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Weekend schedule for Daytona Road Course

NASCAR heads to Daytona International Speedway this weekend where all three of the top national series will compete on the 3.56-mile road course for the first time in the sport’s history. The ARCA Menards Series will also compete and kicks off the events Friday evening with the General Tire 100.

The NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series race and ARCA Menards Series races were originally scheduled for Watkins Glen International on August 14-16. The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series was realigned from the Iowa Speedway race that was scheduled for June 12.

Kevin Harvick will start on the pole for Sunday’s GoBowling 235. The lineup was determined using a new formula that is based on finishing position from the previous race (50%), ranking in team owner points (35%) and the fastest lap from the previous race (15%).

All times are Eastern.

Friday, August 14

2 p.m.: ARCA Menards Series final practice – No TV

5 p.m.: ARCA Menards Series General Tire 100 (28 laps, 101.8 miles) MAVTV/MRN

Saturday, August 15

3 p.m.: Xfinity Series UNOH 188 (Stages 15/30/52 laps, 187.72 miles) NBCSN/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Sunday, August 16

Noon: Truck Series Sunoco 159 (Stages 12/25/44 laps, 158.85 miles) FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

3 p.m.: Cup Series GoBowling 235 (Stages 15/30/65 laps, 234.65 miles) NBC/MRN/ SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Starting Lineup for GoBowling 235

Starting spot	Driver	Car #	Team
1	Kevin Harvick	4	Stewart-Haas Racing
2	Denny Hamlin	11	Joe Gibbs Racing
3	Martin Truex Jr.	19	Joe Gibbs Racing
4	Kyle Busch	18	Joe Gibbs Racing
5	Joey Logano	22	Team Penske
6	Aric Almirola	10	Stewart-Haas Racing
7	Chase Elliott	9	Hendrick Motorsports
8	Kurt Busch	1	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	Matt DiBenedetto	21	Wood Brothers Racing
10	Austin Dillon	3	Richard Childress Racing
11	Jimmie Johnson	48	Hendrick Motorsports
12	Clint Bowyer	14	Stewart-Haas Racing
13	William Byron	24	Hendrick Motorsports
14	Ryan Newman	6	Roush Fenway Racing
15	Christopher Bell	95	Leavine Family Racing
16	Matt Kenseth	42	Chip Ganassi Racing
17	Brad Keselowski	2	Team Penske
18	Tyler Reddick	8	Richard Childress Racing
19	Bubba Wallace	43	Richard Petty Motorsports
20	Erik Jones	20	Joe Gibbs Racing
21	Chris Buescher	17	Roush Fenway Racing
22	Ryan Preece	37	JTG Daugherty Racing
23	Ty Dillon	13	Germain Racing
24	Ryan Blaney	12	Team Penske
25	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	47	JTG Daugherty Racing
26	Cole Custer	41	Stewart-Haas Racing
27	Alex Bowman	88	Hendrick Motorsports
28	John Hunter Nemechek	38	Front Row Motorsports
29	Corey LaJoie	32	Go FAS Racing
30	Michael McDowell	34	Front Row Motorsports
31	Daniel Suarez	96	Gaunt Brothers Racing
32	JJ Yeley	27	Rick Ware Racing
33	Brennan Poole	15	Premium Motorsports
34	Reed Sorenson	77	Spire Motorsports
35	Quin Houff	0	StarCom Racing
36	Timmy Hill	66	Motorsports Business Management
37	Gray Gaulding	53	Rick Ware Racing
38	Joey Gase	51	Petty Ware Racing
39	Brendan Gaughan	62	Beard Motorsports

August 13, 2020

Harvick sweeps Michigan in one weekend

Like his run from a day earlier at Michigan International Speedway, Kevin Harvick had a fast car and had to fight off all comers to earn a victory. That was the case on Sunday, August 9, when Harvick held off a late challenge from Denny Hamlin in the final laps to win the Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan and to sweep both Cup races at the Irish Hills on the same weekend. The victory was Harvick’s sixth of this season, fifth at Michigan and the 55th of his Cup Series career.

The starting lineup was based on the results from Saturday’s Cup race at Michigan, where the top-20 finishers were inverted while the latter 20 competitors started as finished on Saturday. Chris Buescher, who finished 20th, was scheduled to start on pole position, but he started at the rear of the field in a backup car. As a result, William Byron and Clint Bowyer, both of whom finished 14th and 19th on Saturday, started on the front row and led the field to the start on Sunday.

In addition to Buescher, the following competitors, including Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, rookie Tyler Reddick, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell, Ryan Preece, rookie John Hunter Nemechek and rookie Cole Custer, started at the rear of the field in backup cars. Rookie Brennan Poole also started at the rear of the field for an engine change, Daniel Suarez and Reed Sorenson both dropped to the rear of the field due to failing pre-race inspection twice and Josh Bilicki started at the rear of the field due to a driver change.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron and Bowyer battled dead even for the lead with Bowyer squeaking ahead to lead the first lap. Behind, Austin Dillon was assessed a pass-through penalty for unapproved adjustments made on the grid prior to the race.

The following lap, Jimmie Johnson and Matt DiBenedetto overtook Byron for position with rookie Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones and Kurt Busch trailing behind. By then, Bowyer was ahead with the lead by nearly half a second.

By the fifth lap, Kyle Busch muscled his way up to seventh after overtaking brother Kurt and Wallace in Turn 2 a lap earlier. Behind, Ryan Blaney was in ninth, Chase Elliott was in 11th ahead of Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. Denny Hamlin was in 17th, teammate Martin Truex Jr. was in 19th and Tyler Reddick was in 20th ahead of Alex Bowman. Rookie Cole Custer was in 25th ahead of Ryan Newman, Aric Almirola and Daniel Suarez.

Five laps later and 10 laps into the race, Bowyer stabilized his early advantage by more than a second over Johnson followed by Bell, DiBenedetto, Byron and Jones. Two laps later, Bell, the fastest competitor on the track, moved into the runner-up spot after passing Johnson. Another lap later, Johnson lost momentum entering Turn 3 and fell back to sixth place while being overtaken by DiBenedetto, Byron and Jones.

By Lap 15, Harvick, winner of Saturday’s Cup Michigan race, cracked the top 10 after passing Wallace. Ahead of him, Kyle Busch was in eighth ahead of Blaney while Logano, Elliott, Keselowski and Hamlin were running in 12th through 15th.

Five laps later and 20 laps into the race, Bowyer was still leading by more than two seconds over Bell, who continued to chop off Bowyer’s advantage. DiBenedetto was still in third place while Byron and Jones battled for fourth. The Busch brothers followed suit while Blaney and Harvick were in eighth and ninth. Johnson, meanwhile, had fallen back to 10th with Logano lingering behind him. By then, Wallace was in 15th ahead of Reddick, Truex was in 24th behind Almirola and Austin Dillon was back in 33rd place following his opening lap pass-through penalty.

With the laps in the first stage dwindling, Bowyer and his No. 14 DEKALB Ford Mustang were still ahead and cruising by three seconds over Bell and his No. 95 Procore Toyota Camry. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch and his No. 18 M&M’s Fudge Brownie Toyota Camry continued to work towards the front as he moved into third place followed by Jones, Byron and DiBenedetto. Blaney was in seventh followed by Harvick, one of the fastest competitors on the track. Kurt Busch was in ninth while Logano was in 10th ahead of Johnson, Elliott, Hamlin and Keselowski. Reddick was in 17th behind Wallace while Truex was stuck back in 22nd.

With no competition trailing behind him for the lead, Bowyer was able to navigate his way through lapped traffic and cruise to the first stage win on Lap 40 while claiming his third stage win of the season and crucial stage points towards making the Playoffs. Bell settled in second place followed by Kyle Busch, DiBenedetto and Jones. Byron, Blaney, Harvick, Kurt Busch and Logano settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Kyle Busch emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first following a stellar stop by the No. 18 M&M’s crew. Harvick moved up to second place followed by teammate Bowyer, Byron and Jones. Following the first round of pit stops, Blaney, who was in the top 10, made another pit stop to fill up the fuel tank of his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang.

Prior to the restart and with the choose rule implemented, Byron moved up from fourth to second place and restarted beneath Kyle Busch on the front row, Johnson moved up from seventh to restart in third place alongside Harvick in the second row and Bowyer dropped back to sixth to restart on the outside lane in the third row alongside Logano.

The second stage started on Lap 47 and Kyle Busch jumped to an early advantage with drafting help from Harvick. Not long after, Harvick made a three-wide move on Kyle Busch and Byron entering Turn 2 to take the lead and pull away. Busch settled in second followed by Bowyer, Byron and Jones. A lap later, Keselowski made his way into the top five after moving up to fourth. Behind, Bell was back in eighth following a slow stop under the first stage break.

By Lap 60 and with less than 100 laps remaining of the overall race, Harvick was leading by more than a second over Keselowski and Kyle Busch. Bowyer was in fourth followed by Bell, Jones, Logano, DiBenedetto, Elliott and Hamlin. Kurt Busch was in 11th followed by Almirola and Byron, Johnson and Bowman. Blaney was in 18th behind Reddick and ahead of Truex and Wallace. Matt Kenseth and Newman were in 16th and 23rd.

Ten laps later, Harvick, who started to approach lapped traffic, was still ahead of the field by two seconds over Keselowski and more than three seconds over Kyle Busch. Bell was still in fourth place followed by Bowyer, Jones, Hamlin, Logano, Elliott and Almirola. Johnson and Byron were back in 14th and 15th behind Blaney while Truex was in 17th.

At the halfway mark on Lap 78, Harvick extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Keselowski with Kyle Busch trailing by more than four seconds, Bell by nearly six seconds and Bowyer by nearly seven seconds. Like his race-winning performance from Saturday and with the same car he drove to yesterday’s win, Harvick was able to drive away from the field and easily claim the second stage on Lap 85 for his fifth stage victory of the season. Keselowski settled in second place followed by Kyle Busch, Bell and Bowyer. Hamlin, Jones, Almirola, Logano and Blaney were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Harvick retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of Kyle Busch. Keselowski, Bowyer and Hamlin exited in the top five followed by Bell. Prior to the restart, Hamlin moved up to the front row to restart beneath Harvick, Kyle Busch fell back to fourth to restart on the outside lane alongside Blaney. Elliott and Keselowski restarted behind on the third row followed by DiBenedetto and Bowyer.

Under 65 laps remaining, the final stage started under green. During the restart, Hamlin and Blaney boosted ahead with the lead and both competitors battled dead even before Blaney squeaked ahead with the top spot. Behind, Harvick and Hamlin battled for the runner-up spot followed by Elliott, Kyle Busch and Keselowski. Meanwhile, Bowman and Truex, both of whom struggled, were in 10th and 11th while Bowyer was in 12th ahead of Jones, Reddick and Bell. Byron was in 17th ahead of Kenseth while Johnson was in 20th behind Wallace.

With around 60 laps remaining, Keselowski, who muscled his way up to the runner-up spot, made a move beneath Blaney in Turn 1 and challenged for the lead when he got loose and slipped up into Blaney as both Penske teammates wrecked across the Turn 2 outside wall. With the caution returning, the wreck eliminated Blaney and Keselowski from race-winning contention and the overall race.

“I just lost it,” Keselowski said following his release from the infield care center on NBCSN. “It’s my fault. I feel really bad for my teammate, Ryan Blaney. He didn’t deserve that. I just came off of Turn 4 and [Harvick] was behind me. He gave me a push and I swear, I went into the corner like 20 mph faster than I had been all day. [I] Got pass [Hamlin] and went to get underneath [Blaney]. It just slipped, lost the back a little bit. I went to correct it and he was there, and I wiped him out and myself out.”

“It’s unfortunate for the whole Penske organization,” Blaney added. “We had two fast cars, battling for the lead. It stinks that happened. He had a run like he said. He didn’t think he had a big of a run as he had and just got loose and unfortunately, got us both. That’s a shame to end our day like that with the Knauf/Menards Ford Mustang. We were so fast…Got the lead…It’s unfortunate, but it’s not going to carry over. Mistakes happen.”

Under caution, Bowman made a pit stop after sustaining damage during the incident. Bowyer, who also sustained minimal damage to his car, remained on track inside the top 10. Prior to the restart, Kyle Busch moved up to restart beneath teammate Hamlin on the front row. Kurt Busch and Harvick restarted on the second row in front of Bell and Elliott.

The race restarted under green with 55 laps remaining and Harvick made his way back to the lead over Hamlin. Elliott moved into third followed by Kyle Busch and Almirola. Kurt Busch charged his way up to sixth followed by DiBenedetto, Truex, Johnson and Bell. Meanwhile, Bowyer, who sustained a tire rub during the restart, made an unscheduled pit stop and was trapped a lap behind the leaders.

