AM Racing has parted ways with driver Hailie Deegan effective immediately, the NASCAR Xfinity Series team announced Monday morning.
“AM Racing and Hailie Deegan have decided to part ways, effective immediately,” the team statement reads. “We are grateful for Hailie’s contributions and dedication as the driver of the No. 15 Ford Mustang during her time with the race team. We wish Hailie the best in her future endeavors and look forward to her continued success on and off the track.”
The 22-year-old native of Temecula, California, had piloted the team’s No. 15 Ford entry for the first 17 races of the season, her rookie campaign, to an average finish of 26.8 with just four results of 20th or better. Deegan currently sits in 28th place in the season-long standings, dropping a spot after sitting out Saturday’s The Loop 110. The team opted to have two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano pilot the car this past weekend at the Chicago Street Course, where the Connecticut native turned in an eighth-place run for the car’s best finish of the season.
Before the weekend, team president Wade Moore addressed the driver swap in a team release.
“The level of competition in the Xfinity Series is as competitive as it’s ever been,” Moore said. “It is our goal at AM Racing to field a competitive race team through our technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing and provide any of our drivers the best equipment and opportunity to be successful on track each weekend. With that being said, we haven’t had the success on track that we were hoping for in the first half of the season. When the opportunity to have Joey in the car at Chicago became a possibility, we felt we needed to take advantage of the knowledge and feedback that a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion could provide to our teams’ growth.”
“Beginning this season, I had a lot of excitement and hope in taking my next step in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. It’s something I’ve been working towards for years and always dreamt about. I worked hard to prepare for this season after the team pursued me to drive their car. Unfortunately, it has not turned out the way that I expected. There are always several reasons within a race team as to why things do or do not work, but sadly our goals no longer align. With that being said, myself and AM Racing will be parting ways.
“The only thing I am focused on is getting back to being competitive. That is ALL that matters to me. I’m working as quick as possible to find the best opportunities to get back to the track. I’m thankful for the following that I have and everyone who supports me. It’s truly only me that knows the whole story and what I need to succeed. See you at the track, soon.”
Deegan was signed to Ford’s driver development program in December 2019. Her jump to the Xfinity Series for 2024 was announced last October in a multiyear deal with AM Racing after three seasons in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
The series next races this Saturday at Pocono Raceway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). On Monday afternoon, it was announced that Cup Series driver Josh Berry will pilot the No. 15 AM Racing entry at the “Tricky Triangle.”
CHICAGO — Mother Nature decided to return for an encore performance for Sunday’s Chicago Street Race.
The NASCAR Cup Series returned to downtown Chicago for its second annual contest on the city streets and was met with rain literally moments after engines were fired to begin the Grant Park 165. With the 2.2-mile course declared wet, NASCAR officials allowed teams the option to choose whether they would begin the event on slick, untreaded Goodyear tires or the treaded wets.
What resulted was an exhilarating race — if delayed partway by over 100 minutes thanks to heavier rain overtaking the course. Strategy mattered. Racers were challenged to show how they have evolved in wet conditions. Time became a factor as darkness encroached. And the challenge was in the hands of both the drivers and their crew chiefs.
“It was a crazy race from the start,” defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney said. “Split strategies getting going on dries and wets and then ended kind of on split strategies with dries and wets, so yeah, pretty crazy race. I mean, we put dries on and luckily ended up 10th. And I kind of gave a few spots away at the end. I kind of missed the corner and gave some up. But overall, just good finish from where it started today but pretty wild race.
“I’d like to run here one time where it’s, like, dry the whole time for the fans’ sake and our sake.”
Ultimately, the end result produced a marvelous chase from Tyler Reddick on slicks trying to catch Alex Bowman on wets. Wets won out with Bowman celebrating a victory, electing not to hit pit road and maximizing the tire life despite a drier line evolving to better suit slicks — even though crew chief Blake Harris was sure slick tires would be the optimal tires.
“We’d kind of made our opinion if we were in a good spot to pick up stage points today that we would take them,” Harris said. “And really, as the clock was winding down, you’re like, ‘Alright, well, if I plant us back in 20th or 25th here, we’re not going to have the rest of Stage 3 to make it up,’ which was kind of what we looked at at the beginning of race. So yeah, just asked him (Bowman).”
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media
Bowman affirmed he wanted to stay on the wets, ultimately making the race-winning decision.
