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Recapping ‘Monday Madness’ in NASCAR

Daytona must be getting closer as Monday was filled with news concerning the quickly approaching NASCAR season. From a deadly duo ready to battle for the Nationwide Series’ Owner’s Championship to a retired driver set to take some laps at Daytona, the day in news never let up.

Sam Hornish Jr. to Compete in 7 Races for JGR’s No.54 Nationwide Series Entry

Sam Hornish Jr. announced today that he will compete in seven NASCAR Nationwide Series races for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2014. He will be behind the wheel of the No.54 car in the events Kyle Busch does not compete in. Hornish Jr.’s first race will be at Talladega in May.

After finishing runner-up to Austin Dillon in the Nationwide Series standings last season, Hornish Jr. was left without a ride for 2014 due to lack of sponsorship. Hornish Jr. will not have a chance at redemption for the driver’s championship but he will play a crucial role in the No.54 car’s owner’s championship bid. The No.54 car came up short on the owner’s title last season but a revamped effort for 2014 makes them an early favorite to capture the crown.

Chase Elliott Partners with NAPA, JR Motorsports for Full-time Nationwide Series Ride in 2014

Chase Elliott was able to announce his plans for the future today. After losing Aaron’s as a sponsor following the 2013 season, Elliott went sponsor hunting in order to continue his racing career. Rick Hendrick and Elliott met with NAPA towards the end of 2013 and now NAPA will sponsor him full-time in his first Nationwide Series season. Elliott will get behind the wheel of the No.9 NAPA Chevrolet in 2014. The deal with NAPA is a multi-year agreement.

Elliott initially broke the record for being the youngest winner in NASCAR history last season until Erik Jones broke the record again in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) season. Elliott competed in a select number of NCWTS events last season, but no Nationwide Series races due to the age limit. The now 18 year-old will be able to compete for the Nationwide Series title in 2014 as he continues building his racing career.

David Reutimann Out at BK Racing, Bowman, Truex Considered Favorites for Ride

BK Racing announced today that they have mutually split ways with David Reutimann. Reutimann had competed for the team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the previous two seasons.

With Reutimann gone, a ride has opened at BK Racing. It is unknown whether BK Racing will terminate the ride or if they will sign a new driver. Alex Bowman tested the No.83 car at Charlotte last month. Bowman will also test the car later this week at Daytona. He is currently without a ride for 2014 and appears as the favorite for the No.83 car.

Ryan Truex’s name has also come up as he will test BK Racing’s No.93 car at Daytona. Truex is currently under contract with Richard Petty Motorsports.

Bill Elliott to Test No.5 for JR Motorsports at Daytona

On the heels of the Chase Elliott announcement, JR Motorsports laid out their testing plans for Daytona International Speedway. With Dale Earnhardt Jr. unavailable, Bill Elliott will be behind the wheel of the car Earnhardt Jr. will pilot at the Nationwide Series season opener in February. Elliott’s last NASCAR venture came in 2012 when he raced a Turner-Scott Motorsports entry in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. According to JR Motorsports, this is a one-time deal.

January 7, 2014
Kyle Busch Thanks Lord, Wife, and Gas Man for New Hampshire Nationwide Win

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, was giving thanks in Victory Lane to everyone from his higher power, lovely wife and probably his gas man for helping him survive three green-white-checkered restarts to score the Nationwide Series win in the CNBC Prime’s The Profit 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

This was Busch’s 58^th victory in 258 Nationwide Series races, his seventh win in 2013, and his fourth victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“We didn’t want to have those late restarts,” Busch said. “We felt like we just had enough fuel to make it to the end and then everything keeps happening where guys keep wrecking and spinning to cause the cautions.”

“Besides the hiccup on pit road, we showed our strength and am just glad we were able to take the checkered flag first,” Busch continued. “All in all, we had a great race car today.”

Busch and his crew chief Adam Stevens admitted that fuel was of paramount concern, especially with the multiple green-white-checkered restarts. But they were able to not only have enough to do a burnout but also to drive the car into Victory Lane.

“I knew we had a buffer of fuel but I didn’t know exactly how much,” Stevens said. “When you get down to the small numbers, the calculations get a little bit fuzzy.”

“We kept him out there as long as we felt safe to set it up for that situation at the end,” Stevens continued. “That’s what sealed the deal for us.”

“We pitted two laps after Brian (Vickers, runner up) so that was part of it,” Busch said. “Brian and the No. 3 car were racing really hard to beat each other too.”

“That all just compounded the fuel situation,” Busch continued. “I bet you there’s still probably a couple of gallons left in our tank.”

Busch also tied Sam Ard’s record for wins from the pole in a season set in 1983, with this his fourth win from the Coors Lite Pole in 2013.

“Wow, every time I get in Victory Lane there’s some sort of record that I tie or break,” Busch said. “That’s cool.”

“Sam was a huge part of the sport and so there’s been a lot of records that I’ve been able to tie or break of his,” Busch continued. “It’s been fun to do.”

