Jimmie Johnson will run his third NASCAR Cup Series race in the last four weeks Sunday at Kansas Speedway in the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota. The stretch is beneficial for Johnson behind the wheel as he adapts to the Next Gen car. It’s also …
Jimmie Johnson will run his third NASCAR Cup Series race in the last four weeks Sunday at Kansas Speedway in the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
The stretch is beneficial for Johnson behind the wheel as he adapts to the Next Gen car. It’s also beneficial for the organization he co-owns, as Johnson’s car, a third entry, is another data point to learn from.
“It’s really helped me inside the car, and I look forward to expanding on that this weekend and then coming back for the [Coke] 600 and a lot more mile-and-a-half tracks that I’ll run this year,” Johnson said of the AdventHealth 400. “I know it doesn’t show it now, but being in the car is going to help our competition department as well. This year has been more challenging for us in a lot more ways than we anticipated.
“But I do think we’re getting closer to a consistent pace that we hope to have week in and week out. There’s a real evolution taking place right now and I’m hopeful that we can show that on track this weekend as a group.”
Johnson finished 28th at Texas Motor Speedway (April 14) and 28th at Dover Motor Speedway (April 28). The seven-time Cup Series champion would love to have more practice to learn a car that he hasn’t driven full-time and for his team to be able to make sweeping changes if necessary. It has been a struggle for Johnson to be as competitive as the industry is used to seeing.
The Next Gen car takes a different driving style than what Johnson was able to do during his NASCAR Hall of Fame career while at Hendrick Motorsports. He’s learned this car needs more steering input, has a different ride height attitude, and has a completely different feel overall, and it’s been an adjustment for Johnson learning to drive off the right front instead of the right rear.
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But the laps and repetition are helping.
Overall with Legacy Motor Club, Johnson elaborated that what has been “more challenging” than expected has been the transition to Toyota. The organization had a busy winter by switching from Chevrolet to Toyota and integrating into a new system.
“It’s tough to change manufacturers,” Johnson said. “We have amazing support from Toyota; an amazing collaboration and partnership working with them. But the offseason is short and we’re a small team. Our resources and people have had a lot more work items on the list than work hours in the day or week.
“We’re systematically working through it all and growing as a company. It’s tough to just compete with [Joe] Gibbs and Hendrick [Motorsports] and all these big teams. But we’re making steps forward, and I’m excited about the future.”
Entering the event at Talladega Superspeedway (April 21), the first race of the season’s second quarter, Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek were in the top 20 in points. Jones will miss his second consecutive Cup Series race Sunday after being injured at Talladega but remains eligible for the postseason with a waiver. Nemechek is 22nd in the standings.
Noah Gragson sees a month of opportunity ahead for his Stewart-Haas Racing team. “For the most part, I’m really happy with our mile-and-a-half program,” Gragson said this week ahead of the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. “I used to not look …
Noah Gragson sees a month of opportunity ahead for his Stewart-Haas Racing team.
“For the most part, I’m really happy with our mile-and-a-half program,” Gragson said this week ahead of the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. “I used to not look forward to the mile-and-a-halfs and just wanted to go to the short tracks, but now I’m super pumped up for the next handful of weeks. I’ve been calling it mile-and-a-half season because we’ve got Kansas, and then Darlington is a faster track where you can move around. You’ve got the Coke 600 (at Charlotte).
“I’m really excited for the month of May.”
Knowing what was ahead, Gragson and his team were focused on “just trying to get through” last weekend’s race at Dover with a top 15 day. But Gragson’s No. 10 Ford Mustang Dark Horse carried the banner for Stewart-Haas with a career-best qualifying effort (fifth) and a top-10 finish (sixth). He was the only Stewart-Haas driver to finish inside the top 10.
Gragson has finished third and sixth in the last two NASCAR Cup Series races. It would not be a surprise to see him continue the streak at Kansas Speedway, considering how the intermediate racetracks have been a strength for his team.
