Jeffrey Earnhardt to drive for BK Racing at Talladega

Jeffrey Earnhardt will drive the No. 83 car for BK Racing at Talladega Superspeedway, the team announced Monday.

Earnhardt, the grandson of Dale Earnhardt Sr., will have Starter as a sponsor.

He’ll be in one of three BK Racing cars entered this weekend. David Ragan is in the No. 23 car, and Matt DiBenedetto, who regularly drives the No. 83 car, will be in the No. 93 car this weekend.

“I’m really excited to drive the No. 83 Starter Toyota Camry for the fall race at Talladega,” Earnhardt said in a statement from the team. “It’s my first Cup Series race at Talladega, my first race with BK Racing, the first time anyone from our family competes in a Toyota and it’s the 25th anniversary of my grandfather’s victory at Talladega. Having this opportunity with an iconic American partner like Starter is an incredible honor. I can’t remember being so pumped up for a race and sincerely appreciate our friends at Starter for their support.”

Dale Earnhardt Sr. won a record 10 Cup races at Talladega. His first victory there came in 1983. He won five of nine Talladega races from 1990-94.

Doug Richert, who served as Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s crew chief when he won the first of his seven titles in 1980, will be Jeffrey Earnhardt’s crew chief this weekend.

“I’m looking forward to once again returning to the track as crew chief with an Earnhardt behind the wheel,” Richert said in a statement from the team. “The Earnhardt family has played such an important part in my racing career; starting in 1978 with Dale Sr. and then winning a championship with him in 1980, it’s very cool to work with the fourth generation of the family.”

Jeffrey Earnhardt regularly drives the No. 32 for Go Fas Racing but Bobby Labonteis driving that car this weekend, giving Earnhardt the opportunity to drive for BK Racing.

Jeffrey Earnhardt’s appearance at Talladega will continue the family’s streak of starts at the track. An Earnhardt family member has started every Talladega Sprint Cup race there since 1980.

Watch NASCAR America at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN: Remembering Betty Jane France

Today’s episode of NASCAR America will memorialize the life of Betty Jane France, NASCAR’s former “First Lady” who died Monday after making many contributions (such as the NASCAR Foundation) to stock-car racing.

Mike Helton, the vice chairman of NASCAR and longtime confidant of the France family, will make a special guest appearance to share his thoughts about Betty Jane France.

Dave Briggs hosts with Dale Jarrett in Stamford, Connecticut. They are joined by Steve Letarte and Bobby Labonte from NBC Sports Charlotte.

Also on today’s show:

With Darlington and Richmond left in the regular season, drivers on the playoff bubble face their last shots to win and make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. We’ll break down their chances of breaking through in crunch time.
Labonte, the 2000 Sprint Cup Series champion, recalls his success at Darlington on the eve of the second annual throwback weekend at the track “Too Tough To Tame.”
In our weekly Scan All! feature, hear all the drivers’ real-time reactions during Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.
And in My Home Track, we’ll head for California and a track where a young Kyle Larson reached an important milestone early in his career.
If you’re not near a TV, you can watch online or on the NBC Sports app at the NASCAR stream on NBC Sports. If you plan to stream the show on your laptop or portable device, be sure to have your username and password from your cable/satellite/telco provider handy so your subscription can be verified.

Once you enter that information, you’ll have access to the stream.

Click here at 6 p.m. ET to watch live via the stream.

NASCAR America: Bobby Labonte on what it takes to win at Darlington

Bobby Labonte joins the NASCAR America crew to talk about how difficult the Darlington Raceway track is ahead of the Southern 500. Labonte, the 2000 Sprint Cup champion, won at Darlington once in both the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series.

Retro Rundown 2016: Throwback paint schemes for the Southern 500

It’s almost here. By almost, we mean less than two months.
That’s how long we have to wait for this year’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, which can be seen Sept. 4 on NBC. It’s also how long we have to wait to see the second batch of retro paint schemes dedicated to honoring the sport’s history after last season’s successful venture into nostalgia.
What makes it even better this time around is that the entire field will likely be in on the fun. Last season, Joe Gibbs Racing stood out as one of the few teams not to participate. The team has already announced paint schemes for Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.
Here’s a rundown of the retro paint schemes announced to date. Which is your favorite?
Brad Keselowski – The No. 2 Ford will feature the design of the original Miller Lite can that was produced before 1974.

Austin Dillon – Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet will bare the paint scheme driven by Ricky Rudd in 1983 when he earned Richard Childress Racing’s first Sprint Cup win at Riverside International Raceway.

Kevin Harvick – The No. 4 Chevrolet will look just like the Busch-sponsored car driven by Cale Yarborough during the 1979-1980 Sprint Cup seasons. Yarborough earned 10 of his 83 careers win during that span.


