundation to highlight other unique charitable efforts that NASCAR fans support all across the country.”

“Nationwide Insurance is a long-standing partner to NASCAR, and more importantly a strong advocate for children, and we are excited to welcome them as presenting sponsor of the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award,” said Betty Jane France, NASCAR Foundation Chairwoman. “At The NASCAR Foundation, we seek to align ourselves with brands and organizations that share our same mission of enhancing the lives of children in this country. For these reasons, Nationwide Insurance is a perfect fit to help us present this special award.”

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Nationwide to shift its sponsorship focus in 2015

For only the second time ever NASCAR is searching for a new title sponsor for its No. 2 racing series, and the sport’s chief sales officer is optimistic about finding a new partner before the current agreement with Nationwide expires after next season.

"I have no doubt at all," Jim O’Connell said when asked about finding a replacement. "There will be very strong interest in this series entitlement position. There will be interest from some great companies, a lot of Fortune 500 companies. We will find a great partner for 2015, just like we did with Nationwide. They were a fantastic partner. And we’re excited they’re staying in the sport, we’re excited they’re upping their investment in the sport. They’re obviously shifting their funds a little bit away from the entitlement, but they did a fantastic job for us, and we look forward to bringing in another partner."

NASCAR announced Wednesday that Nationwide, the Ohio-based insurance company that’s acted as title sponsor for the sport’s No. 2 series since 2008, would divert its efforts elsewhere in the sport after next season. In the sixth year of a seven-year deal as entitlement partner of the Nationwide Series, beginning in 2015 the company will shift its marketing efforts to NASCAR’s top level, the Sprint Cup Series.

"We’ve been in this sport 14 years," said Matt Jauchius, Nationwide’s chief marketing officer. "We’re not going anywhere."

NASCAR now searches for a new title partner for a racing series that’s served as a breeding ground to many current Sprint Cup stars such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth. Originally an offshoot of the old Sportsman Series, what began in 1982 as the Busch Grand National tour has grown into a circuit with its own 33-race slate and television presence. Through 25 races this year, the Nationwide Series is averaging 1.8 million viewers, and is often the second-most viewed motorsports event on television each week.

O’Connell said NASCAR has not yet begun negotiating with potential new partners, but has laid much of the groundwork including assembling a sales team and fine-tuning its presentation. While the economy is still in recovery, the search for a new title sponsor comes on the heels of NASCAR striking a new multi-billion-dollar television deal that includes events in its No. 2 series being broadcast on Fox Sports 1 and NBC networks beginning in 2015 — the same year the new partnership would go into effect.

"We are 100 percent confident that we’ll have a great partner for 2015," O’Connell said.

"I think it’s a great opportunity for a company to become involved, whether it’s someone who’s already involved in the sport to become more integrated and more aligned, or for a Fortune 500 company that’s not currently involved with NASCAR — and there aren’t that many of them — to come into the sport in a big way," he added. "It’s an amazing opportunity."

Although Nationwide is stepping away from series entitlement, the company is staying in the sport by shifting efforts into Sprint Cup. It showed some hints of that earlier this season, when it announced a seven-race deal over two years to serve as primary sponsor on the No. 17 car of two-time Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr., now in the Sprint Cup ranks. Its move to a more broad-based strategy is similar to what the company did in golf, where it shifted from the backer of the sport’s secondary tour to the sponsor of Jack Nicklaus’ annual tournament, in addition to increasing its television advertising presence.

"We felt like the NASCAR fan knows us certainly better than they did before we sponsored the series," Jauchius said. "That’s why it’s worked so well for us. But people like to see a freshness, and our approach to broadening the strategy, we just thought it felt like the right one."

That strategy will continue to include commercials featuring Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick, through at least 2015. Jauchius said Nationwide will be at race tracks with signage as well as hosting partners and customers, and likely have an increased digital presence that includes NASCAR.com. The company will also evaluate the possibility of extending its sponsorship of Stenhouse’s car at Roush Fenway Racing as assets become available into 2015.

"Yes, we’re transitioning from series sponsor to another role," Jauchius said, "but you’ll actually see Nationwide even more present in the NASCAR ecosystem going forward."

