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NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Las Vegas

Note: The quotes in the article are fictional.

1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin claimed fourth at Las Vegas and remained atop the points standings.

“Joe Gibbs Racing put all four cars in the top 10,” Hamlin said. “And Kyle Busch had the best finish of us all. We’re all telling Kyle he ‘finished first’ just to make him feel better.

“I think we’re all looking forward to racing on the dirt at Bristol in a few weeks. I guess you could say it’s ‘grounds’ for excitement.”

2. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski won Stage 1 and finished second at Las Vegas.

“I knew we had a car good enough to finish in the top five,” Keselowski said. “If you were a gambler, I’d have told you to bet the house on a top five. If you were a NASCAR fan, I’d have told you to bet the trailer.”

3. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished sixth in the Pennzoil 400.

“Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer have great chemistry in the announcer’s booth,” Larson said. “Their years of experience plus their witty banter is on-air magic. You could call it ‘mic joy.’”

4. Kevin Harvick: Harvick started on the pole at Las Vegas but struggled from the start, suffering a tire rub and a flat tire early that eventually resulted in extensive handling problems. He finished 20th.

“We had a fast car,” Karvick said. “The only problem was, it went downhill fast.

“Hopefully, our trouble in Vegas will stay here, and won’t follow us to Phoenix. As the saying goes, ‘What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas.’ Hopefully, that’s true. The following is also true: if there was a Vegas show reboot of a 1970s sitcom about three working-class African-Americans in Watts that had an unlimited run on the Strip, it would be called, ‘What’s Happening (In Vegas) Stays In Vegas.’”

5. Kyle Larson: Larson led a race-high 103 laps and pulled away on the final green-flag run to win the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas.

“Frankly,” Larson said, “I’m ‘shocked,’ mostly because I overcame lengthy ‘suspension’ problems to get the win.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to say, which means I’ve done something right.”

6. Chase Elliott: Elliott spun with 99 laps remaining at Las Vegas, but recovered to salvage a 13th-place finish.

“I’m so happy for Kyle Larson,” Elliott said. “He’s in the playoffs, which is the first step in becoming a NASCAR champion. Kyle will probably be the favorite when we return to LVMS. We’ll be back in Nevada in September, which Kyle calls being ‘reinstated.’”

7. William Byron: Byron came home eighth at Las Vegas as Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson took the win.

“Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr served as the race’s Grand marshal,” Byron said. “Many Las Vegas citizens were saying if that was his last job as a ‘starter,’ things are looking up for the Raiders.”

8. Joey Logano: Logano finished ninth at Las Vegas.

“Hiring Kyle Larson was a brilliant move for Hendrick Motorsports,” Logano said. “Larson is a team player, unlike that other Kyle that used to drive the No. 5 for Hendrick. With Kyle Busch, the team was all about ‘me, me, me.’ That kind of selfishness is called ‘I Racing,’ and Kyle Larson wants no part of that.”

9. Kyle Busch: Busch finished third in the Pennzoil 400 at his hometown of Las Vegas.

“Did I spin intentionally in the Trucks Series race on Friday?” Busch said. “That’s a question I’m unable to answer under oath, or with my hand on a bible, or honestly. Suffice it to say I’d answer with the sincerity of a Teresa Earnhardt wedding vow.”

10. (tie) Christopher Bell: Bell finished seventh at Las Vegas as Joe Gibbs Racing placed all four cars in the top 10, led by Kyle Busch’s third.

“That race just flew by,” Bell said. “That’s often not the case. Most times, I find myself saying, ‘I didn’t think that race would ever end.’ That’s in contrast to viewers at home watching Fox’s pre-race coverage, who find themselves saying, ‘I didn’t think that race would ever start.’”

10. (tie) Ryan Preece: Preece finished 15th at Las Vegas.

“Four races,” Preece said, “four different winners. And only one of those four winners made the playoff field last year. I think a precedent has been established: ‘anybody can win.’ And that’s the only reason I can find that would keep Quin Hoff, B.J. McLeod, Garrett Smithley, Cody Ware, Joey Gase, Josh Bilicki, and Timmy Hill motivated to continue embarrassing themselves week after week.”

March 9, 2021
Sweet redemption for Larson at Las Vegas

From sitting out of the competition due to suspension last season to racing his way to an early trip to Victory Lane this season, Kyle Larson muscled his way to a dominating victory in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 7. The 28-year-old native from Elk Grove, California, led six times for a race-high 103 of 267 laps as he pulled away from Brad Keselowski in the late stages to record his first victory in his return to full-time NASCAR competition behind the wheel of Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Chevrolet.

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, Kevin Harvick started on pole position and was joined on the front row with William Byron, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Harvick received a push from Kyle Larson to jump ahead with the lead. Through Turn 1, Larson was also able to move into second place as Michael McDowell went to work on Byron for third place.

With the field fanning out early to three lanes through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4, Byron was able to fight back and lead the first lap over teammate Larson and Harvick. With the field towards the front still fanning out to three lanes. Harvick was overtaken by a few more positions as Larson and Truex battled behind Byron for the runner-up spot.

Following the first five laps of the event, Byron continued to lead by nearly two-tenths of a second over teammate and a hard-charging Chase Elliott. Larson was in third followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. Harvick, meanwhile, fell back to eighth.

Five laps later and through the first 10 laps of the event, Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE retained a narrow advantage over teammate Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE while Truex and Larson battled dead even for third. Behind, Brad Keselowski challenged Hamlin for fifth while Christopher Bell, Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman and McDowell were in the top 10. Harvick, meanwhile, was back in 11th and in front of Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch.

Another three laps later, Larson managed to overtake teammate Elliott for the runner-up spot. Behind, Keselowski overtook Truex for fourth place. Meanwhile, Byron remained in the lead.

After trailing and intimidating his teammate in the early laps for the lead, Elliott managed to muscle his way into the lead on Lap 20 over Byron. A few laps later, teammate Larson moved into the runner-up spot.

Elliott was able to extend his advantage to nearly a second over teammate Larson when the competition caution flew on Lap 25. Byron, Truex and Keselowski were in the top five followed by Hamlin, Bowman, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Harvick. By then, Christopher Bell was in 11th, Logano was in 13th, Kyle Busch was in 16th in between Austin Dillon and Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick was in 19th, Bubba Wallace was in 21st, Aric Almirola was in 23rd in front of teammates Cole Custer and rookie Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez was in 26th and Ryan Newman was in 29th.

Under caution, the leaders made the turn to pit road for early adjustments. Following the pit stops, Larson exited with the lead followed by Hamlin, Truex, Keselowski, Bowman Byron and Elliott. Behind, Wallace was assessed a pit road speeding penalty and sent to the rear of the field.

The race restarted on Lap 30 with Larson and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Hamlin received a push from Keselowski on the inside lane to move into the lead. Keselowski also moved into the runner-up spot while Larson fell back to third in front of teammate Elliott and Truex.

By Lap 33, Hamlin was out in front by two-tenths of a second over a side-by-side battle featuring Keselowski’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang and Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Elliott was right behind in fourth place followed by teammate Bowman, Truex, Blaney, Byron, Kurt Busch and Matt DiBenedetto.

Two laps later, Truex, Blaney and Bowman battled through three lanes for the fifth spot with Byron lurking behind.

Back at the front, Larson and Keselowski continued to battle for the runner-up spot with Elliott remaining in pursuit. At the front, Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry remained in the lead.

By Lap 40, Hamlin was still leading by approximately a tenth of a second over Larson. Teammate Elliott was in third followed by Keselowski, who slipped and nearly clipped Elliott the previous lap in Turn 1. Behind, Blaney cracked the top five over Truex, Byron, Bowman, Kurt Busch and DiBenedetto.

Shortly after, Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates Larson and Elliott battled for the runner-up spot behind Hamlin while Blaney started to close in on Penske teammate Keselowski for fourth place.

In the midst of the battle towards the front, Bubba Wallace returned to pit road with the hood of his No. 23 Columbia Sportswear Toyota Camry up after he reported a power steering line issue.

On Lap 44, Larson reassumed the lead over Hamlin. Behind, Keselowski caught back up to Elliott as he went to work on him for third place. Keselowski was eventually able to overtake Elliott for position and went to work on Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Blaney, meanwhile, remained in pursuit of the top-four leaders.

Not long after, the caution flew due to debris reported in Turn 2. The caution served as a huge break for Kevin Harvick, who had a left-front tire going down as a result of making contact with Erik Jones. Under caution, the majority of the leaders returned to pit road and Hamlin was able to exit off pit road first followed by Elliott, Keselowski, Bowman and Blaney.

Back on the track, Larson remained in the race lead after electing to remain on the track on old tires. Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Tyler Reddick and teammate Austin Dillon also remained on the track.

The race restarted on Lap 51 with Larson and Logano on the front row. At the start, Larson retained the lead while Elliott made a bold four-wide move behind to move back to the front. Through the backstretch, the field fanned out to three and four lanes.

The following lap, Larson and Logano battled dead even for the lead as the field, featuring competitors on fresh tires compared to worn tires, continued to fan out to three and four lanes for position towards the front.

By Lap 54, two forms of three-wide battles ensued at the front with Keselowski challenging teammate Logano and Larson for the lead. A lap later, Logano was able to clear the field with the lead. Behind, Elliott muscled his way back into third before taking back second place from Keselowski. Blaney and Larson battled for fourth while Bell and Byron battled behind for sixth. Truex and Hamlin, meanwhile, were back in 10th and 12th.

By Lap 60, Logano, racing in his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang on worn tires, continued to hold strong with the lead by a narrow margin over Elliott while Keselowski remained ahead of Larson for third place. Blaney was in fifth followed by Byron, Bell, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Hamlin. Truex was in 12th behind DiBenedetto.

Two laps later, Elliott, racing on fresh tires, returned to the lead following a lengthly battle with Logano. In the ensuing laps, Penske teammates Keselowski and Blaney overtook their other teammate Logano for third and fourth. Behind, Larson fell back to ninth while Bell, Byron Bowman and Hamlin moved up.

Through the first 70 laps of the event, Elliott maintained a narrow advantage over Keselowski. Teammate Blaney was in third while Bell overtook Logano for fourth place. Bowman and Hamlin closed in on Logano for fifth while Byron, DiBenedetto and Larson were in the top 10. Truex was in 12th behind Kurt Busch.

Two laps later, Keselowski made his way to the top of the field following a pass on Elliott for position. While Bell, teammate Hamlin and Bowman battled for fourth, Logano slipped back to eighth on worn tires, two spots ahead of Larson.

Back at the front, Keselowski and Elliott continued to battle intensely for the lead, with the latter prevailing not long after by two-tenths of a second. Blaney trailed by more than a second in third place while Hamlin and Bowman overtook Bell for fourth and fifth.

While Keselowski and Elliott continued to battle against one another on the track for the lead, Logano and Larson were back in ninth and 12th while Truex and Kurt Busch were in ninth and 11th. Kyle Busch was in 14th while Harvick, who started on pole, was mired in 18th.

Following a lengthly battle with Elliott, Keselowski was able to reassume the lead on Lap 79 and hold on to claim the first stage victory on Lap 80, which also marked his first stage victory of the season. Elliott settled in second followed by Blaney, Hamlin and Bowman while Bell, Byron, DiBenedetto, Logano and Truex were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hamlin returned to the lead following a strong pit stop from his crew. Keselowski exited in second place followed by Bowman, DiBenedetto, Blaney and Logano. During the pit stops, Elliott spent extra time on pit road to have damage on the right side of his No. 9 Chevrolet from an earlier pit stop caused by the jack repaired. In addition, Reddick was assessed a pit road speeding penalty.

The second stage started on Lap 87 with Hamlin and Keselowski on the front row. At the start, Hamlin and Keselowski battled dead even through Turn 1 and the backstretch while Byron made a bold move on the outside lane to crack the top five.

The following lap, Keselowski was able to reassume the lead followed by teammate Blaney. Bowman, racing in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, went to work on Hamlin for third while DiBenedetto and Byron battled for fifth.

By Lap 90, Keselowski was leading by approximately a tenth of a second over teammate Blaney. Hamlin retained third place by a narrow margin over Bowman and DiBenedetto while Larson closed in on teammate Byron for position.

Through the first 100 laps of the race, Keselowski continued to lead by approximately two-tenths of a second over teammate Blaney. Teammates Larson and Byron battled for third while Hamlin was in fifth. Bowman, DiBenedetto, Truex, Bell and Logano were in the top 10 followed by the Busch brothers. Elliott, meanwhile, worked his way up to 14th after restarting in 30th place at the start of the second stage.

Five laps later, Larson muscled his way back into the runner-up spot and teammate Byron also moved up, thus dropping Blaney to fourth place. Meanwhile, Keselowski continued to lead the field. Another two laps later, however, Larson retook the lead by a narrow margin over Keselowski.

By Lap 115, Larson was the leader by nearly half a second over teammate Byron with Keselowski trailing by more than a second in third place. Blaney and Hamlin were in the top five followed by Bowman, DiBenedetto, Bell, teammate Truex and Logano. The Busch brothers were in 12th and 13th, Elliott was still mired in 14th and Harvick haas in 17th in front of Chris Buescher.

By Lap 120, Larson continued to lead by approximately half a second over teammate Byron. Blaney was in third, but was now trailing by three seconds. Hamlin and Keselowski remained in the top five followed by Bowman, DiBenedetto, Truex, teammate Bell and Logano. Elliott, meanwhile, was back in 15th behind the Busch brothers and Ryan Preece.

Shortly after, pit stops under green occurred as Bowman was the first of the leaders to pit followed by a multitude of competitors, including leader Larson.

By Lap 130, Tyler Reddick, who had yet to pit, was leading followed by Michael McDowell, rookie/teammate Anthony Alfredo, Corey LaJoie, Daniel Suarez and Cole Custer while Larson was in seventh.

At the halfway mark on Laps 133 and 134, Reddick continued to lead followed by Front Row Motorsports’ teammates McDowell and Alfredo. LaJoie and Suarez were in the top five while Larson was in sixth. Hamlin, Keselowski, teammate Blaney and Byron were in the top 10.

By Lap 140 and with 20 laps remaining in the second stage, teammates McDowell and Alfredo were leading the field followed by LaJoie, Larson and Suarez. By then, Reddick pitted for service.

On Lap 146, McDowell surrendered the lead to pit. A lap later, Larson reassumed the lead. Shortly after, rookie Alfredo pitted along with Corey LaJoie. By then, Larson’s advantage stretched to nearly six seconds over Keselowski. Hamlin was in third followed by Blaney and Byron. Bell along with teammates Truex and Kyle Busch followed by Elliott were in the top 10. DiBenedetto, meanwhile, was in 12th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while Kurt Busch, Logano and Harvick were in the top 15.

With the laps in the second stage dwindling, Larson continued to lead by a steady and healthy margin over Keselowski. Having no challengers close in on him for the top spot, Larson was able to hold steady and claim the second stage victory by more than three seconds over Keselowski on Lap 160. In claiming his first stage victory of this season, Larson became the sixth competitor to record a stage victory through the first four Cup races of the 2021 season. Hamlin settled in third followed by Byron and Blaney while Bowman, Bell, Truex, Kyle Busch and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, 21 of the 38-car field were scored on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead following service from his pit crew. Hamlin exited in second place followed by Bowman, Truex, Bell and Kyle Busch. Byron, meanwhile, fell back to 10th behind Keselowski, Blaney and Elliott.

With 100 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Larson moved his No. 5 Chevrolet in front of Hamlin on the inside lane. He then blocked Hamlin entering Turn 1 on the outside lane as Truex issued a challenge on the inside lane.

Through the backstretch and coming back to Turn 4, Larson retained the lead over Hamlin and Truex as the field fanned out while battling for spots. Behind, Kyle Busch started to make his way into the top five.

The following lap, the caution returned when Elliott got loose entering the backstretch, made contact with Kurt Busch and spun in a full 360 degrees before continuing. While the rest of the field managed to dodge him, Elliott sustained left-front fender damage as he pitted to have the damage assessed. Kurt Busch also pitted to have damage on his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE addressed along with a flat right-rear tire. Meanwhile, Hamlin had taken the lead over Larson at the time of caution

With 93 laps remaining, the race restarted under green with leader Hamlin and Larson on the front row. At the start, Larson squeaked ahead, but Hamlin received a push from teammate Truex on the backstretch to take back the lead.

Six laps later, the caution returned when Aric Almirola made hard contact against with the outside wall in Turn 1. The damage to the right side of Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Power Bites Ford Mustang was enough to end his race in the garage. At the time of caution, Hamlin was leading by nearly a tenth of a second over teammate Truex while Larson, Blaney and Keselowski were in the top five. Byron, teammate Bowman, Logano, Bell and Kyle Busch were in the top 10.

Under caution, some led by Hamlin, Truex and Blaney remained on the track while others led by Keselowski and Larson pitted.

The race restarted with 83 laps remaining as teammates Hamlin and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, the two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates battled dead even for a full circuit before Truex peaked ahead in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry as the field behind fanned out to three and four lanes.

With 80 laps remaining, Truex was out in front by more than a tenth of a second over teammate Hamlin followed by Blaney, Byron and Bell. Keselowski, the first competitor on fresh tires, was in sixth while Larson, who restarted 17th on fresh tires, was up in eighth behind DiBenedetto.

A lap later, Hamlin came under pressure from Keselowski for the runner-up spot as teammates Byron and Larson overtook Blaney for positions in the top five.

Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Hamlin fought back and reassumed the lead by a narrow advantage over teammate Truex while Larson and Keselowski quickly went to work on Truex for the runner-up spot. Soon after, an intense six-car battle for the lead ensued between Hamlin, teammate Truex, Larson, Keselowski, Byron and Blaney as Hamlin continued to duke against Truex for the lead.

With 70 laps remaining, Hamlin was still leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over Larson. Truex and Keselowski battled intensely for third place followed by Byron and Blaney. Bell was in seventh followed by DiBenedetto and Erik Jones. Kyle Busch was mired back in 10th. Meanwhile, Logano was in 13th while Elliott was in 16th behind Austin Dillon.

Ten laps later and under 60 laps remaining, Larson reassumed the lead over Hamlin. He then stretched his advantage to more than a second over Hamlin with Keselowski remaining in third. Truex was in fourth followed by Blaney while Byron, Bell, Kyle Busch, DiBenedetto and Jones were in the top 10.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Larson was leading by more than a second over Keselowski with Hamlin trailing by more than two seconds. Blaney was in fourth, trailing by more than three seconds while Truex was in fifth.

Nearly four laps later, pit stops under green started as a handful of leaders pitted followed by others.

With 37 laps remaining and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop, Daniel Suarez, who has yet to pit, was scored as the leader. Larson, the first competitor on fresh tires and fuel, was behind by less than nine seconds with Keselowski remaining in pursuit.

Eight laps later, Larson returned to the lead. By then, he was leading by a second and a half over Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford.

With 20 laps remaining and the leaders making their way through lapped traffic, Larson extended his lead to two and a half seconds over Keselowski. Hamlin was tucked in third place followed by teammates Kyle Busch and Truex. Blaney was back in sixth followed by Bell, Byron, teammate Bowman and Logano. Meanwhile, DiBenedetto was in 11th ahead of Jones, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon and Elliott. Kurt Busch was in 20th behind McDowell while Harvick was in 22nd, the final car on the lead lap, behind Ryan Newman.

A few laps later, Bowman, who was running in the top 10, made the turn to pit road due to a flat tire. During the process of trying to enter pit road, he nearly collided with rookie Alfredo. Shortly after, it went from bad to worse for Bowman, who was assessed a pass-through penalty down pit road due to a commitment line violation while trying to enter pit road to pit.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than two and a half seconds over Keselowski. Behind, Kyle Busch zipped his No. 18 Ethel M Chocolates Toyota Camry into third place while teammate Hamlin were in fourth. Blaney was in fifth followed by Truex, teammate Bell, Byron, Logano and Jones.

