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88C_Microsoft_PedestalinsideCONCORD, N.C. — A global leader in technology and innovation, Microsoft has ramped up its involvement in NASCAR with new multi-year official agreements with both the sanctioning body and 11-time Sprint Cup Series champions Hendrick Motorsports. The collaborations designate Microsoft as an Official Technology Partner of NASCAR and a major technology partner of Hendrick Motorsports.

Hendrick Motorsports will adopt the Windows 10 platform and Microsoft Azure to deliver technology solutions to help improve performance on and off the track. In addition, Microsoft will support the upcoming launch of Windows 10 with primary sponsorship of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet SS at Sonoma Raceway on June 28 and Pocono Raceway on Aug. 2. Windows 10 will be the Official Operating System of Hendrick Motorsports.

“NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports are perpetual innovators in motorsports,” said Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President, Developer Experience and Evangelism at Microsoft. “This sport demands constant innovation, to have its boundaries pushed, so that the sport delivers the exciting experiences expected by fans. The Windows mobile inspection application we launched last year is a great example of how innovative solutions can push boundaries and make the racing experience even better. We’re looking forward to the next solutions that we can deploy with both NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports to push each of our organizations forward.”

Microsoft will utilize two-time Daytona 500 champion Earnhardt as a spokesperson to promote Windows 10, which will be available July 29 as a free upgrade for qualified Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices.* In addition, its new multi-year partnership with Hendrick Motorsports will incorporate technology solutions and training across the team, including competition, business and IT functions.

“I’m a big technology user and really enjoy Microsoft products,” said Earnhardt, who is NASCAR’s 12-time most popular driver. “Kicking off the Hendrick Motorsports relationship with Windows 10 is a unique opportunity, and there’s no doubt our ongoing technical partnership will help us raise the bar in many areas. It’s great to see Microsoft is having such a positive experience with NASCAR and wants to do more across the sport. We’re excited to be a part of that.”

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JOLIET, IL - JUNE 21: Erik Jones, driver of the #54 Monster Energy Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Owens Corning AttiCat 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on June 21, 2015 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Kena Krutsinger/NASCAR via Getty Images)

June 21, 2015

By Jack McCarthy
NASCAR Wire Service

JOLIET, Ill. — Erik Jones’ last-ditch push had a victory payoff on Sunday.

Neck-and-neck with Ryan Blaney entering the final dozen laps, Jones finally slipped ahead after a restart and rolled to a 1.958-second victory margin in Sunday’s Owens Corning AttiCat 300 race at Chicagoland Speedway.

“I got the inside of him and just barreled into (turn) three as hard as I could to clear and slid in front,” said Jones, who started 11th in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. “Fortunately it worked and he didn’t try to cross us over or anything else.”

Jones claimed his second NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season, recorded his eighth top 10 series finish and completed a weekend sweep that included Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway.

Jones, the youngest NASCAR driver to win two races in the same weekend, has run in all three series this season.

Time behind the wheel has proven invaluable for the 19-year-old driver.

“It seemed like last year I’d be into these situations and be so nervous,” he said. “This time its like ‘I’ve got this.’ I felt like I’ve done it so many times throughout the year and throughout the day that it felt more natural. That’s definitely a product of seat time and being in the car every week or the truck every week.

“It’s been a huge, huge help.”

Jones led 94 of the race’s 200 laps while Blaney topped the field for 43 laps.

The race — the 14th in this season’s XFINITY series — was originally set for 9:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, but was washed out as downpours hit Joliet and the entire Chicago area.

Nearly 14 hours later, Sunday’s restart went off a bit after noon (ET) without a hitch under dry conditions and increasingly sunny skies.

Blaney nearly had a storybook finish as he overcame earlier misfortune to lead the race with less than a dozen laps remaining.

Driving the No. 22 Hertz Ford for Team Penske, Blaney wrecked his primary car in Saturday qualifying, started Sunday with a backup car in the back row but quickly maneuvered into the top 10 and moved into the lead with 45 laps to run.

“I thought it was a good day for us, a decent day,” Blaney said. “I felt like I threw it away yesterday wrecking our primary. For our team to get a backup car out and work as hard as they did and have a car contending for the win and to be leading in the last little bit and then just not pull it off, that really speaks volumes to them about how well they prepared.”

