Posted on by Press Release

On Monday afternoon, June 13, at 3:22 p.m., Jody Deery, the long time promoter at Rockford Speedway and a pillar of the community, passed away. Mrs. Deery was 97.

Starting in 1966, Mrs. Deery and her husband Hugh became sole owners of Rockford Speedway, which is celebrating its 75th year of operations in 2022. Following Hugh’s passing in July of 1984, Mrs. Deery became one of the first females to solely operate a racing venue in the United States.

In 1994, Mrs. Deery became the first female to win the prestigious “Auto Racing Promoter of the Year” award.

Mrs. Deery had also been on the nominating committee for the NASCAR Hall of Fame and on the voting panel for inductees since 2013.

Mrs. Deery officially retired from day-to-day duties at the track in September of 2020.

Funeral arrangements are currently being planned for a date in the near future.

Posted on by Jerry Bonkowski

Kevin Lepage may not have been the biggest name or most successful driver in NASCAR, but his blue-collar New England roots and how he treated fans throughout his three-plus decade racing career made him a winner if not on the track, then certainly off it.

Perhaps the best example of Lepage’s humility and how he always put fans first was back in the mid-1990s, shortly after moving from his home in Shelburne, Vermont to North Carolina to pursue his NASCAR dream in what is now the Xfinity Series.

Lepage was at the Asheboro (N.C.) Zoo, making an appearance for Make-A-Wish. He signed autographs for 50 children and had his primary sponsor at the time, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, send 50 teddy bears to give to each of the youngsters.

As late broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, let’s let Kevin tell the rest of the story. And spoiler alert, you might want to have a tissue handy:

“We gave a teddy bear to every child there,” Lepage told NASCAR.com. “When we got done, we noticed we still had two teddy bears left. I asked someone about two girls that were in wheelchairs that had been there earlier and they said the girls were getting overheated from being out in the sun, so they put them in an RV.

“So I went to the RV and gave each girl a teddy bear. One of the girls could barely see, just saw shadows, and had limited movement. I picked her arms up and put one of the teddy bears next to her and she had this big smile on her face. I was happy I made that little girl’s day.”

(Okay, you’ve been warned: get the tissue ready.)

“It’s still hard for me to talk about it,” Lepage said, his voice catching with emotion. “Because about two weeks later, I got a letter in the mail and the little girl had passed away.

“The note from her mom said, ‘Thank you for making my little girl’s last two weeks on Earth the happiest she’s ever been. She never let go of that bear until the day she died.’”

Lepage then soberly added, “Those are the kind of things I was able to experience and those are things I’ll take to the grave, that I made this little girl happy for two weeks.”

That’s the kind of guy Lepage was as a race car driver and still is today as a successful owner of a landscaping business near Mooresville, N.C. Even though he’s been out of NASCAR since 2014, his name and reputation as a fan favorite still precede him.

“I get a chance to meet a lot of our customers who either saw me racing or recognize the name from racing,” he said.

In a sense, Lepage has NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott to thank for starting him on the path to the next chapter of his life once racing would finally come to an end.

“I was at Watkins Glen racing one weekend and Bill motioned me over and asked what am I doing after this?” Lepage said. “I said I was getting on the airplane and going back to North Carolina. He said, ‘No, no, what are you doing after you get done driving?’ I told him I really hadn’t thought about it.

“He said, ‘Well, this is not a forever job. You really have to think about the future because a lot of my competitors raced until whenever and then when they were done racing, they were like, ‘What do we do now?’”

When he returned to his Mooresville, N.C. home, Lepage and wife Donna – who ironically was one of his spotters in his early racing days back in New England – mulled over different businesses and felt a landscaping business would be a good choice. His love for the outdoors and indifference towards landscaping spearheaded their search for a company.

Almost as if it was fate or divine intervention, “a few weeks later there was a company that came up for sale and we bought it. From that point on, we just grew it to where it is today.”

