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  • Buescher goes back-to-back with dramatic Cup victory at Michigan

    Buescher goes back-to-back with dramatic Cup victory at Michigan

    The one-day wait amid an extensive rain delay period was worth the wait for Chris Buescher and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing as both navigated their way to win the rain-postponed FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway that started on Sunday, August 6, and concluded on Monday, August 7.

    The 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Prosper, Texas, led three times for a race-high 52 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in fourth place and was coming off a breakthrough victory at Richmond Raceway. Amid a one-day postponement of the event due to precipitation and various pit strategies that ensued throughout the event, Buescher, who managed to cycle his way past dominant Martin Truex Jr. amid the final cycle of green flag pit stops with nearly 40 laps remaining, assumed the race lead with 18 laps remaining and, despite nearly losing the lead with 12 laps remaining, fended off a late surge from Truex to notch his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory in recent weeks and gain needed momentum with the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs looming.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, August 5, Christopher Bell notched his second Cup pole position of the season and the sixth of his career after posting a fast pole-winning lap at 193.382 mph in 37.232 seconds, which marks the fastest qualifying lap posted since the 2020 Daytona 500. Joining him on the front row was Ross Chastain, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 193.242 mph in 37.259 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Corey LaJoie, JJ Yeley and Austin Hill dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Another competitor who also dropped to the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments was Josh Berry, who was piloting the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club entry in place of the suspended Noah Gragson.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced amid a delay of more than an hour and a half due to precipitation, Bell and Chastain dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Chastain, who restarted on the inside lane, received a huge shove from rookie Ty Gibbs to muscle his No. 1 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through Turns 1 and 2, where he then moved in front of Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out and jostled early for positions exiting the backstretch and entering Turns 3 and 4, Chastain proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Bell while Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs followed suit.

    Through the second lap, Chastain maintained the lead ahead of Bell while Truex battled Buescher for third place ahead of Ty Gibbs. Behind, Logano retained sixth ahead of Chase Elliott while William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney were in the top 10.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Chastain was leading by four-tenths of a second over Truex followed by Bell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs while Logano, Elliott, Wallace, Byron and Blaney were in the top 10. Behind, Denny Hamlin was in 11th ahead of Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Tyler Reddick while Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick was mired in 21st ahead of Erik Jones, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Justin Haley, Todd Gilliland and Corey LaJoie rounded out the top 30.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Chastain stabilized his early advantage to four-tenths of a second over Truex while third-place Bell trailed by more than a second. With Buescher and Ty Gibbs remaining in the top five, Wallace was up to sixth ahead of Elliott and Byron while Logano fell back to ninth in front of teammate Blaney.

    Four laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Kyle Busch, who was battling Blaney for 10th place, moved up the track and made contact with Blaney, where he then got loose, spun and made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2 on the driver’s side. The incident, which was enough to terminate Busch’s event early as he sustained his fifth DNF of the season, occurred as Chastain was being challenged by Truex for the lead. It also served as the competition caution period initially planned for Lap 20.

    During the competition caution period, a majority of the field led by Chastain pitted for service while 11 competitors led by the race leader Truex remained on the track amid mixed strategy.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 19, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead until Truex muscled his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota TRD Camry into the lead through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. With the field fanning out, Truex maintained the lead by half a second over teammate Gibbs while Buescher followed suit along with Wallace and Blaney. Behind, Elliott was in sixth followed by Suarez and Reddick, but Reddick would overtake both by Lap 21 while Chastain, the first competitor who pitted during the competition caution, was in 10th.

    Just past the Lap 25 mark and amid a series of on-track battles, Truex was leading by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Ty Gibbs while Buescher, Wallace and Blaney were scored in the top five. Truex would extend his advantage to more than a second over Gibbs by Lap 30. By then, Reddick, who started 15th, rocketed his No. 45 Rocket League Toyota TRD Camry into fifth place while Chastain was mired in ninth in between teammate Suarez and Keselowski. In addition, Bell was in 12th behind Byron, Larson, who nearly got loose entering Turn 4, fell back to 15th ahead of Hamlin and Logano was mired in 24th ahead of Aric Almirola and Harvick. In addition, Josh Berry was in 28th in between Kaulig Racing’s Haley and Allmendinger.

    On Lap 34, the second caution of the event flew when Elliott, who was running in ninth after being overtaken by Trackhouse Racing’s Suarez and Chastain a lap earlier, slipped sideways after blowing a right-rear tire and wrecked against the Turn 2 outside wall. The incident not only terminated Elliott’s race amid extensive damage to his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but it hampered his hopes of gaining valuable points towards the 2023 Cup Series Playoff cutline. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Buescher pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

    With six laps remaining in the first stage period, the race proceeded under green as Truex and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Truex muscled ahead from Wallace while starting on the outside lane as the field fanned out to four lanes entering the first two turns and the backstretch. With Truex remaining ahead of Wallace on the track and amid a series of on-track battles between competitors on mixed strategies, Ty Gibbs was in third followed by Keselowski and Suarez while Larson was in sixth ahead of Corey LaJoie and teammate Alex Bowman.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Truex, who announced his return for the 2024 Cup season with Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday, claimed his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Wallace trailed in second while Ty Gibbs, Keselowski, Larson, Suarez, Bowman, Hamlin, Erik Jones and LaJoie were scored in the top 10. By then, Byron, who was running ninth, got loose, slipped up and slapped towards the outside wall entering Turn 4 as he limped his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 across the start/finish line in 13th.

    Under the stage break, some led by Truex, who remained on the track during the two previous caution periods, pitted while the rest led by Bowman remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Stenhouse was penalized for speeding on pit road and for an uncontrolled tire violation. Not long after, Truex made another pit stop as he was sent to the rear of the field.

    The second stage started on Lap 50 as Bowman and Erik Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Bowman and Jones dueled for the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out. Bowman and Jones would continue to duel for the lead through the backstretch while Hamlin, Reddick, Bell and Blaney followed pursuit. Then as the field made their way through Turns 3 and 4, the caution quickly returned when Berry, who was running 16th and battling with Harrison Burton, got loose in front of LaJoie and spun backwards towards the outside wall as he slapped the wall while barely missing Todd Gilliland before the damaged No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came to a rest below the turn’s grass as his event came to an end. By then, Byron, who was on the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock period spanning seven minutes as his pit crew attempted to repair the No. 24 car, ran out of their scheduled repairment time as his event also came to an end.

    During the following restart on Lap 55, Bowman rocketed ahead with the lead from the outside lane as he then moved in front of Erik Jones to retain the top spot through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. With the battles ensuing through the backstretch, Bell rocketed his way around Erik Jones for the runner-up spot as he pursued Bowman for the lead while Chastain aggressively carved his way up to 11th.

    Through the Lap 60 mark, Bowman was leading by a tenth of a second over Bell followed by Erik Jones, Hamlin and Reddick while Blaney, Austin Cindric, Ryan Preece, Austin Dillon and Allmendinger were in the top 10. By then, Chastain, Wallace, Briscoe, Larson and Truex were in the top 15 while Logano, LaJoie, Almirola, Haley and Buescher occupied the top 20. Behind, Keselowski was mired in 21st ahead of Harrison Burton, Ty Dillon, Ty Gibbs and Suarez while Harvick was back in 26th.

    Four laps later, Bell, who had just overtaken Bowman amid a battle for the lead through the frontstretch, slipped sideways entering Turns 1 and 2 amid close-quarters racing with Bowman with Hamlin joining the battle. This resulted with Bell spinning backwards towards the outside wall as he pounded the wall and sustained significant rear end damage to his pole-winning car. During the caution period, the entire field led by Bowman, expect for Josh Bilicki, pitted for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Bowman exited first followed by Truex, Reddick, Blaney, Larson, Austin Dillon and Cindric. Bilicki would pit prior to the restart as Bowman reassumed the lead.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 69, where Bowman and Reddick occupied the front row, Bowman and Reddick dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Reddick managed to muscle ahead from the inside lane and assume the lead through the backstretch. As the field fanned out amid a series of on-track battles, including a pair of run-ins involving Blaney and LaJoie, Reddick maintained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Bowman while Larson was up in third followed by Truex, Cindric and Erik Jones.

    Four laps later, the caution returned due to reports of precipitation occurring around the speedway. Soon after, the field led by Reddick was directed to pit road and the event was placed in a red flag period due to the ongoing precipitation on Lap 74. With the precipitation increasing and the delay spanning more than an hour, NASCAR ended up postponing the remainder of the event’s coverage to Monday, August 7, at noon ET on USA Network.

    The following day on Monday, the field endured a brief 33-minute delay due to light mist before returning to the track under a cautious pace. During the caution period, Bell pitted even when pit road was closed for additional repairs to his pole-winning car amid his wreck from Sunday as he was still scored on the lead lap. Once pit road opened for the entire field to pit, some led by Reddick and including Bowman, Larson, Austin Dillon, Ty Gibbs, LaJoie, Stenhouse, Michael McDowell, Haley, Cole Custer and Bilicki pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

    When the race resumed under green flag conditions on Lap 82 amid an extensive caution period due to reports of light precipitation, where Truex and Cindric occupied the front row, Truex and Cindric dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Bubba Wallace made a bold three-wide move on both through the backstretch to assume the lead in his No. 23 DoorDash Toyota TRD Camry. With Wallace leading the proceeding lap, Truex settled in second while Keselowski battled Cindric for third in front of Erik Jones, Buescher and Hamlin. Jones then overtook Keselowski and Cindric in a three-wide move through the backstretch to move his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up to third as Wallace retained the lead. As the field continued to jostle for positions through the Lap 85 mark, Wallace stabilized his advantage to within a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Truex.

    By Lap 90, the top-three competitors were separated by nearly half a second as Wallace was still leading by two-tenths of a second over Truex followed by Erik Jones while Cindric and Suarez trailed in the top five by more than a second. Behind, Keselowski was in sixth ahead of teammate Buescher, Hamlin, Harrison Burton and Allmendinger while Blaney, Chastain, Logano, Reddick, Bowman, Larson, Briscoe, Harvick, Ryan Preece, Almirola and Ty Gibbs were battling within the top 20.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Truex cycled his way around Wallace, who continued to remain on the track and stretch his fuel tank to finish the second stage, to reassume the lead through the frontstretch while third-place Erik Jones trailed by six-tenths of a second. Behind, Suarez trailed in fourth place by more than a second while Hamlin was in fifth and trailing by more than two seconds.

    Two laps later, the caution flew when Preece, who was running 22nd, blew a right-rear tire entering Turn 1, but he managed to avoid hitting the outside wall as he fell off the pace with light smoke coming out of his No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang. During the caution period, some including the race leader Truex pitted while the rest led by Wallace and including Suarez, Keselowski, Chastain, Allmendinger, Logano, Bowman, Larson, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, LaJoie and Custer remained on the track amid mixed strategy ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin, who was running in the top five prior to the caution period, stalled his car while trying to exit his pit stall as he plummeted towards the rear of the lead lap field.

    As the race restarted with 13 laps remaining in the second stage period, Wallace and Suarez dueled for the lead amid two tight-stacked lanes. Behind, Austin Dillon fell off the pace after nearly hitting the outside wall in Turn 1 and pitted under green due to a flat right-side tire, a move that pinned him a lap behind the leaders. Back at the front, Wallace and Suarez continued to duel for the lead until Suarez, who restarted beneath Wallace on the front row, managed to rocket his No. 99 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead entering Turns 3 and 4 as he assumed the lead from Wallace while Keselowski was in third.

    Just past the Lap 110 mark and amid a series of on-track battles, Suarez retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Keselowski while Wallace fell back to third in front of Bowman and Logano. Behind, Larson was in sixth ahead of Allmendinger while Truex charged his way up to eighth place while on four fresh tires and a full tank of fuel. Meanwhile, Hamlin carved his way up to 17th while battling Harvick for position.

