Tag: Bristol Motor Speedway

Chase Elliott wins pole at Bristol

Chase Elliott won the pole for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday afternoon with a lap of 131.713 mph.

“It is awesome. Been really wanting a pole outside of Daytona and Talladega for a long time now,” Elliott said after qualifying. “I feel like I was finally able to contribute from my end a little bit more and get a pole for the nine team that they certainly deserve.”

William Byron will start second as for the second week in a row, the front row will be made up of all Hendrick Motorsports drivers.

Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones and Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Kurt Busch failed to advance out of Stage 1 and once again, the Chip Ganassi driver will start further back than expected in 30th.

Big names were eliminated in Round 2 as Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson did not advance to the third and final round. Busch’s lap was a little restricted as David Ragan was right in front of him and Busch was clearly faster than the Front Row Motorsport driver.

Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the Top 10.

There will be two practice sessions for the Cup drivers to get into their race trim with Sunday’s race airing on FS1 at 2:00 PM ET.

Starting Line Up by Row
Bristol Motor Speedway
Provided by NASCAR

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time	Speed
1	9	Chase Elliott	NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet	14.568	131.713
2	24	William Byron	Axalta Chevrolet	14.606	131.371
3	12	Ryan Blaney	PPG Ford	14.627	131.182
4	20	Erik Jones	CRAFTSMAN Racing for a Miracle Toyota	14.641	131.057
5	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Freight Toyota	14.681	130.7
6	10	Aric Almirola	SHAZAM!/Smithfield Ford	14.692	130.602
7	22	Joey Logano	Autotrader Ford	14.734	130.229
8	14	Clint Bowyer	Haas Automation Ford	14.741	130.168
9	21	Paul Menard	Menards/Sylvania Ford	14.757	130.026
10	48	Jimmie Johnson	Ally Chevrolet	14.78	129.824
11	6	Ryan Newman	Wyndham Rewards Ford	14.801	129.64
12	2	Brad Keselowski	Discount Tire Ford	14.803	129.622
13	4	Kevin Harvick	Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford	14.706	130.477
14	88	Alex Bowman	Nationwide Chevrolet	14.706	130.477
15	3	Austin Dillon	Symbicort Chevrolet	14.729	130.274
16	42	Kyle Larson	Credit One Bank Chevrolet	14.734	130.229
17	18	Kyle Busch	Skittles Toyota	14.78	129.824
18	34	Michael McDowell	Love’s Travel Stops Ford	14.784	129.789
19	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	SunnyD Ford	14.799	129.657
20	41	Daniel Suarez	Haas Automation Ford	14.809	129.57
21	95	Matt DiBenedetto	LFR Pro League Toyota	14.834	129.351
22	38	David Ragan	MDS Transport Ford	14.838	129.317
23	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Auto Owners Insurance Toyota	14.854	129.177
24	13	Ty Dillon	GEICO Chevrolet	14.951	128.339
25	37	Chris Buescher	Bush’s Beans Chevrolet	14.914	128.658
26	8	Daniel Hemric #	Caterpillar/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet	14.926	128.554
27	1	Kurt Busch	Monster Energy Chevrolet	14.955	128.305
28	43	Bubba Wallace	Blue-Emu Chevrolet	14.957	128.288
29	36	Matt Tifft #	Surface Sunscreen/Tunity Ford	14.987	128.031
30	47	Ryan Preece #	Kroger Chevrolet	15.078	127.258
31	0	Landon Cassill	StarCom Fiber Chevrolet	15.156	126.603
32	32	Corey LaJoie	DUDE Wipes Ford	15.268	125.675
33	51	Gray Gaulding(i)	Jacob Companies Ford	15.28	125.576
34	52	Bayley Currey #	Belmont Classic Cars Chevrolet	15.495	123.833
35	66	Timmy Hill(i)	Toyota	15.741	121.898
36	77	Quin Houff	FALCI Adaptve Motorsports Chevrolet	16.656	115.202
37	15	Ross Chastain(i)	Rim Riderz Chevrolet	0	0

April 5, 2019

Weekend Schedule for Bristol

After heading back to a mile and half race track in Texas Motor Speedway, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR XFinity Series are back at a short track as Bristol Motor Speedway will host this weekend’s Alsco 300 and Food City 500. Here is how you can watch all of the action, below.

