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Joey Logano clinches Championship 4 berth with strategic Cup victory at Las Vegas

A week after being drawn back into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, Joey Logano became the first Playoff competitor to clinch a Championship 4 berth after utilizing a late strategic pit call to win the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 20.

The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, led the final six of 267-scheduled laps in an event where he started in 10th place and took advantage of multiple Playoff contenders encountering obstacles both on the track and on pit road to draw himself above the top-four cutline to make the Championship 4 round by recording nine stage points during the event’s two stage periods.

Then, after keeping his car intact and running a consistent event for the majority of the day, Logano, who last pitted during a late-caution period with 74 laps remaining along with the lead lap field, cycled from 11th to second as he remained on the track and on his current fuel load during a late cycle of green flag pit stops that ensued with approximately 40 laps remaining.

With teammate Ryan Blaney, who was multiple laps down, providing on-track assistance to Logano as the latter was both maintaining pace and stretching his fuel tank to the distance, Logano would track down and overtake Daniel Suarez for the lead with five laps remaining. He then managed to maintain a reasonable gap from Playoff contender Christopher Bell, who dominated the race, to snatch the Cup victory at Vegas in dramatic style and race his way into the Championship 4 round.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 19, Playoff contender Christopher Bell notched his third Cup Series pole position of the 2024 season after he posted a pole-winning lap at 185.344 mph in 29.135 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 185.261 mph in 29.148 seconds.

Prior to the event, Playoff contender Ryan Blaney dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car due to a cut left-rear tire during Saturday’s practice session.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Christopher Bell gained the early advantage as he muscled his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE ahead of Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman from the inside lane. Bell would proceed to lead the field for a single cycle around the Vegas circuit and he would return to the frontstretch to lead the first lap.

Over the next four laps, Bell would stretch his advantage to as high as four-tenths of a second over Reddick while Bowman, Ross Chastain and Playoff contender Denny Hamlin followed suit in the top five. Behind, Playoff contender Kyle Larson occupied sixth place ahead of Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., and a trio of Playoff contenders that include Joey Logano, William Byron, and Chase Elliott, while Austin Cindric, rookie Carson Hocevar, Brad Keselowski, and rookie Zane Smith were in the top 15.

Through the first 10-schedueld laps, Bell extended his advantage to a second over Reddick while Bowman, Chastain, Hamlin, Larson, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Truex and Byron were racing in the top 10. With six of the remaining eight Playoff contenders scored in the top 10, Elliott retained 11th place while Ryan Blaney was up to 26th place after starting at the rear of the field.

Fifteen laps later, Bell added another advantage to his early lead as he was leading by more than two seconds over Reddick while third-place Bowman trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Playoff contenders Larson, Hamlin and Logano were racing from fourth to sixth, respectively, while Chastain, Elliott, Byron and Austin Cindric were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Blaney gained five spots as he was up in 21st place behind Michael McDowell.

Another eight laps later, the event’s first cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Larson led a multitude of contenders, including Playoff contenders Logano, Hamlin, Elliott and Byron, to pit road for service. By then, Brad Keselowski, Chase Briscoe and Michael McDowell had pitted. With more names pitting over the next two laps, the leader Bell pitted under green on Lap 35 along with Reddick as Blaney cycled into the lead. Blaney, who had carved his way up into the top-20 mark before the pit stops, would pit his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse from the lead on Lap 40, which allowed Bell to cycle back into the lead as he was ahead of Reddick, Bowman, Larson, Logano and Elliott. By the time Blaney returned to the track following his pit stop, he was battling Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for 22nd place.

At the Lap 50 mark, Bell retained the lead by more than two seconds over Reddick while third-place Bowman followed trailed in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 by seven seconds. Playoff contenders Larson, Elliott and Logano followed suit from fourth to sixth, respectively, as Cindric, Keselowski, Chastain and Truex were in the top 10 ahead of Byron, Gibbs, Hamlin, Chris Buescher and Daniel Suarez. By then, Blaney was up to 21st place behind Bubba Wallace while Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, Noah Gragson and McDowell were mired in the top 20.

Twelve laps later, the event’s first caution flew when Austin Dillon, who was racing outside the top 25, was sent head-on into the outside wall in Turn 3 after he received a bump from Daniel Hemric entering the turn. The incident left Dillon with a damaged No. 3 Boot Barn Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and heated with Hemric.

During the caution period, Bell led the lead lap field back to pit road for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Truex exited pit road first with two fresh tires while Byron, Keselowski, Buescher, Reddick, Hamlin, Bell, Larson, Bowman and Kyle Busch followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Erik Jones, who had received the free pass, had a right-front wheel come off of his No. 43 Massey Motor Freight Toyota Camry XSE on the track in Turn 1, though he was able to limp back to pit road for a new right-front tire.

The start of the ensuing restart period on Lap 71 featured the field fanning out entering the first two turns as Truex maintained the lead ahead of Keselowski and Byron. With the field still fanning out to multiple lanes through the backstretch and for the following turns, Truex led the following lap while Byron was up to second place ahead of Keselowski, Reddick and Bell. As Playoff contenders Elliott, Hamlin and Blaney were mired outside the top 10, Reddick, who pitted for four fresh tires during the previous caution period, would assume the lead from Truex on Lap 74.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Reddick, who muscled his way into the Playoff’s Round of 8 after overcoming a series of on-track issues during last weekend’s event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, notched his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Bell followed suit in second ahead of Truex, Byron and Keselowski while Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Logano, Cindric and Larson were scored in the top 10. With five of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of Playoff points by finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders including Hamlin, Elliott and Blaney settled in 11th, 12th and 17th, respectively.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Reddick returned to pit road for service while Hamlin remained on the track as he inherited the lead. Following the pit stops amid more mixed strategies, Ty Gibbs exited pit road first with two fresh tires. Amid the pit stops, Shane van Gisbergen was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes. Soon after, Bubba Wallace made another trip to pit road to have a possible loose wheel addressed. Larson would also pit to have debris removed from the front grille of his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which sent him to the rear of the field.

The second stage period started on Lap 87 as teammates Hamlin and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead through the first two turns as Gibbs used the outside lane and two fresh tires to assume the lead. With Hamlin pinned in a three-wide battle with Logano and Elliott for the runner-up spot through the frontstretch, Gibbs led the following lap as the field fanned out and jostled for spots.

The caution would then return on Lap 89 when Truex, who was in fourth place, went up the track and made slight contact with Elliott entering the frontstretch resulting in Elliott sliding up and making contact with Reddick, who tried to shoot through a gap, against the outside wall as both collected Keselowski when coming back across the track. As Elliott, Keselowski and Reddick all slid through the frontstretch’s grass, Reddick’s No. 45 Jordan Toyota Camry XSE bounced off the grass to the pavement as the car rolled over once before landing back hard on all four wheels. Despite flipping over once, Reddick was able to limp his damaged car back to his pit lane, but the damage to the car’s suspension was enough to knock Reddick out of contention.

“By the time I realized I was in trouble, it was just too late,” Reddick said after being released from the infield care center. “[Truex] started sliding, [Elliott] was coming up and I was pretty much already on their outside. There’s just, at that point, nowhere to really go. I needed to make the decision earlier when I saw them slide and just be a little more conservative. That would have avoided the incident. It’s unfortunate. It took us out of the race.”

During the caution period, Blaney, who hit the outside wall while trying to avoid Keselowski’s sliding car but managed to steer clear of the incident, spun while trying to enter pit road as his No. 12 pit crew proceeded to address a broken right-rear toe link as a result of the wall contact. With Blaney making multiple trips to pit road for repairs, he dropped out of the lead lap category. Blaney’s teammate Austin Cindric would eventually be eliminated from the race as he hit the wall and spun while trying to avoid Keselowski, who was eliminated from further contention.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 96, Gibbs and Logano dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes through the first two turns. With the field fanning out to three lanes through the backstretch, Gibbs managed to muscle ahead and lead the following lap while Bell overtook Logano and carved his way up to second place. Behind, Bowman would battle Truex and Chastain for fourth place in front of Byron and Buescher as Bell closed in on teammate Gibbs for the lead.

Just past the Lap 100 mark, Gibbs retained the lead over teammate Bell by four-tenths of a second while third-place Logano followed suit by within a second. Gibbs would manage to slightly stretch his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Bell by Lap 105 before the advantage shrunk to one-tenth of a second at the Lap 110 mark. By then, Elliott, who was able to maintain minimum speed to continue following his multi-car wreck, took his damaged No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the garage for additional repairs.

On Lap 111, Bell overtook teammate Gibbs to reassume the lead entering Turns 3 and 4. With Bell leading, Logano retained third place ahead of Truex and Chastain while Byron, Buescher, Larson, Kyle Busch and Bowman were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Hamlin had fallen to 26th place.

Five laps later, Hamlin, who was racing within the top-30 mark, would pit his No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE for four fresh tires and an adjustment under green as he lost a lap in the process. Bowman would then pit under green on Lap 119 before Kyle Busch pitted during the following lap. Logano, Truex, Buescher and Stenhouse would all pit on Lap 121 before Gibbs, Chastain, Byron, Justin Haley, Hocevar, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, Jimmie Johnson and rookie Josh Berry pitted during the next lap. During the pit stops, both Chastain and Gibbs were penalized for speeding on pit road.

As more names including Bubba Wallace, Daniel Hemric, John Hunter Nemechek and rookie Zane Smith pitted by Lap 124, the leader Bell would also pit before Larson pitted during the following lap. During the pit stops, Larson endured a slow pit service due to the jackman dropping the right side of the car too early when the right-rear tire was not completely installed slowing the servicing process of the left-side tires. Larson would then pit for a second time to have a left-rear tire changed, which left him two laps behind the lead.

Back on the track, Suarez, who was among many who have yet to pit, was leading ahead of McDowell, Corey LaJoie, Chase Briscoe, van Gisbergen, Cody Ware and Todd Gilliland while Bell, the first competitor who pitted, was mired in eighth place. Suarez would proceed to lead the event’s halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134 while Bell trailed the lead by 15 seconds in seventh place. Meanwhile, the next two highest-running Playoff contenders on the track were Byron and Logano in 10th and 12th, respectively, while Hamlin, Larson and Blaney were strapped in 25th, 31st and 32nd, respectively. In addition, Elliott returned to the track following his repairs and despite being 27 laps off of the lead lap category.

By Lap 145, Suarez continued to lead in his No. 99 Tootsies Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 by four seconds over Bell while Truex followed suit in third place by five seconds. Meanwhile, Byron, who struggled with the handling of his No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 earlier in the event, was up to fourth place ahead of Cody Ware while Logano was scored in eighth place. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who un-lapped himself, was in 23rd place while Larson was still pinned two laps behind in 31st place.

Six laps later, Bell overtook Suarez through the frontstretch to reassume the lead. Teammate Truex, who overtook Bell on the track earlier before being overtaken, would follow suit in second place as Suarez, Byron and Buescher followed suit in the top five.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Bell, who managed to lap 23rd-place Berry but was unable to lap 22nd-place Chastain, notched his 11th Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Truex followed suit in second place by four-tenths of a second while Byron, Buescher, Logano, Bowman, Haley, Suarez, Wallace and Ryan Preece were scored in the top 10. With three of the remaining seven Playoff contenders on the track racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Hamlin, Larson, Blaney and Elliott were mired in 19th, 30th, 32nd and 33rd, respectively. By then, Larson was the eighth competitor in line scored a lap down, Blaney was scored six laps down and Elliott was off the lead lap category by 26 points.

During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bell retained the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of Truex, Byron, Buescher, Logano, Haley, Bowman, Wallace, Kyle Busch and Zane Smith. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin endured a slow pit service to tighten a left-rear tire on his No. 11 Toyota.

With 95 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Bell and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead in front of the field for nearly a lap before Bell muscled ahead and led the following lap. As the field continued to fan out to multiple laps over the proceeding laps, Larson was battling Ty Gibbs for 24th place and to be the first competitor scored a lap down. With Hamlin dealing with a potential vibration issue in 20th place, teammate Bell led by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Truex with 90 laps remaining.

With 80 laps remaining, Bell was leading by more than a second over teammate Truex while Buescher, Byron and Wallace were scored in the top five ahead of Bowman, Haley, Logano, Preece and Chastain. Meanwhile, Hamlin was in 17th place while Larson was overtaken by Ty Gibbs for 24th place and to be the first competitor scored a lap down. Larson would proceed to overtake Gibbs for the spot a lap later while Hamlin, who was on the lead lap, started to close in on both.

Five laps later, the caution flew due to Ty Gibbs slipping sideways and spinning his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE from the top to the bottom of the backstretch. The incident served as a big break for Larson, who received the free pass after being scored the first competitor a lap down in 24th place and was intensely battling Gibbs for the spot over the last several laps. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bell retained the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of teammate Truex, Byron, Bowman and Buescher.

As the event restarted under green with 69 laps remaining, Bell received a small bump from Byron to muscle ahead from the inside lane and away from teammate Truex through the first two turns. As Byron battled Truex for the runner-up spot through the backstretch, Haley battled Bowman and Buescher for fourth place while Bell led the next lap. Byron would then slide up in front of Truex to claim the runner-up spot while Buescher and Haley battled fiercely for fifth place in front of Chastain and Kyle Busch. With Hamlin and Larson, both scored on the lead lap, trying to muscle their way up the leaderboard from within the top-20 mark, Bell led by three-tenths of a second over Byron with 65 laps remaining.

Down to the final 60 laps of the event, Bell stabilized his advantage to nearly three-tenths of a second over Byron while third-place Truex trailed by more than a second. Meanwhile, Logano was mired in 11th place behind Wallace and Larson was up to 16th place while Hamlin was mired in 18th place.

Ten laps later, Bell continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Byron as Bowman occupied third place and trailed the lead by two seconds. Behind, Hamlin moved up to 15th place in front of Larson while Logano remained in 11th place as Truex and Buescher rounded out the top five on the track.

Another nine laps later, pit stops under green slowly commenced as Buescher pitted from the top five. Shortly after, more names including Truex, Larson, Blaney and Bowman pitted over the next two laps before Bell pitted from the lead with 38 laps remaining. Byron pitted during the next lap but was unable to blend back on the track in front of Bell. As the pit stops ensued, Suarez, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead. Suarez would proceed to lead by two seconds over Logano with 30 laps remaining while Hamlin was up to third place and trailing the lead by four seconds. Meanwhile, Bell was mired in ninth place and racing two spots ahead of Byron while Larson was in 15th place.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Suarez continued to lead by two seconds over runner-up Logano and by nearly six seconds over third-place Hamlin while Bell trailed the lead by 15 seconds in sixth place. Behind, Byron trailed by 16 seconds in eighth place while Larson trailed by 26 seconds in 15th place.

With 10 laps remaining, Suarez stabilized his lead to more than a second over Logano and to six seconds over Hamlin while Bell, who continued to gain more ground and overtook John Hunter Nemechek for position, was up to fourth place and trailing the lead by less than seven seconds. Bell would proceed to overtake teammate Hamlin for third place and he trailed the lead by six seconds during the following lap while Logano, who received a draft from teammate Blaney through the straightaways for momentum amid his low fuel tank, was only trailing the leader Suarez by eight-tenths of a second.

Five laps later, Logano overtook Suarez for the lead through the frontstretch. By then, Bell trailed in third place by three seconds and continued to chip away at Logano’s advantage despite the laps dwindling.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano remained in the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Suarez while Bell followed suit. Bell would overtake Suarez for the runner-up spot entering the first two turns and he would trim Logano’s lead to as close to half a second through the backstretch. With Bell’s late charge not enough to get close to Logano’s rear bumper, Logano, who continued to have teammate Blaney following right behind him, was able to cycle his way through the final set of turns and return to the frontstretch victorious as he streaked his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse across the finish line for the checkered flag by six-tenths of a second over Bell.

With the victory, Logano notched his 35th career win in the Cup Series, which places him in sole possession in 25th place on the all-time series wins list. He also recorded his third Cup victory of the 2024 season, his first since winning this year’s Playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early September and his fourth at Las Vegas. The victory was also the 10th of the season for the Ford nameplate and the sixth for Team Penske, and Logano clinches the Championship 4 berth.

Above all, Logano became the first of the remaining eight Playoff contenders to clinch a spot into this year’s Championship 4 field, where he will contend for his third Cup Series championship in the season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway three weeks from now. Ironically, the 2024 season marks the fourth season where Logano has won the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener, with his previous three victories all occurring in even years (2018, 2020 & 2022). This season also marks the sixth time where Logano has made the Championship 4 round, all of which have also occurred in even years (including the 2014 & 2016 seasons).

“What [an] incredible turn of events here the last week,” Logano, who led the final six laps, said on NBC. “What a very fast Pennzoil Mustang. We’re going to the Championship 4 again! I don’t know what the deal’s [winning here at Vegas] with the even-year thing, but maybe it’s real. Thanks to the fans out here. Thanks to Roush Yates Engines for making great fuel mileage. Great calls by [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], Nick Hensley, our gas man, making sure [the car]’s full, giving me the good info I need to save fuel and keep the lead that we needed to. Boy, we’re going racing again. What an incredible situation. I’m blessed.”

“Everybody does a good job at just feeding the info that I needed,” Logano added. “You got to go the right pace to make sure you get in front of [Suarez], but get to where [Bell] was going to catch me. Just an incredible day. It takes the whole team to do the fuel mileage stuff. It’s not just the engine or the engineers or the driver, spotter. It takes all of us together to do it. Total team win. We may not have been the fastest car today, but we were [a] solid top-five car and being able to maximize it at the end.”

As Logano celebrated both on the frontstretch and in Victory Lane, Bell, who led a race-high 155 laps and won the second stage period, was left dejected on pit road as he came up one spot short of winning the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener at Vegas for a second consecutive season. Amid the disappointment, Bell is scored in second place in the Playoff standings and is 42 points above the top-four cutline with two Round of 8 events remaining on the schedule.

“I don’t think I’ve come to terms yet [on the result],” Bell said. “I don’t know. It’s just a bummer. I think everyone on this No. 20 team did everything perfect today. This [car] was obviously on rails. Pit crew did an amazing job. [Crew chief] Adam [Stevens] called a great race. [We] Did everything we needed to put this Rheem Camry in Victory Lane and unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be today…I think the points look pretty good, which is a positive, but you’re never safe in this [Playoff] deal. We needed to win today and unfortunately, we didn’t. We’ll go on to the next [race].”

Daniel Suarez, who led 57 laps, had enough fuel to record a strong third-place effort while Playoff contender William Byron and Alex Bowman finished in the top five. Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek and Chris Buescher complete the top 10 in the final running order.

With half of eight Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders include Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick ended up 11th, 32nd, 33rd and 35th, respectively. As a result, Larson and Byron leave Vegas above the top-four cutline in the Playoff standings along with Logano and Bell, while Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney, and Elliott trail below the cutline.

There were 13 lead changes for ten different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 32 laps. In addition, 21 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Joey Logano, six laps led

2. Christopher Bell, 155 laps led, Stage 2 winner

3. Daniel Suarez, 57 laps led

4. William Byron, one lap led

5. Alex Bowman

6. Martin Truex Jr., seven laps led

7. Ross Chastain

8. Denny Hamlin, four laps led

9. John Hunter Nemechek

10. Chris Buescher

11. Kyle Larson, one lap led

12. Bubba Wallace

13. Kyle Busch

14. Corey LaJoie

15. Harrison Burton

16. Zane Smith

17. Justin Haley

18. Noah Gragson

19. Daniel Hemric

20. Michael McDowell

21. Cody Ware

22. Ryan Preece, one lap down

23. Carson Hocevar, one lap down

24. Josh Berry, one lap down

25. Erik Jones, one lap down

26. Chase Briscoe, one lap down

27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

28. Jimmie Johnson, two laps down

29. Shane van Gisbergen, two laps down

30. Ty Gibbs, three laps down, 23 laps led

31. Todd Gilliland, four laps down

32. Ryan Blaney, eight laps down, four laps led

33. Chase Elliott – OUT, Suspension

34. Austin Cindric – OUT, DVP

35. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident, nine laps led, Stage 1 winner

36. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident

37. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Joey Logano – Advanced

2. Christopher Bell +42

3. Kyle Larson +35

4. William Byron +27

5. Denny Hamlin -27

6. Tyler Reddick -30

7. Ryan Blaney -47

8. Chase Elliott -53

The second Round of 8 event in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, for the Straight Talk Wireless 400. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, October 27, and air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 20, 2024
Larson steers to dominant Cup victory at Charlotte Roval; Playoff’s Round of 8 field set

With no points pressure mounted up his sleeves, Kyle Larson cruised to a dominant victory in the seventh annual running of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 13.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led a race-high 62 of 109-scheduled laps in an event where he started in sixth place and ran a consistent event while executing his pit strategy to perfection that kept him racing towards the front and also keeping his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet intact through every turn, straightaway, chicane and curbs.

After clinching his way into the Playoff’s Round of 8 by accumulating seven stage points between the event’s first two stage periods, Larson, who led twice earlier in the event, assumed the lead for the third and final time with 33 laps remaining during a late cycle of green flag pit stops. Then after muscling away from the field during a late-race restart with 26 laps remaining, the Californian maintained a reasonable advantage over the field and fellow Playoff rivals for the remainder of the event as he raced his way to his sixth Cup victory of the 2024 season.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 12, Shane van Gisbergen notched his first Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, who posted his best qualifying lap at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Shane van Gisbergen muscled his No. 13 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead with the lead from the outside lane and he led the field through the infield turns, starting from Turn 1 to the newly configured Turns 5 and 6 zones that led to the new sharp left-hand turn to Turn 7 and back on Charlotte’s oval course. With the field navigating cleanly through the infield turns, van Gisbergen retained the lead through the oval turns and the chicane areas, from the backstretch to the frontstretch, as he led the first lap ahead of Playoff contenders Joey Logano and Kyle Larson while AJ Allmendinger and Playoff contender Tyler Reddick followed suit.

During the second lap, Logano was overtaken by Larson, Reddick and Allmendinger on the track, which dropped Logano to fifth place on the course. Behind Logano, Playoff teammate Austin Cindric followed suit in sixth place as he was ahead of Brad Keselowski, Playoff contender Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace while William Byron, who is already guaranteed a spot in the Round of 8, was in 10th place ahead of Playoff rivals Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. As Playoff contenders Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were trying to navigate their way up the leaderboard while being mired outside the top-20 mark on the track, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to over one second on Larson by the fifth lap mark. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Alex Bowman, whose No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 briefly came off the ground after he ran over the frontstretch’s chicane curbs earlier, was mired in 19th place ahead of rookie Carson Hocevar.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, van Gisbergen stabilized his advantage to more than one second ahead of Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano followed suit in the top five. Behind, Cindric and Elliott battled fiercely for sixth place ahead of Keselowski, Wallace and Byron while Bell, Blaney, Suarez, Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland trailed in the top 15 ahead of Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Carson Hocevar. Meanwhile, Hamlin was mired in 24th place behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while Briscoe was back in 26th place in between Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher.

Another lap later, Ryan Preece spun his No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the backstretch chicane while running in the top-30 mark, which dropped him below the leaderboard. Then during the following lap, Wallace was penalized for cutting the course while navigating his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE through the frontstretch chicane. This resulted in Wallace serving a “stop-and-go” penalty through the backstretch chicane, which dropped Wallace from eighth to 12th on the course. Martin Truex Jr., who was running within the top-25 mark, would also be penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane by Lap 13, which dropped him towards the top-30 mark. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to nearly two seconds over Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano continued to trail in the top five.

On Lap 18, the event’s first cycle of green flag pit stops slowly started to commence as Allmendinger pitted his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the top five. By then, Austin Dillon had pitted a lap earlier. Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher would all pit by the Lap 19 mark before Cindric, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Wallace, Hamlin, Briscoe and Truex pitted during the following lap. Larson would then pit his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the runner-up spot on Lap 21 along with Todd Gilliland, Hocevar, Bowman, rookie Zane Smith, Stenhouse, Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson, Harrison Burton before the leader van Gisbergen pitted during the next lap along with Daniel Suarez. With pit road closed on Lap 23 as the first stage period was coming to a conclusion, Reddick, who remained on the course, cycled his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE into the lead.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Reddick, who came into the event 14 points above the top-eight cutline in his hopes to advance into the Playoff’s Round of 8, recorded his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Playoff contenders Logano, Elliott, Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top five while van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Keselowski and Playoff contender Cindric were scored in the top 10. With half of the 12 Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Bell, Byron, Suarez, Bowman, Briscoe and Hamlin were scored in 11th, 13th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd and 27, respectively.

Under the stage break, some led by Reddick and including Logano, Elliott and Blaney pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

The second stage period started on Lap 29 as Larson and van Gisbergen occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead of Kaulig Racing’s van Gisbergen and Allmendinger through the frontstretch and he retained the lead through the infield turns while van Gisbergen fended off Allmendinger for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated through the infield road course turns and the sharp left-hand turn from Turn 7 back on the oval turns, Larson retained the lead for the remaining turns and led the following lap while Playoff contenders Briscoe, Hamlin, Reddick, Logano, Elliott and Blaney were mired within a series of on-track bumps and contacts while stuck in the middle of the field.

Shortly after and during the Lap 30 mark, Reddick was collected in a jam-up and came to a full stop to avoid hitting Austin Dillon, who was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got bumped by Bowman. Despite sustaining little cosmetic damage to his car, Reddick, whose car briefly came off the ground after he hit both the Turn 7 curb and into team owner Denny Hamlin prior to avoiding Dillon, pitted under green to address a potential broken toe link to his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE. With Hamlin remaining on the track despite getting hit in the left-side area and having a bent toe link to the rear end of his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE, Larson retained the lead by nearly a second over van Gisbergen while Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski were scored in the top five.