“I really love short tracks and felt like I struggled on the intermediates,” Gragson said. “Now I feel like the intermediates are my strong suit and the short tracks are the weakness, so I don’t exactly know why that’s flip-flopped, but we had a strong run in Las Vegas. We were fast in practice and then [I] was super easy and didn’t drive the car hard enough in qualifying, so we qualified 30th. But we worked our way up throughout the race and were able to make passes.
“In Texas, we were pretty strong and probably were going to pan out seventh and then the caution came out during the [pit] cycle, so that was a bit frustrating getting back in the pack and not having the track position at the end if it went green.”
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Gragson finished sixth in Las Vegas, the highest-running Stewart-Haas Racing driver, but it was an 18th-place finish at Texas. Las Vegas and Texas have been the only traditional mile-and-a-half races so far this season.
If the month goes as well as Gragson anticipates, it will continue propelling him upward in the point standings. Gragson is 21st after 11 races with four top-10 finishes. However, his team lost 35 points after the second race of the year when Gragson’s car and teammate Ryan Preece’s car were found to have illegal roof rail deflectors.
The goal has been stage points for Gragson and crew chief Drew Blickensderfer. It’s the area where teammate Chase Briscoe has excelled, and Briscoe is sitting 12th in the standings. To grab stage points, Gragson knows that starts with qualifying well and his team has prioritized such in recent weeks.
“I’m really happy with where we’re at, and we’re still fine-tuning and developing our process on our preparation and the communication between Drew and I,” Gragson said. “It’s hard for him having a new driver because he doesn’t know how I explain things, and I don’t know what adjustments he typically makes. So we’re just building our notebook. When we’re able to go back to these racetracks for a second and third time, our notebook just gets better.”
The time between practice and qualifying this early in the season has been crucial for Gragson and Blickensderfer to gel on their language when making adjustments. Gragson’s number scale for how the car is handling might have meant something different for Blickensderfer when working with previous driver Aric Almirola.
“For the most part, I’m happy with where we’re at,” Gragson said. “I’ve been making a lot of steps with the help of Drew — just as a driver with growth week in and week out.”
Erik Jones has been cleared to return to NASCAR competition, but Legacy Motor Club will keep him out of the car for another weekend out of an “abundance of caution.” Corey Heim will drive the No. 43 Toyota at Kansas Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, …
Erik Jones has been cleared to return to NASCAR competition, but Legacy Motor Club will keep him out of the car for another weekend out of an “abundance of caution.”
Corey Heim will drive the No. 43 Toyota at Kansas Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FS1). Heim made his Cup Series debut substituting for Jones at Dover Motor Speedway. He finished 25th.
The full statement from Legacy Motor Club:
“Erik Jones has been cleared to race by doctors and approved to return by NASCAR, but out of an abundance of caution, the team has opted for Jones to rest for another event. Corey Heim will drive the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE at Kansas Speedway this weekend.
“Jones will attend the race at Kansas Speedway to support crew chief Dave Elenz and the No. 43 team and plans to return to the driver’s seat next weekend at Darlington Raceway — a track where he has two NASCAR Cup Series victories.”
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Jones reposted the statement on X and said, “I agree with Legacy Motor Club’s decision to ensure proper rest before I get back in the car.”
Jones suffered a compression fracture to a lower vertebra in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway on April 21. While drafting with his Toyota teammates, contact sent Jones head-on into the outside wall in Turn 3 on lap 157.
Dover was the first Cup Series race Jones missed since becoming a full-time driver in 2017.
Alex Bowman doesn’t have a good story or memory of the paint scheme Jimmie Johnson dominated the NASCAR Cup Series with during the 2000s. But Bowman, of course, recognizes the design and gets to drive it himself later this month. Ally, Bowman’s …
Alex Bowman doesn’t have a good story or memory of the paint scheme Jimmie Johnson dominated the NASCAR Cup Series with during the 2000s. But Bowman, of course, recognizes the design and gets to drive it himself later this month.
Ally, Bowman’s primary sponsor, has modeled its paint scheme for throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway (Sunday, May 12) after the Lowe’s car Johnson will forever be connected with. It’s the same design and color scheme Johnson drove from his rookie season in 2002 through 2005.
