Fiery firsts: How an intense 2014 playoffs set the tone for elimination era etiquette

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Nate Ryan

The desperation, drama and seemingly daily madness that defined the 2014 Cup Series playoffs naturally revolved around a chaos agent instead of its champion.

In the first edition of those elimination rounds, Kevin Harvick would take his first and only crown in NASCAR’s premier series.

But the main character of the 2014 playoffs undoubtedly was Brad Keselowski, whose iconoclastic and formidable spirit embodied the sport’s sea change in choosing a champion.

The Team Penske star made a breathtaking move to win the opener at Chicagoland Speedway and then stayed firmly in the spotlight as NASCAR careened through an emotional 10-race thrill ride that would reshape how drivers, fans and teams understood the limits of competition.

As situations got heated, they always seemed to involve Keselowski.

He uncovered the unbridled ire of two Cup champions who uncharacteristically lost their cool when triggered by Keselowski’s opportunistic aggression and ruthlessness — traits that quickly were recognized as necessary for playoff advancement.

In perhaps the biggest surprise of a 10-race saga jammed with jaw-dropping plot twists, Keselowski was pushed to victory in a must-win scenario at Talladega Superspeedway by Matt Kenseth, who had put the 2012 champion in a nationally televised headlock a week earlier.

Keselowski admittedly lurched through a new and unfamiliar way of chasing a championship in auto racing, and that acclimation for the entire field would be the overarching theme in navigating one of the most unexpected and unpredictable stretches in NASCAR history.

“That 2014 season was everybody getting to understand the system in real time,” Keselowski said. “You read the rules and all that, but you didn’t really fully understand how it would change the behaviors until you actually saw it.

“I think there were definitely some behavioral changes in the garage and in the sport that are due to the playoffs. We all needed a rep through it to see what that would be. It changed our sport. There’s no way of saying it didn’t.”

Within a few years, the playoffs that introduced the stomach-churning term “cutoff races” had permeated the regular season. A no-holds-barred perspective emerged that extended the boundaries on what now could be considered fair game in “hard racing.”

But as the 2014 season concluded, there was a sense of incredulity that the overhauled championship model was delivering as it had been drawn up: To produce so-called “Game 7 moments” with uncanny regularity in a pressure-packed environment that Jeff Gordon described as “incredibly intense.”

“Every race is exciting,” Denny Hamlin said with a touch of wonder before the 2014 season finale. “Every race, it comes down to a restart or something. This is the best thing that’s happened to this sport in a really long time.”

The championship race was an unlikely foursome of Hamlin, Harvick, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano, who says 2014’s magnitude only has grown since.

“It was probably the biggest change in our sport from a sporting side of things, from how you win a championship, that we’ve ever seen,” Logano said recently. “More do-or-die moments, more ‘back-up-against-the-wall, got-to-make-it happen’ moments.”

Here were five of those moments from the 10 races that changed NASCAR forever:

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Splitting the middle to raise the curtain at Chicago: It would seem quaint (and largely forgotten) several races later, but Keselowski’s first major gamble of the 2014 playoffs wasn’t controversial in the slightest.

When the 2012 champion charged to the lead down the middle at Chicagoland Speedway by splitting Harvick and winless rookie Kyle Larson (who raced with reckless abandon in a backup car and battled Harvick and Jeff Gordon despite an ominous tire rub), it foreshadowed the lengths to which drivers would go for the glory.

“Today was about as much of a statement as you can make on a Week 1,” Keselowski said after winning consecutive Cup races for the first time in his career and raising his series-leading win total to five.

The brilliant pass punctuated a race that was the most eventful playoff opener since NASCAR created “the Chase” 10 years earlier.

Title contenders Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch either sped or spun in the pits. Keselowski and Harvick overcame loose wheels. Ryan Newman, a winless underdog, rallied from three laps down for a 15th-place finish while another surprise challenger, Aric Almirola, went from battling for a top five to suddenly falling out with an engine failure.

With 16 playoff drivers to monitor (four more than before), their boom-or-bust fortunes incessantly flickered over the course of 400 miles and overtaxed the brains of competitors and onlookers at full capacity.

There was so much to process, the race’s cerebral winner, always known for his sense of anticipation, had yet to contemplate what his win would mean by locking into the next round (a benefit that now is seen as a virtual given).

“I guess that’s something we have to sit down and discuss as a group,” Keselowski said. “I can’t really say I’ve thought about that in detail.”

Streeter Lecka | Getty Images

Four angry men at Charlotte: In what would become a recurring theme, a Harvick victory would be overshadowed by everything that happened immediately after the checkered flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

It started when Hamlin brake-checked Keselowski on the cooldown lap, retaliating for contact on the green-white-checkered restart that ended the race.

Keselowski responded by first trying to spin Hamlin and then rammed Matt Kenseth at the entrance to the pits — which inadvertently resulted in rear-ending an unwitting Tony Stewart, who retaliated by going full speed in reverse to crumple the hood of Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford.

The chaos somehow wasn’t over. In one of the most memorable images of the playoffs, Keselowski nonchalantly was walking through the garage when Kenseth suddenly came flying out of the darkness to wrap his rival in a bear hug as team members and NASCAR officials tried to separate them.

The normally mild-mannered Kenseth was apoplectic about the heavy contact after he had unfastened his safety devices.

“He clobbered me at 50 (mph),” Kenseth said. “If you want to talk about it as a man, do that, but to try and wreck someone on the race track, come down pit road with other cars and people standing around with seat belts off and drive in the side of me. It’s inexcusable. He is a champion. He’s supposed to know better than that.”

Keselowski was outraged at Kenseth for an incident under yellow after they’d tangled on the prior restart.

“I figured if we are going to play car wars, I’ll join, too,” said Keselowski, who was desperate for a decent finish after a blown tire resulted in a 36th-place finish during the previous week’s Round 2 opener at Kansas Speedway. “You know those guys can dish it out, but they can’t take it. And I gave it back to them and now they want to fight. I don’t know what’s up with that.”

NASCAR would issue modest penalties — a $50,000 fine and four-race probation for Keselowski; $25,000 and a four-race probation for Stewart — in perhaps acknowledging its stars were in a new world where good behavior was at times untenable.

