Posted on September 2, 2021 by Dustin Albino

Two weeks ago, it looked like Austin Cindric was going to cruise to his second consecutive Xfinity Series regular season championship. My, how things have changed.

After winning three races ago at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Cindric had an 82-point buffer on AJ Allmendinger with five races to go in the regular season. Two races later, the No. 22 team is in the hole.

Cindric won the first stage at Michigan International Speedway – a race Allmendinger won. But on the restart of the second stage, the No. 22 Ford was caught up in a big incident on the backstretch, which began when Ty Gibbs took the air off the rear spoiler of Myatt Snider, who chased his car into Cindric. The wreck collected other playoff drivers, including Justin Haley and Daniel Hemric. The No. 22 car limped around a few laps, but ultimately saw its day come to an end.

“Never give up. Just being able to get points,” Cindric said of why he stayed out despite having smoke billow from his car. “Every little bit matters. That never-give-up attitude, though, is what wins championships.”

With Allmendinger winning, the No. 16 team chopped 47 points off of Cindric’s lead, just 35 out heading into last weekend’s Wawa 250 at Daytona International Speedway.

There, too, lies a problem.

With just four laps remaining in the opening stage at Daytona, Cindric was running fourth, sitting in prime position to gain a few stage points. However, Snider gave the No. 22 car an untimely bump through the tri-oval, triggering a five-car wreck.

Cindric ended the race 39th, earning just one point on the afternoon.

“That’s two weekends in a row we’ve had race-winning capable cars and I’ve done probably a total of 40 laps in the last two weeks,” Cindric said last Saturday. “Really frustrating to have that situation play out so early. It only takes one sometimes.”

At the time of the incident, Allmendinger was running second and knew he had to go into points-racing mode.

“When I saw the [No.] 22 go out, I knew we had the opportunity to gain a lot of points,” he said. “I tried to be smart but still be aggressive.”

On the last lap, Allmendinger was in prime position to win the race, though his Kaulig Racing teammate Haley scooted by coming off of Turn 4 to score his first win of the season. The No. 16 Chevrolet finished runner-up in all three stages.

Still, it was a strong points day for Allmendinger, gaining 52 big ones on Cindric with a 99-point swing over the last two races. Heading into this Saturday’s race at Darlington Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Allmendinger is the points leader for the first time this season, 17 to the good of Cindric.

“Two races ago, I never even thought about it, so it’s pretty awesome,” Allmendinger said of his points position. “We just have to keep building fast race cars and keep doing what we need to do and finish the regular season off strong, whether that’s the Regular-Season Championship or not. Other than that, be ready for the playoffs.”

Cindric now sits second in the championship standings for the first time this season. Dating back to last season, the No. 22 team had the championship lead for the previous 25 races. Since last July at Kansas Speedway, Cindric has led the points after 38 of the past 40 races.

But now, he’s in a points battle for the next three races at Darlington, Richmond Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway.

“We bring fast race cars, we show up and I show up prepared and felt like we had a shot to win [at Daytona] and felt like we had a shot to win [at Michigan] and most weeks,” Cindric said following Daytona. “I wouldn’t say Darlington, statistically, is my best race track, but there’s no reason why it can’t be. Richmond and Bristol, I like those two tracks. Head down and move forward.”

Between the trio of tracks to close out the regular season, the upper hand likely goes to Cindric. Though Allmendinger has a plethora of experience at the tracks in the Cup Series, he had a combined three starts in the Xfinity Series at those tracks. Cindric, however, has 17, with two second-place finishes both coming at Richmond.

Posted on September 2, 2021 by Staff Report

ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ will have a NASCAR flavor to it on Saturday as 2020 Cup champion Chase Elliott will film a live segment on the show.

ESPN’s crew is in Charlotte this weekend, the home of many of the NASCAR teams and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, for the game between perennial college powers, the Clemson Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs, at Bank of America Stadium. The Dawsonville, Georgia native is expected to appear in a morning segment, and our guess is he’ll pick the Bulldogs to win.

Then it’s on to Darlington Raceway as Elliott starts defending his title in Sunday’s playoff opener, the Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The NASCAR Foundation and Kaulig Giving are joining together for the Foundation’s fifth annual “Speedy Bear Brigade” scheduled to take place in NASCAR race markets across the country on Thursday, Sept. 9, in celebration of National Teddy Bear Day.

The initiative has grown from 14 participating locations in its first year to more than 50 hospital locations coast-to-coast in 2021, surpassing a total of 5,700 Speedy Bears delivered to children who require a comforting teddy bear to ease the stress of their hospital stay.