Jauchius compared the move to a driver or crew chief progressing from Nationwide into the Sprint Cup ranks, and said it’s all being done with the goal of increasing the company’s brand awareness among NASCAR fans. Nationwide has also signed on as NASCAR’s official auto, home, life, and business insurance partner through 2017, and will sponsor the annual Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award.

"I think that sends a tremendous message. It sends a message to the entire NASCAR industry that NASCAR continues to work for business," O’Connell said. "Nationwide is not only staying in the sport as an official partner … but they’ve gone on record as saying they’re going to up their investment, and they’re going to shift their investment to Sundays in the Sprint Cup. But they’re going to be spending more, and I think it sends a tremendous message."

For NASCAR, the task is now to find only the circuit’s third entitlement sponsor — following Anheuser-Busch and Nationwide — in time for the 2015 campaign. Toward that end, O’Connell said there is no concrete deadline by which to have a new agreement in place.

"What I will say is this — we’ll have a fantastic partner for the 2015 season," O’Connell said. "Obviously there are some timelines involved in terms of all the things where the series entitlement partner is represented, and we need to be sensitive to that. But other than that, I don’t like to put a timeline on things. We’ll make sure we get the right partner, and we’ll make sure we have it for the 2015 season."

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Truck Series rookie makes Nationwide debut on Saturday at Kentucky

For Jeb Burton, the pressure is on. With just six races remaining this season in the Camping World Truck Series, he’s running out of time to make up the 70 points that stand between him and leader Matt Crafton.

"It’s a long way," the Turner Scott Motorsports driver admitted. "We’re going to have to have some things go our way."

This weekend, though, brings a break from all that in the form of Burton’s debut in the Nationwide Series. Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, he’ll pilot a fourth TSM entry that finished second in its most recent outing, in July at Daytona with James Buescher behind the wheel. On a track he’s familiar with from the Truck Series, supported by regular crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. and the rest of his usual team from his No. 4 truck, Burton will make laps in what he hopes is a tune-up for more events like this next season.

"I’m not trying to put so much pressure on myself to where it’s like, if I don’t run good in this race, its my career. It’s definitely not," he said. "This is just to help us for next year, and into the next year, and into the next year. This is just a learning race for us, and we’re just going to have some fun at it. We have no points to worry about. Our goal is to run all the laps and finish in the top 10. That’s our goal for this week. Anything more than that, we’ll take it. but I really feel like if we don’t have any mistakes and we can get the car handling like I need it to in practice, we can be top 10."

Burton said had initially hoped to compete in seven or eight Nationwide races this season, but the funding didn’t come through. He gets his chance at Kentucky thanks to an off weekend for the Truck Series, which next races at Las Vegas on Sept. 28. The 21-year-old son of former Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton, Jeb tested the Nationwide car earlier this year in Nashville, and left there confident he could be competitive on the 1.5-mile track in Sparta, Ky.

"In the truck you can get away a little more with being looser, just from the side force and stuff," said Burton, who finished ninth in the Truck Series event at Kentucky in June. "The Nationwide car, one thing I did like about it is, it seemed like it’s more of a finesse game. Just being heavier, I guess, with more horsepower. More like a (Sprint) Cup car."

It’s all part of a progression. Burton said his plan next season is to run seven or eight Nationwide races in addition to another full-time slate on the Truck Series.

"I really want to win that championship next year," he said. "And I think we will, because this year was the fist time I’ve ever seen these places. Next year when we go back a second time, it’s going to be pretty stout, I think."

Burton has one Truck Series victory — at Texas, in June — and five poles in what’s been a stellar first full-time season at NASCAR’s national level. He’s fourth in the standings, 70 points behind Crafton after a ninth-place run last week at Chicagoland.

"We’re good. I’m happy," he said, although it’s clear the points he’s left on the race track — particularly at Martinsville in April, where the South Boston, Va., native led 154 laps but ended up third — still eat at him.

"It’s just, I’ve probably given up probably 80 points this year just in mistakes and not having been to race tracks and stuff," he said. "Not knowing. I feel like next year will be our year. We’re not out of the championship now, but I feel like next year will be our year."

