NASCAR Pole Position 2019 Season Preview by A.E. Engine

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2018 MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES CHAMPION

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WOMEN OF NASCAR I FAVORITE FINDS I DRIVER PROFILES I SEAL THE DEAL I NASCAR BUILDS NASCAR PETS I TAILGATING I BET YOU DIDNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T KNOW I NASCAR ROOTS I NASCAR NEWS I TOOLS OF THE TRADE

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PRESENTED BY

The Top Six Moments of 2018

■■ Austin Dillon celebrated in Victory Lane after winning the 60th Annual Daytona 500. ■■ Chase Elliott took the checkered flag at Watkins Glen International for his first victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. ■■ Kevin Harvick won the All-Star race at Charlotte, which utilized a new rules package that will be featured in 2019.

POLE POSITION 2019

■■ Ryan Blaney celebrated in Victory Lane after winning the wild, inaugural Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. ■■ Clint Bowyer broke a 190-race winless streak when he won the STP 500 at Martinsville. ■■ Joey Logano celebrated after winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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CONTENT 10. BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW

19 STORIES TO WATCH IN 2019

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SEAL THE DEAL 72. NASCAR HISTORY

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14 SPOTLIGHT: TY DILLON 62. XFINITY SERIES PREVIEW NASCAR ROOTS

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GREEN FLAG Stewart-Haas Racing Signs Suárez

tewart-Haas Racing has added Daniel Suárez to its Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver lineup. The Mexican racer will pilot the team’s No. 41 Ford Mustang with sponsorship from Haas Automation and ARRIS International, as Suárez joins teammates Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer. This season marks Suárez’s third year in the elite NASCAR Cup Series, and his first with SHR. Suárez made 72 NASCAR Cup Series starts with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2017-2018 after claiming the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. Suárez won a Mexican karting championship in 2007. The following year, he joined the mini-stock division – an official support series of the NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series. Suárez eventually won 10 races in the NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series before coming stateside to compete in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. Suárez earned Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year honors in 2015 before his championship season in 2016.

STARCOM RACING has enhanced its NASCAR Cup Series program by purchasing a charter from Richard Childress Racing. In another effort to continue its growth in the sport, SCR also signed Landon Cassill as its driver for this season.

BY DAN GUTTENPLAN | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

The Jimmie Johnson Foundation announced that seven schools received $308,000 in Champions Grants during 2018. The grants are awarded annually to K-12 public and charter schools in and around Chandra and Jimmie’s hometowns in California and Oklahoma, as well as their current residence in North Carolina. Last year, the Jimmie Johnson Foundation Champions Grant awards included $183,555 toward science and technology programs, $63,206.37 toward language and literacy initiatives, $39,726.38 for health and wellness activities and $22,096.71 toward school improvement projects.

SPEEDWAY CHILDREN’S CHARITIES distributed more than $3 million in grants to 450 charitable organizations across the country during 2018, bringing the total allocation amount to more than $55 million since the O. Bruton Smith family founded the nonprofit organization in 1982. Funds distributed by Speedway Children’s Charities chapters at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway totaled a staggering $3,020,000 in 2018. Speedway Children’s Charities raises grant money through fundraisers such as clay shoots, track events, holiday light displays, golf tournaments and auctions. Speedway Children’s Charities’ chapters use grants to aid in cancer research, provide winter coats and backpack meals to low-income families, facilitate clubs that provide healthy after-school activities and a host of other worthwhile causes. 08

POLE POSITION 2019

Bass Pro Shops is continuing its sponsorship of Martin Truex Jr., joining the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion in his transition to Joe Gibbs Racing. The company has signed a multi-year agreement to serve as a primary sponsor of Truex’s No. 19 Toyota Camry. As a primary sponsor, Bass Pro Shops will be prominently featured on the hood of the No. 19 Camry for 24 races during the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series campaign, starting with the season-opening Daytona 500.

NASCAR GANDER OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES CHAMPION BRETT MOFFITT HAS joined GMS Racing in a move that left Johnny Sauter without a ride. The driver carousel began spinning right after Moffitt won the 2018 title in November with Hattori Racing Enterprises. Even after capturing the title, the team still needed a driver with financial backing, so Moffitt was let go and replaced by Austin Hill. With Moffitt available, GMS Racing made the surprise decision to release Sauter just one month before NASCAR reports to Daytona International Speedway to open the season. The abrupt release came one day before Moffitt was hired.

Go Fas Racing has signed Corey LaJoie as the driver of its No.32 Ford Mustang for the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. LaJoie is slated to run the full 36-race schedule. A 27-year-old third-generation racer, LaJoie is a North Carolina native with a family deeply rooted in motorsports.

DANIEL HEMRIC WILL CARRY A familiar number for his rookie season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing. The 27-yearold will continue the long tradition of Kannapolis, North Carolina, natives who have driven the No. 8 car in NASCAR competition. Hemric made his MENCS debut during the 2018 season, driving the No. 8 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff Chevrolet at Richmond Raceway in April and Charlotte Motor Speedway in September. During the 1950s, Ralph Earnhardt began his family’s racing legacy on the short tracks around North Carolina driving the No. 8. His son, Dale Earnhardt, made his first NASCAR start at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1975, driving the No. 8. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. began his NASCAR Cup Series career in the No. 8 Chevrolet.

MONSTERY ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES Feb. 17 Feb. 24 March 3 March 10 March 17 March 24 March 31 April 7 April 13 April 28 May 5 May 11 May 18 May 26 June 2 June 9 June 23 June 30 July 6 July 13 July 21 July 28 Aug. 4 Aug. 11 Aug. 17 Sept. 1 Sept. 8 Sept. 15 Sept. 21 Sept. 29 Oct. 6 Oct. 13 Oct. 20 Oct. 27 Nov. 3 Nov. 10 Nov. 17

Daytona International Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway ISM Raceway (Avondale, Ariz.) Auto Club Speedway Martinsville Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway Richmond Raceway Talladega Superspeedway Dover International Speedway Kansas Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (All Star Race) Charlotte Motor Speedway Pocono Raceway Michigan International Speedway Sonoma Raceway Chicagoland Speedway Daytona International Speedway Kentucky Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway Pocono Raceway Watkins Glen International Michigan International Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway Darlington Raceway Indianapolis Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway Richmond Raceway Charlotte Motor Speedway Dover International Speedway Talladega Superspeedway Kansas Speedway Martinsville Speedway Texas Motor Speedway ISM Raceway Homestead-Miami Speedway

2019 Series Schedules NASCAR XFINITY SERIES Feb. 16 Feb. 23 March 2 March 9 March 16 March 30 April 6 April 12 April 27 May 4 May 25 June 1 June 8 June 16 June 29 July 5 July 12 July 20 July 27 Aug. 3 Aug. 10 Aug. 16 Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sept. 7 Sept. 14 Sept. 20 Sept. 28 Oct. 5 Oct. 19 Nov. 2 Nov. 9 Nov. 16

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

NASCAR GANDER OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES Feb. 15 Feb. 23 March 1 March 23 March 29 May 3 May 10 May 17 June 7 June 15 June 22 June 28 July 11 July 27 Aug. 1 Aug. 10 Aug. 15 Aug. 25 Sept. 13 Oct. 12 Oct. 26 Nov. 8 Nov. 15

Daytona International Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway Martinsville Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Dover International Speedway Kansas Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Iowa Speedway Gateway Motorsports Park Chicagoland Speedway Kentucky Speedway Pocono Raceway Eldora Speedway Michigan International Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Las Vegas Motor Speedway Talladega Superspeedway Martinsville Speedway ISM Raceway (Avondale, Ariz.) Homestead-Miami Speedway

BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW

SAUTER FAMILY REUNION

Mario Andretti’s Triple Crown Mario Andretti is the only driver to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Driving Championship. ■ Born in Italy, Andretti’s family moved to the United States in 1955 and settled in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, a community that just happened to have a half-mile dirt track. Andretti, along with his twin brother Aldo, eventually started driving stock cars at their hometown track. ■ Mario Andretti quickly rose through the ranks and his first marquee victory came in the 1967 Daytona 500, wheeling a Ford owned by John Holman and Ralph Moody. Andretti then won the Indianapolis 500 in 1969 and claimed the Formula One title in 1978 while driving for Lotus. ■ An open-wheel legend, Andretti made only 14 starts in NASCAR’s premier series. SNOWBALL DERBY WINNER oah Gragson turned his final start for Kyle Busch Motorsports into a milestone moment on Dec. 2 as the 20-year-old Las Vegas native won the 51st annual Snowball Derby late model race at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. Gragson claimed the victory following a late-race restart that saw him drive around Harrison Burton and lead the final six laps of the crown jewel event. “It means a lot to win one more for Kyle Busch Motorsports,” Gragson noted. “It’s my last race with them after two years and it’s a surreal feeling to get the job done like this.” Gragson posted two NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series victories during his time at KBM. This season, he moves to JR Motorsports and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

POLE POSITION 2019

THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES RACE ON JUNE 30, 2002, at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin, made history as four members of the Sauter family battled on the historic one-mile track in their home state. The lineup included short-track racing legend and family patriarch Jim Sauter, who made 82 starts across NASCAR’s three national series between 1980 and 2004, and three of his sons – Jay, Johnny and Tim. Tim Sauter earned family bragging rights as he started third and finished ninth while Johnny Sauter, now a two-time NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series champion, lined up second but faded to 12th at the checkered flag. Jay Sauter was 13th in the final box score and Jim Sauter completed only 200 laps after developing a brake issue.

RACING AND WINE FOUNDED IN 2004 BY NASCAR team owner Richard Childress, Childress Vineyards is one of the most prominent wineries in North Carolina’s rapidly growing wine industry. Totaling more than 70 acres of vineyards in two locations, the operation is based on rolling farmland near Lexington, North Carolina, approximately five miles from Richard Childress Racing’s sprawling campus in Welcome. The creation of Childress Vineyards fulfilled a dream

that grew from the days when the NASCAR circuit first took Childress to the West Coast and he enjoyed the camaraderie associated with visiting local wineries. Childress Vineyards now produces more than 30 wines, including classic house blends, premium varietals and signature reserves. Richard Childress Racing, which is celebrating its 50th season, earned six NASCAR Cup Series titles with driver Dale Earnhardt.

DAYTONA’S DEBUT Daytona International Speedway’s inaugural 500-mile stock car race on Feb. 22, 1959, produced a finish that’s still talked about 60 years later as Lee Petty’s Oldsmobile and Johnny Beauchamp’s Ford crossed the finish line in what appeared to be a dead heat. Officials initially claimed Beauchamp was the winner and he enjoyed the spoils of Victory Lane, but newsmen who were in position to see the finish claimed Petty was in front at the line. NASCAR President Bill France eventually declared the results “unofficial” pending a review of photographic and film evidence of the dramatic finish. Some 61 hours after the checkered flag, France announced he had conclusive proof that Petty had won the race, beating Beauchamp to the finish line by about two feet.

BY KEITH WALTZ | PHOTOGRAPHY: RACING ONE MULTIMEDIA

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SEAL THE DEAL DALE EARNHARDT JR. ‘THE GREATEST FEELING’

riving the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the final two laps of the 2014 Daytona 500 and collected his second victory in NASCAR’s premier event. His first Daytona 500 victory came 10 years earlier while driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Earnhardt Jr. sealed the deal by taking the lead with two laps remaining. A final restart developed because of a seven-car accident on lap 195 of the 200-lap race. The Kannapolis, North Carolina, native held his position during the final five miles and crossed under the checkered flag three-car lengths ahead of Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Brad Keselowski of Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson filled out the top-five finishers. Earnhardt Jr. led 54 laps during a race that was slowed by seven cautions for 39 laps, including the final lap when seven drivers crashed coming off the final turn while racing for the win. “The outside line worked best on the straightaways,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “When they’re all side-by-side behind you, the outside line gets the run on the straightaway and the inside line gets the run on the corner. “Man, it feels incredible,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “…It’s the greatest feeling you can have as a driver in NASCAR at a single event in a single day.”

POLE POSITION 2019

PRESENTED BY

RICKY RUDD A CINDERELLA STORY

n Feb. 26, 1984, Ricky Rudd, driving Bud Moore’s Ford, enjoyed the Cinderella story of the NASCAR Cup Series season as he scored the victory in the Miller High Life 400 on the halfmile track at Virginia’s Richmond Raceway. Just two weeks earlier, Rudd endured a horrifying crash at Daytona International Speedway during the annual Busch Clash special non-points event for pole position winners. The end-over-end tumble left him sore and badly bruised, but he was able to start the 400-lap Richmond race from the fourth position. The Chesapeake, Virginia, native paced himself during the early laps, watching Neil Bonnet and Darrell Waltrip wheel their Junior Johnson-owned Chevrolets in the lead collectively for 326 laps. Waltrip faded near the end while Bonnett fell out of contention for the victory with a flat tire. Rudd led the final 20 laps to win on Richmond’s old asphalt oval that was originally built in the early 1940s. “It’s great to win a race at home,” Rudd said in Greg Fielden’s “40 Years of Stock Car Racing.” “I’ve had some good runs here but it’s something to win with the people cheering you on. It’s also a great relief to win one early in the year. It kind of takes the pressure off early on.” Rudd went on to log 22 additional Cup Series victories before his retirement in 2007.

BY BEN WHITE | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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EXERCISE AND HYDRATION

Dillon Embraces a Healthy Lifestyle Whether through steady exercise, purposeful hydration or simply eating right, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Ty Dillon has embraced a healthy lifestyle for most of his adult life. Since becoming a dad in the fall of 2017, however, the now-26-year-old driver has gotten even more down to business with health and fitness. Give at least some of the credit to Dillon’s wife, Haley, a former dancer for the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. Since Ty and Haley tied the knot in December 2014, it’s been easier than ever for the driver from Welcome, North Carolina, to make wise choices at mealtime. “The big thing is, I’m very blessed that my wife is an outstanding cook and she’s a bit of a health nut herself,” said Dillon, driver of the No. 13 GEICO-sponsored Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Germain Racing. “So we’re always having really clean, healthy meals, knowing what’s going in and out of our bodies. Sometimes you can’t help it when you’re on the road and you’re not at home – you’ve got to eat what’s available – but the biggest part of my health regimen is definitely what I’m putting in my body.”

POLE POSITION 2019

When it comes to eating, the Dillons – both Ty and Haley – try to abstain from bread, pizza and dairy products whenever possible. Their go-to choices are natural, fresh foods, many of which they find in the produce section of their local grocery store. The idea is to avoid foods that offer no nutritional value, choosing instead to buy and consume foods that do. “This year, I’ve kind of taken it another step,” Dillon noted. “I’ve actually lost about 20 pounds since the start of the last NASCAR season, and I’m just eating healthier and being more lean. After the holidays is when I kind of fire up as far as getting my cardio (exercise) going again. I weigh around 175 right now. I try to just focus on maintaining that weight throughout the year and through our season. “My goal always is to start at one weight and end at the same weight – and to do that healthily, by not eating bad foods.”

