Posted on by Jerry Bonkowski

Greg Biffle isn’t letting the grass grow under his feet in semi-retirement from NASCAR racing. But having sand in his shoes — well, that’s an entirely different story.

And while you’re at it, throw in a few lemons (more on that in a minute).

The two-time NASCAR champion is still racing these days, but not on pavement or even dirt. Rather, he’s getting ready to kick up a bunch of sand competing in the six-race Sand Outlaws Series that starts next weekend, May 15, and runs until mid-November.

RELATED: Greg Biffle career stats | All of Greg Biffle’s Cup wins

Biffle is one of the founders of the series, which holds races in remote — and obviously very sandy — places such as Sand Mountain, Utah; Glamis, California; Anthony Dunes, Idaho and Oregon Dunes in Oregon. The events are either NHRA-style straight-line drag races or hill climbs that often have the sand buggies flying through the air.

“I’m building some of those side by sides and off-road cars, and I really enjoy doing that,” Biffle told NASCAR.com. “It’s the same mentality. Racing is racing. It’s that adrenaline, you want to be better than the competition, you want to build a better piece and have a faster car. I just enjoy the competition.”

There’s another type of competition for the man nicknamed “The Biff.” After driving cars that cost $100,000 or more in 510 Cup races in his career, in recent years since retiring from Cup he’s gotten some of the greatest fun in his life racing “lemons,” which are essentially beater cars that can’t cost more than $500 and in-race repairs must be minimal.

“I’ll tell you, the most fun I had in probably 10 years was two years after I quit running Cup full-time, I ran a lemons race,” Biffle said. “We built this car, went to Pittsburgh and I’m running this thing like a race team, right? You know, from the spirit of the rules, the car has got 218,000 miles on it and we’re doing everything we can to prevent it from failing on the track.

“I wanted to run a 24-hour race at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, South Carolina. That was my target. Well, we needed to test. We can’t go there the first time to the race track with a car and hope it’s going to make it 24 hours.

“So I’ve got this bright idea, we’re going to run the race two weeks prior to that in Pittsburgh, so that we can get an understanding and a feel for the car and how the tech process works and all that. So we went to Pittsburgh and raced this race. I mean, an absolutely beautiful race track in the middle of nowhere. A great road course. I mean, we had a ball. We finished second there, three laps down.

“I’m telling you, running a 24-hour race with just backyard parts and five gallon plastic fuel cans, that’s hard. You’re not allowed to have any fancy stuff. The thing burns a quart of oil about every three hours. So four hours into the race, we had to put four quarts of oil in. I’m telling you, organizing that as sort of being the crew chief and the team owner and the driver, was tough.”

And when he won that race?

“It’s like I won the championship or the Daytona 500,” Biffle said.

Biffle had to skip this weekend’s season-opening lemons race at Sebring, Florida, but has plans to compete in several other races this year. He has high hopes, including swapping out the original Ford Mustang motor for a newer — but used — higher horsepower Mustang under the hood.

“The cool thing about lemons is they run all these iconic tracks, places like Sebring, the road courses at places like Daytona, New Hampshire, at Sonoma, which I love, and Road Atlanta,” Biffle said. “We’re planning on running some more of them. I want to keep it fun.”

While racing lemons, sand buggies and competing in this summer’s six-race Ray Evernham’s and Tony Stewart’s Superstar Racing Experience are occupying much of Biffle’s time, he isn’t ruling out a return to the NASCAR world.

Biffle’s last NASCAR Cup race was in 2016. With each passing day, month and year, it continues to surprise him that he’s been out of NASCAR’s top series for so long.

“I’m telling you, yes it does,” Biffle said. “And the more years that go by, I think my gosh it’s been more days and more days and more days. But yeah, it’s amazing that it’s been that long.”

Biffle never officially retired. He didn’t have a going away or goodbye tour. He just kind of stopped following the final race of 2016 at Homestead.

But he was lured out of retirement twice in the last two years, competing in the Camping World Truck Series both times, once for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2019 and then GMS Racing in 2020.

His one-off start for KBM was his first race in a Truck since 2004, but it was quite evident he hadn’t lost a step, winning the race at the challenging Texas Motor Speedway.

