Stewart-Haas Racing adds GearWrench as sponsor for Harvick, No. 4 team in 2022

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.

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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.

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

See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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

Kyle Larson earned the Busch Pole Award for Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the final race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8.

Larson, winner of three straight races in the Cup Series, will start on pole for the 11th time in 2021 in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Austin Cindric will start on pole in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Dead On Tools 250 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the final race in the Round of 8.

John Hunter Nemechek will start on pole in the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota for Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series United Rentals 200 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the final race in the Round of 8.

As NASCAR adapted to COVID-19 protocols last season, practice and qualifying were eliminated at a majority of national-series events to limit at-track time, exposure and to cut race weekend costs. To determine starting lineups, competition officials used grouped draws, added inversions for weekend doubleheaders, and eventually adopted a performance-metrics formula. That metrics format remains in place this season, drawing on performance from both individual races and season-long results.

NASCAR’s metrics formula for 2021 weighs:

25 percent: Driver’s finishing position from the previous race
25 percent: Car owner’s finishing position from the previous race
35 percent: Team owner points ranking
15 percent: Fastest lap from the previous race

See the full lineup for Sunday’s Cup Series race below.

Start pos.	Driver	Car #	Team
1	Kyle Larson	5	Hendrick Motorsports
2	Chase Elliott	9	Hendrick Motorsports
3	Denny Hamlin	11	Joe Gibbs Racing
4	Martin Truex Jr.	19	Joe Gibbs Racing
5	Joey Logano	22	Team Penske
6	Brad Keselowski	2	Team Penske
7	Kyle Busch	18	Joe Gibbs Racing
8	Ryan Blaney	12	Team Penske
9	Kevin Harvick	4	Stewart-Haas Racing
10	Kurt Busch	1	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	William Byron	24	Hendrick Motorsports
12	Christopher Bell	20	Joe Gibbs Racing
13	Alex Bowman	48	Hendrick Motorsports
14	Austin Dillon	3	Richard Childress Racing
15	Chris Buescher	17	Roush Fenway Racing
16	Ross Chastain	42	Chip Ganassi Racing
17	Bubba Wallace	23	23XI Racing
18	Tyler Reddick	8	Richard Childress Racing
19	Michael McDowell	34	Front Row Motorsports
20	Daniel Suarez	99	TrackHouse Racing
21	Matt DiBenedetto	21	Wood Brothers Racing
22	Chase Briscoe	14	Stewart-Haas Racing
23	Aric Almirola	10	Stewart-Haas Racing
24	Cole Custer	41	Stewart-Haas Racing
25	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	47	JTG Daugherty Racing
26	Ryan Preece	37	JTG Daugherty Racing
27	Ryan Newman	6	Roush Fenway Racing
28	Erik Jones	43	Richard Petty Motorsports
29	Corey LaJoie	7	Spire Motorsports
30	BJ McLeod	78	Live Fast Motorsports
31	Cody Ware	51	Petty Ware Racing
32	Anthony Alfredo	38	Front Row Motorsports
33	Josh Bilicki	52	Rick Ware Racing
34	Joey Gase	53	Rick Ware Racing
35	Justin Haley	77	Spire Motorsports
36	Quin Houff	00	StarCom Racing
37	Garrett Smithley	15	Rick Ware Racing
38	Timmy Hill	66	Motorsports Business Management

Practice and qualifying are tentatively scheduled for eight Cup Series races this year. Just one race remains with Busch Pole Qualifying on the schedule — the season-ending championship race Nov. 7 at Phoenix Raceway.

Posted on October 26, 2021October 27, 2021 by Zack Albert

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Goodyear technicians and NASCAR officials gathered data and information Tuesday that will help determine the tire selection for next season’s Clash at the Coliseum. Accomplishing that came at the intersection of the Next Gen car of NASCAR’s future with a venerable track from the Cup Series’ past.

The 2022 vehicle turned laps Tuesday at historic Bowman Gray Stadium in an unofficial preliminary to the Feb. 6 exhibition race in Los Angeles. Goodyear and NASCAR invited three recently retired stars with their own old-school cred for the driving duties — Hall of Famer Tony Stewart for the tire testing in the morning session, and racers turned broadcasters Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer for hot laps in the afternoon.

For all three drivers, it marked their first stints behind the wheel of the next Cup Series car, and the reviews were generally positive, with Earnhardt saying, “The car does everything better than anything I’ve ever drove in NASCAR.”

“This car does all the things that I was worried about, it does them all and it does them well,” he said. “I think this car is a great match for this track or any track whereas the car that we have now doesn’t work everywhere and is difficult in places like this. So I’m sold now. I was skeptical, but I think it’s going to work really well. The car gets around the corner. I thought the track would be too small for our cars and they just wouldn’t handle and drive well, but this is a totally different beast.”

