NASCAR Pole Position 2017 Aug/Sep

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OUTDOOR LIFE AND NASCAR IN HARMONY

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NASCAR DEFINED PRESENTED BY

■■ The 59th annual Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway.

■■ Ryan Blaney celebrates in Victory Lane after winning at Pocono.

■■ Martin Truex Jr. receives congratulations after winning the Quaker State 400.

This edition of NASCAR Defined features excitement, intensity, camaraderie and fun in a behind-the-scenes look at life at the track.

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POLE POSITION 2017

■■ Denny Hamlin and his daughter, Taylor, in Victory Lane after Hamlin’s victory at New Hampshire.

■■ Jimmie Johnson (No. 48) and Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78) lead the field at the start of Overton’s 301.

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62. DRIVER SPOTLIGHTS DALE EARNHARDT JR. THROUGH THE YEARS

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POLE POSITION 2017

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22.

GOT YOUR NUMBER

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10. GREEN FLAG 14. CREW SPOTLIGHT 16. TAILGATING 18. SPOTLIGHT: SYLVANIA 20. BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW

21. NASCAR PETS 23. HOW IT WORKS 32. GEAR 34. NASCAR FRAME-IT 54. PIT PASS

58. NASCAR LEGENDS 60. RACE REWIND 63. 2017 SCHEDULES 64. CHECKERED FLAG

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GREEN FLAG Darlington to Honor Earnhardt Sr.

A

s part of its throwback weekend celebrating the 1985-89 era of NASCAR racing, Darlington Raceway will celebrate Dale Earnhardt and the 30th anniversary of his 1987 Bojangles’ Southern 500 victory.

On Saturday night, Sept. 2, the track will host An Evening Honoring Dale Earnhardt Sr., which will feature a panel of personalities talking about the seven-time NASCAR champion. The panel will include his children Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Kerry Earnhardt, along with longtime team owner Richard Childress.

An Evening Honoring Dale Earnhardt Sr. will take place in a large tent in the Cale Yarborough/Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage area following the conclusion of the Southern 500 Parade. NBC lead announcer Rick Allen will serve as the emcee.

Fans have the opportunity to purchase an admission ticket to the event for $87, which includes two beverage coupons, light hors d’oeuvres and a 1:24-scale Dale Earnhardt Jr. throwback No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS die cast.

DAN GUTTENPLAN

TICKETS FOR AN Evening Honoring Dale Earnhardt Sr. can be purchased, while supplies last, by visiting www.

DarlingtonRaceway. com or calling (843) 395-8802. A grandstand ticket or infield admission to Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 is required for purchase.

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Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois, has launched a major capital project designed to improve the race-day experience for fans and provide an enhanced competition environment for race teams.

This is the third phase of a plan implemented in 2012 to completely update and upgrade the venue. The primary focus of this phase is to replace the track’s 20-year-old asphalt and dramatically improve GMP’s parking capacity.

The Quaker State 400 has gone by the same name since the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series started visiting Kentucky Speedway in 2011, and that’s not about to change.

Officials from the race track and Quaker State announced a new event sponsorship agreement that will see Quaker State continue to support the race through 2022.

The extension is the second since Quaker State originally signed as the title sponsor of Kentucky’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

ONE YEAR AFTER HIS IMPRESSIVE DEBUT with Hendrick Motorsports, the team named Alex Bowman full-time driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series with a 19-race majority sponsorship from Nationwide beginning in 2018.

Bowman, 24, piloted the No. 88 Chevrolet SS in 10 of the final 18 Cup races last season in place of injured driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Tucson, Arizona, native debuted July 17, 2016, at New Hampshire and went on to earn three top-10 finishes with the team including a sixth-place result at Phoenix, where he won the pole position and led a race-high 194 laps.

Axalta Coating Systems will also serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 88 team for 15 Cup events with Bowman in 2018.

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POLE POSITION 2017

NBC SPORTS GROUP ANNOUNCED THAT RETIRING NASCAR SUPERSTAR DALE Earnhardt Jr. will join the company on a multiyear deal beginning in 2018.

Earnhardt, 42, who is retiring from full-time competition at the end of the season, has worked in the live television booth a handful of times — including at this year’s “The Clash” preseason opener during Daytona Speedweeks — as well as some XFINITY Series races over the last two years.

NBC broadcasts the second half of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series seasons. NBC also is partnering with Earnhardt on Dirty Mo Media and Hammerhead Entertainment.

Mark C. Smith, 63, of Mooresville, N.C., passed away peacefully in his home on July 22, 2017 surrounded by loved ones after a long and private battle with cancer. Smith is survived by his wife of 43 years, Kathy, and their three children Amy, Bryan, and Kevin. Smith was the owner of TriStar Motor-sports and Pro Motor Engines.

RYAN BLANEY WILL MOVE TO A THIRD Team Penske entry in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2018, with Paul Menard shifting to the Wood Brothers Racing team next season.

Team Penske and the Wood Brothers share technical information through an alliance.

Blaney, 23, is in his third season driving the Wood Brothers’ famed No. 21 Ford. He scored his first Monster Energy Series victory earlier this year at Pocono Raceway. He will drive the No. 12 Ford Fusion.

The transition returns Blaney to the team that gave him his start in NASCAR’s premier series.

Blaney made two starts in Team Penske’s No. 12 Ford in 2014 before joining the Wood Brothers, a satellite operation to Team Penske.

Blaney also has driven part-time in six seasons of XFINITY Series competition, notching all five of his wins with the Roger Penske-owned operation.

NASCAR Silly Season Hits High Gear The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will see its share of changes next season, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. set to retire, and Matt Kenseth unsure of his future plans. One driver who will be back with his current team is Chase Elliott.

JUNIOR’S VICTORY LAP

Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced his version of a final act – a five-month campaign called JR Nation Appreci88ion. It started during the midsummer race at Daytona International Speedway and will carry through the end of the season, Earnhardt’s last as a full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver.

The Appreci88ion campaign will create opportunities for social media, at-track activation, fan engagement, industry participation and philanthropy to celebrate Earnhardt Jr.’s historic career while offering gestures of gratitude to everyone who made the ride possible. That includes fans, teammates, colleagues, family members, lifelong friends and anyone who influenced Earnhardt Jr.’s time in the driver’s seat.

JR Nation Appreci88ion will have a heavy presence on social media with the #Appreci88ion hashtag and digital engagement opportunities throughout the five-month campaign. Earnhardt will release weekly videos recollecting memories and milestones achieved at each of the specific racing venues. Sponsors and industry partners will have featured roles as well, activating in unique ways to give back to Junior Nation.

JR Nation Appreci88ion merchandise will be available at the Dale Earnhardt Jr. souvenir trailers at the track and at ShopJRNation.com.

More information on the Appreci88ion campaign can be found at DaleJr.com.

CHASE ELLIOTT INKS EXTENSION WITH HENDRICK

JOE GIBBS RACING’S NO. 20 RIDE WILL CHANGE HANDS

Erik Jones will drive the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starting in 2018. Jones, 21, currently drives the No. 77 Toyota for Furniture Row Racing. He will take over for Matt Kenseth, 45, who has driven the No. 20 for JGR since 2013. Kenseth will not be back with the organization following the 2017 season.

“Matt has been a tremendous asset to our organization over the past five seasons both on and off the track,” Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, said in a team release. “… At the same time, it’s exciting to have Erik back to run full time with us starting next season.”

The 2017 season marks Jones’ first season in the Monster Energy Series, and he has five top-10 finishes in the first 18 races, including a season-best third-place showing at Pocono.

Jones has eight victories in the NASCAR XFINITY Series and has seven wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he was the series champion in 2015.

Kenseth has 38 victories in the Monster Energy Series and won the championship while driving for Jack Roush in 2003.

He has earned 14 of his 38 victories while at JGR.

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AND driver Chase Elliott agreed to a fouryear contract extension that will keep the 2016 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rookie of the year with the No. 24 Chevrolet team through the end of the 2022 racing season.

Elliott, who signed with Hendrick Motorsports in February 2011 as a 15-year-old high school freshman, has emerged as one of NASCAR’s rising stars. In 2016, he earned a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff berth and was the series’ top rookie after posting 10 top-five finishes, 17 top-10s results and two pole positions, including the seasonopening Daytona 500.

At just 18 years old, Elliott became

a second-generation NASCAR champion after winning the 2014 XFINITY Series title while driving for Hendrick Motorsports affiliate JR Motorsports. Now 21, the Dawsonville, Georgia, native and son of 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott has already earned seven wins and 96 top-10 finishes across NASCAR’s three national series.

In addition to his performance on the track, Elliott has been voted by fans as most popular driver four times across two NASCAR divisions: K&N Pro Series East (2011 and 2012) and XFINITY Series (2014 and 2015). Fans voted him into the NASCAR All-Star Race in each of the last two seasons.

POLE POSITION MAG.COM

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WIVES & GIRLFRIENDS PRESENTED BY

■■ Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife, Amy, prior to the Coke Zero 400.

■■ Samantha Busch, wife of Kyle Busch, with their son, Brexton, before the Quaker State 400.

■■ Jimmie Johnson with his wife, Chandra, and daughter, Genevieve, during the Coca-Cola 600.

■■ Joey Logano with his wife, Brittany, prior to the Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.

■■ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. celebrates in Victory Lane with his girlfriend, Danica Patrick, after winning the Coke Zero 400.

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POLE POSITION 2017

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CREW SPOTLIGHT LIZ PRESTELLA TIRE SPECIALIST

FAVIAN VANDERBURG TIRE SPECIALIST

Liz Prestella, tire specialist for JTG Daugherty Racing and driver Chris Buescher, has loved NASCAR racing since she was 12 years old. A Sunday outing in 2002 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, with her parents and sisters helped pinpoint her future career.

