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Sports

Jimmie Johnson returns to NASCAR as part owner, driver

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AVONDALE, Ariz. — — Jimmie Johnson’s NASCAR retirement and IndyCar experiment lasted all of two seasons.

The seven-time NASCAR champion is returning in 2023 to the series that made him a global motorsports star as the part-owner of Petty GMS. He’ll also enter about five Cup races.

Johnson told The Associated Press that his first race will be the season-opening Daytona 500, where he’s a two-time winner.

“I’ve had a watchful eye on the ownership part and what’s happening with NASCAR, and the opportunity that I have here, the business structure and the model with NASCAR charters is just so different from than anything else in motorsports,” Johnson told the AP. “I want to be part of it. We certainly watched Michael Jordan join, what the Trackhouse Racing folks have done, and there’s all these rumors of people who want to get into the sport.

“I’m honored and thankful that I’m going to be part of it.”

His car number and sponsors — and maybe even the current Petty GMS name — are all a work in progress for Johnson, who turned 47 in September.

On his bucket list are the Coca-Cola 600, a race he’s won four times, and he’d love if NASCAR made him eligible for the 2023 All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina.

Johnson also said he still wants to do “The Double” of the Indianapolis 500 and Coke 600 on the same day, but he’s on hold as Chip Ganassi shapes the organization Johnson left after two seasons. But, even if an Indy 500 ride materializes, the All-Star race would conflict with Indy 500 qualifying. And, he’s now part owner of a Chevrolet team, so that would theoretically prevent him from racing with Ganassi, a Honda team.

Johnson made his Indy 500 debut in May and although he proved decent on the IndyCar ovals — he skipped them his first season — the road and street courses were a struggle and he admitted to being burned out at the end of the full season. He said he’d step back from full-time racing and was eyeing a bucket list of about 10 events, most likely including the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a NASCAR representative.

When he came to that late-September decision to step away, Johnson insisted he had no idea what he wanted to do next.

It took about six weeks for Johnson to get back into NASCAR through conversations initiated by the management firm shared by Johnson and Erik Jones, the Petty GMS driver he just inherited.

Johnson said he had no talks with Hendrick Motorsports about ownership opportunities as the GMS deal came together out of the blue. He told the AP alerted Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon of his plans. Johnson drove 20 years for Hendrick and won 83 Cup races in the No. 48 Chevrolet.

“This is a tremendous day for our sport. Jimmie is one of the all-time great champions on the racetrack, and I know he’ll apply the same mentality to his role as a team owner,” Hendrick said in a statement. “… Seeing Jimmie in a firesuit with his name on the roof of a Chevrolet at the Daytona 500 is going to be very special for a lot of people. Competing against him will certainly be a change, and a big challenge, but we welcome his return to NASCAR and look forward to the next chapter of a truly remarkable career.”

Johnson’s seven championships ties him with Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt, both Hall of Famers. He made his announcement with GMS founder Maury Gallagher on Friday at Phoenix Raceway, where he retired from NASCAR after the 2020 season finale. The Hendrick Motorsports torch was passed that day when Chase Elliott won the Cup title — Johnson finished fifth, best of the non-title contenders — and Johnson began chasing his IndyCar dream. He had not been to a NASCAR race since that 2020 finale.

Now he wants back in and with a bigger piece of the action. He gets it with Petty GMS, an upstart two-car team funded by Gallagher, chairman of Allegiant Air, and fronted by Petty.

Jones in September gave “The King” his 200th win in the famed No. 43 car, and before this deal was struck, the team had already decided to dump Ty Dillon for firebrand Noah Gragson next season.

The speed in which the deal was completed was astonishing to both Gallagher and Johnson, and Gallagher told the AP that Johnson, like Brad Keselowski at RFK Racing, financially purchased his stake in the team and won’t be a figurehead.

“Jimmie is just a tremendous guy and in my older age, I value relationships as much as anything,” Gallagher told the AP. “I’m more of a background guy. I want Jimmie and Richard to be the faces of the organization, help on the economics and the operations is just a big bonus.”

GMS has in about a decade has grown from a Truck Series team into a first-year Cup organization that acquired Richard Petty Motorsports and its 85-year-old Hall of Fame namesake. Even though Jones has been competitive and won at Darlington, it didn’t qualify for the playoffs and Gallagher said GMS has been overshadowed by Justin Marks, who in his second season as owner of Trackhouse Racing has driver Ross Chastain in Sunday’s championship race.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP–Sports



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Sports

Kyle Larson Throws a Wrinkle Into a Lesser-Known NASCAR Championship Battle

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Casual fans, the ones who know Kurt and Kyle Busch have both won NASCAR championships but couldn’t necessarily tell them apart in side-by-side photos, are trying to get their arms around why 36 cars will start Sunday but only eight are in the playoffs.

It happens every year, and veteran fans help them understand the reality of sponsorship money and how sending eight cars to the starting grid would make for phenomenally boring racing, even on a short track like Martinsville.

And then Kyle Larson comes along and turns the Championship 4 into the Championship 5, where he could win the race and lots of money for his team but not succeed in defending the title he captured a year ago in Phoenix.

Pass the aspirin, please.

Kyle Larson has thrown a wrinkle into the NASCAR owners’ championship

Kyle Larson celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Oct. 23, 2022. | Jared East/Getty Images

Sunday’s race at Martinsville pares the drivers in the round of eight down to the quartet that will compete for the Cup Series tile the following weekend in Phoenix in what NASCAR calls the Championship 4. Joey Logano is already in because he won two weekends ago in Las Vegas. However, Kyle Larson added a level of complexity to the scheduled proceedings in Phoenix on Nov. 6 by winning over the weekend at Homestead-Miami.

The crazy finish at the Charlotte Roval in the sixth playoff race eliminated Larson from the driver playoffs but didn’t knock his No. 5 Chevy out of the hunt for the owners’ championship. We can thank Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney for that quirk.

In a normal season, the driver and owner competitions amount to one and the same. But when Busch announced he was not physically able to participate in the playoffs (he qualified by winning at Kansas), it opened the door for Ryan Blaney. Blaney will have his work cut out for him this weekend, but he’s still in the hunt for the drivers’ championship.

