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Author: Tucker White

  • Steve Phelps Promoted to Chief Operating Officer

    Steve Phelps Promoted to Chief Operating Officer

    Steve Phelps has been promoted to the role of chief operating officer of NASCAR, the sanctioning body announced today. The post was formerly held by Brent Dewar, who was promoted to president of NASCAR last season.

    Phelps previously served as executive vice president and chief global sales and marketing officer, which will now be filled by Daryl Wolfe.

    As COO, he’ll oversee all the commercial and media operations of the sport. It’s right in the wheelhouse of a man who, as CMO, played a key role in NASCAR regaining the rights to NASCAR.com from Turner Sports and spent the last three decades as a sports business executive for Wasserman Media Group, the National Football League and, since 2005, NASCAR.

    “Steve has worked passionately over the years to lead the sport and it’s clear his impact is felt in all corners of the industry,” said NASCAR President Brent Dewar. “We could not be more thrilled for him to step into the pivotal role of COO and we look forward to welcoming him back to Daytona Beach, where he’ll continue to work closely with myself and the other members of the executive leadership team, including the Board of Directors.”

    Those within the NASCAR hierarchy that report directly to him include the aforementioned Executive Vice President and Chief Global Sales & Partnership Officer Wolfe, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Jill Gregory, Senior Vice President, Broadcasting & Production Steve Herbst, Senior Vice President & Chief Communications Officer Eric Nyquist, and Vice President, Digital Tim Clark

  • Wintery Mixture Postpones Truck Race, Nixes Cup Qualifying at Martinsville

    Wintery Mixture Postpones Truck Race, Nixes Cup Qualifying at Martinsville

    MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Rain and snow have forced the postponement of today’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway, as well as canceled the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying.

    The Alpha Energy Solutions 250 went just 23 laps before it was red-flagged. It was not a surprise to anyone involved, considering the forecast for today made getting anything in unlikely. Barring inclement weather during tomorrow’s STP 500, the Truck Series race will resume at 7 p.m. on FOX Sports 1.

    Ben Rhodes currently leads the Truck Series race.

    Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the green flag in tomorrow’s Cup race, as a result of Cup qualifying being canceled. The schedule for it remains unchanged.

    Updated Schedule

     

  • Truex Fastest in Final Practice at Martinsville

    Truex Fastest in Final Practice at Martinsville

    MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Martin Truex Jr. topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway. The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 19.846 and a speed of 95.415 mph.

    The Top-five, compared to first practice, was more Toyota-centric, with three cars, though Ford maintained a plurality of the Top-10 with four.

    Brad Keselowski timed in at second, with a time of 19.874 and a speed of 95.280 mph, Daniel Suarez timed in third with a time of 19.882 and a speed of 95.242 mph, Kyle Busch timed in fourth with a time of 19.907 and a speed of 95.122 mph and Ryan Newman rounded out the Top-five with a time of 19.984 and a speed of 94.756 mph.

    AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Blakey and Clint Bowyer rounded out the Top-10.

    Keselowski posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 94.579 mph.

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hopped the curb in Turn 3 and hit the outside wall with his right-rear corner. He swapped to his backup car and will start from the tail-end of the field in tomorrow’s STP 500.

    First practice results

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/C1806_PRACFINAL.pdf”]

  • Truex Fastest in First Cup Practice at Martinsville

    Truex Fastest in First Cup Practice at Martinsville

    MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Martin Truex Jr. topped the chart in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway. The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 19.776 and a speed of 95.752 mph.

    There was parity amongst the manufacturers in the Top-10, with four Ford’s, three Chevrolet’s and three Toyota’s.

    Brad Keselowski timed in second with a lap of 19.798 and a speed of 95.646 mph, Kyle Busch timed third with a time of 19.888 and a speed of 95.213 mph, Ryan Newman timed in fourth with a time of 19.891 and a speed of 95.199 mph and Kurt Busch rounded out the Top-five with a time of 19.913 and a speed of 95.094 mph.

    Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney rounded out the Top-10.

