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  • Austin Dillon secures Playoff spot with a win at Texas

    Austin Dillon secures Playoff spot with a win at Texas

    For the second consecutive week, a late caution changed an outcome of a NASCAR Cup Series race. On this occasion, Austin Dillon utilized pit strategy and capitalized over a handful of late restarts, including a battle with teammate Tyler Reddick, to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The victory was Dillon’s third of his NASCAR Cup Series career and the first of the season for Richard Childress Racing as Dillon snapped an 88-race winless drought dating back to February 2018.

    The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Aric Almirola started on pole position for the second time this season and was joined on the front row with Ryan Blaney. Chase Elliott and Reed Sorenson started at the rear of the field due to their respective cars failing pre-race inspection twice. Josh Bilicki, Joey Gase and J.J. Yeley also started at the rear of the field due to driver changes.

    During the pace laps, Almirola reported issues to his brake pedal, but he remained on track for the start of the race. When the green flag waved, Almirola battled dead even with Blaney through Turns 1 and 2 before he cleared the field in Turn 3 and led the first lap. Blaney settled in second while the Busch brothers battled for third place along with Brad Keselowski.

    Behind, the early battling for positions continued as Kevin Harvick moved into the top five by the third lap after passing Keselowski. Three laps later, Martin Truex Jr. gained a spot over Keselowski for sixth with Matt DiBenedetto joining the battle. 

    At the front, Almirola continued to lead despite his brake pedal issues by nearly a second over Blaney with Kurt Busch in third and brother Kyle battling Harvick for fourth. Though Blaney narrowed the gap between himself and Almirola to approximately a half second, Almirola was able to retain the lead when the field reached the competition caution on the 20th lap. At the time of caution, Jimmie Johnson, who started 20th, was up to eighth while Denny Hamlin, who started seventh had fallen back to 16th. Chase Elliott, who started at the rear of the field due to failing pre-race technical inspection twice, was up to 24th.

    Under caution, the majority of the field pitted, and Kyle Busch was the first to exit pit road after opting for two fresh tires followed by William Byron, Alex Bowman, rookie Tyler Reddick and Blaney, the first with four fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Johnson was assessed a pit road penalty for having too many crew members over the wall. At the front, Almirola, teammate Harvick and Truex remained on track as they inherited the top-three starting spots.

    On the ensuing restart, Harvick assumed the lead on Lap 26 and on the inside lane while Truex challenged Almirola for the runner-up spot. Behind, Byron nearly slipped beneath Kyle Busch in Turn 3, but he was able to keep his car straightened and inside the top five. At the front, Harvick continued leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Almirola with Truex and Kyle Busch closing in for more. Behind, Blaney was back in ninth in between Erik Jones and Kurt Busch.

    By Lap 40, Harvick was still leading by nearly half a second over Almirola with Truex also closing in the two Stewart-Haas Racing teammates. Behind, Kyle Busch and Byron were in the top five with Bowman in sixth. Erik Jones, Blaney, Reddick and Kurt Busch were in the top 10 followed by Chris Buescher and DiBenedetto. Hamlin was in 15th followed by Joey Logano and Ryan Newman while teammates Elliott and Johnson were in 18th and 19th. Austin Dillon was in 20th followed by rookie Cole Custer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and rookie Christopher Bell while Bubba Wallace and Matt Kenseth were in 27th and 30th.

    Ten laps later, Harvick continued to lead by a tenth of a second over teammate Almirola, who continued to stalk his teammate for the lead but was unable to navigate his way around Harvick’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang. On Lap 55, Almirola bolted his way around Harvick on the outside lane in Turn 2 to return to the lead. Four laps later, Almirola extended his advantage to over six tenths of a second over teammate Harvick while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Kyle Busch were slowly closing in towards Harvick. A lap later, Truex moved into the runner-up spot while Kyle Busch started battling Harvick for third. 

    Shortly after, Almirola and Harvick made a pit stop under green, giving the lead to Truex with Kyle Busch trailing by a second. Not long after Almirola pitted, he was penalized for a blend-line violation and was forced to serve his penalty by driving through pit road, a penalty that cost him two laps behind the leaders. On Lap 67, Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry started sputtering after he ran out of fuel in Turn 2. He was, nonetheless, able to nurse his car back to pit road for service, but he lost two laps from the leaders when he returned on the track.

    At the front, Blaney was in command by half a second over Kyle Busch. Byron was in third, trailing by less than five seconds, followed by Jones, Bowman and Reddick. By Lap 85, Blaney was still ahead under two seconds over Kyle Busch. Behind, Johnson was in 10th ahead of Keselowski, Hamlin was in 12th, Elliott was in 18th, Harvick was in 29th, Truex was in 30th and Almirola was in 32nd.

    Not long after, pit stops under green commenced when Buescher made his stop followed by Johnson, Wallace, Custer, DiBenedetto and Newman. With 10 laps remaining in the first stage and with the entire field completing their pit stops under green, Blaney cycled back with the lead followed by Kyle Busch while Harvick was back up in third. Reddick was in fourth followed by Byron.

    For the remainder of the first stage, which concluded on Lap 105, Blaney was able to hold off Kyle Busch to claim his second stage win of the season. Harvick was in third followed by Reddick and Byron while Kurt Busch, Johnson, Bowman, Buescher and Truex were scored in the top 10. Under the stage break, some like Harvick, Reddick, Byron, Kurt Busch, Johnson, Truex, Newman, Kenseth, Wallace and rookie John Hunter Nemechek pitted while others led by Blaney and Kyle Busch remained on track. Also remaining on track included Hamlin, Elliott, Logano, Clint Bowyer and Bell. Following the pit stops, Newman was held a lap on pit road for pitting outside his pit box.

    The second stage started on Lap 112, and Blaney battled dead even with Kyle Busch for two full laps before Busch cleared Blaney for the lead on the bottom lane entering Turn 3. Two laps after, the caution flew when Johnson got loose entering Turn 4 and made contact with the outside wall, damaging the right side of Johnson’s No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Under caution, Johnson pitted along with Truex and Wallace. Following his pit stop, Johnson was assessed a two-lap penalty under caution due to having too many crew members over the wall, a misfortune that cost Johnson valuable points towards the Playoffs. Following Johnson’s incident, Newman was able to receive the free pass and return on the lead lap.

    When the race restarted on Lap 121, Kyle Busch received a push from teammates Hamlin and Jones to retain the lead. A lap later, Hamlin moved into the runner-up spot followed by Hamlin, Logano. Behind, Bell slipped through Turns 3 and 4 while running in the top 15 and made minimal contact with the outside wall, but the race remained under green. 

    On Lap 123, Hamlin moved into the lead followed by Blaney while Kyle Busch was in third ahead of Jones, Logano and Elliott. Three laps later, Blaney reassumed the lead following a battle with Hamlin. During this time, Johnson, following his two-lap penalty, was able to maintain minimum speed to remain on the track and racing despite the damage. He was, however, back in 40th, last, and eight laps behind the leaders. 

    By Lap 140, Blaney was still ahead by nearly a second over teammate Logano followed by a trio of Joe Gibbs Racing competitors led by Hamlin followed by Jones and Kyle Busch. Elliott was in sixth followed by Harvick while Kurt Busch, DiBenedetto and Almirola were in the top 10.

    With the race progressing under green, Buescher, one of many competitors looking on the outside of the Playoff picture, was in 11th followed by Byron and Truex while DiBenedetto and Almirola, both of whom are inside the top-16 cutline, were in ninth and 10th. At the front, Blaney was still ahead by two seconds over teammate Logano followed by Hamlin, Jones and Kyle Busch.

    On Lap 158, a second round of pit stops under green started when Byron pitted followed by teammate Elliott and race leader Blaney. Soon after, Bowyer made a pit stop followed by Kyle Busch, Reddick and Hamlin. When the field reached its halfway mark on Lap 167, Logano was in the lead, but he still needed to pit. A lap later, Logano pitted and Jones moved into the lead.

    With 30 laps remaining in the second stage and with most of the leaders pitting, Truex was in the lead but was among a handful of competitors who needed to pit. On Lap 190, Blaney cycled back to the lead followed by teammate Logano and Hamlin. Truex, who pitted with enough fuel to complete the second stage, came out in fourth ahead of Kurt Busch.

    For the final 20 laps, Blaney was able to stabilize his advantage by more than five seconds over teammate Logano to win the second stage on Lap 210 and claim his third stage of the season. Hamlin was in third followed by Kurt Busch and Harvick while Truex, Elliott, Almirola, Jones and Kyle Busch settled in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Blaney retained the lead following a four-tire pit stop. Keselowski exited second after opting for two tires followed by Hamlin, Logano, Elliott and Harvick.

    The final stage commenced with 116 laps remaining, and teammates Keselowski and Blaney battled dead even through Turns 1 and 2 before Keselowski cleared for the lead in Turn 3. At that time, Blaney got loose on the outside lane and teammate Logano had to lift off the throttle to avoid hitting Blaney, which jumbled up a number of competitors running in the top 10. Soon after, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck on the frontstretch that started when contact from Kurt Busch and Almirola turned Almirola into Kyle Busch, who then tagged teammate Truex sideways and into the outside wall as Busch plowed his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry through the grass while continuing with no serious damage. Truex, however, was unfortunate after sliding across the wall and receiving hard contact from Stenhouse. The wreck also collected Byron, Custer, Buescher, Ryan Preece and Kenseth as the race was red-flagged for more than 11 minutes.

    When the red flag was lifted and the caution flag was displayed, some like Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Bowyer and Byron pitted while others led by Keselowski, Hamlin, Elliott, Blaney and Almirola remained on track.

    With 110 laps remaining, the race restarted under green and Keselowski jumped to an early advantage. Hamlin pursued Keselowski followed by Blaney, who was battling with Elliott against one another for third. Soon after, the battle for the lead intensified as Hamlin and Blaney drew themselves to the rear bumper of Keselowski. 

    With 103 laps remaining, Hamlin made a challenge for the lead beneath Keselowski in Turn 4 and was able to lead a lap shortly after with both competitors battling against one another dead even through the corners and the straightaway. With Hamlin in the lead, Blaney moved into the runner-up spot with teammate Logano joining the battle for third against Keselowski. Behind, Almirola rallied his way back into fifth ahead of Elliott, Harvick and DiBenedetto. 

    With 97 laps remaining, Logano passed teammate Keselowski to move into third. At the front, Blaney reassumed the lead after passing Hamlin on the bottom lane in Turn 3. A lap later, Logano got loose in Turn 3, which allowed Almirola, Keselowski and Elliott to pass Logano with Harvick also in the mix of the battle. 

    Four laps later, the caution flew when Nemechek spun and made contact with the wall on the backstretch. At the time of caution, Blaney was ahead by above a second over Hamlin. Under caution, some led by Blaney, Hamlin, Almirola and Elliott remained on track while others led by Harvick, Logano, Keselowski and Kurt Busch pitted.

    The race restarted with 86 laps remaining, and Blaney and Hamlin battled against one another for one full lap before Blaney retained his lead through Turn 1. Behind, Elliott was in third followed by Almirola and Newman with DiBenedetto and Austin Dillon in sixth and seventh. Logano, Kurt Busch and Keselowski were in the top 10 followed by Harvick. Shortly after, the caution returned when Ty Dillon and his No. 13 GEICO/Germain Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE got loose beneath Byron’s No. 24 AXALTA/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE as both competitors made contact with the outside wall. Under caution, Bowyer, Reddick, LaJoie, Byron and Ty Dillon pitted. Byron, however, retired, which cost him in his battle to make the Playoffs.

