Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Cup Series driver Erik Jones has established his own charitable foundation, with the Byron, Michigan-native announcing the Erik Jones Foundation at the Back to the Bricks event Friday night in downtown Flint ahead of the NASCAR race weekend at Michigan International Speedway.

The goal of the Erik Jones Foundation is three-fold: ignite children’s passion for reading, encourage early cancer detection and care and promote animal welfare. All hold special meaning for Jones.

The 25-year-old racer is an avid reader and has been since childhood. Fans of Jones and Richard Petty Motorsports likely know that already, given Jones’ penchant for reading books to his social media followers.

Cancer detection and care have been a priority for Jones since his father, Dave, succumbed to the disease in 2016. And animal welfare is paramount, as Jones has grown up with pets, with his German Shepherd, Oscar, regularly by his side.

“The experiences I’ve had growing up shaped what my Foundation is about,” Jones said in a press release. “I really enjoy reading, but with all the technology kids have available to them today, the joy of just sitting down with a good book is getting lost. I want to change that. Obviously, losing my dad to cancer was hard – and it still is – but it’s made me so mindful of how important early detection is, because the sooner you diagnose it, the more options you have for treatment. And I do love animals, and all the pets I’ve had meant a lot to me. I want to do what I can to ensure they’re enjoying healthy and happy lives, too.

“These three aspects of my Foundation might seem different, but they all came together when my dad was battling cancer. Getting lost in a book and having a pet who seemed to understand what you were going through was like therapy. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, and I’m lucky enough to be in a position in my life where I can help others. That’s what my Foundation is about.”

The Foundation’s first gift was a donation to the Genesee District Library, a public library system serving the residents of Genesee County, Michigan, with 19 locations. The reading theme will continue Sunday at Michigan, where prior to the FireKeepers Casino 400 at the 2-mile oval, Jones will read M is for Mitten: A Michigan Alphabet by Annie Appleford, to kids and their families at the Graves Family Campground at 10:30 a.m.

It is an extension of Jones’ #READwithErik series, which began last spring when COVID-19 forced NASCAR to take a 10-week break and schools transitioned to remote learning. Jones saw an opportunity to share his passion for reading, and the first #READwithErik event took place on April 21, 2020 when he sat down in front of a camera and read Dr. Seuss’ iconic Oh, The Places You’ll Go via his Facebook page. Since its debut, #READwithErik has featured 25 books with more than 130,000 views.

“COVID made life tough for everyone, but kids especially. They couldn’t go to school and see their friends, and normal things like getting together at the cafeteria table all of a sudden just went away. I wanted to do something to try and make that a little bit better, and that’s how our virtual reading circle came together. I’m actually really looking forward to getting back to doing it in person this Sunday at Michigan,” Jones said.

Those wishing to make tax-deductible contributions to the Erik Jones Foundation can do so via the following address:

Erik Jones Foundation
370 E. Maple Road, 4th Floor
Birmingham, Michigan 48009

Posted on by Cara Cooper

Berlin Raceway driver Tom McCarthy believes the best way to do anything is starting from the ground and working your way up.

McCarthy started from the bottom for his own race career, and in less than three years, he’s worked his way up to the top of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Division IV standings.

McCarthy has five wins and 15 top-five finishes in 17 starts this season. The 26-year-old driver won four of the first five points races in the 4-Cylinders division at Berlin this season.

McCarthy is in his first full season racing at Berlin, a NASCAR-sanctioned 7/16-mile paved oval track in Marne, Michigan. He raced there a few times at the end of the season in 2019, and planned to do a full slate of races in 2020, before the season was shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic.

RELATED: Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV standings

Even though his time racing at Berlin has been short, McCarthy is very familiar with the track. He grew up going there with his family, who lived about a mile from the track. He would go down in the pits after races and talk with drivers and crew chiefs, one of which was friends with his dad and started inviting McCarthy to help work on the cars on race days.

“I didn’t know anything about making adjustments on their cars,” McCarthy said. “But I kept going down there and showing up and learning things here and there and asking questions where I could and just picking it up as best I could.

“I just got to a point where I was looking at all the 4-cylinders and I was like, ‘I could probably do that.’ So I gave it a shot.”

The first car McCarthy built from scratch was a Chevy Cavalier he bought for $200. He found it online. It didn’t even run.

He took it home, pulled the motor out, took out all the seats, the interior, and the windows and put in a roll cage.

Knowing how to work on cars gave McCarthy a leg up, but he admits there was definitely a learning curve to actually driving.

“My very first time out the car actually went up in flames,” he said.

“The first night out I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I was pretty slow compared to everyone else. Everyone up there wants to help everyone so I had a few guys that I was parked next to helping me out. They changed a couple things, adjusted certain things on the car, tire pressures. And I kept getting quicker and quicker.”

It’s been a long road since that night his car caught on fire. Getting experience around his competitors at Berlin and learning how to make adjustments on the car by himself has helped McCarthy continue improving.

His goal coming into the season was to get his first official victory – McCarthy got a win last season after finishing second with the winner eventually disqualified in post-race tech, but he’d never crossed the finish line first in a race – and compete for Berlin’s track championship.

He achieved the first goal by winning the first race of the season, and he’s doing well to reach the second. He leads Berlin’s 4-Cylinder standings by 39 points.

Even he admits, though, that he wasn’t expecting to be doing this well in the national points. He currently had a 22-point lead over second place in NAAPWS Division IV.

“I try not to look at it too much because then it’ll get to my head, but it’s awesome,” McCarthy said. “It’s exciting. It’s good to know all the hard work has been paying off.”

