Posted on by Staff Report

The No. 23 Toyota of 23XI Racing failed pre-race technical inspection twice at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon, resulting in the ejection of a crew member and loss of pit selection.

NASCAR officials barred car chief Zachary Marquardt for the remainder of the weekend, which will culminate with the Coca-Cola 600 on Monday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Additionally, the team lost its pit selection for Monday’s race, the longest of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

RELATED: Charlotte schedule | Starting lineup

Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 23 Toyota, is slated to start seventh at Charlotte after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions were canceled due to rain.

This marks the third consecutive points race in which 23XI Racing has seen one of its teams fail pre-race inspection twice. The No. 45 Toyota, piloted by Tyler Reddick, failed inspection at both Kansas Speedway and Darlington Raceway. The latter resulted in a 10-point penalty in drivers and owners’ standings in addition to the weekend ousting of crew chief Billy Scott, with officials citing Section 14.11.2.1.A of the NASCAR Rule Book, which states that, “Any and all ballast added to the vehicle must be secured inside a ballast container(s). … Additional ballast containers will not be permitted to be added to the chassis.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Granite State Derby

Lee USA Speedway

  • Qualifying Results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Best Tm Best Speed
1 7 Doug Coby Mayhew Tools 14.569 92.663
2 25 Brian Robie* Maurice Enterprises 14.647 92.169
3 60 Matt Hirschman Elite Towing/Baker Racing 14.652 92.138
4 79 Jon McKennedy Middlesex Industries 14.655 92.119
5 06 Sam Rameau Quality Fleet Services/Dennison Lubricants 14.682 91.949
6 64 Austin Beers Hughes Motors/AP Marquadt & Sons/Dell Electric 14.719 91.718
7 3 Jake Johnson* Propane Plus/Lin’s Propane Trucks 14.722 91.699
8 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications Inc. 14.735 91.619
9 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine & Future Homes 14.75 91.525
10 22 Kyle Bonsignore Bonsignore Performance Tools/Chalew Performance 14.758 91.476
11 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprera 14.798 91.229
12 34 J.B. Fortin A&R Materials/CYA Screen Printing/Queens Concrete 14.82 91.093
13 32 Tyler Rypkema Northeast Driling/MUSCO Lighting 14.869 90.793
14 92 Anthony Nocella Nocella Paving/K and D Associates/Airgas 14.921 90.477
15 82 Craig Lutz Horton Ave Materials 14.922 90.47
16 43 Matt Kimball* Naughton & Sons Recycling/Chucky’s Fight 15.021 89.874
17 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood Market & Restaurant 15.043 89.743
18 46 Justin Brown* Riverhead Building Supply 15.063 89.624
19 6 Woody Pitkat Koopman Lumbar 15.096 89.428
20 26 Max Zachem Lakeland Ave Landscape Supply/L.I. Wood Heat 15.196 88.839
21 01 Melissa Fifield Pine Knoll Auto Sales 15.409 87.611
Posted on by Staff Report

CONCORD, N.C. – NASCAR officials postponed Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway to Monday due to a forecast of steady rain. Additionally, NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600 were canceled.

The Alsco Uniforms 300, the 12th race of the 2023 season, was rescheduled for a Monday start at 11 a.m. ET. The 200-lap event will be broadcast live on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

RELATED: Xfinity Series starting lineup | Updated Charlotte schedule

On Thursday, competition officials initially moved the Xfinity race time up one hour due to the bleak forecast, moving the event from 1 p.m. ET to noon ET on Saturday. However, heavy rainfall forced the postponement.

Josh Berry won the 2022 rendition of the spring event, leading 89 laps en route to his second of three Xfinity wins last season.

With qualifying canceled for Monday’s Coca-Cola 600 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the starting lineup will be set per the rule book. Therefore, William Byron will start from the pole position. Byron won the Cup Series’ most recent points race at Darlington Raceway and leads the series with three victories in 2023.

MORE: Full starting lineup for Coca-Cola 600

The performance metric based on Darlington sets the starting lineup for the longest race of the schedule, factoring 15% of fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race finish position and 35% of the owner points position.

