Long: Kyle Larson’s Cup title caps one of greatest seasons in U.S. racing history

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By Dustin Long                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Nov 8, 2021, 12:46 AM EST

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson exudes cool and calm, but that’s not how he felt when he met with car owner Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon last year about joining Hendrick Motorsports.

After Hendrick said he wanted to have Larson drive one of his cars in 2021, the Hall of Fame team owner asked Larson what he wanted out of the potential deal.

A nervous Larson pondered how to make his request without agitating Hendrick.

“I know how Rick Hendrick feels about dirt racing,” Larson recalled thinking at the time.

Larson’s inner dialogue continued, as he tried to decide how to make his request.

“I hoping I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot right now,” Larson thought at the time.

He told Hendrick: “I’d like to race some dirt races.”

Hendrick didn’t rebuff Larson, but he needed some time.

After consulting with team executives and crew chief Cliff Daniels, Hendrick approved Larson’s request as part of their deal to put Larson in the team’s No. 5 Chevrolet this year.

And so began what has become one of the greatest seasons in U.S. motorsports history by any driver.

“I never thought racing for Hendrick Motorsports that I would get to race a single dirt race in a year, let alone as many as I have this year,” Larson said. “It’s definitely an unbelievable season on so many different levels.”

Larson’s season of major wins across multiple disciplines added the NASCAR Cup championship Sunday night at Phoenix Raceway.

He claimed the title with his 10th victory of the season (11th counting the NASCAR All-Star Race). He’s the first driver to reach double digits in Cup wins in a season since Jimmie Johnson won 10 times during his 2007 championship season. Larson’s five wins in the playoffs match Tony Stewart’s record when he won the 2011 crown.

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Daniel Hemric Wins 1st Race & Xfinity Series Championship

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Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images via NASCAR Media

by Trenton Worsham

Daniel Hemric tied a NASCAR record by finishing runner-up 10 times in his Xfinity Series career.

With two turns left and a championship on the line, he wouldn’t settle for No. 11.

Hemric nudged fellow title contender Austin Cindric out of the way, then won a drag race to the line to earn the 2021 NXS championship Saturday night (Nov. 6) at Phoenix Raceway. It’s his first race victory in 120 career starts, taking advantage of a NASCAR Overtime restart caused when Jade Buford and Josh Williams crashed on the backstretch.

“Unbelievable. These guys asked me all year how bad I wanted it,” Hemric said in his post-race interview after backflipping off his race car. “I’ve given up a lot. People doubted me. I’ll do it all over again for a night like this.”

For much of the final two laps, Hemric’s front bumper was just barely to the inside of the No. 22. Headed into turn 3, the two cars touched ever so slightly, then rubbed fenders all the way from there to the checkered flag.

“I blacked out. I had to be the first one to the line […],” he explained. “I was close enough to not use him up. We worked our asses off for an opportunity for this. What an honor.”

Cindric had to settle for second in both the race and championship, losing his opportunity to go back-to-back. Pressed about the move at race’s end, Cindric made clear the move was legit.

“He’s over there,” Cindric said, pointing to where Hemric sat in victory lane. “I’m over here. He’s the champion… If everyone in the stands enjoyed it, it’s good racing.”

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WALLACE MAKES HISTORY WITH FIRST CAREER CUP VICTORY

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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 04: Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald’s Toyota, celebrates in the Ruoff Mortgage victory lane after winning the rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 04, 2021 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

By Reid Spender, NASCAR Wire Services, NASCAR.com /

TALLADEGA, Ala. — An opportune caution and a sudden rain shower helped make Bubba Wallace the second Black driver ever to win a NASCAR Cup Series race. Wallace held the lead in Monday’s rain-delayed YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway when Ryan Preece turned into the outside wall off the bumper of Chris Buescher’s Ford to cause the fifth caution of the event.

