Sunday’s race at Circuit of The Americas provides NASCAR Cup Series drivers with their first road-course test of the 2023 season. For prognosticators and prediction models, it also means a whole new ballgame. Drivers who are considered lead-pipe locks for intermediate courses might not be as reliable when turning left and right on a road course.
AJ Allmendinger and Tyler Reddick have been two of the hottest drivers over the last four road-course races, with Allmendinger registering four top-10 finishes and Reddick winning two of those four contests — plus, Allmendinger won Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race and Reddick has moved to the top of the betting odds board for Sunday.
But look out for William Byron, who starts on the pole on Sunday and finished second in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. Byron, a two-time winner this season, could just as easily end up in Victory Lane.
To help us decipher what could happen on Sunday in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Racing Insights used its advanced statistical formula to predict both the winner and full race results. Racing Insights uses data on the current track, current track type, recent performance, team performance and pit crew performance to make its projections.
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ONES TO WATCH
Ross Chastain: He won this race last year after a dramatic final-lap battle with Allmendinger that literally went down to the last turn.
Alex Bowman: Bowman is one of four drivers who has had a top-10 finish in both COTA races (2021 and 2022). Chastain, Reddick and Chase Elliott are the others.
Kyle Busch: With Elliott sidelined because of an injury, Busch is tied with Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. for the most road-course wins among active drivers (four).
Tyler Reddick: The 23XI Racing driver has the best average finish on road courses among active drivers at 12.93 in 15 starts.
Kyle Larson: He has the most road-course wins in a season by a driver with three in 2021.
Projections as of Sunday, March 26.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE ECHOPARK AUTOMOTIVE GRAND PRIX
Saturday, Parker Kligerman returns to Circuit of The Americas, the race track where his NASCAR Xfinity Series career was revitalized.
Normally a reporter for NBC Sports, Kligerman got a call from Joey Gase and Patrick Emerling last March, presenting him with a chance to race at COTA behind the wheel of the No. 35 Toyota Supra for Emerling-Gase Motorsports. It was a chance he wouldn’t pass up.
“Very humbled they thought of me for this,” Kligerman tweeted. “I hope we can get them a great result.”
Little did he know his opportunity was just the beginning of a fresh start to his racing career. After years of part-time positions, his persistence was paying off.
Before that breakthrough call, it had been five years since Kligerman had another chance to compete at the Xfinity Series level after starting 53 races — including his lone full-time season in 2013 — between 2009 and 2017. The longtime driver bounced around organizations, making starts in the Cup Series, Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series just searching for track time.
Now, almost 12 months later to the day, he is already competing for wins and a championship as a full-time Xfinity Series competitor.
Five races into the 2023 season, Kligerman and Big Machine Racing are rapidly improving — and should be even more encouraged after their fourth-place effort in Saturday’s last-lap shootout at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“Just so cool how fast our car was,” Kligerman said after the race. “Put four tires on there when we had to get fuel. Great call by (crew chief) Patrick Donahue and my engineer Cody McKenzie to do that because our car was so fast it drove through the field. We got to go to the bottom and no one would go with us and then we came to that last restart, I obviously lined up behind the 21, I thought that gave us the best shot of putting ourselves exactly in the position in which we were.”
Kligerman raced at the front of the field for the first time since the season-opening contest at Daytona International Speedway, battling toe-to-toe with superspeedway ace, Austin Hill.
“On the final lap, I felt like (Hill) was controlling the pack, but I had the lanes behind me to control, as well,” Kligerman explained. “So, if I picked the right one, I could get the shot.”
Kligerman did get the shot. But the push from behind by Daniel Hemric sent his No. 48 spinning down the frontstretch and backward across the finish line.
Miraculously, Kligerman still finished fourth and was unhurt in the collision — in fact, he was ecstatic.
“I’m so pumped,” Kilgerman said. “Because that is the first Xfinity Series superspeedway race where I felt like my natural skill was working. That’s what I’ve done my whole career.”
