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  • Kyle Busch Passes Elliott Coming to White Flag to Win at Dover

    Kyle Busch Passes Elliott Coming to White Flag to Win at Dover

    Kyle Busch ran down and passed Chase Elliott with two laps remaining to win the Apache Warrior 400 at Dover International Speedway.

    Elliott took over the race lead after Larson’s car shutoff under the second stage break and, as a result, was sent back in the running order for not maintaining pace with the caution car. After the final round of green flag stops finished up, Elliott cycled back to the lead and was on his way to his first career victory. But thanks to pitting five laps later than Elliott, Busch cut the lead to under a second with less than 15 laps to go. Lap traffic made the difference, in the end, as Busch pulled alongside and passed Elliott, exiting Turn 4, coming to the white flag and drove on to victory.

    “That was hard fought. That was everything I had, obviously,” Busch said. “I was trying to get there. Got stuck there for a few laps. Wasn’t sure I was going to make it all the way. And then, I was like ‘You know what? I gotta try the top again.’ The top had been working. It kind of got me there. I got up there. Got to the top and got rim-riding. Got the momentum on the straightaways and that carried me by the 24 (Elliott). Man, just an awesome, awesome M&M’s Caramel Camry! Wasn’t that great at the beginning of the day. We definitely made a lot of gains on this car. Made a lot of gains throughout the runs. Got it a lot better and put on a heck of a show for the fans. So one’s right here in Dover.”

    Elliott finished second and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the podium.

    “I’m just so disappointed with myself,” Elliott said. “Couldn’t have had it any easier. Ran green from the stage break, all the way to the end and gave it away. I appreciate my team and their efforts today. Our pit stops were great and they kept us in the ball game today, and I didn’t.”

    “Yeah, we had a very competitive car today,” Johnson said.

    “The car was good we just kind of fought track position and I wish I had done a better job on Friday and got us up in that front three sooner. It was so tough to pass, I think whoever came off pit road or had control of a restart was really in the catbird seat. But, a great day for our Lowe’s Chevy. These banked tracks seem to suit us much better than a lot of the flat we saw during the summer. Usually, if you run well at Dover, you run well at Charlotte, so we are excited to go to next week as well.”

    Martin Truex Jr. and Larson rounded out the top-five.

    “It was a really good race,” Larson said. “I won that second stage and was the leader off pit road and then my engine was kind of struggling firing up when I would cycle the engine and cool it down under yellows. It just didn’t re-fire that one time and had to restart fifth and feel back to sixth. Kind of hard to pass when I got back there I couldn’t really move up the race track because I would be in dirty air. We short pitted, got to third, but fell back and finished fifth. I felt like if I could have restarted the leader I probably would have had a shot to win like the No. 24, but once I had restart on the inside of the third row I was kind of done unless I had a caution, which there wasn’t any left the rest of the race.”

    Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daniel Suarez, Jamie McMurray and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Martin Truex Jr. led the field to the green flag at 2:17 p.m. After leading the first 25 laps, Larson pinned him behind a lapped car exiting Turn 4, which allowed Larson to drive under him to take the lead on Lap 26. Truex worked his way back around Larson, passing under him in Turn 1, to retake the lead on Lap 62. He surrendered the lead to pit under green, as did a number of other cars around Lap 82, just before caution flew for the first time on Lap 87 (Jeffrey Earnhardt rear-ended the sand barriers along the leading edge of the outside pit wall).

    Kyle Busch was the race leader when the caution flew, but lost it to Brad Keselowski on pit road, who drove on to win the first stage.

    Retaking the lead on pit road, Busch led the field back to green on Lap 128. Larson powered around the outside of Busch entering Turn 3 to retake the lead on 141. Reed Sorenson brought out the third caution on Lap 168 when he blew an engine in Turn 3.

    Truex exited the pits with the lead, but Larson used an excellent restart to take back the lead entering Turn 1 on the Lap 174 restart and drove on to win the second stage. This setup the run to the finish.

