Category: Cup Series

Dirt ace Bell takes the spoils on Bristol clay

Before Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell lamented that a “dirt guy” hadn’t won the NASCAR Cup Series’ only race on the red clay in Thunder Valley. Bell fixed the problem-in a race that also saw hard …

Before Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell lamented that a “dirt guy” hadn’t won the NASCAR Cup Series’ only race on the red clay in Thunder Valley.

Bell fixed the problem—in a race that also saw hard feelings between pole winner Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece boil over.

Holding off charging Tyler Reddick in the final stage of the 250-lap race, Bell held a slim lead over Reddick when NASCAR called the 14th caution with 200 yards left in the final circuit.

A dirt-track aficionado who won three straight Chili Bowl Midget Nationals from 2017-2019, Bell collected his first victory of the season and the fifth of his career.

“Man, let me tell you, these are some of the longest laps of my entire life,” Bell said of the lates stages of the race. “This place is so much fun, whether it’s dirt or concrete. Whenever the cushion got up there on the top, it was very tough, because you couldn’t drive it super hard. Otherwise, you’d get sucked in.

“If you got your right front into it, you’d push a little bit. If you got your right rear into it, you’d slide. It was a lot of fun.”

Bell used his experience on dirt to negotiate the two ends of the half-mile track, which featured markedly different racing characteristics.

“(Turns) 3 and 4, that was the scary corner for me, because if you got into it too far, you lost all your momentum,” the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota explained. (Turns) 1 and 2, I think I kept hitting the wall a couple times.

“Seems like there was a little bit more moisture up there—it would hold me better. I’m like, ‘OK, I can really attack (Turns) 1 and 2.’ But (Turns) 3 and 4, I had to be careful… Definitely the track tonight favored experience.”

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Staying out on old tires after the end of Stage 2, Bell led the last 100 laps. Reddick, on the other hand, forewent a pit stop after Stage 1 and won Stage 2, but paid the price with a pit stop at the second break and rested 12th on lap 151.

It wasn’t until lap 223 that Reddick passed eventual fifth-place finisher Chase Briscoe for the second position, as Briscoe scraped the outside wall in Turn 4. Reddick began his pursuit of Bell, but the final caution foiled any opportunity he might have had.

“Yeah, towards the end there definitely feel like I had a little bit more,” Reddick said. “I thought I had the edge, but I wasn’t quite there in the last couple laps. Definitely found it.

“Just hate it for everybody on this (No. 45 23XI Racing) Toyota. Just needed to be a little bit closer than I was. I think with two (laps) to go, it would have been really bold to try to make that move work. Obviously, on the white flag coming into (Turns) 3 and 4, I was going to see. We’ll never know if it (would have) worked.”

Larson won 75-lap Stage 1 wire-to-wire, but he angered Preece with a move that forced the Stewart-Haas Racing driver into the outside wall. On lap 175, 20 circuits after Larson spun and fell to the rear of the field, Preece returned the favor in Turn 4. Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet then shot to the inside into the door of Preece’s No. 41 Ford before spinning into the outside wall.

“Yeah, I’m guessing he was paying me back for whatever I did earlier,” said Larson, who exited the race with suspension damage to his car. “He ran me straight into the fence, and my car was broke and we crashed.

“It sucks, but I should just be mad at myself for spinning out earlier and putting myself back there. Just sucks.”

Austin Dillon ran third, followed by Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Briscoe and Justin Haley, as drivers with dirt-track backgrounds claimed the top six finishing positions. Martin Truex Jr., Todd Gilliland, Kevin Harvick and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10.

“I just have to thank (Speedway Motorsports Inc.) for all of the hard work they’ve done with this dirt racing,” Dillon said. “I don’t care what anybody says, that was an amazing show throughout the field. I felt like it was some great racing.”

