Posted on by Staff Report

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel on Thursday upheld the post-Charlotte penalty issued to the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team and driver Cole Custer. Custer’s No. 14 Mustang appeared to slow on the final lap of the Oct. 9 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, which allowed teammate and NASCAR Playoffs driver Chase Briscoe to make a pass for position.

MORE: NASCAR penalizes Custer, No. 41 SHR team

Custer is still fined $100,000 and docked 50 points as a result of violations of Section 5.5 of the NASCAR Rule Book, which states that competitors must race at 100% of their ability and takes action against competitors who intend to “artificially alter” the race’s finishing order. Additionally, crew chief Mike Shiplett remains indefinitely suspended from NASCAR and is also fined $100,000.

The members of the Appeals Board for the hearing were Mr. Dixon Johnston, Mr. Bill Mullis and Mr. Dale Pinilis. The Appellants have the right to appeal the decision of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel to the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer in accordance with the NASCAR Rule Book.

This story will be updated.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Only one race remains to set the Championship 4 in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The premier stock-car racing division heads to Martinsville Speedway for the Xfinity 500 on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) for the final race of the Round of 8.

With only one driver sure of his championship hopes, let’s set the table for a busy weekend around the shortest track of the postseason:

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Cup Series standings

SET THE GRID

Teams will be broken into Groups A and B for 20 minutes of practice on Saturday (12 p.m. ET, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio; 12:30 p.m. on USA Network) for each group, respectively. Following practice, the series will roll into two rounds of single-car, two-lap qualifying set to begin at 12:45 p.m. to set the starting lineup.

With the postseason underway, playoff drivers and teams will be ordered by their previous race metrics and assigned to Group A or B by the usual odd/even metric procedures. Playoff teams will be the final cars to qualify in their respective groups.

Each driver will post two laps during their time trial. The fastest five drivers from each group will advance to the final round of qualifying, where those 10 drivers will set two more circuits to fight for the Busch Light Pole Award. The driver who sets the quickest lap in the session will start first on Sunday.

MORE: Paint Scheme Preview | Qualifying order

MARTINSVILLE HISTORY

— Built in 1947, Martinsville Speedway hosted its first race on Sept. 7, 1947, a modified stock car race that preceded NASCAR’s inception. Bill France Sr. convinced track founder Henry Clay Earles that stock cars were the future of racing and promoted the event for a percentage.

— Martinsville appeared on the first Cup Series schedule in 1949 and is the only track on today’s circuit that remains from that year.

— The first 12 Cup races at Martinsville were run on dirt.

— Earles partnered with Ridgeway Clock Company in 1964 to begin awarding race winners with a grandfather clock. Fred Lorenzen took the first one home on Sept. 27, 1964. Richard Petty won the most at 12 (not including his three prior victories), Darrell Waltrip won 11, and Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson each won nine.

— The track’s turns were resurfaced with concrete in 1976, and the track wasn’t resurfaced again until 2004 after Gordon struck a loose chunk of concrete during that year’s spring race.

– LED lighting surrounded the 0.526-mile track starting in 2017.

— In 2022, Martinsville Speedway celebrates its 75th anniversary (1947-2022).

—  The spring race at Martinsville was 400 laps, the first race there that was scheduled for less than 500 laps since 1958.

Source: Racing Insights

GOODYEAR TIRES

Teams return to Martinsville Speedway with a new tire compound, but one they already have experience with.

Goodyear is providing a different tire setup than what was previously run in April when exceptionally cold conditions made laying rubber on the track’s concrete corners significantly more challenging. A June tire test featuring Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric helped guide Goodyear’s direction on updated tire codes which were confirmed in an organizational test at the track in August.

“Martinsville is such a unique track, not only with the relatively long straightaways and tight turns but also with the concrete surface in the corners only,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “After an especially cold spring race, where it became very difficult to lay rubber in the corners, we decided to test there to make another step in doing that no matter how cool the temperatures are. We had a good test, and the compounds worked extremely well, and we believe it’s a formulation that will work in all conditions. Laying rubber in the corners is important at Martinsville because it gives drivers an option to move up to a second groove to look for grip and give them a better chance to pass cars. That, of course, creates better racing.”

MARTINSVILLE STORYLINES

— Joey Logano is the only driver locked into the Championship 4 and has done so for the fifth time in the past nine years, continuing his streak of advancing to the title race in every even year since the elimination format was introduced in 2014.

— Kyle Larson’s Homestead-Miami win locked the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team into the Championship 4 for the owners’ championship. Only twice in Cup have there been a separate owners champion and driver champion: In 1963, Joe Weatherly won the drivers’ title, and Wood Brothers won the owners’ championship; in 1954, Lee Petty won the drivers’ championship, and Herb Thomas won the owners’ championship.

