The No. 45 Toyota Camry will have a fresh look Sunday at Richmond Raceway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM Radio) as 23XI Racing rocks the iconic Air Jordan 11 “Concord” edition on the car.
The scheme matches the white and black pattern of the shoe with the dark blue door number representing the sole color. On the front and rear of the No. 45 is the ‘Carolina Blue’ that gives a nod to co-team owner Michael Jordan’s college playing days at the University of North Carolina.
The Air Jordan was released in 1995 and was a part of Jordan’s rotation during the 1995-96 NBA season.
The No. 45 has a win this season with a Jordan Brand car as Kurt Busch won the spring race at Kansas Speedway to clinch a spot in the Cup Series playoffs. Busch has missed the last three Cup Series races with lingering concussion symptoms, and Xfinity Series regular Ty Gibbs has filled in.
Announced guests for what the team has billed as a “special announcement” include team chairman Richard Petty and Mike Beam, president of both Petty GMS and the GMS Racing operations. The team has also listed “TBD” for the new driver of the organization’s No. 42 Chevrolet.
NASCAR.com will carry the news conference live from the Petty GMS shop in Statesville, North Carolina, streaming from the above link.
Petty GMS announced July 30 that Erik Jones would return as driver of the No. 43 Chevrolet, signing him to a multiyear contract extension. The new driver of the No. 42 Chevy will replace Ty Dillon, who announced two weeks earlier that he would not be back with the organization in 2023.
Ricky Bly experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows on the race track last season. In 2021, he won 13 races, but was involved in a wreck and didn’t finish in every other race.
This season, it’s been seemingly nothing but highs for Bly. He has 10 wins between NASCAR-sanctioned Claremont, Monadnock, Hudson and Lee USA Speedways in New Hampshire.
Bly has a 78 point lead in the Late Model Sportsman division at Claremont, and he’s currently third in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III National standings.
“It’s definitely a season like I haven’t had in a long time,” Bly said in a phone interview last week. “I’ve won a lot of races, but not like this. It’s pretty good.”
Bly can’t really explain what the difference has been for him in the car in his 22nd year racing. He and his crew built his car last year and said they figured out a lot of small changes to help. Everything else has simply been falling into place.
His worst finish this year was fifth, which came after he cut a tire on another car that had spun in front of him.
“We probably would have won that night, but who knows,” Bly said. “It just seems like everything is clicking the way you want it to go.”
The key for Bly every season, this one especially, is keeping fun at the forefront. In the beginning of his career, he came within two points of a track championship one year and one point short of another.
After those losses, which he said were devastating, Bly spent seven years refusing to points race. He would instead just hop from track to track and try to get wins wherever he could.
He chose Claremont as his home track in 2017, and has won two Late Model championships since, but he still prefers to not look at points until the season is over.
“This year we were like, we’re not even going to points race, we’re just going to go have some fun,” Bly said. “Next thing you know, we’re winning week after week after week. So it was like, well, I guess we’re going to race for points now.
“Points racing in my mind, you’re always worried about what’s going to happen when you’re on the race track. You’re always worried about getting wrecked, you’re constantly checking online to see where you are in the points standings and all that stuff.”
Ricky Bly celebrates one of his 10 victories so far this season.
Bly didn’t even know he was in the national points discussion until a friend pointed it out.
“I was like, oh, that’s kind of interesting. I never had a clue. I didn’t even know where to find it,” he said. “Now I look at it frequently, but I never even looked at it before.”
He has no idea what his highest finish nationally is, but he’s positive this year will be his best. Even though he’s gotten in the habit of looking at the standings every so often, he insists he isn’t going to do anything differently the rest of the season.
“I think that’s the biggest thing, even if you wanted to go for all those points, I feel that the more you get involved with it, mindset-wise, the worse you’ll do,” he said. “I really feel that way. I race to go have fun.
“It’s definitely not about money, and I really could care less about the points, but if it ends up where we end up, that’ll be pretty cool.”
Racing is fun for Bly, and he’s also gotten the opportunity to share his love with many people around the racetrack, and at home. His 6-year-old daughter, Rowan, had her first go-kart race last week.
Rowan is at the track with Bly every time he races, which he said, “just makes it that much more fun.”
She’s even starting to build her own fanbase in the sport.
“She asks every day when we’re going back,” Bly said. “They’re going a lot faster than I thought they would. The first time she went out she looked like a little snail. Then when we actually went out to practice, she was like three times the speed she was. They were like, ‘Is that a different person in there?’ Every time she goes out she’s got more confidence, which is really cool.
“All the people there wanted to watch her. I think she’s got more followers than I do.”