A few laps later, Larson extended his lead to more than three seconds over Keselowski with Kyle Busch trailing by more than six seconds, Hamlin by more than eight seconds, Blaney by more than nine seconds and Truex by more than 11 seconds.

With five laps remaining, Larson remained in the lead by three seconds over Keselowski. By then, 15 competitors were recorded on the lead lap as the leaders continued to encounter heavy traffic.

Spending the final laps methodically working his way through lapped traffic, Larson was able to maintain his healthy advantage of more than three seconds and complete the final laps on a successful note as he claimed the checkered flag to win at Vegas.

The victory marked Larson’s seventh of his Cup career and first since October 2019 at Dover International Speedway as he became the fourth different competitor to win within the first four events of the 2021 season. Above all, the Vegas win also validated Larson’s return to the top level in NASCAR after being suspended nearly a year ago due to using a racial slur during a live iRacing event, a move that cost him his full-time ride with Chip Ganassi Racing. Late into the 2020 season, an opportunity for Larson to return to NASCAR arrived when Hendrick Motorsports signed Larson for the 2021 season.

Larson’s victory also marked the first Cup victory for crew chief Cliff Daniels and the first for HMS’ No. 5 car since July 2017 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In addition, Larson became the 20th different competitor to win while driving for Hendrick Motorsports as HMS claimed Cup career win No. 265.

“It was such an awesome race car,” Larson said on FOX. “[Crew chief] Cliff [Daniels] and everybody did a great job preparing this piece. It was so much fun to drive. I could go wherever I wanted to. I knew I had a really good car once we’d get single-filed out. Just drafting early in the run was tough. Thank you so much, Mr. [Hendrick], Jeff Gordon, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for the amazing opportunity I’ve been gifted…This is definitely special.”

“I know that this is Rick’s most special paint scheme for obvious reasons,” Larson added. “It’s just an honor for me to be able to drive it, our first time out with this [blue, white and red] color scheme. Like I said, just blessed…That was some fun racing on the restarts, so I hoped everybody enjoyed it. I know I did.”

Keselowski settled in second place for his second top-five result of this season. Kyle Busch came home in third place as he claimed his first top-five finish of this season while teammate Hamlin and Blaney finished in the top five.

“Yeah, good for [Larson],” Keselowski said on PRN. “He ran a great race. He was really fast. The kid’s got so much talent. I still wanted to beat him, though, but we had a great Discount Tire Ford Mustang. If he wasn’t here, we would have just stunk the show up, but he was and he ran good.”

“We fought hard obviously,” Busch said. “We were a little behind the eight ball at the start of the green flag and just were super, super tight all day long. [Crew chief] Ben [Beshore] and the guys made awesome adjustments to and I was trying to give the best feedback I can to give them good information that they can base that off of and make the good adjustments. We improved each time. I don’t know where we missed it so far from the simulator, but that’s two weeks in a row where we’re not apples to apples. Just can’t say enough about Ethel M Chocolates, thank you guys…Ready to keep working on it and keep improving. We were just a little off on pace, overall pace, overall lap time from the fast guys.”

“We’re close,” Hamlin added. “We just have to fine tune it. We’re gathering up information right now to figure out how we can make our FedEx Camry better in the fall. This is a good start. We got it in the short rounds but not enough long run speed…Overall, good start. We will see, gather all the data and I will figure out this week what we have to do.”

“I thought it was a pretty solid day all day,” Blaney added. “We had to start pretty far in the back from our bad finish last week and was able to make it up to ninth before the [competition] caution and got third in the first stage and then like fifth in the second and ended up fifth. I thought we could have run second or third. [Larson] was really the fastest one all day long. It didn’t matter where he was he just drove through the field but overall, a really good effort by our group. We really needed that after having three pretty bad races to start off the year. It’s nice to kind of finally get a good run and just a no problem day, just having a solid car and working on it throughout the day. I’m really proud of [crew chief] Todd [Gordon] and the whole No. 12 bunch and nice to get a good finish. Now we can get rolling here.”

Truex, teammate Bell, Byron, Logano and Erik Jones came home in the top 10 on the track.

Elliott settled in 13th behind Austin Dillon, DiBenedetto ended up in 16th, Kurt Busch finished 19th, Harvick came home in 20th and Bowman settled in 27th following his late pit road miscue. Chase Briscoe was the highest-finishing rookie in 21st. Suarez finished 26th while Bubba Wallace finished 28th.

There were 27 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 30 laps.

Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 38 points over Keselowski, 40 over Larson, 48 over Elliott, 49 over Bell and Logano and 51 over Harvick.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 103 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Brad Keselowski, 27 laps led, Stage 1 winner

3. Kyle Busch

4. Denny Hamlin, 47 laps led

5. Ryan Blaney, one lap led

6. Martin Truex Jr., six laps led

7. Christopher Bell

8. William Byron, 25 laps led

9. Joey Logano, seven laps led

10. Erik Jones

11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

12. Austin Dillon

13. Chase Elliott, 22 laps led

14. Chris Buescher

15. Ryan Preece, one lap down

16. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

17. Michael McDowell, one lap down, eight laps led

18. Ryan Newman, one lap down

19. Kurt Busch, one lap down

20. Kevin Harvick, one lap down

21. Chase Briscoe, one lap down

22. Tyler Reddick, one lap down, seven laps led

23. Ross Chastain, one lap down

24. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down, one lap led

25. Cole Custer, one lap down

26. Daniel Suarez, two laps down, 12 laps led

27. Alex Bowman, two laps down

28. Bubba Wallace, five laps down

29. Justin Haley, five laps down

30. B.J. McLeod, seven laps down

31. Garrett Smithley, eight laps down

32. Cody Ware, eight laps down

33. Quin Houff, 11 laps down

34. Joey Gase, 12 laps down

35. Josh Bilicki, 15 laps down

36. Timmy Hill, 21 laps down

37. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Rear end

38. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident

The NASCAR Cup Series will remain in the West Coast for the next event on the schedule at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, next weekend. The race will occur on Sunday, March 14, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

March 7, 2021
Bell notches first Cup career victory at Daytona road course event

With late chaos erupting around every turn and every corner, another first-time winner to kickstart the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season was born after Christopher Bell overtook Joey Logano prior to the final lap to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course on Sunday, February 21, and claim his first NASCAR Cup Series career victory.

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, Chase Elliott, winner of the first Cup points-paying event on Daytona’s road course layout, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 champion.

Justin Haley, making his first Cup start of the 2021 season, started at the rear of the field due to failing pre-race inspection twice along with Garrett Smithley, who dropped to the back due to unapproved adjustments. Erik Jones also started at the rear of the field due to an engine change from last weekend’s Daytona 500.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Elliott rocketed away from the field to retain the lead entering the first round of turns. Behind, McDowell locked up his front tires entering Turn 1 and went off the track as he lost a bevy of spots.

Through Turn 2 and the International Horseshoe turn, the No. 18 Interstates Batteries Toyota Camry driven by Kyle Busch started to drift to the back after being knocked in the grass prior to the International Horseshoe turn as damage was also spotted on his car.

Shortly after, the caution flew on the first lap due to debris on the backstretch. By then, Elliott was able to lead the first lap and retain the top spot over Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Preece. Meanwhile, McDowell was limping back to pit road with the right-front tire on his car flat.

Under caution, Kyle Busch pitted to have the damage on his car repaired along with McDowell. Both were able to continue despite having to drop to the rear of the field.

The race restarted on the third lap with Elliott and Austin Dillon on the front row. At the front, Elliott retained the lead entering the first turn while Dillon was able to fend off Hamlin for the runner-up spot as Logano joined the battle.

Through the infield turns and returning to the superspeedway turns, the field was able to return to the start/finish line cleanly. By then, Elliott continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Hamlin, who overtook Austin Dillon for the runner-up spot. Logano started to battle Dillon for the third-place spot while Harvick was in fifth. Ross Chastain was in sixth followed by Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Kurt Busch and Corey LaJoie.

By the fifth lap, Elliott was still out in front of the field and by nearly two seconds over Hamlin while Logano, Austin Dillon and Harvick were in the top five. Meanwhile, rookie Chase Briscoe spun in the frontstretch chicane in Turns 13 and 14 as he dropped all the way at the rear of the field while the race remained under green.

Halfway into the first stage on the eighth lap, Elliott extended his advantage to more than four seconds over Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry. Logano was in third place followed by Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson. Martin Truex Jr. was in sixth followed by Harvick, Kurt Busch, Chastain and Christopher Bell. Cole Custer was in 11th followed by Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, William Byron and Preece. A.J. Allmendinger carved his way in 16th place followed by Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Matt DiBenedetto and Aric Almirola.

Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace was in 21st in front of Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones and Ty Dillon. Kyle Busch was in 27th in front of Ryan Newman while Michael McDowell was back in 29th. Briscoe, following his early spin, was back in 35th.

Nearing the Lap 10 mark, Erik Jones, who was in 24th, dropped off the pace and limped his way back to pit road through the superspeedway backstretch after blowing a left-rear tire on his Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. He was able to limp his way back to pit road as the race remained under green.

On Lap 11, the caution returned when the right-rear tire off of Matt DiBenedetto’s No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang blew and ripped, leaving shredded debris on the track in Turn 12. Moments earlier, Brad Keselowski missed the frontstretch chicane when he locked up his tires and pitted for fresh tires.

Under caution, the leaders pitted except for Bell, James Davison, Josh Bilicki and Scott Heckert. Following the pit stops, Tyler Reddick and William Byron were tabbed with an uncontrolled tire violation penalty.

The race restarted on Lap 13 with Bell and Keselowski, who benefitted from his pit stop, on the front row. At the start, Bell briefly cleared Keselowski entering the first turn but Elliott quickly marched his way alongside Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry following contact in Turn 2 as he challenged him for the lead entering the International Horseshoe turn.

Through the dogleg and entering the West Horseshoe turn, Elliott reassumed the lead. Behind, Keselowski moved back into second place followed by Logano, Bell and Hamlin.

With the laps in the first stage dwindling, Elliott remained in the lead followed by Team Penske’s Logano and Keselowski as Hamlin started to pressure Keselowski for third place. Kurt Busch moved up to fifth place followed by Larson, Austin Dillon and Truex. Bell was back in ninth in front of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Cole Custer.

With a number of battles and shuffling for positions ensuing around the track and every turn, Elliott was able to cruise his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the first stage victory on Lap 16. Logano coasted across the line in second place while Hamlin was able to overtake Keselowski to assume third place. Kurt Busch was in fifth followed by Larson, Truex, Austin Dillon, Harvick and Chris Buescher.

Under the stage break, some led by Elliott remained on the track while others led by Keselowski pitted. Following the pit stops, Ty Dillon was forced to the rear of the field due to a crew member jumping over the pit wall too soon,

The second stage started on Lap 19 with Elliott and Logano on the front row. At the start, Elliott battled dead even with Logano entering the first turn before clearing him in Turn 2 and holding the lead. With the field battling competitively through the infield turns, Hamlin made his way into the runner-up spot while Truex overtook Kurt Busch for fourth.

By Lap 20, Elliott was out in front by nearly two seconds over Hamlin while Logano, Truex and Kurt Busch were in the top five. A.J. Allmendinger, who started at the rear of the field in his No. 16 Hyperice/Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, was up in sixth followed by Austin Dillon, Custer, Larson and William Byron. Keselowski was back in 11th place in front of Alex Bowman while Bell and Harvick were in 15th and 16th.

A few laps later, Truex moved up into third place after passing Logano while Allmendinger overtook Kurt Busch for fifth place. By then, Elliott continued to lead by more than a second over Hamlin.

By Lap 25 and with the field fanning out and settling in a calm, competitive pace, Elliott stabilized his advantage to more than three seconds over Hamlin. Truex remained in third place, trailing by more than three seconds, followed by Logano and Allmendinger. Kurt Busch retained sixth place over Larson while Austin Dillon, Custer and Byron were in the top 10.

Meanwhile, the top-15 spots on the track were occupied by Bell, Buescher, Harvick, Keselowski and Almirola, who was locked in a battle with Daniel Suarez. Bowman and Blaney were in 16th and 17th while Kyle Busch, who was mired with early issues with damage on his car and towards the rear of the field, was in 19th and in front of Chastain.

Newman was in 22nd followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., McDowell and Reddick. Bubba Wallace was in 26th in front of Erik Jones and Briscoe while Ty Dillon, rookie Anthony Alfredo and DiBenedetto were in 29th, 30th and 31st.

The following lap, Truex overtook teammate Hamlin for the runner-up spot. In addition, Allmendinger continued his impressive run towards the front as he moved into fourth place over Logano, who had Kurt Busch closing in. Behind, Bell moved back into the top 10 in ninth place.

Shortly after, the caution returned when Chastain made hard contact against the Turn 6 outside wall following contact with Ryan Blaney and sustained right-front damage on his No. 42 McDonald’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Under caution, Reddick dropped off the pace through the tri-oval after reporting diagnostic issues on his car when he shut it off trying to save fuel. He was able to re-fire and continue while Chastain, who was able to limp back to pit road, retired.

Under caution, most of the field led by Elliott pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Briscoe was sent to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire penalty.

The race resumed under green on Lap 29 with Allmendinger and Larson on the front row. At the front, Allmendinger rocketed away with the lead through the first two turns. Meanwhile, Harvick made his way into second place while Hamlin challenged Larson for third place. In addition, Kurt Busch challenged in fifth in front of Truex and Logano. Meanwhile, Keselowski, who was in the top 10, nearly got turned off the front nose of Bell through the straightaway nearing Turn 6 and lost a bevy of spots.

When the field returned to the start/finish line on Lap 30, Allmendinger was still in the lead by a narrow margin over Hamlin. Shortly after, Hamlin, racing on fresh tires, made his way into the lead through the infield dogleg and West Horseshoe turns. Behind, Kurt Busch was in third followed by Harvick and Truex. Larson, Logano, Bell, Byron and Custer were in the top 10 while Elliott, who struggled on pit road under the previous caution, was mired back in 11th. Keselowski, who nearly got turned following contact with Bell during the previous lap, was back in 21st.

The following lap, Wallace made an unscheduled pit stop after locking up the front tires entering the chicane in Turns 13 and 14. By then, Hamlin was out in front by seven-tenths of a second over Allmendinger. Kurt Busch remained in third place followed by Truex and Logano. Bell was in sixth followed by Harvick and Byron. Elliott was in ninth while Custer was in 10th.

With the laps in the second stage dwindling, Allmendinger was overtaken by Kurt Busch, Truex, Logano and Bell for position as Hamlin extended his advantage to more than two seconds. Entering the chicane in Turns 13 and 14, Truex locked up his front tires as he attempted to overtake Kurt Busch for the runner-up spot. His move allowed Logano to move into third place. The following lap and through the infield turns, Bell overtook Truex for position while Elliott joined the party.

At the front, Hamlin was able to retain the lead and claim the second stage victory on Lap 34. Kurt Busch held off Logano by a nose to settle in second place while teammates Bell and Truex were scored in the top five. Elliott, who restarted outside the top 10, worked his way up to sixth place followed by teammate Byron, Custer, Allmendinger and Kyle Busch.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted except for Suarez and DiBenedetto. Kurt Busch was the first competitor to exit off pit road followed by Hamlin, Bell, Elliott, Truex, Harvick and Logano. Following the pit stops, Allmendinger was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road.

With 33 laps remaining, the final stage started with Suarez and DiBenedetto on the front row. At the start, Suarez, racing in his No. 99 iFly/Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, launched ahead following a strong start while DiBenedetto struggled on the outside lane. Kurt Busch, who also received a strong start, made his way into the lead following the first two turns as the field jumbled up. Bell quickly made his way into second place followed by Truex, Hamlin and Elliott, all of whom overtook Suarez starting from the International Horseshoe turn and through the West Horseshoe turn.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Kurt Busch was out in front by approximately a tenth of a second over Bell while Truex and Elliott battled behind for third. Hamlin was in fifth followed by Logano and Suarez.

Entering the West Horseshoe turn, however, Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE slipped off the track entering the dogleg, ran over the infield grass and spun from the lead prior to the West Horseshoe turn. With Busch dropping from the lead to outside the top 20, Bell assumed the lead followed by Elliott. Teammates Truex and Hamlin moved up in third and fourth followed by Logano.

With 30 laps remaining, Bell continued to lead by a narrow margin over a hard-charging Elliott. Through the backstretch, McDowell missed the chicane/bus stop while Chris Buescher ran his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang over the grass.

A lap later, Elliott made his way back into the lead. Behind, Keselowski spun after his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang received a bump from Kurt Busch in Turn 1. In addition, Wallace, who pitted under green, was tabbed with a speeding penalty. Rookie Anthony Alfredo was also tabbed with a pass-through penalty for missing the frontstretch chicane and not doing a stop-and-go penalty.

With 27 laps remaining, Elliott, the dominant car of the day, was out in front by more than a second over Bell. Truex was in third, trailing by nearly three seconds, followed by Logano and Hamlin. Kyle Busch, following his early issues, was up in sixth place followed by Larson, Harvick, Almirola and Custer.

The following lap, Almirola spun his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang through the International Horseshoe turn, though he was able to continue and the race remained under green. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch overtook teammate Hamlin for fifth place.

Not long after, Blaney made an unscheduled pit stop under green due to a left-rear tire rub.

With 22 laps remaining and the skies darkening, Elliott, seeking his second consecutive victory at Daytona on the road course layout, remained at the front of the field by nearly a second over Bell, who remained in the hunt of his first Cup career victory. Truex, seeking his first victory at Daytona, remained in third followed by teammate Kyle Busch, who continued to march forward. Logano was in fifth while Hamlin, Larson, Harvick, Custer and Byron were in the top 10.

Two laps later and with 20 laps remaining, Elliott retained the lead by more than a second over Bell. By then, Truex, who was in third, made a scheduled pit stop under green. Suarez, Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also pitted while Kyle Busch moved into third place. Hamlin, Larson and Logano also moved up from fourth to sixth.

The following lap, Larson and Logano made the turn to pit road under green. Byron, Austin Dillon, Harvick, Erik Jones, Reddick, Almirola, Preece and Allmendinger also pitted.

The lap after and with 18 laps remaining, the leader Elliott pitted followed by teammates Bell and Kyle Busch. By then, names like Hamlin, Briscoe, Custer, Ty Dillon, Newman and Kurt Busch also pitted.

When the pit stops under green were completed and the field cycled through with 17 laps remaining, Elliott continued to lead by more than two seconds over Bell. Truex moved back into third place followed by teammate Kyle Busch and Larson. Logano was in sixth followed by Hamlin, Harvick, Custer and Byron. By then, reports of a few rain drops were reported on the track with the teams preparing a possible move to rain tires.

Following the pit stops, DiBenedetto pitted due to a brake issue and made the eventual turn to the garage.

With 15 laps remaining, the caution flew due to rain. By then, Elliott was leading by more than two seconds over Bell with Truex trailing by more than 12 seconds.

Under caution, everyone except for Logano, Briscoe, Kurt Busch, Buescher, Corey LaJoie, Keselowski, James Davison, Garrett Smithley, Cody Ware and Josh Bilicki remained on the track. For those who pitted, they pitted for slicks, not rain tires.

With 12 laps remaining, the race resumed under green with Logano and Briscoe on the front row. At the start, Logano jumped ahead with the lead through the first turn while Kurt Busch challenged Briscoe for the runner-up spot. Behind and with the field fanning out to three lanes, Reddick drove off the racing surface in Turn 2, kicked up the dirt in the grass and ran over a sign board as he came to a stop. While trying to pull away, flames erupted underneath Reddick’s No. 8 CAT Rental Store Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and his race came to an end as the caution flew.

Prior to the caution, Elliott got forced off the track past the International Horseshoe turn following contact with LaJoie but he made a spectacular save while sliding sideways through the grass to come back on the track and continue. The incident, however, dropped Elliott all the way back to 14th place.