For Kligerman, it is a rejuvenated career that will come full circle when he straps into his seat for Saturday’s race at COTA (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after a significant journey to get to this point.
He is also slated to start the Truck Series race earlier that day (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), his first series action at a road course since dominating last year’s event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with Henderson Motorsports — an emotional and validating victory.
However, Kligerman is still searching for his first win in the Xfinity Series, one that he is inching closer and closer to every week. And while the 32-year-old’s inspirational story in NASCAR is still being written, the pages are starting to come together a lot differently than they were just one year ago.
CHICAGO – Today, NASCAR introduced McDonald’s as the first founding partner of the first-ever Chicago Street Race Weekend. McDonald’s will have official presenting, marketing and promotional rights for the Chicago Street Race Weekend, including the NASCAR Cup Series’ Grant Park 220 and NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 121 races in downtown Chicago over Fourth of July Weekend, July 1-2.
“NASCAR plays such an important role in sports culture, so we’re thrilled to be the first founding partner of this race in our hometown of Chicago,” said Elizabeth Campbell, senior director of cultural engagement, McDonald’s USA. “We look forward to showing up for our racing fans and putting on a successful event in a city rich with sports history.”
McDonald’s will have a visible presence throughout the Chicago Street Race Weekend, including on-course branding in a dedicated founding partner section as well as the historic start-finish line near Buckingham Fountain. The McDonald’s brand will also be featured at fan entrances, concert stages, wayfinding, and additional locations throughout the event’s footprint.
“McDonald’s is an iconic global brand with roots in Chicago, so it is the perfect founding partner for one of the most anticipated sporting events in NASCAR’s 75-year history, the Chicago Street Race,” said Julie Giese, Chicago Street Race president. “We are grateful to our partners at McDonald’s for embracing this historic event as we reimagine a two-day sports and entertainment weekend experience in the heart of downtown Chicago.”
As a partner with 23XI Racing, McDonald’s is the primary sponsor for multiple races for Bubba Wallace in the No. 23 and Tyler Reddick in the No. 45 Toyota Camrys in the 2023 Cup Series season. 23XI Racing, now in its third season, is co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Cup Series star Denny Hamlin.
“The Chicago Street Race is going to be such a great weekend for our sport. As we continue to look for ways to showcase NASCAR to new and more diverse audiences, the backdrop of downtown Chicago and the lake are sure to provide a really unique setting for a race,” said NASCAR Driver Bubba Wallace.
“McDonald’s has been a great supporter of me and my team at 23XI Racing, so there will be a little added incentive for us as we race with the Golden Arches on our car in the city the brand has called home for more than a half-century.”
McDonald’s will be featured prominently on the NBC broadcasts of the Chicago Street Race Weekend, Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM Radio national radio broadcasts, and have an expansive presence on NASCAR’s digital platforms.
“We are proud to expand the partnership of one of the most recognizable and global brands within NASCAR as part of the Chicago Street Race Weekend,” said Jeff Wohlschlaeger, SVP, chief sales officer, NASCAR. “McDonald’s brand strength is unrivaled, and we are proud they are supporting NASCAR’s first-ever Cup Series street race in their hometown of Chicago.”
Look for future announcements about the partnership between McDonald’s and the Chicago Street Race that will further support NASCAR’s overarching commitment to the Chicago community and programs that will have a positive and lasting impact on local youth and teens.
As part of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season, the first-ever Chicago Street Race Weekend will feature the NASCAR Cup Series’ Grant Park 220 and NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 121 competing on a 12-turn, 2.2-mile street course, along with full-length concerts by The Chainsmokers and Miranda Lambert with the support of The Black Crowes and Charley Crockett over Fourth of July Weekend on July 1-2.
General admission and reserved tickets are on sale for the Chicago Street Race. Two-day general admission ticket start at $269 and reserved tickets that offer an array of opportunities including reserved seating and a wide variety of premium experiences start at $465. To purchase tickets, fans can log onto NASCARChicago.com or call 1-888-629-7223.
