NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Daniel Suárez took two minutes and 23 seconds out of his drive home from last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway to make an impassioned plea to his supporters to stick with him. The reel he posted to Instagram offered an apology after his 24th-place finish that Sunday, expressing his frustration during this recent rough stretch of performance for his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing team.
Suárez is virtually assured of a spot in the Cup Series Playoffs based on his three-wide victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the second event of the season, but his subpar results in most of the races since had clearly taken a toll. That all fueled his social-media address to his fans.
“The way I see it, there is a lot of people that come from very far away, and I see them every week because I go to the merchandise hauler to sign our autographs for them for 30 minutes,” Suárez said Friday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, after his arrival for All-Star Weekend events. “And I see people that come from many different places around the country with Mexican flags to support me, and I don’t feel like I’ve been doing good lately. If my driver is running 30th, that sucks. You know, that’s not good. And I feel like they deserve better, and I’m not saying that I’m not doing the work, because actually I am putting the work and my team is putting in the work.
“We just are in a point right now where we are not fast, and we have to figure it out, and I just wanted to let them know that is not going unnoticed. I feel that they deserve better, and I would like to see people with Mexican flags in the grandstands and people support me with their kids, and me running like that, that’s just not me. Like, if this was my normal, I would retire tomorrow because this is not … I’m not designed to be running like this.”
Suárez missed the postseason cut last year, and the organization juggled its crew chief lineup, bringing in Matt Swiderski from Kaulig Racing as a replacement for Travis Mack on the No. 99 team. His Atlanta victory in February sealed a playoffs return, but Suárez has just one top-10 finish — a fifth at Texas — in the 11 races that followed. Six of the last eight races have netted results outside the top 20, leaving the 32-year-old driver 18th in the overall Cup Series points.
That placement in the standings won’t change after this weekend’s All-Star festivities, where no points are on the line. But Suarez says his No. 99 Chevrolet team is striving to gain some short-track knowledge this weekend at North Wilkesboro, as the organization redoubles its efforts for the second half of the regular season before the 10-race playoff stretch begins.
“It’s not a secret the last few weeks, we’ve been a 30th-place car, and we’ve been finishing 25th with it, so we have some work to do,” Suárez said. “This is what I told my team: We have two months to figure it out. Two months to figure it out, and I say two months because I would like to have one month before the playoffs, to have the mentality of playoffs. Because if we think that we’re going to go into the playoffs and flip a switch and just be great, that won’t happen. No matter who it is, that doesn’t exist. So we have to just be ready when the time comes.”
Persistent rainfall during the afternoon and into the evening forced NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour officials to postpone the Miller Lite Salutes Wayne Anderson 200 to Sunday.
Qualifying had already been canceled by the precipitation earlier in the day, forcing the Modified Tour to set the field by the rule book. Defending champion Ron Silk would have started on pole, but a redraw moved him to sixth on the starting grid with Trevor Catalano claiming the top spot.
Live coverage of the rescheduled Miller Lite Salutes Wayne Anderson 200 begins at 12:15 p.m. ET on FloRacing with the support features at Riverhead. The green flag for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race waves at 2:30 p.m. ET.
INDIANAPOLIS –Qualifying started for the Indianapolis 500, and it took more than three hours (and one deflating misfire) before Kyle Larson had logged an official speed in the record book.
If that seems an agonizing and tense wait for making your debut at the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, you don’t know Kyle Larson very well.
“I wasn’t too stressed out after not getting to complete that first run,” he said while standing at the base of VictoryCircle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Yeah. I mean, to this point, it’s been a really fun experience. I’ve never gotten to compete in a qualifying day like this. So it’s honestly pretty relaxing. I feel like everybody talks about how stressful it is, which maybe if your car speed wasn’t there, it’d be more stressful. Or if we had another issue, then you’d begin to stress. “But I feel like when you do multiple runs, it just calms the nerves for me anyway.”
His blood might be pumping Sunday when the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be among the 12 drivers who take a shot at trying to win the pole position for the 108th Indianapolis 500. The Hendrick Motorsports star, who will attempt to become the fifth driver to race the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, posted the seventh-fastest four-lap average at 232.563 mph in his No. 17 Dallara-Chevrolet.
“Kyle’s one of the best drivers I’ve ever worked with for sure, without a doubt,” said Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward, a veteran of Formula One, who also has been the lead engineer for two-time IndyCar champion and defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden. “I can’t believe how well he’s done here. I’m over the moon, the team at Arrow McLaren is over the moon, and Hendrick Motorsports is absolutely over the moon with how things have gone from here. We’ll just keep trying to execute from here.”
The speeds of the Fast 12 will be reset for another round of four-lap attempts starting at 3 p.m. ET. Then, the fastest six driverswill square off for the Indy 500 pole in a final round that will begin at 5:25 p.m. ET.