“Our Speedy Bear Brigade has become an important date on The NASCAR Foundation’s calendar each year,” said Nichole Krieger, The NASCAR Foundation executive director. “We are thrilled to have our friends from Kaulig Giving join us to bring smiles to so many children when they receive their new Speedy Bear.”

Joining Kaulig Giving and the Foundation will be Kaulig Racing team owner Matt Kaulig and NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers AJ Allmendinger, Jeb Burton, and Justin Haley for special presentations at select locations.

“We’re honored to team up with The NASCAR Foundation to deliver cheer, positivity, and comfort to children in hospitals across the country with the Speedy Bear Brigade program,” said Matt Kaulig, team owner of Kaulig Racing and founder of Kaulig Giving. “Our partnership with The NASCAR Foundation is a natural fit — and very special to us as we continue to grow our relationship on and off the track. All of us share the incredible goal of impacting the communities we love by helping children in need live happier, healthier lives.”

NASCAR fans are encouraged to join the Speedy Bear Brigade by making a $25 donation to The NASCAR Foundation to sponsor a Speedy Bear and send a get-well message to a child in the hospital. As an additional incentive, Kaulig Giving will match all contributions made at NASCARfoundation.org up to $25,000.

The NASCAR Foundation is celebrating its 15th Anniversary in 2021. Since it was established in 2006, The NASCAR Foundation has donated nearly $40 million and helped over 1.4 million children in need. Proceeds from the Speedy Bear Brigade will continue these efforts, with all proceeds benefiting the Foundation’s initiatives aimed at improving the health and wellness of children in race markets across the country through its Speediatrics Children’s Fund.

Posted on September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 by Jerry Bonkowski

There is no dispute: Terry Labonte was one of the best drivers in NASCAR history.

The Corpus Christi, Texas, native competed in 890 NASCAR Cup Series events, winning 22 of them, and earned 182 top-five and 361 top-10 finishes. He also won two Cup championships in one of the most difficult ways there is: 12 years apart (1984 and 1996).

He drove for some of the biggest owners in the sport, some for several seasons, others for only a handful of races, including Billy Hagen, Junior Johnson, Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs and Richard Petty. He also was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.

He achieved the sport’s highest honor when he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2016, followed four years later by younger brother Bobby, making them one of only two pairs of siblings to reach the sport’s pinnacle, the other being Richard and Maurice Petty.

But there’s also one non-racing part of Terry’s life that few people know about, one that brings a smile to his face when he tells the story: he’s also been kind of the “boss” of Tony The Tiger – as in Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes “They’re GREAT!” cereal fame – for a quarter-century.

An explanation is in order:

Labonte used to be sponsored by Kellogg’s back in the 1990s. Out of that relationship, he began a sports and event marketing firm that came to include Kellogg’s as a corporate partner. One of the elements of that partnership is Labonte’s firm manages Kellogg’s “Tony The Tiger” appearance business across North America, where the friendly tiger shows up at various events.

“We’ve probably got over 100 costumes that we manage for Kellogg’s,” Labonte said. “We get requests from Kellogg’s and then our people line up the talent (to wear the costume) and where the costumes are shipped to. It takes two people to do an event.”

The reason why there must be a duo at each event got Labonte chuckling again: “You have to have the person in the costume and then you have to have a handler to make sure (“Tony”) doesn’t run into something or someone doesn’t run up and tackle him.”

When asked if he was ever tempted to climb into a Tony The Tiger costume, especially when he retired from NASCAR, Labonte quickly quipped, “No, uh-uh. You’ve got to be a certain size and certain weight to fit (into the costume) perfectly. … No, I’m never going to get into one of ’em.”

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Labonte got into racing thanks to his father, who was a noted race mechanic in south Texas. Terry was behind the wheel by 5 years old, racing quarter midgets at 7, won a national championship at 9, and then spent the next decade or so capturing numerous track championships both on dirt and asphalt throughout his home state of Texas.

It was a chance meeting with Hagan, a Louisiana businessman, that prompted Labonte to leave The Lone Star State after 1977 to pursue fame and fortune in NASCAR.

“That was just kind of one of those deals, I was in the right place, the right time and met the right guy in Billy,” Labonte said. “It was just the chance of a lifetime.”

But rather than try his hand at some of NASCAR’s lower rungs first, Labonte went straight to the top, the Cup Series.

