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Author: Andrew Kim

  • Corey Heim rallies for fourth Truck victory of 2024 at Gateway

    Corey Heim rallies for fourth Truck victory of 2024 at Gateway

    Corey Heim’s recent hot pursuit on the track continued after the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro raced his way to a strong, dominant victory in the Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday, June 1.

    The 21-year-old Heim from Marietta, Georgia, led twice for a race-high 65 of 160-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified ninth and settled in the top five during both stage periods before he assumed the lead for the first time at the start of the final stage period with 83 laps remaining.

    Then, amid a late cycle of green flag pit stops, followed by a single-truck incident involving Vicente Salas, Heim cycled his way back into the lead for the start of the final restart period with 23 laps remaining. Despite restarting on the inside lane, which was deemed a struggling lane on restarts, Heim rocketed ahead with the lead and led the remainder of the event as he beat runner-up Christian Eckes by more than a second. It was his fourth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the 2024 season as he also cashed in on the second Triple Truck Challenge bonus.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, May 31, Ty Majeski claimed his third Truck pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 138.568 mph in 32.475 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Christian Eckes, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 138.041 mph in 32.599 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Tanner Gray dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his TRICON Garage entry.

    When the green flag waved and the race started following a three-hour delay due to on-track precipitation, the field within the middle of the pack fanned out to three lanes through the frontstretch as Ty Majeski used the outside lane to his advantage to muscle his No. 98 Road Ranger/Bucked UP Ford F-150 ahead of Christian Eckes through the first two turns and retain the lead through the backstretch. As the field behind continued to fan out through the backstretch, Majeski fended off Eckes to lead the first lap.

    Through the second to fifth lap marks, Majeski retained the lead as he stretched it to as high as half a second over Eckes while Nick Sanchez, Stewart Friesen and Dean Thompson trailed in the top five. Behind, Ben Rhodes trailed in sixth place by four seconds while Corey Heim, Taylor Gray, Grant Enfinger and Daniel Dye were racing in the top 10.

    Just past the Lap 10 mark, the event’s first caution period flew when newcomer Luke Fenhaus, who was racing in the mid-20s and battling both Bayley Currey and Lawless Alan amid three lanes, got loose underneath Currey before he spun his No. 66 Soda Sense Ford F-150 in Turn 1. During the event’s first caution period, select names, mainly those running within the mid-pack region, pitted, among which included Tanner Gray, Matt Mills, Connor Mosack, Bayley Currey and rookie Thad Moffitt, while the rest led by Majeski remained on the track.

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 15, Majeski and Eckes battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch as Sanchez pursued in third. Amid the tight battle, Eckes managed to lead the next lap from the inside lane and he would lead the following lap by a tenth of a second until Majeski reassumed the top spot by Lap 18. Not long after Eckes was fending off Sanchez for the runner-up spot, Friesen proceeded to battle Sanchez amid close-quarters racing for third place. With Friesen muscling ahead of Sanchez for third, Majeski retained the lead by half a second over Eckes while Dean Thompson occupied fifth place.

    Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Majeski was leading by more than a second over Eckes followed by Sanchez, Friesen and Corey Heim while Thompson, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Daniel Dye and Taylor Gray were running in the top 10. Behind, Rajah Caruth occupied 11th place ahead of Tyler Ankrum, Chase Purdy, Ty Dillon and Jake Garcia while rookie Layne Riggs, newcomer Andres Perez de Lara, Tanner Gray, Bayley Currey and Lawless Alan followed suit in the top 20 along with Colby Howard, Mason Massey, Matt Crafton, Matt Mills and Bret Holmes.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 35, Majeski claimed his fourth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Eckes settled in second ahead of Sanchez, Friesen and Heim while Thompson, Enfinger, Rhodes, Dye and Taylor Gray were scored in the top 10. By then, all but one of 32 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Majeski pitted while the rest led by Tanner Gray, including those who pitted earlier, remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Daniel Dye was penalized for speeding on pit road as Sanchez emerged as the first competitor off of pit road.

    The second stage period started on Lap 41 as Tanner Gray and Colby Howard occupied the front row. At the start, Gray muscled ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead while Mosack also retained second ahead of Sanchez and Howard as the field fanned out through the backstretch. Gray would proceed to lead by two seconds over Mosack while Sanchez, Rhodes, Howard and Majeski trailed in the top six.

    Within Lap 45, the caution returned after Howard, who was in the top five, wrecked his No. 1 Coastal Sports Cards Toyota Tundra TRD Pro hard against the outside wall in Turn 3 after he lost a right-front tire. By then, Sanchez had overtaken Mosack to claim the runner-up spot while Tanner Gray was still leading. During the caution period, Crafton, who was battling electrical issues earlier in the event, pitted his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 to have his issues further addressed. Crafton would make multiple trips to pit road but he would remain on the lead lap.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 54, Tanner Gray and Sanchez dueled for the lead entering the first two turns. They then rubbed fenders and nearly wrecked entering the backstretch, but they kept their trucks running straight. Their stalled momentum, however, enabled Ben Rhodes to go three wide in between both of them exiting the backstretch as Rhodes made the move stick and he led the following lap over both Sanchez and Tanner Gray. Amid the tight battle, Rhodes would proceed to lead in his No. 99 Bommarito Automotive Group Ford F-150 ahead of Sanchez, and Tanner Gray dropped to third as Majeski closed in and eventually overtook Gray for third place.

    By Lap 60, Rhodes was leading by two-tenths of a second over Sanchez followed by Majeski, Sanchez and Tanner Gray while Heim, Enfinger, Chase Purdy, Taylor Gray and Rajah Caruth trailed in the top 10. Behind, Connor Mosack was in 11th ahead of Ty Dillon, Friesen, Tyler Ankrum and Dean Thompson as rookie Layne Riggs, Andres Perez de Lara, Daniel Dye, Jake Garcia and Bret Holmes occupied the top 20.

    Six laps later, Majeski, who spent the previous six laps navigating his way into the runner-up spot and was closing in on teammate Rhodes for the lead, overtook Rhodes to reassume the lead. Not long after, Eckes navigated past Rhodes for the runner-up spot while Sanchez was trying to close in for third place. In addition, Heim trailed in fifth place by more than two seconds while Tanner Gray and Enfinger both trailed by seven seconds in the top seven.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 70, Majeski claimed his fifth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season and completed the sweep of both stages of the event. Eckes settled in a close second followed by Sanchez, Rhodes and Heim while Enfinger, brothers Tanner and Taylor Gray, Purdy and Dillon were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Majeski pitted while Kieth McGee and Thad Moffitt remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Ankrum and Dye exited first and second, respectively, after both opted for two fresh tires while Heim, who exited third, was the third competitor to have four fresh tires on his entry. Not long after, McGee and Moffitt pitted their respective entries as Ankrum assumed the lead

    With 83 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Ankrum and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Heim muscled his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead into the lead from the inside lane. As a flurry of battles ensued within the field, Heim retained the lead by half a second over Ankrum at the halfway mark with 80 laps remaining. Meanwhile, Majeski trailed in third place and by eight-tenths of a second along with Sanchez and Dye while Rhodes, Eckes, Tanner Gray, Enfinger and Caruth were scored in the top 10.

    With 70 laps remaining, Heim was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Majeski followed by Sanchez, Ankrum and Rhodes while Eckes, Dye, Enfinger, Caruth and Tanner Gray were racing in the top 10 ahead of Friesen, Purdy, Thompson, Dillon and Crafton. Meanwhile, Taylor Gray pitted his No. 17 Place of Hope Toyota Tundra TRD Pro and his pit crew raised Gray’s hood up to address a brake issue as Gray lost multiple laps on pit road.

    Ten laps later, Heim extended his advantage by more than a second over Majeski as Sanchez, Rhodes and Eckes continued to follow suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Dye was in sixth and he was racing ahead of Ankrum, Enfinger, Caruth and Friesen while Heim proceeded to slightly extend his advantage to nearly two seconds over Majeski with 50 laps remaining.

    Then with 45 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as the leader Heim pit along with Jake Garcia. Majeski then pitted during the following lap before more names, including Rhodes, Enfinger, Caruth, Dillon, Dye and Ankrum, pit during the proceeding laps. With more names peeling off the track to pit their respective entries, Sanchez, who has yet to pit, was leading ahead of Eckes and Friesen while Tanner Gray and Purdy were scored in the top five with 40 laps remaining.

    With less than 35 laps remaining, more names, including Sanchez, pitted under green while select names led by Tanner Gray, Purdy and Luke Fenhaus, all of whom have yet to pit, were running in the top-three spots.

    Then with nearly 30 laps remaining, the caution flew after Vicente Salas spun in Turn 4 as Heim had to take evasive action to avoid hitting Salas. At the time of caution, Tanner Gray had pitted while Purdy, Fenhaus and Crafton, all of whom had yet to pit, were still on the track and occupying the top three spots. During the caution period, select names including Purdy, Crafton and Fenhaus pitted while the rest led by Heim remained on the track as Heim cycled back into the lead.

    With 23 laps remaining, the event restarted under green as Heim and Majeski occupied the front row. At the start, Heim, who restarted on the inside lane, retained the lead by a narrow advantage over Majeski through the first two turns and back to the backstretch. With the battle for the lead intensifying, Heim retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Majeski while third-place Eckes tried to close in from third place and as he trailed by six-tenths of a second with 20 laps remaining.

    With less than 15 laps remaining, Heim extended his advantage by nearly a second over Majeski while Eckes, Sanchez and Rhodes were in the top five. Riggs, Purdy, Friesen, Andres Perez de Lara and Luke Fenhaus followed suit in the top 10 while Heim continued to lead by a second with 10 laps remaining. Behind him, Eckes and Sanchez started to pressure Majeski for second.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Heim retained the lead by a second over Eckes and Sanchez while Majeski dropped to fourth as he trailed by three seconds. Meanwhile, Layne Riggs was up into fifth place as he occupied the spot over Purdy and Rhodes.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Heim remained as the leader by more than a second over Eckes as Sanchez trailed by two seconds. Having a reasonable lead to his advantage, Heim was able to smoothly navigate his way around Gateway for a final time before he navigated back to the frontstretch to claim his fourth checkered flag of the 2024 Truck Series season.

    With the victory, Heim, who became the first four-time race winner of this season, notched his ninth career win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division, his first since winning at North Wilkesboro Speedway two races ago and his second at Gateway’s World Wide Technology Raceway after he won his first in 2022.

    As an added bonus, Heim, who was absent from last year’s Truck event at Gateway due to an illness, claimed the second $50,000 bonus as part of the Triple Truck Challenge, which also marks his second time claiming the prize after he achieved his first in 2022.

    Photo by Simon Scoggins for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Total team effort today,” Heim said on FS2. “We actually struggled a bit yesterday and worked overnight on [the truck]. I just have to say [that] this pit crew redeemed themselves. Last week, we felt like we could’ve won the race and admittedly they made some mistakes, but they redeemed themselves today and that’s what it’s all about. That was awesome. [I’m] On top of the world right now. We’ve got such a great race team and such a long season ahead.”

    Christian Eckes settled in the runner-up position for a third consecutive event at Gateway while Nick Sanchez, Ty Majeski and rookie Layne Riggs finished in the top five.

    Chase Purdy, Ben Rhodes, Stewart Friesen, and newcomers Andres Perez de Lara and Luke Fenhaus completed the top 10 in the final running order.

    There were 13 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 32 laps. In addition, 20 of 32 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the 12th event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Christian Eckes leads the regular-season standings by 31 points over Corey Heim, 53 over Nick Sanchez and 64 over Ty Majeski.

    Results.

    1. Corey Heim, 65 laps led

    2. Christian Eckes, two laps led

    3. Nick Sanchez, 10 laps led

    4. Ty Majeski, 43 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

    5. Layne Riggs

    6. Chase Purdy, five laps led

    7. Ben Rhodes, 11 laps led

    8. Stewart Friesen

    9. Andres Perez de Lara

    10. Luke Fenhaus

    11. Tanner Gray, 19 laps led

    12. Daniel Dye

    13. Ty Dillon

    14. Dean Thompson

    15. Tyler Ankrum, four laps led

    16. Rajah Caruth

    17. Grant Enfinger

    18. Timmy Hill

    19. Lawless Alan

    20. Matt Crafton

    21. Bret Holmes, one lap down

    22. Connor Mosack, one lap down

    23. Matt Mills, one lap down

    24. Jake Garcia, one lap down

    25. Vicente Salas, three laps down

    26. Spencer Boyd, four laps down

    27. Keight McGee, four laps down, one lap led

    28. Thad Moffitt, five laps down

    29. Bayley Currey, seven laps down

    30. Taylor Gray, eight laps down

    31. Mason Massey – OUT, Engine

    32. Colby Howard – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee, for the Rackley Roofing 200. The event is scheduled to occur on June 28 and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS2.

  • Newgarden inks new multi-year contract extension with Team Penske

    Newgarden inks new multi-year contract extension with Team Penske

    Josef Newgarden has inked a new multi-year contract extension to continue to pilot the No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet for Team Penske in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, beginning in 2025.

    The news comes as the two-time IndyCar Series champion from Hendersonville, Tennessee, is coming off his second consecutive triumph in the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he led 13 of 200 laps and overtook Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward on the final lap en route to the victory. As a result, Newgarden is the first competitor in 22 years to win back-to-back Indianapolis 500s, a feat last made by Helio Castroneves between the 2001 and 2002 seasons, and he delivered the record-setting 20th Indy 500 victory for team owner Roger Penske.

