Chase Elliott: One way to counter ‘desperation’ of Martinsville racing

Posted on October 28, 2021October 28, 2021 by Staff Report

The fall race at Martinsville Speedway tends to end with an equal combination of hurt feelings and hurt fenders among the NASCAR Cup Series drivers, particularly those competing for a spot in the Championship 4.

There’s one surefire way to avoid all the pit-road conflict and difficult post-race interviews: Win the race.

Defending series champion Chase Elliott knows that well, having been on both sides of the issue. The Hendrick Motorsports driver discussed the upcoming race in detail Thursday on NASCAR Twitter Spaces.

“I think as the race goes along, that intensity and that want to win becomes heightened,” Elliott told hosts Alex Weaver, Jonathan Merryman and Mamba Smith. “And I think it’s always so circumstantial, right? You don’t know exactly how the race is going to play. I just think you have to really be prepared for anything. There are guys in situations where they have to win, guys who don’t. The best place to be in all this is out front. If you can be better than the rest, that’s a safe place to be.”

Elliott’s win at Martinsville in 2020 propelled him into the title field at Phoenix, where he won the race and his first series championship. Back in 2017, he was on the other end. Driving the No. 24 at the time, Elliott was moved up the track and spun by Denny Hamlin in the closing laps when Martinsville was the opening race of the Round of 8, not the closer.

“I don’t think there’s ever a safe space at Martinsville. My goal is to be in front of people far enough to where they can’t get to you,” Elliott said when discussing Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “Desperation sets in at some point if your season is in jeopardy. The best way to (avoid that) is just to be better than everybody else. That’s our goal.”

Posted on October 28, 2021November 1, 2021 by Staff Report

The 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour slate is starting to come into focus as tracks formally announce they’ve signed a sanction to host the series next year.

Below is what we know so far. We’ll keep updating this page as more race dates are announced.

2022 WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR WORKING SCHEDULE

Date	Track
Saturday, Feb. 12	New Smyrna Speedway
Friday, April 1	Richmond Raceway
Saturday, April 23	Langley Speedway
Saturday, May 14	Riverhead Raceway
Saturday, June 25	Riverhead Raceway
Saturday, July 16	New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Wednesday, Aug. 17	Thompson Speedway
Saturday, Sept. 17	Riverhead Raceway

Posted on October 28, 2021 by Marcus DiNitto

Since taking the wheel of NASCAR’s sports betting initiatives in March, Joe Solosky has overseen the expansion of one of the racing organization’s sportsbook sponsorships, helped bring another partner aboard, worked with broadcasters to integrate betting content, strived to educate fans, and guided the sport into states where sports betting is close to being legalized.

Solosky came to NASCAR from Sportradar, a multinational corporation that provides data to leagues, media companies and bookmakers, relocating to Charlotte for his new gig as Managing Director of Sports Betting.

As the 2021 season nears its conclusion, we caught up with Joe to reflect on his first year on the job and to look forward to what lies ahead in 2022.

RELATED: NASCAR BetCenter

NASCAR.com: How’s life in Charlotte? How is the new addition to your family?
Solosky: I tell people that we are “planted” in Charlotte, and I really mean it. We’ve adapted well to southern life, and I can’t see ever leaving. Having our first baby, a son named Calvin, born here only further solidifies that.

NASCAR.com: How has year one in your new role been?
Solosky: While Sportradar was a great company to work for, and my five-and-a-half years there got me to where I am, I have not looked back once since joining NASCAR. It truly is a family organization, and I’ve felt that since day one. Going from the data to league side has been a learning curve, but one that has been a bit easier to manage than previous position changes have been in the past.

NASCAR.com: What have been the biggest challenges?
Solosky: Definitely learning the sport. My biggest anxiety in applying for this role was my lack of exposure to, and awareness of, NASCAR growing up. While I have gained a great appreciation for the sport, its fans, and have become a fan myself, there is still a lot of learning to do on my side.

NASCAR.com: What accomplishments are you most proud of?
Solosky: I would say playing a role in getting NASCAR involved in the market access conversation in Ohio. When I joined, it seemed all of the teams and leagues were involved in that conversation except for us. I saw it as a good opportunity to display the type of aggression and leadership this role requires to bring awareness and recognition to our sport. Through amazing collaboration with our government affairs team and guidance with the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, motorsports betting will be more prevalent in the Buckeye State than it would have been otherwise.

