BY MARK GREGORY SPORTS REPORTER After a night in at Richmond that saw Denny Hamlin take his third checkered flag of the season, the Chase grid is set as racing heads to Joliet’s Chicagoland Speedway. Fans don’t have to look far to find the storylines heading into the Chase.
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‘The King’ to be inducted into Legends Club Furniture Row racing to add second team; Chase Rice performs before TMNT 400 By Mark Gregory sports reporter
mark@buglenewspapers.com @Hear_The_Beard
NASCAR legend Richard Petty will be inducted into the Chicagoland Speedway Legends Club as part of an action-packed four-day racing weekend for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400, the first race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup kickoff. Legends Club has featured some of the most storied figures, families and personalities in the sport. This climate-controlled viewing suite offers an intimate setting with an all-inclusive package of beer and wine, plus two meals per day. Since its inception, the Legends Club has honored and recognized some of the most notable drivers in the sport, including Rusty Wallace, Richard Childress, Fred Lorenza, Dale Jarrett and Brett Bodine. “It’s safe to say that Legends Club is certainly a comfortable and appropriate home for ‘The King,’ and it’s only fitting that he’s inducted during Chicagoland Speedway’s milestone 15th Anniversary,” said
Chicagoland Speedway President Scott Paddock. “It is truly an honor to have Richard’s storied career celebrated at our facility as we kick off the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup” On Saturday, Legends Club will induct Petty, as he accepts his position in Chicagoland Speedway’s history books. Petty already decorated NASCAR’s illustrious past by winning the NASCAR premier series championship seven times along with a record 200 wins during his storied career. Statistically speaking, Petty is the most accomplished driver in the history of stock car racing and is one of the most respected figures in all of motorsports. In addition, Richard Petty was included in the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010. “It’s always nice to be recognized for what you’ve done, especially from others,” said Petty. “That means a lot to us, our family and to everyone who has worked with us. It’s always been a team effort and not one single person to make it all happen. I’m just thankful that someone else
PHOTO by jonathan Ferrey/Nascar media
‘The King’ Richard Petty will be inducted into the Legends Club at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday. sees all the hard work that we all put in.” Tickets to Legends Club are still available for Friday, Sept. 16
and Saturday, Sept. 17 and can be purchased by calling 815-7225500, or by visiting the Chicagoland Speedway Administrative office
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
see 'the king' | page 3
3 CHASE | from page 1 With the points reset, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch lead the way with 2014 points each – both posting four wins during the regular season. Keselowski, however, knows that is not a lock for a championship as he posted the most wins two seasons ago and that did not translate to a title. “We’ve come into this thing with the most wins in 2014 and a lot of momentum, and I felt like we had some ups and downs. We came in last year with one win, and it all comes down to just the same things,” Keselowski said after a fourthplace finish at Richmond. “This is a dynamic environment. What you’ve done in the past is not necessarily representative of what you’re going to see in the future or what you’re going to be able to do in the future. So you’ve got to keep working and keep your eyes in the windshield, not in the mirror. Momentum is
the king | from page 2
Furniture Row to add second car When Martin Truex Jr. takes the track to run for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, it will be the last time Furniture Row Racing competes in the Chase as a singlecar team. “We’re very excited to have all the components of a second race team pulled together here,” owner of Furniture Row Racing, Barney Visser said in early August. The second team will feature driver Erik Jones behind the wheel of a No. 77 5-Hour ENERGY sponsored Toyota. This season, Jones is in a battle for an XFINITY Series championship with Joe Gibbs Racing. “To find a driver like Erik, a sponsor like 5-Hour ENERGY, along with our technical agreement with Gibbs (Racing), we think we’re going to be able to run right up where we need to run. We’re very excited to get it all pulled together here,” Visser said. Jones, who won the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship with Kyle Busch Racing, is obviously excited to be joining the Sprint Cup circuit next season. “It’s hard to say I’m not excited but anxious at the same time,” Jones said. “It’s pretty cool for me to be partnered up with Furniture Row and be part of them growing and part of 5-Hour, too. To have such a big company like that be partnered with me is pretty cool this early in my racing career and something
great and it makes you feel good, but it’s a tricky thing to get caught up in it.” For Busch, he is hoping to build off what he learned last year when he won the championship, but he said some of that was simply good fortune. “We’ve had good fortune before. Last year we made it through barely each and every round. I think we were the last car to transfer through every time. Doesn’t matter if you’re the first car or the last car, as long as you get through the next one, you’ve got an opportunity to keep racing for a championship. That’s what it’s all about,” Busch said. “You know, I feel like the first round’s a good round for us. It’s strong. But you got to have solid finishes and try to minimize your bad days. “I feel like we kind of are right even with where we were last year, kind of doing the same things. But there are other guys that are better than us. So we’re just going to have to figure out how to out-race them and out-finish
them when we need to.” With the win at Richmond, Hamlin grabs his third win and resets at 2009 points, passing Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex, Jr. Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson, all who reset with 2006. Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher and Tony Stewart all enter the Chase with one win and 2003 points. For Stewart, a three-time series champion, this is his final shot at No.4, as he will retire at the end of this season. Stewart’s last title came in 2011 when he advanced to the Chase without a single win and then started the Chase off with a win at Chicagoland, which propelled him to five wins – including the final one at Homestead for the championship. “What you do up to the start of the Chase really doesn’t mean anything, obviously. 2011 is proof of that,” Stewart said. “We’ll get started next week at Chicago, and all I care about right now is getting ready for Chicago and running through Sunday at
Chicago. Once we get through that, I’ll worry about week 2. This is a stressful 10 weeks and you take it one week at a time. That’s what we did in ‘11, and it worked.” While Stewart is leaving the sport, a pair of rookies are headed into their first Chase. It is the first time since 2006 when Hamlin became the first rookie ever to qualify for the Chase. This season, Buescher heads in with a win at Pocono, while Elliot joins Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray as the three drivers to advance without a win during the season. “I’m very excited to be in. Congrats to Chris and their group. They had the big win at Pocono. We want to work hard to try to get to victory lane ourselves,” Elliott said. “I think we have a group that can do it and we just got to take these next few weeks and hunker down and give it our best shot. I appreciate our 3M NAPA group for doing that and we’re excited about these next 10.
