Next Race: O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 The Place: Texas Motor Speedway The Date: Sunday, March 31 The Time: 3 p.m. ET TV: FOX, 2:30 p.m. ET Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 501 miles (334 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 85), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 170), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 334) 2018 Winner: Kyle Busch Keselowski is off and running Only six races into the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and Brad Keselowski became the second multi-time winner last weekend, posting the most dominating performance of the year. He led 446 of 500 laps to claim the win at Martinsville Speedway. It’s his fourth top-three finish already as he also won at Atlanta Motor Speedway, has a runner-up finish at Las Vegas and a third-place finish at California. His win Sunday marked the third for Team Penske (Joey Logano won at Las Vegas) – tying the effort by Joe Gibbs Racing, whose drivers have won three races as well (Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500 and Kyle Busch won at Phoenix and California). The two teams are the only winners of the season to date. Keselowski would certainly like to keep the pace in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. He’s never won there before but has a pair of runner-up finishes, including in 2012 – the year he won the series championship. He won the Busch Pole position and led a race record 312 of the 334 laps only to finish runner-up to Jimmie Johnson in 2015. He’s had two top-10 finishes in the last four races at Texas but finished 33rd in this race last year after being collected in an incident on Lap 178. He was then 12th in the Playoff race after leading 50 laps. He has eight top-10 showings in 21 starts at Texas – five of them are top-five efforts. He’s Back: Kyle Busch is ready to defend Texas win Defending race winner Kyle Busch may have felt a bit out of sorts with a third-place finish at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday – after back-to-back wins (including a milestone 200th NASCAR national series victory) in the preceding two weeks. It’s been a tremendous season start for Busch and statistically, there’s no reason to indicate he’ll be slowing down this week at Texas Motor Speedway. Busch is firmly atop the points standings – 21 points over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin – and has five top-three finishes in the opening six races. He hasn’t finished worse than sixth this season and he’s completed every lap of 2019 competition. Plus, he has led 361 of them. AND. … he’s the last driver to celebrate a spring win at Texas Motor Speedway’s Victory Lane. He has three career victories at the 1.5-mile track – all of them coming in the spring visit. The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry earned his first win – from the pole position – in 2013 and answered with another in 2016 before last year’s trophy. Only Jimmie Johnson (15) has more top-10s than Busch (12) at the track. And as you would expect with the all-time winningest Xfinity and Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver –he has victories in those series on the Fort Worth high banks too. He has won eight total Xfinity Series races at Texas, including five straight from 2008-2010, and he has three Gander Outdoors Truck Series victories there too. Texas has been a special place for Erik jones Erik Jones, 22, is typically soft-spoken out of the race car, but he’s delivered some big moments at Texas Motor Speedway and likely has this week’s venue circled on his race calendar. He scored back-to-back top-five finishes last year on the Fort Worth track – fourth in both races – and has finishes among the top-10 in three of his four previous Cup starts. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has four previous wins at the track – three in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and one in the NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series. He won the 2017 Xfinity fall race from the pole position. After an impressive start to the 2019 season, Jones undoubtedly welcomes the opportunity to race in Texas. He had top-10 finishes in the first two races, including a career–best third place in the Daytona 500. A rough outing at Martinsville last weekend – a 30th-place finish – dropped him to 14th in the pointsstandings heading into Sunday’s Texas race. But this is one place where Jones is highly optimistic whenever he grids to race. “Texas is one of my favorite tracks and one of the tracks that I’ve run well at in Trucks, Xfinity and the Cup Series,’’ Jones said. “We’ve had a few bad weeks [lately], but we’ve had speed and good cars, just some bad luck along the way. This weekend should be a good race to turn things around and get our season back on track. “I think between what we’ve learned so far this season with the new package and how I’ve run at Texas in the past, we’ve got a great shot of adding another Texas hat to our collection.’’ Almirola is keeping the momentum going Aric Almirola may not have won last week’s race at Martinsville Speedway, but the Tampa, Florida, driver surely must feel like he’s winning on the season. He has five consecutive top-10 finishes in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford since being collected in a multi-car wreck in the season-opening Daytona 500. His best finish is fourth at Phoenix’s ISM Raceway and he won the Busch Pole position at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He’s led a total of 69 laps in three races. Before joining Stewart-Haas Racing last year, his previous best season total laps led was 78 (2012). Similarly, his five top-10s through March is already only one less than his best career season total (six) before he joined SHR. His track record at this week’s venue, Texas Motor Speedway includes two top-10 finishes – seventh in 2013 and eighth in the Playoff race last November. He’s never led a Monster Energy Series race lap at the track, but does also have a pair of Gander Trucks top-10s there as well. “I’ve led more laps in the beginning of this year than I’ve led in any year in my career,’’ Almirola said. “I’m off to the best start of my career, yet we feel like our cars are not where they were last year, and that’s one of the things that has me the most pumped up about this season. “The aero department and engineering department, the people down on the shop floor have all been turning some long hours to correct some things that we feel like we’ve been missing, and I think some of that will already be implemented into our Texas cars this weekend.’’ Harvick looks to be on the verge of his first win of 2019 Kevin Harvick showed up in Fort Worth last year having hoisted three race trophies already. This year the 2014 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion is still looking for his first. And Texas Motor Speedway provides plenty of potential based on Harvick’s recent work there. He has top-10 finishes in the last nine races at the track, including a pair of wins and three runner-up showings. In the last four races, specifically, he has two wins (Fall 2017 and 2018), a runner-up finish (Spring 2018) and a pole position (Spring 2017) and has led a series–best 379 laps in that time frame. Harvick comes to the track ranked third in the points and with five top-10 finishes in the opening six races. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang has three fourth-place finishes (at Atlanta, Las Vegas and California) – his best showings on the season. “There is so much change this year,’’ Harvick said of adjusting to new technical rules in 2019. “You have to lean on that past experience. For us, I feel like that is why he have had decent finishes the first few weeks. I don’t think as a group we feel like our cars are where they need to be, but that experience has led to decent finishes so we can change the things we want to when we get home.’’ Opportunity awaits Chase Elliott Chase Elliott is coming off his best showing of the season – a runner-up effort to a dominant Brad Keselowski at Martinsville Speedway last weekend. It’s the first top-five for his four-car Hendrick Motorsports team since Elliott won at Kansas late last season. That result and Elliott’s impressive resume at Texas Motor Speedway surely give the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 reason to be optimistic this weekend. Elliott’s 7.2 average finish on the Fort Worth high banks is best in the series. He also holds the high mark statistically for top Average Running Position (9.6). He has the fourth–best driver rating (95.6) – behind a trio of former Cup champions, Jimmie Johnson (102.9), Kyle Busch (101.3) and Kevin Harvick (96.3). Elliott has five top-10 finishes in six Texas starts. His worst finish is 11th. And the track holds a lot of sentimental motivation – it’s where a then–18-year old high school senior Elliott scored his first NASCAR national series win in the 2014 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Reclaiming Glory: Jimmie Johnson one of the best at Texas As so frequently happens on the schedule, seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and 83-race winner Jimmie Johnson arrives at Texas Motor Speedway with a top-line resume, and perhaps increased motivation to visit a Victory Lane he knows well. The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has earned an all-time best seven wins on the Texas track and an all-time best five runner-up finishes. He’s either finished first or second 12 times – more than a third of his 31 career starts at the track. His three-sweep from 2014-15 marks the only time a driver has won three-straight at the track. He won four of five races from 2013-15. His 1,052 laps led is an all-time high mark. Five races he led 100 or more laps – most of anyone in Sunday’s field. Johnson’s last win was the 2017 spring race., and then last season he finished 35th in the spring after crashing and 15th in the Playoff race. He shows up at Fort Worth ranked 15th in the driver championship standings after a tough 24th-place finish at Martinsville last weekend. His two top 10s on the year came in the Daytona 500 and then at Phoenix three weeks ago. Next Race: My Bariatric Solutions 300 The Place: Texas Motor Speedway The Date: Saturday, March 30 The Time: 1 p.m. ET TV: FS1, 1 p.m. ET Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 300 miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200) 2018 Winner: Ryan Blaney Reddick has opportunity to be on elite Xfinity Series list this season The 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and current 2019 series driver standings leader, Tyler Reddick, has the opportunity this season to become the ninth driver all-time and the first since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2011, 2012) to win multiple series titles; joining Sam Ard (1983, 1984), Jack Ingram (1982, 1985), Larry Pearson (1986, 1987), Randy La Joie (1996, 1997), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1998, 1999), Martin Truex Jr. (2004, 2005), Kevin Harvick (2001, 2006) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2001, 2012). Reddick holds the series standings lead by seven points over second–place Cole Custer following Auto Club Speedway. Holding on to the series standings lead and winning the regular season guarantees Reddick a spot in the Playoffs, plus 15 Playoff points to take into the postseason. Reddick has made three starts at Texas Motor Speedway in the Xfinity Series, posting a career-best finish of runner-up in the Playoff race last season on way to his first career title. Custer is looking to make it back-to-back at Texas When it comes to consecutive wins at Texas Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series