NASCAR.com: You told me earlier this year you were not necessarily a huge NASCAR fan coming into this job, but you have since gained a new appreciation for the sport.
Solosky: Absolutely. The first race I went to was Pocono in June, and since I have been to Daytona and Charlotte, with plans to attend the championship in Phoenix. I was told the level of access employees and guests of employees get is unparalleled, but it pales in comparison to experiencing it. Having been converted to a fan of NASCAR through my initial experiences of attending races, it gives me full confidence in selling the sport to potential partners of ours in the sports betting space.

NASCAR.com: What’s been your favorite track?
Solosky: I would have to say Pocono because it was my first experience. I took the opportunity to watch each stage from a different vantage point — from pit road, from a suite and from the grandstands. The experience of watching an exciting finish in the grandstands while being able to connect with fans in a legal sports betting state to understand what we can do better has proven to be invaluable.

NASCAR.com: Did you bet on the Pocono races, since it’s in a legal state? How did you fare?
Solosky: At NASCAR, employees, drivers, and anyone involved in competition can’t bet on NASCAR. However, in Pennsylvania I did download a few apps to see what the user experience looked like and how NASCAR was presented differently across the apps. What was most helpful was anecdotal market research I did in asking fans if they bet on NASCAR, and what they liked and didn’t like.

NASCAR.com: What track were you not able to visit this season that you’re most looking forward to?
Solosky: I am really excited for our exhibition race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to kick off the season in 2022. I am anticipating new partners, new sports betting features and a race format that will be betting-friendly and different from our typical races.

NASCAR.com: There’s concern about the amount of gambling ads sports fans are seeing these days? What are your feelings about that? How much is too much, and how are you working with partners to find the right balance?
Solosky: I feel the same concern, and it’s something I’ve been cognizant about since day one at this job. The last thing I want is for fans who are not sports bettors to be alienated from the sport by the prevalence of sports betting advertising. I know our broadcasters do a great job of that, and I think we at NASCAR with our partnership team also does a good job in toeing that line. From our email, social, digital, signage and hospitality assets, we make sure we provide deliverables that target the right audience, don’t overload, and provide second-screen type options for those who want to engage in sports betting. Finally, none of those avenues in which we promote sports betting doesn’t come without activations from our partner in the American Gaming Association to educate fans on how to participate responsibly.

NASCAR.com: With the recent Fubo deal, NASCAR now has four sportsbook sponsors. How do you keep them all happy?
Solosky: My philosophy in taking on more partners is to work with those operators who want to work with us. From the first call, there must be some synergy between what NASCAR can do for their brand and what their platform can do for us as a sport. From there, we find clear delineations of what makes most sense for a specific sportsbook sponsor to “own” on our platform. I believe this helps in displaying to our partners we are not diluting their brand or giving preference to one operator over another.

NASCAR.com: What new and exciting things should NASCAR bettors look forward to next season?
Solosky: I think fans and bettors can look forward to a betting experience that looks and feels more like how stick-and-ball sports are bet on. Traditionally the race-winner market has been the featured offering for NASCAR, and given the long odds combined with length of a race, if that’s someone’s first bet on a NASCAR event, it also could be their last. Beginning next season, along with our sportsbook partners, we will be focusing on matchup or head-to-head betting. This changes the way a fan or bettor watches the race from a one driver vs. the field model, to a driver vs. driver model. We are also exploring providing a point spread bet for finishing position differential and an over/under for points gained in these head-to-head matchups.

NASCAR.com: We are a season away from an actual sportsbook opening at Phoenix Raceway, but what can you share about Barstool’s plans for Championship Weekend?
Solosky: Since Barstool has received their license in Arizona, the Penn National team and my group at NASCAR have been in constant touch multiple times per week planning for the championship. There are going to be really exciting promotions, and activation areas Barstool Sportsbook will have at Phoenix Raceway including a simulator where participants can win prizes based on lap speed. Additionally, the Barstool Racing talent should be out as a bullhorn drawing attention to the launch and excitement of betting on NASCAR.

NASCAR.com: Your pick to win the Cup championship?
Solosky: It’s hard to go against Kyle Larson this season, so I’ll ride with him.

Marcus DiNitto is Senior News Editor at Gaming Today and has been covering sports business for more than 20 years and sports betting for about 10. NASCAR is among the many sports he bets – and typically loses – on. Follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.

