Las Vegas native Noah Gragson started from the pole position and won both stages to capture the win in Friday nights NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) 37 Kind Day 250 at Kansas Speedway.
“This is such a relief for a driver that had a hard week last week battling for the win between myself and Johnny Sauter. We came back stronger this weekend with two consecutive poles in a row. Led the most laps today. Man, this is a pretty damn cool moment. I’m so thankful for everyone at Safelite, Switch, Toyota, TRD – everyone at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), Samantha and Kyle Busch – my parents, my mom definitely. Happy Mother’s Day, mom.” Gragson said.
Gragson led 128 of 167 laps to claim his first victory of the season, second in his career and he also secured his place in the playoffs.
Kyle Busch finished second, Stewart Friesen third, John Hunter Nemechek fourth and Johnny Sauter finished fifth.
“The 18 (Noah Gragson) was coming, but if I could have got by the 52 (Stewart Friesen), when I got ran through the grass, I could have gotten enough of a gap to hold the 18 off. They were faster than us and deserved to win the race. They were better than us all weekend. We just didn’t have it in this Cessna No. 4 Tundra today.” Busch said. “They’re going to race for a championship, so hopefully this will help them get going.”
Johnny Sauter retains the series lead by 35 points over Gragson. Grant Enfinger (-61), Brett Moffitt (-62), Ben Rhodes (-62), and Matt Crafton (-70) round out the top five in the points standings.
The Camping World Truck Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday night for the NC Education Lottery 200.
Unofficial Race Results
37 Kind Day 250 at Kansas Speedway
May 11, 2018
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – There are times when redemption is swift and merciful.
A week after throwing away a chance to win at Dover with a wreck of his own making, Noah Gragson scored his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of the season, beating his car owner, Kyle Busch, to the finish line in the 37 Kind Days 250 at Kansas Speedway.
Starting from the pole for the second straight race, Gragson led 128 of 167 laps in his No. 18 Toyota, swept all the stages of the event and collected the second NCWTS victory of his career.
“This is such a relief for a driver who had a hard week last week battling for the win,” said Gragson, who was running side by side with Johnny Sauter at Dover when he lost control of his truck and backed into the outside wall. “We came back strong this weekend. Two consecutive poles. We led the most laps today.
“Man, this is a pretty damn cool moment.”
After passing Busch and third-place finisher Stewart Friesen on Lap 157 — thanks to a four-tire call by crew chief Rudy Fugle during a green-flag pit stop on lap 134 — Gragson took the lead for good when Myatt Snider ran out of gas with five laps left.
Snider was one of five drivers trying to stretch fuel to the end of the race. One by one they fell by the wayside, but not before muddying the waters in the closing laps.
“After the pit stop, I thought I was going to be the leader, but they told me that (fifth-place finisher) Johnny (Sauter) was stretching it on fuel,” Gragson said. “So I said, ‘OK, maybe I’m running second.’ Then they said the 52 (Friesen) and the 4 (Busch) are a half a lap ahead of you.
“And I thought that was for the lead when I passed the 4 and I passed the 52, and then they said the 13 (Snider) was the leader. And I said, ‘Dang, how many leaders are there going to be?”
As it turned out Snider was the last one, and Gragson had come full circle from his mistake at Dover.
John Hunter Nemechek came home fourth, followed by Sauter and Matt Crafton. Cody Coughlin, Grant Enfinger, Brandon Jones and Justin Haley completed the top 10.
With 23 laps left, Friesen forced Busch down to the infield grass in the tri-oval, costing Busch a chance to pass the No. 52 Chevrolet and put distance between himself and Gragson.
Busch had taken right-side tires only on his green-flag stop on Lap 139, and Gragson methodically caught his car owner, making what proved to be the winning pass with 10 laps left.
“The truck felt good after about 15 laps, but it took too long to come in,” Busch said. “And there on that last run, we didn’t make enough adjustments. We took two tires and we got way too tight.
“But awesome run by Noah and those guys. They deserve it—they’re fast. They needed a boost and they got one. They’re going to race for a championship, and hopefully, this will help them get going.”
Sauter retained the series lead by 35 points over Gragson. The Camping World Truck Series’ next race is scheduled Friday, May 18 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Kevin Harvick continued his dominance on the track Friday claiming the Busch Pole Award for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway.
He led qualifying in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a 188.811 mph lap to secure his second pole of the season and his 23rd career Cup Series pole. It will be the fourth time Harvick has led the field to green at the 1.5-mile Kansas track.
“This has been a really good race track for us through the years and I think obviously when you look at qualifying day it’s also been just one of those places that kind of fits what we do,” Harvick said. “So it’s been an entertaining day. We’ve had a lot of things of things to work through today, but I think today is one of those days when you look at the team and you’re like, ‘Man, those guys are really good at what they do.’ Nobody panics and really shows the experience and just patience that all those guys have that they’ve gained and learned and I think you look at the experience of the team and it seems to keep getting better, so that’s fun to be a part of.”
