NASCAR Next’s Harrison Burton making ARCA debut this weekend

Harrison Burton, the son of former Sprint Cup driver and NBC Sports analyst Jeff Burton, will be the latest NASCAR Next member to make their ARCA Racing Series debut this weekend.

Burton, 15, will compete for Ranier Racing with MDM in Saturday’s ARCA 150 at Iowa Speedway. He will drive the No. 8 DEX Imaging car. Serving as his teammate will be former NASCAR Next member Kyle Benjamin.

Burton follows NASCAR Next members Ty Majeski and Nicole Behar who made their ARCA debuts last month at Madison International Speedway.

“I’m super excited to have the opportunity to run my first ARCA race with RRWMDM,” Burton said in a press release. “It’s going to be a learning experience for me. I will be learning a new car, team and race track, but I am nothing but confident that the guys at the shop and the team at the race track will give me an excellent car. I am looking forward to the weekend.”

Burton, who will also make his Camping World Truck Series debut in October at Martinsville Speedway, is currently competing in the K&N Pro Series East with HScott Motorsports. Through eight races in 2016, Burton is ninth in points with one top five and two top 10s.

Tony Stewart hot laps dirt track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Of course Tony Stewart was going to play in the dirt Tuesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The track — to honor Stewart’s final start in the Brickyard 400 on July 24 — built a 3/16-mile dirt track in the infield near the speedway’s Turn 3.

“I was dead set that I was not going to get in anything … (but) I’m addicted,’’ Stewart told reporters shortly before running about 20 laps on the dirt track. “I’m going to have to run a couple of laps.

“I always want to drive something like this. I want something that I’m in control of. I want something that I have to drive the car and the car is not driving me.’’

Stewart grew up about an hour south of the speedway in Columbus, Indiana, and starred on dirt tracks before moving to Indy cars and then NASCAR.

He twice won the Brickyard 400. He raced in the Indianapolis 500 five times, finishing a career-best fifth in 1997. He last drove in that race in 2001, the second and final time he ran in the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

For as much as Stewart enjoyed running on the track Tuesday, he looked forward to what might happen in the future.

“If we get to actually watch a race here at IMS on a dirt track, that is going to be pretty awesome,’’ said Stewart, who owns Eldora (Ohio) Speedway and the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions sprint car series. “They haven’t been able to do that for the first 100 years, but they can do it for the next 100.’’

NASCAR America: Chase Elliott close to winning amid Hendrick woes

The NASCAR America analysts discuss how Hendrick Motorsports, including Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Jr., performed at Daytona and how the team will do going forward.

Celebrating Daytona win with his daughter made it a special night for Brad Keselowski

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was a first place finish of firsts — one involving fatherhood — for Brad Keselowski.

The Team Penske’s win in the Coke Zero 400 was his breakthrough at Daytona International Speedway. But just as special was the company he kept in victory lane while enjoying his 20th career triumph in NASCAR’s premier series.

For the first time, Keselowski’s 13-month -old daughter, Scarlett, joined her dad and mother Paige White for the postrace celebration of a Sprint Cup victory.

“That was really cool,” the 2012 series champion told NBC Sports. “She’s been in victory lane once with the Xfinity car last year in Kentucky, but every time we win in Cup it seems like she’s asleep, or we didn’t bring her that weekend or something happens.

“So I was beginning to think it was maybe a bit of a curse.”

Instead, it was a blessing to watch her absorb the scene just a few weeks after she began taking her first steps. Keselowski said Scarlett seemed to grasp the significance “a little bit. I think she was really mesmerized.”

NASCAR America: Austin Dillon now the leader of RCR

The NASCAR America analysts talk about Richard Childress Racing and how the team fared at Daytona.

Watch LIVE: NASCAR America at 6 p.m. ET: Aric Almirola, Roush report and more

Today’s episode of NASCAR America airs from 6 – 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN and features guest host Aric Almirola, who one last weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Daytona.

Dave Briggs hosts with Parker Kligerman and Kyle Petty from Stamford, Connecticut. Steve Letarte and Almirola join them from Burton’s Garage.

Included in today’s show:

Further review of the Coke Zero 400, which marked the beginning of the second half of the NASCAR season.
A report from the shop of Roush Fenway Racing.
This Day in NASCAR.
A look at the safety features put in place by NASCAR in the one year since Austin Dillon‘s horrific crash at Daytona.
If you’re not near a TV, you can watch online or on the NBC Sports app via 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.

Brett Moffitt making first NASCAR start of year subbing for Matt Tifft in Truck race

Brett Moffitt, the 2015 Sprint Cup rookie of the year, will drive Red Horse Racing’s No. 11 truck for Matt Tifft in Thursday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

Tifft is out indefinitely as he recovers from brain surgery July 1 to remove a low-grade tumor. Moffitt, who hasn’t competed in a NASCAR race since the 2015 Sprint Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, will be driving in his third Truck race but his first since 2013.

“Obviously, we’re thinking of Matt and can’t wait for him to return, so we’re sending him our best wishes and we hope to see him back at the track soon,” said Moffitt in a press release. “I hate that it’s under these circumstances, but I’m really grateful for this opportunity with Red Horse Racing and I hope it can lead to more.”

Tifft was replaced by German Quiroga two weeks ago at Iowa Speedway.

Moffitt, 23, earned the Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year honor last season after making 31 starts for Michael Waltrip Racing and Front Row Motorsports as a substitute driver for Brian Vickers and David Ragan.

Moffitt’s best finish in those 31 races was eighth at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The native of Grimes, Iowa, made the first of his two 2013 Truck starts at Kentucky Speedway driving for ThorSport Racing. He started 34th and finished 14th.