Front Row Motorsports takes Chris Buescher back to 1981 for Southern 500

When Chris Buescher hits the track at Darlington Raceway – his favorite track – for the Sept. 4 Southern 500, his No. 34 Ford will pay tribute to his sponsor’s origins.

Buescher’s Love’s Travel Stops car will have a paint scheme inspired by the very first Love’s location, which opened in Amarillo, Texas, in 1981.

The No. 34 color scheme will be patterned after the fuel canopies and building facade of the location.

“The Darlington throwback weekend has become a pretty big deal, and it’s cool to have Love’s Travel Stops bring some of their history into the race weekend with their old colors,” said Buescher in a press release. “Darlington is my favorite track, and I can’t wait to get there and turn some laps in this special Love’s Ford Fusion.”

Buescher’s car announcement comes the day after the one for his teammate, Landon Cassill.

The rest of the throwback paint schemes for the Southern 500 can be seen on Sept. 4 on NBC.

Kurt Busch seeks NASCAR record this weekend at Pocono

Kurt Busch seeks to do something this weekend that hasn’t been done in NASCAR.

Run every lap for the most consecutive races to start a season.

Busch enters Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway on NBCSN having completed all 5,673 laps in the first 20 races. No driver has completed every lap through the the first 21 Cup races in a season.

Busch tied Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the record this past weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Busch completed every lap on the way to finishing 16th.

Earnhardt set the mark in 2012 by completing every lap in the first 20 races of the season. In the 21st race, which was at Pocono, Earnhardt fell 18 laps short of the distance in the rain-shortened race.

Busch heads to Pocono having won the June race there. In this race a year ago, he finished 37th after he was involved in an accident, He finished 10 laps behind the leaders.

Busch’s consistency this season has led to 15 top-10 finishes, second only to Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, who has 16.

Drivers who have run the most laps in Cup this season:

100% — Kurt Busch (5,673 laps)

99.86 — Brad Keselowski (5,665)

99.67 — Trevor Bayne (5,654)

99.38 — Martin Truex Jr. (5,638)

98.71 — Kevin Harvick (5,600)

98.55 — Jamie McMurray (5,591)

98.20 — Austin Dillon (5,571)

97.76 — Landon Cassill (5,546)

97.76 — Matt Kenseth (5,546)

97.48 — Carl Edwards (5,530)

NASCAR on NBC podcast, Episode XXV: Landon Cassill

Shortly after being named NASCAR’s “most stylish driver” by GQ, Landon Cassill joined the NASCAR on NBC podcast to discuss his unconventional approaches to social media and promotion.

Cassill, who recently appeared on YouTube’s Gary Vee Show and sat courtside for Game 3 of the NBA Finals (in an appearance that gained traction on social media), has turned up in some unlikely places for a NASCAR driver, and some of it is by design. While the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native hasn’t won in NASCAR’s national series, he has become a fixture in the Xfinity and Sprint Cup series over the past five years by grinding out consistent results with mid-tier teams.

The key to keeping a spot, though, is sponsorship, and Cassill believes in ensuring he can gain attention while working to build results. It’s why he has lobbied Front Row to consider hiring a film crew to follow him in the garage, guaranteeing some form of exposure that would help keep pace with teams whose success brings coverage.

“I like getting involved in media outside the traditional space in our sport,” Cassill said. “It’s cool to have the conversation with people who don’t really pay attention to our sport about NASCAR. It’s definitely good for me. It’s good for our sponsors.”

Cassill also discussed:

–His racing roots and what Iowa Speedway has meant to his native state;

–His sometimes irreverent approach to social media;

–How Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule might apply to racing;

–Earning compliments from the Sprint Cup establishment and how that could help his career.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking below or download the AudioBoom app and listen there. You also can download and subscribe to it on iTunes by clicking here. The free subscription will provide automatic downloads of new episodes to your smartphone. It also is available on Stitcher

Stayed tuned for time cues to provide easy referencing while listening to the episode.

Landon Cassill calls Harvick ’emotional,’ ‘thin skinned’ after comments about last-lap crash

Landon Cassill calls Harvick ’emotional,’ ‘thin skinned’ after comments about last-lap crash

After the conclusion of the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Kevin Harvick put the blame on a seven-car crash coming to the checkered flag on Landon Cassill of Front Row Motorsports.

Cassill made contact with Cole Whitt in the No. 98, starting an incident that included Harvick, AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Martin Truex Jr.

“Landon Cassill was trying to cause a wreck for the last 40 laps and he finally got it done there at the end,” Harvick told Fox after the race in which he finished 15th.

Cassill, who finished 11th, learned of the 2014 Sprint Cup champion’s comments on Twitter as he left the track, the driver told Jeremiah Davis of The Gazette in a phone interview.

Cassill told the paper the wreck incident was the result of the field not letting up coming to the checkered flag and said he “laughed off” the comments as an “emotional” reaction from Harvick, who he doesn’t take anything “personally” from.

“Because he’s got a reputation for being fairly emotional and can’t handle himself,” Cassill said. “He’ll get over it. Two of the last few superspeedway races ended under a huge wreck because of him. I find it kind of funny he’s mad at me. His reputation is pretty thin-skinned. That’s just who he is.”

Cassill mentioned the conclusions of both last year’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the fall race at Talladega, which saw Harvick at the epicenter of two wrecks that caused mayhem in the closing laps.

“You saw the 4 car, Kevin Harvick, wreck the whole field at Daytona last year in very similar fashion,” Cassill told The Gazette. “He drove right over the 11 car (Denny Hamlin) and that was the wreck that caused the 3 car (Austin Dillon) to go up in the grandstands. How are you supposed to say that’s anybody’s fault? It’s superspeedway racing, really.”

Then in the fall Talladega race, a wreck began on a restart attempt after Harvick made contact with Trevor Bayne right before the start-finish line. The resulting accident would pave the way for the new rules on Overtime finishes.

Cassill’s 11th-place finish is his best result this season.