First, though, comes Saturday night’s no-pressure Nationwide debut at Kentucky, a race that will also feature Truck Series regulars Joey Coulter (in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 car), Dakoda Armstrong (in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21), Ryan Blaney (in Penske Racing’s No. 22), and Matt Crafton (in RCR’s No. 33).

"Everybody’s pumped up and ready to go," Burton said.

Then it’s back to the Truck Series and trying to make up ground on Crafton, beginning with a race at Las Vegas that kick-starts the circuit’s final push toward the championship. Also looming is a return to Texas, where Burton won earlier this year. And the Virginia native has a certain paper-clip-shaped track circled on his calendar.

"We need to win some races and have things go our way, but we’re not going to give up on it," Burton said. "Third is only like 12 points ahead of me, and I think second is like 20 points ahead of me. So we can definitely get to those. Really, after Martinsville, I want to be second in points. We go to Vegas, we go to those mile-and-a-halfs, and Martinsville we’re awesome at. I’m going to be really disappointed if we don’t go to Martinsville and win, to tell you the truth. That’s my home track. That’s my Daytona 500. That’s it."

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After a difficult week, Bowyer wants to move forward in Chase battle

MORE: Full coverage of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup

It was a difficult week to be Clint Bowyer.

In the aftermath of a spinout at Richmond International Raceway that helped spark a race manipulation scandal so big it twice altered the makeup of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the typically affable Michael Waltrip Racing driver heard it from all sides. From many reporters there were nonstop questions about whether he looped his No. 15 car on purpose, and from many fans there were outcries assuming Bowyer had done just that. “Cheater!” he heard shouted at him more than once, whether it was at a live contenders event in Chicago, or walking out of the drivers’ meeting before the race in Joliet, Ill.

So perhaps no one was probably happier to blow out of the Windy City than Bowyer, who by the end of last weekend had become another instrument of controversy in a town where intrigue is as deeply-rooted as the ivy on the outfield walls of Wrigley Field. He managed a solid if unspectacular ninth-place finish in the opening Chase race — maybe more impressive than it seemed, given the circumstances of the previous seven days — and disappeared into the night.

And now comes a change of venue, perhaps mental as well as physical for a driver who more than any other needs to turn the page. A big city infamous for antiheroes, wheeler-dealers, and smoke-filled back rooms gives way to a more pastoral setting of birch forests and leaves turning from green to gold. And the turmoil of Joliet is replaced by the promise of New Hampshire Motor Speedway — which offers not only a chance for Bowyer to further distance himself from "SpinGate," as some have called it, but also a real opportunity for the MWR driver to make a statement in this Chase.

It’s easy to forget, amid all the scandal and the recriminations, that Bowyer was a driver poised to take the points lead from Jimmie Johnson before the engine in his No. 15 car seized up at Atlanta. It’s easy to overlook how good he can be at New Hampshire, which may not be Bowyer’s best track — statistically, that would be the road course at Sonoma — but it’s still a place where he can put an absolute spanking on the field.

He’s done that twice, in a 2007 effort where he dominated the show by leading 222 of 300 laps en route to his first career victory, and again in 2010 when he paced 177 circuits at the front. Of course, that win three years ago quickly became embroiled in a controversy of a different kind, when NASCAR inspectors at the Research and Development Center found the vehicle to be out of whack, and the ensuing penalty effectively doomed Bowyer’s championship hopes just one race into the playoff. Somehow the guy seems to find trouble when he’s at or near his best, as we saw again last year in his run-in with Jeff Gordon at Phoenix while still on the fringes of title contention.

No question, that latter New Hampshire victory is accompanied by a sizeable asterisk, and both of those triumphs occurred well before the implementation of the Generation-6 car Sprint Cup teams are using this year. They also happened with Richard Childress Racing, Bowyer’s former team. But the Kansas native finished third and fourth, respectively, in the two races last year on the Magic Mile with MWR. His teammate Brian Vickers won there in the spring. MWR competition director Scott Miller, also serving as interim crew chief on Vickers’ No. 55 car, was at RCR with Bowyer those two times he routed the field at Loudon. And NHMS is still a technical, hit-it-or-miss-it track, certainly opening the door for someone to run away from everyone else.

