Austin Cindric: Cindric held off Bubba Wallace and teammate Ryan Blaney to win the Daytona 500 in his first Daytona start.
“I’m only 23 years old,” Cindric said. “To achieve the greatest accomplishment of one’s life at that age is simply amazing. If that’s still the case 32 years from now, then I’ll officially change my name to ‘Derrick Cope.’”
“Historically, the Daytona 500 is known as the ‘Great American Race.’ Currently, it’s known as the ‘Greatest Collection of ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Merchandise In The World.’”
2. Bubba Wallace: Wallace finished second at Daytona, matching his career-best 500 finish.
“‘Second’ is a word that’s rarely used by Michael Jordan,” Wallace said, ‘unless it’s used in the following context: ‘Give me one second, while I place another bet.’
“My crew chief is Bootie Barber. So, any communication between him and I is technically a ‘Bootie call.’ No matter what happens this season, I’ll still never have more ‘bootie calls’ than Tim Richmond.
3. Ryan Blaney: Blaney came home fourth at Daytona as Penske Racing teammate Austin Cindric took the win.
“Congratulations to Austin,” Blaney said. “And congratulations to Roger Penske. Roger’s 85th birthday was Sunday. Roger’s a legend in auto racing across many series and is the greatest car owner in auto racing. No other car owner can hold a candle to Roger, much less 85.”
4. Aric Almirola: Almirola finished fifth at Daytona.
“NASCAR started the season with the Busch Clash in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum,” Almirola said. “That track was tiny. I’ve seen bigger circles in a pack of Lifesavers or under the eyes of anyone who’s awoken in the Daytona infield after a day and/or night of drinking with Clint Bowyer.”
5. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski led a race-high 67 laps and finished ninth at Daytona in his first points race as driver/owner for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
“I feel great being a part of re-igniting Roush Fenway,” Keselowski said. “It may sound difficult, but it’s really not, because re-igniting something that’s already on fire is easy, and Roush Fenway was a dumpster fire.”
6. Michael McDowell: McDowell started sixth and finished seventh at Daytona in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Mustang.
“Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch waved the green flag to start the race,” McDowell said. “As you would expect in a race green-flagged by him, there was a lot of ‘spin.’”
7. Chase Briscoe: Briscoe finished fourth in the Daytona 500 in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang.
“I hope I made Tony Stewart proud,” Briscoe said. “Tony was in the booth with Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer calling the race for Fox. I think Tony’s a natural in front of the camera. They say ‘the camera adds ten pounds.’ Tony absolutely agrees with that. That way, he doesn’t have to blame it on his diet.”
8. Kyle Busch: Busch finished sixth at Daytona and remained winless in Daytona 500’s.
“I’m now 0-17 in Daytona 500 races,” Busch said. “Personally, I’m looking forward to the ‘Next Generation,’ because I’ve already gone through one without winning the 500.”
9. Chase Elliott: Elliott finished 10th at Daytona and was the only Chevrolet driver in the top 10.
“I’m just happy the No. 9 NAPA Chevy finished the race in one piece,” Elliott said. “Obviously, I was able to steer clear of Brad Keselowski. How many cars did he wreck? Now that Brad is an owner and a driver, it’s clear he’s the ‘total’ package.”
10. David Ragan: Ragan finished eighth at Daytona after avoiding several accidents until being caught up in a final-lap crash after crossing the finish line.
“I,” Ragan said, “like 38 other drivers, was just happy to survive…a race that Brad Keselowski was in.
“Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a new NASCAR owner. Kaz Grala drives the No. 50 car for The Money Team Racing. I don’t know much about Kaz Grala, but I can tell you this – Any car associated with Mayweather will never knock anyone out, and can only win on points. And should also have its financials reviewed by a competent accountant.”
In a late war of attrition between the young guns and the veterans, rookie Austin Cindric captured the main spotlight to commence a new season of NASCAR competition by winning the 64th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 20, and capturing his first NASCAR Cup Series career victory after fending off the field during an overtime attempt.
The 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Mooresville, North Carolina, led four times for 21 laps, including the final eight, to fend off challenges from teammate Ryan Blaney, ex-teammate Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace on the final lap to grab his first win in his eighth career start in NASCAR’s premier series and in his first event driving the No. 2 Ford Mustang for Team Penske as a full-time Cup Series rookie candidate.
The starting lineup was determined through two single-car qualifying rounds on Wednesday, February 16, followed by the Bluegreen Vacations Duels on Thursday, February 17. Kyle Larson, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.159 mph and was joined on the front row with teammate Alex Bowman, who qualified at 181.046 mph. Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, both of whom represent the newly named Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, occupied the second row after each won their respective Duel events.
Prior to the event, George Spencer, the engineer for Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang team, and JD Frey, the car chief for Daniel Hemric and the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team, were ejected from the event due to their respective cars failing pre-race inspection twice. In addition, Hemric was assessed a drive-through penalty at the start. Joey Logano also dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car along with Jacques Villeneuve, who dropped to the rear due to an engine change.
When the green flag waved and the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season commenced, Larson jumped with an early advantage and moved in front of teammate Bowman from the tri-oval through the back straightaway while running on the inside lane. The outside lane, however, proved to be the fastest, preferred lane for a majority of competitors as Keselowski received drafting help from Ford teammates Austin Cindric, Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell to move into the lead entering Turns 3 and 4.
When the field returned to the start/finish line, Brad Keselowski, making his first start as a driver/co-owner of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford Mustang, led the first lap ahead of Cindric and Buescher while Larson settled in fourth ahead of Michael McDowell, the reigning Daytona 500 champion. By then, Hemric served his drive-through penalty through pit road.
By the fifth lap, a majority of the competitors were running in a long single-file line on the outside lane as Keselowski was leading Cindric, Buescher, McDowell and Kyle Busch. Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Bubba Wallace and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were in the top 10 while rookie Harrison Burton was the lead car on the inside lane in 14th place while receiving drafting help from names like Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Aric Almirola and Denny Hamlin.
Two laps later, the momentum for the competitors running on the inside lane gained momentum towards the ones running on the outside lane as Kyle Busch, who darted to the inside lane, moved his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry to the front of the pack followed by teammate Bell. Soon after, Busch was engaged in a side-by-side battle with Keselowski’s No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang for the top spot.
Through the first 10 laps of the event and with the field continuing to engage in close-quarters racing through multiple lanes, Keselowski, who fought back on the outside lane to retake the lead on Lap 8, was leading followed by Cindric, Buescher, McDowell and Stenhouse while Kyle Busch fell back to sixth ahead of Erik Jones, Bell, Larson and Truex. By then, Hemric was lapped behind the field.
Five laps later, Jacques Villeneuve was lapped by the field as Keselowski continued to lead a bevy of competitors running towards the outside lane while Kyle Busch was the lead car for multiple competitors running on the inside lane.
By Lap 20, Keselowski remained out in front on the outside lane ahead of Cindric, Buescher, McDowell, Stenhouse and a majority of the competitors while Kyle Busch continued to serve as the lead car on the inside lane with drafting help from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bell and Truex along with 23XI Racing’s Kurt Busch and Bubba Wallace.
Seven laps later, the battle for the lead reignited between Keselowski and Kyle Busch as Busch received drafting help from his Toyota teammates on the inside lane to return to the lead.
Through the first 30 laps of the event, Kyle Busch remained as the leader of the field by a narrow margin over teammate Keselowski while Bell, Cindric, Truex, Buescher, Kurt Busch, McDowell, Wallace and Denny Hamlin were in the top 10. By then, Greg Biffle, making his return to the Cup Series following a five-year absence, took his No. 44 NY Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the garage due to an engine issue.
By Lap 35, a majority of the field moved to the inside lane as Kyle Busch continued to lead ahead of Bell, Truex, Kurt Busch, Wallace, Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Keselowski and William Byron.
A few laps later, the first round of green-flag pit stops commenced as names like Cindric, Blaney, McDowell, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Cole Custer, David Ragan, Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe pitted. During the following lap, a majority of competitors led by Kyle Busch pitted. Then during the following lap and with another wave of competitors pitting, Villeneuve spun near the pit road entrance, but he proceeded without making contact with the wall as the race continued to run under green. In the midst of the pit stops, Ty Dillon was penalized for speeding on pit road.
Then on Lap 40, the first caution of the event flew when Kaz Grala lost a right-rear wheel of his No. 50 Money Team Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 2. At the same time, Briscoe got bumped by Cindric entering Turn 1 and spun his No. 14 Mahindra Ford Mustang, though he continued without sustaining any significant damage. Under caution, some like Larson and Bowman pitted.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 45, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano occupied the front row ahead of Hamlin and Harrison Burton. At the start, Busch jumped ahead through Turns 1 and 2, but Logano used the outside lane to his advantage as he received a push from Burton’s No. 21 Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Ford Mustang to challenge Busch for the lead.
Through the first 50 laps of the event, Kyle Busch was leading ahead of teammates Hamlin and Bell while Byron and Kurt Busch were in the top five. By then, Elliott, rookie Todd Gilliland, McDowell, Logano and Ross Chastain were in the top 10.
Shortly after, the caution returned when Justin Haley lost a right-front tire from his No. 31 LeafFilter Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 1. Under caution, some like Noah Gragson, Harvick, Custer, and Almirola pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the track.
On Lap 56, the race proceeded under green as teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Busch, who restarted on the outside lane, jumped with another strong advantage before moving in front of teammate Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry to retain the lead. Behind, Byron challenged Logano for third place with drafting help from Harrison Burton. During the following lap, Byron moved his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the lead through the back straightaway as he also moved in front of Busch’s No. 18 Toyota.
Then with the field engaged in close-quarters racing through double lanes, Harrison Burton received a push from Truex to challenge Byron for the lead.
By Lap 60, Burton was leading ahead of Keselowski before Truex mounted his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry alongside Burton’s car in Turn 1 in a bid for the lead.
Two laps later, however, the caution flew for a multi-car that started when Harrison Burton, who was challenging Truex for the lead, got bumped and turned off the front nose of Keselowski entering the back straightaway as he made contact with Byron, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Bell. While Byron slid and pounded the inside wall head-on, Burton’s No. 21 Ford went airborne and landed upside down on the roof before flipping back on all four wheels and coming to rest with a destroyed race car. Also involved were Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman. Despite the incident, Burton emerged uninjured as his strong start to the race came to an early end along with Byron, Hamlin and Chastain.
The multi-car wreck concluded the first stage scheduled for Lap 65 under caution as Truex claimed the first stage victory of the season. Keselowski settled in second ahead of Todd Gilliland, Stenhouse, Logano, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Larson and Elliott.
Under the stage break, some including Kurt Busch, who received minor damage from the multi-car wreck, pitted early. Not long after, the remainder of the field led by Truex pitted for service.
The second stage started on Lap 71 as Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Jones and Blaney dueled through the first two turns until Blaney received a push from teammate Cindric to clear Jones for the lead and retain the top spot when he returned to the start/finish line.
By Lap 75 and with the field fanning out to double lanes, Blaney continued to lead ahead of teammate Cindric and Jones, both of whom battled dead even for the runner-up spot. Chris Buescher and Stenhouse were in the top five ahead of Kevin Harvick, Daniel Suarez, Keselowski, Larson and Gilliland.
Fifteen laps later on Lap 90, Blaney remained as the leader ahead of teammate Cindric, Buescher, Harvick and Keselowski as the field settled in a long single-file line towards the inside lane.
At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Blaney was leading ahead of teammates Cindric, Buescher, Harvick, Gilliland, Custer, McDowell, Ty Dillon and Briscoe as Ford competitors occupied nine of the top-10 spots. Almirola, Logano, Larson, Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, Truex, Wallace and Kyle Busch were running in the top 20 ahead of Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez and Elliott, all of whom were running under three seconds behind the leader. Hemric, Corey LaJoie, Austin Dillon were in 24th, 25th and 26th followed by Landon Cassill, Codey Ware, David Ragan and Jacques Villeneuve, all of whom were on the lead lap.
Shortly after, names like Austin Dillon, Hemric, LaJoie, Cassill, David Ragan and Corey Ware pitted under green as Blaney continued to lead the field. During the pit stops, Cassill nearly clipped two of Cody Ware’s crew members while trying to exit his pit stall.
Then on Lap 107, a wave of competitors led by Blaney pitted, but Keselowski and Buescher managed to exit pit road ahead of Blaney. During the next lap, another wave led by Truex pitted. In the midst of the pit stops, Briscoe slid past his pit stall while Elliott stalled his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on pit road. In addition, Suarez was busted for speeding on pit road and forced to serve a drive-through penalty through pit road.
By Lap 110, Keselowski returned to the lead followed by Buescher, Blaney and the field. A few laps later, Custer pitted for a second time due to not getting fuel in his car during his first stop.
Through Lap 120, Keselowski continued to lead ahead of Buescher, Blaney, Harvick and Gilliland while Larson, who was running within the top 10, formed a line on the outside lane in his bid for the lead followed by Stenhouse, Logano and Truex.
Then five laps later, Larson motored his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the lead, but Keselowski fought back on the inside lane after receiving a push from ex-teammate Logano. As Larson drifted back into the top 10 while receiving no drafting help, Keselowski retained the lead ahead of Logano, Truex, Wallace and Cindric.
Then approaching the final lap of the second stage, Briscoe blocked Keselowski in an attempt to remain on the lead lap. Entering Turn 1, Keselowski moved to the inside lane in an attempt to pass Briscoe, but the rest of the field drafted with Briscoe as Logano moved his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang into the lead followed by Truex and Wallace. Then entering the tri-oval, Truex made his move beneath Logano and edged Logano to claim the second stage victory on Lap 130. Logano settled in second followed by Wallace, Keselowski, Stenhouse, Cindric, Buescher, Harvick, Larson and Gilliland.
Under the stage break, the field returned to pit road for service and Keselowski exited with the lead followed by Cindric, Larson, Wallace and Harvick. During the pit stops, McDowell was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Logano made a second trip to pit road to have the lug nuts on his car tightened.
With 63 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Keselowski quickly moved in front of Cindric to retain the lead and gain momentum. Behind, Wallace was in third while Harvick gained a run on the outside lane.
Soon after, Keselowski led a seven-car breakaway from the field followed by Cindric, Wallace, Erik Jones, Blaney, Buescher and Briscoe while Harvick fell back in a side-by-side battle with Gragson, who was piloting the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in his Cup debut.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event and with the majority of the field running on the inside lane while the rest settled on the outside lane, Keselowski was leading ahead of Cindric, Wallace, Jones and Blaney.
Just then, the caution flew when Tyler Reddick got bumped and turned off the front nose of Villeneuve entering the frontstretch and came across the path of Truex, Kurt Busch and Logano, with the former sustaining front-nose damage while the latter two spinning towards the tri-oval grass as Stenhouse also sustained damage. In the aftermath of the wreckage, Logano and Reddick needed assistance from wreckers to get their stuck cars out of the grass, which dropped them out of lead lap contention.
Under caution, the field pitted for a potential final round of fresh tires, fuel and adjustments as Cindric exited with the top spot following a two-tire pit stop ahead of Wallace, Blaney and Jones, all of whom took fuel only, while Keselowski exited in fifth place with two fresh tires.
With 41 laps remaining, the green flag waved. At the start, Cindric retained the lead ahead of teammate Blaney and Jones while Wallace got shoved out of the top five while making an attempt for the lead on the outside lane.
During the following lap, Cindric was out in front of a four-car breakaway followed by Blaney, Jones and Keselowski while Briscoe, Wallace and the field closed in through Turns 3 and 4.
Another three laps later, Kyle Busch shoved Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry to the lead on the outside lane as Cindric fought back on the inside lane with drafting help from Blaney’s No. 12 Menards Blue DEF Ford Mustang.
With 35 laps remaining and the field engaged in a duel and close-quarters racing, Wallace, who had Kyle Busch pushing him on the outside lane, battled Cindric, who had teammate Blaney pushing him on the inside lane, for the lead. By then, the top-15 competitors were separated by half a second.
Five laps later, Wallace and Cindric continued to duel dead even for the lead. Soon after, the inside lane gained a brief advantage as Cindric cleared Wallace to assume full command of the lead followed by Blaney, Erik Jones, Keselowski and Briscoe while Wallace was back in sixth alongside McDowell’s No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang.
Another five laps later, the outside lane regained their momentum as Kyle Busch shoved Wallace back to the lead ahead of Cindric. Soon after, Wallace and Kyle Busch cleared the field and moved in front of Cindric’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang. By then, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. started to formulate a run for the lead on the outside lane with drafting help from Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang.