With 10 laps remaining, the race restarted under green with Logano and Briscoe on the front row. At the front, Logano retained the lead following a strong start followed by Kurt Busch, who overtook Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang for position. Behind, however, Truex spun in Turn 1 after locking up the front tires of his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry. Despite spinning in a heavy cloud of smoke and forcing the oncoming field to fan out through the first turn, Truex continued while losing his track position towards the front and the race remained under green.

Shortly after, the caution returned due to an on-track incident involving Elliott and LaJoie, thus damaging both racing vehicles.

The race restarted under green with eight laps remaining. At the front, Logano and Kurt Busch battled dead even for the lead through the first turn until Logano pulled ahead through Turn 2 and the International Horseshoe turn.

Entering Turn 6, Larson got sideways and wheel-hopped while battling Kurt Busch for the runner-up spot as his No. 5 Nations Guard Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE made contact into the tire barriers. Despite the incident, the race remained under green.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Logano was out in front by more than a second over Kurt Busch, who had Bell pressuring him for the runner-up spot. Keselowski was in fourth followed by Hamlin, Briscoe and Elliott. Behind, Kyle Busch bounced off several cars and got sideways on the tri-oval with Austin Dillon also sustaining damage after he ran over the grass. The incident spoiled Busch’s late comeback to the front following his early issues. Despite the incident, the race continued to run under green.

While Logano continued to lead, Kurt Busch and Bell continued to battle intensely for second place. In Turn 6, however, Bell suffered a brief right-front tire rub after running into the rear bumper of Kurt Busch, who refused to surrender the spot to Bell.

The following lap, Logano extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over Kurt Busch with Bell remaining in pursuit. In Turn 7, however, disaster struck for Elliott, who got into the back of Keselowski, got loose and spun in a cloud of smoke as he lost all the track position towards the front.

With five laps remaining, Logano continued to lead by more than three seconds over Kurt Busch while Bell, Keselowski and Hamlin were in the top five. Harvick, McDowell, Preece, Allmendinger and Briscoe were in the top 10 followed by Bubba Wallace and Bowman. Elliott, following his late spin, was outside of the top 20.

Shortly after, Briscoe’s hood flew up, which blocked his view. Despite the misfortune, he continued on the track, though he dropped out of the top 10.

With three laps remaining, Logano remained in the lead by more than two seconds over Bell, who was able to prevail over Kurt Busch a few laps earlier, with Busch trailing by five seconds in third place. Hamlin was in fourth followed by Keselowski and Harvick.

With two laps remaining, Logano was leading by more than a second over Bell, who continued to close in for the lead and the win on fresher tires than Logano as light sprinkles were reported on the track.

Entering the superspeedway Turn 3, however, Bell, who closed in to the rear bumper of Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang, issued a challenge for the lead. He made a move to the outside lane, but was blocked by Logano. Nonetheless, Bell was able to draw himself to the outside of Logano entering the chicane in Turns 13 and 14.

Through the chicane, Bell muscled his way to the lead as he also started the final lap of the race. Through the infield turns, Bell was able to remain out in front and he was also able to gap himself away from Logano while entering the superspeedway turns.

Through the chicane/bus stop, the final pair of superspeedway turns and the chicane towards the frontstretch, Bell was able to come back around to the tri-oval and claim the checkered flag by more than two seconds over Logano as he grabbed his first Cup triumph in his 38th series start.

With his victory, Bell became the 197th different competitor to win in the Cup Series, the 11th different competitor to win a Cup race driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 35th different driver to win across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series). The victory was also the first for JGR’s No. 20 team since Darlington Raceway in September 2019. For an added bonus, Bell became the first competitor from Oklahoma to win a Cup Series race.

Bell’s first Cup career victory came one week after Michael McDowell claimed his first Cup triumph in last weekend’s Daytona 500. It marks the third time in NASCAR’s 73-year history, first since 1950, where the first two Cup events of the season have been won by first-time winners.

“This is definitely one of the highlights of my life so far,” Bell said on FOX. “Just so incredibly thankful to be here at Joe Gibbs Racing…I don’t know, man. I’ve prepared my whole life for this moment to race in the Cup Series. Last year was a huge learning curve for me and I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to run in Cup and it definitely prepared me to move to Joe Gibbs Racing.”

“Whenever we pitted and then we came out, I liked where I lined up,” Bell added. “But then, the yellows kept coming and I thought the yellows were hurting me because I felt like I needed laps to get up through there. Honestly, I didn’t think I was gonna there. [Crew chief] Adam [Stevens], up on the pit box, kept telling me that I was gonna get there. Man, I didn’t believe it. [Logano] really struggled coming out of [Turn] 6 one time and it allowed me to close the gap.”

Logano settled in second place followed by Hamlin. Kurt Busch and Keselowski rallied from their on-track issues throughout the race to complete the top five.

“[Bell]’s the one that got through with tires,” Logano said. “Man, one more caution lap would’ve been enough to have a door-to-door finish across the finish line, maybe…I was just trying to get all I could out of that restart, trying to get out there as far as I could because I knew that those guys with tires were gonna catch us really quick…We maximized the day. I hate being that close, but congratulations to Christopher. It’s his first win…I’m happy for him, but not so happy for myself at the moment.”

Harvick finished in sixth place followed by Allmendinger, who rallied to record the first top-10 result for Kaulig Racing in the Cup circuit. McDowell also rallied from his issues at the start of the race to finish in eighth place while Preece and Bowman finished in the top 10.

Truex finished in 12th, Elliott fell all the way back in 21st, Larson fell back to 30th and Briscoe dropped to 32nd.

“When you have those late race cautions like that and you have a mixed bag of who stays and who goes, it’s a bit of a gamble either way,” Elliott, who led a race-high 44 laps, said. “I thought tires was the right move. Tires won the race, so I think it was the right move. When you get back in traffic, it just gets to be so chaotic and then it just, depending on who gets through and who doesn’t, determines how it’s gonna shake out. I hate it. Too many mistakes. Went off track. Bad deal. We had a fast NAPA Chevy and I appreciate the effort…Try again next week.”

There were 12 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 12 laps.

Hamlin now leads the regular-season standings by 12 points over Logano, 21 over Harvick, 22 over Bell and 25 over Elliott.

Results.

1. Christopher Bell, five laps led

2. Joey Logano, 10 laps led

3. Denny Hamlin, five laps led, Stage 2 winner

4. Kurt Busch, two laps led

5. Brad Keselowski

6. Kevin Harvick

7. A.J. Allmendinger, two laps led

8. Michael McDowell

9. Ryan Preece

10. Alex Bowman

11. Chris Buescher

12. Martin Truex Jr.

13. Cole Custer

14. Erik Jones

15. Ryan Blaney

16. Daniel Suarez, two laps led

17. Aric Almirola

18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

19. Ty Dillon

20. Ryan Newman

21. Chase Elliott, 44 laps led, Stage 1 winner

22. Anthony Alfredo

23. James Davison

24. Justin Haley

25. Cody Ware

26. Bubba Wallace

27. Garrett Smithley

28. Scott Heckert

29. Timmy Hill

30. Kyle Larson

31. Corey LaJoie

32. Chase Briscoe

33. William Byron, one lap down

34. Austin Dillon, one lap down

35. Kyle Busch, one lap down

36. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Brakes

37. Matt DiBenedetto, five laps down

38. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident

39. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident

40. Quin Houff – OUT, Engine

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ annual visit to Homestead-Miami Speedway, which will also wrap up the series’ month-long racing span in Florida. The race will occur on Sunday, February 28, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

February 21, 2021
McDowell upsets the competition, scores first Cup triumph in the Daytona 500

The ultimate upset was made under the lights at Daytona International Speedway after Michael McDowell avoided a multi-car pileup on the final lap to win the 63rd annual running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 14, and claim his first NASCAR Cup Series triumph. McDowell’s first Cup career victory came in his 358th start in NASCAR’s premier series, which marked the second-most starts in the series prior to a first Cup win.

The front row for this year’s Daytona 500 was determined on Wednesday, February 10, following a qualifying session, with the rest of the lineup determined on Thursday, February 11, following two Bluegreen Vacations Duel events at Daytona. With that, Alex Bowman started on pole position. William Byron, the outside pole-sitter, was due to start on the front row with teammate Bowman, but he dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car. The move allowed Austin Dillon, winner of the second Daytona Duel event, to move up to the front row to start alongside Bowman.

Along with Byron, the following competitors that include Brad Keselowski, rookie Chase Briscoe, Kaz Grala, rookie Anthony Alfredo, Cole Custer and Ross Chastain also dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars. Martin Truex Jr. dropped to the rear of the field due to an oil cooler change along with Erik Jones, who did so following an engine change. Bubba Wallace also dropped to the rear of the field due to his car failing pre-race inspection twice, thus resulting with his car chief being ejected for the event.

When the green flag waved and the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season commenced, Bowman, who started on the outside lane, crossed over the bottom lane to jump to an early lead in front of Austin Dillon. Shortly after, he moved back to the outside lane in front of Kevin Harvick, who gave him a clear bump ahead of the field through the backstretch and entering Turn 3.

Bowman was able to lead the first lap before Harvick made a move to the bottom lane. Bowman, however, was able to retain the lead with his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE receiving drafting help from Kyle Busch through the backstretch until Harvick made a charge on the inside lane entering the tri-oval. Harvick was able to lead the following lap by a nose over Bowman.

During the third lap, the crew members and the fans saluted the three fingers to pay tribute to Dale Earnhardt, seven-time NASCAR Cup champion, Hall of Famer and the 1998 Daytona 500 champion who died 20 years ago following an accident on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

Shortly after, the first caution of the race flew when Derrike Cope, the 1990 Daytona 500 champion, blew a right-front tire and made contact against the outside wall in Turn 3. By then, Harvick was the leader followed by teammate Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell, Ryan Newman and Bowman.

Under caution, names like Michael McDowell, Matt DiBenedetto, Byron, Truex, Austin Cindric, Cole Custer, Alfredo, Cody Ware, Briscoe, Grala, B.J. McLeod, Denny Hamlin, Josh Bilicki, Quin Houff and Wallace pitted while the rest led by Harvick remained on the track.

The race restarted on the seventh lap with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Harvick and Almirola at the top of the field. At the start, Harvick quickly transitioned to the bottom lane to move in front of teammate Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang. The top lane, however, prevailed through Turns 1, 2 and the backstretch as Ryan Newman rocketed to the lead followed by Joey Logano. Nonetheless, Harvick was able to retain the lead by a nose over Newman when the field returned to the start/finish line.

By Lap 10 and with the field starting to fan out from double lanes to triple lanes, Harvick was still out in front followed by teammate Almirola, Bell, Bowman and Kyle Busch. A few laps later, Bowman became the first car to lead the outside lane as he challenged for the lead followed by Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson. Meanwhile, Harvick continued to lead followed by teammate Almirola.

Three laps later, trouble ensued at the front when a bump from Bell, who was being pushed by teammate Kyle Busch, got Almirola loose, where he made contact with Bowman as both wrecked against the outside wall and in the middle of the straightaway with a multitude of competitors approaching them. What then followed was a multi-car wreck that involved Newman, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, DiBenedetto, Chris Buescher, Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, Tyler Reddick, Truex and Byron, who nearly flipped on his side before spinning and coming to rest on the muddy grass in Turn 3.

In the midst of the on-track work for the safety workers to remove the wrecked cars, the race was red-flagged due to reports of lightning within eight miles of the superspeedway, which was followed by rain and on-track precipitation. At the time of the rain, Harvick was still the leader followed by Bell, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott. Larson, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were in the top 10.

Five hours and 40 minutes later, the red flag was lifted and the majority of competitors returned to the track under caution, beginning on Lap 15, and under the lights as the skies darkened. By then, names like Alfredo, Almirola, Blaney, Bowman, Buescher, DiBenedetto, Jones, Newman, Ragan and Suarez were ruled out of the remainder of the race.

Under caution, everyone pitted, except for Kaz Grala and B.J. McLeod. After leading 10 laps under caution, Grala pitted along with McLeod. Bell, Kyle Busch and a few others also pitted to top off on fuel for the end of the first stage.

When the green flag waved and the race resumed on Lap 29, Elliott was the leader while Austin Dillon started along him. Through the backstretch, Dillon received a push from Ryan Preece to take the lead. The following lap, Cole Custer battled on the outside lane to lead a lap for himself.

Shortly after, Hamlin shoved Custer out of the draft in Turn 1 and became the lead car on the outside lane. He went on to assume command of the field.

By Lap 35, Hamlin was leading Keselowski, Wallace, Kyle Busch and Logano with the field settling in a single-file line. Meanwhile, Byron, who was three laps behind the leaders and still competing in a damaged No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, was black-flagged for a loose rear bumper cover.

Two laps later, the caution returned when Quin Houff cut a tire after running over the bumper cover from Byron’s car and made contact with the outside wall in the frontstretch. His incident also involved Chase Briscoe as both sustained damage and slid down to the apron near Turn 1. Briscoe continued despite the incident while Houff was knocked out of the race.

The race resumed under green on Lap 43. At the start, Hamlin received a push from teammate Kyle Busch on the outside lane while Keselowski received a push from Bubba Wallace on the inside lane.

Through the backstretch and after briefly shoving Keselowski to the lead, Wallace made a three-wide move on Keselowski and Hamlin, which sent Keselowski back into the top 10. At the front, Hamlin retained the lead followed by Kyle Busch, Preece, Austin Cindric, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Logano.

By Lap 50 and with the field settling in a single-file lane on the outside lane, Hamlin continued to lead followed by teammate Kyle Busch, Preece, Cindric and Austin Dillon while Larson, Wallace, Harvick, Keselowski and Bell were in the top 10. By then, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott were in 13th and 14th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Custer. In addition, 22 of the 40-car field were competing on the lead lap, with 12 out of the race.

Ten laps later and with five laps remaining in the first stage, Hamlin was still out in front followed by teammate Kyle Busch, Preece, Cindric and Austin Dillon. Larson, Wallace, Harvick, Keselowski and Bell were in the top 10 while Custer, Logano, Stenhouse, Elliott and LaJoie were in the top 15.

At the start of the final lap of the first stage, Austin Dillon made his move to the inside lane along with Larson. In addition, Preece also moved in front of Dillon, but teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch blocked the move on the inside lane. Through the backstretch, Kyle Busch got shuffled out of the lead draft when Preece and a multitude of cars moved to the outside lane and right behind Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry.

Though Hamlin had a steaming pack of cars behind him, he was able to retain the lead and win the first stage on Lap 65. Preece settled in second place followed by Austin Dillon, Larson and Cindric. Bell, Wallace, Logano, Ross Chastain and Custer settled in the top 10, all of whom earned stage points. Kyle Busch fell back to 12th in front of Keselowski and Elliott.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hamlin retained the lead. Meanwhile, Jamie McMurray received the free pass and returned to the lead lap.

The second stage commenced on Lap 71 with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin and Bell on the front row followed by Cindric, Austin Dillon, Logano and Larson. At the start, Hamlin received a push from Cindric to retain the lead. Shortly after, Hamlin moved in front of teammate Bell on the inside lane, but Cindric, winner of the Xfinity Series season-opening event at Daytona a day ago, mounted a charge on the outside lane in his No. 33 Verizon 5G Ford Mustang as he had Penske teammates Logano and Keselowski pushing him to the lead.

After leading two laps, Hamlin stormed back to the lead while Cindric fell back to seventh. A lap later, Bell made his way to the front followed by teammate Kyle Busch while Hamlin fell back to third. Austin Dillon, Cindric and Harvick moved up the leaderboard while Harvick was in seventh place and the lone car on the bottom lane.

Another two laps later, the field settled in a long single-file line as Bell was out in front followed by teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin. Austin Dillon was in fourth followed by Cindric, Logano, Larson, Elliott, Wallace and Chastain. Harvick, meanwhile, was shuffled back to 11th in front of Preece, Keselowski, Stenhouse and McMurray.

Not long after, the leader Bell reported debris on the grille of his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry. Nonetheless, he continued to lead teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin while Austin Dillon, Cindric and Logano remained in pursuit.

By Lap 90, Bell continued to lead followed by teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin. Austin Dillon and Cindric continued to run in the top five followed by Logano, Larson, Elliott, Wallace and Chastain, all of whom were locked in a single-file lane. Harvick was in 11th followed by Stenhouse, teammate Preece, Keselowski and McMurray while Michael McDowell, Custer, LaJoie, Kaz Grala and Joey Gase were in the top 20.

When the field reached the halfway mark on Lap 100, three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas led by Bell and followed by Kyle Busch and Hamlin were all still at the front. Austin Dillon and Cindric remained in the top five followed by Logano, Larson, Elliott, Chastain and Preece. Behind, Wallace, who attempted to make a move to the front on the inside lane, was shuffled back to 13th in between Keselowski and Harvick.

Four laps later, pit stops under green commenced as a number of Ford drivers pitted, including Cindric, Logano, Keselowski, Harvick, Briscoe and Custer. McDowell, racing in his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang, also pitted. Another three laps later, the Toyota drivers pitted, including Bell, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Wallace. Not long after, a bevy of Chevrolet drivers led by Austin Dillon, Larson and Elliott pitted. Prior to the Chevrolets pitting, Preece pitted alone.

When the field cycled back with 20 laps remaining in the second stage, Hamlin was back in front followed by Wallace. Shortly after, Wallace got shuffled out of the draft from Kyle Busch. Not long after, Bell got loose in Turn 1 after sustaining a left-rear tire and made contact with Stenhouse, who went on to make contact with Larson, before spinning entering the backstretch. Grala, LaJoie and McMurray, who spun, were also sustained damage while the rest of the field managed to avoid the incident and a spinning Bell.

Under caution, a handful of competitors led by Hamlin remained on the track while the rest pitted. In addition, Grala came to his pit stall with the right rear of his No. 16 Hyperice Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE on fire. Though he tried to continue, Grala’s Daytona 500 debut came to an end as fire continued to burst out of his car.

When the race resumed under green on Lap 117, Hamlin and Harvick led the field on the front row. At the front, Hamlin retained the lead and he moved in front of Harvick on the outside lane entering the backstretch. Shortly after, Logano received a draft from Kyle Busch on the bottom lane to lead the following lap. Entering the tri-oval, Harvick and Logano pulled a three-wide move on Hamlin with Harvick returning to the lead entering the backstretch.

The following lap, Wallace drafted his owner Hamlin to the front while Keselowski mounted a challenge beneath Hamlin. The outside lane, however, prevailed with a bevy of competitors opting to move up on the outside lane and Hamlin retaining the lead. Wallace was in second followed by Harvick, Elliott and Austin Dillon. McDowell was in sixth followed by Keselowski, Preece, Logano and Kyle Busch. By then, the field settled in a long single-file lane on the outside lane.

At the start of the final lap of the second stage, Wallace made his move beneath Hamlin to take the lead followed by a bevy of competitors, including McDowell and Keselowski. Through the backstretch, Logano, receiving drafting help from Kyle Busch, formed a third lane as the pack started to battle intently and tight against one another.

With the field entering Turn 3 and the tri-oval, Hamlin received a push from Harvick on the outside lane to reassume the lead over Wallace’s No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry and claim the second stage on Lap 130. Harvick settled in second followed by Wallace, Elliott and Austin Dillon. Logano, McDowell, Larson, Kyle Busch and Keselowski were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Austin Dillon exited in first place. Hamlin exited in second place followed by McDowell, Harvick, Wallace and Logano. Following the pit stops, Larson was penalized for a safety violation.

With 64 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Austin Dillon moved his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in front of Hamlin to retain the lead. His lead, however, did not last long was Hamlin retuned to the top point with drafting help from Harvick, though he got squirrelly while being drafted by Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang. Dillon settled in third place, the first car on the bottom lane, as he battled Logano and Kyle Busch.