Harvick has four wins this year and continues to hone his competitive edge each week. When asked if he was going to give anyone else a chance this weekend, he quickly replied, “I hope not. I have no plans to.”
Ryan Blaney will join Harvick on the front road, qualifying with a 187.826 mph lap in his Team Penske Ford.
“I thought our car today was pretty decent and I thought we found a little bit of speed for qualifying, which was nice. This has been a good track for us over the past handful of years and hopefully we can just find a little bit more to end up in Victory Lane,” Blaney said.
Kyle Busch (187.552 mph), Aric Almirola (187.428 mph) and Brad Keselowski (186.748 mph) will round out the top five starting positions.
Six competitors will start from the rear of the field after they failed to make it through inspection in time. Those drivers include Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Michael McDowell, Matt DiBenedetto and Timmy Hill.
Also of note, Kyle Larson had issues in the second round of qualifying, spinning off Turn 4. He failed to post a time in the round and is slated to start the race in 22nd. However, if the team chooses to change tires, Larson will start from the rear of the field.
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Friday’s activities at Kansas Speedway were off to a slow start, as there were early morning rain and thundershowers that impacted the area. With that being the case, the first Camping World Truck Series practice for the 37 Kind Days 250 was canceled and we were left with only one practice for the day.
Two-time Kansas winner Matt Crafton paced the way by being the fastest in practice with a lap time of 177.626 mph. Crafton’s teammate, Myatt Snider was second fastest followed by Brett Moffitt. Last year’s winner Kyle Busch and Stewart Friesen rounded out the top five.
Grant Enfinger, Cody Coughlin, Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek and Brandon Jones rounded out the top 10.
Next up will be NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying taking place at the new scheduled time of 5:10 p.m. ET.
To call Kyle Larson’s run a roller coaster day would be an understatement.
He dropped to the rear for the initial start, because his car failed pre-race inspection three times. Starting 38th, he was up to 36th after caution flew for the first time on the third lap. He worked his way up to 28th, when Corey LaJoie’s blown engine brought out the caution on Lap 21.
Larson and Alex Bowman opted to stay out while the leaders pitted, and restarted second. He spun his tires on the restart and briefly held up the inside line. While he recovered and held off Keselowski’s attempt to get him loose on Lap 35 and Lap 39, he couldn’t do it a third time and Keselowski usurped him for second in Turn 4 on Lap 42. Staying out got Larson to the front, but his used tires were no match for the leaders that pitted under the second caution.
A cycle of green flag stops on Lap 95 allowed him an opportunity to stay in the Top-10, when it cycled out, but an uncontrolled tire penalty forced him to serve a pass through penalty and trapped him two laps down in 31st.
Larson was 30th when the caution flew for the conclusion of the first stage. With most of the field pitting under the caution, he took a wave-around, regained a lap and moved up to 26th.
Larson came a car short of the lucky dog when caution flew on Lap 154. While he was in position to get it at the end of the second stage, Harvick put more cars down a lap in the closing laps, a result of a long green flag run, and Larson remained trapped a lap down in 22nd.
He got back on the lead lap when Kyle Busch suffered an engine failure with 129 to go and worked his way up to 15th when rain put the field under the red flag with 84 to go.
Larson restarted 10th with 75 to go. In the final 50 laps, however, the handling of his car went towards the freeside and fell out of the Top-10. He broke back into the Top-10 when Bowman made an unscheduled stop, and brought his car home to a 10th-place finish.
“Yeah, it was a hard-fought top 10 for sure,” Larson said. “We were three laps down at one point. I guess happy about the Top-10. I was hoping we could pick off some cars there that last run once we finally got on the lead lap, but it was just so hard to pass. Everybody was the same speed until the very end of the run and then you could kind of move around. Found a little bit of time and was catching a few of them in front of me, but just ran out of time.”
Larson’s 10th-place finish was his seventh Top-10 finish at Dover International Speedway, a track at which he maintains an 8.2 finishing average.
He leaves Dover 10th in points, 159 back of Kyle Busch.
Dominant victories are just routine now for the driver that carries the nickname “The Closer.” While the smoke and confetti rained down on Kevin Harvick’s victory lane celebration at the Monster Mile, he maintained an expression that said “Been there, done that.”
“The first thing I’ve got to do is just thank everybody on my team — everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing, Roush Yates Engines, everybody from Ford for just continuing to put the effort that they put into these cars,” Harvick said. “Three cars in the top five says a lot about where we are as a company, but everybody from Jimmy John’s and Busch and Ford, Fields, Haas, Mobil 1, Morton Buildings, Textron Off-Road, Liftmaster and the fans, especially. It was great to see those fans stick around for the finish, but it’s fun racing your teammate. That says a lot about our company and one of your good friends as well.”
