ROAR! - Weekly Racing Magazine - June 19, 2020

HOW SOON WE FORGET DALE JR. OVER EDWARDS?

5 THINGS TO WATCH AT TALLADEGA

CARL EDWARDS SNUBBED IN VOTING FOR NASCAR HALL OF FAME INDUCTION. BUT WHY?

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WAS CARL EDWARDS SNUBBED BY THE HALL OF FAME? In this week’s episode of Out of the Groove, host and creator Eric Estepp takes a look at the results from this year’s NASCAR Hall of Fame vote. The biggest name out of the bunch was absolutely Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Eric has all the background on exactly why he was such a shoe in.

But it wasn’t all no-brainers who made - or didn’t make - the list of nominees this year.

Notably, Carl Edwards didn’t even make it 0 0 4

into the Top 4 finalists from the voting. How is that possible? Eric gives us his theory on what factors lead into the decision about who to vote for.

And what of the other drivers who made it in this year? Eric has the all the info on who they are and just how important they are to the sport as whole. Find out everything about the ballot returns in this week’s episode of Out of the Groove!

ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

5 THINGS TO WATCH

5

THINGS TO WATCH AT TALLADEGA HANDICAPPING THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF ‘DEGA Enjoying a terrific season and fresh off a win this past weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Denny Hamlin has every reason to harbor legitimately high hopes for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Others do, too. After all, this weekend’s race is one of the few on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule where virtually everyone has an opportunity to make their presence felt. So, will it happen or will a familiar cast of contenders be up front and battling for the win? Following are five important things to watch for when the green flag waves.

BY JA RED TURNER

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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5 THINGS TO WATCH

5

THE REAL POSSIBILITY OF A SURPRISE WINNER

M

ore than perhaps any track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, Talladega Superspeedway lends itself to the possibility of a surprise winner. After all, it’s one of only two tracks (Daytona International Speedway is the other) where getting the right drafting help from the right person at the right time is as crucial to winning as having a fast car and staying out of trouble. While Talladega isn’t necessarily known for major upsets if you look at past race results, just the sheer nature of the racing gives drivers with second- and third-tier teams a fighting chance — which they don’t have, in all reality, the vast majority of the time. The truth of the matter is that it wouldn’t be that surprising at all to see a driver such as Matt DiBenedetto, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell, Ty Dillon or Tyler Reddick score his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory when all the dust settles on Sunday afternoon in Alabama.

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

5 THINGS TO WATCH

4

“THE BIG ONE” NOT BEING QUITE SO BIG

I

n the wake of Ryan Newman’s harrowing crash on the final lap of the 2020 Daytona 500, NASCAR wasted no time going to work on safety enhancements designed to better-protect drivers in the future, particularly at the superspeedways, where the risk of being in a major wreck and suffering an injury is always at its absolute highest. While Newman survived his Daytona accident and avoided a career-ending injury, he was still knocked unconscious and left with a brain bruise that caused him to miss multiple races. As a result, NASCAR has left no stone unturned in its efforts to avoid an accident of this magnitude at Talladega — a track notorious for multi-car pileups, often of the more violent variety. Will the changes NASCAR has made, which will slow the cars down this weekend, lessen the likelihood of another crash that leaves spectators fearing the worst? That’s certainly the goal — even if “The Big One” is all but inevitable.

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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THE NEXT CHAPTER IN THE JOEY LOGANOCHASE ELLIOTT SAGA

S

ince tangling at Bristol last month, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano haven’t been on good terms. That was evident this past weekend at Homestead when Elliott attempted to put Logano a second lap down, only to be held up by Logano and ultimately lose both the lead and the race to Denny Hamlin. While Elliott refused to point the finger directly at Logano when asked in a post-race interview about Logano’s role in the outcome, Logano later made no bones about his strategy, which was to impede Elliott’s progress. “You race people the way they race you,” Logano told Sporting News on Tuesday. “You can’t do things without repercussions of some sort. You cost me a win, I cost you a win.

Those types of things go like that. I would assume that everyone kind of understands how that stuff works. And you kind of move on from there.”