FOR TY DILLON, EATING healthy is the No. 1 component to a healthy lifestyle, but it’s certainly not the only one. “I try to do a consistent amount of cardio on and off during the season, whether it’s running or mountain biking or hiking,” he said. “I like to work outdoors, mainly, with my fitness.” Dillon customizes his exercise routines to suit how he’s feeling on that particular day. “I’m not overly regimented,” he said. “I don’t wake up every day with a certain goal of how many miles I want to run or what I want to do. It’s fairly inconsistent based on my schedule and having a daughter, but I at least want to try to do something during the season about two days a week, because you’re spending most of your time recovering. You’re not only in the car for three-and-a-half hours on Sunday; you’re in it for three hours on Saturday, as well, sometimes, when you’re running the Xfinity Series race. So you’ve got three days of hard workouts. I try to do at least one or two days during the week and use the rest to recover, because it is such a long season.” Regardless of when Dillon works out, he’s constantly hydrating. “I think our sport is probably the biggest sport as far as hydration being key,” he said. “Every day, it never stops. Even in the offseason, I put electrolytes in my water and trace minerals, and do everything I can to make sure my body is consistently hydrated all the way throughout the year so I can run at maximum performance and keep myself ready for when the season starts.”

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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PRESENTED BY

‘A Highlight of the Year’

hat does a good time look like? For Ben Naggatz, try a NASCAR tailgating experience at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Naggatz and a group of friends and family members have tailgated in the AMS infield for the past 11 years. Naggatz, who met his girlfriend, Blaise, at the track in the fall of 2013, has a passion for tailgating that is virtually unsurpassed. “It is so awesome to wake up to race cars being tuned, and just not having to walk up the bleachers,” he said. “We just climb to the top of our bus and watch the race from there.” Naggatz calls his now-annual trips to AMS “a highlight of the year.” Understanding why is easy. “Every race, we always meet new people from all over the USA,” Naggatz said. “Some we’ve formed lasting bonds with and some have seemed to have gone away as quickly as we meet. But

no matter who we meet, they have had lasting impressions on us! I look forward to seeing who I will meet this year.” During one particular trip to AMS, Naggatz took advantage of an unexpected opportunity to rub elbows with members of driver Sterling Marlin’s pit crew. “I spent the whole race hanging out with the Coors Light No. 40 crew and getting a front row seat for all the pit stops,” he said. “What an amazing experience.” Naggatz and his tailgating comrades don’t give a lot of thought or consideration to certain tailgating foods, which they consider secondary in the overall experience. “We try to keep things simple so we can spend more time together with our guests, friends and family,” he said. “Tailgating can sometimes be challenging, but it’s always a great time. From snow to ice to rain and unbelievable heat, we wouldn’t miss it for anything.”

MUST-HAVE GEAR

ans still flying high about Joey Logano’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship can use their next tailgate at the track to proudly show off a new 22-by-42-in. locker room towel saluting the Team Penske driver’s remarkable achievement. An officially licensed WinCraft towel, it’s available for $21.99 and for a limited time only at the NASCAR.com Superstore. This one-of-a-kind, 100-percent cotton towel ships out within a business day and is a worthwhile investment for Logano supporters. Fellow Joey Logano fans are sure to be envious when they see this in your possession!

POLE POSITION 2019

Q&A WITH BEN WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE DRIVERS? ■■ Sterling Marlin (I drank a beer with him), Robby Gordon, Jamie McMurray and A.J. Allmendinger CURRENT RESIDENCE? ■■ Griffin, Georgia OCCUPATION? ■■ Driver for a trailer-repair company HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A FAN? ■■ I watched my first race in 2000, and I’ve been hooked ever since. WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST TAILGATE? ■■ Atlanta Motor Speedway ... for the 2005 spring race. WHERE HAVE YOU TAILGATED? ■■ Every race at Atlanta Motor Speedway since 2005, once at Indianapolis, once at Daytona and once at Darlington. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE TAILGATING FOODS AND BEVERAGES? ■■ Chili, Low Country Boil and BLTs. There is always cold Coors Light and margaritas. We do a different shot for each race over the weekend. WHAT ARE YOUR ESSENTIALS? ■■ The “War Wagon” (our bus), five pop-up canopies, flags from four branches of the military, the POW/MIA flag, and lots of games!

TAILGATING

RECIPES CALIFORNIA RESIDENT DANIELLE HENdrix and her husband, Robb, are part of a group known as the “Speedway Infield Crazies” that tailgates for four days each year when NASCAR visits Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Rest assured that food is a huge part of their experience. “Nothing we eat is absolutely extravagant – just simple and tasty,” Danielle said. “Everything we cook we can do on an outdoor stove or BBQ.” Here are the ingredients for a few of Danielle’s favorite tailgating recipes: BACON-WRAPPED ASPARAGUS ■■ Uncooked bacon ■■ Raw asparagus ■■ Wrap asparagus with bacon and BBQ until bacon is crispy ■■ Add some mushrooms and onions on top of the meat ■■ Wrap in foil with sliced onions, a cup of mushrooms and a stick of butter ■■ Wrap tight and put on BBQ until hot inside TACO SOUP (“EASY ON COLD NIGHTS”) ■■ 1 package of frozen shredded chicken (precooked) ■■ 2 cans of pinto beans not drained ■■ 2 cans of diced tomatoes not drained ■■ 4 cups of water ■■ 1 package of taco seasoning mix ■■ 1 can of corn drained ■■ 2 cans of diced green chills ■■ 1 onion diced ■■ Mix all together in a pot and cook ■■ You can double or triple the recipe for the amount of people you feed

BY JARED TURNER

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Please read the owner’s manual before operating your Honda Power Equipment and never use in an enclosed or partially enclosed area where you could be exposed to odorless, poisonous carbon monoxide. Connection of a generator to house power requires a transfer device to avoid possible injury to power company personnel. Consult a qualified electrician. Specifications subject to change without notice. © 2019 American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

NASCAR PETS Drivers and Their Furry Friends

ood luck finding a driver in NASCAR today who is more into pets than Alex Bowman, second-year driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Continuing in the tradition of Dale Earnhardt Jr., his predecessor behind the wheel of the No. 88 entry, Bowman is the proud owner of multiple dogs. His cherished canines are a Lab named Finn and a Beagle/Chow mix named Roscoe. Bowman has had the two animals for three and six years, respectively. Pets, particularly dogs, have always been a big part of Bowman’s life. Throughout his childhood, Bowman had a Beagle mix and Dalmatian that followed him around like sidekicks – much like his dogs do today. Things do tend to get a little bit complicated for Finn and Roscoe when it comes to air travel, however. “They’re both really good,” said Bowman, who travels by plane to the majority of the tracks on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule. “I don’t get to bring them to the track as much as I would like. I can’t bring them on the plane or anything – Hendrick has a no-dog policy on their planes – but I enjoy spending a lot of time with them. They’re actually sitting around me right now. Most of my time at home is spent with them.” Asked about the underpinnings of his strong affinity for his cherished canines, the 25-year-old Tucson, Arizona, native turned introspective. “That’s a good question. I don’t know. I’ve had dogs my whole life and just always really enjoyed being around them. It’s hard to say exactly why that is, or whatever, but I just really enjoy having them around.”

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BY JARED TURNER

John Hunter Nemechek’s house could be likened to an animal farm these days. A pet lover from childhood, the now 21-year-old NASCAR Xfinity Series driver is the owner and caretaker of three rambunctious but friendly dogs: a 3-year-old Goldendoodle named Layla, a 3-year-old Charcoal Lab named Tucker and a 1-year-old Black Lab named Nyx. With his trio of furry friends to care for, Nemechek is never concerned about boredom. “Everyone jokes around and sends me pictures with a bunch of puppies running into a house and stuff like that,” he said. “I feel like that’s what I have right now with these three. They’re definitely a handful, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” While Nemechek is still relatively new to life with three dogs, his passion for pets is nothing new. “I’ve always had a love for animals,” said the son of longtime NASCAR Cup Series driver Joe Nemechek. “We used to own a horse farm. So I was around horses, but my passion has always been for dogs. They’re a man’s best friend. Being able to walk in the door to them, hang out with them and hug them and play with them, it’s a lot of fun.”

Often featured in his Instagram feed, @jhnemechek, John Hunter’s dogs are always in the mix.

MADE IN THE USA PRESENTED BY

‘PEOPLE ARE NOTICING’

SureCan: A New Way to Dispense Fuel

ho likes spilling gasoline when you’re simply trying to fuel up your lawnmower? Thanks to a revolutionary, highly sophisticated but easy-to-use product appropriately dubbed the “SureCan,” pouring gas doesn’t have to be so frustrating anymore. In fact, the SureCan makes pouring a downright enjoyable experience. “The most important benefit that people see right off is it’s just easier to use,” said Brad Ouderkirk, the founder and CEO of SureCan, Inc. “It takes all the pain out of it. When you are filling anything up, you can hold the can in a comfortable position, you can see what you are filling up and you’re not standing on your head.” Ouderkirk owned a cabinet shop where he built custom cabinets when he first conceived the SureCan concept about 10 years ago. “There was an awful lot of wood in that first prototype since that was what I had,” Ouderkirk recalled. “I put it all together and started showing

POLE POSITION 2019

my new gas can prototype to everyone who would listen, and then asked them if this was something they would buy if it was on the market. I just got a resounding, ‘Yes, if that thing was available, I would take one in a second.’” After some eight years of dreaming, planning, development and testing, the SureCan was ready to hit the stores in the spring of 2015. Now, it’s being sold by all the major outdoors retailers – Lowe’s, Menards, Tractor Supply and Ace Hardware. Meanwhile, SureCan, Inc. – headquartered in Utah but with its factory in Lebanon, Tennessee – has more than tripled in size. “People have really taken to our gas can since it’s a lot safer and since the gas only goes where it’s supposed to go,” Ouderkirk said. “It’s also greener so you’re not spilling all over the ground and getting all the emissions into the environment. And, it’s the easiest gas can to use. “The can is 100-percent made in the USA and it will always be that. We’re going to always keep it here. That’s important to us. I think we’re on our way to changing how people dispense fuel into their machines.”

n addition to being picked up by major retailers, the SureCan has received global recognition. In 2014, Ouderkirk took his new product to the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas where the SureCan won the Most Innovative New Product Award and a Retailers Choice Award. Later, the SureCan was featured on the DIY Network’s hit show, “I Want That,” and as a Top 100 Product for This Old House Magazine. The SureCan has since been selected a Silver Winner at the Edison Awards in New York City where 300 judges around the world voted on new innovative products. “People are noticing that we’re different and that we’ve actually changed the way people do things from here on out,” Ouderkirk said. “Basically, our growth is attributed to our innovation. All we have to do is get in front of people and people immediately see the benefit and they’re purchasing our cans.” One of the most innovative features of the SureCan – which is available in both 2.2- and 5-gallon sizes – is its thickness. Ouderkirk recalls conducting an informal test last summer when he intentionally left two 5-gallon cans in the back of his truck. After a week, he couldn’t smell the gasoline. “Our can is six layers thick,” Ouderkirk said. “One layer in the middle is a barrier layer that locks all the vapors in the can. One thing you’ll notice right away is that if the can is in your shed or garage, you’ll never smell gasoline, because the vapors are locked in so tight. It does its job. It locks the vapors in and keeps the emissions from escaping into the atmosphere.”

BY JARED TURNER

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COOL STUFF FOR SERIOUS RACE FANS

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SURECAN The award-winning SureCan was designed with all of your gas-powered machines in mind. With patented technology, the SureCan offers its user the best experience they have ever had with a fuel can. The flexible spout rotates down more than 180 degrees and fits perfectly into any machine’s fill location, while the thumb-release trigger on top controls the flow. By pulling straight back on the safety trigger and then down on the thumb button, fuel is released immediately while you stay in complete control. When you notice your tank is almost full, slowly release the thumb button and allow the excess fuel to drain from the top of the spout before rotating it back up. No more bending over, tipping your fuel can forward and holding it in an awkward position. The SureCan is a high-quality fuel dispensing machine. Learn more at surecanusa.com.

POLE POSITION 2019

BUBBA BURGER

LIVE. LOVE. LAFE’S. Lafe’s is family-owned and made with natural and organic ingredients. Our family’s mission of sustainable living with trusted products made from Mother Nature began with our mother. Because of her passion, our family creates deodorants, crystal deodorants, soaps, hair care, baby care and lip balms which do not contain toxins or gluten, are cruelty-free and non-GMO. We also believe in giving back, so for every purchase, one-percent goes to help support breast cancer prevention. To find a retailer near you, or to purchase online, go to lafes.com. Enjoy 20-percent off your first order using code “NASCAR20” at checkout.

BUBBA burger® is sold in grocery stores throughout the United States as well as worldwide through the U.S. Military Commissary system. BUBBA burger® is a natural choice for quality and convenience, using only the highest quality meat to produce our uniquely shaped, gluten-free BUBBA burgers®. You can take them right from your freezer to your grill or skillet and BUBBA burgers® come in many varieties to fit any taste. Race to your favorite local grocer’s freezer today and grab a box of BUBBA burgers® so that you are sure to have a winning race weekend! bubbafoods.com

ANTI MONKEY BUTT POWDER WITH CALAMINE Work Hard? Play Hard? We’ve got you covered! You can use Original Anti Monkey Butt to protect yourself from a multitude of skin irritations like blistering feet or between skin folds for almost any activity from cycling to truck driving or attending an event on a hot and sticky day! Original Anti Monkey Butt (for men) is a rare breed because it contains calamine. We’re not monkeying around when we say it works to reduce sweat, chafing, and aids in healing. You can also find talc-free Lady Anti Monkey Butt to reduce skin friction and Baby Anti Monkey Butt to prevent and treat diaper rash. You can buy the entire lineup online at Amazon or visit your local Walmart store and other fine retailers.

ALLSHOP PRODUCTS™ ALLSHOP™ Hand Cleaner is the “nextgen” alternative to older, harsh solutions. Our Hand Cleaner is an anti-bacterial, detergent-based cleaner that features micro-scrubbing polymers. No skin damaging petroleum-based solvents or harsh grit pumice ingredients. You get clean without the dryness, cracking and stinging from waterless products, plus a pleasing fragrance. ALLSHOP™ also offers these fine automotive care family of products: WICKED or X-TREME Tire Shine, Final Detail Spray and Engine Degreaser. These quality products all feature an easyto-use, high-gloss spray to brighten any rubber, plastic or vinyl. WICKED for Cherry Fragrance or go with X-TREME for a superior

high-gloss, long-lasting look. Engine Degreaser is a non-corrosive, spray-on that rinses off with water, leaving no residue. Final Detail Spray cleaner and wax repels water and prevents discoloration, drying and cracking. ALLSHOP™ is a VeteranOwned company committed to offering our customers superior products for work or home, at affordable prices. allshopproducts.com

TIGER BALM

FOLEX

Whether you’re a world-class athlete or a weekend warrior, you can trust Tiger Balm for proven, pill-free pain relief. It’s the world’s No. 1 selling pain-relieving ointment, made from a blend of herbal ingredients, based upon annual sales of ointment sold worldwide. Visit tigerbalm.com or facebook.com/TigerBalmUS for your nearest retailer.

FOLEX® is perfect for removing stains from upholstery, vinyl, clothing and practically any other material that is “colorfast” and “color-stable.” Even hard surfaces, painted surfaces, walls and woodwork that can be safely dampened with water will be quickly and easily cleaned with FOLEX®! Please visit folex.net for a list of retailers in your area and other useful information!