“We still pay heritage to those that have made this sport and it is guys like Sam that have done a lot of great things for the sport,” Busch said. “Even down the road, maybe somebody’s going to break my records.”

“Records are always made to be broken so we’ll see who will be better than me.”

Brian Vickers, behind the wheel of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, finished in the runner up spot. This was his second top-10 finish in three races at New Hampshire and his ninth top-10 finish of the season.

“It was a good run,” Vickers said. “The guys did their homework back at the shop and we had a good starting spot.”

“We had a really fast car until we had the overheating issue,” Vickers said. “I got some trash on the grill and that definitely hurt us.”

“Once we got that off the grill when the caution came out, we were much better,” Vickers continued. “But the third green-white-checkered, we started to run out of gas and I completely ran out coming to the finish line.”

Austin Dillon captured not only the third place, his second top-10 at New Hampshire, but also secured the $100,000 Dash for Cash winnings for himself and the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet team.

“This race played out exactly like last year’s did for us,” Dillon said. “We didn’t get the track position we wanted after the first stop and then had a four-tire stop and the car just came to life.”

“Super excited to win the Nationwide Dash for Cash,” Dillon continued. “With all those restarts and so close on fuel, I just thank the good Lord above for keeping fuel in that thing for us.”

Brian Scott, driver of the No. 2 ShoreLodge Chevrolet, finished fourth and then a bevy of Ford Mustangs, driven by Michael Annett, Trevor Bayne and Sam Hornish Jr., finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

“This was a great run for Richard Petty Motorsports,” Annett, driver of the No. 43 Pilot Travel Centers Ford, said. “We came back at Charlotte after the injury and just had the worst racing luck I’ve had since I’ve been in the Nationwide Series.”

“Finally, nothing stupid happened and we kept our nose clean and brought home a top-five.”

“We were 15^th with five to go so to come out sixth was a good day,” Bayne said. “Overall it wasn’t a great day though because I felt like we had a car that could win the thing.”

“To come out of here sixth, I will take it.”

“Our Ford Mustang was awesome today,” Hornish Jr. said. “We were really good on a long run.”

“We didn’t have any fall off which would have made us really good but we just didn’t get the run we needed to toward the end.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 99 SchoolTipline.com Toyota, was the highest finishing rookie, scoring the tenth spot in the race.

“I think if anybody would have told me I would be sitting in the media center after how we were in practice and at the beginning of the race, I would have laughed,” Bowman said. “We never gave up and my crew chief made a lot of good calls and some people decided to take themselves out at the end.”

“So, we were able to capitalize on the opportunity and come home in tenth.”

With his eighth place finish, Regan Smith, driver of the No. 7 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet, now has a five point advantage over Sam Hornish Jr. in the point standings. The Nationwide Series will next race at Chicagoland Speedway next week.Kyle

July 13, 2013
Dillon Makes Nationwide Series History at Michigan

Driver of the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet, Austin Dillon, captured the Coors Light Pole Award for the 22^nd Annual Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway. With a qualifying lap of 37.523 seconds, 191.882 mph, Dillon broke the track qualifying record of 190.375 mph, which he set at Michigan last year. This is Dillon’s seventh pole in 57 NASCAR Nationwide Series races. Today’s pole award marks Dillon’s fourth consecutive pole, which sets a NASCAR Nationwide Series record. Dillon’s previous three poles came at Charlotte, Dover, and Iowa with top ten finishes in both Dover and Iowa.

Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Paul Menard, will be starting in 2^nd position. The 22^nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 marks Menard’s first NASCAR Nationwide Series start of 2013. This is the fourth top-10 start out of eight races at Michigan International Speedway.

RAB Racing driver, No. 99 Alex Bowman, was the fastest qualifying rookie for the 22^nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250. Bowman will be starting in fifth position driving his St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Toyota.

Last week’s winner of Iowa’s Dupont Pioneer 250 and newlywed, Trevor Bayne, will be starting in fourth position in the Roush Clean Tech Ford. Bayne has six top-10 finishes this season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and is currently 9^th in points standings.

Nationwide Series points leader and driver of the Taxslayer.com Chevrolet, Regan Smith, didn’t fare as well in qualifying for the 22^nd Annual Truck Parts 250. He will be starting in 20^th position with ten top-10 finishes this season and one win at Talladega Superspeedway.

Sprint Cup Series regular, Kyle Busch, who has dominated the Nationwide Series this season will be starting in 14^th position in his Monster Energy Toyota. No. 54 Busch has won three Nationwide Series pole awards, and has had nine top-10 finishes with six wins in 2013. Busch has one win and four top-10 finishes at Michigan International Speedway.

The green flag will fall on the 22^nd Annual Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan on Saturday at 2:15 pm EST.

June 16, 2013
Chad Hackenbracht First Time ARCA Series Winner At Pocono

[media-credit name=”Gary Buchanan” align=”alignright” width=”184″][/media-credit]Chad Hackenbracht, driver of the No. 58 CGH Motorsports Chevrolet, became the second first time winner of the day at Pocono Raceway, scoring his first ever ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards win.