    TIDBITS

    Kevin Harvick pitted from fifth on Lap 219 for a loose wheel, and Denny Hamlin pitted with 27 to go after hitting the backstretch wall and breaking a rear-axle.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted three hours, five minutes and 48 seconds, at an average speed of 129.171 mph. There were 15 lead changes among six different drivers and four cautions for 24 laps (including one red flag for 15 minutes and nine seconds).

    Truex leaves with an 18-point lead over Kyle Busch, following the conclusion of the Round of 16. Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch fail to advance.

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  • Chase Elliott Speeds to Lead Final Dover Practice

    Chase Elliott Speeds to Lead Final Dover Practice

  • Martin Truex Jr. Speeds to Coors Light Pole Award at Dover

    Martin Truex Jr. Speeds to Coors Light Pole Award at Dover

    By Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    DOVER, Del. – The two drivers who have seized control of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff continued their domination in Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Dover International Speedway.

    Navigating the Monster Mile in 22.407 seconds (160.664 mph) in the final round, Martin Truex Jr. edged Kyle Busch (160.392 mph) for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Apache Warrior 400 (on NBCSN at 2 p.m. ET), the elimination race in the Playoff’s Round of 16.

    Truex won his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his third at Dover — the closest facility to his Mayetta, New Jersey, hhometown— and the 14th of his career. Winner of a series-best five races this season, Truex will start on the front row for the ninth time this season.

    “We just kind of chased it a little bit — chased the balance — and I thought we were pretty close at the end of practice,” Truex said. “We hit it pretty close for Round 1 (of qualifying) and tweaked on it a little from there.

    “We put together a decent lap for Round 1, and the guys did an awesome job all day. So, really proud of them, and I’m looking forward to getting some more bonus points.

    With a victory at Chicagoland Speedway in the opening event of the Playoff, Truex already has locked up a spot in the Round of 12. His 19 stage wins and 59 Playoff points both are tops in the series.

    Going for his third straight qualifying sweep, Busch was fastest in the first and second rounds but fell short in the third. With last Sunday’s victory at New Hampshire, Busch also is guaranteed a spot in the Round of 12.

    “It was a good run for us,” said Busch, whose lap at 160.800 mph in the second round was the fastest of the day. “I thought the first two rounds, obviously, we showed really good speed — probably used up a little too much tire in Round 2, and I just wasn’t able to follow through in that third round and get a quick enough time to hold off Martin. …

    “But I’m excited to have a Toyota front row, and we’ll go race ’em on Sunday.”

    With Kyle Larson qualifying third and Matt Kenseth fourth, playoff drivers swept the top four spots, and Toyota drivers claimed five of the top six. Daniel Suarez will start fifth, followed by playoff driver Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who posted his first single-digit qualifying effort since winning the pole at Daytona in July.

    After posting the third-fastest time in Friday’s opening practice, 11-time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson qualified a disappointing 17th and failed to advance to the final round.

    “The track changed a little more than we adjusted for is really what it boils down to,” Johnson said. “We felt like it was going to do that and made an effort at it and just didn’t go far enough.”

    Nevertheless, Johnson has unwavering confidence in his No. 48 Chevrolet under race conditions.

    “Yeah, the great thing is just how fast the car was off the truck,” said Johnson, who is seeking an unprecedented eighth series championship. “I know when it comes to race time we will be fine here. Qualifying for me is qualifying, so we had speed this morning, and I know it’s in there.”

    Of the drivers fighting from the bottom of the playoff standings for the final positions in the Round of 12, Ryan Newman had the best effort in time trials, qualifying eighth. Relative to the field, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. improved over practice and secured the 15th position on the grid.

    Austin Dillon, currently tied with Stenhouse for the 12th and final position in the next round, will start 23rd, while Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne — both of whom likely will need a victory to advance from their respective 15th and 16th positions in the standings — qualified 13th and 21st, respectively.