As the cars circled under the yellow, rain drenched the 2.66-mile race track. NASCAR brought the cars to pit road on Lap 118 of a scheduled 188. After another shower thwarted track-drying attempts, NASCAR called the race and declared Wallace the winner.

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NASCAR in Nashville: Kyle Larson wins third consecutive Cup Series points race

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(AP)

Also won the NASCAR All-Star race during the stretch

 

Kyle Larson won again — that’s all he does these days — this time in the Cup debut at Nashville Superspeedway, where Hendrick Motorsports’ new star drove to victory lane for the fourth consecutive week.

Larson led 264 of 300 laps Sunday for his third consecutive win in a points race, fourth straight including last weekend’s All-Star race. That win at Texas Motor Speedway kicked off a stretch of four wins in seven days as Larson collected the $1 million All-Star payout then traveled to Ohio to pocket the $6,000 purses in two sprint car races.

Rick Hendrick’s cars have been to victory lane six consecutive weeks dating to Alex Bowman’s May 9 win at Dover.

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Kyle Larson rolls to yet another victory for Hendrick Motorsports in Cup debut in Nashville

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LEBANON, Tenn. — Kyle Larson won his fourth race in seven days then finally headed home to sleep in his own bed.

For a night, anyway.

The busiest driver in motorsports won again Sunday in the Cup debut at Nashville Superspeedway, where Larson drove to NASCAR’s victory lane for the fourth consecutive week.

Sandwiched in between his $1 million victory in the All-Star race at Texas last Sunday and his Cup-leading fourth victory of the season at Nashville were two dirt racing wins in Ohio worth $6,000 each to the winner. Next up for Larson: Brandon, South Dakota, for Monday and Tuesday night World of Outlaws races at Huset’s Speedway.

“All of the racing helps for everything I do. I win a Cup race and it helps me for dirt racing,” Larson said. “I think just racing a lot — I’m in racing situations more than anybody else in the world, really — but especially in Cup and I think that helps me stay sharp, it helps me be aggressive and understand what things are doing and tracks changing.

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Adrenaline Shoc (A SHOC) Launches Chase Elliott® Signature Can

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Adrenaline Shoc (A SHOC), the fast-growing, performance energy beverage distributed by Keurig Dr Pepper, announces the release of the A SHOC Shoc Wave Chase Elliott Signature can to commemorate the driver’s 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. The limited-edition can features Elliott celebrating his championship, alongside the No. 9 A SHOC Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE that he will drive at select NASCAR Cup Series races this season for Hendrick Motorsports.

“I was floored when A SHOC said they wanted to make a special can celebrating the championship,” said Elliott, who won his first career NASCAR Cup Series Championship and third consecutive Most Popular Driver award last season. “It’s always an honor to be featured on a retail product and I think the fans will really enjoy the look and flavor of the signature can.”

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Chase Elliott joins racing royalty with 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Championship

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NASCAR.com | November 8, 2020 (Photo: Getty Images)
Chase Elliott won his first NASCAR Cup Series title Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, joining his father, Bill, as champions of stock-car racing’s top division.
At 24 years, 11 months and 11 days old, Elliott became the third-youngest Cup Series champion in NASCAR history. Only Jeff Gordon, who claimed his first title at 24 years, three months and eight days old in 1995, and 1950 champ Bill Rexford (then 23 years old) were younger.
Elliott topped fellow finalists Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano in the season-ending race, held for the first time at the 1-mile Arizona oval. Hamlin, the ace for Joe Gibbs Racing this season, was also competing for his first Cup Series crown; Team Penske teammates Keselowski and Logano were both seeking their second series titles.
“I’m not sure that I still even know,” Elliott said when asked what the championship means to him. “I just, man, I’m at a loss for words. This is unbelievable. Oh, my gosh. We did it. I mean, we did it. That’s all I’ve got to tell you. Unreal.

Chase Elliott wins Most Popular Driver Award in NASCAR Cup Series

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By Staff Report | NASCAR.com | December 5, 2019 at 9:27 PM | NASHVILLE, Tenn.

