Kyle Larson won the A feature Tuesday night to advance to Saturday night’s A main at the Chili Bowl Nationals. It was his fifth preliminary event win at the Chili Bowl. Zach Daum finished second.
Larson took the lead on Lap 6 of the 25-lap feature and went on to the win.
“We’ll move on to Saturday and try to be better,” Larson said in the press conference afterward.
NBCSN broadcaster Dillon Welch finished seventh in the 24-car field. Alex Bowman placed ninth. Tanner Berryhill, who will be a Cup rookie this season, was 10th.
The Chili Bowl continues the rest of the week, culminating with Saturday night’s main event.
Thursday’s racing will include two-time defending winner Christopher Bell, Justin Allgaier and Karsyn Elledge, daughter of Kelley Earnhardt Miller. Kasey Kahne and Tanner Thorson are among those scheduled to race Friday.
Thorson won Tuesday night’s Race of Champions. Larson was second, Bell placed third and Yeley was fifth in that event.
Locked in!! Got the win. Car was great! Thanks @McDonalds@iRacing and all other supporters! Let’s try and get a Driller Saturday
P9 tonight at @cbnationals. Had fun! I’ve driven a midget like twice in the last 6 years so I’ll take it. Most importantly I’m leading battle of the brother in laws pic.twitter.com/8aZqmvYNPS
Man I’m pumped. Finished 7th in the feature which puts us in a B-main on Saturday. The most complete night I felt like I’ve ever put together. @csishocks@JoeySaldana and @BLzerotwo gave me a bad ass racecar!!
Alllgaier, the senior driver with the team at four years, will drive the No. 7 Chevrolet under the direction of crew chief Jason Burdett, who has led the team since 2015.
At 32, Allgaier is the oldest driver at JRM. He’s older than Annett by 18 days.
Annett is back in the No. 5 Chevrolet for his third season with the team. He is paired with crew chief Travis Mack, who took over crew chief duties on the No. 5 for 13 of the last 14 races in 2018.
Gragson will step into the No. 1 Chevrolet to replace Elliott Sadler who stepped away from full-time racing after 2018. Gragson will have crew chief Dave Elenz and the crew that worked with champion Tyler Reddick in 2018 on the No. 9 team.
The No. 9 team will be a multi-driver effort this season anchored by eight races with Zane Smith in the cockpit. The team will be led by first-time crew chief Taylor Moyer. Moyer joins JRM after four years with Hendrick Motorsports as a race engineer for Kasey Kahne and William Byron.
The 33rd annual Chili Bowl Nationals is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks and the preliminary nightly roster has been released.
With more than 350 cars on the entry list, qualification heats will be run from January 14-18 at the River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event concludes January 19 with the Chili Bowl Nationals.
Drivers with a NASCAR connection will compete each night. Chase Briscoe kicks off the show on Jan. 14 and Kasey Kahne highlights the Jan. 18 roster.
The 2019 NASCAR season is now within view as we have entered the month of January.
That means a lot of highly anticipated changes in the sport will be visible on track.
Before we get to what to expect from each team specifically, here’s what Cup teams will be dealing with in 2019.
Inspired by what was used in the 2018 All-Star Race, the new rules package will feature a tapered spacer to control the engines instead of a restrictor plate. Teams will have 550 horsepower at tracks 1.33 miles and larger and 750 horsepower at tracks shorter than 1.33 miles.
Some crew chiefs, including Cole Pearn, have said the new package could result in racing that resembles what is seen in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series.
Teams
One team that will not be present this year is Furniture Row Racing, which ceased operations on its No. 78 Toyota after 2018 due to a lack of sponsorship.
Rick Ware Racing will field two cars with two charters. It has not announced drivers for either car.
Spire Sports + Entertainment will field the No. 77 with a charter purchased from Furniture Row Racing. A driver has not been announced.
Obaika Racing will field rookie Tanner Berryhill in the No. 97 in its first full-time season.
(Drivers are listed in order of their car number with where they finished in the points last year)
What’s new: Cassill is slated to compete full-time for StarCom Racing, which bought a charter from Richard Childress Racing. Cassill, with 29 starts, is the only driver with more than seven for the team.
What’s the same: StarCom will again compete with a Chevrolet model in its second full season of competition.
What’s new: Kurt Busch moves from Stewart-Haas Racing to replace Jamie McMurray, who drove the No. 1 for nine years. McMurray will be an analyst for Fox Sports. CGR will be the sixth team Busch has competed for in Cup.
What’s the same: Matt McCall is back to crew chief the No. 1 after four years with McMurray.
What’s the same: Crew chief Paul Wolfe and Keselowski enter their ninth season together. With the separation of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus, that makes Wolfe and Keselowski the longest-tenured driver/crew chief pairing in the series.
