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  • Martin Truex Jr. Wins Busch Pole at Richmond

    Martin Truex Jr. Wins Busch Pole at Richmond

    Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    RICHMOND, Va. – After a dismal two weeks that saw the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. crash out of races at Texas and Bristol, Truex found a welcome stroke of success on Friday at Richmond Raceway.

    With a lap at 123.859 mph (21.799 seconds) in the final round of knockout qualifying, Truex claimed the Busch Pole Award for Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 (6:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), edging Chase Elliott (123.621 mph) for the top starting spot by .042 seconds.

    MORE: Full starting lineup | Best 10-lap averages at Richmond

    The Busch Pole Award was the third of the season for Truex, who will make his 450th career start in the Cup series on Saturday. The pole is his first at the .75-mile short track and the 18th of his career.

    Truex was happy for the rebound from the calamities of the two previous races.

    “You can’t let those kinds of things get you down,” said Truex, who has turned pole wins into race wins in two of his last three attempts (October 2017 at Kansas and March 2018 at Fontana). “It was nothing we did. It was just circumstances. But I’m proud of the effort today. Everybody did a great job, we stayed focused on our plan, and it worked out.”

    A standout on 1.5-mile intermediate speedways, where he has collected nine of his 16 career wins and seven of his last nine, Truex is still seeking his first victory on a short track.

    “If we’re ever going to get that short-track win, I feel like this is the place to do it,” Truex said. “We’re excited about Saturday night, and starting out front definitely helps.”

    Starting on the front row for the first time this season, Elliott placed more weight on one of the perks of an outstanding qualifying effort.

    “I think more than the front row is the pit stall selection,” said Elliott, who will get second pick behind Truex. “Obviously, we know Martin will be good. He ran really well here both races last year. I would have loved to have had that first pit stall.

    “We were just talking (about it being) so frustrating to be so close to something once again. Just trying to finish stuff off, and I think that obviously would have loved to have gotten the pole, but starting second is plenty good enough to run well in the race, so we will see.”

    Joey Logano, whose last victory came at Richmond last spring (albeit later devalued by penalty), qualified third at 123.581 mph, just .007 seconds behind Elliott. After fighting severe handling problems throughout practice, Denny Hamlin nevertheless claimed the fourth spot on the grid.

    Kyle Larson and Kurt Busch were fifth and sixth, respectively.

    For a race that could extend his Cup winning streak to three events, Kyle Busch and his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team were overly conservative in the first round, posting the 32nd fastest speed and failing to advance.

    “We didn’t make a mock-run in practice, and we thought the spread would be about three-tenths,” Busch said. ” … A bunch of those guys ran three laps, and obviously, we needed that third lap. It would have picked up. For some reason the tire here today, even in race trim, your fastest lap was the seventh lap. It takes a while for everything to come in, and we were trying to shortcut it a little bit and didn’t work out for us. So we’ll come from the way far back.”

    Likewise Brad Keselowski, with a career-average starting spot of 9.8 at Richmond, failed to survive the first round. He’ll start 28th on Saturday night.

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Richmond

    Full Weekend Schedule for Richmond

  • Ragan Fastest at Bristol in Final Cup Series Practice

    Ragan Fastest at Bristol in Final Cup Series Practice

    BRISTOL, Tenn. — David Ragan topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford clocked in at a time of 15.051 and a speed of 127.487 mph.

    He held the top spot for virtually the entire 50-minute session.

    Occupying spots 2-5 were Chase Elliott, who timed in at 15.100 and 127.073 mph, Denny Hamlin, who timed in at 15.109 and 126.997 mph, Kurt Busch, who timed in at 15.164 and 126.537 mph and Michael McDowell, who timed in at 15.193 and 126.295 mph.

    AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, Kasey Sahne and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the Top-10.

    Kurt Busch comes to a stop on the apron, after his car hit the inside wall on the backstretch in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com

    In the closing minutes of the session, Kurt Busch broke loose exiting Turn 2, spun down the backstretch and hit the inside wall. His team rolled out the backup car, so he’ll start from the rear of the field tomorrow afternoon.

