CONCORD, N.C. — Alongside the right-side door bars and extending towards the rear clip, teams will now be mandated to run a steel plate in addition to the chassis adjustments made for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The right-side door bar gussets and the removal of the front clip V-brace are changes that remain, in addition to the removal of other front-clip components to create a softer and larger crush zone for frontal impacts.
Also included in the updates are front bumper strut softening (modifications to existing parts), the requirement of an empty front ballast box and a modified cross brace. NASCAR will incur the cost of all these updates.
“We’ve taken a lot of the steel structural members and removed material from key elements to make this structure less stiff,” saidDr. JohnPatalak,vice president of safety engineering at NASCAR. “We have slots on both sides, we have deleted some cross members between the upright mounts and we’ve treated some of the areas down low that are some of the first to contact the wall on the front clip. We’ve also added slots to this ballast container as well as some holes,and it’s all an effort to increase the amount of displacement we’re getting out of the car and to reduce the accelerations that the driver is experiencing.”
A close look at the updated front-clip structure.
While frontal crash improvement work was already underway, the crashbetween Kyle Larson and Ryan Preecein AprilatTalladega Superspeedwayset abaseline for testing—testing that has producedbeneficial results.Larson and Preece also made visits to the NASCAR R&D Center to assist with the investigation.
“The right-side door bars of the center section is getting a steel plate welded to it and really what it does it’s strengthening the right-side door bars against intrusion for crashes like we saw at Talladega with the 5 and 41,”Patalaksaid. “We reconstructed that crash at a test facility and we’re pleased with the performance where we’re hanging on to everything. We still do have bent door bars but minimal intrusion and much better performance.”
Both cars in the crash test were constructed with the new safety updates.
Inits second year of competition, the Next Gen race car has already made significant strides in safety due to the amount of information being gathered every weekend at the track. Incidents and experiences allow engineers at the NASCAR R&D Center to take real-world data and apply it to the car’s continued development.
“If you remember back to when we started, we did a lot of work in simulation,” said Patalak. “So, you have one clip and it’s got to live at Bristol and Dover and curb jumping at road courses and the wheel-to-wheel contact that happens every weekend. NASCAR and Dallara needed to make sure that the structure of the car was strong enough to not bend during all of those things. … That presents a challenge to crash defamation that we want to occur for the safety of the drivers.
“There’s always a balance in all of that. So, after we got a year of data under our belt, NASCAR and Dallara could really go back with wheel-force data, tire-test data and our teams are a huge resource giving us data that they get to really understand what are the true loads going through the front clip. And after we got that data, after a year of racing, we were able to go back and make our simulations better.”
These Cup Series changes are set to go into effect during Atlanta’s upcoming night-race weekend, with the race set for Sunday, July 9 at 7 ET on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
After starting its journey at World Wide Technology Raceway last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series concludes its westward trek with a date in wine country at Sonoma Raceway.
Last year, the Cup Series saw another driver reach a milestone as Daniel Suárez dominated the 1.99-mile road course en route to his first career Cup Series win. The winning mark additionally netted Trackhouse Racing its third and final win of the 2022 campaign.
Will the California luster from last year carry over this time around, or will it shine for others? Before we find out how Sunday’s race (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will play out, here are some important trends to watch ahead of the action, along with Goodyear tire information and interactive ways to follow along.
Road-course racing can simultaneously bring expectancy and uncertainty to the mix. On the one hand, you have the usual suspects who have already left their mark on the road-course scene. On the other, you have drivers who could force their way into the conversation and find Victory Lane for the first time in their career, similar to Suárez last year.
After his win at Circuit of The Americas in March, Tyler Reddick has been on quite the streak when it comes to this type of track. The No. 45 23XI driver has won three of the last five road-course races and has led 28% of all laps in that span. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott — who returns from a one-race suspension this weekend — will look to find a dose of rhythm at a type of track he is all too familiar with. After all, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver leads all active drivers in wins on road courses (seven).
Perhaps another mainstay cements his place, such as Kyle Busch, who has finished in the top seven in six of the last seven Sonoma races and is a two-time winner there (2008, 2015). Maybe the Trackhouse duo in Chastain and Suárez put on a good showing worthy of finding the checkered flag once again. Who knows, maybe a different driver altogether, such as Chris Buescher — who finished runner-up at Sonoma last year — finds victory at a road course for the first time in his career.