One could say she literally put her wheels in motion to become the best mechanic she could possibly be.

“I took auto shop in high school because I wanted to learn how to work on cars,” Prestella said. “I started falling in love with racing and when I was 15, I said, ‘I want to do that.’ I’ve always enjoyed hot rods and engines and everything about cars.”

In 2008, she moved to North Carolina and followed the often slow process to get into racing. She landed an internship with Jennifer Jo Cobb’s NASCAR XFINITY Series team before joining team owner Jay Robinson and 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope. From there, she worked tires for Tommy Baldwin Racing before accepting her present position at JTG Daugherty Racing.

During the full 36-race Cup Series schedule, she’s the person that keeps the wheels turning on the No. 37 JTG Chevrolets.

“I’m a tire specialist and my job is basically everything that involves tires,” Prestella said. “When we get to the track, I get all the tires we have for the weekend. I measure them, check them and mark them to make sure everything is known to us before we put them on the car. I put them in sets and set all the pressures once I get them from the crew chief. Then I make sure the car has the right tires on it at all times. Throughout the race weekend, everything involving the tires is on me.

“I’m in constant communication with our crew chief [Trent Owens] giving him the pressures. He checks with me to make sure everything looks good that’s coming off the car. If something looks funny I have to let him know so he can adjust accordingly.”

Favian Vanderburg, tire specialist for BK Racing and driver Matt DiBenedetto, saw his first NASCAR race when he was 10 years old at one of the sport’s most historic speedways.

His father was very much into drag racing, having competed in the sport professionally for a five-year period.

NASCAR, however, offered the new experience of oval-track racing that was admittedly a bit hard to follow.

“My first race was at Darlington Raceway in 1986,” Vanderburg said. ”My father used to drag race and built high-performance engines. He wanted me to make a commitment to doing that, but I just put all my love and effort into football. After high school graduation in 1996, I attended U.C. Berkley and ended up playing some football in Europe.”

After returning to North Carolina, Vanderburg played football with the Iredell Warriors semi-pro team. That’s where he met Al Shuford, a longtime veteran of NASCAR with a connection to Joe Gibbs Racing. Shuford helped mentor Vanderburg and showed him what the sport was about. That led to him working with ARCA champion Bill Kimmel in 2004 before moving Roulo Brothers Racing and then Tristar Motorsports, among others. Vanderburg joined BK Racing as a tire specialist and tear-down mechanic in 2015.

“I do the basic mechanical things, but I make sure we have the right tires and right tire pressures,” Vanderburg said. “I get with my crew chief [Gene Nead] to make sure we have the best selection of tires and the best matched up tires for each pit stop.”

Each race weekend, Vanderburg has a routine he follows that helps keep the team moving in the right direction, right up to the green flag.

“Everything is time oriented. That’s basically all it is,” Vanderburg said.

“You have to be at a certain place at a certain time and everyone has to do their job. It’s one big dance. It’s like you’re going to go right and I’ll go left but we’ll meet back in the middle.”

WHAT I ENJOY MOST IS TRAVELING AND WATCHING US PROGRESS AND SUCCEED. I ALSO LIKE PUTTING IN ALL THE HARD WORK AND SEEING WHAT IT COMES TO. I WOULD LOVE TO GET SOME WINS AND A COUPLE OF CHAMPIONSHIPS.”

PLAYING FAVORITES WITH LIZ VACATION ■■ The beach HOLIDAY ■■ Halloween SEASON ■■ Fall MOVIE ■■ Rock Star TV SHOW ■■ Criminal Minds MUSIC ■■ Rock

BEN WHITE 14

POLE POSITION 2017

RACE DAY TO ME IS ONE OF THE BEST DAYS. I TRUST AND BELIEVE IN MY TALENTS BECAUSE I’VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR SO LONG. IT ALL COMES TOGETHER WHEN YOU KNOW YOU DID THE BEST JOB POSSIBLE AND WIN OR FINISH WELL.”

PLAYING FAVORITES WITH FAVIAN VACATION ■■ Troutman, North Carolina HOLIDAY ■■ Thanksgiving SEASON ■■ Summer TV SHOW ■■ SportsCenter MOVIE ■■ Forrest Gump MUSIC ■■ Jazz

TAILGATING Tailgating from All Sides and Angles

D

arlington Raceway might be the “Track Too Tough to Tame,” but don’t be fooled by the famous moniker: When it comes to tailgating, Darlington is one of the most hospitable, fan-friendly tracks on the NASCAR schedule.

Home to the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend, the fabled South Carolina venues offers numerous opportunities for fans of all ages to tailgate both inside and outside of the race track. College students, especially, are a target demographic.

“We’ve kind of sectioned off an area there for our college tailgate zone and we’ve had a lot of success with college students coming to our race, in particular students at the University of South Carolina, which is only about 65 miles away,” Darlington Raceway president Kerry Tharp said. “We had close to 1,700 college students from around the region – primarily from USC – last year, and we set up a separate tailgating area for them, and that’s outside Turn 2. We had music and vendors and so forth out there, and we plan on doing that again this year.”

Of course, college students are hardly the only tailgaters at Darlington. According to an economic impact study conducted by the track earlier this year, a NASCAR weekend customarily draws fans from all 50 states and up to 14 foreign countries.

“When you have a mixture of that cross-section of not only Americana but of the entire world, you

get people from all cultures and all areas tailgating, and that makes it rather interesting – and we welcome that,” Tharp said.

The Darlington Raceway property is equipped with close to 1,400 RV parking spaces, along with 500 campsites. Great tailgating foods are always in high supply.

“You get folks from all over the country and certainly all over this state who provide some of their best dishes, whether it is barbecue or ribs,” Tharp said. “I see people roasting hogs in the infield. People have had their tailgates catered by local caterers and so forth. They have all outside activities with the cornhole and the horseshoes and certainly the campfires going. Although it’s warm that time of year, at night it kind of lends itself to campfires and those types of things. We’ve kind of pretty much got it all here.”

Tailgates at Darlington tend to run the gamut in size and scope.

“I’ve seen some fancy ones and I’ve seen some that could probably be written up in a Boy Scout manual,” Tharp said. “It’s tailgating from all sides and angles. Probably pretty much anything you’re looking for from a tailgating experience you could find here at Darlington.”

JARED TURNER

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THE EXPERIENCE NASCAR FAN DOUG BRADLEY

MUST-HAVE GEAR This is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s last season as a competitor in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. So, what more appropriate tailgating items are there to stock up on than those that pledge support to NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver?

For a cornhole experience like no other, fans can visit the NASCAR.com SuperStore and purchase the officially licensed, made in the USA Dale Earnhardt Jr. Pit Row Cornhole Game Set. Priced at $249.99, this snazzy looking setup – splashed with a caricature of Earnhardt’s iconic No. 88 car – includes a pair of “perfect six-inch holes” and a smooth finish for “excellent playability.”

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POLE POSITION 2017

PRESENTED BY

“WE HAVE A LARGE SIGN ON OUR CANOPY THAT says ‘Yankeeville’ – all one word. We started calling it Yankeeville because every time we would pull up to the gates at Richmond to come into the race, security will get on the radio and say, ‘Those damn Yankees are back again.’

I have become such good friends with the people that we tailgate around that I have attended many weddings, and, unfortunately, funerals. They are all like family to me. A couple of times a year I will have tailgating friends actually drive three to four hours to surprise me at home.

“To give you a good example of the southern hospitality/ NASCAR type of friend that is at Richmond, we have some neighbors that are a little bit older than us, a few spots down, that tailgate all the time. Their names are Boyd and Shirley and they are in their 70s. When I first started going to Richmond, the track’s quiet time was 9 o’clock at night. Nothing was going on, so I knew I had to liven things up – which I did over the years.

“A few years ago our motorhome caught on fire, and Shirley found out. She took 25-gallon buckets, wrote ‘Yankeeville Relief Fund’ on them, and walked the entire track tailgating campgrounds and had both buckets filled with cash and brought them over and set them on my pool table. We are best of friends now and email each other frequently.”

Q&A WITH DOUG BRADLEY

WHO USUALLY ATTENDS YOUR TAILGATES? We have so many friends that we tailgate with that I cannot mention them all. There’s Boyd and Shirley, my good friend, Kurt, that goes with me every time, Chris, Buddy, etc.

WHERE HAVE YOU TAILGATED? I have been a NASCAR fan all my life. I have been to Bristol, Dover, Pocono and Richmond, Virginia. I have tailgated probably three or four times at the first three tracks.

I tailgate twice a year at Richmond International Raceway and have been tailgating at RIR for 15 years.

WHO ATTENDS YOUR TAILGATES? We get many families that stop by. The children like to play pool on our pool table; it gives them something to do. We have a large box with a small hole in the top full of toys for the kids. No one loses when they stop at our place.

WHAT MAKES FOR A GOOD TAILGATE? Cold drinks made with fresh fruit on a gas powered blender.

Also, ice cold Miller Lite, and a large canopy to keep the sun off it also comes in handy in the rain.

HONORARY MENTION: The September Richmond race falls on my wedding anniversary. I can’t imagine there are many wives that would allow their husbands to go to a race without them on their anniversary. I thank her and love her very much.

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SPOTLIGHT

PRESENTED BY

DON’T MIX AND MATCH

Be Responsible for Your Own Headlights As a vehicle ages, headlight aiming often becomes inaccurate as a result of vibrations, suspension sag or simple wear and tear.

Headlights go out of alignment just like vehicle suspension and can end up pointed too high or too low, causing a driver to blind oncoming traffic, or, in the latter scenario, not have enough light to see clearly while going down the road.

Either predicament warrants immediate attention.

“We’ve all seen it.

We see a car and go, ‘Why do they have those illegal lights?’” said Brian Noble, marketing manager for OSRAM SYLVANIA, the world’s leader in automotive lighting.