But will they move on prior to racing Sunday at Talladega? Stay tuned.

ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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5 THINGS TO WATCH

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DENNY HAMLIN WITH A WIND AT HIS BACK

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winner of the Daytona 500 in three of the last five years, Denny Hamlin is making a strong case to be designated as NASCAR’s resident superspeedway king. While the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has just one victory at Talladega — NASCAR’s other superspeedway where drivers run flat-out all race long, rarely if ever tapping the brakes — it’s fair to anoint Hamlin as the favorite coming into this weekend. Since beginning 2020 with his big win at Daytona, Hamlin has scored a victory at Darlington and Homestead, the latter of which came this past weekend.

As the only three-time winner this season and the NASCAR Cup Series’ most recent race winner, Hamlin certainly has momentum on his side. That momentum paired with his demonstrated superspeedway prowess in recent times make him the clear-cut favorite to have his way when the green flag waves on Sunday afternoon and 40 drivers begin navigating the spectacular highbanked, 2.66-mile layout that is Talladega Superspeedway.

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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5 THINGS TO WATCH

1

FANS (LIKE 5,000 OF THEM) IN THE STANDS

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his weekend — for the first time since the NASCAR Cup Series competed at Phoenix Raceway on March 8 — there will be more than 1,000 fans in the stands at a NASCAR track. While this past Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway marked the official return of fans to the track after seven races where no fans were allowed, only 1,000 were granted entry into the South Florida facility.

And by the time the race ended, far fewer than that appeared to be in attendance, which was not surprising when considering that the race was stopped multiple times for lightning and ended almost six hours after it was scheduled to begin. It will be a different story, however, at Talladega, where the number of fans will be at least five times the number who were permitted inside Homestead-Miami. Even though 5,000 is a far cry from Talladega’s seating capacity of roughly 80,000, maybe, just maybe, a few cheers (or boos) will be audible.

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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RECAPPING JIMMIE JOHNSON’S NASCAR CAREER

■■ Jimmie Johnson won for the third time in four Richmond races in Sept. of 2008.

JOHNSON CAUGHT RICHMOND LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE

BY JA RED TURNER

I

t’s been almost a dozen years since Jimmie Johnson won at Richmond Raceway, but there was a time prior to his current Richmond drought that the Hendrick Motorsports driver was virtually unstoppable at the Virginia short track.

That time was from the spring of 2007 to the fall of 2008, when Johnson and his No. 48 team led by crew chief Chad Knaus went to Victory Lane three times over a four-race stretch at the threequarter-mile D-shaped oval.

After going winless in his first 10 Richmond starts, Johnson found the magic he had been missing when NASCAR competed here in both May and September 2007. In addition to capturing the season sweep at Richmond, Johnson started from the pole in September and managed to lead just over 100 laps in each Richmond race.

The result was two wins at a track where prior to that season he had finished in the top 10 just one time. Johnson couldn’t have been any happier to get his first Richmond win and then make it 2-for-2 later in the year. The real icing on the cake came in

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

the fall of 2008, however, when Johnson pulled into Victory Lane at Richmond for the third time in four starts.

After years of struggling to get a handle on the facility, Johnson made it clear with this triumph that he and his team had found something.

“Very, very happy with the performance today,” Johnson said after leading 32 of 400 laps and winning for the fourth time in 2008. “Great, great fight throughout the entire day. Momentum is certainly something we are looking at and trying to carry, but more than anything, I think we are just confident in our stops and what I’m doing on the track and the way we can adjust on the car.

“We even showed up here a bit off in practice on Friday and worked throughout the practice and got it right. So very, very proud of the effort.”

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

WINS

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NOAH GRAGSON

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HARRISON BURTON

390

4

BRANDON JONES

345

5

AUSTIN CINDRIC

380

6

ROSS CHASTAIN

374

7

JUSTIN HALEY

330

8

JUSTIN ALLGAIER

328

9

RYAN SIEG

266

10 MICHAEL ANNETT

260

11 RILEY HERBST

256

12 BRANDON BROWN

223

13 JOSH WILLIAMS

206

14 MYATT SNIDER

204

15 ALEX LABBE

174

16 JEREMY CLEMENTS

163

17 JESSE LITTLE

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18 B.J. MCLEOD

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19 JOE GRAF JR.