In other words, options are aplenty for how the field could shake out come Sunday.
Similar to Circuit of The Americas earlier this season, the choose rule will be in effect. The lack of stage breaks will further bring a different strategy for drivers to navigate in addition to a surplus of tire wear (more on that below).
Goodyear runs one tire on Cup cars at road courses with two different tire codes, which will allow the tires to tread directionally as a way to handle the stress expected to be put on them. Sonoma is now aligned with other NASCAR road courses, with the Sonoma setup being the same as the one run earlier in the year at Circuit of The Americas. The setup will be run again at the Chicago Street Course, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Watkins Glen International and the Charlotte Roval.
Teams will be allotted one set of tires for practice, one set for qualifying and six sets for the race (five race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying).
Goodyear will bring its 18-inch wet weather radials to Sonoma for use by Cup teams should NASCAR decide the conditions warrant them. The last time NASCAR ran a wet weather tire on a road course was at Watkins Glen in August 2022.
In the event of a lost wheel that is contained to pit road, the offending team will be subject to a pass-through penalty under green-flag conditions. If the infraction occurs during a caution period, the offending team will restart at the tail end of the field.
If the wheel breaks free outside of pit road, the new rules guidelines mandate a two-lap penalty, plus a to-race suspension for two crew members. Each penalty is series-specific: Violations in one series will not impact those crew members’ eligibility to participate in other series.
Fans can get in on the action all season long with NASCAR Fan Rewards, a free program that rewards fans for participating in the action when they watch races and play NASCAR Fantasy.
There’s no cost to join. Fans must be 18 years or older to participate in the program.
Earn points by checking into a race from home or at the track, setting your Fantasy Live lineup, making purchases on the NASCAR.com shop and more. Points can be redeemed for race tickets, merchandise and VIP experiences at the track, including pace car rides and waving the green flag at qualifying.
NASCAR Mobile has now added support for fans to “Follow the Race” and access live leaderboard and race information from Live Activities in the current app release (v13.2.0), available now. Android users, we didn’t forget you — the same functionality has been custom-built for Android devices, as well.
How to access Live Activities on iPhones:
Make sure your iOS device has been updated to 16.1 or higher.
Available on the leaderboard of all NASCAR Series races.
Click on the three-dot menu near the top right of screen.
Select “Follow the Race.”
Swipe up to access the home screen and you will see the Live Activities at the top.
Lock the device and you will see Live Activities on the Lock Screen.
To turn off, simply visit the leaderboard, click the three-dot menu and “Unfollow the Race.”
FANTASY LIVE 🏆
Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which is open now. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts by garaging a driver by the end of Stage 2, and there is a $25,000 prize for the winner.
Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week, in-car cameras will be available.
NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement to the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.
LE MANS, France — NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick said that last weekend’s one-race suspension of Chase Elliott for rough driving was a punishment that was accepted, but that his drivers should have an outlet for voicing their displeasure for on-track incidents with their rivals.
Hendrick was soaking in a different style of motoring press overseas during Thursday afternoon’s “Meet the Team” availability at Le Mans’ Circuit de la Sarthe, supporting his Hendrick Motorsports’ Garage 56 entry alongside partners NASCAR, Chevrolet and Goodyear. But the Hall of Famer’s racing operations back across the Atlantic still had his attention, including the recent penalty to Elliott that forced him to the sidelines for the Cup Series’ most recent race outside of St. Louis.
The disciplinary actions stemmed from Elliott’s retaliation in crashing Denny Hamlin during last month’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But Hendrick also spoke Thursday to the overall culture of on-track aggression, suggesting that NASCAR competition officials might intercede.
“I think you have to accept it if you did it. But when you get roughed up and you get roughed up by the same person all the time or multiple times in a race, the frustration sets in and you just … you’ve ruined my day, I’m gonna ruin your day,” Hendrick told NASCAR.com. “And I think NASCAR is gonna calm that down, but until something was done, they were going to keep on doing it. So I don’t like it, but I feel like our guys have the right to retaliate, but we’ve got to now not wreck the guy.”
Elliott returns to Hendrick’s No. 9 Chevrolet this weekend for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Tuesday, the 27-year-old driver told NASCAR.com that the incident was an “unfortunate circumstance on many accounts, and I hate that we’re in the position that we’re in,” but that he understood and respected competition officials’ decision to suspend him.
