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Author: Joseph Shelton

  • Opinion: Second XFINITY title for Reddick a harbinger of what’s to come in Cup career

    Opinion: Second XFINITY title for Reddick a harbinger of what’s to come in Cup career

    To be fair, two championships in a feeder division of NASCAR doesn’t guarantee success on a higher level, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. can tell you. It’s a monumental accomplishment, sure. Every driver wants the title “NASCAR Champion” next to their name for the rest of their lives, and it’s not an easy thing to accomplish.

    That said, with the rise of Tyler Reddick to two-time XFINITY Series champion, we may be witnessing the rise of something huge. Reddick’s ability behind the wheel may make him more than just a NASCAR star, it may just make him a legend in the sport.

    He’s shown an innate ability to run well at all types of tracks; in 2019 the only kind of track he didn’t win on was a road course. Even then, in the four road courses on the schedule (Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Charlotte Roval), he finished fifth, fourth, third, and second, respectively. In the meanwhile, he won on a wide array of tracks from Charlotte and Talladega to Bristol and Homestead. This after a successful Rookie of the Year/Championship campaign in 2018 where he won at Daytona in February and Homestead in November for his only two wins of the season.

    In 2020 he’ll be making his run for RotY in the same No. 8 Chevrolet that Daniel Hemric won the award in for Richard Childress Racing. Although Hemric’s campaign was both quiet and consistent, peppered with strong runs at places like Talladega and Pocono, it happened to be too quiet. Reddick’s limited two-run Cup campaign (Daytona 500 in February, Kansas Speedway in May) in the RCR No. 31 showed a little more promise with a top-10 at Kansas. However, that’s not to say that he wasn’t having a strong run at Daytona before being involved in two major incidents, not of his doing.

    If it says something that Reddick performed like he did in an entry that wasn’t even part-time, then what will it say when his Randall Burnett-led crew (2019 XFINITY Championship-winning crew, at that) makes the jump to Cup with him? Reddick and Burnett already seem to have the Knaus/Johnson chemistry of the early 00s’, so there’s reason to believe that strong results will be showing up. It isn’t a matter of where but when.

    Talk of being legendary in the sport isn’t so far-fetched, either. Reddick isn’t flashy, he isn’t boisterous, he doesn’t really have much of a brand. He isn’t making cameo appearances on NBC sitcoms and he doesn’t have a funny podcast on Apple Podcasts. He’s got an energetic smile and an easygoing personality, though, and he’s got the ability to wheel the fire out of a race car.

    He’s much like Matt Kenseth or David Pearson in that sense. He’s not big on big talk. Instead, he prefers to let his driving speak for him, which is why he’s found so much success in NASCAR’s feeder divisions. He won in the K&N Pro Series, he won in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series, and he’s won two XFINITY Series championships.

    Now he’s facing down a full-time ride with Richard Childress Racing in their No. 8 Caterpillar Chevy, and the pieces are in place for Reddick and Burnett to make the most of their rookie year. If Reddick’s performance in the XFINITY Series is any indicator, we may be looking at the rise of some of the rawest talent in years to ever strap into a Cup Series stock car.

  • Burton sees seventh-place run at Texas as more momentum leading into 2020 XFINITY Series campaign

    Burton sees seventh-place run at Texas as more momentum leading into 2020 XFINITY Series campaign

    Although Harrison Burton wasn’t able to turn a front-row start in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 into a top-five or even a win, he still views it as a momentum builder heading into his rookie XFINITY Series campaign in 2020, where he is set to take over the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 as Christopher Bell moves into the Cup Series.

    “It helps a lot,” said Burton of his run. “It’s not exactly the run I think we wanted. I wanted to run better. I wanted to get a top-five, top-three, contend for the win, which was my goal. We didn’t quite get there tonight due to some adversity.”

    “We control our own destiny so we got to get a little bit less sloppy and could do a better job. I mean I’m part of that for sure so it’s not only on pit road but on the race track as well. I made a couple of mistakes that cost us some positions. When you lose spots here [at Texas], it’s just so big. But it was a challenge tonight and I learned a lot, so that’s what it’s all about.”

    The seventh-place was Burton’s fourth top-10 this season, which includes a season-best fourth-place finish at Iowa in his second start of 2019. But despite only scoring top-10s in half of his starts driving a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, his finishes in the other four races haven’t been indicative of his runs this season.