If McCarthy does reach his goals this season, he’ll have his family by his side the whole way. His dad, Tom McCarthy II, and cousin, T.J., are his biggest helpers, and his whole family – including his girlfriend, Catherine, his mom, two brothers, and two sisters – are also always there for support.

“It feels like it’s been getting bigger and bigger every year,” McCarthy said. “More and more of my brothers and sisters and family and cousins are all involved and showing up at the track and help out. So it’s pretty cool.

“It makes it more fun, makes it more exciting. Especially when we’re doing good like this. It kind of pushes me to keep going and keep trying harder and harder.”

Helping on McCarthy’s car also inspired his dad to give racing a try, and the elder McCarthy now also races in the 4-Cylinder class at Berlin. While McCarthy said his dad was the one who taught him everything he knows about working on cars, it’s been fun for the son to flip those roles and become the teacher when it comes to actually driving.

“When I first started getting into it I got the car and my dad helped me from the start, pulling motors, fixing them, working on the cars, setting them up, doing everything. He’s been there for every step of the way,” McCarthy said. “Now it’s kind of flip-flopped where I’m trying to teach him and help him in driving and making changes, what the car’s doing, what we should do now, that sort of thing. It’s kind of interesting 
 It’s a great time.”

McCarthy said his goals for the season have grown some from the start of the year. The former three-sport athlete knows he can’t start settling for small goals now, and he wants to continue to find ways to get faster and faster.

“It’s been a long road since the first day out to be leading the points like this now. It’s kind of cool,” McCarthy said.

“I think just the competitiveness of it. Just getting out there and doing something that’s fun and something I enjoy doing in front of people. I like that. I was a three-sport athlete in high school, and that whole brotherhood, camaraderie, locker room feel kind of went away after high school. Being a part of the track and all the race teams we have down there kind of brings that intensity back which is something I missed and I enjoy doing it again.”

Berlin Raceway will host the Battle at Berlin on Friday and Saturday this week.

Posted on by Marcus DiNitto

Kevin Harvick is winless so far this season, but with the Cup Series heading to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the No. 4 Ford is getting plenty of respect from the betting market. Adjusted from 10/1 to 9/1 odds at Barstool Sportsbook, Harvick is priced shorter than all but four drivers – Kyle Larson (+275), Kyle Busch (8/1), Chase Elliott (8/1) and Martin Truex Jr. (8/1).

Harvick’s season has so far fallen short of the standards he’s set for himself during his illustrious NASCAR career, but on tracks that employ the 550-horsepower, high-downforce package, he’s run consistently near the front, finishing in the top 10 in six out of those eight races.

Couple those performances with his sheer dominance on the 2-mile Michigan oval, and Harvick is firmly in the mix for a victory this weekend. He’s won three races in a row at the track, including both ends of last year’s doubleheader, and has four wins, a second and seventh over the last six. His average driver rating is 137.4, easily tops in the field, and he’s led an astounding 35.7 percent of laps over that stretch.

At enticing prices on odds boards around the country, the Stewart-Haas racer is on the radar of professional sports bettor Zack White.

“You’ve got to take a look at that Kevin Harvick number this week, 9/1, 10/1,” White told NASCAR.com. “He absolutely dominated – Stewart-Haas, in general, dominated – the Michigan races last year. Of course, it was a little bit different scenario with COVID and the doubleheader weekend, (but it’s the) same equipment and all that stuff. (I am) certainly taking a hard look at that number.”

Harvick, though, can clinch a playoff spot on points this weekend and therefore could be incentivized to follow a conservative strategy. But for the same reasons Michigan is one of White’s favorite courses to handicap – wide track, low attrition, large pit boxes, “hard for the drivers to screw up” – he believes Harvick will be aggressive going for the checkers.

“If you have a car that’s capable of winning a race like Michigan, you’re probably going to be out front,” White said. “It’s not a difficult track to avoid trouble on in general. So I think if he’s capable, he’s going to go for the victory and lock himself in that way. But (Harvick’s potential conservative approach) is an interesting angle to think about – he could cruise around in 20th and clinch.”

A tale of two Kyles

Throw out the randomness that ensued on the Indianapolis road course last week and crashing out of Loudon three races back, and Kyle Busch is in fine form, tallying seven top-five finishes since Memorial Day Weekend in Charlotte. Moreover, in the eight races on 550-hp tracks, Busch has two wins, two seconds, two thirds, a fifth- and a 10th-place finish.

With Larson priced as the clear favorite, however, the betting market isn’t buying the notion gaining in popularity that the gap between the Kyles is closing. Neither is White.

“I just don’t see it,” White said. “I think the odds are priced pretty much correctly this week.”

Looking for longshots

Former NASCAR driver Brendan Gaughan, a Las Vegas native who grew up around the casino business and hosts a show about Cup betting on VSiN, doesn’t wager on NASCAR himself but offered up a few picks ahead of Michigan.

In addition to the chalky Larson, Gaughan likes another Hendrick driver, William Bryon (14/1 at Barstool), and Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick (40/1).

“I am laser-focused on those guys right there,” Gaughan told NASCAR.com. “…. The (550-hp) package they’re running has been Hendrick dominant, Chevrolet dominant this year.”

(Check out our full Q&A with Brendan next week!)

The more widely available 30/1 on Reddick suggests “the market has kind of caught up to” the No. 8, White said, but at 40/1, “there might be some value there.”

Over the last five races on 550-hp tracks, Reddick has finished sixth, ninth, 11th, ninth, and seventh.