Bly is happy to pass down his love of racing to his next generation after getting into the sport from his own elders in the same way. His mom and dad’s families were all in the sport, and he started helping his cousins in the pits when he was around nine or 10 years old.
It was those years that he said “gave me the itch,” to drive himself.
Bly is racing with something of a heavy heart this season. His mom passed away last year.
“This year, it’s like she’s definitely up there looking down and saying, ‘Do what you can do,’” he said. “She was there every week when I raced. She never missed a race. This has been a pretty cool year since she’s not been around.”
Bly considers everyone he races with a part of his family. Every time he goes to the track it’s feels like a family reunion, and he meets new friends every race.
No matter how many wins he finishes the season with, or where he is in any points standings, he’s going to make sure he enjoyed himself along the way.
“I’ve raced all over,” he said. “I’ve raced everywhere in the northeast and met so many cool people… That’s just made it that much more fun is the amount of people you meet. That’s what makes it fun is when everyone is having fun.”
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 9, 2022) — Sam Mayer will return to JR Motorsports and race full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2023, the team announced Tuesday. The 19-year-old will again pilot the No. 1 Chevrolet in his third consecutive season with JRM.
Mayer, who ran a part-time schedule in 2021, is currently 21 races into his first full-time season with the organization. Ninth in the championship standings with only five races remaining before the playoff cutoff, he’s squarely in the hunt on the strength of eight top-five and 11 top-10 finishes, including a string of seven top-five efforts in eight races earlier this year.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth and maturity from Sam on and off the racetrack,” said Kelley Earnhardt Miller, JRM general manager. “He is consistently running up front, is fast each and every week and provides great visibility for his partners. With all the situational knowledge he’s gained this year, I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do to finish out 2022 and into ’23.”
Mayer has tallied nine top fives, 17 top 10s and one pole in 39 starts with JRM.
“It’s a good feeling to get this squared away,” said Mayer, a native of Franklin, Wisconsin. “Now we can focus on locking ourselves into the playoffs and getting that first Xfinity win. JR Motorsports has been a great place for me all the way back to my late model days. We’re expecting big things for this No. 1 team for the remainder of this year and beyond.”
An alumnus of JRM’s Late Model program, Mayer was also the 2019 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion, which crowned him the youngest champion in any NASCAR series at the age of 16 years, three months and eight days. He holds one win in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition.
Some of the best Super Late Model drivers from around the country are heading to Michigan’s Berlin Raceway this Wednesday for the 12th running of the Battle at Berlin, which offers a whopping $30,000 to the driver who crosses the finish line first.
The race is the second major Super Late Model event at the track in 2022. Berlin Raceway played host to the Money in the Bank 150 earlier this year, an event that was won by NASCAR Cup Series star William Byron and the Donnie Wilson Motorsports team.
The Battle at Berlin 250 features a purse totaling more than $90,000, making it one of the richest Super Late Model races in the United States. As a result, competitors are coming from across the country with the goal of taking home the $30,000 top prize.
Byron is among those looking to collect the first-place prize money, as is fellow NASCAR Cup Series star Erik Jones. They’re joined by a multitude of top Super Late Model stars, including drivers like Bubba Pollard, Carson Hocevar, Ty Majeski and Preston Peltier.
Below is everything you need to know about the Battle at Berlin 250 at Berlin Raceway.
Cars race during the Budweiser Super Late Model feature at Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan on April 23, 2022. (Photo: Nic Antaya/ARCA Racing)
What TV Channel is the Battle at Berlin 250 at Berlin Raceway on?
All the on-track action for the Battle at Berlin 250 can be viewed live on FloRacing, the official streaming home for all NASCAR Roots properties
The event will not be shown on a television network.
Below is the complete schedule for FloRacing’s coverage of the Battle at Berlin 250.
This year’s Battle at Berlin 250 will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 10.
The event is headlined by the 250-lap Battle at Berlin for the Super Late Model division. The Model Coverall Limited Late Model division will also be in action with a 50-lap feature.
Below is the complete race-day schedule at Berlin Raceway (all times ET).
Time
Event
9:30 a.m.
Pit pass window opens
10 a.m.
Pit area opens
11 a.m.
Race tires sold and impounded. One person per team and five at a time in order of registration. Time limit enforced.
12 p.m.
Super Late Model drivers / spotters meeting
1-1:40 p.m.
Super Late Model practice
1:50-2:30 p.m.
Super Late Model practice
3:30 p.m.
Super Late Model tech inspection
4:10-4:30 p.m.
Model Coverall Limited Late Model practice / qualifying
4:40-5 p.m.
Model Coverall Limited Late Model practice / qualifying
5:45 p.m.
