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Blaney caps off regular-season stretch with a thrilling win at Daytona

For a second consecutive week, Ryan Blaney stole the show after the High Point, North Carolina, native took the lead from Chris Buescher prior to the final lap and pulled away from the field wrecking behind to win the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway under caution on Saturday, August 28.

The victory was Blaney’s third of the season as he will be one of 16 competitors who will compete for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship over a 10-week Playoff stretch.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. Kyle Larson, the regular-season points leader, was scheduled to start on pole position, but instead, he started at the rear of the field due to his car failing pre-race inspection multiple times. With that, teammate William Byron, winner of last year’s Daytona 400 event, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Denny Hamlin.

Along with Larson, Joey Gase, Corey LaJoie and Kaz Grala started at the rear of the field due to multiple pre-race inspection failures. Michael McDowell and rookie Anthony Alfredo, teammates at Front Row Motorsports, also dropped to the rear of the field after it was discovered that both cars did not conform to NASCAR rule specifications pinpointing the deck lid extensions. As a result, crew chiefs Drew Blickensderfer and Seth Barbour were ejected from the event. Car chief Jason Sheets served as McDowell’s interim crew chief while Derrick Finley, Front Row Motorsports’ competition director, served as Alfredo’s interim crew chief. To make matters worse, Alfredo was assessed a pass-through penalty on pit road following the start of the race for illegal body adjustments made to his car while on the grid.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron received an early advantage on the outside lane with drafting help from Kyle Busch to take the lead, where he went on to lead the first lap by a nose over Hamlin.

The following lap, Byron broke away from the pack as he continued to lead ahead of Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr., all of whom were on the inside lane, while Kyle Busch settled as the lead car on the outside lane.

By the fifth lap, a majority of the pack formed a single-file line on the outside lane as Byron led teammate Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Truex, Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch. Leading the inside line was ninth-place Alex Bowman.

Two laps later, Kevin Harvick, who had drafting help from Blaney, peaked ahead by nose to lead a lap over Byron. Another two laps later and while Byron moved back into the lead, Elliott got shuffled out of the top five as he dropped to the mid-pack.

Through the first 10 laps of the event, Hamlin moved into the lead followed by Bubba Wallace while Byron, who had led seven laps, was back in third ahead of Austin Dillon and Harvick. Kyle Busch, Blaney, Ross Chastain, Bowman and Brad Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Joey Logano was in 12th, Elliott was in 15th, Truex was in 20th in between teammate Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch was in 24th behind rookie Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece and Kyle Larson was mired in 26th behind Aric Almirola.

Five laps later, the field fanned out to three tight lanes as Byron, who moved back into the lead the previous lap, was leading ahead of Hamlin, Chastain, Logano and Austin Dillon. Another three laps later, Chastain made a pit stop under green for two fresh tires and to have his fenders fixed. By then, Austin Dillon motored into the lead ahead of Elliott and Hamlin.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 20, Elliott squeaked ahead of Austin Dillon to lead followed by Truex, Logano and Stenhouse. Byron, Hamlin, Cole Custer, Blaney and Briscoe were in the top 10. By then, five different competitors led at least a lap.

Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted with all utilizing a variety of strategies. Following the pit stops Elliott retained the lead. Prior to the restart, Michael McDowell fell off the pace and took his car to the garage due to an engine failure and dropping fluid on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 25, Elliott and Custer battled dead even for the lead before Elliott cleared the field when he and the field returned to the start/finish line. The following lap, Hamlin made a bold three-wide move on Logano and Austin Dillon in a bid for third place as Elliott and Custer battled for the lead ahead of a packed field.

By Lap 30 and with the majority of the field settled in a single-file line, Elliott continued to lead followed by Logano, Custer, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Chastain.

Ten laps later, Elliott remained as the leader of a long single-file line followed by Logano, Custer, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Chastain. Meanwhile, Truex was in 13th behind Blaney, Wallace was in 16th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Almirola and Tyler Reddick were in 19th and 20th, Harvick and Larson were in 22nd and 23rd behind Briscoe, Bowman was in 25th behind Daniel Suarez and DiBenedetto was mired in 28th.

The following lap, Logano emerged as the new leader while Elliott got shuffled back to fourth in front of teammate Byron while trying to clean his grille. Two laps later, Elliott received a boost from teammate Byron to storm back into the lead while Logano had to defend the outside lane from a hard-charging Austin Dillon.

Approaching Lap 46, Logano gained a draft on Elliott, moved to the inside lane and tried to slide in front of Elliott through Turns 3 and 4, but he was unable to as Elliott retained the lead on the outside lane while Logano settled in as the lead car on the inside lane.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 50 following an early competitive race, Elliott managed to retain the lead and claim his third stage victory of the season. Hamlin settled in second followed by Kyle Busch, who nearly wrecked approaching the start/finish line following contact with Ross Chastain. Chastain was fourth followed by Truex, Austin Dillon, Corey LaJoie, Logano, Preece and Chris Buescher. By then, seven different competitors had led at least a lap within the pack racing and the draft.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted for four fresh tires and to top off on fuel.

The second stage started on Lap 55. At the start, Truex pulled ahead by a slight margin over Elliott on the outside lane through the first two turns before clearing Elliott entering Turn 3. By then, he had names like Corey LaJoie, Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch settled in behind him.

Two laps later, LaJoie made a move beneath Truex to lead a lap before he got shuffled out of the draft and back in fourth.

Through the first 60 laps of the event, Truex, who took the lead back on Lap 58, was leading followed by teammate Bell, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, LaJoie, Keselowski, Elliott, Chastain and Preece.

Fifteen laps later, Bell, who took over the top spot on Lap 70, was leading followed by Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Logano, Truex, Elliott, LaJoie, Briscoe, Reddick and a steaming pack of cars.

On Lap 77, the caution flew when Almirola and Bowman spun in the middle of Turn 4 while running near the rear of the field and in front of a handful of competitors. During the incident, Hamlin ran into the rear of Preece.

Four laps later, the race restarted under green as Logano and Bell started on the front row. At the start, Logano launched ahead followed by Bell while LaJoie received a push from Reddick through the backstraightaway before being shuffled out by Reddick, who tucked in behind Logano.

By Lap 90, Logano was leading followed by Reddick, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Truex, Hamlin, Preece and Larson.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 100, Logano, who took over the lead three laps earlier over teammate Blaney, was scored the leader as he claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Austin Dillon settled in second followed by Byron, Reddick, Larson, Blaney, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Wallace and Bell. By then, 11 different competitors had led at least a lap.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted for fresh tires and fuel.

With 55 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Byron and Hamlin filled the front row. At the start, Hamlin received a push from Harvick to take over the lead. During the next four laps, Harvick led three before Elliott squeaked ahead to lead one for himself.

Five laps later, Harvick was back out in front followed by Hamlin, Byron, Wallace and Logano, who then mounted a charge on the inside lane while being pursued by Chastain, Elliott and others.

Another 10 laps later and with the field, which had fanned out to three lanes earlier, settling in a long single-file line, Chastain was leading followed by Bowman, Blaney, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Stenhouse, Wallace, Hamlin, Elliott and Briscoe.

With 38 laps remaining, the Ford competitors peeled off the track to pit under green. Back on the track, Chastain and Wallace battled for the lead ahead of the field that had fanned out to two lanes.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Wallace was leading followed by Kyle Busch, Chastain, Bell, Stenhouse, Truex, Bowman, LaJoie, Elliott and Landon Cassill. The following lap, Chastain received a push from Stenhouse to snatch the lead back from Wallace.

With 21 laps remaining, the caution flew for an accident involving Cody Ware, Joey Gase and Garrett Smithley, all of whom drive for Rick Ware Racing, in Turn 4. At the time of caution, Kyle Busch was the leader. Under caution, the front-runners pitted and the Fords moved up the pack, giving the lead to Logano. During the pit stops, Austin Dillon, who was battling battery issues to his car, was busted for speeding and was sent to the rear of the field.

Five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Logano jumped ahead on the inside lane followed by teammate Blaney, Almirola, Buescher and Custer while DiBenedetto got shuffled back to sixth ahead of Kyle Busch and Harvick.

With 15 laps remaining, the caution flew when Truex got bumped by Stenhouse entering the backstretch and collided into Byron before spinning across the grass and proceeding with damage and firing rolling out of his car. Also involved were Briscoe, Cassill, Suare Alfredo, Keselowski and Tyler Reddick, the competitor occupying the 16th and final spot to the Playoffs as he had smoke trailing behind and damage on the front nose his car. The incident was enough for NASCAR to red-flag the event for nearly 15 minutes.

Following the cleanup period concluded and the caution was drawn back, teammates Reddick and Austin Dillon pitted to have their respective Chevrolets repaired with enough adjustments to finish the race.

With 10 laps remaining, the race restarted as teammates Logano and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Logano jumped ahead, but the field narrowed the gap through the backstraightaway and back to the tri-oval from the draft as Almirola moved up the leaderboard.

The following lap, Chris Buescher mounted a challenge on the inside lane to move up to third behind Logano and Blaney. He then received pushes from Kurt Busch and Elliott to move up to second as he challenged Logano for the lead.

With seven laps remaining, Buescher received a strong push from Elliott and Hamlin to take the lead, where he managed to slide in front of Logano through the backstraightaway.

A lap later, though, Elliott stormed to the lead while Buescher got shuffled out in a three-wide battle against Logano and Elliott. With Buescher falling back, Elliott was leading followed by Hamlin, Logano and Blaney while Matt DiBenedetto mounted a challenge on the inside lane.

Under the final five laps, Logano fell off the pace after he cut a tire in a shower of sparks. Despite the misfortune, Logano kept his car rolling on the outside lane as the field went by him and the race proceeded under green. At the front, DiBenedetto challenged Elliott on the outside lane for the lead as the field behind started to stack up and fan out multiple lanes with the finish within sight.

Then in Turn 3, DiBenedetto, who continued to intimidate Elliott for the lead, ran into the rear bumper of Elliott as both along with Hamlin skidded across the outside wall. The contact of the wall got Elliott loose and he slid up and into DiBenedetto across the outside wall again. The ensuing contact ignited a chain reaction wreck that involved Hamlin, Keselowski, Bell, Kyle Busch, Preece, Chastain, Custer, Stenhouse and Kaz Grala, a wreck that sent the race into overtime.

In the midst of the carnage, Buescher was back in the lead followed by Blaney, LaJoie, Austin Dillon and Harvick. Chastain was in sixth followed by Larson, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch.

When the race restarted in overtime, Buescher and Blaney battled dead even entering the first turn before Blaney received a strong push from LaJoie to take the lead on the inside lane. LaJoie, though, received a draft from Harvick to close back to Blaney’s rear bumper in Turn 3.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney was leading ahead of LaJoie and Buescher. Through Turn 1, Harvick made a bold move beneath LaJoie to move into second place, thus shuffling LaJoie out of the lead draft, as Suarez, Buescher, Kurt Busch and others mounted a final lap mount to the front.

Through the backstraightaway, Blaney continued to lead followed by Harvick and Suarez. Then, Suarez got loose in front of Kurt Busch and turned into Harvick, which triggered a big accident in Turn 3 involving Austin Dillon, Larson, Chastain, LaJoie, Bowman and Erik Jones.

With the field wrecking behind, Blaney pulled away unscathed and cruised to the finish line in first place as the caution flew due to the accident.

The victory marked Blaney’s first at Daytona International Speedway, his second consecutive Cup victory in recent weeks after winning last weekend at Michigan International Speedway, his third of the season and the seventh of his career.

“Man, that was a lot of fun,” Blaney said on NBC. “Gosh, we just barely missed that wreck. We got lined up on the front row and got a good push by [LaJoie]. You never know how the end of these days are gonna play out. Down the back, you don’t know what lane’s getting a bigger run. I guess somebody got tangled up over there. Hopefully, everyone’s okay. Man, this is so cool. Second win of the year with BodyArmor on the car. Winning at Daytona, this is so cool. It’s really special and man, it’s been a fun two weeks. Looking forward to next week! Got a good, enough momentum. It’d be nice to make it three [wins] in a row. We’ll see.”

Behind Blaney, Chris Buescher came home in second place while Bubba Wallace, who dodged the final lap carnage, recorded a strong third-place result. The best season results for both Buescher and Wallace, however, were not enough for either of them to make the Playoffs.

“It hurts,” Buescher said. “That one stings a lot, but at the same time, [I] appreciate everybody at [Roush Fenway Racing]. Awesome weekend for Fifth Third Bank…[I] Wanted to get that [win] for so many different reasons. To miss that Playoff spot by one spot, that’s a tough ending to the day, but proud of this group. Proud of the car we brought…That hurts.”

“The seas parted and when that wreck happened, I just stayed in it, came out third, but it’s not what we needed,” Wallace added. “Bummer, but solid day. We went up and led some laps. Unfortunate, we wanted to win. That was the most prepared I’ve ever been for this speedway stuff and [finished] third…It just stings.”

Following the post-race inspection, however, Buescher was disqualified from his runner-up result due to an illegal track bar mounting assembly. As a result, Buescher was demoted to 40th place, dead last, while Wallace was promoted to the runner-up result, which tied his best result in NASCAR’s premier series.

Ryan Newman was elevated to third place followed by Ryan Preece, both of whom also did not make the Playoffs. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick, who barely escaped the final lap multi-car wreck, finished fifth and claimed the 16th and final spot to the Playoffs over teammate Austin Dillon, who was unable to finish the race after being swept up in the wreck. With that, Reddick joins Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell as first-time members of the Cup Series Playoffs this season.

“My emotions were shot as soon as we took the green on the last green-white-checkered [restart],” Reddick said. “I couldn’t even believe we finished seventh. Getting through that last crash coming to the line, it was a lot, I’m not gonna lie. Going to Homestead, running for Xfinity Series championships were a lot of fun. Really exciting, really nerve-racking, but what a roller coaster it is to be on the bubble going into Daytona, running into the back of somebody and have all the issues we did at the end there. Almost felt helpless there, but we didn’t give up and we fought through it.”

“It was a little bit of a roller coaster ride,” Austin Dillon said. “We fought our butts off in the stages. We made some good moves to get points and found ourselves in fourth-place for a green-white-checkered here at Daytona. That’s where we were when we won the Daytona 500, so I was feeling pretty good about it…We fought hard. The Bass Pro Shop Chevy was very fast. Two weeks in a row we’ve had great cars out of the No. 3 team. Just haven’t gotten the finishes we’d like to have, but very thankful that the good Lord took care of us tonight and we get to race at Darlington next week. Unfortunate that we’re not in the Playoffs, but we gave it all we could and fought until the very end.”

Justin Haley, Bowman, Elliott, BJ McLeod and Josh Bilicki finished in the top 10.

Despite being involved on the final lap accident, Kyle Larson, who was scored in 20th claimed the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship over Denny Hamlin, who ended up in 13th. The result made Larson the fourth different competitor to achieve the regular-season title in the Cup Series.

“I think I read somewhere earlier this week where we had overcome a 166-point gap to Denny [Hamlin],” Larson said. “I didn’t think it was possible, but our team worked so hard all of the regular season and [I] couldn’t have done it without Mr. [Hendrick] and Linda, all of their support, everybody back at the shop, too. It’s a long season, and we still got 10 races to go, but it’s a long point to get to here…I’m just the lucky guy who gets to drive [the car] and get a lot of the credit, but it’s really credit to everybody back at the shop.”

Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick have made the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and will contend for this year’s championship.

Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece, Erik Jones, Corey LaJoie, Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, Anthony Alfredo and Quin Houff are among the remaining competitors who failed to make the Playoffs.

There were 45 lead changes for 15 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 31 laps.

Results.

