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  • Full Weekend Schedule for Charlotte

    Full Weekend Schedule for Charlotte

    Staff Report | NASCAR.com

    The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series head to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend. Check out the tentative full schedule, subject to change.

    Note: All times are ET.

    Thursday, May 24
    2:35-3:25 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, FS1
    4:05-4:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series practice, FS1
    6:05-6:50 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, FS1
    7:15 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Award qualifying, FS1

    PRESS PASS (Watch live)
    12:30 p.m.: Kevin Harvick
    1:30 p.m.: Brad Keselowski
    1:45 p.m.: Jimmie Johnson
    2 p.m.: Daniel Hemric
    2:15 p.m.: Elliott Sadler, Ross Chastain and Ryan Reed
    3:45 p.m.: Daniel Suarez
    4 p.m.: Matt Kenseth
    4:15 p.m.: Bubba Wallace
    4:30 p.m.: Joey Logano
    5:30 p.m.: Toyota Racing Development announcement
    8:15 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying

    Friday, May 25
    No events scheduled

    Saturday, May 26
    9:05-9:55 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, FS1
    10:10 a.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Pole qualifying, FS1
    11:05-11:55 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, FS1
    1 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Alsco 300 (200 laps, 300 miles), FS1

    PRESS PASS (Watch live)
    3:45 p.m.: Post-NASCAR Xfinity Series race

    Sunday, May 27
    6 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 (400 laps, 600 miles), FOX

    PRESS PASS (Watch live)
    3:05 p.m.: NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2019 Inductees
    10:15 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race

  • 1922 INDY 500: Two Boys, a Train and the Making of a Race Fan

    1922 INDY 500: Two Boys, a Train and the Making of a Race Fan

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    Here’s a short story to help you enjoy this year’s 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500.

    In the spring of 1922, Alton Hartley was a college student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He and a friend decided they wanted to attend the 10th International 500 Mile Sweepstakes, as the race was then known, on Tuesday, May 30.

    Having no car, Hartley and his friend needed a cheap method of transportation for the 65-mile southbound trip to Indianapolis and the local freight train beckoned. Hopping trains was illegal and considered trespassing in the early 20th century, and every major railroad company employed armies of police to protect their property.

    These privately employed police were generally afforded the “right” to deal with trespassers as they saw fit, which routinely involved some pretty brutal tactics. As one traveling hobo from the 1930s recalled, “God help you if you ever get caught on railroad property… they have their own brand of justice and the police and courts are not part of it.”

    But Hartley and his friend decided to jump the next southbound freight train and take their chances. It wasn’t long before the onboard security officer found the two young men, who were horrified at their fate. Desperate to explain their situation, Hartley told the officer they were not hobos or long distance travelers. They were two college kids who just wanted to get to Indianapolis to see the 500-mile race.

    Fortunately, the railroad security officer must have been a race fan. Rather than being beaten, thrown off the train or sent to jail for trespassing, the young men were marched up to the locomotive and introduced to the engineer, where they were welcomed and given a spot to ride in relative comfort for the remainder of the journey.

    Much to their surprise, the train staff happily dropped the boys off in the town of Speedway on the west side of Indianapolis. As a parting gift, the train staff provided them two box lunches, a pair of general admission tickets to the event and a pile of newspapers which the boys were told to use as blankets while napping throughout the day.

    Box lunches in hand, they arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 16th and Georgetown in time to see a 1,000-piece band perform in front of the grandstands at 9:20 a.m. Shortly afterward, racing legend Barney Oldfield drove his National onto the track to pace the field. The race began at 10 a.m, as was the practice at the time, with a hot-air balloon floating above the track carrying a huge American flag.

    California’s Jimmy Murphy wrote his name in the auto racing history books that day, taking the checkered flag shortly after 3 p.m. with an average speed of nearly 95 miles per hour.

    Making their way back to the train station, the boys had one more favor to collect. The railroad crew had promised to pick them up again after the event and take them back to West Lafayette after the race. Hartley, who related this story to his nephew, Pete Gruich, in 1991, said they gratefully accepted the offer for a return ride and made it safely back to West Lafayette to continue their classes.

    Hartley married his teenage sweetheart, Josephine, in 1926 and the couple shared more than seven decades together. An antique dealer by trade, Hartley remained an auto racing fan for the rest of his days. He died in 2001.

