Daytona Beach, FL (July 20, 2022) – NASCAR continues to expand into the fast-growing world of college esports, announcing the fall season of its eNASCAR College iRacing Series. The four-race schedule kicks off at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Tuesday, September 20 with students eligible to qualify for the season-opener through a 10-day time attack window.
“Expanding our presence in the college esports arena is important as we continue to reach new demographics and introduce them to the sport of NASCAR,” said Ray Smith, Director of Gaming and Esports at NASCAR. “We’re looking forward to building on a successful spring semester and having more students explore the many opportunities NASCAR and our partners can offer them in their college years and beyond.”
Earlier this year, NASCAR and NACE Starleague, the largest collegiate esports league in North America, launched the eNASCAR College iRacing Series, bringing competitive sim racing to colleges and universities nationwide. Students representing more than 250 universities across the United States participated in this spring’s three-race schedule.
New this fall, Xfinity joins Coca-Cola, Logitech, Playseat and Southern Computer Warehouse as a presenting sponsor of the series. Competitors will now race NASCAR Xfinity Series cars, replicating the look and feel of the real-life series that’s produced stars like Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez and Tyler Reddick.
“Our work with NASCAR has always been in the spirit of inspiring and giving back to communities,” said Matt Lederer, Comcast’s Vice President, Brand Partnerships and Amplification. “Joining the eNASCAR College iRacing Series as a presenting partner gives Xfinity the opportunity to reach a younger generation of NASCAR fans while providing new avenues to education for college students and encouraging them to explore new opportunities.”
Through the support of its partners, the eNASCAR Scholarship Fund also returns, awarding the highest finishers a combined $60,000 in scholarships.
More than 13,000 students are eligible to compete in the series through NACE Starleague, which was established in 2021 as a strategic partnership between the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) and Playfly Esports. Each time attack is open to all eligible students with the top 40 students who post the fastest qualifying times advancing to the race.
Competition will once again be led via iRacing.com, the official simulation partner of NASCAR, which provides one of the top online racing simulation portals and features officially-sanctioned, laser-scanned replicas of race tracks around the world.
Spontaneous decisions are sometimes the best decisions. Just ask Brandon Jones.
With elementary, middle and high school getting ready to begin in North Carolina next month, Jones and his girlfriend Ashley Safin had an idea on the plane ride back from Atlanta Motor Speedway after the July 9 Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“I think we should do this for teachers,” Safin recalled.
What the 25-year-old couple, who began dating 10 years ago, was trying to accomplish is raising awareness for teachers in the education system through Clear the List, an initiative to help clear Amazon wish lists for educators around the United States through donations.
Ash & I would like to help “clear the list” on some of the teachers following me! Comment your classes Amazon wish list below. I’ll be sure to share some on insta hoping some of my followers will help as well! Thank u to those that continue to grow our education system! pic.twitter.com/Y3PnyUk3Sa
Before the Cup Series race going green at Atlanta, Jones used his platform to raise awareness for teachers, hoping some of his social-media followers would do the same. Through Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, Jones helped spread the message of some teachers’ wish lists.
“I think school is an outing in a way for some people if things aren’t going well at home or in life in general,” Jones told NASCAR.com at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “That’s one thing I enjoyed so much about school wasn’t about the academics, but you showed up, hung out with your buddies, the social aspect of it was so much fun. That’s what drove me to wanting to go to school.”
Within a week, Jones’ tweet had nearly 1,000 replies, many coming from teachers around the country providing their Amazon links to their wish lists.
“It’s overwhelming,” Jones said of the feedback. “I’ve always had super-good relationships in school. That’s one thing I always enjoyed. I didn’t want to go on field trips with kids, I wanted to stay back and hang out with the teachers, for whatever reason. I’ve always grown up in that adult, corporate lifestyle in a way, so maybe I’m just drawn to older people in that sense.”
One of those replies — six of them, technically — came from Darlington Raceway, which purchased six teacher’s wish lists in response to Jones’ tweet.
“Darlington Raceway is extremely thankful for all the teachers in the Darlington County School District and it’s a true blessing for us to help provide some of the supplies they need as they prepare for another school year,” track president Kerry Tharp said. “One of our track’s objectives is to do all we can to help support the young people in our community. We also want to give a shout out to all the workers in our school system and encourage them to be a part of our Workforce Appreciation initiative taking place over our upcoming Labor Day Weekend event.”
Growing up in Georgia, Jones wanted to get to North Carolina to chase his racing career, which is why his family made the move during his high school years. Jones and Safin met at Lake Norman High School their sophomore year.