Posted on October 28, 2021 by Zack Albert

Clay Campbell has plenty to eagerly anticipate, both in the short term and over the longer haul.

As Martinsville Speedway’s president, Campbell is busy preparing for a tripleheader weekend of events that are all crucial to the playoff picture in all three NASCAR national series. The Championship 4 field for all three tours will be determined in a span of two days.

“What I’m looking forward to the most? Obviously looking forward to three great races, which … that’s going to happen,” Campbell said matter-of-factly during a brief break earlier this week. “Being the penultimate for all three, it’s going to be a nail-biter.”

Saturday, the Camping World Truck Series (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) and Xfinity Series (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) will host their Round of 8 finales. The weekend will be capped by Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) for the NASCAR Cup Series, and fans will be welcomed back without attendance limits for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak — another facet of the weekend Campbell is embracing, besides the hard work.

But Campbell has more to look forward to as the Virginia short track his grandfather founded approaches its 75th anniversary season in 2022. Plans to observe the milestone haven’t been formalized, but Campbell said to expect the celebration to span the entire year.

Martinsville Speedway

“We’ve been talking for months, planning ahead and we’re working on some pretty neat things that will really highlight the history of Martinsville Speedway,” Campbell said. “Our fans are going to like it, and we’ll be announcing them a little bit later, but for anybody to celebrate the 75th anniversary is pretty special. And for this place to be around that long, looking at it, it doesn’t look like it’s 75 years old. It’s got a lot of history, and we’re going to be rolling it out all year long.”

It’s hard to avoid the sense of history when walking through the gates at Martinsville, which has been a fixture on the Cup Series schedule since its first season in 1949. Pioneers, Hall of Famers and golden-era legends raced here, and the track’s tight turns remain a challenge for the current crop of stars.

But Campbell knows the facility can’t be stagnant and entirely dwell in that nostalgia. There’s a delicate balance to strike — remaining mindful of the track’s legacy but also making the updates that will sustain it for the years ahead.

“That’s one thing that I think we have done pretty good over the years, is how do you maintain that history, the heritage, the tradition, all of that and still keep moving forward, keep growing, keep improving, providing amenities that our fans expect today,” Campbell said. “You can’t do things today like you did 20, 25 years ago. You’ve got to change.

“But I think when you go through our gates here you can look back in the past, you can envision all the greats of NASCAR at some point running here. You can see what we have now, and you get a glimpse into the future. Example, we’re the oldest track on the circuit but we have the newest technology in lighting with LED lights. I think we’ve got all three — the past, the present and the future. And that’s the fine line you’ve got to walk to maintain that, but that’s what we want to do and that’s what we have to do.”

Martinsville’s place in NASCAR history has been well-established, but a newer tradition is starting to take some root with its autumn weekend playing host to the next-to-last races of the season. Martinsville first took that spot on the schedule last season, and it’ll return as the Round of 8 finale in 2022.

MORE: Playoff standings

NASCAR’s schedule-makers rotated some of the postseason events on next year’s calendar but made a point to keep the slate of elimination races intact. Competition officials received no argument from Campbell once the ink on next year’s schedule dried.

“It’s very important. I think it’s one of the most, if not the most critical race of the season, because you come in here with eight (title-eligible drivers) and you leave with four,” Campbell said. “So we’ve been in a position in the past when we had three races to go after our fall event, and the sparks flew and emotions ran high. So to run that event here, the penultimate race, at Martinsville Speedway, I think it’s just fantastic. We love that spot. I think it’s the best place for it. Obviously, I’m selfish on that and prejudiced, but you know the style of racing you see here is just phenomenal.”

Posted on October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 by Staff Report

Stewart-Haas Racing announced Wednesday that GearWrench has signed on as a primary sponsor for its No. 4 Ford and driver Kevin Harvick for five NASCAR Cup Series races in 2022.

The Apex Tool Group brand will be an associate sponsor for Harvick’s No. 4 in the remaining Cup Series races next season. The deal also comes with naming rights for Stewart-Haas Racing’s main assembly area at its Kannapolis, North Carolina, headquarters, which will now be called the GearWrench Garage.

