Charlotte, NC (June 18, 2021): Coming on the heels of a successful year across NASCAR’s fast-growing esports platform – the sanctioning body is today announcing an all-new eNASCAR series that will place a spotlight on the stars of its three international racing divisions across Europe, Mexico and Canada. The new series – entitled “the eNASCAR International iRacing Series” – will consist of three races at historic facilities – Brands Hatch, Circuit of the Americas, and the Daytona Road Course – live-streamed on eNASCAR.com/live at 6pm EDT/12am CET for a worldwide audience on consecutive Wednesday nights beginning June 23rd, 2021.
The field will contain an even mix of drivers from the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, NASCAR Peak Mexico Series, NASCAR Pinty’s Series, and select drivers from NASCAR’s 2021 Drive for Diversity class.
“Each day, NASCAR teams and drivers across the world are turning to iRacing as a means to both keep their driving skills fresh and learn new race tracks. As our three international series rapidly expose NASCAR to new fans around the globe – this series will be the perfect platform to bring our stars from Europe, Mexico, Canada and beyond together on one stage to compete for worldwide bragging rights,” said Chad Seigler, vice president of international business development, NASCAR.
“We’re excited to welcome NASCAR’s top international stars to iRacing for the eNASCAR International iRacing Series,” said iRacing president Tony Gardner. “With passionate users in hundreds of countries around the world, and a number of international championship series for professional sim racers, iRacing has always been a global service. It’s a thrill to be able to combine that with our incredible relationship with NASCAR and put on this three-race series that reflects NASCAR’s continued international growth. These races should make for a thrilling show, and we can’t wait to drop the green flag!”
Each event will utilize the NASCAR Xfinity Series vehicles, with all drivers operating on an even playing field within the sim as they vie for international supremacy.
“GMS is always looking forward and I believe this is the next step for the team in that process,” said team owner Maury Gallagher. “We have the goal to be a championship-caliber team in any series in which we compete, and I am excited to watch the team grow in the coming years.”
Since its formation in 2014, GMS has won 61 races across the ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. GMS also took home the 2016 and 2020 Camping World Trucks championship, the 2015 ARCA Menards Series championship as well as the ARCA East championship in 2019 and 2020.
“GMS has always risen to the occasion and proven that we are a team capable of competing at every level of this sport,” said Mike Beam, president of GMS Racing. “We have been preparing to make this step and with the addition of the Next Gen car in 2022, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make the move.”
As the team actively seeks partnership opportunities for the 2022 Cup Series season, GMS Racing expects further announcements regarding driver and event schedule to come at a later date.
Landon Cassill has partnered with Voyager Digital Ltd. for the remainder of the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, making him the first driver to be paid fully in cryptocurrency. JD Motorsports announced the 19-race primary sponsorship deal Thursday.
Quite literally and figuratively, Cassill is investing his financial and professional future in Voyager.
“You can say no pun intended, but it really is,” Cassill told NASCAR.com. “I check my Voyager account probably 100 times a day.”
Voyager operates a crypto-asset trading platform. Cassill, an avid supporter of the cryptocurrency market, met Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich a couple years ago at a crypto conference and has kept in contact since then. Their budding relationship is what sparked this partnership.
JD Motorsports’ No. 4 Chevrolet will officially sport its first Voyager paint scheme in Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports Live, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Ehrlich and other Voyager employees plan to be in attendance, as the company is excited about joining the sport and gaining a national platform.
“It goes all to education, and what we try to do is educate the masses on why cryptocurrency matters, why digital dollars is where we’re going,” Ehrlich said. “… I always tend to ask people as customers or people that are wanting to learn more: When was the last time you actually used real greenback dollars? Most people don’t. They use debit cards, and everything is electronic anyway. So, this is the next phase of electronic currency.”
Cryptocurrency can be turned into everyday cash and transferred to a personal banking account, thus avoiding volatility. Voyager even offers various interest rates to its users; the amount depends on the asset. Voyager will pay Cassill and JD Motorsports in a portfolio of crypto assets led by Litecoin and Voyager Token.
“Well, I mean, there is risk in holding cryptocurrency as there is with any stock or any investment,” Cassill said. “But for me, it’s something I’m familiar with, I’m comfortable with and I feel like I have a good handle on what I’m willing to risk and what I need to pay my bills.”
JD Motorsports owner Johnny Davis trusted Cassill’s instincts, too, when approached with the offer.