“Well, it’s not illegal lights in a lot of cases.

It’s truly just somebody having their lights misaligned.”

The good news is there’s a simple remedy. Assessing and fixing your headlights’ aim requires only a few steps.

1. Park your vehicle.

2. Pull your vehicle up to a white wall, about two inches away, with headlights on.

3. Mark the driver side and passenger side beam reflections by placing tape on the wall in the middle of and along the top line of the beams.

The brightest spot comes right off the bulb and is known as the “hot spot.”

4. Pull the car back 25 feet from its original position.

5. If beams are not level with the tape on the wall, check

your vehicle owner’s manual to find the right adjustment screws, and turn these so the upper portion of the beams are both even with the tape and level with each other.

“All you do is twist the bolt clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on which way you need it to go, and you’ve changed the beam pattern of a headlight,” Noble said.

It’s paramount for drivers to take the

time to get educated on the importance of aiming headlights in the right direction.

“The vast majority of people aren’t going to slow down even though they have poor lighting,” Noble said.

“It’s the concept we’ve called ‘overdriving your headlights,’ but people are still going to drive the same 65 mph in way too many situations even if they don’t think they see as well.”

JARED TURNER 18

POLE POSITION 2017

Over 90 percent all lighting on the road today comes from halogen headlights.

But, because not all headlights are halogens, there’s a temptation to interchange one kind of headlight with another.

But when drivers try to interchange one with another, they run the risk of sporting illegal headlights.

For example, you can’t simply install HID headlights in a vehicle designed solely for halogen bulbs.

“When people put HIDs in a car that requires halogens, they’re usually putting too much light in other peoples’ eyes and it’s creating a big glare spot,” said Brian Noble, marketing manager for OSRAM SYLVANIA. “It’s just not designed for it. If a filament is in a different spot, it’s going to reflect incorrectly. So someone puts a HID bulb into a halogen system, where the light comes from is in a totally different spot and it’s floor light, so now it’s reflecting completely wrong.

“That’s why it’s illegal when all these people buy a 9006 HID and take the 9006 halogen bulb out and put a HID bulb in there. Now it’s creating a situation that can either affect the driver because of bad light, or it affects the oncoming traffic, or both.”

GETTY IMAGES

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BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW

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BIG FIELD FOR SOUTHERN 500

T NASCAR at Soldier Field Chicagoland Speedway has been NASCAR’s “Windy City” home since International Speedway Corp. opened the 1.5-mile tri-oval in the summer of 2001. But 45 years before Kevin Harvick won the inaugural Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, NASCAR’s premier series invaded a much more famous Chicago landmark – Soldier Field. Best known as the home of the Chicago Bears, Soldier Field was a hot bed of auto racing for more than three decades as the stadium hosted midget racing, demolition derbies and sometimes weekly stock car action between 1935 and 1968. NASCAR’s top series visited the historic stadium on July 21, 1956, and the reported crowd of 14,000 saw Fireball Roberts beat Jim Paschal and Ralph Moody to the checkered flag in a 200-lap race.

LAND OF THE RISING SUN

T

aking its unique brand of stock car racing to a global stage, NASCAR sanctioned four races in Japan during the late 1990s. The first two Japanese exhibition events were run on the legendary Suzuka road course with Rusty Wallace winning in 1996 and Mike Skinner topping the 1997 race. In 1998, racing moved to Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway – a state-of-the-art 1.549-mile oval – where Skinner led 94 of 201 laps as he edged Jeff Gordon by .153 seconds. The first three Japanese races featured a mix of drivers from the sanctioning body’s top series and were conducted in November following the close of the season. NASCAR’s final Japanese visit on Nov. 20, 1999, saw Kevin Richards win a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Twin Ring Motegi.

his year’s 68th running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway will feature a 40-car starting field, less than half the number of drivers who took the green flag during the second running of the historic stock car race on Sept.

3, 1951. While far from a record for the number of cars to start a NASCAR-sanctioned event, the 82-car field for the second running of the Southern 500 was seven cars more than started the inaugural event the previous year.

It’s interesting to note that race winner Herb Thomas, a former truck driver wheeling a Hudson Hornet, started second, while 10th-place finisher Pap White charged forward from the 55th-starting spot. Only 24 of the 82 starters were listed as “running” after 500 miles of racing.

UNIQUE TROPHY ROOM

R

ising NASCAR star Christopher Bell has transformed his dining room into a trophy room – complete with the race-winning midget from this year’s Chili Bowl Nationals.

“As a kid growing up in Oklahoma, the Chili Bowl was obviously the dream race for me … and I told myself as a little kid that if

RACE TRACK GAMES Just hours after Kevin Harvick won last year’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, officials began installing a football field in the infield of the legendary half-mile race track.

Then, on Sept. 10, 2016, a college football record crowd of 156,990 fans nearly filled the stands for the Battle at Bristol as the Tennessee Volunteers beat the Virginia Tech Hokies 45-24.

While the game put Bristol Motor Speedway in the national sporting spotlight, it was not the first football game to be played at the Tennessee track.

On Sept. 2, 1961, the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles squared off in an NFL exhibition game that was billed as the “First Annual Pro-Bowl Football Game.” An estimated 8,500 fans attended that game.

KEITH WALTZ 20

POLE POSITION 2017

I ever won the Chili Bowl, I was going to buy the car,” said Bell. “With my situation that I’m in right now, I don’t have a shop, I have a two-car garage at my house there, but both of those spaces are filled. I had an empty room right inside the front door so I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to try to put this thing in there.’”

And he did.

GETTY IMAGES

NASCAR PETS

PRE S E N T E D BY

Dillon’s French Bulldog, Bubba

T

y Dillon and his wife, Haley, knew they wanted a dog. They just had a little trouble agreeing on the breed they wanted. So, Ty did what perhaps most good husbands would: He let his wife choose.

“She was telling me how cute French bulldogs were, and I’m like, ‘No, they’re not that cute,’” said Ty, rookie driver of the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. “I didn’t think they were. Then we went and saw a couple different breeders and once I saw a French bulldog, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re so cute.’ And then we saw Bubba for the first time and it was like, ‘Yeah, he’s our dog. We’ve got to have him.’”

Bubba, now five years old and weighing in at just 25 pounds, is actually considered heavy for a French bulldog. But he’s small enough — and has a temperament suitable enough — to travel with Ty and Haley to most events on the NASCAR schedule.

“He does a great job on airplanes,” Ty said. “He’s really kind of lazy so he likes to sleep, and we carry him and take him everywhere. He’s kind of like a big baby, really. But he’s been really awesome. … He loves to be held and he’s not overly energetic. He gets about 10 minutes of energy every day where he runs around the house and does a couple burnouts, and he likes to go outside. He gets about 10 or 15 minutes of energy out and then he likes to just hang out and snore and lounge around. He’s really a great dog.”

And a lucky dog, too. Five years ago when Ty and Haley went to get Bubba from a shelter in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the puppy canine had two ear infections and pneumonia.

“We got him to the vet and got him fixed up,” Ty said. “He’s been a really sweet dog.”

JARED TURNER

GOT YOUR NUMBER Numbers drive NASCAR in many different ways. Here are the stories behind two iconic numbers.

15

BUD MOORE: 15 FOREVER

T

eam owner Bud Moore began fielding cars in NASCAR’s premier series on May 28, 1961, at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His drivers, Joe Weatherly and Tommy Irwin, finished 10th and 20th, respectively, in his No. 8 and 18 Pontiacs.

Beginning in 1965 with driver Earl Balmer, Moore began using the No. 15 on his Mercury. Moore’s cars had carried the number in select NASCAR Grand American events during the mid-1960s and he elected to move it to NASCAR’s top division.

Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Benny Parsons, Ricky Rudd, Morgan Shepherd and Geoff Bodine, to name only a few of his drivers, wheeled Moore’s No. 15 Fords to 35 of his team’s 63 victories from 1975 from 1993.

Allison, NASCAR’s 1983 Cup Series champion, drove for Moore in four Cup Series races in 1967. He then enjoyed 92 starts and 14 victories, including the 1978 Daytona 500, in Moore’s No. 15 Fords from 1978 through 1980.

“I really enjoyed driving for Bud and had some great years together,” Allison said. “I struggled to field AMC Matadors of my own in 1977 so to get back in his Fords in 1978 was an incredible thrill for me. The success we had together were some of my best years in NASCAR. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to drive for him. He is still a great friend.”

A PETTY FAMILY TRADITION

W

hen Felix Sabates asked Kyle Petty to become his NASCAR Cup Series driver in 1989, several car numbers were considered. But historically speaking, only one made sense.

SABCO Racing settled on No. 42, in part because it had a strong association to the Petty family. Lee Petty, a three-time NASCAR champion, carried the number to 54 victories from 1949 to 1964. On occasion, Kyle Petty’s father, Richard, used the number during the early 1960s when he wasn’t in the iconic No. 43.

From 1989 to 1996, Kyle Petty collected six of his eight career victories with Sabates’ operation. Four years later, the team became known as Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

The team has added eight victories with former driver Sterling Marlin; Jamie McMurray, who won in the No. 42 while subbing for Marlin; and current driver Kyle Larson.

It all began with a desire to keep tradition alive.

“The No. 42 was my grandfather Lee’s number and that’s why I liked it,” Kyle Petty said. “We used the 42 when I drove for Petty Enterprises and my dad used it some in the early 1960s. I even drove the No. 43 once and ‘The King’ drove the 42 back in the 1980s for one race (Jan. 11, 1981, in Riverside, California) The 42 always been a very special family number, just like the 43.”

42 BEN WHITE

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POLE POSITION 2017

COURTESY NASCAR

HOW IT WORKS Sunoco Rookie of the Year

Sunoco Green E15 Gasoline

S

unoco has been the exclusive provider of racing gasoline for NASCAR’s three national series – the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR XFINITY Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – since 2004.