1. Ryan Blaney, seven laps led

2. Bubba Wallace, eight laps led

3. Ryan Newman, two laps led

4. Ryan Preece

5. Justin Haley

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Alex Bowman

8. Chase Elliott, 36 laps led

9. BJ McLeod

10. Josh Bilicki

11. Erik Jones

12. Kurt Busch

13. Denny Hamlin, seven laps led

14. Aric Almirola

15. Kevin Harvick, four laps led

16. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident, one lap led

17. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident, three laps led

18. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident, 14 laps led

19. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident

20. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident

21. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident

22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

23. Joey Logano, one lap down, 37 laps led

24. Cole Custer, one lap down

25. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

26. Anthony Alfredo, two laps down

27. David Starr, two laps down

28. Cody Ware, two laps down

29. Martin Truex Jr., two laps down, 13 laps led

30. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

31. Joey Gase, three laps down

32. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident, eight laps led

33. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident

34. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident, five laps led

35. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident

36. Landon Cassill – OUT, Accident

37. William Byron – OUT, Accident, 12 laps led

38. Quin Houff, 29 laps down

39. Michael McDowell – OUT

40. Chris Buescher – Disqualified, eight laps led

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will commence next weekend at Darlington Raceway for the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday, September 5, which will start at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

August 29, 2021
Haley wins a thrilling three-wide photo finish at Daytona

Saving their absolute best for the last, Kaulig Racing utilized teamwork to storm to another victory at Daytona International Speedway. On this occasion, Justin Haley edged teammate AJ Allmendinger by a nose and in a three-wide photo finish including their other teammate, Jeb Burton, to win the rain-postponed Wawa 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 28.

The victory was Haley’s first of the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, AJ Allmendinger, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Michigan International Speedway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Noah Gragson.

The race started on Friday evening, August 27, and Allmendinger received a push from Justin Allgaier on the outside lane to jump to an early lead and lead the first lap ahead of Noah Gragson and a steaming pack of cars. He went on to lead the following two laps before Gragson peaked ahead during the fourth lap. Allmendinger, however, quickly snatched the lead back the following lap.

By the ninth lap, Brandon Jones, who was the lead car on the inside lane, encountered early issues when he made an unscheduled pit stop under green due to overheating issues as a result of a piece of debris.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 15, Gragson, who reassumed the lead on Lap 14, was scored the leader ahead of Allmendinger and the field. Under the competition caution, some led by Gragson pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track. By then, Jones retired due to his mechanical issue.

Just as the field was set to restart, rain fell on the track and the field was brought to pit road as the race was red-flagged for a weather delay on Lap 19. Over an hour later, NASCAR declared that the race would be postponed to Saturday afternoon and run prior to the Cup event due to inclement weather continuing throughout Friday evening. At the time of, Allmendinger was leading ahead of Christopher Bell, Myatt Snider, Austin Cindric, Brett Moffitt, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton, Daniel Hemric, Jeremy Clements and Caesar Bacarella.

When the race resumed under green on Lap 21 and on Saturday afternoon, Allmendinger jumped ahead with another strong start on the outside lane followed by Cindric, Haley and Bell while Snider mounted a charge on the inside lane.

By Lap 25, Allmendinger continued to lead followed by teammate Haley while Cindric challenged as the lead car on the outside lane. Snider and Jeb Burton were in the top five followed by Bell, Michael Annett, Hemric, Allgaier and Moffitt.

A lap later, the caution flew when a bump from Snider sent Cindric making hard contact into the outside wall in the frontstretch. The incident ignited a chain reaction wreck that involved Snider, rookie Sam Mayer, Hemric and Annett. The wreck was enough to knock Cindric, who won the Xfinity opener at Daytona in February, out of contention.

With the caution period and cleanup surpassing the first stage’s conclusion on Lap 30, the first stage concluded under caution as Haley, who overtook teammate Allmendinger at the moment of caution, claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Teammates Allmendinger and Jeb Burton settled in second and third followed by Bell and Allgaier. Scored in the top 10 were Moffitt, Gragson, Bacarella, Brandon Brown and Harrison Burton.

Under the stage break, everyone pitted except for Brandon Brown, Herbst, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Sieg and Jason White.

The second stage started on Lap 33 and Herbst jumped ahead with the lead on the outside lane followed by Briscoe as the field fanned out to three lanes through the backstraightaway.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Brown mounted a challenge on the inside lane against Herbst for the lead. As the field continued to battle through Turns 2 and 3, the caution returned due to debris from Michael Annett’s car coming out in Turn 2.

When the race restarted on Lap 39, Herbst jumped ahead with the lead on the inside lane before he moved up to the outside lane in front of Briscoe and a bevy of cars.

Two laps later, the inside lane led by Brown mounted a charge for the lead through the tri-oval and entering the first turn. Herbst, however, was able to fight back through the backstraightaway and when the field returned to the start/finish line.

By Lap 45, Brown took the lead followed by Allmendinger, Allgaier, Gragson, Jeb Burton and Sam Mayer while Herbst fell back to eighth alongside Harrison Burton. A lap later, though, Allmendinger muscled his way back into the lead followed by Allgaier, Gragson and Mayer while Brown got shuffled back to fifth.

Three laps later, the caution returned due to debris coming off of Caesar Bacarella’s car in the frontstretch following contact from Blaine Perkins. Under caution, some including Allmendinger, Allgaier, Gragson, Mayer, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton, Haley, Sieg and Bell pitted while the rest led by Brown and Herbst remained on the track.

With eight laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted. At the start, Brown rocketed with the lead followed by Herbst. Through the backstraightaway, though, the field fanned out to multiple lanes and caught Brown through Turns 3 and 4 as Sam Mayer made his way into the lead with drafting help from teammate Gragson.

By Lap 54, all three Kaulig Racing competitors lined up on the inside lane resulted with Jeb Burton taking the lead ahead of teammates Allmendinger and Haley. They were then quickly pursued by three JR Motorsports competitors featuring Mayer, Gragson and Allgaier, respectively.

In the closing laps of the second stage, the battle for the lead intensified as Jeb Burton continued to lead by a narrow margin over his Kaulig Racing teammates, a trio of JR Motorsports competitors and the field. By then, Brown pitted as the hood of his car went up.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 60, Jeb Burton, who was blocking all comers through both lanes, managed to claim his first stage victory of the season. Teammates Allmendinger and Haley settled in second and third followed by Herbst and Bell. Gragson, Hemric, Allgaier, Briscoe and Mayer settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some led by Jeb Burton pitted while the rest led by Bell and Gragson remained on the track.

With 36 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Bell and Gragson battled dead even for the lead as the field fanned out to double lanes and in a pack behind the two leaders.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, the field settled in a long single-file lane as Gragson was leading followed by Bell, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton, Snider, Allgaier, Mayer, Herbst, Briscoe and Moffitt while Allmendinger and Haley were in 11th and 15th. By then, Hemric was back in 14th.

Shortly after, the caution flew when Colin Garrett spun and wrecked in Turn 4 as he ended up getting his car stuck in the tri-oval muddy grass. Colby Howard also spun to avoid Garrett.

With 23 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Bell and Gragson battled dead even for the lead through the backstraightaway as the field fanned out to three lanes.

Back to the start/finish line, Bell was leading followed by Jeb Burton while Gragson fell back to fourth while battling Snider.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, the majority of the field settled in a single-file line as Bell was leading followed by Jeb Burton, Gragson, Allgaier, Herbst, Allmendinger, Snider, Harrison Burton, Hemric, Haley and Mayer while Chase Briscoe was in 13th.

A few laps later, the caution flew when Caesar Bacarella made contact with Jordan Anderson and hit the outside wall in the backstretch. While trying to straighten his car, Jade Buford and Matt Mills also wrecked to avoid Bacarella.

Under caution, some including Briscoe pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.

With 14 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Jeb Burton had drafting help from Gragson to take a narrow lead before Bell fought back on the outside lane.

The following lap, Bell cleared the field with the lead followed by Allgaier and Allmendinger while the Burton cousins battled for fourth.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Bell continued to lead followed by Allgaier, Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton, Haley, Hemric, Snider, JJ Yeley, Jason White and the field, all running in a single-file line. By then, Joe Graf Jr.’s car was smoking through the frontstretch, but the field continued to run under green as Graf took his car below the apron and out of the racing groove.

With five laps remaining, Bell continued to lead, but a bevy of cars behind started to fan out to multiple lanes while challenging Bell for the lead. A lap later, Allmendinger stormed to the lead followed by teammates Jeb Burton and Haley while Allgaier also moved up, dropping Bell to fifth.

A few laps later, all three Kaulig Racing competitors led by Jeb Burton were at the front followed by Bell, Harrison Burton, Allgaier and the field.

When the final lap started, Allmendinger was leading by a narrow margin over teammate Jeb Burton, Bell and the field. Through the backstretch, Jeb Burton peeked to the inside of teammate Allmendinger, who tried to block Burton, for the lead while Bell got shuffled out on the inside lane with no drafting help. In addition, Haley made his move to the outside of Allmendinger, thus placing all three Kaulig Racing competitors in a dead three-wide heat for the win in Turns 3 and 4.

Entering the tri-oval and with the field fanning out to three lanes, Allmendinger peaked ahead with a push from Allgaier, but Haley started to gain a run on the outside lane as he had Hemric behind him. At the finish line, Haley managed to edge teammate Allmendinger by 0.023 seconds to grab the checkered flag and the win.

Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

The victory guaranteed Haley a spot in the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs as he also captured his fourth career victory in the series. All four of Haley’s Xfinity victory have occurred on superspeedway venues (Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway). In addition, Kaulig Racing captured its third win at Daytona.

“It’s just not been the best season,” Haley said on NBCSN. “It’s been really, really hard on this No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection team all year. We’ve had a lot of bad luck. I was trying to formulate the plan there and obviously, team orders, saw it out of there, they were so good. Hats off to Kaulig Racing. I think we got the teammate thing down. It’s just so special to win here at Daytona. It’s absolutely incredible. That was a close one and getting it to just beat out AJ. It always means a lot, too.”

Allmendinger settled in second place while Allgaier, Jeb Burton and Hemric finished in the top five.

“I mean, that was like the perfect photo shoot right there coming across the [finish] line for all the Kaulig Racing Chevys,” Allmendinger said. “Proud of my son, Justin Haley. He might be one of the best we’ve ever seen on superspeedway. Jeb [Burton] did a fantastic job. I was hanging on in the middle [lane] there. I thought we might get it, but proud of everybody at Kaulig Racing, all the men and women. The Hyper Ice Chevy was good. I think we led the most laps as well. Finished second, all day, it seemed like, but just proud. It was fantastic.”

“We led some [laps] today and going down the back, I think I led for a second,” Jeb Burton said. “AJ kind of slid up in front of me. I checked up and gave him a shot and then, I had to take the run. I looked and we were one, two and three, and I was thinking we were gonna come across the line like that, but [Allgaier] got me at the line. Really proud of Kaulig Racing. Thanks to Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen for coming on board. We needed this and the Playoffs are coming, so we needed the momentum.”

Bell settled in sixth followed by Gragson, Snider, Harrison Burton and Herbst.

With their top-10 results, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Hemric and Harrison Burton have locked themselves into the 2021 Xfinity Series Playoffs based on points. Including six other competitors that are in based on winning throughout the regular-season stretch (Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton and Myatt Snider), there are four spots left vacant to the Playoffs with three regular-season races remaining to the schedule.

There were 17 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 29 laps.

With his runner-up result, AJ Allmendinger leads the regular-season standings by 17 points over Austin Cindric.

Results.

1. Justin Haley, five laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. AJ Allmendinger, 30 laps led, Stage 2 winner

3. Justin Allgaier

4. Jeb Burton, eight laps led

5. Daniel Hemric

6. Christopher Bell, 23 laps led

7. Noah Gragson, 16 laps led

8. Myatt Snider

9. Harrison Burton

10. Riley Herbst, nine laps led

11. Brett Moffitt

12. Sam Mayer, one lap led

13. JJ Yeley

14. David Starr

15. Jason White

16. Ryan Sieg

17. Josh Williams

18. Tommy Joe Martins

19. Chase Briscoe

20. Jeffrey Earnhardt

21. Landon Cassill

22. Jordan Anderson

23. Blaine Perkins

24. Jeremy Clements

25. Mason Massey

26. Colby Howard

27. Ryan Vargas

28. Jade Buford

29. Tim Viens

30. Michael Annett

31. Alex Labbe

32. Kyle Weatherman, two laps down

33. Matt Mills, two laps down

34. Brandon Brown, three laps down, nine laps led

35. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Accident

36. Caesar Bacarella – OUT, Accident

37. Colin Garrett – OUT, Accident

38. Spencer Boyd – OUT, Engine

39. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident

40. Brandon Jones – OUT, Engine

With the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season stretch nearing its conclusion, the series will next travel to Darlington, South Carolina, and compete at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, September 4, during Labor Day weekend. The event will occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

August 28, 2021
Blaney steals the show with a late victory at Michigan

The outside lane at Michigan International Speedway was the preferred lane for many at Michigan International Speedway, but the inside lane prevailed at the right time for Ryan Blaney. The High Point, North Carolina, native received a push from Kyle Busch to overtake and beat William Byron in an eight-lap dash to win the FireKeepers Casino 400 at the Irish Hills on Sunday, August 22.

The victory was Blaney’s second of the season and his first since winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kyle Larson, the regular-season points leader, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Chase Elliott.

Prior to the event, Josh Berry and Joey Gase started at the rear of the field due to driver changes from their respective machines.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, teammates Larson and Elliott dueled dead even until Ryan Blaney issued a challenge on the inside lane through the first turn. Through the backstretch, however, Larson was able to pull ahead on the outside lane as he went on to lead the first lap ahead of Matt DiBenedetto.

Meanwhile, Kurt Busch powered his way into third while Elliott was challenged by Kevin Harvick for fourth place. Behind, Ryan Blaney slipped back into the top 10 as Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and others moved up the leaderboard.

On the third lap, DiBenedetto, who challenged Larson for the lead early, led the third lap before Larson took it back. Through the backstretch and entering Turn 4, Kurt Busch then moved into the runner-up spot over DiBenedetto as Elliott started to reel in the leaders. Just behind the top-four competitors were Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, both of whom were battling for a top-five spot ahead of Alex Bowman.

Through the first five laps, Larson continued to lead by nearly two-tenths of a second over Kurt Busch. Meanwhile, Martin Truex Jr. was mired back in 33rd after he sustained left-rear quarterpanel damage to his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry.

By Lap 10, Larson’s No. 5 Cincinnati Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE while DiBenedetto, Elliott and Hamlin were in the top five. Harvick was in sixth followed by Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch. William Byron was in 11th ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Blaney was back in 13th ahead of Chris Buescher and Erik Jones, who announced his return to Richard Petty Motorsports for the 2022 season. Ryan Newman was in 16th ahead of rookie Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Christopher Bell. Aric Almirola was in 21st ahead of Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell was in 24th, Bubba Wallace was in 26th and Cole Custer was in 29th.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 20, Larson, who has led all but one of the scheduled laps, was the leader by nearly half a second over Kurt Busch. By then, Byron moved into the top 10 while Blaney and Harvick fell back to 12th and 16th. Truex, meanwhile, was still mired in 33rd.

Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Hamlin emerged with the lead after only opting for fuel under his first pit stop. Larson, who elected for a two-tire pit stop, exited in second followed by Kurt Busch, Elliott, Bowman and Reddick.

When the race restarted on Lap 25, Hamlin, who restarted on the outside lane, received a push from Larson to muscled away from Elliott, who elected to restart on the inside lane on the front row. Elliott, though, was able to settle in the runner-up spot ahead of teammate Larson through the backstretch.

Two laps later, Elliott thundered his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into the lead over Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry. Behind, Kurt Busch overtook Larson for fourth while Reddick settled in fifth.

The following lap, Kurt Busch drag-raced and battled Hamlin for the runner-up spot, but Hamlin managed to prevail on the outside lane through the first two turns. Behind, Joey Logano challenged Larson for fourth, but he lost his momentum in Turn 4 and fell back to sixth ahead of Byron and Bowman.

Through the first 30 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Larson, Kurt Busch and Reddick battled in the top five. Byron moved up to sixth ahead of Logano, Bowman, DiBenedetto and Austin Dillon.

Shortly after, the caution flew when Joey Gase wrecked in Turn 2. Under caution, few like Daniel Suarez pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 35, Elliott and Kurt Busch battled dead even for the lead through the first turn and the backstretch until Elliott managed to pull ahead in Turn 3. Behind, Hamlin, who received a push from Logano through Turn 4, moved up to second while Logano moved his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang in front of Kurt Busch for third the following lap. The next lap after, Larson overtook Kurt Busch for fourth in Turn 3 while Austin Dillon, a competitor battling for a Playoff spot and who opted for four fresh tires under the competition caution, challenged Busch for fifth.

Nearing the first 40 laps of the event and with the field jostling for positions, Elliott was leading by three-tenths of a second over Hamlin and Logano. Larson and Austin Dillon were in the top five followed by Kurt Busch, DiBenedetto, Blaney, Byron and Brad Keselowski. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, Harvick and Truex were in 12th, 13th and 16th while Tyler Reddick was back in 15th.

