Mayhew to Sponsor NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s Pole Award for the 2021 Season

Posted on March 24, 2021 by Jason Christley

This will be the third year in a row that Mayhew will sponsor this award bestowed to the driver and crew chief, who have the fastest qualifying time

TURNERS FALLS, MA – Mayhew Steel Products, Inc. (Mayhew Tools) announces sponsorship of NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour’s Pole Award for the 2021 season, which begins on Saturday, April 8th at Martinsville Speedway, Virginia. This will be Mayhew’s third year in a row sponsoring the Pole Award which recognizes the qualifying round’s winning driver and crew chief, bringing the spotlight to the crew behind the driver’s success. This sponsorship awards the winning driver a one-thousand-dollar check and the crew chief of the winning driver a Mayhew Dominator® heavy-duty curved pry bar, dubbed ‘The Big Stick’ at 13 lbs. and 54”, that allows for the ability to deliver tremendous force.

This year is the 37th season of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and Mayhew’s fifth consecutive year sponsoring the Whelen Modified Tour six-time champion driver, Doug Coby, now in his second year racing as owner and driver of the Doug Coby Racing team. Overall, this will be Mayhew’s sixth season as a sponsor in the racing arena as part of a larger marketing strategy to elevate their brand awareness within the racing community-at-large. Sponsoring the Pole Award and bestowing the winning crew chief with a prized Mayhew tool quite literally allows Mayhew Tools to get their premium tools into the hands of those who use them daily.

“We are excited and proud to be in a position to once again sponsor the Pole Award in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour series,” commented John Lawless, President, Mayhew Tools. “This sponsorship allows us the opportunity, to quite literally, be in the hands of the best in the trade and with our recent acquisition of Bestway Tools, we also have the opportunity to expand upon the premium hand tools we are able to offer to the racing community at-large.”

The 2021 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will consist of 14 races as it visits a mix of tracks from traditional speedways to inaugural venues spanning from Maine to Virginia. The complete NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season schedule is:

April 8	Martinsville Speedway, Virginia
April 25	Stafford Motor Speedway, Connecticut
May 15	Riverhead Raceway, New York
May 29	Jennerstown Speedway, Pennsylvania
June 12	Oswego Speedway, New York
June 19	Riverhead Raceway, New York
July 17	New Hampshire Motor Speedway, New Hampshire
July 31	Lancaster National Speedway, New York
August 6	Stafford Motor Speedway, Connecticut
August 21	Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Maine
September 4	Oswego Speedway, New York
September 10	Richmond Raceway, Virginia
September 18	Riverhead Raceway, New York
September 25	Stafford Motor Speedway, Connecticut

In addition to sponsoring the Pole award and the Doug Coby Racing team, Mayhew will enter its second year as sponsor to the SGB Racing team. In an expanded capacity Mayhew will be supporting the teams’ riders in all 2021 Pro Motocross Nationals, and in a few select rounds of the 2021 AMA Supercross.

For more information on Mayhew Tools, visit mayhew.com.

Mayhew Tools are sold through an extensive network of global distributors, primarily serving the industrial, automotive, and hardware markets. For more information, contact Mayhew Tools at (800) 872-0037.

Mayhew Tools is the primary sponsor for six-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Posted on March 24, 2021March 28, 2021 by RJ Kraft

The NASCAR Cup Series will run on dirt for the first time since 1970 with Monday’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

A host of NASCAR drivers have dirt racing backgrounds — Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Alex Bowman to name a few. Many of the series regulars have taken turns in recent weeks, logging laps on dirt tracks across the country and in the Bristol Dirt Nationals held last week at the .5-mile dirt track this weekend.

The wild-card event will surely be a spectacle to behold to close out the month of March on the NASCAR calendar. As we head into the event, NASCAR.com’s Zack Albert and RJ Kraft go head to head to determine which driver with a dirt-racing background has the best shot to leave Bristol a winner.

ALBERT: Feels like this list needs to start — if not necessarily end — with Larson. This owes plenty to his exceptional abilities on non-paved tracks, especially during the last year as he gathered checkered flags by the dozens in multiple dirt-track disciplines. He’s also a former winner in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition on Eldora Speedway’s dirt, where he contended in all three events before ultimately prevailing in 2016.