RELATED: Key players in Silly Season

GearWrench has been a primary sponsor in the Cup Series since 2017 with Chip Ganassi Racing, which will cease its NASCAR operations after the season after it was purchased by Trackhouse Racing. The tool brand has been on the No. 1 CGR Chevrolet driven by Kurt Busch for four races this year, including the team’s most recent victory in July at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“We’ve prided ourselves in putting the right people in the right positions at SHR, and the people who turn wrenches on our race cars are the best in the business,” said team co-owner Tony Stewart in a release provided by the team. “We have high standards, and GearWrench tools not only meet, but exceed those standards. This is a partner who is as dedicated to winning as we are.”

Harvick is set for his ninth Cup Series season with Stewart-Haas Racing next year. Of his 58 Cup Series victories, 35 have come with SHR.

Posted on October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 by Official NASCAR Release

PHILADELPHIA — Comcast announced Wednesday the finalists for the 2021 Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award, an annual award created to recognize the philanthropic efforts of individuals within NASCAR. Whether by creating the first COVID-19 drive-thru mass vaccination clinic in North Carolina, providing additional access to education, or supporting shelter animals in need, the 2021 class of honorees has gone above and beyond in creating positive change throughout the year.

The 2021 finalists are:

Curtis Francois, Owner of World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois
Greg Walter, Executive Vice President/GM at Charlotte Motor Speedway
Jamie Little, Pit reporter for NASCAR coverage on FOX

“Curtis, Greg and Jamie are demonstrating how important it is to make a positive impact on their community and we’re proud to honor them with this award that recognizes individuals within the sport who are going above and beyond,” said Matt Lederer, Comcast’s vice president of brand partnerships and amplification. “Community impact is one of Comcast’s core values, and each of these finalists embodies what it means to be a champion in their community.”

Comcast’s Xfinity brand entered NASCAR as entitlement partner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015 and is now also Premier Partner of the NASCAR Cup Series. Since then, the company has donated $840,000 to more than 20 different NASCAR-affiliated organizations to honor their efforts and to help further the impact of their worthy causes. Fans can visit ComcastCommunityChampion.com to learn more about past and present finalists and their acts of selflessness.

“There are so many inspirational stories of individuals and teams within NASCAR giving back and now more than ever it is important to bring that to life,” Lederer said.

The 2021 Comcast Community Champion of the Year will be selected by a panel of Comcast and NASCAR executives, as well as NASCAR Driver Bubba Wallace, who received the award in 2020 for his work with the Live To Be Different Foundation, which supports disadvantaged individuals and those in need of a second chance with educational, social or other types of assistance needed to help make their dreams reality. Through a message of compassion, love and understanding, Live To Be Different’s mission is empowering the next generation to strive and achieve anything they put their mind to.

“The NASCAR community is blessed to have a strong partner in Comcast that has continued to show its commitment to supporting NASCAR communities across the nation,” said Bubba Wallace, the 2020 Comcast Community Champion of the Year. “Their donation to the Live to Be Different Foundation helped us continue to make a positive and lasting impact as we work to remove barriers and fulfill dreams for future generations. We are honored to be a past Comcast Community Champion of the Year and look forward to seeing the impact this year’s honorees make on their communities.”

Comcast will award $60,000 to the champion’s affiliated charity, and $30,000 to each of the two remaining finalists’ selected charities. The 2021 Comcast Community Champion will be announced at the end of November.

2021 Comcast Community Champion of the Year finalists:

Curtis Francois (Madison, Illinois) — A lifelong St. Louisan and former professional race-car driver, Curtis Francois is committed to his community and is dedicated to making the metropolitan St. Louis region a premier racing destination. Francois purchased World Wide Technology Raceway in 2011. After years of hard work and a multi-million-dollar investment in the track and its surrounding areas, today, World Wide Technology Raceway hosts hundreds of events throughout the year and is the only venue in the U.S. to host the elite series from each of the three major race sanctioning bodies.

WWTR’s charitable foundation, Raceway Gives, leverages the resources and technology opportunities associated with motorsports to provide programs that enhance education and career opportunities for youth, with a focus on STEM education and diversity. Raceway Gives focuses on gifted, diverse and underserved youth, as well as military families, using three pillars: motorsports career opportunities, community engagement with high schools and youth clubs, and educational experiences. Raceway Gives is actively engaged with Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee and the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Community Center in East St. Louis, Illinois, via a “Racing in the Classroom” program that has and continues to introduce motorsports education to an underserved community for local youth ages 8-18.