Two days later and an ocean away, Hendrick said he’d prefer to see disputes settled outside of the car than on the track.
“I’d rather after the race confront them and ask them what the deal is,” Hendrick said. “But our sport’s been about pushing and shoving. It’s a fine line when you get over that. If somebody pushes and shoves you and puts you out of the race, then what are you going to do?”
MARNE, Mich. — Throughout his career at Berlin Raceway, NASCAR Cup Series driver Erik Jones had never won the track’s prestigious Money in the Bank 150.
The 27-year-old on Wednesday night checked that event off his storied resume. Jones conserved his tires and pulled away with the win in the closing laps, joining Brian Campbell as the only Super Late Model drivers to claim both the Money in the Bank 150 and Battle at Berlin.
The victory for Jones was emotional in numerous ways. He celebrated in Berlin’s Victory Lane with his own car while simultaneously reflecting on the memories he shared with his late father Dave.
“It’s been a long time since I won a race here, and the last one was an emotional one,” Jones said. “I lost my dad that week, and this was the day in 2016 when he actually passed away. It’s a tough day like always, but it felt good to be at the track racing.
Jones also felt a sense of catharsis Wednesday evening after enduring several shortcomings in last year’s Money in the Bank 150.
Having not run the event in five years up until that point, Jones admitted he was too conservative with his tires throughout the 150-lap feature. He still managed to finish 10th but knew he would have to be more aggressive if he wanted to win the race this year.
After lining up on the outside pole following an invert, Jones quickly shot out to the lead in front of Lee VanDyk before going into tire-conservation mode. Kyle Crump took control of the Money in the Bank 150 while Jones maintained track position in the top five.
Erik Jones in action during the Money in the Bank 150 at Michigan’s Berlin Raceway on June 7, 2023. (Emily Elconin/NASCAR)
Jones worked his way back to second right as the final competition caution of the evening was displayed with 30 laps remaining. All Jones needed to dispatch Crump was an efficient restart on the outside line that effectively sealed him the victory.
While Crump was disappointed a solid evening did not ultimately result in a win, he took pride in having an opportunity to race one of the best stock-car drivers in the country for the win at his home track.
“I kept waiting for [Jones] to make a mistake, but he doesn’t make mistakes,” Crump said. “I guess that’s why he races on Sundays. But damn that was cool to race with Erik Jones for the win. That doesn’t happen often, and if you’re going to lose to a guy, he’s not a bad guy to lose to.”
With fresh tires at his disposal, Jones felt he would be able to fend off any charge from Crump if a caution did not come out in the closing laps.
The Money in the Bank 150 victory served as a refreshing change of pace for Jones in the middle of an inconsistent season in the Cup Series. He credits the speed in his Super Late Model to the dedication of his crew members and is looking forward to more races with them, which will include a chance at this third Battle of Berlin triumph later this year.
“It feels good,” Jones said. “I’m a confident guy and always feel good about my ability, but it’s tough when you’re running not how you want to run. We’re trying to get things better on [the NASCAR Cup Series] side, but it feels good to come wrench with some good friends. This is a good crew, and it’s a super cool day.”
Bubba Pollard finished in third behind Jones and Crump, with Andrew Scheid and Gio Ruggiero completing the top five. Blake Rowe, Sean Hingorani, Scott Thomas, Trevor Sanborn and Austin Hull were the rest of the top-10 finishers.
NEW YORK — Today, Prime Video green-lit a new documentary from NASCAR Studios that will chronicle NASCAR’s special “Garage 56” entry at the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The documentary will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. The “Garage 56” documentary is the latest addition to the Prime membership. Prime members in the U.S. enjoy savings, convenience and entertainment, all in a single membership.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the ultimate test of driver and machine. With high-speed stretches and iconic turns, Le Mans has earned a reputation as the most demanding race in the world. Now, nearly half a century after NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. first took stock cars to the prestigious event in 1976, his son, and current NASCAR chairman and CEO, Jim France returns to Le Mans — in partnership with Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear — to showcase their revolutionary Next Gen race car to an international audience. Behind the driving of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller and 2009 Formula One world champion Jenson Button, the special “Garage 56” entry will compete with some of the fastest and most durable cars in the world. The documentary will take viewers inside the preparation and behind the wheel on race day of the historic endeavor.
