NASCAR released the penalty report following this past weekend’s Xfinity-Cup Series events at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course that occurred between October 12-13, 2024.
In the Cup Series, Joshua Thomas (front-tire changer) and Nick Covey (jackman), both of whom work in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team piloted by Austin Dillon, have been issued a two-race suspension due to a left-front wheel that detached from Dillon’s car on Lap 80 of 109 during Sunday’s event. The incident occurred after Dillon had made a green-flag pit stop and left his pit box despite the tire changer unable to tighten the left-front tire’s single lug nut before the car departed. Dillon would proceed to finish in 32nd place at Charlotte in an event that determined the Playoff’s Round of 8 field and was won by Playoff contender Kyle Larson.
With the suspensions, Thomas and Covey will not be present for the upcoming Cup Series Playoff events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at Homestead-Miami Speedway, respectively.
In the Xfinity Series, four crew chiefs were each fined $5,000 apiece due to their respective entries having a single lug nut unsecured during the post-race inspection process following Saturday’s event that also determined the series’ Round of 8 field and was won by Playoff contender Sam Mayer.
The crew chiefs that were penalized include Philip Bell, crew chief for Sammy Smith and the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team; Jeff Meendering, crew chief for Chandler Smith and the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team; James Pohlman, crew chief for Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team; and Andy Street, crew chief for Austin Hill and the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team.
Ironically, each of the crew chiefs’ respective competitors represent half of the current eight Playoff contenders who remain in championship contention as the series transitions to the Round of 8 that begins this upcoming weekend at Las Vegas.
Tuesday’s penalty report comes a day after Hendrick Motorsports opted to not appeal the disqualification of Alex Bowman from the Round of 8 due to Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet entry not meeting the minimum weight requirements following Sunday’s event, where Bowman had initially transferred after finishing in 18th place and winning the event’s second stage period.
Bowman’s disqualification allowed Joey Logano, who initially missed the Round of 8 cutline by four points, to claim the round’s final transfer berth.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series’ teams return to action this upcoming weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the Playoff’s Round of 8 also commences for both series. The Xfinity’s Round of 8 event at Vegas will occur on Saturday, October 19, and air at 7 p.m. ET on the CW Network. The Cup’s Round of 8 event will follow suit on Sunday, October 20, and air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Alex Bowman has been disqualified from advancing into the Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs due to a post-race infraction that was discovered at the conclusion of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 13.
During the post-race inspection process, Bowman’s No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry was found to be too light and not meeting the minimum weight specifications.
As a result, Bowman, who finished 18th during the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Roval, was demoted to 38th place, dead last, in the final running order. By being demoted to the last car in the running order, Bowman, who initially transferred into the Round of 8 by nine points after he won the second stage period and accumulated 10 stage points, ended up 20 points below the top-eight cutline.
Following the announcement, Brad Moran, managing director of the NASCAR Cup Series division, disclosed the ruling behind Bowman’s disqualification.
“So unfortunately, when we were running the No. 48 [car] through, it didn’t pass the minimum weight specs. So we pulled the car off to the side and we allowed [the No. 48 team] to fuel it, which they already did. We let them fuel it again. We let them run the pumps to make sure all the pickup boxes were full. We give the teams every opportunity to try to meet a minimum weight…We rescaled [the car]. It still didn’t meet the weight. We backed it off and we run it across one more time to confirm the weights were accurate and unfortunately, they did not meet the minimum weight. They are allowed half a percent of a weight break, which is about 17 lbs, give or take. That is what they’re allowed and it was more than that.”
With Bowman being disqualified from the Playoffs, he joins Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe as the bottom four competitors in the revised Playoff standings to not transfer into the Round of 8.
As a result, Joey Logano, who initially missed the Round of 8 cutline by four points, was awarded the final transfer spot into the Round of 8 as he continues his pursuit of his third Cup Series championship. Logano also caps off the Round of 8 field that includes teammate Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick, the latter of whom was battling Logano for a final transfer berth to the Round of 8.
Amid Bowman’s disqualification from the Playoffs, Hendrick Motorsports has yet to determine if the organization will appeal the penalty. Should the penalty stand, the 2024 season would mark the fifth time that Bowman has been eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 12.
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 20, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the South Point 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
With no points pressure mounted up his sleeves, Kyle Larson cruised to a dominant victory in the seventh annual running of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 13.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led a race-high 62 of 109-scheduled laps in an event where he started in sixth place and ran a consistent event while executing his pit strategy to perfection that kept him racing towards the front and also keeping his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet intact through every turn, straightaway, chicane and curbs.
After clinching his way into the Playoff’s Round of 8 by accumulating seven stage points between the event’s first two stage periods, Larson, who led twice earlier in the event, assumed the lead for the third and final time with 33 laps remaining during a late cycle of green flag pit stops. Then after muscling away from the field during a late-race restart with 26 laps remaining, the Californian maintained a reasonable advantage over the field and fellow Playoff rivals for the remainder of the event as he raced his way to his sixth Cup victory of the 2024 season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 12, Shane van Gisbergen notched his first Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, who posted his best qualifying lap at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Shane van Gisbergen muscled his No. 13 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead with the lead from the outside lane and he led the field through the infield turns, starting from Turn 1 to the newly configured Turns 5 and 6 zones that led to the new sharp left-hand turn to Turn 7 and back on Charlotte’s oval course. With the field navigating cleanly through the infield turns, van Gisbergen retained the lead through the oval turns and the chicane areas, from the backstretch to the frontstretch, as he led the first lap ahead of Playoff contenders Joey Logano and Kyle Larson while AJ Allmendinger and Playoff contender Tyler Reddick followed suit.
During the second lap, Logano was overtaken by Larson, Reddick and Allmendinger on the track, which dropped Logano to fifth place on the course. Behind Logano, Playoff teammate Austin Cindric followed suit in sixth place as he was ahead of Brad Keselowski, Playoff contender Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace while William Byron, who is already guaranteed a spot in the Round of 8, was in 10th place ahead of Playoff rivals Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. As Playoff contenders Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were trying to navigate their way up the leaderboard while being mired outside the top-20 mark on the track, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to over one second on Larson by the fifth lap mark. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Alex Bowman, whose No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 briefly came off the ground after he ran over the frontstretch’s chicane curbs earlier, was mired in 19th place ahead of rookie Carson Hocevar.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, van Gisbergen stabilized his advantage to more than one second ahead of Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano followed suit in the top five. Behind, Cindric and Elliott battled fiercely for sixth place ahead of Keselowski, Wallace and Byron while Bell, Blaney, Suarez, Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland trailed in the top 15 ahead of Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Carson Hocevar. Meanwhile, Hamlin was mired in 24th place behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while Briscoe was back in 26th place in between Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher.
Another lap later, Ryan Preece spun his No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the backstretch chicane while running in the top-30 mark, which dropped him below the leaderboard. Then during the following lap, Wallace was penalized for cutting the course while navigating his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE through the frontstretch chicane. This resulted in Wallace serving a “stop-and-go” penalty through the backstretch chicane, which dropped Wallace from eighth to 12th on the course. Martin Truex Jr., who was running within the top-25 mark, would also be penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane by Lap 13, which dropped him towards the top-30 mark. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to nearly two seconds over Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano continued to trail in the top five.
On Lap 18, the event’s first cycle of green flag pit stops slowly started to commence as Allmendinger pitted his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the top five. By then, Austin Dillon had pitted a lap earlier. Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher would all pit by the Lap 19 mark before Cindric, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Wallace, Hamlin, Briscoe and Truex pitted during the following lap. Larson would then pit his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the runner-up spot on Lap 21 along with Todd Gilliland, Hocevar, Bowman, rookie Zane Smith, Stenhouse, Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson, Harrison Burton before the leader van Gisbergen pitted during the next lap along with Daniel Suarez. With pit road closed on Lap 23 as the first stage period was coming to a conclusion, Reddick, who remained on the course, cycled his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE into the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Reddick, who came into the event 14 points above the top-eight cutline in his hopes to advance into the Playoff’s Round of 8, recorded his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Playoff contenders Logano, Elliott, Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top five while van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Keselowski and Playoff contender Cindric were scored in the top 10. With half of the 12 Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Bell, Byron, Suarez, Bowman, Briscoe and Hamlin were scored in 11th, 13th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd and 27, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Reddick and including Logano, Elliott and Blaney pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 29 as Larson and van Gisbergen occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead of Kaulig Racing’s van Gisbergen and Allmendinger through the frontstretch and he retained the lead through the infield turns while van Gisbergen fended off Allmendinger for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated through the infield road course turns and the sharp left-hand turn from Turn 7 back on the oval turns, Larson retained the lead for the remaining turns and led the following lap while Playoff contenders Briscoe, Hamlin, Reddick, Logano, Elliott and Blaney were mired within a series of on-track bumps and contacts while stuck in the middle of the field.
Shortly after and during the Lap 30 mark, Reddick was collected in a jam-up and came to a full stop to avoid hitting Austin Dillon, who was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got bumped by Bowman. Despite sustaining little cosmetic damage to his car, Reddick, whose car briefly came off the ground after he hit both the Turn 7 curb and into team owner Denny Hamlin prior to avoiding Dillon, pitted under green to address a potential broken toe link to his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE. With Hamlin remaining on the track despite getting hit in the left-side area and having a bent toe link to the rear end of his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE, Larson retained the lead by nearly a second over van Gisbergen while Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski were scored in the top five.
At the Lap 35 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over van Gisbergen as both were followed by Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski. With Cindric, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Wallace following suit in the top 10, Bowman, Hocevar, Buescher, Stenhouse and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 15 ahead of Logano, Zane Smith, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs and Elliott while Hamlin, Blaney, Truex, Gilliland and Harrison Burton were scored in the top 25.
Then while still on the Lap 35 mark, the caution returned due to Playoff contender Briscoe losing a right-rear tire as the tire came off of Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang Dark Horse in Turn 14 just as Briscoe was pitting. During the caution period, Reddick and Gragson pitted, with the former having his bent right-rear toe link addressed. Soon after, more names led by Allmendinger and including Hamlin and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 38 featured Larson and van Gisbergen dueling for the lead through the first four turns until Larson muscled ahead. With Bell overtaking van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot entering Turn 5, a traffic jam ensued as Keselowski was bumped and sent for a spin by Suarez in Turn 7 while the field fanned out. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, Larson retained the lead for the following lap ahead of Bell, van Gisbergen, Byron and Bowman as Austin Dillon, who was running in 28th place, was penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane despite getting hit by Briscoe before driving off the course.
Just past the Lap 40 mark, eight of 12 Playoff contenders were racing inside the top 10 on the track as Larson retained the lead ahead of Bell while Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano and Elliott followed suit from fourth to eighth, respectively, as Blaney was in 10th place. Meanwhile, Cindric and Hamlin were back in 17th and 19th, respectively, while Briscoe and Reddick were mired in 36th and 37th, respectively, with the former pitting multiple times for repairs following an on-track contact. As Erik Jones bumped Kaz Grala off the course through the frontstretch chicane as payback from an earlier contact that occurred in the backstretch chicane, Chastain was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got hit by Truex. Through both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions.
By Lap 45, Larson retained the lead by more than a second over Bell as van Gisbergen, Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano, Allmendinger, Elliott and Blaney followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Wallace, McDowell, Cindric, Kyle Busch and Hamlin. With Reddick mired in 36th place, Briscoe’s Playoff run in 2024 came to an end as he took his car to the garage and retired in 37th place. Briscoe’s DNF also ended the final Cup Series Playoff run for Stewart-Haas Racing.
“It’s tough,” Briscoe said after being released from the infield care center. “To have all that momentum that we had to come to an end and to have it come to an end like it did is definitely unfortunate. [I] Wish we could have kept going for [the title]. Just unfortunate. We still have a lot to race for. We still can go win four more races and that’s what we’re certainly trying to do.”
Two laps later, Byron pitted from inside the top five under green along with Ty Gibbs, Hemric, Chastain, Austin Dillon, Keselowski and Justin Haley. By then, Zane Smith, Truex, Stenhouse, Harrison Burton and John Hunter Nemechek had pitted. The leader Larson along with Bell and van Gisbergen would pit during the following lap as Bowman cycled into the lead.