“When I was watching NASCAR races growing up, I probably wouldn’t have picked up on the subtle changes that the 48 had over the course of all the Lowe’s cars,” Bowman told RACER. “Until the end, when they started changing a bunch more, they were all similar for the most part. And I was a big Jeff Gordon fan anyway, so I was much more focused on cheering on the 24 anyway.
“But it’s definitely cool to get to drive it.”
Jimmie Johnson leads Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers at Kansas in 2006. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images
Johnson’s paint scheme began to change in 2006 when the curve on the door went from in front of the No. 48 to behind the number, and the blue on the door went black. A neon stripe was also added from the rear bumper to in front of the rear wheel.
Another change to the scheme was it became primarily white in 2010. In 2012, the scheme went solid blue with white lettering. However, in 2015, the design returned to a more familiar look with the Lowe’s store sign outline on the hood and lines on the door. The final season for Lowe’s as Johnson’s sponsor was in 2018, and the car’s primary color was black.
Ally joined Hendrick Motorsports and Johnson in 2019. Bowman inherited the number and sponsor after Johnson’s retirement in 2020.
“To get to take over the 48 was really cool,” he said. “But back then (when Johnson won so much), things were way different.” Bowman continued with a laugh, “I don’t think all the cars in the field were the same back then by any means.
“But it’s definitely going to be really neat, and to see Jimmie’s reaction was really cool. Hopefully, we can get it in victory lane because obviously that car went to victory lane quite a bit.”
Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman at Bristol in 2014. Russell LaBounty/Motorsport Images
Bowman joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2016 as a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. before becoming his successor when he retired a year later. It put Bowman in a unique situation of taking over for one popular driver while becoming teammates with another, who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this year.
“Gosh, by far the best teammate ever,” Bowman said of Johnson. “He’s just a great human being (in) every category: work ethic, the way he treats people, he’s so good at all of it. To be able to learn from him was always really cool as a teammate. But then to be friends with him and talk to him was really fun. I’m just appreciative of all the support over the years; he made me a way better race car driver and person.”
The relationship between Bowman and Johnson started years before Bowman joined the company. Bowman’s first year in the Cup Series was 2014, and his first two years were spent driving underfunded equipment for Ron Devine (BK Racing) and Tommy Baldwin. Despite the difference in their garage hierarchy, Johnson was one of the first people to connect with and be complimentary of Bowman.
“I think he came up to me leaving the driver’s meeting somewhere and just started talking to me,” Bowman recalled. “He said, ‘Man, I can’t believe you could drive that thing last week because it was so loose. You had no grip.’ Which was primarily every weekend for the first two years of my career. It’s just cool to have somebody recognize that at that point in my career. In those days, my job was to maximize our day but also not ruin anybody else’s day.
“I feel like a lot of lapped cars these days, they’ll air block and race you and hang on to your quarter panel down the straightaway and slow you down. If you did that back then, it was not going to be OK. So, things have obviously changed a ton. But to earn somebody’s respect at that level, especially the respect of Jimmie, who was at the top of his game, meant a lot.”
Bowman has five wins (of the seven in his career) driving the No. 48 Chevrolet with Ally sponsorship. The group has sat on the Daytona 500 pole twice.
In 12 starts at Darlington, Bowman has three top-10 finishes. Among those is a runner-up finish from 2020.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has signed a multi-year contract extension with JTG Daugherty Racing to continue driving the No. 47 Chevrolet. “When I joined this team in 2020, I knew both the team and I were capable of putting the No. 47 in victory lane,” …
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has signed a multi-year contract extension with JTG Daugherty Racing to continue driving the No. 47 Chevrolet.
“When I joined this team in 2020, I knew both the team and I were capable of putting the No. 47 in victory lane,” Stenhouse said. “Although I wish it came sooner, winning the Daytona 500 last year proved that we can win together. We have a fantastic group of guys at the shop, great management, solid partners, and an ever-improving program. I’m very excited to continue my relationship with the team, I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised to see what we have in store for the future.”