With 60 laps remaining, Hamlin was leading Harvick, Logano, Kyle Busch and Cindric while Custer, Austin Dillon, Elliott, Preece and McMurray were in the top 10. Larson was in 12th while Wallace was back in 14th in front of Keselowski, McDowell and Bell. By then, 18 cars were scored on the lead lap.

Ten laps later and with 50 laps remaining, Hamlin was still out in front followed by Harvick, Logano, Kyle Busch and Cindric. Custer, Austin Dillon, Elliott, Preece and McMurray were still in the top 10. Larson was in 12th, Keselowski was in 14th and Wallace was in 16th. By then, the field returned to a long single-file lane on the outside lane.

Another 10 laps later and with the next round of pit stops under green lurking, the field remained in a long single-file lane on the outside lane as Hamlin was still leading Harvick, Logano, Kyle Busch and Cindric. Custer was in sixth followed by Austin Dillon, Elliott, Preece and McMurray.

Down to the final 30 laps of the race, Hamlin continued to lead followed by teammate Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Elliott and Preece.

Shortly after, pit stops under green commenced when Ford names like Logano, Harvick, Cindric, Custer, Keselowski and McDowell pitted. Not long after, a bevy of Chevrolet competitors pitted. Shortly after, the Toyota drivers led by Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Wallace pitted.

When the field cycled back on the track, Logano was able to assume command of the race followed by Harvick as Kyle Busch and Hamlin, both of whom exited pit road ahead of the field, were unable to blend in front of the lead pack with enough speed and retain the top spots.

With 24 laps remaining, Logano, racing in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang, was leading Harvick, Custer, Keselowski and McDowell. Ross Chastain was in sixth followed by Austin Dillon, Elliott, Kyle Busch and Preece. Wallace was in 11th while Hamlin fell back to 13th behind Larson.

Four laps later and with the laps winding down, Logano was still at the top of the field followed by Harvick, Custer, Keselowski and McDowell as Fords comprised the top-five spots on the track. Chastain was the leading Chevrolet competitor in sixth while Kyle Busch was the leading Toyota competitor in ninth. By then, Wallace, who made another pit stop to address a vibration concern, was in 17th and a lap behind. In addition, the top-12 competitors, all within more than a second of one another, were locked in a single-file lane as Hamlin was back in 12th.

Down to the final 15 laps of the race and with 15 competitors on the lead lap, the field remained in a single-file lane as Logano continued to lead followed by Harvick, Custer, Keselowski and McDowell. By then, Bell was pinned a lap behind along with Wallace. In addition, Hamlin remained in 12th place, three spots behind teammate Kyle Busch.

With 10 laps remaining, Logano remained at the front as the first of four Ford competitors leading the way followed by Harvick, Keselowski and McDowell. Behind, Austin Dillon was the leading Chevrolet competitor in fifth as he worked his way to the front followed by Elliott. Kyle Busch was in seventh followed by Larson, Hamlin and Chastain.

Down to the final five laps of the race, the field remained in a long single-file lane with Logano still leading Harvick, Keselowski, McDowell and Austin Dillon.

Logano continued to lead with three laps remaining while the driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet driven by Austin Dillon, currently scored in fifth, was preparing his move as Elliott was in sixth.

With two laps remaining, however, Keselowski, racing in his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang, gained a run and was able to move behind teammate Logano as McDowell also moved up while Harvick was shuffled out. When the final lap of the race started, Logano was still out in front followed by teammate Keselowski.

Through the backstretch, Keselowski received a push from McDowell and closed in on Logano as he prepared to execute his move for the win. Entering Turn 3, however, the two Penske teammates made contact and a multi-car wreck ensued. In the midst of the carnage, Keselowski made head-on contact against the outside wall before being slammed hard by Kyle Busch as Keselowski’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang went up against the outside wall and shredded against the catchfence amid a shower of flames and sparks. In addition, Logano slid up and clipped Chastain, who also made contact with Preece, before being hit by Wallace. Cindric and Custer were also involved in the midst of the fiery accident.

The wreck ended the race under caution and at the moment of caution, McDowell was ahead of the field and declared the winner as he recorded his first career victory in NASCAR’s biggest event of the season.

With his victory, McDowell became the 40th driver to win the Daytona 500, the eighth competitor to record a first Cup career victory in the 500 and the 196th competitor overall to win a NASCAR Cup Series race. The victory was the first for Front Row Motorsports since August 2016 (third overall), the second for crew chief Drew Blickensderfer and the 16th Daytona 500 victory for the Ford nameplate. In addition, McDowell became the third competitor to win the 500 after leading only the final lap.

“I just can’t believe it,” McDowell said on FOX. “I’ve just got to thank God. So many years just grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. I’ve got to thank Love’s Travel Stops, Speedco, [team owner] Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. I’m so thankful. Such a great way to get a first victory. Daytona 500, are you kidding me?! We’re the Daytona 500 champions! We had our Ford partners at the end and they all crashed, but luckily I was able to make it through. I’m just so thankful. God is good.”

Elliott, the reigning series champion, came home in second place as he achieved his best result in the 500 in his sixth attempt to win it.

“I felt like we had a fast car,” Elliott said. “We weren’t as good as I thought we were on Thursday. I felt like we did a really good job executing today. Staying out of trouble, that’s not something I’ve done a very good job of here in this race, so I’m glad we could at least finish this one and have something to build on for when we come back and try to do better.”

Austin Dillon, the 2018 Daytona 500 champion, finished in third place followed by Harvick and Hamlin, who came up short in his bid to win three consecutive Daytona 500 titles.

“Yeah, you know you’ve just got to be thankful to be around at those moments at the end,” Dillon said. “I pulled out to see if the bottom would work and just didn’t get enough of a run. It was close. I’ve got to thank all my sponsors like Bass Pro Shops and everybody that helps this program. We were here all weekend scoring points and that’s all I can ask for…What can I say? Chevy was really close. I had fun working with my guys tonight in the Chevy camp.”

Preece came home in sixth place with a wrecked car followed by Chastain and McMurray. LaJoie and Larson rounded out the top 10.

Logano, Keselowski and Kyle Busch ended their nights in 12th, 13th and 14th following their vicious wreck. The wreck evaporated Keselowski’s hopes of winning his first 500 title in his 12th attempt along with Kyle Busch, who made his 17th attempt to win it.

“[I] Had a big run down the backstretch, went to make the pass to win the Daytona 500 and it ended up really bad,” Keselowski said following his release from the infield care center. “[I] Don’t feel like I made a mistake, but I can’t drive everyone else’s car. Frustrating, the Discount Tire Ford was not the fastest, but [crew chief] Jeremy Bullins and the whole team did a great job of keeping us in position and right then, we were in position. That’s exactly where I want to be running second on the last lap at Daytona with this package. Had the run, made the move. Then it didn’t work out.”

“Pandemonium, I guess,” Logano said. “Chaos struck. [Keselowski] kept trying to back up, trying to get a run. I was trying to back up to him and try to keep the runs from being too big. I guess he got to the back of [McDowell] and it ended up being a really big run coming at me, and it seemed we all just collided in one spot. Real bummer. None of the Penske cars won, but at least a Ford won…I hate that we didn’t win with our Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. I feel like we had a great shot, being where we were and leading on the last lap, but if we couldn’t win, I’m really happy to see McDowell win this thing.”

“It’s to be expected,” Kyle Busch said. “Just a matter of time before it all breaks loose and whatever happens happens. I saw a window to the outside and all of a sudden, I had [Keselowski] on my hood…Got clobbered a few good times and just fortunate that I’m all good. Our M&M’s Camry, that one won’t live to see another day. Hopefully, we’ll be back here next week and have a better go around on the [Daytona] road course and get back after it.”

Cindric was scored in 15th place in his Cup debut while Briscoe was the highest-finishing Rookie-of-the-Year contender in 19th place. Wallace finished in 17th place in his first run with 23XI Racing.

There were 22 lead changes for 13 different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 40 laps.

Following the first race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, Austin Dillon leads the regular-season standings by six points over Hamlin, eight over Harvick, 10 over Elliott and 12 over McDowell and Preece.

Results.

1. Michael McDowell, one lap led

2. Chase Elliott, three laps led

3. Austin Dillon, seven laps led

4. Kevin Harvick, 17 laps led

5. Denny Hamlin, 98 laps led, Stage 1 and 2 winner

6. Ryan Preece

7. Ross Chastain

8. Jamie McMurray

9. Corey LaJoie

10. Kyle Larson, one lap led

11. Cole Custer, one lap led

12. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 26 laps led

13. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident

14. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

15. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident, two laps led

16. Christopher Bell, one lap down, 32 laps led

17. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident, one lap led

18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps down

19. Chase Briscoe, three laps down

20. Joey Gase, four laps down

21. Cody Ware, four laps down

22. Kurt Busch, five laps down

23. B.J. McLeod, five laps down

24. Josh Bilicki, six laps down

25. Martin Truex Jr., seven laps down

26. William Byron, nine laps down

27. Tyler Reddick, 12 laps down

28. Kaz Grala – OUT, dvp, 10 laps led

29. Quin Houff – OUT, Accident

30. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident

31. Chris Buescher – OUT, dvp

32. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, dvp

33. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, dvp

34. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident

35. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident, one lap led

36. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident

37. David Ragan – OUT, Accident

38. Ryan Newman – OUT, Accident

39. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident

40. Derrike Cope – OUT, Accident

With the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season underway, the next event on the schedule is the series’ return to Daytona International Speedway for the series’ second points-paying event on the road course layout. The event will occur on Sunday, February 21, at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.

February 15, 2021
Almirola wins first Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona

Using the side draft on the outside lane to his advantage, Aric Almirola held off a late charge from Christopher Bell and Joey Logano to win the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday, February 11, for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory across Daytona Speedweeks.

The lineup for the first duel event was based off of the Daytona 500 pole position qualifying session on Wednesday, February 10, where the odd-numbered qualifiers in their respective order competed. With that, Alex Bowman, the pole-sitter for the 2021 Daytona 500, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Aric Almirola. Tyler Reddick dropped to the rear of the field due to a transmission change, which was noted as unapproved adjustments.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Bowman and Almirola battled against one another with the field fanning out to two lanes and running close to one another in the draft. By the time the field returned to the tri-oval, Almirola led the first lap by a nose on the outside lane.

Through the backstretch, Almirola pulled ahead and was able to retain the lead with Christopher Bell tucked in behind him while Bowman continued to lead the bottom lane.

The following lap, Daniel Suarez, racing for Trackhouse Racing Team, formed a third lane on the outside lane to grab the lead from Bowman and Almirola. Past the start/finish line, he cleared the field to retain the lead while the field fanned out to three lanes. While the field continued to race in a tight three-wide pack entering the backstretch, Denny Hamlin dropped to the rear of the field to preserve his primary car.

By the fifth lap, Bell, making his first Cup start with Joe Gibbs Racing, muscled his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry into the lead on the outside lane followed by Austin Cindric and Almirola. Almirola was able to lead the following lap before Bell reassumed the top spot as both competitors battled against one another for the lead and ahead of the pack.

Through the first 10 laps of the first duel event, Almirola was out in front on the inside lane while Bell kept the competition close on the outside lane. Joey Logano was in third followed by Cindric and Ryan Newman. Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell, Jamie McMurray, Cole Custer and Kyle Larson were in the top 10. By then, Ty Dillon, needing to race his way into the Daytona 500 in a non-chartered entry, was in 11th, seven spots below Cindric.

By Lap 16, Almirola continued to lead followed by Logano and Newman while Bell, the first car on the outside lane, was locked into a battle with Michael McDowell. By then, Ty Dillon drew himself alongside Cindric in a battle for a transfer spot for Sunday’s 500.

The following lap, the top-five competitors on the inside lane led by Almirola pulled ahead while Bell, who was complaining of temperature issues due to a stuck debris on his car, continued to battle on the outside lane.

By Lap 20, Almirola continued to lead Logano, Newman, McDowell and Ty Dillon, all of whom pulled away from the outside lane.

Meanwhile, Ryan Preece, who was guaranteed a starting spot for the 500 based on his qualifying speed, was battling for a spot in the top 15 while Bowman was back in 19th in a conservative move to preserve his pole-winning car for the 500.

Shortly after, Almirola moved to the outside lane while retaining the lead over a bevy of competitors, including Logano, McDowell, Matt DiBenedetto, Denny Hamlin, Bell, Cindric, Reddick, Timmy Hill and Newman. In addition, the field settled into a long single-file lane on the outside lane.

When the field reached the halfway mark on Lap 30, it was Almirola who was still at the front of a bevy of competitors running in a single-file lane behind him. Logano was still in second place followed by McDowell, DiBenedetto, Hamlin and Bell. Cindric was in seventh and in a transfer spot while Timmy Hill and Ty Dillon, the other two non-charter competitors currently not in the 500, were in ninth and 17th. Reddick and Suarez were in the top 10.

Shortly after, Bowman peeled his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE off the racing groove and to pit road, where his crew lifted the hood on his car. By the time he returned to the track, he lost two laps to the leaders, though the car continued to run under power.

A few laps later, pit stops under green commenced as leader Almirola and a bevy of Ford competitors pitted. The following lap, a handful of Toyota drivers and Ford driver Timmy Hill pitted. The Chevrolet drivers were the next to pit the following lap. Following the pit stops, early disaster struck for Cindric , who was forced to serve a drive-through penalty through pit road for speeding on pit road.

With 23 laps remaining, Almirola cycled his way back into the lead ahead of Logano, DiBenedetto, Newman and Ty Dillon, who was in the transfer spot to make the 500.

Under 20 laps remaining, Almirola kept the field behind with the lead while Hamlin started to form another lane on the inside, though he was able to close the gap to the leaders on the outside lane.

Down to the final 10 laps of the race, Almirola was still out in front over Logano, DiBenedetto, Newman and Ty Dillon. Bell was in sixth followed by Cole Custer, McMurray, McDowell and Ryan Preece while Hamlin was in 11th ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Larson, Suarez, Reddick and Erik Jones. By then, Hill and Cindric were in 17th and 18th as both were long behind Ty Dillon for a transfer spot to the 500.

Not long after, the field fanned out to two lanes as names like Hamlin, Stenhouse, McMurray, Bell and DiBenedetto made moves on the inside lane. A few laps later, Bell and Hamlin made their way into third and fourth on the outside lane, moving DiBenedetto to the inside lane. Through all of this, Almirola continued to lead followed by Logano.

With five laps remaining, Almirola retained the lead on the outside lane followed by Logano, Bell, Hamlin and Newman while Ty Dillon was in sixth. In addition, Custer formed a lane on the inside lane with drafting help from DiBenedetto.

Down to the final two laps of the race, the field continued to remain in a single-file lane with Almirola out in front ahead of Logano, Bell, Hamlin, Newman, Ty Dillon, McDowell, Preece, Suarez and DiBenedetto.

At the start of the final lap, Almirola remained as the leader. Through Turn 1 and the backstretch, he was still leading while Bell closed in on the bumper of Logano as both were forming a run on Almirola for the win. Entering Turn 3 and with Custer spinning and making contact against the outside wall, Logano made a move beneath Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang in an attempt to take the lead, but Almirola was able to side-draft Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang to retake the lead. At the finish line, Almirola was able to beat Bell by 0.041 seconds to grab the checkered flag and win.

With his victory, Almirola will start in third place for Sunday’s Daytona 500. He also made his first appearance in victory lane in the Cup circuit since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2018.

“[Crew chief] Mike Bugarewicz and all these guys on this team built me an incredible Ford Mustang,” Almirola said on the frontstretch on FS1. “What a way to kick off our 10th season together with Smithfield. They’ve been an incredible partner of mine. Great way to start Speedweeks. This thing’s really fast. I can’t wait till Sunday. Proud of everybody back at the shop…It’s been a long time since I got to sit here and do an interview at the start/finish line.”

Bell settled in second place followed by Newman, Logano and Preece.

For Preece, he edged Ty Dillon at the finish line by approximately 0.040 seconds to claim a transfer spot based on his duel finish. Because Preece, who had qualified for the 500 based on his qualifying speed a day earlier, was able to improve his starting spot for the 500 and claim a transfer spot on the track, Cindric, who finished 16th, was awarded the final transfer spot into the 500 based on his qualifying speed.

With the late turn of events, Cindric will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday’s Daytona 500.

“First of all, I get the bonehead of the race award for speeding on the last section of pit road when I nailed everything else the whole night that I didn’t know how to do,” Cindric said on FS1. “I’m really happy to get the Verizon 5G Ford Mustang into the big show. A lot for me left to learn, but racing on the biggest stage against the best drivers, it’s an amazing opportunity.”

Ty Dillon and Timmy Hill, both of whom finished sixth and 19th, failed to qualify for the 500.

Larson, Suarez, McDowell and McMurray finished in the top 10 following the first duel event. Hamlin fell back in 13th place after running out of fuel on the final lap.

There were nine lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured no cautions.

Results.

1. Aric Almirola, 52 laps led

2. Christopher Bell, three laps led

3. Ryan Newman

4. Joey Logano

5. Ryan Preece

6. Ty Dillon

7. Kyle Larson

8. Daniel Suarez, two laps led

9. Michael McDowell

10. Jamie McMurray

11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

12. Matt DiBenedetto

13. Denny Hamlin, one lap led

14. Cole Custer

15. Tyler Reddick, two laps led

16. Austin Cindric, one lap down

17. Erik Jones, one lap down

18. Quin Houff, two laps down

19. Timmy Hill, three laps down

20. Alex Bowman, four laps down

21. Cody Ware, four laps down

22. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Overheating

The second Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona International Speedway is underway. Following both Duel events, the overall starting grid for the 2021 Daytona 500 scheduled on Sunday, February 14, will be set, with the event to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

February 11, 2021
Joe Gibbs Racing announces 2021 crew chief lineup

Joe Gibbs Racing revealed its crew chief lineup for the 2021 NASCAR season, featuring a handful of changes to the organization’s powerhouse stable between the Cup and Xfinity Series.

Adam Stevens, two-time Cup Series championship crew chief, will move to JGR’s No. 20 Toyota Camry team and serve as crew chief for Christopher Bell, who is to embark on his first full-time season with JGR in NASCAR’s premier series. Ben Beshore, a former engineer for JGR’s No. 18 team, will become a full-time Cup Series crew chief for the No. 18 Toyota team and be paired with two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch.

Stevens is coming off his sixth full-time season as crew chief for the No. 18 Toyota team in the Cup circuit, having won two championships and 28 races with Kyle Busch. Beshore is coming off his second full-time season in the Xfinity Series as a crew chief, where he led Harrison Burton to four victories and the 2020 Xfinity Series Rookie-of-the-Year title. He won four Xfinity races with Kyle Busch in 2019.

Chris Gabehart, reigning two-time Daytona 500 winning crew chief, will remain atop the pit box of the No. 11 Toyota Camry team driven by reigning three-time Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin while James Small, coming off his first full-time season as a Cup crew chief, will also return as crew chief for the No. 19 Toyota Camry team driven by former Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. for the 2021 Cup season.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, veteran Jason Ratcliff will return to JGR and serve as crew chief for Harrison Burton and the No. 20 Toyota Supra team. Ratcliff is coming off a full-time Cup Series season as crew chief for Christopher Bell and Leavine Family Racing, which ceased operations following the 2020 season.

Jeff Meendering will remain as crew chief for Brandon Jones and the No. 19 Toyota Supra team while veteran Dave Rogers will also return as crew chief for the No. 18 Toyota Supra team set to be driven by Daniel Hemric, JGR’s newest competitor, in 2021.

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images.

“We go through a process at the conclusion of every season that includes evaluating each of our teams,” Joe Gibbs, Owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, said. “We believe our crew chief lineup for 2021 will best position each team and driver for success across both series.”

JGR also announced plans to field a fourth entry, the No. 54 Toyota Supra, for the 2021 Xfinity Series season led by crew chief Chris Gayle. Gayle is coming off his fourth full-time season as a Cup crew chief, where he worked with Erik Jones, who transitioned to Richard Petty Motorsports for the 2021 season. The driver lineup and schedule of the No. 54 operation will be announced at a later date.