— Logano (2018) and Chase Elliott (2020) are the only remaining past champions in the playoffs.

— Nineteen different drivers have won this year, tied for the most all time.

— William Byron won the last race at Martinsville Speedway in April.

— Joe Gibbs Racing’s next win is its 200th and would make it the third organization with at least 200 wins.

— AJ Allmendinger finished top 10 in his last six starts, his longest-ever top-10 streak in Cup.

— The last driver to win from pit stall No. 1 at Martinsville was Jimmie Johnson in April 2013.

— Ross Chastain finished runner-up in the last two races (Las Vegas, Homestead). The last time he was runner-up in two consecutive races, he won the next race (COTA).

— The driver leading the most laps won seven of the last 10 races at Martinsville, including the race there in April when Byron won after leading 212 laps.

Source: Racing Insights

MONEY ON MARTINSVILLE

Chase Elliott is one of only three playoff drivers to win this postseason while still eligible for championship contention. And with a solid track record at the paperclip, it should come as no surprise that the No. 9 Chevrolet is posted as the favorite to win Sunday’s race at 6-1 odds, according to BetMGM.

But perhaps the driver to watch will be Ryan Blaney (8-1). The driver of the No. 12 Ford carries the best average finish at Martinsville among active drivers at 10.2 but has yet to win at the half-mile track. Entering Sunday’s race 18 points beneath the elimination line, the playoffs’ lone winless competitor may need to break into Victory Lane to keep his championship hopes alive.

Ross Chastain might also be a bargain this weekend at 14-1 odds. Chastain sits highest in points among those who aren’t yet locked into the Championship 4 (+19 points) and doesn’t have the best record at Martinsville. But his lone appearance in a Trackhouse Racing car there produced a fifth-place finish, meaning the runner-up of the last two weeks could break through in a dramatic way come Sunday.

MORE: Complete list of odds for Sunday

FANTASY LIVE

Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which reset for the playoffs. 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 $10,000 prize for the playoff winner.

The 2022 Fantasy Live points leaders are Chase Elliott (1,141), Joey Logano (1,052) and Ryan Blaney (1,035).

In addition to Fantasy Live, NASCAR.com is offering the Playoffs Grid Challenge presented by Ruoff Mortgage during the playoffs.

How to play: Fantasy Live | Set up a team today!

ALSO ON NASCAR.COM

Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week, the full field of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.

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.

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Out with the old, in with the new. David Gilliland Racing ushered in a new era Thursday, rebranding its name to TRICON Garage and shifting from Ford to Toyota as the team’s primary manufacturer.

Beginning in 2023, TRICON Garage will have a brand new look and refocused energy in pursuit of its first Craftsman Truck Series championship. The organization broke the news Thursday in a live broadcast from their team shop, located in Mooresville.

For the team, many of the operations will remain the same, spearheaded by longtime owner David Gilliland and David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development (TRD). Gilliland has owned and operated the team since 2018, making strides in the Truck Series as well as the ARCA Menards Series and employing race-winning drivers like Ryan Preece, his son Todd and more.

New decals for the TRICON Garage team.
Sean Montgomery | NASCAR Studios

Serving as a Ford Performance staple in recent years, the move to TRD has created a new burst of energy in the garage.

“We are thrilled to return to Toyota and compete in the new Toyota Tundra TRD Pro next season,” TRICON partner David Gilliland said. “I’ve seen Toyota’s dedication to the sport firsthand, and we are excited to partner with them going forward. I’m sure this new partnership is going to help TRICON reach our goals of consistently competing for race wins and championships.”

SCHEDULE: 2023 Truck Series season

TRICON plans to field three full-time trucks, led by brothers Tanner and Taylor Gray who have been linked to the organization for the past few years.

Tanner, the elder at 23 years old, is in his third full-time season racing for Gilliland after debuting in 2020. Taylor, a 17-year-old rising star, has raced in a part-time capacity but will make the full-time leap next season — despite missing the first three races of next season’s Truck Series schedule due to age restrictions. Taylor’s first race in will come at Circuit of The Americas.

“It’s exciting, obviously,” Tanner said in an interview when asked about racing with his younger brother. “We’ve got to race each other a little bit up until this point, but it’s always nice having him there. He’s younger than me, but you wouldn’t know it. He’s mature and he’s someone that I can go to and lean on for advice and kind of bounce ideas off. We’re also super competitive and we want to beat each other. So, I’m looking forward to it. It’s gonna be fun.”

Taylor has continued to impress on his way to the NASCAR national series scene, collecting three wins in the 2022 ARCA Menards Series season and five top-16 finishes in his 12 career Truck Series starts. Despite his youth, winning races and competing for a playoff spot is still his personal standard.