The Grant Park 220 will be nationally broadcast on NBC on Sunday, July 2 at 5:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. CT and The Loop 121 will be broadcast nationally on USA Network at 5:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. CT. To stay up to date with the Chicago Street Race, fans can subscribe to receive exclusive Chicago Street Race emails, follow @NASCARChicago on Twitter and Facebook and download the NASCAR Tracks App for the latest real-time updates on all aspects of the event.
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — For the first time in more than a decade, NASCAR Cup Series cars roared to life Tuesday at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher wheeled their Next Gen vehicles around the legendary 0.625-mile oval, a venue steeped in a history palpable upon arrival. North Wilkesboro was a staple upon Cup Series schedules from the sport’s inauguration through 1996, its last race won by then-one-time champion Jeff Gordon for the 19th victory of what would become a 93-win, four-time title-winning career.
The next generation of drivers finally got their turn in a Goodyear tire test on Tuesday ahead of the May 21 NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reddick was nine months old the last time multiple Cup cars hit the track in northwestern North Carolina. Dillon was 6 years old and Buescher wasn’t yet 4.
A test session at a site so unique and rich with stories made Tuesday unlike any other test.
“I’ve never had that level of nostalgia coming to a test ever really,” Reddick said.
Twenty-seven years since Wilkesboro’s last NASCAR national series event and even longer since its freshest coat of asphalt, Reddick wasted no time Tuesday. He was first to hit the track in his No. 45 Toyota and immediately set out for a decent outing.
“I’m imagining they did a lot of work to it. I mean, you can tell for sure. But for it to have sat, what, 27 years, is that right? I mean, it does not seem like it’s at 27 years,” Reddick said after the session. “I guess that’s the thing I’m not thinking about. I went out there and just went right to ripping laps, 20-lap run in the Next Gen car and yeah, it didn’t it doesn’t seem like a track that sat that long.”
The grandson of car owner Richard Childress, Dillon knows North Wilkesboro holds a special place in his family’s lineage. Childress, of course, owned the No. 3 Chevrolet that Dale Earnhardt wheeled to five wins there and now owns Dillon’s. But Dillon has ties from his father’s side of the family too: dad, Mike Dillon, earned a 1995 victory late model win at North Wilkesboro and took the ride up the famed elevator to the track’s one-of-a-kind Victory Lane.
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Studios
“I actually drove up here (Tuesday) with one of his old crew guys, and who kind of helps me around my house,” Dillon said. “And he was like, I want to check out the elevator because I got to take an elevator ride. I guess I did too when I was here when I was a kid. I just don’t remember it. So hopefully, we get to try and take an elevator ride for a million dollars.”
Turning laps around the short track was a far cry from what Dillon typically thinks of when driving through Wilkes County on Highway 421.
“Just driving by it as a kid, going into the mountains and seeing like this ghost of a track that you hear about from your family and all the good times that were had here,” Dillon said. “And now we’re getting to experience it and it’s coming to life fast and it’s cool to be a part of it.”
Buescher is quite the fan of just how worn the existing pavement remains, happy the fresh asphalt has been reserved only for pit road and infield parking. He was chasing grip all day in his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford — just what he wanted.
“It’s probably not as bumpy as I thought,” said Buescher, who hadn’t been back to North Wilkesboro since helping Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Speedway Motorsports President Marcus Smith clean the facility in December 2019. “I mean it’s rough. But man, I can’t tell you how many other race tracks we go to where we get hits through the suspension that hit you a lot harder than anything out here. So it’s probably a lot by design, just trying to make sure we get as much grip in these things as possible. It’s hard to chase aero when the track’s not very flat underneath you.
“All the right reasons to make it a good race. So excited to have the All-Star (Race) here. It’s amazing just seeing the progress, seeing a lot of history is still being preserved.”
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Studios
The goal of the day, through all the glory of just getting onto the race track, was to help Goodyear determine what tire to bring in May for the exhibition event. The problem, per se, is that each driver has his own preferences behind the wheel.