Ironically, upon purchasing the business, Lepage moved it into a new location he was quite familiar with: his old race shop.

The Lepages have been the proud owners of Matrix Lawn and Landscaping since 2007, which employs six workers, including Kevin. They intentionally keep their customer base small, roughly 100 customers, because Lepage believes in giving a personal touch that larger firms – like larger race teams – just can’t offer these days.

“[The landscaping business] keeps me busy,” he said. “I do a lot of the mechanic work, all the billing, all the bidding on new properties, meeting with customers, pretty much a jack of all trades and master of none [he said with another laugh].

“And then when we get some real big landscape jobs, I drive the dump truck or mulch to give the guys a hand. So I keep myself busy during the week doing that.”

Which leaves the weekends for golf, which was a replacement for his love of auto racing. While he occasionally watches a NASCAR race on TV, Lepage admits he hasn’t been to a race track in person for six years.

But the memories Lepage has will stay with him forever. At the top of the list is his never-ending love for his native Vermont. Even though he’s now lived nearly 30 years in North Carolina, he never forgets that he’s from New England.

“Being from Vermont holds a special place in my heart,” Lepage said. “I’m the only guy from Vermont that’s ever made it to NASCAR. When we left in 1994 to come down [to North Carolina], Las Vegas lost a lot of money against us because a lot of people in Vermont thought we’d be back in a couple of weeks or months. But we proved them wrong.”

In fact, Lepage is part of a unique triumvirate who raced against each other, and all moved from New England to find fame and fortune in NASCAR. Those others are Ricky Craven from Maine and Randy LaJoie, father of current NASCAR Cup star Corey LaJoie, from Connecticut.

“It was good to come down and represent New England and Vermont,” Lepage said, who then related a story of something NASCAR Hall of Fame broadcaster Ken Squier once told him. “Ken told me when I got a ride down here, ‘Never forget where you came from.’ That’s why any time I filled out an entry form [to enter a NASCAR race], it was always Kevin Lepage from Shelburne, Vermont, it wasn’t Kevin Lepage from Mooresville, North Carolina or wherever. For me to represent the state, we’re very proud of that and are still proud of that.”

Unlike other racers from New England who maybe raced in late models or modifieds early in their career, Lepage started in 1980 in a NASCAR North car.

“I didn’t run any support divisions, I just went right into stock-car racing,” he said.

Lepage’s path to racing success was short – very short, that is. He followed in the footsteps of his older brother Rick, who raced primarily at the 0.33-mile Catamount Speedway (now known as Catamount Stadium) in Milton, Vermont.

As Lepage was practicing for his first race in an undercard event at Catamount, a long-time observer tapped Kevin’s father, who owned the race car, on the shoulder and pointed Lepage out.

“The other guy then said to my dad, ‘I’ve been timing him for the last 20 laps, and he hasn’t varied over a tenth [of a second].’ For never being in a car, that was it. I wound up winning the heat race and finished 10th in the feature.”

Lepage added with a laugh, “the next morning, my dad fired my brother and put me in the car full-time.”

Kevin would go on to significant success at both Catamount as well as throughout Vermont and New England for more than a decade before deciding to chase his NASCAR dream in North Carolina at the age of 32.

Lepage would spend the next 22 years competing in a combined 551 Cup and Busch/Xfinity races, plus seven starts in the Camping World Truck Series. He walked away from the sport following the 2014 season at the age of 52 – but never officially retired.

Well, not until 2017, that is. This leads to another great story from Lepage, which unfortunately did not quite have the ending he hoped it would.

“I went back to Vermont to my old racetrack [Thunder Road International SpeedBowl] to run my last race and to say thank you to all my fans up there, fellow Vermonters and New Englanders,” Lepage said. “I wasn’t there to win the race, I was just there to say goodbye. They didn’t give me a past champion’s [provisional] or promoter’s option, and we missed [qualifying for the main event] by one spot and I didn’t get in.

