Category: RC XFINITY

In the 20th race of the 33 race-long Nationwide series, Brad Keselowski dominated a field of Nationwide drivers to win his third race at Iowa Speedway and his 30th career win in the series. Keselowski was followed by Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Michael McDowell and Roush Fenway Racing’s Trevor Bayne.

Keselowski said the race was, “A really good battle. He had me there for a minute. Somehow I slid back by him. I’m not really sure how it worked out. These wins aren’t easy to come by and I’m really proud of the effort everyone put into it.”

McDowell thought he had a chance to win on the restart saying, “When you’re that close to getting the victory, it’s definitely a tough one. Brad definitely had the best car tonight, but on those restarts everybody’s got a shot.”

The U.S. Cellular 250 started off with pole winner Trevor Bayne taking an early lead with Brad Keselowski in hot pursuit. The top five quickly became single file with Brian Scott in third, Regan Smith in fourth, and Chase Elliott in fifth. Previous Iowa winner Sam Hornish Jr. was hot on the top five’s heels in sixth place.

By lap 15, the only change in the top five was Hornish’s leap into the top five by passing rookie Chase Elliott, and by lap 19, the leaders began to contend with lap traffic, which allowed Scott to catch the top two.

On lap 22 the race for the lead became heated with Keselowski and Bayne racing side by side for the better part of three laps. The first caution of the night came out on lap 25 for debris and the battle for first temporarily went to Bayne.

The first to pit road, Elliott Sadler, was previously running in ninth place, and only a few others took the opportunity to pit during this caution.

The race went green once again on lap 31, and less than a lap later, Keselowski took the lead from Bayne and began to lead the drivers around the oval track.

Chase Elliott took great advantage of the restart and was able to jump into third, trailing the leaders by less than a second.

The race remained problem free and allowed Keselowski to jump three seconds ahead of Bayne and Chase Elliott who were in the midst of duking it out for second when the second caution of the night flew.

This caution was brought out by Tanner Berryhill when his car lost power and stalled between turns one and two. When the pits opened, the front runners all came down and pitted, while Elliott Sadler and a few others stayed out and tried to capitalize on their different pit strategies. Keselowski led the field off pit road with Bayne trailing behind him.

When the race resumed on lap 57, Sadler continued to lead the field until lap 61 when Hornish showed his colors for the first time Saturday night and took the lead. By lap 65, Keselowski and Bayne passed the fading Sadler as well.

Hornish didn’t get to keep the lead long as Keselowski caught and passed him by lap 72. Despite how easily Keselowski passed Hornish though, Hornish stuck to Keselowski’s bumper. The two pulled away from third place driver, Bayne, by nearly four seconds.

The race once again remained relatively quiet and calm, with little changing within the top five except for Chase Elliott’s threading through lapped traffic to get himself to fifth position.

Most came down pit road during this caution. Hornish however, was able to beat Keselowski off pit road. The two were followed by McDowell, Bayne, Smith, Dillon, Kwasniewski, and Elliott.

On lap 117, the green flag was waved and Hornish was able to keep the lead while McDowell forced himself into a battle with Keselowski for second.  The race once again settled down with little happening. Bayne, running in fourth place, reported a vibration on lap 126, but all else remained quiet.

On lap 163, Hornish slid loose off of turn four and Keselowski was able to capitalize and steal the lead from Hornish on the outside on lap 164.

The fourth caution of the race came out on lap 183, when Dakoda Armstrong spun off of turn two. Fortunately no contact was made and the race was able to restart rather quickly on lap 189 with Keselowski able to reassert his lengthy lead rather quickly.

Keselowski and Hornish began a heated battle for the lead after lap traffic began to come into play again, but before anything came of it, the caution came out for the final time of the night when James Buescher crashed on the front stretch on lap 241.

For not the first time of the night, mass pit stops took place with Keselowski leading the field out and McDowell heading out in second. Bayne, Scott, and Smith rounded out the top five.