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  • Full Weekend Schedule for Bristol Motor Speedway

    Full Weekend Schedule for Bristol Motor Speedway

  • Monster Energy to Remain Entitlement Sponsor of NASCAR Premier Series Through 2019

    Monster Energy to Remain Entitlement Sponsor of NASCAR Premier Series Through 2019

    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 10, 2018) – NASCAR® and Monster Energy have signed an agreement that will extend the entitlement sponsorship of NASCAR’s premier series. The extension keeps NASCAR and Monster Energy partners through 2019. As part of the agreement, the brand also continues as the Official Energy Drink of NASCAR.

    “NASCAR and Monster Energy enjoyed a productive first year and both parties have benefited significantly from the partnership,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer. “Monster Energy successfully utilized our sport as a platform to elevate its brand and drive business, while introducing NASCAR to new audiences. With this renewal, we look forward to building upon our early success.”

    “Over the past year, NASCAR’s passionate and brand loyal fan base embraced Monster Energy and we are excited to be able to continue to build on and strengthen that momentum through 2019,” said Rodney Sacks, Monster Beverage Chairman and CEO. “Racing is in our DNA and extending this partnership further establishes Monster Energy’s prominence in motorsports.”

    The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Food City 500 on Sunday, April 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

    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™), four regional series, one local grassroots series and three international series. 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 www.NASCAR.com and www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (‘NASCAR’).

    About Monster Beverage Corporation

    Based in Corona, California, Monster Beverage Corporation is a holding company and conducts no operating business except through its consolidated subsidiaries. The Company’s subsidiaries develop and market energy drinks, including Monster Energy® energy drinks, Monster Energy Ultra® energy drinks, Monster Energy Extra Strength Nitrous Technology® energy drinks, Java Monster® non-carbonated coffee + energy drinks, Espresso Monster™ espresso + energy drinks, Caffé Monster™ energy coffee non-carbonated drinks, Monster Rehab® non-carbonated energy drinks with electrolytes, Muscle Monster® energy shakes, Übermonster® energy drinks, Monster Hydro® energy drinks, NOS® energy drinks, Full Throttle® energy drinks, Burn® energy drinks, Samurai® energy drinks, Relentless® energy drinks, Mother® energy drinks, Power Play® energy drinks, BU® energy drinks, Nalu® energy drinks, BPM® energy drinks, Gladiator® energy drinks, and Ultra Energy® energy drinks. The Company’s subsidiaries also develop and market Mutant® Super Soda drinks. For more information, visit www.monsterbevcorp.com.

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Texas Motor Speedway

    Full Weekend Schedule for Texas Motor Speedway

  • Jimmie Johnson looking to end drought at Texas Motor Speedway

    Jimmie Johnson looking to end drought at Texas Motor Speedway

    It’s safe to say the 2018 season hasn’t been particularly kind to Jimmie Johnson thus far. The seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series winner hasn’t tasted victory in 29 races, which is shocking considering his remarkable consistency in the past. Johnson has won 83 races over the course of his Hall of Fame-caliber career, but he’s been mired in a lengthy drought of late. In fact, it is the longest winless streak of his career to this point.

    Of course, that streak could be coming to an end in short order. Johnson will have a chance to break the streak this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, or next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Johnson is the defending champion at both events, and he has enjoyed massive success at Texas Motor Speedway in the past. As such, he’s a heavy favorite to win.

    Johnson may be the best driver Texas Motor Speedway has ever seen. He has won seven Cup events at TMS, which is the most all-time. He’s also racked up 15 top-five finishes and 21 top-10 finishes in his 29 starts at the Fort Worth track. Johnson is additionally the all-time leader in laps led at TMS (1,041) and he boasts a top-10 career average in finish (8.8) and starting position (9.4).