Amid the pit stops, Suarez, who was engaged in a fierce battle that included bumps with Logano a few laps earlier, was forced off the course in the backstretch chicane after being bumped by Wallace, where Suarez came to a full stop before continuing. In addition, Zane Smith was spared from being penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane earlier after he got bumped by Buescher.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 50, Bowman, who came into the Roval 26 points above the top-eight cutline, notched his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger followed suit along with Logano, Elliott and Wallace while Blaney, Cindric, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch and Larson, who clinched his way into the Round of 8 by points, were scored in the top 10. With half of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders on the track racking up the second round of stage points, the remaining contenders including Hamlin, Bell, Suarez, Byron and Reddick were mired in 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 36th, respectively.
During the stage break, some led by Bowman and including teammate Elliott, Blaney and Suarez pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.
With 55 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Allmendinger and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Allmendinger muscled ahead with the lead from the outside lane and led the field through the infield turns while Wallace overtook Logano for the runner-up spot. Cindric would track teammate Logano for third place as the field fanned out while navigating through Turn 7.
With the field navigating cleanly through the backstretch chicane, trouble occurred in the frontstretch chicane as Chastain, who was mired in the top 20, was hit by Keselowski as he spun his No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time and collected Legacy Motor Club’s Nemechek and Erik Jones. Then as Ty Gibbs retired due to a transmission issue to his No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE, the caution returned during the following lap due to debris that came off of Nemechek’s damaged No. 42 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE in Turn 2.
During the caution period, Suarez, who was placed in a “must-win” situation to keep his Playoff hopes alive, pitted and the hood of his No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was lifted as his crew went to work to diagnose a brake issue. By then, Bell was officially ruled to be clinched into the Round of 8 based on points.
As the event restarted under green with 50 laps remaining, Allmendinger rocketed away from Wallace and Logano to retain the lead entering the first turn and through the infield turns. As Larson used the fresh tires to battle Cindric for fourth place, the field fanned out and was able to navigate through Turn 7 cleanly as Allmendinger maintained a reasonable gap between himself and Wallace through the oval turns and the backstretch chicane.
Allmendinger would proceed to lead the following lap while Reddick and Elliott battled for 23rd place and a spot into the Round of 8. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who struggled earlier in the event, was up to seventh place behind Playoff contenders Larson, Logano, Bell and Cindric as Reddick, who was in 23rd place, was tracking Elliott by five points in the current Playoff standings. As both Buescher and van Gisbergen were sent spinning separately in Turn 7 during the next lap, Allmendinger stretched his advantage to more than a second over Wallace before Larson overtook the latter with 47 laps remaining.
With 45 laps remaining, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to a second over Larson as Bell trailed in third place by two seconds. With Wallace leading Playoff contenders Logano, Cindric, Byron and Hamlin on the track, McDowell and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 10 ahead of Hocevar, Truex, Keselowski, Gilliland and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Bowman, Blaney, Elliott, Reddick and Suarez were mired in 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st and 32nd, respectively, as Larson proceeded to cut Allmendinger’s advantage to four-tenths of a second during the next lap.
Then with 43 laps remaining, Larson used a bold move beneath Allmendinger while nearly getting sideways to move into the lead in Turn 7. Larson would proceed to lead Allmendinger through the ensuing oval turns, the backstretch chicane and the frontstretch chicane while Bell started to close in on Allmendinger from third place. Meanwhile, Reddick, who had regained his racing rhythm and was trying to carve his way back up the leaderboard since having his car repaired in the pits following his second stage incident in Turn 7, continued to trail Elliott in the Playoff standings by five points as he was mired in 19th place in front of Bowman while Elliott was just ahead of Reddick in 18th place.
With 38 laps remaining, Allmendinger pitted from the runner-up spot under green as he was followed by Cindric, Logano, Kyle Busch and Buescher. By then, McDowell had pitted a lap earlier as Larson was leading by more than three seconds over Bell. Wallace and his 23XI Racing teammate Reddick would then pit during the following lap along with Gragson before Byron, Hocevar, Elliott and Bowman pitted with 36 laps remaining. Despite enduring a slow pit service, Elliott managed to blend back on the track in front of Reddick as Reddick was separated from Elliott by four competitors.
As the field reached its final 34-lap mark, the leader Larson pitted under green along with Bell and Blaney. By then, Hamlin had pitted earlier as Larson exited pit road ahead of Bell, who endured a slow service. With nearly every competitor in the field having made a pit stop, Keselowski, who has yet to pit, was leading. Keselowski, however, would pit shortly after, which handed the lead back to Larson.
With 30 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than six seconds over Austin Dillon as Bell, van Gisbergen and Allmendinger trailed in the top five. Meanwhile, Reddick, who was scored in 20th place, trailed the top-eight cutline by five points while Logano, who was in eighth place, occupied the final transfer spot. Meanwhile, Elliott was 12 points above the cutline as he was in 13th place while Hamlin, who was in 17th place, was ahead by nine points.
The following lap, the caution flew due to the left front wheel rolling off of Austin Dillon’s No. 3 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 just past Turn 4 and right after Dillon had pitted under green, which resulted in Dillon being assessed a two-lap penalty. By then, Reddick trailed Logano in the standings by four points while Larson was leading by six seconds over Bell. During the caution period, some including Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Reddick, Haley and Buescher pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the following restart period with 26 laps remaining featured Larson rocketing away from Bell, Byron and Cindric entering the first turn as Logano also tried to join the battle. As Larson led the field through the first four turns before navigating his way through the final three sets of infield turns, Larson slightly stretched his advantage over Bell through the oval’s backstretch and the backstretch chicane. As Playoff contenders Blaney and Hamlin were trying to navigate their way back into the top 10 on the track, Larson led the following lap while Reddick, who was mired in 24th place after he pitted, trailed the cutline by 12 points.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Bell as Playoff contenders Byron, Cindric, Elliott and Logano followed suit in the top six. With Logano losing fifth place on the track to Elliott not long ago, Reddick, who overtook Bowman for 19th place, trailed Logano in the standings by six points. Not long after, Reddick nearly got sideways as he bumped and sent Daniel Hemric for a spin in Turn 7. Amid the incident, Reddick continued in 18th place as he now trailed Logano by five points. Reddick would gain another point during the following lap as he overtook Stenhouse for 17th place and was trying to track McDowell for more.
With 15 laps remaining, Larson added an extra second to his advantage as he was leading by two seconds over Bell. Meanwhile, Reddick carved his way up to 15th place on the track, which placed him only two points behind Logano, who was still running in sixth place on the track, in the standings as he was trying to battle Kyle Busch for 14th place. Another lap later, however, Reddick’s deficit was cut to a single point as he overtook Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for 14th place while Logano was being pressured by Allmendinger for sixth place.
Down to the final 11 laps of the event, Logano and Reddick were tied for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8 as Allmendinger overtook Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse for sixth place through the backstretch on the track. Meanwhile, Reddick was trying to track down team owner Hamlin, who is only seven points above the cutline, for 13th place on the track as Logano owned the tie-breaker over Reddick. Logano and Reddick would remain in seventh and 14th, respectively, on the track for the following lap as Larson stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Bell.
Then with nine laps remaining, Reddick overtook Logano in the Playoff standings as he was in the final transfer into the Round of 8 by two points after he overtook Toyota teammates Truex and Hamlin from Turns 5 to 7. Meanwhile, Logano was still mired in seventh place and racing ahead of van Gisbergen, Wallace and Blaney while Reddick was trying to track down Hocevar for 11th place. Despite dropping to 13th place, Hamlin remained seven points above the cutline.
With five laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Bell as Byron, Cindric and Elliott followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Logano was scored outside the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings by four points as he was overtaken by van Gisbergen for seventh place on the track a few laps earlier while Reddick was up to 11th place. By then, Blaney and Elliott were also above the cutline by 18 and 14 points, respectively, while Bowman and Hamlin followed suit by eight and four points, respectively.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained as the leader by more than a second over Bell. As Larson proceeded to lap Suarez through the infield turns while Bell tried to close in, Larson was able to smoothly navigate his way out of the infield turns and through the final set of road course turns on the oval circuit as he then navigated through the frontstretch chicane and streaked across the finish line to claim the checkered flag by one-and-a-half seconds over Bell.
With the victory, Larson, who continues his pursuit for his second Cup Series championship ahead of the Round of 8’s commencement, achieved his sixth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season. He also achieved the 29th Cup victory of his career, his second at the Charlotte Roval after winning his first in 2021 and his first victory since winning the Bristol Night Race three weeks ago.
The victory was also the 15th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the 11th of the season for Hendrick Motorsports, with the organization notching its 25th Cup victory overall at Charlotte, as Larson racked up his 23rd victory while driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for team owner Rick Hendrick.
“It’s the first time in my Playoff career [that] I’ve not been like close to the [Playoff] cutline,” Larson, who celebrated with his daughter Audrey on the frontstretch, said on NBC. “It was good to kind of have a little bit of a stress-free of a weekend. I think the first time I’ve been here without crashing, maybe besides the other time we won. Good weekend. Obviously, we’re here at [owner Rick] Hendrick’s home and got so many of the people here from there, so [it’s] gonna be fun to celebrate with them. It’s known that I don’t really use the [simulator] much and I was in the Sim this week. Huge thank you, you guys. It really helped me get into a rhythm, I think, early on and help us fine-tune our car, too. Hats off to everybody there.”
As Larson continued his race-winning celebration in Victory Lane, Tyler Reddick, the 2024 Cup Series Regular Season Champion, was left relieved and smiling on pit road with his team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin as he survived his roller coaster event by claiming the eighth and final transfer spot to the Round of 8 by four points with an 11th-place result at Charlotte. The result enabled Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team to maintain their championship hopes for another three weeks.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I thought I was going to flip [in Stage 2],” Reddick said. “This [car] was absolutely destroyed. Real hats off to everybody on this Monster Energy Toyota Camry [team]. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was and we just kept working on it, and we made it a lot better for Stage 3. This is how this place can be sometimes, but it’s really nice to pull this off. You just got to stay calm, got to stay focused. In those moments, man, it’s so easy to lose track of what you control. Either way, I was going to drive the car as fast as I could. It just worked out for us. This thing was able to get up back up through the field and get us to the good side of the cutline.”
Meanwhile, Logano, who recorded a race-high 17 stage points and came into Charlotte with a 13-point deficit to the cutline, was left disappointed as he fell four points shy of remaining in contention for a third Cup Series championship in 2024. This season marks the first time where Logano was eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 12 and it comes a year after he was eliminated following the Round of 16.
“We fought hard, for sure,” Logano said. “I think [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the [No. 22] guys did a good job of executing the strategy and what we needed to do today. Just didn’t quite get enough there at the end. I fell off a little bit too much [on] that last run. Honestly, the No. 45 [team], Tyler [Reddick] and those guys did a good job [of] driving up through the field and scored more points. It’s hard not to think about Richmond a little bit right now. Just wasn’t meant to be. You can start looking back at different points in the season to gather four points pretty easily, but Talladega, we just didn’t do a good enough job there scoring stage points. It’s probably where a lot of it lies.”
Overall, Logano joins teammate Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe as the next wave of four Playoff contenders to officially be eliminated from the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.
“We had the speed and that’s the encouraging thing, that’s the exciting thing,” Cindric said. “Today, we needed it all. We had a great car. We had a great finish. All the things that are hard to do in a Cup race, we did all those things and capable of doing all those things in the two races prior [to Charlotte]. That’s what this [Playoff] format is. It’s difficult and for us having a better regular season, having bit better of a buffer can definitely help, but proud of everyone. Looking forward to trying to spoil some races and support our teammates to the rest.”
“We worked very hard for the last two weeks to prepare for this race,” Suarez said. “Honestly, [it was] probably the hardest I ever worked for one specific race and unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for. Just wasn’t our day, but I can tell you something. I’m very proud of this group because we put in the work. I guarantee you something, nobody works harder to prepare for this race. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for, but we have four more races and we’re going to go out there and give our best.”
On the contrary, Larson and Reddick join Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman as the remaining eight Playoff contenders who will continue the Playoff battle in the Round of 8, beginning next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bell, Byron, Cindric and Elliott finished in the top five behind Larson at the Charlotte Roval while AJ Allmendinger, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen, Logano, Bubba Wallace and Blaney completed the top 10 in the final running order. As Reddick finished 11th, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Hamlin, Bowman, Suarez and Briscoe ended up 14th, 18th, 31st and 37th, respectively.