Friday, April 5th:
1:35-2:35 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice, NASCAR.com/Live
3:05-3:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series first practice, FS1
5:05-5:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, FS1
6:10 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying, FS1

Friday, April 5th:
1:35-2:35 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice, NASCAR.com/Live
3:05-3:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series first practice, FS1
5:05-5:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, FS1
6:10 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying, FS1/PRN

Saturday, April 6th
8:30-9:25 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series second practice, FS1
9:40 a.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying, FS1
11:05-11:55 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, FS1
1 pm.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 (300 laps, 159.9 miles), FS1/PRN

Sunday, April 7th
2:00 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 (500 laps, 266.5 miles), FS1/PRN

April 4, 2019
The White Zone: Thoughts on 2020 schedule

On Tuesday, NASCAR announced the 2020 schedule for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. It’s the biggest schedule realignment in over a decade. After sleeping on it overnight, I have some thoughts on the matter.

Championship race moves to Phoenix

I’ve heard people call for the championship race to rotate among different venues for years, but to ISM (Phoenix) Raceway?

Were people really clamoring for this? Was there really a major push from fans to move the championship race to Phoenix? I don’t know. I’ve heard more people argue that it should go to Talladega Superspeedway.

Furthermore, why move it from Homestead-Miami Speedway? It’s the best mile and a half track on the schedule and does an awesome job as the host of the championship race.

NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said as much during the NASCAR teleconference on Tuesday.

He did, however, note that running the same tracks year after year might favor some drivers more than others. Which doesn’t make sense, when you compare the number of lead changes at Phoenix (in the fall) and Homestead.

If the Phoenix finale speculation proves true, consider the following.

Lead changes in Phoenix playoff race since 2014: 8, 8*, 8, 9, 15.

Lead changes at Homestead since 2014: 18, 18, 20, 13, 22.

You don't even need to watch a single lap to know which is a better venue.
— Hank Lee (@hanklee89) March 26, 2019

It’s also worth noting that Homestead has produced different winners since 2010. At Phoenix, Kyle Busch rides a two-race win streak.

This isn’t a knock against Phoenix. I’ve never worked a race there, but I’m told by colleagues of mine that it’s a Grade-A sports facility, thanks to the recent 175-million dollar renovation.

But the racing at Phoenix tends to be hit and miss, and the recent race a few weeks back doesn’t inspire optimism.

If this is just a one year thing, and the title race rotates among venues every year, I can live with this. Although O’Donnell gave a conflicting answer to that.

“Yeah, I think our hope would be to stay there for a little while,” he said. “I can’t say how long. I think with any venue, you want to see it have a chance and grow a little bit, see how that works. We’ll certainly take a look at it as we look at 2021 and beyond, see what’s on the table in terms of venues.

“But this wasn’t a decision we said, ‘Hey, let’s go there for a year and rotate it.’ Our intent is to stay for a few years and see how we net out.”

Bristol moving into the playoffs

In terms of NASCAR, this isn’t really an Earth-shattering move. In terms of the state of Tennessee, however, this is major.

Bristol Motor Speedway moves from its traditional August date to Sept. 19, which puts it on the same date as a home game at Neyland Stadium for the Tennessee Volunteers.

In regards as to whether Bristol requested this, according to Becky Cox of Bristol Motor Speedway (she’s one of their main PR people), it was a “collaborative process with NASCAR stakeholders (teams, tracks, TV partners) while incorporating NASCAR fan feedback.”

Roughly a 90-minute drive from Bristol, Knoxville, Tennesse is both a major ticket market for the track and a lodging area for fans going to Bristol who don’t want to pay the hiked up prices for hotels in the Tri-Cities area.

Moving this race into football season complicates this immensely.

For you non-Tennessee natives and/or residents, Volunteer football trumps all in this state. While Knoxville is a major NASCAR market, when talking about TV ratings, Volunteer football comes first in this city.

Even though the Vols are at their nadir, in terms of football performance, they still averaged close to 93,000 fans for every game in 2018 (the lowest attendance was 86,753).

Given the aforementioned aspect of Knoxville being a major NASCAR TV market, I’m willing to bet that there’s a large crossover of NASCAR/Volunteer football fans in this city. By moving it to September, that cuts into the number of people in Knoxville, as well as Tennessee, who’ll buy tickets to Bristol. Not to mention that it cuts down on the number of hotel rooms available in Knoxville for race fans.