    It would be a gross understatement to say he’s comfortable with his surroundings at Texas Motor Speedway. Finding a good betting strategy is key if you want to make good on your wagers. Based on his decorated history at TMS, Johnson looks to be about the safest bet on the board, in spite of his extended recent slump.

    Johnson may have a little added motivation, as the first 30,000 fans that attend the race will receive a commemorative Jimmie Johnson bobblehead in honor of his 2017 victory at the same event. If nothing else, the bobblehead aspect may even add more pressure to the driver’s need to break his losing streak.

    While he did win at Bristol last season, Johnson hasn’t enjoyed nearly as much success in Tennessee as he has in Texas. Johnson has just two wins at Bristol, the first of which came way back in 2010. That said, he has shown some improvement. Johnson has finished 11th or better in six of his last seven trips to Bristol, including two second place finishes, the most recent of which was in 2015.

    Johnson needs to turn things around at some point. He’s just 17th in the standings as of this writing, though he has turned things around since his inauspicious start. Johnson wrecked at the season-opening Daytona 500, which put him in a points deficit from the get-go. Johnson has finished in the top-15 in each of his last four outings despite the fact that he has not led for a single lap at any event all season long. His best finish thus far was his ninth-place effort at the Auto Club Speedway in California last month.

    While the season hasn’t gone his way quite yet, Johnson isn’t giving up. Last week, he took to Twitter to share a quote from New York Yankees legend Babe Ruth, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” Johnson added, “I couldn’t agree more and can’t wait to get back to the track.”

    The O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 will get underway from Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on Sunday, April 8, at 3pm Eastern Time.

  • Driver Ego: The Key to Building a Successful Racing Series

    Driver Ego: The Key to Building a Successful Racing Series

    The Stephen Cox Blog is Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    The easiest way to increase car count in short track racing and amateur road racing is to keep your drivers happy. Really happy. Fortunately, there is a very effective and affordable way to do that.

    It was four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, August 29, 2004. It was blazing hot at the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit just outside of Tulsa. Although we missed the setup and were posting slower-than-usual lap times, we won the GT-2 qualifying race after the leader retired with a broken supercharger belt.

    I climbed out of the race car drenched in sweat, knowing that I’d won a race I didn’t deserve. The track owner, the late Mike Stephens, was setting up victory lane and preparing to hand out trophies to the day’s winners. I stopped by to chat with him just before the main event and jokingly asked which trophy was mine. Mike laughed and then responded with some of the most truthful words ever uttered in motorsports.

    “Stephen, I’m not in the racing business. I’m in the ego gratification business. I promise we’ll take care of you.”  

    World Racing League championship ring

    The racing driver in me doesn’t like to hear that, but it’s true. Drivers want to participate in events that reward their ego. They’re interested in events that leave behind detailed records so that future generations can see and recognize their efforts.

    Records matter. Even the small ones. Heat race wins, track records, qualifying race wins, entry lists… these things are important to many racing drivers. They want to know that the series keeps careful records that will be made widely available and preserved long after their careers are over.

    Some may call this nothing more than childish ego. Your drivers and teams will consider it an honest, justifiable pride in years of hard work. But ultimately, what we think doesn’t really matter because human nature remains the same.

    The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is now re-writing their record book to include drivers who won A-main races during multi-day events. Previously, drivers who had won feature races on anything other than the final night of the event weren’t credited with official wins. Now they are. This brings a host of new, officially recognized winners into the record books. It makes a lot of drivers and teams very happy, and it didn’t cost the World of Outlaws a cent.

    World Racing League president Joey Todd offers a championship ring to the winners of the U. S. Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas every December. Almost every racing driver I’ve ever met would trade all the trophies and accolades he’d ever earned for just one championship ring.

    It’s also a smart public relations move because a ring is worn regularly and continues to advertise for the series for decades to come. Championship rings hold a special mystique. Nobody gets a ring for participation. Few people will ask about a trophy after it disappears into a closet, but everyone wants to know, “Hey, how did you get that ring?”

