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Tag: Charlotte Motor Speedway

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Charlotte

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Charlotte

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Martin Truex Jr.: Despite contact with the wall in Stage 1, Truex recovered and sealed the win at Charlotte with a daring four-wide pass for the lead on the final restart.

    “What better advocate for going ‘four-wide’ than Joe Gibbs,” Truex said. “Joe made the ‘four wide receiver’ set commonplace in the NFL of the 1990s.

    “I’m just glad my move didn’t cause an accident. The last thing we need is another upset driver punching another. Of course, my teammate is Kyle Busch, so I can definitely understand the desire to punch someone. His brother Kurt may have an even more punchable face. In fact, Kurt’s face has been‘rearranged’ before, when a plastic surgeon downsized his ears.”

    2. Kyle Busch: Busch finished third in Charlotte and leads the Monster Energy Cup points standings by six over Joey Logano.

    “This race lasted a grueling five hours,” Busch said. “It’s grueling for drivers, but even more grueling for a crew chief who has to listen to his driver complain for nearly all of those five hours.”

    3. Joey Logano: Logano took the runner-up spot in the Coca-Cola 600.

    “I got close to Martin Truex Jr. at the end,” Logano said, “but not close enough to give him the old ‘bump and run,’ the ‘run’ of which means I run and hide afterward. But he did a great job defending his position. He had the best car, and I wasn’t going to pass him. And, as they say, ‘there was no way around it.’”

    4. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski won Stages 1 and 2 at Charlotte, but blew a tire and slammed the wall with 10 laps to go. He finished 19th, two laps back.

    “The No. 2 Miller Lite was dominant in the first two stages,” Keselowski said, “but certainly not in the last stage. But ‘the No. 2’ out of 3 ain’t bad.”

    5. Chase Elliott: Elliott finished fourth at Charlotte, recording his fifth top five of the season.

    “The Sunday before Memorial Day is the greatest day in motorsports,” Elliott said. “Fans on the East Coast can enjoy breakfast at Monaco, lunch at Indianapolis, and an appetizer, nice dinner, desert, and a bedtime snack at Charlotte.”

    6. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished 10th at Charlotte, and is third in the Monster Energy Cup points standings, 50 out of first.

    “Congratulations to Tony Stewart on his Hall Of Fame induction,” Harvick said. “Boy, I can’t wait to hear Tony’s induction speech. It will probably be four letters long.”

    7. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin finished 17th at Charlotte.

    “I hit the wall in Stage 2,” Hamlin said, “then hit it harder on the race’s final lap. Luckily, cars and drivers are equipped with so many safety devices, you really can’t feel the impact. Someone should remind Clint Bowyer of that.”

    8. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer finished 24th in the Coca Cola 600.

    “You probably saw me punching Ryan Newman after the All-Star race,” Bowyer said. “I didn’t even let Ryan get out of his car! Needless to say, Ryan said he ‘won’t take this sitting down.’”

    9. Alex Bowman: Bowman started 13th and finished seventh at Charlotte, and is 10th in the points standings.

    “My Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron started on the pole,” Bowman said, “becoming the youngest ever on the pole at for the 600. He was ecstatic. He was on ‘Cloud 9.’ Several decades ago, you could have said he was ‘sitting on the top of the World 600.’”

    10. Kurt Busch: Busch struggled at Charlotte, finishing 27th, four laps down.

    “Charlotte Flair drove the pace car for the race,” Busch said. “As you probably know, Charlotte Flair is the daughter of wrestling legend Ric Flair. Incidentally, ‘Charlotte Flair’ is also the name of the downtown Charlotte club where you’re most likely to find Michael Waltrip.”

  • Truex scores second Coca-Cola 600 win at Charlotte

    Truex scores second Coca-Cola 600 win at Charlotte

    Martin Truex Jr. scored his third win of 2019 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday night, as he won his second Coca-Cola 600 by .330 of a second over Joey Logano. Truex had the dominant car of the evening, leading 116 laps after starting 14th, although he had to overcome a cut tire and contact with the wall on Lap 75 when he brought out the caution while leading.

    Truex had his hands full on the last restart with five laps left, when he restarted third behind David Ragan and Ryan Newman after pitting for fresh tires. Third-place finisher Kyle Busch restarted fourth, and after a strong restart, Busch appeared to be in position to take the lead until Truex made a four-wide pass for the lead on the backstretch and didn’t look back. Chase Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-five.