    At the conclusion of the second stage period on Lap 120, Truex, who overtook Wallace for third place on Lap 118 as he continued to rocket his way back to the front on fresh tires, surged past Keselowski entering the backstretch and managed to side-draft Suarez amid Suarez trying to block Truex to claim the stage victory, his fifth of the season, in a photo finish. Suarez, who came into the event 34 points below the top-16 cutline towards the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs, settled in second followed by Keselowski while Wallace, Bowman, Larson, Logano, Allmendinger, Cindric and Buescher were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Truex while the rest led by Buescher and including Reddick, Blaney, Harvick, Almirola, Gilliland and McDowell remained on the track with more mixed strategy ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Bell was penalized for his pit crew jumping over the pit wall too soon.

    With 74 laps remaining, the final stage started as Buescher and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher and Reddick dueled for the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. The caution then quickly returned when Cindric rubbed McDowell up into teammate Gilliland as Gilliland got squeezed towards the outside wall. In the ensuing contact, Bowman, who came into the event 42 points below the top-16 cutline, received light contact from Briscoe that got Bowman loose and spinning as he hit Gilliland before spinning with front nose damage on his No. 48 Ally Detroit Pistons Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. During the caution period, some including Wallace, Briscoe, the Dillon brothers, Gilliland, Erik Jones, Larson and Haley pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track.

    With the race restarting with 67 laps remaining, Buescher surged ahead with the lead from the outside lane as he then fended off Reddick through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. Reddick maintained second in front of Blaney, Harvick and Cindric while Almirola was in sixth. Behind, Truex carved his way to seventh as he then battled Almirola for more while Hamlin was in eighth followed by Chastain and Burton.

    Seven laps later, Buescher stabilized his lead to two-tenths of a second over Reddick followed by Blaney while Truex moved up to fourth in front of Harvick. Behind, Cindric was in sixth ahead of Hamlin, Almirola, Chastain and Burton while McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Keselowski, Logano, Suarez, Preece, Allmendinger, Wallace, Larson and Austin Hill occupied the top 20.

    Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Buescher continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Reddick while Truex trailed by less than six seconds as Hamlin moved up to fourth ahead of Blaney, Cindric and Harvick.

    Seven laps later, green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Buescher surrendered the lead to pit followed by Reddick and Harvick as Reddick exited ahead of Buescher off of pit road. During the following lap, however, Reddick returned to pit road due to a flat right-rear tire on his No. 45 entry, an issue that left Reddick steaming towards his pit crew. By then, Hamlin and Almirola pitted under green before Truex surrendered the lead to pit with 41 laps remaining. Amid the pit stops, Buescher managed to cycle his No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang past Truex on the track as Keselowski assumed the lead with less than 40 laps remaining.

    With 30 laps remaining, Keselowski retained the lead by over Suarez followed by Larson, Erik Jones and Logano, Bell, Wallace, LaJoie, Stenhouse and Preece were scored in the top 10. By then, Ty Gibbs, who was running in fifth place, pitted under green. Logano and LaJoie would pit a few laps later as Keselowski extended his lead to six seconds over Suarez and seven seconds over Larson. By then, Buescher worked his way up to 11th while Truex trailed behind in 12th.

    With 25 laps remaining, Suarez surrendered the runner-up spot to pit under green along with Preece. Keselowski would then surrender the lead the following lap to pit his No. 6 Nexlizet Ford Mustang as Larson assumed the lead. With 23 laps remaining, however, Larson pitted his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the lead along with Erik Jones, Bell and Wallace as Ty Dillon cycled into the lead followed by brother Austin Dillon. Behind, Buescher and Truex moved up to third and fourth as the latter, who had a strong race car, continued to try to navigate his way around the former with both having enough fuel to finish the event.

    Once the Dillon brothers pitted with nearly 20 laps remaining, Buescher cycled his way into the race lead with 18 laps remaining as Truex continued to intimidate and trail by two-tenths of a second. Buescher would continue to lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Truex while third-place Hamlin trailed by four seconds as Keselowski and Harvick were in the top five.

    Then with 13 laps remaining, Truex, who gained ground to Buescher’s rear bumper through the frontstretch, made his move beneath Buescher for the lead through Turns 1 and 2 as both dueled for the top spot through the backstretch. Truex then side-drafted Buescher back through the frontstretch as he led the following lap by a hair before Buescher returned the favor by side-drafting Truex in a fight to reassume the lead. Despite leading with 12 laps remaining, Truex got loose entering Turn 1, which allowed Buescher to pull ahead with the lead by nearly a second.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Buescher stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Truex while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than three seconds. Keselowski and Larson remained in the top five while Harvick, Chastain, Blaney, Suarez and Cindric were in the top 10. Behind, Ty Gibbs was in 11th ahead of Erik Jones and Almirola while Bell carved his damaged car to 14th place ahead of Wallace.

    With five laps remaining, Truex regained his ground on Buescher as he was only trailing by two-tenths of a second for the lead in his fast No. 19 Toyota. With Buescher retaining the lead, Truex kept Buescher’s No. 17 Ford close within his sights amid the draft as he tried to gain a run around Buescher with the laps dwindling.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher remained as the leader by less than three-tenths of a second over Truex. Through Turns 1 and 2, Truex could not gain a run to draw even with Buescher as both entered the backstretch. Then entering Turns 3 and 4, Truex made a final lap charge to get alongside Buescher, but the run was not enough as Buescher managed to retain the lead and beat Truex to the finish line by a tenth of a second to notch his second consecutive checkered flag in recent weeks.

    With the victory, Buescher, who ended up leading a race-high 52 laps, recorded his fourth career win in NASCAR’s premier series as this marks his first season notching multiple Cup victories, thus making him the sixth multi-race winner of the 2023 Cup Series season, and first time claiming back-to-back Cup race victories. The victory was also the 14th overall in the Cup circuit for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing at the Irish Hills, making RFK Racing the winningest organization at the speedway, and their first since Greg Biffle won in 2012 while Ford claimed its 21st Cup victory, ninth in a row, at Michigan.

    Photo by Tim Jarrold for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “That was our plan [to win],” Buescher said on USA Network. “That’s what we come to do every weekend. It’s awesome. Glad we got to get this whole [race] in. I know it’s been a long weekend, but this Castrol Edge Mustang was so good in practice, qualifying. This team gave me a great car again. [I] Had to work for that [win], too. Hard racing there at the end. Martin [Truex Jr.] was very clean with me. I appreciate that. [I] Get to go to Victory Lane two weeks in a row, so that’s pretty awesome. We’ve got work to do, but that’s massive progress right there for us to do [and win at] two vastly different racetracks. We got road [course] races coming up. I’m excited for those two and Daytona. I look at the schedule we have ahead of us, and this is a heck of a time to get turned on and get rolling.”

    Truex, who led six times for 47 laps, settled in second place for the second time this season amid a strong performance on the track. This also marks Truex’s fourth runner-up result at the Irish Hills as he continues his pursuit for his first Michigan win.

    “I think we just needed maybe a little bit longer run to wear the tires some more,” Truex, who extended his lead in the regular-season standings to 57 points, said. “I felt like we were a little better, but it’s just really hard to pass the leader on equal tires. We had an unbelievable Auto-Owners Camry today and hats off to everybody that puts in the work on these things. It was a rocket. It’s just the leader in clean air is really, really hard to pass. Just didn’t quite have enough, but all in all, a good day.”

    Hamlin came home in third place while Keselowski, Buescher’s teammate and co-owner at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, ended up in fourth place in his home track. The fourth-place result marked Keselowski’s fifth top-five result of the season as he is now 168 points above the top-16 cutline towards the Playoff standings, but he was also left satisfied from an owner’s perspective with Buescher winning the race and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing gaining momentum with the start of the Playoffs lingering.

    “[I’m] Really happy for all the folks at Castrol and for [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing],” Keselowski said. “There’s a lot of work going on here and we’re digging deep and getting the results. I’m just so thankful and proud for everyone at RFK. We’re letting our results speak for themselves and Chris [Buescher] has done a heck of a job driving the car. When you can win, it feels really good, but we got to keep some humbleness and keep our head down. There’s some great competition out here.”

    Larson completed the top five in fifth place while Suarez, teammate Chastain, Harvick, Blaney and Erik Jones finished in the top 10. Notably, Ty Gibbs settled in 11th while Bell rallied from his early wreck on Sunday to finish 13th ahead of Logano and LaJoie. In addition, Wallace fell back to 18th ahead of Austin Dillon, McDowell ended up a lap down in 24th, Allmendinger settled in 26th, Reddick fell back to 30th and Bowman ended up 33rd after he was unable to finish due to a steering issue to his car stemming from his late wreck.

    There were 26 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 43 laps. In addition, 21 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With three regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by 57 points over teammate Denny Hamlin and 96 over William Byron.

    William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and rookie Ty Gibbs occupy the remaining vacant spots to the Playoffs based on points, with Gibbs occupying the 16th and final vacant spots by three points over Michael McDowell, five over Daniel Suarez, 24 over AJ Allmendinger, 44 over Alex Bowman, 53 over Austin Cindric, 55 over Chase Elliott, 72 over Justin Haley, 81 over Aric Almirola and 89 over Ryan Preece.

    Results.

    1. Chris Buescher, 52 laps led

    2. Martin Truex Jr., 47 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    3. Denny Hamlin, one lap led

    4. Brad Keselowski, 15 laps led

    5. Kyle Larson, two laps led

    6. Daniel Suarez, 12 laps led

    7. Ross Chastain, 16 laps led

    8. Kevin Harvick

    9. Ryan Blaney, one lap led

    10. Erik Jones

    11. Ty Gibbs, one lap led

    12. Austin Cindric

    13. Christopher Bell, one lap led

    14. Joey Logano

    15. Corey LaJoie

    16. Aric Almirola

    17. Harrison Burton

    18. Bubba Wallace, 21 laps led

    19. Austin Dillon, two laps led

    20. Ty Dillon, two laps led

    21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    22. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    23. Justin Haley, one lap down

    24. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    25. Cole Custer, one lap down

    26. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down

    27. JJ Yeley, one lap down

    28. Austin Hill, two laps down

    29. Todd Gilliland, three laps down

    30. Tyler Reddick, three laps down, seven laps led

    31. Chase Briscoe, three laps down

    32. Josh Bilicki, four laps down, one lap led

    33. Alex Bowman – OUT, Steering, 19 laps led

    34. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

    35. William Byron – OUT, Dvp

    36. Chase Elliott – OUT, Accident

    37. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Verizon 200 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, August 13, at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Christopher Bell claims Busch Light Pole at Michigan

    Christopher Bell claims Busch Light Pole at Michigan

    Christopher Bell captured the NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Award at Michigan International Speedway during the final round of qualifying Saturday afternoon, earning the top spot for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.

    His lap time of 37.232 seconds at 193.382 mph in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota earned Bell his second pole of the season and his sixth career pole. Bell is looking forward to the upcoming race and is hoping to capitalize on his front-row start.

    “I feel excellent about what I have for sure,” he said after qualifying. “It has been a pretty smooth Saturday. In practice, it was very good off the truck and fast and balanced. That is what it is all about at Michigan – having the car comfortable and balanced so you can drive as hard as you need to; to create speed as you need to here in Michigan.”

    Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain will join Bell on the front row after a qualifying lap of 193.242 mph in his No. 1 Chevrolet. Ty Gibbs (193.024 mph) will start third followed by Chris Buescher (192.921 mph) in fourth.

    Martin Truex Jr., who recently announced a one-year extension through 2024 with Joe Gibbs Racing, qualified with a 192.658 mph lap to round out the top five.    

    Joey Logano, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott completed the top 10 fastest drivers in qualifying.

    Josh Berry, filling in for the suspended Noah Gragson, qualified 35th in the Legacy Motor Club No. 42 Chevrolet entry.

    The NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 is set for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA with radio coverage provided by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

    Starting Lineup:

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Richmond

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Richmond

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin finished second in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond.

    “I’m becoming NASCAR’s biggest villain,” Hamlin said. “I’m the driver people love to hate. I’m also the driver drivers love to hate. I’m not here to win NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award. I’m here to win championships. Unfortunately, I’ve won neither.”

    2. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished seventh in the Cook Out 400.

    “Sunday’s race was relatively incident free,” Truex said. “That’s fine by me because all this feuding gets on my nerves. Throw some punches for Christ’s sake. I think Richard Petty would echo my sentiment. If anyone knows drama queens, it’s the ‘King.’”

