 William Byron takes the checkered flag at Phoenix. Image: NASCAR.Media/ Chris Graythen Hendrick Motorsports emerged victorious from their appeals panel Wednesday afternoon following NASCAR's confiscation of hood louvers from their 4 Cup Series entries before the Phoenix race on March 10th. Hendrick Motorsports faced an L2 Penalty costing all 4 teams individually 10 Playoff Points, 100 driver points, and 100 owners points. Plus $100,000 fines and a 4 race suspension for each crew chief.
Wednesday the appeals board relieved all 4 Hendrick teams of their 100 owners & driver point penalties as well as the 10 Playoff point penalties. They did however keep enforced the $400,000 fines for the crew chiefs and their 4 week suspensions.
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 Wallace during driver intros @ CotA. Image: 23XI Twitter Bubba Wallace had a horrible day during Sunday's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix 250. Wallace slid into the rear of the 5 of Kyle Larson on lap 10 putting a very early end to his day. Wallace's contact with the 5 car led to a broken toe link and a broken oil line which may have been the cause for the seeming lack of brakes on the #23. Even the broadcasters pointed out something was likely wrong with the breaks on the 23 as he entered the turn way too fast.
When Wallace brought his MoneyLion #23 Camry into the garage and after exiting his car showed immediate displeasure with the outcome. Wallace smacked his car's buckled-up hood hard enough that the cameras nearby picked up the sound of the impact. During his interview with Fox Sports, Wallace voiced his frustration pretty clearly. "Just trying my hardest not to go down the slippery slope of self-doubt here. Two weeks in a row of making rookie mistakes 6 years into Cup, need to be replaced." So Who Could Replace Him? So let's amuse the people who think this is a reality. We all know he's not going anywhere anytime soon. But it doesn't hurt to have fun and speculate. So, who could replace Wallace in a fast, closing-in on top-tier Toyota? I've got an opinion on this of course. 1.) John Hunter Nemechek.
2.) Corey LaJoie.
3.) Denny Hamlin.
4.) Unknown Road Course Ringer.
By: Tom Luttermoser  Reddick at COTA Image Credit: Toyota Racing FB Tyler Reddick was the class of the field Sunday, dominating the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Reddick led 41 of 75 laps after leading 6 times for his 3rd career Road Course victory. Reddick's victory comes as the 3rd driver driving the #45 Camry in less than a year.
Kurt Busch won the spring Kansas race in 2022 while holding off his brother Kyle and Kyle Larson last May. Teammate Bubba Wallace's number was changed from 23 to 45 later in the season to ensure the 45 the best possible outcome in the Owners Points battle starting at Darlington. This move was backed up by a 9th place finish at Darlington and a track-sweeping win for the 45 number at the fall Kansas race. Then this past Sunday, the 3rd driver to record a win for the 45 in less than a year became Reddick. Reddick started the season off rather slowly with 2 DNFs and a 15th at Vegas. But even with the negativity of the first 3 races, Reddick began to show speed with 2 Top-5s before scoring his Playoff locking win. By: Tom Luttermoser  Zane Smith’s 38 F150 on fire at Circuit of the Americas Image: Screenshot Defending Series champion and defending race winner Zane Smith goes back-to-back in both of the races he's won this season both at Daytona and now Circuit of the Americas. Zane held off Ben Rhodes and Kyle Busch while leading 16 laps en rout to this second win of the season.
Rubber collected on the rain flaps on both sides of the truck behind the rear wheels. As we have seen before, that built up rubber caught fire. The difference today? That fire was left to burn for a while, the AMR safety crew's response was rather pathetic to be honest. Now yes, I get that the race is over and their response times can't be expected to be the same. But nearly the entire rear of the #38 F-150 was engulphed in flames for a surprisingly long time. This win solidifies Zane Smith's hold on leading the playoff rankings. This is his 9th career win, this 9th win ties him for 20th on the All-time Truck Series win list with Travis Kvaple. This win also, this puts him 2nd all-time active full time driver behind only Matt Crafton who has 15 career wins. By: Tom Luttermoser Notable entries to the XPEL 225 at CotA. Kaz Grala #1 TRICON Garage Tundra Alex Bowman #7 Spire Motorsports Silverado Samule Lecomte # NEMCO Motorsports Silverado Logan Bearden #22 Young's Motorsports Silverado Ross Chasatain #41 Niece Motorsports Silverado Kyle Busch #51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Silverado   Noah Gragson & Ty Gibbs Image: Twitter. Unknown origin Your Sunoco Rookie of the Year competitors!