    “What a hell of a team,” Truex said. “We never gave up on it. I thought we were done. We blew a tire and hit the wall. We never gave up on it. I thought we were done. Just kept fighting, just kept fighting. What a race there at the end. That was pretty wild.”

    Logano was disappointed with second place but proud of his team’s efforts.

    “The Coke 600 is such a big deal to win,” he said, “especially as a Coke driver. You want to make it happen and we were close, but we’ll just have to wait again to next year and go at it. 

    “I thought we had a good shot when that caution came back out. That was another chance and just didn’t quite get it, but overall, like I said, very proud of it. As far as Memorial Day Weekend and getting to race is a privilege, so for me to complain about second sounds pretty dumb.  I’m proud to live in this country and I’m happy that I just get to race.”

    Busch, who earned his seventh top-five of the season, said, “I thought that through much of the race we had a fast car. We were there. We led some laps, we ran around. The 4 (Harvick) was fast, the 19 (Truex) was fast. The 19 was the fastest car, so I’m not sure what they had different than us, but obviously we were just off a little bit. Otherwise, I felt like we had a race-winning car capable of at least running second, I guess, but overall the red, white and blue M&M’s Camry was fast, and we brought it home where we should have – or close anyway, I think.”

    Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, Jimmie Johnson, William Byron, and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-10. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stops at Pocono Raceway next on June 2 at 2 p.m. ET on FS1.

    The race had 16 cautions for 80 laps, the majority of which were due to tire issues. Several drivers such as Truex, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Matt DiBenedetto, and Brad Keselowski all made contact with the wall after having tire issues. However, the race’s biggest caution happened on Lap 317 when Clint Bowyer and Kyle Larson made contact that collected Austin and Ty Dillon as well as Ryan Preece. Larson’s and Austin Dillon’s days ended after the incident.

    “I just got in there and lost grip and slid up into Clint,” said Larson. “I just hate that I caused the wreck there. I didn’t do a good job on the restart. Just put myself in a bad spot and got sideways.”

    The race saw 30 lead changes among 11 drivers, with many on social media proclaiming positive reviews on the event which further enforces the idea that the current aero package is a step in the right direction. This comes after two of the previous three Coke 600s were won by drivers who led over 375 of the 400 laps (Busch won in ’18 after leading 377 laps and Truex won in ’16 after leading 392 laps).

  • Reddick Wins Charlotte For Second Xfinity Win of 2019

    Reddick Wins Charlotte For Second Xfinity Win of 2019

    Tyler Reddick scored his second win of the 2019 Xfinity Series season when he won Saturday’s Alsco 300 by 2.10 seconds over runner-up Justin Allgaier. Jeffrey Earnhardt took home third place, while rookies Noag Gragson and Justin Haley rounded out the top-five.

    The win was the fifth of Reddick’s career and his third on a 1.5-mile speedway. Reddick began the race in third, but managed to lead the most laps (110) on the way to winning the second stage and the race itself, enduring several wild late-race restarts.

    “This is a place I didn’t feel good about, I’m not going to lie,” said Reddick. “I was really worried, Charlotte is kind of been the point in my season where things past Charlotte haven’t really gone good. It’s really nice to come into Charlotte, practice good, come into the race, run good, and come away with a win. Hopefully that means the next couple are going to keep rolling this way.”

    The win was the eighth top-four finish for the defending series champion.

    Christopher Bell began the race on the pole and led 33 laps and won the first stage, but suffered a tire failure and made contact with the wall around the halfway point of the race. He would finish 31st in his second DNF of the season.

    Michael Annett, Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg, Austin Cindric, and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10.

    The day was excessively hot, which led to a slick race track and several front-runners suffered tire issues or made contact with the wall, including Bell, Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Earnhardt, Chase Briscoe, and outside-polesitter Cole Custer. Several drivers were also overheated during and after the race, including Reddick, Haley, and Earnhardt, who was later taken to the medical center after experiencing dizziness on pit road.

    Fourth-place starter Austin Dillon had to relinquish his seat to Cup teammate Daniel Hemric with 40 laps to go when the seat in his Kaulig Racing got too hot and began burning his ribs.

