Motorsports

Major restaurant chain huge boost after NASCAR sponsorship – Motorsport – Sports

Popular U.S. restaurant chain Chili’s has enjoyed a significant boost since ramping up its NASCAR sponsorship, with Carson Hocevar sporting the brand’s logo across his No. 77 at Talladega on Sunday for the Jack Link’s 500. Chili’s has featured on NASCAR rides in recent years, sponsoring Justin Haley’s No. 7 Chevrolet and coming up with […]

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1 month ago

April 30, 2025

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Spire Motorsports star Hocevar finished sixth donning Chili’s colors, as Austin Cindric took the chequered flag for his first victory of 2025 after being unlucky in the first few races of the season, including a late wreck at the Daytona 500. Hocevar, who spoke exclusively to Express U.S. Sports about his mindset earlier this season, has heavily leaned into promoting Chili’s, which is his primary sponsor for multiple races and has expanded its NASCAR sponsorship program with the team in the last two seasons.

According to Chili’s parent company, Brinker International, the popular restaurant chain has enjoyed a significant boost in sales, aided by its coverage of NASCAR. Brinker International reported that its Q3 earnings took a massive upturn, with same-store sales up 32% for the most recent quarter.

“Chili’s delivered another positive quarter in our turnaround with +31% same store sales driven by +21% traffic,” said Kevin Hochman, President & CEO of Brinker International. “Our continued progress on the fundamentals of great food, great service in a fun, friendly atmosphere is clearly winning with guests.”

Hocevar is in his second full-time Cup Series campaign. The 22-year-old’s best finish in the series to date came in the second race of 2025 at Atlanta, where he finished second behind Christopher Bell.

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In a move to win his first race, Hocevar deployed a daring strategy at Talladega. NASCAR drivers rely on fuel efficiency to propel them up the standings on race day to give them a shot at taking the chequered flag. “So, I’m just going to hold it wide open the entire time and hope we get a yellow that I don’t run out of fuel. But if not, I’ll just run the thing out of fuel,” Hocevar said before the race.

However, Hocevar’s plan didn’t go smoothly. Hocevar had to settle for sixth and some championship points. “Ultimately, we came with a lot of the Toyotas that were up front, but they were up front and burned a lot of fuel. We were sitting back there, taking care of our stuff and being able to jump them,” said Hocevar. “Ultimately, we knew the rest of the field was going to try and go long compared to them.

“That just gave us a window that a yellow could come out. We were in our window, had plenty of fuel, and ultimately just gave ourselves a shot. Take the six, seven laps of miracles, spot that you can get a yellow and lead versus trying to play the pit road game, and hopefully shuffle.”

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His helmet also played a role in Hocevar’s ‘Dega race. “I’m not really sure. My headphone moved up or something when I put it on, and it was pinching right here,” Hocevar added. “It was just annoying. If it was late in the race, I would have just… If it was any other race, you’d just deal with it.”

An offer was made to switch to a backup helmet. “They were like, ‘Hey, we have our backup helmet if you need it. I was just like, let’s just do it.’ The last thing I would want to is you were going too fast, and I’m trying to shuffle this thing and move it. I felt like it was becoming unsafe at that rate because I was just fidgeting with it the whole time. I thought it was a smart play. It didn’t really cost us anything, so it worked out,” he said.

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Motorsports

NASCAR qualifying results: Nashville starting lineup set for Sunday race on Prime

Chase Briscoe’s year of improvement continued Saturday as he captured the pole for Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. Generally speaking, the faster qualifiers at Nashville have finished well on race day. Advertisement Nashville Superspeedway has been on NASCAR’s Cup Series schedule since 2021. In the four previous races there, the pole sitter has […]

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34 minutes ago

June 1, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Chase Briscoe’s year of improvement continued Saturday as he captured the pole for Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Generally speaking, the faster qualifiers at Nashville have finished well on race day.

Nashville Superspeedway has been on NASCAR’s Cup Series schedule since 2021. In the four previous races there, the pole sitter has gone on to win the race once (Ross Chastain in 2023), and in two other years, the pole winner finished fourth (not bad) while the race winner started fifth and sixth (also not bad).

Then came last year, when Joey Logano won the race after starting 26th. The pole winner, Denny Hamlin, finished outside the top 10, in 12th.

Which Nashville history will play out this weekend, the more recent or those earlier three years?

THRU THE GEARS Kyle Larson sinks, Ross Chastain rises, Tom Cruise kicks the tires

NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin is introduced before the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., Sunday, June 30, 2024.

10 fastest speeds in Nashville qualifying

Chase Briscoe: 164.395

Denny Hamlin: 164.119

William Byron: 163.374

Tyler Reddick: 163.368

Ross Chastain: 163.357

Brad Keselowski: 162.985

Christopher Bell: 162.929

Michael McDOwell: 162.874

Joey Logano: 162.669

Chris Buescher: 162.619

NASCAR starting lineup for Cracker Barrel 400 Sunday at Nashville

Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford
Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
Chris Buescher, No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 HYAK Motorsports Chevrolet
Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford
Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford
Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford
Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Corey Heim, No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota
Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford
Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota
JJ Yeley, No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet
Chad Finchum, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford

How to watch: Time, TV channel for NASCAR races at Nashville

Saturday: Xfinity Series, Tennessee Lottery 250, 7:30 p.m. (CW).