“It was pretty disappointing because the grandstands were packed. As a past winner, I was introduced and told everyone thank you for coming, but I wasn’t going to race, and I thought we were going to have a damn riot. It was a pretty crappy deal. So, officially, I haven’t run my last race, but technically, I’m not going back in a race car. I had a great time.”

Lepage raced for numerous teams, owners and sponsors in his NASCAR career. Unfortunately, many of those operations were underfunded, closed their doors or couldn’t provide quality, competitive equipment for Lepage to drive.

He did have some high points, though, including racing for two and half seasons in the Cup Series for Jack Roush before the team folded. He had better success in the Xfinity Series, earning his only two NASCAR wins at Homestead in 1996 and Bristol in 1998.

Looking back at his career, Lepage has just one regret.

“That we never won a Cup race,” he said. “But my takeaway from that is there were probably 10 races that we should have won and a freak accident, running over a piece of debris, or cutting a tire down late in the race that took us out. You just can’t control that.”

In addition to that one regret, Lepage also has one lament, the 1996 Busch Series season where he finished a career-best eighth, including his first win at Homestead.

“We had a car that was going to win at least 10 races,” he said. “Out of those 10, we had at least four that something went wrong in.”

During this interview, Lepage never bragged or touted what he did in his career. Rather, he took the most pride in what he did outside a race car.

“It was just being gracious to the fans,” he said. “The one thing I’ve always told people, I never liked to perform in front of an empty grandstand, because at the end of the day, we’re performers and we have fans there that come watch us race.

“I always hated to race on Mondays after a Sunday rainout because there were so few in the grandstands. I used to love signing autographs. If there was a two-hour session, I could have gone two more hours, I liked signing autographs and talking with fans so much.”

And one bit of advice he’d impart to countless numbers of those fans was, knowing him, vintage Kevin Lepage.

“Regardless of age or profession you want to do, just chase it, follow your dream,” Lepage said. “Before I came down here, one of my customers was sad that he didn’t chase his dream. He was in his 70s and said he wished he would have, instead of saying ‘I tried and I either made it or didn’t make it, but at least I tried.’ Don’t wish because wishes don’t come true unless you chase them. And if you make it or don’t make it, you’ll never be sorry down the road because at least you tried.”

And Kevin Paul Lepage most certainly embodies that spirit. He chased his dream and he tried for nearly 20 years.

“I had a long career, an awesome career, a lot of great cars, met a lot of great fans, traveled the U.S. and went to Mexico for a race,” Lepage said. “It was just an awesome time in racing.”

*********************************

The Kevin Lepage File:

* Age: 59 (turns 60 on June 26)

* Hometown: Shelburne, Vermont. Now lives in Mooresville, N.C.

* Wife: Donna. Adult daughters Amity (works and lives in New England) and Roxanne (works and lives in Florida).

Career highlights:

* NASCAR Cup career: 201 races, 0 wins, 2 top-five and 9 top-10 finishes. Also 1 pole. Best season finish: 25th (1999).

* NASCAR Xfinity Series career: 350 races, 2 wins, 19 top-five and 51 top-10 finishes. Also 4 poles. Best season finish: 8th in 1996.

* NASCAR Truck Series career: 7 races, 0 wins, 0 top-5, 0 top-10 finishes. Best season finish: never ran a full season in the series.

Veteran motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski specializes in writing Where Are They Now? stories for NASCAR.com. Among those he’s done to date include Tim Brewer, Steve Grissom, Johnny Benson, Stacy Compton, Mike Bliss, Doug Richert, Brian Scott, Robby Gordon, Ricky Craven, Terry Labonte, Kenny Wallace, Trevor Bayne, Ken Schrader, Shawna Robinson, Sam Hornish Jr., Bobby Labonte, Greg Biffle, Ricky Rudd, Darrell Waltrip, Mark Martin, Marcos Ambrose and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Follow Jerry on Twitter @JerryBonkowski.

Posted on by Brandon White

Josh Berry christened Hickory Motor Speedway’s newest crown jewel event with a dominant performance in Saturday’s Jack Ingram Memorial 111.