RESULTS

With race-ending caution, Reddick falls short on dirt once again

Tyler Reddick paused a post-race interview to go stop Christopher Bell before the latter made his way to victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway, wanting to congratulate Bell on his victory and also lament what could have been had Sunday’s race run …

Tyler Reddick paused a post-race interview to go stop Christopher Bell before the latter made his way to victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway, wanting to congratulate Bell on his victory and also lament what could have been had Sunday’s race run to completion.

“Wish we would have had that extra half lap,” Reddick said of their conversation. “Me and him both didn’t know how it was really going to end.”

Reddick finished second to Bell in the Food City Dirt Race, his chance at taking a shot at the win stymied when the caution flew on the final lap. The two Toyota drivers were each dominant throughout the night, with Bell leading the final 100 laps.

But Reddick, running up against the fence, had closed the gap at the white flag.

“It was like having some PTSD there but reversed,” he chuckled.

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A year ago in the dirt race, Reddick was the one being chased on the final lap. Chase Briscoe ended up taking them both out in Turn 3 – handing the win to Kyle Busch – when he attempted a slide job that went wrong.

“I feel like Christopher probably would have done a better job defending it than I did last year,” Reddick said. “But we raced really, really hard there at the end. When (Ryan) Blaney spun, I was pretty convinced the caution was going to come out; I kind of checked up, he did too, and he got back going better than I did and got a gap. I just needed to close the gap and didn’t.”

Blaney was spun off the race’s final restart with eight laps to go. Somehow the field avoided Blaney, who was running inside the top five, and the caution never flew.

With a smile, Bell said Reddick told him that, “It was going to be interesting if the yellow flag didn’t come out.”

Did Reddick have a move ready had the final lap gone the distance?

“I don’t know if it’d been a good one,” he said. “I honestly think (Bell) would have defended it. I don’t know if he knew the caution was out, so that’s why he went to the bottom, or if that was going to be his defensive line, which — if you’re in his situation — that was the move to make.

“We’ll never really know, but I was going to go for it, for sure.”

Reddick earned 13 points in the stages, including winning the second stage. He led 69 of the race’s 250 laps.

‘It’s been a pretty cool year’ – Stenhouse continues riding the Daytona wave

Nearly two months after winning the biggest race of the year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. says things have calmed down enough for the JTG Daugherty team to focus on racing. “We definitely were super busy there for a while, but I feel like things are back to …

Nearly two months after winning the biggest race of the year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. says things have calmed down enough for the JTG Daugherty team to focus on racing.

“We definitely were super busy there for a while, but I feel like things are back to normal,” Stenhouse of everything that’s followed his Daytona 500 win. “It’s been really fun and really enjoyable. For us, we’re finally able to sit down and focus week to week on what we need to do at each racetrack, what we need to do going forward at racetracks ahead, and just learn as much as we can.

“I feel really good about a lot of the racetracks we’ve been to and our speed. Obviously, not every racetrack we’ve got the finish out of it that I feel like speed-wise we’ve had, so that’s a bummer at some points.”

Stenhouse’s third career win in the NASCAR Cup Series was the second for JTG Daugherty Racing, but winning the Daytona 500 was a first for all parties involved.

Since then, he’s been pleased with the speed in his No. 47 Chevrolet. The results have been up and down, though. A seventh-place finish two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas was his first top-10 finish since the season-opening race.

Last weekend, Stenhouse got off to a fast start at Richmond Raceway using impressive speed in the outside lane before a mechanical issue forced him to the garage. He was running fifth at the competition caution before coming to pit road — where the day began going downhill. He finished 35th, his worst finish of the season and his first finish outside the top 25.

“We had a really good car at Richmond last week,” Stenhouse said. “Obviously we had an issue on our pit stop that knocked the brakes off of it, so that was a kind of a freak accident. But we got it fixed and went back out there and felt like we had a top-12 car.

“So stuff like that gives us a lot of confidence moving forward, especially since that was a short track, and we struggled at short tracks last year. I think things like that are definitely encouraging for us, so I feel like that’s what we’ve been able to focus on now that it’s slowed down a little bit.”