Both Jones and Safin, who admitted she one day would like to become a substitute teacher, have family and friends who are in the education system. But they don’t consider that the primary reason for wanting to give back. Jones credits his high school teachers for pushing him and working with him while he chased his dream of making it to NASCAR.
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
“I missed so much school trying to become a race car driver,” he said. “Teachers and everybody would work so well with me trying to catch me up and make sure that I was still on top of the schoolwork. I think that was a cool part and what kept me driving about wanting to be a driver. They were happy about seeing me succeed and wanting to help me in that sense.
“It’s like a giveback in that way. I made so many friends through teachers at school that was like, ‘OK, now that I’ve made it to where I want to be, it’s time to give back to them a little bit.’ ”
Growing up, one of Safin’s role models was Regan Smith’s wife, Megan, who taught her in middle school. Jones credits Safin for coming up with the idea of kick-starting a program to help spread the links through his social-media channels.
Safin said she sees the gratitude that teachers had toward Jones’ help.
“It became a place where [teachers] were thankful to have a platform to share their list so maybe other people would join in,” she said. “It was fun seeing what everybody needs and takes. A lot of teachers use their own money [to buy supplies for their classes], so I think it was very important for us to do a little bit for them.”
In addition to helping “Clear the List,” Jones supports the Special Forces Foundation, running the group’s logo on his car each weekend. Admittedly, he leans heavily on Safin for ideas on how to further their community outreach.
“I love the idea of doing stuff like that,” he said. “I’m so focused here trying to do really well racing, so I’m not always thinking in that direction. It kind of helped lighten that up a little and get that horizon bigger.”
Through 18 Xfinity Series races this season, Jones has one victory at Martinsville with a total of seven top-10 efforts. Knowing Joe Gibbs Racing has shown plenty of speed across its three teams, he’s intrigued that he hasn’t seen more on-track success this year. The series heads to Pocono Raceway this weekend, where Jones has a pair of top-10 finishes in six starts.
“I’m pretty surprised we don’t have more top fives and even some more wins because the speed is there every weekend,” Jones added. “I think if you run top five consistently, then typically you find wins fast. I think it’s about getting a little bit of closure in some of these races.
“But I think that’s what you use the first half of the year for and when you get to the playoffs, you should have all of that ironed out to be ready to win.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For the first time ever, the sights, sounds and speed of NASCAR are coming to the streets of downtown Chicago on July 1-2, 2023. One of the most iconic cities in the world, Chicago will add another chapter to its illustrious sports history when a NASCAR Cup Series street race debuts against the backdrop of Lake Michigan and Grant Park, televised on NBC.
“Like the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, we seized an incredible opportunity to add an unprecedented element to our schedule and take center stage in the heart of another major metropolitan market,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR senior vice president of racing development and strategy. “This is the ideal setting for the first-ever NASCAR Cup Series street race. … We are very appreciative of Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her team, along with the entire city of Chicago for working with us to make this concept a reality.”
The first-ever NASCAR Cup Series street-course race will take place July 2, 2023 and be preceded by a NASCAR Xfinity Series race, which will run July 1, 2023. Both races will be surrounded by music and entertainment options for all ages, making it one of the signature sporting and entertainment events of the year.
“Chicago’s streets are as iconic as our skyline and our reputation as a world class sports city is indisputable,” Lightfoot said. “I am thrilled to welcome our partners at NASCAR to Chicago for an event that will attract thousands of people to our city. Chicago’s world class entertainment and hospitality industries, coupled with our city’s history as a conduit for sports talent, make us the perfect hosts for this unique event.”
Lake Shore Drive, Michigan Avenue, Columbus Drive and select surrounding thoroughfares will be transformed into a 12-turn, 2.2-mile street course, with the start-finish line and pit road located along South Columbus Drive directly in front of Buckingham Fountain. The course will pass through the famed Grant Park, as well as approach the northern edge of Soldier Field, one of the most notable and recognizable sports venues in the country — and the site of the only other Cup Series race to take place in downtown Chicago, in 1956.
“Welcoming yet another NASCAR event to Illinois just weeks after the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 Cup Series race is a testament to the strength of our tourism industry from Chicago to Metro East,” Governor JB Pritzker said. “Illinois, with its longstanding tradition of innovation, is a fitting host for NASCAR’s first-ever street race, and we are thrilled to welcome this new series to America’s most iconic drive next summer.”
“Chicago is one of the world’s top sports and entertainment destinations. Year after year, fans from all over the world travel to our great city for high-profile sporting events,” said Kara Bachman, executive director, Chicago Sports Commission: “The 2023 NASCAR Chicago Street Race weekend will continue that legacy with another monumental sports moment and we look forward to welcoming fans to NASCAR’s first-ever street race.”
