Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Matt Crafton only has two career Cup Series starts, curiously all coming in substitute duty. That will continue on Sunday as he takes over the #51 Ford Mustang from Cody Ware, who has a personal situation to attend to as the Cup Series heads to the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Race.

“Cody Ware will step away from racing this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway to focus on a personal matter,” reads a statement from Rick Ware Racing. “Matt Crafton will drive the No. 51 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing. Crafton has more than 500 overall-starts in his NASCAR career, winning back-to-back NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championships in 2013 and 2014.

“The Ware family asks that their privacy be respected during this time.”

Despite Crafton’s Truck successes, nearly all of his Cup experience has been in relief duty dating as far back as 2008 and 2009, when he qualified the Cup car of Robby Gordon at Dover and Fontana while Gordon was respectively competing in the Baja 500 and Baja 1000. Five years later, he filled in for Paul Menard and Martin Truex Jr. for Fontana and Michigan qualifying when both were away on family matters; an even more unusual substitution took place at 2014 preseason Daytona testing when he subbed for Menard after a pipe burst at the latter’s house. Crafton has long been sponsored by Menard’s family business Menards, through which he also developed ties with Gordon, while Truex turned to him as a fellow Toyota driver.

Even when he finally got to see Cup racing action, all have been as injury substitutes: the 2015 Daytona 500 for Kyle Busch who had broken his legs, the 2019 fall Talladega race as a mid-race replacement for Menard as he dealt with neck pain, and that year’s Martinsville event after Matt Tifft was hospitalised for a seizure. The only time Crafton entered a Cup event on his own without circumstance was in 2014 at Indianapolis when he failed to qualify for RAB Racing.

Chad Finchum will hope to run his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race of 2023 at Martinsville Speedway on 15 April, driving the #66 Ford Mustang for MBM Motorsports.

“I love Martinsville Speedway. It’s always been one of my favorite tracks to race at and I have had a lot of success there throughout the years,” posted Finchum on social media Friday. “I can’t wait to be back at the track. Let’s get it!”

Finchum has exclusively raced for MBM since entering NASCAR’s national divisions in 2017, including being a full-time driver from 2018 to 2020. In 106 career Xfinity series, he has eleven top-twenty finishes and a best run of eleventh at the fall Talladega race in 2020. As a weekly driver, his highest points finish was twenty-sixth in 2019 and 2020. Finchum also raced in the Cup Series with MBM between 2018 and 2021.

He only ran two races in 2022 as the team struggled to qualify, missing four other entries. After failing to qualify for the first Martinsville event, he made the second but retired with a brake failure and was classified thirty-sixth.

The #66 has endured a difficult start to the 2023 season, making just three of the first seven races with five different drivers including Caesar Bacarella, Timmy Hill, Cameron Lawrence, Mason Maggio, and Dexter Stacey. It is currently forty-first in owner points with Maggio holding its best finish of thirty-first at Richmond in his series début.

The Stadium Super Trucks are a unique beast in motorsport as off-road vehicles that compete on pavement. However, they will hit the dirt once more later this year as the series joins Crandon International Off-Road Raceway‘s Labor Day card on 2/3 September.

Long cherished as the most iconic track for short course off-road racing, Crandon hosted SST test races ahead of the inaugural season in 2013. The trucks ran their first and only points weekend at the Wisconsin track that year with Rob MacCachren and Jerett Brooks emerging as winners. The facility is one of two permanent short course tracks to welcome SST alongside Glen Helen, itself the discipline’s biggest locations for the West Coast scene.

The Labor Day weekend is Crandon’s crown jewel calendar slot with the Crandon World Championship Off-Road Races and the Red Bull Crandon World Cup. The World Championship currently serves as the penultimate round for Championship Off-Road, though has been organised since 1970, while the World Cup is a more recent edition that pits Pro 2 and Pro 4 trucks against each other. SST’s only Crandon points appearance came in support of the 2013 World Championship, then sanctioned by COR’s predecessor TORC.

