Posted on July 7, 2022July 7, 2022 by Jerry Bonkowski

Editor’s note: This story first published on June 22, 2021:

One of the best complementing experiences of attending a NASCAR race is camping near a race track. Both before and after a race, the interaction between fans — creating new friendships and renewing old friendships, as well — is a celebration of NASCAR, camaraderie and limitless fun.

There’s a definite joy of sitting around a campsite talking with fellow fans about memorable past races, favorite (and sometimes not-so-favorite) drivers, and swapping tales — all the while enjoying a drink or meal, maybe even toasting some marshmallows over a campfire.

While camping can run the gamut from pitching a pup tent to “roughing it” in a six-figure motor home, like with the old American Express commercials, there are certain things you just shouldn’t leave home without.

As part of NASCAR’s Summer Family Fun initiative, here are 10 helpful tips for novice campers to make the overall experience all the more enjoyable and rewarding:

1. The biggest must-have of all: bug spray! Whether you’re camping outside places like Bristol Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway or Talladega Superspeedway, always make sure to pack bug spray to shoo away pests like mosquitos, bees, wasps and especially ants! Don’t forget: pests love camping, too! They consider it an all-you-can-eat buffet, be it your food or, in the case of “skeeters,” your blood. Keep a can of bug spray in your bag, and don’t forget the suntan lotion.

2. Practice makes perfect: If you’re a camping newbie, DO NOT wait until you get to your campsite to figure out how to pitch your tent. Even if the instructions say you can be in business in five minutes or less, don’t believe it if you have zero prior experience. Make several practice runs while still at home on learning a quick, efficient way to erect and take down your new tent. Also, put silicone treatment on both the inside and outside of your tent to make sure it’s as waterproof as possible.

3. It’s all about location, location, location: Make sure you pitch your tent on as level ground as you can find, and bring along two tarps or indoor/outdoor rugs, one that can essentially serve as your “living room” outside the tent, and another tarp for the interior of the tent to rest your sleeping bags upon and stay clean and dry. Lastly, if you can camp in locations that offer amenities including hot showers, clean restrooms, and some that even offer wi-fi connections, you’ll have nearly all the comforts of home.

4. Getting a charge out of life, Part 1: Don’t forget a portable battery-powered radio — preferably one that includes a weather band (and alarm for approaching bad weather alerts) — and plenty of batteries. A radio not only keeps you connected with the news of the world and Motor Racing Network’s or Performance Racing Network’s broadcasts of NASCAR races, but it also keeps you informed of weather in your immediate area. If a storm front is moving in, a radio will help you prepare for what’s to come, as well as allow time to seek shelter, if need be. Also, make sure you have at least a couple of flashlights (again, with plenty of backup battery power) or lanterns to show you the way in the darkness. One clever amenity we’ve seen numerous campers use is to hang glow sticks to give a more comforting ambient light atmosphere around the campsite.

5. Getting a charge out of life, Part 2: Be it talking, texting, checking email and social media, surfing the web or playing games, we love our cell phones. Unfortunately, the more we use our phones, the quicker the battery life dries up. Our best suggestion: invest in not one but two portable phone battery chargers. And like your phone, make sure they’re fully charged before you leave home because it’s easy to forget there isn’t a wall plug or power strip that’s accessible when you’re in your tent.

6. Pack extra food and snacks (and ice!): Your campsite menu plans are only limited by your imagination, from simple staples such as hamburgers and hot dogs, on up to ribs, steaks, chicken and more. Always bring more than enough non-perishables (aka canned food) in case you wind up staying an extra day or two, plus plenty of chips and other snacks to nibble on when you get the munchies (but be careful about leaving candy around, as the ants will descend upon you quicker than a mid-winter blizzard), plus plenty of water and other liquids to remain hydrated. Don’t forget your cooler and lots of ice (or ice substitutes such as freeze packs and the like) to keep drinks, meats and other perishables cool and prevent spoilage. And bring several rolls of paper towels.