    Despite running near the front at Loudon, Burton’s No. 18 Toyota tangled with Paul Menard’s Ford, which sent Burton into the wall and out of the race with suspension issues. A 13th-place at the Charlotte Roval was actually a respectable result considering the Roval’s nature, especially since Burton started the race in 22nd. His first-lap crash at Dover negated the fact that he started the race in fifth.

    Yet although Burton will be taking over No. 20 that Bell has driven to eight victories this season, he won’t be with Bell’s Crew Chief Jason Ratcliff, who’ll be following Bell into the Cup Series. Burton’s 2020 Crew Chief hasn’t been announced yet, however, considering he’s posted some good runs in the No. 18 with Ben Beshore, there’s reason to believe Beshore could take up that mantle.

    Burton and Beshore have put together a solid limited campaign in 2019. Considering the entire reason for the campaign is to prepare Burton for the 2020 season and to help him better learn how the cars handle, he’s performed as expected given his experience and the equipment he’s been put in.

    Burton should expect to put together some strong runs in the 2020 campaign and could very well be the front-runner in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year race. Given that the JGR Toyotas are virtually untouchable in the XFINITY Series, expect Burton to visit Victory Lane at least a couple of times on his way to a Playoff appearance.

  • Harvick wins AAA Texas 500, will race for championship in Miami

    Harvick wins AAA Texas 500, will race for championship in Miami

    Kevin Harvick had the dominant car at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday night, leading 119 laps from the pole and winning his third-straight AAA Texas 500 for a spot in the championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Harvick held off Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola at the checkered by 1.594-seconds.

    “Our car was just so fast through [Turns] 3 and 4, as long as I could keep my momentum up, I could get up beside [Almirola],” Harvick said of his late-race battle with his teammate. “So it was definitely fast, and speed made up for our Ducks Unlimited Busch Beer Ford Mustang in what we lacked a little bit in our handling.”

    Fellow SHR driver Daniel Suarez finished third after leading 25 laps.

    “That was a very solid night, and I’m very happy with the performance and speed that we brought from the shop,” said Suarez. “Everyone back at the shop did a great job. We knew we would be fast here.

    “We had a solid perfomance here last time. We did a good job. We had good execution and a good clean day. I’m very happy for Stewart-Haas Racing and the No. 41 Ford Mustang was pretty sporty. I am very happy for Kevin getting his ticket for Homestead.”

    Playoff driver Joey Logano finished fourth and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five. Playoff drivers Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, and Ryan Blaney finished sixth through eighth, with Kurt Busch and Erik Jones rounding out the top-10.

    Playoff driver Kyle Larson had a quiet day as well, finishing in 12th after starting 13th.

    The race was slowed 11 times for 56 laps, with Playoff drivers Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin finding trouble with the wall or the frontstretch grass early in Stage One. Elliott would finish 32nd, several laps off the pace, while Hamlin would finish six laps down in 28th, despite winning at TMS in March.

    Seven-time Texas winner Jimmie Johnson also found the wall after leading 40 laps. The No. 48 was running in second when he spun off the second turn and slapped the wall, relegating his Hendrick Motorsports team to a 34th-place finish.

    There were 26 lead changes among 11 drivers, with 2,957 green flag passes (10.6 per green flag lap).

    The next race will be at ISM Raceway for the Bluegreen Vacations 500, the final race in the Round of Eight. The race will air on NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET and will also be streaming on MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 and the NBC Sports app.

  • Christopher Bell wins O’Reilly 300, Chastain takes second at Texas

    Christopher Bell wins O’Reilly 300, Chastain takes second at Texas

    FORT WORTH, Texas — Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, punching his ticket to the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway in two weeks. Bell started third and took the checkered by 5.561-seconds over Kaulig Racing’s Ross Chastain.

    “I can’t wait to go to Phoenix,” said Bell. “I love that race track. Now we get to go there and focus on one thing and that’s winning the race.”

    “I don’t know if Jason [Ratcliff, Crew Chief] was thinking points tonight, but we’re definitely not going to have to think about points next week.”

    Runner-up Chastain used pit strategy to lead 29 laps before spinning his tires on a restart late in the race.