“Personally, I wanna go out there and win, right?” Taylor said. “I’m missing three races worth of points, so I think if you go out there and run top three every week, top five every week, then I think you can point your way in. But it’s always more comforting and better for yourself to win and get in the playoffs and lock yourself in for the first round. So, winning is better than anything.”

TRICON’s move from Ford to Toyota also brings a roster change, confirming that Hailie Deegan will no longer be with the team after this season. Deegan is in her second year with DGR and has been a mainstay in their consistent two-driver lineup alongside Tanner. Corey Heim, a rising star in the Toyota Driver Development Program, slots in as the third full-time truck for the 2023 season.

RELATED: More Silly Season news, driver updates

Heim slides over from Kyle Busch Motorsports after collecting a pair of wins, six top-five finishes and nine top 10s in 18 races. His impressive victories came this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the spring and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

“It will be my first full-time year here in the Truck Series, but I feel like I’ve made enough starts to really carry a lot of momentum into 2023 with TRICON and TRD,” Heim said. “I really wanna get the ball rolling right away and hopefully go for some wins and compete for the championship when it’s all said and done. So, just super thankful for everyone at Toyota and TRD and TRICON for this opportunity. I think it’s gonna be really good.”

With a youthful roster and reinvigorated outlook, TRICON, Gilliland and Toyota are beginning to create a path to sustainable success. Running three full-time trucks — and entering the No. 1 on a part-time basis — there are many opportunities for the organization to thrive in the coming years.

“Our goal in the truck series is to create future racing icons,” TRICON partner Johnny Gray said.  “We’ll know we did our job when several years from now our drivers are racing for Cup championships. As for Garage, what we do is more than just field a race team. We build chassis, we build bodies. We have a transportation company. We are marketers and content creators. We are teachers and mentors. It’s bigger than simply ‘motorsports’ or ‘racing.’ But what it all has in common is that it takes place in our garage. So, TRICON Garage just seemed to encompass what we’re all about.”

Posted on by Press Release

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (October 27, 2022) – Comcast is honored to announce the finalists for the 2022 Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award, an annual award created to recognize the philanthropic efforts of individuals within the NASCAR industry. Whether through spreading cheer at children’s hospitals, inspiring those battling cancer, or impacting lives through the world of adoption, the 2022 class of honorees has gone above and beyond in creating positive change throughout the year. For the first time, Comcast opened the eligibility for anyone in the NASCAR community with a 2022 annual credential or NASCAR full season license, with this expansion, Comcast is now able to share these exceptional stories.

The 2022 finalists are:

  • Josh Williams, NASCAR Xfinity Series driver for DGM Racing (Ryan Seacrest Foundation)
  • Sherry Pollex, Longtime Partner of Martin Truex Jr. (Sherry Strong)
  • Jes Ferreira, Senior Director, Live Shows at CSM Production (Foster Village Charlotte)

“We are honored to be able to recognize these three champions within the sport who do so much good for the world each and every day,” said Matt Lederer, Comcast’s vice president of branded partnerships. “Josh, Sherry and Jes have all made a significant impact on their communities in their own unique ways, and Comcast is proud to be able to celebrate their efforts.”

Comcast’s Xfinity brand entered NASCAR as entitlement partner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015 and is now also Premier Partner of the NASCAR Cup Series. Since then, the company has donated $840,000 to more than 21 different NASCAR-affiliated organizations to honor their efforts and to help further the impact of their worthy causes. Fans can visit ComcastCommunityChampion.com to learn more about past and present finalists and their acts of selflessness.

The 2022 Comcast Community Champion of the Year will be selected by a panel of Comcast and NASCAR executives, as well as Curtis Francois, owner of World Wide Technology Raceway, who received the award in 2021 for his work with The Raceway Gives Foundation, which focuses on STEM education and diversity. The organization seeks to create a larger STEM footprint by bringing an expanded and unique curriculum to area youth. Of note is the foundation’s relationship with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center via the “Racing in the Classroom” program that introduces motorsports education and career opportunities to an underserved community for local youth ages 8-18.

“There are so many incredible stories and people within the NASCAR community, it is an honor to be able to be included and recognized as a Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award recipient, thanks to Comcast’s commitment, so many people and organizations will have a long-lasting impact,” said Curtis Francois, who owns and operates World Wide Technology Raceway, and was named the 2021 Community Champion of the Year.

Comcast will award $60,000 to the champion’s affiliated charity, and $30,000 to each of the two remaining finalists’ selected charities. The 2022 Comcast Community Champion will be announced at a reception during NASCAR Champions Week.

2022 Comcast Community Champion of the Year finalists:

Josh Williams (Port Charlotte, FL) — Many would argue that despite his NASCAR resume, Josh Williams – driver of the No. 92 DGM Racing car for the Xfinity Series – has even more impressive accomplishments off the track. Throughout his career, Josh has dedicated his time by visiting over 150 hospitals in person and, recently, even more via Zoom during the pandemic. Through these visits, he’s had the opportunity to meet with countless children, as well as their families, to show his support.