However, points in the owners’ championship standings apply to the car and not the driver. Busch’s No. 45 Toyota had enough points to continue competing for the owners’ championship, and 23XI Racing moved Bubba Wallace into Busch’s car to vie for the title.

Though Blaney has made it to the final eight in the drivers’ championship, his car hasn’t been part of the owners’ playoffs. That allowed Larson’s No. 5 Chevy to remain one of the three Hendrick Motorsports cars in the top eight even after his misfortune in Charlotte. That’s how the win at Homestead-Miami put that car into the owners’ Championship 4.

Complicated? Absolutely.

The owners’ championship is a big deal in NASCAR

The highest-placing Championship 4 driver at Phoenix will earn the crown Kyle Larson snared a season ago with the help of a flawless final pit stop. With it comes a wild celebration, followed by TV appearances, and likely an endorsement opportunity or two. There is likely also bonus money spelled out in his contract with the team and sponsors.

However, the real money at stake is tied to the owners’ championship because those standings are the basis by which NASCAR distributes a large, albeit unspecified, percentage of its purse money.

Hendrick Motorsports knows going into Phoenix that Larson’s car can finish no lower than fourth in the owners’ standings. With Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevy and William Byron’s No. 24 Chevy still in the running, HMS is staring at a potential lucrative windfall.

Meanwhile, there are two other ongoing tiers of competition. The 12 cars that made it into the owners’ championship playoffs but don’t qualify for the Championship 4 can finish anywhere from fifth to 16th in points. That’s why 23XI Racing called on John Hunter Nemechek to sub for Bubba Wallace in Kurt Busch’s No. 45 Toyota – You got all that? – over the weekend at Homestead-Miami. It’s also why Hendrick summoned Noah Gragson to fill in for Alex Bowman this month. The HMS No. 48 Chevy may be 15th in the owners’ standings now, but two strong showings could boost that car to as high as 10th. That means more money for HMS.

It used to be a lot more complicated in the ‘old days’

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Sports

Kyle Larson wins NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway

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What drivers said during and after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 playoff race at Homestead-MIamiSpeedway, where Kyle Larson won for the first time:

Kyle Larson — winner: “Yeah, definitely the best run we’ve had all year long. We’ve been capable of it I feel like many weekends, we just haven’t quite put it all together. (Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) gave a great speech this morning and got us all ready to go and focused and did my best to keep it out of the wall. I got in the wall a few times but I could still make speed doing that. Amazing race car. I knew that that last run was going to be short enough where I was going to be in some sort of trouble there, but thankfully AJ and Ross were racing hard behind me.

“But yeah, happy for our team, and we get to go race for an owner’s title in Phoenix in a couple weeks. We’re still technically not out of it. I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team. We’re going to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.

(On the contact with Martin Truex Jr.  in the pits) “Yeah, so I was just going behind him, and he had a hard left and was hard on the brakes at the same time, and I ran right in the back of him. My team said he was late turning into his stall, but I don’t know. If it was my fault, I’m sorry. I don’t think it was. But it’s hard to see down this pit road. I don’t know if fans and people realize, when you’ve got debris all over your windshield, the sun is shining straight in your face, it’s hard to see your stall. So hate that that happened. He was definitely the one I was going to have to beat. He was really good that last long run, too.

“What a fun day. I’ve always wanted to race here during the day at Homestead where we could rip the wall. Finally have a car tough enough for me to be able to run the wall and finish the race. A lot of fun today. Hope you fans enjoyed the ass-kicking there, and hope we can do it again in a couple of weeks.”

Ross Chastain — Finished second: “Not the way you would have scripted it. I feel like we had a top-three or four car all day, all weekend, and a little too tight in qualifying, and come behind that with a driver that chose the complete wrong lane in 3 and 4, against everything I’ve ever trained for and prepared for. Qualified 20th, and it took us all day long. We need to get the car turning better from qualifying into the race. We were too tight. Phil Surgen and his whole team got it turning better, and pit stops were incredible again. Our guys were just — they’re just rock stars on pit road, and I’m so glad to go to battle with them.

“At the end of the day, I know we didn’t score a ton of stage points. We put ourselves in position at the end, and just keep executing. I almost spun off Turn 2 in front of Daniel, and I had my arms all crossed up and I just took a deep breath down the back, and thought, what can I control here? I can control not spinning out, so let’s go a little slower next time, and had a shot at it.”

(On feeling comfort heading to Martinsville) “I don’t know What’s it supposed to feel like? I’ve never been here. For Trackhouse, we’re learning all this together; we’re experiencing this together.

“We’ve got a lot of knowledge in our shop and I’ll lean on a lot of teammates, both in the GM camp and inside our shop of how to approach it, but I’m a racer. We’re just going to race. Go practice as well as we can; we’ll go qualify as best we can. And I’m late all the time, so a grandfather clock might do me a little good for the rest of my life. (To race for a championship is) just a life goal, a career accomplishment. Just to make it to the Cup Series, be here competing with my heroes. I train with Kyle, and he was better than us today. But he ran into the 19, knocked his diffuser flap down and he didn’t have quite as much grip, and we had a shot at it.

“I feel like that no matter what, this season is going to be a success, but in the moments where I hit the wall at the Roval and I realized this could all be gone and we could not transfer, it hurts, and I don’t want that. I’m a racer, and I want the next thing. I feel confident in our group and what we’ll take to Martinsville. We ran fifth there in the spring. We just continue to arrive on the scene of the Cup Series, and I wouldn’t want to be doing it with anybody else.”

AJ Allmendinger — Finished third: “The short runs (felt really good). It was really hooked up. We still have to work on our long-run package in general. That’s something that’s kind of been weak for us at Kaulig Racing. We got that caution with 18 to go, I was like we’ve got a shot at this, and we lost a couple of spots on pit road but restarted eighth. Ross and I had a fun battle. I think I needed about an 11-lap run to catch Kyle. But overall just proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing to get the Chevy in the top five and just have another solid day.

