A little over a month after winning in his first NASCAR start of the year, Sam Hornish Jr. has returned to Iowa Speedway and pick up where he left off.
Hornish, driving the No. 2 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, was fastest in the first of two Xfinity Series practice sessions at Iowa. Hornish posted a speed of 132.214 mph.
The top five was filled out by Ty Dillon (131.667), Daniel Suarez (131.332). Elliott Sadler (131.261) and Darrell Wallace Jr. (131.168).
Speed chart
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Daniel Hemric was fastest in the first Cup Series practice session for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.
Hemric posted a top speed of 182.791 mph around Charlotte Motor Speedway.
He was followed by Chase Elliott (182.340 mph), William Byron (182.211), Kyle Busch (182.168) and Jimmie Johnson (182.168).
Alex Bowman was seventh to put all four Hendrick Motorsports cars in the top 10.
Austin Dillon in eighth gave Chevrolet six cars in the top 10.
Landon Cassill recorded the most laps in the session with 37. He was 32nd on the speed chart.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Richard Childress Racing driver Shane Lee will compete for a new Xfinity Series team, H2 Motorsports, the team announced Thursday at Charlotte Motor speedway
Owned by 23-year-old entrepreneur and venture capitalist Matt Hurley, the team will be sponsored by Circuit City and will field Lee in the No. 28 Toyota with support from Toyota Racing Development. They’ll debut June 16 at Iowa Speedway with plans to compete for the rest of the season.
Circuit City, which is primarily an online store now, was notably a sponsor of Hut Stricklin from 1996-98 in the Cup Series.
“I grew up an avid race fan, my parents are from the Midwest and I’ve followed the sport very, very closely since I was a young kid,” Hurley said. “More recently felt like there was an opportunity to go into the sport and bring some of our invested brands back into the sport. I’ve really taken an interest in kind of trying to find a way in.
“We felt like now is the right time to enter the sport, to come in in a competitive way. … Felt like TRD was the right partner to help us do that in a competitive way.”
Lee, 25, competed in the Xfinity Series last year, making 13 starts in RCR’s No. 3 Chevrolet. His best result and only top five was a fourth-place finish at Kansas Speedway in October.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Lee said. “I met Matt at a couple races last year. We actually became pretty good friends and we weren’t really even working on a racing deal. Probably January or February we started talking about the race deal and wanting to get into racing. We sort of went from there and he got himself figured out and he really went down the line and hired some really good people.”
Lee will be paired with crew chief Pete Rondeau. Rondeau has 103 Cup races to his name, including as crew chief for Regan Smith’s 2011 Southern 500 win.
Rondeau also has one Xfinity Series win with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Bristol in 2004.
“I’ve had a history of accepting challenges,” Rondeau said. “As we did with Furniture Row team, we worked hard and … it ended up flourishing into a championship-caliber team. To me this is no different right here. We have a good core group and I’m happy to work with them. It’s going to be fun and a whole lot of work at the same time.”
With Memorial Day weekend here, many NASCAR teams will be racing patriotic paint schemes in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Here’s a look at the unique schemes that will compete in NASCAR’s longest race.
All photos by Daniel McFadin.
Landon Cassill – No. 00 Chevrolet
Brad Keselowski – No. 2 Ford
Ryan Newman – No. 6 Ford
Aric Almirola – No. 10 Ford
Ty Dillon – No. 13 Chevrolet
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – No. 17 Ford
William Byron – No. 24 Chevrolet
Corey LaJoie – No. 32 Ford
Michael McDowell – No. 34 Ford
Matt Tifft – No. 36 Ford
David Ragan – No. 36 Ford
Ryan Preece – No. 47 Chevrolet
Jimmie Johnson – No. 48 Chevrolet
Cody Ware – No. 51 Ford
Bayley Currey – No. 52 Ford
BJ McLeod – No. 53 Chevrolet
Alex Bowman – No. 88 Chevrolet
Kyle Larson kept his winning ways going Wednesday night when he won an Outlaw Kart race at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Four days after his win in the Monster Energy All-Star Race, Larson took the lead on Lap 2 of the 51-lap Speed 51 Open and led the rest of the way.
Larson held off Chase Majdic for the win, his second in the event.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver won despite losing his muffler in the middle of the race and having to replace his left side upper wing earlier in the night after a qualifying event.
Larson has a busy weekend ahead of him with World of Outlaws races at The Dirt Track at Charlotte on Friday and Saturday night, the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, and the Word of Outlaws’ Memorial Day Classic at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana on Monday.
