NASCAR

Sam Meyer, who was competing with JR Motorsports’ Late model program in 2018 will be returning to the entity next season driving a JRM Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity series for the second half of the year and later upgrade to be a full-time competitor in the series for the 2022 season. The 17-year-old will be returning to where much of his racing success started as he was riding with JR Motorsports in the Cars Tour back in 2018. The age restrictions back then when he was 15 years old, could only allow him to compete in certain tracks for the ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. In his first ARCA race Mayer ran as high as third and finished among the top 10 drivers. “Having the opportunity to return to JR Motorsports after racing late models with them in 2018 is definitely very special to me,” Mayer said. “Being able to share this news makes me very excited for the coming year…I hope I can learn as much as I can in the second half of next season and to be ready to go race fulltime for the NXS championship in 2022.” The 17-year-old added. “When Sam first came to run the late model a couple of years ago, he was adamant he would be racing an Xfinity car for us someday, I admired his initiative then, and now we’re happy to help make his dream a reality.” said Kelley Earnhardt Miller, JRM general manager. “It will be quite a step up, but it’s one he’s ready to make, he’s shown he has the skills to be successful at a very high level.” Sam Mayer will be the second driver from the JRM model of drivers to return to the organisation for the NASCAR Xfinity series after William Byron the current Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series driver and the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion

Grant enfinger passed Matt Crafton with only seven out of the two hundred and fifty laps remaining which earned him his third victory in the Nascar Truck series regular at Richmond Raceway. Enfinger made a comeback from an incident he had experienced in the early sections of the last stage after his truck developed a tyre rub forcing him to pit following contact with his ThorSport teammate Ben Rhodes. Grant Enfinger got back on the lead-lap and gradually worked his way back to the top, eventually passing teammate Crafton with only seven laps to go, closing the regular season the same way he began it in Victory Lane. This is his fifth career victory. Matt Crafton came in second and Rhodes third making it a 1-2-3 win for ThorSport Racing. Brett Moffitt finished fourth and GMS Racing Tyler Ankrum rounded up the top five spots for the race. “Man, definitely a special night for us…It’s been a rough couple months. Even though we got the year started off pretty good, it’s been a rough couple months. We catch a little flack every now and then but we had three F-150s at ThorSport Racing that could have won the race tonight and I’m proud of that.” Enfinger said. “Matt seemed like he wanted to run the bottom but we ran the center really good. That was our advantage on the long run. We’ve been beating our heads against the wall lately but I feel like we’re going into the playoffs with some momentum.” Following a break between stage two and three, many trucks headed for the pits but Ben Rhodes in the No.99 ThorSport truck remained on the track and in the lead even after the race restart on lap 153, Enfinger managed to grab back the lead after the restart but a lap later Rhodes reclaimed the lead. This move made Enfinger’s No.98 Ford get a tyre rub. Austin Wayne got himself spinning on turn one in an incident that also got ThorSport Racing’s Johny Sauter bringing out the caution as the drivers elected to pit. Moffitt went four-wide in Turns 1 and 2 on the restart to go from 12th to fourth in one lap. On Lap 187, he got around Rhodes to take the lead for the first time in the race. On Lap 196, Crafton managed to move into the runner-up spot, less than a second behind Moffitt but Crafton finally ran down and passed Moffitt for the lead on Lap 219.With 15 laps remaining in the race, Crafton had built a 1.7-second lead over Grant Enfinger with Moffitt in third.Enfinger closed to Crafton’s rear bumper with 10 laps to go, hoping to challenge him one final time for the lead. Enfinger cleared Crafton with seven laps remaining to take the lead for the third time in the race.

