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  • Truex fastest in final practice

    Truex fastest in final practice

    CONCORD, N.C. — Martin Truex Jr. topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.972 and a speed of 186.387 mph. Kurt Busch was second in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 29.074 and a speed of 185.733 mph. Jimmie Johnson was third in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 29.126 and a speed of 185.401 mph. Joey Logano was fourth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 29.172 and a speed of 185.109mph. Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford with a time of 29.199 and a speed of 184.938 mph.

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was sixth in his No. 17 RFR Ford. Casey Mears was seventh in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet. Matt Kenseth was eighth in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Paul Menard was ninth in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-10 in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

    Truex posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 182.923 mph. Johnson was second at an average speed of 182.713 mph.

    All that remains is tomorrow evening’s Coca-Cola 600 at 6:00 on FOX.

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  • Edwards: ‘I’m so excited about the things that are coming at Kentucky and Michigan’

    Edwards: ‘I’m so excited about the things that are coming at Kentucky and Michigan’

    CONCORD, N.C. — Asked about his thoughts on the changes to the aero package being tested in the coming weeks, Carl Edwards said he’s “excited about the things that are coming at Kentucky and Michigan.”

    Speaking in the media center during his weekly media availability, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota gave some thoughts on the direction toward lower downforce and the quality of the racing this season.

    “It’s all right there, the proof is there, all year we’ve had awesome racing and we have close finishes,” Edwards said in response to being asked about how excited he is about the changes to the aero package. “I mean, yeah things didn’t go exactly as planned at the All-Star event, but that was a new format and a lot of unforeseen things happened, but the racing on the track was good and it’s been good all year. I already sent Steve O’Donnell (NASCAR executive vice-president and chief racing development officer) a thank you text. I’m so excited about the things that are coming at Kentucky and Michigan. NASCAR is doing that it takes, the teams are doing what it takes to go out and figure out how to make this the best racing it can be. This is going to be a blast. These cars, I’m telling you, when you drive them sideways at 200 mph and you’re closing on people and you’re able to pressure them and race like that, that’s as good as it gets. I’m very excited about Michigan and Kentucky, it’s like Christmas for me.”

    During last week’s All-Star Race, NASCAR tested smaller changes to the aero package such as welding the truck arm mounts, which had been in place since Kansas, reducing the number of brake fans the cars can use and not allowing teams to skew the rear-end of the car. The end result was racing that fans, drivers and media said was “excellent.”

    After the race, Senior Vice-President of Competition Scott Miller said that the truck arm welding and brake fan reduction will remain in place for the remainder of the season, but that the rear-end skew rule won’t be implemented for the rest of the season.

    Friday, NASCAR announced that further reductions to downforce will be tested in the upcoming FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway and the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. The changes include a reduction of the spoiler from 3.5 to 2.5 inches, a two-inch reduction in the size of the splitter and resizing the deck fin.

    When asked how surprised at how far NASCAR has come in a short span of time in regards to the changes in downforce, he said he’s “really happy with the way things are going, but I think its NASCAR’s job to run this sport the best that they can and they’ve done a really good job over the last 50 or 60 years. They’ve made this into what it is so a healthy dose of skepticism when a bunch of drivers come and tell you what they want probably serves them well. Right now, literally, I can go to anyone at NASCAR – Mike Helton or Brian (France) or Steve O’Donnell whether it’s through the council, I can go talk to them and there’s a lot of communication back and forth. It doesn’t mean we don’t get just as many penalties or black flags or whatever, the competition is still the competition, but it’s pretty neat right now that everyone wants to make the racing the absolute best it can be and people are listening. That’s all you can hope for.”

    He was also asked if there were any negatives to the package.

    “There are absolutely no negatives,” Edwards said. “This sport, to me, and I can speak as a fan – until I got that call from Jack Roush, this was just something I dreamed of doing and watched on television and the things that I grew up watching drivers do with these race cars. Like that picture with cars sideways and hanging it out, stock car racing, NASCAR racing is built on that. I can’t applaud NASCAR enough for going that direction. I don’t see any negatives. I think we’re just going to have better and better racing.”