But making this call also has a measure to do with Larson’s strength so far this season in the NASCAR Cup Series, where he has quickly rounded into a top performer in his first year with Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Chevrolet team. He sits second in the series standings after six races, leading laps in all but one event so far.

With a nod to the others on the list — plus a worthy added mention of dirt-diligent brothers Austin and Ty Dillon — the No. 1 draft pick here is Larson, who has the extra benefit of a solid team foundation beneath his feet.

PHOTOS: See Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt transformation

KRAFT: I don’t disagree with much of what you said about Larson, except I don’t think the list ends with him. There’s another driver who deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as him when it comes to dirt racing. A driver who is a three-time Chili Bowl winner and also a former winner at Eldora’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event that has a great shot to win: Bell.

Bell won both the Chili Bowl (2017-19) and at Eldora (2015) before Larson did. I’ll acknowledge Larson has certainly been more consistent to open the 2021 season, although Bell also has a win this season with his victory coming in the second race of the season at the Daytona Road Course. He’s only in his second NASCAR Cup Series season, but crew chief Adam Stevens has him positioned in the top of the standings — Bell’s peak position last year was 19th in the standings.

In addition to some of the drivers you mentioned, I wouldn’t sleep on Briscoe, Reddick or Bubba Wallace here. Briscoe and Wallace both won the Eldora event, and Reddick plied his trade on the same dirt tracks Larson did growing up. Bell and Larson are still in a class by themselves for this one — as evidenced by the opening odds at BetMGM — but these drivers are also worthy considerations.

MORE: Shop new Kyle Larson gear

Posted on March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 by Staff Report

Thanks to Advance Auto Parts, fans will have a chance to earn their favorite NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series track up to $50,000 as part of a new program.

Advance Auto Parts, in its second season as the official entitlement sponsor of NASCAR’s grassroots racing championship series, announced the launch of “Advance My Track Challenge” on Wednesday.

You have the chance to help your local track!@AdvanceAuto is proud to launch the “Advance My Track Challenge.” https://t.co/qUfckOotkI pic.twitter.com/mRphziTdYI

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 24, 2021

“Through the ‘Advance My Track Challenge,’ we invite racing fans to show their support for their favorite NASCAR short track while bringing awareness to the great work each track is doing within their respective communities,” said Jason McDonell, Advance Auto Parts chief marketing officer. “Race fans have a tremendous amount of pride and passion around their local track, and we’re excited to see this on full display.”

VIDEOS: 2020 Advance Local Communities Series

The winning track will receive $50,000 from the automotive aftermarket retailer to use toward track facility enhancements and community-based programs.

How it works:

• Through Tuesday, April 27, fans have an opportunity to vote for their favorite track that has entered the “Advance My Track Challenge” on AdvanceMyTrack.com.

• Fans can vote up to three times daily, and upon voting, will be entered to win NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series prizes.

• The six tracks that receive the most votes after April 27 will be part of a two-day final round of voting, scheduled to begin Sunday, May 9.

The runner-up track will receive $15,000, with third-place getting $10,000.

The program launches as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to race on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, and it will be featured on Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford for the Food City Dirt Race (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).

“Advance is committed to growing local racing, and this is an awesome opportunity for fans to support their hometown tracks,” said Blaney.

Blaney is coming off a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which spotlighted another innovative program from Advance Auto Parts. Each race, different NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series tracks are featured on the C-post of Blaney’s car. If he wins, the tracks on his car for that race earn $1,200 apiece.

His victory at Atlanta earned the bonus for South Carolina’s Greenville-Pickens Speedway and Florence Motor Speedway.

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Staff Report

NASCAR officials penalized three teams Tuesday — two in the Xfinity Series and one in the Camping World Truck Series — for lug-nut violations during last Saturday’s events at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In the Xfinity Series, the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team (driver Justin Haley) and No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford team (driver Riley Herbst) were each found with one unsecured lug nut after Saturday’s EchoPark 250. The infractions meant $5,000 fines for each team’s crew chief — Kaulig’s Alex Yontz and SHR’s Richard Boswell.

RELATED: Bristol weekend schedule

In Camping World Trucks, the winning Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 Toyota for driver/owner Kyle Busch was also found with one lug nut that was not properly fastened after Saturday’s FR8Auctions 200. That resulted in a $2,500 fine for crew chief Mardy Lindley for violating Section 10.9.10.4 (Tires and Wheels) in the NASCAR rule book.