In his first-ever start in 1978, the then-21-year-old qualified 19th, but more importantly finished in fourth place. And he accomplished that feat at one of the most difficult tracks there is: Darlington Raceway, otherwise known as the track “Too Tough to Tame.”

It would be at Darlington where Labonte became almost legendary, going on to tame the “Lady in Black” with two wins (both coming in the Southern 500), 11 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes in 54 career starts on the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.

The Labonte-Hagan partnership lasted through the 1986 season and included six wins, as well as a championship together in 1984, before Junior Johnson lured Labonte away from 1987 through 1989.

Johnson once joked that he was so tired of losing to Labonte, that he figured the only way to beat him was to hire him. Their three-year tenure produced four wins and a third-place finish in 1987 and fourth-place in 1988.

Labonte joined Richard Jackson, who formed a new Cup team in 1990, but the relationship lasted just one season. Labonte returned to Hagan for 1991-1993 before joining Rick Hendrick in 1984. The partnership would prove to be the most successful of Labonte’s career – producing 12 wins and Labonte’s second Cup crown in 1996 – and would run through 2006 (that final year being a part-time effort that Labonte split between Hendrick and the upstart Hall of Fame Racing team owned by NFL greats Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman).

From that point, Labonte raced a part-time schedule the rest of his career, finally retiring in 2014 at age 57.

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When you’ve competed in 1,017 NASCAR races – 890 in Cup, 124 in Xfinity and three in Trucks – you amass a number of great memories. But there are two things in particular that Labonte says best define his racing career.

“To me, it was winning the two championships,” he said. “That’s what you race for, what you want to do, to win championships. In 1984, I really felt like we had a great team, just an awesome team. And I felt like man, we could do it again the next year. We came up with the lead in the points and then came up short, finishing seventh. Then, the next year, we started off well again, then had some more trouble (and ultimately finished 12th). It just seemed like for that ‘next year’ to win the next championship, it wound up taking a long time (12 years).

“When I had the opportunity to join Hendrick Motorsports in ’94, I knew that that was a place that could win championships, and they hadn’t won one at the time. (Jeff Gordon would win the first in 1995, followed by Labonte in 1996.) I knew that if I was going to win a championship, that that would be a great opportunity for me to try to win another championship. It was kind of a dream come true to get that second championship. That was extremely satisfying.”

Labonte perhaps could have won more championships, but he also competed in what was arguably NASCAR’s greatest era ever. The level of competition made it perhaps the most difficult time for drivers to win multiple championships, unless your name was Petty or Earnhardt.

“I was so lucky to race in the era that I was in,” Labonte said. “I got to race against David Pearson, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison. Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Buddy Baker, all the way to Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, just so many guys in there. …

“And then for my career to last as long as it did was really pretty amazing. I have to credit that to the people that I was with. I was lucky enough to have good people I was always surrounded by, because good people make you look good (he said with a laugh).”

Labonte’s toughest competitor – but also one of his closest friends off-track – was the late Dale Earnhardt. Their legendary battles, particularly at places like Bristol and Darlington, make up some of NASCAR’s greatest racing lore.

“At the race track, he was The Intimidator and was a tough, tough racer, that’s for sure,” Labonte said. “Dale was a different person, I felt, away from the track. Deep down he was a really good guy, had a big heart for a lot of people and helped out a lot of people, doing things that nobody knew about. That’s just kind of the guy he was.”

Labonte then went on to tell one of his favorite stories about Earnhardt.

“We had a couple of run-ins at Bristol and the second one we had, I passed him for the lead, and he ran into the back of me and spun me off Turn 2 and I hit the wall,” Labonte said. “As he came back around and I was sitting on the straightaway, I had decided that he might be going to Victory Lane, but this 5 car was going to be stuck in the side of that 3 car in a second. I started my car back up, I had it in reverse and I was going to T-bone him backwards because I was nosed into the wall.

“I had it timed perfectly, I let the clutch out, hit the gas and it tore the reverse gear out of that car and it moved about two inches. After the race, he said, ‘God, you were so calm and cool.’ I thought to myself, ‘if that reverse gear hadn’t got torn out of that car, you wouldn’t be saying that.’ So, I got out of the car, went into the trailer and changed clothes and went home.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

“The next week, we’re at Darlington and it always happens this way where you have a run-in with somebody like that,” Labonte said. “I went to the driver introductions, everybody is standing around waiting to be introduced, I turned around and there was Dale and John Andretti was between us. John looks at me and then looks at Dale and says, ‘I’m standing in the wrong place.’ That just broke the ice and we all laughed about it.”