Hackenbracht used some ‘Tricky Triangle’ strategy to claim victory in the Pennsylvania ARCA 125, his first win in 42 career starts.

“I’m not sure what to think,” Hackenbracht said. “My parents weren’t able to make it to this race so I’m not sure if we’ll let them come to any others.”

“Those last ten laps, I was just waiting for the caution,” Hackenbracht continued. “But finally it all played to our advantage and we finally got the monkey off our backs.”

“I can’t thank everybody enough.”

Brennan Poole, pole sitter and driver of the No. 25 Cometic Gasket/Midas-Venturini Motorsports Toyota, was runner up to Hackenbracht.

“Well, we just couldn’t take a chance in pitting that early and not being able to run all 50 laps,” Poole said. “We didn’t have a caution at the end and Chad’s strategy paid off for him.”

“We were close, but came up a little short on fuel strategy.”

Poole did, however, secure the points lead and is ahead of the field by 15 points. And he is looking forward to the rest of the season, at tracks where he has been good before.

“We’re going to a few great tracks for me so I’m looking forward to that,” Poole said. “I just have great people around me.”

“The Venturini Motorsports is a family and it’s a blessing to be able to work with them,” Poole continued. “I’ve had some of the most fun racing than I ever have this year.”

Alex Bowman, behind the wheel of the No. 22 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Dodge, came in third.

“It’s definitely frustrating with as good as we were in practice,” Bowman said. “We just came up a little bit short.”

“We got tight and fell back to 3^rd or 4^th,” Bowman continued. “We made up ground on the green flag pit stop but got beat on strategy.”

Frank Kimmel, driving the No. 44 Ansell-Menards Toyota, finished fourth and fifth place went to Chris Buescher in the No. 17 Reliance Tool-BeavEx Ford.

August 4, 2012
Alex Bowman wins ARCA Menards Pole Award for Mobile International Speedway

[media-credit name=”ARCA Racing Network” align=”alignleft” width=”345″][/media-credit]Last year, Alex Bowman impressed everybody as he won in both his ARCA Racing Series starts. So far this year, he has a 30^th place finish at Daytona International Speedway. Bowman is now looking to turn things around at Mobile International Speedway.

He is off to a good start as he led practice and won the Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell. He drove a qualifying lap of 17.547 seconds to put his No. 22 Dodge for Cunniongham Motorsports on the pole for the first time.

“We have a great eBay Motors and St. Jude’s Dodge,” the 18-year-old from Tucson, Ariz said after qualifying. “I can’t thank all the guys at Cunningham Motorsports enough. I’ve always been terrible at qualifying, quite honestly, and for us to get a pole definitely shows how good the car is. We’ll definitely have a good race car tomorrow. Look for us up front.”

Bowman credits the success to a test earlier in the year.

“We came here and tested a few weeks ago, and it’s a pretty neat place,” he said. “It’s like Madison, and similar to Motor Mile (in Virginia).”

16-year-old Chase Elliott will start his first ARCA race on the front row along side Bowman, driving the No. 9 Aaron’s Dream Machine/Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet. Elliott, the son of NASCAR Champion Bill Elliott, has turned heads so far with his success. Last year in the K&N Pro East Series, he scored three top-fives and six top 10s in 12 starts. In 2010, he scored 13 victories, 29 top-five finishes, 39 top-10s and six pole awards in 42 Late Model starts. One of the notable accomplishments was winning the Miller Lite Series at Mobile International Speedway.

Starting third will be another rookie as Eric Jones will become the first 15-year-old to start an ARCA Racing Series race, driving for Venturini Motorsports.

ARCA recently changed the age limit from 16-year-olds to 15-year-old for drives to compete on tracks one mile in length or shorter. To compete on tracks bigger than one mile, drivers need to be 18 years of age or order.

“We started off on new tires and worked really hard on the whole package, the drivability of the car,” the Bryon, Michigan native said after practice. “It was fast, just not quite the feel we wanted. We worked through the whole practice and finally got what I wanted.

Jones comes into the ARCA Series with a lot of success, as he won the 2011 JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Championship, winning at Rockford Speedway and Owosso. He also won the prestigious Governor’s Cup, leading every lap in the super late model race in Florida.

Brian Keselowski and Ryan Reed rounded out the top five, followed by Chad Hackenbracht, Brennan Poole, Matt Lofton, Cale Gale and Grant Enfinger. Nine-time ARCA Champion Frank Kimmel starts 11^th with Southern short track star Bubba Pollard in 12^th.

The 200-lap, 100-mile Mobile ARCA 200 will begin at 2 p.m. Central tomorrow, with live timing and scoring and live audio coverage available at ARCARacing.com. WNTM Fox News Radio 710 AM (Mobile) and WTDR Thunder 92.7 FM (Talladega) will produce and air the broadcast for ARCARacing.com, and also air the race to a network of Alabama radio stations. The race is scheduled as the second of 20 this season.

March 10, 2012