Joey Logano, meanwhile, has an excellent recent history at Michigan – five top 10s, including a win and a pair of top fives over the last six races here, leading 22.22 percent of laps and posting a 107.5 rating during that stretch. But the No. 22 hasn’t been much of a factor of late, and his season-long performance on the high-downforce tracks doesn’t inspire the confidence to fire away, even at 14/1. His average finish is a distant 14.875 in the eight races using this package.

“When you’re looking at the 550 package, these downforce tracks, he just hasn’t had a lot of luck this year,” White said. “… So even though he’s had some historical luck at this track, or decent results, I think the oddsmakers are looking at ‘what have you done for me lately?’ And that’s not anything too great at these types of tracks this year from Logano.”

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 by Jerry Bonkowski

Attending a NASCAR race in-person provides one of the best bonding experiences between parents and their children.

Even if they’ve attended numerous races before, especially when they were kids themselves, parents can still get as starstruck at a NASCAR race as their children. The sights, sounds and smells all provide a sensory experience not found anywhere else.

RELATED: Buy tickets for Michigan weekend

There are the cars and drivers and race action to be seen, the roar of the engines when they come alive upon the command to start up, as well as the smells of food at nearby concession stands.

As part of NASCAR’s Summer Family Fun initiative, here are the best things to know when you are bringing kids to the track:

1. What did you say? I can’t hear you: Without question, the most important thing you can do as a parent when you bring your kids to a race, no matter if they’re 5 or 15 years old, is to keep their ears covered to protect their precious hearing. Race cars and race action can oftentimes exceed 100 decibels, which can compare with sounds at a hard rock concert or standing near a jet airplane engine. For another point of reference, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health says the maximum rate of audible exposure is 85 decibels. While some parents believe ear plugs are the best (and can be conveniently purchased at every race track), a better choice is a heavy duty set of noise-canceling headphones that also offer full coverage over the ears.

2. Keep their precious skin covered: Whether with sun block (the higher the SPF number, the better) or clothing, keep your kids’ skin covered as much as possible. Sitting in the grandstands for three or more hours — and with the sun and high heat beating down — can often result in a significant sunburn, which is both painful and potentially dangerous, especially to younger kids. Another good tip: keep a bottle of aloe handy in your backpack in case a burn starts developing.

3. Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses: It may be part of the lyrics of one of ZZ Top’s most popular songs, but the advice is solid nonetheless. Just like the ears and skin, keep your little one’s eyes covered, particularly on ultra-sunny days.

4. Pack light, but pack smart: When you pack for the track with all the essentials you’ll need, like suntan lotion, extra water, etc., make sure you throw in an extra pair of clothes in case your kids accidentally spill food or drink on themselves. And if necessary (if temperatures are expected to drop during the course of the day or night), toss in a jacket or sweater for good measure. Think of it like you’re taking a short overnight trip and you’re bringing what you need.

5. Gimme some water, cool, cool water: With homage to the late Eddie Money, another of the most important things to keep in mind is to keep your kids (and yourself) hydrated. That means bring several bottles of water or energy drinks to stay cool and keep your energy and fluid levels up. While some may prefer to drink soda, remember that while it may taste good, it also acts as a diuretic, giving little protection compared to the benefits you get from drinking water.

6. Don’t forget the markers: One of the most exciting aspects of attending a race isn’t just watching it, it’s also trying to make contact with some of the drivers. Often before a race, drivers will make their way either to the grandstands or perhaps while walking from the motor home lot to the garages, and stop to sign autographs. We recommend Sharpie pens for drivers to sign your program, autograph books, photos, diecasts or other forms of souvenirs/memorabilia because they can write on almost any type of surface.

7. Keep ‘em covered: Unfortunately, with the recent flare up of the COVID-19 Delta variant, more tracks and states are requiring all race attendees to wear face masks or coverings to prevent the spread of the virus (as well as return to social distancing practices, where possible). Make sure your child’s face is covered adequately and bring several additional masks/face coverings just in case a mask breaks.

8. Get your directions set early: One of the best bits of advice we can offer is when you find your seat, make sure you mentally map out where two of the most crucial bits of information that you need are located: the location of the nearest bathrooms and food concession stands.

9. Listen to your kids, mom and dad: If your child is feeling ill or uncomfortable, don’t ignore them just for the sake of you wanting to stick around to watch the finish of the race. Nothing is more important than how your kids are feeling, especially if they experience sensory or physical overload in their first-ever, at-track race experience.

10. Souvenirs, hey, get your souvenirs here: Going to a race isn’t complete until you have a keepsake remembrance of the event to take home with you. There’s plenty of souvenirs available to keep the experience forever in your heart and mind. Tracks have souvenir stands carry all types of collectables from clothing of your favorite driver or the track itself to diecast cars, collector pins to programs (our two favorite things to get) and more. To paraphrase the old American Express commercials, “Don’t go home without something (to remember the race experience).

11. Don’t ever forget — keep an eye on your kids: Lastly, while we would like to think everyone in this world is good — and NASCAR races have great security and protections for fans — common sense and awareness in this day and age remains tantamount. Never, ever let your kids out of your sight, especially the younger ones. If they want to go to the bathroom or concession/souvenir stand, go with them (unless they’re older and may go with one or more older or age-similar siblings or friends).

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

After two weeks of adding in some right-hand turns, NASCAR returns to its oval roots at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday for the Firekeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Full weekend schedule for Michigan | Buy tickets

After a 2020 doubleheader saw Kevin Harvick sweep the Irish Hills away, the 2-mile D-shaped oval returns to the Cup Series’ schedule for just one race this season, the first time Michigan will host only one Cup race since 1973.

