Longtime NASCAR on Fox TV broadcaster Steve Byrnes dies at age 56

   Longtime NASCAR on Fox Sports TV broadcaster Steven Patrick Byrnes, who has waged a difficult and public battle with cancer over the last two years, died Tuesday. Byrnes, a resident of Fort Mill, S.C., was 56.

   Byrnes joined Fox Sports in 2001, hosting and reporting for multiple NASCAR programs and served as a pit road reporter for NASCAR on Fox’s broadcast of Sprint Cup Series races from 2001 through the 2014 season. He most recently served as the play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports 1 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and was co-host of "NASCAR Race Hub" for the network.

   Last weekend, in conjunction with Fox, Speedway Motorsports Inc. and NASCAR, the Cup race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway was renamed the Food City 500 In Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up To Cancer. 

   Prior to joining Fox, Byrnes also hosted "Darrell Waltrip's Racers" on TNN, worked as a pit road reporter for CBS, WTBS and TNN, and hosted a variety of NASCAR programs for The History Channel and TNN. A 1981 graduate of the University of Maryland, Byrnes' first on-air job was at WCIV-TV in Charleston, S.C., in 1982. Byrnes also called play-by-play for a Carolina Panthers/Minnesota Vikings NFL game on Fox and Cup series races for DirecTV's "Hot Pass."
    

   Survivors are his wife, Karen; son Bryson; parents, Jerry and Claire Byrnes of Charlotte; sister, Betsy Byrnes of Charlotte; brother, Dan Byrnes and his wife, Tammy, of Charlotte; nephews, Tyler and Dylan Byrnes; and niece, Samantha Byrnes.  

   In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: Church of Christ at Gold Hill Road, 1055 Gold Hill Road, Fort Mill, SC  29708; Charlotte Christian School, 7301 Sardis Road, Charlotte, NC 28270; or NASCAR Foundation, One Daytona Blvd., 6^th Floor, Daytona Beach, FL 32114.

Why did Kurt Busch pit from the lead late in Sunday's race?

   It's probably one of the most puzzling questions from Sunday night's rain-delayed Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway - and that's saying a lot considering all that transpired.

   Why did Kurt Busch - in the lead late in the race - elect to pit for new tires? As it ended up, Busch was the only lead-lap car to pit which left him with a lot of ground to make up once the race went back to green.

   Here is what Busch said about the decision to pit:  

   "We had 100 laps on our tires. I thought we needed to pit. (John) Klausmeier (engineer) thought we needed to pit. Then I was thinking this is the Bristol of old we might be able to get away with staying out. It turned out that (Matt) Kenseth brought it on home to Victory Lane. Congratulations to him," Busch said.

   "We had fresh tires coming up through. (Carl) Edwards pushed the cushion. He hit some ice, I hit the same stuff or he was throwing the marbles out on the track and I just got sucked right in there. I was like, 'I’m avoiding the wreck,' but I couldn’t do anything to avoid them.  We salvaged 15^th.  The car could have won."

Pair of NASCAR's future stars battle it out for K&N Series win at Bristol

   They were both 17-years-old, battling not only for a victory in Saturday's K&N Pro Series East race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but also for bragging rights.

   And perhaps to cement their respective futures in NASCAR.

   Kyle Benjamin and William Byron battled side-by-side in the last 30 laps of Saturday's PittLite 125 before Benjamin finally pulled away for his first series victory in seven career starts. Byron, who won the series' most recent race at Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway, finished second.

   Benjamin, a Roush Fenway development driver, won by 0.910-seconds over Byron, who also runs Late Models for JR Motorsports.Scott Heckert followed in third with Kaz Grala and Brandon Jones completing the top five.

   Eddie MacDonald, last year's winner of this race, rebounded from a spin early in the race to finish sixth with Austin Hill, Daniel Hemric, J.J. Haley and Rico Abreu completing the top 10.

   Bryon takes over the points lead by three points over Austin Hill (128-125) with Benjamin third with 119 points. 

NASCAR K&N PRO SERIES EAST

PittLite125 Results

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (8) Kyle Benjamin, Easley, S.C., Ford, 125 laps, 69.968 mph.

2. (4) William Byron, Charlotte, N.C., Chevrolet, 125.

3. (6) Scott Heckert, Ridgefield, Conn., Chevrolet, 125.

4. (12) Kaz Grala, Westborough, Mass., Toyota, 125.

5. (2) Brandon Jones, Atlanta, Ga., Chevrolet, 125.

6. (16) Eddie MacDonald, Rowley, Mass., Chevrolet, 125.

7. (11) Austin Hill, Winston, Ga., Ford, 125.

8. (3) Daniel Hemric, Kannapolis, N.C., Chevrolet, 125.

9. (5) J.J. Haley, Winamac, IN, Chevrolet, 125.

10. (7) Rico Abreu, St. Helena, Calif., Chevrolet, 125.

11. (19) Gray Gaulding, Colonial Heights, Va., Toyota, 125.

12. (20) David Garbo, Jr., Stonington, Conn., Chevrolet, 125.

13. (10) Nick Drake, Mooresville, N.C., Toyota, 125.

14. (15) Travis Miller, Chesapeake, Va., Chevrolet, 125.

15. (14) Ronnie Bassett, Jr., Winston-Salem, NC, Ford, 125.

16. (13) Trey Hutchens, Lexington, NC, Chevrolet, 125.

17. (23) Chad Finchum, Knoxville, Tenn., Toyota, 125.

18. (28) Dillon Bassett, Winston-Salem, N.C., 125.

19. (24) John Holleman, IV, Winston-Salem, N.C., Chevrolet, 125.

