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  • Martin Truex Jr. Wins Pole for the 2018 Auto Club 400

    Martin Truex Jr. Wins Pole for the 2018 Auto Club 400

    Martin Truex Jr. took the top spot in the final round of qualifying Friday to win back to back poles in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series, his first at Auto Club Speedway. Toyota Racing Development will share the front row with the efforts of Kyle Busch.

    Truex becomes the first driver to claim the pole with NASCAR’s new Cup level pole award sponsor, Anheuser-Busch.

    “It’s definitely cool to win that award and know the history behind it,” Truex said during his press conference. “Racing in the Busch North series, and my first big pole award was by Busch. It feels good to have that ‘throwback’ feel, and excited to get the first one when they came back with them partnering again with NASCAR and sponsoring the sport again, it’s exciting.”

    Truex and his team seemed to feel confident after the first practice earlier in the day when he posted the seventh fastest time. They opted to stay on a single set of tires throughout practice, and after Harvick’s rare mistake in Turn 2, the door opened for Truex to jump after the top spot.

    Kyle Busch came home with a runner-up to the pole and will start alongside Truex on the front row.

    “The TRD (Toyota Racing Development) guys down in Costa Mesa always put this one on the calendar. Proud of the effort to have two of us on the front row, and Erik [Jones] there in fourth. Overall, a good day for us with our Interstate Batteries Camry.”

    Kyle Larson was right on the rear bumper of Kevin Harvick across the first two qualifying rounds and had new competition in the final round. His No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro will start in the third position alongside a third TRD car of Erik Jones and Austin Dillon, rounding out the top five starting spots.

    “Decent qualifying run,” Larson said, who was earlier inducted into the Auto Club Speedway Walk of Fame. “We would have liked to have been on the pole but got a little tighter each run. That is kind of what ended up hurting us a little bit and lost some speed off Turn 2.”

    Kevin Harvick set the track record in the first round and was on his way to sweeping all three rounds of qualifying, but a mistake coming out of Turn 2 hurt his overall speed and time. He will start in the 10th position in his No. 4 Stewart Haas Ford Fusion behind Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Newman, respectively. The rest of the running order from the final round of qualifying included Brad Keselowski (11th) and Chris Buescher (12th).

    Only 24 cars made an attempt at qualifying in the first round, so all drivers advanced into the second round. This gifted a few drivers with a much higher than average start for Sunday’s race, including Chris Buescher (12th), Trevor Bayne (13th) and Matt DiBenedetto (18th).

    The notable team that did not make a qualifying effort was the entire camp at Hendrick Motorsports. Jeff Andrews, Vice President of Competition for the team, told FOX Sports about their struggle saying that all their cars had issues with the rear end of the car passing inspection.

    “No, they were all similar, in the same area of the car,” Jeff shared. “We’ve got to go back, we have to talk obviously, internally, and talk with NASCAR. We felt like we were making changes, obviously in the area affected and just we were not seeing the results when we went back through.”

    Other key drivers that missed the first round of qualifying were Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola, who were second and third fastest in the first practice, respectively. While Kyle Busch said it was a better question for the crew chiefs, Truex had his take on the substantial increase of failed inspections from 13 teams during qualifying.

    “I don’t really know what happened today or what guys were fighting,” Truex shared. “I think the biggest issue with the LIS is measuring the rear hub. You go across there four times, you get four different numbers, so I think for the crew chiefs, it’s a tough situation to be in. Nobody goes into tech expecting to fail or trying to fail, and sometimes you just get caught off guard.”

    The NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series will wave the green flag on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. local time for the Auto Club 400.

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Fontana

    Full Weekend Schedule for Fontana

  • 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”]

  • Brad Keselowski Captures the Checkered Flag in the DC Solar 200 at ISM Raceway

    Brad Keselowski Captures the Checkered Flag in the DC Solar 200 at ISM Raceway

    PHOENIX – Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 22 car for Team Penske, overcame a stage two pit road speeding penalty and multiple weather delays to outlast the field in the DC Solar 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at ISM Raceway. With Keselowski’s victory, Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske, became the winningest team owner in ISM Raceway history with 15 including six in NASCAR.

    “Brian Wilson (crew chief) made some great adjustments to the car and the weather kind of came to us with what we needed for how our car was handling,” said Keselowski. “It is good to see that work out for everyone at Team Penske with the Fitzgerald Glider Ford Mustang. It was a solid team effort. I wasn’t perfect today by any stretch of the imagination but the car was really strong. Really, really good for about 50-60 laps. The last 20 laps it would fall off pretty good but the guys made it count. I am really proud of them.”

    Keselowski had to endure two red flags for rain during the race. The first came on lap 47 at the end of Stage 1 and lasted for one hour and 34 minutes, and the second was at the end of Stage 2 for 25 minutes. In his second career NXS win at ISM Raceway, the Rochester Hills, Mich., native led 66 of 200 laps, including the final 22.