Shortly after, the caution returned when Bell spun in Turn 2 after sustaining a flat tire. The caution was as a saving grace for Bowyer, who received the free pass and returned on the lead lap.

Under caution, nearly the entire field pitted and Hamlin exited pit road first after only taking fuel to his No. 11 FedEx Toyota, the first of many who elected to pit for only fuel. DiBenedetto exited in second after he also took only fuel to his car followed by Harvick, who opted for a two-tire stop. At the front, Almirola remained on track to inherit the lead, though he miscommunicated with his crew over code words and had meant to pit with the leaders.

When the race restarted with 47 laps remaining, teammates Almirola and Harvick battled for the lead with Harvick leading the following lap before Almirola cleared his teammate for the lead the next lap. Behind, DiBenedetto moved up to third place followed by Truex, who made a three-wide move on Kurt Busch and Hamlin to move into the top five for the first time. Logano was in seventh followed by Jones, Kyle Busch and Newman.

With 40 laps remaining, Harvick made his way back to the lead after passing Almirola, though Almirola and his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang remained competitive on old tires and low fuel. Truex was up in third place followed by DiBenedetto and Hamlin. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was in ninth ahead of Johnson and Jones, Austin Dillon was up to 13th, Byron was in 15th and Bowyer was in 18th.

Ten laps later and with 30 laps remaining, Harvick was still leading by two-tenths of a second over his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Almirola while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Hamlin battled for third place. Kurt Busch trailed by more than four seconds with brother Kyle up to sixth.

Seven laps later, with the leaders approaching lapped traffic, teammates Truex and Hamlin passed Almirola to move up to second and third with Truex trailing race leader Harvick by less than a second.

With less than 20 laps remaining, the caution returned due to debris from Bowman’s No. 88 Adam’s Polishes/ChevyGoods.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, who had sustained a flat tire entering Turn 4 and near the pit road entrance. The caution was as a saving grace for Almirola, who was on the brink of having to make an unscheduled pit stop under green.

Under caution, Almirola along with some that included DiBenedetto, Wallace, Kenseth, Michael McDowell, rookie John Hunter Nemechek, Ryan Preece and Daniel Suarez pitted while most of the leaders led by Harvick remained on track.

With 15 laps remaining, the race restarted under green with Harvick and Hamlin on the front row in front of Truex and Logano. At the restart, Harvick retained the lead while teammates Truex and Hamlin battled for the runner-up spot. Teammate Kyle Busch made his way to fourth after passing brother Kurt and with DiBenedetto behind.

Two laps later, Hamlin settled in the runner-up spot in front of teammates Truex and Kyle Busch. By then, Harvick was ahead by nearly a second. Meanwhile, Almirola, following his pit stop, was up to eighth on fresh tires behind Elliott.

With less than 10 laps remaining, Harvick was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin, who was slowly closing in towards Harvick, while teammates Truex and Kyle Busch battled for third place. During this time, Bowman made another unscheduled pit stop after making contact with the wall and sustaining another flat tire.

With the laps dwindling, Hamlin continued to chop off Harvick’s advantage as he drew himself to being three-tenths of a second behind Harvick. While Hamlin remained within sight of Harvick’s rear bumper and made a few attempts to pass for the lead through the turns, Harvick was able to retain his advantage entering the straightaways.

With two laps remaining, Hamlin gained a run in Turn 1 when Harvick lifted, but he also lifted entering Turn 2 as Harvick stabilized his advantage to nearly three car lengths. On the final lap, Harvick was still ahead with Hamlin still lurking behind. In Turn 3, Harvick remained on the inside lane while Hamlin went on the outside lane. Entering Turn 4, Hamlin gained a huge run on Harvick and got to his rear bumper. With the checkered flag waving and the leaders coming across the finish line through the frontstretch, Harvick was able to beat Hamlin by 0.093 seconds to grab a thrilling win.

The victory was the 13th of the season for Ford, the manufacturer’s 42nd Cup victory since 2018 and the seventh of the season for Stewart-Haas Racing. With his two victories this weekend, Harvick tallied his top-five results of this season to 15 and top-10 results to 19. A day after tying the late Lee Petty for 11th place on the NASCAR Cup all-time wins list, Harvick has tied NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace for 10th place on the all-time wins list.

“It was a big challenge [on the battle with Hamlin],” Harvick said in Victory Lane on NBCSN. “Our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang got really tight there in [Turns] 3 and 4. I could run really good through [Turns] 1 and 2 still, but I was just tight on that other end all day. I just got to thank all of my guys. They did a great job all weekend on pit road. Great pit calls. It’s been a long time since I’ve raced back-to-back days, let alone in the Cup car. I’ve never accomplished that, obviously, but we’ve done that a couple times this year. For us, it’s worked out pretty good. When you look at my team, we’ve been together for seven years now, and you look at the confidence that everybody has in each other, the details of the racecars and the thought of everything that goes into everything we do is untouchable.”

Hamlin settled in the runner-up spot for his 12th top-five result of this season as this also marks the ninth time where he has finished first or second this season. Teammates Truex and Kyle Busch finished third and fourth while Logano held off Almirola to finish fifth.

“Once we finally got to second, I knew we had something for [Harvick],” Hamlin said. “We got stalled there. He was tight, I was tight. We were better, that’s for sure. He just had the track position and could control the lanes there. [I] Wished I had Turns 1 and 2 to go do over again when we both lifted off of [Turn] 2 there. I should’ve faked low and went high, but I thought I could maybe get to the quarter panel and shoved him even higher. Just couldn’t quite do it, but proud of this whole FedEx Ground Toyota team. Obviously, a very strong run. We just needed a little bit more. Overall, I thought we just had a good-handling car and that’s what allowed us to keep pace there. I thought our whole team did a great job of adjusting overnight. We’re just plugging along here. [I] Really hate giving up wins to [Harvick]. I got tremendous respect for everyone on [the No. 4] team and Kevin. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve gotten wiser, learned to really appreciate what each other does on the race track and obviously, they’re have a great season as well.”

“We battled back,” Truex said. “The car was pretty far off to start the race. We’re all pretty disappointed in that, obviously. Really proud of the effort to get the Auto-Owners [Insurance] Camry back upfront. Just really proud of our race team. We keep bringing top-three cars to the race track and the Playoffs are coming. So, we need to keep doing that. Just off at the start and had to rebound. Definitely, a different story than yesterday but pretty much, the same result. I was doing all I could to get up there. I got too tight there at the end. Just fought the balance too much all day. Wicked loose to start and wicked tight at the end. We’ll keep digging.”

Almirola, DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Elliott and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10. Jimmie Johnson finished 11th in his final run at Michigan while Bowyer ended his run in 14th place.

There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 24 laps.

With two victories this weekend and with four regular-season races remaining until the start of the 2020 Cup Playoffs, Harvick continues to lead the regular-season series standings by 137 over Keselowski and 140 over Hamlin.

Results.

1. Kevin Harvick, 90 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Denny Hamlin, six laps led

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Kyle Busch, four laps led

5. Joey Logano

6. Aric Almirola, nine laps led

7. Matt DiBenedetto

8. Austin Dillon

9. Chase Elliott

10. Kurt Busch

11. Jimmie Johnson

12. William Byron

13. Ryan Newman

14. Clint Bowyer, 43 laps led, Stage 1 winner

15. Matt Kenseth

16. Ryan Preece

17. Christopher Bell

18. Ty Dillon

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

20. Chris Buescher

21. Bubba Wallace

22. Corey LaJoie

23. John Hunter Nemechek

24. Tyler Reddick

25. Cole Custer

26. Daniel Suarez

27. Erik Jones

28. Michael McDowell

29. J.J. Yeley, two laps down

30. Brennan Poole, three laps down

31. Reed Sorenson, three laps down

32. Quin Houff, three laps down

33. Josh Bilicki, four laps down

34. Garrett Smithley, four laps down

35. Timmy Hill, six laps down

36. Alex Bowman – OUT, Tire

37. James Davison, nine laps down

38. Ryan Blaney – OUT, four laps led

39. Brad Keselowski – OUT

Next weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will race for the first time on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course layout as the 2020 Playoffs approaches its starting point. The race at Daytona will occur on August 16 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

August 9, 2020
Harvick claims the first Cup Michigan race of the weekend

Following a late battle and the slightest of contact with Kyle Busch in the closing laps, Kevin Harvick prevailed through a series of late restarts and in overtime against Brad Keselowski to win the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, August 8, the first of two NASCAR Cup Series races at Michigan of the weekend. The victory was Harvick’s fifth of the season, fourth at Michigan and the 54th of his Cup Series career.

The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Joey Logano started on pole position for the second time this season and was joined on the front row with Denny Hamlin.

Prior to the race, NASCAR confiscated the spoilers from the Roush Fenway Racing two-car lineup of Ryan Newman and Chris Buescher during the pre-race inspection process. With both teams violating Section 12.4.12.b (spoiler section) of the NASCAR Cup rule book, both competitors dropped to the rear of the field and they were also docked 20 driver/owner points. In addition, their crew chiefs (Scott Graves and Luke Lambert) were each fined $25,000 for the infraction. Jimmie Johnson and Joey Gase also dropped to the rear of the field due to their respective cars failing pre-race inspection twice.

When the green flag and the race commenced following a 45-minute delay because of the delayed Xfinity Series race occurring at Road America, Logano received a push from Aric Almirola on the outside lane to jump to an early lead as he led the first lap. The following lap, Hamlin attempted to pass Logano on the inside lane, but he lost his momentum entering Turn 2 as Logano retained the lead while Almirola challenged Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Behind, Kevin Harvick was in fourth followed by Alex Bowman, teammate Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski, all of whom battled one another through Turns 3 and 4.

In Turn 1, Keselowski lost his momentum and dropped all the way back to 12th behind rookie Tyler Reddick, who was fresh off a one-year contract extension deal with Richard Childress Racing.

After the first 10 laps, Logano, who reported a vibration, was still leading by less than two-tenths of a second over Hamlin with teammates Almirola and Harvick trailing behind and battling one another for third place. A few laps later, Almirola dropped out of the top five after being overtaken by Harvick and Kurt Busch.

On Lap 14, Hamlin made a move beneath Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford in Turn 3 and both battled dead even for the lead through Turns 4 and 1. While Hamlin led the 15th lap, Logano cleared Hamlin for the lead back in Turn 2 just as the competition caution flew. Prior to the competition caution, Ryan Blaney made a green flag pit stop for early adjustments and fresh tires for the ensuing restart. At the time of caution, Almirola had fallen back to 10th place and Martin Truex Jr. was in sixth while Harvick, Bowman and Kurt Busch were scored in the top five. Erik Jones and Chase Elliott were in 11th and 12th while Matt DiBenedetto and William Byron were in 14th and 15th. Clint Bowyer was in 16th, Jimmie Johnson was in 17th and Ryan Newman was in 29th.

Under caution, a majority of competitors led by Keselowski, Almirola, Elliott, rookie Cole Custer, Byron, Austin Dillon and Newman pitted while the rest led by Logano, Hamlin, Reddick and Harvick remained on track.

The race restarted on Lap 19 and Hamlin received a push from Reddick on the inside lane to move into the lead through Turns 1 and 2. Behind, Logano, who restarted on the outside lane, retained the runner-up spot followed by Harvick, Kurt Busch and Bowman. A lap later, Truex cut a right-front tire in Turn 3 after making contact with Reddick in Turn 2. He was able to keep his car off the wall and return to pit road for two fresh right-side tires. The misfortune, however, cost Truex two laps.

At the front, Harvick gained a run on Hamlin in Turn 4 and was able to pass Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota to emerge with the lead on Lap 23. Behind, Blaney bolted his way into sixth place followed by Reddick and Jones.

By Lap 30, Harvick was ahead by two-tenths of a second over Hamlin. Kurt Busch was in third followed by Blaney, Bowman and Jones. Elliott was in eighth while Logano was back in ninth following contact with Kyle Busch in Turn 2. Bowyer was in 12th, Johnson was in 14th, Byron was in 17th and Almirola was in 18th. Truex was in 36th while Reddick, who had been running inside the top 10, was back in 35th after making an unscheduled pit stop under green a few laps earlier.

