Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be among the drivers to compete in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series opener at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track on Wednesday, March 24 (Racing begins at 8 p.m. ET on FS1).
The Bristol race marks the first of 10 Pro Invitational Series races in 2021. The first five — Bristol Motor Speedway on dirt, Talladega Superspeedway, Darlington Raceway, Circuit of the Americas and a track to be determined — will be televised on FS1. The second five will be broadcast by NBC Sports.
Last season, the Pro Invitational Series debuted during the initial shutdown from the COVID-19 pandemic. Earnhardt was a regular participant in those races scoring a best finish in the first race, a runner-up finish at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Earnhardt has been a long time user and fan of iRacing. He joined the company last November as an executive director and was instrumental in the process of getting North Wilkesboro Speedway scanned for the service.
Inclement weather wiped out Tuesday’s portion of the Next Gen test at Richmond Raceway and delayed Wednesday’s session by a few hours, but once the car got on the track with Bubba Wallace behind the wheel, progress was made toward its scheduled 2022 competition debut.
For Wallace, it was his first chance to try out the Next Gen vehicle, and he said he didn’t talk to other drivers beforehand to get any insider information because he wanted to experience the car for himself for the first time.
“It’s different, but it’s a race car at the end of the day,” Wallace said. “There are some things we can learn on, and we’re going to figure it out. The car sounds really cool; from the inside it sounds really mean.”
Richmond was the site of the first Next Gen test on Oct. 8-9, 2019 with Austin Dillon driving Prototype 1. Since then, there have been several tests, including ones at Daytona International Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway, site of this year’s championship race. Wallace was driving Prototype 3 on Wednesday with Goodyear on hand to help NASCAR test tire wear on the vehicle as it made laps around the .75-mile track.
“We’ve had the same balance from 12 p.m. (when the test started) to this 6 p.m. break,” Wallace said. “One thing I’ve noticed about the car is that the balance doesn’t really change over a long run. But the tires are falling off — we’re testing different constructions and compounds to figure out what tire would work best for a race here.”
Wednesday’s test was focused on the tires, but any time the car is on the track, other information can be gained.
“Beyond the tire development, we’re researching the temperature of the cockpit with some thermal imaging to make sure it’s a little more comfortable for the driver, especially during a long hot summer race,” said Brandon Thomas, NASCAR managing director of vehicle systems.
Making the driver feel comfortable temperature-wise is a reasonable goal, but so is trying to maintain a balance between comfort and making sure the car is challenging enough even for the best drivers in the world.
“As an engineer, there are still some things that I could look at and say, ‘I’d like to do x to make this a perfect machine,’ but that’s not our role,” Thomas said. “Our role is to create a great race car that puts on great races. People want to watch a race where drivers have to dig in to be competitive, not a race where every car happens to drive perfectly.
“Overall, the performance of the car is where we want it to be.”
With less than a month from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opener – and return to historic Martinsville Speedway after a decade away — a handful of drivers used midweek to lay down some laps on the half-mile.
Ryan Newman and Ryan Preece tested ground-pounders Wednesday morning at the .526-mile oval. Both of them are set to race in April when the Tour runs at Martinsville for the first time in 11 years. Newman will be racing for Gary Putnam in the No. 77, while Preece is set to be behind the wheel of the No. 6, owned by Eddie and Connie Partridge. Jon McKennedy, who finished second on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in 2020 for car owner Tommy Baldwin Jr., also turned some laps Wednesday.
Newman has long been excited by the Whelen Modified Tour. For years, he’s made a point to race in the series when he’s at the track with the Cup Series.
“It’s just fun racing against these guys,” Newman said. “They do it quote-unquote for a living, right? We’re all hobby racers, but they do it for a living. They’re the best, and it’s fun to come out and race against them.”
While Preece’s focus has been on the Cup Series since 2019, he, like Newman, hops into a Modified whenever he gets the chance.
“Your ultimate goal is to get to NASCAR’s Cup Series,” he said. “That’s where it is. That’s where you want to be. But at the same time, I know where my roots are. I know where I’ve cut my teeth, I know where I put many hours in the race shop to go and win races, and I enjoy racing these race cars.”
Martinsville is a special place for Preece.
The 2013 Tour champion got his first career Tour victory at Martinsville after Burt Myers was initially crossed the finish line first but was subsequently disqualified after failing post-race technical inspection.
“I want to race,” Preece said. “That’s what I’m concerned about.
