Category: RC NASCAR Cup

Chase Elliott wins the Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway after a thrilling final 10 laps to advance to third round of playoffs.

“Just perseverance and good adjustments throughout the day. It was just a great effort. I appreciate everybody and all my partners, NAPA, Valvoline, Hooters, SunEnergy1, Chevrolet, Mountain Dew, and Kelley Blue Book. It’s been an up-and-down year, I feel like. To have this race slip away last year makes the day that much more sweet.” Elliott said.

Kyle Busch started on the pole for Sunday afternoon’s race since qualifying was rained out on Friday. The top 12 cars were playoff drivers.

It was rough early on for Jimmie Johnson. He was not able to start the race because he had a lower ball joint failure. He joined the field on lap 10.

Kevin Harvick took the lead from Kyle Busch on lap 14. He was able to extend his lead pretty good early on in the race.

On lap 73, leaders started to make green flag stops. The pit cycle resulted in Joey Logano passing Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. taking the lead because he did not pit.

Things got worse for Jimmie Johnson after getting penalized for pitting outside the box. His day went from bad to worst. Harvick was able to retake the lead from Stenhouse Jr. on lap 82 when Stenhouse went to pit.

Harvick won Stage 1. Only 14 drivers were on the lead lap by the end on Stage 1. Alex Bowman was able to pass Paul Menard to reclaim the free pass position.

Joey Logano rolled out the pits ahead of Harvick during the stage caution. Harvick was able to retake the lead from him on the restart. Chase Elliott was penalized for an uncontrolled tire during his pit stop. He then went in the pits to pull out a fender.

Clint Bowyer started to show some speed in Stage 2. He was able to move himself into 2^nd after passing Joey Logano on lap 159. He slowly started to crack down on Harvick’s lead.

After green flag pit stops during Stage 2, Kevin Harvick was able to retake the lead. Going into lap 200, he had led 167 laps. It had been a dominating race for Harvick going into the final stage.

Things got a little dicey for him when he was trying to lap Alex Bowman. He made some contact with Bowman before putting him a lap down. This battle gave Bowyer an advantage to reach Harvick’s tail.

Harvick won Stage 2. Aric Almirola started to make a run up front as he was able to take 5^th place from his teammate Kurt Busch near the end of Stage 2.

Kyle Larson was penalized for speeding in the pits putting him a lap down and in 17^th for the restart. It is not the run Larson wanted as it is looking like he is going to need a win to advance to the next round.

Harvick was the leader for the restart to start the final stage. He was able to jump in front of Bowyer and extend his lead right away. There was a point in the race where Stewart-Hass Racing took the top four positions.

The first two stages were caution free other than the end of the stage cautions. Problems for Denny Hamlin occurred when he reported he had a loose wheel. Also, on lap 314 Stenhouse Jr. hit the wall but no caution came out.

Drama began in the final 100 lap. As the green flag pit stops started Kyle Busch was penalized for being too fast. Harvick had to take his car back to pit road on lap 321 because he felt that he had a loose wheel. The lead was then handed to Almirola and Harvick ended up in the 14^th position after his unscheduled stop.

A caution came out on lap 338 for debris and Harvick was in position for the free pass. The cars came to pit road during the caution and Brad Keselowski took two tires giving him the lead for the restart. Martin Truex Jr. was hit with a speeding penalty as well as for Johnson. It was a race that Johnson will want to forget.

Almirola took the lead from Keselowski on the restart on lap 348. The two tires for Keselowski obviously didn’t work as he lost a couple more positions.

Harvick was able to take a lot of spots back after he restarted 13^th. Elliott made contact with Bowyer giving him the fourth position on lap 356.

Bowyer had a flat tire go down on lap 381, this was a huge moment for him as he fell out of the top eight in the playoff standings as a result.

With less than 15 laps, Kurt Busch was able to get under a second of Almirola’s lead. The lapped cars were making a big impact in the battle for the lead until a caution came out after Bowyer slammed the wall on lap 392. Harvick was able to make it to fifth during the run.

New leaders emerged when Almirola gave up the lead after electing to pit during the caution. Elliott and Keselowski lead the field to the restart on lap 396 and then Almirola got involved in a big wreck with Keselowski also taking Bowman with them. These were all playoff drivers involved.

“The No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) kind of got tagged and started wrecking. I thought he was going to get to the bottom of the race track faster than he did. Dover is typically so self-cleaning, but he slid a little longer than I thought he would and I kind of just center-punched him. Watching the replay there was really nowhere to go.” Bowman said.