    3. Kyle Busch: Busch started second and finished third at Richmond in the No. 8 X World Wallet Chevrolet.

    “I’ve won more races than any active driver in history at Richmond,” Busch said. “I have six Richmond wins. You don’t always need six to top the list of active drivers. With only one, I top the list of active drivers who’ve been sentenced to jail time in a Mexican prison.”

    4. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished 10th at Richmond, posting his ninth top 10 of the year.

    “All the talk lately is about aggression and ethics in racing,” Harvick said. “All I know is in the good old days, if you got your feathers ruffled, you did something about it. Nowadays, if you get your feathers ruffled, it just means you’re a chicken.”

    5. William Byron: Byron struggled at Richmond and finished 21st, one lap down.

    “It was incredibly hot at the track,” Blaney said. “In some cars, the temperature reached 130 degrees. NASCAR has a pretty strict drug policy, so this is about the closest we can come to ‘getting baked.’”

    6. Chris Buescher: Buescher took the lead from Brad Keselowski during a late pit stop cycle and held off Denny Hamlin to win the Cook Out 400 at Richmond.

    “I was worried when Hamlin lined up next to me on the last restart,” Buescher said. “Luckily, I was on the ‘right side’ of Denny Hamlin.”

    7. Kyle Larson: Larson finished 19th at Richmond, the last car on the lead lap.

    “I’ve talked to Hamlin since our incident at Pocono,” Larson said. “Not personally, but over text. I suggested we ‘keep our distance,’ and since Denny finished second and I finished 19th, I guess we did.”

    8. Joey Logano: Logano finished fourth in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond.

    “I started 23rd,” Logano said. “So we really had to work hard to get to the front. I have to hand it to my pit crew–they did all the heavy lifting. And I’m glad they handled that, because have you seen my biceps?”

    9. Christopher Bell: Bell finished 20th at Richmond.

    “There are four races left until the playoffs,” Bell said. “And 12 drivers have clinched playoff spots. So, for the driver battling for those last four spots, it’s going to be tight. And by ‘it’s,’ I mean their sphincters.”

    10. Ross Chastain: Chastain finished 24th at Richmond.

    “Many people are saying Cook Out would be a great sponsor for me,” Chastain said. “That’s probably because of the way I ‘drive through’ the competition.”

  • Buescher captures dramatic Cup victory at Richmond, clinches Playoff spot

    Buescher captures dramatic Cup victory at Richmond, clinches Playoff spot

    With the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs less than a month away from commencing, Chris Buescher punched his ticket into the Playoffs following a dramatic victory in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, July 30.

    The 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Prosper, Texas, led three times for 88 of 400 scheduled laps, including the final six, in an event where he rallied from starting 26th to challenge for the lead and eventual victory. After assuming the lead for the first time with 195 laps remaining, Buescher would then navigate his way through a series of green flag pit stops and pit strategies to remain upfront.

    He was then headed towards a victory when a late caution period with 10 laps remaining briefly stalled his progress. With a fast pit service by his pit crew during the caution period, Buescher was able to retain the lead and fend off Denny Hamlin during a three-lap shootout to grab his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and become the 12th different competitor to be guaranteed a Playoff spot by winning.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 29, Tyler Reddick notched his first Cup pole position of the 2023 season and the fifth of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 113.689 mph in 23.749 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Busch, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 113.636 mph in 23.760 seconds.

    Prior to the event, AJ Allmendinger dropped to the rear of the field due to a driver change after Derek Kraus practiced and qualified his Kaulig Racing entry while Allmendinger opted to pull double duty by competing in Saturday’s Xfinity event at Road America before returning in time to compete for Sunday’s Cup event at Richmond.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Reddick pulled ahead while starting on the inside lane and assumed an early lead while Denny Hamlin challenged Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot through Turns 1 and 2. As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Reddick proceeded to lead the first lap in his No. 45 Xfinity 10G Network Toyota TRD Camry while Hamlin and Busch continued to battle for second in from of Chase Elliott, William Byron and Bubba Wallace.

    Through the second lap, the field continued to fan out and jostle for early positions while Reddick stretched his early advantage to three-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Kyle Busch settled in third in front of Elliott, Byron and Wallace.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Reddick was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Busch, Elliott and Byron while Wallace, rookie Ty Gibbs, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were in the top 10. Behind, Brad Keselowski was in 11th ahead of Kyle Larson, rookie Noah Gragson, Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland while Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano and Aric Almirola occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Truex, who made contact with Stenhouse a few laps earlier, had fallen back to 21st ahead of Ross Chastain, Chris Buescher, Harrison Burton and Ryan Blaney while Christopher Bell was mired in 27th.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Reddick continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over owner Hamlin while Busch trailed by more than a second. Behind, Elliott retained fourth ahead of Wallace, Byron and Gibbs while Harvick was in eighth ahead of teammate Preece and Stenhouse.

    Fifteen laps later, Reddick stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over Hamlin while third-place Busch trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Wallace moved up to fourth in front of Elliott, Byron and Ty Gibbs while Harvick, Preece and Stenhouse stabilized themselves in the top 10. In addition, Keselowski and Larson were in 11th and 13th, Bowman cracked the top 15 in 15th, Logano was mired in 17th ahead of Almirola, Austin Dillon was back in 21st ahead of Chastain, Blaney, Truex and Bell and Daniel Suarez was in 28th.

    Another 10 laps later, Reddick retained the lead by half a second over Hamlin while Busch, Wallace and Elliott continued to run in the top five. By then, Harvick overtook Ty Gibbs to move into seventh place while Keselowski cracked the top 10 as he was in 10th. In addition, McDowell was in 12th and Larson retained 13th in front of teammate Bowman and Gragson while Logano was mired in 18th.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Reddick extended his advantage to more than a second over Hamlin. By then, Wallace moved his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry up into third place, trailing his teammate and owner by more than two seconds, while Busch and Elliott trailed behind in the top five. In addition, Harvick moved his No. 4 Rheem Ford Mustang into sixth place over Byron while Preece and Keselowski overtook Ty Gibbs to move up to eighth and ninth place, respectively.

    Ten laps later, Reddick, who started to approach lapped traffic, extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Hamlin while teammate Wallace trailed in third place by more than two seconds. While Elliott and Harvick continued to run in the top five, Kyle Busch, who started on the front row, had dropped to ninth. In addition, a bevy of names that included Chase Briscoe, Larson, Buescher, Bell, Chastain, Austin Dillon, Blaney, Truex, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Justin Haley were mired outside the top 15 and within the top 30 on the track while Ryan Newman, who was making his third Cup start of the season, was in 30th.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 70, Reddick captured his fourth stage victory of the 2023 season. Teammate Wallace followed suit in second along with owner Hamlin while Elliott, Harvick, Preece, Byron, Aric Almirola, Keselowski and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10. By then, 29 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap, with Suarez, who was in 29th, able to fend off race leader Reddick to remain on the lead lap at the stage’s conclusion.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Reddick pitted for their first round of service. Following the pit stops, Reddick retained the lead after exiting first followed by teammate Wallace, Hamlin, Elliott, Harvick, Keselowski and Ty Gibbs. Amid the pit stops, Preece endured a slow pit service after stopping his car over the pit line and had to reverse to avoid a penalty, which dropped him out of the top 15.

    The second stage started on Lap 78 as 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out, Reddick retained the lead by a narrow margin over teammate Wallace, but Wallace fought back on the outside lane as both dueled dead even for the top spot during the following lap. With the momentum on the outside lane, Wallace assumed the lead on Lap 80. By then, Elliott moved up to third after overtaking Hamlin, who was being pressured by Keselowski for fourth while Harvick followed suit in sixth along with McDowell, who used the outside lane during the restart to move into the top 10.

    Five laps later, Keselowski overtook Elliott to claim third place while Hamlin situated himself in fifth place. By then, teammates Wallace and Reddick continued to run first and second, with Wallace leading by half a second. Another two laps later, Hamlin dueled against Elliott while running on the outside lane for fourth place as Harvick followed in pursuit.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Wallace was leading by more than a second over teammate Reddick followed by Keselowski, Hamlin and Elliott while Harvick, Almirola, Ty Gibbs, Logano and McDowell were running in the top 10. Behind, Buescher was in 11th ahead of Kyle Busch, Preece, Stenhouse and Bowman while Byron, Chastain, Bell, Austin Dillon and Briscoe occupied the top 20. By then, Larson was in 21st, Blaney was mired in 24th behind Erik Jones, Allmendinger was running in 25th ahead of Suarez, Truex was back in 27th and Austin Cindric was mired in 28th.

    Ten laps later, Wallace stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Reddick while third-place Keselowski trailed by more than two seconds, all while Hamlin and Elliott remained in the top five in front of Harvick.

    Another 10 laps later, green flag pit stops commenced as Preece pitted along with Todd Gilliland. During Lap 122, more competitors that included Redick, Keselowski, Elliott, Buescher, Larson, Cindric, Gragson, Almirola, Bowman, Austin Dillon, Allmendinger, Haley and the leader Wallace pitted. Amid the pit stops, Almirola was penalized for a commitment line violation.

    On Lap 128, more competitors that included Hamlin, Harvick, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Bell, who would be eventually penalized for speeding on pit road, pitted under green. With the majority of green flag pit stops completed by Lap 135, McDowell, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by Wallace while Reddick, Truex and Keselowski were in the top five. McDowell would relinquish the lead to Wallace by Lap 137, though he remained on the track.

    At the Lap 150 mark, Wallace was leading by more than a second over teammate Reddick followed by Keselowski, Hamlin and Buescher while Elliott, Preece, Kyle Busch, Logano and Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. By then, McDowell and Truex pitted while on an alternate pit strategy.

    By Lap 172, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon pitted. A few laps later, more competitors that included Keselowski, Buescher, Preece, Byron and Newman pitted. The leader Wallace would pit by Lap 174 along with Erik Jones, Chastain, Almirola, Briscoe, Harvick, Elliott, Reddick, Allmendinger, Larson, Stenhouse and others.

    On Lap 180, Hamlin, who cycled into the lead, pitted his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry under green along with Logano, Blaney and Bell. With the majority of the green flag pit stops being completed by then, Keselowski, who overtook Truex on his alternate strategy, was the new leader.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 200, Keselowski was leading followed by Reddick, Buescher, Wallace and Hamlin while Truex, Busch, Preece, Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Behind, McDowell was in 11th followed by Harvick, Logano, Bowman and Elliott while Stenhouse, Byron, Almirola, Briscoe and Larson occupied the top 20.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 230, Keselowski claimed his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Teammate Buescher followed suit in second while Reddick, Wallace, Hamlin, Busch, Preece, Truex, Ty Gibbs and Logano were scored in the top 10. By then, 17 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Bowman, who was in 18th, was able to fend off teammate Larson to emerge as the first competitor a lap down and receive the free pass during the stage break.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Keselowski pitted. Following the pit stops, Keselowski retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Buescher, Reddick, Wallace, Busch and Hamlin.

    With 161 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Keselowski and Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, Keselowski rocketed ahead with the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns. With Hamlin using the outside lane to launch forward into the top five and while battling Wallace, Keselowski maintained the lead ahead of Buescher while Reddick retained third. Behind, Wallace and Hamlin continued to battle while Kyle Busch was in sixth ahead of Preece, Ty Gibbs and Logano.

    With 150 laps remaining, Keselowski retained the lead in his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang by less than four-tenths of a second over teammate Buescher while Reddick, Hamlin and Wallace were scored in the top five ahead of Busch and Preece.

    Fifteen laps later, Keselowski continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Buescher while third-place Reddick trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Hamlin and Wallace remained in the top five while Busch, Preece, Logano, Truex and Elliott were scored in the top 10.

    With less than 120 laps remaining, green flag pit stops returned as Buescher pitted along with Wallace, Busch, Logano and others. Keselowski would then pit with 115 laps remaining followed by Reddick, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Almirola, Harvick and others. Amid the pit stops, Buescher was able to cycle ahead of teammate Keselowski, who nearly pitted outside his pit box. With 108 laps remaining, Hamlin, who cycled into a brief lead, pitted along with Blaney while Truex, who was running on an alternate strategy was leading, followed by Buescher.