At the Lap 35 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over van Gisbergen as both were followed by Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski. With Cindric, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Wallace following suit in the top 10, Bowman, Hocevar, Buescher, Stenhouse and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 15 ahead of Logano, Zane Smith, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs and Elliott while Hamlin, Blaney, Truex, Gilliland and Harrison Burton were scored in the top 25.

Then while still on the Lap 35 mark, the caution returned due to Playoff contender Briscoe losing a right-rear tire as the tire came off of Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang Dark Horse in Turn 14 just as Briscoe was pitting. During the caution period, Reddick and Gragson pitted, with the former having his bent right-rear toe link addressed. Soon after, more names led by Allmendinger and including Hamlin and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 38 featured Larson and van Gisbergen dueling for the lead through the first four turns until Larson muscled ahead. With Bell overtaking van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot entering Turn 5, a traffic jam ensued as Keselowski was bumped and sent for a spin by Suarez in Turn 7 while the field fanned out. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, Larson retained the lead for the following lap ahead of Bell, van Gisbergen, Byron and Bowman as Austin Dillon, who was running in 28th place, was penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane despite getting hit by Briscoe before driving off the course.

Just past the Lap 40 mark, eight of 12 Playoff contenders were racing inside the top 10 on the track as Larson retained the lead ahead of Bell while Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano and Elliott followed suit from fourth to eighth, respectively, as Blaney was in 10th place. Meanwhile, Cindric and Hamlin were back in 17th and 19th, respectively, while Briscoe and Reddick were mired in 36th and 37th, respectively, with the former pitting multiple times for repairs following an on-track contact. As Erik Jones bumped Kaz Grala off the course through the frontstretch chicane as payback from an earlier contact that occurred in the backstretch chicane, Chastain was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got hit by Truex. Through both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions.

By Lap 45, Larson retained the lead by more than a second over Bell as van Gisbergen, Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano, Allmendinger, Elliott and Blaney followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Wallace, McDowell, Cindric, Kyle Busch and Hamlin. With Reddick mired in 36th place, Briscoe’s Playoff run in 2024 came to an end as he took his car to the garage and retired in 37th place. Briscoe’s DNF also ended the final Cup Series Playoff run for Stewart-Haas Racing.

“It’s tough,” Briscoe said after being released from the infield care center. “To have all that momentum that we had to come to an end and to have it come to an end like it did is definitely unfortunate. [I] Wish we could have kept going for [the title]. Just unfortunate. We still have a lot to race for. We still can go win four more races and that’s what we’re certainly trying to do.”

Two laps later, Byron pitted from inside the top five under green along with Ty Gibbs, Hemric, Chastain, Austin Dillon, Keselowski and Justin Haley. By then, Zane Smith, Truex, Stenhouse, Harrison Burton and John Hunter Nemechek had pitted. The leader Larson along with Bell and van Gisbergen would pit during the following lap as Bowman cycled into the lead.

Amid the pit stops, Suarez, who was engaged in a fierce battle that included bumps with Logano a few laps earlier, was forced off the course in the backstretch chicane after being bumped by Wallace, where Suarez came to a full stop before continuing. In addition, Zane Smith was spared from being penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane earlier after he got bumped by Buescher.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 50, Bowman, who came into the Roval 26 points above the top-eight cutline, notched his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger followed suit along with Logano, Elliott and Wallace while Blaney, Cindric, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch and Larson, who clinched his way into the Round of 8 by points, were scored in the top 10. With half of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders on the track racking up the second round of stage points, the remaining contenders including Hamlin, Bell, Suarez, Byron and Reddick were mired in 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 36th, respectively.

During the stage break, some led by Bowman and including teammate Elliott, Blaney and Suarez pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.

With 55 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Allmendinger and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Allmendinger muscled ahead with the lead from the outside lane and led the field through the infield turns while Wallace overtook Logano for the runner-up spot. Cindric would track teammate Logano for third place as the field fanned out while navigating through Turn 7.

With the field navigating cleanly through the backstretch chicane, trouble occurred in the frontstretch chicane as Chastain, who was mired in the top 20, was hit by Keselowski as he spun his No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time and collected Legacy Motor Club’s Nemechek and Erik Jones. Then as Ty Gibbs retired due to a transmission issue to his No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE, the caution returned during the following lap due to debris that came off of Nemechek’s damaged No. 42 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE in Turn 2.

During the caution period, Suarez, who was placed in a “must-win” situation to keep his Playoff hopes alive, pitted and the hood of his No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was lifted as his crew went to work to diagnose a brake issue. By then, Bell was officially ruled to be clinched into the Round of 8 based on points.

As the event restarted under green with 50 laps remaining, Allmendinger rocketed away from Wallace and Logano to retain the lead entering the first turn and through the infield turns. As Larson used the fresh tires to battle Cindric for fourth place, the field fanned out and was able to navigate through Turn 7 cleanly as Allmendinger maintained a reasonable gap between himself and Wallace through the oval turns and the backstretch chicane.

Allmendinger would proceed to lead the following lap while Reddick and Elliott battled for 23rd place and a spot into the Round of 8. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who struggled earlier in the event, was up to seventh place behind Playoff contenders Larson, Logano, Bell and Cindric as Reddick, who was in 23rd place, was tracking Elliott by five points in the current Playoff standings. As both Buescher and van Gisbergen were sent spinning separately in Turn 7 during the next lap, Allmendinger stretched his advantage to more than a second over Wallace before Larson overtook the latter with 47 laps remaining.

With 45 laps remaining, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to a second over Larson as Bell trailed in third place by two seconds. With Wallace leading Playoff contenders Logano, Cindric, Byron and Hamlin on the track, McDowell and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 10 ahead of Hocevar, Truex, Keselowski, Gilliland and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Bowman, Blaney, Elliott, Reddick and Suarez were mired in 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st and 32nd, respectively, as Larson proceeded to cut Allmendinger’s advantage to four-tenths of a second during the next lap.

Then with 43 laps remaining, Larson used a bold move beneath Allmendinger while nearly getting sideways to move into the lead in Turn 7. Larson would proceed to lead Allmendinger through the ensuing oval turns, the backstretch chicane and the frontstretch chicane while Bell started to close in on Allmendinger from third place. Meanwhile, Reddick, who had regained his racing rhythm and was trying to carve his way back up the leaderboard since having his car repaired in the pits following his second stage incident in Turn 7, continued to trail Elliott in the Playoff standings by five points as he was mired in 19th place in front of Bowman while Elliott was just ahead of Reddick in 18th place.

With 38 laps remaining, Allmendinger pitted from the runner-up spot under green as he was followed by Cindric, Logano, Kyle Busch and Buescher. By then, McDowell had pitted a lap earlier as Larson was leading by more than three seconds over Bell. Wallace and his 23XI Racing teammate Reddick would then pit during the following lap along with Gragson before Byron, Hocevar, Elliott and Bowman pitted with 36 laps remaining. Despite enduring a slow pit service, Elliott managed to blend back on the track in front of Reddick as Reddick was separated from Elliott by four competitors.

As the field reached its final 34-lap mark, the leader Larson pitted under green along with Bell and Blaney. By then, Hamlin had pitted earlier as Larson exited pit road ahead of Bell, who endured a slow service. With nearly every competitor in the field having made a pit stop, Keselowski, who has yet to pit, was leading. Keselowski, however, would pit shortly after, which handed the lead back to Larson.

With 30 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than six seconds over Austin Dillon as Bell, van Gisbergen and Allmendinger trailed in the top five. Meanwhile, Reddick, who was scored in 20th place, trailed the top-eight cutline by five points while Logano, who was in eighth place, occupied the final transfer spot. Meanwhile, Elliott was 12 points above the cutline as he was in 13th place while Hamlin, who was in 17th place, was ahead by nine points.

The following lap, the caution flew due to the left front wheel rolling off of Austin Dillon’s No. 3 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 just past Turn 4 and right after Dillon had pitted under green, which resulted in Dillon being assessed a two-lap penalty. By then, Reddick trailed Logano in the standings by four points while Larson was leading by six seconds over Bell. During the caution period, some including Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Reddick, Haley and Buescher pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

The start of the following restart period with 26 laps remaining featured Larson rocketing away from Bell, Byron and Cindric entering the first turn as Logano also tried to join the battle. As Larson led the field through the first four turns before navigating his way through the final three sets of infield turns, Larson slightly stretched his advantage over Bell through the oval’s backstretch and the backstretch chicane. As Playoff contenders Blaney and Hamlin were trying to navigate their way back into the top 10 on the track, Larson led the following lap while Reddick, who was mired in 24th place after he pitted, trailed the cutline by 12 points.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Bell as Playoff contenders Byron, Cindric, Elliott and Logano followed suit in the top six. With Logano losing fifth place on the track to Elliott not long ago, Reddick, who overtook Bowman for 19th place, trailed Logano in the standings by six points. Not long after, Reddick nearly got sideways as he bumped and sent Daniel Hemric for a spin in Turn 7. Amid the incident, Reddick continued in 18th place as he now trailed Logano by five points. Reddick would gain another point during the following lap as he overtook Stenhouse for 17th place and was trying to track McDowell for more.

With 15 laps remaining, Larson added an extra second to his advantage as he was leading by two seconds over Bell. Meanwhile, Reddick carved his way up to 15th place on the track, which placed him only two points behind Logano, who was still running in sixth place on the track, in the standings as he was trying to battle Kyle Busch for 14th place. Another lap later, however, Reddick’s deficit was cut to a single point as he overtook Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for 14th place while Logano was being pressured by Allmendinger for sixth place.

Down to the final 11 laps of the event, Logano and Reddick were tied for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8 as Allmendinger overtook Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse for sixth place through the backstretch on the track. Meanwhile, Reddick was trying to track down team owner Hamlin, who is only seven points above the cutline, for 13th place on the track as Logano owned the tie-breaker over Reddick. Logano and Reddick would remain in seventh and 14th, respectively, on the track for the following lap as Larson stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Bell.

Then with nine laps remaining, Reddick overtook Logano in the Playoff standings as he was in the final transfer into the Round of 8 by two points after he overtook Toyota teammates Truex and Hamlin from Turns 5 to 7. Meanwhile, Logano was still mired in seventh place and racing ahead of van Gisbergen, Wallace and Blaney while Reddick was trying to track down Hocevar for 11th place. Despite dropping to 13th place, Hamlin remained seven points above the cutline.

With five laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Bell as Byron, Cindric and Elliott followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Logano was scored outside the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings by four points as he was overtaken by van Gisbergen for seventh place on the track a few laps earlier while Reddick was up to 11th place. By then, Blaney and Elliott were also above the cutline by 18 and 14 points, respectively, while Bowman and Hamlin followed suit by eight and four points, respectively.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained as the leader by more than a second over Bell. As Larson proceeded to lap Suarez through the infield turns while Bell tried to close in, Larson was able to smoothly navigate his way out of the infield turns and through the final set of road course turns on the oval circuit as he then navigated through the frontstretch chicane and streaked across the finish line to claim the checkered flag by one-and-a-half seconds over Bell.

With the victory, Larson, who continues his pursuit for his second Cup Series championship ahead of the Round of 8’s commencement, achieved his sixth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season. He also achieved the 29th Cup victory of his career, his second at the Charlotte Roval after winning his first in 2021 and his first victory since winning the Bristol Night Race three weeks ago.

The victory was also the 15th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the 11th of the season for Hendrick Motorsports, with the organization notching its 25th Cup victory overall at Charlotte, as Larson racked up his 23rd victory while driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for team owner Rick Hendrick.

“It’s the first time in my Playoff career [that] I’ve not been like close to the [Playoff] cutline,” Larson, who celebrated with his daughter Audrey on the frontstretch, said on NBC. “It was good to kind of have a little bit of a stress-free of a weekend. I think the first time I’ve been here without crashing, maybe besides the other time we won. Good weekend. Obviously, we’re here at [owner Rick] Hendrick’s home and got so many of the people here from there, so [it’s] gonna be fun to celebrate with them. It’s known that I don’t really use the [simulator] much and I was in the Sim this week. Huge thank you, you guys. It really helped me get into a rhythm, I think, early on and help us fine-tune our car, too. Hats off to everybody there.”

As Larson continued his race-winning celebration in Victory Lane, Tyler Reddick, the 2024 Cup Series Regular Season Champion, was left relieved and smiling on pit road with his team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin as he survived his roller coaster event by claiming the eighth and final transfer spot to the Round of 8 by four points with an 11th-place result at Charlotte. The result enabled Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team to maintain their championship hopes for another three weeks.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“I thought I was going to flip [in Stage 2],” Reddick said. “This [car] was absolutely destroyed. Real hats off to everybody on this Monster Energy Toyota Camry [team]. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was and we just kept working on it, and we made it a lot better for Stage 3. This is how this place can be sometimes, but it’s really nice to pull this off. You just got to stay calm, got to stay focused. In those moments, man, it’s so easy to lose track of what you control. Either way, I was going to drive the car as fast as I could. It just worked out for us. This thing was able to get up back up through the field and get us to the good side of the cutline.”

Meanwhile, Logano, who recorded a race-high 17 stage points and came into Charlotte with a 13-point deficit to the cutline, was left disappointed as he fell four points shy of remaining in contention for a third Cup Series championship in 2024. This season marks the first time where Logano was eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 12 and it comes a year after he was eliminated following the Round of 16.

“We fought hard, for sure,” Logano said. “I think [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the [No. 22] guys did a good job of executing the strategy and what we needed to do today. Just didn’t quite get enough there at the end. I fell off a little bit too much [on] that last run. Honestly, the No. 45 [team], Tyler [Reddick] and those guys did a good job [of] driving up through the field and scored more points. It’s hard not to think about Richmond a little bit right now. Just wasn’t meant to be. You can start looking back at different points in the season to gather four points pretty easily, but Talladega, we just didn’t do a good enough job there scoring stage points. It’s probably where a lot of it lies.”

Overall, Logano joins teammate Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe as the next wave of four Playoff contenders to officially be eliminated from the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.

“We had the speed and that’s the encouraging thing, that’s the exciting thing,” Cindric said. “Today, we needed it all. We had a great car. We had a great finish. All the things that are hard to do in a Cup race, we did all those things and capable of doing all those things in the two races prior [to Charlotte]. That’s what this [Playoff] format is. It’s difficult and for us having a better regular season, having bit better of a buffer can definitely help, but proud of everyone. Looking forward to trying to spoil some races and support our teammates to the rest.”

“We worked very hard for the last two weeks to prepare for this race,” Suarez said. “Honestly, [it was] probably the hardest I ever worked for one specific race and unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for. Just wasn’t our day, but I can tell you something. I’m very proud of this group because we put in the work. I guarantee you something, nobody works harder to prepare for this race. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for, but we have four more races and we’re going to go out there and give our best.”

On the contrary, Larson and Reddick join Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman as the remaining eight Playoff contenders who will continue the Playoff battle in the Round of 8, beginning next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Bell, Byron, Cindric and Elliott finished in the top five behind Larson at the Charlotte Roval while AJ Allmendinger, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen, Logano, Bubba Wallace and Blaney completed the top 10 in the final running order. As Reddick finished 11th, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Hamlin, Bowman, Suarez and Briscoe ended up 14th, 18th, 31st and 37th, respectively.

There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 13 laps. In addition, 30 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 62 laps led

2. Christopher Bell, one lap led

3. William Byron

4. Austin Cindric

5. Chase Elliott

6. AJ Allmendinger, 14 laps led

7. Shane van Gisbergen, 21 laps led

8. Joey Logano

9. Bubba Wallace

10. Ryan Blaney

11. Tyler Reddick, six laps led, Stage 1 winner

12. Carson Hocevar

13. Kyle Busch

14. Denny Hamlin

15. Michael McDowell

16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

17. Chris Buescher

18. Alex Bowman, five laps led, Stage 2 winner

19. Todd Gilliland

20. Zane Smith

21. Harrison Burton

22. Martin Truex Jr.

23. Josh Berry

24. Brad Keselowski

25. Daniel Hemric

26. Ryan Preece

27. Justin Haley

28. Kaz Grala

29. Ross Chastain

30. Josh Bilicki

31. Daniel Suarez, one lap down

32. Noah Gragson, one lap down

33. Austin Dillon, two laps down

34. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident

35. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

36. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Engine

37. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident

38. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Kyle Larson – Advanced

2. William Byron – Advanced

3. Christopher Bell – Advanced

4. Ryan Blaney – Advanced

5. Chase Elliott – Advanced

6. Alex Bowman – Advanced

7. Denny Hamlin – Advanced

8. Tyler Reddick – Advanced

9. Joey Logano – Eliminated

10. Austin Cindric – Eliminated

11. Daniel Suarez – Eliminated

12. Chase Briscoe – Eliminated

The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 20, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the South Point 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 13, 2024
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. survives overtime shootout for wild Cup victory at Talladega

For the first time in 65 races, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. triumphantly drove his way to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series division after he edged Brad Keselowski in a photo finish during an overtime shootout to win the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 6.

The 2023 Daytona 500 champion from Olive Branch, Mississippi, led five times for 19 of 195 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 32nd and used the draft to muscle his way to second place after the first stage period. After avoiding carnage after the second stage period that knocked out the reigning series champion Ryan Blaney, Stenhouse spent the majority of the final stage period mixing up the competition with his fellow competitors and Playoff contenders amid a series of three and four-wide action as the competitors raced in tight formation and aggressively at the front.

After barely dodging a track-record 28-car wreck on the backstretch with five laps remaining, where he got hit in the driver’s side by a spinning Austin Cindric but escaped with the lead, Stenhouse then outdueled and edged Brad Keselowski by 0.006 seconds amid an overtime shootout to claim his first elusive Cup Series victory of this year and become the third non-Playoff competitor to win throughout the 2024 Playoffs.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 5, Michael McDowell won his sixth Cup pole position this season and his career after he posted a pole-winning lap at 183.063 mph in 52.310 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Austin Cindric, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 182.424 mph in 52.493 seconds.

Before the event, Playoff contender Daniel Suarez dropped to the rear of the field and was assessed a drive-through penalty after taking the green flag due to an unapproved adjustment made to the roof area of Suarez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet entry during the event’s pre-race inspection process. While no additional penalties were warranted, Suarez’s car chief was ejected from Sunday’s event.

Playoff contender Christopher Bell also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry, but he was assessed no drive-through penalty.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric dueled for the lead in front of two stacks of competitors running in two drafted lanes. Through the first two turns, McDowell muscled ahead from the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Todd Gilliland, but Cindric fought back through the backstretch and on the outside lane with drafting help from Kyle Busch. As Suarez served his drive-through penalty while the field fanned out entering the frontstretch, McDowell led the first lap over Cindric and Gilliland.

Over the next four laps, the field fanned out to as wide as four lanes through every straightaway and corner before settling to three stacked lanes. At the front, McDowell, who transitioned from the inside to the outside lane, maintained the lead over Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher while Cindric and Ryan Preece followed suit ahead of Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, Playoff contender Joey Logano, Todd Gilliland and Martin Truex Jr. By then, the top-39 competitors were separated by nearly two seconds while Suarez trailed the lead pack by 35 seconds. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Denny Hamlin, who started in the top 10 before he was shuffled out of the draft earlier, was mired in 37th place.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, the top-six spots were occupied by Ford competitors as McDowell retained the lead ahead of Keselowski, Gilliland, Playoff contender Ryan Blaney, Cindric and Buescher while Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Preece and Harrison Burton were racing in the top 10. Behind, Noah Gragson, Logano, Playoff contender Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. and Playoff contender Kyle Larson were scored in the top 15 as Shane van Gisbergen, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, Corey LaJoie and Playoff contender Chase Briscoe were mired in the top 20. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron were back in the top-25 mark while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell and Hamlin were scored in 33rd and 37th, respectively as Suarez, who was still mired in 40th place, trailed by 49 seconds.

A lap later, the event’s first caution flew when Suarez, who was lapped by the leaders through the first two turns but opted to blend in with the lead and the draft, made contact with BJ McLeod while trying to move up in front of McLeod through the backstretch. The contact sent both into the outside wall before Suarez spun his No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the track and came to a rest with flat-spotted tires towards the Turns 3 and 4 apron as Byron barely dodged Suarez.

During the first caution period, where Suarez limped his damaged car to pit road, a majority of the lead lap field led by McDowell pitted while the rest led by McLeod and including Bell and Hamlin remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Keselowski exited pit road first ahead of McDowell and Cindric while Austin Dillon, Gragson, Buescher, Blaney, Truex, Stenhouse and Preece were scored in the top 10. The remaining competitors who did not pit during the first cycle led by McLeod pitted before the restart, which handed the lead back to Keselowski.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 16, Keselowski and McDowell dueled for the lead through the first two turns and in front of two stacked lanes. The field started to fan out through the backstretch as McDowell had Cindric drafting him on the outside lane while Keselowski had Austin Dillon drafting him on the inside lane. Through the frontstretch, McDowell reassumed the lead and he quickly transitioned his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse in front of Keselowski’s No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse to gain a draft from him while Cindric was trying to regain momentum with drafting help from Buescher. This forced McDowell to go on defense through two lanes while Kyle Busch was charging from a third drafting lane toward the outside lane.

At the Lap 20 mark, the top 39 competitors were running within one second of one another and fanned out to three stacked lanes as McDowell held a slight advantage over Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Preece and Austin Dillon while Cindric, Gilliland, Gragson, Buescher and Justin Haley were racing in the top 10.

Two laps later, McDowell nearly lost the lead to Preece through the frontstretch, but teammate Gilliland shoved McDowell back out front of the pack from the middle lane, where both Front Row Motorsports competitors went on defense to fend off Kyle Busch on the outside lane and Preece on the inside lane. As McDowell proceeded to lead the Lap 25 mark ahead of Gilliland and Kyle Busch, the trio of Cindric, Bowman and Blaney were the only Playoff contenders scored in the top 10 on the track.

By Lap 30, the top 39 competitors were separated by one-and-a-half seconds as McDowell continued to lead while fending off teammate Gilliland, Cindric, Kyle Busch, Justin Haley and a bevy of competitors running in a stack of three drafted lanes. With Playoff contenders Cindric, Bowman and Blaney racing in the top 10, Hamlin, Logano, Larson and Reddick were mired inside the top-20 mark while Briscoe followed suit in 21st place. Meanwhile, Elliott and Bell were mired back in 25th and 28th, respectively, while Byron dropped to 33rd place.

Nearing the Lap 40 mark, the field started to aggressively fan out to four tight lanes through every corner and straightaway as McDowell was being challenged by Haley for the lead. Haley assumed the top spot on Lap 38 while Cindric and Ross Chastain challenged him for the top spot amid a tight stack of three lanes. By then, McDowell had Haley racing in front of him amid the draft while Larson drafted Chastain to the lead at the Lap 40 mark towards the outside wall.

Three laps later, a tight four-wide formation for the lead occurred as Chastain, Larson, Alex Bowman and Daniel Hemric all challenged one another for the lead in front of a bevy of competitors running in close-quarters racing amid the draft. Chastain would then muscle his No. 1 Busch Light Camo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead to lead at the Lap 45 mark while the rest of the field behind continued to duel against one another through four tight lanes. By then, 11 of 12 Playoff contenders were racing within the top-25 mark while five, including Larson, Bowman, Cindric, Bell and Hamlin were racing within the top-10 mark.

At the Lap 50 mark, Chastain retained a narrow lead over a hard-charging Hemric, who had Hamlin drafting him, as a majority of the front-runners remained in a tight four-wide formation for the lead. Chastain along with Ty Gibbs and Larson would then break away from the pack by four-tenths of a second during the following lap before the field caught back up through the backstretch. Hemric would then get shuffled out of the draft through Turns 3 and 4 as Larson assumed the lead from teammate Bowman and Chastain during the next lap period.

With the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, Chastain led the Lap 53 mark before Ty Gibbs aggressively made his move to the lead. With Chastain rocketing back ahead, Hamlin would then get briefly shuffled out of the lead draft as Larson, Bowman, Haley, Ty Gibbs, Cindric and others followed suit behind Chastain. By Lap 55, the aggressiveness of the front-runners intensified amid three lanes as Chastain remained on defense to fend off Larson, Cindric and Bowman at the front.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Chris Buescher muscled his No. 17 Nexletol Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the front and fended off Stenhouse to claim his third Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Stenhouse followed suit in second as Byron, Larson, Bell, Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe, Cindric and Blaney were scored in the top 10 while the top 25 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. With seven of 12 Playoff contenders accumulating a first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Bowman, Logano, Elliott, Hamlin and Suarez ended up 11th, 17th, 19th, 23rd and 40th, respectively, with the latter pinned two laps behind.

Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Buescher returned to pit road for service while select names including Shane van Gisbergen, Keselowski, rookie Zane Smith, Austin Dillon and Justin Haley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Byron exited pit road first, followed by Buescher, Bell, Reddick, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Blaney, Cindric, Chastain and Ty Gibbs. Amid the pit stops, Gilliland was hit by Bubba Wallace and sent sliding towards his pit box while nearly dodging Byron in the process while Larson endured a slow pit stop after he had to reverse to exit his entry out of his pit box.

During the following lap, van Gisbergen, Keselowski, Zane Smith and Austin Dillon would pit their respective entries while Haley remained on the track to inherit the lead. A bevy of names led by Haley and Hemric would then pit to top off on fuel a lap prior to the second stage’s start.