Posted on March 23, 2021March 24, 2021 by Jason Christley

One-day shows, more southern races, and a new contingency sponsor are all on the way in the 2021 Whelen Modified Tour season.

And it all finally gets started two weeks from Thursday, when the ground-pounders head south to Martinsville Speedway.

This season’s schedule consists of 14 races, beginning at Martinsville and ending in September at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway. Stafford will also host the tour two other times.

There are return trips to New York’s Riverhead Raceway and Oswego Speedway after a one-year hiatus from each track, and the tour heads to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Maine for the first time since 2005. Lancaster Speedway in upstate New York hosts a race for the first time.

In addition to Martinsville, there are two other national series combination weekends: New Hampshire Motor Speedway will again be home to a race in July, and in September, the Tour goes back down to Virginia to Richmond Raceway.

Getting both Martinsville and Richmond on this year’s schedule was enormous for Tour director Jimmy Wilson.

“Ever since I became the series director for the Whelen Modified Tour back in 2013, all I’ve heard from our competitors is ‘we’ve gotta get to Martinsville, we’ve gotta get to Richmond’ ”

“A big win for us was going to be at least getting one of those tracks. To get both of them back on the schedule in the same year, it’s huge,” Wilson said. “I think it’s going to be a huge shot in the arm to Modified racing down in the South.”

It’s no secret that racing is expensive both in dollars and time. With that in mind, the decision was made this year for all Tour events to be one-day shows. That’s been done with the race teams in mind.

“The vast majority of our teams are made up of volunteer crew members and people that work a day job, Monday to Friday, nine to five,” Wilson said. “You just can’t bring them in and go to a race track and sit there for a couple free days, so between that and the travel to some of these races, we needed to make sure we did everything that we possibly could to make it easier for these teams to get to the track.”

Just because teams are only at the track for one day, however, does not mean the end of practice and qualifying. Both remain in the plans for the Tour to carry out at every race in 2021.

“We have to have a mechanism to set the field in as consistent a procedure as you can,” Wilson said. “With the different tracks that we go to, you have to have a way to set the field. We could have 35 cars show up for a 28-car starting field and 31 cars show up for a 32-car starting field. That’s why we’ve tried to cut the time back to the race track but still keep that qualifying mechanism in there so the competitors’ destiny is determined on the race track by their performance.”

The list of sponsors returning to the Tour in 2021 is even stronger than a year prior.

The Whelen Winner of the Race award maintains its $3,500 prize from the prior three years, awarding the winner at most races more than $10,000.

Mayhew Tools returns to sponsor the Tour Pole Award for the third straight season. The Tour even added a new contingency sponsor this year in E3 Spark Plugs.

“To come off of the 2020 Tour season with what it was and have strong car counts, to post and pay the awards that we did last year, it’s a great thing to have and continue to build year after year after year and show the strength in Modified racing,” Wilson said. “The impact that various companies took across the board, the fact that they see the value of the exposure they get through the platform that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has to offer is huge.”

Despite an abbreviated schedule, 52 different competitors ran in 2020 — with 15 competing in all nine events. There were five different winners and 18 drivers recorded a top-five finish.

In eight seasons as Whelen Modified Tour director, 2020 brought challenges unlike any Jimmy Wilson had ever faced. Now that the year is in the rearview mirror, he and the Tour field can look forward to what will be a more normal 2021.

“It’s what all of us collectively do with getting to the other side of COVID-19, getting as many fans back into the grandstands again, competitors back to the race track,” said Wilson. “Just getting back to what we’re accustomed to seeing, and that’s full grandstands, spectators screaming and hollering, having a great time, and that’s what I hope to see by the time we get to the end of the 2021 season.”

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season gets underway April 8 with the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will run its 73 championship points race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, in July. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Posted on March 23, 2021April 21, 2021 by Staff Report

The entry list for Wednesday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series 2021 season opener was revealed Tuesday. These are the drivers who will participate on the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track, with coverage starting at 6 p.m. ET on FS 1 during NASCAR Race Hub and the main event set for 8:40 p.m. ET, also on FS1.

This marks the return of the league that became popular during NASCAR’s pause last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wednesday’s event is the kickoff for a 10-race series in 2021 that includes the first five races on FOX Sports and second five races on NBC Sports.