    With 105 laps remaining, however, Buescher cycled into the race lead over Truex. Buescher would then extend his advantage to more than four seconds over Reddick with 90 laps remaining while Truex, Wallace and Preece were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Keselowski was mired back in sixth ahead of Kyle Busch and Hamlin.

    With 65 laps remaining and as Buescher continued to lead, another cycle of green flag pit stops occurred as teammate Keselowski pitted. Logano would follow suit to pit along with Preece, Wallace, Harvick, Almirola, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Elliott, Busch and Reddick. Buescher would then surrender the lead to pit with 62 laps remaining along with Ty Gibbs and Stenhouse while Blaney, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by Truex. Amid the pit stops, Reddick was penalized for a commitment line violation as he smoked the tires to try to enter pit road.

    With 54 laps remaining, Buescher, who was able to gain ground on Truex amid the pit strategies, overtook him to reassume the lead. Buescher would proceed to extend his advantage to nearly four seconds with less than 50 laps remaining while Hamlin, Preece and Keselowski were in the top five. Behind, Kyle Busch was in sixth while Logano, Wallace, Harvick and Almirola were scored in the top 10.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Buescher was leading by more than six seconds over Hamlin while Preece, Busch and Truex were scored in the top five. By then, Keselowski was in sixth ahead of Logano and Harvick while Wallace fell back to ninth in front of Almirola. In addition, 13 competitors were scored on the lead lap, with Austin Dillon, Briscoe and Elliott occupying the final three lead lap positions.

    Ten laps later, Buescher continued to lead by more than five seconds over Hamlin while third-place Preece trailed by more than six seconds as Busch, Truex and Keselowski were in the top six.

    Then with 10 laps remaining, the caution flew when Gragson sent Suarez for a spin in Turn 4 as Suarez smoked the rear tires of his No. 99 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 before coming to a rest near the apron in Turn 4. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Buescher pitted. Following the pit stops, Buescher retained the lead after exiting first followed by Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Preece, Truex and Keselowski.

    Down to the final three laps, the event restarted under green as Buescher and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher launched ahead to retain the lead while Preece challenged Hamlin for second as the field behind fanned out entering Turns 1 and 2. Hamlin then tried to launch forward towards the lead while on the outside lane entering the backstretch, but he was blocked by Buescher’s No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang, who retained the lead with two laps remaining.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher remained in the lead by half a second over Hamlin while Logano and Busch battled for third. With Hamlin unable to gain ground for a final lap charge, Buescher was able to navigate his way around the circuit smoothly for a final time and zip back to the frontstretch to claim his first checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season.

    With the victory, Buescher, who came into the event 111 points above the top-16 cutline towards the Playoffs, notched his third career victory in NASCAR’s premier series and his first since winning at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2022. He also recorded the second victory for the newly named Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

    “Yeah, it was smooth sailing there, trying to take care of Fastenal Mustang,” Buescher said on USA Network. “These guys over at [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing], this No. 17 team gave me a great hot rod. This thing was so good. [I] Was just trying to take care of it there. I knew even on our green flag stuff, we were so strong during the race. I had a good feeling about it there. Pretty awesome to pull it off. Proud of everybody. That was a long way from the back [of the field] this morning, so heck of a race for us. We’ve had this [race] circled since last fall. I was really hopeful this could be the one that would turn the page for us. Sure enough, right off the truck I thought it was. I hate that qualifying went the way it did. I was sitting there beating myself up trying to figure out what we were going to do there. Made it to Victory Lane here in Richmond. I’d have told you to flood this place three years ago. My opinions are changing quite a bit here. What a day, though. That’s awesome…We’ve been talking about this a lot and you don’t get to ask me about points anymore.”

    Despite ending up in sixth place in spite of leading a race-high 102 laps, Keselowski was left pleased in being victorious as a team owner for the second time in his second season as both a driver and owner in the Cup Series for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

    “I’m happy for Chris,” Keselowski, who celebrated with Buescher in Victory Lane, said. “We are incrementally building. Solid day for both teams here at RFK. I’m happy for everybody that works on these teams, everybody that supports us with Fastenal and Ford and Build Subs. We led a lot of laps with both cars. Neither cars, we really started up front. Drove through. Great job with the pit crews. A lot to be proud of today. Of course, I want to win as a driver, but just happy that we’re as competitive as we are. We want to keep building and keep being more competitive every week.”

    Meanwhile, Hamlin, who led 20 laps and was coming off a milestone victory at Pocono Raceway, settled in the runner-up spot for the second time this season.

    “I drove in way too deep [in Turns 1 and 2],” Hamlin said. “I was trying to get to the outside there. [I] Really had a great run off of Turn 2 on the restart and off of [Turn] 4 again. But, yeah, I was just so close to him there that I wanted to try to squirt a little extra gas to try to get to the outside. Just too much brake. Man, I’m happy for Chris, [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing], those guys. I know they worked really hard to get to this point. I can appreciate the struggle that it is to get to this point. Congratulations to them. Definitely a great job by this Mavis team. Kept me in it all day long. We just lacked a little, little bit to be the best there. So we just need to improve on it. Still a good day.”

    Kyle Busch came home in third place followed by Logano while Preece achieved a strong fifth-place result. Keselowski finished sixth while Truex, Almirola, Austin Dillon and Harvick, who made his final start at Richmond, completed the top 10. Notably, Wallace ended up 12th in front of Elliott and Blaney, rookie Ty Gibbs finished 15th, pole-sitter Reddick ended up 16th, Larson ended up 19th, the final competitor on the lead lap. Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger ended up 26th and 27th, respectively, after both wrecked while finishing the event.

    There were 18 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 21 laps. While all 36 starters finished the event, 19 finished on the lead lap.

    With four regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. leads the regular-season standings by 39 points over teammate Denny Hamlin and 43 over William Byron.

    William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by 18 points Ty Gibbs, 22 over AJ Allmendinger, 34 over Daniel Suarez, 40 over Chase Elliott, 42 over Alex Bowman, 64 over Austin Cindric, 70 over Justin Haley, 86 over Aric Almirola and 88 over Ryan Preece.

    Results.

    1. Chris Buescher, 88 laps led

    2. Denny Hamlin, 20 laps led

    3. Kyle Busch

    4. Joey Logano

    5. Ryan Preece

    6. Brad Keselowski, 102 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    7. Martin Truex Jr., 18 laps led

    8. Aric Almirola

    9. Austin Dillon

    10. Kevin Harvick

    11. Chase Briscoe

    12. Bubba Wallace, 80 laps led

    13. Chase Elliott

    14. Ryan Blaney, two laps led

    15. Ty Gibbs

    16. Tyler Reddick, 81 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    18. Alex Bowman

    19. Kyle Larson

    20. Christopher Bell, one lap down

    21. William Byron, one lap down

    22. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    23. Erik Jones, one lap down

    24. Ross Chastain, one lap down

    25. Todd Gilliland, one lap down

    26. Austin Cindric, one lap down

    27. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down

    28. Noah Gragson, two laps down

    29. Ryan Newman, two laps down

    30. Justin Haley, two laps down

    31. Harrison Burton, three laps down

    32. Corey LaJoie, three laps down

    33. Daniel Suarez, four laps down

    34. Ty Dillon, four laps down

    35. JJ Yeley, four laps down

    36. BJ McLeod, five laps down

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of this season to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, August 6, at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Weekend schedule for Richmond-2 and Road America

    Weekend schedule for Richmond-2 and Road America

    This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series and the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series head to Richmond Raceway while the Xfinity Series competes at Road America. There are only five races remaining in the Cup Series regular season and eight of the active drivers have previously won at the 0.75-mile track.

    Kyle Busch leads with six victories while Kevin Harvick (the defending race winner) and Denny Hamlin have four victories each. Martin Truex Jr. has collected 3 checkered flags while Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano have each won twice and Alex Bowman has claimed one win.

    Eleven Cup Series drivers (Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch, William Byron, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney) have already earned a spot in the Playoffs by virtue of wins, leaving five open spots in the 16-driver post-season field.

    As the Xfinity Series heads to Road America, seven drivers have secured a spot in the 12-driver playoffs – John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, and Jeb Burton. This leaves five open spots in the Xfinity Series Playoffs with seven races to go.

    There are seven CRAFTSMAN Truck Series drivers who have clinched a spot in the 10-driver Playoff field – Corey Heim, Zane Smith, Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski, Christian Eckes and Carson Hocevar. Richmond is the last race of the regular season.

    NASCAR Press Pass will be available throughout the weekend.

    All times are Eastern.

    Friday, July 28

    5 p.m.: Xfinity Series Practice – Road America – USA
    6 p.m.: Xfinity Series Qualifying – Road America – USA
    5:05 p.m.: Truck Series Practice at Richmond (All entries) No TV
    5:35 p.m.: Truck Series Qualifying at Richmond (Impound) No TV
    Single Vehicle/2 Laps/All Entries

    Saturday, July 29

    12:35 p.m.: Cup Series Practice at Richmond
    Groups A & B
    USA/MRN/SiriusXM

    1:20 p.m.: Cup Series Qualifying at Richmond (Impound)
    Groups A & B – Single Vehicle/2 Laps/2 Rounds
    USA/MRN/SiriusXM

    3 p.m.: Xfinity Road America 180 at Road America
    45 Laps = 182.16 Miles
    Stages end on Laps 22/34/45
    NBC/MRN/SiriusXM
    Purse: $1,347,310

    7:30 p.m.: Truck Series Worldwide Express 250 at Richmond
    250 Laps = 187.5 Miles
    Stages end on Laps 70/140/250
    FS1/MRN/SiriusXM
    Purse: $808,354

    Sunday, July 30

    3 p.m.: Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Richmond
    400 Laps = 300 Miles
    Stages end on Laps 70/230/400 LAPS
    USA/MRN/SiriusXM
    Purse: $7,565,800

  • Three Big Stories: Pocono (2023)

    Three Big Stories: Pocono (2023)

    What a weekend in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

    Denny Hamlin displayed his hypocrisy on aggressive racing, Austin Dillon chucked his helmet at Tyler Reddick and NASCAR found itself in a lose-lose situation at the finish.

    So without further adieu, let’s dive into the Three Big Stories of the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

    1. Denny Hamlin hypocritically unleashes the aggression

    LONG POND, Pa. – JULY 23: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Mavis Tires and Brakes Toyota, celebrates in victory lane, after winning the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2023, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Photo: Kirk Schroll/SpeedwayMedia.com

    As Hamlin climbed out of his car, the crowd in attendance showered him with boos and middle fingers. Five minutes earlier, he side-swiped Kyle Larson and took the lead. While Larson hit the wall in Turn 1.

    “I’m not here to defend anything,” he said. “I put both those guys, (Alex Bowman) and 5, in an aero situation. Didn’t touch either one. How can you wreck someone you don’t touch?”

    He went on to say he put Larson and Bowman in an “either let off the gas and race side by side, or hit the gas and hit the wall” situation.

    Now with Bowman, the replays showed they never touched. The No. 48 got loose and spun out.

    With Larson, however, unless you want to take a page from the NFL and use an index card to find a gap, he clearly touched Larson’s car.

    In fact, it’s the same move Hamlin used to pass Ross Chastain at Pocono, last season.

    Now I personally saw nothing wrong with Hamlin’s move on Larson. They were racing for the win and he didn’t intentionally dump him into Turn 1.

    What I have a problem with, however, is Hamlin talking out of both sides of his mouth.

    Just a year ago, Hamlin told Jim Rome that the younger drivers racing aggressively lacked respect for other drivers. Yet here he is doing the exact same thing he feuded with Ross Chastain over the course of the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

    Look, if Hamlin wants to be an aggressive driver, then embrace your inner Dale Earnhardt. If not, then embrace the ways of Mark Martin. And yes, sometimes, you’ll slip up and stray off the Martin path. When that happens, own up to it and apologize.

    But don’t pretend you’re against people racing with a lack of respect, when you do the same.

