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  • Johnson’s playoff hopes end in crash

    Johnson’s playoff hopes end in crash

    Jimmie Johnson was a long shot coming into the Brickyard hoping to make the NASCAR Playoffs. And the No. 48 crew was below the cut line most of the race.

    At one point, the team caught a lucky break when a caution came out and Johnson was out front as the leader. However, the Hendrick Motorsports driver had to come down to pit road for his scheduled pit stop. Even with the pit stop, Johnson was able to finish eighth in Stage 2.

    Troubles arose when Stage 3 began as Johnson went to make a move in Turn 2 but eventually was turned and hit the wall. With the incident, Johnson was out of the race and his playoff hopes were over for 2019.

    “Yeah, it’s really disappointing. Unfortunately, we had a bad 25 races that led to the position we’re in here today and we needed a stellar day. I think we were having a strong day. I’m really proud of my team with what’s been going on.”

    When asked about the incident, Johnson said it was close racing.

    “The No. 1 car (Kurt Busch) had a little trouble on the restart. I’m on the inside going into the corner and it was just super tight. It’s unfortunate that happened. Certainly, it’s not what we needed on that restart. I couldn’t go below the white line and kind of got snipped there and turned around, and around and round we go.”

    This will be the first time in Johnson’s career that he has missed the Playoffs.

  • Brandon Jones rebounds to top-10 finish at Indy

    Brandon Jones rebounds to top-10 finish at Indy

    It was a whirlwind of a day for Brandon Jones and his No. 19 IK9 Toyota. Jones qualified on the outside pole on Saturday to give him great starting track position.

    The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was able to take the lead early, leading eight laps and winning the first stage. This would be the only the time Jones led the race. However he would remain consistent in the second stage and finished fifth.

    A big moment came for Jones on Lap 89 of 100, as the No. 22 of Austin Cindric would make contact with him sending Jones up the track in Turn 3. Jones had some damage to his No. 19 but the team was able to get back on track.

    “These guys at First Foundation and IK9 volunteers for their fight dogs, so I may have one for them after this race,” Jones said to PRN Radio. “It was just a racing deal, I held him (Cindric) fairly tight going into (Turn) 3 but also his job to control his car as well, so I’m putting it on him a little bit. All in all, Toyotas were really fast this afternoon and yesterday in practice, even qualifying we were 1-2-3.”

    Jones was able to rebound for a sixth-place finish in what would be his 12th top-10 finish of the season.

    “So that’s something to be proud of, I think our car was definitely the one to win the race. To fight back to sixth like that, I think that’s pretty impressive, so I was really proud of my guys all day today. They always stay behind me every race no matter what happens, so I wouldn’t want to be with any other team than I am right now.”

  • Allgaier comes up short going at Indy

    Allgaier comes up short going at Indy

    Justin Allgaier came oh so close of scoring two consecutive wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The JR Motorsports No. 7 driver qualified eighth and had a strong car all day long, finishing second.

    Allgaier remained consistent in Stage 1 and finished sixth. He was able to get out front to the lead when Stage 2 began and took the lead on Lap 53 for nine laps. He battled with the No. 2 of Tyler Reddick for several laps, changing the lead multiple times.

    Allgaier was able to get the best of Reddick, taking the lead and taking the Stage 2 win for 10 championship playoff points.

    After the stage break, the JR Motorsports driver remained out front in hopes of getting his second Indy victory. However, a new driver came to challenge him and that was All-time Xfinity win leader Kyle Busch. Like Reddick, the two would battle back and forth, hoping to get the best of one another.

    At one point, Allgaier got around Busch and led for 12 laps before the caution flew on Lap 80 to bunch the field back up again. As they always say, “cautions breed cautions” which most certainly came into play in the remaining laps.

    A late-race restart came with four laps to go, with Allgaier on the outside front row and Busch on the inside row. Busch got a better push then Allgaier did off the start. Despite staying close behind the leader, Allgaier scored a disappointing second-place finish.

