Category: Race Central

In only his second start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ty Dillon took the famed black No. 3 car of his grandfather, Richard Childress, to victory lane in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Lilly Diabetes 250.

The race was Dillon’s 31st NNS start and he also won the “Dash 4 Cash,” pocketing an extra $100,000 bonus for the win.

The Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet started in the third position and ran among the leaders most of the day before leading the final 24 laps of the race.  Dillon lost his air conditioning in the opening laps of the race and said afterwards, “I was definitely pushed. My AC went out before I think we even took the green, so I could already feel it getting hot. I knew I could make it through it for sure, but when Kyle Busch is on you, pushing you as hard as you can go, that guy doesn’t mess up, so I knew I had to be perfect every lap. That definitely takes a lot more out of you.”

Busch, driving the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, led 10 laps before settling for a second place finish. Busch started the race from the pole but never led until later in the race before being overtaken by Dillon on a restart with 24 laps to go. When asked about the restart, Kyle said, “I slipped and he got right by me. Just drove right underneath me. That was the race right there. I could maintain with him. If I could have been out front I probably could have held him off.”

Matt Kenseth, driving the No. 20 Resers Toyota, started in the second position and finished third leading eight laps during the day. “The strategy was good. The caution fell at the right time and we could make it on fuel. We were a little off from the best couple cars, but we got our track position there and got a decent finish,” said Kenseth after the race.

Kevin Harvick started the race in the fourth position and finished in the same spot after leading the most laps in the No. 5 Morton Buildings Chevrolet. Harvick took the lead from Matt Kenseth early in the day and would lead three times for 33 laps.

Joey Logano finished in the fifth position driving the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. After the race, Logano said, “Whoever gets out front is gonna win the race. That’s how this place is and that’s why strategy and restarts are so important to make up as much time as you can because it’s just one lane around here.” Logano led twice for 21 laps and was strong throughout the day.

Chase Elliott, who won his third race of the season last weekend and leads the series points standings by four over his teammate Regan Smith, finished in the 12th position. Smith finished in 10th place.

There were nine lead changes among six different drivers and a total of three cautions for 17 laps.

by NascarMedia

Accomplishing feats uncharacteristic for a rookie, Chase Elliott won again, leading 85 of 200 laps en route to his third win of the season in Saturday’s EnjoyIllinois.com 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Elliott took the lead for the fourth and final time on Lap 177 and held on for the final 23 laps, winning by 1.7 seconds. The NNS Sunoco Rookie of the Year frontrunner ties Kyle Busch for most wins in the series thus far this season, each with three visits to Victory Lane in the first 19 races.

“This is an unbelievable night,” Elliott said. “We were fortunate enough to be in contention on that last pit stop, the guys busted their butts for me and that was the deciding factor. We all as a team, we completed our task tonight. And that was the difference.”

Trevor Bayne finished second, followed by Kyle Larson, Kasey Kahne and Ty Dillon.

“We got our car turning there at the end,” Bayne said. “That’s probably the strongest weekend we’ve had in a while. Had it stayed green for another 15, we might have had it, but that’s 15 laps we’ll never know about.”

Added Larson, “I thought we had a real good car. I had some fun, just frustrating coming in third when I thought we had a real good chance to win.”
As for Dillon, “I’ve got a feeling that we can keep doing this as the year goes on,” he said. “The car was coming to me there at the end.”

In addition to the race winner, Kahne was the second JR Motorsports driver in the top five. It almost didn’t happen for Kahne, who brushed the wall late that did just enough damage to keep him from making a last-ditch run towards the front.

Pole-sitter Brian Scott earned $100,000 in the Nationwide Insurance Dash 4 Cash for finishing sixth, ahead of fellow D4C competitors Chris Buescher (eighth), Elliott Sadler (10th) and Regan Smith (16th).

Seventh through 10th were Erik Jones (in his NNS debut), Buescher, Ryan Blaney and Sadler.

Smith, who was the points leader coming into the race, struggled with a loose car and finished with a disappointing 16th showing.

Elliott’s win also vaulted him from third to the top of the Nationwide points standings. He now leads Smith by seven points and Sadler by eight points.

A series of green-flag pit stops around Lap 161 shuffled the field with teams hoping they could make it to the finish without it turning into a fuel-mileage race.

Bayne took the lead at Lap 161 when the leaders made stops for service and held on until he had to come in on Lap 176 for four tires and fuel. Elliott inherited the lead, and kept it for the remainder of the race.Pole-sitter Scott led 20 laps early on before Ryan Blaney, Elliott and Larson took their turns ahead of the field.