On the restart, McDowell was able to rip the lead away from Keselowski, but the Sprint cup champion was able to snatch it back and win the race, marking his 30th victory in the Nationwide series. McDowell had to settle for second place. Bayne finished in third and also claimed the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize.  Sam Hornish Jr. finished fourth followed by Ty Dillon in fifth place.

Chase Elliott was able to leave Iowa and retain the points leader by two over second place Regan Smith. Sadler and Ty Dillon are tied for third in the points standings (-12) and Bayne is in fifth (-41).

 US Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway Complete Finishing Order:

1. (22) Brad Keselowski

2. (20) Michael McDowell

3. (6) Trevor Bayne

4. (54) Sam Hornish Jr.

5. (3) Ty Dillon

6. (7) Regan Smith

7. (2) Brian Scott

8. (9) Chase Elliott

9. (42) Dylan Kwasniewski

10. (11) Elliott Sadler

11. (62) Brendan Gaughan.

12. (5) Josh Berry

13. (01) Landon Cassill

14. (60) Chris Buescher

15. (16) Ryan Reed

16. (19) Mike Bliss

17. (28) J.J. Yeley

18. (31) Chase Pistone

19. (29) Kenny Wallace

20. (39) Ryan Sieg

21. (43) Dakoda Armstrong

22. (84) Chad Boat

23. (14) Eric McClure

24. (52) Joey Gase

25. (51) Jeremy Clements

26. (99) James Buescher

27. (55) Jamie Dick

28. (44) Hal Martin

29. (93) Kevin Swindell

30. (40) Matt DiBenedetto

31. (4) Jeffrey Earnhardt

32. (23) Carl Long

33. (87) Josh Reaume

34. (70) Derrike Cope

35. (17) Tanner Berryhill

36. (89) Morgan Shepherd

37. (72) John Jackson

38. (10) Blake Koch

39. (74) Mike Harmon

40. (46) Matt Frahm

 

 

 

 

 

 

In only his second start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ty Dillon took the famed black No. 3 car of his grandfather, Richard Childress, to victory lane in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Lilly Diabetes 250.

The race was Dillon’s 31st NNS start and he also won the “Dash 4 Cash,” pocketing an extra $100,000 bonus for the win.

The Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet started in the third position and ran among the leaders most of the day before leading the final 24 laps of the race.  Dillon lost his air conditioning in the opening laps of the race and said afterwards, “I was definitely pushed. My AC went out before I think we even took the green, so I could already feel it getting hot. I knew I could make it through it for sure, but when Kyle Busch is on you, pushing you as hard as you can go, that guy doesn’t mess up, so I knew I had to be perfect every lap. That definitely takes a lot more out of you.”

Busch, driving the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, led 10 laps before settling for a second place finish. Busch started the race from the pole but never led until later in the race before being overtaken by Dillon on a restart with 24 laps to go. When asked about the restart, Kyle said, “I slipped and he got right by me. Just drove right underneath me. That was the race right there. I could maintain with him. If I could have been out front I probably could have held him off.”

Matt Kenseth, driving the No. 20 Resers Toyota, started in the second position and finished third leading eight laps during the day. “The strategy was good. The caution fell at the right time and we could make it on fuel. We were a little off from the best couple cars, but we got our track position there and got a decent finish,” said Kenseth after the race.

Kevin Harvick started the race in the fourth position and finished in the same spot after leading the most laps in the No. 5 Morton Buildings Chevrolet. Harvick took the lead from Matt Kenseth early in the day and would lead three times for 33 laps.

Joey Logano finished in the fifth position driving the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. After the race, Logano said, “Whoever gets out front is gonna win the race. That’s how this place is and that’s why strategy and restarts are so important to make up as much time as you can because it’s just one lane around here.” Logano led twice for 21 laps and was strong throughout the day.

Chase Elliott, who won his third race of the season last weekend and leads the series points standings by four over his teammate Regan Smith, finished in the 12th position. Smith finished in 10th place.