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Stenhouse has an average finish of 16.4 entering the Bristol dirt race (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, Fox). The event is an opportunity race for the No. 47 team, the Mississippi driver not unfamiliar with dirt racing success.

Although the focus is back forward, that doesn’t mean Stenhouse and the JTG Daugherty organization haven’t gotten a lot of use out of their Daytona victory. Jodi Geschickter made it known it was a much-needed victory for the David of the NASCAR garage, and its loyal sponsors, up against the Goliath of the larger teams. In the days after the win, Stenhouse went on a victory tour, giving numerous interviews and exposure for the team owners.

“So far, it’s been a pretty cool year,” Stenhouse said.

It’s also a year that was completely shifted after Daytona. Stenhouse is looking at a potential playoff berth as JTG Daugherty capitalizes on the benefits of winning a prestigious event. It’s given the driver a chance to approach his job differently and perhaps from a little better perspective.

“I think the biggest thing is confidence,” Stenhouse said of what Daytona has done for the organization. “When you have a win, you show up to the racetrack with a little more pep in your step. Then the speed that we’ve had — I feel like I’ve been able to be a little bit more relaxed and probably get better finishes out of the car, sometimes, than what’s there, (compared to) what I would have done last year because we do have a win, and I’m a little more relaxed through the center potions of the race; even the beginning of the race when things aren’t going exactly as planned…

“So, it’s let me relax a little bit. On the team side of it, marketing (and other departments have) been quite a bit different. It’s really been good for us. It’s been really neat and special to see, and yeah, the confidence in the team has been super high.”

Hamlin peels back the curtain on the NASCAR appeals process

Denny Hamlin wanted to provide a bit of transparency to the NASCAR appeals process after his hearing on Thursday, which is why he put out a bonus podcast thereafter. “From my standpoint, I think it’s kind of simple to just say, ‘Well, you said this, …

Denny Hamlin wanted to provide a bit of transparency to the NASCAR appeals process after his hearing on Thursday, which is why he put out a bonus podcast thereafter.

“From my standpoint, I think it’s kind of simple to just say, ‘Well, you said this, but it obviously has to be that,’” said Hamlin. “But I thought I laid out what my argument was, and I made it (on the podcast) so that I could shed some light on what the process was, as well.

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“I think when a lot of people hear the Kaulig Racing one, the Hendrick Motorsports one, and mine, a lot of people don’t know how it actually goes, and I tried to give some transparency to the people who don’t necessarily know. And I thought, as I stated, that it was a very fair process.”

Hamlin lost his appeal of the behavioral penalty NASCAR levied after his last-lap contact with Ross Chastain at Phoenix Raceway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was docked 25 driver points and fined $50,000.

In its penalty report, NASCAR cited attempting to manipulate a race, wrecking or spinning another vehicle, and actions detrimental to the sport. Hamlin admitted what he did to Chastain was intentional on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, the day after the Phoenix race, which is what caught NASCAR’s attention and promoted a review after they initially didn’t think much of the incident.

In his podcast episode after the appeal, Hamlin said he broke down exactly what transpired at Phoenix with data to back it up. Hamlin argued that what took place at Phoenix was hard racing between two competitors, and all he did was not cut Chastain a break.

According to Hamlin, during the appeal, NASCAR also admitted they penalized him for his words and not his actions. During his presentation, Hamlin said he presented multiple examples of what race manipulation is (one example being Chase Elliott holding up Kevin Harvick to allow teammate Kyle Larson to catch and pass him at Bristol in 2021) and presented examples of retaliatory incidents.

“It was online, and then we did our own research,” Hamlin said. “I think it was important for my case to (show) here’s what has gotten penalized in the past and where mine, interestingly enough, didn’t belong on the pages because mine included no innocent bystanders, had no caution, no significant damage to the vehicles, no egregious driver inputs that showed right rear hooking.

“It didn’t deserve to be on the page of 35 other incidents that did not receive any penalties. And all those 35 also included intent that was verbal acknowledgment of intent.