Tickets for the 2023 NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend will go on sale later this year at NASCARChicago.com. Additional details and elements of the weekend will be announced soon, and fans can follow @NASCARChicago on social media for the latest real-time updates on all aspects of the event.
The remainder of the 2023 schedules for the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be announced at a later date.
A key, creative piece of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule was revealed Tuesday afternoon amid the bustle of downtown Chicago, where plans for a street-circuit race on the streets in the Chicago Loop were officially announced.
Series officials and driver Bubba Wallace were joined by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other dignitaries at Cityfront Plaza in setting the course for NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend on July 1-2. The Cup Series’ inaugural race on a temporary street circuit will share the weekend with a companion IMSA sports-car event, and it will be broadcast on NBC.
“Really excited about announcing that for the first time with our national series that we’ll be bringing it to a street course, and what better place to do it than downtown Chicago, such an iconic city,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR senior vice president of racing development and strategy. “You think about the history of sports there, the iconic monuments and facilities around Chicago, and the support that we’ve had around Chicago as well. Mix that in with the great racing that we’ve seen with our NASCAR Cup Series, certainly going to be a very special moment in the summer of 2023 as we go street-course racing for the first time with the series.”
The Chicago event fits the recently cast mold of innovative additions to the Cup Series schedule, following the lead of bringing back dirt-track racing at Bristol Motor Speedway and the first-ever Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum earlier this year in Los Angeles. NASCAR’s top division will run on city streets for the first time in proximity to many Windy City landmarks, including Grant Park, Buckingham Fountain and the edge of Soldier Field. Iconic street names — Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive — will be a part of the 2.2-mile layout.
The course was first developed on the iRacing platform and was used in the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series last year. When that virtual circuit was unveiled, Kennedy said that “as we look at future schedules, certainly have everything on the table.” Tuesday’s announcement means that the sim-racing feasibility study will soon have a real-life corollary.
“Certainly a lot of work by the team in coming up with not only the vision for the iRacing event to be able to prove out what the track would look like, but then ultimately, what the site plan looks like, what the events and activities will look like on the event weekend, which will look significantly different from what we’ve seen at a lot of some of our other events,” Kennedy said. “We’ll have a number of different music acts, you know, different entertainment options throughout the weekend. IMSA will be joining us with one of their series as well, leading into the Cup Series on Sunday.
“So, really excited about it. A lot of work by the team so far to get to where we’re at today; a lot of work to go before July 1st and 2nd of next year, though.”
Kennedy indicated that series officials scouted multiple locations for a downtown event, but that Chicago’s Grant Park and its skyline-hub setting along Lake Michigan was “a no-brainer.” Lightfoot added that from a logistics standpoint, the city regularly hosts large-scale events, saying: “We know how to do this.”
“We’ll be working hand and glove with NASCAR to make sure that the experience is safe but also incredibly enjoyable for the fans,” Lightfoot added, mentioning the economic benefits of being a street-race host. “If you know anything about the city of Chicago, you probably know our tremendous lakefront and icons like Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain. I’m looking forward to showcasing our fantastic city on a global stage. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that this race is a love letter to the city of Chicago.”
NASCAR officials indicated that the rest of the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series schedule would be released at a later date. Only a handful of Cup Series dates have been revealed for 2023. Tickets are on sale for the season-opening Daytona 500, scheduled for Feb. 19. A return to the LA Coliseum for the preseason Busch Light Clash exhibition is set for Feb. 5.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Kennedy confirmed that the Chicago Street Race would replace Road America on the Independence Day weekend slot on the schedule. The 4.048-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin — some 150 miles north of Chicago — hosted the Cup Series the last two seasons.
Kennedy says he’s hopeful the event will replicate the festival atmosphere from previous racing weekends around the July 4 holiday.
“We’ve had some great racing at Road America, certainly the past few years with the NASCAR Cup Series, much longer than that with the NASCAR Xfinity Series,” Kennedy said. “They’ve been great partners. We’ve seen a great turnout from a fan perspective as well. We’ve seen some great racing there. That said, it is unfortunate we’re not going back in 2023. Just because it’s a no for 2023 doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a no forever. We’ve got some great partners up there. We’ll certainly share more about what other national series’ schedules look like in the future.”
NASCAR has an array of long-running connections to the Chicago area. A Cup Series event in 1956 joined the regular rotation of auto racing at Soldier Field, now home to the Chicago Bears. More recently, the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet hosted the Cup Series from 2001-2019.