    And once upon a time, long ago, that’s how race fans were made.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, FIA EPCS sportscar series & Super Cup Stock Car Series

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

    Alton Hartley (L) and nephew Pete Gruich in 1991 (courtesy Pete Gruich)
    Jimmy Murphy takes the checkered flag at Indianapolis in 1922

     

  • Kevin Harvick Grabs the $1 Million in All-Star Race Thriller

    Kevin Harvick Grabs the $1 Million in All-Star Race Thriller

    Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    CONCORD, N.C. – Kevin Harvick’s answer to NASCAR’s new competition package was the same old song—another victory in a season that already has produced a surfeit of success.

    This time it was Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with a restrictor-plate limiting the horsepower and a large blade on the rear of the cars providing downforce and maneuverability.

    Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was still the strongest car in the field, and the driver who already has five points wins this season added another in the marquee exhibition race, taking control of the event with an overtime surge at the end of the 20-lap third stage and sealing the victory by outrunning Daniel Suarez in the final two-lap drag race to the finish.

    With lane choice on the final restart, Harvick picked the top lane in front of eventual third-place finisher Joey Logano. The choice paid off, as Logano gave the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford a strong push off the second corner, allowing Harvick to clear the No. 19 Toyota on the backstretch.

    “I thought on that last restart that my best opportunity was Logano,” Harvick acknowledged. “He’s one of the best on the restarts. I knew he would work with me as good as possible because that’s just the way that most of us do it from Ford. We were able to just stay even through (Turns) 1 and 2, and I really thought once we got to the backstretch we could clear him.

    I didn’t want to be on the bottom. I didn’t feel my car was stable enough to be under someone when they were on my right side. I had to take my lumps through 1 and 2 and hope that the guy behind me was still with me when we got to the exit of 2, and we were able to win.”

    The third-stage victory also proved critical. In the second attempt at overtime, Harvick passed Kyle Larson for the top spot and held on to win the stage. That gave him lane choice for the final stage, and he never relinquished the lead.

    “We needed to be in control of the race to have a chance at winning,” Harvick said. “If we were third or fourth, we would have been in big trouble. We needed to be on the front row with clean air, because that was the only chance our car would handle good enough. It was so fast.”

    Harvick picked up his second victory in the All-Star Race, the first won coming in 2007. The winner of the previous two points races, at Dover and Kansas, Harvick didn’t earn championship points for his victory at Charlotte, but he did claim the $1-million prize that goes to the winner. 

    Leading every lap of the final 10-lap segment of the scheduled 80-lap event, Harvick crossed the finish line .325 seconds ahead of Suarez, who came close to clearing Harvick off the second corner after the final restart but didn’t have enough room to slide up in front of the No. 4.

    Denny Hamlin was fourth, followed by Chase Elliott, who earned the last spot in the 21-car main event via the Fan Vote. Jimmy Johnson, Kyle Larson, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne completed the top 10. Kahne rallied from four laps down after contact with the frontstretch wall on Lap 56.

    Suarez got a push from Hamlin on the final restart, but the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates didn’t stay connected as long as Harvick and Logano did.

    “The 11 (Hamlin) was doing a very good job as much as he could to push me,” Suarez said. “For whatever reason, he just disconnected a little bit, and I couldn’t keep the run with the 4 (Harvick) and the 22 (Logano).

    “They stayed connected for the entire corner, and after that I knew it was going to be tough. After that, I started just playing defense. I tried to slow them down, and I just didn’t do a good job or I just couldn’t do it enough.”

    A six-car wreck that started near the apex of Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 75—during the first attempt at overtime at the end of Stage 3—eliminated the strong cars of Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski, both of whom led laps in the event.

    Truex entered the corner four-wide with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. below him, Clint Bowyer to his outside at Kurt Busch at the top of the track. Contact with Stenhouse’s Ford sent Truex’s Toyota up the track into Bowyer’s Ford, trapping Busch against the outside wall. Kyle Busch’s Camry also sustained damage in the wreck.

    “We had a really strong race car and felt like we maybe had a shot to win it,” Truex said. “Just four-wide going into (Turn) 3 there, and we all just ran out of room. The 17 (Stenhouse), I had him squeezed down so low, I just don’t know that he could hold it down there.