Sunday: Cup Series, Cracker Barrel 400, 7 p.m. (Prime).

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR lineup: Qualifying results set starting grid for Nashville race

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Motorsports

Bubba Wallace reacts as protégé seals major NASCAR win – Motorsport – Sports

Rajah Caruth secured a major victory in Friday’s Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, and his NASCAR mentor, Bubba Wallace, showed his support with a passionate reaction on social media. Caruth won his second career race at Nashville and, in doing so, secured a playoff berth despite being 13th in the standings and 17 points […]

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2 hours ago

June 1, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Rajah Caruth secured a major victory in Friday’s Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, and his NASCAR mentor, Bubba Wallace, showed his support with a passionate reaction on social media.

Caruth won his second career race at Nashville and, in doing so, secured a playoff berth despite being 13th in the standings and 17 points below the cutline. The same couldn’t be said for ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ star Frankie Muniz, as he failed to finish for the sixth time in 12 races.

Before Friday’s win, Caruth’s only other success came at Las Vegas last year as he became the third Black driver to win in the top three NASCAR series. Wallace, who races in the Cup Series, has mentored Caruth throughout his racing career and was ecstatic when he saw the 22-year-old had dominated once again.

In a social media post, Wallace wrote: “LFGGGGGG kid!!!!!!!” Caruth has now followed Wallace and Wendell Scott as the only Black drivers to win a NASCAR race, and the sky is the limit for the talented prospect.

Caruth was a product of the Drive for Diversity program, and is currently an undergraduate at Winston-Salem State where he is completing a degree in motorsports management. Caruth had an unconventional route into motorsports, as he found his passion through racing simulators rather than competing from a young age.

After Caruth’s family purchased him an iRacing sim, he began racing virtually in the eNASCAR Ignite Series and was quickly put forward for the program. It took just six years for him to go from racing in simulators to winning his first Truck Series race.

After his maiden win last year, Caruth told AP: “Man, there was a lot of days, especially in high school, that I did not think I could get here. I can’t tell you how many times I was at internship, working like at the basketball court, whatever, in the box office, just working on my website when I was just iRacing.

“A lot of those days I didn’t think this would be at all possible.” Wallace was Caruth’s hero in NASCAR, and the Cup Series star has kept a close eye on him throughout the process, from rising star to Truck Series regular.

Wallace rushed to Caruth on pit road at Daytona after the first major wreck of his Truck Series career, and even saw his first win from a sports book in Las Vegas. “I’ve been hard on him since Day 1,” Wallace said.

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“I will never forget the first time watching him in a Legends car at Charlotte and I got in his face, ‘What are you so afraid of the wall for? You haven’t even hit.’ I feel proud to have played a small part in this and I called him, and he was pumped. But, like, his burnout was lame and his phone call was lame. I was like, ‘Come on man, I’m more pumped than you are.'”

Like Caruth, Wallace was also a product of the Drive for Diversity program, as was fellow Cup Series star Daniel Suarez. “The Drive for Diversity program has changed quite a bit since Bubba Wallace and myself were there 10 years ago,” Suarez said.

“Ten years ago, it was a great program to give you an opportunity for the K&N Series and the ARCA Series. But to make the jump to a national series, it was very difficult. You had to be lucky and you have to be very, very good to get an opportunity.

“Today, the Drive for Diversity program is so involved in the Truck Series and that’s very special because it is giving an opportunity to these young guys like Rajah and Nick Sanchez to get an opportunity in the Truck Series and perform at a very competitive level. We didn’t have that 10 years ago, so I’m very happy for them.”

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Motorsports

Daniel Dye (Ninth) Disqualified After Nashville Post-Race Inspection

Post-race inspection following Saturday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway has been completed, and there were no issues with the race-winning No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. As a result, Justin Allgaier and his team have officially been declared the winners of the race. Unfortunately, ninth-place finisher Daniel Dye wasn’t as fortunate. […]

Published

2 hours ago

June 1, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Unfortunately, ninth-place finisher Daniel Dye wasn’t as fortunate.

In post-race inspection, Dye’s No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was found to be too low on the rear heights. As a result, NASCAR disqualified the NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year contender. Dye will be credited with a 38th-place finish.

UPDATED RESULTS: Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville

Additionally, Connor Zilisch, who finished in the second-place, had two unsecured lug nuts on his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in post-race inspection, which will result in a $10,000 fine assessed to the No. 88 team and a one-race suspension for crew chief Mardy Lindley. Zilisch will remain credited with the runner-up finish, his second consecutive runner-up finish.

The remainder of the top-10 in Saturday night’s Tennessee Lottery 250 was comprised of Sam Mayer, Sheldon Creed, Ross Chastain, Aric Almirola, Austin Hill, Jesse Love, Carson Kvapil, and Sammy Smith.

