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Champion King Joe Dawkins visits the California Speedway! The long time Elsinore native basks in his bungalow 364 days a year, smoking Winston cigarettes while lying on his hammock. Joe was on the news last September, falling through the netting last year after he gained his 300th pound. Fortunately, the empty Budweiser cans cushioned his body from the ground. Former counterpart Jeremy Van Splunder won the first event here in 1996! It was a rectangle then. The only rectangle today is Steve Inkman's Bran Flakes box, still unopened after his Pepto Bismol breakfast. Despite Inkman's illness, he would make the field for the first time since Daytona! Other notables are Doug Spark and Rob Scarberry, ready to climb out of their wormholes and into the top-35. King Joe waves he green flag! 45 cars thunder below, with pole-sitter Zach Michael leading the charge. Both he and John Battista attempt their fifth-straight top-20 finish. The #39 Lucas Racing Wendy's Chevrolet would take the top-spot from Zach on lap-11 with help from teammate Adam Crapser. Battista, Michael and Rick Jackson would pull away from the field! A dominating run for the #39, going for his first victory since Richmond in 2024. His 50-race winless streak has pressured the crew to develop a superstition. "We had him walk under a ladder backwards to reverse the bad luck." said crew chief Lew Money. Unfortunately, it appears to have failed. A missed lugnut drops them back to fifth after fuel stops. By lap-65 he was back on top, leading a nine-car cavalcade through the rough-and-tumble California asphalt. John Battista, Rick Jackson, Craig Lee, Steven Spears, Zach Michael, Dakota Wilkins, Alan Nesfeder, Ryan Heuser and Markell Murphy pulled far ahead of the remaining field! Towards the rear, Trey Larkin suffered a broken jack during his pit stop, losing five laps and finishing 44th in his backup car. He went for a near-flip during his accident in qualifying, still suffering from contusions. Now his pride will start to swell. Up front, points leader Dakota Wilkins flew past John Battista on lap-98, winning the Halfway Bacon Bonus! Mike Carroll blows! Fortunately it was only the right-rear tire. Unfortunately, he would still finish last; a victim of low attrition due to the unusually cool atmosphere. The second pit stop saw leader Dakota Wilkins come in a lap early, busting out a 3.5-second advantage on the field! His gap would reluctantly shrink, with Zach Michael, Ryan Heuser, Rick Jackson, Steven Spears and Markell Murphy in a draft-line towards the front. Miraculously, the #77 Colorado Rockies Chevrolet held strong, maintaining their advantage past the 60-to-go mark. Zach Michael takes the lead on lap-147! Wilkins and Ryan Heuser bottleneck for the second position, lending the #20 Coca-Cola Mustang a full-second advantage before the final fuel stops. Michael and Wilkins came in first. Miraculously, Ryan Heuser would come out on top! An Adam Crapser spin out of the pits brought out the first caution flag. Heuser was able to reach the pit-exit line just before Zach, handing the #138 NOS Energy Chevrolet the top-spot with a one-lap tire advantage. On the other side of the track, John Tharp and John Battista tangled attempting to enter the pits! Tharp struck a blow rear-first into the outside wall, decimating his Zig-Zag Toyota after a semi-decent run. Amazingly, the suspension parts were still in tact, limping to 26th place in front of some of the non-crippled contenders. Cristian Torres at Las Vegas remains the only Toyota to record a top-10 in 2026. The caution flag would trap Donald Stewart, Rob Scarberry, Geno Sphere, Jimmie Stevens, Steve Inkman, Doug Spark, Jeremy Hebel and Ziggy Moonglow one lap down. ... Read more » |
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The young guns look smooth! Dakota Wilkins, Markell Murphy and Logan Sheets exit Las Vegas inside the top-5 in points, ready to decimate the competition for a fifth-straight week. California was the sight for Dakota's first victory back in 2023. He won the pole last year, hoping to extend his current 42-point advantage atop the standings at his favorite track! Counterpart Logan Sheets enters the Laurel Canyon 400 fifth in points, attempting his fourteenth top-15 finish in his last sixteen events. Dodge hasn't won since Tony Gunk's miracle victory at Gateway. Look for the #58 Quaker State Dodge and to be the top contender! He will start alongside miracle-man Markell Murphy on the second row. If Murphy can win his third event, the Gods shall rain Red Bull across the sky, sending the grandstands into a caffeinated frenzy! Dakota Wilkins Career Statistics Markell Murphy Career Statistics Logan Sheets Career Statistics Champion crew chief Ronnie Pressley works 20 hours a day and doesn't have time to eat, so he uses a wrench as a fork! He might have to work 28, with driver Johnny Reed Foley earning zero top-10's and a blown valve so far in 2026. Unfortunately, the bad luck would continue. Foley attempted to stick pepperoni inside his box fan, hoping to ready a quick meal for his crew! Instead of slicing the stick, the blades broke and flew through the guard, slicing Foley's abdomen in several places. Despite the perforations, Foley should be ready to go! Coca-Cola man Zach Michael will start on the pole, hoping to earn his fourth-straight top-10 finish. Friday, March 27th, 6:00 ET |