NASCAR’s experience with street-circuit racing is more limited. The former NASCAR Southwest Tour competed on a temporary layout near the LA Coliseum from 1998-2000, and the former NASCAR Winston West circuit ran four street races in the Pacific Northwest from 1986-88 — two each in the Washington cities of Spokane and Tacoma.
The versatility of the Next Gen car that debuted this year in the NASCAR Cup Series, plus the proof of concept that emerged from the Los Angeles Clash, have prompted Kennedy and the sanctioning body’s schedule makers to take the show on the road — or in this case, the downtown streets.
“We’ve talked about this before, but it gives us the ability to go into new markets,” Kennedy said of the stadium-style Clash event, “I think street courses gives us that ability as well. That said, it’s important for us to keep the integrity that we’ve had in the schedule, right? Mile and a half, superspeedway, short tracks are all important to our schedule. Adding a street course to the schedule I think is going to continue to make it probably the most diverse motorsports schedule that exists out there today, and we’re really excited about that. But I think it gives us the ability, as we think on into the future to enter some of the new markets and look at some of our events in different ways.”
An even mix of new faces and short track veterans find themselves atop the Virginia Late Model Triple Crown standings following a chaotic Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway.
Nearly every single driver in the 42-car field endured a problem during the race on July 2, ranging from mechanical failures to being swept up in a massive, 20-car pile-up on the frontstretch with just more than 10 laps remaining.
Not even the finish was free of carnage. Corey Heim ended up taking home the checkered flag in a battered Late Model Stock after he and South Boston regular Jacob Borst crashed across the start-finish line after making contact off Turn 4.
With Heim preoccupied with NASCAR Camping World Truck Series commitments at Pocono Raceway, Borst enters Saturday’s Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway as the Virginia Triple Crown points leader over a talented group of drivers looking to rebound from a tumultuous night at South Boston.
Defending NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series champion Peyton Sellers sits right behind Borst in second, while others like the most recent Virginia Triple Crown winner in Bobby McCarty have work to do to stay in contention after the Hampton Heat.
With points in the Virginia Triple Crown being determined by average finish, a strong run at Langley will be imperative toward deciding who will be declared the champion in September’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway.
Below is a breakdown of the current top 10 in the Virginia Triple Crown standings and how they fared in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway.
Corey Heim and Jacob Borst crash across the start-finish line in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway. (Photo: Victor Newman Photography)
Jacob Borst: 2.0
The Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 showed that Borst could hang with the best Late Model Stock drivers in the southeast. While his race ended under less-than-ideal circumstances, Borst has momentum on his side as he heads up north to Langley Speedway for the Hampton Heat.
Peyton Sellers: 3.0
Despite being swept up in a late accident, Sellers avoided getting major damage on his car throughout the night and brought home a solid third-place run. A three-time Virginia Triple Crown champion, Sellers will look to put together another efficient run in the Hampton Heat, a race he has not won since 2013.
Mason Diaz: 4.0
Diaz was among the drivers who had nowhere to go on the frontstretch when Jonathan Shafer was turned around by Mike Looney. Of those involved, Diaz only took a couple of moderate hits from the oncoming traffic and was able to get his wounded car back out on track for a top-five finish.
Carter Langley: 5.0
Although he was in front of the 20-car pileup on the frontstretch, Langley ended up sustaining significant damage to his car in a separate accident with Looney and Sellers. Langley still displayed decent speed after the crash and worked his way through the dwindled field to finish fifth.
Mark Wertz: 6.0
Wertz showcased his experience by methodically working his way through an opening on track to escape major damage from the 20-car pileup. While he was not able to claim a top five, Wertz’ sixth-place run puts him in contention for the Virginia Triple Crown as the series heads to his home track of Langley.
Camden Gullie: 7.0
A quiet-but-successful outing for Gullie at South Boston briefly turned chaotic after he was involved in the late big one. Gullie was among the few cars that were successfully repaired for the final 10 laps, allowing him to salvage a seventh-place run.
Bobby McCarty: 9.0
The Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 was far from the typical efficient outing McCarty usually enjoys, as the defending Virginia Triple Crown champion struggled to move through the field after starting 32nd. Getting involved in the big one only compounded McCarty’s issues, but he managed to nurse his wounded car around the track and keep his hopes of defending the Virginia Triple Crown title alive.
Jared Fryar: 10.0
Like nearly everyone else who placed inside the top 10 in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, Fryar had to pilot a damaged car across the line after getting damaged in the big one. Fryar was the last car to finish, two laps behind the winner in Heim.