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Labonte turns 65 in November and splits his time between Texas and North Carolina. While he’s long retired from racing, he’s still very active with a number of business interests, including his event marketing company – which is now 25 years old – as well as co-owning a Chevrolet car dealership with Hendrick in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The event marketing firm has been particularly satisfying for Labonte, with present and past relationships within the IndyCar and NASCAR communities. Bobby borrowed a page from his older brother’s playbook and started his own sports and event marketing firm about 15 years ago that is also involved with a variety of motorsports clients.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly hurt both brothers’ operations last year. Terry’s firm was especially hard-hit.

“Before COVID, we used to do about 1,600 to 2,000 events a year,” he said. “But when COVID hit, it went from that number to about 10. It really took a big hit. Unfortunately, we don’t have as many people as we used to have. Now, we’re just starting things back up (although the uptick in the Delta variant is an increasingly significant concern).”

But Labonte hasn’t lost his sense of humor despite the COVID setbacks.

“I’ve got some really good people that work for me and they can manage everything,” Terry said before adding with a hearty laugh, “The only time they call me is if something goes wrong.”

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The pinnacle of Labonte’s career was his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame five years ago. He still finds it a bit surreal but is also humbled by the highest honor a driver can achieve.

“Being in the Hall of Fame means a lot, it really does,” Terry said. “It’s certainly nothing that you ever set out as a goal, like, ‘Oh God, I’m going to be in the Hall of Fame someday’ or something like that. It’s kind of the last thing you ever really think about. Of course, when I started, they didn’t have a NASCAR Hall of Fame. It’s quite an honor to be with just so many people that are just real legends in our sport and that have done so much for our sport over the years.”

Another thing Labonte is happy to see this year is the success Kyle Larson is having in Labonte’s old No. 5 Chevrolet, offering high praise of Larson’s move to Hendrick Motorsports this season.

“I think (Larson’s) one of the greatest drivers in America, by far,” Labonte said. “There’s only a couple guys in that category that I think he’s in right now. It’s fun to watch that 5 car, so I’ve been watching more races, probably more this year than I have the past few years.”

But one thing you will never see again is Terry back behind the wheel of a race car. While brother Bobby competed in the full six-race inaugural season of the Superstar Racing Experience this year, Terry says count him out.

“I’ve been offered some opportunities but I really have no desire to do it,” he said. “I’m just enjoying doing everything right now. I’ve got four grandkids and we’re able to do a lot of fun things with them and things like that. I’m just an ordinary guy, I guess.”

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The Terry Labonte file:

* Age: 64 (turns 65 on Nov. 16)

* Hometown: Corpus Christi, Texas.

* Personal: Married to wife Kim since 1978. Two children: son Justin, a former race car driver, and daughter Kristy. Four grandchildren.

Career highlights:

* NASCAR Cup career: 890 starts, 22 wins, 182 top-five and 361 top-10 finishes. Also 27 poles. Best season finish: 1st (1984, 1996).

* NASCAR Xfinity Series career: 124 starts, 11 wins, 47 top-five and 68 top-10 finishes. Also 4 poles. Best season finish: 13th (1996).

* NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career: 3 starts, 1 win, 3 top-five and 3 top-10 finishes. Also 1 pole.

Veteran motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski is writing a number of Where Are They Now? stories this year for NASCAR.com. Check out stories he’s already done on Kenny Wallace, Trevor Bayne, Ken Schrader, Shawna Robinson, Sam Hornish Jr., Bobby Labonte, Greg Biffle, Ricky Rudd, Darrell Waltrip, Mark Martin, Marcos Ambrose and Juan Pablo Montoya. Follow Jerry on Twitter @JerryBonkowski and @TheRacingBeat, as well as The Racing Beat podcast, available on most podcast platforms.

Posted on September 2, 2021September 3, 2021 by Terrin Waack

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin Sunday – a 10-race battle among 16 title-eligible drivers for the championship. First up is the Round of 16, featuring Darlington Raceway, Richmond Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway. Four contenders will then be eliminated before the Round of 12, which will include Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. After another four are cut, the Round of 8 will commence at Texas Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. The Championship 4 will finally be determined and compete at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 7. in a straight-up race for the ultimate Bill France Cup trophy.