“We know how it goes in the offseason. A lot of stuff changes. Everybody works on the cars. It’s all about trying to build a notebook and get ready for next year. This is just giving us confidence. This is part of the reason why I made the decision to go full time Cup because I felt like the group that we have on the Cup side can be really good. We have a lot of work to do, but it can be really good, and I want to be a part of that.”

Austin Dillon — Finished fourth: “It’s one of our best race cars of the year for sure. We started 32nd. I knew we had a good long run car, and it showed. We were able to drive up through there. I had a blast today. Homestead is so much fun. These cars were fun to race here today. So close there. Really felt like we could catch those next three cars. Just weren’t as good as we needed to be at the end, but we’re in the fight, and that was a lot of fun. The pit crew rebounded and had a good final stop.”

Brad Keselowski — Finished fifth: “We were solid all day. Great stops and the car was really solid. We weren’t in a spot to dominate the race but we were in a spot to run up front all day and that is what we did. We are starting to gel and click as a team. It is exciting for RFK, and I am really happy for Violet Defense and everybody on the team. We are pushing and getting better. It was a solid day all day. I am really looking forward to Martinsville. We had a great test there just like we did here at Homestead. I really want to get a win before this year is over. If we keep building momentum like this I think we can do that. (Are you improving?) 100 percent. It just can’t come fast enough. We want it bad.”

Martin Truex Jr. — Finished sixth: “Yeah, it was definitely a little bit of both of that. It’s really hard to see through these windshields right now with the sun like that and all the stuff covering it. I did see my box late for sure, so I slowed down before I turned out of the way of the 5 there. Obviously partly on me. I didn’t expect to get turned around. I’m glad nobody got hurt there. But overall it’s just disappointing. To have a good day going like that and have a shot at winning and couldn’t close the deal. I hate it for my team. It’s been one of those years.”

Denny Hamlin — Finished seventh: “We had some good stops. The pit crew did a great job the second half of the race. I was able to get a good restart to get the track position by taking the lead, but I just can’t get my car to go. I can’t get it to turn. We’re just too slow on the short runs. Something we’ve really got to work on for sure. Vegas, it hurt us as well. We’ll just continue to work on it, and I’ll try to work on my technique and try to do anything I can to try to get some more speed out of it. We weren’t fast enough to really compete with those guys even when we got the lead. We were just a sitting duck because I couldn’t go anywhere. It’s really tough to keep it up there all day, especially with the shadow into Turn 1. I had my fair share of times in the wall today. Luckily, the car stayed in one piece. I nearly crashed into (Turn) 1. That was exciting and just kept going.” (On Martinsville) “We’ve got to go get stage points. We can’t be outside the top 10 for the first two stages for sure. That’s the only thing that has really kind of hurt us. Not having a lot of playoff points, we always have to dig ourselves out of a hole every time a round starts. We just have to go there and get it done and perform well. I think we can. We have to qualify well and execute.”

Christopher Bell — Finished 11th: “I’m fine. I’m disappointed with our performance today, but at least that is in our hands. Last week, I was emotional about it because it was out of our hands, and we were performing well. Today, it was in our hands, and we just didn’t step up to the bat and do what we needed to do. That was disappointing, but we will move to Martinsville. We ran well in the spring. I definitely feel better about winning there than I did at the Charlotte road course.”

William Byron — Finished 12th: “We just had one bad run. We restarted second and kind of maintained in second for maybe a couple of laps, and then the car fell off and disappeared. That one run was just really weird, so we lost a lot of track position. And then we had the deal on pit road, but everybody kept focused and tried to get as many spots as we could. Twelfth is how we netted out after all of that, but I’m proud of the effort of the No. 24 Camaro ZL1 team. We have some things to work on for short runs to just get the balance right. Later in these races, it seems like that’s what it kind of comes down to more and we just struggled a little bit. Just have to work on that; but overall, really happy with the rebound and we’re in a decent spot, for sure.”

Chase Elliott — Finished 14th: “We were playing defense all day, but we were doing a pretty good job of it and staying inside the top-five there, so that was great. But that’s what happens when you’re playing defense, and you have something like that happen to you. You just get stuck. The other guys that got buried; they drove right back to the front. That’s just the difference. I think if we execute next weekend, we’ll be fine.”

Ryan Blaney — Finished 17th: (What happened on the spin exiting the pits?) “Downshifted like a complete moron. It’s just disappointing, mainly to myself the last two weeks, I’ve not done a good job executing at all from wrecking last week and a bonehead move like that this week. The 12 group doesn’t deserve that. I’m disappointed in myself and can’t have that. It’s pretty unacceptable. Just go try to win Martinsville. That’s all we can do. Go try to run up front and have a good day, and that’s all we can ask for, just try to stay in the game and hopefully the driver doesn’t cost us anything.”

Joey Logano — Finished 18th: “We had a good car. It was a bit of a wasted car, unfortunately. We had a really fast  Mustang. Probably not good enough to beat (Kyle Larson) but good enough for second or third. We just lost too much track position anytime the caution came out or we went to pit road. We just kept losing spot after spot after spot and couldn’t settle into the top five like we needed to. It was a fast car and that is important. We just need to get a little faster on pit road. We have momentum. We had a really fast race car. We need a good day on pit road next week. That will be really important for us and hopefully, we can do that.”

Ty Dillon — Finished 26th: “We didn’t really have the speed we needed all day with our Sunseeker Resorts Camaro. In the first 15 or 20 laps, we just got so far behind and wasn’t really able to recover. It was definitely a struggle all day, and we lost some positions with the spin on the last lap too. Hopefully, we will get better for the last two races.”

Erik Jones — Finished 30th: “Today just wasn’t our day. I thought we found some things at the test that would help us, but we struggled all race with the handling. We’ve got some work to do for sure before we come back here next year. You’ll have weeks like this, especially as we continue to learn this car. Glad to have this one behind us and move on to next week at Martinsville.”

Tyler Reddick — Finished 35th: “We started off our day running well. Stage 1 was really strong for our team. We ran up front, but our Chevy was just a little too free. From there, it was pretty tough. The balance of our Chevrolet was really tight, and we couldn’t free it up enough and that was frustrating. We crashed with just a few laps left and that ended our day a little early. Tough end, but this team will rebound and hopefully have a better result at Martinsville Speedway.”