Here is a list of cars entered in Wednesday’s event (subject to change):

No.	Driver	Team
00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing
1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	Timmy Hill	Team Penske
3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing
5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports
6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing
7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports
8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing
9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports
10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing
11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing
12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske
14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing
15	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing
17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing
18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing
19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing
20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing
21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing
22	Joey Logano	Team Penske
23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing
24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports
34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports
37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing
38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports
41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing
42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing
43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports
47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing
48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports
51	Garrett Smithley	Petty Ware Racing
52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing
53	Joey Gase	Rick Ware Racing
77	Justin Haley	Spire Motorsports
78	BJ McLeod	Live Fast Racing
79	Clint Bowyer	Clint Bowyer Racing
88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	JR Motorsports
99	Daniel Suarez	Trackhouse Racing Team

Posted on March 23, 2021March 23, 2021 by Steve Luvender

What’s better than a sequel?

The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series returns for its second season Wednesday evening, kicking off with a brand-new challenge: the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track. Just four days before the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series take the green flag in the first-ever Bristol Dirt Race, the drivers will compete in a virtual exhibition race using iRacing, with television coverage on FS1.

RELATED: Entry List | Paint schemes

About the iRacing Pro Invitational Series

The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is a 10-race series of just-for-fun esports events featuring some of NASCAR’s brightest stars and most popular drivers.

The well-received series was created last year after the start of the COVID-19 outbreak as NASCAR looked for alternative forms of racing. Seven races were held between March and May, until NASCAR returned to the track on May 17 at Darlington Raceway.

Drivers from multiple NASCAR circuits competed in the events, which were televised by FOX Sports and featured the familiar voices of commentators Jeff Gordon, Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds. Competition was fierce — but fun — and race winners included Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Alex Bowman and Timmy Hill.

Now, a year later, the iRacing Pro Invitational Series returns for 2021, offering fans — and drivers — a first, mid-week look at new stops on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, like Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and, of course, the Bristol Dirt Race.

What to expect

It’s hard to predict what might happen in the iRacing Pro Invitational Series’ return.

Last year, the series helped spawn the now-classic on-air banter between Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer and also shine a spotlight on sim-enthusiast drivers like Byron, Hill and Garrett Smithley. And longtime iRacer Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he’ll return to the series.

The drivers have zero laps of experience on the real-world dirt-covered Bristol Motor Speedway; their first laps in competition happen on iRacing. (Keep an eye out, fantasy fans!) Last year’s iRacing Pro Invitational Series featured no dirt racing, and the Bristol dirt track was just released to iRacing members earlier this month.

In other words, it’s anybody’s race.

Race format

Last week, the format for the iRacing Pro Invitational Series season opener was announced.

Drivers will have a two-hour open-practice window to get a feel for the track. FS1’s live coverage will begin at 6 p.m. ET with check-ins on the session throughout its programming.

After practice, drivers will complete a two-lap qualifying session around 7:50 p.m. ET. That qualifying session will determine the starting order for three 20-lap heat races, which begin at 8 p.m. ET.

From the three heats, seven drivers will advance from each race to make up the feature field of 21. The 70-lap feature event is scheduled to roll off at 8:40 p.m. ET.

Drivers competing in the feature event will have two damage-repair resets available to use if necessary. (No, those aren’t available Sunday.)

How to watch

Coverage of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series at the virtual, dirt Bristol Motor Speedway begins at 6 p.m. ET on FS1. Heat races begin at 8 p.m. ET.

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Jason Christley

When Traci Hobbs and her husband, Doug, took over as promoters of Washington’s Evergreen Speedway 10 years ago, they inherited keys to the gates and office, and nothing else.

Hobbs said they didn’t have a single file folder or any information. She said the first year was like “drinking from a fire hose.”

“I don’t want to say I cried every single weekend the first year, but I think I cried every single weekend the first year,” Hobbs said. “There was such a steep learning curve and there were so many areas that needed our attention that the first two years were really tough.

“Now, looking back, I’m very proud of how far we’ve come.”

Hobbs didn’t come from a racing background when she took over the track. Having graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in advertising, she spent much of what she called her “first career” selling media and TV advertising.

Traci and Doug Hobbs

She was also a radio rep for Evergreen Speedway under the previous owners, and had done promotions with them, but “I didn’t know really much about racing at all,” she said.