It was an intense battle for the lead in the Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway, as the two front running cars came into contact and tangled just two laps remaining to the end of the race. This gave way for Brandon to get a rather unexpected win. There was a thrilling last 10 laps between Xfinity series regular Denny Hamlin and 2020 Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin as they gave fans a thrilling spectacle as they competed for the lead but they both had contact around turn 3 with only two laps to go allowing car No.23(Brandon Jones) to get around them and get the checkered flag. Ross Chastain recovered from the contact to earn his 4th runner up of the season just crossing the finish line 3.363 seconds after Brandon Jones. Ryan Sieg(RSS Racing) came in third as it was quite an excellent performance by Riley Herbst who came in fourth despite being a rookie. The fifth position was rounded up by Hamlin. The rest of the top tens were taken by rookie Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, Michael Annett, Austin Hill and rookie Myatt Snider. “This is a tough place to get around and man, just smart in the head I think today, I think that’s what got ’em,” said driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Brandon Jones. “I saw they were really racing hard and I knew I was catching them and we knew he (Hamlin) was gonna pull that big slider. That’s what you gotta do sometimes to get yourself in position.” Chastain showed a series of mixed reactions regarding to the duel with Hamlin but despite the mishap managed to secure a berth in the 12-driver Xfinity Series Playoffs. he has also won five Xfinity Series wins at Darlington and is also the highest ranked driver still without a win on the year. “Denny was faster, I knew that, everybody watching NBC knew that. I just kept gripping the top best I could, probably hit (the wall) 25 times,” Chastain said. “To be able to be up against a guy like Denny Hamlin, a future Cup champion and go to the end like that with him, I’m proud of this group, proud of the effort,” the 5-time champion winner added. “It’s another heartbreak, but we man, we finished and we still finished second with a beat-up race car.” Denny Hamlin had started last being the 37th car on the grid went ahead to win both stages and put a Darlington driving clinic all afternoon trying to come back from a weak starting position and slow pit stop. Chase Briscoe was a fierce cup contender for the race leading the best 55 laps on Saturday afternoon but he run over a spill left by Brett Moffitt’s damaged car making him to spin out and collide onto the wall with only 30 laps remaining. Despite the downfall the Stewart-Haas driver was able to get the 11th position. The champion Leader Austin Cindric finished 12th. Brandon Brown’s No.86 Chevrolet suffered damage in a collision between ryan Sieg and Daniel Hemric forcing him to make a whole lots of pit stops to keep the car running but not for a competitive win. The Team’s efforts however paid off as he endend up position 17th.

Ben Rhodes’ win at Darlington came as a surprise as he found himself being at the right place at the right time as he stayed on the track and inherited the lead after many lead trucks pitted during a late race caution that saw the race going for two extra laps. After the race restart Derek Kraus managed to get past Ben Rhodes but the rookie was later overtaken by Rhodes through turn 3 and 4 and later held off from the lead durng the last lap. This comes as a first win for Ben Rhodes since his victory at Kentucky Speedway on July 18th. “That was such a tough win, we weren’t the best truck all day,” Rhodes said. “I was actually very disappointed when the caution flag came out because I was thinking 4th place, that would be a good finish for us, we’re going to get into the playoffs.” “But I’m not letting this checkered flag go, it’s been a long time coming and I’m so proud of my No. 99 team…they’ve done an amazing job all year just staying consistent. We come here with no practice and never being here before and we were able to get the win.” “We got challenged. I was trying to get a good jump on the restart but we were playing some games there and (Kraus) tried to get a good run on me and he messed up coming off Turn 2. It feels pretty good.” The race was overwhelmed by Brett Moffitt and Sheldon Creed who were able to lead 145 out of 152 laps when jointly combined but everything took a turn after they headed to the pits. Moffitt finished 10th as Sheldon Creed too the 18th position after he also picked up a speeding penalty as he was making a pit stop. Austin Hill(Hattori Racing) managed to finish third as Grant Enfinger(ThorSport Racing) and Christian Eckes(Kyle Busch Motorsports) finished 4th and 5th respectively. Raphael Lessard, Todd Gilliland, Stewart Friesen, Timmy Hill and Brett Moffitt rounded up as the top 10 finishers in the race.