Chase Briscoe — Finished 36th: “The driver just made a mistake. I was really, really loose that run. We were really tight every other run. That green-flag run we tried to get really free on the other side of it and just started taking really hard. I was hanging on with everything I had. It felt like I was on ice. Honestly, I wasn’t even running hard. I was trying to just get to the caution. We kept getting freer. I got sideways and had the wheel all the way to the right and ended up head-on into the wall. It is really frustrating to have it be something of my own doing. I am better than to be crashing by myself. It is really unfortunate. It makes our job easier next week I guess. We don’t have to worry about points. We gotta go to Martinsville and win.”



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Technology

Hoonigan Teases Its All-Electric Electrikhana Film Along With Its Hoonitron Deep Dive

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Ken Block’s Audi S1 Hoonitron – The Details of the Electrikhana Gymkhana Machine

If you’re into cars, you probably like Ken Block’s Gymkhana videos, where he takes some utterly bananas automobile and skids it through a bunch of weird obstacles in clouds of tire smoke and glory with its vastly overpowered engine howling. But, like, what if there was no engine?

Yep, that’s right. Ol’ DC Shoe Co. himself decided it was time to bail on blowers, cut out combustion, trash turbos and shift away from transmissions for his next video and go electric. To that end, the next Ken Block video will be called Electrikhana, and it’s set to premiere on the Hoonigan YouTube channel on October 25 at 6 a.m. Pacific, but we’ve got a little teaser for you to tide you over until then.

Now, while no insane Roush-Yates NASCAR V8 is powering this ‘khana, the car is no less cool. It’s called the S1 Hoonitron, and not only does it look an awful lot like the famous Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 Pikes Peak racer of the 1980s (which we can all agree is a good thing, I think), but it has a 1,400-hp 800-volt electric drivetrain.

If you want all the details on this multi-million dollar, totally bespoke, doesn’t share a platform with anything, Formula E-powered not-a-racecar, this Hoonigan almost-40-minute long explainer video breaks it down in crazy detail.

This looks like it could be the wildest video that Ken Block and the Hoonigans have ever done, and we’re super stoked to waste a whole morning watching and re-watching it next week.

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Sports

NASCAR reviewing Cole Custer’s actions on the final lap

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What drivers said after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series first-round cutoff race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, where Christopher Bell advanced to the Round of 8 with his third career victory:

Christopher Bell — Finished first: “Whenever I came off pit road and I was the first car with tires, I was just trying to wait and see where I stacked up. I saw there were 11 cars that stayed out on old tires, I was the first one on new tires. I said, ‘I guess we’re going to roll the dice here and see what happens.’ When I got into Turn 1, my spotter did an amazing job. They all started wrecking. He told me to stay tight to the middle, and that kept me out of all the junk in Turn 1.

RESULTS, POINTS: Where everyone finished and the reseeded standings

“Man, you just got to be there at the end of these things. I keep watching all these races where the fastest car doesn’t always win. No secret that road courses have not been our strength this year. We were just there at the right time. We obviously weren’t in position to win. We rolled the dice, gambled, and it paid off for us. I feel really good about (the next round). I knew that this second round of the Playoffs was the troublemaker, with Talladega and then the road course being in here, when we weren’t strong on the road courses. I was really nervous about this round.”

Kevin Harvick — Finished second: “I knew we were going to have to have a perfect corner there with Christopher having such fresher tires.  He was able to get through traffic and was able to roll through a little bit more speed in Turn 1, 2, 3 and 4 and just got in front of me, but we were able to hold Kyle off so it’s still a good day. Our guys did a great job of putting us in position and having a chance.  We were half a lap there from being in the right spot.  It didn’t all work out but still a good day. I knew we were in a bit of a pickle there with Christopher on new tires and I just didn’t want to blow the first corner, I wanted to give us a chance he was just able to roll more speed than we were and from there it was just kind of like damage control and make sure you bring the thing home and that’s what we did. They did a good job. They got us in position and that caution coming out killed us there. We were half a lap from coming to the white and caution, so they did a good job.”

Kyle Busch — Finished third: “It was definitely a good day for our Camry. There at the end, before everything happened, we were just trying to keep it on the track and stay straight. We were really losing rear tire grip and losing time. But we got that late caution, made a pit stop and took advantage of new tires – came up with a third-place finish. Vegas is next week and we always look forward to it. We were fast there in the spring so hopefully we can do the same thing.”

AJ Allmendinger — Finished fourth: “When you are that close to winning, it’s for sure disappointing. But I’m happy with the way this No. 16 Chevy was. It was really fast. We just need to work a little bit on pit road. We lost that little bit of track position, and it was a track position game. Once I got around (Tyler Reddick), I was burning my stuff up trying to catch (Chase Elliott). With those restarts, I knew I was kind of used up already. I got a good restart there and when Chase and I touched kind of through (Turn) two, I went to set up for three and it turned me sideways and I slid a little more. That was unfortunate because that allowed (Kevin Harvick) to get to my bumper and we know Kevin is going to do that if he gets any chance. That’s a part of racing and going for the win. That second restart there, it was just a couple of guys with better tires, and you are just a sitting duck.”

Denny Hamlin — Finished fifth: “It was the type of day where basically wherever you got placed on the track was where you were going to run, unless someone made a mistake in front of you. We preferred that kind of day even though it is what it is even though our team did a great job with strategy and making sure that we junked stage two when we saw we weren’t going to get stage points there. Those guys that were in front of us most of the day ended up behind us and nobody could pass so it worked out nicely for us. All of (the tracks in the third round) are P1 for me and I like all of them. All of them are just perfect for what our strength is, especially with the Toyotas and myself. I’m excited. We had a good test at Martinsville and even though we finished bad there in the spring. We’re going to have to qualify well there and track position is going to be huge. We’re going to go to work and really excited about our prospects in this next round.”