Overtime was in affect at the end of the race when Elliott led the field for the restart securing his ticket to the round of 8. Almirola, Bowyer, Larson and Bowman are all under the cutoff in the playoff standings heading into Talladega.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway for the 1000blubs.com 500 at 2:00 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Monster Energy Cup Series
Unofficial Race Results for the 49th Annual Gander Outdoors “400” – Sunday, October 7, 2018
Dover International Speedway – Dover, DE – 1. – Mile Concrete
Total Race Length – 404 Laps – 404. Miles

Pos	St	Car	Driver	Team	Make
1	9	9	Chase Elliott (P)	NAPA Auto Parts	Chevrolet
2	15	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Express	Toyota
3	6	22	Joey Logano (P)	Shell Pennzoil	Ford
4	16	20	Erik Jones	Craftsman	Toyota
5	7	41	Kurt Busch (P)	Monster Energy/Haas Automation	Ford
6	2	4	Kevin Harvick (P)	Busch Outdoors	Ford
7	14	3	Austin Dillon	AAA	Chevrolet
8	1	18	Kyle Busch (P)	Interstate Batteries	Toyota
9	21	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Fastenal	Ford
10	19	19	Daniel Suarez	ARRIS	Toyota
11	8	12	Ryan Blaney (P)	PPG	Ford
12	10	42	Kyle Larson (P)	Credit One Bank	Chevrolet
13	11	10	Aric Almirola (P)	Smithfield	Ford
14	4	2	Brad Keselowski (P)	Wurth	Ford
15	3	78	Martin Truex Jr. (P)	5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops	Toyota
16	18	21	Paul Menard	Menards/Tarkett	Ford
17	17	31	Ryan Newman	Waste Masters Solutions/22 in 22	Chevrolet
18	20	1	Jamie McMurray	GEARWRENCH	Chevrolet
19	22	24	William Byron #	Hendrick Autoguard	Chevrolet
20	28	6	Matt Kenseth	Wyndham Rewards	Ford
21	25	95	Regan Smith	Dumont JETS	Chevrolet
22	24	47	AJ Allmendinger	Kroger ClickList	Chevrolet
23	29	43	Bubba Wallace #	World Wide Technology	Chevrolet
24	26	38	David Ragan	MDS Transport	Ford
25	23	37	Chris Buescher	Scott Products	Chevrolet
26	27	34	Michael McDowell	Love’s Travel Stops	Ford
27	31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Can-Am/Wholey	Ford
28	12	88	Alex Bowman (P)	Axalta	Chevrolet
29	30	13	Ty Dillon	GEICO	Chevrolet
30	33	72	Corey LaJoie	Factor One Source	Chevrolet
31	37	96	* Jeffrey Earnhardt	Xtreme Concepts/iK9	Toyota
32	35	23	JJ Yeley(i)		Toyota
33	34	00	Landon Cassill(i)	StarCom Fiber	Chevrolet
34	36	51	BJ McLeod(i)	Jacob Companies	Ford
35	5	14	Clint Bowyer (P)	Haas VF1/Rush Truck Centers	Ford
36	13	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe’s for Pros	Chevrolet
37	32	15	Ross Chastain(i)	Use Your Melon Drive Sober	Chevrolet
38	39	52	* Harrison Rhodes	The Medicine Shoppe	Chevrolet
39	38	66	* Timmy Hill(i)	Ternio	Toyota

 

Follow on Twitter for updates: @BryanR_305

Ryan Blaney wins the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway after passing two cars in the final turn of the last lap of the race. This marks his first win of the year and his first at a road course.

This is a race that will be talked about for years to come. Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones championship dreams came to an end this afternoon.

It only took six laps for Kyle Larson to take the lead from polesitter Kurt Busch as he then cruised to take the first stage of the race.

For several Playoff drivers, problems emerged early on.  Hamlin had to pit on lap six because of an issue with his hood. The first caution was brought out on Lap 13 as the No. 51 of Stanton Barrett crashed into the wall on turn one.

Another Playoff driver that had some issues early on was Erik Jones. Jones got stuck in a three-wide mess on a restart going into turn one. The nose of his car got smashed up as he was put in a must-win situation.

The pit strategy was different for all drivers during the race. Some cars elected to pit before the end of Stage 1 while some were seen pitting during the break with a few including leader Larson not pitting until the start of Stage 2. Stage 1 concluded with important stage points going to drivers like Alex Bowman, Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer.

Larson gave up the lead on lap 38 to Blaney as he entered pit road for the first time all afternoon. The strategy by Larson, Truex, and Kyle Busch was to run the race with only two stops to pit road.