    “We just didn’t have the rotation we needed to kind of finish off the end of the corner,” Dillon said. “It’s tough. We’ve been not that great since we unloaded. We’ll keep working on it though. Usually, the race comes to us a lot more than qualifying does.”

    RELATED: Qualifying results

     

  • NASCAR Racing Schedule for Dover and Las Vegas

    NASCAR Racing Schedule for Dover and Las Vegas

  • Kyle Busch Wins First Career Playoff Race at New Hampshire

    Kyle Busch Wins First Career Playoff Race at New Hampshire

    The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) continued their playoff run this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the second race did not disappoint. Kyle Busch jumped out to the lead after a restart with 23 laps to go and was able to hold on to win his third MENCS race of 2017 and his first ever playoff win.

    Busch talked about the strategy moving forward since he is now locked into the next round of the Playoffs.

    “I think the biggest thing for us is to just keep focusing on what we’ve done all year long, just keep trying to go out there and run hard, run smooth and be good at what we do,” he said. “Obviously fast race cars help us being able to stay out front. We’ve got a good pit crew. They did a good job today, did everything right, and from there, we’re just trying to collect stage points, go out there and race as hard as we can, get stage wins, get race wins, and do what we can in order to keep padding that cushion that we have for the start of every round.”

    Busch started on the pole and led three times for 187 laps. When Stage 1 began, Busch jumped out early but on lap 40 it was all Martin Truex Jr. who took the lead and never looked back, going on to win his 19th stage win of the year. Kyle Larson, Busch, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick round out the top 10 in Stage 1.

    Stage 2 took place from Lap 83 – Lap 151. Not much happened in this stage until, with one lap to go, Harvick was accidentally spun around by another playoff contender, Austin Dillon. This caused a huge wreck and chain reaction on the backstretch. During this wreck, Truex Jr., Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Danica Patrick and Jeffrey Earnhardt were all involved during the melee late in Stage 2. Eventual race winner, Kyle Busch barely missed the carnage by inches. The stage ended under caution and gave (Kyle) Busch the win. Kenseth, Larson, Keselowski, Jones, Truex Jr, Hamlin, Johnson, Blaney and Jamie McMurray comprised the remaining top 10 finishers in this stage.

    After the craziness in Stage 2, Stage 3 was restarted on lap 159. Busch once again went out and led the way. A few playoff contenders had their fair share of troubles. Hamlin reported a “tire vibration” and pitted for the issue. On lap 186, Austin Dillon was facing microphone issues and could not hear his team communications. With 83 laps to go, non-playoff contender, Earnhardt Jr., had a left front tire blowout and ended his hopes of trying to win for the first time this year.

    On lap 219, the caution came out for the fourth time as debris was seen in Turns 3 and 4. Dillon was able to get the free pass and was back on the lead lap.

    As often happens late in races, cautions breed cautions. There were three more cautions that slowed the field. On Lap 262, Kasey Kahne slowed in Turns 3 and 4. He eventually was held by NASCAR for intentionally bringing out the caution. Later, he went to the garage for suspension and track bar problems.

    “Something broke. I think they said trackbar, but that is all I know I didn’t talk to Darien (Grubb, crew chief). But, that is what he had said while we were in the garage,” Kahne said.

    With 33 to go, David Ragan spun around off Turn 2 and the caution flew once more. The last caution came with 28 to go as Trevor Bayne spun out on the backstretch.

    The final restart came with 23 to go and Busch was able to hold off Kyle Larson for the win.

    “So, we finished second again with our Target Chevy,” Larson said. “That’s a lot of second-place finishes this year, but I’m fine with second. Top fives will get us to Homestead, so hats off to everybody on our Target team. The pit crew was great all day. I think we gained spots every time. Normally I’m struggling on short tracks, but this year we were pretty good.