Conner Jones: 13.0
Several hard hits in the late big one forced Jones to visit a nearby hospital for further evaluation with a minor neck injury. Jones was scored 13th in the final running order and will try to build upon the speed he showed for Saturday’s Hampton Heat.
Landon Pembelton: 14.0
The defending ValleyStar Credit Union 300 winner’s bid for a Virginia Triple Crown title got off to a rough start when he was collected in the big crash on the frontstretch. Pembelton still ended up being placed in 14th, putting himself in a better position to rebound compared to others involved in the accident.
NASCAR is set to make a major announcement on the future of racing in Chicago, and you can watch the news live on NASCAR.com and NASCAR’s social media platforms.
Bookmark the link above and come back at 3:30 p.m. ET as Ben Kennedy, senior vice president racing development & strategy; Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago; Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series; and others reveal the big news.
The Victory Bell struck 14 on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
NASCAR’s 2022 playoff picture became a little clearer at the “Magic Mile,” frustratingly so for some while being a tremendous relief for race winner Christopher Bell. Six races remain between now and the start of this year’s postseason on Labor Day Weekend at Darlington Raceway, with still plenty to sort out in that timeframe.
The ’22 Cup Series campaign has been a wild one, as unpredictable and raucous as anyone could have hoped in the maiden voyage for the sport’s landmark Next Gen racer. Fourteen different winners from seven different organizations across all three manufacturers have taken a trip to Victory Lane at least once this year — and arguably for the first time in the history of NASCAR’s playoff elimination format there’s a realistic scenario that one of them could wind up getting squeezed out of the 16-driver postseason field.
Bell has had a fine season to date, his best so far at the Cup level, but after sputtering out of the gates a bit to open the season, the No. 20 had to methodically claw its way back up the points standings from basically Circuit of The Americas onward. The Norman, Oklahoma, native entered this past weekend’s events eighth in the standings but still on the outside looking in with 13 drivers having already picked up wins. Everything about his season has now changed, as he’s now on essentially equal footing with his other two teammates currently provisionally locked in with wins — Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin — sitting at 2,008 playoff points to their 2,011 and 2,012 points, respectively.
When it comes to racing at Loudon, every most winning drivers are just thrilled to be able to take home a giant lobster. For the ones who pick up their first win of the season there in the dead of summer at such a critical point in the postseason hunt, the real gift is just the ability to exhale.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s been stressful,” Bell said in his post-race press conference. “After the first couple races of the year, I kind of wrote off pointing our way into the championship, and then we had a stretch of really good races and kind of turned that around to like, ‘hey, we may be able to do this.’ And then you’ve got guys that kept winning, and the cutoff line kept creeping up and up and up, so it feels really good to hopefully get myself above that cutoff line by a couple spots.”
Some of that stress, however, has now shifted over to his teammate.
There’s no question Martin Truex Jr. has been among the best drivers on a near-consistent basis this year — in a season that’s been hard for anyone to build consistent momentum — currently leading the series in stage wins while sitting third in stage points and fourth in overall points. He is, however, winless.
After securing Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Award, Truex noted that he’s “not really that that worried about the playoffs. I think … we’ll be OK either way,” and for the first two stages of Sunday’s race anybody on the planet probably would’ve agreed with him. The No. 19 Toyota was as dominant as any car we’ve seen this year.
It was Truex’s race to lose, and he did. A two-tire call late in the final stage by crew chief James Small wound up being an incorrect decision, and the car that looked unstoppable all afternoon was suddenly unable to race its way back to the front, resulting in a fourth-place run.
The 2017 champ now sits directly on the bubble, the 16th and final driver in the current projected playoff field and 68 points ahead of Kevin Harvick, also winless.
It seems unfathomable that Truex, whose 12-1 odds to win the ’22 championship entering the weekend were ninth-best in the series, could miss the playoffs entirely. That’s the reality, however, and it just furthers the point that winning is everything in this sport.
The path to pointing his way in is still open, of course. There aren’t 16 winners yet and it seems likely that if we do hit that sweet number, he could be one of them. But he’s not the only elite driver in this position.
Directly above and below him in the standings are Ryan Blaney and Harvick, respectively, who have combined for 27 victories since 2018. Both Truex and Harvick netted top fives at Loudon, and both walked away frustrated. Harvick, believe it or not, actually lost ground despite the quality result. There’s truly a sense of “win-or-bust” right now.
The No. 12 Team Penske driver is safest among them, but it’s almost jaw-dropping that a driver currently third in points and fighting to claim a Regular Season Championship with six races to go could theoretically be left off the playoff grid a month and a half from now.