    “We wanted to make sure that the last lap was a quick one, so we didn’t want to put a wrench in the back window,” crew chief Brian Wilson said. “Listening to Brad’s feedback, he felt like on the green flag stop we didn’t need anything large. We only did air pressure and a little bit of fuel weight. Fortunately, the Fitzgerald Ford was able to pull away there and I think the balance was fairly decent at the end.”

    Justin Allgaier, the 2017 DC Solar 200 winner, earned the pole Saturday afternoon, and led a race-high 76 laps. The pit road strategy, due to four cautions and two red flags, led to 10 lead changes throughout the race. Allgaier finished second, and is now third in the NXS points standings through four races.

    Elliott Sadler had a hard-fought ninth place finish after starting the race from the back due to an engine change. With his top 10 finish, Sadler now leads the NXS points standings, one point ahead of teammate Tyler Reddick, who hit the wall during Saturday’s qualifying and had to go to a backup car.

    Only one other driver led more than eight laps, and that was Kyle Busch, who finished third. Busch took the lead shortly after the beginning of Stage 2 and stayed there for 38 laps. He finished one spot ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, rookie Christopher Bell, who also led five laps. Rounding out the top five was Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 42 car for Chip Ganassi Racing.

    The TicketGuardian 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race will begin on Sunday at 12:30 p.m., local time. Tickets for the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway are available and can be purchased online at ismraceway.com, by phone at 1-866-408-RACE (7223) or in person at the ISM Raceway ticket office.

    About ISM Raceway

    Since 1964, ISM Raceway has been the premier motorsports venue in the Southwest. As part of a $178 million modernization project, the track officially became ISM Raceway in January 2018 as a result of a naming rights partnership with ISM Connect, a pioneer in smart venue technology bringing the digital fan engagement experience to Phoenix. Founded as an open-wheel racing mecca, ISM Raceway is proud to host the Phoenix Grand Prix Verizon IndyCar Series race under the lights in April. Phoenix is the only track in the West to feature an IndyCar Series race and two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series weekends a year, beginning with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 500 race weekend on March 9-11. The schedule is anchored by the Can-Am 500 race weekend on Nov. 9-11, the semifinal race in NASCAR’s Playoffs after which the field is reduced to the final four championship contenders. For more information, visit www.ISMRaceway.com.

  • Martin Truex Jr. Claims Pole for TicketGuardian 500

    Martin Truex Jr. Claims Pole for TicketGuardian 500

    PHOENIX – Martin Truex Jr., the reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, started his quest for his first career win at ISM Raceway in the best possible way, claiming the pole on Friday for the TicketGuardian 500.

    This is Truex’s second career pole at ISM Raceway, with a lap of 136.945 mph. In 24 races at the one-mile oval, he has two top 5’s and eight top 10’s. His best finish was a third in last November’s Can-Am 500, during his incredible run to his first Monster Energy Series championship.

    The New Jersey native is trailed by three young guns who are also searching for their first win at ISM Raceway. Kyle Larson missed the pole by six one-hundredths of a second, and will start alongside Truex on the front row. Behind them are Chase Elliott and Tucson native Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports teammates who have each come up just short of a victory in the desert. Rounding out the top five is Joey Logano, the winner of the 2016 fall race.

    Saturday’s action features NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying at 11:05 a.m. prior to the DC Solar 200 beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 gets under way at 12:30 p.m.

    Tickets for Saturday’s DC Solar 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race and Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at ISM Raceway are available and can be purchased online at ismraceway.com, by phone at 1-866-408-RACE (7223) or in person at the ISM Raceway ticket office.

    About ISM Raceway

    Since 1964, ISM Raceway has been the premier motorsports venue in the Southwest. As part of a $178 million modernization project, the track officially became ISM Raceway in January 2018 as a result of a naming rights partnership with ISM Connect, a pioneer in smart venue technology bringing the digital fan engagement experience to Phoenix. Founded as an open-wheel racing mecca, ISM Raceway is proud to host the Phoenix Grand Prix Verizon IndyCar Series race under the lights in April. Phoenix is the only track in the West to feature an IndyCar Series race and two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series weekends a year, beginning with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 500 race weekend on March 9-11. The schedule is anchored by the Can-Am 500 race weekend on Nov. 9-11, the semifinal race in NASCAR’s Playoffs after which the field is reduced to the final four championship contenders. For more information, visit www.ISMRaceway.com.

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Phoenix

    Full Weekend Schedule for Phoenix

  • 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”]

  • Kyle Larson Dominates to Win Boyd Gaming 300

    Kyle Larson Dominates to Win Boyd Gaming 300

    Kyle Larson paced the field for 142 laps to earn his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Boyd Gaming 300.

    The final restart resembled closely that of the first start, as Larson pulled away from pole-sitter Christopher Bell after a late race caution for the final seven laps with a margin of victory of 0.881 seconds. The victory was Larson’s first of the season, ninth of his career and first at the speedway.

