NASCAR Starts 2019 Season with Competition Updates Ahead of Daytona Speedweeks

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National Series Disqualification Procedures, NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series ‘Triple Truck Challenge,’ among several announcements

Monday afternoon, NASCAR announced updates and initiatives for the 2019 season, which opens this Sunday at Daytona International Speedway. The day starts with a double-header for the Daytona 500 Busch Pole Award Qualifying at 12:10 pm ET on FOX, leading up to the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona at 3 pm ET on FOX Sports 1.

Addressing some lingering issues from last season, NASCAR plans to move their thorough post-race inspections to the track and immediately after national series races. If a vehicle fails post-race inspection, it will be disqualified and the team will move to a last-place finish. This means the team will lose all benefits from the win/finish, along with any stage points. All other vehicles would then move up in the finishing order under this scenario.

Previously, full post-race inspection took place at NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Concord, NC within a day or two after the race causing a delay in determining post-race penalties for teams. As part of the new initative NASCAR will now inspect the first and second-place vehicles, along with a random vehicle after each event.


“Our industry understands the need to focus on what happens on the race track. We cannot allow inspection and penalties to continue to be a prolonged storyline. Race vehicles are expected to adhere to the rule book from the opening of the garage to the checkered flag.”


Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president of competition and racing development

Fans can expect the disqualification procedure to begin for all three NASCAR national series – the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Gander Outdoors Truck Series’.

Additional 2019 competition and personnel updates include the following:

  • The ‘Generation 7’ car in the NASCAR Cup Series is making its debut in the 2021 season is designed to feature new technologies and elements to showcase future production vehicles.


“There is a great deal of interest from our current and potential manufacturer partners to make the cars look even more like they do on the street. This will be an exciting progression in our racing technology that began with the introduction of the 2019 rules package.”


Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president of competition and racing development

  • The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series is featuring the ‘Triple Truck Challenge’ this season, a bonus program taking place at three consecutive races – Texas on June 7th, Iowa on June 15th, and Gateway on June 22nd. All drivers earning series points are eligible and drivers winning one of the three races earn a $50,000 bonus. Two race wins will net a $150,000 total ($50k per race plus a $50k bonus). Should one driver win all three events, the bonus earnings jumps to $500,000 total ($50k per race win, $50k bonus for winning twice, plus another $300k bonus for sweeping the Challenge races). Cup and Xfinity Series driver are not eligible to compete in the three-race program.
  • NASCAR is also implementing a model of series-specific inspectors. Each national series will have a dedicated team of officials specializing inspections for their respective garages.
  • Qualifying procedures across all three national series remain the same for 2019, with two exceptions. The first round of ‘group qualifying’ for short track and intermediate tracks will shorten to ten minutes in length (previously 15) and the breaks between sessions will be five minutes long (previously seven).
  • The national series driver participation guidelines remain mostly unchanged from 2018. Drivers with more than five years of full-time Cup Series experience are eligible for a maximum of seven Xfinity Series starts and five Truck Series starts. Drivers who elect to accumulate Cup Series points are not eligible to compete in any Dash 4 Cash or Triple Truck Challenge races, or the last eight races in either the Xfinity or Truck Series.
  • As for personnel changes, Ben Kennedy is now elevated to managing director of racing operations and international development. He previously served as general manager of the Truck Series. His new responsibilities include initiatives aimed at growing the sport, including managing NASCAR’s growth on the international scene.
  • NASCAR is also introducing assistant directors for each series – Kip Childress (Cup), Seth Kramlich (Xfinity), and Jesse Dollevoet (Trucks).

NASCAR kicks off their 2019 season with ‘Speedweeks’ at Daytona International Speedway with ten days of activity starting this Sunday and culminating with the 61st running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 17th at 2:30 pm ET on FOX.

Fan4Racing NASCAR & Race Talk 2019 Season Opener

Listen to Fan4Racing Radio every Monday and Thursday nights 8:30 to 10:30 pm ET with host Sharon Burton and the Fan4Racing crew

During the first half-hour our guest on this episode is PRT Super Late Model Series driver Patrick Staropoli with Jim McCoy Racing after winning this weekend’s season opener at Citrus County Speedway. 

Join host Sharon Burton and our Fan4Racing crew as we open the 2019 racing season!

Andy Laskey is co-hosting the evening and Jay ‘MJ’ Husmann joins us at 9 pm ET.
You never know who will drop by for some fun and lively discussion throughout our two hour opening night on Fan4Racing Radio. Hopefully, we’ll hear from other Fan4Racing crew members, Sal Sigala, Sam Bornhorst, Brian Eberly and James Bickford throughout the evening as well.

Our discussion will cover the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, Trucks, K&N Pro, ARCA Racing Series and more so join in the conversation from 9 to 10:30 ET for all the hottest topics leading up to the 2019 racing season!

Call 929-477-1790 OR tweet @Fan4RacingSite with any questions or comments during our LIVE broadcast.

Our LIVE broadcast starts at 8:30 pm ET on Monday, February 4, 2019.

As always…Thanks for listening!

Patrick Staropoli and McCoy Open 2019 with a Victory at Citrus County Speedway

Patrick Staropoli on Fan4Racing Radio, Monday, February 4, 2019 at 8:40 pm ET – Photo/Courtesy of Patrick Staropoli

Patrick Staropoli is our next guest on Fan4Racing Radio, on Monday, February 4, 2019, at 8:40 pm for our Winner’s Circle. Call 929-477-1790 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite with any questions or comments during our LIVE broadcast.

Picking up from where they left off in 2018, Patrick Staropoli and Jim McCoy Racing continued their winning ways by coming home with a victory after a thrilling battle for the lead at Citrus County Speedway on Saturday night.

The No. 64 McCoy Racing Chevy started the day strong by posting the fastest time in final practice and qualifying fifth for the feature event. The inversion put Staropoli in third place to start the race.

Staropoli quickly made his way to the lead with an outside pass shortly after the first restart then he and Michael Atwell exchanged the top spot several times early in the race.

Then. Staropoli distanced himself, leading well past the lap 60 mark and lapping the field. However, contact on a late race restart almost saw the McCoy Racing entry slide into the infield grass, now putting Staropoli into scramble mode.

Racing hard, Staropoli chased down Atwell from several car-lengths back and made the pass for the lead with less than five laps to go, securing victory in the team’s first start of the season!