There were nine lead changes among six different drivers and a total of three cautions for 17 laps.

by NascarMedia

Accomplishing feats uncharacteristic for a rookie, Chase Elliott won again, leading 85 of 200 laps en route to his third win of the season in Saturday’s EnjoyIllinois.com 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Elliott took the lead for the fourth and final time on Lap 177 and held on for the final 23 laps, winning by 1.7 seconds. The NNS Sunoco Rookie of the Year frontrunner ties Kyle Busch for most wins in the series thus far this season, each with three visits to Victory Lane in the first 19 races.

“This is an unbelievable night,” Elliott said. “We were fortunate enough to be in contention on that last pit stop, the guys busted their butts for me and that was the deciding factor. We all as a team, we completed our task tonight. And that was the difference.”

Trevor Bayne finished second, followed by Kyle Larson, Kasey Kahne and Ty Dillon.

“We got our car turning there at the end,” Bayne said. “That’s probably the strongest weekend we’ve had in a while. Had it stayed green for another 15, we might have had it, but that’s 15 laps we’ll never know about.”

Added Larson, “I thought we had a real good car. I had some fun, just frustrating coming in third when I thought we had a real good chance to win.”
As for Dillon, “I’ve got a feeling that we can keep doing this as the year goes on,” he said. “The car was coming to me there at the end.”

In addition to the race winner, Kahne was the second JR Motorsports driver in the top five. It almost didn’t happen for Kahne, who brushed the wall late that did just enough damage to keep him from making a last-ditch run towards the front.

Pole-sitter Brian Scott earned $100,000 in the Nationwide Insurance Dash 4 Cash for finishing sixth, ahead of fellow D4C competitors Chris Buescher (eighth), Elliott Sadler (10th) and Regan Smith (16th).

Seventh through 10th were Erik Jones (in his NNS debut), Buescher, Ryan Blaney and Sadler.

Smith, who was the points leader coming into the race, struggled with a loose car and finished with a disappointing 16th showing.

Elliott’s win also vaulted him from third to the top of the Nationwide points standings. He now leads Smith by seven points and Sadler by eight points.

A series of green-flag pit stops around Lap 161 shuffled the field with teams hoping they could make it to the finish without it turning into a fuel-mileage race.

Bayne took the lead at Lap 161 when the leaders made stops for service and held on until he had to come in on Lap 176 for four tires and fuel. Elliott inherited the lead, and kept it for the remainder of the race.Pole-sitter Scott led 20 laps early on before Ryan Blaney, Elliott and Larson took their turns ahead of the field.

Sam Hornish Jr., who started at the back of the field due to unapproved adjustments, quickly worked his way up to the middle of the pack only to have uncharacteristic engine failure in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that ended his night just eight laps into the event, finishing 36th in the 40-car field.

“It felt like we were going to have a really good day and felt like this was going to be a race where we had opportunity to lead laps and potentially win,” Hornish told ESPN.

Two winners were declared at the end of Saturday’s race. One was the winner of the StaGreen200, the other won $100,000. Brad Keselowski, driver of the 22 Hertz Ford was able to pull away from Kyle Busch and win the race from the pole position. Regan Smith was able to stay ahead of the 16 of Ryan Reed and was able to win himself and JR Motorsports $100,000 in the Dash4Cash program.

The race started with Brad Keselowski jumping ahead of the pack on lap one and Kyle Busch taking the lead promptly on lap two. The race was pretty dicey from the get go and the first caution came out on lap five when Trevor Bayne smacked the wall and had a left rear tire go down.

The race resumed on lap 10 and Kyle Busch predictably was able to keep the lead even as Josh Wise lost power and stalled on the backstretch and brought out the second caution.

During this caution, Matt DiBenedetto replaced Jeffrey Earnhardt in the 4 machine. Earnhardt is still recovering from a broken collarbone suffered in a motorcycle crash a few weeks back.

The race returned and stayed green on lap 18, and Busch once again beat the field to the line and was able to keep first place.

The running order stayed mostly the same until lap 35, when after a hard fought battle, Keselowski used a lapped car for a tactical advantage (having Kyle Busch stuck behind it) and passed Busch for the lead. By lap 40, Keselowski was able to gain an advantage of over a second on Busch. By lap 58, he extended his lead to over two seconds.

