Kyle Larson was fasted in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Phoenix Raceway and claimed the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500. He led the session in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a 130.237 mph lap, earning his second career pole at Phoenix and his 15th career pole.
Larson also topped the practice session Friday and explained the significance of starting on the pole at the one-mile track.
“It means a lot,” Larson said. “Qualifying is really important here. We got the pole in 2021 and that really helped us win the championship race. Joey (Logano) had an extremely fast car in the fall last year, but he got the pole as well and won. So I think that number one pit stall means a lot.
“Happy to be quick this weekend,” he added, “quick in practice and have it translate to qualifying.”
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin was second fastest (129.931 mph) followed by Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron (129.922 mph). Brad Keselowski will start fourth in the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford (129.762 mph) and JGR’s Christopher Bell rounded out the top five at in his JGR Toyota (129.580 mph).
Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones completed the top-10 in qualifying.
The United Rentals Work United 500 is scheduled for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX with radio coverage by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
In an event dominated by a trio of Hendrick Motorsports competitors, William Byron benefitted from a two-tire pit strategy during a late caution period to win the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in overtime on Sunday, March 5.
The 25-year-old Byron from Charlotte, North Carolina, led five times for a race-high 176 of 271 over-scheduled laps in an event where he swept both stages and kept his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports entry upfront throughout the event. In the closing laps, however, he found himself trailing teammate Kyle Larson by more than two seconds.
Initially set for a runner-up finish, Byron and crew chief Rudy Fugle seized an opportunity when Aric Almirola drew a caution with four laps remaining by opting for two fresh tires and exiting pit road ahead of Larson. From there, Byron battled Martin Truex Jr., who remained on the track on old tires, through three turns before rocketing away from the field and cruising to the first victory of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season for himself and for Hendrick Motorsports.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Joey Logano recorded his first Cup pole of the season and the 27th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 186.053 mph in 29.024 seconds. Joining him on the front row was William Byron, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 185.153 mph in 29.165 seconds.
Prior to the event, Tyler Reddick dropped to the rear of the field after making an engine change to his No. 45 23XI Racing entry along with Harrison Burton, who competed in a backup car after wrecking his primary car during Saturday’s practice session. BJ McLeod also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his car.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Logano checked out with a strong start on the inside lane as he retained the lead for a full cycle before leading the first lap while the field behind fanned out and jostled for positions. With Logano leading, Byron battled and fended off Ryan Blaney for the runner-up spot while Kyle Larson was in fourth ahead of Ross Chastain, rookie Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.
Then on the 10th lap, Byron tracked and overtook Logano with a strong move entering Turns 3 and 4 to assume the lead. Larson would soon follow in the runner-up spot while Logano fell back to third in front of Chastain and Blaney.
Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson followed by Chastain, Christopher Bell and Hamlin while Logano, Blaney, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. Behind, Bubba Wallace was in 11th ahead of Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick while Alex Bowman and Austin Cindric were running in the top 15. Meanwhile, Erik Jones was in 16th ahead of Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Aric Almirola and Daniel Suarez while Josh Berry, who was filling in the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the injured Chase Elliott, was mired back in 29th. By then, Gibbs had fallen back to 22nd, Chase Briscoe was in 25th, Harrison Burton was mired in 28th and Austin Dillon was back in 31st.
Then on Lap 32, Blaney, who was running in 10th place, pitted his No. 12 Pennzoil/Menards Ford Mustang under green. Blaney’s pit stop commenced the first cycle of green flag pit stops as Truex pitted followed by Hamlin, Cindric, Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, Gibbs, rookie Noah Gragson, Logano, Harvick, Bell and Kyle Busch, who got into the backstretch’s outside wall a few laps earlier and had fallen out of the top 10. The leader Byron would soon pit on Lap 37 followed by teammate Larson as Keselowski cycled to the lead for a lap before he too pitted and gave the lead to Reddick. Following the pit stops, Michael McDowell and Gragson were penalized for speeding on pit road. Gragson’s event, however, went from bad to worse when he was penalized for speeding again while serving his first speeding penalty. Gibbs was also penalized for having too many crew members over the pit wall during his pit stop.
By Lap 41 and with the first round of green flag pit stops completed, Byron cycled his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back into the lead followed by teammate Larson while Chastain, Bell and Hamlin were in the top five. By then, Keselowski was up in sixth place followed by Truex while Wallace, Kyle Busch and Logano were in the top 10.
At the Lap 50 mark, Byron was out in front by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Larson followed by Chastain, Bell and Hamlin, all of whom, retained their respective spots in the top five while Keselowski, Truex, Wallace, Kyle Busch and Logano continued to run in the top 10. Behind, Blaney was in 11th while Reddick was up in 12th after starting at the rear of the field. Meanwhile, Harvick was in 14th in front of Erik Jones, Suarez was back in 18th and the following names that included Briscoe, Josh Berry and Austin Dillon were mired as the last competitors on the lead lap from 25th to 27th.
Fifteen laps later, Byron continued to lead by half a second over teammate Larson, who was slowly gaining ground on his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, while Chastain, Bell and Hamlin remained in the top five. By then, Keselowski had fallen back to 10th while Truex, Wallace, Kyle Busch and Bowman moved up to sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. In addition, Reddick was in 11th while Team Penske’s Logano and Blaney fell back to 12th and 15th.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 80, Byron claimed his first stage victory of the 2023 Cup season after retaining the lead by four-tenths of a second over teammate Larson, who settled in second. Chastain settled in third ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell and Hamlin while Truex, Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch and Keselowski were scored in the top 10. By then, 22 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while names that included Preece, Berry, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Briscoe, Burton, McDowell and Gibbs were trapped a lap down.
Under the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Byron pitted and Byron retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Larson, Hamlin, Chastain, Truex and Bell. During the pit stops, Reddick, who pitted from 11th, was blocked by AJ Allmendinger and had to back up to leave his pit stall, thus dropping him to 20th.
The second stage started on Lap 89 as teammates Byron and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Byron rocketed with the lead ahead of teammate Larson as the field fanned out behind while jostling for positions. With Byron slowly checking out with a stable lead, Larson was being intimidated by Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Bell, Truex and Chastain jostled for fourth. Behind, Bowman challenged Wallace for seventh while Keselowski and Erik Jones were in the top 10.
Through the first 100 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson followed by Chastain while Bell, Bowman and Truex were in the top six. Meanwhile, Hamlin fell back to seventh in front of Wallace while Keselowski and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10. Behind, Harvick was in 12th, Logano was still mired in 14th, Blaney was back in 17th behind Suarez and Cindric was running in 22nd, with 23 competitors scored on the lead lap. By then, on-track troubles ensued for a number of competitors running towards the middle and the rear of the field, among which included Gibbs who sustained left-front damage to his car and Berry making contact with the backstretch’s outside wall. Suarez and Buescher also encountered issues after they made contact with one another.
Twenty laps later, Byron extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Larson while their third teammate Bowman was up in third, trailing by more than seven seconds, in front of Bell and Truex while Chastain fell back to sixth in front of Hamlin.
Shortly after, Buescher pitted under green while most of the front-runners remained on the track. Then on Lap 124, Truex commenced the second wave of green flag pit stops as he pitted followed by teammate Bell, Chastain, Wallace, Keselowski and a bevy of competitors. Larson would also pit by Lap 126 along with Hamlin while Byron and Bowman pitted during the following lap. Once the second wave of green flag pit stops was completed, Byron cycled back to the lead by more than two seconds over teammate Larson while Bell, Bowman and Chastain were running in the top five.
At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Byron was leading by more than two seconds over teammate Larson followed by Bell, Bowman and Chastain while Wallace, Truex, Keselowski, Hamlin and Kyle Busch were competing in the top 10. By then, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while names like McDowell, Gibbs, Berry, Austin Dillon, Gragson, Burton, Briscoe and Stenhouse were not on the lead lap.
By Lap 150, Byron stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over teammate Larson and more than eight seconds over teammate Bowman, thus placing three Hendrick Motorsports competitors on the podium spots. By then, Bell and Truex were running in the top five while Wallace, who briefly ran in the top five a few laps earlier, was back in sixth in front of Chastain, Hamlin, Keselowski and Kyle Busch.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 165, Byron notched his second consecutive stage victory of the 2023 Cup season and of the event. Teammate Larson settled in second in front of teammate Bowman while Truex, Bell, Wallace, Chastain, Hamlin, Keselowski and Harvick were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the lead lap competitors led by Byron returned to pit road for service and Byron retained the lead upon exiting pit road followed by teammates Larson and Bowman while Truex, Chastain and Bell exited in fourth through sixth, respectively. During the pit stops, Kyle Busch had issues exiting his pit stall while situated behind Reddick’s car, which was blocking Busch’s, as he dropped to 15th.
