Christian Eckes capped off a perfect run that involved leading every lap en route to a resounding NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in the Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on Friday, June 28.
The 2019 ARCA Menards Series champion from Greenville, New York, led all 150-scheduled laps in an event where he started in third place, quickly assumed the lead from pole-sitter Stewart Friesen on the first lap, swept both stage periods and withstood a flurry of caution flags and restart periods from start to finish. Retaining the lead both on the track and on pit road, Eckes had enough muscle to power away from teammate Daniel Dye and the field during the final restart period with 32 laps remaining to win by two seconds and cash in with both his third Truck victory of the 2024 season and first $50,000 prize as part of the Triple Truck Challenge.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Friday, Stewart Friesen notched his first Truck pole position of the 2024 season and his first since 2019 after posting a pole-winning speed at 158.980 mph in 30.117 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Grant Enfinger, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 158.859 mph in 30.140 seconds.
Before the event, Nick Sanchez dropped to the rear of the field in a backup truck after he wrecked his primary truck during Friday’s qualifying session. Timmy Hill also dropped to the rear of the field due to a transmission change. Ty Dillon, Matt Mills and Tanner Gray all started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
The start of the race lasted for three turns as a multi-truck wreck that involved Dean Thompson, Bret Holmes, Mason Massey, Mason Maggio, Timmy Hill and Akinori Ogata, all of whom started towards the rear of the field, wrecked in Turn 4. Prior to the early carnage, Eckes, who started in third place and behind Friesen on the inside lane, had muscled past both Enfinger and Friesen through the first two turns to assume the lead.
The start of the next restart period on the seventh lap lasted only a lap as Holmes, who was trying to continue after being involved in the opening lap wreck, spun and wrecked his No. 32 Golden Eagle Chevrolet Silverado RST against the outside wall in Turn 2. At the time of Holmes’ incident, Eckes had managed to fend off Friesen from the inside lane to retain the lead.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 14, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Eckes muscled ahead of Friesen to retain the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Behind, Riggs battled and overtook Friesen for the runner-up spot while Majeski, Honeycutt and Enfinger followed suit in the top six. Amid the early battles, Eckes led by half a second over Riggs by the Lap 20 mark.
Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Eckes was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Riggs followed by Friesen, Kaden Honeycutt and Corey Heim while Ty Majeski, Daniel Dye, Grant Enfinger, Rajah Caruth and Clint Bowyer were scored in the top 10. Behind, Tyler Ankrum trailed in 11th place and ahead of Stefan Parsons, Chase Purdy, Tayor Gray and Ben Rhodes while Bayley Currey, Jake Garcia, Matt Crafton, Matt Mills and Jack Wood were mired in the top 20 ahead of Brenden Queen, Lawless Alan, Connor Jones, Ty Dillon and Dawson Cram.
Ten laps later, Eckes extended his advantage to over Riggs while third-place Honeycutt was up to third and trailing by less than four seconds despite reporting the sight of smoke and the smell of gear oil within his No. 45 AutoVentive/Precision Chevrolet Silverado RST. Another lap, however, Honeycutt surrendered third place and nursed his truck to the garage due to his mechanical issue. Honeycutt’s early misfortune moved Heim, Friesen and Enfinger in the top five on the track while Eckes retained his advantage by more than a second.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Eckes captured his fourth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Riggs followed suit in second place ahead of Heim, Enfinger and Daniel Dye while Caruth, Friesen, Majeski, Bowyer and Tyler Ankrum were scored in the top 10. By then, 25 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while select drivers, including Tanner Gray and Nick Sanchez, were lapped by the field.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Eckes pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes retained the lead after exiting pit road first while Heim, Riggs, Caruth, Enfinger, Dye, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Chase Purdy and Ben Rhodes followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, Matt Mills was penalized for equipment interference.
The second stage period started on Lap 52 as Eckes and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, however, the caution quickly returned when Taylor Gray, who restarted in the top 10, was bumped by Rhodes as Gray got sideways before he shot back across the track and wrecked his No. 17 Caden Ingram Foundation Toyota Tundra TRD Pro against the Turn 1 outside wall as he was taken out of contention. The start of the following restart on Lap 59 also did not last a single turn as the field got jumbled up through the frontstretch, with Bowyer ramming into the rear of teammate Purdy, who was stacking up the field after he ran into the rear of Ankrum, while Lawless Alan, who was rammed in the rear by Dawson Sutton, rammed and sent the No. 46 Faction46 Chevrolet Silverado RST piloted by Dawson Cram for a spin through the frontstretch’s grass.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 65, the field fanned out as Eckes fended off Riggs and Heim to retain the lead. With the field still fanning out through the frontstretch during the following lap, Enfinger and Dye battled for fifth place in front of Rhodes while a flurry of competitors including Friesen, Ankrum, Majeski, Crafton, Jack Wood, Jake Garcia, Stefan Parsons and Bayley Currey battled for positions as high as eighth place. Amid the battles, Eckes stabilized his advantage to half a second over Heim by the Lap 70 mark.
Just past the Lap 75 mark, Eckes stretched his advantage to a second over Heim while Caruth battled and overtook Dye for third place. Meanwhile, Riggs dropped to sixth place as he was running behind Enfinger while Rhodes, Friesen, Parsons and Crafton were mired in the top 10 ahead of Ankrum, Currey, Majeski, Wodd and Conner Jones. Meanwhile, Sanchez was racing back in 20th place ahead of Brenden Queen while Bowyer, who pitted for extensive repairs to his truck, was running in 24th place ahead of teammate Purdy.
By Lap 85, Eckes continued to lead by a second over Heim while third-place Caruth trailed by three seconds. Dye and Enfinger continued to run in the top five ahead of Rhodes and Friesen while Riggs, who was continuing to lose ground of the leaders, was trying to fend off Parsons for eighth place. Shortly after, Parsons and Riggs both made contact entering the frontstretch while battling for eighth place, which allowed Crafton and Ankrum to overtake them for positions.
Then on Lap 92, Riggs, who was fiercely battling Parsons for 13th place and had made repeated contact with Parsons as both dropped out of the top-10 mark on the track, rammed into the rear of Parsons’ No. 75 Popsells.com Chevrolet Silverado RST as Parsons was sent sideways and wrecked against the outside wall in Turn 4. The incident was enough for NASCAR to enforce a two-lap penalty on Riggs with the driver forced to serve the penalty in his pit stall for reckless driving.
As a result of the Riggs and Parsons incident, the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 95 officially concluded under caution as Eckes proceeded to captured his fifth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season and sweep both stages at Nashville. Heim settled in second followed by Caruth, Dye and Enfinger while Rhodes, Friesen, Crafton, Ankrum and Majeski were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Eckes returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Eckes retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Caruth, Dye, Rhodes, Ankrum, Friesen, Crafton and Wood while Heim exited in ninth place due to losing seven spots as he struggled to launch his truck out of his pit box following his service.
With 48 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Eckes and Caruth occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Eckes muscled ahead with the lead while Dye and Rhodes quickly overtook Caruth to move up to second and third, respectively. As Eckes continued to lead in front of Dye, Rhodes and Caruth for the following lap, Friesen, who endured a slow pit service earlier in the event that cost him spots, muscled his way back into the top five while Ankrum, Heim, Crafton, Tanner Gray and Connor Jones were battling within the top 10.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Eckes was leading by more than half a second over teammate Dye while Caruth, Rhodes and Ankrum trailed in the top five. Behind, Heim carved his way up to sixth place while Friesen, Tanner Gray, Matt Mills and Crafton battled in the top 10 ahead of Garcia, Enfinger, Wood, Connor Jones and Bowyer.
Two laps later, the caution flew when Jack Wood, who was running in 13th place, received a tap from Connor Jones that sent Wood’s No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet Silverado RST spinning down the apron in Turn 4 and just past the entrance of pit road, though Wood managed to continue without sustaining any significant damage. During the caution period, some including Friesen, who had a loose left-rear wheel, pitted while the rest led by Eckes remained on the track.
As the event restarted under green with 32 laps remaining, Eckes fended off teammate Dye to retain the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Caruth was trying to fend off Rhodes and Ankrum for third place. With Heim charging his way back into the top, he then made a bold three-wide move to boost his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro all the way up to third place during the following lap. Soon after, Ankrum overtook Rhodes for fifth place and Tanner Gray carved his damaged No. 15 Dead On Tools Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to seventh place while Eckes retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Dye with less than 30 laps remaining.
With 25 laps remaining, Eckes extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Dye while third-place Heim and fourth-place Caruth both trailed the lead by more than two seconds. Eckes would add another second to his advantage with 20 laps remaining, thus leaving Dye to trail teammate Eckes by two seconds as Caruth, who overtook Heim for third place earlier, was trying to close in on Dye’s No. 43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST for the runner-up spot. By then, Heim, Ankrum and Rhodes remained in the top six while Enfinger and Garcia overtook Tanner Gray for seventh and eighth on the track.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Eckes stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Dye and by nearly three seconds over Caruth as Heim and Ankrum continued to round out the top five. Behind, Rhodes, Enfinger, Garcia, Matt Mills and Friesen were in the top 10 while Majeski, Connor Jones, Tanner Gray, Nick Sanchez and Brenden Queen trailed in the top 15. As Crafton, who had been drifting out of the top 10, pitted his No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 under green and dropped out of the lead lap category, Eckes grew his advantage to three seconds over teammate Dye with 10 laps remaining.
With five laps remaining, Eckes’ advantage barely decreased as he was still leading by less than three seconds over teammate Dye while third-place Caruth continued to trail Dye by four-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Heim and Ankrum trailed Eckes by three and four seconds, respectively, in the top five.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Eckes remained as the leader by two seconds over teammate Dye while Heim overtook Caruth’s No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST amid a fierce late-race battle for third place. With the latter three unable to gain any ground on Eckes, Eckes was able to navigate his No. 19 Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet Silverado RST around the Nashville circuit smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by two seconds over teammate Dye.
With the victory, Eckes, who joins Corey Heim as the second competitor to achieve three or more victories through the first 13-scheduled events, became the first competitor to lead every lap en route to a Truck Series win since Timothy Peters made the last accomplishment at Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2012. In addition, Eckes achieved his eighth career win in the Craftsman Truck Series, his first since winning at Martinsville Speedway in early April and his first at Nashville Superspeedway. The victory was the third of the season for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and the ninth of the year for the Chevrolet nameplate.
As an added bonus, Eckes pocketed his first $50,000 bonus by winning the third and final Triple Truck Challenge event of the 2024 season, thus becoming the 15th competitor to achieve the bonus in the initiative’s sixth season of existence.
“It was just a badass truck,” Eckes said on FS2. “Man, I can’t say enough about these [No. 19] guys. We felt like we should’ve won last time at Gateway and came up a little bit short, finished second and we were really motivated to get this truck better. [The truck]’s done its job for the day. What an Adaptive One Chevy. That was an ass-kicking today. I love it. I saw [Corey Heim] have four [race-winning stickers] on [his truck]. I got a little bit upset when I walked in, so now, we got another one to go catch.”
Teammate Daniel Dye was also left smiling on pit road as he achieved his first top-five career result in the Truck Series by notching a runner-up result in his 36th series start. With the result, Dye trails the top-10 cutline to make the 2024 Truck Series Playoffs by 14 points with three regular-season events remaining on the schedule.
“Man, the confidence is so important when you’re driving a race car and to finish second like this,” Dye said. “Obviously, Christian [Eckes] drove away, but I think there at the end, we were running similar speeds. Man, it feels really good. Our NAPA Nightvision Chevy was really fast. Just super excited that this happened…To finish runner-up feels good.”
Corey Heim rallied from his late pit road issues to finish in third place for his ninth top-three result of the 2024 season, Rajah Caruth nabbed his first top-five result since winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March by finishing in fourth place and Tyler Ankrum recorded his fourth top-five result of the season by finishing in fifth place.
Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia finished in the top 10.
Notably, Stewart Friesen came home in 11th place, Brenden Queen ended up in 19th place in his second Truck career start, Matt Crafton ended up in 23rd place while two laps down and Frankie Muniz settled in 31st place in his Truck debut while scored 20 laps down.
In addition, Clint Bowyer nursed his damaged No. 7 Rush Truck Centers Chevrolet Silverado RST to a 17th-place result in his 15th Truck Series career start, first since 2016 and first with Spire Motorsports.
“I will be back!” Bowyer exclaimed while being interviewed by former team owner Michael Waltrip. “I promise you there’s no way in hell I’m ending on that note.”
There were no lead changes for a single leader. The race featured seven cautions for 42 laps. In addition, 20 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 13th event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Christian Eckes continues to lead the regular-season standings by 40 points over Corey Heim, 89 over Nick Sanchez, 92 over Ty Majeski and 163 over Rajah Caruth.
Results.
1. Christian Eckes, 150 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
2. Daniel Dye
3. Corey Heim
4. Rajah Caruth
5. Tyler Ankrum
6. Grant Enfinger
7. Ben Rhodes
8. Matt Mills
9. Ty Majeski
10. Jake Garcia
11. Stewart Friesen
12. Conner Jones
13. Nick Sanchez
14. Tanner Gray
15. Ty Dillon
16. Jack Wood
17. Clint Bowyer
18. Dawson Sutton
19. Brenden Queen
20. Dawson Cram
21. Chase Purdy, one lap down
22. Spencer Boyd, one lap down
23. Matt Crafton, two laps down
24. Lawless Alan, two laps down
25. Layne Riggs, two laps down
26. Stefan Parsons, two laps down
27. Timmy Hill, three laps down
28. Dean Thompson, four laps down
29. Bayley Currey, four laps down
30. Akinori Ogata, six laps down
31. Frankie Muniz, 20 laps down
32. Mason Massey – OUT, Brakes
33. Kaden Honeycutt, 66 laps down
34. Taylor Gray – OUT, Accident
35. Mason Maggio – OUT, Mechanical
36. Bret Holmes – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, for the CRC Brakleen 175. The event is scheduled to occur on July 12 and air at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
Today marks Leap Day, February 29, where an extra day is included in the calendar every four years and occurs due to Earth taking 365 days and an extra six hours to orbit around the Sun. The gain of an extra day within the 365-day calendar ensures the calendar itself remains aligned with Earth revolving around the Sun.
With Leap Day providing its share of historic events and birthdays throughout human history, the holiday date has also provided a handful of significant moments within NASCAR history.
The first known NASCAR competition to occur on Leap Day dates to February 29, 1976, at North Carolina Motor Speedway, where the Cup Series’ Carolina 500 occurred. During the event, Richard Petty won for the first time of the season after claiming the checkered flag by two laps over runner-up Darrell Waltrip and dodging a late multi-car pileup that resulted in Bobby Allison flipping. The victory was redemption for Petty, who was involved in a wild final lap accident and finish with David Pearson two weeks earlier that resulted in Pearson managing to nurse his damaged No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Mercury across the finish line in first place ahead of Petty, whose car was unable to restart.