The stadium trucks add to an already loaded Labor Day schedule at Crandon, which also includes Ultra4 and the Class 11 World Championship. By going to Crandon, SST will not return to Bristol Motor Speedway after taking part in the 2022 Bristol 1000.

The Checkered Flag understands there will be a “unique twist” to the race format which will be revealed as the weekend approaches, though it is confirmed that they will be points-paying races. Guest drivers from other series are also expected to take part; Championship Off-Road regulars like Ryan Beat and Cory Winner have competed in SST as recently as 2022, with Beat also set to run the 2023 season opener. C.J. Greaves, who defeated Beat for the Crandon World Cup last year, also has SST experience at X Games 2015.

As the World Rally-Raid Championship heads to the Americas for the first time, Rebecca Busi will race for a new team as she joins FN Speed Team. Her first race with the outfit will be the Sonora Rally in Mexico on 24–28 April, followed by the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina from 28 August to 1 September.

Busi ran the Dakar Rally with HRT Technology Team, placing as high as thirty-sixth in the T4 category before retiring in Stage #12 with a broken control arm. Although she had planned to challenge the full W2RC calendar, her Can-Am was not approved by inspectors for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, forcing her to sit the event out.

In mid-March, she visited FN Speed Team’s base in Spain to become acquainted with the outfit before confirming her new gig later in the month. Busi wrote on her OnlyFans page, “I’m happy to announce that I’ll be in Mexico for Sonora rally and Argentina for desafio ruta with the new team FN speed … are u ready to see some sand????”

FN Speed Team fielded Can-Am Mavericks in both T3 and T4 at the Dakar Rally but mainly focuses on the latter. Busi’s new team-mate and eighteen-year-old Pau Navarro is the one of the brightest prospects in the W2RC as he sits third in the T4 standings and scored an overall class podium at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Navarro’s father Santiago finished ninth in T3 at Dakar as one of eight Dakar-only FN Speed Team drivers; the younger Navarro was the operation’s lone entry in Abu Dhabi.

The 2023 British Rallycross Championship kicks off this weekend at the home of rallycross, Lydden Hill. With some revised rules and returning drivers it looks set to be one of the hardest fought seasons. Anticipation is high before a large grid of 600hp beasts battle over the Easter weekend.

Calendar

All tracks used last year make a welcome return across six weekends. The only change comes in the form of Pembrey circuit losing its May date being replaced by a third Lydden Hill weekend in July. There the Supercar class will support the return of the World Rallycross Championship to the UK. The Irish Rallycross Championship will support a pair of weekends at Mondello Park and Pembrey. After a well received round in support of the Rallycross France finale at Druex, the British Supercars will join the field at the French track again. Round nine will once again be run under the lights. 

Rules

A few rules have been tweaked in a bid to get drivers signed up for as many rounds as possible. Drivers can now drop any two rounds, save for the last round. This is double the allocation from last year where only entered rounds could be ignored. The points distribution has been simplified, now only awarding points based on the final classification of the event. This is the fourth change of format in as many years after points were previously allocated based on qualifying, semi-final and final positions.

Bill Hynes will be part of some exclusive company when the 2023 Stadium Super Trucks season kicks off as he becomes just the second driver to have raced in the series for ten years. The first to achieve the feat was series founder Robby Gordon.

Hynes has competed in SST since its second season in 2014, with 120 starts to his name. After running a limited slate in 2014 beginning with the Toronto round, he became a full-time driver the following season. and scored his first podium that year at Valvoline Raceway in Australia. His maiden victory came at Lake Elsinore in 2018.

2022 saw his best statistical campaign to date when he finished fourth in points with a pai of podiums at Mid-Ohio Race #1 and Bristol #1. He had dominated the latter before being passed by eventual series champion Gavin Harlien in the closing moments.