Walt Kuhn | Penske Entertainment
And if he makes it throughall of that, Larson then has to hop on a Hendrick jet and hustle to Sunday night’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. It’s wheels up for North Carolina at6:20 p.m., about 25 minutes after the pole winner will be determined.
“It’s really cool, but it makes the windows a lot tighter for (Sunday),” Larson said with a laugh about making the Fast 12 in his Indy 500 debut. “But yeah, I think it’s something to be proud of, for sure, on my part a little bit. But qualifying is about the team. And they brought a fast race car. So I’mproud of everybody’s effort.”
It had been an inauspicious start for Larson and his three teammates at Arrow McLaren, which was unable to post an official qualifyingspeed until nearly three hours into the qualifyingsession.
As the sixthdriver to make an attempt after qualifying started at 11 a.m. ET, Larson easily was on pace to secure a spot in the 33-car grid until the last of his four laps around the 2.5-mile oval. That’s when he suddenly lost power because of a plenum fire in his Chevy engine– a misfire that causes a drop in engine torque. The only remedy is to lift off the accelerator to extinguish the small fire. Larson did that, but he also pulled off the track instead of taking the checkered flag, which aborted his attempt.
“The car slowed down,and I didn’t know what to do,”he said. “And then there was miscommunication. I guess they told me just to complete my lap, but I thought they told me to abort the lap.
“If I had known what to do in that circumstance, I could havejust lifted and went back to (the accelerator)and completed abelow–average run, but at least it would have probably been enough to be in the show at that point. But it didn’t matter anyway.”
That’s because Larson cooly put together a swift second run that sandwiched him betweenthe Hondas of eight–time IndyCar winner Colton Herta and six-time IndyCar polesitter Felix Rosenqvist. While he didn’t make any adjustments to his car, Larson had a smooth shifting pattern while hitting the buttons to adjust weight distribution on the straightaway beforecorner entry.
“I feel like I executed a better run (than the first time),” he said. “You’re just being more comfortable with hitting buttons and watching for shift lightsand things like that, The first run, I mean I felt like I executed it good, too. I was just more like having to think about it and really pay attention more.So it just became a little bit more natural.”
He was multitaskingat a top-end speed of nearly 240 mph with an extra 100 horsepower from an added turbo boost(which will be removed after qualifyingweekend for the race). But Larson was surprised to be relatively unfazed by going faster than he ever had in a race car.
“The whole time when I found out about me doing the Indy 500. I was like, ‘Man, that boost is going to be crazy,’” he said. “And watching qualifying last year when you see the mph,you’re like, ‘Holy (crap)!’ Like that’s got to feel crazy, but when you have the grip there, it doesn’t feel like you’re going 20 mph faster. That’s what’s been like the weirdest thing for me to try and get used to is I‘ll make a run that doesn’t really feel that fast. And then I come in and our number istowards the top of the pylon. So it’s a little bit weird.”
Chris Owens | Penske Entertainment
He might feel a little more harried Sunday when he will be trying to qualify an Indy car in one state and race a stock car in another.Thoughthe forecast has improved for Sunday at North Wilkesboro, Larson was hoping fora potential postponement of the All-Star Race to Monday night. He is scheduled to practicein traffic from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday at the Brickyard.
However the schedule unfolds,Larson’s NASCAR team will be ready. On hand in Indy to witness Larson’s qualifying debut were Hendrick president Jeff Andrews and chief operating officer Jeff Gordon, a record five-time winner at the Brickyard. The No. 17 entourage drew a large crowd wherever they walked Saturday at Indy, but Larson was the center of attention.
“I definitely feel way more popular here just because I’m doing something unique,” he said. “I’ve tried to take as much time and sign autographs and take pictures for fans. I feel like I’ve signed more than a thousand autographs since I’ve been here, so it’s been enjoyable.
“It’s been specialfor me to experience this, but I think what makes it even more enjoyable for me is like getting to have all these other people experience it with me. Jeff Gordon, Jeff Andrews, and we’ll have Rick Hendrick here next week. My (Cup) team is going to come on Carb Day (next Friday). My family, my kids, friends, like anybody who’s close to me. Getting to come here and enjoy in the experience as well has been very nice.”
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 also has covered variousother motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Joey Logano starts from the best seat in the historic house for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race, having put his No. 22 Team Penske on the pole position in Saturday’s unique qualifying session at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Logano will chase the $1 million prize from the front of the field in Sunday night’s 200-lap main event (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), but his pursuit of a third NASCAR Cup Series championship hasn’t had quite the same speedy results. Before on-track activity began Friday, the 33-year-old driver admitted that his tension level was as high as it has been this late in a season in recent memory.
“Yeah, in a while for sure, but there’s no running away from it. It is what it is,” Logano said. “We’ve just got to be perfect from here out.”