“That was our opportunity to win was staying out,” Harris said. “And we kind of discussed that, and once I had his confidence of knowing that that’s what we needed to do as well, it made my call pretty easy.”
Ease was difficult to find on Sunday’s cruise down Columbus Drive. Not every Cup driver has perfected wet-weather driving, which produced race-ending crashes for some. A Chase Briscoe slide into Turn 6 collected Shane van Gisbergen, who hit the wall and destroyed his right-front suspension, ending the defending race-winner’s day. Kyle Larson, who tried chasing him for victory in Saturday’s Xfinity race, slid nose-first into the Turn 6 tire barriers and crunched the front of his car.
But even despite the incident, Larson was pleased with NASCAR’s willingness to put decisions into the hands of the competitors.
“I thought that was nice that NASCAR let the teams have control of what to do with the strategy of the race,” Larson told NASCAR.com. “And you can see some guys missed the call, and they paid the price for it. So that’s what’s fun when you leave it in the team’s control. So that was neat and doing competitive pit stops, that was good, too. So yeah, I thought the overall event is still a success, and NASCAR’s learning more each time it rains.”
And while competition officials learn, so too the drivers. Wet-weather racing has become more common than ever before in recent NASCAR history, dating back to 2021 at Circuit of The Americas before the Next Gen vehicle was introduced in 2022.
“I think giving us the option to go with the wet tires and the dry tires at the beginning added an element of stress that I don’t think we’re necessarily used to,” Reddick, the runner-up, said. “So that was fun to decide what you wanted to do at the start of the race there. Fortunately, made the right choice. But yeah, I think back to Austin Cindric at COTA the first year we ran there, and he stayed out on dry tires a lot longer than everybody else and a lot further into damp conditions than anyone thought possible. And it was really fun learning just how to get the grip in the dry tire on a track that was getting more and more wet.”
More laps on wet surfaces provide drivers and teams with more data points from which to improve. But a street course like Chicago has its own unique quirks.
“It’s different here as opposed to like any oval or whatever,” Blaney said. “There’s so much more paint here just from the street. So much more paint. So that’s really kind of hard to navigate. It took them a while to kind of get the standing water off of the surface — like the concrete surface and just something with the city roads. It just doesn’t absorb water very well as opposed to, like, a race-track pavement. But yeah, got a lot of experience. It was slippery out there, and once we got the spray down after we went back going, I thought it was pretty good. And then it was, like, alright, how much grip does it have now as it continued to dry up. And it was hard to see because it was dark.
“But overall, yeah, pretty challenging day as a driver, but those days are fairly fun.”
CHICAGO — On a wet-and-dry day on the streets of Chicago, crew chief Blake Harris made the right call, and driver Alex Bowman promised to wet his whistle after ending an 80-race drought.
“The last time we won, we didn’t really get to celebrate — we’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight,” said Bowman, who clinched a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with his victory in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course.
“It’s going to be a bad deal. I’m probably going to wake up naked on the bathroom floor again. That’s just part of this deal sometimes.”
Driving the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Bowman claimed the eighth victory of his career with a pass of sports car ace Joey Hand on Lap 51 — moments before Josh Berry plowed into the tire barrier in Turn 2 of the 2.2-mile, 12-turn course to cause the fifth and final caution.
At that point, the race was on the clock, thanks to heavy rain that had caused a lengthy stoppage after Lap 25. Facing a deadline of 8:20 p.m., with two laps to follow that point in the race, Bowman held off runner-up Tyler Reddick to win an event shortened from 75 to 58 laps because of the delay.
Harris got his first win as a crew chief by keeping Bowman out on older wet tires after the final caution. Neither Christopher Bell, who arguably had the best car in the race, nor Reddick could catch Bowman over the closing laps.
Bell’s charge to the front was blunted by a five-car melee, and Reddick nicked the wall and lost momentum on the final lap.
“We were catching Alex by a large margin there, and, I don’t know, that puzzles me,” said Reddick, who finished second for the second straight week. “I clearly just screwed up. Trying to stay in the dry groove, and I had more than enough of dry groove… I cut the wheel a little too hard.”
Bowman crossed the finish line with a 2.863-second edge over Reddick to score his first win since March 6, 2022, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Man, I broke my back (in a sprint car accident), had a brain injury and we’ve kind of sucked ever since,” Bowman said. “I didn’t … you start to second-guess if you’re ever going to get a chance to win a race again.”
