Posted on March 25, 2021March 28, 2021 by Reid Spencer

To gain as much experience on Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt as they possibly can, eight drivers entered in Sunday’s Cup Series race will run in Monday’s Camping World Truck Series race, the Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt (Noon ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Mike Marlar and Stewart Friesen will compete in both races at Bristol this weekend. Ryan Newman was entered but did not make the field when the qualifying races were rained out Saturday.

RELATED: Complete schedule for Bristol

Three-time Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton, the only former Eldora Speedway winner not racing Sunday, isn’t particularly concerned about the Cup drivers — with one major exception.

“It’s those dirt guys that you are a little bit more worried about and this guy – Kyle Larson,” Crafton said. “I would be worried about that guy as well. He does a little bit of everything.

“He’s going to be one of the ones to beat, no doubt. Friesen will be really, really fast as well. You’ve got Mike Marlar, a World of Outlaws dirt late-model champion. You are going to have a lot of really, really good drivers out there, without a doubt.”

SHOP: Bristol Dirt Race gear

Crafton got his first taste of dirt racing at Eldora and went on to win there in 2017. He enjoyed the experience so much he is now fielding his own dirt modified.

“I enjoy it so much because it’s so different than something I’ve raced my whole life, and I started racing it with the trucks,” Crafton said. “I started racing other people’s cars and I fell in love with it and ended up buying my own car and spend a lot of time doing it. I think I’ve raced 15 races this year already on dirt.”

Friesen’s wife, Jessica, also an accomplished dirt racer, was on the entry list but didn’t make the field when the qualifying races were washed out. Elton Sawyer and Patty Moise were the last husband-wife combination to compete in a NASCAR national series. Their last race together was a Nov. 7, 1998 Xfinity Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Posted on March 25, 2021March 28, 2021 by Terrin Waack

WHERE IT’S FROM

An Olympic-sized pool is 3,300 cubic yards. Picture the volume of seven pools. That’s the amount of dirt Bristol Motor Speedway placed around its .533-mile concrete oval to turn it into a dirt track for the first time in two decades.

A better but maybe more difficult visual: It equals 149,851 kegs of beer.

Regardless, the grand total came out to be more than 23,000 cubic yards of dirt.

“It sounds so simple,” said Steve Swift, Speedway Motorsports senior vice president of operations and development. “Doesn’t it?”

To find the right dirt in anticipation of this weekend’s NASCAR visit, Swift and his team of internal personnel and outside contractors tested more than 20 different sites and sent those samples out to a group of geotechnical engineers in California who specifically study and understand dirt meant for racing. Luckily for Bristol, there was quality red clay right in northeast Tennessee — home of the speedway.

Three different sources were chosen: the old dirt-track leftovers from 2000-01, an area just 10 minutes away in Bluff City and then literally the top of a hill at the nearby Gentry Campground, which actually helped level out space for more campsites.

Turned out, the latter two spots consisted of untouched dirt. Perfectly pure, which meant it was time to start moving the goods.

“We actually used spoons and little five-gallon buckets, like what you take to the beach when you build sandcastles,” Swift said. “No, I’m really joking. We used very large equipment.”

Excavators. Pans. Bulldozers. Dump trucks.

“Like a little boy’s toy box, but on a bigger scale,” Swift said.

Bristol started construction on Jan. 11 and had cars on track Feb. 25. That’s less than two months. In reality, though, the transportation and transformation groups only worked 14 days during that span because of rain, snow or cold temperatures.

The compound does have lights, so that allowed around-the-clock movement when the weather did cooperate.

“It varied from day to day,” Swift said. “Basically we used anywhere from eight to 12 trucks. But that would mean in a day’s time we were averaging anywhere from 1,200-1,800 yards a day, which would be 120-180 truckloads a day.”

Good for more than 2,000 truckloads of dirt total.

First, about two inches of saw dust went down. The old Bristol stockpile then formed the dirt base; its clay contents were no longer the best but helped with filling. The campground dirt began the fresher cover, topped by lime-treated clay and then the Bluff City raceable dirt on top.