Super Late Model qualifying
6:27 p.m.
Invocation / National Anthem
6:30 p.m.
Battle at Berlin 250 Last Chance Race (40 laps)
Immediately following…
Model Coverall Limited Late Model Feature (50 laps)
Immediately following…
Driver Introductions
Immediately following…
Battle at Berlin 250 (250 laps)
Official format for the Battle at Berlin 250
The field for Wednesday’s Battle at Berlin 250 will be set by qualifying and a Last Chance Race. Competitors will make two consecutive laps during qualifying, with the fastest lap serving as their official time.
The fastest 24 competitors will automatically lock into the 250-lap main event. All remaining cars will then race in the Last Chance Race, with the top four advancing to the feature. Positions 29 and 30 are reserved for the July 2 and July 23 Battle at Berlin Qualifier Winners, if necessary.
For the 250-lap race, cars will start according to qualifying times, followed by transfers from qualifying event and qualifying race winners. There will be competition cautions every 40 green flag laps. This does not apply within 15 laps of the finish of the race.
Battle at Berlin 250 entry list
The current entry list for the Battle at Berlin 250 features 28 cars.
Headlining the pre-entries are a pair of NASCAR Cup Series stars, William Byron and Erik Jones. Byron already has a victory at Berlin Raceway earlier this year when he won the Money in the Bank 150. Jones, a two-time Battle at Berlin winner, recently picked up a Super Late Model victory at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in an event that also featured Byron.
They’ll be joined by some of the best Super Late Model competitors in the country, including NASCAR Camping World Truck Series stars Ty Majeski and Carson Hocevar.
Also entered is defending race winner Kyle Crump, Evergreen Speedway Summer Showdown winner Preston Peltier, veteran Super Late Model racer Bubba Pollard, Jennerstown Speedway Motor Mountain Masters victor Evan Shotko and Northeastern Late Model star Derek Griffith.
Other notable entries include Mike Garvey, Tyler Roahrig, William Sawalich, 2019 event winner Boris Jurkovic and two-time race winner Brian Campbell.
Below is the complete entry list for Wednesday’s Battle at Berlin 250.
Car No.
Driver
4
Erik Jones
6
Eric White
12
Derek Griffith
17
Mike Garvey
18
Chase Burda
20
Austin Hull
21
Ty Majeski
22
Evan Shotko
24
William Byron
24
Tyler Roahrig
24
William Sawalich
24
Dylan Stovall
26
Bubba Pollard
28
Kevin Cremonesi
28
Scott Thomas
37
Brian Bergakker
45
Michael Simko
47
Brian Campbell
48
Preston Peltier
53
Boris Jurkovic
57
Blake Rowe
71
Carson Hocevar
77
Andrew Scheid
88
Nate Walton
88
Trevor McCoy
93
Austin Thom
101
Joe Bush
131
Kyle Crump
Kyle Crump, shown here in Victory Lane earlier this year at Berlin Raceway, is the defending winner of the Battle at Berlin. (Photo: Nic Antaya/ARCA Racing)
Battle at Berlin 250 history, winners
In the more than 10-year history of the Battle at Berlin 250, the event has been won by regional competitors as well as top NASCAR stars.
Headlining the list of winners is two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, who won the race three straight years from 2010-12. Joining him on the list of winners is Erik Jones, who won the event twice in 2015 and ’16 as he prepared for his first full NASCAR Cup Series season in 2017.
Among the drivers from the region to win the Battle at Berlin 250 are Brian Campbell, Johnny VanDoorn and Boris Jukovic. Campbell and VanDoorn have each won the event twice, with Campbell winning the inaugural race in 2009.
Kyle Crump is the defending winner of the Battle at Berlin, having dominated the event last season when it was a 150-lap event.
Below is the complete list of winners of the Battle at Berlin 250.
Truex sits fourth in the regular-season points standings, but Harvick’s victory knocks Truex out of the playoff grid with three races remaining before the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin.
Truex trails Ryan Blaney by 19 points heading into next weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway (Sunday, Aug. 14, 3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Blaney sits second in the regular-season standings, trailing Chase Elliott for the regular-season title by 119 points.
Sitting below the cut line is a major concern for Truex. Only one spot remains in the playoff grid based on points, and another new winner would eliminate that position. The regular-season champion is guaranteed a playoff berth, however. If Elliott squanders his points lead to Blaney, Blaney could theoretically win the title and qualify for the playoffs without a victory.
Truex, the 2017 Cup Series champion, has qualified for the Championship 4 in five of the past seven seasons, finishing runner-up in 2018, 2019 and 2021. The good news for Truex is his past success at each of the next two tracks on the Cup schedule.