7. Pack extra clothes and blankets: Even if you camp for just one night, make sure to have plenty of blankets, pillows and extra dry clothes (including a jacket) in case you get stuck in the middle of a monsoon, your tent leaks or the 90-degree mid-afternoon temperature suddenly drops to 40 degrees at night, particularly in some of the more hilly areas near tracks such as Pocono, Bristol and New Hampshire. And don’t forget one folding chair apiece for everyone in your camping party.

8. Bring extra cash, just in case: Even if you’re the most prepared camper in the world, there’s always the chance of unexpected expenses that can occur at the worst of times. Plus, what’s going camping if you can’t bring home a few racing souvenirs from the track, right? One key tip: if you take extra cash, make sure it’s in your wallet only and that the wallet never leaves your sight or possession.

9. If possible, keep your vehicle close by: Unless you’re in a motor home or trailer, having your vehicle parked close by allows an element of enhanced safety from both stormy weather as well as if a local bear or other wildlife wanders into your campsite (which admittedly is rare). And if your sleeping bag proves too hard to get some decent sleep, there’s always the comfort of your car or truck to get some zzzzz’s.

10. Don’t be a litter bug: Bring plenty of garbage bags to clean up after yourself. Leave your campsite as you found it: clean! One other important thing: make sure that if you built one, that your campfire is completely extinguished before you leave. To paraphrase a line from Smokey The Bear, only YOU can prevent campsite fires!

Oh yes, one more thing — and perhaps the most important thing to pack of all: don’t forget your race tickets!

Posted on July 6, 2022July 7, 2022 by Staff Report

NASCAR officials penalized Noah Gragson after rough driving during last Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Road America, docking him 30 points in the drivers’ standings and fining him $35,000 for violating Sections 4.4.C&E: NASCAR Member Code of Conduct. JR Motorsports also was hit with a 30-point deduction in the owner standings.

Gragson remains in fourth place in the Xfinity Series standings, but his gap over teammate Josh Berry in fifth place has been reduced to five points. Gragson is a two-time winner this season, with victories at Phoenix and Talladega.

Gragson was a central figure in touching off a 13-car crash during the Henry 180, making retaliatory contact with his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in a battle with Alpha Prime Racing’s Sage Karam. The aftermath of Gragson’s bump clogged the track in the Moraine Sweep section of the 4.048-mile course in the 25th of 48 laps, and Brandon Brown was shaken up in the wreck.

Gragson was not penalized during the race, but he was summoned to the Xfinity Series hauler for a post-race consultation with competition officials. Tuesday morning, Elton Sawyer — NASCAR’s vice president of officiating and technical inspection — hinted in an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that punishment was possible with the release of the midweek penalty report.

“We have additional information post-race that we didn’t have immediately after the race when we were speaking with Noah,” Sawyer told SiriusXM. “So again, we’ll look at it internally (Tuesday), what we’ve done in the past and in similar situations, but all things are on the table. And during the event, you know, it could rise to a level that you park a vehicle. It can rise to a level that we hold them for several laps. In this particular case, you know, we elected to speak with Noah post-race to make sure we had all the information and facts that we needed. And again, we’ll take a deeper dive into that incident (Tuesday) morning.”

Karam, making just his seventh Xfinity start, finished 31st after the early exit for his No. 45 Chevy. His post-race anger was echoed by team owner Tommy Joe Martins, who said: “I would be embarrassed to be associated with (Gragson). How many times is he going to publicly apologize? Now he’s trying to act like he’s a bad dude, tough guy. Like are you kidding me, that’s the softest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ll tell you what’s tough, trying to come out here and racing with a budget that’s less than a quarter of what they’re doing.”

Gragson continued to an eighth-place finish, and remained defiant in post-race interviews. “It’s one thing if you’re faster than someone,” Gragson said Saturday, “but to throw it off in there and run you off the race track in the corner, door you, run you off the track. Finally, after the third time, I’m over it. It’s not the ideal situation for him and his team, but two or three times, I’m done with it.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of JR Motorsports, appeared on SiriusXM on Wednesday and said, “I was shocked, to be honest with you, when I saw Noah make that decision. I was just completely shocked and in a bit of disbelief not only that he made that choice but that he, you know, that it created such an accident and got so many other guys involved.”