  • Kurt Busch Fastest in First Practice at Charlotte

    Kurt Busch Fastest in First Practice at Charlotte

    CONCORD, N.C. — Kurt Busch topped the chart in the first Sprint Cup Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.002 and a speed of 192.843 mph followed by Jimmie Johnson who was second in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 28.235 and a speed of 191.252 mph. Carl Edwards was third fastest in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 28.266 and a speed of 191.042 mph. Kevin Harvick was fourth in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet with a time of 28.306 and a speed of 190.772 mph while Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.310 and a speed of 190.745 mph.

    Joey Logano was sixth quickest in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Martin Truex Jr. was seventh in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was eighth in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Jamie McMurray was ninth in his No. 1 CGR Chevrolet and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10 in his No. 18 JGR Toyota.

    Kyle Busch also posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 185.465 mph.

    The next time the Sprint Cup cars are on track will be tonight at 7:15 p.m. ET for three rounds of qualifying.

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  • Changes Coming to Aero Package for Michigan and Kentucky

    Changes Coming to Aero Package for Michigan and Kentucky

    CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR will test changes for the 2017 aero package in two races this season in their continuing effort to remove downforce from the cars and improve competition.

    NASCAR announced Thursday that modifications to the aerodynamic package will be implemented for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway and the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. These are designed to further reduce the amount of downforce the cars generate and lead to more improvement in the on-track product across the board in the Sprint Cup Series.

    “I think we look at it as a never-ending journey; if we can improve we’re going to do that,” Steve O’Donnell, executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said of continuing to make adjustments. “We wanted to go the direction of low downforce, see how that worked, not kind of go all the way in and hope that we are directionally right. And we are seeing that play out. We’ve seen some great racing at the beginning of the year.

    “But we also knew that we had some more levers that we could pull if the direction kind of proved out, so we’ve tried some of those things. We’ve tested it and what we’ve also wanted to do is lower some of the corner speeds to allow for even more passing. That was one of the areas where we’ve seen minimal change, but there are some levers we can pull to really drive that down.”

    The changes include reducing the spoiler size from 3.5 to 2.5 inches, a two-inch reduction of the splitter and resizing the deck fin.

    These are in addition to the changes already implemented in the past few weeks such as welding the truck arm mounts and reducing the number of brake fans the cars can run.

    “We have worked collectively on some directions we want to go in, but to do that right we think the final step is to let that play out on one or two tracks,” O’Donnell said. “And these are the two — Kentucky and Michigan — that we’ve played out and let the teams concentrate really on what they’ve done to prepare for the year. We think that’s manageable and that’ll give us enough data to look at for 2017.”

    This follows a trend NASCAR started last year where they tested the lower-downforce package currently being used at Kentucky and Darlington Raceway. Both races received rave reviews from drivers, media and fans.

  • Logano: ‘I thought the racing was significantly better than last year’

    Logano: ‘I thought the racing was significantly better than last year’

    CONCORD, N.C. — Giving his thoughts on the impact of the changes to the aero package, Joey Logano said “the racing was significantly better than last year.”

    In his post-race media availability, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was asked what impact the changes to the aero package had on his car and the race.

    “I thought the racing was significantly better than last year,” Logano said. “As a racer out there, I remember this race last year and I’d get trapped because all you can do is run the bottom. That was last year. On the bottom, on the bottom and it’s really hard to pass someone because you can’t get clean air. It was a lot of fun as a drivertonight to be able to move up the race track and find speed. That’s something here at Charlotte at night that is very rare. You don’t see that at night here at Charlotte very often, so I think taking the downforce off these cars, being able to move to the right side of a car and be able to continue forward progress was really nice. It was really fun to be a part of that.”

    In the past, the driver leading the race in the final segment would just drive off and the dirty air made it next to impossible to pass him. Not only was Logano able to run down Kyle Larson in the final segment, he was able to pass him as well.