In 2011 as part of NASCAR’s Green initiatives, Sunoco transitioned the sport to a new highperformance fuel – Sunoco Green E15, a 98 octane unleaded gasoline blend specifically engineered for high-performance engines. This specialized fuel contains 15 percent American ethanol by weight and is blended to reduce greenhouse emissions by 20 percent.

“As we approach 10 million miles on Sunoco Green E15 across our three national series, it’s evident that the renewable, higher ethanol blended fuel performs flawlessly against our rigorous racing conditions,” Brent Dewar, President of NASCAR, said late last season. “This remarkable milestone is the result of an industry-wide commitment to demonstrate high performance racing with reduced emissions, while educating our fans about the benefits of sustainable and renewable American ethanol.”

On race days, teams typically fill their 12-gallon dump cans 60 to 90 minutes before the race.

Only certified Sunoco crew members, covered head-to-toe in fire retardant protective gear, can fill the fuel cans for the teams. A full dump can weighs approximately 94 pounds and empties in 10 seconds or less.

During the race, the teams transport their dump cans to the Sunoco station near pit road for refilling.

TRACK-BAR ADJUSTER

P

rior to the start of the 2015 season, NASCAR officials gave Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers a new tool – the ability to adjust the track bar from the cockpit.

The track bar is connected to the chassis of the race car on one end and to the rear-end housing on the other. Its purpose is to control the leftto-right offset of the rear axle.

The track bar has two mounting points – one on the frame and one on the rear-end housing.

By raising or lowering the right side of the track bar, it moves the rear axle left or right with respect to the car’s centerline.

Any change impacts the weight distribution of the car and how it moves through the corners on the race track.

For many years, teams were able to adjust the track bar during pit stops by placing a wrench through a hole in the rear window. Now, that responsibility belongs to the driver, who uses a toggle switch to activate an electric motor that screws the track bar either up or down.

“When I ran midgets and stuff like that, we had shock adjusters; in winged sprint cars you have wing valve adjusters,” said Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet. “It’s nice that they allow us to put a little bit more into the drivers’ hands.”

NASCAR has recognized a Rookie of the Year in its Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series division each season since 1957. This year, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, Ty Dillon, Corey LaJoie and Gray Gaulding are competing for the prestigious honor.

A point system is used for scoring finishing positions by the eligible Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidates. The highest-finishing rookie in each race earns 10 points, the second-highest, nine points, and so on. Of the 36 series races, only the best 17 finishes by each candidate are counted in the rookie race. A bonus point is awarded for entering each race and top-10 finishes also earn bonus points.

Following the season finale, the highest-ranking rookie in the series standings receives 10 bonus points. The second-highest rookie earns nine points, third receives eight, etc.

During the final weekend of the season, a Sunoco Rookie of the Year panel meets and rewards favorable conduct in the following categories: Conduct with NASCAR officials in the garage and pit areas; conduct and awareness on track; personal appearance; and relationship with the media. The panel rates each driver, with scoring ranging from a maximum of 10 to a minimum of 1. Total points are averaged from each panel member’s ballot.

The points derived from the panel are added to the entry, competition and bonus points to determine the Sunoco Rookie of the Year.

KEITH WALTZ

GETTY IMAGES POLE POSITION MAG.COM

23

Outdoor Life and NASCAR in Harmony

NASCAR and outdoor life go hand-inhand. That’s not a hypothesis – it’s a fact. Witness the NASCAR community’s extensive, longstanding involvement in the outdoors and outdoors initiatives — and the outdoors community’s extensive, longstanding involvement in NASCAR.

Indeed, the relationship between NASCAR and the outdoors is reciprocal in that both parties mutually benefit from it. From drivers to team owners to fans who come to the track or watch on TV on Sunday afternoons, members of the NASCAR community are immersed in the outdoor life because it’s simply who they are and central to their lives.

Outdoors companies and agencies, meanwhile, see the immense value in NASCAR because NASCAR fans, drivers and others in the sport are a natural fit for their marketing objectives. In sum, when it comes to the relationship between NASCAR and outdoor life, everybody wins.

Following are five shining examples of how NASCAR and outdoor life mesh in seemingly perfect harmony.

JARED TURNER 24

POLE POSITION 2017

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OUTDOOR LIFE FAMILY TRADITION: THE EARNHARDTS Like father, like son. Prior to his death in 2001, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt was arguably the sport’s biggest ambassador for outdoor life. Dale Earnhardt Jr., not surprisingly, has followed in his father’s footsteps with a strong affinity for all things outdoors.

The best example came in fall 2015 when TrueTimber and Earnhardt Outdoors – a lifestyle brand started by Earnhardt Jr., brother Kerry Earnhardt and sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller to share outdoors traditions – announced that Earnhardt Jr. had become the face of TrueTimber Camo, a product innovator of realistic camouflage patterns. The landmark deal for Earnhardt Jr. included an investment for an equity partnership in TrueTimber with partners Rusty Sellars, the founder, and Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops.

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“As most people know, my family has a longstanding passion for the outdoors,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “TrueTimber has created topof-the-line products and established itself as an innovator of the most realistic camo designs. I feel like there is unlimited potential for us to grow the company to become the leader in the outdoor marketplace, and that’s our goal.”

To celebrate his affiliation with TrueTimber, Earnhardt Jr. launched his own personal Instagram account, and the first photos ever published on the DEALERS: account showed him sporting hunters camouflage.

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POLE POSITION 2017

CREDIT: DALE EARNHARDT JR.

If there’s one outdoors company that understands the value of NASCAR sponsorships, it’s Bass Pro Shops, a popular chain known for its large, wilderness-themed stores and wide array of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear. In recent years, Bass Pro Shops has been a primary sponsor for NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray and Ty Dillon, along with joining the NRA as co-sponsor of the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, a longtime NASCAR fan and personal friend of many NASCAR drivers, considers his company’s investment in the sport to be money well-spent.

“NASCAR is an excellent platform for Bass Pro Shops,” Morris said.

Speaking specifically about Bass Pro Shops’ co-sponsorship of the race held under the lights each August at Bristol, Morris is equally enthusiastic.

“NASCAR fans love racing, hunting and the outdoors, and we are excited to spotlight them together in Bristol,” he said.

“Located in the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountain region, the Night Race is the perfect venue for us to celebrate our shared love of the outdoors and the importance of protecting natural resources for future generations.”

CAMPERS AND CAMPING WORLD NASCAR fans love camping at the race track in motorhomes, RVs and, yes, even tents. For the most die-hard of outdoors enthusiasts, camping at the track can virtually be like a rite of passage.

So when NASCAR’s Truck Series needed a new title sponsor at the end of the 2008 season, it couldn’t have joined forces with a more appropriate brand than

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OUTDOOR LIFE Rifle Association, Childress – the owner and founder of Richard Childress Racing – was a two-term member of the NRA Board of Directors and served as chairman of the organization’s Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Committee prior to his election.

None of this should come as a surprise, of course, to those who know “R.C.,” as Childress is known by many in the racing community. In 1995, he purchased a 620-acre ranch in Montana that he and wife Judy have come to consider a second home.

“Just as soon as I saw it, it had a couple hundred head of elk on it, and I didn’t try to change the price or nothing,” Childress said in a 2012 interview with Kawasaki. “I said, ‘I’ll take it. Let’s roll.’”

The property has also been known to entertain grizzly bears, black bears and mountain lions, among other creatures of wildlife.

“Every time you come here you never have enough time to do everything you want to do,” Childress said. the one it found – Camping World, an Illinois-based company that is the official RV and Outdoor Retailer of NASCAR and provides a wide selection of RV, outdoor and towing products to NASCAR fans at many race events throughout the year.

From 2009 to mid-2014, Camping World expanded its number of stores by 35 percent, resulting in the company eclipsing $3 billion in annual revenue. So pleased with the return on its initial investment, Camping World extended its contract with NASCAR in 2014 to remain the title sponsor of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series through 2022.

That the partnership has borne significant fruit is hardly a surprise. According to Experian Consumer Research from May 2014, NASCAR fans are 40 percent more likely than non-fans to go camping. As for camping gear, NASCAR fans are at least 50 percent more likely than non-fans to own tents, lanterns and other camping equipment.

KING OF CONSERVATION: RICHARD CHILDRESS Looking for NASCAR’s quintessential outdoorsman and conservationist? Look no further than 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and six-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion team owner Richard Childress.

Elected in 2015 as the second vice-president of the National

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POLE POSITION 2017

FORGING FRIENDSHIPS: RYAN NEWMAN AND MARTIN TRUEX JR. Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. drive for different teams and different manufacturers, but the two competitors are longtime friends. And their No. 1 bonding activity is the great outdoors.

It is not uncommon to see their respective Twitter feeds lit up with banter about their latest fishing or hunting expedition together while on the road going from track to track. In fact, Newman’s motorhome trailer hauls a boat for the duo to take out when time permits. So who is the better outdoorsman?

“Truex has probably harvested more things, because in general, he’s been at it more,” Newman admitted. “I think we both have pretty darn good shots. When it comes to fishing, Truex normally catches more because I am busy driving the boat.”

One of the two drivers’ favorite hunting trips is their annual offseason rabbit hunt in Maryland. Last year, Newman’s father, Greg, and eight other men also participated.

“What I enjoy about this trip is it’s about a group of guys doing what they enjoy while cutting up and laughing a lot,” Newman said. “It’s also what I like about this kind of hunting like for bird, water fowl, duck and geese – we don’t have to be nearly as quiet as you have to be when deer or elk hunting. It’s a lot of fun.”

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Martin Truex Jr. From Underdog to Title Contender

When Martin Truex Jr. joined Furniture Row Racing for the 2014 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the Denver, Colorado-based organization had shown great potential but was still considered an underdog in relation to NASCAR’s powerhouse teams.

