Say hello to our newest feature for 2023, which will keep tabs on NASCAR’s past and present regulars and their dirt racing exploits.
Justin Allgaier
The Xfinity Series regular will spend the week at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. contesting the UMP modified division.
Monday night (Feb. 6), Allgaier started the second feature of the evening on the pole. Though he lost the lead from the drop of the green to eventual race winner Kyle Strickler, Allgaier finished second in the feature, coming within inches of taking the race lead inside of five laps to go when Strickler had multiple issues with lapped traffic.
Steve Arpin
The former ARCA Racing Series regular contested the second modified feature at Volusia Speedway Park on Monday, starting and finishing towards the back of the top 10 without incident.
Christopher Bell
The Cup Series regular did not contest any races over the past week, but boy was he in the news. First, Bell made real waves with an appearance on World of Outlaws regular David Gravel’s Youtube show, referencing an apparent hatred that his Cup owner Joe Gibbs has towards dirt racing. The exchange went viral almost immediately.
Bell has since dialed back the comments that he made amid a groundswell of social media clamoring for Bell to seek another Cup ride to allow him to resume his dirt racing exploits.
This one is tricky. On the one hand, Bell is a dirt racer by trade, and the paradigm shift at Hendrick Motorsports to allow its drivers to race where they want, when they want while not in their Cup cars has paid obvious dividends for Kyle Larson and, to a certain extent, Alex Bowman.
But, Bell’s exploits are different. Unlike Larson and Bowman, Bell spends more time running in wingless car classes, which by their very nature are more prone to causing driver injury; when wingless cars flip, they land directly on the rollcage surrounding the driver as opposed to having a wing absorb much of the impact. And given the history Joe Gibbs Racing has endured with its Cup drivers being hurt (not to mention Toyota corporate teammate Kurt Busch last year), risk mitigation isn’t an unfounded idea.
A Silly Season nugget to keep in the back of everyone’s mind.
Alex Bowman
The Cup Series regular didn’t contest a race this week, though he made quite the trip Monday to be present for World of Outlaws open practice at Volusia on Monday night.
Matt Crafton
The Truck…
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