Logano sits at the midpoint of the 26-race regular season, just 17th in the Cup Series standings. He’s 18th in the provisional playoffs order, 30 points outside the elimination line for the 16-driver postseason field.
Logano has gone the last five races without a top-10 finish; his lone top-five result of the year — a runner-up at Richmond — came at the end of March. His hopes for breaking out of his recent rough patch at Darlington Raceway last weekend were thwarted by a late-race penalty for speeding on pit road.
Logano managed to take away some positives as he closes out the month of May — his early Darlington strength, the learnings from a North Wilkesboro tire test, RFK Racing’s upswing as a fellow Ford team, and in Team Penske’s performance in the Coca-Cola 600 last year, when teammate Ryan Blaney claimed the laurels at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Those markers have fed some of his optimism for reversing his current slide.
“I mean, any given weekend, we can be right there,” Logano says. “I mean, we ran in the top five most of the race last week, so I feel solid about that. I feel solid about this weekend and Wilkesboro after the test here. I think we should be pretty strong. And Charlotte, yeah, who knows, right? Blaney had a really good run there last year. Maybe we can hit on something there, too. There’s no doubt the mile and a halfs have been a weakness of ours, but you also look at what RFK has done in the last couple of weeks and you say, ‘well, the opportunity’s there.’ We’ve just got to go find it. Whatever that is, we’ve got to figure that out.”
Torrential rain and intermittent lightning have altered Saturday’s All-Star Weekend schedule at North Wilkesboro Speedway, leading to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race being postponed and both 60-lap qualifying heats in the Cup Series being canceled.
Saturday’s Truck Series race will pick up action on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The Wright Brand 250 began on time and was halted after 81 of the scheduled 250 laps were completed. The race was stopped by a brief shower and lightning, and a downpour near 3:30 p.m. ET drenched the 0.625-mile track.
Due to both 60-lap qualifying heats for Sunday’s All-Star Race being canceled, the lineup will be set according to Saturday’s qualifying results, per the NASCAR Rule Book. That means Team Penske driver Joey Logano starts from the pole position, flanked by Brad Keselowski beside him. Christopher Bell, whose No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team won the Pit Crew Challenge, will line up third. Daniel Suárez and Chris Buescher complete the top five.
Sunday’s All-Star race time remains at 8 p.m. on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The All-Star Open event, in which the top two drivers advance to the All-Star Race, is slated for 5:30 p.m. ET.
Rain also canceled Craftsman Truck Series qualifying Saturday morning, forcing the lineup to be set according to the NASCAR Rule Book and placing series points leader Christian Eckes first for the green flag. Eckes led the first 62 laps before Ty Majeski took control to win Stage 1.
Rain showers bookended a brief midday period of sunshine, which allowed NASCAR All-Star Race qualifying to take place.
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — It’s early still, but the introduction of tire choices to NASCAR Cup Series short-track racing has shown some promise.
A compelling 50-minute practice session Friday afternoon at North Wilkesboro Speedway had teams and drivers on their heels and learning, trying to understand the nuances of Goodyear’s “prime” tire — the control tire with yellow sidewall lettering — and the softer, faster but less durable “option” tire with red lettering. The freshly paved racing surface at the historic 0.625-mile track has added yet another variable.
The session offered a glimpse into the strategy potential for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) and the All-Star Open qualifier (5:30 p.m. ET on the same networks). But the tire experiment under the heading of a special non-points event could also have potential applications at other tracks measuring one mile or less, should the event be a success.
Again, it’s early, but the indicators are positive so far, with Goodyear pushing the limits on performance and wear.
“I think absolutely there’s something to be learned here,” said Denny Hamlin, the 2015 All-Star winner. “We ran a tire that no way they would ever feel comfortable with us running, especially on a new paved track like this, and we ran over 40 laps and we didn’t see any cords or anything. So I’m very happy with what we saw, and certainly, hopefully they can take learn something from here to take to a Phoenix or something. The biggest thing I noticed is that we had left-side heat. That’s something that we have not had on our short-track cars in quite some time. And so with the left sides getting hot, that’s going to make new tires matter, it’s going to make passing easier. So I think as long as they stay as aggressive as they can on the left sides, this is a step in the right direction and then good job for Goodyear.”
Teams opened the session with split decisions on tire choice, and the red-lettered tires showed as-advertised speed and grip, but with a measure of fall-off. Other teams kept tabs on their own wear, but also on their neighbors’ tires along pit road. Drivers also reported that both tires lay rubber well on the fresh pavement, and that helped the middle grooves up off the bottom lane widen out more quickly.
Sunday night’s All-Star main event is scheduled for 200 laps, with intermissions set for Lap 100 and Lap 150. Will running the first 100 laps without pitting be feasible, and when will option tires be the right call? Some uncertainty still remains.