Global Satellite Positioning (GPS) equipment on the bulldozer and graders placed the dirt in proper locations. In the turns, 9-10 feet of dirt changed the banking from the corner’s usual 28 degrees to 19. The width of the racing surface gained 10 feet, now measures 50 feet wide.

“There is going to be some carnage, some sparks, beating and banging,” former NASCAR driver and current FOX Sports analyst Clint Bowyer said. “But show me a dirt race that’s never had that. Show me a good dirt race that’s never had that.”

WHERE IT’S GOING

After all that beating and banging, the checkered flag will fall. A winner will be crowned. And the dust will literally settle.

Then what? Bristol can’t remain a dirt track. It’s set to host NASCAR for its annual night race in September on the concrete.

“As crazy as it sounds, it’s a lot easier to deconstruct than it is to construct,” Swift said. “Because you’re not worried about compaction or exact placement. You’re just — for lack of better terms — hogging dirt or massing the dirt out. You’re just worried about picking it up, putting it in the truck and getting it off the property.”

Mixing the three different layers of dirt doesn’t matter, so that also eliminates what could have been a very tedious step.

Bristol plans to keep the dirt on speedway grounds for easier future use — potentially NASCAR, though talks of a second go-around are dependent on this weekend’s success. With help and advice from the geotechnical engineers, the team handling the dirt knows what treatments can be done in storage to replenish important nutrients.

“It’s like baking a cake,” Swift said. “We got to make sure we have all the ingredients. When we go to the store, we’ll make sure we put all of those ingredients back in it. As it sits and decomposes and rests for a year, all those things are back in it when we go to place it again.”

Even that’s not going to be the most difficult part.

As cars race, they’re going to fling particles quite literally all over the venue. It’s inevitable. The track surface itself will be the easiest part to clear off, and no damage will be sustained. Instead, the lights, grandstands, support structure, air filters, HVAC units, concession stands, etc. are at risk and will require extensive cleaning.

“Last time we pressure washed this place four times from top to bottom,” said Jerry Caldwell, Bristol’s executive vice president and general manager. “We’ve got some pressure washers lined up ready to go.”

Swift and Caldwell estimate the clean-up process will take about a month, starting as soon as the final dirt series events wrap in April. The main concern then quickly switches to having the facility back in unsoiled operating condition for NASCAR fans in September.

They’ll surely have a different experience than those bound to get dirty Sunday, that’s for sure. This has been a not-so-simple project for all parties involved.

“It’s funny,” Swift said. “We know a lot about dirt from a construction stance — how to build buildings on it, what it needs to look like for those types of things. But to understand how dirt should react when you’re running a race on it and how race cars affect it, I never dreamed that would be something I’d take on in such a short timeframe.”

Posted on March 25, 2021March 28, 2021 by Marcus DiNitto

The oddsboard for Monday’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway is unlike any other we’ve seen in NASCAR, as bookmakers are valuing dirt experience over skill and equipment for the Cup Series’ first go-round the dirt since 1970.

Kyle Larson has been stellar this season – with a win, a second-place finish and four straight top sevens – but his extensive experience on the dirt is the primary reason he opened as this week’s clear betting favorite, listed at 2-1 odds at SuperBook USA.

A similar story can be told of Christopher Bell. While Bell’s season is off to a fine start, it’s his dirt expertise that prompted oddsmakers to install him as the 7-1 second betting choice.

Ed Salmons, vice president of risk at the SuperBook, acknowledges a race on the atypical surface throws a wrench into the oddsmaking process. Salmons said he relied on past dirt performances – for the drivers who have them, at least – to post his opening numbers.

Larson has two top fives, including a win, in his three starts on the Eldora Speedway dirt in the Camping World Truck Series. Bell has a win, two top five and three top 10s in his three Eldora starts.

“The guys who have run Trucks and gone up to Cup, I’m familiar with them,” Salmons said. “(Oddsmaking for the Bristol dirt race) is definitely different because you’re not used to guys like Kyle Busch being 20-1; we’ve got Denny Hamlin at 30-1, (Kevin) Harvick 30-1, (Martin) Truex 30-1. So there are names you’re not used to seeing with odds like that.

