Category: RC XFINITY

Brad Keselowski would take the lead with 15 laps to go and never looked back as he held off Denny Hamlin to grab the win at Texas Motor Speedway.

Lap 1 – Alex Bowman leads

Lap 4 – Bowman leads Hornish Keselowski Busch ADillon Stenhouse Scott Smith Bayne TDillon

Lap 5 – Hornish takes the lead with Keselowski up to second

Lap 6 – Keselowski takes the lead ahead of Hornish

Lap 7 – Keselowski leads Hornish Busch Dillon Bowman Stenhouse Scott Smith Bayne Dillon

Lap 16 – Stenhouse by Bowman; Kenseth up to ninth with Bayne 10^th and TDillon 11^th

Lap 18 – Scott by Bowman

Lap 19 – Kenseth by both Bayne and Smith; Keselowski leads Hornish Busch Dillon Stenhouse Scott Kenseth Smith Bowman and Bayne

Lap 32 – Keselowski leads Hornish Busch Dillon Kenseth Stenhouse Scott Smith Bayne and Hamlin. Scott passes Stenhouse.

Lap 35 – Smith by Stenhouse

Lap 37 – Bayne by Stenhouse; Hamlin by Stenhouse. Thins get tight around the lap car of Jeff Green with Hamlin and Bayne but Hamlin gives Bayne room

Lap 39 – Larson by Stenhouse

Lap 46 – Keselowski leads Busch Hornish Dillon Kenseth Scott Smith Bayne Hamlin Larson

Lap 50 – Clements, Sweet, Bell and Allgaier head down pit road to kick off green flag pit stops.

Lap 51 – Bowman and Ty Dillon pit.

Lap 52 – Kenseth and Busch pit. Keselowski and Hornish also pit. Dillon to the lead. Hornish hit the commitment cone coming in for his stop – will have to come in for a penalty.

Lap 54 – Dillon finishes off pit stops. Keselowski goes back to the points lead.

Lap 64 – Keselowski leads Busch Kenseth ADillon Smith Scott Hamlin Bayne TDillon Larson

Caution lap 71 debris in turn two. Leaders head down pit road. Keselowski leads the field off ahead of Busch

Restart lap 76 Keselowski and Busch side-by-side for the lead. Keselowski with the advantage off of turn four ahead of Busch

Lap 77 – Keselowski leads ahead of Busch and Hamlin

Lap 78 – Hamlin by Busch for second. Keselowski leads Hamlin Busch Scot Larson Kenseth TDillon Sadler Bayne Smith.

Lap 80 – Hamlin and Keselowski side-by-side for the lead

Lap 81 – Hamlin to the lead while Kenseth-Scott-Keselowski three-wide for second. Kenseth to second ahead of Scott and Keselowski

Lap 83 – Hamlin leads Kenseth Scott Larson TDillon Keselwoski Sadler Busch Kligerman and Smith. Sadler by Keselowski for positon.

Lap 85 – Kenseth and Hamlin side-by-side for the lead. Hamlin holds Kenseth off for time being

Lap 88 – Hornish by Smith for 10^th

Lap 95 – Hamlin leads Kenseth Scott Larson TDillon Sadler Kligerman Keselowski Busch Hornish

Lap 96 – Kenseth passes Hamlin for the lead

Lap 103 – Allgaier pits

Caution lap 105 Kyle Busch gets into the wall as the right rear tire blows out. Leaders head down pit road. Hamlin leads Kenseth Scott Larson TDillon Sadler Keselowski Kligerman off pit road.

Restart lap 117 as Hamlin pulls ahead of the whole field

Lap 118 – Hamlin leads as Scott and Kenseth run side-by-side for second

Lap 119 – Hamlin leads Kenseth Scott Larson TDillon Sadler Keselowski Hornish Smith Kligerman

Lap 122 – Keselowski passes TDillon and Sadler. Smith by Hornish for eighth.

Lap 124 – Keselowski passes Larson; Dillon passes Kligerman for 10^th

Lap 126 – Hamlin leads Kenseth Scott Keselowski Larson Sadler TDillon Hornish ADillon Kligerman

Lap 128- Keselowski by Scott for third

Lap 131 – Hamlin and Kenseth side-by-side for the lead and Kenseth with the lead off of turn two. Sadler by Larson for fifth.