COIR-DRY

ZYMOX EAR SOLUTION ZYMOX Ear Solution, the No. 1 most effective formula for relief of painful ear infections in dogs and cats. Veterinarian recommended for 20 years. ZYMOX features the patented LP3 Enzyme System to eliminate bacteria, yeast and fungus without antibiotics. Easy-to-use with once-daily application and no pre-cleaning of the ears. To learn more about the ZYMOX family of products, visit zymox.com.

World’s fastest clean up for spills! Coir-Dry is 100-percent coconut fiber and absorbs on contact, nine times more efficiently than conventional products. Coir-Dry is quick and easy to use: Identify and isolate the spill to restrict further spreading. Apply absorbent to the perimeter of the spill to form a bond and stop spill migration. Continue to apply absorbent, working to the center until the spill is completely covered and no liquid is visible. Sweep with a stiff broom, working dry material over spill area to remove all surface liquid. Coir-Dry All-Purpose Spill Absorbent can be used on all types of spills: fuels (petrol, diesel, AV gas), mineral and vegetable lubricants, cutting fluids, cooking oils, solvents, water-based chemicals, pesticides and herbicides, mild corrosives (acids and caustics), liquid organic waste, petroleum-based products, and oil and water-based paint. coirproducts.com

SILVER BIOTICS ARMOR GEL Silver Biotics Armor Gel is a natural, protective layer for cuts, scrapes, burns, abrasions and fresh tattoos. Live Silver Strong with Armor Gel Wound Care! A multi-tasker that gives you and your family a layer of protection the natural way with our patented nano silver technology. And because it contains only natural ingredients, it’s safe for the whole family and won’t sting or stain. Find Armor Gel at Rite Aid and other grocery or drug stores across the United States. Visit silverbiotics.com to find a retailer near you or to purchase online. Order online and enter code “NASCAR19” at checkout for free shipping and $1 OFF any Armor Gel product.

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stories to watch in 2019

Will Joey Logano repeat as Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion? Will Jimmie Johnson bounce back from the worst year of his career? How will a higher downforce aero package change things? Find the answers to these questions and more among the 19 NASCAR stories to watch for in 2019.

A Resurgent Jimmie Johnson. No matter how you slice it, 2018 was the worst season of Jimmie Johnson’s illustrious career. Not only did he fail to win a race for the first time in 17 seasons; the seven-time champion lacked the speed to even contend for the win on most weekends. Sensing the need for change, team owner Rick Hendrick made the decision to split up Johnson and longtime crew chief Chad Knaus in 2019. Whether

POLE POSITION 2019

Joey Logano’s Pursuit of Back-to-Back Titles. While Joey Logano might have been considered the underdog among the four drivers racing straight up for the championship in the 2018 Monster Energy Series season finale, Logano winning the title was hardly a fluke. The reality is that the Team Penske driver was stout all season, earning three wins and a whopping 26 top-10 finishes – including 13 top-five results – in 36 starts. Logano, therefore, has every reason to be optimistic about his chances of repeating as champ in 2019 – especially considering that championship-winning crew chief Todd Gordon will again be atop the No. 22 pit box.

Johnson returns to his winning ways with a new crew chief (Kevin Meendering) and a new primary sponsor (Ally Financial) will be one of the biggest stories of the year. Denny Hamlin on the Hot Seat. It’s fair to say no driver endured a tougher 2018 than Denny Hamlin, who failed to win for the first time in 13 full seasons in the Monster Energy Series. Hamlin also suffered a decline in top-10 finishes and laps led compared with recent seasons.

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

Chris Gabehart, who won nine races over the past three seasons as a Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series crew chief, has replaced Mike Wheeler atop Hamlin’s pit box. With JGR expected to promote Xfinity Series standout Christopher Bell in the near future, Hamlin could be on the hot seat. The Possibility of Another ‘Big 3.’ Former champions Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. combined to capture 20 of 36 points races last season while leading the Monster Energy Series in virtually every major statistical category. So dominant was the trio that even before midseason rolled around, they had been dubbed the “Big 3” by virtually every NASCAR TV analyst and writer. Will the same “Big 3” or another “Big 3” emerge in 2019, or will the wins be more evenly distributed among at least a handful of drivers as they are in a typical year? Stay tuned.

season finale, only Joey Logano wasn’t part of the Championship 4 in 2017. Logano qualified for the Championship 4 in 2014 and 2016, however, so he was no stranger to the club. Of the drivers who made up the 2017 edition, only Brad Keselowski hadn’t been a previous Championship 4 participant. Will 2019 bring about some fresh faces in the Championship 4? More Noise from the ‘Young Guns.’ The 2018 season wasn’t overly kind to the Monster Energy Series’ 25-and-under crowd, commonly dubbed the “young guns.” Of the dozen drivers who went to Victory Lane last season, only three – Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones – were 25 or younger. Altogether, drivers 25 and under accounted for just five of 36 victories in a season ruled in large part by three drivers over the age of 36. With an extra year of experience to glean from, look for Elliott, Blaney, Jones and other young guns to make much more noise. A Continued Crackdown on Blatant Rule Bending. NASCAR has made it abundantly clear in recent seasons that it has less tolerance than ever for teams that try to bend the rules. And the proof is in the punishments. Consider, for example, the penalty issued to Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 team after Harvick’s race-winning car flunked post-race inspection at Texas

8 Moving away from a trend toward downforce reduction, the 2019 Monster Energy Series season will mark the official debut of a higher downforce aerodynamic package aimed at stabilizing a race car’s handling – unlike the lower downforce cars of the past few seasons that have been harder to drive. The new baseline aero package features an 8-by-61-inch rear spoiler, a 37-inch-wide radiator pan that tapers to 31 inches, and a front splitter with a two-inch overhang. The new rules package is intended to strengthen the Monster Energy Series’ already stout on-track product, particularly at the intermediate tracks. Fresh Faces in the Championship 4. The past two seasons haven’t been kind to drivers trying to make their Championship 4 debut. Among last year’s quartet of finalists who raced straight up for the championship in the

The Continued Rise of Chase Elliott. After two solid yet notably winless seasons in NASCAR’s premier series, Chase Elliott upped his game considerably in 2018 by winning not one, not two, but three races. The fact that those victories came on three very different types of tracks – a road course (Watkins Glen), a 1-miler (Dover) and a 1.5-mile track (Kansas) – suggests the second-generation driver could be a serious championship contender this year. If Hendrick Motorsports as a whole can find the speed it lacked much of last season, Elliott will be more than capable of making it all the way to Homestead. The Impact of the HigherDownforce Aero Package.

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19 TO WATCH last fall. Saying that Harvick’s team had manipulated the car’s spoiler to gain an aerodynamic advantage, NASCAR docked Harvick 40 points, suspended crew chief Rodney Childers two races, and decreed that Harvick’s Texas win no longer automatically qualified him for the Championship 4. Familiar Faces in New Places. Kurt Busch is with a different team in 2019. Ditto for Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr. and Matt DiBenedetto. So how will these returning drivers do in their new digs? Particularly big things are expected from Suarez (Stewart-Haas Racing) and Truex (Joe Gibbs Racing), whose moves, coincidentally, were linked by JGR basically letting Suarez go to make room for Truex, who needed a ride when Furniture Row Racing shut its doors. Busch (Chip Ganassi Racing), Newman (Roush Fenway Racing) and DiBenedetto (Leavine Family Racing) also have the potential to flourish in new surroundings.

Chad Knaus’ Next Move. After 17 mostly magical seasons as crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus has a new assignment. Still part of Hendrick Motorsports, the seven-time champion crew chief will call the shots atop the pit box of second-year Monster Energy Series driver William Byron. Knaus, 47, has indicated he doesn’t plan to be a crew chief forever, but he’s also expressed excitement about his new role. It will be fascinating to see not only how Knaus and the 21-year-old Byron mesh, but also what Knaus might be doing in 2020 if they don’t.

POLE POSITION 2019

Aging Drivers. Jimmie Johnson will turn 44 in September. Kevin Harvick will celebrate his 44th birthday in December. Ryan Newman will be 42 in December. Kurt Busch hits 41 in August. While none of the four veterans have announced plans for calling it quits, retirement from driving is inevitable at some point. Busch has a one-year contract with Chip Ganassi Racing and has acknowledged the possibility of retiring at season’s end. Johnson has two years left on a three-year contract with Hendrick Motorsports. Neither Harvick nor Newman seems eager to stop racing anytime soon. Who will be next to hang it up? Greater Parity. Fifteen different drivers won at least one Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in 2017. Last season, the number of different winners sank to 12. In the absence of the

kind of dominance displayed a year ago by Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., it is likely 2019 will feature far more parity. So who is ready to step up and go to Victory Lane after being shut out last season? Bet on Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Alex Bowman and possibly one or two others.

The Debut of the Ford Mustang. Car lovers, and especially Blue Oval fans, have extra reason to be excited about the new Monster Energy Series season, which will feature the highly anticipated rollout of the Ford Mustang – Ford’s most famous car – as it replaces the Ford Fusion. The introduction of the Mustang comes one season after rival automaker

Chevrolet swapped out its SS model for a Camaro in NASCAR’s premier series. While the Camaro won just four races in its maiden Monster Energy Series campaign, the Mustang has already garnered exceptionally positive feedback and could be primed for a more successful debut.

Under-the-Radar Rookies. While undoubtedly possessing loads of raw talent and lots of potential for future success, the Monster Energy Series’ rookie class could fly under the radar compared to most rookie classes. Collectively, rookies Daniel Hemric, Matt Tifft, Ryan Preece and Tanner Berryhill have just two wins between the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series – the two divisions

viewed as the most natural springboards to the Monster Energy Series. In fact, of the four rookies, only Preece – with two wins in the Xfinity Series – has gone to Victory Lane in a NASCAR national series event. Schedule Changes. Every year, NASCAR announces some tweaks to the Monster Energy Series schedule in the season to come. This year will likely be no different. It’s widely speculated, however, that the 2020 itinerary for NASCAR’s premier division will feature more changes than are typically introduced from one season to the next. Look for NASCAR’s biggest adjustments to possibly come with the tracks that make up the 10-race season-ending playoff from which the champion is crowned. The 2018 playoff featured two newcomers – Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a road course, the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Sophomore Improvement. As rookies in 2018, William Byron and Bubba Wallace both enjoyed headturning moments. Likewise, both youngsters endured significant growing pains. Fresh off a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in 2017, Byron failed to win a race or make the playoffs in Year One with fabled Hendrick Motorsports. Wallace, driving Richard Petty Motorsports’ iconic No. 43 car, came out of the gate swinging with a second-place finish in the Daytona

500, but struggled the rest of the year. With Byron and Wallace boasting more laps now in their respective portfolios, expect notable improvement from both. More Emphasis on Playoff Points. Drivers earn bonus points, known as “playoff” points – which they carry into the playoffs and subsequent rounds, excluding the Championship 4 – by recording race wins and stage wins throughout the season. The “regular season” champ gets an additional 15 playoff points. Don’t think playoff points matter much? Ask Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. The three amassed so many playoff points in the 2018 regular season that they were almost guaranteed of reaching the Championship 4 by the time the playoffs rolled around. Playoff points will undoubtedly be a focal point for everyone this year. Plans for a Fourth Manufacturer. From 2007-2012, NASCAR’s top series featured four manufacturers – Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota and Dodge. But since Dodge’s departure from the sport at the end of 2012, it’s been just a trio of automakers holding down the fort. Speculation that Dodge could re-enter the sport – or a new manufacturer could come on board – as early as 2020, is little more than speculation at this point. But don’t be surprised if it happens, especially if NASCAR’s legions of car-loving fans are able to make their voices heard. For most NASCAR fans, the more manufacturers, the better.

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NASCAR HEALTH MSG: Making Racing Safer

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Motorsports Safety Group is a collaboration of innovators in the sport who are determined to improve the safety of racing. MSG shares tips for race car drivers to help avoid injuries during races and practice sessions.

cknowledged as one of the country’s leading neurosurgeons, Dr. Jason Cormier has helped MSG provide a comprehensive, grassroots marketing campaign focused on preventative health care education and wellness training. With an emphasis to educate and engage race fans in their growing role as health care consumers, the objective is to influence behavioral changes, to provide racing’s brand-loyal audience with the medical knowledge to make informed, preventative decisions that directly affect the wellness of their families. As NASCAR unveils a new aero package in 2019, Cormier continues his focus on concussion prevention and education. He maintains that preventing concussions among race car drivers actually starts several days before the race. “One of our biggest focuses for drivers is hydrating their bodies pre-race,” Cormier said. “It’s most important to cut back on processed foods, increase hydration for three or four days prior to the race, increase carbs, and decrease proteins and fibers on race day. They don’t hold up as well as carbs on race day.” Cormier also recommends that drivers familiarize themselves with the concussion protocol at each track. Sometimes, a driver can feel disoriented or confused after a wreck if he or she is unfamiliar with the track’s layout. “Understand the protocol,” Cormier said. “The

POLE POSITION 2019

scariest part for the driver is not knowing what’s next. Don’t panic, settle down. Learn the system before you get in the car.” Many people who suffer concussions put their trust in doctors who are unfamiliar with diagnosing and treating concussions. Cormier suggests that anyone who is diagnosed with a concussion seek out a specialist. “General practitioners might not be certified in how to look at concussions,” Cormier said. “You need a practitioner who knows how to treat it.” Once a doctor diagnoses a driver with a concussion, the athlete must cross a number of milestones before returning to competition. For example, the protocol might include resting, then a ride on a stationary bike, then a run on a treadmill, then a run on land for 20-30 minutes, then a 50- to 60-minute workout with more intense exercises, then weights added to the exercise, and then, following clearance by a certified specialist, a return to competition. “The biggest issue we have now is overly diagnosed concussions,” Cormier said. “A headache is a common symptom of a concussion, but we can’t forget that people have anxiety attacks, dehydration, migraines and tension headaches due to stress when they haven’t had a concussion. “When you get a concussion, once the injury has ended and you’re symptom-free, you are no more at risk of suffering another concussion. But if you return to action before you’re clear of concussion injury and the associated symptoms, you can absolutely get more concussions. We’re trying to teach people how to track the actual injuries – not the symptoms.”

INTRODUCING THE Q-COLLAR ONE PIECE OF TECHnology that has Dr. Jason Cormier excited is Q30 Innovations’ Q-Collar. Q-Collar’s technology has been approved for sale in Canada where it is being marketed as the Bauer Neuroshield. This promising research into concussion prevention is inspired by human yawns, woodpecker tongues and mountain-dwelling rams. The manifestation of this work is the novel Q-Collar, a device worn around the neck that works by enhancing the brain’s own physiology by lightly compressing the jugular vein to increase blood volume in the skull. That may help prevent the brain from moving around within the skull and thus could reduce traumatic brain injuries. The Q-Collar will be coming to several racing series, in addition to college football and its continued use in the NFL, Luke Kuechly in particular. “It’s a preventative collar, and studies have indicated decreases in the incidence of concussions by almost 90 percent, depending on the sport,” said Cormier. “The helmet protects the skull and skin from fractures and lacerations. The HANS device protects the neck from fractures. Those are integral safety tools, and we hope the collar will fill in several important missing pieces.”