After passing Ryan Millington shortly before the halfway point, not a single driver could touch Berry, who proceeded to easily hold off his JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil for another victory in his storied Late Model Stock career.

FLORACING: Follow Hickory Motor Speedway all season long

By winning the Jack Ingram Memorial 111, Berry now has victories in every single active crown jewel at Hickory that includes the Fall Brawl and Bobby Isaac Memorial. Berry’s accomplishments at Hickory also include a track championship back in 2014

Below are the key takeaways from Berry’s victory in the Jack Ingram Memorial 111 at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Josh Berry still efficient in Late Model Stocks

Despite being familiar with Hickory and having boss Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the grand marshal for the Jack Ingram Memorial 111, Berry was initially unsure if his car would be strong enough to win Saturday’s feature.

Berry admitted to feeling rusty with his NASCAR Xfinity Series commitments keeping him away from Late Model Stock competition, but he quickly found his groove after settling into his rhythm and pulling away from the rest of the field during the second half of the Jack Ingram Memorial 111.

“By no means is it easy to run these races,” Berry said. “Every time I come and do this, it’s a little bit harder. I felt pretty good about our car in practice. It didn’t have the speed I wanted, but the longevity and feel that I wanted. You just never know how these races are going to play out.”

Berry knew tire conservation was going to be important in a longer race at Hickory like the Jack Ingram Memorial 111, but he elected to push earlier than normal after two early multi-car accidents eliminated several cars from contention.

Once he was able to set his own pace at the front and fully utilize the clear air in front of him, Berry was able to cruise to Victory Lane and celebrate in front of one of the largest crowds he had ever seen at Hickory.

Berry said Saturday evening’s event would not have been possible without the hard work Hickory general manager Kevin Piercy, Dale Jr. and everyone else put in to make the Jack Ingram Memorial 111 a success in its first year.

“[Jack] is an amazing racer,” Berry said. “To win the first race in his honor is amazing. Hopefully this is something we can continue for years, but I think we all need to thank Dale Earnhardt Jr. for coming here. We had an amazing crowd, so to see all the hard work that went into making this happen pay off was pretty cool.”

Layne Riggs finishes third after wild evening

The Jack Ingram Memorial 111 was slightly more eventful than Layne Riggs had anticipated when he took the green flag on Saturday evening.

After pitting from the front to tighten up his car, Riggs ended up getting involved in two separate on-track accidents but still managed to methodically work his way through the field and come home with a solid third-place finish.

“At the beginning of the race, I thought we were way too loose,” Riggs said. “I had to use more tire to stay where I wanted to, so we made the bold move to pit since it was a long race. It was just a brutal race, and I hated to see so many cars get tore up, but we worked our way back up to the front.”

Riggs said it was the right call to come in early and make those adjustments with Saturday’s race being 111 laps in length. The risk led to Riggs having to overcome additional adversity, but he felt that simply staying out would have relegated him to back half of the Top 10 once the checkered flag flew.

Layne Riggs during the Late Model Stock race during the Jack Ingram Memorial at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway on June 11, 2022. (Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)

A bad night is something Riggs cannot afford, as he is still in contention for his first NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national title. He entered the Jack Ingram Memorial second in the standings just 42 points behind Peyton Sellers.

Riggs is confident he can erase that deficit and challenge Sellers for the title, but he said settling for top fives will not be enough for him to accomplish that goal.

“We’re just going to have to win races,” Riggs said. “A third was a good points night, but hopefully we can get us some wins. It was good that we had a full field [on Saturday], but we have nine wins so far and we need nine more. We’ve got until September to get those wins.”

Isabella Robusto leads early, finishes sixth

A sixth-place finish for Isabella Robusto in the Jack Ingram Memorial 111 did not properly reflect the stellar evening she had at Hickory.