    The next race will be June 1 at Pocono Raceway for the Pocono Green 250 at 1 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Ty Majeski wins ARCA General Tire 150 in overtime finish

    Ty Majeski wins ARCA General Tire 150 in overtime finish

    The ARCA Menards Series came to Charlotte Motor Speedway for a rare Thursday night event and its second race back since returning last year after a few years of hiatus.

    Eighth-place qualifier Ty Majeski took the checkered flag for his first ARCA victory, holding off defending series champion Sheldon Creed and Gus Dean in a two-lap overtime dash for the checkered. Majeski took advantage of dominant pole sitter Michael Self’s issues when he brought out the caution on Lap 85 by spinning in the first turn. Self stayed out on the race track in hopes of trying to stay as the leader, but everyone else, including Majeski, came down to pit road under the caution. Majeski took the lead with four to go and was able to hang on through three overtimes to earn the win in just his 11th start.

    “Ah man, this is unbelievable, I can’t even believe this,” Majeski said in his post-race interview with Fox Sports 1. “From losing my ride this year [in the Xfinity Series], it was like January or February when this deal finally came together. Chad (Bryant, Team Owner) took a chance on me. We both have a lot to prove. This is a great win for everybody. We have a great sponsor on board, Crestliner. This is freaking awesome! We have the [Alan] Kulwicki colors on, that’s where I kind of cut my teeth in the late model racing and jump start my career. For it to come full circle and come to victory lane, and the polish victory lap, it doesn’t get any better.”

    The General Tire 150 got underway shortly after 8 p.m. ET. Self earned the pole earlier in the day, thus continuing the Venturini Motorsports pole streak ever since the season started at Daytona. Former NHRA driver Tanner Gray put the No. 54 DGR-Crosley Toyota on the outside pole for his mile-and-a-half debut.

    When the green flag fell, the action was exciting and intense from the get-go.

    On the start, the No. 9 of Codie Rohrbaugh spun his tires and jacked up the field a little bit. This saw Self pull away from the field and lead early on. The first caution of the night came out on the fifth lap for Venturini Motorsports driver Christian Eckes, who had a left front tire go down in Turn 3. After a few laps under green, he would bring out another caution on lap 10 for another flat left front tire. Another caution was seen on Lap 16 for the No. 35 of David Dodson, who crashed off the fourth turn.

    The race was restarted on Lap 22 and when Joe Graf Jr. was penalized on the restart for passing before the start-finish line. Graf had to come down pit road to serve a pass-through penalty. The next caution flew on Lap 51, as the No. 06 of Con Nicolopoulos ran into trouble on pit road. At this time Self’s machine began to smoke. While Self and his No. 25 Venturini Motorsports team worked to assess what was happening, ARCA officials let the team stay on the track without being black flagged for leaking oil, as the smoke would eventually go away when the race would go back green.

    Another caution would fly on Lap 58 when the No. 69 of Scott Melton spun on the backstretch. Afterward, the race saw a long green flag run where Self would dominate the field until Creed began to run down the leader with 25 laps to go. Self kept a manageable lead over Creed and was looking to be just the second driver to earn the pole and win the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in an ARCA event since Ryan Newman in 2001.

    Following Self’s spin and gamble on the restart, which saw the rest of the field pit for tires and Creed being sent to the tail of the longest line for being penalized on the restart, Bret Holmes took the lead before Riley Herbst was sent into the wall after contact with Creed. On Lap 102 following the first overtime restart, Codie Rohrbaugh made contact with the wall off the second turn. This set up the final restart with Majeski coming out on top over Creed and Dean.

    “Yeah we had a bad adjustment there,” Majeski said to Fox Sports 1 when describing his late-race rally to the front. “I don’t know if it was the scuff tires that we qualified on or going to stickers that freed the car up. We were way too free. We got a caution there at the end. Paul (Andrews, Crew Chief) made a great adjustment. Ah man, this is so cool!”

    Michael Self and the No. 25 Venturini Motorsports team finished fifth after rebounding from his late-race issues.

    “I just made a mistake,” Self told Fox Sports 1 in his post-race interview after his spin in Turn 1 to bring out the caution. “I just got greedy, I guess. That was just dumb on my part. Just an idiotic move. This Sinclair No. 25 was such an incredible car today, I mean that thing was so fast. I got in and got a little bit free, you know getting right there, borderline free all night. That run was right on the edge and I totally blew it. But you know what, we came out with an okay points day. Thanks to everyone here, thanks to General Tire for putting this race on. This was a blast. Compared to last year, I’ll take it. We’re going to Pocono and I just have to learn.”