Just like Bowyer has done twice. "If there is a track on the schedule that I feel we could make up some ground in the Chase, New Hampshire is that track," he said in his weekly team release. "I’ve won at New Hampshire twice, and I love everything about it. The flat short tracks seem to fit my driving style the best, and I have had a lot of success there, so we are pretty confident going in. We could use a big week to get back on the right track."

The Chase is only one race in, but it’s already beginning to stratify, with Matt Kenseth picking right up where he left off in the regular season and engine failures putting Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. more than a full race behind the leaders. An early victory by one of those middle-of-the-pack drivers could go a long way toward determining on which end of the spectrum they end up. And for Bowyer, it would certainly be a giant step toward turning the focus back toward the race track, and away from the scandal that’s ensnared him over the past week.

Yes, a lot of this is of his own making. Yes, he probably should have come clean about his Richmond spin from the very beginning, rather than dancing around the subject like a performer on stage at the Chicago Theatre. But some of the catcalls he had to deal with last week would make you wince. "Be nice," host Nicole Briscoe admonished some in the crowd after they got a little too vocal in a live program featuring Chase drivers at Navy Pier. Yeah, he screwed up. But given his personality, and given that Bowyer seems to represents so much of what people like in NASCAR drivers, you’d hope this wouldn’t dog him forever.

"I consider Clint Bowyer to be one of the best people in this garage," said former RCR teammate Jeff Burton, in what’s no small endorsement. "Anybody that says otherwise doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Actions can be looked at, but when you start talking about somebody and who they are to the core, and you really don’t know them — you’ve got to be careful. Because some people have been accused of things this week and called things that just aren’t fair."

NASCAR’s most popular driver seemed to agree. "I feel bad for Clint," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I know Clint, and I know what kind of person he is. I feel bad for him because he was part of something that is not a good reflection of his personality. It’s unfortunate. But he’ll be fine."

Certainly, a victory this weekend at New Hampshire could go a long way toward that. As he’s shown in the past, Bowyer is capable of demolishing the field on a difficult flat track where the former dirt racer has twice motored to Victory Lane. Should he do it again Sunday, backing up a regular season where he didn’t win but nonetheless lingered high in the standings, he could establish himself as a serious Chase contender — especially with favorable venues like Charlotte and Talladega still looming ahead.

Would that completely shake the specter of Richmond, or completely eliminate the razzings like those he took in Chicago? Probably not. It may take a long offseason to do that. But NASCAR is better with a Bowyer who’s vying for race wins in the car, and is his natural, playful self outside of it. One step at a time. The first comes Sunday in New Hampshire, where a driver partially responsible for NASCAR making two changes to the Chase has an opportunity to stake his claim to winning it. Should he manage that, the spires of Chicago may suddenly feel very far away indeed.

MORE:

READ: Kenseth wins at rainy Chicagoland

READ: Engine failure halts Logano’s fast Chase start

WATCH: Post-Race Reactions GEICO 400

WATCH: Final Laps: Kenseth takes Chicagoland
Posted on by Holly Cain

Former Sprint Cup champ lauds Colorado-based team as Chase caliber

As far as driver Kurt Busch is concerned, the allure is sizable and straightforward for his potential replacement at Furniture Row Racing.

"This is a Chase team, everybody in the garage that’s (ranked) 14th on back, if they’re not committed to a program they should be clawing over each other trying to get to this team," Busch said Monday, fresh off a top-five finish (fourth) in the Chase to the NASCAR Sprint Cup opener a day earlier.

Through radio, television, teleconference and fan interviews at the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Tuesday afternoon, Busch sounded every bit as bullish on the future of FRR as he did in January during a preseason media gathering in a Charlotte hotel banquet room. Even back then the 2004 NASCAR champ was glad-handing, back-slapping and speaking with great passion and conviction about how rewarding it would be to race this team into the 2013 Chase for this "underdog" single-car team from the Wild West.

Likewise, FRR’s team leaders — crew chief Todd Berrier and general manager Joe Garone — exuded a similar kind of confidence and optimism for the season. And Furniture Row team owner Barney Visser coolly predicted his Denver, Colorado-based team’s first Chase berth the way Rick Hendrick can predict he’ll visit Victory Lane once or twice.

