Kyle Petty Charity Ride scheduled to visit Nevada, Utah Drivers to watch in NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway NASCAR suspends pit crew members for wheel coming off car NASCAR makes rule changes for road courses, many tracks 1 mile or less NASCAR Power Rankings: Kyle Busch roars into first place
Kyle Petty’s annual charity trip across America is scheduled from April 29 to May 5 in Nevada and Utah.
Petty, a retired Cup Series racer and NBC Sports NASCAR analyst, will lead more than 125 motorcyclists on a seven-day, 1,500-mile ride, a journey that will raise funds for Victory Junction Gang Camp, a camp for children with chronic diseases. The Petty family built the camp in honor of Kyle’s son, Adam, who died in a 2000 New Hampshire motorway crash. This is a 27th anniversary trip.
The trip must start and end in Salt Lake City, Utah. Riders will visit Ely, Tonopah and Las Vegas in Nevada, as well as Cedar City, Moab and Salt Lake City in Utah.
Along the way, riders plan to visit the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Las Vegas Speedway, Capitol Reef National Park, and the Legends Motorcycle Museum.
MORE: NBC Sports NASCAR Power Ranking: Kyle Busch – No. 1
“Nevada and Utah are my two favorite states to ride motorcycles,” Petty said in a statement. “Great landscape changes – from desert to red cliffs to mountainous terrain – paint the most vivid and breathtaking scenes that I think are best experienced on a motorcycle. … The ride allows me to combine my passion for helping others with my love for motorcycles and it is such a special gift.”
Among those planning to race are drivers Richard Petty, Ken SchroederKenny Wallace and Max Papis, former football star and senator candidate Herschel Walker and NBC Sports broadcaster Rick Allen.
To learn more about Kyle Petty’s charity trip, see visit the site of the attraction.
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The early season NASCAR Cup Series continues in the West on Sunday with a 400-mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The first of two annual races on the 2.5 km track features a Chevrolet driver. Ross Chastain leading in the standings behind Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Kevin Harvick And Daniel Suarez.
MORE: NASCAR Power Ranking: Kyle Busch – No. 1
MORE: Kyle Petty Charity Trip to Utah, Nevada
Ricky Stenhouse Jr won his first season at Daytona and Kyle Busch scored last Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.
Take a look at the drivers to watch out for in Las Vegas:
LEADERS
Ross Chastain
- Points position: 1st
- Best season finish: 3rd (Autoclub)
- Past in Las Vegas: Finished in the top 3 in both races last year
Chastain started 2023 where he left off at the end of last season, making noise and racing with a leading group. He has been in the top 10 six times in a row since last season. This is due to his longest streak of top 10 finishes.
Joey Logano
- Points position: 2nd
- Best Finish of the Season: 2nd (Daytona 500)
- In the past, like Las Vegas: has a win and two top-10 finishes in the last five races.
Logano came within feet of winning the Daytona 500 and was leading 19 laps at the Auto Club on Sunday. All three of his Las Vegas victories have come in the last eight races.
- Points position: 24th
- Best Finish of the Season: 18th (Daytona 500)
- Past in Las Vegas: Won in March 2021 and was runner-up last March.
Larson has had a slow start to the season, but Las Vegas should be the balm. He has finished in the top ten in eight of his last ten starts at the circuit.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
- Points position: 38th
- Best season finish: 34th in Auto Club
- Past in Las Vegas: Three consecutive finishes seventh or better
Reddick needs reinforcements in Las Vegas to recover from tough racing in Dayton (39th) and the Auto Club (34th). He left both races after crashes.
- Points position: 12th
- Best Finish of the Season: 8th (Daytona 500)
- Past in Las Vegas: Career best finish in fifth place
Blaney has made 48 starts since his last points victory. In this segment, he has two seconds and 15 best fives.
- Points position: 26th
- Best Finish of the Season: 20th (Daytona 500)
- Past in Las Vegas: Five in a row finished 16th or worse
To date, Wallace has failed to finish both races, having parked after crashing in Dayton and losing his engine at the Auto Club.
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NASCAR suspended tire fitter Danny Olshovi and driver Kellen Mills for two races due to a blown tire. Martin Truex Jr.car during last weekend’s cup race at Auto Club Speedway.
They will both miss the cup races in Las Vegas and Phoenix. They will be eligible to return March 19 in Atlanta.
Last year, crew members and a crew chief were suspended four races each for infractions, but NASCAR changed the rule in the offseason.
The penalty to crew members this year was reduced to two races. In addition, the crew chief is no longer penalized unless he is one of the two crew members responsible for fitting the blown tire.
Also this year, if a car comes off a wheel while the car is still in pit road, the car will restart at the end of the field. If a wheel comes off the vehicle while it is in pit road under green flag conditions, it is a drive-thru penalty. Any vehicle that loses a wheel after exiting pit road will be penalized two laps.
Truex served a two-lap penalty during the race as a wheel came off after he pulled off pit road. He played both laps and finished 11th.
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NASCAR announced Tuesday that it will make changes to the Cup car for road racing and most races on tracks 1,058 miles or less.
Changes tested at Phoenix Raceway in late January and confirmed on February 13 in a wind tunnel test include a 2″ spoiler (versus the current 4″ spoiler) and the removal of three diffuser bars and engine panels. The changes are expected to result in a 30% reduction in downforce.
Eric Jacuzzi, NASCAR’s vice president of vehicle performance, told SiriusXM Speedway Tuesday that diffuser strips are parts that hang from the center of the diffuser under the car. He said NASCAR would remove three of the five diffusers. Jacuzzi said that the engine panel trim is metal pieces that stick out behind the front wheels and create front downforce.
The changes to the car have been made after Cup drivers complained last year about the difficulty it had on many short track and highway circuits.
MORE: NBC Sports NASCAR Power Ranking
Changes will be made at the following locations: Charlotte Roval, Chicago Street Course, Circuit of the Americas, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road, Martinsville, New Hampshire, North Wilkesboro, Phoenix, Richmond, Sonoma, and Watkins Glen. These are all trails with a wet weather package (rain tires, wipers, etc.).
The rules will not apply in Bristol or Dover, which does not apply to wet weather…
Source: nascar.nbcsports.com
