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Author: Tucker White

  • Elliott Sadler Wins Carnage Filled Chase Opener in Kentucky

    Elliott Sadler Wins Carnage Filled Chase Opener in Kentucky

    SPARTA, Ky. — Chaos and carnage ruled the night in the bluegrass state, and Elliott Sadler survived the onslaught to score the victory in the XFINITY Chase opener.

    Erik Jones led the field to the green flag at 8:17 p.m. It proceeded orderly until the first caution flew on lap 26 for a scheduled competition caution. Ty Dillon exited pit road with the race lead.

    The race restarted on lap 32 and the second caution flew for the first of many spins by Justin Marks through the night when he got loose and spun out in turn 3.

    After the race went back green on lap 36, it settled into a long green run. The only significant note of interest was Jones retaking the lead on lap 60. The third caution was brought out by Matt Waltz after his car caught fire on pit road.

    At this point, the race set into short green bursts of a few laps before something prompted a caution. This included a three-car wreck by Joey Gase, Ray Black Jr. and Blake Jones on lap 77 just a lap after the restart, Timmy Hill blowing a motor a lap after the lap 88 restart, Marks getting turned by a loose Josh Berry and collecting Brandon Jones in turn 4 on the same lap as the restart on lap 96, Ryan Sieg spinning out in turn 4 12 laps after the restart, Marks rear-ending the wall in turn 3 on lap 123 just a lap after a restart and Sam Hornish Jr. bouncing off Daniel Suarez, getting loose in turn 2 and getting clipped by Justin Allgaier on lap 130 just two laps after a restart.

    The race calmed down a little after it restarted on lap 135, only for race leader Matt Tifft to be handed a pass through penalty for jumping the restart. Smoke from Derrick Cope brought out the 10th caution on lap with under 25 to go. Sadler exited pit road first after taking fuel only.

    The race restarted with 19 to go and the caution flew for the 11th time, a new track record, for Berry slamming the wall in turn 4 with 17 to go.

    The race went back green with 13 to go and the new track record for cautions was extended to 12 with Jones getting loose in turn 3, spinning out and taking out Dillon.

    “I just got sucked around,” Jones said. “I was slamming on the brakes, trying to slow down. But Ty didn’t want to be really tight there on the restart, slamming doors in (Turns) 1 and 2. He was on me pretty tight down there. It’s my fault, but it’s tough when you’re in that situation. It’s a pretty tough aero situation into (Turn) 3. Just couldn’t hang onto it. I tried to slow down like I said and give some room on entry, but he kept slamming down on my door. I did all I could do to hang onto it.

    “We definitely had a winning car, but we just made a mistake and it ended our night.”

    It forced the race to be red-flagged for five minutes and 34 seconds. Dillon was disqualified from continuing on in the race after his crew was found working on the car during the red flag

    The race restarted with four laps to go and Sadler drove on to score the victory.

    “We fought through a lot tonight,” Sadler said in victory lane. “These guys (his crew) are my heroes. We had a 10th or 15th place car. Just had to come in and really take our time and work on it. Great pit calls at the end by Kevin (Meendering) and the guys to get us in position. We had a good push there in the end. I do want to say thanks to Josh Berry. He helped me a ton tonight. That kid did some cool things on the restarts. This One Main Financial team has no quit in them. We just fight to the end. This is a great way to start the Chase.”

    It’s his 13th career victory in 323 XFINITY Series starts, third of the season, 24th top-10 finish of 2016 and first win in 11 starts at Kentucky Speedway.

    Daniel Suarez came home second in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

    It’s his 21st top-10 finish of 2016 and third top-10 finish in four races at Kentucky.

    Ryan Blaney rounded out the podium in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    Sam Hornish Jr. finished fourth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Tifft recovered from his pass through penalty to round out the top-five in his No. 18 JGR Toyota.

    Brendan Gaughan finished sixth in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet. Ryan Reed finished seventh in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Darrell Wallace Jr. finished eighth in his No. 6 RFR Ford. Justin Allgaier finished ninth in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. Brennan Poole rounded out the top-10 in his No. 48 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

    The race lasted two hours, 48 minutes and 37 seconds at an average speed of 106.751 mph. There were 16 lead changes among eight different drivers and 12 cautions for 64 laps.

    Sadler leaves Kentucky with an eight-point lead over Suarez in the points standings.