Here are the 16 drivers (and how they qualified) vying for the title: Kyle Larson (five wins), Ryan Blaney (three wins), Martin Truex Jr. (three wins), Kyle Busch (two wins), Chase Elliott (two wins), Alex Bowman (three wins), Denny Hamlin (points), William Byron (a win), Joey Logano (a win), Brad Keselowski (a win), Kurt Busch (a win), Michael McDowell (a win), Christopher Bell (a win), Aric Almirola (a win), Tyler Reddick (points) and Kevin Harvick (points).

Now, a Round of 16 track-by-track breakdown:

DARLINGTON RACEWAY

(📅 Sunday | ⏰ 6 p.m. ET | 📺 NBCSN | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)

Name: Cook Out Southern 500
Location: Darlington, South Carolina
Length: 1.366 miles
Distance: 367 laps, 501.3 miles
Previous winner: Martin Truex Jr. (2021)

Sunday will mark the NASCAR Cup Series’ second trip to Darlington Raceway this season. Martin Truex Jr. won the first race back in May. Playoff drivers Kyle Larson (second), Kyle Busch (third), William Byron (fourth), Denny Hamlin (fifth), Kevin Harvick (sixth), Chase Elliott (seventh) and Ryan Blaney (eighth) all finished within the top 10.

Kevin Harvick has yet to win a race in 2021, but he has the best stats line among all of the playoff drivers, taking the cake in four of the five categories listed below. Kyle Larson manages a better career average finish, Kurt Busch matches Harvick’s start tally, and Denny Hamlin ties Harvick for most wins.

RICHMOND RACEWAY

(📅 Sept. 11 | ⏰ 7:30 p.m. ET | 📺 NBCSN | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)

Name: Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Length: .75 miles
Distance: 400 laps, 300 miles
Previous winner: Alex Bowman (2021)

Richmond Raceway will also be a second-stop destination. Alex Bowman captured his first of three regular-season wins here. There were seven other playoffs drivers in the top 10 then, too – Denny Hamlin (second), Joey Logano (third), Christopher Bell (fourth), Martin Truex Jr. (fifth), Aric Almirola (sixth), William Byron (seventh) and Kyle Busch (eighth).

Busch statistically has a better history at Richmond than the rest of the postseason contenders, boasting the best marks in wins, top fives and average finish. Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick have the most experience, and Harvick holds the most top 10s.

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

(📅 Sept. 18 | ⏰ 7:30 p.m. ET | 📺 NBCSN | 📻 PRN, SiriusXM)

Name: Bass Pro Shops Night Race
Location: Bristol, Tennessee
Length: .533 miles
Distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles
Previous winner: Kevin Harvick (2020)

The series did race at Bristol Motor Speedway earlier this season, but it did so on the dirt surface (FWIW, Joey Logano won), which basically made it a different track. The playoffs race – aka the classic Bristol Night Race – will take place on the normal concrete oval, which Kevin Harvick last won on in 2020. Kyle Busch (second), Tyler Reddick (fourth), Aric Almirola (fifth), Chase Elliott (seventh) and Michael McDowell (10th) also placed within the top 10 at the time.

Once again, Busch has the most wins and top-five finishes at Bristol. Elliott, though, has the best average finish. Harvick and Kurt Busch have tallied more starts, and that Busch has more top 10s than his younger brother.

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Marcus DiNitto

With a 28-point cushion from the second- and third-place drivers – and a path of little resistance to the Championship 4 – Kyle Larson heads into the 2021 Cup Series Playoffs as the clear betting favorite to claim the title. But with Larson priced at less than 3/1 odds at all three of NASCAR’s official betting partners, many gamblers will be looking elsewhere for value.

It’s probably wise not to dig too deep. The top half of the oddsboard, reset after the 16-driver playoff field was finalized, is owned by the Big Three teams: Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske. While Kevin Harvick’s chances shouldn’t be completely dismissed, he’s yet to win a race this season, and it’s hard to envision the 2021 champ not emerging from one of Cup’s top three garages.