With 20 laps remaining, the battle for the lead and the win continued to intensify as Wallace and Stenhouse engaged in a heated duel for the top spot. While Stenhouse’s No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 had drafting help from Buescher, Wallace continued to fight back on the inside lane with drafting support from Kyle Busch.
Two laps later, the outside lane prevailed as Stenhouse started to lead a multi-car breakaway followed by Buescher, Larson, Gilliland, Harvick and Erik Jones. The field soon settled in a long single-car line on the outside lane as Wallace was mired back in 11th.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event and with fuel in question for the front-runners, Stenhouse, who was told he had enough fuel to finish, continued to lead. Then just as the intensity started to crescendo with the competitors fanning out to double lanes, a multi-car wreck erupted just past the start/finish line when Harvick, who got caught up in an accordion effect with Buescher and Larson, slipped sideways off the front nose of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet and clipped Gragson, who pounded the inside wall head-on in front of Larson, which destroyed his car. Also involved were Erik Jones, Elliott and rookie Todd Gilliland, who also impacted the inside wall head-on. The wreck was enough for NASCAR to pause the race for approximately five minutes before the field proceeded under caution.
When the race proceeded under green with six laps remaining, Stenhouse and Cindric engaged in a heated battle for the lead before Cindric started to pull away on the inside lane with drafting help from Blaney. As the field returned to the start/finish line, Stenhouse got turned off the front nose of Keselowski and bounced off of Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota before spinning and slapping the outside wall as Buescher got collected in the carnage. The wreck evaporated Stenhouse’s hopes of winning his first Daytona 500 as he was unable to continue.
The late incident involving Stenhouse was enough to send the event into overtime. At the start, Cindric jumped with an early advantage and immediately moved in front of teammate Blaney from the outside to the inside lane to retain the lead. Through the back straightaway, Keselowski received a push from Briscoe to try to close in on Cindric on the outside lane.
When the white flag waved, Cindric was still leading by a narrow margin over teammate Blaney, Keselowski and the field. Through the first two turns and the back straightaway, Cindric continued to maintain his ground on the inside lane with teammate Blaney settling behind him while Keselowski continued to lurk but not close on the outside lane.
Then entering Turns 3 and 4, Cindric started to pull away followed by Blaney and Wallace while Keselowski could not gain drafting help from Briscoe. Entering the frontstretch and the tri-oval, Briscoe then squeezed himself past Keselowski towards the outside wall as Blaney and Wallace mounted a final challenge on Cindric for the win. As Blaney made a move to the outside of Cindric, Cindric blocked Blaney while making slight contact with his Penske teammate. That opened the door for Wallace to pounce, but at the finish line, Cindric edged Wallace by 0.036 seconds to win as another multi-car wreck erupted behind, among which were involved included Blaney and Keselowski.
With the victory, Cindric, who won in NASCAR’s first points-paying event with the new Next Gen stock cars, became the 41st different competitor to win the Daytona 500 and the ninth to notch a first Cup career victory in the 500 as he delivered the 17th 500 triumph for the Ford nameplate, the first for crew chief Jeremy Bullins and the third for Team Penske and team owner Roger Penske, who turned 85 years old. In addition, Cindric became the 199th different competitor to win in NASCAR’s premier series and the 37th different competitor to achieve a victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Camping World Truck, Xfinity and Cup).
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Oh my god!” Cindric exclaimed on FOX. “You know what makes [winning] better. A packed house! A packed house at the Daytona 500! I’ve got so many people to thank, first and foremost. Roger Penske, happy birthday! Oh my gosh! [I] Appreciate Ryan [Blaney] being a great teammate. Obviously, he wants to win this one. I’m so pumped for Discount Tire, Menards, Ford, everyone who works so hard with this Next Gen car through this whole process. I am so excited. This makes up for losing a [Xfinity] championship last race I did.”
“I’m surrounded by great people,” Cindric added. “That’s all there is to it. I know there’s gonna be highs and lows being a rookie in a field of drivers this strong. I’m just grateful for the opportunity. [I’m] Excited to climb the mountain we got ahead of us on this No. 2 team. We’re in the Playoffs! That’s one good box check, but oh my gosh! What an awesome group of fans. What an awesome race car. Just really thankful.”
Behind Cindric was Wallace, who nursed his car with a damaged right-front fender to tie his best Daytona 500 result with a runner-up result while Briscoe made a late charge to finish third, which marks his first top-five result in the Cup circuit. Blaney fell back to fourth despite getting consumed in the final lap accident while Aric Almirola commenced his final full-time Cup season in fifth place.
“What could have been, right?” Wallace said. “Just dejected, but the thing that keeps me up is just the hard work that we put into our speedway stuff. The hard work from everybody at 23XI [Racing]. Proud of them. Can’t thank them enough. I knew this was a big move last year for me to go out and be competitive. We’re showing that. There’s always a first race into the season. You’re getting through everything, but when you come out of the gates like that, it’s empowering. It’s encouraging, so thanks to everybody back at the shop. McDonald’s almost got them another [win], back-to-back superspeedway wins. That would’ve been awesome, especially with them being in the 500. Just short…Great Speedweeks, though. We come home second. I’m gonna be pissed off about this for a while. I was happy on the first second-place we got a couple years ago. This one sucks when you’re that close, but all in all, I’m happy for our team. Happy for our partners and on to California.”
“I needed to be able to get to Brad [Keselowski to win],” Briscoe said. “He was having to drag so much brake for me to be able to help him that I wished I was more help. I felt like if I could’ve just locked on, I could’ve gotten him up there. To be sleeping on couches and volunteering at shops six or seven years ago, and now to have a chance to win the Daytona 500 at the end, to finish third and start the year off with these Mahindra Tractors folks and HighPoint.com, all the people that get us to the race track. We wanna be a Playoff contender this year and having a good run here is a good start. [I] Wished we could’ve had one more lap. You never know what could happen, but yeah, super cool to finish third.”
“Coming to the restart there for the green-white-checkered, I really had those thoughts like, ‘Man, this is gonna be a storybook ending coming down here for my last full-time season with this team,” Almirola said. “Having Shane [Smith, President and CEO of Smithfield] and so many people from Smithfield here. I felt like I was in a great spot. It still hurts. It’s an awesome feeling. I’m gonna miss that, coming down the white flag lap, feeling like you have a shot to win the Daytona 500. That’s an incredible feeling. Just so proud of Ford for getting to Victory Lane…This is incredible to come here and almost feel like we had a shot at getting it done. Dang it. So close.”
Kyle Busch, McDowell, Ragan, Keselowski and Elliott finished in the top 10 as 15 competitors finished on the lead lap.
Truex settled in 13th behind Daniel Hemric, Daniel Suarez ended up in 18th ahead of Kurt Busch and Logano finished 21st ahead of Villeneueve. Stenhouse, Harvick and Larson were scored in 28th, 30th and 32nd after having their opportunities to win the 500 spoiled due to the late carnage.
There were 36 lead changes for 13 different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 37 laps.
Following the first event of the 2022 Cup Series event, Austin Cindric and Brad Keselowski are locked in a tie for the lead in the regular-season standings by five points ahead of Martin Truex Jr., seven over Bubba Wallace and 13 ahead of Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney.
Results.
1. Austin Cindric, 21 laps led
2. Bubba Wallace, 12 laps led
3. Chase Briscoe
4. Ryan Blaney, 36 laps led
5. Aric Almirola
6. Kyle Busch, 28 laps led
7. Michael McDowell
8. David Ragan
9. Brad Keselowski, 67 laps led
10. Chase Elliott
11. Ty Dillon
12. Daniel Hemric
13. Martin Truex Jr., 11 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
14. Corey LaJoie
15. Landon Cassill
16. Chris Buescher, one lap down
17. Cody Ware, one lap down
18. Daniel Suarez, one lap down
19. Kurt Busch, two laps down
20. Cole Custer, two laps down
21. Joey Logano, three laps down, one lap led
22. Jacques Villeneuve, three laps down
23. Justin Haley, three laps down
24. Alex Bowman, four laps down
25. Austin Dillon, four laps down
26. Kaz Grala, five laps down
27. BJ McLeod, five laps down
28. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident, 16 laps led
29. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident, three laps led
30. Kevin Harvick – OUT, Dvp
31. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident
32. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident, one lap led
33. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Accident
34. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident
35. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident
36. Greg Biffle, 65 laps down
37. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Accident
38. William Byron – OUT, Accident, one lap led
39. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident, three laps led
40. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident
With the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season underway, the competitors will be embarking on a three-race West Coast swing over the next three weeks, beginning with the return of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, following a one-year absence. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, February 27, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Joey Logano etched his name as the winner of the 2022 Busch Light Clash in NASCAR’s inaugural exhibition event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, February 6, after leading the final 35 laps and fending off a late challenge from Kyle Busch. The victory marked Logano’s second career Clash victory after winning his first at Daytona International Speedway in February 2017 as he also emerged victorious in NASCAR’s first event with the Gen 7 stock cars.
The lineup for the exhibition feature was determined through the use of four 25-lap heat races, caution laps not included, and nine competitors from a total of 36 competing in each. The top-four finishers from each heat (16 total) earned a one-way ticket to the Clash. Afterwards, the 20 competitors who did not advance to the Clash via the heat races participated in two 50-lap Last Chance Qualifying races with the top-three finishers in each Last Chance Qualifying event advancing to the Clash.
In the first Heat event, Kyle Busch, the reigning Clash champion who posted the fastest qualifying lap at 65.478 mph on Saturday and started on the pole, transferred after leading all 25 laps and finishing first ahead of runner-up Daniel Suarez. They were joined by third-place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and fourth-place finisher Ryan Blaney in the main event while Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, rookie Todd Gilliland, Aric Almirola and BJ McLeod were sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers. The first Heat victory gave Kyle Busch the top starting spot for the main event
In the second Heat event, Tyler Reddick, who started on the pole, ran away from the field to lead all 25 laps, finish first and transfer followed by Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer. Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., rookie Harrison Burton and Brad Keselowski were sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers. The second Heat victory gave Reddick a front row starting spot alongside Kyle Busch for the main event.
In the third Heat event, Justin Haley, who commenced his first full-time campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series competitor for Kaulig Racing on the pole, fended off the field to lead all 25 laps and transfer to the main event after finishing first. Joining him were William Byron, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott while AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Cody Ware and Corey LaJoie were sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers. The third Heat victory placed Haley on the second row for the Clash.
In the fourth and final Heat event, Joey Logano, who started on pole, survived through two restarts to lead all 25 laps and transfer by finishing first ahead of Kyle Larson, the reigning Cup Series champion. Michael McDowell, the reigning Daytona 500 champion, finished third and also transferred along with Erik Jones, a former Clash winner. Austin Cindric, who spun on Lap 9 after getting hit by Landon Cassill and was trying to carve his way back to the front, settled in fifth and was sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers along with Ryan Preece, Kurt Busch, Cassill and Ty Dillon, who brought out an early caution after his car slowed due to a broken transmission. The fourth Heat victory placed Logano alongside Haley in the second row.
Prior to the event, Larson was the lone competitor who was guaranteed a spot to the 2022 Busch Light Clash based on point provisional and being the reigning Cup champion. With Larson earning a top-four result in his heat event, however, Martin Truex Jr. was awarded a spot for the Clash based on points provisional due to finishing in the runner-up result in the 2021 Cup standings behind Larson. He opted to not participate in the Last Chance Qualifiers and use the points provisional to start at the rear of the field for the main event.
In the first Last Chance Qualifying event, Denny Hamlin raced his way into the main event after leading all 50 laps and finishing first ahead of Kevin Harvick and AJ Allmendinger, both of whom also transferred. Cody Ware, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, rookie Todd Gilliland and BJ McLeod failed to qualify for the main event. Another competitor who headed home early was Aric Almirola, who commenced his final full-time season in NASCAR competition on a low note after getting bumped by Gilliland on Lap 4, which sent Almirola’s No. 10 Farmer John Ford Mustang sliding and making hard contact against the Turn 3 outside wall. The Floridian was very quick to express a warning finger towards the Front Row Motorsports rookie competitor following the incident.
In the second and final Last Chance Qualifying event, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton survived a series of on-track carnages and restarts to claim the final transfer spots into the main event. Ty Dillon, who was originally penalized for jumping the restart with less than 20 laps remaining but fought his way back to the front, was first across the finish line in the final Last Chance Qualifying event, but was penalized a second time for jumping the final restart with three laps remaining and disqualified from the main event. As a result, Preece was promoted to first place ahead of Wallace and Burton, who rallied from spinning while leading with three laps remaining. Dillon joined Brad Keselowski, rookie Austin Cindric, Landon Cassill, Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman, all of whom were involved in at least one on-track incident, as the next wave of competitors that were sent home and out of the main event.
When the main event commenced under green, Kyle Busch and Reddick dueled for the lead for a full lap as Reddick led the first lap by a nose. Busch was able to lead the following two laps before Reddick muscled his way into the lead by the fourth lap.
Through the first 10 laps of the event, Reddick’s No. 8 Guaranteed Rate Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was leading ahead of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry while Haley, Logano and Suarez were in the top five.
Ten laps later and with the leaders catching lapped traffic amid the close-quarter racing, Reddick continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch while Haley, Logano and Suarez remained in the top five. Larson was in sixth ahead of teammate Byron, Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer while Erik Jones, McDowell, Christopher Bell, Blaney and Elliott were in the top 15. By then, Bubba Wallace, Stenhouse and Hamlin were lapped by the leaders.
By Lap 35, Reddick stabilized his advantage to less than four-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch as Haley and Logano remained in third and fourth. Meanwhile, Larson overtook Suarez to move into the top five.
Through the first 50 laps of the event, Reddick remained as the leader by more than a second over Kyle Busch while Logano was up in third place in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang. Haley was in fourth while Larson and Briscoe battled for fifth. Byron, Suarez, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones were in the top 10 ahead of Blaney, Elliott, Custer, Bell and Kevin Harvick. By then, names like McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., teammate Hamlin, Preece, Stenhouse and Wallace were mired at least a lap behind the leaders.
Three laps later, the first caution of the main event flew when Stenhouse spun in Turn 4. At the same time, Hamlin, who was off the pace prior to the caution, pulled his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry into the infield as his pit crew popped the hood opened to diagnose a power steering belt issue. The issue was enough to terminate Hamlin’s run in the Coliseum.
Prior to the restart, Reddick, who was leading, and Briscoe, who was in fourth, retired after both encountered mechanical issues related to the driveshaft. These late turn of events moved Kyle Busch and Logano to the front of the grid.
When the race restarted, Busch was able to clear Logano to retain the lead as Larson challenged Logano for the runner-up spot. Not long after, Logano retained second and Haley move his No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into third place while Larson slipped to fourth ahead of teammate Byron.
By Lap 60, Kyle Busch continued to lead by nearly half a second over Logano while Haley, Larson and Byron stabilized themselves in the top five ahead of Erik Jones, Elliott, Blaney, Bell and Austin Dillon. Meanwhile, Suarez was in 11th ahead of Allmendinger, Custer, Harvick, Harrison Burton and McDowell.
Five laps later, the caution returned when Elliott spun his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 2.
Shortly after and when the race restarted under green, Kyle Busch and Logano dueled for the lead for a second time before Busch managed to clear Logano and retain the top spot. Behind, Byron challenged Haley for third ahead of Larson and Blaney.
When the race reached the halfway mark and a break period on Lap 75, Kyle Busch fended off a last lap bump from Logano, which sent Busch’s car out of the racing groove, to retain the lead by a narrow margin. By then, Haley was in third ahead of Byron, Larson, Blaney, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Bell and Allmendinger.
When the second half of the Clash started under green, Kyle Busch retained the lead as Byron settled in second ahead of Logano and the field. Meanwhile, Ryan Preece pulled his No. 15 Jacob Companies Ford Mustang to the infield due to a brake failure.
A few laps later, a brief three-wide battle for second ensued between Larson, Logano and Byron before Larson prevailed ahead of both. Behind, Haley settled in fifth ahead of Austin Dillon, Blaney, Jones, Bell and Allmendinger.
With 60 laps remaining, Kyle Busch stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Logano while Larson, Haley and Byron remained in the top five. By then, 17 of 23 competitors were scored on the lead lap with Truex settling in 17th.
Fifteen laps later, Kyle Busch remained as the leader by less than seven-tenths of a second over Logano. Behind, Larson remained in third ahead of teammate Byron and Haley while Austin Dillon, Blaney, Erik Jones, Bell and Chase Elliott were in the top 10.