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  • Jones scores the XFINITY pole at Kentucky

    Jones scores the XFINITY pole at Kentucky

    SPARTA, Ky. — Erik Jones will lead the field to the green flag in tonight’s XFINITY Series race in the bluegrass state.

    The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 after posting a time of 28.845 and a speed of 187.207 mph. It’s his 11th career pole in 53 XFINITY Series starts, eighth of the season and first in four races at Kentucky Speedway.

    Daniel Suarez will start second in his No. 19 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 28.966 and a speed of 186.425 mph. Elliott Sadler will start third in his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet after posting a time of 29.059 and a speed of 185.829 mph. Ty Dillon will start fourth in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 29.101 and a speed of 185.561 mph. Sam Hornish Jr. will round out the top-five starters in his No. 2 RCR Chevrolet after posting a time of 29.123 and a speed of 185.420 mph.

    Matt Trifft will start sixth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Brendan Gaughan will start seventh in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney will start eighth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Darrell Wallace Jr. will start ninth in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Justin Allgaier will round out the top-10 in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet.

    Brennan Poole will start 11th and Josh Berry will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying.

    Brandon Jones will start 14th, Blake Koch will start 15th, Ryan Reed will start 16th and Ryan Sieg will round out the Chase drivers in 19th.

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  • Jones Fastest at Kentucky in Final XFINITY Practice

    Jones Fastest at Kentucky in Final XFINITY Practice

    SPARTA, Ky. — Erik Jones topped the chart in final XFINITY Series practice at Kentucky Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota posted the fastest time in the final practice session with a time of 28.720 and a speed of 188.022 mph. Matt Tifft was second in his No. 18 JGR Toyota with a time of 28.958 and a speed of 186.477 mph. Sam Hornish Jr. was third in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 29.020 and a speed of 186.079 mph. Austin Cindric was fourth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 29.344 and a speed of 184.024 mph. Daniel Suarez rounded out the top-five in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 29.378 and a speed of 183.811 mph.

    Brendan Gaughan was sixth in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet. Brandon Jones was seventh in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet. Ty Dillon was eighth in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet. Justin Allgaier was ninth in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Darrell Wallace Jr. rounded out the top-10 in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

    Elliott Sadler was 12th, Ryan Reed was 13th, Brennan Poole was 16th, Ryan Sieg was 17th and Blake Koch rounded out the Chase drivers in 19th.

    The XFINITY Series is back on track tomorrow afternoon at 4:45 for qualifying.

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  • Jones Fastest in First XFINITY Practice at Kentucky

    Jones Fastest in First XFINITY Practice at Kentucky

    SPARTA, Ky. — Erik Jones topped the chart in first XFINITY Series practice at Kentucky Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.728 and a speed of 181.647 mph. Daniel Suarez was second in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 29.756 and a speed of 181.476 mph. Sam Hornish Jr. was third in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 29.783 and a speed of 181.311 mph. Ty Dillon was fourth in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 29.852 and a speed of 180.892 mph. Brennan Poole rounded out the top-five in his No. 48 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 29.910 and a speed of 180.542 mph.

    Matt Tifft was sixth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Elliott Sadler was seventh in his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Justin Allgaier was eighth in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. Josh Berry was ninth in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet. Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10 in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet.

    Darrell Wallace Jr. was 11th, Brendan Gaughan was 12th, Ryan Reed was 14th, Blake Koch was 16th and Ryan Sieg rounded out the Chase drivers in 19th.

    The cars are back on the track at 6 p.m.

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  • Logano Approaches Race 2 of a Round Like Any Other Race

    Logano Approaches Race 2 of a Round Like Any Other Race

    Asked if there’s any pressure in the second race of a round if you don’t win the opening race of the round, Joey Logano said he’ll just approach it the same way he would any other race.

    Speaking to the media during his media availability this morning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was asked what the pressure is like in the second race of a round when you fail to score the victory in the first race of the round.

    “I just approach it the same way I would any other race,” Logano said. “If you didn’t have a good race last week, then the pressure is added – no doubt. But we finished second last week and scored some good points. We talk about this round as being base hits and don’t have to do anything crazy. We did that exactly last week, so we’ll just come up here and do the same exact thing. If something happens, something happens and we’ll approach Dover in a different way, but, right now, let’s go out here and if we can win the race, let’s win the race. If not, let’s try to top-5 it and that will give us a good sense of security heading into Dover. It’s one race at a time, one step at a time. For us personally, the 22 team had a good weekend last week. The pressure is probably the same as what it was in Chicago. We just have to do what we know how to do.”