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21 VINNIE MILLER

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30 J.J. YELEY

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31 DAVID STARR

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32 MASON MASSEY

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33 ROBBY LYONS

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

WINS

POLES

TOP 5

TOP 10

3 0 5 8 2 0 7 8 2 0 7 10 1 1 4 7 0 0 5 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 3 6 0 0 2 4 0 0 2 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 1 3 1 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 BLUE AREAS HIGHLIGHT PLAYOFF QUALIFIERS

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AUSTIN HILL

209

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CHRISTIAN ECKES

165

4

BEN RHODES

161

5

TODD GILLILAND

148

6

ZANE SMITH

147

7

JOHNNY SAUTER

140

8

BRETT MOFFITT

137

9

SHELDON CREED

135

10 TYLER ANKRUM

133

11 DEREK KRAUS

132

12 MATT CRAFTON

132

13 RAPHAEL LESSARD

114

14 STEWART FRIESEN

112

15 TANNER GRAY

111

16 TY MAJESKI

109

17 CODIE ROHRBAUGH

86

18 AUSTIN SELF

72

19 JORDAN ANDERSON

69

20 CORY ROPER

69

21 SPENCER BOYD

67

22 TATE FOGLEMAN

65

23 ANGELA RUCH

58

24 SPENCER DAVIS

66

25 NATALIE DECKER

58

26 KORBIN FORRISTER

45

27 TIMMY HILL

39

28 JASON WHITE

27

29 JENNIFER COBB

26

30 CLAY GREENFIELD

26

31 RYAN TRUEX

24

32 BRYAN DAUZAT

18

33 GRAY GAULDING

16

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020 5/15/2020 8:30:21 AM

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CREW MEMBER PROFILE

WEARER OF MANY HATS ALDRIDGE IS DEDICATED TO TEAM EFFORT

BY BEN WHITE

C

urtis Aldridge, transporter driver for GOFAS Racing and driver Corey Lajoie, saw his first NASCAR race at Darlington Raceway in 1965 and the age of 5.

“My mother, father and grandfather used to go to races,” Aldridge said.

“I was at Darlington in 1965 when Ned Jarrett won by 14 laps. All those guys were like Superman to me. We would go to Darlington and other tracks, and we would camp out. We would go to races where everybody could get back to work on Monday so we didn’t travel very far.”

The Aldridge family would also attend local tracks when NASCAR’s premier races were held far away. That’s where he saw stock car legends Speedy Thompson and Ralph Earnhardt headline events at Monroe Speedway and Concord Speedway.

While in his teens, Aldridge raced go-karts, dirt Late Models and NASCAR asphalt Touring cars, finally ending his driving career at the end of the 1999 season. He also drove Late Models owned by Jay Robinson, and with the move to NASCAR’s Busch (now Xfinity) Series in 2000, Aldridge became Robinson’s spotter and also found sponsorship dollars for the team.

His ventures in transporter driving began with Robinson’s team and continued through 2011. In 2012, he made the move to Go Fas Racing and team owner Archie St. Hilaire.

“If I find something I’m happy with, I don’t shop around,” Aldridge said. “I’ve had opportunities to go to big name teams but I like being with the smaller teams because you get to do more things. I can do things that are a direct help.”

■■ Curtis Aldridge, transporter driver for GOFAS Racing

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

IN THE HOTSEAT

IN THE HOT SEAT

Justin Allgaier

BY ROB TIONGSON

During the season, Rob Tiongson interviews various drivers in the world of NASCAR. Today, he talks with Justin Allgaier, NASCAR XFINITY Series racer. ▶ IT’S YOUR FIFTH SEASON WITH JR MOTORSPORTS. WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE TO DRIVE FOR YOUR TEAM AND TRULY SHOWCASE YOUR TALENTS WITH THEM? I think that what you said at the end there is probably the most important piece – truly showcasing talent.