    Midvale Speedway has begun posting the names of their track record holders on the front page of their website. It gives drivers something to shoot for. It shows that the series is interested in promoting their own teams and recognizing achievement at their track. It’s a great move that costs the track nothing.

    Every racing series and local track should have a master record book that is digitally distributed at no charge to the racing media, permanently posted on the series website and sent to every online racing database after each season. It should include every team and driver possible, and every record imaginable.

    It costs nothing to include short track heat race wins, track records and class champions in your record book, but your teams and drivers will take notice. They will appreciate the recognition.

    For better or worse, I really believe that Mike Stephens was right. We’re not in the racing business. We’re in the ego gratification business.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, FIA EPCS sports cars and Super Cup Stock Car Series

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • John Hunter Nemechek Edges Benjamin for Truck Series Win at Martinsville

    John Hunter Nemechek Edges Benjamin for Truck Series Win at Martinsville

    Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    MARTINSVILLE, Va. — In a race delayed for two days by a freak snowstorm in southern Virginia, John Hunter Nemechek charged to the front on a restart with 31 laps left on Monday and held off Kyle Benjamin to win the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race by a mere .106 seconds.

    The victory was the first at Martinsville for Nemechek, who had two previous runner-up finishes at the .526-mile short track. This time, despite Benjamin pounding his rear bumper in the final corner, Nemechek earned the grandfather clock trophy that goes to the race winner.

    “I’ve finished second here multiple times so, tick, tock – we finally got a clock,” Nemechek said. “It’s going to be awesome to take that thing home.”

    Nemechek picked up his sixth career win in the Truck Series in his third start of the season, and he did it with a skeleton staff at the race shop owned by his father, Joe Nemechek.

    “I can’t thank everyone on our staff enough – everyone who pours their heart and soul into this deal,” Nemechek said. “There’s only four guys in our shop this year, so it’s really cool to be able to come back over here to the Truck Series …

    “Congrats to all these guys – these guys deserve it.”

    After Nemechek grabbed the top spot on Lap 220 of 250, he held it through three subsequent cautions. Nemechek cleared Benjamin after the final restart on Lap 244, and though Benjamin closed on the No. 8 Chevrolet over the last seven laps, finally getting to the bumper in the final corner, he needed a few more laps to make a concerted run at the victory.

    “We had a really good truck, mostly for long runs, and unfortunately, it came down to a short run,” said Benjamin, who was making his Martinsville debut. “It’s Martinsville, so I figured I had to give him a run for his money in the last corner.”

    Benjamin had a lead of more than one second over Todd Gilliland when a debris caution slowed the race on Lap 214 and gave Nemechek the chance he needed on the subsequent restart. The shuffling of the order, at least, alleviated one case of divided loyalties.

    David Gilliland was co-owner of the No. 54 Toyota Benjamin was driving, and his son Todd was behind the wheel of the No. 4 Toyota of Kyle Busch Motorsports. After the restart on Lap 220, Todd Gilliland brushed the wall and lost track position with a pit stop under caution on Lap 234. He finished 14th.

    Pole winner Ben Rhodes led the first 23 laps on Saturday before rain and snow halted the race. With heavy snow falling Saturday night and early Sunday morning, NASCAR was forced to postpone the finish until Monday.

    Rhodes won both the first and second stages of the race, collecting two playoff points, but severe trouble with his right front tire on a Lap 145 pit stop after the second stage dropped him to 15th in the running order.

    Rhodes never recovered from the loss of track position and came home 12th.

    Johnny Sauter lost two laps changing a battery after losing power on Lap 224 and getting rear-ended by Matt Crafton. Sauter finished 19th but retained the series lead by 29 points over Grant Enfinger, who ran fourth on Monday.

    Brett Moffitt, who pitted late for new tires, fought his way up to third at the finish and is third in points, 31 behind Sauter.

    Noah Gragson, Myatt Snider, Timothy Peters, Harrison Burton, Austin Hill and Justin Haley completed the top 10 in Monday’s race. 

     

  • 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

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