Gragson, 23, is in his fourth full season of Xfinity Series competition, notching seven career victories so far for JR Motorsports. He made his Cup Series debut earlier this year in the Daytona 500.

MORE: Gragson: ‘He starts it’, I finished it | Karam: ‘Don’t think Noah is gonna change‘

Additionally, Tuesday, competition officials penalized the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team for Xfinity Series points leader AJ Allmendinger for a single unsecured lug nut discovered in a post-race check. No. 16 crew chief Bruce Schlicker was fined $5,000 — the fourth such fine for him this season. Mechanic Sean Kerlin also received an indefinite suspension from NASCAR for violation of Sections 4.1 & 10.1 (Behavioural — SAP).

Posted on July 6, 2022 by Adam Fenwick

Jimmy Blewett can remember it like it was yesterday.

As a child, joined by his older brother John Blewett III, the two would stand along the fence at race tracks like New York’s Riverhead Raceway and New Jersey’s New Egypt Speedway to watch the best the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour had to offer battle for supremacy.

“I always recalled standing at the fence with my brother,” the 41-year-old Blewett said. “My brother and I were six years apart and basically whatever he did, I was his shadow as a child. He would walk up to the fence, and he’d hold on to the fence, and we’d watch guys pull out on the track for heat races and for practice for the feature.

“Back then, everyone could wear open-face helmets. It was cool because you could see the driver. He could see you, you could see his face, you could see his expressions. You saw guys like my father (John Blewett Jr.), Richie Evans, Charlie Jarzombek, Reggie Ruggiero, Wayne Anderson, all those guys.”

Being able to get an up-close-and-personal look at the best Modified drivers in the country helped both Blewett children fall in love with Modified racing, much like their father had many years before them.

John Blewett Jr. spent most of his Modified racing career competing at local weekly tracks, but he did make 29 starts with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. He earned one victory, which came in 1986 at Star Speedway in Epping, New Hampshire.

“It’s one of those things, in our household, growing up there were no pictures of the kid with the baseball and the baseball mitt,” Blewett said. “It was racing. It was family pictures in Victory Lane. It as my brother in his go-kart. We’re a racing family, and I grew up around that my entire life.

“It was something as a child, you want to be like your dad. You hear that song, ‘I want to be like you dad.’ It’s something that my brother wanted to do and I wanted to do what he did and he wanted to do what my dad did. Ultimately that’s what drew me in the direction of racing.”

The Blewett children created many great memories on the Tour. They both joined their father as NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winners, with John Blewett III earning 10 wins and Jimmy Blewett scoring six of his own.

Brothers Jimmy Blewett (left) and John Blewett III (right) at Wall Stadium Speedway in Wall Township, New Jersey, prior to a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event on May 6, 2007. (Photo: NASCAR)

On two separate occasions, the Blewett’s swept the top two positions in a Tour event. It happened for the first time at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway on July 4, 2006, with John Blewett III besting Jimmy Blewett.

It happened a second time a little less than a year later at the Blewetts’ home track, Wall Stadium Speedway in Wall Township, New Jersey. This time it was Jimmy Blewett who emerged as the winner, with John Blewett III following him across the finish line.

It’s a victory that still stands out in Jimmy Blewett’s memory 15 years later because, despite racing against his brother, the two always worked as a team. In fact, John Blewett III was the person who set up his younger brother’s car that day at Wall Stadium.

“He set the cars up for himself and I,” Blewett recalled. “The car was doing something in practice and my spotter (Freddie Kraft) and we were like, ‘We just need to be a little better right in the middle and we’ll have the best car here.’

“My brother, in my brother’s fashion, came over and was like, ‘Quiet, do this, do this, we don’t have enough time. Do this and this. Put it in the car.’ He looked over at me and said, ‘Now you go out and win.’ Fair enough, fair enough. Put the stuff in the car and who did I beat to win the race? Him.”

What neither Blewett knew at the time was that a few months later, John Blewett III would be gone.

Jimmy Blewett (12) leads brother John Blewett III during a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Wall Stadium Speedway in Wall Township, New Jersey, on May 6, 2007. (Photo: NASCAR)

John Blewett III died when the two brothers were involved in a crash at Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Aug. 16, 2007.