    Last week, Logano scored a runner-up finish in the Chase-opening Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. His afternoon wasn’t a barn burner or down in the dumps. He just drove under the radar until the checker flew.

    He currently sits fifth in points just seven out of first-place.

    He was also asked if Team Penske sweeping the first three spots in the final points standings in IndyCar this season added any pressure on and/or open up resources for he and Brad Keselowski.

    “They finished one-two-three, so holy moly! I don’t know if you want to call it added pressure, but I think there’s plenty on us already and I think we are better under pressure,” he added. “I like that. Fifty years for Team Penske, you guys well know that. But for them to do that on the 50th Anniversary is very special and it’s really cool to be somewhat a part of that. I feel like I’m part of the team – even the Indy Car team. There are a lot of guys that are cross-pollinated throughout our company. Does it open up some resources? Maybe a little bit here and there, maybe more time for a lot of guys like maybe the machine shop opens up a little bit.

    “I’m probably not the best person to answer a lot of those questions, but it is a motivational thing. I think it’s great to see that. It makes the NASCAR guys want to go out here and continue this awesome year that Team Penske has had so far, and Brad and I have a great shot at it. What if we finished one-two at Homestead? How cool would that be? We have an amazing opportunity to do that. We’ve got a long ways to go to get there, but we can do it.”

  • NASCAR Hall of Fame building sustains minor damage in Charlotte protest

    NASCAR Hall of Fame building sustains minor damage in Charlotte protest

    Amid the violent protests that went on in the Queen City last night, the NASCAR Hall of Fame sustained some damage.

    According to the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, who operate the complex, the only damage done to the facility was a broken exterior window after a street sign was found hanging like a spear out of it. The hall itself was not breached and nothing was stolen despite earlier reports of looting. However, there were reports of confrontations involving half a dozen vandals inside the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant that’s connected to the hall, according to The Charlotte Observer.

    The windows in the lobby of the adjacent NASCAR Tower were also damaged.

    The CRVA released a statement breaking down the damage sustained to the hall and the surrounding buildings.

    “The events that have transpired over the last 48 hours have been incredibly difficult for our community. We continue to keep open lines of communication with the City, CMPD and our partners to monitor the latest developments,” the statement said.

    “The damage at our CRVA venues consists of broken exterior windows at the Charlotte Convention Center and NASCAR Hall of Fame and a breach that took place at one of our tenant spaces at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Buffalo Wild Wings.”

    Despite the damage and ongoing protests, the hall is open today.

    “We do have events scheduled to take place in the Charlotte Convention Center and NASCAR Hall of Fame today and in the coming days,” it added.

    “The safety of these meeting attendees who have traveled significant distances to convene in Charlotte is especially important to us and we’re working to take appropriate security precautions in collaboration with our partners at CMPD.”

    Protesters broke into and looted the Charlotte Hornets official team store at the Time Warner Cable Arena last night. Photo: @wsoctv
    Vandals broke into and looted the Charlotte Hornets official team store at the Time Warner Cable Arena last night. Photo: @wsoctv

    The NASCAR Hall of Fame wasn’t the only sports facility that was damaged in last night’s protests. The official team shop for the Charlotte Hornets at the Time Warner Cable Arena was broken into and looted.

    The protests were sparked in response to the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, by police in the parking lot of an apartment complex near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

    The officer who shot him, Bentley Vinson, 26, is also black.

    Charlotte police haven’t released video of the shooting but say that Scott had a gun and refused orders to stand down.

    The protests started out peaceful in uptown Charlotte, but slowly turned violent yesterday and injuries to bystanders, protesters and police, and property damage were sustained.

  • The White Zone: The current penalty structure inadvertently incentivizes cheating

    The White Zone: The current penalty structure inadvertently incentivizes cheating

    “The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to unload on the deterrent system NASCAR has for the penalty structure and how it inadvertently incentivizes cheating.

    This past Wednesday, NASCAR made changes to the penalty structure to give it more teeth and discourage attempts of cheating.

    Among the changes included adding a stiffer penalty for cars that fail LIS inspection and are deemed “encumbered.”

    “The changes are made to assure that we have a level playing field and make sure that there’s not a carrot out there for the team to have excessive violations when it comes to lug nuts and the LIS post-race measurements,” Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, told NASCAR.com. “As we worked with those penalties during the season we realized we probably needed to have a little bit more in place as Chase time rolled around.