Trevor Bayne – No matter what anyone tells you, the 1990s were awesome and so were Mark Martin‘s paint schemes. For the second year in a row, Bayne’s No. 6 Ford will have a ’90s flavor to it. After bringing back memories of Martin’s career-best season in 1998 last year, Bayne’s car will have the paint scheme Martin used in the 1996 and 1997 seasons.

Regan Smith – The “Underbird” will fly again. Sort of. Smith’s No.7 Chevrolet, instead of a Ford Thunderbird, will have the paint scheme, sans Hooters sponsorship, that was driven by the late Alan Kulwicki. The paint scheme was on track for 59 Sprint Cup races, including his 1992 championship campaign.


Danica Patrick – Patrick’s sponsor, Nature’s Bakery, hasn’t been around very long. So there’s not a 20-year-old paint scheme for Stewart-Haas Racing to blow the dust off of. But Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet still has a late 70s/early 80s vibe to it.

Casey Mears – The No. 13 Geico Chevrolet will pay tribute to the career and legacy of Smokey Yunick. The paint scheme and number were used by drivers Mario Andretti and Curtis Turner in 1966 and 1967 when they raced for Yunick. Turner sat on the pole for the 1967 Daytona 500 with this paint scheme.


Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Darrell Waltrip won a lot of races in his Sprint Cup career, including five at Darlington. But the first of his 84 wins came in the No. 17 in 1975 at Nashville Speedway. The paint scheme Waltrip carried in that race will be resurrected by Stenhouse, 41 years later.

Kyle Busch – Just days after Matt Kenseth won at Dover International Speedway to give Joe Gibbs Racing its 135th Sprint Cup win (tying it for third all time with Roush Fenway Racing) the team showed off Busch’s paint scheme. The No. 18 will look like it did when it was driven by Dale Jarrett in 1993, the year he won JGR’s first Cup race in the Daytona 500.

Carl Edwards – The No. 19 Arris Toyota will have the paint scheme that was used by Tony Stewart when he drove the No. 20 Home Depot car for Joe Gibbs Racing from 1999-2008.

Joey Logano – The No. 22 Ford will pay tribute to the first paint scheme used on a car sponsored by Shell. The look was used by Bobby Labonte on his No. 44 Pontiac in the Xfinity Series in 1998. Labonte drove the car to a win at Darlington that season.

David Ragan – The No. 23 Toyota for BK Racing will be sponsored by Dr. Pepper and feature the soft drinks classic “I’m a Pepper” slogan.

Chase Elliott – The No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet will have a paint scheme inspired by the look of NAPA’s old delivery trucks from the 1960s. NAPA’s original colors were yellow and black before transitioning to yellow and blue.

Ryan Newman – Just like teammate Austin Dillon, Newman’s paint scheme will evoke RCR’s first win in 1983 with Ricky Rudd.

Jeffrey Earnhardt – The grandson of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. will drive a paint scheme based on the seven-time champion’s time being sponsored by Wrangler in the 1980s.


Kurt Busch – Last year, Busch’s No. 41 car used the paint scheme that was first used in the Sprint Cup Series by Gene Haas in 2002. This season, Busch’s car will honor the VF-1, the first CNC machine built by Haas Automation in 1988.

Aric Almirola – The No. 43 Ford will carry the colors used by Richard Petty when he won his sixth Daytona 500 in 1979.

AJ Allmendinger –  It’s a bit of a deep cut, but Allmendinger’s car is still a love letter to NASCAR history. The No. 47 will look just like it did in during the 1977 Sprint Cup Season when it was driven by 1975 Rookie of the Year Bruce Hill. The Kansas native never won a Sprint Cup race, but he earned one of his three career top-five finishes at Darlington Raceway in 1975.

Matt DiBenedetto – The No. 83 Toyota for BK Racing will be sponsored by Orange Crush and will have the soft drink’s 1970s design.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Earnhardt will drive his favorite paint scheme in the history of the sport. His No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet will look like the “Gray Ghost,” the car driven by Buddy Baker in 1979 and 1980.


Michael McDowell – The No. 95 team of Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing, which is part of a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, will honor Childress with a paint scheme based off a car he raced in the 1970s.

Post-Charlotte notebook: Truex achievements make for a long list

Martin Truex Jr.’s dominant victory in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 was notable on a number of accounts.

Not only was it his fourth career win in 382 career Sprint Cup starts, it was his first win in nearly a year (34 races, last win was June 2015 at Pocono).

Here are several more nuggets that also are notable (courtesy of Racing Insights).

* In just 13 races this season, Truex has led more laps (809) than he has in any other season in the Sprint Cup Series. The most laps Truex had led in a previous season was 581 in 2007 and 567 in 2015.

* It was the first win by a single-car team in the Coca-Cola 600 since Bobby Labonte for Joe Gibbs Racing in 1995.

* Truex became the first driver in 40 years to win the Coca-Cola 600 from the pole. David Pearson last did so in NASCAR’s longest race of the year in 1976.