With 94 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as teammates Byron and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Byron muscled ahead on the inside lane and pulled away through the first two turns in front of Larson while Bowman settled in third. Behind, Truex was in fourth while Wallace battled Bell, Chastain, Suarez and Hamlin within the top 10. Wallace and Bell would continue to engage in a fierce side-by-side battle for fifth place while Suarez closed in on both.
Then with 84 laps remaining, the caution flew when Logano, who was engaged in a tight three-wide battle with Keselowski and Kyle Busch for spots in the top 15, made slight contact with Keselowski as he smacked the outside wall entering Turn 4 before spinning his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang across the grass while barely avoiding Stenhouse. Despite limping his car back to his pit stall, Logano’s pit crew exceeded the seven-minute Damaged Vehicle Policy rule while trying to repair the No. 22 entry, which ended his long afternoon in the garage.
During the caution period, the leaders led by Byron returned to pit road and Hamlin emerged with the lead following a two-tire pit stop. Bowman exited in second place and as the first competitor with four fresh tires while Larson, Byron, Suarez, Truex and Wallace followed suit. During the pit stops, Erik Jones backed up his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club entry to return to his pit stall to tighten a loose left-front wheel.
With 78 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green as Hamlin and Bowman occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin maintained the lead while the field behind fanned out to three lanes through the backstretch. In the process, Truex, who pulled a bold three-wide move through the backstretch, moved up to second followed by Bowman and Larson while Byron was back in sixth behind Chastain. Shortly after, however, the Hendrick trio of Bowman, Larson and Byron overtook Truex as they launched their charge on Hamlin.
Then with 71 laps remaining, Larson, who stalked and battled with Hamlin for the top spot, succeeded in grabbing the lead from Hamlin while Chastain battled and overtook Bowman and Byron for third. Behind, Reddick was in sixth and was in the process of grabbing more against the Hendrick drivers before he got loose toward the outside lane and wall between Turns 1 and 2, which dropped him to 10th. As the series of battles ensued around the track continued, Harvick was up in sixth behind Byron, Bowman and Truex while Chastain fell back in seventh in front of Wallace and Suarez.
With 60 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than a second over Hamlin while Byron, Bowman and Truex were scored in the top five. Chastain was in sixth while Harvick, Wallace, Blaney and Suarez occupied the top 10 in front of Reddick, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Keselowski and Aric Almirola. Meanwhile, Bell, who restarted 10th during the previous restart, was back in 20th after reporting a vibration to his No. 20 SiriusXM Toyota TRD Camry.
With less than 50 laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by six-tenths of a second in front of Hamlin while third-place Byron trailed by more than two seconds. Bowman remained in fourth followed by Truex while Chastain, Harvick, Blaney, Wallace and Suarez battled in the top 10. Shortly after, another round of green flag pit stops ensued as Hamlin pitted followed by the leader Larson. Truex would also pit along with Kyle Busch, Harvick, Austin Dillon, Byron, Chastain, Reddick, Erik Jones, Wallace, Suarez and others. During the pit stops, Gragson was busted for speeding on pit road for a third time in the event.
Back on the track with less than 45 laps remaining, Keselowski, who had yet to pit, was leading followed by Larson, Hamlin, Byron and Truex, all of whom pitted earlier. Keselowski, however, would pit with 40 laps remaining as Larson cycled back to the lead by more than a second over Hamlin and more than two seconds over Byron.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Larson extended his advantage to more than three seconds over teammate Byron as Hamlin fell back to third. Truex and Bowman were running in the top five while Chastain, Harvick, Wallace, Blaney and Kyle Busch contended in the top 10. By then, Suarez and Bell were back in 11th and 12th, Reddick was mired back in 15th and Keselowski fell back to 18th in front of Ty Gibbs.
With 20 laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than four seconds over teammate Byron and more than six seconds over third-place Hamlin. Larson continued to lead by more than three seconds over Byron with 10 laps remaining and by more than two seconds with five laps remaining.
Then with four laps remaining, the caution flew when Almirola got loose and slapped his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang into the outside wall in Turn 4. The caution all but erased Larson’s steady advantage of more than two seconds over Byron and sent the event into overtime. During the caution period, Truex remained on the track on old tires and inherited the lead while the rest of the leaders led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Byron, who opted for two fresh tires, edged teammate Larson to exit pit road first followed by Hamlin, Bowman, Chastain and Wallace.
At the start of the first overtime attempt, where Truex and Byron occupied the front row, Byron challenged Truex dead even through the first two turns while the field behind fanned out to three and four lanes. As Truex tried to peek ahead entering Turn 3, the two fresh tires played into the favors of Byron as he rocketed away with the lead while clearing the field.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Byron was out in front over Truex, who had Bowman, Larson, Wallace and Bell jostling behind him. Then entering the backstretch, Larson and Bowman threaded Truex through three lanes as they overtook him for second and third. By then, however, their teammate Byron was gone. With a multi-car wreck erupting on the backstretch that involved Allmendinger, Preece and McDowell, Byron remained as the leader and was able to cycle his way back to the frontstretch to claim his first checkered flag of the season.
In addition to becoming the third different winner through the first three races of the 2023 season, Byron notched his fifth career victory in NASCAR’s premier series, his first at Vegas and his first since winning at Martinsville Speedway in April 2022. He also recorded the third consecutive victory of the season for Chevrolet, the 292nd career win for Hendrick Motorsports and the 98th victory for the No. 24 in the Cup circuit.
“[I’ve] just been really confident about the group of guys that I have on this No. 24 team,” Byron said on FOX. “They work extremely hard. We spent a lot of time in the off-season just going through running at the sim [simulator] with Chevy and running on iRacing and just trying to get better as a race car driver and as a team. It’s all about the team. It’s a great pit crew. This RaptorTough.com Chevy was awesome. When we got back in traffic, it was a little bit tight, but we knew we had speed, so we just had to have the right things play out and [crew chief] Rudy [Fugle] made a good call. It was good. I knew [the pit crew] could get it done at the end. Luckily, it worked out there. Excited for the year.”
Meanwhile, Larson, who led 63 laps and was poised for the victory during the race’s scheduled distance, settled for a disappointing runner-up result. This season marks his second consecutive runner-up result in the spring Cup event at Vegas.
“It’s just part of Cup racing,” Larson said. “It seems like kind of [count] laps down, lap by lap and then, sure enough, the yellow lights come on. You just got to get over that and then try to execute a good pit stop. I thought I did a really good job getting to my pit sign and getting to the commitment line. I had a gap to William behind me. Their pit crew must have just did a really good job and got him in front of us. That gave up the front row to us, so I knew I was in trouble with [Truex] staying out. I felt like William was gonna get by him. Just a bummer that we didn’t end up the winner, but all in all, William probably had a little better car than I had today. Their pit crew executed when they needed to at the end.”
Bowman came home in third place, thus placing three Hendrick Motorsports competitors in the top three, while Bubba Wallace capped off a strong run by finishing fourth and achieving his first top-five run of the season following two consecutive DNFs. Bell rallied late to complete the top five in fifth while Cindric, Truex, Justin Haley, Harvick and Suarez finished in the top 10.
“If you can somehow get a good restart, get to the white flag and they crash, you can win the [race],” Truex said. “It almost happened. We were second at the white, we were second into Turn 1 on the last lap and just got tight and got into a bad spot off of [Turn] 2. Lost momentum down the [backstretch]. All in all, it was a solid day for our Bass Pro Shops Camry TRD. Everybody did a good job. I think we were about a third-place car or maybe fourth. Just a good solid day. We’re in Vegas. We might as well roll the dice and like everybody says, you come here to gamble. We gave up a few spots, but all in all, it was a solid day.”
Notably, Josh Berry finished 29th while filling in for the injured Chase Elliott. In addition, Hamlin ended up 11th in front of Chastain, Blaney rallied for 13th, Kyle Busch ended up 14th in front of Reddick, Keselowski settled in 17th and Ty Gibbs ended up as the highest-finishing rookie in 22nd.