    “Driving for Roger Penske and this iconic team is a dream that I never thought I would realize,” Newgarden said in a statement. “I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve been given during my time at Team Penske. I have a great amount of respect for the individuals that comprise our group, incluidng the partners who support us. Our time together has been filled with hard work, teamwork and dedication; and I’m so excited that we will continue on for many more years to come. I’m sure we can achieve much more in the future. I still believe we haven’t reached our full potential together just yet.”

    Newgarden, who first competed in IndyCar in 2012, was announced as a Team Penske competitor for the 2017 season in early October 2016. Three races into the 2017 season, he secured his first victory as a Penske competitor at Barber Motorsports Park. He would proceed to claim three additional victories and a total of nine podiums while contending for the driver’s championship throughout the 17-race schedule. With a runner-up finish in the season-finale event at Sonoma Raceway, Newgarden claimed the title by 13 points over teammate Simon Pagenaud and became the first American competitor to win an IndyCar championship since Ryan Hunter-Reay made the last accomplishment in 2012.

    In the six-plus years that follow since winning his first championship during his first season with Team Penske, Newgarden recorded a second IndyCar title in 2019 after beating Pagenaud for a second time, this time by 25 points. He also achieved his first Indianapolis 500 victory in 2023 after overtaking and fending off the 2022 Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson during a one-lap dash to the finish. As a result, he became the 75th competitor overall and the first American competitor since Alexander Rossi made the last accomplishment in 2016 to win the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” event at Indianapolis.

    To date, Newgarden has recorded 27 victories, 17 poles, 43 podiums, 3,432 laps led and an average-finishing result of 7.7, all while competing for Team Penske. With his three other victories occurring between CFH Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing between the 2015 and 2016 seasons, Newgarden sits in 13th place on the all-time IndyCar wins list at 30.

    “Josef Newgarden is a true winner, and we are excited that he will continue as a part of Team Penske for years to come,” Roger Penske added. “What he did Sunday in the Indianapolis 500 shows how Josef consistently delivers for our team and our partners on the track, and he is just as impressive off the track as well. We are proud to have Josef continue with our organization as his skill and passion embody what it means to be a Team Penske driver.”

    Newgarden is currently ranked in seventh place in the 2024 driver’s standings, where he trails the points lead by 61 points. His second Indy 500 victory rallies him and the No. 2 team from their disqualification from winning the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg for violating the sport’s push-to-pass regulations in February, an issue that also affected Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin.

    With his future set, Josef Newgarden’s quest to win a third NTT INDYCAR Series championship in 2024 continues with this weekend’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at the Streets of Detroit, Michigan, where he is set to start in third place after posting the third-fastest qualifying lap at 97.145 mph in one minute, 0.9607 seconds. The event is scheduled to commence on Sunday, June 2, and air at noon ET on USA Network.

  • Billy Scott to call 300th Cup event as crew chief at Gateway

    Billy Scott to call 300th Cup event as crew chief at Gateway

    In his ninth season as a full-time crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, Billy Scott, crew chief for Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE team, is scheduled to achieve a milestone start. By participating in this weekend’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway, Scott will call his 300th career event as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.

    A native of Land O’Lakes, Florida, and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, Scott made his inaugural presence as a Cup Series crew chief at the start of the 2014 season, where he worked atop the pit box of the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota Camry team piloted by former Xfinity Series champion Brian Vickers. By then, he had spent the previous two seasons as a lead engineer for MWR’s No. 55 team and had previously assumed the role of engineer for both MWR and Robert Yates Racing.

    In Scott’s first season as a crew chief, he led Vickers and the No. 55 team to a pole at Talladega Superspeedway in October, a season-best runner-up result at Daytona International Speedway in July, three top-five results, nine top-10 results, an average-finishing result of 18.6 and a 22nd-place result in the final driver’s standings.

    The following season, Scott retained his role as the crew chief for MWR’s No. 55 team that commenced the season with team owner Michael Waltrip competing in the 57th running of the Daytona 500 and Brett Moffitt earning a strong top-10 result at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. Meanwhile, Vickers was absent for the start of the season due to health issues. Despite returning for the next two scheduled events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at Phoenix Raceway, respectively, in March, Vickers was sidelined again due to blood clots, a health issue that would ultimately sideline him for the remainder of the season and would result with Moffitt and Waltrip filling in for the next six-scheduled events. By May, David Ragan became the full-time competitor of the No. 55 Toyota Camry as he finished no higher than 13th during his first four starts.

    Then in June 2015, MWR swapped the crew chiefs of its two-car entry field with Scott replacing Brian Pattie as crew chief of the No. 15 entry piloted by Clint Bowyer. In his first race paired with Bowyer, Scott led the No. 15 team to a 10th-place run at Michigan International Speedway. The duo then earned a strong third-place finish at Sonoma Raceway followed by another 10th-place run at Daytona in July. With a total of eight top-10 results in 12 races paired together, Scott and Bowyer managed to secure a spot for the 2015 Cup Playoffs based on points.

    Their run for the title, however, came to an early end at the start of the Playoffs when NASCAR issued a P4-level penalty and docked Bowyer’s team 25 points due to an illegal discovery made during the inspection process at Chicagoland Speedway in September. In addition, Scott was assessed a three-race suspension and a fine of $75,000. While MWR appealed the penalty, their appeal was denied as Scott was suspended, beginning at Dover Motor Speedway through Kansas Speedway in October. By then, Bowyer was one of four competitors to be eliminated from the Playoffs after finishing 19th, 26th and 14th, respectively, during the Round of 16. Once Scott returned atop the pit box at Talladega Superspeedway, he and Bowyer could only achieve just one additional top-10 result during the final seven scheduled events before capping off the season in 16th place in the final standings.

    When Michael Waltrip Racing ceased all operations following the 2015 campaign, Scott joined Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2016 Cup season and was paired with Danica Patrick and the No. 10 Chevrolet SS team. Commencing the season with a 35th-place run during the 58th running of the Daytona 500, the duo recorded an average-finishing result of 22.0 throughout the 36-race schedule, with Patrick’s best on-track result being an 11th-place run at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October, before finishing in 24th place in the final standings. Scott and Patrick would record a single top-10 result of 10th place at Dover throughout the 2017 season along with an average-finishing result of 23.8 before settling in 28th place in the final standings. At the conclusion of the 2017 season, Patrick retired from full-time competition.

    A month after the 2017 Cup season concluded, Stewart-Haas Racing shuffled its driver-crew chief pairing for the 2018 season, which included Scott transitioning to the No. 41 Ford Fusion team piloted by the 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch. The new duo commenced the season with a 26th-place result in the 60th running of the Daytona 500 after Busch was involved in a late multi-car wreck while contending for his second consecutive 500 title. They rallied by recording three poles and 14 top-10 results during the next 23 scheduled events. Then at Bristol Motor Speedway in August, Scott achieved his first career victory as a NASCAR crew chief when Busch held off Kyle Larson in a 13-lap shootout to claim his first win of the season, his sixth at Bristol, his 30th Cup career victory and a spot to the 2018 Cup Series Playoffs.

    Despite enduring an up-and-down road throughout the Playoffs, the duo managed to transfer from the Round of 16 to 8. Their Playoff run, however, came to a late end during the Round of 8 after Busch recorded respective finishes of sixth, seventh and 32nd. With a 10th-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November to cap off the 2018 season, Scott and Busch finished in seventh place in the final standings and accumulated a total of 22 top-10 results throughout the 36-race campaign.

    For the 2019 Cup season, Scott, who remained as the crew chief of SHR’s No. 41 team, was paired with the 2016 Xfinity Series champion Daniel Suarez, who replaced Busch as Busch joined Chip Ganassi Racing. Throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, Scott and Suarez endured an up-and-down journey that was highlighted with a pole at Kentucky Speedway in July along with nine top-10 results and a bid for a spot in the 2019 Playoffs. Ultimately, they missed the Playoffs by four points as Suarez proceeded to record two additional top-10 results during the 10-race Playoff stretch before finishing in 17th place in the final standings.

    Following the 2019 season, Scott, who was released by Stewart-Haas Racing, joined Richard Childress Racing and worked as the team’s head of engineering for the 2020 Cup season. He also served as a crew chief for a single Cup event for Kaulig Racing’s debut in NASCAR’s premier series with Justin Haley for the 62nd running of the Daytona 500. During the event, Haley, who managed to qualify for the event based on speed, settled in 13th place. Scott’s next pair of events as a crew chief occurred during the 2021 Xfinity Series season for Our Motorsports and Austin Dillon, where Dillon finished 37th at Watkins Glen International and sixth at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, respectively.

    In November 2021, Scott was announced as a Cup Series crew chief for 23XI Racing’s newly formed No. 45 Toyota TRD Camry that was set to be piloted by Kurt Busch for the 2022 season, which marked Scott’s return atop the pit box and his reunion with Busch since 2018. After accumulating four top-10 results during the first 12 scheduled events, the reunited duo achieved their first victory of the season when Busch prevailed over another late battle against Kyle Larson to grab a dominant win at Kansas Speedway in May and record the second career victory for 23XI Racing. The victory also gave Busch and the No. 45 team a guaranteed spot to make the Playoffs.

    Seven races and three additional top-10 results later, however, Busch was involved in a hard wreck during a qualifying session at Pocono Raceway in July and was forced to sit out while recovering from concussion-like symptoms, a move that would eventually force him to rule out from full-time competition for the remainder of the 2022 season along with the full 2023 schedule. Busch’s absence allowed newcomer Ty Gibbs to pilot the No. 45 entry for the remainder of the 2022 Cup regular-season stretch with Scott remaining atop the pit box. Then in September and at the start of the 2022 Playoffs, Scott moved over to 23XI Racing’s No. 23 entry along with Gibbs while the team’s primary competitor, Bubba Wallace, took over the No. 45 Toyota that was competing for the owners’ title, which made it as high through the Round of 12.

    Since being paired with Gibbs for the last 15 events, which started in mid-July, Scott has led the driver and 23XI Racing’s Nos. 23 and 45 entries to a single top-10 result, which occurred at Michigan International Speedway in August, along with a combined seven top-20 results. During the finale at Phoenix Raceway in November, Scott was paired with the 2021 Xfinity champion Daniel Hemric, who filled in for Gibbs as Gibbs missed the event due to the death of his father, Coy. With Hemric finishing in 17th place on the track, 23XI Racing’s No. 23 entry settled in 24th place in the final owner’s standings, 14 spots below the No. 45 entry.

    Returning as the crew chief of 23XI Racing’s No. 45 entry piloted by two-time Xfinity champion Tyler Reddick for the 2023 Cup season, Scott navigated the driver and team to two top-five through the first five-schedule events before they achieved their first victory of the season at Circuit of the Americas in March. Reddick led a race-high 41 laps and muscled away from the field during a two-lap shootout. Scott and Reddick then proceeded to record eight top-10 results in 19 regular-season events, minus Darlington Raceway in May after Scott was ejected due to Reddick’s car failing pre-race inspection twice two days before race day and before entering the Playoffs alongside teammate Bubba Wallace and the No. 23 23XI Racing team.

    Coming off a runner-up result in the Playoff opener at Darlington in September, Scott achieved his second Cup victory of the season after Reddick went from fifth to first during an overtime shootout to win and grab an automatic berth into the Round of 12. After transferring into the Round of 8 despite achieving only a single top-10 result in their next four races, the duo was eliminated from title contention after ending up eighth, third and 26th, respectively, throughout the Round of 8. Despite finishing in 22nd place during the finale at Phoenix, Scott and Reddick concluded their first campaign together in sixth place in the final driver’s standings, with the points result being the current best for both the driver and crew chief.

    Through the first 14 events of the 2024 Cup Series season, Scott has navigated Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing team to a single victory, which occurred at Talladega Superspeedway in April after Reddick dodged a final-lap multi-car wreck to overtake Brad Keselowski through the frontstretch to win for the first time at Talladega. To go along with seven additional top-10 results, including a fourth-place run during last Monday’s rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Scott and Reddick are currently ranked in sixth place in the 2024 regular-season standings and are guaranteed a spot to make the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.

    Through 299 previous Cup events, Scott has achieved five victories, 10 poles, 34 top-five results, 85 top-10 results and 1,864 laps led while working with 12 different competitors.

    Billy Scott is scheduled to call his 300th Cup Series event as a crew chief at World Wide Technology Raceway for the Enjoy Illinois 300 on Sunday, June 2. The event’s broadcast time is set to commence at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Randall Burnett to call 200th Cup event as crew chief at Gateway

    Randall Burnett to call 200th Cup event as crew chief at Gateway

    In his sixth full-time season as a crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, Randall Burnett, crew chief for Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team, is within reach of achieving a milestone start. By participating in this weekend’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway, Burnett will call his 200th event as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.

    A native of Fenton, Missouri, Burnett is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a degree in mechanical engineering. He then spent 10 years at Chip Ganassi Racing, working in multiple engineering roles for the organization. During the span, Burnett served as Ganassi’s lead engineer for the No. 1 Chevrolet team piloted by Jamie McMurray, who won the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the 2010 Cup Series season. Burnett also previously worked as the team engineer for CGR’s No. 42 Chevrolet team piloted by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2013 and Kyle Larson in 2014 and 2015.