Voyager actually had a one-off opportunity with the No. 4 car about a month ago at the Circuit of The Americas, where Cassill placed 22nd. Otherwise, JD Motorsports has had nine different main sponsors through the 14 races so far. That’ll no longer be the case with Voyager.
“It gives us the opportunity to have more continuity on the car,” Cassill said. “These are small details that people maybe don’t realize. But with a small team, just knowing what’s going on the car and the team being able to take the energy that they might have focused on selling sponsors week to week or wrapping the car 10 different ways every week, now my guys can focus on the performance and make sure that we’re getting everything we can out of the car.”
This season, Cassill has posted a best finish of 12th twice – Daytona Road Course in February and Darlington Raceway in May. He’s ranked 18th in the standings right now – six spots outside of the 12-driver playoff field with 12 events left in the regular season.
Cassill, a 31-year-old from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has competed in the Xfinity Series since 2007 in both limited and full-time roles. His career-best result was third at Daytona International Speedway in 2011.
This 2021 slate marks Cassill’s first full-time effort in the series since 2014, when he closed out the season 12th in points.
“In the crypto world, we say, ‘to the moon,'” Ehrlich said. “We think this partnership is to the moon on what we can do for education and growth of both brands.”
With his mom spotting above him and his dad in the pits beside him, Nate Walton and his family headed into Berlin Raceway this season as the defending late model champions.
The 2019 title for Walton was redemption after coming up incredibly short in 2016. Five years ago, it came down to the last night, and Walton ended up one point short of a title.
In 2019, the Waltons weren’t planning to run a full season until they saw how well they were doing.
“We went out, ran the opening night, did really good, but we had an issue with the car,” Walton said. “So we fixed it and said, well, we’ll just run the next week. Once we got it fixed, and we ended up doing really good we kept showing up every week and the next thing you know we won the championship. It worked out good.”
It was the second title for Walton at Berlin – a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series sanctioned 7/16-mile paved oval track in Marne, Michigan. His first came in 2011 in the track’s super stock division.
In all, the 31-year-old driver has won four championships in his 22 years of racing. Walton’s mom and dad asked him when he was nine if he wanted to get into racing go-karts. After going to a race then renting a cart to give it a try, “since then, that’s been it,” he said.
He won a go-kart title in 2001, his third season behind the wheel, and a dirt mini-stocks championship in 2005. He moved up to racing at his home track when he was 17.
Success has come early and often for a family that Walton said didn’t know what they were doing when they first started. The Walton family lives about 20 minutes from Berlin Raceway, and a body shop and towing company his family used to own stows tow trucks there for races.
“It’s pretty much in our backyard,” Walton said. “My parents went there a lot.”
“It’s kind of crazy. You grow up and you see these big names out there and next thing you know you’re racing against them,” Walton said. “You never figured you’d be doing that.”
Walton’s mom, Julie, now serves as his spotter during races, and his dad, Gary, is his crew chief. His tight-knit team also has friends, sponsors, and people from Walton’s work who come out and help whenever they can.
Racing has been a learning curve for the entire family, especially since none of the Waltons had ever worked on cars before he got into the sport, but they’ve never really showed it.
“Oh yeah, big time. We’re all still learning,” he said. “We still don’t’ really know all the ins and outs, so we get a little bit of help from other people, too.”
Walton is currently third in the super late model points at Berlin, 16 points behind first place. Like years past, the plan is to travel a bit, and the team wants to get more wins wherever they go.
But if it comes down to the end of the season and they’re in the running for another championship, “we might as well go for it,” Walton said.
After so many years of racing, for a family that didn’t know much about the sport before diving into it head first, Walton said they’re all still having fun, which is all that matters.
“It’s fun knowing that they’re there and they’re supporting me like they do,” Walton said of his family. “Just having the family there with their support… I kind of feel good about how we can all work together. It’s kind of like a family thing. Some families like to go camping. What we like to do is go racing.
“We always say that if we’re not having fun we’re going to stop doing it… You know you have your trying times where you struggle but that’s part of racing unfortunately. But it’s fun when you can brush that aside and keep going.”
Kyle Larson is not only the hottest driver on the track, he’s also the hottest bet in NASCAR futures at two of the country’s most prominent sportsbooks.
At DraftKings, 22% of the handle wagered in the 2021 Cup Series Championship market has been on Larson. At BetMGM, Larson leads futures bets in terms of both handle and ticket count.
In fact, the way things stand coming out of All-Star weekend and heading into Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, a title for the No. 5 Chevrolet represents the worst-case scenario for DraftKings’ NASCAR futures book. With the way Larson’s been running — three straight wins (including the non-points All-Star Race), three straight second-place finishes before that and large leads in stage wins and laps led this season — coupled with Hendrick Motorsports’ overall superiority, that’s a scenario certain to make the house sweat.