There were 13 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 26 laps. Only 18 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2023 Cup Series season, Ross Chastain continues to lead the regular-season standings by three points over Alex Bowman, 21 over Kevin Harvick, 25 over Daniel Suarez, 27 over Martin Truex Jr. and 30 over Denny Hamlin.
Results:
1. William Byron, 176 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
2. Kyle Larson, 63 laps led
3. Alex Bowman, two laps led
4. Bubba Wallace
5. Christopher Bell
6. Austin Cindric
7. Martin Truex Jr., three laps led
8. Justin Haley
9. Kevin Harvick
10. Daniel Suarez
11. Denny Hamlin, 10 laps led
12. Ross Chastain
13. Ryan Blaney
14. Kyle Busch
15. Tyler Reddick, three laps led
16. Aric Almirola
17. Brad Keselowski, five laps led
18. AJ Allmendinger
19. Erik Jones, one lap down
20. Corey LaJoie, one lap down
21. Chris Buescher, one lap down
22. Ty Gibbs, one lap down
23. Ryan Preece, one lap down
24. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down
25. Michael McDowell, one lap down
26. Harrison Burton, two laps down
27. Austin Dillon, two laps down
28. Chase Briscoe, two laps down
29. Josh Berry, two laps down
30. Noah Gragson, two laps down
31. Todd Gilliland, three laps down
32. BJ McLeod, five laps down
33. JJ Yeley, six laps down
34. Ty Dillon, six laps down
35. Cody Ware, 12 laps down
36. Joey Logano – OUT, DVP, nine laps led
Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, for the series’ third and final stretch of a three-race West Coast swing. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 12, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
From trailing rookie Chandler Smith by nearly three seconds with 25 laps remaining to narrowing the deficit and overtaking him prior to the final lap, Austin Hill cashed in with his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season in the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 4.
The 28-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led three times for 19 of 200-scheduled laps, including the final two, as he overtook Smith for the lead prior to the final lap. Smith, who led a race-high 118 laps but had an advantage of nearly three seconds erased in the closing laps, was then overtaken by Justin Allgaier for the runner-up spot as Allgaier, who had been penalized earlier for a restart violation, tried to steal the victory away on the final lap. Time, however, fell in the favor of Hill as he held off a hard-charging Allgaier to steal the spotlight with his second victory through the series’ first three events of the season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, rookie Chandler Smith notched his first Xfinity career pole after posting a pole-winning lap at 183.119 mph in 29.489 seconds. Joining him on the front row was veteran Justin Allgaier, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 182.778 mph in 29.544 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that included Cole Custer, Sheldon Creed, Gray Gaulding, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones and Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars. Brennan Poole, Ryan Ellis, Alex Labbe and Garrett Smithley also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars along with Patrick Emerling, who replaced CJ McLaughlin in the No. 53 Emerling-Gas Motorsports entry.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chandler Smith peeked ahead with the lead on the outside lane followed by Brett Moffitt while John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Hill fanned out entering the first turn. With a three-wide action occurring through the first two turns between Nemechek, Hill and Parker Kligerman for spots in the top five, Smith cleared the field to assume the lead followed by a side-by-side battle for the runner-up spot involving Justin Allgaier and Brett Moffitt.
As the field returned to the frontstretch, Chandler Smith led the first lap ahead of Moffitt and Allgaier while the field behind continued to fan out and jostle for positions early. Then during the following lap, the first caution flew when Kligerman, who was locked in a battle with Daniel Hemric for fifth place, got loose and slightly tapped by Nemechek as he spun in Turn 2, though he did not make any contact to his No. 48 Big Machine Racing entry as he pitted for fresh tires.
When the race restarted under green on the sixth lap, Chandler Smith and Allgaier dueled for the lead for nearly a lap until Smith managed to pull ahead on the outside lane to retain the lead. As the field behind fanned out, Austin Hill made his way into third place followed by Nemechek, Brett Moffitt and Daniel Hemric.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chandler Smith was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allgaier followed by Nemechek, Hill and Hemric while rookie Sammy Smith, Herbst, Sam Mayer, Berry and Moffitt were running in the top 10. Tyler Reddick was in 11th ahead of Rajah Caruth, Anthony Alfredo, Kyle Sieg and Jeb Burton while Kyle Busch methodically worked his way up to 16th from the rear of the field.
Three laps later, Allgaier muscled his No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro past Chandler Smith for the lead as Nemechek started to gain ground on the two leaders. Another four laps later, Nemechek assumed the runner-up spot over Smith while Hill and Hemric remained in the top five. It would not be until Lap 22, however, when Nemechek cycled his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra into the lead over Allgaier.
Through the first 30 scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by four-tenths of a second over Allgaier followed by Hill, Hemric and Chandler Smith while Herbst, Sammy Smith, Berry, Mayer and Kyle Busch were battling in the top 10. Behind, Moffitt was in 11th ahead of Creed, Reddick, Jeb Burton and Kligerman while Brandon Jones, Alfredo, Custer, Ryan Sieg and Kyle Sieg occupied the top 20.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Nemechek, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Auto Club Speedway, captured his first stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Allgaier trailed in the runner-up spot by more than a second while Hill, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Hemric, Kyle Busch, Sammy Smith, Creed and Berry were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the field led by Nemechek pitted for service and Hill was the first competitor to exit pit road first followed by Nemechek, Allgaier, Busch, Hemric and Chandler Smith. During the pit stops, Alex Labbe was penalized after a tire rolled out of his pit stall and toward the track. Josh Bilicki was also penalized for speeding on pit road.
The second stage started on Lap 53 as Hill and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Hill and Nemechek dueled for the lead as the field behind fanned and jostled for spots. Entering the backstretch, Nemechek cleared Hill for the lead while Chandler Smith, Kyle Busch and Allgaier engaged in a three-wide battle for third place. A few laps later, Allgaier launched a bid for the lead to the outside of Nemechek, but Nemechek managed to pull ahead on the inside lane as Chandler Smith and Hill joined the battle. The battle for spots towards the top five proceeded as Sammy Smith and Kyle Busch crept into the picture at the front while Allgaier managed to pull ahead in front of Chandler Smith and Hill for the runner-up spot. Amid the battles, Nemechek checked out with a decent advantage while Hill and Kyle Busch duked for fourth place in front of Sammy Smith.
Through the first 60 scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allgaier, who had Chandler Smith closing in for the spot, while Kyle Busch and Sammy Smith were in the top five. Meanwhile, Hill fell back to sixth ahead of Mayer, Herbst, Hemric and Kligerman while Brandon Jones, Creed, Berry, Custer and Moffitt were mired in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Nemechek continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over the new runner-up competitor Chandler Smith, who overtook Allgaier for the spot nearly 10 laps earlier, while Allgaier, Kyle Busch and Mayer were running in the top five. In the midst of the battles, Hill was back in sixth ahead of Sammy Smith, Kligerman, Brandon Jones and Herbst while Hemric was back in 11th.
Then after Chandler Smith reassumed the lead on Lap 72 followed by Allgaier, the caution flew a lap later when Josh Berry, who was battling Herbst for 10th place, got loose entering Turn 4 and spun his No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro across the grass without sustaining any damage. By then, Nemechek had fallen back to third in front of his former boss Kyle Busch. During the caution period, Berry pitted along with Nemechek, who radioed a possible vibration and loose wheel throughout the second stage, while the rest led by Chandler Smith on the track.
When the race proceeded under green on Lap 78, Chandler Smith and Allgaier battled for the lead for nearly a lap until Allgaier managed to pull ahead on the inside lane to take over the lead. In the midst of the battles, Hill was in third place followed by Kyle Busch while Brandon Jones emerged in the top five in fifth over Sammy Smith.
Five laps later, however, Allgaier surrendered the lead and was forced to serve a pass-through penalty down pit road after being assessed a restart violation for diving his car below the inside line prior to the start/finish line. With Allgaier plummeting to 26th place and as the last competitor on the lead lap, Chandler Smith reassumed the lead followed by Hill and Kyle Busch while Brandon Jones and Sammy Smith were in the top five. Then with four laps remaining in the second stage, Hill overtook Chandler Smith for the lead as Kyle Busch and Jones closed in on the two leaders.
