Tuesday morning’s announcement that Paul Menard will retire after this season and Matt DiBenedetto will replace him next season in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford certainly lit up the twitterverse.
MORE: Paul Menard to retire from NASCAR; Matt DiBenedetto will drive No. 21 in 2020
Here’s some of the top posts we found:
The qualifying race for Sunday’s eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series event at a virtual Texas Motor Speedway will be streamed on enascar.com/live, NASCAR announced.
The qualifier features Xfinity, Truck and regional series drivers looking to advance to the eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series race that will be at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on Fox, FS1 and the Fox Sports App. At this time, four drivers from the qualifier will advance. That number could change depending on any late additions or drops to the race featuring Cup drivers.
MORE: Roush, Greg Biffle reunite for eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series race
MORE: North Wilkesboro to make its comeback on iRacing
MORE: eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series reminds Clint Bowyer of being a rookie
The qualifier is scheduled to take place at 11:02 a.m. ET and have 34 drivers battling for those four transfer spots.
The qualifier will be 30 laps at a virtual Texas Motor Speedway. The race will have no cautions.
Practice begins at 10:30 a.m. ET. Qualifying begins at 10:55 a.m., lasting five minutes, followed by the race.
Last week, six drivers advanced from the qualifier to the main event. They were: Anthony Alfredo, Justin Allgaier, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Ty Majeski and Ryan Truex.
Drivers scheduled to compete in Sunday’s qualifier at a virtual Texas Motor Speedway are (with car number):
02 – Spencer Boyd
7 – Justin Allgaier
08 – Jeb Burton
15 – Brennan Poole
16 – Justin Haley
22 – Austin Cindric
23 – Sam Mayer
26 – Tyler Ankrum
27 – Ruben Garcia
29 – Kaz Grala
29a – Trevor Bayne
33 – Anthony Alfredo
35 – Todd Gilliland
36 – Jesse Iwuji
40 – Ryan Truex
45 – Ty Majeski
46 – Chandler Smith
50 – Jeffrey Earnhardt
52 – Stewart Friesen
53 – Joey Gase
54 – Kyle Weatherman
63 – Scott Stenzel
68 – Brandon Brown
74 – Sheldon Creed
78 – Ryan Ellis
80 – Joe Graf Jr.
81 – Christian Eckes
90 – Alex Labbe
93 – Myatt Snider
98 – Chase Briscoe
99 – Harrison Burton
TBD – Derek Kraus
TBD – Drew Dollar
TBD – JJ Yeley
Terry Labonte’s last two Cup Series wins were anything but forgettable.
The last one, in 2003, came in the Southern 500. That was the same race he earned his first Cup win in way back in 1980.
But four years earlier, the two-time champion got a home win.
A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, the driver nicknamed “Texas Terry” claimed a victory in the 1999 race at Texas Motor Speedway. It was just the third Cup race held at the facility after it opened in 1997.
Labonte started fourth and would lead 124 of 334 laps around the 1.5-mile track, including the final 12 after he passed Dale Jarrett on the outside going into Turn 1 for the lead.
Jarrett wouldn’t get a chance to fight for the lead again. With four laps to go, Jimmy Spencer crashed on the frontstretch to bring out the caution. Labonte took the checkered and yellow flags together for his 21st Cup win.
“We picked places to go test this year and I said ‘I want to go here cause this is a race I want to win,” Labonte told CBS. “Besides Daytona, coming here to Texas is awesome.”
Making the day even better for the Labonte family was Terry’s younger brother, Bobby, placing third.
Also on this day:
1954: The premier series held two races on different sides of the country. Dick Rathmann won a 125-mile race at Oakland Speedway in California after starting last. In Georgia, Al Keller won his first career race at Savannah’s Oglethorpe Speedway.
1982: Sam Ard claimed his first career Xfinity Series win in a race at Martinsville Speedway. Ard would go on to win 22 Xfinity races and the championships in 1983 and 1984.
1992: Robert Pressley passed Harry Gant on the last lap to win the Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway.
1993: Dale Earnhardt came back from a lap down to win at Darlington Raceway. It was his first win since the Coca-Cola 600 10 months earlier. Alan Kulwicki finished sixth in what would be his last race before his death in a plane crash on April 1.
2004: Kurt Busch won at Bristol for his third consecutive victory on the half-mile track.
After four years, Roush Fenway Racing and Greg Biffle are getting the band back together … digitally.
Roush Fenway Racing announced its former driver will compete in Sunday’s eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series event on a digital Texas Motor Speedway.
Like he did in the Cup Series from 2003-2016, Biffle will pilot a No. 16 Ford in the race (1 p.m. ET on Fox and FS1).
“How exciting is it to get back behind the wheel of the No. 16,” Biffle said in a press release. “I watched the iRace last week on TV and I was really impressed with the overall quality of the broadcast and the racing. It was just a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to being a part of the show this weekend.
“We are running a really cool Castrol scheme on the car. I think it’s going to show up really well. My plan is to log a ton of practice time leading up to the race, so hopefully we can have a strong showing and you’ll see a lot of the Castrol green and red on the broadcast.”
This will be Biffle’s iRacing event debut.
After parting ways with Roush Fenway Racing after the 2016 season, Biffle returned to NASCAR last year for a one-off Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway with Kyle Busch Motorsports, which he won.
Happy to be back in the 16 car this weekend at @txmotorspeedway with @roushfenway and @castrolusa pic.twitter.com/vImtg2syG1
— Greg Biffle (@gbiffle) March 27, 2020
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced a stay at home order for the entire state of North Carolina, beginning at 5 p.m. ET Monday because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The order is for 30 days.
The move impacts all NASCAR teams based in North Carolina.
“These are tough directives, but I need you to take them seriously,” Gov. Cooper said in afternoon news briefing.
MORE: N.C. Governor enlists Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson for COVID-19 PSA
MORE: North Carolina stay at home order
The order bans gatherings of more than 10 people and directs everyone to stay at least six feet away from each other. The order requires all residents to stay at home except for essential activities. The order states: “non-essential business and operations must cease.”
The order also states that among the definitions for an essential business and operation is “Businesses that meet Social Distancing Requirements. Businesses, not-for-profit organizations or educational institutions that conduct operations while maintaining Social Distancing Requirements:
a. Between and among its employees; and
b. Between and among employees and customers except at the point of sale or purchase.”
Mecklenburg County and Cabarrus County, which are home to such race teams as Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing, were already under a stay at home order through April 16.
By the end of the week, more than 20 states will have issued stay at home orders, including California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Ohio.
Even with the uncertainty of these times and the new pace of our lifestyles, we know that the good parts of our lives as North Carolinians will return. We fight this disease now so that we are better able to defeat it in the future.
— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) March 27, 2020