    “The Chase obviously changes a lot of scenarios for both NASCAR and the teams; it’s ramped up the intensity and there is a lot of scrutiny, as there is every week on everything (involving) technical infractions. This is really just a matter of us putting something in place so that should something happen, we have a means to effectively deal with it.”

    A few hours after the checkered flag flew on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, it was announced that the winning No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson had failed post-race LIS inspection.

    However, and this is where we get to my biggest problem with the penalty structure, the 78 car was not considered “encumbered” so he therefor gets to keep the win and the benefits of said win.

    If you don’t understand all that technical babble, it basically translates to, “The 78 car was illegal, but not too illegal. So Truex gets to keep the benefits of his win.”

    These teams have inadvertently been given license to cheat, but not too much that it’ll really bite them. Sure a 10 or 15-point penalty might bite Johnson in the ass when the checkered flag flies at Dover, but a points penalty means nothing in the case of Truex. It doesn’t matter if you take away all his points. His win means he’s locked into the next round.

    In essence, NASCAR has inadvertently incentivized cheating.

    Think about it. With the current wording of the rulebook, especially in regards to LIS failure, a team is essentially rewarded for finding ways to make a car illegal enough to fail inspection, but not enough to have the benefits of the win taken away.

    If you don’t believe me, here’s a tweet from producer Tyler Burnett of the Motor Racing Network.

    I’m not accusing the 78 team of cheating and I have no proof that they are. I only presented the above tweet to show how their LIS failure could be interpreted as “cheating.” However, they don’t help their case of not being perceived as “cheating” when Truex was explicitly told to swerve and this is the second straight week the 78 car has failed post-race inspection.

    It was bound to happen one of these years. NASCAR has always been hesitant to take away wins because they want the at track audience to know who won when they saw it.

    Maybe that made sense when newspapers were the main source of news, but the date this piece was published is September 18th, 2016. We now live in the internet age where communication with other people is almost instantaneous. And while I do still value the work of newspapers, news can be broken within seconds of an event happening via Twitter.

    I’ll be very damn interested in what Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice-president and chief racing development officer, has to say about this tomorrow in his appearance on “The Morning Drive” because I’d love to know how “encumbered” could be interpreted as anything other than “his car wasn’t illegal enough.”

    My plane is about to take off, so I must wrap this up.

    THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS PIECE ARE SOLELY THOSE OF TUCKER WHITE. THEY MAY OR MAY NOT REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF SPEEDWAYMEDIA.COM.

  • Good Day Goes Sour for Jimmie Johnson

    Good Day Goes Sour for Jimmie Johnson

    Jimmie Johnson showed the world that he was ready to fight for his seventh championship this season with a dominant drive in the Windy City, and then it turned sour.

    The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was on pit road when the caution flew for the first time on lap 49. He beat race leader Martin Truex Jr. to the start/finish line to stay on the lead lap. As an added bonus, he opted not to pit under the caution and assumed the race lead.

    For the next 130 laps, Johnson had the field in check. He led a race-high of 118 laps and only lost the lead when he pitted during cycles of green flag pit stops. A caution in between didn’t throw him off his game and he just kept on trucking.

    It was nearing the final quarter of the race, however, when he lost control of the race to teammate Chase Elliott on lap 182.

    He remained near the front running in the top-five coming to the final round of green flag stops with around 30 to go. After he made his pit stop, he was black-flagged for speeding on pit road and assessed a pass-through penalty.

    He rejoined the race down a lap.

    A caution with five laps to go put him back on the lead lap and he came home 12th.

    “Yeah, very proud of this Lowe’s team, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports,” Johnson said. “We are digging. I’m just… I just can’t believe I got in trouble down there leaving the pits. I feel terrible for these guys. It should have been a top-five day, but I will back down on pit road even more and try not to make that mistake. Hats off to the team for our fast Lowe’s Chevrolet, I just screwed up.”

    The 118 laps he led were the most he led in a race this season.

    To add insult to injury, Johnson’s car failed post-race LIS inspection. Any penalty resulting from this will be announced on Wednesday.

    Johnson tentatively leaves Chicagoland eighth in points trailing Truex by 13 points.

  • Close, but No Cigar for Chase Elliott in Chicago

    Close, but No Cigar for Chase Elliott in Chicago

    After an ill-timed caution in the closing laps, Chase Elliott went from leading the race to out of position and lost another potential victory.