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Nashville Cracker Barrel 400 NASCAR Practice Speeds and 10-Lap Averages

Related Ryan Rantz President, founder and visionary of “ifantasyrace.com, the way you fantasy race”. Follow me on Twitter and LIKE my Facebook page. Nashville Cracker Barrel 400 NASCAR Practice Group Speed Rankings Link 0

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3 hours ago

June 1, 2025

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Ryan Rantz

President, founder and visionary of “ifantasyrace.com, the way you fantasy race”. Follow me on Twitter and LIKE my Facebook page.

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Motorsports

Lance Stroll pulls out of Spanish GP due to hand injury

Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll will not take part in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix due to pain in his hand. On Saturday Stroll had qualified in 14th, but the Canadian will not take up his grid position tomorrow after experiencing recurring pain in his right hand and wrist. The team said the discomfort was […]

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4 hours ago

June 1, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll will not take part in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix due to pain in his hand.

On Saturday Stroll had qualified in 14th, but the Canadian will not take up his grid position tomorrow after experiencing recurring pain in his right hand and wrist.

The team said the discomfort was related to him fracturing his hand in a cycling accident on the eve of the 2023 season, and Stroll will now undergo surgery to fix the issue.

“Over the course of the past six weeks Lance has been experiencing pain in his hand and wrist, which his medical consultant believes is in relation to the procedure he underwent in 2023,” Aston Martin said.

“As a result his medical team have confirmed that he will not race tomorrow and he will undergo a procedure to rectify these issues before focusing on his recovery.”

A week before Bahrain’s 2023 pre-season test, Stroll sustained injuries during a training ride in Malaga, including fractures in both wrists as well as a broken toe.

Having had screws inserted into his right wrist, Stroll sat out testing but made a swift recovery way ahead of schedule. The following week he took part in the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, battling through the pain all weekend to score an impressive sixth place as Aston made a flying start to the season.

Stroll will now miss a grand prix after all, two years after the initial injury. At the time of writing it is not yet known if Stroll will recover from the procedure in time for F1’s next race at the Canadian Grand Prix, but Stroll will understandably be keen to ensure he is fighting fit for his home race in Montreal in two weeks’ time. First practice for the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve event is scheduled on Friday 13 June.

Stroll pulling out after qualifying means Aston Martin will only enter Fernando Alonso’s car in the Spanish Grand Prix, with 19 cars on the starting grid.

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No one loves Detroit more than Renger Van Der Zande, Acura, and Ford

Tarohn Finley | The Detroit News Detroit — When Ricky Taylor of Cadillac crossed over Felipe Nasr of Porsche to take the lead, Renger Van Der Zande of Acura stayed right behind. With not enough speed and little tire traction, patience was all Van Der Zande could rely on. With 3:15 left, for Van Der […]

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4 hours ago

June 1, 2025

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Tarohn Finley
| The Detroit News

Detroit — When Ricky Taylor of Cadillac crossed over Felipe Nasr of Porsche to take the lead, Renger Van Der Zande of Acura stayed right behind.

With not enough speed and little tire traction, patience was all Van Der Zande could rely on. With 3:15 left, for Van Der Zande it was “game on” as soon as he hit Turn One.

He capitalized on his last opportunity to take the lead and he never let it go.

“When we made the pass for the win I kind of lost it, I felt like a little child because I was so excited,” Van Der Zande said.

Van Der Zande won the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic GTP Class race on Saturday in downtown Detroit. Van der Zande’s comeback victory was his 22nd IMSA Class win.

It was all Acura this weekend, as Acura was able to secure its first win this year. Van Der Zande’s victory and Nick Yelloly’s pole win yesterday made it a “precision-crafted performance weekend” for Acura drivers.

The victory was the first time both drivers had success on the course. For Yelloly, he got a victory in his second start on the course. Despite it being Van der Zande’s first victory on the course since the course was moved downtown in 2023, Van Der Zande has had a lot of success in Detroit.

“I actually won quite a bit in Belle Isle, maybe four times or something, ” Van Der Zande said. “So it has always come my way here.”

Renger Van Der Zande was not the only one who had momentum in Detroit; Ford was able to win the GTD Pro. Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx led them.

Rockenfeller, a six-time IMSA class winner, was happy to get the victory after recent struggles. “Finally it’s been a bit of a struggle not having the right days or packages the last couple of years,” Rockenfeller said.

Rockenfeller dedicated the win to Ford workers, as Edsel Ford looked on. “For Seb and I, the whole Ford team, all the employees of Ford are just right around the corner, I think this victory is really for them,” Rockenfeller said. “I’m so happy and really overwhelmed.”

Priaulx now has consecutive victories on the Detroit street course. Despite winning with two different manufacturers, winning with Ford in Detroit was significant for Priaulx. “To win for Ford here is an amazing achievement I think, ” Priaulx said.

For Ford and Acura drivers, it has been a great weekend indeed.

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@Tarohnfinley

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