    Truex posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 95.054 mph.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/C1806_PRAC1.pdf”]

  • Botched stop costs Kyle at Phoenix

    Botched stop costs Kyle at Phoenix

    As Kyle Busch walked into the deadline room at ISM Raceway and stepped up to the podium, he let out an exhausted sigh of disappointment and frustration. He picked up the mic and walked everyone through the race for the lead in the final stage and the botched pit stop.

    “Yeah, the 11 (Denny Hamlin) got out there, got out front,” he said. “He was doing a really good job of pacing the field there. Then the 4 (Kevin Harvick) kind of got to him. The 11 was holding up the 4 for a little bit. It was to our advantage actually, just being able to kind of save my tires a little bit. Slowly but surely kind of worked my way in there, closed the gap to those guys. Once I got in there, I tried to pounce as quick as I could to get through there, which helped and got us the lead. Coming into the green flag stops, had a couple guys pit a little bit before us. I don’t think that hurt us too bad, but the jack dropping certainly did.”

    Busch ducked onto pit road for his final stop of the TicketGuardian 500 with 52 laps to go. The jack dropped as his crew was servicing the right side of his No. 18 Toyota Camry and he exited pit road behind Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick.

    On a few laps fresher tires, he overtook Elliott — who two laps prior, was passed by Harvick — for second in the running order (once the round of pit stops cycled out). Busch couldn’t close the gap to Harvick, however, and wound up runner-up to him for the second week in a row.

    He wasn’t under the delusion that Harvick would be a non-factor. The first thing he said after the race was that Harvick “had the car to beat.”

    “Before the race, I knew the 4 car had the car to beat,” Busch said. “I didn’t think we were going to be the second-best car today, but we actually had a shot to race him and out-race him and beat him. But it just didn’t quite work out. Obviously, our pit stop wasn’t stellar. When I was trying to come back up through there, I got back up through there relatively good. I got relatively close. I was counting on the 9 (Elliott) to hold him up a little bit more and be able to protect that spot a little bit longer than he did. That way, I could try to get there. At least get alongside the 4 and trying to make it a three-way battle for the lead, like I did earlier when it was the 11 (Hamlin) kind of holding up the 4. Just never transpired that way.”

    When all was said and done, it was a great run for Busch. He led a race-high of 128 laps and finished Top-five in both stages (won the first). He leaves Phoenix second in points (trailing Harvick by 15), he’s finished Top-10 in all but one race (the Daytona 500) and earned stage points in all but one stage.

    But understandably, it doesn’t quell the frustration of falling short, especially when a mistake on pit road ultimately cost him.

    “We lost the race on pit road today. There’s been races where I’ve won it on pit road, too,” Busch said. “We’ll just have to go into next week and see what we can do there.”

  • Harvick wins at Phoenix

    Harvick wins at Phoenix

    As Kevin Harvick’s crew lined the outer pit wall to celebrate with him, he stood on the door of his car, leaned down and smacked the back windshield multiple times. He then craned towards the stands and pointed repeatedly down towards his back windshield, as though he was tempting fans to find something wrong with it this week.

    Considering his victory the week prior at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was deemed “encumbered,” and that Harvick believed it was a result of “chatter that was created on social media afterwards” (from his media availability on Friday), that was exactly what the gesture was.

    “I’ve been mad as I’ll get. This team does a great job. This organization does a great job. And we’ve got fast race cars. And to take that away from those guys just really pissed me off last week. To come here, to a race track that’s so good to us, is a lot of fun. Everybody was just determined this week and we just wanted to just go stomp them. We didn’t stomp them, but we won. That’s really all that matters.”

    While waiting for the final round of pit stops to cycle out, Harvick passed Chase Elliott for third, and thus the win, with 38 laps to go. It’s his 40th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory and ninth at ISM Raceway.

    As was the case the week prior, Kyle Busch tried to erase the gap on fresher tires, but lap traffic and a mistake on pit road relegated him to second on the podium.