“We take a lot of pride in our depth of talent across our entire organization,” Gibbs added. “All of our crew chiefs are proven winners. We are also looking forward to bringing the No. 54 Toyota Supra back to the track in 2021 with an exciting team of drivers.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s new driver-crew chief pairings will debut at Daytona International Speedway in February 2021.

November 17, 2020
Kyle Busch survives three-day delay; snaps winless drought at Texas

On one of NASCAR’s longest delayed events due to weather issues, the season-long winless drought for Kyle Busch ended under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway after the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion survived a late challenge from teammate Martin Truex Jr. while on a dry tank of fuel to win the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 on Wednesday, October 28. The victory was Busch’s fourth at Texas and the 57th of his Cup career, keeping him in 10th place on the all-time wins list.

The starting lineup was based on four stats: current owner’s standings, driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup race and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kevin Harvick started on pole position for the sixth time this season and was joined on the front row with Joey Logano, winner of last weekend’s Playoff race at Kansas Speedway and a 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship contender.

Prior to the race, Martin Truex Jr. and his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team were issued severe penalties after NASCAR confiscated the spoiler from Truex’s car and noted that his car failed pre-race inspection twice. As a result, NASCAR issued a 20-point driver/owner dock towards Truex and his team with the driver being sent to the rear of the field for the Texas event. The penalty places Truex in a 51-point deficit below the top-four cutline in the Playoff standings. In addition, crew chief James Small was suspended for today’s race at Texas and fined $35,000. Car chief Blake Harris was named Truex’s interim crew chief for today’s race at Texas.

Along with Truex, Daniel Suarez and Chad Finchum started at the rear of the field due to their respective cars failing pre-race inspection twice. Timmy Hill and Garrett Smithley also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective cars.

When the green flag waved and the race started on a misty, cloudy afternoon, Kevin Harvick jumped ahead with an early strong lead. Brad Keselowski moved his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang into second place on the inside lane as the field behind battled through two lanes.

By the third lap, Harvick was ahead by six-tenths of a second over Playoff contender Brad Keselowski with Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney pursuing behind.

It did not take long until the first caution flew on the fifth lap when Chris Buescher got loose and made contact with the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, though he was able to continue while multiple laps after sustaining damage to his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang.

When the race restarted on the eighth lap, Harvick jumped ahead and retained the lead while Keselowski and Bowman battled for second.

Through the first 10 laps, Harvick continued to lead by nearly a second over Keselowski and Bowman while Logano, Elliott, Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Blaney battled for position behind.

By Lap 20, Harvick extended his advantage to nearly two seconds over Keselowski with Bowman trailing by more than two. Logano was in fourth followed by DiBenedetto and Blaney while Elliott slipped back to seventh. Denny Hamlin was in eighth followed by Austin Dillon and Aric Almirola. By then, Jimmie Johnson was in 13th in between teammate William Byron and Kyle Busch while Martin Truex Jr. was in 19th in between Clint Bowyer and Christopher Bell. Kurt Busch was the lowest-running Playoff contender in 21st.

Shortly after, the caution flew when J.J. Yeley spun and backed his No. 27 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into the outside wall entering Turn 2, thus sustaining significant damage to his car. With the wreck occurring past Lap 20, it served as the competition caution initially planned on Lap 25.

Under caution, the leaders pitted for early service and Harvick retained the lead after only taking a two-tire pit stop and with mixed strategy ensuing throughout pit road. Bowman exited in second place following a fuel-only stop followed by Hamlin, DiBenedetto, Logano and Cole Custer. Following the pit stops, Kyle Busch was assessed a penalty for speeding on pit road. In addition, Blaney made another pit stop to address loose lug nuts on the left-front tire of his No. 12 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang.

The race restarted under green on Lap 27 with Harvick and Bowman on the front row. Entering Turn 1, Hamlin, who restarted on the second row, ran into early issues when he attempted to make a run on the outside of Bowman and got loose. With his No. 11 FedEx Shipathon Toyota Camry wiggling up the track, he lost a multitude of positions as he dropped out of the top 20 on the track.

A lap later, the leader Harvick encountered issues of his own after he drifted up and smacked the outside wall hard on the right side of his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang entering Turn 2. Bowman quickly moved into the lead as the field scattered throughout Turn 2 to avoid Harvick, who dropped all the way towards the rear of the field.

With Harvick reporting smoke inside his cockpit, he made an unscheduled pit stop a few laps later to have the tires and the damage to the right side of his car addressed. By the time he returned to the track, he lost two laps to the leaders. By then, teammate Custer got loose through Turn 1 and entering Turn 2 with his No. 41 Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang nearly making contact with the outside wall, though he continued.

Back at the front, Bowman continued to lead followed by Logano, DiBenedetto, Truex and Elliott while Jimmie Johnson moved up to sixth place.

By Lap 40, Bowman was still ahead by nearly a second over Logano while DiBenedetto, Truex and Elliott were in the top five. Johnson retained sixth place followed by Clint Bowyer, Erik Jones, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski. Hamlin was all the way back in 26th place while Harvick was in 36th place, a lap down.

Three laps later, the caution returned due to weather issues and the misty, cloudy conditions surrounding the track. Under caution, the leaders pitted and mixed strategy ensued again with Bowyer exiting in first place following a fuel-only stop. Jimmie Johnson, Erik Jones and Logano followed in second through fourth after only opting for fuel while Truex exited in fifth place on two fresh tires. Leader Bowman, who opted for a four-tire stop, exited in 18th place. Harvick, who did not opt to take the wave around to return to the lead lap, pitted for an extended service to his No. 4 Ford, though he was able to continue following his early incident.

With the misty, wet conditions continuing to fall and surround the track, the competitors were brought down to pit road and the race went under a red flag period on Lap 52. At the time of the race being put in a hiatus, Bowyer was scored as the leader followed by Jimmie Johnson, Erik Jones, Logano and Truex while Elliott, Blaney, Austin Dillon, Keselowski and Kyle Busch were in the top 10.

Following a three-day weather delay, the competitors were able to re-fire their cars and return to the track under cautious pace. While nearly all of the competitors exited pit road, Harvick, who was still scored a lap behind the leaders, remained on pit road to have the damage on the right side repaired. Under caution, some like Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch came back around to pit while the rest led by Bowyer remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 56, Bowyer jumped ahead with the lead and Erik Jones moved up to second place while Johnson slipped entering Turn 2 and fell back to fifth place behind Martin Truex Jr. and Logano.

Three laps later, the caution returned when Matt Kenseth got loose entering Turn 4 and was bumped by Hamlin, who spun and collected Bubba Wallace as both cars wrecked across the grass with Wallace’s No. 43 DoorDash Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE clipping Aric Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang before making hard contact into the outside wall. The incident knocked Kenseth and Wallace out of contention.

Under caution, some like Hamlin, Almirola, Ryan Newman, Corey LaJoie, John Hunter Nemechek, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Timmy Hill, Josh Bilicki, Chad Finchum, Buescher and Harvick pitted while the rest led by Bowyer remained on the track. By then, Harvick returned on the lead lap.

When the race restarted on Lap 68, Bowyer and Truex battled dead even for the lead for a full circuit with Bowyer still able to retain the lead. The following lap, Bowyer cleared Truex and continued to lead while Erik Jones settled behind teammate Truex. By then, Logano and Johnson were in the top five.

By Lap 75, Bowyer continued to lead followed by teammates Truex and Erik Jones while Logano and Johnson were still in the top five. Ryan Blaney was in sixth followed by teammate Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch. By then, Alex Bowman was in 18th while Kurt Busch, Hamlin and Harvick were in 20th, 21st and 22nd.

A lap later, the caution returned due to debris reported on the track near Turn 4. Under caution, some like Christopher Bell, Bowman, Kurt Busch, Newman, Timmy Hill and Chad Finchum pitted while the rest led by Bowyer pitted.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 81, Bowyer and Truex battled dead even for the lead for a full circuit again with Bowyer leading by a nose when the field returned to the start/finish line. The following lap, Truex led a lap for himself before Bowyer reassumed the lead the following lap and cleared Truex’s No. 19 Toyota the next lap.

With Bowyer leading Truex and Jones, Blaney moved into fourth followed by teammate Logano and DiBenedetto. Johnson was in seventh followed by teammates William Byron and Elliott while Keselowski and Austin Dillon battled for 10th. By then, Harvick and Hamlin moved into the top 20 in front of Bowman while Kurt Busch was in 24th.

By Lap 90, Bowyer was still leading by nearly half a second over teammates Truex and Jones while Blaney was in fourth. Behind, Logano was in fifth ahead of Johnson and Byron while DiBenedetto, Elliott and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. By then, Keselowski was back in 13th, Harvick was in 15th in between teammate Custer and Kyle Busch, Hamlin was in 18th, Bowman was in 19th and Kurt Busch was in 21st.

Ten laps later and at the Lap 100 mark, Bowyer continued to lead by nearly two-tenths of a second over Truex, who remained within striking distance of Bowyer’s rear bumper, while Jones and Blaney trailed behind in third and fourth. Johnson moved up to fifth place over Logano while Byron, Elliott, Austin Dillon and DiBenedetto were in the top 10.

Coming to two laps remaining to the conclusion of the first stage, Truex gained a run through Turns 1 and 2 and had a run on Bowyer for the lead, but Bowyer was able to block and prevent Truex from making a run beneath him as Bowyer retained the lead. Despite encountering a few lapped cars in the process, Bowyer was able to hold off Truex and win the first stage on Lap 105 as he collected his fourth stage victory of the season. Truex settled in second followed by Jones, Blaney and Johnson while Byron, Elliott, Logano, Austin Dillon and DiBenedetto settled in the top 10. By then, Harvick, Keselowski and Bowman were in 15th, 16th and 17th while Kurt Busch and Hamlin were in 19th and 20th.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Bowman emerged with the lead after only opting for fuel. Bell exited in second place following a two-tire stop while Bowyer, Truex, Jones, Blaney and Johnson, all of whom opted for a four-tire pit stop, followed behind. Following the pit stops, Bell surrendered his track position to make an extra pit stop.

The second stage started on Lap 111 with Bowman and Bowyer on the front row. At the start, Truex pushed Bowman into the lead as he battled Bowyer for second place. Both Truex and Bowyer continued to battle for the runner-up spot as most of the field behind also battled through two lanes.

On Lap 112, Blaney made a three-wide move on Truex and Bowyer in Turn 2 before Truex backed out while Bowyer continued to retain second place on the outside lane while also locked into a battle with Bowyer. Behind, Johnson started to pressure Truex for fourth place while Bowman continued to lead.

By Lap 116, Blaney cleared Bowyer for second and Johnson pulled away from Truex for fourth as he went to work on Bowyer for more. By then, Bowman continued to lead by less than half a second. Behind, Elliott was in sixth, Harvick was in ninth ahead of Kurt Busch and Logano, Keselowski was in 15th and Hamlin was back in 19th.

By Lap 120, Johnson, who was able to overtake Truex for third, started to put pressure on Blaney for second place while Bowman continued to lead by half a second. Bowyer settled in fifth ahead of Elliott and Austin Dillon while Harvick, Kurt Busch and Logano were in the top 10.

Ten laps later, Bowman continued to lead by nearly a tenth of a second over Blaney, who continued to close in for the lead, while Johnson, Truex and Bowyer continued to run in the top five. Elliott, Austin Dillon, Harvick, Kurt Busch and Jones were in the top 10 while Logano was in 12th. Hamlin and Keselowski were back in 18th and 19th.

Four laps later, the caution returned when Joey Gase spun and tapped the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Blaney emerged with the lead after only opting for fuel on his stop. Truex exited in second place following a two-tire pit stop followed by Austin Dillon, Elliott and Bowyer with a number of mixed strategy ensuing.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 138, Blaney and Truex battled dead even for a full circuit before Truex was able to lead the following lap. Soon after, Blaney gained a huge run on the bottom lane in Turn 1 to reassume the lead as Bowyer and Austin Dillon started to join the party.

By Lap 145, Blaney continued to lead by half a second over Truex while Bowyer, Austin Dillon and Harvick were in the top five. Kyle Busch was in sixth followed by Elliott, Logano, Bowman and Nemechek. Hamlin was in 11th in front of Johnson, Keselowski was in 17th and Kurt Busch was back in 22nd behind Ryan Preece.

Five laps later, Blaney retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Truex, who started to close in and mount a challenge for the lead, with Bowyer settling in third. Kyle Busch moved into fourth place ahead of Austin Dillon and Elliott while Harvick fell back to seventh.

On Lap 155, Truex gained a run beneath Blaney entering Turn 2 and took the lead after spending the last several laps trying to gain a run and pass Blaney for the lead. Behind, Kyle Busch started to close in on Blaney for second place while Bowyer and Austin Dillon continued to run in the top five.

By Lap 160, Truex was ahead by four-tenths of a second over Blaney with Kyle Busch trailing by seven-tenths of a second. Bowyer and Austin Dillon were in the top five followed by Elliott, Harvick, Logano, Bowman and Nemechek. Hamlin was in 13th, Keselowski was in 15th and Kurt Busch was back in 23rd.

At Lap 167, the halfway mark, Truex continued to lead by less than four-tenths of a second over Blaney with Kyle Busch trailing by a second. Bowyer and Austin Dillon continued to run in the top five followed by a battle between Harvick and Bowman, both battling in front of Elliott.

By Lap 175, Truex was out in front by three-tenths of a second over Blaney while Kyle Busch trailed by more than a second in third place. Bowyer and Austin Dillon continued to run in the top five.

Shortly after, Harvick, who was running in seventh behind Bowman, made a green flag pit stop after reporting a vibration to his car. By the time he returned to the track, he was back in 29th place and scored a lap behind the leaders.

On Lap 185, Kyle Busch moved into second place over Blaney while teammate Truex continued to lead by more than a second. Bowyer continued to run in fourth place while Bowman moved into fifth place over Austin Dillon. By then, Elliott, Johnson, Logano and Bell were in the top 10.

Ten laps later and with the laps in the second stage dwindling, pit stops under green commenced as Blaney pitted. Shortly after, Austin Dillon pitted for only fuel. On Lap 198, Truex pitted under green as teammate Kyle Busch took the lead, with Truex falling off the pace. By then, Bowman made a two-tire pit stop under green along with teammate Johnson. Byron, Kurt Busch, Logano, Elliott also made a pit stop along with Kyle Busch. Keselowski also pitted for only fuel on his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Following the pit stops, Elliott made another pit stop to address a vibration to his No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. The late issue cost Elliott a lap to the leaders.

By Lap 203 and with most of the pit stops under green completed, DiBenedetto emerged with the lead. A lap later, he pitted and Almirola emerged with the lead followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Jones, Kyle Busch and Truex. Another lap later, Almirola pitted and Jones took the lead.

With three laps remaining in the second stage, Jones pitted and Kyle Busch took the lead. With clean air, Busch was able to pull away and maintain his advantage as he claimed the second stage win on Lap 210 and his third stage victory of the season. Truex settled in second followed by Bowman, Keselowski and Blaney while Bell, Austin Dillon, Bowyer, Stenhouse and Harvick settled in the top 10. By then, Logano and Kurt Busch were in 15th and 17th while Hamlin was in 19th.

Under the stage break, nearly all of the leaders pitted, except for leader Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Logano, DiBenedetto and Hamlin. Following the pit stops, Truex exited in first after only taking fuel to his car.

With 118 laps remaining, the final stage commenced with Kyle Busch and Bowyer on the front row followed by Logano, DiBenedetto, Hamlin, Truex, Blaney, Bowman, Byron and Kurt Busch while Johnson and Harvick were on the sixth row.

At the start, Kyle Busch and Bowyer battled dead even for the lead for one full circuit with Bowyer leading the following lap. The next lap, Busch reassumed the lead while DiBenedetto battled Bowyer for second place. Behind, Logano and Hamlin battled for fourth place as Bowman and Truex joined the party. Not long after, Truex overtook Bowman and teammate Hamlin as he went to work on Logano for more. At the front, Bowyer returned to second place over DiBenedetto and went to work on Kyle Busch for the lead.

With 110 laps remaining and the race settling into dark conditions, Kyle Busch continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Bowyer and with DiBenedetto trailing by less than a second. Truex made his way into fourth followed by Logano, Hamlin, Bowman, Kurt Busch, Johnson and Keselowski. By then, Harvick was in 14th behind Blaney and Austin Dillon. Elliott was mired back in 25th, a lap down.

Soon after, Truex overtook DiBenedetto for third place while Logano was still mired in fifth place in front of Hamlin, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Keselowski. At the front, Kyle Busch continued to lead by a narrow margin over Bowyer.

With 100 laps remaining, Kyle Busch continued to lead by nearly two-tenths of a second over Bowyer while Truex, DiBenedetto and Logano were in the top five. Hamlin, Keselowski, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Blaney were in the top 10 ahead of Johnson, Bell, Byron, Custer and Austin Dillon. Harvick was in 17th behind Tyler Reddick while Elliott was in 24th, the first car a lap down to the leaders.

Shortly after, Keselowski overtook Hamlin and teammate Logano to move into the top five while Bowman and Kurt Busch closed in on Hamlin for seventh place.

With 90 laps remaining, Kyle Busch stabilized his advantage by nearly six-tenths of a second over Bowyer while Truex, DiBenedetto and Keselowski continued to run in the top five. Blaney, Logano, Bowman, Bell and Hamlin were scored in the top 10 followed by Kurt Busch. Harvick continued to run in 17th while Elliott, who was still a lap behind, moved up to 23rd place.

Ten laps later, the gap between leader Kyle Busch and runner-up Clint Bowyer expanded by more than a second. While Truex continued to run in third place, Keselowski moved into fourth place in front of DiBenedetto, Blaney and Logano while Bowman, Bell and Hamlin continued to run in the top 10.

Two laps later, Bowyer surrendered second place to pit under green as he was out of fuel. Kyle Busch continued to lead followed by teammate Truex, Keselowski, Blaney, DiBenedetto and Logano. Meanwhile, Harvick, who was back in 18th, issued concerns about his tires chattering.

With 70 laps remaining, Kyle Busch continued to lead by more than six seconds over teammate Truex while Keselowski, Blaney and Bell were scored in the top five. DiBenedetto, Bowman, Logano, Kurt Busch and Hamlin were in the top 10. Harvick was in 19th while Elliott was mired back in 22nd. Bowyer was back in 24th and trapped a lap behind the leaders.

Three laps later, leader Kyle Busch made a pit stop under green. Not long after, Logano pitted under green as Truex continued to lead followed by Bell, who overtook Blaney, DiBenedetto and Keselowski for position.

Soon after, Harvick and Hamlin pitted under green along with DiBenedetto, Keselowski, Byron, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Truex, Johnson, Bowman, Newman, Blaney, Custer and Elliott.

With 55 laps remaining, Bell was scored as the leader followed by Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Truex and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. A lap later, Bell pitted and Busch reassumed the lead, though Busch was told that he was short on fuel to finish the race.

Shortly after, Johnson pitted and the hood of his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE went up as a billow of smoke started blowing out of the exhaust pipe of Johnson’s machine with engine issues occurring. The engine issue was catastrophic and enough to end Johnson’s strong run into the garage and in 36th place in his 35th and final run at Texas Motor Speedway.

With less than 50 laps remaining, Bowyer emerged with the lead followed by Kyle Busch, Truex, Bell and Blaney. By then, Keselowski and Bowman were in sixth and seventh, Kurt Busch was in ninth ahead of Hamlin and Logano and Harvick was in 19th. Elliott was mired back in 22nd.

With 40 laps remaining and the laps continuing to dwindle, Bowyer continued to lead followed by Kyle Busch, though both were in question of having enough fuel to complete the race to its distance. Behind by more than five seconds were Truex and Bell while Blaney was in fifth. Keselowski, Bowman, Kurt Busch, DiBenedetto and Hamlin were in the top 10 ahead of Logano while Harvick and Elliott were still mired back in 19th and 22nd.