Although Gordon’s 148 starts are the most in series history, he ran a limited schedule of just two weekends in 2022 to focus on developing his SPEED UTV brand while Hynes did the full season. The duo and Matt Brabham (109) are the only drivers with triple-digit starts.

His ThrillCast podcast will once again be the primary sponsor of his #57 truck.

After being involved in a scary wreck during last Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, Dean Thompson was cleared Thursday to return to action with two days until the next event at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Following medical evaluations after his on-track incident at Texas Motor Speedway, Dean Thompson has been cleared by NASCAR to return to competition behind the wheel of the No. 5 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway,” reads a team statement.

The TRICON Garage driver was enjoying a strong run at Texas before he hit the frontstretch outside wall on lap 146, producing a cloud of smoke as his #5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro came to a stop. Unable to see through the smoke, Matt Mills accidentally slammed into Thompson’s truck followed by Armani Williams and Trey Hutchens sliding into him after failed attempts to dodge. Thompson was taken to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center for evaluation and released later in the day.

Upon returning home to North Carolina, he continued medical assessments with OrthoCarolina and Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates before NASCAR approved him for return.

“I can’t thank all the great people at the AMR safety crew, infield care center medical staff, and Baylor Scott & White enough for their quick and immediate response,” tweeted Thompson. “I would also like to thank OrthoCarolina, Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine, and everyone at TPC for their support.”

Frédéric Chavigny, a French agronomist who made his mark in Eastern European rally raid, passed away recently at the age of 57.

Chavigny mainly raced in the Ukrainian Rally-Raid Cup, intended as an escape from his work in agriculture. He made his Dakar Rally début in the T2 category in 2009, finishing fiftieth overall. He improved as high as twenty-third in 2011 before switching to T1 in 2014 and placing sixteenth in the T1.1 subcategory (forty-second overall).

When staying in Europe, he also took part in the Silk Way Rally and was a mainstay in T2, which he won in 2011.

“In January, there is not much work in Ukraine, and this gave me the opportunity to participate in the Dakar Rally,” Chavigny explained to Latifundist in 2014. “In July, before the start of the harvest, I free up seven to ten days in my schedule to participate in the Silk Way and meet with partners and clients after the races. So this is not only a vacation, but also a continuation of the business: you never know where you will find and where you will lose.”

Off the track, he entered the agriculture business in 1986 in his native France before arriving in Ukraine five years later as a sugar consultant. In 1997, he founded ByFrederic to sell machinery assisting in planting seeds like corn and soybeans. He became the president of ASPRIA Seeds, which specialises in providing seeds of non-GMO plants, in 2012; under his watch, ASPRIA maintained multiple branches in Ukraine and Georgia.

Thursday was not very kind to Chevrolet. While Alex Bowman and William Byron suffered 60-point deductions at the NASCAR Cup Series level, three Chevrolet teams in the Craftsman Truck Series—Nick Sanchez, Chase Purdy, and Jack Wood—received L1-level penalties that docked them ten points in the driver and owner championships.

The offenders were found to have broken Section 14.3.3.3.2.C concerning the engine oil reservoir and tank encasement, Sections 14.9.3.2 C and G regarding the engine oil reservoir tank proper, and the more general Section 14.19.A on vehicle assembly. All three were found on Saturday during the Truck race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Sanchez dominated the Truck race from the pole as he led 168 of 172 laps but a last-lap crash while fighting for the lead relegated him to sixteenth. On the other hand, Purdy finished a career-best second whereas Wood was ninth. Purdy and Wood are team-mates at Kyle Busch Motorsports while Sanchez is a rookie at Rev Racing.

Despite the ten points lost, Sanchez remains ninth in points. Purdy drops from seventh to eighth, while Wood fell two positions to twenty-fourth. Wood is not running the full schedule, but the #51 KBM truck is a multi-driver vehicle competing for the owner championship. With the penalty also applying to owner points, the #51 dropped a spot. Ironically, Byron is scheduled to race the #51 this weekend at Bristol Dirt.

Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR‘s inspection team are probably not on each other’s Christmas greeting lists this year.

A week after Hendrick drivers Alex Bowman and William Byron, as well as their team-mate Kyle Larson and the #9 car of Chase Elliott and his injury substitutes, got their 100-point penalties for louver violations slashed upon appeal, the two have now lost sixty points and five playoff points each for violating NASCAR’s vehicle assembly policy concerning the car’s greenhouse.

Bowman and Byron’s cars were taken to NASCAR’s research and development centre for further inspection following Sunday’s Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway, where they respectively finished eighth and twenty-fourth.

The greenhouse is the region above the door and between the front and rear windows (pictured below). In particular, the offenders broke 14.1.2.B of the rulebook concerning the “Engineering Change Log”, which states the greenhouse “may be modified to accommodate a windshield wiper motor where required” but it must also be within certain dimensions (depicted in featured image).

Both drivers were already without their regular crew chiefs Rudy Fugle (Byron) and Blake Harris (Bowman) as they continue to serve their four-race suspensions for the louver penalty. With this infraction, their replacements Brian Campe and Greg Ives have also been suspended for two races beginning 13 April. Campe and Ives have also been fined USD$75,000 (€68,697) each.

Denny Hamlin will remain twenty-five points short after his plea to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel to overturn the penalty that deducted the points was rejected on Thursday.

Hamlin had received the penalty after admitting on an episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast he had attempted to wreck Ross Chastain on purpose during the final lap of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway in March. The two had a history of clashing with each other in 2022, which continued into Phoenix as Hamlin tried to squeeze Chastain into the wall; Hamlin would finish twenty-fourth and a spot ahead of Chastain.

Ironically, the action was deemed a violation of the rulebook’s Section 4.4.D for “actions detrimental to stock car racing”, while also breaking 4.4.B regarding manipulating a race by attempting to take out another car.

The lost points dropped Hamlin from seventh to sixteenth in points. He has attempted to work his way back up the order in the three races since and now sits eleventh. Had the penalty not occurred, he would be back in seventh.

Shortly after the ruling, Hamlin created an “emergency” episode of Actions Detrimental to break down the “pretty long” appeals process and give his side of the story. Much of his grievances came with the fear that NASCAR would attempt to clamp down on drivers offering their insight via podcasts should they stray away from the leadership’s opinion.

North Wilkesboro Speedway is not the only thing returning when the NASCAR Cup Series kicks off the NASCAR All-Star Race on 19–21 May. On Thursday, NASCAR revealed the format for the race which will also include the revival of the beloved Pit Crew Challenge, except it now has ramifications for the race itself.

“As we celebrate our seventy-fifth anniversary, it’s important for NASCAR to honor our history while moving towards the future,” commented NASCAR chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell. “The combination of the Next Gen cars on one of NASCAR’s first, and most exciting, tracks will deliver a full weekend of racing that fans will not forget. While the All-Star Race has previously been used to test new formats and technologies, we wanted this year’s format to showcase the historic return of NASCAR to North Wilkesboro Speedway.”

The Pit Crew Challenge predates the All-Star Race by nearly two decades, having first been held in 1967 at Rockingham Speedway as an event run by then-fuel supplier Union 76. It was moved closer to Charlotte, where the eponymous speedway was hosting the All-Star Race, and stayed there until the event was cancelled after 2012.

While the previous challenge had no bearing on the All-Star Race, the 2023 edition will set the starting lineup for the heat races and All-Star Open. Teams will perform a four-tyre pit stop without fuel, and those with the best times will start up front for their respective qualifying races.

There are two heat races of sixty laps each, with the results of the first determining the All-Star’s inside row while the second sets the outside. Those not already locked into the All-Star must qualify via the 100-lap Open, which will have a pause at or around lap 40; the top two and a Fan Vote winner advance to the main event.