    With 79 laps remaining, the race restarted as Blaney and Hamlin, again, battled against one another for the lead before Blaney moved in front of Hamlin to clear him for the lead. Soon after, Almirola started to challenge Hamlin for the runner-up spot with DiBenedetto and Elliott moving into the top five ahead of Logano and Keselowski.

    Three laps later, DiBenedetto and Almirola battled for third while Hamlin was trailing Blaney by three-tenths of a second and trying to gain a run back to Blaney for the lead. Behind, Kyle Busch had worked his way back to 10th behind brother, Kurt, while Harvick was in eighth. Jones was in 12th behind Austin Dillon while Reddick, Wallace, Kenseth and Bowyer were in 15th through 18th.

    With 60 laps remaining and the leaders needing to make a final pit stop for fuel to make it to the distance, Blaney was still leading by more than a second over Hamlin with Almirola, DiBenedetto and Logano in the top five. Elliott settled in sixth followed by Harvick, Keselowski and the Busch brothers.

    Under 50 laps remaining, the final round of pit stops under green started when Elliott pitted followed by race leader Blaney, Almirola, DiBenedetto and Hamlin, who opted for a two-tire change. Following the pit stops, Hamlin emerged ahead of Blaney, but as the laps dwindled, Blaney was able to chop off a chunk of the deficit from himself to Hamlin as they approached traffic. 

    Under 30 laps remaining, the caution flew when rookie Quin Houff made contact with Bell in Turn 3 while appearing to move to the inside lane off the pace and after bouncing off of DiBenedetto, he spun and made hard contact with the outside wall near Turn 4. At the time of caution, 14 competitors that needed to make a final pit stop occupied the top-14 positions led by Harvick and Logano. Under caution, a majority of those competitors pitted and Reddick exited first after only taking fuel to his car. Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch followed pursuit followed by Wallace and Logano, who was the first to exit pit road with four fresh tires over Harvick and Kyle Busch.

    When the field cycled through, Reddick emerged with the lead followed by teammate Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch, Logano and Harvick. Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Wallace, Jones and Bowman were in the top 10 while Hamlin, who received the free pass after being scored a lap down, was in 15th. Blaney, Almirola and Elliott were in 16th through 18th as they took the wave around under caution to return to the lead lap along with Newman, who was in 19th. DiBenedetto, who sustained damage following contact with Houff, was in 20th and scored a lap behind the leaders. 

    With 23 laps remaining, the race restarted and Austin Dillon, racing on two fresh left-side tires, cleared Reddick for the lead in Turn 2. With the two Richard Childress Racing competitors at the front and by more than a second with 20 laps remaining, Kyle Busch and Logano battled for third while Harvick was in fifth ahead of Wallace.

    With 16 laps remaining, the caution flew when Hamlin, who was battling for 12th, got loose underneath Bowman as both competitors spun through Turns 1 and 2. Bowman made contact with the outside wall and sustained right-side damage that eliminated him for the remainder of the race while Hamlin managed to slide his No. 11 FedEx Toyota without sustaining any significant damage. At the time of caution, Austin Dillon was ahead by more than two seconds over teammate Reddick with Logano, Kyle Busch and Harvick behind by more than three seconds. 

    The race restarted with 11 laps remaining, and both RCR teammates battled against one another for one full lap, where Reddick led a lap, before Austin Dillon emerged back at the front. The following lap, Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was ahead by less than two-tenths of a second over Reddick and his No. 8 Caterpillar Oil and Gas Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Shortly after, Reddick started to close within teammate Dillon for the lead while Logano passed Kyle Busch for third.

    Then, the caution returned when Hamlin, whose race went from good to bad and worse, got loose entering Turn 4 and spun through the frontstretch grass, which set the race up for a two-lap shootout and another opportunity for the competitors on fresh tires to try to pounce on the two leading Richard Childress Racing competitors.

    With two laps remaining, the race restarted and Austin Dillon got a strong start on the inside lane to launch ahead with the lead with teammate Reddick pursuing him. On the final lap, Dillon was still ahead over Reddick while Logano and Kyle Busch battled against one another for third. For one final circuit, Dillon was able to stabilize his narrow advantage over Reddick and cross the finish line in first for his first checkered flag since winning the 2018 Daytona 500, which also marked the last time Richard Childress Racing and Justin Alexander, Dillon’s crew chief, were in victory lane in NASCAR’s premier series.

    With the win, Dillon became the 10th Cup competitor to be guaranteed a spot in the 2020 Playoffs by virtue of a victory, which marks his first Playoff appearance since 2018, as he recorded the third win of the season for Chevrolet. In addition, the native from Welcome, North Carolina, recorded the 100th Cup victory for the number 3.

    “Not bad for a silver spoon kid, right? I’ll take that.” Dillon said on NBCSN. “Got to thank everybody at RCR, ECR [Engines], Bass Pro Shops. Man, Tyler Reddick, he raced me clean. One-two [finish] for RCR – this has been coming, man. We’ve had good cars all year. Justin Alexander and my whole crew. I got my baby, Ace, back home, my wife, I love’em so much. Man, I don’t know. I’m just so happy. Thank God. To tell you the truth, it means a whole lot just for the family, for everybody, all of our partners. That was fun. I, definitely, had to earn it. I changed it up. I waited the second [restart] and I went on the last one. It worked out for me good.”

    After driving his No. 3 Chevrolet to victory lane and celebrating, he went to the infield care center for treatment following a 500-mile race with temperatures in the cockpit and around the track soaring above 90 and even, 100 degrees.

    Behind, rookie Reddick continued to impress after notching a career-best runner-up result in his 20th Cup career start while also recording his second top-five result of this season. This also marked the first 1-2 finish for Richard Childress Racing in a Cup race since Talladega Superspeedway in October 2011 between Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton. The runner-up result has Reddick 14 points below the top-16 cutline with eight races remaining until the 2020 Playoff field is determined in August.

    “[Today] was about strategy in our Cat Oil and Gas Chevrolet,” Reddick said on NBCSN. “We had good speed in our Chevrolet ZL1 1LE, but we just couldn’t get our Camaro back in contention after we took right sides [tires]. It really shifted the balance of our Camaro. That just put us behind and we had to catch a few breaks, some cars got collected in carnage. We avoided, but can’t ask for much more than what we got there. Me and my teammate on the front row there the last couple of restarts. [Dillon]’s done this a little bit longer than I have, and I’m a little rusty. I haven’t been on the front row in a while. He just snookered me those times. Kyle [Busch] was doing a really good job of pushing me, but that last [restart], I put us in a big deficit and just couldn’t get back out of it. There was one restart where I, probably, could’ve went to [Dillon’s] inside. I just wanted it to between us. I didn’t want to bring other cars into it, make sure that we could fight it out. We just got the restarts, kept giving us opportunities. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get it done today, but hats off to the 3 [crew], all those guys working hard. It gets one RCR Chevrolet into the Playoffs and now, we’re below the cutline. We gotta keep fighting. If we can keep running like this, we don’t have to worry about points, hopefully.”

    Logano settled in third for his first top-five result since Martinsville Speedway in June ahead of Kyle Busch, who rallied from his midpoint accident, while Harvick finished fifth in his 700th Cup start.

    “I couldn’t believe it,” Logano said on NBCSN. “I thought when [Dillon and Reddick] did fuel only and we were sitting fourth, I’m like, ‘Man, we got’em.’ I thought, ‘Boy, we’re gonna win this race.’ We just needed 15 laps to get off the splitter down in [Turns] 3 and 4, that was the problem. By the time I got to that point, the race was over. Overall, I’m proud of what our Shell/Pennzoil Ford team did today. I thought that finishing second the first stage and a third overall with a shot at winning is progress. That’s what we need to do, build a little momentum. It stings not to win, but hey, it’s progress. So, we’ll keep moving.”

    Jones, Blaney, Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Almirola rounded out the top 10. Elliott finished 12th behind Bowyer, Wallace and DiBenedetto finished 14th and 17th, and Hamlin ended his run in 20th. Johnson settled in 26th, 12 laps behind the leaders.

    There were 29 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 45 laps.

    With his top-five run, Harvick continues to lead the regular-season series standings by 91 points over Blaney.

    Results.

    1. Austin Dillon, 22 laps led

    2. Tyler Reddick, five laps led

    3. Joey Logano, 22 laps led

    4. Kyle Busch, 11 laps led

    5. Kevin Harvick, 40 laps led

    6. Erik Jones, seven laps led

    7. Ryan Blaney, 150 laps led, Stage 1 and 2 winner

    8. Kurt Busch

    9. Brad Keselowski, 15 laps led

    10. Aric Almirola, 35 laps led

    11. Clint Bowyer

    12. Chase Elliott

    13. Ryan Newman

    14. Bubba Wallace

    15. Michael McDowell

    16. Corey LaJoie

    17. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap led

    18. Matt Kenseth

    19. Chris Buescher, one lap down

    20. Denny Hamlin, one lap down, 11 laps led

    21. Christopher Bell, three laps down

    22. John Hunter Nemechek, three laps down

    23. Daniel Suarez, five laps down

    24. J.J. Yeley, six laps down

    25. Gray Gaulding, 11 laps down

    26. Jimmie Johnson, 12 laps down

    27. Brennan Poole, 12 laps down

    28. Reed Sorenson, 12 laps down

    29. Martin Truex Jr., 14 laps down

    30. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident

    31. Josh Bilicki, 16 laps down

    32. Joey Gase, 16 laps down

    33. B.J. McLeod, 16 laps led

    34. Quin Houff – OUT, Accident

    35. Ty Dillon – OUT, DVP

    36. Timmy Hill – OUT, Electrical

    37. William Byron – OUT, Accident

    38. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident

    39. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

    40. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident

    The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action in the midwest at Kansas Speedway on July 23 with the race to air at 7:30 p.m. on NBCSN.

  • Kyle Busch dominant in Texas Truck win

    Kyle Busch dominant in Texas Truck win

    In his final Truck Series event of the 2020 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports Team Owner Kyle Busch, scored the win for the fifth time at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday night on what was a hot and blistering day in Fort Worth, Texas.

    “Our guys are really good with what they do,” Busch said about his recent Texas dominance in the Truck Series. “They’ve done a great job of putting some fast (Toyota) Tundras underneath me. Real proud of the effort tonight with (Danny) Stockman Jr. (crew chief). Him and I, we almost went five for five this year, I think if we didn’t have the part failure at Charlotte and speeding issues at Atlanta. We probably could have done that.”

    “It was nice to have another crew chief in the house. I haven’t worked with (Mike) Hillman Jr. (crew chief for Raphael Lessard) yet. However, it was nice to have a different crew chief, where I feel like we could go out there and be competitive, week in and week out. The 18 (Christian Eckes) and 51 ran together and fast, so that was really cool for me. Now, me turning over the 51 to Chandler (Smith) and some other guys, to cap off the rest of the year, it’s going to be exciting for me to see where their growth is at and our program is at. That’s good news for this truck, but bad news for them, they’ve got no excuses.

    Stages 40-40-87 made up the 167-lapper at Texas Motor Speedway. Last week’s winner at Kentucky, Sheldon Creed, drew the pole via random draw based on the top 12 in points.

    Stage 1: Lap 1 – Lap 40

    The first stage went caution-free, but the stage did have its moments. In the early going, Spencer Davis in his own No. 11 machine, experienced a left front tire rub. Shortly after, Creed experienced similar issues when he had a tire go down on his truck, forcing him to come down pit road and give up valuable track position.