Enhancing Bowman’s opportunity on Sunday was the ill fortune that befell the top two contenders.
Halfway through the restart lap for Stage 2 (Lap 25), the complexion of the race changed dramatically. Chase Briscoe, out of control in his No. 14 Ford, slid toward the tire barrier in Turn 6 and clipped the rear of the Chevrolet of defending winner Shane van Gisbergen.
The impact propelled van Gisbergen’s Camaro nose-first into the outside wall at the exit from the corner, and the car came to rest, unable to continue. Van Gisbergen’s exit suddenly raised the stakes for the drivers who trailed him to the finish line in Stage 1.
After leaving the infield care center, van Gisbergen watched a replay of the incident.
“Just sort of turned in, looked pretty good and then just got smashed by someone (Briscoe),” the New Zealander said. “Just gutting. The car was really good. We were in the lead for a lot of that race and, you know, felt good taking off in the rain. That sucks—an unfortunate mistake by him, but I’m sure he didn’t mean it.
“But, yeah, when he just clipped me, there was nothing I could do. Of course, I’m disappointed. We had a pretty amazing Camaro there… I felt like I was driving well within myself. It’s a shame to be out so early and a shame we couldn’t have a proper crack at it at the end.”
By the time Briscoe delivered the coup de grace to the No. 16 Chevy, Gibbs had wrested the lead from Zane Smith, who stayed out on older wet tires, and Bell, who was first off pit road during the stage break.
The field didn’t complete Lap 25 before NASCAR called the second caution of the race for heavy rain. After a red-flag period of 1 hour, 43 minutes and one second, the race resumed and went green on Lap 31, with Bell retaking the lead from Gibbs before completion of that circuit.
In a race where late strategic calls scrambled the field, Gibbs led a race-high 17 laps and came home third, followed by Hand and Michael McDowell. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland, William Byron, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10.
Bell led 14 circuits, but he, Gibbs and Reddick pitted for slick tires on Lap 43 and couldn’t get back to the front.
For the second straight year, rain-shortened the NASCAR Cup race at the Chicago Street Race, but the wet weather did little to diminish the festival atmosphere that captivated the Windy City throughout the weekend.
“I’ve raced about every street course in the country and a lot around the world, and you won’t find a backdrop like this,” said Hand, who led seven laps on wet tires before Bowman led the final eight.
The Cup Series heads to Pennsylvania next Sunday for a trip to Pocono Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Cup Series garage, confirming Alex Bowman as the winner.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course was delayed for close to two hours because of inclement weather in the area.
At the time of the red flag (6:24 p.m. ET), 25 of a scheduled 75 laps had been completed around the 2.2-mile circuit in the Windy City. Engines were re-fired at 8:05 p.m. ET, and the race resumed at 8:21 p.m. ET in Stage 2.
At the time of the red flag, Ty Gibbs was scored the leader and had led 12 laps. Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Zane Smith and Tyler Reddick completed the top five. The race started on wet conditions with drivers having the option to either start on slick or wet tires.
NASCAR declared that the race end time will be 9:20 p.m. ET if the full length of the event can’t be completed. At that point, once the race leader crosses the start/finish line after this time expires, the next lap will be the white flag, followed by the checkered flag (no overtime).
NASCAR also announced that single-file restarts were to be the procedure until further notice.
It will not be back-to-back Chicago Street Course victories for Shane van Gisbergen as he exited Sunday afternoon’s race on Lap 26 in the Grant Park 165.
After taking the restart for Stage 2 in wet conditions, van Gisbergen’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was clipped by an errant Chase Briscoe in Turn 6 as the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford careened into the tire barrier. The bump from Briscoe launched van Gisbergen into the wall, causing heavy right-side damage and ending the day for the defending Chicago winner. As a result, van Gisbergen was scored with a 40th-place finish.
Van Gisbergen won Stage 1 and led nine laps before the incident. He was running inside the top five as the incident happened.
“I just sort of turned in; it looked pretty good and then just got smacked by someone,” van Gisbergen said. “It’s gutting. The No. 16 Wendy’s Saucy Nuggs Camaro was really good. We were in the lead for a lot of that race. I felt good taking off in the rain, so that sucks. It’s an unfortunate mistake by him. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. But yeah, when he just clipped me, there wasn’t anything I could do.”