And don’t forget Biffle is one of just three drivers who have won championships in both the Truck Series (2000) and Xfinity Series (2002). He came close to being the first driver in history to win a crown in all three of NASCAR’s premier series in 2005, winning the Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but came up short by 35 points to Tony Stewart for the championship, tied for second with Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards.

Now 51, Biffle isn’t ruling out returning to race in a truck again this season if he gets a call.

“I want to run (more) races for Kyle. … It’s certainly not out of the question,” Biffle said. “We’ve had more casual conversations, nothing serious. Kyle’s bugged me about running full-time, but not necessarily this year. … To be honest with you, I love it, it’s what I grew up doing and I love it so much. But at the same time, I just don’t think I want to run full time again.

“I’m obviously a huge fan of the sport. Unfortunately, this COVID thing has driven a lot of people away. We haven’t been able to do some of the things we want to do. I was scheduled to drive three races for Kyle in 2020, and talked to some other teams about doing some things, and then the world got turned upside down.

“Then it’s just show up, get in the car and drive. I certainly watch all the races, but this was the first year in like 21 years that I wasn’t in Daytona this year in February for Speedweeks. I’d go to the track every day, hang out, it’s good to see everyone. Last year, I drove the pace car, gave rides for NASCAR, all that stuff.

“So this is the first year that I haven’t gone to a race so far. It’ll be nice to get this behind us.”

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

When Biffle looks back on his career, he has a lot of high points. Most notable are his Truck and Xfinity championships, as well as a career-high six wins and finishing oh-so-close for the Cup championship in 2005 — the one that got away.

“(I think about it) all the time,” Biffle said. “I mean, you just can’t escape that we left a wheel loose and I was running third at Texas. I’m not saying I would have won the race but probably you know we’d won there a lot. We had a great car. We were running third, we had a loose wheel and we finished 20th.

“And then I was leading Homestead in the last race and I was ready to put Tony (Stewart) a lap down and the caution came out. There are coincidences for sure, but boy, two of the last three races — Texas and Homestead — there were a lot of close calls that kept me from winning the title. But you know what, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. I didn’t win a title and it’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it goes.”

As for other career high points, Biffle added:

“It’s so hard for me to put my finger on one thing, so many great things happened. I think back to my first truck win in Memphis (1999), I think back to winning nine races in a single season in the trucks (also 1999), my first win in a Cup car in Daytona (2003 Pepsi 400). As for individual seasons, probably 2005, winning more races than anyone in the series. That tells you how competitive it was.”

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

As if sand and lemons racing aren’t enough to keep the native of Washington state busy these days, Biffle also owns a fully operational mine and rock quarry in Virginia, operates heavy equipment there, and is also a real estate investor (oftentimes doing his own repair work on properties to make them more appealing for sale), including buildings used by some Cup teams in the Charlotte area. He also enjoys traveling (he just came back from a vacation in Aruba), has a boat in Florida, or can be found fishing.

And then there’s his biggest non-racing passion of all, the Lake Norman Humane animal shelter and rescue in suburban Charlotte.

“We raised money for a long period of time and then we finally were able to build a facility,” Biffle said. “We’re fortunate enough to be able to do that. It’s going very well. It’s a constant battle to raise money and keep all the pets in our care, keep them fed and cared for and then get them to a new home.

“We’ve had some months where we’re adopting out 100 animals per month. We’re having some big days and big success and I feel good about it. You know, I’m an animal lover from way back and it’s just a passion of mine.”

For a guy who doesn’t like to use the “R word” (retired), Biffle is as busy these days as when he was racing full-time in the Cup Series. But he’s doing things on his time and on his schedule. And he wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I’m just enjoying life,” Biffle said. “I really, really miss the sport, being behind the wheel. I feel like I could still get in there tomorrow and win a championship. I don’t know that I want to go to the track every week, but I’d like to be involved to some degree.

“Let’s get back to normal, you know? I was even in discussion with a few teams about potentially helping in some manner. It’d be nice to still be involved at some level. I just really enjoy it and like the sport.”

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

The Greg Biffle file:

* Age: 51

* Hometown: Vancouver, Wash. Has lived in suburban Charlotte for more than 20 years.

* Rookie of the year: 1998 Craftsman Truck Series, 2001 Busch Series

* NASCAR Cup career: 510 starts, 19 wins, 92 top-five and 175 top-10 finishes. Also 13 poles.