    2. Austin Dillon tosses his helmet (literally)

    LONG POND, Pa. – JULY 23: Austin Dillon, driver of the #3 Breztri.com Chevrolet, hits the Turn 1 wall in the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2023, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Photo: Kirk Schroll/SpeedwayMedia.com

    As the field worked its way through Turn 1 under caution on Lap 107, Dillon chucked his helmet at Reddick’s car. Minutes earlier, Reddick put Dillon into the wall.

    Except he didn’t.

    Dillon came down across the nose of Reddick’s car and turned himself into the wall. Though even after watching the replay, he wasn’t convinced he messed up.

    “I felt like I was holding my own,” he said. “He was at my left-rear going in there, and I knew we were three-wide. I think I’ve got the right to at least hold my lane. I’ve got to turn at some point to get down. Brad (Keselowski) was on my outside, maybe a half-lane up. But Tyler (Reddick) drove it in there, and obviously I feel like he drove it in there deep enough where he had to come up the track into me. We can look at the SMT and see the little fine movements that we make, but I felt like that was not the time to do that for the No. 45.”

    I don’t understand why he expected Reddick to yield. It was just a case of two drivers going for the same real estate. And in this case, Dillon got the short end of the stick.

    Then again, in the heat of the moment, you’re not always thinking clearly. So only time will tell if this racing incident spirals into something more.

    Also, Dillon’s probably getting fined for walking onto a hot track.

    3. NASCAR picked its poison

    LONG POND, Pa. – JULY 23: A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2023, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

    As the field came to the white flag, Ryan Preece spins and hits the inside wall on the short chute. So a caution comes out and we go to overtime, right?

    Well, no.

    NASCAR held the flag, waiting to see if Preece would get going.

    Which he did, for a few feet.

    When NASCAR realized this, it threw the caution. Since Hamlin took the white flag, that ended the race.

    Now I know this contradicts what I said on Twitter, but after mulling it over for a night, I don’t know what else NASCAR could’ve done. Either it throws the caution right away and gets flack for not swallowing the whistle or this.

    Unlike Richmond Raceway, Pocono is a massive track, where you complete laps in roughly 50 seconds. So it’s not unfeasible to hold the caution to see if Preece got going, again.

    At the end of the day, it was a pick-your-poison situation that sometimes comes with the job of officiating.

  • Hamlin notches 50th Cup Series triumph; becomes winningest competitor at Pocono

    Hamlin notches 50th Cup Series triumph; becomes winningest competitor at Pocono

    A year after having a record-breaking victory at Pocono Raceway stripped due to disqualification to his race-winning car, Denny Hamlin responded back with vengeance and reclaimed the title of holding the most victories at the Tricky Triangle by winning the HighPoint.com 400 on Sunday, July 23.

    The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led twice for nine of 160-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in eighth place, ran towards the front and accumulated an abundance of stage points by finishing in the top five during both stage periods. Amid various pit strategies and a bevy of caution periods amid on-track carnages, Hamlin, who methodically gained ground towards the lead and avoided a spin involving Alex Bowman with 12 laps remaining amid close-quarters racing, seized an opportunity for the lead during a restart with seven laps remaining as he drew himself alongside Kyle Larson.

    In the process, Hamlin went up the racetrack and forced Larson out of the racing groove which resulted in Larson scrubbing the outside wall past Turn 1 while Hamlin rocketed away with the lead. Amid another ensuing caution period, where Larson bumped Hamlin to express his displeasure over the contact, Hamlin then managed to pull away from teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Tyler Reddick in a three-lap dash to the finish and just before an incident involving Ryan Preece concluded the event under caution to claim his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and his all-time leading seventh triumph at the Tricky Triangle.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 22, William Byron notched his third pole of 2023 and the 11th of his Cup Series career after posting a pole-winning lap at 170.629 mph in 52.746 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Martin Truex Jr., winner of last weekend’s Cup event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 170.235 mph in 52.868 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Chase Elliott and Todd Gilliland dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries after both spun during their respective qualifying laps on Saturday.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron and Truex dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn until Byron managed to use the outside lane to his advantage as he rocketed into the lead entering Long Pond Straight. With Byron leading, Truex retained second as Joey Logano muscled his way into third place over Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. With the field navigating its way through Turns 2 and 3 before returning to the frontstretch, Byron proceeded to lead the first lap while Truex, Logano, Harvick and Larson followed in pursuit.

    Through the second lap and as the field continued to jostle for early spots, rookie Ty Gibbs scrubbed the outside wall entering Long Pond Straight and while running 17th. With Gibbs resuming under full speed and the race proceeding under green, Byron retained the lead with a reasonable advantage over Truex while Logano, Harvick and Larson remained in the top five. Behind, Bubba Wallace, who scrubbed the wall during his qualifying lap but rolled off the grid in 10th place, was in sixth ahead of Christopher Bell as Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Hamlin pursued in the top 10.

    On the fourth lap, the first caution of the event flew when JJ Yeley, who was running towards the rear of the field, spun and slapped the inside wall on the driver’s left side at the Short Chute and just past Turn 2. During the caution period, some like Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Ryan Preece, Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer and Todd Gilliland pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

    When the race resumed under green flag conditions on the 10th lap, Byron and Logano, who moved up to restart alongside Byron on the front row after Truex elected to start behind Byron on the outside lane, dueled for the lead entering the first turn as the field fanned out. Then in Turn 1, Logano rocketed his No. 22 Verizon Frontline Ford Mustang into the lead as Byron went up the track and fell back to second. Then exiting Long Pond Straight and as the field continued to fan out, Byron was placed in a three-wide battle with teammate Larson and Harvick to retain second, with Larson gaining the spot as Truex fell back to fifth.

    Three laps later and amid the early battles within the field, Corey LaJoie, who was running 12th, pitted under green after scrubbing the wall entering Long Pond Straight a lap earlier and reporting a flat tire to his No. 7 TD Bank Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, though he remained on the lead lap following his pit service. With the event remaining under green flag conditions, Logano continued to lead over a hard-charging Larson, who started to gain ground on Logano for the lead, while Byron settled in third and trailed the lead by more than a second.

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Logano retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Larson while Byron, Harvick and Truex were running in the top five. Behind, Christopher Bell occupied sixth ahead of teammate Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Reddick and AJ Allmendinger while Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman were in the top 15. Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski was in 16th ahead of Justin Haley, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher and Erik Jones while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, rookie Noah Gragson, Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon and Aric Almirola were mired in the top 30.

    Five laps later, Logano stabilized his advantage to nearly half a second over Larson while third-place Byron trailed by more than a second. By then, the top-10 field that included Harvick, Truex, Bell, Hamlin, Blaney, Reddick and Allmendinger were trailing the lead by under six seconds. Another lap later, Kyle Busch, who was running 18th, pitted his No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green. A bevy of names that included Larson, Byron, Harvick, Bell, Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Bowman, Austin Cindric, Keselowski, Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would pit during the proceeding lap under green and just as pit road closed with the first stage’s conclusion within sight.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Logano captured his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Truex, the regular-season championship leader, followed suit in second while Hamlin, Reddick, Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley, Chris Buescher and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a bevy of names led by Logano, including those who remained on the track during the first stage’s conclusion period, pitted while the rest led by Cole Custer and Byron, including those who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited first followed by teammate Truex, Reddick, Logano, McDowell and Allmendinger. Custer would then pit a lap after remaining on the track, which enabled Byron to cycle back into the lead.

    The second stage started on Lap 35 as teammates Byron and Larson occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out entering the first turn, the caution quickly returned when Logano, who was running in the middle of the pack, received a bump from McDowell that caused Logano to get loose and bounce off of Reddick before he spun backward and hit the outside wall, with the driver unable to drive away due to flat-spotting his tires and needing a wrecker to tow his car back to pit road. At the same time, McDowell, who was turning left to avoid Logano, made contact with Wallace, which proceeded into Wallace clipping Suarez as Suarez also spun sideways and slapped the outside wall head-on. The incident not only left a huge dent to Suarez’s front nose of his No. 99 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but it also implicated his ensuing battle to make the top-16 cutline for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs as he came into Pocono trailing the cutline by a single point. The damage, however, was enough to terminate Suarez’s event in the garage.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 41, teammates Byron and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn before the field navigated its way to Long Pond Straight. The caution, however, quickly returned when Austin Dillon, who was running 26th, got clipped by BJ McLeod as Dillon was sent spinning backward toward the outside wall in Turn 1.

    The following restart on Lap 45 restart generated another caution period as Larson, who dueled teammate Byron for the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1, received a bump from Bell that got Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sideways and spinning up the track backward toward the outside wall in Turn 1 while the rest of the field scattered to avoid him. During the caution period, select names that included Harvick, Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones, Cole Custer, Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Ty Dillon pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

    On the ensuing restart on Lap 50, where Byron and Bell occupied the front row, Byron surged ahead with a huge push on the outside lane to retain the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. With the field navigating its way through Turn 1 and Long Pond Straight, Ty Gibbs was up in third behind Blaney, who surged his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang into second, followed by Keselowski and Bell, who lost a handful of spots during the restart, while teammates Elliott and Alex Bowman battled for sixth. Truex would join the battle involving Bowman and Elliott during the following lap along with Hamlin while Reddick was in 10th ahead of a battle between Wallace, Kyle Busch, Cindric and Buescher.

    By Lap 55 and amid a series of on-track battles ensuing within the field, Byron was leading by six-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by more than a second. Byron would continue to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Blaney at the Lap 60 mark while Ty Gibbs, Keselowski and Bell remained in the top five. With Elliott, Truex, Hamlin, Reddick and Bowman running in the top 10, Wallace was in 11th ahead of Buescher, Allmendinger, Haley and McDowell while Kyle Busch, who went up the track and nearly scrubbed the wall a few laps earlier, had fallen back to 16th in front of Ryan Preece, Cindric, Aric Almirola and Stenhouse. By then, Larson was mired in 24th in front of Harvick, Ross Chastain was in 27th and Chase Briscoe was in 30th.

    On Lap 63, Bowman and Kyle Busch, who were running 10th and 16th, respectively, pitted under green. Stenhouse would pit during the proceeding lap before Allmendinger pitted by Lap 65. By then, Kyle Busch was lapped by Byron amid a 17-second pit stop. Wallace would then pit under green on Lap 68 as Byron continued to lead through the Lap 70 mark.

    By Lap 72, Hamlin, who was running on fumes amid a shortage of fuel due to leaving his pit stall early while fueling his car during his previous pit stop under caution, pitted his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry under green while running 11th. His driver Reddick would pit during the following lap as Byron retained the lead by more than a second over runner-up Blaney and more than two seconds over Ty Gibbs through the Lap 75 mark. Byron would extend his advantage to more than two seconds over Blaney and more than three seconds over Ty Gibbs by Lap 78. By then, Buescher and Chastain pitted under green as Keselowski would follow suit.

    Then on Lap 79, Byron surrendered the lead to pit his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 followed by Blaney, Bell, Cindric, and Almirola as Ty Gibbs cycled into the lead. Elliott and McDowell would follow suit on Lap 80 as Ty Gibbs pitted his No. 54 He Get Us Toyota TRD Camry on Lap 81 along with teammate Truex and Ryan Preece. By then, Larson cycled into the lead as Austin Dillon pitted his No. 3 BREZTRI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green on Lap 83.

    Just past the Lap 85 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Harvick while Erik Jones, Ty Dillon and LaJoie were in the top five. Behind, Byron cycled his way up to sixth while Harrison Burton, Bowman, Hamlin and Reddick were scored in the top 10 ahead of Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Wallace, Bell and Truex.

    With the event reaching its Lap 90 mark, select names like LaJoie and Erik Jones pitted under green. Harvick would then surrender the runner-up spot to pit his No. 4 Busch Light Peach Ford Mustang on Lap 91 along with Harrison Burton as Larson continued to lead. Then on Lap 91, the caution flew when Bell got loose and spun his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota TRD Camry exiting Turn 1. The caution for Bell’s incident was enough for NASCAR to conclude the second stage scheduled to conclude on Lap 95 under caution as Larson, who was about to pit prior to Bell’s incident and was running low on fuel, coasted to his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Ty Dillon emerged in the runner-up spot while Byron, Hamlin, Bowman, Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Blaney, Wallace and Truex were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, some led by Larson, including a mix of competitors who had yet to pit prior to the stage’s conclusion and who pitted early from the stage’s conclusion like Hamlin, pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

    With 61 laps remaining, the final stage started as Byron and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Byron rocketed away with the lead on the outside lane through the frontstretch before the inside lane led by Blaney regained momentum as Blaney assumed the lead through Turn 1. Truex followed suit behind Blaney while Byron fell back to third.