The second stage period started on Lap 66 as Buescher and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher and Reddick dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes running tightly as Chase Elliott was shoved out of the draft. With rookie Josh Berry trying to start a third drafting lane towards the outside wall, Reddick led the following lap by a hair over Buescher as both continued to duel for the top spot in front of Stenhouse, Bell, Briscoe and Blaney.

Just past the Lap 70 mark and with the field returning to three-wide formation Buescher was leading both the race and a lane running towards the outside wall while McDowell led the middle lane. Meanwhile, Corey LaJoie led the inside lane as Buescher had drafting help from Bell to remain ahead of McDowell for the following lap.

At the Lap 75 mark, LaJoie made his presence at the front known as he led ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, Buescher, Cody Ware and Bell while McDowell, Hamlin, Blaney, Ty Gibbs and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10 ahead of Cindric, Reddick, Logano, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Preece, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger and rookie Carson Hocevar. With all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors mired back within the top-30 mark, McDowell, who reassumed the lead a lap earlier, dueled with Buescher for the lead as Burton, LaJoie, Briscoe and Bell followed suit while the top 26 competitors were separated under a second of one another.

Two laps later, seven Ford competitors, including all four Stewart-Haas Racing competitors and McDowell, pitted under green for fuel. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was leading ahead of van Gisbergen, Cindric, Logano and Chastain while Keselowski and Gilliland, both of whom missed their marks while trying to pit with the Ford competitors and were forced to cycle around the superspeedway venue an extra lap, pitted during the following lap. By Lap 86, however, nine Ford competitors led by Buescher, all of whom pitted, trailed the lead by nearly 36 seconds as Blaney retained the lead.

Within the Lap 90 mark, van Gisbergen, who assumed the lead two laps earlier, was leading as he was trying to fend off Blaney and Chastain through two stacked lanes while the top 27 competitors were separated within a second of one another.

At the halfway mark on Lap 94, the lead pack aggressively lapped Keselowski, Cody Ware and Gilliland through the backstretch as van Gisbergen assumed the lead from Blaney, who was getting stalled by his fellow Ford competitors and caused the field to scatter and fan out. Just then, Truex spun his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE as he locked up the brakes while he was trying to enter pit road along with his Toyota teammates from Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing and Legacy Motor Club. The race, however, remained under green flag conditions as the Toyota competitors pitted primarily for fuel. Soon after, Truex was lapped as van Gisbergen retained the lead ahead of Chastain, Blaney, Elliott, Byron and Cindric.

By Lap 100, van Gisbergen led the top-13 competitors to pit road for service under green as Hemric nearly ran into the rear of Kyle Busch while trying to reduce the speed of his car while Austin Dillon nearly missed his pit stall while pitting A lap earlier, more names including Chevrolet competitors Chastain, Byron, Bowman, Larson, Stenhouse and Suarez had pitted under green as Cindric cycled into the lead ahead of Elliott, van Gisbergen and Blaney. With the rest of the field, all of whom had pitted, slowly closing back in on the leaders amid the draft, the competitors within the field also started to scatter and fan out as Cindric retained the lead.

Within the Lap 105 mark, the top 30 competitors were separated by more than a second as the field started to fan out to two drafted lanes. In the process, Cindric retained the lead, where he blocked teammate Blaney exiting the backstretch as Blaney had Kyle Busch drafting him while Elliott led the inside lane ahead of van Gisbergen, Byron, Bubba Wallace and Hemric. The aggressiveness of the draft amongst the front-runners intensified shortly after as Cindric and Elliott dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes through every corner and straightaway.

On Lap 110, Cindric and Elliott continued to duel tightly against one another for the lead in front of two stacked lanes as the top-29 competitors were separated by two seconds. By then, five of 12 Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10, with 10 contenders racing within the top-20 mark.

Seven laps later, McDowell, who was running towards the rear of the lead pack, pitted under green for fuel. By then, AJ Allmendinger was lapped while both Cindric and Elliott fiercely dueled for the lead in front of the pack.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Playoff contender Austin Cindric fended off the pack to score his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season while teammate Blaney was bumped by Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch. The contact resulted in Blaney getting loose and veering his No. 12 Pennzoil/Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse back across the path of Chastain, where both collided against one another and towards the outside wall while teammate Logano, Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Reddick and LaJoie also sustained damage to their respective entries. Despite ending up eighth and 10th, respectively, Blaney and Chastain were knocked out of further contention, with the former concluding his event with a total of four stage points.

Amid the carnage, Elliott settled in second place ahead of Kyle Busch, van Gisbergen and Byron while Bowman, Wallace and Larson occupied the remaining top 10 spots on the track. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders including Reddick, Hamlin, Briscoe, Logano, Bell and Suarez did not rack up any points during the second stage’s conclusion while Allmendinger claimed the free pass spot by being the first competitor scored a lap down ahead of Suarez and Anthony Alfredo.

Under the stage break, a majority of the lead lap field led by Cindric returned to pit road, primarily for fuel, while others led by Reddick remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Kyle Busch exited pit road first ahead of Cindric, Wallace, Elliott and Byron while Larson, van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Bowman and Hemric followed suit in the top 10, with Bowman being penalized for removing equipment out of his pit box. Not long after, the remaining competitors who remained on the track led by Reddick pitted, which handed the lead to Busch.

With 61 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Kyle Busch and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Busch received a strong shove from Cindric from the outside lane, where he maintained a steady lead through the first two turns and managed to break ahead through the backstretch. Wallace, however, fought back from the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4, but Busch would lead the following lap by a hair over Wallace. By then, the field fanned out to three drafted lanes as Buescher tried to ignite a charge toward the outside lane. Meanwhile, Wallace had drafting help from Byron on the inside lane while Busch, who led the next lap, had Cindric drafting him on the outside lane.

Over the next four laps, Wallace managed to lead ahead of Busch as the front-runners returned to a three-wide formation. With 55 laps remaining, however, Buescher and Briscoe briefly rocketed away from the field through Turns 3 and 4 before the field caught back up through the frontstretch. As the field settled in by the following lap, a three-wide formation for the lead ensued as Allmendinger led both the race and the drafting lane toward the outside lane. With Allmendinger going on defense, he had Buescher, Briscoe and Cody Ware all closing in on him with Wallace, Kyle Busch, Gilliland, Byron, Logano and Cindric following suit.

With 50 laps remaining, Logano, who suffered front nose damage to the front of his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse after he got collected in the second stage’s wreck that involved teammate Blaney, emerged with the lead in front of a stack of three-wide competition from the field, with Allmendinger, Cody Ware, Kyle Busch and Briscoe scored in the top five. By then, six of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders on the track were racing within the top-10 mark while the remaining four that included Reddick, Byron, Bell and Hamlin were mired within the top-30 mark.

Ten laps later, Allmendinger, who spent the previous 10 laps trailing Logano before he overtook him amid the draft two laps earlier, was leading ahead of Logano, Briscoe, Gilliland and Buescher while Cindric, Stenhouse, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Elliott were scored in the top 10 as the top-34 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. By then, the field was locked in a three-wide formation at the front while Allmendinger had drafting help from Briscoe from the inside lane that enabled him to remain ahead of Logano and Cindric. The field then fanned out to four drafting lanes four laps later as both Logano and Cindric muscled ahead of Allmendinger.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, a three-wide battle for the lead between Allmendinger, Logano and Cindric continued to ensue in front of three stacked lanes as the top-35 competitors were separated by more than a second. By then, Logano, Cindric and Briscoe were the only Playoff contenders racing in the top-10 mark while seven additional contenders were racing within the top-25 mark. Meanwhile, Suarez was still mired a lap down in 36th place.

Nine laps later, select names including Allmendinger, Hemric, van Gisbergen and Anthony Alfredo peeled off the track to pit for fuel under green. Back on the track, Cindric led with 20 laps remaining over Austin Dillon before Buescher, Wallace and Erik Jones pitted under green, with the former getting sideways and locking up his front tires while trying to reduce his pace before entering pit road.

With 17 laps remaining, nine competitors led by Stenhouse and including Byron, Elliott, Larson and Suarez all pitted under green before a bevy of competitors led by Gilliland pitted under green during the following lap. By then, Gilliland was penalized for speeding while entering pit road as he locked up the front tires of his No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang Dark Horse as more names led by McDowell pitted.

Back on the track and with a majority of the field, including those who pitted, settling in back within the racing groove, Cindric was leading ahead of Keselowski and Logano as the top 21 competitors were separated by less than two seconds with 15 laps remaining. In the ensuing laps, Cindric had Keselowski shoving him from the inside lane while Stenhouse launched a side-by-side duel from the outside lane with drafting help from Elliott.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, the top 29 competitors were separated by more than a second as both Cindric and Stenhouse continued to duel for the lead in front of two stacked lanes as Cindric and Stenhouse also continued to have drafting help from Keselowski and Stenhouse, respectively.

Five laps later, Cindric continued to lead ahead of Stenhouse, Keselowski and a bevy of competitors racing in two-wide formation while Austin Dillon, who was mired in 29th place, tried to ignite a third drafting lane towards the outside wall.

Shortly after, the caution flew when Keselowski gave the leader Cindric a huge bump in the rear, which got Cindric’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse loose and ramming into the left driver’s side of Stenhouse’s No. 47 Kroger/Palmolive Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 before he spun in the middle of the pack and scrambled the field, with nearly every competitor racing in the lead pack spinning and crashing into one another and towards the walls through the backstretch. Among those who were involved included Playoff contenders Elliott, Briscoe, Logano, Bowman, Bell and Reddick as pole-sitter McDowell was also left with a wrecked race car.

The incident that collected a track-record 28 competitors was enough for the event to be sent into overtime as Stenhouse, who was hit in the driver’s side, escaped with the lead followed by Keselowski, Byron, Larson and Kyle Busch. It also placed the event in a red flag period for more than eight minutes before the scattered field led by Stenhouse resumed under a cautious pace. By then, Briscoe and Elliott, both of whom had their respective cars towed back to their pit stalls and were given clearance by NASCAR to have their cars repaired, managed to continue despite dropping out of the lead lap category while teammates Logano and Cindric were ruled out of the race.

When the race returned under green flag conditions, the start of the first overtime attempt featured Stenhouse and Keselowski dueling for the lead while Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron and Larson followed suit ahead of Bell, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones. Stenhouse and Keselowski continued to battle dead even in front of two stacked lanes exiting the backstretch before they returned to Turns 3 and 4.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Stenhouse and Keselowski remained deadlocked against one another for the lead and in front of the field. Through Turns 1 and 2, Kyle Busch was shoved out of the draft by Erik Jones, which resulted in Busch drifting towards the rear of the field as both Stenhouse and Keselowski continued to duel while being drafted by Byron and Larson, respectively.

Then through Turns 3 and 4, Keselowski muscled ahead and had both lanes under his control. Stenhouse, however, came storming back to draw even with Keselowski with drafting help from Byron’s No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entering the frontstretch while Keselowski had no drafting help from Larson and Bell. As the field fanned out approaching the start/finish line, Stenhouse edged Keselowski by 0.006 seconds to claim the checkered flag and be awarded his first Cup Series victory of the 2024 season.

With the victory, Stenhouse, whose margin of victory (0.006 seconds) marks the sixth-closest finish recorded in the history of the Cup Series, snapped a 65-race winless drought dating back to his previous victory in the 2023 Daytona 500 as he scored his fourth career win in the Cup Series, all occurring between Talladega Superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway. The victory was the 14th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the third ever for JTG-Daugherty Racing. Stenhouse also became the second competitor to win the Playoff event at Talladega as a non-Playoff contender since the inception of the current Playoff elimination-style format in 2014.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Man, this team has put a lot of hard work in,” Stenhouse, who dedicated his victory to those affected by Hurricane Helene, said on NBC. “Obviously, we haven’t won since the [Daytona] 500 in ’23. It’s been an up-and-down season. It was a lot of hard work this season, just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew this track is one of ours to come get. This means a lot winning here. Man, what a day. Just proud of this group. I’m looking forward to seeing [co-owner Brad Daugherty]. This win’s really, really special.”

Brad Keselowski, who led two laps and just fell short of winning at Talladega in April earlier this season, settled in second place for the fourth time in 2024.

“[Larson] gave me a good push down the frontstretch, but [Byron] was able to really stick with [Stenhouse],” Keselowski said. “[I] Needed a tiny bit there, but good finish for us. We’ve been knocking on the door on these plate tracks. [I] Hate that we didn’t bust through with the win, but happy to be right there in contention.”

Meanwhile, Playoff competitors and teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson accomplished their goals of notching strong results at Talladega by finishing third and fourth, respectively. The third-place result was enough for Byron to clinch his spot into the Playoff’s Round of 8 based on points while Larson is scored 52 points above the top-eight cutline.

“Just proud of my team,” Byron said. “[They] Brought a good car here. Thanks to my spotter Branden [Lines]. He did a great job all day. We missed a couple wrecks early on that were sketchy, just when we were saving fuel and things like that. Really happy to advance on points [in the Playoffs]. We’ll be on attack [mode] going in the Round of 8 and next week. Next week’s my home track, so I look forward to that place. Hopefully, get a win there.”

“[This is my] Second top five of my career in general on speedways, so I’ll take that,” Larson added. “It’s really cool. Obviously, there’s a lot of luck that plays into just finishing these races. I feel like we do a great job and today just showed that. It’s cool to finally go into the [Charlotte] Roval with a 52-point gap. That race is stressful. It’s way more stressful to me than Talladega, so glad to not have to worry about it too much.”

Erik Jones logged in the first top-five result of the season for both himself and Legacy Motor Club by finishing fifth while Playoff contender Christopher Bell, Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Playoff contender Denny Hamlin completed the top 10 in the final running order.

With four of 12 Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney ended up 16th, 20th, 26th, 29th, 30th, 32nd, 33rd and 39th, respectively.

With the results, the four Playoff contenders who enter next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings are Logano, Suarez, Cindric and Briscoe. Meanwhile, Reddick and Elliott occupy the final two transfer spots by 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Ryan Blaney escapes with a 25-point advantage from the cutline amid his Stage 2 accident that resulted in him finishing in the next-to-last position in the leaderboard.

There were 66 lead changes for 24 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 24 laps. In addition, 22 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 19 laps led

2. Brad Keselowski, two laps led

3. William Byron, one lap led

4. Kyle Larson, one lap led

5. Erik Jones

6. Christopher Bell

7. Justin Haley, four laps led

8. Austin Dillon, one lap led

9. Bubba Wallace, three laps led

10. Denny Hamlin

11. Martin Truex Jr.

12. Cody Ware, one lap led

13. Ty Gibbs

14. Carson Hocevar

15. Shane van Gisbergen, nine laps led

16. Alex Bowman, one lap led

17. Chris Buescher, 12 laps led, Stage 1 winner

18. Corey LaJoie, five laps led

19. Kyle Busch, seven laps led

20. Tyler Reddick, two laps led

21. Zane Smith

22. BJ McLeod, one lap led

23. Todd Gilliland, one lap down, two laps led

24. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

25. Noah Gragson, one lap down

26. Daniel Suarez, one lap down

27. JJ Yeley, two laps down

28. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down, nine laps led

29. Chase Elliott, five laps down, one lap led

30. Chase Briscoe, six laps down

31. John Hunter Nemechek, seven laps down

32. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident, 29 laps led, Stage 2 winner

33. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 19 laps led

34. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident

35. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident

36. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

37. Michael McDowell – OUT, Accident, 42 laps led

38. Daniel Hemric – OUT, Accident, one lap led

39. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident, six laps led

40. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident, 17 laps led

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. William Byron – Advanced

2. Christopher Bell +57

3. Kyle Larson +52

4. Denny Hamlin +30

5. Alex Bowman +26

6. Ryan Blaney +25

7. Tyler Reddick +14

8. Chase Elliott +13

9. Joey Logano -13

10. Daniel Suarez -20

11. Austin Cindric -29

12. Chase Briscoe -32

The Round of 12 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next Sunday, October 13, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in Concord, North Carolina, for the Bank of America ROVAL 400 and where the second of three elimination processes will occur. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 6, 2024
Larson thunders to dominant Cup victory at Bristol Night Race; Playoff’s Round of 12 field set

Kyle Larson annihilated his competition and thundered his way into the Playoff’s Round of 12 with a dominant victory in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 21.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led four times for a race-high 462 of 500-scheduled laps in an event where he started alongside teammate Alex Bowman on the front row. From the moment Larson first assumed the lead on Lap 33 from Bowman, the race was his to lose.

He proceeded to sweep both stage periods, maintain the top spot following every pit service performed by his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team and rocket away from the field through every restart he was leading, including the final one with 163 laps remaining. He lapped all but nine of 37 starters to cruise to his fifth Cup Series victory of the 2024 season and convincingly transfer his way into the second round of the 2024 Playoffs.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, September 20, Playoff contender Alex Bowman notched his first Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the fifth of his career with a pole-winning lap at 126.720 mph in 15.142 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender and teammate Kyle Larson, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 126.378 mph in 15.183 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced under the lights, Alex Bowman muscled ahead from teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron through the first two turns and the backstretch. He navigated his way through Turns 3 and 4, where he led the first lap, while Playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. was up to second place in front of Larson. As Larson proceeded to overtake Truex for the runner-up spot during the following lap, Byron battled Playoff Christopher Bell to retain fourth place.

Four laps later, the event’s first caution period flew when John Hunter Nemechek got loose after he nearly made contact with the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, and then proceeded to spin and make rear-end contact with the outside wall in Turn 4.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 10, Bowman muscled ahead from the field to retain the lead while Truex and Larson battled for the runner-up spot. Behind, Byron and Bell trailed in the top five ahead of Playoff contender Chase Briscoe and rookie Carson Hocevar as Bubba Wallace, Corey LaJoie and Playoff contenders Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Chase Elliott followed suit.

Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Bowman was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Larson as Truex, teammate Byron and Briscoe were scored in the top five ahead of Hocevar, Bell, Wallace, Hamlin and LaJoie. Behind, Ty Gibbs, Elliott, Playoff contender Joey Logano, Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece were running in the top 15 ahead of Playoff contender Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger and Playoff contender Tyler Reddick. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Austin Cindric, Brad Keselowski and Daniel Suarez were mired within the top-30 as Playoff rookie Harrison Burton was mired outside the top-30 mark.

Ten laps later, Bowman maintained a steady advantage of two-tenths of a second over teammate Larson while Playoff contenders Truex, Byron and Briscoe followed suit in the top five. Another four laps later, Larson used the outside lane to navigate his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 past Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and assume the lead. Larson would proceed to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Bowman at the Lap 40 mark while Truex, Byron and Briscoe continued to trail in the top-five mark ahead of Bell.

At the Lap 50 mark, Larson, who was navigating his way through lapped traffic and made contact with Nemechek while lapping him a few laps earlier, was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Bowman followed by Truex, Byron and Bell while Briscoe, Hocevar, Wallace, Hamlin and Gibbs occupied the top-10 spots. Behind, LaJoie, Elliott, Logano, Gragson and Preece were running in the top 15 as Blaney, McDowell, Chastain, Reddick and Allmendinger were racing in the top 20 ahead of Chris Buescher, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Watkins Glen International. With 12 of 16 Playoff contenders running inside the top-20 mark on the track, the remaining Playoff contenders including Cindric, Keselowski, Suarez and Harrison Burton were mired in 24th, 27th, 28th and 30th, respectively.

Fifteen laps later, the top-eight spots on the track were occupied by Playoff contenders as Larson led Bowman, Truex, Byron, Bell, Briscoe, Hamlin and Gibbs, respectively. With Playoff Suarez lapped by Larson in 31st place, Keselowski and Burton were in jeopardy of being lapped while mired in 27th and 28th, respectively, while Cindric was still in 23rd place. As the remaining Playoff contenders including Elliott, Logano, Blaney and Reddick were mired in the top-20 mark on the track, Larson continued to lead at the Lap 75 mark.

By Lap 85, Larson stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over teammate Bowman as Playoff contenders Truex, Byron, Bell, Briscoe, Hamlin and Gibbs all followed suit in the top eight while trailing the lead by within four seconds. Behind, both Wallace and Hocevar continued to run as the highest-running non-Playoff contenders on the track and in the top-10 mark while Playoff contender Harrison Burton was about to be lapped by Larson.

At the Lap 100 mark, nine of the top-10 spots on the track were occupied by Playoff contenders as Larson extended his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over teammate Bowman as Truex, Bell, Byron, Briscoe, Hamin, Gibbs and Elliott were all in the mix. By then, Wallace was the highest non-Playoff contender on the track in ninth place. Meanwhile, teammates Blaney and Logano were racing 13th and 14th, respectively, while Reddick and Cindric continued to trail in 19th and 23rd, respectively. In addition, Keselowski was trying to fend off the leader Larson to remain on the lead lap in 27th place while Burton and Suarez, both of whom were scored a lap down, were mired in 30th and 31st, respectively.

Ten laps later, Larson continued to lead by more than one-and-a-half seconds over teammate Bowman while Bell moved his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE up to third place ahead of teammate Truex and Byron. Behind, Blaney moved up to 11th place and Cindric gained two spots to 21st place while Keselowski was scored a lap down in 27th place. With nine Playoff contenders continuing to occupy nine top-10 spots on the track while jostling amongst one another for positions, Larson kept his lead to more than a second by the Lap 115 mark.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 125, Larson, who came into the event 26 points above the top-12 cutline in the Playoff standings, captured his 11th Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Bowman followed suit in second ahead of a bevy of Playoff contenders that included Bell, Truex, Byron, Hamlin, Briscoe, Gibbs and Elliott while Wallace retained 10th place. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Blaney, Logano, Reddick, Cindric, Keselowski, Burton and Suarez were mired in 11th, 14th, 19th, 21st, 27th, 29th and 30th, respectively, as the latter three were scored a lap down.

With his third-place result in the first stage period that awarded him eight stage points, Christopher Bell clinched his spot into the Round of 12 in the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, thus joining Joey Logano as the former continues his pursuit for his first championship in NASCAR’s premier series.

Under the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Larson pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after he exited pit road first while being followed by Bell, Bowman, Truex, Byron, Gibbs, Hamlin, Wallace, Briscoe and Elliott, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Playoff Ty Gibbs along with rookie Josh Berry and Kyle Busch were all sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road. Rookie Zane Smith was also penalized for pitting outside of his pit box.

The second stage period started on Lap 135 as Larson and Bell occupied the front row. At the start, Larson fended off Bell to retain the lead as he proceeded to lead the following lap. With the field behind jostling for spots, Larson proceeded to lead through the Lap 140 mark while Bell, Truex and Bowman followed suit in the top four. Behind, Byron and Wallace battled for fifth place as Hamlin tried to fend off Briscoe, Logano, Elliott and Blaney for seventh place.

Through the first 150 scheduled laps, Playoff contenders occupied the top 11 spots on the track as Larson was leading ahead of rivals Bell, Truex, Bowman and Hamlin while Wallace was the lone non-Playoff contender in the mix in sixth place. Behind, Briscoe, Byron, Logano, Blaney and Elliott followed suit in the top 11 while Cindric and Reddick trailed in 17th and 18th, respectively. As Gibbs was mired in 24th following his pit road speeding penalty, the remaining Playoff contenders including Keselowski, Burton and Suarez were mired in 27th, 29th and 34th, respectively.

Fifteen laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Bell while Truex, Hamlin, Bowman and Briscoe trailed within four seconds in the top-six mark on the track. As Wallace slipped to seventh, he remained ahead of Blaney, Byron, Elliott and Logano.

Another 10 laps later, Larson continued to lead by a second in Bell as Truex, Hamlin, Bowman and Briscoe continued to follow suit in the top six ahead of Wallace, Blaney, Byron, Elliott and Logano. Meanwhile, Cindric and Reddick were mired in 17th and 18th, respectively, and Gibbs was still mired in 23rd place as he was in jeopardy of being lapped by Larson.

Towards the Lap 185 mark, Larson, who continued to weave his way through lapped traffic, had his advantage decrease to four-tenths of a second over Bell while Hamlin moved his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE up to third place ahead of Truex, Bowman and Briscoe. By then, Suarez, who was mired in 33rd place, was lapped for a second time by Larson as Larson, who proceeded to lead the Lap 190 mark, was slowly catching Gibbs, who was still racing in 23rd place, to pin him a lap down.

At the Lap 200 mark, Larson retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Bell as the latter was having teammate Hamlin closing in for the runner-up spot. By then, Playoff contenders Briscoe, Bowman, Blaney, Elliott, Byron and Logano continued to run inside the top-11 mark on the track while Wallace remained as the highest non-Playoff contender in seventh place. By then, Reddick, Cindric and Gibbs continued to trail in 17th, 18th and 23rd, respectively, while Keselowski, Burton and Suarez were off the lead lap category in 28th, 30th and 32nd, respectively.

Fifteen laps later, Larson slightly stretched his advantage to a second over Bell as third-place Hamlin trailed teammate Bell by only four-tenths of a second. Behind, Briscoe moved his No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse up to fourth place ahead of Truex, Bowman and Blaney as Wallace, Elliott, Byron and Logano followed suit in the top 11.

Another 10 laps later and with the frustrations mounting within several Playoff contenders, Larson, who was navigating his way through lapped traffic, extended his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Bell, with Hamlin, Briscoe, Truex, Bowman and Blaney following suit in the top seven. By then, Byron was mired in 10th place ahead of Logano and Gibbs was only up to 21st place while Keselowski, Suarez and Burton were still mired in 28th, 31st and 34th, respectively. With Keselowski scored a lap down, both Suarez and Burton were pinned two laps down.