With two laps remaining in the second stage, the caution flew when Rajah Caruth spun towards the apron in Turn 2. Caruth’s spin was enough for the second stage scheduled on Lap 90 to conclude under caution as Hill captured his second stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Brandon Jones settled in second in front of a hard-charging Kyle Busch while Mayer, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Custer, Moffitt and Creed were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the leaders led by Hill returned to pit road for service and Hill retained the lead after exiting pit road first. Kyle Busch exited second followed by Berry, who only opted for fuel for his service, while Herbst, Brandon Jones and Chandler Smith exited in fourth through sixth, respectively. Following the pit stops, Ryan Sieg and Jeremy Clements were penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Hill and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Hill and Busch duked for the lead through the first two turns as the field behind fanned out. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Busch peaked ahead with the lead and started to maintain control of the field in his No. 10 LA Golf Chevrolet Camaro while teammate Chandler Smith battled Hill for second place.
With the event surpassing its halfway mark, Busch maintained a slight advantage over teammate Chandler Smith, with the latter launching his own challenge for the lead before reassuming it on Lap 102. Meanwhile, Hill fell back to third in front of Brandon Jones and Herbst while Berry was back in sixth over teammate Mayer, Sammy Smith, Custer and Hemric. By then, Allgaier was in 12th while Nemechek was in 15th.
Down to the final 90 laps of the event, Chandler Smith was leading by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch and a second-and-a-half over Hill while Bery and Mayer were in the top five. By then, Brandon Jones was in sixth ahead of Herbst and a hard-charging Allgaier while Sammy Smith and Hemric occupied the top 10. By then, Custer was back in 11th over Creed, Nemechek, Kligerman and Tyler Reddick while Moffitt, Kaz Grala, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton and Joe Graf Jr. were mired in the top 20.
Fifteen laps later, Chandler Smith continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch, who slowly began to decrease his deficit to his Kaulig Racing teammate, while Hill remained in third place and trailed by more than a second. Meanwhile, Allgaier charged his way back to fifth place following his restart violation penalty in the second stage as he tried to navigate his way around teammate Mayer for fourth place. Then with 69 laps remaining, Hill navigated his way around Busch for the runner-up spot as Allgaier started to close in on Busch for third place.
With nearly 60 laps remaining, Chandler Smith retained the lead by more than a second over the new runner-up competitor Allgaier while Hill, Mayer and Kyle Busch were scored in the top five. By then, Nemechek carved his way back to eighth behind Herbst and Berry while Hemric had fallen to 14th in between Custer and Moffitt.
Not long after, pit stops under green ensued as Kyle Busch pitted. Chandler Smith would pit his No. 16 Quick Tie Chevrolet Camaro a lap later along with Allgaier, Hill, Mayer and others. During the pit stops, Sammy Smith slid his No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra sideways below the apron while trying to enter pit road. During his spin, he managed to come to a stop sideways in front of Josh Williams’ pit stall and avoid hitting Mayer, who was completing his service, as the race remained under green flag conditions. Amid his spin, Sammy Smith was penalized for speeding on pit road. Brandon Jones was also assessed a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road, but his situation went from bad to worse when he received another speeding penalty when he sped while serving his first penalty.
With less than 55 laps remaining and with the series of green flag pit stops completed, Chandler Smith, who lost the lead to Hill following his pit stop under green before navigating his way back around Hill, cycled his way back to the lead followed by Hill, Kyle Busch, Allgaier and Mayer.
Under the final 40 laps of the event, Chandler Smith was leading by more than two seconds over Hill followed by Allgaier, who navigated his way around Kyle Busch for third place, while Mayer settled in fifth. By then, Berry occupied sixth in front of Herbst, Nemechek, Creed and Hemric while 13 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap. Following his pair of pit road speeding penalties, Brandon Jones was relegated back to 28th.
With 25 laps remaining, Chandler Smith extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over Hill while Allgaier trailed by nearly four seconds in third place. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was mired in fourth place, trailing by more than six seconds, while Mayer was back in fifth place and trailing by nearly 10 seconds.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Chandler Smith, who was mired behind lapped competitors a few laps earlier and had led by more than two seconds, continued to lead by over a second Hill despite being reported to save fuel. Hill remained in second followed by Allgaier, who closed in on Hill for the runner-up spot.
With five laps remaining, Chandler Smith retained the lead, but only by nearly half a second as Hill continued to cut Smith’s advantage in his final bid for the lead and the win. Then with two laps remaining, Hill, who managed to close the gap and get close to the rear bumper of Smith’s car through the first two turns and through the backstretch, made his move beneath Smith’s No. 16 entry as he assumed the lead entering the frontstretch.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill was out in front ahead of Smith as Allgaier drew himself alongside Smith for the runner-up spot. Through the backstretch, Allgaier overtook Smith as Hill remained as the leader. As Allgaier tried to close in to Hill’s rear bumper, Hill managed to methodically navigate his No. 21 Global Industrial Chevrolet Camaro through the final two turns out in front and beat Allgaier by two-tenths of a second to steal the show and grab the victory.
With the victory, Hill, who won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February, notched his fourth career win in the Xfinity Series, his first in the series at Las Vegas and the 90th Xfinity victory overall for Richard Childress Racing.
“[While I was] Passing one of the lapped cars early in our run, when [Chandler Smith] got by me [after a restart on Lap 98], I got really, really loose on entry to [Turn] 3,” Hill said on FS1. “I thought I was gonna wreck it, saved it. [Smith] got really far out. I just knew I had to not abuse the tires and try to methodically just work my way through traffic. The track was really tough today. Had a really thin line between [Turns] 3 and 4. If you missed it by—it seemed like a half of an inch—you paid for it through the whole lap. That’s just really what I stuck to all race long, was just trying to be disciplined through 3 and 4…I saw [Smith] struggling in traffic and my spotter Derek [Kneeland] was like, ‘Come on, baby. You can get it!’ I saw him get tight off of [Turn] 4 there, and I knew I painted the line perfectly. I knew if I could clear him down the frontstretch, I felt like once we had clean air, we could hold him off. We still got some things to work on, but it feels good to win on a mile and a half, not just these superspeedways.”
As Hill celebrated the victory, Chandler Smith was left disappointed over falling short of his first Xfinity Series victory. The 20-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, however, remained optimistic over his third-place finish and a strong run in his third career start with Kaulig Racing.
“Overall, I got a little tight there at the very end,” Smith said. “It is what it is. That’s a tough pill to swallow. There’s some things I could’ve done inside before we started getting tight. All in all, I can’t be too disappointed. It’s my sixth [Xfinity] start, third start with Kaulig Racing. We had a really fast Quick Tie Products Camaro, and I just really appreciate [owner] Matt Kaulig, [team president] Chris Rice, everybody at Kaulig Racing for bringing me on board, believing in me. We’re going to win a few races this year, for sure.”
Allgaier settled in second place while Kyle Busch, who was aiming for a triple weekend sweep at his home track, ended up in fourth place in his first start with Kaulig Racing and in his first of five Xfinity starts of the 2023 season. Berry rallied to finish fifth while Nemechek, Mayer, Herbst, Creed and Hemric completed the top 10.
There were 14 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 22 laps. Only 12 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2023 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 21 points over Justin Allgaier, 24 over John Hunter Nemechek, 34 over Chandler Smith and 44 over Riley Herbst.
Results.
1. Austin Hill, 19 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Justin Allgaier, 10 laps led
3. Chandler Smith, 118 laps led
4. Kyle Busch, four laps led
5. Josh Berry, two laps led
6. John Hunter Nemechek, 45 laps led, Stage 1 winner
7. Sam Mayer, one lap led
8. Riley Herbst
9. Sheldon Creed
10. Daniel Hemric
11. Parker Kligerman
12. Cole Custer
13. Tyler Reddick, one lap down
14. Jeb Burton, one lap down
15. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down
16. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down
17. Sammy Smith, one lap down
18. Alex Labbe, one lap down
19. Anthony Alfredo, two laps down, one lap led
20. Kyle Sieg, two laps down
21. Brandon Jones, two laps down
22. Brett Moffitt, two laps down
23. Kaz Grala, two laps down
24. Ryan Sieg, three laps down
25. Jeremy Clements, three laps down
26. Rajah Caruth, three laps down
27. Ryan Ellis, three laps down
28. Bayley Currey, three laps down
29. Jeffrey Earnhardt, three laps down
30. Josh Williams, three laps down
31. Josh Bilicki, four laps down
32. Gray Gaulding, four laps down
33. Brennan Poole, four laps down
34. Patrick Emerling, six laps down
35. Blaine Perkins, eight laps down
36. Garrett Smithley, 13 laps down
37. Parker Retzlaff, 14 laps down
38. Joey Gase – OUT, Fuel Pump
Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, for the series’ third and final stretch of a three-week West Coast swing. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 11, at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was run Friday night. It was an exciting race with a large amount of room for the cars to race three and even 4-wide for the lead.