The 1976 victory at Rockingham’s North Carolina Motor Speedway would serve as Petty’s 178th of 200 overall Cup victories he would achieve, where he still stands as NASCAR’s “The King” with the most career victories all-time to coincide with his seven championships, which is tied for the most in the Cup Series history alongside Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson. Currently, Petty, who retired from NASCAR competition following the 1992 season, serves as a team ambassador for Legacy Motor Club, a team he formerly owned and is currently owned by Johnson and Maury Gallagher. The team was rebranded from Petty GMS Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports, both names that stood out over the last 14 years.
Sixteen years later (1992), another Leap Day event at North Carolina Motor Speedway occurred. On this occasion, the Xfinity Series hosted the Goodwrench 200. During the event, Ward Burton scored his first Xfinity career win after leading the final 22 laps and beating Mark Martin by nine-tenths of a second. The Rockingham victory would serve as Burton’s first of four total victories he would achieve in his Xfinity career, with his latter three occurring in 1993. To date, Burton has made 161 career starts in the Xfinity Series, with his latest occurring in 2007. The South Boston, Virginia, native has also made a single start in the Craftsman Truck Series, which occurred in 2012 and marks his final national touring series career start, and 375 in the Cup Series, where he has achieved five victories, including the 2002 Daytona 500 and the 2001 Southern 500.
In 2008, there were no NASCAR race day competitions that occurred on Leap Day. Instead, the Cup Series held a qualifying session for the upcoming UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. During the qualifying session, hometown hero Kyle Busch, who was making his third career start driving the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, secured his first pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 182.325 mph in 29.613 seconds. During the main event two days later, Busch, who led twice for 56 laps, ended up in 11th place while Carl Edwards would fend off Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a two-lap dash to win for the ninth time in his career and second in recent weeks.
Today, Edwards, who would proceed to win eight additional events and settle in the runner-up spot behind Jimmie Johnson in the 2008 final standings, is retired with 28 Cup career victories added to his resume after electing to step away from full-time competition following the 2016 season. Earnhardt Jr., who would end up in 12th place in the 2008 standings, also retired following the 2017 season as he stands at 26 Cup career victories, including two Daytona 500 titles. Meanwhile, Busch, who ended up in 10th place in the 2008 standings despite winning a total of eight races, is currently campaigning in his 20th season as a Cup Series competitor and second driving for Richard Childress Racing. He currently has achieved two Cup Series championships (2015 & 2019) and holds 230 victories across NASCAR’s top-three national touring series (65 in Craftsman Truck Series, 102 in Xfinity Series and 63 in Cup Series).
The third and latest NASCAR competition to occur on Leap Day was in 2020 at Auto Club Speedway in the Xfinity Series. During the year’s event, Harrison Burton, Ward Burton’s nephew who was campaigning in his first full-time Xfinity campaign and driving the No. 20 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, scored his first Xfinity victory in his 12th series start after he led twice for 40 laps and managed to retain the top spot during a restart with 19 laps remaining before fending off late challenges from teammate Riley Herbst and Austin Cindric. The Fontana victory would serve as the first of four victories accumulated for Burton throughout the 2020 Xfinity season, with the Huntersville, North Carolina, native securing a spot in the 2020 Xfinity Playoffs. Despite being eliminated from Playoff contention following the Round of 12, Burton, who won twice in the final four-scheduled events, proceeded to finish in eighth place in the final driver’s standings and secured the Rookie-of-the-Year title.
Currently, Burton is campaigning in his third full-time season in the Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing and as the driver of the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. He has made 75 starts in NASCAR’s premier series and has racked up a single top-five result and four top-10 results.
Prior to Harrison Burton’s first Xfinity victory, the Cup Series generated a dramatic moment earlier in the day when Clint Bowyer edged seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson by 0.007 seconds to claim what would be his fourth and final Cup career pole position at Fontana. Bowyer’s pole-winning lap, overall, occurred at 179.614 mph in 40.086 seconds. During the main event, Bowyer, who led the first 10 laps, ended up in 23rd place and Johnson settled in seventh place while Johnson’s teammate, Alex Bowman, won for the second time in his career after leading a race-high 110 laps.
Bowyer and Johnson have since retired from full-time NASCAR competition, which occurred following the 2020 season, while Bowman is currently campaigning in his ninth season in the Cup Series and seventh driving for Hendrick Motorsports.
Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.
For this season, there are no NASCAR-sanctioned events that are scheduled to occur on Leap Day, with the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity and Cup divisions set to run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as part of a triple-header weekend between March 1-3. With Leap Day 2028 scheduled to occur on a Tuesday and with race day events primarily occurring on weekends, Leap Day 2032 is scheduled to occur on a Sunday, which leaves the futuristic possibility of another addition to NASCAR competition on Leap Day to be made.
A significant milestone start is in the making for Mike “Buga” Bugarewicz, crew chief for Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang team in the NASCAR Cup Series. By participating in this weekend’s event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bugarewicz will call his 200th Cup career race as a crew chief.
A native of Lehighton, Pennsylvania, Bugarewicz earned a B.S. and a M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State before joining Roush Fenway Racing as an engineer in December 2005, which marked the beginning of his racing career. From 2006 to 2013, Bugarewicz worked as an engineer within the Roush organization, where he also worked with names like Danny O’Quinn, David Ragan, Paul Menard, Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
In 2014, Bugarewicz became a lead race engineer for veteran driver Kevin Harvick, crew chief Rodney Childers and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet team. The season was one to remember for Bugarewicz as Harvick, who was in his first season with SHR, captured five victories, eight poles, 14 top-five results, 20 top-10 results and the season’s Cup championship.
Following a productive 2015 season with Harvick, where Harvick won three races before settling in second place in the final standings, Bugarewicz was named a Cup Series crew chief for three-time champion Tony Stewart and the No. 14 SHR Chevrolet team for the 2016 season, which marked Stewart’s final full-time season as a NASCAR competitor. A month prior to the season, however, Stewart suffered a back injury after being involved in a sand buggy accident outside of San Diego. With Stewart hospitalized and forced to miss the early portion of the upcoming season, Bugarewicz spent the first eight Cup events of the season and of his career with Brian Vickers and Ty Dillon. During this span, Vickers, who made five starts, finished as high as seventh at Martinsville Speedway in April while Dillon, who competed in the other three events, finished as high as 15th at Phoenix Raceway in March.
At Richmond Raceway in April, Stewart was medically cleared to return to racing. In his first race with Bugarewicz, Stewart finished 19th. The following race at Talladega Superspeedway, Stewart, with relief help from Ty Dillon, was credited with a sixth-place result before he competed the following six races through the entire distance.
Then at Sonoma Raceway in June, Bugarewicz achieved his first NASCAR victory as a crew chief when Stewart prevailed over a late battle with former teammate Denny Hamlin to snap an 84-race winless drought and collect his 49th Cup career win, a victory that also placed the No. 14 team in a guaranteed spot to make the Playoffs. After winning at Sonoma, Bugarewicz and Stewart earned four top-five results and recorded enough points through the final 10 regular-season events to secure their spot in the 2016 Cup Playoffs. Their run in the Playoffs, however, came to an end following the Playoff’s Round of 16, where Stewart finished 16th, 23rd and 13th in a three-race postseason stretch and missed the cutline to the Round of 12. Bugarewicz and Stewart went on to finish in 15th place in the final standings.
Bugarewicz remained as crew chief for SHR’s No. 14 team in 2017 with the organization swapping manufacturers from Chevrolet to Ford. With Stewart retired, Bugarewicz was paired with veteran Clint Bowyer, who was named Stewart’s successor of the No. 14 car. Participating in all but two of the 36-race schedule, Bugarewicz and Bowyer achieved six top-five results, 13 top-10 results and an average result of 15.0. They, however, did not make the Playoffs as Bowyer settled in 18th place in the final standings.
Following the first five events of the 2018 Cup season, Bugarewicz returned to Victory Lane when Bowyer scored a dominating win at Martinsville Speedway, the sixth event of the schedule, in March and snapped a 190-race winless drought. Ten races later, they won for the second time of the season at Michigan International Speedway in June, which was a rain-shortened event. Making the 2018 Cup Playoffs, Bugarewicz and Bowyer remained in title contention through the Round of 8, where they fell short of making the Championship Round and contending for the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November. Nonetheless, Bugarewicz and Bowyer achieved two victories, nine top-five results and 16 top-10 results before finishing in 12th place in the final standings.
Remaining as crew chief for Bowyer and SHR’s No. 14 Ford team in 2019, Bugarewicz guided the driver and team to a pole, seven top-five results, 18 top-10 results and through the first two rounds of the Playoffs before finishing in ninth place in the final standings. By then, Bugarewicz had called more than 100 Cup races as a crew chief.
For the 2020 season, Stewart-Haas Racing reshuffled most of its crew chief lineup, placing Bugarewicz as crew chief for Aric Almirola and the No. 10 SHR Ford Mustang team for the upcoming season. Bugarewicz achieved a second consecutive consistent season as he led Almirola to six top-five results, 18 top-10 results and through the first two rounds of the Playoffs before settling in 15th place in the final standings.
Thus far, Bugarewicz and Almirola have recorded a pole, one top-five result and two top-10 results through the first 21 Cup races of the 2021 season. They also achieved a victory in the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel event at Daytona International Speedway in February and the NASCAR All-Star Open at Texas Motor Speedway in June. They are currently ranked in 27th place in the regular-season standings.
Through 199 previous Cup appearances, Bugarewicz has achieved three victories, two poles, 34 top-five results and 76 top-10 results while working with five different competitors.
Bugarewicz is set to call his 200th Cup race as a crew chief at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 18, with the race scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
One for the ages on a cloudy afternoon in the desert state of Arizona.
Nine months after the start of what would be a bizarre season of racing and on a day where a number of icons led by Jimmie Johnson made their final full-time starts in NASCAR’s premier series, Chase Elliott etched his name as a NASCAR Cup Series champion.
The Dawsonville, Georgia, native, who started at the rear of the field and methodically worked his way to the front, led seven times for a race-high 153 of 312 laps, took the lead for the final time with 42 laps remaining and pulled away from title rivals Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano to claim his first title by winning the Season Finale 500 at Phoenix Raceway as he also claimed his fifth victory of the season and the 11th of his Cup career. Above all, Elliott was able to come back around and celebrate as the 2020 Cup Series champion.
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, the four championship finale contenders started first through fourth led by pole-sitter Chase Elliott and followed by Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin.
Prior to the race, however, Elliott started at the rear of the field due to his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE failing pre-race inspection twice. Brennan Poole also dropped to the rear of the field due to his car failing pre-race inspection twice.
Moments before the race started and during the pace laps, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson moved to the front of the grid as he received a final salute from the fans and the NASCAR community before he moved back to start in 26th place.
When the final race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season commenced under green, Logano, who started at the front, jumped ahead with the lead and was followed by teammate Keselowski, Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch as the field battled early for positions through the dogleg turn and entering Turns 1 and 2. The early start for Logano was enough for him to lead the first lap of the race.
The following lap, Keselowski and Hamlin battled dead even for the runner-up spot and in front of Blaney and Kurt Busch. Alex Bowman was in sixth followed by Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, teammate Aric Almirola and Matt DiBenedetto. Elliott, meanwhile, was in 31st after starting at the rear of the field.
By the fifth lap, Logano was leading by nearly a second over teammate Keselowski while Hamlin was in third ahead of Blaney, Kurt Busch, Bowman and Kyle Busch. By then, Elliott moved up to 25th place.
Following the first 10 laps of the finale, Logano continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Keselowski, who had Hamlin pressuring on him for the runner-up spot.
The following lap, Hamlin went wide in Turn 2, which allowed Keselowski to make a crossover move and retain the runner-up spot as teammate Blaney joined the battle. By then, Elliott moved his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in the top 20. In addition, Ryan Preece, who made contact with the wall, pitted under green.
By Lap 15, Logano extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Keselowski, who had Hamlin closing in for position. Blaney and Kurt Busch continued to run in the top five followed by Bowman, Kyle Busch, Bowyer, DiBenedetto and Almirola. By then, Elliott made his way into the top 15.
Five laps later, on Lap 20, Logano stabilized his advantage in the race and in the title battle by more than two seconds over Keselowski with Hamlin still in third and Elliott in 13th behind Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Cole Custer.
Another five laps later, on Lap 25, Elliott was in 11th place and pressuring Almirola for a spot in the top 10 on the track. By then, Logano was still leading by more than a second and a half over teammate Keselowski and Hamlin, both of whom continued to battle one another for the runner-up spot.
Two laps later, Elliott made his way into the top 10 after passing Almirola, though he was more than 10 seconds behind race leader and title contender Logano and his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 30, Logano was ahead by more than a second over teammate Keselowski and Hamlin, with Blaney and Kurt Busch in the top five. Bowman, DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Bowyer and Elliott were in the top 10. By then, Harvick was in 11th ahead of teammates Cole Custer and Almirola, Jimmie Johnson was in 16th behind Erik Jones and William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. was in 18th in between Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon, Matt Kenseth was in 21st ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Newman and Bubba Wallace was in 24th. Christopher Bell, racing in Leavine Family Racing’s final race in NASCAR, was in 20th while Ty Dillon, racing in Germain Racing’s final race in NASCAR, was in 29th.
Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Logano retained the lead following the first round of pit stops. Hamlin exited in second place followed by Bowman, Kyle Busch, Bowyer and Blaney. During the pit stops, Keselowski dropped six spots in eighth place following a slow pit stop, where his jack man ran into the tire changer during the service. Elliott exited in 11th place behind Harvick. Following the pit stops, John Hunter Nemechek was assessed a speeding penalty.
The race restarted under green on Lap 36 with Logano and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Logano retained the lead after driving through the dogleg turn to block Kyle Busch and entering Turns 1 and 2. Hamlin also retained the runner-up spot while Kyle Busch and Bowman battle for third ahead of Bowyer and Keselowski.
By Lap 40, Logano was ahead by nearly four-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Bowman while Elliott, who made a bold three-wide move on Keselowski and Kyle Busch for positions earlier, battled Bowyer for additional spots in the top five.
A lap later, Elliott moved his No. 9 Chevrolet into fourth place over Bowyer. Another lap later, Keselowski overtook Bowyer and Kyle Busch to move into fifth place with the four final title contenders running in the top five. By then, Logano was still leading by nearly two-tenths of a second over Hamlin with Bowman trailing by two seconds.
Three laps later, on Lap 46, Elliott overtook teammate Bowman exiting the backstretch and entering Turn 3 to move into third place as he was three seconds behind title rivals Logano and Hamlin. By then, Keselowski also started to close in on Bowman’s No. 88 Truck Hero/ChevyGoods Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for fourth place.
By Lap 50, the final four title contenders were running first through fourth on the track, with Logano leading Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry by nearly eight-tenths of a second. Elliott was in third, trailing by more than three seconds, while Keselowski, racing in his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang, was in fourth place.