Another 15 laps later, the caution flew when Blaney fell off the pace and retired after an earlier bump and contact with Erik Jones sent Blaney into the outside wall. The incident prompted Blaney to toss his HANS device to Jones’ No. 43 FOCUSFactor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the track to express his displeasure as his race came to an end. Prior to the caution, Kyle Busch was being pressured by Logano for the lead, where he got bumped by Logano’s Ford through the braking turns, as he was catching lapped traffic.
When the race restarted, Kyle Busch and Logano continued to duel for the lead. Just then, the caution returned when Larson, who was battling Haley for third, veered and body slammed into the side of Haley and sent the Winamac, Indiana, native head-on into the inside concrete barriers on the frontstretch. The incident spoiled Haley’s strong weekend and a potential opportunity to win as he retired in the infield.
Following another restart, Logano muscled his way into the lead and Larson moved his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into second ahead of Kyle Busch.
With less than 30 laps remaining, Logano was leading by a little over half a second over Larson and Kyle Busch while Austin Dillon and Byron battled for fourth.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Logano continued to lead by less than nine-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch, who earlier used his car to overtake Larson for second as he set his sights on Logano for the lead.
Five laps later and as Kyle Busch continued to close in on Logano for the lead, Austin Dillon moved up to third followed by Byron and Erik Jones while Larson slipped back to sixth ahead of Christopher Bell.
With 10 laps remaining, the battle for the lead intensified as Logano had Kyle Busch covering his rear view mirrors with Busch drawing himself closer to Logano’s rear bumper.
Down to the final five laps, the gap between Logano and Kyle Busch was down to less than half a second as Logano remained in the lead.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano stabilized himself with a respective advantage over Kyle Busch. With no challengers able to close in behind him, Logano was able to methodically navigate his way around the Coliseum smoothly for a final time and cross the finish line in first place to win by nearly nine-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch as Truex and McDowell wrecked in front of the leaders.
With Logano becoming the first NASCAR competitor to win at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Clash victory was also the fifth for Team Penske and the 10th for the Ford nameplate.
“I can’t believe it!” Logano, who revealed that his wife was expecting their third baby on FOX, exclaimed. “We’re here. The L.A. Coliseum. We got the victory with the old Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. This is an amazing event. Congratulations, NASCAR. Such a huge step in our industry to be able to do this, put on an amazing race for everybody. I’m out of breath. I was so excited about this. This is a big win. [Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], [race engineer] Shaggy [Pope] and the engineers do a great job. The guys working on the car did an amazing job of finding speed when we were slow. We were 28th or so on the board yesterday and made some good changes, worked with our teammate Ryan Blaney a lot. I owe a lot to him, too. To see some of the gains they made and ultimately get the win. This is special. To get the first Next Gen win, the first win out here on the Coliseum, it’s a special one. We’re gonna have some fun and celebrate it.”
Kyle Busch, the reigning Clash winner who led a race-high 64 laps compared to Logano’s 35, settled in second place followed by Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and Larson.
“I was being perfect doing everything I needed to do—keep the tires underneath me,” Busch said. “When I got close, I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to try more and pounce at an opportunity,’ and just overheated the tires and smoked them in three laps and that was it. Disappointing, obviously. To come out here, win the pole, lead laps, run up front, the finish goes green and it’s not chaotic, and we can’t win. That sucks.”
“From where we were last night, it took a lot of crazy faith, a little prayer last night, talked to myself,” Dillon added. “We got it together today, though. The True Velocity Chevrolet was really fast, in practice. I just struggled a little bit [through] qualifying. I knew we’d get in the race, we’re gonna be fine. The long run speed was there. I’m disappointed I couldn’t get to those next two cars that were really wanting to get there, but all in all, a great race from where we were last night. Everybody back home at [Richard Childress Racing did] a good job. It was a good showing from us.”
Byron, Custer, Bell, Allmendinger and Harvick completed the top 10 on the track.
There were five lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured five cautions for no laps.
Results.
1. Joey Logano, 35 laps led
2. Kyle Busch, 64 laps led
3. Austin Dillon
4. Erik Jones
5. Kyle Larson
6. William Byron
7. Cole Custer
8. Christopher Bell
9. AJ Allmendinger
10. Kevin Harvick
11. Chase Elliott
12. Harrison Burton
13. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14. Daniel Suarez
15. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down
16. Michael McDowell, one lap down
17. Ryan Blaney, three laps down
18. Bubba Wallace, four laps down
19. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident
20. Ryan Preece – OUT, Oil Pressure
21. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Drivetrain, 51 laps led
22. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Drivetrain
23. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Power
The NASCAR Cup Series competitors will be taking a one-week break before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the 64th running of the Daytona 500 scheduled for February 20 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX. Practices will occur on February 15 from 5:05-5:55 and 6:35-7:25 p.m. ET with a third practice session to occur on February 18 from 6 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. ET. The pole position qualifying session for the 500 is scheduled to occur on February 16 at 8:05 p.m. ET while the Bluegreen Vacations Duels, which will determine the remainder of the lineup for the 500, will occur on February 17 at 7 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET, both to air on FS1.
When NASCAR faithful talk about Dale Earnhardt Sr., several things come to mind. The black No. 3, seven championships, 76 points wins, the mustache, The Intimidator…also the 1998 Daytona 500 winner.
Dale Sr.’s Daytona 500 struggles were well documented and in many ways came to define his career as much as his other successes did. There was the 1990 500, the 1993 500, the 1997 500, and others that played into his Daytona 500 campaign before he finally won in 1998. Leading the field when the caution flew on the 198th lap out of the scheduled 200, Dale Sr. crossed the line to the praise and joy of all in the NASCAR nation.
But if Dale Sr. can cross the finish line and score his first Daytona 500 win under caution, why can’t Bubba Wallace’s first career win be considered just as valid?
It isn’t an ideal situation when a race is called early. Drivers are left wondering if they had more on the table in order to score the checkered but ultimately, in the NASCAR record books it still counts as a win. Drivers still get the trophy and points. And there’s no shame to it; Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Kurt Busch have all won shortened events, as have Ryan Newman, and Joey Logano.
Why should Wallace’s victory in the YellaWood 500 be any different? If Dale Sr.’s victory is revered as one of the biggest moments in NASCAR history, or Edwards’s 2016 Texas win looked back on as an end of an era, why shouldn’t Wallace get the credit for his win?
Of course, there are those who are iffy on shortened wins. Justin Haley got his first Cup win in a shortened event due to rain when he won at Daytona in 2019. He didn’t get it on speed but on strategy. Same for Chris Buescher at Pocono in 2016, and ditto for David Reutimann at Charlotte in 2009. For that matter, the same can be said for Logano’s first career win at New Hampshire in ’09 as well. It’s easy to see why it’s tempting to put an asterisk by a shortened win when faced with that list of races.
But like Dale Sr. in 1998, Wallace had a strong car at Talladega. He’s an efficient plate race, with three top-fives at Daytona and several strong runs at Talladega including a stage win in the spring. On Monday he ran a patient race, running near the front before putting his car into the lead five laps from the finish. It wasn’t a dominant performance like Dale Sr.’s 1998 Daytona run, but it was evident that Wallace had a potential winning car.
It wasn’t a full race, sadly, but in the end, it was past the halfway point. Any way it gets painted, a win is a win. Just ask Michael Waltrip, who earned his second Daytona 500 win in 2003 after the race was called after 109 of 200 laps. The trophy, check, and credit is still awarded to the driver leading when the race is called.
Social media warriors can still cry about NASCAR rigging the race and how they feel that Wallace didn’t warrant the win but ultimately it’s sour grapes. Wallace did battle, he played the game, and in the end, he was in the right place at the right time when the race was called. That was enough for Wallace and his 23XI Racing crew to break through and earn the title of NASCAR Cup Series winners.
It’s a time for celebration, not negativity. Wallace’s win was the first for a black driver since 1963, and with that being said it’s a time for celebration for the sport for that matter. So to those who call themselves fans yet sneer and detract from Wallace’s win, it’s time they evaluate what they truly want out of this sport for themselves.
History was made under a wet, cloudy afternoon at Talladega, Alabama, after Bubba Wallace won the rain-shortened YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Monday, October 4, and claimed his first elusive NASCAR Cup Series career win.
Wallace, who dodged a late-race multi-car wreck, stormed to the lead with drafting help from Brad Keselowski with seven laps remaining in the second stage and continued to lead when another multi-car wreck occurred behind him two laps later that drew a caution. Soon after, rain, which dominated the weekend and forced the event to be postponed from its scheduled start on Sunday, October 3, began to pour across the superspeedway venue, which forced NASCAR to red-flag the event and park the field to pit road.
Nearly an hour after the event was red-flagged and with lightning strikes being reported along with continuous rain, NASCAR made the race official and Wallace was handed his first career win at his home track in NASCAR’s premier series and in his 143rd series start, thus becoming the second African-American competitor to win in the Cup level.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Denny Hamlin, winner of last weekend’s Playoff event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and last year’s fall event at Talladega, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Kyle Busch.
Prior to the event, Quin Houff and Joey Gase started at the rear of the field due to failing pre-race inspection twice. James Davison also started at the rear of the field for replacing David Starr for the event.
Following a one-and-a-half-hour delay due to morning precipitation on the track on Sunday, October 3, the competitors fired up their engines and hit the track in an attempt to commence the event on a cloudy afternoon. Not long after, however, precipitation hit the track again, which forced the pace car to lead the field back on to pit road and under another weather delay.
Then, NASCAR made the call to postpone the event from Sunday to Monday due to the continuous rain and no weather relief in sight.
When the competitors returned a day later, the race was able to start under green on a clear, cloudy afternoon. At the start, Kyle Busch jumped ahead with the lead on the inside lane followed by Chase Elliott while Hamlin slipped to third on the outside lane.
As Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski started to gain a run exiting the backstretch and entering the frontstretch, Kyle Busch was able to lead the first lap as the field began to fan out to multiple lanes and in a tight pack.
Just past the start/finish line, Logano stormed to the lead on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Keselowski and Hamlin. Despite receiving a strong push to jump ahead through the backstretch, Logano nearly lost the top spot to Kyle Busch entering the frontstretch, but he was able to lead the following lap by a nose.
Through the first five laps of the event, Kyle Busch, who moved back to the lead on the third lap, was leading ahead of Elliott, Larson Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman. Tyler Reddick was in sixth ahead of Logano, rookie Chase Briscoe, Matt DiBenedetto and Bubba Wallace. By then, Hamlin pulled his car out of the pack as part of a strategic move and settled his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry in 29th place.
By Lap 10, Harvick, who took over the lead on the sixth lap, was leading ahead of Ford teammates Logano, DiBenedetto, Ryan Blaney, Keselowski and Aric Almirola. Austin Dillon was in seventh ahead of William Byron, Cole Custer and Kyle Busch.
Soon after, the field, which had broken apart and was divided into certain sections of competitors, was back competing in a tight pack within the draft and beginning to fan out to multiple lanes. Then, the field fanned out three lanes deep as Truex, who received drafting help from Wallace, challenged Harvick and DiBenedetto for the lead, which he succeeded on Lap 15 before being overtaken by Larson two laps later.
By Lap 20, Custer, who received drafting help from teammate Harvick, emerged with the lead ahead of Larson, who led the previous three laps, while Logano and Wallace were in the top five ahead of a steaming pack of cars. By then, 38 of the 40 starters were separated by less than six seconds.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 25, Custer was still leading in his No. 41 Autodesk Ford Mustang ahead of Harvick, Logano, Blaney, Elliott, Keselowski and the field that settled through double lanes. By then, names like DiBenedetto, Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Aric Almirola, Briscoe, Reddick, Hamlin and Christopher Bell were running outside the top 20 while Truex, Alex Bowman, Byron, Larson and Kyle Busch were back inside the top 20.
Under the competition caution, the majority of the field pitted while 12 competitors led by rookie Anthony Alfredo remained on the track. During the pit stops, Hamlin slid through his pit box and had to back up for fresh tires while Elliott nearly made contact with Cody Ware while exiting his pit stall.
A lap later, the 12 competitors led by Alfredo who remained on the track pitted, giving the lead to Harvick.
When the race restarted on Lap 29, Harvick briefly jumped ahead with the top spot on the inside lane before Truex received a big push from Kurt Busch and Keselowski to take the lead through the backstretch.
Then, Kurt Busch moved his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to pass Truex on the inside lane and lead the following lap. Truex, though, fought back on the outside lane as the field was engaged in a competitive, tight pack within the draft.
By Lap 35, Harvick, who reassumed the lead a lap earlier, was ahead of Team Penske’s Blaney and Logano. Austin Dillon was up in fourth ahead of Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Hamlin, Custer and the field. Meanwhile, Kurt Busch was in ninth, Truex was in 11th, Kyle Busch was in 14th, Byron was in 20th, teammates Larson and Bowman were in 22nd and 23rd, and Elliott was in 29th.
Approaching the Lap 38 mark, the field fanned out to three lanes at the front as Hamlin challenged Keselowski and Harvick for the top spot. In the middle of the pack, a four-wide action nearly occurred that included Logano.
Through the first 40 laps of the event, Keselowski was leading ahead of Buescher, Hamlin, Logano, Austin Dillon, Harvick and the field. By then, Michael McDowell, who suffered damage under the competition caution and lost in touch with the field and the draft prior to the restart, was lapped by the leaders.
Three laps later, the top-26 competitors were separated by a second as Keselowski challenged and overtook Hamlin, who led the previous two laps, for the top spot. By then, Keselowski had drafting help from Ford teammate Chris Buescher and Logano while Hamlin was trying to keep Bowman in the draft. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon was trying to form a third line on the inside lane, but he was overtaken by the other two lanes that had a multitude of cars within the draft.
By Lap 50 and through the closing laps of the first stage, the majority of the field were running in a long single-file line on the outside lane led by Keselowski. In addition, names like Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley were in the top 10 while names like Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick were in the top 15. Justin Allgaier, an Xfinity Series veteran, was in 16th ahead of Elliott.
Four laps later, Buescher, who bumped and moved Keselowski out of the way through the backstretch, led a lap for himself ahead of Logano and Harvick. Keselowski, meanwhile, was back in fourth alongside teammate Blaney.
On Lap 56, the caution flew when Justin Allgaier, running within the top 10, got bumped and turned off the front nose of Byron entering the frontstretch, where he collided against Larson’s No. 5 Cincinnati Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE against the outside wall before sliding across the track and near the pit road exit. Briscoe and Ryan Preece were also involved in the accident.
The early incident concluded the first stage scheduled on Lap 60 under caution as Buescher claimed his second stage victory of the season and the first since Homestead-Miami Speedway in February. Logano, the highest-running Playoff contender, settled in second ahead of Keselowski, Harvick, Reddick, Blaney, Elliott, Ross Chastain, Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman. By then, names like Byron, Kyle Busch and Truex were in the top-17 while Hamlin was in 23rd. Meanwhile, Larson, who was having issues re-firing his car during the repairs, lost a lap to the leaders.
Through the first stage, 12 different competitors had led at least a lap, comprising of 17 different lead changes.
Under the stage break, nearly the entire field pitted while names like Ricky Stenhouse Jr., DiBenedetto and Daniel Suarez remained on the track. Once the competitors who did not pit earlier pitted, Logano was leading ahead of Hamlin, Keselowski, Buescher and Blaney. Meanwhile, Harvick pitted a second time after reporting a flat left-rear tire, which sent him to the rear of the field.
The second stage started on Lap 64. At the start, Logano received a push from teammate Keselowski to maintain the top spot on the inside lane through the first turn while Hamlin challenged Blaney on the outside lane.
The following lap, Kyle Busch intentionally drew his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry out of the pack to settle behind the pack as Reddick challenged Logano for the lead. Reddick, however, was overpowered by Team Penske’s three Playoff competitors led by Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Larson, who continued with the damage on his No. 5 car, lost the right-front tire, smacked the Turn 2 outside wall and shredded debris across the racing surface, making his day go from bad to worse.
Under caution, some led by Reddick and Hamlin pitted, mainly for fuel, while the rest led by Logano and Keselowski remained on the track. By then, Larson, who was four laps behind, was able to continue after meeting the minimum speed allotted while damaged.
On Lap 70, the entire field pitted for enough fuel to complete the second stage with weather threats looming near the track and the teams aiming to reach the halfway point to make the race official. During the pit stops, Hamlin nearly clipped Blaney while trying to enter his pit stall, which cost him time and positions.
Following the pit stops, Cody Ware was the leader ahead of Logano, Keselowski, Buescher, Blaney and Harvick while Bell, Kyle Busch, Reddick and Joey Gase were in the top 10.
Soon after, reports of rain near Turn 1 were reported as the pace car continued to lead the field at a cautious pace. Then on Lap 73, the pace car led the field to pit road and the race was red-flagged for a weather delay and for the jet dryers to dry the racing surface in Turns 1 and 2.