* NASCAR Xfinity Series career: 244 starts, 20 wins, 93 top-five and 149 top-10 finishes. Also 14 poles. Won 2002 championship.

* NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career: 83 starts, 17 wins, 43 top-five and 55 top-10 finishes. Also 12 poles. Won 2000 championship.

* Best NASCAR Cup season finish: 2005 (tied for second in the standings with teammate Carl Edwards, 35 points behind champion Tony Stewart) with 36 starts, 6 wins, 15 top-five, 21 top-10 finishes)

* Best overall NASCAR season statistically: 1999 Truck Series (9 wins, 14 top-five and 19 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 Ricky Rudd, Darrell Waltrip, Mark Martin, Marcos Ambrose and Juan Pablo Montoya. Also, follow Jerry on Twitter @JerryBonkowski, his @TheRacingBeat podcast and his email newsletter, TheRacingBeat.substack.com.

Posted on by Cara Cooper

Just about every class at South Boston Speedway has a Dawson racing in it this season.

And not only are the four Dawsons competing all over the track in Southern Virginia, but all four of them are forces to be reckoned with.

Brothers Justin, Drew, and Jared Dawson and their cousin, Josh Dawson, all grew up within just a few minutes of South Boston, a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series sanctioned asphalt track in South Boston, Virginia. They enjoyed watching NASCAR and would go as a family to races when they were growing up.

RELATED: SouthBostonSpeedway.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

It was 25-year-old Drew who first decided to get behind the wheel himself when South Boston started a hornets division in 2015.

“We kept going to the track at South Boston watching them race the hornets for I’d say a year or so,” Drew said. “It was about the middle of 2015 I finally came up with enough money and got me a hornet. And as soon as I made two races, Justin and Jared, they had to get them one.”

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Brothers Justin, Drew, and Jared Dawson and their cousin, Josh Dawson, all race at South Boston Speedway, where they’ve been competing since 2016.

By the next season, all three brothers were racing hornets. At the time, Jared was just 14 years old.

“We used to go bumper to bumper, three wide,” Drew said. “Dad came on the radio a few times and said Jared was catching me. I didn’t like that too much, my little brother catching me.”

Justin, the oldest of the group at 27, won three races that first year.

“The 2016 season was pretty good for me,” Justin said. “I think back then was the funnest. We would actually hit each other on the track and we wouldn’t get mad at each other. It was one wreck where Jared hit somebody and ended up taking me out but it is what it is. It wasn’t any hard feelings. I think we had more fun in the hornets than we had all year.”

Justin has now moved up to the pure stock division at South Boston. He has a second place and another top-five finish, and is fourth in the standings through four races.

“We had a rough start to the season with a blown motor, but we came back pretty strong,” he said. “It’s been an up and down season, but we’re getting a whole lot better than it was last year. Just find out things at the end and keep things together.”

The oldest Dawson is also currently building a limited sportsman so he can try to be competitive in that division alongside his brother as quickly as possible. His main focus is to try to move up this year, while also getting a win in the pure stocks division.

Drew runs in South Boston’s limited sportsman division, a series he picked up in his first career win in earlier this season. He also won the second of two 25-lap features this past Saturday.

“I feel like I have a pretty good car for now,” Drew said. “My dad and my crew chief, Tricky, they put a lot of hours into it trying to make it faster and faster.”

Josh, 20, currently leads the points in South Boston’s hornets division, with two wins and a third-place finish in three races.

“I’ve got a good car. Just trying to keep it in one piece. Don’t want to bring it home in pieces. That’s the main goal,” he said. “My main goal is to try to bring home as many trophies as possible. I don’t know what the season is going to end but bring home many trophies.”

The 20-year-old is also known in the family as the one who works on the cars the most during the week. He’s helping Justin build the limited sportsman to hopefully run soon.

“I’ve been building the new one. Five days ahead of race day I have to work on another one,” Josh said.

Jared floats between the hornets, where he’s currently second points, and the pure stock division. He has a win and two runner-up finishes this season.

“I feel like we can run for the championship this year,” Jared said. “I want to try to get better in the pure stock division and hopefully try to get a championship in the hornets division.”

Even though the family was extremely competitive when they first started racing, now they’ve learned to work with each other and celebrate any success within Dawson Motorsports.

“I would say Drew, Jared, and Josh, they’re all after championships,” Justin said. “All three of them have the car to do it.