Rookie battles from all 3 series. Craftsman Truck Series
Xfinity Series
Cup Series
By: Tom Luttermoser  Deegan's Women in NASCAR F-150 for Atlanta. Image: ThorSport To help celebrate Women's History Month, Advent Health is partnering with ThorSport and Hailie Deegan to celebrate the women of NASCAR.
As part of the partnership, during the March 18th race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the bed cover of Deegan’s #13 Ford F-150 will feature the names of many of the women working in NASCAR. Sara Christian, who was the first female driver to compete in NASCAR, will be featured on the passenger-side name rail. Per the ThorSport press release, - The platform includes a partnership with AdventHealth, NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and ThorSport Racing driver Hailie Deegan, Women in NASCAR (WIN), and female members of the motorsports media. WIN is an employee resource group that aims to create a supportive community for women and allies in NASCAR offices to foster dialogue and promote professional growth. The organization empowers women at NASCAR by providing opportunities for career development, networking with all levels from the organization, and giving back through charitable events in our local communities. “As a longtime sponsor in NASCAR, we know firsthand how important woman are to the success of this industry,” said Audrey Gregory, Ph.D., president and CEO of AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division – North Region. “We are honored to be part of this opportunity to highlight drivers like Sara Christian and Hallie Deegan, as well as the incredible work of Women in NASCAR.”  Bowman in victory lane in Phoenix. Image: Hendrick Motorsports At this past weekend's Phoenix before practice on Friday, NASCAR found several Chevrolet teams with tampered their hood louvers. NASCAR aloud the teams to use the teams to use the parts for practice before they confiscated the louvers (which can be seen here nascar101.nascar.com/next-gen-interactive-car-model/) from the 9, 5, 24, 48, and 31 teams and inspected them further. On Wednesday it was announced by the sanctioning body that the teams tampered with the louvers which are single-sourced spec parts.
The 5 teams violated Sections 14.5.4.2.A of the NASCAR rulebook which directly relates to how the radiator ducts are assembled. All 5 of the teams were found to have unapproved modifications to the single-sourced parts. This L2 penalty is equivalent to the penalties given to RFK & FRM last season dishing out a 100-point driver penalty to each driver as well as being docked 10 Playoff points. This comes with an exception for Josh Berry who is not receiving championship points in the Cup Series as he is a fill-in for the injured Chase Elliott. All five teams will be docked 100 owners points as well. Each crew chief was fined $100,000 and suspended for 4 races. Cliff Daniels (5), Alan Gustafson (9), Rudy Fugle (24), and Blake Harris (48) for Hendrick Motorsports and Trent Owens for Kaulig (31). Before the penalties, Alex Bowman sat atop the points standings and 4th in the playoffs, he now sits 23rd. Byron led the playoffs with 2 wins and 13 Playoff points and sat 4th in the standings, he now sits 29th. The loss of the 10 Playoff Points will negate the 10 points gained due to Byron's 2 race wins but he will retain his 3 stage win points. Larson sat 5th in the standings and now sits in 32nd and Justin Haley from 24th now to 49th. By: Tom Luttermoser  Johnson’s Final Career win at Dover. Image: Twitter (original unknown) Jimmie Johnson is without a doubt one of the best to have ever graced the sport of NASCAR. 7 championships and 83 career Cup wins at 20 different tracks will put him as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. 82 of Johnson's 83 victories came at an oval of some sort with 5 coming at superspeedways.
Here are all of Johnson's wins in order from single wins to his most at a single track.
 Johnson putting at Daytona. Image: Carvana Racing Jimmie Johnson has stated that he will be running several races in the #84 this season. He started with the Daytona 500 and had an impressive run going until being taken out late in the race. He stated that he will be running the Chicago Street Course in July and now we have a 3rd race for the 7x Champion.
Jimmie Johnson will join Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button at Circuit of the Americas later this month. Johnson's strong suit in a Cup car never really was road courses, but with himself and Button running the Garage 56 NASCAR entry at Le Mans later this year, it's not a bad idea to get as familiar as possible with the Gen 7 car. By: Tom Luttermoser |