A slew of Coca-Cola 600 winners line up behind Byron on the starting grid, with Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch completing the top five. Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. round out the top 10.

Kyle Larson, who dominated last week’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, will start 12th. Defending and two-time series champion Joey Logano will start 17th ahead of 2017 series champ Martin Truex Jr.

Posted on by Staff Report

Granite State Derby

Lee USA Speedway

  • Practice Results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Best Tm Best Speed In Lap Laps Diff
1 60 Matt Hirschman Elite Towing/Baker Racing 14.772 91.389 27 28  —
2 32 Tyler Rypkema Northeast Driling/MUSCO Lighting 14.781 91.333 4 49 0.009
3 64 Austin Beers Hughes Motors/AP Marquadt & Sons/Dell Electric 14.782 91.327 35 65 0.01
4 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine & Future Homes 14.827 91.05 26 54 0.055
5 7 Doug Coby Mayhew Tools 14.832 91.019 4 37 0.06
6 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications Inc. 14.84 90.97 3 35 0.068
7 79 Jon McKennedy Middlesex Industries 14.86 90.848 6 41 0.088
8 22 Kyle Bonsignore Bonsignore Performance Tools/Chalew Performance 14.864 90.823 19 25 0.092
9 3 Jake Johnson* Propane Plus/Lin’s Propane Trucks 14.945 90.331 29 36 0.173
10 25 Brian Robie* Maurice Enterprises 14.946 90.325 17 34 0.174
11 92 Anthony Nocella Nocella Paving/K and D Associates/Airgas 14.976 90.144 4 25 0.204
12 06 Sam Rameau Quality Fleet Services/Dennison Lubricants 14.987 90.078 11 50 0.215
13 43 Matt Kimball* Naughton & Sons Recycling/Chucky’s Fight 15.008 89.952 2 58 0.236
14 82 Craig Lutz Horton Ave Materials 15.013 89.922 3 44 0.241
15 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprera 15.03 89.82 3 36 0.258
16 34 J.B. Fortin A&R Materials/CYA Screen Printing/Queens Concrete 15.054 89.677 3 38 0.282
17 46 Justin Brown* Riverhead Building Supply 15.116 89.309 4 64 0.344
18 6 Woody Pitkat Koopman Lumbar 15.132 89.215 22 24 0.36
19 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood Market & Restaurant 15.215 88.728 15 38 0.443
20 26 Max Zachem Lakeland Ave Landscape Supply/L.I. Wood Heat 15.289 88.299 8 15 0.517
21 01 Melissa Fifield Pine Knoll Auto Sales 15.504 87.074 5 31 0.732
Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials have delayed the start of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The Alsco Uniforms 300, the 12th race of the 2023 season, was scheduled to take the green flag at 12:09 p.m. ET but rain in the area has necessitated track drying before the race begins. The 200-lap event will be broadcast live on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Charlotte at-track photos

Competition officials initially moved the race time up one hour due to the bleak forecast, moving the event from 1 p.m. ET to noon ET. However, consistent rainfall forced the delay further.

Josh Berry won the 2022 rendition of the spring event, leading 89 laps en route to his second of three Xfinity wins last season.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

CONCORD, N.C. — The launch of the 2023 Triple Truck Challenge upped the ante in competitiveness as a battle for a playoff spot and a $50,000 bonus were at stake Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Twelve lead changes among five drivers throughout the 134-lap event showed the importance of the program, and after a late restart, 2021 Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes took home his first checkered flag in over a year and the first for Ford in the series at the 1.5-mile North Carolina oval.

RELATED: Learn more about the 2023 Triple Truck Challenge | Truck Series standings

The wily 26-year-old veteran took notice of how the Triple Truck Challenge has created fervent battles through the field over the years.

“I think it helps the competitiveness with like parity through the field,” Rhodes said. “You look at the depth of the field. The depth of the field shows up really deep at the Triple Truck Challenge and when the playoffs start. It gets so closely competitive.

“The way that the trucks are prepared and how close the field is, the competition level, I think, gets packed in more. Same thing with the playoffs. When you get there, you can feel it. Like you walk into the garage, and you can feel just something in the air, and you feel that when the money is on the line.”