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John Tharp attempts his third-straight Eddie Money Classic victory! It's schedule change to the Spring may prove challenging for some of the veterans. The #14 Zig-Zag Toyota favors the boiling asphalt of the usual late-September sun, hoping to adjust to the higher speeds in what should be an overcast and cool afternoon. Former drag racer Jimmie Stevens will perform "double duty", racing a pro stock in the 64-car bracket challenge across the street. Tony Pizzaro eats his usual fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich in honor of Elvis! "My grandmother used to make it." said Pizzaro. "The arteries will unclog after the first caution." The green flag waved with Big Bud Shootout winner Logan Sheets at the point! The #58 Quaker State Intrepid would dominate the initial stint, leading every lap before the the first round of fuel stops. Molemar Diggs, Craig Lee, Markell Murphy and Zach Michael monopolized the remaining top-5 positions by lap-50. The track would boil like a buttered frying-pan, eliminating any predictions of an overcast day. The ill-handling cars towards the rear would suffer over the incinerating asphalt! Mark Heron and Chauncey Redmond Jr. made contact on lap-40, sending both cars into the outside wall while battling for 31st. Heron's left-rear tire would blow after the carnage, forcing a two-minute pit stop to clean out the rubber. He would finish 39th. Redmond limped home just one spot ahead. Geno goes for a Gyro! A morbid crash, mimicking his near career-ending accident at Darlington in 2022. The #444 Kingsford Chevrolet bounced off the turn-4 wall and into Dan Johnston, sending both cars towards the infield grass. Johnston escaped unharmed, with Geno captapulting over the access roads and into the outside barrier! Nine virulent flips before coming to a top towards the pit-exit cone. He would extract himself from the car under his own power, miraculously unscathed. Pole-sitter Logan Sheets kept his car at the front through lap-83! He and Dave Miller swapped the top-spot on several occasions, with Cristian Torres, John Tharp and Markell Murphy deep in the mix by the halfway mark. Sheets would drop to third before a soft right-front tire sent him to the pits. Miraculously, he would climb back to 16th after gaining his lap back late, earning a fourth-straight top-20 finish to begin his 2026 campaign. Up front, "Cigarette Man" Dave Miller continued his rout, leading with only 110 laps-to-go. Markell Murphy takes the lead! The Daytona 500 winner slides past Dave Miller on the outside, followed by John Tharp in search of his third-straight Eddie Money Classic victory! Racing for 7th with teammate Timothy McDonnell, reigining two-time Champion Johnny Reed Foley blows! An unprecedented fourth-straight race without a top-10, dropping to 21st in the standings after a broken valve. Teammate Timothy McDonnell suffers the same stat-line, dropping to a morbid 27th-place effort. A Chauncey Redmond Jr. spin brings out the caution, setting up a 104-lap shootout to the finish! John Tharp beats Markell Murphy out of the pits, defiantly pulling away from the pack after the restart. By lap-190, the #47 Red Bull Mustang caught him, taking the top-spot on lap-191 with the #14 Zig-Zag Toyota eroding the tires. He would attempt to hold off John Battista and Dave Miller for second-place. Up front, Murphy would put points leader Ryan Heuser one lap down. Molemar Diggs goes for a spin! He and Tony Pizzaro make contact on the backstretch, sliding into the path of Craig Lee and bringing out the caution. Lee would fall outside the top-10 in points, with Molemar dropping to a devastating 40th. Up front, Markell Murphy and John Tharp pull to a one-second advantage! Points leader Ryan ... Read more » |