With the race surpassing the Lap 50 mark, Elliott was leading by half a second over Austin Dillon. Hamlin, Logano and Larson were in the top five followed by Byron and DiBenedetto while Kurt Busch fell back to eighth ahead of brother Kyle and Blaney.

Back at the front, Austin Dillon and Larson started to reel in on Elliott for the lead. Despite the challenge, though, Elliott was able to maintain the lead and claim his second stage victory of the season by winning the first stage on Lap 60. Behind, Larson managed to edge Dillon at the line to settle in second while Hamlin held off Byron to retain fourth. Logano, DiBenedetto, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Keselowski settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson exited with the lead following a stellar four-tire pit stop. Elliott followed in second ahead of Austin Dillon, Suarez (who opted for two fresh tires), Logano and Kyle Busch while Hamlin, who pitted from fourth place, fell back to 10th. Prior to the restart, Logano returned to pit road to have the lug nuts on his car tightened.

The second stage started on Lap 66 as Larson and Austin Dillon started on the front row. At the start, Larson and Dillon battled dead even for the lead for a full lap until Larson prevailed on the outside lane through Turn 1. With Larson clear in the lead, teammate Elliott moved up to second over Dillon, who was being challenged by DiBenedetto for more.

Behind, contact from DiBenedetto got Kurt Busch loose in Turn 3. While Busch prevented the car from spinning, he fell out of the top 10 and was mired near the midfield and around a bevy of cars. At the front, though, Larson continued to lead ahead of teammate Elliott, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Suarez.

By Lap 75, a three-way battle for the lead ensued as Larson, the leader, was pressured by Austin Dillon and Elliott for the top spot, all three of whom were separated by approximately three-tenths of a second. Kyle Busch was up in fourth followed by DiBenedetto, Keselowski, Christopher Bell, Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Harvick.

Five laps later, Elliott motored his way back into the lead.

At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Elliott continued to lead by a narrow margin over teammate Larson. Austin Dillon settled in third ahead of Kyle Busch and Bell while Hamlin was in sixth. DiBenedetto, Byron, Keselowski and Blaney were in the top 10.

Not long after, pit stops under green commenced as names like Harvick, Byron, Stenhouse, rookie Chase Briscoe and Bowman pitted. By Lap 110, Larson surrendered the lead to pit. The following lap, Elliott also pitted. A few laps later, Kyle Busch and Hamlin pitted, but Hamlin slid past his pit box while trying to enter his stall. During the pit stops, Ross Chastain took his car to the garage due to a fire in the rear end of his No. 42 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.

Back on the track and with the green flag pit stops concluding, Kyle Busch, who pitted three and four laps later than Larson and Elliott, cycled to the lead. Bell was in second while Larson and Elliott closed in and challenged Hamlin for third.

Utilizing his pit strategy to perfection, Kyle Busch cruised to his fifth stage victory of the season after winning the second stage on Lap 120. Teammate Bell settled in second followed by Larson, Elliott and Hamlin. Behind, Austin Dillon nipped Keselowski for sixth, but then, Dillon’s strong day evaporated after contact from Keselowski sent Dillon head-on into the Turn 4 outside wall, where his car nearly flipped, before coming to a rest below the apron. The damage to the No. 3 Chevrolet was enough to terminate Dillon’s run for the day and put a huge dent to his Playoff hopes, though he will have a final opportunity to make the postseason next weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

“I was just trying to get as many stage points as I could get right there and did a good job of side-drafting and came down to the apron and I’ve seen just one quick replay, but it was after the start/finish line,” Dillon said at the infield care center on NBCSN. “I was starting to come up off the apron because it’s so rough down there. But I figured by that point, [Keselowski] would have given me a little room. I hate it. I’m thankful that the good Lord kept me safe today. That was a heck of a wreck, but I feel fine.

“I hate it for BREZTRI and my guys, most of all,” Dillon added. “They built a rocket ship. They really wanted this one, and I did too. Just working our tails off right there. I think we would have had a shot to do something there at the end with our race car. It’s the best race car we’ve brought to the track at [Richard Childress Racing] this year, I feel like. It’s just a bummer but we’ve got Daytona left and I just hate it. I don’t know why it happened, really. I thought I had a little room to come up and he just held me down there a little bit too long, I guess.”

In the midst of the incident, Reddick, Byron and DiBenedetto rounded out the top-10 stage points positions in the second stage.

Under the stage break, names like Kyle Busch, Wallace, Elliott, Hamlin, Bell and Erik Jones pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

With 74 laps remaining, the final stage started as Larson and Kurt Busch started on the front row. At the start, Larson and Kurt Busch battled dead even for the lead for a full lap, where Busch led for the first time before Larson received a push from teammate Byron to grab the lead through the first two turns. Behind, Byron motored his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into the runner-up spot while Busch fell back to third ahead of Blaney, DiBenedetto and Truex.

With 60 laps remaining, Larson was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Byron while Kurt Busch, Blaney and Bowman were in the top five. Truex, following his early issues, was up in sixth ahead of teammate Hamlin, DiBenedetto, Logano and Reddick. Kyle Busch was mired back in 11th, Elliott was in 14th ahead of Harvick, Keselowski was back in 18th and Bell was in 21st.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event and with overcast clouds hovering above the track, Larson continued to lead by nearly four-tenths of a second over teammate Byron. Kurt Busch and Blaney remained in third and fourth while Truex was up in fifth ahead of teammate Hamlin, Bowman and Logano.

Nearing the final 40 laps of the event, names like Elliott, Byron, Bowman and Blaney pitted under green. During this time, Larson, who ran out of fuel, pitted along with Kurt Busch, but he was overtaken by teammate Byron on the track.

Under the final 40 laps, Hamlin emerged with the lead followed by teammate Truex while Logano, Kyle Busch and Reddick were in the top five. Not long after, Logano pitted along with Harvick and Truex.

With 35 laps remaining, Hamlin pitted as teammate Kyle Busch took the lead. Following Hamlin’s pit service, teammates Byron and Larson managed to overtake him on the track. Three laps later, Kyle Busch pitted along with Elliott, thus giving the lead to Keselowski as Chris Buescher was in second and Bell was in third, all of whom were among some who needed to pit.

With 20 laps remaining, the caution flew due to precipitation reported on the track. Five laps earlier, Byron emerged with the lead after Keselowski and Bell pitted, thus completing the cycle of green-flag pit stops. Teammate Larson moved up to second followed by Hamlin, Kurt Busch and Blaney.

Under caution, some led by Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

Down to the final 14 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Byron and Kurt Busch started on the front row. At the start, the field stacked up past the start/finish line, but Byron received a push from teammate Larson to retain the lead through the first turn.

As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Hamlin aggressively charged his way into the runner-up spot over Larson while Reddick made a bold four-wide move on Logano, Kurt Busch and Blaney entering Turn 3 in a bid to gain spots towards his Playoff hopes. Then, through Turns 3 and 4, Reddick slowly drifted up the track and got loose in front of Logano, who got sideways and turned by Truex. The spin by Logano ignited a chain-reaction wreck that involved Bell, Josh Berry, McDowell and Ryan Newman. The incident drew the caution back on the circuit.

With eight laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start and with the leaders battling dead even, Blaney, who restarted as the first competitor on the inside lane, received a huge shove from Kyle Busch to assume the lead in the first turn ahead of Byron as the field fanned out.

A lap later, Reddick spun in Turn 3, but the race remained under green. Back at the front, Blaney continued to lead by a narrow margin over Byron, Larson and Kurt Busch. Behind, Briscoe overtook Hamlin for fifth.

Down to the final five laps of the event, the top-seven competitors were separated by half a second as Blaney, the leader, had Larson closing in on his rear bumper through the first two turns along with Byron, Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Briscoe and DiBenedetto.

A lap later, Kurt Busch, who challenged Byron for third, wiggled in Turn 2 and lost his momentum before he was hit by Briscoe. Despite the contact, all competitors continued straight. A turn later, DiBenedetto shoved Hamlin out of the way on the inside lane, which sent Hamlin up the track in front of Briscoe, all of whom continued without wrecking.

Back at the front, Larson issued a challenge beneath Blaney, but he could not carry the momentum in Turn 1. Two turns later, Byron passed teammate Larson for the runner-up spot as he started to intimidate Blaney for the lead.

When the white flag waved and the final lap of the race occurred, Blaney was still leading ahead of Byron and Larson, both of whom were setting up a final challenge on Blaney for the top spot. Through the first turn and the backstretch, Byron gained a draft but was unable to execute a dive run on Blaney entering Turn 3. Through Turns 3 and 4, Byron tried another move from the outside lane, but the run came too late as Blaney edged Byron by 0.077 seconds to capture his first victory in the Irish Hills and in an upset fashion.

In addition to capturing his second victory of the season and first at Michigan, Blaney achieved his sixth win in the NASCAR Cup Series and his first multi-victory season in the Cup circuit. He also recorded the seventh consecutive Cup victory for the Ford nameplate at Michigan.

“We got a great push by [Kyle Busch] on the restart and was able to get clear there,” Blaney, who led the final eight laps, said on NBCSN. “Michigan’s a matter of pretty much wide open and just trying to play the air game. I hate you have to race that way, but that’s how you have to run. It worked out for us. Man, I’m proud of everybody on the No. 12 team. We weren’t great to start the day off and yeah, kept working and working, got a lot better. It’s so cool to get in Victory Lane for Ford here. This is such a huge one for Ford. That was cool, man. I’m fired up.”

Behind, Byron, who led 18 laps, settled in the runner-up spot while Larson, who led a race-high 71 laps and was aiming for his fourth victory at Michigan, ended up in third.

“[Hamlin] tried to shove us into [Turn] 1 and I had to stay with him to not sacrifice my right rear,” Byron said. “Once you get put three-wide middle, it’s game over. I gave up the lead trying to protect the top [lane] and just didn’t have the loyalty there to push me to the lead. Overall, a really good car. The AXALTA Chevrolet was extremely fast. Definitely, I know we can bring that to the Playoffs. It stinks to finish second, but I feel like we had a really good car to go to battle with.

“Yeah, the restart worked out a little better than I thought it was going to for me,” Larson said. “[Hamlin] tried to stick [Byron] three-wide. They got loose. I got to the middle. I think came out third or something there. Was able to get to second. Just made a couple bad moves, I guess. I think honestly just a little too patient behind [Blaney]. Could have made some later, you know, dives I guess to the inside. Who knows. I need to watch the replay.

“Just made a couple wrong moves, allowed William to get by me. Once I was in third, I hoped they would get racing, get side drafted. I was never close enough to William to help him generate a run on [Blaney]. Ended up third. A good points day. Wish we could have had more, but all in all a good day for the Cincinnati Chevy.”

Kurt Busch came home in fourth ahead of Hamlin while DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Keselowski and Truex finished in the top 10.

Despite finishing 14th, Kevin Harvick clinched his spot into the Playoffs based on points.

There were 20 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race six featured cautions for 29 laps.

With one race remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Larson continues to lead the regular-season standings by 28 points over Denny Hamlin. Currently, 13 competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola and Michael McDowell) are guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once throughout the regular season.

Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick are also guaranteed spots in the Playoffs based on points.

Tyler Reddick, meanwhile, occupies the 16th and final berth to the Playoffs by 25 points over teammate Austin Dillon, with Matt DiBenedetto trailing by 120 points, Chris Buescher by 135, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by 173, Ross Chastain by 185, Bubba Wallace by 195, Chase Briscoe by 227, Erik Jones by 250, Daniel Suarez by 254, Ryan Newman by 271, Ryan Preece by 279, Cole Custer by 295, Corey LaJoie by 370 and Anthony Alfredo by 440.

Results:

1. Ryan Blaney, eight laps led

2. William Byron, 18 laps led

3. Kyle Larson, 71 laps led

4. Kurt Busch, one lap led

5. Denny Hamlin, 10 laps led

6. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap led

7. Kyle Busch, 13 laps led, Stage 2 winner

8. Chase Elliott, 68 laps led, Stage 1 winner

9. Brad Keselowski, six laps led

10. Martin Truex Jr.

11. Chase Briscoe

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. Christopher Bell

14. Kevin Harvick

15. Chris Buescher

16. Alex Bowman

17. Aric Almirola

18. Erik Jones

19. Bubba Wallace

20. Michael McDowell

21. Ryan Preece

22. Daniel Suarez

23. Cole Custer

24. Ryan Newman

25. Justin Haley

26. Josh Berry

27. Cody Ware, one lap down

28. BJ McLeod, two laps down

29. Tyler Reddick, two laps down

30. Quin Houff, four laps down

31. Josh Bilicki, five laps down

32. Garrett Smithley, six laps down

33. Joey Logano – OUT, Dvp

34. Anthony Alfredo, 22 laps down

35. Ross Chastain, 48 laps down

36. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

37. Joey Gase – OUT, Accident

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season will cap off its regular-season stretch next weekend at Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 and where the 16-car Playoff field will be determined. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, August 28, at 7 p.m. ET on NBC.

August 22, 2021
Larson claims fifth checkered flag of 2021 at Watkins Glen

Victory No. 5 was awarded to the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Watkins Glen International after Kyle Larson led the final 26 of 90 laps and fended off his teammate and a hard-charging Chase Elliott to win the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, August 8. The victory was Larson’s fifth of the season, which reignited his challenge for this year’s NASCAR Cup Series title.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Brad Keselowski, who is set to join Roush Fenway Racing as a driver and co-owner in 2022, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Joey Logano.

Prior to the event, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell started at the rear of the field due to their respective cars not complying with the technical rules related to the rear window air deflector. As a result, Alan Gustafson, Elliott’s crew chief, and Adam Stevens, Bell’s crew chief, have been suspended from participating in today’s Cup event along with being fined $25,000. Both competitors were docked 10 points. Engineer Tom Gray served as an interim crew chief for Elliott while car chief Chris Sherwood was atop the pit box of Bell’s team.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Keselowski managed to pull ahead of teammate Logano to assume an early advantage through the first turn and heading into the Esses. Through the Esses, the backstretch, the chicane and the seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course, Keselowski managed to lead the first lap while the field battled jostled for positioning.

Following the first lap, Ryan Newman spun in Turn 1, but he managed to continued and the race proceeded under green.

By the third lap, Keselowski was still leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Logano, with Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. in the top five. Ryan Blaney was in sixth followed by Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman.

Through the first five laps of the event, Keselowski, racing in the No. 2 Wabash National Ford Mustang, continued to hold a slim lead over teammate Logano’s No. 22 Verizon 5G Ford Mustang and Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. By then, Elliott and Bell were mired back in 23rd and 26th.

On the ninth lap, Keselowski got loose while leading and spun in Turn 6. Keselowski’s misfortune allowed teammate Logano to slip by and take the lead just as the competition caution flew scheduled on Lap 10. Larson moved up to second place followed by Truex, Hamlin and Blaney while Keselowski, who quickly recovered following his spin, fell back to sixth.

Under the competition caution, names like Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Elliott, Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, rookie Chase Briscoe and others pitted while the rest led by Logano remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 12, Logano managed to pull ahead of Larson and retain the lead through the first turn and heading into the Esses. While Larson kept Logano in his sights, Truex and Hamlin were in third and fourth while Reddick battled Blaney, Byron and Kyle Busch for a spot in the top five.

By Lap 15, Logano continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Larson while third-place Truex and fourth-place Hamlin were approximately a second behind. By then, Reddick retained fifth ahead of Blaney, Byron, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman. Behind, Austin Dillon was in 11th ahead of Erik Jones, Keselowski was in 14th behind Matt DiBenedetto, Aric Almirola was in 15th in front of Ross Chastain and Bell, Elliott and Kurt Busch were in 18th and 20th, Briscoe was in 21st, Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace were in 22nd and 25th and Ryan Newman was in 26th ahead of Stenhouse and Michael McDowell.

Not long after, some competitors led by Blaney and including Harvick, DiBenedetto, Ryan Newman, Chastain, Briscoe, Cole Custer, Wallace, Bell and Almirola pitted under green. The following lap, Truex pitted just as the pit road entrance closed to signal the end of the first stage nearing.

Back on the track, Logano continued to lead by nearly half a second over Larson and more than a second over Hamlin. Despite being pressured by Larson, Logano managed to maintain the lead and capture the first stage victory on Lap 20, thus claiming his fourth stage victory of the season. Larson settled in second followed by Hamlin, Reddick, Byron, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones.