With history to revisit and a future to preview, let’s look ahead to this weekend’s action:

PLACES, EVERYBODY

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott will lead the field to the green flag Sunday, courtesy of the qualifying metric used to set the starting lineup. That metric, used at all tracks returning to the Cup schedule this season, factors in finishing position from the most recent race (50%), points position (35%) and fastest race lap (15%).

Behind Larson and Elliott sit Ryan Blaney and Matt DiBenedetto in Row 2. Check out the rest of the starting lineup for Sunday’s race here.

‘RESIN’-ING WITH THE TRACK

NASCAR has opted to use resin on the racing surface this weekend at Michigan in addition to dragging tires along the asphalt surface, a departure from its past attempts of using PJ1 traction compound to widen the racing groove on the track’s smooth but wide turns.

The resin being used this weekend is the same that was applied on Nashville Superspeedway’s concrete surface for its mid-June races. NASCAR Executive Vice President of Competition Scott Miller joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday to discuss the advantages of using the resin over PJ1.

“It doesn’t have a sticky, glue-like component to it,” Miller said of the resin. “What it does is it accelerates the rubber going down with the tire dragging; it actually binds to the track much better. And what we liked about Nashville is it was super consistent, from the bottom to the top, where PJ1 sometimes it becomes a more dominant lane – a little bit too dominant lane – and sometimes it doesn’t work so good.

“There’s weather conditions and timing and the amount of traffic, all figure really heavily into how PJ1 performs, but it seems like the resin was much more consistent and something that we just really wanted to take a good look at another race track, and Michigan was a great candidate for that.”

NASCAR HISTORY IN THE IRISH HILLS

– Michigan International Speedway opened for its first NASCAR races in 1969 and saw NASCAR Hall of Famers Cale Yarborough and David Pearson respectively win that year’s pair of events.

– Land developer Larry LoPatin created the racetrack with help from track designer Charles Moneypenny, who also designed Daytona International Speedway.

– LoPatin owned the short-lived American Raceways Inc. (ARI), which included tracks in Michigan, Atlanta and Texas. ARI went bankrupt in 1973 and fell into receivership, leading to Roger Penkse’s purchase of the facility that year.

– Penske owned the facility for 25 years and launched seating capacity from 25,000 to over 125,000 before selling the track to International Speedway Corporation in 1999.

– The track was most recently repaved in 2012, a process that consisted of removing the top two inches of the existing pavement and placing two lifts of asphalt – each 1.5 inches thick – as a leveling course and a final wearing course. About 646,000-square feet of asphalt was removed and another 22,000 tons of new asphalt went in its place.

– In June 2013, Michigan International Speedway announced the creation of a Manufacturer’s Trophy, an ode to the spirit of the automobile and its importance to the racetrack. Inspired by the Stanley Cup, the award recognizes the winning manufacturer after each Cup Series win at MIS.

– Sunday marks the 104th NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan.

Source: Racing Insights

RELATED: Memorable moments at Michigan

GOODYEAR TIRES

This weekend’s right-side tires will be new to Michigan but familiar to all Cup Series teams.

Goodyear will utilize the same right-side tire that has previously been run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway since 2020. The change to this tire aligns Michigan with the other three tracks in how smooth and fast the surface is, which this tire compound is built for.

“Once the schedule firmed up in 2020, we were able to make a change to the right-side tread compound at those three tracks to introduce a little more wear and add some grip at the same time,” Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing, said in a press release. “Michigan moves to that right-side for this race, but at least Cup teams have had several races on this right-side tire code already and will know what to expect.”

The left-side tire this weekend remains the same from one year ago.

RULES PACKAGE

As NASCAR shifts back to a large oval track, teams will utilize the high-downforce, lower-horsepower package at Michigan.

This weekend marks the first race since the July 11 contest at Atlanta Motor Speedway that the 550-horsepower package will be used. This package features taller spoilers and longer splitters to increase drag and downforce to encourage closer racing.

RELATED: How the postseason looks before Sunday

MICHIGAN STORY LINES

– Kevin Harvick has won four of the last five races at Michigan, including each of the last three.

– Bill Elliott holds the record for most consecutive wins at Michigan, claiming four in a row from 1985-86.

– Ford has won each of the last six races at MIS, the longest winning streak by one manufacturer at Michigan.

– Twice in the last nine Michigan races, a driver has won three consecutive races: Kyle Larson (2016-17) and Kevin Harvick (2019-20).

– In seven of the last 11 Michigan contests, the race winner led at least 90 laps.

– While the second stage ran caution-free in both races last year, stage three has seen three or more cautions in each of the last four Michigan races.

– Michigan races have gone to overtime seven times, including twice in the last four races.

– Fourteen drivers have combined to win the 24 races run this year.

– AJ Allmendinger, who won at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last week, will not compete this weekend.

– Kyle Larson claimed the points lead from Denny Hamlin following last week’s race, marking the first time since week two of the season that Hamlin isn’t atop the standings.

Source: Racing Insights

BETTING ODDS FOR THE FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400

Kevin Harvick may be the most recent dominator at Michigan, but Kyle Larson is the current favorite on BetMGM with 3-1 odds.

Larson has won three times at Michigan, his most at any track, and Michigan is the only track at which he has multiple wins. Behind Larson, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex are all listed at 7-1 odds while Harvick trails them at 8-1 odds.

If you’re looking for a sleeper, take a look at Bubba Wallace. His season stats don’t bode much confidence with just one top-10 – a fifth-place finish at the second of two races at Pocono Raceway – but Wallace has decent history at Michigan, winning a Truck Series race here in 2017 and earning a ninth-place finish in the first Michigan race in 2020.