    “Before the race, I knew the 4 car had the car to beat,” Busch said. “I didn’t think we were going to be the second-best car today, but we actually had a shot to race him and out-race him and beat him. But it just didn’t quite work out. Obviously, our pit stop wasn’t stellar. When I was trying to come back up through there, I got back up through there relatively good. I got relatively close. I was counting on the 9 (Chase Elliott) to hold him up a little bit more and be able to protect that spot a little bit longer than he did. That way, I could try to get there. At least get alongside the 4 and trying to make it a three-way battle for the lead, like I did earlier when it was the 11 (Denny Hamlin) kind of holding up the 4. Just never transpired that way.

    “I thought that our Skittles Camry was really good. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the guys made some awesome changes overnight, because we weren’t that good yesterday. Proud to come home second, but now it’s starting to get frustrating.”

    Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the Top-five.

    “Yeah, we had a good car,” Elliott said. “It was solid, you know? Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made a good call there at the end and we had a good pit stop there to get into the lead and I just felt like I needed a little bit of drive there to put the power down in front of him. I had a pretty good turn those last two runs and before that I wasn’t turning good enough and too good of forward bite. So, he was definitely the car to beat and it felt like there were a lot of laps left. I tried my best to hold him off as long as I could, but I felt like him and Kyle (Busch) had just a little bit on us. We’ll go to work and try to get better for California.”

    Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones and Kurt Busch rounded out the Top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Martin Truex Jr. led the field to green at 3:45 p.m. He was passed by Kyle Larson in Turn 3 before the end of the first lap. After Corey LaJoie brought out the first caution on Lap 25 when his engine expired on the backstretch, NASCAR declared that caution the “competition caution, rather than a planned Lap 35 caution for morning showers.

    Truex exited pit road first, and led his first ever lap at Phoenix, and led the field back to green at Phoenix. But Larson swiped the lead from him straight on the restart. Truex fell prey to Kyle Busch, who set his sights on Larson. Closing the gap and applying pressure, he overtook Larson on Lap 58 and won the first stage.

    Aside from Michael McDowell going to the rear for speeding, the stage break was uneventful. Busch maintained the lead exiting pit road and led the field back to green on Lap 84.

    Larson brought out the third caution on Lap 122 when he got loose and spun out in Turn 3. Keselowski took just right-side tires and exited pit road with the race lead.

    After two laps in the lead, following the Lap 127 restart, Kyle Busch got to Keselowski’s inside going into Turn 1 and took back the race lead exiting Turn 2 on Lap 129. Following Chris Buescher’s wall excursion, many of the frontrunners ducked onto pitroad. Kurt Busch took the race lead and won the second stage.

    When he pitted under the stage break, Kyle Busch returned to the race lead and led the field back to green on Lap 159. With 133 laps to go, Kevin Harvick ran him down, passed him exiting Turn 4 and took the lead.

    Paul Menard suffered a right-rear tire blowout and rear-ended the Turn 2 wall, bringing out the caution with 122 to go. William Byron exited pit road with the lead, after taking just two tires, and led the field to the restart with 114 to go. Denny Hamlin pulled alongside him coming to the line with 103 to go, and exited Turn 4 with the lead the following lap.

    With roughly 90 laps to go, Kevin Harvick caught Hamlin and challenged him for the lead. Constant side-by-side battling allowed Kyle Busch to close in, pass Harvick with 72 to go and pass Hamlin for the lead with 69 to go.

    Drivers started hitting pit road for their final round of stops with roughly 58 laps to go. Kyle Busch pitted with 52 to go. Unfortunately, the jack dropped on the right side of his car, costing him the lead.

    While Brad Keselowski, who had yet to pit, inherited the lead, Chase Elliott and Harvick battled for third, and by extension the lead when the pit cycle ended. Finally, Harvick passed him with 38 to go. Kyle Busch, on a few laps fresher tires, passed Elliott for position with 34 to go. It only truly turned into a battle for the race lead when Ryan Newman pitted with 21 to go, handing it to Harvick with an eight-tenths of a second gap over Kyle Busch.