“We’re proud to partner with our friends at NASCAR Studios to bring this incredible story of innovation and determination to our Prime Video customers,” said Matt Newman, head of Prime Video Original sports content. “The 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the most exciting and grueling competitions in sports, and the work that goes into preparing for a moment like this is something we think audiences will find equal parts entertaining and inspiring.”
“The Next Gen car has been a game changer in NASCAR, and bringing it to an iconic international stage like Le Mans during NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season is a monumental moment for our sport,” said Matt Summers, NASCAR managing director, entertainment marketing and content development. “We’ve had cameras rolling behind the scenes throughout the entire journey, and we can’t wait for fans around the world to come along for the ride thanks to this amazing partnership with Prime Video.”
The documentary is being produced by NASCAR Studios with NASCAR’s Tim Clark, Matt Summers, Amy Anderson and Tally Hair serving as executive producers.
LE MANS, France — Of all the motorsports legends roaming around Le Mans’ Circuit de la Sarthe this week – and there are many – one in particular received an exceedingly warm welcome by the NASCAR Garage 56 team. NASCAR Hall of Famer Hershel McGriff returned to the circuit on Wednesday afternoon – a race-week guest of NASCAR – and the reception he received walking into the team’s pit area couldn’t have been more endearing.
“Welcome back to Le Mans,” NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France told him.
The entire team – NASCAR’s “Innovative Class” entry in the June 10-11 24 Hours of Le Mans – was equally as excited to have the 95-year-old McGriff trackside. The NASCAR legend competed at Le Mans twice himself – in 1976 and 1982.
“Come on, let’s get you in a driver’s suit. Do you have your helmet?’’ Hendrick Motorsports Vice President and Garage 56 manager Chad Knaus said in greeting McGriff.
The look on the legendary driver’s face said it all. He joked about forgetting his helmet but promised he would have loved to compete in this race again or even help out in the pits.
“I’m just kind of a guest this week, but I told Jim France, ‘I don’t really want to be a spectator, I just want to fill in somewhere,’ ” McGriff said, grinning. “I think Chad must have gotten the word.”
McGriff was genuinely moved to be a part of NASCAR’s return to the race for the first time in 47 years. He flew to France with NASCAR executives and said he’d been smiling from the time his feet hit the French pavement.
As soon as he arrived trackside, the Garage 56 drivers surrounded him – former Formula One champ Jenson Button and renowned sports-car champion Mike Rockenfeller smiling as they listened to McGriff’s stories of stock cars past at the legendary sports-car venue.
A member of McGriff’s original 1976 Le Mans crew – Dick Pierson – even made the trip across the Atlantic, eager to share in his former team owner’s connection with the track, which is celebrating the race’s 100th year of existence.
“When I heard about this and that Hershel was coming, I just was like, ‘Oh man, this is so good,’ ” Pierson said. “I certainly decided then I needed to come here. And here I am.”
It was a reunion 47 years in the making and duly appreciated.
“Thank goodness for NASCAR, Jim France and [IMSA President] John Doonan, they invited me,” McGriff said. “Of course, I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come (smiling). And I’ve been treated as royalty.
“This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing, but I’m anxious to see everything,” McGriff said. “I’ve been watching and seeing pictures, and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”
Chase Elliott sits 98 points below the playoff elimination line, due in large part to six missed races because of a leg injury and one more because of a suspension. However, he can wipe away the slow start by having one outstanding afternoon in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
History is firmly on his side because Elliott is third on the all-time list with seven road-course wins, trailing only NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight). Elliott also has had a hot hand on road courses lately, with four top-10 finishes (in six starts) since the beginning of 2022 with the Next Gen car.
Elliott also comes back focused on making things right after his one-week suspension for wrecking Denny Hamlin. He told NASCAR.com on Tuesday he hopes to establish some momentum for his team, admitting that he hasn’t found the right groove yet this season.
With 11 regular-season races left for Elliott to get that playoff-securing victory, the pressure will certainly ramp up as we get closer to the August race at Daytona International Speedway. But we’ve seen when Elliott gets things going, he can be unstoppable — as he was in 2020 on the road to winning a championship.
The driver of the No. 9 qualified 10th for Sunday’s race, and he remains the projected winner.
OTHERS TO WATCH
TYLER REDDICK: He has won three of the last five road-course races and finished in the top 10 in seven of the last eight road-course races.
