Posted on by Press Release

TURNERS FALLS, Mass. — Mayhew Steel Products, Inc. (Mayhew Tools) is excited to announce their 2024 season sponsorship of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Pole Award for the sixth consecutive year.

This award honors the driver and crew who achieves the fastest time in qualifying. Through this sponsorship, Mayhew Tools will reward each pole-winning driver with a $1,000 check and present the team’s crew chief with a newly released 14-piece Micro Hand Tool Set. This set consists of Mayhew’s most popular micro hand tools, including pry bars, hooks, picks and screwdrivers. Each tool has an ergonomic Nylon 6 handle and alloy steel blade that is heat treated and tempered for hardness and ductility. All tools in this set are made in the USA and come with a lifetime warranty.

The 2024 Modified Tour season began Feb. 10 at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway, where Ron Silk started the year with a victory. The season will span 16 races throughout the Northeast, ending at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 26.

“Being able to have a consistent presence in the NASCAR community through sponsoring the Whelen Modified Tour Pole Award is an opportunity that we at Mayhew Tools are very proud of,” said John Lawless, President of Mayhew Tools. “We value the chance to support the drivers, crew chiefs and teams that devote their skills to competing in the Whelen Modified Tour, and we look forward to a successful 2024 race season.”

The 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule consists of the following races:

  • Saturday, Feb. 10: New Smyrna Speedway (FL)
  • Friday, March 29: Richmond Raceway (VA)
  • Sunday, April 7: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (CT)
  • Saturday, May 4: Monadnock Speedway (NH)
  • Saturday, May 18: Riverhead Raceway (NY)
  • Saturday, June 1: Seekonk Speedway (MA)
  • Saturday, June 22: New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NH)
  • Saturday, July 20: Monadnock Speedway (NH)
  • Saturday, Aug. 3: Lancaster Motorplex (NY)
  • Wednesday, Aug. 14: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (CT)
  • Saturday, Aug. 31: Oswego Speedway (NY)
  • Saturday, Sept. 14: Riverhead Raceway (NY)
  • Saturday, Sept. 21: Monadnock Speedway (NH)
  • Saturday, Oct. 5: North Wilkesboro Speedway (NC)
  • Sunday, Oct. 13: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (CT)
  • Saturday, Oct. 26: Martinsville Speedway (VA)

Founded in 1856, Mayhew Tools is renowned for its professional-grade hand tools, which exemplify quality and performance. These tools are sold through an extensive network of distributors worldwide.

The company offers a broad range of tools, including punches, chisels, pry bars, pneumatic tools, drives, bits, inspection tools, screwdrivers and more. For further information about these tools, their availability, and other details, visit mayhew.com or call 800.872.0037.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Goodyear officials have scheduled a NASCAR Cup Series tire test Tuesday and Wednesday on the repaved racing surface at Sonoma Raceway.

The two-day session will help Goodyear representatives determine the proper tire compound and construction for the Cup Series’ June 9 visit to the California road course for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series West will share the weekend bill June 7-9.

RELATED: Scenes from Sonoma repaving project | Cup Series 2024 schedule

Three Cup Series teams — one from each of the tour’s three manufacturers — are scheduled to participate:

  • No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet (driver Ross Chastain)
  • No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford (driver Josh Berry)
  • No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (driver Martin Truex Jr.)

The full 12-turn, 2.52-mile circuit underwent its first full repave in 23 years during the offseason, and track officials announced the project’s completion on Feb. 29. The Cup Series will race on Sonoma’s 1.99-mile configuration, using the “chute” that connects Turns 4 and 7 on the full layout.

Bay Cities Paving & Grading and ABSL Construction completed the work in 61 days. It’s the second Speedway Motorsports track to get fresh asphalt in recent months, with Sonoma joining North Wilkesboro Speedway among the freshly repaved venues in the company portfolio.

Tuesday’s test will be closed to the public.

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

More than a month after the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opened the 2024 season at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway, the schedule resumes with the Tour’s annual trip to Richmond Raceway this Friday evening for the running of the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 (6:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing).

The second round of the 2024 season serves as the 14th visit for the Modified Tour to 0.75-mile asphalt oval. The series made its inaugural visit to Richmond in 1990, when Rick Fuller claimed one of his 20 series victories.