Kyle Busch had early tire issues but would easily overcome them and wheel his No.51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Chevrolet to victory lane. He led 84 of 134 laps and claimed his fourth career Truck Series win at his home track. It was his 63rd win in the series.
“Thank you guys, thank all the fans, thank you for coming out tonight,” Busch commented. “Rowdy Nation getting loud, it’s a lot of fun in just the Truck Series, I appreciate that.” He added, “It’s an honor to come out with KBM, my own team and have some fun and just kinda work on stuff.”
Busch will also be competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday and the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday for a tripleheader weekend.
Zane Smith brought his No.38 Front Row Motorsports Ford home in second place.
“I’m happy with our day,” Smith said. “We had a really good Speedco Ford, happy with our stage win. Got shuffled back there in one of those late-race restarts and just kind of let Kyle get away, and it’s so hard executing pit road chasing him.” He added, “I’m still happy with our day, another good points day.”
Finishing in third place was driver Ben Rhodes in his No. 99 Thor Sport Racing. Rhodes also battled up front going back and forth for the lead.
“We ended up getting some good stage points in stage two today, and then a good finish here tonight. All in all, I’m proud of the effort from my guys, a nice stable fast truck.”
Stage 1 – Busch started from the pole position but then had tire issues causing him to pit out of order with the other drivers. There was only one caution and that was when Bret Holmes tagged the wall. Zane Smith, who started with a fast car, would also win the stage.
Stage 2 – We saw Carson Hocevar running up front leading the pack. Even with a few minor cautions, he was strong enough to maintain the lead, easily winning stage 2.
Final Stage – The final stage had no cautions and Busch was the hands-down winner. There was just no one there that could touch him.
Corey Heim and Ty Majeski would round out the top five. Christian Eckes, Hocevar, Chase Purdy, Grand Enfinger, and Jake Garcia finished sixth through 10, respectively.
Rhodes currently leads the point standings by two points over Ty Majeski.
The NASCAR Truck Series will head next to Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 18.
NASCAR travels to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend with a full schedule of competition in all three series.
During the 2022 season, we saw 19 different NASCAR Cup Series drivers in victory lane. Will the trend continue this year?
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the season-opening Daytona 500 and last week, Kyle Busch won at Auto Club Speedway in only his second start with Richard Childress Racing.
Las Vegas Stats:
NASCAR Cup Series – Jimmie Johnson leads the series with four victories at Las Vegas in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. There are eight active drivers who have previously won at the 1.5-mile track led by Brad Keselowski (2014, 2016, 2018) and Joey Logano (2019, 2020, 2022) with three victories each.
NASCAR Xfinity Series – Three NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers head to Las Vegas hoping to add another win to their resume. JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry has won twice, in 2021 and 2022, along with current Cup Series driver Kyle Busch with two wins in 2016 and March 2019. Busch will be driving the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet this weekend. Tyler Reddick has one previous win in September 2019 and will be competing in the No. 24 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – It will be a busy three days for Kyle Busch who is also entered in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at his home track driving the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Chevrolet. In six Truck Series starts at Las Vegas, he has three wins. Previous winners in the series include John Hunter Nemechek (2021), Christian Eckes (2020), Grant Enfinger (2018) and Ben Rhodes (2017).
All times are Eastern.
Friday, March 3
4:35 p.m.: Truck Series Practice – FS1 5:05 p.m.: Truck Series Qualifying – FS1 6:35 p.m.: Xfinity Series Practice – FS1 7:05 p.m.: Xfinity Series Qualifying – FS1 9 p.m.: Truck Series Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 presented by Westgate Resorts Green Flag: 9:13 p.m. Distance: 201 miles – 134 Laps Stage 1 ends on Lap 30, Stage 2 ends on Lap 60, Final Stage ends on Lap 134 FS1/MRN/SiriusXM The Purse: $703,062
Saturday, March 4
1:35 p.m.: Cup Series Practice – FS2/FS1 at 2 p.m. 2:20 p.m.: Cup Series Qualifying – FS1 4:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series Alsco Uniforms 300 – FS1/MRN/SiriusXM Green Flag: 4:49 p.m. Distance: 300 miles – 200 Laps Stage 1 ends on Lap 45, Stage 2 ends on Lap 90, Final Stage ends on Lap 200 FS1/PRN/SiriusXM The Purse: $1,716,356
Sunday, March 5
3:30 p.m.: Cup Series Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube Green Flag: 3:49 p.m. Distance: 400 miles – 267 laps Stage 1 ends on Lap 80, Stage 2 ends on Lap 165, Final Stage ends on Lap 267 FOX/PRN/SiriusXM The Purse: $8,960,174
The NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Auto Club Speedway was run Sunday evening after being postponed due to rain on Saturday after several attempts to get the race in failed. All qualifying and practice had to be canceled and the drivers lined up according to NASCAR metrics.
One driver who didn’t mind waiting a day would be the winner John Hunter Nemechek who wheeled his Joe Gibbs No. 20 Toyota into Victory Lane, after battling hard with several other drivers for the top spot. Nemechek earned the third victory of his career with his win tonight.
Happily, Nemechek commented, ” Ben and the whole No. 20 team gave me one heck of a race car!” He added, ”A huge shout out to the guys who work on the No. 20 team. I’ve worked with most of them over the last couple of years and the pit crew, they got it done when it counted.”
Coming in second and third were two JR Motorsports Chevrolets, the No. 1 of Sam Mayer and the No. 7 of Justin Allgaier.
Mayer stated, “I’m super proud of my team. We struggled early on, that’s for sure. We had our work cut out for us, but we threw the kitchen sink at it, and we ended up second. All things considered, I’m really happy and really proud of these guys.”
Stage 1 only had two cautions in. There was a competition caution at Lap 15 due to the lack of practice and the second one occurred when Gray Gaulding spun and crashed into the wall, but, thankfully he was not injured. The lead was swapped several times but once Cole Custer got it, he pulled away to win the stage.
Stage 2 would be much the same as Stage 1. There were two cautions, one when Josh Berry and Sheldon Creed would tangle up together. Berry also brought out the other caution when he had mechanical problems. Custer was strong again in this round and would go on to win the stage.
The final stage saw a lot more beating and banging than the beginning did. Some drivers had different pit strategies than the rest of the pack, so it was interesting to see which strategy would work best. But once Nemechek was in the lead, that was all there was to it and he would go on to cross the finish line first.
Chandler Smith and Josh Berry would round out the top-5. Austin Hill, Riley Herbst, Austin Dillon, Brett Moffitt, and Parker Kligerman finished sixth through 10, respectively.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads next to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 4.
In only his second NASCAR Cup Series race for Richard Childress Racing, Kyle Busch earned his 61st career win in the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet. It was his fifth triumph at Auto Club Speedway and the 19th consecutive season that Bush has been to victory lane in the series.
The win advanced Busch to first all-time over Richard Petty, who had wins in 18 consecutive seasons. Kyle and Kurt Busch also broke a record for the most victories brothers with a combined Cup Series win total of 95 races, overtaking Bobby and Donnie Allison with the most wins among brothers.
Busch was ecstatic after the race.
“I think it’s just phenomenal,” he said post-race. “I can’t thank Richard and Judy (Childress) enough. I can’t thank Austin (Dillon) for calling me and getting me talking and getting me this opportunity to be able to come over here to RCR and be a part of Chevrolet and be able to race this Lucas Oil Camaro today. To be able to put it up front like that, man.
“The guys did a great job, Randall (Burnett, crew chief), everybody that has worked so hard during the off-season. We’ve done a lot of sim stuff; we’ve done a lot of testing in general just with trying to get up to speed, systems and all that sort of stuff. But man, there’s nothing more rewarding than being able to go to Victory Lane.”
Chase Elliott finished second in his No. 8 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, rebounding from a disappointing 38th-place finish in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway.
