Posted on by Staff Report

Statement from NASCAR on the passing of Eddie Partridge, a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team owner (No. 6 driven by Ryan Preece – winner of Friday night’s race at Richmond Raceway) and Riverhead Raceway owner:

We are saddened to learn of the passing of championship car owner and track owner Eddie Partridge. Eddie’s passion for racing was felt not just throughout the modified community, but also throughout grassroots racing as a whole. He fielded teams for some of the best drivers in the sport, and truly loved seeing his cars run up front. After taking on the task of running Riverhead Raceway, he then also proudly fielded a venue for those drivers to showcase their talent. It is only fitting that Eddie’s last race was a victory. A fierce competitor who fought for the good in short track racing, he will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and teammates at this time.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

Alan Gustafson, crew chief for the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team of Chase Elliott, will be making his 600th career NASCAR Cup Series start atop the pit box in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts Salute to First Responders 400 at Richmond Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Gustafson has served as a crew chief for five different Cup Series drivers in his career, dating back to Kyle Busch’s rookie season in 2005. Since then, he has worked alongside Casey Mears, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Elliott.

RELATED: Playoff standings | Starting lineup for Sunday’s race

“When I reflect back, I just think of the different drivers and situations with the different drivers, the personalities, pit-crew members and different things,” Gustafson said. “I think when you start at one, you’re just hoping to get to two. And then you’re maybe kind of hoping to get to get to 30 and then you’re trying to make it two years. As you go, you’re just really trying to survive. This sport is obviously super competitive and a lot of times it’s more bad news than good news. So, you’re trying to do the best you can to prosper and survive.”

Gustafson earned his first Cup Series victory with Busch at Auto Club Speedway in 2005. Gustafson has earned 33 race victories in total so far, including four with Busch, five with Martin, 11 with Gordon and 13 with Elliott. He also earned his first career Cup Series championship with Elliott in 2020.

AVONDALE, ARIZONA - NOVEMBER 08: Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, and crew chief Alan Gustafson celebrate in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Season Finale 500 and the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 08, 2020 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Chase Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson celebrate winning the 2020 Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway. Chris Graythen | Getty Images

When reflecting back over the course of a career that continues to prosper, Gustafson’s biggest observation is how much the dynamic of a race team has changed throughout his 17 years at NASCAR’s highest level.

“It’s changed a lot in 600 starts,” Gustafson said. “When I first started, it was really the crew chief and the team, and man, you did everything. You did everything – spec the chassis builds, where you wanted your front clips, where you wanted your rear clips, where you wanted your frame rails, where you wanted to install the engine, what this car was going to run and the body specification when we just had the templates, how far you wanted to offset your tail and what do you want to do with your roof. Not only did you have a vast amount of options, you had very little information to make those decisions with.

“I just remember back then, there was a lot of freedom and room to run; and certainly, a lot of uncertainty that came with that. Now, it’s much more granular. It’s very small stuff and we do it collaboratively.”

Elliott, Gustafson and the No. 9 team are set to start 13th in Saturday night’s second race in the Playoffs Round of 16. After a 31st-place showing in the first postseason race last Sunday at Darlington Raceway, the defending champion sits 10th in the standings, four points above the elimination line.

Posted on by Davey Segal

RICHMOND, Va. – In the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s return to Richmond Raceway, Ryan Preece dominated, leading 98 of 156 laps and surviving multiple late-race restarts to win his third consecutive race over a three-month stretch and first at “The Action Track.”

“Usually you really don’t want late-race restarts, but I knew I had a really good car,” Preece said. “And I knew from the first restart we had that my car was gonna take off. I was good on the short run and good on the long run. It all worked out.”

RELATED: Full race results

While multiple big names and championship contenders ran into issues behind him, Preece made staying up front a point of emphasis, understanding the effect clean air has on a car at the 0.75-mile track, regardless of vehicle.

“Clean air was something I wanted,” he said. “Funny to say in a modified, but it matters. I knew the deeper you get into the pack, the less your car is going to do what you want it to do. Ultimately, I’m pretty happy we controlled the race and we had a fast race car.”

His wins at Richmond, Stafford and New Hampshire mark the fourth season in the Berlin, Connecticut, native’s career he has won three or more races on the Modified Tour. This is Preece’s final scheduled race of his Modified Tour season.