Truex is a three-time winner at Richmond and led 80 laps there in the spring. After that is Watkins Glen International, where Truex hasn’t finished worse than third in each of the past four races.
The No. 19 team will need to score maximum points — or win — throughout the remaining events on the schedule to ensure a last-minute berth into the 2022 playoffs.
Bubba Wallace won the pole, led 22 laps and tied his season-best finish with a runner-up result Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
It was a career weekend for Wallace, yet there was no celebration from the driver of the No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota following the FireKeepers Casino 400.
With 35 laps to go, Wallace restarted on the inside of the front row alongside Kevin Harvick, who eyed snapping a 65-race winless streak from the outside lane. Harvick got the edge and left Wallace to battle with Kyle Larson and Joey Logano for second place.
Wallace eventually worked past both of them, but it was too late. Harvick took the checkered flag by 2.903 seconds over Wallace, who wasn’t able to chip away at Harvick’s lengthy lead quick enough to battle for his second career win.
By the time he got to pit road, Wallace was left “replaying everything I could have done” differently, he told NBC Sports.
“I thought I could hang with the 4 (Harvick) and just got to racing the 5 and the 22,” Wallace said of his battles with Larson and Logano. “And the 22 did a good job of getting another Ford contract, helping a Ford win. Just all in all, an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team. Wish we could’ve gotten Toyota in Victory Lane. Wish we could’ve got McDonald’s back in Victory Lane.
“She was fast all week, man. Just … I’ll wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody.”
Wallace said he wishes he would have either cleared Larson sooner or taken the top behind Harvick on the restart in hindsight.
“Could’ve taken the top, push the 4 and then I could’ve been (in Larson’s position) in that scenario, right?” Wallace said. “Just hate it. Hate it for our team. Sucks.”
Crew chief Bootie Barker and 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin — who wheeled his No. 11 Toyota to a third-place finish behind Wallace — both commended Wallace on his drive and performance throughout the weekend. Saturday’s pole qualifying run was Wallace’s first in NASCAR’s premier level and first ever for 23XI Racing as a team.
Sunday’s runner-up finish also marks Wallace’s third top-five finish in the past four races, highlighting a career-best streak of four-straight top 10s. But Wallace wasn’t in the mood to celebrate those accomplishments on pit road Sunday evening.
“I mean it is a hell of a job for our team, so there’s a lot of positives in this,” Wallace said. “But I’m a person that looks at the negatives more than the positives. I need to change that, but I want to win so bad and this was the best opportunity.”
Wallace also finished second in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, following his first career victory in a rain-shortened race at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2021.
With Wallace in need of a win to challenge for a playoff position, Daytona marks the regular-season finale on Aug. 27.
On a blustery Sunday in the Irish Hills of Michigan, Kevin Harvick saved his season.
Grabbing the lead and pulling away after a restart on Lap 166 of 200 at Michigan International Speedway, Harvick won the FireKeepers Casino 400 by 2.903 seconds over pole winner Bubba Wallace and leap-frogged bubble-riding Martin Truex Jr. in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings.
Harvick’s victory ended a 65-race drought for the 46-year-old former series champion from Bakersfield, California. The win was his sixth at Michigan and his fifth in the last seven races at the 2-mile track.
Harvick now has 59 victories in the series, 10th-most all-time. With the win, the eighth straight at the track for Ford drivers, he is likely to qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff. Harvick is the only driver to have earned a postseason spot every year since the current elimination format was introduced in 2014, the same year he won his series title.
“Everybody who doubted us doesn’t know us,” said Harvick, who led 38 laps on Sunday, 25 more than he had led in the previous 22 races combined. “They, obviously, know we thrive in these types of situations. And a lot of things went our way today, which we haven’t had all year long — have things go our way and have things fall our way.
“And then there at the end we pitted, didn’t go a lap down, and the caution came out, got control of the race. That’s the thing I struggled with the most today was traffic and the restarts and just having to make up ground. Once I got clear track, that baby was hunting.”
As Harvick indicated, the race broke his way. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford brought his car to pit road on Lap 158 for a green-flag stop. A lap later, NASCAR called the seventh caution of the afternoon when Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet and Christopher Bell’s Toyota collided in Turn 4.
Harvick remained on the lead lap and inherited the top spot when the contending cars ahead of him pitted under the yellow. With Wallace bottled up behind Joey Logano’s Ford after the Lap 166 restart, Harvick opened a gap of more than four seconds in clean air and cruised to his first win since Sept. 19, 2020 at Bristol.
Wallace was disconsolate as he replayed the final restart in his head.