    This was Majeski’s second start of 2019, leading 14 laps en route to the victory. Self led the most laps with 91.

    Official Results

    1. Ty Majeski
    2. Sheldon Creed
    3. Gus Dean
    4. Harrison Burton
    5. Michael Self
    6. Tanner Gray
    7. Christian Eckes
    8. Bret Holmes
    9. Travis Braden
    10. Thad Moffitt
    11. Andy Seuss
    12. Joe Graf Jr
    13. Bryan Dauzat
    14. Scott Melton
    15. Tommy Vigh Jr
    16. Codie Rohrbaugh
    17. Willie Mullins
    18. Jason Miles
    19. Riley Herbst
    20. Brandon McReynolds
    21. Devin Dodson
    22. Con Nicolopoulos
    23. Brad Smith
    24. Dick Doheny
    25. C.J. McLaughlin- Withdrew Before Start Of The Race

  • William Byron captures pole and sets record for Coca-Cola 600

    William Byron captures pole and sets record for Coca-Cola 600

    William Bryon earned the Busch Pole Award Thursday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600, becoming the youngest pole winner in the event’s history.

    The 21-year-old Charlotte native earned the pole in his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet with a 183.424 mph lap. It was his second Cup Series pole and the second this season after starting up front for the season-opening Daytona 500.

    “This is a dream come true,” Byron said after qualifying. “Obviously I grew up in Charlotte and came to this race every year. So, it’s a dream come true to qualify on the pole with Hendrick Motorsports just across the street and all the hard work and everybody at Chevrolet giving us fast race cars. This is pretty cool. I can’t think of a better way to start the weekend.

    “Winning the pole is a good first step for this weekend. After all those nights of running the Summer Shootout and Winter Heat around here (as a child), I spent a lot of time wondering what it would be like to run the big track. It’s really cool (to win the pole on it). I’ve run one (Coca-Cola 600) here and it didn’t go so great, so the one thought I’ve had in my head this week was to make it better this year, because honestly it was miserable last year. I’ve taken that and used it as added motivation for this year. I don’t really like having the ‘youngest’ term attached to me. I’ve always been the young guy. I really just look at myself as a race car driver.”

    Aric Almirola will start in second after a lap of 183.069 mph in his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

    “I got everything I could out of it,” he said. ” If somebody else gets in there maybe they might be able to do something different, but I felt like I got everything I could out of it. Surprisingly, it was a handful to drive so I’m proud of that lap.”

    The defending race winner, Kyle Busch, qualified third in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 182.933 mph. Austin Dillon will start fourth with Kevin Harvick in fifth.

    Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Daniel Hemric round out the top 10 starting positions.

    Jimmie Johnson, with four Coca-Cola 600 wins (2003, 2004, 2005, 2014), will start in 15th.

    Tune into the 60th running of the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on FOX with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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

  • Weekend schedule for Charlotte

    Weekend schedule for Charlotte

    This Memorial Day weekend the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 60th running of the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday evening while the Xfinity Series hits the track Saturday for the Alsco 300.

    The ARCA Menards Series will also compete at Charlotte Thursday night for the General Tire 150. There will be two hours of practice beginning at 11:30 a.m. with qualifying at 5 p.m. The race is scheduled for a 9 p.m. start and will be televised on FS1.

    All times are Eastern.

    Thursday, May 23

    2:35 p.m.- 3:25 p.m.: Monster Energy Cup Series First Practice – Airing on FS1 at 3 p.m.
    4:05 p.m.- 4:55 p.m.: Xfinity Series First Practice – FS1
    6:05 p.m.-6:55 p.m.: Xfinity Series Final Practice – FS1
    7:05 p.m.: Monster Energy Cup Series Qualifying – Single Vehicle/One Lap All Positions – FS1/PRN

    Friday, May 24
    No events scheduled             

    Saturday, May 25

    8:35 a.m.-9:25 a.m.: Monster Energy Cup Series Second Practice – FS1
    9:35 a.m.: Xfinity Series Qualifying – Single Vehicle/One Lap All Positions – FS1
    11:05 a.m.-11:55 a.m.: Monster Energy Cup Series Final Practice – FS1
    1 p.m.: Xfinity Series Alsco 300 (Stages 45/90/200 Laps = 300 Miles) – FS1/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

    Sunday, May 26

    6 p.m.: Monster Energy Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 (Stages 100/200/300/400 Laps = 600 Miles) – FOX/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

  • Four Takeaways from the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Race at Charlotte

    Four Takeaways from the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Race at Charlotte

    The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series visited the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway located in Concord, North Carolina this past Friday night for the continuation of the 2019 Truck Series season.