Granted, the game in question on Sept. 19 is against a Division I FCS school (Furman), but 95,855 fans showed up to the Vols matchup against FCS team ETSU in 2018. That probably had more to do with it being the home opener for the Vols that season, but the point is that Volunteer football towers over all in Tennessee. And given the well publicized sagging attendance at Bristol, they aren’t doing themselves any favors with this move.

But they must’ve had more fans requesting this move than I thought.

Daytona moves off Independence Day weekend

As a bit of a traditionalist, this one kind of stings.

Since Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, it’s always been a staple of Independence Day weekend. Starting in 2020, however, it moves from that to the regular season finale.

NASCAR didn’t make this decision lightly, according to O’Donnell. They wouldn’t have moved it from Independence Day weekend if it was to a point other than the end of the regular season. Drivers and teams told NASCAR that the regular season should begin and end in Daytona.

“Everyone felt Daytona belonged there and that track deserved to potentially be in that date,” O’Donnell said. “That kind of started the thinking.”

Overall, I’m fine with this.

Rain has plagued this race for years. It’s also very hot in Florida this time of year. Also, we don’t run it on Independence Day anymore, and this race hasn’t fallen on Independence Day since 2009.

I also love the idea of a restrictor plate race deciding who ultimately makes the Playoffs, even if plate racing now is more akin to a game of Russian roulette than actual racing.

With that said, however, I don’t understand moving Indianapolis Motor Speedway back into July, when track president J. Douglas Boles cited heat as a major reason for wanting a date in September.

It also doesn’t help that Indy has had well-publicized attendance woes for nearly the last decade.

We’ll have to see how that one pans out.

And the rest

As for the rest of the changes, I don’t really have that strong of an opinion on them. I like that Richmond Raceway’s first race is going back to Sunday afternoon and I’m intrigued by the prospect of a Cup Series double-header at Pocono Raceway, but that’s about it. I’m indifferent to Martinsville Speedway getting a night race and Kansas Speedway going from night to day.

Overall, NASCAR hit this out of the park. They did great with these changes to a schedule that had been stagnant for over a decade now.

Of course, these changes will be for naught if massive changes in 2021 don’t happen as well.

For now, however, let’s just see how this goes.

That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

March 27, 2019
NASCAR announces 2020 schedule

Heresay started 24 hours ago that the 2020 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule would be released sometime this week. Then it came out that it would be released on Tuesday. NASCAR built up the anticipation with the announcement earlier today that the official schedule release would happen at 4 p.m.

The time came, and the changes were announced.

NASCAR announced on Tuesday the 2020 schedule for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. It’s the biggest schedule realignment the Cup Series has undergone in over a decade.

The major changes were as follows:

The championship race will move from Homestead-Miami Speedway to ISM (Phoenix) Raceway. It will move to Veterans Day weekend, rather than the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, which the championship race has been held on.

The reasoning, according to NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell, was to prevent one driver from gaining a competitive advantage by running at the same track year after year.

“Obviously a ton of investment has gone into ISM Raceway,” O’Donnell said. “We thought it was natural for us to make that rotation this year and see how it plays out, also put Miami in a date that works for them, as well.”

He added that this probably isn’t a one year thing.

“I can’t say how long,” he said. “I think with any venue, you want to see it have a chance and grow a little bit, see how that works. We’ll certainly take a look at it as we look at 2021 and beyond, see what’s on the table in terms of venues.”

“But this wasn’t a decision we said, ‘Hey, let’s go there for a year and rotate it.’ Our intent is to stay for a few years and see how we net out.”

Daytona International Speedway’s second race moves from Independence Day weekend to the regular season finale, which will now be in August.

Given the attendance and weather issues that have plagued Daytona in July, NASCAR talked to drivers and teams on the matter, and they said, according to NASCAR, that Daytona at the end of the regular season was the best way to end it.

“Everyone felt Daytona belonged there and that track deserved to potentially be in that date,” O’Donnell said.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway moves from September to Independence Day weekend.

Bristol Motor Speedway’s night race moves from its August date to the Cup Series Playoffs on Sep. 19.

“If NASCAR fans thought they’ve seen tempers flare and sparks fly under the lights at the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, just wait until they experience a real pressure-packed NASCAR playoff elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway,” said Jerry Caldwell, executive vice president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway.

Pocono Raceway’s two dates will move to one date, as part of a double-header for the Cup Series.