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Of course, like we just mentioned — all three are elite drivers. They could all win before Darlington (heck, it’s not even the most unreasonable notion to think they could split the six remaining trophies just among themselves), and then what happens? A whole new can of worms.
We’ve known all along since the birth of this playoff system in 2014 that the possibility of more than 16 winners would result in a driver who “clinched” a playoff spot with a win earlier in the season having that position wrestled out of his hands by a fellow winning driver with more points.
And wouldn’t you know it — there’s a chance that if one more driver wins and then Harvick wins to become lucky No. 16, he could bump out Stewart-Haas Racing teammate and Phoenix winner Chase Briscoe, currently the driver with the fewest points among winners.
There’s no denying that at least one driver and possibly two from the group of current one-time winners — Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Bell, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suárez, Tyler Reddick and Briscoe — along with Blaney, Harvick and Truex could miss the playoffs. Just a matter of who, and how many.
But wait, there’s more.
The six regular-season races remaining are anything but routine or straightforward, featuring a track with just three turns (Pocono), an infield road course (Indianapolis), a 2-mile behemoth where speed is king (Michigan), a 0.75-mile “action track” (Richmond), the fastest road course we go to (Watkins Glen) and for the icing on the cake to lock in the field of 16, the most unpredictable track on the schedule — Daytona.
Blaney is the defending winner at both Michigan and Daytona, and as the highest among the winless drivers, he’s probably going to get the most sleep among any of them over the coming weeks. Truex won Richmond last year and has been an ace on road courses in the past, but the Virginia race last year came a month later — in the playoffs — and at night, where this year’s will be an afternoon special. Toyota as a whole has self-admittedly struck out on road-course setups this year as well, so it’s anything but a lock that Truex will strike at Indy or The Glen. Harvick can win anywhere — and has 12 total wins at the remaining six tracks — but the No. 4, while competitive all season, has seemed to be a tick off a winning pace in ’22.
What these tracks really offer, however, is for the remainder of drivers currently on the wrong side of the bubble a chance for a last-ditch strike to finagle their way into a crowded field.
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Six of the eight drivers next in line under Harvick have won at Daytona previously (Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Justin Haley and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) while the other two (Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace) always seem to be in the mix at the front of the field late at the World Center of Racing, including a Duel victory for the No. 17 during this year’s lead up to the Daytona 500.
Road courses always offer the potential for a wild-card winner, of course. And Buescher, himself, knows that Pocono can be an unexpected gateway to the playoffs with his sole career victory coming there during his 2016 rookie year and clinching his only playoff appearance to date.
This is all to say: we’ve got a long way to go before we know for sure who’s going to be in the playoffs. The only drivers that shouldn’t be squirming in their seats right now are those with two-plus wins and the only thing we can count on right now in mid-July is that a month and a half from now we’ll be saying “I can’t believe ____ missed the playoffs!”
And no driver wants to be the one to fill in that blank.
Saturday’s Whelen Manufactured in America 100 produced all the thrills fans and drivers have grown accustomed to every time the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour visits New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Ron Silk’s efficient 2022 season hit its first major detour when he was swept up in a big crash just 28 laps into the race, forcing him to settle for a 21st-place finish while the rest of his closest competition finished ahead of him.
Although Silk still managed to keep his points lead, the breathing room he enjoyed all year has now evaporated, as several drivers are now in position to potentially overtake the 2011 Whelen Modified Tour champion when the series heads to Claremont Speedway on July 29.
Below is a breakdown of how the top 10 drivers fared in the Whelen Manufactured in America 100 along, plus a complete look at the Whelen Modifed Tour standings.
Anthony Nocella (92) leads the field off Turn 4 for a late restart during the Whelen 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 16, 2022. (Nick Grace/NASCAR)
Ron Silk: 335 points
The current championship leader had nowhere to go when Austin Beers lost control in front of him in Turn 1, with the ensuing accident also collecting Dave Sapienza and Kyle Ebersole. Silk’s team was able to make repairs and get him back on track, but he only gained a couple positions and finished 51 laps behind the leader.
Jon McKennedy: 325 points
McKennedy was the one who benefitted the most from Silk’s misfortune. Although he was unable to battle the leaders for the victory in the closing laps, McKennedy dodged the last-lap crash and ended up bringing home a solid fifth-place finish, which cut his deficit to Silk from 26 points to just 10.
Eric Goodale: 324 points
A golden opportunity for Goodale to pick up his first win of the 2022 season ended moments away from crossing the start-finish line after colliding with Emerling. Despite this, Goodale still drove his wounded car to a fourth-place finish, allowing to gain valuable ground on Silk.