RELATED:  Odds for Michigan | NASCAR BetCenter

FANTASY LIVE

Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts. It’s not too late to join in on the competition.

The 2021 Fantasy Live points leaders are Kyle Larson (939), Denny Hamlin (927) and Chase Elliott (796).

ALSO ON NASCAR.COM

Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.

New for this season, NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.

Posted on by Terrin Waack

Ben Rhodes kicked off 2021 with back-to-back victories at Daytona International Speedway. First, he captured the checkered flag in the season opener on the classic oval track. Then, he parked his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota in Victory Lane yet again after conquering the road-course layout.

Since then, Rhodes has not hoisted a trophy. Instead, he has posted three top-five and nine top-10 finishes – giving him five and 11, respectively, overall. All but two of the top-10 results came in the first 10 races. In the last five events, Rhodes has finished 15th or worse three times.

RELATED: Round of 10 track breakdown | Analyzing the playoff field

“Whoa, there’s a fire,” Rhodes said Tuesday during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs Media Day. “We got to put that fire out. I don’t know. I need to call my crew chief, though, because them are some stats.

“I’ll tell you, we talked about it. We talked about it last week. We were honestly trying a few new things, so that was some of the bad finishes. 
 Drivers blame it on other things, so I’m going to blame it on something else.”

Rhodes and his team did indeed have the benefit of being able to attempt new or different setups and whatnot without any major repercussions because they were already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs thanks to their early wins. Rhodes enters the Round of 10, which begins Friday with the World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM), ranked third in the 10-driver field. He has 19 bonus points.

Of the three first-round tracks – Gateway, Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway – Rhodes has won at one before (Darlington in 2020). Otherwise, he was runner-up at Gateway in 2016 and fifth at Bristol in 2017.

RELATED: Rookies Hocevar, Smith short on experience but long on confidence

Rhodes is looking at the postseason as a complete restart, and he told crew chief Rich Lushes, who he met two weeks before the 2021 season began, to also treat it that way.

“I said, ‘So I’m just going to disappear, you’re going to act like you don’t know me, and we’re just going to do everything over again. You’ll just have zero feedback from me because however you set them up at the beginning of the year was awesome,’” Rhodes said. “And that’s where we left it. I was halfway joking around, but then also pretty serious. Like just go what you know how to do, which is setting up race trucks.”

Not the worst idea considering how well the newness of their first-year relationship paid off at Daytona.

It also helps how calm Rhodes has remained, crediting his playoff history for the lack of stress despite the lack of recent wins. This year marks Rhodes’ fourth postseason trip, with the others having been 2017-18 and 2020. His best overall finish was fifth in 2017, and he’s already tracking a better outcome in 2021 – his two wins and average finish (8.9) are currently career highs.

“Ship’s not sinking,” Rhodes said. “There’s no holes in it. It seems to be pretty solid. It’s made of metal. And we’re just going to keep on floating on.”

Posted on by Jerry Bonkowski

It’s rare that you won’t find a smile on Kenny Wallace’s face. The veteran racer is one of the funniest and most happy-go-lucky persons you’ll ever meet.

That’s why it’s no wonder that six years after his final race in NASCAR, Wallace remains a fan favorite as one of the last old-time barnstorming drivers, racing from coast to coast primarily in his dirt modified car.

RELATED: Kenny Wallace career stats

In fact, the man nicknamed “Herman” (after an old-time cartoon character) is racing more now than he did in his NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity days, logging tens of thousands of miles driving from track to track and competing in 75 to 100 races each year.

As his 58th birthday approaches on Aug. 23, Wallace spent time talking about his life, his racing career and what the future holds.

Along the way, Wallace showed why he’s still the king of the one-liner.

“People ask me all the time, ‘How are you so happy?’” he quipped. “I tell them it’s a lot of work. It’s not easy being Kenny Wallace.”

*****************************

Even though he wasn’t blessed with the kind of talent that older brother and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty was, Kenneth Lee Wallace still enjoyed a long NASCAR career — 904 starts across the Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series.

When asked what he considers the biggest highlight of his NASCAR career, Wallace said, “It’s pretty simple: making it to the Cup and Xfinity Series and being very competitive. I had something like (a combined) 200 top 10s. That tells me I was competitive.

“The lowlight was not getting what I wanted out of the Cup Series. When you count to (904), it’s an observed number. I think that’s my highlight, literally staying around and being worthy enough to run (904) NASCAR races. To me, that’s like an out-of-body experience, like how the hell did I do that?”

While he’s been asked countless times about comparisons with Rusty, Kenny has learned to embrace the differences in a positive fashion.

“There were plenty of jokes made about how better Rusty was than me and (middle brother) Mike,” Kenny said. “It hurt like hell when they did it, but the older I got, it’s true and it’s funny. I remember one joke where someone once said, ‘Mike and Kenny sit in the back seat while Rusty drives.’

“I’m a fan of the late comic, Joan Rivers. One thing I learned from her is, ‘Never be afraid to make fun of yourself. After all, you might be missing out on the greatest joke of the decade.’ But here’s the opposite of that: Rusty Wallace is damn good and he’s a Hall of Famer and he’s my brother and I love him. I’m so proud of him.”

Kenny readily admits he never won a single Cup race, and earned just three runner-up finishes and overall, six top-five showings in 344 starts.

While he would have liked better results in Cup, he’s still proud of what he achieved in his Xfinity career: nine wins and 66 top-five finishes in 547 starts, with the topper being falling just short of Hall of Famer Bobby Labonte for the 1991 championship.