“It’s really awesome that NASCAR and the Whelen Modified Tour have been able to put this all together, to come to Martinsville, and go to these premier racetracks because it’s a great opportunity for guys like myself, Ryan Newman, but other drivers that wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to run at a historic race track like Martinsville.”
While Preece came to the Cup Series from the Modifieds, Newman was drawn to Tour competition thanks to their doubleheaders with Cup. Since his first Tour start in 2008, Newman has proven himself more than capable behind the wheel of a Modified. In 27 starts, he has four wins, 14 top fives, and 16 top 10s with seven poles. He also won the 2014 All-Star Shootout. All of those starts, however, have come racing at Bristol and New Hampshire.
This won’t be Newman’s only Tour start of the season. He also plans to race at both Richmond and New Hampshire, when Modifieds and Cup will be at the track the same week.
Newman’s big takeaway from the test: Modifieds sure haul around Martinsville.
“My quickest lap time this morning in our session was an 18.80… at least a half-second quicker than the Cup pole, and we’re not even in qualifying trim with a Modified,” he said.
“Every aspect of a Whelen Modified makes it go faster, and the end result is it doesn’t necessarily go faster at the end of the straightaway, it goes faster in lap time, and that’s what matters.”
Ryan Newman gets strapped into his Modified for a test session Wednesday at Martinsville Speedway. (Reagan Lunn/NASCAR)
Bill Lester had just finished writing a book three-plus years in the making. He cautions that it’s not an autobiography, but more of a motivational memoir that’s meant to inspire using lessons learned from his career in racing.
That backdrop for his book — “Winning In Reverse: Defying the Odds and Achieving Dreams,” co-authored by Jonathan Ingram — got his mind spinning about what a return to that world might look like at age 60.
“I just always in the back of my head kind of wondered what it would be like to go back and compete again,” says Lester, who made the most recent of his 142 Camping World Truck Series starts in 2007. “It just was something that was percolating, nothing that was really actionable that I felt I was really going to make any strides towards, but once I started writing my memoir, I started to get more of … I don’t know if you’d call it an itch, but more of an interest.”
If it’s indeed an itch, Lester intends to scratch that competitive urge in Saturday’s Fr8Auctions 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He’ll drive the No. 17 Ford for David Gilliland Racing with the support of area Ford dealers, backer Tommy’s Express Car Wash and series entitlement sponsor Camping World — all pieces that came together after Lester announced his Atlanta intentions last month — and the desire to promote his book’s uplifting message.
It won’t be the first time he’s defied conventional racing wisdom on age norms. In a delightful full-circle twist, Lester will be back at the Atlanta track where he made his Cup Series debut in 2006, then as a 45-year-old veteran with rookie stripes and the first Black driver to race in NASCAR’s top division in almost 20 years. He’s also back in the series that became his full-time racing home in his 40s.
“Just feel like all of the stars have aligned, so here we are,” Lester says. “I’ve always felt like I was in good enough shape to do it. I always felt like I had the desire to still race and be competitive and be fast, and we’re just going to find out whether or not that’s all true.”
**
Bill Lester finished 38th in his first Cup Series start on March 20, 2006, his No. 23 entry ending up six laps off the pace in a Monday start delayed one day because of rain. The accomplishment was in simply making the 43-car field in a competitive qualifying session that sent nine teams home.
Lester recalls that the odds may have been against him before time trials even began. He drove a Bill Davis Racing Dodge that was lacking factory support, and the best the car could manage in practice was 36th on the speed charts — all of which added to his pre-qualifying anxiety.
“It was a car that maybe wasn’t as well-prepared as most people would have thought, others in the field would have been,” Lester says, “but we kicked it out of the park.”
Jamie Squire | Getty Images
As his two-lap qualifying run began, the FOX Sports booth of analysts Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds had cast a degree of doubt on his prospects, based on both his practice performance and his opening lap’s corner entry. Lester proved any doubts wrong by making gains that eventually placed him 19th on the starting grid. Play-by-play broadcaster Mike Joy’s voice went up a notch after Lap 1, with Waltrip remarking “holy schmoly” under it before giving Lester his due.
His times were nearly identical, registering 29.102 seconds on his first lap and 29.104 on the second. A pep talk by his crew chief, Ricky Viers, had helped, but so had his determination in pushing the car to its limit.
“I just wanted to not leave anything on the table,” Lester recalls. “I just wanted to make sure I had that accelerator pedal down pretty much as hard as I could, for as long as I could. I barely breathed it going into Turn 1, barely breathed it going into Turn 3, and was back on the mat as hard as I could, as quickly as I could. As it turned out, it wound up being two pretty astounding laps.”