Behind, Bowman was in fifth followed by Kyle Busch, Blaney, Bowyer, Kurt Busch and DiBenedetto. Jimmie Johnson was in 12th in between Erik Jones and Byron while Kenseth was in 21st in between Bell and Bubba Wallace.
By Lap 60, Logano stabilized his advantage to more than half a second over Hamlin. Behind, Elliott, the fastest car on the circuit, remained in third place, trailing by more than three seconds, while Keselowski remained in fourth place. Meanwhile, Blaney moved into fifth place.
With five laps remaining in the first stage, the final four title contenders continued to run first through fourth on the track, with Logano leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over Hamlin, Elliott running in third and Keselowski settling in fourth. Blaney was the highest-running non-title contender in fifth while Bowman and Kyle Busch battled for sixth place. Bowyer, making his final start, was in eighth followed by Kurt Busch and DiBenedetto, both of whom were ahead of Johnson.
Down to the final laps of the first stage and with the leaders approaching lapped traffic, Hamlin started to close in on Logano’s No. 22 Ford for position as he was two-tenths of a second behind.
Despite being pressured for the lead, Logano was able to hold off Hamlin and win the first stage on Lap 75 by more than half a second as he collected his seventh stage victory of the 2020 Cup season. Hamlin settled in second followed by Elliott, Keselowski and Blaney while Kyle Busch, Bowman, Bowyer, Kurt Busch and DiBenedetto settled in the top 10. By then, Johnson was in 11th and Kenseth was in 24th.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Logano retained the lead over Hamlin following the pit service. Elliott and Keselowski followed behind along with Bowyer, who received a stellar stop from his No. 14 crew to move into the top five.
The second stage started on Lap 83 with Logano and Hamlin on the front row followed by Elliott, Keselowski, Bowyer and Blaney. At the start, Logano retained the lead while Kyle Busch made a low dive through the dogleg turn in an effort to move into the top five.
Entering Turns 1 and 2 and the backstretch, Hamlin and Elliott battled for second behind Logano while Keselowski was shuffled back to sixth behind Kyle Busch and Bowyer.
Shortly after, Elliott battled Hamlin for second, but the latter persevered as he went to work on challenging Logano for the lead. Elliott retained third place in front of Kyle Busch and Bowyer while Keselowski went to work on Bowyer for more. Keselowski would eventually take over fifth place and was followed by teammate Blaney, thus dropping Bowyer to seventh.
By Lap 90, Logano was leading by two-tenths of a second over Hamlin, who was closing in for the lead, while Elliott was trailing by approximately seven-tenths of a second. Though Logano caught a piece of debris on his front grille not long after, he continued to lead by nearly half a second over Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota with Elliott in third and Keselowski in fifth.
At the Lap 100 mark, Logano remained in the lead, but he had Hamlin closing in on him in another bid for the lead as the leaders started to catch lapped traffic. By then, Logano used the lapped car of Quin Houff to remove the debris off of his grille. Elliott was in third in front of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry while Keselowski was in fifth ahead of teammate Blaney. Bowyer and Johnson were in seventh and eighth while DiBenedetto and Kurt Busch settled in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Truex, Byron, Bowman, Austin Dillon and Harvick.
Five laps later, the final four title contenders were running first through fourth on the track, with Logano leading by a narrow margin over Hamlin as Elliott continued to run in third ahead of Keselowski. Blaney overtook Kyle Busch for fifth place while Johnson overtook Bowyer for seventh place.
On Lap 110, Logano continued to lead by a narrow margin over Hamlin as he made another bid for the lead in the race and the championship battle while Logano radioed vibrating concerns on his car.
Shortly after, Elliott caught the top-two title contenders for the lead as he battled Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Eventually, Elliott prevailed for the runner-up spot, though he, Hamlin and Logano battled for the lead.
On Lap 115, Kyle Busch, who was running near the top five, made an unscheduled four-tire pit stop to address a vibrating concern on his No. 18 Toyota.
Five laps later, Elliott muscled his No. 9 Chevrolet into the lead following a hard on-track battle with Logano as Hamlin continued to linger behind the two leaders. Eventually, Hamlin overtook Logano for the runner-up spot with the latter losing ground on the lead. Keselowski, meanwhile, was more than three seconds behind in fourth place. Behind, Blaney was in fifth while Johnson was in sixth.
On Lap 128, Keselowski surrendered fourth place on the track to pit under green following vibrating concerns.
Past the Lap 130 mark, Elliott was leading by nearly a second over Hamlin with Logano, teammate Blaney and Jimmie Johnson in the top five. Bowyer and DiBenedetto battled for sixth while Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron were in the top 10.
Nearing the Lap 140 mark, pit stops under green started to occur as Blaney and Bowman pitted. Logano also pitted along with Custer, Harvick, Hamlin and Elliott, the race/title leader.
Back on the track, Jimmie Johnson, who had yet to pit, assumed the lead followed by DiBenedetto, Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Christopher Bell. By then, Bowyer and Byron pitted.
Three laps later, Johnson surrendered the lead to pit. DiBenedetto, who briefly took the lead, also pitted along with Kurt Busch and Bell while Aric Almirola took the lead over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, Keselowski and Elliott.
By Lap 150 and with most of the leaders having completed a pit stop under green, Almirola was still at the front of the field and by four-tenths of a second over Elliott with Hamlin in third, Keselowski in fourth and Logano in sixth. A lap later, Elliott reassumed the top spot.
At the halfway mark on Lap 156, the final four title contenders were running first through fourth on the track, with Elliott leading by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin with Keselowski in third and teammate Logano in fourth. Blaney was in fifth while Almirola, racing on old tires, was in sixth. Johnson was in seventh while Kenseth was mired outside the top 20.
Just past the Lap 160 mark, the caution flew when James Davison made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Kurt Busch exited in first following a two-tire pit stop. Elliott, the first car on four fresh tires, exited in second place followed by Austin Dillon, who pitted for two fresh tires. Hamlin, Logano and Keselowski exited in fourth through sixth. Following the pit stops, Austin Dillon was assessed a pit road speeding penalty as he dropped to the rear of the field.
Under caution, Bowman received the free pass while Christopher Bell, Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Chris Buescher, Ty Dillon, Nemechek and Stenhouse took the wave around to return to the lead lap.
With 23 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, a majority of competitors racing on the inside lane made the low dive below the dogleg turn and entering Turns 1 and 2. At the front, Elliott reassumed the lead over Kurt Busch while Hamlin, who slipped entering Turns 1 and 2, fell back to fifth place as teammates Keselowski and Logano overtook him for position.
With 20 laps remaining in the second stage, Elliott was ahead by nearly four-tenths of a second over Keselowski while Logano was in third, though he had Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Johnson and Blaney pressuring him for more.
Three laps later, Keselowski assumed the lead, though he had Elliott pressuring him for the top spot. Though Elliott ran into the rear end of Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford entering Turns 1 and 2, Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet wiggled, which allowed Keselowski to retain the lead. By then, the final four title contenders were back running first through fourth on the track.
With 10 laps remaining in the second stage, Keselowski stretched his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Elliott with third-place Logano trailing by more than a second and fourth-place Hamlin trailing by more than two seconds. Blaney moved into fifth place followed by Johnson while Kurt Busch continued to hold strong on two fresh tires in seventh place. Kyle Busch rallied his way back into eighth place followed by William Byron, DiBenedetto, Harvick and Bowyer.
Two laps later, Elliott muscled his No. 9 Chevrolet into a heated battle for the lead against Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford Mustang. While Elliott led the following lap, Keselowski fought back, but the former prevailed by a narrow margin. By then, Logano was still behind by more than a second while Hamlin was behind by more than two seconds.
With three laps remaining in the second stage, the battle for the lead between Elliott and Keselowski continued to intensify as the latter made a charge on the former through the corners. Despite the challenge, Elliott continued to lead by a narrow margin as he also started the final lap of the stage.
On the final lap of the second stage, Keselowski gained a run on the backstretch to draw himself dead even beneath Elliott. In Turn 3, he emerged ahead and managed to move up and clear Elliott entering Turn 4 to win the second stage on Lap 190 and claim his eighth stage victory of the season. Logano settled in third followed by Hamlin, who emerged with the most stage victories of this season (11). Blaney was scored in fifth while Johnson, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, DiBenedetto and Byron settled in the top 10. Bowyer was in 11th behind teammate Kevin Harvick while Kenseth, meanwhile, was back in 27th behind Chris Buescher.
Under the stage break, Ryan Preece’s car, which stalled while trying to enter pit road, was pushed back to the garage. Not long after, the leaders pitted and Elliott reassumed the lead after beating Logano off of pit road in first place following a four-tire stop. Hamlin exited in third place followed by Blaney while Keselowski, who received a slow pit stop, lost four spots and fell back to fifth ahead of Harvick.
With 112 laps remaining, the final stage started with Elliott and Logano on the front row. At the start, Elliott and Logano battled dead even for the lead through the dogleg turn and through Turns 1 and 2 before Elliott prevailed on the backstretch. Logano retained second place over Hamlin while Keselowski moved up to fourth place.
Three laps later, Elliott was out in front by four-tenths of a second over Logano with Hamlin and Keselowski battling behind. Blaney settled behind in fifth while Byron moved up to sixth. Johnson and Harvick battled for seventh while the Busch brothers were scored in the top 10.
Down to the final 100 laps of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, the final four title contenders were running first through fourth on the track, with Elliott leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Logano as Hamlin and Keselowski trailed behind. Blaney was in fifth followed by Byron, Johnson, Harvick and the Busch brothers. Bowyer was in 13th behind Truex while Kenseth was in 24th behind McDowell.
With less than 90 laps remaining, Elliott continued to lead by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Logano. Meanwhile, Keselowski overtook Hamlin for third place, with the latter struggling with loose conditions and keeping pace with his title contenders.
With 80 laps remaining, Elliott stabilized his advantage in the overall race and the championship battle by more than seven-tenths of a second over Logano while Keselowski and Hamlin continued to run in third and fourth. Blaney remained in fifth place while Jimmie Johnson overtook teammate Byron for sixth place. Harvick, DiBenedetto and the Busch brothers were scored in the top 10. Bowyer was in 12th while Kenseth was in 24th.
Ten laps later, with 70 laps remaining, Elliott extended his advantage to more than a second over Logano with Keselowski and Hamlin trailing behind, though final pit stops were expected for the lead lap competitors to complete the race to its scheduled distance.
Another 10 laps later, with 60 laps remaining, Elliott remained in the lead by more than six-tenths of a second over Logano with Keselowski trailing by less than a second and Hamlin trailing by more than three seconds. Blaney continued to run as the highest-running non-title contender in fifth followed by Johnson, Harvick, DiBenedetto, Byron and Kurt Busch.
Not long after, pit stops under green occurred as Blaney pitted. Kurt Busch also pitted along with Kyle Busch, Byron, Hamlin, Harvick, Almirola, Johnson, Logano, Keselowski and Elliott, the leader.
Back on the track, Stenhouse, who has yet to pit, was the leader followed by Logano, Elliott, Hamlin and Keselowski.
With 50 laps remaining, Logano emerged with the lead in the overall race and the championship battle after Stenhouse pitted. Elliott trailed by one and a half seconds while Hamlin and Keselowski were in fourth and fifth, trailing by more than four seconds. Shortly after, Hamlin moved into third place over Keselowski, who suffered another slow pit stop.
Seven laps later, Elliott cut the deficit down to a tenth of a second behind Logano. In Turns 1 and 2, Elliott gained a run on Logano as they battled through the backstretch. Riding behind Logano’s rear bumper, Elliott made a move to the inside of Logano in Turn 3 and cleared him to reassume the lead in Turn 4 with 42 laps remaining.
With 40 laps remaining, Elliott was leading the overall race and the championship battle by nearly half a second over Logano. Hamlin was in third, trailing by nearly four seconds, while Keselowski was in fourth, trailing by more than four seconds. Blaney continued to run in fifth place followed by Jimmie Johnson, Harvick, DiBenedetto, Byron and Kyle Busch. By then, Bowyer was in 15th while Kenseth was in 23rd.
Ten laps later, with 30 laps remaining, Elliott stretched his lead in his No. 9 Chevrolet to more than a second over Logano’s No. 22 Ford. Keselowski muscled his No. 2 Ford into third place, trailing by less than four seconds, while Hamlin faded back to fourth place, trailing by nearly five seconds, in his No. 11 Toyota.
Another five laps later, with 25 laps remaining, Elliott continued to stretch his advantage to two and a half seconds over Logano. Keselowski and Hamlin remained in third and fourth, though both were slowly seeing their title hopes vanquish.
With 20 laps remaining, Elliott remained as the leader in the overall race and the championship battle by nearly three seconds over Logano with Keselowski and Hamlin running third and fourth. Behind the final four title contenders, Jimmie Johnson overtook Blaney to move into fifth place. Harvick was in seventh behind Blaney while DiBenedetto, Byron and Kyle Busch were in the top 10. Bowyer was in 14th while Kenseth was in 23rd behind Erik Jones and Ryan Newman.
Five laps later, with 15 laps remaining, Keselowski started to close in on teammate Logano for the runner-up spot. By then, Elliott was still leading by less than three seconds while Hamlin was behind by nearly eight seconds. Jimmie Johnson continued to run in fifth place in front of Blaney.
With 10 laps remaining and a championship within sight, Elliott was still leading by more than three seconds over Logano, who had teammate Keselowski challenging him for second place. Hamlin was in fourth while Johnson was in fifth. By then, 12 of the 39 competitors on the track were scored on the lead lap, with Harvick, DiBenedetto, Byron, the Busch brothers, and Truex running on the lead lap.
Shortly after, Keselowski overtook teammate Logano for second place. By then, Elliott was still leading the race and the title battle by more than three seconds. Hamlin was behind by more than eight seconds while Johnson remained in fifth, nearly 11 seconds behind.
With five laps remaining, Elliott remained in the lead by less than four seconds with a championship grower closer and closer towards his grasp. Keselowski continued to run in second place followed by teammate Logano and Hamlin while Johnson continued to run in fifth place ahead of Blaney.
Despite closing in on lapped traffic, Elliott continued to methodically lead the race by a comfortable margin over his title rivals. When the white flag waved, he was ahead by more than three seconds over Keselowski.
For one final lap, Elliott was able to navigate the turns and the straightaways at his own cautious pace as he came back to the finish line and claimed the checkered flag to win both the season finale and his first Cup title.
With his accomplishment, Elliott became the third-youngest Cup champion at age 24 years, 11 months and 11 days. He also became the 34th different driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series title, fourth to do so while driving for Hendrick Motorsports and the eighth in the last 10 seasons. In addition, Elliott became the first Chevrolet competitor to win the Cup title since teammate Jimmie Johnson won his record-tying seventh title in 2016.
This marked the seventh consecutive year since the inception of the current Playoff-elimination format where the final Cup race of the season was won by the champion.
Elliott’s championship achievement was one that was well-received by the limited fans attending the race, his crew members, his family headlined by his father and NASCAR Hall of Famer, Bill Elliott, team owner Rick Hendrick, and his fellow competitors, many of whom drove alongside Elliott to congratulate him, including seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who finished fifth in his 686th and final race as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series competitor.