    “I was trying to keep the 14 (Bowyer) to my outside and just one those deals at the end of the race. I knew we had to get through that green-white-checkered to have a shot to win, but I also knew if I lifted there, I would have been the only one that lifted, and the others would have went on and passed me, and we wouldn’t have won this thing.”

    Fans got their first look at the new competition package in the Monster Energy Open, which produced scintillating racing and multiple lead changes in each of the three stages. Race winner Allmendinger advanced to the main event, along with Stage 1 winner Alex Bowman and Stage 2 winner Suarez, who fell one spot short of the rare feat of winning the All-Star Race after transferring from the Open.

    Notes: Harvick led the final 25 laps of the first stage. All told, he led 36 of the 93 laps (with the race extended 13 laps by the Stage 3 overtimes)… Kyle Busch led the final 19 laps of Stage 2 as the only driver other than Harvick to take a checkered flag on Saturday… Harvick’s pit crew climbed the frontstretch catch fence en masse after the victory… Truex led three times for 17 laps before being wiped out in the Lap 75 wreck.

    Full race results

  • ‘The Gunslinger’ wrecks out from lead in Pro Late Model feature at Bristol

    ‘The Gunslinger’ wrecks out from lead in Pro Late Model feature at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn. — In a display of her sense of humor, Angie Skinner tweeted a picture of her standing in front of a Port-A-Potty to sum up the night of her husband, Mike Skinner.

    “It’s raining. We crashed. I felt this pic near the shitter was appropriate…but b4 all the crap my baby @MSTheGunslinger was bad ass!”

    For most of the 100-lap JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Pro Late Model A-Feature of the Rusty Wallace Automotive Group Short Track U.S. Nationals, “The Gunslinger” was the driver to beat. With over 20 years of racing experience at Bristol Motor Speedway, he navigated his way through the Top-Five and passed defending race winner Cole Williams exiting Turn 2 to take the lead.

    But even a veteran driver like Skinner fell victim to racing at Bristol, particularly drivers who don’t have a fraction of his experience at Bristol. While trying to put Tyler Hufford a lap down, the two made contact that ended Skinner’s night.

    “I went to pass the guy on the outside and he (Tyler Hufford) washed up, so I had to let off the gas,” Skinner told Speed 51.  “I come off of turn four over here, and I got down really low, and he hit me in the corner.  I don’t feel like I had enough room, so I just waited and he washed up the track again and I hit the gas and had a clear run on the bottom.” Skinner said.

    “Apparently, his spotter told him he was going to give me the outside and he just turned left and just hit us.  I feel like an idiot, we had a very fast car. His spotter told my son he was going to give me the high side, and by then I was under him and he tried to pull down and be a nice guy, so I really can’t blame him, it was my own fault.” Skinner added

    Skinner finished the night in 13th and the race was won by Josh Reeves.

  • Kyle Busch Falls One Spot Short in Tying Ron Hornaday Jr.’s Record

    Kyle Busch Falls One Spot Short in Tying Ron Hornaday Jr.’s Record

    It was a case of ‘what could have been’ for the No. 51 driver of the Cessna Kyle Busch Motorsports machine. Busch was looking to tie Ron Hornaday Jr.’s all-time winning streak Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. However, the Las Vegas native will have to wait for another race.

    After starting fourth in the NC Education Lottery 200, Busch remained in the top 10 in both stages finishing sixth and second, respectively. While he was strong throughout the stages, it was the pit stops that ultimately cost him a shot at winning.

    “Pure talent, Busch said. “That’s about it. My pit crew did absolutely nothing to help me out tonight. My truck drove like crap. These splitters are absolutely horrendous. You can’t pass in traffic.”

    Busch suffered two pit road penalties for his crew being over the wall too soon. At the end of the day, he finished in the second position behind race winner Johnny Sauter. Busch will have to wait another day to earn career win number 51.

    “You can’t race alongside anybody,” Busch added. “You can get within five truck-lengths of no one. But somehow, someway, I was able to get back to the front. Had a blast.”

    By finishing second, he earned his third top five of the year.  He will have three more opportunities in 2018 to tie or surpass Hornaday’s record.

