With NASCAR on a temporary hiatus, news is going to be slow in the coming weeks. To help fill the NASCAR void, we plan on taking you on a daily trip down memory lane spanning the years since the Jayski’s site inception. Using our news archives pages, here’s a look back at what’s happened on this date through the last 23 years in NASCAR:
This day in NASCAR history: April 19
Years we have pulled today’s main items from: 2017, 2015, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2001
Top see everything from this date over previous years: Main Page | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997
Note: Many links on older stories don’t work. There’s not a lot of the same websites around anymore.
To see previous articles covering “Today in History”, click here.
2017:
- Roush Fenway still needs sponsorship for Bubba Wallace: NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace is currently fourth in the Xfinity Series standings, but he may have to end his season early, as he only has sponsorship through the end of May, according to NBCSN’s Marty Snider.[More](4-19-2017)
2015:
- Kenseth wins at Bristol: #20-Matt Kenseth won the Food City 500 In Support Of Steve Byrnes And Stand Up To Cancer Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway for his 1st win of the season, 4th win at Bristol Motor
Speedway and his 32nd career win. The race ended with one green-white-checkered attempt.
#48-Johnson finished second, the rest of the top 10: #24-Gordon, #17-Stenhouse, Jr., #31-Newman, #14-Stewart, #42-Larson, #51-Allgaier, #10-Patrick, and #3-Dillon.
After starting an hour late, there were 3 red flags during the race – all for rain. The first was on lap 23 and lastest 3 hours and 58 minutes, the second was 13 minutes long on lap 273 and the final one was just before the green-white-checker restart.
Harvick, Logano, and Truex, Jr all came into the race with top-10 finishes in every race this season, but all three rain into trouble during the race. Harvick finished 39th, Logano 40th, and Truex, Jr 29th.
#11-Denny Hamlin started suffering neck spasms early in the race and was replaced by Erik Jones when the race restarted after the first red flag. Jones finished 26th.
Harvick continues to hold the Chase points lead. He and Johnson each have 2 wins on the season but Harvick has 314 points to Johnson’s 258.
There were 21 lead changes among 6 drivers. There were 11 cautions for 117 yellow flag laps.
The average speed was 74.997mph.(4-19-2015)
2011:
- RCR and Caterpillar Renew Partnership; Burton re-signs: Richard Childress Racing and Caterpillar have reached agreement to continue their partnership on the #31 Chevy which began with the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Caterpillar Chevy, has also reached agreement on a multi-year contract
extension with RCR. The South Boston, Va., native made his RCR debut August 22, 2004, at Michigan International Speedway driving the #30 Chevy (started 28th, finished 12th).
“We are very pleased to continue our relationship with Richard Childress Racing and Jeff Burton,” said Bill Finerty, Vice President of Americas Distribution Services Division for Caterpillar. “Cat Dealers, customers and employees all take pride in watching the #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet compete at a high level in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.”