“I love it. I actually enjoy watching the two younger brother and Josh, I enjoy watching them race more than I race myself. It’s definitely exciting. We were on our toes the weekend before last when Jared was out front and Josh was running him down as far as the hornets. And then when Drew got out front in his limited, me and Jared, we were jumping up and down when Drew got that first win.”

Going to races is about getting to spend time with family. If they didn’t have racing, Jared said he doesn’t know any other way they would spend quality time together.

“It’s more of we get to spend a whole lot more quality time with our family, because all of our family loves to race so it’s more going out here, spending time with the family and going out there and being competitive and having fun,” Jared said.

“I think it’s awesome because I don’t really know what we would do if we didn’t have racing,” Drew added.

NASCAR racing will return to South Boston on Saturday, May 15, featuring twin 75-lap late model lap races, 50-lap limited sportsman, twin 15-lap Budweiser Pure Stock, and and a 15-lap Budweiser Hornets, all beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale at SouthBostonSpeedway.com

Posted on by Terrin Waack

Win on Sunday. Sell on Monday.

The sales motto has returned.

With Wednesday’s unveil of the Next Gen car for 2022, it is clear NASCAR plans to put the “stock” back in stock-car racing. The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Ford Mustang and Toyota TRD Camry feature three individualized bodies, and their initial visual display closely reflects each of their showroom counterparts. Once again, the weekly race car closely matches the everyday street car.

“If you look at the cars from the ’90s and ’80s, whatnot, you could tell what type of car it was,” NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin said. “If they were all white, you could tell that’s a Pontiac whatever. These, if you weren’t here, they look different. Like it’s not just the same car with Toyota headlights and taillights. These cars are different. All three of them have a very distinct and different look from the front and back.

“It doesn’t matter what the color scheme is. It’s not the same car with different decals on it, that’s for sure.”

NEXT GEN IN PHOTOS: Chevrolet | Ford | Toyota

That was a priority from the very start.

Next Gen discussions began in January 2019. Originally, the car was supposed to make its on-track debut in 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the timeline back a year. That delay actually helped with development beyond design.

“It was the technical task of, OK, as we move through this, how are we going to get to a level playing field on the aerodynamics side?” said Brandon Thomas, who led the Next Gen project for NASCAR. “How are we going to get our version of racing to where the OEMs can have this branding but we’re not going to have one OEM design something into their car that can be heavily manipulated and deliver on performance?”

Important questions to prevent unfair advantages, and the manufacturers helped provide answers collectively. They, too, wanted more style relevancy. Because at the end of the day, they’re trying to sell a product through the sport of racing. And in order to do that, there needs to be a connection between a fan and the brand.

Representatives from each manufacturer were at the reveal in Charlotte, North Carolina, to share their thoughts on what this means for their future.

  • David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development: “There’s no mistake we’re racing a TRD Camry. I’m proud of the progress that the industry has taken towards that; even with Gen-6, so much better than what we’ve raced in the past. This is a revolutionary, another revolutionary, step forward. I do believe the mom or dad driving this beast of a TRD Camry is going to take more pride in our success.”
  • Eric Warren, director of NASCAR programs for General Motors (Chevrolet): “Now that we’re going to have the closeness between the race car and Camaro, we’re going to race it as long as Camaro exists because it’s the closest connection between the race car and production car, which is exciting for all the fans, Camaro owners and customers.”
  • Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance: “We think even for an F-150 customer, if it looks more like a Ford Mustang, it is more clearly Ford to them, and they’re going to be happy and proud of Ford on track in that Mustang and go buy a F-150 on Monday. It is good for the brand, just not that nameplate.”

RELATED: Next Gen and the future of safety in NASCAR

This mindset revert could also bring new manufacturers to NASCAR, which is seen as a positive to those already in the garage. The more, the better. For everyone. A win over even more competitors would just further assert dominance for a manufacturer, and the more manufacturers involved would lead to better financial support and security for NASCAR.

All good things — or so it seems right now. Only time will tell as Next Gen tests continue and races begin. The car’s official on-track debut will be the 2022 Daytona 500 in February.

Until then, regular Camaros, Mustangs and Camrys remain in the showrooms and on the streets. Don’t be fooled.

“It looks like you can drive it down the road,” Logano said. “The cops might pull you over, but it has the same look. To that point, I say: Finally.”