Lap 157 – Keselowski to the lead

Lap 160 – Keselowski leads Kenseth Hamlin Hornish Scott Sadler Dillon Larson Smith Kligerman

Lap 162 – Bowman and Bayne pit

Lap 163 – Allgaier and Stenhouse pit. Smith by Larson for eighth.

Lap 165 – Ty Dillon pits

Lap 166 – Larson pits as Dillon passes Sadler. Dillon then passes Scott for fifth.

Lap 167 – Kligerman pits

Lap 169 – Sadler pits

Lap 170 – Kenseth, Hamlin, Keselowski, Dillon, Hornish and Smith pit. Hamlin cycles through to the lead.

Caution lap 171 Nemechek spins on the backstretch.

Restart lap 177 Hamlin and Keselowski side-by-side. Hamlin grabs the lead.

Caution lap 178 Pastrana spun and into the wall after racing side-by-side with Green

Restart lap 183 Hamlin grabs the lead off of turn two while Keselowski and Kenseth side-by-side for second. Keselowski grabs second and gets to the outside of Hamlin

17 to go Hamlin pulls ahead of Keselowski through turns three and four. Hornish runs third.

15 to go Keselowski passes Hamlin for the lead as Hornish runs third

13 to go Keselowski leads Hamlin Hornish Kenseth Dillon Scott Smith Sadler Kligerman Larson

12 to go Larson grabs ninth from Kligerman

10 to go Smith passes Scott

3 to go Sweet Bayne and TDillon pass Kligerman for position

Brad Keselowski wins! Hamlin. Hornish. Kenseth. Dillon. Smith. Sadler. Scott. Larson. Sweet.

Driver of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, Kyle Busch, wins his ninth NASCAR Nationwide Series pole award this season at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Busch is no stranger to doing well in the Nationwide Series with ten wins this season, including eighteen top-5 and nineteen top-10 finishes leading a total of 4,027 laps.

The Coors Light Pole Award for the 32^nd Annual Dollar General 300 is Busch’s first pole award in 21 races at Charlotte. Working toward his first career win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kyle commented on the possibility of winning this weekend.  He said, “It would certainly be nice to get a win here whether it’s Nationwide or Cup and especially Cup — we haven’t done that yet here.  It’s been a track where we’ve been really good at over the years and I think the most important thing is that if we can get a win here, then that sets the tone that we  are back in the thick of things.”

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford, will be starting in second position with a qualifying lap of only 0.004 seconds behind Kyle Busch.  Logano is one of four drivers that have driven the No. 22 Ford in 2013, with all four drivers contributing to the impressive eleven wins posted by the team this season.

The combination of wins from the No. 54 team and the No. 22 team total twenty-one out of the twenty-nine races run so far this season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series points battle comes into play in qualifying positions three, four, and five with Sam Hornish Jr., Austin Dillon, and Regan Smith.

Sam Hornish Jr. qualified in third position posting his sixth top-10 start at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and his twenty-fourth top-10 start in thirty races this season.

Going into tonight’s race, Hornish is only eight points behind the points leader, Austin Dillon.  Dillon, driver of the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet, qualified in fourth position with a qualifying lap of 182.704 mph.

JR Motorsports driver, Regan Smith, is currently sitting thirty-five points behind Dillon in the Nationwide Series points standings.  Smith qualified in fifth position in the No. 7 Goody’s Headache Relief Shot Chevrolet.

Driver of the No. 99 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Toyota, Alex Bowman, qualified in sixth position as the fastest qualifying rookie.

Trevor Bayne, Kyle Larson, Brain Vickers, and Kevin Harvick round out the top-10 positions for tonight’s 32^nd Annual Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Kansas Lottery 300 was a caution filled 200 lap race that ended with Matt Kenseth in victory lane.

This victory makes Kenseth sixth on the all time series win list.  This was also his first victory in seven races at Kansas Speedway.

“When we got here yesterday we had a lot of speed right off the truck and I told Matt I thought it was the best car we had had all year. We had a fast car all the way through the race. We lost a lot of track position but it all worked out in the end.”

