Social Roundup: College football at Bristol Motor Speedway

Richmond International Raceway wasn’t the only NASCAR track in use on Saturday night.

While Denny Hamlin was busy winning the Federated Auto Parts 400, 324 miles west in Bristol, Tennessee, a college football game was being played in Bristol Motor Speedway.

The Tennessee Volunteers played the Virginia Tech Hokies at Bristol Motor Speedway, one of the smallest tracks on the NASCAR circuit.

156,990 people crammed into “Thunder Valley” for the Flying J Bristol Battle at Bristol, making it the most people to ever attend a college football game. Those fans watched the Volunteers drum the Hokies 45-24.

Here’s a look at the scene Saturday night in Bristol.

Watch: behind the scenes of the ‘NASCAR Heat Evolution’ commercial

On Tuesday, the newest NASCAR video game, “NASCAR Heat Evolution” will be released on the Play Station 4, Xbox One and PC.

If you’ve watched any NASCAR broadcast in recent months you’ve likely seen the commercial for the game. It features Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and the game’s cover boy, Carl Edwards.

Now you can see the antics the drivers were up to during the filming of the commercial, including bloopers and outtakes.

The drivers also share their history with NASCAR video games and how they’ve helped them in their careers.

NASCAR DRIVERS AND TEAMS OFFER 9/11 REMEMBRANCES

NASCAR drivers, teams and personalities offered tributes and memorial messages on Sunday in remembrance of 9/11.

On this day and every day, #NeverForget

— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) September 11, 2016
#NeverForget
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) September 11, 2016
We will always remember and honor those we lost on 9/11 | #NeverForget

— JR Motorsports (@JRMotorsports) September 11, 2016
Most of us can remember exactly where we were on this day 15 years ago. Still very sad all the… https://t.co/Ror4irgYvA
— Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (@StenhouseJr) September 11, 2016
Thoughts and prayers to all the families that lost loved ones on that horrific day.. God bless you all. #NeverForget

— Elliott Sadler (@Elliott_Sadler) September 11, 2016
#NeverForget

— Jeb Burton (@JebBurtonRacing) September 11, 2016
We vow to #NeverForget those lost 15 years ago today. We join with the rest of the #NASCAR community in remembrance

— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) September 11, 2016
#NeverForget

— RPMotorsports (@RPMotorsports) September 11, 2016
#NeverForget

— RCR (@RCRracing) September 11, 2016
#NeverForget

— Red Horse Racing (@RedHorseRacing) September 11, 2016

Chris Buescher goes from Xfinity Series champion to rookie Chase driver (video)

Mission accomplished for Chris Buescher and Front Row Motorsports.

Buescher locked up a spot in the Chase Saturday night at Richmond with a 24th-place finish in the Federated Auto Parts 400. It was enough to keep him inside the top 30 in points, making him eligible for the playoffs after winning a rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway last month.

It is Buescher’s first Chase appearance in his rookie season in the Sprint Cup Series. It is also the first time Front Row has been represented in the Chase.

“It’s obviously a big night for Front Row Motorsports and (owner) Bob Jenkins,” Buescher told NBCSN. “For a small team like we are to be able to pull it off and get that win at Pocono and find ourselves in the Chase right now, it’s pretty special.”

The 2015 Xfinity Series champion entered Richmond with an 11-point lead on David Ragan for 30th in points. Looking to stay out trouble, Buescher was having an incident-free night until he had to make an unscheduled pit stop on Lap 308 for a flat tire.

After going two laps down, the No. 34 team worked their way back onto the lead lap and then suffered minor damage during a multi-car wreck with 40 laps to go. Buescher was able to finish the race and locked in his Chase spot by moving to 29th in the point standings with a 21-point gap on 31st place.

Tony Stewart staunchly defends payback measures to Brian Scott, Ryan Newman

RICHMOND, Va. – The hard lessons learned by Tony Stewart over 20 years in the Sprint Cup Series are being returned in kind during his final lap around the circuit.

That has “zero to do” with the three-time series champion’s impending retirement, and everything to do with a firm belief in an old-school philosophy that the best way to express displeasure over getting roughed up is to play rough in return.

Stewart sent that message of payback to Brian Scott at Darlington Raceway last week, turning the Richard Petty Motorsports driver into the wall.

“There’s a lot of guys this week that were like, ‘Yeah, we were glad somebody did that,’” Stewart said about intentionally wrecking Scott in the Southern 500. “And that’s the way it used to be.”

Ryan Newman became another recipient of Stewart’s throwback justice Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.

Stewart admittedly cut off his former teammate, whom he felt had pinched off his No. 14 Chevrolet three times earlier. The contact triggered an eight-car crash and effectively ended Newman’s long-shot bid for a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which Stewart felt contributed to Newman’s aggression.

“He had to press the issue tonight and put himself in a couple of bad spots,” Stewart said. “There’s 39 other guys you can put yourself in bad spots with. Don’t put yourself in a bad spot with me and don’t start shoving me around the racetrack because he knows from experience I don’t put up with it.”

Newman was aggrieved about the incident and blasted Stewart, who became a close friend during their five-year stint at Stewart-Haas Racing.

“It’s a stressful night for him,” Stewart said. “He was trying to make the Chase. It’s stressful moments, so he’s going to say whatever he’s going to say. I’d say by that he probably doesn’t want to be friends right now. So it’s up to him.”