More than 18 laps later, the competitors returned to their cars and re-ignited the engines after the racing surfaces through the first two turns were dried, though weather threats and a flash flood watch remained within sight of the superspeedway venue.
When the field returned to the track, the competitors returned to pit road for another round of topping off with fuel to get to the conclusion of the second stage. Meanwhile, Justin Haley and LaJoie remained on the track ahead of Team Penske’s three competitors along with Buescher, Reddick, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch and Harvick.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 77, Haley, piloting the No. 16 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Kaulig Racing, received drafting help from Logano on the inside lane while LaJoie had drafting help from Blaney on the outside lane through the first two turns.
Through the backstretch and entering the frontstretch, a third lane formulated on the outside lane as Buescher jumped ahead of LaJoie to move towards the front. Meanwhile, Haley continued to lead ahead of Logano and Keselowski.
By Lap 80, Bell moved his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry to the lead as he received drafting help from Harvick and Hamlin while Buescher, who briefly led, nearly wrecked entering the second turn. Meanwhile, Bell was in front of a long single-file line running on the outside lane. In addition, names like Ryan Preece, Stenhouse, Cody Ware, Michael McDowell and Erik Jones were in the top 10.
Four laps later, Hamlin, who moved to the inside lane entering the frontstretch, received a push from former teammate Erik Jones to take the lead over teammate Bell. With Hamlin out in front, Jones and Custer were in second and third while Bell fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from Harvick.
Through 90 laps and with the intensity of the pack racing crescendoing, Harvick, who took over the lead a lap earlier, was leading ahead of Alex Bowman and Bell, who led the previous six of nine laps. Hamlin and Stenhouse were in the top five followed by Elliott, Erik Jones, Keselowski, Custer and Alfredo. By then, the top-36 competitors were separated by three seconds. Meanwhile, Larson was mired back in 39th, four laps behind. In addition, Briscoe was lapped by the field.
At the halfway mark on Lap 94, which would make the race official, Bell, who reassumed the lead two laps earlier, was out in front with drafting help from teammate Hamlin. Bowman then challenged on the outside lane followed by Harvick, Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Elliott, Custer, Keselowski, Buescher and the field mired in a tight three-wide pack.
Three laps later, the caution flew when Alex Bowman, who led the previous lap and was challenging Bell for the lead, was bumped by Stenhouse exiting the backstretch and made head-on contact into the outside wall before he was hit hard by Ross Chastain, which demolished his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. While most of the field dodged the incident, names like Reddick, Kyle Busch, Truex, DiBenedetto, Quin Houff, BJ McLeod and Preece were involved. The wreck, however, placed Bowman in a “must-win” scenario for next weekend’s Playoff event at the Charlotte Roval to keep his title hopes alive.
With 17 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green as Stenhouse and Bell filled in the front row. At the start, Stenhouse had drafting help from Chase Elliott on the outside lane while Bell had teammate Hamlin and Harvick pushing him on the inside lane through the first two turns.
When the field returned to the frontstretch, Stenhouse maintained the lead followed by Elliott and Keselowski while Bell slipped back to fourth after losing the draft with Hamlin and Harvick. A lap later, though, Bell fought back on the inside lane, but Stenhouse continued to maintain the lead with continuous help from Elliott.
By Lap 108, Kurt Busch, who initially was pushing Bubba Wallace a lap earlier, stormed to the lead ahead of a three-wide cluster of cars with the skies darkening.
Down to the final 10 laps of the second stage, Kurt Busch was leading ahead of Harvick, Bell, Stenhouse and Hamlin while Wallace, Jones, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Keselowski were in the top 10.
Not long after, Harvick was drafted out of the lead pack as Kurt Busch and Stenhouse engaged in a heated duel for the lead.
On Lap 112, Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch, Wallace’s future teammate at 23XI Racing, dueled for the lead as Wallace received a push from Keselowski on the outside lane to lead the following lap. Wallace then moved his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry in front of Busch and Bell while Keselowski remained on the outside lane in front of teammate Logano.
With five laps remaining in the second stage, the caution flew when Preece, who was running towards the front, got bumped and turned by Buescher, spun and smacked the backstretch outside wall before he clipped DiBenedetto and Byron, who had flames bursting out of his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Like teammate Bowman, the wreck placed Byron in a “must-win” scenario for the Roval to maintain his title hopes.
At the time of caution, Wallace retained the lead ahead of Keselowski and Logano while Kurt Busch and Bell were in the top five. Just then, the skies darkened and the track was overshadowed with scattered rain and clouds, which forced the pace car to lead the field to pit road and to a stop on Lap 117, three laps shy of the second stage.
While Wallace and the field awaited the decision, the jet dryers returned to the track to dry the racing surface. Soon after, reports of continuous precipitation along with lightning were made as nearly the entire grandstands were emptied and the competitors and teams took shelter near their respective pit box.
Then, 17 minutes after the lightning report was made, NASCAR declared the race official and Wallace, who awaited the decision in his pit box, was named the winner, having led the final five laps prior to the call and with the race 71 laps shy of its scheduled distance.
With the victory, Bubba Wallace became the 198th different competitor to win in the NASCAR Cup Series, the third first-time Cup winner of 2021, the 12th first-time winner at Talladega and the second African-American competitor to achieve a win in the NASCAR Cup Series. The first African-American competitor to win in NASCAR occurred in December 1963 made by the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott.
“Part of me was just sitting there waiting,” Wallace, who was anxiously awaiting NASCAR’s decision to declare the race official, said on NBCSN. “It’s not over with. Just sit there, bide our time. If we go racing again, that’s fine. We’ll put ourselves in position. But we had so many cool fans behind us in the pit box, just cheering for it to rain, so it kind of amped up the intensity a little bit.
“Just so proud of everybody at 23XI [Racing],” Wallace added. “New team. Coming in and getting a win late in the season. [It] Reminds me of 2013. Waited so long to get that first Truck win. I know a lot of history was made today, I believe, which is really cool, but it’s about my guys, it’s about our team, it’s about what we’ve done. Appreciate Michael Jordan, appreciate Denny [Hamlin] for believing in me, giving me the opportunity. Like we talk, it’s pretty fitting that it comes here at Talladega.”
When asked about being the second African-American competitor to achieve a win in the NASCAR Cup Series, the emotions began to pour out of Wallace’s face and voice while recognizing the significance.
“I never think about those things,” Wallace said. “When you say it like that, it brings a lot of emotions, lot of joy to my family, fans, friends. It’s pretty damn cool. Just proud to be a winner in the Cup Series.”
Finally, Wallace evoked an inspiring message to future inspirers following his long journey and hurdles to become a NASCAR Cup Series winner.
“This is for all those kids out there that want to have an opportunity, whatever they want to achieve and be the best at what they want to do,” Wallace said. “You’re gonna go through a lot of [expletive], but you always got to stay true to your path and not let the nonsense get to you. Stay strong, stay humble, stay hungry. There’s been plenty of times where I wanted to give up. You surround yourself with the right people and it’s moments like this that you appreciate.”
In addition to Wallace achieving his first win as a driver, the victory was also a first for veteran crew chief Robert “Bootie” Barker, who replaced Mike Wheeler as Wallace’s crew chief in mid-September. It was also the first for 23XI Racing, a newly formed NASCAR team that debuted this season and is co-owned by NASCAR veteran NBA legend Michael Jordan and NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin.
“It’s just way more emotional [as an owner] because I know how difficult it is,” Hamlin, who finished seventh on the track, said. “These guys just worked so hard over the last 10 months to put this team together. We just spent a lot of hours getting this all put together. It’s great to see the results from all the work from these team guys. It means so much. It’s a learning process. We knew it was gonna be a learning process, but I’m so happy for the team…This is just the building step. We’re still in the beginning stages of our team. We’re still growing. We got some great things on the horizon, but this is just a great moral booster for everyone.”
Wallace’s first Cup victory at Talladega capped off a historic NASCAR triple-header weekend at Talladega filled with first-time winners as Tate Fogleman claimed his first Truck Series career win in a wild finish while Brandon Brown achieved his first Xfinity career win, both occurring on Saturday, October 2.
Wallace’s victory also meant that none of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders, aside from Hamlin, earned a one-way ticket to the Round of 8 by winning, leaving them to battle for the remaining seven vacant spots to the penultimate round in the Playoffs next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval).
Brad Keselowski was the highest-finishing Playoff contender on the track in second place while teammate Logano settled in third. Kurt Busch finished fourth while Christopher Bell completed the top five. Chris Buescher, Hamlin, Harvick, Erik Jones and Alfredo finished in the top 10.
Truex, Blaney and Elliott finished 12th, 15th and 18th while Kyle Busch ended up 27th, Following their misfortunes, teammates Byron, Larson and Bowman finished 36th, 37th and 38th.
There were 35 lead changes for 19 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 27 laps. Only nine of the 40 starters did not finish on the lead lap.
Results:
1. Bubba Wallace, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Brad Keselowski, 13 laps led
3. Joey Logano, nine laps led
4. Kurt Busch, nine laps led
5. Christopher Bell, 12 laps led
6. Chris Buescher, seven laps led, Stage 1 winner
7. Denny Hamlin, six laps led
8. Kevin Harvick, 16 laps led
9. Erik Jones
10. Anthony Alfredo, one lap led
11. Austin Dillon
12. Martin Truex Jr., two laps led
13. Cole Custer, seven laps led
14. Chase Briscoe
15. Ryan Blaney
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 10 laps led
17. Michael McDowell
18. Chase Elliott
19. Quin Houff
20. Justin Haley, four laps led
21. Ryan Newman
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Daniel Suarez
24. Landon Cassill
25. Joey Gase
26. Aric Almirola
27. Kyle Busch, four laps led
28. Cody Ware, four laps led
29. Garrett Smithley
30. BJ McLeod
31. Josh Bilicki
32. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident
33. Ross Chastain, one lap down
34. James Davison, one lap down
35. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Accident, two laps led
36. William Byron – OUT, Accident
37. Kyle Larson, four laps down, three laps led
38. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident, one lap led
39. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident, two laps led
40. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident
Bold indicates Playoff contenders.
Playoff standings.
1. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
2. Kyle Larson, +22
3. Joey Logano, +21
4. Brad Keselowski, +20
5. Martin Truex Jr., +20
6. Ryan Blaney, +15
7. Chase Elliott, +9
8. Kyle Busch, +9
9. Kevin Harvick, -9
10. Christopher Bell, -28
11. William Byron, -44
12. Alex Bowman, -52
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will continue at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course for the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday, October 10, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, which will mark the series’ seventh and final road course event of this season. It is also where the second round of eliminations in the Playoffs will occur.
For a second consecutive week, Ryan Blaney stole the show after the High Point, North Carolina, native took the lead from Chris Buescher prior to the final lap and pulled away from the field wrecking behind to win the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway under caution on Saturday, August 28.
The victory was Blaney’s third of the season as he will be one of 16 competitors who will compete for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship over a 10-week Playoff stretch.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. Kyle Larson, the regular-season points leader, was scheduled to start on pole position, but instead, he started at the rear of the field due to his car failing pre-race inspection multiple times. With that, teammate William Byron, winner of last year’s Daytona 400 event, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Denny Hamlin.
Along with Larson, Joey Gase, Corey LaJoie and Kaz Grala started at the rear of the field due to multiple pre-race inspection failures. Michael McDowell and rookie Anthony Alfredo, teammates at Front Row Motorsports, also dropped to the rear of the field after it was discovered that both cars did not conform to NASCAR rule specifications pinpointing the deck lid extensions. As a result, crew chiefs Drew Blickensderfer and Seth Barbour were ejected from the event. Car chief Jason Sheets served as McDowell’s interim crew chief while Derrick Finley, Front Row Motorsports’ competition director, served as Alfredo’s interim crew chief. To make matters worse, Alfredo was assessed a pass-through penalty on pit road following the start of the race for illegal body adjustments made to his car while on the grid.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron received an early advantage on the outside lane with drafting help from Kyle Busch to take the lead, where he went on to lead the first lap by a nose over Hamlin.
The following lap, Byron broke away from the pack as he continued to lead ahead of Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr., all of whom were on the inside lane, while Kyle Busch settled as the lead car on the outside lane.
By the fifth lap, a majority of the pack formed a single-file line on the outside lane as Byron led teammate Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Truex, Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch. Leading the inside line was ninth-place Alex Bowman.
Two laps later, Kevin Harvick, who had drafting help from Blaney, peaked ahead by nose to lead a lap over Byron. Another two laps later and while Byron moved back into the lead, Elliott got shuffled out of the top five as he dropped to the mid-pack.
Through the first 10 laps of the event, Hamlin moved into the lead followed by Bubba Wallace while Byron, who had led seven laps, was back in third ahead of Austin Dillon and Harvick. Kyle Busch, Blaney, Ross Chastain, Bowman and Brad Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Joey Logano was in 12th, Elliott was in 15th, Truex was in 20th in between teammate Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch was in 24th behind rookie Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece and Kyle Larson was mired in 26th behind Aric Almirola.
Five laps later, the field fanned out to three tight lanes as Byron, who moved back into the lead the previous lap, was leading ahead of Hamlin, Chastain, Logano and Austin Dillon. Another three laps later, Chastain made a pit stop under green for two fresh tires and to have his fenders fixed. By then, Austin Dillon motored into the lead ahead of Elliott and Hamlin.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 20, Elliott squeaked ahead of Austin Dillon to lead followed by Truex, Logano and Stenhouse. Byron, Hamlin, Cole Custer, Blaney and Briscoe were in the top 10. By then, five different competitors led at least a lap.
Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted with all utilizing a variety of strategies. Following the pit stops Elliott retained the lead. Prior to the restart, Michael McDowell fell off the pace and took his car to the garage due to an engine failure and dropping fluid on the track.
When the race restarted on Lap 25, Elliott and Custer battled dead even for the lead before Elliott cleared the field when he and the field returned to the start/finish line. The following lap, Hamlin made a bold three-wide move on Logano and Austin Dillon in a bid for third place as Elliott and Custer battled for the lead ahead of a packed field.
By Lap 30 and with the majority of the field settled in a single-file line, Elliott continued to lead followed by Logano, Custer, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Chastain.
Ten laps later, Elliott remained as the leader of a long single-file line followed by Logano, Custer, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Chastain. Meanwhile, Truex was in 13th behind Blaney, Wallace was in 16th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Almirola and Tyler Reddick were in 19th and 20th, Harvick and Larson were in 22nd and 23rd behind Briscoe, Bowman was in 25th behind Daniel Suarez and DiBenedetto was mired in 28th.
The following lap, Logano emerged as the new leader while Elliott got shuffled back to fourth in front of teammate Byron while trying to clean his grille. Two laps later, Elliott received a boost from teammate Byron to storm back into the lead while Logano had to defend the outside lane from a hard-charging Austin Dillon.
Approaching Lap 46, Logano gained a draft on Elliott, moved to the inside lane and tried to slide in front of Elliott through Turns 3 and 4, but he was unable to as Elliott retained the lead on the outside lane while Logano settled in as the lead car on the inside lane.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 50 following an early competitive race, Elliott managed to retain the lead and claim his third stage victory of the season. Hamlin settled in second followed by Kyle Busch, who nearly wrecked approaching the start/finish line following contact with Ross Chastain. Chastain was fourth followed by Truex, Austin Dillon, Corey LaJoie, Logano, Preece and Chris Buescher. By then, seven different competitors had led at least a lap within the pack racing and the draft.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted for four fresh tires and to top off on fuel.
The second stage started on Lap 55. At the start, Truex pulled ahead by a slight margin over Elliott on the outside lane through the first two turns before clearing Elliott entering Turn 3. By then, he had names like Corey LaJoie, Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch settled in behind him.
Two laps later, LaJoie made a move beneath Truex to lead a lap before he got shuffled out of the draft and back in fourth.
Through the first 60 laps of the event, Truex, who took the lead back on Lap 58, was leading followed by teammate Bell, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, LaJoie, Keselowski, Elliott, Chastain and Preece.
Fifteen laps later, Bell, who took over the top spot on Lap 70, was leading followed by Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Logano, Truex, Elliott, LaJoie, Briscoe, Reddick and a steaming pack of cars.
On Lap 77, the caution flew when Almirola and Bowman spun in the middle of Turn 4 while running near the rear of the field and in front of a handful of competitors. During the incident, Hamlin ran into the rear of Preece.
Four laps later, the race restarted under green as Logano and Bell started on the front row. At the start, Logano launched ahead followed by Bell while LaJoie received a push from Reddick through the backstraightaway before being shuffled out by Reddick, who tucked in behind Logano.