Ahead of a true debrief with his team and Goodyear, Buescher said their fall-off in lap time was “several seconds throughout runs depending which tire you were on.”
Dillon noted he thought the fall-off was “pretty significant,” but Reddick, his former teammate at Richard Childress Racing, believes there could be even more.
“You’re kind of on ice taking off for sure. This place has got a lot of age and character to it,” said Reddick, now five races into his tenure at 23XI Racing. “You know, you’re having to pedal it pretty good. The first lap, you have to kind of be careful squeezing the gas down and as you run, you know, it’s hard to get back to wide-open throttle. But you know, really, I think we were seeing a second-and-a-half fall off or so over even 50 laps, and that was kind of surprising. I figured we’d have more fall off.
“But I mean one little miscue misstep into Turn 1 or Turn 3, you’d lose a second sliding up out of the groove and losing control of your car, so that’s with no traffic, no mistakes. So maybe with more traffic and everything the fall off will be more, but certainly, we’re out of control from I’d say Lap 10 on.
“You have to really take care of your car. So I guess that’s all I was really saying was hoping to make the throttle time even less, but I mean it’s really hard 30, 40 laps in around it to even get wide open.”
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Studios
North Wilkesboro is set to become the fourth host of the NASCAR All-Star Race in the past five seasons. Texas Motor Speedway hosted each of the last two while Bristol Motor Speedway held the 2020 event. Through 2019, Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted the festivities annually since the event’s 1985 inauguration, with a lone exception for Atlanta in 1986.
A facility and location previously stuck in time, North Wilkesboro is getting all dolled up for a romantic reunion with stock-car racing’s biggest names, a weekend full of racing goods. Late models hit the track Tuesday and Wednesday as preludes to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Tyson 250 on May 20 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) and the Sunday night All-Star Race.
“Dating back to 2020, I was somewhat familiar with this place,” Reddick said. “But I had a lot of downtime as all of us did during the pandemic and I got to watch a lot of races — not necessarily here, but just old-school races, and a number of them were here. And the place just was super entertaining back then.
“I thought to myself watching those races, man, it would’ve been really cool to be a part of it and to have been there — see a race there. I’ve thought that as I’ve driven by it heading to Bristol Motor Speedway through the years. So really glad we got to have that opportunity. I’m excited to see this place full of life and be a part of the event and experience.”
The 2014 Cup Series champion will drive his own late model stock car in the CARS Tour feature Wednesday, May 17, ahead of the All-Star Race on Sunday, May 21. Harvick in the CARS Tour race at North Wilkesboro will run the No. 62 as a tribute to his wife DeLana Harvick’s late father John Linville.
Along with being a regular competitor in the NASCAR Xfinity Series during the 1980s, Linville was an accomplished short-track driver. He won three Late Model Sportsman Division titles at Bowman Gray Stadium between 1968-71, also claiming the final Limited Sportsman championship at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in 1970.
Like Linville, Harvick also developed his talents on short tracks, albeit on the other side of the United States.
After earning his first NASCAR Southwest Tour victory at Tucson Speedway in 1995, Harvick established himself as one of the best young drivers on the West Coast by winning the 1998 ARCA Menards Series West championship by 100 points with Spears Motorsports. He accomplished that title while balancing a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule with the same team.
Five of Harvick’s seven West Series victories came in 1998, when he took checkered flags at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Altamont Motorsports Park, Auto Club Speedway, Pikes Peak International Raceway and Sonoma Raceway.
Harvick also earned a West Series win at Iowa Speedway in 2007 and another at Sonoma in 2017.
Kevin Harvick celebrates winning the West Series race at Sonoma Raceway on June 24, 2017. (Photo: Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
The efficiency Harvick showed on the West Coast short tracks is what ultimately led to his driving for Richard Childress Racing’s Xfinity Series program. That in turn led to Harvick putting together one of the best NASCAR careers in history with 60 Cup Series victories, one title and wins in all the sport’s crown jewel events.