    The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet took control of the race from teammate Jimmie Johnson on lap 182. From that point on, he thoroughly commanded the race, only losing the lead during the final cycle of green flag pit stops.

    Martin Truex Jr. was hot on his tail in the closing laps but wasn’t gaining the ground needed to catch him. Even Truex admitted this in his post-race media availability.

    “I feel for Chase,” Truex said. “I know what he’s going through. He did a great job. I wasn’t going to catch him. I was catching him, but I was not catching him enough to pass him in five more laps. So I know what he’s going through. But obviously he did a good job and they were really fast today. We had to come from behind.

    “No, to answer your question straight up, I don’t think we were going to be able to pass him unless he got loose or made a mistake. We weren’t catching him quick enough. That last run, I got pretty loose for some reason, having trouble getting off the corner. I was really struggling to run him down.

    Then a shredded right rear tire from Michael McDowell’s car brought out the caution with five laps to go and changed the entire race.

    When asked what went through his mind when the caution flew just as he had the race locked up, he said “nothing is yours until it’s over. I mean that is part of life man. You are not dumb, we have all watched this stuff long enough we know these races don’t go green that long. We see more cautions come out at the end of these races than we do not. That is just part of it, you’ve got to expect it and be able to embrace it and move forward. I feel like we did a good job controlling the things that we could control today.”

    Elliott and all but three cars elected to pit, and Truex exited pit road first.

    “Well if one less guy had stayed out then we would have been fourth,” Elliott said. “You never know how things are going to play out. Obviously, you hate to lose a spot on pit road, but our guys did a good job all day. They were solid and those are the kind of days we have to have on pit road. We will take it as motivation and move forward.”

    Elliott was unable to make it past Joey Logano in the final two laps and had to settle for third.

    During his post-race media availability, he was asked if the outcome was easier to accept than it was at Michigan.

    “No, there is no easy outcome,” he said. “You know, it’s unfortunate. You hate to have it happen. As you get faced with these situations more than once, I think you learn. You learn from situation to situation. But like I said, I felt like we did a good job as a team today trying to control the things that we could control. And you can’t control when a caution is going to come out. Granted, you can expect one a lot of the time, but you can’t control when it’s going to happen, and you certainly can’t control how many guys are going to stay out on tires and try to make something happen at the end of a race. That’s just a part of life, part of racing.”

    Despite the missed opportunity, Elliott added to his eight top fives and 14 top-10 finishes on the 2016 season. He also leaves sixth in the standings just 11 points out of first-place.

  • It’s ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ for Truex

    It’s ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ for Truex

    Despite a flat right-rear tire early in the race, Martin Truex Jr. fought back to score the victory in the Windy City.

    Under clear blue skies, Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 2:49 p.m. He held the lead for the first 21 laps before Truex powered by to take it on lap 23. A round of green flag stops started on lap 48, but was cut short by a rogue tire that came from the stall of Aric Almirola and brought out the first caution of the race on lap 49. This was a major point in the race as Jimmie Johnson was on pit road when the caution flew, crossed the start/finish line before Truex and remained on the lead lap. Kevin Harvick, who worked his way from 38th to eighth, did not and was trapped a lap down.

    The race restarted on lap 56 with Johnson in the lead. Truex made an unscheduled stop for a flat right-rear tire on lap 70. He was running second at the time and rejoined the race in 21st.

    Green flag pit stops were the game play of the day as the next round of stops commenced on lap 103. Johnson pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Brad Keselowski. He pitted the next lap and the lead cycled back to Johnson.

    The second caution of the race flew on lap 119 for Brian Scott getting loose and spinning out in turn 4 as he was trying to get down onto pit road.

    After the race restarted on lap 126, it settled into “ride around until the next round of stops.” The next round of stops came at lap 172. Johnson pitted from the lead that lap, Keselowski pitted from the lead two laps later and the lead cycled back to Johnson.

    Chase Elliott took the race lead for the first time on lap 182 about 11 laps before debris on the backstretch brought out the third caution of the race on lap 193.

    Not much happened after the race went green on lap 199 until the final round of green flag stops began with 33 laps to go. The lead went as follows: Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman and back to Elliott.

    A shredded right-front tire on the No. 95 of Michael McDowell brought out the fourth caution of the race with five laps to go and forced overtime. Everyone except Blaney, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards pitted under the caution. Truex exited ahead of Elliott on pit road.