In a sense, Wallace became the every-man type of driver fans could identify with, a blue-collar guy from Arnold, Missouri (just south of St. Louis), who maximized the talent he had.

That’s why he was so popular both during and after his NASCAR career. Even today, he has nearly 340,000 Twitter followers and countless more on other forms of social media.

“I almost feel like I represent that person that just didn’t get everything they wanted,” Wallace said. “People told me all the time I sucked at NASCAR. They were being vicious. It wasn’t that I sucked, it’s just that I wasn’t that great, and that’s 99.9 percent of America. There’s only one Tiger Woods or Jeff Gordon and the rest of us are just here.”

But Wallace became quite successful and popular as a TV broadcaster for Speed TV and later FOX Sports. He’s even become an in-demand motivational speaker. Diagnosed hyperactive as a child, he learned how to channel his energy into the kind of persona that fans loved.

“I think everyone can relate to me because I’m brutally honest,” Wallace said. “I think I represent people. I have people come up to me right now, guys I race with, they feel that if I quit, it will make dirt racing less important. They come to the races when I’m there because there’s more of a spotlight on that race, and if I quit racing, then it won’t mean as much anymore.”

*****************************

Which leads us to one of the most significant conundrum’s of Wallace’s life.

After well over 40 years of racing, Kenny is thinking about hanging it up after next season or 2023.

“Sometimes, I lay in bed and think to myself why do I push the issue to race so much,” he said. “I really believe it was the way I was born. It’s no secret I was diagnosed hyperactive by a therapist. I was very unruly in grade school. I wasn’t mean, but I couldn’t calm down. For me to stay in my house is very hard. I feel like if I’m not doing something, I’m very, very bored.

“Someone once asked me, ‘Are you still racing because you didn’t get what you wanted out of NASCAR?’ I said absolutely not whatsoever, even though my Cup career wasn’t the greatest. But that’s not why I race so much. I race because I love racing. I truly don’t like golf, I really don’t. I don’t know how people golf. It’s hot, the ball never goes where you want it, and I go to so many foursomes to raise money (for charity) and by the ninth hole, I’m just done.

“I truly love the process of what I do, working on the car, stopping at truck stops, loading the car, trying to figure the chassis out and number one, I love driving the car, competing. Sometimes, people around me ask why doesn’t Rusty or Jeff Gordon still race? But then, why does Tony Stewart and Bill Elliott still race? When our NASCAR career is over, we look for something to replace it, and that’s what I did — (barnstorming) replaced what I loved.”

Yet with Kenny’s upcoming birthday, the physical wear and tear are definitely impacting him.

“It’s a big deal,” Wallace said. “I’ll go all day long, race at night, drive part of the way, sleep for three or four hours, get back at it and do it all over again the next night. Yes, It’s completely exhausting, I should not be doing it (from a health perspective) and I’m kind of split down the middle: I’m kind of looking forward to (continuing racing) but I know it’s going to take a toll on me.”

But one thing keeps tempering the thoughts of calling it quits.

“I have to start running bad first,” he chuckled. “The issue I have right now is I’m running too good. I’m 58 years old and I’m setting track records against these 20-year-old kids, I’m winning heat races, I’m driving violently fast. We’re getting the job done. That’s the hard part for me right now, how do you quit when you’re racing these young kids and you’re outrunning them?”

Wallace is also having pushback about quitting from several of his closest friends, including 10-time off-road champ Walker Evans and drag racing legend Don “The Snake” Prudhomme.

“I told them I’m thinking about racing one more year and then quitting,” Wallace said. “They both said, ‘Absolutely not.’ Walker Evans won his last championship at the age of 61. And Snake quit at 54 as a driver, but he stayed as an owner. …

“The bottom line is this: there’s no way in hell I’m going to do what Kenny Schrader (66 years old) or Red Farmer (88 years old) do. I love life, I love doing things, I want to go to Europe, I want to do other things and I just can’t, I just can’t take that (racing) away. My wife doesn’t want me to quit racing because she knows me better than anybody. If I quit racing, I have to have something to do.”

*****************************

But there’s one guy who is pushing Kenny to hang up his fire suit. And of course, Kenny can’t help but crack a joke about it.

“Rusty wants me to quit because he wants a friend, he wants me to hang out with him,” Kenny said with a laugh.

When asked how much Rusty is going to pay him to hang out with him, Kenny again laughed, but then said soberly, “I probably owe my brother Rusty $10 million. He spent millions on me, he loves me, he’s a guy that’s tough love. He moved me out of St. Louis to North Carolina, literally started my (Xfinity) career, built a shop for me, owned Wallace Racing. Me, my wife and three daughters owe Rusty my life.”

Being the brother of a Hall of Famer can be intimidating to some, but not to Kenny. It took a conversation with Prudhomme to make him understand why.

“When Snake told me they were showing me more on TV because I was having good finishes (in the Xfinity Series), I said I wish I had the talent Rusty had,” Kenny recalled. “What Snake said back to me changed my life.

“He looked me in the eyeballs and said, ‘Your brother Rusty is damn good. You can’t change that you’re Kenny Wallace.’ When I looked at myself in the mirror later that night, when I realized Don Prudhomme said I was Kenny Wallace, that changed my whole outlook on my career. I can’t help who I am. I am who I am and I’m Kenny Wallace.”

***********************************************

The Kenny Wallace file:

* Age: 57 (turns 58 on Aug. 23)

* Hometown: Arnold, Mo.