Here are the championship futures odds (as of Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET) from NASCAR’s partner sportsbooks ahead of Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Darlington Raceway, the first event of the 10-race playoffs:

DRIVER	BetMGM	Barstool	WynnBET
Kyle Larson	+225	+240	+250
Chase Elliott	+650	+650	+650
Kyle Busch	+700	+700	+750
Denny Hamlin	+800	+750	+750
Martin Truex Jr.	+800	+800	+900
Joey Logano	+1200	+1200	+1000
Ryan Blaney	+1200	+1200	+1400
William Byron	+1200	+1200	+1200
Alex Bowman	+1400	+2000	+1600
Kevin Harvick	+1600	+1600	+1600
Brad Keselowski	+1600	+1600	+1200
Christopher Bell	+2500	+2200	+2000
Kurt Busch	+3300	+3300	+3000
Aric Almirola	+6600	+6000	+5000
Tyler Reddick	+8000	+5000	+5000
Michael McDowell	+20000	+10000	+10000

A mid-season eight-race stretch of three wins and four seconds (plus an All-Star Race victory in the middle of it) made Larson look nearly unbeatable. But the pack has closed the gap on the No. 5, and even if he coasts into the Championship 4 at Phoenix, he’ll have to contend with three top drivers for the title.

With an emphasis on the 750-horsepower, low-downforce package (six of the remaining 10 races will employ that package, including the first three and final two), one school of thought says the NASCAR Playoffs set up well for JGR.

Jim Sannes, a quantitative NASCAR betting and fantasy analyst at numberFire, made a case for Martin Truex Jr. back in July, and he still likes the pick.

“I think he’s still the best value on the board,” Sannes told NASCAR.com in a DM this week. “I got him at +850 at the beginning of August, and I’m content with it. Was hoping it would have moved by now (to shorter odds), but the main point was anticipating he’d be great on the playoff tracks.”

Pro sports bettor Zack White was on the Hendrick team early, including taking a substantial futures position on Alex Bowman, and he isn’t buying the notion that the schedule puts Gibbs at an advantage.

“It’s a long playoffs, so these guys like Larson and Bowman, people with multiple wins, they’re going to cruise past the first round,” White said. “So they can kind of sit back and say, ‘I’m going to save the best of my equipment for when I need to perform the best.'”

While he still likes his Hendrick investment – his four-figure wagers on Bowman to win the 2021 title at odds ranging from 28/1 to 35/1 look pretty good with the No. 48’s price shrinking to the 14/1 to 20/1 range – White knows others must be respected.

“Eyes on Kyle Busch and Gibbs cars, always,” White added. “There’s going to be a hell of a playoffs run this year. My initial idea earlier in the season was that it was going to be all Hendrick cars (in contention), but obviously teams have made some strides in the second half of the season. Should be a good show.”

Longer shots

The current hot hand is Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who has earned two consecutive victories (Michigan, Daytona) and starts on the pole Sunday in Darlington. While Blaney is tied for second with Truex in the standings, his double-digit odds are enticing.

“Blaney is pretty easily a value now at +1700 (at FanDuel) once you combine his playoff points with how well he tends to run on the short, flat tracks. …. I had been super worried about what he’d do in the first round. But he ran really well (relative to his baseline) at Darlington and Richmond this year, and he gave himself a nice cushion at the end of the regular season.”

When we spoke a few weeks ago, sports betting media personality Todd Fuhrman said, “If we see prices on any of the Penske drivers drift out further, that might be relatively attractive.”

In addition to the nice price on Blaney, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski are offered at +1200 and +1600, respectively, at BetMGM and Barstool.

Former NASCAR driver Brendan Gaughan, who knows a thing or two about gambling (even though he doesn’t bet NASCAR), said beyond the obvious favorite, Larson, “if I got a dark horse sitting there, it’s William Byron.”

Fuhrman said he has a small position on Christopher Bell and still likes the No. 20 Toyota at the 40/1 odds some Vegas shops, including SuperBook USA, are offering.

Wait-and-see approach

Rather than firing before the playoffs start, bettors may want to consider watching how things play out and picking their spots as the postseason progresses. That may present opportunities to find title contenders at longer prices.

“One thing we’ve seen over the last couple of years, you’ll get some interesting numbers once the field is set, but when you get into those elimination races, you can get a significantly better number,” Fuhrman said.

A combination of two strategies can also be effective – make a small investment early with the intention of increasing it later.

“This playoff format can create some wild swings based on just one race,” Fuhrman said, “so it’s always better to be willing to add to certain drivers than go all in right away.”

Marcus DiNitto is a writer and editor living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has been covering sports for nearly two-and-a-half decades and sports betting for more than 10 years. His first NASCAR betting experience was in 1995 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he went 0-for-3 on his matchup picks. Read his articles and follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.

Posted on September 1, 2021September 1, 2021 by Cara Cooper

Terry Schultz has been racing for 31 years, but this is the first he’s competed full-time at a NASCAR-sanctioned track.