    The polarizing driver, Kyle Busch was entered in his fifth and final truck race of the season in the Truck Series. And to no one’s surprise, Busch went five for five, winning in all five starts in the series this season. It’s a remarkable feat last accomplished by Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday who did it in 2009. However, he won five consecutive races that year, which means Hornaday’s record will stay intact for years to come. That is, unless, Busch decides to chase after a Truck Series title once his career in the Cup Series is done or an up and coming driver comes along (and there’s a lot out there) and starts breaking records like Busch did when he began his stellar NASCAR career. Nonetheless, despite Busch not winning in five consecutive races, it’s an extraordinary feat to win in all five starts. It’s something he tried years ago in the Xfinity Series, but he could only get half of them. The Future Hall of Famer is certainly impressive in the Truck Series this year, but will now turn his attention in trying to build his KBM team into a championship organization as they approach the Playoffs.

    While Busch continued his winning ways, other teams mourned the passing of longtime Truck Series owner Mike Mittler who had been an owner of a Truck Series team since the first year of the series in 1995. Mittler is known for giving drivers their first start. Some notables include Jamie McMurray in 1999 who made five starts that year and in 2000 where he made 10 starts. Carl Edwards made seven starts with the team in 2002 and Regan Smith made two starts the same year. Others include Justin Allgaier in 2005 and 2006, Brad Keselowski in 2006, Blake Koch in 2014, Brandon Hightower in 2015, Akinori Ogata in 2015, Bobby Pierce, who famously drove the truck at Eldora for all of his truck starts, Garrett Smithley, Spencer Boyd, the Donahue’s, Camden Murphy and Timmy Hill. J.J. Yeley was the last to drive for Mittler making the team’s last start at Chicago. The team attempted Bristol but withdrew.

    Team owner D.J. Copp took the No. 63 in order to pay tribute to Mittler. In a Facebook post by Copp Motorsports, it states that “Mittler Motorsports and Copp Motorsports officially joined as partners in early 2017. In an effort to help grow each of our programs, we operated seamlessly, however, we did have our hurdles beyond our relationship. With that, it often led to Mike telling me very simply “If it doesn’t make sense, then don’t do it…. It’s just that simple” and he so very often would repeat it back to me to make sure I understood.”

    With that in mind, here’s a look at this week’s Four Takeaways from the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    1. Rowdy Reigns Supreme In Charlotte – Kyle Busch won once again at Charlotte Motor Speedway, making it his eighth career win in the Truck Series at the 1.5-mile track in Concord. NASCAR fans saw Busch earn his 56th career win in 150 starts. To make it understandable, that’s 37% of the time that Busch has won in the Truck Series ever since his first win at, you name it, Charlotte in 2005. While the team owner was successful Friday night, leading all but 32 laps, finishing seventh in Stage 1 and won the second stage, his KBM teammates are still looking for the first win of their career/season. Todd Gilliland finished seventh, while Harrison Burton wound up 11th. If you take Kyle Busch out of the occasion, KBM has not won at all this year. Gilliland’s best finish so far came at Kansas a couple of weeks ago finishing third. His teammate Harrison Burton has a best finish of third at Dover. Both drivers sit on the playoff bubble with Gilliland in eighth and Burton in ninth, one point behind. Both are facing pressure to perform with a team that can and has won championships in the past. They only have nine races left until either driver can win in order to have a chance at the championship in 2019. And if they don’t win, their jobs could be on the line with KBM if these drivers don’t start winning soon.

    2. Anthony Alfredo Earns Top-10 Finish – The DGR-Crosley team had a miserable night with Natalie Decker wrecking out early on Lap 32 and their other teammate and Tyler Ankrum finishing 27th after facing vibration problems on Lap 111 that resulted in Ankrum and company not finishing the race. While Decker and Ankrum didn’t have the best night, their teammate Anthony Alfredo did by finishing eighth after starting 15th. It was his best finish so far this year.