The race featured a track record 23 lead changes, plus seven cautions for 39 laps.

Series points leader Chris Buescher finished fifth and maintained his series lead with 528 points, 29 points ahead of second place Ty Dillon.

He shook off a penalty for speeding on pit road and rallied to the top five.

“It’s a good points day, that’s how it ended up,” Buescher said. “The pit road speeding penalty is on me. … I got us a little bit behind there and put us in a bad spot but the guys did a good job coming back.”

He regained track position when 22 drivers were penalized for pitting too soon with 46 laps remaining.

Chase Elliott, who won last summer’s XFINITY Chicagoland race on the way to the 2014 series championship, spun out with 23 laps to go and finished 14th. He’s still looking for his first win of the season.

Ross Kenseth, driving the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, was sixth in his XFINITY Series debut, a nice rebound after a Friday spinout during practice in his first time running the track.

“In the last two days we were a lot better than my first day here,” said Kenseth, son of 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth. “At the end I thought we were really good — a third, fourth-place car — (but) was a little disappointed we didn’t get into the top five. … But the guys worked so hard at it and gave me a great car this weekend.”

The XFINITY series takes a break this week and resumes with a July 4 race at Daytona International Speedway.

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – Owens Corning AttiCat 300
Chicagoland Speedway
Joliet, Illinois
Sunday, June 21, 2015

1. (11) Erik Jones(i), Toyota, 200, $97576.
2. (24) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 200, $66966.
3. (1) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200, $51456.
4. (5) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 200, $41298.
5. (9) Chris Buescher, Ford, 200, $37841.
6. (2) Ross Kenseth, Toyota, 200, $35523.
7. (7) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 200, $32698.
8. (13) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 200, $30622.
9. (8) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 200, $29492.
10. (10) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Ford, 200, $29760.
11. (3) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 200, $29254.
12. (14) Ryan Reed, Ford, 200, $27699.
13. (4) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 200, $27918.
14. (6) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 200, $27639.
15. (16) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 200, $26786.
16. (19) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 200, $26159.
17. (15) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 200, $26033.
18. (25) Ross Chastain #, Chevrolet, 200, $26107.
19. (18) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 200, $25780.
20. (23) Cale Conley #, Toyota, 200, $26154.
21. (17) Ben Rhodes, Chevrolet, 200, $25527.
22. (20) Blake Koch, Toyota, 200, $25371.
23. (27) TJ Bell, Toyota, 200, $25220.
24. (26) David Starr, Toyota, 200, $25068.
25. (21) Harrison Rhodes #, Chevrolet, 200, $25077.
26. (28) Eric McClure, Toyota, 200, $24791.
27. (30) Peyton Sellers #, Chevrolet, 200, $18639.
28. (12) Dakoda Armstrong, Ford, 197, $24462.
29. (34) Jimmy Weller, Chevrolet, 197, $18336.
30. (33) Martin Roy, Chevrolet, 192, $24485.
31. (32) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 192, $24054.
32. (36) Mike Harmon, Dodge, Ignition, 165, $17917.
33. (35) Josh Reaume #, Toyota, 146, $17801.
34. (22) Dylan Lupton, Chevrolet, Accident, 145, $23690.
35. (31) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 134, $17567.
36. (38) Bobby Gerhart, Chevrolet, Engine, 69, $21842.
37. (37) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Handling, 44, $14842.
38. (39) John Jackson, Dodge, Vibration, 34, $13842.
39. (40) Matt Frahm, Chevrolet, Clutch, 5, $12842.
40. (29) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 2, $11842.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 118.812 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 31 Mins, 30 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.958 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 39 laps.
Lead Changes: 23 among 11 drivers.
Lap Leaders: A. Dillon(i) 0; R. Kenseth 1; A. Dillon(i) 2-27; J. Clements 28-29; A. Dillon(i) 30; R. Smith 31-38; E. Jones(i) 39-70; R. Blaney 71-73; E. Jones(i) 74-75; C. Elliott 76; D. Suarez # 77; R. Sieg 78-83; R. Blaney 84-85; E. Jones(i) 86-99; A. Dillon(i) 100; B. Gaughan 101-102; R. Smith 103-112; E. Jones(i) 113-130; R. Blaney 131-133; E. Jones(i) 134-150; B. Gaughan 151-152; D. Starr 153-154; R. Blaney 155-189; E. Jones(i) 190-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): E. Jones(i) 6 times for 94 laps; R. Blaney 4 times for 43 laps; A. Dillon(i) 3 times for 28 laps; R. Smith 2 times for 18 laps; R. Sieg 1 time for 6 laps; B. Gaughan 2 times for 4 laps; D. Starr 1 time for 2 laps; J. Clements 1 time for 2 laps; D. Suarez # 1 time for 1 lap; R. Kenseth 1 time for 1 lap; C. Elliott 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher – 528; T. Dillon – 499; C. Elliott – 485; R. Smith – 466; D. Wallace Jr. # – 462; E. Sadler – 447; B. Scott – 430; B. Gaughan – 419; R. Reed – 410; D. Suarez # – 407.