Posted on by Staff Report

The 2021 NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola campaign is more than just a military appreciation platform — it’s a campaign that salutes heroes next door. Each week, NASCAR.com will highlight multiple individuals in the week’s race markets who have made a difference with their service both in the military and to their communities.

In the latest profile of a next-door hero, NASCAR.com is highlighting U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Camrin Northrop.

RELATED: Learn more about NASCAR Salutes | Daniel Suarez takes part in virtual visit with Mission 600

TSgt Northrop is a Lieutenant Fire Officer with the Sumter County (S.C.) volunteer fire department. He has provided more than 450 hours of volunteer emergency response time. Northrop is considered a driving force in connecting South Carolina’s Shaw Air Force Base with Sumter County’s emergency capabilities and making the two departments nearly operate as one. That includes ensuring the appropriate level of support to each department through 40 joint emergency responses.

In his role as a fire fighter in the Air Force, Northrop is currently working to increase the 911 capabilities of the base and to help build resiliency with the local community. He has worked to partner with the Sumter County 911 center to help develop common methods of managing initial emergency communications. He is a self-motivated person as evidenced by his successful completion of his Fire Inspector II and Fire Inspector III certifications. Those certifications allowed him to achieve his Chief Officer designation through the Center for Public Safety Excellence.

After the passing of his good friend, Sumter County Deputy Corporal Andrew Gillette, Northrop joined the board of Running for Heroes. The Running for Heroes organization honors fallen first responders with a memorial run and a donated flag presented to each fallen first responder’s family. In addition, the organization provides grants to first responders who are injured in the line of duty, providing assistance that their department and insurance providers cannot. Northrop has brought vigor and new connections in his position as a board member to help grow the following and raise awareness to the difficult duties and risks in the lives of first responders.

2021 Northrop2 Main
Photo courtesy of TSgt Camrin Northrop

Northrop also manages the safety program at Sumter Speedway, a dirt track in the community. He partnered with a fellow Air Force Civil Engineer to develop the Squadron’s second haunted trail, raising $2,000 for their squadron’s booster club funds. In his free time, Northrop volunteers as a mentor with the United Ways School Mentor Program. 

Posted on by Steve Luvender

NASCAR’s newest car met NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway Wednesday night in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series — and one of the sport’s most iconic cars brought home the checkered flag. 

Erik Jones raced his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet from fourth place on a late-race restart to surge past Timmy Hill and Anthony Alfredo in the closing laps at the virtual Darlington Raceway — in the first outing for the NASCAR Next Gen car, unveiled just hours before the race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified on pole for the 120-lap event and looked like the car to beat early, leading through a rash of early cautions as drivers worked to become acclimated to a brand-new car for the first time.

The learning curve was a steep one as three cautions flew in the race’s first 21 laps, eating up many racers’ two available fast-repair resets — an instant fix to the car afforded to competitors in the sim-racing world. 

RELATED: Leaders wreck in final laps at virtual Darlington

Longtime iRacer William Byron snagged the top spot from Earnhardt on Lap 48 as the tires began to wear on the track “Too Tough to Tame.” It wasn’t long, however, before another caution flew and forced drivers to grapple with strategy. 

Former Pro Invitational Series winner Timmy Hill became a competitor for Byron at the front of the pack, taking the lead after a caution for an Alex Bowman crash. The two iRacing veterans battled hard, but neither emerged as the clear favorite.

A caution in the closing laps set up for a mixed-bag strategy on a late-race restart. Hill elected to stay on track with old, worn tires; others, including Byron, chose to pit for fresh tires at the expense of track position. 

RELATED: Late caution at virtual Darlington

On the ensuing restart, NASCAR Cup Series rookie Chase Briscoe went for a spin on aging tires near the front of the field, collecting multiple race contenders, including Byron, James Davison and Anthony Alfredo. 

Alfredo, who’s an iRacing regular, elected not to fix crash damage on his battered No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford. What’s Darlington without the classic stripe anyway? 

On the final restart, Hill led the field to the green flag on his worn tires; Alfredo’s damaged machine followed. The two battled for the top spot, checkered flag in sight, until Jones surged to the lead in a daring pass on the track’s apron into Turn 1.