* Personal: Has been married to wife Kim for 37 years. The couple has three daughters: Brooke, Brandy and Brittany.

* Notable: Made 904 career starts across all three premier series in his NASCAR career (16th overall of all NASCAR drivers). 
 Youngest of the three racing Wallace brothers: NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty is the eldest (65 years old), followed by Mike (62) and Kenny (turns 58 on Aug. 23). 
 Kenny won Rookie of the Year honors in the American Speed Association in 1986 and in the NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) in 1989, the same year older brother Rusty won his only Cup championship. 
 Three-time Most Popular Driver in the Xfinity Series. 
 Was heavily influenced by the late Dale Earnhardt. Wallace’s first-ever NASCAR start was in 1988 when he drove for Earnhardt’s Xfinity team. (He would then spend the next three seasons driving for Rusty’s team.) Kenny finished second to Earnhardt in the latter’s 76th and final win of his Cup career in 2000 (at Talladega). It was one of three runner-up finishes Wallace had in his Cup career.

Career highlights:

* NASCAR Cup career: 344 starts, 0 wins, 6 top-five and 27 top-10 finishes. Also 3 poles. Best season finish: 22nd (1999).

* NASCAR Xfinity Series career: 547 starts, 9 wins, 66 top-five and 173 top-10 finishes. Also 10 poles. Best season finish: second (1991).

* NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career: 13 starts, 0 wins, 2 top-five and 4 top-10 finishes.

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 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. Also, follow Jerry on Twitter @JerryBonkowski and @TheRacingBeat, as well as The Racing Beat podcast, available on most podcast platforms.

Posted on by Staff Report

Corey LaJoie will miss this weekend’s race at Michigan International Speedway due to COVID-19 protocols, Spire Motorsports announced Thursday afternoon.

“Due to COVID-19 protocols, Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 7 NationsGuard Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, will be unavailable to participate in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Firekeepers Casino 400 and will not travel to Michigan International Speedway,” the team said in a statement.

LaJoie, currently 29th in Cup Series points with one top 10 on the season, will miss Sunday’s penultimate regular-season race (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Josh Berry, who was just announced as the full-time driver of the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series for 2022, will fill in for LaJoie in the No. 7 Chevrolet.

Berry also filled in for Spire Motorsports when driver Justin Haley was forced to miss a weekend of racing at Dover International Speedway earlier this year.

Posted on by Marcus DiNitto

At a NASCAR Awards ceremony at the Wynn Las Vegas a few years back, Todd Fuhrman recalls a conversation with Fox Sports executives, who were dubious about stock car racing’s prospects as a sport fans enjoy gambling on.

“They kind of joked, ‘Nobody really bets NASCAR,’” Fuhrman remembers the network execs saying. “I said, ‘Well, I’ve actually been betting it for a couple of years,’ and kind of walked them through a variety of ways that you could bet the sport. It really piqued their interest.”

RELATED: Odds for Sunday at Michigan | Full Cup Series schedule

At the time, Fuhrman had already been involved with the network as its lead sports betting analyst, and that conversation led to Fox Sports’ “first foray into integrating gambling content,” he says, presenting betting information on NASCAR Race Hub.

As legal sports betting has expanded, of course, this sort of integration has become common.

These days, Fuhrman focuses on his “Bet The Board” podcast, as well his work for CBS Sports HQ. He’s also hosting a series of tutorials for NASCAR.com designed to help educate race fans about betting on the sport.

From his office in Las Vegas this week, we caught up over the phone with Fuhrman, who worked as an oddsmaker at Caesars and then as a consultant for Don Best – a company whose odds feeds are relied on by bookmakers and bettors alike – before transitioning to media around 2013-14. We discussed how he developed an affection for NASCAR, the potential he sees for racing as a betting sport, and the challenges media face in this new legal environment.

Here are excerpts from our call:

NASCAR.com: Why did you make the transition from oddsmaking to media?

Fuhrman: I just felt it was the right time and right place, kind of seeing the way the industry was going, that there was going to be an appetite for gambling content. And the way to do it was to convey it from a position of operating not just as a sports bettor, but also someone who has spent time working for larger casino operations. (It) felt like a great opportunity to work with some pretty good organizations that were thinking outside the box well before it was the in-vogue thing to do.

NASCAR.com: Tell me about your interest in NASCAR. When did you start watching it and when did you start betting it?

Fuhrman: It’s funny, the two kind of coincided. I never grew up in and around NASCAR. In the Chicago suburbs, let’s not kid ourselves, NASCAR wasn’t exactly a sport that any of my friends or family watched on a week-in-week-out basis. So it wasn’t until I moved out here and saw some of the sharp guys that were betting NASCAR with us while I was behind the counter at Caesars that piqued my interest. I got connected with a buddy, who come to find out, had bet it pretty seriously. I really developed a love affair with the sport as a result.

It’s got to be 10-plus years now, I don’t know the exact timeline. I’ve really found myself not just as a bettor, but also as a fan of the sport, and it’s one that I follow arguably as closely as I do the NFL and college football, something that I probably never would have said 15-plus years ago before I moved out here.

RELATED: Learn about NASCAR

NASCAR.com: It’s an interesting sport from a betting perspective because it’s a small percentage of overall handle but there is a niche of people who are really into it – sharp guys and recreational bettors alike. How do you see it in the betting ecosystem, and what do you see as the potential for growth?

Fuhrman: I do think there is ample opportunity to try and grow the sport and create some awareness. The biggest challenge that’ll come is that NASCAR, in conjunction with its partners, have to be cognizant of not creating that ‘sharks versus minnows’ type approach, because if you only have sharper sports bettors that are betting NASCAR and we can’t attract the recreational bettors, it’s going to create a real challenge, where books are always playing uphill.