“I’m not sure that I still even know [what it means to win the championship],” Elliott said on the frontstretch while emotional. “I’m at a loss for words. This is unbelievable. Oh, my gosh. We did it. That’s all I’ve got to tell you. Unreal. Championship crew chief, Alan Gustafson, is now a NASCAR Cup Series champion, and very deserving. I just can’t say enough about our group. I felt like we took some really big strides this year, and last week [at Martinsville Speedway] was a huge one. To come out of that with a win and a shot to come here and have a chance to race is unbelievable.”
“All you can dream for is an opportunity, and I’ve been very fortunate to have that over the years,” Elliott added. “You know, and that’s all thanks to some great people. You know, my parents obviously have played a huge role. The past year has been tough. I lost my best friend about a year ago tonight. Lost my grandmother last year. And all those things bring families closer, so I really can’t thank them enough.”
During the final laps of the race, Elliott mentioned how he was anticipating a caution to fall and have his stable lead and road to the title nearly vanquished.
“Yeah, just waiting on the caution, as always,” Elliott said. “You know, I saw Joey was pretty loose there and felt like I needed to get to him while I could. I knew I’d been kind of tight on a longer run and he was probably going to get a little better. Just unbelievable. I mean, I just never would have though that this year would have gone like it has. I mean, NASCAR Cup Series champion. Are you kidding me? Unreal.”
Ironically, Elliott achieved his first NASCAR Cup championship the same season the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series and the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship, a feat both teams also made during the same year back in 1988 when Bill Elliott also won his first NASCAR Cup title.
Following the 2020 finale, Chase and Bill Elliott joined the Pettys (Lee and Richard) and the Jarretts (Ned and Dale) as the only father-son combo to win a Cup title.
“I couldn’t breathe during Martinsville [last weekend],” Bill Elliott, along with wife, Cindy, said. “Today was, I just said we’ve had a heck of a year and whatever Chase does today, we’re so proud of him. We’re gonna make the best of it. When [Logano] got ahead of us during that last stop, I didn’t think we’d ever do it…Chase dug it in and came by and was able to pull it off. Unbelievable. If it wasn’t for Rick Hendrick, we would not be here today.”
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.
The 2020 Cup championship was the 13th for Hendrick Motorsports led by team owner Rick Hendrick and the first for veteran crew chief Alan Gustafson.
“It was a nail-biter,” Hendrick said. “You saw all the action when the race starts and you get swept up in a wreck. [Elliott] came through there like a champ…I’m excited about next year with our young guns. It’s just a roller coaster. You’re happy, sad, jubilant, teary. It’s all of that rolled up in one, but it couldn’t be any better other than Jimmie [Johnson] could’ve won the race and Chase won the championship. I’m so proud of Chase and I’m very thankful that Jimmie got to race with me his career and I look at all the championships and look at what a great guy he is off the track. That Chase is unbelievable. I don’t know how many he’s gonna win, but it’s gonna be a bunch…To finish [this season] with a championship, it’s just unbelievable. I don’t think it’s gonna sink in.”
“We’ve been close,” Gustafson added. “Man, a lot of good people have done a lot of good things for me. Got to thank all of them. Certainly, a great day. Sweet win here at Phoenix, which is a track I’ve won with three other guys with, so that’s cool, too. In the Playoffs, you’ve got to win. I think that’s the key. You got to win races. It’s different than the regular season. Everybody brings their best stuff and everybody’s on their A game. We knew we had to win. Last week was the big one. We knew we had to win to transfer. Winning when you have to like that when you’re back’s against the wall is a tough thing to do, but when you do it, it just brings a lot of momentum, a lot of confidence to the team. We knew coming here was a great track for us. We’re ready. We’ve been through a lot and we just knew it was our time.”
Behind Elliott, Keselowski finished in second place and emerged as the championship runner-up for his best points result since winning the 2012 Cup title. Teammate Logano finished in third place on the track and in the final standings despite leading 125 laps and displaying competitiveness on the track for his second Cup title.
“Man, just didn’t have the speed at the right time,” Logano said. “Early in the race, our Shell/Pennzoil Mustang was really fast and no one really did anything wrong. Our pit crew was on it. Our strategy got us out front there at the end. [Elliott] seemed like he really lit off pretty good there. That last run was able to go really fast. And got another vibration towards the end of the run and lost the turn. Still a little free. Yeah, we were close, and you know, everyone executed and did their job, and that’s what we should be most proud of. And also how far we’ve come from the beginning of the season until now as a team. A lot to be proud of. It stings not winning, I’m not going to lie, it hurts, but at the same time we’re stronger because we went through it…You either win or get stronger, and unfortunately we are the stronger ones today and we’ll get stronger, but we’ll be better for next year.”
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images.
“I would have liked to have had one of those late race yellows like we saw in the Truck and Xfinity race,” Keselowski said. “I thought we were pretty good there, just didn’t have the track position to make it show. I thought we had a shot at the end of the second stage and just couldn’t keep it up in spot to keep it where we could have a lead. Really proud of the speed we had. Just a solid day and just wish we had one more spot.”
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images.
Finally, Hamlin, who entered the finale while making his 15th attempt in winning his first Cup title, finished in fourth place on the track and in the final standings for the second year in a row after struggling with speed and keeping pace with his title rivals.
“We were a little off handling, but I think just overall car speed, just didn’t quite have enough,” Hamlin said. “We just, as an organization, got to get a little bit better, especially on the short tracks. It just seems like we were a little bit off all year and that was all I had, that’s for sure. I was pushing for everything I had. The FedEx Camry just didn’t quite have enough today. We ended up fourth…Pretty proud what this team’s doing and what we’re building forward. Proud of the effort. We’ll come back and do it again next year. Looking forward to it. We’ll win as many races as we possibly can to get ourselves back in Phoenix again with another shot. Proud of this whole Joe Gibbs FedEx team for giving me cars that are capable of winning every week.”
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images.
While Elliott celebrated a championship, Jimmie Johnson emerged with a smile upon exiting his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for the final time as he wrapped up his 19-year illustrious career in NASCAR with seven championships, 83 career wins, 36 poles, 232 top-five results, 374 top-10 results and over 18,000 laps led, all while driving the No. 48 car for Hendrick Motorsports.
“Man, my heart’s full,” Johnson said. “I’m just so happy to have this wonderful career and so many great people behind me. First and foremost, my wife, Chandra, [she’s] been with me every step of the way. My kids. This has just been quite a journey for all of us. I’m very thankful for today. [I] Had a great run on the track. I just can’t go without congratulating Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports on another championship. It’s been a great run. I’ve had 19 years in the Cup Series, two years in the Xfinity Series. I’ve met so many wonderful people, I’ve worked for great people, with great people. I learned so many lessons inside and out of the car. I’m full. This has been a great journey. I’m ready to spend my time a little bit differently instead of 38 weeks a year being on the road, racing in the Cup Series. Just ready for it and very full…I’ll be around.”
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.
Along with Johnson, Clint Bowyer finished 14th in his 541st and final Cup career race while Matt Kenseth finished 25th in his 697th and final scheduled race of his illustrious career. Bowyer will be succeeded by Chase Briscoe while Kenseth will be succeeded by Ross Chastain.
Seven-time championship-winning crew chief Chad Knaus called his 708th and final NASCAR Cup Series race as he will step down from the No. 24 team driven by William Byron and serve as Vice President of Competition for Hendrick Motorsports, beginning next season. Veteran Ryan “Rudy” Fugle will take over as Byron’s crew chief next season.
Christopher Bell finished 17th in the final NASCAR race for Leavine Family Racing while Ty Dillon finished 21st in the final NASCAR race for Germain Racing.
Bubba Wallace finished 15th in his 112th and final Cup race in the Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 43 Chevrolet, Alex Bowman finished 16th in his 118th and final race in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet before he takes over the No. 48 HMS Chevrolet, Erik Jones finished 22nd in his 110th and final race in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and Daniel Suarez finished 31st in his 35th and final race in the No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota.
Cole Custer was officially named the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year in a year where he won his first Cup career race and made the Playoffs.
There were 19 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 27 laps.
Results.
1. Chase Elliott, 153 laps led
2. Brad Keselowski, Stage 2 winner, 16 laps led
3. Joey Logano, Stage 1 winner, 125 laps led
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Jimmie Johnson, four laps led
6. Ryan Blaney, one lap led
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap led
9. William Byron
10. Martin Truex Jr.
11. Kyle Busch
12. Kurt Busch, four laps led
13. Aric Almirola, one lap down, seven laps led
14. Clint Bowyer, one lap down
15. Bubba Wallace, one lap down
16. Alex Bowman, one lap down
17. Christopher Bell, one lap down
18. Austin Dillon, one lap down
19. Tyler Reddick, one lap down
20. Chris Buescher, one lap down
21. Ty Dillon, one lap down
22. Erik Jones, one lap down
23. Michael McDowell, one lap down
24. Ryan Newman, one lap down
25. Matt Kenseth, one lap down
26. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down
27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps down, one lap led
28. Cole Custer, two laps down
29. Brennan Poole, three laps down
30. J.J. Yeley, six laps down
31. Daniel Suarez, six laps down
32. Joey Gase, 10 laps down
33. James Davison, 10 laps down
34. Ryan Preece, 13 laps down
35. Josh Bilicki, 16 laps down
36. Timmy Hill, 24 laps down
37. Garrett Smithley – OUT, Rear end
38. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Suspension
39. Quin Houff – OUT, Handling
Final standings.
1. Chase Elliott
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Joey Logano
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Alex Bowman
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. Kyle Busch
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Kurt Busch
11. Austin Dillon
12. Clint Bowyer
13. Matt DiBenedetto
14. William Byron
15. Aric Almirola
16. Cole Custer
Bold indicates Championship finale contenders.
The NASCAR Cup Series enters its off-season period before returning for the 2021 Daytona Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway, beginning on Tuesday, February 9, for the Busch Clash on the Daytona Road Course and leading up to the 63rd running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 14.
With a championship spot on the line and his back against the wall in the final laps and in a “must-win” scenario, Chase Elliott rose to the occasion and walked it off in style after dominating and pulling away late to win the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway and race his way into the Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway, where he will contend for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. The victory was Elliott’s first at Martinsville, fourth of the season and the 10th of his career in his 184th start in NASCAR’s premier series.
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, Brad Keselowski started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Martin Truex Jr. Garrett Smithley was the lone competitor who started at the rear of the field due to a driver change.
Prior to the race, Playoff contender Denny Hamlin faced early adversity when a travel packer was left in the shock of his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry during pre-race inspection. Hamlin’s team, however, opted to not remove it to not fall to the rear of the field as he will start in fourth place.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Brad Keselowski jumped ahead with the lead as he led the first lap ahead of Martin Truex Jr. Behind, Alex Bowman settled in third place in front of Denny Hamlin while Kurt Busch and Joey Logano overtook Kevin Harvick for fifth and sixth. Not long after, Chase Elliott joined the party along with Kyle Busch.
On the fourth lap, Truex emerged with the lead and Hamlin made contact with Keselowski’s No. 2 Dent Wizard Ford Mustang entering Turn 4 to move into second place. Kurt Busch, facing a “must-win” situation, also made a move for third beneath Keselowski, who was able to settle in front of Bowman.
By Lap 10, Truex, racing in his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, continued to lead the race over teammate Hamlin with Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Bowman in the top five. By then, Elliott, Logano, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Harvick were in the top 10. Way behind the leaders, Michael McDowell was back in 28th place and he continued to fall below the leaderboard while dealing with a major left-rear tire rub on his No. 34 Ford Mustang.
A few laps later, the left-rear tire on McDowell’s car flattened, but he was able to nurse his car back to pit road as the race proceeded under green. The situation went from bad to worse for McDowell, who was hit with a commitment line violation and was hit with a speeding penalty while serving a pass-through penalty, thus pinning him multiple laps behind the leaders.
By Lap 20, Truex stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Hamlin, who had Kurt Busch and Keselowski closing in on him for the runner-up spot. Elliott was in fifth followed by teammate Bowman, Logano, Blaney, Kyle Busch and Harvick. By then, Clint Bowyer was in 12th ahead of Matt DiBenedetto and William Byron while Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were in the top 20. Tyler Reddick was in 21st ahead of Ryan Preece, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson were in 25th and 26th, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez were in 28th and 29th and Chris Buescher was in 30th.
By Lap 30, Truex continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Hamlin while Kurt Busch, racing in his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, continued to pressure Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Elliott muscled his way into fourth place over Keselowski while Bowman, Logano, Blaney, Harvick and Kyle Busch continued to run in the top 10.
When 40 of 500 laps were complete, Truex stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over teammate Hamlin, who had Kurt Busch and Elliott closing in for the runner-up spot. Keselowski continued to run in fifth place followed by teammates Blaney and Logano. Bowman fell back to eighth in front of Harvick and Kyle Busch.
With 50 laps complete, Truex continued to lead while Elliott, who bumped Hamlin a lap earlier, made a move beneath Hamlin to move his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into second place. Kurt Busch dropped back to fourth place as Keselowski closed in for more. Logano was in seventh behind teammate Blaney while Bowman and Harvick were in ninth and 10th behind Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry.
With the leaders mired in lapped traffic, Elliott was able to narrow the deficit between himself and Truex to as close to two-tenths of a seconds. It was not enough, however, to overtake Truex, who retained the lead when the competition caution flew on Lap 60. By then, the remaining eight Playoff contenders remained in the top 10 on the track, with Harvick and Bowman mired back in ninth and 10th.
Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Truex retained the lead following a stellar four-tire pit stop and exiting pit road in first place ahead of Elliott, Logano, Keselowski, Bowman, Hamlin and Harvick. Kurt Busch, who entered pit road in the top five, fell all the way back to 12th place for the restart.
The race resumed under green on Lap 68 with Truex and Elliott on the front row followed by Logano, Keselowski, Bowman and Hamlin. At the start, Truex cleared the field and retained the lead while Elliott and Logano battled for second. Behind, Clint Bowyer suffered a left-rear tire rub, but he continued to run inside the top 15.
By Lap 70, Truex was at the front while Elliott, who lost second place to Logano, reassumed the spot following contact with Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang while Keselowski and Hamlin were in the top five ahead of Bowman and Blaney.
Three laps later, the caution returned when contact from teammate Aric Almirola entering Turn 1 sent Bowyer spinning sideways and Austin Dillon had to slam on the brakes to avoid making contact into Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford Mustang.
The race restarted under green six laps later with Truex and Elliott on the front row. At the start, Truex retained the lead over Elliott while Hamlin retained third place on the outside lane over Logano. Keselowski was in fifth in front of Bowman and Blaney while Kurt Busch was in eighth ahead of Kyle Busch and Harvick.