Lester celebrated with his family after becoming the first Black driver since Willy T. Ribbs in 1986 to earn a Cup Series start. He had scored two top-five finishes and three pole positions in his Truck Series career to that point, but Lester looks back and still considers his underdog top-20 qualifying effort in NASCAR’s big leagues as one of his proudest highlights.
“For me it was all about making that race with all the hoopla and fanfare made around the fact that this was the first time in so many years a Black driver has raced at the top level of NASCAR,” Lester says. “I definitely did not want to go home.”
**
Lester made one more Cup Series start that year at Michigan, then came up short in qualifying at Auto Club Speedway in California. He rounded out his driving days in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, a road-racing stint highlighted by teaming up with Jordan Taylor for a class win at age 50 in 2011 at Virginia International Raceway.
Since then, Lester says he’s spent his time tapping into his entrepreneurial side, staying active as a real-estate investor living in Atlanta’s north side, becoming an author, but also holding down what he calls “Mr. Mom” duty in helping to raise his two teenage sons, Alex and Austin, with his wife, Cheryl. “I’ve just wanted to be there in their life,” he says. “When you’re racing, you’re on the road, you really don’t have a lot of time to really be present in their lives.”
Mike Zarrilli | Getty Images
The NASCAR he returns to is in some ways different from the one he left. The sport underwent a reckoning on race during a tumultuous 2020 and redoubled its efforts to be more inclusive, including banning the Confederate flag last June. “I just … that blew me away,” Lester says. “So when (NASCAR president) Steve Phelps made that statement last year, I was so moved by it and so compelled that I sent him an e-mail message just congratulating him and thanking him for the statement that NASCAR made.”
He credits Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace, who now carries the car number 23 that he once campaigned, with being a spark for positive change.
“Their ears opened, their minds opened and with Bubba leading the charge with the platform he has, he was able to get NASCAR to see a greater picture and to reflect the inclusivity and the reflection of being America’s sport that they tended to indicate they were,” Lester says. “They put their money where their mouth was, and I was just really pleased that that was the case. So that was a great stake in the ground.”
The look of the Truck Series that welcomes him back is also different. Veteran faces still dot the grid, but Lester will be the oldest driver in the field, racing against younger and unfamiliar up-and-comers aggressively working their way up the developmental ladder. “I’ve watched it and I’ve seen, from what I can tell, a whole lot of carnage,” he says with a laugh. “These guys and girls are really going hard at it.”
As for his return, Lester says he’s aspiring for a more measured approach, insisting he won’t try to be a first-lap hero from the 31st starting spot. If nothing else, he intends to satisfy his curiosities in Saturday’s start, realizing another dream with a familiar racing backdrop.
“It’s been a very fluid, dynamic situation that’s been taking place ever since I stopped racing professionally, but all that aside, it’s a big weekend coming up for me,” Lester says. “I’m looking forward to it, and I feel like I’m prepared. We’ll just see what the racing gods have in store for me.”
Stewart and Jessica Friesen have competed against each other before in multiple sprint car and modified divisions, teaming up as a formidable husband-wife combination at local and regional dirt-track venues. They haven’t formed a 1-2 punch on quite as large a stage as they plan to next weekend, with both Friesens entered in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ first race on Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt surface.
Should Jessica qualify, it would mark her NASCAR national series debut.
The entire situation has the couple’s 5-year-old son, Parker, a bit perplexed.
“He’s still very confused on that, I think,” Jessica said in a Wednesday video call with reporters. “He says, ‘No, Mom. Dad races the truck, you race the modified, and trucks don’t race on dirt, trucks race on the pavement.’ So he was just kind of getting his mind wrapped around all that. He was still, two years ago at Eldora (Speedway), a little bit young to really soak it all up and quite understand exactly what was going on.”
The March 27-28 weekend promises to be a big one for the Friesens. The Halmar Friesen Racing operation will field a second truck, placing Jessica in the No. 62 Toyota with her husband wheeling his familiar No. 52 entry. And Stewart’s weekend workload just increased with Tuesday’s announcement from Spire Motorsports that Sunday’s main event will mark his Cup Series debut in the No. 77 Chevrolet.
The Friesens’ racing efforts have been mostly confined to a smaller scale on dirt tracks in the northeast, but their success has come in larger measure. The couple — who counts drivers’ meetings at Utica-Rome (N.Y.) Speedway among their first dates in the early 2000s — swept to a dominant 1-2 finish in big-block modified competition as recently as last August at Fonda (N.Y.) Speedway’s dirt half-mile.