KYLE BUSCH: He has finished in the top seven in six of the last seven races at Sonoma and is a two-time Sonoma winner.
AJ ALLMENDINGER: He has finished in the top 10 in four of his last five road-course starts, but has only two top-10 finishes in 11 Sonoma starts. Following Saturday’s on-track action, his projection improved by three positions.
CHRIS BUESCHER: He has finished in the top 10 in the last six road-course races (longest active streak) and was runner-up last year at Sonoma.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
LE MANS, France — Toyota and 23XI Racing announced Wednesday that sports-car ace Kamui Kobayashi will make his NASCAR debut in the Cup Series event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on Aug. 13.
The announcement was made at the NASCAR display at the Circuit de la Sarthe’s manufacturer village in Le Mans, with NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France among the dignitaries in attendance. Kobayashi is competing in this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the Hypercar class. He has two wins already this season in FIA World Endurance Championship competition, where he is a two-time champ, but said he was eager to explore a new motorsports discipline in NASCAR.
“I think NASCAR is kind of like baseball. It’s something different in the culture of motorsports compared to Japan and Europe, and it’s NASCAR, and as a driver, it’s an American dream,” Kobayashi said. “I was lucky as I was able to race in IMSA the last couple of years. It’s a different way of racing, but I think as racing technology, it’s really at a high level. I really appreciate this opportunity from TRD, U.S.A., and of course, Toyota Motor North America and Toyota Gazoo Racing.
“For us, especially the Japanese people, Toyota has been in NASCAR for a while, and I don’t think any other Japanese driver has been in a Toyota racing in the Cup Series. I’m very proud of this opportunity.”
Kobayashi is set to drive the No. 67 Toyota Camry TRD, a third entry that will compete alongside 23XI Racing teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace on the 2.439-mile IMS circuit. The last time 23XI fielded a third car, action-sports star Travis Pastrana drove it to an 11th-place finish in this year’s Daytona 500.
Kobayashi becomes just the second driver from Japan to enter a Cup Series race, but the first to do so in a Toyota; Hideo Fukuyama made four Cup starts between 2002-03, and three other drivers from Japan — Akinori Ogata, Kenko Miura and Shigeaki Hattori — have competed in Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series events. It’s another effort for the automaker to broaden its reach within the NASCAR world.
“To have Kamui carrying a global flag with him to our sport, we’ll put some eyeballs on it that we haven’t had before,” said David Wilson, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) USA president. “And then, focusing narrower to Japanese drivers, I would say we have even broader goals for global drivers and aspirations. So European kids who maybe have a frame of reference that goes through Formula 1, maybe this opens another for ‘Well, why not NASCAR?’ ”
The 36-year-old Kobayashi has had a varied racing career after a start in karting, which eventually led to a prime scholarship spot with Toyota’s Young Drivers initiative. He progressed to a stint in Formula 1 with the automaker and now races in the Supra Formula Series along with his sports-car duties. That wide list of experience, Kobayashi says, doesn’t include driving a stock car, and he marveled at his first sight of one once his No. 67 entry was unveiled Wednesday at Le Mans.
Kobayashi joins a growing number of newcomers from other series to recently give NASCAR a try. One of the most recent examples came in late March at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, where former F1 champs Jenson Button and Kimi Räikkönen joined sports-car standout and Garage 56 reserve driver Jordan Taylor in providing some new faces on the entry list. Kobayashi said he watched the full race with interest.
“Actually, I like this type of racing because you bump each other all the time, and you have to be very sharp on the start, otherwise, you lose all the momentum, and you’re going backwards, and you have no chance,” Kobayashi said. “I think the way they race is different, but I like it because I think this is something the driver brings instead of the car bringing something.”
Räikkönen’s participation was part of the Trackhouse Racing Project 91 initiative to provide opportunities for global motorsports stars. Wilson said that “Project 67” had served as a sort of internal codename for the part-time 23XI effort with a similar intent of broadening stock-car racing’s audience.
“We are absolutely open to using this as a platform to bring in other drivers on occasion,” Wilson said. “Now, the challenging part, of course, is you want to do it well, right. And you want to make sure that we give Kamui the best experience. We take this very personally because it is some heavy lifting with the regular lot, and so if future opportunities present themselves, we certainly have the seats, we certainly have the willingness of our friends from 23XI — Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin, Steve Lauletta. They had Travis Pastrana in a car at Daytona, so certainly, we’re open to further opportunities down the road.”