The scene of great hope and promise was everything you’d expect of any team — but especially this relatively new team — before the season’s first race lap.

Nine months later we know it wasn’t all over-the-top swagger or blind optimism.

Busch has mightily held up his end of the bargain, racing the series’ only single-car operation into the Chase. And with a fourth place at Chicago’s Chase opener Sunday night, Busch sits sixth in the championship — a reasonable 23 points behind leader Matt Kenseth — and more motivated than ever.

Yet, as the team’s expectations have been raised and met, it again sits at a crucial crossroad for the 2014 season. With Busch leaving for Stewart-Haas Racing next season, where does the "little" team that could — and did — go from here? Who will come in and carry on what Busch has proven possible?

He has some ideas. And named names.

"I think the level of driver that they’re looking for would be somebody with experience as well as somebody that has the potential to grow into whom would best fit that role," Busch said Monday. "But we’re starting to run out of those experienced drivers, such as Juan Pablo Montoya … and you’re now looking at guys like a David Ragan as a veteran or a Scott Speed.

"One of the dark horses that nobody is really looking at that I think would be a good candidate is a Josh Wise. But the list can go on and on.

"You have (Dave) Blaney’s son (Ryan), you have (Ryan) Truex, everybody that wants a Chase ride. This is a Chase car, I’m sure their phone is ringing off the hook, and I’m not mentioning the right names. But I see a young guy fitting in over there that can grow with the team just based off of what I’ve seen with their negotiations."

A driver announcement from FRR could come at any time. Its vacant driver’s seat is the hottest job opening on the circuit. Many people, including Busch, expected FRR to sign Montoya when the ride became available. But Montoya signed to drive for Roger Penske’s IndyCar program in 2014.

"I thought Montoya was going to be a good fit, but I don’t think they wanted to pay that kind of veteran salary, I think is what it turned out to be," Busch said. "Or, I think it was the opportunity of a lifetime similar to my situation (at Stewart-Haas) that came up for Montoya."

Busch said "one of the sticking points of why I didn’t re-sign there was, I asked for a five-year plan, and they didn’t quite have a definition for that," Busch said. "So does that mean they want to run strong and give everything they’ve got for one more year? Or are they looking to bridge to the next two, three years? I don’t know.

"But they’ve asked me good questions about specific drivers, and I know they’re taking a good, hard look at everybody.”

Busch said he had a casual, but telling, conversation with FRR owner Barney Visser just last week before the Chicago race. Visser asked Busch if he thought a rookie could finish in the top-five in the championship by his second year as Busch had done.

"He asked me, ‘Do think that can be done with a rookie in this day and age?’ And I told him the competition between sixth and 20th is so fierce, that I don’t think it’s the same as it was in the early 2000s," Busch recounted. "… there are so many guys, it’s very difficult to crack through, especially with competitive cars. There’s such a quantity of cars that can run well.

"So my answer to him was ‘no,’ but that tells you they’re looking at a young guy."

Whoever the driver ends up being, Busch promises he will have resources in place to be successful — including a renewed technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing.

And while Busch is currently riding a string of three consecutive top-five finishes, and has 14 top-10 efforts, he is still looking for a win in the season’s nine remaining races.

And he thinks the difference between a near-miss and Victory Lane is the lone and obvious challenge in a year that would have been viewed as an overachievement by those that didn’t take FRR’s preseason commitment to heart.

"I wish I knew (what the final piece was) because I’d implement it right now and we’d go to New Hampshire with it," Busch said. "I feel like we’re a 95 percent team. We have a lot of tools that are strong.

"We go to the racetrack each week with raw speed. Our pit crew has improved, but we’re missing that last five percent, and I don’t know where it’s coming from, and if we had it, I think we could drive into Victory Lane with it next week with it. They’re a fantastic team. They have a lot of well-roundedness to them, and there’s just a couple small areas that I think that they could improve. But I don’t know exactly what to do to pinpoint it."

"We have all the right people, and it was just a matter of having everything fall into place with the performances on track, and we’ve been able to do that," Busch said. "It’s been a very successful season and we’re in the Chase and we don’t want it to stop there.

"We want it to keep going."