    Truex Jr. rebounded to a fifth-place finish after the wreck in Stage 2. He led three times for 112 laps and retains his position at the top of the playoff leaderboard.

    There were six cautions for 32 laps and six leaders among three lead changes.

    Playoff Standings
    1 . Martin Truex Jr. (W)
    2. Kyle Larson -24
    3. Kyle Busch (W)
    4. Brad Keselowski -43
    5. Denny Hamlin -61
    6. Matt Kenseth -62
    7. Jimmie Johnson -73
    8. Ryan Blaney -79
    9. Chase Elliott -79
    10. Kevin Harvick -80
    11. Jamie McMurray -96
    12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -105
    Below the cut line
    13. Austin Dillon -105
    14. Ryan Newman -106
    15. Kurt Busch -122
    16. Kasey Kahne -122

    Next Up: The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Dover International Speedway next Sunday for the final race in the Round of 12.

  • Kyle Busch Grabs New Hampshire Pole, His Second Consecutive of NASCAR Playoffs

    Kyle Busch Grabs New Hampshire Pole, His Second Consecutive of NASCAR Playoffs

  • NASCAR Racing Schedule for New Hampshire and Kentucky

    NASCAR Racing Schedule for New Hampshire and Kentucky

  • Tales of the Stage Winners

    Tales of the Stage Winners

    It was a tale of two drives with the stage winners, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott, in the Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

    Leading the field to the green flag, Busch lead all but two laps during the first cycle of green flag stops on his way to winning the first stage. Leading the field back to green on Lap 88, Kevin Harvick powered by his outside to take the lead exiting Turn 2.

    Busch was running second when he made an unscheduled stop on Lap 97 for a loose wheel. Adding insult to injury, he was hit with a pass through penalty for his crew jumping over the wall too soon. He rejoined the race in 27th, two-laps down.

    He came close to getting back on the lead lap, being the first car a lap down, but race leader Martin Truex Jr. passed Landon Cassill just five laps before Erik Jones suffered a right-rear tire blowout and spun out in Turn 4 on Lap 210, bringing out the fourth caution of the race.

    Busch brought his car home to a 15th-place finish.

    “Oh well. We’ll move on…next week. That’s all we can do.”

    For Elliott, it was a more stable and stronger run.

    After a third-place finish in the first stage, he exited pit road just feet ahead of Harvick on Lap 124, cycled to the lead the following lap and drove onto victory in the second stage.

    As was the case with Busch, Elliott lost the lead on the ensuing restart to Harvick — this time, sliding up ion front up him from the bottom lane — exiting Turn 2 on Lap 168.

    He didn’t regain the lead, but he did retake and finish second when the checkered flag flew.

    “Yeah, just a much-improved day from where we’ve been, which is nice,” Elliott said in his post-race media availability. “Obviously would have been great to battle with Martin a little bit more. We didn’t have anything for him. From where we’ve been to where we ran today was a major, major step in the right direction, frankly where we need to be, where we deserve to be, to the potential we can run.

    “It was nice to see that we can do it if all things are clicking in the right way, car is driving good, pit stops are good, race execution was nice. It was a pretty uneventful race for the most part.

    “I felt like typically when that happens, the better cars always kind of end up towards the front. That proved to be with Martin winning. I didn’t have anything for him, without a restart or something. It also proved that we were second to him. I’m not sure about the 18, if he could have got back up there.

    “Aside from those two, I feel like we could run about everybody else. That’s a lot better than we’ve been.”

    Busch leaves fifth in points, trailing Truex by 41, while Elliott leaves sixth, 43 back of Truex.

  • Truex Cruises to Victory in the Windy City

    Truex Cruises to Victory in the Windy City

    Martin Truex Jr. took the lead not long after the start of the final stage and it was smooth sailing from there, as he drove on to score the victory in the Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

    The only speed bump he dealt with was an early speeding penalty, but he overcame that, took the lead from Kevin Harvick entering Turn 3 on Lap 190 and drove on to win for the 12th time in 432 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts.