As an extension of these visits, Josh enlisted the help of OhmniLabs to use their Telepresence robots, which provide the opportunity for some of these children to virtually experience at-track garage tours right from their hospital beds. Josh’s efforts have also formed a relationship with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, which builds closed circuit TV and radio studios in children’s hospitals throughout the country to increase experiences for patients who can’t make the trip out to the track.

To show his support for these children to the world, Josh collects a painted handprint of each child that he visits. For his last race of each NASCAR season, his race car is wrapped with a composite image of each of those children’s handprints, honoring them and the work of children’s hospitals around the world.

Sherry Pollex (Brighton, MI) — After being diagnosed with stage 3c ovarian cancer, Sherry Pollex knew she wanted to help others who would one day be blind-sided by this terrible disease. In 2016, Sherry launched SherryStrong.org, a website created to empower women to know their bodies and recognize the symptoms of ovarian cancer with a focus on healthy living through holistic and integrative medicine. However, the launch of Sherry Strong wasn’t the start of Sherry’s community outreach efforts, rather a continuation of them. Sherry Strong serves as an arm of the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization she developed with her longtime partner Martin in 2007. The foundation was originally formed to help children with cancer. When Sherry received her diagnosis, the mission of the foundation was then refocused to raise awareness, boost advocacy, and generate financial support for underfunded cancer initiatives specific to childhood and ovarian cancers, two of the most prevalent and underfunded diseases affecting children and women in America today.

Through SherryStrong.org, social media channels, and appearances across the country, Sherry has spent years educating women about choices they have for their bodies, integrative and holistic medicine, self-care practices such as yoga, acupuncture, exercise, meditation, supplements and more. Sherry inspires women daily to find joy amidst the trials of life and to not let illness steal their gratitude or peace. Sherry educates women about the symptoms of ovarian cancer and how to advocate for themselves continuously until answers are found.

Jes Ferreira (Nashua, NH) — Among all the turmoil of the pandemic, CSM Production’s Senior Director of Live Shows Jes Ferreira looked for an opportunity to give back. Despite her heavy workload, she decided to take on an even heavier challenge, becoming a foster parent to two young girls, ages 5 and 8. Jes originally earned a foster license to become a foster parent for one child, but a few months later, the child’s younger sibling needed a new foster home. Although Jes already had a crazy work schedule which included traveling to the race track most weekends on top of fostering one child as a single parent, she knew without a doubt these two siblings deserved to be together while in foster care. Now two young siblings who are going through the most trying time in their lives have been reunited thanks to Jes’ unselfishness and big heart.

On any given day, there are nearly 424,000 children in foster care in the United States. In 2019, over 672,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care. On average, children remain in state care for over a year and a half, and five percent of children in foster care have languished there for five or more years. Now Jes has given two of those nearly half a million children a safe home as well as new experiences that will help shape their lives for the better.

Jes’s affiliated charity is Foster Village Charlotte, an organization that allows foster parents to connect with and support each other. FVC collaborates with 16 private foster parent licensing agencies, local government, child welfare organizations and the community to serve families holistically and represent the foster family voice to Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services (DSS).

Comcast has a long track record of community service, aiding in the advancement of local organizations, developing programs and partnerships, mobilizing resources to connect people and inspiring positive and substantive change. To learn more about these efforts, visit the Comcast Community Impact site.

Posted on by Staff Report

Editor’s note: Tune in live or set your DVRs for Episode 9 tonight at 10 ET on USA Network. The previous eight episodes are currently available for streaming on Peacock.

The ninth episode of USA Network’s unscripted series “Race for the Championship” airs tonight at 10 ET, and it provides an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the field throughout the three-race Round of 12 — including the ongoing discussions around driver safety as playoff driver Alex Bowman misses races due to concussion-like symptoms following a wreck at Texas Motor Speedway.

The driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 saw his postseason end when he missed races at both Talladega and Charlotte following a wreck at Texas with a hard rear-end impact — the impact of which saw several drivers speak candidly before an all-drivers meeting with NASCAR executive leadership at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

NASCAR has been experimenting with new rear clip designs in order to reduce the impacts drivers take in crashes, and simulations of how those clips could improve impacts will be shown for the first time in tonight’s episode.

Meanwhile, defending champion Kyle Larson and his dirt-track racing efforts are also spotlighted. Larson, seeking to defend his 2021 championship, is one of the most prolific drivers on the NASCAR circuit and fans get a look at him and his family during a weekday race.

His plight at the Charlotte Roval also gets time on the big screen as he, along with Chase Elliott and Joey Logano, are profiled extensively in Episode 9.