Under the stage break, a majority led by Logano pitted while others led by Stenhouse and Truex remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 22. At the start, Briscoe, who restarted on the second row, made a bold three-wide move in a bid for the lead. Truex, however, was able to take over the lead over Briscoe through the first turn and the Esses. Behind, Kevin Harvick made his way to fourth ahead of Blaney, Bell and Matt DiBenedetto.

Approaching Lap 24, the caution flew due to James Davison stalling his car near Turns 6 and 7. By then, Truex was leading by more than a second over Briscoe, with Stenhouse, Harvick and Bell running in the top five. Behind, Blaney spun through the Bus Stop, but he managed to continue. In addition, Keselowski pitted to address a braking issue to his car.

Under caution, names like Keselowski, Suarez, rookie Anthony Alfredo, Blaney and RC Enerson pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 27, Truex managed to retain the lead while Harvick, a former Glen winner who is pursuing his first victory of the season, muscled his way into the runner-up spot. Briscoe fell back to third ahead of Bell, DiBenedetto and Stenhouse.

By Lap 30, Truex continued to lead by more than two seconds over teammate Bell, who out-braked Harvick entering the Bus Stop the previous lap to take over the runner-up spot. Briscoe and DiBenedetto were in the top five followed by Chastain, Stenhouse, Logano, Custer and Larson. Behind, Elliott, who was running in the mid-20s, pitted under green after he flat-spotted his tires.

With three laps remaining in the second stage, Bubba Wallace and Corey LaJoie pitted under green. By then, Truex was leading by three seconds over teammate Bell.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 40, Truex remained uncontested as he claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Bell settled in second, trailing by more than three seconds, while Harvick, Larson, Briscoe, Chastain, DiBenedetto, Hamlin, Logano and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some featuring Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

With 47 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Truex launched ahead while Bell withstood his ground over Harvick to retain the runner-up spot. Through the Esses, the backstretch and the bus stop, the field settled in a single-file line as Truex remained at the front ahead of teammate Bell.

At the halfway mark on Lap 45, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while Larson was in third and trailing by more than six-tenths of a second. Chastain and Harvick were in the top five followed by Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Byron, Logano and DiBenedetto. Behind, Austin Dillon was in 11th ahead of Newman and Aric Almirola, Keselowski was in 15th behind teammate Blaney, Hamlin and Elliott were in 16th and 18th, Kurt Busch was in 21st ahead of Reddick and Wallace was in 24th ahead of Bowman and Suarez.

Two laps later, Bell and Larson issued a challenge for the lead on Truex past the start/finis line and entering the first turn, but Truex managed to fend off the near three-wide battle from both competitors past the first turn and through the Esses.

With 40 laps remaining, the top-three competitors — Truex, Bell and Larson — were separated by less than a second, with Truex continuing to lead over teammate Bell and Larson. Chastain and Harvick continued to run in the top five ahead of Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Byron, DiBenedetto and Hamlin. By then, Elliott moved up to 11th ahead of Logano.

Four laps later, what became an intense three-car battle for the lead dwindled down to two after Larson locked up his brakes and bumped into Bell, thus sending Bell’s No. 20 Stanley Toyota Camry spinning in Turn 1, though he continued under green.

With Bell out of contention, Truex was leading by more than a second over Larson. Behind, Harvick and Chastain pitted under green. Back on track, another green-flag incident occurred in Turn 1 after Keselowski locked up entering the first turn and spun, clipping teammate Logano in the process as both Penske competitors spun and sustained damage to their respective Mustangs.

In the ensuing laps, names like Briscoe, DiBenedetto, Newman and McDowell pitted under green. Truex, the race leader, also pitted along with runner-up Larson, giving the lead to Hamlin while Elliott moved up to second.

With 30 laps remaining and a variety of pit strategy occurring, Hamlin continued to lead while Elliott surrendered the runner-up spot to pit. By then, names like Blaney, Bowman, Almirola, Chris Buescher, Wallace, Alfredo, Josh Bilicki, Reddick and Stenhouse had made a pit stop.

On Lap 63, Kurt Busch took over the top spot after Hamlin brought his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry for fuel. Two laps later, Kurt Busch pitted and Larson, who had managed to squeak ahead of Truex on pit road during his previous pit stop, emerged with the lead. By then, Custer and Suarez pitted.

With 15 laps remaining, Larson was leading by nearly three seconds over Truex and nearly seven seconds over Elliott, who was the fastest competitor on the track. Behind, Kyle Busch and Byron were in the top five followed by Hamlin, Bell, Harvick, Chastain and Briscoe.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by less than five seconds over Truex, who also had the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE piloted by Elliott in his rearview mirror.

Not long after, Elliott overtook Truex’s No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota Camry to move into the runner-up spot. By then, Elliott was more than five seconds behind teammate Larson.

With five laps remaining, Larson maintained an advantage of approximately five seconds over teammate Elliott while Truex was trailing by more than seven seconds.

Two laps later, Larson’s advantage was cut down to more than three seconds as Elliott continued to close in on his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. By then, the leaders were mired in lapped traffic.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson was leading by less than three seconds over teammate Elliott, who was given a final opportunity to win the event after starting at the rear of the field.

Through the first turn, the Esses, the bus stop and the final corners, Larson was able to streak across the finish line and grab the win and the checkered flag by more than two seconds over teammate Elliott.

In addition to claiming his fifth victory of the season, Larson captured his 11th NASCAR Cup Series career win and his second on a road course after winning at Sonoma Raceway in June. Larson also recorded the 10th Cup victory of the season for Hendrick Motorsports. With that, Larson, who signed a two-year contract extension to remain at Hendrick Motorsports nearly a month ago, drew himself into a tie with fifth-place finisher Denny Hamlin for the lead in the regular-season standings.

“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Larson said on NBCSN. “I mean, it really just shows how good the organization is, all the people that they’ve assembled at their race shop, all the men and women. All four of us could not be getting these wins like we have been without them. Thanks to them, and thanks to everybody else I get to race for. Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track, so when I caught those, I think, four cars and got into [Anthony Alfredo] right here, I thought I would look at my mirror and [Elliott] would be right on me, but thankfully had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that…Thanks for everything you guys do for me, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, [crew chief] Cliff Daniels, this whole 5 bunch. Another amazing car. I could tell from about Lap 3 after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes that we were going to have a car that could win today.”

Elliott, who started at the rear of the field following a pre-race technical issue that left his crew chief Alan Gustafson suspended for the remainder of the day, settled in second place as he came one spot short in winning at The Glen for a third consecutive time.

“I made too many mistakes to get the win, unfortunately, and made it too late in the race,” Elliott said. “Super proud of our team. Been kind of an uphill battle all day, but everybody was just super prepared coming into the day, and our NAPA team just did a really good job of fighting it. If I hadn’t have let them down there, I think we would have had a shot at it, but congrats to Kyle [Larson, race winner], Cliff, all the guys on the No. 5 [team]. Happy for everybody at HMS. Hendrick Motorsports has been working extremely hard, and not only do the people deserve to win, but Mr. [Rick] Hendrick deserves to win. Really happy for him, and I’ll try to clean some things up and make less mistakes next time. Maybe it’ll work out.”

Behind, Truex came home in third place while teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin finished in the top five.

Byron finished in sixth followed by Bell, Harvick, Briscoe and Reddick.

Twenty-five of the 37 competitors in the field finished on the lead lap, with James Davison being the only competitor to retire due to electrical issues.

There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured four cautions for six laps.

With three races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson are tied for the lead for the regular-season lead. Currently, 13 competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola, William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once throughout the regular season. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick continue to occupy the remaining three vacant spots to the Playoffs as winless competitors, with Reddick ahead by 15 points over teammate Austin Dillon, 135 over Chris Buescher, 147 over Matt DiBenedetto, 148 over Ross Chastain, 188 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 190 over Bubba Wallace, 219 over Chase Briscoe and 223 over Daniel Suarez.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 27 laps led

2. Chase Elliott

3. Martin Truex Jr., 34 laps led, Stage 2 winner

4. Kyle Busch

5. Denny Hamlin, six laps led

6. William Byron

7. Christopher Bell

8. Kevin Harvick

9. Chase Briscoe

10. Tyler Reddick

11. Matt DiBenedetto

12. Ross Chastain

13. Kurt Busch, two laps led

14. Ryan Blaney

15. Austin Dillon

16. Aric Almirola

17. Chris Buescher

18. Cole Custer

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap led

20. Alex Bowman

21. Michael McDowell

22. Joey Logano, 11 laps, Stage 1 winner

23. Bubba Wallace

24. Corey LaJoie

25. Ryan Newman

26. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

27. Erik Jones, one lap down

28. Ryan Preece, one lap down

29. Justin Haley, one lap down

30. Kyle Tilley, one lap down

31. Daniel Suarez, two laps down

32. Quin Houff, two laps down

33. Josh Bilicki, two laps down

34. RC Enerson, two laps down

35. Brad Keselowski, three laps down, nine laps led

36. Garrett Smithley, three laps down

37. James Davison – OUT, Electrical

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course layout, which will occur on Sunday, August 15, at 1 p.m. ET on NBC.

August 8, 2021
Almirola defies the odds with a wild, weather-shortened win at New Hampshire

In a race mired with precipitation, an early accident eliminating two former Cup champions and a 10-lap reduction due to darkened skies, Aric Almirola erased his difficult regular-season stretch by scoring an upset win in the weather-shortened Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the 50th event at the Magic Mile, on Sunday, July 18.

The Tampa, Florida, native capitalized late to lead twice for 25 laps and fend off a hard-charging Christopher Bell to return to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series following a 98-race winless drought.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kyle Busch started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Martin Truex Jr.

Prior to the event, Quin Houff, Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece and BJ McLeod dropped to the rear of the field due to multiple pre-race inspection issues. Bubba Wallace also started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Kyle Busch launched his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry ahead of teammate Truex and the field through the first two turns.

With the field fanning out to two lanes through the backstretch, Kyle Busch led the first lap and was able to retain the lead despite an early challenge from teammate Truex. Behind, Chase Elliott was in third followed by Kurt Busch, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Alex Bowman. Denny Hamlin, the regular-season points leader, settled in sixth ahead of Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell, winner of Saturday’s Xfinity event at New Hampshire.

On the fifth lap, the caution flew when both Kyle Busch and Truex, the two leaders, wrecked in Turn 1 after both got loose entering the turn due to the slick conditions on the track as a result of rain falling on the track. Behind, Hamlin got loose while battling Bowman and spun, though he continued without sustaining any serious damage. While Hamlin remained on the track, Busch and Truex pitted to have their respective Toyota Camrys assessed for the damage.

Not long after, the field was brought to pit road and the race was red-flagged on the eighth lap as the rain picked up around the circuit and the cloudy skies. At the time of the caution and delay, Elliott emerged as the leader followed by Kurt Busch, Bowman, Bell and Ryan Blaney while Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick were in the top 10.

During the delay, Kyle Busch and his crew retired from the event due to the damage on the car.

“We started the race under a mist,” Kyle Busch said on NBCSN. “It never should have gone green to begin with, but then it kept getting worse and worse lap over lap. The lap before, I went into [Turn] 1 and it shoved the nose really bad, and I was able to keep it under control. It wasn’t bad enough. The next time I went down there, hell, I lifted at the flag stand, maybe a little past the flag stand, don’t get too dramatic, and just backed it in. We’ve been talking about it for two laps that it was raining. There’s no sense in saying what I want to say, it doesn’t do you any good. We’re done, we’re going home. It’s over. There’s no fixing that thing.”

Nearly two hours later amid the track-drying process, the red flag was lifted and the field returned to the track under the competition caution, which was initially scheduled for Lap 30. Prior to the start, NASCAR announced that Joey Logano, who pitted under the caution period while the pit road was closed, will be held two laps on pit road due to his crew working on the car during the red flag period.

Under caution, some led by Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Elliott pitted. During the pit stops, Ryan Preece was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road. Meanwhile, Truex was able to remain in the race following repairs to his No. 19 Reser’s Toyota Camry from his pit crew.

When the race restarted on green on Lap 23, Elliott was challenged by Kurt Busch for the lead, which the latter succeeded the following lap. Two laps later, however, Elliott returned the favor entering the backstretch and reassumed the lead as Christopher Bell joined the party.

By Lap 30, Elliott was leading by nearly half a second over Bell, who was followed by Blaney, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski. Reddick was in sixth followed by Bowman, Chastain, Larson and Harvick.

A few laps later, the caution returned due to rookie Anthony Alfredo spinning in Turn 4 following contact with Bubba Wallace. Under caution, some like Bowman, Larson, William Byron, Aric Almirola, Chris Buescher, rookie Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 38, Elliott and Bell battled for the lead for one full lap until Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE managed to clear Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry through Turns 1 and 2. Behind, Cody Ware spun in Turn 2, but the race remained under green.

As the field fanned out and the competitors battled for positions, Team Penske’s Blaney and Keselowski were in third and fourth followed by Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick.

On Lap 42, Blaney overtook Bell for the runner-up spot. By then, Harvick moved into the top five while Kurt Busch fell back to sixth ahead of Reddick and Matt DiBenedetto.

Through the first 50 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by nearly half a second over Blaney while Bell, Keselowski and Harvick were in the top five. Reddick was in sixth followed by Chastain, DiBenedetto, Kurt Busch and Hamlin. Austin Dillon was in 12th behind Cole Custer, teammates Bowman, Byron and Larson were in 14th, 15th and 16th, Aric Almirola was in 19th in front of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Truex was mired back in 22nd, Ryan Newman and Briscoe were in 24th and 25th ahead of Wallace and Daniel Suarez was in 27th. Logano, meanwhile, was in 33rd and a lap behind.

By Lap 60, Elliott continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Blaney. Behind, Keselowski moved up to third while Bell and Harvick battled for fourth ahead of Tyler Reddick.

Two laps later, Blaney overtook Elliott for the top spot as he became the fourth different leader of the race. In the ensuing laps, Blaney started to extend his advantage to more than a second.

Amid the overcast weather and the bizarre start, Blaney was able to remain in the lead with a comfortable advantage and claim the first stage victory on Lap 75, thus claiming his fourth stage victory of 2021. Behind, Keselowski prevailed over a late battle with Elliott to settle in second while Harvick and Reddick were scored in the top five. Scored in the top 10 were Bell, Hamlin, Chastain, DiBenedetto and Larson.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Harvick exited with the lead followed by Hamlin, Reddick, Keselowski, Elliott and Blaney.

The second stage started on Lap 82 with Harvick and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Harvick rocketed away from the field on the outside lane while Hamlin struggled to launch on the inside lane, which allowed Reddick to move into second place and the field to stack up and fan out to multiple lanes through the first two turns.

The following lap, Elliott battled Reddick for the runner-up spot while Hamlin was locked in a battle with Keselowski for fourth. Meanwhile, Harvick was out in front by more than half a second.

By Lap 90, Harvick was leading by more than a second over Elliott while Keselowski, Reddick and Hamlin were in the top five. Blaney was mired back in sixth followed by Larson, Chastain, Bell and Almirola.

At the Lap 100 mark, Harvick remained as the leader by more than one second over Elliott while third-place Keselowski was trailing by less than three seconds. Hamlin retained fourth place ahead of Blaney, Reddick, Chastain, Larson, Almirola and Bell. Bowman was in 11th ahead of Kurt Busch, DiBenedetto, Custer and Stenhouse. Byron was in 16th followed by Truex and Austin Dillon, Wallace was in 19th ahead of Chris Buescher, Newman was in 21st ahead of Suarez and Erik Jones, Michael McDowell was in 25th behind Ryan Preece and Briscoe was back in 29th. Logano, meanwhile, was in 30th and still a lap behind.

Ten laps later, Harvick continued to lead by more than a second over Elliott and nearly three seconds over Keselowski, who had Hamlin challenging him for a top-three spot. Another 10 laps later, Harvick stabilized his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Elliott and more than three seconds over the new third-place competitor, Hamlin.

On Lap 128, the caution flew due to Quin Houff spinning and making contact with the Turn 3 outside wall following contact with Ryan Newman. At the time of caution, Austin Dillon pitted despite pit road being closed at the time of his service.

Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Harvick retained the lead after exiting pit road ahead of Hamlin, Keselowski, Elliott and Almirola. During the pit stops, Blaney, who dropped from first to fifth during the first stage caution period, dropped from fifth to ninth under the recent caution.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 135, Harvick and Hamlin, both of whom were seeking their first victory of the season, pulled ahead while Almirola challenged Keselowski for third place.

A lap later, a three-wide battle ensued between Almirola, Elliott and Larson through Turns 1 and 2 before Larson prevailed ahead of the two for fourth place entering Turn 3. Behind, Blaney, Chastain and Bell battled for seventh while Harvick retained the lead ahead of Hamlin.

Shortly after, the caution returned due to a two-car spin through the backstretch involving Wallace and Chris Buescher. In the midst of the incident and the caution, Logano received another free pass to return to the lead lap.

When the race restarted on Lap 144, Harvick received another strong start to muscle away with the lead ahead of Keselowski while Hamlin was mired back in third ahead of the field after he struggled at the start.

Two laps later, Keselowski, sporting a sleek blue and black scheme to his No. 2 eCascadia Ford Mustang, took over the lead ahead of Harvick and Hamlin.

By Lap 150 and right at the halfway mark, Keselowski was leading by more than a second over Harvick while Hamlin, Blaney and Almirola were in the top five. Scored in the top 10 were Elliott, Larson, Chastain, Reddick and Bell.

By Lap 175, Keselowski continued to lead by less than two seconds over Harvick, with Blaney and Hamlin in third and fourth. Almirola, meanwhile, continued to run in fifth ahead of Elliott.

While Harvick started to close back in on Keselowski for the lead, Keselowski was able to retain a reasonable advantage over Harvick and claim his second stage victory of the season after winning the second stage on Lap 185. Harvick settled in second followed Blaney, Hamlin, Almirola, Elliott, Larson, Reddick, Chastain and Kurt Busch.

Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road and Keselowski retained the lead after exiting with the lead followed by Harvick, Blaney, Almirola, Larson and Hamlin. Following the pit stops, however, Hamlin returned to pit road due to a missing lug nut.

With 109 laps remaining and the skies above the track darkening, the final stage started as teammates Keselowski and Blaney started on the front row. At the start, Keselowski peaked ahead of Blaney and Harvick to retain the lead. While Penske’s Keselowski and Blaney battled for the lead, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Harvick retained third ahead of teammate Almirola, Larson, Bell and Chastain.

Six laps later, Blaney, who kept teammate Keselowski in his sights, took the lead, though Keselowski refused to give in and with a potential dark weather-ending race looming.

Down to the final 100 laps of the event, teammates Blaney and Keselowski battled for the top spot while Harvick narrowed the deficit to half a second. Meanwhile, Logano, who was two laps behind earlier in the race, was in 10th.

Under the final 100 laps, both Blaney and Keselowski refused to surrender as they continued to battle intensely for the lead through every turn and corner, but with neither prevailing over the other. Harvick, meanwhile, continued to close in behind the two Penske Ford competitors.

With 90 laps remaining, the top-three competitors were separated by six-tenths of a second as Blaney continued to lead by less than half a second over teammate Keselowski and six-tenths of a second over Harvick. Not far behind, Almirola was behind by more than a second while Larson was in fifth. Logano, meanwhile, was in eighth.

Ten laps later, Blaney, who earlier prevailed over his intense battle with teammate Keselowski, was ahead by less than nine-tenths of a second over Keselowski. Behind, Almirola moved up to third place ahead of teammate Harvick while Larson remained in fifth. Logano was up in seventh, Reddick was in ninth ahead of Bowman, Kurt Busch and Elliott were back in 13th and 14th, Truex was in 16th and Hamlin was mired back in 18th in between William Byron and Daniel Suarez.

Another five laps later, the advantage for Blaney over teammate Keselowski grew to more than a second while third-place Almirola was trailing by two seconds.

Under the final 65 laps of the event, Almirola overtook Keselowski for the runner-up spot while Blaney continued to lead by more than a second. Harvick, meanwhile, was more than three seconds behind while Larson remained in fifth, but behind by less than five seconds.

Approaching the final 60 laps of the event, Almirola caught Blaney and started to challenge him for the lead. Despite repeated attempts from Almirola, Blaney managed to remain in front of Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang.

Then with 55 laps remaining, Almirola emerged with the lead following a pass on Blaney through Turns 2 and 3 before clearing him for good in Turn 4.

Just then, pit stops under green ensued as Elliott pitted along with Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch Keselowski, Newman and others. Harvick also pitted along with Bell, Logano, Larson, Blaney and race leader Almirola.

Under the final 45 laps of the event and with most of the leaders having made a pit stop, DiBenedetto, who has yet to pit, was leading ahead of Byron and Keselowski, who had fresh tires and enough fuel to the finish. Almirola was mired back in fourth while Wallace was in fifth ahead of Bell.

Not long after, Almirola overtook Keselowski for third place, but he was more than 18 seconds behind race leader DiBenedetto.

With 36 laps remaining, Almirola overtook Byron for the runner-up spot while DiBenedetto continued to lead by more than 13 seconds. Behind, Keselowski and Bell overtook Byron for spots in the top five while Blaney was in sixth ahead of Harvick, Logano, Larson and Reddick.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, DiBenedetto, who drives for the legendary Wood Brothers Racing team but has no current racing plans established for 2022, continued to lead by less than six seconds over a hard-charging Almirola. Bell, meanwhile, was in third, less than eight seconds behind, while Keselowski and Blaney were in the top five.

Three laps later, DiBenedetto, who was aiming for a shortened event and for his first Cup victory, surrendered the lead to pit for two tires and fuel. With DiBenedetto out of contention, Almirola returned to the lead with Bell behind by less than two seconds.

With 20 laps remaining, Almirola was leading by more than a second over Bell. Keselowski remained in third while Blaney and Harvick battled for fourth. DiBenedetto, meanwhile, was in 13th.

Just then, NASCAR declared that the event will be shortened to a final 10-lap dash to the checkered flag due to darkness looming around the track and with no lights installed around the Magic Mile. By then, Almirola continued to lead by more than a second over Bell with third-place Keselowski trailing by more than four seconds as the race remained under green.

Down to the final five laps of the event, Almirola, who was struggling to lap Austin Dillon, was leading by more than six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell. Meanwhile, Logano was up in fourth ahead of teammate Blaney and Harvick.

When the final lap of the darkened event started, Almirola continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Bell. Despite Bell’s final lap effort for the win, Almirola remained ahead and he was able to come back around to claim his first checkered flag in more than two seasons.

With the win, Almirola, who came into the event in 27th place in the regular-season standings and a long shot in the Playoff battle, scored his third NASCAR Cup Series career victory and he achieved his first win in NASCAR’s premier series since October 2018 at Talladega Superspeedway. In addition, he became the 13th different competitor to be guaranteed a spot in the 2021 Cup Playoffs based off of winning throughout the regular-season stretch and he recorded the first victory of the season for Stewart-Haas Racing.

“This is by far one of my favorite racetracks,” Almirola said on NBCSN. “I love coming up to the New England area and racing. I love this racetrack. I had this race won a couple years ago and I gave it away. I lost it, and I am so glad to win a race here with this race team. God is so good. We’ve been through so much and I’ve just stood the test and kept the faith. The team, everybody, they’ve just been working so hard. There have been so many people that have just continued to support us through the crappiest year ever, and, man, this feels so good for them. My pit crew, they did a phenomenal job on pit road. All the guys that work on this car, they just keep fighting. They just keep digging, bringing the best race car they can bring every week and it is no doubt, we have struggled, but, guess what? We’re going Playoff racing!”

Bell, who was aiming for a weekend sweep after winning Saturday’s Xfinity event at New Hampshire, settled in second place for his second runner-up result in three weeks.

“I didn’t know how may laps [NASCAR] cut it short, but definitely whenever I saw the board and saw that we were eight laps short, it stings man,” Bell said. “I felt like I probably had a little better pace than [Almirola] and I was able to get to him. I know lapped cars were giving him a bad time, but I was able to get to him. It was going to be a heck of a race, but really proud of everyone on this Rheem Pristine Auction Camry. They did really good. Everyone on this 20 crew, we didn’t start out the greatest and then we were really good, probably the best we were all day right there at the end of the race. That’s all you can ask for is to have a shot at it and just wish we had eight more laps.”

Keselowski, who led 53 laps, came home in third place followed by teammates Logano, who rallied from two laps behind, and Blaney, who led 64 laps.

Harvick, who led 66 laps, ended up in sixth followed by Larson, Chastain, Bowman and Hamlin.

DiBenedetto, who pitted late for fuel, settled in 11th in front of Truex, Reddick, Cole Custer and Stenhouse. Kurt Busch came home in 16th, Elliott ended up in 18th behind Austin Dillon, Byron finished 21st behind Daniel Suarez, Wallace ended up in 26th behind Michael McDowell and rookie Chase Briscoe finished 27th.

There were 14 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 47 laps.

With four races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Denny Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 13 points over Kyle Larson. Currently, 13 competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once throughout the regular season. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick occupy the remaining three vacant spots to the Playoffs as winless competitors, with Reddick ahead by five points over teammate Austin Dillon, 121 over Chris Buescher, 143 over Matt DiBenedetto, 144 over Ross Chastain, 170 over Bubba Wallace, 172 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and 195 over Daniel Suarez.

Results.

1. Aric Almirola, 25 laps led

2. Christopher Bell

3. Brad Keselowski, 53 laps led, Stage 2 winner

4. Joey Logano

5. Ryan Blaney, 64 laps led, Stage 1 winner

6. Kevin Harvick, 66 laps led

7. Kyle Larson

8. Ross Chastain, three laps led

9. Alex Bowman

10. Denny Hamlin, one lap led

11. Matt DiBenedetto, 20 laps led

12. Martin Truex Jr.

13. Tyler Reddick

14. Cole Custer

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Kurt Busch, one lap down

17. Austin Dillon, one lap down

18. Chase Elliott, one lap down, 53 laps led

19. Erik Jones, one lap down

20. Daniel Suarez, one lap down

21. William Byron, one lap down

22. Ryan Preece, one lap down

23. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

24. Ryan Newman, one lap down

25. Michael McDowell, one lap down

26. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

27. Chase Briscoe, two laps down

28. Justin Haley, two laps down

29. Chris Buescher, three laps down

30. BJ McLeod, five laps down

31. Cody Ware, eight laps down

32. Anthony Alfredo, eight laps down

33. Garrett Smithley, 10 laps down

34. Josh Bilicki, 13 laps down

35. Quin Houff – OUT, Accident

36. James Davison – OUT, Clutch

37. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

The NASCAR Cup Series will be taking the next two weekends off for the Tokyo Summer Olympics before returning to action at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, August 8, which marks the series’ fifth road course event of 2021. The event is scheduled to occur at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

July 18, 2021
Bell makes it an Xfinity three-peat at New Hampshire

Christopher Bell made the most of his one-race return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series by remaining undefeated at New Hampshire Motor Speedway following a dominating victory in the Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 on Saturday, July 17. The Norman, Oklahoma, native quickly worked his way from starting 14th to sweep both stages and lead a race-high 151 of 200 laps before recording the win by more than six seconds over Justin Allgaier and Daniel Hemric.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Jeb Burton started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Justin Haley.

Prior to the event, Landon Cassill and Matt Mills dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective machines. Dawson Cram also started at the rear of the field due to a driver change.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Jeb Burton prevailed on the outside lane through the first two turns to take an early lead over teammate Haley, Austin Cindric and the field.

With the field fanned out to nearly four lanes through the backstretch, Jeb Burton was able to lead the first lap. Behind, Cindric moved up to second followed by AJ Allmendinger, Haley, Jeremy Clements, Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Harrison Burton, Brett Moffitt and Riley Herbst.

By the fifth lap, Jeb Burton was leading by more than a second over Cindric, who had Allmendinger challenging him for the spot. Haley remained in fourth followed by Clements, Harrison Burton and Allgaier.

Twelve laps later, Allmendinger overtook teammate Jeb Burton for the lead. Allmendinger then went on to retain the lead through Lap 20 before the competition caution flew.

The race restarted on Lap 26 with Allmendinger and Cindric starting on the front row. Just as the field was approaching the start/finish line to restart under green, the caution returned for a restart pileup involving Riley Herbst, Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt and Sam Mayer, an incident that sent the back end of the field scattering to avoid the calamity.

Following the incident, the race restarted on Lap 30. Through the following 13 laps, Allmendinger remained out in front until he had Bell and teammate Harrison Burton challenging him with the first stage reaching its conclusion.

With two laps remaining in the first stage, Bell, following a lengthy battle with Allmendinger and Harrison Burton, moved his No. 54 DeWalt Toyota Supra into the lead. Just as Allmendinger had a final lap effort established for Bell, the caution flew due to a wreck in Turn 1 involving Kyle Weatherman and Tommy Joe Martins. The incident ended the first stage under caution on Lap 45 with Bell in front of Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Cindric, Daniel Hemric, Allgaier, Haley, Jeb Burton, Josh Berry and Clements.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire field, except for Brandon Brown and Joe Graf Jr., pitted, and Bell was the first competitor to exit pit road.

The second stage started on Lap 53 and Brown retained the lead through the first two turns until he was overtaken by Allmendinger. With Allmendinger back in the lead, Bell also made his way into the runner-up spot on the track.

By Lap 56, Bell returned to the lead after he overtook Allmendinger for the top spot. Behind, Cindric was in third place ahead of Haley, Allgaier, Hemric, Jeb Burton, Noah Gragson, Brandon Brown, Myatt Snider and Josh Berry.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Bell, who continued to dominate, was out in front. Cindric was scored in second followed by Hemric, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Haley, Berry, Harrison Burton, Gragson and Jeb Burton.

Under the stage break, the entire field pitted and Bell retained the lead following his exit from pit road.

With 102 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start and with the field battling for positions, Bell remained as the leader by a clear advantage over Allgaier, Hemric and the field.

With 52 laps remaining, the caution returned when Patrick Emerling lost a right-front tire and smacked the outside wall approaching Turn 4. Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Bell retained the lead after exiting pit road with the lead.

Down to the final 45 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell and Hemric filled the front row. At the start, Bell pulled ahead with the lead followed by Allgaier while Hemric fell back to third ahead of Cindric.

A lap later, Gragson hit the outside wall in Turn 3 following contact with Allmendinger, but the race remained under green.

Meanwhile, the battle for the lead ignited between Bell and Allgaier, with the latter pressuring the former. Despite Allgaier’s repeated challenges through the turns and the straightaways under the final 40 laps, Bell continued to lead.

With 20 laps remaining, Bell continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Allgaier and Hemric.

Down to the final five laps of the event, Bell extended his advantage to nearly five seconds over Allgaier and Hemric. Cindric was back in fourth followed by Harrison Burton and Haley, who was more than 10 second behind.

Despite being surrounded by lapped traffic through the final laps, Bell utilized his huge advantage to pull away and cruise to the finish line, where he claimed his third consecutive checkered flag at the Magic Mile.

Along with his third consecutive Xfinity victory at New Hampshire, Bell achieved his 17th NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in his 75th series start and the eighth victory of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota Supra team.

“What I’ve got figured out is that I’ve got really, really fast race cars to drive,” Bell said on NBCSN. “I just love being here with Joe Gibbs Racing. All these Supras that I’ve had the last three times I’ve been here have been amazing. Hopefully my Camry is just as good tomorrow, but if feels good to win, finally got DeWalt in victory lane. I know it’s been a long time coming…Just really proud to be at Joe Gibbs Racing. Everyone here does an amazing job.”

Allgaier held off Hemric to finish in the runner-up spot while Cindric and Harrison Burton completed the top five on the track.

Haley, Snider, Josh Berry, Moffitt and Riley Herbst finished in the top 10.

Teammates Jeb Burton and Allmendinger finished 11th and 12th while Gragson settled in 14th in front of Jeremy Clements.

There were five lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 28 laps.

With his top-five run, Austin Cindric continues to lead the regular-season standings by 82 over AJ Allmendinger and 113 over Daniel Hemric.

Results.

