Tag: Xfinity Series

Alvin Kamara on becoming a spur-of-the-moment NASCAR team sponsor: ‘Why not?’

The New Orleans Saints running back became an Xfinity Series team sponsor in a matter of hours.

Alvin Kamara went to his first NASCAR race last season at Homestead-Miami Speedway decked out in Bubba Wallace apparel. Since then, the the New Orleans Saints running back has been a vocal NASCAR fan, and less than a year after attending his first race, he’s now a team sponsor.

Kamara’s juice bar chain based in Louisiana, called The Big Squeezy, will sponsor Ryan Vargas in the No. 6 JD Motorsports Chevrolet in Saturday’s second-tier Xfinity Series race on Daytona International Speedway’s road course.

Vargas’ car previously didn’t have a sponsor for this weekend’s race, and thanks to Kamara’s piqued interest in getting more involved in NASCAR and some chatter on Twitter, the team now has a sponsor on the car.

At Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500, Kamara was tweeting about racing for much of the day in between talking to NASCAR executives, including president Steve Phelps, the running back said Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Kamara said he was curious about what it would take to be an owner or a sponsor, explaining:

“I’m like, ‘Man, ownership must be hard, and you know, sponsorship and all this.’ And they’re like, ‘No, not really. It’s easy.’ So I shoot out a tweet, I’m like, ‘OK, I just found out I could own my own team or possibly have my own team.’ So, you know, everybody’s going crazy. I get back on Monday, and I’m seeing a lot of tweets and stuff.

“I stumble across Ryan’s tweet talking about how he doesn’t have a sponsor for this week’s race. So I’m like, OK. So in my head, I have no knowledge of what it takes to sponsor a car, none of that, so … I have a number in my head where I’m like this is probably some big money to do this. But whatever, let me see. So I tweet Ryan back.”

Kamara said Vargas sent him a message on Twitter explaining more about becoming a team sponsor and put Kamara in touch with the team’s vice president of sales and marketing. And according to Kamara, all this was still happening while he’s on his way home from the Daytona 500.

He continued explaining what happened to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:

“I land, call Tony, talk to him, and I’m like, ‘Oh shoot, I can do this.’ So I’m like, ‘Why not?’ I was like, ‘Man, I got something I can market right now.’ Ryan obviously didn’t have a sponsor so, I’m like, ‘Man, why not?’ And then I actually like the sport. I’m like, it’s perfect. I feel like I kind of manifested it when I tweeted it on Sunday.”

And about two days after seriously throwing the idea of sponsorship out there — really about 36 hours, according to Kamara and Vargas —  the No. 6 Chevrolet locked in a sponsor for this weekend’s road course race.

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NASCAR: Austin Cindric holds off Justin Allgaier to win Xfinity Series title

Austin Cindric is the 2020 Xfinity Series champion after winning at Phoenix.

22-year-old Austin Cindric won a thriller at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday that ended with a title-deciding green-white-checkered finish.

A late caution set up a battle between Austin Cindric and Justin Allgaier for the championship, and Cindric appeared poised to drive away and win after withstanding Allgaier’s charge on the restart.

Things got more complicated when another title contender, Chase Briscoe, lost control and spun with under 10 laps remaining. Cindric opted to pit, while Allgaier – who did not have a set of tires remaining – had to stay out and take the lead. Cindric restarted the race third with two laps two go, directly behind Allgaier.

The final laps were hectic, with Noah Gragson taking the lead and blocking Cindric from trying to pass Allgaier on the inside. Cindric got a run and made contact with Allgaier while going three wide, but avoided wrecking and went on to pass Gragson for the win.

The Cup Series finale will start on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC.

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NASCAR Xfinity Series season finale start time, how to watch, starting lineup

The Xfinity Series champion will be crowned on Saturday.

The 2020 Xfinity Series season will conclude on Saturday evening with a winner-take-all title fight at Phoenix Raceway.

The four drivers in the Xfinity Series Championship Four are Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Justin Allgaier and Justin Haley.

Briscoe, who is moving up to drive the No. 14 Cup Series car for Stewart-Haas Racing next season, has dominated the Xfinity Series season, with nine victories. In the March race at Phoenix, Justin Haley finished the highest of the Championship Four, in fourth, one spot ahead of Briscoe. That race was won by Brandon Jones.

The Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 at Phoenix will begin at 5:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

You can stream the race online at NBC Sports Live, or on a mobile device by using the NBC Sports app.