Robusto managed to qualify on the outside of the front row and briefly paced the field during the opening laps, but she said being more conservative early on would have given her a better chance against Josh Berry, Carson Kvapil and the rest of the front runners.

“To have a chance at the win, I knew I had to stay in front of Josh [Berry],” Robusto said. “I got out there and ran out front as hard as I could, but I think I used a little too much tires at the beginning. That cost us at the end, but we’re getting stronger with every race, and I feel a win coming for sure.”

A member of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, Robusto has gradually been gaining more experience at tracks all around the East Coast that include Hickory, South Boston Speedway and Tri-County Motor Speedway.

Robusto believes she is much smoother on the pedals and more efficient with her exits now compared to her first Late Model Stock appearance and believes that knowledge has enabled her to become more consistent regardless of where she races.

Isabella Robusto during the Jack Ingram Memorial at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway on June 11, 2022. (Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)

Her performance in the Jack Ingram Memorial 111 has only given Robusto more confidence in herself as a driver. While she was disappointed Saturday did not yield a better finish, Robusto plans to build upon the knowledge obtained from that race as she looks to finally visit Victory Lane.

“I’ve just got to put all the pieces together,” Robusto said. “I’m figuring it all out right now. I had a pretty good run going [on Saturday], but I just need to save a little bit more. I definitely feel that these next few races are going to go pretty good.”

NOTES:

  • Current Hickory Motor Speedway points leader Landon Huffman, who sits fifth in the Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national standings, endured an eventful evening that saw him suffer a flat tire and get involved in an accident. Huffman still managed to salvage a decent showing with an eighth-place run.
  • Kevin Harvick Inc. Management driver Brent Crews was among the 26 cars that took the green flag in Saturday’s Jack Ingram Memorial 111. Crews avoided trouble for most of the evening and came home seventh, one lap behind race-winner Josh Berry.
  • Also in the field was Clark Houston, who is the son of Andy Houston and grandson of Tommy Houston, both of whom are former Hickory track champions. Unfortunately for Clark, his night ended after just four laps when he was involved in an accident not of his making.
Posted on by Staff Report

The last time Chris Buescher was seen on a race track, his car was upside down after a wild tumble in the frontstretch turf at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He missed last weekend’s inaugural Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway because of COVID-19, but on Sunday turned in a whale of a comeback.

RELATED: Official race results | At-track photos

Buescher wheeled the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford to a runner-up finish Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, giving chase to eventual first-time winner Daniel Suárez but coming home 3.849 seconds back at the finish. The result was bittersweet for the 29-year-old Texan — a too-close brush with his first win of the year, but also a posting of his first top-five run of the season.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

“What a way to return and come back to the race track, but I didn’t get the job done there at the end,” said Buescher, who started third. “I feel like we should have had the win and I didn’t get it. We were close, just needed more. I needed to make it happen on that restart and I didn’t. But if we can keep getting cars like this then a win will come. It was an awesome run, and I should be happy, but I am disappointed to be that close and not get it.”

Buescher nearly had his season-best outcome derailed by a penalty in the closing laps of Stage 2 in the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Buescher drove to pit road for a stop, and his No. 17 crew was initially flagged for throwing equipment with an errant fuel can. That penalty would have cost him valuable track position, but competition officials rescinded the penalty after a video review.

That ruling gave Buescher third place at the end of Stage 2, adding eight points to his day’s total.

Buescher lost three spots in the Cup Series standings after sitting out last weekend with COVID-19. Sunday, he regained two positions to grab 22nd in the points in what’s been a topsy-turvy season. Buescher earned his first career pole position for last month’s race at Dover Motor Speedway, but had only three top-10 results before Sunday’s run at Sonoma.

The result gave him two top-three finishes in the Cup Series’ last three road-course races, a span that includes his third-place outcome last October at the Charlotte Roval.

Posted on by Staff Report

Kevin Harvick’s fourth-place finish Sunday at Sonoma Raceway made his sixth top-six finish in the last seven races at the California road course, but it was of little consolation to the Stewart-Haas Racing driver.