1. Christopher Bell, 151 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

2. Justin Allgaier

3. Daniel Hemric

4. Austin Cindric

5. Harrison Burton

6. Justin Haley

7. Myatt Snider

8. Josh Berry

9. Brett Moffitt

10. Riley Herbst

11. Jeb Burton, 16 laps led

12. AJ Allmendinger, 29 laps led

13. Ryan Sieg

14. Noah Gragson

15. Jeremy Clements

16. Brandon Gdovic

17. Brandon Brown, four laps led

18. Jade Buford, two laps down

19. Kyle Weatherman, two laps down

20. David Starr, two laps down

21. Tommy Joe Martins, three laps down

22. Josh Williams, three laps down

23. JJ Yeley, three laps down

24. Joe Graf Jr., three laps down

25. Landon Cassill, two laps down

26. Jeffrey Earnhardt, three laps down

27. Dexter Bean, three laps down

28. Jesse Little three laps down

29. Ryan Vargas, four laps down

30. Colby Howard, four laps down

31. Patrick Emerling, four laps down

32. Matt Mills, five laps down

33. Spencer Boyd, six laps down

34. Jordan Anderson, six laps down

35. Dawson Cram, 16 laps down

36. Alex Labbe, 26 laps down

37. CJ McLaughlin – OUT, Electrical

38. Brandon Jones – OUT, Electrical

39. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

40. Mason Massey – OUT, Accident

The 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season will enter a two-week break period before returning on Saturday, August 7, at Watkins Glen International. The event is slated to start at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

July 17, 2021
Elliott extends road course dominance with a win at Road America

In NASCAR’s six-plus decade return to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on Independence Day weekend, Chase Elliott extended his road course skillsets after the reigning Cup Series champion rallied from starting at the rear of the field to lead the final 17 laps and muscle away from the field to win the Jockey Made in America 250 at Road America on Sunday, July 4, as he returned to Victory Lane in the Cup circuit following a one-month dry spell.

Qualifying occurred on Sunday, July 4, and William Byron claimed his sixth NASCAR Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 110.359 mph. Teammate Kyle Larson joined him on the front row.

Prior to the event, Kyle Busch and Ryan Preece dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car. Justin Haley also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change along with Bubba Wallace due to a transmission change. Kyle Tilley, Josh Bilicki and Quin Houff started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective machines.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron peaked ahead with the lead through the first three turns. Through the Turn 4 straightaway and with the field fanning out to two and three lanes, Larson, who was battling AJ Allmendinger for the runner-up spot, also ignited an early challenge on teammate Byron for the lead from Turn 5 to Turn 9, but Byron maintained his advantage through the kink. As the field settled in a single-file line, Byron remained as the leader over Larson and Allmendinger from the kink to Turns 13 and 14.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Byron maintained the lead over teammate Larson and led the first lap. Allmendinger remained in third place followed by Reddick and Austin Cindric. Ross Chastain was in sixth followed by Matt DiBenedetto, Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin and teammate Martin Truex Jr.

On the second lap, the first caution of the event flew when the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE piloted by Suarez came to a stop under the Corvette bridge in Turn 6 due to a transmission issue, an issue that required a wrecker to have Suarez’s car pushed back to pit road and the garage.

When the race restarted on the fourth lap, Byron retained the lead through the first three turns. Larson also maintained second place over Allmendinger and the field, which made its way through the Turn 4 straightaway and the left-hand fifth and sixth turns.

By the fifth lap and with the field settling in a single-file line, Byron was leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over teammate Larson, while Allmendinger, Reddick and Cindric continued to run in the top five. Chastain, meanwhile, retained sixth followed by Truex, DiBenedetto, Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman. By then, Joey Logano was in 12th behind Christopher Bell, Kurt Busch was in 14th, Chase Elliott was in 18th in between Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski was in 22nd in front of Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola was in 25th ahead of Ryan Newman and rookie Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace was mired back in 31st.

Then in Turn 5, Larson, who made a bid for the lead over teammate Byron, overshot the left-hand fifth turn, which allowed Allmendinger to move into the runner-up spot while Larson fell back to third in front of Reddick and Cindric.

The following lap, Ryan Preece pulled his No. 37 Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE off the course in Turn 5 and behind the wall due to an engine issue. Despite Preece’s exit, the race remained under green as Byron continued to lead by nearly a second over Allmendinger.

Through the first 10 laps of the event, Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE continued to lead by more than a second over Allmendinger’s No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Larson, racing in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, settled in third ahead of Reddick and Cindric while Chastain, Truex, Hamlin, DiBenedetto and Bell were in the top 10. By then, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch, both of whom started at the rear of the field, were in 14th and 16th.

During the 10th lap, Ty Dillon spun in the right-hand kink corner. Despite the spin, Dillon continued and the race remained under green. Shortly after, names like Cindric, DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Truex, Bubba Wallace, Aric Almirola, rookie Anthony Alfredo and Austin Dillon pitted. During the pit stops, Austin Dillon was busted with a pit road speeding penalty. Briscoe and Michael McDowell, both of whom pitted, were also penalized for driving through multiple pit stalls.

The following lap, the second caution of the event flew when Kyle Tilley got stuck in the gravel trap after overshooting Turn 9. The incident was enough for the first stage scheduled on Lap 14 to conclude under caution, and William Byron claimed his third stage victory of the season. Allmendinger settled in second followed by Larson, Reddick, Chastain, Hamlin, Bell, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Elliott.

Under the stage break, a multitude of competitors led by Byron pitted while the rest led by Martin Truex Jr. remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 16 with Truex and DiBenedetto on the front row. At the start, Cindric ignited his early bid for the lead as he pulled a three-wide move on Truex and DiBenedetto entering the first turn. By the third turn, Cindric emerged as the new leader. Through the Turn 4 straightaway and the left-hand fifth turn, Cindric was out in front of DiBenedetto while Kyle Busch muscle his way into third place.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Cindric was out in front by two-tenths of a second over DiBenedetto, who started to challenge Cindric for the top spot. Kyle Busch moved up to third followed by teammate Truex and Bubba Wallace in the top five. Byron, meanwhile, was in sixth while Aric Almirola, Ty Dillon, Reddick and Hamlin were in the top 10. Larson was in 11th ahead of teammate Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Chastain and Allmendinger.

On Lap 18 and with a multitude of battles ensuing around the road course, DiBenedetto and Cindric engaged in a side-by-side battle for the lead through the Turn 4 straightaway and the left-hand fifth turn as Kyle Busch closely tucked himself behind the two leaders. While Cindric was able to retain a brief lead for another turn, DiBenedetto, though, was able to prevail for the lead in Turn 6 while Cindric retained the runner-up spot over Kyle Busch.

The following lap, Cody Ware punted Quin Houff in Turn 5, but the race remained under green as both continued.

By Lap 20, DiBenedetto, piloting the No. 21 Menards Ford Mustang, was leading by nearly a second over Cindric and his No. 33 Pirtek Ford Mustang. Kyle Busch, racing in his No. 18 Skittles American Mix Toyota Camry, was still in third followed by Truex and Byron. Reddick was in sixth followed by Larson, Wallace, Elliott and Hamlin.

Then in Turn 5, Hamlin overshot the corner and kicked up some gravel after his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry overshot the corner, with the driver taking evasive action to avoid hitting Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. The off-track ride dropped Hamlin from the top 10 to 16th behind Aric Almirola.

Two laps later, the battle for the lead ignited between DiBenedetto and Cindric, with the latter gaining a run through Turns 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 along with the kink corner. By then, Brad Keselowski was continuing from a spin in Turn 14.

In Turn 1 and during the following lap, Cindric returned to the lead. Four turns later, however, Cindric locked up the brakes and went wide, which allowed Kyle Busch to move into the lead through Turn 6. Then, things went from bad to worse for Cindric, who spun in Turn 8 and had to loop his car around to continue without drawing a caution. Despite continuing, Cindric was off the pace and he ended up nursing his car to his pit stall, where he then took his car to the garage due to a mechanical issue.

Back at the front, Kyle Busch, winner of Saturday’s Xfinity Series event at Road America and one of the Pocono Raceway doubleheader events last weekend, was leading by more than a second over DiBenedetto, with Truex, Reddick and Byron scored in the top five. By then, Corey LaJoie went off course, got loose and spun in Canada corner, but he continued despite kicking up dirt in the air.

By Lap 25, Kyle Busch was leading by more than a second over teammate Truex, with Reddick, Byron and DiBenedetto in the top five.

Not long after, names like Blaney, Elliott, Hamlin, Bowman, DiBenedetto, Allmendinger, Larson, Keselowski, Almirola, Chris Buescher, Bell, Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, McDowell, Alfredo, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who had a flat tire, pitted under green. Kyle Busch and teammate Truex also pitted.

In the midst of the pit stops, Reddick emerged with the lead on Lap 27. With pit lane closed, Reddick was able to maintain his advantage for the next two laps before claiming the second stage victory on Lap 29 as he also claimed his first stage victory of the season. Byron settled in second, trailing by more than four seconds, followed by Chastain, Larson, Kurt Busch, Logano, Kevin Harvick, Wallace, Justin Haley and Kyle Busch. Earlier, Kurt Busch went off course in Turn 6, though he was able to remain in the top 10.

Under the stage break, a multitude of competitors led by Reddick pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch and Elliott remained on the track.

With 30 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Kyle Busch launched ahead with the lead followed by DiBenedetto through the first turn while Elliott slipped back to third. Busch maintained the lead through the first three turns and the Turn 4 straightaway as the field fanned out to two lanes while battling for positioning.

From Turn 5 to Canada corner, Busch continued to lead, but everything changed when DiBenedetto powered back into the lead entering Turn 12.

Through the first three turns, the Turn 4 straightaway and the left-hand fifth turn, DiBenedetto was the leader followed by Kyle Busch and Elliott while Hamlin and Briscoe were in the top five.

With 25 laps remaining, DiBenedetto was leading by two-tenths of a second over Elliott, who earlier made his way by Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot. Busch settled back in third ahead of teammate Hamlin and Bell. Briscoe, Bowman, Chris Buescher, Byron and McDowell were in the top 10.

Then, Elliott took over the lead for the first time of the day in Turn 1. By Turn 6, Elliott was out in front by a decent advantage over Kyle Busch, who dropped DiBenedetto back to third.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by more than four seconds over Kyle Busch, with Hamlin, Bell and DiBenedetto in the top five. Shortly after, Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney pitted under green. Then, the caution flew when rookie Anthony Alfredo spun in Turn 1 and got stuck in the gravel trap as a result of a cut left-rear tire. The caution was well-timed for Blaney, who was having his front nose repaired following on-track contact.

Under caution, nearly all of the leaders led by Elliott pitted, except for Almirola and Blaney, both of whom pitted earlier and remained on track.

With 17 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Almirola led the field through the first turn while Kyle Busch followed pursuit. Then, Busch engaged in a brief battle with Almirola through the following two turns before he took the lead away entering Turn 3. Through Turn 5, Elliott charged his way up into the runner-up spot behind Busch as the field behind battled and fanned out to two lanes.

Entering the Canada corner, however, Elliott was able to reassume the lead over Kyle Busch as he maintained the top spot when he returned to the start/finish line and slowly started to pull away.

With 15 laps remaining, Elliott was leading by more than a second over Kyle Busch, with Hamlin, Larson and Almirola battling in the top five. Blaney was back in sixth followed by Bell, DiBenedetto, Bowman and Briscoe.

While Elliott and Kyle Busch continued to run in first and second, Larson was able to muscle his way into the third place over Hamlin in Turn 5.

A lap later, Byron, the pole-sitter, went off course in Turn 5, but the race remained under green.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Elliott remained as the leader by more than three seconds over Kyle Busch. Behind, Bell marched his No. 20 SiriusXM Toyota Camry into third place while Larson was in fourth ahead of Hamlin and Bowman. Kurt Busch, Briscoe, Almirola and DiBenedetto were in the top 10.

With six laps remaining, Bowman locked up his brakes and bumped his teammate Larson, sending Larson spinning in Turn 5. Following the contact, Bowman and Hamlin, both of whom sustained damage following the contact with Larson, moved up to fourth and fifth followed by Kurt Busch and Briscoe while Larson fell back to 11th.

Five laps later and with five laps remaining, Elliott continued to lead by nearly five seconds over Kyle Busch while third-place Christopher Bell trailed by six seconds. Bowman and Hamlin, meanwhile, remained in the top five ahead of Kurt Busch, Briscoe, Chastain, DiBenedetto, Reddick and Larson.

A lap later, Bell moved into the runner-up spot after overtaking teammate Kyle Busch, with Elliott still leading by more than six seconds.

Down to the final two laps, Elliott maintained an advantage of more than five seconds over Bell, with Kyle Busch trailing by eight seconds. Behind, Briscoe locked up his brakes entering Turn 5 and nearly ran into the rear of Hamlin, though he was able to continue and remain in sixth place while Hamlin and Kurt Busch battled for fourth.

When the final lap of the race started, Elliott was leading by less than six seconds over Bell. For one final time through the 14-turn circuit and with no challengers closing in, Elliott was able to cruise to the checkered flag and score the victory on the Fourth of July weekend as the crowd cheered.

With the victory in NASCAR’s first event at Road America since 1956, Elliott notched his second victory of the 2021 season, first since winning the rain-shortened event at the Circuit of the Americas in May, his seventh road course win and his 13th Cup Series career victory in his 205th series start. Elliott also recorded the 10th victory of the season for Hendrick Motorsports.

“I appreciate y’all [fans] coming out,” Elliott said on NBC. “Thank you for spending your Fourth of July with us. I hope you enjoyed the show. Man, it was a hot day, but a lot of fun, man. Just really proud of our team for overcoming some adversity early, having to start at the back, having good pit stops. [I] Had a really fast NAPA Chevy, so just so proud. We’ve had a rough few weeks, so [the win]’s really good.”

“I just never felt like I got in a real good rhythm all of yesterday,” Elliott added. “For whatever reason there, about halfway through the race, I started finding some of that rhythm, was able to put it together, piece different parts of the track and then finally, I felt like I was able to piece most of it together. [I] stayed with it and glad that it worked out.”

Bell, who won the Daytona Road Course event in February, came home in a strong second-place result for his third top-five result of the season, first since Richmond Raceway in April, followed by Kyle Busch, who achieved his ninth top-five result of the season.

“Yeah, I just, kind of, buried ourselves there,” Bell said. “We had that pit road penalty, but man, it was a lot of fun. Our SiriusXM Camry was really good and really proud of this No. 20 group. It’s been a trying last two months, but we feel like we’re getting back on track here, so there’s no reason why we can’t be running upfront every week.”

“[I] Just kept working at it,” Busch added. “[I] Kept trying to do what I needed to do for adjustments there. Just did not have the tire life that [Elliott] did. Just incredible that they could continue to just drive away from us. His braking was really good, but then, the drive-off out of the corners was just awesome. They out-beat us by far today. Proud of the Skittles bunch, everybody here on the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camrys did a good job. We all ran upfront, we had good speed. We showed that we’re close. That’s all we had for what [Elliott] seems like impossible. Overall, just a good day fighting through traffic…I feel like we’re in a good spot and hopefully, we’ll go get’em next week.”

Kurt Busch and Hamlin finished in the top five while rookie Chase Briscoe achieved his second top-10 result in the Cup Series by finishing sixth. Chastain, Reddick, Truex and DiBenedetto finished in the top 10.

Austin Dillon finished 11th, Keselowski settled in 13th in front of Almirola and Logano, Larson ended up in 16th following his late dust-up with teammate Bowman, Chris Buescher finished 18th in front of Erik Jones and Blaney and Bowman, who pitted following his contact with Larson, ended up in 22nd.

Bubba Wallace came home in 24th, Kevin Harvick ended up in 27th behind Ty Dillon, AJ Allmendinger ended up in 29th in front of McDowell and pole-sitter William Byron fell all the way back to 33rd.

There were 10 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured four cautions for nine laps.

With six races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Denny Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by three points over Kyle Larson. Currently, 11 competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once throughout the regular season. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Kurt Busch occupy the remaining five vacant spots as winless competitors, with Kurt Busch ahead by 25 points over Chris Buescher, 69 over Ross Chastain, 70 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 74 over Matt DiBenedetto, 79 over Bubba Wallace and 88 over Daniel Suarez.

Results.