    During the following lap with 60 laps remaining, Truex attempted to draw even with Blaney entering Turn 1 in his bid for the lead, but he stepped off the throttle as Blaney retained the lead while Byron tried to regain ground on the two leaders. Truex would then succeed in gaining the lead through the frontstretch during the following lap as Byron followed suit. Soon after, Blaney lost spots to Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Wallace and Bowman as he was dropkicked to seventh. He would continue to lose more spots during the ensuing lap as he reported a power issue to his car.

    With 55 laps remaining, the caution returned when Austin Dillon, who was vying for a spot in the top 10 and battling with Keselowski and Reddick, turned across the front nose of Reddick entering Turn 1 as Dillon spun up the track and pounded the outside wall hard. Compared to his previous incident in Turn 1, Dillon’s latest incident terminated his run with a wrecked race car and prompted the North Carolinian to toss his helmet at Reddick’s No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota TRD Camry to express his displeasure. At the moment of caution, Truex was leading ahead of Byron while Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Wallace, Bowman, Hamlin, Harvick, Elliott and Keselowski were in the top 10.

    During the caution period, select names that included Blaney, Keselowski, Almirola, Cindric, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, LaJoie, Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

    As the race restarted with 50 laps remaining, Truex retained the lead amid a strong restart on the outside lane while Byron retained second in front of Ty Gibbs. Behind, Wallace carved his way up to fourth followed by Buescher while Bowman was in sixth ahead of Harvick and Elliott as the field cycled its way through Long Pond Straight, the Tunnel Curve and Turns 2 and 3.

    Ten laps later, Byron surrendered the runner-up spot to pit under green along with Buescher, McDowell, Keselowski, Cindric and Larson, who only opted for two fresh tires to cycle ahead of his fellow competitors. By then, Bowman had pitted a lap earlier while Truex retained the lead. With 39 laps remaining, however, the cycle of green flag pit stops continue to ensue as Truex pitted his No. 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota TRD Camry from the lead along with Wallace, Elliott, Chastain, Allmendinger and Haley while Ty Gibbs cycled into the lead. Gibbs would then pit with 38 laps remaining along with teammate Bell as Hamlin cycled into the lead followed by Harvick and Reddick.

    As Hamlin and Harvick both pitted for two fresh tires and fuel with 37 laps remaining, Reddick cycled into the lead while Larson, the first competitor running on two fresh tires and a full tank of gas, managed to cycle ahead of both Hamlin and Harvick on the track. With Reddick still leading with 30 laps remaining and despite having another pit stop within his horizon to have enough fuel to finish the event, Erik Jones trailed in the runner-up spot by more than three seconds followed by Stenhouse, LaJoie, Harrison Burton, Almirola, Gilliland, Yeley and Blaney, all of whom needing a pit stop to finish the event. Meanwhile, Larson, the first competitor running in prime position with his two fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, was in 10th followed by a hard-charging Hamlin while Truex, Bowman, Harvick, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Buescher and Wallace followed pursuit.

    With 25 laps remaining, Erik Jones surrendered the runner-up spot to pit his No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green as Reddick continued to lead by more than eight seconds over Stenhouse, who would pit his No. 47 Blue Buffalo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the proceeding lap. Reddick would then surrender the lead to pit under green with 22 laps remaining as LaJoie cycled into the lead.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, LaJoie was leading by more than five seconds over Almirola followed by Gilliland, all three of whom still needed to pit, while Larson cycled his way up to fourth despite trailing the top-three competitors by more than 11 seconds. Behind, a battle ensued between Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin and Truex while Bowman, Harvick, Byron and Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. By then, Harrison Burton pitted under green.

    Then three laps later, the caution flew when contact from Ty Dillon sent Briscoe spinning and hitting the outside wall in Turn 3 as Briscoe limped his damaged No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang to his pit stall. During the caution period, some led by LaJoie and including Almirola, Gilliland, Byron, Elliott, Buescher, Yeley, Wallace, Allmendinger, Chastain, Keselowski, Blaney, Gilliland, Cindric, Preece, McDowell, Haley, LaJoie and Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Cindric was penalized for speeding on pit road while LaJoie was held a lap in his pit box for overtaking the pace car while pulling up to his pit stall prior to his service.

    When the race restarted under green with 13 laps remaining, where Larson and Hamlin occupied the front row, Larson received a strong push from Truex on the outside lane to rocket ahead with the lead over Hamlin entering Turn 1. Through Long Pond Straight and as the field fanned out through the Tunnel Curve, Larson retained the lead over Truex as Bowman moved up to third while Hamlin fell back to fourth in front of Harvick.

    During the following lap, Truex started to launch his charge on Larson for the lead as he closed in to within a tenth of a second to Larson’s rear bumper through Long Pond Straight and the Tunnel Curve. Shortly after, the caution flew when Bowman, who was running third, spun sideways in front of Hamlin amid close-quarters racing, but with no contact made between both competitors, as Bowman backed his No. 48 Ally Best Friends Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the outside wall in Turn 3.

    Down to the final seven laps of the event, where Larson and Truex occupied the front row, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson received another strong push on the outside lane, this time from Hamlin, to retain the lead entering Turn 1. Through Turn 1, however, Hamlin made his move beneath Larson in a bid for the lead as he even forced Larson up the track and caused Larson to scrub the outside wall. With Truex and Harvick joining the battle, Hamlin gained control of the field with the lead followed by Truex and Harvick while Larson dropped to fourth. Not long after, the caution returned when Haley wrecked in Turn 2. During the caution period, Larson bumped into Hamlin to express his displeasure over the contact.

    With the event restarting under green with three laps remaining, where teammates Hamlin and Truex occupying the front row, Hamlin launched ahead with another strong start on the outside lane and he would retain the top spot over Truex as he navigated his way into Long Pond Straight. Through the straightaway, Larson started to lose momentum and a bevy of spots towards the front amid his damage while Hamlin continued to lead Truex.

    Down to the final two laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by three-tenths of a second over Truex while Harvick was being challenged by Reddick for third. In the process, Ty Gibbs was in fifth ahead of Bell, Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Harrison Burton and Elliott while Larson plummeted to 14th.

    Then as Hamlin started to navigate his way towards the frontstretch to start the final lap of the event, Preece spun past the Tunnel Curve. NASCAR, though, opted keep the race under green flag conditions and display the white flag to start the final lap, where Hamlin remained as the leader by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Truex and Reddick. With Preece unable to drive away from his incident and as the field was approaching him through Long Pond Straight, NASCAR threw the caution to conclude the event. As a result, the leader Hamlin was awarded the victory as he notched the second Cup consecutive victory in recent weeks for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    With the victory, Hamlin notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his first since winning at Kansas Speedway in May amid a final lap dust-up involving Larson and he surpassed Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon in becoming the winningest Cup competitor at the Tricky Triangle with seven victories. In addition, he became the fifth competitor to achieve multiple Cup victories this season and the 15th different competitor to achieve 50 wins in NASCAR’s premier series as he moved into a tie with Hall of Famers Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson for 13th place on the all-time wins list. As an added bonus, Hamlin recorded the 600th overall victory for the Toyota nameplate across NASCAR with the manufacturer notching its seventh victory of the 2023 Cup season.

    Photo by Jeff Clemons for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Both [Larson and Bowman] wrecked themselves,” Hamlin, who stood his ground over his late incidents involving Larson and Bowman, said on USA Network. “There was a lane. [Larson] missed the corner first and evidently, he didn’t have his right-side tires clean. When he gassed up, he just kept going again. You have an option in those positions that it’s either hold it wide open and hit the fence or lift and race it out. Those were choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of them. I didn’t touch them.”

    “I love it,” Hamlin, who reigned in the chorus of boos from the crowd, added. “They can boo my [winning] rock here in a few years. Honestly, we had the best car. The strategy worked out well. [Crew chief] Chris [Gabehart] just kept getting me more towards the front. This Mavis Tires & Brakes car was just really fast right from the get-go in practice. Just really happy that we’re finally winning these races that we should win.”

    Upon completion of the post-race inspection process, there were no issues assessed to Hamlin’s race-winning car this season compared to the previous season, which made Hamlin’s 2023 victory at Pocono official.

    Meanwhile, Larson, who ended up 20th and had initially placed himself in contention for the victory amid his early spin, maintained his composure but did not mince his words nor his displeasure to Hamlin over the on-track contact.

    “I’ve been cost a lot of good finishes by [Hamlin] throughout my career and I know he says I race a certain way, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to apologize to him about anything,” Larson said. “Not that I’m sure he’s gonna say sorry after this, but it is what it is. Whatever, just move on. Yes, this makes things [expletive] and awkward, but whatever. He’s always right. All the buddies know Denny’s always right, so I’m sure he was in the right there as well. I’m not gonna let it tarnish our friendship on track, but I am pissed. I feel like I should be pissed. I think at this point, I’m gonna have to [race him differently], right? Eventually, like he says, you got to start racing people a certain way to get the respect back. I don’t think I deserve to be run into before I ever got to the wall.”

    Behind Hamlin, Reddick rallied to come home in the runner-up spot followed by Truex, who fell short in winning back-to-back races in recent weeks. Harvick and Ty Gibbs finished in the top five.

    Bell, Stenhouse, Harrison Burton, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott finished in the top 10. Notably, Wallace ended up 11th, Byron settled in 14th behind Ross Chastain, Keselowski finished 16th, Kyle Busch ended up 21st behind Larson and Bowman fell back to 24th. In addition, Blaney ended up 30th, the final competitor on the lead lap.

    There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 44 laps. In addition, 30 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With five regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by 30 points over William Byron, 55 over Denny Hamlin, 75 over Christopher Bell and 98 over Ross Chastain.

    William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by 17 points over AJ Allmendinger, 23 over Daniel Suarez, 28 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 45 over Alex Bowman, 56 over Chase Elliott, 60 over Austin Cindric and 62 over Justin Haley.

    Results.

    1. Denny Hamlin, nine laps led

    2. Tyler Reddick, 15 laps led

    3. Martin Truex Jr., 20 laps led

    4. Kevin Harvick

    5. Ty Gibbs, four laps led

    6. Christopher Bell

    7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    8. Harrison Burton

    9. Erik Jones

    10. Chase Elliott

    11. Bubba Wallace

    12. Aric Almirola

    13. Ross Chastain

    14. William Byron, 60 laps led

    15. Todd Gilliland

    16. Brad Keselowski

    17. AJ Allmendinger

    18. Chris Buescher

    19. Michael McDowell

    20. Kyle Larson, 24 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    21. Kyle Busch

    22. Noah Gragson

    23. Austin Cindric

    24. Alex Bowman

    25. Cole Custer

    26. JJ Yeley

    27. Corey LaJoie, five laps led

    28. Ty Dillon

    29. Chase Briscoe

    30. Ryan Blaney, two laps led

    31. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    32. BJ McLeod, one lap down

    33. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident

    34. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

    35. Joey Logano – OUT, Dvp, 21 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    36. Daniel Suarez –  OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ second and final visit of this season to Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 30 at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • William Byron collects third pole of the season at Pocono

    William Byron collects third pole of the season at Pocono

    William Byron scored his third NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light pole of the season Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway with a 52.746 seconds lap in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. It also marked his 11th Cup Series career pole in 201 starts.

    “Yeah, it’s really important to have pit stall selection,” Byron said after the qualifying session. “I feel like I reiterate that a lot with my team – qualifying position is important, but pit stall selection is really critical. Just happy to get that number one pit stall. For us, I felt like we had a really smooth day.”

    He will be joined on the front row by Martin Truex Jr. in the No.19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Truex has has two previous wins (2015 and 2018) at the 2.5-mile track. Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick will start behind them on the second row followed by Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric and Bubba Wallace to complete the top-10 starting positions.