* Truex wasted little time in earning the win. In fact, all drivers wasted little time, as it was the quickest race in Coca-Cola 600 history: Just 3 hours, 44 minutes and 8 seconds.

* The average speed in Sunday’s race was also the fastest in Coca-Cola 600 history: 160.644 mph.

* Truex led 98 percent of the 400 laps. That’s the most dominating win in the last 714 races, dating back to September 2000 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, when current NBC NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton led 100 percent of the laps.

* With 13 races, 23 races remain in the 2016 Sprint Cup season. However, time is getting more crucial for drivers to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Only 13 races remain to make the Chase. Truex is the eighth driver to win a race in 2016, meaning there still are eight spots remaining to fill the 16-driver Chase field.

* With his late May win at Charlotte, Truex began a new timetable of sorts. All three of his previous Sprint Cup wins came in June.

Trevor Bayne basks in the glory of being ‘in the game’ again at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. – As NASCAR officials scurried between cars checking every wheel for five lug nuts, dozens of team members, reporters and driver’s family members waited on the pit wall at Talladega Superspeedway.

The delay took several moments after Sunday’s Geico 500, and it allowed for an unusual scene as the top finishers moved unencumbered between their cars to swap post-race tales of their good fortune over the course of a wild 500 miles on the 2.66-mile oval.

No one seemed to be having a better time than Trevor Bayne.

He debriefed at length about the closing laps with Ryan Blaney. He shared a laugh with Jamie McMurray and Austin Dillon. He entered a long conversation with past NASCAR champions Kurt Busch and Bobby Labonte, who offered an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

After finishing 10th and leading a career-best 22 laps – seven fewer than he led over 93 starts from 2011-15 – Bayne looked like he belonged Sunday.

More importantly, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner felt as if he did, too.

“We’re in the game,” Bayne said. “We’re not just out here taking up a spot. I feel like we’re in the race. We pushed Kurt to the lead there. It’s just fun to be in the game here.”

PODCAST: Hear Trevor Bayne candidly discussing his career and the 2016 season on the NASCAR on NBC podcast.

His No. 6 Ford was in the game at Talladega until the final restart with three laps to go. Bayne was third and on the inside line, delivering a massive push that briefly shot Kurt Busch into the lead past winner Brad Keselowski.

But as the action moved up the banking, Bayne was left on the bottom without any help. Blaney, his reliable drafting partner all day, had a badly damaged rear bumper that precluded him from riding shotgun.

“I NEED HELP!” Bayne screamed with two to go on the team radio as he nearly slipped from the lead draft. He recovered to salvage 10th with nary a drafting partner – a testament to the strength of his car.

“We probably had the fastest car here,” crew chief Matt Puccia said. “We knew we did on Friday in practice. We just played it safe and were just riding there. Got shuffled out at the end but great effort by this team, they’ve done a great job all year long.
“We came up short, but that’s Talladega. You have to be in the right lane at the right time. Really proud of these guys. They’re working hard week in and week out. We got one coming.”

It’s easy to shoulder the disappointment when everything seems to be trending in the correct direction.

Bayne’s second top 10 in 10 races of 2016 – tying his season-best total in Cup – moved him up two spots to 16th in points. The Roush Fenway Racing driver won’t need a miracle win to make the NASCAR playoffs for the first time at this rate.

But he will head to the July 2 race at Daytona International Speedway with the knowledge that he will bring a proven Ford that was among the only cars to emerge unscathed in a Talladega wreckfest.

“These races are gut wrenching from Lap 1 on, so I felt like that was the most calm race I’ve ever had,” he said. “I don’t have any damage on the Adovcare Ford. We’ll take it.”

Bayne took the lead for the last time on Lap 156 – six laps before the 21-car crash that wiped out much of his competition. He wisely had heeded the advice on his team radio to restrain himself – as difficult as it was for a 25-year-old who is 102 races removed from his last win (which came in only his second start).

“The car was really strong, but this place is all about patience,” Puccia said. “Even though you have a fast car, you can’t do it by yourself. You step out of line and get yourself in trouble real fast. He did a really good job staying patient, staying in line. It just didn’t work out for us

“But people have been talking about us all year long. We’ve had speed everywhere we’ve gone. That’s what we’ve got to carry on. We’ve got to keep progressing and moving the needle. That’s what we’re doing every week, and it’s starting to show. It’s a morale booster seeing how we ran today.”

And no one’s confidence seemed higher than Bayne, who seemed one of the guys inside and outside the car.

“It is so refreshing to come to the race track and have a chance,” he said. “I feel really good about the pieces they are giving me. It is all about the race cars. I’m surely proud of this team.”

NASCAR America: Bobby Labonte, Parker Kligerman, Dale Jarrett recall Talladega wins

Parker Kligerman, Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte reemember their wins at Talladega Superspeedway ahead of the Sprint Cup weekend. Labonte also breaks down the difference between winning at the speedway in the 90s and today.