    “The team deserves all the credit, JR Motorsports, Hendrick engine shop, everybody that touched these racecars,” Allgaier told PRN Radio. “You know, to come here to almost win three years in a row, almost back to back for ourselves with the 7 team says a lot about our program. Our car was so good on the long run. I knew those guys didn’t have anything for us on the long run, I knew if we could get out front we were going to be good and cautions breed cautions at the end.”

    “Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch Kyle (Busch). Kyle and all the Gibbs cars had fantastic cars all weekend. We saw it with their qualifying efforts. It’s just disappointing, I thought we were going to be there.”

    The second-place finish earned Allgaier his 10th top five of the season and his third second-place finish this season. The JR Motorsports driver sits fourth in the points standings, 138 behind leader Tyler Reddick.

  • Jeb Burton gets emotional top five finish at Indy

    Jeb Burton gets emotional top five finish at Indy

    It’s not very often you get to see Jeb Burton compete in the Xfinity Series, but when he does, you can expect him to bring the best out of the car and run up front. The same was seen today at Indianapolis.

    Burton, the son of former NASCAR driver Ward and the nephew of Jeff, was back in his first start at Indy since his last one two years ago in 2017, where he finished 19th. Burton was hoping to better that finish today, but this time driving the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevy.

    The Halifax, Virginia native was making his fifth Xfinity Series start of the 2019 season. Burton had a decent qualifying spot of 12th for the No. 8 machine. From there, he worked hard to be up front and in contention for the lead. However, at a track where track position means everything, it was difficult going in Stage 1 where Burton finished the same spot he started in which was 12th.

    Throughout the race, the team made continuous adjustments to the car hoping it would get Burton out front. At one point in Stage 2, Burton was running as high as third and was not saying a word to his team with 10 laps left in Stage 2.

    Burton remained in the top five at the end of Stage 2, where he finished fourth. When the third and final stage came, the JR Motorsports driver was reporting that he was needing more grip to help the car out.

    It wasn’t until a caution came out with seven laps to go when Burton would get his lucky break. After the extensive clean up due to an accident, Burton was lined up right behind race leader Kyle Busch. When the race went back green with four to go, Burton pushed Busch out front to the lead.

    However, despite being up front at the end, Burton had to settle for an emotional fourth-place finish.

    “It wasn’t by myself for sure, we had a good hot rod,” Burton said to PRN Radio. “Sorry, a lot of emotion man, to finish fourth at the Brickyard. We ran there all day, we didn’t get lucky and just finished there. Appreciate the State Water Heaters, LS Tractors and ALSCO. We’re going to win before it’s over with, we just gotta keep digging.”

    It was Burton’s second top-five finish of the season and the third of his career.

  • Eckes takes home dirt win at DuQuoin

    Eckes takes home dirt win at DuQuoin

    After falling short to his teammate Michael Self last time on a dirt track, Christian Eckes broke through and won the Southern Illinois 100 for the first time in his career. The Venturini Motorsports driver took the lead on lap 10 and never looked back, as Eckes led 91 laps en route to victory.

    “I don’t know if you can call me a dirt track expert just yet,” Eckes laughed in victory lane. “I tried to drive Springfield and DuQuoin like dirt tracks last year and burned everything off the car I could. We tried some new things here tonight and I drove the track more like a pavement track and it really paid off.”

    Dirt track ace Ken Schrader was back in the field for the first time since Gateway last year. Schrader qualified his No. 52 Federated Auto Parts Toyota on the pole with a time 33.62 seconds. By qualifying first, Schrader set a new record in the ARCA Menards Series by being the oldest pole winner in ARCA. It was Schrader’s 22nd of his ARCA career.

    Though, Schrader was out front for only the first lap as he struggled to get back to the front, especially the top five. On lap 2, the No. 16 of Kelly Kovski took the lead for a short while and led for eight laps, before Eckes took the top spot on lap 10.

    Only two cautions slowed the pace in the Southern Illinois 100. One on lap 33 for debris on the back stretch and the final caution on lap 46 also for debris.

    Despite the cautions, nothing could stop the Middletown, New York native who had a flying pace and never let the lead up. Eckes went on to take his third win of the season, thus getting him back into the title fight.

    Ecke’s other teammate and dirt track standout, Logan Seavey wound up second after starting 10th in the race he won last year. Seavey was disappointed with the runner up finish.