“He’s got the right car and got the confidence right now,” Johnny Avello, director of race and sportsbook operations at DraftKings, told NASCAR.com.
BetMGM also has futures liability on Larson.
“Inevitably our biggest payouts are on the outsiders, such as Josh Bilicki, Corey LaJoie and Ryan Preece. For those with a more realistic chance of winning, Kyle Larson leads the way in liability by a long shot,” BetMGM Sports Trader Matt Rasp said in an email.
Here’s a look at the top five drivers in handle at three sportsbooks — DraftKings, BetMGM and SuperBook USA:
DraftKings
BetMGM
SuperBook
Kyle Larson (22%)
Kyle Larson
Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin (13%)
Denny Hamlin
Joey Logano
Chase Elliott (12%)
Chase Elliott
Chase Elliott
Martin Truex Jr. (9%)
Kevin Harvick
Martin Truex Jr.
Kyle Busch (9%)
Alex Bowman
Alex Bowman
Here’s a look at the top five drivers in ticket count at three sportsbooks — DraftKings, BetMGM and SuperBook USA:
DraftKings
BetMGM
SuperBook
Denny Hamlin (13%)
Kyle Larson
Denny Hamlin
Kyle Larson (12%)
Denny Hamlin
Martin Truex Jr.
Chase Elliott (11%)
Chase Elliott
Joey Logano
Martin Truex Jr. (6%)
Kevin Harvick
Chase Elliott
Kyle Busch (6%)
Martin Truex Jr.
Kyle Larson
Larson has risen to the top of 2021 Cup Championship oddsboards throughout the betting market, as his price continues to tighten. While he’s listed as the 7/2 favorite (+350, or bet $100 to win $350) at SuperBook USA, where he opened at 10/1 odds, and a 11/4 favorite at BetMGM, he can be found at a more attractive 4/1 at both DraftKings (adjusted from a 9/1 opener) and Barstool Sportsbook.
Liability beyond Larson
In addition to Alex Bowman, on whom our friend Zack White has a significant position at long odds, the SuperBook would also lose on a 2021 championship by Denny Hamlin or Joey Logano, VP of risk management Ed Salmons said in a text message. The $5,500 bet that came on each driver to win the title at 8/1 odds are the largest written in the shop’s NASCAR futures book this season. Hamlin and Logano account for the first and second most futures handle at the SuperBook, respectively, per the chart above.
At BetMGM, discounting drivers without a realistic chance to win the championship, Larson is followed in futures book liability by Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr and Bowman.
BetMGM wrote a $1,000 bet on Larson at 9/1 odds back in March, as well as an $800 wager on Logano at 8/1 in February, and $650 on Keselowski at 9/1 in March.
Based on the early odds for Sunday’s Ally 400 (as of Wednesday at noon ET), Larson isn’t expected to slow down any time soon. The No. 5 is the easy favorite in Nashville, listed at +275 at BetMGM, before a sizable gap to Truex Jr. at +550, Elliott at +750, Hamlin at +800, then Kyle Busch at +800.
Yes, it’s a long season, with the playoffs and Cup Series Championship in Phoenix sure to produce some unexpected results, but trends in both the betting market and on the track suggest the rest of the field has plenty to do to catch the No. 5.
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.
See where your favorite driver will pit for the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
When Brandon Thompson arrived at Nashville Superspeedway as an intern in 2003, he admits knowing little about the sport that it regularly hosted. The names of drivers Sterling Marlin and Bobby Hamilton — then contemporary NASCAR stars from his hometown area — were reference points, but the rest was up to him to learn.
“I remember those things,” Thompson recalls, “but I also remember just the openness and warmness that I was welcomed with, just people being able to share their experiences and stories and try to get me up to speed on the background and context for things that were happening not only on the race track but leading up to certain events.”
The NASCAR Diversity Internship Program was just beginning to get off the ground, with the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver and Pit Crew Development Program launching the following year. It was early still, but Thompson could see the platform’s roots starting to grab hold.
“It was very much in the infant stages of the program, but I think it’s appropriate and important to point out that we were doing that before other sports leagues were focused on that,” says Thompson, now NASCAR’s Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion. “I think the time and place when you say infancy is really important there, but yes, it was very early in the game in terms of us getting started on those initiatives, but it was meant to be impactful. One of the things I remember is constantly hearing about how this wasn’t just a ‘make coffee and shuffle papers’ internship, and that was definitely the case.”