Tom Pennington | Getty Images

The unlikeliest ally at Talladega: With his star driver’s title bid on the ropes, team owner Roger Penske offered some wisdom entering a cutoff race at NASCAR’s most treacherous track.

“Let’s just go move on,” Penske told Keselowski the night after the Charlotte fracas with Kenseth. “Put it in the rearview mirror.”

It was sage advice: Kenseth literally was in Keselowski’s rearview mirror as the laps wound down at Talladega.

Keselowski, who had started from the rear because of unapproved adjustments and battled intently to reach the front after 500 miles, watched every move that Kenseth made as the No. 20 Toyota built a head of steam heading to the white flag.

“You can’t drive Talladega without looking in the mirror,” Keselowski said. “I kind of laughed appreciating the irony. It was funny how this racing world works out. I don’t know why it seems like every week, there’s either a fight in the garage or a mishap or something like that happens, those two cars and people end up together, whether parked in the garage area, or on the race track for the win in the closing laps at Talladega. I don’t know why that happens. I got a chuckle out of that personally.

“I didn’t feel uncomfortable in the least bit. It just so happened to be that Matt was leading his lane, and his lane had the best run at the end. I came down and blocked it. That was enough to seal our fate as a winner, seal his fate as second. It’s kind of funny to me personally how that stuff works out.”

This was a Kenseth push welcomed by Keselowski.

It ensured both drivers advanced to the next round in a case of the strangest of bedfellows at a track whose fickle draft often produces bizarre pairings — but rarely so wacky as this.

“Hoping to spin him out,” Kenseth deadpanned when reminded by third-place finisher Clint Bowyer that he helped Keselowski win. “When it comes down to the end of the race at Talladega, it’s not like you can be, ‘All right, I’m going to do this.’ You have to do what’s best for your best finish. … That’s where I had to put my car for my best chance at the best finish. It’s just how it turned out.”

Tom Pennington | Getty Images

A fierce battle and then brawl at Texas: Sporting a busted lip, a puffy eye and a bloody cheek, an unrepentant Keselowski had no wounds to his pride as he again defended his actions against stars who accused him of racing beyond the pale under intense playoff pressure.

His injuries occurred when Keselowski was shoved by Harvick into Jeff Gordon, who grabbed the blue and white fire suit and touched off a free-for-all that resulted in $135,000 in fines and suspensions for four members of Gordon’s team.

It started when Keselowski, again on the brink of elimination after a 31st-place finish in the Round 3 opener at Martinsville Speedway, aggressively tried to fill a gap on a restart. He collided with Gordon in a three-way battle for the lead with race winner Jimmie Johnson during the first of two overtime restarts.

Gordon, who finished 29th after being on the cusp of racing for a fifth championship, remained hot enough afterward to confront Keselowski, who tried to walk away. The melee was ignited by the push from Harvick, who later said, “If you’re going to drive like a madman, you’d better be willing to take a few punches. You’re the problem.”

Though he threw no hands, Gordon was happy to hurtle more invective at Keselowski. “I don’t know how he’s ever won a championship, and I’m just sick and tired of it,” Gordon said. “That’s why everyone is fighting him. You can’t have a conversation with him. He gets himself in this position, and he has to pay the consequences. That kind of stuff is just uncalled for and I’m not going to stand for it.”

VIDEO: Watch the Texas brawl between Gordon, Keselowski

Just as at Charlotte, Keselowski calmly took the verbal shots. He returned fire with a well-reasoned justification that other driving contemporaries who lacked his gumption permanently lost their Cup rides because they were too deferential.

“I’ve gone through these battles before and come out stronger, and I’ll go through them again,” Keselowski said. “But what I’m not going to do is back down. I’m not going to get in the spot where I tried to be exactly what they all wanted me to be, because what they want me to be is a loser, and I’m not here to lose. I’m here to win. That means I’m going to have to drive my car, harder, stronger, faster than everybody out there. That’s what I feel like I did today.

“I’d rather have enemies in NASCAR than have friends and be sitting at home. ... I came here to race, not to fight. I raced as hard as I could, and these guys just didn’t like it. I’ll be back next week, and they’ll have to face it. That’s not in their interest, just like it’s not in mine. If what I did was so wrong to those individuals, then they should race me back that same way. They have that ability, and I wouldn’t be mad at them if they did.”

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Moral consequences at Phoenix: The body slam that secured the final spot in the inaugural title race also served as the last word in setting the ethical parameters of what was legal for playoff advancement.

Basically, virtually anything goes.

Needing one point to bump Gordon from the Championship 4, Newman tossed aside any adherence to racing etiquette. To finish in a rather pedestrian 11th place, he drilled Kyle Larson without compunction in Turn 3 of the final lap.

“I guess the only mistake I made all day was showing these guys what I’ll do on the last lap when everything is on the line,” Newman said. “I think if Kyle Larson was in my shoes, he’d have done the exact same thing. I didn’t take him out. He still finished the race. I think in a day or two, he’ll understand, if he doesn’t now.”

“It’s hard to rationalize that, but I did what I had to do and tried to keep it as clean as I possibly could. I don’t like racing that way, but there’s a lot on the line here.”

VIDEO: Watch Newman ‘punt’ Larson to get into Championship 4

There was some barely plausible justification applied by Newman, who noted Larson had “used me up” on multiple restarts in a truck race at Eldora Speedway … 15 months earlier.

“That’s a stretch,” Denny Hamlin said with a laugh sitting beside Newman, who replied, “Well, I’m stretching it, but realistically, man, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and that’s really what it’s all about.”

A resigned Gordon offered barely a shrug after finishing second.

“It was acceptable last week, it’s acceptable this week,” Gordon said, referring to the Keselowski move that left him apoplectic. “Don’t think that that’s not going to come back to you. I could have taken out Harvick, too, but I didn’t. I hope we taught somebody that you can race clean and still give it your best. You don’t have to wreck people to win the championship.”

He somewhat was proven right the next week. Harvick (who had dominated in winning Phoenix) clinched the title by benefiting from a fortuitous caution to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This time, Newman came up a spot short in second — his best finish of a winless season.

Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is the host of the NASCAR on NBC Podcast and has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Alex Cadavid

On the latest episode of Stacking Pennies, Corey LaJoie addressed the news of his departure from Spire Motorsports following the 2024 season, reflecting upon his impact on the organization and his next plans within the sport moving forward.

“I had some realizations,” said LaJoie, who has been the face of the organization for the last four seasons. “Everywhere that I’ve been has always been one-year deals, so this position that I find myself in currently isn’t uncomfortable. It’s not someplace I’ve never been before.

“You go through all the emotions, mad, sad … I think where I’m at currently a week removed is that I’m super appreciative. Super appreciative of Jeff [Dickerson, team co-owner] and T.J. [Puchyr, co-owner] and for Spire giving me the opportunity, for believing in me from the jump when we were trying to whiteboard this thing and what we’ve grown it to has been pretty cool.”

LaJoie has played a pivotal role in the team’s development and success during his Spire Motorsports tenure. The 32-year-old North Carolina native has collected four top fives and six top 10s over 129 Cup starts with the team. His efforts have not only contributed to on-track results but have also helped build the team’s identity and strengthen its presence in the competitive racing landscape.

LaJoie spoke candidly and reflected on his time with the team, acknowledging both the challenges and successes he experienced. He expressed a mix of pride and frustration over the period, noting how he was deeply involved in efforts to advance the team’s performance and grow its presence in the sport.

“I do hate that we weren’t able to see it through; we weren’t able to kind of adjust the [No.] 7 team and kind of turn the right knobs to get performance where we needed it,” LaJoie said. “Also, I made too many mistakes behind the wheel this year. There were several that took us out of contention for some good results.”

Looking ahead, LaJoie expressed his openness to his next opportunity and is welcoming any new challenges. He remains focused on finishing the 2024 season on a high note as both he and the team aim to make the most of their remaining time together.

“It’s onward and upward,” LaJoie said. “I don’t know what the next step is. It’s been a unique situation with all the variables that are in play, but nonetheless, I am at peace with it. I’m excited about what the next chapter holds, and I’m pretty motivated to still be the first one that puts a win banner on the wall at Spire and a trophy in the trophy case on the Cup side there and continue to finish this thing strong the last 14 races.”

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Brandon White

Lancaster Motorplex’s third NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event will highlight a special weekend for the track, competitors and fans.

Along with putting up a combined purse of $110,384 for Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150, the event is also acting as a tribute to Tim Mangus, one of the greatest competitors in Lancaster’s long history who is currently recovering from injuries sustained in a fire back in May.

Speed Enterprises Entertainment owner Mike Myers, who is serving as a special consultant to Lancaster for the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150, wanted the event to showcase how much Mangus has meant to the facility. He has been impressed with the support shown by the local and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour communities.

“It is our goal to bring a bright spot to Tim as he bravely works through his recovery,” Myers said. “We believe it is also meaningful to our hometown fans, who revere the speedway’s history and competitors like Tim, who have made it great for the last 65 years.”

Tim Mangus accumulated 16 victories at Lancaster Motorplex during his career, the 13th most of any driver at the track. (Photo: Lancaster Motorplex)

Several initiatives have been undertaken by Myers and Lancaster’s staff to ensure Mangus gets the recognition he deserves Saturday.

On lap 93 of the Nu-Way Auto Parts 250, fans in the grandstands will be asked to raise a ‘Mangus Strong’ sign, which will be shown live on the FloRacing broadcast. The lap of choice coincides with the car number Mangus utilized during the late 1990s.

Along with the tribute to Mangus, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour competitors who are in the top 10 on lap 93 will each receive a $93 bonus. This initiative was made possible due to the support from several of Mangus’ former competitors like Jan Leaty, Ed Flemke Jr. and Tim Connolly, the latter of whom will be in the field Saturday evening.

The admiration so many have for Mangus stems from the impact he left at Lancaster and the Modified community during his time as a driver. The 16 victories Mangus recorded in Lancaster’s weekly divisions currently have him 13^th on the track’s all-time wins list.

Mangus also occasionally branched out into the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour between 1987-2002. Although he never visited Victory Lane, Mangus managed to record four top-10 finishes in the series, with his best performance a sixth-place finish he obtained after leading seven laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 1998.

Mangus’ daughter Alex wishes he could be present for Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150, but she has taken immense pride in seeing so many people come together to support her father. She expressed her gratitude toward everyone at Lancaster for highlighting Mangus’ impact while he continues to recuperate.

“Strong, brilliant, talented, joyful, grateful and kind, that is our day, Tim Mangus,” Alex said. “This experience has brought a whole new meaning to the word grateful for our family. Words will never portray how eternally thankful we are for each and every person who has supported our day through this experience.”

Lancaster Motorplex’s tribute to Tim Mangus commences at 8 p.m. ET when the green flag waves for the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150. FloRacing will provide live coverage of the on-track action.

Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 at Lancaster Motorplex will be the 200th start of Ken Heagy’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour career. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Ken Heagy all set for 200^th NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start

Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 at Lancaster Motorplex will see one of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s most seasoned drivers reach a milestone start.

Ken Heagy, who has been a part of the series since making his official debut at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park back in 1987, is making his 200^th appearance as he seeks to put together his best performance of the 2024 season.

A native of Calverton, New York, Heagy’s experience on the Modified Tour alone exceeds the current lifespan of many of his competitors. He has placed inside the top 10 on nine different occasions over his three decades of racing, his best performances being sixth-place runs at Riverhead Raceway in 2008 and Bristol Motor Speedway in 2012.

The most recent top 10 Heagy scored came at Riverhead last September, where he persevered to finish 10^th despite being five laps behind race-winner Justin Bonsignore. Although he lacks resources of his contemporaries, Heagy’s passion to excel on the Modified Tour is still prevalent going into his 200^th start.

Heagy looks to claim his 10^th career top 10 on Saturday night at Lancaster, where his best performance through two appearances was a 13^th he obtained during the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s inaugural race at the facility in 2021.