    In 2016, Burnett made his debut as a Cup Series crew chief as he joined JTG-Daugherty Racing to lead AJ Allmendinger and the No. 47 Chevrolet team for the upcoming season. Participating in all but one of the 36-race schedule, Burnett and Allmendinger achieved a season-best runner-up result at Martinsville Speedway in April, two top-five results, nine top-10 results, a 17.9 average-finishing result and a 19th-place result in the final driver’s standings. The only event Burnett was unable to attend was Pocono Raceway in June, which he was serving a one-race suspension due to violating NASCAR’s lug nut procedures stemming from the previous event at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.

    Burnett remained as Allmendinger’s crew chief in the early stages of the 2017 Cup season. Despite achieving a third-place result in the season-opening Daytona 500, Burnett was suspended for three races due to three loose lug nuts that were discovered on Allmendinger’s entry following the second event of the schedule at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February. Sitting out for four events, Burnett returned for five additional Cup races with Allmendinger before being replaced by veteran Ernie Cope, who had filled in during Burnett’s suspensions, for the remainder of the season, beginning in May.

    Following his demotion as the crew chief for JTG-Daugherty Racing, Burnett joined Richard Childress Racing to serve as a crew chief for the organization’s No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Between 2017 to 2019, Burnett was an Xfinity Series crew chief for RCR in 89 races. During this span, he achieved six victories, six poles, 35 top-five results and 56 top-10 results, all while working with Austin Dillon, Daniel Hemric, Ben Kennedy, Paul Menard, Matt Tifft and Tyler Reddick. Burnett’s accomplishments as an Xfinity crew chief were guiding Hemric to the 2017 Xfinity Series Championship Round and winning the 2019 Xfinity Series title with Reddick, which marked Burnett’s first title in NASCAR as a crew chief.

    A month after winning the 2019 Xfinity Series title, Burnett was named a full-time Cup crew chief for Reddick, who was also promoted to NASCAR’s premier series, and the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team for the 2020 season. Throughout the season, Burnett and Reddick achieved a season-best runner-up result at Texas Motor Speedway in July, three top-five results, nine top-10 results and a 19th-place result in the final standings, with Reddick ending up as the runner-up finisher to the Rookie-of-the-Year battle behind Cole Custer.

    Burnett remained as Reddick’s crew chief for the 2021 Cup season, where they achieved a single pole position at Circuit of the Americas in May along with a total of two runner-up results, three top-five results and 16 top-10 results in 35 events. The duo managed to claim the 16th and final berth in the 2021 Cup Series Playoffs, which marked their first presence in the Playoffs as title contenders, but they were eliminated following the Round of 16 after missing the Round of 12 cutline by two points. Burnett would then be absent from the finale at Phoenix Raceway in November due to COVID protocols as Reddick proceeded to finish in 13th place in the final standings.

    For the 2022 season, Burnett and Reddick recorded three top-10 results through the first eight-scheduled events before being one lap away of achieving their first Cup victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course in April, where Reddick was hit and spun by Chase Briscoe on the final lap and final corner as Reddick was then beaten by Kyle Busch by 0.330 seconds to settle in a disappointing runner-up result. Nine races later, redemption came for the duo after Reddick prevailed in a late battle against Chase Elliott to notch his first Cup career victory at Road America in July, which also marked Burnett’s first career win as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.

    Another four races later, Burnett and Reddick solidified their spot into the 2022 Cup Playoffs after Reddick navigated his way amid a wild overtime shootout to win for the season time of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Despite having their Playoff hopes evaporated following respective finishes of third, 35th and 25th throughout the Round of 16, Burnett and Reddick notched their third Cup victory of the season during the Round of 12 opener at Texas Motor Speedway in September. They would then accumulate two top-10 results during the final six events on the schedule before settling in 14th place in the final standings.

    This past season, Burnett was paired with two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch, who replaced Reddick in RCR’s No. 8 entry as Reddick transitioned to 23XI Racing. Despite finishing in 19th place during the 65th running of the Daytona 500 amid a final lap multi-car wreck, the new duo quickly navigated their way to Victory Lane at Auto Club Speedway in February as Busch achieved his first win driving for RCR. Burnett and Busch would win at Talladega Superspeedway in April and at World Wide Technology Raceway in June as they would also accumulate a total of 14 top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch before securing their spot into the Playoffs. Despite finishing within the top 20 throughout the Round of 16 which enabled them to transfer into the Round of 12, their title hopes came to an end amid respective finishes of 34th, 25th and third throughout the Round of 12. Managing only a single top-five finish in the final four scheduled events, Burnett and Busch concluded their first campaign in 14th place in the final standings.

    Through 199 previous Cup events, Burnett has achieved six victories, six poles, 31 top-five results, 72 top-10 results and 957 laps led while working with three different competitors. He and Busch are currently ranked in 14th place in the 2024 regular-season standings on the strengths of two top-five results and five top-10 results through the first 14 scheduled events.

    Randall Burnett is scheduled to call his 200th Cup Series event as a crew chief at World Wide Technology Raceway for the Enjoy Illinois 300 on Sunday, June 2. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Newgarden executes final lap pass on O’Ward for second consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory

    Newgarden executes final lap pass on O’Ward for second consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory

    A year after becoming the 75th competitor overall to win the Indianapolis 500, Josef Newgarden doubled down as a two-time champion of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing after winning the rain-delayed 108th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 26, following a final lap overtake on Pato O’Ward.

    The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion from Hendersonville, Tennessee, led six times for 26 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started alongside his two Team Penske teammates, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power, on the front row. Leading for the first time at the halfway mark on Lap 100, Newgarden withstood a series of pit strategies amongst his rivaled competitors and on-track chaos to remain in race-winning contention in the closing stages.

    Then after swapping track positions with Scott Dixon and Arrow McLaren’s duo of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi in the closing laps, Newgarden, who reassumed the lead from Rossi with seven laps remaining, was left to duel against a hard-charging O’Ward for the victory. Despite regaining the lead from O’Ward with five laps remaining, Newgarden then lost the lead to O’Ward at the start of the final lap, but managed to gain a draft to overtake him and reclaim the lead exiting the backstretch. The pass was enough for Newgarden to muscle away and claim the checkered flag to become the first competitor in 22 years to repeat as an Indianapolis 500 champion.

    Following a two-day qualifying session that occurred between May 18-19 and that determined the starting lineup for the main event, Scott McLaughlin achieved his first Indianapolis 500 pole position after posting the fastest four-lap average-qualifying speed at 234.220 mph in two minutes, 33.7017 seconds. McLaughlin shared the front row with his two Team Penske teammates and former Indy 500 champions Will Power (233.917 mph in two minutes, 33.9007 seconds) and Josef Newgarden (233.808 mph in two minutes, 33.9726 seconds), which marked the first time three Team Penske entries swept the front row for the 500 since 1988.

    The only competitor who did not qualify for the event was rookie Nolan Siegel, who wrecked his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Dallara-Honda entry while attempting to race his way into the field during last Sunday’s qualifying session.

    During the pace laps and warmup session, early trouble struck for Callum Ilott, who pitted due to a mechanical issue to his No. 6 Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet, though he was able to return to the track and remain on the lead lap for the event’s start.

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced amid a four-hour delay due to heavy precipitation, pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin launched ahead from teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden along with the rest of the field to lead through the first two turns.

    Shortly after, however, the event’s first caution period flew after Tom Blomqvist hit the rumble strips in Turn 1, spun and came across the path of Marcus Ericsson as Ericsson, who started on the final row in this year’s Indy 500, nearly got airborne as he wrecked his No. 28 Delaware Life/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda both into Blomqvist’s No. 66 Arctic Wolf/Meyer Shank Racing Dallara-Honda and across the outside wall. Amid the wreckage, Pietro Fittipaldi, who was trying to avoid the wreckage involving Ericsson and Blomqvist, made contact with Ilott as he spun his No. 30 5-Hour Energy/Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara-Honda in between the first two turns before he backed his car against the outside wall. The carnage was enough to take Ericsson, Fittipaldi and Blomqvist out of contention while Ilott continued.

    During the caution period, Marcus Armstrong’s second career start in the Indianapolis 500 came to an early end due to the New Zealander losing power and having smoke spewing out of his No. 11 Ridgeline Performance Lubricants/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda during the caution laps, which forced him to pit and retire.

    As the event restarted under green on the ninth lap, McLaughin fended off teammates Power and Newgarden for a second time through the frontstretch to retain the lead as the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes. In the midst of the field fanning out, Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion who was piloting the No. 17 HendrickCars.com/Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet as part of his ‘Double Duty’ effort that included competing in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway later in the day, lost a bevy of spots while running in the top 10 and was getting overtaken by oncoming competitors after missing a gear to launch at the start as he also made slight contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay. The field continued to scatter, fan out and jostle for early spots through the backstretch while McLaughlin retained the lead ahead of his two Team Penske teammates at the Lap 10 mark.

    Through the first 15 scheduled laps, McLaughlin was leading by less than a tenth of a second over teammate Power and nearly half a second over teammate Newgarden while Santino Ferrucci and Alexander Rossi were in the top five. Behind, Rinus VeeKay occupied sixth place ahead of Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood while Alex Palou, Takuma Sato, Helio Castroneves, Kyle Larson and Ryan Hunter-Reay were in the top 15. Behind, Scott Dixon, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter, Sting Ray Robb and rookie Kyffin Simpson trailed in the top 20.

    Six laps later, the caution returned after Katherine Legge, who started on the final row, had smoke billowing out of her No. 51 e.l.f/Dale Coyne Racing Dallara-Honda as her fourth bid to win the Indy 500 came to an end. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by McLaughin pitted for service while the following names that included Sting Ray Robb, Conor Daly, Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal remained on the track as part of an early strategic plan. Following the pit stops, McLaughlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammates Power and Newgarden while Ferrucci, Rossi, Rosenqvist, O’Ward, Herta, Palou and Sato followed suit in the top 10.

    During the next restart period on Lap 26, Daly overtook Robb from the outside lane through the frontstretch to assume the lead. Robb would retain second through the first two turns and through the backstretch while McLaughlin settled in fourth place as he was running in between Lundgaard and Rahal while Ferrucci was trying to crack the top five amid more jostling of spots within the field. The event’s third caution flew a lap later after Linus Lundqvist, who was running in the middle of the field, got loose and hit the outside wall in Turn 1, which knocked him and his No. 8 American Legion/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda team out of contention.

    With the event restarting under green on Lap 32, McLaughlin muscled his No. 3 Pennzoil/Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet past Daly’s No. 24 Polkadot/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports Dallara-Chevrolet through the frontstretch to reassume the lead. Behind, Ferrucci made his way into the runner-up spot followed by Daly, Robb and Lundgaard as the field fanned out to multiple lanes just past the backstretch before navigating through Turns 3 and 4 to complete the following lap. Daly would then overtake Ferrucci to claim the runner-up spot by Lap 34 before overtaking McLaughlin through the frontstretch to reassume the lead two laps later.

    Just past the Lap 40 mark, Daly was leading by two-tenths of a second over McLaughlin while third-place Ferrucci trailed by seven-tenths of a second. Robb and Rossi trailed in the top five within a second as Newgarden, Herta, Lundgaard, Palou and O’Ward were scored in the top 10 ahead of Rosenqvist, Larson, Dixon and Rahal while Power dropped to 15th.

    Towards Lap 38, Robb, who was running in the top five, pitted his No. 41 Goodheart/A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Honda under green. Daly would surrender the lead to pit under green during the following lap as McLaughlin cycled back into the lead as he was being pursued by Ferrucci, Ross, Herta and Newgarden.

    At the one-quarter mark on Lap 50, McLaughlin continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Ferrucci while Rossi, Herta and Newgarden continued to trail in the top five. Behind, Palou occupied sixth place ahead of Rosenqvist, O’Ward, Larson and Rasmussen while Dixon, VeeKay, Power, Sato and Augustin Canapino were in the top 15. Meanwhile, teammates Lundgaard and Rahal were mired back in 25th and 26th, respectively, after both pitted a few laps earlier.

    Five laps later, the event’s fourth caution flew after Felix Rosenqvist, who was running in the top 10, pulled his No. 60 SiriusXM/Meyer Shank Racing Dallara-Honda off the track in the backstretch and retired due to an engine failure, which marks the third Honda engine failure in the event. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by McLaughlin returned to pit road for service while Daly and Robb remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid a tight squeeze amongst the leaders, Rossi exited in first place by a hair over McLaughlin as Herta, Newgarden, Palou, Ferrucci, Rasmussen, Larson, VeeKay and Power followed suit in the top 10.

    The start of the next restart period on Lap 64 featured the field fanning out through the frontstretch and prior to reaching the start/finish line as McLaughlin made a bold three-wide move beneath Daly and Robb to move into the lead entering the first turn. Robb would then return to the top of the leaderboard two laps later after he overtook McLaughlin through the frontstretch. Robb would retain the lead by the Lap 70 mark and by four-tenths of a second over McLaughlin while Daly, Herta and Newgarden trailed in the top five.

    Then on Lap 85, the caution flew after Herta, who was running second and was deemed a potential favorite of the event, got loose and spun backwards into the outside wall in Turn 1, where he damaged the front wing of his No. 26 Gainbridge/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda. Despite sustaining minimal damage to his entry, Herta would have his car towed to the garage, where he would return to the track following extensive repairs and being multiple laps down.

    During the exchange of pit stops as nearly the entire field led by McLaughlin pitted during the caution period, Kyle Kirkwood ran into the rear of Ilott, which cause Ilott to overshoot his pit stall and into Ed Carpenter’s pit stall, which caused Carpenter to jam on the brakes and stall his car while waiting for Ilott to be pushed back into his respective stall.