By Lap 90, Logano was leading followed by Reddick, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Truex, Hamlin, Preece and Larson.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 100, Logano, who took over the lead three laps earlier over teammate Blaney, was scored the leader as he claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Austin Dillon settled in second followed by Byron, Reddick, Larson, Blaney, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Wallace and Bell. By then, 11 different competitors had led at least a lap.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted for fresh tires and fuel.
With 55 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Byron and Hamlin filled the front row. At the start, Hamlin received a push from Harvick to take over the lead. During the next four laps, Harvick led three before Elliott squeaked ahead to lead one for himself.
Five laps later, Harvick was back out in front followed by Hamlin, Byron, Wallace and Logano, who then mounted a charge on the inside lane while being pursued by Chastain, Elliott and others.
Another 10 laps later and with the field, which had fanned out to three lanes earlier, settling in a long single-file line, Chastain was leading followed by Bowman, Blaney, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Stenhouse, Wallace, Hamlin, Elliott and Briscoe.
With 38 laps remaining, the Ford competitors peeled off the track to pit under green. Back on the track, Chastain and Wallace battled for the lead ahead of the field that had fanned out to two lanes.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Wallace was leading followed by Kyle Busch, Chastain, Bell, Stenhouse, Truex, Bowman, LaJoie, Elliott and Landon Cassill. The following lap, Chastain received a push from Stenhouse to snatch the lead back from Wallace.
With 21 laps remaining, the caution flew for an accident involving Cody Ware, Joey Gase and Garrett Smithley, all of whom drive for Rick Ware Racing, in Turn 4. At the time of caution, Kyle Busch was the leader. Under caution, the front-runners pitted and the Fords moved up the pack, giving the lead to Logano. During the pit stops, Austin Dillon, who was battling battery issues to his car, was busted for speeding and was sent to the rear of the field.
Five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Logano jumped ahead on the inside lane followed by teammate Blaney, Almirola, Buescher and Custer while DiBenedetto got shuffled back to sixth ahead of Kyle Busch and Harvick.
With 15 laps remaining, the caution flew when Truex got bumped by Stenhouse entering the backstretch and collided into Byron before spinning across the grass and proceeding with damage and firing rolling out of his car. Also involved were Briscoe, Cassill, Suare Alfredo, Keselowski and Tyler Reddick, the competitor occupying the 16th and final spot to the Playoffs as he had smoke trailing behind and damage on the front nose his car. The incident was enough for NASCAR to red-flag the event for nearly 15 minutes.
Following the cleanup period concluded and the caution was drawn back, teammates Reddick and Austin Dillon pitted to have their respective Chevrolets repaired with enough adjustments to finish the race.
With 10 laps remaining, the race restarted as teammates Logano and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Logano jumped ahead, but the field narrowed the gap through the backstraightaway and back to the tri-oval from the draft as Almirola moved up the leaderboard.
The following lap, Chris Buescher mounted a challenge on the inside lane to move up to third behind Logano and Blaney. He then received pushes from Kurt Busch and Elliott to move up to second as he challenged Logano for the lead.
With seven laps remaining, Buescher received a strong push from Elliott and Hamlin to take the lead, where he managed to slide in front of Logano through the backstraightaway.
A lap later, though, Elliott stormed to the lead while Buescher got shuffled out in a three-wide battle against Logano and Elliott. With Buescher falling back, Elliott was leading followed by Hamlin, Logano and Blaney while Matt DiBenedetto mounted a challenge on the inside lane.
Under the final five laps, Logano fell off the pace after he cut a tire in a shower of sparks. Despite the misfortune, Logano kept his car rolling on the outside lane as the field went by him and the race proceeded under green. At the front, DiBenedetto challenged Elliott on the outside lane for the lead as the field behind started to stack up and fan out multiple lanes with the finish within sight.
Then in Turn 3, DiBenedetto, who continued to intimidate Elliott for the lead, ran into the rear bumper of Elliott as both along with Hamlin skidded across the outside wall. The contact of the wall got Elliott loose and he slid up and into DiBenedetto across the outside wall again. The ensuing contact ignited a chain reaction wreck that involved Hamlin, Keselowski, Bell, Kyle Busch, Preece, Chastain, Custer, Stenhouse and Kaz Grala, a wreck that sent the race into overtime.
In the midst of the carnage, Buescher was back in the lead followed by Blaney, LaJoie, Austin Dillon and Harvick. Chastain was in sixth followed by Larson, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch.
When the race restarted in overtime, Buescher and Blaney battled dead even entering the first turn before Blaney received a strong push from LaJoie to take the lead on the inside lane. LaJoie, though, received a draft from Harvick to close back to Blaney’s rear bumper in Turn 3.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney was leading ahead of LaJoie and Buescher. Through Turn 1, Harvick made a bold move beneath LaJoie to move into second place, thus shuffling LaJoie out of the lead draft, as Suarez, Buescher, Kurt Busch and others mounted a final lap mount to the front.
Through the backstraightaway, Blaney continued to lead followed by Harvick and Suarez. Then, Suarez got loose in front of Kurt Busch and turned into Harvick, which triggered a big accident in Turn 3 involving Austin Dillon, Larson, Chastain, LaJoie, Bowman and Erik Jones.
With the field wrecking behind, Blaney pulled away unscathed and cruised to the finish line in first place as the caution flew due to the accident.
The victory marked Blaney’s first at Daytona International Speedway, his second consecutive Cup victory in recent weeks after winning last weekend at Michigan International Speedway, his third of the season and the seventh of his career.
“Man, that was a lot of fun,” Blaney said on NBC. “Gosh, we just barely missed that wreck. We got lined up on the front row and got a good push by [LaJoie]. You never know how the end of these days are gonna play out. Down the back, you don’t know what lane’s getting a bigger run. I guess somebody got tangled up over there. Hopefully, everyone’s okay. Man, this is so cool. Second win of the year with BodyArmor on the car. Winning at Daytona, this is so cool. It’s really special and man, it’s been a fun two weeks. Looking forward to next week! Got a good, enough momentum. It’d be nice to make it three [wins] in a row. We’ll see.”
Behind Blaney, Chris Buescher came home in second place while Bubba Wallace, who dodged the final lap carnage, recorded a strong third-place result. The best season results for both Buescher and Wallace, however, were not enough for either of them to make the Playoffs.
“It hurts,” Buescher said. “That one stings a lot, but at the same time, [I] appreciate everybody at [Roush Fenway Racing]. Awesome weekend for Fifth Third Bank…[I] Wanted to get that [win] for so many different reasons. To miss that Playoff spot by one spot, that’s a tough ending to the day, but proud of this group. Proud of the car we brought…That hurts.”
“The seas parted and when that wreck happened, I just stayed in it, came out third, but it’s not what we needed,” Wallace added. “Bummer, but solid day. We went up and led some laps. Unfortunate, we wanted to win. That was the most prepared I’ve ever been for this speedway stuff and [finished] third…It just stings.”
Following the post-race inspection, however, Buescher was disqualified from his runner-up result due to an illegal track bar mounting assembly. As a result, Buescher was demoted to 40th place, dead last, while Wallace was promoted to the runner-up result, which tied his best result in NASCAR’s premier series.
Ryan Newman was elevated to third place followed by Ryan Preece, both of whom also did not make the Playoffs. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick, who barely escaped the final lap multi-car wreck, finished fifth and claimed the 16th and final spot to the Playoffs over teammate Austin Dillon, who was unable to finish the race after being swept up in the wreck. With that, Reddick joins Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell as first-time members of the Cup Series Playoffs this season.
“My emotions were shot as soon as we took the green on the last green-white-checkered [restart],” Reddick said. “I couldn’t even believe we finished seventh. Getting through that last crash coming to the line, it was a lot, I’m not gonna lie. Going to Homestead, running for Xfinity Series championships were a lot of fun. Really exciting, really nerve-racking, but what a roller coaster it is to be on the bubble going into Daytona, running into the back of somebody and have all the issues we did at the end there. Almost felt helpless there, but we didn’t give up and we fought through it.”
“It was a little bit of a roller coaster ride,” Austin Dillon said. “We fought our butts off in the stages. We made some good moves to get points and found ourselves in fourth-place for a green-white-checkered here at Daytona. That’s where we were when we won the Daytona 500, so I was feeling pretty good about it…We fought hard. The Bass Pro Shop Chevy was very fast. Two weeks in a row we’ve had great cars out of the No. 3 team. Just haven’t gotten the finishes we’d like to have, but very thankful that the good Lord took care of us tonight and we get to race at Darlington next week. Unfortunate that we’re not in the Playoffs, but we gave it all we could and fought until the very end.”
Justin Haley, Bowman, Elliott, BJ McLeod and Josh Bilicki finished in the top 10.
Despite being involved on the final lap accident, Kyle Larson, who was scored in 20th claimed the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship over Denny Hamlin, who ended up in 13th. The result made Larson the fourth different competitor to achieve the regular-season title in the Cup Series.
“I think I read somewhere earlier this week where we had overcome a 166-point gap to Denny [Hamlin],” Larson said. “I didn’t think it was possible, but our team worked so hard all of the regular season and [I] couldn’t have done it without Mr. [Hendrick] and Linda, all of their support, everybody back at the shop, too. It’s a long season, and we still got 10 races to go, but it’s a long point to get to here…I’m just the lucky guy who gets to drive [the car] and get a lot of the credit, but it’s really credit to everybody back at the shop.”
Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick have made the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and will contend for this year’s championship.
Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece, Erik Jones, Corey LaJoie, Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, Anthony Alfredo and Quin Houff are among the remaining competitors who failed to make the Playoffs.
There were 45 lead changes for 15 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 31 laps.
Results.
1. Ryan Blaney, seven laps led
2. Bubba Wallace, eight laps led
3. Ryan Newman, two laps led
4. Ryan Preece
5. Justin Haley
6. Tyler Reddick
7. Alex Bowman
8. Chase Elliott, 36 laps led
9. BJ McLeod
10. Josh Bilicki
11. Erik Jones
12. Kurt Busch
13. Denny Hamlin, seven laps led
14. Aric Almirola
15. Kevin Harvick, four laps led
16. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident, one lap led
17. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident, three laps led
18. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident, 14 laps led
19. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident
20. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident
21. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down
23. Joey Logano, one lap down, 37 laps led
24. Cole Custer, one lap down
25. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down
26. Anthony Alfredo, two laps down
27. David Starr, two laps down
28. Cody Ware, two laps down
29. Martin Truex Jr., two laps down, 13 laps led
30. Garrett Smithley, two laps down
31. Joey Gase, three laps down
32. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident, eight laps led
33. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident
34. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident, five laps led
35. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident
36. Landon Cassill – OUT, Accident
37. William Byron – OUT, Accident, 12 laps led
38. Quin Houff, 29 laps down
39. Michael McDowell – OUT
40. Chris Buescher – Disqualified, eight laps led
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will commence next weekend at Darlington Raceway for the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday, September 5, which will start at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
From clutch issues to Victory Lane, Kyle Busch played a late fuel strategy to perfection after overtaking teammate Denny Hamlin prior to the final lap and coasting for a final full lap on a dry tank to win the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono Raceway, the second of a Pocono Cup doubleheader weekend, on Sunday, June 27.
The starting lineup was based off the results from Saturday’s Cup event at Pocono, with the top-20 finishers being inverted for Sunday’s event. Chris Buescher, who finished 20th, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Michael McDowell, who finished 19th on Saturday.
Prior to the event, names like Cole Custer, Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie and rookie Anthony Alfredo started at the rear of the field in back-up cars. Justin Allgaier also started at the rear of the field after replacing Justin Haley in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, with Haley opting to sit out following his hard wreck in the Xfinity Series event occurring early Sunday at Pocono.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Buescher pulled ahead on the outside lane to retain the lead over McDowell and the field through the first turn and entering the second turn.
Through the first lap, Buescher was out in front followed by McDowell, Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr. and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Behind, Daniel Suarez was in sixth followed by Aric Almirola, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick.
The following lap, the first caution of the race flew when rookie Anthony Alfredo made hard contact with the outside wall in Turn 2.
When the race restarted on the sixth lap, Buescher peaked ahead until he slipped entering the first turn and lost his momentum along with a bevy of spots. Buescher’s slip-up allowed McDowell to move to the lead followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Bell. Behind, Aric Almirola made his way to fourth followed by Stenhouse, Suarez, Keselowski, Reddick and Wallace as Buescher fell all the way back to 12th.
Through the first 10 laps of the event, McDowell remained in the lead by a narrow margin over Truex and Bell while Almirola, Stenhouse, Keselowski, Suarez, Wallace, Kyle Busch and Reddick were running in the top 10. By then, Kurt Busch was in 11th in front of Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and Buescher. Chase Elliott was in 16th in front of rookie Chase Briscoe and teammate William Byron, Austin Dillon was in 20th behind Erik Jones and Alex Bowman, winner of the first Cup Pocono doubleheader event, was in 21st in front of Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson and Matt DiBenedetto. Ryan Newman, meanwhile, was in 29th.
Three laps later, Truex moved his No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota Camry into the lead. Teammate Bell quickly followed in his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry to assume the runner-up spot while McDowell fell back to third in front of Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang.
By Lap 20, Truex was out in front by more than a second over teammate Bell while Almirola, McDowell and Kyle Busch were in the top five. McDowell was back in sixth followed by Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. Stenhouse was situated in ninth ahead of Suarez. Meanwhile, Logano and Harvick were in 12th and 13th, Elliott was still mired back in 15th in between teammate Byron and Kurt Busch, Bowman was back in 21st behind Hamlin and Larson was in 22nd in front of Erik Jones.
Five laps later, Truex extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Bell. Behind, Almirola, Keselowski and Kyle Busch remained in the top five ahead of Blaney and Wallace, with McDowell settling in eighth ahead of Stenhouse and Suarez.
Shortly after, Hamlin brought his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry to pit road under green. A lap later, his teammates, Bell and Kyle Busch, pitted. Meanwhile, the fourth Joe Gibbs Racing competitor, Truex, remained on the track and in the lead. During this process, Hendrick Motorsports’ competitors Elliott and Byron also pitted.
At the front, Truex held a comfortable advantage over runner-up Almirola. With no lead lap challengers closing in approaching Lap 30, Truex was able to come back around and claim the first stage victory as he also claimed his fourth stage victory of the 2021 season. Almirola settled in second followed by Keselowski, Blaney and Wallace while McDowell, Stenhouse, Reddick, Suarez and Logano were scored in the top 10. By then, Byron, who was in 33rd, managed to beat Truex at the start/finish line to return on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, nearly all of the leaders pitted and Truex retained the lead following his exit from his pit stall. Back on track, names like Keselowski, teammate Blaney, Austin Dillon, Bell, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Elliott and Byron remained on the track. During the pit stops, Larson remained on pit road to have the front nose of his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE assessed after he ran into the rear of Hamlin on a restart.
The second stage started on Lap 35 with Keselowski and Bell starting on the front row. At the start, Keselowski received a push from teammate Blaney to retain the lead through the first turn over Bell. Behind, Kyle Busch retained fourth place ahead of Byron, Hamlin and the field.
By Lap 40, Keselowski continued to lead over teammate Blaney, Bell, Kyle Busch and Byron. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, who was running in the top five, radioed issues to his No. 18 M&M’s Mini’s Toyota Camry as the car was popping out of fourth gear.
Five laps later, teammates Keselowski and Blaney pitted, moving Kyle Busch to the lead. Larson, who reported overheating issues to his car, also pitted during this process. Earlier, Austin Dillon pitted.
Through the first 50 laps of the event, Kyle Busch remained as the leader by nearly three-tenths of a second over Byron, with Bell, Hamlin and Elliott in the top five. Truex was in sixth followed by Almirola, Ross Chastain, Logano and Harvick. Not long after, Blaney made another pit stop to address a loose right-front wheel, a move that dropped him a lap behind the leaders.
By Lap 60, Kyle Busch continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Byron. Bell, teammate Hamlin and Elliott continued to run in the top five followed by Truex, Almirola, Chastain, Logano and Bowman.
On Lap 65, Byron brought his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to pit road under green. By then, Daniel Suarez pitted. With Byron pitting from the runner-up spot, teammates Bell and Hamlin moved up to second and third behind their third teammate and leader, Kyle Busch. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors were running in the top five, with Elliott in fourth.
A few laps later, Kevin Harvick brought his No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang to his pit stall for service under green.
At the halfway mark on Lap 70, Kyle Busch was the leader followed by teammate Bell, Elliott, teammate Truex and Almirola. Chastain moved up to sixth followed by Logano, Bowman, Reddick and Kurt Busch. A lap earlier, Hamlin pitted.