The fans have spoken, and the legacy lives on for another year. Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott was named the 2019 NMPA Most Popular Driver on Thursday night during the year-end Champion’s Week banquet.

The annual award is determined 100% by fan voting, and Elliott, 24, topped the ballot for the second consecutive year.

“Just an honor, really, and just a big thank you to everybody who voted,” Elliott said after the awards celebration. “Obviously it took a lot of votes to make it happen and everybody that took time to do that, I do really appreciate it. Like I said out there, too, it’s more than a trophy or a sticker or an award, really and truly. So I just really enjoyed this past season and just seeing all the people that were at the race track that wanted to see us do good. And you can genuinely feel that, and that goes a long way. So I appreciate it, and hopefully try to make everybody proud next year, too.”

There’s a history there, of course. Elliott’s father, Bill, won the award a record 16 times, including 10 consecutive years from 1991-2000.

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Denny Hamlin wins 61st annual Daytona 500

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By Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service | February 17, 2019

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Five weeks after the death of Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs, the driver he discovered won the Daytona 500 for the second time.

In a two-lap dash in overtime Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, Denny Hamlin held off teammate Kyle Busch to win the 61st running of the Great American Race, an event that featured massive fireworks with five late cautions that left 14 cars on the lead lap at the finish.

The victory was Hamlin’s 32nd in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, and it broke a 47-race drought for the 38-year-old from Chesterfield, Va., who had stickers on his No. 11 Toyota Camry commemorating J.D. Gibbs and Glen Wood, patriarch of the Wood Brothers Racing team who passed away on Jan. 18.

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TODAY Show: Bubba Wallace

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Black History Month | Bubba Wallace on paving the way for NASCAR’s next generation

Bubba Wallace Ranks #46 on SportsPro world’s most marketable athlete of 2018

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Paul Pogba named world’s most marketable athlete of 2018

SportsPro Media | Jan. 2019

SportsPro has never laid any claims to objectivity when compiling its annual list of the world’s 50 most marketable athletes. That is probably for the best.

Calculating marketability is undoubtedly an inexact science, one that relies on no small amount of informed guesswork and, increasingly, a complex and highly unpredictable array of contributing factors. Though many faces – from bonafide greats to overhyped underachievers – have come and gone over the years, SportsPro’s criteria has remained unchanged since the conception of the list in 2010. Each summer, athletes from across the world have been ranked according to their marketing potential over the coming three-year period, with particular emphasis placed on value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal. Now, however, we’ve sought to bring a degree of science to the art of assessing athlete marketability.

Thanks to analytical data and advanced social media monitoring tools provided by Hookit, SportsPro’s official data partner, the composition of this year’s list has been informed by an all-new criteria: the Hookit Marketability Score.

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Moffitt takes victory in Miami to win Camping World Truck Series title

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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service November 16, 2018

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Brett Moffitt is the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion after a decisive victory in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In a race that featured a minimum two cautions, both for planned stage breaks, Moffitt drove away from the rest of the field after taking the lead from fellow Championship 4 contender Noah Gragson on Lap 99 of 134.

Moffitt finished 2.000 seconds ahead of pole winner Grant Enfinger, who passed Gragson for the runner-up spot during a cycle of green-flag pit stops at the 103-lap mark. Gragson ran third, 5.006 seconds back.

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NASCAR | Chase Elliott wins 2018 NMPA Most Popular Driver Award

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By Jessica Ruffin | NASCAR.com

LAS VEGAS – It was hardly a surprise to hear Chase Elliott’s name called as the 2018 Most Popular Driver during the NASCAR Champion’s Week banquet in Las Vegas.

Elliott’s fellow drivers joked about it throughout the week, many of them already predicting Elliott to win it long before his name was called. Kyle Busch even clowned with Elliott during his media obligations offstage.

“When all your peers answer the interview as if you’ve already won, it kind of makes it odd,” Elliott said with a smile. “… It’s a great honor to have.”

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