Bowyer, who will be part of FOX Sports’ broadcasting crew for the Clash exhibition, said he was also swayed by the car’s responsiveness as he quickly got up to speed, sorting through the car’s new sequential shifter and adjusting to his seat and wheel positioning. He made laps under the watchful eye of longtime crew chief analyst Larry McReynolds, his broadcasting colleague.

“Very impressed with the grip level, the braking power, the tire that Goodyear chose for this,” Bowyer said. “I’m glad again that I got to come out here to Bowman Gray. I live in Winston, guys. I’ve been here a lot in the grandstands, up there in that beer garden more than any seat, but I wanted to come out here and turn some laps.”

Stewart had been to the stadium once before, attending the 2009 opener by tagging along with Bobby Hutchens — a longtime Modified driver who was then Stewart-Haas Racing’s competition director. Stewart’s appearance back then created a buzz in the Bowman Gray garage, fueling speculation that he might one day compete there. “Oh, yeah. I like running everywhere, places I’ve never been to,” Stewart told the Winston-Salem Journal then.

Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media

Stewart lent a hand to Hutchens’ crew that night, but Tuesday got his chance behind the wheel at the stadium. Goodyear officials tested two different tires at Bowman Gray — one that was previously tried at Martinsville Speedway in March, and another tire with a softer compound.

“Goodyear had a good plan coming into today, and I think they’re pretty happy with the results that they got,” said Stewart, who spun a pair of times in the track’s north turn without damage as he hustled the car around. “I think what they brought with the control set is probably a little harder than what they need. They brought a softer tire, and they were pretty happy with it, and I think that’s probably a combination of what they’ll bring out West.”

The Clash is scheduled to be held outside of Daytona International Speedway for the first time next year, taking place on a similar quarter-mile track to be built inside the L.A. Coliseum. The layout has yet to be made final, with competition officials noting that proposed versions range from a maximum of 5 degrees of banking to a flat, no-banking configuration.

MORE: All about the Clash at the Coliseum

The L.A. Coliseum boasts a remarkable history as a two-time Summer Olympics venue and the host to multiple professional and collegiate sports, but Bowman Gray holds its own in the realm of stock-car racing lore. NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. partnered with Alvin Hawkins to promote weekly racing there starting in 1949, and NASCAR Hall of Famer Tim Flock was its first track champion.

The NASCAR Cup Series ran 29 races there from 1958-1971, a span that included Richard Petty’s 100th win in 1969. But even when the Cup Series departed as the schedule was shortened and newer, larger venues were sought out, weekly racing continued. Bowman Gray held its 1,000th NASCAR-sanctioned race meet in 2015, and it remains a southern outpost for the Modified cars that are most popular on tracks in the northeast.

Bowman Gray Stadium ended its 72nd season of stock-car racing in August. City bonds have been allocated for improving the facility, and the Winston-Salem newspaper reported that the asphalt will be dismantled and replaced, starting next month. Nearby Winston-Salem State University wrapped up its home football schedule on the Bowman Gray turf last weekend. The field was still marked with yard lines and painted end zones for Tuesday’s test.

Tuesday, the sounds of the gridiron were replaced with the rumble of a full-bodied Cup Series car at Bowman Gray, and Earnhardt was beaming after wheeling it through the tight confines.

“They’ve got a great thing going on, so it’s fun to be able to come here,” Earnhardt said. “It’s really cool to be able to get some laps. It’s a very intimidating place. The guardrail, you’re racing around there, and that guardrail’s just chewed up, and it’s just daring you to hit it. It’s really intimidating. That, in itself, was a great experience for me, no matter what car I was driving today. It was awesome to come here and experience this place behind the wheel.”

Posted on October 26, 2021 by Staff Report

NASCAR fined crew chief Adam Stevens $20,000 and suspended him from Sunday’s Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC) when the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was found with two lug nuts not safe and secure after the playoff race at Kansas Speedway. Stevens was one of two crew chiefs suspended and the No. 20 was one of five cars fined when NASCAR released its penalty report on Tuesday.

The other Cup teams fined were the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driven by Chase Briscoe and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford driven by Joey Logano, each found with one lug nut not safe and secure in post-race inspection at Kansas. Those violations, detailed in Sections 10.9.10.4 of the NASCAR Rule Book, resulted in a $10,000 fine for each of the respective crew chiefs, Johnny Klausmeier and Paul Wolfe.

In the Xfinity Series, crew chief Kenneth Roettger, car chief Robert Anderson and crew member Drew Beason all drew four-race suspensions when the No. 23 Our Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Patrick Emerling dropped added ballast during the Kansas race.

NASCAR also fined Xfinity Series crew chiefs Jason Trinchere and Jeff Meendering each $5,000 when one lug nut was found not safe and secure for their cars during post-race inspection, the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet driven by AJ Allmendinger and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Brandon Jones.