NASCAR has unveiled a new Monster Energy Series competition package and revealed the format for next month’s annual All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, scheduled to be run on May 19th. For the first time, Cup Series cars will implement the competition package that was used in last season’s X-finity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway which saw a record number of leaders, lead changes and green-flag passes for the lead. Each car will be fitted with aero ducts, a spoiler six inches high with two twelve-inch “ears,” a restrictor plate and the 2014-style splitter … The format for the annual non-points event will include four stages of thirty, twenty, twenty and ten laps. Only green-flag laps will be counted in the final stage. Normal procedures for regular-season stage breaks will be in effect with one addition. NASCAR overtime will be in play for all stages. There will be no mandatory pit strategy as in previous All-Star Races.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series crew chief Alan Gustafson has been fined fifty thousand dollars and suspended for two races for a rules violation that was found at NASCAR’s R-and-D Center following Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. A brace that supports the rear window on Chase Elliott’s Number-9 Chevrolet did not meet specifications for keeping the window glass rigid in all directions. In addition to Gustafson’s fine and suspension, Elliott was docked twenty championship points – which drops him from fifteenth to eighteenth in the regular-season standings.
As officials at Texas Motor Speedway clean up the grounds following last weekend’s NASCAR doubleheader, the track’s lost-and-found is overflowing with everything from keys to cell phones to credit cards … to couches? Yes, a sofa is among the many items left behind. The list includes a size 13 men’s ring with two hands holding a heart, one walking cane, a twocarat women’s engagement ring and a Chihuahua. Anyone interested in claiming their lost items can contact the Texas Motor Speedway Operations