    With the race restarting under green on Lap 91, Rinus VeeKay, who was among a handful of competitors who did not pit and inherited the lead, was quickly overtaken by Lundgaard for the lead entering the first turn. Behind, Newgarden muscled his way up to fourth place as he settled behind Robb while Ferrucci and Daly battled for fifth place in front of McLaughlin, Palou, Rossi and Larson.

    Seven laps later, VeeKay pitted his No. 21 askROI/Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara-Chevrolet under green. Lundgaard would also pit his No. 45 Hyvee/Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara-Honda another three laps later as Newgarden proceeded to lead the halfway mark on Lap 100. By then, Ferrucci moved up to second as McLaughlin, Robb and Daly cycled up into the top five ahead of Palou, Larson, Rossi, Castroneves and Rasmussen.

    Six laps later, the event’s sixth caution flew after Ryan Hunter-Reay, who gained a draft to overtake Scott Dixon through the backstretch for 17th place, got blocked and forced into the backstretch’s grass amid contact with Dixon, which resulted with Hunter-Reay doing a full 360 spin through the grass and the racing surface, but managing to straighten his car through the grass without coming back across oncoming traffic as Hunter-Reay limped his damaged No. 23 VensureHR/Four Sixes Racing Beef/101 Studios/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara-Chevrolet back to his pit stall, where he would retire.

    The following restart period with 87 laps remaining did not last long as Marco Andretti, who was battling for a top-20 spot, slipped sideways and backed his No. 98 Mapei/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda into the outside wall in Turn 1 as his 19th bid to win his first Indianapolis 500 came to a late end.

    The ensuing restart period with 82 laps remaining generated a different outcome as McLaughlin muscled ahead with the lead of a tight battle involving teammate Newgarden, Ferrucci, Rossi, Palou, Larson, Castroneves, Canapino and Rasmussen entering the first turn. With Newgarden retaining second, McLaughlin also retained the lead by four-tenths of a second with 80 laps remaining.

    At the three-quarters mark with 75 laps remaining, McLaughlin retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Rossi followed by Newgarden, Ferrucci and Palou while Larson, Rasmussen, Castroneves, Canapino and Rahal were in the top 10. Behind, Dixon was in 11th ahead of Simpson, VeeKay, O’Ward and Daly while Power, Sato, Robb, Ilott and Kirkwood were mired in the top 20.

    Two laps later, Newgarden cycled his No. 2 Shell Powering Progress/Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet past teammate McLaughlin to reassume the lead through the frontstretch. Newgarden, however, would then pit under green with 70 laps remaining before McLaughlin pitted during the following lap. During McLaughlin’s pit service, the following names that included Larson, Canapino, Simpson and Ilott also pitted. Amid the pit stops, however, Larson, who had methodically driven his way into the top five prior to pitting, was assessed a drive-through penalty for speeding while entering pit road. Larson, who smoked his front tires when he was penalized for speeding, would serve the penalty with nearly 65 laps remaining as more names pitted under green.

    Back on the track, O’Ward, who has yet to pit, was leading ahead of Dixon. O’Ward would then pit from the lead with 63 laps remaining, which moved Dixon into the lead ahead of VeeKay, Daly, Sato, Robb, Kirkwood, Lundgaard and Carpenter as McLaughlin led a large group of competitors who recently pitted, among which included Rossi, Palou, Newgarden and Ferrucci. During the next two laps, Rossi navigated past McLaughlin and Palou to move into 10th place while scored the first competitor who recently pitted.

    With less than 60 laps remaining, Dixon pitted under green as Daly cycled into the lead. Daly would then pit with nearly 55 laps remaining, which enabled Robb to assume the lead ahead of Lundgaard and O’Ward while Dixon and Daly trailed by more than 35 seconds in the top five.

    Then with 54 laps remaining, the caution flew after Power, who was racing within the top 20 and battling Rasmussen, slipped sideways and spun backwards into the outside wall in Turn 1, which he slapped and destroyed the right side of his No. 12 Verizon Dallara-Chevrolet.

    Down to the final 45 laps of the event, Dixon briefly led the field back to green flag racing conditions before he was placed in the middle of an Arrow McLaren sandwich through the frontstretch as Rossi overtook both teammate O’Ward and Dixon into the lead. Behind, Newgarden, who restarted eighth, rocketed his way up to fourth place as he was ahead of Palou, VeeKay, McLaughlin and Daly as Rossi retained the lead. During the following lap, teammate O’Ward overtook Rossi to assume the lead with Dixon retaining third. With McLaughlin mired in seventh, Rossi and O’Ward traded spots for a second time through the frontstretch as the former reassumed the lead. O’Ward and Rossi swapped positions for a third time through the frontstretch with 42 laps remaining as Rossi returned to the lead.

    With 35 laps remaining, Rossi, who kept swapping the lead with his Arrow McLaren teammate O’Ward through the frontstretch, reassumed the lead while third-place Dixon trailed by within seven-tenths of a second. Behind, Newgarden and Palou trailed in the top five ahead of McLaughlin while VeeKay, Daly, Ferrucci and Kirkwood were scored in the top 10.

    Three laps later, however, Rossi surrendered his back-and-forth trade for the lead with teammate O’Ward to pit his No. 7 Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet under green. Another two laps later, Dixon made his move beneath O’Ward to move his No. 9 PNC Bank/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda into the lead as Sato and Robb peeled off the track to pit under green. Newgarden, McLaughlin and Daly would pit during the next lap before Dixon, Canapino, O’Ward, Castroneves and Lundgaard pitted with 38 laps remaining. Amid the pit stops, Dixon emerged ahead of Newgarden, Rossi and O’Ward while Kirkwood, who was among nine front-runners who has yet to pit, was leading.

    With 25 laps remaining, Dixon overtook Newgarden through the frontstretch to reclaim the top spot as the competitor who recently pitted despite being scored in seventh place. By then, Kirkwood was still leading ahead of Ilott, Rahal, Carpenter, Larson and Simpson, all of whom have yet to pit under green. Dixon and Newgarden would spend the next five laps gaining drafts and swapping spots over one another through the frontstretch as they moved up the leaderboard into fourth and fifth. Meanwhile, Larson, who cycled into the lead a lap earlier after Ed Carpenter pitted, was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Simpson with 20 laps remaining as Newgarden, Rossi and Dixon moved up into the top five.

    Four laps later, Larson surrendered the lead to pit under green. Once Simpson pitted during the next lap, Newgarden cycled into the lead as he held a three-tenths of a second advantage over a hard-charging Rossi, with Dixon and O’Ward also trailing by within seven-tenths of a second. Rossi would then overtake Newgarden from the outside lane through the frontstretch to lead with 13 laps remaining. Behind, O’Ward overtook Dixon for third place while Rossi was trying to muscle away with the lead.

    Down to the final 12 laps of the event, Newgarden rocketed past Rossi from the inside lane through the frontstretch to reassume the lead while O’Ward was trying to close in on teammate Rossi for the runner-up spot. With Dixon trailing in fourth place by more than a second and Rossi trying to close back towards Newgarden’s rear bumper, Newgarden continued to lead by two-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining.

    With nine laps remaining, Rossi gained another draft on Newgarden to reassume the lead through the frontstretch. As Rossi led by three-tenths of a second during the next lap, O’Ward was trying to fend off Dixon for third place while Kirkwood, Palou and McLaughlin trailed from fifth to seventh, respectively.

    Then with seven laps remaining, Newgarden reclaimed the lead while O’Ward seized an opportunity to rocket past teammate Rossi through the frontstretch as he assumed the runner-up spot. O’Ward then made his move beneath Newgarden to assume the lead through the frontstretch with five laps remaining before Newgarden reassumed the top spot during the proceeding lap. Newgarden would proceed to retain the lead by a narrow margin over O’Ward during the next two laps.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, O’Ward made his move to the outside lane and overtook Newgarden to assume the lead, where he retained it through the first two turns. Then while trying to muscle away as he swerved his car to the left and right to not give Newgarden any drafting momentum, the latter was able to gain enough momentum to make a bold move to the outside lane entering Turn 3 and zip by O’Ward. With the lead back within his grasp and O’Ward losing ground, Newgarden was able to muscle away with the lead for two final turns and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim his second consecutive checkered flag at the Greatest Spectacle of Racing in Indianapolis, Indiana.

    With the victory, Newgarden became the 21st competitor overall to win the Indianapolis 500 multiple times and the first to win the event in back-to-back seasons since Helio Castroneves made the last accomplishment between 2001 and 2002. The 2024 Indy 500 victory marks Newgarden’s 30th of his NTT IndyCar Series career and the first of the season, which made him the fourth winner through the season’s first five events on the schedule.

    The victory served as a redemptive moment for Newgarden and his No. 2 Team Penske team as they were disqualified from winning the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg due to violating rules involving their use of the push-to-pass system. The disqualification also affected their teammate Will Power, who initially finished third in the event. Earlier this month, Team Penske suspended several key members from their organization, including managing director Ron Ruzewski and team president Tim Cindric.

    “[The critics] can say whatever they want after this point. I don’t care anymore,” Newgarden said on the frontstretch on NBC. “I’m just so proud of the team. They crushed it. They came here with the fastest cars. We worked our tails off, Team Chevy brought it. [Race engineer] Luke [Mason], Tim [Cindric], they’re not here today, but they’re a huge part of this. I’m just so proud of everybody for Team Penske. That’s the way I wanted to win the [race] right there.”

    “I knew we could win this race again and [it was] just a matter of getting it right,” Newgarden added in Victory Lane. “There’s no better way to win a race than that. I got to give it up to Pato [O’Ward] as well. He’s an incredibly clean driver. It takes two people to make that work, so it’s not just a good pass. It’s also someone that you’re working with that’s incredible clean. He could’ve easily won this race too, but it just fell our way. I just went for it. I said, ‘Alright, the car’s good enough. You guys have done your job Let me drive to the front.’ [The team] backed me the entire way. You can’t win this race without a great car. It’s the best car in the field, so hats off to the team. It’s always a team win. Today epitomizes the team victory. It’s a team win on the pole, it’s a team win today. I’m thankful for Roger Penske. He’s stood by me. He’s the man, he’s a legend. There’s no one that I’ve ever met that cares more about the fan and the experience than that man. I promise you, he cares so much about this place and I’m thankful for him.”

    In addition, Newgarden, who achieved his second Indy 500 victory following a last-lap pass for a second consecutive season after overtaking Marcus Ericsson for the win a year ago, had the honors of bestowing the record-setting 20th Indianapolis 500 victory to team owner Roger Penske, who is also the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

    “It’s a dream come true,” Penske said. “You think about all these fans that were here today. [They] Waited five hours to see that race. Unbelievable finish. I never saw one car get ahead by a couple of seconds. For me, it’s a job we love to do. We love to win. I think this puts away a lot of the things we talked about who we are and where we are. We’re winners.”

    As Newgarden fought back tears of joy and relief in Victory Lane, O’Ward, who led 12 laps and was striving to become the first Mexican competitor to win the Indy 50, fought back tears of disappointment on pit road after settling in the runner-up spot in the 500 for a second time in three seasons.

    “It’s hard to put it into words,” O’Ward said. “I’m proud of the work that we did today. We recovered. We went back, we went forward, we went back. Some people were driving like maniacs. We had so many near race-enders and [we were] just so close again. So close. I put that car through things I never thought it was going to be able to do. Somehow I came out the other side of the corner. It’s just so painful when you put so much into it and [we were] two corners short. [This track] owes me nothing. I much rather have finished the race rather than compared to last year, but it’s always a heartbreak whenever you’re just so close, especially when it’s not the first time. You just don’t know how many opportunities like that you have.”

    Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner, came home in third place followed by Alexander Rossi, both of whom led 12 laps apiece, while Alex Palou, the 2024 Sonsio Grand Prix winner and two-time series champion, finished fifth.

    “[The finish] was like a win, obviously,” Dixon said. “We had some ups and downs  through the race. We definitely just didn’t have the speed today, unfortunately. It was just one of those days where I feel like everybody gave each other pretty good room. We had some incidents here and there, but it was wild to watch. Obviously at the end there, when you’re going for third place, you see the first two mixing it up. You hope they’re going to crash into each other, unfortunately, but that’s just the way it goes.”

    “The fuel number I had to hit, I couldn’t lead.” Rossi added. “Just an amazing effort for the whole Arrow McLaren organization and Team Chevy. It was an amazing month. It’s really hard when you come away from this event not thinking you should’ve changed anything and still, the result isn’t there. I look back and there’s nothing to this month that I would’ve done any differently. The car was great. When you can’t win with that, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

    “I didn’t have a perfect day, but almost,” Palou added. “Strategy wasn’t the best in our case, but [it] still was good. We tried. We gave everything we had. [We] Didn’t have the ultimate speed today and had fun passing some cars. Pretty happy to finish P5. Not the best result, obviously here, but it was a good race.”

    Pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin, Kyle Kirkwood, Santino Ferrucci, Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly completed the top 10 in the final running order.

    Notably, Kyle Larson finished 18th in both his first career start in the NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500. In addition, Takuma Sato finished 14th ahead of Graham Rahal, Sting Ray Robb, who led 23 laps as part of his strategic moves, finished 16th ahead of Ed Carpenter and Helio Castroneves ended up 20th,

    There were 52 lead changes for 18 different leaders. The event featured eight cautions for 47 laps. In addition, 21 of 33 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the fifth event of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, Alex Palou leads the championship standings by 20 points over Scott Dixon, 26 over Will Power, 49 over both Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta, 52 over Scott McLaughlin and 61 over Josef Newgarden.