    “It stinks coming back here and finishing second,” Seavey said. “We worked our way to the front and caught a good break in traffic to get past Michael but we didn’t quite have enough to close in on Christian.”

    Rounding out the top three finishers was Chad Bryant Racing’s No. 22 driver Corey Heim. Heim placed third in his first time at the fairgrounds in DuQuoin.

    It’s a little bittersweet,” Heim said. “We should have finished no lower than third at Springfield but ended up seventh. We had a great night here today but I would have liked to have started a little closer to the front. If we qualified a little better we wouldn’t have had to have worked so hard to get to the front and might have had a shot at running Christian down for the win.”

    Michael Self, Kovski, Riley Herbst, Travis Braden, Schrader, Bret Holmes and Ryan Unzicker rounded out the top-10 finishers in the Southern Illinois 100.

    There were two cautions for 12 laps and three leaders among two lead changes.

    With the win, Eckes sits second in the points just 105 points behind his Venturini Motorsports teammate Self.

    Up Next: The ARCA Menards Series takes a short break before returning on-track at the short-track at Salem on Saturday Sept 14.

    Official Results

    1. Christian Eckes, led 91 laps
    2. Logan Seavey
    3. Corey Heim
    4. Michael Self
    5. Kelly Kovski, led eight laps
    6. Riley Herbst
    7. Travis Braden
    8. Ken Schrader, led one lap
    9. Bret Holmes
    10. Ryan Unzicker
    11. Joe Graf Jr, One lap down
    12. Bobby Gerhart, Four laps down
    13. Tommy Vigh Jr, Four laps down
    14. Tim Richmond, Seven laps down
    15. Carson Hocevar, OUT, Overheating
    16. Brad Smith, OUT, Overheating
    17. Tyler Speer, OUT, Overheating
    18. Will Kimmel, OUT, Overheating
    19. Dick Doheny, OUT, Handling
    20. Wayne Peterson, OUT, Suspension

  • NASCAR reinstates Tyler Dippel in Gander Outdoors Truck Series

    NASCAR reinstates Tyler Dippel in Gander Outdoors Truck Series

    Staff Report | NASCAR.com

    NASCAR reinstated Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver Tyler Dippel after an indefinite suspension on Aug. 23.

    Dippel was originally suspended for violating the Member Conduct Guidelines, specifically Section 12.1 of the NASCAR Rule Book, a behavioral penalty for “actions detrimental to stock car racing.”

    Dippel, 19, took to his Facebook page to explain the incident, citing he and a passenger had been pulled over for changing lanes without proper signal driving home from Orange County Fair Speedway on Aug. 18 in New York. Upon a requested search of Dippel’s truck by the trooper during the traffic stop, prescription medication was found in a friend’s backpack who was not present at the time.

    According to Dippel, the trooper initially charged him with criminal possession of a controlled substance, but those charges were dropped in a Wallkill, New York, court on Wednesday morning after presented evidence proved his innocence.

    The No. 02 Young’s Motorsports driver missed Sunday’s Gander Trucks race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. D.J. Kennington filled in and finished 15th.

    Dippel is cleared to return when the Gander Trucks head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the World of Westgate 200 on Friday, Sept. 13 (9 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).

    Read Dippel’s full statement via Facebook below:

    I would like to start by apologizing to my fans, Young’s Motorsports, NASCAR, Gander Outdoors, our partners, and my family and friends for the grief this situation has caused. Due to an ongoing investigation we have not been able to speak on the topic until today.

    On August 18, while driving home from the Orange County Fair Speedway, I was pulled-over for changing lanes without proper signal. The trooper asked my passenger and myself if we had been using drugs and we responded with “no” – because we hadn’t. The trooper continued to question us and then asked to search the vehicle, which I gave him my consent as I had nothing to hide. In the back of my truck was a friend’s backpack who was not with us containing his prescription medication. Because it was in my vehicle, I was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance. Upon my appearance ticket, I contacted NASCAR within hours to inform them of the situation. Due to the NASCAR rule book and code of conduct, they ruled to suspend me indefinitely. I respect their decision.