Then on Lap 237, Playoff rookie Harrison Burton’s hopes of transferring into the Round of 12 evaporated as he took his No. 21 Ford Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse behind the pit wall due to a power steering issue. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, Larson maintained his steady advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Hamlin as Bell dropped to third place in front of Briscoe and Truex by the Lap 240 mark.

Then on Lap 243, the caution flew when Playoff contender Joey Logano, who was running in 11th place and had already guaranteed himself a spot into the Round of 12, slipped sideways while running in between the lapped competitor of Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace exiting Turn 2 as he proceeded to spin and hit the frontstretch’s inside wall head-on, though he managed to proceed while dragging sparks beneath his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service while Playoff contender Tyler Reddick remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first ahead of Hamlin, Truex, Bell, Wallace, Briscoe, Bowman, Blaney, Elliott and Byron, respectively.

With the race restarting under green with two laps remaining in the second stage period, Larson wasted no time using the fresh tires to his advantage as he rocketed away from Reddick to reassume the lead through the backstretch. Behind, Truex made his way into second place as Reddick was trying to fend off Hamin and Bell for the following lap.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, which marked the halfway point of the overall event, Larson captured his 12th Cup stage victory of the 2024 season and second of the night. Truex followed suit in second ahead of Hamlin, Reddick and Bell while Wallace, Bowman, Briscoe, Blaney and Elliott were scored in the top 10. With nine of the remaining 15 Playoff contenders on the track finishing in the top 10 and racking up a second round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Byron, Cindric, Gibbs, Keselowski, Suarez and Logano were mired in 11th, 16th, 18th, 26th, 30th and 32nd, respectively.

With a combined 13 stage points by finishing second and seventh during the event’s first two stage periods, pole-sitter Alex Bowman joined Christopher Bell and Joey Logano as a third Playoff competitor to be guaranteed early automatic passes to the Playoff’s Round of 12.

During the stage break, Reddick, who gained seven points at the second stage’s conclusion, pitted for fresh tires to his No. 45 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

With 240 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Larson and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Larson used the outside lane to fend off Truex through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Larson retaining the lead for the proceeding laps ahead of Truex, the latter’s teammates Hamlin and Bell followed suit along with Wallace in the top five while Briscoe challenged Bell for fifth place. With nine Playoff contenders running in the top 10 spots on the track, Larson retained the lead by six-tenths of a second with 230 laps remaining.

With 215 laps remaining, Larson stretched his lead to a second over Truex while non-Playoff contender Wallace was up to third place ahead of a bevy of Playoff contenders that included Hamlin, Briscoe, Bell, Elliott, Blaney and Bowman. With non-Playoff contenders Ross Chastain and Corey LaJoie following suit ahead of Playoff contender Byron, Gibbs was mired in 18th place ahead of Cindric, Allmendinger and Reddick while Keselowski, Logano and Suarez all trailed by a lap down in 28th, 30th and 33rd, respectively.

Down to the final 200 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Truex as Wallace, Hamlin, Briscoe, Bell, Elliott, Blaney, Bowman and Chastain remained in the top 10 on the track. Behind, Byron retained 12th place, Gibbs gained only a single spot to 17th place and Cindric was still mired in 19th place ahead of Reddick. As Keselowski, Logano and Suarez continued to trail outside the top-25 mark on the track while not scored on the lead lap category, Larson lapped Suarez’s No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and placed the latter two laps down.

Twenty-five laps later, Larson stretched his advantage to three seconds over Truex as Playoff contenders Briscoe, Hamlin and Elliott followed suit in the top five on the track. Behind, Wallace settled in sixth ahead of Blaney, Bell, Chastain and Bowman as Playoff contenders Byron, Gibbs, Cindric and Reddick were running 13th, 16th, 18th and 21st, respectively. As Keselowski was behind the leaders by a lap in 28th, Logano and Suarez were running 31st and 32nd while scored two laps down.

Three laps later, the caution flew when Corey LaJoie, who was running in 11th place, received contact from the lapped competitor of Josh Berry that got LaJoie loose and veering into the outside wall in Turn 2 as his No. 7 Mattress Warehouse Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came to a sliding halt with damage towards the inside lane.

During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first ahead of Truex, Hamlin, Elliott, Blaney, Wallace, Bowman, Bell, Chastain and Byron while Briscoe lost a bevy of spots due to a slow pit service to have the right-front tire changed. Soon after, Truex, who spent the majority of the event running towards the front, was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

The start of the following restart period with 163 laps remaining featured Larson rocketing away to retain the lead as teammate Elliott launched his No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the runner-up spot. Wallace would then follow suit into third place as Hamlin was trying to fend off teammate Bell, Blaney and Byron for fourth place. Hamlin then capitalized on Wallace sliding up the track to retake fourth place as Larson proceeded to lead with 160 laps remaining.

With 150 laps remaining, Larson extended his advantage to a second over teammate Elliott as Hamlin, Bell and Blaney were scored in the top five. Behind, Briscoe, who was trying to rally from his slow pit service, was up to sixth place after he overtook Wallace while Ty Gibbs was up into eighth place ahead of Byron and Bowman.

Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead ahead of teammate Elliott while Hamlin was trying to fend off teammate Bell for third place as Briscoe was up into fifth place. Larson would proceed to lead by more than a second over teammate Elliott with 120 laps remaining as Hamlin, Bell and Briscoe remained in the top five ahead of Blaney, Wallace, Gibbs, Bowman and Byron.

Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Larson stretched his advantage to nearly three seconds over teammate Elliott as Hamlin, Bell, Briscoe, Blaney, Wallace, Gibbs, Bowman and McDowell were scored in the top 10 on the track. Behind, Byron dropped to 13th place as he was three spots ahead of Cindric and seven spots ahead of Reddick while Truex was mired in 24th place. Meanwhile, Keselowski was mired in 26th place and trapped a lap down and Logano was two laps down in 29th place while Suarez, who currently held sole possession of the 12th and final transfer spot to the Round of 12 by a mere margin over Gibbs, was running three laps down in 31st place.

Twenty-five laps later, Larson lapped 24th-place Truex while retaining the lead by two seconds over teammate Elliott and Bell. Behind, Hamlin trailed by four seconds in fourth place while Briscoe trailed by five seconds in fifth place.

Another 15 laps later, Larson, who had guaranteed himself into the Playoff’s Round of 12, had his advantage slightly decreased to one-and-a-half seconds over teammate Elliott as Playoff contenders Bell, Hamlin, Briscoe and Blaney followed suit in the top six. Behind, Wallace remained as the highest-running Playoff contender in seventh place ahead of Playoff contenders Gibbs and Bowman while the remaining Playoff contenders that included Byron, Cindric, Reddick, Truex, Keselowski, Logano, Suarez and Burton were mired in 13th, 16th, 20th, 24th, 25th, 29th, 31st and 35th, respectively.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Larson stretched his advantage back up to two seconds over teammate Elliott, with eight Playoff contenders occupying the top 10 spots on the track. By then, Brad Keselowski pitted his No. 6 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang Dark Horse under green for fuel, which pinned him three laps from the lead and had his hopes of advancing into the Round of 12 being jeopardized, as Larson lapped Reddick, who was mired in 20th place.

As Larson proceeded to lead by more than two seconds over teammate Elliott with 40 laps remaining, Suarez, who was mired in 30th place despite being three laps down, was currently occupying the 12th and final transfer spot to the Round of 12 by six points over Gibbs, who was strapped in ninth place and unable to navigate past Suarez on the track. With Truex, Keselowski and Burton scored below the cutline, Hamlin and Briscoe were both above the cutline by eight and six points, respectively.

With 30 laps remaining, Larson extended his advantage to three seconds over teammate Elliott and four seconds over Hamlin while Suarez, who remained in 30th place and was three laps down, maintained a nine-point advantage over Gibbs, whose No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota Camry XSE was losing the handling and had dropped to 11th place on the track, for the final transfer spot into the Round of 12.

With Larson adding another second to his advantage as he was now leading by four seconds over teammate Elliott with 20 laps remaining, Suarez maintained his advantage for the final transfer spot into the Round of 12 by 10 points over Gibbs, who was down to 13th place on the track, as Byron, Hamlin and Briscoe were also in position to transfer by 21, 14 and 11 points, respectively.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson, who lapped Gibbs seven laps earlier, extended his advantage to five seconds over teammate Elliott as only 12 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap. By then, Gibbs dropped to 15th place and was losing ground to Suarez, who retained 30th place on the track while three laps down, as Suarez, Byron, Hamlin and Briscoe were all still above the cutline over Gibbs, Truex, Keselowski and Burton.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained as the leader by six seconds over teammate Elliott. With no challengers closing in from behind, Larson was able to smoothly and quickly navigate his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 around the Bristol circuit for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his fifth checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season.

With the victory, Larson, whose son Owen saluted the fans as the driver took him for a parade victory lap, notched his 28th NASCAR Cup Series career victory in his 359th series’ start, his second at Bristol under the lights and his first since winning the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past July. The victory was the 12th of the 2024 season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the 10th for Hendrick Motorsports, with the organization notching its fifth victory at the Bristol Night Race feature.

As a result of his Bristol Night Race victory, Larson, who is coming off finishes of 37th and 12th from the first two events of the Playoff’s Round of 16, clinched a berth into the Round of 12 as he continues his pursuit for his second Cup Series championship.

“I’ve had a lot of good cars since I’ve come to Hendrick Motorsports,” Larson said on the frontstretch on USA Network. “That was just great execution all weekend by the team. Practice good. You got to qualify good [and] we did that. [I] Just had a great car. Thanks to the whole No. 5 team. They’re the best in the business. We dominated a lot of races, but we might not close them all out, so it was really good to close one out with this HendrickCars.com Chevy. Just a phenomenal car. [I] Could kind of manage my stuff and then really pass some cars there at the end.”

As an added bonus, Larson set a record for the most laps led by a Hendrick Motorsports competitor in a race at 462. The total laps Larson led are the most recorded by a Bristol Cup race winner since the late Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough led 496 laps in April 1977.

“That’s pretty awesome,” Larson said of his record feat. “There’s been some legendary Hall of Famers [who have] raced for Hendrick Motorsports. We’ve all grown up watching Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson dominate. Pretty cool to add my name up to another record at Hendrick Motorsports. Just very fortunate to be with that group. It’s so much fun and especially racing in front of you fans under the lights at Bristol. This is my favorite track and I hope you guys enjoyed that race there and enjoyed the methodical lap traffic run.”

Teammate Chase Elliott, who came into Bristol with a 30-point cushion, also transferred into the Round of 12 by finishing second while Bubba Wallace, who inked a multiyear contract extension to remain at 23XI Racing, capped off a stellar night as a non-Playoff contender by finishing third. Playoff contenders Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell finished in the top five as both also transferred into the Round of 12.

Ryan Blaney, Ryan Preece, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain completed the top 10 spots on the track as all were also the final five set of competitors to finish on the lead lap.

Larson, Elliott, Hamlin and Bell join Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez as the 12 competitors who transfer into the Playoff’s Round of 12. Meanwhile, Ty Gibbs was the first competitor to be eliminated from the Playoffs as he missed the cutline by 11 points and teammate Martin Truex Jr. was also unable to recover from his late pit road speeding penalty. By being eliminated from the Playoffs, Truex, the 2017 Cup Series champion, will not battle for a championship in his final full-time racing season. Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton were also eliminated from Playoff contention.

There were eight lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 36 laps.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 462 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

2. Chase Elliott

3. Bubba Wallace, one lap led

4. Denny Hamlin

5. Christopher Bell

6. Ryan Blaney

7. Ryan Preece

8. Chase Briscoe

9. Alex Bowman, 34 laps led

10. Ross Chastain

11. Michael McDowell, one lap down

12. Noah Gragson, one lap down

13. Austin Cindric, one lap down

14. Chris Buescher, one lap down

15. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

16. Zane Smith, one lap down

17. William Byron, one lap down

18. Carson Hocevar, one lap down

19. Daniel Hemric, one lap down

20. Tyler Reddick, one lap down, three laps led

21. Austin Dillon, one lap down

22. Justin Haley, one lap down

23. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down

24. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

25. Kyle Busch, two laps down

26. Brad Keselowski, three laps down

27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., three laps down

28. Joey Logano, four laps down

29. Josh Berry, four laps down

30. Erik Jones, four laps down

31. Daniel Suarez, four laps down

32. Todd Gilliland, four laps down

33. John Hunter Nemechek, nine laps down

34. Josh Bilicki, 33 laps down

35. Harrison Burton, 78 laps down

36. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident

37. Kaz Grala – OUT, Steering

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Joey Logano – Advanced

2. Kyle Larson – Advanced

3. Christopher Bell – Advanced

4. Alex Bowman – Advanced

5. Chase Elliott – Advanced

6. Austin Cindric – Advanced

7. Ryan Blaney – Advanced

8. Tyler Reddick – Advanced

9. William Byron – Advanced

10. Denny Hamlin – Advanced

11. Chase Briscoe – Advanced

12. Daniel Suarez – Advanced

13. Ty Gibbs – Eliminated

14. Martin Truex Jr. – Eliminated

15. Brad Keselowski – Eliminated

16. Harrison Burton – Eliminated

The Round of 12 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, September 29, at Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

September 22, 2024
Chris Buescher outduels Shane van Gisbergen in overtime for wild Cup victory at Watkins Glen

In a season mired with missed opportunities that resulted in him missing the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs by a single points position, Chris Buescher took advantage of the chance to cap off this season on a strong note by winning the Go Bowling at The Glen (Watkins Glen International) on Sunday, September 15, amid a wild overtime shootout and a final lap bump and pass on Shane van Gisbergen.

The 2015 Xfinity Series champion from Prosper, Texas, led three times for 19 of 92 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 24th and utilized pit strategy to methodically carve his way up the leaderboard. With a bevy of Playoff contenders encountering on-track issues from start to finish, Buescher, who pitted prior to the second stage’s conclusion, utilized fresher tires than the leaders to briefly lead for the first time with 33 laps remaining before he pitted two laps later. He then cycled back to the lead with 17 laps remaining during a late round of green flag pit stops.

Then among three late-race caution and restart periods, including the third and latest restart that sent the event into overtime, Buescher, who had maintained the lead during all restart periods, was bumped out of the lead by van Gisbergen, who proceeded to lead the penultimate lap while Buescher remained within striking distance. Van Gisbergen then made the slightest contact with the guardrails through the Bus Stop that got him loose through the curbs and the turns, which enabled Buescher to reassume the lead amid another round of contact between both through the Inner Loop. With van Gisbergen unable to return the favor within the course’s final pair of turns, Buescher drove away to claim his first victory of the 2024 Cup Series season and become the first non-Playoff competitor to win a Playoff event this season.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, September 14, Ross Chastain notched his first Cup Series pole position of the 2024 season and the second of his career after he posted a pole-winning speed at 122.279 mph in 72.130 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Martin Truex Jr., who posted the second-fastest qualifying speed at 122.052 mph in 72.264 seconds.

Prior to the event, Todd Gilliland and rookie Carson Hocevar dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Ross Chastain launched ahead with an early advantage through the frontstretch and he maintained the top spot through the opening set of turns through the Esses and the backstretch while the field behind jostled for early spots amid multiple lanes.

Then through the Bus Stop corner, early trouble struck as Corey LaJoie bumped and sent Kyle Busch, who was running towards the top-15 mark, for a spin towards the middle of the turn, where he clipped Playoff contender Christopher Bell as Bell spun while his teammate and Playoff contender Denny Hamlin clipped Busch and sustained damage to his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE entry after he got bumped by Ryan Preece. Among other competitors who were involved included Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace, both of whom hit the guardrails while going off the course, while Busch’s wrecked No. 8 zone Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry was left stalled in the Inner Loop turn.

During the chaos, Ryan Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion and a 2024 Playoff contender, drove his No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry off the course and came to a stop due to a broken steering column as a result of hitting Brad Keselowski while avoiding the opening lap carnage. The issue was enough for NASCAR to rule Blaney out of contention to continue without having completed the first lap, though Blaney was left heated at NASCAR for not allowing his team to repair the car despite not sustaining any significant damage from the carnage. By then, Bell continued without sustaining any significant damage to his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE entry while Hamlin and Busch dropped out of the lead lap category with damage to their respective entries.

When the race restarted under green on the fifth lap, Chastain, who led the opening four laps under caution, rocketed ahead with another strong start through the frontstretch and the Esses while the rest of the field behind fanned out. In the process, Allmendinger, who restarted in the top five, was dropping off the pace due to a mechanical issue with his No. 13 Go Bowling Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. With Allmendinger dropping out of contention, the rest of the field navigated smoothly through the backstretch, Bus Stop, Inner Loop and the final set of turns from Turns 5 to 7 as Chastain retained the lead and led the following lap.

Over the next three laps, Chastain stabilized his early advantage to six-tenths of a second over Truex while van Gisbergen, Bowman and Playoff contender Chase Briscoe were running in the top five ahead of Playoff competitors Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Elliott. With Michael McDowell occupying ninth place, he was ahead of five Playoff contenders that included Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs while Erik Jones occupied 15th place ahead of Chris Buescher, rookie Zane Smith, Noah Gragson, Daniel Hemric and Corey LaJoie.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chastain continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Truex while van Gisbergen, Bowman and Briscoe continued to run in the top five ahead of Cindric, Suarez, Elliott, McDowell and Reddick. By then, 11 of 15 remaining Playoff contenders on the track were running in the top 14 on the track while Brad Keselowski, Harrison Burton and Bell were mired back from 25th to 27th, respectively. In addition, Denny Hamlin was mired a lap down in 34th place following repairs to his No. 11 Toyota.

Five laps later, Chastain extended his advantage to three seconds over van Gisbergen, who overtook Truex for the runner-up spot a lap earlier, while Bowman and Briscoe battled for fourth place in front of Suarez. Behind, Cindric, Elliott, McDowell and Reddick were racing in the top 10 ahead of Larson, Logano, Zane Smith, Byron and Ty Gibbs while Keselowski, Bell, Burton and Hamlin all continued to be mired outside the top-20 mark.

Another lap later, McDowell pitted his No. 34 Benebone Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry under green from ninth place. A host of names that included van Gisbergen, Logano, Zane Smith, Byron, Buescher, Ty Gibbs, Corey LaJoie, rookie Carson Hocevar, Noah Gragson, rookie Josh Berry, Justin Haley, Keselowski, Juan Pablo Montoya, Harrison Burton, John Hunter Nemechek, Todd Gilliland and Austin Dillon pitted during the next lap period before the leader Chastain pitted his No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry on Lap 18. As a result, Truex cycled into the lead as he was followed by Bowman, Briscoe, Suarez and Cindric while Keselowski was penalized for speeding on pit road.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Truex, who came into the event 19 points below the top-12 cutline in the Playoff standings, notched his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Playoff rivals Bowman, Briscoe, Suarez, Cindric, Elliott, Reddick and Larson followed suit in the top eight, respectively, while non-Playoff competitors Erik Jones and Daniel Hemric were scored in the top 10. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders on the track that included Logano, Ty Gibbs, Byron, Keselowski, Bell, Burton and Hamlin were scored in 17th, 20th, 21st, 25th, 28th, 30th and 34th, respectively. Despite being mired a lap down, Hamlin was able to fend off Kyle Busch to be the first competitor scored a lap down at the first stage’s conclusion and receive the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, some led by Truex, including a host of competitors who remained on the track before the first stage’s conclusion, pitted while the rest led by Chastain, including those who pitted prior to the stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. Among the Playoff contenders who pitted with Truex included Bowman, Briscoe, Suarez, Cindric, Elliott, Reddick and Larson.

The second stage period started on Lap 24 as Chastain and McDowell occupied the front row in front of van Gisbergen and Logano. At the start, Chastain fended off both McDowell and van Gisbergen through the frontstretch and the first set of turns including the Esses as the field fanned out while navigating up the Esses. With Suarez making contact and sending Reddick for a spin in the first turn amid a stack-up as the race remained under green flag conditions, Chastain would proceed to lead the first through the backstretch, the Bus Stop and the Inner Loop before he navigated his way through the final set of turns and led the following lap.

Over the next five laps, starting on Lap 26, and with most of the field settling in a long single-file line, Chastain increased his advantage to as high as a second over van Gisbergen before the advantage shrunk to two-tenths of a second by Lap 29. Chastain would stabilize his lead to two-tenths of a second over van Gisbergen by the Lap 30 mark while McDowell, Logano, Zane Smith, LaJoie, Ty Gibbs, Byron, Hocevar and Buescher were scored in the top 10 ahead of Gragson, Bell, Berry, Montoya and Nemechek. By then, Playoff contenders Burton, Truex, Briscoe and Bowman were mired just inside the top-20 mark while Elliott, Cindric, Larson, Suarez and Keselowski were mired in the top-30 mark. In addition, Reddick was down in 33rd place in front of team owner Hamlin.

At the Lap 35 mark, Chastain maintained the top spot by eight-tenths of a second over van Gisbergen while McDowell and Logano battled fiercely for third place. Behind, Zane Smith trailed in fifth place ahead of teammate LaJoie while Ty Gibbs, Byron, Hocevar and Buescher were running in the top 10. By then, Bell was in 13th as Burton, Briscoe, Truex and Bowman were mired inside the top-20 mark. With Elliott, Cindric, Larson and Keselowski trailing back in 22nd, 24th, 25th and 28th, respectively, Reddick was still mired in 32nd in front of Suarez and Hamlin.

A lap later, a host of names including Buescher, Montoya, Erik Jones, Larson, Justin Haley, Keselowski and Kaz Grala pitted under green. More names including McDowell, Zane Smith, LaJoie, Noah Gragson, Bell, Berry, Nemechek, Truex, Gilliland, Elliott, Hemric, Cindric, Austin Dillon and Reddick pitted during the following lap before the caution flew due to Suarez spinning and getting his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry stuck in the gravel trap in Turn 6. During the pit stops, Keselowski was penalized for a second time, this time for an uncontrolled tire violation as a tire rolled out of his pit stall. Larson was also penalized for causing vehicle interference.

With the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 40 officially concluding under caution, Chastain, who was unable to enter pit road to pit under green before the caution being flown for teammate Suarez spinning and instead remained on the track, proceeded to claim his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Van Gisbergen, who was also trying to pit with Chastain, followed suit in second along with Playoff contenders Logano, Ty Gibbs, Byron, Burton, Briscoe and Bowman while Ryan Preece and Hamlin were scored in the top 10. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders on the track that included Bell, Truex, Cindric, Elliott, Larson, Keselowski, Reddick and Suarez were mired in 20th, 21st, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 33rd and 35th, respectively.

During the stage break, some led by Ty Gibbs and Byron pitted while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track.

With 48 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Chastain and van Gisbergen occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out through the frontstretch, Chastain maintained the top spot ahead of van Gisbergen and a hard-charging Briscoe while the rest of the field scrambled while bumping and navigating through the Esses, the backstretch and the Bus Stop corner. With the field still jostling for spots through the Inner Loop and the final set of turns, Chastain led the following lap ahead of van Gisbergen, Briscoe, McDowell and LaJoie.

At the halfway mark with 45 laps remaining, Chastain retained the lead by nearly six-tenths of a second over van Gisbergen, Briscoe, McDowell and LaJoie while Buescher, Hocevar, Montoya, Gragson and Logano were running in the top 10 ahead of Truex, Nemechek, Berry, Bell, Elliott, Cindric, Haley, Bowman, Kaz Grala and Hemric. By then, Playoff contenders Ty Gibbs, Byron, Hamlin, Burton, Keselowski, Larson, Reddick and Suarez were mired outside the top 20.

A lap later, the caution returned when Hamlin, who was pinned in a tight three-wide battle with Keselowski and Larson just outside the top-20 mark towards the entry of the Esses, was sent sideways and into the guardrails by Keselowski as he sustained more damage to his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE entry. Despite continuing, the incident jeopardized Hamlin’s hopes of advancing to the Round of 12 in the Playoffs following his final lap accident at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

During the caution period, some including Logano, Keselowski and Larson pitted while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track. Hamlin also pitted to continue to have more repairs made to his entry.

The start of the next restart period with 41 laps remaining featured Chastain rocketing away from the field with the lead through the frontstretch and the first set of turns leading up to the Esses as the field scrambled for late spots. The field proceeded to navigate through the backstretch, the Bus Stop and the Esses smoothly as van Gisbergen and McDowell tried to keep the leader Chastain within close pursuit. As Chastain led the following lap, LaJoie and Buescher were scored in the top five while Briscoe was trying to fend off Hocevar and teammate Gragson for sixth place while Truex and Montoya were up into the top 10.

With 35 laps remaining, Chastain retained a narrow lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging van Gisbergen as McDowell, Buescher, LaJoie, Hocevar, Gragson, Briscoe, Truex and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, the following Playoff contenders that included Bell, Cindric, Bowman, Byron and Ty Gibbs were mired in the top-20 mark while Reddick, Logano, Larson, Keselowski, Suarez and Burton were mired in the top-30 mark. Meanwhile, Hamlin was down in 34th place.

Two laps later, Buescher, who had fresher tires than the leader Chastain, rocketed past Chastain through the frontstretch as he assumed the lead. By then, van Gisbergen was down in third place and losing the spot to McDowell entering the first turn while LaJoie and Hocevar followed suit in the top six. Another lap later, Chastain and van Gisbergen pitted for fresh tires and fuel before Buescher pitted from the lead during the following lap.