“Again, that rule was taken out (of the rulebook), so what I said on (the podcast that) Monday, how it even applied, I don’t know. But that’s really what (NASCAR) hung their case on was all these words, but there were no facts brought behind it.”

The three-person appeals panel that heard Hamlin’s appeal was Hunter Nickell, Dale Pinilis, and Lyn St. James. Nickell is a television executive while Pinilis is the promoter of Bowman Gray Stadium, and James a former open-wheel driver.

When it came to presenting SMT data to those who might be unfamiliar with it, Hamlin said he laid it out and walked everything through it as simply as possible.

“I made sure everyone understood,” said Hamlin. “It was black and white, in my mind, but it was not deemed credible by the source who gives it to us. I’m still scratching my head about that part is that this is proof, this is real proof, and they just did not deem it credible.”

Hamlin’s immediate reaction on the podcast to losing the appeal was shock.

“I still don’t understand the ruling considering all the precedent and all the examples and even the real data that I brought to the table,” Hamlin said. “It still doesn’t make sense, which is the disappointing part, especially NASCAR’s stance on it. But refuting real data was a tough pill to swallow.”

A justification for their ruling was not given by the appeals panel. Hamlin’s was the third appeal heard in the span of eight days. It was the only one completely upheld.

Following the three appeals – Hendrick, Kaulig, and Hamlin – NASCAR officials amended multiple parts of its rule book. Among the updates in language was the appeals panel having to give justification for their rulings, which NASCAR reserves the right to then publicize.

“We hope so,” Hamlin said of the changes being good for the process.

“I said the previous week on the podcast that I think that was something that needed to be done – more transparency to understand why rulings go the way they are.

“Certainly, with no propriety information with standardized parts, I think if everyone here has the opportunity to see maybe some parts that they deemed illegal or the team deems legal, let you guys draw your own conclusions, and that makes it more informed, I think, and certainly will stop with all the conspiracy theories.”

Bowman and Byron – two sides of the Hendrick penalty coin

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron brought opposite attitudes to Bristol Motor Speedway after a second inspection penalty in three weeks. The two teams were penalized by NASCAR after they had their cars, the No. 48 and No. …

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron brought opposite attitudes to Bristol Motor Speedway after a second inspection penalty in three weeks.

The two teams were penalized by NASCAR after they had their cars, the No. 48 and No. 24, taken to the R&D Center for further inspection after last weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway. During the teardown, a violation was found in the greenhouse of both cars.

Both teams lost 60 points and five playoff points. The penalty knocked Bowman from the points lead.

“Man, I just drive the thing,” Bowman said. “We’ve got the best average finish of the year, and obviously having a good starting position was good last week, and we’re not leading points anymore, but all I can do is keep performing how we have been and trying to be better each and every week and do my job.”

Bowman has the best average finish of the series and the most top-10 finishes. Given that, he’s been focused on the positives and said it outweighs all the negatives around his team.

He did, however, say the penalty would be frustrating should he not win the regular season championship by that point margin. His dry sense of humor showed when asked about his and Byron’s cars being the ones chosen for inspection after Hendrick Motorsports won their appeal from the L2 penalty issued last month.

“It’s a random inspection, man,” Bowman said. “It’s completely random. Just chances got us there.”

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Hendrick Motorsports was penalized in early March for modified hood louvers on all four cars. The organization immediately filed an appeal and repeatedly insisted they shouldn’t have been in that position because the single-source suppliers are not providing the correct parts.

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel rescinded the 100-point penalty to all four Hendrick Motorsports teams the week going into Richmond. Kyle Larson then won the Richmond race, while NASCAR took Byron and Bowman’s cars. Then came the second penalty earlier this week.

“It’s suboptimal, right?” Bowman said of two penalties. “But it doesn’t have anything to do with me. It’s my job to drive the race car and perform at the highest level that I’m capable of behind the wheel, and I feel like we’ve had a good start to the year and just running as well as we have has got me feeling pretty good about things.