With 30 laps remaining, Bowyer retained the lead by less than four seconds over Kyle Busch with Truex and Bell trailing by five seconds. Blaney continued to trail by less than 12 seconds in fifth place while Bowman, Keselowski, Kurt Busch, DiBenedetto and Hamlin were in the top 10.

Seven laps later, Bowyer’s hopes of winning in his final rodeo at Texas Motor Speedway came to an end as he pitted under green for fuel. With Bowyer out of contention, Kyle Busch assumed the lead while teammate Truex moved into second place followed by Bell.

Down to the final 20 laps of the race, Kyle Busch was ahead by a second over teammate Truex with Bell trailing by more than a second. Blaney and Bowman moved up into the top five while Keselowski, Kurt Busch, DiBenedetto, Hamlin and Logano moved into the top 10. Harvick was back in 17th, the final car on the lead lap, while Elliott was in 21st.

Five laps later, Kyle Busch continued to lead by a second over teammate Truex with Bell lurking behind by more than a second and a half and with the leaders starting to catch lapped traffic.

With 10 laps remaining, Kyle Busch stabilized his advantage by more than a second over teammate Truex, who continued to track his teammate for the lead and a potential spot to the Championship Round, while Bell continued to remain in pursuit for the lead. By then, Harvick was lapped by Busch as Truex started to close in by less than a second.

Down to the final five laps, Kyle Busch continued to lead by a second over teammate Truex as the leaders started to approach more lapped traffic. By then, Bell started to lose ground as he trailed by more than three seconds in third place and with Blaney and Bowman in the top five.

With two laps remaining, Kyle Busch was still running strong with the lead and by more than a second over teammate Truex. He continued to lead as he started the final lap of the race.

For one final circuit, Truex got the deficit down under a second but it was not enough as Kyle Busch was able to streak across the finish line in first place and win by four-tenths of a second over Truex.

With his victory, Kyle Busch extended his winning streak to 16 consecutive seasons as he snapped his 33-race winless drought dating back to November 2019 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he won his second Cup title. Despite Busch’s hopes of defending his title evaporating, the two-time champion expressed a huge sigh of relief upon bowing to the crowd with the checkered flag in celebration.

“[I] Just kept getting great leadership and mentoring from [crew chief] Adam [Stevens] and [spotter] from Tony [Hirschman], and those guys just keep talking to me, keep reminding me about saving [fuel] and being able to do what I could, trying to stay in the draft as much as I could on the straightaways,” Busch said on NBCSN. “It ran out coming right in here to do a burnout, so I had enough to get a little bit of a burnout. I don’t know if I’ll make it back [to Victory Lane.]”

“I can’t say enough about Adam Stevens and everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Busch added. “This Skittles Zombie machine looks bad to the bone. It’s really, really awesome! We got [the win]. I was nervous a little bit like the whole last run, but I’ve been in this position so many times. It’s like the last three laps though, that’s like winning the championship. That’s how nervous it was. I can’t believe it. We’re ready to fight next year. We’ll be back…We don’t ever give up.”

Truex settled in second place as he came up one position shy of winning and racing his way into the Championship 4 round. Including the 20-point penalty for having his spoiler confiscated during pre-race inspection on Sunday, the 2017 Cup champion trails the top-four cutline by 36 points entering next weekend’s final Playoff elimination race at Martinsville Speedway.

“We knew [Kyle Busch] was close,” Truex said on NBCSN. “Hell of an effort by the Bass Pro guys and everybody that helps us. It just seems like one of them years, we’re second, third, fourth. We’re right there a lot. We just needed a little bit more to be better. Coming here, we had a lot of confidence and obviously, we had a strong run. This time of the year, Playoffs, second’s great, but it’s not good enough. Excited about Martinsville. I know we can win there. We showed that in the past, but it’s a new race and a new week. We’ll have to figure out how to be better when we’ve been there. I feel like everybody will get better. Looking forward to it, excited about the opportunity to get to do this and hopefully, put ourselves in another championship race.”

Bell notched a career-best Cup result of third place while Blaney and Bowman rounded out the top five. Keselowski, Kurt Busch, DiBenedetto, Hamlin and Logano finished in the top 10. Harvick ended his night in 16th place while Elliott came home in 20th place. Bowyer finished 17th in his 30th and final run at Texas.

There were 23 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 47 laps.

Results.

1. Kyle Busch, 90 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Martin Truex Jr., 53 laps led

3. Christopher Bell, five laps led

4. Ryan Blaney, 20 laps led

5. Alex Bowman, 43 laps led

6. Brad Keselowski

7. Kurt Busch

8. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps led

9. Denny Hamlin

10. Joey Logano

11. Austin Dillon

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. William Byron

14. Cole Custer

15. Tyler Reddick

16. Kevin Harvick, one lap down, 28 laps led

17. Clint Bowyer, one lap down, 89 laps led, Stage 1 winner

18. Ryan Preece, one lap down

19. Ryan Newman, one lap down

20. Chase Elliott, one lap down

21. Erik Jones, one lap down, two laps led

22. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps down

23. Aric Almirola, two laps down, one lap led

24. Ty Dillon, two laps down

25. Corey LaJoie, three laps down

26. Michael McDowell, three laps down

27. Daniel Suarez, six laps down

28. Brennan Poole, six laps down, one lap led

29. Josh Bilicki, eight laps down

30. Timmy Hill, nine laps down

31. Garrett Smithley, nine laps down

32. Reed Sorenson, 13 laps down

33. Quin Houff, 18 laps down

34. Chris Buescher, 24 laps down

35. Chad Finchum, 24 laps down

36. Jimmie Johnson – OUT, Engine

37. Joey Gase – OUT, Suspension

38. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident

39. Matt Kenseth – OUT, Accident

40. J.J. Yeley – OUT, Accident

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.

1. Joey Logano – Advanced

2. Kevin Harvick +42

3. Denny Hamlin +27

4. Brad Keselowski +25

5. Alex Bowman -25

6. Chase Elliott -25

7. Martin Truex Jr. -36

8. Kurt Busch -81

Next on the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Martinsville Speedway for the Xfinity 500, which marks the third and final race of the Round of 8 in the Playoffs and where this year’s Cup Championship 4 field will be determined. The race is scheduled to occur on Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 28, 2020
Logano wins the battle at Kansas; clinches Championship 4 spot

With a championship spot on the line, Joey Logano punched his ticket into the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway after emerging with the lead following a pit stop under 50 laps remaining and holding off Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman on the ensuing restart and through the final 42 laps to win the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. In addition to securing a championship spot for the finale, Logano secured his third victory of the season, his first win since Phoenix in March and his 26th NASCAR Cup Series career victory, which moved him into a tie for 31st place on the all-time Cup wins list with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Fred Lorenzen.

The starting lineup was based on four stats: current owner’s standings, driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup race and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Chase Elliott, coming off his dominating win last weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Joey Logano.

Prior to the race, Martin Truex Jr. and James Davison dropped to the rear of the field due to their respective cars failing pre-race inspection twice.

During the opening pace laps, Clint Bowyer got to temporarily lead the field behind the pace car and was saluted by a group of fans attending and watching the race from the grass around the track by carving out Bowyer’s No. 14 with Bowyer making his final start at his home track before retiring from full-time racing at season’s end and moving to the FOX Sports broadcast booth in 2021. Prior to the race’s start, Bowyer dropped back to his starting spot in 12th place.

When the green flag waved and the Round of 8 in the 2020 Cup Playoffs commenced on a cold afternoon, Elliott rocketed with the lead through the first two turns. Behind, however, Logano, Harvick and Kurt Busch started to battle intensely and early for the runner-up spot. Through Turns 3 and 4, Logano, Harvick and Kurt Busch went three-wide for second place while Elliott was able to pull away and lead the first lap.

Following the first five laps of the race, Elliott continued to lead by a narrow margin over Kurt Busch and a hard-charing Logano as the field behind continued to battle competitively for early positioning.

Through the first 10 laps of the race, Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE continued to lead followed by Logano and Harvick while Ryan Blaney and Hamlin were in the top five. Kurt Busch settled in sixth followed by Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, William Byron and Brad Keselowski. By then, Truex, who started at the rear of the field, moved up to 17th place in front of teammate Kyle Busch.

Five laps later, Elliott continued to lead by half a second over Harvick, who was being pursued by Logano. Meanwhile, Hamlin and Blaney battled for fourth place. By then, Truex, racing in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, was making his way towards the top 15 on the track.

By Lap 20, Elliott extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Harvick while Logano trailed by three seconds. Hamlin and Blaney were in the top five followed by Kurt Busch, Bowman, Keselowski, Reddick and Byron. By then, Clint Bowyer was in 12th in front of Jimmie Johnson and Truex. In addition, Austin Dillon was in 15th ahead of Aric Almirola, Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch while rookies John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell and Cole Custer were in 19th through 21st. Bubba Wallace, meanwhile, was in 23rd behind Chris Buescher while Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman were in 25th and 28th.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 25, Elliott maintained his early advantage by less than two seconds over Harvick. By then, seven of the remaining eight Playoff contenders were running inside the top 10 while Truex moved up to 12th place behind Erik Jones. Blaney, Reddick and Byron were the only non-title contenders who were scored in the top 10 on the track.

Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Byron emerged with the lead following a two-tire pit stop, Elliott exited in second following a four-tire pit stop, who was followed by Logano, Harvick and Hamlin. Following the pit stops, Kurt Busch was assessed a pit road speeding penalty as he dropped his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the rear of the field.

When the race restarted on Lap 30, Harvick gave Elliott a shove on the outside lane, which allowed Elliott to move ahead of teammate Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet in Turn 2 before Harvick made a challenge himself for the lead in Turn 3 on the outside lane.

The following lap, Harvick emerged as the new leader, though Elliott continued to pounce on him for the lead. Soon after, Hamlin moved up along with Penske teammates Logano, Blaney and Keselowski while Byron fell back to seventh place. While Byron continued to lose positions following his two-tire pit stop, Reddick, Bowman and Bowyer moved up.

By Lap 35, Truex moved into 15th place. By then, Jimmie Johnson was in 19th place while running in between DiBenedetto and Chris Buescher. At the front, Harvick stabilized his advantage by half a second over Elliott while Hamlin, Logano and Blaney were in the top five.

Through the first 40 laps of the race, Harvick extended his advantage by nearly a second over Elliott. Hamlin settled in third while teammates Blaney, Logano and Keselowski battled for fourth place. Reddick moved up to seventh followed by Bowman, Bowyer and Erik Jones. By then, Byron was back in 14th in front of Kyle Busch while Truex was in 13th.

When the race reached its 50-lap mark, Harvick, racing in his No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang, was still leading by more than a second over Elliott while Blaney moved up to third place. Keselowski and Hamlin battled for fourth place while Bowman was in sixth ahead of Logano. Reddick and Erik Jones were in eighth and ninth followed by Truex, who cracked the top 10. Bowyer fell back to 11th place in front of Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Almirola and Custer while Austin Dillon, Byron, Jimmie Johnson, DiBenedetto and Wallace were in the top 20. By then, Kurt Busch, who was penalized early for a speeding penalty, was back in 23rd behind teammate Kenseth, Newman was in 29th behind Ty Dillon and Daniel Suarez was in 31st behind Corey LaJoie.

While Elliott continued to track down Harvick for the lead, teammates Keselowski and Blaney battled for third place, with the former succeeding. Meanwhile, Logano, who was battling towards the front with his teammates early, dropped back to ninth place behind Truex while dealing with handling issues to his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang.

Through the first 60 laps, seven of the eight Playoff contenders led by Harvick were running in the top 10 while Blaney, Erik Jones and Reddick were the only non-title contenders running in the top 10. By then, Kurt Busch was the lowest-running Playoff contender in 22nd place behind DiBenedetto and Buescher. While Bowyer and Kyle Busch battled for 12th place, Byron dropped all the way back to 19th place after being overtaken by teammate Jimmie Johnson and Bubba Wallace.

On Lap 64, Elliott reassumed the lead after tracking down and overtaking Harvick through the long green flag run. Not long after, Keselowski started to close in on Harvick’s No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang for the runner-up spot.

While the laps in the first stage continued to dwindle, Keselowski and Harvick continued to battle intensely for the runner-up spot while Elliott, who was battling with radio communication issues with his crew and spotter, continued to lead. During this time, Blaney trailed the top-three competitors by more than a second while Hamlin settled in fifth place, two seconds behind.

With three laps remaining in the first stage and the leaders approaching lapped traffic, Keselowski overtook Harvick for second place and his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang started to close in on Elliott’s Camaro for the lead. By then, Blaney and Hamlin moved into third and fourth followed by Erik Jones while Harvick fell back to sixth place.

With the top-six competitors duking it out at the front despite the heavy lapped traffic, Elliott was able to hold off Keselowski to win the first stage on Lap 80 and claim his ninth stage victory of the season. Keselowski settled in second place while Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry edged Blaney’s No. 12 Menards/Moen Ford Mustang by a mere nose to settle in third place. Jones, Bowman, Harvick, Truex, Logano and Kyle Busch settled in the top 10. By then, Kurt Busch was in 19th place behind Custer, Bowyer was in 12th behind Reddick and Jimmie Johnson was in 16th behind Austin Dillon.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hamlin was able to beat Elliott off of pit road in first place following a four-tire pit stop. Blaney exited in third place followed by Jones, Keselowski and Harvick. By then, Elliott’s radio issues were resolved. In addition, Reddick made another pit stop to address a loose left-front wheel.

The second stage started on Lap 86 with Hamlin and Elliott on the front row ahead of Blaney and Jones. At the start, Blaney gave Hamlin a shove for the lead, but Elliott fought back on the inside lane. Behind, Kyle Busch, racing in his No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota Camry and eliminated from title contention, made a three-wide move on Logano and Bowyer in an attempt for more positions while the field continued to battle in double lanes.

By the time the field returned to the start/finish line, Elliott emerged ahead, but the following lap, Hamlin was able to emerge ahead and take the top spot back. Behind the leader Hamlin, Blaney and Elliott battled for second while Logano got loose in Turn 1 beneath Harvick’s No. 4 Ford while battling for more.

At the front, Hamlin continued to lead by a narrow margin over Blaney and Elliott while Harvick and Keselowski battled for fourth. Kurt Busch, meanwhile, muscled his way into sixth place ahead of Logano while Jones and Bowman were in the top 10. Truex was back in 12th behind Bowyer and Bell. Byron was in 14th in between Custer and Austin Dillon while Kyle Busch was back in 17th behind Wallace. Newman, Johnson and Kenseth were in 21st, 22nd and 23rd.

By Lap 95, Hamlin was still ahead by a car length over Blaney. Elliott stabilized himself in third place while Kurt Busch, Harvick, Keselowski and Logano battled for fourth place. Not long after, Bowman, who was in eighth, started to join the party while Bell and Bowyer were in the top 10.

When the race reached its Lap 100 mark and the leaders started to approach lapped traffic, Hamlin and Blaney continued to battle for the lead. Behind, Elliott and Harvick battled intensely for third place, with the latter prevailing a lap later. Keselowski was in fifth place in front of Kurt Busch while Bell, Logano, Bowman and Bowyer were in the top 10. Truex was in 12th behind Custer.

Through Lap 110, Hamlin continued to lead by more than a half a second over Blaney, who earlier had a pass on Hamlin for the lead spoiled after encountering the lapped car of Quin Houff. Elliott was in third place ahead of Keselowski, Harvick and Kurt Busch.

By Lap 120, Hamlin continued to hold steady for the lead, though he had Blaney settling behind him by two-tenths of a second. By then, the remaining eight Playoff contenders were running no lower than 11th place.

Soon after, green flag pit stops started to occur as Erik Jones, who lost the balance of his No. 20 Reser’s Toyota Camry and had fallen near the top 20 on the track, pitted. In addition, Bowman pitted along with Harvick, teammate Aric Almirola, Logano, Byron, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Blaney, Elliott, Reddick and Johnson.

By Lap 130 and with most of the leaders having made a pit stop under green, Keselowski, one of a handful of competitors who had yet to pit under green, was leading. Kurt Busch was in second followed by Truex, Bowyer, Ryan Preece, DiBenedetto, Michael McDowell, Ryan Newman, Corey LaJoie and Ty Dillon.

A lap later, Keselowski pitted along with Bowyer and Preece while Kurt Busch took over the lead for the next two laps before he and Truex pitted. Back on the track, DiBenedetto emerged as the lead followed by McDowell, Newman, LaJoie and Ty Dillon while Hamlin and Blaney were in sixth and seventh. By then, the race reached its overall halfway point.

During the racing on the track, Harvick narrowly avoided wrecking into Ty Dillon, who was slowing on the track to make the turn to pit road under green and caused Harvick to move up the track and pass Dillon’s No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE without contact.

With 20 laps remaining in the second stage, DiBenedetto continued to remain on the track and with the lead followed by McDowell, Newman and LaJoie while Hamlin was in fifth. Blaney, Elliott, Harvick, Keselowski and Bowman were in the top 10.

Three laps later, the caution flew when Matt Kenseth wrecked entering Turn 4 when he moved up the track and across the front nose of Erik Jones as both wrecked across the outside wall and Kenseth emerged with significant body damage to his No. 42 AdventHealth Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. At the time of caution, the top-three competitors led by DiBenedetto, Newman and LaJoie were still on the track. The good news for all three of them was that they were able to pit along with most of the leaders, cycle back and gain a number of track positions with the front-runners.

Under caution, most of the leaders led by DiBenedetto, Newman, LaJoie, Elliott, Harvick and Logano pitted while the rest led by Hamlin, Blaney, Keselowski, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Truex remained on the track.

With 11 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green and Hamlin received a push from Keselowski to retain the lead on the outside lane over Blaney. Through the backstretch and back to the start/finish line, Hamlin was ahead of Blaney while Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates Bowman and Elliott battled for third place. Behind, Harvick was in fifth followed by Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Bowyer, DiBenedetto and Truex.

With the laps in the second stage dwindling, Hamlin was still ahead by a narrow margin over Blaney while Bowman was in third. Not long after, Harvick moved into second place over Blaney and Bowman while Elliott slipped back to sixth behind Keselowski. Truex and Kurt Busch were in eighth and ninth while Logano was back in 14th behind Bell and Kyle Busch.

Down to the final two laps of the second stage, Harvick was a car length behind Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota while Blaney, Bowman, Keselowski and Elliott battled for third place.

Despite having a challenge from Harvick on the final lap and for a full circuit, Hamlin was able to persevere and hold on to claim the second stage on Lap 160 while also achieving his 10th stage victory of the season. Harvick settled in second followed by Blaney, Bowman and Elliott. Keselowski, DiBenedetto, Truex, Kurt Busch and Bowyer settled in the top 10. By then, Logano was still mired back in 14th in between Bell and Almirola.

Under the stage break, nearly all of the leaders pitted and Logano exited in first place following a two-tire pit stop. Almirola exited in second place while also on two fresh tires followed by Hamlin, the first on four fresh tires. Bowman, Harvick and Elliott followed suit.

Back on the track, Kyle Busch emerged with the lead after he elected to remain on the track under the stage break.

With 100 laps remaining, the final stage started under green and with Kyle Busch and Logano on the front row followed by Almirola, Bowman, Hamlin and Harvick. At the start, Logano emerged with the lead entering Turn 2 while a multitude of competitors battled and expanded into three and four lanes for positions.

Two laps later, Harvick emerged with the lead after overtaking Logano while Bowman moved up to third place over Kyle Busch. With the battles around the track continuing to ensue, Kyle Busch moved back into third place in front of Keselowski and brother Kurt Busch, all of whom were behind Logano.

Meanwhile, Bowman was in sixth ahead of Hamlin, Blaney, Truex and DiBenedetto while Elliott was mired back in 11th. Bowyer was in 14th behind Bell and Byron.