“But for a starting point, it was pretty easy as far as Larson and Bell.”

“Starting point” is an operative phrase here. Friday’s two practice sessions and Saturday’s four qualifying races will go a long way toward informing the betting market, and the odds are bound to see significant swings after bookmakers and bettors watch how the teams perform.

RELATED: Check out BetCenter

No-names in the mix

In another oddsboard anomaly, dirt-racing specialist Mike Marlar, who is making his Cup Series debut, opened a substantial -135 favorite (bet $135 to win $100) in a matchup prop over 22-year series veteran Ryan Newman (+115, or bet $100 to win $115). Marlar, who’s piloting the No. 66 MBM Motorsports Toyota this weekend, is 30-1 in the outright market, the same odds as aforementioned heavyweights Hamlin, Harvick and Truex.

Salmons recalls Marlar’s fourth-place performance in a Reaume Toyota at Eldora from 2019.

“My notes on him said if he ever got in decent equipment, he could win. Now we’re talking Trucks, not Cup, but I was impressed with him,” Salmons said. “So I have (his odds) low because when I write a note like that to myself, I’ll remember it.”

Stewart Friesen, winner of that 2019 Eldora race, opened at 16-1 odds this week and is one of just six drivers listed under 20-1 at SuperBook USA. Chase Briscoe, who has a first-, third- and seventh-place finish in his three Eldora outings, has been adjusted to 12-1 after opening 14-1. Stewart-Haas’ Briscoe, of course, is in more formidable equipment than Friesen’s Spire Motorsports’ Toyota.

“The hardest ones (to handicap) are guys like Friesen, who are driving for these underfunded teams. I have no idea if their equipment can last the whole day,” Salmons said.

Conversely to Friesen and Marlar, Team Penske’s Brad Keseloswki has not impressed on dirt, finishing 28th in his lone start at Eldora in 2015.

“He was just really bad,” Salmons said. “If this was a regular Bristol race, he’d be probably 6-to-1, and he’s 60-to-1.”

Put 39 drivers on a half-mile track covered in dirt, though, and the unexpected can happen.

“All the guys that are less than 100-1, I would say in a perfect world they could win,” Salmons said. “Usually in a NASCAR race, after essentially like eight guys, it’s hard to win a race. These odds are saying like 25 guys could win. I mean, Larson could get wrecked; it could just happen out of nowhere. And if he’s out, then the race opens up. And if something happens to Bell, then the race would really be wide open. There’s definitely a lot of uncertainty to it.”

How sharp bettors are approaching Bristol

A race on the dirt does not fit neatly into the statistical models of professional NASCAR bettors who use a quantitative approach to handicapping. Those models rely on data culled from similar track formats, so there’s not much to go on this week. Sharp bettors, therefore, plan to either tread lightly or stay away completely from the Food City Dirt Race.

“That’s probably one I’m just going to crack a beer and sit back and watch,” pro bettor Zack White said earlier this month. “I used to try to bet just about every race, maybe save the superspeedways, but these days there’s probably about only half the schedule that I really take the time and dive deep into, where I’m still finding some edges. So a brand new race at Bristol on dirt is probably one I’m not going to try to dive too deep into.

“But I think it’ll be an enjoyable race for sure. I’m definitely gonna watch it.”

Blake Phillips, another sharp NASCAR bettor, will have some action on Monday’s race.

“I’m not going to be laying off. I’m going to be paying really close attention to the Truck race, (but) I’m probably going to tread lightly,” Phillips said. “I’m going to be involved. I’ll probably take some positions on it, and I’m going to pay close attention to drivers that I think have the ability to adapt to changing conditions. I’m not going to just go wild on drivers who are big dirt guys. I’m going to look at drivers who are good short-track drivers that are versatile under a variety of conditions, and I’ll see how recent form looks.”

Salmons anticipates sharps showing up after they see how the cars perform on the Bristol dirt.

“After the practices, I think people will have a lot more opinions,” Salmons said. “Outside of what drivers have done recently and history at a track, without practice, it’s hard to (handicap).”