On Lap 45 William Byron was slow on the track as Aric Almirola crashed into the wall trying to avoid him. He had to pit and was penalized for an uncontrolled tire. Brad Keselowski pitted from the second position with 11 laps to go in Stage 2 which basically secured the stage win for Blaney.

Larson was back to the lead at the start of the final stage because he stayed out during the stage caution.

On Lap 59 Austin Dillon crashed into the wall trying to avoid Chris Buescher, bringing out a caution for debris. The Daytona 500 winner bent the wheel after hitting the wall. On lap 65 Dillon hit the wall again and took his car to the garage. His championship run came to an end after the incident.

Aric Almirola ran into more trouble on Lap 69 spinning into the grass while Buescher was spinning into the wall bringing out a caution. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the field into the restart losing the lead shortly to Brad Keselowski.

More trouble erupted for Erik Jones spinning forcing him down to the apron. This almost secured that his run for the championship was over.

“It’s unfortunate, you get put three-wide and there’s only so much you can do as a driver. It’s too bad and we’ll have to move on from here and get ready for next year. You hate to be knocked out of the Playoffs this early, but it is what it is.” Jones said.

Things started to heat up when Larson caught Keselowski with 26 Laps left. It was a good battle for the lead for a few laps but Keselowski was able to take off and continue his lead.

Most of the cars on the lead pack were told that they were short on fuel to make it to the end. Bubble driver Alex Bowman played it safe and pitted from the 15th position to be good to the end. This got a few other drivers to pit for fuel as well.

Late race drama occurred as a caution came out with under 10 laps to go.

The fuel mileage spectacle continued since none of the leaders pitted for fuel. The restart resulted in a hard wreck going into the first turn wiping out Keselowski, Larson, and William Byron. Larson went from being very comfortable to advancing to the next round, to barely making it. His damage was heavy.

“I knew that it was going to be tough to turn getting into (turn) 1. I didn’t know that all of us were going to go in there and not be able to turn at all. I was going to struggle to make the corner and then the No. 2, he just went head-on into the wall. I was hoping I would have enough room to squeak by him, but I got into him and destroyed the right-front of our car.” Larson said.

Keselowski is lucky to have a win and was already locked into the next round.

“I was just asking Ricky. I don’t know. The whole field went down into turn one it looked like and we all went straight. I don’t know. Maybe we all overdrove it. Maybe the track had something on it. I don’t know. I got in the corner. I didn’t feel like I got in it, I got in hard, but not like ridiculously hard and it just locked up. I couldn’t get the tire to unlock, so I felt really, really dumb when I hit the wall and then I got back in the care center and saw the replay and saw everybody kind of did the same thing.” Keselowski said.

Johnson and Truex Jr. battled until the final turn of the last lap for the race win which resulted in contact which sent both cars spinning, allowing Blaney to capture the win.

“Last corner desperation behind us, that’s what you get. I gave him (Jimmie Johnson) the inside lane and he had the run through (turn) four and I was real tight down there. I let him have the inside going down inside coming out of four there to the chicane. He just over-drove it and was never going to make it and used me as brakes and turned us both around. It sucks, we could have raced side-by-side off the last corner for a win and that would have been cool. The fans would have been digging it, but instead, we finished 14th and he’s locked out of the Playoffs. I guess that’s what he gets.” Truex Jr. said.

Johnson, Almirola and Larson finished in a three-way tie giving the advantage to Larson and Almirola to advancing into the Round of 12.  “I’m so proud of these guys. We’re moving on to the Round of 12 and we’ll go get ‘em in Dover.” Almirola said.

The seven-time champion will have to wait another year for number eight.  “I Took myself out of a shot at the championship and obviously affected their day which I feel bad about,” Johnson said.

It was probably the craziest race in a long time as we now turn to the Round of 12 starting at Dover next Sunday.

 

Unofficial series points standings after the inaugural Bank of America ROVAL 400
1. Kyle Busch (P) 18 3055
2. Kevin Harvick (P) 4 3050 -5
3. Martin Truex Jr. (P) 78 3038 -17
4. Brad Keselowski (P) 2 3025 -30
5. Clint Bowyer (P) 14 3015 -40
6. Joey Logano (P) 22 3014 -41
7. Kurt Busch (P) 41 3014 -41
8. Ryan Blaney (P) 12 3013 -42
9. Chase Elliott (P) 9 3008 -47
10. Kyle Larson (P) 42 3006 -49
11. Aric Almirola (P) 10 3001 -54
12. Alex Bowman (P) 88 3000 -55
13. Jimmie Johnson (P) 48 2097 -958
14. Austin Dillon (P) 3 2066 -989
15. Denny Hamlin (P) 11 2053 -1002
16. Erik Jones (P) 20 2041 -1014