Kevin Harvick was at the right place at the right time to take the Sunday night win at the nascar cup series playoffs, this comes after putting quite an impressive show to hold off Austin Dillon. This is Harvick’s second win at the Cook Out Southern 500 win at Darlington Raceway in Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff opener. This is considerably Harvick’s 8th best win in the season but the veteran racer was very emotional on his radio sending congratulatory messages to his team as he crossed the finish line. Instead of taking the checkered flag on the finish line Harvick let an appreciative young fan dressed in a brightly colored Harvick t-shirt keep the flag to himself. Kevin Harvick also marked his 57th career victory this win being ninth best of all time. His lead for the race came on lap 355 after Chase Elliot(Hendrick Motorsports) and Martin Truex Jr.(Joe Gibbs Racing) made a contact with the wall racing for the lead infront of him. “The first thing I want to say is ‘Welcome back, fans!’ ” Kevin Harvick said after climbing out of his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.   “Just wound up fighting all night long, this Busch Beer Ford Mustang wasn’t where we wanted it to be, but the leaders got tangled up there and next thing you know we were racing for the win….Anytime you can win the Southern 500, it’s a good day. This is one of the most prestigious races in our sport and one of the most prestigious race tracks in our sport. Any time you can win at Darlington it’s a big deal.” The southern 500 winner added. Joey Logano(Team Penske), Erik Jones(Joe Gibbs Racing) and William Byron(Hendrick Motorsports) ended up being in the top five, as Alex Bowman(Hendrick Motorsports), Kyle Busch(Joe Gibbs Racing), Kurt Busch(Chip Ganassi Racing), Aric Aimirola and Clint Bowyer(both Stewart Haas Racing) rounded up the top ten in the race. Jones was the only non-playoff driver in the top ten.

Hendrick Motorsports on Tuesday announced that they will be extending William Byron’s contract by two years up to 2022. The contract that was signed early August will keep him in the Chevrolet car No.24 for at least two seasons. This comes after Byron won the saturday’s race at Daytona International Speedway earning him a berth into this season’s playoffs which will be opening this Sunday night at Darlington Raceway. “It’s been a fun ride so far with @TeamHendrick and I’m excited to finally share that I’m signed up through 2022 in the No. 24! Thanks for all the support. Now let’s go to Darlington and lock ourselves into the next round of the #NASCARPlayoffs.” The 22-year-old’s twitter handle read. Byron has 98 career starts in Nascar Cup having won once, earned 5 pole positions and 26 top 20 finishes. His career best win was just last year when he ranked 11th in the overall standings. He also takes business communications classes remotely through Liberty, he grew up rooting for the Hendrick organization and was developed in a NASCAR program for future stars. Byron spent one full season in the Truck Series winning a total of seven races before winning the Xfinity Series championship in 2017 driving for JR Motorsports, a Hendrick’s affiliate. Chad Knaus(Hendrick Motorsports crew chief) is also in talks with the Hendrick organisation on the extension of his contract which will be expiring at the end of the year. This is his second year as the crew chief.

Trevor Bayne will be driving car No.40 (Niece Motorsports) Chevrolet Silverado in the Darlington Raceway Truck Series this weekend. This will be a surprise return because Bane has never raced since 2018 in the Nascar Cup race which was held at Texas Motor Speedway. The 29-year-old has quite an experince having 187 races in Nascar Cup Series and 152 in the XFinity series, he has won two times in the XFinity series and only once in the Cup series 2011 at Daytona.This will however be his debut in the Nascar Truck Series this weekend. “After almost two years of being out of the seat, I’m so excited and grateful for another chance to go racing, the call from Niece Motorsports to get back behind the wheel at Darlington was unexpected and came together really fast.” Bayne said. “They have a great group and a lot of potential with their program.  I’m looking forward to working with everyone there and going back racing this weekend” Trevor added. Bayne will join 2000 Truck Series champion Greg Biffle(GMS Racing) who was also a former Nascar cup racer