With 30 laps remaining, some including Montoya, Byron, Hocevar, Erik Jones and Haley pitted under green as Bell was bumped and sent for a spin by Austin Dillon in Turn 7 while trying to enter pit road. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, Bell pitted along with Nemechek and Ty Gibbs. As the pit stop cycle continued with a bevy of names including Gragson and Elliott pitting, McDowell retained the lead before he pitted with 25 laps remaining.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Logano was leading ahead of Zane Smith as third-place Larson pitted under green. By then, Cindric, LaJoie, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Gilliland had pitted. Shortly after, Zane Smith pitted from the runner-up. With Buescher cycling his way up the leaderboard, he would then overtake Logano for the lead with 17 laps remaining while Keselowski, van Gisbergen, Hocevar and Chastain trailed in the top six. As Kaz Grala crashed in Turn 7 with help from Hemric, the race remained under green flag conditions.

With 15 laps remaining, Buescher extended his advantage to four seconds over Logano as van Gisbergen, Keselowski and Hocevar were scored in the top five ahead of Chastain, McDowell, Preece, Briscoe and LaJoie. By then, Playoff contenders Truex, Byron and Elliott were scored in the top-14 mark on the track while Cindric, Bowman and Larson were trailing in the top-20 mark. Meanwhile, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Bell, Reddick and Burton were mired in the top-30 mark while Hamlin was back in 33rd place.

Four laps later, the caution flew due to debris reported in Turn 6 as a result of Playoff contender Harrison Burton blowing a left-rear tire and leaving debris scattered in the turn. By then, Keselowski and Logano had pitted while Buescher was leading ahead of a hard-charging van Gisbergen. During the caution period, some including Playoff contenders and teammates Bowman, Byron and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track. Among those who pitted included Playoff contender Reddick.

With the race restarting with seven laps remaining, Buescher and Hocevar, both of whom restarted on the front row in front of van Gisbergen and Chastain, dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and the first turn as the field fanned out entering the Esses. In the midst of the battles, Buescher maintained the lead in front of Hocevar and van Gisbregen through the backstretch. Just then, the caution returned when Logano made contact with Keselowski in the Esses resulting in Keselowski turning into Byron and Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry coming off the ground and on top of the left side of Keselowski’s No. 6 King’s Hawaiian Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry while being pinned towards the guardrails as both were left with heavily damaged race cars.

The start of the next restart period with three laps remaining did not last long as Elliott and Berry, both of whom were running in the middle of the pack, were bumped into one another by Gilliland entering the Esses, which in turn ignited an accordion effect as both hit the guardrails along with Truex and Logano while Reddick was sent sideways and in front of Kyle Busch. Amid the incident, Buescher had maintained the lead ahead of Hocevar, Chastain, van Gisbergen, McDowell and Briscoe while the event was sent into overtime.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Buescher and Hocevar dueling for the lead through the frontstretch until van Gisbergen gave Buescher a little tap entering the first turn. The contact caused both Buescher and Hocevar to go wide as van Gisbergen made a three-wide pass on both to assume the lead through the Esses. With van Gisbergen leading, Buescher remained within striking distance of the former up the Esses and through the backstretch, Bus Stop and Inner Loop corners while the field behind jostled for late spots.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, van Gisbergen remained as the leader by three-tenths of a second over Buescher while Chastain was trying to fend off Hocevar and a bevy of competitors for third place. From the first turn to the backstretch, van Gisbergen maintained a reasonable lead over a hard-charging Buescher.

Then through the Bus Stop, van Gisbergen made the slightest of contact with the right-side guardrails, which got him through the corner and the curbs as Buescher quickly closed the gap. Buescher then veered to the right and despite van Gisbergen’s effort to defend, made contact with the leader as he muscled his No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry into the lead through the Inner Loop. Van Gisbergen then tried to close the gap back through a brief straightaway leading up to Turn 6, but he got loose in Turn 6 and had to step out of the gas to keep his No. 16 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry running straight in Turn 7. With van Gisbergen losing ground after going sideways, Buescher was able to smoothly navigate his way through Turn 7 and muscle back to the frontstretch victorious and to his first elusive checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season by nine-tenths of a second over van Gisbergen.

With the victory, Buescher, who missed the 2024 Playoff field by a single points position amid a strong regular-season stretch, notched his sixth NASCAR Cup Series career win in his 321st series start, his first both at The Glen and on a road course venue, and his first since winning the 2023 regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. The victory was also the ninth of the season and the fourth in recent weeks for the Ford nameplate while Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing notched its second Cup victory of the 2024 season and first since teammate/co-owner Brad Keselowski won at Darlington Raceway in May. As an added bonus, this season marks the first time where Roush’s Nos. 17 and 6 entries won in the same Cup season since 2011.

Buescher’s Cup victory at The Glen over van Gisbergen marked the first time a last-lap pass for the win was made since Joey Logano made the last accomplishment over Kevin Harvick in 2015. It also marked the first time a non-Playoff competitor won a Playoff event since AJ Allmendinger made the last accomplishment last October at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.

“I thought we lost it there on the last [restart],” Buescher said on the frontstretch on USA Network. “Man, to stay right there with [van Gisbergen]. [The Bus Stop] was the spot that he was better than us and he missed it, so I tried to cross over. He went to cut. Just hard racing there. Just such an awesome finish. To be that good for so much at the end of the race, all race. To get a win, it’s good. We came here to be [Playoff] spoiler. We’re going to do that. Man, we would’ve like to have won a couple of weeks ago, but this is huge. It’s such a big win for us. Everybody at [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing]’s worked so hard. To finally get a road course win, we’ve been so close so many times. To finally pull that off is fantastic.”

Meanwhile, as Buescher celebrated in Victory Lane, van Gisbergen, who only led the penultimate lap, managed to smile despite being left “gutted” after capping off his strong run with his first top-two result of the season. His previous best result through his last seven Cup starts was 20th, which occurred at Circuit of the Americas in March. The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, is scheduled to compete at Talladega Superspeedway and at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October, which will also mark his final pair of races of the season and with Kaulig Racing overall before he graduates to a full-time Cup campaign in 2025 with Trackhouse Racing.

“I knew Chris [Buescher] was really going to send it and push me if [he] could get there,” van Gisbergen said. “As I turned [the car] and got a bit loose and clipped the inside wall, just driver error. I’m gutted. [The] WeatherTech Camaro was really good. The race was awesome with Ross [Chastain] and Chris and the others at the end. I’m gutted we couldn’t get [the win]. I had a lot of fun, but I’m pretty angry at myself. It was just a little bump to get [Buescher] wide [during the overtime shootout] and I knew I was going to get it back, so that’s why I was pushing so hard. It is what it is, but just gutted.”

Rookie Carson Hocevar notched a career-best third-place result ahead of the pole-sitter Ross Chastain, who led a race-high 51 laps, while rookie Zane Smith achieved his second Cup career top-five result by finishing fifth.

Chase Briscoe was the highest-finishing Playoff contender in sixth place while Michael McDowell, Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece and Playoff contender Austin Cindric finished in the top 10.

The remaining Playoff contenders on the track that included Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Harrison Burton, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick and William Byron ended up finishing 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 26th, 27th and 34th, respectively.

As a result, the four Playoff competitors who enter next weekend’s Round of 16 finale at Bristol Motor Speedway below the top-12 cutline are Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Harrison Burton. Currently, Hamlin is six points behind Chase Briscoe and teammate Ty Gibbs for the 12th and final transfer spot into the Round of 12 while Keselowski, Truex and Burton trail the cutline by 12, 14 and 20 points, respectively.

There were 11 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured seven cautions 21 for laps. In addition, 31 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Chris Buescher, 19 laps led

2. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap led

3. Carson Hocevar, one lap led

4. Ross Chastain, 51 laps led, Stage 2 winner

5. Zane Smith

6. Chase Briscoe

7. Michael McDowell, seven laps led

8. Corey LaJoie, two laps led

9. Ryan Preece

10. Austin Cindric

11. Noah Gragson

12. Kyle Larson

13. Daniel Suarez

14. Christopher Bell

15. Joey Logano, six laps led

16. Todd Gilliland

17. Bubba Wallace

18. Alex Bowman, one lap led

19. Chase Elliott

20. Martin Truex Jr., four laps led, Stage 1 winner

21. John Hunter Nemechek

22. Ty Gibbs

23. Denny Hamlin

24. Harrison Burton

25. Josh Berry

26. Brad Keselowski

27. Tyler Reddick

28. Austin Dillon

29. Justin Haley

30. Kyle Busch

31. Daniel Hemric

32. Juan Pablo Montoya, one lap down

33. Erik Jones, two laps down

34. William Byron, two laps down

35. Kaz Grala, five laps down

36. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Transmission

37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident

38. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Joey Logano – Advanced

2. Christopher Bell +46

3. Austin Cindric +43

4. Alex Bowman +41

5. Daniel Suarez +36

6. Tyler Reddick +30

7. Chase Elliott +30

8. Ryan Blaney +29

9. Kyle Larson +26

10. William Byron +25

11. Chase Briscoe +6

12. Ty Gibbs +6

13. Denny Hamlin -6

14. Brad Keselowski -12

15. Martin Truex Jr. -14

16. Harrison Burton -20

The Round of 16 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next Saturday, September 21, at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race and where the first of three elimination processes will occur. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

September 15, 2024
Logano prevails in overtime to win 2024 Cup Playoff opener at Atlanta

Joey Logano commenced the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs on a high note by fending off the field in overtime to win the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 8.

The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, led twice for nine of 266 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in seventh place and survived a war of attrition amongst his fellow Playoff contenders and non-Playoff contenders through a series of stacked racing through multiple lanes and keep up to pace with the draft from start to finish.

After being drafted into the lead by teammate and Playoff contender Ryan Blaney with three laps remaining, where he would then battle Playoff contender Daniel Suarez for the lead, a caution for Noah Gragson wrecking during the following lap sent the event into overtime. In overtime, Logano received another strong push from Blaney to muscle ahead of Suarez. With the clean air, Logano would maintain the top spot and fend off a host of Playoff contenders for two final laps amid a multi-car wreck erupting on the final lap to claim his second checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season under caution and race his way into the Playoff’s Round of 12.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, September 7, Michael McDowell notched his fifth pole position of his Cup Series career and of the 2042 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 179.267 mph in 30.926 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Ryan Blaney, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 178.844 mph in 30.999 seconds.

Prior to the event, Playoff contenders and teammates Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. started at the rear of the field due to a plug wire change to their respective Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entries.

When the green flag waved and the 2024 Cup Series Playoff commenced, Michael McDowell gained an early advantage from the inside lane as he had teammate Todd Gilliland drafting him through the first two turns and the backstretch while Ryan Blaney was trying to maintain ground from the outside lane. As the field returned to the frontstretch stacked in two lanes, McDowell led the first lap in his pole-winning No. 34 B’laster Work It Like A Pro Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

For the following four laps and with the front-runners trying to remain within reasonable reach of the lead with the preferred drafting lane towards the outside lane and behind the leader McDowell, Blaney retained second ahead of rookie Josh Berry, Playoff contender Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon while Playoff contender Chase Briscoe, Todd Gilliland and a trio of Playoff contenders that included Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and William Byron were in the top 10.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps and with the front-runners running in a long single-file line, McDowell retained the lead ahead of Blaney, Larson, Berry and Briscoe as Austin Dillon, Logano, Cindric, Gilliland and Byron were scored in the top 10 ahead of Playoff contenders Harrison Burton and Alex Bowman, with Daniel Hemric, Ross Chastain and Playoff contender Chase Elliott rounding out the top 15 and all trailing the lead by less than two seconds. Meanwhile, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez and Denny Hamlin were trailing in 18th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 27th and 36th, respectively.

Just past the Lap 20 mark, the field fanned out to two scattered, drafting lanes as McDowell continued to hold the top spot ahead of Blaney, Berry, Larson and Logano while Bowman, Cindric, Byron, Harrison Burton and Chastain were battling within the top 10 mark. By then, the top 16 competitors were separated by less than two seconds while the top 20 were separated by less than three seconds.

At the Lap 30 mark and with the top-nine competitors separated by less than a second, Blaney made a move beneath McDowell through the first two turns to assume the lead in his No. 12 Dent Wizard Ford Mustang Dark Horse as Larson followed suit in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Larson would then challenge Blaney for the top spot from the outside lane during the following lap before Cindric shoved teammate Blaney back out in front through the backstretch. Behind, McDowell dropped to fourth while Logano, Bowman and Byron closed in for the spot. Amid the jostling of spots within, the top 31 competitors were separated by less than five seconds as Blaney led at the Lap 35 mark ahead of Playoff rivals Larson, Cindric, Byron, Bowman and Logano.

By Lap 40, the top 31 competitors were separated by less than five seconds as Blaney retained the lead ahead of Playoff contenders Larson, Cindric, Byron, Bowman and Logano while Chastain, McDowell, Elliott and Daniel Hemric followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Burton, Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Berry, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Truex, Austin Dillon, Gilliland, Justin Haley and Bubba Wallace. Meanwhile, Hamlin was mired back in 34th place and trailing the lead by more than eight seconds while Suarez, Reddick, Bell and Keselowski were mired back in 21st, 23rd, 24th and 25th, respectively, all while trailing the lead under three seconds.

Ten laps later, Blaney continued to lead by a tenth of a second in front of Larson, Cindric, Bowman and Chastain as the top nine competitors were separated by less than a second. Behind, the top 20 competitors were separated by less than two seconds while the top 25 were separated by less than three.

Another five laps later, the event’s first caution flew when Larson, who was running in third place, briefly got loose, shot up the track and took a vicious head-on hit into the SAFER barrier in Turn 2. Then as the field scattered to avoid Larson’s wrecked car entering the backstretch, Larson shot into the rear of Briscoe, winner of last weekend’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway who was left with a crumbled front nose to his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse while Larson was left with heavy damage to his right front and rear end of his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Amid the hard accident, Larson, who came into the Playoff opener with the top seed in the Playoff standings and having a steady cushion above the top-12 cutline, was left puzzled over the hard incident that ended his strong run early.

“I’m OK,” Larson said after exiting the infield care center. “Thankfully, everything held up well inside the car. That was a huge hit. I’m not really sure what caused it. I was actually sort of tight and loaded in the corner. And then I was pretty far around the corner and it just stepped out. I don’t know. It all just happened really fast.”

The multi-car wreck that knocked both Larson and Briscoe out of the Playoff opener was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 60 to officially conclude under caution as Blaney captured his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Cindric settled in second ahead of Bowman, Logano and Stenhouse while Chastain, Elliott, Byron, Truex and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders on the track that included Suarez, Reddick, Bell, Keselowski and Hamlin were mired back in 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd and 32nd, respectively.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for a first round of service while BJ McLeod and JJ Yeley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Bowman exited pit road first as Cindric, Stenhouse, Blaney, Logano, Byron, Chastain, Ty Gibbs, Elliott and Truex followed suit in the top 10. McLeod and Yeley would then pit during the proceeding caution laps as Bowman cycled into the lead. By then, Truex and Shane van Gisbergen were both penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Bell, who was among six competitors who returned to pit road to top off on fuel, made another trip to pit road to have his car fully loaded with fuel after he had fire coming out of his pit stall and his No. 20 pit crew was unable to fill the car up with fuel during the first service.

The second stage period started on Lap 67 as Bowman and Cindric occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric had drafting help from teammate Blaney to muscle ahead from the inside lane and he would manage to move ahead of Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to lead the following lap. The field then started to fan out to three stacked lanes amid the draft as Cindric and Bowman dueled for the lead in front of Blaney, Stenhouse and the rest of the field by Lap 70.

Through the Lap 80 mark and with the field scattered amid the draft, the top 19 competitors were separated by less than two seconds as Cindric maintained the lead ahead of teammate Blaney, Bowman, Byron and Chastain while Suarez occupied sixth ahead of Stenhouse, Elliott, Logano and Kyle Busch. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Ty Gibbs, Truex, Reddick and Burton were mired within the top 16 on the track while Bell, Keselowski and Hamlin trailed in 21st, 26th and 34th, respectively.

Ten laps later, Cindric continued to lead the race ahead of two stacked lanes, with teammate Blaney following suit on the inside lane while Bowman led a long parade of competitors from the outside lane. By then, the top 14 competitors were separated by less than a second while the top 26 were separated by under two seconds.

By the Lap 100 mark, Cindric maintained a steady advantage over Bowman, teammate Blaney, Byron, Chastain and the rest of the field that was jostling for spots amid two and three stacked lanes within the draft. With the top-24 competitors separated by less than two seconds, Haley was scored in 10th place behind Stenhouse, Suarez, Truex and Elliott while Erik Jones, who was trying to mount a charge from a third drafting lane towards the outside wall, was racing within the top-15 mark.

Thirteen laps later and with Cindric maintaining the lead in front of two stacked lanes, the caution flew due to debris spotted in the frontstretch. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Cindric returned to pit road for service, primarily for fuel, while the rest including Ryan Preece, Hamlin, McLeod and Yeley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Cindric exited pit road first as he was followed by Bowman, Blaney, Suarez, Byron, Elliott, Logano, Bubba Wallace, Keselowski and Haley. Amid the pit stops, Reddick made contact with rookie Carson Hocevar while trying to exit his pit stall. In addition, Wallace was penalized for speeding on pit road while Bell was also penalized for pitting outside his pit box. Shortly after, Preece, Hamlin, Yeley and McLeod pitted and handed the lead back to Cindric.

The start of the following restart period on Lap 119 featured Cindric and Bowman dueling for the lead in front of two stacked lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch before Cindric received another strong push from teammate Blaney to muscle his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead of the pack. With Cindric leading the field back to the frontstretch and having both lanes under his control, teammate Blaney, Bowman and Byron followed suit in the top four while Suarez muscled his way into the top five.

At the halfway mark on Lap 130, Cindric was leading ahead of Playoff rivals Bowman, Blaney, Byron, Suarez, Logano and Elliott, all of whom were among 12 competitors separated by less than a second while the top 23 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. With the field fanning out to three lanes amid the draft, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Keselowski, Burton, Truex, Ty Gibbs, Reddick, Bell and Hamlin were running 10th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 25th and 32nd, respectively, while Stenhouse and Gilliland were the top-two non-Playoff contenders on the track in eighth and ninth, respectively. Within the battles, non-Playoff contenders Kyle Busch, Erik Jones and Chastain were mired in the top 15.

Fifteen laps later, Cindric continued to lead ahead of the field that was stacked through two and three lanes, with teammate Blaney, Bowman, Byron and Suarez battling within the top five ahead of Erik Jones, Chastain, Elliott, Gilliland and Logano. By then, the top 23 competitors were separated by under two seconds. In addition, Suarez dodged a pass-through penalty from NASCAR despite having advanced his position under the backstretch’s double white line a few laps earlier but was ruled to have been forced down as a reactive move to avoid Logano.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 160, Cindric fended off two stacked lanes to notch his third Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Blaney, Bowman, Suarez and Byron were scored in the top five while Stenhouse, Chastain, Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Bell were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Logano, who made contact with Gilliland through the backstretch, dropped to 12th behind Reddick while Keselowski, Truex, Burton and Hamlin were mired back in 14th, 17th, 22nd and 29th, respectively. By then, Haley was penalized for blocking and forcing Reddick below the double white line.

During the stage break, a majority of the lead lap field led by Cindric pitted for service while select names including Ty Dillon, Haley, Josh Berry, Wallace, Preece, McLeod and Yeley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Chastain exited pit road first ahead of McDowell, Stenhouse, Ty Gibbs, Byron, Blaney, Bell, Bowman, Corey LaJoie and Suarez. Amid the pit stops, van Gisbergen was penalized a second time for speeding on pit road. During the continuous caution laps, the select competitors who remained on the track led by Ty Dillon pitted as Chastain cycled into the lead.

With 94 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Chastain and McDowell occupied the front row. At the start, Chastain and McDowell dueled for the lead in front of a stacked field running two lanes. Chastain proceeded to lead the following lap while Stenhouse battled McDowell for second in front of Ty Gibbs and Byron. McDowell, who led the following lap, and Stenhouse would make slight contact exiting the backstretch with nearly 90 laps remaining, but both kept their cars running straight as the field continued to run in two stacked lanes and while Chastain reassumed the lead.

The caution would then return with 86 laps remaining when John Hunter Nemechek, who was running in 23rd place, got aero loose as Burton slid in front of him entering the backstretch, which resulted in Nemechek spinning his No. 42 Olipop Toyota Camry XSE below the track and making head-on contact in the inside wall.

During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Chastain returned to pit road for service while the rest led by Ty Gibbs and Wallace remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Suarez and Logano made contact on pit road as they both collected Reddick while LaJoie made door contact with Elliott, who had made contact with Cindric earlier, and Stenhouse while exiting pit road.

As the event restarted under green with 79 laps remaining, Wallace received a shove from Blaney on the inside lane to assume the lead by a hair over Ty Gibbs through the first two turns before Gibbs fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from Chastain. Both Gibbs and Wallace would continue to duel for the lead in front of two stacked lanes with 75 laps remaining.

With 65 laps remaining the majority of the field migrated toward the outside lane as select drivers tried to expand the pack to three-wide action. Ty Gibbs was leading ahead of Wallace, Chastain, Kyle Busch and McDowell while Bowman, Byron, Blaney, Bell and Elliott trailed in the top 10 ahead of Chris Buescher, Logano, Gilliland, Erik Jones, Truex, Keselowski, Cidnric, LaJoie, Reddick and Daniel Hemric. Playoff contenders Suarez, Reddick, Burton and Hamlin were mired outside the top 20 on the track.

Nine laps later, the caution flew when Chris Buescher, who was running in the top 10, slipped up the track entering the backstretch and clipped Blaney, which sent both sideways and touching the outside wall. Blaney was then hit by Truex while Truex was trying to dodge the chaos. By then, Wallace, who assumed the lead eight laps earlier, was leading ahead of Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Byron and Chastain. During the caution period, select names led by Wallace and including Playoff contenders Gibbs, Bell, Blaney, Keselowski, Burton, Hamlin and Truex pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch and Byron remained on the track. By then, Blaney managed to continue and remain on the lead lap while Truex dropped out of the lead lap category to have his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE repaired.

The start of the next restart period with 49 laps remaining featured Kyle Busch being drafted into the lead from Byron as he transitioned from the inside to the outside lane through the backstretch. With Busch leading the next lap ahead of Byron, Chastain was trying to close in from the inside lane as the field behind fanned out to four lanes. With the field stacked up between three and four tight lanes around every corner and straightaway, Busch maintained a steady lead ahead of Byron, Chastain, Elliott, Bowman and Suarez with less than 45 laps remaining.

With 35 laps remaining, the top 18 competitors were separated by less than a second and the top 28 were separated by less than two seconds. Kyle Busch retained the lead in front of Byron, Chastain, Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Bowman, Gilliland, and McDowell, as Logano and Suarez were mired within the top 10, ahead of Reddick, Logano, Cindric, Austin Dillon, Burton, Noah Gragson and Keselowski while Blaney and Bell were racing within the top-20 mark. Meanwhile, Hamlin was mired in 31st place and was not gaining any ground towards the lead pack.

Down to the final 25 laps of the event, the intensity at the front of the pack increased as Gibbs, who drafted Byron past Kyle Busch for the lead three laps earlier before he assumed it a lap later, returned atop the leaderboard. As the field continued to fan out aggressively to three drafted lanes, Suarez was in second behind Gibbs while Busch settled in third ahead of Logano, Byron, Chastain, Gilliland, Bowman, Elliott and Cindric.

Ten laps later and with fuel becoming a slight concern amongst the field, the top 14 competitors were separated by less than a second while the top 27 were separated by less than two seconds as Ty Gibbs continued to lead in front of Suarez, Kyle Busch, Logano and Byron. With the field fanning out to three lanes two laps later, Suarez muscled his No. 99 Quaker State Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead.

Then with 11 laps remaining, the caution flew due to a Walmart sign falling onto the frontstretch. By then, Suarez was scored the leader in front of Ty Gibbs, Busch, Logano, Byron and Chastain while Blaney, Bell, Elliott and Reddick were in the top 10. During the caution period, some including Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Suarez and including a host of Playoff contenders remained on the track.

With the race restarting under green with five laps remaining, Suarez briefly launched ahead from the outside lane exiting the frontstretch before Ty Gibbs rocketed back on the inside lane through the first two turns. Then as Gibbs attempted to move in front of Suarez through the backstretch, Suarez veered left and made his move beneath Gibbs in a battle for the lead while Logano bumped into the rear of Gibbs exiting the backstretch. A three-wide action for the lead then ensued entering the frontstretch as Busch made his move beneath both Suarez and Gibbs, who led the following lap.

Then as Gibbs and Suarez continued to battle against one another for the lead in front of a stacked field, Logano, who launched a third drafting lane towards the outside wall, received a draft from teammate Blaney’s damaged No. 12 Ford to muscle his No. 22 AutoTrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead through the backstretch with three laps remaining. Logano, however, would end up being deadlocked with Suarez through the frontstretch and with two laps remaining.

Then, with two laps remaining, and as a stack-up ensued at the front of the field, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime due to Noah Gragson, who was running in 16th place, getting hit by Burton and sent for a spin before he hit the backstretch’s inside wall. At the moment of caution, Logano was ruled the leader ahead of Suarez, Blaney, Chastain, Elliott and Bell while Gibbs had dropped to ninth.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Logano and Suarez dueling for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch, with both having their respective teammates drafting them. Despite Chastain losing ground of teammate Suarez entering Turn 3, the latter managed to remain dead even with Logano approaching the frontstretch.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano was leading by a hair over Suarez and Blaney tucked in behind teammate Logano while the field behind began to fan out to three lanes. With a push from Blaney, Logano muscled ahead and cleared Suarez entering the first two turns as Suarez was left to battle Blaney for the runner-up spot through the backstretch.