Now, this year, Furniture Row Racing is one of NASCAR’s big dogs. And Truex has become one of the sport’s elite drivers in this his fourth season with Furniture Row Racing and his third year working with crew chief Cole Pearn — one of the sport’s brightest pit bosses.

Truex and Pearn can sleep well at night knowing they now go to the race track virtually every weekend with a legitimate chance to wind up in Victory Lane.

“Really just the last couple years in general have been awesome,” Truex said. “The racing side of it’s been incredible. I just kind of have to pinch myself every once in a while because things are going so well. I’m such a lucky person right now. It’s such a great situation. I’m not taking that for granted; I’m enjoying every moment, having fun with the team.

I’m just trying to keep the momentum going, working hard, and looking forward to see what is around the next corner.”

After earning a playoff berth with a victory at Pocono Raceway in June 2015, Truex made it all the way to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Although he ultimately finished last among the four championship finalists, Truex and Pearn defied all expectations by advancing that far in their first season together.

Building on that success, Truex enjoyed a career season in 2016 when he scored a career-high four victories but failed to get beyond the Round of 12 in the playoffs due to a blown engine in the fall elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Prior to Talladega, Truex and the No. 78 team had positioned themselves as championship favorites after winning two of three races in the opening round of the playoffs. Seeing their title hopes literally go up in smoke at Talladega was a disappointment that inspired them over the winter to come out of the gate swinging this year.

JARED TURNER 30

POLE POSITION 2017

GETTY IMAGES

As the 2017 season neared its halfway point, Truex sat atop the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings on the strength of two wins and 11 top-10 finishes – including five top-five results – in 16 events. Truex has particularly flourished in this year’s new stage-racing format in which drivers can earn playoff points and championship points at various times in an event.

As of press time, Truex had earned more playoff points than any other driver – a fact that should nicely position him to contend for the title at season’s end.

“I think we’ve generally done a good job of being able to collect some of those points, but we’ve been consistent,” Truex noted. “We’ve been running up front and we’ve led the most laps.

That’s a big part of getting those stage wins and those bonus points is just being up front consistently. We were actually talking [recently] about … how important they’re going to be come playoff time, and the guys that don’t have them are going to be scratching their heads saying, ‘Why didn’t we get more of these playoff points throughout the season?’ It’s going to be big. We’re just happy we’ve been able to collect a bunch of them so far.”

Pearn credits Furniture Row Racing’s emergence from underdog to frontrunner in less than three seasons to two key factors. The first is hiring the right personnel.

“It’s been a lot of hard work by a lot of people, but we’re still pushing,” the third-year crew chief said. “I don’t know that we feel we’ve reached our full potential yet, or not. We’re just still continuing

to work hard to continue to try and get better. But it definitely feels good when you’re looking back on the progress we’ve made.

“It always comes down to people ultimately.

We’ve just had a good group come together and we all work well together and communicate well. When

SECOND TEAM ADDS A VALUABLE RESOURCE

I

you have a whole group of people pulling in the same direction, you really see what’s possible.”

The second key to Furniture Row’s success, in Pearn’s view, was the organization’s move from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2016. As part of the manufacturer switch, Furniture Row Racing entered into a close technical alliance with perennial powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing — Toyota’s flagship organization.

Of course, the team being so competitive in 2015 – when few expected it – helped form the foundation for reaching even greater heights after joining forces with Toyota and JGR. “I’ll be honest: That first year really exceeded expectations that we had,” Pearn said.

“Then once we hit the ground running and had success in 2015, getting the opportunity to partner with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota definitely boosted the confidence in what was possible. That partnership has provided a lot of great support to our team and really put us over the edge as far as being able to compete at a high level each week.”

n addition to all that Martin Truex Jr. already had going for him the past two seasons, the addition of a second car at Furniture Row Racing this year has only further boosted his No. 78 bunch.

The second team, with rookie driver Erik Jones, gives Truex and crew chief Cole Pearn another valuable resource on which they can lean and glean.

“Information flow, I think the teams are working well together,” Truex said.

“Really no different than teams I’ve been involved with in the past. We share information. They build the cars the same. They build them together. Both cars are built in the same shop by the same guys, so all that stuff’s going really well. Erik has had good speed at times this year. I think they’ve done a good job.”

Although Jones has experienced some of the typical rookie growing pains, the young driver is in the thick of the hunt for rookieof-the-year honors and his No. 77 Toyota has been fast on most weekends.

“It’s been a lot of work getting the second team up and going, and a lot of long hours for a lot of people,” Pearn said. “So it’s been a challenge, but I think it’s just a testament to the people that we have that regardless of there being more work to do, we’re starting to make sure we get the product out the door that we want.”

POLE POSITION MAG.COM

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11 GOOF OFF

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Chicken Poop is crafted from the kind of earthfriendly, all-natural ingredients you want to put on your skin. Its raw zaniness inspires the kind of grin you love to put on your face. Chicken Poop contains only six ingredients: Avocado oil, jojoba, sweet orange, lavender essential oil, bees wax and Vitamin E. In business for more than 16 years, we seek to make only the best, high-quality products, while also being environmentally responsible with our packaging, our business practices and in our own lifestyles. Peace, Love and Chicken Poop!

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POLE POSITION MAG.COM

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Through the Years

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arlier this year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced this would be his last full season of competition in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. His impending retirement brings to mind a rush of memories – some of which are captured here.

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SLIDERS THIS GOOD

Spend less time cooking and more time cheering with this delicious and easy race-day recipe featuring BUSH’S® Pinto Beans!

GO FAST

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 5 minutes | Serves: 12

BUSH’S® Pinto Bean & Zucchini Sliders

INGREDIENTS (16 oz) BUSH’S® Pinto Beans, drained

1 tsp

parsley flakes

and smashed with potato smasher

½ cup

Parmesan cheese, shredded

4

medium (1 lb) zucchini, shredded

3

large eggs

1

large onion, chopped

2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 can

1½ cups dry bread crumbs

1 pkg

(12 buns) slider buns

2 Tbsp salt-free seasoning blend, original flavor

¼ lb

bacon, cooked and crumbled

DIRECTIONS 1. Mix all ingredients together in bowl.

2. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with oil and heat oil on medium-high heat.

3. Using ice cream scoop, place one scoop full of zucchini mixture in a hot pan when oil starts to bubble.

4. Cook 2-3 minutes each side.

5. Place on paper towel line plate to absorb any excess oil.

6. Serve warm on slider buns with your favorite condiments.

©2017 Bush Brothers & Company

BUSHBEANS.COM

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Driver Profiles

Behind every successful NASCAR driver is a good crew chief. Get to know the men who sit atop the pit boxes each weekend and are tasked with calling the shots for some of the sport’s best and most interesting competitors.

JARED TURNER

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Being the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. – NASCAR’s most popular driver for the past 14 years – is a job not for the faint of heart.

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INFO However, Greg Ives couldn’t pass up the opportunity OWNER when legendary team owner Rick Hendrick asked him to RICK HENDRICK replace Steve Letarte atop Earnhardt’s pit box beginning TEAM with the 2015 season.

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS An engineering graduate of Michigan Technological SPONSORS University, Ives had joined Hendrick Motorsports as a NATIONWIDE, AXALTA, MOUNTAIN DEW mechanic in 2004 and later became the lead engineer MANUFACTURER on Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 team where he worked with CHEVROLET crew chief Chad Knaus to help Johnson win a record five CREW CHIEF GREG IVES consecutive championships.

Ives transitioned out of Hendrick Motorsports in November 2012 to become the crew chief for NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Regan Smith the following season at JR Motorsports, the company Earnhardt co-owns with Rick Hendrick. Over two full seasons as a JR Motorsports crew chief, Ives guided Smith to a third-place finish in the points and then led rookie Chase Elliott to a three-win season capped by a championship. So when the time came to name a replacement for Letarte at Hendrick Motorsports, the decision wasn’t particularly difficult.

“Greg was our No. 1 choice,” Rick Hendrick said.

Building on the success that Earnhardt enjoyed over four seasons with Letarte, Ives guided the third-generation driver to a trio of wins in their first season together.

Earnhardt, though winless in 2016 when he missed the second half of the season while dealing with concussions, has nothing but respect and admiration for Ives – a crew chief who isn’t as vocal as predecessor Letarte but is widely known for going over his driver’s race cars with a fine-toothed comb, so to speak.

Earnhardt has also been pleased with Ives’ leadership skills, which were on full display last season when NASCAR’s most popular driver was away dealing with health issues.

“Greg did an amazing job in a difficult situation to motivate and keep morale up,” Earnhardt said. “Their performance actually improved with the rest of the company throughout the last half of the season. I think Greg gained a ton of confidence in himself and the guys.”

DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Kyle Busch Adam Stevens did the unthinkable in 2015 when, in his first year as a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series crew chief, he led Kyle Busch to his first title in NASCAR’s premier division.

Even more remarkable was that Busch and Stevens didn’t work together as planned over the season’s first 11 races, a time when Busch was mending from severe foot and leg injuries suffered on the eve of the season-opening Daytona 500. It did help, however, that Stevens and Busch weren’t exactly strangers – they made a combined 52 NASCAR XFINITY Series starts together in 2013 and 2014, amassing 19 wins and 46 top-five finishes.

Their success continued last season when Busch won four races and once again made the Championship 4, ultimately finishing third among the four championship finalists. Not surprisingly, Busch is an unabashed fan of his third-year pit boss.

“He’s obviously a great leader of this team,” the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota said. “I love him to death. He’s doing a really good job, and obviously we’re having fun doing what we’re doing.”

