Bucked Up 200 starting lineup at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Spire Motorsports announced today that Built Bar will be the primary sponsor of Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Built Bar is part of the Built Brands™ portfolio of nutritional products. Built Brands is a leading manufacturer and distributor of healthy, great-tasting protein and energy products--combining natural, clean ingredients in a unique way. Built Bar’s proprietary manufacturing process produces a great-tasting, healthy bar that is high in protein, high in fiber, and low in sugar.
“Built Brands is thrilled to extend our partnership with Corey LaJoie and join Spire Motorsports for the 2021 season,” said Nick Greer, co-founder of Built Brands. "It is our responsibility to ensure Corey is properly fueled for all his races, and we're committed to serving as his healthy snack alternative while he's on and off the track. Here's to another protein-packed season, with many more to come."
Built Bar is truly a standout among protein bars. With its exceptional nutritional profile and so many delicious flavors, Built Bar is the favorite protein bar of many discerning fitness trainers and fitness enthusiasts alike.
“I can’t wait to have Built Bar on our car this weekend in Las Vegas,” said LaJoie. “Nick Greer and the team at Built Brands supported me last season and I’m really proud they’ve decided to partner with us at Spire Motorsports this year. The paint scheme they came up with should certainly capture the fan’s attention and hopefully sell a bunch of protein bars. Las Vegas is one of my favorite intermediate tracks and I’m looking forward to having a strong day.”
“We’re thrilled to have Built Bar come aboard our No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro this weekend,” said Spire Motorsports co-owner T.J. Puchyr. “Corey, Nick Greer and the team at Built Brands have created a relationship that we’re excited to see transition to Spire Motorsports. The paint scheme they’ve come up with is absolutely lights out and I can’t think of a better venue to see it come to life than Las Vegas Motor Speedway.”
The Pennzoil 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be televised live on FOX Sunday, March 7 beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The fourth of 36 races on the 2021 NCS schedule will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Spire Motorsports PR
The seventh edition of the CARS Tour will kick off this weekend at South Carolina’s Dillon Motor Speedway. This will be the first event visit to the Dillon, South Carolina track, and just the second time in series history that only the Late Model Stock Car division will kick off the season solo. The competition for the 2021 Late Model Stock Car division has been anticipated by many as the most competitive class to chase the championship title hunt yet.
EVENT NOTES
Track: Dillon Motor Speedway
Location: Dillon, SC
Track Size: .410 mile
Event Name: Black’s Tire 150
Laps: 125L (LMSC)
Distance: 51.25 miles
Event Schedule: Practice: 11AM-11:30AM / Qualifying: 2PM / Green Flag: 3PM
PRE ENTRY LIST
LMSC Entry List (22 total)
#08 Deac McCaskill, #1 Craig Moore, #2 Brandon Pierce, #2N Timothy Peters, #4 Jonathan Findley, #4H Kaden Honeycutt, #5 Jake Vuncannon, #14 Jared Fryar, #14J Conner Jones, #17 Joe Valento, #19 Jessica Cann, #22 Bobby McCarty, #24 Mason Diaz, #44 Justin Johnson, #81 Mini Tyrrell, #81B Sam Butler, #87 Mike Looney, #88 William Cox III, #91 Jonathan Shafer, #95 Sam Yarbrough, #97 Daniel Silvestri, #99 Lanye Riggs
SOCIAL
Facebook: CARS Tour / Dillon Speedway
Instagram: cars_tour / N/A
Twitter: @CARSTour / @DillonSpeedway / #BlacksTire125
QUICK HITS
Jared Fryar Returns for the Repeat
Defending champion, Jared Fryar will once again drive for Jimmy Mooring in 2021 and will look to defend his championship title from a season ago. The Trinity, North Carolina driver used consistency and a return to Edelbrock Victory Lane (Franklin County) for the first time since 2017 to capture the title. While the upcoming 2021 schedule has several familiar tracks, multiple new facilities could challenge Fryar this season. Fryar will entire the season opener as the championship favorite over fellow competitors Layne Riggs and Bobby McCarty.