Earning his best finish of the season in the runner-up spot was Jon McKennedy. Following back-to-back 16th-place finishes at Beech Ridge and Oswego, the Tommy Baldwin-led group gained a total of 18 positions on the evening after starting back in 20th.

Ronnie Williams brought his No. 50 machine home third after leading three times for a total of 34 laps, the best finish of his career, with Cup Series veteran Ryan Newman and six-time series champion Doug Coby rounding out the top five finishers. Kyle Bonsignore, Austin Beers, Andy Jankowiak, Burt Myers and Woody Pitkat completed the top 10.

Notably absent from the front all night long were the three championship contenders: Justin Bonsignore, Patrick Emerling and Ron Silk.

Around Lap 40, Emerling’s No. 07 began smoking on track. Shortly thereafter, he brought it to the garage for service and a rear end issue was diagnosed. A handful of laps later, points leader and championship rival Bonsignore suffered a similar issue and brought his No. 51 behind the wall. The two teams worked feverishly to get back on track, only a few yards from each other.

Both Bonsignore and Emerling were able to get back on track, but returned to the garage mere laps later, ending their nights early. They finished 24th and 25th, respectively.

Their trouble meant Ron Silk, winner of the last two races on the tour, had an opportunity to pounce. But the No. 85 struggled most of the night and ultimately was involved in a crash of his own, leading to the eventual overtime finish.

With two races to go in the season, Bonsignore’s lead over Emerling in the standings is at 22 points. Up next for the Whelen Modified Tour is a trip to Riverhead Raceway on Sept. 18. Doug Coby earned both wins earlier this season, with Justin Bonsignore winning the four prior in a row (eight overall).

Posted on by Terrin Waack

Like a birthday or a holiday, this, too, happens on a yearly basis: Dale Earnhardt Jr. enters a NASCAR race.

It used to happen literally all the time. Earnhardt, a 26-time winner in the Cup Series, competed in every race in every season but two for 18 years. That’s 626 events as a full-timer.

His last win in the sport dates back to 2016 – in the Xfinity Series, where he’ll make his annual appearance Saturday at Richmond Raceway.

“I don’t really daydream too much about the result,” Earnhardt said Friday on a Zoom teleconference. “We’ll just see how it all shakes out. But I hope I get to run all the laps and I hope I get to have fun. I hope I’m reminded why I love it and then also why I don’t do it anymore.”

RELATED: Dale Jr. says he wishes he was more like Chase Elliott

Earnhardt retired from full-time NASCAR racing after the 2017 Cup Series season. Since then, he has participated in one Xfinity Series race per year. In 2018, he raced at Richmond and finished fourth. He then placed fifth at Darlington Raceway in 2019 and at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2020.

On Saturday, Earnhardt is slated to start 30th in the Go Bowling 250 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’ll mark his 143rd career Xfinity Series start. Somehow that triple-digit tally doesn’t relax him heading into the event. If anything, he’s more nervous now than when he suited up regularly.

“I think when you race every single week, when you did bad, you had an opportunity next weekend to fix it,” Earnhardt said. “If you had a bad weekend, it wasn’t fun, it wasn’t good and you took it home with you and you spent the rest of the week being miserable. But you knew that you were going back to the track with a chance to redeem yourself and a chance to peel that layer off, that layer of disappointment off. And that was always there every single week.

“I haven’t had a bad experience in these one-race-a-year deals. I haven’t had a bad experience yet, so I don’t know how that’s going to feel when we have a bad race. If I’m going to go, ‘Man, I gotta wait a whole year to fix this,’ that might make things a little difficult.”

Saturday’s reaction is still a TBD, but looks rather promising. In 36 Cup Series starts, Earnhardt won three times at Richmond. He tallied 10 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes overall. In the Xfinity Series, he actually has four wins in eight starts – the most recent coming in 2016 in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

Regardless of the outcome, there’s always next year.

Because Earnhardt doesn’t plan on racing more than once a year, nor does he want to.

“But, you know, I do miss it,” Earnhardt said. “I miss driving. I daydream about driving full time and what that would be like and, boy, I miss it.”