Patrick Emerling seeks to break a three-year dry spell and deliver Rich Gautreau his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Patrick Emerling chasing first win with Rich Gautreau

When the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour visited Lancaster Motorplex for the first time in 2021, Patrick Emerling ended up taking home the checkered flag.

A lot has changed for Emerling in the three years since that victory, but he is still a regular presence at the front of the field. Now partnered up with Rich Gautreau, Emerling looks to finally deliver him a victory in Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 at Lancaster.

Emerling prevailing would not only give Gautreau a checkered flag in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, but also snap his own three-year winless drought in the series. The last time Emerling claimed a Modified Tour checkered flag was at Riverhead Raceway in September 2021.

Despite the prolonged dry spell, Emerling has come close to visiting Victory Lane several times during his first year with Gautreau. He has five top-five finishes to his name on the 2024 season, which includes leading 35 laps during the most recent Modified Tour event at Monadnock Speedway before settling for third.

Emerling’s consistency current has him fourth in the point standings and on the precipice of earning an overdue victory for himself and Gautreau.

NOTES:

Trevor Catalano surprised many in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour garage area by fending off Ron Silk at Monadnock Speedway for his first career victory. Catalano seeks to keep the momentum going at Lancaster Motorplex, a track where his brother Tommy earned a sixth-place finish last year.
Andy Jankowiak is back with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour this weekend after last competing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June. Currently a part-time competitor in the ARCA Menards Series, Jankowiak is fresh off a victory in Lancaster’s Sportsman division back on July 20.
In his first career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start at Seekonk Speedway in June, Jacob Lutz put together an impressive performance that resulted in a sixth-place finish. Lutz is back behind the wheel of Joe Stearns’ No. 14 Modified for the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 as he looks to record his first top-five showing.
Veteran driver Bob Reis has not run a professional touring event since 2013 at Oswego Speedway. Although he has made sporadic qualifying attempts since then, Reis will get a chance to showcase his experience Saturday at Lancaster Motorplex in his Modified Tour debut piloting his own No. 10.

Posted on July 31, 2024August 1, 2024 by Staff Report

Whether you’re new to NASCAR or a dedicated weekly viewer, NASCAR’s new driver compatibility quiz enables fans to discover which Cup Series driver they are most similar to. This exciting quiz offers an engaging way for fans to connect with their favorite drivers, allowing them to find out which driver’s style, track layout, and personality resonates with them the most.

The new quiz includes six topics, covering everything from the type of driver you would be on the track to the music you listen to in your daily life. Each question is designed to narrow down your four most likely “garage” candidates, with the number one driver being your most compatible match.

RELATED: TAKE THE QUIZ

The possibilities are almost endless, as you have the opportunity to match with every full-time Cup Series star and retake the quiz as many times as you like.

Once you complete the quiz, you will receive a breakdown of your four most compatible drivers, including a brief bio and performance breakdown to see how each driver is fairing as we close in on the end of the 2024 regular season points battle.

Fans are encouraged to take the quiz now by visiting the link here and determine which Cup Series driver you are most compatible with. Tune in to the Cup Series’ return to Richmond Raceway on Sunday, August 11, at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Staff Report

Nu-Way Auto Parts 150

Lancaster Motorplex

Entry list

Car No.	Driver	Team	Crew Chief	Chassis	Sponsor
00	Andy Jankowiak	Jody Lauzon	Steve Mendoza	Chevrolet	Spafco Race Chassis; BNP Machine
01	Melissa Fifield	Pine Knoll Racing, LLC	Jake Marosz	Troyer	Farm Fueled Nutrition
1	Patrick Emerling	RGM AZ, LLC	Dale Hedquist	LFR	Fleetworks, Inc
3	Jake Johnson	Boehler’s Racing Equipment	Greg Fournier	Boehler Racing	Propane Plus; Lin’s Propane Trucks
4	Tim Connolly	Connolly Racing	Cale Gale	FURY Race Cars	Connolly Companies, LLC
16	Ron Silk	Haydt Yannone Racing	Phil Moran	FURY Race Cars	Blue Mountain Machine; Future Homes
18	Ken Heagy	Robert Pollifrone	Greg Gorman	FURY Race Cars	Buoy One Restaurant & Seafood
22	Kyle Bonsignore	Kyle Bonsignore	Cam McDermott	FURY Race Cars	Chalew Performance; MTT; Munns Auto
32	Tyler Rypkema	Dean Rypkema	Zach Truesdail	FURY Race Cars	Musco Lighting; Northeast Drilling; Make A Wish
46	Craig Lutz	Goodie Racing	Douglas Ogiejko	FURY Race Cars	Riverhead Building Supply
51	Justin Bonsignore	Kenneth Massa Motorsports, LLC	Ryan Stone	FURY Race Cars	Phoenix Communications, Inc.
54	Tommy Catalano	Catalano Motorsports	Rick Kluth	Troyer	Catalano Motorsports
56	Trevor Catalano	Catalano Motorsports	David Catalano	Troyer	Catalano Motorsports
60	Matt Hirschman	Pee Dee Motorsports LLC	Mike Stein	Troyer	PeeDee Motorsports
64	Austin Beers	KLM Motorsports	Ron Yuhas	Troyer	G&G Electrical Supply, Dell Electric, Lumiere Electrical, Andrew James Interiors, Hughes Motors, AP Marquadt & Sons
84	Tyler Catalano	Catalano Motorsports	JJ Vece	Troyer	Catalano Motorsports
110	Bob Reis	Reis Racing	Jeff Ulrich	Troyer	IronListing.com; B.R. Machineworks; Kluth Motorsports; Simpson Safety
114	Jake Lutz	Advantage Motorsports, LLC	Bill Putney	Troyer	AdvantageTrucks.com; Anastasi Trucking; Washtronics
172	Andrew Spurback	Spurback Motorsports	Eugene Fiorotto	Troyer	ProformParts.com; Spurback MotorSports

Posted on July 29, 2024August 8, 2024 by Brandon White

The next track up for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is one of the more unique facilities on the schedule, Lancaster Motorplex.