Over a 20-second pit stop on Lap 81 (of 110) took Harvick’s No. 4 Ford out of contention for the win. And despite rallying for a top-five finish, not being near the front to challenge eventual race winner Daniel Suárez hurt Harvick badly in the larger playoff picture, too.

“Our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang was good. We had our minimum of once-a-week catastrophic failure on pit road and got back as far forward as we could, as usual,” Harvick said after the race. “It is what it is, I guess. We didn’t finish where we should have.”

“I mean, we took away all of our chances,” Harvick added. “We should have been second at worst but we keep screwing up every week.”

Trouble on the left side resulted in a final pit stop of 22 seconds, according to Racing Insights. Harvick’s previous two stops on the day were 11.51 and 11.57 seconds, for comparison.

Harvick’s post-race comments followed his immediate in-race scanner chatter after the slow stop: “I swear to God, we look like the biggest (expletive) bunch of wankers every single week on pit road.”

With Harvick too far back to seriously challenge, Suárez pulled away for his first NASCAR Cup Series win, topping Chris Buescher (P2) and Michael Dowell (P3). It’s an automatic playoff berth for the Trackhouse Racing driver, despite being 17th in the regular-season standings.

RELATED: Official results | Cup Series standings

Austin Cindric, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin also have wins and are below 16th in the regular-season standings. That means Harvick, who jumped to 12th in the standings following Sonoma, is out of the playoffs as it currently stands, sitting seven points behind teammate Aric Almirola for the final spot.

Posted on by Staff Report

Daniel Suárez earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway, becoming the first Mexican-born driver to win a race at the sport’s highest level.

RELATED: Race recap | Official results | At-track photos

Suárez, the 2016 Xfinity Series champion, was showered with congratulations from his fellow competitors, celebrities, some of the sport’s legends and others after collecting the victory in his 195th career start.

 

Posted on by Holly Cain

“Win Numero Uno.” Those were the words on the flag Mexican driver Daniel Suárez held out the window of his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet as he turned celebratory donuts on the frontstretch of Sonoma Raceway on Sunday afternoon in the ecstatic first moments of his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Suárez’s No. 99 Chevrolet pulled away from runner-up Chris Buescher’s RFK Racing Ford in the closing laps to take an impressive 3.849-second maiden Cup Series win on the 1.99-mile Northern Californian road course – the third victory of the season for the second-year Trackhouse Racing team whose members rushed over the pit road wall to embrace their driver and celebrate the historic achievement.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

With the win, in his 195th Cup Series start, Suárez becomes the fifth different driver not born in the United States to win in the premier series; joining Marcos Ambrose (Australia), Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia), Earl Ross (Canada) and Mario Andretti (Italy). And he did so convincingly. He led a race-best 47 of the 110 laps and ultimately took one of the largest margins of victory on the season.

Suárez, the 2016 Xfinity Series champion, screamed in joy on his team radio on the cool-down lap and after exiting his car, smashed a piñata.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Congratulations soon came in from across the racing world on social media – including former seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson – all before Suárez had even hoisted his trophy.

“I have so many thoughts in my head right now,” an emotional Suárez said, thanking his team owner Justin Marks, his family, and “all the people who helped me get to this point.”

“So very happy we were able to make it work,” Suárez added, saying of his team, “They believed in me from day one.”

He then offered a message of thanks in Spanish to the large crowd of his “Amigos” — the name of his fan club cheering trackside — and ended it in English by promising, “this is one of many.”

The 30-year-old Suárez, from Monterrey, Mexico, is now the 12th different winner of the 2022 season – and fourth first-time winner.

MORE: Suárez lands historic first

The top-four finishing drivers Sunday were all looking for their first win of the season. Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell finished third, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick in fourth.

This year’s Daytona 500 winner, Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Austin Cindric was fifth, followed by his Team Penske Racing teammate Ryan Blaney. Suárez’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain was seventh, followed by Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and William Byron.