Martinsville Speedway’s first weekend moves from late March/early April to Mother’s Day weekend, and will be run on a Saturday night on May 9.

Darlington Raceway remains in its Labor Day weekend slot, but will now open the Playoffs.

There’s some other date shuffling.

Screenshot from NASCAR.com

Screenshot from NASCAR.com

Screenshot from NASCAR.com

March 26, 2019
Four Takeaways From The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race At Bristol
Bristol Motor Speedway was the home for the 16th race of the season and marked the final event of the regular season before the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs begin this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Here are four takeaways from the UNOH 200.
1. GMS Racing Continue To Be Dominate 2018 – The GMS Racing team, including one ally, continued to dominate last Thursday at Bristol. GMS placed three of their trucks in the top-10 if you include the GMS Racing ally, Stewart Friesen. Johnny Sauter clinched the regular season championship by starting the race. He didn’t stop there as he led 58 laps and finished second in both stages. GMS Racing ally, Stewart Friesen, finished second and Sauter’s teammate, and Gateway winner, Justin Haley, finished sixth. Regardless, they continue to be the team to dominate the 2018 season and the team to beat for the championship.
2. John Hunter Nemechek Gets A For Effort – After starting third, Nemechek looked to be the guy to beat. He won both stages and led twice for 104 laps. Nemechek had a shot to win his first ever race since Martinsville. However, his truck began to experience problems with less than 10 to go and fell back to third, after dominating much of the race.
3. Too Much Emphasis On The Big Three – In the Cup Series this year, there have been three drivers that have visited victory lane the most, including Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr, and Kevin Harvick. However, here lately, the Truck Series has their own big three with those being Johnny Sauter, Brett Moffitt, and Noah Gragson. My opinion is that we should stop with the big three analysis and placing too much emphasis and hype on just three drivers. The Big Three should stay in the Cup Series. There have been multiple different race winners this year in the Truck Series. Those including Moffitt, Sauter, Ben Rhodes, Gragson, Haley, among others, who have visited victory lane. Yes, it seems like there are three drivers who regularly run up front, but that’s not the case for every race. Keep the big three special to one series and let the other series have their own brand identity, and stick out more.
4. Playoff Begin At Canada – After all the hype and with the regular season coming to an end, it’s now time for the 2018 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs that begin this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Eight drivers will go after the gold and the championship at the end of the year in Homestead-Miami. It will be interesting to see how these eight drivers will fare throughout the rest of the season. Will Sauter be able to keep his dominance and punch his ticket into the Championship 4 for another year? Or perhaps there could be a surprise driver that winds up in the final four such as Haley. Either way, it’ll be an exciting seven race run to the championship finale that takes place in Southern Florida.
August 21, 2018
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings-Bristol
As the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series completed their 16th race of the season, the 2018 Truck Series Playoff grid is set and eight drivers will compete for the championship beginning at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday, Aug. 26.

While a familiar foe ended up in victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway Thursday night, others who needed a strong night got their wish and some had their best career finish.