Then through Turns 3 and 4, a multi-car wreck erupted that started when Chastain got bumped into the outside wall by Elliott entering Turn 3. With a stack-up ensuing, Stenhouse turned Wallace as multiple competitors including Playoff contenders Hamlin and Burton were collected. The wreck was enough for the event to conclude under caution as Logano, who was inches away from reaching the finish line prior to the caution, crossed the finish line to claim the victory.

With the victory, Logano, who won a Cup Series Playoff opener for the first time in his career, notched his 34th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series level, his second at Atlanta, his second of the 2024 season and his first since winning at Nashville Superspeedway in late June. The victory was also the eighth of the season for the Ford nameplate, the manufacturer’s third in a row in recent weeks and the fifth of the season for Team Penske. Notably, Logano joins William Byron as two Cup competitors to win on Atlanta’s reconfigured layout since it debuted at the start of the 2022 season.

Logano’s Playoff opener victory at Atlanta served as an automatic pass to the Round of 12 for the Connecticut champion and his No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse team, with the driver commencing his pursuit for a third Cup Series championship.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“[It was an] Incredible execution from the team,” Logano said on USA Network. “When it’s Playoff time, it’s out time. That’s what I said. We got to always level up when it comes to Playoff time and [the team] gave me a great AutoTrader Mustang. [The car] was fast all day. We got stuck in the back a little bit. It was hard to get track position back. We had a good restart and got towards the front. [I] Had my teammate [Ryan] Blaney behind me. It really helped out in that last lap to be able to make sure [a] Penske car won and ultimately, move on to the next round. Good day for all the Penske cars. Pretty good day today. There’s a lot of memories right here on this start/finish line for me racing Legends cars as a kid, so this is a really cool feeling to be out here in a Cup car again.”

With Logano winning, Daniel Suarez, who won at Atlanta by 0.003 seconds earlier in February, commenced his second appearance in the Playoffs by notching a strong second-place result after he too led nine laps. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney commenced his pursuit to defend his Cup title by finishing third in an event where he led 33 laps, won the first stage period and nursed his damaged car to a strong result.

“I would have to rewatch everything again,” Suarez, who is 22 points above the top-12 cutline in the Playoff standings, said. “I was pretty confident that the top [lane] was going to be better with [Logano] and he was going to be able to push me like [Chastain] did that last restart being on the outside. We got a great lounge, but we just got disconnected too early and that obviously hurt us and [Kyle Busch] and [Ty Gibbs], they were able to get connected for longer and beat us. It’s a little painful. I feel like we were in position and sometimes it’s very difficult to predict who is going to get the best push and for how long you’re going to get it, but it’s part of the game, right? We were in contention. The team did an amazing job. We’re happy with [the result], but not satisfied.”

“I can’t believe we got back up where we did,” Blaney, who is 45 points above the cutline, said. “[The] No. 12 boys did a really good job fixing [the car]. I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than what it did because for my seat, I got drilled in the left rear or the door where [Buescher] hit me and then the right rear got off the fence. I didn’t know how damaged we were, but I was able to carve up through traffic and could get through the middle [lane] pretty good. Really good day. Move on to Watkins Glen.”

Playoff contenders Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman finished in the top five while Tyler Reddick, the 2024 Cup Series Regular Season Champion, made a late charge to finish sixth. Kyle Busch along with Playoff contenders Chase Elliott, William Byron and Austin Cindric completed the top 10 in the final running order.

Notably, Brad Keselowski fell back to 19th place while Martin Truex Jr., who retired late due to a suspension failure, ended up in 35th place. Following their involvement in the final lap accident, Denny Hamlin, whose strategy to run towards the rear of the field the entire event with no stage points and which did not pay off, limped across the finish line in 24th place while Playoff rookie Harrison Burton ended up in 31st place after he was unable to nurse his damaged No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse across the finish line to complete the final lap.

There were 24 lead changes for 14 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 44 laps. In addition, 30 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Joey Logano, nine laps led

2. Daniel Suarez, nine laps led

3. Ryan Blaney, 33 laps led, Stage 1 winner

4. Christopher Bell

5. Alex Bowman, five laps led

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Kyle Busch, 24 laps led

8. Chase Elliott

9. William Byron, two laps led

10. Austin Cindric, 92 laps led, Stage 2 winner

11. Daniel Hemric

12. Justin Haley

13. Ross Chastain, 13 laps led

14. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

15. Corey LaJoie

16. Carson Hocevar, one lap led

17. Ty Gibbs, 37 laps led

18. Ryan Preece, two laps led

19. Brad Keselowski

20. Austin Dillon

21. Zane Smith

22. Michael McDowell, 30 laps led

23. JJ Yeley

24. Denny Hamlin

25. BJ McLeod, one lap led

26. Erik Jones

27. Todd Gilliland

28. Josh Berry

29. Bubba Wallace, eight laps led

30. Cody Ware

31. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident

32. Shane van Gisbergen, two laps down

33. John Hunter Nemechek, four laps down

34. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident

35. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Suspension

36. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

37. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident

38. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Joey Logano – Advanced

2. Ryan Blaney +45

3. Christopher Bell +40

4. Tyler Reddick +33

5. William Byron +33

6. Alex Bowman +27

7. Austin Cindric +27

8. Chase Elliott +24

9. Daniel Suarez +22

10. Kyle Larson +15

11. Denny Hamlin +2

12. Ty Gibbs +1

13. Brad Keselowski -1

14. Harrison Burton -16

15. Martin Truex Jr. -19

16. Chase Briscoe -21

With the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs underway, the second event in the Round of 16 is set to occur at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York, for the Go Bowling at The Glen. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, September 15, and air at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

September 8, 2024
Harrison Burton shakes up 2024 Cup Playoffs with first career victory at Daytona; delivers 100th win for Wood Brothers Racing

After enduring a series of trials and challenges while struggling to be competitive in 97 previous starts in the NASCAR Cup Series level, Harrison Burton responded back in an emphatic style by scoring his first career victory and delivering a landmark win for Wood Brothers Racing amid an overtime shootout in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 24.

The 23-year-old Burton from Huntersville, North Carolina, led only the final lap of 164 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started in 20th place and maneuvered his way through both stage periods and a series of late-race carnages that included pole winner Michael McDowell getting airborne on one late incident before rookie Josh Berry rolled over during the following incident.

Then while restarting alongside Kyle Busch on the front row at the start of an overtime shootout, Burton, who lost ground to Busch at the start of the final lap, received a huge draft from Parker Retzlaff to overtake Busch through the backstretch. With the lead in his grasp for two final turns, Burton then pulled two blocks on Busch entering the frontstretch’s tri-oval. He had enough steam underneath the hood of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford to steer to his first elusive Cup Series victory that enabled him to automatically race his way into the 2024 Playoffs and deliver the milestone 100th win for the Wood Brothers.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Friday, August 23, Michael McDowell notched his fourth Cup Series pole position of the 2024 season after posting a fast pole-winning lap at 183.165 mph in 49.136 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Todd Gilliland, who posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 182.801 mph in 49.234 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, teammates Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland dueled for the lead in front of the field that was stacked amid two tight-packed lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the majority of the field continued to run in a pack of two, McDowell led the first lap by a hair from the inside lane over Gilliland as he had Joey Logano drafting him while Gilliland had drafting help from Ryan Preece.

During the next four laps, the field slowly began to fan out to three stacked lanes as McDowell, who continued to run in the inside lane, retained the lead throughout the four-lap stretch over teammate Gilliland, Logano and Preece. By then, a third drafting lane towards the outside wall led by Austin Cindric started to charge towards the front as Cindric had Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon drafting him.

This caused McDowell to go on defense as he tried to block and retain the lead through three lanes, but Logano capitalized on McDowell’s move to the outside lane, starting on the backstretch, to lead the sixth lap mark. Rookie Josh Berry then went three wide on both Logano and McDowell through the frontstretch to challenge for the lead from the inside lane, which caused Logano to lose ground and get shuffled out of the top five as Berry and McDowell dueled for the lead on the seventh lap.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps and with the entire 40-car field separated by less than three seconds amid three stacked lanes within the draft, Keselowski scored the lead ahead of Logano, McDowell, Berry and Gilliland while Cindric, Austin Dillon, William Byron, Chris Buescher and Daniel Suarez were running in the top 10. With a series of on-track shuffling towards the front ensuing over the next five laps, Logano carved his way back to the front as he was pursued by McDowell, Keselowski, Berry, Gilliland, Byron, Cindric, Austin Dillon, Buescher and Kyle Larson by Lap 15.

At the Lap 20 mark, Gilliland was drafted into the lead by teammate McDowell from the outside lane as Keselowski, Logano and Berry were scored in the top five ahead of Cindric, Blaney, Byron, Austin Dillon and Larson. Behind, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain followed suit in the top 15 while Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones were mixed in the top 20 ahead of Chase Elliott, Daniel Hemric, Martin Truex Jr., BJ McLeod, Ty Gibbs, Corey LaJoie, Justin Haley, Harrison Burton, Cody Ware and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, Parker Retzlaff, Shane van Gisbergen and John Hunter Nemechek trailing in the top 35.

Five laps later, the top 39 of 40 starters were separated by four seconds while the top 25 were separated by less than a second, all of whom were racing amid three tight lanes within the draft, as Gilliland continued to lead ahead of teammate McDowell, Keselowski, Cindric and Berry.

Just past the Lap 30 mark, Logano carved his way back to the lead as he was followed by teammate Blaney, Larson and Kyle Busch while Keselowski kept pursuit from the outside lane. Logano and Keselowski would proceed to duel for the lead for the following two laps as the front-runners began to fan out and draft aggressively in their march to the front.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 35, Berry, who received a strong push from Buescher towards the outside lane amid three stacked lanes, starting from the backstretch, fended off Logano and Buescher at the start/finish line to capture his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season and of his career. Logano and Buescher followed suit in second and third, respectively, while Cindric, Blaney, Gilliland, Keselowski, McDowell, Byron and Larson were scored in the top 10. By then, 39 of 40 starters were scored on the lead lap while the event had featured 13 lead changes and six different competitors leading at least one lap.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Berry pitted for a first round of pit service, Other drivers led by Corey LaJoie and including BJ McLeod, Martin Truex Jr., rookie Zane Smith, Austin Dillon, Preece, Daniel Hemric, Shane van Gisbergen, rookie Carson Hocevar and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remained on the track.

Following the pit stops, Logano exited pit road first ahead of Buescher, Cindric, Berry, Larson, Chastain, Wallace, Keselowski, Gilliland and McDowell. During the pit stops, Daniel Suarez had fire blazing out of his No. 99 Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as he left his pit stall, which he then cycled for a full lap before he returned to his pit stall while still blazing in flames and escaped the cockpit uninjured. The cause of the fire was spilled fuel that was run over by Hamlin as the spark then carried forth into Suarez’s entry.

During the caution laps, a multitude of names that included Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, Chase Briscoe, Cody Ware, Austin Hill, Noah Gragson, LaJoie, Austin Dillon, van Gisbergen, McLeod, Zane Smith, Justin Haley, Stenhouse, Truex and Hocevar pitted to top off with fuel as they were shuffled to the rear of the field.

The second stage period started on Lap 41 as Logano and Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead through the first two turns before Logano received a draft from teammate Cindric and Berry from the outside lane to emerge ahead of Buescher, who continued to run on the inside lane and lead the following lap as he had Ross Chastain drafting him.

With the field quickly fanning out to three packed lanes over the next four laps, Bubba Wallace, who did not record stage points during the first stage’s conclusion, maneuvered his way to the front as he challenged Buescher, Logano, Cindric and Keselowski for the lead as Chastain, Berry and Larson followed suit within the top eight.

Through the first 50 scheduled laps and a series of on-track shuffling ensuing at the front, Chase Briscoe, who carved his way to the front a few laps earlier, was leading by a hair over Wallace as Hemric, Logano, Buescher, Austin Hill, Keselowski, Cindric, Berry and LaJoie were mired in the top 10 ahead of Chastain, Gilliland, Larson, Gragson, McDowell, Burton, Preece, Kyle Busch, Blaney and Haley. Meanwhile, Elliott, Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Hamlin and Byron were mired in the top 25 as the top 38 competitors were separated by a second amid three packed lanes.

Five laps later, Wallace, who reassumed the lead three laps earlier, retained the lead ahead of Buescher while Keselowski and Logano dueled for third place in front of the stacked field. Wallace proceeded to transition from the outside to the inside lane as he fended off Buescher and Logano for the top spot while LaJoie was trying to formulate a run from a third drafting lane toward the outside lane. Amid a series of on-track shuffling over the next four laps, Wallace retained the lead ahead of a long line of competitors opting to run towards the outside lane and behind Wallace

Then on Lap 59, the caution flew for a multi-car wreck that erupted in the backstretch when Gragson, who was trying to carve his way towards the top-10 mark, was aggressively pushed into Chastain and Haley by LaJoie, where a stack-up caused LaJoie to get Gragson turned sideways and clip both Nemechek and Chastain as Truex, Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Hill, Hamlin, Erik Jones, Byron, Elliott, Larson, Hemric, Preece, Blaney, Austin Dillon and Reddick all wrecked. The multi-car wreck took a hit on Chastain’s hopes of remaining in Playoff contention as he lost one lap in the process of having his car still in contention to race while top names including Preece, Hamlin, Gragson and Elliott retired from further competition.

During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Wallace pitted, primarily for fuel, while a select few led by Hocevar remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Buescher exited first ahead of Keselowski, Logano, Wallace, Berry, Cindric, Gilliland, McDowell, Burton and Blaney. Hocevar would then pit after leading a lap under caution while Reddick, Hill and Erik Jones remained on the track in the top three spots. The latter three would then pit shortly after, which enabled Buescher to cycle back into the lead.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 66 featured teammates Buescher and Keselowski dueling for the lead against one another before Buescher muscled ahead with strong drafting help from Logano on the outside lane through the first two turns. With Buescher and Logano drafting their way to first and second on the track, Keselowski followed suit along with Wallace, Cindric and Burton while Berry was trying to mount a charge from the inside lane as he had drafting help from Gilliland. By Lap 68, however, the majority of the field migrated to a long single-file line towards the outside lane as Buescher led the way ahead of Logano, Keselowski, Wallace and Cindric.

Just past the Lap 70 mark, Buescher continued to lead ahead of a long line of competitors running towards the outside lane as he was pursued by Logano, Keselowski, Wallace, Cindric, Burton, Kyle Busch, van Gisbergen, Haley and Gilliland. Behind, McDowell, Blaney, McLeod, Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, Bell, Nemechek, Hill, Zane Smith and Berry occupied the top-20 spots ahead of Austin Dillon, Byron, Briscoe, Larson and Cody Ware. By Lap 73, however, the field quickly fanned out to two drafted lanes as Wallace received a draft from Kyle Busch while transitioning to the inside lane to reassume the lead. The field then fanned out to three lanes on Lap 75 as Logano overtook Gilliland to aggressively move into the lead as teammate Cindric, Haley, Blaney and Reddick quickly made their way to the front as Buescher, Wallace and Kyle Busch were getting shuffled out of the top-10 mark.

On Lap 77, Cindric, who was running towards the front, nearly got sideways on the backstretch after he got hit on the side by Larson while being drafted by teammate Blaney, but he managed to keep his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse straight despite getting shuffled out of the lead group as the race remained under green flag conditions.

At the halfway mark on Lap 80 and a series of on-track shuffling ensuing at the front, Larson was leading by a hair over Gilliland and Logano while Busch, Blaney, Keselowski, McDowell, Reddick, Buescher and Byron were scored in the top 10. By then, the top-31 competitors were separated by four seconds as the top 18 were separated by under a second.

Then on Lap 80, the caution returned when Erik Jones fell off the pace due to blowing a flat right-front tire to his No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE. Behind Jones, van Gisbergen, who was announced as a full-time Cup Series competitor for Trackhouse Racing in 2025, had his No. 16 Safety Culture Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 billowing in thick smoke through the backstretch as his car, which also ended up in flames, came to an end with an engine failure, where he then managed to park his car and escape uninjured.

During the extensive caution period, some led by Gilliland and including Busch, McDowell and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Logano remained on the track.

With the race restarting under green flag conditions on Lap 88, Loganon and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns and ahead of an aggressive field dueling amid two stacked lanes. While Logano had teammate Blaney drafting him from the outside lane, Larson gained the upper hand from the inside lane as he led the next lap with drafting help from Keselowski and Buescher as Gilliland and Busch closed in to join the draft.

By Lap 90, Larson continued to lead ahead of Keselowski, Logano, Buescher and Blaney as Wallace started to ignite a third drafting lane towards the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Reddick. With the top 21 competitors separated by a second, Keselowski and Larson dueled for the lead in front of the stacked pack for the following lap.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 95, Logano held off a three-wide challenge from teammate Blaney and Keselowski to capture his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Larson and Gilliland followed suit behind the three Ford leaders while Haley, Busch, Byron, Buescher and Wallace were scored in the top 10. By then, the top-31 competitors were scored on the lead lap while the event had featured 31 lead changes.

During the stage break, a majority of the field led by Logano pitted while a select few led by Keselowski and Stenhouse remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Chastain managed to cycle his way back onto the lead lap while Keselowski and Stenhouse would pit for fuel not long after.

With 60 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as McDowell and Berry occupied the front row. McDowell launched ahead with the lead from the outside lane as he was drafted by Busch and Burton. Berry led the inside lane ahead of Haley and Cindric. McDowell would proceed to lead the following lap as he transitioned between the inside and outside lane to keep Berry behind him. In the process, Haley moved into second place during the next lap period while Berry settled in third ahead of Cindric and Busch as the top 32 competitors were separated by within two seconds.

With less than 54 laps remaining and the majority of the field running in a long single-file line towards the outside lane, McDowell was leading ahead of Haley, Berry, Cindric, Busch, Burton, Nemechek, Zane Smith, Larson and Austin Dillon while Hemric, Austin Hill, Briscoe, Logano, Wallace, Blaney, Bell, Gibbs, Bowman and Erik Jones followed suit in close-quarters racing within the top 20. Meanwhile, Chastain was mired in 30th place along with Keselowski while Buescher was in 22nd in between Bell and Gilliland.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event and with the field both fanned and stacked out to two lanes, McDowell continued to lead ahead of Haley, Nemechek, Berry, Larson, Cindric, Busch, Logano, Burton and Hemric while the top 30 competitors were separated by less than two seconds.

Ten laps later, Haley, who aggressively overtook McDowell for the top spot a lap earlier, was leading two stacks of competitors vying for spots amid the draft, with Cindric, McDowell, Logano, Berry, Nemechek, Keselowski, Larson, Buescher and Busch mingled in the top 10 ahead of Cody Ware, Burton, Bell, Zane Smith, Austin Dillon, Wallace, Hill, Briscoe, Gilliland and Blaney.

Five laps later and with the majority of the field migrating towards the outside lane in a long single-file line, Haley continued to lead ahead of Berry, Nemechek, Larson, Busch, Cindric, McDowell, Logano, Burton and Cody Ware as the top-25 competitors were separated by less than two seconds and the top 32 separated by three seconds.

Another five laps later, Haley retained the lead ahead of Berry, Nemechek, Larson and Busch with a majority of the lead lap field remaining in a long single-file line towards the outside lane while Cody Ware was trying to ignite a charge from the inside lane with drafting help from Bell and Wallace. By then, Truex was pinned multiple laps down after he pitted his car under green.

Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Haley, who threw a series of blocks while transitioning from the inside and outside lane, retained the lead ahead of Berry while Bell muscled his way up to third place as he was followed by Nemechek, Larson, Wallace, Busch, Hemric, Cindric and Keselowski, with the top-30 competitors separated by less than two seconds. Three laps later, however, the field began to fan out aggressively to three stacked lanes as Nemechek challenged Haley for the lead from the outside lane.

Then with 21 laps remaining, the caution flew.= when Nemechek, who was vying for the lead amid a three-wide battle with Busch and Haley, received a hard bump from Larson in the middle lane that caused Nemechek to turn across the right-front fender of Haley and send Nemechek’s No. 42 Pye Barker Toyota Camry XSE spinning below the backstretch’s asphalt, though Nemechek managed to keep his car off the wall and continue as no one else wrecked. At the moment of caution, Busch emerged as the leader ahead of Cindric, Larson, McDowell, Berry and Keselowski.

During the caution period and with the field assessing their fuel situation to the finish, the entire lead lap field led by Busch pitted, primarily for fuel. Following the pit stops, Cindric exited pit road first, followed by Keselowski, Larson, McDowell, Busch, Logano, Blaney, Berry, Briscoe and Wallace. Within the pit stops Bell made contact with McLeod while exiting his pit stall.

The start of the following restart period with 16 laps remaining featured Keselowski and Cindric dueling for the lead through the first two turns amid a wave of shoves towards the front, with Cindric having drafting help from Larson while Keselowski had drafting help from McDowell. Cindric would then prevail from the outside lane as he led the next lap ahead of Larson before Keselowski fought back.

Shortly after, however, Keselowski was penalized for a restart violation, where he pulled ahead of the leader Cindric from the inside lane when he was not in control of the restart to launch ahead. Keselowski, however, remained on the track and towards the front before he yielded and served a pass-through penalty through pit road with 12 laps remaining. With Keselowski serving his penalty, the field fanned out to three stacked lanes as Cindric battled McDowell for the lead.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, the top 27 competitors were separated by less than a second amid three stacked lanes as Cindric, Larson and McDowell all dueled for the lead from the top, middle and bottom lanes, respectively. Amid the battles, Berry and Busch were scored in the top five as Logano, Wallace, Bowman, Reddick and Blaney were mingled in the top 10.

A lap later, the caution flew for a multi-car wreck that erupted in Turn 1 when McDowell, who led the previous lap and transitioned towards the outside lane to block Cindric, got sideways off the front nose of Cindric as he spun to the bottom of the track. McDowell received a huge hit on the driver’s side by Logano as McDowell’s No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse went airborne and nearly flipped. The car managed to land back on all four wheels while sliding back up the track and clipping the rear deck lid of Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the process.

Amid the carnage, a multitude of names including Logano, Larson, Bowman, Bell, Wallace, Reddick, Haley, Byron, Blaney, Stenhouse, Buescher and Hill were all involved. Meanwhile, Cindric escaped with the lead while Berry, Busch, Bell, Austin Dillon and Zane Smith were scored in the top six.

During the caution period, some including McLeod, Nemechek, Wallace, Joey Gase, Briscoe, Reddick, LaJoie and Chastain pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.

With three laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Cindric and Berry occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric and Berry dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes before Cindric muscled ahead from the inside lane entering the backstretch. Cindric and Berry continued to battle dead even for the lead for the following two turns as Cindric led the following lap by a hair, with Busch, Byron, Bell and Burton closely mixed in the top six.

Then, with two laps remaining entering the backstretch, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime following another multi-car wreck that started when a stackup at the front resulted in Busch bumping Cindric as Cindric went up the track and made contact with both Berry and Byron. It sent Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up into the outside wall hard while Cindric and Berry were sent sliding toward the backstretch’s infield.

Amid the spins, Berry’s No. 4 eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse then went airborne and rolled over on its roof as the car slid down the backstretch and smacked the inside wall hard head-on before the car spun several times on its top and came to rest while still upside-down. Among those involved included Zane Smith, Erik Jones, Gilliland, Austin Dillon, Nemechek and Austin Hill while the rest of the field scattered to avoid the carnage.

Amid the wild ride, Berry, who had the on-track safety crews roll the car back on all four wheels, managed to climb out and emerge uninjured with the driver giving thumbs up. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch escaped with the lead ahead of Burton while Bell, Retzlaff, Nemechek and Keselowski were scored in the top six as the event was placed in a red flag period for nearly seven minutes.

When the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, Kyle Busch and Burton opted to restart alongside one another for the first overtime attempt, with Busch having Bell, Cody Ware and Keselowski lining up behind him on the inside lane while Burton had Retzlaff, Nemechek and Gibbs lining up behind him on the outside lane.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Busch and Burton dueling for the lead until Busch rocketed his No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead with drafting help from Bell’s No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE on the inside lane. Busch would retain the lead through the backstretch and he started to muscle ahead of both Burton and Bell entering Turns 3 and 4 with a reasonable advantage.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Busch remained as the leader ahead of Burton and Bell with the field behind continuing to stack up and draft aggressively amid two lanes. Then as Busch was trying to keep Bell drafting him from the inside lane, Harrison Burton rocketed his No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead with a strong push from Parker Retzlaff from the outside lane.

Then as Burton maintained the lead through Turns 3 and 4, he went up the track to block Busch. He blocked Busch again while transitioning back to the inside lane, going below the double yellow lines in the process. With Burton keeping his car straight and fending off Busch’s last corner efforts, he managed to beat Busch to the finish line by 0.047 seconds to claim his first triumph in the Cup Series.

With the victory, Burton became the 205th competitor overall to win in NASCAR’s premier series, the first competitor to record a first Cup victory in 2024 and the first competitor to record a first Cup victory while driving for the Wood Brothers Racing team since Ryan Blaney made the last accomplishment at Pocono Raceway in June 2017. Ironically, Burton, who won in his 98th Cup career start, became the first competitor to record a first Cup win in Daytona’s 400-lap feature since William Byron did so in 2020 where he also achieved the feat in his 98th series start.

