Posted on by Tadd Haislop

Melissa Fifield operates both Pine Knoll Auto Sales and her NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race program out of New Hampshire.

Elizabeth Nelson operates Farm Fueled Nutrition out of Montana.

Thanks to their shared values as female business owners, their mutual passion for nutrition and a little twist of fate, the women who were complete strangers five months ago are now operating as partners as Fifield works through her 11th Modified Tour season.

Their connection is a warming success story in a sport fueled by the often cold business of promotion.

RELATED: All the latest Modified Tour news

Melissa Fifield is honored for her 150th Modified Tour start, which occurred at New York’s Riverhead Raceway earlier this season. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Fifield’s expedition through the world of racing is defined by perseverance. On the heels of a childhood full of karting competition, the 31-year-old Wakefield, New Hampshire native continues to race her own Modified full-time on the Tour despite a relative lack of resources. She does so because she’s addicted to the adrenaline a Modified race provides. “Everything slows down. I’m in my own world. I love that moment,” she explained earlier this year.

When she’s not working on her race program, Fifield can be found operating the car dealership that funds her life both inside and outside a race car. In other words, she’s always working.

Fifield’s story is what resonated when Nelson received a random outreach in January.

Elizabeth Nelson
Elizabeth Nelson of Farm Fueled Nutrition

Fifield’s health journey prompted her to seek out a dietary supplement that would provide whole nutrition with real ingredients. Her search led her to Farm Fueled Nutrition, a brand-new product. Upon researching the superfueled greens, she realized Nelson’s status as the owner and operator.

“I discovered it was another female-owned business,” Fifield said. “I wanted to reach out to her to see if there was anything we could do to work together.”

Added Nelson: “I didn’t know her from anything, to be honest. Of course I know NASCAR, but being this far North and West away from it all, I [had to search] what she raced.”

Nelson’s research into Fifield’s career left her nothing to consider.

“I was on board pretty much from the start,” Nelson said. “I just love that she’s going after her dreams; it’s similar to my vision of Farm Fueled Nutrition. I love sponsoring someone like that. It’s what my business stands for.

“What it takes to be in that arena, in a sport dominated by men. The amount of work that has to be done; just a lot that goes into doing what she does. I’m super proud of her.”

Nelson agreed to partner with Fifield heading into the 2024 season, and the black-and-pink No. 01 Modified has displayed a Farm Fueled Nutrition decal all season. When the Modified Tour races at New Hampshire’s Monadnock Speedway on July 20 and at New York’s Lancaster Motorplex on Aug. 3, Farm Fueled Nutrition will be the primary featured sponsor on Fifield’s car.

Fifield is hoping to host Nelson in person for the first time at either of those races, if not an event later in the season. Nelson’s hectic schedule makes travel to the East Coast a little difficult to manage.

“It’s been a great partnership so far,” Fifield said. “It just kind of came together as something really unique that just happened. We had a similar story with both of us being on a journey. She had just gotten this product launched, and she loved being able to support another female-owned business.”

Melissa Fifield
Melissa Fifield (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Nelson said she’s open to continued support of Fifield’s program beyond this season, though the two have not yet discussed a longer-term partnership.

Fifield, of course, wants to continue racing as long as she can. She’s in the process of moving both her life and her business to the Charlotte, North Carolina area, where her fiancé lives and works. She doesn’t expect the relocation to impact her ability to continue full-time on the Modified Tour.

As her career progresses, Fifield will need more partners.

Few, though, will be as special as the association she’s forged out of the blue with a business owner located more than 2,000 miles away.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

CONCORD, N.C. — Josh Berry’s future in the NASCAR Cup Series is plenty safe.

The 33-year-old rookie will pivot to the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford on a multiyear deal beginning in 2025, the team announced Wednesday at the Ford Technical Center. Berry, the current driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, immediately began searching for a new opportunity at the Cup level once SHR announced May 28 it would shutter its four-car operation at the conclusion of the 2024 season.

What he found was a team that was keen on him, his abilities and which improvements he could bring to the storied Wood Brothers program.

“I think Josh was the obvious choice,” team president Jon Wood said.