NBC Universal previously announced that the entire season so far of Race for the Championship will be available on Peacock starting Oct. 7. Episodes 7-10 of Race for the Championship will still debut on USA Network before being available on Peacock the next day.

So after watching tonight’s Episode 9, be sure to stream previous episodes or any you may have missed on Peacock.

—

How to find USA Network | USA Network streaming on the go

Posted on by Staff Report

David Gilliland Racing has scheduled a news conference Thursday morning at 11 ET, and NASCAR.com will live-stream the event.

TUNE IN: Live stream of the announcement

This morning’s announcement will include special organizational news for the 2023 season, featuring an updated driver lineup and more. You can view the stream on NASCAR.com using the above link or tune in to the NASCAR YouTube channel.

MORE: Silly Season moves, so far

DGR fields three full-time trucks in the Camping World Truck Series (Craftsman for 2023) and routine entries in the ARCA Menards Series.

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

When it comes to four drivers, Thursday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville Speedway will make or break their 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

Jon McKennedy, Ron Silk, Justin Bonsignore and Eric Goodale enter the season finale with a chance to win the championship. Awaiting them are 200 laps around the paperclip-shaped, 0.526-mile oval.

Below, starting with the points leader in McKennedy, we explain how each driver reached this point.

RELATED: Martinsville entry list | Race preview

Jon McKennedy
Jon McKennedy (Photo: Nick Grace/NASCAR)
  • Jon McKennedy: 564 points

A consistent season has McKennedy in position to claim his first Modified Tour championship in just his second full season.

McKennedy has one victory this year, which came at New Hampshire’s Claremont Motorsports Park. He has finished outside the top 10 just twice this season. He has seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes, with his top-10 total being the best among drivers on the Tour.

McKennedy enters the finale with a six-point advantage over Silk. Should McKennedy win at Martinsville, he’ll secure his first Tour championship regardless of where his rivals finish.

McKennedy has just one previous start in Tour competition at Martinsville, which came last season. He started eighth and finished 11th.

Ron Silk
Ron Silk (Photo: Nick Grace/NASCAR)
  • Ron Silk: 558 points

The most experienced driver in the battle for the championship is Silk, who enters the finale six points out of the points lead.

Despite being winless thus far in 2022, Silk has used his incredible consistency to keep himself in the thick of the title hunt. His eight top-five finishes are more than any other driver this year, and he’s finished outside the top-10 in just three events.

Silk’s best finishes this season have come at Claremont and Virginia’s Langley Speedway; he scored runner-up finishes in both of those races. Silk has also led 232 laps this year, the fourth highest total on the Tour.

Silk has six previous starts at Martinsville dating back to 2006. His best finish at the track came in 2009, when he started second and finished fourth. He finished 21st in the Tour’s return to the track last season.

Justin Bonsignore
Justin Bonsignore (Photo: Nick Grace/NASCAR)
  • Justin Bonsignore: 553 points

An up-and-down season for Bonsignore has left him in the unenviable position of sitting 11 points behind McKennedy entering the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200.

Bonsignore’s season started as poor as it could have with a last-place finish in the season opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway. He rebounded to win the next race at Richmond Raceway, but he followed that with bad finish in the next race, at New York’s Riverhead Raceway.

Bonsignore made up ground in the points through the summer months thanks largely to victories at Monadnock Speedway, Oswego Speedway and Riverhead. He’s led more laps than any of his title rivals this year with 377, and his four victories are the most for a driver on the Tour in 2022. He’ll need more of that summer magic if he hopes to win his fourth championship in five years.

Bonsignore has made just two previous starts at Martinsville, both of which resulted in top-five finishes. He ran second in 2010 and finished third in the Tour’s return to the track last season.

Eric Goodale
Eric Goodale (Photo: Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)
  • Eric Goodale: 551 points

The driver who needs to make up the most points in the title race Thursday night happens to be the most recent Tour winner at Martinsville.

Goodale enters the finale fourth in the standings, 13 points behind McKennedy, but he has plenty in his favor. He enters this event having won the most recent Tour race thanks to amazing drive at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Oct. 8. Last year at Martinsville, Goodale started third and led the final 30 laps on his way to victory, one of his now five Tour wins.

Goodale has four previous Tour starts at Martinsville. Including his victory, making him the only driver of the championship four who has a Martinsville clock, he has three top-10 finishes at the track. He enters the finale with five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 2022.

Bobby Labonte set for Modified Tour debut

Bobby Labonte
Bobby Labonte (Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

For the first time in his lengthy racing career, Bobby Labonte will run with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on Thursday at Martinsville.

Labonte, the 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion who made his last Cup Series start in 2016, will compete in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 in a Modified fielded by Phil Stefanelli, the owner of PSR Products.

The 58-year-old Texan enjoyed a successful NASCAR career, capturing the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in 1991 before claiming the Cup Series crown in 2000. He scored 32 NASCAR national series victories during that time, including 21 in the Cup Series with Joe Gibbs Racing.