Chase Briscoe — Finished ninth: “What a wild day. I told my guys before we took the initial green in the race, there’s a difference between thinking we could move on and knowing we could move on. This team never gives up. I told them I was never going to give up. It took every bit of it there at the end. To be easily in, then that debris caution comes out. Still, I thought we had a really good shot of making it in. Get wrecked on the backstretch. Crazy at the end of these races, especially the road course race, how much can change so quickly. I had no idea we were even going to have a shot. Truthfully I knew we were probably out. I saw (Austin Cindric) wreck, I thought maybe there’s still a chance. We had so much fresher tires than anybody. Johnny pumped them way up to qualifying pressures, let me go attack, have the ball in my hands. Super proud of this race team. Looking forward to the Round of 8. A lot of really, really good racetracks for me. If we can get to Phoenix, we know we got a good car there, too. … Nobody believed we were gonna get past the Round of 16 and here we are in the Round of 8 and three really, really good racetracks for me coming up, so I’m looking forward to them.”

William Byron — Finished 16th: “Stage 1 was pretty good for us. We got second-place stage points, and try to go for the stage points in Stage 2, missed out. Just both times had to restart in the 30s. Really difficult to get through there and try to pace it with (Briscoe). Just try to keep all four tires on the ground and between the curbs at the end. Certainly, just not how you want to race there at the end, but it was just crazy racing with the green-white-checkered and the way that guys are able to get into each other, make contact, guys spin out and the track gets blocked. It just gets wild there at the end. But we did what we needed to do, which was to get some stage points and finish the race. We’ll move on and get ready for Las Vegas.”

Joey Logano, Finished 18th: “When you have desperate situations like that, people just send it, and it ends up to be a mess. I’m sure there are a lot of scorecards that everybody kept today, and I didn’t dump anybody, so that was great.  No one’s mad at me. I feel good. I like Vegas. We had a pretty good test at Miami and Martinsville has been one of Penske’s best racetracks as of late, so I feel pretty good about it.”

Chase Elliott — Finished 20th: “I thought I had a pretty good launch (on the second-to-last restart) and thought I got through (turns) 1 and 2 good. I thought I gave AJ (Allmendinger) enough room through one and two to not run into the fence. I don’t know if he just got loose, overdrove Turn 3 or whatever, but I ended up on the outside. Whatever the reason, he ran wide and I ended up the track in a super compromised situation. Bummer. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) called a great race. Our No. 9 Chevy wasn’t great, but it was plenty good enough to win. Our team called a perfect race to get us the lead, and our pit stops were really good to not to have any mistakes and get us a really nice cushion. We had a lot of laps on our tires, but I could maintain my pace out there with having a nice gap. We’ll try again next week. I think it’s going to be a really tough round. Vegas was a struggle for us in the spring. Homestead, we’ve just been really hit-or-miss there. We did have a test there a couple weeks ago, so hopefully we’ve learned from that. Martinsville, it’s just going to be about how you qualify because I don’t see anybody passing there. We’ll see how it goes. Try to bring our A-game. It would have been nice to have some more points from today, but we didn’t and we’ll try again out in Las Vegas.”

Austin Cindric — Finished 21st: “My guys did a great job all weekend. We had a long shot but had a shot at it and kept ourselves in the game. Obviously, I had a great shot at the end. That last caution really stung because we would have been in without that last caution. Old tires against new tires. I wish we would have had probably some better track position and probably do a few things right here and there, but overall great to have a shot, great to be in the playoff picture. I learned a lot in my rookie season racing against a lot of the best. I was a bit of a bonehead on the last couple restarts just trying to make something happen with 30-lap worse tires than everybody around me, but, overall, great experience but just a little bit short. I would have liked to make it further.  That’s the way I look at it. I don’t look at this as an opportunity that everyone is going to have every year. If you’re in a good car with a good team it’s still not guaranteed. We had one guy make it in on points this year and that’s it. There’s past champions that missed out on the playoffs. I’ve got a guy standing next to me right here (Larson) that I think is one of the best drivers, if not the best driver in the field, and he’s not advancing on. This is not an easy format. It’s not that easy and it’s not an opportunity that’s guaranteed every year and I want to make the most of it.”

Ryan Blaney — Finished 26th: “It was nice to come in here with decent points and do a good job in the stages. It’s a shame because I thought our car was super fast, but when you’re stage points racing you just bury yourself and you’re just trying to stay out of everyone else’s junk there at the end. We still ended up getting in other people’s junk because people are running you over and spinning you out, but luckily we had a good points cushion. Got run over by people (on the last restart) just like Indy.  I don’t know who ran me over, but put them on the list I guess. We did the stage game in the first stage and got our points, but then you just bury yourself the rest of the day, and it was so hard to pass today. You kind of bury yourself right at the beginning and it doesn’t matter how fast your car is, you can’t come from 25th and drive up through there. We did a good job. We had a plan coming into this weekend with where we were on points and stuck with that plan. It’s a shame it has to be that way, but on the other side you just try to be as smart as you can. I’m looking forward to getting to Vegas.  I think we’ve come a long way on our mile-and-a-half program. Between Vegas and Homestead and obviously Martinsville is a strong place for us in the spring, so I’m looking forward to it.  We’ve just got to put together good races with no mistakes and keep doing what we’ve been doing. I’d really like to win and not have to worry about the next two weeks, but I think this team has been doing a great job. They’re really focused right now.”

Kyle Larson — Finished 35th: (When were you worried?) “As soon as I hit the wall. Yeah, I mean, you give up that many spots, you know you’re going to be close. Then the caution there. So yeah, I just made way too many mistakes all year long. Made another one today. Ultimately cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship.

“Just extremely mad at myself. You let the team down a number of times this year, and let them down in a big way today. We’ll keep fighting. We’ll come back stronger. I’ll definitely come back stronger and smarter, make better moves out there. Just mad at myself. Bummer, but just got to move on. There’s definitely no other person to blame but myself for today. I feel like our team put ourselves in position as well as we could on points. Got as many stage points as we could. I think it was plus-28 at the time when I screwed up. Just for no reason, either. I wasn’t even pushing that hard at that moment. Got loose, caught my off guard. Yeah, just got to keep working on my craft, just be better, make a lot less mistakes. I made way too many mistakes this whole year. You can’t win a championship like that. Yeah, no surprise that I made another mistake today and took us out of contention.”