“It’s the best start to the season that I’ve had in my career, so I’ve been enjoying that. I’m not frustrated. I feel like my team — we did a really good job of overcoming the first one and staying plugged in and not letting it get to us, and I’m confident we can do that throughout the second one as well.”

Humorous moods were not shared all around, though. During his media availability, Byron, who rarely shows frustration, was short and clear with his answers, very much not amused.

“I feel like they could take all the cars to the R&D Center, so I don’t understand it,” Byron said of what happened last week. “But I’m not happy.”

On whether he believes it was really random that NASCAR chose his and Bowman’s cars inspection: “You tell me. It doesn’t look very random, does it?”

Asked if he feels there is a stain on his team or organization after two penalties in the span of a few weeks, Byron said, “It’s not a stain for us. We don’t really look outside of our team. Our team has been great this year, and we’ll keep it going.”

He followed, “It’s been great; love my job,” when asked about the atmosphere around Hendrick Motorsports with everything that’s happened the last few weeks.

And given that he’s yo-yoed up and down the point standings with 100 points taken and given back and 60 points taken away this week, he summed the conversation up with a simple “I don’t have anything good to say.”

Larson slides to Bristol dirt pole in just one single lap

Kyle Larson went from sixth to first on the first lap of his heat race on the Bristol dirt, earning him enough points (14) to win the pole for Sunday’s race. The heat races set the starting lineup for the Food City Dirt Race by awarding drivers …

Kyle Larson went from sixth to first on the first lap of his heat race on the Bristol dirt, earning him enough points (14) to win the pole for Sunday’s race.

The heat races set the starting lineup for the Food City Dirt Race by awarding drivers points for passing as well as their finishing position.

It is Larson’s second pole of the season and 16th of his Cup Series career.

He’ll will be joined on the front row by Austin Dillon — winner of the first heat race.

JJ Yeley starts third for Rick Ware Racing. Yeley went from ninth to third in his heat. Sunday will the first time he has started in the top five in a Cup Series race since 2007, when he won the pole at Michigan driving for Joe Gibbs.

“They went well,” Yeley said after his heat race. “We obviously didn’t know what to expect. I tried to roll the bottom on our first two little hot laps, just judging off the previous heat race. The car didn’t feel very good, so I’m a dirt guy by nature and I knew all of those guys were going to fight for the bottom, so I said, ‘The heck with it.’ I was going to go to the top and the car handled really, really good up there.

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“It took me a couple of laps to get into a rhythm. It felt like I might have been just a little bit better than the leaders once we got into third, and then I started overdriving and it just takes one little mistake to give up everything that you gained. To come from the back and finish third, I think it’ll be good for points and put us somewhere near the front half… I’m thinking anything can happen here tomorrow.”

Christopher Bell starts fourth and Kyle Busch starts fifth. Busch is the defending winner of the Food City Dirt Race.

Tyler Reddick starts sixth, Austin Cindric seventh, Ryan Preece eighth, Ryan Blaney ninth, and William Byron 10th.

NASCAR Cup Series points leader Ross Chastain starts 16th.

Jonathan Davenport starts 21st in his Cup Series debut, driving the No. 13 for Kaulig Racing.

Matt Crafton starts 24th for Rick Ware Racing. Crafton is substituting for Cody Ware, who is taking care of a personal matter.

There are 37 drivers entered at Bristol.

‘Everything is fine’ between Truex and Small after Richmond drama

Martin Truex Jr. knows outsiders hear the infighting on his Joe Gibbs Racing team radio and assume it’s a sign of bigger troubles within the team. “We talked right after the race; everything is fine,” Truex said. “It’s frustration. Heat of the …

Martin Truex Jr. knows outsiders hear the infighting on his Joe Gibbs Racing team radio and assume it’s a sign of bigger troubles within the team.

“We talked right after the race; everything is fine,” Truex said. “It’s frustration. Heat of the moment. We talked Sunday night, Monday, and all week. Everything is fine. It’s just one of those things that happens.”