    “It was an up-and-down race,” said Chastain of his final start with Kaulig in 2019. “Up at the start, we ran fifth in that first stage. Then we got caught in that dirty air and couldn’t pass anybody, but then we got track position again and took control of the race for a little while.”

    “The car was incredible. I made one pretty big mistake on that final restart and spun my tires, and from there we just had to run hard to finish second.”

    Austin Cindric, Brandon Jones, and John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top-five while Justin Allgaier, Harrison Burton, Cole Custer, Jeb Burton, and Ryan Sieg rounded out the top-10.

    Cindric also had a strong run on the night, leading 38 laps on the way to his third-place finish.

    “Yeah, we’re in a must-win situation as far as points go, and when you’re leading in the third stage and a caution comes out your heart kind of sinks a little bit,” said Cindric. “But I thought we had a Discount Tire Mustang good enough to win in clean air.”

    “We had 50 or 60 people from Discount Tire come out today and was hoping we could get them in Victory Lane and get in the Final Four. But we got next week in Phoenix. It’s a bummer when you’re pissed at finishing third, but I guess that’s the sign of a good night, being able to execute on some of those restarts.”

    The biggest incident of the night occurred on Lap 162 when contact between Playoff drivers Chase Briscoe and polesitter Tyler Reddick sent Reddick’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet hard into the backstretch wall.

    Despite hitting the wall, Reddick still holds a 36-point edge over Briscoe heading into Phoenix. Meanwhile, fellow Playoff driver Noah Gragson scored his first DNF of 2019 following an incident on the frontstretch. Gragson finished 30th and is 57 points below the cutline heading into Phoenix.

    There were nine cautions for 51 laps, with nine lead changes among four drivers.

    The series makes its next appearance at ISM Speedway on Nov. 9 for the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino 200.

  • Harvick wins pole for AAA Texas 500, Jones to start second

    Harvick wins pole for AAA Texas 500, Jones to start second

    Kevin Harvick wheeled his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang to a 28.465-second lap at 189.707 mph around the Texas Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500. The pole was Harvick’s second at the speedway in 34 races and sixth overall of 2019.

    “I think the key to the lap was knowing that you had to be wide open and kind of did a halfway qualifying run yesterday and worked most of the day on race runs and making sure we ran enough laps to know where our car was,” said Harvick.

    Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones put his No. 20 Toyota on the outside of Row 1 with a lap of 28.588 at 188.890 mph. Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five.

    Harvick and Hamlin were the only Playoff drivers to qualify in the top-10, as the other six drivers in the Round of 8 will start in the top-20. Joey Logano will start 11th, with a lap of 28.755 seconds, while Kyle Busch will start on the outside of Row 6 with a lap of 28.764 seconds.

    Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney will start in positions 13-15, while Martin Truex Jr. will be starting from the 17th spot with a lap of 28.863.

    The AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway will start at 2 p.m. CT on NBCSN/SiriusXM Channel 90.

  • Despite rumors, Nemechek to Front Row Motorsports could be needed change for entire organization

    Despite rumors, Nemechek to Front Row Motorsports could be needed change for entire organization

    With the Cup Series returning to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, one of the biggest headlines heading into Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 is the debut of John Hunter Nemechek. He will be filling in for Front Row Motorsports rookie Matt Tifft, who has been sidelined for the remainder of the 2019 season with medical issues.

    Although Nemechek’s primary obligation is finishing up his rookie XFINITY Series campaign with the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet group, there are rumors circulating that this could be a tryout for the 22-year-old driver since he has no plans for next season. FRM staple David Ragan is set to retire after this season, leaving one of the three seats open in the organization.

    At this moment, Nemechek has made it clear that all he wants to do is go out and earn the respect of the other Cup drivers, telling SiriusXM Speedway’s Dave Moody:

    “The storyline is we want to go and have a quiet weekend for us, just run as many laps as we possibly can and gain as much experience and just have a solid weekend. That’s our goal. It’s all new for me, I’ve never driven a Cup car before so it’s going to be a whole new process and whole new learning curve.”

    However, should Nemechek go and do just that in the final three races, he could be a possible option for a vacant seat in an FRM Ford. That would mean that FRM would have two drivers under 25-years-old, and with Michael McDowell planning on being at FRM in 2020 despite the plan not being set in stone just yet, the organization may very well be on a renewed path instead of just being a home for drivers late in their Cup career.