Kobayashi said the opportunity emerged for the Indianapolis race primarily because of scheduling, given his busy racing workload. He also said he was focused on debuting on a road course but that the Chicago Street Race on July 2 was “too close, so we decided to look at Indianapolis to be safe.”
Kobayashi said his preparation time still may be short, and he indicated he plans for two days of racing simulator prep, plus a potential test of a Next Gen stock car on a test track. Leaning on Toyota teammates for information will also be a resource. “With on-track opportunities, we are limited,” he said, “but with experience and knowledge, we have some of the best for this form of racing.”
Kobayashi also said that he hopes his Cup Series debut might open the door for other Japanese drivers to explore stock-car racing and that a solid showing could pave that path.
“I will try my best, but I’m very thankful for this opportunity and happy to be in this position,” Kobayashi said. “For Toyota and for the entire family, I think this will create something new for us. Now we have to finalize all the small details, but at the end of the day, I think a strong performance would help with future possibilities.”
Chase Elliott’s one-race suspension from the NASCAR Cup Series is in the rearview mirror, right where he’d like to keep it.
The driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet said Tuesday he understands the sanctioning body’s decision to sit him out for last weekend’s event at World Wide Technology Raceway after officials ruled he intentionally crashed Denny Hamlin. The 2020 Cup champion looks forward to returning at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I think certainly it was an unfortunate circumstance on many accounts,” Elliott told NASCAR.com via teleconference. “And I hate that we’re in the position that we’re in. Obviously, it’s been a pretty wild year, even prior to last week or two weeks ago. But yeah, look, I mean, I hate that I put our team and our partners and our fans and all the folks that make this go in a tough spot. Certainly glad Denny’s OK, and I understand NASCAR’s call and what they felt like they needed to do. So I respect all that.”
Elliott has missed seven races in 2023, six due to an injury suffered while snowboarding ahead of his most recent absence. He’s hopeful his Sonoma arrival triggers a more long-term stay on the schedule.
“For me personally, just looking forward to getting back to work and just trying to get in a groove because I don’t really feel like I’ve been in one throughout the year,” Elliott said. “It’s been kind of stop-and-go all season, unfortunately. But the way I see it is there’s 11 races left (in the regular season), and we pretty much need to go win one of those to get in the show. So that’s where my head’s at right now.”
Sonoma signals an excellent opportunity for Elliott to relocate the rhythm he’s sorely missed, as seven of Elliott’s 18 career wins have come on road courses. Yet Sonoma is the only road course at which Elliott has made at least three starts and not scored a victory — so far.
“I think we can go out there and win for sure,” said Elliott, a 2021 runner-up in Napa Valley. “We had a pretty solid run there last year. We weren’t the best I didn’t think, but we were fast enough to contend. And I think that being said, I also know the areas we could be better in leaving there last year, so I have a lot of confidence in the direction that I think we need to go in and what we need our car to do to be more successful there this year.”
As Elliott noted, just 11 races remain in the regular season. With seven races missed this year — six due to injury, one due to suspension — Elliott sits 28th in points, 98 points beneath the cutoff line for the NASCAR Playoffs. A win is almost necessary to lock into the postseason, but the No. 9 team has also balanced chasing stage points this season in Elliott’s return.
However, stages have a different look at road courses this season. The caution flag no longer flies at the end of each stage, but the top 10 drivers at the stage breaks will still receive a points payout. That may alter what strategies each team may utilize Sunday in Sonoma.
“For the most part there toward the end of last year and throughout the season, as this car kind of continued to evolve, you really had to had to short those stages to give yourself a shot to win,” Elliott said. “So I think just taking that out of the equation makes makes things a little more straightforward and doesn’t penalize the guys who are running well, right? You know, that’s the big thing with that is it ended up hurting the people who are running good and were deserving of stage points and forced them to not take any. So I think it’s a good move.”
Sonoma will mark Elliott’s first road race since returning from injury, a broken left leg suffered in a March snowboarding accident. The good news is Elliott has zero concerns about his leg’s comfort heading into the twists and hills of Sonoma, California.
“It’s been fine in the car really,” Elliott said. “I mean, Martinsville was a little challenging, but since then, I’ve felt pretty good with it in the car and getting stronger outside of the car too. You know, that particular injury is a long recovery. If you were playing a stick-and-ball sport, it would be quite some time before you could go play again.