Greg Walter (Charlotte, North Carolina) — Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Charlotte Motor Speedway Executive Vice President and General Manager Greg Walter has navigated uncharted waters with a servant’s heart, steering the speedway’s efforts to support the community in its most challenging time of need. Under Walter’s dedicated leadership, Charlotte Motor Speedway became the country’s first professional sports venue to serve as a remote testing site and hosted North Carolina’s first drive-thru mass vaccination clinic. The speedway also hosted food drives, blood drives and high-school graduations.

Walter serves on the board of the Charlotte chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provides funding for hundreds of non-profit organizations throughout the nation that meet the direct needs of children. In a year of reduced donations and fundraising events nationwide, Walter and the SCC staff found creative ways to generate charity funds, such as hosting sold-out, summertime drive-in movies. Walter’s efforts played a role in distributing more than $300,000 SCC funds at Christmas to deserving area nonprofits serving children in need.

Jamie Little (Indianapolis, Indiana) — Veteran motorsports reporter Jamie Little joined FOX NASCAR in 2015 to cover pit road for the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. She has covered NASCAR since 2007. Little is active in animal rescue work, donating to more than 25 animal shelters throughout the country, most of them in communities that host NASCAR races. Before moving to Indianapolis in late 2017, Little spent much of her free time volunteering at The Animal Foundation, Nevada’s largest animal rescue shelter, that is where her passion for animal rescue and adoption began.

In 2020, Little started working with the Animal Help Alliance, a foster based rescue that specializes in rescuing the underdog, the broken and the hard to adopt animals in our community, a year ago when she came across a post on Instagram with photos of a pitbull who had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, requiring surgery to save her life. As a parent to two pitbull rescues, Little felt compelled to connect with AHA to further help animals impacted by neglect and abuse, while raising awareness about the benefits of rescuing and adopting animals in need.

Comcast has a long track record of community service, aiding in the advancement of local organizations, developing programs and partnerships, mobilizing resources to connect people and inspiring positive and substantive change. To learn more about these efforts, visit the Comcast Community Impact site.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. We are principally focused on broadband, aggregation, and streaming with 57 million customer relationships across the United States and Europe. We deliver broadband, wireless, and video through our Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky brands; create, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, Universal Studio Group, Sky Studios, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, multiple cable networks, Peacock, NBCUniversal News Group, NBC Sports, Sky News, and Sky Sports; and provide memorable experiences at Universal Parks and Resorts in the United States and Asia. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.

Posted on October 27, 2021 by RJ Kraft

Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. are on the outside looking in for advancing to the Championship 4 entering the Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — the final race of the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs. Blaney sits one point out from advancing, while Truex is three points out on the provisional elimination line, so a strong points day could aid their effort to make the Championship 4.

Blaney has been one of the stronger performers in recent Martinsville races with four top fives in his last five starts there. In the lone finish outside the top five in that stretch, he won both stages and led 157 laps. After years of not closing the deal on short tracks, Truex has won three of the last four Martinsville races and has a run of six top-five finishes in his last eight starts there.

How does each driver stack up for a head-to-head matchup in Sunday’s race? We’re breaking down the key stats ahead of the elimination race.

*For the purposes of this chart, 2021 short-track races are defined as the two Richmond races, the Martinsville spring race and the Bristol playoff race on the traditional concrete surface.

Ryan Blaney	Category	Martin Truex Jr.
0	2021 short-track wins	2
9.0	2021 short-track average finish	3.5
154	2021 short-track points scored	189
13.5	2021 NASCAR Playoffs average finish	11.1
-1 to elimination line (5th in standings)	2021 NASCAR Playoffs standings spot	-3 to elimination line (6th in standings)
0	Martinsville wins	3
11th (won both stages)	2021 Martinsville spring result	1st
10.7 (in 11 starts)	Martinsville average finish (all time)	16.5 (in 31 starts)
4.8	Martinsville average finish (since 2019)	6.6
Blaney has five top-five finishes in his last seven Martinsville races — tied with Truex and Keselowski for the most in that stretch.	Notable stat to know	If you remove Truex’s 22nd-place finish last fall at Martinsville, he has a 4.8 average finish at the track since 2016.