The former NASCAR Cup Series champion offered the reassurance Saturday at the Bristol dirt race. Truex said he and crew chief James Small, who went back and forth on the radio after the checkered flag last weekend at Richmond Raceway, have a great relationship, and sometimes frustration comes out.

“It’s part of what you do,” Truex said. “It’s intense competition.”

Truex finished 11th at Richmond on scuffed tires. He’d gone from fighting for the race lead when the final caution of the race flew and sent the field to pit road. The No. 19 team didn’t have a set of stickers, so Truex was a disadvantage.

At one point, he said it was a “(expletive) nightmare” as he battled to the end of the race. Further comments laced in frustration on the radio after the race caught everyone’s attention.

“We (expletive) hosed ourselves,” Small radioed. “We were (expletive) out of tires. We had that seven-lap scuffs there, so we were (expletive).”

Small further explained, “We had (expletive) scuffed tires on there because we hosed ourselves taking that set in stage one. So, we were (expletive) regardless. Sorry. We (expletive) up.”

Truex had no idea he was on older tires during the race.

“I wouldn’t have been so…surprised and frustrated,” he said. “I just didn’t know; it was a surprise to me. I would have been more prepared, I guess.”

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Truex said he and Small didn’t discuss why he wasn’t told about the tire situation.

“I guess he was hoping I would do something magical,” Truex said with a laugh. “But it was really out of my hands at that point. I was just confused at first, obviously, because I didn’t know. And then just (expletive) off because I feel like we had the race won, and all that happened. It’s been like that for a while, and just ready for things to turn (around) and hopefully go our way one of these days.”

Winless since 2021, Richmond was also a continuation of mounting frustration. Although the No. 19 was one of the most consistent in the series last year, leading the series in stage wins through the regular season, they still missed the playoffs. The team has seen multiple wins slip away through bad execution or misfortune.

“We’re working hard and doing all we know to do, and it’s just like, ‘What’s going to happen next?’” said Truex. “It’s a shame. The decision to pit in the first stage (at Richmond) was a radio issue, and that comes back to haunt us at the end of the race. He made the right decision; it just never got to me or my spotter because of the radio issue.

“It just builds up. Frustration builds up when things like that (happen), and it ends up costing you at the end of the day when it was a decision three hours ago.”

Truex enters Bristol (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, Fox) ninth in the championship standings with one top-10 finish through seven races. He won the inaugural CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on the Bristol dirt in 2021.

NASCAR brings ‘choose drone’ to Bristol

As the choose rule comes to NASCAR dirt racing for the first time this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, so does a new way to signify the area for a driver to make their decision. NASCAR officials are using a drone for both the Craftsman Truck …

As the choose rule comes to NASCAR dirt racing for the first time this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, so does a new way to signify the area for a driver to make their decision.

NASCAR officials are using a drone for both the Craftsman Truck Series and Cup Series events. The drone will hover above the frontstretch with an LED marker to let drivers know it’s time for them to choose either the inside or outside lane.

“I think you could very easily just put chalk out there and use that as the choose rule,” Christopher Bell said. “It’ll eventually go away whenever someone runs across it, but either way, I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. You’ll either go high or low, and it shouldn’t really be that much of a factor.”

At other racetracks, a “V” is painted on the surface just past the start/finish line for drivers to either go inside or outside to make their choice. However, officials knew painting something on the racetrack wasn’t realistic, and they didn’t want anyone standing on the track during an event, either.

“I think we could have accomplished the same thing with a cone and rope, but hey, it’s whatever they want to do,” Ryan Blaney said with a laugh. “I have no say in the matter. And they did tell us it’s not going to be very strict – it’s just a reference point.

“You’re going to know if you’re bottom or top and commit. Honestly, I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but like I said, you could have accomplished the same with a cone and a rope.”

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Blaney was one of a a few drivers who mentioned NASCAR will be more lenient with the choose this weekend. If drivers run over the orange “V” during the choose at traditional racetracks, they are sent to the tail of the field.