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The new Hostess Hero "young guns" have arrived! Markell Murphy and Dakota Wilkins look smooth, catapulting their newfound prominence towards the Extravaganza elite. Both are on pace to win 12 events, a feat that hasn't been duplicated since Harrison James in the early 1990's. Neither driver has finished better than 12th in the standings. With Scott Jackson, Randy Dobbins and Bill Werkheiser sitting on the hammock, or close to it, these guys could take their place in the upper-echelon of stock car racing! Markell Murphy Career Statistics Dakota Wilkins Career Statistics Ryan Heuser enters the Eddie Money Classic with a 41-point advantage, tied with Dakota Wilkins with three top-10's; with Zakk Miller and Craig Lee for the most top-5's! Miller's #30 Team Danger Zone Mustang has led the most circuits with 261,with Heuser, Wilkins, Logan Sheets, Tony Pizzaro, Rick Jackson, Zach Michael and John Battista completing every lap so far. With the Eddie Money Classic moved to March, the weather will be cool. Possibly too cool for two-time reigning winner John Tharp. The headlines say he will never win again on the seemingly moribund Toyota factory program. Will he prove us wrong? Friday, March 20th, 6:00 ET |
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With Ryan Heuser winning four out of five, drivers have put a bounty on the NOS Energy man. Any driver who couldn't beat him put $50 inside a magic "8" ball. The winner will smash the ball on live television, using a weapon of their choice. "My grandmother gave me a hatchet" said SPAMmaster Mike Carroll. "She told me to use it on the toaster if the bread didn't pop back up. It could work for this too." Eight drivers will start ahead of him for the Jiffy Pop 400. Ziggy Moonglow follows his first career pole with a bang! The #02 Delta Sim Racing Chevrolet is up front the inaugural 15 lap run; the only driver to lead all three races in 2025. An unlikely triumph for the Coca-Cola man; leading only two events in the second-half of 2025. He'd relinquish the top-spot to Adam Crapser, hoping to recover from a sub-par 2026 kickoff and earn the #4 Packers Chevrolet it's first top-25. The #138 NOS Energy Chevrolet takes the point! He'd be the second driver to lead all three races, with only Alex Crapser and Johnny Reed Foley able to maintain his pace during the long run. A short-pit strategy by the #3 AC Delco Chevrolet prompted Ziggy Moonglow to follow suit. They would come out atop the heap with a four-second advantage, with Heuser and Zach Michael slowly closing in. A morbid blow! The harmonic balancer falls off the crankshaft, sending the second-place man from euphoria to extreme despair. Ziggy Moonglow will finish 44th, ahead of a Dalton Lucas camshaft explosion. Kevin Corbat would also suffer engine woes, failing to capitalize after making the field for a third-straight race. Ziggy would drop from fourth to sixteenth in the standings. Dalton would fall to 36th, with Kevin dead-last of the three-start teams. Johnny Reed Foley and Ryan Heuser dominate the mid-portion of the event! They swapped the lead nine different times, lapping up to the 30th-place car by lap-200. Towards the rear, Trae Larkin suffers a blown crankshaft! Delta Sim Racing went from both cars gridding on the top-two rows to a double-DNF, with Larkin dropping from 22nd to a 42nd-place finish. Up front, Alex Crapser would catch the #138 and #3. Dakota Wilkins short-pits! He'll jump from the sixth position to second, with Zakk Miller also entering early in the third spot. Both drivers earned an eight-second advantage, while lapping the field through the fifteenth position. By lap-250, John Battista, Zach Michael, Alex Crapser, Ryan Heuser, Jimmie Stevens, Dave Miller, Markell Murphy, Tony Pizzaro, Donald Stewart, Adam Crapser, Bink Lucas, Rick Jackson and Steven Spears remained in contention for the victory. The caution-free affair comes to an end! Dave Miller and Michael Henson make contact exiting turn-4, collecting an unsuspecting Jimmie Stevens. Both cars would continue with minor damage, with the #2 AMPIO Mustang losing his sacred lap. Zakk Miller would lead the field to green before another disaster struck. Chauncey Redmond Jr. clips Rick Jackson off of turn-2, sending Mike Carroll into a backstretch tailspin. The smokescreen created a long-jam of the Gods, with Adam Crapser, Molemar Diggs, Geno Sphere, Alan Nesfeder, Dan Johnston, Craig Lee, Dave Miller, Michael Henson, Johnny Reed Foley , Jeremy Hebel, Mark Heron, Ken Pettit and Ken Joynt incapable of eluding the smog. Ken Joynt bookends the accident with two flips across the apron transition, with only six of the eighteen cars involved heading to the garag ... Read more » |
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The Jiffy Pop 400 reigns supreme! Rick Jackson won the event last year, hoping to break his 36-race winless-streak with another high-bank masterclass. NOS Energy teammates Craig Lee and Ryan Heuser sit atop the points, with "miracle-man" Ziggy Moonglow fourth after two-straight top-10 finishes. The #02 "Coca-Cola" man earned his second career pole, with Delta Sim teammate Trae Larkin just one-row behind. Can they defeat the big guns of Extravaganza?