In the years that followed, some of the Modified Tour’s best have visited Victory Lane at the track, including legends like Reggie Ruggiero, Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher. Other familiar names to visit Victory Lane at Richmond include Tony Hirschman, Ryan Preece, Justin Bonsignore and, most recently, Austin Beers.

Tickets to the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the second of 16 races on the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule.

Richmond Raceway
A pack of cars pictured during the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Richmond Raceway on March 31, 2023. (Photo: Rob Branning/NASCAR)

Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway

21 Rr Virginiaracinglovers150 Modified 4c What to watch for:

Based on recent results, no one on the Tour right now is better than reigning champion Ron Silk.

During his championship season last year, Silk earned a career-high five victories and only finished outside the top 10 once in 18 races. He carried that momentum into 2024 by winning the opening race of the season at New Smyrna for the second straight year.

Silk will look to carry that momentum into Friday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond, a track where he had one of his worst races of 2023. Don’t take that phrasing too seriously, though, as Silk finished seventh last year at Richmond.

Amazingly, that seventh-place run was his second-worst finish across the entire 18-race schedule last season. His worst race came at Monadnock Speedway in September, when he finished 12th.

RELATED: Watch the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 on FloRacing

One driver who should be expected to contend for the victory Friday at Richmond is defending race winner Austin Beers, who bagged his maiden Modified Tour victory at the track one year ago. He dominated the 150-lap event, leading a race-high 102 laps along the way.

A pair of familiar faces to fans of the NASCAR Cup Series will also be in the field. Ryan Newman, who also competed in the opening race of the year at New Smyrna, and 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte will both be in action Friday. Labonte will again be in the No. 38 for Sadler-Stanley Racing. Newman will pilot the No. 77 fielded by Mike Curb.

Justin Bonsignore will look for his second Richmond victory in the No. 51 owned by Ken Massa, and 2010 Modified Tour champion Bobby Santos III returns to the series aboard the No. 14 Advantage Motorsports entry. Doug Coby will look for his first victory of the year driving for Tommy Baldwin Racing, and Patrick Emerling will once again pilot the No. 1 Fleetworks Inc. Modified.

Other notable entries include Craig Lutz, Eric Goodale, Andy Seuss, Jake Johnson, Kyle Bonsignore, Carson Loftin, Tyler Rypkema and Tommy, Tyler and Trevor Catalano.

The complete entry list for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 is available here.

Richmond Raceway
A pack of cars pictured during the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Richmond Raceway on March 31, 2023. (Photo: Rob Branning/NASCAR)

RACE FACTS

Race Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150
Date Friday, March 29, 2024
Track Richmond Raceway
Layout 0.75-mile asphalt oval
Location Richmond, Virginia
Start time 6:30 p.m. ET
Laps 150
Posted awards $122,497
Tickets Here
How to watch FloRacing

Schedule: Friday, March 29 … Practice from 12:45 to 1:30 p.m. ET … Final practice from 2 to 2:30 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET … Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at 6:30 p.m. ET (FloRacing)

Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.

Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is fourteen (14) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is six (6) tires, any position.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

AUSTIN, Texas — When the NASCAR Cup Series took to the 3.41-mile Circuit of The Americas road course Saturday morning for practice, Ty Gibbs controlled most categories. His No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the first car to hit the track and sat atop the scoring pylon throughout the extended session until the waning seconds when William Byron jumped to first.

Byron nipped Gibbs in qualifying, and the sophomore driver would start from third position in the 68-lap race. The No. 54 team still believed it was going to be a contender in the outcome of Sunday’s race.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Gibbs raced inside the top five for the extent of the opening stage before his crew chief Chris Gayle called him to pit road from second position, coming to two laps remaining in the stage. With the bulk of the field flipping the stage, Gibbs still earned three stage points by finishing eighth.

Seeing how the race was playing out, Gibbs was called to pit road again late in the second stage, giving up valuable stage points to be in contention for the win in the final stage. Gibbs placed 11th in Stage 2, missing out on stage points by the slimmest of margins.

Throughout the final stage, Gibbs was just a tick off from Byron’s lightning pace. Christopher Bell made a late rally to pass the No. 54 car within the final five laps of the race for second position. Gibbs held on to third at the checkered flag, tying the best finish of his career (Phoenix Raceway, two weeks ago).

It was a solid showing for Gibbs, who’s currently on a streak of five straight top-10 finishes, the longest streak of his Cup career.