    Results.

    1. Josef Newgarden, 26 laps led

    2. Pato O’Ward, 12 laps led

    3. Scott Dixon, 12 laps led

    4. Alexander Rossi, 12 laps led

    5. Alex Palou, one lap led

    6. Scott McLaughlin, 64 laps led

    7. Kyle Kirkwood, two laps led

    8. Santino Ferrucci, eight laps led

    9. Rinus VeeKay, eight laps led

    10. Conor Daly, 22 laps led

    11. Callum Ilott, one lap led

    12. Christian Rasmussen, one lap led

    13. Christian Lundgaard, four laps led

    14. Takuma Sato

    15. Graham Rahal, one lap led

    16. Sting Ray Robb, 23 laps led

    17. Ed Carpenter, three laps led

    18. Kyle Larson, four laps led

    19. Romain Grosjean

    20. Helio Castroneves

    21. Kyffin Simpson, three laps led

    22. Agustin Canapino, one lap down

    23. Colton Herta – OUT, Contact

    24. Will Power – OUT, Contact

    25. Marco Andretti – OUT, Contact

    26. Ryan Hunter-Reay – OUT, Contact

    27. Felix Rosenqvist – OUT, Mechanical

    28. Linus Lundqvist – OUT, Contact

    29. Katherine Legge – OUT, Mechanical

    30. Marcus Armstrong – OUT, Mechanical

    31. Tom Blomqvist – OUT, Contact

    32. Marcus Ericsson – OUT, Contact

    33. Pietro Fittipaldi – OUT, Contact

    Next on the 2024 NTT INDYCAR Series schedule is the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at the Streets of Detroit, Michigan. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 2, and air at noon ET on USA Network.

  • Larson finishes 18th in first Indy 500 attempt; misses 2024 Coca-Cola 600

    Larson finishes 18th in first Indy 500 attempt; misses 2024 Coca-Cola 600

    Kyle Larson capped off an eventful day and month of motorsports competition leading up to Memorial Day weekend on a bittersweet note that resulted with his plans of performing ‘Double Duty’ between the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 being partially spoiled due to on-track precipitation and resulting with him campaigning in the former over the latter.

    The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, commenced his planned ‘Double Duty’ task by opting to remain at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to compete in this year’s 108th running of the Indy 500 with Arrow McLaren on Sunday, May 26, despite the event being delayed by four hours due to a heavy stream of precipitation.

    Qualifying in fifth place during last Sunday’s qualifying session with a four-lap average-qualifying speed of 232.846 mph in two mintutes, 34.6083 seconds, Larson, who started the main event on the second row, dropped one spot on the track amid a multi-car wreck on the opening lap that knocked Pietro Fittipaldi, Tom Blomqvist and the 2022 Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson out of contention.

    Then during the next restart period on the ninth lap, Larson endured a brief scary moment when he fell off the pace after missing a gear and getting his car to launch at the start. Larson’s gearing issues resulted with the Californian dropping to 14th place as he made wheel-to-wheel contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay through the frontstretch. Amid the contact, Larson was able to keep his No. 17 HendrickCars.com/Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet pointing straight as he remained within 14th place in the early stages.

    After gaining two spots on pit road following his first INDYCAR pit service amid another caution period for Katherine Legge having a mechanical issue, Larson would remain in the top 15, starting through the event’s next restart period on Lap 26.

    Over the course of the event, Larson, who would carve his way back into the top 10 on the track, was scored in ninth place by the Lap 50 mark before he moved up to seventh place at the halfway mark on Lap 100. Through a steady pace on the track and stellar pit stops from his team, Larson would run as high as fourth place on the track.

    Then during a late cycle of green flag pit stops with 69 laps remaining, Larson’s strong run was foiled after he smoked his front tires while trying to reduce his speed to enter pit road while running in the top five. Amid his pit service, Larson would be assessed a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road. After serving his pass-through penalty, Larson was mired back in 22nd place on the track.

    During the final round of green flag pit stops that commenced with nearly 30 laps remaining, Larson, who was on a different pit strategy compared to the leaders, would lead his first lap in the Indy 500 with 20 laps remaining. He would lead the next four laps before he surrendered the lead to pit for the final time under green with 16 laps remaining. Returning to the track, Larson would cross the finish line in 18th place, which made him the lowest-finishing Arrow McLaren competitor of the day while his teammates Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi and Callum Ilott finished second, fourth and 11th, respectively.

    “I would definitely love to be back next year,” Larson said on NBC. “I feel like I learned a lot throughout the race. [I] Felt like I did a really good job on the restarts and was able to learn a lot. Obviously, I smoked the left front [tire] or something into the green flag stop and killed our opportunity, so proud to finish, but pretty upset at myself. If I just could’ve executed a better race, you never know what could happen. Bummed at myself, but huge thank you to Arrow McLaren, Hendrick Motorsports, Hendrick Automotive Group, Rick Hendrick, Chevrolet, everybody that’s a part of this. We’ll go hop on a jet and see if I can get into the [Coca-Cola] 600 somehow.”

    By the time Larson arrived at the track from his helicopter, however, the event, which had started without Larson present, was under a caution period due to precipitation and eventually red-flagged on Lap 249 of 400. By then, Justin Allgaier, an Xfinity Series veteran for JR Motorsports who was selected to serve as Larson’s standby competitor, had piloted the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up to 13th place after Allgaier was forced to start at the rear of the field due to a driver change.

    Eventually, the event was made official by NASCAR due to the precipitation around the Charlotte Motor Speedway circuit, with Christopher Bell claiming the rain-shortened victory and Allgaier being credited for 13th place by both starting and finishing the event while Larson, who had planned to contest in 1,100 miles between the Indy 500 and the Coke 600, was unable to pilot his No. 5 entry for a lap.

    As a result, this season marks the first time where a competitor attempting the double during Memorial Day weekend ends up competing in one event over the other since Robby Gordon ended up only competing in the Indy 500, which was delayed by three hours and caused him to miss the Coke 600.

    By missing this year’s Coca-Cola 600, Larson, who snaps a 121-race starting streak, and Hendrick Motorsports have yet to submit a waiver request to NASCAR that would keep Larson eligible to make the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs. In addition, Larson, who came into the Coke 600 with a 30-point lead in the 2024 Cup Series regular-season standings, drops to third place in the standings, but trails points leader Denny Hamlin by six points and runner-up Martin Truex Jr. by one.

    With his 2024 Indianapolis 500 start complete, Larson shifts his focus back to his full-time Cup Series role for the upcoming series’ event at Gateway’s World Wide Technology Raceway for the Enjoy Illinois 300. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 2, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Brandon Jones nabs first top-five finish of 2024 with runner-up result at Charlotte

    Brandon Jones nabs first top-five finish of 2024 with runner-up result at Charlotte

    Brandon Jones capped off a roller coaster afternoon that resulted in him rallying from early brake issues that dropped him to the rear of the field to post a strong runner-up result in the BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 25, despite falling short of the victory to Chase Elliott

    The 27-year-old Jones from Atlanta, Georgia, commenced his run in NASCAR’s backyard at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 10th place. He would then methodically navigate his way into the top five as he was up into fifth place by the Lap 15. Running as high as fourth place during the proceeding laps, Jones lost two spots on pit road during the first caution period on Lap 32 but would make up the two spots on the track during the following restart period on Lap 36 as he would proceed to settle in fourth place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 45. By then, he had collected seven stage points.

    Lining up in fourth place for the start of the second stage period on Lap 52, Jones would slowly slip out of both the top five and top 10 on the track. Being scored in 19th place by the Lap 70 mark, three laps before Parker Kligerman drew a caution for spinning in Turn 4, Jones would pit even as pit road was closed following Kligerman’s incident to have a brake issue to his No. 9 Menards/CharBroil Chevrolet Camaro addressed. Amid multiple pit stops, the Atlanta native was able to continue and ended up in 25th place when the second stage period concluded on Lap 90.

    As the final stage period commenced with 103 laps remaining, Jones, who was still mired outside the top 20 but had a fast car to march back to the front, would return to the top 20 mark with 93 laps remaining. After returning to the top-10 mark with 77 laps remaining, he cycled his way up to fourth place with nearly 40 laps remaining and following a late round of green flag pit stops. Through three additional caution periods and restarts, where top names including series-points leader Austin Hill, Cole Custer and Jones’ teammate Justin Allgaier were being eliminated due to late-race incidents, Jones, who restarted in the second row with 12 laps remaining, overtook Kyle Busch to move into second place as he set his sights on Chase Elliott for the lead.

    Trailing Elliott by a second with 10 laps remaining, Jones began to methodically shave off Elliott’s steady advantage for the proceeding laps through the turns and straightaways as he trailed Elliott by seven-tenths of a second with five laps remaining. Despite scraping the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 with three laps remaining, he kept his foot on the throttle and still had Elliott close within his sights. Despite narrowing the gap to four-tenths of a second on the final lap, Jones, who tried to mount a final lap charge on Elliott, ran out of time to narrow the gap even closer as he crossed the finish line half a second behind in the runner-up spot behind race winner Elliott.

    Amid the disappointment of coming up one spot short of his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in two years, Jones emerged with a smile across his face and as the highest-finishing JR Motorsports competitor on the track as he finished ahead of teammates Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer, both of whom capped off strong runs in third and fourth place, respectively.

    “Talk about an up-and-down day and coming back from [the brake issues],” Jones said on FS1. “That was really fun to come from the back to the front, I think, three or four times right there. Really, really fast Camaro right there. We probably needed some track position. I’d like to have been a little bit better on that restart to take advantage of just getting some clean air on the nose. I think that’s really what [Elliott] just had at the end.”

    Jones’ runner-up result marks the 10th time he has finished in second place in an Xfinity event as he achieved his first top-five result of the 2024 season and his first since finishing second behind John Hunter Nemechek at Kansas Speedway last September. Jones’ previous best season result was seventh at Phoenix Raceway in March.

    With the result, Jones, who has now garnered five top-10 results through the first 12 events of the 2024 Xfinity Series schedule and came into the event in 11th place in the driver’s standings, gained one position to 10th place as he trails the regular-season points leader Austin Hill by 150 points. The good news for Jones is that he is 15 points above the top-12 cutline to make the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs with 14 regular-season events remaining on the schedule until the 2024 Xfinity Playoffs commence.

    Currently campaigning in his second season driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports, Jones has yet to achieve his first victory or his first Playoff berth as a JRM competitor. He last achieved both during the 2022 season while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, with a victory at Martinsville Speedway in April 2022.

    “All in all, a really, really fun day,” Jones added. “I love these hot slick races you gotta prepare for. Wished we could’ve won, but we’re really, really close right now. This team’s kind of have some up and downs all year. We just continue to fight. Looking forward to the rest of the races here. We’re gonna get this thing in the Playoffs soon.”

    Brandon Jones’ next start of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ third annual event to Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon, for the Pacific Office Automation 147. The event is scheduled for next Saturday, June 1, and will air at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Nick Sanchez wins 700th Truck Series event at Charlotte; snags first Triple Truck Challenge bonus

    Nick Sanchez wins 700th Truck Series event at Charlotte; snags first Triple Truck Challenge bonus

    On a night where the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division achieved a milestone feat in series’ history, Nick Sanchez has 50,000 reasons to celebrate after storming to a late victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, May 24.

    The 2022 ARCA Menards Series champion from Miami, Florida, led the final nine of 134 scheduled laps in an event where he started 16th and spent the first half of the event mired outside the top 10 and trying to manage his way to the front. Initially poised for a top-10 run when the event was placed in a late caution period with 15 laps remaining, Sanchez was one of multiple competitors who opted to pit for fresh tires. Then after restarting in the fourth lane with nine laps remaining, Sanchez quickly bolted his way to the front as he overtook Christian Eckes for the lead through the frontstretch. From there, he fended off a late charge from Corey Heim to score his second Truck Series career victory in the series’ 700th event in history and cash in the first of three $50,000 bonuses as part of this year’s Triple Truck Challenge.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Tanner Gray notched his first Truck Series pole position of the 2024 season and the second of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 178.241 mph in 30.296 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Corey Heim, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 177.795 mph in 30.372 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Lawless Alan, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Christian Eckes and Tyler Ankrum dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Tanner Gray gained the early advantage from the inside lane as he muscled his No. 15 Dead on Tools Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead from teammate Corey Heim through Turns 1 and 2. As the field behind jostled for early spots, Gray proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of a side-by-side battle between Heim and Ty Majeski while Rajah Caruth, rookie Layne Riggs, Jack Wood and Chase Purdy followed suit.

    Three laps later, Heim zipped his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro past teammate Tanner Gray to assume the lead from the backstretch through Turns 3 and 4. Heim would proceed to lead by nearly three-tenths of a second over Gray as Majeski, Caruth and Riggs followed suit in the top five through the first five scheduled laps. Behind, Wood retained sixth ahead of Purdy as Connor Mosack, Kaden Honeycutt and Ben Rhodes trailed in the top 10.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Heim was leading by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Tanner Gray followed by Majeski, Caruth and Riggs while Honeycutt, Purdy, Mosack, Wood and Rhodes continued to race in the top 10. Behind, Dean Thompson occupied 11th place ahead of Taylor Gray, Bayley Currey, Stewart Friesen and Ty Dillon while Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger, Matt Mills, Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez followed suit in the top 20. Notably, Brett Moffitt was in 22nd, Tyler Ankrum was mired in 25th ahead of Connor Jones and Jeffrey Earnhardt was down in 34th.   