Justin Bonsignore: 310 points
Bonsignore’s roller coaster 2022 season continued at New Hampshire on Saturday. An early mechanical issue cost the three-time champion two laps, yet Bonsignore made up both to salvage a 12th-place finish and minimize the damage from the missed opportunity of capitalizing on Silk’s wreck.
Austin Beers: 307 points
Of the four cars involved in the Lap 28 crash, Beers sustained the least amount of contact and stayed in the lead draft for most of the day. The Rookie of the Year points leader came home 11th, but the run was soured by right-front suspension damage he got in the last-lap crash.
Tommy Catalano: 306 points
A promising afternoon for Catalano ended when the engine on his car expired with 19 laps remaining. Despite this, Catalano still finished one spot in front of Silk and remains in the championship hunt with seven races left on the schedule.
Kyle Bonsignore: 298 points
Like his cousin Justin, Kyle Bonsignore endured an eventful day at New Hampshire that started with him having to overcome an early pit road penalty. Kyle persevered through the adversity and picked up his best finish on the season after barely getting nipped at the start-finish line by Nocella.
Craig Lutz: 274 points
Saturday’s Whelen Manufactured in America 100 was a quiet race for Craig Lutz. He successfully kept his car out of trouble to obtain his third top-10 finish on the year.
Dave Sapienza: 241 points
Sapizena’s day ended before he had a chance to battle the leaders after getting swept up in the Lap 28 crash that also included Silk. The 24th-place finish was the worst for Sapienza in 2022 and the first time he failed to finish a race this year.
J.B. Fortin: 236 points
Saturday proved to be a struggle for Fortin. He failed to keep pace with the lead pack and ended up finishing in 16th, two laps behind the race winner in Nocella.
LOUDON, N.H. – Bubba Wallace’s weekend didn’t start off ideally. His motorhome didn’t make it to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, pushing him to a hotel room.
On Saturday morning, Wallace quickly changed his fortune, turning in the best qualifying effort of his career in fourth.
Come the green flag in Sunday’s Ambetter 301, Wallace wasn’t sure if he’d have race speed, despite Toyota having a solid outing at Gateway last month, a similar layout to New Hampshire. But he indeed did have a hot rod.
In the opening stage, Wallace’s No. 23 car was the only one that could contend with Martin Truex Jr., though he was multiple seconds back of the No. 19 machine. He finished second, his best stage finish of the season on a non-superspeedway.
Wallace remained competitive in the second stage, dropping back to 10th after a rash of restarts. And after making his final stop – on a 92-lap run to the finish – the No. 23 car charged through the field, ending the race in third.
“It’s been a down season for us,” Wallace told a group of reporters after the race. “It’s finally good to come out on top. [We] finally have a good race to highlight besides the Daytona 500.”
The third-place finish marks Wallace’s best effort since finishing runner-up to Austin Cindric in the ‘Great American Race’. In the 18 races between Daytona and New Hampshire, the No. 23 team had just one additional top-10 result, coming at Kansas when he was the caboose of the top 10.
Meagan Thompson | NASCAR Digital Media
Speed hasn’t been a factor for the No. 23 team; Wallace has had plenty. Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing, has said multiple times this year that this season is the best Wallace has ever driven in his racing career.
“We’ve had a lot of speed all year and we’ve had cars capable of that,” Wallace said. “It’s finally good to see that come to fruition. That’s what our races can be like if we continue to do that. Just take a page out of this book for everybody on the team to learn from.
“I’m sure we can do better; bring a better car and an all-around team. We did excellent today, I’m proud of everybody. You can always be better, right?”
The stat sheet would say it’s been a down year, as Wallace is now sitting 23rd in points with an average finish of 20.7, one full position behind last year’s pace of 19.7. It’s safe to say the team, which has had up to eight loose wheels this season, needed a good day’s work.
“You’ve got to crawl before you walk and we’ve been falling,” Wallace said. “We haven’t even been able to crawl. To finally get our feet underneath us and get a good finish, this is good momentum to build off of.”
Bootie Barker, crew chief of the No. 23 team, said of New Hampshire: “This is only our second clean race, unfortunately. We’re trying, but this is our second clean race.”
Knowing the team needs to win one of the final six regular-season races to be part of the postseason, Wallace believes his New Hampshire effort gives him momentum moving forward. His numbers aren’t stellar on road courses – there’s two of them in the final six races – and there’s races at Pocono and Michigan that loom as potential fuel mileage contests.
There’s also Daytona, where the No. 23 car will be among the pre-race favorites.