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June 19, 2015

By Rob Gray
NASCAR Wire Service

NEWTON, Iowa — Last season, a powerful run through Iowa Speedway helped Erik Jones finally emerge from the tall shadows cast by bad luck.

But the talented 19-year-old’s relationship with misfortune re-formed in 2015 — until, again, Iowa.

Jones entered Friday’s American Ethanol 200 winless in eight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts this season and stung by back-to-back finishes of 23rd and 15th.

He left the track pumping his fists, victorious.

The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver led 112 laps and dominated most of the race en route to his fifth career series triumph.

“We’ve had fast trucks,” Jones said. “Things just haven’t been happening. Just kept fighting the good fight and waited for it to come around.”

Jones sped to the victory by 5.661 seconds over Brandon Jones, who notched a career-best runner-up finish.

Tyler Reddick finished third, Matt Crafton took fourth and Christopher Bell — in his first career start — completed the top five. Crafton retained his points lead by 12 over Reddick. Jones now stands third, 26 points behind Crafton.

“I think we’ve had speed all year long, honestly,” said Brandon Jones, whose GMS Racing teammate, Spencer Gallagher, secured a career-high second last weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park. “It’s just starting to come around for us.”

Bell started 10th and the former USAC National Midget Champion hadn’t raced on pavement until last September.

“I just had one expectation and goal and that was just to finish the race,” Bell said. “I really didn’t know what to expect, so to come out with a top five, I’m just thrilled about it.”

A different type of excitement pulsed through Jones, who earlier Friday became the series’ youngest Keystone Light 21 means 21 Pole winner at Iowa (19 years, 20 days).

He led the first 43 laps, slipped back to ninth after a lap 53 restart, but patiently threaded to third by lap 98.

Jones re-took the lead for good on lap 128, surging by Crafton on another restart and within 15 laps had built a 1.5-second advantage.

Crafton led 33 laps and nearly outdueled Reddick for third in the closing stages. His ThorSport Racing teammates, Johnny Sauter and Cameron Hayley, led 14 and 37 laps, respectively, before mechanical issues put them off the pace.

Jones finally evaded a similar setback.

“This one’s just enjoyment now,” Jones said. “We’re back in the swing of things. I guess the last month was just stressful all around. Stressful on me as a person. … I kind of came to realize it doesn’t come as easy as everybody thinks it does. I had a lot of success early on and definitely got into kind of a hard spot.”

Make that hard spots.

His win last season at Iowa’s fast, short track ignited a much-needed hot streak that followed a 23rd-place finish at Gateway.

Deja vu?

“It’s really similar,” Jones said. “Last year we really kind of came off the same beginning to the season to this point and went here and kind of turned everything around. So I would say our luck or whatever you want to call it was worse this year at the beginning of the year than it was last year, but definitely a similar feel in getting back to Victory Lane here and getting things going in the right direction.”

It worked last season.

Jones closed out the 2014 Camping World Trucks season with two more wins and posted at least a top-seven finish in seven of the final eight races.