Here’s a look at this week’s power rankings.
1. 1. Johnny Sauter – By just starting the race, Sauter clinched the 2018 Truck Series regular season championship. He didn’t stop there, however, as he went on to win his fifth race of the season. Sauter finished second in both stages. He took the lead twice throughout the race. With 15 to go, he and GMS ally, Stewart Friesen battled each other and raced each other hard for the second position. This allowed race leader John Hunter Nemechek to pull away late, but issues in the No. 8 truck saw him fade to third place and saw Sauter take the lead. He was able to fend off Friesen by .236 seconds and was crowned 2018 Truck Series regular season champion. With his fifth win of the season, he will be able to carry over 42 points into the 2018 Playoffs. Sauter continues to be the guy to beat in the 2018 season. Previous Week Ranking: 2nd
  2. Stewart Friesen – Friesen was a Playoff bubble driver until the middle of Stage 2. With enough points and a couple of stage wins this year, he was able to clinch a spot in the Playoffs which allowed the No. 52 team to breathe easy and gave the okay to chase for his first possible win. Friesen finished seventh and fourth in both stages, respectively. He’ll be racing in his first ever race at his home track this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the site of the first Playoff race. Nonetheless, Friesen will have to have finishes like Bristol this past weekend in order to be a Championship 4 contender at Homestead-Miami. Friesen is placed fifth in the Playoffs standings. Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
  3. Todd Gilliland – Gilliland continues to shine in the 2018 Truck Series season in the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra. In a lot of the tracks where he is making his first start in a truck, he looks like a seasoned veteran. After starting in the eighth position, Gilliland fell back quickly due to a loose truck and wound up 13th. In Stage 2, he was involved in an incident when he spun around in Turn 4 collecting the 97 of Jesse Little. While Gilliland didn’t collect any stage points, he was able to rebound to finish in the top five for his third top five of the year. He missed out on the Playoffs, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play spoiler in the Playoffs by winning races. Previous Week Ranking: 3rd
  4. Ben Rhodes – Rhodes continued his consistent success by finishing in the top-10 this past week at Bristol. He started second on the front row and finished fifth and seventh in both stages, collecting stage points. With his win at Kentucky, Rhodes was already locked into the Playoffs. He just needed to win and have a solid night in order to prepare for the Playoffs. And after a rocky start to the season, the tide is starting to turn for the No. 41 ThorSport Racing team with a seventh-place finish. This was Rhodes ninth top-10 of the 2018 season. He’ll be a part of the eight driver Playoff grid at Canada, where he is the fourth seed. Previous Week Ranking: 4th
  5. Justin Haley – Haley is another driver who continues to carry consistency in each race. He hasn’t had a bad finish since Iowa where he finished 16th. Since then, Haley has finished in the top-10 with a win at Gateway. The No. 24 GMS Racing team finished 10th and ninth in both stages respectively earning stage points. As the 16th race of the season completed at Bristol on lap 200, Haley and the No. 24 Fraternal Order of Eagles finished sixth after starting 11th. It was his 12th top-10 of the 2018 season. GMS Racing now has two trucks in the Playoffs, three if you include the GMS ally, Friesen. They are the team to beat in the 2018 Truck Series Playoffs. Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Fell Out
1. 1. Noah Gragson – Gragson finished ninth in the first stage, but did not collect any points in Stage 2. But, he did come back to finish ninth for his 12th top-10 of the year and is now in the Playoffs. He’ll be seeded in the third position.
  2. Brett Moffitt – After a thrilling win at Michigan the week before, Moffitt and the No. 16 team was brought back to reality on Thursday night. He had a tough qualifying outing by qualifying in the 14th position. Not all was lost, however, as he was able to finish third in Stage 2. But the night continued to get worse for the Hattori Racing team as they continued to slip back and finish in the 18th position. With four wins this year, Moffitt is now locked into the Playoffs and is seeded in the second position.
August 20, 2018
Kyle Larson claims Cup Series pole at Bristol

Kyle Larson won his first Busch Pole Award at Bristol Motor Speedway Friday night in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Camaro with a 127.792 mph qualifying lap. It’s his third pole of the season and his seventh Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career pole.

It will be a Chevrolet front row in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race with Chase Elliott starting second after losing to Larson by .0127 seconds. Kyle Busch qualified third with a 127.639 lap and Paul Menard will start fourth. Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron, grabbed fifth place, his best career starting position.

Larson spoke about the significance of starting up front, saying, “The pole is important here at a short track with this pit road selection, having the first pit stall is huge. You know, it is still a long race, 500 laps here, the pole is important, but it doesn’t mean everything.

“We had a fast car in practice and race trim I felt like in second practice, so hopefully, that means we will be good tomorrow. The track will still change a lot, tighten up quite a bit, so we’ve just got to be prepared for that to make the right adjustments. I hope we put ourselves in position to get a win finally here at Bristol.”

Larson and Elliott will have to take advantage of their starting positions if they want to keep Busch, a seven-time Bristol winner, behind them.

“First, we’ve got to catch up,” Elliott said. We haven’t really even been in the ballpark, at least not in the spring race. I feel like we had a really good car here in the spring and got in a crash there a couple of laps in. So, yeah, I don’t know, to beat him here you’ve got to be perfect because he is perfect here and you’ve got to be perfect. You’ve got to have somethings go your way and at the end of the day, you’ve got to make it happen because that is what he does to win. He does a great job working lap traffic and changing lanes and moving around. So, be perfect or you are not going to beat him.”

Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 10 qualifiers and will start the race in positions sixth through 10th, respectively.

The 500-lap Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race is scheduled for 6:46 p.m. ET Saturday night on NBCSN.

Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

August 17, 2018
Kyle Larson Dominates the Xfinity Series Race at Bristol

There is nothing like a night race at Bristol Motor Speedway and the Food City 300 was no exception. It was action-packed, start to finish, with beating and banging for every position. The one thing that stayed the same was Kyle Larson.