While effectively retired from competition at the Cup Series level, Labonte has been keeping busy racing Modifieds on the side. He scored a Modified victory at South Carolina’s Dillon Motor Speedway last year.

During his NASCAR career, Labonte competed at Martinsville 42 times at the Cup Series level, earning one victory in 2002. He also has a victory at Martinsville in Xfinity Series competition, which came during the 1992 season, and in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, which came in 2005.

Ryan Newman back for another Modified start at Martinsville

Ryan Newman
Ryan Newman (Photo: Sanjay Suchak/NASCAR)

For the first time since he competed at Richmond Raceway in April, former NASCAR Cup Series competitor Ryan Newman will race with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour this Thursday.

Newman is no stranger to the Tour; he’s competed in 31 events dating back to 2008. He has four Tour victories to go along with 18 in the NASCAR Cup Series, seven in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, one in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and four in the ARCA Menards Series.

The driver from South Bend, Indiana, will again compete for team owners Hermie Sadler and William Stanley at Martinsville after driving for them at Richmond. He started fourth in that event, led two laps and finished 13th.

While Newman hasn’t won a Modified Tour event since his victory at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2011, that doesn’t mean he’s been winless in a Modified.

Earlier this year, Newman won the first race at the revived North Wilkesboro Speedway, capturing a 50-lap Modified event that also featured drivers like Ryan Preece, Matt Hirschman, the aforementioned Labonte and Jimmy Blewett, among others.

While Newman has never won a Tour race at Martinsville, he does have a Cup Series win at the track in 2012 driving for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Notes:

  • Tommy Baldwin Racing will clinch the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour owner’s championship when the green flag waves Thursday night. The team has won five races with three drivers (Doug Coby, Jimmy Blewett and Mike Christopher Jr.) this season. Blewett will pilot the No. 7 entry for the team at Martinsville.
  • NASCAR Cup Series driver Corey LaJoie will make his second start of the season with the Tour, this time aboard the No. 53 for team owner Mike Curb. Ryan Flores, who works as a tire changer for Team Penske as well as an analyst and podcast host for NASCAR.com, will change tires for LaJoie during the event.
  • Ryan Preece, the 2013 Tour champion, will make his fifth start of the season Thursday at Martinsville. He’ll return to the seat of the Ole Blue No. 3 for the Boehler family, with whom he won his first Tour race at Martinsville in 2008.
  • A total of 36 cars are entered for Thursday’s race, a season-high for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
  • Chuck Hossfeld returns to Tour competition after last racing with the series at New York’s Oswego Speedway, where he finished second. In two starts this year, Hossfeld has finished third at Richmond Raceway and second at Oswego.
  • Only four drivers entered in Thursday’s race have victories in Tour competition at Martinsville. They include Jimmy Blewett, Ryan Preece, Bobby Santos III and championship contender Eric Goodale.
Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sim racing performed on its grandest stage Tuesday night and delivered an event to remember.

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series held its championship finale at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, in front of a crowd that gathered to watch virtual racing on its real-life counterpart’s hallowed ground — with winner Casey Kirwan taking home an astounding $100,000 championship prize.

RELATED: More eNASCAR coverage

There to present the trophy was none other than NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., iRacing’s executive director and a key sim racing leader who helped design the championship trophy that bears his name to resemble Cup Series trophies of decades past. The moment was a far cry from the 1990s when Earnhardt was racking up high Internet bills while racing online himself before his NASCAR career skyrocketed.

On Tuesday, hors d’oeuvres circulated the main hall as drinks flowed among the spectators while four drivers competed on a stage in front of the championed cars of Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

A general view of the NASCAR Hall of Fame as championship competitors race for the eNASCAR iRacing championship.
James Thomas | NASCAR Studios

“This is just confirmation and the result of years of trying to be an advocate or an asset to sim racing, and a lot of people working really hard to create something really special,” Earnhardt Jr. told NASCAR.com. “And also, I think we’ve got to be thankful for all the development team, and everybody that creates the software to be able to get it to a point to where [the] NASCAR industry starts to look at it as an asset, starts to look at it as a way to connect to a certain demographic. That’s really what we’re seeing here is the NASCAR industry really embrace it.”

After being welcomed by the Carolina Panthers’ drumline outside the Hall of Fame, fans and spectators encompassed the main corridor of the hall, all in awe of how far iRacing has come. Fans, along with families of the drivers, cheered as Kirwan made the title-winning pass on Bobby Zalenski, bringing an immediate smile to Kirwan’s face though more than 25 laps remained.

TJ Majors, spotter of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, entered sim racing on the ground floor along with Earnhardt Jr., the driver he previously spotted for. The enthusiasm for virtual competition felt Tuesday night once seemed unfathomable. Suddenly, it’s tangible.