    The race restarted with two laps to go. Blaney was no match on older tires for Truex on newer tires. Truex made easy work of passing him on the backstretch and drove on to score the victory in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400.

    “Oh my goodness, I guess the racing gods don’t want us to lead too much,” Truex said. “What can I say about everyone at Furniture Row Racing, Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Bass Pro Shops, Denver Mattresses – just everybody that makes this possible – Sprint, the fans have given us a ton of support, not only over the years but the last two has definitely helped us. This feels good.”

    It’s Truex’s sixth career victory in 396 Sprint Cup Series starts, third of 2016, first at Chicagoland Speedway, 13th top-10 finish of the season and third top-10 finish in 11 races at Chicagoland.

    “It’s just unbelievable,” he added. “Proud of the effort by my guys – that’s why you never give up and you fight until the end no matter what. We had just an unbelievable race car today and led a bunch in the beginning. We had that tire issue and I knew it wasn’t over and there was a long way to go. Guys kept their heads in it and kept it up at the end when it counted. It was a total team effort. I am more proud of these guys – more proud to drive their race cars. It’s just unbelievable to start the Chase this way. We have been so good all year long with winning a few weeks ago at Darlington and I felt like that gave us some momentum to just continue that this weekend.”

    Truex’s car failed post-race LIS inspection and any penalty resulting from this will be announced Wednesday.

    Joey Logano came home runner-up in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    “It was awesome execution by the 22 team,” Logano said of his race. “From every angle. We had a very fast race car and were awesome on pit road. You want to talk about pressure, not just Chase pressure, but coming down at the end of the race to try to win, they executed and had an awesome pit stop and beat the 11 out and ultimately gives us a second place finish. I couldn’t be more proud of the team and the way we executed and attacked today. We will take this momentum and run with it the next nine weeks.”

    It’s his 19th top-10 finish in 2016 and fourth in eight races at Chicagoland.

    Elliott led 75 laps on his way to rounding out the podium in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    Asked what was going through his mind when the caution came out when it appeared the race was his, he said “nothing is yours until it’s over. I mean that is part of life man. You are not dumb, we have all watched this stuff long enough we know these races don’t go green that long. We see more cautions come out at the end of these races than we do not. That is just part of it, you’ve got to expect it and be able to embrace it and move forward. I feel like we did a good job controlling the things that we could control today.

    “Like I said, there are some things you just can’t control with the amount of guys that stay out and where you line up on a restart,” he added. “We played the cards we were dealt and came up short.”

    Blaney led eight laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

    “It was a long day for us for sure,” Blaney said. “We passed a lot of cars. We didn’t start good. We started 22nd and worked on the car all It paid off since we finished a little bit better than we were going to. That’s a true testament to this team. We didn’t start off great but worked on the car all day. Taking a risk like that. Sometimes they don’t pay off. This one did. It was a good run for us. Hopefully we can do something like that in the next 10 weeks.”

    Asked how difficult it was to stay out on old tires, Blaney said it “wasn’t difficult at all. We kind of made that decision before everyone else came and we had nothing to lose as far as points. I wish a couple more cars stayed out. You never know. Those guys were on me so fast. We had a really good car all day. We started way back in the field and made it up there pretty quickly. We got our car decent at the end. We gambled and I prefer to do that. I prefer to take a gamble to stay out and try to hold those guys off.”

    Keselowski led seven laps on his way to rounding out the top-five in his No. 2 Penske Ford.

    Denny Hamlin led two laps on his way to a sixth-place finish in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Kahne finished seventh in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet. Busch led 21 laps on his way to an eighth-place finish in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Matt Kenseth finished ninth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Bowman led six laps on his way to rounding out the top-10 in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet.

    Jamie McMurray finished 11th, Jimmie Johnson led a race high of 118 laps on his way to a 12th place finish, Kurt Busch finished 13th, Austin Dillon finished 14th, Carl Edwards finished 15th, Tony Stewart finished 16th, Kyle Larson finished 18th, Harvick finished 20th and Chris Buescher rounded out the Chase drivers in 28th.

    Johnson’s car also failed post-race LIS inspection. Any penalty resulting from this will be announced on Wednesday.

    The race lasted two hours, 47 minutes and 24 seconds at an average speed of 145.161 mph. There were 17 lead changes among nine different drivers and four cautions for 22 laps.

    Truex leaves with a one point lead over Keselowski in the points standings.

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