Harvick will look to remind the current generation of short-track racers and young prospects of his short-track heritage when the green flag for the CARS LMSC Tour feature flies on May 17.
NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Josh Williams has been suspended from competing in Saturday’s race at Circuit of The Americas, the sanctioning body announced Tuesday evening.
Williams, the driver of the No. 92 Chevrolet Camaro, was found in violation of Sections 4.3.A; 4.4.B & D; 8.7.6: NASCAR Member Code of Conduct and In-race Violations for disobeying a NASCAR request. After being directed to take his car to the garage during last Saturday’s Xfinity race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Williams elected to park his vehicle at the start/finish line, exiting it and walking toward pit road. He will not compete in Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). DGM Racing announced that Alex Labbé would fill in for Williams at COTA.
Separately, the No. 33 Ford team for driver Mason Massey in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was hit with a trio of suspensions. Crew chief Gregory Rayl and crew members Matthew Crossman and Travis Armstrong have been suspended for the next three points events in the series for violation of Section 14.3.4 B; 14.17.2.1 D; 10.5.2.6.F: Safety Penalty for loss or separation of added ballast from the vehicle.
Additionally, Deandre Smith has received an indefinite suspension from NASCAR for violation of Sections 4.1 & 10.1.A, while owner/driver Cory Roper has been reinstated and is eligible to return to all NASCAR activity.
In many ways, the addition of road-course experts such as Formula One champions Jenson Button and Kimi Räikkönen and a sports car champ like Jordan Taylor to Sunday’s NASCAR grid seems appropriate as the NASCAR Cup Series continues its 75th Anniversary season at one of the country’s premier road course facilities: Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
While ovals certainly dominated the sport’s earliest schedules, stock car racing has become a big-time player on several of the most historic and important road-course facilities in America. And what the 11-year-old COTA track may lack in pure historical age, it certainly makes up for in modern-day acclaim and aesthetics.
That’s why so many renowned drivers from other series – such as Button, Räikkönen, Taylor and IndyCar regular Conor Daly – are eager to earn a position on the starting grid and test themselves against NASCAR’s very best in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). And the Cup Series drivers – which will include seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson this week, too — are ready for the challenge.
Although NASCAR’s second sanctioned race during the inaugural 1949 season was run on a road course – a 4.150-mile circuit right on Daytona Beach – NASCAR has predominantly been an oval show for much of its early existence. But the Modern Era – beginning in 1972 – brought changes to the season schedule that included not only a long-established race at California’s Riverside International Raceway but eventually new venues at Northern California’s Sonoma Raceway and the historic Watkins Glen International in upstate New York. Today, there are six road or street course venues on the 2023 schedule.
The famed Riverside track in California – a 2.62-mile track that produced some of the most memorable races in the sport’s history – hosted the Cup Series from 1958 to 1988 before closing in 1989.
The list of Riverside winners is a racing ‘Who’s Who’ from the late Dan Gurney, who won five races – including three in a row from 1964-66 – to Parnelli Jones, the 1967 winner and A.J. Foyt, who took the 1970 trophy. NASCAR’s “King” Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip each additionally won five times at the track, while Bobby Allison led the pack with six trophies.
California’s Sonoma Raceway picked up where Riverside left off, hosting its first Cup Series race in 1989 with Ricky Rudd hoisting the first trophy. This summer marks the 34th edition of the Sonoma race – a venue where native Californian and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon holds the win record of five and Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suárez earned his first-ever Cup Series victory last summer.
After races in 1957, 1964 and 1965, Watkins Glen started hosting Cup Series races regularly in 1986 – that event won by the late Tim Richmond. NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart would go on to establish the all-time Watkins Glen wins record with five trophies. Kyle Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, is the two-time defending race winner.
These original races proved that NASCAR competitors and their audience loved the unique challenge of road course races scattered into the schedule. And in recent years, NASCAR has rewarded that fondness by increasing available opportunities. This weekend’s grand prix at COTA is the first of six on the 2023 schedule that will also include the highly-anticipated July 2 debut of a downtown street course along the downtown Chicago waterfront.