“I don’t think the strategy is very clear yet,” said Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who won the All-Star Race in 2016. “We got 50 minutes of practice I went through a set on and ran as long as they felt comfortable out there, or as much time as they had to run that many laps, and looking at the data afterwards, it’s still not super clear what you would do. A lot of it depends on what place you’re running and all that, but it’s not as clear as you may think when it comes to when you’re going to put the softs on, or the option tire. I don’t know. There’s a lot of question to it.”
That unpredictability could make Sunday’s All-Star event a strategy grab bag, but the tiremaker’s renewed approach to being aggressive with the balance of grip, speed and durability also could pay dividends in the long term. Two months ago, Hamlin won a topsy-turvy Cup Series showdown at Bristol Motor Speedway when tire wear was unexpectedly high, forcing drivers into management mode with their race-ready rubber and receiving positive reviews on how the event played out.
Recapturing that intrigue to enhance short-track racing with NASCAR’s Next Gen racer has been a focus ever since, and the added wrinkle of multiple tire choices with varying characteristics could be, well … a prime option down the road.
“It just seemed like this is a good opportunity to see if maybe this is a solution, add something of that risk-and-reward element that’ll improve the overall racing,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “So if it’s successful or at least we get some direction, then obviously we’ll get our heads together with NASCAR, with the teams, and determine if this something we might want to pursue for the future.”
See above where your favorite driver will pit in Sunday’s All-Star Race in the NASCAR Cup Series at North Wilkesboro Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
After being moved to Saturday afternoon due to weather postponement, the Pit Crew Challenge kicked off a slate full of All-Star festivities for the day at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
This year, it was Joey Logano grabbing the pole for Sunday’s All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), while last week’s Darlington winner Brad Keselowski will also start on the front row in second.
Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing crew executed a 13.223-second pit stop, successfully defending their crown as that same crew won the challenge last year with the No. 54 of Ty Gibbs.
Saturday’s scheduled All-Star Heat races were canceled due to severe weather at North Wilkesboro. Sunday’s main event lineup will be set based on Saturday’s qualifying results, per the NASCAR Rule Book. The All-Star Open race lineup, meanwhile, was set based on owner points after Friday’s qualifying session was canceled due to rain. View the All-Star Race starting lineup here.
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — During a qualifying session that incorporated a four-tire pit stop under the aegis of the Pit Crew Challenge, Joey Logano won the pole position for both Saturday evening’s No. 1 Heat Race and Sunday’s $1-million-to win NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Logano ran the required three laps, including the pit stop, in 89.754 seconds (75.206 mph), beating fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski (74.884 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.386 seconds.
Logano is the only driver locked into a starting position for Sunday’s All-Star Race. The rest of the field is scheduled to be set through Saturday’s two heat races.
Logano’s crew was fifth fastest on the pit stop. The winner of the Pit Crew Challenge — and first choice of pit stalls for the All-Star Race — was the over-the-wall gang on Christopher Bell’s Toyota, posting a stop of 13.223 seconds, edging Keselowski’s crew by 0.010 seconds.
The same crew won last year’s Pit Crew Challenge with a different Joe Gibbs Racing driver: Ty Gibbs.
“This qualifying session is the most fun session of the year,” said Logano, the sixth of 17 drivers to attempt a run. “And it really takes the whole team, right? The car’s got to go fast, we’ve got to execute onto pit road well, the spotter’s got to do a good job helping me get through my lights (indicating pit road speed) and being on the same page with me there.
“I’ve got to be able to stop in the stall. The pit crew’s got to do their part, and then back up onto the race track. So it really takes every crew member.”
Bell had the third fastest overall time (90.169 seconds), followed by Daniel Suárez (90.199 seconds).
Notably, Bell’s crew was elated to do its part in the No. 20 Toyota’s successful qualifying effort.
“I’m blessed to be with a good group of guys,” said rear tire changer Mike Hicks. “I couldn’t do this if I didn’t have a good supporting cast. Those guys are the best on pit road, and we’ve got a stud for a driver.”
“What can you say? This is two in a row for these guys, and they’ve been awesome,” Bell added. “I’m incredibly happy for them and honored to be their driver.
“I was able to stop on my marks. That’s been a huge topic of conversation in our meetings, in making sure you get to the sign deep enough and get the tires locked up, so they can get on the lug while you’re stopping.
“That’s obviously a big part of it—and taking off as soon as that jack drops. And that was a hell of a lot of fun.”
The conclusion of All-Star Open qualifying was canceled due to weather Friday evening, which means the NASCAR Rule Book will set the field.
Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman will start on the front row in Sunday’s All-Star Open (5:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The top two finishers in the All-Star Open, including the Fan Vote winner, will transfer to Sunday night’s All-Star Race in Wilkes County (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Pit times will also determine pit-stall selection for the races on All-Star Weekend.