RELATED: Josh Berry driver page | Wood Brothers team page

“This really feels like a great fit for me,” Berry said. “I feel like I fit their brand and who they are and how I got here, how they got here. I feel like this is a great fit. I really enjoyed our relationship with Ford and to continue that on was something that’s important to me, and I appreciate and I’m thankful to have that opportunity. And it really just means a lot to drive an iconic car like the 21.”

Berry leaps to a Wood Brothers team affiliated with Team Penske, featuring two-time Cup champ Joey Logano, defending series champion Ryan Blaney and 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric. Having those drivers as resources as well as the data shared between the four teams — three at Penske in addition to the Wood Brothers’ 21 — excited Berry as he considered what options were on the table to remain in the Cup Series.

“I have a great opportunity to come in here and help be a part of getting them back to running where they want to run and where they expect to run,” Berry said, “and I have the same expectations. I feel like that between everyone here at the Wood Brothers, between the affiliation with Team Penske and Ford, I think we have the pieces in place to be competitive. And I think where I’m at with the Next Gen car, I think we’ll be able to hit the ground running.”

Before meeting with Berry, the organization met with his current teammate Chase Briscoe, whose relationship with Ford dates back to 2018 when Briscoe joined the manufacturer’s development program. But once it became clear Briscoe would instead be heading to Joe Gibbs Racing in a Toyota next year, Wood made it clear Berry was who the team had primarily targeted.

“The steps with Chase, that was — I’m not gonna call it a formality, but we had to we had to talk to Chase because of our relationship and Ford’s relationship with Chase,” Wood said. “It was very clear from the beginning that he already had either an offer or a deal in place, so we just completed those steps, checked all those boxes. And as soon as we knew that we were ready to move on to the next driver, Josh was the obvious choice.”

With Berry’s arrival comes the departure of Harrison Burton, who has driven the No. 21 Ford since 2022. In 91 starts with the Wood Brothers, Burton has one top five and five top-10 finishes. Burton has a 26.7 average finish through 19 races in 2024, two spots lower than his 2023 average, and ranks 33rd in points ahead of Sunday’s race at the Chicago Street Course (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

“We need to be better. There’s no secret,” Wood said. “This is a business that’s based on chemistry, and it’s a sport that’s based on results, and right now, we’re just not having those results. You know, Harrison shares some responsibility. If it’s on us — we’re not pointing fingers. We’re not here to say this one’s at fault; that one’s at fault. We’re just not where we need to be, and so finding that right chemistry and balance to have those results and performance, that’s what we’re looking for.”

MORE: All of Wood Brothers Racing’s Cup wins

Berry and his current team on the No. 4 Ford have impressed consistently over the past two months despite what has become a lame-duck season as the organization around them will close by the season’s end. Berry has one top five and two top 10s in the past three races, including a strong showing at Iowa Speedway in which he led 32 laps before finishing seventh. He also scored third-place finishes at both Darlington Raceway in May and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June, in addition to a 10th-place showing in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

While all of that is worthy of recognition itself, Wood also pointed to his 2023 performances as a substitute racer for Hendrick Motorsports’ Nos. 9 and 48 Chevrolets as Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman were each sidelined by injuries — putting Berry’s adaptability on full display.

“He ran arguably as good or better in that short time in the two Hendrick cars that he has now — as a rookie with never even sitting in (a Next Gen car),” Wood said. “And that was a completely different manufacturer, a completely different team, a completely different crew chief. So you can’t really say it was one crew chief that made that difference.”

A crew chief for next year’s No. 21 team with Berry has not yet been determined. Berry’s current crew chief, Rodney Childers, has expressed a desire to stay with Berry if those opportunities exist moving forward.

“Rodney and I’ve had a great relationship, for sure, but this opportunity jumped out, and they came to me and said, ‘Hey, we want to get you signed up first,’” Berry said. “’We want to get our driver that we want, and then we’re going to go to work with you and whoever else that we’re going to meet with, whether that’s at Team Penske or wherever, and try to iron this out and figure out what’s the best fit.’ That’s what I have learned this year is … how important the culture is in the fit and the belief between the driver and the crew chief, ownership, management and the team.”

Wood said sponsorship for the 2025 season is still being worked through but noted Motorcraft and Quick Lube will be back as a primary partner for roughly half the season and as an associate sponsor for the whole campaign.