Harvick led a race high of 201 laps on his way to scoring his 41st career victory in 621 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts, and second at Dover International Speedway.
He mentioned in victory lane that his son Keelan broke the arm of the Miles the Monster trophy he got from his first win at Dover in 2015.
“Miles is pretty popular, as you can imagine, with the kids. We took the last‑‑ the first one that we won, we took it home and put it in his play room, and I said, you can keep it in your play room,” Harvick said. “First day I came home and he had the arm broke in half off of the thing. When we talked‑‑ when I talked to him after the race, he said, “Dad, are you bringing that trophy home?” I said, “I’m bringing it home, but do not break the arm off this one. I have no idea how he broke it, but it is hollow, so he must have landed on it or hit something with it.”
He then revealed that his line to his son about not breaking this trophy was more tongue-in-cheek.
“Oh, he can break it, it’s fine. Yeah, we’ll put it in the same spot. We’ll put it in the same spot in the playroom for a while,” Harvick added. “We’ll have to go hose it off first because it smells like beer. It’s always strange trying to explain to people why his playroom smells like beer.
“But no, we’ll clean it up and put it in his playroom. We glued the other one back together. It’s fine.”
Teammate Clint Bowyer led 40 laps, on his way to a runner-up finish.
“Well the biggest thing was just if we had a chance to adjust our car in clean air, like he (Harvick) did. He had that luxury all day long, and that was the first shot at tires, and clean air,” Bowyer said. “It took off and it was turning really, really good. It really kind of needs to be kind of tight and work into that. I knew when it took off as good as it did and it was rotating as good as it did, I was in trouble. Sure enough, I just got way, way, way too loose.
“But awesome Ford Fusion, Rush Truck Centers, Haas Demo Day. We won with that Haas Demo Day on the car at Martinsville. I thought maybe it was going to be again.
“But the opportunity Gene (Haas) and Tony (Stewart) give all of us at Stewart-Haas Racing makes this a lot of fun. It’s fun to be running like this and competitive and upfront in the limelight.”
Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch rounded out the Top-five.
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Jerry Markland/Getty Images
“It was good,” Suarez said of his run. “Very proud of everyone on this team, Scott Graves, the rest of the guys, Stanley (Tools), everyone that makes this happen. We had a little rough start in the first few weeks, month and a half. Now we’re definitely moving in the right direction. So just very proud of this team, Joe Gibbs Racing, TRD Engines, everyone that makes this possible. It’s pretty cool to finally get moving in the right direction.”
“Frustrated a little bit. We could never make it any better,” Truex said of his day. “We talked at the rain delay there, just so tight on exit. Just couldn’t get the thing turning off the corner. And I could catch anybody who was in front of me, at any point in time. After 15 to 20 laps into a run, I just stuck there. So it was very frustrating. And the harder I tried, just the more I hurt my tires. It didn’t go any faster. At the end, I was really struggling hanging on. We took a swing at it there, at the last caution, and it was definitely a swing and a miss, because if anything, it was worse.
“Frustrating day, but battling back from that tire issue and then having to do some things to compensate for that definitely hurt us. And as bad as our car drove, I’m surprised we finished fourth. So everyone else’s must’ve been really bad.”
“It’s all about the team effort. Good day for us,” Kurt Busch said. “The way that the pit stops went we had to come back from a penalty. Restarts went fair the early part of the race and went good in the latter part. Those restarts are close quarters and you need to grab spots then. These cars are really aero-sensitive. Thanks to Haas Automation and Ford we had a top-five day.”
Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson rounded out the Top-10.
RACE SUMMARY
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, takes the green flag to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Because Kyle Larson failed pre-race inspection three times, he was sent to the tail-end of the field for the initial start. This moved Kevin Harvick up to first for the green flag at 2:01 p.m. He led the first lap, while Martin Truex Jr.
The leaders ducked onto pit road on Lap 22, after Corey LaJoie brought out the caution for a blown engine. Austin Dillon exited pit road first, but Alex Bowman opted not to pit and led the field back to green on Lap 26. His used tires were no match for Brad Keselowski on new tires, as Keselowski passed him down the backstretch to take the lead on Lap 52. Lap traffic allowed Truex to reel him in, but he surrendered second to pit on Lap 95 and triggered a cycle of green flag stops.
Keselowski and the others didn’t pit right away. He wanted to ride out for a caution or the end of the first stage. Regardless, Harvick ran him down and passed him exiting Turn 4 to retake the lead on Lap 110. Even as he and others ran out of gas in the closing laps of the stage, he rode it out and won the first stage.
Back to green on Lap 128, Harvick pulled away from Keselowski. The over two-second gap was erased when Derrike Cope spun out and slammed the inside wall in Turn 4 on Lap 154.