From that modest start, the NASCAR Diversity Internship Program has grown to welcome its 20th class this summer. The program was placed on hold during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak last year, but returned with 21 student interns this season — a number that’s pushed the overall total of participants past the 400 mark. There’s special significance to be found for Thompson, who marks the one-year anniversary of his appointment to his current role today — all in the same week that NASCAR returns to Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2011.
The NASCAR Diversity Internship Program list is dotted with launched careers, alumni who found full-time footing either with NASCAR, with other companies in the industry, or in other walks of life. Among them is Kat Lee, who transitioned into a role as director of marketing activation with NASCAR, joining the company in 2011 — one year after her experience as an intern with the Human Resources department based in Daytona Beach.
An early class in the Drive for Diversity program, with Brandon Thompson second from right | NASCAR
Lee first heard about the NDIP program after attending her first NASCAR race in 2009, joining friends on a trip to Atlanta Motor Speedway while a student at the University of Central Florida. The at-track experience piqued her curiosity to find out more about careers in the sport, especially a role that tapped into her field of study — event management, with hospitality as a specialty.
“At the time, I think they just opened a lot of doors in that aspect and just got me exposed to a lot of opportunities and different pieces of the company,” Lee says. “They did a great job of just setting the expectations from a professional work setting, since I was still super-young and it was literally my first real job in an office setting.”
Lee says she can relate to Thompson’s description of an internship free of idle busywork. She was an integral part of the HR group’s talent and acquisitions system during her tenure, participating in the screening and interview processes for prospective employees from start to finish — “probably a lot more than I thought I would ever do in HR,” she notes.
Now she’s giving back to the program, participating in the mentorship opportunities with this year’s class. “It’s just a diverse group of interns every year, which is amazing to see — people with different majors and from all different locations,” Lee says.
Though their time as interns was several years apart, Lee and Thompson shared the experience of being immersed right away in impactful work. Thompson’s onboarding meant diving headlong into what he called “actual meaningful” projects, actively promoting the Tennessee track’s events by working with area grocery chains, restaurants and media outlets. That led to full-time roles with the sanctioning body within its racing operations group, oversight of the sport’s touring series, managing the integration of the ARCA Menards Series under the NASCAR banner and eventually his current role as an 18-year industry vet.
When he got the call for his current role, it came during a period of great social change for the sport and the country. When he accepted, Thompson became the NDIP program’s first graduate to reach NASCAR’s executive level. Thompson hasn’t shuffled papers — not then, not now.
“It was almost surreal is the word I would use,” he says. “But there was a lot of excitement as well, just the fact of … it was a moment of reflection and just realizing how all of the years I’ve spent at the company, throughout the internship program, throughout my first full-time job there, throughout my time in the touring series or throughout my time in racing operations side.
“All of those things kind of worked up to this point but I also knew that there was a large responsibility that was attached to that as well — not only obviously to the company, but to other diverse people in the industry, whether it’s internship participants or just people looking to get into motorsports more broadly, there’s a place and that the programs and initiatives and what we stand for as a sport has to come through so that all people feel welcome in the entire industry. So there’s a lot of responsibility I felt as well.”
Kevin Harvick will run a ‘Grave Digger’ paint scheme for the NASCAR Cup Series’ debut at Nashville Superspeedway, which culminates in the running of Sunday’s Ally 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM).
The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford will feature the famous monster truck’s familiar colors as a precursor to Monster Jam on July 17 and 18 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Grave Digger also brings back fond memories for Harvick and son Keelan, who have attended Monster Jam in the past. Keelan surprised his dad with the new paint scheme for Father’s Day weekend.
— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) June 16, 2021
“It’s the monster truck,” Harvick said in a team press release. “Loud noises, big engines, big wheels, big tires, fast race cars, and to have that be a surprise, it’s surprising to me because of the fact that it’s with Grave Digger and everything, the history, that goes with that truck. But it doesn’t surprise me that it’s something related to a car and tying it in to what we do. This one caught me off guard, though, because I had no idea that any of this was happening and, to have my 8-year-old son be able to pull that off and know more about it than I do makes me feel like I’m a little bit left out. So we’re going to have to talk to somebody.”
Entering Nashville, Harvick is ninth in the Cup Series standings, 152 points above the playoff cutline. The Cup Series will have practice at 2:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, with coverage on NBCSN, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM. Busch Pole Qualifying will get underway at 11:05 a.m. ET on Sunday on NBCSN, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM. Then, Sunday’s race will get underway shortly after 3:30 p.m. ET.