In addition to building fast race cars, Stevens is also great at managing people. When Busch was sidelined in 2015 for nearly three months, Stevens was tasked with keeping the No. 18 team together and trying to keep its members’ spirits high. With

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NUMBER

three different drivers spending time in the car during Busch’s absence, Stevens was the steady hand responsible for making the team stronger in the face of major adversity and uncertainty about when Busch would return.

“I appreciate Adam being able to hold everybody together for 11 weeks,” team owner Joe Gibbs said.

“That’s hard to do. You think you’re probably out of the (playoffs)? You look at them and look at their eyes; there was no backing up.”

Busch’s first four races back produced finishes of 11th, 36th, ninth and 43rd, respectively, but it was during this difficult stretch that Stevens helped Busch and the team reach down and find the toughness needed to bounce back. That happened in short order when Busch reeled off four wins in five races from late June through late July, putting himself in position to make the playoffs and ultimately win the title.

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Jimmie Johnson

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With the possible exception of the legendary Dale Inman, no crew chief in NASCAR history has accomplished more than Chad Knaus – the man responsible for guiding Jimmie Johnson to more than 80 victories and seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championships.

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48 INFO OWNER RICK HENDRICK TEAM HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS

Johnson and Knaus are the longest-running driver/ SPONSORS LOWE’S, KOBALT crew chief combination in NASCAR’s premier division, having been together since Johnson’s rookie season of 2002.

MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET “Chad was the perfect person to lead the team,” said CREW CHIEF team owner Rick Hendrick, who hired Knaus to be the CHAD KNAUS crew chief on Johnson’s No. 48 car. “Every piece of the puzzle just fell into place.”

Johnson and Knaus know each other so well they are virtually like brothers. While they may not always see eye-to-eye, they possess a chemistry that is unrivaled by any other driver/crew chief tandem in today’s NASCAR. Not surprisingly, Johnson has no shortage of praise for the crew chief who is undoubtedly bound for future enshrinement in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

“Chad has got to be in that conversation as one of the greatest in my opinion, and knowing what he’s capable of and what he’s been able to engineer without an engineering degree is unbelievable,” said Johnson, who won a NASCAR record five consecutive Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series titles under Knaus’ watch. “He comes up with ideas and then turns to the engineers and says, ‘All right, now, make sense of this,’ and they figure out through their education how to make sense of it. He’s a very, very smart, self-taught man, which I think makes it all the more impressive.”

Johnson hopes Knaus will stay on as his crew chief until Johnson retires. Johnson has a contract with Hendrick Motorsports through 2020, while Knaus’ deal only runs through 2018.

“I’m sure discussions will take place about an extension for him,” Johnson said. “He at least has another year, and I’ve started this with him and I’ve said it before: I want to finish it with him. So, I’ll keep leaning on him. Those crew chief years, I like to call them dog years. I don’t have a clear picture on where that will take him, but I will do my best to keep him around as long as I can.”

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Danica Patrick In many ways, Danica Patrick and second-year crew chief Billy Scott are polar opposites.

To understand this intriguing pairing, look no further than their respective Twitter followings.

An engaging personality whose fan base extends far beyond the sport, Patrick boasts a robust 1.8 million Twitter followers – second only to Dale Earnhardt Jr. among active drivers. The far less flamboyant Scott – a former short-track driver who earned a mechanical engineering degree from UNC Charlotte after deciding to work on race cars instead of drive them – boasts fewer than 1,100 Twitter followers. That’s not only far fewer than Patrick, it’s far fewer than many of the media members who cover the sport.

Yet, as different as Scott and Patrick are in personality and name recognition, the two have developed a strong relationship in this their second season together.

“I think the two of them, their personalities are perfect together,” said Rodney Childers, a fellow crew chief of Scott’s at Stewart-Haas Racing.

“I said that awhile back and I guess you could say, I kind of pushed [the relationship] along a little bit.

You got to have that magic. Somebody you can talk to every minute of every day about anything.

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It doesn’t matter if it’s about race cars, about life, about your family or whatever.”

Patrick was not directly involved in the decision to hire Scott, who had last been a crew chief at Michael Waltrip Racing and was there when the organization shuttered at the end of 2015. When Scott joined SHR to lead Patrick’s team in 2016, he acknowledged the pressure that would ultimately come with calling the shots for one of NASCAR’s most popular, yet scrutinized drivers.

“I put as much pressure on myself as I expect anybody else will,” Scott said. “I know Danica is a high-profile driver and has a big fan base. Nobody is more determined than she is. … We definitely want to succeed and give the fans something to cheer for.”

While Patrick and Scott have yet to achieve the success together that they would like, Patrick is optimistic about their future.

“Billy’s great,” she told NBC Sports shortly after Scott’s hiring. “I feel like he has a lot of common sense about everything.”

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10 INFO OWNER TONY STEWART/GENE HAAS TEAM STEWART-HAAS RACING SPONSORS ASPEN DENTAL, TAXACT, CODE 3 ASSOCIATES MANUFACTURER FORD CREW CHIEF BILLY SCOTT

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Ty Dillon As a rookie driver in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Ty Dillon has performed better than some observers expected. Dillon gives much of the credit to crew chief Robert “Bootie” Barker, a garage area veteran whose first season as a crew chief was 2003.

“That’s definitely ideal for me – to have that experience as far as week in and week out managing expectations and preparation going into each week and knowing what it takes,” Dillon said.

“It definitely takes a lot of pressure off me. … I just show up and put my work in and he and I go together and lead the team together, which has been really fun.”

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In their first 16 races together, Dillon and Barker recorded 10 top-20 finishes, including five top-15 results – not bad for a single-car team.

“It’s been really good,” Dillon said. “Bootie works very, very hard and is very smart. He’s a fun guy to be around, he’s very passionate about what he does and you know every single day he gives it 110 percent. We’ve had a great relationship so far. Not only do we like being around each other and it’s easy to talk to him, but also in the times where I’ve done something wrong, he’s not afraid to tell me. And when I feel like we could have done something different, he’s a very open-minded guy. I can’t wait to continue to grow with him as our relationship goes on with racing. I feel we’re going to be really strong because we feel like we can be really honest with each other because our goals are the same. We both know we can get a lot better, but we both know what we’re capable of, too. It’s been really fun.”

Dillon also finds personal inspiration from Barker, who has been in a wheelchair since breaking his neck and being paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident when he was 17.

“I’ve worked with a lot of different crew chiefs, a lot of different people, and the guy is one of the best at communicating and getting the most out of all his people,” Dillon said. “He doesn’t take no and he doesn’t quit on anything.”

NUMBER

13 INFO OWNER BOB GERMAIN TEAM GERMAIN RACING SPONSORS GEICO MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF ROBERT “BOOTIE” BARKER

and

Ty Dillon, NASCAR driver of the #13 GEICO Chevrolet SS

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Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states or all GEICO companies. Motorcycle coverage is underwritten by GEICO Indemnity Company. Boat and PWC coverages are underwritten by GEICO Marine Insurance Company. Homeowners, renters and condo coverages are written through non-affiliated insurance companies and are secured through the GEICO Insurance Agency, Inc. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. Š 2017 GEICO. GEICO Gecko image Š 1999-2017.

DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Chase Elliott Widely considered one of NASCAR’s most talented and innovative crew chiefs, Alan Gustafson has been with Hendrick Motorsports since 1999 when he was given an opportunity to work in the team’s chassis shop.

The next year, Gustafson joined the No. 5 Hendrick team as a shock specialist for two-time champion driver Terry Labonte. Gustafson was promoted in 2002 to the No. 5 team’s lead engineer, a position he held for three seasons.

Before the start of 2005, Gustafson was named crew chief for the No. 5 Chevrolet with rookie driver Kyle Busch. That year, he earned his first premier series victory as a crew chief and led Busch to two wins and rookie-of-the-year honors. Gustafson spent 2006 and 2007 with Busch, winning at least one race each year and appearing in the playoffs both seasons.

In 2009, Hendrick Motorsports gave Gustafson the opportunity to call the shots for veteran Mark Martin, a childhood hero. The two finished their first season together as championship runner-up on the strength of five victories.

At the end of 2010, Gustafson became crew chief for Jeff Gordon and the four-time champion’s iconic No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. In five

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POLE POSITION 2017

seasons together, Gustafson and Gordon scored 11 victories and had 97 top-10 finishes.

When Gordon retired as driver of the No. 24 Chevy at the end of 2015, Gustafson remained in his role with the team and became crew chief for rookie Chase Elliott. Although Gustafson and Elliott had yet to win a race together as of press time, the secondgeneration driver gives his crew chief nothing but high marks. That is not surprising considering Elliott by all accounts enjoyed a stellar rookie season – the only blemish being the absence of a trip to Victory Lane.

This season, Elliott has continued to have fast cars.

“I really enjoyed working with Alan last year,” said Elliott, who captured the rookie-of-the-year title and earned a berth in NASCAR’s 16-driver playoff. “I think he’s one of the best. Everyone says that about their crew chiefs, but I’m pretty confident saying it. He does a great job and is underrated in what he does and how hard he works in trying to make a race team go.”

NUMBER

24 INFO

OWNER RICK HENDRICK TEAM HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS SPONSORS NAPA AUTO PARTS, HOOTERS, MOUNTAIN DEW MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF ALAN GUSTAFSON

ALL-NATURAL PRODUCT

Brandon Jones Brandon Jones’ second season in the NASCAR XFINITY Series marked another new beginning – his pairing with veteran crew chief Nick Harrison, who moved over to Jones after leading teammate Ty Dillon’s No. 3 XFINITY Series team in 2016.

PRODUCT OF THE USA

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33 INFO

PURE QUALITY SINCE

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OWNER RICHARD CHILDRESS TEAM RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING

Jones and Harrison instantly hit it off, starting their SPONSORS tenure with a bang by winning the pole for the seasonRAIN-X, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS, opening race at Daytona International Speedway.

