#NASCAR XFINITY Series News & Notes – April 1, 2016

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NASCAR XFINITY Series teams are off for one more week before heading to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. Teams will prepare to race 200 laps covering 300 miles at Texas on Friday, April 8th with FOX Sports 1 coverage beginning at 8 pm ET and a green flag around 8:30 pm ET. Radio coverage is on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

Suárez’s 2016 Start is Comparable to Past Champions

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Suárez is off to a strong start this season. He leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship standings by ten points over second-place Elliott Sadler after the first five races. Suárez’s start in the first five races, is better – and in most cases, far better – than those of the last five series title winners.

The chart below compares Suárez’s start to the starts of the last five champions in their respective championship-winning seasons.

Driver

Average Finish

Driver Rating

Season

Daniel Suárez

4.8

112.8

2016

Ricky Stenhouse Jr

6.2

114.7

2012

Chris Buescher

7.8

100.5

2015

Ricky Stenhouse Jr

8.2

108.0

2011

Chase Elliott

8.8

99.5

2014

Austin Dillon

9.8

95.2

2013

Suárez’s sophomore performance thus far is championship caliber. In five starts in 2016, he has posted three top-fives and five top-tens.

The graduate of the NASCAR Next and NASCAR Drive for Diversity – operated by Rev Racing – programs finished fifth in the series standings on his way to Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors last season.

Suárez is not taking this weekend off like most of the series’ drivers. Instead he will be driving the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 Toyota in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.    

Pit Box Maestro: Scott Graves Keeps the Success Rolling  

On top of the pit box each race sits one of the most important people to a race team – the crew chief.

The crew chief is often thought of as the ‘coach’ of the race team or the ‘leader.’ The crew chief’s ability to get the best out of his driver and his crew ultimately leads to success. This week, we take a look at the crew chief leading the team that is atop of the series driver championship standings – Scott Graves.

Graves is the crew chief of series championship standings leader Daniel Suárez and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota this season. Graves hails from Clifton Springs, New York, but now calls Mooresville, North Carolina his home, where he lives with his wife Dana and their two children.

After graduating from Texas Tech University in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Graves served as a manufacturing engineer and project engineer for a variety of companies.

In 2006, Graves joined Roush Fenway Racing as a team engineer on the No. 99 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series entry driven by Erik Darnell. Since his first season at RFR, Graves has served as an engineer in all three of NASCAR’s top series. He ultimately spent ten years with RFR. His first crew chief position had him leading the No. 17 team, piloted by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2013. In 2014, he moved over to the No. 60 driven by Chris Buescher. Buescher and Graves won three races in two seasons together and claimed the series title last season.

This past winter, Graves joined Joe Gibbs Racing and immediately began working with Daniel Suárez. The two have hit it off quite nicely. They now lead the series standings and haven’t finished worse than eighth this season.

Series Juggernauts of the 1.5-Mile Tracks

The XFINITY Series is heading to Texas next week, one of eight 1.5-mile tracks the series competes on this season. Below is a look at who has excelled on this length and type of track on the XFINITY circuit.

In the past three seasons, Joey Logano has had the best average finish on 1.5-mile tracks in the NASCAR XFINITY Series (3.4).

Among this season’s series championship contenders, the three drivers with the best average finishes on 1.5-mile tracks over the past three seasons are Erik Jones (7.0), Ty Dillon (8.6) and Daniel Suárez (9.1).

Kyle Busch has the most wins on 1.5-mile tracks in the XFINITY Series over the last three seasons with ten, followed by Brad Keselowski with seven, Kevin Harvick with five and Austin Dillon with three. Erik Jones (two) and Brendan Gaughan (one) are the two active series title contenders who have wins on 1.5-mile tracks in the past three seasons. 

Noteworthy News in the XFINITY Series

Custer to drive in the XFINITY Series this season for JR Motorsports – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Chevrolet Silverado in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for JR Motorsports (JRM), will compete in five XFINITY Series events this season. The 18-year-old Californian will make his debut in the No. 5 Chevrolet next month at Richmond International Raceway (April 23) in a fourth entry for JRM. Custer will transition to the No. 88 Chevrolet at Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 28) and Kentucky Speedway (July 8). He’ll return to the seat of the No. 5 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Oct. 7) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 19).

Music Festival To Accompany XFINITY Series On Race Day At Michigan – Michigan International Speedway announced this week they are working with Keloorah, a music festival experience that will take place on Friday and Saturday of each NASCAR weekend at MIS this summer. Keloorah kicks off in June when GROUPLOVE, Third Eye Blind, Fitz and the Tantrums, Andy Grammer, The Neighbourhood, Elle King, and Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers take the stage. Besides the live shows, there will be DJs, a go-kart experience, a video game arcade, an outdoor sports bar, tailgate games, foam parties and paint parties. Keloorah is found behind turn three and will open with activities from 5-11 p.m. on Friday and 4-11 p.m. on Saturday, June 10-11.

For a full lineup of activities and a promotional video, check out www.keloorah.com.

Dream Water & JD Motorsports Hold Dream Fan Experience Contest – As part of its entry into the racing arena, Dream Water is presenting its own NASCAR VIP Experience, a sweepstakes that will give two fans with a dream experience at one of auto racing’s biggest and most famous tracks – Charlotte Motor Speedway. The winners will become honorary Dream Water pit crew members for the XFINITY Series race and will watch the race from atop the team’s pit box. They will also join Chastain and team members for a dinner the evening before the race and will be in the driver’s vehicle at pre-race introductions.

Fans can enter the sweepstakes at http://drinkdreamwater.com/NASCAR/.

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