    Meanwhile, there were short-lived battles on the track for the lead. Rookie Zane Smith and Kyle Busch traded the top spot three times before Busch managed to check out on Lap 35. The Las Vegas native then held on to take home the stage win with Smith, Tyler Ankrum, Ben Rhodes, Brett Moffitt, Christian Eckes, Todd Gilliland, Matt Crafton, Justin Haley, and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top 10 in the first stage. Even though Crafton ended up in the top 10 for the stage, he pitted under the stage break as the team replaced a battery that was having issues.

    Stage 2: Lap 45 – Lap 80

    As the green flag flew for the second stage, there were 16 laps of green flag runs before the yellow flew again on Lap 63. Another problem ensued in the ThorSport camp and this time, it was Johnny Sauter who leaked fluid onto the track after blowing up.

    When the restart came with nine to go in Stage 2, Christian Eckes shined and had his battle with Busch for the lead. Eckes was able to lead five laps in his first stint out front, but the second caution flew on Lap 74 for Jordan Anderson in the No. 3 as he would crash off Turn 4. Under the yellow, there were a couple of race leaders that pitted for adjustments, which included Busch, Eckes, among a few others. However, Eckes did not take any tires whereas Busch did.

    A short seven-lap run was seen, until a caution for Tate Fogleman and Derek Kraus on the backstretch ended the stage prematurely. Brett Moffitt played strategy by staying out and won the stage. Crafton, Ankrum, Rhodes, Smith, Eckes, Kraus, Ryan Truex, Chastain, and Enfinger were the top 10 finishers. Busch would wind up 12th in the stage.

    Stage 3: Lap 87 – Lap 167

    When the final stage got underway, a fun battle between Zane Smith, Christian Eckes, and Busch was seen. As Smith and Eckes battled each other, this allowed Busch to close in. With around 63 to go, Smith had a big wiggle off Turn 4 and nearly lost it. In doing so, Busch moved to second after passing Smith in the midst of things. Unfortunately, as the laps started to wind down, Smith had a flat right rear go down and had to make a pit stop, which ultimately ruined his chances for a good finish.

    Despite Smith’s misfortune, the final round of green-flag pit stops took place right around 40 to go. Most notably, Busch would pit with 37 to go, and almost gave the win away on his stop. As the Las Vegas native made his scheduled pit stop, he almost turned into the wrong pit stall and nearly pitted in Eckes (Busch’s teammate) stall. Fortunately for Busch, he realized it at the last second and saved his day by finding the right box to pit in.

    Once stops were completed, Busch cycled out in the lead and began to check out over the leaders. The final yellow of the night flew with 15 to go when Todd Gilliland in the No. 38 got turned by Ben Rhodes in the No. 99 on the backstretch after Gilliland skid up the track and came back down.

    The caution would set up a 10 lap dash to the finish and for a few short laps, a six Truck battle for the win was seen. Eckes gave Busch a good run for his money, but Busch fended off the New York native and grabbed the checkered flag for the third time this season and for the third consecutive time in the Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway.

    When asked about Busch’s miscue on pit road, his crew chief, Danny Stockman Jr., thought it was funny.

    “Yeah, that was funny,” Stockman Jr said. “I actually thought he (Kyle Busch) was messing with them (Christian Eckes pit crew), but I haven’t talked to him about it, who knows. He drives the 18 (in the Cup Series) and he probably thought, he was going to the 18. He caught himself and eventually drove in the 51 box, so that was pretty funny.”

    There were five cautions for 26 laps and 15 lead changes among seven leaders. Busch led five times for 72 laps en route to victory.

    Official Results

    1. Kyle Busch, won Stage 1, led 72 laps
    2. Christian Eckes, led 52 laps
    3. Matt Crafton, led two laps
    4. Stewart Friesen
    5. Brett Moffitt, won Stage 2, led seven laps
    6. Tyler Ankrum
    7. Justin Haley
    8. Grant Enfinger
    9. Ben Rhodes, led one lap
    10. Ross Chastain, 1 lap down
    11. Derek Kraus, 1 lap down
    12. Raphael Lessard, 1 lap down
    13. Ryan Truex, 1 laps down
    14. Austin Wayne Self, 2 laps down
    15. Ty Majeski, 3 laps down
    16. Sheldon Creed, 3 laps down, led seven laps
    17. Cory Roper, 3 laps down
    18. Timmy Hill, 3 laps down
    19. Zane Smith, 3 laps down, led 26 laps
    20. Clay Greenfield, 4 laps down
    21. Spencer Davis, 5 laps down
    22. Codie Rohrbaugh, 6 laps down
    23. Angela Ruch, 7 laps down
    24. Spencer Boyd, 11 laps down
    25. Akinori Ogata, 12 laps down
    26. Tim Viens, 13 laps down
    27. Todd Gilliland, OUT, Crash
    28. Jordan Anderson, 15 laps down
    29. Jennifer Jo Cobb, OUT, Electrical
    30. Austin Hill, OUT, Engine
    31. Brennan Poole, OUT, Crash
    32. Tate Fogleman, OUT, Crash
    33. Johnny Sauter, OUT, Engine
    34. Norm Benning, OUT, Handling
    35. Natalie Decker, OUT, Engine
    36. Tanner Gray, OUT, Transmission

    Up Next: The NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series head to the Midwest at Kansas Speedway for a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday, July 24 and July 25.

  • Kyle Busch DQ’d, Cindric declared Xfinity Series race winner

    Kyle Busch DQ’d, Cindric declared Xfinity Series race winner


    It was a hot day in Texas for the Bariatric Solutions 300 at Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race today. What a day it has been as race winner Kyle Busch was disqualified and Austin Cindric in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford has been declared the race winner. This is Cindric’s third win in a row. Chase Briscoe finished in second and Justin Allgaier brought home third.

    “I’ll take it,” Cindric said. “It’s great to be able to capitalize on fast race cars. I said that last week and I’ll say that again. I didn’t think this weekend we were quite as good as what we had in Kentucky but overall being able to run up front all day and get great stage points was great and we’ve just got to keep building on that.”

    Stage 1 started out with some very aggressive driving causing two cautions. One was for Riley Herbst hitting the wall and the other for Myatt Snider who also hit the wall. Cindric had the lead early on along with some great battles, but on Lap 35 Allgaier would get the lead and not look back easily winning the stage.

    Stage 2 began with Busch in the lead but he was penalized for speeding and sent to the rear of the field. There were two cautions, one for debris and one when Kody Vanderwal tapped the wall. Allgaier again couldn’t be caught and would take the win for this stage. He definitely had one of the cars to beat today.

    The final stage had three cautions. One occurred when Anthony Alfredo tagged the wall and the second when Noah Gragson also tapped the wall. Joe Graf Jr. would bring out the third caution. The biggest oops of the day goes to Allgaier for going over the blend line too soon and receiving a penalty putting him behind in the field. The only one who had a shot at catching Busch was Cindric.

    Harrison Burton and Michael Annett would round out the top five. Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones, Justin Haley, Ross Chastain, and Brandon Brown finished sixth through 10, respectively.

    Briscoe leads the Xfinity Series Standings with 688 points, Cindric is in second with 661 points, Gragson is in third with 641 points, Ross Chastain is in fourth with 612 points, and Justin Haley rounds out the top five with 549 points.

    The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads next to Kansas Speedway on July 25.

    Official Results:

    1. Austin Cindric
    2. Chase Briscoe
    3. Justin Allgaier
    4. Harrison Burton #
    5. Michael Annett
    6. Jeb Burton
    7. Brandon Jones
    8. Justin Haley
    9. Ross Chastain
    10. Brandon Brown
    11. Jeremy Clements
    12. Jeffrey Earnhardt
    13. David Starr
    14. Jesse Little #
    15. Tommy Joe Martins
    16. Brett Moffitt (i)
    17. Timmy Hill (i)
    18. Stefan Parsons
    19. Bayley Currey (i)
    20. BJ McLeod
    21. Joe Graf Jr #
    22. Josh Williams
    23. Colby Howard
    24. Chad Finchum
    25. Vinnie Mille
    26. Matt Mills
    27. Anthony Alfredo
    28. Kyle Weatherman
    29. Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet
    30. Noah Gragson
    31. Alex Labbe
    32. Kody Vanderwal #
    33. Dexter Bean
    34. Myatt Snider #
    35. Stephen Leicht
    36. Riley Herbst #
    37. Kyle Busch (i)
  • Elliott records first All-Star triumph at Bristol

    Elliott records first All-Star triumph at Bristol

    In front of a packed grandstand and with an orange-colored neon glowing underneath his No. 9 UniFirst/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE under the lights, Chase Elliott held off Kyle Busch in a 15-lap dash to the checkers to win the 36th running of the NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway following a dominating performance. The victory marked Elliott’s first All-Star triumph as he became the 25th Cup competitor to win the annual race.

    The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Martin Truex Jr. drew the pole position, but he dropped to the rear of the field due to failing pre-race inspection twice. Alex Bowman, who drew the second-place starting position, led the field to the start alongside Ryan Blaney.

    When the green flag waved for the start of the race and the first stage, spanning 55 laps, Bowman, who started on the outside lane, jumped to an early lead. After leading the first two laps, Blaney emerged with the lead. Behind, Kevin Harvick was in third, trailing by a second to Blaney, while teammates Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth battled for fourth, trailing by more than three seconds. 

    On the seventh lap, just as Kevin Harvick moved into the runner-up spot, Brad Keselowski made the slightest of contact to the left rear quarter panel of Kurt Busch while battling for fourth, which sent Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy/Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE spinning through Turn 1 as the first caution flag flew. Busch was able to keep his car off the wall and proceed with no significant damage while also being dodged by the oncoming field. Under the first caution, he along with Justin Haley made a pit stop.

    The race restarted with 40 laps remaining in the first stage, and Blaney retained the lead following a strong start on the outside lane. Harvick settled into second followed by Bowman, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott, who made contact with Keselowski to move up the leaderboard. Keselowski settled in sixth followed by Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman while Matt Kenseth and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10. Behind the leaders, Matt DiBenedetto made contact with the outside wall entering Turn 3 after making contact with William Byron when Byron checked up, but he proceeded under green. 

    Ten laps later, Blaney was still ahead by nearly a half second over Harvick. Bowman was trailing by more than two seconds while Logano and Elliott battled for fifth. Four laps later, Elliott pulled off a bump-and-run move to move into fourth after passing Logano.

    While the laps in the first segment continued to dwindle under green, Blaney continued to stabilize his lead over Harvick by approximately half a second. Elliott was in third followed by Bowman and Jones while Almirola, Logano, Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Newman were in the top 10. Jimmie Johnson was in 11th followed by Denny Hamlin while Matt Kenseth had fallen back to 15th, one position ahead of Truex. Rookie Cole Custer and Justin Haley, both of whom were making their All-Star debuts, were in 17th and 18th, while Kurt Busch was mired in 20th, the rear of the field.

    With nine laps remaining in the first stage, Blaney lapped Kurt Busch as Harvick started to narrow the deficit to himself and Blaney. Behind, Elliott was behind by around a second while being one of the fastest cars on the track. Despite encountering DiBenedetto, who was on the verge of going a lap down, Blaney was able to hold off Harvick to emerge as the leader when the first stage concluded. DiBenedetto was able to remain on the lead lap while Kurt Busch received the free pass to return on the lead lap under the stage break.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Harvick assumed the lead followed by Elliott, Blaney, Jones and Bowman.