To race for JR Motorsports and have the people and team around me, it’s really been fun. I’ve had great opportunities, good opportunities, and not so good opportunities in this sport.

The thing that I love about JR Motorsports is that it’s a lot like driving for my mom and dad when I was coming up through the lower ranks and in ARCA. It’s a unique, family-oriented atmosphere in this big, high-end business of NASCAR. It’s run well and we have good people. It’s been fun and an absolute blast. It doesn’t seem like five years to me, but I’ve had a lot of success and fun throughout the time I’ve been there. ▶ YOU’RE A PART OF THE TWITCH COMMUNITY. WOULD YOU SAY THAT DOING TWITCH STREAMS IS CALMING OUTLET FOR YOU? I think, for me, I was a Twitch fan before I became a Twitch streamer. I’ve enjoyed watching other gamers play.

That community is great. There’s a lot of support and conversation. It’s a tightknit group of people. I think the thing that’s interesting about gaming is that there’s no criteria for being a gamer. You can be a great gamer at an older or younger age. You can be good at it or bad at it like I am. I’m terrible with most games. But I still have fun with them, and I like being a part of that community.

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

DRIVER Q&A

EYES ON THE PRIZE JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK EAGER TO COMPETE FOR ROOKIE TITLE

BY JOSEPH WOLK IN

The competition has arguably never been stronger for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year trophy. But that won’t stop Front Row Motorsports’ John Hunter Nemechek, who’s had a strong start to his first year in the Cup Series.

But can driver No. 38 stay ahead of his peers? ▶ WHAT HAS THE ADJUSTMENT BEEN LIKE TO COMPETE IN THE CUP SERIES? “One of the biggest things moving up to the Cup Series is the package that we run. It’s completely different from trucks and XFINITY at most tracks, so you’re constantly learning how to adjust, and what’s worked in the past may not be relevant. Race length is always going to be an adjustment when it comes to transitioning to the Cup level, too.” ▶ WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU COMPETING IN NASCAR’S TOP DIVISION? “It doesn’t get any more competitive than at the Cup level, and it’s always going to be a challenge to be a rookie among the top drivers. Still being new to the Cup car, there’s a lot to learn about the different packages when it comes to things like downforce and horsepower.”

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

■■ John Hunter Nemechek, driver of the No. 38 Ford in the Cup Series

▶ HOW THANKFUL ARE YOU TO HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY WITH FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS? “This is something I’ve worked towards my entire career, and my entire life. I grew up literally at the track. I’ve been watching my dad race for as long as I can remember. I’ve developed a lot of great relationships in the garage and have admired a lot of my fellow competitors since I was a kid. I’m really lucky to be able to run in the Cup Series with Front Row Motorsports.” ▶ WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR WITH THIS NO. 38 TEAM? “My goal coming into this season has been, and continues to be, to run every single lap. You can’t learn from your experiences if you’re sitting in the garage. Ultimately, the expectation is to make progress as a team. We want to be contenders each week and finish the season stronger than when we started.”

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IRACING ■■ Graham Bowlin won the eNASCAR CocaCola iRacing All-Star Race.

GRAHAM BOWLIN STRIKES WITH ALL-STAR RACE WIN ROB TIONGSON

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fter eight thrilling rounds of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, the world’s best sim stock car drivers celebrated the 2020 season with the All-Star Race in rather unique fashion.

Instead of driving their familiar virtual stock cars on one of the series’ regular stops, the likes of Graham Bowlin, Justin Bolton, and Nick Ottinger found themselves racing in trucks at the beloved North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Tuesday night’s late spring exhibition consisted of a single truck, two-lap qualifying session, two 20-lap heats in which the top-10 finishers of each preliminary advanced to the main event, a “last chance qualifier” in which the top-six received a ticket into the big dance, and the actual main attraction, a 120-lap race in which drivers could only avail of two sets of fresh tires.