Here’s the starting lineup for Saturday’s race:

  1. Justin Allgaier*
  2. Chase Briscoe*
  3. Austin Cindric
  4. Justin Haley
  5. Harrison Burton
  6. Noah Gragson
  7. Ross Chastain
  8. Brandon Jones
  9. Riley Herbst
  10. Michael Annett
  11. Ryan Sieg
  12. Brett Moffitt
  13. Jeremy Clements
  14. Brandon Brown
  15. Myatt Snider
  16. Josh Williams
  17. Tommy Joe Martins
  18. Daniel Hemric
  19. Timmy Hill
  20. Jesse Little
  21. Alex Labbe
  22. Jeffrey Earnhardt
  23. Joe Graf Jr.
  24. Mason Diaz
  25. Colby Howard
  26. Donald Theetge
  27. BJ McLeod
  28. Ryan Vargas
  29. David Starr
  30. Kody Vanderwal
  31. Kyle Weatherman
  32. Matt Mills
  33. Bayley Currey
  34. JJ Yeley
  35. CJ McLaughlin
  36. Jesse Iwuji
  37. Stan Mullis

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Xfinity Series: Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain have epic battle for the win, Brandon Jones steals victory

Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain hit the wall battling for the win, allowing Brandon Jones to steal the victory.

Cup Series star Denny Hamlin seemed poised for a dominant victory at Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington after winning both opening stages, but excellent late-race defense from leader Ross Chastain led to a thrilling finish in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200.

After the final restart, Hamlin caught Chastain with just under 20 laps to go and had the faster car, but couldn’t get around Chastain’s No. 10. As Chastain and Hamlin battled cleanly for the win, third-place driver Brandon Jones closed in – and then watched as the two leaders drove into the outside wall on the penultimate lap.

Hamlin dove into the corner underneath Chastain and tried to ease up the track in front of him, but carried too much speed into the turn and couldn’t avoid hitting the wall. Chastain, meanwhile also hit the wall just before Hamlin did, and couldn’t turn his car underneath Hamlin to get past. Chastain ran into the back of Hamlin and managed to prevent a spin, while Jones was in the perfect spot to drive underneath the chaos and coast to his third win of the season.

 

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. likes the idea of NASCAR Cup Series possibly racing on Indy’s road course

“If we moved away from the oval and when Cup cars go to Indy, we run the road course, I’d be OK with that,” Dale Jr. explained.

For the people tuning into this Saturday’s NASCAR-IndyCar doubleheader at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants them to keep in mind one key question: “Could this work in the Cup Series?”

For the first time ever, NASCAR and the IndyCar Series are racing at the same track over the same weekend. IndyCar kicks things off Saturday with the GMR Grand Prix at noon ET, followed by NASCAR’s second-tier XFINITY Series in the Pennzoil 150. Both races will be on Indy’s road course, which is a first for the NASCAR Series.

The top-tier Cup Series race on Sunday, however, will still be on the iconic 2.5-mile oval, marking the first time the Cup and XFINITY series will have two races in the same location but on different tracks.

As Earnhardt noted on his Dale Jr. Download podcast this week, the XFINITY Series experimenting with stock cars on Indy’s road course could potentially lead to the Cup Series moving from the iconic oval to the road course too, especially “if the [Cup] racing continues to be boring or not satisfactory at the oval.”

Like many racing fans, Earnhardt — who owns JR Motorsports, an XFINITY team — said he’s “really, really excited” about the XFINITY Series racing on the road course. He explained on the Dale Jr. Download:

“I think the road course there has always been a point of conversation. There’s been times throughout the racing at Indianapolis for the Cup cars where the racing hasn’t been that great. With the new rules package, we’re kind of still sifting through to see whether this is going to improve the racing at Indy on the oval.

“But a lot of people have called for the possibility or the idea for the Cup Series to go to the road course and try to race the road course at Indy. This will be the first test of whether that’s really the move to make. So I think as we’re watching this race Saturday, we need to keep in mind not only are we watching it to see who wins and we’re pulling for our favorite drivers and all that good stuff. But we’re also watching it with the idea of: Could this work in the Cup Series?