Each of these 2023 venues – Circuit of The Americas, Sonoma Raceway (June 11), Chicago Street Race (July 2), Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course (Aug. 13), Watkins Glen International (Aug. 20), Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (Oct. 8) – has produced memorable moments, dramatic finishes and won over even the most hardened of oval-traditionalists.
And the drivers on the grid represent both non-regulars who have taken a real interest in NASCAR road course competition, where the entire grid of full-time drivers showcases their road racing talent and focus, racing door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper through every turn and twist.
Three current Cup Series tracks — COTA (2012-present), Watkins Glen International (1961-80) and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course (2000-2007) — have all hosted Formula One grand prix.
Räikkönen, who will drive the No. 91 Project 91 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing, has raced at both Indianapolis and COTA – scoring his last win in F1 at COTA in 2018. Button has raced at both Indy and Austin venues as well, earning his best Austin finish (fifth) in the 2012 inaugural race. Taylor is a two-time winner at COTA – from pole position – in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series.
Yet for all their experience and success, these drivers fully concede the bar this weekend is set by Cup Series regulars who have all worked on their road course acumen.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain returns to Austin as the defending race winner. Taylor will be driving the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that injured racer Chase Elliott drove to victory in NASCAR’s first event at COTA in 2021.
“Obviously, it’s helpful that I know the track,” Räikkönen said. “Now, the F1 car and a NASCAR Cup car are slightly different (smiling) in how they feel when you go around it.
“Last year was a great experience,” said Räikkönen, who competed at Watkins Glen. “Unfortunately, the result (37th) wasn’t what we were looking for because we got caught up in a wreck, but that’s part of racing. I am excited to have another go, and hopefully, we will stay out of any big issues. This will be tricky for sure, but the further we go in the weekend, the easier it gets. At least I have an idea of how we can approach the weekend. I think we did a good job last year. Is the car going to give us a better result? I don’t know, I hope so.”
Cup Series drivers are certainly ready for the test.
“COTA is a place that’s pretty fun for us,” said four-time road course winner Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “I’m looking forward to the extra track time on Friday and get a chance to work on it overnight and see what we have for Saturday and Sunday.
“We’ve learned so much over the last year about this car and what it likes and what it doesn’t, so hoping we can come with a lot more knowledge than we had this time last year and get the car where we need it to have a shot to win and run up front all day long. Looking forward to this weekend with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota team.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — Sunday’s fifth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway wasn’t precisely what Tyler Reddick wanted, but it was a significant step forward — especially considering there were some early doubts whether he would be able to compete in the race.
Reddick arrived at the track that morning not feeling well, forcing his 23XI Racing team to scramble to find an emergency substitution if necessary. Just hours before the green flag was scheduled to wave, John Hunter Nemechek was sitting in the No. 45 Toyota, making adjustments to the seating configuration so that either Reddick or Nemechek would feel comfortable.
Reddick powered through, however, and was among a noticeable Toyota surge in the Final Stage. The effort resulted in his second consecutive top-five result after finishes of 39th in the Daytona 500, 34th at Auto Club Speedway and 15th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Stepping out of the car after the strong finish was a literal breath of fresh air for Reddick in light of his illness and figuratively for his team’s confidence moving forward.
“I’m alright,” Reddick said. “Picked a good time to kinda get over whatever it was that was going on. Made it through the race, don’t feel too bad. Wish we would have finished better than fifth, but, yeah, I definitely wasn’t my best out there today.”
After starting 16th, Reddick made his way near the front of the pack in the closing laps, joining up with Toyota teammates Denny Hamlin (also his boss, as co-owner of 23XI) and Christopher Bell. They couldn’t work together quickly enough, though, to get past the Fords of Brad Keselowski and race-winner Joey Logano.
“Every lap was an opportunity, for sure,” said Reddick, explaining the finish. “I don’t know. I was just trying to think about what the right time to make the move was and trying to do it to where all three of us — you know, me, Denny and Christopher — could kinda take advantage of the momentum. I just waited too long and kinda put Christopher and Denny in a spot where they were ready to go before I was. I’ll have to work on that going forward.”