    3. Young’s Motorsports Pay Tribute To Mike Mittler- As mentioned above, many teams and drivers took to social media over the week after Mittler passed away. There were many tributes and special messages displayed by drivers who drove for him or had a special connection with Mittler. One, in particular, was Spencer Boyd who made his first Truck Series start in 2016 at Martinsville finishing 28th. Boyd and the Young’s Motorsports teams paid tribute to the passing of Mittler.

    4. Texas Begins Triple Truck Challenge – When the Truck Series returns to on-track action at Texas Motor Speedway in a couple of weeks, it will see a unique twist introduced by Gander Outdoors and NASCAR that will award the winner of Texas, Iowa and Gateway a $50,000 bonus in each of those three events. Should a driver win all three, they will earn $500,000 in total after the challenge is over at Gateway. Think of it like the “Dash 4 Cash” in the Xfinity Series where drivers have a shot to win $100,000 for the highest finisher; that’s similar to how it will be in the Truck Series. Imagine what that can do to a team like Niece Motorsports or Halmar Racing if they end up winning one of the races? It would be a huge win. These races can all be seen on Fox Sports 1 the rest of the season. The RattleSnake 400 will take place Friday, June 7 at 9 p.m. ET, the M&M’s 200 at Iowa Saturday, June 15 at 7 p.m. ET and Gateway Saturday, June 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

  • NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Power Rankings-Charlotte

    NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Power Rankings-Charlotte

    After taking a trip to the Midwest, the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series team headed home to Charlotte Motor Speedway for their eighth race of the season.

    While some drivers consider Charlotte home, Kyle Busch and the No. 51 team found themselves home in victory lane Friday night for his 56th career Truck Series win. It was a remarkable feat winning five races in all five starts this season. The Truck Series regulars remain trying to chase down the all-time winningest driver but fell short once again. However, there is some good news for those series regulars. This was Busch’s last Truck Series race of the season due to NASCAR’s restriction on how many races in which he can compete in the series.

    So, how did the other Truck Series regulars stack up? Here’s a look at this week’s power rankings.

    1. Ben Rhodes – After coming up short a couple of weeks ago at Kansas, Rhodes and the No. 99 Carolina Nut Company Ford F-150 was looking to carry that momentum over to Charlotte this past Friday night in hopes of a win. He started fifth and pretty much stayed in the top-10 throughout the night, finishing fourth and eighth in both stages respectively. Rhodes would even be up front to contend for the lead but only led a couple of times. However, despite a late race restart, Rhodes and the No. 99 Thorsport team finished fourth for his fourth top five of the season and equaling the fifth-place finish that he earned at Atlanta in February. Rhodes now sits fourth in the standings, 34 points behind teammate Grant Enfinger.

      Previous Week Ranking – 2nd

    2. Matt Crafton – Crafton and the No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 team came to Charlotte with momentum after securing the pole at Kansas and finishing sixth there. He was also hungry and hoping to snap his long winless streak dating back to Eldora in July of 2017. When the team unloaded on Friday they were fast right out of the gate, sitting on the pole for the second consecutive week, the 15th of his illustrious career. However, Crafton was not able to keep the lead as Rhodes, Todd Gilliland and Kyle Busch would go right by him. It wouldn’t be until Lap 30, where we would see the famous No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 back out front, although, he had to pass Todd Gilliland in a thriller off Turn 4 for the stage win. Crafton and the No. 88 ThorSport team stayed consistent throughout the night finishing fourth in the second stage. Ultimately, he still found himself winless as Crafton finished in the fifth position to round out the top five finishers. You’d have to imagine that he is even more hungry for a win as we approach the two year anniversary since of his last win at Eldora.

      Previous Week Ranking – 5th

    3. Todd Gilliland – Gilliland and the No 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports team had a slight setback this week after finishing third at Kansas, but it was still enough to keep them in the power rankings. He started third but lost the first stage win in a thrilling battle with Crafton, then he finished 10th in Stage 2. Still, as much criticism as Gilliland has faced this year, it looks as though things are beginning to turn around little by little for the No. 4 team. However, they will have to get going if they want to be a serious championship contender in the Playoffs, as there are only nine races until the run to the championship starts. Gilliland sits eighth in the points standings, while his teammate Harrison Burton sits one point behind in ninth.