By Lap 85, the front-runners settled into a single-file line of racing with Truex leading by a narrow margin over Elliott while Hamlin and Logano battled for third place. Keselowski continued to race in fifth while teammate Blaney overtook Bowman for sixth. Kurt Busch and Harvick continued to run in eighth and 10th with Kyle Busch mired in ninth.
On Lap 88, the No. 9 Chevrolet of Elliott blasted by Truex’s No. 19 Toyota for the lead in Turn 4 while Hamlin and Logano continued to battle for third place with teammates Keselowski and Blaney in fifth and sixth.
When the race reached its 100-lap mark, Elliott was leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over Truex with Hamlin in third. Behind, Team Penske’s Logano, Blaney and Keselowski battled for fourth place while Bowman and Kurt Busch continued to run in seventh and eighth. Harvick, meanwhile, was mired back in 11th in between William Byron and Almirola. Cole Custer was in 13th followed by Ryan Newman and Matt DiBenedetto.
The caution returned on Lap 104 when the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by Garrett Smithley stopped on the track in Turn 4. Under caution, most of the leaders led by Hamlin and Logano pitted while Elliott and Truex were among six competitors who remained on the track. Following the pit stops, however, Blaney was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Bubba Wallace was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for removing equipment from his pit box.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 109, Elliott retained the lead over Truex. In Turn 2, Bowyer ran into the rear bumper of teammate Almirola and moved him out of the racing groove as a possible payback from their earlier on-track altercation and incident. Following the contact with his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Almirola made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. entering Turn 4 while trying to fall back in line amid a tight pack of racing.
Back towards the front, Hamlin moved into third place over Bowyer while Bowman was in fifth. By then, Keselowski and Logano were in the top 10 while Kurt Busch and Harvick were running outside of the top 10 on the track.
On Lap 113, Hamlin, racing on four fresh tires compared to Elliott and Truex, emerged with the lead after passing Elliott. Not long after, the caution returned when Joey Gase spun in Turn 4 following contact with Quin Houff.
With 10 laps remaining in the first stage, the race resumed under green with Hamlin and Elliott on the front row. At the start, Hamlin retained the lead and Elliott retained the runner-up spot. Behind, Bowman, racing on fresh tires, muscled his way into third place over Truex with Keselowski in fifth.
With the laps in the first stage coming to a close, Bowman overtook teammate Elliott for second place while Keselowski made his way into fourth place over Truex with Logano joining the party. By then, Hamlin was gone as he led by more than a second over Bowman’s No. 88 Planters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.
With the on-track battles ensuing behind, Hamlin was able to cruise away from the field and claim the first stage on Lap 130 for his 11th stage victory of the season. Bowman crossed the line in second place followed by Keselowski while Elliott held off Logano for fourth. Truex fell back to sixth followed by Kyle Busch, Byron, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson. Harvick settled in 14th in between Bowyer and Matt Kenseth.
Under the stage break, most of the leaders pitted and following the pit stops, Elliott exited in first place followed by Hamlin and Truex. Back on the track, Kyle Busch emerged with the lead after remaining on the track followed by brother Kurt Busch, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon, Almirola and Bubba Wallace. Following the pit stops, Kenseth was penalized for improper fueling.
The second stage started on Lap 139 with the Busch brothers on the front row. At the start, brothers Kyle and Kurt battled dead even for the lead. Following an intense battle for the next several laps, Kurt cleared his brother Kyle for the lead with Custer in third. Behind, Elliott and Hamlin, both on fresh tires, carved their way int the top five.
On Lap 145, just as Elliott and Hamlin were up in third and fourth behind Kyle Busch, the caution returned when Buescher’s No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang spewed fluid and smoke on the track following an earlier contact with Suarez, an issues that ended Buescher’s race up in smoke and in the garage. Buescher’s engine issues occurred in front of Harvick, who was mired back in 25th and currently scored outside of the top-four cutline for the Championship 4 finale.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 158, Kurt Busch retained the lead ahead of Elliott while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Hamlin were in third and fourth. Behind, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer and Almirola battled for fifth place in front of Truex. Logano was 10th behind Ty Dillon and Wallace while Bowman was in 12th. Keselowski was in 15th while Harvick was back in 26th.
On Lap 162, Elliott reassumed the lead following a pass on Kurt Busch in Turn 4. Shortly after, Hamlin made his way into second place while Kurt Busch remained in third place in front of brother Kyle. By then, Keselowski was mired back in 17th while Harvick could only work his way up to 24th place behind DiBenedetto.
By Lap 170, Elliott extended his advantage to more than a second over Hamlin while Kurt Busch continued to run in third place ahead of teammates Kyle Busch and Truex. Behind, Logano moved into sixth place over Almirola while Custer, Johnson and Byron were in the top 10 ahead of Bowman.
On Lap 180, Harvick made an unscheduled pit stop to address a flat left-rear tire on his No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang as a result of an earlier contact with Kenseth. The misfortune cost Harvick two laps from the leaders.
Back at the front, Elliott stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over Hamlin with Truex, Kurt Busch and Logano in the top five.
On Lap 185, the caution returned for Brennan Poole, who made contact into the outside wall due to a flat left-front tire. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Elliott exited the pits with the lead over Hamlin, Truex, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch. Following the pit stop, Erik Jones made another pit stop due to removing equipment from his pit box.
When the race restarted on Lap 192, Elliott retained the lead over Truex with Hamlin settling behind his teammate for the spot. Kurt Busch retained fourth while Kyle Busch and Bowman battled for fifth. Logano moved up to seventh while Blaney, Byron and Custer were in the top 10.
With the race reaching its 200-lap mark, Elliott stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Hamlin with teammate Truex in third. The Busch brothers were in the top five followed by Logano, Bowman, Blaney, Custer and Bowyer were in the top 10. Keselowski was in 11th ahead of Byron while Harvick was in 31st, the first car a lap down to the leaders.
By Lap 210, Elliott continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Truex with teammate Hamlin trailing by more than two seconds. Kurt Busch and Logano were in the top five while Keselowski and Bowman were in eighth and ninth. Harvick was still mired back in 31st place.
Six laps later, the caution returned when Ryan Preece spun in Turn 3 following contact from John Hunter Nemechek. At the time of caution, Elliott lapped Timmy Hill and Hill received the free pass to return to the lead lap, leaving Harvick still trapped a lap behind the leaders. Under caution, some of the leaders led by Elliott and Truex pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.
The race restarted on Lap 221 with Hamlin and Logano on the front row. At the start, Hamlin retained the lead while Blaney challenged and overtook teammate Logano for second place. Teammate Keselowski was in fourth followed by Bowman while Byron was in sixth. Behind, Elliott, racing on fresh tires, muscled his way into 10th place while Truex was stuck in 13th.
While Elliott continued to carve his way back to the front, Hamlin continued to lead Penske’s three-car lineup of Blaney, Keselowski and Logano with Bowman in fifth. Shortly after, Elliott overtook teammates Byron and Bowman to move back into the top five. Truex was in eighth place while Kurt Busch was in 14th behind Erik Jones.
Just as the field passed the Lap 230 mark, Elliott worked his way back to third place while Hamlin continued to lead by nearly half a second over Blaney. Keselowski and Logano dropped back to fourth and fifth while Truex overtook Bowman for sixth place. By then, Kurt Busch returned to the top 10. Harvick was still back in 31st place.
On Lap 239, Elliott carved his way back into the lead after passing Hamlin. Blaney settled in third behind Hamlin while Truex worked his way back to fourth place. Keselowski fell back to fifth ahead of Kyle Busch, Logano, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Byron.
By Lap 245, leader Elliott started to catch lapped traffic. He went on to lap J.J. Yeley and Timmy Hill, which placed Harvick in another deficit as he was no longer scored the first car a lap behind and currently scored outside of the cutline to the championship finale round. Behind Elliott, Hamlin continued to run in second place while Truex moved into third place. Blaney fell back to fourth while Kyle Busch was in fifth place ahead of brother Kurt.
With less than 10 laps remaining in the second stage and with the overall race surpassing its halfway mark, Truex passed teammate Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Elliott was ahead by more than three seconds. He soon started to catch teammate Jimmie Johnson to place him a lap behind while Blaney mounted a challenge on Hamlin for third place.
With no challengers closing in behind his No. 9 Chevrolet, Elliott coasted across the start/finish line to win the second stage on Lap 260 and for his 10th stage victory of the season. Truex settled in second while Hamlin held off Blaney and Kurt Busch, all of whom settled in the top five. Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Logano, Bowman and Newman settled in the top 10. Harvick was mired back in 31st place and scored the third car a lap down to the leaders.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Elliott retained the lead following a stellar pit stop and exiting the pits ahead of Truex, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Logano. During the pit stops, Hamlin suffered a slow pit stop due to issues getting the left-front tire on his No. 11 Toyota as he exited in eighth place. Afterwards, Hamlin made another pit stop to have the lug nuts on his car tightened as he dropped all the way towards the tail end of the field.
With 233 laps remaining, the final stage commenced with Elliott and Truex on the front row. At the start, Elliott retained the lead over Truex while Kurt Busch retained third place. Logano moved into fourth place over teammate Blaney and Kyle Busch while Bowman and Keselowski were in seventh and eighth.
With 220 laps remaining, Elliott stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Truex with Kurt Busch, Logano and Blaney in the top five. Kyle Busch was in sixth followed by Bowman, Keselowski, Bowyer and Almirola. Hamlin was mired back in 24th while Harvick was trapped in 30th, a lap behind the leaders and still scored outside of the championship finale cutline, with Elliott currently in by leading the race.
Ten laps later, with 210 laps remaining, Elliott stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Truex with Logano, Blaney and Kurt Busch still in the top five. Kyle Busch retained sixth place while Keselowski closed in on Bowman for seventh. Bowyer and Byron rounded out the top 10 ahead of Almirola, Newman, Jones, Custer and Corey LaJoie. By then, Hamlin was in 21st behind Stenhouse.
Down to the final 200 laps of the race, Elliott continued to lead by less than a second over Truex with Blaney trailing by less than three seconds. Logano and Kurt Busch were in the top five followed by Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Bowman, Bowyer and Almirola. By then, 28 of 39 competitors on the track were on the lead lap, with John Hunter Nemechek scored the first car a lap behind in 29th and Harvick mired back in 30th place. Hamlin, meanwhile, was in 18th behind Christopher Bell, but he remained above the top-four cutline to the championship finale round.
Twenty laps later, with 180 laps remaining, Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet was still out in front of the pack as he approached lapped traffic. Truex, who nearly closed in on Elliott for the lead, dropped to nearly a second of a deficit behind Elliott. Blaney was back in third place followed by Logano and Kurt Busch while Keselowski overtook Kyle Busch for sixth. Bowman, Almirola and Bowyer continued to run in the top 10 while Hamlin was in 17th behind Ty Dillon. Harvick, meanwhile, was back in 28th.
As the laps progressed, Harvick was far from being the first car a lap down as Daniel Suarez, Nemechek, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon were all lapped by Elliott.
Another 20 laps later, with 160 laps remaining, Elliott’s advantage grew to more than a second over Truex while Logano overtook teammate Blaney for third place. Kurt Busch and Keselowski were in fifth and sixth while Bowman was in eighth. Hamlin was in 16th behind Corey LaJoie while Harvick was still in 28th, a lap behind. By then, 20 cars were scored on the lead lap with 21st-place competitor Kenseth being lapped.
Down to the final 150 laps of the race, the No. 9 Chevrolet of Elliott was leading by nearly two seconds over Truex with Logano behind by more than two seconds. Moments after, the caution flew due to Timmy Hill cutting a right-rear tire in Turn 2. Prior to the caution, Jimmie Johnson made a pit stop due to a flat tire.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Logano edged Truex to assume the lead upon exiting pit road followed by Blaney, Elliott and Kurt Busch. Following the pit stops, however, the situation went from bad to worse for Elliott, who was tagged with an over the wall penalty thanks to his Jackman upon his pit stop. For the moment, Elliott remained on the track as his team went to work in appealing the penalty. Moments before the restart, NASCAR rescinded the penalty due to his Jackman running back to the pit stall upon jumping over it too soon.
The race restarted under green with 142 laps remaining with teammates Logano and Blaney on the front row. At the start, Logano retained the lead over teammate Blaney with Kurt Busch in third ahead of Elliott and Keselowski. By then, with Logano leading, Harvick moved back into the top-four cutline by a narrow margin over Elliott.
With 132 laps remaining, Blaney passed teammate Logano for the lead. By then, Elliott moved into third place ahead of Keselowski and Kurt Busch, Truex was in sixth ahead of Bowman, Hamlin was in 12th and Harvick was in 23rd, the second car a lap behind with Bubba Wallace in front of him.
Twelve laps later, with 120 laps remaining, Blaney continued to lead by nearly a second over teammate Logano as Elliott continued to close in on Logano for the runner-up spot. Truex was in fifth behind Keselowski, Kurt Busch was in sixth ahead of Bowman, Hamlin was back in 14th and Harvick was in 22nd, the first car scored a lap behind.
With 110 laps remaining, Blaney stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Logano with Elliott trailing by more than two seconds as he started to have Keselowski close in for position. Truex was back in fifth place and in front of Kurt Busch and Bowman while Byron, Bowyer and Almirola were in the top 10. Hamlin retained 14th while Harvick settled in 22nd, a lap behind.
With 100 laps remaining, the caution returned when James Davison stopped on the track in Turn 2. The caution served as a well-timing welcome for Harvick, who was able to return to the lead lap after being scored the first competitor a lap behind in 22nd.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Logano reassumed the lead following another strong pit stop, with teammates Blaney and Keselowski, Truex and Bowman exiting in the top five. Elliott, who entered in third place, fell back to eighth place following a slow pit stop. Following the pit stops, disaster struck for Keselowski, who was busted with a speeding penalty and sent to the rear of the field. After returning to the lead lap, Harvick was scored back inside the top-four cutline by a decent margin.
With 92 laps remaining, the race restarted under green with Logano and Truex on the front row. At the start, Truex bolted ahead with the lead on the outside lane. Logano retained the runner-up spot and Blaney muscled his way into third place while Kyle Busch retained fourth place over Bowman. Behind, teammates Bowyer and Almirola battled for sixth in front of Elliott while Jones and Hamlin were in the top 10.
Down to the final 80 laps of the race, Truex, facing a “must-win” situation, was leading the field and over Penske teammates Blaney and Logano while Kyle Busch and Bowyer were in the top five. Elliott, Bowman and Hamlin were in sixth, seventh and eighth while Kurt Busch was in 11th. Keselowski, following his pit road speeding penalty, was in 16th and a few points below the cutline while Harvick was in 19th and currently inside the cutline by a narrow margin.
Five laps later, with 75 laps remaining, Truex stabilized his advantage by more than a second over Blaney with Logano trailing by more than two seconds. Elliott carved his way back into fourth place while Bowyer was in fifth ahead of Bowman. With Hamlin in eighth, Keselowski was in 15th behind Byron while Harvick was in 18th behind Ryan Newman.
