Posted on by Brandon White

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Langley Speedway

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  • Practice Results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Best Tm Best Speed In Lap Laps Diff
1 7 Doug Coby John Blewett Inc. 15.705 90.774 24 24
2 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine and Future Homes 15.758 90.468 35 39 0.053
3 64 Austin Beers* Dell Electric/Lumiere Electrical 15.765 90.428 50 50 0.06
4 79 Jon McKennedy Middlesex Interiors 15.785 90.314 46 46 0.08
5 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munn’s Auto 15.812 90.159 36 36 0.107
6 82 Craig Lutz Danny’s Cesspool Pool Service 15.826 90.08 23 27 0.121
7 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communication Inc. 15.826 90.08 27 50 0.121
8 58 Eric Goodale GAF Roofing 15.84 90 32 33 0.135
9 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprara 15.843 89.983 34 37 0.138
10 34 J.B. Fortin Red Camel Racing/Johns Fuel/John Tree Removal 15.908 89.615 32 37 0.203
11 3 Jake Johnson* Propane Plus/Huntington Honda 15.967 89.284 34 41 0.262
12 2 J.R.  Bertuccio, Jr. Gershow Recycling 15.97 89.267 28 37 0.265
13 5 Kyle Ebersole Ebersole Excavating Technique Chassis Ford 15.985 89.184 36 36 0.28
14 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood Market & Restaurant 16.176 88.131 22 28 0.471
15 77 Gary Putnam CURB Records 16.249 87.735 36 36 0.544
16 99 Jamie Tomaino Dunleavy’s 16.305 87.433 17 17 0.6
17 78 Walter Sutcliffe, Jr. Last Minute Racing 16.624 85.756 6 27 0.919
18 26 Gary McDonald Lakeland Landscape/TRC Electrict 16.644 85.652 2 43 0.939
19 01 Melissa Fifield Pine Knoll Auto Sales 17.278 82.51 4 31 1.573
Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 27, 2022) — T. Taylor Warren, whose famous photograph of the 1959 Daytona 500 finish helped determine the winner of the race, has been named the recipient of the 2023 Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. He is the first photojournalist to win the prestigious award named after Ken Squier and Barney Hall, the first two recipients.

Warren began photographing race cars at the Milwaukee Fairgrounds in 1948 and was hired by Bill France Sr. to photograph the Daytona Beach Road Course in 1952.  He went on to become the track photographer at Daytona International Speedway, where he worked every Daytona 500 until his death in 2008.

“While T. Taylor Warren was best known for his photo of the 1959 Daytona 500 finish, his photographs brought NASCAR to our fans for nearly six decades,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France. “Through his work for NASCAR, race tracks and countless motorsports outlets, his images were often the only way for fans to see the action from the race track. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to NASCAR photography, no one was more prolific than T. Taylor.”

A portrait of photographer T. Taylor Warren
RacingOne

In addition to his work for NASCAR and tracks, Warren shot photos for several racing magazines, most notably Southern MotoRacing

Warren has been honored with several prestigious awards. In 2006, he became the first photographer to win the International Motorsports Hall of Fame’s Henry T. McLemore Award for achievement in journalism. He posthumously won the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Myers Brothers Award in 2008 for outstanding contributions to the sport of stock car racing. He was also inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame in January of 2009.

Warren will be honored during NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony festivities on Jan. 20, 2023 and featured in an exhibit in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Tickets to the Induction Weekend events are available at NASCARHall.com.

The other seven nominees for the award were:

Russ Catlin, one of the best-known early racing writers and historians; editor of Speed Age Magazine

George Cunningham, long-time beat writer for The Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Constitution and NASCAR Scene; is the namesake for the annual NMPA award for Excellence in Writing

Shav Glick, covered motorsports for the Los Angeles Times for 37 years bringing NASCAR coverage to the West Coast

Mike Harris, spent 30 years as the lead motorsports writer for the Associated Press

Bob Montgomery, co-founder and announcer for the Universal Racing Network

Bob Moore, spent more than 20 years as a NASCAR beat writer including stints with the Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Charlotte Observer

Deb Williams, the first woman to receive the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

Editor’s note: Kyle Larson will be spotlighted in USA Network’s new unscripted series “Race for the Championship” airing this fall. The first episode is Thursday, Sept. 1, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Watch the trailer here.