    “I think it promoted a lot of side-by-side racing, a lot of passing. It took six or seven laps for the second lane to come in after the tires would wear a little bit, but the tires would definitely wear out, that’s for sure. There was definitely a lot of fall-off it felt like from inside the car and that’s what we want to see. That’s the reason for doing all this is to promote better racing, promote more tire fall-off. We saw that tonight. We saw a lot of side-by-side racing, saw a lot of fall-off. There was so much strategy that a lot of us didn’t know what was going on because there was so much strategy going on in this race, but that’s what it promoted. It promoted a lot of hard racing and I thought it was great.”

    Todd Gordon, Logano’s crew chief, was also asked about what impact he saw on the race.

    “I don’t know that I would say significant,” Gordon said. “I mean, Joey can answer from how they drive, but from a setup standpoint I thought it was something we could adapt to in 10 minutes or the 20 minutes of practice that we had. I think we’re all fairly smart to what’s going on. It was kind of an even loss for aerodynamic forces, so you didn’t have to make a huge balance shift in the car for it. It was something I think if guys had decent packages they at least had a foundation to build off of. I can’t speak for how they drive.”

    Logano was also asked about his thoughts on the format.

    “There was a point I came over the radio and said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t really want to know what’s going on. Let me drive the car and you call the race’ because I was confused,” he said. “All I know is if there’s a car in front of me, we should pass them. That’s kind of where my head was. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think it is. It’s complicated for this man (Todd), but not so much for me.  Sometimes the simple life is a little easier inside your race car. I had my hands full with enough things, so I was able to focus in on my job and Todd was able to focus in on his job. The whole falling back and trying to position yourself to the front didn’t really play because there were only two or three cars – I think a lot of cars got trapped on pit stops when the caution came out and they got trapped down a lap. It didn’t really play out like a lot of us thought it would when there are only three cars on old tires in front of you, so we got through them in the first corner and then it was like, ‘Alright.’ It was Larson and I for this thing. I felt confident that we had a very good shot at racing for the win when we were restarting there at the end.”

  • Joey Logano Earns a $1Million in Charlotte

    Joey Logano Earns a $1Million in Charlotte

    CONCORD, N.C. — Joey Logano will return home tonight a $1 million richer after winning in the Queen City.

    The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford out-dueled Kyle Larson in the final 13 laps to win the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Teammate Brad Keselowski finished second in his No. 2 Penske Ford while Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the podium in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    “Awesome race. I thought it went great. What a great car,” Logano said post-race. “It says a lot about our race team to unload today with a completely new package, have 10 minutes of practice and unload and say, ‘The car is pretty good. I don’t have much to say. We really made only one change on our car. That was about the only amount of time we had in practice was to make one change. It was the same for everybody, but, overall, I felt like our car was competitive.”

    He also spoke about the final laps and battling with Larson for the lead.

    “I knew we were gonna race really hard. It’s for a million bucks,” he said, “and I was able to, around lap six, move up the race track and find some speed. Obviously, Kyle saw that and he moved up and then I knew I was gonna have to make the bottom work somehow. Once I had position on him going into the corner I had to make sure I kept him on the quarter panel and not to the door. I knew he was gonna drive in to try and suck me around from the outside, and I knew I had to drive in to make sure he didn’t do that, and it was just good, hard racing there at the end. It was a lot of fun. He’s a heck of a racer. He’s gonna win a lot of races, that’s for sure, and it’s fun to race against him and it’s fun to see the youth in this sport. For me, starting eight years ago now, to see guys that are close to my age now and I get to race them for wins is a lot of fun.”

    Runner-up Keselowski described his finish as, “a decent night, but not the great night we wanted with the Miller Lite Ford ending up second. I’m pretty happy for my teammate Joey Logano. He kind of did exactly what you would expect out of an All-Star Race format and made a pretty incredible pass to win the race. I’m happy for Team Penske as a whole, but, of course, I wish it was me in victory lane.”

    Third-place finisher, Earnhardt, used the race as an opportunity to learn.

    “Yeah, we tried to come here and learn as much as we could to get better as a team,” he said. “Ninety percent of the setup in this car we hadn’t run this year. This is the race to try those things. Heck, we kind of came close. We didn’t have the speed those guys did on that last run. Right before that at the end of the second segment, I really loved our car. We’ll see how it works next weekend when we actually get to practice, try some things and change some things. We’ve learned a lot We’re still not as good as the 22 and the 2 at the end of this race but it’s better a run than we’ve had in the last several weeks.”