Going forward, the schedule only gets better for Reddick, beginning with the first road-course challenge of the season — Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
Perhaps one of the forgotten story lines of the electric 2022 season was Reddick’s breakout year on road courses, winning at Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course while posting a 9.5 average finish across the six left-and-right circuit races. It was a remarkable run last season, to say the least.
Tyler Reddick’s 2022 finishes on road courses:
Circuit of The Americas
5th
Sonoma Raceway
35th
Road America
1st (first Cup Series win)
Indianapolis
1st
Watkins Glen
7th
Charlotte Roval
8th
According to Racing Insights, Reddick has led 20% of the laps on road courses in the last four races beginning at Road America. Specifically, at COTA, Reddick has never finished worse than ninth and is one of only four drivers with top 10s in both Cup races dating back to the inaugural series event in 2021.
If this momentum continues, this Sunday’s race is a perfect opportunity to flex his strength and earn his first victory with his new team. And so far, the record shows he has been among the handful of drivers to beat at nearly every road course in the Next Gen era.
The two recent top-five finishes have vaulted Reddick and the No. 45 team up the points standings, currently sitting 15th (and in the projected playoff outlook) as the fourth-highest-ranking Toyota. With the new road-course rules coming into effect for the first time this week, this next test could set the tone for many other races throughout the season.
Reddick will try to add to his blossoming road-course resume Sunday, March 26 in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on the 3.41-mile circuit in Austin, Texas.
The 2022 race season for Andrew Crandall was, thankfully, nothing like the year before.
At the start of the 2021 season, Crandall’s team got his Thunder Car built in a way they were initially “super stoked” about, he said. But the first night of year at Edmonton International Raceway, the car overheated, and eventually the motor expired.
Over the winter, his team took an engine out of a farm truck, and couldn’t believe how well it worked on the race track.
“We started winning races,” Crandall said. “The second race out of the 2022 season we won and I couldn’t believe it. It was unbelievable.”
Crandall and his team had their share of ups and downs throughout the year, but by the time it was done they had a more than 60 point lead on the way to an Edmonton track championship in the NASCAR Thunder Cars series.
Edmonton is a NASCAR-sanctioned quarter-mile paved oval track in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada.
The title was seven years in the making for Crandall.
“Oh, my gosh. On the very last race of the season I broke down. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I basically had it wrapped up, but we managed a second place on the last night and I cried on the front stretch. I was in so much joy. Finally. It took me seven years but I finally got one.”
“We don’t do qualifying very much so they started me in the back… I went as fast I possibly could, and I made my way through the field. I can’t remember where I placed in the heat, but I raced as hard as I possibly could. I didn’t want to have the mindset that I already won because my performance could be affected by that.”
Crandall got into racing because of his desire to be different. Growing up, others around here played hockey, baseball and football.
He never really had an interest in any of those sports.
“I like to stand out a little bit,” he said.
For his 12th birthday, Crandall and his family and friends went to the race track for the first time. Edmonton has a birthday ride program that allows participants to get in race cars and ride slowly around the track.
“I got to sit in a Thunder Car and we were rolling around the track and I’m asking the guy, just chewing this guy’s ear off, ‘How did you get into it? What kind of car is it?’
“We’re farmers. We’ve got your grain and your cows and all that. I don’t know really even what sparked it. No one really cared, but I didn’t get any allowance or anything so I had to either build something or help my neighbors and they would throw me a little bit of money.”
Crandall found a Civic online that was already prepped to go racing. He bought it for $300.
Andrew Crandall claimed the track championship in the Thunder Car class at Edmonton International Raceway in 2022. (Photo: Carol Ashton/Edmonton International Raceway)
“Funny enough it had the Dale Earnhardt No. 3 on it, and I thought that was really cool because I was just doing a little bit of research about him,” he said. “We left it basically the way it was, we put new safety belts in and spent good money on the neck protector. My mom and dad really helped me out there with all the safety stuff, because it’s not cheap to a 12 year old.”