The 2021 short-track stats favor Truex by a bit. That should come as no surprise as all four of Truex’s 2021 wins have come at tracks with the 750-horsepower package (Phoenix, Martinsville, Darlington and Richmond-2) while Blaney has won on a superspeedway (Daytona-2) and two tracks that utilized the 550-horsepower package (Atlanta and Michigan). The recent Martinsville stats, though, paint a tight picture between Truex and Blaney despite MTJ’s three wins in the last four races there. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where these guys are running 1-2 late in the race with a playoff spot firmly on the line given their recent runs there. That would be a fun way for this matchup to play out on Sunday.

Check back on Friday as The Action Network’s PJ Walsh (@PJWalsh24) breaks down the same matchup and provides his betting insight for who and how to bet this matchup.

Posted on October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 by Staff Report

NASCAR track veteran Joe Fowler cited Michigan International Speedway as a “special” stop on the series circuit. Effective Wednesday, Fowler will oversee operations at the 2-mile track and surrounding facility as its new track president.

Fowler is a longtime executive at Kansas Speedway and, most recently, the senior director of marketing in the Midwest region, which includes overseeing marketing and promotional efforts across Kansas Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Watkins Glen International and Iowa Speedway.

It was in that role in which Fowler spent some time in the “Wolverine State” and developed an appreciation for the track, the area and the fanbase.

“There are a number of things that make Michigan special,” Fowler told NASCAR.com. “It’s a great facility and it’s in a beautiful part of the state. Having spent some time at Michigan in August talking to fans, I learned that they’re a very passionate fanbase. They’re passionate about NASCAR and very passionate about the facility as well, and there’s a great team in place at MIS. I’m really excited to get to work with them.”

Fowler and his team played an integral role in driving attendance and creating a best-in-class experience – particularly upon the return of fans to venues in the COVID-19 era – across all race tracks in the region. Before his role in NASCAR’s Midwest region, Fowler served in multiple marketing and sales roles for more than 15 years at Kansas.

“Joe is a native Midwesterner, and his passion for providing the best experience for NASCAR fans runs as deep as his Midwest values and work ethic,” said Chip Wile, NASCAR’s senior vice president and chief track properties officer. “He has devoted nearly his entire career to promoting NASCAR and ensuring our loyal fans experience the best race day possible when they visit the race track. We look forward to an exciting next chapter at MIS under Joe’s leadership.”

Fowler will have some time to get settled into his role before NASCAR returns to Michigan in the 2022 season. The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series will race there on Aug. 6-7.

RELATED: Buy tickets

“My top priority is going to be to come in and get myself more familiar with the facility and its operations and to get to know the staff better,” Fowler said. “I also will come in to listen to the fans and listen to the community. I want to be a big part of the community as well.

“The future looks really bright. I think as we look at the fan experience at Michigan, when fans come to the track we want to make it the best possible experience from the time they buy the ticket to the time they leave the track.”

Posted on October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 by Andrew Lawrence

Not long after Bubba Wallace got the call on his 23XI Racing team pit box that victory in the Talladega rain-soaked NASCAR Cup Series feature was his, the phone rang at Frank Scott’s house in Danville, Virginia. “I really felt like your dad was speaking to me in those final moments of the race,” Wallace told the third of Wendell Scott’s seven children, who was present for much of his father’s trailblazing stock car career.

“Bubba, he was talking to you,” Frank replied. “Do you know what he was saying?”

“No.”

“He was saying, Don’t worry. It’s gonna keep raining.”

In so many ways Wallace’s breakthrough at Talladega was the perfect storm. With it, he not only broke a 142-race winless streak that dates to his June 2017 Cup debut at Pocono, but the 28-year-old Mobile, Alabama, native became the first Black driver to register a Cup victory since Wendell Scott’s triumph at Jacksonville’s Speedway Park in 1963.

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Frank’s son, Warrick, was at his father’s side for that epic telephone exchange and with him in front of the TV as the last laps of the YellaWood 500 ticked down. And weeks after that staggering result, the phone is still ringing. “It turned into a work responsibility,” Warrick said. “Been doing interviews, reading articles just to try and keep up, tweeting and Facebooking like crazy. You know, trying to run the race.”