BY DAN GUTTENPLAN

NASCAR RULES

Expect Even Closer Racing From New Rules Package NASCAR fans who covet closer racing and don’t mind slightly slower speeds are in for a treat this season. Give credit to a new and highly innovative rules package that promises to deliver some of the most exciting Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition in the 71-year history of the sport. Looking to take an already stout on-track product to a whole new level, NASCAR announced in October a 2019 rules package that features more downforce and less horsepower as its central components. Drilling down a bit deeper, the baseline elements of the new aerodynamic package are a taller 8-by-61-inch rear spoiler, a larger front splitter with a 2-inch overhang, and a wider radiator pan that measures 37 inches wide in the front but decreases to 31 inches at the rear. The totality of these elements will add downforce to stabilize handling, which marks a break from a trend of downforce reduction from 2015-2018. A hybrid of the new rules package was used to great

POLE POSITION 2019

success during the 2018 Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and at certain tracks on the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule. Initial impressions have been positive. “Your foot is in the gas pipe a lot more, but at the same time, you’re able to make a lot of moves with the draft and change a lot of different lines,” 2018 Monster Energy Series champion Joey Logano said. “The All-Star Race was a lot of fun, but obviously that’s an All-Star Race, so I think we need to have a little asterisk next to it and say it was the All-Star Race and everyone is racing for all-or-nothing, and have that attitude. But, at the same time, I think this package will be better.” In addition to on-track testing, NASCAR has evaluated the aero package extensively in computer simulations and at the wind tunnel. “From an aero standpoint, I think you’ll see a pretty similar package to what we had in the All-Star Race and what we’ve seen in the Xfinity Series,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “Where we looked to make a little bit of a change was around the horsepower and that was – after discussions with the drivers, discussions with the engine builders as well – identified as something that would produce a little more on-throttle time and have a good relationship with the aero package

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

NASCAR RULES

TRACK-BAR CHANGE

that we put together. So we made a tweak to that.” With that tweak, engine horsepower has been reduced to around 550, down from 750 a year ago. With the cars now being only minimally slower than last season, the question has been raised: Could a little slower actually be better? “Yeah, it can be,” said Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney. “I think it’s good. NASCAR adjusted it from the All-Star package. I thought the All-Star package was too slow, so it’s nice they added some horsepower back. … I thought the All-Star package had some bright spots in it, and I thought they could make some improvements to some things, and I think they did that. “I feel like the racing will be better than we even saw it at the All-Star Race, because the teams can have more time with the cars and understand them more and NASCAR can test them and all sorts of things. So, we’ll just see how it goes. I think it’s going to be fine.” Initially a bit skeptical about the 2019 package, veteran driver and 2015 Monster Energy Series champion Kyle Busch has warmed up to the concept. In fact, he’s come to embrace it. “We don’t want to see the cars go slower as race car drivers. That is not what we all want to sign up for,” Busch said. “But in the instance of going out there and wanting to put out a better show, we’re all for that and trying to do what’s best for the industry, and collaborating together.” Three variations of the rules package will be used this season, depending on the track. One variation will feature both a smaller tapered spacer

POLE POSITION 2019

(to reduce engine horsepower) and aero ducts (to create tighter racing on some tracks longer than a mile). A second variation will feature the small spacer but not the ducts. A third variation will include neither, but only the baseline elements of the 2019 aerodynamic package. The new aero package has already been tested at Charlotte, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway – three 1.5-mile tracks where achieving more close-quarters racing is the chief objective. Seven-time Monster Energy Series champion Jimmie Johnson, who participated in the Atlanta test, was able to run full throttle all the way around the track for a good portion of his shakedown. With the old rules package, using the brakes each and every lap would have been necessary. “This is unlike anything I’ve experienced over all of my years in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing,” Johnson said.

ALONG WITH THE rollout of a new aerodynamic package, NASCAR made another notable change to Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars for 2019: Elimination of the driveradjustable track bar. Now, instead of drivers altering their cars’ handling characteristics as they maneuver their vehicle at full speed, track-bar adjustments will be made by the pit crew only. This rules modification marks a return to the way it was pre-2015, when no driveradjustable track bar existed. “I swear I didn’t use it for like the first four or five races (of 2018) – never touched it,” second-year Monster Energy Series driver Bubba Wallace said. “It’s the crew chief and the crew’s job to get the car right. I don’t need any adjustments inside the car. It will be fine.” Despite using the driveradjustable track bar quite often over the past couple seasons, driver Ty Dillon “doesn’t really care” whether or not this feature is part of the equation moving forward. “Sometimes I’ve raised the track bar four or five inches over a 30- or 40-lap run to try and get balance in our car,” Dillon said. “Typically, that means your car isn’t good. … To have that adjustment makes the car easier to drive over a long run, but I think good drivers can adapt to the line without it, and I think that will be nice and exciting.”

NASCAR ROOTS Karting Teaches the Principles of Racing Long before Matt DiBenedetto circled Daytona or Talladega’s high banks in a 3,500-pound NASCAR stock car, he was turning left and logging laps in a little winged go-kart at a one-sixth-mile dirt track in his home state of California. DiBenedetto, now in his fifth season in NASCAR’s premier division. “The principles it taught us are a lot of the things that still apply today. It taught us incredible throttle control and car control. Being on dirt, we were in extremely overpowered go-karts so they had a ton of horsepower for being in a really light kart, and they were incredibly fast. So it taught you how to race other people clean, it taught us how to throw out slide jobs and how to really control our car, trying to control something that’s a pretty out of control go-kart.” PHOTO COURTESY MATT DIBENEDETTO When DiBenedetto was 10 or 11 years old, he DiBenedetto, who now competes in the graduated to a shifter kart that he raced on Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for Leavine asphalt, and he even tried his hand at some Family Racing, will never forget being presented with road circuit go-kart racing. The totality of his first go-kart on his 7th birthday. Nor will the Grass his karting experiences was invaluable. Valley, California, native forget the five-and-a-half “Karting taught a lot of principles that honestly years he subsequently spent toiling away at various made it a lot easier to transition into bigger cars, karting events on the West Coast. DiBenedetto’s because the karts can be really fast and very earliest karting days came in the summertime box ‘darty,’ I guess is the word I would use,” he said. stock division at Cycleland Speedway – the one“And you have to be real precise in a go-kart, and sixth-mile dirt track in Oroville, California. they’re tough to handle. A fast kart like that is very “The kart count was crazy,” he remembers. difficult to hang on to. They’re physically demanding “There were so many karts out there and tons of and they beat you up a lot. So when you go into people doing it because it was just fun and affordstock cars, all the driving principles apply and the able and the track was really nice and dirt racing is bigger cars feel a little lazier and almost easier to obviously really fun.” drive in some fashion, when you’re used to karts When DiBenedetto was 9 or 10, he moved up to that beat you up a lot.” a 125cc and then a 500cc class at Cycleland. He spent the colder months racing karts as part of an indoor winter series in Red Bluff, California, and he also spent a year competing in an invitation-only all-star touring series that took him as far from home as Oregon and Idaho. One of the drivers he raced karts with in those days was none other than Kyle Larson, now a competitor in the Monster Energy Series. “Honestly, the whole foundation of my learning how to race was all in karts, for me personally, and I think Larson would say the same thing,” said

POLE POSITION 2019

VALUABLE LESSONS MATT DIBENEDETTO doesn’t know exactly how many races he won over his five-and-a-half years in karting. “Oh goodness,” DiBenedetto said. “I would say it had to be over 100. It was a lot. I think we won the championship almost every year.” But it isn’t the trophies that DiBenedetto cherishes most from his karting days. “It was neat how much we won and how much success we had, but the main thing that me and my parents remember – above all, by far – is how much fun we had,” he said. “It still gets a little pricey, but at that level, it was affordable for us to do, and we just genuinely had a good time, and we went out there and raced for fun. I mean, we were competitive, but we just did it to have a good time. “We had no intentions of going and pursuing NASCAR like we ended up doing. We just went out and had fun and made several great friends that we’re still friends with to this day. It was like a big family out there at the race track.” DiBenedetto will always be thankful he took the karting path. “I think the experience I gained from racing the outlaw karts, specifically, was pretty irreplaceable, because it taught me so much about putting your races together right, and it taught me incredible car control that I don’t think a lot of other vehicles could teach to that same degree,” he said. “I couldn’t replace the things that that taught me.”

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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NASCAR BUILDS IT’S TIME TO TAKE CHARGE

PRESENTED BY

Engineering: It’s a Numbers Game

he vehicles competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series are colorful, exciting and driven by the very best racers in the world. They are also meticulously crafted to perform to their best mechanical capacity. Each NASCAR team is comprised of multi-talented crew members who specialize in specific areas of the vehicles they race. They carry such titles as tire specialist, front-end mechanic, rear-end mechanic, interior mechanic and engine tuner; each doing their job to make sure every part on the car performs flawlessly. But there is a deeper aspect to auto racing that requires a mathematical viewpoint. Today’s cars are so heavily massaged that the slightest bump of a fender or deck lid can mean the difference between winning and finishing well back in the field. Miles Stanley, a race engineer for Team Penske and reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, believes there is no way a team could perform in today’s premier racing arena without communication among the crew chief and the engineers feeding him information. “The race engineer, basically I would say, is responsible for specifying all the pieces and parts on a race car,” Stanley said. “We will create a build-spec for the car that says all the nuts and bolts are where they need to go, such as the suspension parts, where engine parts are put together, transmission ratios, things like that. From there, we work on specific setups with the crew chiefs and the driver.” Engineering of today’s highly technical NASCAR

POLE POSITION 2019

race cars requires a scientific understanding of what’s really going on with the car’s outer skin as to how air is being pushed over and under its entire structure at speeds approaching 200 mph. NASCAR teams employ engineers that are constantly crunching the numbers to create maximum gain with every lap a driver turns. The decisions made by engineers in the garage area and on pit road come from practical applications first learned in the classrooms of major universities around the country. Year after year, more engineers are moving into roles with NASCAR teams. In the years to come, it is believed an engineering degree will be required for mechanical service positions on all NASCAR teams. “Everyone else is doing it,” Stanley said. “The rules are designed to be on a level playing field. With that, all of the fine details make a big difference.” Engineers are constantly adapting to change, ready to regroup and reconfigure at a moment’s notice. As track conditions and tire temperatures change, they must act quickly to get the right information to the decision makers on the pit box. “Throughout the race weekend, we will refine our (chassis) setups and will work very closely with the driver and crew chief,” Stanley said. “We also work on our race strategy as far as what our fuel economy is going to be and what our pit stops are going to be. We advise the crew chief during the race about how that strategy is going to change and what factors are going to play into it. That also includes what our lap times are. We come up with advice for the crew chief to make good decisions during a race.”

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TOOLS OF THE TRADE A Very Sticky Topic

oday’s lightning-fast NASCAR pit stops are due in part to a weather strip adhesive that teams use to attach the lug nuts to the wheels. The adhesive is yellow in color and tends to be flexible if not left on the wheel too long. Each tube costs around $12 and can be found at auto parts or hardware stores. Crew members glue a lug nut over each of the five holes in the wheel where the studs go through. When a crew member slams a wheel on the hub and studs during a pit stop, the glue keeps the lug nuts in place. All five nuts are tightened in just over a second, but if the glue gets hard the lug nuts can fall off. “When you glue the lug nut to the wheel, the glue actually stretches,” said Ethan Tingler, a pit crew coach for Richard Childress Racing. “When the tire carrier puts the tire on, the lug nuts will be on the end of the stud. The stud has that smooth shank on the end so all the tire changer has to do is switch the rotation of his air gun and get the lug nuts on. Without the glue, pits stops would be over 20 seconds for sure. We glue them four hours before a race and that saves us seconds during a pit stop.”

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When every inch of space in your rig matters, the Original Tailgater Tire Table is a must have for when you need an extra surface for your cold drinks or hot pans off the grill. It attaches to any of your vehicle’s tires, including the spare, and comes fully assembled with all pieces secured. Weighing 12 lbs., it is easily maneuvered and can be tucked away and stored flat for your next adventure without wasting valuable space. Works regardless of flat or uneven ground, holds up to 50 lbs. and creates a sturdy, usable surface area anytime you need it and has a retractable leg for extra support. Learn more and see photos in action at TailGaterTireTable.com.

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POLE POSITION MAG.COM

WOMEN OF NASCAR PRESENTED BY

Kelley Earnhardt Miller OVERSEES DALE JR.’S BUSINESS AND RACING INTERESTS

he second of the late Dale Earnhardt’s four children, Kelley Earnhardt Miller is the co-owner, vice president and general manager of JR Motorsports – a Mooresville, North Carolina-based company that serves as the home base of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s racing, marketing and business interests. Two years older than Dale Jr., Kelley, 46, oversees JR Motorsports’ racing teams, management team and the numerous business ventures of her younger brother. Since Earnhardt Miler joined JR Motorsports as general manager in 2001, the organization has captured three NASCAR Xfinity Series championships – all with rookie drivers – and left a footprint as one of the Xfinity Series’ elite organizations. JRM, which operates out of a 66,000-square-foot facility, currently fields three full-time Xfinity Series teams and one part-time Xfinity Series team. JR Motorsports is also active regionally with its late model program, upon which the company was founded. One of the shrewdest businesswomen in NASCAR today, Earnhardt Miller finds great satisfaction as a key player in JR Motorsports’ mission to provide young, up-and-coming drivers with the resources to excel and graduate to NASCAR’s premier division, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Two of JR Motorsports’ three Xfinity Series champions – Chase Elliott (2014) and William Byron (2017) – used their

experiences at JRM as a springboard to a full-time Monster Energy Series ride at Hendrick Motorsports, the most successful organization in NASCAR history. “These young guys, they’re just hungry,” Earnhardt Miller said. “That’s what our company is built on – winning races and championships with these guys. Moving them on up to the next series is what JR Motorsports was built for and what we started the race team for. It’s pretty awesome to be able to sit here as a threetime champion with rookies.” After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Earnhardt Miller joined Action Performance, a souvenir sales company, which became the benchmark in NASCAR merchandising. After six years in various leadership positions at Action Performance and a successful stint driving late model stock cars at local short tracks, Earnhardt Miller took her talents and experience to JR Motorsports. In addition to overseeing JRM’s day-to-day operations, she has expanded Earnhardt Jr.’s business portfolio, landing corporate deals that have broadened her brother’s now enormous reach as both a racer and businessman. Earnhardt Miller is also vice president of The Dale Jr. Foundation, a charity dedicated to giving underprivileged individuals, with a focus on youth, the opportunity to achieve extraordinary goals. Earnhardt Miller’s achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. She’s been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, with the most recent coming in 2015 when she was named one of SportsBusiness Journal’s Game Changers/Women in Sports Business. Active in her community, Earnhardt Miller is the chairman and incorporating director for Blueharbor Bank. She has served on the board of trustees for Iredell Memorial Hospital and as a member of the North Carolina Governor’s Motorsports Advisory Council.