Stenhouse has one win with JTG Daugherty Racing, which put them in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs last season. To date, Stenhouse has earned 22 top-10 finishes for the top with 220 laps led.
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“I am looking forward to continuing with Ricky as our driver of the No. 47,” owner Gordon Smith said. “He has been an asset to our team on and off the racetrack since joining us in 2020. Winning the Daytona 500 was a huge accomplishment for our small team, and I know we have more trips to victory lane in our future with Ricky at the wheel.”
JTG Daugherty Racing is a single-car operation.
“We are very excited to have Ricky locked in for years to come,” co-owner Brad Daugherty said. “Ricky has continued to grow and thrive as a competitor and he, along with the rest of our race team are pushing hard to get the 47 back into victory lane.”
Stenhouse has two top-10 finishes through 11 races. He is 27th in the point standings going into Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway.
Cole Custer has never had a problem giving a thoughtful answer. But giving that answer while not looking uncomfortable in front of the camera or microphone has been a different story. It was 2014 when Custer emerged on the NASCAR national series …
Cole Custer has never had a problem giving a thoughtful answer. But giving that answer while not looking uncomfortable in front of the camera or microphone has been a different story.
It was 2014 when Custer emerged on the NASCAR national series scene thanks to a great opportunity to drive a truck as a Haas Racing Development driver. It took him three starts to earn his first career pole in St. Louis, and seven before going to victory lane in New Hampshire.
Custer was 16 years old at the time. He had a ton of talent, a touch of acne and a flat-billed hat that it sometimes seemed he might have been trying to hide under.
“I was the shy kid in school and just didn’t really say much,” Custer told RACER. “When I first started racing in some of the top series, I just wanted to come in and worry about doing my job on the track as much as I could. Obviously, if anybody asked me to do anything, I was going to do it, but that’s where my full focus was in trying to get everything out of the car, trying to make sure I was doing my job, and that I was up to the task on the racetrack.
“For me to come out of my shell during that time was a little bit tough because I was so focused on doing that.”
Custer ran nine Truck Series races in 2014 before signing with JR Motorsports to run 10 races in 2015. He picked up another win, this time in St. Louis, and added two more poles to his resume. In 2016, he was full-time for Earnhardt’s team and finished 10th in the championship standings. Custer also ran five Xfinity Series races for JR Motorsports that year.
Stewart-Haas Racing added Custer to its Xfinity Series stable in 2017 and Custer earned his first win in the season finale. He won nine races in his first three seasons but finished runner-up in the championship in 2018 and ’19. Then came a three-year stint in the Cup Series before being moved back into the Xfinity Series, where he’s been one of the dominant drivers.
All that was on the track in full view of the NASCAR world. Behind the scenes, Custer was putting in a different kind of work to become a driver who could not only go fast but then adequately discuss it with the media.
“There was work,” Custer said. “There were different PR reps and media people I talked to just to try and get me out of my shell and talk a little bit and know what people were wanting to hear. I even spoke with (legendary radio broadcaster) Doug Rice once, and he sat me down with advice he could offer me. He was good to talk to about what people liked to hear and what things he thinks about when he’s on a radio broadcast.
“Through those different experiences, you meet different people who bring you out of your shell and give you more confidence. I feel like giving a thoughtful answer was never my problem. I always tried to give an answer that was more than a few words; it was just knowing how to say what I was thinking and communicate that better.”
Custer says he’s come a long way both as a driver and as a person since his first NASCAR national series win in the truck race at New Hampshire a decade ago. Matt Thacker/Motorsport Images
Now, 10 years later, Custer is one of the best personalities in the garage. The smile looks far from forced. Custer’s interviews are just as thoughtful, only now they also have confidence and energy behind them. He’s even got a nickname — Stone Cole, as a nod to former professional wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin — for when he double fists beers in victory lane. (Custer even has it hash-tagged in his X bio.)
Custer is all about putting himself out there when he can, including volunteering to go in the radio booth to call Craftsman Truck Series races. It was another area where he felt he could get better, give him experience of a different kind, keep him sharp on a microphone, and on what’s going on in other series.