Winning has come at a premium for Rhodes in his eight full-time seasons at the truck level, amassing just seven wins in 175 starts, but with a title to boast and now a win in his back pocket to tackle the rest of the 2023 regular season, he can set his sights on going for all three wins in the Triple Truck Challenge with World Wide Technology Raceway up next followed by Nashville Superspeedway.

Rhodes has been particularly good at Gateway despite being winless at the track. He owns two top fives and five top 10s at the Illinois track to the tune of an 8.4 average finish. A win on June 3 at Gateway (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) would make Rhodes just the second driver to win a Triple Truck Challenge event twice in the same year (Sheldon Creed, 2020), which would net a hefty $150,000 bonus. No driver has ever swept the Triple Truck Challenge for the grand prize $500,000 bonus.

MORE: See all winners of Triple Truck Challenge

“I feel really good about Gateway, actually. Over the years, that’s a track that we’ve had tremendous speed but somehow, we’ve never been able to bring one home,” Rhodes lamented. “Last year, we were leading with like 15 to go. Alternator goes out, and we’re starting to lose horsepower, lose voltage. We’ve got speed which gives me a lot of confidence.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CONCORD, N.C. – Grabbing the lead from Carson Hocevar after a restart on Lap 111 of 134, Ben Rhodes pulled away to win Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Rhodes, the ninth different winner in 11 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races this season, also collected a $50,000 bonus for winning the first of three events in the Triple Truck Challenge, a bonus program that could mean $500,000 for a driver who can sweep all three.

MORE: Official results | Triple Truck Challenge details

“I didn’t think we were that good in practice,” said Rhodes, who beat runner-up Corey Heim to the checkered flag by 2.398 seconds, as Heim, third-place Dean Thompson and Carson Hocevar battled for the second spot over the last 24 laps.

“I didn’t qualify the best, and here it came to life at night… Oh, man, I had so much fun. This is so much fun. Charlotte is a track that we come to — ThorSport Racing, we’re based in Sandusky, Ohio — we come to the North Carolina guys’ house, and we like to win.”

The victory was Rhodes’ first of the season, his first at Charlotte and the seventh of his career. In addition to the Triple Truck Challenge bonus, Rhodes is locked into the Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs.

“The whole season is so hard to put together,” Rhodes said. “It’s unbelievably hard, and it’s only gotten more difficult over the years…. A championship being locked in, I’ll take that. The last three races have been so unbelievably hard on my team. We’ve been wrecked in the last three and haven’t had very good showings because of it.

“So I’ll take the points — thank you.”

Hocevar held the lead for the Lap 111 restart but was trapped in the middle of a three-wide situation and dropped to sixth in the running order. Heim took second and Thompson third, while Hocevar rallied and swapped the third position with Thompson before finishing fourth.

“Me and the 42 (Hocevar) and the 5 (Thompson) were probably the best trucks,” said Heim, who led a race-high 49 laps and held off Hocevar to win the first stage. “But the 99 (Rhodes) just came along really strong, and once we got to second on the restart where the 42 got put in the middle there, I really thought we had a shot at it.

“But it just proves that clean air is king here, but I feel like if I did a better job of getting by as soon as possible rather than waiting on a run, we might have had a better opportunity.”

PHOTOS: Top scenes from Charlotte Motor Speedway

Notes: Thompson’s third-place finish was a career-best… Hocevar led 43 laps and won the seconds stage by 5.746 seconds over Heim… Rhodes, the 2021 series champion, led 37 laps — 25 in the final run to the finish… The final two Triple Truck Challenge races are scheduled for World Wide Technology Raceway on June 3 and Nashville Superspeedway on June 23.

Note: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series garage is complete with no issues. The Nos. 11, 42 and 98 trucks will be taken to the NASCAR R&D Center for teardown and engine dyno.

Posted on by Holly Cain

One week from Friday, NASCAR’s long-awaited, highly collaborative Garage 56 project will formally make its 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in France – the No. 24 Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 presented for inspection at the Place de la Republique in the center of town, the world center of sports car racing for the week.