___

After Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen, noted road-course expert AJ Allmendinger offered high praise for race winner Kyle Larson, calling the 2021 champion ‘the most badass driver on the planet right now.’ The comments came after Larson outdueled Allmendinger in both the Xfinity and Cup Series races for a weekend sweep.

RELATED: Larson’s Cup wins | Xfinity Series standings

As Larson prepared for Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (10 a.m. ET, CNBC, Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM), the Hendrick Motorsports driver said what it meant to receive that compliment.

“That means a lot to me. I’ve always had a lot of respect for him,” Larson said. “Coming from a guy who’s got a versatile background of racing, too, it made me feel really good. Having him breathing down my neck both days was definitely a nervous feeling. It makes you happier when you beat a guy like that.”

Both Allmendinger and Larson have developed a knack for exceptional driving on road courses. Larson picked up victories at Sonoma, Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval last season while Allmendinger’s two career Cup wins have come on road courses (Watkins Glen, Indy Road Course) and nine of his 13 Xfinity wins have come on tracks with left and right turns.

In the past, Allmendinger could only display his road-course prowess twice every season with Sonoma and Watkins Glen making up the entire road-course schedule, but NASCAR’s willingness to build a diverse schedule has created more opportunities for Allmendinger and other road-course aces to display their exceptional talent.

Even though road courses weren’t prominent a few years ago, Larson said that he always felt he could be successful on them despite the results not showing before 2021.

“Speaking for myself, I took them pretty serious even when there were only two,” Larson said. “For the drivers who maybe didn’t feel like they’re a good road racer, I feel like now they maybe spend more time in the simulator and doing things to try to get themselves better because there is more of them. I feel like I’ve always adapted well to road courses. Before I got to Hendrick, I never was like a good driver in the race because I felt like my car wasn’t capable of being good on the long runs.”

While competing against each other during a handful of weekends in the Cup and Xfinity Series this season, Larson emphasized that he’s a big fan of Allmendinger and will be cheering for the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet through the remainder of the Xfinity Series season. Allmendinger currently is the series points leader and a championship favorite.

“I look forward to seeing how he does in the Xfinity Series as we progress this season,” Larson said. “I’ve been cheering for him the most out of everybody for the last couple of years because he’s kinda the underdog in my eyes. I’ll be cheering him on and hoping to see him win a championship.” 

Larson will have one more shot at another road-course win this season in the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Roval — a race he won last year in route to a series championship.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Friday night’s bizarre, attrition-filled, rain-delayed NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway produced an appropriately unexpected outcome when Jeremy Clements took the checkered flag under caution at the end of the third attempt at overtime.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos

Clements’ victory in the Wawa 250, a race that started roughly three hours late and ended shortly before 1:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, was his first at Daytona and the second of his career. Both of Clements’ victories have come during the month of August, his first at Road America on Aug. 27, 2017.

“I’m speechless, man—I don’t even know what to say,” said Clements, who grabbed a playoff spot with the victory and shoved Ryan Sieg into 13th place in the standings, 12 points below the cut line. “We survived that big wreck back there (in the first overtime). It was like a ‘Days of Thunder’ wreck.

“Then I was like, ‘If we can just keep up with these guys, it’ll be a good day—top five and bring this car home in one piece.’ But, wow! This is incredible.”

As race leader Austin Hill lost electrical power and steered his Chevrolet to the apron, Clements got a push from Sage Karam on the third overtime restart on Lap 117 and was out front on the final lap when NASCAR called the 11th caution for Riley Herbst’s spin on the backstretch. Timmy Hill finished second, followed by AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Brown and Karam, who posted his career-best finish.

Eighteen of the 38 cars that started the race were already in the garage when Clements took the checkered flag.

A massive multicar wreck on Lap 98 of a scheduled 100 sent the race to overtime. First, Landon Cassill’s Chevrolet slapped the outside wall and collided with Jeb Burton’s Camaro.

WATCH: Big wreck collects over 10 cars

Then, at the front of the field, Daniel Hemric moved down the track and turned off the nose of Noah Gragson’s JR Motorsports Chevrolet, igniting a melee that involved eight cars.

But that was just the appetizer before a feast of crumpled chassis that followed the restart for the first attempt at overtime. On Lap 104, Brown’s Chevrolet got loose on the backstretch in front of Riley Herbst’s Ford.

Brown spun, and 13 cars were damaged in the ensuing chaos. But the hardest hit of the night came on overtime attempt No. 2.