Doug was a local car dealer, and had worked behind the scenes at Evergreen, sponsoring cars and classes for more than 20 years, and Hobbs said it had always been his dream to the buy the racetrack. The couple got married in 2011, and the same year they put in a business plan bid for Snohomish County, Washington when Evergreen was put up for bid for a long-term contract with the county, which owns the land the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series track sits on.

“We met through our work, ended up getting engaged and applied to take over the racetrack,” she said. “I left my job, he left his job, and we started our own company and took over Evergreen Speedway.”

Evergreen sits on 71 acres of land, and features a .625-mile outer oval, and two smaller inner ovals, as well as a drag strip, figure 8 track, and .750-mile road course. It is the only NASCAR-sanctioned weekly track in the state of Washington.

The track is located in Monroe, Washington, and sits 30 miles northwest of Seattle.

RELATED: Evergreen Speedway Website | Facebook | Twitter

While other bidders at the time had deeper backgrounds in racing, Hobbs said she and her husband used their business and sales background to seal the deal with the County.

There was definitely a learning curve in the racing side for Hobbs, though.

“I didn’t know the difference between the mini stocks and the super late model when I took over,” she said. “There was a lot about racing I didn’t know.”

What she did know, though, was about sponsorship and how to bring in money. Hobbs said she spent most of the first two years trying to get sponsors. This was in 2011, right after the recession, and she said at the time, “there were no drivers, hardly any fans, and very few sponsors.”

It took a couple of years to get caught up, but Hobbs focused on “inviting sponsors to the party,” she said, as well as applying for grants, and looking at the customer service side of the track.

“It could be drivers at the back gate, or customers at the front gate, we wanted to get that concierge service because the track didn’t really have the best reputation,” she said. “Evergreen was a power house in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It was larger than life. But in the early 2000s, that’s when things started to go downhill, so I was more focused on bringing sponsors, bringing groups, reaching out into the local community, making contacts, establishing ties, and bringing people to the party.”

As far as the real operations and technical side of the sport, Hobbs said she learned that on the job, and has since fallen in love with racing.

“Now, I know all the little nuances about shocks and stagger on tires and all the minutia that goes into racing, and there’s an awful lot of it,” she said.

“There isn’t a better feeling in the world than looking at the grandstands and seeing a full-packed house… and you don’t just open the doors and everybody comes. It’s a lot of work in maintaining relationships and promoting. It doesn’t happen easily, but boy, I tell you, when the super late models get all raring to go and they come down the front stretch as soon as the green flag waves and the cars go speeding by, that’s just such a thrill for me.”

The first couple of years were difficult, but Hobbs said it’s night and day now from where they started. They went through more than 3,000 gallons of paint making the track look nice, and she said in their top year they’ve also brought in over half a million dollars in sponsorship money.

Hobbs said Doug has also been the brains behind making the track relevant locally, regionally, and nationally. Three times in 10 years they’ve been in the top-10 NASCAR tracks for membership, and they’ve focused on bringing regional and even national races to Washington.

“The facility looks 100 percent different, and people can see that,” Hobbs said “But I’d say it’s more in terms of the number of drivers we’ve attracted, the series we’ve attracted, and certainly the fans. The fans have come back again.”

And the work is never over. Hobbs said they’re constantly trying to continue making improvements. They recently repaved the pits and small track, and they’re working on repaving the bigger oval track as well.

Even though taking over a track with no experience and no help was tough, Hobbs said those first two years are a distant memory now. She doesn’t think about the tears anymore, but rather she looks back with pride at how far the track how come and how well she and her husband and everyone else involved hung in there through it all.

Evergreen will open the 2021 season on Saturday, with fans allowed to attend for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I love it. I get emotional the first opening night. It’s always very emotional for me,” Hobbs said. “I get so excited when the new season is about to start. I think a lot of it is the drivers. We have some driving families that have been around for three decades, or more than that. Where the second generation is now coming up from all these families.

“The support and dedication of the drivers and teams that they have to the sport and to the track, it’s very satisfying. They’ve become our family. Some of our fans are super fans. They are loyal, they come back year after year. I love those people. They’re our people. I’m very attached to the racing community and the fans.”