“We track these things we call strong performances, right? Which are top fives, leading laps and getting stage points and leading in the last part of the race,” Gayle said after the race. “This was another one for us. We honestly felt like we had a shot to win today. We needed to be a tiny bit better car-wise to pull it off, and you need to flip position and get to the lead, and I think we would have been in an OK spot.

“Long runs, we were better. Short runs, we weren’t quite good enough. It was trading off that. We got the long run but still didn’t quite get there. It’s a good day. Good to be disappointed with a third.”

The frustration was apparent on Gibbs’ face following the event. All that matters to him currently is winning his first Cup race as he remains winless through 57 attempts.

“It was good, but the most important is a win, and that’s what I wish I could have got,” Gibbs said. “It’s a good points day, looking at the big picture.”

Gibbs jumped to second in the regular season championship standings behind only his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. Six races into his sophomore season, he’s a slim five points off the lead. Gibbs’ 7.8 average finish through six races leads the Cup Series.

MORE: 2024 Cup standings | Gibbs’ career stats

Gayle, who has been paired with Gibbs for the last four seasons dating back to the Xfinity Series, has seen his driver mature in great spurts. Nearly every week, the No. 54 car is part of the conversation for the win.

“[He’s] ahead of schedule probably,” Gayle added. “We’re right on pace where he’s doing a good job, but I think we’re going to take two steps forward, and there will be one every now and then we regress on because we’re still ahead of schedule. It’s still early in his career.

“To be this high in points, to have the start to the season that we’ve had, now we’ve got a margin where if that happens we’re still in good shape. I think that’s what is good is we’re in a good position right now.”

With a pair of short tracks on the horizon, the schedule continues to lend itself to the No. 54 team. Gayle believes the team had a car capable of winning last fall at Martinsville Speedway before getting plowed by Joey Logano during the final stage. First up is a 400-lap event on Easter Sunday at Richmond Raceway (7 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where the team has struggled.

“We need to be a little better than where we are, but we’ve been able to do that at some of these race tracks so far this year,” Gayle said of Richmond. “If we continue the improvement that we did from last year to these first few events, we will be in good shape.”

RICHMOND: Upcoming schedule

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

AUSTIN, Texas — William Byron’s dominant day at Circuit of The Americas confirmed at least one thing: He hasn’t lost a step of his road-course game since last year.

The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team cruised to victory in Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race after leading a race-high 42 laps, scoring his second win on a road course in the last three such events. The only exception? A second-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course last fall.

RELATED: Race recap | At-track photos

Byron’s defense against Christopher Bell in the closing stages affirmed both his road-racing prowess and Toyota’s ever-looming speed.

“I never saw him make a mistake, which is what it was going to take to win today in the closing laps,” said Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. “Because Bell had the faster car with the fresher tires, any big lockup into a corner, I think it would have been a different outcome. A lot of credit to William in doing that great job. Takes the whole team, the pit crew, everybody. They’re truly on quite a run here to start this season off. Can’t wait to see where they take it next.”

Gordon, like most in the garage, admitted he expected Toyotas to dominate Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix — even though Byron put the No. 24 Chevrolet on pole position. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick controlled COTA a year ago and showed plenty of speed in Saturday’s practice, as did the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet of Bell, Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

“They’ve got a lot of speed,” Gordon said. “It’s one thing when one car has speed, it’s another thing when a group of them have speed. That tells you a lot about what they have, what they’re bringing to the race track. It’s certainly on our radar in a big way.”

Christopher Bell leads William Byron and others during a NASCAR race at COTA.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

But so is Byron, who became the first multi-time Cup winner this year — and the first multi-time winner in each of the last three seasons. For him and crew chief Rudy Fugle, Sunday’s performance was business as usual on road courses, which is particularly notable since Watkins Glen International joins the NASCAR Playoffs this year in addition to Charlotte’s road course.

“I think it’s just part of the process and our evolution for our notebook for these race tracks,” Byron said. “I feel like for us, we can just take from this another data point of what we need to improve. I don’t think anyone’s car was driving perfect there. Just the way that this race track is with the ride over the bumps, just the way the curbing is, the track is pretty rough. I feel like it drives different than anywhere.

“At the same time, you can put this one in the notebook and say, ‘OK, when we go to what’s next, whenever we go to the next one, we know what to work on.’ We’ll just try to keep building at each one. I feel like we’ve gotten in a rhythm. We just have gotten a good feel for these places.”