Speaking of Wood Brothers Racing, the historic organization accomplished its seven-year battle of notching its elusive 100th victory in the Cup Series as Burton, who became the 19th competitor overall to win while driving for the Wood Brothers, drove the team’s No. 21 Ford to its first Daytona win since Trevor Bayne won the 2011 Daytona 500.

As a result of his first Cup Series victory, Burton, who came into the event strapped in 34th place in the regular-season standings, earned a one-way ticket to the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, which will mark his first opportunity and the Wood Brother’s third overall to contend in the Cup’s postseason elimination-style battle for the championship. Burton also became the 13th competitor overall to be guaranteed a 2024 Playoff berth by winning throughout the regular-season stretch.

“I don’t know. I cried the whole victory lap,” Burton, who fought tears of emotions, said while celebrating with his team, family and father Jeff on the frontstretch, on NBC. “Obviously, [I] got fired from the shove. I wanted to do everything for the Wood Brothers that I could. They’ve given me an amazing opportunity in life. To get them [win No.] 100 on my way out is amazing. We’re in the Playoffs now. Let’s go to Darlington and see what happens.”

The victory was a personal one for Burton, who is set to be a free agent after this season. With Josh Berry set to replace Burton in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in 2025, Burton’s racing status for next season remains undetermined, though he strives to conclude the 2024 season strong.

“It’s amazing,” Burton added. “It’s been the hardest three years of my life. Obviously, the hardest three years for some of these [No. 21] guys’ lives. To win the way that we just did, to beat the best in the business, Kyle Busch, across the line, it’s pretty fantastic. I made a bet with Jeremy [Bullins], my crew chief, that if we won, we’re staying here and driving home, so we’ll be at a bar somewhere! Come find us and we’re gonna celebrate this one!”

Behind Burton, Kyle Busch, who led eight laps, recorded a strong runner-up result for his fourth top-five result of the 2024 season. Despite being left satisfied with his run, Busch trails the Playoff cutline by 106 points and is still left in a “must-win” situation entering next weekend’s regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway to keep his Playoff hopes alive.

“I just finished second. It’s all good,” Busch said. “We were really, really, really lucky tonight to miss a few of them crashes. All good. Just real proud of everybody, [crew chief] Randall [Burnett], all the guys. Everybody at [Richard Childress Racing], ECR [Engines]. They did a great job and brought a fast car. [It] Wasn’t meant to be, so we’ll take this and got a good little stretch here going with these last three weeks and hope that we can do what we need to do in next week’s [race].”

Christopher Bell came home in third place followed by Cody Ware, who recorded his first top-five result in the Cup Series, while Ty Gibbs battled back to finish in fifth place.

Bubba Wallace also rallied to finish in sixth place followed by Parker Retzlaff and Brad Keselowski, who spun through the frontstretch’s tri-oval after crossing the finish line while Daniel Hemric and Chris Buescher completed the top-10 results in the final running order.

With three spots into the 2024 Cup Series Playoff standings being vacant entering next weekend’s regular-season finale at Darlington, Martin Truex Jr. sits 58 points above the cutline and Ty Gibbs sits 39 points above the cutline. Meanwhile, Chris Buescher holds sole possession of the 16th and final transfer spot in the Playoffs by 21 points over Bubba Wallace and 27 over Ross Chastain.

There were 40 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 34 laps. In addition, 20 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 25th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick continues to lead the regular-season standings by 17 points over Kyle Larson, 18 over Chase Elliott, 68 over Ryan Blaney, 80 over William Byron and 86 over Christopher Bell.

Results.

1. Harrison Burton, one lap led

2. Kyle Busch, eight laps led

3. Christopher Bell

4. Cody Ware

5. Ty Gibbs

6. Bubba Wallace, 16 laps led

7. Parker Retzlaff

8. Brad Keselowski, eight laps led

9. Daniel Hemric

10. Chris Buescher, 10 laps led

11. Carson Hocevar, one lap led

12. Ross Chastain

13. Zane Smith

14. Chase Briscoe, two laps led

15. John Hunter Nemechek

16. Alex Bowman

17. Erik Jones

18. Austin Cindric, 15 laps led

19. BJ McLeod

20. Joey Gase

21. Kyle Larson, one lap down, five laps led

22. Austin Dillon, two laps down

23. Todd Gilliland, two laps down, five laps led

24. Martin Truex Jr., three laps down

25. Austin Hill – OUT

26. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident, nine laps led, Stage 1 winner

27. William Byron – OUT, Accident, one lap led

28. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident

29. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident

30. Michael McDowell – OUT, Accident, 26 laps led

31. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 34 laps led, Stage 2 winner

32. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident, 21 laps led

33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident, two laps led

34. Corey LaJoie, 32 laps down

35. Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Engine

36. Chase Elliott – OUT, Accident

37. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident

38. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Accident

39. Ryan Preece – OUT, DVP

40. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Fire

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, which will serve as this year’s regular-season finale and officially determine the 16-car field for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, September 1, during Labor Day weekend and air at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.

August 25, 2024
Byron scores emotional Cup victory in Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary weekend at Martinsville

In Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary weekend at a historic venue where the team achieved its first victory in the NASCAR Cup Series division, Hendrick’s three of four competitors notched a historic 1-2-3 finish as William Byron prevailed in an overtime shootout amid a late battle against teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott to win the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, April 7.

Byron commented about the significance of the victory after the race.

“It’s awesome and it’s way bigger than me,” Byron said after the race. “There are so many men and women that this is a tribute to with all the hard work in the shop. It’s just a really good environment to work in. They have built something so special over the years, and I am thankful to be a part of it and drive the No. 24. It’s pretty special.”

The 2024 Daytona 500 champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 88 of 415 over-scheduled laps in an event where he along with teammates Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson each sported commemorative ruby red paint schemes to their respective entries to celebrate the anniversary weekend. Despite qualifying in 18th place, Byron methodically worked his way up the leaderboard in his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and through the field, where he would eventually race his way into the top 10 and claim a pair of eighth-place runs during the event’s first two stage periods.

While battling in the top five with 103 laps remaining, Byron and crew chief Rudy Fugle utilized a strategic pit call as they were the first duo to pit under green before the front-runners pitted a lap later. This allowed Byron to gain momentum and competitive speed upon returning to the track as he would spend the proceeding laps overtaking teammates Elliott and Larson along with Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace on the track before he assumed the race lead from Daniel Suarez for the first time with 74 laps remaining.

After initially leading the race with a two-second advantage over teammate Elliott, Byron’s steady drive to victory was briefly halted with three laps remaining when John Hunter Nemechek wrecked and sent the event into overtime. Amid an extensive caution period and the start of the overtime shootout, Byron, who remained on the track along with a majority of the field on their current tires, was not to be denied. He fended off a late bump and challenge from Elliott along with teammate Larson in overtime to claim his third NASCAR Cup Series triumph of the 2024 season and lead a historic 1-2-3 finish to cap off Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary weekend of its first win.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, April 6, Kyle Larson secured his second consecutive Cup pole position of the 2024 season after he posted a pole-winning lap at 96.034 mph in 19.718 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Bubba Wallace, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 96.029 mph in 19.719 seconds, thus missing the pole position by 0.001 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Kyle Larson fended off Bubba Wallace on the inside lane through the first two turns to retain the lead, where he proceeded to lead the first lap in his ruby red No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while the field behind fanned out to two lanes while jostling for early spots. Larson would proceed to lead the second to fifth lap marks while Wallace retained second ahead of Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano amid the early on-track battles.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Larson was leading by half a second over Wallace followed by Elliott, Briscoe and Truex while Logano, rookie Josh Berry, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch followed suit in the top 10. Behind, Alex Bowman was in 11th ahead of Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland while William Byron, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Preece, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., rookie Carson Hocevar and rookie Zane Smith trailed in the top 25.

Ten laps later, as Larson was approaching the rear of the field, he stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over Wallace while Elliott, Briscoe and Truex continued to run in the top five. Meanwhile, Logano, Berry, Blaney, Hamlin and Busch also continued to run in the top 10 while Byron gained three spots as he was running 13th, two spots behind teammate Bowman.

Another 15 laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than a second over Wallace despite being mired in lapped traffic. By then, Elliott, Briscoe and Truex remained in the top five ahead of Logano, Berry, Blaney, Hamlin and Busch while names that included Daniel Hemric, Austin Dillon, Josh Williams, Michael McDowell and Harrison Burton were lapped by Larson.

At the Lap 50 mark, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Wallace as Elliott, Briscoe and Truex continued to trail in the top five. Meanwhile, Byron, who had carved his way up to the top 10 earlier, was running ninth behind Logano, Berry and Hamlin, Bowman was running 11th behind Kyle Busch and Blaney had fallen to 12th.

Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Wallace followed by Elliott, Briscoe and Truex while Byron moved up to eighth place as he was racing behind Logano and Hamlin. Behind, Bowman retained 11th ahead of Blaney, Chastain, Keselowski and Austin Cindric while Gilliland, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Preece and Erik Jones occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Christopher Bell was mired in 23rd in between Stenhouse and Hocevar, Noah Gragson was in 26th and running ahead of Chris Buescher and John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Dillon, who was racing while reunited with crew chief Justin Alexander, was down in 32nd.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season after leading all the scheduled laps thus far from pole position. Wallace, who challenged Larson for the first stage victory on the final lap, trailed in second place ahead of Elliott, Briscoe and Truex while Logano, Hamlin, Byron, Berry and Busch were scored in the top 10. By then, 25 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap as Buescher, Gragson, Corey LaJoie and John Hunter Nemechek were lapped.

Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Joey Logano exited pit road first with the lead after only opting for a two-tire pit stop as Larson, Wallace, Elliott, Hamlin, Gilliland, Truex, Byron, Briscoe and Bowman followed suit in the top 10, with the majority of the field pitting for four fresh tires. Amid the pit stops, Gilliland was penalized for taking a wedge wrench out of his pit box and onto the track while Stenhouse, who was penalized for speeding on pit road, was turned by Elliott while trying to enter his pit box. Soon after, Blaney, who nearly ran over one of his pit crew members, pitted for a second time to have a lug nut on his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse tightened and for a wedge adjustment.

The second stage period started on Lap 93 as Logano and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Logano rocketed ahead with the lead while Wallace and Larson, who struggled to launch in the restart zone, battled for the runner-up spot, with Wallace managing to move in front of Larson during the following lap. Soon after, Hamlin pressured Larson for third place, which he was able to do by Lap 97 as Larson was forced to settle in fourth in front of teammates Elliott and Byron. Amid the battles, Logano retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Wallace by the Lap 100 mark.

By Lap 110, Logano stabilized his advantage to half a second over Wallace while racing on two fresh tires while Hamlin, Larson and Elliott trailed in the top five ahead of Byron, Briscoe, Bowman, Truex and Busch. Meanwhile, Bell, who was running in the middle of the pack, limped his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE to pit road after a wedged right-front tire due to a fallen lug nut caused Bell to run his car up the track twice a lap earlier, though he managed to keep his car off of the wall. Not long after, the caution returned due to debris reported on the track.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 119, Logano muscled his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE through the first two turns to retain the lead as Hamlin challenged Wallace for the runner-up spot through Turns 3 and 4. Wallace, however, would fend off Hamlin entering the frontstretch to retain the runner-up spot while all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors, led by Larson, were running fourth through seventh on the track, with Elliott, Bowman and Byron following suit, respectively. As Briscoe and Chastain were racing in eighth and ninth, respectively, while Berry and Truex battled for 10th, Logano retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Wallace by the Lap 125 mark.

Just past the Lap 140 mark, Logano retained the lead by half a second over Wallace while Hamlin, Larson, Elliott, Bowman and Byron followed suit from third to seventh, respectively. Logano would stabilize his advantage to half a second over Wallace at the Lap 150 mark while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than a second. In addition, Hendrick Motorsports’ four-car organization led by Larson and followed by Elliott, Bowman and Byron continued to run fourth to seventh, respectively, while Briscoe, Chastain and Berry were racing in the top 10.

By Lap 160, Logano was mired in lapped traffic but continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Wallace, who was being pressured by Hamlin for the spot while Larson tried to join the battle in fourth place. Larson’s teammates Elliott, Bowman and Byron remained in fifth through seventh, respectively, along with Briscoe, who trailed the lead by two seconds as Hamlin moved his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE into the runner-up spot three laps later.

Then on Lap 170, Hamlin muscled his way around Logano for the lead while Wallace and Larson followed in close pursuit in third and fourth, respectively. Hamlin would quickly stretch his advantage to a second four laps later as Wallace battled and overtook Logano, who was beginning to struggle on his two fresh tires, for the runner-up spot another lap later, with Larson and Elliott following suit.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 180, Hamlin, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Richmond Raceway, captured his second stage victory of the 2024 season. Wallace followed suit in second along with Larson and Elliott while Logano fended off Bowman to claim fifth place as Briscoe, Byron, Chastain and Berry were scored in the top 10. By then, 26 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap.

During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Logano returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first. He was followed by Elliott, Wallace, Larson and Bowman while Briscoe, Logano, Blaney, Byron and Chastain exited in the top 10 amid a congested pit road, where Logano nearly got sandwiched in between Bowman and Byron while exiting pit road while Ty Gibbs rammed into the side of Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while exiting his pit stall. Amid the pit stops, Daniel Suarez was penalized for speeding on pit road.

With 207 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Hamlin and Chase Elliott occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin and Elliott battled dead even for the lead in front of Wallace and Larson through the first two turns and through the backstretch, where Elliott managed to use the outside lane to his advantage through Turns 3 and 4 and muscle his No. 9 ruby red UniFirst Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead. With Elliott leading the event over Hamlin, Wallace started to challenge Hamlin for the runner-up spot as Larson, Logano, Bowman, Byron and Briscoe followed suit in the top eight.

At the halfway mark with 200 laps remaining, Elliott was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Wallace, Larson and Bowman while Logano, Briscoe, Byron, Blaney and Reddick were running in a long single-file line in the top 10. Behind, Chastain was in 11th ahead of Truex, Gilliland, Ty Gibbs and Hocevar while Erik Jones, Busch, Preece, Cindric and Berry occupied the top 20.

Two laps later and with the field slowly fanning out to three lanes, the caution returned after Bell, who was running multiple laps down, spun in Turn 4 after getting loose underneath Kaz Grala. During the caution period, some including Truex, Gibbs, Busch, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Hemric, Grala and Josh Williams pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track.

As the event restarted under green with 191 laps remaining, Elliott retained the lead following a strong start on the inside lane while Hamlin also fended off Wallace, Larson and Bowman to retain the runner-up spot. As Elliott, Hamlin, Wallace, Larson and Bowman formed a single-file line towards the inside lane in the proceeding laps, Logano and Byron battled dead even for sixth place in front of Briscoe, who was being pressured by Gilliland and Blaney for more while Reddick, Chastain, Preece, Hocevar and Jones swapped battles within the top 15.

With less than 175 laps remaining, Elliott extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Hamlin while third-place Wallace also trailed by more than two seconds ahead of Elliott’s teammates Larson, Bowman and Byron. Elliott, however, would have his advantage decreased to a second over Hamlin as he started to approach lapped traffic with 160 laps remaining.

With 150 laps remaining, Elliott slightly stretched his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Hamlin while third-place Wallace trailed by seven-tenths of a second. Behind, Elliott’s teammates Larson, Byron and Bowman trailed by within two seconds in fourth through sixth, respectively, while Logano, Gilliland, Briscoe and Blaney were racing in the top 10.

Two laps later, Hamlin ignited his challenge on Elliott for the lead. After Elliott got pinned behind the lapped competitor of Josh Williams, Hamlin managed to lead Elliott by a mere margin with 147 laps remaining. With Elliott and Hamlin still battling dead even for the lead through every corner and straightaway during the proceeding laps, Wallace and Larson battled for third in front of Byron and Bowman. After a long tussle, Hamlin managed to run Elliott up the track in between Turns 3 and 4 to muscle ahead of him with 142 laps remaining.

As the event was down to its final 125 laps, Hamlin, who weaved his way through lapped traffic, extended his advantage to more than a second over Elliott while third-place Wallace trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Larson was trying to fend off teammate Byron for fourth place while teammate Bowman trailed by more than three seconds in sixth place. In the process, Logano, Gilliland, Briscoe and Blaney continued to run in the top 10.

Then with 103 laps remaining, green flag pit stops ignited as Byron pitted from fifth place. Not long after, Elliott, Wallace and Larson pitted together before the leader Hamlin pitted along with Bowman and more with 102 laps remaining. By the time Hamlin exited his pit stall and pit road, Elliott just managed to overtake Hamlin on the track while Larson, Wallace and Byron battled behind with 100 laps remaining.

Then with 96 laps remaining and with the front-runners mired in lapped traffic, Elliott shoved Stenhouse and Nemechek out of his path while trying to fend off Hamlin. Amid the battles, teammates Byron and Larson made their move beneath Hamlin and overtook him on the track during the next few laps, thus placing three Hendrick Motorsports competitors within close distance of one another while Hamlin was being blocked by the lapped competitor of Stenhouse. In the process and with green flag pit stops still ensuing, Briscoe, who was one of several competitors who had yet to pit, was leading ahead of Cindric before he pitted with 93 laps remaining as Cindric moved into the lead. Meanwhile, Byron started to pressure teammate Elliott for the position, where he succeeded in overtaking him in his No. 24 ruby red AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the track with 90 laps remaining.

With 74 laps remaining and with most of the field having made a pit stop under green, Byron overtook Suarez, who had yet to pit, for the race lead. Teammate Elliott would follow suit in second place while Larson moved into third place two laps later, thus placing three Hendrick Motorsports competitors in the top three on the track. Meanwhile, Hamlin trailed the race lead by more than two seconds in fifth place while Wallace trailed by more than four seconds in sixth place. In addition, Bowman, the fourth Hendrick Motorsports competitor in his No. 48 ruby red Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, trailed by more than five seconds in seventh place.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Byron was leading by more than a second over teammate Elliott and by two seconds over teammate Larson while Hamlin, Blaney and Wallace followed suit in the top six. Behind, Bowman trailed by six seconds in seventh place while Logano, Briscoe and Gilliland occupied the top-10 spots ahead of Reddick, Erik Jones, Preece, Chastain and Chris Buescher, all of whom were scored on the lead lap.

Fifteen laps later, Byron extended his advantage to more than three seconds over teammates Elliott and Larson while fourth-place Hamlin trailed by nearly five seconds. Behind, Blaney also trailed by more than five seconds in fifth place while Wallace, Bowman, Logano, Briscoe and Gilliland were racing in the top 10.

Another 10 laps later, Byron, who was trying to lap Buescher, stabilized his lead to two and three seconds over both teammates Elliott and Larson while Hamlin, Blaney and Wallace continued to trail in the top six by seven seconds. Byron would continue to lead by more than a second over teammate Elliott and by more than two seconds over teammate Larson with 15 laps remaining.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Byron, who was trying to lap Ross Chastain, retained the lead by over teammates Elliott and Larson within one and two seconds, with Byron slowly having his large advantage decrease amid the lapped traffic. Meanwhile, Hamlin trailed in fourth place by more than four seconds while Blaney, Wallace and Bowman trailed in the top seven by as large as eight seconds as Byron stabilized his lead to two seconds with five laps remaining.

Then with three laps remaining, the caution flew after John Hunter Nemechek, who was lapped by Byron a lap earlier, scrubbed the outside wall after losing the right front of his No. 42 Skip Barber Racing School Toyota Camry XSE, which ended up on fire, through Turns 3 and 4 as Byron’s steady advantage over teammates Elliott and Larson evaporated.

During the extensive caution period, some led by Hamlin and including Reddick, Erik Jones and Preece pitted for fresh tires and fuel while the rest led by Byron, Elliott and Larson remained on the track.

At the start of the first overtime period, teammates Byron and Elliott battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns until Byron managed to muscle ahead through the backstretch as he then withstood a bump from Elliott to maintain the lead through Turns 3 and 4.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Byron remained as the leader over teammate Elliott while Blaney challenged Larson for third place. With Elliott nearly running wide through Turns 1 and 2, Larson made his move beneath Elliott for the runner-up spot as Blaney and Wallace followed suit. In the process, Byron pulled away entering Turns 3 and 4 and was able to cycle back to the frontstretch victorious, where he claimed his third checkered flag of the 2024 Cup season much to the delight of a bevy of Hendrick Motorsports’ fans and employees gathering and watching the event in tents above the backstretch.

With the victory, Byron, who delivered Hendrick Motorsports’ 300th Cup Series victory last September at Texas Motor Speedway, became the first three-time race winner of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season as he recorded his 13th career win in his 224th start in NASCAR’s premier series and his second at Martinsville. The Martinsville victory was the 29th overall for Hendrick Motorsports, which keeps the organization as the winningest one of all time at Martinsville, as the organization also racked up its 305th win in the Cup circuit and the fourth of the 2024 campaign.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“I just want to thank Chase [Elliott] for racing me clean [in overtime],” Byron said on FS1. “He gave me a shot, which was expected, but we all finished it off. Just so proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. [I] Grew up a big Hendrick fan and to be here for the 40th anniversary and all that goes into just this organization, all the people, it’s all about the people, and just want to thank Mr. [Rick] Hendrick and [wife] Linda [Hendrick] and everyone involved. It’s pretty awesome, pretty badass to win at Martinsville. We’ve been struggling at the short tracks and just kept inching up on it and I got a great team. They just kept my head in it. It stunk to do a restart there at the end like that, but it’s the way it goes.”

“You just can’t script it any better,” Jeff Gordon, vice chairman and co-owner of Hendrick Motorsports, added. “The race the way it played out, to get that green flag stop was it. Our cars were just so good on the short runs. We just needed to get that track position. Then that last restart, oh my god, I did not want to see that. Then I was just so hoping we could get the 1-2-3 [finish]. These three guys as well as [Alex] Bowman, they just drove their butts off. Great race, but how about that William Byron and that No. 24 car? Every time we have a milestone day or opportunity or moment, he steps up. This is gonna be a huge one for him and the organization.”

Like Byron and Gordon, teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, both of whom ended up second and third, respectively, were left pleased with their top-three results and capping off the 1-2-3 finish for Hendrick Motorsports’ historic victory. As an added bonus, Hendrick Motorsports also became the first organization to place three entries in the first three finishing results at Martinsville Speedway. In total, Byron, Larson and Elliott led a combined 238 of 415 laps en route to the 1-2-3 finish of today’s Martinsville event.

“[It’s] Really special to get a 1-2-3 [finish] there with William [Byron], Chase [Elliott] and I,” Larson said. “Just a great day for Hendrick Motorsports. It’s been a great 40 seasons for them. Really cool to have 1,500 people here from Hendrick Motorsports to celebrate. Congrats to William. He did a really good job. [He] Kind of schooled us all there after that green flag stop. He did a really good job passing all of us. Then, he was able to set a good pace and still get through traffic good. Solid day. Just an awesome day.”

“Obviously, number one, congrats to William and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports,…all the people that put this together for us,” Elliott added. “[Hendrick Motorsports] have an unbelievable program and I think we’re all proud to call it home. It was awesome hosting over a thousand folks from Hendrick today, employees and their families. Glad one of us could get it done. Obviously, I wished we could’ve gotten it done selfishly like anybody would, but nice to have a couple solid weeks and to be in contention there for a win. I haven’t been in contention to win one for a while, so it was fun to kind of get to that last restart and it actually mattered. [I] Enjoyed that aspect and certainly hungry for more.”

Bubba Wallace was the highest non-Hendrick competitor on the track in fourth place while Ryan Blaney rallied from struggling at the start to finish fifth. Logano and Reddick came home in sixth and seventh, respectively, followed by Alex Bowman, the fourth Hendrick Motorsports competitor. Preece and Briscoe completed the top 10 in the final running order.

Notably, Denny Hamlin ended up 11th. In addition, Kyle Busch finished 16th, Martin Truex Jr. ended up 18th behind rookie Carson Hocevar, Suarez ended up 22nd and Josh Berry ended up 25th behind Brad Keselowski after being penalized late for an uncontrolled tire violation.

There were 13 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 51 laps. In addition, 14 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the eighth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by 14 points over Martin Truex Jr., 17 over Denny Hamlin, 48 over both William Byron and Ryan Blaney and 51 over Chase Elliott.

Results.

1. William Byron, 88 laps led

2. Kyle Larson, 86 laps led, Stage 1 winner

3. Chase Elliott, 64 laps led

4. Bubba Wallace

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Joey Logano, 84 laps led

7. Tyler Reddick

8. Alex Bowman

9. Ryan Preece

10. Chase Briscoe, eight laps led

11. Denny Hamlin, 66 laps led, Stage 2 winner

12. Erik Jones

13. Todd Gilliland

14. Ross Chastain

15. Chris Buescher, one lap down

16. Kyle Busch, one lap down

17. Carson Hocevar, one lap down

18. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

19. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

20. Noah Gragson, one lap down

21. Michael McDowell, one lap down

22. Daniel Suarez, one lap down, 13 laps led

23. Austin Cindric, one lap down, six laps led

24. Brad Keselowski, one lap down

25. Josh Berry, two laps down

26. Kaz Grala, two laps down

27. Josh Williams, two laps down

28. Daniel Hemric, two laps down

29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps down

30. Justin Haley, two laps down

31. Zane Smith, three laps down

32. Corey LaJoie, three laps down

33. Harrison Burton, three laps down

34. Austin Dillon, three laps down

35. Christopher Bell, four laps down

36. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

37. David Starr – OUT, Steering

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, April 14, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

April 7, 2024
Larson dominates for first Cup victory of 2024 at Las Vegas

With Tyler Reddick hounding behind on three different scenarios, Kyle Larson struck gold during all three stages, including the latest, to land a dominant NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 3.