“The thing that’s encouraging is people consider Josh a driver that you hire that doesn’t bring any funding. But that was past tense,” Wood said. “Like, the way he’s running, now, you don’t know what’s going to happen from this point to the end of the season that he brings some that have changed their mind that weren’t previously going to follow him that maybe do.

“But to answer that question, it has never been about a driver with funding. I know that was mentioned. But that has never been a consideration.”

Ultimately, Berry knew he was wanted as the Wood Brothers’ next driver of its iconic No. 21 Ford, kickstarting a new chapter of the Wood Brothers’ 70-plus year history as they seek the company’s 100th Cup win.

“It came together quickly because they were very sure of what they wanted, and that was they wanted me to drive their race car,” Berry said. “And in this day and age, that gets harder and harder to do — you know, worrying about funding and sponsorship and everything that goes along with that. So they were they were very clear. I met with them and had something to look at within a week. And that made it pretty clear that they wanted me to drive their car, and it felt like a great fit for me.”

Posted on by Staff Report

On Wednesday, NASCAR announced the following penalty has been issued:

Name: Clifton Yarbrough
Rules infraction:
Penalty Level: Behavioral
12.6.1 Member Conduct Guidelines
B.1. Disparaging the sport, leadership and/or a NASCAR Home Track or the tracks representatives.
E.1. Statement and/or communication made public (including social media platforms) that demeans, criticizes, ridicules, or otherwise disparages another person based upon that person’s race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition.

Penalty:
$1,000 fine. Suspended from all NASCAR until the fine is paid. Probation until December 31, 2024.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials issued penalties Tuesday for infractions in the Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series in last weekend’s events at Nashville Superspeedway.

Carson Hocevar, driver of the Spire Motorsports No. 77 Chevrolet, was fined $50,000 and assessed a loss of 25 driver points for violating Sections 4.4B: NASCAR Member Code of Conduct Penalty Options And Guidelines during Sunday’s Ally 400. Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevy made contact with Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 Ford driven by Harrison Burton under yellow, causing the latter to spin out.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Weekend schedule: Chicago

In post-race inspection after Christian Eckes’ victory in Friday’s Rackley Roofing 200, Matt Mills’ No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet and Matt Crafton’s No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford were each found with one unsecured lug nut. This violates Sections 8.8.10.4a: Tires and Wheels of the NASCAR Rule Book. As a result, crew chiefs Jon Leonard (No. 42) and Jeriod Prince (No. 88) were each fined $2,500.

The Cup Series next races on Sunday in the streets of Chicago in the Grant Park 165 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). The Truck Series, meanwhile, will next compete on July 12 at Pocono Raceway in the CRC Brakleen 175 (5:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Cup Series schedule | Truck Series schedule

Posted on by Staff Report

Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch was not deemed to be involved in Sunday’s NASCAR Overtime restart wreck at Nashville Superspeedway, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran explained Tuesday in a radio appearance with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Though his No. 8 RCR Chevrolet did make contact with the wall in the aftermath of an incident between Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain on the second of a series-record five overtimes, Busch was lined up in the fourth position for the ensuing green flag despite slowing to avoid the incident and getting passed by other cars as a result.

RELATED: Nashville results | Playoff standings

“It’s not so much getting his spot back. His spots weren’t taken away,” Moran said. “Our rule clearly states that you must maintain a reasonable speed — reasonable speed for what track conditions are at the time. We don’t want to encourage drivers to stay on the gas and just bang their way through. What he did was he avoided the incident. We deemed him not involved in that incident. He didn’t stop. If he stopped, he probably would have ended up toward the back of the field.

“He was scored in the fourth-place position when that caution came out, and he didn’t get into the 1 (of Chastain) or the 5 (of Larson). Made very sight contact with the wall. We would deem that as not being involved in the incident, and that’s why he was able to restart where he was scored.”

The determination was also based on scoring-loop data, which NASCAR officials monitor in real-time during the race and showed Busch in fourth place at the time of the incident.

“That was right off the scoring loop; loop No. 4,” Moran said. “That was the last loop that the leaders were scored on. It really came down to, do we view him as being involved in the wreck? We determined he avoided being involved in the wreck.”