The 62 cars entered for the renowned twice-around-the-clock Le Mans race, as well as their 186 drivers, must go through a series of “administrative and technical checks” – called “scrutineering” – in advance of the first practice session at the 8.467-mile Circuit de le Sarthe on Sunday, June 4. The inspection is both a technical once-over and in so many ways a grand showcase.

RELATED: Sebring send-off for G56 entry | Photos from final test

The Garage 56 Chevrolet – a coordinated effort among NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, Goodyear and IMSA – was shipped to France on May 18 and is scheduled to take its formal turn at inspection next Friday morning at 11:15 a.m. ET; the only entry in the race’s “Innovative Car” class. The next day, it will join seven other cars in a famed parade through Le Mans – from the Avenue Charles de Gaulle and ultimately through the Wilbur Wright tunnel – in front of tens of thousands of fans descending on the small, French inland town for the 24-hour race.

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is headlining a stellar group of drivers for the Garage 56 entry that also includes sports car great – and former Le Mans winner – Mike Rockenfeller, Formula One champion Jenson Button and multi-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series champion Jordan Taylor in a reserve role.

While his teammates have all competed in Le Mans previously, this will be Johnson’s debut in the June 10-11 race, which is celebrating 100 years on the racing calendar. The popular NASCAR champion will be competing for his own Legacy Motor Club team in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday and then leaves immediately for Paris, where he will undergo a sort of “rookie orientation” the next day.

After all the testing, preparing and anticipating, Johnson is now simply eager to get to Europe for the actual race week, with its 100th-anniversary pomp and the high-level international competition.

“It’s hard to believe it’s almost here, we’ve been preparing for so long,” Johnson said this week. “I’m excited to get there and to take in absolutely every second of this incredible opportunity. I’ve been a part of many really amazing things in my career. This is going to be on to be one of the top five.

“I am so happy I can take my family with me to Le Mans. We are all looking forward to this extremely prestigious race and taking everything in. Can’t say enough about the preparation that has gone into this by everyone at NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports.

“I’m focusing on the 600 [this Sunday], but it’s hard not to have that excitement knowing we leave in a few days.”

The last test for the No. 24 Next Gen Chevrolet came at Sebring in April under the watchful eyes of NASCAR chairman Jim France, Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick, IMSA president John Doonan and longtime NASCAR executive Mike Helton – all of whom will be in Le Mans next week.

“We went from testing and development to tuning and now it’s getting into execution mode,” said IMSA’s Doonan. “This all started with a vision from Jim [France] and putting all the best partners that NASCAR has together, the winningest team, winningest manufacturer, tire partner since 1954 and had all those pillars aligned and wanted to put NASCAR on a global stage and because of our relationship IMSA has with the ACO, it all fit together.

“For me, I’m a big historian of the sport and to look back at what Jim’s dad had a vision of trying to align – NASCAR was coming on strong in the south and he wasn’t satisfied yet, he felt it deserved more international notoriety,” Doonan continued. “He did that [with a Le Mans entry] in 1976 and then to recreate it now, you have a passionate fan group over there that I think will appreciate NASCAR, the sound, the pit stops, all of that.

“And I think we have a group of passionate NASCAR fans here that may now look at IMSA and the international sports car property a little differently and be able to root on their NASCAR entry.”

Posted on by Marcus DiNitto

There’s been plenty of movement on the Coca-Cola 600 oddsboard since opening numbers were hung at the market-making Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas on Monday, but one driver – despite sitting atop the NASCAR Cup standings – remains below the betting market’s radar.

Considering Ross Chastain’s absence from Victory Lane since April 2022 at Talladega, his +1000 odds might not seem like much of a bargain. But the No. 1 Chevrolet has been positioned near the front of the pack all season and may have been the best car at Charlotte Motor Speedway last Memorial Day Weekend. Chastain led 153 laps in the 2022 edition of this race – most of any driver – and won Stage 3, before cutting a tire in the final stage and finishing 15th.

While Chastain interrupts the Hendrick Motorsports/Joe Gibbs Racing flow at the top of the betting board, that’s a deserved distinction.