Chain reaction contact between the cars of Clements, Allmendinger and Noah Gragson turned Gragson into the path of Landon Cassill’s Chevrolet. The impact from Cassill’s car spun Gragson around 360 degrees and tore the body off the front clip. Gragson had led a race-high 54 laps at that point.

A multicar accident on Lap 83 put a dent in Sheldon Creed’s playoff hopes and destroyed his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 26 Toyota got loose off Turn 2 and spun off the front bumper of Brown’s Chevy.

“All of a sudden, I was looking at the inside wall,” Nemechek said. “I’m not sure what happened, but I felt like I was hooked in the left rear.”

Creed’s Camaro hit Nemechek’s car and spun to the inside and shot back across the track into traffic, demolishing Joe Graf Jr.’s Ford. The wreck kept Creed below the playoff cutline, 55 points behind Cassill for the last spot with three races left before the playoff field is set.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage is complete. There were no issues, confirming Clements as the winner. 

Posted on by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR officials penalized six Cup Series teams for multiple failures in Friday’s pre-race inspection at Daytona International Speedway.

Those teams each had one crew member ejected before Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (10 a.m. ET, CNBC, Peacock, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM), the last race in the Cup Series’ regular season.

RELATED: Updated weekend schedule: Daytona | Starting lineup

Penalized teams (with ejected crew member in parentheses) included:

• No. 3 Richard Childress Racing for driver Austin Dillon (car chief Ryan Chism)
• No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for driver Chase Briscoe (car chief JD Frey)
• No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for driver Martin Truex Jr. (car chief Chris Jones)
• No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for driver Cole Custer (car chief Tony Cardamone)
• No. 43 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet for driver Erik Jones (engineer Evan Bensch)
• No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Ford for driver BJ McLeod (engineer Chris Stanley)

The inspection process was delayed Friday afternoon by intermittent rain and lightning.

Posted on by Holly Cain

In 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace’s five-year full-time NASCAR Cup Series career, he has four runner-up finishes. Three of them have come at Daytona International Speedway. He has finished second in the last two races at the historic track, and he was runner-up in his first ever Daytona 500 in 2018.

However, Wallace doesn’t necessarily consider his past success at the track a true indicator of his chances going forward.

“Like maybe five years ago, it would be like, ‘Man, we deserve a win here,’” Wallace said. “Five years to work on that. Now, it’s like you don’t deserve anything. Let’s go out and earn it. No matter if you finish second, how many times we’ve done it, we can still blow up or we could still break something. You don’t know. And so for us it’s just (important) to not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s focus on what we need to do.

“It’s just making sure you’re there for the last — I always say five laps, but we may wreck 10 times in five laps — so just make sure you’re there for the last two laps and set yourself up for being one of the first four cars,’’ Wallace added. “That’s what we need to focus on. Let’s get up to that point.”

DAYTONA: Updated weekend schedule | Starting lineup

Wallace comes to Daytona ranked 20th in the standings, and his only shot at advancing to the 2022 playoffs is to win Sunday morning (10 a.m., CNBC, Peacock, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 28-year-old has earned four top-10 finishes in just the last six weeks, including a runner-up at Michigan International Speedway.

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway is on hold due to rain at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

NASCAR updated the timeline for Friday’s event with plans to get underway shortly (all times Eastern):

  • 9:45 p.m. – Drivers begin to prepare to race – get in fire suits and start to head to the Xfinity Series garage.

  • 10:15 p.m. – Drivers buckle into their cars in the Xfinity Series garage. Teams will do their final adjustments with the drivers in the cars.

  •  10:30 p.m. – Drivers will drive the cars to pit road and will be staged double-file on pit road, starting at pit out.

Drivers will shut off their engines and remain in their cars for the invocation and National Anthem. Immediately after the National Anthem, NASCAR will move on to the command and then into the race.

Inclement weather earlier Friday washed out qualifying for this evening’s Wawa 250, forcing NASCAR to set the starting lineup per the rule book.

MORE: Xfinity starting lineup | Daytona schedule

AJ Allmendinger, who finished runner-up at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 20, will lead the field to the green flag alongside Noah Gragson once the event begins. Gragson won the 2020 season opener at Daytona and snagged another superspeedway victory at Talladega Superspeedway in April earlier this season.

Race coverage can be found live on USA Network, the NBC Sports App, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin said Friday that his 23XI Racing team did not influence Kurt Busch’s decision to withdraw his waiver for eligibility in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, adding that the team is doing its best to stoke morale in support of the veteran driver.