There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 13 laps. In addition, 30 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Kyle Larson, 62 laps led
2. Christopher Bell, one lap led
3. William Byron
4. Austin Cindric
5. Chase Elliott
6. AJ Allmendinger, 14 laps led
7. Shane van Gisbergen, 21 laps led
8. Joey Logano
9. Bubba Wallace
10. Ryan Blaney
11. Tyler Reddick, six laps led, Stage 1 winner
12. Carson Hocevar
13. Kyle Busch
14. Denny Hamlin
15. Michael McDowell
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. Chris Buescher
18. Alex Bowman, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
19. Todd Gilliland
20. Zane Smith
21. Harrison Burton
22. Martin Truex Jr.
23. Josh Berry
24. Brad Keselowski
25. Daniel Hemric
26. Ryan Preece
27. Justin Haley
28. Kaz Grala
29. Ross Chastain
30. Josh Bilicki
31. Daniel Suarez, one lap down
32. Noah Gragson, one lap down
33. Austin Dillon, two laps down
34. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident
35. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident
36. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Engine
37. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
38. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. Kyle Larson – Advanced
2. William Byron – Advanced
3. Christopher Bell – Advanced
4. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
5. Chase Elliott – Advanced
6. Alex Bowman – Advanced
7. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
8. Tyler Reddick – Advanced
9. Joey Logano – Eliminated
10. Austin Cindric – Eliminated
11. Daniel Suarez – Eliminated
12. Chase Briscoe – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 20, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the South Point 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
For a second consecutive season, Sam Mayer went from being scored below the cutline in the Playoff’s Round of 12 finale to leapfrogging his way into the Round of 8 by winning the Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) on Saturday, October 12, amid an overtime shootout.
The 21-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led three times for 13 of 72 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside Playoff contender Shane van Gisbergen but was penalized for launching ahead of the latter prior to the start/finish line while not the control competitor. Despite serving a pass-through penalty through pit road during the second lap, Mayer blended back on the track inside the top-15 mark, carved his way back into the top 10 after pitting before the first stage’s conclusion, and settled in 11th place. Despite falling one spot short of accumulating crucial stage points following the first stage period, Mayer racked up eight points by settling in third place at the conclusion of the second stage period.
After restarting on the front row for the start of the final stage period with 24 laps remaining, Mayer assumed the lead during the following lap. Despite pitting for fresh tires during a late caution period that started with 15 laps remaining, the Wisconsin native would use the tires to carve his way back up the leaderboard and up to second place as he tried to challenge Playoff contender Parker Kligerman for the victory in the closing laps.
Initially poised to finish in second place behind Kligerman, which would have eliminated him from the Playoffs, Mayer was gifted an opportunity to reclaim the lead after Leland Honeyman wrecked in Turn 3. The caution occurred inches before Kligerman could start the final lap of the event and make the event official, and instead sent the field into overtime. During the overtime shootout, Mayer overtook Kligerman through the Roval’s newly configured Turn 7 and muscled away from the field for two laps to win and maintain his 2024 championship hopes for another three weeks.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Playoff rookie Shane van Gisbergen notched his third Xfinity Series pole position of the season and his career with a pole-winning lap at 97.110 mph in 84.523 seconds. Playoff contender Sam Mayer joined him on the front row was Playoff contender Sam Mayer, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 96.871 mph in 84.731 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ed Jones and Thomas Annunziata dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Sam Mayer rocketed his No. 1 QPS Employment Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger from the inside lane through the frontstretch as he proceeded to lead through the first turn before he navigated his way through the infield turns, starting in Turn 2. The field, led by Mayer, would then navigate through a pair of right-hand turns in Turns 3 and 4 before entering a brief straightaway to another right-hand turn in Turn 5. Mayer retained the lead through the Roval’s new design turns from Turns 6 and 7 before making a sharp left-hand turn to return back to the main Charlotte oval course.
As the field continued to jostle for early spots, Mayer proceeded to lead through the backstretch’s chicane before he was penalized by NASCAR for jumping the start while not the leader of the race. Amid the penalty, Mayer navigated his way through the final pair of turns before he returned to the frontstretch, drove through the chicane and led the first lap while being black-flagged by NASCAR.
During the second lap, Mayer served a drive-through penalty through pit road, which allowed van Gisbergen to assume the lead as he was followed by teammate AJ Allmendinger, Sheldon Creed, Josh Bilicki and Austin Hill. Despite being pressured by his Kaulig Racing teammate of Allmendinger, van Gisbergen would navigate his way through the 17-turn course and lead the following lap. By the fourth lap, however, Allmendinger navigated his way past van Gisbergen through the frontstretch’s chicane. With Allmendinger leading, van Gisbergen would fend off Creed for the runner-up spot as Bilicki and Hill followed suit.
Through the first five-scheduled laps, Allmendinger was leading by over teammate van Gisbergen as Creed, Bilicki and Austin Hill continued to trail in the top five ahead of rookie Jesse Love, Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier, Connor Mosack and Riley Herbst. Behind, Aric Almirola trailed in 11th place ahead of Cole Custer, Parker Kligerman and Anthony Alfredo while Sam Mayer was mired in 15th place ahead of teammate Sammy Smith.
Two laps later, van Gisbergen missed the backstretch’s chicane, where he locked up the front tires and drove off the course while running in second place. The on-track misfortune dropped the New Zealander to sixth place, where he had to come to a full stop before proceeding back on the racing surface, as Bilicki, Creed, Hill and Jesse Love all moved up the leaderboard. By then, Allmendinger was leading by more than three seconds.
At the Lap 10 mark, eight of 12 Playoff contenders were racing inside the top 10 as Allmendinger continued to lead by more than two seconds over Bilicki. Behind, Creed, Hill and Love followed suit ahead of van Gisbergen, Allgaier, Chandler Smith and Almirola while Mayer carved his way back into the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Kligerman, Herbst, Custer and Sammy Smith were racing inside the top 15 mark as Connor Mosack occupied 14th place.
By Lap 15, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to nearly four seconds over Bilicki while third-place van Gisbergen carved his way back up to third place in front of Creed, Hill and Love. Behind, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Almirola and Mayer remained in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman and Herbst while Custer and Sammy Smith dropped to 16th and 17th, respectively.
Not long after, Creed, who was racing in fourth place, spun in the Roval’s newly configured Turn 7 after he got hit by Love, who was trying to make a move beneath teammate Hill for a top-five spot. The incident dropped Creed out of the top-10 mark on the track as the event remained under green flag conditions.
By Lap 17, select names led by Bilicki and including Chandler Smith, Almirola, Mayer, Kligerman, Austin Green, Brandon Jones, Custer, Anthony Alfredo, Sammy Smith, Josh Williams, Ed Jones, Alex Labbe and Ryan Sieg pitted under green. Parker Retzlaff had pitted a lap earlier as Allmendinger retained the lead by more than six seconds over teammate van Gisbergen.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Allmendinger cruised to his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate van Gisbergen followed suit in second ahead of Allgaier, Hill and Love while Creed, Mosack, Herbst, Bilicki and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10. With eight of 12 Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders including Mayer, Kligerman, Custer and Sammy Smith were mired in 11th, 21st, 23rd and 26th, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Allmendinger and including Playoff contenders van Gisbergen, Creed, Herbst, Allgaier, Hill and Love pitted while the rest led by Bilicki and Chandler Smith remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road first, ahead of Allmendinger, Creed, Hill, Herbst, Allgaier, van Gisbergen, Jeb Burton, Mosack and Sage Karam.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as teammates Bilicki and Chandler Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Bilicki and Chandler Smith both dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Bilicki muscled his No. 19 Insurance King Toyota Supra ahead through the infield turns. As the field behind jostled for spots, Bilicki retained the lead through the infield turns, including the tight, left-hand Turn 7, before returning to the main oval course. In the midst of the battles, van Gisbergen, who restarted outside the top 20, made contact with Creed in Turn 7 in his charge back to the front before Alex Labbe spun through the backstretch’s chicane amid contact with Ed Jones. Amid the on-track chaos, the race remained under green flag conditions as Bilicki led the following lap ahead of teammate Chandler Smith while Aric Almirola was up to third place.
During an ensuing caution period that started on Lap 26 due to debris spotted in Turn 2, select names led by Creed and including Thomas Annunziata, Leland Honeyman and Blaine Perkins pitted while the rest of the field led by Bilicki remained on the track. Creed’s pit service was due to the driver reporting a shifter issue to his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra.
With the field restarting under green on Lap 29, Bilicki fended off teammate Chandler Smith through the first two turns to retain the lead. Bilicki retained a steady advantage over Smith, Mayer, Almirola and Kligerman through the infield turns from Turns 3 to 7 as the field fanned out while navigating back onto Charlotte’s oval course. Then as the field navigated through the backstretch’s chicane before returning to the frontstretch, the caution returned due to Matt DiBenedetto crashing into the tire barriers just past Turn 6 and struggling to restart from his carnage scene.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 32 featured Bilicki and Mayer occupying the front row, where both dueled for the lead through the first three turns before Mayer muscled ahead entering Turn 4. As the field behind fanned out, Mayer fended off Bilicki through the following three sets of infield turns before he returned to the oval course and continued to lead through the backstretch chicane. With Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Allmendinger trailing in the top five, Mayer led the following lap.
Shortly after, the caution returned when Herbst, who was battling Alfredo amid close-quarters racing for 15th place, made contact with Alfredo through the frontstretch chicane that resulted in Herbst getting turned sideways off the front nose of Alfredo as both went straight into the outside wall and igniting a pileup that involved Josh Williams, Mosack, Ed Jones, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg, Dylan Lupton, Preston Pardus, Blaine Perkins, Brad Perez, Jeremy Clements, Brennan Poole and Creed. Despite sustaining damage to their respective cars, Herbst and Creed continued and remained on the lead lap.
During the caution period and extensive cleanup period, a majority of the field led by Mayer pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.
With the race restarting under green with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Allgaier and Sage Karam led the field to the restart zone, where Allgaier rocketed away from Karam and the field to lead through the infield turns as Leland Honeyman overtook Karam for second place. With Allgaier retaining the lead, the field fanned out while navigating through the infield turns, the oval turns and the backstretch’s chicane. As Allgaier proceeded to lead the following lap, more trouble struck for Creed, who was off the pace and limping his damaged car below the Charlotte oval’s apron. Creed would lose a lap as the field lapped him entering the backstretch.
As Herbst was also falling off the pace in his damaged No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang and with a broken trackbar, the caution would then fly on the final lap of the second stage period due to Creed coming to a halt in the backstretch. The caution would officially conclude the second stage period scheduled for Lap 40 as Allgaier claimed his 15th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammates Mosack and Mayer would follow suit in second and third, respectively, while Almirola, Honeyman, Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Karam and Bilicki were scored in the top 10. With five of 12 Playoff contenders racking up a second round of stage points and both Herbst and Creed out of contention, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Kligerman, Love, Hill, Sammy Smith and Custer were mired inside the top 20.
During the stage break, select names including Allgaier, Karam, Clements, Retzlaff and Honeyman pitted while the rest led by Mosack remained on the track.
With 24 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as teammates Mosack and Mayer occupied the front row. At the start, Mosack muscled ahead and cleared teammate Mayer through the first turn. As Mosack proceeded to lead in his No. 88 Apollo Pex Chevrolet Camaro through the ensuing infield turns, Mayer fended off Allmendinger to retain second while Almirola, van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top six. With van Gisbergen diving his way up to fourth place through Turn 7, Mosack fended off teammate Mayer through both the backstretch and frontstretch chicanes to lead the following lap while teammates Hill and Love battled for ninth place.
Then, as Almirola and Clements spun in Turn 7, Mayer overtook teammate Mosack through Turns 8 and 9 to assume the lead. Mayer would retain the lead for the following lap as teammate Mosack, Allmendinger, van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Mayer was leading by more than a second over teammate Mosack as Playoff contenders Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Hill followed suit in the top seven ahead of Bilicki, Austin Green and Love. Behind, Sammy Smith, Custer and Allgaier were scored in the top 15 along with Brandon Jones and DiBenedetto as 31 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Five laps later, Mayer continued to lead by more than a second over Allmendinger as van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith and Mosack followed suit in the top five. With Mayer, who came into the event scored below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, leading, van Gisbergen currently occupied the eighth and final transfer spot to the top-eight cutline by two points over Allgaier, who overtook Custer for 12th place.
Shortly after, the caution flew due to Thomas Annunziata driving his No. 35 NFPA Toyota entry head-on into the barriers entering Turn 1 due to a brake failure. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Mayer and including Playoff contenders Allmendinger, Hill, Kligerman, Allgaier, Custer and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by van Gisbergen remained on the track. In addition to van Gisbergen, Austin Green, Love, Preston Pardus and Nathan Byrd remained on the track.