Wallace’s historic ride in the No. 23 Toyota is as much a credit to his perseverance as it is to the pioneering efforts of Wendell Scott, whose bittersweet legacy as the Jackie Robinson of motorsports is still underappreciated somehow. He wasn’t just the first Black man to win a Cup Series race; he did it all. He raised the money and built the cars himself. What’s more, he primarily did this in the Jim Crow South. On a fair playing field, he surely would’ve registered more Cup victories than that one he nabbed in Jacksonville — which saw him battle it out with Richard Petty over the final 25 laps. But Scott didn’t get to bask in his accomplishment. While the prize went to second-place finisher Buck Baker in the end, Scott wouldn’t be officially credited with the victory for another two years.

After Scott’s passing in 1990 it took another decade before driver Bill Lester turned up in his wake. Then NASCAR launched Drive for Diversity, the now 17-year-old developmental onramp for young women and people of color. It was there, in 2010, that Wallace met the Scott family, learned of Wendell Scott’s legacy and picked up the torch. Seven years ago while driving in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, he paid tribute to the family by painting his truck in the colors of Scott’s car for the fall race at Martinsville and showed-out in style — grabbing the pole and the checkers as the family cheered him on from the pits.

As Wallace asserted himself as a force in the sport, things began to change. In 2015 Scott was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Ahead of green flag at this year’s August Cup Series feature at Daytona, NASCAR President Steve Phelps presented Frank Scott with a custom trophy commemorating Wendell Scott’s Jacksonville victory, as Wallace joined the family on stage.

Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images

When Wallace began his Cup career, it was hard not to seize on the significance of a Black man winning in The King’s Chevy. But the sight of the sport rallying around him and the No. 43 car at Talladega in 2020, in the wake of his brave stand against the Confederate flag, made for its own powerful picture of progress, too. What’s more, it made the bond between Wallace and the Scott family that much stronger.

“Having a connection to the family is awesome,” Wallace told me back in 2014, after that Martinsville win in Scott’s colors. “Wendell Jr. texts me nonstop, just keeping up with the races. The whole family has been very supportive. It’s been an honor to be so close with them and carry Wendell’s banner. To be the second winner since him or the first winner since Wendell Scott is huge. But at the same time it needs to be more than that.”

Yet for as groundbreaking as Wallace’s Cup victory at Talladega was, there remain some who are reluctant to give him due credit because the race was curtailed by rain. And to those skeptics Warrick Scott says simply, man, y’all don’t know racing.

“You gotta give him credit for his intellect, and his crew chief’s positioning,” he says. “It was rather strategic. If you put it in reverse and he finishes third or second or fourth, and another driver is making those steps to advance themselves because of the coming weather, the criticism would be if he had the right crew chief or right racing knowledge, then he would’ve known to bust his butt and get to the front of the pack because he maybe could win it. So you’ve got to give him credit.”

But for Scott, the thing that’s even cooler than Wallace bringing them along for the ride are the young Black drivers in the sport who are following in his wake now.

“I’m excited for Bubba, but I keep thinking about how excited I am for Rajah Caruth and Lavar Scott,” Warrick said of the two Drive for Diversity prospects who are already winning in late models. “In the near future we’ll be seeing a NASCAR race start, and Bubba won’t be the only African-American driver in the field. It could happen as early as next year. What if Bubba jumps down and does an Xfinity race, the same race that Rajah and Jesse Iwuji are in? Just like that. From Wendell Scott being inducted into the Hall of Fame to that watershed moment at Talladega.”

It just goes to show: There’s little moving forward without really taking the time to look back.

Andrew Lawrence is a freelance contributor at Car and Driver, The Guardian, Men’s Health and elsewhere. Formerly, he was the NASCAR beat writer at Sports Illustrated.

Posted on October 27, 2021October 28, 2021 by Zack Albert

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — I was born during the first year of NASCAR’s so-called “modern era.” The Cup Series schedule went from 48 races in 1971 to 31 the next season, shedding some of the smaller bullrings of its formative years in search of larger speedways and a sense of refinement.

Do the math, dear reader, and yes, I am old — old enough to have seen unrestricted races at Daytona, events before the front and back straightaways traded places at Atlanta and Darlington, races at Bristol and Dover before they went concrete, Charlotte before it had lights. But in terms of being alive when the Cup Series still regularly visited Bowman Gray Stadium in my hometown, mark the calendar one year, one month and one week too late.

Tuesday changed that. How we got here is some strange wonder, the intersection of NASCAR’s brand-new Next Gen vehicle for the era ahead with a true stock-car throwback, one of the sport’s most original and enduring venues.