With no one behind him nor close enough to challenge for the lead, Harvick was able to cruise to the win in the first stage on Lap 40 as he claimed his third stage victory of the season. Hamlin trailed in second place and above half a second followed by Blaney, Kurt Busch and Keselowski. Jones, Bowman, Elliott, Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were scored in the top 10. Logano had fallen back to 18th while battling loose-handling conditions to his car.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hamlin exited pit road first ahead of Harvick following a stellar pit stop from the FedEx crew. Blaney exited in third place followed by Keselowski and Kurt Busch.

Prior to the start of the second stage and with the new choose rule implemented, Harvick dropped from second to fourth to restart on the outside lane while Keselowski was lined up in second place and beneath Hamlin on the front row. In addition, Jones moved up from sixth to third as the second car to restart on the bottom lane while Bowyer moved up from ninth to fifth.

The second stage started on Lap 47 and Hamlin gained a huge run on the outside lane to retain the lead. While the field behind battled intensely against one another and raced three to four wide for position, Blaney took the lead on Lap 49. Harvick settled right behind Blaney in second followed by Kurt Busch while Hamlin and Keselowski battled for fourth.

By Lap 55, Blaney was still ahead by less than four-tenths of a second over Harvick followed by Kurt Busch and Jones, who gained a huge run on the outside lane to pass both Hamlin and Keselowski for position a few laps earlier. Bowman trailed behind in seventh followed by Bowyer, Kyle Busch and Bubba Wallace. Elliott and Logano were in 12th and 15th while Johnson was in 17th. Reddick, who took the wave around to return to the lead lap under the first stage break, was in 26th while Truex was in 34th, still a lap behind.

Five laps later and with less than 100 laps remaining of the overall race, Blaney was still leading by less than half a second over Harvick with Michigan natives Jones and Keselowski lingering behind. Soon after, Hamlin joined the party as he battled teammate Jones and Keselowski for position inside the top five.

With Blaney leading by less than two-tenths of a second over Harvick on Lap 67, the Busch brothers started to close in towards the top-five competitors for position. By Lap 76, Harvick benefitted from Blaney getting stuck behind a lapped car to reassume the lead. By then, Reddick made another unscheduled pit stop after he reported a flat tire to his No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Behind the leaders, Keselowski moved up to third after passing Hamlin, who earlier nearly wrecked with the lapped car of Timmy Hill. Both competitors continued to battle intensely for the spot as the laps of the second stage continued to dwindle.

Like his run to the conclusion of the first stage, Harvick was able to pull away from Blaney by less than a second and not worry about any lapped traffic to win the second stage on Lap 85 and claim his fourth stage victory of the season. Blaney settled in second followed by Hamlin, Jones and Keselowski. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Bowman, Bowyer and Johnson settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Harvick, this time, exited pit road with the lead followed by Hamlin, Blaney, Keselowski and Kyle Busch.

The final stage under green occurred with 65 laps remaining and Hamlin, who restarted on the inside lane, received a push from teammate Jones to move into the lead. In Turn 3, however, Jones and Harvick attempted to place Hamlin in a three-wide situation for the lead. While Jones slipped and dropped back into the top 10, Harvick was able to muscle his way back into the lead. Keselowski advanced to the runner-up spot over Hamlin while Blaney and Kyle Busch moved into the top five.

The caution returned shortly after when rookie John Hunter Nemechek spun in a flurry of circles on the frontstretch following contact with Chris Buescher. With the caution, Truex received the free pass and cycled back to the lead lap. Under caution, few that included Buescher, Corey LaJoie, Newman, Almirola, Reddick and Nemechek pitted while the rest remained on track.

With 58 laps remaining, the race restarted and Harvick was able to clear Hamlin on the outside lane to retain the lead. Keselowski and Hamlin battled again for the runner-up spot followed by Kyle Busch and Bowyer while Blaney, Johnson, rookie Christopher Bell, Jones and Elliott settled in the top 10.

Eight laps later, the caution returned for another spin in Turn 4 involving Nemechek. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Kyle Busch emerged with the lead after only taking fuel for his No. 18 M&M’s Fudge Brownie Toyota Camry. Jones and Truex followed suit after they elected for only fuel to their respective Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas followed by Elliott and Bell, both of whom opted for a two-tire stop. Harvick also opted for a two-tire stop to remain within sight of the lead.

Prior to the restart and with the choose rule implemented, Harvick moved up to the front row on the inside lane beneath Kyle Busch while Austin Dillon and Jones lined up right behind the leaders. Keselowski lined up in fifth next to Truex followed by Hamlin and Elliott.

With 46 laps remaining, the race restarted and Kyle Busch received a push from teammate Jones to retain the lead on the outside lane. A lap later, Harvick made a move beneath Kyle Busch in Turn 1 to reassume the lead. Behind, Truex passed teammate Jones and started to challenge teammate Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot.

With 40 laps remaining and with fuel in question for the leaders to complete the race to its scheduled distance, Harvick was still ahead by less than eight-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Jones. Elliott was in fifth place followed by Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Logano, Bell and Hamlin with Blaney in 11th.

Ten laps later, Harvick extended his advantage to more than a second over teammates Kyle Busch and Truex. Jones was in fourth while Elliott prevailed in a battle with Keselowski for fifth place. Behind, Hamlin was still running in 11th and trailing Team Penske’s Logano and Blaney for a spot in the top 10.

With 26 laps remaining, the caution returned for a third incident involving Nemechek in Turn 3, who made contact with the outside wall and sustained heavy rear end damage. Compared to his previous two incidents, this recent incident ended Nemechek’s race in the garage as he will move to a backup car for Sunday’s race at Michigan.

Under caution, some like Logano, Blaney, Bowyer, DiBenedetto, Michael McDowell, Matt Kenseth and Buescher pitted while the rest remained on track. Prior to the restart, Jones dropped back to sixth to restart as the fourth car on the outside lane while Elliott moved up to second and alongside Harvick on the front row. Keselowski and Kyle Busch were lined up behind the two leaders and in front of teammates Hamlin and Truex.

With 18 laps remaining, the race restarted and Elliott powered his way into the lead on the inside lane. While the field fanned out and battled for positions through the straightaways and the turns, Elliott maintained a narrow advantage over Harvick a lap later followed by a flurry of Toyota competitors led by Kyle Busch, Truex, Bell, Jones and Hamlin.

Five laps after the restart and with the battle for the lead intensifying, the caution returned after Ryan Preece made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2. Under caution, some like Reddick and Kenseth pitted while the rest remained on track. Prior to the restart, Kyle Busch elected to restart on the inside lane beneath Elliott on the front row. Behind, Harvick and Hamlin restarted alongside one another in the second row.

The race restarted with nine laps remaining and Kyle Busch received a push from teammate Hamlin to take the lead through Turns 1 and 2. In Turn 3, however, Kyle Busch slipped following close racing with Harvick, which nearly involved contact between the two, and Harvick reassumed the lead while Busch lost his momentum and fell back to the top 10. Shortly after, the caution flew when rookie Cole Custer made hard contact into the outside wall in Turn 3 and retired from the race, thus moving him to a backup car for Sunday’s race at Michigan. At the time of caution, Harvick was leading followed by Elliott, Hamlin, Blaney, Wallace, Jones and Truex while Kyle Busch was back in ninth. The race eventually went into a red flag period for nearly six minutes to allow the clean-up crew to clear the incident site in Turn 3 caused by Custer.

Prior to the restart when the race resumed under caution, Hamlin elected to restart beneath Harvick on the inside line and on the front row in front of Wallace and Elliott with teammates Blaney and Keselowski in the third row.

The race restarted with three laps remaining and Harvick and Hamlin battled dead even for the lead entering Turn 1. It was there where Wallace attempted to make a three-wide move for more, but it was not enough as Harvick reassumed the lead in Turn 2. Elliott moved up to second followed by Blaney, Keselowski and Truex while Hamlin and Wallace dropped back to sixth and seventh. In Turn 4, Austin Dillon, McDowell and Newman wrecked in Turn 4 as the caution returned and the race went into overtime.

Prior to the overtime attempt, Keselowski restarted on the front row beneath Harvick in front of Hamlin and Elliott. Wallace and Blaney were lined up in the third row followed by Johnson and Truex.

In the first overtime attempt, Harvick and Keselowski battled dead even against one another through half a circuit with both not prevailing ahead of the other and receiving not drafting help from behind. In Turn 3, however, Harvick cleared Keselowski for the lead on the outside lane entering Turn 4. On the final lap, Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang were ahead by two-tenths of a second over Keselowski’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Though Keselowski remained within sight of Harvick, he was unable to gain any draft for the lead as Harvick was able to claim the checkered flag in first place and win by less than three-tenths of a second.

The victory was also the 12th of the season for Ford and the sixth for Stewart-Haas Racing. With his 54th career win, Harvick moved into a tie with the late Lee Petty for 11th place on the all-time series wins list.

“This was an awesome car to drive today,” Harvick said on NBCSN. “The restarts were obviously a handful, but our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang was really fast today and we held on for the long run and would really go on the short run and did everything we needed it to do. I think that the confidence is high when we come to Michigan. It’s a race track that’s been really good to us and just fits our style of cars. [Crew chief] Rodney [Childers] and [the No. 4 crew] have given me great racecars at Michigan every time we’ve come… I can’t say enough about our whole organization. Since we’ve come back from COVID, the work that these guys and gals are putting in at the race shop and the organization, they’ve had a lot of really good training from Tony Stewart in awkward situations on how to prepare for things. Thanks, Smoke!”

“I knew I needed to be right there [with Kyle Busch],” Harvick added regarding the contact with Kyle Busch. “I couldn’t tell if I touched him. I knew I wanted that side draft there. I knew that we had a fast enough car to pass him, but I knew that I needed to take the opportunity I had and I needed to side draft him.”

Keselowski finished in second place as he came one spot short of winning at his home track. Truex ended his race in third place followed by Blaney and Kyle Busch, who nipped teammate Hamlin at the line for a top-five run.

“[Harvick] is just super fast in the corners and the straightaway,” Keselowski said. “He was definitely the best car out here today. We put a good effort to kind of maximize our day and that is what we did, finished second. Proud of everyone on the Discount Tire Ford Mustang team. We will go back to work on it and hopefully find a little bit more for the race [Sunday].”

“I just didn’t get loose and turn up to the wall by myself,” Kyle Busch said regarding the contact with Harvick. “I don’t know whether he hit me or it was just air. It was close enough that it disturbed my car and made me have to get out of [the gas] real bad and chase it real bad. Thankfully, we kept it out of the fence and at least try to salvage something out of it. That’s a pretty good run for us there. I felt like we had a fast car, but it was the best of the rest. [Harvick] was lights out. He deserved to win the race, anyways. It was a race for second today, overall. We’ve been fighting hard all year. We’ve been running well enough for good finishes. We just aren’t getting them. Today was another indication of that. We should’ve finished second, I guess, but a top five it is.”

Hamlin, Elliott, Logano, Wallace and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10. Buescher finished 20th and will start on pole position for the second Cup Michigan race on Sunday, August 9, alongside Bowyer with the top-20 finishers on Saturday being inverted for Sunday.

Jones, who will not be remaining with Joe Gibbs Racing after this season, finished 11th and is 16 points behind 14th-place finisher Byron for the 16th and final spot to the 2020 Playoffs with five regular-season races remaining. Reddick, who finished 18th, is 19 points behind while Johnson, who finished 12th, is 22 points behind. DiBenedetto and Bowyer, both of whom finished 15th and 19th, are 40 and 41 points above the top-16 cutline while Wallace, who notched a career-high fourth top-10 result of this season, remains 123 points below the cutline.

There were 12 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 43 laps.

With his victory, Harvick continues to lead the regular-season series standings by 94 points over Keselowski, 127 over Hamlin and 128 over Blaney.

Results.

1. Kevin Harvick, 92 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

2. Brad Keselowski

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Ryan Blaney, 27 laps

5. Kyle Busch, four laps led

6. Denny Hamlin, 10 laps led

7. Chase Elliott, nine laps led

8. Joey Logano, 18 laps led

9. Bubba Wallace

10. Kurt Busch

11. Erik Jones

12. Jimmie Johnson

13. Christopher Bell

14. William Byron

15. Matt DiBenedetto

16. Aric Almirola

17. Matt Kenseth

18. Tyler Reddick

19. Clint Bowyer

20. Chris Buescher

21. Alex Bowman

22. Corey LaJoie

23. Ty Dillon

24. Daniel Suarez

25. Ryan Preece

26. J.J. Yeley, one lap led

27. Quin Houff

28. Ryan Newman

29. Michael McDowell

30. Reed Sorenson

31. Austin Dillon

32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

33. Timmy Hill, two laps down

34. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

35. Garrett Smithley – OUT, Steering

36. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

37. Brennan Poole – OUT, Engine

38. James Davison, 58 laps down

39. Joey Gase – OUT, Transmission

The NASCAR Cup Series will return the following day, August 9, for its second Michigan race of the season, which will air on 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

August 8, 2020

Cindric wins the Henry 180 at Road America

Austin Cindric took the lead with three laps remaining and held off veteran road-course ace A.J. Allmendinger to win Saturday‘s NASCAR Xfinity Series Henry 180 race on the historic 4.048-mile Road America road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

“We were able to get around and once AJ got clear I knew I was running qualifying laps. This car was really fast on short runs. Those guys brought a great package and I tried to mind my p’s and q’s and put together two of my best laps to come home with the win. I am over the moon about it. This is the first place I ran an Xfinity race and I feel like every time I have come here we have had a shot to win. It feels great to do it and do it in front of fans and a home crowd from Menards.” Cindric said.