The start of the ensuing restart period with 11 laps remaining featured van Gisbergen rocketing his No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro away with the lead as the field fanned out entering the first turn. With van Gisbergen leading Love, Green, Mayer and Kligerman through the infield turns and back on the oval turns, the New Zealander retained the lead by a steady margin through the backstretch chicane as Kligerman battled and overtook Love for the runner-up spot.
With 10 laps remaining, several competitors including Mosack and Alfredo spun through the frontstretch chicane while more including Sammy Smith served an on-track stop-and-go penalty in the frontstretch. At the front, van Gisbergen retained the lead over a hard-charging Kligerman while Mayer carved his way up to third place. Kligerman would cut van Gisbergen’s deficit through the infield turns before the former retained the advantage for the remaining turns.
The following lap, Kligerman, who pitted for fresh tires during the previous caution period and is placed in a “must-win” situation to advance into the Playoff’s Round of 8, closed in to van Gisbergen’s rear bumper through the infield turns. Kligerman then made his move beneath van Gisbergen in Turn 7 to move his No. 48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro into the lead and he would retain the top spot through the oval turns and the following set of chicanes as Mayer overtook van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot. Van Gisbergen, whose tires were beginning to wear out, would then yield third place to teammate Allmendinger through the infield turns during the following lap as Kligerman retained the lead over Mayer.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Kligerman kept his lead to three-tenths of a second over Mayer, with the latter keeping pace and remaining within a striking zone of the former while Allmendinger tried to close in on the two leaders. Behind, van Gisbergen trailed by more than two seconds in fourth place ahead of Hill while Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Bilicki and Love were racing in the top 10.
Then with four laps remaining, Mayer seized an opportunity and made his move beneath Kligerman entering the frontstretch chicane to assume the lead. With Mayer lightly bumping into Kligerman and retaining the lead through the chicane, Kligerman then executed a crossover move of his own as he made his move beneath Mayer and reassumed the lead through the frontstretch. With Kligerman fending off Mayer through the first three turns, Allmendinger joined the battle and van Gisbergen also tried to close in from fourth place. During the following lap, Mayer briefly lost his momentum through the oval’s backstretch, which allowed Allmendinger and van Gisbergen to challenge him for the runner-up spot. Mayer, however, defended his spot as Kligerman muscled away with the lead through every turn and straightaway.
For the following lap, Kligerman’s steady advantage grew to nine-tenths of a second over Mayer as Allmendinger and van Gisbergen followed suit by less than two seconds. Despite Mayer trimming the gap to half a second towards the frontstretch, Kligerman remained in the lead.
Then as Kligerman was inches away from crossing the start/finish line to take the white flag and start the final lap of the event, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime due to Leland Honeyman wrecking and getting buried beneath the tire barriers in Turn 3. During the caution period, some including Love pitted while the rest led by Kligerman remained on the track
The start of the first overtime attempt featured Kligerman and Mayer dueling for the lead through the first four turns before the former rubbed and fended his way back to the front to retain the lead. Kligerman would retain the lead for the following infield turns before Mayer pulled a crossover move beneath Kligerman in Turn 7 and assumed the lead entering the oval turns. Mayer would proceed to lead through the backstretch chicane while Kligerman was trying to fend off Allmendinger and van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by a second over Allmendinger and van Gisbergen, who overtook Kligerman for second and third. By then, van Gisbergen was tied with Love for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8. As Love was trying to gain a spot within the middle of the pack, Mayer retained the lead from the infield turns to the backstretch. With both Allmendinger and van Gisbergen unable to close in from behind, Mayer would cycle back to the frontstretch and weave his way through the chicane before crossing the finish line in first place and notching his third Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Mayer, who came into the Charlotte Roval event 13 points below the cutline after being disqualified due to his car failing to meet the height requirements during the post-race inspection process last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, notched his seventh career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series division, his third of the season and his first since winning at Iowa Speedway in June. The victory was also the 16th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate, with the manufacturer racking its sixth consecutive win at the Charlotte Roval, and the 88th overall for JR Motorsports.
The second consecutive victory at the Charlotte Roval allowed Mayer and the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team to automatically advance into the Round of 8, where the Wisconsin native continues his pursuit for his first Xfinity Series championship.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Man, it’s all thanks to the good Lord above,” Mayer said on the CW Network. “He’s blessed me with a lot of issues this year, learning moments. To come out here to the Charlotte Motor Speedway [Rova], go back to back [in wins] with a fast, fast car. To do it at home is something special. This No. 1 car was fast today. We certainly had to work for [the win] there. I knew that [passing in Turn 7] was my only shot if I got a good angle into that corner. [Kligerman] blocked the bottom [lane], which was good for me. It gave me a better angle up off the corner and this QPS Employment Chevrolet hooked up and we were gone from there. [It] Was something super special and now, I get to celebrate.”
As Mayer celebrated the race victory that enabled him to advance into the Round of 8, Jesse Love was also left smiling after he finished in 19th place, which was enough for him to claim the eighth and final spot to advance into the next round of the Playoffs by two points over rookie rival van Gisbergen, who ended up in third place. The result marks the second time where a driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet entry claimed the final berth into the Round of 8 while van Gisbergen’s championship run in his first full-time NASCAR campaign came to a bittersweet end.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[The ending was] Just stressful,” Love said. “[My team] were telling me I needed one more [spot] and then one more. I was like, ‘When is [the race] gonna end?’ At the end of the day, I got to be loyal to my guys and they busted their ass really hard, so I got to put a sack over my shoulder and man up and drive forward. Just proud of my whole Whelen No. 2 team. We’re good enough to go race for a championship and we just got to go show it in the next three weeks.”
“It is what it is,” van Gisbergen said. “It probably comes down to last week [at Talladega] having the dramas we had and the DNF there, so that’s probably it. I’m proud of the Kaulig Racing guys. We’ve had an amazing year, my first year in NASCAR. I’ve loved it. I’m happy, but I’m also not. I’d love to keep going [in the Playoffs]. [I] Did what I could.”
Compared to van Gisbergen, teammate AJ Allmendinger advanced into the Round of 8 by finishing in second place. Playoff contenders Austin Hill, Chandler Smith and Justin Allgaier all advanced by finishing fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively, on the track as they joined Sammy Smith, who advanced by winning last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, for the Round of 8 battle.
Meanwhile, Kligerman did not transfer despite capping off his strong run in sixth place. Kligerman’s sixth-place result left the Connecticut native with mixed emotions and fighting off tears as he was initially within inches of both achieving his first elusive Xfinity victory and advancing into the Round of 8 during the event’s regulation period. Nonetheless, Kligerman remained humble and remained optimistic in pursuing his victory before he retires from NASCAR competition at this season’s conclusion.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I might have teared up when I thought we got it there with the white flag and the caution comes out and then had to refocus,” Kligerman said. “I thought I’d cut off Turn 7 enough, but [Mayer] somehow got below me and then, it was on from there. I said I want to cry. I’m not gonna cry, but I really love this game. I just really, really wanted that. It would have meant the world, but you know what? It meant the world to be in that position. Thank you to [owner] Scott Borchetta and everyone at Spiked Coolers. Everyone who made this possible. Big Machine Racing. I don’t know how to process this. It’s going to take a while, but just really thankful to have the opportunity. God, I love this game. I want to get a trophy.”
Ultimately, Kligerman and van Gisbergen join Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed as the bottom four competitors in the Playoff standings to not advance into the Round of 8.
There were 12 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 20 laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Sam Mayer, 13 laps led
2. AJ Allmendinger, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Shane van Gisbergen, seven laps led
4. Austin Hill
5. Chandler Smith, one lap led
6. Parker Kligerman, 12 laps led
7. Justin Allgaier, six laps led, Stage 2 winner
8. Josh Bilicki, 10 laps led
9. Aric Almirola
10. Sammy Smith
11. Brandon Jones
12. Parker Retzlaff
13. Cole Custer
14. Alex Labbe
15. Jeb Burton
16. Anthony Alfredo
17. Ryan Sieg
18. Connor Mosack, five laps led
19. Jesse Love
20. Jeremy Clements
21. Preston Pardus
22. Matt DiBenedetto
23. Kyle Sieg
24. Dawson Cram
25. Nathan Byrd
26. Brad Perez
27. Dylan Lupton, one lap down
28. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident
29. Sage Karam – OUT, Brakes
30. Austin Green – OUT, Engine
31. Ryan Ellis, 14 laps down
32. Riley Herbst – OUT, Driveshaft
33. Blaine Perkins, 16 laps down
34. Thomas Annunziata – OUT, Accident
35. Sheldon Creed – OUT, Accident
36. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident
37. Ed Jones – OUT, Accident
38. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Sam Mayer – Advanced
2. Sammy Smith – Advanced
3. Chandler Smith – Advanced
4. Austin Hill – Advanced
5. Cole Custer – Advanced
6. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced
7. Justin Allgaier – Advanced
8. Jesse Love – Advanced
9. Shane van Gisbergen – Eliminated
10. Sheldon Creed – Eliminated
11. Riley Herbst – Eliminated
12. Parker Kligerman – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to commence at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Ambetter Health 302. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, October 19, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Shane van Gisbergen doubled down with his second NASCAR national touring series pole position of the day at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) by claiming the top-starting spot for this weekend’s Bank of America Roval 400 on Saturday, October 12.
The three-time SuperCars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, was one of 10 from a list of 38-entered competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying, where the first phase of qualifying consisted of two 19-car groups (Group A and Group B) and the top-five fastest competitors from each group transferring into the final qualifying round.
After being the fastest qualifier from the Group B qualifying round and the fastest in practice, van Gisbergen would proceed to claim the pole position with his best lap occurring at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds, which was enough to edge Tyler Reddick by 0.057 seconds.
With his accomplishment, van Gisbergen, who was initially not registered to compete in this event but ended up being added in Kaulig Racing’s No. 13 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, notched his first career pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series division. He also became the 242nd competitor overall to win a pole in NASCAR’s premier series and he delivered the first Cup pole for Kaulig Racing as he will make his 10th Cup start of the 2024 season at the Charlotte Roval on Sunday. The New Zealander’s previous best starting spot in the Cup Series was third, which occurred at the Chicago Street Course in July 2023 and Watkins Glen International this past August.
Van Gisbergen, who will also start on pole position for Saturday afternoon’s Xfinity Series Playoff event at the Roval in his quest to advance into the Round of 8, also joins Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain as non-Playoff contenders to record poles as he strives to become the sixth competitor to win a Cup event at the Roval.
“Man, thank you to this Kaulig Racing team,” van Gisbergen said on USA Network. “[It was a] Last minute deal to come and race here. Thanks to [team owner] Matt [Kaulig] and the guys for letting me run their car. What an amazing day. I’m lost for words. I have to respect [that] there’s a lot of Playoff guys around me. I have to race respectfully. We’re here to win the race. Hopefully, we have a good day.”
Reddick, who won the Charlotte Roval pole a year ago and who made a last-ditch effort to topple van Gisbergen off the top of the qualifying charts, will start in second place with his best lap occurring at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds. Ironically, Reddick, the highest-starting Playoff contender, also rallied from being involved in a spin during the event’s practice session.
AJ Allmendinger, van Gisbergen’s teammate at Kaulig Racing and the reigning Bank of America Roval 400 winner, will start in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 98.874 mph in 83.015 seconds. Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, Playoff contenders and teammates at Team Penske, will line up in the top five.
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, Playoff contenders and teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, will follow suit in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Playoff contender William Byron complete the top-10 starting spots.
With six of the 12 Playoff contenders starting in the top 10 for Sunday’s main event, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe will start 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th and 25th, respectively.
With Sunday’s main event at the Charlotte Roval serving as the final Round of 12 event of the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, the following names that include Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe enter the Roval below the top-eight cutline while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott occupy the final two transfer spots by 14 and 13 points, respectively. William Byron is the only Playoff contender who is currently locked into the Round of 8 based on points while Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney follow suit in the top six in the Playoff standings.