    Granted, that may not have been the case. But since the team’s inception in 2005, they’ve only won two events. At Talladega Ragan led a 1-2 finish in the 2013 Aaron’s 499 with David Gilliland close behind. Chris Buescher won a fog-shortened Pocono event in 2016 and made one Playoff appearance. This is after the team had been home to drivers such as Gilliland, Travis Kvapil, Josh Wise, and John Andretti.

    But as in Buescher’s case, FRM has shown itself to be a good place for drivers looking to learn the rank-and-file of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup racing. Buescher has gone on to record strong runs with JTG-Daugherty Racing and now finds himself going to the No. 17 Roush-Fenway Ford in 2020. Tifft has established himself as a solid driver in the No. 36 with a top-10 at Daytona in July and 15 top-25 finishes in 32 starts.

    Adding Nemechek to the FRM stable could put the team into a renewed position, where instead of being an organization housing Cup drivers who weren’t established as well elsewhere, they could become an organization that builds (or rebuilds) itself around the future stars of the sport. FRM has become an organization that continues to grow over the years, and not even the expansion to three full-time teams is enough to slow the team down.

    Should Nemechek go for a full rookie campaign with FRM in 2020, there’s going to be no guarantee of success with the team. But there will be ample opportunity for both Nemechek and FRM to continuously grow in Cup racing, and FRM may be the step Nemechek needs to take to earn both respect and success as he advances in his NASCAR career.

  • Opinion: Suspension of crew member involved in Hamlin/Logano scuffle correct move on NASCAR’s part

    Opinion: Suspension of crew member involved in Hamlin/Logano scuffle correct move on NASCAR’s part

    A week after several crew members jumped into the Kansas scuffle between Cole Custer and Tyler Reddick, another scuffle involving crew members has taken center stage again. As a result, NASCAR has suspended a Team Penske crew member for collaring Denny Hamlin and throwing him to the ground following his scuffle with Penske driver Joey Logano.

    Following Sunday’s First Data 500 at Martinsville, Logano and Hamlin first exchanged words, then shoves before crews stepped in to pull the drivers apart. But while other crew members appeared to be working to pull the drivers apart, Dave Nichols Jr., a tire technician for the No. 22 team, appeared to collar Hamlin and pull him to the ground before Hamlin’s crew converged on Nichols.

    That move is what led to NASCAR suspending Nichols for the next race, as he was found in violation of Section 12.8.1.C, which addresses member-to-member confrontations with physical violence.

    An argument can be made that the crews are doing nothing more than protecting their driver’s honor or respect. In some sense, that may be honorable. But unless the crews are working to break up a quarrel between drivers, their actions may only go to further escalate a situation into something it didn’t need to turn into.

    Last week I brought up how some of those in the NASCAR community were talking about how the sport needs to implement a third-man rule much like the NHL. Let those drivers who were involved settle their dispute, be it with words or fists, and unless a crew member is working to de-escalate the situation they stay out of it or they risk a fine and/or a suspension.

    There was no reason for Nichols to play the hero and collar Hamlin. His responsibility at that point was to help de-escalate the situation and make sure his driver didn’t get into too much trouble. His actions were over-the-top and unnecessary and made the No. 22 crew look bad.

    The issue is between the drivers, not the crew. The drivers are the ones in control of what happens on the track; they’re the ones that know what truly goes down when it goes down. They are also the ones the fans have come to see and if there’s an issue, the fans want to see them handle the issue one-on-one.

    Hopefully, the suspension of Nichols is actually seen as a deterrent to the other members on all the teams to not try anything unnecessary during a scuffle between drivers. Let them hash out their beef and be done with it.

    Meanwhile, the crew’s job is to act in the best interests of their driver, team, and organization. Collaring a driver and throwing him to the ground is non-conducive to that. The call to suspend Nichols was a good call on NASCAR’s part, so the only thing left to do is to hope it’s enough of a deterrent lest the sanctioning body moves to harsher reprimands.

  • Opinion: NASCAR should fine crew members who interfere in driver scuffles

    Opinion: NASCAR should fine crew members who interfere in driver scuffles

    It’s one thing to witness a scuffle following a race, and there’s no doubt it can often times be some of the best excitement following a race weekend. Remember Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski at Texas in 2014? Kyle Busch and Joey Logano at Las Vegas in 2017? Or even Logano and Tony Stewart at Fontana in 2013?