Daniel Suarez — Finished 36th: “(Corey LaJoie) wasn’t driving very smart today. He was blocking me and doing all different things that I could have wrecked him like two or three times. I don’t know why he was doing that.

“I’m the only driver in the field who could have finished that race the way my car was (with steering problems). My arms are completely destroyed. I’ve never felt like this in my life. My shoulder is very bad. My hands are destroyed. It was tough. It was very, very tough. We did what we needed to do the first half of the race getting stage points and everything. Once we lost steering, it was just hoping for a little bit of luck. We almost got it right there at the end. It is difficult to rely on luck 100 percent. It is what it is. We have to continue to get better. I think we were the only car that actually had a steering issue. I don’t want to say it was a crappy part because I was the only one that had the problem, but we have to come back to the shop and look at what went wrong. It was very, very bad everywhere. There were more than a couple of times I was just screaming. I needed to get it out. It was for sure the most difficult race I’ve had in my life, but I wasn’t going to give up. I needed to keep pushing and waiting for a little bit of luck. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, but a little bit unfortunate to (get eliminated) because of an issue. I feel like we were having a normal race in the first half, but it is what it is. We have to continue to keep our heads high and continue to see forward.

“It’s sad (to be eliminated). I felt like it was going to be an easy transfer on a road course being 12 points above and getting a lot of stage points. I think we started Stage 3 18 points above, so it was going to be easy really unless we had an issue. Unfortunately, we had an issue.”

Ross Chastain — Finished 37th: “I’m human, so it hurts to make the mistakes that I made today and yesterday. I’ll take some time here with my guys and when I drive out of this parking lot, I’m going to make a big effort to leave the Roval here. Normally, it’s Monday morning when I’m done with it and look through everything, but we’re onto another round. It’s a testament to our season and our finish in points today. The strategy by (crew chief) Phil Surgen and our strategy with Trackhouse and Team Chevy to get the stage win in Stage Two is ultimately the difference that gave me the buffer when I needed it the most. I will drive off the property here in Concord and leave this here. It’s the No. 1 priority. I hit the wall really hard, so hats off to this car and what NASCAR and the France family has rolled out. I don’t think a year ago I’m able to continue as hard as I hit the wall. I couldn’t believe it when I made the mistake. I’m still in a bit of a disbelief, but when I walk out of here tonight, it’s full speed ahead to Vegas. I have to move on.”



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NASCAR teams claim series has ‘broken’ economic model

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The most powerful teams in NASCAR warned Friday that the venerable stock car racing series has a “broken” economic model that is unfair and has little to no chance of long-term stability, a stunning announcement that added to a growing list of woes.

The Cup Series is heading into the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course playoff elimination race Sunday with three full-time drivers sidelined with injuries suffered in NASCAR’s new car and no clear answer as to how to fix the safety concerns.

It got much worse as teams went public with their year-long fight with NASCAR over equitable revenue distribution.

“The economic model is really broken for the teams,” said Curtis Polk, who as Michael Jordan’s longtime business manager now holds an ownership stake in both the Charlotte Hornets and the two-car 23XI Racing team Jordan and Denny Hamlin field in NASCAR.

“We’ve gotten to the point where team’s realize the sustainability in the sport is not very long term,” Polk said. “This is not a fair system.”

The Race Team Alliance was formed in 2014 to give teams a unified voice in negotiations with the sanctioning body. A four-member subcommittee outlined their concerns at a Charlotte hotel, with Polk joined by Jeff Gordon, the four-time NASCAR champion and vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, RFK Racing President Steve Newmark, and Dave Alpern, the president of Joe Gibbs Racing.

Hendrick and Gibbs have won six of last seven Cup Series championships dating to 2015, but Gordon said the four-car Hendrick lineup, the most powerful in the industry, has not had a profitable season in years. It will again lose money this season despite NASCAR’s cost-cutting Next Gen car.

“I have a lot of fears that sustainability is going to be a real challenge,” Gordon said.

Led by Polk, whose role with the Hornets brings familiarity with the NBA’s franchise model, the RTA presented NASCAR in June with a seven-point plan on a new revenue sharing model. The proposal “sat there for months and we told NASCAR we’d like a counteroffer,” Polk said.

He did not disclose the seven points other than noting that team sustainability and longevity were priorities. The committee said Friday they are open to all ideas, including a spending cap like that in Formula One.

“We are amenable to whatever gets us to a conceptual new structure,” Newmark said.

NASCAR responded to the RTA last week with a counteroffer of “a minimal increase in revenue and emphasis on cost-cutting,” Polk said.

The team alliance was unanimous in that the only place left to cut costs is layoffs.

“We’ve already had substantial cuts. We are doing more with less than we ever have in 30 years,” Alpern said.

NASCAR did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

The battle over costs has been made public with five races remaining to crown the 2022 NASCAR champion.

The issue has simmered for years and in 2016 NASCAR adopted a charter system for 36 cars that is as close to a franchise model as possible in a sport that was founded by and independently owned by the France family. The charters at least gave the teams something of value to hold — or sell — and protect their investment in the sport.

The team business model is still heavily dependent on sponsorship, which the teams must individually secure. Newmark said sponsorship covers between 60% to 80% of the budgets for all 16 chartered organizations.

Because sponsorship is so vital, teams are desperate for financial relief elsewhere and have asked NASCAR for “distribution from the league to cover our baseline costs,” Newmark said.

The current charter agreement expires at the end of the 2024 season, the same time that NASCAR’s current television deals expire.

Although TV money is split between NASCAR, teams and the tracks, Polk said in terms of actual revenue produced by the sport 93% goes to NASCAR and the teams receive just 7%. He noted that in Formula One, all revenue is split 50-50 between the teams and series ownership.

Mars Inc., which first entered NASCAR in 1990, late last year decided this season would be its last and JGR spent the last nine months trying to find a new sponsor to keep Kyle Busch, the only winner of multiple championships at the Cup level. Busch has since signed with Richard Childress Racing and will leave JGR after 15 seasons as Toyota’s winningest NASCAR driver.