In the first 20-lap heat, Christian Challiner of JTG-Daugherty

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

Racing took the checkered flag while Sanitago Tirres, Justin Mullis, Kollin Keister, Logan Clampitt, Bobby Zalenski, Jake Nichols, Ray Alfalla, Michael Guest, and Justin Bolton advanced. Meanwhile, defending series champion Zack Novak won the second heat with Alex McCollum, Graham Bowlin, Corey Vincent, Blake Reynolds, Caine Cook, Brad Davies, Nathan Lyon, Michael Guariglia, and Mike Conti advanced.

As for the “last chance qualifier,” it was quite a surprise for those who didn’t advance with Ryan Luza, Dylan Duval, and Chris Overland among those who missed the cut. However, Casey Kirwan, Phil Diaz, Keegan Leahy, John Gorlinsky, Matt Bussa, and Nick Ottinger earned the final spots for the All-Star Race.

With the field set for the 120-lap paint trading special at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the action was plentiful with Jake Nichols leading in the early going before Caine Cook

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IRACING took the lead on Lap 35. Just as Cook nabbed the number one spot, Nichols spun in Turn 1, resulting in the first yellow flag of the evening.

Once the race resumed on Lap 40, Cook’s tenure in the lead was short-lived as Clampitt put the spurs to his Toyota Tundra into the lead on Lap 46.

Not long after, Keister and Kirwan saw their All-Star Race efforts end rather ingloriously as they wrecked on Lap 58, prompting another caution period.

The race’s longest green flag run kicked off on a restart with 57 to go with Clampitt leading the way in his Burton Kligerman eSports ride. Not surprisingly, the action was intense behind Clampitt as Bowlin made a race-saving move that would’ve made Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask quite proud with 49 to go.

Strategy became the name of the game just nine laps later with Challiner seemingly set on winning the All-Star Race with a well-intended gamble for track position. Unfortunately, it was all for naught when the 0 3 4

caution came out for a crash in Turn 2.

Clampitt raced his way back into the lead following a restart with 28 to go, holding the spot through the competition caution and into the final lap of the race. It seemed like Jeff Burton and Parker Kligerman’s gearjammer was ready to win it all Suddenly, on the final lap, Blake Reynolds attempted the “bump and run” on Clampitt in Turn 3, a move that eliminated both drivers from a shot at the All-Star Race win.

Making like Jeff Gordon in the 1995 NASCAR All-Star Race, Bowlin slithered to the inside of the fracas to score a surprising but opportune victory at the short track.

Following the thrilling finish, Bowlin said, “I thought that maybe Blake (Reynolds) was going to move him (Logan Clampitt) out of the way. I was just really lucky.”

Lucky or not, Bowlin earned the $500 prize, an All-Star Race win, and a smile, a trait that the rest of his peers likely did not

ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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Still, it was a great night not only for Bowlin, but also for Bolton, Ottinger, Vincent, Nichols, Cook, Tirres, Gorlinsky, Guest, and Guariglia as they all placed in the top-10.

Guariglia, who drove through some of the carnage, expressed gratitude after the race.

“It was a solid day for our Jim Beaver eSports Polaris RZR No. 15 F-150,” he said. “I’m kinda happy with our result considering we played the long game. We got shuffled to the back on the outside line in the opening.

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

pits for the entire race. It really showed who saved the most and who burned them up early.

Overall, it was a good race. I think the format was really well done and it had and exciting finish. Nothing better than some short track tempers following the all-star race. We will try to take this effort and translate that to Indianapolis in two weeks and hopefully be in the mix up front there.”

Sure, the glitz and glamor of the All-Star Race may be in the books for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series. Next, the series heads to the virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Round 9 of the year on June 30 at 9 p.m. EST. NASCAR.com and iRacing’s Twitch channel will live stream the action.

BY THE NUMBER

12

BY THE NUMBER

CAR NO.

BY K EITH WA LTZ

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total of 106 drivers have wheeled NASCAR Cup Series cars carrying No. 12, but the number is most closely associated with 1983 series champion Bobby Allison.

Allison made 170 starts in No. 12 during his Hall of Fame career, with 25 of his 84 victories coming in cars with that number. He also used the number during his time as a Cup Series car owner in the early 1990s.