“Man, where was this 20, 25 years ago?” Majors laughed. “I mean, this is awesome, man. It’s $100 grand to win this championship, so I can’t even — that’s life-changing for one of these kids, man. But it’s great to see it. We’ve got a huge trophy over here now that’s … gonna mean something. It’s pretty awesome looking. It’s like an old Cup trophy. I mean, you got a Hall of Famer here giving the command. And this is a big production. So it’s pretty cool to see it grow to this and to see this many real-world drivers involved and real race teams.”

Anthony Alfredo, driver of the No. 23 Our Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, helps run the XSET iRacing team that Kirwan competes for and was in attendance to celebrate as the champion co-owner. Alfredo credits the simulation service for his rapid ascension through the stock-car ranks and was struck by the significance of this championship event.

“It’s definitely huge for not just the sim racing industry as a whole but motorsports because I’m one of actually a few drivers now that made the transition from sim to reality, started their career on a computer,” Alfredo said. “So this is just really cool to see guys racing for a world championship tonight, and to be a part of it on the team side with XSET gaming and Casey Kirwan is huge.”

Rajah Caruth is one of the most recent examples of the sim’s success, jumping on iRacing after seeing William Byron’s rise from iRacer to NASCAR Xfinity Series champion — the same Byron who can clinch a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I didn’t grow up going to the race track. I was born in Atlanta, raised in DC, away from racing,” Caruth said. “The only reason why I have any sort of driving ability is really due to the sim. So that shows the legitimacy of the platform.”

Also on hand was Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series. Stewart-Haas eSports competitor Steven Wilson was among the Championship 4 contenders in the iRacing Series, and Smithfield, primary sponsor of both Wilson and Almirola, has taken notice of the value iRacing’s platform can provide.

“They understand the value, and they know that they can reach a younger demographic of the NASCAR fan by being involved in iRacing,” Almirola said. “And it’s a great opportunity to stay engaged with our fans and the consumers of their products and reach that younger demographic.”

eNASCAR iRacing championship contenders flank the trophy
James Thomas | NASCAR Studios

Steve Myers, the executive vice president of iRacing, stood gobsmacked at the success of the event as the festivities slowly came to a close, admitting an event like this was something he’d dreamed of exhibiting.

“These guys start getting emotional, their families get emotional and everyone’s crying. Like, I find myself emotional because I know how much work went into it,” Myers said. “Not just them, but everyone put into this. And to see that end result of the champion having that champion moment, there’s no words that I can use to describe that feeling.

“I am immensely proud of what we accomplished tonight, and I think we just got it started. I think this was a huge success. I think absolutely next year, I feel like we have the momentum to make it bigger.”

The sanctioning body and iRacing have worked more closely in recent years on numerous projects, a list that includes mapping the track laid inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as well as the Chicago street course that will debut in reality in 2023.

That partnership continues to grow, and its roots spread to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday night.

“It’s something that, shoot man, 10 years ago, trying to talk to NASCAR people about iRacing, they just couldn’t see the vision,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “So it’s pretty awesome actually to see everybody can’t deny, I guess, the cool factor here and the sheer connection this creates to a younger demographic.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Ross Chastain turned in another ho-hum finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, landing a second straight runner-up result after a P2 at Las Vegas the week before.

Why ho-hum? Because we’re now living in a world in which the weekly expectation for the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver, who entered 2022 with three total top fives through his first 115 NASCAR Cup Series starts, is a battle for the win and a finish among the leaders.

The 29-year-old Floridian’s out-in-the-open transformation over the course of a rollercoaster 2022 has been one of the most prominent among a handful of remarkable story lines on display this season. Chastain wasn’t in a whole lot of preseason playoff picks, yet here we are about to set the Championship 4 this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) and he’s in the best position to do so of the seven drivers not currently locked in.

It’s the culmination of a lot of deep, ongoing self-analysis and the drive to be better — and then going out and doing it. The Ross Chastain we’re seeing now is not the Ross Chastain that showed up to the LA Coliseum in February, or the one who drew the ire of seemingly half the field over the summer.

He’s leveled up.

“So I mean, (his decision-making improvement is) what I’ve seen in these playoffs. He’s learning when to push and when to chill, and you see it,” Trackhouse co-owner Justin Marks said on pit road after the Dixie Vodka 400, the Round of 8’s middle race. “I mean, he makes his way to the front. And then he’s a threat these last two weeks; he’s been a threat to win both races, obviously. So yeah, that’s just maturity. That’s part of going through the process. He’ll be doing it for a long time. But there’s an absolutely lethal race car driver in there somewhere. It’s just, you know, the experience will bring it out.”