ANDERSON’S MAPLE SYRUP “I love Nick,” Jones said. “You know, he is an all-around MANUFACTURER good guy. We have fun. … He puts his game face on when CHEVROLET it’s time to get after it. I think we already act like we have CREW CHIEF NICK HARRISON been together for years and years.”

Jones’ Daytona pole was Harrison’s third consecutive pole for the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener at the World Center of Racing. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon won the pole at Daytona in February 2015 and Ty Dillon did the same in 2016, both under Harrison’s watch.

So, it was no surprise that Jones came out of the gate swinging this year with a lot of speed in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet.

“I think a lot of the success I’ve had at superspeedways comes from my past. I worked with James Finch at Phoenix Racing before coming to RCR, and we always put a lot of emphasis on the speedway races,” Harrison said.

Harrison’s experience as a crew chief began in 2006 with the Sadler brothers’ race team. Since then, the garage area veteran has worked across all three NASCAR national touring series, building his notebook and experience at all types of tracks. Harrison really took a shine to NASCAR’s two restrictor plate tracks – Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway – and has since developed a strong level of confidence at those venues, in particular.

“When I came to RCR, I had a lot better of an aero group to start with and everything I would need available to me to work with,” he said. “I think mixing the focus I had put on speedway cars previously with what is available to me here, along with keeping detailed notes throughout my career, helps the overall process. Really making sure to dot all my I’s and cross all my T’s with speedway cars is how I find the most speed.”

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Track Food Richmond International Raceway’s Chaos Dog: This isn’t your traditional sporting event hot dog. It’s something unique. The Chaos Dog is topped with house-made chorizo chili and house-pickled bread-and-butter jalapenos. Add shredded pepper jack cheese, creamy southern coleslaw and it’s all severed on a bakery fresh bun.

Terminology Laser Inspection System: Implemented in 2013, NASCAR’s Laser Inspection System is as precise as it gets, and if a car does not meet the specified requirements, penalties can ensue.

Rather than manually placing templates on a car, the LIS allows NASCAR officials to find out within seconds whether or not a car complies with the specifications.

3Q

WITH NASCAR DRIVER ALON DAY

NASCAR’s first Israeli driver is attempting to make history, one step at a time. Alon Day, a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, made his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut earlier this season on the road course at Sonoma Raceway.

How big is it for you to represent your country in NASCAR? I always say that I grew up without any motorsports in Israel. I think it’s changing. This deal, which I’m going to race on Sunday, is history for not only me but for Israel. I’m going to be the first-ever Israeli driver to do this. … I’m glad I represent my country. I represent Israel. I’m Jewish. I’m proud of it. This is something I’ll never change.

How have your friends in Israel reacted to your racing career?

I don’t even think it’s my friends. I think it’s every person in Israel. We made it to the news because it was big, especially in Israel. I was in the most popular newspaper in Israel with a big photo of me. This is how people are reacting in Israel. Usually, you never see motorsports in the newspaper because we don’t have it. It’s definitely a big thing and everyone is surprised.

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What does it mean to be a Jewish NASCAR driver?

I love making history.

It happens that I have to race on holidays like Passover. Once in my career, I had to race on Yom Kippur and I didn’t race. I gave up that race and I lost championship points. This is how it is. I’m Jewish and I accept that. It’s my religion and it’s who I am. I grew up with what I believe. There are – I call them red lines – that I never cross. I will not race on Yom Kippur. I’ll never do that.

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Shining Star MONICA PALUMBO LOVES MEETING NASCAR FANS Monica Palumbo aspired from a young age to become a television host. She chose a path in pageantry and in 2001, at age 19, was crowned Miss North Carolina, which served as the foundation for her career behind the microphone.

Palumbo was working with Motorsports Management International’s marketing efforts when Sprint called looking for candidates to serve as ambassadors for the sport as part of its Miss Sprint Cup program. Palumbo was part of the Miss Sprint Cup program from 2008 through 2011.

“That was probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever had,” Palumbo said. “I traveled to every single race and met race fans; and just being involved in the sport was great. I had so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences in a job I probably will never experience again. I was meeting and interviewing celebrities, drivers, endless experiences I will forever hold in my heart.”

Palumbo earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater from California State University at Northridge in Los Angeles. Her accomplishments include guest hosting for Kelly Ripa on the TV show “Live with Regis and Kelly.” She has also acted in films and is now an at-track pit reporter for Speedway TV and various race tracks.

“I love being in the middle of all the action,” Palumbo said. “It’s really great seeing some of the same race fans I’ve seen for years! I absolutely love what I do.”

ACTION: Built by Larry Carrier and open for business on July 30, 1961, Bristol International Raceway in Bristol, Tennessee, was new and different alongside the dirt short tracks and the rise of superspeedways such as Charlotte Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway during the early 1960s.

The 0.533-mile, high-banked asphalt track was originally built to hold 25,000 spectators on concrete bleachers. When the announcement was made on Jan. 22, 1996, that Carrier had sold the track to Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. for $26 million, the news was met with concern and uncertainty.

REACTION: Skeptical of what Smith had in mind for the track, fans were initially concerned about the ownership change.

Smith’s plan, however, proved brilliant with the addition of seats that created a stadium feel and seemingly reached the sky.

■■ On May 28, 1996, the track’s name was changed to Bristol Motor Speedway.

■■ The track had 71,000 seats when Smith purchased it and he eventually created the largest sports arena in Tennessee at 118,000 seats. By 1998, there were more than 131,000 grandstand seats and 100 skyboxes through improvements that cost in excess of $50 million.

■■ Under Smith’s ownership, all seating sections have been renamed for past race winners and NASCAR champions. The track has become a showplace that features some of the very best racing for NASCAR’s three national touring series.

NEW SCHOOL VS. OLD SCHOOL

COLE WHITT NEW SCHOOL

STERLING MARLIN OLD SCHOOL

NOV. 13, 2011, PHOENIX

MAY 8, 1976, NASHVILLE

25TH

29TH

2008 USAC NAT’L MIDGET SERIES CHAMPION

TWO-TIME DAYTONA 500 WINNER 1994, 1995

7

33

31ST 2014, 2015

3RD 1995, 2001

FIRST RACE FIRST FINISH IN CUP RACE CAREER HIGHLIGHT YEARS IN CUP SERIES BEST POINTS FINISH BEN WHITE

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NASCAR LEGENDS Benny Parsons CINDERELLA STORY Benjamin Stewart “Benny” Parsons ran his first NASCAR Cup Series race on Aug. 9, 1964, at North Carolina’s AshevilleWeaverville Speedway for the legendary Holman-Moody Ford operation.

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BIRTHDATE ■■ July 12, 1941 BIRTHPLACE ■■ Parsonville, North Carolina AWARDS ■■ 1973 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion ■■ Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017 ■■ Named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1988

The 1973 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion went on to amass 21 premier series victories in 565 career starts.

Born on July 12, 1941, Parsons spent his formative years in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. At age 18, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, to work with his father in the taxi cab business. In 1963, he worked at a gas station, the place where he was accidentally introduced to stock car racing. A patron needing gas for his race car hauler invited Parsons to go along to nearby Mt. Clemens Speedway. The team’s regular driver didn’t show up, giving Parsons his first ride.

In a short time, Parsons gained a reputation for winning races. Enough so that Ford’s powerful Holman-Moody factory team found a place for him within its fleet of drivers. Still, he only ran that one race – at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway – in NASCAR’s premier series until 1968. He joined the ARCA Racing Series that year, winning championships in 1968 and 1969. He also logged three top-10 finishes in four Cup Series starts in 1969.

Parsons’ best season came in 1973 when he won the NASCAR Cup Series championship while driving for team owner L.G. Dewitt. His near impossible return to the track after a car-crippling crash at North Carolina’s Rockingham Speedway to claim the title is considered the most miraculous comeback in the sport’s 69-year history. Parsons is still the only driver to win both the ARCA and NASCAR championships. In 1975, Parsons won the Daytona 500, putting him among the sport’s elite drivers. He retired from driving in 1988 and went into broadcasting. Parsons died of lung cancer on Jan. 16, 2007.

BENNY PARSONS WAS THE KINDEST, SWEETEST, MOST CONSIDERATE PERSON I HAVE EVER KNOWN. HE WAS ALMOST TOO NICE TO BE A RACE CAR DRIVER AND I SAY THAT AS A COMPLIMENT. – DARRELL WALTRIP BEST SEASON DURING THE 1977 NASCAR Cup Series season, Parsons collected a season high four victories – Nashville, Pocono, Dover and Charlotte – in L.G. Dewitt’s Chevrolet. He also collected 20 top-five finishes and 22 top-10 results along with poles at Nashville, Talladega and Richmond. His average start that season was 4.7 while his average finish was 7.8.

RECORD-SETTER

STUDIOUS COMPETITIVE SMART INSIGHTFUL

DETERMINED

MULTI-TALENTED

THE NO. 72 CAR

KNOWN FOR

IN QUALIFYING FOR the 1982 Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Parsons became the first man to qualify for a NASCAR event at over 200 mph (200.176). He was driving a Pontiac Le Mans for team owner Harry Ranier. Parsons logged 20-career poles during his 24-year career.

THROUGHOUT HIS incredible NASCAR career, Parsons was a quiet competitor and often didn’t show his hand until the closing laps of races. Most of his 21 victories and 283 top-five finishes came after watching the competition battle for position as he saved his car for the final push to the checkered flag.

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RACE REWIND Rexford Wins Title in NASCAR’s Second Season In February 1950, NASCAR launched the second season of its premier stock car racing series. The nomadic circuit showed incredible potential for growth as the debut of Darlington Raceway, the sport’s first paved superspeedway, foreshadowed the future.