MORE:

READ: Kenseth wins at rainy Chicagoland

READ: Engine failure halts Logano’s fast Chase start

WATCH: Post-Race Reactions GEICO 400

WATCH: Final Laps: Kenseth takes Chicagoland
Posted on by Jason Lofing

Hudson (01) battles Daley (93) and Laughton (40) en route to his maiden NiSWC win.

After nearly four full seasons of trying, Tyler Hudson finally scored his first NASCAR iRacing Series World Championship win, holding-off Joey Brown and Byron Daley at Chicagoland Speedway. The victory came just one race after Hudson nearly won at Atlanta, coming-in second to Brown after a wild last lap.

This time around, Hudson turned the tables, with Brown finishing second and Daley, who tried a daring pass on the outside with a handful of laps remaining, taking third. Joshua Laughton was fourth and Ray Afalla finished fifth, notching his series-leading eleventh top five in fifteen online races.

“The last two weeks have been unbelievable. We’ve had such fast cars that it has been so much fun to race. After last weekend and being so close I thought maybe it would never happen, because in four years that’s the closest I’ve ever been.” Hudson explained. “Fortunately we brought another hot rod to the track this weekend and were able to FINALLY get that first win.”

"Fortunately we brought another hot rod to the track this weekend" – Tyler Hudson

“After last weekend and being so close I thought maybe it would never happen . . . Fortunately we brought another hot rod to the track this weekend.” — Tyler Hudson

The NiSWC veteran qualified mid-pack in twentieth, but took two tires under the first caution then drove up through the rest of the field, taking second position on Lap 74. With Brown in his sights, Hudson began slowly closing the gap and passed him for the lead on Lap 111. Hudson looked poised to run away with the race, but as green flag stops approached he decided to stay out a bit longer than the other leaders which put him back in traffic.

With his slightly newer tires, Hudson began slicing his way through the field yet again but, in the meantime, Laughton had built a comfortable lead. That lead was erased when the yellow flew with 34 laps remaining for Brian Schoenberg’s spin. Hudson and the rest of the leaders opted to pit for tires under the caution, but Hudson’s crew let him down and three cars beat him out of the pit lane. Daley tried two tires for track position and emerged as the leader with Laughton and Baldwin in second and third ahead of Hudson.

When the green dropped it only took six laps for Hudson to regain second and begin to hunt down Daley. Hudson passed Daley with 20 to go and once again it looked as if he had the race in the bag. However, Daley had other plans. Despite his worn left side rubber, Daley stayed right in Hudson’s tire tracks and slowly started reeling him in. With five laps remaining, he latched-on to the rear bumper of Hudson’s Ford Fusion. got a strong run off Turn Two and looked to the inside.  Hudson blocked his run and Daley chose to attempt the pass on the outside into Turn Three. Unfortunately for Daley, the second groove did not have the grip he needed, thus he was unable to complete the pass and lost second place to Brown in the bargain.

With his win, Hudson moved to second in the championship standings with only three races remaining. Alfalla leads Hudson by a comfortable 48 point margin and still appears to be in control. Schoenburg fell to third after finishing a distant 26th and is now 60 points back of the lead. Marcus Lindsey rebounded nicely after his blown engine at Atlanta to finish seventh at Chicagoland and move into fourth place in the standings. He sits 22 points back of Schoenburg, but just five markers in front of Michael Conti, who fell to fifth on the heels of a 17th place finish at Chicagoland. Nick Ottinger (sixth last night) remains sixth overall, 10 points out of the top five.

Next up on the schedule is the NiSWC’s first trip to Kansas Speedway. The 1.5 mile oval has a very fast top groove, which will likely make passing very difficult, so qualifying and pit strategy will be more important than normal. With only one week to prepare instead of the normal two, drivers who find a good baseline setup quickly will have an advantage, which should show come Tuesday evening. It is hard to bet against Hudson, Brown or Alfalla at this stage, but a new track and unique racing line may have a surprise in store. Could the NiSWC see first time winners in back-to-back weeks?