  • Full Charlotte All-Star Weekend Schedule

    Full Charlotte All-Star Weekend Schedule

  • NASCAR Next Class of 2018 Unveiled

    NASCAR Next Class of 2018 Unveiled

    Industry Initiative Spotlights Future Stars of the Sport

    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 15, 2018) – The nine drivers who comprise the 2018 NASCAR Next class are no strangers to accolades. This year’s group of emerging stars includes the Rookies of the Year in both the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West, as well the ARCA Rookie of the Year, a former USAC Midget Champion and Lucas Oil Off Road Driver of the Year.

    Now in its eighth year, NASCAR Next spotlights the best and brightest young stars in racing. Alumni of the program include current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stars Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Matt DiBenedetto, Chase Elliott, Gray Gaulding, Erik Jones, Corey LaJoie, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suárez, and Darrell Wallace Jr.

    “NASCAR Next highlights emerging talent who have shown the talent and intangibles it takes to achieve success at the highest levels or our sport,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR executive vice president & chief marketing officer. “Alumni of the program are currently making their marks across NASCAR’s three national series and we believe members of this year’s class have potential to do the same.”

    The NASCAR Next selection process includes input from industry executives, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Drivers Council and media members. Drivers must be between the ages of 15-25, aspire to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and show potential – on and off the track – to reach that goal.

    The following drivers have been chosen for the 2018 NASCAR Next class:

    Anthony Alfredo (@anthonyfalfredo), NASCAR K&N Pro Series East – Driving full-time this year for MDM Motorsports in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, Alfredo is also a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The 19-year-old Ridgefield, Connecticut, native recently competed in various late model divisions across the country, driving for JR Motorsports.

    Hailie Deegan (@HailieDeegan), NASCAR K&N Pro Series West – The 16-year-old Temecula, California, native returns to Next for a second year, driving for Bill McAnally Racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West. The daughter of FMX legend and Monster Energy athlete Brian Deegan, Hailie was the 2016 Modified Kart champion in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and was named the Lucas Oil Off Road Driver of the Year.

    Riley Herbst (@rileyherbst), ARCA Racing Series – Returning to Next for a second year, Herbst is running full-time for Joe Gibs Racing in the ARCA Racing Series, where he won Rookie of the Year honors a year ago. The 19-year-old Las Vegas native captured his first big-track win last June at Pocono, along with six top fives and 10 top 10s.

    Derek Kraus (@derek9kraus), NASCAR K&N Pro Series West – The reigning NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Rookie of the Year, Kraus claimed his first win and a pole award, along with nine top fives and 10 top 10s in 2017. Driving full-time for Bill McAnally Racing, the 16-year-old Stratford, Wisconsin, native has already captured a fourth-place finish at New Smyrna and a win at Kern County this year.

    Chase Purdy (@chasepurdy12), ARCA Racing Series – Purdy returns to Next for a second year after capturing NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Rookie of the Year honors in 2017. The 18-year-old from Meridian, Mississippi, finished fourth in the standings last year, tallying five top fives and eight top 10s. This year, Purdy is racing full-time in the ARCA Racing Series for MDM Motorsports.

    Will Rodgers (@willrodgers65), NASCAR K&N Pro Series – The 23-year-old Maui, Hawaii, native made two NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts in 2017 and won them both. Starting on the pole at the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Sonoma, he finished runner-up to Kevin Harvick. Running all 14 races out west, Rodgers notched nine top fives and 12 top 10s, finishing fifth overall.

    Zane Smith (@zanesmith41), ARCA Racing Series – Back for a second year in Next, Smith, 18, from Huntington Beach, California, has captured his first two career ARCA victories early in 2018 (Nashville and Talladega). Smith finished ninth in the ARCA standings a year ago, posting two poles, seven top fives and 11 top 10s. In his initial foray in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, Smith ran twice in the East, posting top-10 and top-five finishes, and once in the West, scoring another top-five showing.

    Tanner Thorson (@Tanner_Thorson), NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – A former USAC Midget Champion, the 22-year-old Thorson brings his dirt racing experience to Next as he prepares to run various Touring Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races throughout the year. The Minden, Nevada, native also ran two ARCA races in 2017, claiming a top-10 finish in just his second series appearance.