“I think everybody should pay attention while they’re watching the XFINITY race and make that decision for themselves at the end. Did what you see — would you like to see the Cup cars doing just what you saw the XFINITY cars doing on Saturday? Because if the Cup racing at the [Indy] oval doesn’t improve or doesn’t trend toward more exciting racing, then they might have to make a change or they likely will make a change.”

Earnhardt fully admitted that his excitement over just the idea of the Cup Series taking on Indy’s road course is largely because he retired from the Cup Series and moved to NBC Sports’ broadcast booth. He clearly wants to watch a Cup race on the road course, but he said he wouldn’t want to actually race in it.

Back in January, Matt DiBenedetto was the first NASCAR driver to test on Indy’s road course, and because of that, the full-time Cup Series driver is ineligible to compete in this first XFINITY race. But after the test, DiBenedetto said he’s “jealous” of the NASCAR drivers racing on it.

On the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt continued explaining why he’s enthusiastic about the hypothetical idea of the NASCAR Cup Series switching to Indy’s road course from the oval:

“I like the idea because the IndyCar oval is — that belongs to IndyCar, that belongs to open-wheel, that belongs to the legends of [A.J.] Foyt and [Mario] Andretti. We are merely just guests — I’ve always said that. That’s what it’s felt like. … So if that was taken away, our cars racing there doesn’t have this long tradition. We just started racing there since [1994].

“We’re not losing this tradition or history of great triumphs and exciting finishes going back into the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, like maybe you have at Daytona or even Charlotte, right? That’s the one thing I’m afraid of for Charlotte, if we quit racing the oval entirely, is losing all that history and tradition of what happened there and the race and the triumphs that have happened there. So I’m OK with this though. If we moved away from the oval and when Cup cars go to Indy, we run the road course, I’d be OK with that.”

Of course, there is no guarantee the XFINITY Series taking on Indy’s road course will produce captivating racing. And even if it does, NASCAR could still keep the Cup Series on the iconic oval.

But between the half-oval, half-road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway and mixing up things in the nine-month schedule — prior to COVID-19 reshaping the schedule too — NASCAR has shown its willingness to experiment and offer fans some variety. So maybe sometime in the future, Cup cars on the Indy road course will be next.

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NASCAR team runs #BackTheBlue paint scheme at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Mike Harmon Racing is running a pro-police paint scheme on one of its XFINITY Series cars.

Three days after Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. ran a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, a team in the second-tier XFINITY Series is running a #BackTheBlue paint scheme Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

For the first of two XFINITY races at Homestead this weekend, Kyle Weatherman’s No. 47 Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet will have a paint scheme with #BackTheBlue written on the quarter panels and bumper, while the hood of the car has a black and white American flag on it with a blue line through it — a symbol of support for police and other law enforcement. The race team also described it as a #ThinBlueLine paint scheme.

There were rumors that NASCAR might not allow the look, FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass reported, but the governing body approved it.

Although neither Mike Harmon Racing nor Weatherman said explicitly that the paint scheme is in response to Wallace’s #BlackLivesMatter scheme — which received national attention and praise from other professional athletes, like LeBron James and Richard Sherman — it’s fairly easy to draw that connection.

Mike Harmon Racing first tweeted an image of the paint scheme Saturday morning about eight hours before the XFINITY race:

If it’s not a response to Wallace and Richard Petty Motorsports’ #BlackLivesMatter scheme, then the timing of running it is obnoxiously tone deaf, as mass protests against police brutality and racism continue raging around the U.S. and world. Amid protests following the death of George Floyd — a Black man, who was killed after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes — Americans’ perception of police plunged, according to a recent poll.

Even Weatherman — who’s competed in two previous races this season for Mike Harmon Racing — appeared to downplay the “thin blue line” message by trying to focus on general first responders, citing his uncle, who’s a firefighter.

However, as far as we can tell, there is no mention or reference to firefighters or other first responders, beside police officers, on the car.

Given the paint schemes the No. 47 car has run before, the timing this one hardly seems like a coincidence.

The No. 47 Chevrolet also had a Trump 2020 paint scheme for the XFINITY Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February — although the car was driven by Joe Nemechek. The car was sponsored by Patriots PAC of America, which paid Mike Harmon Racing $25,000 in February, according to an FEC filing.

Joe Nemechek in February at Daytona International Speedway. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

And at the XFINITY Series’ most recent race, the Echo Park 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend, the Nemechek and the No. 47 car also had a Trump-Pence 2020 paint scheme.