nobody does it better than Kyle Busch with the five consecutive wins he captured from 2008-2010. Actually, only four drivers have ever pulled off the feat of back-to-back wins at Texas, and this weekend Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer is looking become the fifth. And nobody in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is riding a bigger wave of momentum than Cole Custer right now. The 21-year old from Ladera Ranch, California is returning to Texas Motor Speedway, the site of his first Xfinity Series Playoff win (last November), after just bringing home his first win of this season two weeks ago at Auto Club Speedway. Custer comes to Texas poised to make it two in a row as the 1.5-miler is one his best tracks. In four starts at Texas, Custer has scratched off a win (2018), four top fives and an average finish of 3.750 (series-best). If Custer wins at Texas on Saturday, he will join Mark Martin (1999, 2000), Kyle Busch (2008 sweep, 2009 sweep, 2010 spring), Carl Edwards (2010 fall, 2011 spring) and Erik Jones (2017 sweep) as the only drivers to win consecutive races at Texas in the series. XCI Racing to make Xfinity debut with driver Jeffrey Earnhardt Kicking off the season in impressive fashion with Joe Gibbs Racing, Jeffrey Earnhardt has been able to parlay that into another partnership with the newly formed XCI Racing as the two will compete together this weekend for the first time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Texas Motor Speedway. Xtreme Concepts Inc., a worldwide leader in turnkey security solutions, is augmenting its existing sponsorship of Joe Gibbs Racing by forming an alliance with the team that will see XCI Racing field its own racecars in two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races and five NASCAR Xfinity Series races in 2019. Earnhardt will pilot the No. 81 XCI Racing Toyota Camry with crew chief Mathew Lucas this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for the organization’s NASCAR national series debut, which will serve as a precursor to XCI Racing’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut when it unloads for the April 28 race at Talladega Superspeedway. The next four races XCI Racing has planned in the Xfinity Series are the June 29 race at Chicagoland Speedway, July 5 at Daytona International Speedway, Aug. 16 at Bristol Motor Speedway and Aug. 31 at Darlington Raceway. XCI Racing will finish its maiden season Oct. 13 in the Monster Energy Series race at Talladega. “We are taking a very deliberate and methodical approach to becoming a NASCAR team,” said Landon Ash, founder of Birmingham, Alabama-based Xtreme Concepts and owner of XCI Racing. “Having a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing makes the learning curve a little less steep and allows us to field competitive racecars right out of the gate. Our ultimate goal is to become a fulltime team in the NASCAR Cup Series. We’ll take what we learn this season and apply it to next season. We plan to grow incrementally, and our alliance with JGR will be a key component of that growth.” The best news about the partnership is Jeffrey Earnhardt fans will have more chances to see the rising talent’s skills on display. Earnhardt now has five additional Xfinity races with XCI Racing on top of his previously announced nine with Joe Gibbs Racing. “Jeffrey Earnhardt has been an excellent representative for Xtreme Concepts and iK9, and through this endeavor with Joe Gibbs Racing, we plan to grow together,” said Ash. The Mooresville, North Carolina, native’s career is trending in the right direction. In two starts this season, Earnhardt has posted one top 10 and an average finish of 10.5. He has three series career starts at Texas with a career-best finish of 19th in 2014. Kaz Grala to make season debut with Richard Childress Racing at Texas Richard Childress Racing will roll out the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Xfinity Series season debut of Kaz Grala. Grala made the jump from the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series to the NASCAR Xfinity Series last season on a part-time basis, running 10 races for JGL Racing and then 12 more for FURY Race Cars. During those 22 starts he posted two top fives and five top 10s. “This is definitely the biggest opportunity I’ve had in my career,” said Kaz Grala. “Running for a powerhouse team like RCR is a dream come true, and one I plan on making the most of. With only a limited number of races to make an impression, I’m ready to get to work and lay it all on the line.” Grala will be paired with Richard Childress Racing’s veteran crew chief Justin Alexander this weekend. The 20-year-old from Boston, Massachusetts made his series track debut at Texas Motor Speedway last season driving for JGL Racing – he started 37th and drove up to a 26th-place finish. Keselowski and Busch are a couple of double dippers worth noting The two hottest drivers in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, will be pulling double duty this weekend, competing in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, March 29 and the Monster Energy Series race on Sunday, March 30. Kyle Busch will strap into the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry with crew chief Ben Beshore this weekend at Texas. The duo has been virtually unstoppable this season, in three Xfinity starts they have two wins, three top fives and an average finish of 1.3. Busch is also the series leader in wins at Texas with eight victories; including five straight from 2008-2010. In 20 total series starts at Texas he has accrued eight wins, 15 top fives, 16 top 10s and an average finish of 7.0. Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski will be guiding the No. 12 Ford Mustang this weekend at Texas with crew chief Matt Swiderski calling the shots from the pit box. Keselowski’s series season-debut at Daytona in the season-opener ended early with a roof hatch issue (37th-place finish); so, one can expect, he is probably itching to get a solid performance on the board. Keselowski has made 18 series starts at the famous Texan 1.5-mile facility posting two wins (2013, 2015), 12 top fives, 14 top 10s and an average finish of 9.3. Next Race: Vankor 350 The Place: Texas Motor Speedway The Date: Friday, March 29 The Time: 8:30 p.m. ET TV: FS1, 9 p.m. ET Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 220.5 miles (147 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 35), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 70), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 147) 2018 Winner: Justin Haley A new look for NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series in Texas This weekend’s March 30th race date marks the earliest the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series has appeared at Texas Motor Speedway since the series started coming to the track in 1997. Historically, the first Fort Worth race of the season was always the early June race. But this year, NASCAR switched things up a bit and moved the fall date to the spring, creating an early season national series triple-header in the Lone Star State. The Gander Trucks will return on the traditional June date, as well. For those keeping track at home, the previous fall race results will define the previous race winner – and in this case, that winner would be Justin Haley, who is not entered in the Gander Trucks race this weekend. However, the winner of the two races prior to that, and the winner of five overall at Texas, is returning – Johnny Sauter. Kyle Busch attempting to win four in a row There’s a career milestone in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series that Kyle Busch hasn’t hit, yet. And that’s win four series races in a row. He has a shot to do that Friday night in the Vankor 350 at 9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Busch has won the most recent three races, which also happen to be the only three races he’s entered in 2019. This marks the third time in his Gander Trucks career he has recorded three straight visits to Victory Lane: 2019 – Atlanta, Las Vegas, Martinsville 2014 – Kansas, Charlotte, Dover 2011 – Nashville, Dover, Charlotte Only one driver in Gander Trucks history has won four or more races in a row – and that was NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. in 2009 (Milwaukee, Memphis, Kentucky, IRP, Nashville). Including Busch’s current streak and Hornaday’s streak of five victories, seven different drivers – for a total of 11 times – in series history have won three in a row. Busch will have to shake off the rust in Fort Worth if he’s to keep the streak alive. He hasn’t raced at the 1.5-mile track since the fall of 2014, but that outing netted him his third win at Texas. Overall, he has three wins (fall races in 2009, 2010, 2014) in 12 starts at the track, including eight top-five finishes. Sauter savors return to Texas If there’s anyone excited about seeing Texas Motor Speedway move up to an earlier spot in the schedule this season, it’s Johnny Sauter. The Wisconsin native is the winningest active driver at the 1.5-mile circuit with five wins overall. It’s also his personal best track with more wins, top fives and top 10s than at any other facility. Sauter’s five wins at Texas (Summer 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Summer 2018) better his mark of four at Martinsville. He also has 10 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in his 21 races at Texas. Among active drivers, only Matt Crafton has more top fives (14) and top 10s (25) than Sauter. Of note, Sauter is back with the team (and truck number) he was with when he won his first two NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series races at Texas – ThorSport Racing and the No. 13. One thing is different, however – he’s now in a Ford, whereas the team raced Toyotas back when he recorded those wins in 2012. He’ll be going after a unique hat trick at Texas – winning with three different OEM emblems on his truck, as he won three of his races in a GMS Racing Chevrolet. The only other driver to have won with different manufacturers at Texas was Dennis Setzer (Dodge in 1999 and Chevrolet in 2004). Of note, Sauter’s ThorSport Racing teammate Crafton in the No. 88 Ford could also join that club – his two previous wins at Texas (Summer 2014 and Summer 2015) came in a Toyota. New leader in the clubhouse After holding the spot atop the points since the Atlanta race in the second week, Grant Enfinger had to surrender his lead to Halmar Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen following Martinsville. This marks the first time Friesen has led the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series points standings – and he holds a narrow four-point lead over ThorSport Racing’s Enfinger. Friesen took over the lead in the standings on the strength of strong performances at Las Vegas (fourth) and Martinsville (fifth) – and gained a lot of ground by placing well at the conclusion of Stage 1 and Stage 2 in each of those races. Friesen twice finished second at the conclusion of a stage and was in the top 10 after each of the other stages at Las Vegas and Martinsville. Enfinger failed to earn a stage point in either race. And there’s good reason for Friesen to be optimistic heading into Texas. He finished second in the summer race last year and then eighth in the fall. He also started on pole in that June race last season. Overall, he has an average finish of 11.5 in four starts at Texas. But he can’t let up – Enfinger has a pretty solid history at Texas, himself. In four starts, he has an average finish of 6.5 – an average that was brought down by a 12th-place finish last fall. Prior to that, he had finishes of third, seventh and fourth. source – NASCAR communications