            Average Lap Time Laps Completed Cautions Caution Laps Lead Changes         
            37.357 167 5 20 7         
Fin Pos Driver Start Pos Car # — Status Interval Laps Led Average Lap Time Fastest Lap Time Fast Lap # Laps Comp Pts
1 Tyler D Hudson 20 1 0 Running 0 30 37.357 29.946 123 167 47
2 Joey Brown 3 12 0 Running -0.19 90 37.37 29.872 123 167 44
3 Byron Daley 1 93 0 Running -0.307 32 37.372 29.962 58 167 42
4 Joshua Laughton 8 40 0 Running -0.589 11 37.369 29.947 58 167 41
5 Ray Alfalla 6 2 0 Running -0.778 2 37.372 30.001 69 167 40
6 Nick Ottinger 2 5 0 Running -0.914 0 37.375 29.912 2 167 38
7 Marcus Lindsey 17 1 0 Running -1.655 0 37.37 29.933 120 167 37
8 Brad Davies 11 11 0 Running -1.657 0 37.373 30.047 17 167 36
9 Patrick Baldwin 7 52 0 Running -1.876 0 37.418 29.869 120 167 35
10 Matt Bussa 27 34 0 Running -2.962 0 37.369 29.984 17 167 34
11 Brian Day 18 4 0 Running -3.975 0 37.381 30.081 17 167 33
12 Thomas Lewandowski 32 16 0 Running -4.138 0 37.372 30.108 17 167 32
13 Brandon Schmidt 5 3 0 Running -4.378 0 37.394 29.957 58 167 31
14 Peter Bennett 10 69 0 Running -4.602 2 37.392 30.047 17 167 31
15 Kevin King 9 29 0 Running -6.526 0 37.404 29.979 121 167 29
16 Rob Ackley 29 22 0 Running -6.623 0 37.389 29.957 118 167 28
17 Michael Conti 4 5 0 Running -6.993 0 37.411 29.928 78 167 27
18 Carson McClelland 12 24 0 Running -7.345 0 37.406 30.162 3 167 26
19 Adam Gilliland 28 81 0 Running -7.517 0 37.395 30.016 17 167 25
20 Kevin Burris 19 45 0 Running -7.687 0 37.405 30.054 116 167 24
21 Alex Warren 26 82 0 Running -8.216 0 37.478 30.029 17 167 23
22 Josh Berry 41 91 0 Running -8.27 0 37.388 30.117 121 167 22
23 Benjamin Burmeister 30 25 0 Running -8.453 0 37.4 30.081 58 167 21
24 Justin Trombley 39 17 0 Running -8.64 0 36.98 30.147 2 167 20
25 Charlie Foster 22 13 0 Running -9.342 0 37.411 30.184 17 167 19
26 Brian Schoenburg 13 55 0 Running -9.87 0 37.422 29.916 2 167 18
27 Landon Harrison 38 89 0 Running -10.086 0 37.401 30.12 2 167 17
28 Tom Moustakas 40 10 0 Running -11.25 0 37.406 29.978 122 167 16
29 Michael J Johnson 31 39 0 Running -16.169 0 36.878 30.021 2 167 15
30 Chad Coleman 36 28 0 Running -17.78 0 37.041 30.02 122 167 14
31 Simon Crochart 21 48 0 Running -1 L 0 37.297 30.235 2 166 13
32 Nicholas Morse 35 9 0 Running -1 L 0 37.675 30.099 115 166 12
33 Bryan Blackford 33 33 0 Running -3 L 0 37.292 29.994 2 164 11
34 Brandon Buie 34 54 0 Running -8 L 0 36.68 30.121 17 159 10
35 Brandon Kettelle 15 80 0 Running -14 L 0 36.742 30.151 17 153 9
36 Sascha Wesler 23 31 0 Running -15 L 0 36.001 30.132 59 152 8
37 Jake Stergios 25 41 0 Running -34 L 0 38.103 30.105 17 133 7
38 Jared Crawford 14 83 32 Disconnected -40 L 0 38.098 30.019 2 127 6
39 Steven Gilbert 37 37 0 Running -76 L 0 40.162 30.056 17 91 5
40 Danny Hansen 16 20 0 Running -104 L 0 42.645 30.302 2 63 4
41 Chad J Laughton 24 26 32 Disconnected -163 L 0 30.502 30.27 3 4 3
42 Andrew Fayash III 42 157 32 Disconnected -165 L 0 31.315 30.915 2 2 2