And while it’s doubtful 2015 will fully mirror 2014, Jones offered a confident prediction.

“It took is a while to get here, but now that we’re here I think we’ll keep reeling a few off.”

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race – American Ethanol 200
Iowa Speedway
Newton, Iowa
Friday, June 19, 2015

1. (1) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 200, $48421.
2. (4) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, 200, $29147.
3. (3) Tyler Reddick, Ford, 200, $27459.
4. (9) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 200, $21600.
5. (10) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 200, $18646.
6. (16) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 200, $16562.
7. (14) Spencer Gallagher, Chevrolet, 200, $16006.
8. (13) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 200, $15757.
9. (7) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 200, $15701.
10. (12) John Wes Townley, Chevrolet, 200, $16596.
11. (11) Justin Boston, Toyota, 200, $15591.
12. (18) Austin Theriault #, Ford, 200, $15451.
13. (8) Ben Kennedy, Toyota, 200, $15396.
14. (6) Caleb Holman, Chevrolet, 200, $13090.
15. (23) Ray Black Jr. #, Chevrolet, 199, $15801.
16. (17) Mason Mingus, Chevrolet, 199, $15062.
17. (20) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 198, $14952.
18. (22) Timmy Hill, Chevrolet, 198, $14813.
19. (5) Cameron Hayley #, Toyota, 198, $14702.
20. (19) Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 197, $13897.
21. (27) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 196, $13230.
22. (26) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 193, $12119.
23. (2) John H. Nemechek #, Chevrolet, Accident, 157, $11980.
24. (21) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, Drive Shaft, 148, $11897.
25. (29) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, Oil Leak, 93, $12019.
26. (25) Korbin Forrister #, Chevrolet, Engine, 65, $11841.
27. (15) Jake Griffin, Chevrolet, Accident, 41, $11786.
28. (30) Tommy Regan, Chevrolet, Electrical, 33, $11539.
29. (28) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, Suspension, 24, $11511.
30. (31) Michael Affarano(i), Chevrolet, Vibration, 22, $11011.
31. (24) Justin Jennings, Chevrolet, Electrical, 15, $9511.
32. (32) Caleb Roark, Chevrolet, Vibration, 5, $8511.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 96.73 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 48 Mins, 33 Secs. Margin of Victory: 5.860 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 36 laps.
Lead Changes: 6 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: E. Jones # 1-43; J. Sauter 44-57; C. Hayley # 58-94; M. Crafton 95-127; E. Jones # 128-152; B. Jones # 153-156; E. Jones # 157-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): E. Jones # 3 times for 112 laps; C. Hayley # 1 time for 37 laps; M. Crafton 1 time for 33 laps; J. Sauter 1 time for 14 laps; B. Jones # 1 time for 4 laps.
Top 10 in Points: M. Crafton – 370; T. Reddick – 358; E. Jones # – 344; J. Sauter – 327; J. Townley – 294; S. Gallagher – 288; T. Peters – 283; D. Hemric # – 282; C. Hayley # – 280; B. Kennedy – 269.

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The Final Lap Weekly Podcast LogoSHOW #363 – Guest: Ross Kenseth – We recap the frustrating race from Michigan, Dale Jr. drops massive news from Europe, Kurt Busch describes his win, NASCAR makes aero package changes, PIR will now be JGR, plus a preview of the XFinity Series race from Chicagoland. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Toby Christie

( Roughly 48:00 mins)

Continue reading “The Final Lap Weekly #363 Ross Kenseth / Chicagoland XFinity Preview”

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Kobalt 400 - PracticeMartin Truex Jr. finished third in Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan to capture his 14th top 10 in 15 races this season. He is the first driver to accomplish the feat since Richard Petty in 1969.

If Truex can notch top 10s in the next two races, he can become the first driver to ever record 16 top 10s in the first 17 races.

On Sunday, Truex gained ground on Kevin Harvick in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings as well. The No. 78 Chevrolet driver ranks second, trailing Harvick by just 15 points.

But, with both all but locked into the Chase with wins, more wins are all that matter.

Despite his strong performance, Truex’s four-race streak of leading the most laps came to an end. Harvick’s 63 laps led paced all drivers.