RELATED: See the Next Gen cars’ first iRacing lap

Jones, driving a throwback paint scheme honoring the late John Andretti, held off the field to claim his first-ever Pro Invitational Series victory. It was a surreal juxtaposition of NASCAR’s future-era car, painted in legendary Petty team colors at NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway, driven by one of the sport’s brightest young stars. 

Alfredo came home second, while Earnhardt recovered late to finish third. Tyler Reddick placed fourth, and defending Cup Series champ Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.

The Cup Series stars visit Darlington — the real-world version — Sunday, for the Goodyear 400 on NASCAR’s Throwback Weekend.

The Pro Invitational Series makes its next stop at Circuit of the Americas on May 19.

Posted on by Press Release

RICHMOND, Va. — Justin Bonsignore spent Tuesday morning and early afternoon taking laps around Richmond Raceway in Virginia behind the wheel of his No. 51 Phoenix Communications, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour ride for Kenneth Massa Motorsports. As part of a tire test, Bonsignore took laps in preparation for the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150, which is set for Friday, September 10.

The race will mark the return to the .750-mile oval for the Whelen Modified Tour for the first time since 2002.

“To get Richmond Raceway back on the Whelen Modified Tour schedule — it’s definitely going to be a marquee event and one that everyone is going to want to win,” the two-time Whelen Modified Tour champion said. “Having the chance to be there, it’s a beautiful facility. Track President Dennis Bickmeier spent some time with us today, and he was really excited for the return of Modifieds.

“I think the track is going to race well — it should be an exciting race for the fans to watch.”

RELATED: Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 Race Center | Buy Tickets

Tickets for the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 are currently available through Richmond Raceway. The race will come in the final month of the season, where Justin and the rest of the competitors will compete in four races, in four weeks, in September, to crown the champion.

Justin Bonsignore returns to the track on Saturday, May 15, at Riverhead Raceway for the third race of the Whelen Modified Tour season. Bonsignore has won the last four tour races at the New York oval. For more information on Justin, visit JustinBonsignore.com and follow his athlete page on Facebook.

Posted on by Zack Albert

For projects that either originate or roll through the garage doors at the NASCAR Research & Development Center, safety remains an essential priority in every phase of development. The case of the Next Gen car, built from the ground up for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series, is no different.

From more durable composite bodies, to better bumpers front and rear, to new devices designed to reduce rollover crashes at superspeedways, the Next Gen car will carry new safety features into next season, building on the advances developed in its predecessors but also introducing new safeguards intended to protect drivers in the event of a wreck.

Prominent among those new safety measures is the addition of energy-absorbing foam bumpers designed to dissipate front and rear impacts. Bald Spot Sports, an Indianapolis-based manufacturer of performance-enhancing foam products, provides the components, which are also used as a brace for the vehicle’s doors.

“A lot of the design in the vehicle from a first-order perspective, a lot of the targets were set by our safety group and we’ve gone through probably hundreds of iterations of chassis structure and front and rear bumper structures to get to the final solution,” said John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing innovation. “I think that when you look at, for the first time in our sport, and this is not uncommon in production cars where they actually have crash structures built into the car, we do have those built into this race car.

“Today, when we say we’ve got a front and rear bumper, it’s not a front/rear bumper in a sense that it had a whole lot of safety thought put into it. It’s basically there to hold the front/rear bumper, so this for the first time will be a proper crash structure with energy-absorbing foam on the outer skin of the actual crash structure itself. It just takes some of the energy out of the car and absorbs it into the foam.”

RELATED: Next Gen car unveiled | Next Gen project timeline 

The issue of superspeedway safety flared last month after Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford became airborne during a multicar crash at Talladega Superspeedway. The Next Gen car has several components designed to decrease lift in the event of a high-speed backward slide, but the newest is a flap located at the diffuser under the rear bumper.

Roof-mounted air flaps that deploy during a spin carry over from the current car, but the Next Gen model includes a cable that connects the roof flap to the new diffuser flap, allowing them to deploy in tandem. The flap design is among the nine patents that competition officials obtained in development of the Next Gen car.

“I think that any time in our sport that we have a vehicle leave the ground, we take it very seriously,” Probst says. “We employ all methods of technology and testing that we can to mitigate that. The diffuser flap is an example of such an effort on our part. We’ve had it in the wind tunnel, I think on four different occasions. … The whole concept is, if a car gets to the point that the roof flaps would be deployed that this diffuser flap as well would be deployed with the roof flaps. When we do get a car around backward, it’s just to deploy all measures to keep the vehicles on the ground by all means necessary that we can engineer.”