“Just really proud of our team,” he said after the race. “We obviously didn’t run very good there toward the end of the year last year, and everybody really went to work hard over the winter to try and get better.
“Appreciate everybody on our NAPA team for just sticking with it and sticking with each other. Obviously, I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that’s always a good thing. Appreciate everybody’s effort; everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.”
Elliott also acknowledged Busch’s win while looking ahead to the next race.
“Congratulations to Kyle (Busch). For him to leave and then to go get the job done like that is pretty cool. He’s always been really good to me, so happy for them.
“Looking forward to getting to Vegas and hopefully competing for some more wins.”
Chevrolet was dominant with Ross Chastain finishing in third after leading a race-high 91 laps and winning the first two stages followed by Daniel Suárez in fourth, giving Chevrolet four of the top five spots. Kevin Harvick completed the top five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
Several cars were taken out of contention after a multi-car accident during a restart on Lap 86, including pole-sitter Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney, Ryan Preece and Tyler Reddick.
There were 8 cautions for 38 laps during the race and 28 lead changes among 13 drivers.
The Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300 has been postponed to Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on FS2 following the Cup Series Pala Casino 400 on FOX at 3:30 p.m. ET for a doubleheader Sunday.
After continual rain and random snow flurries amid efforts to dry the track, NASCAR canceled all of Saturday’s scheduled on-track activity at Auto Club Speedway, including practice, qualifying and the Xfinity Series race.
Every effort was made to start the Xfinity Series race, originally scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET Saturday evening. At approximately 6 p.m. ET, the drivers were sent on track and made a few pace laps but the rain persisted and the cars were sent back to pit road, prompting the decision to postpone.
The lineups for both series were set by the performance matrix based on last week’s results at Daytona International Speedway, as specified in the NASCAR rule book.
It is comprised of the driver’s fastest lap time position (15%), the driver’s final race position (25%), the owner’s final race position (25%) and the owner’s points position (35%).
Christopher Bell will be on the pole for the Cup Series race with Austin Hill leading the field to green for the Xfinity Series event.
The NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series travel to Auto Club Speedway this weekend. It will be the final race on the current 2-mile configuration. The Craftsman Truck Series is off and will return to competition on March 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Kyle Busch leads all active Cup Series drivers with four wins at the speedway in 2005, 2013, 2014 and 2019. Also of note, the race will mark Kevin Harvick’s 750th consecutive Cup Series start. He joins Jeff Gordon (797) and Ricky Rudd (788) with the third-most consecutive starts in the series.
There are two former Xfinity Series Auto Club Speedway winners entered in this weekend’s race. Current full-time Xfinity driver Cole Custer has two previous victories (2019, 2022) and current Cup driver, Austin Dillon (2016), will be competing in the No. 10 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing.
All times are Eastern.
Saturday, Feb. 25
12:05 p.m.: Xfinity Series Practice – FS1 – Canceled 12:35 p.m.: Xfinity Series Qualifying – FS1 – Canceled
2:05 p.m.: Cup Series Practice – FS1/MRN/SiriusXM – Canceled 2:35 p.m.: Cup Series Qualifying – FS1/MRN/SiriusXM – Canceled
4:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series Driver Intros 5 p.m.: Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300 – Postponed to Sunday at 8 p.m. (approx.) Distance: 300 miles (150 Laps) Stage 1 ends on Lap 35, Stage 2 ends on Lap 70, Final Stage ends on Lap 150 FS2/MRN/SiriusXM The Purse: $1,659,396
Sunday, Feb. 26
3 p.m.: Driver Intros 3:30 p.m.: Cup Series Pala Casino 400 Distance: 400 miles (200 laps) Stage 1 ends on Lap 65, Stage 2 ends on Lap 130, Final Stage ends on Lap 200 FOX/MRN/SiriusXM The Purse: $8,484,302
In NASCAR’s longest-ever running of the Great American Race to commence the sport’s 75th anniversary of competition, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. muscled his way to win the 65th annual running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 19, amid two overtime attempts and a series of late carnages.
The 35-year-old Stenhouse from Olive Branch, Mississippi, rallied from a late pit road speeding penalty to take the lead from reigning series champion Joey Logano during the first of two overtime attempts. He then had to endure a second overtime attempt, where he nearly lost the lead on the final lap before a draft from Christopher Bell enabled Stenhouse to fend off Logano and remain ahead of him prior to a vicious multi-car wreck on the final lap that concluded the event under caution and sent the driver of the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team to Victory Lane. In total, Stenhouse led the final 10 of 212 over-scheduled laps.
The starting lineup was determined through two single-car qualifying sessions that occurred on Wednesday, February 15, followed by a pair of Bluegreen Vacations Duels that occurred on Thursday, February 16. For the third time in his career, Alex Bowman started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.686 mph in 49.536 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Kyle Larson, who posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 181.057 mph in 49.708 seconds. Joey Logano and Aric Almirola occupied the second row after both won their respective Duels. The only competitor to drop at the rear of the field was Kyle Busch in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during the second Duel event.
When the green flag waved and the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season commenced, teammates Bowman and Larson dueled for the lead in front of two tight-packed lanes entering the first two turns. While Larson tried to pull ahead on the inside lane with drafting help from Logano, Bowman muscled away with the lead as he had a stronger draft on the outside lane followed by Almirola entering the backstretch. Larson then tried to pull even to Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the inside lane exiting the backstretch as he had Logano drafting him. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Larson managed to pull ahead and lead the first lap by a hair over Bowman as the field remained dead tight through two packed lanes.
Through the first five scheduled laps and with the field remaining in tight formation through two tight-packed lanes, teammates Bowman and Larson remained dead even for the lead followed by Almirola, Logano and Christopher Bell while Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie were in the top 10. Behind, Chris Buescher occupied 11th while Todd Gilliland, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece, Zane Smith and Noah Gragson were running in the top 20.
At the Lap 10 mark, Bowman managed to break ahead with the lead followed by teammate Larson, while Almirola, Logano and Cindric were in the top five. By then, names like William Byron, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe and Austin Dillon were mired outside the top 20 while Conor Daly, Travis Pastrana, rookie Ty Gibbs and Jimmie Johnson were running towards the rear of the field.
Two laps later and just as Larson managed to break away from the pack with drafting help from Logano, Bell gained a strong run on both front-runners and made his move to the outside lane entering the frontstretch as he challenged Larson for the lead with drafting help from Bowman. He would prevail through the backstretch and clear the field with Bowman remaining right behind his No. 20 DeWalt/Rheem Toyota TRD Camry.
By Lap 25, Bell was scored as the leader despite remaining in a tight side-by-side battle against Larson amid two packed lanes. Bowman, Almiorla, Logano, Cindric, Blaney, Elliott, LaJoie and Keselowski were running in the top 10 while Johnson and Kyle Busch were scored in 26th and 33rd, respectively. A few laps later, Ty Dillon fell off the pace and took his car to the garage following a mechanical issue to his Spire Motorsports entry while the race remained under green flag conditions.
At the Lap 35 mark, Almirola ignited his challenge for the lead as he gained a draft from Cindric on the inside lane to lead a lap for himself ahead of Bell. By then, Conor Daly made a pit stop under green while names like Corey LaJoie, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin emerged in the top 10. A lap later, however, Bowman navigated his way back into the lead as he had LaJoie pushing him while battling Bell.
Then during the following lap, the Ford competitors led by Almirola and Logano peeled off the track and on pit road for their first service of the event. A bevy of Chevrolet competitors led by rookie Noah Gragson and Bowman would pit during the following lap while the rest of the field that included a multitude of Toyota competitors and Chevrolet competitor Kyle Busch pitted during the following lap. During the final wave of pit stops, newcomer Riley Herbst locked up the front tires and spun his No. 15 SunnyD Ford Mustang behind Busch while trying to enter pit road, but the event remained under green flag conditions. Herbst, however, was assessed a pass-through penalty for a commitment line violation. Despite remaining on track to lead two laps for himself before pitting by himself under green, Pastrana was also penalized with a pass-through penalty for driving his No. 67 Black Rifle Coffee Toyota TRD Camry through too many pit boxes while exiting his pit stall.
By Lap 40 and with the first wave of pit stops being completed under green, Hamlin cycled his way into the lead followed by teammate Bell, Reddick, Briscoe and Almirola while Wallace, Cindric, Truex, Blaney and Kyle Busch were running in the top 10. Soon after, the field returned to competing within two tight-packed lanes as Briscoe drew himself in a side-by-side challenge against Hamlin for the lead.