With 90 laps remaining, Harvick was clear out front by less than two seconds over Logano, who had teammate Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Kurt Busch and Hamlin challenging behind.

Shortly after, troubles ensued for Hamlin, who bounced off with the outside wall in Turn 4 while moving in front of teammate Kyle Busch in a battle for a top-five spot. Following the contact, Hamlin began to fall off the pace and he made an unscheduled pit stop under green the following lap to have the damage and any concerns of a tire rub addressed. By the time he returned to the track, he lost a lap to the leaders.

With 80 laps remaining, Harvick stabilized his advantage to more than three seconds over Keselowski while Penske teammates Logano and Blaney were in third and fourth. Kyle Busch, who was still holding strong on four old tires, was in fifth followed by Bowman, Kurt Busch, Truex, Bell and Bowyer. Elliott was in 11th ahead of Custer while Hamlin was in 28th place and a lap behind.

Ten laps later, with 70 laps remaining, Harvick extended his advantage to more than four seconds over Keselowski while Blaney, Kyle Busch and Bowman were in the top five. Logano, Truex, Bowyer, Elliott and Bell were in the top 10. While Hamlin was behind in 28th place and still trying to fight his way back on the lead lap, Kurt Busch was in 19th place after reporting an electrical issue to his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.

Shortly after, a good day turned bad became sour for Kurt Busch, who lost his engine through Turns 1 and 2 as his No. 1 Chevrolet went up in a billow of smoke. The issue was terminal and enough to end Busch’s day in the garage as his hopes for a second Cup title took an early hit in the Round of 8.

“Having an engine failure in the Playoffs, it’s just like a huge parachute that slows you up,” Kurt Busch said on NBC. “We’ll pack that parachute up, throw it away and we’ll go to Texas to win. We knew we were gonna have to win either here or Texas. Martinsville, we got a shot at it too. The odds were stacked against us, but hey, we’re in the top eight for a reason. I got a great crew chief, Matt McCall. We’ll bounce back… It’s just one of those things. We have an engine failure and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

At the time of caution, Erik Jones received the free pass to return on the lead lap while Hamlin remained a lap behind the leaders. Under caution, the leaders pitted for fresh tires and enough fuel to complete the race to its entire distance. Following the pit stops, Harvick retained the lead followed by Kyle Busch, Blaney, Logano and Keselowski. Prior to the restart, Hamlin took the wave around to return on the lead lap, though he is out of sequence with the leaders and needs another pit stop to complete the race to its distance.

The race restarted under green with 62 laps remaining. At the start, Harvick retained the lead on the outside lane while teammates Blaney, Logano and Keselowski moved up. Bowman also moved up into the top five as Kyle Busch slipped back to sixth.

Four laps later, Harvick continued to lead by less than half a second over the Penske trio while Hendrick teammates Bowman and Byron were in fifth and sixth. Truex and DiBenedetto battled for seventh while Elliott and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, was back in 12th behind Bell. By then, Erik Jones, who had returned on the lead lap, pitted under green due to a tire rub.

With 50 laps remaining, Harvick extended his advantage to a second over Logano, who had teammates Keselowski and Blaney behind him. Bowman was in fifth while Elliott was able to work his way back up to sixth place. Truex, Byron, Bell and DiBenedetto were in the top 10 while Kyle Busch was in 11th. Hamlin, meanwhile, was in 24th place behind Roush Fenway Racing’s Buescher and Newman.

Three laps later, the caution returned due to Reddick making contact into the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4, though he was able to pit without further incident. The caution allowed Hamlin, who was on the lead lap, to cycle back with the leaders and pit under caution at the same time with enough fuel to complete the race to its scheduled distance. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Logano was able to exit pit road in first place ahead of Harvick. Bowman, Blaney and Kyle Busch exited in the top five.

With 42 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Logano and Harvick battled for the lead. Through Turn 2, however, Logano was able to retain the lead as Blaney battled Harvick for second place. Behind, Jimmie Johnson made contact with the wall following contact with Ryan Preece and he made an unscheduled pit stop, though the race remained under green.

At the front, Logano continued to lead followed by Harvick and Blaney while Bowman and Keselowski were in the top five. Behind, Elliott battled teammate Byron for sixth while Kyle Busch, Bell and Truex were in the top 10.

With less than 35 laps remaining, Logano continued to lead, but he had Harvick trailing by approximately a tenth of a second. Five laps later, with 30 laps remaining, Logano was still out in front by half a second over Harvick and Keselowski, both of whom started to battle for the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Bowman and Blaney battled for fourth place while Elliott overtook Kyle Busch for sixth place. By then, Truex was in ninth while Hamlin was in 17th.

Down to the final 25 laps of the race and the leaders approaching lapped traffic, Logano remained out in front of the field by two-tenths of a second, though he had Harvick remaining well behind him and continuing to pounce for the lead. Keselowski stabilized himself in third place followed by teammates Bowman and Elliott. Kyle Busch was in sixth followed by Blaney, Byron, Truex and DiBenedetto. By then, Hamlin was in 16th place behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Five laps later, with 20 laps remaining, the top-five competitors led by Logano were separated by a second. By then, Logano continued to drive defensively with the lead over Harvick while Keselowski, Bowman and Elliott started to close in.

With 15 laps remaining, Logano and Harvick were able to pull away by third-place Keselowski by more than a second. A lap later, Bowman overtook Keselowski for third place while Elliott continued to run in the top five. By then, Truex was in ninth behind Byron while Hamlin only moved up to 15th place behind Custer.

Down to the final 10 laps of the race, Logano started to pull away as he extended his advantage to less than half a second over Harvick and with Bowman trailing by less than two seconds. Keselowski continued to run in fourth place, trailing by more than two seconds, while Elliott settled in fifth place, trailing by more than three seconds.

A lap later, Harvick started to close in on Logano in an effort to pounce for the lead yet again. With the top-two competitors duking it out and the laps dwindling, Bowman and his No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Truck Hero Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE started to close in by six car lengths.

With five laps remaining, the top-three competitors were separated by less than a second, with Logano leading by a narrow margin and Bowman starting to close in on Harvick for the runner-up spot. By then, Kyle Busch and Blaney were battling for sixth place behind Keselowski and Elliott.

With three laps remaining, the top-three competitors were separated by half a second, with Harvick continuing to pounce on Logano for the lead and Bowman joining the party amid lapped traffic.

On the final lap, Logano was still leading by a narrow margin over Harvick and Bowman. Through Turns 1 and 2, Logano continued to lead while Harvick struggled to close in on Logano’s rear bumper. In Turn 3 and despite encountering two lapped cars, Logano was able to defend his spot over Harvick to cross the finish line in first place and grab his spot in the championship round with a victory at Kansas.

With his third victory at Kansas, this marks the fourth time since 2014 where Logano was able to race his way into the Championship 4 round for the Cup Series finale as he will pursue his second Cup title, first since 2018.

“You’ve got to want it, man,” Logano said in front of a limited number of fans attending the race on NBC. “What an amazing team this Shell/Pennzoil team is. Oh my goodness. I’m wore out. I spent more time in the mirror than the windshield there. Pit stops put us in position, got us the lead. [Harvick]’s fast. He was real fast, especially down the straightaways. I thought if I could hold him off the first 15 laps, I have a chance and actually, dirty air was the best for us. As we caught lapped traffic, I was able to gap ourselves as he got more dirty air…Man, I’m exhausted after that. We’re going to Phoenix! We’re racing for a championship again! Heck yeah.”

“You come into this race knowing if you can win this thing, you got an amazing advantage,” Logano added, “The same thing happened to us in 2018 when we raced for the win at Martinsville, knowing that we have two races just to battle for nothing but the championship. I can’t believe it, especially with the way the beginning of the race was going. We were back there, not scoring stage points, running around 10th. Good strategy by [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], great pit stops and this Shell/Pennzoil Mustang’s racing for a championship at Phoenix.”

Harvick settled in second place for his third runner-up finish of the season and after leading a race-high 85 laps compared to Logano’s 47 while Bowman recorded a strong third-place result for his fifth top-five result of the season.

“We just needed to get off of pit road first,” Harvick said on NBC. “It came down to controlling that restart. We lost the lead on the restart and wound up trying to battle. Didn’t get to lead on the restart, but just a really, really fast Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang. All our guys did a great job. We had a fast car and just moved all over the race track. We weren’t the best behind somebody, but I had a lot of options as they made the car better towards the end of the race. Good run for us. Wished we could’ve won, but one [spot] short…Joey’s a good blocker.”

“It seemed like we needed a really long run there at the end,” Bowman said on NBC. “We were pretty free all day and we snugged up, got our TruckHero Camaro driving a little better. Just really didn’t have much right-rear grip. There at the end, just running around, wide open, they finally came back to us enough, but then, I just couldn’t do anything once I got there. I burnt the tires off of it to try to get there in the first place. It’s a bummer. I messed up coming to two [laps] to go and cost us any chance that we had. It’s still a really good day for us. Thanks to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, back at the shop, all the road guys, everybody’s working so hard…We’re building great Camaros. Just a little bit short today.”

Keselowski, who ran at the front throughout the race, finished in fourth place while trailing the top-three competitors by three seconds as Kyle Busch made his way to finish in fifth place.

“[Today] was really solid,” Keselowski said on NBC. “Here and Texas were two tracks we were a little nervous about. [I was] Really fast all day. Just didn’t have quite enough there at the end. I felt like if we would’ve had the lead, we could’ve won, but just wasn’t in the cards.”

Chase Elliott rallied from his radio issues to lead 48 laps and finish in sixth place while Blaney, Byron, Truex and Bell rounded out the top 10.

“[The radio issues] wasn’t a massive deal,” Elliott said on NBC. “The good news was [the crew] could hear me. I just couldn’t hear them once we went green. Once I understood the situation that they could hear me and I just couldn’t hear them, that helped, obviously. From there, [I] just kind of knew what to expect, just trying to pay attention to the lap count and when everybody else was gonna start pitting or not. I don’t think, ultimately, it hindered our performance at all. We had a pretty fast NAPA Camaro. I felt like we fired off well and lost a little track position in that middle stage. It’s tough to get a big chunk of it back in a hurry… I got two more weeks and we’ll try to go get’em at Texas.”

“That’s about all we had,” Truex said on NBC. “We were eighth in both stages and ninth at the end. We didn’t really have much more than that. If we could’ve gotten some track position at times, on the really long runs, we were really strong. On restarts, it was really tough to fend people off and we just didn’t quite have the short-run speed. Just didn’t have what we hoped to have, but proud of everybody on this No. 19 team. We’ll do what we do. We’ll keep fighting. Today’s over. It wasn’t a terrible day by any means, but not what we needed to get to the final four. We’ll try to pick it up for Texas next week. Martinsville should be good too…I know we can do it. It’s just a matter of hitting it right. Ninth is unacceptable for us.”

Hamlin, who was unable to mount a late rally back to the front following his late contact with the outside wall despite leading 58 laps, finished in 15th place behind Custer, though he remains above the top-four cutline.

“[The contact] damaged the car,” Hamlin said on NBC. “On these tracks, you can’t have any damage on the car, but I was actually kind of fortunate to get a couple of cautions there to get back on the lead lap. That’s as far as I could go with the damage that I had. It hurt the car so bad, so top 15 with that damage, that’s the best we could probably hope for, but still, I definitely had a race-winning car today. Just drove it into the fence…We can win every week. Every week, we’re up front. I think we can win next week, we can win the week after that and we can win the week after that. [I’m] Not too worried about having to go out there and win because I know we can do it.”

Clint Bowyer, who made late contact with the wall, finished 26th in his 25th and final Cup run at Kansas Speedway, his home track. Jimmie Johnson finished 31st in his 29th and final run at Kansas.

There were 17 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 31 laps.

Results.

1. Joey Logano, 47 laps led

2. Kevin Harvick, 85 laps led

3. Alex Bowman

4. Brad Keselowski, six laps led

5. Kyle Busch, four laps led

6. Chase Elliott, 48 laps led, Stage 1 winner

7. Ryan Blaney

8. William Byron, three laps led

9. Martin Truex Jr.

10. Christopher Bell

11. Austin Dillon

12. Matt DiBenedetto, 12 laps led

13. Aric Almirola

14. Cole Custer

15. Denny Hamlin, 58 laps led, Stage 2 winner

16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

17. John Hunter Nemechek

18. Bubba Wallace

19. Michael McDowell

20. Erik Jones

21. Chris Buescher

22. Ryan Newman, one lap led

23. Corey LaJoie, one lap led

24. Ty Dillon, one lap down

25. Tyler Reddick, one lap down

26. Clint Bowyer, one lap down

27. Daniel Suarez, two laps down

28. Brennan Poole, four laps down

29. Ryan Preece, five laps down

30. J.J. Yeley, six laps down

31. Jimmie Johnson, six laps down

32. James Davison, nine laps down

33. Quin Houff, nine laps down

34. Timmy Hill, 11 laps down

35. Josh Bilicki, 13 laps down

36. Reed Sorenson, 17 laps down

37. Joey Gase, 39 laps down

38. Kurt Busch – OUT, Engine, two laps led

39. Chad Finchum – OUT, Transmission

40. Matt Kenseth – OUT, Accident

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.

1. Joey Logano – Advanced

2. Kevin Harvick +41

3. Denny Hamlin +20

4. Brad Keselowski +8

5. Chase Elliott -8

6. Alex Bowman -27

7. Martin Truex Jr. -31

8. Alex Bowman -73

The Round of 8 in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will continue next Sunday, October 25, at Texas Motor Speedway for the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500. The race will occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

October 18, 2020
Elliott goes back-to-back at the Roval; Playoff’s Round of 8 is set

It was deja vu for Chase Elliott, who rallied from an unscheduled pit stop nearing the midway point to address a loose wheel to muscle back to the lead with 18 laps remaining and power away on a restart with 10 laps remaining to win the third annual running of the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on a cloudy, slick afternoon on Sunday, October 11. With his third victory of the season and his ninth NASCAR Cup Series career win, Elliott became the first repeat winner of the Roval in the Cup Series and he raced his way into the Round of 8 in the 2020 Cup Series Playoffs.

The starting lineup was based on four statistical categories: current owner’s standings, the driver’s result from a previous Cup race, the team owner’s result from a previous Cup race and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Denny Hamlin, coming off his thrilling victory last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Chase Elliott.

Prior to the race, Josh Bilicki started at the rear of the field due to a driver change. In addition, Erik Jones also started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments and after his crew worked on his car on pit road.

The race started with rain tires, which marked the first time a Cup Series race utilized rain tires for a race. The move came a day after the NASCAR Xfinity Series endured a dark, wet and wild event on the Roval a day earlier, where a number of competitors slid across every wet turn and where A.J. Allmendinger came out on top to win amid the Xfinity Playoffs.

When the green flag waved and the race started on a wet, cloudy afternoon, Hamlin jumped ahead with the lead while Elliott and Brad Keselowski pursued closely behind him. Following an intense battle through the infield turns, the outer track turns and the backstretch chicane, Keselowski was able to pull ahead of Hamlin and Elliott. Coming back to the start/finish line, Keselowski was able to lead the first lap as everyone else behind was able to cycle their way through one full lap around the wet, racing surface on the Roval.

Keselowski continued to lead following the second lap while Hamlin and Elliott pursued. Kevin Harvick was in fourth place followed by Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. Meanwhile, Ty Dillon, who started 17th, moved up to seventh place followed by Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.

By the third lap, Elliott moved up to second place over Hamlin and Harvick while Ty Dillon moved up to fifth place. By then, Keselowski extended his advantage to more than a second.

The following lap, Ty Dillon continued to flex his muscles on the wet, slick surface of the Roval by moving up to third place. Truex also moved up to fourth place while Hamlin fell back to fifth place. In addition, Harvick fell back to eighth place while Logano and Kyle Busch each moved up a spot.

By the fifth lap, Keselowski was leading by nearly a second over Elliott, with both ahead of third-place Truex by more than three seconds. Ty Dillon retained fourth place followed by Logano while teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch battled for sixth place. Shortly after, Clint Bowyer, who announced his retirement from full-time racing three days ago, moved up to sixth place.

Entering the backstretch chicane, Elliott was able to narrow the gap between himself and Keselowski to one car length, though Keselowski retained the lead. A lap later, Elliott was able to take the lead from Keselowski through Turns 2 and 3. While Elliott started to extend his advantage to a second, Truex and Bowyer started to reel in on Keselowski for the runner-up spot.

A lap later, Truex moved up to second place and Bowyer also moved up to third place while Keselowski fell back to fourth place. Though Truex and Bowyer started to pounce on Elliott for the lead, Elliott was able to retain the lead through the 10th lap and when the competition caution flew.

At the time of competition caution, nine of 12 Playoff contenders were running in the top 10 while Ty Dillon was the only non-title contender in the top 10, running in fifth place. Logano was in sixth place followed by Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Kurt Busch and Harvick. Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon were in 13th and 14th while Aric Almirola was mired back in 22nd place.

Under the competition caution, some like Harvick, Ty Dillon, William Byron, Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Almirola and Matt DiBenedetto pitted while others led by Elliott remained on track. During the stops, Ryan Newman and Ty Dillon opted for slick tires.

When the race restarted on Lap 12, Truex jumped ahead with the lead past the start/finish line and through Turn 1 while Bowyer moved up to second place over Elliott. Entering the frontstretch chicane, however, Bowyer made a move beneath Truex and took over the top spot.

By Lap 15, Bowyer continued to lead the race over Playoff contenders Truex, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Hamlin and Logano. William Byron was in ninth place followed by Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, Harvick and Austin Dillon. Bowman was in 17th ahead of Blaney while Almirola was in 21st in between Michael McDowell and Bubba Wallace. Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth were in 26th and 27th behind Cole Custer and Matt DiBenedetto. Chris Buescher, who was penalized for a crew member jumping over the pit wall early prior to Buescher’s pit stop, was back in 28th place. Teammate Newman, who spun in Turn 4, dropped all the way back to 38th, last place.

Three laps later, Bowyer stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Truex while Kurt Busch moved up to third place over Elliott. By then and with the sun starting to peak amid the clouds, Bell and Jimmie Johnson pitted for slick tires. Shortly after, more pit stops under green continued as Reddick, Blaney, Wallace, Custer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and John Hunter Nemechek pitted for slick tires. Logano, Byron, Jones, Preece, Harvick, Bowman, Kenseth and Buescher also pitted for slick tires.

By Lap 20, Bowyer continued to lead by less than two seconds over Ty Dillon, who continued to pounce, while Truex was in third place ahead of the Busch brothers. Elliott was back in seventh place behind DiBenedetto.

A lap later, Ty Dillon and the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE moved into the lead over Bowyer entering the backstretch chicane. By then, Keselowski and Hamlin pitted for slick tires. Following his stop, however, Hamlin spun in Turn 4 and sustained damage to the front nose of his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry. He was able to re-fire, drive his car out of the grass and continue with the race remaining under green.

With three laps remaining in the first stage, the caution flew due to Nemechek driving off the track in Turn 6 and getting stuck in the grass. By then, Elliott, Corey LaJoie and Almirola pitted for slick tires while Ty Dillon was leading over Bowyer, Truex, DiBenedetto and the Busch brothers. Despite his incident, Nemechek was able to re-fire his No. 38 Citigard Ford Mustang and drive away, though he took part of an EchoPark billboard with him.

Under caution, Bowyer, Truex and Kyle Busch pitted for slick tires while Ty Dillon continued to lead followed by DiBenedetto and Timmy Hill.

With the race restarting on a one-lap dash to conclude the first stage, Ty Dillon was able to retain the lead over DiBenedetto while Christopher Bell moved up to second place. For one full lap, Ty Dillon was able to retain the lead and hold off Bell to win the first stage on Lap 25 and claim his first stage victory of the season. Bell settled in second place followed by DiBenedetto while Byron overtook Timmy Hill entering the frontstretch chicane to finish in fourth. Newman, Blaney, Logano, Wallace and Jones settled in the top 10. By then, Keselowski and Kurt Busch were in 12th and 13th, Bowman was in 17th and Harvick, Elliott and Almirola were in 19th, 20th and 21st. Hamlin was in 24th, teammates Kyle Busch and Truex were in 26th and 27th and Bowyer was in 29th. Austin Dillon was in 37th.