Some of the safety systems have already been appraised in real-world situations, both occurring with the P3 prototype that has been in heavy testing rotation for more than a year. William Byron crashed during a March 2020 season at Auto Club Speedway, and more recently Tyler Reddick looped the tester vehicle at Darlington Raceway on April 7, making slight right-side contact on his final run of the day.

Neither driver was hurt. In Reddick’s case, after a quick change of tires, he was able to drive the car back to the garage with little issue.

“That was a love tap, by most measures of what you can do to a car at Darlington,” Probst said. “I don’t know that we learned a whole lot there, honestly, other than that the car can take a little bit of a hit and keep going.”

Scm Nextgen 3oems Hero

Posted on by Paul Lambert

It took some diving, ducking and dodging by Patrick Emerling on the final restart, but the No. 07 team’s luck finally, finally turned around last Friday at the Spring Sizzler.

Emerling avoided the carnage on the final restart, swerving to the right and shooting the gap between the spinning cars of Justin Bonsignore and Anthony Nocella to grab the lead and the win.

“I don’t know what happened there,” Emerling said. “Everyone started getting together. Sparks were flying and just kind of burned right through the smoke there and just kind of worked out.”

For much of the day, however, it appeared that the rotten luck that has plagued the team since 2020 would bite them again. The pure speed was there last season — they qualified six of eight races inside the top-10 — but one way or another, the team could not catch a break, scoring only one top-10 finish in 2020.

An electrical problem Friday forced the team to miss both practice and qualifying and start the race last.

But good fortune came storming back as the race drew on. Emerling caught a caution on lap 61 and got the lucky dog. Even after spinning to bring out the yellow on lap 95, Emerling had worked his way to fifth by the time the race restarted for the final time.

Patrick Emerling, driver of the #07 Captain Pip Marina Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Stafford Motor Speedway on April 30, 2021 in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Patrick Emerling (right) celebrates in Victory Lane with crew chief Jan Leaty after winning the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Even though the race was called early due to the rain, crew chief Jan Leaty still felt the team was in good shape to pass the top four cars had the race gone the distance.

“You just will never know for sure,” Leaty said. “But I know, the position we were in, we executed the strategy to put on our tires later in the event than most of the guys did. So we had 25-lap better tires than almost everyone… I felt like the cars in front of us, we were going to pass them. The car was mint, and they were holding him up, to use his words.”

Leaty won the Sizzler as an owner-driver in 1996 with friends and family. While it was certainly a different experience to celebrate in the rain, it was proof to him that the team is still a force to be reckoned with in the Tour garage.

“It’s different for sure,” Leaty said. “It made me feel good that other guys, the next generation, so to speak, got to experience it too, and that I got to help them get there.”

Now, Leaty’s just looking forward to an issue-free day soon.

“It’s not like we’re all of a sudden on cruise control here,” Leaty said. “We’re working really hard to get the results we’re getting. I keep telling the guys ‘One day, things are just gonna go smooth and we’re not gonna know what to do with ourselves.’”

Patrick Emerling, driver of the #07 Captain Pip Marina Chevrolet, spins out during the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Stafford Motor Speedway on April 30, 2021 in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Patrick Emerling spins out on Lap 95 of the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Other Notes:

  • Justin Bonsignore’s 12th-place finish at Stafford snapped a 16-race streak of top-five finishes dating back to 2019. Bonsignore had also finished in the top 10 in 21 consecutive races. The last time Bonsignore finished outside the top 10 was almost two years ago at Wall Stadium in 2019.
  • Eric Goodale continued his strong start to the 2021 season, finishing second to Emerling. With that run, Goodale has more top-fives in 2021 than all of 2020. It’s the first time Goodale has strung back-to-back top-fives together since April of 2019. He’ll maintain the points lead as the series heads to Riverhead.
  • Timmy Solomito drove the family-owned No. 66 New England Gear High Marine Building Efficiency Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish, his best run since finishing second at Riverhead in September of 2019. Like Emerling, Solomito was involved in an early incident, on Lap 72.
  • Despite only one career Tour start heading into 2021, Max McLaughlin has held his own to start the season. He currently sits fourth in points after his 11th-place run in the Spring Sizzler.