    “It was an awesome day,” Larson mentioned during his Victory Lane interview. “This car was so fast. It was really fast last year, but you really never know, and this was my first time racing with this new (composite) body, and it performed well.”

    The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet overcame a pit road issue that dropped him to eighth for a restart on Lap 139, but it didn’t take long to find his way to the front, pushing the issue three-wide to fight his way through the field quickly.

    “Normally my guys are some of the best on pit road,” Larson said. “They said the left-rear (tire) just wouldn’t come out (of the wheel well). I had been fighting a tight issue all day and then finally we got our car to turn better.

    “It allowed me to get to the lead fairly easily, and then I was saving fuel in case the race stayed green.”

    Larson and Bell have found themselves in this position before. They frequently battle each other on dirt tracks. During the off-season, Bell was the driver in Victory Lane in last November’s Turkey Night Classic and January’s Chili Bowl, one of the biggest midget races of the season. Bell was excited to see the friendly face extend their close competition into the stock car series.

    “That was really cool, and there will be a lot more of that,” Bell hinted, who beat Larson earlier in the event at the end of Stage 1. “We were close, running second to Kyle – if I’m going to run second to anyone, I guess I would rather it be him.

    “Special day, we were able to win a stage and get a Playoff point. We need to keep racking those up and get some race wins here.”

    As Bell mentioned, he did win a playoff point and becomes only the second Xfinity driver to earn any playoff points. As for Larson, his feelings about the competition with Bell were mutual.

    “It’s always fun to get to race Bell,” Larson said. “He seems to beat me all the time in the dirt stuff, and he edged me out there in qualifying. That first stage kind of felt like we were dirt-track racing there, swapping lanes and stuff. I was trying to take the air off him, and he got by, and yeah, it was fun.”

    As for the rest of the field, JR Motorsports had a strong showing with three of their four drivers finishing in the top eight with Justin Allgaier (third), Elliott Sadler (fifth) and Daytona 500 winner, Tyler Reddick (eighth). Kyle Busch, yesterday’s Camping World Truck Series winner, struggled all day with an ill-handling race car and faced a pit road penalty on his final stop when his gasman grabbed a tire. This year, the new rule states that they are only allowed to ‘kick’ a tire and fuel the car, and no other service is allowed to be done on the car or in the pit box. His No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota finished in a disappointing 14th position.

    Ryan Blaney, who will start on the pole for tomorrow’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, led 33 laps and finished in fourth. Cole Custer, who makes his Monster Energy Cup series debut tomorrow, finished in the ninth position. Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, and Spencer Gallagher also finished the weekend with top-10 results.

    Tyler Reddick and Elliott Sadler are tied at the top of the Xfinity Series points after three races. The Xfinity series will continue their west coast swing at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona next weekend on March 10. Tickets are still available for purchase on the track’s website at http://www.ismraceway.com/Buy-Tickets/NASCAR-Ticket-Prices.aspx.

  • Cole Custer to Make Monster Energy Series Debut in Vegas

    Cole Custer to Make Monster Energy Series Debut in Vegas

    Cole Custer will make his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He will run double duty for the weekend, driving the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford Fusion in the Cup series and competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race for Stewart-Haas Racing in the No. 00 Ford Mustang.

    “This is a dream come true to compete in the Cup Series,” said Custer. “I can’t thank Rick Ware Racing and Haas Automation enough for the opportunity to race at Las Vegas.”

    Some of Custer’s NASCAR resume includes becoming the youngest Truck Series pole winner ever at Gateway Motorsports Park in 2014. Later that season, he became the youngest winner in the history of NASCAR’s national touring series at 16 years, 7 months and 28 days when he won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. His first career Xfinity Series win came in the 2017 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, leading 182 of 200 laps.

    Rick Ware Racing has an honorable reputation for bringing new talent into the sport. Just this year, the team has given debut rides to Harrison Rhodes and Justin Marks, finishing 33rd and 12th respectively. Ware has been involved in motorsports competition for 27 years. He talked about scouting Custer and what led him to the decision to hire the up and coming driver to pilot the Cup series Ford car.

    “I’ve been watching Cole a long time and he’s a fine young man,” Ware said. “I’ve been friends with the Custer family for a while now and they are truly are amazing people. Over the last couple years, Cole has grown into a stout race car driver with a fine finesse for speed and rhythm.

    “The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is home of some of the greatest race car drivers in the world, and Cole definitely fits into that category. I think our expectations as a team are realistic and achievable. Getting Cole to the checkered flag is our top priority as a race team.”

    Custer has some experience at Las Vegas in NASCAR’s top three touring series. He finished third in the 2016 Truck Series race, 11th in the 2017 Xfinity Series race and ninth in Saturday’s race.

    “It’s going to be a new experience for me,” Custer responded, “but I feel that we can have a productive day by completing all the laps and seeing the checkered flag.”

    This will be Rick Ware’s 33rd race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series as an owner.