NASCAR’s newly named Grand National division – dropping the Strictly Stock title – was attracting drivers in search of an adventure. NASCAR founder Bill France sanctioned 19 races as the organization’s premier series visited Florida, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia. Seventeen of the races were on dirt tracks with the new paved superspeedway in Darlington, South Carolina, and the combination beach/ road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, adding variety to the schedule.

Oldsmobiles won 10 of the 19 events with drivers Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts, Bill Rexford, Dick Linder and Fonty Flock. Plymouth drivers Johnny Mantz, Leon Sales, Herb Thomas and Lee Petty joined Ford/Lincoln-Mercury pilots Bill Blair, Lloyd Moore, Harold Kite, Tim Flock and Bill Florian in Victory Lane.

Rexford, a virtual unknown from Western New York, began his championship quest with a victory at Ohio’s Canfield Motor Speedway on May 30 in an Oldsmobile owned by Julian Buesink. But the title fight came down to a battle between Rexford and Roberts over the final three races. Rexford led the standings after a sixth-place finish at the fairgrounds in Vernon, New York, on Oct. 1, a race Roberts did not enter. Following race No. 17, Roberts was back on top after finishing sixth at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway, but Rexford ended up third on the same day at Winchester Speedway in Indiana and retook the point lead.

Roberts’ blown engine in the final race at Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsboro, N.C., clinched the 1950 Grand National championship for the 23-year-old Rexford.

1950 BEST DRIVER DRIVING THE NO. 41 Oldsmobile owned by John Eanes, Curtis Turner scored four wins in 16 starts. He visited Victory Lane at Langhorne (Pa.) Speedway, Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, the Monroe County Fairgrounds in Rochester, New York, and Charlotte (N.C.) Speedway en route to a fifth-place finish in the championship standings.

The native of Floyd, Virginia, recorded 10 top10 results with an average start of 5.2 and an average finished of 14.7.

PRESIDENT: HARRY S TRUMAN TOP NEWS:

SEASON RECAP DATE CIRCUIT Feb. 5 Daytona Beach & Road Course April 2 Charlotte Speedway April 16 Langhorne Speedway May 21 Martinsville Speedway May 30 Canfield Motor Speedway June 18 Vernon Fairgrounds June 25 Dayton Speedway July 2 Monroe County Fairgrounds July 23 Charlotte Speedway Aug. 13 Occoneechee Speedway Aug. 20 Dayton Speedway Aug. 27 Hamburg Speedway Sept. 4 Darlington Raceway Sept. 17 Langhorne Speedway Sept. 24 North Wilkesboro Speedway Oct. 1 Vernon Fairgrounds Oct. 15 Martinsville Speedway Oct. 15 Funk’s Speedway Oct. 29 Occoneechee Speedway

NO. 1 SONG: “GOODNIGHT, IRENE” BY GORDON JENKINS

JAN. 17: THE GREAT BRINKS ROBBERY IN BOSTON

BRIDE” RELEASED

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JUNE 16: “FATHER OF THE

AUG. 5: FLORENCE CHADWICK SWIMS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

BEST RACE JOHNNY MANTZ, winner of the inaugural Southern 500 at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway on Sept. 4, 1950, became a NASCAR star with only one career victory. The native of Long Beach, California, used hard truck tires, similar to those seen in Indy car racing, and led 351 of 400 laps as he capitalized on the heavy attrition. Mantz gained the lead at lap 50 and never looked back.

He participated in only 12 NASCAR premier series events through 1956.

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WINNER Harold Kite Tim Flock Curtis Tuner Curtis Turner Bill Rexford Bill Blair Jimmy Florian Curtis Turner Curtis Turner Fireball Roberts Dick Linder Dick Linder Johnny Mantz Fonty Flock Leon Sales Dick Linder Herb Thomas Lloyd Moore Lee Petty

COURTESY NASCAR

TOP CARS BILL REXFORD, OF Conewango Valley, New York, recorded 11 top-10 finishes in 17 starts aboard an Oldsmobile owned by Julian Buesink.

GLENN “FIREBALL” Roberts, of Palatka, Florida, wheeled Sam Rice’s Oldsmobile to one victory and five top-10 finishes in nine series starts.

DRIVER SPOTLIGHT

XFINITY SERIES

CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES

TYLER REDDICK

JORDAN ANDERSON

When Tyler Reddick was presented with the opportunity to move up in the NASCAR ranks, he knew he had to take it.

The 21-year-old is driving for Chip Ganassi Racing this season, sharing the No. 42 Chevrolet in the NASCAR XFINITY series with Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title contender Kyle Larson. And Reddick’s transition from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is not one he is taking lightly.

“There were a lot of competitive trucks in the Truck Series last year, but there are about 10 to 15 cars that can win on any given weekend,” Reddick said about the NASCAR XFINITY Series. “Everyone is just that close – like one pit stop away, or a good adjustment or restart away from being a race winner.

The competition is much tougher.”

Besides working with Larson, the biggest change for the young driver this season has come from the technical resources available at Chip Ganassi Racing.

Reddick frequently uses those resources to break down data, utilizing Dartfish software to compare information gathered by the No. 42 car with Larson behind the wheel and from the No. 48 car driven by teammate Brennan Poole.

“Wherever you’re missing on, you can see very well in Dartfish,” he said. “You can overlay my data versus Kyle and really see the differences of where I’m giving up time and speed. It helps to figure it out much easier rather than being blind in the dark.”

As he moves forward, Reddick not only wants to win a race, he hopes to make multiple visits to Victory Lane.

CAREER STATS The California native is a dirt racer at heart, which caught the attention of former driver Ken Schrader, who gave him an ARCA Racing Series ride. After moving to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with Brad Keselowski Racing, Reddick won three races in 63 starts and finished second in the 2015 championship.

Jordan Anderson wrecked his only truck at Atlanta Motor Speedway during the second race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. It looked as if he was finished for the year. But then, a miracle of sorts occurred.

“Social media has really been the backbone of our program because after we had our crash at Atlanta, my season was done,” Anderson said. “I was going to be sitting at home until I got another truck or generated funding to go racing again. We had the Fueled by Fans program last year at New Hampshire to get another motor, and there were probably 200-300 people who said if you get the sponsorjordan.com site back going, we’re in.”

The response on Twitter and Facebook single-handedly gave the South Carolina native a lot more than just a glimmer of hope.

The fans have turned Anderson’s season around. His No. 1 truck is consistently running inside the top 20 and attempting to break into the top 15 as his small crew, consisting of a few friends, tries to do the impossible.

“I’m just an old-school racer trying to be the people’s driver,” he said. “I’m staying hands-on and giving them some insight in what it is that I do to get to the race track every week. I think that my program would be nothing without the fans.”

As the season rolls on, Anderson is not only looking to finish the NCWTS schedule strong, he’s working to achieve his goal of racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

CAREER STATS With 17 top-15 finishes in 45 NCWTS starts, Anderson wants to take the next step in his career. Racing part-time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, he finished 26th in B.J. McLeod’s No. 78 car at Dover in June. In each of the past two seasons, he’s finished in the top 20 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings.

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2017 SCHEDULES

GETTY IMAGES MONSTERY ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES Feb. 18 Feb. 23 Feb. 26 March 5 March 12 March 19 March 26 April 2 April 9 April 23 April 30 May 7 May 13 May 20 May 28 June 4 June 11 June 18 June 25 July 1 July 8 July 16 July 23 July 30 Aug. 6 Aug. 13 Aug. 19 Sept. 3 Sept. 9 Sept. 17 Sept. 24 Oct. 1 Oct. 7 Oct. 15 Oct. 22 Oct. 29 Nov. 5 Nov. 12 Nov. 19

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway Phoenix International Raceway Auto Club Speedway Martinsville Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway Richmond International Raceway Talladega Superspeedway Kansas Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway Dover International Speedway Pocono Raceway Michigan International Speedway Sonoma Raceway Daytona International Speedway Kentucky Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pocono Raceway Watkins Glen International Michigan International Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway Darlington Raceway Richmond International Raceway Chicagoland Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway Dover International Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway Talladega Superspeedway Kansas Speedway Martinsville Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Phoenix International Raceway Homestead-Miami Speedway

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES Feb. 25 March 4 March 11 March 18 March 25 April 8 April 22 April 29 May 6 May 27 June 3 June 10 June 17 June 24 June 30 July 7 July 15 July 22 July 29 Aug. 5 Aug. 12 Aug. 18 Aug. 27 Sept. 2 Sept. 8 Sept. 16 Sept. 23 Sept. 30 Oct. 6 Oct. 21 Nov. 4 Nov. 11 Nov. 18

Daytona International Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway Phoenix International Raceway Auto Club Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway Richmond International Raceway Talladega Superspeedway Charlotte Motor Speedway Dover International Speedway Pocono Raceway Michigan International Speedway Iowa Speedway Daytona International Speedway Kentucky Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway Indianapolis Motor Speedway Iowa Speedway Watkins Glen International Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Bristol Motor Speedway Road America Darlington Raceway Richmond International Raceway Chicagoland Speedway Kentucky Speedway Dover International Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway Kansas Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Phoenix International Raceway Homestead-Miami Speedway

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES Feb. 24 March 4 April 1 May 12 May 19 June 2 June 9 June 17 June 23 July 6 July 19 July 29

Daytona International Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway Martinsville Speedway Kansas Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway Dover International Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Gateway Motorsports Park Iowa Speedway Kentucky Speedway Eldora Speedway Pocono Raceway

Aug. 12 Aug. 16 Sept. 3 Sept. 15 Sept. 23 Sept. 30 Oct. 14 Oct. 28 Nov. 3 Nov. 10 Nov. 17

Michigan International Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Chicagoland Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway Talladega Superspeedway Martinsville Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Phoenix International Raceway Homestead-Miami Speedway

Sprayway a

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CHECKERED FLAG

Ryan Blaney takes the checkered flag to win the Axalta Presents the Pocono 400.

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