“I’m excited to continue my relationship with both Richard Childress and Caterpillar,” commented Burton. “Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of great people at Caterpillar and I look forward to providing their employees, dealers and customers continued success both on and off the track. Continuing my career at RCR was a top priority for me and it’s great to have the support of Caterpillar behind us.” Caterpillar has been a sponsor in NASCAR since 1993. Cat was a team sponsor in the NASCAR Nationwide Series from 1995 – 1996 before moving to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 1997. Its relationship with RCR began in 2009. “RCR is very happy to announce the continuation of our partnerships with both Caterpillar and Jeff Burton on the #31 Chevy in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series,” said Richard Childress, President and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “Cat Racing has proven to be successful both on the track, with Jeff and his team’s achievements, and off the track, with the creative programs provided to its customers. We look forward to building on the success of the partnership between Caterpillar, Jeff Burton and RCR for years to come.”(RCR)(4-19-2011)
2010:
- Childress in talks with Harvick, no Kahne: Richard Childress is still in talks with #29-Kevin Harvick in hopes of keeping him with Richard Childress Racing in 2011. Childress doesn’t expect his 2011 driver lineup to include
Kasey Kahne. Rick Hendrick has signed Kahne for 2011 but must find him a ride in a Chevrolet for one season before Kahne takes over the Hendrick Motorsports #5 car in 2012. Aside from #2-Kurt Busch, who is expected to re-sign with Penske Racing, Harvick is the most accomplished free agent driver available for next year as the 10-year veteran has 11 career victories. “Kevin and I are working hard together to stay together,” Childress said Sunday prior to the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. “Our plan right now is to stay together and our plan right now is to be together. Anything can change, but right now we’re planning on racing together. We’ve been talking. We haven’t signed nothing yet. But we’re definitely talking in the right direction for him to be a big part of RCR and [keeping Kevin Harvick Inc.] all together.” Sponsor Shell/Pennzoil also is up for renewal. “They’re doing their [request for proposals] and we’ll see where that comes out,” Childress said. As far as whether he could expand his operation back to four teams, Childress said the key is managing growth and that the organization would need to make sure it is ready for a four-car team. He doesn’t anticipate signing Kahne to fill any open ride.(SceneDaily)(4-19-2010)
2009:
- McMurray team gone after 2009? UPDATE: The #26 Roush Fenway Racing team of Jamie McMurray is expected to be dumped by Roush when it has to cut back to four Cup teams after this season.(Virginia Pilot)(4-15-2009)
UPDATE: Team co-owner Jack Roush said Friday that no decision had been made regarding what his
organization’s NASCAR Sprint Cup team lineup would look like in 2010. #26-Jamie McMurray, currently one of five Roush Fenway Racing Cup drivers, has been mentioned in media reports as the likely choice to go elsewhere, most likely to join Yates Racing next season. Roush Fenway Racing currently fields five Sprint Cup Series teams, but per changes to NASCAR’s competition policy instituted in 2006, Cup ownership groups can have a maximum of four teams. Because of sponsorship agreements in place at the time of the policy change, Roush’s organization was “grandfathered in” until the end of 2009. Yates Racing, which like Roush Fenway fields Ford entries, has a technical alliance with RFR. The Yates group began the season with three teams – fielding cars for #96-Bobby Labonte (through an alliance with Hall of Fame Racing), #98-Paul Menard and #28-Travis Kvapil – but recently shut down Kvapil’s team due to a lack of sponsorship. “That is premature,” Roush said of one recent report which said McMurray’s team was expected to be dumped. “And if I had something to announce, there would be something written on the shelf back there [in the media center]. We’re not thinking about next year yet, we’re thinking about this year. Certainly there was nothing that has happened in the last week that is noteworthy or newsworthy and I wouldn’t care to speculate.”(SceneDaily)(4-19-2009)
2008:
- Nationwide COT coming mid-2009: The NASCAR Nationwide Series likely will go with its own version of the “car of tomorrow” in 2009, but not at the start of the year as had been originally targeted by NASCAR officials. The rollout of the new Nationwide car most likely will be around midway through 2009, NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said Saturday at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. “It will probably be in the middle of next year sometime,” Pemberton said. “We will try to do something that’s more user-friendly than the roll-out schedule that they had in the Cup Series. “We probably will go later in the year but more races in a row. We haven’t determined that but we’ll look at sometime after mid-year.” Once it starts, it likely will be a clean break with the new car used in all events except for road courses where NASCAR will revert back to the old car, Pemberton said.(SceneDaily.com)(4-19-2008)