    Chase Elliott, the 2022 defending race winner, and Todd Gilliland, had issues during qualifying as each spun in Turn 2. While Elliott did not make contact with the wall in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Gilliland was not as fortunate and scraped the wall in his Front Row Motorsports Ford. Both drivers will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400.

    It was especially frustrating for Elliott who is attempting to earn a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. After missing six races due to injury and being penalized with a one-race suspension, he is currently 60 points behind the last transfer position with only six races remaining in the regular season.  

    Sunday’s Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 is set for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on USA and the NBC Sports App with radio coverage by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

    Cup Series Starting Lineup:

  • Truex dominates for third Cup victory of 2023 at New Hampshire

    Truex dominates for third Cup victory of 2023 at New Hampshire

    In his 30th start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. is no longer winless at the track dubbed the Magic Mile after capping off a dominant performance to win the rain-postponed Crayon 301 on Monday, July 17.

    The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Mayetta, New Jersey, led five times for a race-high 254 of 301-scheduled laps, including the final 24, in an event where he swept both stages and dominated after assuming the lead from teammate and pole-sitter Christopher Bell on the second lap. Amid mixed strategy and a late call for two fresh tires during a late caution period, Truex reassumed the lead from Kevin Harvick with 24 laps remaining and had appeared to cruise to the victory before two late caution periods for two separate incident under the final 22 laps stalled his progress. Then during a nine-lap dash to the finish, Truex was not to be denied after he rocketed away from the field and held off a late charge from Joey Logano to capture his first elusive checkered flag at the Magic Mile and his third of the 2023 Cup season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 15, Christopher Bell notched his first Cup pole of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 124.781 mph in 30.524 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Martin Truex Jr., who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 124.752 mph in 30.531 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field due to repairs after wrecking his primary car during Saturday’s qualifying session.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced on Monday after Sunday’s scheduled start was postponed due to precipitation, Bell jumped ahead while starting on the outside lane and fended off teammate Truex and Joey Logano to retain the lead through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. As the field behind battled within two lanes before fanning out through Turns 3 and 4, Bell managed to lead the first lap ahead of Truex.

    On the second lap and as the field continued to fan out and jostle for early positions, Truex gained a run on Bell through the backstretch and made his move beneath his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate to assume the lead in his No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota TRD Camry entering Turns 3 and 4. Bell, however, fought back as both dueled for the lead through the frontstretch before Truex managed to rocket ahead on the outside lane and clear Bell through the first two turns. As Logano tried to close in on Bell for the runner-up spot, Truex continued to lead at the fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Truex was leading by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Bell followed by Logano, Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney while Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski were running in the top 10. Behind, AJ Allmendinger was in 11th ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Denny Hamlin while Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, Chris Buescher, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson were in the top 20. Meanwhile, Alex Bowman was in 26th ahead of rookie Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain was mired in 29th behind Erik Jones, Chase Briscoe was strapped in 30th, Kyle Busch was back in 32nd and Ryan Newman was in 35th.

    Ten laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Bell while third-place Logano trailed by more than three seconds. With Almirola and Blaney continuing to run in the top five, Reddick, Byron, Wallace, Suarez and Keselowski continued to run in the top 10. By then, Hamlin moved up from 15th to 12th while Elliott lost a spot from 14th to 15th. In addition, Harvick moved up from 19th to 18th and Kyle Busch moved up from 32nd to 31st.

    Then on Lap 27, the first caution of the event flew when Allmendinger, who was running just outside the top 10, spun in Turn 2 after getting loose on his own, though he managed to proceed without sustaining any damage to his No. 16 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Allmendinger’s spin served as the scheduled competition caution planned on Lap 30, with Truex still leading ahead of teammate Bell, Logano, Almirola and Blaney.

    During the competition caution period, nearly the entire field led by Truex pitted for service while Stenhouse remained on the track to assume the lead. Following the pit stops, Byron exited first after only opting for two fresh tires followed by Hamlin while Truex, the first competitor who changed for four fresh tires, exited third ahead of McDowell, Almirola, Suarez and Reddick amid mixed strategies ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Austin Dillon and Corey LaJoie were both penalized for speeding on pit road.

    When the race resumed under green flag conditions on Lap 33, the field fanned out through the first two turns as Truex tried to overtake both Byron and Stenhouse for the lead. With Truex briefly getting loose, Byron managed to cycle his No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead followed by Truex. As the field continued to fan out and jostle amid competitors on mixed strategies, Almirola and Reddick moved up to third and fourth while Stenhouse was being intimidated by Hamlin and Suarez for fifth. With Bell, who endured a slow service during the competition caution, also trying to move back up to the front as he was mired in the top 10, Byron, running on two fresh tires, was still leading by half a second over Truex and his four fresh tires.

    Just past the Lap 40 mark, the battle for the lead started to intensify as Truex closed in and tried to gain a run to overtake Byron for the top spot. Then on Lap 43, Truex overtook and cleared Byron for the lead through Turns 3 and 4. With Truex back out in front, Reddick started to gain ground on the two leaders while Almirola and Hamlin were in the top five. Meanwhile, Stenhouse had drifted back to 25th in his No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while on four worn tires while Blaney, Bell, Suarez, McDowell and Logano were running in the top 10.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Truex was leading by more than a second over Byron followed by Reddick, Almirola and Hamlin while Blaney, Bell, Suarez, Logano and McDowell were in the top 10. Behind, Brad Keselowski was in 11th ahead of Larson, Bowman, Ty Gibbs and Buescher while Harvick, Wallace, Elliott, Ryan Preece and Cole Custer were mired in the top 20. Meanwhile, Chastain was in 21st ahead of Justin Haley, Briscoe was in 23rd ahead of Harrison Burton and Cindric, Allmendinger was mired back in 26th in front of Kyle Busch and Stenhouse had dropped back to 34th behind Austin Dillon and rookie Noah Gragson.

    Ten laps later, Truex extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Byron while third-place Reddick trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Almirola, Blaney, Bell, Hamlin, Suarez, Logano and McDowell remained in the top 10 while Larson moved up to 11th ahead of Keselowski. In addition, Harvick cracked the top 15 in 14th, Elliott retained 18th and Kyle Busch only moved up to 26th behind Allmendinger.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 70, Truex captured his second stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Byron fended off Reddick to settle in second while Almirola, Blaney, Bell, Hamlin, Suarez, Logano and McDowell were scored in the top 10. At the stage’s conclusion, Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 emerged with smoke after the two-time Cup Series champion made contact with the outside wall in Turn 1 and damaged the right side of his car, an incident that would end Busch’s long start in the garage. Behind Busch, Corey LaJoie also suffered the same fate as his car went dead straight towards the wall.

    Under the stage break, the field led by Truex returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Truex retained the lead after exiting first followed by Byron, Bell, Almirola, Blaney, Hamlin and Reddick. Amid the pit stops, Reddick and BJ McLeod were penalized for speeding while exiting pit road. Soon after, more pit issues struck for Bell, who pitted for a second time due to a loose wheel to his No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry as he was mired back in the field.

    The second stage started on Lap 77 as Truex and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out to three lanes entering the first two turns as Truex rocketed away with the lead. Behind, Almirola challenged Byron for second while Hamlin and Blaney also dueled for fourth. During the following lap and amid more on-track battles within the middle of the pack, Logano was in sixth ahead of a battle between Larson and Keselowski while Suarez and Wallace were in the top 10 ahead of McDowell, Harvick, Buescher, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe with Bowman, Chastain, Allmendinger, Haley and Elliott mired in the top 20.

    By Lap 90, Truex was leading by more than a second over Almirola while Hamlin cycled his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry into third place followed by Blaney while Byron had fallen back to fifth. Behind, Larson moved his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up to sixth in front of Logano while Keselowski, McDowell and Suarez were in the top 10.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Truex extended his advantage by more than four seconds over Almirola while Hamlin, Blaney and Larson were running in the top five. By then, Byron had dropped to ninth as Logano, Keselowski and McDowell overtook him while Suarez retained 10th in front of Wallace, Harvick, Bell, Gibbs and Buescher. Meanwhile, Chastain was in 19th behind Allmendinger, Reddick was mired back in 21st and Elliott had fallen back to 24th.

    Twenty-five laps later, Truex continued to lead by more than three seconds over Almirola while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than five seconds. With Blaney and Larson still running in the top five, Bell returned to the top 10 as he was 10th while trying to close in on a two-car battle between McDowell and Harvick while Byron and Suarez had fallen to 11th and 12th.

    Another three laps later, green flag pit stops ensued as Reddick pitted his No. 45 Draft Kings Network Toyota TRD Camry. Bell would follow suit to pit along with Byron and Haley, both of whom made contact as Byron was trying to exit his pit stall while Haley was trying to enter his. Soon after, a bevy of names that included Wallace, Todd Gilliland, Cindric, Larson, Keselowski, McDowell, Bowman, Buescher, Briscoe, Almendinger, Chastain, Logano, Harvick, Ty Gibbs, Harrison Burton, Larson, Cole Custer, Hamlin and Blaney pitted. Truex would then pit from the lead on Lap 132 followed by Almirola and Suarez. At the conclusion of his pit stops, Truex, who exited pit road ahead of Almirola, quickly cycled back to the lead after Elliott, who cycled into a brief lead, pitted under green.

    At the halfway mark between Laps 150 and 151, Truex was leading by more than four seconds over Almirola followed by Hamlin, Blaney and Larson while Logano, Bell, Keselowski, Harvick and Austin Dillon were running in the top 10. By then, 19 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while names that included Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Harrison Burton, Elliott, Erik Jones, Cindric and Chastain were pinned a lap down.

    Then on Lap 161, the caution flew when Erik Jones, who was a lap down, spun his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 4. At the moment of caution, Wallace, who was mired in 18th, had managed to remain ahead of the leader Truex, who was leading by more than four seconds over Almirola, while Briscoe, who was in 19th, had managed to emerge as the first competitor a lap down over Harrison Burton and receive the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap.

    During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Truex pitted. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategy, Almirola cycled into the lead after only opting for two fresh tires along with Larson, Logano and Harvick, all of whom also opted for two fresh tires, while Truex, Hamlin and Blaney followed suit on four fresh tires.

    With 17 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, however, trouble struck for Almirola, who veered sideways through Turns 1 and 2 before smacking the outside wall after the right-rear wheel on Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang was loose and preparing to come off of the car. The issue stemmed from Almirola’s two-tire pit service during the previous caution period, where the rear tire changer was unable to properly tighten the right-rear tire prior to Almirola leaving the pit box. With the caution quickly returning, Larson cycled into the lead followed by Logano, Truex, Hamlin and Harvick.

    During the ensuing restart with 11 laps remaining in the second stage, the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch as Larson tried to fend off Truex for the lead. Truex, however, led the following lap before Larson attempted to fight back through the frontstretch before conceding to Truex, who was running on four fresh tires. With Truex back out in front, Larson retained second ahead of Logano, Harvick and Hamlin while Blaney, Wallace and Bowman pursued. Behind, contact was made between Keselowski and Reddick, though both continued to run within the top 10.

    With less than five laps remaining in the second stage, Blaney and Hamlin cracked the top five on the track while Harvick fell back to sixth. In addition, Keselowski battled 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace for eighth while Truex extended his advantage to more than a second over Larson.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 185, Truex captured his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season and second of the day after retaining the lead by eight-tenths of a second. Behind, Larson settled in second while Logano, Blaney, Hamlin, Harvick, Bowman, Keselowski, Reddick and Bell were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Larson pitted while the rest that included the leader Truex, Logano, Blaney, Hamlin, Keselowski, Harrison Burton, Briscoe, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Todd Gilliland remained on the track.

    With 110 laps remaining, the final stage started as Truex and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Truex rocketed away with the lead as the field fanned out and jostled for spots through the backstretch. With the field still fanning out and battling for spots for a full lap, Blaney retained second over teammate Logano while Keselowski and Hamlin were in the top five.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Truex was leading by six-tenths of a second over Blaney followed by Logano, Keselowski and Larson while Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Burton and Wallace were in the top 10. A lap later, Bell moved up to ninth followed by Burton while Wallace fell back to 11th in front of Harvick, Elliott, Buescher and Ryan Preece while Chastain, McDowell, Bowman, Reddick and Ty Gibbs were mired in the top 20.