During the ensuing laps, Ryan Newman pitted along with Bell, Elliott, Truex, Chastain, Almirola, Kurt Busch, Bowman, Logano, Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and others. During the sequence, Kyle Busch, who surrendered the lead to pit, had to receive a push from his crew after stalling his car with the car getting stuck in gear and not moving.
Back on course and on Lap 75, Bubba Wallace was leading followed by DiBenedetto, Byron, Keselowski, Hamlin and Bell. Two laps later, Wallace pitted and Byron inherited the lead with Keselowski in second.
By Lap 80, Byron was leading by more than two seconds over Keselowski, with Hamlin, Bell and Elliott in the top five. Truex was in sixth followed by Larson, Almirola, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon.
With the laps in the second stage concluding, Hamlin managed to overtake Keselowski for the runner-up spot. By then, Byron was clear out in front by more than two seconds. With a clear sight in front amid the lapped traffic, Byron was able to claim his second stage victory on Lap 80 as he also recorded his second stage victory of the season. Hamlin settled in second followed by Keselowski, Bell, Elliott, Truex, Kyle Busch, Larson, Almirola and Chastain.
Under the stage break, some led by Keselowski pitted while others led by Byron remained on the track. During the pit stops, Kyle Busch spent extra time in his pit stall to have the shifter and gear issue on his car addressed. Despite pitting for a second time for repairs, Busch remained on the lead lap.
With 50 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Byron received a push from Hamlin to remain as the leader. Behind, Elliott charged to third place followed by Bell, teammate Truex, Almirola and Bowman as the field battled intensely for positioning.
Two laps later, the caution flew due to debris that came off the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE piloted by Erik Jones, who earlier had a left-front tire flat.
Under caution, some led by Byron and Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track. During the sequence, Elliott, who faked coming to pit road, was penalized for not maintaining his position on the track under caution, sending him back to fourth as Bell moved back to the lead.
With 44 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Bell and Bowman started on the front row. At the start, Bowman received a push from Ross Chastain on the inside lane to move into the lead over Bell. Behind, Chastain challenged Bell for the runner-up spot while Elliott and Harvick battled dead even for fourth place in front of Almirola and Keselowski.
Back to the frontstretch, Harvick made a bold three-wide move to move into the runner-up spot after Bell and Chastain made contact against one another. Following the contact, Chastain’s No. 42 McDonald’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE went up the race track in Turn 1 with a flat tire following the contact with Bell.
Then entering the frontstretch, Elliott made contact with Bell, sending Bell sideways. Though Bell sustained right-rear damage to his car, he prevented the car from spinning sideways as the race proceeded under green. The contact scattered the field as Bell fell out of contention. Both Bell and Chastain pitted following their on-track incident.
Back up front, Bowman was the leader by nearly seven-tenths of a second over Harvick, with Keselowski, Blaney and Reddick in the top five. McDowell was up in sixth followed by Elliott, Almirola, Kurt Busch and Hamlin.
Under the final 40 laps, Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE fell off the pace due to a flat right-front tire as he made the trip to pit road for four fresh tires. Not long after, Matt DiBenedetto pitted along with Logano.
With 35 laps remaining, Bowman continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Harvick, with third-place Keselowski trailing by more than a second. Soon after, names like Blaney and Austin Dillon pitted. In addition, Elliott made a second pit stop due to another flat tire.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, the battle for the lead intensified as Bowman led by less than three-tenths of a second over Harvick. Soon after, Almirola surrendered his spot on the track to pit along with Stenhouse, who had smoke trailing out of the tailpipe of his No. 47 Scott Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE as he made the left-hand turn to the garage.
Two laps later, Harvick pitted along with McDowell. Another three laps later, more pit strategy occurred as Bowman surrendered the lead to pit for fuel for his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, giving the lead to the No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang piloted by Brad Keselowski.
Nearing the final 20 laps of the event, Tyler Reddick surrendered the runner-up spot to pit.
With 20 laps remaining and the fuel strategy conversation continuing among multiple teams, Keselowski, who was in question about having enough fuel to make it to the finish, was leading by over Byron. Kurt Busch, Hamlin and Larson were in the top five followed by Kyle Busch, Wallace, Preece, Briscoe and Suarez. Harvick, who had enough fuel to complete the race to its scheduled distance, was in 13th behind Truex while Bowman was in 15th behind Blaney.
Five laps later, Keselowski continued to lead by more than three seconds over Byron, with Kurt Busch, Hamlin and Larson remaining in the top five. Harvick, meanwhile, was still mired back in 13th behind Truex as Blaney, Bowman and Reddick were in 14th, 15th and 16th.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Keselowski was leading by more than 11 seconds over Byron, with Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Larson, Kyle Busch and the field trailing by more than 21 seconds. Harvick, meanwhile, was up in 10th place behind Ryan Newman.
Two laps later, Keselowski, who last pitted on Lap 87, surrendered the lead to pit for fuel, with the former Cup champion not having enough to initially complete the remainder of the race. Despite pitting for fuel, Keselowski managed to pick up speed and pull ahead of Harvick as both awaited the fuel fate of the front-runners.
Back on course, Byron inherited the lead followed by Hamlin, the Busch brothers, Larson and Wallace.
With five laps remaining, Byron, who was trying to conserve fuel, was leading by more than two seconds over Hamlin with Kyle Busch also joining the party. By then, Keselowski and Harvick were in seventh and eighth.
Then with two laps remaining, Byron, who last pitted on Lap 94, pitted as teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch moved into first and second.
Shortly after, Hamlin fell off the pace exiting Turn 2 as he ran out of fuel. Despite trying to block his teammate, Kyle Busch assumed the lead on the outside lane entering the frontstretch as he started the final lap of the race. With Busch out in front and Hamlin pitting, Kyle Larson moved into second place, trailing by more than seven seconds. By then, Kurt Busch pitted.
With the gas tank in the No. 18 Toyota running dry, Kyle Busch, who last pitted on Lap 95, was able to navigate his way around the triangle circuit for a final time and come back around to take the checkered flag and steal the win a day after finishing in the runner-up spot in the first Cup Pocono doubleheader event.
The victory marked Busch’s second of this season, fourth at Pocono and the 59th of his NASCAR Cup Series career. It was also Busch’s second of the season with rookie Cup crew chief Ben Beshore.
“[The car’s] Stuck in fourth gear,” Busch said on NBCSN. “About out of gas. Just saving, just riding, just playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us. Just can’t say enough about everybody on my team, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, [Toyota Racing Development], all the work that they’re putting in and everything. Sometimes, these races aren’t always won by the fastest car, but I still felt like we had the fastest car. Even though we were in the back and behind and having to come back and having to persevere, being stuck in fourth gear, no clutch, all that stuff, it’s all burned out. Nothing left in his M&M’s Mini’s Camry. It was awesome today…This is really awesome to pull off another win here at Pocono. Feels good.”
Behind, Larson, who struggled throughout the event and wrecked a day ago while leading on the final lap, had enough fuel to come home in second place as he collected his ninth top-two result of the season.
“It’s surprising finish for us. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really loose for a majority of the race, then we got a lot of nose damage there on one of the restarts. Was off on speed. I felt like after that. [Crew chief] Cliff [Daniels] and everybody did a really, really good job managing the race, coached me through saving fuel there at the end. [I] Was hoping that [Kyle Busch] was going to run out. I saw [Hamlin] running out. I was, ‘Okay, they’re teammates, they got to be close to running out.’ [Busch] did pit a lap after us under caution. That actually probably won them the race. But, yeah, second-place finish, I thought we would be outside of the top-20. A lot of points throughout the race today; we’ll take it. Happy about the effort for sure all weekend.”
Keselowski and Harvick, both of whom were charging hard on fuel, finished in third and fourth while Bubba Wallace achieved his first top-five result of the season and for 23XI Racing by finishing fifth.
“We knew we were in a worse position than [Kyle Busch],” Wallace said. “It was just racing our race. I was trying to do the best that I could, but all in all, really solid weekend. First top five for the team. I think that’s a little pen to the paper action there to re-sign and re-up there. All in all, just happy with how the weekend went. Smooth sailing for the most part. Today was a little bit trickier, but perseverance. Just got to battle through it and proud of everybody here.”
Blaney, Bowman, Preece, Reddick and Logano finished in the top 10.
Byron, following his late pit stop, ended up in 12th behind Truex while Hamlin, who was a lap away from capturing his first victory of the season until he ran out of fuel, fell all the way back to 14th.
“We had our hands tied up behind our backs,” Byron said. “Definitely had the fastest car. The caution didn’t fit us perfectly. We had control of the race there and was right on our number to make it or not, and just didn’t work out. Really fast car. The AXALTA Chevrolet was awesome. Sucks to lose’em like that, but I feel like we had everything we needed in the car. Just couldn’t save enough fuel as far back as we were. Just part of it, but thanks to the guys.”
“The result is we’ve pitted on the last lap for three weeks in a row,” Hamlin said. “That’s tough. I hate seeing the white [flag], ended up coming to pit road. It’s just so frustrating, but fuel mileage’s got us the last two weeks and lug nuts the week before, but we’re running fast. We’re getting a little better. I think that overall, we had a little bit more speed this weekend than what we’ve had in the past few weeks. Just can’t see the checkered right now.”
Truex settled in 11th, Austin Dillon and Suarez finished 13th and 15th, Almirola came home in 16th ahead of McDowell, Kurt Busch fell all the way back to 20th behind Chris Buescher, rookie Chase Briscoe finished 21st, Justin Allgaier finished 25th as a substitute competitor for Spire Motorsports, Chastain and Elliott ended up in 26th and 27th and Bell ended his strong run in 32nd behind Erik Jones.
There were 12 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 15 laps.
With eight races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by four points over Larson. Eleven competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once through the first 19 regular-season events. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Kurt Busch occupy the remaining five spots as winless competitors, with Busch ahead by three points over Chris Buescher, 48 over Daniel Suarez, 54 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace, 60 over Matt DiBenedetto and 72 over Ross Chastain.
Results.
1. Kyle Busch, 30 laps led
2. Kyle Larson
3. Brad Keselowski, 31 laps led
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Bubba Wallace, three laps led
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Alex Bowman, 18 laps led
8. Ryan Preece
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Joey Logano
11. Martin Truex Jr., 19 laps led, Stage 1 winner
12. William Byron, 22 laps led, Stage 2 winner
13. Austin Dillon
14. Denny Hamlin, one lap led
15. Daniel Suarez
16. Aric Almirola
17. Michael McDowell, seven laps led
18. Matt DiBenedetto
19. Chris Buescher, six laps led
20. Kurt Busch
21. Chase Briscoe
22. Ryan Newman
23. Corey LaJoie, one lap down
24. Cole Custer, one lap down
25. Justin Allgaier, one lap down
26. Ross Chastain, one lap down
27. Chase Elliott, one lap down
28. Cody Ware, one lap down
29. B.J. McLeod, one lap down
30. James Davison, three laps down
31. Erik Jones, four laps down
32. Christopher Bell, five laps down, three laps led
33. Quin Houff, five laps down
34. Anthony Alfredo, six laps down
35. Josh Bilicki, eight laps down
36. Garrett Smithley – OUT, Engine
37. Timmy Hill – OUT, Handling
38. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Engine
Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Road America, the series’ return to the track near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, since 1956. The event is slated to occur on Sunday, July 4, during Independence Day weekend at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
After losing the lead and having a potential victory slip out of his hands to his teammate Kyle Larson in the final laps, Alex Bowman earned redemption and came out on top after a flat tire allowed Bowman to overtake his Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate on the final lap and win the Pocono Organics CBD 325 at Pocono Raceway, the first of a Pocono weekend doubleheader, on Saturday, June 26. The victory allowed Bowman to claim his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2021 season and his first in the Tricky Triangle circuit in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Nashville Superspeedway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate William Byron.
Prior to the event, Cole Custer started at the rear of the field due to multiple pre-race inspection failures.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Larson received a push from Joey Logano on the outside lane to clear teammate Byron and take off with the lead entering the first turn. Behind, Logano made his way into the runner-up spot along with Ross Chastain, thus dropping Byron back to fourth.
With the field jostling early for positioning, Larson led the first lap ahead of Logano, Chastain, Byron and Kevin Harvick, with Denny Hamlin in sixth ahead of the Busch brothers, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Dillon.
By the fifth lap, Byron, who was running in third place the previous lap, muscled his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into the lead over teammate Larson and Logano. Behind, Harvick was in fourth while Chastain fell back to fifth ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.
Meanwhile, Chase Elliott, coming off his disqualification run at Nashville Superspeedway, was mired back in 27th place after sustaining damage at the start of the race. Ahead, Brad Keselowski was in 12th behind Daniel Suarez, Tyler Reddick was in 13th ahead of Aric Almirola and Matt DiBenedetto, Martin Truex Jr. was in 16th ahead of Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman was in 18th, Ryan Blaney was in 23rd behind Erik Jones and rookie Chase Briscoe was in 25th behind Chris Buescher.
Four laps later, the first caution of the event flew due to debris reported in Turn 2. By then, NASCAR informed the teams that the caution for debris will serve as the competition caution initially planned on the 12th lap.
Under caution, some like Chastain, Truex, Wallace, Blaney, DiBenedetto, Jones, Briscoe, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Corey LaJoie was busted with a pit road speeding penalty.
When the race restarted on Lap 12, Byron received a push from teammate Larson through the first turn to retain the lead as the field behind battled through two lanes for one full lap.
Just as the field returned to the frontstretch and crossed the start/finish line, the second caution of the event flew when Brad Keselowski, who was trying to make a crossover move on Cole Custer, bumped and turned Custer hard into the outside wall, effectively ending Custer’s first of two weekend runs at Pocono early and sending him to a back-up car for Sunday’s event.
Under caution, few like Keselowski, Newman, Preece and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.
When the race restarted on Lap 17, Byron retained the lead while Kyle Busch, who restarted on the front row, fended off Larson for the runner-up spot, with Harvick and Logano in the top five. Not long after, Kyle Busch was able to muscle his No. 18 M&M’s Mini’s Toyota Camry into the lead over Byron.
By Lap 20, Kyle Busch was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Byron, with third-place Larson trailing by more than a second. Harvick and Logano were in the top five followed by Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon and Reddick.
A few laps later, Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman pitted under green as part of a strategic plan.
Back on the track, Kyle Busch extended his advantage to more than a second over Byron. With a clear course in front of him, Busch, who managed to lap teammate Bell, was able to cruise away from the field and win the first stage on Lap 25, thus claiming his third stage victory of the season. Byron settled in second followed by teammate Larson, Logano and Harvick while Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Suarez, Austin Dillon and Reddick were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, some of the leaders led by Kyle Busch pitted while others led by Logano remained on the track.
The second stage started on Lap 29 with Logano and Reddick restarting on the front row. At the start, Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang rocketed to the lead with drafting help from Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE while Chastain, Blaney and Truex all overtook Reddick through the first turn.
By Lap 35, Logano continued to lead by nearly a second over Kurt Busch, with teammate Chastain, Blaney and Truex in the top five. Bubba Wallace was in sixth followed by Reddick, Keselowski, DiBenedetto and Newman. Meanwhile, Larson, Byron and Kyle Busch, all of whom were battling their way back to the front on fresh tires, were in 13th, 14th and 15th. Hamlin was in 16th ahead of Harvick, Suarez, Almirola and Jones.
Through the first 40 laps of the event, Logano remained as the leader followed by Kurt Busch, Chastain, Blaney and Truex while Larson, Byron and Kyle Busch were in 10th, 11th and 12th. By then, Reddick peeled off the race track to pit under green.
By Lap 45, Logano surrendered the lead to pit followed by Kurt Busch as Chastain took over the lead ahead of Blaney and Truex. A few laps later, Newman and Austin Dillon also pitted under green.
Through the first 50 laps of the event, Chastain, racing in his No. 42 McDonald’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, was leading by six-tenths of a second over Blaney, while Truex, Wallace and Keselowski continued to run in the top five. Larson, meanwhile, worked his way back to sixth place ahead of teammates Bowman and Byron while Kyle Busch was in ninth ahead of Hamlin.
Three laps later, the caution flew when Newman, who made a pit stop not long ago, got loose, spun and made contact with the outside wall in Turn 1 as he sustained damage to the left side of his car.
Under caution, nearly the entire field led by Chastain pitted while some like the Busch brothers, Michael McDowell, Logano and Reddick remained on the track.
The race restarted on Lap 57 with the Busch brothers starting on the front row. At the start, Kyle Busch managed to pull ahead of brother Kurt through the first turn while Byron, racing on two fresh tires, battled with Logano for fourth place behind McDowell.