It was hard for Jimmy Blewett to carry on in the aftermath of the crash. So hard, in fact, that he admits he gave serious consideration to quitting racing altogether.

“Everybody knows my brother was my best friend, my father figure,” Blewett said. “He was everything to me in my life leading up to his passing. He was my guidance. He was my everything to me.

“That night and that day was something that hit me hard. I honestly didn’t know how to take it. I didn’t know if I should just give up altogether and just not ever do anything again or keep going and keep his name alive.”

As time passed and Blewett mourned the loss of his brother, he came to realize that the last thing his brother would want was for him to give up.

“I came to a conclusion in the following weeks that I needed to keep his memory alive,” Blewett said. “I needed to always talk about him. I always feel like he is with me all the time in anything and everything I do.

“I also know that he always taught me to never give up and to be the best and to prove people wrong.”

Now 41, the younger of the Blewett brothers continues to race in his brother’s memory.

Jimmy Blewett during qualifying for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Jersey Shore 150 on May 18, 2019 at Wall Stadium Speedway in Wall Township, New Jersey. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)

Jimmy Blewett has made quite the name for himself at his home track, Wall Stadium Speedway, where he is a four-time track champion in the Modified class. He’s also earned 25 victories across multiple divisions in Wall’s annual Turkey Derby event, including eight victories in the headlining Modified division.

“It’s been a long road. Every time I pull into a track, I have to have that time alone to think about it all,” Blewett said. “At the end of it all, we’re never going to give up.”

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to Wall Stadium Speedway this Saturday for the running of the Jersey Shore 150, the eighth race of the 2022 season.

Blewett, who lives minutes from the third-mile, high-banked paved oval, is hoping to defend his home turf while also racing in his brother’s memory.

“There ain’t a race that I enter that I don’t think I can win. And if I can’t do it, you won’t see me at the race track,” Blewett said.

Recently Blewett has begun to curtail his own racing to focus more on the racing efforts of his 14-year-old son, James Blewett. The plan is for James to compete in several races up and down the East Coast this summer.

If all goes as planned, James Blewett will become the third generation of the Blewett family to race with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

“My son, I call him my angel baby,” Blewett said. “When my brother passed, my wife found out she was pregnant with my son. He turned 14 recently, and he’s growing up to be quite the young man. Fourteen years ago I never envisioned myself having a son, let alone a son as good as him.

“We put him together a crate car and now that he’s out of school — school is the first priority — but now that he’s out of school we’re going to take him racing.”

The future of racing in the Blewett family is bright. That’s exactly how John Blewett III would have wanted it.

Posted on July 6, 2022 by Press Release

RALEIGH, N.C. – Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP), a leading automotive aftermarket parts provider and entitlement sponsor of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, is offering race fans free tickets to the Advance My Track Challenge celebration night at the historic Jennerstown Speedway in Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 9.

Fans can visit Advance’s Pennsylvania retail locations in Somerset, Johnstown, Latrobe, and Blairsville for free tickets to the action-packed evening, while supplies last. Activities will include a free autograph session featuring Jennerstown’s local race car drivers at 4:30 p.m., a full slate of racing beginning at 6 p.m. to include Jennerstown’s Super Cup Stock Car Series, late models and modified divisions, and a post-race fireworks show, presented by Advance Auto Parts.

The celebration caps Jennerstown’s triumph in the Advance My Track Challenge, which encouraged race fans across the U.S. and Canada to vote for their favorite local NASCAR home track. As the winning track, Jennerstown won $50,000, which the track team will use to construct a family-friendly and ADA-compliant restroom for fans.

“Fans have been gathering at Jennerstown to watch racing for decades, and we’re delighted to recognize the community and track team as winners of the Advance My Track Challenge,” said Jason McDonell, Advance’s executive vice president of merchandising, marketing and eCommerce. “It is great to see how the Jennerstown team plans to reinvest the winnings into their facility, ensuring their track will continue to be enjoyed by future generations. With fireworks, autographs and great racing, it’s going to be a memorable night for local fans.”