Larson dominated the field in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevy to win his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series race of the season and his first win at Bristol Motor Speedway. He won all three stages of the race and fought off a hard-charging Christopher Bell in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Toyota, in overtime, to claim the checkered flag.

“It feels really good,” said a smiling Larson. “I wish Kyle Busch hadn’t had his problems so I could’ve raced him. It still feels really, really cool to win a race here finally at Bristol. I’ve been close so many times. It’s my best race track by far, this and Homestead.” Another grin, “It was cool to win!”

Stage 1 had just one caution and it was a stunner. At Lap 70 fans saw Busch get into the wall and see his day end with an upper arm failure in the right front tire. Busch had started on the pole and led every lap to this point. Larson would gain the lead and the stage win.

Stage 2 had a few cautions, however, none of them were for anything serious. Larson would stay at the front while others battled for position behind him. Like in the previous stage, Larson would be the winner of Stage 2.

The final stage teams were looking closely at the radar for rain that was heading toward the track. Drivers started to really make their moves in case the race would be rain-shortened so there was a lot of action going on. Elliott Sadler and Bell had a great battle for the lead when Larson had made his pit stop, but once again Larson would get the lead back.

A late caution would force the race into overtime and gave Bell his best chance to beat Larson, but Larson kept his traditional high line and took the victory. Justin Allgaier in his No. 7 JR Motorsports would bring home third place.

“We struggled just a little bit all night in the long run,” stated Allgaier. “The restarts are where we felt we would have to make as much hay as we could. I’m really just proud of all these guys. We didn’t have the strongest car tonight but they kept working on it in the pits. They did a great job, we just came up a little bit short there in the end.”

Cole Custer and Joey Logano would round out the top five. Elliott Sadler, Michael Annett, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, and Matt Tifft finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Bell leads the Xfinity Series standings with 810 points, Allgaier is in second with 797 points, Sadler is in third with 793 points, Custer is in fourth with 791 points, rounding out the top five is Daniel Hemric with 768 points.

The Xfinity Series will head next to Road America on Saturday, Aug. 25.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 Results

1. Kyle Larson
2. Christopher Bell
3. Justin Allgaier
4. Cole Custer
5. Joey Logano
6. Elliott Sadler
7. Michael Annett
8. Chase Elliott
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Matt Tifft
11. Ryan Sieg
12. Ross Chastain
13. Jeremy Clements
14. Austin Cindric
15. Ty Dillon
16. Garrett Smithley
17. Ryan Reed
18. Joey Gase
19. BJ McLeod
20. Ja Junior Avila
21. David Starr
22. Ryan Truex
23. Alex Labbe
24. Daniel Hemric
25. Spencer Boyd
26. Jeff Green
27. Bayley Currey
28. Josh Williams
29. Brandon Jones
30. Chad Finchum
31. Stephen Leicht
32. Vinnie Miller
33. Carl Long
34. Chase Briscoe
35. Josh Bilicki
36. Kyle Busch
37. Ray Black Jr.
38. Timmy Hill
39. Morgan Shepherd
40. JJ Yaley

August 17, 2018
Regular Season Champion Johnny Sauter Fends off Stewart Friesen in Closing Laps at Bristol

All Johnny Sauter had to do was start the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway in order to become the regular series season champion. However, he wanted more and did more as he earned his fifth win of the season after fending off his GMS Racing ally, Stewart Friesen.

“This is awesome,” Sauter said after the race, “the history of this place. I flew into Charlotte yesterday morning to stop by the shop real quick and then did my normal tour to Bristol. I stopped at North Wilkesboro and just walked around, and drove up through the countryside, just was like, maybe if I don’t overdrive it this year, I’ll have an opportunity to win, so just proud of everybody at GMS on this GMS fabrication. Sunseeker, ISM Connect, Allegiant Travel Chevrolet, just can’t thank everyone enough. This is so cool!”

When the UNOH 200 began, Sauter was crowned the 2018 regular series season champion. Playoff bubble driver, Grant Enfinger, clinched a Playoff spot by starting the race as well.

Stage 1 went to lap 55.

Only two incidents took place during the first stage. On Lap 12, the No. 30 of Scott Lagasse Jr. spun around on the fronstretch to bring out the first caution. Then on Lap 25, the No. 04 of Cory Roper spun out after having a little bit of help in Turn 2.

