Due to a lack of necessary funding to field a competitive team, Furniture Row Racing has been left with no reasonable option but to cease operations following the completion of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
“This is not good for anybody,” said team owner Barney Visser. “The numbers just don’t add up. I would have to borrow money to continue as a competitive team and I’m not going to do that. This was obviously a painful decision to arrive at knowing how it will affect a number of quality and talented people.
“We’ve been aggressively seeking sponsorship to replace 5-hour ENERGY and to offset the rising costs of continuing a team alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing but haven’t had any success. I feel that it’s only proper to make the decision at this time to allow all team members to start seeking employment for next year. I strongly believe that all of our people have enhanced their careers by working at Furniture Row Racing.”
If Clint Bowyer would rather win at Kansas Speedway than anywhere else, it makes sense. Bowyer is a Kansan.
Just because I never raced doesn’t mean South Carolina isn’t something special to me. I’ve watched more races at Darlington than any driver has raced. Most of my bone-jarring hits occurred on a high school football field, and the home site of the stripes I earned there is important to me, too.
I hope I never stop getting chill bumps every time I think of Darlington Raceway, Clinton High School, Furman University and Fenway Park.
In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, a maximum starting field will be 38 cars starting in 2019. As part of the restructure, NASCAR will reallocate the purse money previously awarded to the 39th- and 40th-place finishers to the rest of the field.
“Our goal is to ensure that each race features the strongest field and best racing for our fans,” said John Bobo, NASCAR vice president of racing operations. “The NASCAR Xfinity Series already features some of the tightest competition throughout the field. This adjustment will further strengthen an already outstanding series.”
The Martin Truex Jr. Foundation is again hosting an event that lets race fans turn left and right in competition against their friends and professional racers and, in turn, raise awareness and funding in the fight against childhood and ovarian cancers.
The 2nd annual Karting Against Cancer relay race will take place Sept. 25 beginning at 3 p.m. ET at the Go Pro Motorplex in Mooresville. The two-to-six-driver teams, made up of race fans, team members and even a few familiar race car drivers will compete in the two-hour endurance race on the 11-turn, 0.7-mile road course.
Okay, I know you don’t follow NASCAR as much as you used to. It’s amazing how much you manage to find to fuss about since you barely pay attention anymore.
I used to be on the road for most of the year. Now I watch the races on high-definition TV and tweet when something strikes my fancy. I think ’em through, get up the next morning, study up a bit and write a blog (montedutton.com) that I hope offers a little perspective I was lacking the night before.
The mountain backdrop was more impressive than the race track, which reminded me at first of a large high school’s football stadium. Even at age seven, it occurred to me that the half-mile race track was twice as large as a quarter-mile track around a football field, so, appearances aside, this was larger than a football stadium.
Besides, this was NASCAR, and NASCAR was big.
The way into those grandstands was a long incline at both ends. In the 1960s, men were men and ice coolers didn’t have wheels on them. Ralph Barnes, sons Steve and Marty and adopted son Mooney Mims, took turns hoisting the cooler, which contained beverages I was 11 years removed from being able to quaff legally. Ralph may have remembered to pack a couple RC Colas, or Nugrapes, for me.
The first I met Brian Zachary France, I pegged him for a bull shooter, which is a term that has been transformed over time into more colorful and vulgar usage.
The scion of the NASCAR empire was being groomed for leadership not long before the century turned, and I was invited out to dinner so that I could get to know the future emperor. He tried too hard to impress. He told me he was negotiating with BET (Black Entertainment Television) for the rights to carry occasional NASCAR races, and he said it with the tone of a man who felt he could say anything and people would nod and say, “How fascinating.”
“We are aware of an incident that occurred last night and are in the process of gathering information. We take this as a serious matter and will issue a statement after we have all of the facts.” - NASCAR
For 33 years, Tom Higgins was The Charlotte Observer’s voice in the motorsports world. It was the way he handled his newspaper beat, however, that endeared him to the motorsports community, specifically NASCAR.
Higgins truly cared about the sport and its people. He never viewed them as a rung on his career ladder. To report on devastating news, such as the death of Neil Bonnett, Alan Kulwicki or Davey Allison was difficult for him, but he executed it professionally with compassion. And it was that compassion that separated him from other reporters; that made him one of the best storytellers in the business.
In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, a maximum starting field will be 38 cars starting in 2019. As part of the restructure, NASCAR will reallocate the purse money previously awarded to the 39th- and 40th-place finishers to the rest of the field.
The Martin Truex Jr. Foundation is again hosting an event that lets race fans turn left and right in competition against their friends and professional racers and, in turn, raise awareness and funding in the fight against childhood and ovarian cancers. 