    The gap only grew as he pulled away from Busch and scored his ninth career victory at Phoenix.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted two hours, 53 minutes and 13 seconds, at an average speed of 108.073 mph. There were 15 lead changes among nine different drivers and six cautions for 36 laps.

    Harvick leaves Phoenix with a 12-point lead over Kyle Busch.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/04phx2018results.pdf”]

  • Harvick Cleans Out House in Sin City

    Harvick Cleans Out House in Sin City

    It’s a clichéd statement in the sports world, but the term “woodshed whooping” perfectly sums up Kevin Harvick’s run in the Pennzoil Las Vegas 400. How else would you describe a race in which a driver led 214 of 267 laps, on his way to winning back to back Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races to open the season?

    “Yeah, just proud of everybody on our Jimmy John’s Busch Ford for just doing a great job with the race cars,” Harvick said. “These last two weeks, we’ve just hit on what we needed to. This stems back to last year when (our) mile and a half program got so much better at the end of the year and they’ve done their homework on a number of things.”

    Harvick powered by Ryan Blaney on the highside, exiting Turn 2, to take the lead on the second lap. He surrendered it to pit on Lap 38. It cycled back to him, after a few laps in the reigns of Michael McDowell, and he drove on to win the caution-free first stage.

    The race went back to green on Lap 89. Just as it was in the first stage, the second was broken up by green flag stops halfway through. Harvick pitted from the lead on Lap 121, handing it to Kyle Busch (the first non-Ford driver to lead all day). He pitted three laps later, and the lead cycled back to Harvick, who completed a sweep of the stages.

    Harvick squandered the lead, as a result of a slow stop during the stage break. Joey Logano exited with the lead.

    The race went back to green with 101 laps to go. Caution flew for the third time with 91 to go when Jamie McMurray suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 2. Martin Truex Jr. opted not to pit and took over the race lead.

    Back to green with 85 to go, Joey Logano shot past Truex exiting Turn 2 to retake the lead. Before the lap concluded, Kurt Busch got loose, came up and across the nose of Chase Elliott, hooking him into the Turn 4 wall, which brought out the fourth caution.

    The race restarted with 74 to go. Logano got the jump on Harvick at first, but he couldn’t fend off Harvick on just two new tires, going into Turn 1, and Harvick reclaimed the race lead with 73 to go. Harvick pitted from the lead for the final time with 42 to go, handing the lead to Kyle Busch. He pitted with 38 to go, and the lead cycled back to Harvick.

    Kyle Busch attempted to spice up the finish in the closing 20 laps, after passing Brad Keselowski for second with ease, but didn’t close the gap to Harvick in time.

    “Our M&M’s Camry was really strong there the last 100 laps of the race. Early on, just having to start the race on our qualifiers (tires) was just really bad for us and then we overtightened, overadjusted for the second run. From there, we were just kind of making small tweaks to it to get it back, and she was really fast, rolling really good the last 100 laps or so. Five of those guys would kind of short-pit, and we’d go on the long side of it, and I think that kind of helped us, too, be able to drive back up through those guys a little bit easier.

    “The M&M’s Caramel Camry was really good. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the guys did a great job this weekend. We came here. We prepared well. Did a good job through practice, getting a great race car. Just no catching that 4 (Harvick). They were just on rails today and they were lights out. I don’t know what we need to do to catch up, to get better to those guys, but we got some homework to do and need to get a little bit better, especially here at Vegas.

    “Overall, great day for us, and we’ll go to Phoenix.”

    Larson, Truex and Blaney rounded out the Top-five.

    Keselowski, Logano, Erik Jones, Paul Menard and Aric Almirola rounded out the Top-10.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted two hours, 49 minutes and 31 seconds, at an average speed of 141.756 mph. There were 11 lead changes among six different drivers and four cautions for 29 laps.

    Harvick leaves Las Vegas with a three-point lead over Logano.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/C1803_UNOFFRES.pdf”]

  • Blaney Fastest at Las Vegas in Final Cup Series Practice

    Blaney Fastest at Las Vegas in Final Cup Series Practice

    Ryan Blaney topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford with a time of 28.963 and a speed of 186.445 mph.