“The whole community rallied around our speedway all year,” said Bill Hribar, Jennerstown Speedway’s general manager. “Winning the Advance My Track Challenge has been a great example of the pride our community has in the speedway. It’s only fitting to spend the prize on improving our facility to serve the needs of our entire community, with a modern, ADA-accessible restroom.”

The Advance My Track Challenge began April 5, with 21 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series tracks represented in the program’s first round of voting. Fans voted up to three times daily in the first round of voting. The six tracks receiving the most fan votes – including Jennerstown – were part of the challenge’s final voting round, which took place May 9-13. Jennerstown was announced as the winning track on May 18. More than 130,000 votes were tallied during this year’s program.

Learn more about the local drivers, teams and NASCAR home tracks that make up the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series by visiting the series page on nascar.com.

Posted on July 6, 2022July 7, 2022 by Zach Sturniolo

The last time NASCAR visited Atlanta Motor Speedway, Corey LaJoie was celebrating a top-five finish shortly after sliding across the infield grass with a split-second flight thrown in for good measure.

Well, maybe not celebrating. But he was certainly relishing his best finish of the year five races into the 2022 campaign.

“I wasn’t spraying champagne over anybody,” LaJoie said in a Tuesday teleconference of his result. “But you know, certainly anytime you get a top five in the Cup Series, man, it’s way harder than people think. I’ve been doing this for a long time and those don’t come very often, especially having a strong car like we did there.”

At the midpoint of the season, that fifth-place effort remains LaJoie’s best in what has been a trying year for the driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. LaJoie sits 31st in points after 18 races and ranks the same in average running position (27.719).

That’s led to a higher focus on Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where LaJoie feels he can make a difference.

MORE: Full Atlanta schedule | Playoff Watch

Typically, his conservative style on superspeedway tracks has led to good finishes. That was the case in the debut race of Atlanta’s new configuration, which features higher banking, tighter corners and the sanctioning body’s superspeedway rules package around the 1.5-mile track. But good finishes won’t be enough if LaJoie has any hopes of qualifying for this year’s playoffs.

“I think we’re gonna change the strategy up a bit because I think we have to go to win,” he said. “I think a top five day doesn’t cut it. It really doesn’t. And we’ve shot ourselves in the foot for the last six, seven weeks here with a lot of mechanical failures and not running near to our potential as a race team. But, you know, if it’s a superspeedway, we have to go attack and be in position to throw a Hail Mary and steal one.”

Indeed, the last seven weeks have been dismal for LaJoie and Co., who have finished 34th or worse in five of the last seven races. The team’s Achilles’ heel has been mechanical reliability, most recently in the last two road-course events. At Sonoma, LaJoie’s car suffered from a steering fitting failure. Last week at Road America, a T-bar in the steering rack broke before the green flag waved.

“Some of it’s bad luck; some of it’s being a little bit lean with people and processes,” LaJoie said. “Where a lot of teams have blueprints and they take the stuff from the suppliers apart and assemble them back together, that they’re a little more durable. And we don’t have that. You know, we just are trying to get the cars built, let alone fine-tune the parts that we’re getting from the vendors.

“We’ve found out all the little weak links of most of the parts unfortunately. And yeah, it stinks because we are certainly more capable of running considerably better than this.”

That is evidenced by LaJoie’s other finishes this year. Prior to his recent downturn, he strung together three straight top-20 finishes at Bristol dirt, Talladega and Dover. In the two races not thwarted by issues in this current seven-race span, LaJoie finished 19th at Kansas and 20th at Nashville.

“If we finish the race, we usually finish the top 20,” he said. “That’s just what it’s turned out. Rarely do we finish in the 20s. If our car makes it the whole way, we can be inside the top 20, which is a big goal for us. I think we’re capable. But if you’re sitting behind the wall, I can assure you, you don’t get the seat time learning new cars at whatever track you’re at, nor do you get the opportunity to contend for top 20s. So I can assure you everybody’s on board here trying to figure out how to make our cars last for the entire course of the race because nobody wins in that scenario.”