Out with the Old and in with the New
Changing up the competition this season, there are drivers that won’t compete full time with the tour in 2021. Josh Berry, Ronald Hill, and Chad McCumbee won’t be full time with the tour, but we can expect these familiar names to return to the schedule at some point throughout the season. We can expect greatness from other competitors this season, as they have been watching and learning from these veterans for years.
While a few veterans will be absent, there are several series newcomers and multiple drivers who will compete for the R&S Racecars Rookie of the Year title this season. Multi-time Myrtle Beach Speedway track champion, Sam Yarbrough will take over the ride vacated by McCumbee, driving Robert Elliott’s #95 machine. The 2016 Martinsville 300 winner, Mike Looney will compete for the series title with backing from Harrion’s Workwear in 2021. Youngsters Joe Valento, Connor Jones, Kaden Honeycutt, and Daniel Silvestri will all get their first taste of tour action this weekend at Dillon.
Debut at Dillon – What to Expect?
For the first time in seven seasons, the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour will race at Ron Barfield’s Dillon Motor Speedway located just off Interstate 95 in Dillon, South Carolina. The 4/10 mile track presents long straights with 14 degree banked turns. Turns one and two are quicker and sweeping, while three and four are abrupt with the turn four wall easily met upon exit to the flag stand. Much like other tracks in the sandy region of South Carolina, Dillon will be hard on tire wear. Teams that can manage tires for the duration of the race will be the ones up front as the laps wind down. The other key factor at the facility is keeping the racing clean, especially off the exit of turn four. The front straight away is narrow compared to most facilities, thus creating easy chaos if more than a few cars find trouble at once.
The Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour is one of the premier short track series in the United States. Drivers compete in Late Model Stock Cars and Super Late Models at the best short tracks across the Carolinas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia. The CARS Tour can be found on Facebook at “CARS Tour”, on Twitter @CARSTour, and on Instagram as @CARS_Tour. For more information, visit www.carsracingtour.com or call their Mooresville, N.C. offices at 704.662.9212.
CARS Tour PR
DGR NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race Advance: Las Vegas
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DGR PR
Goodyear shakes down tires at COTA
For the first time at the iconic Circuit of The Americas, three former NASCAR Cup Series champions shook down the 20-turn, 3.41-mile long course in stock cars on Tuesday. Part of a Goodyear tire test in preparation for the inaugural May 23 EchoPark Texas Grand Prix, the showcase of speed saw Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. provide a preview of what to expect when NASCAR’s best battle on the series’ newest circuit.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports
“The track’s fun. It has a lot of character to it, I feel like. I’ve never been here, never seen it in person before today and really haven’t watched a ton of races here, so it’s really been a pretty steep learning curve for me, trying to piece together all the different parts of the track and understand where you need to be good and how to make it flow. I’m trying to learn, but it’s been fun. I hope people (fans) will come out and give it a chance. It’s a different type of racing.”
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Ford for Team Penske
“One of the things about this track here in Austin, it’s got a couple of key action spots. Turn 1 is designed as though a fan said, ‘how can I have the most calamity in that corner on the start?’ So there’s a couple of things – first off, it’s up hill, which helps the car stop, so it encourages the driver to try to out-brake another driver, which is big on a restart or a start because all of the cars are already so close together. Second thing is, it’s really wide on entry, so it’s almost impossible to block because there’s just a lot more racetrack. And then, of course, the third part is it’s a super slow corner meaning you have to use a lot of brakes to get through there. So, like I said, almost like it was intentional – I’m sure it was intentional – to create some epic starts. I think you’ll see that here.”
Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing
“I feel like this is kind of part Sonoma, part Watkins Glen. There’s some fast sections, some slow sections. It’s got the older asphalt, wearing tires out more like Sonoma, but it’s got the really high-speed straights and the really hard braking zone like Watkins Glen going down the backstretch. It’s a mix of both. It’s got a little bit of a blind corner, up-and-down elevation change like Sonoma. It’s a pretty unique place … It’s all about markers and points on the track and when you turn in and what gear you’re in and how much speed you’re carrying and finding the brake points and all those things. It takes over two minutes to get around here, so if you make a mistake, you’ve got to wait two minutes to correct it, and you can’t forget it when you come back around. It was interesting to do that and a lot of fun to do that.”