The Mooresville, N.C. native led a total of 19 laps of the 45 laps in route to his fourth victory this season and the third time on a road course in his No. 22 Menards/Richmond Mustang.

Chase Briscoe finished third, Kaz Grala fourth and IMSA driver Andy Lally finished fifth followed by Noah Gragson, Ross Chastain, Preston Pardus, Ryan Sieg, and Michael Annett rounded out the top-10.

Justin Haley won the stage one in a one-lap shootout and AJ Allmendinger won stage two under caution.

The race was stopped for a little over a hour and a half for weather near the end of the first stage.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns on Saturday, August 15 with the UNOH 188 at the Daytona Road Course with coverage starting at 3:00 p.m. ET NBCSN, MRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. This will be the first time that the NASCAR Xfinity Series has raced on the iconic road course.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Number 18

Road America – Elkhart Lake, WI – 4.048 – Mile Road

Total Race Length – 45 Laps – 182.16 Miles

Fin	Str	No	Driver	Team	Laps	S1Pos	S2Pos	S3Pos	Pts	Status
1	2	22	Austin Cindric	Menards/Richmond Ford	45	2	0	0	49	Running
2	33	16	AJ Allmendinger	Ellsworth Advisors Chevrolet	45	0	1	0	45	Running
3	7	98	Chase Briscoe	Henry Repeating Arms Ford	45	3	0	0	42	Running
4	6	21	Kaz Grala	ruedebush.com Chevrolet	45	0	6	0	38	Running
5	23	2	Andy Lally	New Wave Cleaning Solutions Chevrolet	45	5	5	0	44	Running
6	9	9	Noah Gragson	Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber Camo Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	31	Running
7	11	10	Ross Chastain	Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet	45	4	2	0	46	Running
8	37	36	Preston Pardus	Chinchor Electric/Danus Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	29	Running
9	16	39	Ryan Sieg	CMRRoofing.com Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	28	Running
10	1	1	Michael Annett	Allstate Parts & Service Group Chevrolet	45	7	9	0	33	Running
11	4	11	Justin Haley	LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet	45	1	3	0	44	Running
12	13	68	Brandon Brown	BMS Chevrolet	45	0	7	0	29	Running
13	22	92	Josh Williams	Alloy Employer Services/ProAct Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	24	Running
14	8	19	Brandon Jones	Toyota Service Center Toyota	45	0	0	0	23	Running
15	21	90	Alex Labbe	Frameco/Prolon/rousseau Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	22	Running
16	3	20	Harrison Burton #	DEX Imaging Toyota	45	0	0	0	21	Running
17	30	99	Josh Bilicki	Ariens Toyota	45	8	4	0	30	Running
18	36	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Skyview Partners Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	19	Running
19	19	6	Jade Buford	Big Machine Hand Sanitizer Chevrolet	45	9	8	0	23	Running
20	24	7	Rc Enerson	Lucas Oil School of Racing Chevrolet	45	10	0	0	18	Running
21	32	47	Kyle Weatherman	Stand For The Flag Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	16	Running
22	15	61	Stephen Leicht	JANIKING Toyota	45	0	0	0	15	Running
23	5	18	Riley Herbst #	Monster Energy Toyota	45	0	0	0	14	Running
24	20	0	Mike Wallace	Unkers Therapeutic/Market Scan Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	13	Running
25	26	8	Joe Graf Jr #	Bucked Up Energy Chevrolet	45	0	0	0	12	Running
26	35	13	Jesse Iwuji(i)	G2 Xchange Toyota	45	0	0	0	0	Running
27	28	52	Kody Vanderwal #	ADVANCED DAIRY SERVICES Chevrolet	43	0	0	0	10	Engine
28	14	4	Jesse Little #	JD Motorsports Chevrolet	43	0	0	0	9	Running
29	18	51	Jeremy Clements	Repairables.com Chevrolet	42	0	0	0	8	Accident
30	12	7	Justin Allgaier	BRANDT Chevrolet	41	6	0	0	12	Accident
31	17	15	Jeffrey Earnhardt	TeamJDMotorsports.com Chevrolet	41	0	0	0	6	Accident
32	29	93	Myatt Snider #	ShoreLunch Chevrolet	41	0	0	0	5	Accident
33	27	78	Scott Heckert	Koolbox Ice/JW Transport Toyota	41	0	10	0	5	Running
34	34	5	Vinnie Miller	Thompson Electric/JF Electric Chevrolet	10	0	0	0	3	Engine
35	10	8	Daniel Hemric	Poppy Bank Chevrolet	7	0	0	0	2	Engine
36	31	66	Chad Finchum	OCR GAZ BAR Toyota	5	0	0	0	1	Transmission
37	25	74	Bayley Currey(i)	Repairables.com Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	0	Engine

August 8, 2020

Zane Smith notches first career Truck Series win at Michigan
The victory wasn’t easy but Zane Smith held off competitor Christian Eckes in the second overtime restart coming to the checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway. Smith found his opportunity after race leader Grant Enfinger spun from the lead and then making sure Eckes wasn’t going to get a run on him. The Californian finally got the win in just 12 starts in his Truck Series career.

“I really don’t know where to start. A lot of people don’t understand my situation with racing. It’s unbelievable I’ve made it to this point. Just thank you. A lot of this sport, as we all know, is about money and I don’t come from that. Making it to this point and to win and to be with such an awesome team like GMS Racing is something special,” said an emotional Smith. “I wish everyone could be here so I could celebrate with my parents and my girlfriend. Man, this is a lot to take in and it was awesome racing with all my friends. Man, an unbelievable day.”

Stages of 20-20-60 laps made up the original 100 lap race but two overtimes forced the race into 107 laps.

Prior to the event, major news came out of prerace inspection when ThorSport driver Johnny Sauter failed inspection due to a side panel violation. As a result, Sauter lost 10 driver points and ThorSport lost 10 owner points due to an L1 penalty. His crew chief, Joe Shear Jr. was also ejected for the race and replaced by Rich Lushes. Despite the penalty, Sauter was able to keep his starting position of 13th.

Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Chandler Smith drew the pole via owner points.

Stage 1: Lap 1 – Lap 20

It didn’t take long for cautions to fly in throughout the 107 lap event. Cautions flew as early as Lap 3 when the No. 14 of Trey Hutchens and the No. 00 of Josh Reaume collided with each other on the frontstretch.

The second caution flew on Lap 14 for Christian Eckes as he spun on the backstretch. One final yellow of the stage flew for the No. 30 of Brennan Poole when he spun off Turn 4.

The yellow was too late in the stage to get enough green flag laps in, therefore series officials called the stage early and ended it under yellow. Birthday boy Brett Moffitt won Stage 1. Sheldon Creed, Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Derek Kraus, Austin Hill, Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen, Zane Smith and Chandler Smith completed the top 10.

Stage 2: Lap 24 – Lap 40

Before the second stage began, Zane Smith was penalized for too many crew over the wall.

Canadian Raphael Lessard led the early laps of the second stage but ran into trouble when his No. 4 Toyota Tundra had a left rear tire go flat, forcing Lessard to pit and lose valuable track position.

However, Johnny Sauter’s strategy of not pitting under the first stage break gave him the lead on Lap 29 and his first stage win of the 2020 Truck Series season. Moffitt, Gilliland, Enfinger, Gray, Creed, Hill, Nemechek, Kligerman and Kraus were the top 10.

Stage 3: Lap 47 – Lap 107

The third and final stage was littered with yellow flags. The first fell on Lap 49 for a wreck on the frontstretch. The No. 52 of Stewart Friesen spun after contact with the No. 18 of Eckes. Drivers Matt Crafton, Ryan Truex, Ty Majeski, and David Gravel were involved in the incident. Friesen suffered the most damage and was credited with a last place finish.

Another yellow came on Lap 60 for an incident between Chandler Smith and Kentucky native Ben Rhodes. It appears the two had an incident with each other laps prior to the wreck as Rhodes would retaliate and wreck Smith going into Turn 1. As a result, Smith’s day was done and he finished 38th after starting on the pole.

One of the most notable incidents that happened in the remaining laps was a battle between the two ThorSport teammates Enfinger and Sauter. Both were battling hard for position and the lead. Coming out of Turn 2, the air got taken off Sauter’s No. 13 truck and the Wisconsin native went crashing into the wall. While the team was able to get back out on the track, Sauter finished a disappointing 16th after contending for the win late.

Two more accidents slowed the race, including one red flag that lasted nine minutes and 46 seconds.

The defining moment came for Smith after the leaders took each other out. He would take the lead and hold on for the first checkered flag of his career.

“It’s a super cool place to get one (the victory) for Chevrolet,” Smith said about winning. “This is their home place. I think any manufacturer wants to win here (Michigan). I don’t know how many times they (Chevrolet) won here in a Truck, but it’s really cool to be a part of that.”

A record 11 cautions flew for 51 laps and 17 lead changes among 13 different drivers.

Official Results following the Henry Ford Health Systems 200
1. Zane Smith, led one lap
2. Christian Eckes
3. Tanner Gray
4. Tyler Ankrum
5. Todd Gilliland, led three laps
6. Brett Moffitt, won Stage 1, led 20 laps
7. Raphael Lessard, led four laps
8. Derek Kraus
9. Parker Kligerman
10. David Gravel
11. Ben Rhodes
12. Austin Hill, led 11 laps
13. Tate Fogleman
14. Dawson Cram, led three laps
15. Ty Majeski
16. Johnny Sauter, won Stage 2, led 18 laps
17. Josh Reaume, led one lap
18. Codie Rohrbaugh
19. Ryan Truex
20. Clay Greenfield
21. Tyler Hill
22. Jesse Iwuji
23. Matt Crafton
24. Cory Roper
25. John Hunter Nemechek, led two laps
26. Tim Viens
27. Spencer Boyd
28. Jennifer Jo Cobb
29. Trey Hutchens III
30. Sheldon Creed, 1 lap down, led one lap
31. Norm Benning, 1 lap down
32. Jordan Anderson, 1 lap down
33. Grant Enfinger, 2 laps down, led 38 laps
34. Ray Ciccarelli, 4 laps down
35. Brennan Poole, OUT, Accident
36. Jeb Burton, OUT, Accident
37. Austin Wayne Self, 8 laps down
38. Chandler Smith, OUT, Accident
39. Stewart Friesen, OUT, Accident
Up Next: The NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series will make their debut on the Daytona Road Course Sunday, August 16 at noon ET live on Fox Sports 1. The new venue will also mark the start of the Triple Truck Challenge where drivers have a chance to earn up to $500,000.
August 8, 2020
Keselowski rolls to a dominant win at New Hampshire

With his status for next season uncertain, Brad Keselowski reignited his momentum for his second Cup title by dominating and prevailing over several battles with Denny Hamlin to win the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the 20th race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. The win was Keselowski’s third of this season, second at New Hampshire, third with crew chief Jeremy Bullins and 33rd of his Cup career, which moved him into a tie with the late NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Fireball Roberts for 24th on the all-time wins list.

The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Aric Almirola started on pole position for the third time this season and was joined on the front row with Denny Hamlin, a three-time winner at New Hampshire and last week’s winner at Kansas Speedway.

Prior to the race, Jerry Baxter, crew chief for Bubba Wallace and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team, and Ryan Sparks, crew chief for Corey LaJoie and the No. 32 Go Fas Racing Ford Mustang team, were both suspended from the race due to a pre-race inspection infraction for an improperly mounted ballast. In addition, both Wallace and LaJoie started at the rear of the field and were each docked 10 points. Engineer Roy Gangdal served as LaJoie’s interim crew chief while the No. 43 team went into a group effort for Wallace. Austin Dillon also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

When the green flag waved, Almirola, who started on the outside lane, jumped to an early advantage followed by Brad Keselowski while Denny Hamlin, who started on the inside lane and had issues getting started, dropped to third. Behind, Kyle Busch moved his way into fourth place followed by Clint Bowyer while Chase Elliott dropped to sixth.