Since opening in 1959, Lancaster has served as a multi-purpose racing facility for several different motorsports disciplines. Along with hosting a vibrant weekly series platform, Lancaster also has a functional dragway that encompasses the frontstretch on the .625-mile oval.

Modified Tour competitors will utilize every aspect of Lancaster’s surface as they look to build crucial momentum over the second half of 2024. With only two previous events to lean on for guidance, Lancaster presents several unknowns for experienced and new competitors alike.

Despite this, plenty of drivers entered in Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 have logged copious track time at Lancaster in other divisions. Knowledge and patience will be invaluable for competitors if they wish to depart Lancaster with a checkered flag in hand.

Tickets to the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 can be purchased here. Below is everything to know for the ninth race of the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

Austin Beers enters Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 as the most recent Lancaster Motorplex winner (Photo: Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)

Nu-Way Auto Parts 250 at Lancaster Motorplex

What to watch for:

Both previous Modified Tour winners at Lancaster Motorplex are on the entry list for Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150.

The most recent of the two, Austin Beers, is still searching for his first victory of 2024 following an impressive sophomore campaign that saw him acquire two checkered flags. Beers has displayed plenty of speed with a pole in his last race at Monadnock Speedway and three consecutive second-place runs earlier in the year.

Veteran Patrick Emerling claimed the inaugural NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Lancaster in 2021. Emerling is enjoying a solid debut season in the No. 1 Fleetworks Inc Modified owned by Rich Gautreau, but he enters the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 seeking to deliver his first victory in almost three years.

Trevor Catalano is determined to become the third different Lancaster Modified Tour winner following his breakthrough victory at Monadnock Speedway two weeks ago. Catalano looks to parlay that triumph into another stellar streak of races after he opened his rookie year with two consecutive top fives.

Everyone in the field will have to contest with both Ron Silk and Justin Bonsignore, who currently find themselves in a heated battle for the Modified Tour championship. Bonsignore holds an advantage over Silk at Lancaster with two top fives, but Silk maintains a narrow eight-point lead with eight races remaining.

Ken Heagy is set to make his 200^th Modified Tour appearance this weekend. Joining him on the entry list are Matt Hirschman, Andy Jankowiak, Jake Lutz, Tyler Rypkema and Tim Connolly, among others.

The complete entry list for the Nu-Way Auto Parts 250 will be released later this week.

Lancaster Motorplex will provide plenty of challenges to drivers in search of momentum over the second half of 2024. (Photo: Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)

RACE FACTS:

Race	Nu-Way Auto Parts 150
Date	Saturday, August 3, 2024
Track	Lancaster Motorplex
Layout	Half-mile asphalt oval
Location	Lancaster, New York
Start time	8 p.m. ET
Laps	150
Posted awards	$110,384
Tickets	Here
How to watch	FloRacing

Schedule: Saturday, August 3 … Final practice from 4:15 to 5 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 6:45 p.m. ET … Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 at 8 p.m. ET (FloRacing).

Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle as taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Nu-Way Auto parts 150 is limited to 26 starters including Provisional Positions.

Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eleven (11) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is two (2) tires per caution.

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Zack Albert

“Shocked” was how Jimmie Johnson described it. In the wintertime before the 2014 season, he’d received a phone call from then-NASCAR chairman Brian France. Johnson’s sixth reign as Cup Series champion was barely two months old, but the way that he’d pursue title No. 7 was about to change.

France walked him through the details of the new format for the playoffs, then called the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The introduction of eliminations every three races, culminating with a winner-take-all season finale for a four-driver field, was a substantial departure from the previous 10 years of determining a postseason champion from a 10-race aggregate of points. It marked a new era, one Johnson wasn’t quite ready to process.

“It just caught me off guard and shocked me,” Johnson told the Associated Press, “and I told Brian when he called me, ‘Just give me a minute to adjust, because I’m on my heels.’ ”

Ten years of postseason grids, championship marches, unpredictable eliminations, and pressure-packed moments later, the Cup Series Playoffs is ready to enter its second decade. During the two-week Olympic break, NASCAR.com will reflect with a special series looking back at those moments that have defined the era, then look ahead as this year’s final four regular-season races tee up the next edition of the elimination procedure for the Bill France Cup.

Those memories start with some history, a retrospective about how the system was received, and how it has evolved and altered the industry’s approach to competition.

“We’re furthering how we refine and how we approach this as a team — all of our cars — so it’s been interesting, and it’s still changing,” said Team Penske competition director Travis Geisler, noting how each evolutionary moment has forced his organization — winners of the last two Cup Series championships — to adapt. “The recipe is much like grandma cooks. It’s just kind of a dash of this and a pinch of that.”

NASCAR had already made a sizable splash in 2004 when it adopted the first edition of the Chase. That structure placed top-performing competitors in their own exclusive class for title eligibility, a field that started at 10 drivers and then expanded to 12.

A decade with that format reached a turning point at the end of the 2013 season.

“We wanted to simplify our system,” said Steve O’Donnell, then NASCAR’s senior VP of racing operations and now its chief operating officer. “Sports fans across the country understand the idea of ‘playoffs,’ since every American sport features some kind of elimination format.”

Meetings prompted the change to a system that expanded the title-eligible field from 12 drivers to 16, but whittled that group by four drivers at each checkpoint in the 10-race stanza. Consistency was still a factor, but wins also gained importance — both as a gateway to playoff eligibility and an automatic advancement once the playoffs began.

NASCAR had dabbled with eliminations before, with a format that shaved cars from the running order in the annual non-points All-Star Race in 2002-03, but never with the stakes of the premier series championship on the line. That prompted O’Donnell to make a direct plea to the stock-car faithful at the format’s introduction on Jan. 30, 2014.

“There are passionate fans out there, and I hear them as well. Those who may not like this are very passionate about it,” O’Donnell said. “What I would say is, instead of dismissing them, we very much value their opinion. It’s OK. But I’d say, ‘Give this a chance, because it’s still the sport you love. We’re just going to take the sport you love and elevate it that much more.’ ”

Some of those predictions for a riveting March Madness or playoff hockey atmosphere in the autumn sunset of the NASCAR season came true in a rollicking nine-race run to Homestead. Aggression, controversy and motivation ran high, resulting in a Championship 4 quartet of Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Cinderella sensation Ryan Newman, who converted a desperation move in the next-to-last race to make the final cut.