All was as calm as it could be, no cautions waved, and no one made any major moves, and green flag pit stops began on lap 77 when Jake Crum very nearly ran out of fuel, and Landon Cassil followed him down.

On lap 81 Chase Elliot came down pit road, but stalled and ultimately ended up a lap down when the running order was normal again.

‘Normal’ meaning Keselowski resumed the lead and Busch continued to trail behind as Keselowski continued to put cars a lap down. By lap 91 only eight cars were on the lead lap.

Caution number three came out on lap 92 when debris was spotted in turn one. Ryan Reed was the beneficiary of Aaron’s Lucky Dog and was suddenly back in contention for the Dash4Cash award.

The green flag came back out six laps later, and Keselowski continued to lead as Busch began to fall back. By the next caution on lap 102, Busch had fallen back to fifth.

This caution came out after Paul Menard became a little loose from a bump into Chase Elliot and proceeded to hit the wall. There wasn’t any major damage and after a quick cleanup the race resumed on lap 107.

Under the caution, Busch was one of a few to pit after he described his car as ‘wrecking loose.’ Taking into account the fact that only nine cars were on the lead lap at the time of the caution, Busch didn’t lose too many positions.

The biggest cleanup of the race came during the restart on lap 107. Elliot Sadler was spun by Brian Scott and oncoming traffic was collected. Paul Menard, James Buescher, Dakoda Armstrong, Carlos Contreras, and Austin Theriault were also involved.

On lap 113 Kyle Larson led the field back to green. By this time, Busch’s car came back to life as he began his drive back to the front. Keselowski began to start picking off the car lengths between him and race leader Larson. While things were heating up in the front of the pack, a little farther back, the racing for the lucky dog position was intense. At one point, Ty Dillon nearly spun out. He did save the car, but lost a few positions in the process.

On lap 119, Keselowski was able to get past Larson, while Busch and Matt Kenseth began to pressure Larson from behind as well. Both drivers were able to get by Larson, and Busch continued to try and eat away at Keselowski’s lead.

The race was once again calm up until lap 140 when the caution came out again. This caution was for debris in turn three. The battle for the lucky dog was won by Chase Elliot, but a majority of those fighting for the position took a wave around.

Many drivers came down pit road under this caution and Keselowski, Busch, and Kenseth beat everyone out. Despite the fact that he came back out first, Keselowski would not restart first under this caution, rather Chris Buescher would, after he decided to stay out.

Chris Buescher might have been first at the line on the restart, but Keselowski, along with Busch and Larson passed him, relegating him to fourth.

The race stayed quiet until the end. Despite his best efforts, Busch was never able to catch up to Keselowski, and Keselowski finished first and Busch second.

Kenseth was third, followed by Larson and Chris Buescher.

The points remained the same in the top three as Smith continues to lead Elliot Sadler and Chase Elliot.

Regan Smith won this week’s Dash4Cash making him, along with Chris Buescher, Elliot Sadler, and Brian Scott eligible for the Dash4Cash next weekend at Chicago.

Throughout the race, Kasey Kahne could be found no where near the front of the field leading laps with his JR Motorsports teammates. However on the final restart with three laps to go, Kahne cut his way through the traffic after starting third and at the line, was only 0.021 seconds ahead of Regan Smith en route to grabbing the victory in the Subway Firecracker 250. It marks Kahne’s eighth Nationwide Series victory and first victory of the season.

For JR Motorsports, it marks their second straight and sixth overall this year. They also keep the streak going of being the only team to win on Friday nights this year in the Nationwide Series.

“The guys brought a great car and everything I did tonight, I was wrong,” Kahne admitted in victory lane. “Just didn’t do a whole lot right, but at the end, had a huge push from the 39, Sieg, and was able to get by Regan did. Just had tons of momentum there and a fast car.”

A late race caution would fly with seven laps to go when Brendan Gaughan went for the spin near the back end of the field, surprisingly involving nobody else. Smith would line up on the outside for the restart, with JRM teammate Chase Elliott to his inside. On the restart with three laps to go, Elliott wouldn’t go as a result of no fuel getting to the pick-up, resulting in the field being stacked up. As a results, Elliott Sadler (who came in with the points lead) and David Ragan would both for a spin in the infield grass.