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race
Unofficial Race Results for the inaugural Bank Of America Roval 400 – Sunday, September 30, 2018
Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course – Concord, NC – 2.28 Mile Paved
Total Race Length – 109 Laps – 248.52 Miles

Pos	St	Car	Driver	Team	Make
1	9	12	Ryan Blaney (P)	Menards/Pennzoil	Ford
2	8	1	Jamie McMurray	DC Solar	Chevrolet
3	7	14	Clint Bowyer (P)	Mobil 1/Advance Auto Parts	Ford
4	3	88	Alex Bowman (P)	Axalta	Chevrolet
5	1	41	Kurt Busch (P)	Haas Automation/Monster Energy	Ford
6	4	9	Chase Elliott (P)	SunEnergy1	Chevrolet
7	2	47	AJ Allmendinger	Kroger ClickList	Chevrolet
8	6	48	Jimmie Johnson (P)	Lowe’s for Pros	Chevrolet
9	19	4	Kevin Harvick (P)	Jimmy John’s New 9-Grain Wheat Sub	Ford
10	15	22	Joey Logano (P)	Shell Pennzoil	Ford
11	29	31	Ryan Newman	Grainger/American Red Cross	Chevrolet
12	27	11	Denny Hamlin (P)	FedEx Freight	Toyota
13	28	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Superior Logistics Services Inc.	Ford
14	13	78	Martin Truex Jr. (P)	Auto-Owners Insurance	Toyota
15	32	95	Regan Smith	Procore	Chevrolet
16	30	38	David Ragan	MDS Transport	Ford
17	10	37	Chris Buescher	Maple Cheerios	Chevrolet
18	18	34	Michael McDowell	K-LOVE Radio	Ford
19	20	10	Aric Almirola (P)	Smithfield	Ford
20	33	72	Cole Whitt	Rinnai	Chevrolet
21	17	19	Daniel Suarez	Lenox	Toyota
22	26	13	Ty Dillon	GEICO	Chevrolet
23	11	8	* Daniel Hemric(i)	Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff	Chevrolet
24	35	7	* Ross Chastain(i)	SOKAL Media Group	Chevrolet
25	5	42	Kyle Larson (P)	Clover/First Data	Chevrolet
26	37	96	* Jeffrey Earnhardt	iK9/Xtreme Concepts	Toyota
27	31	15	Justin Marks(i)	GoPro Motorplex/Pickers Vodka	Chevrolet
28	36	23	JJ Yeley(i)	Adirondack Tree Surgeons	Toyota
29	38	00	Landon Cassill(i)	Dairi O	Chevrolet
30	12	20	Erik Jones (P)	Reser’s	Toyota
31	25	2	Brad Keselowski (P)	Alliance Truck Parts	Ford
32	14	18	Kyle Busch (P)	M&M’s	Toyota
33	22	21	Paul Menard	Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	Ford
34	21	24	William Byron #	Unifirst	Chevrolet
35	16	6	Trevor Bayne	AdvoCare Rehydrate	Ford
36	34	43	Bubba Wallace #	World Wide Technology	Chevrolet
37	23	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	SunnyD	Ford
38	40	66	* Timmy Hill(i)	Ternio	Toyota
39	24	3	Austin Dillon (P)	Dow	Chevrolet
40	39	51	Stanton Barrett	Jacob Companies	Ford

Kyle Busch held off Kevin Harvick and won Saturday nights NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series (NMECS) Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway. Busch completed the “Richmond Sweep” to capture his seventh win of the 2018 season and the 50th of his career in 490 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series races.

“I knew Harvick was kind of closing in on us there at the end,” Busch said. “I ran really hard trying to pass Brad, racing with Brad, and being able to finally get by him, and you could see how hard we ran by how fast he dropped. Our car was really, really good, good in the long run.

“I think Harvick maybe — well, the run before we kind of drove away from everybody, so I just — I think it was a factor of me running real hard, pushing real hard that Harvick was able to close in on us at the end.  My stuff was really, really used up. I lost a ton of grip the last 10 laps of the race, so I was just trying to hang on.”

Harvick finished second and makes his race a little easier at Charlotte.

“We were starting to track him (Kyle Busch) down there at the end. I needed about 25 more laps. I gotta thank everybody on our Jimmy John’s Ford.” Harvick said. “Our guys did a great job rebounding after last weekend and doing what we had to do this week to put ourselves in a good position for next week, so solid night.”

Martin Truex Jr. won both the first and second stages and finished third after a pit road mistake. Truex Jr. has a 16 point lead over Busch in the series standings heading into the Roval at Charlotte.