Paul Menard finished second, capturing his fifth top-10 finish in eight races at Kansas and his third top-10 finish in 2013.

Regan Smith finished third and captured his first top-10 at Kansas.

The drivers struggled with the new tires with everything from excessive wear to lack of grip. Austin Dillon reported tires giving up and blistering. Despite his tire issues, Dillon was able to finish sixth and take over the series points lead by eight points over Sam Hornish Jr.

After leading most of the race, Regan Smith would lose the lead on a late round of pit stops and come back to finish third.

A late race altercation between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski while both were racing for the runner up spot, led Keselowski to issue a warning to Busch regarding tomorrow’s Sprint Cup race. Keselowski stated, “I got wrecked by a dirty driver. There is no other way of putting it. He is cool with that. I have raced him really cool over the last year to be respectful to him and try to repair our relationship. He has a lot more to lose than we do. That is one of the advantages to not being in the chase.”

Busch also had a run in with Trevor Bayne which cost Bayne numerous spots in the running order. Bayne remarked, “It was really crazy out there. We had a super fast car and I think we ran out of fuel there. I messed up on pit road and sped the last segment and got a penalty and Mike made great strategy to get up back up there then we went in one and two and got wrecked by the 54. He sent me up the race track. I think he got loose and slid up. It almost happened with me and the 18 when we were leading. It is unfortunate for our team to have this fast of a race car and not be able to capitalize. I am sure he was probably frustrated by that but I think it was just hard racing.”

Final Finishing order:

1) Matt Kenseth 2) Paul Menard 3) Regan Smith 4) Kyle Busch 5) Justin Allgaier 6) Austin Dillon 7) Parker Kligerman 8) Brad Sweet 9) Trevor Bayne 10) Elliott Sadler 11) Alex Bowman 12) Michael Annett 13) Mike Bliss 14) Travis Pastrana 15) James Buescher 16) Chris Buescher 17) Sam Hornish Jr 18) Brian Scott 19) Dakoda Armstrong 20) Nelson Piquet Jr 21) Ryan Sieg 22)  Landon Cassill 23) Bryan Silas 24) Johanna Long 25) Joe Nemechek 26) Jennifer Jo Cobb 27) Eric McClure 28) Brad Keselowski 29) Brian Vickers 30) Kyle Larson 31) Mike Wallace 32) Ken Butler 33) TJ Bell 34) Carl Long 35) Hal Martin 37) Blake Koch 38) J.J. Yeley 39) Josh Wise 40) Jeff Green

DOVER, Del. – Joey Logano not only tamed the Monster Mile again, he again dominated it.

Logano won his fourth consecutive Nationwide Series race at Dover on Saturday afternoon after leading a race high 106 of 200 laps in the 5-hour ENERGY 200 benefiting Living Beyond Breast Cancer. He took the lead for the final time with 59 laps to go, moving past Kyle Busch who had inherited the lead while using a different pit strategy. It was the winning pass for Logano, who cruised to a 14 second victory over rookie Kyle Larson.

“We started the race too loose and they went for it. These Nationwide races are short. You’ve got to make big swings real early and I feel like Jeremy [Bullins, crew chief] and I worked enough together now that when I say loose and how loose he kind of knows how much it is and he made big swings on this thing and got it pretty close. Then we needed one more stop to just kind of fine tune it,” said Logano on his record day.

“It’s just really cool to get four-in-a-row here at Dover. That’s pretty awesome. It’s been my favorite racetrack ever since I started here, yes, even when I barrel-rolled down the back straightaway, it’s still my favorite place, and I think we showed that today. Hopefully my Shell / Pennzoil Ford tomorrow is just as fast as this one. If that’s the case, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

As it’s been for most of the 2013 NNS season, Logano and Busch were the class of the field. The two led all but five laps but Busch was done in by a different pit cycle. When the first caution of the race flew on lap 26 he stayed on track with the lead while the rest of the leaders, including Logano, came down pit road.

Busch then had to give up the lead on lap 87 for his first stop before retaking it when the rest of the field made their second and final stops. After coming down pit road with 24 laps to go he finished eighth.