The heralded quarter-mile was used only for Goodyear tire testing in the closed morning session with Tony Stewart at the controls, then in afternoon shakedowns with single-car runs by Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr. It was hardly the full-contact, temper-fraying action that has given Bowman Gray its nickname of “The Madhouse,” but it was hard to wipe away the collective glee from hearing the new car’s raspy exhaust note rattling off the horseshoe-shaped bleachers that hug the track’s south turn and short straightaways.

“I grew up over here where the old fieldhouse was here and the who’s who of NASCAR were here and raced at this place,” said Burt Myers, a third-generation driver at the stadium and a 10-time champion in its featured Modified Division. “So for the new-age generation of NASCAR to be here today and to experience what we grew up with is pretty neat.”

Tuesday made it easy to wax romantic about the mixing of stock-car racing’s different generations, the Next Gen test mule barreling around inside the closely confining guardrails under sunny piedmont skies. Tuesday’s trio of drivers — all recently retired from full-time competition — got a taste of what the current crop of Cup Series talent will be wheeling next season.

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

The Next Gen model will have its own first run at competition in the Feb. 6 Clash at the Coliseum. Tuesday’s session at Bowman Gray helped to sort out the car on a flat quarter-mile, determining the proper tire combination for the Los Angeles exhibition.

MORE: Buy Clash tickets

In that regard, Tuesday served as more of a compulsory checklist before 2022’s preseason showcase in Los Angeles. But for Earnhardt, a sponge for soaking up NASCAR’s history and a longtime advocate for preserving it, the day’s events meant more.

“I definitely was coming here with a lot of excitement in my heart about my family’s connection to the race track,” said Earnhardt, whose grandfather, Ralph, won at the stadium four times in its earliest years. “And being able to check a box to say that I’ve been here, much less to be able to get some laps here, that was a pretty special thing for me personally.”

Interestingly enough, Bowman Gray’s removal from the premier-series schedule came just one year after R.J. Reynolds — the tobacco giant headquartered downtown, just a couple miles away — made its own major buy-in with naming rights for what would be called the Winston Cup Series. Weekly area tracks such as Greenville-Pickens, Hickory and South Boston were also phased out.

But Winston’s involvement in the sport extended to the grassroots level. Bowman Gray was among the tracks to receive both support and a splash of red-and-white paint on its guardrails, which not only promoted the cigarette brand’s colors but embellished the sense of speed as the alternating colors flashed by the speeding cars.

Tuesday, that rugged old fence — dinged and dented from years of rough-and-tumble racing — ringed NASCAR’s newest vehicle instead of the Modified, Sportsman, Street Stock and 4-cylinder Stadium Stock divisions from any given Saturday night during the spring and summer. Engineers hovered over laptops and dissected data in the same pit area that was a long-ago home to shade-tree mechanics and weekend racers who held day jobs in the town’s factories and nearby fields.

MORE: Tuesday’s recap from Bowman Gray

It’s still just $12 to get in, an admission price that’s inched upward through the years but remains a relative bargain for a Saturday night out. Count Bowyer among those who have plunked down a dozen bucks to get the full-on Madhouse experience with the Turn 4 rowdies.

“Just super-excited to get on this race track,” Bowyer said after his stint behind the wheel. “Again, every time I’m here, I’m up there in the beer garden having fun with everybody, my buddies that are from Winston-Salem. Love this race track, love the atmosphere and the fans. No different than any NASCAR track, but this is the oldest one. It all started in places just like that and it’s because of those fans that it’s still here today.

“The size of this race track, the closeness of the competition, the wall — out of Turn 4, look at that! It’s six feet far, when you’re up there in the beer garden, you can’t see. I know they always wreck right there, but now I know why. That wall jumps out and gets you.”

The atmosphere might have been more muted during Tuesday’s drive with those same grandstands empty, but the Next Gen appearance remained a spectacle. The stars, the car and the memorable setting were enough to draw curious townsfolk to the fieldhouse bleachers outside the Turn 3 gate on a weekday, all hoping to catch a glimpse.

Once NASCAR drivers go door to door in the Clash at the same historic venue where Carl Lewis won gold and the first Super Bowl was played, then “I’ve seen everything” might feel less hyperbolic. Seeing a Cup Series car at speed at Bowman Gray for the first time in 50 years on a random Tuesday should hold us till then.