Click here for a full transcript from Tuesday’s driver availability.
The first-ever NASCAR at COTA race weekend will feature a jam-packed three-day schedule of activity. FEVO Friday on May 21 will feature NASCAR Xfinity (NXS) and Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) practice sessions plus IMSA-sanctioned Lamborghini Super Trofeo Series practice. The schedule for Saturday, May 22, includes NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) practice, plus NXS qualifying and the Pit Boss 250 NXS race, as well as NCWTS and Lamborghini qualifying and races. Sunday, May 23, will be the culmination of the weekend featuring NCS qualifying, a second Lamborghini race and the first NCS race in COTA’s illustrious history, the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix. Announcements regarding on-track timing for the complete weekend schedule will be made at a later date.
TICKETS:
Single-day tickets start at just $25 for FEVO Friday, $30 on Saturday and $70 on Sunday. Three-day packages for adults start at only $99. Kids 12 and under get in free on Friday and Saturday and for just $10 on Sunday.
Fans can purchase tickets online at NASCARatCOTA.com or by calling the ticket office at (833) 450-2864.
MORE INFO:
Fans can connect with NASCAR at COTA and get the latest news by following on Twitter and Instagram or becoming a Facebook fan.
SMLLC PR
HaasTooling.com Racing: Cole Custer Las Vegas Advance
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Notes of Interest |
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● After coming oh-so-close to his first top-10 finish of the season, 23-year-old Cole Custer and his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for their first of back-to-back NASCAR Cup Series weekends in the Desert Southwest. Sunday’s 400-mile event on the 1.5-mile oval will be Custer’s 43rd career start in the series and his fourth at Las Vegas. The series will race at Phoenix Raceway the following Sunday, March 14.
● Custer, the reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year, ran in the top-five for a majority of the final stage of last Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and was running eighth with two laps to go when a tire issue dropped him off the pace. He took the checkered flag with a disappointing 23rd-place finish. The native of Ladera Ranch, California, heads to Las Vegas 14th in the driver standings with 68 points, 71 markers behind leader Denny Hamlin. Still, he is 12 positions higher in the standings after the first three events than he was in his inaugural Cup Series season of 2020, when he was 26th. He went on to earn a berth in the NASCAR playoffs with his July 12 victory at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.
● In his first three Cup Series starts at Las Vegas, Custer has a best start of 17th in last year’s February race and a best finish of 16th last September. Las Vegas was where Custer made his Cup Series debut in the March 2018 race, when he started 30th and finished 25th in the No. 54 Rick Ware Racing Ford.
● In five NASCAR Xfinity Series outings at Las Vegas from 2017 through 2019, all behind the wheel of the No. 00 SHR Ford, Custer started on the pole in each of the last three, and he posted top-10 finishes in each of the last four with a best of third in the September 2018 race. He also led a total of 54 laps in Xfinity Series competition at Las Vegas.
● In Custer’s lone career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series outing at Las Vegas, he started and finished third in the October 2016 race, driving the No. 00 entry for JR Motorsports.
● Season 1 of the new Netflix series “The Crew,” the NASCAR-themed comedy starring Kevin James as an old-school crew chief, debuted this month on the streaming channel, and Custer is one of three drivers who filmed cameo appearances for the show’s inaugural season. Ryan Blaney and Austin Dillon are the others, and the cameo lineup also includes FOX NASCAR pit reporter Jamie Little. There are 10 episodes now available for streaming.
● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.
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Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing |
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You’re headed to Las Vegas, which is one of those tracks where the surface has aged and it seems to be quite racy. How does that affect the complexion of a race there these days? “Yeah, it’s huge. Whenever you see these tracks that are wearing out more and more, it just makes them racier and racier, in my opinion. We’re able to slip and slide around and you’re able to do more. You’re able to move around the track and you’re able to kind of find some things that are better than the guy next to you, so it’s something that’s really fun and I think it’s something that every single driver gets excited about when the pavement gets wore out.”