On Lap 52, early trouble struck for Bubba Wallace, who moved up to the outside lane while battling with Briscoe for the lead before he got bumped by a fast-charging Truex on the backstretch as he slapped the outside wall. Despite keeping his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry straight, he dropped to the rear of the field, pitted under green and returned on the track as he would eventually lose a lap to the leaders. Amid Wallace’s issue, Truex moved into the lead followed by his Toyota teammates Hamlin, Bell, Tyler Reddick and Gibbs.
By Lap 60, Truex retained the lead ahead of a long line of competitors that included teammates Hamlin and Gibbs while Almirola and Brad Keselowski were scored in the top five. By then, Jimmie Johnson was in eighth in between Ryan Preece and Kevin Harvick while Reddick and Bell were mired back in 12th and 25th, respectively.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 65, Keselowski, who commenced a late drafting charge to the front before overtaking Truex during the stage’s final lap with drafting help from a multitude of Ford competitors, claimed the first stage victory of the 2023 season. Ford competitors Preece, Buescher, Harvick and McDowell followed suit in the top five while Gibbs, Johnson, Almirola, Truex and Todd Gilliand were scored in the top 10, all of whom received the first wave of stage points. By then, names that included Hamlin, Byron, Cindric, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, Chase Elliott, Logano, Reddick and Blaney were running in the top 20 as 32 of 40 starters were scored on the lead lap. In addition, AJ Allmendinger received the free pass after managing to remain as the first competitor a lap down ahead of Wallace, Zane Smith and BJ McLeod.
Under the stage break, the entire field led by Keselowski pitted and Preece exited with the lead followed by Keselowski, Harvick, Almirola and McDowell. During the pit stops, Buescher had to back up to get into his pit stall while Hamlin and Logano nearly made contact against one another, with Logano running his car into the grass, while trying to exit pit road amid a tight scramble.
The second stage started on Lap 71 as Preece and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Preece and Keselowski duked for the lead until Keselowski gained a draft from Almirola through the backstretch and moved in front of Preece’s No. 41 Haas Ford Mustang to lead a lap for himself. Almirola, however, was quick to challenge Keselowski on the outside lane as he had Cindric’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang drafting him while Keselowski remained in front of Preece and Harvick on the inside lane.
Through the first 80 scheduled laps, Keselowski and Almirola continued to duke for the lead followed by Preece, Cindric and Harvick while Byron, McDowell, Buescher, Truex and Gilliland were in the top 10. Behind, Kyle Busch, Logano, Erik Jones, Hamlin, Blaney, Johnson, Larson, Elliott, Haley and Reddick were running in the top 20 while Gibbs, Bowman, Stenhouse, Ross Chastain, Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Bell, Gragson, Allmendinger and Daniel Suarez were mired in the top 30. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon was scored as the final competitor on the lead lap in 33rd while Wallace was still mired a lap down in 34th in front of Zane Smith and Pastrana.
Ten laps later, Keselowski continued to lead on the inside lane followed by Preece and Harvick while McDowell and Almirola battled for fourth place in front of two tight-packed lanes.
At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Keselowski retained the lead ahead of the pack and a long line of competitors running on the inside lane. By then, Preece remained behind Keselowski in the runner-up spot followed by Harvick, McDowell and Erik Jones while Johnson, Larson, Reddick, Stenhouse and Truex were running in the top 10. By then, Kyle Busch was trying to launch a second drafting lane on the outside lane as he was just scored outside of the top 10 while 33 of 40 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Eight laps later, a multitude of competitors led by Kyle Busch and including a majority of Chevrolet competitors pitted under green for a second time while the rest of the field led by Keselowski remained on the track. Following the first wave of pit stops, Busch was assessed a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road. Shortly after, a small wave of competitors led by Keselowski pitted for service under green. A wave of Toyota competitors including Ford competitor Harvick, followed suit during the next lap before Logano led the final wave of competitors down to pit road by the Lap 110 mark.
Once the green flag pit stops completed, Logano cycled into the lead followed by Buescher and Blaney. All three, however, were quickly caught by the field led by Reddick entering the frontstretch and chaos nearly ensued when Blaney and Buescher tried to stall the run from the pack. Once the field settled through two packed lanes, Logano retained the lead followed by teammate Blaney while Truex, Gibbs and Larson were in the top five. By then, Erik Jones, Buescher, Byron, Reddick and Harvick occupied the top 10.
Then on Lap 118, the caution flew when Harvick bumped and got Reddick’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry loose in Turn 4 as he clipped Blaney while barely missing Truex before both veered sideways and hit the outside wall. While the oncoming competitors behind scrambled to avoid the carnage, Erik Jones veered sideway below the apron along with Larson before he spun backwards and was hit by Elliott while Suarez also made contact against Elliott. While Blaney continued despite falling off of the lead lap category, top names that included Elliott, Jones and Reddick were eliminated from contention. During the caution period, some led by Buescher pitted while others led by Logano remained on the track.
With six laps remaining in the second stage, the race proceeded under green as Logano and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, Logano rocketed away with the lead on the inside lane followed by Truex while Chastain was locked in a battle with AJ Allmendinger for third place. A lap later, Chastain drew his No. 1 AdventHealth Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 alongside Logano as he proceeded to lead a lap for himself before Logano returned the favor during the next lap. Chastain would then manage to reassume the lead and have both lanes to his control while Bowman and Logano dueled for second.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 130, Chastain edged Bowman by 0.015 seconds to claim the second stage victory. Logano settled in third while Stenhouse, Logano, Cindric, Truex, Byron, Allmendinger, Buescher and Bell were scored in the top 10 as the field fanned out to three lanes while streaking across the start/finish line.
Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Chastain, except for Wallace, pitted for service and Almirola exited with the lead after only opting for fuel followed by Buescher, Byron, Larson and Cindric. During the caution period, Chastain was penalized for speeding while entering pit road along with Gragson, who was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation. Bell was also penalized for running over his air hose.
With 63 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Wallace and Almirola occupied the front row. At the start, Wallace jumped ahead with the lead as he had both lanes to his control through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, he moved from the bottom to the top lane to remain in front of Byron. This, however, allowed Almirola to gain the draft and move into the lead on the inside lane followed by Buescher as Larson also moved up to third.
Two laps later, the caution returned due to debris in the form of a right-front tire that came off in Turn 2 and off of Blaney’s damaged No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang. During the caution period, names that included Larson, Byron, Briscoe, Logano, Gragson, Truex, Cody Ware, Allmendinger, Stenhouse, Gilliland, Zane Smith, Bowman, Logano and Kyle Busch pitted, mainly for fuel. During the pit stops, Bowman endured a slow pit service to have his car repaired after making contact with Gragson while trying to enter his pit stall.
During the following restart with 57 laps remaining, Wallace and Almirola dueled for the lead for a second time before Almirola quickly pulled away on the inside lane as he was being drafted by Buescher and Harvick while Wallace had Cindric drafting him. During the following lap, Cindric along with a majority of competitors running on the outside lane overtook Wallace as Wallace lost the draft while being stuck in the middle of three packed lanes and fell back to 16th. Meanwhile, a side-by-side action for the lead was occurring between Almirola and Buescher.
With 50 laps remaining, Buescher was leading ahead of teammate/owner Keselowski followed by Almirola, Hamlin and Harvick while LaJoie, Cindric, Haley, Preece and Johnson were in the top 10. Shortly after, Hamlin drew his challenge for the lead beneath Buescher’s No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang, but the latter remained within contention.
Under the final 40 scheduled laps, the top-33 competitors on the track were separated by less than two seconds and within two packed lanes as Buescher continued to lead with drafting help from Keselowski while Almirola, Cindric and Preece settled in the top five ahead of Harrison Burton, McDowell, Hamlin, Suarez and Larson.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Buescher retained the lead followed by a long line of competitors running on the outside lane, which included seven Fords occupying the top-seven spots that included Keselowski, Almirola, Cindric, Preece, Burton and McDowell. A lap later, Wallace pitted for fresh tires and fuel under green.