I have to give NASCAR a ton of credit for the work you’ve done (writer’s note: Jeez, thanks Todd, I’m blushing), helping me do the tutorials to make it more accessible for fans who may not have otherwise been aware of the myriad of betting options that are available for NASCAR, making it easier for the common fan to try and get involved and just to know what’s out there.

It’s a sport that’s got a ton of potential. And when you look at the creative, different betting markets that are out there, in-play options and a variety of other things, there’ll be significant upside from a betting standpoint and to increase viewership on the sport.

NASCAR.com: Do you think Fox and NBC are doing a good job integrating sports betting content into race broadcasts?

Fuhrman: Yeah, I think both of them are. Everyone is trying to figure out the best way to do it because you don’t want to alienate your core audience and have too much gambling content. So when you look at the way the last couple of seasons have gone, where at least they’ll address the odds on some of their pre-race coverage, that goes a long way.

The one thing that I personally would like to see would be in-race, live odds at the end of various stages, or even when you have longer delays, whether it be under yellow or for example, the red flag that came up for Indy (during last Sunday’s road course race) ….  Even if guys in the booth, the former drivers and some of the personalities that cover it, aren’t that familiar with what the implied probabilities are and the math behind it, it can still foster some in-depth and different discussions that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to include in your telecast years ago, when gambling kind of had that stigma and was so much more taboo.

NASCAR.com: Balancing the betting content for people that want it and not turning off some core fans is a challenge that’s certainly not unique to NASCAR. Every sport is dealing with that now.

RELATED: How NBC Sports is integrating betting content into NASCAR broadcasts

Fuhrman: Yeah, I agree completely. When we look at some of the second-screen viewing opportunities that are out there, everyone wants to try and get more gambling content out there, but it’s got to be a delicate balance. I wish I had the perfect solution for the networks to integrate it.

So it’s as much a tinkering process as anything else to figure out, ‘Okay, here’s what we think our audience can relate to. Here’s what they respond to favorably. Here’s what they respond to in a negative manner, and we’re going to continue to experiment with the recipe for developing that secret sauce that may take one season, it may take five seasons before we get there and go, hey, this is a blueprint we know works. Here’s what we’re going to use, and we’re going to allow everybody else to kind of play catch up.’

NASCAR.com: How does NASCAR fit into your overall betting portfolio?

Fuhrman: It used to be a bigger portion. It represents an opportunity, but at the same time, some of the markets aren’t quite as accessible in Nevada as they are in some of the other jurisdictions out there. Live betting isn’t a component that we can even come close to accessing; if it is, that’s new to me out here (in Vegas). And when you look at some of the matchup offerings that are there, you have a select couple of books that are more than happy to do that.

But we know limits are lower, and you understand it’s kind of a niche market. So you take advantage when you can with the opportunities that present themselves, but it doesn’t become one of the sports that can serve as a standalone for most professional bettors if you’re betting into some of the regulated markets.

NASCAR.com: For sure, that’s something I noticed. There are a lot more NASCAR markets with the BetMGMs, Barstools, DraftKings, FanDuels of the world than there are at the Westgate (Las Vegas SuperBook), for example.

RELATED: Experience the NASCAR BetCenter

Fuhrman: Yeah, and that’s a big question. As you see popularity around NASCAR continue to grow, I think you’ll see more oddsmakers and some of the tech providers allocate larger resources to it. But while it’s just a niche sport right now, it’s all about return, and there are only so many hours in a day for the more talented oddsmakers, even the ones that have a passion for it, to really sit there and try and match with some of the sharper bettors, knowing the betting handle just doesn’t rival the amount of time commitment it takes to try and build up some of those markets.

We’ll have more from Fuhrman in our NASCAR Playoff preview in two weeks.

Posted on by Staff Report

All but two playoff spots have been spoken for as the NASCAR Cup Series prepares for the penultimate race of the regular season, the Firekeepers Casino 400, at Michigan International Speedway. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin became the most recent driver to clinch and did so on points following Indianapolis.

RELATED: Driver standings entering Michigan

Already Clinched

The following 14 drivers have clinched a spot in the 16-driver postseason field: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell and Aric Almirola.

Can Clinch Via Points

If there is a repeat winner or a win by a driver who cannot advance to the playoffs, the following drivers could clinch by being 56 points above the third winless driver in the standings. The same point requirements listed below would hold true if a new win comes from Denny Hamlin.

Kevin Harvick: Would clinch with 44 points.

Can Clinch Via Win

The following drivers would clinch on their win alone this weekend: Kevin Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, Matt DiBenedetto, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece, Cole Custer, Corey Lajoie and Anthony Alfredo.

Larson could clinch regular-season title this weekend

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson has opened up his points lead over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin in second in the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season driver standings by 22 points and has a chance this weekend at Michigan International Speedway to clinch the Regular Season Championship.

Larson needs to be at least 61 points ahead of the driver ranked second in the regular-season driver standings at the conclusion of the race at Michigan.

It will be tough for Larson to accumulate that many points on Hamlin this weekend at Michigan because both have run well at the 2-mile track. Larson has made 12 series starts at Michigan posting three wins (2016, 2017 sweep), five top fives and six top 10s. His average finish is 12.4 — fourth-best among active drivers. Hamlin has made 30 series starts at Michigan putting up two wins (2010, 2011), nine top fives and 15 top 10s. His average finish is 13.1 — sixth-best among active drivers.