By having a stronger relationship with the media and being more comfortable in those situations, Custer also realized it could help his brand. He has a good presence on social media and embraces opportunities to do non-NASCAR activities like collaborations in attending NHL or NFL games.
Doing interviews or radio broadcasts means fans are seeing his face and hearing his voice. It also gives his team and partners more exposure, making Custer marketable for attracting sponsors or additional opportunities.
Andy’s Frozen Custard is a good example. Not only did the company sign on to become an official sponsor at Stewart-Haas Racing this season, but it also gave the reigning series champion his own custard in its lineup. It’s the Frozen Custer Concrete.
“I just randomly ran into the guy at the championship banquet in Nashville and we hit it off,” Custer said. “For me, it’s a dream come true because I’ve always been big into sweets and stuff like that. It seemed like a perfect fit and that’s what racing is – being able to make those random relationships and random connections. A lot of times, those are the ones that turn into something.”
Custer is open to actively finding more partners who make sense to align himself with. During the pandemic, he took up golf, and it’s become one of his big hobbies. Or perhaps doing more in the animal space, as Custer admits his dog, Honey, is one of the most spoiled dogs he knows.
Despite his evolution, Custer acknowledges no one ever reaches perfection. But he has become a complete package as a race car driver with his on-track performance and marketability off it, and he is proud of the work and growth he’s done through the journey.
“When I won my first truck race, that was 10 years ago now. This is the 10th anniversary of that win for me,” Custer said. “So that’s very weird to think, honestly. It’s definitely been crazy how much has happened in that timeframe, and we’ve enjoyed a lot of success (too). You just have to keep pushing yourself to keep growing in different areas.”
The fire in Ryan Preece’s Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Dover Motor Speedway was the result of a mistake by the No. 41 team. Drew Blickensderfer, who is the crew chief of the No. 10 team for Preece’s teammate Noah Gragson, explained …
The fire in Ryan Preece’s Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Dover Motor Speedway was the result of a mistake by the No. 41 team.
Drew Blickensderfer, who is the crew chief of the No. 10 team for Preece’s teammate Noah Gragson, explained there were bolts that were not installed correctly. Preece retired from the Wurth 400 after 66 laps because of smoke in the cockpit that the team was unable to diagnose or fix on the spot.
“That was self-inflicted,” Blickensderfer said. “That was the bolts between the headers and the collectors keeping everything together. We had some issues there amongst the teams on our side. They were not installed correctly and it was allowing the collectors to come disattached from the headers, kind of fall on that rocker box and cause an issue.
“So, it was a self-inflicted error, a little change in process that someone didn’t catch. And it was close to happening on all of our cars, to be honest with you.”
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Preece was the first driver out of Sunday’s race and finished last in 37th position. Chase Briscoe finished 19th, Josh Berry finished 14th, and Blickensderfer guided Gragson to a sixth-place finish.
A frustrated Preece said on Sunday that the issue could have been prevented and was unnecessary, although he didn’t go into specifics at the time.
“They (the 14 team) were unfortunately the victim of it, but when we got back to the race shop all of our cars were close to having a similar issue,” Blickensderfer said. “So obviously that gets rectified quickly. Everything gets torn out of our Kansas cars and fixed. I think NASCAR has done a good job. I think us as a group, because it was more relevant for us last year or the year before, we’ve taken a lot of effort to keep that from happening.
“Knock on wood, I think we’re in a good spot with that. We just have to make sure we clean up our end to make sure the parts are installed correctly.”
Trackhouse Racing and Kaulig Racing have confirmed that Shane van Gisbergen will not participate in the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Van Gisbergen is eligible for the specialty event because he won the Cup Series race on the …
Trackhouse Racing and Kaulig Racing have confirmed that Shane van Gisbergen will not participate in the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Van Gisbergen is eligible for the specialty event because he won the Cup Series race on the streets of Chicago last summer. Trackhouse Racing confirmed to RACER on Tuesday that there are no plans for van Gisbergen to run the All-Star Race. It would have required the organization to enter a third car for van Gisbergen to compete alongside Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez.