    Early this morning, at the Town of Wallkill Court, the charges against me in this case were dismissed. We presented proof that the prescription was not mine and the person that the prescription belonged to accepted responsibility for leaving them in my vehicle.

    I along with my team will work closely with NASCAR to hopefully be reinstated so I can be back in the Young’s Motorsports No. 02 Chevrolet. I take full responsibility for my actions.

    Thank you again to everyone who has supported me. I look forward to seeing everyone soon.

    Sincerely,
    Tyler Dippel

  • Germain Racing: Crew chief Matt Borland suspended for violating Substance Abuse Policy

    Germain Racing: Crew chief Matt Borland suspended for violating Substance Abuse Policy

    Staff Report | NASCAR.com

    Matt Borland, crew chief of the No. 13 entry driven by Ty Dillon in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, has been indefinitely suspended for a violation of the sanctioning body’s Substance Abuse Policy, according to Germain Racing.

    The organization made the announcement Monday, and NASCAR officials confirmed the suspension later in the morning. Borland said in a statement released by the team that he was notified last weekend of a positive test for the banned substance DMAA (2-amino-5-methylhexanamine). He and team owner Bob Germain Jr. said a derivative of the substance was an ingredient in a diet coffee that he had been using regularly for the last six months.

    “I gave the doctor all of the details of the coffee and ingredients, and after he researched it, he said he thought that this was the cause,” Borland said in a statement provided by the organization. “Even after doing my due diligence, I felt comfortable in drinking the coffee. I plan to work with NASCAR to figure out what exactly has happened and resolve this issue as quickly as we can. I will cooperate with them and do whatever is requested of me to make this situation right.

    “I have worked in the NASCAR garage for 20 years now and have never been a part of anything like this in my life. I take full responsibility for this incident and want to get it taken care of completely.”

    Borland will need to complete the NASCAR Road to Recovery program to be reinstated. Justin Alexander, who was crew chief for Austin Dillon’s Daytona 500 win last season, will step in as interim crew chief for Ty Dillon.

    Borland is in his second season with the Germain team. He has 13 victories at the Monster Energy Series level — all paired with driver Ryan Newman.

    Germain said he supported his crew chief in his efforts to return to the sport.

    “Based upon the ingredients label we do not believe that Matt had reason to know that the coffee contained a banned substance,” Germain said. “However, we also understand and respect NASCAR’s decisions to strictly uphold their policies for each and every owner, driver and crew member in the garage. As an organization, we stand behind Matt. He has been and remains an integral part of our race team and we look forward to his return to the garage and pit box.”

  • Creed and Hill have Top Five outing at Canada

    Creed and Hill have Top Five outing at Canada

    Starting 17th, Sheldon Creed had a lot of ground to make up at the road course in Canada. It wasn’t easy for him in the first Stage as he finished 15th. However, the team had him stay out for Stage 2 in order to gain track position. Creed restarted the second stage in fourth.

    Under a Lap 31 yellow, the team elected for him to come down pit road for tires and fuel. While this would put him in the back for Stage 2, Creed is out of the Playoffs. Stage points do not matter at this point in the season but pit strategy is everything.

    By staying out under the Stage 2 break, he was able to have another good starting position for the final stage by restarting sixth. Creed quietly remained in the top five until the checkered flag flew, where he finished fourth.

    “Just focus on the windshield, I had cars behind us, I think 16 (Hill) and the 45 (Chastain) started battling,” Creed told MRN Radio. “Good finish for how our weekend started. I wrecked the primary in second practice. These guys worked hard putting the back up together last night and started in the back, and try to learn as much as I could. I’m just happy with our finish here, fourth place. Battled with our teammate pretty good there at the end, he ended up locking it and kind of handed me the pass, but want to thank my guys.”

    “Chevy, GMS, everyone that helps me out and can’t wait to come back next year.”

    The fourth-place finish was Creed’s third top five of the year.

    While Creed isn’t in the Playoffs, Austin Hill is and he was looking for a good points day coming into Canada below the cut line.