Another five laps later, with 70 laps remaining, the deficit between Keselowski and Harvick to the cutline to the championship finale round was down to a single point with Harvick, running in 18th, retaining the spot for a moment as Keselowski was in 14th behind Byron.
As the run under the lights progressed, Elliott, who was now scored outside of the cutline, passed Logano for third place while Kurt Busch faded back to 10th place, two spots behind Hamlin. While Keselowski moved up to 12th, Harvick was still mired back in 18th behind Newman, who refused to surrender his spot.
With 59 laps remaining, the caution returned when William Byron spun due to a flat tire and made hard contact into the Turn 3 outside wall, thus demolishing the rear end of his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Truex retained the lead after exiting pit road ahead of Logano, Elliott, Blaney, Bowman and Kyle Busch. Back on the track, Corey LaJoie remained on the track to assume the overall lead.
The race restarted under green with 51 laps remaining with LaJoie and Truex on the front row. At the start, Truex bolted ahead of LaJoie and the field for the lead while Logano and Elliott made a three-wide move on LaJoie in Turn 4 to move up with Elliott in second. While LaJoie was shuffled out of the picture, Elliott started to close in on Truex for the lead and a spot for the championship finale round. Logano was in third followed by Bowman and Kyle Busch while Kurt Bush was in sixth ahead of Blaney, Bowyer, Hamlin and DiBenedetto.
With 45 laps remaining, the battle for the lead intensified as Elliott shoved his nose beneath Truex for the lead, though Truex retained his spot. Behind, Bowman started to challenge Logano for third place.
Two laps later, the No. 9 Chevrolet of Elliott returned to the lead. By then, Elliott moved back into the cutline while Truex was shoved out. In addition, Harvick, who was back in 14th, was scored a single point ahead of Keselowski, who was in 10th, for another spot in the finale.
Down to 40 laps remaining, Elliott started to stretch his advantage to more than a second over Truex with Logano, Bowman and Blaney in the top five. The Busch brothers were in sixth and seventh while Hamlin, Bowyer and Keselowski were in the top 10. Harvick was in 14th behind Jones and following on-track contact with Jones’ No. 20 Toyota Camry.
With 30 laps remaining, Elliott continued to stretch his advantage to more than two seconds over Truex, who radioed concerns about a possible loose right-front tire on his No. 19 Toyota Camry. Logano, Blaney and Bowman continued to run in the top five while Kurt Busch and Hamlin were in sixth and 11th. Keselowski carved his way to eighth behind Kyle Busch while Harvick was in 13th behind DiBenedetto.
A few laps later, Truex surrendered his spot on the track to pit under green to address the loose wheel on his car. The pit stop all but evaporated Truex’s hopes of advancing to the Championship 4 round and contending for his second Cup title.
Back on the track, Harvick was in 12th behind Hamlin and scored below the cutline by a narrow margin while Keselowski, who was in fifth, moved back into the top-four cutline. Meanwhile, Elliott continued to flex his muscles as he led by more than four seconds over Blaney with Logano, Bowman and Keselowski in the top five.
Down to the final 20 leaps of the race, Elliott was still leading by more than four seconds over Blaney with Logano, Bowman and Keselowski in the top five. Kurt Busch was in sixth ahead of Kyle Busch, Almirola, Bowyer and DiBenedetto while Harvick passed Hamlin for 11th. By then, Hamlin’s hopes of advancing to the finale started to become dim as Hamlin, who was overtaken by Harvick for position, retained the final transfer spot to the finale by a narrow margin.
With 10 laps remaining, Elliott extended his advantage to more than five seconds over Blaney with Logano, Bowman and Keselowski in the top five. Kurt Busch was in sixth, Harvick was in 11th and Hamlin was in 12th while trying to fend off teammate Erik Jones for position.
Shortly after, Keselowski passed Bowman for fourth. By then, Keselowski and Hamlin were inside the cutline by a narrow margin while Harvick was outside by a narrow margin.
Down to the final five laps of the race, Elliott’s advantage grew to nearly six seconds as he was on his way to the finale. Keselowski continued to run in fourth, Harvick continued to battle DiBenedetto for 10th while Hamlin was still in 12th in front of Jones. By then, Harvick was scored out of the cutline by a single point behind Keselowski and Hamlin. In addition, Hamlin had teammate Jones and Custer close in for position.
When the white flag waved, Elliott was leading by more than six seconds. Keselowski was still in fourth behind teammates Blaney and Logano, Harvick was in 10th and Hamlin was in 12th.
With no challengers close behind his No. 9 Chevrolet, Elliott was able to smoothly navigate his way back to the finish line and claim his fourth checkered flag of the season.
By winning his first grandfather clock at Martinsville and earning his career-best fourth victory of the 2020 campaign, Elliott, who was in his fourth appearance in the Round of 8 in the Playoffs, earned a one-way ticket to the Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway, the site of the finale, for the first time in his career. Elliott’s victory was also the record-leading 25th at Martinsville Speedway for Hendrick Motorsports as this also marks the first time since 2016 where a HMS and Chevrolet competitor will be a part of the Championship 4 round for the season finale.
“Oh, my gosh,” Elliott said on the frontstretch. “This is the biggest win ever for us. I’m just so proud to be able to be backed into a corner like that and have to win tonight. I feel like that’s what we’ve been missing these past four or five years and perform when we don’t have a choice. And, to do that tonight; we couldn’t ask for a better night. This is unreal. Thanks to the fans for coming out. They’re here and I love to see it! I’ve just got to catch my breath. This is just unbelievable. We’re going to Phoenix with a shot to win a championship and have a beautiful blue NAPA Camaro headed out there with a shot to win a title. What more could you ask for?”
Moments after Elliott won, all eyes were focused on Harvick, who closed in on Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota for ninth place. Needing Busch’s spot to have any hopes of making the finale, Harvick made contact with Kyle Busch entering Turn 4. Harvick’s plan to gain the spot, however, did not work as he also spun and came to rest on the inside wall and short of the finish line. His wreck allowed Keselowski and Hamlin to claim the final spots to the Championship 4 round while Harvick, who won a season-high nine races and was a potential title favorite, was left out of the title picture by eight points.
Blaney finished in second place followed by Logano, Keselowski and Kurt Busch. Bowman, Almirola and Bowyer finished sixth, seventh and eighth while Kyle Busch limped across the line in ninth. Hamlin finished 11th while Harvick salvaged a 17th-place result, the final car on the lead lap. Truex came home in 22nd.
Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski will compete for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
“Just lost the handling there as soon as it went night,” Hamlin, who made it into the finale by nine points, said. “We were not very good. A lot of that too, I got up into sixth or seventh and some guys teammates were kind of rubbing up against you and it’s like, ‘yeah, I don’t want to cut a tire,’ so I backed out of that. Then we just fell to a spot that was a little more open. Proud of this whole FedEx Shipathon Toyota team. I feel bad for Kevin [Harvick], they probably deserve better than that. It’s just the format, I guess. Everything you do for eight innings doesn’t matter if you don’t have a great ninth inning. It’s just tough to see. I really wish we were going to race those guys next week. It will be a tough battle with those other three that we’re going to have to race. We’re definitely going to have to step up our short track program…If you have a bad race or two in a three-race series, you’re out. We’re very fortunate with our FedEx team to be able to lean on all the work that we did in the regular season, to get Playoffs points, win the most stages throughout the season than anyone else. We’re optimistic. We’ll see.”
“There was nothing I could do other than just pass as many cars as I could, look forward,” Keselowski, who transferred by eight points, said. “The last two runs, I don’t know if we were the best car, but we were close to it. Credits to [crew chief] Jeremy Bullins and the team. They just kept adjusting on it at the end. It was just frustrating because that pit road speeding penalty, I just did not see that coming. The place where I got the penalty was right outside my box. I didn’t even think it was possible to speed right there, but I was wrong. I know we’ve got great cars on these short tracks and one-mile track. We bring this kind of effort at the end of the race at Phoenix, we got a great shot at [the title].”
Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images.
Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch have been eliminated from the Playoffs and will set their title hopes for next season.
“Everybody kept battling there,” Harvick said. “I tried to run into the door of [Kyle Busch] as a last-ditch effort there and spun him out. Sorry to put him in a middle of trying to gain a point. Not a great three weeks. Didn’t go our way. We fought for everything we had and just came up short. These championships aren’t like winning like Petty and Earnhardt use to win them. You have to put them together three weeks at a time. It comes down to one race and it came down to one race for us tonight, and came up short.”
Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images.
“We had a great car all day long and just kept making adjustments waiting for it to cool off and get dark,” Truex, who fell 52 points shy, said. “That last run there before the final pit stop, the thing was on rails and it was perfect and we were driving away. I felt really good about it. Then we pitted and had a pretty good pit stop. Came out with the lead and right away I knew something was wrong. I was really, really tight and had a vibration.[Elliott] passed us and we started dropping and had to pit for a loose wheel. Unfortunate. I think we should be the one in Victory Lane right now, but you have to do it all. Just a little mistake there.”
“I drive this place so wrong,” Bowman, who fell 28 points shy, said. “I try to roll the centers really fast. We get it turned in and I’m like, ‘Oh, now, I don’t have any drive off.’ I look at the data and know what I need to do differently. Still can’t seem to figure out how to do it. All in all, a good day for our Planters Camaro. Really proud of Chase to make the Final Four…Bummed we’re not a part of that, but I think we have a solid shot at getting fifth in points. The progress this team’s made over the last two months has been incredible and I think that’s something they really deserve. We’ll go do all we can to make that happen at Phoenix. Driving this No. 88 car’s been special. Being a part of the Round of 8 was great. I think we had one of the best, if not the best average finish over the past three races. Just didn’t have the Playoff points coming in. We gotta perform every week like we have the last 12 or 13 weeks. We gotta do that all season long to be in contention to go to Phoenix. We gotta do a better job of that next year, but looking forward to the challenge.”
“We gave it all we had,” Kurt Busch, who fell 86 points shy, said. “Real proud of my guys. Chip Ganassi Racing put up a really good fight this year to get this far. To win and post top fives throughout the Playoffs, we crossed over a threshold. Last week, we finished seventh at Texas, fifth tonight and we’re walking around kicking the ground. When I started here two years ago, we finished in the top five and we’re celebrating. We’ve come that far in this short amount of time and I’m really proud of everybody back at the shop. To come here with a shot at it, we knew we had to win. It takes a team all the way through…Our weakest area was pit road and we know we need to work on that, but all in all, I can’t thank everybody enough. It’s cool to see the evolution of where we’ve come in two years.”
For other notables on the field, Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson finished eighth and 30th in their penultimate runs at Martinsville while Kenseth finished 14th in his penultimate run of this season with his racing status for the future uncertain. Christopher Bell finished 15th in the penultimate Cup run for Leavine Family Racing while Ty Dillon finished 16th in the penultimate Cup run for Germain Racing.
With one race remaining to the 2020 Cup Series season, Ford wrapped up the manufacturers’ title for the 17th time, first since 2018 and the first with the Ford Mustang stock car in the Cup circuit.
There were 20 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured 12 cautions for 83 laps.
Results.
1. Chase Elliott, 236 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Ryan Blaney, 36 laps led
3. Joey Logano, 19 laps led
4. Brad Keselowski, three laps led
5. Kurt Busch, 23 laps led
6. Alex Bowman, one lap led
7. Aric Almirola
8. Clint Bowyer
9. Kyle Busch, five laps led
10. Matt DiBenedetto
11. Denny Hamlin, 42 laps led, Stage 1
12. Erik Jones
13. Cole Custer
14. Matt Kenseth
15. Christopher Bell
16. Ty Dillon
17. Kevin Harvick
18. Ryan Newman, one lap down
19. Ryan Preece, one lap down
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. one lap down
21. Bubba Wallace, one lap down
22. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down, 129 laps led
23. Austin Dillon, two laps down
24. Tyler Reddick, two laps down
25. Corey LaJoie, two laps down, six laps led
26. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps down
27. Daniel Suarez, three laps down
28. Michael McDowell, three laps down
29. Timmy Hill, five laps down
30. Jimmie Johnson, five laps down
31. J.J. Yeley, six laps down
32. Josh Bilicki, 10 laps down
33. Quin Houff, 11 laps down
34. Joey Gase – OUT, Electrical
35. William Byron – OUT, Accident
36. James Davison – OUT, Electrical
37. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident
38. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident
39. Garrett Smithley – OUT, Electrical
Bold indicates Playoff contenders.
Playoff Standings
1. Joey Logano – Advanced
2. Chase Elliott – Advanced
3. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
4. Brad Keselowski – Advanced
5. Kevin Harvick – Eliminated
6. Alex Bowman – Eliminated
7. Martin Truex Jr. – Eliminated
8. Kurt Busch – Eliminated
The NASCAR Cup Series will travel to Phoenix Raceway for the season-finale 500-mile race and where the 2020 Cup champion will be crowned. The finale will occur on Sunday, November 8, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
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.
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.
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.
In this strange year we are living in, the hits keep on coming. I have never known in 50 years of following the sport so many changes. Yes, Jimmie Johnson will hang up his fire suit and maybe go try IndyCar racing. Racing teams are closing their doors. Drivers continue to change seats. One is Clint Bowyer. He announced today that he will retire as the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang at the end of the 2020 season. . It is a given that his seat will not stay open long. The rumor mill is that NASCAR Xfinity points leader Chase Briscoe will get the ride but nothing has been released by SHR as of this writing. With the exit of Bowyer, one can assume Chase Briscoe will get his wish and head to the Cup series.
This writer has always found Bowyer to be a breath of fresh air. In his time at Richard Childress Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, and SHR, among others, he approached racing with humor and a homespun way of presenting his views on life and racing. He will join the Fox Sports NASCAR coverage, a job that suits him well. He will fill the void left by Darrell Waltrip in the booth and at the track. Congratulations to him.
Bowyer will close the book on his racing career, and we will never forget his antics on and off the track. His mad run on foot to catch up with Jeff Gordon at Phoenix and his typical Kansas inspired language. His 10 wins at the Cup level were not a huge number but the 41-year-old driver was a joy to watch. Luckily, we will have him for half the season each year on television. Good luck to him.
In a controversial finish for the ages, Denny Hamlin concluded a conservative afternoon of running towards the rear of the field to emerge victorious on the final lap in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 4.
Entering the final turn, Hamlin was in fifth place. He then made a controversial move on the apron and below the double yellow line zone to avoid contact between teammate Erik Jones and Chris Buescher before he outraced Matt DiBenedetto and William Byron across the tri-oval to emerge out in front at the finish line and grab the win. The victory at Talladega all but advanced Hamlin into the Round of 8 in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
The starting lineup was based on four statistical categories: current owner 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 started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Kurt Busch, winner of last weekend’s Playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Prior to the race, Cody Ware started at the rear of the field due to a driver change along with Brennan Poole and Timmy Hill, both due to failing pre-race technical inspection twice.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Hamlin received a push from teammate Martin Truex Jr. to jump to an early lead through the backstretch. Just as the field was entering Turn 3, the first caution of the race flew when Christopher Bell spun in the middle of the turn after cutting a left-rear tire and was hit on the left side by Tyler Reddick, who sustained front-nose damage to the front of his No. 8 Caterpillar Next Gen Dozers Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. In addition, Bubba Wallace made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while avoiding the wreck while Ty Dillon received little damage from the wreck. Following the wreck, all but Bell continued.