    Those are just a few scuffles where excitement was drawn due to the drivers who race on a weekly basis getting heated and throwing hands. What always manages to screw things up, though, is when the crew gets involved. That’s not to say it’s not fun to watch them exchange fists, but it can get out of hand sometimes. Case in point: The Tyler Reddick/Cole Custer scuffle following Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race.

    It wasn’t even much of a scuffle at first. First words and a couple of stiff shoves were exchanged. No harm yet. But once the crews came bounding in to pull the drivers apart the emotions were high enough that Reddick ended up taking a few shots to the face and ended up with a bloody patch above the eye.

    It’s not the first time it’s happened, but it isn’t necessary. Whatever happened on the track is between the drivers. They’re the ones who usually bring about the carnage and the heated emotions. Sure, it’s up to the crew to have their driver’s back, but they also need to make it a point to save their drivers from themselves. Otherwise on-track issues should always remain between those who are actually on-track: The drivers.

    In the NHL a player is ejected and suspended if they leave the bench to join a fight. This could be a useful approach in NASCAR and an effective way to remind the crews to keep their emotions in check. For every crew member who lands an errant punch on a driver, that’s a one-race suspension effective immediately.

    That would be an effective way to keep the crews in check and send a reminder to the teams that their crew better be on their best behaviors. The fights aren’t about the teams, they’re about the drivers and should be settled as such. If the drivers are going to be settling issues with their fists instead of their bumpers (as should be the case), then the only things crews should be worried about is separating the drivers.

    That said, the Reddick/Custer scuffle was otherwise handled the way it should have been. The drivers didn’t use their cars as instruments of anger, they used their words and fists. That’s the way a disagreement between drivers should always be handled. The crews need to stay out of it and should only be looking out for their drivers, which doesn’t constitute swinging on the other driver.

  • NASCAR must find way to bottle their superspeedway package following Talladega

    NASCAR must find way to bottle their superspeedway package following Talladega

    Superspeedway racing, chaos be thy name.

    Gone are the days of incident-free events. Gone are the day of overly-dominant drivers mastering pack racing and the draft. These days it’s now a matter of carnage, mayhem, and wild, wild finishes. What’s more important, though, is that NASCAR finds a way to maintain this package. Ergo, leaves it alone and absolutely does not tweak it in any way, shape, or form.

    Case in point: Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event. There were 46 lead changes among 19 drivers, nine cautions, a few major scrapes (including a sick kickflip from the No. 62 of Brendan Gaughan) that thankfully yielded zero injuries, and an astounding 11,564 green flag passes (which equated to 79.8 passes per green flag lap).

    On top of that, with NASCAR’s Playoff season in full effect, there were several storylines coming into the race that the NASCAR community were paying close attention to, such as whether or not Chase Elliott could rebound from his last-place finish at Dover, whether Ford drivers Clint Bowyer or Ryan Blaney could finally get a win this season, or if Elliott’s Hendrick teammate William Byron could seal the deal and score his first win. In the end, it was Blaney who advances to the Round of Eight by a 0.007-second win over Ryan Newman.

    Of course, considering Talladega’s nature, it’s only fitting that the Playoff’s current storylines played a role in Sunday’s race. But with regards to the chaotic nature of superspeedway racing, it’s a must that NASCAR maintains the status quo when it comes to Talladega and Daytona. That isn’t to say that every race on the schedule needs to be full of chaos and anarchy from green flag to checkered flag. But Talladega and Daytona are both revered as some of the best racing all season long – they carry that weight of providing the best action in NASCAR.

    That carries more weight when it’s taken into consideration that of all the races of season, the majority of which are held on mile-to-mile-and-a-half race tracks where Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas regularly dominate, superspeedway racing feels like the last bastion of equality in the sport. Literally anyone who is anyone can win, from David Ragan to Justin Haley. For years NASCAR has been looking for a way to keep that aspect in the sport; with this current superspeedway package they may have found that sweet spot.

    However, NASCAR has a way of fixing what isn’t broken. It’s something the NASCAR community is used to and in some cases expects, but ultimately it isn’t welcomed that often. So when the NASCAR world spoke up to say that Sunday’s race was nothing short of amazing, they can only hope that NASCAR heard them well enough to go on and act on their critiques. And by act, they really mean not act at all.