“So I’m very fortunate that just the way our seats are and where my leg is positioned in the car and how secure it is in the car, those are all things that are working to my advantage and being able to get back to work as quick as I did.”
Elliott’s results have been decent this season. Aside from DNFs in the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600, Elliott has landed safely between second and 12th in his other six starts. A seventh-place run at Kansas was “probably our best race” since returning from injury, Elliott said, but he noted he’s largely had eighth-to-10th-place cars.
As Elliott strives to make NASCAR’s postseason for the eighth consecutive season, he has the speed of Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman to lean on. Byron’s three victories this season are tied for the series best, while Larson has an additional two. Bowman has yet to find Victory Lane but boasts the second-best average finish (11.8) despite missing three races due to a back injury.
“Those guys are having having a lot of success, and when you have that, it definitely can help lead you in directions setup-wise or car-build wise or whatever it may be,” Elliott said. “So the program in general have been solid all year and there’s been a lot of pace. Obviously a lot of victories. So yeah, we’d like to tap into that and add to it.”
Elliott is entering a stretch of races that saw him rattle off five straight top-two finishes in 2022 — wins at Nashville, Atlanta and Pocono with runner-up results at Road America and New Hampshire. The Chicago Street Race replaces Road America this year, but his confidence is still high the No. 9 team can rekindle some of last year’s summer magic.
“I think we’re certainly capable of doing it; it’s just getting in a little bit of a rhythm,” Elliott said. “Running two races, skipping six, and then jumping in there for a few weeks and missing another one, it’s just kind of hard to find a rhythm. So yeah, hopefully no more skips over the next 11 weeks and we can just start chipping away at it. And obviously, that starts at Sonoma.”
LE MANS, France — One of the primary differences in a NASCAR-type pit stop vs. a European sports-car-style stop found its way to the peak of the Le Mans podium, doused with champagne. Garage 56 jackman Donovan Williams made sure the apparatus — the only jack that will be used for tire changes in this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans — traveled the length of the circuit’s pit road for its own place of prominence.
The Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 crew collected one of race week’s preliminary prizes Tuesday by showing the international crowd how it’s done stateside, winning the Le Mans Pit Stop Challenge. The Garage 56 effort — which is classified in the Innovative Car category — was best among the 21 LMGTE Am entries and fifth-fastest out of the 62-car field.
The crew was popping corks in the late-spring sunshine from the elevated start-finish platform Tuesday afternoon as the driver lineup of Jenson Button, Jimmie Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller took cell-phone videos and cheered.
“We were feeling good in practice, it was kind of a warm-up, starting off with a medium tempo and then continue to increase your speed, and then once our confidence, we just relied on our training, and it just came into place,” Williams said from the busy Garage 56 paddock. “Instinctively, I think we all just went out there and performed and didn’t think too much, and that’s what’s special about sports. Most of us have athletic backgrounds, and we’re able to kind of lean on that when you talk about canceling out a crowd and locking in and being in the moment. So that was a special moment, and we were able to capitalize.”
The competition gave the Garage 56 team members some early bragging rights, but it also showed a modified version of the stock-car pit procedures to an eager new audience, which applauded the choreography. It also illustrated how the pit crew has adapted to new regulations and equipment to prepare for a twice-around-the-clock endurance run.
Getting the Garage 56 crew to build chemistry and adjust to Le Mans rules has been the charge of Evan Kureczka, now in his sixth season with Hendrick Motorsports and currently its pit development manager. Since the group’s arrival at the French circuit, fellow racers have taken an interest in the American visitors — much as the fans have at every turn.
“I feel like a lot of teams on pit road have opened up to us, and they’ve come and asked why we’re doing pit stops one way compared to another and trying to give us tips,” Kureczka said. “It’s like NASCAR is like a big community. You can tell this style of racing is also like one big community, and they’ve accepted us in and we’re almost working together at this point.”
Indeed, all 62 teams are operating under the rules of the same house, run by race organizers Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). And the pit stalls on the frontstretch of the iconic 8.467-mile Circuit de la Sarthe are their own unique being — snug both in width and in length, though the G56 entry has the benefit of some extra room as the pit box nearest the pit-lane exit.