On the third lap, Keselowski made his move beneath Almirola to move into the lead. Behind, Kurt Busch slipped up the racing groove entering Turn 3 and dropped all the way back to 18th. While Keselowski continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Almirola, teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin along with Bowyer battled intensely for third with Elliott lurking behind.

On Lap 10, Blaney missed the racing groove in Turn 3 while running 10th and nearly slapped the outside wall, though he was able to gather his car back into the racing groove entering Turn 4. By the time he gathered his No. 12 Menards/Sylvania/Team Penske Ford Mustang back, he had fallen back to 15th. A lap later, a similar thing happened to William Byron, who nearly collected teammate Jimmie Johnson in the process when Byron and his No. 24 Liberty University/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE slipped. Byron’s miscue dropped him back to 15th as he was locked into a battle with rookie Tyler Reddick.

A few laps later, Bowyer and Elliott made their way into the top five, which dropped Kyle Busch back to sixth and with Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano closing in towards Busch.

The first caution flew on Lap 15 when Kyle Busch blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the Turn 3 outside wall as he sustained significant damage to the right side of his No. 18 Pedigree/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry. Following his incident, Busch nursed his No. 18 Toyota back to pit road and made the left-hand turn to the garage as he parked his car near his hauler and his race came to an early end. The incident also extended his winless streak this season to 20 races.

“Just going down the backstretch there and about halfway down the backstretch, I felt it go flat and tried to get it slowed down enough without taking everybody else running over me behind me down the straightaway,” Busch said after being released from the infield care center on NBCSN. “I don’t know. I think there’s a replay of another Pedigree car here a few years ago that blew a right-front tire for absolutely no reason, too. Seems to be our luck with the Pedigree car here at New Hampshire. Sorry to all of our fans and all the Pedigree folks, but it’s still 2020.”

Under caution, many that included Hamlin, Bowyer, Harvick, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones and others pitted for tires while the rest led by Keselowski and Almirola remained on track. Following the pit stops, Jones was held a lap for pitting outside his pit box.

The race restarted on Lap 22 and Keselowski retained the lead followed by teammate Logano. Johnson gained a huge run on the outside lane entering Turn 4 to move into third place over Almirola while Elliott and Reddick battled for fifth. Behind, rookie Cole Custer moved into seventh followed by Hamlin and Byron. Harvick, the first car on fresh tires, moved back into 10th followed by Blaney and Bowyer. On Lap 25, Byron missed the racing groove entering Turn 3 for the second time of the day while battling inside the top 10 as he fell back to 16th.

While the battling for positions continued to ensue around the track, Keselowski was able to stabilize his advantage by nearly a second over teammate Logano by the time the competition flew on Lap 30. Under caution, a majority led by Logano pitted while others led by Keselowski, Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney and Harvick remained on track. Following the pit stops, LaJoie was assessed an over-the-wall too soon pit penalty.

When the race restarted on Lap 35, Keselowski retained the lead while Hamlin prevailed in a battle with Blaney for the runner-up spot. Bowyer, meanwhile, moved into fourth followed by Matt DiBenedetto and Harvick.

On Lap 38, Hamlin started to challenge Keselowski for the lead. He made a few attempts to move Keselowski for the lead, including bumping Keselowski’s rear bumper to loosen up the 2012 Cup champion, but Keselowski still prevailed with the top spot. Shortly after, Blaney joined the party as he started challenging Hamlin for the runner-up spot.

On Lap 44, Blaney moved into the runner-up spot after bumping Hamlin out of the way the previous lap as he started to set his sights towards teammate Keselowski for the lead. Behind, Bowyer and DiBenedetto continued battling for fourth followed by Harvick and Truex. Johnson, Bell and Byron were running in the top 10 while Logano, following his slow pit stop under the competition caution, was back in 12th ahead of Almirola. Elliott was in 14th followed by Reddick and Kurt Busch while Jones, who got back to the lead lap, was in 18th.

On Lap 50, with the clouds and weather concerns surrounding the track, Keselowski was still leading by a narrow margin over teammate Blaney and Hamlin with the trio being two seconds ahead of Bowyer and DiBenedetto.

Three laps later, Blaney made a challenge for the lead over Keselowski, but was unable to clear his teammate for the lead as he lost his momentum and allowed Hamlin to move back into the runner-up spot. Another five laps later, Hamlin muscled his way to the lead but a lap later, Keselowski took it back while Blaney went to work again for the runner-up spot.

On Lap 61, following a heated, intense battle with two Penske competitors, Hamlin was able to move into the lead and retain it while being pressured by Keselowski and Blaney. Shortly after, the caution flew when Johnson got loose underneath Bowyer while battling for position and spun entering Turn 2. He was able to continue without sustaining any significant damage to his No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.

Under caution, the majority of competitors led by Keselowski pitted while some led by Blaney and Byron remained on track. Following the pit stops, Elliott was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

With seven laps remaining in the first stage, the race restarted under green with Blaney remaining as the leader. Behind, Hamlin, on fresh tires, bolted his way into the runner-up spot as the shuffling of positions ensued behind the leaders. With five laps remaining in the stage, Hamlin muscled his way back into the lead. Truex moved into the runner-up spot as Blaney fell back to third on older tires. Shortly after, Harvick moved into third followed by Blaney while Bell and Keselowski battled for position.

With the battling for positions continuing and light rain drops being reported near the track, Hamlin was able to cruise to the first stage win on Lap 75 as he also recorded his third stage victory of the season. Teammate Truex settled in the runner-up spot followed by Harvick, Bell and Keselowski while Blaney, Bowyer, Logano, Preece and Almirola settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some like Blaney, Bowyer, Bell, Byron, Harvick, Custer, Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez and others pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on track.

The second stage commenced on Lap 83 with Hamlin retaining the lead. Behind, teammate Truex remained in sight for the lead while Harvick moved into third over Bell. Keselowski was in fifth followed by teammate Logano, Almirola, Kurt Busch, Ryan Preece and DiBenedetto.

By Lap 90, with the intense racing from earlier easing down, Hamlin was still ahead by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Truex followed by Harvick, Keselowski and Bell. Behind, Elliott was in 13th followed by Blaney, Matt Kenseth, Custer and Jones. Byron was in 18th ahead of Ryan Newman and Bowman while Wallace was in 21st ahead of Reddick. Bowyer was in 24th while Johnson was in 27th. Not long after, the caution flew due to rain. By then, Harvick had overtaken Truex for the runner-up spot.

Under caution, where the field continued to remain on track under cautious pace, nearly the entire field led by Hamlin pitted while few like Harvick, Blaney, Wallace and Bowyer remained on track. Following the pit stops, Truex was assessed an uncontrolled tire violation penalty and was sent to the rear of the field.

With the race surpassing 100 laps, the race restarted as Harvick and Blaney engaged in a heated battle for the lead before Harvick cleared the field entering Turn 4. Behind, Hamlin, who restarted sixth on fresh tires, bolted his way to the runner-up spot while Logano moved into fourth. Soon after, Logano moved into third ahead of his two Penske teammates, Blaney and Keselowski, Behind, Bowyer was locked into a battle with Bell for sixth.

On lap 104, Hamlin returned to the lead and three laps later, Logano moved into the runner-up spot over Harvick. Another three laps later, Keselowski moved into third. Behind, Bell was in fifth followed by Blaney, Bowyer, Almirola, Kurt Busch and Elliott, who was just ahead of teammate Byron.

By Lap 125, Hamlin was leading by a second over Logano, who was starting to be pressured by teammate Keselowski for position. Harvick was still in fourth followed by Bell while Almirola was in sixth ahead of Blaney, Bowyer, Elliott and Byron, all of whom were in the top 10. Truex was in 14th following his pit penalty while Johnson was in 20th.

Five laps later, Hamlin was still leading by nearly two seconds over Keselowski, who overtook Logano for the runner-up spot. Another two laps later, Almirola overtook teammate Harvick for the fourth spot.

On Lap 141, Hamlin, who struggled with passing and lapping teammate Jones in Turn 2, was overtaken for the lead in Turn 3 by Keselowski. The lead for Keselowski, however, did not last long as Hamlin crossed over beneath Keselowski and moved back into the lead, though Keselowski remained within sight of his target for the top spot.

On Lap 146, Hamlin, who struggled with passing and lapping Wallace in Turn 2 again, passed Hamlin for the lead again in Turn 3 and entering Turn 4. This time, Keselowski was able to prevail on the outside lane in Turn 1 the following lap to retain the lead with clear race track while Hamlin went to work in challenging Keselowski back for the lead. Soon after, Keselowski started to approach a handful of cars that included Michael McDowell and Ty Dillon in lapping them, but he was ahead by nearly a second over Hamlin.

At the halfway mark on Lap 151, Keselowski was ahead by more than a second over Hamlin followed by Logano, Almirola and Harvick, who was trailing by nearly 10 seconds. Ten laps later, Keselowski extended his advantage by more than three seconds over Hamlin with Logano trailing by nearly four seconds. Almirola was still in fourth, trailing by five seconds, while Byron moved up to fifth, trailing by nearly 12 seconds. Behind, Bell moved into sixth after passing Harvick while Bowyer, DiBenedetto and Elliott were in the top 10. Truex was in 11th while Johnson was in 19th.

On Lap 166, Harvick made a pit stop under green for fresh tires and fuel. Nearly five laps later, just as Blaney entered pit road for service, the caution flew due to a spin in Turn 2 involving Bell, who was having a strong run prior to his incident caused by a flat tire. Under caution, the lead lap cars led by Keselowski, Hamlin and Logano pitted. Following the pit stops, Austin Dillon was the first off of pit road following a two-tire stop followed by Keselowski, Hamlin, Almirola, Byron and Logano.

With less than 10 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted and Keselowski prevailed on four fresh tires to move into the lead through Turns 1 and 2. Behind, Hamlin moved into the runner-up spot while Almirola was in third. Logano moved into fourth ahead of Byron while Bowyer tried to shove his way into sixth between Austin Dillon and Truex. Shortly after, the caution flew when Kenseth spun in Turn 2. Under caution, with light sprinkles reported on the track, some like Blaney, Jones, Chris Buescher, Stenhouse, Ty Dillon and rookie Brennan Poole pitted while the rest remained on track.

With two laps remaining in the stage, the racing under green resumed and Keselowski retained the lead through Turn 1 until Hamlin took it back in Turn 2. On the final lap of the stage, Keselowski and Hamlin battled against one another for the lead and Keselowski was just able to clear Hamlin entering Turn 4 to win the second stage on Lap 185 for his sixth stage victory of the season. Hamlin was in second followed by Logano, Almirola and Byron while Bowyer, Austin Dillon, Truex, Elliott and DiBenedetto settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some like Austin Dillon, Harvick, Reddick, Wallace, Suarez and McDowell pitted while the rest remained on track.

The final stage started with approximately 110 laps remaining with Keselowski leading, but Hamlin muscled his way into the lead the following lap. While Hamlin and Keselowski continued battling back and forth against one another for the lead, Byron started to challenge Almirola for third place, which he prevailed as he started to set his sights on the front two for the lead. Behind, Logano was in fifth ahead of Elliott and Truex with Bowyer, DiBenedetto and Johnson in the top 10.

Four laps after the restart, the caution returned for another single-car incident involving Kenseth, who blew a right-front tire. Under caution, some like Blaney, Harvick, Logano, Ty Dillon and McDowell pitted while the rest remained on track.

With approximately 100 laps remaining, the race restarted and Keselowski reassumed the lead while Hamlin and Byron battled for the runner-up spot. A lap later, Hamlin was able to clear Byron for the runner-up spot while Almirola, Truex, DiBenedetto and Elliott railed behind. Johnson was in eighth followed by Custer and Bowyer. Another three laps later, a race turned bad became worse for Kenseth when he drew another caution due to another cut tire. Following his third incident, Kenseth took his No. 42 Clover/Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the garage and retired.

Under caution, a majority of competitors led by Keselowski, Hamlin and Byron pitted. Following the pit stops, Logano, who miscommunicated with crew chief Paul Wolfe in opting to pit the previous caution and who pitted again this time with the field, emerged ahead after a fuel only stop followed by Ty Dillon, Hamlin, Byron, Keselowski and Truex. When the field cycled through, Elliott moved into the lead after opting to remain on track followed by Stenhouse, Bell, Blaney, Harvick and J.J. Yeley.