Jessica said she grew up in racing, starting with go-karts at age 7 and working her way up the local ladder. She has put her motorsports efforts largely on the back burner in recent years, placing her family and care for her son, who is on the autism spectrum, as a top priority with the family’s screen-printing business — One Zee Tees — coming second.
That pecking order left racing third on the list, but when the opportunity arose to flex her dirt-track skills in the Bristol inaugural alongside her husband, it was too enticing to pass up.
“This will be a story for our grandkids someday,” Jessica said. “No matter what happens at this race, we went and did this. We kind of went out there, had fun and hopefully it turns out well. Hopefully, we’ll see. Who knows what could happen. Stewart says no pressure, so I’m just going to keep having that mentality.”
Jessica said she has been leaning on her husband’s experience with trucks, given that at-track time will be limited before preliminary qualifying heats and the featured Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt (March 27, 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He should be a valuable resource, considering the first of his two Camping World Trucks victories came on Eldora’s Ohio clay back in 2019.
When it comes to expectations, Stewart said there are no friendly wagers between the two as to who might fare the best at Bristol. The team, however? Stewart couldn’t help be smile.
“I think on the crew, there’s a lot of side bets going on with our guys,” he said.
As far as the youngest Friesen in the family is concerned, Parker’s rooting interests still appear to be a divided loyalty.
“He’s been asked that a couple times, and he changes his outlook on it depending on what he’s trying to get from mom or dad at that moment,” Jessica said. “I’m not so sure he knows.”
We talk a lot in this space about “sharp” bettors, the approximately 1% of gamblers who win money long term and are so respected bookmakers move the line after taking their action.
The remaining 99% fall into the category of “public” or “recreational” bettors, despite a recent survey finding 76% of bettors ages 21-34 view gambling as a form of entrepreneurship.
This means you, like me, are not “sharp,” and unless you are willing to put in a tremendous of amount of work, happen to be uber proficient in math and coding and also have the liquidity for a six-figure bankroll, a sharp bettor is something we’ll never be.
This doesn’t mean we can’t be smart bettors, which we’ll define as people who don’t allow their gambling to get themselves into financial trouble and who find ways to minimize the house edge so they win more often and lose less over time.
In addition to Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), this week brings us the NCAA Tournament, one of the biggest betting events of the year. March is also Problem Gambling Awareness Month, so this feels like a good time to discuss some ways to approach sports betting intelligently. While this is far from an exhaustive list, it’s a good starting point for sports fans just getting their feet wet in the sports betting waters.
Treat sports betting as entertainment, not a potential income source
The key to this tip is accepting the reality you’re probably not going to be a long-term winner. Still, if you gamble amounts you’re comfortable losing, you can get plenty of enjoyment from betting on sports. Many gamblers say they would rather lose a bet than not make a bet at all, and that’s because watching a race or a game with some action on it is exponentially more fun than having no skin in the game.
You may already have an entertainment budget, an amount of money you have earmarked to go out to eat, see a show or visit the amusement park. If you enjoy betting on sports, carve out a certain amount of money for this form of entertainment and consider anything you lose money well spent.
One’s sports betting bankroll is, of course, a personal choice. At risk of stating the obvious, it should be budgeted after your mortgage or kids’ college tuition is taken care of. Sweating $100 on a race can be fun. Losing $1,000? Not so much.
Have multiple outs
Some bettors download and deposit money into a single sports betting app – don’t let this be you.
“Outs” are places you’re able to get a bet down, and the more options you have, the better chance you have at winning, or at least losing less. That’s because odds vary from sportsbook to sportsbook, and having multiple outs presents the opportunity to shop for the best prices on the bets you’re looking to make.
Let’s peek at the numbers from two NASCAR partners for Sunday’s Atlanta race to illustrate this point:
If you like Martin Truex Jr. to notch his second straight victory, you’re better off making that bet at BetMGM, where Truex is offered at +650 (bet $100 to win $650), than at Barstool Sportsbook, where he is +600 (bet $100 to win $600).
On the other hand, if you’re picking Aric Almirola to finish in the top three, Barstool has the nicer price on that prop, +1500, compared to +1200 at BetMGM.
While bookmakers move their odds for a variety of reasons, sharp action – wagers from professional bettors – are at the top of the list. When recreational bettors hear a line moved because sharps are on a certain side, their tendency is to jump on that same side, regardless of the price. This is typically not a winning strategy.