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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Logano’s Run When Joey Logano signed a multi-year contract with Joe Gibbs Racing and joined NASCAR’s premier series in 2009, the young, energetic 18-year-old from Middletown, Connecticut, had no reason to expect anything but quick success. He’d already won a NASCAR Xfinity Series race; he’d already won a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship; and he’d already earned a reputation as the sport’s next big thing, with former NASCAR champion Randy LaJoie going as far as to give him the nickname, “Sliced Bread.” But if Logano was indeed, “Sliced Bread,” it sure didn’t take long for the bread to mold. From 2009 to 2012, Logano won just two races – one of them the result of a fluky strategy call to stay out before the rains came and ended a race prematurely. After four seasons at JGR, Logano had finished no better than 16th in points and never qualified for the playoffs. “I expected to go out there and win, and just got my butt handed to me on a platter,” Logano said. “It was hard. There were a lot of times that I felt really weak, and I’d break down, and it was just hard. You know, when you’re confused, you don’t know how to be better. You’re 18 years old or 19 or 20, and this is some pretty big stuff for a teenager to go through.”

POLE POSITION 2019

Persuaded that the driver dubbed “Sliced Bread” wasn’t quite ready for prime time, team owner Joe Gibbs did what no one would have believed possible just four years earlier – he let Logano go. Now, six years after being released from his first Monster Energy Series ride and 10 seasons into his Monster Energy Series career, Logano is a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion. It’s been a long, surprising and sometimes painful road to the top for Logano, but one he wouldn’t trade for anything. “As the kid growing up, I was an aggressive racer, and I was able to win a lot of races,” Logano said as he reflected on his championship-clinching victory in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I got humbled pretty quick. I guess ‘humbled’ is the word. I don’t know; I got beat up. I got pushed around a lot. I wasn’t fast. I didn’t have any respect. I think that beats up on your confidence pretty quickly, and you have to kind of dig back inside. Every sport is a mental sport, so

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

you have to really figure out how to be strong again and dig out of holes.” In addition to needing to mature as a driver and as a person, Logano also needed a change of scenery to reach his potential. He found that change of scenery with team owner Roger Penske’s organization, which he joined for the 2013 season and where he enjoyed almost immediate success. “At the time that I was losing my job at Gibbs, that was a pretty low point for me,” Logano said after the championship race. “I don’t think I was thinking as clearly as I am now about all the lessons I learned. I was thinking about, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m not going to be a race car driver anymore, and what am I going to do with my life?’” After winning a race and qualifying for the playoffs in his first year with Team Penske, Logano won five races and earned a place among the inaugural Championship 4 in Year Two. But his growing and maturing was hardly finished. It took him four more years to finally reach the pinnacle of the sport. And during that time, he faced more setbacks. Like in 2015, when an ongoing feud with Matt Kenseth cost him a shot at the championship. Like in 2017, when he won just one race, had that lone victory deemed “encumbered” because of an issue in post-race inspection, and failed to make the playoffs.

OVERFLOWING WITH CONFIDENCE

Even this year wasn’t smooth-sailing for Logano. Oh sure, it had a happy ending, but he was beaten – man-handled, actually – for most of the year by the trio of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. Logano’s run through the playoffs also wasn’t without controversy. After all, to punch his ticket to the Championship 4, he had to boot Truex out of the way on the final lap at Martinsville – a move that angered Truex so much that he all but guaranteed retaliation. But when the checkered flag waved at Homestead, it was Logano – with his familiar squinty eyes and mile-wide smile – celebrating in Victory Lane with his wife, Brittany, and infant son, Hudson. For the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, all the world seemed right for the driver who has been tested so often over a decade in NASCAR’s premier series. “God teaches you many lessons, sometimes the hard way, but I wouldn’t take any of them back,” Logano said long after the sun had set over Homestead-Miami. “Even if we hadn’t won, I wouldn’t.”

WHILE MANY OBSERVers considered Joey Logano to be a longshot heading into the winner-take-all finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where he raced straight up for the championship against the “Big 3” of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., Logano didn’t see it that way. In fact, the Team Penske driver actually expected to leave South Florida with his first championship – despite having been outperformed by Harvick, Busch and Truex for most of the season. “We didn’t have a reason to not feel confident. We really didn’t,” said Logano, who punched his ticket to the Championship 4 with a victory in the opening race of the Round of 8. “We’ve executed under high pressure situations before, and we’ve been here before and done a great job. My pit crew was incredible. So I had everyone around me. I just had to go do my job.” And do his job Logano did, leading 80 of 267 laps and taking the lead for good with a bold move to the outside of Truex with 12 laps remaining. He went on to cross the finish line 1.725 seconds ahead of Truex, his closest championship pursuer, as fellow championship finalists Harvick and Busch finished third and fourth, respectively. “All you guys thought we were the underdog,” Logano said to a room full of reporters after the race. “I didn’t think that, but most everyone did. Maybe someone won some money in Vegas.”

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NASCAR National Series

Driver Profiles With the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season just around the corner, look back on how some of the sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top drivers did in 2018 and see where they stack up for 2019.

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

POLE POSITION MAG.COM

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DRIVER PROFILES

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Jimmie Johnson

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Forty-three years old and entering his 18th season in NASCAR’s premier series, Jimmie Johnson wouldn’t be expected to be starting over. But, that’s essentially what the seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion is doing this season. While Johnson will continue his longstanding relationship with Hendrick Motorsports and continue to campaign his familiar No. 48 Chevrolet, almost everything else will be different. Gone is seven-time champion crew chief Chad Knaus, who had been paired with Johnson from his rookie season of 2002. Also gone is Lowe’s, Johnson’s longtime primary sponsor that, like Knaus, had been with him from the beginning. With a rookie Monster Energy Series crew chief, Kevin Meendering, calling the shots on the No. 48 Ally Financial-sponsored Chevy, Johnson might be a little hard to find at first. Don’t expect that to continue for long, however. On the heels of the first winless season of his career, Johnson is eager to remind everyone that he’s still the same guy who from 2002-2017 amassed a record-tying seven premier series championships and 83 victories while cementing his place as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. “I’ve got a lot of work to do with my new team, we’ve got a lot of work to do with this new (rules) package, and we’ve got to come out stronger,” Johnson said. “New sponsor, new crew chief, whole new rules package, you know, 2019 is going to be a clean start for myself and this No. 48 team.”

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INFO

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TEAM HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS SPONSOR ALLY FINANCIAL MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF KEVIN MEENDERING

NO HARD FEELINGS DESPITE ENDURING THEIR worst season, Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus ended 2018 on amicable terms. In fact, the decision for the two to go their separate ways in 2019 – albeit still under the same Hendrick Motorsports umbrella – wasn’t motivated by any ill will. Rather, team owner Rick Hendrick simply believed the time had come for change. Neither Johnson nor Knaus disagreed. “We’ve lasted longer than the average length of a marriage in the United States,” Knaus said.

DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Kyle Busch

READY TO SEAL THE DEAL

Easily one of the two most dominant drivers of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Busch enjoyed a year that will undoubtedly be remembered as one of his best as a professional race car driver. The only real disappointment was being unable to leave Homestead-Miami Speedway with a second Monster Energy Series championship trophy in his possession. Busch finished fourth at Homestead and last among the Championship 4 who raced straight up for the title in the season finale. This year, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will look to make it five consecutive appearances in the Championship 4 and leave Homestead as he did in 2015 – when he captured his first and only premier series title to date. “We know you’ve got to be in it to win it,” said Busch, who tied Kevin Harvick with a series-high eight wins in 2018. “Certainly, we’ve been there now the last four seasons. We’ve only brought it home in the first year. So got to figure out ways to bring it home every year and have more opportunities to collect these trophies.” Busch, 33, is tired of making it to Homestead but more often than not leaving empty-handed. “You know, it’s now just time to win these things and finish the job and bring it home,” said Busch, who is entering his 15th season in NASCAR’s top series. “It would certainly be nice to have more than just one championship when we’re all done.”

FAVORITE THING ALTHOUGH FOCUSED primarily on the Monster Energy Series, Kyle Busch continues to make select appearances in NASCAR’s other top divisions. He owns a combined 194 wins among NASCAR’s top three series.

POLE POSITION 2019

18 INFO

OWNER JOE GIBBS

TEAM JOE GIBBS RACING

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Chase Elliott

ONE OF THE FAVORITES

On the heels of a breakout 2018 season, Chase Elliott is widely considered a favorite to win the 2019 Monster Energy Series championship, and the optimism regarding the secondgeneration driver’s title hopes is certainly justified. Elliott, who needed 99 starts and a little more than two-and-a-half seasons to capture his first premier series victory, finished 2018 with three wins and a sixth-place points finish after advancing to the Round of 8. Elliott, however, was less than satisfied after being unable to reach the Championship 4 for the third time in as many tries. “It was a better season than the first two, for sure, but not what we want,” said Elliott, who finished 2018 with 21 top-10 finishes – including 11 top-five results – in 36 starts. Now entering his fourth season at the sport’s top level, the son of 1988 NASCAR premier series champion Bill Elliott is a bonafide superstar who has likely only scratched the surface of what he can accomplish. His success in 2019 will be largely contingent on how much Hendrick Motorsports has improved from 2018, when Elliott was the only one of four Hendrick drivers to get a win. The fact that all three of Elliott’s wins came in the season’s final 15 races could be a sign that Hendrick is ready to return to its typical frontrunning ways this year. “I think just on-track performance, making our cars better and things, has probably been the biggest thing in helping us run better,” Elliott said.

INFO

OWNER RICK HENDRICK

TEAM HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS SPONSORS NAPA, MOUNTAIN DEW, KELLEY BLUE BOOK, HOOTERS MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF ALAN GUSTAFSON

MR. POPULARITY WITH DALE EARNHARDT Jr. having retired from driving at the end of the 2017 season, Chase Elliott – to no one’s surprise – claimed the 2018 NMPA Most Popular Driver Award. Earnhardt won the award for 15 consecutive seasons after Chase’s dad, Bill Elliott, was voted most popular driver in 2002 for a record 16th time. “Chase’s heritage, his name connects to the history of the sport, and his youth connects to the future of the sport,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

FAVORITE THING WHETHER IT IS SNOWBOARDING, wakeboarding or riding dirt bikes, Chase Elliott is all about a good adventure. He loves supporting Georgia’s in-state sports teams, too.

POLE POSITION 2019

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Kurt Busch

NEW SURROUNDINGS, NEW ATTITUDE

On the heels of a solid halfdecade run with Stewart-Haas Racing where he won at least one race in each of his five seasons, Kurt Busch has replaced veteran Jamie McMurray at Chip Ganassi Racing and is competing alongside new, younger teammate Kyle Larson. While Busch’s contract with Chip Ganassi Racing is only for one season, the veteran driver and 2004 series champion – whose past assignments have included stints at Roush Fenway Racing, Team Penske and Furniture Row Racing – is ecstatic about his latest move, which will allow him to continue with the familiar Monster Energy sponsorship he brought with him from SHR. “This is a tremendous opportunity to go out and win races, to have a shot at the championship and to use my experience that I’ve gained over all these years, with a group like Chip Ganassi Racing,” said Busch, a winner of 30 races since joining NASCAR’s premier series full time in 2001. Chip Ganassi Racing failed to win in 2018 after Larson earned a career-high four victories the previous year. Busch expects both he and his new teammate to contend early and often in 2019. “I feel like it’s a good mesh with Kyle Larson,” he said. “Something that Chip and I talked about as far as the driver lineup was the way that we wanted to go into 2019 and attack and go right out of the gate and go for wins and get this program where it needs to be.”

FAVORITE THING KURT BUSCH HAS never shied away from a stiff challenge. The ultimate example was his participation in the 2014 Indianapolis 500, a race where he finished sixth in his open-wheel debut.

POLE POSITION 2019

INFO

OWNER CHIP GANASSI

TEAM CHIP GANASSI RACING SPONSOR MONSTER ENERGY MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF MATT MCCALL

MUTUAL FEELING KURT BUSCH’S excitement about being part of Chip Ganassi Racing isn’t one-sided. Team owner Chip Ganassi is equally ecstatic to have signed the 40-year-old driver – a former series champion and Daytona 500 winner. “We have had the good fortune of having a lot of great drivers here at Chip Ganassi Racing across all forms of racing, and Kurt Busch adds to that list of great drivers,” said Ganassi, who also fields entries in the open-wheel and sports car ranks.

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Martin Truex Jr.

PART OF A POTENT QUARTET

Among drivers who found new homes for 2019, none landed in a better place than 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. When Furniture Row Racing suspended operations at the end of the 2018 season, Truex and crew chief Cole Pearn were forced to take their collective talents elsewhere. Their destination was Joe Gibbs Racing – a winner of four Monster Energy Series championships in the past two decades. Truex and Pearn will campaign the No. 19 Toyota driven the past two seasons by 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Daniel Suarez. Two of Truex’s primary sponsors at Furniture Row, Bass Pro Shops and Auto-Owners Insurance, followed him to JGR. As part of JGR, Truex will be surrounded by two veteran and highly accomplished teammates in Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, along with promising third-year Monster Energy Series driver Erik Jones. Truex and Pearn are no strangers to JGR, and vice versa, given the fact that JGR and Furniture Row had enjoyed a three-year technical alliance before Furniture Row closed its doors. “Anytime you have an opportunity to bring two people of this caliber into your organization, it’s certainly an exciting time,” team owner and founder Joe Gibbs said. “They obviously have developed a chemistry that has led to tremendous success, including a championship. We’ve gotten to know them well over the past few years through the alliance and having been part of the Toyota family. They both make us stronger as an organization.”

FAVORITE THING MARTIN Truex Jr. is an unabashed fisherman. He has even been known to arrive for race weekends a day or two early to hit up the local fishing holes.

19 INFO

OWNER JOE GIBBS

TEAM JOE GIBBS RACING

SPONSORS AUTO-OWNERS INSURANCE, BASS PRO SHOPS MANUFACTURER TOYOTA CREW CHIEF COLE PEARN

SHARED EXCITEMENT FAMILIARITY WON’T BE A problem for Martin Truex Jr. at Joe Gibbs Racing. He will have his 2017 championshipwinning crew chief by his side as he and Cole Pearn join JGR after competing as de facto teammates of JGR the past three seasons. “Obviously, to be able to make this transition and still be able to work alongside Cole is something that was very important to me,” said Truex. “There is also a real comfort level working with the JGR team.”

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Kevin Harvick

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Arguably the most dominant driver of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Kevin Harvick came up just short of his ultimate goal – the championship – when he placed third in the winner-takeall season finale at HomesteadMiami Speedway. Harvick, who crossed the finish line at Homestead behind fellow title contenders Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr., finished the season with a careerhigh eight victories and a series-high 1,990 laps led. Harvick’s 23 top-five finishes, 29 top-10 results and 19 stage wins also topped the Monster Energy Series. Aside from the disappointment of missing the mark at Homestead, it was a near picture-perfect season for the veteran driver who entered NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 and spent his first 13 seasons at Richard Childress Racing before moving to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. “It’s just a good time to be at SHR,” said Harvick, who was joined in the playoffs by teammates Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola. “They’re doing a great job of putting fast race cars on the track.” Harvick, who turned 43 in December, looks to do a better job of living up to one of his nicknames – “The Closer” – this season, when he is a strong favorite to once again be among the Championship 4 who race straight up for the title in the season finale. “Obviously that’s the goal, is to go out and try to win the championship,” said Harvick, who notched his lone NASCAR premier series title in 2014.