    Ten laps later, Heim extended his advantage to more than three seconds over teammate Tanner Gray as Majeski, Caruth and Honeycutt were in the top five. Behind, Riggs dropped to sixth while Purdy, Rhodes, Thompson and Mosack were in the top 10.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Heim, winner of last weekend’s Truck Series event at North Wilkesboro Speedway, captured his fifth stage victory of the 2024 season. Honeycutt, who overtook Tanner Gray for the runner-up spot three laps earlier, settled in second ahead of Gray, Caruth and Majeski while Riggs, Purdy, Thompson, Rhodes and Mosack were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the field led by Heim pitted for a first round of service. Following the pit stops, Tanner Gray reassumed the lead after exiting first ahead of Heim while Honeycutt, Purdy, Majeski, Caruth, Riggs, Taylor Gray, Thompson and Mosack followed suit. During the pit stop sequence, Caruth was forced into the grass amid a side-by-side contact with Majeski, who was trying to avoid Riggs as Riggs was exiting his pit stall. In addition, Stewart Friesen returned to pit road for his first service of the night after missing his pit stall during the first sequence with the field. Soon after, Caruth also pitted again to address a tire rub from the damage with Majeski’s contact.

    The second stage period started on Lap 37 as teammates Tanner Gray and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Gray and Heim battled dead even in front of two stacked lanes while Honeycutt, who restarted in the second lane, made a move to the outside lane in an attempted three-wide battle towards the front. With the field behind also fanning out to nearly three lanes through the backstretch, Tanner Gray barely managed to muscle ahead of Heim to retain the lead while returning back to the frontstretch. Behind, a series of battles ensued as Purdy and Majeski battled for third place, Thompson battled Honeycutt for fifth place, Riggs and Mosack battled for fifth place and Taylor Gray battled Jack Wood for 10th place.

    On Lap 40, Heim, who kept teammate Tanner Gray within close distance over the previous four laps, drew his Toyota alongside Gray’s through Turns 3 and 4 and back to the frontstretch. Heim would then muscle ahead of Gray from the inside lane and through Turns 1 and 2 as he reassumed the lead.

    At the Lap 45 mark, Heim was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Tanner Gray followed by Purdy, Majeski and Thompson while Riggs, Honeycutt, Mosack, Taylor Gray and Wood were in the top 10. Behind, Nick Sanchez trailed in 11th ahead of Daniel Dye, Dillon, Rhodes and Grant Enfinger while Caruth, Matt Mills, Eckes, Moffitt and Crafton were in the top 20.

    By Lap 50, Heim slightly extended his advantage as he was leading by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Gray followed by Purdy, Thompson and Majeski while Honeycutt, Riggs, Mosack, Gray and Sanchez trailed in the top 10.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Heim swept both stage periods of the night while also claiming his sixth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Tanner Gray settled in second ahead of Purdy, Honeycutt and Thompson while Majeski, Riggs, Mosack, Sanchez and Daniel Dye were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, the field led by Heim returned to pit road for another round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Heim retained the lead after exiting first ahead of Tanner Gray, Majeski, Mosack and Purdy as Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Riggs, Thompson and Honeycutt followed suit in top 10. Amid the pit stops, however, Honeycutt was penalized for dragging his gas can out of his pit stall.

    Towards the halfway mark of the event, the final stage commenced as teammates Heim and Tanner Gray occupied the front row once again. As Heim retained the lead, the caution quickly returned for a multi-truck wreck that erupted just past the backstretch when contact from Moffitt got Ankrum loose as he spun his No. 18 LiUNA! Chevrolet Silverado RST below the apron in Turn 3 before his truck went right back towards the outside wall and was T-boned on the right side by Thad Moffitt as Keith McGee and Jeffrey Earnhardt were also involved while trying to avoid the wreckage.

    During the following restart with 58 laps remaining. Heim gained the advantage from the inside lane and muscled ahead to retain the lead while Connor Mosack challenged Tanner Gray for the runner-up spot. As Gray and Mosack continued to battle for second in front of Taylor Gray, Majeski and Purdy, Heim led the field back to the frontstretch.

    Four laps later, however, the caution returned after Matt Crafton lost a tire and slapped his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 hard against the outside wall in Turn 3. During the caution period, the following names that included Purdy, Mason Massey, Stefan Parsons, Friesen, Connor Jones, Boyd, Eckes and Currey remained on the track while the rest led by Heim pitted. During the pit stops, Heim’s dominant run hit a braking zone after a slow pit stop due to a broken jack while his No. 11 team was trying to change the right-side tires plummeted to 28th place.

    As the event restarted with 47 laps remaining, Purdy muscled ahead with a slight advantage over Eckes before Eckes made his move beneath Purdy and assumed the lead in his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST exiting the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4. As Eckes led Purdy, Stefan Parsons was in third place as he was racing in front of Connor Jones, Stewart Friesen and Ben Rhodes while Grant Enfinger was in seventh. With more battles ensuing within the field, Eckes, who was dealing with voltage issues earlier in the race, retained the lead with 45 laps remaining.

    With 40 laps remaining, Eckes was leading by nearly a second over Purdy as they were being followed by Parsons, Friesen, Rhodes, Honeycutt and Sanchez. Meanwhile, Heim, who restarted 27th following his pit stop miscue, had muscled his way all the way up to eighth place while Jones and Moffitt trailed in the top 10 ahead of Majeski, Caruth, Enfinger, Dillon and Mosack.

    Ten laps later, Eckes retained the lead by nearly seven-tenths of a second over Purdy while Parsons, Honeycutt and Friesen were scored in the top five. Behind, Heim was in sixth place and trailing the lead by more than three seconds while Sanchez, Rhodes, Moffitt and Majeski were in the top 10. By then, Tanner Gray was mired in 12th behind Caruth, Thompson was back in 16th behind Dillon and Mosack was battling Matt Mills for 17th along with Taylor Gray and Dye.

    Another three laps later, the battle for the lead ignited as Purdy made a move beneath Eckes for the lead in Turn 1. Despite assuming the top spot, however, Purdy went wide, which allowed Eckes to pull a crossover move entering the backstretch as both he and Purdy battled dead even for the lead through Turns 3 and 4. Then as Eckes slid in front of Purdy entering the frontstretch, Purdy pulled a crossover move on Eckes through the frontstretch as they dueled for the lead again. Purdy then slid up the track in Turn 1 for a second time, which allowed Eckes to muscle ahead and maintain a reasonable advantage over a hard-charging Purdy. Amid the battle between Eckes and Purdy, third-place Honeycutt started to close in in his No. 45 R.C.D. Shoe Company Chevrolet Silverado RST while Heim was in fifth place and trailing the lead by more than two seconds.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Eckes, who was beginning to be mired in lapped traffic, retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Purdy while Honeycutt made it a three-truck battle for the lead as he trailed by half a second. Behind, Heim trailed by more than three seconds in fourth place while Parsons was in fifth.

    Four laps later, Purdy scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, which stalled his late momentum and his challenge on Eckes for the lead. Despite scraping the wall, Purdy remained on the track, but he would lose the runner-up spot to Honeycutt as Eckes continued to lead. A lap later, however, Purdy’s strong run went sour after he scrubbed the outside wall for a second time through Turns 1 and 2, which was enough for the event to be placed in a late caution period as Purdy, who lost a tire in the process, nursed his damaged No. 77 Bama Buggies Chevrolet Silverado RST back to pit road. The caution also erased Eckes’ six-second advantage over Honeycutt as Heim was up to third place.

    During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Honeycutt and Heim pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Honeycutt and Heim both lost a bevy of spots after both endured slow pit services. For Honeycut, a broken air gun resulted in his tire changer having issues changing the right-rear tire. For Heim, the issue stemmed from his rear tire changer struggling to get the lug nuts tightened on the left-rear tire as Heim started to spin his tires, which left his No. 11 team uncertain if the lug nuts on the truck were tightened as Heim lined up in 11th place.

    Down to the final nine laps, the event restarted under green as Eckes and Parsons occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Eckes rocketed away with the lead followed by Caruth and Sanchez while Parsons was struggling to launch. Then through the frontstretch to complete the following lap, Sanchez, who pitted during the latest caution period and passed Caruth for the runner-up spot, overtook Eckes for the lead as Heim, who was charging to the front for a second time since the restart, bolted past Eckes through Turns 3 and 4 to move into third place. Heim would then overtake Friesen for the runner-up spot during the following lap as he set his sights on Sanchez for the lead and potential victory.

    With five laps remaining, Sanchez maintained the lead by nearly three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Heim while Friesen trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second. As the field behind jostled for late spots, pole-sitter Tanner Gray spun sideways towards the apron in Turns 1 and 2, but the event remained under green flag conditions as Heim was trying to gain a run on Sanchez for the lead.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Sanchez, who had managed to keep his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST in front of Heim’s Toyota, remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Heim. Through Turns 1 and 2, Heim ran his truck close towards the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 in an effort to gain a run, but Sanchez maintained his advantage through the backstretch. With Heim unable to mount a final lap rally for two final turns, Sanchez was able to cycle back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag to win by half a second over Heim.

    With the victory, Sanchez, who notched his first career win at Daytona International Speedway in February, became the 82nd competitor overall to achieve multiple victories in the Truck Series and the 13th to win a Truck event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    With Sanchez winning the series’ 700th event in recorded history, the Miami native joins an exclusive club of competitors to win during a milestone event for the series. Ron Hornaday Jr., a four-time champion of the series, won the 100th recorded Truck Series event in history at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington, in 1999 before winning the 300th series event at Dover Motor Speedway eight years later. Ted Musgrave, the 2005 champion, won the series’ 200th race at Memphis Motorsports Park in 2003, Clint Bowyer won the series’ 400th event at Kansas Speedway in 2011 and Austin Dillon won the series’ 500th event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2015. Recently, Kyle Busch won the series’ 600th event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2020.

    As an added bonus, Sanchez, who recorded the 284th Truck victory for the Chevrolet nameplate and the second overall for Rev Racing, claimed the first of three Triple Truck Challenge bonuses and a $50,000 check.  

    Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s awesome,” Sanchez said on FS1. “What can I say more about this team? We started off bad. We knew it. [We] Did not let it affect us. We went to work. We put ourselves in position when it mattered most. It’s great to get [win] number two. [I’ll] Probably put the [$50,000 bonus] in the savings. I totally forgot about that, so yeah, added bonus. Sweet.”

    Sanchez’s Charlotte victory was the most meaningful for Chris Showalter, the truck chief for both Sanchez and Rev Racing as he has been working through all 700 recorded events in the Truck Series since the first event at Phoenix Raceway in February 1995.

    “[This race] just probably popped to number one [favorite],” Showalter, who fought tears of joy, said. “It’s a long battle. This is about people and I love this group of people. I’ll do anything for this group of people.”

    Heim, who led a race-high 72 laps and swept both stages, settled in second place for his seventh top-three result of the 2024 season as he fell short of winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway for a second consecutive season.

    “Obviously, an eventful day for us,” Heim said. “[I] Just felt like it got away from us on separate occasions there. We had control of the race and as soon as you don’t, you’re just victim to the leader and they can control the air. Nick [Sanchez] did a great job at just blocking my air the best he could. I felt like we had the best truck by a long shot. When you’re behind the leader, you can’t do much, but I feel like we were able to get through traffic so well. Glad I could make it entertaining at least, but it doesn’t really matter for us. We finished second.”

    Shortly after, however, Heim was disqualified from the runner-up result due to his truck having three lug nuts not safely secured following his recent pit service. As a result, Stewart Friesen, who missed his pit stall and was running in the middle of the pack earlier in the day, was promoted to second place as Grant Enfinger, Matt Mills and Ben Rhodes ended up in the top five.

    Finishing in the top 10 were Jake Garcia, Kaden Honeycutt, Connor Mosack, Dean Thompson and Christian Eckes. Notably, Chase Purdy ended up 13th behind Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth fell back to 16th behind Brett Moffitt, pole-sitter Tanner Gray ended up 17th, Ty Majeski slid to 23rd and Stefan Parsons ended up 25th.

    There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 31 laps.

    Following the 11th event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Christian Eckes leads the regular-season standings by 30 points over Corey Heim, 50 over Nick Sanchez, 64 over Ty Majeski and 99 over Taylor Gray.

    Results.

    1. Nick Sanchez, nine laps led

    2. Stewart Friesen

    3. Grant Enfinger

    4. Matt Mills

    5. Ben Rhodes

    6. Jake Garcia

    7. Kaden Honeycutt

    8. Connor Mosack

    9. Dean Thompson

    10. Christian Eckes, 37 laps led

    11. Connor Jones

    12. Taylor Gray

    13. Chase Purdy, five laps led

    14. Bret Holmes

    15. Brett Moffitt

    16. Rajah Caruth

    17. Tanner Gray, 11 laps led

    18. Mason Massey

    19. Daniel Dye

    20. Spencer Boyd

    21. Jack Wood

    22. Timmy Hill

    23. Ty Majeski

    24. Ty Dillon

    25. Stefan Parsons

    26. Bayley Currey

    27. Mason Maggio

    28. Layne Riggs, one lap down

    29. Memphis Villarreal, three laps down

    30. Lawless Alan – OUT, Brakes

    31. Matt Crafton, 15 laps down

    32. Tyler Ankrum – OUT, Accident

    33. Thad Moffitt – OUT, Accident

    34. Keigh McGee – OUT, Accident

    35. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident

    36. Corey Heim – Disqualified 72 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the series’ annual visit to Gateway’s World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, for the Toyota 200. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, June 1, and air at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Chase Elliott to make 300th Cup career start in Coca-Cola 600

    Chase Elliott to make 300th Cup career start in Coca-Cola 600

    Competing in his ninth full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Chase Elliott is poised to achieve a milestone start. By taking the green flag in this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will make his 300th career start in NASCAR’s premier series. 