MORE: Coca-Cola 600 odds | Full Charlotte preview

“Throw in Chastain” to the mix of those top two garages, Ed Salmons, vice president of risk management at the SuperBook, told NASCAR.com this week. “He’s always fast.”

This chart shows opening odds at the Westgate, as well as Friday’s numbers at the SuperBook and Barstool Sports. (Below, we discuss the drastic movement in the Ford pricing).

DriverOpenSuperBookBarstool
Kyle Larson+500+350+450
William Byron+600+600+700
Denny Hamlin+700+800+800
Martin Truex Jr+800+1000+1000
Ross Chastain+900+1000+1000
Chase Elliott+1000+1000+900
Kyle Busch+1200+1000+1200
Joey Logano+2500+1400+1600
Christopher Bell+1000+1400+1300
Kevin Harvick+2000+1600+1800
Alex Bowman+1600+2000+1800
Ryan Blaney+2500+2000+1800
Tyler Reddick+1800+2500+1500
Bubba Wallace+1800+2500+2000
Daniel Suárez+3000+3000+3000
Brad Keselowski+4000+4000+3500

“Definitely in on Ross Chastain,” Jim Sannes, a quantitative NASCAR fantasy and betting analyst at numberFire, said in a direct message. “My top tier is him with Byron and Larson all bunched together before a big dropoff. Chastain has the longest odds of them by a wide margin.”

Yes, when analysis indicates a significantly narrower gap between betting entries than the odds do, the suggestion is to make the wager.

“It’s just really hard not to have a high rating on a guy who pushed for a win here last year and has constantly been up front using this rules package,” Sannes added of Chastain. “He hasn’t won in more than a year (or ever on a non-drafting oval), but he’s just in contention far too often for it not to happen soon.”

Now We Got Bad Blood

Chastain hasn’t exactly been making friends on the Cup circuit this year, and a bettor’s nightmare is watching a competitor spin out the No. 1 under the white flag.

Can the bad blood be factored into handicapping this race?

“Not really,” deadpanned Salmons. “It’s almost impossible to try to understand how it’s gonna affect [him] — the good or the bad.”

Sannes offered a different perspective.

“I have a higher ‘incident rating’ on him than I do on other drivers, and that does impact his odds,” he said. “It shows up more in his top-10 odds, though, because it makes him more volatile, which impacts the more floor-based markets. For ceiling, it does play a role, but it’s not as big of an issue there.”

Ford’s Odds Shorten – By a Lot

Salmons didn’t give the Fords much respect with his opening numbers. Its +600 mark in the winning manufacturer prop is the longest the oddsmaker recalls ever pricing them. That number’s been adjusted to +405 (Chevy is -105, Toyota +220).

And Joey Logano at +2500? Sharp bettors are calling those odds “ridiculous” and have bet the No. 22 all the way down to +1400.

While Logano has drawn the most money at the SuperBook, Kevin Harvick has moved from +2000 to +1600, Ryan Blaney from +2500 to +2000, Keselowski from +4000 to +6000, and Chase Briscoe from +20000 to +10000.

“I don’t know where they’re coming from, to be honest,” Salmons said of these bettors. “The Fords look terrible to me on these kinds of tracks.”

He added in a text message Friday morning, “If you want to look at the history books and bet accordingly, Harvick, Logano, Blaney, Keselowski and Briscoe would look live to you.”

Sannes isn’t giving the Fords a great chance Monday, either. In fact, +600 in the manufacturers’ prop was generous, according to his model.

“I’ve got +755 as the fair price on them (11.7% chance of winning), so I can’t even bite on that, honestly,” he said. “They’ve just been so uncompetitive in these races.”

Salmons, though, cautions that the 600-mile distance of this race throws a wrench into handicapping.

“Certain tracks, like mile-and-a-half ovals, seem like they’re really settling in here as far as it’s pretty easy to predict who’s gonna be around,” the oddsmaker said. “The only thing with Charlotte, this is obviously the longest race of the year, and it just goes on forever, and there’s a million pit stops, and people make mistakes. And this race historically has had some goofy winners through the years. So I would never write off anyone, just given how long it is and all the things that can happen.”