What’s new: Dillon will have Danny Stockman Jr. as his crew chief, replacing Justin Alexander. Stockman is Dillon’s fourth crew chief in six full-time seasons in Cup. Dillon won a Xfinity and Truck Series title Stockman. Dillon will also have a new teammate in Daniel Hemric.
What’s the same: Dillon’s scheme for the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona will be a tribute to Dale Earnhardt’s scheme in the 1998 All-Star Race.
What’s new: Will be paired with crew chief Chris Gabehart, who replaces Mike Wheeler after Hamlin went winless for the first time in his Cup career in 2018.
What’s the same: Entering his 14th full-time year with Joe Gibbs Racing, he’s the team’s senior driver by two years over Kyle Busch.
What’s new: Will have veteran Ryan Newman as his teammate, replacing Trevor Bayne in the No. 6 Ford.
What’s the same: Stenhouse remains winless on non-restrictor plate tracks in his Cup career.
No. 18 Kyle Busch (4th)
What’s new: Is scheduled to make his 500th Cup start in the Feb. 24th race at Atlanta. Will have a new teammate in the form of 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr.
What’s the same: Will have Adam Stevens as his crew chief, marking their fifth year together in Cup.
(Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
No. 19 Martin Truex Jr. (2nd)
What’s new: Will compete for Joe Gibbs Racing after the closing of Furniture Row Racing. He replaces Daniel Suarez.
What’s the same: Truex is joined at Joe Gibbs Racing by crew chief Cole Pearn.
What’s new: Will enter his sophomore season under the guidance of Chad Knaus, the most successful active crew chief in NASCAR. This will be Byron’s first season in NASCAR without rookie stripes after previously competing in Xfinity and the Truck Series for just one season each.
What’s the same: Jeff Gordon is still the last (and only) driver to win in the No. 24.
What’s new: LaJoie, who got married on New Year’s Eve, is set to compete in his first full-time Cup season with Go Fas Racing, replacing Matt DiBenedetto. LaJoie will be paired with crew chief Randy Cox.
What’s the same: Go Fas Racing is still a small operation with 17 employees.
What’s the same: Richard Petty Motorsports remains in a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing.
No. 41 Daniel Suarez (21st)
What’s new: Suarez replaces Kurt Busch at Stewart-Haas Racing after two seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing.
What’s the same: Suarez and the No. 41 will be sponsored by Arris.
No. 47 Ryan Preece (2019 is rookie year)
What’s new: Preece moves to Cup full-time after two years in Xfinity racing part-time for Joe Gibbs Racing. JTG Daugherty Racing will now receive engines from Hendrick Motorsports.
What’s the same:JTG Daugherty Racing continues a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports.
What’s new: In his second full-time season with Hendrick Motorsports, Bowman can no longer be mistaken for a rookie. Bowman will sport a new Nationwide paint scheme this season.
What’s the same: Greg Ives returns as Bowman’s crew chief on the No. 88 Chevrolet.
No. 95 Matt DiBenedetto (29th)
What’s new: DiBenedetto replaced Kasey Kahne at Leavine Family Racing after two years at Go Fas Racing. LFR will compete under the Toyota banner after being a Chevrolet team. Mike Wheeler will crew chief the No. 95.
What’s the same: 2019 will be LFR’s fourth full-time season in Cup. The team is winless since it first went Cup racing in 2011.
We’re now in the final hours of 2018 and as we all reflect on its highs and lows, it’s time to follow-up on one lingering thread from the beginning of the year.
Now we’ve gone through and tallied up their totals 12 months later.
These numbers come with a bit of an asterisk. In July, Twitter undertook a campaign to purge the social media platform of bot accounts and the accounts of NASCAR drivers and teams were not left untouched.
On Jan. 2, Jimmie Johnson led all full-time Cup drivers with 2,636,014 followers. According to Kickin’ the Tires, Johnson lost roughly 60,000 followers in the purge, putting him at around 2.6 million. At press time on Dec. 31, his follower count had risen to 2,645,151. He’s the only active Cup driver with more than a million followers.
Denny Hamlin saw the largest net loss of followers. On Jan. 2 he had 763,325 followers. Five months after the purge, Hamlin has 721,289 followers for a let loss of just over 42,000 followers.
Here’s each Cup driver’s follower count on Jan. 2 and their count 12 months later (post bot account purge).
Driver Jan. 2 totalDec. 31 total
Jimmie Johnson – 2,636,014 2,645,151 (Net gain of 9,137)
Kasey Kahne – 963,189 985,387 (Net gain of 22,198)
Kevin Harvick – 954,433 981,109 (Net gain of 26,676)