Hamlin’s remarks come one day after Busch’s announcement that he did not wish to take a spot on the 16-driver postseason grid if he was unable to compete for a championship. Busch has missed the last five races after suffering a head injury in qualifying at Pocono, and he will also miss Sunday morning’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (10 a.m. ET, CNBC, Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM), the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

RELATED: Daytona weekend schedule | Kurt Busch ruled out of playoffs

Busch had locked himself into a provisional playoff slot with a dominant win at Kansas Speedway in May. But Thursday, he indicated that he had not received medical clearance to return to competition.

“No, this is a Kurt thing. This is definitely not us by any means,” Hamlin said when asked about the impact of Busch’s absence to the playoff picture. “We’ve been very clear and transparent with Kurt that we’re going to support him no matter what. If he wants to stay in there and come in for the last race of the first round, like, let’s go. Let’s go try to win it. So he just felt like this is the best decision for him, you know, not to hold somebody else back from going for a championship that he thought maybe had a better chance at it. It’s still unknown whether he would be able to come back. So this is all Kurt’s decision, and his future will always be his decision.”

Busch joined 23XI Racing this season, as the team owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan expanded to a two-car operation. He arrived to the newly formed No. 45 Toyota team as a proven winner with 20-plus years of experience, adding a veteran presence alongside teammate Bubba Wallace. Xfinity Series regular Ty Gibbs has filled in admirably the last five weeks, and Hamlin indicated that Busch has been working with the 19-year-old prodigy, assisting the organization with his observations and contributions in team debriefs.

Hamlin related a similar instance when he missed four races early in the 2013 season, injuring his back in a crash at Auto Club Speedway. But he also said that Busch’s case is different, both because of the playoff implications and the nature of Busch’s injuries.

“The team and him just kept getting better, so that’s the tough part about it is we had so much momentum going with that 45 car before that happened,” Hamlin said. “So I mean, that part was tough, but it’s the only thing I can relate is to when I had to sit out races because my back injury in 2013. I mean, it sucked then, but for him, I mean, it’s nothing physical as far as like something that hurts. It’s just something that you know is not right in the brain. So, you know, that’s something that you got to have 100%. You can’t fake that part of it. The results will show your performance and anything else on the race track if your mind’s not right. I know he’s frustrated and emotional about it, and we just want to support them in any way we can and give him the time off that he needs to to get better.”

WATCH: Bubba Wallace: ‘We’re all bummed’

Busch’s decision moved Martin Truex Jr. from provisionally out of the 16-driver field to a spot provisionally in. It also gave Ryan Blaney a measure of breathing room, pushing him from the “last driver in” position to 15th in the playoff picture with a 25-point buffer over Truex. If Sunday’s 400-miler produces a new winner who otherwise meets the playoff-eligible criteria — full-time, 30th or better in the Cup Series standings — it would bump out the low-points man between Blaney and Truex.

Foremost, though, Blaney spoke in terms of Busch’s competitive drive when asked if the move surprised him.

“As a competitor, you know him as a great competitor,” Blaney said. “You don’t want to ever stop doing what you love, in racing and making those tough choices. But it seems like he understood where he was at physically and didn’t think that he could get behind the wheel of a race car. So I mean, yeah, I bet that was one of the toughest choices he’s ever had to make in his professional career. I mean, you never want to be in that spot. That’s a terrible spot to be in. It stinks for him. So yeah, but that was really, really tough for them to make that choice.

“Like I said, you never want to see that as a competitor. You always want to race the guys and them be there all the time. But I bet that was really, really tough.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Honoring our past. Celebrating the present. Looking to our future.

That will be the hallmark of NASCAR 75, which launches in 2023 in honor of the sport’s 75-year anniversary.

A piece of NASCAR 75, though, was showcased Friday night on USA Network with the reveal of the official 75-year anniversary logo, a diamond-centric look that is befitting of NASCAR’s Diamond Anniversary.

The sanctioning body was founded in 1948, making 2023 its 75th season — which will be celebrated throughout the year.

“As much as it is a reflection of the fairly unique and rich history of our past, we really want it to be symbolic of where we are today as a sport and as a brand, and where we expect it to go in the future,” NASCAR Chief Marketing Officer Pete Jung told Adweek.

Additional plans, content and celebrations will be announced at a later date.