    A native of Dawsonville, Georgia, and the son of the 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott, Chase Elliott made his inaugural presence in the Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway in late March 2015. By then, he was coming off his first full-time campaign in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports, where he achieved the series’ championship, and was campaigning in the series for a second season to defend his title. He had also been named the driver of Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 Chevrolet entry for the 2016 Cup season, where he would be replacing four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon as Gordon was set to retire following the 2015 season. Driving the No. 25 Chevrolet SS for Hendrick Motorsports during his Cup debut at Martinsville, Elliott started 27th and finished 38th after making contact with Brett Moffitt just past a Lap 60 restart, which damaged his entry’s front and rear ends along with the power steering. He would make his second start at Richmond Raceway three races later, where he would notch a season-best 16th place. His final three starts of the season occurred at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July and at Darlington Raceway in September, where he would finish 18th, 18th and 41st, respectively. 

    Assuming the steering wheel of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in 2016, Elliott made early headlines by becoming the youngest pole-sitter of the Daytona 500 at age 20 and notching his first Cup career pole. Despite leading three laps, his bid for his first 500 victory came to an early end after he spun entering the frontstretch on Lap 18 and plowed through the tri-oval grass, which damaged the front end of the No. 24 Chevrolet and resulted with Elliott settling in 37th place. He would rebound during the following event at Atlanta Motor Speedway by achieving his first top-10 career result with an eighth-place finish before collecting two additional top-10 results during his next three starts. Beginning at Texas Motor Speedway in April, Elliott went on a nine-race stretch of finishing no lower than 12th as he accumulated eight top-10 results, a second career pole at Talladega Superspeedway in May, a third-place run at Dover Motor Speedway in May a fourth-place run at Pocono Raceway after leading a race-high 51 laps and a career-best runner-up finish at Michigan International Speedway in June. He also competed in his first All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May by virtue of achieving the Fan Vote title, where he ended up sixth. Despite finishing no higher than 15th twice during his next eight events, Elliott concluded the regular-season stretch by finishing second, 10th and 19th, respectively, in the final three events, which were enough for him to qualify for his first appearance in the Cup Series Playoffs.

    During the 2016 Playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway, Elliott led 75 laps and was in position of achieving his first Cup victory until a late caution period and an overtime shootout relegated Elliott to third place in the final running order. By finishing 13th and third during the following two Playoff events, he was able to transfer from the Round of 16 to 12. With respective finishes of 33rd, 31st and 12th throughout the Round of 12, however, Elliott was eliminated from title contention. Nonetheless, he capped off his rookie Cup campaign by notching four consecutive top-12 results during the final four events of the season before finishing in 10th place in the final standings and locking up the Rookie-of-the-Year title. Despite going winless in his rookie Cup season, Elliott notched his first two career poles, 10 top-five results, 17 top-10 results, 358 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.6. 

    In a similar fashion to his rookie season, Elliott commenced his sophomore Cup season by notching his second consecutive Daytona 500 pole position and placing HMS’ No. 24 entry on the pole for the 500 for a third consecutive season. He would proceed to win the first Daytona Duel event and become the first competitor to win both a Daytona 500 pole and Duel event in the same season since Dale Earnhardt made the last accomplishment in 1996. During the 500, he led 39 laps and was leading in the closing laps until he started to run out of fuel with three laps remaining and drifted back to 14th place in the final running order. He would rally by notching a runner-up result at Michigan in June along with a total of six top-five results and 14 top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, which were enough to make his second consecutive Playoffs based on points.

    After finishing in second place during the 2017 Playoff opener at Chicagoland and 11th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, respectively, Elliott led a race-high 138 laps and was in position of achieving his first victory until he was overtaken by Kyle Busch amid lapped traffic and settling in the runner-up spot, though he managed to transfer from the Round of 16 to 12. After transferring into the Round of 8 amid respective finishes of second, 16th and fourth throughout the Round of 12, Elliott was in another position of winning his first Cup event at Martinsville Speedway in late October as he led 123 laps and fended off Brad Keselowski during a late-race restart with four laps remaining. Then while leading the event with three laps remaining, Elliott was hit and sent spinning into the Turn 3 outside wall by Denny Hamlin, which plummeted Elliott down to 27th place in the final running order and both competitors to exchange harsh words prior to entering pit road. Faced in a “must-win” situation to keep his title hopes alive for the season, he rallied by finishing eighth and second during the final two Round of 8 events, but the results were not enough for him to make the Championship 4 cutline. With a fifth-place finish in the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Elliott ended up in fifth place in the final standings. By then, he earned two additional top-five results from his previous season (12), four additional top-10 results (21), 560 laps led and a new average-finishing result of 12.0. 

    The 2018 Cup season marked Elliott’s third consecutive season driving for Hendrick Motorsports, but first piloting his father’s number 9 alongside his entry in the Cup circuit as Hendrick assigned the number 24 to newcomer William Byron. Despite winning the second Daytona Duel event and starting on the second row for the 60th running of the Daytona 500, he ended up in 33rd place after being involved in a multi-car wreck just past the halfway mark. Elliott would proceed to finish in the top 10 three times during his next seven starts before notching his eighth runner-up result of his career behind Kyle Busch at Richmond in April. Then after notching three additional top-five results and six top-10 results during his next 12 starts, Elliott scored his first elusive Cup Series career win in his 99th series start at Watkins Glen International after muscling away with the lead during a restart with 32 laps remaining and having enough fuel to fend off a late challenge from the reigning series’ champion Martin Truex Jr. By then, Elliott became the 16th different competitor to win while driving for Hendrick Motorsports as he also recorded the 250th Cup career victory for HMS.

    Nabbing three additional top-nine finishes in the final four regular-season events of the 2018 season while also surpassing 100 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series, Elliott commenced the Playoffs by finishing 36th, fourth and sixth, respectively, throughout the Round of 16, which enabled him to transfer into the Round of 12. Then during the Round of 12 opener at Dover Motor Speedway, he fended off Hamlin during an overtime shootout to score his second Cup career win and automatically race his way into the Round of 8. He would gain extra momentum two races by notching his third career victory at Kansas Speedway. Elliott’s title hopes, however, evaporated after finishing seventh, sixth and 23rd, respectively, throughout the Round of 8 as he proceeded to finish seventh at Homestead and sixth in the final standings. Amid a season where he notched his first three career victories, he matched his accumulated top-10 results from his previous season at 21 and achieved an average-finishing result of 12.3. 

    After notching a runner-up result at Martinsville Speedway in March and only a single additional top-10 result through nine events to commence the 2019 Cup Series season, Elliott notched his first victory of the season at Talladega Superspeedway after leading a race-high 45 laps and retaining the lead on the final lap prior to a multi-car wreck. He would proceed to finish in the top five four times during his next 11 starts before winning at Watkins Glen for a second consecutive season after leading a race-high 80 laps and fending off another late challenge from Truex. Concluding the regular-season stretch with three top-10 results in four races, Elliott finished fourth and 13th, respectively, during the Playoff’s first two events before claiming his third victory of the season at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in October while rallying from an early collision into the first turn’s wall, which enabled him to transfer into the Round of 12. Despite transferring into the Round of 12 by a mere margin, he missed the cutline to make the Championship 4 round for a third consecutive season after finishing no higher than 32nd throughout the Round of 8. With a 15th-place finish at Homestead, Elliott settled in 10th place in the final standings. Overall, he notched three victories, 11 top-five results, 15 top-10 results, 601 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.1. 

    The 2020 Cup Series season was a memorable season for Elliott, who rallied from finishing no higher than 17th during the first two events on the schedule by finishing in the top seven during his next three starts. Then after finishing 38th and second during his next two events, he notched his first victory of the season at Charlotte in May. He proceeded to win the All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in July and accumulate seven top-10 results during his next 14 points-paying events before winning the inaugural Cup event at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course in August. With two additional top-five results during the final three regular-season events, Elliott finished 20th, fifth and seventh, respectively, throughout the Round of 16, which were enough for him to transfer into the Round of 12.

    After winning for the third time of the 2020 season and second in a row at the Charlotte Roval in October to transfer into the Round of 8, Elliott then finished sixth and 20th during the Round of 8’s first two events before winning at Martinsville in November and racing his way into the Championship 4 round for the first time in his career. Then during the finale at Phoenix, Elliott, who started at the rear of the field, led a race-high 153 laps and beat title rivals Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to win both the finale and his first Cup Series championship. By then, Elliott became the 34th different competitor to win a championship in NASCAR’s premier series and the second-youngest champion in the series at age 24. In addition to delivering the 13th Cup championship for Hendrick Motorsports, Chase Elliott and his father Bill joined the Pettys and the Jarretts as the third father-son duo to win a Cup title. Elliott’s championship season occurred as the Georgian achieved career-high stats in victories (five), top fives (15), top 10s (22) and laps led, (1,247), with the driver also securing an average-finishing result of 11.7. 

    Entering the 2021 Cup Series season as the reigning champion, Elliott commenced the season by finishing in the runner-up spot during the 63rd running of the Daytona 500. He would accumulate four top-five results and six top-10 results during his next 12 starts until notching his first victory of the season in the inaugural, rain-shortened series’ event at Circuit of the Americas. Proceeding by finishing second in his 200th Cup career start in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte followed by another runner-up result at Sonoma Raceway in June, both behind teammate Kyle Larson, Elliott then finished no higher than 12th during his next three events until notching his second Cup victory of the season at Road America, where he led a race-high 24 laps. Concluding the regular-season stretch with five top-10 results in six events, Elliott notched four top-10 results in nine Playoff events, which were enough for him to transfer from the Round of 16 to the Championship 4 round for a second consecutive season. During the finale, however, Elliott finished in fifth place on the track and in fourth place in the final standings. Despite recording two victories, 15 top-five results, 21 top-10 results and 952 laps led throughout the 2021 season, he notched a career-best average-finishing result of 11.4. 

    Elliott commenced the 2022 Cup season by finishing in the top 10 six times through the first 10 events before winning for the first time of the season at Dover in May. Six races later, he would achieve a second Cup victory of the season at Nashville Superspeedway following a four-lap shootout before winning for the first time at his home track at Atlanta Motor Speedway in July after assuming the lead with two laps remaining and fending off a final lap challenge from Corey LaJoie. He would then be awarded a victory at Pocono in late July in an event where he finished third, but was promoted to first place after initial winner Denny Hamlin and initial runner-up finisher Kyle Busch were disqualified for failing the post-race inspection process. Finishing in the top five twice during the final five regular-season events, Elliott secured his fifth victory of the season at Talladega in October and three top-10 results throughout the Playoffs, which were enough for him to transfer from the Round of 16 to the Championship 4 round for a third consecutive season. During the finale at Phoenix, however, Elliott was turned by title rival Ross Chastain during a restart with 113 laps remaining as he hit the inside wall and was unable to regain competitive form as he ended up in 28th place on the track and in fourth place in the final standings for a second consecutive season. Overall, the 2022 Cup season marked Elliott’s second time notching a career-high five victories as he also accumulated a total of 12 top-five results, 20 top-10 results, three poles, 857 laps led and an average-finishing result of 12.5. 

    This past season marked Elliott’s difficult seasons to date that commenced with a 38th-place result in the 65th running of the Daytona 500 after being collected in a multi-car wreck just past the halfway mark. Despite finishing in second place during the following scheduled event at Auto Club Speedway, Elliott would then miss the next six events on the schedule after fracturing his tibia following a snowboarding accident in Colorado. Returning at Martinsville in April, he muscled through 500 miles to finish 10th before finishing 12th, 11th, seventh and third, respectively, during his next four starts. Then during the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May, Elliott was mired with another run-in with Denny Hamlin after Hamlin squeezed Elliott into the outside wall entering the frontstretch, which resulted with Elliott veering dead left and sending Hamlin head-on into the wall as Elliott would be suspended from competing in the following weekend’s event at World Wide Technology Raceway. Finishing fifth in his return to the track at Sonoma but needing a regular-season victory to make the Playoffs, Elliott would finish in the top five four times during his next 10 starts. The closet he came to winning was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August, where he finished in the runner-up spot and trailed race winner Michael McDowell by nine-tenths of a second. Despite finishing fourth during the regular-season finale at Daytona in August, Elliott missed the Playoffs for the first time in his career. He would finish in the top 10 five times throughout the Playoffs before settling in 17th place in the final driver’s standings. 

    Poised for a redemptive campaign in 2024, Elliott commenced the season by notching only a single top-10 result through the first eight events on the schedule. Then after finishing in the top five during his next two starts, he made a triumphant return to Victory Lane at Texas amid two overtime shootouts and a late battle with Ross Chastain, which snapped a 42-race winless drought and has placed Elliott in contention to make the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs. Following the victory at Texas, Elliott earned two additional top-five results in his last four starts and is currently ranked in fourth place in the 2024 regular-season standings while trailing the points lead by 49 points 

    Through 299 previous Cup starts, Elliott has achieved one championship, 19 victories, 12 poles, 98 top-five results, 158 top-10 results, 5,226 laps led and an average-finishing result of 12.9. 