    NASCAR has something with the new package and the tapered-spacer engine. Therefore, once again, NASCAR should not work to change that. Unless cars are regularly being launched into the crowd, stop trying to fix what isn’t broken. The fans loved it, the NASCAR community as a whole loved it. Sure, there were some angry faces in the crowd, but that’s every superspeedway race; pack racing is known to be very unforgiving in nature. That’s been the story for years.

    Sunday was how Talladega was supposed to be run, and NASCAR did a fine job. So until further notice, the superspeedway product is fine as it is.

  • Hendrick Motorsports Playoff drivers are likeliest to advance following Talladega Playoff event

    Hendrick Motorsports Playoff drivers are likeliest to advance following Talladega Playoff event

    Despite being behind in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup win column, Chevrolets face the likeliest chance to succeed at Talladega for Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 Playoff event. The 2.66-mile superspeedway is no stranger to upset winners, but if the April event is any indicator then not only do the Hendrick Chevrolets face the likeliest chance of winning, they’re also the likeliest to carry on the recent Bowtie winning streak but also advance to the Playoff Round of Eight.

    Chase Elliott – His Daytona results notwithstanding, Elliott is showing to be a steady performer on the superspeedways. Along with his April victory in Alabama, he holds three top-fives and three top-10s. It may not seem like much in seven starts, but in the races where he held a dismal finish including his two DNFs in 2017, he has always run near the front including leading 26 laps before a hard crash in the Fall 2017 event.

    Still, with two of his three teammates also in the Playoffs as well as the performance of teammate Alex Bowman in the Spring, Elliott could be leading the charge to get out of the Playoff rut his last-place finish at Dover has left him in.

    Alex Bowman – 2019 has become the defining year of Bowman’s Cup Series career. It has been a breakout in every sense of the word – one win, six top-fives, 10 top-10s, and a comfortable spot in the seventh slot in the standings. Bowman isn’t satisfied, however, and with Talladega around the corner, a track where he finished second to teammate Elliott in April, he could be kicking his Playoff campaign into high gear and showing the rest of the field that the No. 88 Greg Ives-led crew could be the team to beat in the Playoffs.

    Bowman and Elliott proved themselves to be a formidable duo in the Spring, not unlike the early 00s’ when Dale Earnhardt Incorporated drivers Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were winning every other race at Talladega. Should Bowman or Elliott win at Talladega, then it could be the dawn of a new era in NASCAR.

    William Byron – Byron’s 2019 Playoff campaign is showing zero signs of a sophomore slump. If anything, it shows that Hendrick Motorsports is catching up in leaps and bounds with the rest of the field, currently led by the Team Penske Fords and the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. He’s scored five poles already, with three top-fives (including a second at Daytona in July) and 11 top-10s to boot.

    He’s only in his second full-time Cup Series campaign, so his previous Talladega results can be chalked up as educational experiences. Same thing goes with his Daytona results, although he has led 56 laps at the 2.5-mile Superspeedway. But one thing to take into account for the Chad Knaus-led No. 24 team is momentum. Byron has been quietly consistent, having finished in the top-25 in every race this season. Granted, that doesn’t equate to wins, but still, quiet consistency is better than no consistency. He could be a sleeper at Talladega, if not in the Playoffs overall. He could have a run equivalent to Ryan Newman’s in 2014 if the could just keep up with the consistency.

    Although those drivers are the only Hendrick Chevrolets in the Playoffs at this moment, there are other drivers to consider for the win in Sunday’s race. Talladega is well-known for upset winners, and although rookie Ryan Preece is not a Playoff driver, he’s been stout on the superspeedways in 2019. He was in contention to win the Daytona 500 late in the going before being shuffled back to eighth, for one.

    But it was his Talladega performance in April which could translate to a win on Sunday, as the No. 47 was able to latch onto the Hendrick Motorsports train of Elliott and Bowman en route to a third-place finish in the final order. His JTG-Daugherty Racing No. 47 is also powered by Hendrick engines, and given their proclivity for running up front on the superspeedways, he could very well put his car at the front in Sunday’s event. Preece is definitely the dark horse pick for the 1000Bulbs.com 500.

    The 1000Bulbs.com 500 will be on NBC on Sunday, October 13, at 2 p.m.