    When the second stage, spanning 35 laps, commenced, Harvick jumped to an early advantage on the outside lane while Elliott and Blaney battled for the runner-up spot. The caution returned a lap later when Newman got loose entering Turn 4 and spun towards the bottom lane, where he made minimal contact with the inside wall. He was able to drive back to pit road for tires and repairs.

    Five laps later, the race resumed under green and Harvick, again, jumped to an early advantage on the outside lane. The following lap, Elliott bolted his way to the lead on the outside lane when Harvick briefly fell off the pace. Four laps later, Elliott, Harvick and Blaney were separated by above half a second while fourth-place Bowman trailed by nearly two seconds. Keselowski was in fifth behind Bowman while Logano, Bowyer, Hamlin, Almirola and Kyle Busch settled in the top 10.

    With 10 laps remaining in the second stage, Elliott was still ahead by three-tenths of a second over Harvick while Blaney trailed by more than a second as the 20-car field settled in racing in a single file line. 

    Though Harvick remained within sight of Elliott, the Georgia native in the No. 9 Chevrolet was able to stabilize his advantage as he also started to extend it to nearly a second. With no interferences within sight in front or behind him, Elliott was able to retain the lead at the time the second stage concluded.

    Under the stage break, Blaney remained on track while the rest of the field pitted. Following the pit stops, Keselowski was the first to exit off pit road after having two left-side tires changed on his car. Elliott, the first with four fresh tires, followed pursuit along with Harvick and DiBenedetto, who also had two tires changed on his car. Logano was fifth over Bowman.

    Once the third stage spanning, 35 laps, commenced, Blaney, restarting on old tires, benefitted on the outside lane to retain the lead followed by teammate Keselowski, Elliott and Harvick. Three laps later, Elliott made contact to the rear bumper of Keselowski entering Turn 4 to pull himself beneath Keselowski while challenging for the runner-up spot. Two corners later, Elliott and Keselowski raced three wide with Harvick in Turn 2 before Keselowski settled back into the runner-up spot followed by Elliott and Harvick.

    With 23 laps remaining in the third stage, Blaney was ahead of a four-car battle for the lead as Keselowski and Elliott with Harvick trailing. Shortly after, Elliott pulled the bump-and-run move on Keselowski in Turn 1 to move into the runner-up spot as he quickly pursued Blaney for the lead. 

    Approximately 10 laps later, Elliott passed Blaney to reassume the lead. With the stage reaching its final 10 laps, he started to stretch his advantage to nearly a second over Blaney while teammate Keselowski and Kyle Busch caught him for position. While Keselowski and Kyle Busch continued to battle for third, Elliott was able stabilize his advantage to above half a second over Blaney to win the third stage.

    Under the stage break, some of the leaders led by Elliott and Blaney remained on track while others led by Harvick, Logano and Bowman pitted. The decision to pit for Harvick and others moved teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin up to the top five.

    At the start of the final stage, spanning 15 laps, Elliott retained the lead following a strong launch, but he was pursued by Blaney and Kyle Busch while Keselowski fell back to fourth ahead of Hamlin. With 10 laps remaining, Elliott was ahead by less than half a second over Kyle Busch, who made a late appearance towards the front. Keselowski and Hamlin trailed the front two leaders while Blaney had fallen back to fifth with his tires starting to wear out. Harvick, racing on fresh tires, was back in seventh behind Jones and was running out of time to race back to the front. 

    Though Kyle Busch remained within sight of Elliott, he was unable to narrow the deficit between himself and Elliott nor was he able to find another groove/lane with his No. 18 M&M’s/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry to pass him. On the final lap, Elliott was able to stabilize his advantage for a final circuit to race back to the finish line under the checkered flag and win the All-Star Race by 0.418 seconds over Busch while cashing in over a million dollars.

    With the victory, Elliott recorded the ninth All-Star win for Hendrick Motorsports, (becoming the fourth HMS competitor to win the featured race), the 19th for the Chevrolet nameplate and the first for veteran crew chief Alan Gustafson. He also became the third youngest winner of the All-Star event at age 24 years, seven months and 18 days. As an added bonus, Elliott is guaranteed a spot in the All-Star Race for the next 10 seasons.

    In addition, the Elliotts joined the Earnhardts as the only father-son duo to win the All-Star Race. Ironically, Elliott joined his father, Bill, as the only drivers to win the All-Star Race at a different track from Charlotte Motor Speedway, (Bill won the All-Star Race at Atlanta in 1986).

    After taking the checkered flag, Elliott greeted his crew members, performed a smokey burnout and saluted the fans while receiving a chorus of cheers under the lights. With a crowd of above 20,000 in attendance for the race, this marked the largest crowd gathering for a NASCAR race since May and amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    “Oh, my gosh! I can’t believe it,” Elliott said in front of a roaring crowd on FS1. “What a better night to have fans back than tonight. I mean, y’all are awesome. There’s nothing like Bristol. There’s nothing like the lights here. There’s nothing like racing here. I’ve never won here – what a race to do it. Just really proud of our team tonight and rebounding. We’ve had a really tough couple of weeks and just felt like we had kind of gotten off base and I felt like I was struggling. Just tried to hit the reset button this week, and came out and put on a great performance – great car. Just can’t thank all our partners enough, everybody that makes this happen. All those No. 9 hats and t-shirts up in the stands – love to see it…Bristol is an electric atmosphere that is unlike any other [racetrack] that we go to. [I] Couldn’t be more excited. We’re gonna celebrate this one, for sure, and we’ll take that million dollars back to Georgia. Why don’t we?”

    Kyle Busch, who won the All-Star Race in 2017, settled in the runner-up spot for his sixth top-five result in the All-Star event followed by Kevin Harvick, who fell short in winning his third All-Star event.

    “We’re trying hard and we’re running okay, but it seemed like we were mired in 10th place for much of that race tonight and the last couple of adjustments really helped us,” Busch said. “[Crew chief] Adam [Stevens] did a great job helping the car and making it better. I got a good restart and went from 12th all the way up to fifth [in the final 15-lap stage] so that was a huge bonus for us getting that track position. Overall, just got to keep fighting. I think that’s like four, five six second places this year, what do you do? You just have to keep going.”

    “There were a couple laps there that I had to spend a little more time in traffic than I needed to to get back to the front, but our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang guys did a good job,” Harvick said. “I think that was the right call [for tires]. That was our only chance. We weren’t gonna beat [Elliott] where we were sitting on the same tires, so it all came down to getting past those cars for the first couple laps, but, in the end, it was definitely one lane. Much different than I thought it was gonna be.”

    Keselowski finished fourth followed by Hamlin while Blaney, who led a race-high 72 laps, settled in sixth on old tires.

    “We managed to win Stage 1 but fought a tight condition most of the race,” Blaney said. “I should have pitted at the end of Stage 2, but it was a fun event and glad to see fans back in the stands at Bristol tonight. We’ll be ready to go racing for real on Sunday in Texas.”

    Logano, Bowman, Almirola and Truex rounded out the top 10. DiBenedetto, Haley and Custer finished 13th, 14th and 16th in their first All-Star attempts while Johnson finished 17th in his 19th and final All-Star appearance.

    In addition to the neon glow under 16 of the 20 cars and the packed grandstands, this year’s All-Star Race featured the implementation of the “choose rule” format, which allowed all competitors to choose their lanes for all restarts, and the exposure of sponsors alongside the cars, where the numbers were moved from the door towards the rear wheels with the sponsors gaining a greater presence alongside the cars for a race.

    All 20 participants of the 2020 All-Star Race finished on the lead lap. There were six lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 13 laps.

    Results.

    1. Chase Elliott, 60 laps led, Stage 2 & 3 winner

    2. Kyle Busch

    3. Kevin Harvick, six laps led

    4. Brad Keselowski

    5. Denny Hamlin

    6. Ryan Blaney, 72 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    7. Joey Logano

    8. Alex Bowman, two laps led

    9. Aric Almirola

    10. Martin Truex Jr.

    11. Erik Jones

    12. William Byron

    13. Matt DiBenedetto

    14. Justin Haley

    15. Clint Bowyer

    16. Cole Custer

    17. Jimmie Johnson

    18. Matt Kenseth

    19. Ryan Newman

    20. Kurt Busch

    The NASCAR Cup Series will return on July 19 to race at Texas Motor Speedway as part of a triple-header weekend. The race will air at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

  • Almirola, Byron, DiBenedetto, Bowyer advance to All-Star Race

    Almirola, Byron, DiBenedetto, Bowyer advance to All-Star Race

    Aric Almirola, William Byron and Matt DiBenedetto transferred to the All-Star Race after each won one of three stages in the All-Star Open at Bristol Motor Speedway. For the final transfer spot, it was Clint Bowyer who earned a one way ticket to the main event after being named the Fan Vote winner.

    The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Michael McDowell drew the pole position and was joined on the front row with Aric Almirola. Corey LaJoie started at the rear of the field due to failing pre-race inspection twice. 

    When the green flag waved, McDowell received a strong start on the outside lane to jump to an early lead. After the first lap, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. moved into second while Almirola settled in third. Behind, with the field jumbling up through the corners and entering the straightaways, rookies Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick made contact in Turn 3 and nearly spun, but both saved their cars from spinning. Following the contact, Reddick fell off the pace and out of the top 10. During the contact between the two rookies, the field raced four wide entering Turn 1 before Matt DiBenedetto scrubbed the outside wall.

    At the front, McDowell continued to lead, but was hotly pursued by Almirola, Stenhouse, Bubba Wallace and William Byron. On the 11th lap, Almirola made his move below McDowell and took the lead entering Turn 1, where he started to pull away. Shortly after, Stenhouse moved into the runner-up spot after passing McDowell. 

    When the first stage reached its halfway point, Wallace pulled a bump-and-run move beneath McDowell for position through Turns 1 and 2, but McDowell hooked Wallace’s right-rear quarter panel in Turn 2 and sent Wallace into the Turn 3 wall as he made hard contact into the Turn 3 outside wall, sustaining heavy damage to his No. 43 World Wide Technology/Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Behind, Byron made contact with McDowell as McDowell spun with left-rear damage, but was able to continue. The wreck, however, ended Wallace’s attempt to make his second consecutive All-Star Race appearance since he was unable to continue the race with his wrecked primary car, which also took him out of contention of potentially winning the Fan Vote.

    “Just disrespect when you get hooked into the wall,” Wallace said on FS1. “I don’t even need to see a replay…What a joke [McDowell] is.”

    With six laps remaining in the first segment, the race restarted and Almirola took off with the lead on the outside lane. Behind, Ryan Preece got loose in Turn 3 and Reddick made contact to the rear bumper of Preece, which damaged part of Reddick’s front nose. 

    At the front, Almirola continued to pull away with Byron in second and Ty Dillon in third ahead of Bowyer and Corey LaJoie. Despite Byron closing in towards the rear bumper of Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield/Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang in the final laps, the Floridian was able to win the first stage spanning 35 laps and to transfer to the All-Star Race for the third time in his career.

    “Man, we’ve just had such a good run lately,” Almirola said on FS1. “We deserve to be in the All-Star Race. Our team has been doing an amazing job. We’ve been bringing really fast Ford Mustangs to the racetrack every weekend. So, proud to have Smithfield involved in the big show tonight. I was, actually, really nervous. When you come to a race like this, you just never know what could happen and you hate to have the All-Star Race and not be in it, especially with as good as we’ve been running lately. Proud of my guys, proud of the team…we’ll get ready for the big show tonight.”