We have to go in with the mentality that we can give ourselves a chance at Homestead, and if not then we should have let the next one in.” Elliot, who is driving the No. 24 car and replacing legend Jeff Gordon is also the son of racing legend Bill Elliott and was expected to be a successful driver in the series. Buescher, one of four drivers for Front Row Motorsports – one of the smaller teams in the series – and is the first driver in team history to advance to the Chase. “[It is] Just really cool to be a part of it at this point. We look at this first round, and we want to make it past that round. We want to move through the Chase, and then we can reevaluate from there,” Buescher said. “If we can keep going farther and improve our program each and every weekend, that’s always going to be what we’re aiming to do. That’s the plan. We’ve got to do and try and progress through the Chase and see what we can pull off.”
I’ve always wanted. Just a good fit all around. (I’ve) got a lot to do this year yet, but definitely excited for next year.” Truex is also excited to have a teammate joining the ranks. “Everybody is really excited about this. We’ve heard Barney and Joe (Garone, president of Furniture Row Racing) talk for the last few years really about expanding someday and wanting to get bigger and wanting to grow,” he said. “(I am) just really excited to be a part of that. “I know a lot of things had to come together. Toyota and the JGR alliance, all those things have been wonderful for us. Now I feel like those things all coming together, allowing us to do a second car, kind of helps keep those relationships strong, helps us build those for the future, and really I think bodes well for the future of Furniture Row Racing. Hopefully it’s something I’ll be able to be a part of for a long, long time. (I am) excited to work with Erik. Obviously a great talent, has all the right people behind him to be successful in this sport. Look forward to hopefully teaching him a thing or two along the way.” Jones knows there will be a lot to learn as he moves up the NASCAR ranks on a permanent basis after running some Cup races in 2015 filling in for Kyle Busch (leg injury) and Matt Kenseth (suspension). “Well, I don’t know if at any point in your career if you’re totally ready to make that move,” Jones said. “Like I said, I felt like last year I learned a lot in the few starts I made. At the end of the day I’m as ready as I can be. At some point you got to make
that jump. You’re going to sink or swim. Like I said, I think I’m in the best situation to hopefully swim and be successful at it. “There’s going to be a lot to learn for sure. There’s going to be ups and downs throughout the year. I think at the end of it all we’re going to be in a good position, and I think we’ll be able to have speed at it and hopefully be competitive throughout the year.”
love the most – music and NASCAR. We’re going to have a good time kicking off the Chase!” Rice recently released “Everybody We Know Does,” the first single from his highly anticipated, asyet-untitled new album. His most recent RIAA Gold-certified album, Ignite the Night, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and yielded a pair of Top 5 singles with the Platinum-certified “Ready Set Roll” and “Gonna Wanna Tonight.” A dynamic artist and entertainer, Rice has toured with country music superstar Kenny Chesney and Dierks Bentley and will launch his fifth headlining tour, the Everybody We Know Does Tour, this fall. “Including a talented performer and rising musical star like Chase as part of our Sprint Cup Series weekend and 15th Anniversary celebration is an exciting addition to an already festive line-up,” said Scott Paddock, president of Chicagoland Speedway. “The kickoff race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup should have a “bigness” to it, and the fun and energetic musical performance delivered by Chase Rice will only make the weekend even more memorable for our fans.”
of Snapchat users from the Bank of America 500 in Concord, North Carolina on Oct. 8, and the Ford EcoBoost 400 in Homestead, Florida, on Nov. 20, when NASCAR will crown its 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ champion. “There’s no experience in sports quite like attending a NASCAR race, especially during the Chase,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “Snapchat’s Live Story coverage provides young audiences with a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the real Chase race experience, through the lens of our fans and drivers.” Later this fall, Snapchat users at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway will contribute their race-day perspectives through video and photo Snaps submitted to collective Live Stories, capturing the real NASCAR story, straight from the fans. The thousands of submitted Snaps from each event will be curated and packaged by Snapchat into a video stream that is shared globally with Snapchat’s more than 100 million daily active users. Each NASCAR Live Story will be available to view on Snapchat for 24 hours. In February, NASCAR announced its first-ever partnership with Snapchat doubling the platform’s coverage of NASCAR premier race events in 2016. The 2016 Daytona 500, which set records for NASCAR social media engagement, and May race at Talladega Superspeedway featured Live Stories this season.