      Previous Week Ranking- 4th

    4. Ross Chastain – Chastain was still coming off a win high at Kansas when he and the No. 45 Niece Motorsports team rolled into Charlotte Thursday afternoon. It is quite understandable considering that it was the first win for Al Niece and his team who has come a long way since their first truck entry in 2016. It was also a new truck for the team and it showed, as he qualified 13th Friday afternoon. Chastain didn’t take long to get inside the top-10, finishing fifth in Stage 1 and he even placed second in Stage 2 to Kyle Busch. He was hoping for a caution later on in the race, as he was the only one to have one set of fresh tires left. His break finally came with eight to go but it might have been a little too late. The caution came out with eight to go and it, of course, saw Chastain and the No. 45 team pit for those tires with a last chance effort. He would line up in the back on the restart with three to go, but one truck stalled on the start and Chastain was behind him. This slowed and eventually cost him the win or late race rally to finish a disappointing 10th. Chastain extended his streak, however, finishing in the top-10 in all Truck Series starts this year.

      Previous Week Ranking – 1st

    5. Brennan Poole – When fans look at the results for this past weekend’s race, they will notice an unfamiliar driver and team who just broke ground this year in the Truck Series. After missing Kansas due to sponsorship woes, Former Xfinity Series standout Poole and the No. 30 On Point Motorsports team was looking for redemption this past weekend at Charlotte and they almost did just that. They didn’t finish in the top-10 at all for either stage but found themselves restarting second to Kyle Busch with three laps to go. What a story it would have been if Poole and the small underfunded No. 30 team had pulled it off and were able to beat Kyle Busch. However, Poole fell 1.115 seconds short to Busch for his shot at the win. And to make it more impressive, Poole raced with a broken sway bar. That’s a pretty remarkable feat to accomplish especially with a small team. If they can keep this up and get more strong equipment like this, Poole and the No. 30 On Point Motorsports team will quickly become another fan favorite in the Truck Series.

      Previous Week Ranking – Not Ranked

      Fell Out

      1. Grant Enfinger- Enfinger had a solid night finishing ninth after starting ninth. He finished third in both stages but it wasn’t enough to stay in the top five. Nonetheless, Enfinger and the No. 98 Champion Power Equipment Ford F-150 team can still hold their head high as they continue to be the points leader over Stewart Friesen by 15 points.

  • Larson shines brightest in Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race

    Larson shines brightest in Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race

    By: Charlotte Motor Speedway

    In a race full of stars, Kyle Larson shined brightest in Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    After a stirring drive to the front from the rear of the field, Larson held off Kevin Harvick over the final laps to become the first driver to win the Monster Energy Open and the All-Star Race on the same night. The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet made moves high, low and in the middle to assume the point in the final 15-lap dash for $1 million.

    Harvick reeled in Larson over the final circuits but wasn’t able to make a pass to capture his second consecutive All-Star Race triumph, finishing a scant 0.322 seconds in arrears of Larson – who won in a Monster Energy Cup Series car for the first time since 2017.

    Larson had to sweat out advancing into the All-Star Race, taking a car he believed was the event’s best and having to fight out a win in the final stage of the Monster Energy Open to advance to the big show. From there, Larson quickly asserted himself – moving into seventh before the first stage ended.

    Harvick appeared to be the man to beat for much of the night. His pink, Millennial-themed machine had the measure of the field in the early going before a loose wheel robbed Harvick of track position.

    Amid three- and four-wide battles through the pack and exciting, wheel-to-wheel racing previously reserved for tracks larger than 1.5 miles, the 35th running of the biggest all-star event in sports delivered in spectacular style – particularly for the race winner, whose Victory Lane drought came to an end in lucrative fashion.

    Following Larson and Harvick, who led a race-high 33 laps, Kyle Busch finished third after hitting the wall late in the race. Joey Logano, the 2016 race winner and defending series champion, was fourth. Bubba Wallace – in his first All-Star Race after winning Stage 2 of the Open-ended up fifth in Richard Petty Motorsports’ first All-Star Race since 2015.