*All 38 competitors entered for Sunday’s event at Charlotte earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
Shane van Gisbergen, 99.246 mph, 82.704 seconds
Tyler Reddick, 99.177 mph, 82.761 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 98.874 mph, 83.015 seconds
Joey Logano, 98.694 mph, 83.166 seconds
Austin Cindric, 98.580 mph, 83.262 seconds
Kyle Larson, 98.500 mph, 83.330 seconds
Chase Elliott, 98.389 mph, 83.424 seconds
Brad Keselowski, 98.341 mph, 83.465 seconds
Bubba Wallace, 98.219 mph, 83.568 seconds
William Byron, 98.165 mph, 83.614 seconds
Kyle Busch, 98.637 mph, 83.214 seconds
Christopher Bell, 98.605 mph, 83.241 seconds
Daniel Suarez, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
Ryan Blaney, 98.464 mph, 83.360 seconds
Todd Gilliland, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
Ross Chastain, 98.277 mph, 83.519 seconds
Alex Bowman, 98.453 mph, 83.370 seconds
Denny Hamlin, 98.174 mph, 83.607 seconds
Ty Gibbs, 98.377 mph, 83.434 seconds
Carson Hocevar, 98.039 mph, 83.722 seconds
Michael McDowell, 98.305 mph, 83.495 seconds
Austin Dillon, 98.009 mph, 83.747 seconds
Zane Smith, 98.128 mph, 83.646 seconds
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 97.924 mph, 83.820 seconds
Chase Briscoe, 97.987 mph, 83.766 seconds
Harrison Burton, 97.834 mph, 83.897 seconds
Daniel Hemric, 97.921 mph, 83.823 seconds
Corey LaJoie, 97.756 mph, 83.964 seconds
Chris Buescher, 97.760 mph, 83.961 seconds
Martin Truex Jr., 97.647 mph, 84.058 seconds
Kaz Grala, 97.752 mph, 83.968 seconds
Noah Gragson, 97.560 mph, 84.133 seconds
Justin Haley, 97.718 mph, 83.997 seconds
Ryan Preece, 97..234 mph, 84.415 seconds
John Hunter Nemechek, 97.664 mph, 84.043 seconds
Josh Berry, 97.069 mph, 84.558 seconds
Erik Jones, 97.515 mph, 84.172 seconds
Josh Bilicki, 95.261 mph, 86.163 seconds
The 2024 Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 13, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Rookie Shane van Gisbergen will start on the pole position for the 2024 Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) on Saturday, October 12.
The three-time SuperCars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, was one of 10 from a list of 38-entered competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying, where the first phase of qualifying consisted of two 19-car groups (Group A and Group B) and the top-five fastest competitors from each group transferring into the final qualifying round.
After being the fastest qualifier from the Group A qualifying round, van Gisbergen would proceed to post his best qualifying lap at 97.110 mph in 84.523 seconds during the final qualifying round, which was enough for him to claim the pole position for Saturday’s main event.
With the result, van Gisbergen, who is pulling double-duty roles between the Xfinity and Cup Series divisions, notched the third NASCAR Xfinity Series pole of the 2024 season and of his career. His previous poles of this season occurred at Sonoma Raceway in June and at the Chicago Street Course in July, both of which he proceeded to win the main events.
With Saturday’s main event at Charlotte serving as the Round of 12 finale in the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs, van Gisbergen’s pole position comes at a critical time. The New Zealander is currently ranked in 10th place in the Playoff standings and trails the top-eight cutline to the Round of 8 by 10 points. Having finished eighth and 35th, respectively, during the first two events of the Round of 12, van Gisbergen aims to race up front and contend for the victory that would enable him to the Round of 8 and remain in title contention.
“The WeatherTech Camaro was really good,” van Gisbergen said on USA Network. “Obviously, AJ’s [Allmendinger] fast as well, so that’s a credit to our Kaulig Racing guys. We struggled at Watkins [Glen] for pace, had to rethink and now, our cars are really, really good. Hopefully, we can both take [the competition] to’em. Hopefully, both of us get through to the second round of the Playoffs. We’re in a good spot. See how the race goes.”
Joining van Gisbergen on the front row will be Sam Mayer, a 2024 Xfinity Playoff contender who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 96.871 mph in 84.731 seconds. Like van Gisbergen, Mayer enters the Charlotte Roval below the cutline following a disqualification last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway due to his car failing to meet the height requirements during the post-race inspection process. Having won the Charlotte Roval in a “must-win” situation a year ago, Mayer, who trails the cutline by 13 points, strives to repeat his success at the Roval that would enable him to maintain his Playoff hopes for another round.
AJ Allmendinger, van Gisbergen’s teammate at Kaulig Racing and a five-time NASCAR national touring series race winner at the Charlotte Roval, will line up in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 96.776 mph in 84.814 seconds. Allmendinger, who currently occupies the eighth and final transfer spot into the Round of 8 by seven points, will be followed by Josh Bilicki and Playoff contender Sheldon Creed on the starting grid.
Playoff contenders Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, rookie Jesse Love and Justin Allgaier will start sixth to ninth, respectively, while Connor Mosack will occupy the 10th starting spot.
With eight of 12 Playoff contenders starting in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Sammy Smith and Parker Kligerman will start 12th, 14th, 16th, and 22nd, respectively.
*All 38 competitors entered for Saturday’s event at Charlotte earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
Shane van Gisbergen, 97.110 mph, 84.523 seconds
Sam Mayer, 96.871 mph, 84.731 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 96.776 mph, 84.814 seconds
Josh Bilicki, 96.256 mph, 85.273 seconds
Sheldon Creed, 96.248 mph, 85.280 seconds
Austin Hill, 96.183 mph, 85.337 seconds
Chandler Smith, 96.115 mph, 85.398 seconds
Jesse Love, 96.079 mph, 85.430 seconds
Justin Allgaier, 95.751 mph, 85.722 seconds
Connor Mosack, 95.636 mph, 85.825 seconds
Anthony Alfredo, 96.137 mph, 85.378 seconds
Riley Herbst, 95.775 mph, 85.701 seconds
Aric Almirola, 95.767 mph, 85.708 seconds
Cole Custer, 95.688 mph, 85.779 seconds
Brandon Jones, 95.675 mph, 85.790 seconds
Sammy Smith, 95.669 mph, 85.796 seconds
Austin Green, 95.562 mph, 85.892 seconds
Ed Jones, 95.543 mph, 85.909 seconds
Alex Labbe, 95.446 mph, 85.996 seconds
Parker Retzlaff, 95.385 mph, 86.051 seconds
Jeremy Clements, 95.335 mph, 86.096 seconds
Parker Kligerman, 95.319 mph, 86.111 seconds
Josh Williams, 95.215 mph, 86.205 seconds
Brennan Poole, 95.119 mph, 86.292 seconds
Ryan Sieg, 94.898 mph, 86.493 seconds
Matt DiBenedetto, 94.833 mph, 86.552 seconds
Jeb Burton, 94.777 mph, 86.603 seconds
Sage Karam, 94.549 mph, 86.812 seconds
Preston Pardus, 94.397 mph, 86.952 seconds
Ryan Ellis, 94.350 mph, 86.995 seconds
Brad Perez, 94.257 mph, 87.081 seconds
Thomas Annunziata, 94.160 mph, 87.171 seconds
Leland Honeyman, 93.877 mph, 87.434 seconds
Blaine Perkins, Owner Points
Kyle Sieg, Owner Points
Dylan Lupton, Owner Points
Dawson Cram, Owner Points
Nathan Byrd, Owner Points
The 2024 Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is scheduled to occur Saturday afternoon, October 12, at 3:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Amid the on-track action and the battles between a bevy of Playoff competitors vying for spots to the Round of 8, AJ Allmendinger spoiled the party by flexing his road course muscles and capping off a dominant run by winning the sixth annual running of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 8.
The 41-year-old Allmendinger from Los Gatos, California, led twice for a race-high 46 of 109-scheduled laps in an event where he started sixth and endured various pit strategies and on-track battles against the field and Playoff contenders throughout the first two stage periods. After assuming the lead for the first time with 52 laps remaining over Playoff contender Kyle Busch, Allmendinger then surrendered the lead to pit along with most of the field under green with 39 laps remaining. But he was able to reassume the top spot with nearly 30 laps remaining amid a late caution period for an incident involving Playoff contender Denny Hamlin and when some competitors who had not yet pitted, did so.
Starting with 31 laps remaining, Allmendinger then endured four extra caution periods and restarts, where he fended off late challenges from Playoff contenders Busch and William Byron along with rookie Ty Gibbs, to navigate his way to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, the third of his career and his first in more than two years.
Allmendinger’s victory also occurred on a day when the second round of eliminations in the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs ensued. It left former Cup champions Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, along with last year’s championship runner-up Ross Chastain, and Playoff newcomer Bubba Wallace, below the top-eight cutline and officially out of title contention for this season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 7, Playoff contender Tyler Reddick scored his third Cup pole position of the season and the sixth of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 102.839 mph in 81.214 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Christopher Bell, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 102.695 mph in 81.328 seconds.
Prior to the event, Playoff contender Kyle Larson, and Ty Dillon, started at the rear of the field in backup cars after both separately wrecked into the wall and were unable to post a qualifying lap.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Reddick, who opted to start on the outside lane, rocketed ahead from Bell and led the field through the first turn before the field navigated its way through the infield road course turns. With the field navigating its way through the road course turns and back onto the oval turns before entering the backstretch chicane, Reddick managed to retain the top spot from Bell as he made his way through the frontstretch chicane and led the first lap. By then, Reddick’s advantage over Bell was six-tenths of a second while Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez and AJ Allmendinger followed suit in the top five.
Through the second to fourth lap, Reddick slowly stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Bell. As Reddick proceeded to lead the fifth lap by more than a second over Bell, Wallace retained third ahead of Suarez and Allmendinger while Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, rookie Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain were running in the top 10. Behind, Denny Hamlin was in 11th ahead of William Byron, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman while Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson, who dodged a spin by Erik Jones through the frontstretch chicane, was mired in 28th behind Chase Briscoe while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was on pit road after making contact with the wall and damaging a rear toe link to his No. 47 Harris Teeter/Totino’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Reddick continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Bell while Wallace, Suarez and Allmendinger remained in the top five. As Kyle Busch, Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Chastain continued to run in the top 10, Playoff contenders Hamlin, Byron, Truex, Blaney, Keselowski, Buescher and Larson were running 11th, 12th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 27th, respectively, while McDowell, Bowman and Austin Dillon were running in the top 16. Meanwhile, Preece was back in 20th ahead of teammate Aric Almirola, Cindric was running 22nd ahead of Corey LaJoie and Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick was mired in 26th ahead of Larson and Mike Rockenfeller was in 31st in between Briscoe and Austin Hill.
Five laps later, Reddick’s lead extended back to more than a second over Bell while third-place Wallace trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Suarez and Allmendinger continued to run in the top five while Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Chastain remained in the top 10.
Another lap later, the first round of green flag pit stops commenced as Playoff contender Blaney pitted his No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang followed by the No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang piloted by teammate Austin Cindric. Another two laps later, brothers Austin and Ty Dillon pitted along with Briscoe and Austin Hill while Playoff contender Brad Keselowski was assessed a pass-through penalty after NASCAR deemed he missed the frontstretch chicane. By the time Keselowski served his penalty at the Lap 20 mark and with Reddick continuing to lead, more drivers, including Larson, Justin Haley and Preece pitted under green.
By Lap 21, more drivers, including Suarez, Allmendinger, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Byron, McDowell, Buescher, Harvick and Zane Smith pitted under green while Hamlin, Bowman, Almirola and Josh Bilicki followed suit during Lap 22 as Reddick continued to lead ahead of Bell and teammate Wallace. Bell would then pit his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry under green on Lap 23 and just as pit road closed with the first stage period nearing its conclusion.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Reddick, who came into the Charlotte Roval two points below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Teammate Wallace settled in second ahead of Chastain, Truex and Bell, who executed his pit stop to only lose three spots while blending back on the track, while Suarez, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Hamlin, Byron, Blaney, Keselowski, Buescher and Larson were mired outside the top 10 on the track while all but one of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap. In addition, Mike Rockenfeller was serving a stop-and-go penalty for missing the backstretch chicane.
Under the stage break, some led by Reddick, including those who remained on the track to gain stage points, pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 29 as Bell and Suarez occupied the front row. At the start, Bell, who made contact with Suarez, managed to rocket ahead from the outside lane and retain the lead through the first turn and the infield road course turns. As Elliott and Suarez bumped while battling for the runner-up spot ahead of the field through the road course turns and back on the oval turns, Bell muscled away with the lead as Kyle Busch and Allmendinger were in the top five. With more side-by-side battles ensuing through the backstretch chicane and back to the frontstretch, Bell retained the lead ahead of Elliott, Suarez, Kyle Busch and Allmendinger while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Logano, Byron and McDowell were in the top 10 at the Lap 30 mark.