    Carl Edwards finished fourth in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and will be featured on the cover of “NASCAR Heat Evolution” this September for being the highest finishing Toyota driver.

    “I put my guys in a box by missing pit road,” Edwards said. “I tried to come to pit road with the 2 (Brad Keselowski) and the 42 (Kyle Larson) and it just didn’t look right to me so I thought, I’m going to go by and then I put us in that box where my pit crew had to do a really fast pit stop and one lug nut just wasn’t pulled all the way up. Then as it stood we got back up to the fourth position and if we would have had a caution there at the end, I think we had a shot at it. We were the top-finishing Toyota and I had forgotten about the video game cover so the top-finishing Toyota gets the cover of NASCAR Heat Evolution, which is pretty cool. We got something out of the night and really I had fun on those restarts. That was wild. I don’t know what it looked like on television.”

    Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

    Chase Elliott finished sixth in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet.

    “I was just very, very confused, I felt like, for the majority of the race,” Elliott said of his thoughts on the race. “We had a really good car until we got our damage there. We were trying to play the pit road game. You want to spend the least amount of time you can on pit road and that’s what everybody was doing. I was planning on pitting on that first lap after we got back going and it was just chaotic and if it was my fault and I didn’t do a good enough job getting out of the way, I’ll take the blame. I was just trying to get on pit road.”

    Trevor Bayne finished seventh in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and Greg Biffle finished eighth in his No. 16 RFR Ford. Denny Hamlin finished ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota while Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10 in his No. 18 JGR Toyota.

    Larson was understandingly disappointed after competing for the win, only to settle for a 16th place finish.

    “I hate that I keep letting my team down,” Larson said. “You know, they did everything right. They worked their tails off after I got all that damage in the Showdown and we had a really, really good Target Chevy and I was able to get to the front pretty quick there.

    “I was getting looser throughout the race. We were making adjustments  but I guess we just weren’t making big enough ones,  and just got loose and Joey caught me. He did a really good job side drafting me and tried to hang on to his quarter (panel) there  and I just got really loose as soon as I got down in the corner. We were going so fast I couldn’t correct it and drilled the wall. Really disappointed but congrats to Logano and their team.  I’m having fun, just, this will be hard to get over.”

    The race lasted one hour, 43 minutes and 40 seconds at an average speed of 98.103 mph. There were 13 lead changes among seven different drivers and four cautions for 18 laps.

  • Five Drivers Advance to All-Star Race

    Five Drivers Advance to All-Star Race

    CONCORD, N.C. — Five drivers have raced their way into the Sprint All-Star Race and a chance at a million dollars.

    Trevor Bayne, Greg Biffle and Kyle Larson raced their way into the main event by winning one of the three segments in the Sprint Showdown. Danica Patrick and Chase Elliott were voted by fans into the All-Star Race.

    Bayne got an excellent restart with one lap to go in segment 1, split Elliott and Ryan Blaney and took the lead to make his way into his second All-Star Race start.

    “That was pretty cool,” Bayne said. “That takes me back to Texas in 2011 in the XFINITY race when I restarted fourth and pushed Carl out before winning the race. I was thinking about what I could do and I timed the restart really good and got right to the 21’s bumper at the line and was able to get three-wide off of turn two. The car was pretty good there. In clean air I was alright. I was a little concerned with dirty air, but I got a run and went through the middle. It was a little sketchy squeezing through that hole, but it worked.”

    Biffle made his way into his 13th All-Star Race start, in part, by taking two tires during the first segment break.

    “Brian Pattie is a very, very smart veteran crew chief in this sport and it was his call,” Biffle said. “I was skeptical of it, trust me, but I tell you what, what really made the difference was we made a chassis adjustment, two left side tires, the car was really fast the last single lap that we made under green and I was able to pass four cars in one lap. Then we came down and the guys ripped off a great two-tire stop like a lot of other cars did and got us out third. Really, that’s what did it. I was being as aggressive as I could be, and I knew it was 20 laps and I knew that was my chance. The 3 car was a little bit loose and so was I, but I made some adjustments on my driving style and was able to get by him.”