    KYLE LARSON, No. 42 Advent Health Chevrolet (Race Winner): “Gosh, after the year we’ve had, I wouldn’t have guessed that we would get our first win at the All-Star Race. But the way the format is and how crazy the race is, it kinda helps us out. We always seem to run good on this weekend, so it just feels like a big relief to finally get a win. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to victory lane in a stock car. After being close to winning this race a couple years ago and then allowing Joey (Logano) to get by, it feels really good to get some redemption. … What makes this race so exciting is the short runs, people are going crazy. Even though it’s a 20-lap run, there’s still a caution or two in each segment because everybody is just going nuts. The restarts were wild.”

    CHAD JOHNSTON, No. 42 Advent Health Chevrolet (Winning Crew Chief): “It was a good time for us. We’ve had a rough year. We’ve had a lot more speed than we’ve shown in points, obviously. We haven’t been able to string together any finishes until as of late. We come off a third-place finish in Dover and a seventh-place finish at Kansas, and with the exception of Phoenix, those are the only races we haven’t had issues. To come here to the All-Star Race and to be able to take home a million dollars is huge for us and hopefully a stake in the ground for a turning point for us.”

    KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer Millennial Car Ford (Runner-Up): “That’s how you take the fastest car and don’t win the race with it. We had an incredible Busch Beer Ford. (Crew chief) Rodney (Childers) and the guys on the team did an incredible job. It was unfortunate. The guys did a great job preparing a race car, and we weren’t ready to make a pit stop on pit road tonight. We just need to be ready to race; we’ve done it all year. We just need to show up (and not) have it be a disaster. They’ve been great all year and tonight wasn’t great, that’s for sure. We spotted the whole field and started tail-back with 15 laps to go. Once they get single-file, as soon as they drive in your lane, they’d push up a groove, so you’ve got to go where they aren’t. (Larson) was fast enough to run the bottom, and that’s where I needed to run to really make time.”

    KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Hazelnut Spread Toyota (Third-Place Finisher): “We had a really fast M&Ms Camry. Probably was the only guy to pass for the lead after a given set of laps. On restarts, we couldn’t go anywhere. We just weren’t fast enough, but we had long-run speed. That’s all there is to it.”

  • Brennan Poole and Stewart Friesen earn top-3 finishes at Charlotte

    Brennan Poole and Stewart Friesen earn top-3 finishes at Charlotte

    After missing the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway due to the lack of sponsorship, Brennan Poole and the No. 30 On Point Motorsports team returned with redemption in mind and wanting more after last week.

    Poole and the No. 30 team started 17th and quietly ran under the radar all night long. But when it mattered most during a late race restart with three to go, he found himself inside the top three with a shot at the upset win for a small underfunded team.

    Poole tried all he could to chase down race leader Kyle Busch, but ultimately, wound up 1.115 seconds short.

    Poole was ecstatic about his second place finish, despite not being able to chase down Busch for the race win.

    “I just gave it everything I had,” Poole said in his Fox Sports 1 post-race interview. “I found a little something there running on the top lane of the restarts and it worked out really good. I can’t thank MadVapes, Blu this weekend. It sucks that we missed Kansas last week. The work that the guys do with literally no funding is ridiculous. Ran second tonight to Kyle Busch with a broken sway bar. So, pretty proud of the effort. I know we got a lot more chances with this coming up in our future to get this Toyota Tundra to victory lane, but I’m excited tonight and I may even go grab a beer when I get home.”

    It was Poole’s first top five of his Truck Series career in over 10n starts and the best finish of his Truck Series career.

    After a heartbreak last weekend in Kansas, Stewart Friesen, driver of the No. 52 Halmar Racing Chevrolet was looking to rebound this weekend at Charlotte and he almost did just that.

    Friesen started second and ran inside the top-10 most of the night, finishing fifth and sixth in both stages. He was up front and found himself in the top five late in the race, but had to settle for another top-five finish, finishing third for his fourth top five of the year.

    “These guys work so hard,” Friesen said to MRN Radio. “All of these guys work so hard. Thanks to Chris Larsen, Team Chevy and GMS Fab Shop. They got their heads down and working hard, we’re catching them. Kyle (Busch) ended up spanking us at the end here. I know he got out and had that good run there, but we got some good notes. We’re going to keep working on it and get them at the end of the year when the money is on the line. Speaking of money on the line the next three weeks, thanks to Gander Outdoors. That’s pretty badass. We put up a lot of money to race our modified in modified country in the northeast. We’re going to go to our two favorite tracks, Texas and Iowa, and this is not my favorite track, so I’m ready to get out of here.”