MORE: Chastain’s evolution into Champ 4 contender

Chastain emerged from his home track looking every bit the championship part, battling with rival and fellow title contender Denny Hamlin cleanly toward the end, and for the second week in a row receiving props after the race from a driver he was racing with. After they stopped their cars on pit road, Chastain and P3-finisher AJ Allmendinger shared a hearty handshake just a week after Vegas winner Joey Logano made sure to mention how much fun he had racing the two-time 2022 winner in the closing laps.

Now contrast that with the constant chatter leading up to and during the playoffs about when drivers might potentially issue payback for past run-ins with Chastain. If they still plan to, we haven’t seen any recent evidence of it.

“(Drama) hasn’t really … you know, there’s been no reason to have that conversation for months now,” said Marks, whose Trackhouse organization has won three total races in its second year of existence. “I mean, it was just a moment in time. And, you know, he learned from it and grew from it. And he’s not going to be that type of guy forever. You know what I mean? It’s just part of the learning experience. So, I suspect that the Ross Chastain we’ve seen for the last couple of months is the Ross Chastain we’re gonna see for many years to come.”

Let’s not put the (watermelon) cart before the horse, of course, but if this is the driver we’re going to see for the next decade-plus, in cars that are already this fast coming from an organization with one of the strongest trajectories in the Cup Series … just do the math there. That’s a strong recipe for a shot at double-digit career wins and the potential for multiple championships, the first of which could come in less than two weeks.

There’s always the chance, as we’ve seen with the comers and goers on the leaderboard in the Next Gen’s first year, that other cars in the garage catch up to Chastain and crew chief Phil Surgen and their weekly ways of finding the front. At the same time, however, it feels like this group still has a ways to go before hitting its ceiling, and that momentum could certainly be carried into 2023 and beyond.

daniel suarez and ross chastain look on
Getty Images

“We’re learning more about what he needs in a race car and giving him a race car for his style. And that just comes with everything we’re learning around this new car, but then his relationship with Phil continuing to develop and making sure during the week that they’re really listening to each other,” said Marks. ” … I mean, look, he’s been here for a long time. He’s got a lot of Cup starts. He’s driven a lot of stuff. And he’s just now in a position where he’s sitting in race cars that can win almost every week. So I just think it goes back to him recognizing the opportunity that he’s got, and just trying to maximize that opportunity to the most of his ability.”

For an ambitious organization that’s intent on doing things differently, it begs the question if expansion — beyond Trackhouse’s Project 91 program — could be in the works.

If so, is the “next Ross Chastain” out there?

“I think as the team grows, obviously, as a company, we have to start looking for talent out there,” said the driver-turned-owner. “But I want both these guys (including No. 99 driver Daniel Suárez) in these cars for a long time. So that’s definitely where we’re at right now. And that’ll just be something for way further down the line as we continue to build this company. I think it probably just goes to … is Trackhouse gonna be in a position over the next couple of years to expand to a third team? And, you know, charter acquisition is a tough thing right now, if not impossible at this moment in time. So we’re just committed to our two guys and our two cars.

” … But yeah, I mean, it’s part of the process. I’m excited watching (Ross) go through it. Excited about our opportunity.”

Posted on by Press Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR and FloRacing will continue their unprecedented investment and commitment to grassroots racing, adding $30,000 to the race purse for the Charlie Powell Memorial South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway on Nov. 18-19. The additional funding from FloRacing – along with added prize money from track and race sponsors – more than doubles the race purse from 2021.

The incremental purse will provide additional prize money to the winner, but the majority of the extra investment will go to the middle and back of the field. The last 20 finishers will receive more than double the purse from last year.

RELATED: Everything to know about the South Carolina 400

The South Carolina 400 was formerly known as the Myrtle Beach 400, a race that took place at Myrtle Beach Speedway. This year is the 30th anniversary of the event. Florence Motor Speedway owner Steve Zacharias formerly served as general manager at Myrtle Beach Speedway. Zacharias purchased Florence after Myrtle Beach closed in 2020 with the goal of making it a premier destination for racers across the country.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will compete in the event, which also features many of the top drivers in grassroots racing. The South Carolina 400 will air live and exclusive on FloRacing.

“We are extremely grateful for the commitment from NASCAR and FloRacing to make the South Carolina 400 even bigger and better than ever,” Zacharias said. “Florence Motor Speedway is a premier destination for short track racing, and we can’t wait to showcase it to the world on FloRacing and to the fans in attendance on Nov. 18-19.”

Fifty-two cars entered the South Carolina 400 in 2021, and more are expected this year. Past winners at Florence Motor Speedway include Earnhardt Jr., Joe Nemechek, John Hunter Nemechek and Josh Berry.

“Grassroots racing is a huge passion of mine and I’m honored to support the South Carolina 400,” said Earnhardt Jr. “I grew up competing at Florence and have been looking forward to taking the wheel there again against some of the best short-track racers in the world.”