Kevin Harvick, Brian Vickers and Elliott Sadler were the top five. Meanwhile, point leader Sam Hornish Jr. who entered the day with a 15 point lead on Austin Dillon, wasn’t able to turn his second starting position into a top five finish. Hornish struggled on Saturday, falling a lap down early before being caught speeding on pit road and losing another lap.

He finished 17th and now has only a four point advantage with five races remaining. Dillon finished sixth while Sadler moved to third in points after his top five finish.

“You can’t make one bad call and then have the driver speed on pit road and not give something up. We’ll talk about it and try to figure out how to not get ourselves in that position again,” Hornish said afterwards about the decision for two tires instead of four. “I knew we were kind of sunk at that point, but I think we still could have got out of it with a 10th or 12th place finish if I didn’t speed on pit road, but we weren’t gonna win with the strategy we had today.”

Logano’s victory was the 11th for the 22 car this season. His victory was also the first time a driver had won four consecutive NNS races at Dover while the Penske team extended their owner’s championship lead to 34 on the Joe Gibbs Racing 54 car.

“I keep telling everybody when you think about Roger Penske and his history, it’s pretty amazing to think there’s something he hasn’t won, so, for me, it’s a privilege and an honor to be part of the team tasked with that goal,” said Bullins on trying to win the owner’s title.

“So far, so good. We’ve got five weeks to go and we just got to keep pushing forward and hopefully we can finish strong and pull that off. It would be very special to fulfill that last spot in his trophy case because it’s pretty impressive to start with.”

The race featured only two cautions and went 106 green flag laps to the finish. The longest stretch in NNS history. In post race inspection, the 22 car failed when it was found to be too low on both sides in the front. NASCAR said they will look at it first thing next week.

HAMPTON, Ga. – Kevin Harvick wasn’t about to lose another Nationwide Series race late in the going at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

After dominating this same race last season only to be passed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the last lap, Harvick again dominated the Great Clips / Grit Chips 300 but held off a furious charge from Kyle Busch over the last seven laps. Harvick led 132 laps on his way to his first NNS win of the season, 40th of his career.

“We were definitely too tight, just had to change my approach there a little bit at the end, knew Kyle was going to go for it but it’s fun racing with him,” said Harvick in Victory Lane.

“That’s two years in a row that we’ve had a dominant car and you think something’s going to go wrong, we just kept digging and these guys did a great job all weekend. Brought the same stuff we had last year and it worked again.”

Busch led the first 57 laps after winning his seventh pole of the season. Harvick however, was the class of the field and once he drove to the lead he quickly established control of the event. Just four cautions on the night helped him stretch his lead over the likes of Busch, Joey Logano and teammate Austin Dillon.

Dillon, who entered the day six points behind championship leader Sam Hornish Jr., ran behind Harvick throughout the middle portion of the race but his downfall were restarts. On the final one, which set up the seven lap shootout, Dillon and those behind him in the outside lane lost all their track position when Logano spun his tires.

Dillon finished the night eighth as Hornish drove to third and extended his point lead to 10 with nine races remaining.

“Our Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang was pretty good over the long run, but what happened is every time we got a long ways throughout the run we’d get kind of stuck behind some people and the car would free up a little bit,” said Hornish who finished in the top three for the fourth time in the last five weeks.

“We made some good adjustments to be able to make the car better and I had a direction that I wanted to go and Greg [Erwin, crew chief] had a direction he wanted to go and we put them both together and we were able to get a good restart and get our way up to third, so I’m real happy with the performance that we put out tonight.”

For as dominant as Harvick was however, it didn’t come without a potential problem. Leading with 31 laps to go he thought he had a loose wheel but decided to stay on track unless it became too much to handle. Logano, running second at the time, began to close the lead before the final caution and subsequent pit stop changed the complexion of the race.

“We had an okay car today. It was good the first run, really, really loose the second run,” said Busch on his runner-up finish, which included tagging the wall just past halfway.

“It was about a third-place car. I was going to run behind the 33 and the 22, but for the last restart with seven to go, we even made changes to free up our car and it just wasn’t enough.”

Kasey Kahne rebounded from a lap 44 spin to finish fourth with Kyle Larson coming home fifth. Larson was the highest finishing rookie but was he and teammate Nelson Piquet Jr.’s car failed post race inspection for being too low in the front end.