In NASCAR matchups, a type of bet where you wager on one driver to finish ahead of another, sharps might like a driver at a certain price, but once they bet into that price and the line moves, that side may no longer be advantageous.
Before last Sunday’s race in Phoenix, the Brad Keselowski-Kevin Harvick matchup opened a -110 pick ‘em (bet $110 to win $100 on either driver).As bettors pounded Keselowski, his line vs. Harvick moved to -140. No matter the price, Keselowski tickets cashed, since he finished two spots ahead of Harvick, but a bet on the No. 2 Ford at the -140 closing line wasn’t necessarily a smart one. It’s doubtful sharps were still betting Kes at -140 at race time.
The -110 line implies a 52.38% chance to win; -140 implies a 58.33% chance. Most likely, Keselowski’s true chances to beat Harvick that day fell somewhere between those percentages. Moreover, a $100 bet on Kes at -140 odds resulted in a $71 win; the same bet at -110 odds netted $90. Conversely, had Harvick beaten Kes, which certainly could have happened, a bet for the same potential payout would have cost more money.
Getting down at the right number makes a massive difference when it comes to long-term betting success.
Don’t buy picks
People or companies that sell picks – “touts,” as they’re often referred – have long been the scourge of the sports betting industry, and as legal betting expands, this issue is likely to worsen.
Almost by definition, tout services are scams. Betting into -110 vig (the standard juice on point spread bets and odds we commonly see for NASCAR matchups) requires a 54% winning percentage to make money long term. The best of the best may hit 55-57% of their bets, and as we mentioned above, only about 1% of bettors are able do that. Since touts charge for their picks, their win percentage has to be even higher for their service to be worth the price, a near impossibility.
There are a few legitimate pick-selling services out there, but even if you find one, there’s still a catch, and it relates back to the “multiple outs” and “get the best of the number” tips discussed above. Bookmakers are aware of these services and are likely to move the odds once their picks become public. That means if you’re a customer of one of these legit pick sellers, you must get your bet down before the line moves in order for that pick to still have value, and some books are quicker to move a line than others.
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.
Kyle Larson is set for his return to NASCAR Camping World Truck Series later this month at Bristol Motor Speedway, his first series action since 2016.
The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series, no stranger to racing on dirt, won in 2016 at Eldora Speedway on dirt in the Truck Series.
The Elk Grove, California, native will pilot the No. 44 Niece Motorsports Rich Mar Florist/CircleBDiecast.com Chevrolet Silverado as the series makes its debut at the Bristol dirt track. He’ll take to the dirty high banks March 26 for heat races and will race March 27 at 8 p.m. ET, airing live on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Larson is part of a growing list of Cup drivers to enter the event.
“I really appreciate the opportunity given by Niece Motorsports,” Larson said in a team release. “I’m excited to get back into a truck at one of my favorite race tracks.”
The 28-year-old driver, a Cup winner earlier this year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, has built an extensive racing resume with more than 250 career race wins, including at least one win in every racing circuit he has competed. Seven of those victories came at NASCAR’s highest level, in addition to being a two-time (and reigning) Chili Bowl Midget Nationals champion. He was also on a race-winning team in the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
“Kyle is obviously one of the best drivers out there today,” Niece Motorsports general manager Cody Efaw said. “His resume on dirt speaks for itself. We are looking forward to him joining the organization at Bristol and contending for a win.”
In 2020 while on suspension from NASCAR, Larson racked up 46 victories in 97 races run, primarily in sprint cars. He led the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in victories with 12 despite competing in only 26 of its 54 events and secured his first Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series win.
“We’re looking forward to taking part in this historic event for the Truck Series and are excited to be alongside Kyle for what is sure to be a stellar performance,” Rich Mar Florist co-owner Jonathan Morrissey said. “This is a huge announcement for Rich Mar Florist Racing Nation and those that support our involvement in NASCAR. We are extremely thankful for this partnership with Niece Motorsports and are thrilled to share this historic moment together.”
See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Denny Hamlin has won the Busch Pole Award for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hamlin, the series points leader, will start his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from the pole position.
Defending Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric won the pole for Saturday’s EchoPark 250 (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, and John Hunter Nemechek is on the pole for Saturday’s Fr8Auctions 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota. Cindric and Nemechek are the most recent winners in their respective series.
As NASCAR adapted to COVID-19 protocols last season, practice and qualifying were eliminated at a majority of national-series events to limit at-track time, exposure and to cut race weekend costs. To determine starting lineups, competition officials used grouped draws, added inversions for weekend doubleheaders, and eventually adopted a performance-metrics formula. That metrics format remains in place this season, drawing on performance from both individual races and season-long results.