Then with 25 laps remaining, a wave of competitors led by Buescher pitted under green, mainly for fuel, as Suarez took over the lead. The Toyota competitors led by Hamlin and Truex would pit during the following lap before a group of five led by McDowell pitted during the ensuing lap. More competitors led by Suarez would then pit with 21 laps remaining as Burton emerged with the lead. Shortly after, Burton pitted along with a handful of competitors including Logano. During the pit stops, Stenhouse was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road.
Then with 19 laps remaining, the caution flew when a stack-up on the outside lane entering Turns 1 and 2 resulted with McDowell hitting and sending Preece sideways as Preece spun below the track and hit the right side of Johnson’s car before he shot back up to the wall and ignited a multi-car wreck that collected Truex, Briscoe, Gibbs and Harvick. At the moment of caution, Burton, who had just pitted under green, cycled into the lead followed by Logano, Byron, Kyle Busch and Larson while Austin Dillon, Suarez, Allmendinger, Keselowski and Gragson were running in the top 10.
Down to the final 13 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Burton and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Burton and Logano battled dead even for the lead. As Burton tried to pull ahead through the backstretch, Logano gained the upper hand on the inside lane as he assumed the lead followed by Byron, Allmendinger and Larson. Then through the frontstretch, Logano’s car dipped below the double yellow lines. This caused a brief stack up as Byron was left in the middle of a three-wide battle and began losing spots after losing the draft. Then through the backstretch, Allmendinger forced his way below Logano as he took the lead followed by Larson as Logano was losing spots on the outside lane while nearly making contact with Burton.
As the field fanned out and jostled for positions toward the front with 10 laps remaining, Keselowski cycled his way back into the lead followed by Buescher, Allmendinger, Larson and Busch. Busch would soon move up to third followed by teammate Austin Dillon and Byron while Allmendinger was slowly losing ground after losing the lead pack.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Keselowski was leading teammate Buescher while Busch settled in third as he had teammate Dillon and Byron drafting him while Stenhouse, Logano, Cindric, Bell and Larson in top 10.
Then with four laps remaining, Busch dropped the hammer through the backstretch as he moved to the outside lane and was drafted into the lead followed by Dillon, Byron and Stenhouse while Keselowski and Buescher were stuck on the inside lane with no additional help as they dropped to fifth and sixth. Then as Busch led the field towards the frontstretch with the start/finish line within sight, the caution flew with two laps remaining and the event was sent into overtime when Suarez got turned and spun towards the frontstretch before getting his No. 99 Tootsies Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stuck on the frontstretch grass.
At the start of the first overtime attempt, Busch, who started on the outside lane alongside Dillon, jumped ahead before crossing over in front of Dillon’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Club Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to get the draft from his Richard Childress Racing teammate while Logano tried to rally on the outside lane. Logano would gain the upper hand through the backstretch as he had Stenhouse, Larson and Bell pushing him while Busch had to save his No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from going off the track after getting bumped by Dillon. Then, Stenhouse moved to the inside of Logano as he took the lead followed by Larson. Not long after, however, the caution returned and the field was sent into a second overtime attempt when Dillon got bumped and turned by Byron exiting the backstretch as he bumped into Hamlin before sending himself and Byron for a spin. Both Dillon and Byron then veered back up the track and ignited another multi-car pileup in Turn 3 that involved Haley, Gilliland, Cindric, Burton, Gragson, Chastain, Zane Smith, Herbst and Johnson, whose strong run came to an end with a wrecked race car. In the midst of the carnage, Busch, who lost his teammate and drafting partner, fell back to sixth behind Logano and Allmendinger.
At the start of the second overtime attempt, where Stenhouse and Larson occupied the front row, Stenhouse retained the lead despite receiving pressure from Logano, Larson, Busch and a pack of cars through double lanes through the backstretch and entering the frontstretch.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Stenhouse remained as the leader before being overtaken by both Logano and Larson exiting the frontstretch. Entering Turns 1 and 2, however, Stenhouse received a push from Bell on the inside lane to mount his way back to the front and draw himself alongside Logano. Then through Turns 1 and 2, Pastrana got bumped by Almirola as he clipped Larson and sent Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 head-on into the outside wall. The contact triggered a massive wreck on the final lap that included Busch, Blaney, Cindric, Wallace, Keselowski, Hamlin and Allmendinger. The wreck on the final lap was also enough for NASCAR to conclude the event under caution and Stenhouse, who was low on fuel in overtime, emerged as the winner as he was out in front when the caution was displayed ahead of Logano and Bell.
With the victory, Stenhouse became the 42nd different competitor to win the Daytona 500 as he notched his third NASCAR Cup Series career victory and snapped a 199-race winless drought, with his last victory occurring at Daytona in July 2017. He also recorded the second Cup career victory for JTG-Daugherty Racing, which celebrated a Daytona 500 pole with Stenhouse in 2020, as co-owners Jodi Geschickter and Brad Daugherty became the first female and African-American duo as co-owners of a car to win the 500. Stenhouse’s victory also occurred in his first race being reunited with veteran Mike Kelley, who led Stenhouse to back-to-back Xfinity Series championships in 2011 and 2012.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I think this whole off season [period], [crew chief] Mike [Kelley] just preached how much we all believed in each other,” Stenhouse, who celebrated by climbing the frontstretch catchfence, said on FOX. “[The team] left me a note on the car that said they believe in me and to go get the job done tonight. I made a few mistakes. We were able to battle back. This Kroger/Cottonelle team worked really, really hard this off-season. Great pit stops, Hendrick engines, glad a Chevy won. Man, this is unbelievable. This is the sight of my last win back in 2017. We worked really hard. We had a couple shots last year to get a win and fell short. It was a tough season, but man, we got it done. Daytona 500.”
“I knew I was gonna take the top [lane for the second overtime],” Stenhouse added. “I was hoping [Logano] was gonna follow and he did. He was able to push us out. I went to the bottom [lane]. [Busch] and [Logano] got a huge run. [Larson] split me in the middle, but another fellow dirt racer with Bell gave me a good shot down the little short chute into [Turn] 1. Man, we were out front when the caution came out. We were out of fuel, so the fuel light was going crazy, but man, I hope you all [fans] had fun. That was a heck of a race!”
While Stenhouse celebrated the victory, Logano, the reigning series champion, settled in a disappointing second place while Bell, Buescher and Bowman finished in the top five.
“Second’s the worst, man,” Logano said. “You’re so close. Leading the white flag lap there, I was up front. Kyle gave me a good push and you’re watching in the mirror and you’re three wide across there…You think you’re racing to the checkered flag and you put yourself in the best position to try to win at the start/finish line, and just caution came out. You wish you could race to the end. Obviously, you can’t when they wreck that much. Congratulations to Ricky. There’s nothing like winning the Daytona 500. That’s why it stings so much finishing second, but still proud of the team, still proud of the effort coming off the championship last year and bringing this Shell/Pennzoil Mustang back toward the front and getting a Ford close to the front. Wish it was in Victory Lane, though.”
“If you would’ve told me pre-race I was gonna run third, I would’ve jumped up and down and smiling ear to ear,” Bell said. “I am very happy and very, very thankful that I would get this Rheem and DeWalt Camry a good solid finish, but man, just so close to a crown jewel. I feel like if [the race] would’ve stayed green, I would’ve been on offense. Who knows, who knows, but very proud and thankful to be here at Joe Gibbs Racing. That’s really cool. Very, very happy for Ricky.”
Allmendinger, who was involved in the final lap multi-car melee, rallied to come home in sixth place while Suarez, Blaney, Chastain and Riley Herbst achieved top-10 results. Notably, Pastrana finished 11th in his Cup debut, Harvick finished 12th in his 22nd and final Daytona 500 career start in front of Zane Smith, Hamlin fell back to 17th while Larson, Kyle Busch, Wallace, Almirola, Keselowski and Cindric ended up 18th through 23rd, respectively, after wrecking on the final lap. In addition, Conor Daly and Johnson ended up 29th and 31st, respectively, in the final running order.
There were 53 lead changes for 21 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 38 laps. At 212 laps (530 miles), this season marked the longest-ever running of the Daytona 500 in distance.
Following the first event on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, Joey Logano leads the regular-season standings by two points over Chris Buescher, four over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., eight over Christopher Bell, 11 over Alex Bowman and 14 over Ross Chastain.
With the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season underway, the competitors and teams will be embarking on a three-race West Coast swing, beginning at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, which will mark the sport’s final competition at the two-mile speedway venue. The event is scheduled to occur on next Sunday, February 26, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