Under the stage break, some like Harvick, Hamlin, Ty Dillon, Hill, Wallace, Kurt Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Quin Houff, LaJoie, Brennan Poole, James Davison and Josh Bilicki pitted while the rest led by Bell and DiBenedetto remained on the track. By then, with his result in the first stage, Harvick clinched his spot for the Round of 8 in the Playoffs.

The second stage started on Lap 28 and Bell was able to retain the lead while Byron challenged and overtook DiBenedetto for the runner-up spot through the first three turns. Behind, Newman, who rallied from spinning in the first stage and falling to the rear of the field, moved up to fourth while teammates Logano and Blaney along with Jimmie Johnson battled for fifth place.

By Lap 30 and with a multitude of on-track battles ensuing, Byron moved into the lead over Bell and DiBenedetto while Penske teammates Logano and Blaney overtook Newman for spots in the top five. Behind, Johnson and Erik Jones battled for seventh place while Keselowski joined the party when Johnson, Newman and Jones battled entering Turn 1.

Three laps later, Byron and his No. 24 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE stretched out by less than two seconds over Bell and his No. 95 Rheem Toyota Camry while Logano and Blaney overtook DiBenedetto for third and fourth on the track. Jones and Keselowski were in sixth and seventh while Johnson was in eighth ahead of teammate Alex Bowman and Elliott. Kyle Busch was in 12th while Bowyer and Truex were in 14th and 15th. Kurt Busch was in 17th ahead of Almirola while Harvick was in 25th. Hamlin and Austin Dillon were mired back in 30th and 31st.

A lap later, Keselowski spun in Turn 4 as Jones and DiBenedetto came to a full stop to avoid hitting Keselowski’s No. 2 Western Star/Alliance Parts Ford Mustang. Though he continued, Keselowski reported a little vibration to his car. Another lap later, Bell spun in Turn 4 while running in second place. Though he continued, he dropped back to ninth place. Despite all of these incidents, the race remained under green and with Byron leading Blaney, Logano, Elliott and Bowman.

A few laps later, Almirola and Newman each spun. Amidst the spins and with the race remaining under green, Byron continued to lead while Blaney started to reel in for the lead. Logano, Elliott and Bowman continued to run in the top five followed by Kyle Busch, Custer, Bowyer, Truex and Bell.

On lap 39, Blaney emerged as the new leader over Byron after passing Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet in Turn 1. Logano, Elliott and Bowman continued to run in the top five while Kyle Busch settled in sixth place ahead of Custer.

Three laps later, Blaney extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Byron while Logano trailed by four seconds. Trailing behind by more than 13 seconds was Elliott while teammate Bowman settled in fifth place. Kyle Busch, Custer, Bowyer, Truex and Bell settled in the top 10 ahead of Kurt Busch, Johnson, Jones, Keselowski and McDowell.

With five laps remaining in the second stage, Blaney continued to lead by less than four seconds over Byron, who started to have Logano close in and ignite a challenge for second place. Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates Elliott and Bowman were in the top five while Kyle Busch retained fifth place over Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Bowyer and Custer. Truex was in ninth place followed by Kurt Busch, Jones and Keselowski.

Shortly after, the caution flew due to J.J. Yeley getting stalled in Turn 5. By then, Hamlin pitted. Harvick, Almirola, Bell and DiBenedetto also pitted. Some like Byron and Kyle Busch pitted while others led by Blaney and Logano remained on track.

With the race restarting on a two-lap dash to conclude the second stage, Blaney jumped ahead with the lead while Elliott and Logano battled for second. The following lap, Elliott overtook Logano for second place while Bell and Truex closed in for more. Behind, Kyle Busch fell off the pace due to sustaining a flat left-front tire and minor left-front damage to his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota following contact with Bowyer in Turn 4. In addition, teammate Hamlin spun out of Turn 8, but he continued as the race continued under green.

Towards the front, Bell and Truex overtook Logano for third and fourth while Blaney continued to lead. With no one having anything for the leaders at the front, Blaney was able to hold off Elliott to claim the second stage victory on Lap 50 and for his fourth stage victory of the season. Elliott settled in second followed by Bell, Truex and Logano while Bowman, Byron, Reddick, McDowell and Keselowski settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some like Blaney, Elliott, Truex, Logano, Bowman, McDowell, Keselowski, Newman, Brennan Poole, Houff, Bilicki and Hamlin pitted while others led by Bell remained on the track. Kyle Busch also pitted to have the left-front tire changed along with the damage repaired as he restarted at the rear of the field. Following the pit stops, Truex was assessed a speeding penalty for speeding on pit road as he also dropped to the rear of the field.

With 56 laps remaining and with the sun continuing to shine amid the clouds, the final stage commenced with Bell and Byron on the front row ahead of Reddick, Keselowski, Harvick, Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Buescher, Custer and Johnson. Prior to the restart, however, Elliott surrendered his track position and made another pit stop to address a loose left-front wheel on his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. At the start, Byron overtook Bell for the lead. Behind, Custer spun in Turn 6 along with Hamlin, who spun following contact with James Davison. Hamlin was able to reverse his damaged No. 11 FedEx Toyota out of the grass in Turns 6 and 7 and return to pit road.

With the race reaching its halfway mark in between Laps 54 and 55, Byron continued to lead by more than a second over Bell while Keselowski, Bowyer and Kurt Busch were in the top five. Johnson was in sixth followed by Reddick, Harvick, Jones and Buescher.

With 50 laps remaining, Byron stabilized his advantage to less than a second over Bell while Keselowski, Bowyer and Kurt Busch were in the top five. Harvick was in seventh behind Johnson while Austin Dillon was in 12th. Behind, Kyle Busch, facing a “must-win” situation, was in 22nd behind Logano and Bowman while Truex was in 17th. Elliott was in 24th ahead of Almirola, who was also in a “must-win” situation. Hamlin, meanwhile, was in 32nd.

Nearly five laps later, the caution flew due to debris in Turn 6 and at the time where Ty Dillon also spun in the turn. He continued with damage on the left-front nose of his No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet. Earlier, Keselowski got off line and was overtaken by Bowyer for third place while Byron continued to lead over Bell.

Under caution, a majority of the field pitted while some like Byron, Bell, Bowyer, Johnson, Harvick, Blaney, Buescher, McDowell and DiBenedetto remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Newman was assessed a speeding penalty for speeding on pit road.

With 42 laps remaining and with dark clouds returning to the track with reported rain approaching the speedway, the race restarted under green with Byron and Bell on the front row ahead of Bowyer and Johnson. At the start, Byron retained the lead while Bowyer moved up to second place. Bell fell back to third place ahead of Johnson while Harvick was in fifth ahead of Kurt Busch and McDowell.

Two laps later, with 40 laps remaining, the caution returned when Austin Dillon spun and made contact towards the inside wall near the frontstretch chicane following contact with Kyle Busch. By then, Byron was still ahead with the lead over Bowyer and Bell while Blaney moved up to fourth place. Johnson was in fifth place ahead of Kurt Busch while Logano, Elliott, Stenhouse and Harvick were in the top 10.

Under caution, most of the leaders led by Byron pitted while some like Blaney, Stenhouse, Jones, Preece, Bowman, Kyle Busch, Gray Gaulding, Wallace and Houff remained on track. During the stops, Bowyer lost a multitude of stops following a slow pit stop. Following the stops, Byron was assessed a penalty for speeding on pit road.

The race restarted with 37 laps remaining and Blaney retained the lead through the first turn. Behind, Wallace made contact with Stenhouse, who spun as Bowyer sustained front-nose damage. Shortly after, Bowyer reported no power steering to his No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang as his hopes of winning and transferring to the Round of 8 were diminishing. Back at the line, Blaney continued to lead followed by Preece, Bowman, Logano and Jones. Wallace continued to run in sixth place followed by Gaulding, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Elliott.

Two laps later, Preece emerged with the lead after Blaney spun in Turn 3 and plowed his No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford Mustang into the infield grass, where he was also dodged from the oncoming traffic. With Blaney’s misfortune, Bowman moved up to second place followed by Logano, Jones and Wallace. The situation went from bad to worse for Blaney, who sped on pit road and was assessed a drive-through penalty on pit road after pitting following his on-track spin.

At the front, Preece, racing in his No. 37 Maxwell Houses for Heroes Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, continued to lead followed by Bowman and Logano while Jones, Elliott and Kyle Busch were running in fourth through sixth.

With 30 laps remaining, Preece retained the lead followed by a hard-charging Bowman while Logano, Elliott, Jones and Kyle Busch started to join the party.

Two laps later, Bowman emerged with the lead and teammate Elliott along with Logano and Kyle Busch moved up while Preece fell back to fifth place. At the front, the two Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates battled for the next two laps before Elliott, who rallied from his late loose wheel pit stop, reassumed the lead through Turns 5 and 6.

With 24 laps remaining, Elliott continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Bowman, who was retaining one of the final transfer spots to the Round of 8 in the Playoffs. Kyle Busch was in third place and in a “must-win” situation ahead of Logano, who was also battling for one of the final transfer spots to the Round of 8. Shortly after, the caution returned due to debris spotted in Turn 4. In addition, Matt Kenseth wrecked into the tire barriers in Turn 3.

Under caution, a majority of the leaders pitted while some led by Kyle Busch, Bell, Hamlin, Jones and Blaney remained on the track.

With 20 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Kyle Busch and his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota jumped ahead with the lead followed by teammates Jones and Hamlin. With Elliott moving up to fourth place and reeling in on Hamlin for more on fresh tires, Jones moved into the lead with 19 laps remaining through Turns 5 and 6. Elliott quickly made his way into second place over Kyle Busch.

A lap later, Elliott reassumed the lead following a crossover move on Jones through Turns 7 and 8 and started to pull away. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was still in third place, but he had brother Kurt along with teammate Hamlin and Logano reeling in behind him. Shortly after, John Hunter Nemechek spun on the frontstretch, but he continued and the race remained under green.

With the laps winding down, Elliott continued to stabilize and extend his advantage over Jones, who had Kurt Busch closing in for the spot. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was in fourth place ahead of Logano, Hamlin and Blaney.

Under 12 laps remaining, the caution flag returned due to the stalled car of Brennan Poole. By then, Elliott was leading by more than two seconds over Jones while Kurt Busch, Logano and Kyle Busch were in the top five. Blaney was in sixth followed by Hamlin, Bowman, Truex and Byron.

Under caution, some pitted while others remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Buescher was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

The race restarted under green with 10 laps remaining and with Elliott and Jones on the front row. At the start, Elliott retained the lead while Logano moved up to second place over Jones. Kurt Busch and Blaney moved into the top five over teammates Truex and Kyle Busch.

With seven laps remaining, Elliott stabilized his advantage by less than two seconds over Logano while Jones, Kurt Busch and Blaney continued to run in the top five. Truex was still in sixth place ahead of Kyle Busch. Bowman was in eighth place ahead of teammate Byron and Reddick while Almirola was in 12th in between teammates Custer and Bowyer. Johnson was in 14th ahead of Keselowski, Harvick and Austin Dillon. By then, McDowell spun twice on the track’s two chicane areas, but he continued with the race remaining under green.

With five laps remaining, Elliott continued to lead by more than two seconds over Logano with Kurt Busch, Jones and Blaney trailing by four seconds or more.

Down to the final three laps of the race, Elliott stabilized his advantage by more than two seconds over Logano. Kurt Busch and Jones continued to run in third and fourth while Truex moved into fifth place. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch ran out of fuel and pitted as his hopes to advance to the Round of 8 and defend his titles hopes evaporated.

A lap later, Newman spun in Turn 1, but he was able to straighten his car and proceed with the race continuing under green. Across the backstretch chicane on the same lap, Kurt Busch and Truex spun, but both continued while Jones moved up to third place. Despite the spins, Elliott was able to come back around the frontstretch and start the final lap of the race.

With no mistakes made and no challengers closing in, Elliott was able to cycle back around and cross the finish line to win as he continued to flex his dominance and winning streak on road course events.

With his win, Elliott joined Jeff Gordon as the only competitors to achieve four consecutive wins on a road course, a streak that spans back to Watkins Glen International in August 2019 for the Dawsonville, Georgia, native. In addition, he recorded the 20th road course victory for Hendrick Motorsports. By advancing to the Round of 8 in the Playoffs for the fourth consecutive time, Elliott will attempt to secure a spot in the Championship Round at Phoenix Raceway in November and battle for his first Cup title.

“Well, [I] just had another really fast NAPA Camaro and really appreciate the effort,” Elliott said on NBC. “I feel like road courses have been fortunate to us the last few trips, but I feel like we just try to get a little better every time, tweak on the small things. [I] Felt like I tweaked on some small things and got a little better than what I was last year, which was good. Just really proud of the effort. It’s always special to win here at Charlotte with the [Hendrick Motorsports] shop being right across the street. Appreciate all the effort there. Best way to get to the next round is to win. Hopefully, we can do something with it.”

Logano finished in second place followed by Jones, Kurt Busch and Blaney. Byron finished in sixth place while Truex, Bowman, Custer and Bowyer, who had no power steering for the remainder of the race, rounded out the top 10. Jimmie Johnson finished 13th in his 40th and final run at Charlotte.

Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch advanced to the Round of 8 and all will continue to pursue this year’s championship next weekend at Kansas Speedway. Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer have been eliminated from title contention.

Of the four competitors who failed to advance beyond the Round of 12 following their runs at Charlotte, no one was more disappointed than Kyle Busch. By finishing in 30th place, the reigning two-time Cup champion will not advance to the Round of 8 for the first time since 2014 as his hopes to defend his title came to an end. Through 32 of 36 races this season, Busch has yet to record his first Cup victory of the season

“It’s just been unfortunate circumstances, a lot of bad luck,” Kyle Busch said on NBC. “These guys on this M&M’s team, they never give up and they fight all year long. Every race and every lap and every pit stop as we can see. Man, one of them off-years. Terrible year for me but as other great sports would say, there’s many other drivers that would love to have the year that we’re having but man, it’s just frustrating to know how good we are, what we’re capable of and being champions from last year, to not come out here and to be able to succeed and be able to win. The fact of the matter, we win and we’d be a hell of a lot better better off, but I knew this round was gonna be trouble with the year that we had. Yeah, I was right…We still got a lot of work to do to try to get better. I’m not sure what it is but man, we lack a lot of drive, drive off the corners with laps.”

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.

“We were looking pretty good at the end of Stage 1,” Austin Dillon, who finished 19th, said on NBC. “We had took tires again and got to fifth in the stage, and that unlucky caution happened in that cycle. We knew we were dead meat at that point because we didn’t have drys [tires] on. So, we pitted at the end of Stage 1 just trying to jump some people, then we had to go to the tail [end of the field] because pit road wasn’t open. Just a lot of stuff and again, that caution fell late in Stage 2 when we’re running 12th. No help from cautions. The race just didn’t play our way. I’m actually pretty happy with that as far as my road course racing has been. I raced hard all day. We finished 19th. That shows some progress. I think if we would’ve been up there track-position wise, we would’ve maintained just fine.”

“It was tough,” Almirola, who finished 16th, said on NBC. “I struggle here in particular. I’m not the greatest road-course racer, but specifically here, it’s always been a challenge. Just struggled all day. Really struggled on the rain tires. I spun out over there in that water that was draining across the race track in Turn 4 and then, we had an issue with a pit gun or something on pit road and got a lap down. We fought hard, it was definitely a fight. Just not the day we needed to move on. We still got a few races left to go perform at the highest level we can and try to get the most points we can. Still really proud of our season and proud of the effort of this team. We’ve got some racing left to do and hopefully, get this Smithfield Ford Mustang in Victory Lane in one of these last few [races].”

Following his run, Bowyer made a trip to the infield care center, where he was evaluated and released, though his hopes of winning his first Cup title came to an end in his final full-time season of racing.

There were 17 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 16 laps.

Results.

1. Chase Elliott, 27 laps led

2. Joey Logano

3. Erik Jones, one lap led

4. Kurt Busch

5. Ryan Blaney, 14 laps led, Stage 2 winner

6. William Byron, 27 laps led

7. Martin Truex Jr.

8. Alex Bowman, two laps led

9. Cole Custer

10. Clint Bowyer, nine laps led

11. Kevin Harvick

12. Tyler Reddick

13. Jimmie Johnson

14. Ryan Preece, eight laps led

15. Denny Hamlin

16. Aric Almirola

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. Brad Keselowski, seven laps led

19. Austin Dillon

20. Chris Buescher

21. Bubba Wallace

22. Matt DiBenedetto

23. Ty Dillon, five laps led, Stage 1 winner

24. Christopher Bell, six laps led

25. Daniel Suarez

26. Gray Gaulding

27. Corey LaJoie

28. Quin Houff

29. James Davison

30. Kyle Busch, three laps led

31. Ryan Newman

32. Michael McDowell

33. Josh Bilicki, one lap down

34. Matt Kenseth, one lap down

35. J.J. Yeley, one lap down

36. John Hunter Nemechek, four laps down

37. Brennan Poole – Suspension

38. Timmy Hill – OUT, Engine

Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings.

1. Kevin Harvick – Advanced

2. Denny Hamlin – Advanced

3. Brad Keselowski – Advanced

4. Chase Elliott – Advanced

5. Joey Logano- Advanced

6. Martin Truex Jr. – Advanced

7. Alex Bowman – Advanced

8. Kurt Busch – Advanced

9. Kyle Busch – Eliminated

10. Clint Bowyer – Eliminated

11. Austin Dillon – Eliminated

12. Aric Almirola – Eliminated

The Round of 8 in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will commence next Sunday, October 18, at Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400. The race will occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 11, 2020
Bell to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2021 Cup season

Christopher Bell has a place to call home for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. That place is Joe Gibbs Racing after the organization named Bell as driver of the No. 20 Toyota Camry and as part of the team’s four-car stable alongside Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.

Bell, a native from Norman, Oklahoma, is currently competing in his first full-time season in the Cup Series as a rookie candidate and in the No. 95 Toyota Camry for Leavine Family Racing. Bell’s move to JGR comes four days after Erik Jones, who is currently in his third season driving the No. 20 Toyota, announced that he will not be returning to the organization for next season. The move also came six days after Bob Leavine, owner of Leavine Family Racing, announced that he has sold his team and that the organization will be ceasing all operations following the 2020 Cup season.

The move to Joe Gibbs Racing is also a reunion for Bell, who first drove for the team as a part-time competitor in the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series season before racing full time in 2018. From 2017 to 2019, Bell won 16 Xfinity races and made it all the way to the Championship Round in 2018 and 2019, with a best points result of third place in 2019. In addition, Bell will become the fifth competitor to pilot the iconic No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing since its inception in 1999.

“I’m so appreciative of the opportunity I have this year with LFR and I want to finish this season strong for Bob [Leavine] and everyone there,” Bell said. “At the same time, I’m extremely excited to return to Joe Gibbs Racing starting in 2021. It’s an organization I’m very comfortable with and have had a lot of success with.”

“We are excited to bring Christopher into our Cup Series program starting in 2021,” Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, added. “He obviously had tremendous success in the Xfinity Series with us and we look forward to his return to JGR.”

Additional announcements regarding Bell’s crew chief and sponsors for next season will be announced at a later date.

Through the first 22 races of this year’s Cup season, Bell has notched one top-five result and five top-10 results. He is ranked 19th in the regular-season standings and is 122 points below the top-16 cutline to make the 2020 Cup Playoffs with four regular-season races remaining.

The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action on Sunday, August 16, for the inaugural race at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course, which will air at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

August 10, 2020