    Under the stage break, some like Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Preece, rookie Quin Houff, Ty Dillon, Reddick, rookie Brennan Poole and McDowell pitted.

    When the second stage started, Byron, who inherited the lead, jumped to an early lead, but was quickly pursued by Ty Dillon followed by LaJoie. The following lap, with the field jumbling up, Preece made contact with rookie John Hunter Nemechek as both spun through Turns 1 and 2, but both continued.

    With 28 laps remaining in the stage, the race restarted. On this occasion, Ty Dillon remained dead even with Byron through Turn 1, but slipped in Turn 2 as Byron was able to clear Dillon and retain the lead. Dillon fell back to fifth while Bell, Austin Dillon and Austin Dillon moved into the top 5. At the front, Byron stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Bell while Reddick moved back into the top five ahead of Clint Bowyer. Ty Dillon, meanwhile, had fallen all the way back to 12th following contact with Stenhouse and LaJoie as the pack behind the leaders were jumbling, again, for positions.

    As the laps progressed, Reddick fell out of the top 10 after making contact while McDowell was back up to sixth. At the front, Byron continued to lead, leading by nearly two seconds while approaching lapped traffic. With 13 laps remaining in the second stage, DiBenedetto made contact to the rear bumper of Bell to move into the runner-up spot and was quickly pursued by Austin Dillon and Bowyer while Bell fell back to fifth.

    With no drama occurring at the front nor the rear of the field, Byron was able to cruise his No. 24 AXALTA/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE across the start/finish line to win the second stage after leading all 35 laps in the stage and transfer to the All-Star Race for the second consecutive year. With Byron transferring to the All-Star Race, all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors will compete in the main event for a million dollars.

    “It’s always good to advance to the All-Star Race and have a shot to go for a million dollars,” Byron said on FS1. “The guys did a good job with this car, a little bit different AXALTA look for us this week, but it needs a little bit of love on the left-rear quarter panel, but hopefully, we can get that fixed up and just be ready to go. This is, actually, one of my favorite tracks, so it’s pretty awesome to see the fans here.”

    For the start of the final stage spanning 15 laps, DiBenedetto and Austin Dillon battled dead even through the first two turns before DiBenedetto pulled away with the lead. Behind, Bowyer moved into second and quickly drew himself to the rear bumper of DiBenedetto. 

    With 10 to go, DiBenedetto was ahead by half a second over Bowyer with Austin Dillon trailing by nearly a second. Buescher was in fourth followed by Nemechek and Ty Dillon. Five laps later, DiBenedetto stabilized his advantage by nearly a second over Bowyer with some battles for positions taking place behind the leaders. The advantage and the gap between himself and Bowyer was enough for DiBenedetto and the Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 Ford Mustang to cruise under the checkered flag to win the All-Star Open for his first non-point NASCAR Cup Series victory and to transfer to the All-Star Race for the first time in his career. 

    “I was hanging on for dear life,” DiBenedetto said on FS1. “We were so loose on entry. I was right on [the] ragged edge. Just thankful to the team for battling back. My gosh, we had big damage there at the start. Had to fix it. … So proud to be driving this thing.”

    Bowyer finished in the runner-up spot, but earned the final spot to the All-Star Race after being named the Fan Vote winner. With the vote, Bowyer will make his 11th All-Star Race appearance. With Bowyer transferring to the All-Star Race, all four Stewart-Haas Racing competitors will compete in the main event for a million dollars.

    “You hate to lean on [the fans], but man, [it] damn sure feels good to have fans back at the track!” Bowyer said on FS1. “It’s fun to be around this place. You want to talk about an All-Star event. This is the right track to do it. It’s only gonna get better as we go here. We got a little bit of work to do on our car. Hey, we’re in it. I watched my buddy, Kasey Kahne, win it one time off of the Fan Vote. Maybe, we can do the same thing.”

    Austin Dillon finished third followed by Buescher and Ty Dillon while Stenhouse, McDowell, Nemechek, LaJoie and Reddick rounded out the top 10, all of whom were 17 competitors who failed to qualify for the 2020 All-Star Race.

    There were three lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 18 laps.

    Results.

    1. Matt DiBenedetto – Stage 3 winner, 15 laps led

    2. Clint Bowyer – Fan Vote winner

    3. Austin Dillon

    4. Chris Buescher, one lap led

    5. Ty Dillon

    6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    7. Michael McDowell, 10 laps led

    8. John Hunter Nemechek

    9. Corey LaJoie

    10. Tyler Reddick

    11. Christopher Bell

    12. Daniel Suarez

    13. Ryan Preece

    14. J.J. Yeley

    15. Brennan Poole

    16. Garrett Smithley

    17. Quin Houff, two laps down

    18. Joey Gase – OUT, Handling

    19. William Byron – Stage 2 winner, 35 laps led

    20. Aric Almirola – Stage 1 winner, 25 laps led

    21. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident

    The NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway is next on July 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Custer storms to first Cup career win at Kentucky

    Custer storms to first Cup career win at Kentucky

    In a two-lap sprint to the finish that produced an epic four-car battle for the win, rookie Cole Custer overtook Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney on the final lap to score his first NASCAR Cup Series career win in the 10th annual running of the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.

    The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Kyle Busch drew the pole position and started on the front row alongside Joey Logano. Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. started at the rear of the field after their respective cars failed pre-race inspection twice.

    When the green flag waved and the 17th race of the 2020 Cup season started, Kyle Busch and Logano battled dead even through Turn 1 before Busch received a push from Aric Almirola in Turn 2 to retain the lead and lead the first lap. The following lap, Almirola and Keselowski each gained a spot while Logano fell back to fourth ahead of Alex Bowman. Behind, Kevin Harvick, who started third, had dropped to seventh.

    After spending the previous three laps trying to pass Kyle Busch for the lead, Almirola passed Busch on the inside lane in Turn 3 to assume command on the 10th lap. Five laps later, Almirola was leading by above half a second over Kyle Busch. Behind, Logano was in third approximately a second followed by Bowman, Keselowski, Matt DiBenedetto and Chase Elliott. Harvick was in eighth followed by Erik Jones and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

    When the field reached the competition caution on Lap 25, Almirola had maintained his advantage by more than a second over Kyle Busch and more than two seconds over Logano. Harvick was in eighth while Austin Dillon, who started 19th, was in 13th ahead of William Byron. Jimmie Johnson was in 16th after starting 20th, rookie Tyler Reddick was in 18th ahead of Cole Custer, Denny Hamlin was in 21st after starting 12th and Bubba Wallace was in 26th ahead of rookie Christopher Bell. Martin Truex Jr. and Matt Kenseth, both of whom started at the rear of the field, were in 20th and 28th.

    Under the competition caution, the entire field pitted and Almirola retained the lead followed by Logano, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Bowman and Harvick. Following the pit stops, Ty Dillon was assessed a commitment line violation and was sent to the rear of the field for the restart.

    The green-flag racing resumed on Lap 30, and Logano, who received a push from Kyle Busch on the inside lane, challenged Almirola for the lead through the Turn 2 backstretch before Almirola cleared the field to retain the lead. Behind, Elliott moved into second and Harvick moved into fourth while Blaney and DiBenedetto battled for fifth. Kyle Busch had fallen back to 10th, Keselowski was back to 12th ahead of Truex and Johnson, and Hamlin drifted back to 24th ahead of Wallace. 

    By Lap 35, the majority of the field towards the front settled into racing in a single file line with Almirola still ahead by nearly a second over Elliott. Behind the leader Almirola, Blaney challenged and made a pass for fourth over Harvick while Truex made his first appearance in the top 10 after passing teammate Kyle Busch. Far behind the leaders, Hamlin continued to drop towards the rear of the field as he was scored in 26th after being overtaken by Wallace, Ty Dillon, Bell and Michael McDowell. His teammate, Erik Jones, was in 19th after running in the top 10 early in the race.

    Through the first 50 laps, Almirola stabilized his lead by more than seconds over Elliott and nearly four seconds over Logano. DiBenedetto moved up to fourth ahead of Harvick while Blaney fell back to sixth ahead of Bowman after his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts/Team Penske Ford Mustang popped out of gear. Truex was in 10th ahead of teammate Kyle Busch, Johnson and Austin Dillon while Keselowski was in 14th ahead of Byron. Custer was the highest-running rookie in 16th while Reddick and Bell were in 19th and 23rd. Kenseth and Ryan Newman were in 21st and 24th, Wallace was in 26th and Hamlin was in 28th.

    Nearly ten laps later, Almirola caught a bevy of competitors trying to remain ahead of Almirola and on the lead lap, starting with rookie John Hunter Nemechek. A handful of laps later, Almirola lapped Nemechek, Corey LaJoie and Wallace with McDowell, Newman and Hamlin ahead of him. Despite encountering the lapped traffic, Almirola maintained a steady lead over Elliott while DiBenedetto moved into third over Logano and Blaney, who continued to battle with shifter issues to his car.

    For the final laps, Almirola was able to cruise to the first stage win for his second stage victory of the season on Lap 80. By then, he lapped 25th-place Newman, but was unable to lap 24th-place Hamlin, who remained on the lead lap. In addition, Stenhouse sustained a flat tire as the stage concluded and he lost a lap in the process. Elliott was in second, four seconds behind, followed by Logano, DiBenedetto and Blaney while Harvick, Bowman, Kurt Busch, Bowyer and Truex were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Almirola exited first followed by Logano, DiBenedetto, Elliott and Blaney. Following the pit stops, Ty Dillon was penalized again, this time for speeding on pit road. In addition, Keselowski made another pit stop to have his lug nuts tightened.

    The second stage commenced on Lap 87, and both Almirola and Logano, again, battled dead even for the lead through Turns 1 and 2 before Almirola benefitted on the outside lane in Turn 3 to retain the lead. Logano settled in second, but was being pursued by DiBenedetto while teammates Elliott and Bowman were settled in the top five. Blaney was in sixth ahead of Truex and Bowyer. On Lap 92, Blaney moved into the top five after passing Bowman. Behind, Johnson moved into the top 10 in ninth after passing Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch. Harvick had fallen back in 14th behind teammate Custer while Hamlin was able to work his way up to 15th ahead of Reddick.

    When the raced reached its 100-lap mark, Almirola was still ahead by over a second over teammate Logano and two seconds over DiBenedetto. Blaney was in fourth ahead of Bowman while Truex overtook Elliott for sixth. Johnson was in ninth behind Bowyer, Kyle Busch was in 13th behind Reddick and teammate Hamlin was in 15th. Meanwhile, Harvick continued to lose positions as he was back in 19th ahead of Keselowski. Soon after, Harvick dropped out of the top 20, just behind Byron and Kenseth.

    Twenty laps later, Almirola and his No. 10 Smithfield Vote for Bacon/Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang stabilized a lead of more than two seconds over Logano and nearly four seconds over Blaney, who had overtaken DiBenedetto for position. Truex was in sixth in between Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates Bowman and Elliott while Johnson was in 10th behind Bowyer and Austin Dillon. Joe Gibbs Racing’s teammates Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Jones were in 13th, 15th and 17th, rookies Reddick and Custer were in 12th and 14th, and Byron and Harvick were back in 19th and 22nd. By then, 25 of the 38-car field were on the lead lap. 