FAVORITE THING KEVIN HARVICK doesn’t shy away from some playful ribbing with his boss, former driver Tony Stewart. Recently asked about Stewart, Harvick quipped: “He’s overweight and needs a haircut.” AR18-03 ©2018 Lincoln Electric Global, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

4 INFO

OWNERS TONY STEWART, GENE HAAS TEAM STEWART-HAAS RACING

SPONSORS MOBIL 1, HUNT BROTHERS PIZZA, BUSCH BEER, JIMMY JOHN’S MANUFACTURER FORD CREW CHIEF RODNEY CHILDERS

JUST AN ORDINARY DAD DESPITE BEING A celebrity race car driver, Kevin Harvick tries to keep as much normalcy as possible in his private family life. Case in point: The places he goes with 6-year-old son Keelan. “We try to let him do as many normal things as possible at home,” Harvick said. “I’m not going to shy away from the car pool line, sitting in the gym watching a high school basketball game because he wanted to go. We do all those things.”

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Joey Logano

THE DEFENDING CHAMPION

In 2018 – six years after being released from his first Monster Energy Series ride and 10 seasons into his Monster Energy Series career – Joey Logano became a Monster Energy Series champion.

Like most of his career, Logano’s 2018 season was no cake walk, as he was beaten handily most of the year by the trio of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. who collectively captured 20 of 36 races. But Logano turned it up a notch when it counted most – in the playoffs – by ripping off eight top-10 finishes in 10 starts. Two of those top 10s were victories, the biggest coming in the winner-take-all season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where Logano raced the “Big 3” of Harvick, Busch and Truex straight up for the title. Logano led 80 of 267 laps at Homestead and beat his fellow championship contenders in convincing fashion. Logano’s winning move, appropriately, turned out to be a pass of race leader Truex with 12 laps to go. Just three weeks earlier, at Martinsville, Logano punched his ticket to the Championship 4 by booting Truex out of the way with an aggressive move that prompted Truex to all but guarantee future retaliation. Logano shrugged it off, however, and rode his late-season surge all the way to a championship that most prognosticators didn’t expect. With all the key pieces still in place from last year’s championship-winning team, Logano will now try to join the elite club of drivers who’ve won back-to-back titles.

FAVORITE THING DESPITE FACING various challenges in his career, Joey Logano has remained resilient. “God teaches you many lessons, sometimes the hard way, but I wouldn’t take any of them back,” he said.

INFO

OWNER ROGER PENSKE TEAM TEAM PENSKE

SPONSORS SHELL-PENNZOIL, MONEYLION MANUFACTURER FORD CREW CHIEF TODD GORDON

WHAT UNDERDOG? JOEY LOGANO SPENT most of 2018 racing in the shadow of three former champions who seemed to be in a league of their own. Interestingly, though, Logano didn’t consider himself the underdog when preparing to go up against the “Big 3” in the final race of the season. “All you guys thought we were the underdog,” Logano said to reporters after the finale. “I didn’t think that, but most everyone did. Maybe someone won some money in Vegas.”

Kyle Larson

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By almost any measure, Kyle Larson’s winless 2018 campaign wasn’t on par with his 2017 season when he scored a career-high four Monster Energy Series victories and looked primed to be a serious championship contender for the foreseeable future.

In a 2018 season largely dominated by Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., Larson made the playoffs but was eliminated in the Round of 12. He finished the season with 19 top-10 finishes – including 12 top-five results – in 36 starts. Larson, who will be paired with a new teammate this season in 2004 series champion Kurt Busch, is focused on both returning to Victory Lane and going deeper into the playoffs. “We’re just trying to figure out how to make our cars better,” he said. “We’ll try to figure out this new (aero) package we’re running this year, and try to be prepared and good all season long.” If Larson can advance to Homestead-Miami Speedway as part of the Championship 4, he will undoubtedly have a good shot at claiming the series crown. The past three years at Homestead, Larson has combined to lead 322 laps. “I look forward to racing at Homestead all year, and know our team has a chance to win when we get there,” Larson said. “We’ve come close to wins there in the past. You can gain a lot and carry speed running right up by the wall, but there’s not a lot of room for a mistake up there.”

FAVORITE THING “I LIKE BEING honest,” Kyle Larson said in 2018. “I think fans should appreciate drivers being honest and open, and this is my personality. I don’t like sugarcoating stuff.”

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SPONSORS CREDIT ONE BANK, FIRST DATA MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF CHAD JOHNSTON

DRIVING MACHINE MORE SO THAN ANY other NASCAR driver today, Kyle Larson loves to race when he’s not racing. On the rare occasions when NASCAR’s top division has a weekend off, Larson usually ends up at a dirt track. Larson has more than 200 wins in the series in which he’s raced, including the World of Outlaws, the All Star Circuit of Champions and all three USAC national divisions. Larson also has one win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

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DRIVER PROFILES

PRE S E N T E D BY

Brad Keselowski

CAN HE WIN TITLE NO. 2? For three consecutive races last season, all seemed right in Brad Keselowski’s world. The before and after were considerably less magical.

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After being shut out of Victory Lane in the first 24 events of the season, the 2013 champion of NASCAR’s premier series seemingly came out of nowhere to rip off back-to-back-toback victories at Darlington, Indianapolis and Las Vegas. The wins couldn’t have come on a much bigger stage, as Darlington and Indy represent two of NASCAR’s “crown jewel” events, and LVMS was playing host to its first Monster Energy Series playoff opener. Yet, it seemed that just as quickly as Keselowski really hit his stride in 2018, he lost it. After winning in Vegas and becoming the first driver to punch a ticket to the Round of 12, the Team Penske driver never won over the season’s final nine races. Moreover, he failed to advance to the Round of 8 and saw his championship hopes end just five races after winning for the third consecutive time. Keselowski, who ultimately finished eighth in the standings as teammate Joey Logano earned the championship, hopes his three-race winning streak in 2018 will serve as a catalyst for even better things this season. “I am proud of what we did down the stretch of the year,” he said. “We won three races and did all that. … Of course, the ultimate goal is to win a championship, and we didn’t have an opportunity to do that this year.”

INFO

OWNER ROGER PENSKE TEAM TEAM PENSKE

SPONSORS MILLER LITE, DISCOUNT TIRE MANUFACTURER FORD CREW CHIEF PAUL WOLFE

PROPS TO THE PIT CREW EVEN THOUGH BRAD Keselowski managed to win three races in 2018, he was never particularly dominant. Keselowski himself didn’t even claim to have the fastest car in the races he won. What he did do was offer mad props to his team, whose work on pit road ultimately played a huge role in propelling him to victory, especially at Darlington and Indianapolis. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to my pit crew,” Keselowski said.

FAVORITE THING BRAD Keselowski has a personal blog – found at bradracing.com/ blog – where he shares his thoughts on a variety of topics both racing and nonracing related.

XFINITY SERIES

Five to Watch

COMPELLING STORYLINES FOR XFINITY SERIES SEASON The upcoming NASCAR Xfinity Series season figures to offer no shortage of compelling storylines. Following are five to watch as the 2019 campaign rolls along.

Tyler Reddick’s Quest for Back-to-Back Titles. Despite dealing with a lot of inconsistency last season, Tyler Reddick persevered and surprised a lot of people by becoming an Xfinity Series champion in his first full season in NASCAR’s No. 2 division. Reddick, who also won two races in his lone season with JR Motorsports, has moved to Richard Childress Racing and is seeking to become the first driver to repeat as NASCAR Xfinity Series champ since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2011 and 2012.

POLE POSITION 2019

Monster Energy Series Winners. Even with restrictions that severely limit the number of NASCAR Xfinity Series races that full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers can enter, it’s all but inevitable that the usual cast of stars from NASCAR’s premier division will collect their share of trophies. Look for the likes of Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano to snatch at least a win or two from Xfinity Series regulars just as they did in 2018.

Life after Elliott Sadler. One of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ most popular drivers the past several years has been veteran Elliott Sadler, a four-time Xfinity Series championship runnerup who retired at the end of 2018. Without Sadler around, a lot of fans will be looking to find a new favorite driver – perhaps cut from the Sadler mold. A good candidate to carry the popularity mantle might be 29-year-old Jeffrey Earnhardt, a fourth-generation driver who is running a nine-race schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Noah Gragson’s Big Debut. Destined to garner considerable attention throughout the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season will be the development of 20-yearold Noah Gragson – a likeable, energetic, charismatic young driver who was hired by JR Motorsports to replace the retiring Elliott Sadler. Gragson, who is widely believed to have a super-bright future in the sport, has spent the past two seasons with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series where he finished runnerup in points last season.

Christopher Bell’s Bid for Redemption. Christopher Bell was the most dominant driver of the 2018 campaign, only to fall painfully short in his bid for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. In his first full Xfinity Series season for Joe Gibbs Racing, the 23-year-old rookie captured an impressive series-high seven victories while qualifying for the Championship 4, but finished last among the championship finalists. Bell enters the new season as the odds-on favorite to snare the title, and anything less will be considered a disappointment.

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

No. 20 Christopher Bell

INFO

Looking for a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver with extra incentive this season? Try 24-year-old Christopher Bell, who stormed his way to a sevenwin 2018 season only to stumble in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where he was one of four championship contenders. After starting the winner-take-all race from the second position, Bell faded to finish 11th, one lap down, and last among the Championship 4. The outcome will only serve as motivation for Bell in the new season, especially if he should make it make back to Homestead-Miami with another opportunity to race straight up for the crown.

No. 2 Tyler Reddick Tyler Reddick began 2018 by winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series opener at Daytona by the narrowest margin of victory in NASCAR history – .0004 seconds. He finished the season by winning the race and the championship at Homestead. If Reddick repeats as champion this year, however, it will be with a different team – Richard Childress Racing, which he joined after a lone season at JR Motorsports. Reddick’s move to RCR was fueled in no small part by his desire to make the leap into a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ride in the near future. RCR, a winner of six championships at NASCAR’s top level, is fielding two full-time Monster Energy Series entries this season but has room for expansion.

OWNER JOE GIBBS TEAM JOE GIBBS RACING SPONSORS RHEEM, GAMESTOP MANUFACTURER TOYOTA CREW CHIEF JASON RATCLIFF

INFO OWNER RICHARD CHILDRESS TEAM RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING SPONSORS TBD MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF RANDALL BURNETT

No. 00 Cole Custer

No. 7 Justin Allgaier

With two successful seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series under his belt, 21-year-old Cole Custer unequivocally has the experience, the equipment and the talent to ascend the series’ highest mountain. Custer narrowly missed out on the 2018 championship, finishing second to fellow Championship 4 driver Tyler Reddick in the winner-take-all season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Custer’s second-place points finish was an improvement of three positions over his fifthplace points finish as a series rookie in 2017. Another clear indicator of improvement from one year to the next, Custer doubled his number of top-five finishes from seven to 14 and earned a series-high six poles compared with none in 2017.

On the heels of his best overall season as a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver, Justin Allgaier is focused on doing what he didn’t do in 2018 – finishing strong. After ringing up a career-high five victories, all in the regular season, Allgaier sputtered when it mattered most – in the playoffs – as he failed to reach the Championship 4 and finished a disappointing seventh in the standings. Allgaier, a 32-year-old native of Riverton, Illinois, hopes to atone for last year’s late-season fade by returning to the Championship 4, which he reached in both 2016 and 2017. However, unlike 2016 and 2017 when he finished third in the standings, Allgaier is intent on leaving Homestead-Miami Speedway with a championship trophy in hand.

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XFINITY SERIES

LANDON ASH, CEO OF XTREME CONCEPTS

Jeffrey Earnhardt’s Golden Opportunity With primary sponsorship from Xtreme Concepts, Jeffrey Earnhardt is embarking on a nine-race NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing. Here’s what the fourth-generation driver had to say. How excited are you about 2019? It’s huge, obviously. This is an opportunity every driver dreams of – getting to run in the best of the best equipment out there. To be involved with a team that, No. 1, is so good, and, No. 2, is coming off such a successful season last year with Christopher Bell, is really, really exciting and a dream come true. Do you feel like this is the big break you’ve been waiting for? Yeah, for sure. It’s put up or shut up time. This whole time you’ve been wanting to get in good equipment to go prove that you can drive and run up front and be successful in the sport, and now I’m being given that opportunity. What would you consider a successful season? Go win all nine. That would be a successful season. The thing is; the equipment’s there. But it is racing and at the end of the day, everything’s got to go your way. I think the biggest thing is going to be me just trying to do my part as the driver, because they’ve got quite the stacked crew at Gibbs to make sure the rest is all taken care of. What’s your relationship like with Xtreme Concepts? It all started this past year. Landon Ash, the owner of Xtreme Concepts, is a big-hearted guy and a guy that I now consider a really close friend who just really wanted to see me get an opportunity to be in successful equipment and get a chance at this deal. That said a lot to me about the kind of person he is, and he’s also done so much in our

POLE POSITION 2019

military community. Their company trains a lot of military dogs, police dogs, TSA dogs and bombdetection dogs. They do a lot there and also on the training side with special ops guys. Landon is a huge supporter of our military and our country, and that’s something I’m really big on, too, so we jell together pretty good and we like to have fun on the side and just enjoy our time. It’s been a great partnership, and they’re giving me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I will be forever thankful for. How do you spend your downtime? When I’m not racing, you tend to find me out in the woods somewhere doing something outdoors. I grew up as a big outdoorsman, and I try to hunt as much as I can. I get enjoyment out of knowing I’m eating something that I went out and harvested myself instead of something you bought in the grocery store that you’re not really sure where it came from. I spend a lot of time outdoors, whether I’m hunting, riding four-wheelers, hanging out with buddies, whatever it may be.

WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF JEFFREY? Jeffrey is as genuine as it gets. The person you see on TV and on social media is the same guy that you would see if you were hanging out with him at his house or in the duck blind. He loves a day with his dog in the boat or in the field just as much as he is invested in his work and his fans that come with it. After seeing his devotion to the veteran community and the gold star families, the impression that he made stuck with me. WHAT ARE SOME WAYS JEFFREY CAN BUILD THE XTREME CONCEPTS BRAND AND HELP YOU REACH A LARGER AUDIENCE? Jeffrey is a fourthgeneration Earnhardt and the pedigree that comes with that name holds a lot of weight with the sport and the fans. We want to highlight our foundation – First Foundation – that gives back and supports our military and first responders, those on scene first, foreign or domestic. It is striking that those groups of people that put themselves in harm’s way to protect American values and freedom are not getting the proper support. They are not appreciated enough for what they do, and their heroic actions are taken for granted, and that in itself is a national tragedy. WHAT DO YOU HOPE JEFFREY ACCOMPLISHES THIS SEASON? I expect big things in 2019. The sport will be celebrating another Earnhardt in Victory Lane. I expect for Jeffrey to be able to show the world what he is capable of and be competitive week in and week out.

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

TRUCK SERIES

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Five to Watch

NASCAR FANS LOVE TRUCK SERIES RACING We’re looking forward to the start of the newly rebranded NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series as it enters its landmark 25th season. Here are five things to watch for.