The three-time Supercars champion was aiming to go a perfect 3-for-3 in Chicago, winning the inaugural event in 2023 in addition to Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Instead, his No. 16 Chevrolet was towed back to its hauler with a destroyed right-front suspension that ultimately ended his day.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” said van Gisbergen, who started fifth. “We had a really amazing Camaro there. Kaulig Racing and Trackhouse Racing, they gave us a great car. We were able to lead and I felt like I was driving well with it, so yeah, it’s a shame to be out so early. It’s a shame we couldn’t have a proper crack at it at the end.”
The race began with some drivers on slick Goodyear tires and some on wets once rain overcame the street course moments after the command was given to fire engines. That mix of weather and strategy produced a challenge SVG and his fellow competitors had to navigate.
“It was fun. On slicks, it got a bit dodgy. I hated being the leader,” van Gisbergen said. “Whoever was the leader, you could see them slowing up, not knowing what the condition would be. As soon as you got to the front, you were unsure of what was happening and had to take it a bit easy. But yeah, I had a lot of fun until then.”
CHICAGO — Nine cars will start Sunday’s Chicago Street Race from the rear of the field.
Among those to begin at a deficit are Josh Berry, Brad Keselowski, Corey LaJoie, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Harrison Burton, William Byron, Erik Jones and Josh Bilicki.
Berry, Keselowski, LaJoie, Buescher and Burton all crashed during Saturday’s on-track sessions, necessitating repairs to their vehicles. The unapproved adjustments nullified their respective qualifying efforts, dropping them to the back of the pack.
Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet suffered a power-steering failure, resulting in a full change of the car’s steering system. Jones’ No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota had a clutch issue the team needed to address.
Josh Bilicki’s No. 66 MBM Motorsports Ford failed pre-race technical inspection three times, invalidating the team’s qualifying time and additionally resulting in a pass-through penalty down pit road at the beginning of Sunday’s Grant Park 165 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Editor’s note: Projections have been updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.
The Cup Series is back in the Windy City for the highly anticipated Grant Park 165 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Shane van Gisbergen is the man to beat this weekend after his stellar performance on the streets last year. SVG opened the week as one of the betting favorites to win the Chicago Street Race, tied with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.
While the Cup regulars will be getting their second bite at racing on a street course and are expected to close the gap to van Gisbergen, there’s a good chance it won’t be any easier to pass SVG this time. As a current NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie, the Kiwi driver has been gaining experience this season. He locked himself into the playoffs after winning back-to-back road-course races at Portland International Raceway and Sonoma Raceway — before capturing Saturday’s race in the Windy City. You also can’t knock the fact his race craft on street circuits is more fine-tuned compared to the Cup field from his Australian Supercars career, which really prevailed when he was battling Justin Haley for the win last year.
So, who is SVG’s biggest threat heading into the weekend?
Racing Insights initially projected Chase Elliott to take van Gisbergen’s street crown. Elliott continued his top-20 streak after a wild race at Nashville Superspeedway and seems to maximize his opportunities through chaotic races on a weekly basis. His road-course numbers in the Next Gen era are impressive, with a series-best seven top fives and an average finish of 9.62, second only to Chris Buescher’s 8.0. The only thing he’s missing is a win. He had seven road-course wins before the 2022 season — could this be his weekend to break back into the win column on a road course?
After practice and qualifying, however, a Kyle Larson run to the pole switched things up a bit and Elliott’s No. 5 Hendrick teammate is now projected to win.
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
TYLER REDDICK: One of the best road-course drivers at the Cup level, Reddick finished inside the top three in both stages and even jumped to the lead over Denny Hamlin on Lap 1 last year at Chicago.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Bell was on a hot streak up until his incident last weekend at Nashville. He swept both stages last year on the streets and should be a factor again on Sunday.
CHRIS BUESCHER: Buescher has the most top 10s on road courses in the Next Gen era (12), meaning he’s due to break through soon. He’s also in the playoff picture on points but could use a win at this point in the season to solidify his postseason position.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL: McDowell earned a spot in the playoffs last year after winning on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He finished seventh last year in the inaugural Chicago race and was runner-up at Sonoma this year.