Evergreen Speedway has expanded its fan amenities under the leadership of Traci and Doug Hobbs. (Lindsey Wasson/NASCAR)

Posted on March 23, 2021March 28, 2021 by Ken Martin

This story originally appeared on NASCAR.com on Sept. 30, 2020:

Bristol Motor Speedway announced Wednesday afternoon that the NASCAR Cup Series spring race at the short track will be contested on dirt. It will be the first premier series event on a dirt track in more than 50 years.

NASCAR historian Ken Martin presents a history of dirt at NASCAR’s top level:

There were 489 NASCAR Cup Series races held on dirt between June 19, 1949, and Sept. 30, 1970.

The first race in NASCAR premier series history was on dirt on June 19, 1949, at the .75-mile track known as Charlotte Speedway. Jim Roper was the winner.

In the 1949 season seven of the eight tracks competed on were dirt. The only pavement was at the Daytona Beach and Road course.

Seventy-six different drivers won on dirt, with Lee Petty holding the all-time record of 42 wins.

Rank	Driver	Wins
1	Lee Petty	42
2	Buck Baker	40
3	Herb Thomas	40
4	Tim Flock	36
5	Ned Jarrett	33
6	Richard Petty	30
7	Junior Johnson	23
8	David Pearson	23
9	Speedy Thompson	17
10	Fonty Flock	15

The top eight drivers on the above list are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

In 1955 and 1956 NASCAR held 40 premier series events on dirt, the most of any seasons.

On Sept. 30, 1970, NASCAR held its final/most recent Cup Series race on dirt at the half-mile North Carolina State Fairgrounds track in Raleigh, North Carolina. Richard Petty won driving a Plymouth owned by Don Robertson.

Among the top-10 finishers still alive from that race: Petty (first), Neil Castles (second), Bobby Allison (sixth) and Dave Marcis (seventh).

There were three dirt track races in 1970 – two at Columbia Speedway (SC) and Raleigh. Richard Petty won the first race at Columbia, Bobby Isaac the second.

Richard Petty’s first career win came on dirt on Feb. 2, 1960, on the half-mile Southern States Fairgrounds track at Charlotte.

When Hershel McGriff competed in his final premier series event at Sears Point on May 16, 1993, he was the last driver with a dirt track win at NASCAR’s top level to compete.

When Dave Marcis competed in his final race at the 2002 Daytona 500, he was the last premier series driver to have competed on dirt in a Cup Series race.

The largest dirt track the series ever raced on was the 1.5 banked Memphis-Arkansas Speedway at LeHi, Arkansas. Five races were held from 1954-1957. Junior Johnson was the pole winner and Buck Baker was the winner the inaugural race in 1954.

The fastest Cup Series race ever on dirt came on March 14, 1965, when Ned Jarrett won the 150-mile race at the Orange Speedway in Hillsboro, North Carolina, at an average of 90.633 mph.

NASCAR returned to dirt in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series back in 2013 with an event at Eldora Speedway. The half-banked Ohio oval owned by Tony Stewart hosted Gander Trucks races from 2013-19, with this year’s scheduled event being realigned to another track due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Posted on March 22, 2021March 24, 2021 by Zack Albert

Roger Penske expressed optimism Monday about Brad Keselowski’s future with Team Penske, saying that contract talks were headed down a positive path.

Penske’s remarks came in a Monday video conference, one day after Ryan Blaney scored Team Penske’s first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The 84-year-old team owner discussed Keselowski’s status within the context of his overall racing organization, with IndyCar drivers Will Power and Simon Pagenaud also reported to be nearing the end of their contracts.

RELATED: 2021 Cup Series standings

“We’re in discussion with all of them,” Penske said from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which he agreed to purchase in November 2019. “I think that with COVID, we haven’t been able to get together, but we’ve had conversations with Brad before. I think that we’re moving in the right direction. There’s no reason we wouldn’t renew, for sure. I mean, I guess it’s just a matter of us sitting down and putting it together, but with everybody not being able to move around, you don’t do that over the phone and you don’t do it by Zoom, so we want to do that face-to-face with all of them.”

Keselowski, who claimed the 2012 Cup Series championship and has 34 career wins, re-signed with Team Penske’s No. 2 Ford team last August. Terms were not disclosed, but the Associated Press reported the agreement as a one-year extension.

Blaney re-signed with the No. 12 Ford team in March 2020 with a multiyear agreement. Teammate Joey Logano re-upped in February 2017 with a contract that keeps him in Penske’s No. 22 Ford through at least the 2023 season.