    “Awe yeah! This is awesome man,” Truex shouted in jubilation while grabbing Rutledge Wood, standing at the start/finish line. “So excited! This is the playoffs. This is what it’s all about. This team, my team is unbelievable. Thank all the fans for coming out. We love coming to Chicago. So proud of everybody.

    “The speeding penalty, I was like ‘Oh no. Here we go again.’ After last year, we’ve got to come from the back. But the car was amazing. We just kept our heads down and kept digging and fighting and just do what we always do, and here we are.”

    Chase Elliott finished second and Harvick rounded out the podium.

    “Yeah, just a huge step in the right direction. Days like this are the days we are going to have to have,” Elliott said. “There is no way around that. I thought we had a solid day overall. Our car drove good, it had pace, our pit stops were good. I didn’t have anything for Martin. I thought we made the most of our day without some luck I wasn’t going to get around him unless we had a late-race restart or something. I had a solid day and frankly, it is a lot better than we have been doing and we’ve got to have days like this to keep moving forward.”

    Harvick said after the race that having a “flawless” race “really wasn’t our focus today.”

    “Our focus was to make sure that we didn’t make any mistakes today and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing worked hard to work on that gap between those cars, but we’ve known about that gap and feel like we’ve closed that up and we knew that not making mistakes was gonna go a long way,” Harvick said. “We saw the 78 made mistakes today, but they had a fast enough car to recover from that. The 18 (Kyle Busch) didn’t recover from his mistakes.”

    Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.

    Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 3:08 p.m. He led all but two laps of the first stage, which were led by Landon Cassill, on his way to winning it.

    Harvick powered by Busch’s outside on the Lap 88 restart, exiting Turn 2, to take the race lead. He controlled the race, until he pitted on Lap 124. Chase Elliott, who pitted the same lap, exited the pits ahead of Harvick, cycled to the lead and won the second stage.

    Harvick took it back from Elliott, exiting Turn 2, on the Lap 168 restart, moments before Jamie McMurray spun out on the backstretch, setting up the run to the finish.

    CAUTION SUMMATION

    Caution flew for the first time on Lap 80 for the end of the first stage. The second caution came out on Lap 160 for the end of the second stage. McMurray’s spin on Lap 169 caused the third caution. The fourth and final caution flew on Lap 210 when Erik Jones suffered a right-rear tire blowout and spun out in Turn 4.

    HAPPENINGS

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. slid up and hit the outside wall in Turn 2 on Lap 26, but continued on. Six drivers — Austin Dillon, Stenhouse, Matt DiBenedetto, Jones, Truex and Corey LaJoie — were busted for speeding during the first green flag pit stop cycle.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted two hours, 45 minutes and 16 seconds, at an average speed of 145.401 mph. There were 12 lead changes among seven different drivers and four cautions for 21 laps.

    Truex leaves with a 27-point lead over Larson. Kurt Busch, Stenhouse Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman occupy the elimination spots.

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  • Kyle Busch Fastest in Final Chicagoland Practice

    Kyle Busch Fastest in Final Chicagoland Practice

    Kyle Busch topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Chicagoland Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 29.958 and a speed of 180.252 mph. Austin Dillon was second in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 30.094 and a speed of 179.438 mph. Brad Keselowski was third in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 30.119 and a speed of 179.289 mph. Chase Elliott was fourth in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 30.145 and a speed of 179.134 mph. Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a time of 30.245 and a speed of 178.542 mph.

    Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-10.

    Kyle Larson was 11th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 12th, Jamie McMurray was 13th, Ryan Newman was 17th, Kurt Busch was 22nd, Matt Kenseth was 23rd, Jimmie Johnson was 24th and Kasey Kahne rounded out the Playoff drivers in 27th.

    Harvick posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 175.784 mph.

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