With 93 laps remaining, the race restarted and Elliott retained the lead followed by Blaney and Stenhouse while Hamlin moved his way towards the top five. While Elliott and Blaney battled for the lead, Hamlin continued moving up the pack as he worked his way to third. Logano was in fifth, one spot ahead of Keselowski, while Harvick was in seventh.

Not long after the restart, the caution fell again when rookie John Hunter Nemechek made hard contact into the Turn 3 outside wall when he blew a right-front tire. Under caution, some like Elliott, Blaney, Stenhouse, Harvick, Bell, the Dillon brothers and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Hamlin, Logano and Keselowski remained on track.

With 83 laps remaining, the race restarted under green and Hamlin retained the lead while Keselowski issued another challenge for the lead. Three laps later, Keselowski returned to the lead with Logano lurking behind. Truex was in fourth followed by Johnson and DiBenedetto. Byron, Custer, Reddick and Bowyer were in the top 10.

With 75 laps remaining and with the skies starting to darken while overshadowed by the clouds, Keselowski and Hamlin continued to battle against one another intensely for the lead. Behind, Truex moved into third place, but not before Logano issued a challenge to retain the spot. Also, DiBenedetto moved into the top five ahead of Johnson while Byron and Custer battled inside the top 10. Elliott was in 12th ahead of Bowyer, Blaney was in 17th and Harvick was in 19th.

Fifteen laps later, Keselowski was still ahead by more than a second over Hamlin and nearly two seconds over Truex. Logano was in fourth, trailing by nearly four seconds, followed by DiBenedetto. Johnson was in sixth followed by Byron, Almirola, Custer and Elliott while Reddick was in 11th ahead of Harvick. Behind, Kurt Busch was in 14th and Blaney was trapped in 16th.

With approximately 50 laps remaining, Bell made a pit stop under green due to a flat right-rear tire, which ended his hopes of posting a top-10 result following an up-and-down day. Ten laps later, Keselowski was still leading by more than a second and a half over Hamlin with Truex, Logano and DiBenedetto trailing behind by four seconds or more.

Another 10 laps later, Keselowski extended his advantage by more than two seconds over Hamlin with Truex trailing by less than five seconds. Logano was in fourth, trailing by eight seconds, followed by DiBenedetto, Almirola and Johnson. Harvick, one of the fastest cars on the circuit, continued charging his way up to eighth followed by Custer and Byron. Two laps later, Harvick overtook Johnson for seventh place.

With 20 laps remaining, with fuel becoming the topic for some in terms of making it to the end, Keselowski extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Hamlin with Truex, Logano and DiBenedetto trailing by less than 10 seconds.

With 10 laps remaining, Keselowski was still ahead by less than three seconds over Hamlin as he started to approach lapped traffic. Once he was able to navigate his way through traffic, he was able to conserve and save enough fuel for the final 10 laps to take the checkered flag by 1.6 seconds over Hamlin after leading a race-high 184 laps and following an intense battle between the two veterans.

Keselowski’s victory was also the sixth of the season for car owner Roger Penske and the 21st Cup career win for the new Ford Mustang since its inception for the 2019 season. The win at New Hampshire also marked the eighth season where Keselowski has won three or more races in a Cup season.

“We’ve had a lot of great races this year with the 2 car, but we just hadn’t really went out and kind of dominated a race,” Keselowski said on NBCSN in front of an estimated crowd of 12,000 fans. “I was talking to Jeremy Bullins and that’s what we need to get to that next level. We’re right there, we need to go out and just dominate a race and that’s what today was for us with the Western Star/Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of my team and the effort they gave today. … It’s so great to be racing in front of fans again. It feels like forever, so welcome back, guys. Jeremy and this whole team’s been a kick in the butt for me to make me a little bit better and push me to find another level, and we’re doing that so far. I’m just really thankful. I’m in a great spot here and hungry for more wins. I don’t want to stop here. I want us to keep going and I know this team can do it.”

Hamlin, who led 92 laps, settled in the runner-up spot for the third time this season and second in a row at New Hampshire as he also collected his 11th top-five finish of this season.

“We just kind of were second there to [Keselowski],” Hamlin said. “We could really do well on restarts and we were going back-and-forth. Wow, that was some really, really good short track racing there. Hopefully the fans liked what they saw there with me and [Keselowski] for most of the day. Some great side-by-side racing. We treated each other fair and it’s good that we got one-two out of it.”

Behind Keselowski and Hamlin, Truex made a nice rebound from his uncontrolled tire violation penalty to finish in third place followed by Logano and Harvick, who recorded his 13th top-five result of this season.

“We ran second in the first stage and had a tire get away on pit road, had to come from the back,” Truex, who recorded his fifth top-five finish of the season, said. “That definitely made things a lot more challenging. [I] Had a decent Sport Clips Toyota, just wasn’t quite driving like we needed it to and then it kind of burned the tires off after 25 or 30 laps. We could hang with them and we would fall consistently off [Keselowski] and [Hamlin]. Third-best car and we finished third so all in all, a good day. Just have to find a little bit more. Just missed the balance a little bit today. Love coming up here to Loudon and this was a fun day.”

DiBenedetto, Almirola and Custer finished sixth, seventh and eighth while Elliott and Reddick overtook Byron and Johnson in the final laps to round out the top 10. Johnson finished 12th in his 35th and final race at New Hampshire, one spot behind teammate Byron, while Bowyer, a two-time Cup New Hampshire winner, finished 18th, two spots ahead of Blaney.

There were 22 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 52 laps.

With his top-five finish, Harvick continues to lead the regular-season standings by 81 points over Keselowski with Hamlin trailing by 115 points and Blaney trailing by 118 points.

Results.

1. Brad Keselowski, 184 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Denny Hamlin, 92 laps led, Stage 1 winner

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Joey Logano

5. Kevin Harvick, six laps led

6. Matt DiBenedetto

7. Aric Almirola, three laps led

8. Cole Custer

9. Chase Elliott, nine laps led

10. Tyler Reddick

11. William Byron

12. Jimmie Johnson

13. Austin Dillon, three laps led

14. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

15. Alex Bowman

16. Ryan Preece

17. Kurt Busch

18. Clint Bowyer

19. Michael McDowell

20. Ryan Blaney, five laps led

21. Ryan Newman, one lap down

22. Ty Dillon, one lap down

23. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

24. Erik Jones, one lap down

25. Chris Buescher, one lap down

26. Daniel Suarez, two laps down

27. Brennan Poole, two laps down

28. Christopher Bell, two laps down

29. J.J. Yeley, two laps down

30. James Davison, three laps down

31. Garrett Smithley, six laps down

32. Quin Houff, seven laps down

33. Timmy Hill, seven laps down

34. Joey Gase, eight laps down

35. Corey LaJoie, 39 laps down

36. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

37. Matt Kenseth – OUT, Accident

38. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

The NASCAR Cup Series will return next weekend and host its second series doubleheader weekend of this season at Michigan International Speedway. The first Cup Michigan race will run on August 8 at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN while the second will run the following day, August 9, at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

August 2, 2020

Weekend schedule for New Hampshire

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday for the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301. With only seven races left in the regular season, Kevin Harvick (4 wins) is the current leader in the standings by 97 points over Brad Keselowski (2 wins) in second place.

Ryan Blaney (1), Denny Hamlin (5), Chase Elliott (1), Joey Logano (2), Martin Truex Jr. (1), Alex Bowman (1), Austin Dillon (1), and Cole Custer (1) are also locked into the Playoffs with victories this year. Only the top 16 drivers will advance, leaving six available spots.

Tyler Reddick is leading the hunt for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award with 442 points. Cole Custer is second with 352 points followed by Christopher Bell (339), John H. Nemechek (325), Brennan Poole (136) and Quin Houff (101).

Aric Almirola will lead the field to green with Hamlin on the outside pole, after a random draw.

Sunday, Aug. 2

3 p.m. ET: NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301- Distance: 318.46 miles (301 laps) – Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 75), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 185), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 301) – NBCSN/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

2019 Race Winner: Kevin Harvick

Track Size: 1.058-mile

Starting Lineup:

1	Aric Almirola
2	Denny Hamlin
3	Chase Elliott
4	Brad Keselowski
5	Kyle Busch
6	Clint Bowyer
7	Kevin Harvick
8	Alex Bowman
9	Joey Logano
10	Kurt Busch
11	Martin Truex Jr.
12	Ryan Blaney
13	Tyler Reddick
14	Cole Custer
15	Bubba Wallace
16	William Byron
17	Erik Jones
18	Michael McDowell
19	Matt DiBenedetto
20	Jimmie Johnson
21	Matt Kenseth
22	Ryan Newman
23	Austin Dillon
24	Chris Buescher
25	Ty Dillon
26	James Davison
27	Garrett Smithley
28	Joey Gase
29	J.J. Yeley
30	Ryan Preece
31	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
32	Quin Houff
33	Corey LaJoie
34	Brennan Poole
35	Christopher Bell
36	John Hunter Nemechek
37	Daniel Suarez
38	Timmy Hill

July 31, 2020

Brandon Jones makes last-lap pass for the win at Kansas

The NASCAR Xfinity Series was at Kansas Speedway today for the Kansas Lottery 250. Today’s race proved that it’s not over until the Checkered flag waives. The two dominant cars all day were those of Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton, however, neither of them were victorious. On what would be the last caution, Brandon Jones drove by them all in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and took the win. This is his third career win and his second consecutive win at Kansas Speedway.

“That’s what I love about these guys, they keep their head in the game and don’t get too excited,” Jones said. “We continued to make changes, my feedback I think was pretty good all day.” He added, “It’s good to get back to victory lane I’m looking forward to celebrating with these guys. This shows how we’ve been running good a lot.”

Cindric who dominated the race leading 132 laps of 147 finished in the second spot.

“I think to give credit when it’s due and H. Burton was the fastest guy today. He ran me down twice under the green flag, I hate for him to lose.” He continued, “It’s like that, but that’s racing and there’s going to be late cautions. Brandon did everything right. I got too caught up in clearing the 39.” He sighed and said, “I really wanted to get four in a row, overall it was a really solid day.”

Burton who came in third place after battling with Cindric all day long, said, “It’s frustrating, I feel like our team did everything right. I learned a lot from Denny Hamlin on what you try to do mentally and tried to use some of that on Cindric. I messed up on the last restart we were in a bad situation behind the 39.” He added, “I need to do better to take advantage of the situation and still get a win. I’m really proud of our speed, just wasn’t enough.”

Stage 1 only had one caution and that was the competition caution at Lap 20. There was some great racing between Cindric and Burton but it was Cindric who would win the stage.

Stage 2 went flag to flag without any cautions. Once again it was Cindric and Burton in a battle for first. Once again Cindric won the stage.

Stage 3 seemed like a repeat of stages 1 & 2 but down to the wire, the caution flag flew putting the race into overtime. When the race restarted another minor caution occurred and got everyone lined up but Sieg who stayed out on old tires. They were four and five wide trying to get to the front and seemingly out of nowhere came Jones to take the win.

Ryan Sieg and Ross Chastain would round out the top five. Justin Haley, Daniel Hemric, Michael Annett, Riley Herbst and Justin Allgaier finished sixth through 10, respectively.

Cindric leads the Xfinity Series Standings with 722 points. Chase Briscoe is in second with 718 points, Noah Gragson is in third with 666 points, Chastain is in fourth with 662, and Justin Haley rounds out the top five with 592 points.

The Xfinity Series heads next to Road America on August 8.

July 25, 2020
Crafton Fends off Eckes for Kansas Truck Victory
Matt Crafton held off rookie Christian Eckes in the 20 laps to score his first victory of the season, thus snapping a three-year winless streak dating back to his last victory at the Eldora Dirt Derby. Crafton grabbed the lead off a restart with 22 to go and kept a manageable pace to secure his spot in the playoffs.

“It feels like a monkey off my back with all the weight we’ve been carrying,” Crafton said about the victory. “That’s all everybody wanted to talk about, is how we’ve not won in three years. (We) just kept our heads down and keep focus, and not worry about that, and keep doing what we’re doing. It’s all about these guys (ThorSport Racing). I know we won the championship last year and won it without winning a race, but at the end of the day to all the naysayers, I still have that trophy in my living room. We started picking up the speed this time last year and got to Homestead. A lot of hard work by these guys (pit crew).”

Saturday was race No. 2 of the doubleheader race weekend for the Truck Series at Kansas Speedway.

Many trucks were going to the rear prior to the start of the event. Of those headed to the back were Sheldon Creed, Jordan Anderson, Spencer Davis, and Stewart Friesen for a backup. Ty Majeski for a transmission change. Kevin Donahue, Ryan Huff, Travis Pastrana, and Tyler Hill for a driver change.