Drivers making the media rounds that week seemed to warm up to the format, even after running through that first elimination gauntlet.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

“This move was about growing the sport and making it sustainable for years to come,” The Boston Globe quoted Brad Keselowski, a lightning rod for 2014’s polarizing moments who claimed his lone Cup title two years earlier in the waning seasons of the first Chase format. He was also the first winner under the new format, Sept. 14 of that year in the playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway.

“If those metrics show that it’s working, then I’m a fan of it. My connection to the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase format is purely based on our fans’ reaction in a positive form. If that’s the case, then I’m supportive. I don’t have any other ties than that. I like tradition, but I’m not married to it. I’m more married to what our fans and partners think about it than anything else. Maybe the jury’s not fully in, but so far it’s come back very positive.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. saw the benefits in an uptick in TV ratings and water-cooler chatter. He spoke highly of the format, even though it was unkind to him and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates during that inaugural season. He was ousted in the second round, and none of the organization’s four playoff-eligible drivers reached the Championship 4 finale.

“Did it work? I think it did work, because NASCAR wants more attention and more people talking, and I think that’s what happened,” Earnhardt said. “… We’ve gotten more publicity out of this year’s Chase than we’ve had in many years past.”

The next phase toward reaching the current postseason system came just three years after the first rollout. Competition officials broke each race into three stages, with points incentives awarded at each intermission. The bonuses also included playoff points for winning races and stages, and those extra tallies would carry over when the standings were reset after each playoff interval — a reward for performance in both the regular season and postseason.

The shift also came with a name change — “Chase” was dropped for the more recognizable “Playoffs,” a nod to other big-league sports. “This was a situation of the entire industry coming together for the betterment of the sport,” O’Donnell said. “We worked closely with everyone from teams and drivers to our broadcast and (manufacturer) partners. It was important that everybody felt invested in where we were going.”

Back in the current day, Joey Logano weighs the merits of the playoff system with a discerning eye — even for a driver who has won two Cup Series championships since the advent of stages and the elimination era. In the first year of stages, the unpredictability snared him; Logano missed the postseason altogether.

“It’s just creating more do-or-die moments where you weren’t going into the final race of the year knowing who was going to win the championships, and drivers go in there, just cruise-control for the race, don’t wreck, get through, win the championship,” Logano said at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “So that was one of the things they wanted to get away from, but then there’s also, how do you make every race more important where you don’t just win a race and then you’re in and then you cruise-control the rest of the year until the playoffs start with no advantage, or you win 10 races during the season and you’re seeded the same as the guy who won one. That’s not fair, either. So that’s where I think all these ideas came up in those meetings.”

Still, the concept was considered a radical departure from the status quo for decades.

“It is, but I have no doubt in my mind it’s right,” Logano said. “I think it’s been one of the best things for the sport. There’s always going to be somebody that doesn’t like it and they’re going to have a loud voice, because people listen to people who don’t like things more than people who like things. People usually don’t give compliments; they just complain. So you’re going to hear that more often, but I think in general, it’s been good for the sport.”

Some 10 years after the idea was hatched, teams aren’t quite as taken aback as Johnson was in that first explanatory phone call. The skepticism has since faded, even if the ferocity of the postseason structure hasn’t.

“I enjoy the intensity level, the pressure level that kind of ratchets up, and it does break up what otherwise is a very long season,” Geisler said. “I think it makes sense to have a break point somewhere in there. Initially, it was more just the normal human response: You don’t like change and the point champion is the whole season — maybe the relics of how we all have grown up racing. But now that we’re in this, I can see where it really does generate some exciting racing, some exciting scenarios that you never know how it’s all going to come together, but it always seems like those last couple (races) are just tooth and nail. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Posted on July 25, 2024July 25, 2024 by Staff Report

Spire Motorsports confirmed on Thursday that Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, will not return to the team following the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

“Corey LaJoie has been a cornerstone of Spire Motorsports since 2021 and it would be impossible to overstate what he’s meant to this organization and how much I’ve agonized over this decision,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said in a team release. “Corey put his heart and soul into this team. He rolled up his sleeves and went to work before we had a race shop, a toolbox or even our own cars. Those days, looking back, were so much simpler than where we are in our journey now. Back then, we just wanted to get to the race track. Today, we’re consumed with consistently battling for top-10 finishes and contending for wins in the near future.

“In racing, there are always variables but one thing we all know is this is a performance-based business, and it just hasn’t been there for several reasons. All those reasons are factored in when it comes to making a decision of this magnitude. With Ryan (Sparks) moving upstairs, and Rodney (Childers) coming in next season, the best thing for Spire Motorsports is a clean slate for the No. 7 car in 2025. Corey deserves a fresh look from another organization, too, and we’ll do everything we can to help him get another opportunity in the Cup garage. I believe in Corey and his ability to be successful in this sport and look forward to him using this as motivation to prove all his doubters wrong.”

RELATED: Latest Silly Season news

LaJoie spent four years with Spire in the NASCAR Cup Series, tallying four top fives and six top 10s in 129 races so far, with a career-best finish of fourth coming three separate times at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway.

The 32-year-old driver made his Cup debut in 2014 and spent his first seasons with BK Racing, TriStar Motorsports and GoFas Racing before landing at Spire.

With four races remaining in the 2024 regular season, LaJoie sits 28th in points.

“I won’t be driving the 7 car next year,” LaJoie told The Athletic, which first reported the news. “I take a lot of satisfaction from having an integral part of building Spire into a respectable team on the grid, but unfortunately, the future won’t involve me. We will finish the remainder of 2024 strong, continuing to deliver for my partners, my guys who work hard to build good cars, family, fans and friends who have supported me since Day 1 in the Cup Series.

“This chapter ends after Phoenix, and I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store for my family next.”

It’s been an active Silly Season for Spire as the organization announced that Michael McDowell will pilot the No. 71 Chevrolet beginning next season and crew chief Rodney Childers will sit atop the box for the No. 7 team following the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of the year.