“I knew Tyler (Reddick) was going to be the guy to beat,” Larson said after the race. “From the first stage, he was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt it was going to time out to where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end. Thankfully, I was able to air-lock him a couple of laps and get him tight. I thought (Reddick) and Bubba (Wallace) were going to get working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen.

“All in all, such a great, great job by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, restarts, pit road.. all of that was great. Cool to get a win here in Las Vegas again, back-to-back, and swept all the stages. Can’t ask for much more than that.”

The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led eight times for a race-high 181 of 267 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Joey Logano but quickly made his presence known by assuming the lead for the first time on the third lap.

In an event highlighted by gusty wind temperatures, pit strategies and racing that fanned out to nearly five lanes, Larson fended off late charges from Reddick to capture both Stage 1 and 2 of the event. During the final restart with 27 laps remaining, Larson would then fend off Ross Chastain amid a late-race duel. He then spent the remainder of the event fending off another charge from Reddick, who used every inch of the circuit and the outside wall to overtake Larson but was unable to do so as Larson capitalized to achieve his first Cup victory of the 2024 season and cash in on a Vegas victory for a second consecutive time.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 2, Joey Logano secured his second Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 30th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 184.357 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Larson, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 184.225 mph in 29.312 seconds.

Prior to the event, Ross Chastain dropped to the rear of the field due to a replaced hood wrap. Ryan Preece also dropped to the rear of the event in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during the practice session along with Justin Haley with a changed steering rack that prevented him from qualifying.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Logano muscled his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead with the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out to multiple lanes. With the field still fanned out through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4, Logano proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of a hard-charging Larson while Austin Cindric, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace followed suit. Amid the early battles, Larson would then assume the lead from Logano by the third lap.

Through the first five scheduled laps, Larson was leading by half a second over teammate Byron followed by Logano, Cindric and Martin Truex Jr. while Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ty Gibbs occupied the top 10 in front of Chase Elliott, rookie Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. By then, rookie Zane Smith made an unscheduled pit stop under green after he hit the backstretch’s outside wall a few laps earlier.

On Lap 10, the event’s first caution period flew after Bell, who was mired within the top 20, fell off the pace through the frontstretch as he emerged with smoke and a flat right-rear tire to his No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.

During the event’s first caution period, the lead lap field led by Logano pitted for service. Following the pit stops amid mixed strategies, Chris Buescher exited in first place after only opting for a two-tire pit stop followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Reddick and Suarez while Larson, the first competitor who emerged with four fresh tires, exited sixth ahead of Byron, Logano, Cindric and Wallace. Amid the pit stops, Todd Gilliland was penalized for crew members over the pit wall too soon.

When the race restarted on Lap 15, Buescher and Briscoe dueled for the lead through the first two turns and they continued to battle dead even for the lead through the backstretch and back to the frontstretch until Byron and LaJoie attempted to make it a four-wide battle for the lead. With Byron going from fourth to second through the frontstretch, he then battled Briscoe on four fresh tires through the first two turns until he muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 before the Lap 17 mark. With Byron leading ahead of Briscoe, LaJoie and Larson, Daniel Suarez was in fifth ahead of Bubba Wallace and Buescher while Tyler Reddick, Cindric, Logano, Truex and Stenhouse followed suit in the top 12.

Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie and Wallace while Suarez, Buescher, Reddick, Truex and Austin Cindric were running in the top 10 ahead of Logano, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Stenhouse, Ryan Blaney, Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.

A lap later, Buescher, who was running seventh on two fresh right-side tires, went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 1 after losing a right-front wheel to his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse due to a lug nut not being tight, which drew the event’s second caution period as Buescher’s event came to an early end. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Byron returned to pit road for service while the rest led by Suarez and McDowell remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid another round of mixed strategies, Truex exited pit road first on two fresh tires while Kyle Busch, Larson, Byron, Hamlin, Wallace and Briscoe followed suit. The event would then be placed in a red flag period for more than 10 minutes to allow the on-track safety crew to finalize repairs to the outside wall towards Turn 1.

When the red flag lifted and the event restarted under green on Lap 35, Suarez received a shove from Truex to maintain the lead through the first two turns as the field fanned out to three lanes entering the backstretch. Amid the battles between those who pitted and those who either took two or four fresh tires during the previous caution period, Suarez maintained the lead during the following lap ahead of a side-by-side battle involving McDowell and Truex while John Hunter Nemechek, Larson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Byron and Wallace jostled within the top 10 along with LaJoie, Reddick and Hocevar.

On Lap 43, Kyle Busch battled and overtook Suarez for the lead as Larson and Truex also joined the battle towards the front. Larson would then quickly move into the runner-up spot as Suarez was trying to fend off Truex for third place ahead of McDowell and Nemechek, both of whom were running on old tires, as Hamlin followed suit in seventh. A few laps later, the battle at the front between Kyle Busch and Larson slowly started to brew as Larson trailed Busch by two-tenths of a second.

On Lap 48, Byron, who was running towards the front early in the event, made an unscheduled pit stop under green to have a large piece of black debris removed from the front nose of the No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. With Byron losing a lap in the process, Larson continued to pressure Busch for the lead through every turn and straightaway while Suarez trailed in third place by nearly two seconds.

By Lap 60, Kyle Busch retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Larson. Two laps later, however, Larson zipped his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 around Busch’s No. 8 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the first two turns and entering the backstretch, with the former leading the event. By then, Reddick trailed in third place by more than two seconds followed by Toyota competitors Truex, Hamlin and Ty Gibbs while Suarez retained seventh ahead of Cindric, LaJoie and a hard-charging Bell.

At the Lap 70 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than half a second over Busch followed by Reddick, Truex and Hamlin while Ty Gibbs, LaJoie, Bell, Chastain and Cindric trailed in the top 10. By then, Suarez fell back to 14th behind Logano, Blaney and Bowman, Elliott was in 17th and Wallace had fallen back to 20th.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick charged his way to a runner-up result followed by Truex and Busch while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, LaJoie, Chastain, Cindric and Bell were scored in the top 10. By then, 33 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap while Byron, who was mired in 34th, fended off JJ Yeley to emerge as the first competitor who was scored a lap down and received the free pass during the stage break period.

Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Truex exited first followed by teammate Hamlin, Larson, LaJoie, Busch, Ty Gibbs, Bell, Bowman, Logano and Cindric. Amid the pit stops, Reddick plummeted to 16th after he pitted too close to his pit wall after he slid into his stall, which forced him to reverse and straighten his car.

The second stage period started on Lap 88 as teammates Truex and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out to three lanes as teammates Truex and Hamlin battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the lead. With Truex being pressured by LaJoie, Larson and Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot, Hamlin maintained the lead by nearly four-tenths of a second in front of the field that continued to jostle for spots.

By Lap 100, Hamlin was leading by half a second over a hard-charging Larson while Truex, Kyle Busch, LaJoie, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Chastain, Bell and Bowman were running in the top 10. Behind, Reddick was up to 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Cindric and Elliott while Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton followed suit in the top 20 ahead of Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, McDowell and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Byron was mired back in 28th behind rookie Josh Berry and Ryan Preece, Erik Jones was in 29th and Nemechek was back in 31st in front of Daniel Hemric and newcomer Derek Kraus.

Ten laps later, Larson, who reassumed the lead five laps earlier, had stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Busch, LaJoie and Truex were running in the top five.

Another eight laps later, a cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Wallace and Stenhouse pitted along with Blaney, Suarez, Austin Dillon, Byron, Truex, Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Bowman, Logano, Cindric, Elliott, Kyle Busch and others. The leader Larson would then pit by Lap 120 along with LaJoie before Chastain, who led the previous lap, pitted under green. Amid the pit stops, Cindric, Hemric and Chastain were all penalized for speeding on pit road. With the green flag pit stops cycling through by Lap 122, Larson cycled back into the lead as he was leading by nearly half a second over Hamlin while Blaney, Busch and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five.

At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Hamlin while third-place Busch also trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Blaney and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five while Truex, Reddick, Logano, LaJoie and Elliott occupied the top 10 spots in front of Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Hocevar, Bell and Suarez. Meanwhile, Byron was in 17th, Nemechek was mired in 22nd, Chastain was the first competitor scored a lap down in 30th and Wallace was scored three laps down in 35th.

By Lap 150, Larson continued to stretch his advantage as he was leading by four seconds over Busch while Hamlin, Blaney and Ty Gibbs continued to run in the top five. Behind, Reddick retained sixth ahead of Truex, Logano, Elliott and LaJoie while Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Byron, Bell and Hocevar occupied the top 15 in front of Bowman, Suarez, Noah Gragson, Brad Keselowski and McDowell.

Five laps later, the caution flew after Bell, who was running 14th behind Briscoe, got loose through Turns 1 and 2 before he spun from the middle to the bottom of the track entering the backstretch. By then, Hocevar, who pitted five laps earlier due to a flat right-front tire, was mired a lap down while Derek Kraus received the free pass by being the first competitor scored a lap down ahead of Kaz Grala and Chastain.

During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bowman exited first following a two-tire pit stop while teammate Larson, the first competitor with four fresh tires, followed suit along with Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney, Logano, Truex, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Byron. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation during a slow pit service while Brad Keselowski lost a bevy of spots after he had to reverse to leave his pit stall. In addition, Kyle Busch dropped to 18th after he endured a slow pit stop to get the right front tire tightened.

With the event restarting with four laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Bowman retained a narrow advantage over teammate Larson, Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney and Truex. Larson would then overtake Bowman through the frontstretch during the following lap as Reddick tried to follow suit in his No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry XSE. With Bowman and Reddick battling for the runner-up spot, the latter would prevail during the ensuing lap as Hamlin, Blaney and Truex would overtake Bowman on four fresh tires.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Larson fended off another late charge from Reddick to capture his second consecutive Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick settled in second ahead of Hamlin, Blaney and Truex while Elliott, Austin Dillon, Bowman, Logano and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap.

During the stage break, some led by Bowman pitted while the rest led by teammate Larson remained on the track.

With 95 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Larson and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead with the lead from the inside lane while Reddick, Hamlin and Truex fanned out to three lanes while battling for second place in front of another three-wide battle that involved Blaney, Elliott and Briscoe. With Reddick prevailing in the three-wide battle for second, Larson retained the lead as Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle amid three lanes for fifth place in front of Logano and Austin Dillon. Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle dead even amid three lanes for fifth place during the ensuing laps and in front of more on-track battles while Larson was leading by more than a second over Reddick.

With 80 laps remaining, Larson was leading by less than two seconds over Reddick while Hamlin, Truex and Briscoe were running in the top five ahead of Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott. Behind, hometown hero Noah Gragson was up in 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Erik Jones and LaJoie while Bowman, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Josh Berry occupied the top 20 in front of Todd Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Stenhouse, McDowell and Nemechek.

Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick, who was slowly gaining ground on Larson as teammate Wallace, who was multiple laps down to have a lug nut cut loose from his entry, was helping Reddick gain ground on the leader, while Truex, Blaney and Hamlin were running in the top five. Behind, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott were running sixth through ninth while Hocevar carved his way into the top 10 and he was running 10th ahead of a hard-charging Byron. Meanwhile, teammates Gragson and Briscoe battled for 12th while Logano and Erik Jones occupied the top 15 ahead of Chastain, LaJoie, Suarez, Bowman and Berry.

With 63 laps remaining, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Briscoe pitted his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Bowman would pit his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the following lap as Larson retained the lead by half a second over Reddick. Ty Gibbs would then pit his No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota Camry XSE with 59 laps remaining before Logano, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin and Kyle Busch would follow suit to pit under green. The leader Larson would then pit with 56 laps remaining along with more competitors before Byron and Hocevar would pit during the following lap. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch was penalized for pitting outside his pit box.

With 52 laps remaining, Suarez, who led the previous four laps, pitted his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the lead as McDowell and Kraus, both of whom have yet to pit, remained on the track. By then, Larson, who managed to blend back onto the track ahead of Reddick, was trying to close the gap from third place while Reddick and Blaney followed suit in the top five. McDowell, who would lead four laps, would then pit with 48 laps remaining and hand the lead to Kraus, who would be overtaken by Larson for the lead with 46 laps remaining as Kraus, who led his first two laps in the Cup Series, would then pit.

Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Larson was leading by nearly two seconds over Reddick as Blaney, Truex and Ty Gibbs trailed in the top five. Behind, Hamlin was back in sixth ahead of Logano, Bowman, Elliott and Austin Dillon while Gragson, Hocevar, Byron, Berry and Erik Jones were running in the top 15.

Seven laps later, the caution flew after LaJoie, who was running 18th, slid sideways in front of Keselowski as he spun his No. 7 USANA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up towards the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 before he slid back down across the apron. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting first ahead of Chastain, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin, Logano, Elliott, Truex, Bowman and Ty Gibbs.

As the event restarted with 27 laps remaining, the field fanned out through the first two turns as Larson, who nearly slid up the track, was battling Chastain for the lead through the backstretch. Larson then managed to rocket ahead from the inside lane entering Turn 3 while Reddick was battling Hamlin for third place in front of Blaney and Truex. Chastain then tried to mount another fight and challenge Larson from the outside lane for the lead during the following lap as Hamlin joined the battle. Larson, however, cleared Chastain’s No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the proceeding lap as Reddick and Hamlin battled again for third place with nearly 25 laps remaining.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson was leading by a second over Reddick, who navigated his way past Chastain for the runner-up spot, as Blaney and Gragson were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin slipped to seventh behind teammate Ty Gibbs while Truex, Logano and Elliott were battling in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon, Suarez, Keselowski, Byron and Bowman.

With 15 laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Reddick while Blaney and Chastain dueled for third place in front of Gragson and Ty Gibbs. Five laps later, however, Larson’s advantage dropped to four-tenths of a second over Reddick as the latter, who was running faster lap times, started to gain ground on the former for the lead. By then, Blaney was in third along with Chastain, both of whom were trailing the leaders by three seconds, while Ty Gibbs and Hamlin overtook Gragson for fifth and sixth.

With five laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by a narrow margin over Reddick as the latter continued to stalk and keep Larson within his sights around every corner and straightaway while also trying to narrow the gap.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who fended off Reddick to break his momentum during the previous lap, remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Reddick. With Reddick unable to regain his momentum, Larson was able to navigate his way around the Vegas circuit with the top spot and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag by four-tenths of a second over Reddick

With the victory, Larson notched his 24th career victory in the Cup Series and his third at Vegas as he also became the third different winner through the first three events of the 2024 Cup Series season. He also made Chevrolet three-for-three through the first three Cup events on the 2024 schedule and he delivered the 10th Vegas victory for Hendrick Motorsports as he ignites his early bid for his second title in NASCAR’s premier series.

“I knew Tyler [Reddick] was gonna be the guy to beat from the first stage,” Larson, who celebrated with his kids on the frontstretch, said on FOX. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were gonna get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was gonna time out to where he was running really hard and getting the toe to catch me at the end. Thankfully, [I] was able to air-block him a couple laps and get him tight. All in all, such a great job by this HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, pit road, restarts, all that was great. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back [wins], swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”

Reddick, who finished second behind Larson during both stages and in the final running order, was left disappointed over the result and falling one spot short of capturing the first victory of the season for himself and 23XI Racing.

“Kyle [Larson] did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap,” Reddick said. “He seemed pretty good in the middle [lane] and I was obviously really good on the bottom. He just never let me have it right, so I kept trying to run higher and higher. He was running right around the middle of the racetrack there and was pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I got close, we were running just wide-open enough in Turn 1 and 2 that he could defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never upfront really all day long until it got to the stage’s ends. We’ll continue to work on it, but good rebound for our team today.”

Blaney came home in third place followed by Chastain, who made the two fresh tires work to his advantage, and Ty Gibbs. Noah Gragson recorded a strong sixth-place result while Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin, Logano and Byron finished in the top 10.

Notably, Suarez finished 11th in front of Elliott, Keselowski, Erik Jones and rookie Carson Hocevar. In addition, Kyle Busch ended up 26th, Kraus finished 28th in his Cup Series debut and LaJoie ended up 32nd.

There were 24 lead changes for 15 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 31 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the third event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by eight points over Ryan Blaney, 14 over Martin Truex Jr., 15 over William Byron and 20 over Ross Chastain and 23 over both Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 181 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

2. Tyler Reddick, one lap led

3. Ryan Blaney

4. Ross Chastain, two laps led

5. Ty Gibbs

6. Noah Gragson

7. Martin Truex Jr., four laps led

8. Denny Hamlin, 16 laps led

9. Joey Logano, two laps led

10. William Byron, 15 laps led

11. Daniel Suarez, 15 laps led

12. Chase Elliott

13. Brad Keselowski

14. Erik Jones

15. Carson Hocevar

16. Austin Dillon

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. Alex Bowman, three laps led

19. Daniel Hemric, one lap led

20. Josh Berry

21. Chase Briscoe, one lap led

22. John Hunter Nemechek

23. Ryan Preece

24. Todd Gilliland

25. Michael McDowell, four laps led

26. Kyle Busch, 18 laps led

27. Justin Haley

28. Derek Kraus, two laps led

29. Austin Cindric

30. Harrison Burton

31. Kaz Grala

32. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

33. Christopher Bell, two laps down

34. JJ Yeley, six laps down

35. Bubba Wallace, 13 laps down

36. Zane Smith, 13 laps down

37. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident, two laps led

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 10, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

March 3, 2024
NASCAR 2024: Las Vegas Entry List Preview for triple-header feature

With the first two events of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule highlighted with two dramatic finishes on two restrictor-plate circuits in the rearview mirror, the teams and competitors venture off for a two-race West Coast swing between the states of Nevada and Arizona to commence the month of March.

It all begins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, a city spotlighted with recent major sporting events and triumphs, from both the Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Aces achieving recent championships in the NHL and WNBA, respectively, to Formula 1 hosting its inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix through the Vegas Strip last November and Super Bowl LVIII occurring in the city’s Allegiant Stadium between the San Francisco 49ers and the eventual champions Kansas City Chiefs two weeks ago.

This upcoming weekend is set to mark the first of two scheduled visits this season in Sin City for both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity divisions while the Craftsman Truck Series division will make its lone, annual visit to Vegas’s 1.5-mile speedway venue before entering a one-week break period.

The main attraction for this weekend’s triple-header feature is the Cup Series’ Pennzoil 400 which will occur this upcoming Sunday, March 3, and cap off the triple-header feature.

With 37 participants entered for Sunday’s main event, which will ensure all entered competitors make the main event, the competitor who headlines the entry list is Daniel Suarez, who is coming off a dramatic three-wide photo finish against Cup Series champions Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he nipped Blaney at the finish line by 0.003 seconds, that snapped Suarez’s one-year winless drought and register his second Cup career victory. Despite registering only two top-10 results in 13 Cup career starts at Vegas, the Monterrey, Mexico, native strives to extend his early momentum that could land him and Trackhouse Racing in Victory Lane for a second consecutive weekend.

William Byron, the 2024 Daytona 500 champion, and teammate Kyle Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, also headline the entry list as both Hendrick Motorsports’ competitors each won a Cup Vegas event a year ago (Byron in March and Larson in October). With HMS’ competitors winning four of the last six Cup events at Vegas, all four Hendrick competitors, including Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott, strive to extend the team’s strong early start into their 40th anniversary of NASCAR competition.

Currently, Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion and a native of Las Vegas, leads this year’s Cup Series regular-season standings following his third-place run at Atlanta. Busch, who achieved his first and only Cup victory to date at Vegas in 2009, strives to strike gold in front of his home crowd come Sunday’s main event while his competition that includes Byron, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Elliott, Suarez, Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., Larson and Corey LaJoie strive to spoil Busch’s homecoming.

A notable newcomer to this weekend’s Cup entry list is Derek Kraus, who will make his first select Cup Series starts this season in Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. The 22-year-old Kraus from Stratford, Connecticut, graduates to a part-time Cup Series campaign for the first time after spending this past season as a part-time Xfinity Series competitor for Kaulig Racing while also serving as a simulator competitor for both Kaulig and Legacy Motor Club. He is also the 2019 ARCA Menards Series West champion who competed in three full-time Craftsman Truck Series seasons (2020-22).

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Another newcomer featured for Sunday’s event is JJ Yeley, who will return to pilot the No 44 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for NY Racing for his first official Cup start of the 2024 season two weeks after he fell short of qualifying for this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500.

2024 Pennzoil 400 Entry List

A day before the Cup Series action, the Xfinity Series will host The LiUNA! which will feature 38 participants contesting from 38 starting spots.

The competitor who headlines the entry list is Austin Hill, who is two-for-two in this year’s Xfinity schedule following recent superspeedway victories at Daytona and Atlanta. With the Winston, Georgia, native having won the spring Xfinity Vegas event a year ago, Hill will attempt to become the first competitor to commence a new season of Xfinity Series competition by winning the first three events on a schedule.

Another competitor who headlines the list is Riley Herbst, a 25-year-old Las Vegas native who scored his first Xfinity career victory at his home track last October and is currently ranked in third place in this year’s Xfinity regular-season standings as he strives for back-to-back victories at home.

Both Hill and Herbst are not the only Xfinity regulars off to a strong start to the 2024 season. Sheldon Creed, Chandler Smith and Parker Retzlaff, all of whom have finished in the top five in the first two events of this season, strive to extend their early momentum and potentially land their first victory of the season. In addition, rookie Jesse Love, who is also last year’s ARCA Menards Series champion from Menlo Park, California, strives for redemption after leading a race-high 157 laps a week ago at Atlanta, only to run out of fuel during an overtime shootout and settling in 12th place in the final running order. The list also includes AJ Allmendinger, who won at Vegas in 2021, and rookie Shane van Gisbergen, who recorded his first top-three result by finishing third last weekend at Atlanta as he will make his first career start at Vegas.

Notably, Aric Almirola will make his first Xfinity Series start of the 2024 season as part of a part-time campaign with Joe Gibbs Racing. He was initially scheduled to share the No. 20 JGR Toyota Supra entry with John Hunter Nemechek throughout this season. Instead, Almirola will pilot the No. 19 Supra this weekend, an entry that had been piloted by Ryan Truex for the first two events on the 2024 calendar, while Nemechek returns to pilot the No. 20 entry for his third of 10 scheduled starts.

Photo by Tim Jarrold for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Corey Heim, a full-time Truck Series competitor for TRICON Garage and a Toyota Racing Development competitor, will also be featured in Saturday’s Xfinity event as he will make his first of select Xfinity starts in the No. 26 Toyota Supra for Sam Hunt Racing.

Currently, the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet Camaro entry is entered for Saturday’s event, though a driver has yet to be named. In addition, the No. 36 DGM Racing Chevrolet entry, which initially entered without a listed driver, is listed to be withdrawn from the event.

2024 The LiUNA! Entry List

This weekend’s triple-header feature at Las Vegas will commence with the Truck Series’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 which will occur this upcoming Friday, March 1, and feature 32 competitors entered for the event.

Ironically, the competitor who headlines the entry list is Kyle Busch, who is set to make his second of five-scheduled series starts in the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports at his home track to go alongside his full-time Cup Series role with Richard Childress Racing. Busch motored his way to his first Truck victory of the 2024 season with Spire Motorsports at Atlanta last weekend and has won four of the last six spring Truck events at Vegas.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Busch is not the only Cup Series competitor entered for this weekend’s Truck Series event at Las Vegas as he will compete alongside former Truck champions Christopher Bell and Zane Smith. Smith, the 2022 Truck Series champion and a 2024 Cup Series rookie, will pilot the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado RST for his first of four-scheduled starts in the series while Bell, the 2017 series champion, will pilot the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage.

Another notable spot in this weekend’s Truck entry list is Connor Mosack, who will make his first of select series starts in the No. 45 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Niece Motorsports. The 25-year-old Mosack from Charlotte, North Carolina, spent this past season competing in 24 Xfinity events between Sam Hunt Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing. He also achieved his first ARCA Menards Series career victory at Kansas Speedway last September and is currently competing in the 2024 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series for Silver Hare Racing.

Currently, Tyler Ankrum, who has achieved two top-11 runs in his first two Truck events driving for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, leads the regular-season standings by 10 points over Ty Majeski, who finished in the runner-up spot behind Busch last weekend at Atlanta, and by 12 over Nick Sanchez, who scored his first career victory at Daytona. Corey Heim, Rajah Caruth, Bret Holmes, Matt Crafton, Taylor Gray, Christian Eckes and Daniel Dye trail in the top 10 in the standings, respectively.

2024 Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 Entry List

Following this upcoming weekend’s triple-header weekend at Vegas, the Cup and Xfinity Series teams and competitors will travel southeast to Avondale, Arizona, to compete at Phoenix Raceway alongside the ARCA Menards Series West for their season-opening event between March 8-10, which will conclude the two-week West Coast swing. Meanwhile, the Truck Series will enter its first off-weekend break period before returning to action at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, on March 16.

The Craftsman Truck Series’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is set to air on Friday, March 1, at 9 p.m. ET on FS1 while the Xfinity Series’ The LiUNA! will follow suit and air on Saturday, March 2, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. The Cup Series’ Pennzoil 400 will conclude this weekend’s triple-header feature by occurring on Sunday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

February 26, 2024