JOEY HAND: Here’s your pick if you’re looking for another upset win. Hand has a decorated endurance racing career, including an overall win in the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona, a 2016 victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and two wins in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Hand also appeared at all six Cup Series road-course races in 2022, so he has Next Gen car experience.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR GRANT PARK 165
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
This weekend’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race will capture the attention of thousands of newcomers to the sport, with first-time attendees lining the fencing and watching from the temporary grandstands, eyes affixed to Next Gen cars parading through the streets of downtown Chicago.
Important to the decision to host NASCAR’s first-ever street race in America’s third-largest city was exposing the sport to new audiences. And as NASCAR hopes, inspire new race fans.
“He’s really excited to see the trophy,” said Jamie Metcalf, of Naperville, Illinois, whose son, Franklin, 7, will be in attendance to experience his first NASCAR race on Sunday.
Like many others, Jamie, Franklin and two family members will make the 30-mile trip this weekend from the Chicago suburbs to Michigan Avenue, the city’s most iconic thoroughfare and home to four of the race course’s 12 turns.
“He asked about monster trucks,” said Metcalf. “There won’t be monster trucks there, will there?”
No. Sadly not.
But if speed, horsepower, or the thunderous roar of 40 Next Gen engines are any consolation, Franklin will be in for a treat Sunday. And so will thousands of other Chicagoland families planning to spend their Independence Day weekends with NASCAR.
For Jamie and Franklin Metcalf, however, this first-time NASCAR memory – like all other family memories over the last five years – will take place without their beloved husband and father, David Metcalf.
David was a decorated Navy SEAL combat operator who spent nearly 20 years in the military, and during that time served tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pacific. He met Jamie while stationed in San Diego and the couple were married in 2012.
Over the course of his military career, David developed a series of symptoms that made his days increasingly difficult, and particularly so as he entered his 40s. Headaches, memory loss, anxiety, paranoia and mood swings were among the worsening symptoms that ultimately led David to take his own life, in the garage of his home in North Carolina in 2019.
The Metcalf family
As detailed in a June 30 article in the New York Times, David left a note near a stack of books on brain injuries, his written words listing his symptoms and pleading for greater attention to the impact of weapons blast exposure on brain health.
David shot himself in the heart, preserving his brain which was studied and analyzed by a Defense Department laboratory in Maryland. He is one of at least a dozen active or veteran Navy SEALS that have died by suicide over the last decade.
While it’s believed that David’s tragic death was tied to brain injury, after repeated exposures to weapons blasts across five deployments, it is just one pathway leading to the deteriorating mental health of veterans and service members at large in the United States.
According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, on average 17 veterans die by suicide every day. Approximately 500 active-duty service members die by suicide each year, on average. Many were known to have battled PTSD, depression, severe anxiety or other medically diagnosed mental health issues. Tragically, in most cases, these battles are happening in silence.
More than 60% of veterans who die by suicide had not recently engaged with the Veterans Health Administration, according to the VA.
“We really emphasize a number of studies looking at post-9/11 veterans and service members,” said William Negley, founder of Sound Off, a non-profit organization focused on reducing veteran suicide by providing mental health support for veterans. “They all say half or more of those who really need help, actively choose not to seek help for fear of cultural stigmatization and professional blowback.”
It’s a truth that cripples efforts to aid veterans and service members in dire need of effective care and support.
“There are many who were close to him that would say this, and truly, David was the last person you would think would take his own life,” said Jamie Metcalf. “He was a positive individual, happy and upbeat.”
“David didn’t vocalize or express his struggles. And since his passing I’ve heard from military brothers of his who privately shared that they, too, don’t talk about their issues because of fear and how it might affect their relationships or careers.”
Prior to his death, David Metcalf taught a course on suicide awareness and prevention to Marines through a program with the U.S. Marine Corps. No one could’ve predicted his own tragic passing.
For Negley, an ex-CIA officer, the subject of veteran mental health and suicide became even more resonant a few years after he founded Sound Off. His brother-in-law, Bill Mulder, also a Navy SEAL, died by suicide in June of 2017 – just months after retiring from the Navy.
Bill was a family man, a loving husband to William’s sister, Sydney, and doting father of three children. Late in his career and into retirement he suffered bouts with alcoholism, insomnia, anxiety and combat fatigue.
Bill, too, suffered quietly.
“We were devastated, the many of us that loved and were close to Bill,” said Negley. “And we were frustrated. Here this man who had dedicated his life to serving this nation, had access to all these resources, yet he felt alone. He felt unable to engage with care in an open and honest fashion.”