    Hill qualified sixth Sunday morning and started out consistent. He finished the No. 16 HRE truck in third place in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2. For the final stage, he had his work cut out for him, restarting 10th after making a pit stop under the stage break.

    However, the Georgia native was able to come back and finish fifth, rounding out the top five finishers at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in what seemed like a quiet race by Hill.

    “Our Don Valley North Toyota Tundra was really good all day,” Hill said to MRN Radio. “We struggled a little bit on center turn, getting it pinched and being able to put the throttle down with the steering wheel straight. but all in all, it was a good points day for us. I think if we were going to win, we were going to have to short pit and we wanted to go for stage points instead of short-pit because who knows if you would have won the race.”

    “All in all, to come home with the top five, that’s what we needed to do and going to Las Vegas, we’re going for another win.”

    Hill sits fifth in the playoff points standings, +5 with one race to go in the Round of 8.

  • Keselowski frustrated with top-five finish at Bristol

    Keselowski frustrated with top-five finish at Bristol

    Although he led laps early in Stage 3 and finished third at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday night, Brad Keselowski was disappointed with his top-five outing.

    “We had a car capable of contending for the win, we were leading and got tore up,” Keselowski told PRN Radio. “Got the most speed out of the Miller Lite Ford but had to settle for third which isn’t what we wanted, but not a bad day, just not the win I thought we could have been able to get.”

    Keselowski qualified 13th on Friday afternoon and it didn’t take him long to get to the front in Stage 1. The Team Penske driver finished eighth in Stage 1 and eighth again in Stage 2.

    The No. 2 driver worked hard all night to get the front dodging accidents. It wasn’t until the final stage when we saw Keselowski up front for good, swapping the lead multiple times with Kyle Busch. Keselowski managed to get out front on Lap 265 and led for 85 laps. He took the lead three more times while battling side-by-side with Busch.

    From that point on, he was trying to catch the race leaders in search of this third Bristol victory. However, Keselowski will have to wait another year to do so as he wound up with a third-place finish. He is currently fourth in the playoff points standings, -138 behind leader Kyle Busch.

  • Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney score solid runs at Bristol

    Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney score solid runs at Bristol

    Chase Elliott debuted a new paint scheme featuring Hooters Spirits Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway in his eighth start at the track. He was hoping to bring home a popular win for the fans.

    It all started with qualifying on Friday afternoon with Elliott qualifying sixth. He was consistently strong throughout the race, even leading at some points.

    In Stage 1, the Georgia native finished second while he finished sixth in Stage 2. Elliott avoided the accidents and kept his car clean for the most part. On Lap 131, he took the lead and led for 33 laps, the only time he led the race. However, Elliott was up front late on the final restart, before making slight contact with Erik Jones.

    Elliott had to slow down and swerve to miss Jones which caused him to lose some momentum and he was never able to get back up to the front to fight for the win. In the end, the Hendrick Motorsports driver finished sixth for his 10th top-10 of the 2019 season.

    “We were a little off from being perfect all weekend,” Elliott said to PRN Radio. “The guys did a great job in the pits. you know we had track position all night long, I just never did anything with it really. Executed really nice, just needed to do a little bit better to do something. We kept lining up on the top, kept gaining spots on pit road, that’s all you could ask for.”

    While it was a quiet night for Elliott, Ryan Blaney had an adventurous night that saw him finish 10th.

    Blaney fought multiple challenges throughout the night. The first challenge came on Lap 231 when he had to check up to avoid making contact with the 52 of Kyle Weatherman. Blaney was also involved in a big wreck on Lap 373 as he shot straight up the track when a right-front tire went down.

    Despite Blaney being caught up in a wreck, he was able to rebound to a 10th place finish in what had been a long night.

    “Multiple things, but not wrecking,” Blaney explained to PRN Radio about his night. “Got in a big wreck right there, cut a right front (tire). Just misjudging where the 8 (Hemric) was. Throughout the race, I just kind of got loose and cut my right front. I think it blew his left rear too. I got into a big pileup there, but luckily we were able to fix it. Just keeping up with the racetrack and struggling a little bit, I’ll have to do better next time.”

    The 10th place finish was Blaney’s 11th top-10 finish of 2019.