    With the race reaching its halfway mark of the 267-lap feature, Blaney, who had overtaken teammate Logano for the runner-up spot earlier and had trimmed a chunk of Almirola’s lead, caught and challenged Almirola for the lead. On Lap 138, Blaney, who encountered shifter issues early in the race, benefited from the lapped car of Nemechek to overtake Almirola for the lead in Turn 3. A lap later, Blaney extended his lead to above a second over Almirola. Another five laps later, Logano moved into the runner-up spot while teammate Blaney was ahead by more than three seconds. At the same time, green-flag pit stops started to occur as Reddick pitted.

    With most of the leaders pitting under green, a handful of cars were on track led by Keselowski in the closing laps of the second stage. Just after Keselowski was making his green-flag stop, the caution flew on Lap 154 when Kenseth blew a left-rear tire and spun below the apron and back across the middle of Turns 3 and 4. Under caution, Kenseth pitted along with Harvick, Elliott and Byron. When the field cycled through, Keselowski emerged with the lead after beating Blaney to the start/finish line at the moment of caution from Kenseth’s spin.

    In a one-lap shootout to the conclusion of the second stage, Keselowski was able to edge teammate Blaney by 0.058 seconds to win the second stage and secure his fourth stage victory of the 2020 season. Custer settled in third followed by Logano and Truex while Bowman, Austin Dillon, Johnson, DiBenedetto and Jones settled in the top 10. During this time, Preece took his No. 37 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the garage due to a transmission issue.

    Under the stage break, the majority of the leaders remained on track while some like Custer, Austin Dillon, Jones, Reddick, Harvick and Byron pitted. Also pitting was Kyle Busch, who was reporting shock issues to his No. 18 M&M’s Fudge Brownie/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry. 

    The final stage started with 100 laps remaining, and teammates Keselowski and Blaney battled against one another through Turn 1 before Keselowski cleared the field through the Turn 2 backstretch and retain the lead the following lap. Behind, Truex moved into second followed by Johnson as Blaney fell back to fourth. Meanwhile, Logano had fallen back to ninth. Three laps later, Kyle Busch, who was running in sixth, got super loose entering Turn 4, but was able to straighten his car and prevent it from spinning, though he fell back to 15th.

    Eight laps later, Truex started challenging Keselowski for the lead, trailing by approximately a tenth of a second, while Blaney overtook Johnson and moved back into fourth. With 86 laps remaining, Truex was able to overtake Keselowski for the lead. By then, his teammate, Kyle Busch, was in 24th, the last car on the lead lap while dealing with shock issues to his car. In addition, Almirola, who dominated throughout the race, was stuck in 10th.

    With 70 laps remaining, Truex was ahead by half a second over Keselowski while Blaney, who was still racing with one hand on the steering wheel while the other was holding the broken shifter, was behind by above a second. Johnson trailed by nearly three seconds while Kurt Busch was in fifth, trailing by more than four seconds. DiBenedetto, Elliott, Logano, Bowyer and Almirola were in the top 10. Ten laps later, Truex extended his advantage by more than two seconds over Keselowski followed by Blaney, Johnson and Kurt Busch.

    A lap later, the race’s second round of green-flag pit stops commenced as Johnson pitted. With 44 laps remaining, while most of the leaders have pitted, Keselowski returned to the lead along with a handful of cars. Behind the leaders, rookie Brennan Poole’s was smoking due to a left-rear tire hub, a lot through the turns, but he continued under green. A lap later, Keselowski pitted while Custer inherited the lead, but was among eight competitors who had yet to pit. 

    Then, with 38 laps remaining and just as Byron moved into the lead when Custer made his green-flag pit stop, the caution returned due to debris. At the same time, Austin Dillon, who was also about to pit but opted to remain on track under caution, spun and made minimal contact with the Turn 4 outside wall while returning to the track. Under caution, some drivers like Byron, Harvick, McDowell, Bell, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon pitted. Johnson also pitted after making slight contact with the wall. When the field cycled through, Truex was back in the lead followed by Blaney, Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Byron. Harvick, McDowell, Bell, Austin Dillon and Johnson were in the top 10 with 23 cars on the lead lap.

    With the clouds hovering above the track and covering the bright sun, the race restarted with 30 laps remaining as Truex and Blaney battled against one another through Turns 1 and 2. In Turn 3, Truex cleared Blaney to retain the lead. Behind, Johnson, who made a three-wide move on the restart, was up to sixth as he would also return into the top five. At the front, Truex was ahead by two-tenths of a second over Blaney while Johnson was trailing by above a second. Behind, Harvick and Keselowski battled for fourth.

    While Blaney continued to pressure Truex for the lead, the caution returned with 24 laps remaining when Nemechek made contact with the outside wall entering Turn 2. Under caution, the majority of the leaders remained on track while some like Kyle Busch, Jones, Bowman, Almirola and Nemechek pitted. Nemechek would, ultimately, retire following his late incident.

    On the ensuing restart with 19 laps remaining, Johnson was pushing Blaney on the inside lane and attempted to move in front of Keselowski, who was peaking to Johnson’s left-hand quarter panel, when the two made contact on the frontstretch and Johnson spun his No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE below the infield grass, where he was able to straighten his car despite losing all of his track positions. At the time of caution, Blaney emerged with the lead ahead of Truex.

    When the race restarted with 13 laps remaining, Harvick made his move on the inside lane in Turn 1 and went three wide with Truex and Blaney to emerge with the lead. Behind, Keselowski went three wide with Truex and Blaney before Truex moved into the runner-up spot. With the field behind scrambling for positions, Harvick was ahead by less than four-tenths of a second over Truex with Blaney in third, Keselowski in fourth and Austin Dillon in fifth. With 10 laps remaining, Harvick was ahead by around two-tenths of a second over Truex, who continued to pressure Harvick for the lead. Two laps later, the caution returned when Kenseth spun in Turn 4.

    The race restarted with two laps remaining as Harvick and Truex battled against one another through Turns 1 and 2. Behind, Blaney settled in third while Custer, racing on the outside lane, received a push from DiBenedetto to move into fourth ahead of Keselowski and Kurt Busch. In Turn 2, Truex got Harvick loose and nearly turned on the straightaway as they swapped lanes entering Turn 3. Truex gained a big run on the outside lane to squeak ahead, but Harvick stalled Truex towards his quarter panel as Blaney went three wide for the lead. On the fronstretch, Custer made it a four-wide battle on the outside lane before he came out on top in Turn 1 at the start of the final lap. Past the start/finish line, Blaney ran over a bump on the apron and came back into the side of Harvick, who bumped Truex as Harvick developed a massive left-rear tire rub to his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza/Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang. At the front, Custer was able to hold off Truex for one final lap and cross the finish line above two-tenths of a second to claim his first Cup triumph in his 20th series start. 

    With his thrilling victory, Custer became the 194th driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race, the 33rd competitor to win across NASCAR’s three major national division series, the seventh alumnus from the NASCAR Next initiative to win a Cup race, the sixth Cup competitor to win at Kentucky and the first full-time Cup rookie to win a race since Chris Buescher won a rain-shortened race at Pocono in August 2016. In addition to becoming the seventh driver to win a Cup race for Stewart-Haas Racing, he recorded the 60th Cup victory for SHR and the first series win for veteran crew chief Mike Shiplett. 

    With the victory, Custer, who came into Kentucky in 25th place in the regular-season standings and trailing the top-16 cutline by 87 points, became the ninth different competitor to be guaranteed a spot in this year’s Cup Playoffs. As another bonus, the Californian became the 16th competitor to secure a spot for this year’s All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on July 15.

    “Man, we were so good all day,” Custer said on FS1. “Our car was so good. Obviously, it wasn’t the easiest track to pass on. That was the best car I’ve ever driven in my life. Everybody at SHR brought an unbelievable car. [Team owner] Gene [Haas], I can’t stress enough how thankful I am of him taking a shot at me. It, definitely, was not the start of the year that we wanted. We were way off at some places, but this was, by far, an unbelievable car. We put it all together and I can’t thank everybody enough.”

    In the first 15 Cup races of his rookie season, Custer’s best finish was a ninth-place result at Phoenix in March and his average result was 21.7 with two DNFs. Last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he recorded his first top-five result in the Cup level, which hinted a sign of improvement for Custer, Shiplett and the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang team in adapting towards NASCAR’s weekly approach of experiencing the driving and handling conditions of a track on race day without practicing nor qualifying.

    “It’s not easy,” Custer added. “You got to adapt as much as you can and I think we’ve gotten better and better at that. It’s just unbelievable. I didn’t think that we were, coming here, coming to win. Now, we’re gonna be in the All-Star Race. I don’t have to run the Open. Hopefully, I can make it to Bristol.”

    Truex emerged as the highest-running Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota competitor in the runner-up spot followed by DiBenedetto, who claimed his second top-five result of the season. Harvick, who rallied from his early share of struggles and was in position to claim his first Kentucky triumph, ended his race in fourth and Kurt Busch, last year’s Kentucky winner, finished fifth. 

    “It was fun,” Truex said on FS1. “[I] Can’t say enough about the guys on the Auto-Owners Camry, everybody back at [Joe Gibbs Racing] went to work this week and tried to get back to what we used to do here. Just hats off to the guys, [crew chief] James [Small], everybody that made this unbelievable racecar. At the end there, we were a bit unlucky, losing the lead to Blaney on that first restart by a couple thousandths and then, again to [Harvick] when the caution came out. We were side by side. That’s, kind of, the way these things go, sometimes. Really proud of the effort, super fast racecar and [I] feel like we’re back in the game now.” 

    “Our Ford Mustang was not very good today, but we got a good break with the caution [with 38 laps remaining],” Harvick said on PRN Radio. “[I] Had a couple of good restarts there and got the car better. Still just not where we needed to be, but the restarts worked out in our favor. We were able to get the lead and Martin just misjudged there on the backstretch and got me sideways. I got out of the gas and that just brought everybody into the picture. Then, we were four wide on the front straightaway and [Blaney] hit the drain and came up and hit the side of the car. Then, I couldn’t see. Yeah, it got wild, but hey, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Just really happy for Cole Custer and everybody on the Haas Automation Ford Mustang. That’s pretty cool to get your first win. As much as I would’ve loved to win, I’m glad that we kept it in the company.”

    “It was crazy,” DiBenedetto said on PRN Radio. “We had a really good car. We could’ve contended for the win. It was really fast. But, yeah, [I] lost track position when things shuffled around. We had to do the wave around and me and my spotter, I got to give him a lot of credit, Doug Campbell. I told him, ‘I think we should win some sort of restart award.’ We were 18th because the track position had cycled out with seven [laps] to go or whatever. [I] Had two monstrous restarts and then pushed Cole there to the win, which, kind of, felt cool, but good for him. Congrats, but this was a big race for us having the Menards, Quaker State Ford Mustang in the Quaker State 400. So, I wished we could’ve won it, but circumstances didn’t work out. We’ll take the strong finish and a really fast car.”

    Blaney, Bell, Almirola, Keselowski and Reddick rounded out the top 10 while Johnson finished 18th in his 10th and final start at Kentucky. 

    There were 13 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 42 laps.

    With his top-five result, Harvick continues to lead the Cup Series regular-season standings by 88 points over Keselowski, 95 over Blaney and 100 over Elliott.

    Results.