Experience driving grain trucks and combines didn’t really compare to driving a race car for the first time.
“I’d never driven a car on a track with other people, and we went out there and we were going maybe 30 kilometers an hour around that track. I was terrified,” he said. “But we started getting a little bit better and a little bit better.”
In his first season, Crandall finished third in the points and won rookie of the year.
“So that spark turned into a flame really quick,” he said.
Crandall’s competitive nature has kept him in racing through all the ups and downs. He recalls an early race when he was in the back, coming down the backstretch as the leaders raced up to him. They blew by either side of his car so fast, they knocked his mirrors off.
Other drivers may have been disheartened by the incident, but Crandall took it as motivation.
“I said, you know what, I’m coming for you guys next year,” he said. “I’m going to practice super hard. The old NASCAR games on your PlayStation, I was practicing on that every night just trying to figure out the lines, trying to apply that to real life, and eventually I was banging doors with them in the 2014 season.”
He’s tried to model his racing style off of Earnhardt, and he kept the No. 3 on his car for several years.
“Of course you’re always going to think, oh, I’m not that great at it, maybe I’ll find something else,” he said. “I don’t know what it was, but I started collecting a lot of Dale Earnhardt stuff, and I used that as my motivation. Like, wow, he was confident, he drove like crazy, and I just tried to get that mentality in my head.”
Crandall knew the 2022 season was special when he raced against that same Thunder Car he rode in on his 12th birthday.
“I beat it. Oh yeah, walked all over it,” he said with a laugh. “He’s a really good guy. And he even recognized me, so that was really special.”
It hasn’t been an individual effort for Crandall as he’s climbed the racing ranks at Edmonton. Along with his mom, dad, sisters, grandparents, and girlfriend, he’s had help from Ron and Loretta Thiering, the promoters at Edmonton, and other drivers at the track.
Other racing veterans Brad and Kent Brooks and Mike Ramm came to Crandall’s shop to help set up scales and help with the technology in the shop.
He goes to church with a driver, Larry Philips, who races super late models on dirt. Philips found out Crandall was getting into racing, and he, along with his dad, offered to come to their farm when Crandall was first starting.
“Of course they laugh because they’re used to $30,000 late models, but they said, ‘OK, we’ll help you,’” Crandall said. “Well, those two have stayed by my side the whole time. They’re always in the pits with us, they’re helping us out like crazy. They’ve really helped out.
“Everyone has pitched in. I can go up to any one of those people at the track, they’ll shake my hand and they’ll help, I’ll help them, it’s a huge family. And I don’t know what I would do if I lost that connection.
“It’s been a real team effort and I appreciate that.”
Crandall isn’t sure if he’ll race full-time at Edmonton this season. The rigors of working on the farm and trying to get into college on top of racing can be difficult, but he’d like to try to defend his title.
He’ll stick around racing as long as he can though, because he’ll always have that love that started from that first ride at 12 years old.
“It’s borderline my therapy,” Crandall said. “It gives me chills even thinking about it. I love it so much.”
Edmonton International Raceway will open the 2023 season on Saturday, June 3.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash stretch is finally here, with Xfinity mainstays looking to finish among the top four of all series regulars during Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 presented by USA Today at Circuit of The Americas (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Of course, the contest at the Austin, Texas road course will not be the official start of the Dash 4 Cash four-race burst. Instead, it will act as the qualifying race to determine the four drivers slated to battle it out for the first of four $100,000 prizes on the line, starting at Richmond Raceway on April 1 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
And so, the process will continue — the Dash 4 Cash winner at Richmond will then have the opportunity to defend their title at the next track scheduled for the program, while the next three highest-finishing Xfinity Series regulars will look to usurp the crown.
Eligibility requirements for this year will be similar to 2022. Drivers who have not declared to collect Xfinity Series points may not participate in Dash 4 Cash races.