    Chase Elliott is scheduled to make his 300th Cup Series career start at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 65th running of the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, May 26. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to occur at 6 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • Logano dominates for second All-Star triumph at North Wilkesboro

    Logano dominates for second All-Star triumph at North Wilkesboro

    Joey Logano erased his difficult start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season by capping off a dominant run with a big victory in the 40th annual running of the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday, May 19. 

    The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, led all but one of 200 scheduled laps in an event where he took care of business a day earlier by qualifying on the pole position for the main event. From the drop of the green flag to the checkered flag, Logano managed through the event’s tire options and repaved surface, including the use of optional tires for grip, to keep his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry out in front amid four restarts and several challenges between his fellow competitors. Amid a 42-lap dash to the finish, Logano managed both his optional tires, the track’s racing surface and the clean air to fend off Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson to claim his second checkered flag in the All-Star event and cash in a million dollars.

    The starting lineup for the main event was determined through a combined session of on-track qualifying and the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge that occurred on Saturday, May 18, where each competitor eligible for the All-Star Race took the green flag, ran one full lap around the circuit, pitted within a designated pit stall for four-tire pit stop with a mock fuel delivery included during the second lap and raced back to the checkered flag once returning to the track.  

    The overall qualifying time was evaluated by the total time from the green flag to the checkered flag, where the competitor who posted the fastest lap time between the three times would achieve the pole position. The event’s two 60-lap Heat events that would determine the rest of the starting lineup for the All-Star Race aside from the pole sitter was scheduled to occur on Saturday but was canceled due to on-track precipitation. 

    At the conclusion of the qualifying and Pit Crew Challenge sessions, Joey Logano claimed his first All-Star pole position after posting the fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 29.75 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Brad Keselowski, who clocked in the second-fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.14 seconds.  

    Christopher Bell, whose No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota pit crew achieved this year’s Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge after delivering the fastest four-tire pit service during Bell’s qualifying run in 13.223 seconds, qualified in third place with a three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.17 seconds and he started alongside Daniel Suarez, who posted the fourth-fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.20 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, Kyle Larson, who qualified an impressive fifth place for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 while driving for Arrow McLaren, started at the rear of the field due to a driver change after Kevin Harvick practiced and qualified Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry while Larson was preparing for the Indy 500. 

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Logano muscled his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from the outside lane as he led the field through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Kyle Busch, who started towards the middle of the pack, hit the outside wall after making contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. amid a three-wide battle.  

    Then as Logano proceeded to lead the first lap, Busch retaliated by bumping and sending Stenhouse hard into the outside wall in Turn 2 as his event came to an early end. Following the incident, however, Stenhouse nursed and parked his damaged No. 47 Icy Hot Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into Busch’s pit stall before he climbed out and exchanged words with Busch’s crew chief Randall Burnett before being directed to the infield care center. 

    During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Daniel Suarez pitted to have the soft “red” tires on their respective entries removed for prime “yellow” tires while the rest led by Logano and including Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Ryan Blaney remained on the track. 

    When the event restarted under green on the 10th lap, Logano retained the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch as Keselowski and Reddick battled for second in front of Blaney and Buescher. Behind, Christopher Bell, the first competitor racing on the fresh prime tires, was in sixth ahead of Suarez, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch as Logano proceeded to lead the Lap 15 mark. 

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Logano was leading by four-tenths of a second over Reddick followed by Buescher, Blaney and Keselowski while Bell, Suarez, Chastain, William Byron and Denny Hamlin were racing in the top 10. Behind, Chase Elliott occupied 11th place ahead of Truex, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Busch while Bubba Wallace, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Noah Gragson trailed behind, with last-place Gragson trailing the lead by more than seven seconds. 

    Ten laps later, Logano extended his advantage to more than a second over Buescher followed by Blaney, Reddick and Keselowski, with all the top-five front-runners separated by more than three seconds and still racing on the option “red” tires. Behind, Bell, the first competitor racing on the primary “yellow” tires in his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE, trailed in sixth place by more than three seconds while Suarez, Chastain, Byron and Hamlin continued to run in the top 10. 

    Another 10 laps later, Logano stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Buescher while third-place Blaney trailed by more than two seconds. As Keselowski and Reddick trailed in the top five, Bell, Suarez, Chastain, Hamlin and Byron trailed in the top 10, respectively, while Elliott, Gibbs, Truex, Larson and Busch followed suit in the top 15 ahead of Wallace, McDowell, Gragson and Allmendinger. 

    At the Lap 50 mark, Logano continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Buescher, with Blaney and Keselowski trailing in third and fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Bell cracked the top five on his primary tires while Reddick fell back to sixth place on his optional tires. Suarez, Chastain and Hamlin followed suit from seventh to ninth, respectively, while Elliott occupied 10th place ahead of teammate Byron and Gibbs. 

    Fifteen laps later, Logano retained the lead by a second over Buescher as Blaney, Keselowski and Bell trailed in the top five. Behind, Reddick occupied sixth place ahead of a battle between Hamlin and Suarez while Chastain and Elliott continued to run in the top 10. 

    A few laps later, trouble struck for Byron, who nursed his No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to pit road under green due to a flat tire and for a bent toe link after hitting a bump and the outside wall. Amid Byron’s issues, which pinned the Charlotte native multiple laps down while his pit crew made repairs on pit road, Logano, who was beginning to approach lapped traffic, was leading by less than half a second over Buescher, who was starting to close in on Logano for the top spot, by the Lap 75 mark. 

    Just past the Lap 80 mark, Logano, who was still trying to navigate his way through lapped traffic, retained the lead by half a second over Buescher while third-place Blaney trailed by a second. Keselowski, Bell and Reddick continued to run in the top six ahead of Hamlin, Chastain, Suarez and Elliott while Logano, who was trying to lap Wallace, was still leading by the Lap 90 mark. 

    On Lap 100, which marked the halfway point of the event, a designated All-Star caution was flown. At the moment of caution, Logano, who was unable to lap Wallace but survived through the event’s first half on the optional tires, retained the lead ahead of Buescher, Keselowski, Blaney and Bell while Reddick, Hamlin, Chastain, Suarez and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, McDowell, who was running in 16th place behind Wallace, emerged as the first competitor swho was scored a lap down and he was the recipient of the free pass. 

    During the caution period, the field led by Logano made a mandatory four-tire pit stop. Following the pit stops, Logano retained the lead after beating both Buescher and Bell off of pit road first while Keselowski, Blaney, Hamlin, Chastain, Elliott, Suarez and Reddick followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, nearly the entire field led by Logano opted to change for a fresh set of optional tires while Gibbs and Reddick only opted to change for primary tires. 

    When the race restarted under green with 92 laps remaining, where Logano and Bell occupied the front row, Logano maintained a slight advantage over Bell through the first two turns and the backstretch, with both still battling dead even back to the frontstretch and for the following lap. Logano and Bell would continue to battle dead even for the lead with 90 laps remaining, with the former trying to pin and stall the latter’s momentum through the turns and straightaways.  

    Then with 88 laps remaining, Bell got loose underneath Logano, which sent both competitors up the track through Turns 3 and 4 amid contact. This allowed Hamlin to ignite a three-wide battle for the lead through the frontstretch. With Hamlin trying to emerge ahead through the first two turns from the inside lane, Logano fought back from the outside lane as he retained the lead by a narrow margin over Hamlin while Bell was trying to fend off Blaney for third place. In addition, Buescher was in fifth while Larson was up to sixth place. 

    With 83 laps remaining, the caution flew after Gibbs, winner of the 2024 All-Star Open, was bumped twice by Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entering Turn 1 while racing for 12th place, which sent Gibbs’ No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE spinning towards the outside wall in Turn 1. Gibbs would drop out of the lead lap category as he had issues trying to re-fire his car amid the incident while Suarez and Reddick pitted for tire options during the caution period. 

    As the event restarted under green with 77 laps remaining, Logano muscled away from Hamlin and the field from the outside lane through the first two turns and through the backstretch. As the field behind battled for late spots, Logano maintained a steady advantage of two-tenths of a second over Hamlin’s No. 11 Mavis Toyota Camry XSE with 75 laps remaining while Blaney, Bell, Buescher and Larson followed suit in the top six. 

    With 65 laps remaining, Logano stabilized his narrow advantage to three-tenths of a second over a side-by-side battle between Hamlin and Blaney for the runner-up spot. Behind, fourth-place Bell and fifth-place Buescher both trailed by a second as sixth-place Larson trailed by two seconds, with Keselowski, Wallace, Elliott and Reddick racing in the top 10. 

    With 50 laps remaining, a second designated All-Star caution was flown. At the moment of caution, Logano was the leader ahead of teammate Blaney, Hamlin, Bell and Buescher while Larson, Keselowski, Wallace, Elliott and Reddick were scored in the top 10 followed by McDowell, Gragson, Chastain, Busch, Truex, Suarez, Gibbs and Allmendinger. 

    During the caution period, some led by Larson and including Wallace, Elliott, Chastain, Truex, McDowell, Gragson, Busch and Suarez pitted for fresh optional “red” tires while the rest led by Logano remained on the track. 

    Down to the final 42 laps of the event, the event restarted under green as teammates Logano and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Logano retained the lead while Blaney, who got loose entering the first turn, was quickly overtaken by Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Blaney would then be challenged by Buescher for third place along with Larson as Hamlin started to challenge Logano for the lead with 40 laps remaining.  

    Over the next two laps, Larson, racing on fresh optional tires, overtook both Blaney and Buescher to move his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into third place. By then, Logano retained the lead ahead of Hamlin as Larson started to close in on the two leaders. Larson would then have issues trying to overtake Hamlin for the runner-up spot through the corners while Logano retained the lead with less than 35 laps remaining.  

    With 25 laps remaining, Logano was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin while third-place Larson trailed the lead by a second. Behind, Buescher retained fourth ahead of Blaney while Wallace was up to sixth place followed by Chastain, Elliott, Truex and Busch. 

    Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Logano extended his advantage to a second over Hamlin while third-place Larson, who was starting to fade on his fresh tires, trailed by more than two seconds as he was also trying to fend off Buescher to retain third place. Blaney, Wallace, Chastain, Elliott, McDowell and Truex followed suit in the top 10 as Logano was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin with 10 laps remaining. 

    With five laps remaining, Logano retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin as third-place Larson trailed by four seconds followed by Buescher and Blaney.  

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin. Despite Hamlin’s late effort in keeping Logano as close as he could in front of him, he could not narrow the gap as Logano, who was out front in clean air, was able to cycle around the North Wilkesboro circuit smoothly for a final time and back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag by six-tenths of a second. 

    With the victory, Logano joins Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte and Davey Allison as competitors to win the All-Star Race twice as this marks his first time winning the All-Star event since 2016. He also recorded the fifth All-Star victory for Team Penske and the 14th overall for the Ford nameplate, with the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car winning for a second consecutive weekend.

    Logano’s All-Star victory capped off a strong day of motorsports competition for team owner Roger Penske, whose three-car operation in the NTT IndyCar Series swept the front row for next Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 as Scott McLaughlin captured his first Indy 500 pole over teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden. For Logano, the victory served as a momentous boost for the former Cup Series champion, who came into the event with a single top-two result registered to his racing stats along with being winless through the first 13 events on the 2024 schedule. 

    Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “How about that, Wilkesboro?! That was awesome!” Logano exclaimed on the frontstretch on FS1. “What an incredible Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. It was so fast. Man, we came here and tested [in March]. We ran over 800 laps at the tire test. [Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] really put me to work, really figured out what it was going to take to win the race. The [No. 22] boys executed a fantastic stop. Fantastic weekend, great execution. It’s been a while since we’ve won a race. I wish this one counted for points, but a million bucks will work as well…Man, it feels good. Feels great.” 

    As Logano celebrated on the frontstretch, tempers ignited in the garage area and towards the transport haulers as Stenhouse, who waited for Busch, who ended up 10th and was still displeased over the opening lap incident, confronted the latter as harsh words were exchanged. As the conversation continued, Stenhouse then swung a fist towards Busch as a fight ignited between both competitors and their respective crew members before they were separated. 

    Denny Hamlin, the 2015 All-Star Race winner, settled in second place for the second time in his career followed by Chris Buescher, who achieved his first top-five result in the All-Star event. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson capped off an eventful run between his Indianapolis 500 qualifying trials to campaigning for another All-Star victory by finishing fourth while Blaney rounded out the top five. 

    Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 in the final running order. 

    There were two lead changes for two different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 27 laps. In addition, 17 of 20 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results. 

    1. Joey Logano, 199 laps led 

    2. Denny Hamlin 

    3. Chris Buescher 

    4. Kyle Larson 

    5. Ryan Blaney 

    6. Bubba Wallace 

    7. Ross Chastain 

    8. Chase Elliott 

    9. Michael McDowell 

    10. Kyle Busch 

    11. Noah Gragson 

    12. Martin Truex Jr. 

    13. Ty Gibbs 

    14. Tyler Reddick 

    15. Daniel Suarez 

    16. Brad Keselowski, one lap led 

    17. Chistopher Bell 

    18. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down 

    19. William Byron, 14 laps down  

    20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 65th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 26, during Memorial Day weekend and air at 6 p.m. ET on FOX.