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

Posted on March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 by Steve Luvender

William Byron kicked off the second season of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series Tuesday night in the way he does best: taking the checkered flag against 20 of his fellow NASCAR Cup Series drivers on iRacing. The never-before-raced dirt-covered Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the virtual race just four days before the NASCAR Cup Series’ Bristol Dirt Race, the first race on dirt for NASCAR’s top stars in more than 50 years.

CHECKERED FLAG: @WilliamByron wins the 2021 #ProInvitationalSeries opener on the virtual @BMSupdates dirt! pic.twitter.com/HqHT3M0PS8

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 25, 2021

The exhibition race, which aired live on FS1, featured the full field of Cup Series drivers, plus fan-favorites Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer.

Joey Logano — pulling double-duty in the FS1 broadcast booth — set the fastest single-car qualifying lap, putting his Team Penske Ford in the first starting spot in the first of three heat races that would determine the starts for the 21-car feature event.

Christopher Bell led much of the first qualifying heat but was bested by James Davison in the closing laps, earning Davison the win — and the first-place starting position for the 70-lap main event. Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch were among those who didn’t make the top seven to advance.

Longtime iRacer Byron dominated the second 20-lap heat, which knocked out heavy hitters like Earnhardt and Denny Hamlin, as well as in-race reporter Bowyer. (At least he had fun — what it’s all about, right?)

In the final heat, Ryan Preece and Garrett Smithley fought tooth and nail for the win, but Preece managed to hold off Smithley in the end, spelling the end of the road for Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez and others.

The 70-lap feature, consisting of the top-seven finishers from each heat, rolled off shortly after — with not much more than bragging rights on the line — led by Davison.

The feature’s caution first flew on Lap 10 when Alex Bowman, a former Pro Invitational Series winner, tangled with Corey LaJoie. Luckily for the pair, drivers were afforded two damage repairs — something they’d no doubt wish were available in their real NASCAR Cup Series race cars — allowing the two to continue after a quick trip to the pits.

Chris Buescher took the top spot from Davison on the ensuing restart, who led a brief stint, but it wasn’t long before Byron made his way to the front just before halfway.

The race’s second caution at Lap 40 slowed the field when Quin Houff spun out trying to pass Bowman, also snarling LaJoie.

LaJoie’s luck ran out again shortly after, going for a spin off the bumper of Joey Gase’s car. The incident set up for a dash to the finish with Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet still out in front.

With the laps winding down, dirt-racing savant Bell moved to second place past Tyler Reddick. Reddick battled back, crossing over Bell’s Toyota, while Smithley waited in the wings, hoping to pounce in the event of pixel-on-pixel contact.

Byron held on to score the victory, his fourth of the iRacing Pro Invitational Series. While the race was held just for fun (and fun it was!), iRacing pledged to donate $5,000 to the winner’s charity of choice — Big Brothers Big Sisters, in the case of “Willy B.”

He dug deep tonight. Tonight’s virtual trip to victory lane marks @WilliamByron’s fourth career #ProInvitationalSeries win! 🔥

The @LibertyU driver won three races in the 2020 @iRacing season. pic.twitter.com/I6RX9XkvCZ

— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) March 25, 2021

Reddick held on to finish second ahead of Bell, while Rick Ware Racing teammates Smithley and Davison rounded out the top five. Bowman, Kyle Larson, Timmy Hill, Ross Chastain and Gase rounded out the top 10. Hill, who was originally not scheduled to start the event, took over Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford for the evening.

Well that was fun! The real thing is going to be even more exciting 😁 Back in the @IRWINtools No. 20 on Sunday at @BMSupdates 👍 pic.twitter.com/23O0coFX19

— Christopher Bell (@CBellRacing) March 25, 2021

The iRacing Pro Invitational Series was created last year after the start of the COVID-19 outbreak as NASCAR looked for alternative forms of racing, until finally returning to the track on May 17 at Darlington Raceway. The series returned for 2021, featuring a 10-race schedule with races that will air on FOX Sports and NBC Sports.

Find out Sunday if the iRacing Pro Invitational Series race proved sufficient practice for Byron and 38 other drivers making up the rest of the field, which takes to the real Bristol track Sunday for the Food City Dirt Race (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).