    Bayne and Biffle making their way in ensured that a Roush Fenway Racing Ford made the All-Star Race for the 27th consecutive year.

    Larson edged out Elliott and they banged sides coming to the line. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com
    Larson edged out Elliott and they banged sides coming to the line. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com

    Larson edged out Elliott coming to the line in the final segment to advance to his first All-Star Race start.

    “Chase got to my inside there with 2 (laps) to go and I was able to run him pretty hard there and get him loose and was hoping I could hold him off to the checkered,” Larson said of the final lap battle. “I knew he’d get close. I didn’t know he would get that close there coming to the line. I had to squeeze him because I knew he was going to get the fan vote. He has a lot of fans. I knew Danica (Patrick) was going to get the fan vote also. And if Chase was to win, I wouldn’t be in. So, I had to do everything I could do to get to the start/finish line in first and luckily it paid off.

    “I was pretty loose there towards the end,” he added. “So, actually, when he got to my right side, my car drove better. I had no more grip or sideforce or whatever. We ran a decent corner but he was able to slow me down enough. And he had the run. I just had to squeeze him. So, I’m sure he’s upset with me. But, it’s a non-points race and we’re going for a million bucks. I felt like I had to get it done; especially knowing that he would be in the race and I wouldn’t.”

    “Kyle did what he had to do to beat us back to the line,” Elliott said. “We had a real good run. I hate to not to race your way in. That’s pretty frustrating on my behalf. I just didn’t do a very good job. Regardless, it was great to have some great fans to get us in this race because I couldn’t get it done for us.”

    Elliott and Patrick will start the All-Star Race after receiving the two fan vote spots.

    “First and foremost, thank you to the fans,” Patrick said. “The only thing that would make this any better is if I could deliver a great finish for them and an exciting race and pass cars and make the car better for next week. I definitely felt like there were some things we could learn from getting out there. Obviously, we got put in the challenging situation of having zero practice with the new package and just going out and racing. So, there were definitely some issues and we had to kind of Band-Aid them for the couple of segments that we had out there. But, I really want to do better. I feel like I was at the wrong place at the wrong time a few times out there.

    “But on the plus side, I felt like we learned about the car. Even if we didn’t make it through, we were going to be more prepared for next weekend. But, it’s just even that much better to know that I have incredible fans that always come through. Don’t think that I don’t see social media fans. And I see all the times that people said they voted for me. So, thank you very much. I hope I give you something fun to watch tonight.”

    The race lasted 54 minutes and 16 seconds at an average speed of 82.924 mph. There were three cautions for four laps and four lead changes among five drivers.

  • Keselowski Fastest in Final Practice

    Keselowski Fastest in Final Practice

    CONCORD, N.C. — Brad Keselowski topped the chart in the final Sprint Cup Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 26.121 and a speed of 192.027 mph followed by Carl Edwards who was second in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 28.121 and a speed of 192.027 mph. Denny Hamlin was third in his No. 11 JGR Toyota with a time of 28.139 and a speed of 191.904 mph. Kurt Busch was fourth in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.155 and a speed of 191.795 mph while Joey Logano rounded out the top-five in his No. 22 Penske Ford with a time of 28.169 and a speed of 191.700 mph.

    Jimmie Johnson was sixth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick was seventh in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. was eighth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Kyle Busch was ninth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-10 in his No. 20 JGR Toyota.

    Keselowski posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 189.349 mph. Johnson was second at an average speed of 189.181 mph. Harvick was third at an average speed of 188.958 mph.

  • Blaney: ‘You’re just going for a million dollars’

    Blaney: ‘You’re just going for a million dollars’

    CONCORD, N.C. — Ryan Blaney says it’s better that NASCAR would test new aero rules in an exhibition race because the drivers are, “just going for a million dollars.”

    During his media availability at Charlotte Motor Speedway earlier today, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was asked how the results of testing changes to the aero package would turn out in a non-points race versus a points race as NASCAR did last season at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway.