“We have become full-time fundraisers,” Alpern said. “Instead of working on our business, we’re raising money just to exist.”

Polk said the teams will honor the charter agreements through 2024. But in negotiating a new charter agreement, the teams are demanding more.

“NASCAR is a money-printing machine,” Polk said. “But the teams and the drivers are the ones putting on the show.”

NASCAR is now under fire from nearly every angle as drivers remain angry over some recent penalties and the stiffness of the new Next Gen car blamed for causing unprecedented injuries. What should have been routine crashes into the wall have sidelined both Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch with concussions, and Cody Shane Ware opted out of Sunday’s race because of a broken foot.

NASCAR has tested potential adjustments for the car and will present the findings to drivers Saturday morning ahead of practice at Charlotte.

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William Byron wins NASCAR appeal, regains playoff points

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CONCORD, N.C. — An appeals panel on Thursday reinstated the 25 points William Byron had been docked by NASCAR for deliberately spinning championship rival Denny Hamlin, a critical decision that helps his playoff hopes.

The three-person panel found that Byron did break a NASCAR rule for spinning Hamlin under caution. But Hendrick Motorsports had appealed the NASCAR penalty, which was initially a $50,000 fine and the loss of 25 critical points in the championship race.

The panel raised the fine to $100,000 but gave Byron back his points. The favorable ruling moved Byron out from below the elimination line heading into Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the playoff field will be cut from 12 to eight.

Byron was 10th in the standings with the loss of points; he’s now seventh in the standings and 14 points above the cut line.

The decision from the panel — television executive Hunter Nickell and short-track promoters Dale Pinilis and Kevin Whitaker — upended the standings heading into the second elimination race of the playoffs.

Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe, who were tied for eighth, both dropped below the cut line. Christopher Bell dropped from 33 points below the cutline to 45 points out, and Daniel Suarez now sits in eighth in the standings.

The controversy surrounding Byron’s action at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago was because the NASCAR officials in the scoring tower missed the deliberate spin of Hamlin. It was done out of anger under caution; despite the lengthy caution period and massive replay screen in the Texas infield, NASCAR simply missed it and wasn’t able to issue an in-race penalty.

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NASCAR playoff field set after Daytona finale

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After the regular-season finale at Daytona, NASCAR’s 16-driver playoff field is now set … and it wouldn’t be a crucial NASCAR race without a whole lot of controversy. In the end, though, Austin Dillon won at Daytona, punching a last-second ticket into the playoffs and knocking Martin Truex Jr. below the cut line. Ryan Blaney survived a long, harrowing race and ended up being the only non-race winner to reach the 2022 NASCAR playoffs.

Delayed 15 hours by weather, and then red-flagged late in the race by even more bad weather, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 was paused with 21 laps remaining. But many drivers felt the race should have been halted even sooner, complaining that a track too slick to drive led to a major wreck that thinned out the field.

“They had about a whole lap to call a caution and tore up a lot of race cars,” Justin Haley said during a red-flag break. “That was pretty unacceptable.”

“We knew the rain was coming,” Daniel Suarez said. “It was raining next door. It’s just a matter of time. Why wait for it? I don’t know. I’m a little biased because I was in the front.”

Team Penske’s Blaney and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex came into Daytona needing to hold their positions as the last two drivers in the playoff grid, and the only ones without a victory before Saturday. As long as a driver without a win didn’t leap up and capture the checkered flag, they’d both make the playoffs … but unfortunately for Truex, that’s exactly what happened.

A pair of wrecks prior to the final laps scrambled the playoff chances of both Blaney and Truex. Blaney got collected in a wreck on Lap 31, in the closing laps of Stage 1, damaging his steering and plummeting him deep into the field. Truex, who came into the race 25 points behind Blaney, finished second in Stage 2 to trim Blaney’s lead to just 10 points. Moments after the start of Stage 3, in Lap 102, Truex found himself collected in another wreck, one that caused severe damage to his right front fender. But with Blaney six laps down, enough drivers were taken out of the race in wrecks that Truex could gain position after position on Blaney, and as of the red flag, Truex was 12 points up on Blaney.

As the final stage wound down, the threat of weather caused some of the most frenetic racing in recent memory at Daytona. With 23 laps remaining, and rain starting to pick up, the entire field lost grip on Lap 138 heading into Turn 2, causing a massive wreck that reshaped the character of the entire race. Dillon was the only driver to make it through the initial carnage.

Shortly afterward, the rain that caused that wreck built up enough to soak the entire track, forcing NASCAR to red-flag the race. Lightning strikes in the area caused further concern, but after several hours, NASCAR determined that the track was dry enough to continue.

When the race resumed, only 10 cars remained on the lead lap, and Truex’s lead over Blaney vanished as Blaney reversed the strategy that Truex had used on him earlier in the race, “passing” multiple cars that had dropped out of the race. Austin Cindric tried to hold off Dillon in the race’s closing laps but was unable to do so, and Dillon captured the victory without a last-turn challenge.

This weekend is the third time Daytona has hosted the regular season finale, a role it’s held since 2020. Prior to that, Indianapolis Motor Speedway held the finale for two years, and before that, Richmond International Raceway hosted the final race heading into NASCAR’s postseason every year from 2004 to 2017.

NASCAR is on the third version of its playoffs. From 2004 to 2009, drivers reached the playoffs on points alone. For four years after that, NASCAR filled out a 12-driver field with a combination of points and wins. Starting with the 2014 season, the playoff field has included 16 drivers, with a win-and-you’re-in format and a four-stage “elimination” sequence running through the playoffs.

Coming into the race, the drivers around the cut line got an unexpected break when Kurt Busch, sidelined for several weeks with a concussion, decided to withdraw his request for a playoff waiver. He’ll miss at least the start of the playoffs, but more importantly for the larger picture, his departure from the playoffs left a second potential spot open for a driver to get in without a victory.

Fifteen different drivers won races coming into Saturday night, but with Busch’s withdrawal, Blaney and Truex found themselves on the high side of the cut line. Another 13 drivers — those inside the top 30 in points — needed to win Daytona to make the leap into the playoffs. That number included Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell, all of whom have had success at superspeedways. But most of those drivers, and many more, were involved in wrecks that ended their playoff hopes.