20. (26) Sarah Cornett-Ching, Summerland, B.C., Toyota, 124.

21. (21) Jay Beasley, Las Vegas, Nev., Toyota, 122.

22. (9) Codie Rohrbaugh, Petersburg, W.Va., Chevrolet, 122.

23. (27) Chuck Buchanan, Jr., Hildebran, N.C., Chevrolet, 117.

24. (22) Collin Cabre, Tampa, FL, Toyota, 100, accident.

25. (1) Jesse Little, Sherrills Ford, N.C., Toyota, 63, electrical.

26. (17) Dalton Sargeant, Boca Raton, FL, Chevrolet, 61, accident.

27. (18) Kenzie Ruston, El Reno, Okla., Toyota, 52, engine.

28. (25) Devon Amos, Rio Rancho, N.M., Toyota, 36, accident.

Todd Parrott returns to Cup garage to be crew chief for a day

   Former Sprint Cup Series championship crew chief Todd Parrott made an abbreviated return to the Cup garage on Friday serving as interim crew chief for Richard Childress Racing’s No. 31 team and driver Ryan Newman while the team mulled whether to appeal its tire penalty again.

   Late Friday afternoon, RCR decided it would appeal its NASCAR penalty one more time to the Chief Appellate Officer, Bryan Moss. Until the appeal is heard, RCR's three suspended crew members - including regular crew chief Luke Lambert - can return to work.

   Parrott, who won the 1999 championship with driver Dale Jarrett, has most recently served as RCR’s competition director for its Xfinity Series programs.

   “I have a lot of years in the Cup garage,” Parrott said. “Hopefully, it shows the depth of RCR, while Luke is going through his deal here with his suspension. We have a great bunch of guys."

   Lambert, a team tire specialist and an engineer were all suspended six races by NASCAR for their involvement in a tire-tampering incident during the March 22 race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. 

   Most of the penalties assessed to RCR were upheld by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel. The CAO can overturn all the penalties, accept the appeals panel's decision or even increase the penalties. 

  Asked about the mood of the No. 31 team, which has lost 50 driver and owner points, Parrott said, "It's been tough because there has been a lot of focus, a lot of media attention on them and their team. The talks that Luke has had with the guys back at the shop, I feel like the mood of the team is really good."

   

Richard Childress statement on decision of Appeals Panel

Statement from Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of Richard Childress Racing

   

   "I'd like to thank the Appeals Panel for taking the time to hear our appeal today. While they decided to reduce the penalties to the minimum penalties for a P5 violation, I am disappointed that the entire penalty was not overturned given the facts we presented.  

   "In order for the team to move forward, and focus our efforts on the upcoming races, Luke (Lambert), Phil (Surgen) and James (Bender) will begin serving their suspensions this weekend at Bristol. Veteran crew chief Todd Parrott will fill in as crew chief for this weekend's race.  

   "We are still discussing our options and have not yet determined whether to appeal the penalties to the Final Appeals Officer."

What Kyle Busch learned about his accident from a trip to NASCAR's R&D center

   In an interview last weekend with The Observer, NASCAR Executive Vice President Steve O'Donnell said driver Kyle Busch had made a recent visit to NASCAR's research and development center in Concord, N.C, to go over his damaged Daytona race car and go through feedback on his accident.

   During Busch's first media availability Wednesday at Joe Gibbs Racing, I asked Busch what, if anything, new he learned from going through the process at the R&D center compared to just watching video replays of the incident.

   Here was his response:

   "I had seen cars wreck, and I had seen some pretty bad crashes, we all have and you’ve seen a lot of cars destroyed, whatever you want to say. As far as the compression of the race car, I felt like there was a lot there, and a lot to learn for myself, Joe Gibbs Racing, for our engineers here, but also the engineers at NASCAR, to learn and understand. I know they’re kind of thankful that I was actually able to get out under my own power and they didn’t cut the car so they could actually take it back and review it more and more and really do a diagnostic on it. They still are, they’re still working through it as we speak," he said.

   "I feel like when I saw the wreck, it probably was worse than I expected it to be when I looked at it. Now seeing it and looking at it and understanding what happened in the cockpit – I didn’t sit there when I was in the car and getting out of the car, ‘Man look at that, holy smokes.’ I had a few other things on my mind at that time. When I got back to go to the NASCAR R&D Center, obviously that was when I had a good chance to see what it looked like and to see how much safety innovations NASCAR has come up with over the years to keep me here today.

   "I’m alive today just because the fact that the restraints worked, the seat worked, the HANS device worked – everything worked. It was just the pure foot cockpit of the area that obviously injured me. I can’t say enough about NASCAR and their innovations. From knees up, no problem, not a mark on me, not a bruise, not a headache, not a neck ache, nothing – it was all great. It was just a matter of your flailing feet when you’re in a wreck like that.” 

Appeals panel reduces NASCAR penalty to Circle Sport team

   A three-member National Motorsports Appeals Panel on Tuesday reduced the NASCAR penalties imposed last month on the Circle Sport No. 33 team in the Sprint Cup Series for an unapproved rear truck trailing arm.

   NASCAR originally imposed a  $50,000 fine and three-race suspension to crew chief Slugger Labbe and placed him on probation through the end of the year. In addition, a 25-point penalty was assessed to team owner Joe Falk.

   The panel decided to reduce the fine to $20,000 and reduce the points penalty to 10 owner points. The suspension and probation remain in effect. The panel said two of the three rules the team was accused of violating were "subject to interpretation."

   The panel consisted of Russell Hackett, Lake Speed and John White.