2006:
- Martin part-time Cup in 2007? UPDATE denies part-time Cup sched rumor: #6-Mark Martin is hedging on his vow to not return to Nextel Cup in any part-time capacity after moving to a full-time Craftsman Truck Series ride next year. He now says if the right opportunity presents itself, he might consider doing Cup races that run in conjunction with truck events.(Tampa Tribune)(4-14-2006)
UPDATE: #6-Mark Martin, who was at Lowe’s Motor Speedway to help promote the upcoming NASCAR All-Star race at the 1.5-mile track, said Tuesday that he has no plans to run a partial Nextel Cup schedule in 2007 and that he’d likely only drive a Cup car if a Roush Racing teammate is injured and unable to drive. “I’ve got to be careful about saying ‘never,’ but there may be a situation where I fill-in or whatever,” said Martin. “I’m just not going to say it couldn’t happen. … There is some wiggle room and I just can’t say ‘never,’ but there’s no plans.”(Speed Channel)(4-19-2006) - France backing all-star race locale: NASCAR Chairman Brian France offered his strongest endorsement yet for keeping the all-star race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway during a speech Tuesday at the Charlotte Business Journal’s annual Power Breakfast, the Business Journal reports. France, who has flirted with the notion of relocating the Nextel All-Star Challenge in recent years, said reinvigorated corporate and community support for the race has put it on more solid ground. The all-star race has attracted crowds of 120,000 to 140,000 in recent years. This year’s race is May 20. “I think the all-star race has done very, very well here,” France said during the speech in front of more than 1,000 civic and business leaders gathered at the Charlotte Convention Center. “Historically, big events tend not to move around much unless they’re not working well. [Charlotte civic leaders] have started to rally around the [motorsports] industry and the all-star race. Community leaders have sorted [an earlier lack of attention] out.” The NASCAR chairman also said the uncertainty of moving events around on the schedule is a “bad business model” because it discourages track operators from investing in their events and venues. A recent higher profile for the all-star race and related events has made France more bullish on having it in Charlotte: “I hope we’ll be able to keep it here.” Even France’s endorsement included a bit of wiggle room. He reiterated his stance that every race is subject to re-evaluation on a yearly basis. Still, the positive comments on the all-star race in Charlotte represent France’s strongest public backing of keeping it in place. Corporate and political leaders began rallying around the all-star race when NASCAR officials began discussing a possible relocation of the event in 2004. Since then, a local organizing committee has been formed with state and local government agencies contributing money to create ancillary events tied to the race.(SceneDaily.com)(4-19-2006)
2004:
- Testing ban in 2005? A ban on almost all testing next season could be a major goal of International Speedway Corp.(ISC), according to NASCAR sources, and the key would be an agreement with Goodyear not to supply any tires for testing. Without Goodyear tires, it would be almost impossible to do any meaningful testing. A curious part of this proposal is that it was reported to have come from the ISC half of the family business rather than the NASCAR side. The reason for such a ban would be to save teams money, particularly the smaller-budget teams, to keep crewmen from having to spend so much time on the road, and – most important to ISC – to allow ISC to expand its schedule of Cup races. The tour covers 38 races this season, including the Daytona Shootout and Charlotte All-star race; next year’s tour could include 40 races. Top teams say that it costs them about $50,000 per test, and they do 12 to 20 tests a season. The thinking is that testing not only is costly and time-consuming, but it generates no revenue, for teams, for tracks or for television networks. So ban testing and expand the number of races. When teams plan a test, they either order tires from Goodyear or from a central Charlotte warehouse where teams store their unused leftover race day tires, because Goodyear has a no-return policy on at-track tire sales. Since NASCAR has granted Goodyear a monopoly, it can set some policies.(Winston Salem Journal)(4-19-2004)
2001:
- Darby Moving Up? Busch Series Director John Darby may be on the move after the season, but nobody in NASCAR will confirm his new duties. Speculation in recent months has been that Darby would replace Gary Nelson as Winston Cup director, with Nelson moving into a new role, possibly at NASCAR’s new research and development center in Hickory, N.C. NASCAR President Mike Helton said, however, that the recent rumors were false, but wouldn’t elaborate on Darby’s status(Winston Cup Scene – need sub to read online)(4-19-2001)
Click a link below for a full listing of news from each year:
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