At the Lap 35 mark, Bell was leading by two-tenths of a second over Elliott followed by Suarez, Allmendinger and Kyle Busch while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Logano, Byron and McDowell were in the top 10. Behind, Bowman was in 11th ahead of Blaney, Buescher, Reddick and Larson while Cindric, Almirola, Austin Dillon, Chastain and Haley were mired in the top 20 ahead of Wallace, Josh Bilicki, Truex, Keselowski and Harrison Burton.
Another lap later, Elliott muscled his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 beneath and past Bell through Turn 8 as he assumed the lead. With Elliott stretching his advantage to more than half a second through the frontstretch, Suarez, Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs started to close in on Bell for the runner-up spot while Hamlin trailed in seventh place. By then, Reddick carved his way up to the 12th while teammate Wallace was mired in 20th behind Chastain. In addition, Larson was in 15th behind Buescher and Blaney while Truex and Keselowski were back in 23rd and 24th. Meanwhile, Harvick was back in 36th after locking up his tires, missing the backstretch chicane and coming to a full stop to serve his penalty a few laps earlier.
Just past the Lap 40 mark, Elliott was leading by more than three seconds over Bell while Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Hamlin, Logano, Byron and McDowell were running in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Reddick, Buescher, Larson, Blaney, Chastain, Wallace, Truex and Keselowski were in 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 20th, 21st and 24th, respectively.
Another lap later, a second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney pitted before Harrison Burton and Almirola pitted during the next lap. Playoff contender Kyle Busch would pit his No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 along with Logano, Byron, Austin Dillon and Keselowski on Lap 43 before Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Bowman, Cindric and Zane Smith peeled off the track to pit during the following lap. In the process, Elliott retained the lead through Lap 45 ahead of Bell, Hamlin, Reddick, Buescher and Larson.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period and just after more names that included Playoff contender Buescher pitted, the caution flew after Josh Bilicki and Corey LaJoie made contact that resulted in LaJoie sending Bilicki into the wall in between Turns 3 and 4. Bilicki’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 50 to conclude under caution as Elliott, who was about to pit under green but elected to remain on the track during the incident, captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Playoff contenders Bell, Hamlin, Reddick, Larson, Chastain, Wallace and Truex followed suit from second to eighth while McDowell and Playoff contender Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Byron, Blaney, Buescher and Keselowski were mired within the top 20 while all but two starters were scored on the lead lap. In addition, Hamlin, who came into the Charlotte Roval 50 points above the top-eight cutline, was able to accumulate enough points to clinch a spot in the Round of 8.
During the stage break, some led by Elliott pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, McDowell’s pit crew went underneath the hood of the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang amid a power steering issue.
With 56 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Busch muscled ahead with the lead through Turn 1 while Allmendinger battled and overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated its way through the infield road course turns and back on the oval turns, Busch retained the lead while Byron, Logano and Buescher battled for fourth place in front of Blaney and Suarez. Amid more battles through the backstretch chicane, Busch retained the lead as he navigated back to the frontstretch chicane with runner-up Allmendinger trailing by three-tenths of a second.
At the halfway mark in between Laps 54 and 55, Kyle Busch continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Allmendinger followed by Byron, Ty Gibbs and Logano while Buescher, Suarez, Blaney, Bowman and Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Reddick, Chastain, Larson, Wallace, Truex, Bell and Hamlin were mired in 19th, 24th, 25th, 27th, 28th, 30th and 32nd, respectively, while Cindric, Harvick, Austin Dillon, Preece and LaJoie were running in the top 15.
Then with 52 laps remaining, Allmendinger made his move beneath Busch and moved his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through Turn 8. With Busch now back in the runner-up spot and placed in a “must-win” situation to move into the Round of 8, Byron, Ty Gibbs and Buescher were in the top five while Logano, Suarez, Blaney, Bowman and Keselowski were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Larson, Wallace, Chastain, Truex, Bell and Hamlin were mired outside the top 20 on the track.
With 45 laps remaining, Allmendinger extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Kyle Busch followed by Byron, Ty Gibbs and Buescher while Logano, Suarez, Blaney, Bowman and Keselowski were in the top 10 on the track. By then, Playoff contender Reddick was up to 15th and Larson was in 20th while Chastain, Wallace, Truex, Bell and Hamlin were mired in 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 29th, respectively. The current running order of the Playoff contenders currently places Keselowski, Chastain, Wallace and Kyle Busch below the top-eight cutline while Buescher, Bell, Reddick, Truex and Larson were currently scored above the cutline, with Larson just nine points ahead of Keselowski.
Then two laps later, Elliott pitted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green along with Harrison Burton. Playoff contender Keselowski would then pit his No. 6 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang during the following lap as he dropped to 17th by the time he blended back on the track while Allmendinger retained the lead ahead of Kyle Busch, Byron, Ty Gibbs and Buescher. Busch would then surrender the runner-up spot to pit under green with 40 laps remaining along with Briscoe and Erik Jones as Byron moved into the runner-up spot followed by Ty Gibbs. By then, Almirola was assessed a pass-through for missing the chicane while Hamlin spun after getting hit by Zane Smith through the frontstretch and just as McDowell fell off the pace after blowing a left front tire due to running over the curbs hard.
With 39 laps remaining, a bevy of names led by Allmendinger peeled off the track to pit under green in response to McDowell’s issues while Blaney remained on the track to inherit the lead. With McDowell able to limp his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang back to pit road, the race remained under green flag conditions as Blaney was scored the leader followed by Austin Dillon, Haley, Bell, Allmendinger and Kyle Busch. Bell, Austin Dillon and Chastain, who entered his pit stall in an awkward position with the right-rear tire sticking out after dodging Dillon on pit road, would pit under green with 37 laps remaining.
Then with 34 laps remaining, the caution flew after Hamlin, who was running just outside the top 20, got loose and spun his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry for a second time, this time through the frontstretch chicane as he was then hit by Mike Rockenfeller while Ty Dillon also went off the track as he was trying to avoid Hamlin. During the caution period, some led by Blaney and including Elliott pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.
With the race restarting under green with 31 laps remaining, Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead entering Turn 1 and through the infield road course turns before Gibbs muscled his No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota TRD Camry into the lead entering Turn 3. Then as the field made its way just past Turn 4, trouble struck behind as Austin Dillon and LaJoie wrecked, but the event remained under green flag conditions. Back at the front and as the field returned to the oval turns, Allmendinger made his move beneath Gibbs and reassumed the lead in Turn 8 as Byron and Kyle Busch closed in from behind. Amid the tight competition through the backstretch chicane and back to the frontstretch chicane, Allmendinger retained the lead from Ty Gibbs.
Then a lap later, the caution flew after Erik Jones, who was caught in a three-wide battle with Stenhouse and Elliott entering Turn 2, was clipped by Stenhouse and sent for a spin before he hit the wall, came back down the track and was hit by McDowell while Playoff contender Truex barely dodged the incident. The incident was enough to terminate Jones’ day in the garage while McDowell managed to proceed. By then, Hamlin retired in 37th, last place, after failing to beat the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock in time to continue.
During the following restart with 27 laps remaining, Allmendinger managed to rocket away from Ty Gibbs and retain the lead entering Turn 1 as the field fanned out entering the infield road course turns. With the field navigating through the turns and the oval circuit before entering the backstretch chicane, Allmendinger retained the lead by half a second over Ty Gibbs followed by Kyle Busch, Byron and Logano while Wallace, Bell and Larson engaged in a heated battle within the top 15 and to race their way into the Round of 8. Shortly after, Playoff contender Reddick engaged in a fierce battle with Logano for fifth place while Playoff contender Chastain was mired in 19th ahead of Elliott.
Amid another caution period with 24 laps remaining after Andy Lally spun just past Turn 1 and tried to nurse his car the opposite way before entering pit road and coming to a stop, some led by Playoff contender Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.
As the race restarted with 22 laps remaining, Allmendinger managed to muscle away from Ty Gibbs entering Turn 1 to retain the lead. Behind, Kyle Busch and Gibbs made contact while battling for the runner-up spot as the field made its way through the infield road course turns and back on the oval turns. Then through the backstretch chicane, trouble struck for Playoff contender Wallace after Suarez briefly slid sideways while on the brakes and turned Cindric, who then turned Wallace’s No. 23 Leidos Toyota TRD Camry in the process as the latter two spun, but the event remained under green as Allmendinger retained the lead ahead of Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Byron and Reddick. Amid their incidents, Wallace, who stopped on the frontstretch chicane after missing the backstretch chicane, and Cindric both pitted under green.
Back on the track and with 20 laps remaining, Allmendinger was leading by more than a second over Ty Gibbs followed by Kyle Busch, Byron and Reddick while Logano, Buescher, Bowman, Preece and Larson were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Chastain, Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Wallace were currently scored below the cutline while Larson and Truex occupied the final two transfer spots by 26 and 24 points, respectively.
Then with 17 laps remaining, more trouble ensued after Playoff contender Keselowski spun through the frontstretch chicane while battling Playoff contender Chastain in the top 20, with Chastain missing the frontstretch chicane to avoid Keselowski, coming to a full stop for missing the chicane and eventually pitting his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for service. With the race remaining under green, the caution would return the following lap after Bell, who was battling Suarez for 11th place, sent Suarez’s No. 99 Aguas Frescas Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning backward and wrecking into the Turn 8 outside wall. During the caution period, some including Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger, including the front-runners, remained on the track.
Down to the final 13 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Allmendinger muscled ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead before Kyle Busch made his way into the runner-up spot over Ty Gibbs entering Turn 1. As the field made its way through the infield road course turns, the caution quickly returned after fire billowed out of the No. 47 entry piloted by Stenhouse in Turn 2, with the driver able to escape uninjured.
With the race restarting with 10 laps remaining, Allmendinger rocketed ahead with the lead while Kyle Busch, who spun the tires on the restart, was locked in a battle against Byron for the runner-up spot, with Byron claiming the spot through the infield road course turns. As Allmendinger muscled away with the lead while the field navigated its way through the infield road course turns and on the oval turns, Busch was trailing the lead by more than a second with Allmendinger and Byron running first and second while Ty Gibbs and Logano were in the top five. By then, Playoff contenders Bell, Buescher, Reddick, Larson and Truex were scored above the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings while Chastain, Wallace, Busch and Keselowski were scored on the outside.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Allmendinger continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Byron while third-place Kyle Busch trailed by more than a second. With Ty Gibbs and Logano occupying the top five, Playoff contenders Reddick and Buescher were in sixth and seventh while Bowman, Elliott and Preece were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Larson, Blaney, Chastain, Bell, Wallace, Truex and Keselowski were in 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 19th, 20th and 21st, respectively.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allmendinger remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Byron while third-place Kyle Busch trailed by more than two seconds. With Byron unable to gain more ground through the infield road course turns, the remaining oval turns and the backstretch chicane, Allmendinger was able to place a reasonable gap between himself and Byron and navigate his way around the final set of turns before returning to the frontstretch and claiming the checkered flag by six-tenths of a second over Byron.
With the victory, Allmendinger notched his third NASCAR Cup Series career victory, all on road course venues, and his first since winning the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August 2021. He also recorded the second Cup career win for Kaulig Racing, the second for crew chief Matt Swiderski and the 16th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate. Having won the Charlotte Roval four consecutive times from 2019 to 2022, Allmendinger became the fifth competitor overall to win a Cup event at the Roval alongside Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.
The victory for Allmendinger also comes as his status to race for Kaulig Racing either in the Cup or Xfinity Series in 2024 remains to be determined.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“You don’t know when you’re going to [win] again,” Allmendinger, who fought tears of joy on the frontstretch, said on NBC. “I love all the men and women at Kaulig Racing so much. [My family and friends] see how much anguish and how much I put it on my shoulders when we’re struggling. It just means the world. I hate crying right now, but it’s a freaking Cup race, man, and you don’t know when it’s ever gonna happen again! Let’s go! Come on! This is why you do it. This is the only reason you do it. You fight all the blood, sweat, tears. Everybody at Kaulig Racing, it’s just been such a, I say, down year, but up-and-down year. It’s our second year in the Cup Series…Matt [Kaulig] and Chris [Rice], I freakin’ love you guys so much.”