And while he’s had a lot of success – more than 300 wins and, he estimates, about 15 championships – racing for national NASCAR points wasn’t something he and his team thought about this season. In fact, he had to be reminded just how high in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division II standings he is.

“I thought we were dead in the water in that deal,” Schultz said.

“I knew, but earlier in the year we had a rough patch, so I assumed we had fell way back. I didn’t know we were still competitive. I’m not sure we deserve to be right now, but we’ll take it.”

In 22 races this season between dirt tracks Lakeside Speedway, in Kansas City, Kansas, and Central Missouri Speedway, in Warrensburg, Missouri, Schultz has six wins and 17 top-5 finishes. He’s currently second in the NWAAS Division II points, four points out of first.

Schultz has been racing at CMS since 1990, and at Lakeside Speedway for the last five years. Both tracks went NASCAR-sanctioned this season for the first time in decades.

He currently leads the B-Mods standings at CMS by 17 points, and is third in the B-Mods points at Lakeside, 60 points behind the leader.

When Schultz was a kid, his dad did mud racing at coliseums all around the Midwest. Even though Schultz grew up around the racing community, it was a trip to the track with a friend that really sparked the interest for him.

“A buddy of mine had a car and I went with him to the track one time and I said, ‘Well that looks like fun,'” he said. “Two weeks later I had my own car and I’ve been going after it ever since.”

Terry Schultz drives around a competitor during a recent race at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas. Schultz is second in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division II standings. (Photo by Joshua Allee Photography/Courtesy Karen Darling, Lakeside Speedway)

The 22 NASCAR races for Schultz is about half of all the races he’s done this season. He drives for owner Bobby Russell as his primary car, and has another of his own he has for a backup.

His job – he owns his own demolition company – helps make it possible for Schultz to race more than once every weekend.

“It could have been something I went out the first time and didn’t like and moved on,” he said of racing. “I’ve been fortunate I’ve got a job that allows me to do it and family that allows me to do it. And financially it’s never been a burden, too bad of a burden anyway.”

After competing for many decades in the A-mods divisions at both Lakeside and CMS, he dropped down to racing B-mods this season, and said he’s had a lot more fun in a new class.

“We do a lot of racing,” Schultz said.

“I’m not a young fella anymore so it was getting to be a lot of work. We were spending a lot of time and spending a lot of money and going out and racing against half the cars. You’d look over and there would be 30 B-mods and we’d have 10 cars in my class. I was almost jealous of it. I thought it might be fun to try that. It seems to be working good. It fits our schedule better time-wise.

“We’ve been having a ball. It’s a lot less pressure. You don’t have to run well every time you’re out there and feel like you’ve wasted the whole week.”

Rainouts and a couple DNFs has made this an up-and-down season for Schultz and his team, adding to his surprise at how well he’s doing nationally.

The veteran diver has never gone into a season racing for a championship or points. He prefers to compete with the motto “the only important race is the next race.” The rest will take care of itself.

“We try to finish up towards the front and let the wins take care of themselves,” Schultz said. “Let the cards fall how they may.”

Schultz and his team will continue to race that way through the end of the season, although he said they might start thinking about chasing points now that they know they’re close.

For a sport Schultz said he “just kind of fell into,” the championships have all come, and they may keep coming this season.

“Some days you’re so mad at it you don’t want to go racing gain. Then the next day you’re a little less mad, and the day after that you can’t wait to go again. I don’t know what it is,” Schultz said.

“We’re just going to keep racing and doing as well as we can.”

Central Missouri Speedway will host Labor Day Weekend races on Saturday and Sunday. Night 1 will feature the track’s second annual Big Bad B-Mod Blowout, as well as A-Mods, Super Stocks, and Pure Stocks. Night 2 will feature A-Mods, B-Mods, Super Stocks, Pure Stocks, and Lightning Sprints.

Lakeside Speedway will host racing on September 10 for the Tom Karrick Memorial, featuring A-Mods, B-Mods, Stock Cars, Pure Stocks, and Mod Lites. Racing will begin at 7:45 p.m.

Posted on September 1, 2021September 1, 2021 by Sponsored Content

Tony Stewart is teaming up with the Mobil 1™ brand to give NASCAR fans a chance to win more cash during the 2021 NASCAR Playoffs. Stewart, a three-time Cup Series champion who knows a thing or two about winning at this time of year and who is the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, took to the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, in a Mobil 1 branded armored truck to prove it.