Atlanta could prove to be a boon for LaJoie, whose five career top-10 finishes all came at superspeedways, including his first career top five back in March. Hotter temperatures may make handling more critical in this week’s go-around, and teams will enter with a better understanding after many unknowns in the spring. LaJoie just hopes his early-season high mark can be replicated Sunday afternoon.

“Atlanta is absolutely a wild card,” he said. “I know William Byron won the first race, but that really can be anybody’s race if they position themselves right. And, you know, we’ve seen a lot of guys, Austin Cindric win the Daytona 500 being a rookie. We’ve seen Michael McDowell win the 500 last year.

“It’s just as much of a wild card in Atlanta this weekend as any speedway race, so hopefully we can be on the receiving end of a good run.”

Posted on July 6, 2022July 6, 2022 by Adam Fenwick

For the first time since 2019, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to the state of New Jersey and Wall Stadium Speedway for the Jersey Shore 150 this Saturday night.

Saturday’s race marks the fifth time the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will visit the third-mile high-banked oval, and the event serves as the eighth race on the 2022 schedule.

In four previous visits to Wall Stadium Speedway, the Tour has seen four different winners. Woody Pitkat was triumphant in the most recent Tour event at the facility, picking up a victory during the 2019 season.

Other winners at Wall include Reggie Ruggiero and brothers John Blewett III and Jimmy Blewett. The only previous NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winner at Wall Stadium Speedway scheduled to be in action Saturday is Jimmy Blewett.

Below is everything you need to know about Saturday’s Jersey Shore 150 at Wall Stadium Speedway.

Jersey Shore 150 at Wall Stadium Speedway

What to watch for:

If you’re looking for a favorite to win the Jersey Shore 150 this Saturday night at Wall Stadium Speedway, you need not look any further than New Jersey’s own Jimmy Blewett.

The 41-year-old Modified veteran, who will drive for Tommy Baldwin Racing Saturday night, is a four-time Wall Stadium Speedway Modified track champion with countless victories in a variety of divisions at the legendary high-banked oval. In his two previous Tour starts at his home track, he has one victory, two top-five and two top-two finishes.

He’ll do battle with a number of the Tour’s top stars, all of whom hope to deny the local boy a visit to Victory Lane.

Among those with whom Blewett will have to contend is Matt Hirschman, a multi-time winner of Wall Stadium Speedway’s annual Turkey Derby event. Hirschman already has a Tour win this year in the opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway.

Ron Silk enters the Jersey Shore 150 as the Tour championship leader and is one of only six drivers with two top-10 finishes in Tour events at Wall Stadium Speedway. His best finish of seventh came during the 2007 season.

Andrew Krause, whose family took over as promoters at Wall Stadium Speedway a few years ago, is the most recent Modified track champion at Wall Stadium Speedway. He’ll look to keep the Jersey Shore 150 in the family Saturday evening.

Justin Bonsignore, who started from the pole the last time the Tour visited Wall Stadium Speedway, will look to improve upon his finish of 13th in 2019. He has scored two victories this season, but mechanical problems in other races have kept him out of the championship hunt so far.

New Jersey native Danny Bohn returns to Tour competition during the Jersey Shore 150. The driver from Freehold, New Jersey, was a winner earlier this year in the season-opener at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and will be making his first Tour start since 2019.

Dave Sapienza scored one of his nine Tour top-five finishes at Wall Stadium Speedway in 2019 and is the only driver who finished in the top five that day who is scheduled to compete Saturday night.

Other competitors expected to compete include Patrick Emerling, Kyle Bonsignore, Eric Goodale, Tommy Catalano, Jake Johnson and Timmy Solomito.

The complete entry list for the Jersey Shore 150 is available here.

Tommy Catalano (54) leads a group of cars during the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Jersey Shore 150 on May 18, 2019 at Wall Stadium Speedway in Wall Township, New Jersey. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)

RACE FACTS

Race	Jersey Shore 150
Date	Saturday, July 9, 2022
Track	Wall Stadium Speedway
Layout	Third-mile paved oval
Location	Wall Township, New Jersey
Start time	8 p.m. ET
Laps	150
Posted awards	$83,763
TV channel	USA (Delayed: Friday, July 15, 6:30 p.m. ET)
Live stream	FloRacing (Live)

Schedule: Garage opens at 1 p.m. ET … Final practice from 3:30-4:30 p.m. ET … Single-car qualifying (two laps) at 6 p.m. ET … Race at 8 p.m. ET

Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Fastest lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Jersey Shore 150 is limited to 28 starters including Provisional Positions.

Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eight (8) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is zero (0) tires, any position.

Posted on July 6, 2022July 6, 2022 by Dustin Albino

From a young age, Mason Massey knew he wanted to be a NASCAR driver. But multiple times, he was close to calling it quits.

“When I was about 16 years old, I started thinking it might not happen,” Massey told NASCAR.com. “I never completely gave up on it, but I started to come to the realization that a lot has to happen for me to keep moving up.

“I’ve known I’ve had the talent to be here, but it’s hard to find everything to fall into place.”

Now, at just 25 years old, Massey is celebrating his 20th year of racing this season. Thus far, it’s been highlighted by a sixth-place run with DGM Racing at his home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The breakthrough run and avoiding a chunk of late-race incidents couldn’t have come at a better venue for the Massey family, as that’s the same track he competed for victories in bandoleros and legends cars. A native of nearby Douglasville, Georgia, he won multiple Thursday Thunder championships at AMS.

In 2012, Massey worked with Bill and Chase Elliott, driving a late model for Bill Elliott Racing, around the southeast. Together, the team won multiple times, including the Alabama 200.

Following Massey’s strong run at Atlanta, the 2020 Cup champion gave Massey some words of encouragement over Twitter.

“I’ve thought (Massey has) done a really good job this year,” Elliott said to NASCAR.com. “He’s not in a top-tier car, but he’s been able to get some good results. When you’re in that position, being able to run all the laps and finish the races and keeping yourself in a position to have a solid day, I think that’s really important.”

Before running all the ovals for DGM Racing this season, Massey was with BJ McLeod Motorsports for 22 of his 23 prior Xfinity starts. He also ran seven Camping World Truck Series races in 2019 with Reaume Brothers Racing, which he believes got himself back on the map.

“I had already given up on NASCAR because I had been racing local dirt racing in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee,” Massey added. “This opportunity with Josh popped up, and (Reaume) gave us a deal we couldn’t refuse.”

For the 2022 season, Massey knew he wanted an increased role in the Xfinity Series. When contemplating the landscape, he was impressed by the DGM race shop in Florida. He also watched the team grow over the last couple of seasons, contending weekly for top-15 finishes.

Admittedly, the DGM opportunity is the best of Massey’s career. Unfortunately, however, the No. 91 car has failed to qualify in his last two events at Charlotte and Nashville. Last weekend at Road America, Preston Pardus brought the No. 91 entry home 11th.

Whenever Massey is in the race, he’s typically been competitive, running near his DGM teammates. Aside from the top-10 run at Atlanta, he has top-20 efforts at Richmond (17th) and Texas (18th).

“I think it’s been a good year,” Mario Gosselin, DGM team owner and Massey’s crew chief, said. “He’s done a good job and had a couple mishaps that were not of his doing.”

Mayes Massey, Mason’s father, has been supporting his son since he began racing at 5 years old. Being a self-employed business owner, he could take off work when needed and spend long nights on the road, going from track to track with Mason. He was hoping it would eventually lead him to the promised land.

He wouldn’t trade that grind for anything.

“I’ve had so many friends walk up to me about the time and money we’ve put into it,” Mayes Massey said. “I wouldn’t trade the money back for the fun and the relationship I have with Mason for doing all of that. You can’t replace it. I would do it again tomorrow if he was 5 years old, knowing what I know now. It’s been a fun ride. To go run sixth at Atlanta was icing on the cake. My wife was like, ‘I don’t think I can be any happier if he won the race.’ I said, ‘I think you could.’ ”

Massey returns to Atlanta this weekend with additional confidence from his strong run in March. He also knows that if one day he turns the right heads and makes a good impression that he could find himself another rung up the ladder.

That would be his full-circle moment.