Friday, March 13th, 6:00 ET |
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Markell Murphy attempts his second-straight victory at Atlanta! The fastest man in Extravaganza went 209.090 miles-per-hour last year in July, winning the caution-free Coke Zero 400 for his fifth career triumph! His Daytona 500 victory posted at 209.571, crossing the flag with the top-2 speeds in Extravaganza Series history! Red Bull is having a field day with the marketing. Three commercials were filmed with Markell wearing a wingsuit, flying over the Italian Alps after taking a sip. Expect him to walk on Mars if he wins the Cracker Barrel 500. First-time pole winner Molemar Diggs takes the green! Flagman "Bucket" Bill Gallaway dispatches 46 racecars into a 500-mile pilgrimage, with Molemar, Jimmie Stevens and Dakota Wilkins swapping the top-spot during the first three circuits. The #41 Pittsburgh Steelers Chevrolet slaps the outside wall entering turn-3, dropping to dead-last with the yellow and black paint shaved off the passenger side. He would bookend the field with Zach Michael taking the point on lap-13, holding off a ferocious three-wide promenade with 44-cars in-between. The #77 Colorado Rockies Chevrolet re-takes the lead! John Battista, Bink Lucas and Tony Pizzaro each take their turn at the front, with the "Fenway Frank" #12 navigating from mid-pack, and Zakk Miller soaring from 39th to 2nd by lap-28. As the field spread out, miracle-man Steven Spears jumped to the third position. Ken Pettit, Donald Stewart, Zach Michael, Alex Crapser, Matt Raboin, Wilkins and Timothy McDonnell occupied the top-10 positions by the 60th lap. 593 caution-free miles to begin 2026! Zakk Miller, Ziggy Moonglow and Tony Pizzaro come out of the pits with a two-second advantage. They would lap pole-sitter Molemar Diggs and Geno Sphere before getting caught from behind, with Chauncey Redmond Jr. overtaking the top-spot on lap-97. Ryan Heuser pilfered the lead just four laps later, hoping to make it four-of-five since his victory here in the fall. He, Redmond, Miller, Pizzaro, Moonglow, Alex Crapser, Timothy McDonnell, Ken Pettit and Steven Spears attained a three-second breakaway by the 120th lap. Up front, Zakk Miller and Chauncey Redmond Jr. exit the pits with a three-second edge! Timothy McDonnell blows a tire on the back-straightaway, dropping from 15th to 44th. He would fail to draw a caution; in-line for a second-straight finish outside the top-20. Towards the rear, Nigel Ramasawmy, Jeremy Hebel, Larry Sheldrake, Trae Larkin and William Perry lose one lap to the leaders, with Ken Joynt, Tony Gunk and Jimmie Stevens maniacally holding their ground against the #64 and #30. 780-straight green-flag miles breaks the record! It was set in 1960, after two caution-free events at Riverside and Marchbanks Speedway gave the crowd less time to buy concessions. West Coast Champion Blair Rogers spun his #6 Ford Thunderbird at the Sacramento Mile, stopping the field for the first time in Race #3. It was a controversial call, with track officials rumored to have been bribed by the Series. Up front, Alex Crapser would catch Redmond and Miller as they navigated through traffic. Alan Nesfeder blows! The first casualty of the event, failing to bring out a caution with no oil leak or debris. Dalton Lucas blew second, third and fourth gears, sacrificing his top-30 run with a trip to the garage. Up front, Ziggy Moonglow enjoyed a masterful pit stop, morphing with Redmond and Miller in a three-way exchange for the top-spot. Zach Michael, Alex Crapser, Tony Pizzaro, Johnny Reed Foley, John Tharp, Ken Pettit and Ryan Heuser occupied the residual top-10 positions. As we crossed lap-240, 29-cars remained on the lead lap. |
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Molemar Diggs earns his first career pole! He, Adam Crapser, Zakk Miller and John Tharp all suffered woes during the Daytona 500, hoping to re-capitalize on their 2025 success. Ryan Heuser goes 2-for-2 in front-row starting spots, with 2025 dominator Zakk Miller outside the top-30 for a second-straight week. 46 cars will make the show, with Scott Jackson making his season debut in the #38. Gateway winner Tony Gunk will bring back the "Kelpo Cam", with Ronaldo Scott, Larry Sheldrake and Nigel Ramasawmy also making the show. Rookie of the Year favorite Dong Sup Park finished dead-last during the qualifying heat, exiting the car with three steering wheels in the cockpit. "He was changing them out during the race" said crew chief Lester Bryant. "One was triangular shaped. It looked like a clothes hanger without the hook." Expect the #66 Reese's Cup Petizione Chevrolet to improve with proper patience. Complains about last weeks broadcast were brought to the attention of all! "Steven Spock sounded like Lucifer" said Extravaganza Superfan Chuck Barone. Fortunately, his laryngitis has subsided, caused by singing "Happiness is a Warm Gun" in a local Beatles musical. Pit reporter Dale Rosendaul dropped his microphone into a cooler, electrocuting the Heineken inside. We even missed Markell Murphy's "Cripple Creek Shuffle" in victory lane. Fortunately, the race was saved by a record crowd of 427,000 including musician Wicked Enos and Hollywood stuntman Bismol Skaggs. They witnessed the fastest race in Extravaganza Series history, with Markell Murphy breaking his own record at 209.571 miles-per-hour. Expect more of the same speeds for the Cracker Barrel 500! Friday, March 6th, 6:00 ET |