    Fifteen laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to less than three-tenths of a second over Blaney, who also started to close in on Truex for the top spot, while third-place Logano trailed by more than two seconds. With Keselowski and Larson both trailed by more than three seconds within the top five, Bell was up to sixth while teammate Hamlin fell back to seventh. In addition, Wallace moved back up into eighth as he was running in between Briscoe and Harvick while Elliott was in 13th behind Austin Dillon and Burton.

    With less than 75 laps later, Truex slightly stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Blaney followed by third-place Logano, who trailed by more than three seconds, as Keselowski and Larson remained in the top five.

    Then with 66 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney pitted his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang from the runner-up spot. The following lap, Truex surrendered the lead to pit followed by Larson as McDowell, Bowman, Hamlin, Reddick, Elliott, Chastain, Gilliland, Stenhouse, also pitted. By the time Truex completed his pit service, he managed to blend back on the track and remain ahead of Blaney on the track. Meanwhile, more pit stops ensued as Keselowski, Wallace, Briscoe, Burton, Buescher, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Bell, Haley and Logano, who briefly led, also pitted under green.

    With nearly the entire field having made a pit stop, with Harvick and Byron being the last two, Austin Dillon, who assumed the lead on Lap 245 and is faced in a “must-win” situation to make the Playoffs, was leading by more than seven seconds over Truex with 50 laps remaining. Dillon, however, was placed in a position where he still has to make a pit stop to finish the race. Once Dillon pitted his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green with 44 laps remaining, Truex cycled back into the lead while Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top three.

    With 35 laps remaining, Truex, who was mired within lapped traffic, was leading by more than two seconds over both Blaney and Larson, both of whom were trying to gain ground on Truex late in the event, while Logano and Bell both trailed by more than five seconds in the top five. By then, Hamlin was in sixth while Keselowski, Wallace, Briscoe and Reddick were in the top 10.

    Three laps later, however, the caution flew when Noah Gragson blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the Turn 1 outside wall after the Las Vegas, Nevada, native reported a potential brake rotor issue to his No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. At the moment of caution, Larson had overtaken Blaney for the runner-up spot as both were trailing the leader Truex by more than three seconds.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Truex pitted while Harvick and Austin Dillon, both of whom pitted later than the majority of the lead lap field during the latest green flag pit stop cycle, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Truex exited first followed by Larson, Blaney, Logano, Hamlin and Briscoe, all of whom were among some who opted for two fresh tires while the rest opted for four fresh tires. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for running over his air hose while exiting his pit stall.

    When the race restarted with 24 laps remaining, Harvick jumped ahead with the lead followed by Truex as Austin Dillon struggled to launch. Truex then quickly reassumed the lead from Harvick entering the backstretch as Logano made his way up to the runner-up spot. With the field behind fanning out and jostling for late positions, Larson and Harvick battled for third during the following lap while Austin Dillon and Reddick battled for fifth.

    Then amid the battles, the caution returned with 22 laps remaining when Ty Gibbs sent Alex Bowman sideways entering the backstretch before Bowman was able to straighten his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after getting hit by Erik Jones while the rest of the competitors running within the midfield scattered to avoid the carnage.

    During the proceeding restart with 16 laps remaining, Truex pulled away from Logano to retain the lead as Harvick tried to battle and overtake Logano for the runner-up spot. As Chastain went wide through Turns 3 and 4 amid the field fanning out, Truex retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Logano while Larson overtook Harvick for third with 15 laps remaining. The caution, however, quickly returned with 14 laps remaining when Bell, who was looking to cap off his roller coaster afternoon within the top 10 as he was running in eighth, got loose entering Turns 3 and 4 and smacked the outside wall as he damaged the right rear of his pole-winning car.

    With the race restarting with nine laps remaining, Truex retained the lead after another strong start on the inside lane while Logano, who opted to restart behind Truex on the inside lane instead of alongside Logano on the outside lane, battled and overtook Larson for the runner-up spot. With the field fanning out to multiple lanes, Harvick and Reddick battled for fourth as Keselowski tried to join the battle.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Truex was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Logano while Larson, Harvick and Keselowski were in the top five amid a series of late on-track battles ensuing behind.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Truex remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Logano. With Logano gaining more ground in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang around the New Hampshire circuit for a final time, he ran out of time as Truex managed to cycle his Toyota back to the frontstretch and beat Logano by less than four-tenths of a second to capture his third checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season.

    With his third victory of the 2023 season and his first ever at New Hampshire, Truex notched his 34th career win in NASCAR’s premier series and his 15th while driving the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. The New Hampshire victory also marked his second of the season occurring on a Monday after he also won at Dover Motor Speedway in April on Monday due to precipitation postponing the event from its original start time on Sunday.

    “What we’ve been able to do here over the years is pretty remarkable and to not win was really getting frustrating,” Truex said on USA Network. “[Crew chief] James [Small] and I talked about it many times. We thought about it all weekend, talked about it with [teammate] Christopher [Bell] before the race. He was like, ‘Man, you’ve led more laps here than I have been racing Cup’. Just really awesome by everybody. What a race car we had today. Just proud of the whole team. Pit stops were flawless, race car was unbelievable. We had some challenges at times throughout the race and it was a handful at times, but we kept our heads down, kept digging. Man, this is feeling really, really good to do what we did today and finally cap it off with a lobster.”

    “I sat in Turn 1 with my mom [when I was eight years old],” Truex added. “This is the first big track I ever came to with my dad and watched, and first time I’d ever seen Cup cars in person and [Xfinity] cars in person. It’s been a special place for [my family] and being able to win K&N [Series], being able to win in the [Xfinity] Series, this one’s been eluding me for a long, long time. Just really, really happy. Really thankful. [I] Can’t say enough about my team. Man, they’re incredible. I’m the lucky guy to drive these things. This one’s sweet.”

    While Truex celebrated in Victory Lane, Logano ended up in the runner-up spot for the third time this season while Larson came home in third place for his ninth top-five result of the season.

    “Man, I thought I would have something [for Truex],” Logano said. “Right before that caution came out, two cautions to the end when we had tires on it, it seemed like [Truex] took a few laps to get going. I was running him down. I was like, ‘Man, I got a chance here’. That caution came out right when I was thinking I could make a move on the outside into [Turn] 3 and then, it seemed like the cycles helped him get his pressures up to where he can fire and be pretty quick the last couple of restarts. Dang it. [New Hampshire]’s a home track. There’s no place you want to win more than that. It stings a lot to not get the Shell/Pennzoil Ford into Victory Lane, but gosh, second just sucks sometimes. It stings the most when you’re that close, feeling like you had a shot at it, but still a good day for us.”

    “We had a shot [when I] lined up on the front row at the end of one of these Cup races, so that’s a great day,” Larson said. “It was a fun, hot race. [I] Came away with a top three [finish] at a track that doesn’t really suit me or Hendrick Motorsports.”

    Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick executed his late gamble to remain on the track on worn tires to perfection as he finished fourth for his fifth top-five result of the season and in his 40th and final Cup career start at New Hampshire.

    “We were fortunate that we had pitted late and were able to stay out and kind of salvage something there at the end,” Harvick said. “[The team] did a good job. We were just a little bit too loose to start the race and it took us a couple of laps to get going on the restarts. We definitely didn’t dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, but we did a pretty good job all weekend. Just a couple of little things.”

    Keselowski posted his fourth top-five result of the season by finishing fifth while Reddick, Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe finished in the top 10.

    Notably, Elliott finished 12th in between Erik Jones and Michael McDowell, Bowman rallied to finish 14th, Suarez ended up 16th, Blaney settled in 22nd in front of Chastain after never recovering from his late pit road penalty, Byron ended up 24th, Ty Gibbs fell back to 27th after hitting the wall prior to the final lap and Bell settled in 29th. In addition, Ryan Newman finished 30th in his second Cup Series start of the season while driving for Rick Ware Racing.

    There were 13 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 41 laps. In addition, 27 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With six regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. leads the regular-season standings by 17 points over William Byron, 62 over Christopher Bell, 66 over Denny Hamlin, 74 over Kyle Busch and 78 over Ross Chastain.

    William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by a single point over Daniel Suarez, 20 over AJ Allmendinger, 41 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 42 over Alex Bowman, 46 over Justin Haley, 51 over Austin Cindric and 60 over Chase Elliott.

    Results.

    1. Martin Truex Jr., 254 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    2. Joey Logano, two laps led

    3. Kyle Larson, six laps led

    4. Kevin Harvick, 10 laps led

    5. Brad Keselowski

    6. Tyler Reddick

    7. Denny Hamlin

    8. Bubba Wallace

    9. Austin Dillon, 12 laps led

    10. Chase Briscoe

    11. Erik Jones

    12. Chase Elliott

    13. Michael McDowell

    14. Alex Bowman

    15. Chris Buescher

    16. Daniel Suarez

    17. Justin Haley

    18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., three laps led

    19. AJ Allmendinger

    20. Harrison Burton

    21. Todd Gilliland

    22. Ryan Blaney

    23. Ross Chastain

    24. William Byron, nine laps led

    25. Austin Cindric

    26. Ty Dillon

    27. Ty Gibbs

    28. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    29. Christopher Bell, two laps down, one lap led

    30. Ryan Newman, two laps down

    31. BJ McLeod, six laps down

    32. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident

    33. Corey LaJoie, 125 laps down

    34. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident, four laps led

    35. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

    36. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone event of this season to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 23, at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Christopher Bell tops qualifying to claim pole for Cup Series race at New Hampshire

    Christopher Bell tops qualifying to claim pole for Cup Series race at New Hampshire

    Christopher Bell won the Busch Light Pole Award at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a fast lap of 124.781 mph during qualifying Saturday afternoon. He will lead the field to green in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for Sunday’s Cup Series Crayon 301.

    It is his first pole this season and the fifth of his Cup Series career. Bell is also the defending race winner at the 1.058-mile track.

    Bell described his qualifying run, saying, “It’s crazy how much difference the temperature can change the cars. These things are really sliding around. You’re on the edge here for sure.”

    His JGR teammate, Martin Truex Jr. will join Bell on the front row in his No. 19 Toyota after a 124.781 mph lap.  

    “It’s really difficult to get the balance the way you want it,” Truex said. “Overall, we were fast. We’re excited to be here in New Hampshire. We’ve been after a win here for a while.”

    Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola will start third in the No. 10 Ford with Team Penske Ford drivers, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, rounding out the top five starters.

    Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch will complete the top 10.

    Notably, Busch had damage after hitting the wall during practice but his No. 8 Chevrolet was repaired by the team before qualifying. But his troubles continued when, at the end of his qualifying lap, he spun and made contact with the outside wall. He was however credited by NASCAR for the 10th fastest lap.  

    Inspection was held before practice Saturday and Noah Gragson’s No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Chevrolet failed twice. NASCAR ejected engineer Phillip Bell and the team will lose pit-stall selection for Sunday’s race.

    You can tune into Sunday’s Cup Series Crayon 301 at 3 p.m. ET on USA, the NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

    Starting Lineup:

    1. Christopher Bell
    2. Martin Truex Jr.
    3. Aric Almirola
    4. Joey Logano
    5. Ryan Blaney
    6. Tyler Reddick
    7. William Byron
    8. Bubba Wallace
    9. Brad Keselowski
    10. Kyle Busch
    11. Austin Dillon
    12. Daniel Suarez
    13. Kevin Harvick
    14. AJ Allmendinger
    15. Kyle Larson
    16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
    17. Michael McDowell
    18. Chase Elliott
    19. Justin Haley
    20. Denny Hamlin
    21. Ryan Preece
    22. Austin Cindric
    23. Todd Gilliland
    24. Corey LaJoie
    25. Alex Bowman
    26. Chris Buescher
    27. Chase Briscoe
    28. Harrison Burton
    29. Noah Gragson (R)
    30. Erik Jones
    31. Ross Chastain
    32. B.J. McLeod
    33. Ryan Newman
    34. Cole Custer
    35. Ty Dillon
    36. Ty Gibbs (R)