C E L E B R A T I O N @WilliamByron | #ProInvitationalSeries pic.twitter.com/qfnCxXbAGh

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 25, 2021

The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series makes its next stop April 21 at the virtual Talladega Superspeedway.

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

The 2022 NASCAR schedule has yet to be released, but the pending appearance of a Chicago street circuit for the iRacing platform — developed in conjunction with NASCAR officials — begs the question whether virtual reality might one day become reality.

After all, this year’s schedule pushed the boundaries of the conventional NASCAR calendar, with a boom in new road courses and the Cup Series’ approaching return to dirt-track racing set for Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Oval tracks remain the meat and potatoes of the schedule, but is racing on temporary street circuits the next part of the meal?

“It’s a great question, and as we look at future schedules, certainly have everything on the table,” says Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s vice president, strategic initiatives. “I think you look at 2021, we’ve talked about it a lot. It’s the most bold and dynamic schedule we’ve seen in over 50 years, and a testament to the industry for being able to pull that off and come together. A lot of exciting things in ’21. I think as we look toward 2022, really our goals and expectations are the same.

“We want to continue to innovate, we want to continue to protect those prestigious events like the Daytona 500 and the Coke 600, but also be able to go to new markets and shake things up. So I think a really unique opportunity to work with iRacing on this, to be able to test something out.”

iRacing announced Wednesday that the streets of the downtown Chicago Loop will be the setting for one of the computer racing simulation’s newest tracks. The layout is scheduled for release later this spring, and NASCAR officials have set a June 2 date there for the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.

NASCAR’s real-world experience with street-course racing is minimal. The Winston West Series (now ARCA Menards Series West) briefly competed on temporary street circuits in Washington from 1986-88, holding two races each in Spokane and Tacoma. In that same time period, competition officials explored developing a smaller, nimbler vehicle called the L-R car — short for “Left-Right” — which would allow stock cars to adapt to the tighter street layouts. A handful of prototypes were built, but never competed in NASCAR. Also, NASCAR’s Canada-based Pinty’s Series has history of competing on street circuits, including the long-running Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières.

NASCAR today is in a further-along stage of vehicle development, with the Next Gen car scheduled for its Cup Series debut in 2022. While ovals remain the schedule’s primary focus, Kennedy says the Next Gen model’s versatility is a plus when exploring potential new venues.

“I think the Next Gen car gives you the opportunity to not only test out different types of courses, but also to be able to use that same car at those different courses,” Kennedy says. “Instead of having a specific car that’s built for a superspeedway, you might be able to take that car to an intermediate track or maybe even a short track. I think it maybe opens the doors for different types of venues, but also allows teams to be able to use those cars interchangeably, too.”

IndyCar, IMSA and other sport-car tours have raced on street circuits for years. So when IndyCar series owner and NASCAR team owner Roger Penske was asked earlier this week about the possibility of more NASCAR-IndyCar doubleheaders on future schedules, the street-course topic naturally came up.

Five of the 14 tracks on IndyCar’s 2021 schedule are temporary street circuits; downtown Nashville joins that rotation this year with an August debut. In terms of NASCAR’s potential for one of those venues, Penske called it “interesting” and drew parallels to the Australian V8 Supercars series, which competes on permanent and temporary road-course circuits.

“That could certainly be an opportunity and something we should take a look at,” Penske said in a Monday video conference. “I think we need a year or maybe two years to get our hands around these (Next Gen) cars and know how agile they are and what are the costs? Does it need more brakes, etcetera, which you need. If you’re running on a street course, you don’t have the long straightaways to cool the brakes, so there’s a lot of things that become different … but those are things we can adapt to, I think, very quickly as teams.”

Most Cup Series drivers will get their first taste of a temporary street course in a virtual world, with the iRacing Pro Invitational Series’ race date in June at Chicago. As for a real-world street-circuit application, Bubba Wallace says he’s ready for the challenge if and when that arrives.

“Yeah, I think that was talks from last year of them moving forward with that. Obviously didn’t happen this year, but I’m game for whatever,” Wallace said. “Just watch out.”

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)