Kyle Busch’s Pursuit of History. With 51 victories, Kyle Busch is currently tied with 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Ron Hornaday Jr. for most wins in Truck Series history. Will this be the year that Busch – who is already the all-time NASCAR Xfinity Series wins leader – breaks the record he shares with Hornaday in trucks? Busch entered only five truck races last season, winning two of them. For Busch, a record-setting 52nd victory in trucks seems like more a matter of “when” than “if.”

POLE POSITION 2019

Brett Moffitt’s Quest for Back-to-Back Titles. Brett Moffitt surprised everyone in 2018 by winning the championship and six races with an underdog, underfunded team in Hattori Racing Enterprises. Moffitt is back in trucks this year and ready to pursue a repeat, but with a better-resourced team in GMS Racing – a top performer in each of the past three seasons with the driver Moffitt replaced, Johnny Sauter. Moffitt hopes to become only the second back-toback champ in series history, joining Matt Crafton.

The Return of Matt Crafton’s Mojo. The 2018 season was a down one by the lofty standards of Matt Crafton, a twotime series champion who had reached the Championship 4 in both seasons since NASCAR introduced a one-race, winnertake-all finale for its truck division. Crafton finished an overall disappointing 2018 on an appropriate note, missing the Championship 4 for the first time and failing to win a race for only the second time in eight seasons. Will Crafton regain his frontrunning mojo in 2019?

Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Young Guns. Want to see the future of NASCAR? Look no further than Kyle Busch Motorsports, which will campaign trucks this season for promising second-generation drivers Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland. Burton, the son of 21-time NASCAR premier series race winner Jeff Burton, is going full time Truck Series racing after making 15 starts over the past three seasons. Gilliland, son of former Monster Energy Series driver David Gilliland, is already a two-time NASCAR K&N Pro Series West champion.

The Gander Outdoors Rebranding Effect. NASCAR’s truck division has been rebranded as the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series after being known as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since 2009. Despite the name change, the series’ entitlement sponsorship effectively remains the same; NASCAR and Camping World have merely expanded their previous agreement, which runs through 2022, to provide the series’ naming rights to Gander Outdoors – Camping World’s partner brand.

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

TRUCK SERIES

PRE S E N T E D BY

NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series: Team Previews With the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series season about to shift into high gear, here’s a look at the teams planning to enter every race. GMS RACING FOUNDED: 2006 OWNER: MAURICE GALLAGHER JR. DRIVERS: BRETT MOFFITT, SHELDON CREED GMS Racing made big offseason news by parting ways with 2016 series champion Johnny Sauter and hiring 2018 series champ Brett Moffitt, who will compete as a teammate to 2018 ARCA Racing Series champion Sheldon Creed. Expect GMS Racing, which has reached the Championship 4 in each of the past three seasons, to be one of the teams to beat this season.

THORSPORT RACING

HATTORI RACING ENTERPRISES FOUNDED: 2008 OWNER: SHIGEAKI HATTORI DRIVER: AUSTIN HILL On the heels of his first full season in a truck, Austin Hill moves from Young’s Motorsports to the No. 16 Toyota driven to six victories and the 2018 series championship last year by Brett Moffitt. Hill, who has one top-five finish in 51 Truck Series starts, may be hard-pressed to deliver the team’s second title in 2019.

FOUNDED: 1996

CHAD FINLEY RACING

OWNERS: DUKE AND RHONDA THORSON

FOUNDED: 2016

DRIVERS: MATT CRAFTON, BEN RHODES, GRANT ENFINGER, MYATT SNIDER

OWNER: JEFF FINLEY

The Truck Series’ longest continuously operating team, ThorSport Racing enters 2019 focused on adding a third series championship to its lengthy list of achievements. Driver Matt Crafton, who delivered ThorSport’s previous titles in 2013 and 2014, was surprisingly winless in 2018 and is eyeing a return to his traditional front-running ways.

Under the leadership of veteran crew chief Bruce Cook, Chad Finley Racing plans to run the full 23-race schedule with drivers Chad Finley and Robby Lyons sharing time in the team’s No. 42 Chevrolet Silverado. The family-owned operation entered two races with Finley last season, recording a best finish of sixth.

KYLE BUSCH MOTORSPORTS

DRIVERS: CHAD FINLEY, ROBBY LYONS

YOUNG’S MOTORSPORTS FOUNDED: 2012

FOUNDED: 2007

OWNER: RANDY YOUNG

OWNERS: KYLE AND SAMANTHA BUSCH

DRIVERS: GUS DEAN, SPENCER BOYD

DRIVERS: HARRISON BURTON, TODD GILLILAND There will be no shortage of talent or pedigree at KBM this season as the organization once again fields entries for secondgeneration drivers Harrison Burton (Jeff Burton’s son) and Todd Gilliland (David Gilliland’s son). Burton, who has competed in a part-time role the past two seasons, moves into a full-time ride.

POLE POSITION 2019

Set to field two full-time entries with newcomers Gus Dean and Spencer Boyd, Young’s Motorsports hopes to build on a solid 2018 season with Austin Hill, who scored a late-season, seasonbest fifth-place finish at Texas. Driving the No. 20 Chevrolet, Boyd is entering his fourth season of NASCAR competition. Dean is a two-time ARCA Racing Series winner.

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

No. 24 Brett Moffitt

INFO

It’s almost unheard of for a driver to lose his ride after winning a NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship. That’s what happened to Brett Moffitt at the end of 2018 with Hattori Racing Enterprises, however. Moffitt wasn’t without work for long, as GMS Racing quickly hired him to replace Johnny Sauter – one of his championship rivals from a year ago. At GMS, Moffitt will be in trucks just as fast as those he drove at HRE, and he should have more stability. Moffitt, who became quite the Cinderella story by capturing a series-high six races on the way to last year’s championship, will try to repeat as champ with a team that earned the 2016 title and reached the Championship 4 all three years with Sauter.

No. 88 Matt Crafton

OWNER MAURICE GALLAGHER JR. TEAM GMS RACING SPONSORS ALLEGIANT AIRLINES, ISM CONNECT MANUFACTURER CHEVROLET CREW CHIEF JERRY BAXTER

INFO

One of the most successful Truck Series drivers of all time, Matt Crafton enters 2019 focused on rebounding from a season that was little better than mediocre by his elevated standards. While Crafton finished sixth in points and posted 13 top-10 finishes in 23 starts, he led only 69 laps and failed to win for only the second time in eight years. Perhaps the most disappointing part for the two-time series champion was not reaching the Championship 4 after doing so in his two previous tries. Now 42, Crafton is drawing closer to the twilight of his career, but there’s no good reason why he can’t mount at least one or two more strong runs at a third championship.

OWNERS DUKE AND RHONDA THORSON TEAM THORSPORT RACING SPONSOR MENARDS MANUFACTURER FORD CREW CHIEF CARL “JUNIOR” JOINER JR.

No. 18 Harrison Burton

No. 16 Austin Hill

The son of former Monster Energy Series driver turned NASCAR broadcaster Jeff Burton, 18-year-old Harrison Burton is excited to be a full-time Truck Series driver for one of the series’ best teams after making select starts for KBM the past two years. The talented teenager has certainly earned his opportunity, having led 76 laps and recorded a pole, three top-five finishes and seven top-10 results in 14 starts since debuting with KBM in October 2016. “I’m confident that I’m capable of competing for wins and being a legitimate contender for the Truck Series championship,” he said. “Obviously, to get to this point in my career, it has taken a lot of support from a lot of different people.”

If there’s one driver from whom no one really knows what to expect this season, it’s Austin Hill. Last year, in his first full season of truck competition, the 24-year-old driver recorded six top-10 finishes and a single top-five result with Young’s Motorsports. But this season, Hill has joined Hattori Racing Enterprises where he’s taken over the seat of the No. 16 Toyota that Brett Moffitt drove to six wins and the 2018 championship. Will Hill do as Moffitt did, and enjoy a championship-caliber season? Or will he not perform much better than last season when he finished 11th in points and behind Todd Gilliland, a driver who made four fewer starts?

INFO OWNERS KYLE AND SAMANTHA BUSCH

INFO OWNER SHIGE HATTORI

TEAM KYLE BUSCH MOTORSPORTS

TEAM HATTORI RACING ENTERPRISES

SPONSOR SAFELITE AUTOGLASS

SPONSOR UNITED RENTALS

MANUFACTURER TOYOTA

CREW CHIEF TBD

CREW CHIEF SCOTT ZIPADELLI

BY JARED TURNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES POLE POSITION MAG.COM

36 UNDER 30 Top Drivers Under 30 NASCAR’s various racing series are overflowing with talented, up-and-coming drivers under the age of 30, and many of them are expected to have a tremendous impact on the sport’s future. Here are two of NASCAR’s Young Guns. CHASE BRISCOE Only four years removed from sleeping on couches and volunteering at race shops, Chase Briscoe, a 24-year-old, thirdgeneration sprint car racer from Mitchell, Indiana, is expected to challenge for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with one of the sport’s top teams – Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi. Briscoe was a confident teenager with absolutely no asphalt racing experience when he traveled to North Carolina in hopes of becoming a stock car driver. “I’d been down here for two-and-half to three years and I didn’t have a hint of a ride. I was just kind of volunteering and didn’t really know where to go,” Briscoe recalled. At that point, Briscoe had thrown in the towel and was actually on his way back to the Hoosier State when his phone rang with an invite to meet with executives of Cunningham Motorsports, a prominent ARCA Racing Series team. In the short time since that 2015 meeting, Briscoe has won the ARCA Racing Series championship (2016) and wheeled a Brad Keselowski Racing truck to Victory Lane (2017). His diverse 2018 schedule, under the guidance of Ford Motor Co., included a NASCAR Truck Series victory on dirt at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and his first NASCAR Xfinity Series triumph on the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This season, Briscoe’s amazing journey continues as the fulltime driver of the No. 98 Ford Mustang.

POLE POSITION 2019

HAILIE DEEGAN Hailie Deegan, the 17-year-old daughter of freestyle motocross legend Brian Deegan, became the first woman to win a NASCAR K&N Pro Series event when she visited Victory Lane on Sept. 29, 2018, at Idaho’s Meridian Speedway. Born on July 18, 2001, in Temecula, California, Deegan inherited her father’s passion for motorsports. She started riding dirt bikes at age 7 and quickly moved into off-road competition where she earned her first Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series title in 2013. Continuing to win off-road races and championships, Deegan’s driving career changed directions after her mother, Marissa, discovered an online application for the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program. Deegan was accepted into the program and her transition to asphalt racing began in 2016. The teenager quickly worked her way through the Legend Car and late model ranks. Last year, she graduated to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, driving for legendary West Coast car owner Bill McAnally. Part of the NASCAR Next class for 2018, Deegan ran the full NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule, earning 12 top-10 finishes – including the victory at Meridian Speedway – in 14 races and claiming two poles. She finished fifth in the series standings and was named rookie of the year. Deegan is back with Bill McAnally Racing this season and has her sights focused on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West championship.

BY KEITH WALTZ | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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NASCAR HISTORY NASCAR LEGEND

Rex White Rex White entered his first NASCAR Cup Series race on Feb. 26, 1956, on the Beach and Road Course in Daytona Beach, Florida. Amazingly, he finished 22nd among the 80 drivers in the starting field.

BIRTHDATE ■■ August 17, 1929 BIRTHPLACE ■■ Taylorsville, North Carolina NOTABLE MOMENTS ■■ 1960 NASCAR Cup Series Champion ■■ 28 NASCAR Cup Series Wins ■■ Career Average Finish of 9.0

Born Aug. 17, 1929, in Taylorsville, North Carolina, White left school as a teen and moved to the Washington, District of Columbia, area where he found work as a cook and later as an attendant at a gas station. In 1951, a race promoter placed a placard in the window of the station advertising races at West Lanham (Maryland) Speedway. With no money to buy a ticket, White sneaked into the pits and loved what he saw. He eventually began working for 1952 NASCAR Modified champion Frankie Schneider but decided to leave to pursue his own racing career, initially picking up a ride here and there. In 1954, he bought a 1937 Ford and began winning on numerous short tracks in the Northeast. His success led to joining the Cup Series ranks in 1956 where he logged many impressive finishes. White’s first-career NASCAR premier series victory came at North Carolina’s Asheville-Weaverville Speedway on June 9, 1958, while driving for Julian Petty. The following year, White fielded his own Chevrolets and collected five wins that season. Then in 1960, White recorded six more wins, finishing among the top 10 in 35 of 40 races and claimed the championship over Richard Petty by almost 4,000 points. White scored 28 NASCAR Cup Series victories before retiring in 1964. The 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee is listed among NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers and is also a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.

ONCE I SAW THE CARS ON THE TRACK, I KNEW THAT WAS FOR ME. I WORKED HARD AND FOUND A WAY TO DO IT. I’M STILL AMAZED ABOUT WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED.

SMART DETERMINED WITTY QUIET APPRECIATIVE

ADVANTAGEOUS AGGRESSIVE

BEST SEASON WHILE HEADING TOward the 1960 NASCAR Cup Series championship, White earned six wins, 25 top-five finishes, 35 top-10 results and three pole positions. He was a threat to win everywhere he raced, setting the foundation for scoring his lone Cup Series championship. White was the underdog against the top teams.

POLE POSITION 2019

RECORD-SETTER WHITE’S AVERAGE start of 8.1 and average finish of 9.0 is considered to be an impressive statistic. From 1956 to 1964, he completed 48,512 laps and led 4,370. Twenty-seven of his 28 victories came on short tracks with one superspeedway victory coming in October 1962 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

THE NO. 4 CAR

HONORED KNOWN FOR

WHITE WAS SHORT IN stature but strong behind the wheel of his famed No. 4 gold-and-white Chevrolets. His ability to adapt to cars and make them finish better than intended gave him a reputation as a skilled driver. Team owners asked but he liked driving his own cars.

BY BEN WHITE | PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

RACE REWIND

1999: Like Father, Like Son Dale Jarrett held steady in his Robert Yates Racing Ford during the 1999 season to claim the lone NASCAR Cup Series championship of his career on the strength of four victories.

■■ Dale Jarrett with his father, Ned

SEASON RECAP

Jarrett, the son of two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett, completed his 15th NASCAR Cup Series season with one of the sport’s most powerful teams. Robert Yates Racing was considered a strong title contender dating back to 1989 when the late Davey Allison began winning in the team’s No. 28 Ford. Jarrett joined RYR four years earlier as part of an ongoing transition after Allison’s death on July 13, 1993, as the result of a helicopter crash one day earlier. Under the direction of crew chiefs Larry McReynolds and later Todd Parrott, the team had returned to championship form after Allison came within reach of the title during the 1992 Cup Series season finale at Atlanta. Victories at Richmond, Michigan, Daytona and Indianapolis served as the foundation for a championship effort that included 24 top-five finishes and 29 top-10 results in 34 starts. Jarrett began the year 36th in points after an early crash during the season-opening Daytona 500, but by the spring event at Bristol Motor Speedway, he had recovered to second in points through a string of top-10 finishes. When the Cup Series visited Richmond on May 15, Jarrett left Virginia with a victory and the lead in the Cup Series standings. Jarrett, Parrott, Robert Yates and their crew put together an effort that kept the No. 88 Ford on top throughout the remainder of the season. Jarrett, of Conover, North Carolina, clinched the championship one week early at Homestead-Miami Speedway and enjoyed the champion’s celebration the next week at Atlanta.