How does Las Vegas compare to other tracks that are worn? “It’s a track that’s kind of transitioning into that field, I guess you’d say. It’s getting there. It’s starting to get a little more worn out but, also, the big thing there are the bumps. The surface might not be extremely worn, but they have huge bumps, so it does bring a huge challenge into how the driver is going to make it through the bumps and how the team is going to set the car up through it.”
How do you feel about your first three races this year? “Right now, I think we’re honestly in a pretty good spot. I was happy with our runs at Daytona. We ran a lot of the race in the top-10. I think we just need to keep building off that. We had a good run going late in the race at Homestead. We were in the top-five for a long time and were two laps away from a top-10 finish when a tire started coming apart. That was disappointing, but if you can run in the top-10 and get stage points and not make the big mistakes, you’re going to find yourself in some pretty good spots and you’re going to find yourself right in the middle of the points battle to make the playoffs. I think it’s just a matter of taking it week by week and making sure we keep progressing, but I think we’re in a pretty good spot right now.”
We saw a couple of first-time Cup Series winners in the first two races, and then William Byron won his second career race last weekend at Homestead. How does that affect the playoff picture, in your mind? “It’s definitely not ideal, but at the same time it’s probably too early to know how that is all going to work out. At this point, you just try and keep being consistent, keep trying to work up to it, and run in the top-10 and get stage points and try to get as many points as you can. It’s something where, halfway through the year and you’re in that spot, it’s where you don’t want to be, you’re right on the bubble, you might have to be more aggressive. But at this point it’s too early to tell. I feel like you just have to keep trying to be consistent.”
Is there a point in the regular season when you really have to start pacing yourself? “I think, starting off the season, you’re just trying to make sure you don’t put yourself in a hole. That’s the biggest thing, at least from my standpoint. From there, you just try and build it and you try and get more and more confident, more comfortable with what’s going on, just because we don’t have the practice to work through a lot of things as a driver. So, limiting the big mistakes and kind of working into it is probably a smart idea. And then, once you get into the summer months, you’re trying to perfect it more and more and get more and more aggressive. It’s just a matter of working up to it. That’s the biggest thing.”
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JRM Mourns the Passing of Harrold Annett
Harrold Annett, father of JRM driver Michael Annett, died yesterday after a brief illness.
The elder Annett, chairman of TMC Transportation, the nation’s largest employee-owned open-deck transportation company, was a huge supporter of motorsports for many years in varying series. Perhaps most famously, TMC Transportation was the sponsor for driver Sammy Swindell in the No. 1 TMC sprint car. Swindell drove the car - adorned in the black-and-gold colors - to 89 World of Outlaws Sprint Car victories and 145 overall from 1988-93.
TMC came aboard at JRM in 2017 with the arrival of Michael Annett to the driver lineup and has been on the No. 1 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet in varying degrees ever since as both primary and associate sponsor. The younger Annett won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series pole at Talladega in 2019 driving the familiar black and gold TMC paint scheme with the logo on the hood and quarterpanels.
“We are heartbroken at the news of Harrold Annett’s passing,” said Kelley Earnhardt Miller, general manager of JR Motorsports. “Our hearts go out to Michael and his family, and to the family at TMC Transportation, which has been a big part of our team in so many ways. As a huge supporter of motorsports, we have lost one of its true champions in Harrold Annett.”
TMC Transportation, based in Des Moines, Iowa, also helped JRM move its four-car team from Mooresville, N.C. to the West Coast races by supplying reserve drivers for the consecutive cross-country trips alongside JRM’s transport personnel.
Harrold Annett purchased dormant The Mickow Corporation trucking company in 1972 and in short order began delivering freight around the Midwest. In the coming years, the elder Annett built TMC into the largest privately-held flatbed carrier in the nation. In 2013, Annett established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and TMC became an employee-owned company.
To honor the elder Annett, the No. 1 Chevrolet driven by Michael Annett will feature a tribute decal on the roof rail for the remainder of the season, and the three other JRM cars will carry it this weekend at Las Vegas. In addition, all four of JRM’s Peterbilt transporters will carry a special decal for the season’s entirety. The No. 1 team’s Featherlite trailer will have the decal prominently displayed for the remainder of the season as well.