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

In 2019, Tyler Reddick hoisted the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship trophy for the second season in a row, becoming the first back-to-back title winner since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2011-12. Two years later, the second-year Cup Series driver for Richard Childress Racing is battling the pressure of being an underdog while chasing his first Bill France Cup.

RELATED: Cup Series Playoffs hub | Richmond schedule

“The pressure is certainly different,” said Reddick. “Coming from the Xfinity side and running for those championships, we were — if you will — deemed one of the top teams. For the last couple of years, RCR has done a really good job of building up to get back to the status as one of the top teams in the Cup Series and get our cars closer to going out there and winning races.”

Though winless, Reddick edged out RCR teammate Austin Dillon for the final points position in the NASCAR Playoffs after the thrilling regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. While Reddick is making his Round of 16 debut and keeping the organization’s title hopes alive, Dillon’s eight years of top-flight experience and four playoff appearances have provided his younger counterpart with a sense of composure and chemistry moving forward into the postseason.

“Austin is a very consistent team and organizational leader,” said Reddick. “Things happen to all of us, but you never see Austin letting one bad race or one bad thing carry on. Being around that really helps me stay centered, as well. He’s done a really good job of allowing his position in the No. 3 car to help the organization and it motivates me to see him just be himself. It’s been such a good pairing.”

So far this season, Reddick has made huge strides in many categories. Through 27 of 36 races, the No. 8 wheelman has his first career pole, four more top 10s and only one fewer top five than his full 2020 rookie season.

His first bid at a Cup championship has continued the learning experience.

“When you’re in a Cup car and running against Cup guys and teams, there’s normally less mistakes and less room for error,” said Reddick. “In the playoffs, it’s all about execution, doing all the right things and just staying very aware of what our position is and what realistic goals we have once our races get rolling.”

In the midst of the playoffs among a cluster of seasoned veterans, Reddick knows the pressure only increases from here — starting with Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders at Richmond Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports Live, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It’s all about racing the track and making the most out of our night with our team,” said Reddick. “Surely, there will be moments where some of the veterans — and even some of the younger drivers — will feel like they can get in somebody’s head, and get an advantage. But I feel good with what we’ve worked on and where we’re at as a team to stay on path and do what we need to do tomorrow night.”

Racing on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 brings added emotion to the playoff intensity.

RELATED: Mike Helton shares memory of 9/11 | Full guide for Saturday

“It’s important to remember the sacrifices that people selflessly stepped up to make,” said Reddick. “There are a lot of emotions that will be involved, for sure. I’m taking all of the energy and using it as something that can be positive for me going into the race.”

Saturday’s showcase marks Reddick’s third Cup Series race at Richmond. He enters tied for 12th place in the playoff standings (the final Round of 12 transfer spot) with 2026 points.

“On paper, we gained on the cutline [after Darlington] but we are still sitting on it,” said Reddick. “But certainly, we felt like it showed that we had a car that was capable of running much better than 18th. Knowing that really lit a fire under us and we are still more motivated than we’ve been all year long. We faced a challenge that definitely beat us down, but we know what to do moving forward and we’re ready to put up another fight at Richmond.”

Posted on by Staff Report

New season, new track to kick it all off.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is set to open its 2022 season on Feb. 12, and the historic series will do so at a fresh venue — New Smyrna Speedway.

The Florida half-mile asphalt oval, which opened in 1967, will play host to the start of the 38th season of modern-day Modified Tour racing for the first time. It consistently hosts weekly racing, including the “World Series of Asphalt Auto Racing” during NASCAR’s Speedweeks.

The ARCA Menards Series East has opened its season at New Smyrna since 2014 (previously K&N Series East from 2014-19).

Martinsville Speedway hosted the Whelen Modified Tour season-opener this year in a return to “The Paperclip” after 11 years away in a race won by Eric Goodale.

The remainder of the 2022 schedule will be released at a later date.

The series is close to wrapping its current season, with Friday’s Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway (7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Gold TrackPass), followed by a pair of races at Riverhead Raceway (9/18) and Stafford Motor Speedway (9/25).

Posted on by Staff Report

Contact-tracing protocols have led Chip Ganassi Racing to make changes in its pit-crew lineup for Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Richmond Raceway, a spokesperson for the Ganassi team confirmed on Friday afternoon.