    1. Cole Custer, five laps led

    2. Martin Truex Jr., 57 laps led

    3. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap led

    4. Kevin Harvick, 11 laps led

    5. Kurt Busch

    6. Ryan Blaney, 18 laps led

    7. Christopher Bell

    8. Aric Almirola, 128 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    9. Brad Keselowski, 34 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    10. Tyler Reddick

    11. William Byron, four laps led

    12. Denny Hamlin

    13. Austin Dillon

    14. Clint Bowyer

    15. Joey Logano

    16. Ty Dillon

    17. Ryan Newman

    18. Jimmie Johnson

    19. Alex Bowman

    20. Chris Buescher

    21. Kyle Busch, nine laps led

    22. Erik Jones

    23. Chase Elliott

    24. Michael McDowell

    25. Matt Kenseth

    26. Daniel Suarez

    27. Bubba Wallace, two laps down

    28. Corey LaJoie, three laps down

    29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., three laps down

    30. J.J. Yeley, seven laps down

    31. Brennan Poole, eight laps down

    32. Josh Bilicki, 10 laps down

    33. Garrett Smithley, 10 laps down

    34. Joey Gase, 10 laps down

    35. Quin Houff, 12 laps down

    36. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

    37. Timmy Hill – OUT, Electrical

    38. Ryan Preece – OUT, Transmission

    Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 36th annual running of the All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The NASCAR All-Star Open will occur first at 7 p.m. ET on FS1 followed by the All-Star Race at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, both on July 15.

  • Sheldon Creed Wins Rain-Shortened Truck Race at Kentucky

    Sheldon Creed Wins Rain-Shortened Truck Race at Kentucky

    Sheldon Creed won his first career NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway Saturday night after series officials called the race official after the completion of Stage 2 due to thunderstorms in the area.

    NASCAR completed two stages that were 35 laps each before the race became official. Getting there, however, was a different story as numerous cautions filled the stages as threatening weather began to approach the area.

    Stage 1: Lap 1- Lap 35

    On Lap 1, the No. 02 of Tate Fogleman spun in Turn 4 to bring out the first yellow of the race. As Fogleman faced trouble, his Youngs Motorsports teammate Spencer Boyd, also had issues with his Truck as smoke was coming out the back end.

    Two more cautions occurred in the first stage. On Lap 14, the No. 9 of Codie Rohrbaugh made hard contact with the Turn 1 wall after the Truck snapped loose. The final caution during the stage came out on lap 22 when Tim Veins in the No. 49 went around in Turns 3 and 4.

    The restart came on Lap 25. Rookie Zane Smith held the lead from the restart and went on to take the stage win. Brett Moffitt, Sheldon Creed, Christian Eckes, Tyler Ankrum, Todd Gilliland, Grant Enfinger, Derek Kraus, Austin Hill, and Spencer Davis rounded out the top 10.

    Under the stage break, Moffitt was penalized for a safety violation which sent him to the rear of the field.

    Stage 2: Lap 40- Lap 70

    Two cautions once more slowed the stage. Bryant Barnhill went spinning off Turn 4 as a left-rear tire went down. Meanwhile, on Lap 46, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Korbin Forrister were both involved in an accident.

    The final restart came on Lap 51 and it was the winning move of the race. Sheldon Creed got the best of Ben Rhodes and checked out. The GMS Racing driver was not only able to win Stage 2 but also claimed the eventual checkered flag at Kentucky Speedway as the rains came and left NASCAR no choice but to call the race on Lap 71.

    The victory was Creed’s first in 37 starts. The Californian also led 20 of the scheduled 71 laps. There were seven cautions for 25 laps and six lead changes among five drivers.

    One of the biggest stories before the race started was that Johnny Sauter, Ben Rhodes and Derek Kraus were dropped to the rear of the field for a violation of filler panel in prerace. For violating the rule, they will be docked 10 driver points.

    Official Results

    1. Sheldon Creed, led 20 laps, won Stage 2
    2. Ben Rhodes, led 6 laps
    3. Matt Crafton, led 1 lap
    4. Johnny Sauter
    5. Austin Hill
    6. Christian Eckes
    7. Zane Smith, led 11 laps, won Stage 1
    8. Derek Kraus
    9. Tanner Gray
    10. Todd Gilliland
    11. Brett Moffitt, led 26 laps
    12. Grant Enfinger
    13. Raphael Lessard
    14. Spencer Davis
    15. Stewart Friesen
    16. Tyler Ankrum
    17. Brennan Poole
    18. Parker Kligerman, led 7 laps
    19. Ty Majeski
    20. Austin Wayne Self
    21. Tate Fogleman
    22. Chandler Smith
    23. Cory Roper
    24. Jordan Anderson
    25. Angela Ruch
    26. Clay Greenfield
    27. Ryan Truex
    28. Dawson Cram, 1 lap down
    29. Natalie Decker, 1 lap down
    30. Tyler Hill, 1 lap down
    31. Chase Purdy, 1 lap down
    32. Ray Ciccarelli, 1 lap down
    33. Bryant Barnhill, 2 laps down
    34. Korbin Forrister, 2 laps down
    35. Tim Viens, OUT, Handling
    36. Trey Hutchens, OUT, Crash
    37. Jennifer Jo Cobb, OUT, Crash
    38. Spencer Boyd, 25 laps down
    39. Codie Rohrbaugh, OUT, Crash
    40. Norm Benning, OUT, Engine
  • Cindric sweeps at Kentucky Speedway

    Cindric sweeps at Kentucky Speedway


    The Xfinity Series held their second race of Kentucky Speedway’s doubleheader tonight for the Alsco 300 and Austin Cindric swept the races. Last night saw him win his first-ever race on at an oval track and tonight he won the second in his No. 22 Penske Racing Ford. It was also the first time he led so many laps in a race.

    “I hope I laid enough rubber down to make up for Watkins Glen last year, that was pathetic.” Cindric said, “I’m just so excited this is a credit to my team. What we did tonight was really impressive because we ran one setup last night and won the race.” He added, “We came with another setup for tonight and won the race again.” He explained, “ I trust my man, it’s difficult but he made the right call and that’s why he is on the pit box and I’m in the car.”

    The runner-up spot went to Chase Briscoe in his No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Following Briscoe in third spot was Justin Haley in his No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevy.

    Stage 1 started with Myatt Snider on the pole position. There were only two cautions in this stage, one for Ryan Sieg who went around and tapped the wall and the other was a scheduled competition caution. Harrison Burton and Noah Gragson were the front runners in the stage with Gragson taking the stage win.

    Stage 2 started with Gragson and Harrison Burton battling for the top spot. Around Lap 63 Cindric took over the lead and didn’t look back. There weren’t any cautions in this stage and Cindric took the easy stage win.

    The final stage had Cindric still at the front while Riley Herbst and Gragson tried to catch him. Fan-favorite Justin Allgaier who lost a lap early in the race due to a tire going down finally got his lap back. The epic save of the night went to Jesse Little whose car was sideways but he managed somehow not to spin. With laps winding down Brandon Jones hit the wall hard setting up for a short shootout. Cindric won the race easily, but the fireworks happened while he was celebrating. Burton and Gragson had made slight contact towards the end of the race and were having a discussion about it and then fists started flying between the two until they could be separated.

    Ross Chastain and Allgaier would round out the top five finishers. Anthony Alfredo, Gragson, Michael Annett, Daniel Hemric and Riley Herbst finished sixth through 10, respectively.

    Briscoe leads the Xfinity Series Standings with 643 points, Gragson is second with 624 points, Cindric is in third with 610 points, Chastain is in fourth with 583 points, and Haley rounds out the top five with 521 points.

    The Xfinity Series will head next to Texas Motor Speedway on July 18.

    Complete Results:

    1. Austin Cindric
      2. Chase Briscoe
      3. Justin Haley
      4. Ross Chastain
      5. Justin Allgaier
      6. Anthony Alfredo
      7. Noah Gragson
      8. Michael Annett
      9. Daniel Hemric
    10. Riley Herbst
    11. Jeremy Clements
    12. Harrison Burton
    13. Brandon Brown
    14. Jesse Little
    15. Josh Williams
    16. Garrett Smithley
    17. Brett Moffitt
    18. Jeffrey Earnhardt
    19. Matt Mills
    20. BJ McLeod
    21. Colby Howard
    22. Joe Graf Jr
    23. Mason Massey
    24. Alex Labbe
    25. Bayley Currey
    26. Timmy Hill
    27. Tommy Joe Martins
    28. Vinnie Miller
    29. Kody Vanderwal
    30. Brandon Jones
    31. Myatt Snider
    32. Ronnie Bassett Jr
    33. Chad Finchum
    34. Stephen Leicht
    35. Ryan Sieg
    36. Kyle Weatherman


  • Cindric notches first win of 2020 at Kentucky Speedway

    Cindric notches first win of 2020 at Kentucky Speedway

    In an overtime shootout, Austin Cindric scored his first elusive NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season in the Shady Rays 200 at Kentucky Speedway, the first of a series doubleheader at the Bluegrass State, after powering away from Chase Briscoe and stabilizing a half-second lead over rookie Riley Herbst at the moment of caution due to a last-lap multi-car wreck. The victory was Cindric’s third of his Xfinity Series career and his first on an oval-shaped track after collecting his first two series victories in back-to-back races in August 2019 at Watkins Glen International and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

    The starting lineup was based on a random draw. Noah Gragson drew the pole position and was joined on the front row with Ross Chastain. The No. 90 DGM Racing Chevrolet team driven by Ronnie Bassett Jr. failed pre-race inspection twice, which cost the team the pit selection for next weekend’s race, but the driver and the team retained their 22nd-starting spot for the first Kentucky race. Mason Massey and Bayley Currey, however, dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

    While the field rolled off of pit road for the pace laps, rookie Anthony Alfredo remained on pit road as his crew addressed a steering issue to the No. 21 Alsco/Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro. Because it was a safety issue being addressed, Alfredo was allowed to retain his 11th-starting spot.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Gragson shot to an early lead on the bottom lane. In Turn 1, however, Jeb Burton slipped on the bottom, spun and was T-boned by Brandon Jones as the rear tires of Burton’s No. 8 Rocky Boots/JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro briefly came off the ground following the contact. The first caution of the race was immediately displayed. Burton was able to continue the race following repairs to the rear end, but multiple laps behind, while Jones retired. This marked the second time in the last three Xfinity Series races where Jones was eliminated prior to the first lap due to an accident.

    When the race restarted on the eighth lap, Chastain made a brief challenge for the lead on the outside lane through Turns 1 and 2, but Gragson was able to retain it on the bottom in Turn 3. While Gragson was leading, Austin Cindric, who was in pursuit of his first win of 2020, moved into second after passing Chastain. Michael Annett, rookie Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe would also overtake Chastain for positions in the top five. Gragson was able to retain the lead when the competition caution flew on the 15th lap. 

    Under the competition caution, some like Briscoe, Brandon Brown, rookie Joe Graf Jr., rookie Kody Vanderwal, Tommy Joe Martins and Matt Mills pitted for early adjustments while the rest remained on track.

    The race restarted on Lap 20 and Gragson retained the lead, though he was being pressured by Cindric. Both competitors drove away with a one-second advantage over third-place Burton, who was followed by Chastain and Alfredo, who rallied from his early steering issues. While the racing progressed, Allgaier, who was running in sixth, slipped underneath Alfredo, but he was able to prevent his car from spinning, though Annett and Justin Haley each gained a position.

    In the closing laps of the stage, Burton gained ground and moved into second while Cindric was left in a tight battle with Chastain and Alfredo for position. They did not have anything for Gragson as the driver of the No. 9 Switch/JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro was able to win the first stage on Lap 30, thus collecting his sixth stage win of the season. Burton settled in second followed by Cindric, Chastain and Alfredo. Annett, Haley, Allgaier, Ryan Sieg and Brett Moffitt rounded out the top 10 in the first stage.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Gragson exited first followed by Burton, Cindric, Chastain and Alfredo. Briscoe remained on track and took over the lead. Following the pit stops, however, Burton was sent to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire violation.