1. Chase Elliott, 24 laps led

2. Christopher Bell

3. Kyle Busch, four laps led

4. Kurt Busch

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Chase Briscoe

7. Ross Chastain

8. Tyler Reddick, five laps led, Stage 2 winner

9. Martin Truex Jr., one lap led

10. Matt DiBenedetto, 10 laps led

11. Austin Dillon

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. Brad Keselowski

14. Aric Almirola, one lap led

15. Joey Logano

16. Kyle Larson

17. Cole Custer

18. Chris Buescher

19. Erik Jones

20. Ryan Blaney

21. Corey LaJoie

22. Alex Bowman

23. Josh Bilicki

24. Bubba Wallace

25. Justin Haley

26. Ty Dillon

27. Kevin Harvick

28. James Davison

29. AJ Allmendinger

30. Michael McDowell

31. Cody Ware

32. Ryan Newman

33. William Byron, 15 laps led, Stage 1 winner

34. Quin Houff

35. Kyle Tilley, two laps down

36. Daniel Suarez, nine laps down

37. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Brakes

38. Austin Cindric – OUT, Rear gear, two laps led

39. Ryan Eversley – OUT, Rear gear

40. Ryan Preece – OUT, Engine

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Atlanta Motor Speedway for the series’ second visit to Hampton, Georgia this season. The event is slated to occur on Sunday, July 11, at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

July 4, 2021
Kyle Busch coasts to a thrilling victory at Pocono

From clutch issues to Victory Lane, Kyle Busch played a late fuel strategy to perfection after overtaking teammate Denny Hamlin prior to the final lap and coasting for a final full lap on a dry tank to win the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono Raceway, the second of a Pocono Cup doubleheader weekend, on Sunday, June 27.

The starting lineup was based off the results from Saturday’s Cup event at Pocono, with the top-20 finishers being inverted for Sunday’s event. Chris Buescher, who finished 20th, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Michael McDowell, who finished 19th on Saturday.

Prior to the event, names like Cole Custer, Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie and rookie Anthony Alfredo started at the rear of the field in back-up cars. Justin Allgaier also started at the rear of the field after replacing Justin Haley in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, with Haley opting to sit out following his hard wreck in the Xfinity Series event occurring early Sunday at Pocono.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Buescher pulled ahead on the outside lane to retain the lead over McDowell and the field through the first turn and entering the second turn.

Through the first lap, Buescher was out in front followed by McDowell, Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr. and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Behind, Daniel Suarez was in sixth followed by Aric Almirola, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick.

The following lap, the first caution of the race flew when rookie Anthony Alfredo made hard contact with the outside wall in Turn 2.

When the race restarted on the sixth lap, Buescher peaked ahead until he slipped entering the first turn and lost his momentum along with a bevy of spots. Buescher’s slip-up allowed McDowell to move to the lead followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Bell. Behind, Aric Almirola made his way to fourth followed by Stenhouse, Suarez, Keselowski, Reddick and Wallace as Buescher fell all the way back to 12th.

Through the first 10 laps of the event, McDowell remained in the lead by a narrow margin over Truex and Bell while Almirola, Stenhouse, Keselowski, Suarez, Wallace, Kyle Busch and Reddick were running in the top 10. By then, Kurt Busch was in 11th in front of Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and Buescher. Chase Elliott was in 16th in front of rookie Chase Briscoe and teammate William Byron, Austin Dillon was in 20th behind Erik Jones and Alex Bowman, winner of the first Cup Pocono doubleheader event, was in 21st in front of Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson and Matt DiBenedetto. Ryan Newman, meanwhile, was in 29th.

Three laps later, Truex moved his No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota Camry into the lead. Teammate Bell quickly followed in his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry to assume the runner-up spot while McDowell fell back to third in front of Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang.

By Lap 20, Truex was out in front by more than a second over teammate Bell while Almirola, McDowell and Kyle Busch were in the top five. McDowell was back in sixth followed by Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. Stenhouse was situated in ninth ahead of Suarez. Meanwhile, Logano and Harvick were in 12th and 13th, Elliott was still mired back in 15th in between teammate Byron and Kurt Busch, Bowman was back in 21st behind Hamlin and Larson was in 22nd in front of Erik Jones.

Five laps later, Truex extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Bell. Behind, Almirola, Keselowski and Kyle Busch remained in the top five ahead of Blaney and Wallace, with McDowell settling in eighth ahead of Stenhouse and Suarez.

Shortly after, Hamlin brought his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry to pit road under green. A lap later, his teammates, Bell and Kyle Busch, pitted. Meanwhile, the fourth Joe Gibbs Racing competitor, Truex, remained on the track and in the lead. During this process, Hendrick Motorsports’ competitors Elliott and Byron also pitted.

At the front, Truex held a comfortable advantage over runner-up Almirola. With no lead lap challengers closing in approaching Lap 30, Truex was able to come back around and claim the first stage victory as he also claimed his fourth stage victory of the 2021 season. Almirola settled in second followed by Keselowski, Blaney and Wallace while McDowell, Stenhouse, Reddick, Suarez and Logano were scored in the top 10. By then, Byron, who was in 33rd, managed to beat Truex at the start/finish line to return on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, nearly all of the leaders pitted and Truex retained the lead following his exit from his pit stall. Back on track, names like Keselowski, teammate Blaney, Austin Dillon, Bell, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Elliott and Byron remained on the track. During the pit stops, Larson remained on pit road to have the front nose of his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE assessed after he ran into the rear of Hamlin on a restart.

The second stage started on Lap 35 with Keselowski and Bell starting on the front row. At the start, Keselowski received a push from teammate Blaney to retain the lead through the first turn over Bell. Behind, Kyle Busch retained fourth place ahead of Byron, Hamlin and the field.

By Lap 40, Keselowski continued to lead over teammate Blaney, Bell, Kyle Busch and Byron. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, who was running in the top five, radioed issues to his No. 18 M&M’s Mini’s Toyota Camry as the car was popping out of fourth gear.

Five laps later, teammates Keselowski and Blaney pitted, moving Kyle Busch to the lead. Larson, who reported overheating issues to his car, also pitted during this process. Earlier, Austin Dillon pitted.

Through the first 50 laps of the event, Kyle Busch remained as the leader by nearly three-tenths of a second over Byron, with Bell, Hamlin and Elliott in the top five. Truex was in sixth followed by Almirola, Ross Chastain, Logano and Harvick. Not long after, Blaney made another pit stop to address a loose right-front wheel, a move that dropped him a lap behind the leaders.

By Lap 60, Kyle Busch continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Byron. Bell, teammate Hamlin and Elliott continued to run in the top five followed by Truex, Almirola, Chastain, Logano and Bowman.

On Lap 65, Byron brought his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to pit road under green. By then, Daniel Suarez pitted. With Byron pitting from the runner-up spot, teammates Bell and Hamlin moved up to second and third behind their third teammate and leader, Kyle Busch. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors were running in the top five, with Elliott in fourth.

A few laps later, Kevin Harvick brought his No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang to his pit stall for service under green.

At the halfway mark on Lap 70, Kyle Busch was the leader followed by teammate Bell, Elliott, teammate Truex and Almirola. Chastain moved up to sixth followed by Logano, Bowman, Reddick and Kurt Busch. A lap earlier, Hamlin pitted.

During the ensuing laps, Ryan Newman pitted along with Bell, Elliott, Truex, Chastain, Almirola, Kurt Busch, Bowman, Logano, Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and others. During the sequence, Kyle Busch, who surrendered the lead to pit, had to receive a push from his crew after stalling his car with the car getting stuck in gear and not moving.

Back on course and on Lap 75, Bubba Wallace was leading followed by DiBenedetto, Byron, Keselowski, Hamlin and Bell. Two laps later, Wallace pitted and Byron inherited the lead with Keselowski in second.

By Lap 80, Byron was leading by more than two seconds over Keselowski, with Hamlin, Bell and Elliott in the top five. Truex was in sixth followed by Larson, Almirola, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon.

With the laps in the second stage concluding, Hamlin managed to overtake Keselowski for the runner-up spot. By then, Byron was clear out in front by more than two seconds. With a clear sight in front amid the lapped traffic, Byron was able to claim his second stage victory on Lap 80 as he also recorded his second stage victory of the season. Hamlin settled in second followed by Keselowski, Bell, Elliott, Truex, Kyle Busch, Larson, Almirola and Chastain.

Under the stage break, some led by Keselowski pitted while others led by Byron remained on the track. During the pit stops, Kyle Busch spent extra time in his pit stall to have the shifter and gear issue on his car addressed. Despite pitting for a second time for repairs, Busch remained on the lead lap.

With 50 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Byron received a push from Hamlin to remain as the leader. Behind, Elliott charged to third place followed by Bell, teammate Truex, Almirola and Bowman as the field battled intensely for positioning.

Two laps later, the caution flew due to debris that came off the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE piloted by Erik Jones, who earlier had a left-front tire flat.

Under caution, some led by Byron and Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track. During the sequence, Elliott, who faked coming to pit road, was penalized for not maintaining his position on the track under caution, sending him back to fourth as Bell moved back to the lead.

With 44 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Bell and Bowman started on the front row. At the start, Bowman received a push from Ross Chastain on the inside lane to move into the lead over Bell. Behind, Chastain challenged Bell for the runner-up spot while Elliott and Harvick battled dead even for fourth place in front of Almirola and Keselowski.

Back to the frontstretch, Harvick made a bold three-wide move to move into the runner-up spot after Bell and Chastain made contact against one another. Following the contact, Chastain’s No. 42 McDonald’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE went up the race track in Turn 1 with a flat tire following the contact with Bell.

Then entering the frontstretch, Elliott made contact with Bell, sending Bell sideways. Though Bell sustained right-rear damage to his car, he prevented the car from spinning sideways as the race proceeded under green. The contact scattered the field as Bell fell out of contention. Both Bell and Chastain pitted following their on-track incident.

Back up front, Bowman was the leader by nearly seven-tenths of a second over Harvick, with Keselowski, Blaney and Reddick in the top five. McDowell was up in sixth followed by Elliott, Almirola, Kurt Busch and Hamlin.

Under the final 40 laps, Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE fell off the pace due to a flat right-front tire as he made the trip to pit road for four fresh tires. Not long after, Matt DiBenedetto pitted along with Logano.

With 35 laps remaining, Bowman continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Harvick, with third-place Keselowski trailing by more than a second. Soon after, names like Blaney and Austin Dillon pitted. In addition, Elliott made a second pit stop due to another flat tire.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, the battle for the lead intensified as Bowman led by less than three-tenths of a second over Harvick. Soon after, Almirola surrendered his spot on the track to pit along with Stenhouse, who had smoke trailing out of the tailpipe of his No. 47 Scott Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE as he made the left-hand turn to the garage.

Two laps later, Harvick pitted along with McDowell. Another three laps later, more pit strategy occurred as Bowman surrendered the lead to pit for fuel for his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, giving the lead to the No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang piloted by Brad Keselowski.

Nearing the final 20 laps of the event, Tyler Reddick surrendered the runner-up spot to pit.

With 20 laps remaining and the fuel strategy conversation continuing among multiple teams, Keselowski, who was in question about having enough fuel to make it to the finish, was leading by over Byron. Kurt Busch, Hamlin and Larson were in the top five followed by Kyle Busch, Wallace, Preece, Briscoe and Suarez. Harvick, who had enough fuel to complete the race to its scheduled distance, was in 13th behind Truex while Bowman was in 15th behind Blaney.

Five laps later, Keselowski continued to lead by more than three seconds over Byron, with Kurt Busch, Hamlin and Larson remaining in the top five. Harvick, meanwhile, was still mired back in 13th behind Truex as Blaney, Bowman and Reddick were in 14th, 15th and 16th.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Keselowski was leading by more than 11 seconds over Byron, with Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Larson, Kyle Busch and the field trailing by more than 21 seconds. Harvick, meanwhile, was up in 10th place behind Ryan Newman.

Two laps later, Keselowski, who last pitted on Lap 87, surrendered the lead to pit for fuel, with the former Cup champion not having enough to initially complete the remainder of the race. Despite pitting for fuel, Keselowski managed to pick up speed and pull ahead of Harvick as both awaited the fuel fate of the front-runners.

Back on course, Byron inherited the lead followed by Hamlin, the Busch brothers, Larson and Wallace.

With five laps remaining, Byron, who was trying to conserve fuel, was leading by more than two seconds over Hamlin with Kyle Busch also joining the party. By then, Keselowski and Harvick were in seventh and eighth.

Then with two laps remaining, Byron, who last pitted on Lap 94, pitted as teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch moved into first and second.

Shortly after, Hamlin fell off the pace exiting Turn 2 as he ran out of fuel. Despite trying to block his teammate, Kyle Busch assumed the lead on the outside lane entering the frontstretch as he started the final lap of the race. With Busch out in front and Hamlin pitting, Kyle Larson moved into second place, trailing by more than seven seconds. By then, Kurt Busch pitted.

With the gas tank in the No. 18 Toyota running dry, Kyle Busch, who last pitted on Lap 95, was able to navigate his way around the triangle circuit for a final time and come back around to take the checkered flag and steal the win a day after finishing in the runner-up spot in the first Cup Pocono doubleheader event.

The victory marked Busch’s second of this season, fourth at Pocono and the 59th of his NASCAR Cup Series career. It was also Busch’s second of the season with rookie Cup crew chief Ben Beshore.

“[The car’s] Stuck in fourth gear,” Busch said on NBCSN. “About out of gas. Just saving, just riding, just playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us. Just can’t say enough about everybody on my team, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, [Toyota Racing Development], all the work that they’re putting in and everything. Sometimes, these races aren’t always won by the fastest car, but I still felt like we had the fastest car. Even though we were in the back and behind and having to come back and having to persevere, being stuck in fourth gear, no clutch, all that stuff, it’s all burned out. Nothing left in his M&M’s Mini’s Camry. It was awesome today…This is really awesome to pull off another win here at Pocono. Feels good.”

Behind, Larson, who struggled throughout the event and wrecked a day ago while leading on the final lap, had enough fuel to come home in second place as he collected his ninth top-two result of the season.

“It’s surprising finish for us. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really loose for a majority of the race, then we got a lot of nose damage there on one of the restarts. Was off on speed. I felt like after that. [Crew chief] Cliff [Daniels] and everybody did a really, really good job managing the race, coached me through saving fuel there at the end. [I] Was hoping that [Kyle Busch] was going to run out. I saw [Hamlin] running out. I was, ‘Okay, they’re teammates, they got to be close to running out.’ [Busch] did pit a lap after us under caution. That actually probably won them the race. But, yeah, second-place finish, I thought we would be outside of the top-20. A lot of points throughout the race today; we’ll take it. Happy about the effort for sure all weekend.”

Keselowski and Harvick, both of whom were charging hard on fuel, finished in third and fourth while Bubba Wallace achieved his first top-five result of the season and for 23XI Racing by finishing fifth.

“We knew we were in a worse position than [Kyle Busch],” Wallace said. “It was just racing our race. I was trying to do the best that I could, but all in all, really solid weekend. First top five for the team. I think that’s a little pen to the paper action there to re-sign and re-up there. All in all, just happy with how the weekend went. Smooth sailing for the most part. Today was a little bit trickier, but perseverance. Just got to battle through it and proud of everybody here.”

Blaney, Bowman, Preece, Reddick and Logano finished in the top 10.

Byron, following his late pit stop, ended up in 12th behind Truex while Hamlin, who was a lap away from capturing his first victory of the season until he ran out of fuel, fell all the way back to 14th.

“We had our hands tied up behind our backs,” Byron said. “Definitely had the fastest car. The caution didn’t fit us perfectly. We had control of the race there and was right on our number to make it or not, and just didn’t work out. Really fast car. The AXALTA Chevrolet was awesome. Sucks to lose’em like that, but I feel like we had everything we needed in the car. Just couldn’t save enough fuel as far back as we were. Just part of it, but thanks to the guys.”

“The result is we’ve pitted on the last lap for three weeks in a row,” Hamlin said. “That’s tough. I hate seeing the white [flag], ended up coming to pit road. It’s just so frustrating, but fuel mileage’s got us the last two weeks and lug nuts the week before, but we’re running fast. We’re getting a little better. I think that overall, we had a little bit more speed this weekend than what we’ve had in the past few weeks. Just can’t see the checkered right now.”

Truex settled in 11th, Austin Dillon and Suarez finished 13th and 15th, Almirola came home in 16th ahead of McDowell, Kurt Busch fell all the way back to 20th behind Chris Buescher, rookie Chase Briscoe finished 21st, Justin Allgaier finished 25th as a substitute competitor for Spire Motorsports, Chastain and Elliott ended up in 26th and 27th and Bell ended his strong run in 32nd behind Erik Jones.

There were 12 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 15 laps.