Based on the speed Wallace has shown this year, he believes he can claim the checkered flag in one of the final six events.
“We’ve had top-five speed in a handful of the races,” said Wallace, who claimed his first top-five finish with 23XI Racing in the second race of the Pocono doubleheader last season. “To use this and build off of and show up to Pocono next week, I’m excited for that place. I usually make the highlight reel there for whatever reason, and hopefully it’s for a win.”
LOUDON, N.H. — There’s perhaps no track on the schedule that would mean more to Martin Truex Jr. to win at than New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
And yet, it’s the one that eludes him most.
The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champ picked up his first Busch Light Pole Award for Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday and carried that speed into the main event, clearly in possession of the best car for the majority of Sunday’s Ambetter 301 at the “Magic Mile.” Truex claimed the win in each of the first two stages — to add to his now series-leading seven — but a late pit strategy call in the final stage for two tires sunk him to the back of the top 10 after the ensuing restart and he had to claw his way back to finish an eventual fourth, despite leading a race-high 172 laps.
“We restarted third and the 22 (of Joey Logano) got a bad jump in front of us,” Truex said on pit road following the race. “I tried to push him to get him going and the 4 (of Kevin Harvick) made us three-wide and I got put in a bad spot and lost a few spots but overall we recovered from that and just didn’t have anything to go forward on two tires. I mean, the car absolutely hated it so it was nothing like it had been all day long. And you couldn’t go anywhere, just had to ride it out and get what we could out of it.”
The northeast native has been itching to get his claws on, well, a pair of claws at the Granite State track for years, having competed here since some of his earliest days in racing. After winning the pole Saturday, he indicated that while a win Sunday would’ve essentially locked him into the playoffs, his first thoughts climbing out of his No. 19 Toyota would have been, “I just won Loudon!”
Instead, Truex’s old history of being snakebitten in races he dominates reared its ugly head once more.
“Just the Loudon curse for me, I guess,” Truex said. “I just don’t know how many times it’s gonna happen, you know? We lead all day and then we get beat on strategy or whatever it is so I don’t know. It’s just Loudon. It’s the way it’s been, you know, my whole career. It doesn’t matter how good we are, we can’t win.”
As frustrating as it is to once again miss out on hoisting a hefty crustacean in Victory Lane at Loudon — this is the fifth time he’s led 100-plus laps here and lost since 2016 alone, four of which came in consecutive races – there’s a bit more consternation for Truex and Co. to focus on at the moment.
Fellow JGR cohort Christopher Bell won Sunday’s race, ticking one more playoff spot off the board for winless drivers — such as Truex — to point their way into the playoffs. He remains second highest in the standings among those still seeking victory, but with six races left before the 16-driver field is set and 14 different winners already, Truex is by no means guaranteed a spot on points at this juncture. No driver is.
Considering half of those six are a pair of road courses and Daytona, the potential for wild-card winners (or other title contenders such as Ryan Blaney and Harvick, who are also looking for their first win) to squeeze Truex out is very real.
“I’m very nervous about it,” team owner Joe Gibbs said during Bell’s post-race press conference. “I think all of us, I don’t think any of us would have dreamed when the year started and we would have, you know, (14) winners at this point. And so, yeah, that’s why we were pulling so hard for him to get it. And then of course, Christopher was in pretty much the same boat. And so thank goodness, Christopher was able to get it done. But we gotta give Martin everything we can give because we need that car. We need it in the playoffs. That’s for sure.”
Another thing Truex mentioned on Saturday after winning the pole — that he wasn’t nervous about making the playoffs.
The 42-year-old Cup mainstay is as unflappable as they come, but there was a clear tone change after the results of Sunday.
“I mean, it is what it is, you know,” Truex said. “Like, if another guy wins then we’re out. And, you know, that’s just the way it is. We race every week. Do the best we can to try to win races and obviously lately we’ve been capable. We’ve had cars capable winning this year. We have the most stage wins of anybody. And we haven’t won a race yet.
“You know, it’s just whatever for whatever reason, that third stage, we just muck it up, as James (Small, crew chief) can say, so we’ll just keep digging. We’ve got a great team, our guys at JGR are working really hard, our cars are fast obviously. We’re getting better, to run like this here today after our short-track season, it says a lot about all of our people. And you know for Christopher to win, it was a JGR-dominated day so that’s that says a lot and we can use that going forward. We just do all we can do. It’s all we can do.”
The Cup Series next heads to Pocono Raceway, where Truex has a pair of wins in 2015 and 2018.
Maybe that’ll do the trick, because the No. 19 ran out of magic at Loudon once again.