Later in the race, Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran out of fuel in front of Busch, collecting the No. 8 in a separate incident and saddling the two-time Cup Series champion with a 27th-place finish.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NASCAR Cup Series drivers came away with two major learnings from last year’s Chicago Street Race — one, that the strict demands of street-circuit racing presented a challenge, and two, how much Shane van Gisbergen was up for it.

Cup Series regulars — and the defending race winner who made the initials “SVG” a summer sensation in 2023 — are back for Round 2 in Sunday’s Grant Park 165, scheduled for Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET (NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). There’s still some novelty for NASCAR’s top division in the street-circuit discipline, but most of the field now has at least a one-off experience after last year’s inaugural.

RELATED:  Weekend schedule: Chicago | Street course takes shape

That doesn’t mean it’s any easier, with crisis potentially looming at each corner.

“How many turns are there … 20? Then 20 of them,” Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain said with a laugh last weekend, nearly doubling the 12-turn total for hyperbolic effect on where treachery can be found. “I swear, I didn’t have a comfortable corner there last year. I just couldn’t get comfortable … like I wasn’t right off the bat, and it never came throughout the race. So yeah, looking for a lot more there and just being comfortable with it. I’ve had a year to wrap my head around what that was like; those concrete cannons between the walls. Yeah, all were difficult.”

Comfort was in stingy supply during last year’s first go-round, in large part due to the confines of the circuit’s design. The borders around Chicago landmarks and thoroughfares shape a 2.2-mile course lined with barriers and tire packs, providing few areas where on-track miscues are easily forgiven.

Then there are the bumps from the heavily trafficked streets in the heart of a major metropolitan city of 2.6 million people, another hurdle that complicates how drivers hustle their cars in and out of the turns.

“Headache in a bottle,” Joey Logano, last weekend’s winner at Nashville, said with a laugh. “I mean, it’s just a tough one — lots of bumps, a very risky feeling. A lot of it’s just walls everywhere. There’s no runoff. So you overshoot a corner, as bumpy as it is, you lock up a tire, you slide, there’s no runoff, right?”

“It’s just super narrow,” said fellow Ford driver Chase Briscoe. “I say it’s narrow — it’s narrow for a lot of places we go, but for a street course, I thought it was honestly probably pretty wide. I just remember it being tighter in some areas than others. It was rough, really rough into some braking zones and just really unique. For a street course, you don’t think of having elevation but you come over that bridge a couple of times and the downhill braking, it’s just a hard place to pass, but it was really well done, I thought. It’s a track where you don’t get any break.”

MORE: Concert info, tickets, FAQs for Chicago

Pressed to single out one sector of the course that proved most technical last year, more than one driver mentioned the combination of Turns 3, 4 and 5 — the circuit’s closest point to Lake Michigan. The slight, faster bend of DuSable Lake Shore Drive feeds into tighter turns at Roosevelt, then Columbus before it heads back toward the course’s center.

“It’s the largest bumps, high-speed area, and the tightest and most unforgiving wall,” said Austin Cindric, a sixth-place finisher in last year’s Chicago debut, “and maybe I say that because I crashed there twice last year on Saturday, but definitely a big risk/reward section. Street-course racing is all about risk/reward — a lot of reward for being able to maximize the width of the race track, but obviously, that comes with a lot of risk when you’re dealing with concrete walls.”

The driver who dealt with the mouse-maze barriers most effectively was van Gisbergen, who launched into the stock-car consciousness with his rousing victory last year in his Cup Series debut. The New Zealand-born road-racing ace had built a fan following Down Under as a three-time champ in the Repco Supercars Championship circuit; his Windy City triumph last July came in the Trackhouse Project 91 entry that showcases international stars, and he more than delivered, becoming a bit of an overnight sensation.

The victory altered the trajectory of his racing career, and Trackhouse snapped him up for a NASCAR campaign this year in the States as part of a partnership with Kaulig Racing. He’s already scored two wins so far in his rookie Xfinity Series season, and he’ll be making his fourth Cup Series start of the year in Sunday’s Chicago showdown, driving the Kaulig No. 16 Chevy.

Chastain’s efforts to increase his comfort level on the Chicago streets have a natural input point with van Gisbergen, through their shared Trackhouse connection. Any and all tidbits about his technique have proved helpful.