“I’ve wanted to be a Cup driver since I was a little (kid),” he said. “Now that I have this opportunity, it makes it seem a little more possible.”

Posted on July 5, 2022July 6, 2022 by Staff Report

Joe Gibbs Racing has made changes to the pit crews of Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace.

MORE: Atlanta schedule | Points standings

Ahead of Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), JGR has moved front tire changer Houston Stamper and tire carrier Joe Crossen to Wallace’s No. 23 team from Bell’s No. 20 Toyota.

Wallace’s former front changer Jackson Gibbs and tire carrier Nick McBeath head to Bell’s car from the No. 23 23XI Racing entry. Additionally, AJ Rosini joins the No. 20 team roster as rear changer in place of Daniel Olszowy. Joe Gibbs Racing provides pit crews for 23XI Racing’s entries driven by Wallace and Kurt Busch.

NBC Sports was the first to report the personnel changes. Joe Gibbs Racing representatives confirmed the switches to NASCAR.com.

The move comes two weeks after Wallace was left furious by pit-road mistakes that set the No. 23 team back at Nashville Superspeedway, issues that became trends over the season’s first 18 weeks.

Bell, meanwhile, holds the final spot in the playoff grid while eighth in the points standings, the result of four top fives and 10 top-10 finishes in 18 races. Wallace holds one top five and two top 10s this season.

Both drivers claimed their first Cup victories in 2021 — Bell on the Daytona road course and Wallace at Talladega Superspeedway.

Posted on July 5, 2022January 28, 2023 by Zack Albert

Hendrick Motorsports provided an update Tuesday on its collaboration with NASCAR for the 2023 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, offering insights from their delegates’ visit to the endurance classic last month.

Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of competition, was an attendee for the second consecutive year. The notes and observations from this most recent trip, he said, will help shape his approach as the program manager of the Garage 56 project for next year’s race.

“This was much more of a scouting trip to talk to vendors, get an idea of the environment from a racer’s standpoint and how to conduct the events throughout the course of the two weeks that you are over there,” Knaus said. “It was a lot to consume, for sure, but we learned an awful lot. I would definitely hate to go over to that place and try to compete without having some type of experience like we just did.

“I think it’s going to be very valuable to understand how they do scrutineering, how the race cadence goes and what happens throughout unloading, garage setup and environment teardown post-race. All of that was definitely valuable.”

The Garage 56 project was launched in March. NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports plan to base the special entry on the Next Gen stock car that debuted in the NASCAR Cup Series this season.

The spot in the field is reserved for an extra entry outside the usual maximum field, which is 62 cars. The designation is intended to spotlight technology and innovation.

Knaus said that among the next steps will be to build a working test vehicle, prepared with an assist from IMSA competitor Action Express Racing. Knaus did not divulge a testing schedule, but projected a build date for the actual Le Mans entry this fall.

“We will try to make sure that the implementation of the things we’ve changed that are different than the Next Gen stock car are functional and correct and work the way they are supposed to,” Knaus said. “If there are performance things we need to change or durability things we need to change, we start to get those implemented so that when we do build the real car – probably around November – it starts coming together that there are parts that are more tried and true as opposed to concept.”

Knaus also did not offer hints about a Garage 56 driver lineup. The NASCAR schedule for next season has yet to be released, so the availability of stock-car regulars for the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans event on June 10-11, 2023 has yet to be determined.

“We are a long ways away from (naming drivers),” Knaus said.

Posted on July 5, 2022 by Staff Report

Coca-Cola and Joe Gibbs Racing revealed Tuesday that Denny Hamlin will drive a classic, red-and-white No. 11 Toyota featuring the soft-drink brand in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The design — billed as Hamlin’s first with primary sponsorship from Coca-Cola — will hit the track for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM).

Hamlin has one career win (2012) and one pole (2010) at the Hampton, Ga., track, which was reconfigured and repaved ahead of this year’s racing events there. Coca-Cola is headquartered in nearby Atlanta.

Hamlin is among four active Cup Series drivers in the Coca-Cola Racing family, along with Austin Dillon, Joey Logano and Daniel Suárez. Hamlin’s most recent Cup Series win came in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.