1999 BEST DRIVER JEFF GORDON, DRIVER OF THE No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, scored seven victories, 18 top-five finishes, 21 top-10 results and seven pole positions in 34 starts during the 1999 season. His biggest victories came in the season-opening Daytona 500 during February and the fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Gordon also scored race wins that year at Atlanta, California and Martinsville in addition to sweeping the two road course races.

PRESIDENT: BILL CLINTON

DATE LOCATION February 14 Daytona International Speedway February 21 Rockingham Speedway March 7 Las Vegas Motor Speedway March 14 Atlanta Motor Speedway March 21 Darlington Speedway March 28 Texas Motor Speedway April 11 Bristol Motor Speedway April 18 Martinsville Speedway April 25 Talladega Superspeedway May 2 California Speedway May 15 Richmond Raceway May 30 Charlotte Motor Speedway June 6 Dover International Speedway June 13 Michigan International Speedway June 20 Pocono Raceway June 27 Sonoma Raceway July 3 Daytona International Speedway July 11 New Hampshire Motor Speedway July 25 Pocono Raceway August 7 Indianapolis Motor Speedway August 15 Watkins Glen International August 22 Michigan International Speedway August 28 Bristol Motor Speedway September 5 Darlington Raceway September 11 Richmond Raceway September 19 New Hampshire Motor Speedway September 26 Dover International Speedway October 3 Martinsville Speedway October 11 Charlotte Motor Speedway October 17 Talladega Superspeedway October 24 Rockingham Speedway November 7 Phoenix International Raceway November 14 Homestead-Miami Speedway November 21 Atlanta Motor Speedway

WINNER Jeff Gordon Mark Martin Jeff Burton Jeff Gordon Jeff Burton Terry Labonte Rusty Wallace John Andretti Dale Earnhardt Jeff Gordon Dale Jarett Jeff Burton Bobby Labonte Dale Jarrett Bobby Labonte Jeff Gordon Dale Jarett Jeff Burton Bobby Labonte Dale Jarrett Jeff Gordon Bobby Labonte Dale Earnhardt Jeff Burton Tony Stewart Joe Nemechek Mark Martin Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon Dale Earnhardt Jeff Burton Tony Stewart Tony Stewart Bobby Labonte

NO. 1 SONG: “BELIEVE,” BY CHER

NO. 1 BOX OFFICE: STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE GALLON OF GAS: $1.30 POP CULTURE: SPONGEBOB PREMIERES

BEST RACE ON AUG. 28, 1999 AT BRISTOL Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt, driving the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, stayed close on the rear bumper of Terry Labonte’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet until spinning Labonte off Turn 2 on the final lap. Earnhardt said was wanted to “rattle his cage” but heard a chorus of boos from the grandstands. Ninthplace finisher Labonte was not happy with Earnhardt while addressing the media after the race.

TOP CARS DALE JARRETT’S No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford recorded four victories and 29 top-10 finishes in 34 Cup Series starts. BOBBY LABONTE’S No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac scored five wins with 26 top-10 results and five poles in 34 races.

POLE POSITION MAG.COM

TRIBUTE Legendary Hall of Fame Owner Glen Wood One of NASCAR’s most beloved pioneers and decorated competitors, Hall of Famer Glen Wood passed away on Jan. 18 at the age of 93.

■■ NASCAR legend Glen Wood (center) poses with his sons, Len (left) and Eddie, at a 1979 NASCAR Cup Series race.

ood was part of the legendary Wood Brothers Racing team along with his brother Leonard and together the family team fielded five Daytona 500 winning cars with five different drivers. And Glen Wood was a remarkable driving talent in his own right as well, officially named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. The Stuart, Virginia, native was a popular presence in the NASCAR garage for decades and was formally inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012. His Wood Brothers Racing team, formed in 1950, is an iconic part of the sport and still competing today with 99 Cup Series wins, including the 2011 Daytona 500 with Trevor Bayne. The team’s last win came with driver Ryan Blaney in 2017 at Pocono Raceway. “In every way, Glen Wood was an original,” NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France said. “In building the famed Wood Brothers Racing at the very

POLE POSITION 2019

beginnings of our sport, Glen laid a foundation for NASCAR excellence that remains to this day. “As both a driver and a team owner, he was, and always will be, the gold standard. But personally, even more significant than his exemplary on-track record, he was a true gentleman and a close confidant to my father, mother and brother. “On behalf of the France family and all of NASCAR, I send my condolences to the entire Wood family on the loss of a NASCAR giant.” The list of drivers who competed for the Wood Brothers team is a Who’s Who of the sport and includes many other NASCAR Hall of Famers from David Pearson, Junior Johnson and Cale Yarborough to Dale Jarrett and Bill Elliott. The Wood Brothers fielded cars for the late Dan Gurney and IndyCar great A.J. Foyt as well some of the biggest names in the sport such as Neil Bonnett, Ricky Rudd and Ken Schrader.

Paul Menard currently drives the familiar No. 21 Ford in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. As expected on the loss of such an important figure in the sport, social media was full of condolences and fond memories. “Prayers for the @woodbrothers21 Glen Wood and his family,” 2000 Cup champion Bobby Labonte said in a statement on Twitter. “Thanks for being a such a wonderful gentleman and paving the way for so many that followed.” Championship crew chief Ray Evernham offered his condolences, “Sorry to hear about the passing of Glen Wood. One of the most respected men ever in our sport. The captain of the incredible Wood Brothers legacy. “Always a smile, a handshake and a word of wisdom. Thank you for setting the standard of excellence in racing. RIP.” And another racing legend, Mario Andretti sent his condolences as well, “Everybody who’s anybody in our sport loves the Wood Bros. Love & respect for the standards they set.” Roger Penske, whose team has had a technical alliance with the Wood Brothers, issued a statement about his longtime friend and colleague. “Glen Wood was one of NASCAR’s true pioneers and leaders,” 2019 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Penske said. “From our earliest years in the sport, Wood Brothers Racing set the gold standard of NASCAR teams, and that was a result of the vision and dedication of Glen and Leonard. “Glen established himself in the sport first as a driver then as an innovator and team owner. Glen helped me and our team when we first became involved in NASCAR, he has been a trusted friend throughout the years. All of us at Team Penske are proud to be associated with the Wood Brothers organization to this day.”

BY HOLLY CAIN | PHOTO COURTESY NASCAR

CREW SPOTLIGHT TIM WHITAKER MASTER OF INTERIOR DESIGN

RYAN CHISM LIVING HIS DREAM

OBVIOUSLY, THE WINNING ASPECT IS GREAT. YOU AREN’T GOING TO MAKE IT AT THIS LEVEL IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE DRIVE TO DO IT. THIS SPORT IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING AND EVOLVING WEEK TO WEEK, SO YOU HAVE TO KEEP UP WITH WHAT’S HAPPENING.”

Tim Whitaker, interior mechanic for Team Penske and driver Brad Keselowski, saw his first NASCAR Cup Series race at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway as a teenager after moving to Tennessee from Ohio. “I actually went to school with Steadman Marlin, son of Cup Series driver Sterling Marlin,” Whitaker said. PLAYING “To be honest, I didn’t know anything FAVORITES about racing or what it was. I hung WITH TIM out with Steadman and got to know WHITAKER Sterling a little bit as well.” Whitaker began working on the MarVACATION lins’ Late Model cars that they raced ■■ Anywhere with sand part time at Nashville. After learning and sun about the cars and how they worked, HOLIDAY he was invited to tag along as a crew ■■ Christmas member for their short-track team. SEASON Whitaker also became friends with ■■ Summer Tony Glover, Sterling’s crew chief TV SHOW with the Morgan-McClure Racing ■■ Big Bang Theory Cup Series team. When Sterling left Morgan-McClure to join team owner MUSIC Felix Sabates in 1998, Whitaker was ■■ Country or Rock invited to help with the upstart team after completing high school and a nine-month college course. He eventually joined Team Penske in 2012 as a tire specialist and became an interior mechanic in 2016. “Basically, I’m in charge of everything inside the car,” Whitaker said. “That includes the safety aspects, the seat, seat belts and even something as simple as the roll bar padding. It’s about everything being where it needs to be for the driver and is up to date and whatever makes your driver comfortable.”

POLE POSITION 2019

Ryan Chism, front-end mechanic for Richard Childress Racing and driver Austin Dillon, attended his first NASCAR race with his father at Dover International Speedway in 1997. That day, they saw a NASCAR Truck Series event and enjoyed the door-to-door action. Chism loved cars as a small child and he eventually raced Micro Sprints and Late Models, but there were bigger aspirations to pursue. “I moved here (to North Carolina) to pursue my dream of working in racing,” Chism said. “I started doing some collision repair in high school and that was my first job in racing was to fix damage on the Daytona prototype cars. That was carbon fiber work with Finley Motorsports in 2005.” Chism eventually moved to the ARCA Series and began his NASCAR Cup Series career in 2013. He joined RCR in 2017 and was promoted to his current position in January. “My job here at the shop is to prep the front end of the car,” Chism said. “Anything firewall forward and suspension related is kind of my role. At the race track, any spring changes, camber adjustments, wheel spacers, studs, steering box – all of those things are my responsibility. I also help the car chief (Greg Ebert) set up the car on the scales.” While at the track, Chism is focused on making sure the cars are strong from green flag to checkered flag.

I ENJOY THE THRILL OF TRYING TO WIN THE RACE. THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE CHASING. IT’S GREAT TO SEE FAN REACTION WHEN YOUR DRIVER TAKES THE LEAD. THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT – BEATING EVERYONE ELSE.”

PLAYING FAVORITES WITH RYAN CHISM VACATION ■■ Ocean City, Maryland HOLIDAY ■■ Christmas SEASON ■■ Spring TV SHOW ■■ Game of Thrones MOVIE ■■ Ace Ventura MUSIC ■■ Country

BY BEN WHITE

GETTY IMAGES

PIT PASS

Track Food

WITH NASCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER MATT TIFFT

Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Clark’s Cluck – Atlanta Motor Speedway is known for bold racing when NASCAR comes to town. But off the track, the facility also knows how to satisfy the appetites of even its hungriest race fans. The Clark’s Cluck – named for longtime AMS general manager Ed Clark – is one of the track’s signature concession items. It features a fried chicken breast placed on a bun and topped with bacon, lettuce, B&B pickles and spicy ranch dressing.

few years ago, Matt Tifft had no idea where the future would take him as surgery to remove a brain tumor could have ended his racing career. Instead, Tifft beat the cancer and returned to the seat of a race car sooner rather than later. Now, he’s ready to conquer the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with Front Row Motorsports.

What’s it like to know you’re a NASCAR Cup Series driver? It’s hard to completely wrap my mind around it. It’s certainly exciting. The jump to the Cup Series is something that I don’t really know what it’ll entail. You have to go into it openminded. I have to see what I can learn. I have to get my feet wet and learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. With the new rules package, no one really knows what to expect. We’re going to have to do some quick learning. How are you fitting in at Front Row Motorsports? I think already it’s been a natural transition. Michael McDowell has done some road course training for me. David Ragan drove my Xfinity Series car when I was out. There are some familiar faces here. Going into the Ford camp is also exciting. The

POLE POSITION 2019

biggest thing is to learn as much as I can from my veteran teammates. Just the little things, like how do you hydrate leading up to a Cup weekend? They’re going to offer priceless information. What are your expectations for your rookie season? My goal is to stay close in the rookie-of-the-year race and see how that unfolds. Front Row Motorsports over the last few years has been inching up in the standings. David was 25th in the standings. That’s kind of a benchmark we’re shooting for. With the new rules package, we don’t know what that will entail for finishes. It’ll make for wider pendulum swings for the finishes. Ultimately, it’s to get where my teammates are. Within the first two months, I want to be right with them.”

TERMINOLOGY Tapered Spacer: A tapered spacer is a metal piece that restricts air flow into an engine, which in turn limits how much fuel can go into the cylinders. This results in a reduction of horsepower. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams will utilize two different tapered spacers this season. The spacers used at short tracks and on road courses will have four 1.17-inch tapered holes, while those used on oval tracks longer than 1.2 miles in length will have four 0.922-inch tapered holes.

BY JOSEPH WOLKIN

NASCAR ESPORTS

The Year of NASCAR Esports ENASCAR SERIES IGNITING BOTH CONSOLE AND SIM SCENES

oes it seem like you’ve been hearing a lot about NASCAR and esports lately? You’re not alone. Ever since its stunning reveal last fall, 704Games’ eNASCAR Heat Pro League has ignited the console fan base and dramatically improved their competitive infrastructure. And coupled with the PEAK Antifreeze Series on iRacing, 2019 is looking like one of the most exciting years for NASCAR esports. Everyone from PC to console users, to the fans and spectators themselves have something to cheer about. First off, a bit of background. Unlike the stick-and-ball sports that have been scrambling in the last few years to jump on the esports bandwagon, NASCAR has been committed to the sim racing and esports scenes for well over a decade. In addition, NASCAR isn’t playing pretend in the gaming world, like other sports that have claimed to be the next “Overwatch” or “League of Legends.” Instead, the sport has adapted esports to fit the unique nature of motorsports – NASCAR isn’t getting into esports, esports is getting into NASCAR. That philosophy brings us to the present day, and the eNASCAR series of 2019. Both the PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series and the Heat Pro League are partnered with the same real-world teams as the on-track series. That’s Chip Ganassi Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Roush Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Team Penske and JR Motorsports, all fielding competitive gamers across every platform. Each team will draft a driver from Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and iRacing on PC. But the adaptation of esports doesn’t end there. Take the Heat Pro League, for example. Qualifications were run over 36 tracks, with thousands of drivers competing in NASCAR Heat 3. Obviously, in esports, to make a solid judgement, you’d look at the data – average placement, lap consistency, etc., the usual indicators. In the Heat Pro League, drivers are also graded on a

POLE POSITION 2019

number of intangibles – behavior, sportsmanship, etc. The type of x-factors team owners look for in their next drivers. But it doesn’t end there. Each of the Top 100 drivers chosen for the draft, that’s 50 each from Xbox and PlayStation, has to go through a weeks-long paperwork process, including interviews and background checks. These players are put through the same vetting as their real world counterparts. It’s not just about lap times, after all, you’re also representing your team, your sponsors, your fan base and the sport as a whole. Following the draft in March, the Heat Pro League will run a 16-race season culminating during the NASCAR Playoffs. NASCAR fans will be able to watch these races just like the real world events, with live broadcasts on NASCAR.com, Twitch.tv and Motorsport.com. Fans will also get a weekly “Race Hub-like” show on the 704Games NASCAR Heat YouTube channel. Hosted by Scott Cole, it will offer standings, player profiles and highlights, as well as some fun recurring segments like the “Wreck of the Week.” This is why gaming has become a hot topic among NASCAR fans. This is the year esports stops looking like a promise, a dream. 2019 is the year NASCAR esports gets real.

■■ Scott Cole hosts the weekly Heat Pro League show.

BY JOSH MULL

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