With the field battling intensely for positioning around the Tricky Triangle, the caution returned two laps later when contact from rookie Anthony Alfredo and Corey LaJoie sent LaJoie making contact with the outside wall and spinning across the frontstretch.
When the race restarted on Lap 63, Kyle Busch retained the lead followed by brother Kurt and Logano while McDowell slipped back to fourth ahead of Byron. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes behind, Byron was able to move into fourth place followed by Blaney and Larson, all of whom overtook McDowell for positioning.
At the halfway mark on Lap 65, Kyle Busch was leading by nearly half a second over Kurt Busch while Logano, Byron and Blaney were in the top five. Larson was in sixth followed by McDowell, Reddick, Hamlin and Truex. Elliott, meanwhile, was in 13th behind Wallace and Keselowski, Chastain was in 15th behind Bowman and Harvick was in 16th ahead of Suarez, Briscoe, Almirola and Jones.
By Lap 70, Kyle Busch extended his advantage to more than two seconds over brother Kurt, while Logano, Byron and Larson were in the top five.
Just then, the caution returned when Chastain, who made right-side contact with the wall in Turn 2, spun in Turn 3 while trying to peel off the track to pit road, though he was able to make it back to his pit stall. At the time of caution, McDowell pitted for service.
Under caution, some like Kurt Busch pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch pitted.
With two laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted. At the start and with the field fanning out to multiple lanes approaching the first turn, Kurt Buch retained the lead ahead of Logano, Larson, Byron and Blaney.
Capitalizing in a two-lap shootout, Kurt Busch managed to fend off the field to claim the second stage on Lap 77 and win his second stage of this season. Larson crossed the start/finish line in second followed by Logano, Byron, Blaney, Hamlin, Truex, Bowman, Kyle Busch and Keselowski.
Under the stage break, some like Elliott, Alfredo, Justin Haley, Chastain, LaJoie and others pitted while the rest led by Kurt Busch remained on the track.
With 49 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Kurt Busch received a huge push from Larson on the outside lane to clear Byron prior to reaching the first turn. With Kurt Busch and Larson out in front, Logano overtook Byron for third while Blaney settled in fifth ahead of Hamlin, Truex, Kyle Busch and the field.
A lap later, the battle for the lead intensified as Larson took over the top spot through Turn 2. Through the following turn, Kurt returned the favor before Larson utilized the outside lane to his advantage to clear Kurt Busch and assume the top spot through the frontstretch.
With 40 laps remaining, Larson was leading by over Kurt Busch, with Logano, Blaney and Byron running in the top five. Bowman was in sixth followed by Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Wallace and Suarez. By then, names like Truex, Harvick and Bell pitted.
During the next three laps, names like Logano, Almirola, Byron, Blaney, DiBenedetto, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and Keselowski pitted under green. The leader Larson also pitted along with Wallace, Suarez, Kurt Busch, Bowman. Following the pit stops, Austin Dillon was busted for speeding on pit road while DiBenedetto was penalized for removing the gas can out of his pit stall. While serving his first penalty, the race went from bad to worse for DiBenedetto, who was busted for speeding on pit road.
Back on the track, Hamlin, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by teammate Kyle Busch, McDowell, Reddick and Elliott.
With 33 laps remaining, Kyle Busch peeled off the track for fuel under green and managed to exit pit road and pull ahead of Larson.
Three laps later, Hamlin was leading by nearly 15 seconds over McDowell, with Reddick, Elliott and Chris Buescher running in the top five. Rookie Anthony Alfredo was in sixth followed by Cody Ware, Ryan Preece, James Davison and Kyle Busch, who was still ahead of Larson.
Another few laps later, Hamlin surrendered the lead to pit for two fresh tires and fuel. By the time he returned to the track, he was overtaken by Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson, both of whom had enough fuel for the finish and were battling intensely to be ahead of one another with the rest of the leaders needing to pit.
Back at the front, McDowell was leading followed by Reddick, Buescher and Elliott while the two Kyles battled for fifth with 25 laps remaining.
A lap later, Reddick pitted, moving Buescher and Elliott to second and third while Kyle Busch continued to remain ahead of Larson in fourth.
Shortly after, the caution flew due to debris spotted in Turn 2. Under caution, a number of competitors led by McDowell pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson remained on the track.
With 19 laps remaining, the race restarted with Kyle Busch and Bowman starting on the front row ahead of Larson and Blaney. At the start, the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by Alex Bowman powered his way into the lead on the inside lane entering the first turn while Kyle Busch fended off Larson for the runner-up spot. A lap later and with the field jostling for late positioning, Larson took over the runner-up spot and pursued teammate Bowman for the lead while Busch was pressured by Byron for more.
Four laps later, Bowman continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Larson while third-place Kyle Busch trailed by nearly a second. Byron was in fourth followed by Blaney, Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Reddick, Logano, Harvick, Suarez and Wallace.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Bowman maintained a three-tenths-of-a-second advantage over teammate Larson, with both pulling away from third-place Kyle Busch by more than a second. Despite repeated challenges from Larson, Bowman retained the top spot through every corner and straightaway, including blocking his teammate and thwarting his teammate’s momentum to assume the top spot.
With five laps remaining, Larson gained a run through the frontstretch and attempted to extend his momentum through the inside lane, but Bowman pulled the block. While Larson attempted to crossover on the outside lane, Bowman retained the top spot.
A lap later, Larson finally succeeded after he gained another run and overtook teammate Bowman through Turn 2 after side-drafting him. By then, Kyle Busch cut the deficit to be under a second behind the two Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates. Larson, however, started to pull away with the lead.
With the white flag waving and the final lap of the race occurring, Larson was ahead by more than a second over teammate Bowman with Kyle Busch trailing by less than two seconds.
Then, trouble occurred for Larson, whose No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE lost a left-front tire and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3, thus smacking the wall and losing his momentum. With Larson scraping the wall and limping back to the finish line, Alex Bowman reassumed the lead on the final corner and was able to come back around to take the checkered flag and grab the win.
The victory was Bowman’s fifth of his NASCAR Cup Series career in his 207th series start and third of the season since taking over the iconic No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports car. Bowman, who signed a two-year contract extension to remain at Hendrick Motorsports a week ago, also became the third competitor to achieve three or more victories of this season.
In addition, Hendrick Motorsports’ competitors have won the last seven Cup events in recent weeks, including the All-Star Race, and 10 of the first 18 regular-season points-paying races of 2021.
“I don’t even know what to think,” Bowman said on NBCSN. “I hate to win one that way, but hell yeah, I’ll take it. Super proud of this Ally No. 48 team. Man, we kind of gave the lead away. We’re on two tires, just got super tight. Tried to hold [Larson] off as long as I could, but can’t say enough about everybody at Team Hendrick right now. From top to bottom, everybody’s just putting great race cars on the track. [Crew chief] Greg [Ives] and all the guys did a really good job. Man, we didn’t run that good all day, so I’m kind of in shock. I don’t know what to say to you guys…Heck yeah. I’ll take it.”
While Bowman celebrated, Larson, who made significant contact with the wall, coasted across the finish line in ninth place and with a wrecked race car as his hopes of winning four consecutive Cup races in recent weeks were spoiled on the final lap. The wreck will force Larson to move to a back-up car for Sunday’s Cup event at Pocono.
“I guess, disbelief still,” Larson, who made a trip to the infield care center, said. “I don’t know. A little bit laughable just because I can’t believe it. Hate that we didn’t get another win. It would’ve been cool to win five in a row, but just wasn’t meant to be, I guess, today. I felt something like right in the middle of the tunnel [turn], wasn’t quite sure what it was yet and then, it finally shredded halfway through the little short chute there and couldn’t turn. Hate that we didn’t get the win, but cool that Alex still did. Cool to keep Mr. [Hendrick]’s streak going, but hate that we didn’t get HendrickCars.com into Victory Lane. But, we’ll try and start another streak tomorrow.”
Kyle Busch settled in second place, nearly seven-tenths of a second behind, while Byron, Hamlin and Blaney finished in the top five.
Kurt Busch notched a strong sixth-place result while Logano, Harvick, Larson and Keselowski finished in the top 10.
Reddick, Elliott, Suarez, Wallace and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. earned top-15 finishes, Truex settled in 18th behind Almirola and Bell, Austin Dillon ended up in 21st in front of Erik Jones and rookies Chase Briscoe and Anthony Alfredo finished 24th and 26th.
There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 25 laps.
With eight races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by eight points over Larson. Eleven competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are currently guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once through the first 18 regular-season races of this season. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Kurt Busch occupy the remaining five vacant spots as winless competitors, with Busch ahead by four points over Chris Buescher, 42 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 55 over Daniel Suarez, 62 over Matt DiBenedetto.
Results.
1. Alex Bowman, 16 laps led
2. Kyle Busch, 30 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. William Byron, 13 laps led
4. Denny Hamlin, 11 laps led
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Kurt Busch, 12 laps led, Stage 2 winner
7. Joey Logano, 18 laps led
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Kyle Larson, 15 laps led
10. Brad Keselowski
11. Tyler Reddick
12. Chase Elliott
13. Daniel Suarez
14. Bubba Wallace
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16. Aric Almirola
17. Christopher Bell
18. Martin Truex Jr.
19. Michael McDowell, five laps led
20. Chris Buescher
21. Austin Dillon
22. Erik Jones
23. Ryan Preece
24. Chase Briscoe
25. Cody Ware
26. Anthony Alfredo
27. Justin Haley
28. James Davison
29. Garrett Smithley
30. B.J. McLeod
31. Quin Houff
32. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down
33. Ross Chastain, one lap down
34. Josh Bilicki, two laps down
35. Timmy Hill, four laps down
36. Corey LaJoie, five laps down
37. Ryan Newman – OUT, Accident
38. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident
The NASCAR Cup Series will return for its second event of the weekend at Pocono and to cap off a doubleheader weekend on Sunday, June 27, with the event to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola claimed starting spots for the 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race after each won a segment during the NASCAR All-Star Open at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 13. For the final transfer spot, Matt DiBenedetto earned a one-way ticket into the main event after being named the Fan Vote winner.
The starting lineup was determined via driver points, making Tyler Reddick starting on pole position while Chris Buescher joined him on the front row.
Prior to the race, Ross Chastain dropped to the rear of the field due to a violation discovered on his car pinpointing to his aero ducts. As a result, crew chief Phil Surgen was suspended from the weekend and Chip Ganassi Racing was fined $25,000. Austin Cindric (two pre-race inspection failures) and David Starr (unapproved adjustments) also started at the rear of the field.
When the green flag waved and the race started for the first segment, Buescher jumped ahead and battled Reddick for the lead entering the first turn before Reddick received a push from Matt DiBenedetto on the inside lane to take the lead.
With the field jostling for position behind, Reddick led the first lap. Meanwhile, Buescher and rookie Chase Briscoe made their way into second and third over DiBenedetto as Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones joined the battle.
Then, NASCAR declared that Buescher has been assessed a penalty for jumping ahead of the leader, Reddick, prior to the start of the event. In addition, Cindric was penalized for changing lanes at the start of the race.
On the fourth lap, the caution flew when Wallace, who was running in fourth place ahead of Erik Jones and Matt DiBenedetto, got loose and spun in Turn 1 before coming to a rest below the apron. Despite the spin, Wallace continued with no damage to his No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry.
Under caution, Wallace pitted along with Daniel Suarez, Quin Houff, Garrett Smithley, Austin Cindric and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Following the pit stops, Stenhouse was assessed an over-the-wall too soon penalty.
When the race restarted on the eighth lap, Reddick retained the lead over Briscoe, Jones and the field through the first two turns. Not long after, the caution returned when Buescher spun in Turn 3 following a bump from Stenhouse.
Under caution, Buescher pitted along with Stenhouse and Josh Bilicki.
When the race restarted on Lap 13, Reddick retained the lead followed by Jones, Briscoe and the field.
Two corners later, trouble ensued again when Jones, who battled hard against Briscoe, slipped up and spun sideways, where he was hit by Daniel Suarez before spinning back up to the wall with heavy damage as Suarez also made contact with the outside wall. The wreck was enough to knock Suarez and Jones out of contention to make the All-Star Race.
Under caution, Briscoe pitted, but was busted for speeding on pit road.
On Lap 18, the race restarted as Reddick and Ross Chastain started on the front row. At the start, Reddick and Chastain battled for the lead entering the backstretch while DiBenedetto and Corey LaJoie made a three-wide move on Almirola to move up towards the front.
Coming to the final lap of the first segment, Chastain made his move on the outside lane of Reddick through Turns 3 and 4 and he was able to grab the lead past the start/finish line. Through Turn 1, Chastain was able to clear Reddick and pull away.
Following his surge on the final lap, Chastain, who rallied from starting at the rear of the field following pre-race inspection issues, rocketed away to win the first segment on Lap 20 and race his way into the All-Star Race for the first time in his career, joining teammate Kurt Busch in the main event.
“It’s really cool,” Chastain said on FS1. “It’s been a good weekend on-track, but off-track, it’s obviously been really tough. Just fired me up more. This McDonald’s Chevy was obviously really good, coming from the back like that and race with guys like Reddick and those guys. I thought I was getting turned on the backstretch there when he drove into the left rear, but it’s a dream come true. Man, I’m living my dream as a farmer. Now, I get to go NASCAR racing in the All-Star Race with my heroes. It’s amazing.”
Under the segment break, LaJoie pitted along with Justin Haley, Cody Ware, Houff, James Davison, Timmy Hill and David Starr.
At the start of the second segment, Reddick received a push from Cindric on the outside lane to retain the lead ahead of DiBenedetto and Cindric. Meanwhile, Buescher and Almirola battled for fourth place followed by Wallace and Stenhouse.
By Lap 25, Reddick was the leader followed by Cindric, DiBenedetto, Almirola and Buescher. Wallace was in sixth followed by Briscoe, Stenhouse, rookie Anthony Alfredo and LaJoie.
A few laps later, DiBenedetto and Almirola overtook Cindric for second and third. Meanwhile, Reddick continued to lead by nearly a second.
By Lap 30, Reddick was leading by four-tenths of a second over DiBenedetto, with Almirola trailing by nearly a second. Behind, Cindric and Buescher battled for fourth place while Wallace retained sixth place.
With five laps remaining in the second segment, Reddick was still leading despite encountering lapped traffic, but he had Almirola closing in for the lead.
Down to the final two laps of the segment, Almirola drew his car behind Reddick’s rear bumper, but he could not navigate his way around Reddick to take the lead,
On the final lap of the second segment, Reddick was leading by under two-tenths of a second over Almirola, who continued to keep Reddick in pressure. Despite Almirola’s late surge, Reddick was able to beat Almirola by nearly three-tenths of a second to win the second segment on Lap 40 as Reddick transferred to his first All-Star Race, joining teammate Austin Dillon.
“Thankfully, we executed in the second segment,” Reddick said. “We got this thing in the race. That was the hottest 40-lap race I’ve ever done. That was hot.”
Under the segment break, Stenhouse pitted along with Briscoe, Haley, B.J. McLeod and Garrett Smithley.
With 10 laps remaining, the final segment commenced under green. At the start, the field battled through two lanes as Almirola and DiBenedetto battled dead even for the lead. Following a close side-by-side battle with DiBenedetto for a full lap, Almirola pulled ahead with the lead.
With five laps remaining, Almirola was leading by nearly half a second over DiBenedetto and Buescher. Cindric and Briscoe were in the top five followed by Wallace, Haley, Alfredo, Stenhouse and LaJoie.
As Almirola continued to lead, DiBenedetto and Buescher battled for the runner-up spot as both were behind by seven-tenths of a second.
Having a clear lead to his advantage, Almirola, who has endured a difficult 2021 season, was able to navigate his way around the circuit for a final time and come back around to take the checkered flag and win the NASCAR All-Star Open as he punched his ticket into the All-Star Race for the fourth time in his career, joining teammates Kevin Harvick and Cole Custer.
“It just helps make you happy about something,” Almirola said. “It’s been a really tough year and the guys just continued to work their guts out and bring the best cars we can. And here at Texas today, we got a really fast car. We took the long way in, but I’m still glad we’re racing for a million bucks tonight. Just proud to give [my sponsors] something to smile about, really.”
Despite finishing in the runner-up spot, Matt DiBenedetto claimed the 21st and final starting spot to the All-Star Race after being named the Fan Vote winner, a move that allowed him to transfer into the All-Star event for a second consecutive season.
“That’s a relief,” DiBenedetto said. “We struggled a little bit with the car there, but man, thank you so much. That’s really cool. It means a lot to get all the votes from the fans. I can’t tell them how much I appreciate that and an opportunity to be an All-Star.”