Posted on July 25, 2024July 25, 2024 by Neil Paine

With NASCAR on a two-week break as the Olympics take center stage, this is a good chance to step back and assess the first five months of the 2024 schedule. So far, we’ve already seen our share of historically close finishes, dominant victories and record-breaking overtimes. But we also thought now would be a good time to give out some midseason awards to honor the most impressive performances of 2024 to date.

Let’s recognize the best of 2024 so far with some extremely prestigious (and definitely not completely made-up) accolades.

Driver of the Year: Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports

Other nominees: Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick

Who else could it be — especially after his latest win this past weekend at the Brickyard? Larson ranks No. 1 in the standings, leads all drivers this season in wins (4) and average Driver Rating (102.1), is tied for first in top fives (9) and leads the field in my Adjusted Points index (Pts+) metric, with a mark 87% better than the Cup Series average:

There are arguments for other drivers: Elliott has the best average finish (10.5) of anyone this season. Reddick has finished among the top 10 in 15 of 22 races (68%) — by far the most consistent performance we’ve seen. Christopher Bell averages more laps with the fastest speed per race (18.8). Ryan Blaney can seem unstoppable when he gets on one of his recent hot streaks. And William Byron (who has more top 10s than Larson) and Denny Hamlin are both only a win shy of Larson’s lead, with three apiece. But nobody combines pace, consistency, closing ability and skill at every type of track like Larson does.

Team of the Year: Hendrick Motorsports

Other nominees: Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing

Dominant seasons are nothing new for Hendrick, the winningest organization in Cup Series history (with 310 victories and counting). But with nine wins out of the 22 races run in 2024 so far — a winning percentage of 41% — including at least one from each of their full-time drivers, this is shaping up to be one of the team’s best seasons ever:

Second among teams in the win tally is Joe Gibbs Racing, with six victories (of which three belong to Bell and three to Hamlin). Gibbs has finished No. 2 in total wins behind Hendrick in each of the past four seasons — and they’ve had the second-most wins in six of the past seven years overall, with 2019 standing out as the lone exception. (That’s when Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Hamlin all won at least five times, and Erik Jones captured a checkered flag at Darlington.) Gibbs might be due for even more wins if Truex and Ty Gibbs can get their bad luck straightened out later in the season — more on that in a bit.

It’s tough to compare teams with different numbers of drivers, but we have to give a shoutout here to 23XI Racing’s tandem of Reddick and Bubba Wallace. They’ve only combined for a single win — Reddick’s victory in April at Talladega — which is tied with RFK and Trackhouse, and compares unfavorably to Team Penske with its four checkered flags. But 23XI actually ranks second only to Hendrick in average finish (13.8) and average Adjusted Points index (150) per driver per race, with as many top fives (13) and more top 10s (23 versus 21) than Penske despite fielding one fewer driver.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Biggest Breakout: Ty Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing

Other nominees: Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland

This has been a good season for young drivers producing career-best campaigns. Perhaps the least surprising of those — but still the most impressive — belongs to Gibbs, who was coming off a season spent as the youngest full-time driver in the Cup Series in 2023.

He still held his own in that situation, with 10 top 10s, an average finish of 18.4 and a solid Pts+ index of 92, but he was also outdriven badly by his veteran Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. (Gibbs had a 31-77 head-to-head record against them across all of his races, one of the worst marks of any regular driver.) The expectations were that Gibbs would continue to improve and close the gap against the rest of the team this season, and that’s exactly what happened. His Pts+ index has soared to 131, making him one of the Cup Series’ most improved drivers in that regard. Just as importantly, he now has a perfectly 0.500 record of 33-33 against his teammates, an impressive showing considering the competition is Bell, Hamlin and Truex.

Interestingly, Gragson improved his Pts+ index even more than Gibbs this year, rising from a miserable 31 last season — which ranked ahead of only B.J. McLeod among drivers with 20 or more starts — to an essentially league-average mark of 97. The difference is that Gibbs will likely make the playoffs with his performance, though it has still been nice to see Gragson re-establish himself as a rising driver to watch. And Gilliland deserves credit for his own improvement this year at age 24. Among drivers under age 30 who didn’t previously have a career Pts+ index of at least 100, Gilliland’s 25-point improvement on his previous career mark ranks third behind only Gragson and Gibbs.

Most Pleasant Surprise: Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports

Other nominees: Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suárez

Fair or not, Bowman was viewed over the past few years as the “other” Hendrick driver — solid enough, but nowhere near the class of Larson, Elliott or Byron. That trajectory reached its low point for Bowman with an injury-marred 2023 season that saw him miss three races with a fractured vertebrae in his back from a sprint-car accident and finish with a barely above-average Pts+ index of 104, his worst in a Cup season since he debuted in relief of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016.

This year, however, Bowman has returned to the form that once made him one of the sport’s up-and-coming young drivers. Not only did he snap an 80-race losing streak at Chicago, passing Joey Hand and holding off a charging Reddick late, but he has six top fives and 12 top 10s in 22 races, producing a 150 Pts+ index that is on pace for a career high — and is much more in line with what his teammates do on a weekly basis.

Others who currently fall under this category include Briscoe, who has rebounded from a rough 2023 to compile six top 10s, an average finish of 17.5 and a near-career best 99 Pts+ index, even as Stewart-Haas has declined from the team’s state when Briscoe joined it in 2021. And while Suárez has been only moderately more consistent than he was in 2023, he is returning to the playoffs for the second time in his career by virtue of winning in February at Atlanta.

Unluckiest Driver: Ty Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing

Other nominees: Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick

For all of his improvements at age 21 in his third Cup season, Gibbs still has yet to win a race at the sport’s highest level. (He has started from the pole twice, including at Pocono a few weeks ago, but his best career finish is as a runner-up in May at Darlington.) Based on how he’s driven this season, however, Gibbs should have taken at least one checkered flag so far.