    The second stage commenced on Lap 38 and Gragson was able to clear Briscoe for the lead on the bottom lane in Turn 1. By Lap 40, the top-three competitors of Gragson, Briscoe and Cindric were ahead by more than a second over Chastain while rookie Riley Herbst, who started 23rd, was in fifth after overtaking Brown. Behind, Allgaier and Haley were back in 10th and 11th while Alfredo had fallen back to 12th. 

    Ten laps later, the trio of Gragson, Briscoe and Cindric were still ahead by four seconds over Chastain, nearly five over Herbst and more than eight over Annett. At the front, Gragson was leading by half a second over Briscoe, who had Cindric running near his rear bumper and was reporting a vibration to his No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School/Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang. With the leaders starting to approach lapped traffic, Allgaier was in seventh while Alfredo was in 10th ahead of Haley. 

    On Lap 54, Cindric threaded his way between the lapped car of Kyle Weatherman and Briscoe to move into the runner-up spot. Though Cindric was starting to narrow his deficit to Gragson, he ran out of time to challenge for the lead as Gragson was able to win the second stage on Lap 60 and claim his seventh stage victory of 2020. Cindric settled in second, more than a second behind, followed by Briscoe, who was more than five seconds behind. Chastain and Herbst settled in the top five while Allgaier, Annett, Sieg, Brown and Alfredo were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Gragson retained the lead after exiting pit road first. Briscoe moved up to second followed by Herbst, Cindric, Chastain and Allgaier.

    The final stage started at the halfway mark of the 134-lap race, and Gragson retained the lead following a strong start on the outside lane in Turn 1. Cindric moved his way back to second followed by Briscoe, Herbst and Allgaier while Chastain fell to sixth and in the clutches of Annett and Burton for position.

    With 60 laps remaining, Gragson was ahead by a tenth of a second over Cindric and both were ahead of Briscoe, Herbst and Allgaier by more than a second. Behind, Chastain trailed by four seconds while battling a number of cars, including Burton. Ten laps later, Gragson was still ahead by around a tenth of a second over Cindric. Briscoe was in third while Allgaier was in fourth. Herbst was back in fifth and ahead of teammate Burton while Chastain, Annett, Alfredo and Sieg were in the top 10.

    Four laps later, the caution returned when Brown, who came into the first Kentucky race clinging on to the 12th and final spot in the standings to the Playoffs, spun through Turns 3 and 4 and made contact with the outside wall following contact from Haley, thus sustaining heavy damage to the rear end. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Haley exited first after having two tires changed on his car. Clements exited second after also changing two tires while Gragson, the first on four fresh tires, was in third. Following the stops, Chastain was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road.

    With less than 40 laps remaining, the race restarted and Haley maintained the lead on the outside lane followed by Cindric. The following lap, Cindric moved into the lead, Haley was pressured by Briscoe for second and Gragson had fallen back to eighth. Burton moved up into fourth followed by teammates Annett and Allgaier with Herbst also behind. Six laps later, Cindric was ahead by nearly two seconds over Haley, who was still pressured by Briscoe for the runner-up spot. Burton, Annett, Allgaier and Herbst followed suit while Gragson was stuck in eighth.

    Under 30 laps remaining, the caution returned following a late incident involving Moffitt and Chastain. Four laps later, the race restarted and Haley, who spun his tires but received a push from Briscoe, cleared Cindric for the lead on the inside lane. In Turn 2, Cindric gained a huge run to reassume the lead and Briscoe and Burton moved up while Haley was left in fourth ahead of Allgaier. 

    Ten laps later, with 20 to go, Cindric was ahead by a second over Briscoe while Burton was trailing by two seconds. Behind, Allgaier moved into fourth after prevailing over a battle with Haley while Gragson was stuck in sixth. With the race dwindling to its final laps, Cindric stretched his lead by more than two seconds over Briscoe, who was struggling for grip. Burton was still in third followed by Allgaier while teammate Gragson was able to race his way back into the top five after passing Haley. Shortly after, the caution returned for a wreck involving Colby Howard in Turn 1.

    When the race restarted with nine laps remaining, Cindric and Briscoe battled against one another for the lead as Gragson went three wide to move into third ahead of Burton and Allgaier. A lap later, Cindric cleared Briscoe for the lead and was slowly starting to stabilize his lead by half a second over a steaming pack of cars. With four laps remaining, however, the caution returned when Burton, who had fallen back into the top 10, slid sideways following contact with Annett in a cloud of smoke across the Turn 3 outside wall before he spun his car below the apron. He was able to continue without sustaining any damage.

    Following Burton’s late spin, the race was sent into overtime. When the green flag waved, Cindric and Briscoe, again, battled dead even for the lead through Turn 1 when Briscoe got loose underneath Cindric’s No. 22 Team Penske/Snap-On Ford Mustang. Briscoe’s slip allowed Cindric to clear and set sail with the lead in Turn 2 while Herbst and Chastain moved into second and third. Behind, Gragson made contact with teammate Allgaier, which sent Allgaier’s No. 7 BRANDT/JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro slipping sideways across Turns 1 and 2 as he lost a multitude of positions. 

    On the final lap, with the field behind continuing to scramble for late positions, Cindric was ahead by half a second over Herbst and Chastain while Briscoe fell back to fourth and was locked in a battle with Annett, Alfredo and Haley. As Cindric entered Turn 3, the caution flew following a multi-car wreck that started when Allgaier got loose in Turn 2 and slipped into Bassett Jr., who spun and made hard contact against the inside wall as all four wheels of Bassett’s No. 90 Chevrolet came off the ground. Timmy Hill and Vanderwal were also involved in the wreck. With the race concluding under caution, Cindric was able to cruise across the finish line to win the race. 

    With the victory, Cindric became the sixth full-time Xfinity competitor to be guaranteed a spot in the Playoffs by virtue of a regular-season win and he became the 17th competitor to win an Xfinity race at Kentucky. He also recorded the first Xfinity victory of the season for Team Penske and the sixth for the Ford nameplate.

    “I don’t care what shape the track is, if it’s dirt, oval! I don’t care!” Cindric exclaimed. “I’m just happy that this Snap-On Ford Mustang’s in Victory Lane. We’ve come so close all year. These guys have given me so many awesome race-winning cars with Snap-On celebrating their 100th anniversary with their Makers and Fixers program. It’s awesome to have them on the car. I’m pumped. This is awesome. I’d love to be able to come back and do another performance like that tomorrow night, but all the credit to my guys for getting me here. I love [Briscoe], but he’s won enough! Those restarts were a lot tougher than I was thinking they would be. Obviously, you never got out of the gas till he got loose like he should’ve, but I’m just so happy. Thank you to Roger [Penske], thank you to everyone on the team for believing in me. I believe this is a championship team and this is the start of many wins for this season. I’m so happy that it came here.”

    Behind Cindric, Herbst tied his career-best finish of the series with a runner-up result while Chastain rebounded from his late incident with Moffitt to finish third. Briscoe settled in fourth while Annett settled in fifth for his second top-five result of the season. Alfredo finished sixth while Haley, Kyle Weatherman, Sieg and Moffitt concluded the race in the top 10.

    Gragson, who led a race-high 87 laps, fell all the way back to 11th, Burton settled in 17th and Allgaier ended his night in 20th and on a wrecker after failing to complete the final lap. Myatt Snider finished 15th and based on the top-15 finishers from Thursday’s race being inverted for the start of Friday’s Xfinity race, second of the week, he will start on the pole and will be joined on the front row with rookie Jesse Little, who finished 14th on Thursday.

    Following his last-lap accident, Allgaier was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.

    There were six lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 40 laps.

    With his fourth-place result, Briscoe maintained the lead in the Xfinity Series regular-season standings by 16 points over Gragson, 45 over Cindric and 48 over Chastain.

    Results:

    1. Austin Cindric, 41 laps led

    2. Riley Herbst

    3. Ross Chastain

    4. Chase Briscoe, five laps led

    5. Michael Annett

    6. Anthony Alfredo

    7. Justin Haley, three laps led

    8. Kyle Weatherman

    9. Ryan Sieg

    10. Brett Moffitt

    11. Noah Gragson, 87 laps led, Stage 1 and 2 winner

    12. Jeremy Clements

    13. Joe Graf Jr.

    14. Jesse Little

    15. Myatt Snider

    16. Chad Finchum

    17. Harrison Burton

    18. B.J. McLeod

    19. Ronnie Bassett Jr. – OUT, Accident

    20. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident

    21. Timmy Hill – OUT, Accident

    22. Bayley Currey, one lap down

    23. Vinnie Miller, two laps down

    24. Alex Labbe, two laps down

    25. Kody Vanderwal, two laps down

    26. Josh Williams, three laps down

    27. Brandon Brown, four laps down

    28. Mason Massey, six laps down

    29. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Suspension

    30. Matt Mills, 14 laps down

    31. Garrett Smithley – OUT, Brakes

    32. Colby Howard – OUT, Accident

    33. Tommy Joe Martins – OUT, Rear gear

    34. Jeb Burton – OUT, Accident

    35. Stephen Leicht – OUT, Electrical

    36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

    The NASCAR Xfinity Series will return for its second race of the week at Kentucky Speedway on July 10, which will air at 8 p.m. on FS1. 

  • Kyle Busch to start on Cup pole at Kentucky

    Kyle Busch to start on Cup pole at Kentucky

    In the previous 12 NASCAR Cup Series races that have run since May and since the sport’s return amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, eight of them featured a random draw that determined the starting lineup of each race. In those eight races, seven different competitors drew the pole position and led the field to the start. For the upcoming Cup Series race, the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway on Sunday, July 12, an eighth different Cup competitor will lead the field to the green flag. The pole winner for this weekend by virtue of a random draw will be Kyle Busch, the reigning two-time Cup Series champion.

    The Las Vegas, Nevada, native and driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing is ranked 10th in the regular-season standings, 176 points behind Kevin Harvick, and has recorded seven top-five results and nine top-10 results through the first 16 races. He is also riding a 16-race winless drought that scales back to November 2019 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the same day where he won his second Cup Series title. He is one of five Cup competitors to record a win at Kentucky in the track’s previous nine Cup races, having won the inaugural race in 2011 and again in 2015 during his first championship season.

    Joining Kyle Busch on the front row will be Joey Logano, who has won at Kentucky in the Xfinity Series for three consecutive seasons, (2008, 2009 and 2010). Kevin Harvick, the series points leader who is coming off his third Brickyard 400 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend, will start third followed by teammate Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman. Brad Keselowski, who holds the most Cup victories at Kentucky with three, will start in sixth followed by Kurt Busch, winner of last year’s Kentucky Cup race following a late shootout with his brother, Kyle. Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. and Matt DiBenedetto will start in the top 10 followed by Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin.

    Starting in positions 13-26 are Chris Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Clint Bowyer, Erik Jones, Matt Kenseth, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, Jimmie Johnson, William Byron, rookie John Hunter Nemechek, Ryan Newman, rookie Tyler Reddick, Garrett Smithley and Josh Bilicki.

    Starting in positions 27-38 are Corey LaJoie, rookie Quin Houff, rookie Cole Custer, Michael McDowell, rookie Brennan Poole, Ryan Preece, Ty Dillon, rookie Christopher Bell, Joey Gase, J.J. Yeley, Daniel Suarez and Timmy Hill.

    The Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway will air on Sunday, July 12, at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1.