The playoffs begin next weekend with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington, and run through early November with the season finale at Phoenix. After every three races, the four drivers with the lowest point totals will be eliminated from the playoffs, with the final four drivers competing in an all-or-nothing finale.

Aug 28, 2022; Daytona Beach, Florida, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Joey Logano (22) wins the first stage during the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

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Contact Jay Busbee at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee.

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NASCAR World Reacts To Unfortunate William Byron News

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MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA – APRIL 09: William Byron, driver of the #24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet, celebrates in the Ruoff Mortgage victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway on April 09, 2022 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

William Byron won’t have the starting position he expected in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen race.

Per Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, officials found an electrical issue in Byron’s No. 24 vehicle during a pre-race inspection. He’ll move to the rear for unapproved adjustments.

Byron was originally slated to start fourth at Watkins Glen International.

Fans were disappointed to learn the news.

The Chevrolet driver ranks 10th in the Cup Series standings ahead of the regular season’s penultimate race. Though he’s 12th in total points, wins at Atlanta and Martinsville earlier this year should secure his playoff spot.

However, Byron hasn’t finished higher than ninth — his only top-10 placement — in his last 17 races since an April 9 victory. The fourth starting position led to an 11th-place finish at Richmond Raceway last Sunday.

The race has a 3:19 p.m. ET scheduled green flag, but lightning at Watkins Glen is currently putting the start on hold.



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NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen: Preview, picks, stream, how to watch the Go Bowling at the Glen

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The village of Watkins Glen in upstate New York has long attracted visitors from all across the world — not necessarily for its lakes or its woodlands, but for its world-renowned racetrack. On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series makes its annual trip to Watkins Glen International for the Go Bowling at the Glen, a race significant for far more than being the penultimate race of the regular season.

This 3.45-mile, 11-turn road course — long the site of Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix — will see 39 drivers representing seven countries compete on it this Sunday, making for the most international drivers in a single race in the history of NASCAR.

The group of international stars is headlined by 2007 Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut behind the wheel of Trackhouse Racing’s No. 91 Chevrolet. The legendary Finnish driver is joined by:

  • Former 24 Hours of Le Mans champion and German driver Mike Rockenfeller
  • Former F1 standout and Russian driver Daniil Kvyat
  • Loris Hezemans of the Netherlands
  • Kyle Tilley of Britain

All of them join the NASCAR regulars, 33 of whom hail from the United States and one from Mexico (Daniel Suarez).

How to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen

  • Date: Sunday, August 21
  • Location: Watkins Glen International — Watkins Glen, New York
  • Time: 3 p.m. ET
  • TV: USA Network
  • Stream: fuboTV (try for free)

What to watch for

Kimi Raikkonen

Of all the international drivers in the field, Kimi Raikkonen is undoubtedly the star attraction. “The Iceman” comes to the Cup Series through Trackhouse Racing’s Project91 program for international racing superstars, coming out of retirement to try his hand at the highest level of stock car racing. This isn’t Raikkonen’s first try at NASCAR: In May of 2011, Raikkonen competed in a pair of NASCAR races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, first driving a Truck Series race for Kyle Busch Motorsports before competing in an Xfinity Series race the next weekend. Raikkonen finished 15th and 27th respectively.

While Raikkonen only has limited experience in stock cars, what he has going for him is the strength of Trackhouse Racing’s road course program: The team has won two of the four road course races so far this season, with Ross Chastain taking the victory at Circuit of the Americas and Daniel Suarez having won at Sonoma.

The road course warriors

While the presence of international racing stars throughout the field provides this race with a lot of its intrigue, those drivers will likely take a backseat to the Cup Series regulars once the green flag flies. Especially since it is absolutely imperative for a significant chunk of the field to perform well this weekend. At the head of the table among that group is Martin Truex Jr., who has been outstanding at Watkins Glen ever since winning at this track in 2017. In the last three Watkins Glen races since his win, Truex has two runner-up finishes and was third last year.

Chris Buescher, surely, also enters this race with an enormous level of confidence. He finished second at Sonoma, sixth at Road America and 10th at Indianapolis. He is also coming off of an extremely strong run at Richmond in which he challenged for the win before finishing third. Another Ford driver, Michael McDowell, has no finishes worse than 13th and only one finish worse than eighth on road courses this year — including a third-place outing at Sonoma.

The possibility of some completely unexpected drivers entering the picture shouldn’t be discounted, either. Indianapolis, for instance, saw rookies Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland take advantage of late-race anarchy to earn third and fourth-place finishes respectively.

A cleaner race

Speaking of Indy, keep an eye out for something that was a major sore point after the most recent road course race. The end of the race at Indianapolis saw many drivers lament how that race devolved on late restarts, with ill-advised divebombs and overaggressive driving leading to a series of incidents that spoiled several drivers’ days and left them grumbling about a lack of respect.

Watkins Glen should be a little better in that regard, as the configuration of the course is far more natural than the road course at Indianapolis. The trouble spot at Indy was an extremely sharp Turn 1 that led the field out of the oval and onto the infield road course, a spot that was ill-suited for any semblance of order on double-file restarts. Watkins Glen’s more sweeping corners don’t present that same issue, even if the downhill section leading from the frontstretch to Turn 1 makes for an ideal passing zone on restarts and long runs alike.

Pick to Win

(Odds via Caesars Sportsbook)

Tyler Reddick (+650): It’s never a bad idea to go with the hot hand when trying to handicap road course races. And right now, Reddick is the hot hand. He’s won the last two road course races in Cup, leading the final 16 laps to win at Road America before dominating at Indy by leading 38 of 86 laps on his way to victory. Reddick also contended for the win at Circuit of the Americas and finished fifth, and he had a top five qualifying run at Sonoma before finishing many laps down due to left rear damage.

Reddick can stake his claim to being NASCAR’s King of the Road with another win here, but Chase Elliott isn’t going to give up that title without a fight. Elliott is the favorite to win this weekend (+450) and for good reason: he’s won two of the last three at the Glen and ran second here last year.

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