RELATED: Cup Series starting lineup | Weekend schedule: Richmond

Four over-the-wall crew for the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet driven by Ross Chastain will shift to the No. 1 CGR Chevy team and Kurt Busch for the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Fueler Milan Rudanovic is the lone No. 1 crew member to remain in place.

Busch qualified as one of 16 championship-eligible drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and the 400-lap, 300-mile race at the .75-mile Virginia track is the second event in the 10-race Cup Series Playoffs.

The No. 42 crew will be led by veteran Mike Metcalf, with development crew members from the No. 00 StarCom Racing and No. 7 Spire Motorsports organizations pitching in. Ganassi fields pit crews for the Nos. 00 and 7 teams.

Entering this weekend’s race at Richmond, the No. 1 crew for Busch has the fifth-fastest average four-tire stop time this season of 13.910 seconds, per data provided by Racing Insights. That crew has also produced two of the five fastest four-tire stops this season to date (last weekend at Darlington at 12.016 seconds on Lap 299 and in Busch’s July win at Atlanta at 12.145 seconds on Lap 163), per Racing Insights.

Busch currently ranks fourth in the series’ postseason standings after Sunday’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. Busch finished sixth in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 and teammate Chastain took third place as the top-finishing non-playoff driver.

Busch qualified for the postseason field by winning earlier this year at Atlanta Motor Speedway, recording the 33rd victory of his Cup Series career. He’ll move to 23XI Racing next season. Chastain notched his third top-five result of the year at Darlington. He’ll move in 2022 to Trackhouse Racing, which announced it had purchased the assets of the Chip Ganassi Racing team in late June.

Posted on by Staff Report

Jesse Johnson-Brower is nearing the end of his 30-day, 454-mile walk in honor of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, and he’ll take in a race weekend at Richmond Raceway as part of the journey.

His fundraiser started Aug. 13 at the site of the World Trade Center’s twin towers, crossed paths with where Flight 93 went down in Pennsylvania and ends at the Pentagon on Saturday.

RELATED: Richmond weekend schedule

Johnson-Bower, a veteran, was on the unit that first showed up at the Pentagon after the terrorist attacks. He now has a non-profit organization called LifeGR that serves American veterans and first responders who are dealing with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

JD Motorsports’ sponsor, ForeverLawn Inc., teamed up with LifeGR, among others, to create a special Sept. 11 tribute design to run on the No. 0 Chevrolet, driven by Jeffrey Earnhardt, at Richmond Raceway for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Go Bowling 250 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

In addition to the paint scheme, Johnson-Bower will be shuttled to the Richmond track after his walk concludes in Virginia to attend the Go Bowling 250.

ForeverLawn Inc. has been the primary sponsor for the No. 0 JD Motorsports Chevrolet of driver Jeffrey Earnhardt on track in 11 races this season. Earnhardt will line up 26th Saturday in hopes of capturing his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win.

Posted on by Staff Report

Rick Ware Racing announced Friday that Cody Ware will sit out the next two NASCAR race weekends as a precautionary measure while he recovers from the effects of carbon monoxide exposure.

Ware, 25, is scheduled to miss Cup Series starts for RWR at Richmond Raceway this weekend and at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 18. Garrett Smithley was named as a replacement driver in the No. 51 Petty Ware Racing Chevrolet for Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The team indicated that a substitute driver for the annual night race at Bristol will be named at a later date.

RELATED: Cup Series starting lineup | Weekend schedule: Richmond

Ware was involved in a crash with RWR teammate James Davison during the opening stage of the Cook Out Southern 500 last Sunday at Darlington Raceway. He continued but later told his crew that he was feeling ill, and he parked the damaged No. 51 entry after completing 209 of the 367 laps.

NASCAR officials said he was treated and released from the infield care center. Ware later said he was feeling the effects of carbon monoxide exposure; the team indicated that Ware was still ailing on Monday and said in a statement that “Cody felt it was in the best interest for the team to have a replacement driver for the next two races.”

Ware has competed in 25 of 27 Cup Series races this year and has entered seven events this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He has also made his first three starts in IndyCar competition in 2021.

Smithley has made 19 Cup Series starts and two Xfinity Series appearances this season — all for Rick Ware Racing.