21st Running of the Auto Lotto 200 X-FINITY Series Race

Posted on July 15, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Last Year’s Race: On paper, it looked like Denny Hamlin had an easy time of it in winning at New Hampshire – leading 145 of the two hundred laps to post his second X-FINITY Series win of the season. But on the track, it was quite a different story. Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch leaned hard on each other twice during the course of the afternoon while racing for position. In one instance, contact early in the race sent Hamlin – the pole sitter – spinning and forced him to restart at the rear of the field. But the Number-20 Toyota was strong, Hamlin charged back toward the front and took the lead at Lap-43. With less than thirty laps to go, Austin Dillon jumped past Hamlin on the day’s final restart and led briefly. But Hamlin pulled alongside Dillon a short time later and nudged him out of the way to reclaim the lead and drive off to his thirteenth career victory. Dillon was critical of Hamlin’s bump-and-run tactic after the race as he had to settle for second place. Brad Keselowski finished third and Busch was fourth, giving Sprint Cup Series drivers the top four finishing positions. Rookie Daniel Suarez was fifth, the highest-placed X-FINITY Series regular.

Friday’s Practice Schedule: From 1 to 1:55 p.m. and 3 to 4:25 p.m. (ET) … Qualifying: Saturday at 11:15 a.m. (ET).

Sprint Cup Teams Test At Indianapolis

Posted on July 14, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

A number of NASCAR Sprint Cup teams took part in a two-day organizational test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday. The test was in advance of the Crown Royal presents the Wounded Warrior Coalition 400 to be held on July 24. Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson, and Kevin Harvick were among those at the test that were consistently fast in each of the sessions. Two sessions were held on Tuesday, with teams working through the lunch break Wednesday due to a threat of weather in the area. Matt Kenseth who was second quickest in the opening session on Tuesday noted that the tire fall off was significant with the new lower downforce package being used this season and expected that fall off to translate to good racing. Others taking part in the test included Paul Menard, Joey Logano, Brian Scott, Chris Buescher, Trevor Bayne, Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. AJ Allmendinger and his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing team were originally scheduled to attend the test, but following two incidents on Saturday night in Kentucky that injured Allmendinger’s hand, the team passed on attending the test. Allmendinger has been cleared to return to NASCAR competition following an X-ray on Monday.

Nascar Enhances Competition Executive Team

Posted on July 13, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

NASCAR announced yesterday that Elton Sawyer has been promoted to the role of Vice President, Officiating and Technical Inspection from his current role of Managing Director of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Additionally John Probst has joined the organization as Managing Director, Competition and Innovation after serving as Technical Director for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. NASCAR also made promotions within its competition team that included Brad Moran transitioning to Managing Director, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Brandon Thompson will become the Senior Director, Touring Series. George Grippo will join the competition team as Managing Director, Competition Technology and Timing & Scoring, and Jusan Hamilton will become Manager, Racing Operations & Event Management.

The NASCAR Foundation To Host Honors Gala

Posted on July 12, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

The NASCAR Foundation will host its first-ever Honors Gala in New York City on September 27 to unveil the winner of its signature Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award Presented by Nationwide.

The gala will celebrate “10 Years of Giving” for the foundation which has donated twenty-five million dollars to more than one million children since inception in 2006. Along with the signature award, the foundation will hand out a series of awards including its first-ever Founders Award to Mark Lazarus, Chairman of the NBC Sports Group. The Founder’s Award honors contributions to philanthropy through use of time, talent and resources – both personally and professionally – to make a meaningful impact on the lives of children. Additionally, the annual Children’s Champion Award will be given to a medical professional that has showcased significant contributions, leadership, and dedication to enriching the lives of children.

The NASCAR Foundation will also announce the launch of the Speediatrics Children’s Fund through a long-term partnership with a New York-area medical organization providing services to children in need. The gala will be headlined by multi-platinum selling pop star Rachel Platten will perform live with music from her major-label debut, Wildfire and will also host a live auction featuring the artwork of the 2015 Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award presented by Nationwide winner Jeff Hanson, a philanthropic artist whose artwork gifted to charity has generated nearly two million dollars.

Brad Keselowski takes the Quacker State 400

Posted on July 11, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Brad Keselowski stretched his final fuel load right to the finish line to notch his third career Kentucky win and second straight victory of the season. The closing laps saw several teams try to stretch the final fuel run hoping for a caution, only to be forced to pit. Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. dominated the race leading a combined 174 laps but were among those who needed to pit for fuel finishing ninth and tenth respectively. Carl Edwards was also working fuel strategy and was able to run down Keselowski in the closing laps, but was not able to pass him and was forced to settle for second. Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart rounded out the top-five. The newly repaved and reconfigured surface of Kentucky Speedway proved to be a challenge to many drivers over the course of the evening. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the first driver to struggle with the new lower downforce aero package at the speedway, wrecking on lap nine. He was not the last, as a total of nine drivers would eventually be involved in accidents that brought about a track-record tying eleven cautions for fifty-three laps on the evening. Jimmie Johnson, who crashed his primary car in practice, saw a repeat performance in the race, spinning in turn-4 and making contact with the wall.

Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott also were involved in accidents throughout the evening. By virtue of his early departure, Ryan Blaney has now dropped out of the top-sixteen in Championship points which will place a great deal of pressure on the rookie driver in the final eight races of the regular season. Jeffery Earnhardt, who finished twenty-eighth, was the highest finishing rookie, on a night when many drivers struggled with the new track conditions.