Rice to kick off Chase Country music singer and songwriter Chase Rice will perform the pre-race concert for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400, the first race in the Chase for The NASCAR Sprint Cup on Sunday, Sept. 18. Florida-born and North Carolinaraised, Rice played football on scholarship at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and worked on a NASCAR pit crew before moving to Nashville to pursue his career in music. Rice has a special passion for NASCAR, developed first through years of attending races while following his father’s racing career and through his own career experience within the sport. “Racing is in my blood. My dad actually used to race when we lived in Florida and won his class at 24 Hours of Daytona, and my first job out of college was with Hendrick Motorsports, so being at the track is like home to me,” said Rice. “NASCAR has the most passionate fans in the world, so it’s really cool to be able to come back as a performer now and combine two of the things I
Snapchat to cover the Chase Snapchat is covering the 2016 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ this fall with Live Stories from Charlotte Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. Fans will be able to share their race-day experiences with millions
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Tony Stewart, 3-time winner at Chicagoland, makes his final run in Joliet before retiring By Mark Gregory sports reporter
mark@buglenewspapers.com @Hear_The_Beard
The drop of the green flag Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet signifies the beginning of the 2016 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. It also signifies the beginning of the end for one of the sport’s most polarizing drivers. Tony Stewart announced at the beginning of the season that this would be his final season behind the wheel of the No. 14 Chevy. A former winner at Chicagoland, the man they call ‘Smoke’ clinched his place in the Chase with a win at Sonoma in June. “Before the season started we said our only goal was to go out and have fun, anything else would be icing on the cake,” Stewart said. “It’s been fun but we’ve also been able to run really well. We aren’t going to change. We are going to keep having fun all the way to Homestead.” Fun may have been Stewart’s goal from the beginning of the season, but with a championship only 10 races away, Stewart is looking to get more fun out of winning. “My goal was to have fun this season, (this is) my last year, I really wanted to have a good time and I’m doing that,” he said.
PHOTO by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Tony Stewart celebrated a 2007 win in Joliet by climbing to the flagstand to grab the checkered flag. It was one of three wins at Chicagoland.
PHOTO by Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
Tony Stewart will retire at the end of the 2016 season. “I’m having a lot of fun racing with the guys I’m racing with. We wanted to win a race and we got that done so it’s kind of taken the pressure off of trying to accomplish that goal. Now, it’s like, ‘OK well let’s set another goal and set it a little higher’. We want to go and do the best we can to win this championship. You know the thing is its 10 weeks, it’s 10 hard weeks of racing and its three three-race segments to get to Homestead. You can’t leave anything on the table. You’ve got to use it up every week and its two and a half month of your life that you’ve got to really focus hard on and be all in on.” With the points readjusted
as the driver’s enter the Chase, Stewart is looking for a competitive run at his fourth championship. Stewart earned his first crown in 2002, grabbed a second in 2005 and waited six years before he defeated Carl Edwards by virtue of a tiebreaker. The two ended the season tied in points, but Stewart’s five wins bettered Edwards’ one. With this being his last chance to get championship No. 4, Stewart said he will not go after it lightly. “(My mindset is) don’t leave anything on the table each week,” he said. “Once the Chase starts, every race that we run, it’s
not about saving anything. And I’m not worried about hurting people’s feelings, if we’ve got to roughen them up a little bit to get the job done, they don’t have to worry about me next year – I won’t be in that capacity.” Stewart is not only looking for a title run for himself, he is looking for successful runs from Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick – both members of Stewart-Haas Racing, the team Stewart coowns. “You want to be peaking at that time, you want to be really coming into it and you know, it’s never that you go to the track and you’re like ‘well we don’t want to peak this weekend so we’re not going to try to win the race.’ That’s not the scenario you put yourself in but you want to have momentum, you want your team guys to feel like they’re building on something and feel like they’re getting to the top of the pile. And I feel like we’re in a position like that – Kevin and Kurt are both running well each
week, the Mobil 1 car for us has been getting better and better each week as well. We’re knocking our top fives left and right here and if we can have that kind of consistency, that could carry us a long way in the Chase.” When the Chase is over, it will end a NASCAR career for Stewart that began in 1999 after spending time in the IndyCar Series, where he was the series champion in 1997. Stewart is the only driver to win championships in stock cars, Indy cars and open-wheel Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown cars. His three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships make him one of just 15 drivers who have scored multiple Sprint Cup titles, and only the ninth driver to win three or more championships, joining Richard Petty (seven), Dale Earnhardt (seven), Jimmie Johnson (six), Jeff Gordon (four), David Pearson (three), Darrell Waltrip (three), Cale Yarborough (three) and Lee Petty (three).
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