John Hunter Nemechek took the lead on Lap 32 after the restart on Lap 30. He was able to hang on and win the first stage followed by Sauter, Enfinger, Christopher Bell, Ben Rhodes, Parker Kligerman, Stewart Friesen, Ross Chastain, Noah Gragson, and Justin Haley.

Race leader Nemechek and a couple of others stayed out to maintain their positions as leaders for the beginning of Stage 2 on Lap 66. It didn’t take long for a caution to come out, however, as Todd Gilliland spun around and had contact with Jesse Little. During that caution, the No. 52 of Friesen, clinched a spot in the Playoffs.

With the restart on Lap 73, there were no more incidents for the rest of Stage 2 until after the checkered flag. This saw Nemechek win Stage 2. As Nemechek took the win, Myatt Snider, who was on the outside looking in, had his night ruined, as he crashed and hit the wall on the frontstretch.

The final stage and the race resumed with 77 to go with Sauter as the race leader.

Sauter held on momentarily but Gragson passed him to lead for seven laps. Then, Stage 1 and 2 winner Nemechek, passed Sauter for the lead on Lap 177. During this long stretch of a green flag run, Bell lost the power steering and his night was over, finishing in the 28th position.

With heavy lap traffic starting to come into play, Nemechek closed in on Sauter with 27 to go and Nemechek assumed the lead with 23 to go. Sauter and Friesen battled with each other side-by-side with 10 laps to go, allowing Nemechek to pull away.

Unfortunately, something happened to the No. 8 of Nemechek and he slipped back to third, with Sauter taking the lead and Friesen close behind him. Sauter was able to breathe easy as he held off his GMS ally for his fifth win of the year and his first since Texas in June.

With the race win tonight, Sauter picked up 20 points but is carrying over 42 Playoff points into the postseason.

“Well yeah, he (Nemechek) had a problem,” Sauter said. “The 52 (Friesen) was racing me really hard there and not quite sure, can’t wait to watch that on how we got back by him. Just good hard racing, short track style. This is such a cool way to end the regular season with a win. Obviously, getting the championship in the regular season. Now hopefully this carries some momentum towards the end here. I just got too tight. I tried to get around those lap trucks running through the middle. Even in practice earlier today, I just couldn’t quite complete the corner, I couldn’t get it to cut. So, I knew the bottom was my only chance, but the lap traffic was just all over the place. Just can’t thank everybody enough. I’m so pumped right now, I’m going to let this one soak in for sure.”

This was Sauter’s fifth win of the season. Sauter led three times for 58 laps. There were five cautions for 38 laps, along with six lead changes among four drivers.

The Playoff card is now set with Sauter (2042 points), Brett Moffitt (2027 points), Gragson (2022 points), Rhodes (2014 points), Friesen (2012 points), Enfinger (2011 points), Haley (2009 points) and Matt Crafton (2003 points) all competing for the 2018 Truck Series championship.

August 16, 2018
Stewart Friesen Comes Up One Spot Short but is Locked into the Playoffs

The No. 52 of Stewart Friesen and the Halmar Racing team can breathe a little easier now knowing they have a shot to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship this year after finishing second in the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

After starting 13th, Friesen showed he had a fast truck early as he finished seventh in the first stage and fourth in the second stage. During the second stage under caution, he was able to clinch a Playoff spot.

Friesen ran up front most of the night until his moment came with 10 laps to go when he and eventual race winner Johnny Sauter battled side-by-side for the race win.

As the No. 8 of John Hunter Nemechek had issues, Sauter and Friesen drove past him in the remaining laps. Friesen gave all he could but ultimately came up .236 seconds short of getting his first career win. Nonetheless, it showed the No. 52 team had the speed and is capable of winning races in the Playoffs.

“A couple of badass (Chevy) Silverados’ here,” Friesen said. “Beating and banging. Uncle Johnny runs me hard and that’s racing. Just good hard racing. That was a lot of fun. He rolled up into lap traffic and gave me the bottom. That was a good time. So proud of this effort, GMS fab. Wow. Our short track game has turned around big time since Martinsville at the beginning of the year. Just proud of everyone at the fab shop.”

August 16, 2018

Tag: Bristol Motor Speedway

Championship race moves to Phoenix

Bristol moving into the playoffs

Daytona moves off Independence Day weekend

And the rest