Sheldon Creed scored his third win in the 2020 Nascar Truck Series on Sunday after a late leap to lead after holding off the former series champion, Brett Moffitt by 0.881 seconds taking home the trophy. The 22-year-old also won a total of $155,000 in race bonuses, this was his second win this month, with the Truck Series having only three races. However, the Sunday’s race did not come around without drama as car No.2 driven by Sheldon Creed(GMS Racing) collided with car No.38 steered by Todd Gilliland(Front Row Motorsports) with just 40 laps remaining. This got Gilliland’s Ford out of action as he had to pit immediately. The American went on to finish a disappointing 24th even after being the winner of the 1st and 2nd stage of the race. Sheldon creed went on to apologise to Todd Gilliland, “Feels great, but I want to start by apologizing to the 38 (Todd Gilliland), It’s so hard to pass here and I got down into his inside and just was really loose getting in, He was really close to my door.” “They were having such a good day and me and Todd are buddies, I hate doing that to him. They are a strong team. He owes me one,” the 22-year-old Californian added. However Todd Gilliland was frustrated,“I think he (Sheldon Creed) knows what happened and I know what happened, He just drove in there over his head and got us. That’s racing. I just hate it.” Austin Hill(Hattori Racing Enterprises) finished 3rd as he continued as the leading champion by points. He was closely followed by Sam Meyer(GMS Racing) who had lead for 24 laps but was later beaten by Creed after the race restart with only 13 laps remaining. “I was just trying to play games on the restart and it didn’t work out in my favor obviously,” said the 17-year-old, “That’s what I get for playing games, I was a sitting duck really, I am proud of my GMS guys today.” Stewart Friesen(Halmar Friesen Racing) ended the Sunday battle 5th which was very commendable for the Canadian in a season that was not in his favour. The newbies Raphael Lessard(Kyle and Busch Motorsport) and Zane Smith(GMS Racing) finished 6th and 7th respectively.

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron earned his first victory in his career on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 season finale. In the two lap overtime restart, Byron grapped the lead from Denny Hamlin and held off his teammate Chase Elliot to take the victory. Byron said he had confidence in his team starting with the crew chief(Chad Knaus) and the guys who could get all the tyres in the pit stops and make the most of it. “It’s been a hard couple of years in the Cup Series and trying to get my first win and gel with this team.” ” These guys did an awesome job today and got us in the playoffs and it’s amazing.” “This is probably the hardest track to points-race.” William Byron continued. ” We had a great Stage 2 and kind of got back in the pack and got shuffled when everyone went singlefile, I thought my hopes were up there. And we were racing around Matt DiBenedetto (No. 21) and Jimmie Johnson(No. 48) in the final stage and I was like man, I’ve got to really make something happen.” An incident however occured at the front of the field involving 11 cars including Jimmie Johnson’s car and Joey Logano’s Team Penske Ford which had won the first two stages of the race. William Byron was a part of the close contact racing incident and his team was worried whether his car was damaged. Their strategies however paid off because Byron stayed out in the race restart instead of pitting and became the race leader when the caution came out. This happened on lap 152 when Tyler Reddick(No 8) cut infront Kyle Busch to take the lead of turn 4 making contact with Kurt Busch(No 1) making him get into Erik Jones(No 20) and triggering the crashes. Among other drivers involved in the incident were Martin Truex Jr(No 19), Ricky Stenhouse Jr(No 47), Michael McDowell(No 34), Ryan Newman(No 6), Ryan Preece(No 37) and Austin Dillon(No 3). Seven-race winner Kevin Harvick who is the regular season champion, is the top taking a 10-point advantage into the playoffs over six-race winner Denny Hamlin. Byron moved up to a 9th place seeding thanks to his win. DiBenedetto starts his first ever playoffs ranking 16th

Noah Gragson will for the third time remain at JR Motorsports car no.9 for the 2021 Nascar Xfinity series. This news was conveyed through twitter post tagging Kelley Earnhardt Miller who is the co-owner and Gragson. The 22 year old continued to hint on his twitter handle by using the emoji of a pen. The 2020 season marks the second season Gragson is with JRM, and it is the most ever successful season having two wins in the Nascar Xfinity Series behind the wheel of Chevrolet car no.9 and ranking third in the series standings. During the American’s second place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in June he said he was ‘fighting for a job’ as he had no deal in place. He netted 100,000 dollars in the Dash4Cash bonus. The Las Vegas native was in the Truck Series for two seasons with Kyle Busch Motorsports where he had nine pole positions and two wins. He also had seven wins in the ARCA East and West which was then Nascar K&N Pro Series East and West.