    While Blaney put a Ford on top of the leaderboard for the first time this weekend, outside of taking pole position, the blue ovals didn’t dominate the Top-10, as they had all weekend. Instead, the fastest 10 cars were relatively evenly distributed among the manufacturers, with four Chevrolet’s claiming the top spots.

    Following Blaney was Kyle Larson, with a time of 29.011 and a speed of 186.136 mph, Martin Truex Jr. with a time of 29.018 and a speed of 186.091 mph, Chase Elliott with a time of 29.023 and a speed of 186.059 mph and William Byron with a time of 29.032 and a speed of 186.002 mph.

    Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano and Erik Jones rounded out the Top-10.

    Larson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average of 183.935 mph.

    First practice results

    Second practice results

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/C1803_PRACFINAL.pdf”]

  • Larson Fastest in Second Practice at Las Vegas

    Larson Fastest in Second Practice at Las Vegas

    Kyle Larson topped the chart in second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet posted a time of 28.791 and a speed of 187.559 mph.

    While not his first time on top of the leaderboard this weekend, it was the first time the Ford’s didn’t occupy the majority of the spots in the Top-10. That distinction went to the Chevrolet’s.

    Trailing Larson was Ryan Newman with a time of 28.807 and a speed of 187.454 mph, Jimmie Johnson with a time of 28.941 and a speed of 186.587 mph, Kevin Harvick with a time of 29.089 and a speed of 185.637 mph and Alex Bowman with a time of 29.125 and a speed of 185.408 mph.

    Ryan Blaney, Darrell Wallace Jr., Clint Bowyer, Michael McDowell and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the Top-10.

    Harvick posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 184.663 mph.

    Denny Hamlin took his car to the garage after a parts failure. He returned to the race track, after repairs.

    First practice results

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/C1803_PRAC2.pdf”]

  • Blaney Takes Pole Position at Vegas

    Blaney Takes Pole Position at Vegas

    Donning his Pennzoil cap with a smile on his face, Ryan Blaney proceeded to shake hands with his crew and debrief with crew chief Jeremy Bullins, after winning the pole for the Pennzoil Las Vegas 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If 2018 is going to be a down year for Ford, Blaney didn’t get the memo, nor did the other seven Ford drivers in the Top-12.

    “I thought our Ford was pretty good over three rounds,” Blaney said. “The second and third round were really good. They made really good changes to our race car and got us where we needed to be. It is nice to know we have some good speed and now it is about getting it racing well. We will work on that tomorrow. Hopefully we will be set up for Sunday.”

    Blaney will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday, in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford, after posting a final round time of 28.200 and a speed of 191.489 mph.

    Kevin Harvick will start second with a time of 28.384 and a speed of 190.248 mph.

    “You never heard us complain about our Fords. I gotta thank everyone from Ford and Stewart-Haas Racing for giving me a fast Fusion,” Harvick said. “I knew I kind of blew it coming to the green. I had to lift off the throttle late around the corner just trying to get to the green and I wound up getting the car too tight and it was where it was needed to be the rest of the lap, on the edge. All in all it was a great qualifying effort. This isn’t a place we have qualified well in the past. That will definitely help our day on Sunday.”

    Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson will round out the Top-Five.

    “I was hanging on for those three laps,” Busch said. “One of our first times starting out in just Q trim. When you go after it hard right away in practice, it hit me on the loose side. We had nothing to loose in that third round and we are still a little on the loose side but that is a good trend for race trim. Once you get into those long runs you build up toward tight on the air pressures. How about those three Fords up top again.”

    Chase Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones and Joey Logano will round out the Top-10.

    Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard will round out the 12 that made the final round.

    After the first round of qualifying, Truex’s team reported that the inner-liner of his left-rear tire had sprung a leak, causing the pressure of it to equalize with the rest of the outer layer (the inner-liner runs at a higher pressure).

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/C1803_STARTROW.pdf”]