NASCAR’s metrics formula for 2021 weighs:
25 percent: Driver’s finishing position from the previous race
25 percent: Car owner’s finishing position from the previous race
35 percent: Team owner points ranking
15 percent: Fastest lap from the previous race
See the full lineup for Sunday’s Cup Series race below.
Start pos.
Driver
Car #
Team
1
Denny Hamlin
11
Joe Gibbs Racing
2
Martin Truex Jr.
19
Joe Gibbs Racing
3
Joey Logano
22
Team Penske
4
Brad Keselowski
2
Team Penske
5
Chase Elliott
9
Hendrick Motorsports
6
Kyle Larson
5
Hendrick Motorsports
7
Kevin Harvick
4
Stewart-Haas Racing
8
Christopher Bell
20
Joe Gibbs Racing
9
William Byron
24
Hendrick Motorsports
10
Ryan Blaney
12
Team Penske
11
Kurt Busch
1
Chip Ganassi Racing
12
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
47
JTG Daugherty Racing
13
Austin Dillon
3
Richard Childress Racing
14
Alex Bowman
48
Hendrick Motorsports
15
Bubba Wallace
23
23XI Racing
16
Aric Almirola
10
Stewart-Haas Racing
17
Chris Buescher
17
Roush Fenway Racing
18
Michael McDowell
34
Front Row Motorsports
19
Kyle Busch
18
Joe Gibbs Racing
20
Matt DiBenedetto
21
Wood Brothers Racing
21
Ross Chastain
42
Chip Ganassi Racing
22
Erik Jones
43
Richard Petty Motorsports
23
Ryan Preece
37
JTG Daugherty Racing
24
Chase Briscoe
14
Stewart-Haas Racing
25
Daniel Suarez
99
Trackhouse Racing Team
26
Justin Haley
77
Spire Motorsports
27
Cole Custer
41
Stewart-Haas Racing
28
Ryan Newman
6
Roush Fenway Racing
29
Tyler Reddick
8
Richard Childress Racing
30
Corey LaJoie
7
Spire Motorsports
31
BJ McLeod
78
Live Fast Motorsports
32
Anthony Alfredo
38
Front Row Motorsports
33
Cody Ware
51
Petty Ware Racing
34
James Davison
15
Rick Ware Racing
35
Quin Houff
00
StarCom Racing
36
Joey Gase
53
Rick Ware Racing
37
Josh Bilicki
52
Rick Ware Racing
38
Timmy Hill
66
Motorsports Business Management
39
Austin Cindric
33
Team Penske
Practice and qualifying are tentatively scheduled for eight Cup Series races this year. Busch Pole Qualifying was held for the season-opening Daytona 500; the next race with time trials scheduled is the March 28 event at Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt track.
NASCAR officials handed down penalties to five Cup Series teams Tuesday for lug-nut infractions, including one-race suspensions for two crew chiefs after last weekend’s events at Phoenix Raceway.
Two cars — the No. 2 Team Penske Ford for driver Brad Keselowski and the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet for Daniel Suarez — were each found with two lug nuts not properly secured in a post-race check after Sunday’s Instacart 500. Each team’s crew chief — Penske’s Jeremy Bullins and Trackhouse’s Travis Mack — was fined $20,000 and suspended for the next Cup Series race.
According to team rosters for Atlanta, Grant Hutchens will fill in as the crew chief for the No. 2 team, while Jose Blasco-Figueroa will serve as the No. 99’s crew chief.
Three cars were also found in violation of Section 10.9.10.4 (Tires and Wheels) in the NASCAR rule book, but with just one unsecured lug nut each. Those teams were assessed a $10,000 crew-chief fine apiece:
The No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet for driver Kurt Busch (crew chief Matt McCall)
The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for driver Kyle Busch (crew chief Ben Beshore)
The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for driver William Byron (crew chief Ryan “Rudy” Fugle)
NASCAR officials also issued a behavioral penalty to Jonathan Stewart, who is listed as an engineer for GMS Racing’s No. 21 entry in the Camping World Truck Series. Stewart was suspended indefinitely for a violation of NASCAR’s Substance Abuse Policy (Section 19) and Section 12.1, which outlines violations and disciplinary action.
There were no penalties from last weekend’s Xfinity Series event.
The Cup Series’ next race is Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta Motor Speedway, part of a tripleheader for all three NASCAR national series.