Reddick told NASCAR.com earlier that it was important for his No. 45 Toyota to be “part of the conversation of winning this race.” That never really came into play Sunday, with Reddick leading just one lap and finishing fifth after qualifying third.

“I shouldn’t say it’s a bad day, but it’s not what we want when we come to a road course, right?” Reddick said. “We were able to get away with some mistakes in certain areas with a fifth place. So I mean, that’s not a bad thing, right? Obviously, none of us are satisfied with how we finished so we’ll be hungry. We’ll be working on it and getting ready for the next road course.”

Though Bell fell short at the buzzer, his electric charge should not be forgotten, either. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota — also a previous winner this season — has been a continuous threat on road courses with top 10s in 11 of his 21 starts on such tracks. Bell nearly erased a nine-second deficit to catch Byron’s bumper, falling short by just 0.692 seconds at the checkered flag.

Gibbs also shined with a third-place run, cementing the belief his Toyota teammates continue to preach — that a road-course victory is likely coming soon for the 21-year-old sophomore racer.

The good news for the field is that the next road race isn’t scheduled until June, when the Cup Series shifts westward to Sonoma Raceway in California. Until then, the notes from Circuit of The Americas will dictate teams’ next steps in trying to dethrone the No. 24 team.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials disqualified the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford after Sunday’s Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas for a violation found in post-race inspection.

Competition officials determined that the car did not meet the minimum weight requirement after Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the 3.41-mile road course. The infraction falls under Section 14.11.2 (“Vehicle Weight”) in the NASCAR Rule Book.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos: COTA

Justin Haley had driven the No. 51 Ford to an apparent 17th-place finish in the race, matching his season-best result. He will instead be relegated to last place in the 39-car field and will collect last-place points in the revised finishing order.

The penalty also dropped Haley from what would have been a 26th-place ranking to 31st in the Cup Series standings.

Haley is in his first year with the Rick Ware-owned organization after spending the last two Cup Series seasons with Kaulig Racing.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

AUSTIN, Texas — Christopher Bell had a late-race charge for the ages in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas. If the race was one lap longer, there’s a high probability the No. 20 team would have been celebrating in Victory Lane.

With stage break cautions returning at COTA for the first time since 2022, Bell and his crew chief Adam Stevens pondered the idea of staying out to collect stage points if the opportunity arose. Instead of making three pit stops over 68 laps, the strategy would be to stretch the fuel tank as far as possible, making one less trip to pit road. It would also mean that pitting late in the final stage would mean Bell had the freshest tires for the sprint to the finish.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

The latter strategy panned out. Coming to Lap 13, when the pits closed until the conclusion of the opening stage, the front two runners of William Byron and Ty Gibbs came to pit road, handing the lead to Bell. The No. 20 team won its second stage of the season and gained 10 points, minimizing the loss if the two-stop strategy went awry.

“We took the points in Stage 1 and then we didn’t see another caution,” Bell said. “We talked about it all week. If we were going to jump the stages or not and we decided that if we had the opportunity to win the stages, we would take the points.”

The No. 20 team was expecting more cautions to help trim the distance he trailed to the frontrunners. As he battled through the field, he sent Kyle Larson around on Lap 21. On Lap 40, it was Kyle Busch who went around off his front bumper in Turn 1. That led to a heated discussion from Busch, his former boss in the Craftsman Truck Series and teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, who stormed up to Bell after the race.

“The Larson deal, that was totally on me and I had no intentions of spinning Kyle out,” Bell said. “Kyle Busch, he opened his entry way up into Turn 1 because they were side-by-side, and I ran my normal line on the bottom and wasn’t planning on passing him. He tried to do the crossover and I was underneath him. Obviously, I didn’t mean to spin him out at all. I will reach out to him and talk to him whenever we’re a little bit cooled off.”

After Bell made his final pit stop on Lap 49, he was north of 10 seconds behind Byron, who cycled back to the front of teams that pitted. Bell erased the gap quickly, first passing Ross Chastain before tracking down his Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick. Next up was Alex Bowman, and then he hustled to Ty Gibbs’ back bumper. With two laps remaining, Bell was still 2.4 seconds behind Byron for the race lead.

MORE: Expanded COTA highlights

Byron could see Bell getting larger in his rearview mirror.