The race restarted under green on Lap 4 with Hamlin and Kurt Busch on the front row. At the start, Hamlin jumped ahead with the lead and moved in front of teammates Truex and Kyle Busch on the outside lane while also blocking both lanes with Kurt Busch leading the inside lane.
By the sixth lap, the three Joe Gibbs Racing Playoff contenders led by Hamlin and followed by Truex and Kyle Busch were leading the field followed by Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski. Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman were running in the top 10 with Chase Elliott running in 11th place.
The caution returned a few laps later when contact from John Hunter Nemechek sent Stenhouse sliding in Turn 4 before he backed his No. 47 Hungry Jack Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE hard into the inside wall with significant rear-end damage. The wreck was enough to end Stenhouse’s day in the garage.
Following two early cautions of the race, the race restarted under green on Lap 13 with teammates Hamlin and Truex on the front row. At the start, Hamlin moved his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry in front of teammate Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry on the inside lane to retain the lead while Harvick made a move beneath Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry to move into third place, thus moving Busch in the middle lane. With the field entering the backstretch, a third lane started forming with Brad Keselowski peaking to the outside lane followed by Bowyer. Shortly after, the caution flew due to Corey LaJoie stalling his car just past the start/finish line.
The race restarted on Lap 15 with teammates Hamlin and Truex on the front row. At the start, Hamlin retained the lead and was able to block all runs from the top lane led by Harvick and the bottom lane with Truex trailing behind while continuing to lead the race when the field cycled back to the start/finish line.
On Lap 17, Joey Logano, racing in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang, emerged with the lead following a run on the outside lane of Hamlin and receiving a push from Harvick. The following lap, the field expanded to three lanes with Hamlin leading the middle lane and Truex leading the inside lane while Logano continued to lead the race on the outside lane.
Not long after, Hamlin was able to move in front of Logano’s front nose on the outside lane in Turn 3 to reassume the lead. With that, Hamlin emerged out in front of Logano and Harvick while Keselowski and Bowyer were in the top five.
By Lap 22, names like Cole Custer, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez and Matt DiBenedetto were running in the top 10 while Hamlin continued to lead Logano, Harvick and Bowyer. In addition, the field settled into racing on two lanes with a majority racing on the outside lane led by Hamlin and some racing on the inside lane led by DiBenedetto.
The following lap, the inside lane led by DiBenedetto gained a run for the lead through the tri-oval and entering Turn 4, but Hamlin moved in front of DiBenedetto to block the run. Through the following lap, Hamlin was able to block both lanes with a number of competitors charging with runs and retain the lead when the competition caution flew on Lap 25. By then, six of the remaining 12 Playoff contenders led by Hamlin were running in the top 10 while Truex and Austin Dillon were in 11th and 12th. Elliott was in 14th while Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman and Keselowski were in 21st, 22nd and 23rd.
Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Aric Almirola, racing in his No. 10 Smithfield Power Bites Ford Mustang, emerged with the lead after only taking fuel to his car. Logano, Bowyer, DiBenedetto, Hamlin and Blaney, all of whom also went with fuel only on their stops, followed suit. During the pit stops, Bowyer nearly made contact with Matt Kenseth while exiting his pit stall while Kenseth was trying to enter his. In addition, Kyle Busch overshot his pit stall and dropped all the way back to 15th place. Also, Chase Elliott was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road.
The race restarted under green on Lap 30 and Almirola jumped ahead with the lead while receiving a push from DiBenedetto. The following lap, four Fords were running first through fourth with Almirola leading followed by Ryan Blaney, DiBenedetto and Joey Logano.
Entering the backstretch, Hamlin dropped below the double yellow line and surrendered his track position towards the front to fall to the rear of the field and avoid the early pack racing. The following lap, Harvick dropped his No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang below the double yellow line and surrendered his track position towards the front to fall to the rear of the field and avoid the early pack racing.
At the front, two lanes formed with Blaney and his No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang leading the outside lane and going for the lead while Almirola continued to lead from the inside lane. By then, Erik Jones moved up to third place behind Blaney while Truex, Logano, Bowyer and Kyle Busch were running inside the top 10. In addition, Jimmie Johnson started to make his move towards the top 10 while Elliott was in 12th place following his pit road speeding penalty.
On Lap 35, Jones emerged with the lead while Blaney fought back on the inside lane followed by Almirola. The following lap, Blaney returned to the lead with Almirola running behind him on the inside lane. Jones, meanwhile, continued to run on the outside lane and in front of teammates Truex and Kyle Busch while Suarez joined the party.
By Lap 40, Jones was back out front while three lanes started to form behind him. Teammates Truex and Kyle Busch were in second and third followed by Blaney and Almirola while Suarez led the middle lane in sixth place while receiving a push from Keselowski.
Two laps later, the field settled into racing by two lanes with Blaney leading a bevy of cars on the outside lane and Jones leading a bevy of cars on the inside lane. Shortly after, Blaney moved in front of teammates Keselowski and Logano to retain the lead and clear of the pack while Chris Buescher joined the party.
By Lap 50, Logano emerged with the lead as the field returned to racing between two lanes in a pack. Jones was in second followed by Blaney, Kyle Busch and Keselowski while Elliott was in sixth place. Shortly after, Jones led a lap before Elliott aggressively made his move to the front of the pack. With Elliott leading, Bubba Wallace moved into second place followed by Kyle Busch, Cole Custer and Kurt Busch while Logano fell back to sixth place. Austin Dillon moved into eighth place while Blaney and Jones fell back to ninth and 10th.
Meanwhile, Hamlin and Harvick were in 26th and 27th while Truex was in 17th, Bowman was in 15th and Keselowski was in 13th. Austin Dillon and Almirola were in 10th and 11th as the laps in the first stage were dwindling.
After leading three laps, Kurt Busch made his move for the lead before Almirola peaked below Busch’s No. 1 Gearwrench Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and reassumed the lead.
With the laps in the first stage winding down, the pack running at the front started to fan out into three lanes with a multitude of Playoff competitors making moves towards the front. With three laps remaining in the first stage, however, the caution flew when contact from Bowman, who was being pushed by Logano, and Almirola turned Almirola sideways across the outside wall in the backstretch with both competitors pinned against one another and the outside wall. Behind, Kyle Busch was turned and his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota briefly came off the ground before he spun and made contact with Blaney. He was able to limp back to pit road and receive repairs to remain on the lead lap along with Bowman.
Returning to pit road, Almirola expressed his displeasure to Bowman on pit road before he retired from the race. The wreck and retirement from the race placed Almirola in a “must-win” scenario for next weekend’s Playoff elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
“I’m okay,” Almirola said at the infield care center on NBC. “I honestly haven’t seen the replay, so it’s hard to say, but I got hit from behind and turned in the outside fence. It’s such a shame. We had such a fast Smithfield Power Bites Ford Mustang. I’m just disappointed. We were doing everything we needed to do. We were closing in to the end of stage one and it looked like we were gonna score a lot of points there, which is exactly what we needed to do. It looks like [Bowman] got to my outside and my car started to turn to the right, so it’s unfortunate. I don’t know if he got in the back of me and hooked me or how that played out, but my car just made a hard right into the fence. It’s unfortunate.”
With the first stage concluding under caution on Lap 60, Chris Buescher emerged out in front as he claimed his first career stage victory. Logano settled in second place followed by Austin Dillon, Keselowski and Jones while Elliott, Reddick, Truex Kurt Busch and Custer settled in the top 10. Moments after, Austin Dillon, who sustained damage from the late multi-car wreck, limped to pit road with a flat left-rear tire.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Elliott emerged out in front following a stellar four-tire pit stop from the No. 9 NAPA crew. Keselowski exited in second place followed by Buescher, Jones and Truex. Following the pit stops, a handful of competitors, including Harvick, were penalized due to an uncontrolled tire violation.
The second stage started under green on Lap 65 and with Elliott and Keselowski on the front row. At the start, Keselowski was able to emerge out in front for the first time and lead Lap 66 with Jones and Custer tucked behind Keselowski’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang.
A few laps later, the caution flew due to debris in Turn 2 that came off of the damaged No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry of Kyle Busch, who blew a left-front tire and was running at the rear of the field along with Logano, Harvick and Hamlin. Following repairs, Busch was able to remain on the lead lap.
Under caution, a handful of competitors, including Elliott, Truex, William Byron, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Suarez, Ty Dillon, Kurt Busch, Wallace, Nemechek, Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Harvick and Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Buescher and Keselowski remained on the track. Following the pit stops, however, Hamlin was nabbed with a pit road speeding penalty.
When the race restarted on Lap 73, Buescher jumped ahead and moved in front of Keselowski to retain the lead. Returning to the tri-oval and the start/finish line, the field at the front expanded to two lanes with Jones leading the outside lane while Buescher continued to lead on the inside lane.
Shortly after, Jones received a push from Michael McDowell to move back into the lead with Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates Elliott, Byron and Jimmie Johnson lined up on the outside lane. By then, Keselowski was the only Playoff contender running in the top 10. Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch and Bowyer were in 16th, 17th and 18th while Bowman, Logano, Hamlin, Truex, Harvick were running in 26th through 30th. Kyle Busch was back in 32nd place behind veteran Brendan Gaughan.
By Lap 80, Buescher continued to lead on the inside lane with the pack fanning out to two lanes. Keselowski was in second place followed by Reddick, Custer and Ryan Preece while Nemechek, DiBenedetto, Kenseth, Jones and Elliott. In addition, the first-place car of Buescher and the 19th-place car of Austin Dillon were separated by less than two seconds.
Two laps later, Jones returned to the lead by a nose over DiBenedetto while Elliott made his move into third place. Buescher fell back to fifth place in front of Keselowski and next to Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.
By Lap 85, Jones continued to lead Elliott on the inside lane and a pack of cars fanning out to two lanes while William Byron was the first car running on the outside lane in fifth place.
A lap later, a bevy of Chevrolet competitors led by Elliott made a pit stop under green. The next lap, the caution flew due to Blaney making contact with the Turn 3 outside wall after cutting a tire. By then, DiBenedetto was out in front followed by Buescher, Keselowski, Logano and Bowyer, all of whom had yet to make a pit stop. Also, Kyle Busch was spared from falling a lap behind the leaders.
Under caution, a majority of lead lap competitors pitted and Harvick exited in first place after pitting for only fuel. Reddick exited in second place followed by Kenseth, Nemechek, Suarez and Truex.
The race restarted on Lap 92 with teammates Elliott and Byron occupying the front row. At the start, Elliott moved in front of Byron to retain the lead. By then, Elliott was at the front of a six-car Chevrolet group on the inside lane while Chevrolet competitor Ryan Preece was the first competitor racing on the outside lane followed by Ty Dillon and Reddick.
By Lap 95 and with the race passing its halfway mark, Elliott continued to lead followed by teammate Byron, Kurt Busch, teammate Johnson and Bubba Wallace while Kenseth, Suarez, Ty Dillon, Reddick and Bowyer were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Logano was in 13th, Austin Dillon was in 15th and Keselowski and Truex were in 19th and 20th. Bowman, Hamlin and Harvick were in 29th, 30th and 31st while Kyle Busch was in 26th.
Five laps later, on Lap 100, Elliott continued to lead followed by teammate Byron, Kurt Busch, teammate Johnson and Wallace. Kenseth, Suarez, Bowyer and Austin Dillon settled in sixth through ninth while Jones made a move beneath Ty Dillon to move into 10th place. Prior to this, Custer got loose following contact from Logano while racing in the middle of the pack, but he was able to prevent his car from spinning in the middle of the pack, though he lost his momentum and the draft towards the front.
Another five laps later, on Lap 105, Elliott retained the lead followed by teammate Byron, Kurt Busch, Wallace and Kenseth while Johnson moved up the outside lane while being pushed by Logano in a two-lane pack racing for the lead. By then, Elliott, Kurt Busch, Logano and Austin Dillon were the only Playoff contenders running in the top 10 while Bowyer, who was running near the front a few laps earlier, fell back to 17th place.
Another two laps later, Johnson, racing with a piece of tape on the front nose of his No. 48 Chevrolet, led a lap before he was shuffled back. The following lap and with the field fanning out to three-wide racing, a multi-car wreck erupted on the frontstretch that started when contact from Bowyer turned Johnson sideways as he clipped Kurt Busch, who made head-on contact into the outside wall and went airborne on top of Custer’s No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang before he came to rest on all four wheels without being turned over, but with significant damage to the No. 1 Gearwrench Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. The wreck collected a total of 13 competitors, including Bowyer, Keselowski, Preece, Austin Dillon, Suarez, Joey Gase, Brennan Poole, Kyle Busch and Brendan Gaughan, who concluded his final NASCAR career start with a wrecked car. The wreck eliminated Bowyer for the remainder of the race as he also faces a “must-win” situation next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval to retain his title hopes. Following the wreck, Johnson voiced his frustrations at Bowyer over the contact.
“You’ve got to go,” Bowyer said in the infield care center on NBC. “You’ve got to push [Johnson]…As soon as I got to him, I push him in the front and the whole rear of the car went down and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and before I know it he was tank swapping all over the place. I don’t know if that was how they had their cars built or whatever, but as soon as you got close to him he was all over the place. Obviously didn’t mean to wreck him, but you’re going hard and three-wide and people are behind you pushing. I was hoping he would save it, but he didn’t and we all wrecked.”
“Yeah, it was a wild ride,” Kurt Busch said. “That’s the nature of this sport. You’re on top one week with a win and everything’s fantastic. And then this week here at Talladega, we were hoping for a nice, smooth run and to gain some points. I was just doing my job as a Chevy helper running top-five and next thing you know, I’m going for one of the wildest rides I’ve ever been in.”
Following the wreck, the race was red-flagged for 10 minutes and 27 seconds. When the red flag lifted and the competitors resumed under cautious pace, some that included Hamlin, Harvick, Truex, Bowman and Blaney pitted while the rest led by Elliott and Byron remained on the track. By then, Kyle Busch, Johnson, Austin Dillon and Keselowski continued following the multi-car wreck on the frontstretch.
With seven laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green as Elliott retained the lead over teammate Byron and Logano. Shortly after, Logano received a draft from DiBenedetto to return to the lead the following lap.
With five laps remaining in the second stage, Logano and his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang was still leading followed by DiBenedetto, Buescher and Truex while Elliott and Reddick battled dead even in two lanes for fifth place.
Two laps later, Truex gained a run on the outside lane to lead a lap over Logano. Entering the backstretch, DiBenedetto got forced below the double yellow line zone following contact with Logano, but he was able to blend back on the track inside the top 10 without being assessed a penalty. Shortly after, Reddick led a lap before Truex moved back into the lead followed by Elliott.