We can measure this by creating a statistical model that predicts how often a driver with a given Driver Rating in any given race wins it. If we do that (based on every race since 2005), here are the “unluckiest” drivers of 2024 — those with the largest gaps between the wins we’d expect them to have, and how much they actually won:

Truex is another name that probably should be locked into the playoffs by now but instead has to sweat things out via the points, as things currently stand. And Reddick is an interesting one: He has won a race, but he also owns two of this year’s five cases where a driver would be expected to win more than 50% of the time off of his Driver Rating, but failed to win (Texas and Indy).

Comeback Driver of the Year: Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports

Other nominees: Alex Bowman, Noah Gragson

This is another choice that seems obvious. The 2023 season was, by many measures, the worst of Elliott’s career: Not only did he miss seven races — six due to injury and one for suspension — but he was also less effective when he did get back behind the wheel, posting his worst average finish (13.1) since 2019 and his lowest Pts+ index ever in a full season (149). He suffered his first winless campaign since 2017 — part of what would eventually become a 42-race drought — and missed the playoffs for the first time as a full-time Cup driver.

But this season, Elliott has returned to the level of performance we’ve come to expect from him over the course of his career. He took first place at Texas to finally end his winless streak, he has 11 top 10s in 22 races, he’s gotten back to his previous career norm for Pts+ (he has a 165 mark in 2024 so far), and he owns the aforementioned Cup Series lead in best average finish (10.5). He’ll also be back in the playoffs as a driver that nobody really is looking forward to tangling with in races that count.

No, Elliott doesn’t have the same dramatic year-over-year improvement as other drivers like Bowman and Gragson. But in terms of pure “returns to form,” it’s hard to argue against the sport’s most popular driver here.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

Best Silly Season Pickup: Noah Gragson, Stewart-Haas Racing

Other nominees: Josh Berry, Justin Haley

Unlike in previous Silly Seasons, where we had stars on the magnitude of Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch or Brad Keselowski changing teams, there weren’t many big names on the move heading into 2024. (The most anticipated might have been Shane van Gisbergen, who wasn’t even going to run the Cup Series full time this year.)

Still, a few drivers have acquitted themselves well on their new teams. We’ve already talked at length about Gragson’s season, but the move from Legacy Motor Club to SHR seems to have been exactly the change in scenery he needed to rediscover the potential he’d shown as Xfinity Series runner-up in 2022. Still just 26 years old, we’ll see if Gragson can land here again next year as he’ll move to Front Row Motorsports for 2025.

“Doing More With Less” Award: Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports

Other nominees: Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch

Hocevar has already gained a bit of an, um, reputation this season for his aggressive driving — something that his peers have not taken kindly to. But he is also quietly having the best head-to-head season against teammates of any regular driver this year. Driving for Spire Motorsports, Hocevar has a 33-11 record against his teammates, good for a Cup Series-high winning percentage of 75%:

Hocevar has a winning record (154-147) against the other Chevys this season as well. If we’re looking for drivers who are doing their best to rise above, Hocevar absolutely belongs on that list.

As do Blaney and Busch. For the former, it might seem odd to think of a Penske driver in that group, given how the team won each of the past two Cup Series titles. But aside from the No. 12 car, Penske has been surprisingly average this season, with non-Blaney drivers Joey Logano and Austin Cindric combining for a Pts+ index of 99.6 (remember, average is 100) despite Logano driving much better recently. On top of his 30-14 head-to-head record in the chart above, Blaney has also beaten his teammates by a stunning 59 points of Adjusted Pts+ index, the largest margin of any regular driver with below-average rated teammates in 2024.

And we should also highlight the work Busch continues to do for RCR, despite extremely challenging circumstances. In what has otherwise been the worst stretch in the worst season of his illustrious Cup Series career, Busch has still found the ability to rack up an 18-9 head-to-record against mostly Austin Dillon (but also Austin Hill, Ty Dillon and Will Brown) — one of the best marks on our list above — and he’s also beating his teammates by a whopping 42 points of Adjusted Pts+ index.

Posted on July 25, 2024July 25, 2024 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 25, 2024) — NASCAR and Straight Talk Wireless today announced an official multi-year partnership that makes Straight Talk Wireless an Official Wireless Partner of NASCAR. With this, Straight Talk Wireless also becomes an Official Partner of Homestead-Miami Speedway, including the entitlement to the Oct. 27 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race — the Straight Talk Wireless 400. Terms were not disclosed.

“We’re excited to come together with NASCAR as there is so much overlap between Straight Talk customers and NASCAR fans,” said Cheryl Gresham, CMO of Verizon Value. “This partnership is very fitting. Our Straight Talk customers appreciate real value and reliable service wherever they are. As they experience the legendary NASCAR series this year, we look forward to meeting them at the track.”

In addition, NASCAR and Straight Talk Wireless will also be joining forces to present “NASCAR on Tour,” an exciting event series coming to select Walmart parking lots in Daytona Beach, Florida; Darlington, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Bentonville, Arkansas; Bristol, Tennessee; Kansas City, Missouri; Talladega, Alabama; Charlotte, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; and Miami, Florida from Aug. 21 to Oct. 27. “NASCAR on Tour” will bring the ultimate racing experience to fans across the country, allowing them the opportunity to enjoy racing-themed experiences, giveaways, driver appearances, exclusive offers and much more. Additionally, new customers attending the “NASCAR on Tour” on-site events are eligible to participate in an exclusive Straight Talk Wireless promotion: buy one month and get one month free on any unlimited plan.

“Straight Talk Wireless is such a recognizable brand and one that shares NASCAR’s priorities in providing tremendous value for its customers and their families,” said Michelle Byron, NASCAR executive vice president and chief partnership and licensing officer. “We are thrilled to have Straight Talk Wireless join the NASCAR family as an Official Partner, both at the league and track level.”

Available only at Walmart or via www.straighttalk.com, Straight Talk Wireless is a wireless service provider that offers a wide variety of value-based plans, including month-to-month options for customers seeking plan flexibility and affordable pricing. As part of the Official Partnership, Straight Talk Wireless will have a presence at all NASCAR-owned events, including the option to activate on site at select events and to create customized offers for NASCAR fans.

The NASCAR Cup Series continues with the Cook Out 400 at 6 p.m. ET on Aug. 11 at Richmond Raceway on USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the NBC Sports App.

Ken Heagy all set for 200th NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start