NASCAR officials handed down a $5,000 fine Tuesday to the JR Motorsports No. 8 team for a lug-nut violation after Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
The No. 8 Chevrolet driven to a 19th-place finish by Josh Berry in the Alsco Uniforms 250 was found with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check. The safety violation under Section 10.9.10.4 in the NASCAR Rule Book resulted in a $5,000 fine to crew chief Taylor Moyer.
On the Camping World Truck Series side, officials issued an indefinite suspension to Matthew Moermond for a behavioral violation of Sections 12.1, 12.8.a, and 12.8.1.e (Member Conduct Guidelines) in the Rule Book. Moermond was most recently listed as technical director for Kyle Busch Motorsports on NASCAR’s team rosters for the Texas weekend. He has also served as a utility crewmember and an engineer for the KBM organization this year.
Two significant penalties were handed down during the race weekend, both to teams fielding vehicles for Ross Chastain. Competition officials fined the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet team $25,000, ejecting crew chief Phil Surgen and dropping Chastain to the rear of the field for the start of the NASCAR All-Star Race for an air-duct violation found in Sunday’s pre-race inspection. In the Camping World Truck Series, the No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet team was disqualified Saturday after an unapproved throttle body was discovered in post-race inspection.
Editor’s Note: This release was first published on August 22, 2020. Nashville Superspeedway will be hosting its first NASCAR Cup Series weekend with Erik Moses as track president on June 18-20, 2021.
LEBANON, Tenn. – Erik Moses, a veteran sports executive and seasoned venue management leader, has been named president of Nashville Superspeedway, Dover Motorsports, Inc., officials announced Saturday.
Moses, a longtime leader in mid-Atlantic sports and entertainment circles, most recently served as the founding president of the XFL’s DC Defenders (2019-20), where the team was in first place in the Eastern Division and ranked among the league’s best in ticket sales, game-day experience and social-media engagement.
“I am excited to join the team at Dover Motorsports to lead the reopening of the Nashville Superspeedway and bring the excitement of Cup Series racing to Middle Tennessee,” Moses said. “I have long admired NASCAR for its commitment to the fan experience and am thrilled to have the opportunity to create the optimal race day experience that NASCAR fans deserve in a market that has such a rich history with the sport.
“Nashville is one of the hottest markets for sports, entertainment and live events in the entire country and I look forward to working with local stakeholders and partners to leverage that momentum to establish the superspeedway as a premier live events venue serving the greater Nashville region.”
Prior to the XFL and after several roles in private and corporate legal practice, Moses had an extensive career across a variety of sports leadership and city government positions around Washington D.C., including:
Senior Vice President at Events DC for more than a decade, he served as Washington D.C.’s “sports commissioner” and chief advocate for sports, entertainment and live event activity in the city while developing impactful and often pioneering partnerships with the local professional, college and high school teams, the NCAA, the NHL, MLB, AT&T, Lyft and Pepsi.
CEO, DC Sports & Entertainment Commission, where he supervised the completion and grand opening of Nationals Park and helped develop and host two annual college football games – the Military Bowl, the first NCAA-sanctioned bowl game in the nation’s capital and the former AT&T Nation’s Football Classic.
Director, D.C. Department of Small & Local Business Development, primary advocate for local businesses and responsible for advising Washington’s mayor on policies affecting the business community.
Moses’ hire is a key element toward ensuring the overall success of Nashville Superspeedway. Dover Motorsports, Inc. announced this summer the 1.33-mile concrete track and surrounding 700 acres in Lebanon, Tennessee, will be reopening in June 2021. Its sister track, Dover International Speedway, is in the midst of hosting an unprecedented six races in three days on Aug. 21-23, including the “Drydene Doubleheader Weekend,” featuring back-to-back days of NASCAR Xfinity Series-NASCAR Cup Series doubleheaders.
“We are very excited and fortunate to hire an outstanding leader and executive such as Erik, who has tremendous experience in all areas of sports, events and live entertainment,” said Mike Tatoian, executive vice president and COO of Dover Motorsports, Inc. “Erik’s addition to our company and the outstanding reputation he has in the industry punctuates our commitment to revitalizing Nashville Superspeedway and serving the Middle Tennessee community.”
Moses, a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Duke University School of Law, is a member of the Washington Business Journal Leadership Trust and was named to its 2019 Power 100 list and recognized by NBC Sports Washington as a DC Sports Power Player. He has served as an adjunct professor in Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management Program since 2010.