“It’s going to be something funny to see,” Blaney said. “It’ll bright at night, so that’ll be good. You’ll get an idea of where it’s out. I don’t think we’ll see anyone get penalized unless you’re right in the middle. But they told us there will be some leeway. It’s not going to be like running over the orange box. There will be some slack and I think that’s good, especially at this place.”

Said Martin Truex Jr., “It should be fine. There is no box to run over to get penalized, so I think we’ve done the choose long enough we can figure it out.”

Jesse Little, NASCAR senior coordinator of competition operations, told NASCAR.com that drivers have been told not to put NASCAR in a position where a call has to be made. Little also expressed that using the drone at other racetracks is not in NASCAR’s plans but will take any industry feedback under consideration.

Drivers didn’t seem too concerned over the change for one week. If anything, it’ll be more visible to the drivers than the “V” painted on the track, and it’ll be a unique addition to the race broadcast.

“I’m sure it’ll look cool on TV,” said Austin Cindric.

Fox Sports does have a camera on the drone.

“I think NASCAR does an amazing job of overcomplicating things,” Kyle Larson said. “I haven’t really seen it up close, just the Twitter picture or video. I race at dirt tracks, and we put a cone on the frontstretch, so I think that would have been plenty simple.”

Crafton to substitute for Ware on Bristol dirt

Craftsman Truck Series driver Matt Crafton will fill the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing seat this weekend on the Bristol dirt as Cody Ware takes care of an unspecified personal matter. “Cody Ware will step away from racing this weekend at Bristol Motor …

Craftsman Truck Series driver Matt Crafton will fill the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing seat this weekend on the Bristol dirt as Cody Ware takes care of an unspecified personal matter.

“Cody Ware will step away from racing this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway to focus on a personal matter,” read a statement from the team. “Matt Crafton will drive the No. 51 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing. Crafton has more than 500 overall starts in his NASCAR career, winning back-to-back NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championships in 2013 and 2014.

“The Ware family asks that their privacy be respected during this time.”

Crafton has made two NASCAR Cup Series starts in his career, and both were as a substitute driver. He finished 18th in his Cup Series debut in 2015, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, and 25th at Martinsville Speedway in 2019 for Front Row Motorsports.

The two-time Truck Series champion will pull double duty at Bristol. Crafton will compete in the Saturday night Truck Series race and make his third Cup Series start Sunday night.

Ware is in his third full season of Cup Series competition for the family team after making his first start in the series in 2017. He has one top-10 finish in 97 starts.

More penalties for Hendrick following NASCAR inspection

Hendrick Motorsports has been penalized once more by NASCAR after the Nos. 24 and 48 cars were torn down at the R&D Center this week. NASCAR officials chose the cars of William Byron and Alex Bowman for further inspection and teardown after Sunday’s …

Hendrick Motorsports has been penalized once more by NASCAR after the Nos. 24 and 48 cars were torn down at the R&D Center this week.

NASCAR officials chose the cars of William Byron and Alex Bowman for further inspection and teardown after Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway. Bowman finished eighth in the Toyota Owners 400 and Byron finished 24th after leading the most laps.

Hendrick Motorsports was levied an L1-level penalty for violations of the NASCAR Rule Book sections 14.1.D Overall Assembled Vehicle Rules and 14.1.2.B Engineering Change Log.

The violations were modifications made to the greenhouse area of the race cars.

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Byron and Bowman have been docked 60 points and five playoff points. Brian Campe, Byron’s crew chief, and Greg Ives, Bowman’s crew chief, have been fined $75,000.

Both crew chiefs were also suspended for two NASCAR Cup Series races. However, because they are both interim crew chiefs, as the four Hendrick Motorsports crews finish out their four-race suspensions for the modified hood louvers last month at Phoenix Raceway, the suspensions for Campe and Ives are effective Thursday, April 13.

Hendrick Motorsports released a statement saying, “We are reviewing the penalties issued today by NASCAR and will determine next steps following Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.”