Buescher’s RFK Racing teammate and team co-owner Brad Keselowski was 10th – his best finish since a ninth-place showing in the season-opening Daytona 500.

For much of the early going, it looked like Elliott and his Hendrick teammate – defending race winner Kyle Larson – would decide the win. But both had to overcome uncharacteristic pit-stop miscues that allowed Suárez to essentially dominate the closing laps.

Elliot, who led 26 laps, pitted outside his box and had to serve a penalty that put him 34th — last in the field among those still running. His rally to an eighth-place finish was impressive considering the adventurous day.

Larson, the pole-sitter who also led 26 laps and won Stage 1, had a right-front wheel come off his Chevrolet heading into Turn 2 right after a pit stop. His team now faces a mandatory penalty for that infraction that includes a four-race suspension for the team’s crew chief (Cliff Daniels) and both the tire changer and jackman. The defending series champion finished 15th.

On an upside, however, the combined 52 laps led by Elliott and Larson topped the 100,000 all-time miles led mark for Hendrick Motorsports – most in NASCAR history.

With his top-10 finish, Elliott still holds a 16-point advantage on Chastain in the Cup Series championship standings.

The Cup Series has its only “off week” of the season next week but will return to competition on June 26 in the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway (5 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson won the inaugural race there in 2021.

NOTE: Inspection in the Cup Series garage is complete with no issues, confirming Daniel Suárez as the race winner.


Posted on by Terrin Waack

Daniel Suárez has made history.

The 30-year-old Suárez became the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race on June 12 at Sonoma Raceway, steering his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet to the checkered flag.

The victory came in Suárez’s 195th career start at NASCAR’s top level.

“It’s a crazy day. I have so many thoughts in my head right now,” Suárez said, becoming emotional in his victory celebration. “I mean, it’s been a rough road. It’s been a rough journey in the Cup Series. These guys believe in me — Trackhouse Racing, Justin Marks, Ty Norris. Everyone that helped me to get to this point. A lot of people in Mexico: Jay Morales, Carlos Slim. My family, they never gave up on me. A lot of people did, but they didn’t. … Just very happy we were able to make it work.”

RELATED: Race recap: Suárez dominates late | At-track photos

Suárez becomes the fifth Cup Series winner born outside the United States. The others: Aussie Marcos Ambrose, Italian-born Mario Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia and Canadian Earl Ross.

Suárez is a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. Before going national, Suárez spent a good chunk of time in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, which is now known as the ARCA Menards Series East.

Where Suárez first made his name known was the NASCAR Peak Mexico Series. The Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, native had his first stock-car start there on Sept. 6, 2009. He had four starts that year but then raced five full-time seasons through the 2014 season. Suárez won 10 times between 2012-14, placing a career-best runner-up in the 2013 final standings. His career then took off.

“I’m extremely proud to be the driver from Mexico, the driver from a different background,”  Suárez previously told NASCAR.com. “I don’t feel that the sport could have found someone more committed to myself, my culture and my background.”

During his first season with Trackhouse in 2021, Suárez scored one top-five and four top-10 results. He led laps in five different races for a total of 74 laps out front. He averaged a 20.1 finish and placed 25th in the standings.

Suarez Win Graphic

In just the second event of 2022, Suárez matched his best run from 2021. He came in fourth at Auto Club Speedway, tying his mark in the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Race last season. He also finished fourth three weeks after that at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Safe to say, Suárez is more comfortable and confident in Year 2 with Trackhouse.

“We’re going to win a few races very soon here,” Suárez said after Auto Club. “I just can’t thank everyone enough in my team. We had a fast car, but we went through a lot of adversity. … I’m happy and I’m honored at the same time. I can tell you that I’m going to work very, very hard to go to Victory Lane very, very soon here.”

Before Trackhouse, Suárez raced for Gaunt Brothers Racing in 2020. In 2019, Suárez had a career-best four top-five showings, along with 11 top-10 runs. He piloted Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 41 Ford at the time.