With eight races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by four points over Larson. Eleven competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once through the first 19 regular-season events. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Kurt Busch occupy the remaining five spots as winless competitors, with Busch ahead by three points over Chris Buescher, 48 over Daniel Suarez, 54 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace, 60 over Matt DiBenedetto and 72 over Ross Chastain.

Results.

1. Kyle Busch, 30 laps led

2. Kyle Larson

3. Brad Keselowski, 31 laps led

4. Kevin Harvick

5. Bubba Wallace, three laps led

6. Ryan Blaney

7. Alex Bowman, 18 laps led

8. Ryan Preece

9. Tyler Reddick

10. Joey Logano

11. Martin Truex Jr., 19 laps led, Stage 1 winner

12. William Byron, 22 laps led, Stage 2 winner

13. Austin Dillon

14. Denny Hamlin, one lap led

15. Daniel Suarez

16. Aric Almirola

17. Michael McDowell, seven laps led

18. Matt DiBenedetto

19. Chris Buescher, six laps led

20. Kurt Busch

21. Chase Briscoe

22. Ryan Newman

23. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

24. Cole Custer, one lap down

25. Justin Allgaier, one lap down

26. Ross Chastain, one lap down

27. Chase Elliott, one lap down

28. Cody Ware, one lap down

29. B.J. McLeod, one lap down

30. James Davison, three laps down

31. Erik Jones, four laps down

32. Christopher Bell, five laps down, three laps led

33. Quin Houff, five laps down

34. Anthony Alfredo, six laps down

35. Josh Bilicki, eight laps down

36. Garrett Smithley – OUT, Engine

37. Timmy Hill – OUT, Handling

38. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Engine

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Road America, the series’ return to the track near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, since 1956. The event is slated to occur on Sunday, July 4, during Independence Day weekend at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

June 27, 2021
NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Nashville

Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Kyle Larson: Larson won his third-straight points race, this time crushing the field at Nashville, new to the Cup series calendar.

“I’m still counting my million from winning the All-Star Race at Texas,” Larson said. “It may be the first time my accountant had to work harder than my publicist.”

2. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin had to pit for fuel late at Nashville and eventually finished 22nd.

“At this point last year,” Hamlin said, “I had 3 wins. At this point last year, Kyle Larson had one big ‘L.’”

3. William Byron: Byron took third in the Ally 400 at Nashville as Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson won.

“Kyle may be winning everything,” Byron said, “but I bet someone else will have the ‘last laugh.’ That someone else will probably be Quin Houff because he finishes last and everyone laughs.”

4. Chase Elliott: Elliott won Stage 2 and finished 13th in the Ally 400 at Nashville but was disqualified for having five loose lug nuts in post-race inspection. He was relegated to a last-place finish and had the Stage 2 win taken from him.

“In light of what Kyle Larson’s done in the last month or so,” Elliott said, “I was just happy to be able to say I won something, emphasis on was.”

5. Alex Bowman: Bowman finished 15th at Nashville, his first result outside the top 10 since Darlington in early May.

“I signed a contract extension through 2023,” Bowman said. “Add that to my list of ‘signature wins.’”

6. Joey Logano: Logano finished 10th at Nashville.

“Nashville is known as the ‘Music City,’” Logano said. “The city where I hear officially that Brad Keselowski is leaving Penske will be known as the ‘Music To My Ears City.’”

7. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex struggled all day at Nashville and finished a disappointing 23rd in the Ally 400.

“Kyle Larson led 264 of 300 laps,” Truex said. “He dominated. The Nashville victor is awarded a guitar, but let’s face it, Larson beat us like a drum.’”

8. Kyle Busch: Kyle Busch finished 11th in the Ally 400.

“I won my 100th Xfinity series race on Saturday at Nashville,” Busch said. “It feels like Kyle Larson has won his 100th Cup series race.”

9. Kevin Harvick: Harvick ran out of gas on the final lap but was able to coast to a fifth-place finish at Nashville.

“The No. 4 Chevy sported the ‘Grave Digger’ paint scheme,” Harvick said. “If you’ve been living under a rock, or in a non-mobile home, then you probably don’t know that ‘Grave Digger’ is a monster truck.”

10. Christopher Bell: Bell finished ninth at Nashville, posting his first top 10 since Richmond in April.

“NASCAR hired New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara,” Bell said. “His title is ‘growth and engagement manager.’ So, if you’re a small person looking to add muscle and find a spouse, Alvin should be able to help you.”

June 21, 2021
Larson achieves second All-Star Race win at Texas

The 2021 comeback season for Kyle Larson continued under the lights in the Lone Star state after the Elk Grove, California, native prevailed over a late battle against Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott to win the NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 13, and claim his second All-Star career victory.

The starting lineup was determined via random draw, with Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Sonoma Raceway, starting on pole position and Kyle Busch joining him on the front row.

Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola transferred to the All-Star Race following their respective segment victories in the All-Star Open along with Matt DiBenedetto, winner of this year’s All-Star Fan Vote.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced for Round 1, the field battled dead even through the first two turns and entering the backstretch led by the two Kyles. At the start/finish line, Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry led the first lap over Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.

Then in Turn 1, the caution waved when Christopher Bell got sideways in Turn 1, though he was able to straighten the car on the apron and not sustain any damage to his No. 20 CRAFTSMAN Toyota Camry. Bell was the only competitor who pitted under caution, with caution laps not counting in the race.

When the race restarted on a 14-lap dash through the first round, the two Kyles battled dead even for the lead again for one full lap before Busch prevailed the following lap. With Kyle Busch leading, Cole Custer challenged Larson for the runner-up spot ahead of Chase Elliott and William Byron with the field battling intensely for spots.

Through the first five laps of the event, Kyle Busch was leading by three-tenths of a second over Larson, with Byron, Custer and Elliott in the top five. Joey Logano and Austin Dillon were in sixth and seventh followed by Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick.

Two laps later, Larson overtook Kyle Busch to assume the lead for the first time. At the same time, Byron challenged Busch for the runner-up spot, though the former retained the spot.

Not long after, Kyle Busch attempted to challenge Larson back for the lead on the inside lane, but Larson retained the top spot on the outside lane entering the backstretch. Soon after, Byron also took over the runner-up spot while Elliott and Custer battled for fourth.

By Lap 12, the battle for the runner-up spot heated up as Elliott joined teammate Byron and Kyle Busch in an attempt to overtake both. With Larson still leading, Byron was able to clear himself to remain in second while Kyle Busch continued to battle Elliott for third place.

Back at the front, Larson was able to fend off teammate Byron and Kyle Busch to claim Round 1 on Lap 15. Byron, Kyle Busch, Elliott and Custer settled in the top five followed by Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Ross Chastain and Logano.

Under the first break, the leaders pitted for early adjustments. Prior to the second round, the top-12 competitors were inverted in positions, a decision made via random draw. The move made Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick start on the front row.

When Round 2 started on Lap 16, Blaney received a push from Chastain to retain the lead entering the first turn. Soon after, Chastain attempted to make a move on the outside lane for the lead, but his plan backfired as Keselowski took over the runner-up spot while Chastain was left in a battle with Chase Elliott. Behind, Harvick drifted back to eighth.

The following lap, Chastain got Blaney sideways entering Turn 1, but Blaney maintained the lead and straightened his No. 12 Menards/Wrangler Ford Mustang, though he was left in a battle with teammate Keselowski for the lead.

At the front, teammates Blaney and Keselowski battled dead even for the lead, with Keselowski fighting on the inside lane and Blaney on the outside. Chastain, meanwhile, was in third followed by Elliott and the Busch brothers.

By Lap 20, Blaney was leading by a narrow margin over teammate Keselowski while Chastain, Kurt Busch, Elliott, Byron, Kyle Busch, Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Custer were in the top 10.

Five laps later, Penske’s Blaney and Keselowski were running first and second followed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Chastain and Kurt Busch, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch in fifth and Hendrick Motorsports’ Elliott running in sixth.

When Round 2 concluded on Lap 30, Blaney survived an intense, competitive battle for the lead as he was the leader followed by teammate Keselowski, Chastain, Kurt Busch, Byron, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Custer, Denny Hamlin and Logano.

Under the second break, the leaders returned to pit road for more adjustments.

Prior to the third event, the entire field was inverted, giving DiBenedetto and Almirola the front row.

When Round 3 started on Lap 31, DiBenedetto cleared Almirola to lead the field as Michael McDowell challenged Almirola for the runner-up spot. Behind, Ryan Newman challenged Harvick for fourth as Alex Bowman joined the party.

A few laps later, McDowell made a bid for the lead through the backstretch, but DiBenedetto received a push from Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang through Turn 4 to remain in the lead entering the backstretch.

By Lap 35, DiBenedetto was leading by a narrow margin over McDowell followed by Bowman, Almirola and Larson. Newman was in sixth followed by Christopher Bell, Austin Dillon, Hamlin and Harvick.

Two laps later, Bowman moved his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into the lead.

By Lap 40, Bowman was leading by half a second over DiBenedetto, with Almirola, McDowell and Newman in the top five,

With the field behind battling for position, Bowman was able to retain the top spot and claim Round 3 on Lap 45. DiBenedetto was in second place followed by Almirola, McDowell, Newman, Larson, Hamlin, Bell, Byron and Harvick.

Under the round break, the leaders returned to pit road for adjustments as the race transitioned to evening conditions.

Prior to the fourth round, the top-nine competitors via random draw were inverted, placing Byron’s No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into the lead.

When Round 4 started on Lap 46, Byron and Bell battled side-by-side for the lead for one full lap before the former prevailed. Soon after, Larson made his way into the runner-up spot over Bell while DiBenedetto, Bowman and Hamlin battled for fourth. Elliott was mired back in ninth while Kyle Busch was in 17th.

By Lap 50 and at the halfway mark, Byron was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Larson, with Bell trailing by six-tenths of a second. DiBenedetto and Hamlin battled for fourth while Bowman, Elliott, Blaney, Newman and McDowell were in the top 10.

With the laps in the fourth round dwindling, Larson started to catch teammate Byron for the lead as he decreased the deficit to a tenth of a second.

Despite being challenged by his teammate for the lead, Byron was able to hold on to the lead and win Round 4 on Lap 60 by a tenth of a second over Larson. Hamlin, Bell, Elliott, Blaney, Bowman, DiBenedetto, Almirola and Newman were scored in the top 10.

Under the round break, the leaders pitted for another round of adjustments.

The lineup for the fifth round was determined via the cumulative results from the first four rounds, giving Byron the lead and teammate Larson the runner-up spot.

When Round 5 started on Lap 61, the entire field battled dead even led by teammates Byron and Larson.

The following lap, names like Hamlin, Bell, DiBenedetto, Reddick, Truex, Harvick and McDowell made a mandatory pit stop under green. Soon after, Kyle Busch pitted along with Newman and Austin Dillon. Then, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon were assessed a penalty for speeding on pit road.

Back on track, Byron was leading followed by teammates Larson, Elliott and Bowman, with Kurt Busch and Keselowski in fifth and sixth. Soon after, Blaney pitted along with Custer.

By Lap 70, all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors were running first through fourth, with Byron still out in front. By then, Custer and Kurt Busch made their mandatory pit stop under green.

Through Lap 75, Byron continued to lead, though he was one of eight competitors that had yet to pit.

Not long after, Byron pitted along with Larson, Elliott, Bowman and Chastain. Through the next three laps, Keselowski, Logano and Almirola were the final round of competitors to make a mandatory pit stop.

Just then, the caution flew when Chastain, who had just pitted, spun in Turn 1 following contact from Newman. At the time of caution, Keselowski, who was the last competitor to pit, was able to cycle ahead with the lead over Elliott, Byron and Larson.

Under caution, few names like Chastain, Kyle Busch and DiBenedetto pitted. By then, Kyle Busch received the free pass and returned to the lead lap while Austin Dillon was still trapped a lap behind.

When the race restarted on Lap 80, Keselowski and Elliott battled dead even for the lead, with Elliott leading the next lap by a nose. With the battle for the lead heating up in the closing laps, Elliott was able to take the rocket ahead with the lead on the outside lane through the following lap followed by teammates Byron and Larson as Keselowski slipped back to fourth.

By Lap 85, Elliott was still leading by more than a tenth of a second over teammate Byron. Keselowski moved back into third place followed by Larson and Blaney while Logano was in sixth.

When Round 5 concluded on Lap 90, Elliott was able to fend off teammate Byron to remain in the lead. Larson and Blaney settled in third and fourth followed by Keselowski, Logano, Hamlin, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Almirola.

Under the final round break, Austin Dillon received the free pass and returned on the lead lap, making all 21 competitors scored on the lead lap entering the final round. Few names like Harvick, McDowell, Newman, Reddick, DiBenedetto and Austin Dillon pitted while under caution.

Following the mandatory green flag pit stops from all competitors during the fifth round, it was announced that Chase Elliott’s pit crew led by crew chief Alan Gustafson earned $100,000 for being the fastest pit crew of the evening.

The lineup for the final round was determined via the results from the fifth round, keeping Elliott and Byron on the front row.

When the Final Round started on Lap 90 and for a 10-lap shootout to the finish, Elliott peaked ahead in Turn 1 before Blaney made a bold three-wide move while going for the lead over Larson and Byron, with Byron falling back. Through the backstretch, Blaney and Elliott engaged in a heated battle, with Elliott receiving a push from Larson to squeak ahead.

The following lap, teammates Elliott and Larson battled dead even for the lead across the line and for nearly a full circuit before Keselowski bolted his way to the lead beneath Elliott and Larson through Turns 3 and 4. Though Keselowski led the following lap, Larson fought back on the outside lane and reassumed the top spot with seven laps remaining.

With five laps remaining, Larson was leading by nearly a tenth of a second over Keselowski, with Elliott trailing by two-tenths of a second and Logano and Blaney running in the top five. Despite being pressured by Keselowski and Elliott, Larson continued to hold strong with the lead.

Down to the final three laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Keselowski, with Elliott trailing by three-tenths of a second and slowly falling back.

When the final lap started, Larson was ahead by nearly three-tenths of a second over Keselowski, who continued to trail Larson closely, but not have enough to complete his run to the lead. Through the backstretch and Turn 3, Larson stabilized his narrow margin over Keselowski to come back around the finish line and take the checkered flag on Lap 100, thus winning the All-Star Race and a million dollars.

With the victory, Larson became the eighth competitor to claim multiple All-Star victories as he won his first All-Star event since 2019. In addition, he recorded the 10th All-Star victory for Hendrick Motorsports and the first for crew chief Cliff Daniels.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – JUNE 13: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, and crew chief Cliff Daniels celebrate in victory lane after winning the NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway on June 13, 2021 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images).

“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” Larson said on FS1. “That second run there, we were really bad and I was like, ‘Man, we’re in trouble.’ I went backwards that round, so I was like we got an uphill battle and did not imagine myself winning this race today. Cliff and everybody works so hard on this thing, made some good adjustments during those first, second and third rounds, and got us in position. That last restart worked exactly how I needed it to do…I can’t believe it.”

Keselowski finished in second place in his 13th appearance in the All-Star event, which marked his third runner-up event in the event.

“It feels like to run second to the Hendrick cars right now is kind of an accomplishment,” Keselowski said. “They’re just stupid fast. I had [Larson] off of Turn 4, but they just have so much speed. He just motored right on back by me like damn. It feels like a first in class day for the Discount Tire Ford. [Crew chief] Jeremy Bullins and the team did a great job of executing and getting us in position. We just didn’t have enough speed to make the most of it, but good execution day and I’m proud of that.”

Elliott, winner of last year’s All-Star event at Bristol Motor Speedway, settled in third place. Logano and teammate Blaney finished in the top five. Bowman, teammate Byron, Almirola, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch completed the top 10 on the track.

There were 10 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured seven cautions. All 21 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 17 laps led

2. Brad Keselowski, five laps led

3. Chase Elliott, 12 laps led

4. Joey Logano

5. Ryan Blaney, 15 laps led

6. Alex Bowman, nine laps led

7. William Byron, 30 laps led

8. Aric Almirola

9. Kyle Busch, six laps led

10. Kurt Busch

11. Christopher Bell

12. Michael McDowell

13. Martin Truex Jr.

14. Cole Custer

15. Kevin Harvick

16. Tyler Reddick

17. Matt DiBenedetto, six laps led

18. Ross Chastain

19. Austin Dillon

20. Ryan Newman

21. Denny Hamlin

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 20, with the event to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN as FOX’s coverage of this year’s NASCAR season concludes.

June 13, 2021