Entering the green-white-checkered, Smith chose the outside lane as he felt Joey Logano would push better, while Kyle Larson would start to his inside. The pair ran side-by-side for the lead once the green flag waved, with Smith pulling ahead off of turn two on the white flag lap with Logano in toe. Logano would get a run on Smith down the backstretch while Kahne would go up through the middle. Smith would block both attacks and head into turns three and four with the lead. Though coming off four, Smith went to the bottom while Kahne stayed high and nicked him at the line as a result of help from Ryan Sieg.

“The last time Ryan hit me, it really boost me past the 7 (Smith) and I felt really good about it at that point,” Kahne commented. “It means a lot and they’ve put a ton into this. Ernie is a great guy, great crew chief so it feels good to win. These guys have won five times this year so its nice to get one. It was a fun race. I just could not get up there, but once I did, it was strong.”

Regan Smith finished second for his 14th top-10 finish as he takes over the points lead, 12 points ahead of Elliott Sadler.

“I don’t know. I watched the replay and I watched the 42 (Larson) move and if I go up any higher, I’d wreck them all there,” Smith commented. “I’ll have to watch the tape and see what I did wrong there. I lost a lot of momentum there but it’s still good to see a teammate win in Kasey. Disappointed, but part of getting out of here is with the points and nothing bad happening.”

For Sieg, the third place finish marks a career best finish and his second top 10 finish at Daytona. Ryan Reed and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.

Joey Logano finished sixth despite being tagged for speeding under green, followed by Darrell Wallace Jr., Jeremy Clements, Trevor Bayne and Mike Wallace. Points contenders Chase Elliott and Elliott Sadler finished 20th and 21st, respectively, after their problems.

“We just had a loose left rear wheel and that’s a shame as Kyle and I had a good run going and had gotten ourselves both up there,” Sadler said, speaking of his early race problems. “We were fast and unfortunately, there was a mistake. The tracks that we run good at, we need to earn the most points and we didn’t tonight so now we have a hole to dig out of.”

Brendan Gaughan survived two early incidents and a race track dampened by rain for most of the second half as cars drove on rain tires to win the Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up By Johnsonville at Road America.

It was the first time that Gaughan has won a NASCAR race since October 11, 2003 at the Texas Motor Speedway when Gaughan was running full-time in the Camping World Truck Series. That year, Gaughan won six races and was in contention for the championship, until getting taken out by Marty Houston during the season finale at Homestead. Gaughan has eight career wins in the Camping World Truck Series.

It was just the third time in NASCAR history that a race has been run in the rain. The other two were in Montreal in 2008 and 2010, also on a road course.

Gaughan admitted loving racing in the rain. Perhaps this was the spark that Gaughan needed to ignite his drive to the win, to overcome his misfortunes early in the race. Thankfully for Gaughan, he did not do much damage to the car, other than using his grille as a lawn mower. It was Gaughan’s first win on the Nationwide circuit in 98 attempts.

“I love racing in the rain. It’s fun,” said Gaughan. When you are good at it, it makes it even more fun.”

On Lap 51, Gaughan passed Chase Elliott for the lead, who was able to hold off Elliott’s aggressive driving style for the victory. Elliott got to Gaughan’s bumper a couple of times, but nothing was going to deter Gaughan from the prize.

Alex Tagliani appeared to be the driver to beat, but ran out of fuel on lap 49. Tagliani stormed from 22nd on the green-white-checkered to finish 2nd.

If Justin Marks had not run out of fuel to bring out the caution, it’s likely Tagliani would never have had a chance to make the charge. “It was pretty intense,” Tagliani said.

Tagliani started the race from the pole position, hoping to become the fourth driver to win from the pole in the last five Nationwide races at Road America, but no cigar.

Kevin O’Connell finished third, followed by Elliott and J.J. Yeley.

Rounding out the top 10 were Jeremy Clements, Andy Lally, Landon Cassill, Elliott Sadler, and Mike Bliss.