JRM PR
There will be a change in the way fuel is provided to racers at Grandview Speedway this season and the official tire supplier will be Grandview Speedway with American Racer remaining as the official track tire.
Tires will be available from Tina Rogers at 72 Wilt Road, Bechtelsville, located just down the street from the speedway on Saturday, March 6th, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. During the season there will be days and times announced when tire purchases can be made through Rogers. Tires will also be available at BFP Specialties in Bethel, PA to help racers in that area.
As for fuel, Rich Perone and Kelly Fuels will no longer be the fuel supplier due to the rising costs of business, moving fuel, along with more racers now taking care of their own fuel. Rich is not abandoning the teams who use Kelly fuel. Racers will be able to obtain trackside fuel support delivered to their garages. If there are any questions please feel free to contact Rich Perone.
Racers planning to compete at Grandview should make arrangements to bring their own fuel which many have been doing in recent seasons until a new fuel supplier is contracted.
The annual free-to-the-public practice session is set for Saturday, March 27th with a 12 noon starting time. This is test and tune session for all racers and a great opportunity for fans to see what their favorite racer will be driving in 2021.
A full schedule of events can be found at www.grandviewspeedway.com. For information the track number is 610.754.7688.
Grandview Speedway PR
Ford Performance Racing School: Chase Briscoe Las Vegas Advance
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● Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang, is fresh off his second top-20 finish in just his third NASCAR Cup Series start. Briscoe’s 18th-place finish last Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway positions the No. 14 team to build all-important momentum early in the season, beginning this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
● Las Vegas has been one of Briscoe’s more successful tracks. He swept both NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the venue during the 2020 season and both wins aided in his pursuit of the championship. The first win on Feb. 23 secured Briscoe’s spot in the 12-driver playoff field, and the follow-up win in October locked him into the Round of 8. The No. 98 team went on to win once more at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City to advance to the Championship 4.
● Briscoe has five career Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas with two wins and three top-10s. He also made a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series appearance at the 1.5-mile oval in September 2017, starting third and leading the first 40 laps before finishing third in a Ford F-150.
● Just two races into his inaugural Cup Series campaign, Briscoe leads the Rookie of the Year standings by 19 points over Anthony Alfredo. With Rookie of the Year honors in the Truck Series (2017) and Xfinity Series (2019), Briscoe is looking to join Erik Jones and William Byron as only the third driver in history to claim the title in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series.
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Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing |
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How has it been working with crew chief Johnny Klausmeier so far? “Johnny has been super pumped up. He’s been keeping me in the game as far as letting me know that, even though we’ve had damage or had to work back from being multiple laps down, we’re still doing really good. Like at the Daytona road course, we were still up in the mix there at the end and I felt like that was really our first attempt for me and Johnny to work together and actually make adjustments. He’s done a great job making adjustments for the situations that we’ve been in and the cars have been phenomenal. We’re just trying to stay focused on continuing to learn as much as we can about each other and build that notebook. Johnny has done a good job of keeping me motivated and telling me that it’s going to be hard in the beginning. We understand there are going to be challenges and learning curves to overcome. My entire team has done a really good job of understanding that it’s going to take a little bit of time to be consistently running up front, and it’s going to probably take tearing up racecars and making mistakes to learn not to do certain things anymore.”
Last week was the first real chance to get an idea of what you’ve got on the intermediate tracks that we’ll see throughout the season. How has that affected your outlook for this weekend at Las Vegas? “Stewart-Haas Racing has always been strong at Las Vegas and, so far, the No. 14 team has done a great job having the cars set up close to what I need when we unload, so I feel good about this week. I’m still learning, though. Last week was a good chance to see what we had for 1.5-mile tracks, but you can only learn so much that carries over. Homestead and Las Vegas race so differently. I have a better idea of what it’s going to be like further back in the field and I’ll probably still take some time in the beginning to feel things out, but Las Vegas is a track I enjoy racing at and it definitely helps me to feel more comfortable knowing that I have had good results there in the past.”
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