Buescher finished in third place followed by Briscoe and Cindric. Wallace rallied to finish sixth followed by Haley, Alfredo, Stenhouse and LaJoie. All eight competitors were among the remaining 18 competitors competing in the Open whom failed to make the All-Star Race.
There were three lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 13 laps.
Results.
1. Aric Almirola – Won third segment, 10 laps led
2. Matt DiBenedetto – Fan Vote winner
3. Chris Buescher
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Austin Cindric
6. Bubba Wallace
7. Justin Haley
8. Anthony Alfredo
9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
10. Corey LaJoie
11. Cody Ware
12. B.J. McLeod
13. Josh Bilicki
14. Garrett Smithley
15. Quin Houff, one lap down
16. James Davison, one lap down
17. Timmy Hill, one lap down
18. David Starr, one lap down
19. Tyler Reddick – Won second segment, 38 laps led
20. Ross Chastain – Won first segment, two laps led
21. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident
22. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident
The 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway will follow suit on Sunday, June 13, at 8 p.m. on FS1.
It was an historic day for Hendrick Motorsports as Alex Bowman assumed the lead under the final 100 laps following a stellar pit stop from his crew and went on to beat teammate Kyle Larson and win the Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, May 16, as he also led a 1-2-3-4 finish for the HMS organization.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Martin Truex Jr., winner of last weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Denny Hamlin, teammate and the regular-season points leader.
Prior to the race, Chase Elliott dropped to the rear of the field due to his car failing pre-race inspection twice. Ryan Newman also dropped to the rear due to unapproved adjustments. Josh Berry, who was making his NASCAR Cup debut in the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, also dropped to the rear of the field due to a driver change as he replaced Justin Haley, who was absent from the Cup event and Saturday’s Xfinity Series event due to COVID-19 protocols.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Truex launched ahead with the lead followed by Kyle Larson, Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Truex, though, was able to lead the first lap with the field behind jostling for position.
Through the first 10 laps of the event, Truex continued to lead by half a second over Larson and nearly seven-tenths of a second over William Byron. Hamlin was in fourth followed by Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher and Christopher Bell.
Five laps later, Byron, who had taken over the runner-up spot over teammate Larson, started to close in on Truex for the lead. Another lap later, Byron powered his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the lead.
By Lap 20, Byron was leading teammate Larson and Harvick while Truex slipped back to fourth place ahead of teammate Hamlin.
By Lap 30 and with the leaders approaching lapped traffic, Byron continued to lead by a narrow margin over teammate Larson. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, who was running in the top 10, had fallen back to 12th place after reporting a mechanical issue to his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry.
When the field reached the competition caution on Lap 35, Byron maintained the lead over teammate Larson, Harvick, Truex and Hamlin. By then, Chase Elliott, who started at the rear of the field, was in 17th while Kyle Busch, who continued to have mechanical issues with his car, had fallen back to 23rd. In addition, names like Ryan Preece, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Cole Custer and Aric Almirola were spared from being lapped by Byron.
Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Larson was able to exit pit road ahead of teammate Byron. Following the pit stops, Tyler Reddick, Corey LaJoie and Michael McDowell were sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
When the race restarted on Lap 40, Larson took off with the lead followed by Harvick.
By Lap 50, Larson was out in front by half a second over Harvick while Byron, Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin were in the top five. Chris Buescher was in sixth followed by Brad Keselowski, Logano, Alex Bowman and Elliott. Truex was back in 11th followed by Austin Dillon, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and rookie Chase Briscoe. Kyle Busch was in 29th, the final car on the lead lap.
Three laps later, Kyle Busch, who continued to battle engine issues, was lapped by Larson. Meanwhile, Byron, who continued to run in third place, radioed brake issues to his car.
Through the first 70 laps of the event, Larson remained in the lead by nearly two seconds over Harvick followed by Byron. Behind, Corey LaJoie pitted due to a flat tire.
Five laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Harvick followed by Byron, Blaney and Hamlin. Buescher, Logano, Keselowski, Elliott and Bowman all remained in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon and Truex, who was struggling with pace.
At the Lap 100 mark, Larson continued to lead by more than four seconds over Harvick followed by Byron, Blaney and Hamlin. Elliott moved up to sixth followed by Buescher, Logano, Bowman and Keselowski.
In the closing laps of the first stage, Larson increased his advantage to more than seven seconds. Behind, Hamlin moved up to second place followed by Blaney, Harvick and Elliott while Byron fell back to sixth.
On the final lap of the first stage, Chase Briscoe, who was trying to remain on the lead lap ahead of leader Larson, scrubbed the outside wall in Turn 1, though he was able to prevent the car from spinning. The debris from Briscoe’s damaged car was enough for the first stage to conclude under caution as Larson was able to claim his fifth stage victory of the season. Hamlin maintained the runner-up spot followed by Blaney, Elliott and Harvick while Byron, Logano, Bowman, Buescher and Keselowski were in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson maintained the lead following his pit service. Hamlin exited in second place followed by Elliott, Blaney and Logano. Soon after, Truex made another pit stop to have damage to the front of his car repaired.
The second stage started on Lap 129 with Larson and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Larson maintained the lead while Elliott drew his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE alongside Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry for the runner-up spot.
By Lap 135, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott followed by Blaney, Hamlin and Logano. Harvick, Buescher, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch and Byron were in the top 10.
Through the first 150 laps of the event, Larson remained as the leader followed by teammate Elliott, Blaney, Hamlin and Logano. Harvick was in sixth followed by Byron, Buescher, Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman. Kurt Busch and Keselowski were in 11th and 12th, Truex was in 14th ahead of Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace was in 17th behind Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch was in 36th, eight laps behind. By then, names like Cole Custer, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, Matt DiBenedetto, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were a lap behind.
More than 20 laps later, the caution returned when Josh Berry scrubbed the wall in Turn 2. Prior to the pit road opening for the leaders, Blaney pitted to have a hole on the front of his car fixed and due to a flat tire. When the pits opened, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead after exiting ahead of Elliott, Hamlin, Harvick and Byron.
When the race restarted on Lap 176, Larson launched ahead with a strong start followed by Elliott and Hamlin while Harvick and Byron battled for fourth place. In addition, Bowman, the fourth Hendrick Motorsports competitor, joined the party in sixth place.
By Lap 190, Larson extended his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott while Hamlin, Byron and Harvick continued to run in the top five. A few laps later, Penske teammates Logano and Keselowski nearly made contact with one another in Turn 1 while battling for eighth place.
At the halfway mark on Lap 200, Larson was leading by nearly a second over teammate Elliott while teammate Byron trailed by nearly five seconds. Hamlin was in fourth while Bowman was in fifth, marking all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors in the top five. Harvick was in sixth followed by Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Aric Almirola.
By Lap 220, all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors were running first through fourth, with Larson leading Elliott, Bowman moving up in third and Byron back in fourth. Hamlin was in fifth followed by Harvick, Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Almirola. Logano, meanwhile, was in 13th behind Reddick and Truex.
Despite having teammate Elliott closing in for the lead, Larson was able to pull away late as he approached lapped traffic and win the second stage on Lap 240 for his sixth stage victory of the season. Elliott followed behind in second place followed by teammates Bowman and Byron while Hamlin was in fifth. Harvick, Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Reddick were scored in the top 10. By then, names like Wallace and Logano remained on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead following another stellar stop from his pit crew followed by Bowman, Elliott, Byron and Kurt Busch.
With 152 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Larson rocketed away with another strong start while teammates Bowman and Elliott battled for the runner-up spot. Behind, a three-wide battle ensued between Harvick, Keselowski and Hamlin with Harvick moving into sixth place behind Kurt Busch while ahead of Keselowski and Hamlin.
Down to the final 135 laps of the event, Larson was out in front by more than two seconds over teammate Bowman with teammate Byron trailing by nearly three seconds and teammate Elliott trailing by three seconds. Kurt Busch, meanwhile, remained in fifth followed by Harvick, Keselowski, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Blaney, Ross Chastain, Almirola, Logano, Suarez and Truex.
Fifteen laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly three seconds over teammate Bowman with his other two teammates, Byron and Elliott, trailing by more than four seconds. Harvick was in fifth place, trailing by more than seven seconds, after overtaking former teammate Kurt Busch.
Down to the final 100 laps of the race, Larson remained in the lead followed by teammates Bowman, Byron and Elliott with Harvick in fifth. A lap later, though, the caution returned when Aric Almirola made hard contact into the Turn 3 outside wall after he blew a right-front tire, with fire eventually flaming out of Almirola’s car. The on-track incident marked Almirola’s fifth DNF and his sixth result of 30th or worse this season.
Under the caution period, the leaders pitted and Bowman, whose pit crew clocked off a fast pit service, emerged with the lead ahead of teammates Larson, Elliott and Byron with Harvick coming out in fifth.
With 92 laps remaining, the race restarted and Bowman maintained the lead over Larson and Elliott. Behind, Harvick overtook Byron for fourth with Hamlin lurking behind.
Six laps later, the caution returned when a bump from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent rookie Anthony Alfredo sideways and spinning to the inside wall in Turn 2, where he made contact with the wall. In the midst of the incident, Stenhouse and Keselowski received minor damage to their respective machines.
Under caution, a majority of competitors led by Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Bowman remained on the track. Overall, all four Hendrick competitors along with Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace remained on the track.
With 81 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Bowman pulled ahead followed by Larson while Elliott struggled to launch on the inside lane. Despite Larson challenging teammate Bowman for the lead through Turns 1 and 2, Harvick pulled his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang alongside Larson’s No. 5 Nations Guard Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in Turn 3, which allowed Bowman to maintain the lead.
While Bowman continued to lead under the final 75 laps, Larson remained within sight of the lead by nearly seven-tenths of a second followed by Elliott, Harvick and Byron. Suarez and Reddick maintained sixth and seventh while Wallace battled owner Hamlin for eighth place.
Just then, debris drew the caution, which jumbled the field and erased Bowman’s lead over teammate Larson. Under caution, a majority of the leaders remained on the track while others like Logano, Custer pitted.
The race restarted with 70 laps remaining and with teammates Bowman and Larson on the front row. At the start, Bowman maintained the lead followed by Larson and Elliott while Byron retook fourth place over Harvick.
Under the final 60 laps of the event, on-track battling occurring and with weather threats looming near the track, Bowman remained as the leader under half a second over a hard-charging Larson followed by Elliott, Byron and Harvick. Reddick, Suarez, Hamlin, Wallace and Logano were in the top 10 followed by Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Kurt Busch, Custer and Truex.
With 50 laps remaining, Bowman continued to lead by half a second over teammate Larson with teammates Elliott and Byron remaining in third and fourth. Harvick remained in fifth followed by Reddick, Suarez, Logano, Hamlin and Wallace, who had Blaney challenging him for more.
Down to the final 35 laps of the event, Bowman was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson while Elliott, Byron and Harvick stabilized themselves in the top five. Reddick, Logano, Suarez, Hamlin and Wallace also stabilized themselves in the top 10.
With 20 laps remaining, the gap between leader Bowman and runner-up Larson remained to more than a second, with teammate Elliott behind by more than two seconds and teammate Byron trailing by more than seven seconds. Harvick remained in fifth place while Logano overtook Reddick for sixth place. A few laps later, Custer overtook Wallace for 10th place.
Under the final 10 laps, the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by Bowman continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Larson, who continued to lose ground on his teammate for the top spot. Bowman maintained his healthy advantage under the final five laps of the event.
With no challengers closing in to his rear bumper, Bowman was able to come back around and claim the checkered flag ahead of his three HMS teammates.
The Dover victory marked Bowman’s first at the Monster Mile, fourth of his Cup Series career and second of this season as he joined Martin Truex Jr. as the only multi-winners of this year’s Cup season. He also returned the iconic No. 48 car to Victory Lane at Dover for the first time since 2017 made by Jimmie Johnson, who won at Dover 11 times. The 1-2-3-4 finish was a first for HMS and the fourth time done by a NASCAR team.
“We won Richmond and then had a really rough couple weeks there,” Bowman said on FS1. “[We] Went to some really good race tracks for us and struggled. [I] Told the guys last week, ‘We’re still the same team that did it at Richmond.’ It’s another really good place for us. I’m just so pumped for Ally. It feels right to put the No. 48 back in Victory Lane here after how many races this car has won here. Mr. [Hendrick] is here, I don’t think I’ve won with him here befrore, so that’s really cool. Just so proud of this pit crew. It was a rough off-season for us and a big void to fill…The whole pit crew’s doing a really good job. Thanks to my spotter, Kevin Hamlin, for coaching me there at the end. It was fun racing Kyle [Larson] and glad to get Hendrick Motorsports another win.”
With the Dover victory and career win No. 267, Hendrick Motorsports is one win away from tying Petty Enterprises for the most victories all-time in the Cup Series. In addition, Chevrolet is one win away from achieving 800 victories in NASCAR’s premier series.
“I can guarantee you, this is the most nervous I’ve ever been in a race,” Rick Hendrick said. “Great day for the organization. Alex, congratulations to him. This is a sign of the guys working together and bringing good stuff to the track. I don’t think it’ll hit me till tomorrow that we were able to finish 1-2-3-4. That’s pretty hard to do, things can happen, pit stops, tires, anything. That’s a first. We’ll take it. It’s a great day for us.”
Larson, who led a race-high 263 laps, crossed the finish line in second place, two seconds behind, and for his third runner-up result of the season.
“I felt like all of us, HMS guys, were pretty equal, so it was like whoever got out to the lead was gonna be hard to beat,” Larson said. “[Bowman’s] team just really did a good job on that pit stop, gain control of the race and never really had a shot after that. That one restart, I got to his bumper and got him loose, but [Harvick] was coming, so we had to let each other go, but hard to be disappointed with that second. I felt like I did everything I could. We led a lot of laps, won both stages. Good points, but I would’ve liked to have been one spot better…What a day for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet. Thanks to everybody at the shop, the engine shop. This is pretty amazing…That’s a pretty special day, for sure.”
Elliott finished in third place, three-and-a-half seconds behind, as he has yet to win this season. Byron capped off the 1-2-3-4 finish for Hendrick Motorsports by finishing fourth as he also captured his 11th consecutive top-10 result.
Logano emerged as the highest-finishing non-Hendrick Motorsports competitor by finishing fifth while Harvick, Hamlin, Reddick, Suarez and Custer finished in the top 10.
Wallace claimed his first top-15 finish of this season and for 23XI Racing by finishing 11th ahead of Blaney, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon and Chastain. Keselowski finished 16th, Truex came home in 19th and Kyle Busch capped off his long afternoon in 27th. Josh Berry finished 30th in his Cup debut.
There were 10 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 41 laps.
Denny Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 101 points over William Byron and 102 over Martin Truex Jr.
With the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular-season stretch halfway complete, 10 competitors (Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, William Byron, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are currently guaranteed a spot in the Playoffs based on winning at least once. Denny Hamlin would also be guaranteed a spot based on leading the regular-season standings. Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick are inside the top-16 cutline to the Playoffs as winless competitors, with Reddick ahead by 17 points over Matt DiBenedetto, 30 over Kurt Busch, 32 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 38 over Ryan Newman, 49 over Bubba Wallace, 56 over Daniel Suarez and 58 over Ross Chastain.
Results.
1. Alex Bowman, 98 laps led
2. Kyle Larson, 263 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
3. Chase Elliott
4. William Byron, 21 laps led
5. Joey Logano
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Denny Hamlin, two laps led
8. Tyler Reddick
9. Daniel Suarez
10. Cole Custer
11. Bubba Wallace
12. Ryan Blaney
13. Kurt Busch
14. Austin Dillon
15. Ross Chastain
16. Brad Keselowski
17. Chris Buescher
18. Ryan Preece, one lap down
19. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down, 16 laps led
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down
21. Christopher Bell, four laps down
22. Erik Jones, four laps down
23. Ryan Newman, four laps down
24. Matt DiBenedetto, five laps down
25. Michael McDowell, five laps down
26. Corey LaJoie, seven laps down
27. Kyle Busch, seven laps down
28. Anthony Alfredo, eight laps down
29. Quin Houff, 12 laps down
30. Josh Berry, 12 laps down
31. Cody Ware, 13 laps down
32. Garrett Smithley, 17 laps down
33. James Davison, 18 laps down
34. Josh Bilicki, 19 laps down
35. Chase Briscoe, 65 laps down
36. B.J. McLeod – OUT, Engine
37. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident
Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a trip to Austin, Texas, for the series’ inaugural event at the Circuit of the Americas for the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix. The event is slated to occur on Sunday, May 23, at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