■■ 1972 – Bobby Allison (ISC Archives via Getty Images photo)

Team Penske has been the caretaker of No. 12 since 2002 with Ryan Newman winning 13 times in 252 starts. Ryan Blaney, the current driver of Team Penske’s No. 12 Ford, has two wins in 85 races.

Overall statistics show that cars carrying No. 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series have visited Victory Lane 59 times while posting 507 top-10 finishes in nearly 1,400 starts.

Woodie Wilson was the first driver to use No. 12 in NASCAR’s premier series. The 1949 Mercury Wilson drove to a 17th-place finish on July 10, 1949, on the Beach and Road Course in Daytona Beach, Florida, was numbered 12.

Speedy Thompson was the first driver to win a Cup Series race in No. 12. That victory came on Sept. 13, 1953, at Central City Speedway, a half-mile dirt track located in Macon, Georgia.

Thompson started 12th and led 24 laps in beating Lee Petty to the checkered flag.

■■ 2020 – Ryan Blaney (Getty Images photo)

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ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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A TRUE FRIEND TO ALL COTTON OWENS FIELDED CARS FOR NASCAR’S GREATEST DRIVERS

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OWNER: COTTON OWENS TEAM: COTTON OWENS GARAGE MANUFACTURER: DODGE, PONTIAC, CHRYSLER NOTABLE DRIVERS: DAVID PEARSON. BUDDY BAKER, PETE HAMILTON, CHARLIE GLOTZBACH

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efore turning his attention solely to team ownership in NASCAR competition in 1964, Everett “Cotton” Owens wheeled his own cars from 1958 to 1961, recording six victories. Before moving to NASCAR’s premier Grand National division, he was quite successful in modified stock cars in the 1950s, claiming over 200 feature wins on various short tracks.

Born in Union, South Carolina, on May 21, 1924, the whitish-blondehaired Owens became interested in stock car racing after completing a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy in 1946. In 1949, he entered 23 races and won 19 of them. Then in 1951, he racked up another 54 wins and enjoyed championships in the United States Modified series in 1950, 1953 and 1954.

Owens’ first major win in NASCAR came on February 17, 1957, on the Daytona Beach and Road Course at Daytona. In 1959, he logged

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OWNER SPOTLIGHT a second-place finish to Lee Petty in NASCAR’s premier series championship but preferred the Modified circuit.

In 1961, he had his most productive season with 11 top-fives and four wins in only 17 starts. He had a win at his home track in Spartanburg, S.C., at Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds.

When he elected to leave the driver’s seat to become a full-time owner in 1964, he fielded his No. 6 Pontiacs with drivers Bobby Johns, Ralph Earnhardt, Marvin Panch, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson and David Pearson behind the wheel. He came out of retirement and scored a final career win at Richmond, Va., in September of that year.

In 1966, Owens and Pearson logged 15 victories and the Grand National Series title, along with 26 top-five and 33 top-10 finishes in 42 starts.

Other notable drivers climbed aboard Dodges he fielded in 1966 and 1967, including Buddy Baker, Bobby Isaac, Bobby Allison, Darel Dieringer, Ray Hendrick, Sam McQuagg, as well as open-wheel star Mario Andretti. Charlie 0 4 2

■■ Cotton Owens and Marvin Panch celebrate their induction to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Glotzbach would be Owens’ primary driver in 1968, 1969 and 1970 with Glotzbach winning at Charlotte in 1968 and Baker taking the prestigious Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in 1970.

In all, a total of 25 drivers climbed behind the wheel of Owens’ cars in 291 races, earning 32 victories and 29 pole positions. As a car owner and as a driver, Owens’ career statistics include 41 wins and 38 poles in 487 races.

Owens was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1998, he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers, and in 2012 was selected as a member of the fourth class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Owens passed away of cancer June 7, 2012, at the age of 88.

“He was such a nice guy, one of the nicest I ever drove for,” Pearson said in a Jan. 17, 2013 release from NASCAR. “He was a real smart, sensible man. They (his competitors) liked him as much as he liked them. If somebody wanted to know something, he’d answer them.”

ROAR! WEEKLY RACING MAGAZINE: JUNE 19, 2020

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