The top 15 was also inverted based on Friday night’s running order. This meant, Chase Purdy (after finishing 15th) started on pole and Friday’s winner Austin Hill (started 15th).

Stages were once again 30-30-74, which made up an eventful 134 lap race.

Stage 1 Lap 1 – Lap 30

Stage 1 got off to a solid start, but that was not the case for Majeski and Tyler Ankrum. The Niece Motorsports driver would slightly make contact with Ankrum off Turn 4. Majeski later pitted due to left front damage.

Meanwhile, Texas runner up Christian Eckes, took the lead in the early stages but had troubles of his own. A trash bag of some sort got stuck to his hood and caused him to lose the lead to Zane Smith. Eckes however eventually lost the debris and continued to run without further incident.

The same cannot be said for Pastrana, who was making his first NASCAR start in three years. Replacing Chastain in the No. 40 entry, the Annapolis, Maryland native slid through the glass with 10 to go in the first stage. It appeared a flat right-rear tire caused him to spin.

With those incidents taking place, there would be no yellows for the first stage, and Zane Smith went on to take the stage victory. Brett Moffitt, Matt Crafton, Christian Eckes, Brandon Jones, Brennan Poole, Chase Purdy, Todd Gilliland, Raphael Lessard, and Derek Kraus rounded out the top 10.

Under the stage break, Johnny Sauter (who placed 15th in the stage), was caught speeding on pit road and therefore, sent to the rear for the restart.

Stage 2 Lap 36- Lap 60

Ben Rhodes, Austin Hill, Zane Smith, Matt Crafton, Stewart Friesen, Christian Eckes, Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt, Todd Gilliland, and Brennan Poole set the top 10 for the Stage 2 restart order.

As laps started clicking in Stage 2, Smith was back in the lead on lap 41, after Hill held the lead shortly. Smith started checking slightly, but a caution slowed the pace on lap 44 when Bryan Dauzat spun off Turn 2, bringing out the caution flag.

No more yellows were seen in the remaining laps and once again, rookie Zane Smith swept the first two stages. Crafton, Moffitt, Creed, Kraus, Ankrum, Hill, Purdy, Eckes, and Gilliland were the top 10.

Stage 3 Lap 67- Lap 134

Friesen would restart as the leader in the third and final stage by taking fuel only under the stage break. However, those behind him like Crafton, Moffitt, Smith would fly right past him with fresher tires and adjustments. Not only did Friesen fall on back, he and Enfinger almost crashed in Turn 2.

A battle for the lead pursued between teammates Moffitt and Creed from laps 68 to 72. But, a trend race fans would see late in the stage, a caution came again on lap 74 for Pastrana. He spun off Turn 4 through the grass after getting the air taken off of him by his teammate Natalie Decker.

Four more yellows slowed the E.P.T. 200 including a big accident with 51 to go on the fronstretch. Tanner Gray in the No. 15 DGR-Crosley camp, accidentally made contact with Clay Greenfield in the No. 68 before the entrance of Turn 1. The incident collected many drivers such as Johnny Sauter, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Natalie Decker, Stewart Friesen, Ty Majeski, Pastrana, Codie Rohrbaugh, Spencer Davis, Robby Lyons among a few others were involved. The accident caused a five minute and seven second red flag.

Another crash happened with 41 to go. This time, the accident involved GMS Racing teammates Brett Moffitt, Tyler Ankrum, and Zane Smith. Smith got loose off the exit of Turn 4 and slid up in front of his teammates, thus causing the accident. Smith was able to limp away albeit with left front damage, while Moffitt and Ankrum saw their day end early, and be credited with finishes of 27th and 28th, respectively.

By having multiple yellows late in the going, this allowed the drivers taking their mind off of having to make a final pit stop, or worry about running out of gas.

The last restart came with 22 to go, which saw Austin Hill, Crafton, Jones, and Eckes make up the top four. Crafton was able to get a push from behind one of the drivers and eventually, the race lead. The California native was unable to check out with Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Eckes stalking behind him. However, regardless of Eckes making a last lap effort, Crafton picked up his 15th career Truck Series victory.

“I’m excited, very excited for the playoffs,” Crafton continued regarding his playoffs chances. “The tracks in the playoffs are going to be very good for us, aside from Talladega that’s always the unknown. All in all, looking forward to the playoffs, and these guys building fast trucks every week. There’s no doubt we can go and get a fourth championship.”

Crafton led twice for 23 laps and picked up five additional playoff points.

There were nine cautions for 38 laps and 15 lead changes among nine different drivers.

Inspection was clear without only minor incidents. Brandon Jones and Derek Kraus had a missing or loose lug nut, which is only a monetary fine.

Official Results following the E.P.T. 200 at Kansas Speedway
1. Matt Crafton, led 23 laps
2. Christian Eckes, led six laps
3. Grant Enfinger
4. Tanner Gray, led three laps
5. Ben Rhodes, led one lap
6. Austin Hill, led 19 laps
7. Derek Kraus
8. Brandon Jones
9. Zane Smith, won both stages, led 50 laps
10. Chase Purdy
11. Raphael Lessard
12. Brennan Poole
13. Austin Wayne Self
14. Spencer Davis
15. Jordan Anderson
16. Tyler Hill
17. Tate Fogleman
18. Spencer Boyd
19. Ryan Huff, 1 lap down
20. Todd Gilliland, 1 lap down
21. Robby Lyons, 1 lap down
22. Travis Pastrana, 2 laps down
23. Kevin Donahue, 4 laps down
24. Ray Ciccarelli, 4 laps down
25. Norm Benning, 5 laps down
26. Sheldon Creed, led 18 laps, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
27. Brett Moffitt, led 11 laps, OUT, Accident
28. Tyler Ankrum, OUT, Accident
29. Codie Rohrbaugh, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
30. Ty Majeski, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
31. Clay Greenfield, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
32. Jennifer Jo Cobb, OUT, Damage Vehicle Policy
33. Johnny Sauter, OUT, Accident
34. Stewart Friesen, led three laps, OUT, Accident
35. Natalie Decker, OUT, Accident
36. Cory Roper, OUT, Accident
37. Bryan Dauzat, OUT, Electrical
Up Next: The Truck Series takes a couple of weeks off before visiting Michigan International Speedway Friday August 7.
July 25, 2020
Hamlin delivers with a late momentous victory at Kansas

The momentum for Denny Hamlin and his No. 11 FedEx/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team continued in the midwest after the Virginia veteran overtook Kevin Harvick for the lead with 13 laps remaining and held off Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. for the remainder of the race to win the Super Start Batteries 400 at Kansas Speedway under the lights. The victory was Hamlin’s fifth of this season, his third at Kansas and the 42nd of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Kevin Harvick started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Joey Logano. Josh Bilicki dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Harvick and Logano battled against one another through Turns 1 and 2 before Logano prevailed on the outside lane entering Turn 4 to lead the first lap. A lap later, Ryan Blaney moved into the runner-up spot as Harvick was under attack by Alex Bowman and Martin Truex Jr.

By the sixth lap, while Logano led teammate Blaney by four tenths of a second, Truex moved into third after passing Harvick with Bowman trailing the two former Cup champions. Brad Keselowski made his way into seventh after passing Kyle Busch while Matt DiBenedetto moved into 10th. In addition, rookie Tyler Reddick, who started 21st, was up to 11th.

On the 10th lap, Aric Almirola made his way back into the top five after passing Bowman. Shortly after, Bowman was overtaken by Keselowski and Kyle Busch for position.

By the 20th lap, Logano was still ahead by six tenths of a second over teammate Blaney, who was starting to be challenged by Truex for the runner-up spot. Closing in on the top three were Keselowski and Kyle Busch while Harvick fell back to sixth. Almirola, Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Reddick were scored in the top 10 followed by Erik Jones.

Two laps prior to the competition caution, Truex passed Blaney for the runner-up spot and he started to narrow his deficit from Logano for the lead. Logano, however, was able to maintain his advantage by Lap 25 when the competition caution flew.

Under the competition caution, all of the lead lap cars pitted and Truex exited pit road first followed by teammate Kyle Busch, Blaney, Harvick and Logano. Following the pit stops, however, Logano was sent to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire violation. Chris Buescher, who was scored in 25th when he pitted, also fell back to the rear due to an uncontrolled tire violation.

When the race restarted on the 30th lap, Kyle Busch received a push from Blaney on the inside lane to move into the lead while Blaney and Truex battled for the runner-up spot. A lap later, Truex cleared Blaney for the runner-up spot while Harvick went to work in battling Blaney for third. Shortly after, Hamlin overtook Harvick and Blaney to move into third as Joe Gibbs Racing’s three of its four-car operation occupied the podium spots.

By Lap 40, Kyle Busch was still leading by above a second while Hamlin was in the runner-up spot followed by Truex. Blaney, who reported a vibration to his No. 12 Dex Imaging/Team Penske Ford Mustang, was in fourth followed by Keselowski and Harvick. Bowman and Almirola were in seventh and eighth followed by DiBenedetto while Jones was in the top 10. Reddick was back in 12th in between Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson while Chase Elliott was in 14th. Hometown hero Clint Bowyer was in 15th ahead of rookie Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace while William Byron, racing with interim crew chief Keith Rodden, was in 20th ahead of rookie Cole Custer. Logano was in 22nd ahead of Matt Kenseth and Austin Dillon while Ryan Newman was in 26th.

Ten laps later, Kyle Busch and his No. 18 M&M’s Fudge Brownies Toyota Camry was still ahead by less than half a second over teammate Hamlin while his other teammate, Truex, was in third and trailing by above a second. Jones, the fourth JGR teammate, was in ninth behind Bowman. Blaney was still in fourth, trailing by more than three seconds, while Keselowski rounded out the top five and was behind by four seconds.

Towards the 60-lap mark, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made a pit stop under green after reporting fire in his cockpit. The mechanical issue was enough to end Stenhouse’s race early in the garage as his hopes to make the Playoffs took another hit. Stenhouse’s elimination marked his fifth DNF of the season and the fourth consecutive Cup race where a JTG-Daugherty Racing entry finished last in a Cup race after teammate Ryan Preece finished in last place the previous three races.

With five laps remaining in the first stage, Kyle Busch stabilized his advantage by nearly two seconds over teammate Hamlin while teammate Truex, Blaney and Keselowski were scored in the top five. Behind, Reddick, one of the fastest cars on the track, was up to sixth. With no challenges mounted upon him in the closing laps, Busch was able to claim the first stage on Lap 80 and grab his first stage victory of the season. Teammates Hamlin and Truex finished second and third followed by Blaney and Keselowski. Reddick settled in sixth followed by Harvick, Almirola, Bowman and Jones, who held off Johnson approaching the start/finish line. Logano was back in 17th following his early pit road penalty.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hamlin exited first ahead of Truex and Kyle Busch while Keselowski and Harvick were in the top five after exiting pit road. Following the pit stops, Byron was sent to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire violation.

The second stage started on Lap 86 and Hamlin launched ahead with the lead after receiving a push from Keselowski on the outside lane. With Hamlin clearing the field and sailing at the front, a multitude of battles ensued behind as Keselowski and Truex battled for the runner-up spot while Kyle Busch, Blaney and Harvick battled for fourth. Kurt Busch moved up to seventh followed by DiBenedetto, Reddick and Jones. By Lap 92, teammates Truex and Kyle Busch moved back into second and third as Truex went to work in narrowing his deficit from teammate Hamlin and challenge for the lead.

On Lap 97, Truex peaked ahead of Hamlin at the start/finish line and was able to clear him to emerge with the lead. A few laps later, the caution flew when Wallace spun his No. 43 Victory Junction/Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE entering Turn 4 below the apron near the pit road entrance and across the frontstretch grass. At the time of caution, Truex extended his advantage above a second over teammate Hamlin.

Under caution, the leaders pitted and Keselowski exited first following a two-tire stop. Truex, the first on four fresh tires, followed pursuit ahead of teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin followed by Harvick, Blaney and Byron, who also opted for a two-tire stop and gained 14 spots on pit road.

On Lap 104, the race restarted and Keselowski and Truex battled against one another for the lead for a full circuit. Behind, a three-wide battle for third place ensued between Blaney, Kyle Busch and Hamlin through Turns 3 and 4. Keselowski was able to clear Truex for the lead shortly after while Blaney and Hamlin settled in third and fourth. Harvick made his way back into the top five in fifth followed by Kurt Busch and Almirola while Kyle Busch fell back to eighth ahead of Jones and Logano.