Bruce Binnquist has joined a growing list of drivers set to make their Stadium Super Trucks début at the season-opening Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on 14–16 April. On Thursday, he locked in his entry after testing a truck at series headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A mainstay in UTV desert racing, Binnquist mainly drives a Can-Am built by Geiser Performance in Best In The Desert competition. For 2023, he is also pursuing the inaugural Unlimited Off-Road Racing Triple Crown Championship, a series of three major off-road races beginning with King of the Hammers in February followed by the Mint 400 in March and California 300 in September.

He finished second in the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge’s UTV Pro Mod class at King of the Hammers, followed by a runner-up overall in the Mint 400’s Limited Race to retain the UTV Triple Crown points lead. Despite failing to finish the inaugural California 300 in 2022, he had been the fastest qualifier.

His construction firm Binnquist Development Inc. (BDI) will serve as primary sponsor.

Also testing on Thursday were David Bernstein and Myles Cheek, the former also set for his first SST race at Long Beach. Trey Hernquist, a fellow desert racer who won Class 5 Unlimited in the Mint 400 Limited Race, is making his début as well.

The last time Myles Cheek raced in the Stadium Super Trucks, he was an eighteen-year-old hotshot in West Coast short course racing. Now twenty-four years of age, he will make his return to the series at the season-opening Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on 14–16 April. He spent Thursday testing at SST headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, to prepare for the start.

Cheek’s first SST weekend came at Long Beach in 2017, where he finished seventh and eighth in two races. He ran as high as third in Race #1 before crashing into the tyre barrier after entering the corner too deep, though he recovered to finish the event.

While Long Beach is the only track to see Cheek in a stadium truck, he first got involved with the series during the inaugural season in 2013 when he raced in the Super Trophy Karts support category. He won the first-ever race during the SST début night at what is now State Farm Stadium in Phoenix; 2022 SST champion Gavin Harlien and two-time SST race winner Jeff Hoffman also competed against Cheek that day.

His father Chuck owns CMI Precision Machining and won the 2009 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Pro Buggy championship. The younger Cheek followed suit when he claimed the 2011 Junior 2 Kart title at the age of thirteen before moving up to Mod Karts, scoring two more crowns in 2012 and 2013.

He eventually switched to UTVs and became a factory driver for Polaris. In 2020, he won the Production 1000 UTV title in dominant fashion as he never finished lower than second in all eight races and won six times. LOORRS folded at the end of the year, making him the final class champion. The year before, Cheek finished third in the points battle to current SST regular Robert Stout and Brock Heger, the latter having made SST starts in 2013 while also racing against Cheek in Super Trophy Karts.

Ron Capps is more than familiar with going in a straight line on pavement, but will get to add some turns on dirt when he makes his Superstar Racing Experience début at Eldora Speedway on 10 August.

Capps is one of the top racers in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series as the twice reigning Funny Car champion and a three-time titlist in said category. SRX founder Tony Stewart, who owns Eldora, competes full-time in the NHRA’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series for sportsman entries, having made the jump in 2022.

“SRX pretty much took the motorsports world by storm three years ago,” said Capps. “We all grew up watching the IROC series and Thursday Night Thunder was something I never missed as a fan. To have these two things together is a dream for both the fans and racecar drivers. It is such an honour to be selected to join the SRX series this year. I’ve been a huge fan of the concept to the point where we would make sure we got to a TV when we were at our NHRA races to catch the SRX races.

“It’s incredible to know that I’ll be joining some of the best race car drivers in the world on such a historic and fast race track in Eldora Speedway. The coolest part is for our NHRA fans to know that they can tune in and watch one of their own battle with the best on the high banks of Eldora Speedway. I’ll be a little out of my comfort zone, but I’m going to try and make our fans proud.”

While SRX will be a new foray for Capps, he is not completely unfamiliar with dirt track racing. During its run from 2005 to 2012, he competed in the Prelude to the Dream at Eldora, a charity dirt late model race predominantly featuring NASCAR stars including Stewart, with a best finish of fourth in 2006.