“I mean, it was just trying to not make mistakes,” Byron said of seeing Bell close the gap. “I felt like I made a lot of micro-errors in the last 10 laps. I have to calm down a little bit, look back at those 10 laps and think about what could I do better in the car to stay mentally locked in and not get flustered by the mirror, seeing him closing in a braking zone.

“He definitely had fresher tires. I’m sure that helped a little bit.”

When the white flag flew, Bell was 1.7 seconds back. He chopped another second off, but his Herculean effort came up seven-tenths of a second short of winning his second race of the young 2024 season.

“This thing was amazing,” Bell said. “Super, super fast and proud to have a nice, solid race.”

By scoring 45 points — the second-highest total at COTA — Bell jumped a spot in the regular season championship standings to seventh, 38 points behind Martin Truex Jr.’s lead.

The strategy call, though, Bell believes may have cost him the race, noting: “Ultimately, I think that’s why we didn’t win.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron turned in a steady and inspired drive to earn the NASCAR Cup Series victory from pole position in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas road course Sunday, holding off the field by less than a second but dominating the field when he needed to.

Following up on his season-opening Daytona 500 win, the 26-year-old Charlotte native became the first driver to win multiple races this season. This was his 12th career NASCAR Cup Series victory and gave his Hendrick team a series all-time best 28th win on NASCAR road courses.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

While at times Byron made it look easy, holding a nearly three-second advantage on the field with 10 laps remaining, his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet did have to fend off a hard-charging Christopher Bell, who made up four positions in the closing laps and kept Byron honest in what was ultimately a 0.692-second margin of victory around the 20-turn, 3.41-mile circuit.

“I feel like I made a lot of mistakes in the last 10 laps, just micro-errors and Christopher was really fast there on the longer run,” Byron said. “This sport is so hard and so difficult week in and week out to show up and have fast cars. We’ve had a little bit of a rough stretch the last few weeks but put a lot of preparation in this past week and just thankful for the team I have around me and all the people back home as well.

“Just super thankful to have this opportunity. It’s just a lot of fun to win races, and it’s really difficult, too.”

For his part, Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and a winner at Phoenix this season, acknowledged it came down to a good road-course battle among good teams and talented drivers.

“Obviously, once I got to him, it was going to be tough to pass him, I just needed a couple mistakes, but William has been really good on the road courses and he was flawless today,” Bell said.

Just behind the pair was Bell’s 21-year-old JGR teammate Ty Gibbs, who is having a stellar sophomore season in NASCAR’s Cup Series. Gibbs ran top five for the majority of the day and was second to Byron until Bell passed him with only two laps remaining. The third-place effort marked Gibbs’ fifth top-10 finish in the season’s six races.

“We were just a little too loose in the right-handed corner,” Gibbs said. “I just wish we were a little tighter, but we did a really good job today. … Good points day. We’ll just keep working hard.”

In fact, the effort now brings Gibbs to second place in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, only five points behind his teammate Martin Truex Jr.

Byron’s Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman finished fourth, followed by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, the 2023 COTA winner.

Unlike the previous day’s races at COTA with NASCAR’s other two national series, Sunday’s race had only two caution flags — both for scheduled stage breaks. It was a clean race that still featured seven leaders and 11 lead changes. But Byron led a dominant 42 of the 68 laps.

SHOP: Race winner gear

One of the sport’s best road-course racers, AJ Allmendinger finished sixth, followed by the 2022 COTA winner, Ross Chastain. Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch and Truex rounded out the top 10.

Shane van Gisbergen and Kamui Kobayashi — two international drivers making their first Cup Series starts this year — endured difficult days. Van Gisbergen’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet lost first gear during the middle portions of the race, and he finished 20th. Kobayashi had two on-track tangles — first with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and later with Sunoco rookie Josh Berry — that relegated his No. 50 23XI Racing Toyota to a 29th-place outcome.

Zane Smith was the highest finishing rookie in 19th.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Richmond Raceway next Sunday for the Toyota Owners 400 (7 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson is the defending race winner.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage confirmed Byron’s victory. The No. 51 was disqualified for not meeting minimum post-race weights. The No. 1 was taken to the R&D Center for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

AUSTIN, Texas — Going overseas to pit a NASCAR vehicle in the 24 Hours of Le Mans will always be a career highlight for Jarius Morehead, Cody French and Mike Moss.