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Keselowski exited pit road with the lead and led the field back to green on Lap 159. Harvick reeled him in after 20 laps, but couldn’t make the high line work to pass Keselowski. On Lap 200, however, Keselowski’s loose car allowed Harvick to hug the bottom and pass him exiting Turn 4 to retake the lead and win the second stage.
It was more of the same on the ensuing restart, with Harvick pulling away from Keselowski. He surrendered the lead to pit under caution with 129 laps to go, brought out by Kyle Busch’s engine failure.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. opted not to pit and led the field back to green with 119 to go. While he initially pulled away, his old tires couldn’t hold off Clint Bowyer, who passed him exiting Turn 2 to take the lead with 103 to go.
Caution flew with 84 to go for rain. The field was brought down pit road and the race was red-flagged with 80 to go. It was lifted after 41 minutes and one second.
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, celebrates with a fan as he is handed the checkered flag after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Jerry Markland/Getty Images
Back to green with 75 to go, Harvick took advantage of Bowyer getting loose going into Turn 1 with 63 to go and passed him the following lap going into Turn 3 to retake the lead and drive on to victory.
“Well, I was holding my own as loose as I was and I about lost it off of 2, and I was obviously going for a win and giving it my all. But I knew you just can’t buzz the tires like that on a track like this, and every time you do that, it’s a step. It wasn’t, what, two laps after that and he was all over me, and then I was in trouble,” Bowyer said. “When you’re loose like that getting into the corner and those guys get behind you, you’re in trouble. Then obviously when you’re loose and they get to your outside, you’ve got to give it to them. They’re going to turn you around. But he’s obviously a champion of this sport, and you hate to lose him, know what I mean? We could beat him at this racetrack. We come back in the fall, and when all the marbles are on the line, maybe we can.”
NUTS & BOLTS
The race lasted three hours, 28 minutes and 37 seconds, at an average speed of 115.044 mph. There were 17 lead changes among six different drivers, and eight cautions for 48 laps.
Kyle Busch leaves Dover with a 40-point lead over Joey Logano.
Justin Allgaier, driving his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, brought home his first Xfinity Series win this season and his first ever at Dover International Speedway Saturday afternoon.
Elliott Sadler made the last lap exciting by trying to get a run on Allgaier but ended up getting loose and falling back enough to give Allgaier the win in the OneMain Financial 200. Allgaier made it look easy by dominating the competition and leading 104 of 200 laps during the race. He topped it off by winning the final Dash 4 Cash prize of $100,000. It was a great way to finish the week off for Allgaier’s car owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who just had his first baby (a girl) with wife, Amy.
Allgaier commented on that last lap stating, “Well, unfortunately, I thought the 15 was going to go to the bottom and he went to the top, I got on my brakes and almost spun myself out.” He added, “ That race, I couldn’t ask for anything better, these guys and everyone at JR Motorsports have done a fantastic job. I think we have a great shot at going for the championship.”
Stage 1 was fairly uneventful only having two cautions, one for Matt Tifft spinning and the second when Josh Bilicki tagged the wall. Sadler was the dominant car in this stage of the race, but Allgaier and Brandon Jones were right up there fighting for the lead. Sadler would win Stage 1 followed by Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric, and Ryan Truex rounding out the top five.
Stage 2 would see Tyler Reddick come to the front and take the lead, but 25 laps into the stage Allgaier would take the lead back and finish out the stage taking the win. The top five in Stage 2 were Allgaier, Reddick, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, and Tifft.
The final stage is where it really started to heat up. The drivers started going three wide trying to get to the front for the win, and that’s when the cautions started coming out. There were three cautions in this stage involving drivers such as John Hunter Nemechek, Cindric, Alex Labbe, Dylan Lupton, and Ty Majeski.
Allgaier would dominate the final stage leading most of the laps. Sadler did his best to get to Allgaier to make a pass for the lead and the two of them were side by side on the last lap, when they got together. Sadler got loose and backed off giving Allgaier the win.
A dejected Sadler commented, “ I gave it my best, I’m just proud of everyone on my team. I really want to give these guys a win, I’m tired of finishing in the top five but don’t have any checkered flags to show for it. I did the best I could but it just wasn’.t good enough today.”
Hemric ran in the top 10 most of the race and came home in third. A frustrated Hemric commented, “My Lord, we’re doing everything we can to put ourselves in a good position. I just want to figure out what it takes to close one of these things out, but I hate finishing third.”
Bell and Reddick round out the top five. Johnny Sauter, Noah Gragson, Tifft, Cindric, and Jones finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Sadler leads the Xfinity Series standings with 401 points. Allgaier is in second with 368 points followed by Reddick in third with 363 points, Bell is in fourth with 349 points and Hemric rounds out the top five with 343 points.
The Xfinity series heads next to Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 26.