The vehicle, nicknamed the Mobil 1 Thousand Money Truck, had the same golden paint scheme that Kevin Harvick, a NASCAR Playoffs driver and 2014 champion, had on the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for the race at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, this season. Stewart surprised fans outside the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte by showing up in the armored vehicle and then making it rain dollar bills with a pair of money guns.

The Mobil 1 brand, the Official Motor Oil of NASCAR, launched the Mobil 1 Thousand sweepstakes earlier this year, awarding $1,000 or more to fans each time a driver running Mobil 1 lubricant technology wins any NASCAR Cup Series race. So far $15,000 has been awarded and the brand has announced that the prize totals will increase during the playoffs, giving fans more opportunities to win more money.

Harold Hinson

“Throughout my partnership with my good friends at Mobil 1, they’ve had me drive some crazy things. I mean, anyone remember the tank? So, it’s been fun to continue that tradition here,” Stewart said. “What’s so special about this promotion is that Mobil 1 is rewarding fans in a way that really no one else can, as both a league sponsor and technology provider for so many NASCAR teams. The chance at weekly cash is exciting for everyone, and the bonuses they’ve added all season, including special prizes to celebrate 10 years as an SHR partner, make signing up a no-brainer.”

At the start of the playoffs and for each cutoff race, an extra prize will be up for grabs: $1,000 for every Mobil 1 driver advancing to the next round, awarded as a lump sum. Additionally, if a Mobil 1 driver wins the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, one lucky fan will walk away with $15,000.

“The Mobil 1 Thousand sweepstakes is about celebrating drivers, teams, and wins right along with the fans that make NASCAR such an incredible sport,” said Bryce Huschka, North America Consumer Marketing Manager for ExxonMobil. “Now, with the playoffs right around the corner, we are thrilled to ramp it up and give fans the opportunity to win even bigger prizes as the stakes get higher. Whenever you see a Mobil 1 decal on track, you can be sure that our technology is in that vehicle, and it’s both a privilege and a responsibility that we don’t take lightly.”

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs get underway Sept. 5 at Darlington Raceway with cutoff races scheduled for Sept. 18 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Oct. 10 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course and Oct. 31 at Martinsville Speedway. The NASCAR Cup Series Championship race is set for Nov. 7 at Phoenix Raceway.

The Cup Series teams that benefit from Mobil 1 technology include Stewart-Haas Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Live Fast Motorsports and Gaunt Brothers Racing, so look for their cars on the track as you root them on to victory and more cash prizes.

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Staff Report

NASCAR penalized the No. 17 team in the Xfinity Series for having one lug nut not safe and secure in post-race inspection after last weekend’s race at Daytona International Speedway.

RELATED: Daytona results | Xfinity standings

Crew chief Jason Miller of SS Green Light Racing was hit with a $5,000 fine for violating Sections 10.9.10.4 of the NASCAR Rule Book: Tires and Wheels. JJ Yeley drove the No. 17 Chevrolet to a 13th-place finish in the Wawa 250 that was won by Justin Haley.

NASCAR also announced on Wednesday that crew member Michael Leoncini has been reinstated and is eligible to return to all NASCAR activity.

Posted on September 1, 2021September 2, 2021 by Sponsored Content

During this NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs™, Ford and NASCAR are bringing fans an electrifying opportunity: the chance to drive off in a 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition^***.

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The Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition is the spark of something big — and NASCAR fans can be among the first to experience it all.

⁽¹⁾Based on full charge. Actual range varies with conditions such as external environment, vehicle use, vehicle maintenance, lithium-ion battery age and state of health.

**Calculated via peak performance of the electric motor(s) at peak battery power. Your results may vary. Horsepower, torque, and EPA Estimated Fuel Economy Ratings are independent attributes and may not be achieved simultaneously.

*Ford test data based on typical industry methodology using 1-ft rollout. Your results may vary.

^***NO PURCHASE OR MOBILE DEVICE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Ends 11/7/21. Must be a permanent legal resident of the (50) U.S. or DC of legal age of majority (& at least 18 years of age) as of 8/30/21. Void where prohibited. For rules, entry, and complete details click here. The depiction of the Prize Vehicle in any advertising or promotional materials may not reflect the actual design and features of the actual Prize Vehicle delivered to the Grand Prize Winner. All vehicle prize details are at the sole discretion of Ford. NASCAR, LLC, NASCAR Digital Media, LLC, & Ford Motor Company are not Sponsors of this Promotion. NASCAR^® & NASCAR Cup Series™ are trademarks of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC. Ford Motor Company & Mustang are trademarks of Ford Motor Company.