But his sympathy was limited because “it’s like how many times is he supposed to hit you before you say I’ve had enough of it for the day?

“He put himself in that position, and the end of it was the end of it,” Stewart said. “He has to make his decisions for what he’s doing in his car, too. So he can blame me all he wants, but he’s got two pedals and a steering wheel, too, and he has to make good decisions in what’s in his best interests as well.”

Though it seems unlikely the fellow Indiana natives quickly will patch things up, Stewart said he and Scott found common ground in a prerace conversation Saturday.

“We had a great conversation,” Stewart said. “He wasn’t mad when we left. I wasn’t mad at him. He’s not mad at me, and we go racing. He understood.”

The same conversations happened for him with veterans such as Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt nearly two decades ago.

“I didn’t do anything different than what they did,” he said. “That’s how rookies learned then.”

He seemed to be hoping for a similar understanding from Newman.

“It’s not a feud,” Stewart said. “It’s one night. It’s one moment in time. When it’s over tonight, it’s over.

“He’s got a right to be mad about it, but I got a right to be mad for what he did to me. He wasn’t innocent like he’s acting. He never said once that he run into me three times. His version of how he was driving his car and mine are a little bit different.”

Despite not qualifying for the Chase, Kasey Kahne sees recent improvements (video)

Kasey Kahne finished the regular season 18th in points and missing out on a Chase berth, but despite the disappointment, he says his Hendrick Motorsports team has been giving him faster cars lately.

“Our whole deal these last 10 races is try to get the consistency and keep running in the top 10 and yeah, work on winning races,” Kahne told NBCSN. “But we haven’t been anywhere close to that this year. We’ve been like a 13th to 18th, and we want to be in the top 10, top five and the last three weeks we have.”

Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray ready to make Chip Ganassi Racing a force in the Chase

For one, it’s unchartered territory. For the other, it’s hoping that the second time around is better than the first.

That’s how the upcoming Chase for the Sprint Cup shapes up for Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray.

Larson is making his first playoff appearance. It comes in his third Cup season.

Larson, who won last month at Michigan, will start the Chase as the 10th seed.

McMurray is making the second consecutive Chase appearance. He’ll start the playoffs in the 16th and final position.

Larson has been one of NASCAR’s hottest drivers of late. Saturday night’s runner-up finish at Richmond International Raceway was his third straight top-three finish — He won at Michigan and finished third at Darlington.

It wasn’t easy, though. Larson struggled near the midpoint of the race with a loose wheel that caused him to pit on Lap 192. Still, he was able to come back for his best finish at Richmond.

The final restart, though, with two laps remaining was what sealed the deal for the northern California native.

“It felt like a video game on rookie mode, having fresh tires like that,” Larson told NBCSN. “It was a fun last restart and to get all the way to second. I felt I could get to fourth, but I got to second, so that was great.”

Given his hot streak, Larson hopes to ride into the opening race next Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway and keep that momentum going as the Chase opens.

“The Chase tracks, most of them, are good tracks for me,” Larson said. “We start at Chicago, which is one of my favorite tracks and I really think we can make a good run.

“It’s been awesome and I’m looking forward to it, the first time in the Chase. There’s a lot of new guys in the Chase, so it should be exciting.”

McMurray, meanwhile, hopes to perform better in his second Chase than he did last season.

Like Larson, McMurray has had his own momentum of late, as well: His seventh-place finish Saturday was his ninth top-10 of 2016, including four of the last five races.

McMurray knew how much was on the line coming into Saturday’s race. Because he has yet to win a race this season, he was vulnerable. If a winless driver had won instead of Hamlin, McMurray could have missed the playoffs.

So he did something he typically doesn’t do — he drove defensively.

“I was racing so different than what you normally would, not taking any risk,” McMurray said. “Really good day, both our cars ran real great again today.

“The guys at our shop need to be really proud at what they have been able to build because it’s a lot of fun to drive and be able to run that quick. I looked up at one point and I think there was the four Gibbs cars and Kyle and I. We still have a little bit of work to do, but we’ve made some huge gains and I’m really proud of all those guys.”

McMurray was eliminated after the first round of last year’s Chase. He hopes that’s not the same case this year.

“I feel better about our chances this year vs. last year,” he said. “I felt like last year heading into the Chase that we didn’t really have anything in our pocket as far as little bit better cars.

“I feel like right now we have cars capable of winning. I look forward to getting (to Chicagoland), it’s been a good track for Kyle and I and would be a great way to start off the Chase.”

This marks the first time Chip Ganassi Racing has had two drivers in the Chase in the same year. Ganassi told McMurray before the race that if both he and Larson make the Chase, it would be the “biggest thing ever” at CGR in terms of NASCAR achievements.

“When you look at Chip’s organization, he’s been so successful in Indy cars, sports cars, we’ve won some big races at NASCAR, but the NASCAR side is really hard to keep on top,” McMurray said. “It’s like that for everybody. So when you get down, it’s really hard to climb your way back up.

“Earlier this year, we made some changes as far as personnel. He moved some people around. The crew chiefs and everybody is working really well together and they’ve been able to build some great cars. He’s proud of that because when you make those changes, there’s no guarantee it’s going to show up on the racetrack – but it has.”