    “I think the reason why NASCAR wanted to do it in this race rather than a points race like we did last year was to just try it out and really kind of throw the teams a curveball when it doesn’t really have any points implications,” Blaney said. “You’re just going for one million dollars. I’m not saying you’re just going for one million dollars, it’s one million dollars, but I think it’s just better than throwing it out there in a points race. I don’t want to say it’s a test session, but it’s almost that way being a non-points race and everything like that.”

    NASCAR announced changes to the aero package for the All-Star Race. The changes include a reduction in the number of brake cooling fans cars can use, welding the trailing arm of the rear toe and setting the rear toe to zero at the start of the race.

    The brake cooling fan reduction is in response to teams using fans not to cool the brakes, but to suck air from the bottom of the car to increase downforce. The rear toe has been set to zero to reduce the amount of side force the cars generate. It’s only in place for this race.

    The welding of the trailing arm, however, will continue for the remainder of the season.

    “I think NASCAR is always trying to make improvements to racing, and they did that this year with the aero package, and I think they’re gonna do it this week with less skew package and the new rules package,” Blaney added. “The main point is just trying to slow these cars down in the middle of the corner. That makes for better passing, it makes more mechanical grip. You’re always gonna be relying on aero – always. I don’t care if you’re going 70 miles an hour, you’re always gonna have aero troubles and it’s not gonna be as good behind a car. But the more that we can do to try to put more mechanical grip in it and make aero not as big of an issue, the better it’s gonna be.”

    NASCAR has not announced whether the other two changes made will be used again next season.

  • NASCAR is Bringing Back the ‘Heat’

    NASCAR is Bringing Back the ‘Heat’

    CONCORD, N.C. — As part of bringing back the “Heat,” one driver from the Toyota camp will grace the cover of the next NASCAR game based on tomorrow’s race.

    Dusenberry Martin Racing announced today that the highest finishing Toyota driver in tomorrow night’s Sprint All-Star Race will be featured on the cover of NASCAR Heat Evolution. They unveiled some mock covers with all four of the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers and Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing. Carl Edwards was among one of the artist rendering covers.

    “I’m sitting here thinking of how strange this is for all of these things to converge,” Edwards said of the possibility of gracing the cover of the game. “As a race car driver right now at this point in my life and my career I’m out here in the All-Star event racing for a million dollars that Sprint put up and all of the stuff that goes along with it but growing up my only opportunity to drive a stock car like the one I drive now in reality was through video games. So, I played a ton of video games and I really loved driving games so it’s almost surreal to have the opportunity in my real capacity as a race car driver now to be driving for the opportunity to be on the cover of a video game that if a couple things hadn’t worked out that would be the closest I’d ever got to NASCAR.

    “So, it’s really neat, it’s an honor and I don’t think anyone has every partnered in the way Toyota has with a video game licensee and manufacturer the way they have. It’s just a cool opportunity and the game sounds really neat so I look forward to the opportunity to play it. It would be crazy to be on the cover. I hope I’m on it. It’s neat for you guys to have me be a part of this because truly I had so much fun growing up, and I still do, with the video game stuff. It’s such a neat way for the fans to experience our sport. We have a very rare sport or opportunity that’s rare in the sport because the drivers, the participants, all we do is we push the throttle pedals and we turn the steering wheel and people through video game technology experience that as close as any fans can experience any sport because of the simulation properties that you guys are so good at. It’s cool, it’s fun.”

    DM Racing will release the first official NASCAR game for the “next generation” of gaming console (XBOX 1 and Playstation 4) with NASCAR Heat Evolution on September 13, 2016. Being developed by Monster Games, who also made NASCAR Heat and NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona, it seeks to get back to the franchise’s roots with a thrilling racing experience for pros and rookies alike.

    It features all 23 tracks on the Sprint Cup Series schedule with all 36 races as well. It also includes every driver in the Sprint Cup Series right now. It’s unknown if the game will contain any of the classic cheat codes like “shooting tires” and enlarge tires with miniature car bodies.