The stalls also have air hoses affixed to an overhead boom that swivels as team members move from one side of the car to the other with their lug-nut guns. Kureczka says that’s meant making extra sure the jack handle doesn’t become entangled in the hoses as part of the rotation. He also said that Hendrick’s team mocked up a gantry-style system back home in North Carolina to practice with a similar setup.
The rules also require teams to complete fueling before tire changers can engage the car. The fuel comes from an overhead tank, and a nozzle seals with the filler — which is located behind the right-side B-post. The tall, quick-dump gas cans used in NASCAR are not found in Le Mans. Driver changes are done during fueling, and Kureczka says replenishing a full fuel load takes approximately 42 seconds — theoretically enough time to complete a change-out.
Tire changers are also not allowed to rush out in front of the car on its approach to get in position to start changing the outside tires. Changers and carriers begin on the right side before rotating over to the left, and there’s no pit wall for the crew members to start on. Regulations mandate four “over the wall” pit crew members, but the Garage 56 project was granted a fifth because of race officials’ insistence that the No. 24 team use a jack for NASCAR authenticity instead of the in-car pneumatic jack system that all other cars carry.
“Since we started, it’s been like a day-by-day process, learning how to go by their rules instead of NASCAR’s,” said Jarius Morehead, the rear tire carrier. “They’re so tedious about everything that we do, from the tires, the gun hose up top with the boom system, so it’s just getting used to everything that they do and try to do what we do in NASCAR.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Kureczka said the Garage 56 pit crew is part of a development group but that all of the team have found some experience in NASCAR national-series events. This pit team was assembled a little under a year ago but has grown since their first at-track practice in a wintertime test at Daytona International Speedway.
“So they’re pretty seasoned,” Kureczka said. “We did plenty of two-a-days of practice leading up to the event, and so it was a little bit of a balance between them pitting Trucks, Xfinity and some of them pitting Cup and doing this, trying to get all our work in.”
If they’re not seasoned now, they will be before the 24 hours is up. If all goes according to plan, team members estimated approximately 25 to 30 pit stops for the full distance, with the No. 24 car stopping nearly hourly and drivers mostly working double stints after shorter earlier ones.
The Hendrick Motorsports crew members working the Le Mans event include:
Front-tire changer Dawson Backus, who joined Hendrick in September 2019 and currently changes the rear tires for the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in the Cup Series.
Front-tire carrier Cody French, who has changed tires, carried tires and manned the jack in his two-plus years with Hendrick. He’s now the jackman on the No. 77 for Spire in the Cup Series.
Rear-tire carrier Jarius Morehead, former captain of the N.C. State football team and who has been a tire changer for various teams in Xfinity and Trucks.
Rear-tire changer Mike Moss, a two-sport standout in basketball and football collegiately who is the newest member of the crew — joining just last October.
Jackman Donovan Williams, who also signed on with Hendrick Motorsports less than a year ago and has served on the jack and as the fueler for Xfinity and Truck teams.
Then there’s Kureczka, who hasn’t been content to sit on the supervisory sidelines and merely observe and coach. Here at Le Mans, he’s donned a full fire suit and has been the self-termed “lollipop guy” handling the pit sign, which features the Camaro logo.
That, too, has been a little different.
“In NASCAR, the sign’s held from the other side of the wall — the cold side of the track,” Kureczka says. “And so now I’m out there on pit lane holding the sign, which is a great experience to be out there with the guys and be part of the team with them. I think they appreciate it, and they’re glad I’m out there with them.”
Before Tuesday’s pit stop challenge, Kureczka said he had a fleeting wish that the Garage 56 Next Gen car had been equipped with air jacks to lift the car. The 36-year-old coach said that such a modification would make their technique even faster. “I’d like to try it their way without the jack because I feel like you know for the pit challenge coming up, man, we can definitely win that.”
Nearly 24 hours after that speculation about the team’s chances, Kureczka was clearing French bubbly from his eyes. The No. 24 pit crew had practiced 8-10 stops already that day, he said, and the final one — the one that mattered — was the cleanest of the day, checking in at 10.364 seconds behind three Hypercar entries and one in LMP2.
“All the hard work these guys put in, and to see them to see them reap the rewards of all the work they put in is just phenomenal,” Kureczka said on the walk back from the podium to the front of pit road, a victory march interrupted every few stalls for photos by fans and press. “So glad they had the chance to go up there and experience that and represent all of NASCAR. Goodyear, all our sponsors, America, so it’s phenomenal.”