Busch, Brad Keselowski and Truex Jr. have locked in their playoff spots.

Chase Elliott had a great night and finished fourth.

“Yeah, just appreciate Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) making some good calls overnight. I feel like we changed about everything before qualifying yesterday,” Elliott said.

Aric Almirola rounded out the top five.

“Our Ford Fusion was fast. We had a good night. We executed and ran top-five all night. That is the exact night we were looking for to build a little bit of a point cushion going into the Roval next week where we are all unsure of what we will have. I am really proud of the night and we will see what happens next week,” Almirola said.

Unofficial series point standings heading into Charlotte:
1. Martin Truex Jr. (P), 2141, -0
2. Kyle Busch (P), 2125, -16
3. Kevin Harvick (P), 2113, -28
4. Brad Keselowski (P), 2111, -30
5. Joey Logano (P), 2081, -60
6. Aric Almirola (P), 2079, -62
7. Kyle Larson (P), 2073, -68
8. Kurt Busch (P), 2071, -70
9. Chase Elliott (P), 2066, -75
10. Austin Dillon (P), 2066, -75
11. Alex Bowman (P), 2061, -80
12. Ryan Blaney (P), 2060, -81
13. Clint Bowyer (P), 2056, -85
14. Jimmie Johnson (P), 2054, -87
15. Erik Jones (P), 2039, -102
16. Denny Hamlin (P), 2031, -110

 

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race
Unofficial Race Results for the 61st Annual Federated Auto Parts 400
Saturday, September 22, 2018 – Richmond Raceway

Pos	St	Car	Driver	Team	Make
1	11	18	Kyle Busch (P)	M&M’s	Toyota
2	1	4	Kevin Harvick (P)	Jimmy John’s New 9-Grain Wheat Sub	Ford
3	3	78	Martin Truex Jr. (P)	Auto-Owners Insurance	Toyota
4	18	9	Chase Elliott (P)	Hooters	Chevrolet
5	6	10	Aric Almirola (P)	Get Grilling America Smithfield	Ford
6	26	3	Austin Dillon (P)	Dow VORASURF	Chevrolet
7	9	42	Kyle Larson (P)	DC Solar	Chevrolet
8	21	48	Jimmie Johnson (P)	Lowe’s for Pros	Chevrolet
9	7	2	Brad Keselowski (P)	Reese/DrawTite	Ford
10	24	14	Clint Bowyer (P)	ITsavvy	Ford
11	8	20	Erik Jones (P)	Craftsman	Toyota
12	13	88	Alex Bowman (P)	Nationwide	Chevrolet
13	15	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Fastenal	Ford
14	12	22	Joey Logano (P)	Shell Pennzoil	Ford
15	16	31	Ryan Newman	Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s	Chevrolet
16	2	11	Denny Hamlin (P)	FedEx Office	Toyota
17	38	19	Daniel Suarez	Comcast	Toyota
18	5	41	Kurt Busch (P)	State Water Heaters/Haas Automation	Ford
19	4	12	Ryan Blaney (P)	Menards/Richmond	Ford
20	19	24	William Byron #	Liberty University	Chevrolet
21	14	1	Jamie McMurray	Cessna	Chevrolet
22	20	21	Paul Menard	Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	Ford
23	40	38	David Ragan	The Pete Store	Ford
24	23	34	Michael McDowell	Dockside Logistics	Ford
25	17	6	Matt Kenseth	Performance Plus Motor Oil	Ford
26	10	51	Cole Custer(i)	Jacob Companies	Ford
27	25	43	Bubba Wallace #	World Wide Technology	Chevrolet
28	29	13	Ty Dillon	GEICO	Chevrolet
29	28	47	AJ Allmendinger	Kroger ClickList	Chevrolet
30	22	37	Chris Buescher	Cheerios Zero Hunger Zero Waste	Chevrolet
31	39	95	Regan Smith	FDNY Foundation	Chevrolet
32	31	72	Corey LaJoie	ARK.io Blockchain Solutions	Chevrolet
33	30	15	Ross Chastain(i)		Chevrolet
34	27	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Keen Parts/CorvetteParts.net	Ford
35	35	00	Joey Gase(i)	Eternal Fan	Chevrolet
36	36	99	* Landon Cassill(i)	StarCom Fiber	Chevrolet
37	32	96	* Jeffrey Earnhardt	Xtreme Concepts/iK9	Toyota
38	34	23	Alon Day	Best Bully Sticks	Toyota
39	37	66	* Timmy Hill(i)	Ternio	Toyota
40	33	52	* Gray Gaulding	LIVE! Casino & Hotel	Ford