Meanwhile and amid Allmendinger’s victory, Kyle Busch, who ended up in third place behind Byron, was eliminated from the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs along with 10th-place finisher Ross Chastain, 16th-place finisher Bubba Wallace and 18th-place finisher Brad Keselowski.
“That’s what we set out to do,” Busch said. “That’s what we felt like our road course program had in it, anyways, was for sure a top three, definitely a win. The guys gave me a great piece today. The Lenovo Camaro was pretty fast. Just lacked a little bit on the long run. Just didn’t quite have enough to have the feel of the tire that I was really looking for to be able to turn into the corners and to be able to drive out of the corners and keep pace with the front two at the end. Overall, this ride’s on me. The first two week’s of this round was, obviously, not very good and we didn’t score any points, so that’s where it’s at. It sucks to be out this early, but let us do Texas all over again and I feel like there and we’re ready.”
“This weekend was incredible, just from the effort from the team, for myself, just all clicking and it felt really good to be competitive and run up front, pass cars on road courses, to not be fast, so a lot to look at,” Wallace said. “What I analyze is what could have I done to not be in that situation. Could I have been faster, passed another car, how to be better? To not put yourself when you’re racing around with squirrels. It is what it is. Just didn’t have enough and it wasn’t in the cards. Guess that’s what 30 is. I’m not mad. I’m happy for the team. I’m pumped for our season. It’s not over with it yet. I’m really excited for next week and Homestead, Martinsville. We still got four races to go out and do it. Proud of the team, so I appreciate them.”
“We knew it coming in that it was gonna be tough,” Chastain said. “We put together a heck of a day for us on road courses this year. Lately, we’ve just been slower and slower. The curves are just, I can’t get over them. There’s a lot of reason I can’t break and we’ve reverted on some of that through Watkins Glen and to here, and it’s really paid off. So excited in the gains we’ve made because we came out of the box super strong last spring. It’s not over, right? We’ve signed ourselves for a long time together. I can’t wait to get to work in the morning for Vegas and every race after.”
“You always want to be better,” Keselowski said. “The way the Playoffs work, it’s really not one race. The cutoff’s kind of make or break. It’s two or three races there. It ended up 20-some points back and you could probably look through each one of those races and say I could have got five or six here or more so. All in all, it was big progress from where we’ve been. Not the day we wanted to have and it certainly stinks to not advance, but a lot of progress from where we were last year and I’m looking forward to making another step going into next year so we can keep pushing. A rasonable season when we still got the opportunity to run fifth in points and win races over the next four weeks. We’ll make the most of that.”
Amid the disappointments for Wallace, Busch, Chastain and Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. was the sole survivor for a second consecutive round as he finished 20th and transferred into the Round of 8 by 12 points with Kyle Larson, who ended up 13th, also transferring by 13 points. As a result, both along with William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney will square off against one another in the Round of 8 next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and battle for four championship finale spots.
“I feel like we’ve just been slipping through these Playoffs by the skin of our teeth,” Truex said. “Today’s just another not very good day. First half of the race felt OK, but man, I get back in traffic and my tires were gone in five laps, so I’m not sure what we had going on there the second half of the race. Thankful we’re through. We live to fight another day and good racetracks are finally coming up for us instead of Talladega and the Roval, so I don’t know. We’ll see what we can do. I know we’re capable of it. We just got to find it again. We’ve lost something. Hopefully, we can find it this week and go do what we did earlier in the year.”
“Feels good,” Larson said. “That was really stressful there at the end because we were really tight on the owner’s points and that’s what pays the money. I wanted to get in on that, but just huge thank you to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and all four teams who pitched in to help all night yesterday and into the early morning today. It means a lot to me. Happy to advance and look forward to the next round, for sure. There are some great tracks for us. Let’s go win Vegas and go win these next four races. That would be amazing.”
Rookie Ty Gibbs notched his fourth career top-five result in NASCAR’s premier series by finishing fourth on the track ahead of Logano while Reddick, Buescher, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Chastain completed the top 10.
There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 18 laps. In addition, 33 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. AJ Allmendinger, 46 laps led
2. William Byron
3. Kyle Busch, six laps led
4. Ty Gibbs
5. Joey Logano
6. Tyler Reddick, 27 laps led, Stage 1 winner
7. Chris Buescher
8. Alex Bowman
9. Chase Elliott, 15 laps led, Stage 2 winner
10. Ross Chastain
11. Ryan Preece
12. Ryan Blaney, six laps led
13. Kyle Larson
14. Austin Dillon
15. Christopher Bell, nine laps led
16. Bubba Wallace
17. Corey LaJoie
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Kevin Harvick
20. Martin Truex Jr.
21. Aric Almirola
22. Justin Haley
23. Todd Gilliland
24. Harrison Burton
25. Austin Cindric
26. Josh Bilicki
27. Austin Hill
28. Chase Briscoe
29. Mike Rockenfeller
30. Zane Smith
31. Ty Dillon
32. Michael McDowell
33. Daniel Suarez
34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Electrical
35. Andy Lally – OUT, Accident
36. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident
37. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Dvp
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. William Byron – Advanced
2. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
3. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
4. Christopher Bell – Advanced
5. Chris Buescher – Advanced
6. Tyler Reddick – Advanced
7. Kyle Larson – Advanced
8. Martin Truex Jr. – Advanced
9. Ross Chastain – Eliminated
10. Bubba Wallace – Eliminated
11. Brad Keselowski – Eliminated
12. Kyle Busch – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to commence next Sunday, October 15, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
After crashing out of his last three consecutive starts, including his latest two that nearly derailed his championship hopes, Sam Mayer capitalized after being in a “must-win” situation and earned a walk-off win into the Playoff’s Round of 8 by dominating from pole position and winning the sixth annual running of the Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Saturday, October 7.
The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led four times for a race-high 50 of 67 scheduled laps in an event in which he entered 34 points below the top-eight cutline and in a “must-win” situation to transfer to the next round after crashing and not finishing his previous two events. Commencing his weekend by winning the pole position, Mayer briefly lost the lead to teammate Justin Allgaier at the event’s start before claiming it for the first time on the fifth lap. Despite surrendering the lead to pit prior to the first two stage’s conclusion and sacrificing stage points, Mayer, who restarted in the top six with 11 laps remaining, capitalized on two late caution periods to overtake Cole Custer with four laps remaining and rocket away to score his third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season and be one of eight Playoff competitors to race their way into the Round of 8.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Playoff contender Sam Mayer started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 101.798 mph in 82.045 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate and Playoff contender Justin Allgaier, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 101.751 mph in 82.083 seconds.
Prior to the event, a bevy of names that included Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Sieg, Ryan Sieg, Jeremy Clements, Conor Daly and Josh Williams dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, teammates Mayer and Allgaier dueled for the lead amid two stacked lanes through the first three turns until Allgaier managed to muscle ahead from the inside lane and assume the lead through the infield road course turns. With the field navigating its way through the road course turns and back onto the oval turns, Allgaier managed to retain the lead as he proceeded to lead the first lap while Mayer, Josh Berry, Sheldon Creed and Daniel Hemric followed suit.
Through the second to fourth lap, Allgaier stabilized his advantage to as high as half a second over a hard-charging Mayer while Berry, Creed and Hemric remained in the top five. Behind, Parker Kligerman was in sixth while Cole Custer, Austin Hill, Riley Herbst and Alex Labbe were running in the top 10.
Through the fifth lap, Mayer, who used the frontstretch chicane to claim the lead back from Allgaier, was leading by four-tenths of a second over teammate Allgaier while Berry, Creed and Hemric were scored in the top five. Behind, Kligerman was in sixth ahead of Custer, Hill, Herbst and Alex Labbe while Kaz Grala, Brandon Jones, Jordan Taylor, rookie Chandler Smith and Kyle Weatherman were in the top 15. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton were in 17th and 18th while John Hunter Nemechek was mired in 27th.
At the Lap 10 mark, Mayer continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Allgaier while Berry, Creed and Hemric retained their respective spots in the top five. With Custer, Kligerman and Hill running sixth through eighth, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton were in 13th, 15th and 16th, respectively, while Nemechek was still back in 27th.
Seven laps later, a host of names that included Berry, Custer, Herbst, Labbe and Grala pitted under green. More names that included Connor Mosack, Brandon Jones, Jordan Taylor, Parker Retzlaff, Myatt Snider and Nemechek would follow suit on pit road before the leader Mayer pitted on Lap 18, just before pit road closed and as Allgaier reassumed the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Allgaier, who had already secured his spot for the Playoff’s Round of 8 by virtue of winning the Playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway in September, claimed his 12th Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Hemric settled in second followed by Creed, Kligerman and Hill while Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Mayer, Jeb Burton and Josh Bilicki were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Allgaier pitted while the rest led by Mayer remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Jeb Burton was penalized for speeding on pit road while Conor Daly was also penalized for his crew being over the pit wall too soon.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as teammates Mayer and Berry occupied the front row. At the start, the field quickly fanned out entering the first turn as teammates Mayer and Berry dueled for the lead. After being locked in a dead even battle against Berry through the first three turns, Mayer muscled ahead from the outside lane and retained the top spot through the infield turns before blending back on the oval turns ahead of the field. As the field continued to jostle for spots back on the oval turns and through the backstretch chicane, Mayer was leading by nearly a second over teammate Berry while Custer, Riley Herbst and Alex Labbe followed suit. Mired within the on-track battles was the battle for the transfer spots to the Playoffs with Mayer, Hill, Chandler Smith, Creed and Sammy Smith currently scored above the cutline while Hemric, Kligerman, Berry and Jeb Burton were scored below the cutline.
Through the Lap 30 mark, Mayer extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Berry with Custer, Herbst and Labbe were in the top five. Behind, Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Allgaier, Hemric and Creed were in the top 10, Sammy Smith, Kligerman and Hill were running 12th through 14th, Chandler Smtih was in 20th and Jeb Burton was back in 28th.
Two laps later, Berry, who came into the event below the cutline, spun and backed his No. 8 High Rock Vodka Chevrolet Camaro into the wall in between Turns 3 and 4 while running second, which dropped him to 13th. Amid Berry’s incident, the race remained under green flag conditions as Mayer continued to extend his advantage by more than five seconds over Custer. With Herbst, Nemechek and Brandon Jones running in the top five, Playoff contenders Allgaier, Hemric, Creed and Kligerman were battling in the top 10 while Sammy Smith, Berry and Hill were in the top 14. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith was in 19th and Jeb Burton was up to 23rd.
By Lap 37, green flag pit stops ensued for a second time as Herbst pitted his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang from third place followed by Hill, Grala, Berry, Myatt Snider, Mosack, Jordan Taylor, Sage Karam and Retzlaff as Mayer stabilized his lead by more than six seconds over Custer. Mayer then pitted during the following lap along with Custer, Jones and Allgaier as Nemechek assumed the lead just as pit road closed. Shortly after, Conor Daly drew a caution after he blew a left-rear tire and spun towards the outside wall in Turn 15 before he limped his damaged car and came to a stop towards the frontstretch chicane. Daly’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 40 to conclude under caution. As a result, Nemechek, who had already secured his spot into the Round of 8 based on winning the previous Xfinity Playoff event at Texas Motor Speedway, captured his 10th Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season, Hemric followed suit in second while Kligerman, Creed, Labbe, Sammy Smith, Mayer, Chandler Smith, Bilicki and Stefan Parsons were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, some led by Nemechek pitted for service while the rest led by Mayer remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Brandon Jones was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 24 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Mayer and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Mayer used the outside lane to retain the lead from Custer through Turn 1. As the field behind jostled for positions, Mayer started to pull away from Custer while Allgaier was in third ahead of Herbst and Grala. By then, Hemric and Creed were currently tied for the eighth and final transfer spot to the Playoffs, with Hemric owning the tie-breaker by virtue of securing a higher result within the Round of 12, while Kligerman, who was in 12th, was two points below the cutline.
With 20 laps remaining and amid the on-track battles, Mayer extended his advantage to a second over Custer followed by Allgaier, Herbst and Grala while Hill, Berry, Connor Mosack, Ryan Sieg and Myatt Snider were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Kligerman was in 11th ahead of Hemric, Jeb Burton, Sammy Smith and Creed while Nemechek and Chandler Smith were in 17th and 18th, respectively.