With her husband’s death in 2017, Sydney Mulder joined her brother in working to address this fundamental issue.
“The anonymity is essential,” said Mulder. “If Bill could have talked to someone without his teammates, leadership, family, or even me knowing, I know it would have made all the difference.”
Sound Off, with roots in Negley’s hometown of San Antonio, Texas, is one of more than 40,000 veteran services organizations in the U.S. According to Negley, the number of organizations prioritizing mental health support is far lower.
“We’re all aiming for the same thing, a viable solution to a very complicated problem,” said Negley. “With Sound Off, we sought to get to the heart of the issue. What are the roadblocks? What specifically is preventing veterans and service members from seeking treatment? And then how do we remove those barriers?”
Negley and his team focused on two key insights. The first centered on stigma and the understanding that military members are more likely to accept mental health support if they felt safe doing so.
Secondly, many veterans and service members are more comfortable discussing their challenges and emotions with others that served in the Armed Forces. When veterans are talking to other veterans, the shared lived experience creates a connection and level of empathy that otherwise may prevent them from seeking care.
Guided by these truths, Sound Off developed a fully encrypted mobile app that provides anonymous mental health support for veterans and service members who are struggling by pairing them with other veterans, enlisted as peer supporters.
Once registered with the app, the veteran or service member in need of support is provided with a unique and anonymous digital identity as well as access to Sound Off’s database of clinicians and veteran peer supporters.
Once a match has been made, communication between the veteran and peer supporter takes place within the mobile app’s protected environment. No FaceTime or need for a phone number. All messages are shared within the app’s anonymous system.
The early results are promising. Of those who have sought help through Sound Off thus far, 38% reported they had not previously sought help, and were unwilling to do so elsewhere.
“Our survey asks why they are unwilling to seek help elsewhere, and it’s exactly what we know – concern of professional blowback, as well as the concern of friends, family or the community finding out,” said Negley. “It’s very clear. We are reaching the people who up until now have been suffering alone.”
As she continues to grieve her late husband, Jamie Metcalf believes David and others like him lost to suicide would’ve benefitted greatly from a resource like the Sound Off app.
“I wish he knew about this,” said Metcalf. “What so many who are dealing with these issues want is a safe place to go for help. An outlet for them to talk and share and communicate what they’re going through.”
“The work that William and Sound Off are doing is so incredibly important. It’s creating a lifeline.”
Built within the app’s framework is a network of partner organizations, contract and volunteer clinicians, and hundreds of peer supporters who registered veterans and service members have access to seven days a week. The goal is to provide access to varying levels of care depending on military member needs.
The challenges for Sound Off, like so many other non-profits, are visibility, growth and scaling the app’s user base – not just those seeking help, but also clinicians and peer supporters. The organization announced NASCAR as its first major corporate partner last fall – a collaboration designed to bring awareness to Sound Off and recruit peer supporters from the sport’s massive fan base.
The partnership represents of a key component of NASCAR IMPACT, the sport’s new social responsibility platform that focuses on veteran services among other areas of community engagement and support.
“As our fans know, NASCAR is a patriotic sport and we have a long history of celebrating and showing appreciation for the military,” said Pete Stuart, NASCAR’s managing director, impact strategy and development. “With NASCAR IMPACT, we’re leaning into areas of critical need for veterans and service members and, very importantly, that includes mental health.”
“We believe in the vision of Sound Off and the progress that’s been made to date, so now it’s about activating veterans who are NASCAR fans to rally around this organization and support.”
This spring, in conjunction with NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola, NASCAR IMPACT launched a multi-channel campaign to amplify the mission of Sound Off and encourage veterans among the fan base to sign up as peer supporters. The campaign includes a PSA, social media content, digital advertising and video signage at NASCAR racetracks.
After the launch, Sound Off began seeing spikes in registered peer supporters – more than six times as many compared to the same period in 2023. In addition, there has been growth in terms of veterans and service members seeking aid.
“NASCAR has the audience and reach that we need to grow our impact,” said Negley. “We’re so grateful for the support, and it’s partnerships like these that will ultimately turn our long-term vision for Sound Off into a reality.”