“There’s just so much data we can look at, so I can learn just as much hearing from him as I can looking through his stuff, how he made speed compared to me,” Chastain says. “And it’s confidence, a lot of it is confidence. It’s intentionally placing the car where he wanted to place it, and I was trying to place it kind of between the walls and he was placing it at the wall, maximizing left and right. Easy to say it, but really hard to do it.”

That task was made even more treacherous last year, once the skies cleared after historic race-day rain. Van Gisbergen excelled in the damp conditions left by Sunday’s torrent, with his fancy heel-toe footwork on the pedals making the difference in his battle down the stretch with runner-up Justin Haley.

It’s what earned him a nod of recognition when Logano was asked if Chicago’s unique challenge was somehow fun.

“Kind of, if you’re Shane. Everyone else in the field might not agree,” Logano said. “I mean, it just fell right into his wheelhouse really, really well. And he’s just really good at clipping the corners right at the edge. I mean, he didn’t leave any room for error, and he can hit it really well.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

With decades of award-winning experience in the media world bringing world-class athletic competition to both the casual and ardent fan, Guillermo Santa Cruz is ready to take on his next great challenge, leading the South Florida motorsports market as the newly named president of Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“It’s an exciting time to be a sports fan in South Florida, and having grown up here and spending nearly my entire life working in sports, it’s a great honor to join the NASCAR family and be handed the keys to Homestead-Miami Speedway,” Santa Cruz said. “I believe in the future of Homestead, both the city and the track, and I can’t wait to get started.”

RELATED: Buy tickets for Homestead playoff races

Santa Cruz’s resume is hugely diverse and highly decorated. From his start working for Univision and Telemundo to his recent position as IMG’s vice president, Latin America, Mexico and US Hispanic where he managed everything from sales and client relations to a more intensive focus on sports and entertainment programs for the Latin American region.

At NBC-Telemundo, Santa Cruz was part of the 2004 Sports Emmy Award-winning team covering the Olympics. He worked as a producer and received a “special citation” from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for coverage of the September 11, 2001 tragedy.

He was also part of the Univision team that earned the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast for its coverage of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Olympics.

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Miami to Cuban ex-patriate parents, Santa Cruz is especially proud to lead a big-time motorsports facility in his hometown — an area he knows well and an audience he has already long served.

“I was really intrigued as a sports fan and someone who grew up in South Florida,” Santa Cruz said. “There’s room for growth and it presented a professional challenge for me and a chance to spread my wings; it’s just a wonderful opportunity.

“My whole professional life has been here [in South Florida] but never in the ‘local’ sense, I’ve always worked more in national and international media. This gives me the opportunity to work in a local market in the community where I grew up.”

Between his background as a leader in big-time sports on the world stage and his close, lifelong ties to the Homestead-Miami market, the fit seemed natural.

“Guillermo’s vast experience in the competitive media market will help grow Homestead-Miami Speedway into its next phase as one of the preeminent motorsports facilities,” said Chip Wile, NASCAR’s senior vice president and chief track properties officer. “He has a diverse background in sales, production, and promotion in a key market for HMS and will offer unique opportunities for the team to expand the track’s influence.”

Santa Cruz says that from his very first days of work he plans to focus on the Homestead community that has played host to the facility and the sport for nearly 30 years. He sees a lot of untapped potential in the surrounding area and wants to prioritize building relationships with the local community and potential stakeholders.

“I have a good feel for the market and the community because I’m part of that market and community,” Santa Cruz said. “I have the advantage of growing up here and having a feel for different cultures.

“There is a real strength to South Florida in how diverse it is. I don’t have to learn that it comes built-in and that’s a big advantage for me.”

Santa Cruz is well aware of how much the competitors like racing at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami oval, and he’s optimistic that kind of enthusiasm and the promise for compelling competition and unique entertainment can raise the profile of the facility sooner than later.

“If the drivers like it, that means the racing is good and if the racing is good, the fans will come,” Santa Cruz said. “So many sports events cycle through South Florida and people from all over the world come to South Florida, where motorsports is incredibly popular internationally.

“There are so many opportunities for our track.”