From 2017-18, Suárez was with Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 19 Toyota. His first career Cup Series start came on Feb. 26, 2017,  in the Daytona 500, where he placed 29th. His career-best finish — up until his breakthrough win — was a runner-up on July 29, 2018, at Pocono Raceway.

Suárez dominated the Xfinity Series the year before. He won the 2016 title and earned the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award with three wins, 19 top fives and 27 top 10s. It was his second full-time season in the Xfinity Series, both of which were spent with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Marks announced Trackhouse’s formation in October 2020, tabbing Suárez as his driver. Not long after, Armando Perez — better known as Pitbull – became a team partner. Ross Chastain joined the fold before the 2022 season as Suarez’s teammate in the No. 1 Chevy, and he has won twice in 2022.

There’s a strong foundation in place despite the team’s youth.

“You look to my career in the last few years, I haven’t had consistency, and I feel like consistency in racing is something super important,” Suárez said when the team was revealed. “If you can’t have consistency, you cannot be successful. It was very important for me to know I’m going to have everything I need to be competitive and successful — not just next year but as well for what is after that.”

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App | Watch on USA Network | Get the NBC Sports App | Watch on Peacock | FloRacing

Monday, June 13NASCAR  FS1
NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., Motormouths, Peacock
NASCAR  FS1

Tuesday, June 14
NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Wednesday, June 15
7:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., Motormouths, Peacock

Thursday, June 16
2 p.m., ARCA Menards Series West: General Tire 200 at Sonoma Raceway (re-air), USA Network
3 p.m., ARCA Menards Series West: General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), USA Network
NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Friday, June 17
NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Saturday, June 18
12 a.m., NASCAR
NASCAR8 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: NCWTS at Knoxville Raceway, FS1
9 p.m., NASCAR

On MRN:
8:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Clean Harbor 150 at Knoxville Raceway

Sunday, June 19
8 a.m., NASCAR
10:30 a.m., NASCAR

Posted on by Staff Report

As the Next Gen era continues to bring a revitalized sense of “new” to NASCAR, President Steve Phelps emphasized earlier this week that the commitment to fresh ideas is here to stay.

Phelps highlighted a focus on remaining inventive with the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, highlighted by the return of The Clash to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2023, which was announced Sunday.

RELATED: Bookmark Clash 2023 page

“We’re going to be bold and innovative,” Phelps said Thursday in San Francisco. “I think we’ve done that, whether you’re talking about scheduling innovation, think about going to the LA Coliseum and running an exhibition race. The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. We never would have done that, right?

“First time any of us heard that, they brought it to me, I’m like, ‘Can we do that?’ It was important. So we’re going to be bold. We’re going to be innovative. We’re going to keep mashing the gas, if you will. That’s been the success of NASCAR over the last two-and-a-half years, is doing things that are unexpected, going to places that are unexpected.”

Dating back to the 2020 season, NASCAR’s premier series has raced on eight tracks that featured either new configurations (Bristol Dirt, Indianapolis and Daytona road courses) or entirely new venues (Circuit of The Americas, Road America, Nashville, LA Coliseum, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway).

Taking those risks, Phelps said, is what he hopes NASCAR will be known for.

“We want to get to a point where people are actually saying, ‘Well, that’s actually what I would expect from NASCAR,’ as opposed to just sitting back and (saying), ‘Hey, we’re running a race here, it’s great,’ ” Phelps said.

Fresh venues produce exhilarating racing, with notable story lines stemming from last weekend’s inaugural race at Gateway. The Cup schedule for 2023 has yet to be announced, but the philosophy remains the same: keep it fresh.

“We’re really excited (about) what the future holds,” Phelps said. “I think more schedule innovation is in our future. What that looks like, I don’t know. But we’re poised to be able to continue the success we’ve had for our media partners, our sponsors, and most importantly from our fans.

“The winners in all of this, frankly, have been the fans. It’s really just this terrific racing that these guys are putting on with the Next Gen car.”