Five laps later, Mayer continued to lead by more than a second over Custer while Allgaier, Herbst and Grala were in the top five. Meanwhile, Kligerman and Hemric were in ninth and 10th while Creed was back in 15th, which currently placed him a single point above the cutline over Hemric while Kligerman trailed the cutline by three points. In addition, Sammy Smith, who was in 14th, was five points above the cutline while Jeb Burton and Berry were currently scored out of the cutline. Shortly after, Hemric and Creed were scored tied for the final transfer spot after Hemric moved into 10th place on the track, with Creed in 15th and eighth-place Kligerman behind by two points while Sammy Smith was still scored above the cutline while running 14th on the track.
Then with 12 laps remaining, Allgaier pitted under green as Mayer continued to lead by more than a second over Custer. Shortly after, the caution flew due to debris reported in Turn 17. During the caution period, Allgaier along with Jeb Burton and Blaine Perkins remained on the track while the rest, led by Mayer, pitted.
Down to the final eight laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Jeb Burton and Allgaier dueled for the lead until trouble struck after Burton got sideways and sent him and Allgaier sliding into the wall, with Perkins also hitting the wall while slamming on the brakes as the caution quickly returned and Allgaier was left eliminated from contention. With the leaders wrecked, Custer assumed the lead followed by Mayer, Bery, Herbst and Hill.
During the proceeding restart with five laps remaining, Custer and Mayer dueled for the lead entering Turn 1 until Custer managed to muscle his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang ahead entering Turn 2 and the infield turns. With Mayer keeping Custer within his sights, Custer retained the lead through infield turns and the oval turns. Amid Ryan Ellis getting into the wall and Brandon Jones spinning on the frontstretch, the race remained under green as Custer retained the lead back to the frontstretch ahead of Mayer, Berry, Herbst and Grala.
Then during the following lap, Mayer, who came into the event below the cutline and in a “must-win” situation, overtook Custer for the lead through Turn 4. Mayer’s move moved him back above the cutline. As a result, Creed was now scored a single point above Hemric on points and above the cutline with Kligerman behind by six points. Amid the battles, Sammy Smith was also scored above the cutline by three points.
During the proceeding laps, Mayer extended his advantage to more than a second over Custer with Berry, Herbst and Grala were in the top five. Behind, Kligerman was in sixth and scored five points below the cutline, Hemric was in sixth and scored two points below and Creed was in 10th behind teammate Hill while scored two points above the cutline.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by more than two seconds over Custer. With Custer unable to close the gap, Mayer was able to smoothly navigate his way around the infield road course and oval circuits for a final time before returning to the frontstretch chicane and crossing the finish line to claim his third checkered flag of the 2023 Xfinity season.
With the victory, Mayer notched his third NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in his 80th series start, all occurring on road course events, and his first since winning at Watkins Glen International in August. The victory was also the sixth of the season for JR Motorsports and the 15th for the Chevrolet nameplate. By winning the Playoff’s Round of 12 finale, Mayer clinched his spot for the Round of 8 as he continues in his pursuit of winning his first Xfinity Series title.
“I knew we had time,” Mayer said on NBC. “Our car was so fast. What a day. We kicked their tails today. It just feels so great. Bonus points feel great, winning feels great. Winning solves everything. That’s the name of the game. Getting another shot at [the title], I think this is our second chance moment and I think we can make something out of it. Winning still feels great.”
Meanwhile, as Custer, Berry and Herbst finished second through fourth, Kligerman, who was locked in a tight battle against Kaz Grala for fifth place, made contact with Grala through the frontstretch chicane before he, Grala and a hard-charging Daniel Hemric crossed the finish line in a three-wide photo finish as Grala edged Kligerman and Hemric, respectively, to finish fifth. The sixth- and seventh-place results for Kligerman and Hemric, however, were not enough for both to transfer into the Round of 8 as Creed, who ended up 10th on the track, claimed the eighth and final transfer spot by two points over Hemric and four over Kligerman.
As a result, Creed joins Sam Mayer, John Hunter Nemechek, teammate Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith as competitors to transfer into the Playoff’s Round of 8 while Daniel Hemric, Parker Kligerman, Josh Berry and Jeb Burton were eliminated from title contention.
“[I] Just kind of stumbled our way through this first round to make it,” Creed said. “Really just fortunate that we have the luck we did at the times we did. At the end of the day, we need to bring faster race cars. Just proud of everyone’s fight. We can’t stumble our way through the next [round], that’s for sure.”
“It’s the way it is,” Hemric said. “Before the day started, I said I’m gonna be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. We were defeated this round. It’s the way it goes. We carry on. I put [my team] in a hole, for sure, there in Texas. I hate it for these guys. We got a long road ahead of us. It’s just part of the journey, man. Journey makes the man. Looking forward to what’s ahead and what’s ahead for this race team.”
“[I was saying] Just get every spot I could and hope something happen,” Kligerman said. “I just knew I had to pass people and I was just trying everything I could to get spots. I’m more upset because I love the pressure of all of this. I love the idea of fighting for something so big like we were, but it’s been a big achievement to be a part of the Playoffs for this race team. I think I can be a better driver in 2024 than I was this year for [the team]. Man, I feel like every move, aside from that one restart, I felt like we were money. Just not enough.”
There were 10 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 12 laps. In addition, 33 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Sam Mayer, 50 laps led
2. Cole Custer, four laps led
3. Josh Berry
4. Riley Herbst
5. Kaz Grala
6. Parker Kligerman
7. Daniel Hemric
8. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps led, Stage 2 winner
The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is scheduled to commence next Saturday, October 14, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
A significant milestone mark is in the making for Ryan “Rudy” Fugle, crew chief for William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team in the NASCAR Cup Series. By participating in this weekend’s Playoff event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course for the Bank of America ROVAL 400, Fugle will call his 100th career race as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.
A native of Livonia, New York, Fugle made his inaugural presence as a NASCAR Cup Series crew chief at the start of the 2021 season, where he was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to lead the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team piloted by the 2017 Xfinity Series champion William Byron. By then, Fugle was coming off seven seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series, where he worked as a crew chief for Kyle Busch Motorsports and had accumulated 28 victories and two championships (2015 with Erik Jones and 2017 with Christopher Bell). The move also reunited Fugle and Byron, both of whom won seven races during the 2016 Truck season.
During the first two scheduled events of the 2021 season, Fugle and Byron finished no higher than 26th and were mired back towards the top-30 cutline. Then during the third event of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway in February, Fugle achieved his first career victory as a Cup crew chief after Byron led a race-high 102 of 267 laps to claim his second career win in NASCAR’s premier series. The Homestead victory would serve as the first of 16 top-10 results, including two runner-up finishes, achieved between the duo along with two poles during the 26-race regular-season stretch as they claimed a spot to the 2021 Cup Playoffs. Their title hopes came to an end following the Round of 12, but Fugle led Byron and the No. 24 team to four top-six results during the 10-week Playoff stretch before concluding the season in 10th place in the final standings. By then, Byron had tripled his top-five results compared to his previous two Cup seasons at 12, achieved a career-high 20 top-10 results and finish in the top 10 in the final standings for the first time in his career.
Remaining as Byron’s crew chief for the 2022 season, Fugle led the No. 24 team to its first top-five result of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March following two consecutive DNFs during the first two scheduled events. He then earned his second career victory as a crew chief after Byron notched a dominant win at the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. The duo went on to win at Martinsville Speedway in April and endure an up-and-down regular-season stretch before securing their spots for the 2022 Cup Playoffs. Finishing no lower than 16th throughout the Round of 16 and 12, Fugle and Byron transferred to the Round of 8. Despite achieving respective finishes of 13th, 12th and seventh during the penultimate round, they were unable to transfer to the Championship 4 round. Nonetheless, a sixth-place result during the finale at Phoenix Raceway in November was enough for Fugle, Byron and the No. 24 team to settle in a career-best sixth place in the final standings.
This season, Fugle and Byron have notched five victories (Las Vegas and Phoenix in March, Darlington Raceway in May, Atlanta Motor Speedway in July and at Watkins Glen International in August), nine top-five results and 14 top-10 results in 25 events. Fugle’s low point of this season was being suspended for four events from late March through early April as part of Hendrick Motorsports being hit with a severe points and fine penalty involving its hood louvers being confiscated from all four entries during the Phoenix weekend at March, which the event was won by Fugle and Byron. Despite all four Hendrick entries each being docked 100 points and 10 Playoff points, Fugle and Byron made the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs on the strength of their five regular-season victories. After finishing no lower than 15th during the first three Playoff events and transferring from the Round of 16 to 12, the duo notched their sixth Cup victory of the season at Texas Motor Speedway in late September. The victory not only guaranteed them and the No. 24 team into the Round of 8, but they delivered the record-setting 300th Cup career victory for Hendrick Motorsports. Currently, they are coming off a runner-up result at Talladega Superspeedway as they continue their pursuit of winning their first Cup Series title, beginning in the Round of 8 following this weekend’s Round of 12 conclusion.
Through 99 previous Cup events, Fugle has achieved nine victories, five poles, 28 top-five results and 47 top-10 results while working with William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team.
Fugle is primed to call his 100th Cup Series event as a crew chief at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course for the Bank of America ROVAL 400 on Sunday, October 8, with the event’s broadcast to commence at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Hendrick Motorsports will be fielding the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry for two additional NASCAR Xfinity Series events in the closing stretches of the 2023 season as Boris Said and Rajah Caruth will be taking turns piloting the entry.
As part of the entry’s two-race feature, Said will be piloting HMS’ No. 17 entry at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on October 7 while Caruth will be driving the car at Phoenix Raceway on November 4 to cap off the 2023 Xfinity Series season.
The news comes as Hendrick Motorsports is coming off its milestone 300th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series after Playoff contender William Byron won at Texas Motor Speedway, which also locks him and the No. 24 HMS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team a spot into the Round of 8 as they pursue their quest to win the 2023 Cup title.
Said, a 61-year-old veteran from New York City, is a well-accomplished sports car racer, having achieved two-time 24 Hours of Daytona class winner along with being the 1998 12 Hours of Sebring class winner and the 2004 Rolex Sports Car Series GT Class champion. He also became the first American to win the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2005.
In addition to his sports car accomplishments, Said has made a total of 149 career starts across NASCAR’s top three national touring series, 29 of which occurred in the Xfinity Series. He achieved his first and only recorded Xfinity victory to date at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2010 after edging road-ringer Max Papis in a photo finish while driving for RAB Racing. Coupled with a total of two poles, seven top-five results and nine top-10 results, Said’s latest Xfinity start occurred at Circuit of the Americas for MBM Motorsports in 2021.
Meanwhile, Caruth, a 21-year-old native from Atlanta, Georgia, is currently competing as a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitor for GMS Racing, which marks his first full-time campaign within NASCAR’s top three national touring series. Through 20-scheduled starts, Caruth has achieved three top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 19.3 as he is ranked in 17th place in the driver’s standings.
In addition to his full-time Truck campaign and previous full-time stint in the ARCA Menards Series for Rev Racing in 2022, Caruth has also made a total of 15 Xfinity Series starts to date, eight of which occurred this season but all with Alpha Prime Racing. His best on-track result to date is a 12th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway last October. He has also recorded a total of five top-20 results in the series.
The addition of Said and Caruth to Hendrick Motorsports’ Xfinity Series program will make them the fifth and sixth competitors, respectively, to pilot the team’s No. 17 entry throughout the 2023 season.
The No. 17 HendrickCars.com entry made a total of five appearances this season with HMS’ Cup Series drivers Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson piloting the entry while Greg Ives and Kevin Meendering served as crew chiefs. The entry’s best on-track result this season is a runner-up result at Circuit of the Americas in March with Byron driving. The entry proceeded to finish third at Sonoma Raceway with Larson, third at Pocono Raceway with Elliott, ninth at Watkins Glen International with Bowman and 38th at Darlington with Larson, respectively.
Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 17 entry debuted last season and appeared in four events as Larson, Bowman and Byron took turns driving the entry. The entry achieved a pair of runner-up results at Road America with Larson and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course with Bowman.
To date, Hendrick Motorsports has achieved one championship (Brian Vickers in 2003) and 26 career victories in the Xfinity Series. The team’s latest Xfinity victory occurred at Daytona International Speedway in 2009 with three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart.
With the team’s Xfinity Series plans for the remainder of this season set, Said will make his lone Xfinity start for Hendrick Motorsports at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on October 7 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Meanwhile, Caruth’s Xfinity start for HMS will occur in the championship event at Phoenix Raceway on November 4 at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network.