That challenge encapsulated the endurance they display on a weekly basis back in the United States — and shines brightly again this weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The trio is pulling triple-duty this weekend in the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Cup Series at the 3.41-mile road course. Morehead served as the tire carrier, French the jackman and Moss the rear changer on Rajah Caruth’s No. 71 truck, the only vehicle they serviced together all weekend. In the Xfinity Series, Morehead carries tires for the No. 9 JR Motorsports entry driven by Brandon Jones, while Moss and French serve on the No. 6 JD Motorsports entry piloted this week by Ty Dillon.

Morehead and French will additionally service the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in the Cup Series for Carson Hocevar, while Moss changes rear tires for Corey LaJoie on Sundays.

Their experience working on NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports’ Garage 56 entry in Le Mans, France, nine months ago created a lasting bond, but it also provided plenty of applicable lessons back on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

“We probably were up for at least 40 hours that day,” Morehead recalled of his Le Mans race day. “So just learning, just being very detailed, very precise with what you’re doing. It’s a longer race and longer mileage, so you make one mistake, it’s crucial to that race over there. The lesson I learned is just be patient doing your job and be as precise as possible.”

Jackman Cody French prepares to pit the No. 71 truck during a NASCAR race at COTA.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com

French added that by working on the Garage 56 endeavor, their group — which also included Dawson Backus and Donovan Williams — had extended time to practice and learn with the Next Gen vehicle, even excelling at Le Mans in a pit-crew challenge.

“In all of NASCAR, I would say this pit crew probably has the most experience with the Next Gen car,” French said, “and doing so with all the extra practices and the countless testing hours that we’ve done at certain tracks, including the race. I would say building confidence and familiarity with the car itself, knowing how the car operates, knowing how … the car is gonna react essentially to a pit stop more so than what a five-lug car would.

“Now we can come back over here in the States and know that we could run some of the fastest stops in NASCAR and have confidence in ourselves that if there’s certain problems with the car, this is the way we’ve got to operate.”

At COTA, the order of operations started with a stout Saturday doubleheader with the Truck Series and Xfinity Series, with little time in between both events. This grind is nothing new to the trio, but that doesn’t make the experience any less challenging. Both Saturday vehicles have five-lug wheels, while Sunday’s Cup race features single lugs on the Next Gen car. That matters — even on Saturday.

“On the hot side of the track, I would say from Cup to Xfinity and Truck, the main thing is slowing the pace down,” French said. “On Sundays we’re trying to go eight, nine seconds, and then on Fridays and Saturdays, you’re trying to run 12 to 13 on a good stop. And I’m a jack man, so the game is a little bit different. I’m reacting to the changers. Changers carry the load on Fridays and Saturdays. Jackman is essentially your workhorse on Sundays.

“It’s just making sure your changers are on their A-game: hitting five, making sure five are tight and then knowing that when you wake up Sunday morning, roles are reversed. It’s the jackman’s turn to go.”

Jarius Morehead prepares to pit the No. 71 truck during a NASCAR race at COTA.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com

They’re also no stranger to milestone moments. Three weeks ago, their speedy service on Caruth’s No. 71 truck helped propel Caruth to his first career win at Las Vegas, with Caruth becoming the third Black driver to win at the NASCAR national series level.

“It’s great because they had a huge role in that success from getting us out (with) good stops in Stage 1 and getting us back in the game with that green-flag pit stop there in Stage 3,” Caruth said. “So I would put my guys up against anybody in the truck field.”

A sophomore Truck Series driver, Caruth has developed a strong relationship with his crew already and praised Morehead as a leader of the group. In turn, Caruth and the crew lean on one another and root for each other’s success.

“It’s important to me to have relationships with everybody on my team,” Caruth said, “from our mechanics to our people at the shop, people we go to the race track with and obviously our pit crew just, because everybody has an important role in this, right? Yes, I’m the one that gets to drive the truck, but that’s not the most important thing. Everybody has a role in this deal.”

A former three-year starting defensive back and captain on North Carolina State’s football team, Morehead reflects on the last year with gratitude and grace, appreciative of the glory that has come from such unique challenges.

“You just look back at it and just thank God for everything that he put in your life,” Morehead said. “Definitely a blessing to get his (Caruth’s) first win. Last year close to the end of the year, we were like, ‘we’re gonna get you a win.’ We dreamed. We were talking and it was just exciting to see him get out of that car, his parents over there with him, and him to get his first win. You just look and thank God for everything.”