While Santa Cruz begins his term overseeing the track this week, Al Garcia, a longtime member of the HMS executive team and president of Homestead-Miami Speedway since 2019, will continue to work with the facility’s leadership in an advisory consultant position.

“Al has been a key part of Homestead-Miami Speedway literally since its inception in 1995,” Wile said. “We’re grateful for everything he has done to make HMS a premier sports facility in South Florida and look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role.”

The first big NASCAR race weekend for Santa Cruz and the track will come this fall as it hosts a playoff tripleheader weekend. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series will race on Saturday, Oct. 26 (starting at noon ET), with the weekend culminating with the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs 400-miler on Sunday, Oct. 27 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Brandon White

Saturday’s festivities at Bowman Gray Stadium saw veteran Tim Brown reach one of the few milestones he had yet to achieve in his storied career.

By fending off long-time rival Burt Myers in a 25-lap sprint race, Brown officially secured his 100th victory in Bowman Gray’s famous Modified division, much to the delight of the exuberant crowd that has both cheered and jeered him at different points since his debut race at the Madhouse more than 30 years ago.

Brown did everything possible to keep focus on his program and not let the anticipation of his pending 100th victory distract him. Once he got out of his car to celebrate with his crew and family on the frontstretch, a combination of relief and jubilation overcame the normally stoic driver.

“To be honest, it’s been really weird,” Brown said. “I’ve never focused my attention on a specific number of wins. When we won No. 99, all the media started talking about 100, 100, 100. That many wins at a single race track is pretty cool, so I needed to have my family [at Bowman Gray] these past few weeks in case I did win just to make it special.

“When I took that checkered flag, it was really cool knowing my wife and kids were there.”

Brown never imagined he would have 100 Bowman Gray victories on his resume after taking his first checkered flag on May 8, 1993.

Coming from a relatively poor background, Brown’s journey to the top of the Bowman Gray pedestal has been a meticulous grind. Not only did he have to procure the necessary resources to be competitive, but he also had to battle track stalwarts that included champions in Junior Miller, Robert Jeffreys and others.

Brown never let his circumstances stall out his determination, as hard work yielded his first Bowman Gray Modified championship in 1996. By the end of the 2022 season, Brown had amassed 12 Modified titles, more than any other driver in the Madhouse’s long history.

Increased costs and parity over the years have made maintaining consistency at Bowman Gray more strenuous for Brown. He stressed the importance of everyone that has assisted him through an ever-changing environment at Bowman Gray, adding he never would have sniffed 100 victories without the people around him.

“[On Sunday] after church, me and the family hung around the house and thought about how truly blessed I’ve been over the years,” Brown said. “It’s not me, I just drive the car. It’s the people who work on it and the people who have inspired me. I don’t want to take credit for 100 wins, because it’s everyone combined that has led to this recipe.”

The formula for Brown to get the 100th win Saturday was a simple one: Nail the setup, obtain the pole and hold off the rest of the field for only 25 laps.

Brown found it fitting that Myers was the one trying to make him wait another week to celebrate his milestone accomplishment. The two have engaged in numerous heated battles with each other over the past few decades, all of which have contributed to Bowman Gray’s raucous reputation.

Myers applied plenty of pressure to Brown’s rear bumper during the closing stages but could not complete the pass. Brown took extra pride in fending off his rival for his 100th win, especially with how much detail Myers puts into his own Modified program.

Tim Brown had to fend off long-time rival Burt Myers for his 100th Modified victory at Bowman Gray Stadium. (Photo: Bowman Gray Stadium)

“I like beating [Myers] any time I can,” Brown said. “He’s really good and does this for a living while I work for a living. Right now, while I’m at work doing my day job, he’s at his shop working on his race car. Anytime I can beat him is a little bit special to me.”

Brown’s day job is not far away from motorsports. When he is not refining his orange No. 83 Modified, Brown occupies himself at Rick Ware Racing by helping Justin Haley find extra speed in his No. 51 Ford.

The experience Brown brings to Ware’s organization dates to his high school days when he worked in Cale Yarborough’s shop. Although the NASCAR Cup Series platform has changed exponentially over the years, Brown’s expertise is translating into on-track success for Haley, who has recorded two top-10 finishes in his first year with the team.

