It's time to cycle through the transmission for another edition of Four Gears. This week, our resident NASCAR analysts rate the three races that used the lower downforce package and give their takeaways from it. We also consider what three first-time winners this past weekend says about the level of talent with the young guns in the Truck, XFINITY and Cup Series as well as rate the quality of racing in the XFINITY Series over the last five races given the mix of tracks in those five races
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Austin Dillon wasn't in the dominant car of the night nor near the front most of the night, but he was in front when it counted and he scored the victory at Thunder Valley.
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Erik Jones will lead the field to the green flag of tonight's XFINITY Series race at Thunder Valley. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Food City 300 after posting a new track record time of 15.002 and a speed of 127.903 mph.
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Daniel Suarez topped the chart in first XFINITY Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 15.223 and a speed of 126.046 mph.
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Hendrick's stocks might go even higher after the news that, starting next season, William Byron will be racing under the Hendrick umbrella.
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The trend of increased timing zones won't include this weekend's events at Thunder Valley. NASCAR will not increase the number of timing zones for this week's events at Bristol Motor Speedway. The number will remain at 14 instead of 18. NASCAR decided not to increase them because it's comfortable with the number of zones in place.
With a true underdog in Marks taking the checkered flag coupled with the absolute insanity that was the race, it's a simple fact that NASCAR needs more road courses. It's been pointed out repeatedly that the Sprint Cup Series is over-saturated with cookie-cutter tracks and the Camping World Truck Series is loafing around with the lone road course at MoSport. Add more road courses to diversify the competition.
Erik Jones continued the dominance of Joe Gibbs Racing in the XFINITY series on Saturday by winning the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway in his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota. Jones won his third career race and his third of the season by passing Ty Dillon's No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for the lead with 16 laps to go and won the race having led 154 of 250 laps.
SPARTA, Ky. -- The odds-on favorite thoroughbred Kyle Busch put on a classic domination clinic on his way to winning in the Bluegrass State. He led 185 of the 201 laps on his way to scoring his 81st career victory in 320 XFINITY Series starts in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