This weekend, Negley and Metcalf will attend NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend with their families to share the stories of their lost loved ones and bring awareness to Sound Off and the issue of veteran suicide. Along the track footprint and fan areas, there will be Sound Off signage with QR codes directing veterans to download the app on Apple and Android devices.
To learn more about Sound Off and its efforts to reduce veteran suicide in America, visit Sound-off.com. Veterans can become peer supporters by downloading the Sound Off app and registering with code ‘NASCAR.’
CHICAGO — Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson took turns crossing each other over for the race lead. Ty Gibbs tried to chase SVG for the win.
Ultimately, it was van Gisbergen who enjoyed Chicago’s spoils all over again, this time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday on the Chicago Street Course. But it’s safe to say the thrill of the show was even fun for the drivers performing.
“I was having a blast,” said Larson, who finished third in his first Xfinity start on the city roads.
Van Gisbergen agreed, jumping to the point as soon as he sat down for his press conference inside The Art Institute of Chicago.
“That was a pretty awesome race,” van Gisbergen said, now boasting a 2-for-2 record on the 2.2-mile street course.
The first stage produced the most dazzling of SVG’s and Larson’s head-to-head battles. They swept the front row in qualifying but wasted zero time in slicing and dicing through DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Roosevelt Road and Columbus Drive.
For all of Larson’s success — which includes earning the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Grant Park 165, the feature race of Chicago Street Race Weekend — he knew there would be plenty of takeaways from any straight-up contests between himself and van Gisbergen’s No. 97 Chevrolet.
“Obviously, I wanted to win today, but I wanted to learn more than anything,” Larson said. “And I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing, and that was an objective of mine. The first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if you’d ever have another opportunity to race with him.
“My car seemed to be a little bit better than his for maybe a lap or two, which helped me get by him and then able to protect and stuff. But he was so much better than me. He was just being patient and playing with me, I think. But it was it was good fun and probably made for great TV. And yeah, the whole race was really exciting, I thought.”
There was perhaps a little less patience than Larson gave SVG credit for, the New Zealander said, attributing a slower car under re-fires that forced him to play a little catch-up.
“The first stage race with Kyle there, my car was really weak,” van Gisbergen said. “I couldn’t get going at the start or the restarts, and then take two or three laps, and he’d always pass me. Then, when my car would come on with, I’d be attacking him and yeah, just awesome. Awesome, fun racing with him. His car was a little better over the bumps and under braking, and he was driving very well as well. But yeah, gave him a thumbs up, he was waving back, and yeah, had a blast.”
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media
But in the end, pit strategy placed multiple cars between the two. And while Larson felt he got through traffic quicker than SVG, van Gisbergen had the ever-important track position that gave him a better shot to chase victory.
On a restart with three laps remaining, van Gisbergen was able to clear Gibbs for second and hunt then-leader Jesse Love for the win. SVG charged to Love’s right on entry to the 90-degree, left-handed Turn 6 from Columbus onto Balbo Drive, then continued to drive shallower and shallower to the right-handed Turn 7 onto Michigan Avenue — forcing Love to either leave a lane or get crashed.
Love left the lane, SVG drove through and Gibbs followed through into second place.
Gibbs charged hard to whittle the gap to van Gisbergen over the final two laps but ultimately had to settle as the runner-up.
“He just seemed like he set (Love) up really well getting into (Turn) 6 and had him pointed a whole different direction,” Gibbs said of SVG’s race-winning move. “And then he could cross him back over quickly and jump inside and get his nose far out enough to where Love is gonna have to lift because, at that point, it doesn’t make sense for him to run in the corner next to him. He just did a really good job of setting them up.”
Perhaps the best part of Saturday’s showdown between three top road-racing talents is that a sequel is immediately on deck, with all three set to compete in the Cup race. Gibbs qualified second — 0.01 seconds shy of Larson’s pole lap time — with SVG fifth. Van Gisbergen offered his praise of Gibbs as well, with the two of them having prior Xfinity battles at Circuit of The Americas and Sonoma Raceway as well.
“He races really good,” van Gisbergen said. “You can tell when someone — when you’re racing around them — how aware they are, how sharp. And yeah, he puts the car in good spots and he’s always fast as well. So yeah, I’m sure him and Kyle, they’ll probably be the quickest guys tomorrow. And I think at one stage in practice, overall, I think the top five or four guys were all people doing (the) Xfinity Series (race), so it’s been really handy doing both for everyone.”
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course on Sunday (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