6th Running Of The Quaker State 400 Sprint Cup Series Race At Sparta, Kentucky

Posted on July 8, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Recap of Last Year’s Race: Kyle Busch’s climb toward the top thirty – and a berth in the Chase – continued with his second win of the season in just seven starts. Busch led a race-high 163 laps, including the final twenty trips around the mile-and-a-half oval. The victory lifted him from thirty-seventh to thirty-fifth in the standings with eight races left in the regular season. After missing the first eleven races of the year while recovering from injuries suffered in February at Daytona, Busch’s average finish in seven starts was seventeenth. He led a parade of Joe Gibbs Racing cars into the top five at Kentucky. Denny Hamlin finished third, Carl Edwards fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth. Team Penske’s Joey Logano ran second, one-point-five seconds behind Busch at the checkered flag .With an eighth-place finish, regular-season points leader Kevin Harvick became the first driver to officially clinch his spot on the 2015 Chase Grid.

Track Position in Kentucky: Winners of the first five Sprint Cup Series races run have started first and ninth (Busch), first and eighth (Brad Keselowski), and sixteenth (Kenseth) …

Track Qualifying Record: Keselowski (Ford) … 188.791 miles per hour … 28.603 seconds … June 2014

Track Record, Race Speed: Keselowski (Dodge) … 145.607 mph … 2 hours, 45 minutes, 2 seconds … June 2012

Friday’s Practice Schedule: From 11 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. and 1:30 to 2:50 p.m. (ET) … Qualifying: TODAY at 6:45 p.m. (ET).

16th Running Of The Alsco 300 X-FINITY Series Race At Sparta, Kentucky

Posted on July 8, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Recap of Last Year’s Race: Brad Keselowski darted past race lead Erik Jones nine laps from the finish and kept the Number-22 Team Penske Ford in front the rest of the way, beating Jones to the checkered flag by a quarter-second with Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and Elliott Sadler completing the top five. J-J Yeley, who had been awarded the pole position based on practice speeds after qualifying was rained out, failed to lead a single lap and finished eighteenth – two laps down to Keselowski. Brendan Gaughan rode home in ninth place on a day he celebrated his fortieth birthday.

Busch led a race-high eighty-eight laps, including one stretch of twenty-six midway through the second half of the race before the final caution sent drivers to pit road.

Keselowski and Jones opted for two tires while Busch took four, and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver never regained the lead … Points leader Chris Buescher finished eleventh but still managed to stretch his advantage to thirty- six points over Chase Elliott, who finished thirteenth in the race.

Track Position at Kentucky: All but three of the nineteen X-FINITY Series races run have been won from a starting position of sixth or better. The exceptions are 2001 winner Kevin Harvick, who qualified eleventh; Keselowski in 2013, nineteenth; and Harvick again in 2014, who started seventh … Winning From the Pole in Kentucky: Six of nineteen X-FINITY Series races have been won from the pole position, most recently by Austin Dillon in 2012 …

Track Qualifying Record: Carl Edwards (Ford) … 181.287 miles per hour … 29.787 seconds … June 2005 …

Track Record, Race Speed: Keselowski (Ford) … 131.162 mph … 1 hour, 56 minutes, 39 seconds … June 2013 …

Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 At The Kentucky Speedway

Posted on July 7, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Next stop Kentucky Speedway for tonight’s seventeenth running of the Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 Camping World Truck Series race. The track, located in the northern part of the state near the Indiana-Ohio border is a mile-and-a-half oval with fourteen to seventeen degrees of banking in the turns and four to eight degrees along the straightaways. The length of the front stretch is 1,662 feet, the backstretch sixteen hundred feet. Grandstand seating capacity is 107,000.

Brad Keselowski Claims His Twentieth Career Victory And Third This Season

Posted on July 5, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Brad Keselowski led a race-high 115 laps on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, including the final seventeen, to claim his twentieth career victory and third this season. The final caution period forced the race one lap past its scheduled distance. On the restart, Keselowski darted away from the field and beat runner-up Kyle Busch to the checkered flag by fifteen one-hundredths of a second. Trevor Bayne finished third with Joey Logano fourth and Ricky Stenhouse Junior fifth. Fords claimed four of the five top finishing positions with Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota the only “outsider” among them. Pole sitter Greg Biffle led just one lap and finished eighth in the forty-car field.

Keselowski started fifth in his Number-2 Team Penske Ford, took his first lead nine laps into the race and ran steadily in the top five throughout the night. His three wins tie Busch for the series lead as drivers start thinking about seeding for the post-season Chase that begins in two-and-a-half months … Saturday’s race included five cautions, most notably for a massive crash that gobbled up half the field early in the second half of the race.

The twenty-two-car melee was triggered when Jamie McMurray brushed teammate Kyle Larson and then went up the track across the nose of Jimmie Johnson’s Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Junior and Kevin Harvick were among those victimized. Earnhardt was able to complete the race and finished twenty-first. Harvick could not and he placed thirty-ninth, watching his regular-season points lead shrink to fourteen over Keselowski – who advanced from fourth to second in the standings with nine races remaining before the Chase opens.

Next Stop Daytona International Speedway

Posted on July 1, 2016 by KBOE Administrator

Next stop Daytona International Speedway for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola, the seventeenth round of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Although there were two practice sessions scheduled for Thursday, thunderstorms moved into the area which red flagged the first session and canceled the second. Only eight cars were able to make it on track before the rain fell. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. posted the fastest lap of the eight drivers, with a speed of 191.014 miles per hour. Kurt Busch (6th) was the only driver to record more than one lap on the speedway before the weather moved over the track. Following a long battle of drying the track and waiting for lightning to clear the area, NASCAR was forced to postpone Sprint Cup Series final practice until today at 8:30 am.

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