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Kaulig Racing also confirmed to RACER that there will be no All-Star Race entry for van Gisbergen. The organization fields van Gisbergen full-time in the Xfinity Series in collaboration with Trackhouse Racing. It’s assumed that AJ Allmendinger would be entered for Kaulig Racing as he, too, is eligible for the All-Star Race after winning the Charlotte Roval race last season.
NASCAR All-Star Race weekend is May 17-19.
van Gisbergen was one of 18 drivers revealed by NASCAR last week as having already earned a spot in the All-Star Race. Among the eligibility requirements for the All-Star Race is if they have won a race during the 2023 or 2024 seasons.
Kyle Busch picked up his second top-10 finish in three weeks at Dover Motor Speedway in a day his Richard Childress Racing team needed. “A good day for the No. 8 car, a good solid points day, I guess,” Busch said after finishing in fourth place. …
Kyle Busch picked up his second top-10 finish in three weeks at Dover Motor Speedway in a day his Richard Childress Racing team needed.
“A good day for the No. 8 car, a good solid points day, I guess,” Busch said after finishing in fourth place. “That’s a normal day. I’d love to have a lot more normal days; we just can’t seem to get any.”
Busch started from the pole and led the first 34 laps, but he never controlled the race again after losing the top spot to Ryan Blaney, who drove around him under green.
The No. 8 Camaro was a contender in the Wurth 400 and had an average running position of fifth place. The two-time series champion finished seventh in the first stage and sixth in the second stage.
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“[I’m] proud of everybody on this FICO Chevrolet,” Busch said. “The car was pretty decent. I felt like if we came off of pit road there at the end with the clean racetrack the way that it was, and being able to just charge forward [to] try to catch these leaders, that was probably going to be our best bet to try to run them down and race with them. But definitely had a third-place car today.
“Having to come from eighth to fourth on that final run right there was really, really tough, but that’s all we had.”
Sunday was Busch’s best finish on a non-superspeedway. A third-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second race of the season, is his best effort of the season. The 34 laps he led at Dover are the most he’s led in a race this season.
Kyle Larson “couldn’t really do anything” with Denny Hamlin as the two separated themselves from the field in a battle to win at Dover Motor Speedway. Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team wound up second, only able to get within a few car …
Kyle Larson “couldn’t really do anything” with Denny Hamlin as the two separated themselves from the field in a battle to win at Dover Motor Speedway.
Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team wound up second, only able to get within a few car lengths of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Hamlin prevailed after driving away on the final restart with 62 laps to go and moved around to take away any charge Larson tried to mount in the final laps.
It was the second-to-last restart in the Wurth 400 that changed Larson’s luck. He led the field to the restart with 72 laps to go, doing so on the outside of Hamlin. As the two battled side-by-side down the backstretch, Hamlin was ahead when the caution flew for a crash off Turn 2.
Hamlin assumed the race lead, which he never surrounded. Larson was scored in second place and cited losing control of the race as the only difference he could have needed to beat Hamlin.
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“I went late in the zone and Martin [Truex Jr.] was trying to time it behind me and he hit me right when I wanted to go and it just screwed up,” Larson said of the penultimate restart. “I got a lot of wheel spin, and he [Hamlin] was kind of able to out-race me into [Turn] 1. His car was really good on the short runs. I could pace it and get closer to him at the end of the runs, but it’s so easy to air-block. Not that he was doing anything dirty or anything like that. It’s so easy as the leader, especially at a place like this, to shut off the air on the guys behind you.
“I knew when I got within three car lengths, he was going to start moving around. I just couldn’t really do anything. I was trying all sorts of different angles and speeds and all that. Nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough, I guess, to do anything. So that was a bummer.”
Larson led 39 laps Sunday and won the second stage. He leads the series with six stage wins.
“A great day for our HendrickCars.com Chevy team,” Larson said. “We started 21st, drove up to fifth in the first stage, and then got a stage win — another stage win, so that was good. Good points day. But we would have loved to get a win.
“[We’re] always fast here at Dover. Just needed to be a little bit better on the restarts. I’ve lost a lot of races on restarts here, so just keep trying to get better.”