By Lap 110, with the battling for positions settling down, Keselowski stabilized his advantage to half a second over Truex. Five laps later, Truex reassumed the lead while Hamlin started to challenge Keselowski for the runner-up spot. Behind, Blaney was still in fourth while Kyle Busch worked his way back to fifth after passing Harvick.

Twenty laps later, Truex was ahead by less than two seconds over Hamlin while teammates Keselowski and Blaney were behind by more than four seconds. Kyle Busch trailed by less than five seconds with Harvick behind him. Behind, Johnson was in 10th as he was starting to challenge Kurt Busch for more while Reddick was in 11th ahead of Logano.

On Lap 143, the caution returned when Chris Buescher spun in Turn 2. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Blaney emerged with the lead following a two-tire stop. Johnson, Reddick and rookie John Hunter Nemechek followed Blaney after all four also took two tires while Hamlin, the first car on four fresh tires, was scored in fifth ahead of Truex, Kyle Busch, Keselowski and Harvick.

With 12 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted and Johnson and Blaney battled for the lead through Turns 1 and 2 before Blaney was shoved out with the lead with drafting help from Hamlin. In one lap, Hamlin went from fifth to second. Behind, Keselowski moved into third followed by Almirola and Kyle Busch as Johnson continued to lose positions. Reddick and Nemechek, both of whom restarted in the top five, were also shoved out of the top 10.

Towards the front, Hamlin, who made contact with the wall, had fallen back to fourth while Keselowski and Almirola each gained a spot. With the laps dwindling in the second stage, Keselowski started to mount a challenge on his teammate Blaney for the lead. In the final laps of the stage, Keselowski was able to pass teammate Blaney for the lead and mount ahead by nearly four tenths of a second to win the second stage on Lap 160 and for his fifth stage victory of the season. Blaney settled in second followed by Almirola, Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Harvick, Jones, Truex, Johnson and Elliott were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road and Hamlin exited pit road first following a two-tire stop. Elliott exited second followed by Keselowski, the first on four fresh tires. Behind Keselowski were Blaney, Kyle Busch, Truex and Harvick.

With 101 laps remaining and the track settling into night conditions, the final stage commenced. At the front, Elliott threw a huge block on Blaney on the bottom lane before he challenged Hamlin for the lead. In Turn 3, Hamlin retained the lead followed by Kyle Busch and Elliott as Truex, Blaney and Keselowski went three wide for fourth. The battle for positions expanded to three and four wide behind the leaders as Hamlin maintained a narrow lead over Elliott.

With 96 laps remaining, the caution returned when Kenseth was barely clipped by Ryan Preece as Kenseth spun entering Turn 4 and was hit by Wallace, who had nowhere to go. The incident broke Wallace’s right-front suspension as he took his car to the garage. The wreck hampered Wallace’s quest towards reaching the top-16 cutline. Under caution, the majority of the leaders remained on track while some like Preece, Reddick, Nemechek Newman, Bowman, Michael McDowell and Daniel Suarez pitted.

The race restarted under green with 91 laps remaining and Hamlin received a push from teammate Kyle Busch to maintain the lead through Turns 1 and 2. Shortly after, the caution returned when Logano, who was losing speed and appeared to have sustained a flat left-front tire, was bumped by Harvick entering Turn 2 and made hard contact with the outside wall. Logano’s incident sparked a multi-car wreck that involved Austin Dillon, Johnson and DiBenedetto, who also made hard contact with the outside wall and sustained heavy damage to his No. 21 Menards/Dutch Boy/Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang. Under caution, the majority of the leaders remained on track while some like Byron, Bowyer, Ty Dillon, Austin Dillon, Johnson, Kenseth and Logano pitted. Logano would eventually retire from the race.

With 85 laps remaining, the race restarted and Hamlin retained the lead ahead of Blaney and Elliott. The caution shortly returned for another multi-car wreck on the backstretch that started when Bell moved in front of Newman as was bumped by the veteran as he made contact with the outside wall and both Bell and Newman started coming back across the track wrecking. During the ensuing wreck that also involved Buescher, Preece veered left and slid toward the inside wall at full speed before taking a vicious head-on hit with the wall, nearly flipping in the process, before coming to rest on all four tires with a destroyed No. 37 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Though Preece survived the vicious accident, the incident was his fourth in a row and after finishing last the previous three races.

“To be honest with you, we had a fast race car right there at the end,” Preece said after exiting the infield care center on NBCSN. “It’s frustrating for all of us at JTG Daugherty [Racing] because we’ve been working really hard and probably had a top-10 car there at the end. I’m alright, just ready for this year to turn around. We’ll be back next week.”

The race went under a red flag period for nearly three minutes before it proceeded under caution. With 81 laps remaining, the racing under green resumed and Hamlin maintained the lead followed by teammate Truex and Blaney while Jones overtook Elliott to move into fourth. Four laps later, with the top three of Hamlin, Truex and Blaney separated by four tenths of a second, Jones was in fourth ahead of Keselowski while Kyle Busch, Elliott and Harvick were running in sixth through eighth.

Three laps later, Truex reassumed the lead. Shortly after, the caution returned when Newman, running with patches to his No. 6 Wyndham Redwards/Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang, spun in Turn 3 as he was able to make his way back to pit road. Under caution, nearly the entire lead lap cars pitted except for Byron, who remained on track to inherit the leader. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited first followed by Blaney, Kenseth, Reddick and Bowman, all of whom opted for a two-tire stop. Truex was the first with four fresh tires followed by Keselowski, Jones, Kyle Busch, Elliott and Harvick.

With 68 laps remaining, the race restarted and Byron and Hamlin battled dead even for one full lap before Hamlin emerged with the lead by a nose the following lap. Afterwards, Byron and the No. 24 AXALTA/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE emerged out front while Keselowski moved into the runner-up spot over Hamlin. With the battling for positions ensuing behind, Byron was still ahead by nearly three tenths of a second over Keselowski while Hamlin, Blaney and Kyle Busch were in the top five.

With 61 laps remaining, Keselowski returned to the lead and stabilized his advantage to three tenths of a second over Byron. By then, Johnson took his No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the garage and retired after he failed to meet the minimum speed requirement to continue with the damage sustained from his late multi-car incident.

Eleven laps later, Keselowski was still ahead by three tenths of a second over Byron, who was still keeping pace with Keselowski on four old tires. Kyle Busch moved into third after passing teammate Hamlin while Bowman was in fifth ahead of Blaney, Truex, Harvick, Jones and Elliott. Blaney, who made contact with the wall, stabilized his running position in sixth.

Four laps later, Byron reassumed the lead and he started to extend his advantage by a second over Keselowski. Shortly after, Blaney and Kyle Busch made an unscheduled pit stop under green after both made contact with the outside wall. Their misfortunes allowed Hamlin, Truex and Bowman to move into the top five while Jones, Elliott, Harvick, Kurt Busch and Bowyer were scored in the top 10.

With 32 laps remaining, with Byron still leading by nearly three seconds and with everyone on the track skeptical on making it to the finish on fuel, the caution flew when Corey LaJoie made contact with the wall. Under caution, all of the lead lap cars pitted for fuel. Following the pit stops, Byron and Bowman exited first and second after both Hendrick Motorsports teammates opted for a two-tire stop. Hamlin, the first on four fresh tires, exited third followed by Keselowski, Harvick and Truex. During the caution, Kyle Busch took the wave-around to return to the lead lap as he was scored in 17th.

The race restarted under green with 28 laps remaining as teammates Byron and Bowman battled dead even for the lead for one full lap before Bowman emerged with the lead the following lap in Turn 3. Just as Harvick was about to mount a challenge on Byron for the runner-up spot, the caution returned when Nemechek spun on the backstretch. Under caution, the front runners remained on the track while some like Kyle Busch pitted.

With 22 laps remaining, the race restarted and Bowman received a push from Harvick to retain the lead through Turn 1. In Turn 2, however, Harvick bolted on the outside lane to move into the lead followed by Hamlin while Bowman fell back to third. Behind, Keselowski was in fourth while Byron fell back to fifth.

Two laps later, Harvick was ahead by four tenths of a second over Hamlin as Keselowski was in third and started to pursue Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Truex moved his way into fourth over Bowman, Jones moved into sixth and Byron was back in eighth ahead of Almirola.

As the laps continued to dwindle under 20 to go, Harvick was still ahead, but Hamlin and Keselowski were trailing by nearly half a second while both continued to battle. With 13 laps remaining, Hamlin gained a huge run on the outside of Harvick to emerge with the lead.

With 10 laps remaining, Hamlin was still in the front by four tenths of a second over Harvick, who was starting to be pressured by Keselowski for the runner-up spot, as the leaders were starting to approach lapped traffic. Two laps later, Keselowski moved into the runner-up spot as Harvick was starting to be challenged by Truex for third. At this time, Bowman had fallen back to eighth after being passed by Custer while Byron was in ninth ahead of Kurt Busch.

Five laps later, Hamlin was ahead by less than half a second over Keselowski as the leaders continued to encounter lapped traffic. Though Keselowski and Truex got within less than a second to Hamlin’s rear bumper, Hamlin was able to maintain his advantage to cross the finish line in first and grab his fifth victory of the season as he continues to pursue his quest to win his first elusive Cup championship.

In addition to becoming the first five-time Cup winner of this season, Hamlin recorded his 11th series win with crew chief Chris Gabehart as both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota recorded their sixth victory of the 2020 Cup season.

“I don’t know that we had the best car,” Hamlin said on NBCSN. “We definitely had a top-three car all day. [I] Just went and got it there at the end. I saw [Harvick] get loose and usually when you’re loose, you’re not able to run up high. That was a benefit for us to be able to get that momentum going. The pit crew did an amazing job getting us out there ahead of everyone else that had four tires. Proud of this whole FedEx team. We’ve had a rough three weeks. We were leading at Indy when we blew a tire and this team is really hitting on all cylinders right now. We can win on any given week. That’s something that is really hard to come by, so this team’s good at short tracks, intermediates, superspeedways. Great engines, great help from them…all of our partners at JGR. They’ve just done a great job of building us fast cars.”

Keselowski settled in the runner-up spot followed by Truex while Harvick ended his night in fourth ahead of Jones.

“We just didn’t have a very good night with our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang,” Harvick said on NBCSN. “It wouldn’t turn in the corners and was dead sideways on the exit of the corner. I was able to have a couple of good restarts there. We got to the lead, but we just went dead sideways there after about four to five laps. We were just holding on, hoping for another restart, because we could run for a couple of laps, but that was about it. Our pit crew did a great job tonight of keeping us in the game. We just stay in there and keep fighting, and hope for good restarts and good pit stops and in the end, you’re around the front and have a good night.”

Almirola, Custer, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Byron rounded out the top 10. Kyle Busch settled in 11th ahead of Elliott while Blaney ended his race in 20th, a lap down.

There were 21 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 47 laps.

With his top-five result, Harvick continues to lead the regular-season series standings by 97 points over Keselowski, 100 over Blaney and 129 over Hamlin.

Results.

1. Denny Hamlin, 57 laps led

2. Brad Keselowski, 30 laps led, Stage 2 winner

3. Martin Truex Jr., 44 laps led

4. Kevin Harvick, nine laps led

5. Erik Jones

6. Aric Almirola

7. Cole Custer

8. Alex Bowman, six laps led

9. Kurt Busch

10. William Byron, 27 laps led

11. Kyle Busch, 52 laps led, Stage 1 winner

12. Chase Elliott

13. Tyler Reddick

14. Clint Bowyer

15. Ty Dillon

16. Michael McDowell

17. Matt Kenseth

18. Daniel Suarez

19. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down

20. Ryan Blaney, one lap down, 15 laps led

21. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

22. J.J. Yeley, two laps down

23. Christopher Bell, three laps down

24. Quin Houff, seven laps down

25. Josh Bilicki, seven laps down

26. Garrett Smithley, seven laps down

27. Austin Dillon, 16 laps down

28. Ryan Newman, 16 laps down

29. Joe Gase, 16 laps down

30. Brennan Poole, 48 laps down

31. Reed Sorenson – OUT, Electrical

32. Jimmie Johnson – OUT, DVP

33. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

34. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident

35. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 27 laps led

36. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Accident

37. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident

38. Timmy Hill – OUT, Accident

39. B.J. McLeod – OUT, Rear gear

40. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Electrical

The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action in the East Coast at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on August 2 with the race to air at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

July 24, 2020

Category: Race Central

Friday, August 14

Saturday, August 15

Sunday, August 16

Starting Lineup for GoBowling 235

Stage 1: Lap 1 – Lap 20

Stage 2: Lap 24 – Lap 40

Stage 3: Lap 47 – Lap 107