At the start of the final lap of the second stage, Truex emerged with the lead followed by Keselowski, Buescher and Elliott while Logano dropped back after being told that he was being assessed a penalty for forcing DiBenedetto below the double yellow line zone. Entering the tri-oval, Truex and Keselowski managed to pull away from the pack and then, Truex was able to roll to the second stage win on Lap 120 and claim his fifth stage victory of the season. Keselowski settled in second place followed by Buescher, Elliott and Nemechek while Byron, Blaney, Preece, Ty Dillon and Wallace settled in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Truex retained the lead after exiting pit road in first place. Keselowski exited in second place followed by Jones, Reddick, Quin Houff, Bowman and Elliott. By then, Austin Dillon took his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the garage for repairs. Once he returned, he was two laps behind the leaders.
With 63 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green with Truex and Keselowski occupying the front row. At the start, Truex jumped ahead until Keselowski gained a huge run on the backstretch to move back into the lead. With Keselowski in the lead, Truex settled behind him in second place and in front of teammate Jones while Reddick started to form a line on the outside lane and a run towards the front followed by Bowman, Kenseth and Wallace.
Three laps later, with 60 laps remaining, Keselowski was still ahead of Reddick as the pack towards the front fanned out to three-wide racing. On the backstretch, Wallace started to challenge Keselowski for the lead while Elliott bailed out of the lead pack.
With 55 laps remaining and most of the competitors at the front settling into single-file racing, Wallace continued to lead followed by Bowman, who was continuing to run strong despite a patched-up front nose and following 11 pit stops. Kenseth was in third place followed by Buescher, Preece, Keselowski, Nemechek, Reddick, Jones and Blaney. By then, Blaney formed a pack running on the outside lane before Keselowski and Buescher moved in front of him to gain a draft and run for the lead over Wallace.
Another five laps later, with 50 laps remaining, Logano was back at the front followed by Byron and Ty Dillon while Keselowski was dead even with Jones for fourth place. By then, Wallace was back in 10th, Bowman was in 13th and Truex was in 20th while Blaney and Harvick moved up to seventh and eighth. In addition, Kyle Busch was in 22nd, Hamlin was in 25th and Austin Dillon was in 27th, two laps behind. Johnson was in 28th, 10 laps behind the leaders.
Down to the final 45 laps of the race and the entire pack running in a single-file line on the outside lane, Logano continued to lead followed by Byron, Ty Dillon, Jones and Preece while Harvick, Keselowski, Wallace, Kenseth and Blaney were scored in the top 10. By then, Logano, Harvick and Keselowski were the only Playoff contenders running inside the top 10. Teammates Elliott and Bowman were in 12th and 13th, Truex was in 18th and Kyle Busch was in 21st. Hamlin was still in 25th while Austin Dillon was still mired in 27th.
With 40 laps remaining, the caution flew due to debris coming off of Jimmie Johnson’s damaged No. 48 Chevrolet. Under caution, the leaders pitted and Logano retained the lead over Harvick, Jones, Byron and Kenseth upon exiting pit road. Prior to the restart, some like Elliott, Hamlin, DiBenedetto, Newman, Reddick, Bowman, Kyle Busch and Wallace pitted again for fuel.
The race restarted under green with 36 laps remaining. At the start, Logano cleared and moved in front of Harvick to retain the lead while Byron was the first competitor racing on the outside lane followed by Preece and Keselowski. Behind, Hamlin bailed out of the heavy pack racing for the lead once again.
At the front, Byron assumed the lead followed by Preece while Logano and Keselowski were back in third and fourth. The following lap, with 35 laps remaining, Logano moved back into the lead followed by Preece and Keselowski. Behind, Brennan Poole moved into fourth place followed by Buescher and DiBenedetto. Shortly after, Poole was shuffled out of the lead pack along with Byron while Logano, who was racing on fumes and who was uncertain about having enough fuel to make it to the finish, led a bevy of competitors racing in a single-file lane on the outside lane.
With 30 laps remaining, Logano continued to lead followed by Preece, Keselowski, Buescher and DiBenedetto while Elliott started to gain a run as the first car to lead the inside lane. By then, Cody Ware made an appearance in the top 10 while Wallace was in 12th in front of Newman, Blaney and Nemechek. Five laps later, with 25 laps remaining, the field fanned out into two-wide racing as Logano and Wallace battled for the lead.
Down to the final 20 laps of the race, Elliott emerged back out in front while Logano started to fight back for the lead on the outside lane. Byron was in third place followed by Keselowski and Harvick while Preece, Wallace, Kenseth, Ty Dillon and Buescher were scored in the top 10 ahead of Truex.
With 15 laps remaining, Logano was leading followed by teammate Keselowski, Preece, Wallace and Buescher. Meanwhile, Truex, Elliott and Bowman were in the top 10 while Kyle Busch was in 15th. Harvick was in 17th while Hamlin was in 23rd.
With 10 laps remaining, Logano received a push from Keselowski to retain the lead over Wallace with Preece and Buescher in the top five. Logano continued to lead the outside pack while Wallace was the first car on the inside lane in front of Elliott and Byron. A lap later, Keselowski got shuffled out as Wallace made another bid for the lead over Logano.
Down to the final seven laps of the race, Wallace, racing in his No. 43 World Wide Technology Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, continued to lead on the outside lane in front of Logano while DiBenedetto made a bid on the inside lane, thus shoving Elliott out of the draft. A lap later, a bump from Preece sent Wallace scraping the backstretch outside wall as he fell out of contention for the lead with damage on the right side of the No. 43 Chevrolet.
Shortly after and just as Wallace was coming to pit road for service, the caution flew due to a spin involving James Davison in Turn 4. Under caution, some like Truex, Hamlin and Jones pitted while the rest led by Logano, DiBenedetto and Keselowski remained on the track.
The race was sent into overtime and with Logano and DiBenedetto on the front row. At the start, Logano retrained the lead over teammate Keselowski and DiBenedetto. Entering Turns 3 and 4, however, Elliott gained a huge run and made a bold crossover move beneath Logano to retain the lead despite Logano making contact and barely forcing Elliott below the double yellow line. In addition, Byron made a move on the outside lane while Logano was shuffled back in the middle lane.
Just as Elliott and Byron were approaching the start/finish line to start the final lap, the caution flew for a multi-car wreck on the tri-oval that started when Reddick turned Kyle Busch into Logano as the carnage involved Harvick, Truex, Bowman and Newman. The wreck ended the long afternoon for Kyle Busch, who emerged uninjured out of his battered No. 18 M&M’s Toyota and made the trip to the infield care center.
“The car was just real slow due to all of the damage, obviously, so I’m just holding up the line,” Kyle Busch said on NBC. “I was trying to draft off the guys in front of me and I’m pushing too much backwards on the guys that are trying to push me forwards and it creates a wreck. Oh, well. The M&M’s Camry guys did a great job and just wish there was more for it.”
The race was red flagged for nearly 11 minutes following the second multi-car wreck that collected a number of Playoff contenders. When the red flag lifted and the field resumed under cautious pace, some like Byron, Keselowski, Newman, Blaney, Jones, Bowman, Truex and Harvick pitted while the rest led by Elliott and DiBenedetto remained on the track. Following his involvement in the wreck, Logano was penalized a second time for forcing Elliott below the double yellow line zone. He, however, was unable to re-fire from the red flag period and was pushed by a wrecker back to the garage, where his race concluded.
With the race restarting under green on a second overtime attempt, Elliott, who reported fuel concerns, jumped out with the lead, but was placed in a three-wide situation on the backstretch in between Preece and DiBenedetto. Entering Turns 3 and 4, Wallace gained a run on the outside lane, but he turned across the front nose of Preece’s No. 37 Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. The contact sent Wallace into the outside wall with heavy front nose damage, where Blaney was also collected along with Kenseth, Bowman and Austin Dillon, who had just worked his way back on the lead lap, as the caution flew and sent the race into a third overtime attempt. The wreck was enough to end Wallace’s run following a strong late charge towards the front and after leading a career-high 10 laps.
Under caution, Elliott pitted along with Nemechek, Timmy Hill, Keselowski, Preece and Austin Dillon while the rest led by DiBenedetto and Denny Hamlin remained on the track. By then, Buescher, Ty Dillon and Byron were in the top five followed by Newman, Cody Ware, Quin Houff, Erik Jones and Reddick.
In the third overtime attempt, DiBenedetto, in pursuit of his first Cup career win, peaked ahead over Hamlin and cleared the field entering the backstretch and with Buescher pushing him. DiBenedetto retained the lead for a full cycle around the track with Buescher and Byron behind.
When he started the final lap, however, DiBenedetto was being pressured by Byron, Buescher and Jones for the lead. In Turns 1 and 2 and through the backstretch, Jones pushed DiBenedetto out with the lead as Buescher and Byron were gaining a run on the front two for the lead.
With Cody Ware wrecking behind, Buescher and Jones made contact entering Turns 3 and 4 on the outside lane. Their contact allowed Byron to gain a run at DiBenedetto for the lead on the inside lane. Then, DiBenedetto drove all the way down to the bottom and made contact with Byron, forcing Byron below the double yellow line.
Out of the blue, Hamlin, who was in fifth entering the turns and drove on the apron and below the double yellow line zone to avoid the contact ensuing between Jones and Buescher, stormed to the front and challenged for the lead in a three-wide battle with Byron and DiBenedetto as Keselowski spun behind following contact with Reddick. Through the tri-oval and coming back to the finish line, Hamlin was able to emerge out in front of DiBenedetto to win in a photo finish while Byron was shuffled back to a top-five result.
Though the finish went under review following the race’s conclusion, NASCAR declared Hamlin as the official winner and his move beneath the double yellow line legal since he was trying to avoid contact and a potential wreck ensuing in front of him.
With his unprecedented seventh victory of the season, second at Talladega and the 44th of his NASCAR Cup Series career, which moved him into a tie with childhood hero and Hall of Famer Bill Elliott for 18th place on the all-time Cup wins list, Hamlin locked himself into the Round of 8 in the Playoffs as he continues his pursuit for his first Cup championship. Following his celebratory burnout and salute to the fans, Hamlin dedicated the win to J.J. Damato, an executive and VP/Marketing Services at Joe Gibbs Racing who died a day ago at age 48.
“Just a lot of attrition,” Hamlin said on NBC. “We just played the strategy and the numbers game to run in the back until we were locked in. Just things worked out. We finally got one back. This one was unexpected to say the least, but proud of this whole FedEx team, Toyota and everyone at JGR for bringing great race cars…Really excited about this win. This was unexpected for sure. They were crashing in front of us. Obviously, I got forced down there just like [DiBenedetto] and others did. There were a bunch of us that all crashed down there…Just an amazing day.”
DiBenedetto, who initially settled in second place for the third time this season, was left with tears of disappointment in coming up short in delivering his first victory and the historic 100th win for the Wood Brothers Racing team as he has yet to announce his racing plans for next season.
“It’s just a crazy finish,” DiBenedetto said on NBC. “I haven’t been able to really process it. I just really want to get this thing in Victory Lane. This Tuscany Faucets team. I feel like this is the same story a lot of times, just heartbreak. My wife and I have had a stressful week again just with the uncertainty — always fighting for my life — but I’m so appreciative of this team. The Wood Brothers, I want this 100th win for the Woods so bad. Our alliance with Team Penske, Ford — I appreciate them putting me in this car. It’s so much fun to drive and have a shot to win. Denny did a great job. Deja vu. Holy cow. Denny deserves all the support in the world. He’s an incredible racer. He was my biggest threat. I tried to block all I could. My spotter, Doug, did a great job. This is tough…My windshield was filthy from all the speedy dry. I was having trouble seeing to block. I was blocking everyone’s lane. I mean, that was pure desperation, but that’s how I drive every race. Every time I step foot in a race car. I’m appreciative for the challenges I’ve faced. That’s what it teaches you when you have those shots…Wild finish. That’s Talladega. I’m glad the fans got a great show. I just hope to win races. I know we can do it.”
Following the race, however, DiBenedetto was penalized for forcing Byron below the double yellow line that involved contact. With that, DiBenedetto was credited with a 21st-place result.
Chase Elliott was also penalized for going below the double yellow line through the tri-oval and was originally scored back to 22nd place. Following the race, however, NASCAR rescinded the penalty on Elliott after it was discovered that Elliott was forced beneath the yellow line by Buescher. With that, Buescher was penalized all the way back to 22nd place while Elliott retained fifth place on the track.
Following DiBenedetto’s penalty, Erik Jones was scored in second place followed by Ty Dillon, who notched a career-best result. Byron settled in fourth place in front of teammate Elliott. Newman, Reddick, Nemechek, Poole and Preece rounded out the top 10 on the track.
Austin Dillon limped home in 12th place, two spots ahead of Bowman, while Keselowski fell all the way back in 18th place. Harvick settled in 20th place while Truex ended his run in 23rd place. Jimmie Johnson finished in 29th place in his 38th and final run at Talladega.
There were 58 lead changes for 18 different leaders. The race featured a record 13 cautions for 54 laps.
Results.
1. Denny Hamlin, 26 laps led
2. Erik Jones, 13 laps led
3. Ty Dillon
4. William Byron, one lap led
5. Chase Elliott, 41 laps led
6. Ryan Newman
7. Tyler Reddick, two laps led
8. John Hunter Nemechek
9. Brennan Poole
10. Ryan Preece
11. Justin Haley
12. Austin Dillon
13. Quin Houff
14. Alex Bowman
15. Timmy Hill, one lap led
16. Matt Kenseth
17. Joey Gase
18. Brad Keselowski, six laps led
19. Cody Ware, one lap led
20. Kevin Harvick, two laps led
21. Matt DiBenedetto, 10 laps led
22. Chris Buescher, 15 laps led, Stage 1 winner
23. Martin Truex Jr., two laps down, six laps led, Stage 2 winner
24. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident, 10 laps led
25. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident, 10 laps led
26. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 45 laps led
27. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident
28. Corey LaJoie, 12 laps down
29. Jimmie Johnson – OUT, Accident, one lap led
30. James Davison, 82 laps down
31. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident
32. Kurt Busch – OUT, Accident
33. Clint Bowyer – OUT, Accident
34. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident
35. Brendan Gaughan – OUT, Accident
36. Michael McDowell – OUT, one lap led
37. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident, nine laps led
38. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident
39. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident
Playoff standings.
1. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
2. Kurt Busch – Advanced
3. Kevin Harvick +68
4. Chase Elliott +44
5. Brad Keselowski +41
6. Martin Truex Jr. +32
7. Alex Bowman +22
8. Joey Logano +21
9. Kyle Busch -21
10. Austin Dillon -21
11. Clint Bowyer -38
12. Aric Almirola -48
With the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs reaching its halfway point, the series will travel to the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course for the Bank of America ROVAL 400 and the final Playoff event in the Round of 12. The race will occur on Sunday, October 11, at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