The president has been a clear opponent of protesters against racial injustice in the last several weeks, including forcibly removing peaceful protesters for a widely criticized photo op June 1.

NASCAR fans had mixed reactions to tweets of the paint scheme Saturday:

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Chase Briscoe holds off Kyle Busch in thrilling, emotional Xfinity Series finish

This was incredible.

Chase Briscoe climbed into his car with a heavy heart on Thursday at Darlington Raceway, just one day after sharing the heartbreaking story that he his wife Marissa lost their unborn child. Briscoe wrote that on Tuesday, he FaceTimed with his wife while she went to the doctor for a checkup, just after the couple had learned the gender of their baby.

During the visit, the nurse and doctors were unable to detect a heartbeat. Following an outpouring of support from the racing community, Briscoe tweeted that he and his wife debated sharing their story, but hoped that “using our platform to help others was a way God would help with coping with it all.”

Back in his car at Darlington, Briscoe scored the greatest win of his life in the Toyota 200. With reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Busch chasing him down in the closing laps, Briscoe outdueled Busch to edge him at the finish line and take the checkered flag.

Briscoe said after the race that he was crying inside the car and wasn’t emotionally in the right place, but called it the biggest day of his life after the toughest day of his life.

NASCAR drivers saluted Briscoe on social media.

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Tuesday’s NASCAR XFinity Race at Darlington: Start Time, TV Channel, Live Stream, NASCAR Lineup

NASCAR is back tonight with its second race of the week at Darlington, you can stream all the action right here.

We have some NASCAR racing tonight as the Xfinity Series returns Tuesday night. The race was moved up two hours due to rain in the forecast, it will start around 6 PM ET as opposed to the original start time of 8 PM ET.

NASCAR will continue to race without practices and the starting lineup listed below is set up by a random draw. All safety precautions have been taken and changed to fit the government regulations.

NASCAR XFinity Series race at Darlington

  • When: Tuesday, May 19
  • Time: 6:00 p.m. ET
  • TV: FS1, FOX Deportes
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)

This will be the second race in as many days at Darlington after Sunday’s Real Heroes 400 that Kevin Harvick ran away with.

Kyle Busch who is normally favored in the Cup Series will be racing today and tomorrow, after only one day rest, it will be interesting to see if there is some fatigue from his car.

Xfinity Series Lineup

1. Noah Gragson
2. Michael Annett
3. Justin Haley
4. Ryan Sieg
5. Riley Herbst
6. Brandon Brown
7. Austin Cindric
8. Brandon Jones
9. Ross Chastain
10. Justin Allgaier
11. Chase Briscoe
12. Harrison Burton
13. BJ McLeod
14. Myatt Snider
15. Josh Williams
16. Alex Labbe
17. Anthony Alfredo
18. Jesse Little
19. Ray Black Jr.
20. Vinnie Miller
21. Kody Vanderwal
22. Brett Moffitt
23. Daniel Hemric
24. Chad Finchum
25. Tommy Joe Martins
26. Kyle Busch
27. Matt Mills
28. Timmy Hill
29. Joe Nemechek
30. Jeremy Clements
31. Colby Howard
32. Ronnie Bassett Jr.
33. Mason Massey
34. Jeffrey Earnhardt
35. Bayley Currey
36. Joe Graf Jr.
37. Stephen Leicht
38. Landon Cassill
39. Colin Garrett

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Listen to Clint Bowyer’s hilarious Dale Earnhardt Jr. impression

Clint Bowyer does a pretty amazing Dale Jr. impression.

NASCAR Cup Series stars Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski joined the FS1 broadcast booth to call Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway, and Bowyer delivered a hilarious Dale Earnhardt Jr. impression near the end of the second stage. When discussing the merits of running the top lane versus the bottom lane, Bowyer speculated that Earnhardt Jr. was likely instructing his JR Motorsports driver and race leader Justin Allgaier to move to the top side of the track, in his own version of Earnhardt’s southern accent.

Dale Jr. loved it.

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An Xfinity Series car lost its hood at full speed and the footage is wild

This was crazy.

At a superspeedway like Daytona, it’s common to see hood flaps deploying rapidly as air rushes over the line of cars drafting around the 2.5-mile circuit. Unfortunately for NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Jeremy Clements, his entire hood was caught by the air, flew up in front of his windshield and was instantly destroyed in the middle of a tight pack of cars.

The mishap forced Clements to head for the garage.

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