Sam Hornish Jr., who started at the back of the field due to unapproved adjustments, quickly worked his way up to the middle of the pack only to have uncharacteristic engine failure in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that ended his night just eight laps into the event, finishing 36th in the 40-car field.

“It felt like we were going to have a really good day and felt like this was going to be a race where we had opportunity to lead laps and potentially win,” Hornish told ESPN.

Two winners were declared at the end of Saturday’s race. One was the winner of the StaGreen200, the other won $100,000. Brad Keselowski, driver of the 22 Hertz Ford was able to pull away from Kyle Busch and win the race from the pole position. Regan Smith was able to stay ahead of the 16 of Ryan Reed and was able to win himself and JR Motorsports $100,000 in the Dash4Cash program.

The race started with Brad Keselowski jumping ahead of the pack on lap one and Kyle Busch taking the lead promptly on lap two. The race was pretty dicey from the get go and the first caution came out on lap five when Trevor Bayne smacked the wall and had a left rear tire go down.

The race resumed on lap 10 and Kyle Busch predictably was able to keep the lead even as Josh Wise lost power and stalled on the backstretch and brought out the second caution.

During this caution, Matt DiBenedetto replaced Jeffrey Earnhardt in the 4 machine. Earnhardt is still recovering from a broken collarbone suffered in a motorcycle crash a few weeks back.

The race returned and stayed green on lap 18, and Busch once again beat the field to the line and was able to keep first place.

The running order stayed mostly the same until lap 35, when after a hard fought battle, Keselowski used a lapped car for a tactical advantage (having Kyle Busch stuck behind it) and passed Busch for the lead. By lap 40, Keselowski was able to gain an advantage of over a second on Busch. By lap 58, he extended his lead to over two seconds.

All was as calm as it could be, no cautions waved, and no one made any major moves, and green flag pit stops began on lap 77 when Jake Crum very nearly ran out of fuel, and Landon Cassil followed him down.

On lap 81 Chase Elliot came down pit road, but stalled and ultimately ended up a lap down when the running order was normal again.

‘Normal’ meaning Keselowski resumed the lead and Busch continued to trail behind as Keselowski continued to put cars a lap down. By lap 91 only eight cars were on the lead lap.

Caution number three came out on lap 92 when debris was spotted in turn one. Ryan Reed was the beneficiary of Aaron’s Lucky Dog and was suddenly back in contention for the Dash4Cash award.

The green flag came back out six laps later, and Keselowski continued to lead as Busch began to fall back. By the next caution on lap 102, Busch had fallen back to fifth.

This caution came out after Paul Menard became a little loose from a bump into Chase Elliot and proceeded to hit the wall. There wasn’t any major damage and after a quick cleanup the race resumed on lap 107.

Under the caution, Busch was one of a few to pit after he described his car as ‘wrecking loose.’ Taking into account the fact that only nine cars were on the lead lap at the time of the caution, Busch didn’t lose too many positions.

The biggest cleanup of the race came during the restart on lap 107. Elliot Sadler was spun by Brian Scott and oncoming traffic was collected. Paul Menard, James Buescher, Dakoda Armstrong, Carlos Contreras, and Austin Theriault were also involved.

On lap 113 Kyle Larson led the field back to green. By this time, Busch’s car came back to life as he began his drive back to the front. Keselowski began to start picking off the car lengths between him and race leader Larson. While things were heating up in the front of the pack, a little farther back, the racing for the lucky dog position was intense. At one point, Ty Dillon nearly spun out. He did save the car, but lost a few positions in the process.

On lap 119, Keselowski was able to get past Larson, while Busch and Matt Kenseth began to pressure Larson from behind as well. Both drivers were able to get by Larson, and Busch continued to try and eat away at Keselowski’s lead.

The race was once again calm up until lap 140 when the caution came out again. This caution was for debris in turn three. The battle for the lucky dog was won by Chase Elliot, but a majority of those fighting for the position took a wave around.

Many drivers came down pit road under this caution and Keselowski, Busch, and Kenseth beat everyone out. Despite the fact that he came back out first, Keselowski would not restart first under this caution, rather Chris Buescher would, after he decided to stay out.

Chris Buescher might have been first at the line on the restart, but Keselowski, along with Busch and Larson passed him, relegating him to fourth.

The race stayed quiet until the end. Despite his best efforts, Busch was never able to catch up to Keselowski, and Keselowski finished first and Busch second.

Kenseth was third, followed by Larson and Chris Buescher.

The points remained the same in the top three as Smith continues to lead Elliot Sadler and Chase Elliot.

Regan Smith won this week’s Dash4Cash making him, along with Chris Buescher, Elliot Sadler, and Brian Scott eligible for the Dash4Cash next weekend at Chicago.