Balancing his Cup Series responsibilities and his Modified team is an arduous process for Brown. There are days where the Cana, Virginia native himself questions how he can regularly pull off such a hectic schedule, but he has never wavered in his commitment to excel on every front.

“I get up at four in the morning, drive to Concord to work, leave Concord to go to my race shop and work until nine or 10 o’clock, then go home and try to spend a little time with the wife and kids,” Brown said. “Then I get up and do it again. It’s tough, and the older I get, the harder it is to put in 50 hours at work, then another 40 hours at the shop.

“It’s crazy what we do to do this.”

Despite being inundated with so much work, the soon-to-be 53-year-old competitor has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. That’s one reason Brown is treating his milestone as just another win.

There is still a 13th championship for Brown to chase at Bowman Gray, where he currently finds himself with a 50-point deficit to Myers in the Modified standings. Brown wants to cherish his 100th win and even plans to sell a commemorative t-shirt, but his mind is centered on obtaining win No. 101 as soon as possible and building late-season momentum.

With no intention of slowing down any time soon, Tim Brown hopes to leave behind an inspirational legacy for the next generation. (Photo: Bowman Gray Stadium)

Yet the occasion did allow Brown time to reflect on his accomplishments and where he came from. He still hangs on to the advice passed down to him by his grandfather Ebert Lewis ‘Eb’ Clifton, a successful racer in his own regard who passed away in 2018.

Brown knows Clifton would be proud of the life he has built for himself. He intends to keep honoring his grandfather’s legacy by staying close to his faith and leaving an impact that can inspire the next generation of competitors.

“The only thing I care about now since I’ve tried to get my life right is being remembered as a clean racer and a God-fearing Christian,” Brown said. “It’s through [God] that I get to do this. I worked hard for all those accomplishments, and my family sacrificed so much for this. God has blessed me to have a chance to race and be OK at it by setting some records.

“I want my legacy to be, ‘He was a clean racer who did the best he could with what he had and worked hard for it.'”

Brown’s accomplishments at Bowman Gray have cemented him as one of the facility’s greatest drivers, but with his program still amongst the best at the track, plenty of opportunities remain for him to add to his impressive legacy.

Posted on by Staff Report

AM Racing announced Monday that Cup Series regular Joey Logano will fill in as driver of its No. 15 Ford this weekend, replacing Hailie Deegan for Saturday’s Xfinity Series event at Chicago’s Street Course.

Logano — a two-time Cup Series champion and the circuit’s most recent winner Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway — is set for his first Xfinity Series start since 2019 in The Loop 110, scheduled Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET (NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). He is a 30-time winner in Xfinity competition. Logano’s most recent race in Xfinity came in August 2019 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Chicago weekend schedule | Xfinity Series standings

Deegan’s rookie season in the Xfinity Series has been a struggle, with an average finish of 26.8 and just four results of 20th or better through 17 races. That slots the 22-year-old driver in 27th place in the Xfinity Series standings — last among drivers who have entered every event.

AM Racing president Wade Moore said that the organization intends to learn from Logano’s experience and guidance in the hopes of providing a competitive spark for the second half of the Xfinity season.

“The level of competition in the Xfinity Series is as competitive as it’s ever been,” Moore said in a release from the team, which will have primary sponsorship from Klutch Vodka on the No. 15 entry this weekend. “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.”

Logano finished eighth in last year’s Cup Series inaugural on the Windy City streets. The weekend also produced a season-best result for AM Racing in its first Xfinity season, with Brett Moffitt driving to fourth place in the team’s No. 25 Ford.

“Racing in the rain on Chicago’s Street Course last year was a challenge within itself,” Logano said. “Any extra seat time is always a positive for unique tracks such as this one. Driving the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars are a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to climbing behind the wheel of the No. 15 AM Racing Ford Mustang with high hopes to wheel it to the front.”

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.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Joey Logano had a feeling a turnaround day would come. Just two weeks ago at Iowa Speedway, he shared that his wife, Brittany, had reminded him about the doldrums that had haunted his 2018 season, which was hampered by an 11-race summer stretch without a top-five finish. By his own admission, Logano said he was “a pretty miserable person to be around” while his results sagged.