    Ryan Vargas (@The_Rhino23), NASCAR K&N Pro Series East – Hailing from La Mirada, California, Vargas is competing full-time in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for REV Racing. The 17-year-old finished third overall in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series for California in 2017, racking up two wins, 15 top fives and 23 top 10s. Vargas is also a 2018 NASCAR Drive for Diversity class member.

    Since its inception in 2011, 39 of the 51 drivers who have been selected for the program have progressed to compete in one of NASCAR’s three national series, while a quarter have gone on to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

    The last four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Sunoco Rookies of the Year are NASCAR Next alumni, as are top contenders for the award this year: William Byron and Darrell Wallace, Jr. The last five Sunoco Rookies of the Year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and four of the last five Sunoco Rookies of the Year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series are also alumni of the NASCAR Next program.

    For more information, visit NASCAR.com/Next and make sure to follow the drivers on Twitter and on the track. Join the social conversation by using #NASCARnext.

    About NASCAR

    The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States. NASCAR consists of three national series (Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™, NASCAR Xfinity Series™, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series™), three regional series, one local grassroots series, three international series and the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). The International Motor Sports Association™ (IMSA®) governs the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship™, the premier U.S. sports car series. Based in Daytona Beach, Fla., with offices in eight cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. For more information visit http://www.NASCAR.com and http://www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (‘NASCAR’).

  • Case closed! Harvick soars to fifth win of 2018 with late surge

    Case closed! Harvick soars to fifth win of 2018 with late surge

  • Noah Gragson finds Truck Series paydirt with convincing Kansas victory

    Noah Gragson finds Truck Series paydirt with convincing Kansas victory

    Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. – There are times when redemption is swift and merciful.

    A week after throwing away a chance to win at Dover with a wreck of his own making, Noah Gragson scored his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of the season, beating his car owner, Kyle Busch, to the finish line in the 37 Kind Days 250 at Kansas Speedway.

    Starting from the pole for the second straight race, Gragson led 128 of 167 laps in his No. 18 Toyota, swept all the stages of the event and collected the second NCWTS victory of his career.

    “This is such a relief for a driver who had a hard week last week battling for the win,” said Gragson, who was running side by side with Johnny Sauter at Dover when he lost control of his truck and backed into the outside wall. “We came back strong this weekend. Two consecutive poles. We led the most laps today.

    “Man, this is a pretty damn cool moment.”

    After passing Busch and third-place finisher Stewart Friesen on Lap 157 — thanks to a four-tire call by crew chief Rudy Fugle during a green-flag pit stop on lap 134 — Gragson took the lead for good when Myatt Snider ran out of gas with five laps left.

    Snider was one of five drivers trying to stretch fuel to the end of the race. One by one they fell by the wayside, but not before muddying the waters in the closing laps.

    “After the pit stop, I thought I was going to be the leader, but they told me that (fifth-place finisher) Johnny (Sauter) was stretching it on fuel,” Gragson said. “So I said, ‘OK, maybe I’m running second.’ Then they said the 52 (Friesen) and the 4 (Busch) are a half a lap ahead of you.

    “And I thought that was for the lead when I passed the 4 and I passed the 52, and then they said the 13 (Snider) was the leader. And I said, ‘Dang, how many leaders are there going to be?”

    As it turned out Snider was the last one, and Gragson had come full circle from his mistake at Dover.

    John Hunter Nemechek came home fourth, followed by Sauter and Matt Crafton. Cody Coughlin, Grant Enfinger, Brandon Jones and Justin Haley completed the top 10.

    With 23 laps left, Friesen forced Busch down to the infield grass in the tri-oval, costing Busch a chance to pass the No. 52 Chevrolet and put distance between himself and Gragson.

    Busch had taken right-side tires only on his green-flag stop on Lap 139, and Gragson methodically caught his car owner, making what proved to be the winning pass with 10 laps left.

    “The truck felt good after about 15 laps, but it took too long to come in,” Busch said. “And there on that last run, we didn’t make enough adjustments. We took two tires and we got way too tight.

    “But awesome run by Noah and those guys. They deserve it—they’re fast. They needed a boost and they got one. They’re going to race for a championship, and hopefully, this will help them get going.”

    Sauter retained the series lead by 35 points over Gragson. The Camping World Truck Series’ next race is scheduled Friday, May 18 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    Race results 

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Kansas

    Full Weekend Schedule for Kansas