“Just replaying everything I could have done,” said Wallace, who led twice for 22 laps. “Took the top there on the restart. Thought I could hang with the 4 (Harvick), and just got to racing the 5 (Kyle Larson) and the 22 (Logano). And 22 did a good job of getting another Ford contract, helping a Ford win.
“Just all in all an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team. Wished we could have got Toyota in the Victory Lane. Wish we got (sponsor) McDonald’s back in victory lane. She was fast all week, man. Just I’ll wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody.”
Denny Hamlin finished third in arguably the fastest car in the race. On his final pit stop under caution on Lap 160, Hamlin incurred a penalty for too many men over the wall when his crew corralled a runaway tire from an adjacent pit stall.
Hamlin restarted 22nd and charged to third, 3.910 seconds behind the race winner.
Logano came home fourth, followed by Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney. Martin Truex Jr., Larson, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs (subbing for injured Kurt Busch) completed the top 10.
The race was delayed just over an hour due to inclement weather. That didn’t deter the fans in the grandstands, the largest crowd at Michigan International Speedway since 2016. In addition, infield camping was sold out for the weekend for the first time since 2012.
Blaney now leads Truex by 19 points for the final Playoff berth, which will be determined on points if there are no additional unique winners in the next three races.
An early nine-car accident in Turn 2 eliminated two of the top five qualifiers — Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric. Moments after a restart on Lap 25, J.J. Yeley’s No. 15 Ford got loose, checked up and turned sideways in the middle of the pack.
In the ensuing melee, Cindric’s No. 2 Ford crashed nose-first into the outside wall and Busch’s No. 18 Toyota also sustained terminal damage. The cars of Yeley, Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and rookie Harrison Burton also were knocked out of the race.
“Just chaos ensued on the restart there, and I don’t know what started it, but the 10 (Almirola) got spun in front of me, and then I got wedged between him and the wall,” said Busch, who had elected to pit on Lap 22 under a competition caution called because of a rainstorm that delayed the start of the race.
“When you get back there, things happen on restarts, especially when you have guys that stayed out and don’t have tires versus those that have four tires. Was not really in a hurry and knew we were coming to stage points in another 40 laps or so and it was going to be a long run to get there — and then we all just crashed.”
NOTE: Post-race inspection concluded without issue, confirming the No. 4 Ford as the winner. The Nos. 9 and 11 cars were taken back to the R&D center for further evaluation.
Monday, August 8 9:30 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 1994 Brickyard 400, FS2
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 1986 Miller High Life 400, FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
7 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 1986 Miller High Life 400, FS1
10 p.m., Best of Radioactive: Richmond, FS1
11 p.m., Best of Features 2022 Season, FS1
Tuesday, August 9
6 a.m., Best of Radioactive: Richmond (re-air), FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., Best of Radioactive: Richmond (re-air), FS1
Wednesday, August 10 1:38 a.m., Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane (re-air), USA Network
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
Thursday, August 11
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, Peacock
9:31 p.m., Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane: The Dadchelor Party, USA Network
Friday, August 12 12:34 a.m., Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane (re-air), USA Network
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., Best of Radioactive: Richmond (re-air), FS1
8 p.m., NASCAR Race Classic: 1986 Miller High Life 400, FS1
11 p.m., NASCAR Race Classic: 1998 Xfinity race from Richmond, FS1
Saturday, August 13 1:30 a.m., Best of Radioactive: Richmond (re-air), FS1
4 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing: 1986 Miller High Life 400, FS2
8 a.m., Refuse to Lose: Jeff Gordon and the 1997 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1
9 a.m., Best of Radioactive: Richmond (re-air), FS1
10 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 1998 Hardee’s 250, FS1
1:30 p.m., Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane (re-air), FS1
2 p.m., IMSA Auto Racing: Super Trofeo (re-air), USA Network
3 p.m., IMSA Auto Racing: Pilot Challenge (re-air), USA Network
3 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice/qualifying at Richmond Raceway, FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series practice/qualifying at Richmond Raceway, USA Network, NBC Sports App
7 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: NCWTS Richmond, FS1
8 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Worldwide Express 250 from Richmond, FS1
On MRN:
5 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Pole Qualifying
7:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Worldwide Express 250
Sunday, August 14 7:30 a.m., Best of Radioactive: Richmond (re-air), FS1
8 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Worldwide Express 250 (re-air), FS1
12 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
2 p.m., Countdown to Green, USA Network
2:50 p.m., IMSA Auto Racing, Peacock
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 from Richmond, USA Network, NBC Sports App
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series post-race show, USA Network
On MRN Radio:
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Federated Auto Parts 400