The bright-side part of the reminder: That season ended with the first of Logano’s two NASCAR Cup Series championships, spurred by a strong closing kick to the 10-race postseason. He acknowledged that Brittany was right, concluding, “I’m still optimistic that we’re going to figure things out.”

Two weeks later, both the reminder and the underlying optimism bore fruit in Logano’s fuel-sipping, strategy-heavy surge to victory in Sunday’s marathon Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. The Team Penske veteran snapped a winless streak of 49 points-paying races, securing a Cup Series Playoffs ticket that was on shaky ground up until his No. 22 Ford stammered across the finish line with an almost-dry tank after five overtimes.

RELATED: Race results | Cup Series standings

The season so far has been an uneven ascent from early depths, with Logano sitting 30th in the Cup Series standings after what he called “definitely the toughest start of a season I’ve ever had,” just four races in. He had regained some of that lost ground before Sunday’s start but was only plus-13 in relation to the playoff elimination line as the last driver into the provisional 16-driver field before the green flag.

Three prongs of uncertainty stirred Logano’s Sunday angst — his playoff bubble residency, his fuel cell on fumes and the specter of a wild-card event looming in this weekend’s Chicago Street Race (Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Those factors also fed Logano’s relief and elation after making all of those unknowns go away.

“Oh, yeah. It felt like a superspeedway win to me because you don’t know until you get to the start/finish line. I went bonkers in the car,” Logano said, drawing comparisons to Talladega-level tension. “You think about this playoff scenario that we were in, being on that cutoff spot, man, it sucks. It’s not fun. That pressure is real, and you don’t sleep good. You’re constantly thinking about it. It’s nice to be able to get this win to where you can take the next seven weeks to be able to — not take a breather but be able to at least sleep a little bit and start thinking about the playoffs as much as the next few races.

“When you think about Chicago coming up next week and you’re on the cutoff spot, not a comfortable spot to be. Just the timing of this one couldn’t have been better.”

Team Penske’s Cup Series operation is sleeping better across the board, with all three of its full-time drivers breaking into the win column in June. Austin Cindric added the first part of that collective playoff-picture exhale five weeks ago at World Wide Technology Raceway, and Ryan Blaney gave his Cup Series title defense a springboard at Iowa. Logano’s effort at Nashville was the organization’s last missing piece.

The timing for the rest of the playoff-hopeful field is less savory. Logano’s promotion as the 11th driver into the postseason bracket moved the tentative elimination line, with Alex Bowman slotting into the new last-driver-in spot and Bubba Wallace still the first driver out. That gap, however, has widened to a 51-point divide, raising the likely price of admission to a regular-season victory in the next seven races before the playoffs grid is determined.

It’s a desperation spot that’s shared by Chase Briscoe, 78 points back in Stewart-Haas Racing’s swan-song campaign, and the luckless Kyle Busch, who has sunk to an improbable 104 points off the elimination line after four DNFs in the last five races for his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing group. A host of hungry drivers further back in the standings are poised to take home-run cuts to clinch one of the five remaining spots; such a victory would shuffle the playoff deck even more.

WATCH: No. 22 crew chief chimes in on Nashville victory | No. 22 jackman on “crazy” day 

An aggressive, against-the-odds fuel gamble to the finish helped Logano and the No. 22 group emerge from that postseason pickle. Crew chief Paul Wolfe noted post-race how the opportunities hadn’t materialized as hoped in recent weeks at Gateway, Iowa and New Hampshire Motor Speedway — all areas of focus — but that the No. 22 team had made the progress necessary to capitalize when needed. Converting before an odd lot of tracks in the next three weeks — Chicago Street, Pocono, Indianapolis — was crucial, but the emphasis didn’t stray from returning to Victory Lane.

Whether this season ends in the same way that 2018 did for Logano & Co. is still up for grabs, but Sunday’s win at least puts the former champ back in the picture.

“I think myself and one of my engineers has kind of been of the mindset that hey, we’re going to have to win a race,” Wolfe said. “As much as you want to say you can point your way in, that’s great, but I think personally we’ve been in the mindset we need to win, like I said, and I kind of told Joey coming into this last stretch of four or five races. …

“So this is good, and now it gives us the opportunity to continue to build.”